《HP: A Magical Journey》


 Chapter 1 - Start

    Have you ever have one of those times when you don''t want to get up from your bed? You know, one of those times when your position on the bed is reallyfortable and optimal for going to sleep. But then somethinges up that requires you to get out of bed and you know that if you get up now and return to bed you won''t get back to that level offort.


    Well if you are familiar with that situation, then you know how I am feeling now. I am in total blissying in thefy bed and covered by an unbelievably soft duvet. Right now, I just want to curl up and go back to sleep, but I can''t because an offending ray of sunlight is falling right on my face making me ufortable and hindering my ability to go back to sleep.??


    After trying to ignore the offending ray of light, I gave up and decided to fix the problem by covering the window and stop the light from leaking inside. With a sigh, I forced my eyes to open and sat up on my bed. Automatically my eyes move towards the light, and I instinctively squinted my eyes to protect them from the harsh re.


    I move myself to the corner of the bed and swing my legs off the bed, but the feeling that I was waiting to experience didn''te. I looked down, and instead of expecting to see my feetnd on the ground, I saw a pair of small legs dangling off the side of the bed. Okay, that wasn''t right, my legs shouldn''t be like this, thinking that I should still be half asleep, I move my hands to touch my knees, but the moment the hands entered my sight, I froze.


    What I saw was a pair of surprisingly young hands. My first thought was that these shouldn''t be my hands, but then a stray thought hit me and made me think, ''Huh? What did my hands look like?''. The second that line of thought got to an end, an onught of panic struck me, and I started to look around and saw myself in an unfamiliar room, but at the same time, I couldn''t recall how my bedroom looked like or could remember the room where I had gone to sleep. Scratch that I couldn''t remember anything about myself before waking up. The more I thought, the more terror filled my body, I couldn''t remember my name or recall anything about his own identity.


    With that revtion, fear emerged from within the already peaking panic, and I found myself pushing myself back till my back found the backboard of the bed, and my eyes began to roam around the room. I saw the walls covered with wallpaper-type patterned wallcoverings. A tiny part of my panic-free mind found that weird as I associated walls with painted walls.


    I took in the old ambiance that the room presented with its wallpapered walls, old-styled cupboards, and victorian era furniture that decorated the room. The next moment I remembered something and looked down as my heart thumped so loud that I thought it would burst out of my ribcage. I saw the unfamiliar body that could only be described as a child''s, and the dam of emotions broke. I started to hyperventte, and sweat emerged all over my body.


    I grabbed my head, trying to remember anything at all; anything about my identity, how I got here. Anything that could help me with my current situation, but nothing worked as I couldn''t pull anything out of my brain, and then it happened. A terrible headache emerged at the back of my head, spreading throughout my head, it grounded my temples, and an electric pain burned behind my eyes. Not being able to endure the pain, a guttural scream escaped from my mouth.


    Within a couple of minutes, I had gone from feelingfy in my bed to once in a lifetime level panic attack. After screaming for not knowing how much time, I saw the door to the room open, and a man barged into the room and it looked like he was saying something with a worried look on his face, but I couldn''t hear anything because my ears were ringing and finally, I guess my body couldn''t take it anymore and I cked out.


    (Scene Break)


    When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was still in the same room, tucked into the duvet. Without making a sound, he sat up on the bed and looked around the room, but this time he didn''t feel any panic, fear, or confusion as something had changed. That something had helped him make sense of this whole situation. He looked at his hands, which were still of a child''s, and felt his legs underneath the duvet, which were simrly child-sized.


    As absurd as it sounded, he had somehow transmigrated into a child''s body and had lost his sense of identity while doing so. He couldn''t recall anything that would point to who he was before transmigrating into this body, and the reason he wasn''t going into another panic attack was that even though he had lost his memories regarding his identity, he had gained knowledge that would rece that loss. The new knowledge that he hade into was the identity of his current body.


    He leaned back on the backboard of the bed, and looked at the ceiling, and sighed, "Quinn West, so this is my new name, huh."


    Quinn West, boy, born in 1979, and currently four years old. Son of Adam and Aria West, born and raised in Ennd, second and the youngest child of the pair with an older sister, named Lia West, who was ten years older than Quinn.


    Unfortunately, both Adam and Aria West were no longer in the world, died in an ident when Quinn was one year old. From then on, both Quinn and his sister Lia were raised by their grandfather, George West.


    But, the one thing that stood out in Quinn''s memories and that left him stunned. It was the presence of magic. Yes, you heard it right. Magic, with a capital ''M'', and finally, Quinn''s memories had revealed something of utmost importance.


    "I am in the world of Harry Potter."


    In Quinn''s memories, he had seen wands and witnessed the frequent use of the cleaning spell Scourgify to clean after the mess that infant Quinn had made. He saw the mess cleaned in an instant after a single use of that spell. He had seen cutlery floating around at dinner tables and multiple other feats of magic, but more importantly, Quinn''s older sister was attending Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. A name that only the real deal would use.


    Quinn continued to sit on the bed and took all of it in. Despite the absence of panic of being in an unfamiliar environment, he was still ufortable with being in this body. The realization that he had taken over a child''s body had left him with an ufortable feeling in his heart. Quinn put his arm over his eyes and thought about the original Quinn''sst memory.


    ''He had found his way to an open window ledge and tripped out.''. At that moment, the original had experienced his first feat of idental magic and bounced off the ground like a balloon, but the next moment the original fainted.


    "And, then I took over.", Quinn concluded with the guilt of possessing someone taking over him, torturing him from the inside. He looked outside and saw that it was alreadyte in the day, and the sun had already set, and the night was about to take over the sky.


    "How long I have been out? I guess I should let them know that I am up.". Quinn removed the duvet and was about to get out of bed when the door to his room opened, and the man who Quinn had seen just before cking out entered the room.


    "Young master Quinn! You must not get out of bed. You are in poor health. Please,y down. I will inform the master that you have woken up.". One thing Quinn might have missed mentioning was that the West family was rich, and by rich, he meant old-money rich and sessive generations of sessful business prosperity, which had not only maintained the family wealth but had seen a steady increase in the family business.


    The person in question was the West family''s butler, Elliot Dalton. Elliot here held a special ce in the subordinates employed by the West family as Elliot was the personal butler of Quinn''s grandfather and was his close confidant. Elliot wore standard butler gear, and even though he didn''t look like it, Elliot was already over 70 years old.


    Wizard kind or magicals lived a lot longer than their muggle or non-magical counterparts. The average life span of a magical was two to three times that of normal people, and thus they aged slower, so it came to no surprise that Elliot looked like a middle-aged man rather than an old aged-man


    Breaking out of his thoughts, Quinn tried to talk to Elliot, who was putting the duvet back on him, "Uncle Elliot, I am fine. Can I get some water?"


    Elliot stopped trying to get Quinn toy down and observed him for a second before nodding, "Yes, of course. How forgetful of me. You must be parched" He looked just past Quinn''s bed and called out.


    "Polly.", two seconds might have passed before a creature appeared, literally popped into the room, and spoke in a squeaky voice, "Yes?".


    Polly, as Elliot had called her, was a West family elf and had all usual house-elf features and wore a toga instead of a pillowcase that was adorned by the poster elf of the Harry Potter series, Dobby.


    ''So, this is a house-elf.'', Quinn despite having seen house-elves in the original''s memories, was still surprised to see the elf with his own eyes, ''The movie CGI doesn''t do the real thing justice.''


    "Polly, please get a ss of water for the young master. And, please inform the master that the young master has woken up.", as soon as Elliot spoke the tasks, Polly snapped her fingers, and a tray with a pitcher and a ss appeared in the room. Quinn watched with wonder as the pitcher of water floated and poured the water into the ss. The set floated gently andnded on his side.


    Quinn nodded towards Polly, who popped out of the room, possibly to inform his grandfather about his status. Quinn picked the ss to quench his thirst and then turned to Elliot to ask,


    "Uncle Elliot, what happened to me?"


    Elliot looked at the four-year child exined the whole incident that had taken ce today, "Young master, earlier today you fell out of the window. You somehow managed to get the window open and then slipped out. We had no idea when you had fallen, but when I was passing by, I saw you unconscious on the ground and immediately called for the healer.", Elliot''s expression showed concern and grief regarding the matter, but the next moment, his expression turned bright and joyful as he continued, "Young master, I must congratte you. You finally performed your first feat of idental magic. You fell unconscious because you exhausted your magic. Unfortunately, it came in these circumstances, but all''s well that ends well."


    Quinn was about to respond, but before he could speak out, another man entered the room, and Quinn immediately recognized the man as it was Quinn''s grandfather, George West.


    Just like Elliot, George West was also old and was pushing 80 and was a couple of years older than Elliot, but both of them looked like middle-aged men. George West stood with his back straight and moved with conviction, he had a few grays in hairs, but his eyes were bright and full of vigor and life.


    From what Quinn could gather from his new memories, George West was a strict man and was a man of few words, but at the same time, he had heard from Elliot and some other people that George West had a way with words when needed that had been cultivated from years of doing business. He used to travel all around the world''s magicalmunities to do business and used to run a tight ship on the family business, but then his wife, Maria West, passed away from a magical disease which caused him to drown himself in his work to avoid grief. The business prospered but that came at the cost of his rtionship with his son because he had ignored the parental side of his duties.


    After years of a rocky rtionship, Quinn''s mother had taken steps to make sure that her husband and father-inw got along better and repair their rtionship, and it had been sessful to a degree, but when things were looking on the upside, tragedy struck and imed the lives of both of Quinn''s parents. This caused George to focus most of his focus on raising his grandchildren, Lia and Quinn, to make sure that the past didn''t repeat, so he mostly stayed in Britain and now conducted his business from his home country.


    He walked to Quinn''s bedside and took out his wand and waved it to perform some charms that Quinn could guess were diagnostic charms to check his current health status, and then performed another spell that conjured a chair beside him and sat on it.


    "How are you feeling, Quinn?"


    Quinn was unsure how to interact and converse with his grandfather as he wasn''t his original grandson and the current Quinn was apletely different person, so when Polly was sent to inform George, he began to think about how to approach theing conversation and the answer he came up with was,


    "I am sorry, grandfather.", acting like a child who had done something bad was the way Quinn had chosen,bined it with his first idental magic, which was a big event of a young magical''s life, and the fact that he had fallen unconscious twice in a single day would result in Quinn needing to speak less as it would seem that he was regretting his actions that caused everybody to worry and he hoped that George or anybody else won''t question him taking his health into ount.


    Quinn''s approach was indeed correct as George replied with, "You don''t have to worry, little Quinn. It was not your fault. I hope you won''t think much about what happened today.", a hint of a smile made its way on his face as he continued, "You performed magic today, little Quinn. I am very proud of you."


    He ruffled Quinn''s hair and spoke, "Let''s write a letter together to your sister to tell her that you did magic. She will be so happy when she hears about it."


    Quinn nodded while smiling, it might be because he had no recollection of his original identity and him having the original''s memories that Quinn felt positive emotions when George ruffled his hair and when he thought about his older sister, Lia who was currently studying at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.


    After that, a medi-healer came to check on Quinn, and the conclusion regarding Quinn''s scream incident was that even though his magic had saved him from the impact, but his mind still thought he was falling and it was just a psychological reaction from the fall.


    That night, Quinn fell asleep quite quickly because of all the life-changing events that had taken ce today that had left him dead tired mentally. Before going to sleep he thought about what his life would be like from now on. He was in the world of Harry Potter, a world where magic was real and he had the magic in him. He wanted to see what this new world would offer him.

 Chapter 2 - Come On, Magic!

    It was the start of June and the start of the summer season in Britain. Quinn sat in the backyard of the West Manor, enjoying the first sunny morning of the season. He thought about his life sinceing to this world. And, having been in this world for a few months, he could say that except for the presence of magic and seeing it used every day, his life was the same as a four-year-old child.


    He was learning how to read and write, draw, and did all the activities a four-year-old child did. But, there were some other things that he thought were not usual for a child his age. He was being taught twonguages at the same time. While everybody else in the West Manor talked to Quinn in English, Quinn''s grandfather, George, talked to him in French.??


    Quinn''ste grandmother, George''s wife, Maria, was born and raised in France. Maria''s mother tongue was French, so George had learned French for her. Now, he was teaching his grandchildren to speak thenguage that his wife spoke. Quinn''s sister, Lia, studied in Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic, so reading and writing french was a prerequisite for studying at that school.


    Other than learning twonguages, he was also learning how to y the piano and weekly lessons of formal ballroom dancing.


    He practiced the correct posture of sitting, standing, and walking. He had to eat every meal with correct table manners. Quinn learned formal speech, how to speak ording to different situations, and family history. He also learned basic maths.


    Quinn had to be honest; learning all these new things was fun and challenging. West Manor didn''t have a TV, so Quinn had to do something to keep himself upied, and learning all the things kept him upied, so he didn''t get bored, but there was one takeaway, Quinn had to pretend to learn at a slower pace to maintain his cover as a small child. But, it turned out that pretending all day long was extremely taxing and frustrating. Pretending to forget concepts, making mistakes, learning things that he understood at once was frustrating beyond words.


    Quinn had motor skills and mental capacity far surpassing that of a child, so he learned to dance quickly, but he had to pretend by stepping on his instructor''s toes. He had to make mistakes on the piano despite having learned the material correctly. He had to pretend to count on his fingers when doing maths and mispronounce names of people and ces taught in family history.


    And it turned out that all of this wasn''t enough, as even with Quinn pretending to make mistakes, he was still learning at an exceptional pace. Subjects like formal dancing, piano lessons, French, and Family History were new to Quinn, so he didn''t know the normal pace of learning for a four-year-old, but he was clear about Maths. So, when he was suddenly taught a concept at a much higher level for a four-year-old, he realized that he had paced himself incorrectly.


    But, it was toote, and Quinn couldn''t slow down his learning at this point, and Quinn didn''t think that he could slow down, as anything slower than this would drive him crazy. So, Quinn decided to learn whatever the adults taught him and hope they won''t go overboard, or he would seriously have to pretend to be dumber, and that was antagonizing.


    All of this was the plus side of things in Quinn''s life. Now, let''se to the downside of his life. Quinn couldn''t do any magic; no matter how much he tried to get ess to his magic, he couldn''t move a single thing or perform any magic.


    Now, if Quinn was a mainstream Harry Potter fan, who only watched the movies and read the books, then he wouldn''t have felt down about not being able to perform magic, but you see, Quinn wasn''t your mainstream fan. But no, Quinn was an extensive fanfiction reader. Quinn, in his previous life, had read more fanfiction than the original work. He had read fanfiction characters doing wandless magic, and he wanted to aplish that, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn''t do a single piece of magic.


    But, it was not Quinn''s fault that he couldn''t do magic. He didn''t know anything about magic theory and didn''t have any ess to any text regarding magic. And, he didn''t have ess to wands as people were protective of their wands and didn''t like to hand them over to anyone. Plus, Quinn was educated not to ask anyone of their wands, so asking someone for their wand was out of the question.


    All Quinn could do was keep trying to bring out the magic within himself, but nothing worked. Every day he failed to do magic. But, Quinn wasn''t going to give up his pursuit of wandless magic. He knew that it was possible, and he knew it was possible to do it at a young age, as a young Tom Marvalo Riddle was able to do magic without a wand before ever knowing that he had magic.


    Quinn positively believed that he would be able to achieve wandless magic soon, but what Quinn didn''t know was that it would be a while before he could start on his magical journey.


    Another thing that irked Quinn was that he was under constant supervision, at anytime an adult was around him, watching him so that the ident wouldn''t repeat itself. But, that was a huge hindrance for Quinn as it turned out that a child ring at a ball for tens of minutes was weird, so Quinn couldn''t practice magic without them asking questions, which Quinn would rather not answer.


    Quinn realized that if he wanted to make quick progress with his magic, he would need to understand how magic worked, and he knew exactly how to get the resources to get his magical knowledge kickstarted. He just needed to wait for a couple of weeks to start his n.


    (Scene Break)


    Quinn sat on the living room sofa, swinging his feet while drinking a ss of apple juice. He was excited as today was the start of his n of getting a start on learning magic. A faint smile graced his face as he bought up the ss to take another sip of the juice.


    Elliot, who was sitting on a chair near Quinn, saw him smiling, and a smile of his own made its way on his own face as he could guess why Quinn was smiling, but he decided to ask,


    "Young master, why are you smiling?"


    Quinn looked at Elliot, and his smile turned to a grin, "I get to see Lia after so long. I am excited to see her."


    This wasn''t the first time he would meet her, she had returned home for the Easter holiday, and he had gotten to spend time with his elder sister, and he had gotten to know her, and it was true that Quinn was excited to meet Lia. Quinn''s nned heavily depended on Lia''s personality, and he was sure that if things went ording to n, by the end of this week, he would have his hand on the things he needed to get started on learning magic.


    Elliot, who heard Quinn, wouldn''t believe it if someone told him the things that were going inside the mind of his young master.


    It took another half hour before Polly, the house-elf, informed them that the master and young miss had arrived home via the floo. Quinn got down from the couch and patiently waited for Lia and George to enter the living room with bright eyes. It was when a brte young girl with stone grey eyes ran into the living room and gave a bright smile the moment she saw Quinn and hugged him the moment she reached Quinn.


    Quinnughed as she spun him around, and she responded with giggles of her own.


    Unlike Quinn, Lia was eleven years old when she lost their parents and was at school when she got the news that news. This caused a huge impact on her, as after that, she became quite overprotective of Quinn. The elder sister request letters on Quinn every single week and was quite doting on her younger brother. When Lia heard about the incident, while happy for Quinn for doing idental magic for the first time, she was also quite angry because of the circumstances that the magic had shown itself in a dangerous incident.


    From what Quinn had heard, Lia had written a strong-worded letter to George regarding what she thought of this incident and criticized him for theck of care for Quinn, and when she had returned home for Easter break, she had kept a strict eye on the new arrangements. Lia was scared of losing her baby brother after losing her parents that caused her to spoil Quinn whenever she got the chance.


    (Scene Break)


    Quinn knew about Lia''s doting behavior, so he decided to take advantage of that, and after giving her a couple of days to dpress at home, he decided to make his move. And, an excellent opportunity presented itself to Quinn.


    One day, Quinn and Lia were ying in her room, but after some time, Lia felt a little sleepy, and before she knew it, she had nodded off, and that gave Quinn the perfect opportunity to execute his n, so he went to the bookshelf in Lia''s room. He browsed the bookshelf and tried to find the first-year textbook on Magic Theory, but the moment he looked at the books he froze, and a momentter pped himself on the back of his head.


    Quinn nned to pick the textbook on Magic Theory and then pretend to treat it like a toy, and when Lia tried to take it from him, he would throw a tantrum so that Lia would let him keep the book as she had already passed her fourth year, and wouldn''t need a first-year textbook. He knew that Lia would go soft on him and let him keep it, and then he would carry that book everywhere so that everyone would know that the book was from Lia and no one would try to take it from him.


    But, he had forgotten a simple detail that had just screwed up his whole n, which was that all of Lia''s books were in French.


    "You moron!". Quinn whispered to himself as he pped himself on the forehead. "How could I forgot that Beauxbaton Academy Of Magic is in friggin'' France! Of course, the books would be in French!"


    Quinn started to pace in the room as he felt miserable about himself and his failed n. He was so sure about himself and that his n would work without a hitch, but his first n had failed spectacrly. After failing to do magic for months, this n''s failure had put Quinn''s morale down.


    He hadn''t been in Lia''s room a lot, and this was the first time after thinking of this n, so he hadn''t thought about the books being in French. The location of Beauxbaton Academy Of Magic hadpletely slipped his mind, and Quinn knew that this was an idiotic mistake, but one that had derailed his whole n. Even though Quinn was learning French from his grandfather, he wasn''t nearly as good as to read a book of that level andpletely understand it.


    He sighed as he sat down on Lia''s bed, and in the silent room, he found himself retrospecting, something he hadn''t done in a couple of months, or to be urate, he had avoided retrospecting about his life and how he got here.


    There had been a few times when the atmosphere in the West Manor had been exceptionally joyous, and the merry vibe had sometimes made Quinn think of himself as an outsider. He would think that he had stolen life from the original Quinn. Seeing people around himughing and having fun would lead him to think that if he really belonged here.


    Something that haunted Quinn was that from the memories of the original. He knew that the fall from the window wasn''t the reason for the original''s death. Quinn had seen that magic had broken the impact, and it was after that the original had cked out. It made Quinn think about if he was the one who had taken over the body while the original was weak after using magic and somehow eradicated the original''s soul. Quinn had tried to assure himself that he wasn''t in this body willingly and that he shouldn''t be held ountable, but nevertheless, Quinn couldn''t help but feel the guilt and shame on his part as even if unwillingly, he had taken a child''s life from him.


    Quinn sighed as heid on Lia''s bed, and while his retrospection went into negative loathing, he too fell asleep and thus came to an end of Quinn''s n to get started on magic as soon as possible.


    (Scene Break)


    It had taken Quinn a while to get back up on his feet and start working on magic again.


    He knew that he couldn''t get ess to his grandfather''s office where the manor''s library resided. And, even if he could, he wasn''t sure if he could gain what he needed as there might not be a basic-level magic theory book in that library.


    He also knew that it would take a good while for his French to get to an appropriate level. So, Quinn decided to scrap the n of gaining insight via theory and was back to his previous hit-and-trial method, and the result came exactly one year aftering to this world. And, even though Quinn didn''t know it at that time, he had witnessed one of the most basic yet one of greatest mystery and core concepts of magic.


    It was exactly one year after Quinn had transmigrated into the world of Harry Potter. He had worked on gaining magic every day for a whole year, but he had nothing to show as a result of his hard work. Plus, being raised in a magical household made it all more antagonizing for Quinn. He was surrounded by magic every day.


    And, it turned out that the fanfiction trope about the trace on children from magical families not working because of being surrounded by magic performing adults was true, as his sister Lia was allowed to do magic in the house.


    The only reason a lot of children from magical backgrounds didn''t do magic at home was that parents didn''t allow it home as tweens and teens with magic could cause a lot of mess at home that they would not rather clean up after, and rather than a rule of not performing magic at home, it was more of a matter of discipline at home. Lia was allowed to use magic as long as it was in a specificrge empty room in the manor because that way any possible damage would be minimized and contained.


    Now, we could see Quinn lying in his room, absentmindedly staring at the ceiling drowning in frustration as he had just find out that today was the day exactly one year after his transfer. He had started his day all merry, his studies were going great, except for magic he was making great progress on all fronts. And, even though some of that stuff was easy for someone of his mental capacity, it still somewhat helped his bruised ego, but then lo and behold, he took another punch to the gut when he saw the date on the clock in the dining room, and his mood went into the dump.


    Quinn flipped himself on the bed and mushed his face into the pillow, groaning into it to show his frustration with himself. He then spent another ten-minutes groaning in his room, and after doing that, he sat upon his bed and stared at the ball in front of him.


    Quinn had a lot of mixed feelings towards this specific ball. It was your average rubber ball toy, and Quinn had used this ball, trying to move it with magic, but for a whole year, he had just red/stared at the ball, and the ball just sat there unmoving.


    Adults around Quinn thought that this ball was Quinn''s favorite toy as he spent a lot of time with it and carried it around with him all the time, but not for the reason they thought. They thought that Quinn liked the ball very much, while Quinn himself only kept the ball so that he could sneak in some practice when no one was looking.


    As Quinn stared at the ball, something inside of him snapped, and anger welled inside of him, and he ended up yelling at the ball,


    "Urgh! Why won''t you move!"


    And, it was then Quinn felt something move inside him. He felt a soft vibration in his body followed by a feeling of flow, and then Quinn''s eyes widened as he saw the ball shot across the room and mmed itself on the wall in front of Quinn with great force, and then bounce off the wall and came back to hit Quinn on the face. He didn''t dodge the ball because of the shock and took the hit.


    "Oww!.. Hahaha!". Quinnughed while tearing up because while his nose hurt, he was ted that he was able to do magic even though he knew it was idental magic fueled by anger. Quinn knew that it was a start on his magical journey.


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- (Ah, the good old star-hypen line.)


    Quinn West - Main Character - 5 years old.


    Lia West - Elder Sister - 15 years old (5th-year student)- Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic.


    George West - Grandfather - Pushing 80 years old, Businessman.


    Elliot Dalton - West Family Butler - Over 70 years old.


    *


    Adam West - Father of Quinn and Lia West. (Deceased)


    Aria West - Mother of Quinn and Lia West. (Deceased)


    Maria West - Grandmother of Quinn and Lia West, George West''s wife. (Deceased)

 Chapter 3 - Initial Progress

    Quinn West hummed a jolly tune as he filled color in a picture book. Quinn enjoyed coloring the picture book. He did feel that the pictures were a little too simple for him, but he didn''t mind as he remembered something as adult coloring books back in his old world, so of all the children activities Quinn did to y his part of a five-year-old, coloring was a one that he enjoyed doing.


    Plus, he wasn''t only filling color in the picture book but also practicing magic. Ever since the day he performed the anger-induced idental magic, he had made some progress with magic and tried to improve it with a renewed vigor. Currently, he was sitting in front of a low table on the porch of his house in a lotus position (Indian style). If you sat beside Quinn, then you would be able to see a small ss bead(marble) moving wobbly in the space between his legs.??


    Quinn had made some progress with his magic and was able to move light-weight objects with moderate sess. Like the small ss bead, he could move it continuously without a problem, but he wasn''t able to move it smoothly or more make sudden sharp turns. You could say that while he was able to keep the bead in motion, his control of the bead wascking.


    The only thing he could do with magic was move objects. He couldn''t do any traditional magic like transfiguration, charms, jinxes, or anything seen in the original work. Moving objects under a certain weight was exciting enough for Quinn. He would stay upte in the night, moving different objects in differents, trying to gain more control of his magic. Plus, another thing that Quinn considered to be an upside to ying with magic was the sleep at night.


    It turned out that the magic core theory was true, magicals had magical cores, and the capacity depended on the amount of magic you used, so the saying, ''Magic is a muscle'' was true. The more you used magic, the more magical capacity you would possess.


    He had gotten this information from Lia, who was practicing magic at home, and Quinn was allowed to watch, so he ''innocently'' asked if she could keep making those butterflies that she was making as transfiguration practice, and she exined about a magic core,


    "Let''s see, imagine there is a bowl of water inside your body, and the water is the amount of magic you can do. If you use all the water, then you won''t be able to do magic."


    Quinn decided to ask another ''innocent'' statement, fishing for a reply, "I want to do a lot of magic and be a great wizard when I grow up!"


    Lia giggled at her little brother and pinched his cheeks, "If you want to be a great wizard, then you will have to use magic every day because that way, you will be able to use more magic."


    She had exined in words that a child could understand, and even though she had over-simplified the topic and left out a lot of important things, Quinn had understood the gist of it.


    Now, what did all of this had to with sleep at night. It turned out that using magic caused some kind of fatigue, and because Quinn wanted to increase his magic core capacity, he was making sure that by bedtime, he had emptied his magic core, and that turned into some of the best nights of sleep of his life.


    Quinn had also started putting in more work in things other than magic. He started to take the piano more seriously and increased his practice time.


    Quinn knew that his math skills were higher for a five-year-old, but were his mental math skills top-notch? No, so while he still pretended to be just a bright five-year-old, but on the inside, he was training his brain to calcte faster.


    Quinn realized that if he wanted to get better at French, he would have to immerse himself in thenguage, so he actively began seeking his grandfather to talk to him in French. Mostly their conversations were just Quinn speaking and George listening. George would correct Quinn if he made mistakes. On the written part of French, he used his weekly correspondence with Lia as practice, and when writing to her, he would write the same content in both English and French.


    George also had Quinn start on calligraphy and made him practice his handwriting. It was a blessing that they didn''t use uneven parchment paper and quill and used a fountain pen with normal paper. Quinn''s motivation for working on calligraphy was because he thought George''s handwriting was cool and wanted his to be the same.


    But, not all subjects were fun to learn. There were other subjects that Quinn didn''t find appealing.


    He didn''t like family history, so he just rote-memorized everything taught to him. There was no extra effort in family history from Quinn''s side. Simrly, he felt stifled during the meals as he had to use the correct table manners at every single meal, and Quinn felt that he wasn''t able topletely enjoy his meals.


    Formal dancing was neither fun nor boring, but it was embarrassing to make mistakes while dancing with someone, so Quinn just made sure to learn everything carefully and not make mistakes. Quinn found that embarrassment could be a strong motivator for learning. Quinn put as much work in dancing as piano under this alternative motivator.


    Quinn also witnessed that how grooming and nurture could change a person over time. He noticed that his way of speaking had changed, and he was using words that he never used before, plus the way he walked and sat also changed. He found that his back which had always found the backrest of a chair or sofa, now remained straight, away from the backrest.


    Quinn understood that he was changing for the better, but it was still eerie to realize that he changed without him noticing the change.


    (Scene Break - George West P.O.V.)


    George West was a learned man. He knew the importance of education and knowledge and held them in high regard. He had expanded his family business by using the knowledge he gained from learning and experiencing.


    He had been alive for a long time and knew about the importance of learning from mistakes and epting failures, but he had learned it the hard way. He had let the death of his wife overwhelm him and made him forget about his son. He had made a mistake that had cost him his rtionship with his son. He was fortunate that his son was willing to give him another chance and fix their rtionship, but then tragedy struck again and imed the life of his son and daughter-inw, taking them away from their children.


    When he got the news, it broke him. He and his son had just started to fix the crack in their rtionship. Why did this tragedy have to ur to this family? He got this close to do the same as he had done many years ago and throw himself into work to avoid grief, but then he remembered about his grandchildren and made him realize that he couldn''t let himself drown in misery and picked himself up for the sake of grandchildren. He wasn''t going to make the same mistake as he once did.


    He took his grandchildren under his care, and he knew that he was doing the right thing when he saw his granddaughter. When he saw Lia, he saw a young child who was about to lose her childhood by maturing too early. George took both of his children under his care and provided the parental support that they had lost. He made sure that Lia wouldn''t have to worry about her baby brother alone and made sure that both of them would have a normal childhood.


    He was able to connect with Lia fairly quickly, and even though she ended up developing a slightly mature outlook on life for someone her age, he knew that she would be just fine within a few years.


    As she grew, George saw Lia showing interest in the family business, so he began mentoring her in the breaks. He was building a foundation for her, just in the case if her interest turned into something serious. He had to say, Lia had impressed him year after year. She always had top grades, the willingness to learn and apply herself. And, more importantly, she had the qualities of a leader. He would be willing to groom Lia as his sessor if shemitted herself to the family business.


    On the other hand, there was his other grandson, Quinn. He was only a year old, and he didn''t understand the meaning of death, and it hadn''t affected him as much as his sister.


    George was not sure how to describe this child. From what he could see, this child was the same as any other child his age, but since he had started his education, Quinn had proved himself anything but an ordinary child. He picked up things very quickly and would alwaysplete his work withoutining.


    Quinn''s teacher praised him when he asked for Quinn''s progress andplimented him for being the easiest student they had ever taught. Not only that, but they alsouded Quinn''s learning ability. George wasn''t surprised to hear the teacher''s opinion as George taught Quinn both French and Family history, and he knew Quinn''s capability. He knew that Quinn wanted to learn French and actively tried to get better at it. He also knew that Quinn didn''t like learning Family history, and he could see the difference in the effort he showed while he learned French and Family history.


    George knew that if Quinn had been a normal child, he would''ve made a fuss about learning something he didn''t enjoy or even outright refuse to learn. But Quinn, despite not enjoying learning Family History, still learned it without any prompting.


    But, the thing that stood out most to George was Quinn''s interest in magic. Magic would always seed in attracting Quinn''s attention. No matter if it was something asmon as levitating cutlery to the dining table, or something shy as sky-firework charms, everything made Quinn''s eyes sparkle.


    George noticed that every time he talked to Quinn, magic would always sneak into the conversation, and Quinn would especially active while talking about magic. He noticed that while children Quinn''s age wouldn''t stay in one spot for long, Quinn would always sit and patiently watch whenever Lia would use magic at home, or when West''s manor''s elf, Polly would clean the house using elf brand of magic, he would follow her all around the manor as she cleaned. Polly, who was a prideful elf, walked around the manor instead of apparating so that Quinn was able to follow her while she moved around the manor.


    George had a hunch that Quinn would grow up to bing a person who dwelled in the mysteries of magic or at least does something closely rted to magic. And, even though it was absurdly early for talking about a child''s future, George couldn''t help but think that Quinn''s future would be deeply rted to magic.


    George didn''t want to decide his grandchildren''s future careers. He wanted them to follow what they loved, which was evident as even though he was mentoring Lia, he wouldn''t force Lia to take over the business. She would be allowed to leave at any time, and only when she gives fullmitment would he seriously groom her for leading the family business.


    Back to Quinn, George wanted to see his grandson''s limits and how much Quinn could learn before leaving his direct supervision by enrolling in one of the magical schools. He began to ren his original ns for Quinn''s education and development.


    (Scene Break)


    Another year had passed, and Quinn had used the past year very productively. He had increased the things he could do with magic. From making light-weighted objects move with limited control, Quinn had upped his capabilities. Over the year, Quinn had gradually found objects that weighed more and experimented and practiced with them. By the time he turned six, Quinn''s control over objects had increased substantially.


    The six-year-old still couldn''t do anything more than move objects, but Quinn felt like he had pioneered the usage of magic in the area of push and pull. When Quinn mentioned that he could move objects, what he meant was that he could use differentbinations of push and pull to make the object move.


    In the case of Push, he could just apply a single push or apply a continuous push. The single push was akin to hitting a billiard(pool) ball with a cue stick or hitting a golf ball with a club. Whereas the continuous push was akin to pushing a trolley(cart) and apply force continuously to keep the object moving,


    Pull was simr also push and had two types; the single yank or the continuous pull. The single yank was simply applying the pull just once, and the continuous pull could be a continuous pull force applied like a train engine pulling the carriages.


    By using multiplebinations of these four types of forces at different powers, Quinn could do all kinds of things. It didn''t provide total control like controlling a remote-controlled car, but with creativity and practice, possibilities were vast. He had attained a trickshot level of control and could control objects as long it was possible with push and pull.


    Of course there were limitations,


    The range was a huge limitation. His current range was only five meters as he didn''t know how to get his magic across that limit. He could reach any object as long it was within a five-meter radius with him as the center.


    Another limitation was speed. The control deteriorated with an increase in speed. The faster the object, the less control Quinn had on it.


    Focus also hindered Quinn''s ability to do magic. Quinn found out that to be able to do magic which wasn''t high-emotion-fueled wild idental magic, he had to focus and maintain the intent of the action. So, while the single push and pull were simple enough as their focus time was short, but continuous counterparts were harder as Quinn needed to constantly think of the power, direction, where to apply force, and how to apply force. So,plexity was bad for Quinn.


    Then there was one problem that had caused Quinn a lot of problems, and it had taken a lot of willpower from Quinn to ovee. The problem was the bad habit of using hand gestures while using magic. While this habit had provided him with better control as gestures helped with focus, it made him think it was simr to wand moments, and that was against what Quinn was trying to aplish. So, he tried to get rid of hand gestures, but it had taken everything from crossing his arms to sitting on his hands to put his hands behind the back to break that bad habit.


    It took Quinn more than a month to get rid of that instinct to use hand gestures and another two months to get his control to the level provided with hand gestures. Now, Quinn could do the same things by just thinking about the execution of the magic.


    Quinn''s non-magical education was alsoing along splendidly. He had gotten quite good at the piano, and formal dancing was alsoing along marvelously. Quinn felt confident that he could dance in front of an audience without embarrassing himself and his partner. Quinn''s calligraphy was still a work in progress because of his child''s hands, and from his teachers'' expressions, he could say that he was doing quite well.


    But, things were about to change because two years after the day Quinn transmigrated, Quinn was ready to make a huge step in his pursuit of magic.


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- (Some information about the characters.)


    Quinn West - MC - 6 years old - in pursuit of the magic.


    Lia West - Elder sister - 16 years old (6th-year student) - Beauxbaton Academy Of Magic.


    George West - Grandfather - Good guy


    Polly - West family house-elf - Cleaning Expert.


    In this chapter, we saw things from George West''s, progress on magic, some technicalities about what Quinn could do, and a time skip.


    Let''s see what I cane up with in the next chapter.

 Chapter 4 - Change In Magic, And World Tour

    Today was Quinn''s second anniversary of finding himself stranded in this world. In thest year, Quinn had worked hard on magic, and the more he used it, the more he fell in love with magic. Even though he hadn''t even scratched the surface of magic, and Quinn''s knowledge was equivalent to a drop in the ocean.


    But Quinn was about to take another step to improve his magic. Quinn stood in front of Lia''s room, ready to get what he had failed to takest year.? ?


    ''Last year, I wasn''t ready to get the resources to advance my magic, but now I am ready.'' Quinn thought about hisst year''s n, and after pping his cheeks for focus, he knocked on Lia''s door.


    He waited for Lia to respond, and he heard, "Come in." from Lia. He opened the door and entered the room. There he saw Lia, sitting on her bed and reading a French fashion magazine. Quinn entered the room with a toy car following behind him. Lia looked up from her magazine and saw Quinn and his toy entering the room. She thought someone might have charmed the car to follow behind Quinn, so she didn''t pay attention to it, but in reality, Shun was pulling the toy car with magic as practice.


    She saw Quinn climbing up on the bed but then looking behind him as if to find something, and then his eyes fell on the car on the floor, so he climbed down and grabbed the car before climbing onto the bed once again.


    ''So, cute! He thought the car would follow him up on the bed.'' A wide smile appeared on her face as she watched Quinn. Quinn had gotten quite good at acting as a child and sometimes wondered if he should pursue a career in acting. Quinn sometimes joked to himself that he was a method actor who stayed in character all day long.


    Back to the situation in Lia''s room, she saw her brother continue to y with his toy car on her brother and thought, ''He will not ask me to y with him, then why did hee to my room? Well, whatever. Oh, this dress is nice.'' Seeing that Quinn would not ask her to y with him, she went back to reading her magazine.


    All of this was part of Quinn''s n; he purposely didn''t talk to Lia and continued to pass the time by ying with the toy car using magic. And to be honest, making vroom-vroom noises while moving the car with magic was funny in its own way.


    From the corner of his eye, Quinn stole a nce at Lia and thought, ''Now, I just have to wait for a while.''


    Last year, before Quinn had any connection to his magic, he had tried to find some answer to kick start his magic and start a connection to his magic. But because he hadn''t taken thenguage of the book in Lia''s library into consideration. The books were in French, and that had shut down the entire n. But this time, he was prepared and was confident that he would score that book today.


    So Quinn waited for around twenty minutes and then made his move. He stopped ying with his toy car, climbed down from the bed, and after dilly-dallying for a minute, he made his way to the bookshelf and began his search for that first-year magic theory book and found it on the lowest shelf. A smile threatened to split his face as he gleaned at the cover of the book and clearly understood the writing.


    He sat down on the spot and read the book, and the world around Quinn went quiet. He had waited for this moment for such a long time. Now that the book was in his hands, all his attention was on the book. He began reading the words written in French, all unnecessary thoughts vanished from his mind, and he became immersed in the writing.


    Quinn didn''t know how long he had been reading the book, but a touch broke him out of his focus and brought him to the real world.


    "Quinn?" (Lia)


    Quinn felt like a bus had hit him. He sucked in a deep breath and dazedly looked towards the voice and found Lia looking at him, but Quinn.exe was currently down. It took Quinn a couple of seconds to reboot and replied,


    "Yeah?"


    Lia stared at Quinn for a couple of seconds, which made Quinn worried. He hadn''t meant to get lost in the book, but he did, and not only did he forgot Lia was still there in the room, but he also took a second to reply, which may havee out as weird, given the fact he was staring at her face.


    "What are you doing?" Lia questioned as she eyed Quinn with her school textbook.


    This time Quinn was quick to follow as he put on a big smile and showed Lia her book.


    "I was reading this book."


    Lia squatted near her brother and grinned.


    "Really? How about you read me something from there?"


    Quinn nodded rapidly, and then like a child, he loudly recited the first paragraph from the first chapter of the book.


    "Magic is a force that changes aspects of the world at fundamental levels. The ability for humans to use magic is a he-hereditary trait passed down from a person''s ancestors, which allows witches and wizards to practice it." (In French)


    Quinn purposely stuttered and slowed down his pace to make it more believable for a child his age. Quinn''s performance astonished Lia and hugged him with beaming smiling and praised him,


    "Oh my god, Quinn, that was excellent! You are a smart one, aren''t you? Aren''t you~."


    Quinn giggled happily and hugged her back, and then made his move. He held the book in front of her and requested. "Lia, can I have this book? I like it, please!"


    Lia couldn''t resist the sparkle in Quinn''s eye. She looked at the cover of the book and saw that it was a textbook from her first-year and pondered, ''I don''t read it anymore, and I guess it won''t do him any harm. Plus, he loves magic so much.''


    "Okay, you can keep the book, but only if you promise to take care of the book."


    Quinn cheered and celebrated by hugging the book.


    "Thank you, Lia! I promise I will take care of the book, pinky promise!" He put out his pinky, and Lia interlinked her own with a soft smile on her lips.


    (Scene Break)


    Later that day, Quinn sat in front of the table in his room, and on the table was the leather-bound book titled Magical Theory by Irene Joliot-Curie. He rubbed his hands and opened the book, and began reading from where he had left in Lia''s room.


    Quinn began reading what this book offered, and over the next few days, Quinn would immerse himself in the book whenever he had free time. It was after a week that he finally decided that he had read and understood enough.


    So, the next time he was alone, Quinn immediately retrieved the small ss bead(marble) from his pocket and set it in front of him.


    Quinn''s original approach of using push and pull was an indirect way of influencing an object, but the popr and mainstream uses of magic were to influence them directly.


    Quinn stared at the marble as he contemted his one week of reading,


    ''Hmm¡­ If I were to slice something with magic, then there would be two ways of doing it. The indirect method would be something like using a magic creating wind de andunching it towards the target. Whereas the direct approach would be to use something like a severing charm (Diffindo) to directly cut the target.


    My approach was the indirect approach. I was creating a push and pull force to affect the object.''


    The marble in front of Quinn moved. He was making the marble move with his original pull-and-push method. The marble moved faster and faster, and it came to where Quinn lost control of it, and the marble shot in a straight line away from Quinn, but then Quinn''s pupils narrowed, and the marble suddenly and unnaturally came to a dead stop.


    Quinn''s pull-and-push method hadn''t caused the stop, but with the new direct application of magic. Hemanded his magic to erase all the momentum of the marble, and it worked. Quinn had used the imagery of a stationary marble and the intent of stopping the marble.


    Quinn stared at the stationary marble with a toothy grin splitting his face, and Quinn knew he had taken another step towards improving his magic. Even though things had just gotten much moreplicated, he knew it was because the ways he could approach magic had expanded.


    He looked at the magical theory textbook and spoke to no one in the room.


    "Let''s get started."


    Over the next month, Quinn progressed more than he had done in thest year. He had to start from scratch. The only thing that had transferred from his workst year was the range. The rest of it he had to build from grounds up. It was tougher than the four option push-and-pull. This time he was working with new concepts and techniques.


    After one month, he could control objects within a five-meter range. Heck, he had improved more than he did in his previous one-year. Now, he could make objects levitate and move them in the air. Previously, he could levitate objects and move them, but it was messy with extremely bad control and mobility.


    Now, he had reached the point of magic-based telekinesis. He could attract objects, put them back in their ce, do things he could usually do with his hands, and some more. He could fold the duvet when he got up in the morning, he could squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube, and brush his teeth better than he could with his hands. As always, because of Quinn''s iplete knowledge, he would''ve to do one task at a time. If he wanted to open a drawer to take something out, he would''ve to look at the drawer, then take out the object, wait for the object toe to him, and then close the drawer.


    At the end of the month, Quinn was ready to move on to another type of magical application. He had done enough of telekinesis and wanted to do something, but before he could decide what to do, Quinn was called in by his grandfather and told some shocking news.


    (Scene Break)


    George looked at Quinn and informed him, "Quinn, the day after your sister leaves for Beauxbaton for her sixth year, we will leave the manor to travel the world." (In French)


    Quinn blinked twice before inquiring with uncertainty in his voice, "Travel the¡­ world? What does that mean?" (In French)


    "It means we will go to a lot of different and fun ces, but we won''t being back home for a long time." (In French). George patiently exined things to Quinn.


    Quinn understood his grandfather was talking about a long-term world tour. What he couldn''t understand the timing of this decision. It would be after their return from this trip that he would get to know the reason for this trip.


    "What about Lia? Will shee with us?" (In French)


    George shook his head and repeated, "No, as I told you, she will be in school when we leave. Plus, she is going to spend the break between her sixth and seventh year traveling separately with her friends.


    But don''t worry, we will return home for Christmas and Easter break to spend time with her." (In French)


    (Scene Break)


    The day before the start of the trip, Quinn stood in front of a firece in the West Manor. This firece was special as it was the part of the Floo Network, and today was the day Lia was going to leave for Beauxbaton, and they were going to the Department Of Magical Transportation, Portkey Authority Office.


    To the students who came from outside of France, Beauxbaton would issue portkeys to the school town near the Beauxbaton, but the portkey would activate inside in a designated area inside the Portkey Office, so every year, George would take Lia to the Ministry Of Magic, and see her off from there, and they would travel to the Ministry of Magic by Floo.


    Quinn looked at Lia with a sad face. After years of knowing the older girl, Quinn had gotten close to her. He had gone from seeing her as a stranger to a friend to now seeing her as a sister and family. He was sad that he would not see her for a while, and even the time he was going to see her wasn''t long.


    Lia knelled in front of Quinn and put a hand on his cheek. "Little Quinn, don''t be sad. I will write to you every week, so don''t be sad."


    Quinn nodded and replied. "Okay."


    Lia pinched Quinn''s cheeks and spoke. "Buy me gifts, okay?"


    Quinn nodded and hugged her, and Lia returned the hug and whispered into Quinn''s ears. "I have put a gift for you on your bed." Quinn looked at Lia with surprise and confusion, but she just smiled and stood up. She had already said goodbye to other people in the house, so she looked at George and said. "Let''s go."


    George nodded, and with a burst of green mes, both of them floo-ed to Ministry Of Magic.


    After they had left, Quinn went to his room, and as Lia said, there was a small satchel sitting on the bed. He climbed upon his bed, opened the satchel, and inside there was a space much greater than the size of the satchel, and in that space were many books.


    "Oh my, Undetectable Extension Charm has been used to expand the space inside the satchel. It is like Hermione''s beaded handbag."


    He looked at those books and found that they were the books from the first three years of Beauxbaton''s curriculum. A folded sheet of paper on the top of the books caught Quinn''s attention. He retrieved it from the satchel and unfolded the note to see it addressed to him. He began reading the letter and found that it was from Lia.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Little Quinn,


    I know how much you love magic. You always read that book you took from me, and you are ever watching me doing magic. You might have thought that I didn''t notice, but I know that you always sneaked nces towards my bookshelf or how your eyes sparkled whenever I performed magic for you.


    Now that you will travel with our grandfather, you will be away from home, so I am gifting you these books, so read all you want. I know you will be a great wizard someday.


    These books aren''t mine. I have bought a new set for you. Now, you won''t have to borrow books from me, so return the book you borrowed from me and use your new books.


    But please take care of yourself. Take care of our grandfather and don''t forget to write to me.


    Love,


    Lia


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn, with a smile, got down from his bed, and from his table, he picked up Lia''s magical theory textbook. He ran out of the room and went to Lia''s room. Quinn walked to her bookshelf and put the book back into its original ce. He turned away and walked away from the bookshelf, but just before closing the door, he looked at the bookshelf and the book.


    Quinn gave the book onest look before saying goodbye to his first magic book. Quinn knew it was just a book, but it still held a sentimental value. The door closed, and with that, he parted with the book.


    (Scene Break)


    The next day, Quinn and George West along with Elliot Dalton, George''s butler, and Ms. Rosey, who wasing with them to take care of Quinn. Ever since Quinn hade to this world, she was the first person who Quinn saw in the morning when she came to wake him up, and thest person he saw before he went to sleep.


    A kind but strict olddy who took care of Quinn and was the one who taught him dance, manners, and how to conduct himself in public.


    Their first destination was Italy.


    There they spent time in Rome. While in Rome, they paid the Vatican City, which even though was a hated spot for magic kind around the world was a beautiful destination. They moved on to Sorrento along with the ind of Capri, Amalfi Coast, and Historical Ruins of Pompeii.


    They visited Tuscany, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Mn, Venice, and ended the Italy tour with the Dolomites.


    After Italy came Germany, Austria, Switzend, and Liechtenstein. Followed by France, where they visited Paris, C?te d''Azur, Mont Saint-Michel, Provence, the Chamonix-Mont-nc in the French Alps, and ended the France tour with the beach town Biarritz.


    Quinn didn''t get to meet any Ve in France, which disappointed him a bit because he wanted to experience the Allure before puberty hit him.


    This ended their Europe tour as they moved to South Africa where they started out in Johannesburg in South Africa, Francistown in Botswana, Victoria Falls, followed by Zimbabwe and Zambia. They continued to Drakenburg and its magicalmunity and ended the tour with Cape Town.


    On the way to the Indian sub-continent, they rewound and rx in Abu Dhabi and enjoyed the luxury of Dubai.


    The Asian continent tour started in Nepal where they explored Nepal, Everest Base Camp, Patan, and Pokhara. From Nepal, they moved onto Bhutan and extensively toured India for a while, and experienced one of the world''s most diverse magicalmunities found.


    Quinn also confirmed that parseltongue wasn''t a sign of dark magic as parselmagic was prominent in India and many of the tribes performed parselmagic only. Indian mages used Sanskrit, the oldest magicalnguage, as theirnguage of choice. Also, it was fun to ride on the magic carpet. And, Quinn had to say Holi was a dope festival.


    After they exited India, they visited Myanmar on their way to Thand.


    Thand was theunching point for exploring Southeast Asia. Quinn''s favorite moment in Thand was when they diving with a gillyweed potion.


    The next leg of the tourprised Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It was the part of the tour where they detached themselves from the hustle and bustle and enjoyed the serene experience of these countries.


    The first half of Asian tour ended with China and Taiwan as they experienced one of the oldest magicalmunities in the world. China was the world''s leader in Ritual magic. It was also interesting to see how much China and Taiwan had changed since the separation.


    The next part of the tour was to leave Asia for a while and visit New Zend. Quinn found New Zend had two inds whose magicalmunities differedpletely from each other. Next they went to Australia whose magicalmunity was like Britains which was surprising as the magical Britain hadn''t colonized half of the world like their non-magical counterparts, so it was surprising to see two simrmunities when they were so far from each other.


    They once again entered Asia, and travelled to Japan, and Quinn saw what runes could aplish, and the flexibility of Japanesenguage system in rune magic. The Japanese magicalmunity wasn''t as modern as he had imagined, but it was still a uniquemunity and had its own unique vor, plus ramen was amazing.


    The Asian tour ended with a week in Fiji where they just rxed on the beach and swam the full time. The night sky looked amazing in Fiji. He had to admit,zing around and doing nothing in Fiji was amazing.


    The next and thest part of the world tour was touring USA. They had spent a lot of time touring other countries till now and had to cut out any other countries in North America and all of South America.


    American magicalmunity was extremely isted from their non-magical counterpart. The witch hunt in Salem and across America had caused an enormous crack between the magical and non-magicalmunities. The American magicalmunity and the governing body MACUSA employed extreme measures to safeguard magical species. MACUSA allowed oblivation of non-magical (No-maj/Muggle) parents who mistreated their magical children.


    America''s Ministry Of Magic had passed a bill that would allow to the ministry to erase the memories of their children from non-magical parents'' minds. It was a cruel practice, but American magicalmunity made it up to the children who were taken away from their parents by treating their first-generation magicals (Muggleborns) with the best care and provided them with free education and home until they reached majority.


    Quinn toured USA, and saw the advancements in spatial magic and charms that had allowed them to create spaces with the sizes of small cities inside small buildings, and this wasn''t aplished with Expansion charms but by creating gateways to artificially created dimensions.


    Quinn knew that as he had shown an American mage, the bag that Lia had given him, andpared it to one of the gateways, and the American had proudly exined the difference to him.


    After finishing the USA tour, it was time to return home.


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    Ok, another time skip as a world tour. In the next chapter, I will introduce one of my favorite magic, but with my own twist/exnation/system.

 Chapter 5 - Book Collection, And The Old Man

    An eight-year-old Quinn stood in his room in West Manor. After 21 months of traveling, the tour had finally ended, and he was back in Britain. Quinn had returned home yesterday, and after resting for one night, he began unpacking.


    Well, he was going to unpack what he had bought throughout the tour. Polly, the house-elf, had already taken his clothes the moment they had entered the Manor.??


    Quinn had the satchel upgraded during his travel, and all of his other things were inside the weightless satchel. He set down the satchel in front of him, and with a look, the satchel''s p opened, and one by one, hundreds of books flew out of the small satchel and began setting themselves in a bookshelf that Quinn hadmissioned and set up his room.


    Quinn smiled as thest book went into the bookshelf. These books were the ones he had bought throughout the journey. They weren''t rare books, butmon books that could easily be found in their country of origin. These booksprised the books used in curriculums of dozens of countries.


    He knew the various magicalmunities were different, and every country had different ways to teach magic to their young magicals. In his previous life, he had heard a saying that had made a major impact on him.


    The saying went as following, "There is a lot of information in this world, and everyone misses something, so you have to hang out with everyone."


    Quinn couldn''t hang out with people from other countries, but he could get their written knowledge, so with every country, Quinn bought the whole magical curriculum of every country. Every country had its preferred medium ofnguage, and Quinn didn''t understand many countries'' books, but Quinn still bought them as he would have them tranted.


    Quinn also sighed when he looked at the books as he was quite nervous when he had requested his grandfather to buy the whole curriculum in Italy. But strangely, George hadn''t even asked him the reason and directly bought him the books. He had even helped Quinn and helped him acquire the books so that nothing was missing.


    He had even promised to get the books tranted after they returned home.


    After a few countries, Quinn didn''t even need to ask and George directly bought him those books. Quinn was sure that neither George nor Lia knew he could perform magic without a wand, so George''s actions greatly confused him. But he had gotten used to it after a few times.


    Ironically, Quinn still didn''t have Britain''s magical curriculum, but it didn''t bother Quinn as he had plenty of things to read, and he wasn''t sure that he could read all of this before entering a magical school when he turned eleven years old.


    Quinn hadn''t been cking off during the world tour. True, he had decreased the time devoted to magic as he was busy traveling different destinations. But he had read through all three years of the curriculum from English-speaking countries and from France as he knew how to read French.


    And after reading through all of those books of different branches of magic, it convinced Quinn that buying these books was the right decision. As he predicted, there was a lot of ovep between books from different countries. But in each book, many things were unique or from a different perspective.


    Quinn stood in front of the bookshelf. Quinn used his magic, and the chair behind him pulled itself out from under the table and stopped just behind Quinn, and he sat on it, admiring the view of the filled bookshelf.


    Quinn had experienced various things during his travels, and that experience had changed him a lot. Before the tour, he only had magic on his mind, and little had changed about it from before. Magic was still his top priority, but after seeing the world, he knew that there was life outside of magic, and Quinn wanted to develop himself outside of magic.


    He still didn''t know why George had taken him out on that tour, but Quinn was thankful that he did.


    As Quinn was thinking about the tour, Polly appeared using elf-apparition and informed him that his grandfather was calling him into his study. Quinn thought about what George might want from him.


    "Maybe he will tell me why we on that trip."


    Quinn walked to the study, and at the study door, he fixed his appearance and knocked on the door, waiting for his grandfather to invite him. After a second, he heard his grandfather''s voice calling him inside.


    He opened the door and entered the study, closing the door behind him. His grandfather''s study was Victorian in design, and he had to say he preferred this design to the modern designs that he saw in his previous world. His eyes trailed to the door on the right wall that opened to the Manor''s library.


    He had been there a couple of times before going on the tour. There were magic books in there, but most of the books inside the library were about the family business, genealogy, family history, businessws in different countries, ounts, and his grandfather''s collection of rare books.


    Quinn removed his eyes from the door and looked at the study table in the room. He saw George sitting behind the study table, and in front of the table sat his elder sister Lia.


    Lia had finally graduated from Beauxbaton Academy Of Magic and was ready for the next stage of her life. It turned out that you could study beyond the seven years of education as seen in the series. After the initial seven, you could apprentice under a certified master, join a vocational school like Britain''s Auror Academy, or you could end your education and join the workforce immediately.


    Quinn did not know what Lia was going to do after graduation, but from what he could see, even though Lia was good at magic, she wasn''t that interested in it to start a career in magic.


    Quinn smiled at Lia and then addressed George from the door, "You called for me, grandfather?"


    George nodded and replied, "Yes, please sit down."


    Quinn obliged and sat beside Lia in the other chair and waited for his grandfather to speak.


    George looked at his two grandchildren and started speaking, "Now that Lia has graduated from school, it is time for her to decide what she is going to do next. Before we went on the trip, Lia talked to me, and she wanted to join the family business. At that time, I told her that if by her seventh year''s Christmas break, she still wanted to join the family business, then I will groom her to be my sessor."


    He looked at Lia and asked her, "We talked thest time we were home, and Lia said that she still wanted to join the business, so I decided I will groom her to take over the business someday."


    Lia nodded and spoke, "I want to work in the family business."


    Quinn looked at his sister andughed. "Lia will be the best businessdy in the world. I know it!"


    Lia giggled and ruffled Quinn''s hair, "Thank you for the vote of confidence, little Quinn. I will work had to be what did you say, yes... the best businessdy."


    George had a hint of a smile on his face before it receded into his resting face and continued, "The grooming process is going to be like an apprenticeship. It will be extensive and will keep both of us busy for a long time. I decided that if Lia''s final decision was to join the family business, then I would be busy and won''t be able to spend a lot of time at home with Quinn, so I decided to go on a tour so that I could spend time with Quinn before, Lia and I became busy, and I knew that before I couldplete Lia''s training, Quinn would be old enough to go to school and then he will be out of the house for most of the year."


    The reason for the trip surprised Quinn, and now that he knew the reason, it made sense. George was trying to make memories with him before he got busy, and Quinn grew old enough to go to school.


    George now turned to Quinn and told him what was in store for him.


    "Quinn, I have hired a teacher for you, and he will teach you a type of magic that a lot of children from magical families learn. So, be ready. He wille to our house twice a week to teach you."


    Quinn''s eyes began sparkling, and he for a moment forgot all the manners they had taught him, leaned forward, and asked in a bit too loud of a voice.


    "Really! Who is he? What will he teach me? I can do it without a wand, or will I get a wand to practice it."


    Quinn got a little excited but calmed down when he saw the expression on his grandfather''s face. He sat up straight and muttered an apology while Lia chuckled into her hand.


    George sighed before answering Quinn''s question, "No, you won''t be needing a wand for the magic, and the master I have hired has specifically said not to tell you about the contents of what he will be teaching. He doesn''t want you to set some preconception about the branch of magic he teaches."


    Quinn once again felt confused by his grandfather''s words and asked, "Did Lia learn this magic?"


    Lia nodded, and with a smirk, she teased, "Yes, actually know I think about it, I started learning this magic when I was seven, a year younger than you are."


    Quinn knew Lia was just trying to tease him as she knew about his love for magic and how the fact that he could''ve learned it a year sooner would make him feel.


    ''Calm down, Quinn. Peaceful thoughts, don''t let her get to you... Dammit!'' Quinn couldn''t help but feel jealous and puffed up his cheeks to show how he was feeling.


    Quinn calmed down and replied to his grandfather, "I understand, grandfather."


    That night, Quinn sat on his bed reading a second-year charms book from New Zend. Even though Quinn learned the third-year curriculum. He still wasn''t able to do any magic that was above the second-year standard.


    Theck of a wand hindered Quinn''s ability to do magic, and he had just enough control to perform spells that were considered to be on the second-year standard.


    Quinn thought back to his travels, and the various magical focuses he had seen been utilized by magicals (wizards) of different countries. It turned out that wands were primarily famous in Europe, and there were other magical focuses used in other parts of the world.


    What is a focus, you ask? Well, a focus is a quasi-sentient magical instrument through which a magical (witch or wizard) channels her or his magical powers to centralize the effects of spells or any feat of magic. Focuses were a norm in this world, and he had seen no magical human that didn''t use a focus for performing magic.


    A magical focus could be crafted from magical woods, materials from magical beasts, magically conducting gems or special metals. Abination of those materials could be made into wands, bracelets, staves, staffs, ornamental daggers, or talismans.


    Some wizards or witches could perform magic without a focus, but that severely limited their capabilities.


    Quinn shook his head of thoughts about wands and focuses and looked at the light on his bedside table; It was a magical candle covered by a ss case. Quinn focused his magic and willed the magic to increase the size of the me. In a split-second, the me grew to double its original size.


    Quinn slowly funneled his magic, and carefully increased the me to grow to triple and quadruple of its size, and then applied the part which made it sustain on its own. And, lo-and-behold, when Quinn stopped using magic, the me remained on the increased size.


    This was Quinn''s replication of Engorgement Charm that caused the target to swell immensely. He could freely control the target''s size and even decide how long the charm holds on the target. Quinn called it a replication and not a wandless (focusless) implementation because there was no spell light when Quinn performed the spell.


    Like how the Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra) shot out of the wand with green color, the Engorgement Charm shot out with an icy-blue color. But Quinn was able to eliminate the spell light from his execution, which made it Quinn''s replication and not a spell.


    Quinn might not be able to proceed past the second-year standard, but it didn''t mean he couldn''t improve upon what he already knew. When Quinn found that his control restricted his ability to proceed, he didn''t feel down and begun experimenting with how spells work and replicate them in his own way. This not only solidified his knowledge, but his replications were easier for him to perform than the wandless versions.


    Quinn felt that the magical core in his body had enough juice to perform one more spell. He once again looked at the bedside candle and pondered which spell should be used to revert the engorgement ced on the candle me.


    "I could either use the counter to Engorgement Charm, the Shrinking Charm, or I could just use the General Counter-Spell, Finite Incantatem. Hmm... let''s go with the Shrinking Charm. I learned them together after all."


    Once again, Quinn focused his magic and applied his replication of Shrinking Charm. The candle me went back to its original size and then dispelled any of his magic on the me. It freed the magical candle from any external magic source or influence. Quinn closed his book, sent it to the bookshelf, extinguished the candle by covering themp, and went to sleep for the day.


    (Scene Break)


    At the end of that week, Quinn found himself sitting in an empty room of the West Manor that had been furnished with two chairs and a table between two chairs.


    In front of him sat a man who looked older than his grandfather, which made Quinn think about his age.


    "Mr. West, if it satisfies your curiosity, I am twice as old as your grandfather.", the man spoke for the first time since Quinn had entered the room.


    Quinn was confused for a second and thought, ''Did I spoke it out loud?''


    Once again, the old man spoke, "No, Mr. West, you didn''t speak that out loud."


    Seeing the old man''s smile, Quinn finally understood what was happening. He immediately broke eye contact with the old man. This caused the old man to chuckle.


    "Oh my, your grandfather wasn''t exaggerating about you being a smart child. It seems you know already know what I was doing."


    Quinn ground his teeth as he spat out, "You used Legilimency to read my mind!"


    The old man had the audacity tough, "You are correct, I used Legilimency to read your mind, but to be more specific, I read your surface thoughts. So, don''t worry, I don''t know any of your secrets, and you can look at me. I won''t be reading your mind."


    Quinn ignored the old man and continued to stare at his feet.


    Seeing that, the old man spoke once again, "Mr. West, you should remember that your grandfather hired me, so it shows that he trusts me."


    Quinn thought about it for a while and was seriously contemting about barging into his grandfather''s study and confirm if the old man was trustworthy but decided against it. He knew his grandfather wouldn''t let anyone untrustworthy into the house, much less someone who would snoop around in his mind.


    Quinn finally looked towards the old man''s smiling face and the old man spoke once again.


    "Let me introduce myself. My name is n D. Baddeley and moving forward, I will be teaching you the magic of Mind Arts."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - 8 years old - Interested in Magic.


    Lia West - Elder Sister - 18 years old - Beauxbaton Graduate - Interested in Family Business.


    George West - Grandfather - Head of West Family - Loves his grandchildren.


    n D. Baddeley - Old Man - Teacher - Teaches Mind Arts.


    -*-*-*-


    NOTE - I might still call Quinn''s replications as spells. It will make my work so much easier.

 Chapter 6 - The First Lesson

    Two people, one young, the other old, sat in a room. The old man sat in his chair with a smile on his face. From any angle, the older man was just a joyous old man, while the young child sitting on a stool was emitting the air of nervousness and tension. The merry old man was n D. Baddeley, while the young child was Quinn West.


    Both were sitting in a room of the West Manor. Today was their first meeting and Quinn''s first lesson on mind magic. The reason for Quinn''s apparent difort was that n had snooped around in his mind using Legilimency and that on their first meeting, with no warning or permission.??


    It wasn''t a surprise that Quinn had a terrible impression of n after his tant offense at reading his mind. n, who was looking at Quinn, continued as nothing had happened.


    "Mr. West, before we begin, I would like you to tell me what do you think about mind magic. Please be assured, I am not expecting you to give a correct answer. Just tell me your thoughts when you hear the word mind magic."


    Quinn, who had lost all his initial excitement about learning a new branch of magic, thought about the shitty old man''s question and gave out his thoughts about mind magic.


    "Mind Magic, as the name suggests, is the magic rted to the mind. Any magic that affects the mind or explores the inner working of the braines under the category of mind magic."


    n, with his ever smiling face, spoke in response to Quinn''s answer. "Excellent, can you give me some examples of mind magic?"


    Quinn immediately answered the question, "lumency and Legilimency."


    n''s smile widened, and he continued the Q-and-A, "Oh my, those are some heavy words that you threw out there. Can you give me some other examples of mind magic?"


    Quinn frowned and thought about any other magic that could be categorized under mind magic, but he couldn''t think of any other magic that came under mind magic. But just as he was about to shake his head, he remembered one more, "Oblivation is also a mind magic."


    n leaned back into his chair and said, "Okay, not bad, but let me throw out a question for you to think. Have you heard about the Cheering Charm?"


    Quinn nodded, "A charm that made the target feel ted. If overdone, it could cause the victim to ovee with fits of hystericalughter."


    "Excellent, excellent. Then wouldn''t you say that the Cheering Charm affects the mind of the target? Wouldn''t the Cheering Charme under the category of mind magic?"


    Quinn blinked twice, "B-but, the Cheering Charm... how can something like a trivial Cheering Charm be a mind magic."


    n shook his head and countered, "Mr. West, magic being trivial has nothing to with its identity. As you said, any magic that affects the mind is mind magic. Cheering Charm, Bravery Charm, Jelly-Brain Jinx, Confudus Charm, Sleeping Charm, even potions like Love potions and Hate potions that affect the mind alsoe under mind magic.


    My motive to tell you about this is to clear the confusion that things like lumency and Legilimency aren''t the only magic thates under mind magic. Mind magic, like any branch, is a wide field of magic. Many mysteries that need to be explored, many secrets that need to be unveiled."


    n''s revtion surprised Quinn. After listening to n''s exnation, he agreed that even something like Cheering Charm was a form of mind magic. Before n''s exnation, he never saw potions as a mind magic.


    He looked up at n and spoke, "You are correct. Any magic that affects the mind is a mind magic."


    n leaned forward towards the table, "Now, let''s talk about the aim of these lessons. Your grandfather hired me to teach you the art of protecting your mind. You already know about it, don''t you?"


    Quinn answered, "Yes, lumency is the art of protecting your mind. It can prevent a Legilimens, a person who knows how to perform Legilimency, from essing one''s thoughts and feelings or influencing them. We know a person who practices this art as an lumens."


    "Excellent!" said n, looking impressed with Quinn''s knowledge. "But, let me tell you what an aplished Legilimens could do against someone with no mental defenses."


    Quinn turned serious as he hung onto n''s every word.


    "A novice Legilimens could perceive their target''s emotions. That means that even though they couldn''t look into their thoughts, they could still tell how you are feeling.


    An intermediate Legilimens could perceive their target''s surface thoughts. They could tell what you are thinking at the moment. Any intermediate Legilimens could do what I did to you.


    A master Legilimens could dive into their target''s mind and see their memories, experiences, and anything that the mind offers. They could know your every secret in a matter of minutes."


    Quinn sucked in a sharp breath. He already knew what a Legilimens could do, but listening to it from a Legilimens'' mouth was another thing. The thought that the person in front of him could know all his memories was a scary thought that was finally setting in, but it turned out n was just getting starting.


    "Now above that..."


    Quinn was shocked and ended up raising his voice. "There is more?!"


    n raised his eyebrows and eximed, "Of course, anyone with enough aptitude for mind arts could aplish this with enough practice. Please, note that we base these categorizations on a Legilimens'' performance against an unprotected mind."


    Quinn nodded, prompting n to continue.


    "There is no categorization above master Legilimens as Legilimens take different paths after bing masters in Legilimency. But, people like to call themselves Grandmasters.


    Some would strengthen their prowess so that they could read memories from a practiced lumens. Others would seek other branches of Legilimens, like stimting emotions inside the target or controlling people by influencing their minds. Then there are people who explore people''s dreamscapes or in simple words dive into people''s dream."


    Quinn interjected with a query, "Controlling people like the Imperius Curse does?"


    n wasn''t surprised hearing Quinn mention an Unforgivable Curse, as children from magical families were educated about them.


    "In a way, yes, while Imperius Curse makes people do things against their will, a grandmaster could nt suggestions inside their subconscious, making the target do their bidding and make it seem like the target did it out of their own free will. An Imperius Curse leaves traces on the mind, but a grandmaster wouldn''t leave any trace of their presence."


    Quinn felt goosebumps surface on his skins and chills going down his back. n didn''t notice it and continued,


    "Just think what someone could do if they got hold of your grandfather''s mind. They would''ve so much wealth and influence under their control, and that is why magical families train their young ones against the attacks of a Legilimens by training them to be lumens."


    Quinn nodded, thinking about the dangers of Legilimens having control of his grandfather''s mind.


    "Now, I would be teaching you how to protect your mind. I will teach you the art of lumency."


    Before n could continue, Quinn interjected and asked a question.


    "What is your level of Legilimency?"


    n intertwined his fingers, his elbows on the table, and answered, "I am beyond the master level, Mr. West. I specialize in Mind magic and could do stuff you can''t even imagine.". n stated as if not saying a terrifying fact.


    And n''s slight smile made it much more terrifying. Quinn gulped but braved forward, "Then why did you take a teaching job and that to a child who doesn''t understand mind arts."


    nughed and spoke with joy evident in his voice, "Mr. West, you really are a smart child. You see, the people who study the mysteries of the mind and practice the mind magic often end up picking up a bad habit, an upational hazard if that clears it.


    To us, the average wizard seems like a mind begging to be explored and fiddled with. It is tantalizing to keep out of the minds of unsuspecting people, so they find various workarounds to suppress this urge to snoop around people''s minds.


    I personally chose to teach mind arts to curb my desire to snoop around in people''s minds. When I am teaching, it is expected that our minds will be connected, frequently at that. Teaching mind arts to someone while maintaining proper protocol is enough for me. So be assured, I will not snoop around your mind untamed.


    As to why I choose to teach a child? Mr. West, children are the best students for teaching mind arts. They are free and learn very quickly. And have the best imagination, which helps when practicing mind magic."


    Quinn knew n was trying to assure him that everything would be fine, but Quinn knew that if he learned lumency, then a lot of Quinn''s secrets would be revealed to n and then to anyone n shared that knowledge.


    But it seemed Quinn had been worrying for nothing as n pulled out a thin stack of paper and set it on the table. Quinn looked at the stack of paper and then conveyed his confusion with his eyes to n.


    "Mr. West, do you know what is a magical contract?"


    n''s eyes lit up, and he nodded. It turned out that magical oaths(so mote it be) weren''t a real thing. Instead of oaths, there existed magical contracts that could bind someone to certain terms and conditions.


    s, wizards and witches rarely use magical contracts as they bound their magic to the contract, which was the most important to a magical. Otherwise, corruption wouldn''t exist in the magical world, but it did as no one was willing to sign magical contracts.


    But there were rare cases where some will sign contracts that could, and it seemed this was one of those times.


    "Excellent, I have signed this contract with your grandfather that will not allow me to divulge anything that happens during our lessons. I can''t even talk about who I am teaching, which means it protects your identity.


    I cannot willingly let someone look through my memories as a workaround, and there aren''t many people who could break into my mind, so any things I see in your mind are safe with me, and I will take it to my grave.


    I cannot even tell your grandfather what I end up witnessing. The only thing I can report to your grandfather is your progress."


    Quinn looked at the magical contract in front of him and finally felt relieved. He would''ve leaned back into his chair if his stool had a backrest.


    n noticed his relieved demeanor and ended upmenting.


    "Mr. West, I don''t sign contracts on every job I take, but sometimes my employers insist I do, and your grandfather insisted. Even those rare times I sign a contract, I don''t talk about it to my young students as they are too young to understand, but your grandfather told me I should let you know about this contract." n stared into Quinn''s eyes as he continued, "I am curious what makes you so different from my other students."


    Quinn, who had just finally rxed, again stiffened up because of n''s words and expression and up cursing him in his mind, ''This shitty old man. Is he trying to kill with anxiety and fright!''


    nughed and spoke, "Mr. West, you need to rx."


    Quinn''s eyes widened, and then his brows furrowed as he growled, "Did you just read my mind?!"


    n shook his head and teased, "No-no-no, your expression tells it all. I have to say, I am already having so much fun!"


    Quinn gritted his teeth but refrained from speaking as he knew that the old man was trying to irk him.


    - (Scene Break) -


    That day, n taught nothing to Quinn, and they just went over what he will teach in the future. After the lesson was over, Quinn felt exhaustion from all the shocks he had received today, and he dragged his body to the manor''s garden where he was told his grandfather was having tea.


    Quinn entered the garden canopy and sat in front of his grandfather. When he sat down, Polly popped near the table and asked him if he wanted any refreshments. Quinn was too exhausted to have an appetite and refused.


    He waited for his grandfather to speak up first, and George asked. "How was the lesson with Mr. Baddeley?"


    Quinn sighed and graced the question with a simple reply, "It was stressful."


    "Why so?" George asked before cing a piece of scone in his mouth.


    "It was stressful knowing that he could, and he did it the first thing I entered the room," Quinn felt tired just from thinking back to the lesson.


    George looked at Quinn before asking, "Didn''t he tell you about the contract."


    "He did, but he revealed the contract after thoroughly exining what a Legilimens could do with an unprotected mind." Quinn could swear that he heard his grandfather chuckle, but maybe he was mistaken because when Quinn looked up, George looked stoic as ever.


    Quinn thought about n and remembered why he came to see his grandfather, "What can you tell me about Mr. n D. Baddeley?"


    George sipped his tea and waited for a moment before speaking, "Mr. n is a wizard from New Zend, from what I have heard, he used to be very active in the mind artsmunity as a forerunner in research, but he distanced himself from the researchmunity two decades ago and switched to teaching around fifteen years ago.


    His track record has been excellent, which is very necessary for this line of work, so I hired him after asking around."


    Quinn noticed something and asked, "He didn''t teach Lia?"


    George shook his head and revealed, "I asked Lia who taught her as your parents chose her teacher, her teacher wasn''t avable, so I had to find someone else."


    Quinn nodded. He had already asked all he needed to ask, so he excused himself, "I will excuse myself. I want to take a brief nap before continuing my day."


    George nodded, and Quinn left. Elliot, who was standing nearby, approached George and asked, "Was it alright to hire Mr. Baddeley. The young master looked tired."


    George looked towards Quinn''s retreating back and exined, "I choose Mr. Baddeley because of his reputation. He doesn''t have a family, and before switching to teaching, he had devoted his life to his craft.


    Even though Mr. Baddeley is a wizard from New Zend, he traveled the world to hone his craft. He has traveled the world for around a century. Think about how much he would have learned from his travel. Now, think about Quinn''s request for books from every country we visited.


    Even though the scale ispletely different, both of them are simr in how they approach learning, so when I heard about Mr. Baddeley''s life, I hired him after checking his reputation."


    Elliot''s brows raised in surprise after listening to the reason for hiring Mr. Baddeley. He found his impression of the seemingly ordinary joyous old man changing.


    "As for Quinn, he followed Ms. Rosey''s daily instruction without a peep. Mr. Baddeley might be entric, but I doubt he will have anything on Ms. Rosey. Quinn will adapt after a few lessons."


    He turned his head to look at Elliot and instructed, "When Quinn gets used to the lumency lessons, you are to teach him about potion brewing."


    Elliot nodded and asked, "Am I to prepare the garden for some herbology to apany the potion brewing?"


    George nodded in response, and they spoke no more words.


    One thing was for sure, Quinn had a busy year in front of him.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - 8 years old - Out for a nap


    n D. Baddeley - Mind Arts Teacher - Likes to mess with people.


    George West - Grandfather - Likes his tea time.


    Elliot Dalton - Butler - Potion teacher to be.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!


    !!And finally, we have finally crossed 15,000 words that would put us on the map on the site and we would be on the charts.!!

 Chapter 7 - Occlumency, The Detection Layer

    Like the first lesson, Quinn sat on a stool in front of n, who sat on a wing chair. A table in between separated them. The room''s door was closed, and n allowed no one to enter the room unless it was an emergency or of utmost importance.


    n, with a smile on his face, began his lessons, "Mr. West, before learning how to be an lumens and learning lumency, we would have to get you familiar with how Legilimency feels like. Last time, you weren''t able to feel me using Ligilimency when I was inside your mind, but this time I will make my presence known loud and clear."??


    Even though Quinn knew n wouldn''t divulge any information n saw in his mind, Quinn couldn''t help but feel fear. After all, a secret remained a secret if only one person knew about it.


    Quinn took in a deep yet shaky breath and acknowledged.


    "Good, rest assured, I will only read your emotions, so don''t worry, for now, that is. Let''s begin," n assured Quinn.


    n stared into Quinn''s eyes, and Quinn clearly felt a strange pressure inside his brain. It wasn''t like a headache but akin to a heaviness that spread throughout his head.


    Quinn heard n speak in a calm and baritone voice, "Mr. West, can you describe to me how are you feeling?"


    He nodded and replied, "There is a heaviness in my head that started out in the back of my head but soon spread out my entire head."


    "Excellent, this is how it feels to have a Legilimens inside your head. But, keep this in mind, my current approach is a gentle one. If a Legilimens, who doesn''t care about his approach, could cause pain and damage to the target''s mind," There was a pause before n continued, "Would you like to tell me about your current emotions?"


    Quinn froze but then nodded, so nplied, "You are currently feeling panic, fear, nervousness, and a bit of excitement. Am I correct?" Quinn nodded in agreement, and n spoke once again, "Excellent, your current emotions are perfectly normal. Now, I am going to retreat from your mind, understood?"


    After getting a confirmation, n smoothly retreated from Quinn''s brain, "I am out of your mind. You can calm down now."


    Quinn released a breath he didn''t know he was holding and rxed his shoulders. n once again leaned back into the backrest of his chair and spoke, "How was it?"


    Quinn closed his eyes and thought about his experience before speaking, "It wasn''t what I had imagined. I thought it would hurt."


    n chuckled and shook his head, "Mr. West, I have been doing this for a while now. I know how to teach without causing pain," Quinn breathed a sigh of relief, but he froze when n continued, "Of course, there will be a time when you have built your lumency shields. At that time, I will introduce you to brute-force legilimency, which might hurt if you aren''t able to defend properly."


    Quinn red at the shitty old man (n), to which n justughed.


    "Now that you know what Legilimency feels like. I would tell you what lumency can do for you. But, before I start, I would like to tell you that every teacher has a different way to teach lumency. So my method of teaching will be different from another teacher."


    Quinn dropped his re and intently listened to n, "There are three basic facets of lumency. First is the defense aspect, which will help you protect your mind from external mental attacks."


    With each point, n uncurled his fingers, "Second, emotional aspect, which will help you control your emotions. And, the third and final aspect is the aspect of efficiency, which will increase your brain''s productivity."


    Quinn remained silent as n continued, "Your grandfather hired me to help you with the first aspect, the aspect of defense. I will train you to build your lumency defenses. The strength of your defenses will depend on yourprehension and hard work."


    Quinn uncapped a pen and jotted down n''s words. Seeing this, n waited before continuing.


    "Now, let''s finally teach you something. The first piece of your lumency defense will be the outermost detectionyer. Thisyer will help you detect a Legilimency attack. Let me exin how this detectionyer would work. In our first meeting, I used Legilimency without you noticing, but in my previous demonstration, I made my presence know, right?"


    Quinn affirmed, "I wasn''t able to feel anything during our first meeting."


    "This detectionyer would make a Legilimens'' presence know to you. You would feel that familiar heaviness in your head.


    Eyes can provide a gateway to the mind, and many Legilimens like to use eye contact to enter your mind. Of course, some are powerful enough to directly enter the mind without needing eye contact.


    If the attacker is using eye contact to enter your brain, immediately break eye contact and then pull up your defense shields. If they are proficient enough to not using eye contact and can use legilimency with it, then again pull up your defense shields and keep them out."


    Quinn kept taking notes and asked a question that popped into his mind. "If someone is using eye contact, and I break eye contact, am I safe from the attack?"


    n shook his head and answered, "No, sometimes just a split second of eye contact can give a trained Legilimens time totch onto your mind. With that, they could keep on attacking you even after breaking eye contact. So, always activate your defenses no matter what the situation."


    Quinn nodded and noted down the instructions and let n continue, "Now, keep those notes aside. It is time to build your shields. I will once again enter your mind and make my presence known. Next, you will concentrate on that heaviness, focus your magic, and create ayer over the manifestation of your mind. And, while building thatyer, create with the intent of detection. Your intention should be clear that you want to feel the same heaviness when someone attacks your mind."


    Quinn had another question for n, "Do I need to imagine feeling heaviness. Can''t I imagine some other sensation?"


    n pped his hands and praised, "Another excellent question! The answer to your question is that you don''t have to choose heaviness as the sensation of choice. You see, everyone feels a distinct sensation when facing mental attacks.


    This sensation can range from your heaviness, burning sensation, freezing sensation, slight dizziness, pricking sensation, buzzing sensation, pain from a choice of various options.


    When I was being taught, I felt a burning sensation. In my research, I found that even though it is not necessary to choose your natural sensation, it is easier to imagine when building your detectionyer.


    Like a person who feels pain when attacked, no matter how gentle of an attack would have to choose some other sensation.


    So, because you felt heaviness, it is advisable to imagine heaviness as your detection signal. My detectionyer makes me feel a subtle burning sensation on the inside of my head."


    Quinn felt assured about n''s capabilities as he was able to exin his query wlessly.


    "Ok, I will follow your advice and build my detection sensation to be the feeling of heaviness."


    n nodded, and by Quinn''s permission, he entered Quinn''s mind and made his presence know. Quinn felt a heaviness throughout his head, showing that n was in his mind. He began imagining ayer over his mind and concentrated on the feeling of heaviness.


    After failing to create ayer for a minute, n spoke up in the same calm and baritone he used while using Legilimency.


    "Mr. West, calm down and stop concentrating on the feeling of heaviness." Quinn obeyed and stopped concentrating and soon felt n retreat from his brain.


    Quinn furrowed his brows and looked at n, who started exining. "We will try in another five minutes. Every attempt will be a minute long and a five-minute interval between each attempt. When you are sessful, both you and I will feel ayer over your mind. Now, rx till your next attempt."


    Quinn breathed out a sigh and thought back to his first attempt. He wasn''t able to imagine ayer at all. He began contemting how he could do it differently.


    n silently watched Quinn thinking and said nothing to disturb Quinn. Building an lumency defense was a slow and steady process. Each piece of the defense needed to be built one by one and then connected to close any loophole andplete a system that would protect your brain.


    "Mr. West, five minutes are up. We are starting again.". Hearing that, Quinn once again felt the heaviness in his brain and concentrated his magic to construct ayer over his mind.


    Another minute passed, and Quinn yet again failed to construct a detectionyer. By the end of the lesson, Quinn still had not created a detectionyer and felt frustrated. Even though it was only his first day of constructing a detectionyer, he felt like this was the repeat of his first year when he didn''t have ess to his magic.


    "Mr. West, please don''t feel disheartened. lumency is a gradual process. It will take time to build each individualyer. I am sure that you will build one, eventually." In his mind, n assumed that it will take Quinn at least a couple of weeks to build the detectionyer.


    But that day, when n left, he failed to see Quinn''s expression.


    When it came to magic, Quinn waspetitive to a fault.


    - (Scene Break) -


    n came to teach Quinn twice a week, once on Tuesday and next on Friday. n had left returned on the next Tuesday for their third lesson.


    He sat in his chair in their designated room, waiting for Quinn to arrive. While he waited, n thought about Quinn''s progress.


    ''If Mr. West perseveres with noints, it will take him at least another four lessons to construct that shield. If he loses motivation, it may take him an entire month to build the detectionyer.''


    He broke out from his thoughts when he heard the door open and saw Quinn enter the room. n immediately put on a smile, thinking about what kind of emotion Quinn would show when he would mess with him during the lessons.


    As usual, Quinn sat on his stool and spoke, "Good morning, Mr. Baddeley."


    "A good morning to you as well, Mr. West. Are you ready for another try at building your detectionyer?" n saw Quinn nod his head, so he continued, "Excellent! Before we start. I will once again exin the process. I will use legilimency to enter your mind and make my presence known. When I enter your mind, you will feel a sensation of heaviness in your head, on which you will concentrate and try to build ayer over your mind with the intent of feeling the heaviness when faced with a mental attack."


    Quinn once again nodded, "Please, start. I am ready."


    n made clear eye contact with Quinn and then used Legilimency to enter his mind. The moment he entered Quinn''s mind, he saw a thinyer over covering Quinn''s mind. n''s eyes widened when he saw theyer, and then he looked at Quinn''s face, which had a smile stered upon it.


    "Detection Layer, constructed and ready to detect any mental attacks.", said n with a cheeky and smug smile on his face.


    n was only reading Quinn''s emotion right now because if he was reading his surface thoughts, then he would have heard, "Take that, you shitty old man."


    n retreated from Quinn''s brain and stared at him, surprised, "How did you manage to build thatyer? Last time, you weren''t even close to constructing theyer."


    Quinn puffed his chest and exined,


    "After you left, I wasn''t happy with my performance, so I kept on practicing and failing, until yesterday when I was able to cover my entire mind with the detectionyer.


    I have to say, it wasn''t easy to imagine the sensation of heaviness while trying to cover my brain without you constantly in my mind. It took me maybe a hundred tries to get thatyer with the correct intent."


    n kept staring at Quinn and felt an intense urge to dive into Quinn''s mind and see how he did it, but restrained himself. One didn''t live for more than a century and fail to build up some form of self-control.


    "Now that I have thisyer, what are we going to do next?" Inquired Quinn, excited to learn the next stage of lumency defense.


    n snapped out of his thoughts and exined the next stage, "The next stage is to strengthen your detectionyer. We need to improve your detection capabilities so that you could detect mental attacks from master Legilimens."


    Quinn felt his excitement dete as he asked, "Let me guess, you will attack me while masking your attack and then wait for me to pick up on the attack."


    n had recovered from his surprise and was back to feeling joyous as he looked at Quinn''s deted figure.


    "How very insightful of you, Mr. West. Let''s start, shall we?"


    Quinn groaned as he got ready for another day of rinse and repeat. He sighed and asked for the details, "So, how does the process of strengthening my detectionyer work?"


    "It is quite simple. You see, there are quite a few ways to attack the mind. What I will do is simply employ different ways to attack your mind.


    For example, I can puncture a hole in youryer and then pass through it or treat your detectionyer as a cloth or sieve and let my magic filter through youryer without damaging it at all.


    Every Legilimens has their own unique way of attacking the mind. If I attack you with various methods, then with time and practice, your detectionyer will be more and more robust, and in the future, youryer will know what kind of attack we are facing."


    n exined the process to which Quinn asked a question, "What about a type of attack which I have never faced before. Will my detectionyer still detect that attack?"


    n nodded and answered the question, "Yes, it will. Mr. West, a major property of magic, is that it works on intent. If you want youryer to detect an intruder, it will. All we are doing is helping it along the way.


    By having you face different methods, I am making you believe you can detect different attacking methods. And Mr. West, Intent simply is the belief that you can do what you want to aplish."


    Quinn wrote everything down and nodded to n. Then the new cycle of controlled mental attacks began. For the next three months, n would visit the West Manor twice a week and use various methods of attacking the mind.


    Quinn''s progress continued to surprise n. In twenty-four lessons, Quinn had learned to detect twenty-four different methods of breaking into the mind.


    It was at that time when George asked n to give a report on Quinn''s progress.


    - (Scene Break) -


    George and n sat in George''s study to discuss Quinn''s lumency progress.


    "How is Quinn doing with his lumency lessons?" Asked George to n, who sat in the chair in front of the table.


    n, with the usual smile on his face, reported. "Your grandson is extremely talented in lumency." n looked towards the table as he continued, "Your grandson isn''t a natural lumens, but I have seen no one who isn''t a natural lumens showcase this level of progress."


    Natural lumens/Legilimens were people, who through pure instinct, learn how to perform lumency/Legilimency. If these people are taught mind arts, then their progress would be extremely fast. It was like teaching a Metamorphmagus how to do self-transfiguration. They would learn it without even trying it.


    George tapped his fingers on the table and asked, "What are you implying?"


    "I am currently teaching your grandson to detect mental attacks and am using different methods to attack his defenses. My original n was to teach him to detect ten methods before moving forward to build his shields. But, in twenty-four lessons, he learned how to detect twenty-four different methods.


    If he was a natural lumens, he would have some kind of rudimentary defenses, but Quinn had no defense. I could walk into his mind like I was in the park."


    n knew about this because he was a natural at both lumency and legilimency. Before he even started learning both of these magic, he already had a rudimentary shield and could sense people''s emotions when he looked into their eyes and concentrated. After he started learning, his progress was just as fast as Quinn''s.


    After hearing, George asked, "Then, what do you think is the reason for Quinn''s quick progress."


    n shrugged while giving his reason, "I have no idea. It just amazes me how quick he has progressed from scratch. He went from having no defenses to now being able to detect an intermediate Legilimens'' attack with ease. I am quite excited to see his future progress."


    [A/N: Novice < Intermediate < Master < Grandmaster(?)]


    It would be a while before n woulde to know the memories of Quinn''s magical adventures and would think, ''Ah, this child is just good at magic.''


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - Eight years old - MC - Learning how to PROTECC his mind.


    George West - Grandfather - Likes to spend time in his study.


    n D. Baddeley - Teacher - Surprised to see Quinn''s progress.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 8 - Occlumency, Defensive Shield

    After three months of ving away at detecting mental attacks, Quinn was finally ready to move onto the next stage. But, Quinn had to admit that the previous three months, even though tough, were extremely productive. His detectionyer had gone from being a flimsy film to a potent screen that wouldn''t let a legilimency attack go unnoticed.


    Quinn felt excited as he was finally going to learn the next step. Just like for the past three months, Quinn arrived at the designated room and found n sitting in his wing chair. n could tell from Quinn''s smile that he was excited about moving on to the next step.??


    n waited for Quinn to sit down on his stool before beginning. "Mr. West, you look excited. What is the asion?"


    If it had been any other day, Quinn would have red at n for messing around, but today he was just too happy and excited to quarrel with n andughed. "We are going to learn the next step. You said so in thest lesson."


    n could understand Quinn''s tion as he had been in contact with Quinn''s emotion while improving Quinn''s detectionyer. While Quinn had been working diligently at improving his detectionyer, he didn''t find it enjoyable. He was fine the first month, he tolerated it in the second month, but in the third month, n could feel Quinn''s boredom while working at new variations of mental attacks.


    "Ah yes, the next step. So, Mr. West, can you tell me what is the next step?"


    Quinn ced a book on the table and answered, "ording to this book, the next step is building lumency shields or simply mental shields."


    The book in question was a book on lumency written by n. He titled it ''An lumens'' Treasure Trove, Vol. 1.'' Quinn was skeptical reading the title, but he knew better to judge a book by its cover, and he was right, as the contents of the book justified the gaudy title. Quinn hadn''tpleted reading the guide, but what he had read was insightful.


    The book was one of the reasons that Quinn couldplete twenty-four methods in twenty-four lessons. The book was filled with theory, tips, tricks, and experiences. Quinn had read that and applied everything he understood to the practical lessons with n.


    And while the book was a pleasure to read, at the same time, it was torture as n had spelled the book so that he couldn''t read ahead. The spell only allowed Quinn to read the content rted to the uing lesson and not a word ahead of that.


    The only thing Quinn knew that volume one of this book had everything n would teach him and that there were two more volumes that n would give at the end ofpletion of the lumency course. And Quinn couldn''t buy this book in the market as it wasn''t publicly avable.


    "I am happy that you are reading ahead. And, you are correct. The next step is building a shield for your mind. You have a detectionyer which is excellent as it will alert you to the presence of the legilimens'' attack. But nothing is keeping the attacker from entering your mind, as even if you know that there is an attack, you might not be able to stop the attacker in time.


    You need a shield that would block the legilimens out of your mind. Even if your shields are not strong enough to keep the legilimens out indefinitely, it is still useful as it would give you enough time to counter-attack the attacker before they could break the shield and enter your mind."


    n finished with the benefits and uses of an lumency shield, to which Quinn asked a question, "Is it possible to create a shield that would be imprable to legilimency attacks."


    n put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his palm, "Mr. West, understand nothing is perfect. There will always be some way to break an lumency shield. If a method is not found today, then it would be found in the future.


    I have a philosophy that has served me well throughout the world. I resent perfection; attaining perfection means that there is no room to improve, that you have stopped growing and have reached a teau in your development. Perfection stops you from exploring new ideas and hinders progress.


    That is why focusing on progress is the key. It motivates you to keep going and encourages a mindset of learning. When you make progress, it gives you a reason to celebrate and help you gain satisfaction from your work.


    Perfectionism isn''t sustainable because life is ever-changing. There will always be new trials and tribtions that will sway you from your target. You need to be nimble and flexible to manage all the challenges life hands you. By focusing on progress, you can easily ovee obstacles because you know there will be ups and downs. Know you don''t have to be perfect. Know that the path to sess isn''t a straight line. This knowing keeps you on the path to sess."


    n''s words mesmerized Quinn. He didn''t understand the meaning behind n''s words, but they sounded inspiring, and maybe someday he would understand them, but for now, he would just remember these words.


    n cleared his throat, "Ahem, we got off-topic. Let''s return to the topic on-hand."


    Quinn shook his head, "No, that was inspirational, but yes, let''s return to shields."


    n nodded and continued, "Building a shield is a simple yet arduous process. Unlike the detectionyer, where you had toplete building theyer in one fell swoop, we build the shield bit by bit.


    You need to cover the bottom side of your detectionyer with a shield. How you want to build that shield is up to you. You can build the shield, like building a wall withyering bricks next to each other, or you can paint the inside of your detectionyer until shieldyers pile up and result in a thick shield.


    There is no fixed way of building a shield, and you have to see what suits you. In the book, I have mentioned many methods that you can use to build your shield, but you are free to think of a way of your own, and we can discuss it.


    For now, let''s discuss how the process works..."


    - (Scene Break) -


    After that lesson, Quinn opened n''s book on lumency and found that the section with shield construction was now readable, so he began reading the given examples. After reading through them, he didn''t find a method that appealed to him.


    Thus began the find for a shield that would make Quinn believe it was strong and reliable. n had exined to Quinn that he needed his construction method to be strong, as the intent was important for the shield''s sess.


    So, after a few days of thinking, Quinn came with a method that he thought was best for him, and in the next lesson, Quinn ryed his thoughts to n via a drawing of his shield structure.


    n looked at the drawing asked, "Mr. West, why do you think this structure is best for you. I will be honest; my first impression of this structure is not positive."


    On the sheet of paper was a honeb structure. Hexagons lined next to each other, one hexagon covered by six other hexagons.


    Quinn nodded and exined, "I took inspiration from the beehive. I know the structure that this structure is strong and very efficient to build."


    n sighed and argued, "Mr. West, you might be true, but you are building a shield. Each of these hexagons is a hole through which a legilimens could drive his attack through."


    Quinn put out his counter-argument, "Who said that I am only building a singleyer of this structure. I am going to buildyers uponyers of this so that there is no gap left. I will connect each hexagon to six hexagons by the sides but also connect theyers to each other."


    He looked at n and said, "And, Mr. Baddeley..."


    "Yes?"


    Quinn smiled and dered, "I believe that this method is strong."


    n''s eyes widened, and he ended up smiling, "If this is what you want, then we will proceed with this structure."


    The reason Quinn wanted to proceed withyered hexagonyers was not that bees used it in beehives. But, because it was the structure of the strongest material known to man, Graphene. He wanted to emte Graphene''s structure and make an excellent base for his defenses.


    Quinn did not know why Graphene was the toughest material and didn''t understand the science behind it. He only knew that it was made of hexagons, so he chose multiple grapheneyers as his shield.


    Quinn felt that he didn''t need to understand the science behind Graphene''s strength and only needed to believe that it was strong, and Quinn did believe that Graphene was strong, so he believed his shield would be effective.


    After finalizing the structure of Quinn''s shield, n began exining the process, "Mr. West, you will start by focusing on your detectionyer, then you will build a hexagon underneath the detectionyer. Finally, you will build hexagons and interlock them with each other.


    One hexagon at a time, you will build the first level of your shield. Next, you will repeat this entire process again and construct anotheryer, which you will lie on the firstyer and connect the twoyers."


    n continued to exin the finer details of the process, and after he was finished, Quinn asked, "How manyyers do I have to build?"


    n showed three fingers and said, "You have three months toplete your shield. It will be up to your hard work and understanding how many you can build."


    n sat straight, "Just like the detectionyer, I will attack you with controlled legilimency, but it will be only on specific parts of your mind. This method is my own creation;bining targeted legilimency and yourpleted detectionyer would help you focus on those specific parts of your mind.


    I will stimte specific parts of your detectionyers, which will help you focus on those parts, and you will build hexagons on the targeted parts."


    Quinn nodded, and they began the process. When n used Legilimency on Quinn, Quinn felt quite different, unlike thest three months, where the sensation of heaviness covered his entire head, but this time only a small part of his head felt the heaviness.


    Quinn didn''t start the construction process and asked, "How are you doing this?"


    n spoke as they maintained eye contact, "Mr. West, my legilimency skills are much greater than your lumency skills. I can deceive your detectionyer to make it think that only specific parts of your mind are being targeted.


    This method only works when there is an enormous gap between the legilimens and lumency. If the legilmens and lumens are closely matched in capabilities, then the legilimens won''t be able to deceive the lumens'' defenses.


    Even if you have built a detectionyer, I can bypass it without triggering any response. It will be years before you can keep me out of your mind."


    Quinn sighed at the implied meaning. He knew that if he kept on working on his lumency skills, and then by the time Quinn was ready to join a magical school, he would be capable enough to protect himself.


    But, Quinn had a hunch that even by the time he was ready to join a magical school, it would be exceedingly difficult to keep someone like n out of his mind. n was a mind art specialist, and that a century of experience would be difficult to catch up in a few years.


    Quinn began building his first hexagon, and just as n had said, creating shield hexagons was easy, but he knew that he had a long way to go as oneyer of hexagonsprised of ten thousand hexagons interlocked with each other.


    So, a lengthy process of creating countless numbers of hexagons began. In ten weeks, Quinn constructed tenyers of hexagons. And in the remaining two weeks of the agreed three months, Quinn went through every single hexagon and made sure that they connected every neighboring hexagon. Everyyer also needed to be connected to the neighboringyers in an offset manner.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn groaned as he banged his head once on the table. The past three months were yet another kind of struggle as Quinn had be numb while building one hundred thousand hexagons over three months.


    He looked at n and asked, "Are we done? I don''t think I can keep this up anymore. I would be happy to continue building more of my shield, but can we do it after some time? I am really sick of building hexagons every day."


    While Quinn''s production was the best when n was using legilimency on him, Quinn had taken upon himself to build hexagon shield-units outside of the lessons. He dedicated a couple of hours every day to his lumency shield, and three months of this was Quinn''s limit.


    He hadn''t said a peep to n in these three months, and even though n could feel theint through Quinn''s emotions, but hadn''t heard a single word ofint from Quinn''s mouths. But, afterpleting and connecting tenyers for his shield, Quinn begged for a change.


    n smiled and gave Quinn the joyous news, "Mr. West, I had set the target time for your shield as three months, and in thest lesson, those three months were over, and I am happy to inform you that you have created a respectable shield, so we would be moving on to the next step."


    n wasn''t expecting Quinn to build tenyers. He knew Quinn was talented, but talent wasn''t everything, and talent needed hard work to show extraordinary results. He thought Quinn would begin cking off, and that thought was reinforced because he was in contact with Quinn''s emotion in every lesson, so it was no secret that Quinn wasn''t particrly thrilled doing the mind-numbing task.


    But, n was wrong. Even though Quinn wasn''t thrilled about the task, he nevertheless did the task without cking off. The result showed work put in as Quinn had constructed and connected one-hundred thousand hexagons.


    "The next and the final step to your defenses thest line of defense.", n said, revealing that they had reached the third and final part of an lumency defense.


    Quinn tilted his head and said, "The final step?"


    n nodded and exined, "Let''s imagine that a legilimens attack you; he or she passes through your detectionyer, detected or undetected. Then they break through your shield by either breaking it or bypassing it without you knowing.


    Now, what? We are at the mercy of the legilimens, so we will build ast line of defense. Something that will at least dy the attacker from essing your mind."


    n pointed to himself and continued, "For example, I am a legilimens, and when a legilimens attack you, they create a connection between mind, and I can use that connection to stop them by deploying a counter-attack."


    "So, what will be myst line of defense," Quinn asked with excitementced in his voice.


    A smile appeared on n, which didn''t bode well with Quinn, "Because I only trained you in the defense part of lumency, yourst line of defense would be another detectionyer and a thinner shield."


    Quinn was sure that he heard his mind broke, as he, for the first time since the start of the lumency lessons, refused, "No, just no. I don''t want to repeat that. Please, give me some alternate. I want to learn something else. You said that you can use legilimency as thest line of defense, teach me that."


    n shrugged and replied, "Mr. West, I was hired to teach you how to defend your mind against legilimency. I am not contractually obligated to teach you anything else."


    Quinn bit his lower lip and began tapping the table with his finger, and a few momentster, he spoke, "What if I ask my grandfather to alter your contract. Would you teach me then?"


    n went silent and began thinking. This wasn''t the first time a client had asked to extend or alter the service period. Usually, he would consider the pay and the student before extending his services, but never in his teaching career had he extended a service that came with a magical contract.


    Magicals didn''t like magical contracts binding them, and n wasn''t any different. He only signed magical teaching contracts if the requirements weren''t too severe and the pay was worth it.


    n nced at Quinn and thought about histest student and the progress he had shown. People with natural talents were rare; he could count natural legilimens on his fingers. A magical like himself who was a natural at both legilimency and lumency was once in a generation talent.


    But, never had he seen a child who could learn this fast despite not being natural. n contemted his options, and after thinking for a few minutes, n came to a decision.


    He looked at Quinn and dered, "I would like to talk to your grandfather. Please, confirm if he is free to meet me right now."


    Quinn''s eyes shined as he wasted no time; he jumped off his stole and ran out of the room. It was ten minutes before Quinn returned to the room with a slight smile on his face, "Grandfather would like to see you know."


    n nodded and stood up, ready to meet his client and see the future of his employment.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn paced outside his grandfather''s study. He didn''t know what they were talking about as he wasn''t allowed inside, so he could only restlessly pace outside the study, waiting for the two adults toe to a conclusion.


    Quinn had to wait for half an hour before he was asked toe inside the study. He entered the study quickly and saw them sitting in their respective chairs, waiting for him.


    He quietly sat on the empty chair before his grandfather asked, "Quinn, Mr. Baddeley, and I havee to a decision."


    Quinn gulped as he waited for his grandfather to continue. George stared at Quinn as he asked, "We have decided to extend Mr. Baddeley''s contract, and he would be teaching you another aspect of lumency."


    Quinn stayed silent, he was calm on the outside, but inside he was burning with curiosity and excitement.


    n turned to face Quinn and asked, "Mr. West, do you remember the basic aspects of lumency?"


    Quinn immediately responded with the answer, "There are three basic aspects of lumency; defense, emotion, and efficiency. I am currently learning the aspect of defense."


    n nodded and said, "As you heard, your grandfather and I havee to a decision that I would be teaching you another aspect of lumency, but the choice of said aspect is yours, so tell us which aspect would you like to learn?"


    Not a second had passed before Quinn blurted out his answer, "I would like to learn the aspect of efficiency."


    George and n watched Quinn, but they didn''t ask him why, instead George put out some conditions.


    "Quinn, if you want to learn another aspect, you would have toplete your defense aspect training. I heard you refused to work on it today, so if you want to start learning another aspect, you need toplete the current task."


    Quinn fought the urge to groan and resigned himself to the conditions, "I understand."


    That day it was decided that Quinn would learn another aspect of lumency.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Eight years old - Wants to learn something new.


    n Baddeley - Teacher - Extended his contract before free agency.


    George West - Grandfather - Has loads of money.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 9 - Secret Revealed

    After n extended his contract with the West family, Quinn spent another five weekspleting his second set of another detectionyer and a thinner fiveyer hexagon-based shield.


    Quinn, who had painstakinglypleted hisst line of defense, looked at n with expectation clear on his face, "Now that I havepleted myst line of defense, are we finally going to learn the aspect of efficiency?"??


    Quinn couldn''t conceal the excitement from his voice. Quinn clearly understood the importance of the defense of his mind against legilimency. He didn''t want his emotions, thoughts, and memories to be leaked or spied upon by any outsider. But, Quinn couldn''t help but want to move onward to learning the aspect of efficiency as he knew that this part of lumency might support his other magic endeavors.


    He impatiently waited for n''s response, yet the reply wasn''t the one Quinn was expecting.


    n shook his head and exined, "We are not done with your defenses yet, Mr. West. There is still some work that needs to be aplished before we proceed."


    "What! But that is not what you promised. You said that this was thest step topleting my defenses," Quinn spoke with heatcing his words.


    n disagreed with Quinn and quipped, "Mr. West, I did say that this was thest step to building your defenses, but I never said that it would be thest task with regards to your defense. We still have to test your defense as a whole; to see if it works well as an integral system."


    Quinn immediately cooled down hearing that. It was true, while he hadpleted building his defense, he hadn''t tested if said defense worked against a legilimency attack. After all, what was the use of having a defense system if it didn''t perform its task?


    Quinn rubbed his temple, internally scolding himself for his impatience. His thirst for magic was making him impatient. Quinn stared at n and enquired, "So, how are we going to test if my mental defenses work?"


    n smirked and replied, "The simple way, I am going to attack your defenses with legilimency of varying strengths and employ various techniques that we used while training your detectionyer. Step-by-step, I am going to increase the level of my legilimency attacks, and on the way, we are going to examine the problems and try to fix them."


    Quinn nodded in response as he saw no problem in this approach, as practically testing his defenses was the best possible method to test his progress.


    "One more thing, Mr. West.", n spoke, gaining Quinn''s attention as he dered, "During this period, I am going to be attacking your mind with the full intention of looking at your memories."


    Quinn stiffened at that statement as he till now n had only gone as far as looking into his surface emotions and had never looked into his memories. Just the thought of n looking at his memories terrified Quinn.


    "Please remember that whatever I see or discuss is protected by the contract I have signed. I am not allowed to speak or reveal any memory that I end up witnessing in your mind." n tried to assure Quinn, who he saw stiffen up at the mention of memories.


    It took Quinn a while to calm down as he looked at n with determination in his eyes, "I am ready for it. Please do whatever is necessary."


    n nodded and addressed, "Before we start, please tell me if you remember the difference between passive and active defense."


    Quinn nodded and recited what he remembered about the asked topic, "Passive defense is when the lumens is not aware that his mind is being attacked, and the lumency defense that has been built defends against the attack without the lumens knowledge. The shields are in a weaker state as the lumens is not concentrating on fighting the attack and not focusing his magic on the shields.


    While the active defense is the scenario when the lumens is aware of the fact that his mind is being attacked and is actively trying to defend against the attack by providing magic to his shields, making them perform at their full capabilities."


    n nodded, satisfied with the answer, "Yes, which is why the detectionyer is essential as it would alert you about the presence of the legilimens, and you would be able to switch from passive to an active state.


    I will be testing your active defense for now. For your passive defenses, I will test them randomly in the future when I am teaching you the aspect of efficiency, as you won''t be aware of the timing of my attacks."


    Seeing Quinn reply with a yes, n stated, "Alright, the moment your detectionyer senses an attack, you must pull up your shields to their maximum capacity."


    Quinn gulped and made eye contact with n, and the next moment he felt a hit on the detectionyer, and the heaviness covered his mind.


    The attack was on. Quinn immediately focused on his shields, and they thrummed into action.


    n smiled as he spread his legilimency attack thinly and tried to sift through the shield, but Quinn immediately stiffened the paths n was using, trying to trap n and cutting off his attack.


    n chuckled, "An interesting approach, Mr. West. Let''s see how you deal with this."


    n stopped trying to sift through his shield and began drilling through theyers of the shield. Quinn gritted his teeth and abandoned the first fouryers of his shield as they had already been breached and shifted his focus to thest six, giving them extra power, but n drilled through them like a hot knife through butter.


    Quinn cursed as he felt the second detection trigger, which meant that n was already past the primary tenyer shield, and the only thing between n and his mind was the secondary fiveyer shield.


    He immediately put his all into the secondary shield and waited for the attack. For a couple seconds, Quinn felt nothing. Then he felt a sharp pain in his head as n mmed his legilimency into Quinn''s secondary shield like a wrecking ball, immediately cracking the shield.


    n easily slipped into the now unprotected mind. He found himself in Quinn''s mind as he witnessed a few random pieces of memories. n saw some of Quinn''s experiences during his time traveling.


    He saw few glimpses of Quinn''s piano and dance lessons, a few memories of n''s own lumency lessons. He also a weirdlyrge number of memories of Quinn staring at a rubber toy ball.


    But, maybe because it was Quinn, who was desperate to hide his memories of him doing magic, or perhaps it was pure luck that in the short time n was inside Quinn''s mind, n didn''t see any memories of Quinn performing magic.


    When n came out of Quinn''s mind, Quinn''s shoulder slumped as he ced a hand on his temple, trying to nurse the dull pain caused by the brutal cracking of the secondary shield. It took a couple of minutes for Quinn''s shields to return to maximum integrity. This feature of lumency was the one Quinn liked as it relieved him the most knowing that he won''t have to consciously repair his shields by rebuilding those damned hexagons.


    Quinn looked at n and asked, "What did you see?". He felt his heart threatening to beat itself out of his chest as he asked the question.


    n described all the memories he had seen, and Quinn noted that there was no mention of him doing magic, and more importantly, ''There was no mention of my past life memories.''


    Quinn felt his heartbeat calm down, but he didn''t let just this one exchange be the proof of a theory that birthed in his mind. He needed another attack from n to cement his findings.


    After a short break, Quinn once again defended against an attack from n, and again, failed to keep him out. But this time, it relieved him as when he asked n about the memories, there was no mention of his past life memories. There were a few mentions of Quinn performing magic, which n took as idental magic, but no mention of otherworldly memories.


    ''Memories of my past life are somehow safe from legilimency,'' Quinn thanked Gods, Merlin, Death, Fate, R.O.Bs, any higher divine being he could think of, as this was one enormous weight off his shoulders.


    Quinn stared at n and asked, "Was that a novice legilimens'' level of attack?". While Quinn was rejoicing that his biggest secret was safe, he was worried if his defenses couldn''t handle a novice legilimens'' attack.


    n shook his head and revealed, "I wanted to see your current level, and I would say that my attack was at the level of a good intermediate legilimens."


    Quinn exhaled hearing that, then he heard n speak up, "I must ask Mr. West, there have been an unusual amount of memories of you staring at objects. May I ask what is that all about?"


    Quinn''s eyes twitched. He knew it could take as little as another legilimency attack from n to rid him of his misunderstanding, that what he saw Quinn perform wasn''t idental magic but proper controlled magic.


    Quinn stared at n for a while. He contemted how to reply before deciding that if the secret is going to be out, then it woulde out as he wished.


    "Those were my attempts to use magic. I was trying to do magic without a wand.", Quinn said, setting up a conversation that he was going to control.


    nughed as he could understand Quinn''s wish to do magic. Which magical child didn''t want to use magic before turning eleven? It was a part of most magical children''s childhood. "I see. From the number of memories, I must say that you truly love magic, don''t you?"


    Quinn nodded, to which n said, "Mr. West, magic without a wand or a better word focus is tough. It takes a lot of practice and skill to perform magic without a wand. This is why I love lumency and legilimency. Even though only at a low level, both of these magic can be performed without a focus.


    It is said that a few can use magic without a focus, and none have been truly able to be free from using focus to perform magic. Only the best and the wisest seed to perform magic without a focus."


    Quinn nodded, a smirk etching his face. n didn''t notice the smirk as he was too busy staring at the jug of water that had suddenly floated from the table and was now pouring water into a ss. The ss then slid itself towards Quinn and stopped in front of him, who picked it and drank from the ss.


    "It was tough, you know. It took a year of staring at various things trying to move them, but nothing worked. It was pure luck that I seeded." The smirk on Quinn''s face widened as he continued, "Mr. Baddeley, you said the best and the wisest seed to perform magic without a focus; I will take that as apliment. Thank you."


    n D. Baddeley stared at the boy who sat in front of him. He had just seen something that he hadn''t seen in his life, and he was over a hundred and fifty years old. A boy who was in the eighth year of his life had just performed magic without a focus.


    "How?" was all he could say.


    Quinn shrugged and spoke, "I have no idea. I don''t know why magic responds to me as it does. Maybe one day I will know why, but currently, I am content just knowing that I can perform magic."


    n was still trying to wrap his mind around the concept of an eight-year child performing controlled magic, but he wanted to know more, so he asked, "What kind of magic can you perform?"


    Quinn revealed his capabilities to n as he was sure that n would with time, "I can perform spells from spells on a second-year level." He exined to n how he studied material from all around the world, which impressed n as he traveled the world to improve his craft.


    "The absence of focus hampers my ability. I have read the third-year material, but I am just only stepping into practically performing third-year magic," Quinn sighed as he finished, "The progress has been slow."


    Quinn looked at n and said, "Mr. Baddeley, you are the sole person on this world who knows that I can perform magic. Not even my grandfather and sister know I can do magic. And, the magical contract will keep it that way."


    n nodded and leaned back into his chair. He remembered something and questioned, "Is your ability to do magic why you choose the aspect of efficiency?"


    Quinn nodded and exined, "As I am reading material from various magicalmunities, it is bing harder to keep track of things. I would like to improve my retention, and the aspect of efficiency would help me with that."


    n nodded but informed, "Mr. West, you do know that even if you learn the aspect of efficiency, it will take at least a year before you could achieve noticeable gains."


    Quinn nodded, "I am well aware of that face. As much as I would love to see immediate returns, I also know that if I put in the time, the return would be worthwhile and sweet."


    n looked at his students and found that his image of Quinn had changed. At first, he thought Quinn was just a talented child, but a child nevertheless, but now he saw a boy with wisdom beyond his age.


    Quinn also told n, "I would like if we don''t talk about my magic during the lessons. I would like it if we spent all our time learning lumency. You can satisfy your curiosity by the memories that you chance upon when in my head, but I will not be talking about it."


    n nodded as he understood that talking about Quinn''s ability would hinder the learning, so he agreed to not talk about the matter in the lessons.


    After the discussion was closed, Quinn and n got back to testing Quinn''s defenses, trying to improve them by practical experience.


    It took another two months to solve all the kinks in Quinn''s defense and gave Quinn crucial experience in the art of defending his mind. By the time they were done, Quinn could defend against a newly minted master level legilimens.


    It took a whole nine months for Quinn to be an lumens who could defend against a new master legilimens from having no defense at all. He could also defend against various forms of attacks, which was impressive as most legilimens only knew and used one or two methods.


    n''s experience and knowledge from around the world had given Quinn the knowledge of legilimency attacks from various magicalmunities. And, that had made Quinn''s defenses might be the most adaptable in his age group.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Almost nine years old - Can now defend his mind.


    n D. Baddeley - Teacher - Stunned by histest student.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    A/N - If Quinnes out as whiny and not considering what is good for him by trying to rush along the lumency shield process. It is because I am trying to make him not so Gary Stu. Quinn would have his faults.


    He would still be better than us real people (we suck), but he wouldn''t be the perfect child with magic abilities that would put Merlin to shame (while he is eight years old).


    It would take some time for Quinn to be strong.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 10 - Building A Mindscape

    For a change in scenery, n and Quinn sat in the garden canopy for their lesson. Quinn watched as n waved his hand and performed a spell. Quinn noticed n didn''t have a wand in his hand.


    So Quinn inquired, "Mr. Baddeley, it seems you can also do focusless magic. What spell did you just use?"??


    n cocked his brow and shook his head, "You are mistaken, Mr. West. I have spent my life pursuing mind arts. The art of focusless magic is not my forte. I can only perform mind magic without a focus, and even that in a limited capacity. I am still in need of a focus to perform magic." He raised the hand that he had waved to cast the spell and pulled his sleeve to show a silver bracelet fitted with an opal gem in the middle.


    "I use a gem-fitted bracelet as my focus." Quinn stared at the bracelet and thought back to his travels. Gem-fitted bracelets were the norm around the continent of Africa. He had seen African magicals use various metals and gems to craft bracelets. The process was the same as their wand counterpart.


    Quinn removed his eyes from the bracelet and asked the older in the pair a question that gued his thoughts, "Mr. Baddeley, how do you disarm a bracelet user. A Disarming Charm can strip wands off from their user, but what about a bracelet focus? How does one disarm a magical such as you who uses a bracelet?"


    n traced his finger over his bracelet while replying, "Bracelet users also have their own version of Disarming Charm; but as you might think, the bracelet might note out off from their owners'' wrist.


    So, the Disarming Charm for bracelets is a spell that would disrupt the connection between the owner and the focus, resulting in them not being able to cast magic. The spell''s effectiveness not only depends on the caster''s power and proficiency, but also on the target''s abilities. A good bracelet user could counteract the spell''s effect by reducing the time of disruption, if not totally dismissing the spell''s influence.


    And, let me be clear, we do not call this spell the Disarming Charm. The spell is just a counterpart to Disarming Charm for wand-type focuses."


    n finished his exnation and finished by saying, "As for the spell, it was just a privacy ward for our lesson."


    Quinn nodded and thought if, in the future, he would be able to recreate a spell that won''t disarm a person but temporarily disrupt the connection between the target and the target''s wand.


    - (Scene Break) -


    After the discussion, the pair returned to the lumency lesson at hand. It was finally the time for Quinn to start with the efficiency aspect of lumency.


    n, with his usual smile on his face, started. "The efficiency aspect of lumency is tremendously helpful to many people. A study done in Argentina showed that the efficiency aspect of lumency is the most popr aspect among magicals around the country. And, people who know multiple aspects of lumency are most proficient in the efficiency aspect. Magicals are more interested in the efficiency aspect than the defense aspects.


    Many professions require in magical research are proficient in the efficiency aspect. It helps them keep memories for a longer time and stimtes their minds to process things quicker. Many people in legal practice also learn this aspect. This aspect is prominent in any line of work that might have a requirement of a fantastic memory."


    He then pointed to himself and remarked, "As you might know, magicals live longer than our non-magical counterpart. With old agees memory problems; I am over 150 years old. How much of my childhood and youth do you think I would remember if I wasn''t an lumency master.


    But, because I am a master, I remember every single moment of my life. I can recall any moment of my life with a snap of my fingers. So, the aspect of efficiency is also popr with older people as it allows them to keep precious memories that they might forget with old age."


    He then gave another example, "Your grandfather is an example of a master of efficiency aspect. He has a business empire to manage, so I am sure that as he worked on the business, he also worked on his lumency."


    Quinn thought about his grandfather and remarked, "My grandfather might be proficient in all three aspects."


    n nodded and noted, "He has a defense. I confirmed that the moment we met." Quinn cut n and eximed, "You used legilimency on my grandfather on your first meeting?!"


    The old master shrugged, "It is an upational hazard. Can''t seem to get rid of this habit." n smiled and didn''t look like he wanted to get rid of this particr habit.


    Quinn sighed and advised, "You might get in trouble, you know."


    n scoffed in reply, "I am an old man who has been doing this long before your grandfather was even born. I can check out a person''s defenses without getting caught." Quinn could feel the confidence and pride n held in his capabilities.


    Young Quinn had no problem with it as n was in the right to feel that way. In Quinn''s eyes, n D. Baddeley was a beast who was at the top of his field.


    n finally began exining how to get started with the aspect of efficiency, "One of the sub-aspects of the efficiency is memory. Let''s first understand what is memory?"


    n paused before continuing, "Memory is the ability to both preserve and recover information we have learned or experienced throughout our lives. As we all know, however, this is not a wless process. Sometimes we forget or misremember things. Sometimes things are not perfectly stored in memory.


    Memory problems can range from minor annoyances like forgetting where you left your sses to diseases, like dementia, that affects the quality of life and the ability to function."


    n waited for Quinn to note down everything before moving on, "To improve your memory, we have to find ways to retrieve our memories from our mind. Usually, stored memory lies outside of our awareness most of the time, except when we actually need to use it. The retrieval process allows us to bring stored memories into conscious awareness." He finished as he pointed at his temple.


    "Now, to use the information that has been stored into memory, it first has to be retrieved. There are many factors that can influence how memories are retrieved, such as the type of information being used and the retrieval cues that are present.


    Of course, this process is not always perfect. Have you ever felt like you had the answer to a question right at the tip of your tongue, but you could not quite remember it? This is an example of a perplexing memory retrieval problem known as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon."


    Quinn clearly understood the feel of having the answer on the tip-of-the-tongue but not being able to remember.


    "You want to use memories, and your mind takes care of it by providing you information from your memories. But, can we do better? The answer is yes, we can do better. We can do much better. And, I will be teaching you how to get your memory better.


    Do you know what a mindscape is?"


    Quinn shook his head in reply, and n described, "The Mindspace is one of the most powerful memory techniques I know. It is building a space in your mind where you can organize and store your memories. You can strengthen the connection to your memories and improve your retention.


    Non-magicals use a simr method known as Mind pce, but it is but a copy of mindscape. A mindscape is much more powerful. If developed properly, you can remember every single second of your life."


    n leaned into this chair and revealed, "Sometimes, I just kick back and dive into my memories, reliving good times. I can do it because I can recall every single thing that I have experienced in my life." He looked straight into Quinn''s eyes and said, "I can even remember what it was like to be in my mother''s womb. A memory from before I was born."


    Quinn''s eyes widened in shock at hearing the revtion.


    ''What kind of work did he put in to remember that. Magic can really make impossible things seem possible.'' Quinn once again felt that he had been underestimating magic.


    n sat up straight and taught, "Let''s talk about how to build a mindscape.


    First and foremost, you will need to pick a ce that you are very familiar with. The technique''s effectiveness relies on your ability to mentally see and walk around in that ce with ease. You should be able to ''be there'' at will, using only your mind''s eye.


    Do you have a ce like that?"


    Quinn immediately turned to look at the West Manor before turning back to n. "I have been at the West Manor for most of my life. I can walk here with my eyes closed."


    n nodded with a smile, "One''s house is usually people''s first choice. Remember that the more vividly you can visualize that ce''s details, the more effective your technique will be.


    For the next lesson, I have some homework for you to do. I want you to roam your house and strengthen its picture in your eyes. I want you to remember every corner and corridor of your home. You don''t have to memorize theyout of furniture in your house, only the paths, and structure."


    Quinn nodded, and the lesson ended for the day.


    From that day, Quinn roamed the halls of West Manor. Taking in every nook and cranny of his home. He reinforced the details of his home in his mind. He read n''s book and saw what he needed to do to build a better mindscape.


    He spent hours walking around, stopping at every door, and memorizing the door. Quinn opened every door in the manor and did it multiple times. He had Elliot (butler) give him the keys to every room in the manor. Quinn visited rooms that weren''t being used and opened every door so that he could remember every room.


    Quinn walked around the house early in the morning and in the night''s cover. He walked with his hands brushing against the walls. He walked backward. Quinn tried writing what he saw, speak what he was seeing as he roamed the corridors of the West Manor.


    He even had Elliot take him up in the air with a broom so that he could have a look at the manor from the sky above. He memorized the scenery of the entire premise of the property.


    Quinn had to say it was fun to walk around the house. It felt that he was an explorer on an adventure. Finding things that he never knew were in his house.


    - (Scene Break) -


    In the next lesson, n began with Quinn build his mindscape. He had Quinn lie on a sofa and rx. "Mr. West, close your eyes, and focus on my voice." Quinn closed his eyes and focused on n''s voice.


    "Rx, Mr. West. Let your body rx. I want you to dive into your mind. Imagine a white space with nothing in it." Quinn didn''t know if n was using any mind arts because he felt a strange appeal in his voice. It was a soothing, baritone voice that made Quinn rx his mind and body. He felt himself following n''s instruction, and suddenly he cked out.


    When he opened his eyes, he was in a pure white space with nothing in sight. He couldn''t see any end to this white space.


    "Mr. West, can you hear me?" Quinn heard a voice but couldn''t find the source of the voice.


    "Mr. Baddeley, is that you?" Quinn looked around expecting to see n but found no one in the white except him.


    Once again, n''s voice entered his ears, "There is no need to look around, Mr. West. You are inside your mind, and I am talking to you from the outside."


    Quinn sighed and spoke with a slight bitterness in his voice, "You bypassed my defenses without me even knowing. Ugh... I swear one day I will make sure that you can''t enter my mind."


    Laughter boomed around him as n spoke, "I am sure that you will keep me out of your mind, but that will be after I am dead. I ain''t going to be defeated by a wee little boy."


    The banter with his teacher had calmed Quinn. He feltfortable in the seemingly infinite white space. "So, why are we here?"


    n''s voice came from everywhere and nowhere, "This white space is your undeveloped mindscape. As the first step of strengthening your memory, we are going to develop your mindscape."


    Quinn gazed at the endless white space and spoke, "How are we going to develop this? There is nothing in here to develop."


    "We are inside your mind, you can develop your mind any way you want. You are going to imagine the West Manor and give it shape in your mind," n''s voice instructed. "I want you to start by imagining ground. Imagine grass and dirt spanning across your mindscape."


    Quinn knelt on the white surface and ced his hands on the surface. He closed(?) his eyes inside his mindscape. "Visualize the feel of grass against your hands as you weave them through a patch of grass, the length of grass that you are familiar with. Imagine the scent of freshly cut grass. Think about the rustling grass makes. Underneath the grass, feel the ground on which the grass grows."


    Quinn followed his mentor''s instruction, and in a span of minutes, Quinn felt the texture of grass against his hands, heard the rustling of grass through his ears, and could breathe in the scent of grass.


    "Mr. Baddeley, I-I can feel grass and ground," Quinn was thrilled by feeling grass and ground, which was not there before. His imagination was roused as he was dying to open his eyes, but n had said not to open them till he said so.


    "Excellent, now slowly open your eyes to see the great expanse of green grass." Quinn opened his eyes and saw grasnds that stretched to the horizons.


    The grass felt extremely real to all of Quinn''s senses. The only thing that made the whole experience unrealistic was the white ''sky'' above that caused strife in the scenery.


    "The white sky is weird," Quinnined to the old master monitoring him from the outside.


    "We are going to take care of that. Look at the white nothingness and imagine the sky. The color of the blue sky, if you want clouds, add them to the sky. Imagine the type of clouds you want."


    Quinn stared at the sky for another couple of minutes, and slowly the blue begin bleeding into the white sky. Then came the fluffy white clouds that actually moved in the sky.


    Quinn looked at the horizon where blue and green met, and the whole scenery was perfect. No sense of strife or any unnatural feel to it. He took in the scene for a while before asking, "Ok, what is next?"


    n instructed, "We justpleted the base for your mindscape. Now, let''s create the structure that will act as the ess point between you and your memories.


    Remember that your memories reside in your subconscious, and your mind provides them to you for use. The structure we will be building will expedite that process. A doorway to all your memories. A magic that will allow you to harness every single life experience you have.


    As we talked about in thest lesson, we are going to use West Manor, your home, as your mindscape. Once again, visualize the West Manor and wish it to appear in front of you. Keep in mind that you have to visualize your home from all directions. I want it to be an exact replica of your home."


    Quinn did what he was instructed. He visualized the West Manor, and it took him an hour to get a shoddy replica of the West Manor. Quinn''s replica blurry and was missingponents that lead to pitch-ck nks on the outside of the building. He wasn''t even sure what was inside the Manor in front of him.


    Quinn wasn''t sure if he had followed n''s instruction correctly.


    n felt his student''s emotion about the resulted replica and assured, "Mr. West, you don''t need to worry. Your replica is extremely good for the first time."


    Quinn frowned and snorted in disbelief, "You mean this blurry building with ck nks is an excellent result?" n''s voice replied, "Yes, if building a mindscape was easy, then everyone would be walking with a perfect memory."


    Quinn wanted to improve his mindscape, but n called out, "Mr. West, it is time toe out of your mind. We have aplished our goals for today."


    Quinn closed his eyes, and the next time he opened them, he was in the usual room, on the sofa with n sitting near him.


    Quinn sat up with a groan and suddenly felt tired as he leaned back into the coach. n handed him a ss of water that he epted. "Thank you."


    n answered the reason behind Quinn''s sudden fatigue, "It was your first time essing your mindscape. Feeling tired is perfectly normal. It will get easier with each sessive try."


    Quinn downed the water in the ss and asked, "Whates next?"


    n chuckled at his student''s eagerness, "We are going to fix your replica till it bes identical to the real thing. We are going to fix it bit by bit. Bringing definition to the building and filling the nks in your replica."


    Quinn nodded and immediately asked, "Can I do it on my own?" Thinking if he could improve his mindscape between lessons.


    nughed as he was expecting the question, "Yes, you absolutely can. I will teach you how to enter your mindscape at will."


    Quinn nodded as he resolved himself to fix the replica West Manor by the next lesson.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - About to turn nine years old - ying with Mindscape.


    n D. Baddeley - Teacher - Can remember memories from his womb.


    Elliot Dalton - Butler - Broom Driver


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 11 - Potion Brewing And Memory Books

    For the next two weeks, Quinn spent more and more time around the West Manor, staring and etching the manor''s exterior into his memory and imnting it into his mindscape. He spent three to four hours every day repairing the replica in his mindscape. Fixing the overall blurred appearance and filling in the nk spots in the building.


    After a fortnight of working on the West Manor replica, it was ready, and Quinn could say with total confidence that his creation was identical to the original West Manor.??


    Quinn walked around his mindscape admiring the work he had done, ''Structure looks stable, size is identical to the original, color is exquisite, heck it even looks brand new.'' He crossed his arms and nodded in content. "I am good!"


    "Yes-yes, you are good, Mr. West. Now, let''s move on before your ego gets too big," n''s voice reached Quinn''s mind as he admired his mindscape. n had gotten used to Quinn putting an obscene amount of work outside and between lessons, so it did not surprise him when his student showed him the stable mind-replica of the West Manor.


    "Mr. West, it is time to enter the next step to developing your mindscape. I want you to go to the front door of the building and open it." Quinn followed the instruction and walked to the door and opened it to encounter a jet-ck nothingness.


    The interior of his replica was hollow, with no sign of any interior. He ended up shutting the door close because of the sheer creepiness of the sight. "Merlin! There is nothing in there."


    n''s voice said, "Of course, there is nothing in there. We haven''t worked on the interior. The exterior of the structure represents the stability of your connection to your memories. We could''ve started developing the interior after the first day of erecting the replica. But, I wanted you to have a solid doorway to your memories, so I made you work on the exterior topletion. Your mindscape will always be ready to be used at a moment''s notice."


    Quinn breathed out a sigh, readying himself for another long stretch of visualization and intent to breathe life into the hollow nothingness. "How are we going to build the inside? I assume it would be exponentially difficult than the outside."


    "Your assumption is correct. Crafting the interior will be more difficult as all the corridors and paths lead to different rooms, and you need to build them such that you know every inch of the ce. No nook or cranny must be missed or forgotten," n instructed in total seriousness.


    Quinn rubbed his chin as hemented, "I guess it is fitting. To improve my memory, I will have to ''memorize'' theyout of my home."


    nughed as he agreed, "It is quite simple, isn''t it? To improve your memory, you must memorize."


    Quinn nodded and pped his hand as he closed his eyes, "Let''s start, shall we?"


    For the next few months, Quinn spent a lot of time in the hallways. Except for eating and sleeping, Quinn did everything in the hallways. He did it to make himself familiar with the interior house. The first thing in the morning Quinn would do was stare at the part of the house that was being currently developed in the replica. He would walk up and down small areas tomit themselves to memory.


    Months passed, seasons changed, Quinn''s birthday passed, he turned nine years old, and Quinn kept marching on. Little-by-little, building the interior of the house. Quinn felt like he was building a Lego model without Legos. The idea of a replica of the West Manor in his mindscape excited and motivated him onwards.


    After six months, he had finallypleted the interior of the house. But, don''t be mistaken. While Quinn worked on his mindscape, his other studies didn''t take a backseat.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Potion brewing and herbology was the newest addition to Quinn''s schedule. Elliot Dalton, the west family butler, was teaching Quinn about potion brewing and herbology.


    Elliot had set up a shed near the garden area of the West property. Quinn still remembered the first lesson he had attended with Elliot.


    Inside the wooden shed, a workstation was set up with a ckboard hanging on the wall. Elliot stood near the ckboard and waved his wand, and a potion cauldron with the word potion appeared on the board.


    "Mr. West, potion brewing is an amazing art of potion-making. Potions are mixtures that can be brewed to showcase a multitude of effects. Potions can be medicines, antidotes, solutions, poisons, enchantments, vinations, or cures.


    Potion brewing is an art form of transforming magical ingredients into amazing potions. Potions bring out the magical properties of those ingredients. Potions can be said to be the ultimate transformation magic. Even transfiguration isn''t as transformative as potion brewing, as transfiguration always go back to their original form after a specified time. Transfigured objects are of lower quality, but potions give you a product that is better than the input.


    Potions have a distinct advantage over typical spell-type magic in that the Non-Magical could use them even, provided that they have the potion itself at their disposal. Certain magical effects can only be induced through the use of potions. Some potions duplicate the effects of spells and charms, but a few have effects impossible to achieve any other way.


    Imagine the polyjuice potion that can transform you into another person. If you want to recreate the effects of the polyjuice potion, you would either need a metamorphmagus or need a master of body transfiguration who could skillfully transfigure their body to look like someone else.


    And both options are incredibly rare. I think there is only one metamorphmagus in this country, and the body transfiguration master would need a detailed description of the person to crack the uracy.


    Finally, the Luck Potion, Felix Felicis, can''t be recreated by any other form of magic." Elliot exined with patience.


    He waved his wands, and the image on the board changed to a wand. "Now, wands aren''t used much in potion brewing. By that, I am not saying that wands are not required. Some magical ingredients are needed to be activated by the use of some spells. For example, Smander''s blood needs a specific spell to get it usable in potion brewing."


    Once again, the image on the board changed. Now it showed a wand-waving over a cauldron, knife, and vials. "The reason potioneers don''t just enchant their equipment to brew on their own is that magical ingredients are vtile and very reactive. Magic from enchanted equipment can bleed into the ingredients and cause the potions to fail. Therefore, only limited enchanted equipment is used in potion brewing. Any pieces of equipment needed to prepare the ingredients need to be free from magic, so potioneers are viewed in high regard because of the work that needs to be put in for brewing positions."


    Quinn nodded as he already knew about all of this from his previous reading of potion textbooks.


    Elliot tapped the ckboard, and the words, ''equipment'', and ''safety'' appeared on the board, "Before we start any potion brewing, we need to learn about the equipment."


    Elliot went along to exin the different types of cauldrons, knives, vials, various heat sources, and the thing that surprised Quinn was the addition of safety equipment. He had seen no mention or appearance of safety equipment in the novels or the movies.


    "Young master, no matter what ingredient, you need to wear safety equipment. After all, Prevention is better than cure. Safety goggles and gloves are of the utmost importance. And, a coat is always helpful to prevent sshes that might ruin your clothes," the gentle butler exined with seriousness in his tone and expression.


    Quinn nodded,pletely agreeing with him. He didn''t need or want unstable potion sludge messing with his body.


    The picture on the board changed, and a knife appeared over a nt.


    "Before and after every potion, we are going to do extensive research of the ingredients. Ingredients are the soul of potions, so we need to learn how different ingredients interact.


    Magical nts and creature parts react differently ording to the situation. If we cut them differently, they will behave ordingly. Heat is crucial as it stimtes the ingredients, and with multiple ingredients, it bes necessary to study heat control. The number and timing of stirs dictate how the potion is going to turn out.


    Young master, just memorizing the ingredients and process won''t cut it. I am going to teach you how to build potions and understand the reasoning behind the recipes. Every step represents a transformation in the potion. Every step logically connects to another, so we can learn everything about a potion without specting. It might seemplicated, but if we take it step-by-step, it is an interesting area of magic."


    After that, Quinn and Elliot moved on to the garden. Elliot had created a space for growing a few potion ingredients. "While some herbs and nts need special care and can''t be grown here at the Manor garden, but we can grow some in this garden."


    From that day on, Quinn would learn about magical nts and magical creature ingredients two lessons a week, and one lesson was dedicated to brewing potions.


    Also, every morning, Quinn would go to the garden to tend and monitor the growth of the herbs growing. They couldn''t raise magical creatures, so Quinn studied creature ingredients that were already butchered and learned how to handle and prepare them. He couldn''t use any magic in front of Elliot, so they left any use of the wand to Elliot, and he concentrated on other parts of brewing.


    Quinn didn''t attempt to improve or adjust any potion recipe by developing new techniques as Snape did under the moniker of the half-blood prince. Quinn had potion books from dozens of countries and was too busy learning about the same ingredient from the perspective of different magicalmunities. Even the recipe for the same potion differed in different countries.


    Quinn was too upied with the different recipes from variousmunities. As the saying went, "Don''t fix something that isn''t broken," so Quinn focused on what was already discovered andpiled different recipes to get a better recipe for every potion he learned to brew.


    Elliot supported this method, as it made Quinn think about the recipe and ingredients that went into the potion. The only downside was that Elliot had to brush up on his knowledge and keep learning new things so that he could answer Quinn''s doubts and questions.


    It took anywhere from three weeks to a month for Quinn to learn a potion. It took such a long time as Quinn had topile different recipes into one. Try to find the best recipe for the potions. Rece the missing ingredients that didn''t grow in the area with the local ingredients. Experimenting to check if ingredients worked well with each other and didn''t cause any negative reaction. Researching and trying out different preparation methods.


    With each potion recipe, Quinn beganpiling his version of recipes in a book. Each chapter represented a potion with all his insight and research recorded into it. It would take years before this book would be public knowledge.


    The simple potion book would be one of Quinn''s earliest and greatest works. A text that bought the knowledge from all around the world into one. The first of its kind in the magical world.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Six months.


    It took Quinn six months toplete the mindscape replica. A magnificent building stood in Quinn''s mindscape, and inside the building, the owner roamed the newly finished halls of the buildings. Every single detail, from wall paintings to the false ceiling, everything present here was a perfect copy of the original.


    Quinn stepped out of the building and called out to n, "What''s next?"


    n cleared his throat, which was weird as they weremunicating through their mind, "We are going to activate your mindscape and activate the gateway to your memories. So, close your eyes and focus on your intent to convert the replica into a gateway. Imagine that you want all your memories in there."


    Quinn took a deep and imagined that all his memories were in that house. He focused all his will into the house, wanting for his imagination toe true. In a few seconds, Quinn''s mindscape started shaking. Tremors caused the West Manor replica to shake.


    Quinn started frowning as it was bing difficult for him to keep up his concentration and was about to stop, but n''s voice warned him, "You must keep it up, Mr. West. We are very close! You must endure. Endure!"


    Quinn groaned as he endured the pressure on his mind and gritted his teeth to keep up his concentration. Quinn didn''t know how much time had passed, but the tremors subsided.


    Quinn let out a sigh of tiredness as he sat down in his mindscape. He looked up at the sky and called out, "Is it done?"


    n''s voice replied back, "Yes, you endured well. The replica of the West Manor is now acting as a gateway to your memories. The building in front of you will be your strongest asset. Of course, you would have to develop continuously."


    Quinn nodded and asked, "Can I go inside?"


    "Yes, please do. You are in for a surprise," n replied, and Quinn could hear a smirk in his voice.


    Quinn frowned in apprehension and walked to the door. With a push, he opened the door, and his jaw dropped from the scene inside. Inside, he saw the entire house littered with books. The books were floating in the air, sticking out from the ceiling, protruding out from the walls, and sprawled on the floor. Books were everywhere; it was like an infestation.


    "What in the world is all of this?!" Quinn eximed in shock.


    n looked from the outside and saw the same thing as Quinn and hummed, "It seems like your memories have manifested in the form of books. Memories manifest differently with everybody."


    Quinn quirked his head and asked, "What about you?"


    "Mine manifested in the form of envelopes. I used to send one every day to my mother back home. I am assuming you have frequent contact with books, don''t you? Nerd," n answered and teased at the end.


    Quinn ignored the jab and asked, "Why are the books everywhere? It is chaos in here." To which n replied, "As I said, the house is the gateway, you just opened it, and memories came spilling out. Now it is your job to sort them for easy ess. Go to one of the rooms and look inside."


    Quinn followed the instruction and opened the room of the first room he found, and inside were multiple empty bookshelves arranged neatly in the room.


    "Your memories will appear in these bookshelves when you properly store them. Take one of the books in your hands," came n''s exnation.


    Quinn stepped outside and pulled out one of the books from a wall. Immediately he was hit with a vision. In the vision, he saw a memory of himself watching a y with Lia. It was his first y, and Lia had taken him to watch it during her break.


    When he came out of the vision of his memory, Quinn asked, "You weren''t joking when you said that the books were memories."


    "Mr. West, notice any changes in the book?" n pointed out to Quinn, who was still relishing the new experience.


    Quinn looked down and found that the weightless book was just a tiny bit heavier, and one corner of the dull grey book had gained a ssh of brown color.


    "The book has gained some color and weight. What is this about it?" Quinn asked, and n revealed, "When your books gain a quarter of the color and corresponding weight, they would disappear from their ce and appear in a bookshelf somewhere inside the house. You would know where that memory book is, so you could find it easily."


    "How am I to return color to the memory books?"


    "Immerse yourself in the memory, and the more you immerse yourself, the more color would it gain."


    Quinn eyed the memory infestation and gulped, "I have to do this with every single book?"


    The old masterughed, "Yes, my little student. Every. Single. Book." Followed by hystericalughter.


    Quinn knew he had a lot of work cut out for him. He gazed at the book in his hand and sighed, "Let''s start with this one."


    Quinn versus memory books was on. A long battle of attrition against himself.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Nine years old - In a war against himself.


    Elliot Dalton - Butler/Potion Teacher - Enjoying teaching.


    n D. Baddeley - Mind Arts Teacher - Being his usual joyous self.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 12 - End Of Occlumency Lessons, And Day Out With Lia

    Books. Memories. Books. Memories.


    For another five months, Quinn ved away in his mindscape, sorting memories to bookshelves. It was an arduous project, as there were too many memory books. Even if Quinn managed to clean out an area, more would appear in the same area.??


    Quinn had to sort through all the memories of his life. Viewing every memory that was presented to him as memory books. It was all not bad as Quinn''s speed of sorting increased with time. From the first time, his current speed was twice as fast. But it was nothing whenpared to the speed n had described to him.


    "Mr. West, I have reached the level where my memories are sorted in real-time. The ongoing memory of me talking to you is already sorted. I don''t have to sort them as you do. I have trained my mind and mindscape to sort them the moment I see them."


    Plus, Quinn could onlyplete a quarter of the total immersion possible for a memory. n, on the other hand, was once again on another level.


    "I achieveplete immersion for all my memories. I can recall the input from all my senses; Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, and Touch. I can even recall what emotion and thoughts I had during the memory," Quinn had remembered the look n had given him as he had revealed, "Mr. West, I have sorted every memory of my life. Even the unpleasant ones, like the death of loved ones, fears, insecurities, and many more. I have relived those memories just so that I could sort them. You don''t have toplete the immersion on those memories, but there will be times when you would chance upon those memories."


    It was one of those rare times when n was serious, "I would suggest that you at least sort them with minimum immersion. Otherwise, they would remain outside your bookshelves, and believe me when I say it would cause problems in the long term. Emotions are powerful, Mr. West. Magic responds the most to emotions. It would be difficult, but I have confidence that you would be able to power through."


    It was Quinn''s first time hearing a somber side of the magic. He couldn''t imagine what it would be like to relive not-so-pleasant memories. To feel the emotions at their height. What about experiences from which you had moved on in life, but you had to go back and relive them with aplete immersion and feel those heavy emotions?


    In six months, Quinn went through all of his memories. Because he wasn''t aiming for feeling emotions and only had quarter immersion, he didn''t face major emotional problems. It did bother Quinn when he found memories of his transmigration and the subsequent days. Plus, the various times he had slipped into guilt, shame, and depression.


    He was in one of the rooms, walking as he admired the full bookshelves. After he was satisfied, he closed his eyes and exited his mindscape. When he opened his eyes, he was lying on the familiar sofa in n and Quinn''s room.


    He sat up and looked at n, who was reading a book. Quinn knew that even though n looked like he was doing nothing just a moment ago, n was with him in his mindscape.


    "So, what is next?" Quinn asked as he sat on his usual stool.


    n removed his eyes from the book and answered, "We are done, Mr. West." Quinn was confused as he titled his head, "What do you mean, we are done?"


    n closed his book and set it on the table, "I have taught you the basics of the aspect of efficiency. From here on out, you would have to carve out your own path."


    Quinn frowned and questioned, "But, all I have done is sort my memories. There must be more to the aspect of efficiency."


    n nodded and returned, "Do you feel any difference in your memory recall?"


    To that, Quinn nodded without hesitation, "Yes, absolutely. It has be easier to recall things. My memorization speed might not have increased, but I am positive that I can retain things longer." Quinn knew that after sorting his memory, he could easily ess them by entering his mindscape.


    "Tell me, did you decide the bookshelves for the memory books?"


    Quinn shook his head as whenever a memory book gained quarter immersion, it would disappear from his hands and insert itself into a bookshelf, and he would know which bookshelf it was, but he could never decide which bookshelf should the books go to.


    "Now that you have sorted all of your memories. You have the option to arrange the memory books in the bookshelves of your choice. How you sort is up to you. How you arrange books in your mindscape is important, as you would know where the books are and could find them much faster than now. There is more information in the book that I have given you, reference sorting techniques from there, but do create something original. You would be the mostfortable with your own craft."


    The book mentioned by n was; ''An lumens'' Treasure Trove, Part 2''. The book was based around the efficiency aspect and was an extensive text made from the result of n''s knowledge and experience.


    n continued exining, "After you have found a sorting scheme, learn how to dive into your Mindscape without detaching yourself from the real world," It was a valid point as Quinn had to close his eyes and focus so that he could enter his mindscape. Currently, he couldn''t do anything in the actual world while he was in his mindscape, which was very inefficient. "There are many things that you could aplish with both aspects that I have taught you, but it will be your decision what to learn, how to earn, and when to learn. I have given you the resources. Use them well."


    n had gifted Quinn the third and final volume of ''An lumens'' Treasure Trove'' series, centered on the emotional aspect. ording to n, after learning two aspects, Quinn had enough experience to get started on the third aspect without his guidance.


    Quinn bit his lower lip, and n could see the wheels turning in his student''s tiny head. He could guess what Quinn was thinking, but he silently waited for Quinn to speak.


    Quinn made up his mind and asked, "I want you to teach me Legilimency." n smiled in his mind but just stared at Quinn, watching as his student fidgeted in nervousness, as he stayed silent, enjoying the moment.


    n stayed silent for a couple of minutes before saying, "I will draft another contract extension with your grandfather. Of course, only if he agrees." Quinn nodded as if his grandfather refused; he wouldn''t be able to learn anything from n.


    "And, if your grandfather agrees, I would start after a break of three months. I want to rx." Quinn stilled for a moment but then nodded as he understood the need for a break. n had been visiting the West Manor for around twenty-one months.


    "I understand. I would set up a meeting with my grandfather. You can discuss the details with him."


    In the meeting, they decided n would teach Quinn the art of legilimency after a three-month break. He would visit thrice a week, one more than the previous twice per week arrangement. The new n pleased Quinn more than anything.


    It would be the evening after the day of the meeting that n would call Quinn into his study.


    - (Study Break) -


    Quinn sat in his grandfather''s study. Quinn liked his grandfather''s study. It was an elegant room, and with grandfather in his seat, it looked like he was in control of everything.


    Quinn looked at his grandfather, who had a drink in his hand, and asked in French, "Why have you called me here, grandfather?"


    George West swirled the drink in his hand as he asked, "Quinn, why do you want to learn Legilimency?"


    Quinn stayed silent for a moment, thinking about why his grandfather would ask him the question, before replying, "Mr. Baddeley is a brilliant teacher. After learning from him for such a long time, I thought I can learn more from him. He is an extraordinarily rare case of dual natural talent in both lumency and Legilimency. Plus, he is a master of mind arts. As for why I want to learn legilimency? I want to be an excellent lumens; then it would be wise for me to learn legilimency, so I know how legilmens approach their craft."


    Quinn paused for a moment before adding in a slightly lower voice, "Plus, this is the only magic I can do right now." lumency and legilimency were the only magic that Quinn could do openly, but he couldn''t tell anyone the truth, so he said it this way. He could brew potions whenever he wanted but had to call Elliot to prepare ingredients that needed wand-work.


    The words gave George some rity about Quinn''s situation. He knew about his grandson''s love for magic. In fact, Quinn had gone on another book shopping spree. He had bought books from the countries of the South American continent. So George had tomission another trantion work for the new books.


    George nodded and ended that line of questioning. A silence fell upon the pair. Quinn knew his grandfather was a man of few words in his personal life. So, it was up to Quinn to initiate the conversation.


    "When is Liaing back?" His sister had been out for work for a couple of weeks, and he had started to miss her.


    George thought about it for a while and replied, "She would be back within a week. She has done a good job at the project in Italy." He had a smile on his face as she praised his granddaughter.


    Lia had grown a lot in the time she had gotten involved in the family business. She traveled a lot and worked at different small family shops and businesses. Each time he would give her the task to make a positive and noticeable change. [A/N: Like in the Stagiaire arc of Shokugeki No Soma.]


    Quinn nodded and looked forward to reuniting with his sister. Maybe this time they would go out to y and have.


    - (Study Break) -


    Lia had returned home within a week. After giving her a couple of days for rest, Quinn dragged her out of the house to y in the non-magical(muggle) world.


    The West family had been progressive in nature, and that progressive nature extended towards the non-magical (muggle) world.


    Quinn''s great-grandfather had expanded the family business from Britain''s magicalmunity to the rest of the European-magicalmunities. Next, Quinn''s grandfather, George West, had led another expansion to different continents. Quinn''s father, Adam West, was the one to introduce the non-magical world to the family business. It was nothing radical or out-of-ce; he only sold items that could be produced faster and cheaper with the help of magic. Adam West had drawn up yet another expansion for the family business, this time to the non-magical world.


    But, he had met with an untimely death.


    Quinn''s grandfather had worked to make his son''s nse true. s, the old man had limited knowledge of the non-magical (muggle) world, so the progress was slow.


    This is where Lia came in. She wanted to continue her father''s legacy, so she would regrly visit the non-magical world and had be quitefortable with the culture. George was sure that she could expand the family business to the non-magical (muggle) world.


    Quinn West, the youngest child of the West Family, was like a fish in the water while in the non-magical (muggle) world. Much more so than Lia. He could remember the days when Lia would stare at things like a country bumpkin, but Quinn took in things like he had been among them his whole life.


    Quinn had secretly helped Lia along the way. While he enjoyed the non-magical (muggle) world, his principal reason for visiting it so often was to lead Lia in a world unknown to her. He would direct her to ces and subtly show her how things were done. Credit to Lia, she was a quick learner. She picked up things quickly and now could seamlessly pass as a non-magical.


    Lia looked at her younger brother as they entered the non-magical (muggle) world with appropriate clothing both the siblings loved muggle clothes; they were distinct andfortable.


    Quinn thought about the question and answered, "Let''s go see a movie." Lia nodded. Movies were always fun. When they reached the theater, Quinn nced upon a poster and his eyes shined as he had found the movie they were about to watch.


    He pulled Lia''s hand and pointed at the poster. "I want to see that movie." Lia turned to look at the poster and spoke, "Die Hard?" Fortunately for Quinn, the poster didn''t have guns on it and only a burning building, so Lia did not know the level of violence and foulnguage in the movie.


    She cluelessly nodded and bought two tickets. The ticket checker, a teenager, most probably a part-timer, didn''t even bat his eyes seeing Quinn enter the screening of Die Hard.


    And as it was expected, Lia''s jaw dropped when she the contents of the movie, and tried to leave with Quinn, but he gently curbed her attempts and chuckled, "Come on, Lia. Don''t be a prude."


    Lia, who wasn''t able to make Quinn leave, sighed as she sat back down, and the siblings watched the movie as they munched on popcorn. After the movie, Lia red at Quinn and dered, "I will be choosing the movies from now on."


    Quinn just cheekily grinned and offered a peace offering, "Let''s go shopping."


    Lia''s mood uplifted in a split-second and Quinn followed Lia on her search for pretty clothes. While Lia picked out clothes for herself, Quinn was too looking at clothes, but not with the intention of buying. He was looking at the stitching on the clothing. Quinn, one day would like to make clothes for himself. At least, making clothing of magical culture that was morefortable. He also wanted to have more pockets in his clothes to enchant them with expansion charms. There was nothing better than doing it yourself.


    While he was looking at clothes, Lia called him from behind. "Quinn, did you find something you like?" Quinn turned to face her and responded, "No, you find me something, I will pick from those."


    Lia hummed and spoke, "Only if you help me out with my shopping." Quinn shrugged as he had nothing better to do. Lia tried many dresses as Quinn gave his reviews.


    Lia, just like him, had jet-ck hair and stone-grey eyes. She was charming, tall, and had excellent proportions with long legs. Even the employees in the store were actively helping her out with rmending dresses.


    Somewhere along the line, Quinn too was roped into trying so many clothes. Lia and the store employees were not even listening to Quinn and just began handing him clothes to try out and treating him like a mannequin.


    They spent an hour in that store and came out with a ton of clothes. Quinn red at his sister and dered, "You totally went overboard!"


    Lia giggled and said, "How about I treat you to Indian Food." [A/N: Indian food is like takeout in Ennd.]


    Quinn grumbled and nodded. "I also want Sticky toffee pudding with ice cream." Lia ruffled his hair and agreed, "Alright, whatever you want."


    As they ate dinner, Quinn asked Lia about work. Lia indulged her little brother and talked. "I have been having problems with hiring people who have experiences with both worlds. I tried to get in contact with my school, but the number of people is stillcking. I need to find a lot more people to expand our ns."


    She sighed and continued, "Plus, I need to find them quickly. The people I hire need to be trained before they could actually work productively."


    Quinn looked at Lia and felt weird as he knew Britain had plenty of first-generation magicals (muggleborns) who went back to the non-magical world to find work as they couldn''t find employment in the magical world. Muggleborns couldn''t find work in the Diagon Alley, Carkitt Market, Horizont Alley, and a few could barely find jobs in Knockturn Alley, and that too didn''t pay well.


    The status of first-generation magicals (muggleborns) had been slowly deteriorating since Grindelwald''s era, and Voldemort and his pureblood death eaters had made things much worse. Oppression against first-generation magicals (muggleborns) was at an all-time high.


    But then it hit him that Lia hadn''t spent time in Ennd and had spent most of her time in France at Beauxbaton. And as she said, she was recruiting from Beauxbatons and the French magicals and might have missed Britain.


    Lia noticed Quinn looking at her weirdly and questioned. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is the food not good?"


    Quinn gulped down the food in his mouth and replied, "You can recruit from Britain, you know? First-generation magicals, or muggleborns as they call them here, can''t get jobs here. Most of them go back to the non-magical world to find jobs."


    George West didn''t care about the birth status of his employees. He employed anyone eligible, but he couldn''t recruit every first-generation magical (muggleborns), so the unemployment problem was still prevalent.


    This fact also confused Quin; why hadn''t his grandfather advised Lia upon this matter? Britain was a treasure trove of human resources in the form of first-generation magical (muggleborns).


    The answer to it was simple, George West wanted to see how quick his granddaughter would arrive at the solution. Lia was a bit too much attached to Beauxbaton and France. To run a business that had spanned across multiple continents, she needed to see the whole wide world.


    Lia was too engrossed in the new information that Quinn had provided her. She didn''t think to ask him how did he know this. Which was good, as Quinn had no clue about the excuse he could have given.


    After snapping out of her thought, Lia was so happy that she allowed Quinn to buy another serving of sticky toffee pudding with extra ice cream.


    As he ate his second serving of dessert, Quinn thought. ''A good day indeed~.''


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Almost Ten years old - Likes Sticky Toffee Pudding.


    Lia West - Elder Sister - Office Lady (OL) - Having problems with HR.


    George West - Grandfather - Businessman, grooming his sessor.


    n D. Baddeley - Teacher - Can''t talk, On vacation.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 13 - Art Of Legilimency, And Aiming To Be The Greatest

    Quinn looked at n, who was sitting in front of him.


    They were sitting in their usual room. It was their first lesson after n''s break. The old mind-arts teacher had his usual rxed grin on his face, but there was something different about him.??


    "You got tan." That was it. n had gotten a tan.


    n''s smile widened as he told what he had done on his vacation, "I spent an entire month near a beach. Fantastic Weather, rxing atmosphere, and amazing people. I had the time of my life. Sun is good for a person my age."


    They chatted about the things they did during the break. Quinn told n about his progress with his lumency.


    "I have increased my primary shield from tenyers to fiftyyers. My secondaryyer has also gone from fiveyers to twenty-fiveyers. I have also worked on my detectionyer."


    n gave him some tips, before deciding that they had done enough catching up and it was time to start learning.


    "That was enough catching up. Let''s start with our lessons. From now onwards, we will learn legilimency." n said before continuing. "Legilimency is the act of magically navigating through the manyyers of a person''s mind and correctly interpreting one''s findings. We know a person who practices this art as a Legilimens. The uneducated might call this mind-reading, but practitioners disdain the term as na?ve. And, legilimency isn''t just restricted to navigation of the mind, but also affecting the same minds to an extraordinary extent."


    n spread his arms and dered, "Mind-control, emotion-maniption, body possession, hypnosis, and many other things. Legilimency is a mind-magic; magic that strives to better understand the workings of the mind. A beautiful magic that has been tainted. Tainted by uneducated people, who only think of it as a means to spy on other''s thoughts. Legilimency can be used to help people.


    Do you know the profession of Mind healer, Mr. West?"


    Quinn nodded and answered the question. "A healer who specializes in mind-rted problems and diseases. They heal people whose minds have been disturbed."


    n nodded and shared, "Every Mind healer is a legilimens. They know the mind from a healing point-of-view. A noble profession that shows and proves that legilimency can be a virtuous branch of magic. Mind-healer brings their patients'' minds to peace and helps them through the healing of the most intricate part of their being, their mind."


    He pointed at himself and revealed, "Mr. West, I have made mistakes while pursuing the art of mind-magic, and many times have caused damage to my mind. I have taken steps that weren''t correct and not a few times that has jeopardized my mental health. But every time, a mind-healer had been there to monitor my recovery and make sure that my mind didn''t suffer permanent damage. I, who value my mind above all else, see mind healers in high regard."


    Quinn could practically feel n''s respect for mind healers and the art of legilimency. Which was cemented by what he said next, "Mr. West, I charge a lot for my services. I was bought up in a poor household, so I didn''t have any luxuries, so I value money a lot and consider money to be one of the things a person needs to live a happy life. But, whenever I am asked to appear as a guest lecturer to share my knowledge of mind-arts at mind healer conventions, I don''t charge a single piece of copper because I know that sharing my experience with them is the betterment of the magical art I love. It is my way of returning to themunity that helped me be what I am today."


    He looked straight into n''s eyes and spoke, "So, before we start learning, I would like you to understand that legilimency is not just a magic of harm but also an art of healing. It could do as much good as it can harm. I hope you would understand what legilimency represents and that people don''t understand the true essence of this magic."


    Quinn''s eyes were wide by the time n finished his passionate rant. "Mr. Baddeley, I understand what you are trying to convey, don''t worry, I won''t dishonor the art of legilimency. I understand that there are two sides to a coin.


    Now, would you like some water?"


    n silently nodded as Quinn poured him a ss of water with magic. The old teacher received the ss and gulped it down in one shot. He once again looked at Quinn and expressed. "I apologize Mr. West. I let my feelings ovee me there for a second. I am a bit too sensitive when ites to mind-magic."


    Quinn nodded with a smile, "I noticed. It just shows that you love what you do."


    The tanned old man cleared his throat and decides to go back to his lecture, "Now, unlike lumency, which requires you to work inside your own mind, legilimency requires you to work in the mind of others. essing your own mind is simple, as it is yours tomand, but other''s mind is foreign territory. So, the question that presents itself is how to reach out to someone else''s mind? How does one open a path to someone''s else mind knowing that the two people have no connection?"


    n stared straight into Quinn''s eyes, and Quinn felt the familiar heaviness from his detectionyer. Quinn instinctively pulled up his shield to an active state.


    "How does a legilimens aplish this? How am I able to stretch my magic to your mind?" n said as he retrieved his legilimency probe.


    Quinn thought about the question for a while before answering. "You once said that eyes are the gateway to the mind."


    n nodded his head in agreement, "Correct, eyes are the easiest point of entry to the mind, but if you are proficient, you can ess the mind without going through the eyes. And, beginners start by trying to ess the mind via a person''s eyes."


    n pulled on his sleeve to reveal his bracelet. "The only reason I agreed to teach you legilimency is because of your unique capabilities." He pointed at his bracelet and continued, "Beginners need a magical focus to perform legilimency, but I wanted to see if you could perform focusless legilimency right of the bat."


    n paused for a moment before remembering something,


    "You know you are lucky that your grandfather didn''t study legilimency. Otherwise, you wouldn''t be able to learn legilimency without arising suspicion."


    Quinn''s eyes widened like saucers as he pped himself on his head, "Damn it!" Even though it had caused no problems and n had taken care of this problem, this could have turned into a big problem. If his grandfather had caught onto this fact, then Quinn wasn''t sure how to exin things. And n couldn''t tell the reason because of his contract.


    Quinn massaged his temple as he thought, ''I have to be more careful in the future.'' A sigh escaped him as he decided to triple-check his ns in the future. He looked at n and asked, "I assume that you already knew that my grandfather didn''t know legilimency."


    When n nodded, causing Quinn to sigh, "I am not going to ask you how you know that."


    n shrugged and continued teaching. He instructed Quinn to follow his instruction, "Mr. West, I want you to look into my eyes and try to sense my mind. It will take some time, but you will be able to sense it in time. You know that there is a mind that you can ess. You just need to believe that you can reach my mind through my eyes, and find a way to connect to it.


    Now, please try it out."


    Quinn nodded and stared into n''s eyes while trying to sense anything through his mentor''s eyes, but he couldn''t find anything. He tried to spread his magic, get it closer to n, molded his magic in different ways, but nothing happened.


    He continued to try, and somewhere along the way, Quinn started ring at n, which made the older man joke, "Mr. West, you are trying to find my mind, not drill a hole through it."


    If it had been any other time, Quinn would haveughed, but currently, he was concentrating, so n only got a grunt in response.


    It was an hour, multiple attempts, and n''s patient guidance before Quinn got a hit. He had changed his approach five times, and the fifth time was the charm as Quinn felt the presence of something that felt familiar to his own mind.


    Quinn, who was concentrating on n''s eyes, focused on his whole face before speaking a bit too loudly in exmation, "I felt something! Was that your mind?"


    n smiled as he nodded, "I felt your probe. It was weak, but an excellent result for your first time. And yes, that was the edge of my mind that you sensed."


    Quinn breathed out a sigh of relief. He looked at n and then frowned. "Mr. Baddeley, did you blink because I can''t remember you blinking?"


    n chuckled and shook his head, "I used magic to keep my eyes moist. A handy spell I learned to teach legilimency." n quirked his eyebrows and disyed a proud look on his face.


    For the rest of the lesson, they repeated the process so that Quinn could get used to it. That was the end of the first legilimency lesson.


    - (Scene Break) -


    It turned out that the decision of increasing the frequency of lessons from twice a week to thrice a week was a good one as, unlike lumency, legilimency was tough to practice alone. Quinn couldn''t practice legilimency on anyone in the house and could only wait for the next lesson. The only thing he could do was read the theory, and that too was restricted by n, who had spelled the legilimency book so that he could read what they were going to learn in the next lesson.


    For the next two weeks, Quinn trained with n to strengthen his legilimency probe, so that he could dive deeper and faster into others'' minds. Lesson-after-lesson was dedicated to improving Quinn''s legilimency. The result of the two weeks was that Quinn had gone from feeling the presence of a mind to finally finding the mind.


    The first time Quinn had chanced upon n''s mind was surreal. It was a mental-sight that awed Quinn. Quinn had looked into n''s eyes, and the next second, his mental sense showed him n''s lumency defense.


    All he saw was the color blood-red, a blood-red semi-liquid sea as lumency defense that covered n''s mind. Quinn noticed how at equal intervals, there would be slight disturbances in the sea of blood-red, and the semi-liquid would move in concentric circles, just like when you touch water, and it creates circle waves. Quinn wondered if n was using those disturbances as sonar used sound waves.


    Quinn didn''t dare approach the blood-red sea, as he didn''t know what would happen if he made contact with n''s defense. An lumens at the level would have some counter-offense tactics built into his defense.


    "How is it, Mr. West?" He heard n''s voice in his mind. n had gotten used to listening to n speak directly to his mind, which was disturbing as it meant he had bypassed his defenses and was inside his mind.


    Quinn took a moment to gather his thoughts and then spoke, "I feel fear when I look at your defenses." Even though Quinn hadn''t touched n''s shield, it still scared him.


    n chuckled and revealed, "You feel fear because it is a feature of my defenses. It induces fear in the attacker. I am using legilimency as part of my lumency defense."


    As n finished speaking, Quinn found he was no longer feeling fearful and he was feeling normal. "Did you just remove the fear inducer feature?" He got a hum in response.


    Quinn continued to observe the blood-red sea and asked, "Is this blood-red semi-liquid your detectionyer?" Quinn''s own detectionyer was translucent in color.


    "I don''t have a separate detectionyer and shields. A separate detectionyer and shields is a basic level technique. My defenses are from a much-advanced system. Someday, you too would move on from your current system. And, the blood-red sea isn''t even my first line of defense," was n''s response.


    Quinn frowned as he asked, "But, I encountered nothing else." The blood-red sea was the first thing he saw. Quinn was sure he would''ve noticed something else.


    "You didn''t notice anything else because I removed my firstyer of defense. If my firstyer had been active, you would be lost in my defense."


    Suddenly, Quinn saw a fog appear around him, but it kept at a distance from him.


    "This is my first line of defense. If you had encountered this fog, you would have been lost in it. I designed this fog to confuse the attacker''s probe. You wouldn''t find the blood-red sea if you encountered the fog. It would have caused you to wander inside itself until you gave up. Mr. West, my defenses incorporates all three lumency aspects and many of the legilimency aspects. It is an intricate system of multiple parts that work in harmony," said n with pride in his voice.


    Quinn wondered how much time would it take to reach this level? He wondered if he could ever reach n''s current level. Unlike n, Quinn wasn''t aiming to be a mind-arts specialist, and that would divide his time between many fields, so it made him wonder when in his life would Quinn reach n''s level.


    Quinn decided to end his legilimency probe, and when he did, Quinn couldn''t help but ask, "How long did it take you to build your defense."


    The answer Quinn got showed why n was one of the world''s best mind-arts specialists. His answer was, "From the day I started learning mind-arts to this very day. It took me this much time to build my defense." He smiled softly before continuing, "I never stopped improving my defenses. It has been decades since someone had broken into my mind, but I still haven''t stopped working on it. Mr. West, even I don''t know what would it take to break into my mind."


    n paused before saying something that would stay with Quinn for the rest of his life, "In the past, I always wonder if those powerful ancient magicals could break into my mind if they were alive." Then his eyes glowed with confidence, and he dered, "But, then I concluded that no one could break into my mind, not even those ancient magicals. Do you know why I think that? People always believe that the golden age of magic has passed, that we could never reach the level of ancient magicals like Merlin and Solomon."


    n scoffed with pure pride as he continued, "I don''t believe that the golden age of magic has passed. I am confident that even if the mages who became so powerful that they be gods to non-magicals, they won''t be able to break into my mind."


    Then he dered,


    "I am the golden age of mind-arts."


    Quinn felt goosebumps on his skin at thest sentence. Quinn could see that n considered himself the best mind-art master that ever lived. Listening to him changed something in Quinn''s mindset.


    Somewhere in his heart, Quinn thought he could never match the likes of Merlin, mages-turned-gods, Hogwarts founders, or any ancient magical people who reached such a level of magic that we turned them into legends. Just before he was wondering if he could ever surpass n in the field of mind-arts. But, listening to n made him wondered, why can''t he surpass those ancient magicals? Why can''t he reach a level where people would turn him into a legend? What is stopping him? Both them and he had the same magic, so he should be able to reach their level.


    In his excited state, Quinn looked at n and made a deration of his own.


    "I will be the greatest magical that ever lived! I will surpass everyone that came before me and will set myself so high-and-above that no one after me will ever catch up to me."


    n hearing that let out the loudestughter Quinn had listened from his old teacher. "Yes, that is the spirit! Aim high and achieve the greatest goal possible."


    Both teacher and studentughed loudly. If n hadn''t warded the room to be soundproof, the other people would definitely wonder what was going inside.


    Quinn looked at n and challenged, "I will be the greatest, so I will also surpass you in mind-arts. One day, I will break into that mind of yours, and build a defense so strong that you won''t be able to break into my mind. So, be ready for that day."


    n grinned a smile that split his face, "Ha! I will wait for the day you challenge me, brat. You are still wet behind your ears. I guarantee that no one much less than you would be able to break into my mind."


    After that day, Quinn continued to learn legilimency with n, potions with Elliot, and his own secret magic studies with a renewed and increased vigor caused by a higher goal and belief that he could achieve his aim.


    Almost a yearter, came July of 1990, and arrived the time for Quinn to enter the next phase of his life. In the first week of July of 1990. Two letters arrived at the West Manor.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Ten years old - Wants to be the greatest magical that ever lived.


    n D. Baddeley - Mind-Art Specialist - Considers himself the G.O.A.T in the field of Mind-Arts


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 14 - Letters Arrive, And The Decision

    It was another usual morning in the West Manor, and Quinn came down from his room to the dining hall to have breakfast. He hummed as he walked into the hall but was surprised when he saw quite a few people in the room.


    His grandfather, George West, Quinn''s sister, Lia West, butler, Elliot Dalton, and his caretaker, Ms. Rosey, were all in the dining hall. It was an unusual sight, as Quinn''s grandfather and Lia had their breakfast before Quinn even woke up in the morning, and Quinn ate the first meal of the day alone, with either of Elliot, Ms. Rosey, or Polly, the house-elf giving himpany.??


    So, this sight that was out of the norm in the West Manor surprised Quinn. His first course of action was to check the time. Quinn looked at the clock in the dining hall while saying, "Did I wake up early or something?"


    But that was not the case, as Quinn was following his daily timings, and neither Lia nor George should be at the house and should be out for work.


    He walked to the table with a curious gaze, wondering the reason behind this anomaly, but his curious gaze turned into one of suspicion as he noticed that all the people in the hall were staring at him.


    His first thought was that of a minor scare as he turned to Ms. Rosey and desperately tried to assure her, "Ms. Rosey, I properly brushed my teeth, properly took a bath, andbed my hair. I promise!"


    Ms. Rosey had grilled Quinn about the importance of proper appearance, and Quinn, on multiple asions, had failed to stand up to those expectations because he was too busy thinking/daydreaming about magic. The result of failing toply with the standards set by Ms. Rosey were long dreadful lectures from her. And because of his experiences with Ms. Rosey and her lectures, Quinn wanted to avoid those.


    His suspicion got stronger when he saw Ms. Rosey smile. His caretaker smiled a little. She smiled when Quinn performed well, but currently, he was sure that he had done nothing of note that would make her smile. Plus, Lia was giggling in the corner.


    George decided to free Quinn of his suspicion and said, "Quinn, today we received two letters addressed to you." Saying that he ced two letter-envelopes in front of him.


    The left-side envelope was made from thick beige stationery, and the one on the right was made from very royal blue stationery of simr thickness. Written on the envelopes was the address of the West Manor.


    [


    Mr. Q. West.


    West Manor, West Estate,


    Herefordshire,


    West Minds.


    ]


    The beige letter had the address written in English, while the blue letter was in French.


    Quinn noticed there was no sender''s name on the envelopes, but when Quinn turned the beige envelope, he was the Hogwarts'' logo on the lip of the envelope and a Hogwarts'' logo-shaped wax seal sealing the envelope.


    His eyes widened as he turned to the royal blue envelope, and simrly, it too had a printed logo and wax seal. But this time, they were of the Beauxbaton design that Quinn had seen on Lia''s stuff.


    "T-this... this!" A stunned Quinn said as he looked up at his grandfather, "A-are these...?"


    George West nodded with a smile gracing his face, "eptance letters from each Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic."


    George pointed at the Hogwarts'' letter and said, "Since you have been living in Britain, Hogwarts sent you an eptance letter." He pointed at Beauxbatons''tter and stated, "Beauxbatons sent you the letter because of pedigree. Your grandmother, father, and Lia all went to Beauxbatons. Family members get invitations even if they don''t reside in the area where Beauxbatons recruit from. It is up to you where do you want to attend."


    Quinn didn''t open the letters but looked at George and Lia. George had attended Hogwarts while Lia had attended Beauxbaton, so he had people from both schools, and he knew that both of them would want him to go to their school.


    Quinn breathed out and looked at all the people and said, "I will think about it." He looked at Ms. Rosey and asked, "Ms. Rosey, please send me my breakfast to my room. Please, excuse me." Quinn collected both of his letters and walked out of the dining hall before Ms. Rosey could stop him.


    George looked at Mr. Rosey and stopped her from calling out to Quinn, "Let him go. He needs to think about it. Please, have Polly send food to his room."


    George gazed at the entrance of the dining hall from where Quinn had exited the room. He wondered what would be his grandson''s choice.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn always thought the day he got the eptance letters from a school would be a happy one. He would be delighted, and it would be time for celebration. But currently, he was feeling down. He was in his room sighing.


    When he realized the letters were eptance letters, his first thought was how he would have to leave his home and stay at a dorm for a major portion of the year. Well, actually, his first thought was how his letters didn''t mention the specific room as they did in Harry Potter''s letter. He isted the reason and concluded that it must be because of the wards present around the estate. The wards around the estate didn''t allow Hogwarts'' magic to find the interior of the West Manor.


    But then it hit him. He would have to leave thefort of his home. The home he had lived in since he hade to this world. He thought how his lessons with Mr. Baddeley woulde to an end. How he would no longer be able to maintain the herb garden with Uncle Elliot and their potion lessons would also stop. Even the thought of freedom from Ms. Rosey''s tough lessons saddened him. He had a lot of things that he liked in this house, and all of them would end when he left for school.


    Even his usual secret magic studies woulde to an end, and even though he would be able to do magic in public, it would still take time to get used to a new ce. He would need to find a secure ce to practice his magic. His worries and vignce wouldn''t ease up because now there would be so many people nearby him at a school full of magical children. One mistake, and the entire school could potentially know things he didn''t want them to know about.


    Except for the time he had spent traveling, Quinn had spent every day of his new life in this ce. The thought of leaving this ce, which had be important enough for him to base his mindscape, was an unpleasant one. He wouldn''t be able to meet his family for most of the year.


    While feeling down, and thinking about the future, Quinn absentmindedly opened his letters. He used magic to safely undo the wax seal without damaging the envelope. The wax seal detached itself from the envelope but stayed on the lip of the envelope.


    He gently removed the letter from the envelope and unfolded the two yellowish-beige parchment papers. Just as it in the series, Quinn''s letter read.


    [


    HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY


    Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore


    (Order of Merlin, First ss, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,


    Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)


    Dear Mr. West,


    We are pleased to inform you that you have been epted at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.


    The term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by noter than 31 July.


    Yours sincerely,


    Minerva McGonagall


    Deputy Headmistress


    ]


    He put aside the first page of the eptance letter, and on the second page was the list of books and equipment. A smile appeared on his face as he read the list of books.


    [


    HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY


    ------------


    UNIFORM


    ------------


    First-year students will require:


    1. Three sets of in work robes (ck)


    2. One in pointed hat (ck) for day wear.


    3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or simr).


    4. One winter cloak (ck, with silver fastenings).


    Please note that all pupil''s clothes should carry name tags.


    ------------------


    COURSE BOOKS


    ------------------


    All students should have a copy of each of the following:


    The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) - by Miranda Goshawk.


    A History of Magic - by Bathilda Bagshot.


    Magical Theory - by Adalbert Waffling.


    A Beginner''s Guide to Transfiguration - by Emeric Switch.


    One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi - by Phyllida Spore.


    Magical Drafts and Potions - by Arsenius Jigger.


    Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - by Newt Scamander.


    The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection - by Quentin Trimble.


    ----------------------


    OTHER EQUIPMENT


    ----------------------


    1 wand


    1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2).


    1 set ss or crystal vials.


    1 telescope.


    1 set brass scales.


    Students may also bring if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad.


    PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS


    ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK.


    Yours sincerely,


    Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus


    Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions


    ]


    Quinn had already read all the books from the list. The amount he had learned with the first-year focus and power was much more than what a single school and curriculum taught. Even though many magicalmunities had joined together to form the International Confederation Of Wizards, they were still pretty xenophobic in nature and isted from each other.


    He could do more things with limited focus and power that any student could imagine doing with the same amount of magical capabilities. Quinn could say that buying books from different cultures andmunities was his best decision in both of his lives.


    He carefully casted a stasis charm on both pages and the envelope before packing the letter back into the envelope. It didn''t matter what school hemitted to; Quinn was going to frame the eptance letter of that school.


    Quinn opened Beauxbatons'' eptance letter, and inside were two pale-blue parchment papers. He unfolded the letter, and Beauxbatons'' content more pronounced than Hogwarts''.


    [


    L''ACAD¨¦MIE DE MAGIE DE BEAUXBATONS


    Directrice Mme Olympe Maxime


    (Education Magique, Ministere de Magic, Cooperation Internationale, Ordre du mel, La Victoire.)


    1 July 1990


    Cher Monsieur West,


    We are pleased to inform you that you have a seat at Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic, "Where Magic Meets Magnificence."


    At Beauxbatons Academy, people of an unimaginable nature attend to learn more about their gifts. As well as improving our magic, we learn etiquette, poise, and more.


    Look to the back to find enclosed a list of supplies and equipment needed.


    The term begins on 1 September. We await your response by noter than 31 July. On reception of your reply, we would book you a portkey for travel at the Ministry Of Magic.


    Further details would be provided based on your response.


    Au revoir,


    Madame Rochelle,


    Directrice Adjointe.


    ]


    Quinn nodded as he read the letter, and it certainly had a better first impression than Hogwarts'' letter. Even Beauxbatons'' equipment list was extensive than Hogwarts'' and asked for things like dancing shoes and formal robes.


    Quinn repeated the same process of cing stasis charms on parchment papers and the envelope before repacking the letter. He left the letters on his study table and walked to the bed to lie upon it.


    He stared at the ceiling in thought. Choosing between two schools was an important decision. He was going to give the next seven years of his life to one of these schools. Quinn wanted to make sure that his decision was the correct one.


    As he was pondering on his uing decision, Quinn heard a pop; when he turned his head to look, Polly, the house-elf, was standing there with food.


    Quinn smiled and spoke to the long-time resident of the West Manor, "Thank you, Polly. Please leave the food on the bedside table. I will eat it shortly."


    Pollyplied, and before leaving, insisted that he ate his food soon before it cools down, but he knew Polly had already charmed the food to stay warm.


    It was not before lunchtime when Quinn came out of his room. He straight went to his grandfather''s study to talk. When he entered the study, George West was working on something, but when he saw Quinn enter, he put aside his work and gave all of his attention to his grandson.


    Quinn was the first one to speak, "I have looked at both of the letters. I read the equipment and book lists. It is an important decision for me; I would like to have some time before giving you an answer. I will tell you my decision after a week of thinking."


    George nodded and spoke, "Take your time."


    Quinn sighed before asking, "Can you tell me your experience when you studied at Hogwarts?"


    George leaned back, and a small smile of nostalgia surfaced on his face. "My time in Hogwarts was a joyous one. I made lifelong friends, built connections to different people, and grew as a person. I was in the Slytherin house. You see, there is a house system in Hogwarts..."


    George went on to exin the house system in Hogwarts. Quinn said nothing and silently listened as he had never talked about Hogwarts with his grandfather, so there was no way he would know anything about Hogwarts. Plus, he was enjoying seeing his grandfather smile and recall his childhood.


    George also told him about the castle and its mysterious nature, "Your grandmother went to Beauxbatons, so we told each other our school stories, and if there is one thing that Beauxbatons would never beat Hogwarts is the castle. It is mystical in nature, and if you take time to explore the castle, you would definitely have a magical experience."


    George told him stories about the castle and his experiences of being a Prefect and the Head Boy. They continued to talk till lunchtime.


    That week Quinn also sought out Lia to know about her experience at Beauxbatons. Beauxbatons sounded like an amazing and unique ce to study. She told him about mel''s annual lecture Beauxbatons hosted. She also exined how Beauxbatons had a diverse andrge alumni base, and the academy made significant efforts to keep in contact with their alumni. It sounded like a traditional alumni base present in non-magical colleges.


    - (Scene Break) -


    The promised week passes, and Quinn had made his decision. At supper, Quinn told his family which school he was going tomit to.


    Like a certain basketball yer, he announced,


    "In this fall... it was a very tough decision. In this fall, I am going to take my talents to Scond and join the Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry."


    Lia looked at her younger brother and asked, "Hogwarts, are you sure?"


    Quinn nodded, "Yes, Hogwarts."


    "Why?"


    Quinn grinned and spoke, "I talked to both you and grandfather. I felt attracted to Hogwarts more than Beauxbatons." He quirked his eyebrow and teased, "Grandfather sold me on Hogwarts, certainly better than you trying to sell me on Beauxbatons. You still have a long way to go, sister."


    "You little!" Lia reached over and pinched his cheeks, which he avoided, and stuck out his tongue.


    "Quinn, are you sure?" asked George, halting the interaction between the siblings.


    Quinn turned to look at his grandfather and retrieved an envelope, and handed it to his grandfather. "Yes, I have made my decision, and it is Hogwarts." The letter in George''s hand was Quinn''s response to Hogwarts'' eptance letter informing them he will be attending their school.


    Quinn''s future knowledge heavily influenced his decision. The sole existence of the Room Of Requirements was a crucial factor in his decision. He didn''t know if Beauxbatons had a simr room, and even if there was, there was no guarantee he could find it. And, his grandfather had said that Hogwarts castle was a mystical ce, and maybe he could find things not shown in the series.


    Even though he hadn''t extensively thought about the future of Voldemort, death eaters, and the uing war. It did factor in when he thought about the school he wanted to go to.


    It was the dilemma if you went back into the past and could stop 9/11 or if you could kill Hitler when he was a baby, or stop any major terrorist incidents where lives were lost.


    Quinn decided that even though he didn''t want to interact with the golden boy as it would attract a lot of unnecessary problems and attention, he would still do his part in secret to prevent lives from being lost.


    The next morning, George sent out the letter written by Quinn to Hogwarts via an owl and another letter to Beauxbatons informing that he wasn''t going to attend there, and that solidified his decision.


    Quinn West was going to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Sorry, couldn''t help but include the letter in the chapter. It is my first Harry Potter fanfiction, and I wanted the letter to be a part of it.


    *


    Quinn West - MC - Finally ELEVEN years old (DOB - July 10, 1979) - Would be attending Hogwarts.


    George West - Grandfather - Attended Hogwarts (Head Boy)


    Lia West - Elder Sister - Attended Beauxbatons, failed to convince Quinn.


    Ms. Rosey - Caretaker - Strict, yet loving.


    Polly - House Elf - Takes care of the West Manor and its residents.


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 15 - Last Lesson, Gringotts, And Diggorys

    Quinn and n walked in the gardens of the West manor. It was theirst lesson, and both decided that a casual stroll would be the best way to end their correspondence.


    n had his hands behind his back as he walked with his student of almost three years. "Sometimes I forget you still a little brat. I hadpletely forgotten that you too would need to attend a school."??


    Quinn scoffed and retorted, "I will take that as apliment. So young, yet so talented. Live with it, old man. The younger generation would always surpass the older one."


    n chuckled but chose not to reply. He knew that if they started, both of them could go back and forth for hours, and even then, none of the two would concede defeat. Instead, he decided to enquire Quinn''s future ns regarding mind-arts.


    "Do you n to improve your mind-arts in the future? What are your ns for the future?"


    Quinn looked up at his teacher while replying, "The mind, body, and soul. The three most important things for a magical. Magic is connected to all three facets of a being. So it would be without saying that I would continue to develop my mind. There is no harm in developing my mind. It would help me improve my magic and life in general."


    n nodded and probed, "And, how are you going to improve them?"


    "Well, I would be in a ce full of people, so training Legilimency wouldn''t be a problem. Even though most of them won''t have any defenses, I can still train other aspects of legilimency," answered Quinn, exining his ns to exploit his fellow schoolmates.


    n didn''tment on the tant admission of the intended invasion of privacy of dozens of people, "You can train your legilimency with the method I taught you."


    n had suggested to Quinn a method using which he would be able to train his legilimency alone without requiring a person as a target.


    "Ah, yes. Using lumency to train legilimency. I need to build a small shield system inside my mindscape and then remove the memory of anything rted to the new shield and lock those memories underneath the shield system. This way, I won''t know how to prate that shield and would be able to practice breaking lumency defenses using legilimency." Quinn recited the method suggested by n. He also snapped his fingers and added, "I just need to find new ideas for lumency defenses so that I could create new scenarios for me to go against. This way, not only my legilimency improve, but even my lumency skill would also improve. A perpetual cycle of improvement."


    n nodded in agreement but also asked, "And, what are the warnings that I gave you?"


    This method did have a drawback that could harm the mind if used carelessly. "Never iste a memory for a long period. Willful repressing of memory would always cause problems."


    n patted Quinn on his back, "Correct, all you need to do is free the memory from its repression for a small period before you could once again suppress it. So, don''t bezy and follow proper procedure."


    "Aye," saluted Quinn. He kicked a small pebble in his path and asked, "What about you? What are you going to do next? What is in the future for Mr. n D. Baddeley?"


    n shrugged in response to the question, "I have no idea. There are some jobs lined up that I could take, or I could take another vacation and rx, or I maybe I would write a few research papers for publication. Ah well, I would follow where life takes me."


    Both student and teacher fell into afortable silence as they continued to walk around the garden before Quinn spoke his thoughts, "You know, I wanted to learn more from you. Your lessons are so fun, and now they are going to end."


    Without looking at Quinn, n offered, "You cane apprentice under me when you pass out of school."


    Quinn turned up to look at n with surprised etched on his face, his eye wide, brows pulled up, "I didn''t know you offered apprenticeships."


    "Indeed, I don''t offer apprenticeships. I stopped offering them when I turned hundred years old, but you are interesting enough for me to offer one. Plus, I am interested in how much you could improve. It would be fun topare the progress from now, to let''s say when you turn into an adult." n''s time with Quinn had shown him Quinn''s potential, and it would be worthwhile of ns'' time to teach Quinn at a higher level.


    Quinn, without even thinking about the offer, epted, "I would be honored to apprentice under someone of your caliber. I woulde to find you when I think the time is right, so don''t die before I do that, old man."


    n chuckled and retorted, "You better keep on improving because if I find that you have cked off, I will definitely kick you out before we even start."


    "I will keep that in mind,"ughed Quinn even though he knew n wasn''t joking.


    n fished out a pocket watch from his clothes and spoke after checking the time. "It looks like it is the time for me to leave."


    Both of them walked to the floo-connected firece, and before leaving, they said goodbye. Quinn raised his hand for a handshake. "It was fun learning from you, Mr. n," said Quinn and used n''s first name for the very first time.


    n showed a simr smile and shook his student''s hands, "It was nice teaching you, Mr. Quinn."


    With that, n left the West Manor in a sh of green fire from the floo.


    - (Scene Break) -


    On the first of August, Quinn and George went out to Diagon Alley to get all the stuff needed for the uing school year. It was going to be Quinn''s first timeing to Diagon Alley. It surprised that Quinn had never gone to Diagon Alley. He never needed to go shopping as he just needed to tell Elliot, and he would get stuff for him.


    When Quinn thought of that, his first reaction was, "Holy Crap! I am a sheltered child! Maybe even a little spoiled." But Quinn managed to convince himself that he wasn''t a sheltered child, as he frequently visited the non-magical world with Lia.


    Diagon alley was just as it had been described in the books. Quinn saw a Potion ingredient shop and saw a bright stack of cauldrons outside the shop.


    Cauldrons ¡ª All Sizes ¡ª Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver ¡ª Self-Stirring ¡ª Copsible, read a sign hanging over them. The shop was named Potage''s Cauldron Shop.


    He saw a dark-colored building with a sign reading Eeylops Owl


    Emporium ¡ª Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy.


    And, many more shops like,


    Slug & Jiggers Apothecary,


    Broomstix; a store that sold brooms,


    Florean Fortescue''s Ice Cream Parlour,


    The bookstore; Flourish and Blotts,


    Madam Malkin''s Robes for All asions,


    Magical Menagerie; the pet store,


    Ollivander''s; the wand shop,


    And, many more shops of many kinds, but George pulled Quinn, not stopping even at a single one. They walked straight to a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Carved into the white stone was the name of the building,


    ¡¸Gringotts Wizarding Bank¡¹


    Then his eyes found the two figures d in scarlet and gold, standing in front of the burnished bronze door.


    "Goblins."


    The identity of the figures escaped Quinn''s mouth. They were about a head shorter than Quinn. Had swarthy, clever faces, pointed beards, and very long fingers and feet. Quinn had seen goblin before in his travels.


    Quinn and George stopped a distance from Gringotts, and George looked at Quinn before speaking, "Gringotts Wizarding Bank is the only wizarding bank in Magical Britain. This means that goblins have a monopoly over the banking business. In the treaty signed by the Goblin Nation and Ministry Of Magic, it is stated that Gringotts would be the only bank in Magical Britain, and no other bank would be allowed to open and operate in Magical Britain. Failure toply would, without fail, would lead to a war between the two parties. Plus, in the centuries they have been active, they have cemented their ce in the lives of British people. They are too big to fail."


    George looked at the building with displeasure in his eyes and spoke with contempt in his tone, "The Ministry Of Magic was foolish enough to sign that treaty and made it binding with no chance for renegotiation. Do you know why this is bad?"


    Quinn nodded and stated the obvious, "This kind of monopoly allows them to charge any amount of money for their services. Because of the treaty you mentioned, they have free reign and have nopetitor, much less than an alternative." Even though Quinn spent most of his time studying magic, he still was a child of a business owner.


    George rubbed Quinn''s head and praised him, "Excellent, you arepletely right." He looked at the goblins at the door and continued, "Britain''s Ministry Of Magic taxes its people a low tax amount, and it is praised all over the world for that, but what they don''t know is the reason for such low tax prices. Goblins'' charge a lot to maintain the banking system and economy of this country, and that makes the ministry impose lower taxes, to even out the expenditure by the people."


    Then George smirked. An unusual expression from the usually stoic man, "That is why I slowly moved all of our family money to Switzend. It took me ten years to move all our family money out of this damned bank. It was glorious when they realized what I had done, and they couldn''t do a single thing about it."


    Then George sighed, "Now, we don''t use Gringotts for any financial services. It does cause us to spend an amount of money to transfer money to Switzend regrly, for our business operated in Britain. Even then, it is much less than the amount that it would take to maintain our ounts at Gringotts."


    Quinn nodded with an ''is that so'' expression, "So, why are we here?"


    George revealed the reason with a sigh, "Now that you are going to Hogwarts, you would be needing money for things. Knowing you, you would start ordering extra books and other things like potion ingredients via mail order. It isn''t safe for you to have your entire allowance in person without security, and as Gringotts have regr contact with muggle banks because of the muggleborns, they have adopted a cheque service that would allow mail-ordering businesses to retrieve money directly from Gringotts. You could send us the list of things, and we could buy them for you, but it would waste unnecessary time. So, I have opened a student trust vault for you. Now, let''s go in and retrieve your key."


    The pair entered the bank, and the goblin guards bowed, and as they walked inside, they faced another door of silver, with words engraved upon them:


    [


    Enter, stranger, but take heed


    Of what awaits the sin of greed


    For those who take, but do not earn,


    Must pay most dearly in their turn.


    So if you seek beneath our floors


    A treasure that was never yours,


    Thief, you have been warned, beware


    Of finding more than treasure there.


    ]


    A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors, and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling inrge ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyesses. Doors numbering an amountborious to count exited the main hall, and goblins guided people in-and-out of these pathways.


    George and Quinn made for the counter.


    "Morning," said George to a free goblin teller. "We havee here to retrieve the keys and other items for Quinn West''s student vault."


    The goblin looked down at the pair from his high desk, and Quinn could almost hear a snarl in the goblin''s voice as he spoke, "West."


    "Yes, West." Once again, Quinn could almost hear the smugness in his grandfather''s voice. And, Quinn had to say, he was loving this adventurous side of his grandfather.


    Quinn silently watched as the goblin red down at his grandfather, and his grandfather smiled up at the goblin.


    "George West," the goblin identified George with a scowl on his face.


    "Goblin," replied George with the smile on his face deepening.


    After continuing the staring contest for another while, before the goblin harrumphed, "Papers."


    George retrieved some documents from his robes and handed them to the goblin. The goblin studied them with the intent for a while before snarling something over his shoulder in Gobbledegook. The goblin turned to the human pair and said, "Wait, you will have your items shortly." Then he ignored thempletely.


    George and Quinn stood to the side to wait for their items, and while they were waiting, Quinn asked. "Grandfather, are you sure that they won''t make trouble for me when I use their services?"


    George shook his head and exined, "Gringotts make sure that their services are always on point. Goblins work hard to make sure that there are minimal mistakes. They know if they make mistakes, the ministry will breathe down their necks because the ministry doesn''t like the treaty and are actively trying to find issues to put the Goblin Nation and Gringotts on the back foot."


    While they were waiting for the goblins, Quinn heard someone call out, "Mr. West." Both George and Quinn turned to see who had called them out, to find a man and a teen walk towards them.


    George looked at the man walking towards him and said, "Diggory, Amos Diggory."


    The two men shook hands, but Quinn wasn''t listening to them as he was too busy staring at the teen in front of him.


    ''Holy! He is Cedric Diggory, isn''t he? So, the characters will look like their movie actors, huh,'' thought Quinn as he observed a young Cedric Diggory.


    Cedric Diggory sensed someone staring at him, and when he turned to find out, it was the kid who was standing with the man his father was talking to. He decided to talk to the kid and introduce himself,


    "Hello. My name is Cedric Diggory."


    Quinn snapped out his thoughts and introduced himself, "Morning, My name is Quinn West." He put out his hand for a handshake which Cedric shook.


    "So, Quinn, how old are you?" asked Cedric.


    "I am eleven years old," replied Quinn, and from the question, he could guess where this conversation was going.


    Cedric perked up as he found something to start the conversation, "So you must be attending Hogwarts this year."


    Quinn nodded with a smile, "Yes, I will be a first-year this year. What about you?"


    "I will be a second-year this year. Have you decided which house you want to be in? I am in Hufflepuff," asked Cedric as they chatted.


    Quinn shrugged and replied, "I haven''t thought about what house I want to be in. I actually don''t know how houses are assigned. My grandfather wouldn''t tell me anything about it."


    A full-blown smile appeared on Cedric''s face as he said, "Then it is best if you get to know about it on the day itself. I assure you it will be a fun experience."


    Quinn nodded as he already knew the sorting ceremony and was just asking so that the conversation would go on.


    "So, did you buy your wand?" asked Cedric, knowing that getting a wand was the one thing all new students got excited about.


    Quinn shook his head, but Cedric could see the excitement in his eyes, so he gave Quinn a piece of advice, "When you to Ollivanders, the owner, Ollivander would try to surprise you, so look out for him, okay."


    Quinn tilted his head in confusion for show and nodded.


    By then, Amos Diggory and George had caught up with each other and turned their attention to their children.


    "And, who might you be, little man?" asked Amos Diggory.


    Quinn turned to face Amos and introduced himself. "Morning, My name is Quinn West. It is a pleasure to meet you." Quinn once again put out his for a handshake, and Amos shook his hand with a smile.


    Amos looked at George and asked, "Dear Merlin, Mr. West, I didn''t know you had another grandchild."


    George chuckled and said, "This one doesn''t like to get out of the house."


    The goblin teller called for Quinn and George to take their items, and after that, they parted from the Diggorys.


    As they exited the bank, George told Quinn about Amos Diggory, "Amos Diggory, pureblood, works at Department for the Regtion and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic. Amos is actually part of the Goblin Liason Office. Though it is quite fortunate that he isn''t the head of the Liason office, with his overly emotional personality, the goblins would have eaten him alive." George paused for a moment before stating, "He is barelypetent at his job."


    Quinn thought about the discrimination in the ministry and the purebloods upying most of the high-ranking positions. The half-bloods upied the rest of the high-ranking positions and no muggleborn representation.


    Quinn was a pureblood because neither of his parents and grandparents were non-magicals (muggles) or first-generation magicals (muggleborns). But unlike most of the British pureblood families, West Family wasn''t on their way to inbreeding. Quinn''s grandmother was from France, and his mother from Italy and that had provided the family with sufficient gene diversity.


    George looked at his grandson and smiled, "Come on, let''s get to you all the stuff needed. Especially your wand."


    Quinn grinned broadly in response.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1] - Now, let''s make some things clear. Quinn West is ONE YEAR OLDER than Harry Potter. He was born in 1979 (Harry - 1980) and is starting Hogwarts in 1990 (Harry - 1991).


    *


    A/N [2] - Now, despite the spections about Quinn following Harry, he won''t be doing that. He will be a bit too busy learning magic. But, there will be some interactions that are inevitable. Now, I HAVEN''T actually revealed Quinn''s current magic capabilities, I will reveal them when he officially enters Hogwarts.


    *


    A/N [3] - I am trying to keep this SEMI-realistic. He won''t be as powerful as Dumbledore and Voldemort right off the bat. It would take time. Plus, Quinn WON''T solely focus on COMBAT MAGIC.


    My design for Quinn is of an innovator/researcher. Combat Magic is NOT the only magic avable. I know there is a waring andbat magic would be important, but I still want to focus on "PRODUCTION MAGIC".


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - 11 years Old - About to join Hogwarts.


    George West - Grandfather - Dunked on Gringotts.


    n D. Baddeley - Teacher - Has offered an apprenticeship.


    Amos Diggory - Ministry Employ - Generally happy, but is quite emotional


    Cedric Diggory - Hogwarts Student - 2nd-year student -Looks like his movie actor.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 16 - Diagon Alley, Ollivanders, And The Wand

    As they exited Gringotts, Quinn turned to George and advised, "Grandfather, I want to go to the wand store at the end. If we go there first, I am sure that I won''t pay attention to anything after. I want to go home straight home after we get my wand. Can we do that?"


    George chuckled and replied, "Alright, then we will get your wand at the end. Let''s get you all the stuff needed. Tell me what do we need to buy."??


    Quinn looked at the list of things from his mindscape and listed off things, "First of all, we need cauldrons. The Hogwarts list only asks for a pewter cauldron, but I require a copper and brass one as well. Simrly, we also need to buy stirring spoons of all the same materials. And all the other preparation equipment like knives, crushers, mortars, and pestles. Oh! We also need potion and ingredient vials of different shapes and shades. And atst, we need potion-grade protective gloves and safety goggles."


    George nodded, and the pair went to Potage''s Cauldron Shop to buy the potion supplies. George ordered all the things and told them to deliver them to the West Manor. He also showed Quinn how to use his cheques and pay for things.


    They came out, and George asked, "What is next?"


    "Robes. I need five sets of in work robes in ck, two in pointed hats in ck, and three winter cloak in ck with silver fastenings. In addition, all clothes need a tag with my name on them," replied Quinn.


    "Alright, let''s go to Madam Malkin''s. That shop the best when ites to Hogwarts uniforms," replied George before supplying, "Do you know Madam Malkin''s has been open since the time of my grandfather."


    When they entered the store, an assistant greeted them, "Wee to Madam Malkin''s. How may we help you today?"


    "We need five sets of standard Hogwarts robes and uniforms; please make them in raw silk. Two ck pointed hats, made from a raw silk and cotton blend, and five pairs of white socks. Three sets of sweaters, made from a wool and silk blend. Three sets of winter robes made from your best material." George paused for a moment before adding, "Please line the insides of both summer and winter robes with pockets, and I want individual threads to be charmed with suitable charms instead of the final product."


    The assistant jotted down all the requests and replied, "Certainly, there is a five-minute wait. Please, wait in the seating area. I will call you in when it is your turn."


    George and Quinn sat in the seating area, and Quinn asked, "There was nothing of that mentioned in the letter." George smiled and answered, "If you go to any clothing store, the employees will walk you through the entire process when you ask them for Hogwarts robes. But, it helps if you know the things to expedite the process. Now, all we need for clothing are leather belts. We will get them at another store in Carkitt Market."


    The assistant called Quinn for the measurement, and Madame Malkin used her charmed-measuring tapes to take measures and then asked them to return in half an hour to get their clothes.


    They exited the store and talked about the next course of action, "So, where to next," asked George.


    Quinn thought about it and said, "I already have a telescope, so we don''t need to buy that, so let''s get the leather belt and then pass some time at Flourish and Blotts till the clothes are done, and then go buy me a wand," finished Quinn with a smile on his face.


    "You and your obsession with books," said George while looking at his grandson. "Alright, let''s do that."


    The pair went to a leather essory store to have their belts made and then went to Flourish and Blotts, where Quinn got the biggest shock of his second life.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn entered Flourish and Blotts and left behind George to browse the collection of books in the store. Till now, he had been buying supplementary books with the help of catalogs of various bookstores around the world, so he never needed to visit a bookstore, so he decided to take his browsing through the books.


    While he was browsing through the books, he reached the fiction section and found some books that made himugh as they were fictional books on Harry Potter and his supposed adventures. It was apleted series sold in a set of seven books.


    With a smile on his face, he turned around and saw a stand of newspaper and magazine. He picked up Daily Prophet, which his grandfather termed as ''A joke of a newspaper.'' When he looked at the first page, his body and brain froze.


    On the first page of the Daily Prophet, in bold words, the headline said.


    ¡¸POTTERS SEEN AT THE MINISTRY.¡¹


    Quinn''s jaw dropped when he saw the apanying photo and in it, he saw four people; two adults and two children. He immediately recognized the boy child in the photo as the golden boy, The-Boy-Who-Lived, Chosen One, Harry James Potter, with his sses and the lightning bolt scar on the forehead. He looked like a near-spitting image of the man in the photo who Quinn guessed was the supposed-to-be-dead, James Potter.


    Quinn focused on the other two people in the photo, and while he couldn''t make out the color of thedy''s hair in the ck-and-white photo, Quinn was ready to bet his whole book collection that thedy was Lily Potter (nee. Evans). The only one he didn''t recognize was the girl in the photo. He didn''t know if the girl was a twin or a little sister, but he had to find out about this whole situation,


    ''Merlin''s balls'' is this an AU or parallel universe. No wonder things were going too smoothly; fate was waiting to be a b*tch, and now she struck me with a sledgehammer like this,'' thought Quinn, as he stared intently at the paper.


    He clutched the paper in his hands, and with a quick-thumping heart, power-walked around the store to find books rted to the Boy-who-lived and You-know-who.


    ''I knew these hyphenated bastards were going to make problems for me, but this is ridiculous.'' Quinn came to a sudden stop as he found the book he was looking for.


    ¡¸Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.¡¹


    He nearly ripped the book out of the shelf, opened it to find the index, and found the heading, ''First Wizarding War.'' Quinn sat down in front of the bookshelf and flipped to the chapter about the First Wizarding War.


    As he read it, the book helped clear his doubts. The events were the same canon, but things changed when the war reached the date October 31, 1981.


    On Halloween, in Godric''s Hollows, it wasn''t James and Lily Potter that died, but Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, the grandparents of Harry Potter, who had died. James and Lily Potter were out of the house when Voldemort struck, and in Potter''s house were the grandparents with their grandchildren, the twins, Harry and Ivy Potter.


    Albus Dumbledore dered Harry Potter as the Boy-Who-Lived. The reason wasn''t stated, but Quinn knew it was because of the prophecy and the scar that marked Harry and Voldemort''s equal.


    ''Fleamont and Euphemia Potter didn''t die earlier, so they lived till the war. They died, so the remaining Potters are alive, Harry Potter will no longer be the abused boy in the books. By the looks of the photograph, this isn''t a Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived scenario or a neglect-plot. Now, Harry Potter has a twin sister,'' thought Quinn as he stared at the words in the book.


    He clutched his head and groaned in a whiny tone, "I should have gone to Beauxbatons!" s, the time had passed, yesterday was thest day for booking a seat at either of the institutes, and Quinn couldn''t do shit now.


    Quinn decided to think about this whole situationter as he heard his grandfather call out to him. He put the book back on the shelf and was about to put the newspaper back, but decided to take it with him to the counter. He had questions, and his grandfather was going to answer them.


    Quinn walked to George with the issue of Daily Prophet and showed it to him. "Grandfather, who are these people?" He faced the front page towards George.


    George looked at the paper but showed no particr interest in seeing the Potters in the paper. He stared at the headline and the photo for a moment before saying, "They are the Potters. Don''t worry about them. I was going to tell you about the politicalndscape of Magical Britain this week. We will discuss them during our lessons."


    Quinn nodded as he could wait till tomorrow to get theplete picture. But, there was a difort in the back of his thoughts.


    He decided to move on from the current topic and spoke, "Okay, let''s go collect my clothes and then go buy a wand." Quinn thought that getting a wand would cheer him up.


    George agreed, and the pair collected Quinn''s clothes and moved on to Ollivanders. Ollivanders was narrow and shabby. Even the golden sign on the ce was peeling.


    ¡¸Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC.¡¹


    A single wand sat on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.


    When Quinn entered the shop, a tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop greeted them. He forgot about every warning and scene he had read in various fictions and just took in the quiet vibe of the shop and the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. The thought of thousands of wands in this store was a sight of awe.


    It took a soft, "Good Morning" from behind to snap Quinn out of his daze. Quinn shivered, hearing the voice, and with a frown, looked back to see an old man with wide pale eyes that shown like moons through the gloom of the shop.


    "You must be Mr. Garrick Ollivander. Good morning to you as well. My name is Quinn West, and I am here to buy a wand," like a champ, Quinn stuck out his hand for a handshake.


    Ollivander stared at Quinn''s hand for a moment before shaking it. Then he turned to face George and spoke, "George West. Redwood, thirteen and a half quarters long, flexible, with a dragon heartstring core." Ollivander smiled, thinking about the wand he crafted.


    "Redwood a rare wood which is always in demand because of its reputation for bringing good fortune to its owner, and if we look at Mr. West''s sess in business, that reputation might be true," spoke Garrick Ollivander.


    George took out his wand and said, "It has served me well all these years."


    Ollivander turned back to Quinn and said, "Now, let''s get you a wand, Mr. Quinn West."


    In response to that, Quinn only said, "Your lumency skills must be fantastic." It really was the top thought that came to mind.


    Garrick Ollivander stilled for a second before replying, "Indeed they are Mr. West. I need to remember every wand so that I know how they were crafted. It helps me in maintaining wands crafted by me and is also mighty helpful when I help people find their wands. It helps me when I remember all the thousands of presets to which I can refer to."


    Ollivander stepped closer to Quinn and asked, "You wand arm?"


    Quinn held out his right hand, and Ollivander measured Quinn from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit, and round his head. As he measured, Ollivander said,


    "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. West. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and dragon heartstrings. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such excellent results with another wizard''s wand."


    Ollivander stepped away from Quinn to retrieve some wands as his measuring tape continued to do its thing.


    "That will do," said Ollivander as the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. West. Try this one. Elm and hair from a unicorn''s mane. Eleven inches. Nice and rigid. Just take it and give it a wave."


    Quinn took the wand in hand and swung, but nothing happened, and Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.


    "Ebony and unicorn, flexible. Please, do try." Once again, there was no feeling from Quinn. And, Ollivander snatched it back and put it back into its box.


    He offered another wand before snatching it away, "Unicorn hair doesn''t work for you, Mr. West."


    Quinn shrugged in response, and Ollivander moved around Quinn to find something before handing him another wand, but it also failed, and after a lot of giving and snatching from Ollivander, he finally offered Quinn a wand that worked.


    "Please try this one. Acacia wood with phoenix tail feather. Fourteen inches long, rigid flexibility," offered Ollivander and the second Quinn held the wand, the wand glowed.


    Ollivander smiled and started with his patented line, "The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. West. And, this wand has chosen you. Acacia is a very unusual wand wood, which I have found creates tricky wands that often refuse to produce magic for any but their owner and also withhold their best effects from all but those most gifted. Whereas Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own ord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when ites to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken, one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalize, and their allegiance is usually hard-won."


    Ollivander stared without blinking at one of his works in Quinn''s hand and spoke, "This results in a wand with the stringiest condition to master, and that kind of wand has chosen you. Be proud, Mr. West."


    George simply smiled as they saw Quinn stare at his wand. It was his grandson''s first wand and if, Quinn was lucky, the only wand.


    But Quinn was not smiling. He wasn''t even feeling happy. Quinn''s current feeling could be most closely described as pure dread. The moment he held the wand, it filled him with an intoxicating feeling. The wand provided him with magic focusing abilities far more potent than his natural capabilities. But, he also felt the threat the wand brought him.


    Quinn''s entire being was screaming at him, warning him that if he continued to use the wand, his natural focus would stop growing at his current speed, and it woulde to a teau. With time it would be more and more difficult to perform focusless magic. His instincts were screaming at him to drop the wand at the very moment.


    It took Quinn every ounce of his self-learned emotional aspect lumency to detach himself from his overflowing emotions to look up at Ollivander. He did not forget to put up a smile before asking, "Do you sell wand holster and wand maintenance kits, Mr. Ollivander?"


    After Ollivander sold Quinn his wand, holster, and maintenance kit, he shooed them out of the shop.


    Quinn could still feel the wand in the holster on his side. All he wanted to do was to reach the West Manor and get away from the wand.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn and George reached home, and after showing everyone the wand, every second of which was very despairing for Quinn.


    The second Quinn reached his room, he shut and locked the door, then threw the wand with the holster on the bed, and stared at it from a distance while sitting in front of his study table.


    His heart was still beating at a higher rate than usual.


    Quinn was feeling two opposite feelings at the same time. He was feeling despair from the consequences of using a wand, but at the same time, he still wanted to hold the wand and feel the heightened control over his magic.


    For Quinn, the wand was a poison. A sweet poison, but a poison nevertheless.


    At that moment, Quinn realized why magical focuses had taken over the world.


    After what felt like days but were only a few minutes, Quinn made his decision. He opened the window to his room and then ran out of his room to the backyard. In the backyard, Quinn retrieved a small log of wood. He levitated it to the area outside of his room window. Then he sent the log of wood into his room via the open window.


    In his room, Quinn set the log of wood on the floor. He was going to use his favorite branch of magic on the log of wood,


    ¡¸Transmutation.¡¹


    Transmutation was the magic of altering the state of a substance. By using Transmutation, one could manipte and alter matter by using magic. Transmutation was a two-step process; Deconstruction and Reconstruction.


    Unlike Transfiguration, where you could change an object into anotherpletely different object regardless of the material, Transmutation only allowed to change the structure of a material. This meant that it could only turn a log of wood into a wooden object.


    But, the advantage of Transmutation over Transfiguration was that transmutated objects didn''t sacrifice structural integrity and quality and the magic was permanent. Transumutated objects remained in the new shape indefinitely, whereas transfigured objects always turned back into their original form when the magic wore off.


    Quinn knelt in front of the log of wood and touched it to use the magic. He knew the inherent structure and properties of the wood.


    Quinn used deconstruction to break down the physical structure of wood into a more malleable state to be easily reshaped into a new form. Then he used reconstruction to reshape it into a wooden box with the same shape as the wand boxes at Ollivanders, with an indent in the exact shape of Quinn''s new wand inside the box.


    [A/N: Simr (key: simr) to Transmutation in Full Metal Alchemist, but I will be limiting the capabilities. A watered-down version of FMA''s Transmutation. I am not categorizing it under Alchemy. Harry Potter''s Alchemy is closer to potion brewing.]


    He looked at the wand on the bed and levitated it into the wooden box, fitting it inside the wand-shaped indent, wincing while doing it as his magicing in contact with the wand was enough for Quinn to feel the temptation of the wand''s abilities.


    He shut the lid on the new housing for his wand, picked it up, and ced it in the deepest corner of his cupboard.


    Quinn exhaled a sigh of relief, but he knew that the work wasn''tplete. He needed to craft a recement for his wand. With the remaining log of wood, he crafted a replica of his wand.


    Quinn''s new wand had an extremely simple design. It was a rtively thick wand with a very low difference in the radius of the tip and butt of the wand. The only design on the wand was a criss-cross pattern etched into the wood for better grip. Other than that, the wand was bare.


    Quinn picked his replica and casted the color-changing charm toplete the look. Now, he held a nk piece of wood shaped into a wand that he bought today and had held for just a few minutes. On the very first day of buying a wand, Quinn had locked the real wand into a box and ced a replica into his newly bought holster.


    As Quinn copsed on his bed, he only had a single thought,


    ''Today was a terrible day.''


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1]: I have corrected Cedric''s age in the previous chapter.


    A/N [2]: Once again, FMA''s Transmutation is not the same as my version of Transmutation. And, I am not ssifying it under Alchemy. Harry Potter''s Alchemy is more like potion brewing.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - 11 Years Old - Current thoughts, "Fate is a B*tch".


    George West - Grandfather - Rosewood wand = Super rich.


    Garrick Ollivander - Wandmaker - "Wand chooses the Wizard."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 17 - Political Landscape Of Magical Britain

    Quinn didn''t sleep well at night after buying the wand. Even after his usual routine of exhausting his magic that leaves him dead tired at night, he couldn''t sleep. Knowing that there was a wand in his cupboard kept him up all night. Quinn spent the whole night staring at the cupboard or trying to look away from the cupboard.


    There were times when Quinn sat up on his bed and was tempted to open up the cupboard and take out the wand and hold it one more time. The temptation of once more feeling the heightened focus gripped Quinn all night, but in the end, Quinn didn''t open the cupboard and didn''t see the wand.??


    He could only get a brief rest after the sun came up.


    The next day, Quinn had to pretend to be all giddy and joyous for finally getting his wand. In the morning, Quinn, before exiting his room, wore his wand holster with the fake-wand replica in it. He had to y the part of the cheerful kid who got his wand.


    So he did. Quinn pranced around the house, showing off his fake-wand to all the people and swinging it, pretending to cast spells with whoosh-whoosh noises.


    To distract himself, he threw himself into all his usual activities. He kept himself busy. That day, he yed the piano and his second instrument, the Violin. He practiced ballroom dancing. Brewed potions and tended to the herb garden. Researched lumency/legilimency to create an alternative model of defenses to practice against. And practiced other fields of magic. Anything to keep himself from having free time.


    It wasn''t till the evening when Quinn was called into his grandfather''s study. When he entered George''s study, Quinn asked, "Why have you called for me, grandfather?"


    George gestured to Quinn to take a seat before speaking, "We would be discussing the politicalndscape of Britain and the notable families inside Britain."


    Quinn''s eyes widened as he had forgotten all about it. The wand incident had taken all his attention, and the realization that this world maybe being an alternate universe or a parallel universe hadpletely slipped his mind.


    "Ah, yes. I hadpletely forgotten about that. What was the name I saw in the newspaper? Potters, was it?" said Quinn, slowly shifting his attention from the wand incident to this topic.


    George nodded and started, "Yes, the Potters, but we wille to themter. First, let''s talk about the creation of Magical Britain." When Quinn nodded, George continued, "The Ministry of Magic is the main governing body of the magicalmunity of Great Britain and Irnd, with the intention of preservation of magicalw. The ministry also connects the British non-magical government to the magical world."


    Quinn nodded as he already knew that.


    "But, before Ministry Of Magic, there was another governing body. The name was the Wizards'' Council. Upon establishing the International Statute of Magical Secrecy in 1692, the British magicalmunity needed a more highly structured, organized, andplex government structure to support and regte themunity in hiding. Thus, in 1707, the Wizards'' Council disbanded to be reced by the Ministry of Magic."


    George then exined something about the Wizard''s Council, "You see, the same group of people ran Wizards'' Council for centuries, and the positions on the Wizards'' Council were hereditary. So, they dubbed those families as The Noble and Most Ancient Houses."


    Quinn nodded with interest. He hadn''t known the reason behind the creation of The Noble and Most Ancient House.


    "Now, when the Ministry Of Magic was founded, the ministry dubbed plenty more influential families as Noble Houses," exined George. "Now, you might wonder what this has to do with anything. The thing is that many The Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Noble Houses hold positions in Wizengamot."


    The Wizengamot was Magical Britain''s high court ofw and parliament and predated the Ministry of Magic itself. Dating back to the days of the medieval Wizards'' Council. And currently had a lot of power in the governing of magical Britain.


    "Please note that not all The Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Noble Houses hold positions in Wizengamot, but all the families that upy seats hold the title of The Noble and Most Ancient Houses or Noble Houses."


    George opened a book and showed him a crest, "This is the crest of the Weasley family, and they are a Noble House, but they don''t hold a seat in Wizengamot." He flipped a page and showed another crest, "Burke is a Noble and Most Ancient House, and they don''t hold a seat in Wizengamot."


    He closed the book and continued, "The point is that families can hold power in the Wizengamot, and they are very active in politics. Another noticeable point is that the title of Noble and Most Ancient House can''t be revoked, but the title of the Noble House can be revoked."


    George leaned back into his chair and stated, "Our family could have gained a title of Noble family if desired," then he snorted, "But, we don''t really need it. It is frighteningly easy to get things done in the British Ministry of Magic if you have money, which we have in plenty."


    George once again flipped some pages and showed him another crest, "Look at Malfoys; they have the minister in his pockets and spend plenty of money to remain in political power. In the past, they bought themselves the title of the noble family. Neither I, nor my predecessors saw the merit in getting a seat in the Wizengamot. So we never tried to gain the title of a noble family. If you or Lia want to gain the title, then we can just shed some money, and we would have the title, but I would advise against it."


    He then opened another page of the book in front of him and showed him a tally, "Every decision in the Wizengamot is decided by voting. You need a clear majority to pass a bill. Heads of titled families have one (1) vote each in the Wizengamot. The minister holds the highest of five (5) votes. Every head of a department in the ministry has two (2) votes. Chief Warlock of Wizengamot has three (3) votes. Finally, the headmaster of Hogwarts holds one (1) vote."


    George ced a nk sheet of paper on the table. Drew a circle on it and then divided it into three parts. With a swing of his wands, one part turned ck, the other part turned grey, and the third part remained nk.


    "I divide the current politicalndscape into three factions; Dark, Grey, and Light. The Dark faction is pure-blood supremacists and tries to keep the power within the purebloodmunity. The Light faction tries to keep the power away from the Dark faction and their pureblood propaganda. They have a Liberal mindset that supports half-bloods and muggleborns. The Grey faction acts with the motive of self-interest; they would support anyone if they are benefiting. But, they also keep the other two factions at bay. The Grey faction rejects any oundish, extremist ideas from either party. This is assuring because I hear some really ridiculous ideas presented at the Wizengamot."


    Quinn stayed silent and just took in the information provided by George.


    "Now, before we dive into the leaders of the factions. I would like to talk to you about the Wizarding War from 1970 to 1981. In that war, a dark lord rallied the pureblood supremacists and dered a war against the muggles and muggleborn. He took advantage of one of the wizarding world''s greatest weaknesses: the beings and creatures they had outcast. The Dark Lord recruited the giants, who had long ago been driven by magical humans into the mountains, and werewolves, who were persecuted by most magic kind." George exined in detail about the war.


    Then George looked at Quinn and said, "People even feared saying the name of the dark lord, and called You-Know-Who or The-One-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Do you know why people feared saying his name?"


    Quinn shook his head, even though he knew the reason behind the hyphenated alternatives.


    "The Taboo is a powerful spell, which designated a word as a key to revealing the speaker''s location. They used this spell during the War. During the said war, saying the dark lord''s name was made Taboo." George solemnly continued, "I had already left Britain with your parents and newly born sister, so we were never near the war, but even then, we would hear stories of people getting captured by the dark lord''s Death Eaters."


    George wrote the words on the paper and recited the name on the sheet, "The name of the dark lord was Voldemort."


    Quinn knew the name was an anagram from Voldemort''s real name; Tom Marvolo Riddle.


    "Then on 31 October 1981, Halloween, the dark lord died at Godric''s Hollow. He died at the hands of a one-year-old babe. The name of that babe was Harry Potter, poprly known as the Boy-Who-Lived. But, not before killing off Harry Potter''s grandparents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter," George sighed once before continuing. "I wouldn''t call Fleamont and Euphemia friends, but they were easy to do business with. I lost potential business that day. Their son, James Potter, isn''t one bit interested in business."


    Quinn nodded. It was surprising that his grandfather had contact with the Potters. But when taking in the fact that his grandfather had his hands in every possible business opportunity in Britain, it made sense that he knew many people. Potters were, as George said, business opportunities.


    "From that day onwards, Potter became extremely famous, and Harry Potter became the savior of Magical Britain. That fame hassted till this day, as the Potters used that fame to enter politics and rallied all the Light families under the Light faction. Currently, the light faction is led by Albus Dumbledore. You must know this name, correct?"


    Quinn affirmed, "Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He also holds seats in Wizengamot as Chief Warlock, Head of the Noble House of Dumbledore, and the headmaster of Hogwarts," he paused for a second before continuing, "Doesn''t that make his vote count equal to the minister''s five votes."


    George chuckled, "Yes, it does. Albus Dumbledore works hard to keep all those positions. Along with his five votes, the entire Light faction''s support, and all their votes. Potters follow him, and so does the rest of the Light faction. We can say Albus Dumbledore is the Light faction."


    Quinn thought about something he wanted to ask, "Do we have some business in Hogwarts?"


    George''s eyes sparkled and enthusiastically answered, "Yes, we do. We own Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop in Hogsmeade, so all the school stationery for all Hogwart''s students and professors is supplied by us. Plus, we also cater a portion of the school''s potion ingredient and food supplies."


    Quinn nodded and curiously asked, "Why do Hogwarts still use quills and parchment instead of pen and paper?"


    "I truly do not know, but they don''t want to change, so we supply what they demand," George spoke while shrugging. "I guess they are trying to keep up an old tradition alive, or maybe they don''t want to adopt non-magical advancement."


    George bought back the conversation to the track and spoke, "Now, let''s talk about the Dark faction. The dark faction is the remnants of the dark lord''s Death Eaters," George scoffed, "After the war, most of them pleaded the case of being under the influence of Imperius Curse, and with a lot of bribery, Wizengamot acquitted them with heavy fines that went into ministry coffers. During the war, the dark lord led the Dark faction, but before the war, the dominant force was the Noble and Most Ancient House of ck. They were in power since Wizards'' Council''s time. But, in the war, most of the ck family either died or imprisoned. Only two people of ck family are still in ck House, Arcturus ck (A/N, below) and Sirius ck. Arcturus ck is extremely weak, and no one has seen him since the war, I saw him after we returned from our tour, we talked some business. Sirius ck spends his time at the Auror Office or with the Potters among the Light faction. Thatd is close friends with James Potter, plus Sirius ck is also disowned by the ck family. There are some more cks, but they are married or disowned."


    Quinn wasn''t surprised when he heard Sirius ck was out and not in Azkaban because if the Potters were alive, they would have spoken for Sirius at his hearing. That probably meant that Peter Pettigrew was either in Azkaban or maybe even dead.


    George sneered before flipping some pages and showed Quinn another crest, "Now, Malfoys lead the Dark faction, they were the main sponsors of the dark lord after the cks, and with so much money funneled into the corrupt ministry, the Malfoys got out scot-free. Now, they are in power because a lot of Dark families had to pay a lot for getting out of Azkaban, and Malfoys were the best prepared for it, so they are the strongest among the Dark faction in the post-war times."


    Malfoys in power was not surprising as the power of money was very potent in Magical Britain. Malfoys had the minister in his pocket. And, from listening to George, the West family also had a considerable amount of money in the ministry.


    "Now, thest faction is the Grey Faction, with the Noble and Most Ancient House of Greengrass leading them. Jacob Greengrass is a cunning man. He is a smart man and an excellent leader. After the war, he held the Grey faction together without any internal turmoil, and just like me, he saw the profit after the war subsided. I was a little upset when he tried topete with me for resources, post-war. He and Lucius Malfoy are the two people who can rival my business in Britain," Georgeughed and spoke as if looking down on the two heads of houses. "But, that only means that they earn as much as our business in Britain. They wouldn''t even touch the soles of my feet if I took into ount our business from overseas."


    Quinn held back a hell yeah and just smiled as he listened to his grandfather boasting about his earnings and aplishment as hepared himself to two men who would be younger than Quinn''s father if he was still alive.


    George closed the book of crests, and he was back to his usual stoic self, and with a caution staining his voice and words, he warned, "Beware of Albus Dumbledore, anytime I have met the man, he has tried to get me to join his cause. The man had tried to make me sponsor his vignte group before I left the country, and when I returned, he once again tried to get his hands in my wallet by trying to have me sponsor the Light faction. Albus Dumbledore is too maniptive, and even though I am no stranger to maniption, I just don''t like it when it is done against me. Your future headmaster holds too much power, which might haven''t been bad, if he was putting it to good use, and even if his reputation is positive and people think that he is the next big thing since Merlin, that man has been through two wars and was at the forefront in both of them. If I have learned anything from my father, then it is that war changes people; think what two wars could do to a person."


    Quinn solemnly nodded as even without his warning, Quinn was going to avoid Albus Dumbledore. From what Quinn had read in the books, the man was treated like a person who could do no wrong and had the following of a cult leader.


    Quinn didn''t want to approach the headmaster even if he offered to teach him alchemy, as Quinn was a hundred percent sure that it woulde with a catch. After all, Albus Dumbledore once was romantically involved with Gellert Grindelwald. Quinn was sure some maniptive tendencies were rubbed onto Dumbledore from Grindelwald.


    Or was it the other way around?


    For the rest of the month, Quinn learned from George about the ins-and-outs of the politicalndscape of Magical Britain. Except for Albus Dumbledore, George didn''t warn Quinn to stay away from anyone. As long as Quinn understood that blood supremacy was false and stupid, it was okay to build connections with children from Death Eater/Dark faction families. George said that Quinn could make friends with anyone who wasn''t after money.


    Quinn spent his remaining time before Hogwarts with his family and practicing magic. He wasn''tfortable with free time as he ended up thinking of the wand in his cupboard, and Quinn made sure to only spend time in his room for sleeping and when Quinn wanted to browse books from his bookshelves, but other than that, he spent time away from his wand.


    On 1 September 1990, it was time for Quinn to leave home to start his journey of learning magic at Hogwarts.


    .


    (End of Volume One: Pre-Hogwarts)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*- PLEASE READ -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1]: NO! Albus Dumbledore won''t be bat shit crazy. He WON''T be Evil (with capital E). He would keep his cards close to his chest. He will beplicated. As I generally wing it when ites to the finer details of the plot as I write, I don''t know what will be Dumbledore''s final personality.


    I generally don''t like when SI-OC (at least when they are young) in HPmunicate with Dumbledore right off the bat. He willmunicate with Dumbledore when Quinn gets confident enough in facing Dumbledore (Hint: Quinn''s confidence is tied to his magical prowess. Part of his personality)


    *


    A/N [2]: I don''t know if Ivy Potter (Harry''s OC Sister) will be a romantic interest. My current purpose of creating her is because of Harry''s new personality (He won''t be the canon personality, but he won''t be spoiled. He will be a prankster/bully but with Lily''s influence he will be a slightly smarter version of James Potter.)


    With Harry''s new personality, Hermione Granger might not join to form the Golden Trio, but I am going to use Ivy Potter to fix that somehow. R.I.P Golden Trio.


    *


    A/N [3]: Arcturus ck is Sirius ck''s grandfather. He is NOT an OC character. He is a CANON character. He is alive at this point in time in the CANON. So, I mentioned him here.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 18 - Platform 9?, Hogwarts Express, And The Castle

    Quinn smiled as he looked around the room he was standing in. Quinn was experiencing pure joy. It was for the first time since buying the wand that he had felt this level of delight.


    He was currently standing in a room that was filled with bookshelves. They were empty bookshelves. Not a single book could be found in the bookshelves around Quinn.??


    Quinn walked to a staircase and climbed up to another floor with more empty bookshelves. Quinn had a smile on his face, and his hands behind his back strolled among the rows of bookshelves.


    He reached a part on the second level where there was an opening in the floor. The opening had wooden railings surrounding it. From that opening, Quinn could see down to the first floor. Just below the opening was a huge, heavy wood table for studying in the library.


    Quinn leaned against the railing as he exhaled out a sigh of happiness. He was currently standing in a two-floor library, a library which was inside a suitcase. A suitcase that was magically expanded.


    Where did Quinn get it? It was a gift from Lia, she hadmissioned a magically expanded suitcase from a famous suitcase maker in America. It reminded Quinn of Newt Scamander''s suitcase.


    After exploring the whole suitcase, he found that it housed a huge two-story library, a potion room with multiple workbenches and ingredient cabs. It had arge walk-in closet for all his clothes, he also saw a fully furnished bedroom, if he wanted to sleep in the suitcase. And so manyrge empty rooms for Quinn to customizedter.


    The suitcase didn''t have the option to support growing vegetation like Newt Scamander''s, but Quinn was content with that as he wasn''t nning to store different beasts inside it or grow potion ingredients inside. He had been quite happy to know that he could carry all his books from around the world with him.


    The ministry highly regted this kind of expansion charm, but George had managed to get approval for the suitcase. And even if someone wanted to check his suitcase, it had a feature that it would hide all the rooms except the few designated rooms. Quinn was grateful for this feature as he knew in the future there would be quite a few books the ministry would ssify as dark in his collection after he copied the books from the restricted section of Hogwarts and the books he could find in the Room Of Requirements. He didn''t want his precious source of knowledge to be confiscated.


    He was also grateful Lia hadn''t provided him more than the bare minimum. Quinn was going to develop this suitcase on his own and turn it into his own ce. He was sure it would give a substantial amount of satisfaction when he would fill every room in this suitcase for a specific purpose. Quinn saw the development of the suitcase as a long-term project.


    Quinn then transferred all his books to the library, stored all of his new Hogwarts clothes and other clothes in the closet, and put all the other things he would need in Hogwarts into the suitcases. One example was reams upon reams of paper for his own note-taking. Quinn found parchment paper to be a little thick for his taste, and if not charmed, would shrink and expand with heat and humidity.


    And finally, Quinn ced a cuboidal block of wood in the center of an empty room in the suitcase. The block of wood held Quinn''s wand. Quinn had encased his wand in the block of wood. It wasn''t a box or container; it was just a block of wood with Quinn''s wand in the middle of it.


    He had transmuted the wood to surround his wand and shaped it into a cuboid, and just for safety measure, he had etched the words, ''Do not touch,'' on the block of wood. He wasn''t ever going to let someone close to the wand container. But in the unlikely event someone got close to it, he etched the words so that they wouldn''t touch it. Plus, he would ward and enchant both the block of wood and room when he got enough skills to pull it off.


    Before exiting the suitcase, Quinn locked the door and never looked back.


    - (Scene Break) -


    On 1 September 1990, Quinn, Lia, and George reached tform Nine and Three-Quarters. It was fun when Quinn ran into the wall barrier and passed right through it to enter tform Nine and Three-Quarters. There was an apparition point inside the tform, but Quinn wanted to go through the wall, so they entered the tform from the non-magical (muggle) side.


    Quinn didn''t attract any attention as he only had a suitcase with him, and that too was shrunken down by Lia to look like a briefcase. Unlike many other students, he didn''t have to carry pet cages, cauldrons, and other big things outside of the suitcase. Plus, all three members were wearing appropriate clothing, so there wasn''t a problem on their part, and ministry employees were stationed around the train station to fire memory charms to alter memories of the people who noticed the weird presence of owls in cages on carts.


    The sight of the inside of the tform Nine and Three-Quarters was just as the books had described. The same scarlet steam engine train, with Hogwarts students and their guardians on the tform. When he looked up, he saw the overhead-sign that read Hogwarts Express, Eleven O''clock.


    Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd. While cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.


    As Quinn and his family had arrived early, and only a few carriages were filled, and he could see students hanging out of the window to talk to their families.


    Quinn asked Lia to undo the shrinking charm by using the counter-charm, engorgement charm. And then turned to both of his family members and said, "I guess I will see you at Christmas."


    George knelt on one knee and hugged Quinn, "If you have any problem, just owl me, and I will be there to help you. Don''t hesitate to ask for help." With onest squeeze, George released Quinn and stood up.


    Quinn faced Lia, and she too hugged Quinn and spoke, "Don''t follow strangers, ask for help if you have any problem, don''t feel pressured to do anything you don''t want to, and don''t do dangerous stuff. Study hard, but don''t forget to have fun. Finally, write me a letter every day."


    Quinnughed while hugging her back, "I can do one letter a week." Lia also chuckled and murmured, "You better."


    Quinn also hugged them once from his side and spoke, "Now, don''t keep standing here. I don''t want to keep waving goodbye to you till the train leaves, so leave immediately."


    Lia chuckled and ruffled Quinn''s hair a little too roughly, which elicited a swat on her hand from Quinn, who immediately fixed his hair.


    Quinn lifted up his suitcase and then boarded the train. The moment he was inside the train and out of Lia and George''s sight, he casted a Feather-Light charm on the suitcase and wove through the crowd until he found an emptypartment in the middle of the train.


    Quinn entered thepartment and levitated the suitcase onto the overhead luggage rack. Quinn thought of locking thepartment but decided against it.


    Quinn sat down next to the window and gazed outside, watching multitudes of students and parents. He saw a huge red-head family stumbling onto the tform, hurrying to the tform as the Hogwarts Express was about to depart. He recognized the Weasley Family; the two parents, Author and Molly, one mid-teen boy, who Quinn guessed was Charles, a pair of twins, Fred and George, another tween boy, Ron, and a little girl, Ginny.


    Quinn heard a knock on his door, and when he turned to look, there was a girl, same age as him, standing at the door. She opened the door and asked, "Hey, can I sit here? The rest of thepartments are either filled or people who are saving seats for friends. I can''t find a seat."


    Quinn nodded and stood up to help the girl with her luggage.


    "Thank you, my name is Katie Bell," said the girl.


    It inwardly surprised Quinn for a split second before he introduced himself, "You are wee. My name is Quinn West. First-year?" He also put out a hand for a handshake.


    Katie Bell shook Quinn''s hand and replied, "Yes, what about you?"


    Quinn nodded and spoke while returning to his seat, "I am a first-year as well. Please take a seat."


    Katie took the seat opposite Quinn, next to the window, "So, are you excited for Hogwarts?"


    Quinn smiled and replied, "Indeed, I am. It would be fun to live in the castle. I read that the grand staircase in Hogwarts is ever-changing. An entire flight of stairs that was charmed to move and change paths."


    Katie was amazed, and with plenty of excitement apanied by slight fear in her voice, she asked, "Really! That is mad, but what happens if someone falls from it?"


    Quinn put a hand on his chin before pondering out loud, "I am not sure, but I have heard that the steps of the grand staircase can sink to trap people. Maybe the staircase traps people who are about to fall, or maybe the professors have set some measures." Quinn smiled before saying, "Hogwarts is proud to say that they have zero stairs-rted deaths."


    Katie giggled at the joke.


    "What about you, Ms. Bell? What are you most excited about?" Quinn asked as he set up an elbow on the table in between them.


    Katie''s eyes sparkled as she babbled, "Quidditch! I love Quidditch. I want to join a Quidditch team." She had a dreamy look on her face as she talked on and on about Quidditch. Though Katie did stop after a while when she realized she had been speaking without stopping.


    "Sorry about that. I got too excited," Katie blushed in embarrassment as she apologized.


    "Don''t mind it, so you said you want to join a team. Which houses'' team do you want to join?" asked Quinn as he tried to ease her embarrassment.


    "My mother was from Gryffindor, and my father was a Hufflepuff, so I am fine with either of the two. What about you?"


    Quinn shrugged as he talked, "I am cool with either of the four houses. My parents didn''t attend Hogwarts, but my grandfather did, and he was in Slytherin. But, he said that all houses are good, so I will be good with any of the four."


    Katie nodded and continued to talk with him. It didn''t surprise Quinn that Katie didn''t show any dislike when Quinn mentioned that his grandfather was from Slytherin. Not all children were raised up like Weasleys and grew up with prejudice against Slytherin part of their life.


    An hour into the ride, the Trolleydy came knocking on the door and asked, "Anything off the cart, dears?"


    Quinn hopped off from his seat and picked a chocte bar from the trolley. He turned to Katie, "Do you want something?"


    Katie gazed at the trolley and said, "Two Cauldron Cakes, please."


    Quinn nodded and paid for a chocte bar and two cauldron cakes, and before the Trolleydy left, he asked, "Ma''am, when would the Buffet Cart open?"


    The trolleydy smile and informed, "It will be open from one-thirty and would remain open for two hours, dear."


    "Thank you," Quinn thanked before closing the door and walking back to his seat and ced Katie''s cauldron cakes on the table.


    Katie handed Quinn the money for the cauldron cakes and asked, "What is the Buffet Car?"


    Quinn ced the chocte bar aside and exined, "The train ride is long, so the students must get hungry, and just sweets won''t help, so there is a car on the train where you can buy lunch. It is actually written on the backside of the ticket."


    "It is?!" Katie said as she fished out her Hogwarts Express ticket and looked at the backside. "Oh, there it is! You are correct. Hogwarts Express provides lunch for students on the Buffet car of the train. Why is the print so small?"


    After having lunch, Quinn bought out one of n''s books on lumency from his suitcase when Katie was out of theirpartment and started reading it.


    Quinn started reading, and sometimeter, he heard the door open up and Katie standing at the door. She looked at Quinn but didn''t enter.


    "What is it, Ms. Bell?" asked Quinn.


    "Hey, I made a friend and was thinking if she could join us," said Katie. Quinn saw no problem with it, so he nodded, but he was impressed by Katie''s ability to make friends. Even when they visited the buffet car, she started talking with a group of people she had just met.


    A minute enteredter, Katie entered thepartment with another girl. Once again, Quinn helped with the luggage and got a thank you in return.


    "Hello, my name is Cho Chang. Nice to meet you," introduced the new girl.


    For the second time today, Quinn felt surprised hearing the name and thought, ''What are the chances to meet two named characters before even entering Hogwarts.''


    Quinn offered his hand for a handshake while introducing himself, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Chang. My name is Quinn West, first year."


    Cho shook Quinn''s hand and added, "Me too." Referring to her status as a first-year student.


    The three students sat down and talked for a while before Quinn went back to his book, while Katie and Cho continued to talk to each other.


    After a couple of hours, Quinn looked at the time in his pocket watch and turned to the two girls, "Hey, the train will be reaching Hogwarts soon. We should change into our uniforms."


    Both girls nodded, and they decided that one by one, they would change in theirpartment, while the other two would wait outside and guard thepartment.


    All three of them changed into their uniforms, and now they truly looked like first-year students. Unlike all older students, the first-year students'' robes, pre-sorting didn''t have house colors and crests. Their neckties and other clothing alsocked house colors.


    Just before reaching Hogwarts, a voice echoed through the train, "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."


    Quinn''s heart started beating faster, and when he looked around, he saw both Katie and Cho were looking nervous as they joined the crowd thronging the corridor.


    The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark tform. Quinn shivered in the chilly night air but slowly felt himself warm up because of the charms spelled into each thread of his clothes.


    Then amp came bobbing over the students'' heads, and Quinn heard a booming voice. "First years! First years over here!"


    Quinn saw a towering person, who he could only identify as the half-giant, Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts'' Keeper of Keys and Grounds.


    "Come on, follow me ¡ª any more first years? Mind your step, now! First years follow me!" ordered Hagrid in his booming voice.


    After a couple of minutes of following Hagrid, they finally saw the infamous Hogwarts'' castle. The sight of the castle took Quinn''s breath away. He had seen many sights during his travel, and he could confidently say that the illuminated Hogwarts'' castle was one of the most mesmerizing sights he had seen. Even nature seemed to be helping the castle as a few momentster, the moon emerged from the clouds and bathed the castle with moonlight.


    "No more than four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Quinn got on a boat and helped both Katie and Cho get on the boat. A fourth person didn''t enter their boat.


    "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then ¡ª FORWARD!"


    And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across theke which was as smooth as ss. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.


    "Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads, and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they mbered out onto rocks and pebbles.


    Then they mbered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid''smp,ing out atst onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge oak front door.


    "Everyone here?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.


    Quinn''s heart mmed against his chest as he waited for the door to open.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1]: I am LAZY, so I just used Katie and Cho as Quinn''spanions on the train. Haven''t thought of OCpanions just yet.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Student of Hogwarts - "Hogwarts Express has sentience."


    Katie Bell - Student of Hogwarts - Extrovert - "Friends? I have a lot of friends."


    Cho Chang - Student of Hogwarts - Nervous - Hogwarts is beautiful.


    Trolly Lady - Employ of Honeydukes - "Sales are always good on Hogwarts Express"


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 19 - Sorting Ceremony, The Hat, And Dormitory

    The door swung open at once. A tall, ck-haireddy in dark maroon robes stood there. She had a very stern face which reminded Quinn of his grandfather when he was serious. And Quinn knew who thisdy was.


    "The first years are here, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.??


    The sterndy, now identified as Professor Minerva McGonagall, Hogwarts'' transfiguration teacher, nodded and spoke, "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."


    She pulled the door wide to the entrance hall, which was absolutely enormous. The stone walls were lit with ming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.


    The gaggle of first years followed behind Professor McGonagall across the gged stone floor. They reached a doorway, and Quinn could hear the drone of hundreds of voices.


    ''That must be the Great Hall,'' thought Quinn as Professor McGonagall lead them into a small, empty chamber off the hall. Quinn felt a little ufortable as the first years huddle together with each other a little too close than he wasfortable with. All of them were peering about nervously.


    "Wee to Hogwarts," said McGonagall as she spoke to the nervous first years. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a crucial ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have sses with the rest of your house, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend your free time in your Housemon room."


    She stood a little straighter, and with a hint on her face, she continued, "The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history, and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house bes yours."


    Quinn resisted the urge to snort in McGonagall''s face. The house point system was a rouse implemented by the school administration to keep the students in check through peer pressure. No student who cared about their social life wouldn''t want to lose points and face the wrath of their fellow students, and even those who didn''t care about what others thought trod lightly in fear of being bullied. All in all, it was a fantastic system that kept in check most people other than a few exceptions like the Weasley Twins.


    Even Quinn wasn''t an exception, as he didn''t want to stand in the limelight among his peers. The life of poprity wasn''t Quinn''s cup of tea. He just wanted to learn magic in peace. And the poprity would hinder his ability to move around the castle, though the twins had no difficulty moving around, so maybe there was a workaround.


    ''Well, they do have the Marauder''s map,'' thought Quinn as he paid attention to what McGonagall was saying.


    "The Sorting Ceremony will take ce in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered on a few peoples'' clothes, silently telling them to smarten themselves up.


    "I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." finished Professor McGonagall before leaving the chamber.


    Quinn looked at his clothes, and with a slight use of magic, his clothes straightened up. He then turned to Katie and Cho, "Hey, how do I look?"


    Both the girls looked over Quinn. He had jet-ck hair and stone-grey eyes; he styled his hair in a simple-yet-neat Ivy League hairstyle. He had been taught to take good care of his body, so nothing felt out of ce. He was tall for his age, and because of years of posture training, his bodynguage exuded confidence. His clothes, even though a simple school uniform, looked good on him. Finally, Quinn wasfortable with his own skin, and that added anotheryer of charm.


    Both girls nodded and gave him thumbs-up, and in return, Quinnplimented them.


    "You two also look good. So, please don''t be nervous. Everything will be fine, and every house would be happy to have guys. I am sure that you would get into the house you want." Quinnplimented the girls and said words offort to calm them down. He could see that most of the first-year were nervous being sorted in front of the whole school, and some didn''t even know the sorting process.


    Quinn''s words did work to some extent as he saw both of them calm down a little, but there was still a little nervousness left which was natural knowing that they would be walking inside the hall while the entire school would be looking at them.


    Then came the parade of ghosts, followed by screams from several students who had never seen a ghost. Quinn found ghosts interesting as they were conclusive evidence of the existence of the soul. A ghost was the imprint of the soul of a once-living wizard or witch. And as such, they were a type of spirit who are either afraid of death or have some powerful connection to the locations they haunt.


    McGonagall returned to the chamber and shooed away the ghosts, "Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony''s about to start."


    She turned to the students andmanded, "Now, form a line and follow me." With McGonagall in the lead, the new students exited the chamber, went back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.


    Quinn had read the books and had imagined what the Great Hall would look like, and he had seen the movies, but nothing matched the sight in front of him. The hall was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that floated in midair over four long tables. On the tables sat the entire schools'' student body. These tables wereid with glittering golden tes and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. McGonagall led the first years up here and came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like palenterns in the flickering candlelight. Among the students, ghosts could be seen in their ghostly silver glow.


    Quinn looked up at the ceiling and saw a glossy ck ceiling dotted with stars. He could imagine Hermione Granger reciting the lines from the books, "The ceiling is bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."


    Removing his eyes from the mesmerizing ceiling, and looked ahead. He saw McGonagall silently cing a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool, she put a raggedy pointed wizard''s hat.


    Quinn waited, and then it happened, a mouth-like crack opened up in the hat, and it began singing.


    [


    I may be old and frayed


    but don''t let that betray you


    stitched and bewitched


    over a thousand years ago


    The four greatest witches and wizards of the time


    United by one single desire


    The wish to inspire


    and help young minds.


    So, a ce of education


    was the creation.


    The founders four


    Helga Hufflepuff of valley broad


    Rowena Ravenw from the glen


    Godric Gryffindor of wild moor


    Szar Slytherin from the fen.


    From these noble names


    four houses were born.


    Gryffindor, which houses the bold and brave,


    Ravenw selected those filled with cleverness,


    Hufflepuff weed the loyal who loved to toil


    Slytherin chooses only those who are pure.


    Their differences are what defined them


    Together they stood, never to be divided


    but what brought them together


    soon sought to tear them apart.


    Battles were fought


    over Hogwarts


    soon the time hade


    for one to depart


    So four became three


    Which house will it be?


    Put me on, and I will see.


    ] [Credits: Rowling_Games, Link in the paragraphment.]


    The entire hall burst into apuse as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.


    Murmurs went spreading through the first-year students like wildfire. Many were relieved to hear that they only had to put the hat on their head.


    Professor McGonagall now stepped forward, holding a long roll of parchment, "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."


    Then started the sorting ceremony of the students. Quinn heard a few recognizable names, and their houses were the same as canon.


    Marcus Belby, Eddie Carmichael, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgbe went to Ravenw. While Katie Bell and Cormac McLaggen went to Gryffindor.


    Finally came Quinn''s turn. He was thest person to be sorted because Quinn''sst name was West, and W was thest letter in this year''s list, with no surnames from letters X, Y, and Z.


    McGonagall looked at Quinn and announced, "West, Quinn." Students who had gotten bored because of the long process once again focused on the ceremony knowing Quinn was thest student.


    Quinn climbed the shallowdders and nodded to McGonagall before sitting down on the stool. Thest thing Quinn saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was most of the students looking at him, and the moment the hat covered his eyes, Quinn closed his eyes and pulled up his lumency shields to the limit.


    "Hmm," said a little voice in his ear, "It has been quite a while since I had countered this level of resistance from lumency shields, and that was when one of the previous headmasters had put me on his head. But, never I have seen this level of lumency shields from a child of your age."


    Quinn fought the urge to smile. He felt he had beat the infamous hat from entering his mind. But the next moment, the hat shattered his misunderstanding as now he heard the hat''s voice inside his head, ''But, you see, when the founders created me, they truly went overboard, so Mr. West, your level of lumency shields aren''t enough.''


    Quinn gritted his teeth as someone had once again entered his mind, and he couldn''t do anything about it. He could remove the hat and rip it to threads with magic, but that would be thest thing Quinn wanted to do, so he just sat tight.


    ''Oh my, aren''t you a little devil, Mr. West? So much talent for magic. I haven''t seen anything like this, and I have been around for a thousand years. You don''t use a wand and yet have this level of magical abilities. There was one who I can think of, but even he wasn''t as ridiculous as you. Seeing the wand in your luggage shows that you are taking a different approach from him and everyone else.''


    Quinn helplessly controlled his emotions as the hat went through his memories, ''Now, let''s see where to put you. You are ready to showcase plenty of courage when ites to the pursuit of magic. You have already shown hard work and tolerance by learning magic the way you have. The immense thirst for knowledge is evident from your personal library. Finally, you have some grand ambitions, dear child. The greatest wizard of all times.''


    Quinn was getting impatient, so he just came out and said, "Put me in Ravenw so that we can end this. I am extremely ufortable with you on my head. Your mere presence in my mind displeases me like never before."


    The hatughed in his head and spoke, ''If that is what you wish for. Don''t worry, Mr. West. Your secrets will remain safe with me. No one will ever know what I saw in your mind. Not even my creators, the founders would know if they appeared in front of me.''


    The next moment the hat shouted to the entire hall, "RAVENCLAW!"


    It took every single drop of Quinn''s self-control to normally remove the hat from his head and not rip it from his head. He took a deep breath before moving to the Ravenw table and smiled when he reached the table that was pping for him and congratting him for being a Hatstall as the hat took some time to make his decision.


    He sat down and turned to look at the high table while trying to calm down his turbulent emotions. He didn''t like when his mind was invaded like now. It reminded him of the time when he started his lessons with n and how helpless he felt when n would just walk into this mind without batting an eye. He could still do it, but Quinn had learned to trust n and had gotten used to his teacher breaking into his mind, but the hat bought out emotions of the time when he didn''t trust n.


    On the plus side, Quinn''s secrets were safe with the hat.


    ''If he didn''t tattle on Voldemort''s messed up memories, he won''t divulge my secrets,'' thought Quinn as he calmed himself down and slowly lifted the emotional aspect of lumency to once again feel fully connected to his now calmed down emotions.


    Quinn looked around the Ravenw and thought about his decision to join Ravenw. Even if Quinn said that he was okay with going to any of the four houses, Quinn preferred if he didn''t get sorted to Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. In Gryffindor, he would be in the eye of trouble in the future. With Hufflepuff, Quinn didn''t think he would have much privacy because of the houses'' teamwork attribute.


    The remaining two options were Slytherin and Ravenw. Quinn had thought hard about where he wanted to end up, and Ravenw was his final decision. Slytherin would have been alright, but Quinn was afraid that he would instantly gain a negative reputation among the other three houses. And, if someone got suspicious of what he was doing, they would immediately categorize it as dark, and it took little to blow things out of proportion. Even inside the Slytherin, blood purists were always in power, and in the future, Voldemort would start recruiting mini death eaters from there, and Quinn didn''t want to face the harassment known as recruitment.


    So, Quinn came to a logical conclusion to join the house of bookworms who had their heads into books and where he could operate in peace with no politics, disturbances, negative reputation, and needless nosy people. He just needed to blend in as your average Ravenw, which was too easy for Quinn.


    A loud clinking of cutlery broke Quinn from his thoughts and looked at the head table where he saw Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.


    "Wee!" he started. "Wee to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"


    Quinn wondered if the strange words in Dumbledore''s speech were Hogwarts house-elves names, as the moment he said those words, food appeared across the tables. Various dishes like roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops andmb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and peppermint humbugs were cooked for all to indulge.


    Quinn''s grooming triggered, and he began eating with impable table manners. Gone were the days when Quinn used to feel stiffed while eating with strict table manners. Now, he felt right at home when eating like this. Quinn a little of everything and then took part in idle banter with his new housemates.


    A well-fed Quinn looked around, and his eyes fell upon the High table. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. McGonagall was talking to Dumbledore. He immediately recognized Snape dressed in all ck, and Quinn felt Snape was lucky to look like his movie actor rather than his book description. He moved his eyes to another teacher and saw Quirinus Quirrell without a turban and was currently wearing a wizard''s hat.


    ''If I remember correctly, he is currently a Muggle Studies Professor. Poor guy would give into Voldemort and agree to house Voldemort''s soul in his body,'' thought Quinn. He saw Quirrell happily chatting with a squat little woman who wore a patched hat over her flyaway hair, who Quinn could identify as Pomona Sprout, the herbology professor. Quinn figured out the names of the other professors with the help of a senior.


    When the desserts disappeared from the tables, Dumbledore stood up from his chair and asked for the student''s attention in the hall. He cleared his throat before speaking, "I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, also asks me to remind you all that no magic should be used between sses in the corridors."


    He pointed at Rnda Hooch and continued, "Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in ying for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch."


    The dinner ended with Dumbledore urging students to stand up for the school song. After which, Quinn followed behind the Ravenw Prefect with the other first-years to the Ravenw Tower. Quinn made sure to memorize the path they took, as he would need it from tomorrow onwards.


    The entrance to the Ravenwmon room was on the west side of Hogwarts. At the top of a spiral staircase was a door without a doorknob or keyhole. But there was a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle that asked a riddle for gaining entry to themon room; if they answer incorrectly, they must wait for someone else who gets it right.


    The Prefect exined the system to the first years and then led them inside. Themon was a circr room with arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks and a midnight blue carpet covered in stars, which reflected onto the domed ceiling. The room was furnished with tables, chairs, and bookcases, and by the door leading up to the dormitories stood a tall statue of Rowena Ravenw made of white marble.


    Before the Prefect sent them off to their dorms, he told them the roles to be followed while in themon room and the dormitories. He closed with, "You will find your luggage in your rooms, and please make sure to store the clothes that you want to be cleaned in the cupboards provided to you because any clothes in your trunk or luggage won''t be taken for cleaning."


    Three people rather than the five-person arrangement in the Gryffindor shared a room in the Ravenw dormitories.


    Quinn found his luggage on his assigned bed. He looked at his two roommates, who looked quite nervous, so he broke the ice.


    "Hey, my name is Quinn West. What about you guys?" he asked with a smile on his face.


    The other two looked at each other before one of them spoke, "Hi, I am Eddie Carmichael." Then both of them looked at the third boy in the room, who stuttered through his introduction. "M-My name is Marcus Belby."


    Quinn nodded and spoke, "Excellent, Carmichael and Belby. We would be sharing this dorm for the rest of the year, so if you guys have any problems, don''t hesitate to ask. Now, I am sure all of us are quite tired, and I would very much like to sleep, so let''s continue in the morning, alright." Quinn directed the conversation, and the other two could only nod along.


    Quinn made himself on his new bed and closed his eye, and hisst thought before falling asleep was about tomorrow.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC -Ravenw - "I wonder how many riddles does the Eagle know?"


    The Hat - Hat - "This year''s song was exquisite. Truly spectacr."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 20 - Ravenclaw, First Impressions, And The Problem

    2 September 1990 was a Sunday, which meant that there were no sses, and the first years were free to roam the castle. Quinn got up the next day, and in the morning, and afterpleting his morning routine, he took off to explore the castle but not before visiting the Great Hall for breakfast.


    Hogwarts Castle was arge, seven-story lofty building supported by magic. It had a hundred and forty-two (142) staircases throughout its many towers and turrets and deep dungeons. The castle was built in thete Early Middle Ages (c. 993) by a wizard architect and the four most celebrated wizards of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenw, and Szar Slytherin.??


    Quinn started from the Great Hall and then explored the castle for the entire day but could only cover the ground and the first floor. The castle was sorge that Quinn wasn''t able to move past the first floor. And Quinn was nning to memorize the entire castle. Quinn would live here for the next seven years, and because of that, he wanted to use the castle and the apanying property as his new mindscape. He knew the transition from the West Manor to the Hogwarts castle would be gradual and a lengthy process. But, Quinn was confident that he would be able to explore enough of the castle in a year or two to build a working model in his mind. And, who knew what level of detail could he aplish in seven years.


    Quinn returned to his dorm just before dinnertime and freshened up by taking a shower. When he exited the shower, Quinn saw Eddie Carmichael in the room.


    "Hey, Carmichael. Do you want to go to Great Hall together?" asked Quinn as he exited the bathroom.


    Eddie looked relieved at the offer and spoke, "Yeah, I forgot the way to the Great Hall. It would be great if we could go together."


    Quinn chuckled and offered, "Don''t worry, I will go with you till you getfortable. Hogwarts is a confusing ce."


    As the two climbed down the dormitory stairs, Eddie asked, "Where have you been the entire day. I don''t think I saw you in the dorms today."


    "Yeah, I didn''t return to the dorm all day. I was exploring the castle. There were a lot of things to cover, and I lost track of time," replied Quinn as he guided Eddie from the Ravenw tower to the Great Hall. "What about you? What did you do today?"


    Eddie shrugged and said, "yed a lot of Gobstones, went to the Quidditch field to see some of the older students flying on brooms, and talked to some of the older students about Hogwarts."


    "Really? Tell me about it..."


    When they reached the Great Hall, a lot of students were already seated. Quinn and Eddie found Marcus Belby sitting at the Ravenw table, already eating. Both the guys stopped just before reaching him.


    You see, when it came to food, Marcus Belby could bepared to Ron Weasley. They both saw Marcus shoving food down his gullet without care. Eddie looked at Quinn, his eyes asking what to do, almost begging him not to sit next to their roommate. Quinn was of a simr mind, so neither wanted to sit next to Marcus while he ate.


    "Let''s just sit opposite to him. This way, he won''t feel bad, and there would be plenty of distance between us," offered Quinn. Eddie nodded, and both of them turned back to go around the table and sat opposite Marcus.


    "Hey, Belby, how have you been today? You seem to be enjoying the food," greeted Quinn and opened up the conversation, and thest sentence caused Eddie to stifle augh.


    Marcus looked up and spoke with food still in his mouth, "Fwud wis ghrathe."


    Quinn didn''t understand a word that came out of Marcus'' mouth, but he still spoke as he put food on his te, "Oh yeah? That is great." It surprised Quinn that the sight of Marcus didn''t erase his appetite, but Quinn was too hungry.


    Eddie continued the conversation at the table, "Professor Flitwick would being to themon room today. He will be giving us the timetable and talk with us before we start school tomorrow."


    "That is great. I heard Professor Flitwick is Britain''s most knowledgeable Charms master. Plus, before he started teaching, he was Duelling Champion with the title of Master duelist. He has been at Hogwarts for around twenty years or so," supplied Quinn as they talked about the uing event.


    After some more idle chatting, Quinn became silent and concentrated on eating. With today''s exploration and Quinn''s usual habit of emptying his magical core every day, he needed a significant amount of calories to meet his dietary needs, so he was quite hungry and needed food in his body.


    - (Scene Break) -


    After dinner, all the first-year Ravenws gathered around themon room to meet Flitwick. On the decided time, Filius Flitwick entered the Ravenwmon room and greeted the gathered people in his squeaky voice, "Good Evening, children. I hope I didn''t keep you waiting."


    Filius Flitwick, half-goblin and half-human, had a short stature because of goblin lineage. He tottered to an empty chair and sat on it before asking the students to gather around him. Quinn sat on a chair that was a little distance away from the diminutive professor but at a distance where Quinn could clearly listen to him. Many students opted to sit on the floor to be closeby to the head of the house. They were already acting like little Ravenws not willing to miss out on anything that a teacher said.


    "I hope all of you have settled down in your dorms and have no problems with your living arrangements because if you do, please doe to me. It is my duty to fix any problems you have, so don''t hesitate to share any of your problems," said Flitwick to the new students, trying to get themfortable.


    "Now first, let me introduce myself. My name is Filius Flitwick. I teach the subject Charms. This means I will be teaching you the wonders of all kinds of charms," Flitwick showed a toothy grin seeing the bright-eyed children when he mentioned charms, "But to you children, I am also your head of the house. You will be under my wings during the time you are at Hogwarts, so I once again I say that please don''t hesitate ande to me with any problem."


    He took a pause before speaking, "My doors are always opened to a ravenw in need."


    Then he took out his wand and gave it a swing for the Ravenw House symbol to appear in the air. The students ooh-ed in awe at the sight of the magic. Even Quinn was mildly surprised.


    ''Hmm, a light-based magic to project an image in the air,'' reflected Quinn as he looked at the glowing house symbol. Quinn wasn''t surprised because he hadn''t seen anything like this before. The concept behind the magic was simple enough and was a magic from the same line as the Lumos spell, but a lot moreplex than the Wand-Lighting charm. The reason behind Quinn''s surprise was the detail in the projection image.


    ''I can see the individual feathers in the raven, and the image is three-dimensional with color grading and shadows,'' thought Quinn as he admired the show of magic. Quinn could also project an image in the air, but it wouldck the detail present in Flitwick''s work.


    Flitwick giggled as he took in the joy of his new charges and said, "You all were sorted in Ravenw, so I think it is appropriate for you to know about the origins of the house."


    With a swish of his wand, the Ravenw symbol changed into a woman wearing medieval clothing. Quinn looked past everyone and saw that the white marble statue of Rowena Ravenw. He could see the resemnce between the two.


    Flitwick presented a question to the students, "Does anyone of you recognize thisdy?" And, every single one of the students, including Quinn, raised their hands.


    Flitwick pointed at Quinn and asked him to answer, "Please tell us all your name before answering the question."


    Quinn stood up from his chair and answered, "Quinn West. Thedy is one of the four founders, Rowena Ravenw. She, along with the other three founders, established Hogwarts."


    Flitwick enthusiastically pped while bouncing on his chair and said, "Three points to Ravenw! As Mr. West said, Rowena Ravenw was one of the four founders, and she created the Hogwarts'' house of Ravenw. Ravenws such as yourselves are characterized by their wit, learning, wisdom, eptance, intelligence, and creativity. Lady Rowena sought all these qualities in her students, so Ravenw students disy a number of these traits. I myself was a Ravenw during my time at Hogwarts as a student."


    "Rowena Ravenw prized learning above all else ¨C and so do we. Unlike the other houses, which all have concealed entrances to theirmon rooms, we don''t have that. Ours has no handle but an enchanted bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. When you rap on the door, this knocker will ask you a question, and if you can answer it correctly, you are allowed in. This simple barrier has kept out everyone but Ravenws for nearly a thousand years."


    Thest sentence did cause some first-years to worry, but Flitwick assured them, "I can see some of you who are scared by having to answer the eagle''s questions but don''t worry. Ravenws learn quickly, and you will soon enjoy the challenges the door sets. It is not unusual to find twenty people standing outside themon room door, all trying to work out the answer to the day''s question together. This is a great way to meet fellow Ravenws from other years and learn from them ¨C although it is a bit annoying if you have forgotten your Quidditch robes or books and need to get in and out in a hurry. In fact, I would advise you to triple-check your bag for everything you need before leaving Ravenw Tower." Flitwick wasughing hysterically by the end. He truly was as entric as people made him out to be.


    Flitwick disappeared the projection and continued, "Sometimes our pursuit of knowledge maye of a being as bookish, and my peers at my time at Hogwarts as a student called me a bookworm among other things." When Flitwick said this, many students showed sad faces as a lot of them had been called simr words.


    Flitwick smiled gently and spoke a little louder, "But don''t let any of those words deter you. They are just jealous of our knowledge and wisdom and say mean things because we have things they don''t have. So, be proud of being smart, and don''t feel embarrassed by your love of knowledge. Wear it like a badge of honor. Know that if Rowena Ravenw was alive, she would have chosen you all from all the students. Be proud because you are the smartest of the bunch."


    He stood upon his chair and eximed, "Always remember this; Wit beyond measure is man''s greatest treasure! Repeat after me; Wit beyond measure is man''s greatest treasure!"


    "WIT BEYOND MEASURE IS MAN''S GREATEST TREASURE!" Every student in themon room repeated after Flitwick, and the collective voices of the students sound like a war chant. Even Quinn chanted the infamous quote with his fellow students and could feel the confidence that Flitwick given many students. It made Quinn think that Flitwick could have a great career as a motivational speaker.


    After everybody calmed down, and Flitwick was sitting on his chair rather than standing on it, he took out a matchstick-sized stack of parchments and waved his wand above the stack, and the stack erged to a standard stack of parchments. With another wave, a sheet each flew to every student in the room.


    Quinn gracefully received the sheet and read it. On the parchment was a timetable.


    "These are your timetable for the year. You will all follow this schedule every week till the end of the year. Please note and remember the room numbers as they won''t change and I would rmend that you reach your ss five minutes before time," said Flitwick as Quinn read the timetable and he was surprised to see that in a day he only had to attend two to three hours of sses. Quinn calcted, and the time allotted to ssroom studies was only fourteen (14) hours a week, fifteen (15) if you added the weekly flying lesson with Madam Hooch.


    Quinn was totally down with this schedule, as it would give him more time to study magic on his own. He was sure that the workload would increase from the third year onwards, but he would worry about that when the time came.


    Quinn looked up when he heard Flitwick p his hand and asking the students to look at him. "If you would turn your sights to the library in themon room." Quinn and the rest looked at the library present inside the Ravenwmon room, a feature unique to the Ravenwmon room.


    "The library has many books that would help you increase your knowledge. I am in charge of selecting the books on the shelves of the library. I constantly keep note of the progress of every ss that is taught in Hogwarts. So I know what is being taught to every student of the school, because of that I ceplementary and supplementary material rted to the topics currently being taught in your sses in our library. For example, if first-year students are learning how to brew the Sleeping Draught in Potions ss. Then I would ce books rted to the Draught and its ingredients in our library for students to read. Then there are my weekly and monthly rmendations, which are not rted to the course material but are always an interesting read. There is also a rule that the books often change on the shelves of our library, to keep those who want to learn on their feet, so even if you can''t read them, please note the titles, as you would be able to find all these books in the Hogwarts library."


    Of all the things Flitwick had said today, this interested Quinn the most. Supplementary material and additional reading were always in better understanding things. Quinn made a note to take full advantage of the in-house library.


    At the end of the talk, Flitwick asked, "Now, other than Mr. West, who gained Ravenw their first points of the year, congrattions to you, Mr. West -- all the first years, please introduce yourselves. I want to match the names to the faces, and it would also help your housemates to know your names."


    Quinn looked at Eddie and said, "Yeah~."


    Then Quinn paid attention to his year mates introducing themselves. Quinn too wanted to match faces to names. It would not be well if he could not recall his housemates'' names.


    Before sleeping that night, Quinn wrote a letter to his family. He described his first day at Hogwarts, his sorting ceremony, what he found in the castle, his living arrangements, among other things. Sealed the letter in an envelop and put it into his dorm''s desk drawer, ready to be mailed tomorrow via a school owl.


    - (Scene Break) -


    During Quinn''s first week at Hogwarts, he attended all the lessons and performed all the tasks taught to him. They were easy or him, and like the typical Ravenw, he was among the first ones toplete the practicals. Actually, he was the first every time, but he jusst didn''t raise his hand to show that he was done with a task.


    Unlike Hermione Granger, he didn''t jump to every answer that the professors asked. He only answered the questions that were too easy or when nobody had the answer to the question. It did cause some teachers to call out Quinn to answer questions which didn''t bother him as Quinn knew all the answers, and because he didn''t jump to answer all the questions, he wasn''t tagged as a Know-It-All.


    Because Quinn already knew all the stuff in the sses, he would efficiently make use of his time by sneakilypleting all his homework in ss time itself, so he had more time to himself. He evenpleted his potions homework in Snape''s ss itself, which Quinn thought deserved at least fifty (50) points.


    But, Snape did pay attention to Quinn because his potions were way better than the rest of the ss, and by a huge margin. When Quinn told Snape that he had learned about potions at home, he just sneered but said nothing as this practice wasn''t umon for magical households.


    But Quinn didn''t know that Snape was now paying extra attention to him. Even though learning potions beforeing to school wasn''t umon, the quality of potions that Quinn brewed was notmon at all, especially for someone his age.


    Even the other professors remembered Quinn fairly well, and he was among the students that stood out from his batch; Quinn''s practical work was just too good for a student who had been in school for a single week. But because Quinn did nothing extra other than what was asked, he was just seen as a very talented child and not the freak of nature that Quinn was. Plus, being a Ravenw helped Quinn''s image as Ravenws were always good at academics.


    Quinn had no idea what was going through his professors'' minds because he was too busy with another problem.


    A major problem.


    Quinn''s current capabilities were on the level of a fourth-year student. His level of ability to focus magic was stuck at his current level for a half year and had improved little. So, he had begun working at more efficiency and speed of casting, hoping that it would help, but nothing particrly helped. He did everything to improve what he already knew and could do with his level of focus, but his focus didn''t improve by much.


    This was the reason that Quinn was excited about turning eleven and getting a wand. But both of those events caused him disappointment.


    The reason why a child started attending a magical school at age eleven was that the magic inside a child switched from a turbulent state to a state of growth. A person with magic entered a time of exponential growth from age eleven that continued to age seventeen, and a magical''s ability to focus magic would increase naturally. The ability to focus magic would increase even if they didn''t use magic, and if they worked hard during this time, they would reap added benefits.


    The term ''Magic is Muscle,'' applied heavily from ages eleven to seventeen as a person saw the most growth in this time period, and that applied to the ability to focus magic. But, nothing happened when Quinn turned eleven, there was no jump in focus for him. Time passed, but nothing changed in his magic.


    Then he looked forward to getting a wand. He wanted a wand to aid him by supplementing his focus, but it turned out that if he used a wand, he would be dependent on it, and it would take an exponential amount of work to perform focusless magic. Now, his wand was encased in a block of wood and locked inside a room in a suitcase.


    But, Quinn was forgetting an important event. A date that came every year, and after so many years Quinn had forgotten about it, but this year it was going to be different. Quinn didn''t know it but this day would be a turning point in his life.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1]: Just to clear a confusion that I have been noticing popping in thements. Quinn West is one (1) year older than Harry Potter. The current year is 1990. Harry Potter joins Hogwarts in 1991. The Weasley twins and Cedric are in the second (2nd) year right now. Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley would enter Hogwarts when Quinn is in his third (3rd) year.


    ]


    Quinn West - MC- Hogwarts (Ravenw) - Worried about his magic.


    Eddie Carmichael - Ravenw - Is bad with directions.


    Filius Flitwick - Charms Professor - "You may have heard that I was a Duelling Champion!", said Flitwick, drawing his wand on misbehaving students.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 21 - The Change, And The Room Of Requirements

    The working days of Quinn''s first week passed, and the weekend arrived. Quinn sat on his bed, reading a book on Magic Theory he had borrowed from the Hogwarts library. Since the wand incident, Quinn had been growing increasingly worried about the progression of his magic. He wanted to improve his ability to focus his magic, but as nothing changed with turning eleven (11), he looked for alternate methods but had little sess finding a way.


    ''My current level of focus is fine for this year and maybe even the next year, but after that, I would be in trouble if I can''t improve my ability to mold and focus magic,'' thought Quinn as he read the book in bed.??


    Quinn sighed as he failed to find a method in this book as well. He closed the book, and after a mental session of lumency practice and making sure that his magical core was drained, he went to sleep.


    When the clock turned eleven (11), Quinn was already gone to sleep. Then the clock turned to twelve (12), and the date changed to 8th of September. Around that time, a change started in Quinn''s body. Over the night, the magic in Quinn''s went through a qualitative change. The unstable nature of magic in Quinn''s body gradually changed to a state seen in the usual eleven (11) year old child.


    On the morning of 8th of September, Quinn woke up at his usual time. As he sat up and stretched his arms, the duvet slid off him and folded itself. The pillows behind him fluffed themselves, and when he got up from his bed, the bedsheet fixed itself. Of course, this was all Quinn''s doing. He liked to start off his day by using magic.


    Standing in front of a sink, Quinn brushed his teeth, and after using his hands to hold the brush, Quinn used magic to maneuver the toothbrush to reach hard ces with ease. A fun fact about toothpaste from the magical world; it was mixed with a teeth-cleaning potion. There were a few teeth cleaning charms, but none were as effective as using a toothbrush and toothpaste.


    As Quinn exited the attached washroom, he just happened to see Marcus'' open trunk tipping over from the top of his cupboard. At this rate, Marcus'' things were going to fall out of his trunk, with the trunk itself falling down on the floor.


    Quinn''s eyes widened as he instinctively raised a hand, "Oh shit-!" A split-secondter, Quinn''s magic kicked in, and Quinn rushed to at least save the trunk from falling, but the next second, Quinn was shocked to see the sight in front of him.


    Instead of just the trunk floating in the air, all of Marcus'' things were floating in the air. Quinn, in stunned silence, looked at floating things from his spot. Among the things floating, Quinn saw Marcus'' winter clothing, thirty individual pieces of Gobstone that had escaped from their pouch, and many of Marcus'' personal belongings.


    Quinn was stunned because he hadn''t been able to exert influence over these many objects before, but currently, he was using magic to keep the things in mid-air.


    ''This isn''t idental magic,'' thought Quinn as he slowly stepped closer to the floating things. Quinn had his fair share of idental magic, so he knew what it felt like. It was instinctive use of magic with no conscious control over magic''s actions.


    But, Quinn hadplete control over all these objects. He could move them any way he liked. Then Quinn remembered something, and with a look, the curtains around the poster beds of his roommates fell down to block their view.


    Quinn returned his attention to the floating stuff, and the next second, all of Marcus'' stuff repacked itself into his trunk. Quinn levitated the trunk back to its position above the cupboard.


    Quinn smiled and thought, ''I know what is going on.'' With a smile, he turned to Eddie''s desk, and with the use of magic, Eddie''s desk drawer opened, and a single Gobstone shot towards Quinn, who caught it, and he set it onto the floor.


    Quinn took a deep breath to calm down his nerves, focused his magic, and pushed it towards the Gobstone. The next second the Gobstone transfigured into a cat. Quinn smiled as he put the transfigured cat into a full-body bind before it could hiss at him.


    Quinn, with a smile, picked up the magically bound cat to observe it.


    "Yes, yes, yes! It finally happened!" eximed Quinn as he moved the cat around to check all the detail. Transfiguration of an inorganic object to an organic being with a different size and weight was at the fifth-year level.


    Quinn pumped his fists in the air as he returned the cat back into a Gobstone.


    "My focus increased overnight!" said Quinn, and after the excitement and tion passed, Quinn began thinking about the reason behind it.


    He thought back to yesterday. If he did something different, something that could trigger the change in his body. But, nothing came to mind.


    After having breakfast, Quinn went to the library to think in peace. He wanted to know the reason behind this change. His magic had changed, and Quinn wanted to know everything about it.


    After spending hours in the library surrounded by books about Magic theory, magical biology, and any other books that could provide him answers, Quinn couldn''t find anything other than that his magic had entered the period of growth.


    ''But, why did my magic enter this period now, after two months of me turning eleven (11)?'' Quinn sighed as he climbed the stairs of his dorm. It wasn''t that the change happened precisely on a person''s birthday, and it could ur anytime between before or after a fortnight of a person''s eleventh birthday. But two months didn''t make sense.


    Quinn took a shower to rx, and when he came out, he saw Eddie and Marcus were ying in the room. They were pretending to be swordsmen and were using rolls of newspapers as swords.


    Quinn chuckled as he looked at his two roommates, "What are you guys doing?"


    Marcus spoke as he battled Eddie with his newspaper roll, "We were waiting for you. Do you want to y Gobstones?"


    Quinn thought about the offer, ''Well, it would take my mind away from the change.'' Quinn nodded and replied, "Sure, give me a minute. I will be down there."


    Both of them nodded, and Eddie dropped his newspaper roll on the floor before bolting down to themon room. Quinn sighed as he looked at the newspaper on the floor and picked it up. Then his eyes caught the date of the newspaper, and then things clicked in his mind.


    "Ah~, that''s why it happened today," Quinn said as everything made sense to him. "Of course, it would happen today, on September 8th," Quinn sighed as he threw the newspaper in the trash.


    8th of September was the day he found himself in this body. It was also on 8th of September that he had triggered his magic for the first time. He had kept track of the day for a couple of years, but with time he had forgotten about it. Now, on the very same day, his magic had gone through a qualitative change.


    ''Mying to this world must have pushed the changed to this date,'' Quinn thought as he tried to ce his thoughts on this matter. Quinn also entertained the theory that even though it had been only seven (7) since he hade to this world, his body was still eleven (11) years old.


    "Body, mind, and soul; three parts of a being," quoted Quinn as he felt the path ahead clear up. Quinn felt a weight has been lifted off his chest and looked around the room with a smile.


    "Who knows, it might happen again when I turn fifteen (15)," Quinn said in optimism as he thought what would happen at the eleventh anniversary of hising to this world.


    Quinn felt the need to use his magic this very moment, so he looked around the room and closed his eyes, took a deep breath. With a wave of magic from Quinn, things around the room began moving, and multiple different magic began showing their effects. When the things stopped moving & the magic stopped working, the dorm room looked like it had been freshly cleaned, and all the furniture from the beds to the cupboards looked brand new.


    "If anyone asks, I will just give credit to the elves'', shrugged Quinn, but then heughed as he climbed down the dorm stairs, "Though the elves might not be happy about me cleaning the room."


    Quinn stepped into themon room, and with a broad grin, he said, "Time to destroy people in Gobstones!"


    - (Scene Break) -


    The very next day, Quinn began drafting a medium-term n spanning two years. He climbed down into his suitcase and stepped into the library.


    On the paper in front of him, Quinn wrote what he wanted to do before entering his third year.


    "Completing Hogwarts education with practical usage," wrote Quinn as the basic goal of his two-year n. Quinn wanted to cover Hogwarts'' cover subjects and the electives he was interested in; Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes, and Astronomy. He wasn''t interested in Divination and Muggle Studies and wasn''t sure if he wanted to pursue Care of Magical Creatures; he wasn''t thrilled at the idea of being close to magical beasts.


    Next was "Supplementing all the Hogwarts'' subjects with knowledge from around the world." Quinn''s approach had always been to expand his knowledge from reading books from all around the world. From his experience of learning the first four years of Hogwarts'' curriculum, he knew the curriculum was missing several things that text from other schools could supplement. It was the same with every school and region in the world. Everybody was missing something, but at the same time, everybody had something to offer as well.


    The third goal was "Learning new branches of magic that were taught in other schools." There were other branches of magic like Transmutation, Illusion magic, Dark Arts, Alchemy, Elemental magic, Warding, Soul magic, Healing magic, Abjuration, Body magic, to name a few. Quinn wanted to learn these magics to the N.E.W.T level or equivalent.


    Coming to mind arts, he wanted to set some goals. Quinn decided he wanted to build the highest level of lumency defense in his current system. He wanted to make sure that his defense would stand firm against a master lumens, plus he wanted to increase the immersion level on his memories. On the legilimency front, he wanted to be a master legilimens by the end of the second year; Quinn was nning to use the entire school body to explore the insides of a mind.


    Quinn knew he needed to be ready for the year when the Basilisk roamed the castle. Quirrelmort didn''t scare Quinn; he just needed to ignore the professor and not poke his nose in the matter. Quinn would decide if he wanted to make a y for the Philosopher''s Stone when the time came. Currently, he wasn''t sure if he wanted to go against a professor of defense against dark arts with a master of dark arts stuck to his head.


    After Quinn decided his ns for the next two years, he thought about the immediate n. With Quinn''s increased focus, he wanted a ce to practice magic, and the best ce for doing so would be the Room Of Requirement. Quinn hadn''t gone to the seventh floor because he was too busy getting used to the new lifestyle at Hogwarts, but now that he had spent a week at the school, he was ready to go to the mysterious room.


    It was time to the greatest room in Hogwarts known to Quinn.


    - (Scene Break) -


    On Monday, Quinn had a History of Magic ss at nine (9) o''clock in the morning, and after that, he had two hours of free time and one hour of lunch. Quinn decided to skip lunch and spend three hours in the Room Of Requirement.


    The room was located on the seventh floor in the left corridor of the Hogwarts castle. Quinn looked at the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. He recalled the method to enter the Room Of Requirement and walked past the tapestry three times, thinking about a ce to practice magic.


    Immediately after the third time, a door appeared opposite the tapestry. Quinn, with a beating heart, pushed the doors open and entered a spacious room. In one corner of the room, he saw dummies to practice charms and jinxes. In another corner were objects of different shapes, sizes, and materials to practice transfiguration. He also a potion workstation for brewing potions. He was also surprised to see afy chair for sitting while practicing mind arts.


    Quinn walked around the room and saw the details in the room. He found that the room had everything he wanted, but Quinn also noted that the room specifically provided things rted to the magic he wanted to practice today.


    On the transfiguration corner, he saw a sizeable amount of mercury, Quinn had nned to study how mercury reacted to transfiguration, and the room had read that from his mind and provided him with mercury. On the charms'' corner, he saw a fast-moving golden snitch as he had imagined wanting a snitch to practice the Slowing Charm. On the potions workstation were copper cauldrons and the tools he needed to brew a Befuddlement Draught.


    "The room provides what I need," Quinn dropped his book bag on thefy chair and walked to one of the dummies and casted an Exploding charm (Bombarda) on it, and the dummy exploded, and Quinn smiled when the destroyed dummy didn''t disappear or fix itself.


    Quinn was happy to see the damaged dummy not because he enjoyed seeing the mutted dummy but because the room had even picked up on the finer details of his request. Quinn had also wished to practice his mending charm, so he requested the dummies to stay damaged.


    Quinn swept an eye over the broken pieces and levitated them near the dummy. He began casting several simultaneous Mending charms on the dummy, and before he knew it, the dummy was like it never exploded.


    Quinn nodded before his smile disappeared, and he said to himself, "Let''s get to work." He removed his robe and levitated it to the chair and thus began the repeated explosion of dummies. Quinn experimented with the strength and uracy of the Explosion charm. For Quinn, there was no difference between Bombarda and Bombarda Maxima as he didn''t rely on chants and understood the essence of magic before practicing it.


    When Quinn used the Explosion charm, he was the one who decided the configuration of the spell and not some words in Latin. Quinn decided when to explode the whole dummy or when to only take its head off. Quinn tried simultaneous casting and continuous casting of the charm and how it would affect him. Quinn found that he was at an eptable level in continuous casting butcked efficiency while he casted simultaneously.


    In between explosions, Quinn experimented with the Mending charm; Quinn checked if it could mend the dummy if hepletely eradicated a part of the dummy; the answer was no. The Mending charm could only fix the avable parts. He also found that if he trapped one of the parts, then the Mending charm would mend the object and leave the trapped if it couldn''t get to it. There was also a distance restriction, where if a piece of the broken object was farther than a certain distance, then the Mending charm would ignore the part.


    After half an hour and hundred Exploding charms, Quinn decided he had enough practice with the Exploding charm and moved on to the potions part of the room to brew a Befuddlement Draught. Befuddlement Draught was a potion that caused the drinker to be belligerent and reckless.


    He donned his gloves and protective goggles and got to brew the potion. It took an hour to brew the potion. Quinn withdrew his potion notes and began preparing the ingredient as he experimented for best efficiency. After starting the brewing, Quinn took out a stack of paper and started documenting every change in the potion, cross-referencing it with listed changes. Quinn observed his potions with an almost obsessive hawk-like gaze. Quinn had learned that some stages of different potions required constant attention, and not many books mentioned those stages, so Quinn had made it his goal to document every change of every potion he learned.


    After an hour of careful brewing and close observation, Quinn had ten standard doses of the dark acid green high-grade Befuddlement Draught. Quinn poured potion in vials and packed three vials to send to Elliot at home, and packed five for long-term storage, and thest two doses, he was going to use on the stuck up Prefect, who scoffed while telling Quinn and his roommates that they couldn''t Gobstones in themon room.


    "Let''s see if he can still have a stick up his butt after I give him this," said Quinn with an evil smirk on his face.


    Finally, Quinn stepped into the Transfiguration corner to work on mercury. Mercury was a poisonous metal, so with the utmost care, Quinn transfigured the given material into different things. He also boiled and froze the mercury and then transfigured it at those temperatures. Quinn tried to turn into different materials like other metals, rubber, wood, and many other organic and inorganic material. He even turned small droplets of mercury into tiny ants and rtively bigger cockroaches. He turnedrger amounts of mercury into moreplex things. Experimented with turning a drop of mercury into a muchrger block of stone and tried to shrink down a ss of mercury into a small earthworm.


    After working for a quarter of an hour on transfiguration, Quinn rested for fifteen before diving into his mind. At a distance from the West Manor, Quinn began building the Hogwarts replica. Unlike the West Manor, where Quinn had built the exterior before turning to the interiors, his current approach was going to be much different. Quinn was going to construct Hogwarts, one room at a time. For example, Quinn was going to start at the ground floor and then move up. His first room was going to be the Great Hall, and then he would expand to the rest of the ground floor. Quinn sat on thefy chair, and for the rest of the time, he worked on his mindscape.


    Fifteen minutes before one o''clock in the afternoon, Quinn exited the Room Of Requirement and headed to the defense of dark arts ss while humming in a good mood.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Found RoR - Guess who has the best secret base in the world.


    Eddie Carmicheal - Ravenw - Currently obsessed with Gobstones


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 22 - Helping Out Friends, And The End Of The First Year

    On an ordinary day, Quinn was studying in peace at the library. He was reading a book that expanded upon the resonance between prime numbers in the field ofyered rune cluster structuring. It was a sixth-year book that intersected the subjects of Arithmancy and Runes. It was a fascinating book that Quinn found in Flitwick''s weekly rmendation.


    "Hey, Quinn." Quinn heard a voice calling out to him. He looked up and found his year mate Katie Bell standing in front of him. Quinn put on a smile and greeted her, "Ah, Ms. Bell. How are you? I haven''t seen you since before the Christmas break." They were already in January, so it had been nearly a month since Quinn had talked to Katie.??


    "I am fine, thank you. May I sit? I have a favor to ask of you," said Katie, and Quinn motioned her to sit.


    "If I can help, I would be d to help," smiled Quinn, "So, what is the favor you want to ask?" Quinn had slowly built a friendly reputation among his housemates and the few people he knew outside of his house.


    Katie looked nervous as she yed with her fingers. She waited for a moment before asking, "Do you remember the Transfiguration homework that Professor McGonagall gave us two weeks ago?"


    Quinn nodded, urging her to continue, "I kind of got busy and haven''t made much progress on it... So, I was wondering if you could help me with it."


    "Oh, my! What happened to the outgoing Katie Bell?" chuckled Quinn as he looked at the embarrassed Katie. He paused for a moment before saying, "You don''t have to be nervous, Ms. Bell. I am your friend and a Ravenw at that. You don''t have to be nervous when asking me about homework or studies. I would be happy to help you."


    Katie looked visibly relieved at Quinn''s words and sighed in relief, "Oh my god! I was so nervous. I ended up spending all my time at the Quidditch field watching the Gryffindor team and hanging out with them."


    Quinn chuckled before warning, "Okay, now I did say that I would help, but I would only supply you with a list of things that you have to cover in that assignment and where you can find those things. You still would have to read all it and write it down in your own words."


    Katie shook her head, "It is alright. I would appreciate any help."


    Quinn nodded and took out a sheet of paper and split it in half. On the split paper, Quinn wrote the topics that one needed to cover for the assignment, then he mentioned the books and the chapters in the books where Katie could find the points. He mentioned the chapter, so she didn''t have to flip through whole books, given that she was short on time.


    After finishing writing, he slid the paper to Katie''s side and said, "If you read everything on there, you would be able toplete your assignment in no time."


    Katie looked at the paper weirdly as she was used to parchment instead of paper. After holding the sheet of paper and feeling the thinness of it, she read the contents. Her jaw dropped when she read it and gawked, "You remember the chapter number?!"


    Quinn shrugged and gave the one excuse that always worked when it came to academics, "What... I am a Ravenw. Plus, I revised the assignment yesterday, so I remember it. No big deal." Quinn lied through his teeth; he hadpleted the assignment the day McGonagall had assigned it and hadn''t even touched the parchment it was written on, much less revise it.


    Katie nodded dumbly and spoke, "Anyway, thanks for this. This would make my work so much easier. Seriously, thank you."


    Quinn shook his head and spoke, "Don''t mention it. You cane to me if you ever have a problem with studying. I will be d to help, but please don''t tell anyone. I don''t want random peopleing to me asking for help. I am only doing this because you are a friend."


    Katie nodded and then excused herself. Quinn looked at her retreating back and thought, ''Maybe I will start it next year.'' Quinn had an idea he wanted to try, but he decided to wait till the next year before starting the n he had in mind.


    Quinn was about to get back to reading when someone once again heard someone call out to him. He looked up and saw Marcus Belby standing with nervousness clear on his face.


    "Belby, what is it?" Quinn questioned his roommate.


    Marcus fidgeted and softly asked, "Hey Quinn, you know the homework McGonagall gave us two weeks ago..."


    "You too? Come on, man, you are a Ravenw," joked Quinn as he gestured Marcus to sit down. "So, why didn''t you do the assignment?"


    Marcus scratched the back of his head and answered, "I found a great book on Herbology and forgot to do my homework. I am embarrassed."


    Quinn fought the urge tough, ''Of course, he forgot his homework because he found a book. Such a Ravenw reason.''


    Quinn took the other part of the split page and wrote the same thing as he had written for Katie. He slid the page to Marcus, "Here you go. Read this, and you will be able toplete the assignment."


    Marcus picked up the sheet and read the contents, "Interesting, I have read one of these. Don''t you find it interesting how the density of an object affects the wand movement of the transfiguration."


    Quinn nodded, "Of course, the amount of magic changed with volume and density. Conversion of material also dictates theplexity and method to mold magic to transfigure the objects."


    Marcus nodded, and without saying a word, left while staring at the sheet. Quinn followed Marcus with his eyes and saw he was heading to the Transfiguration section of the library. Quinn shook his head with a smile before going back to his book when he heard another voice, "Hey, man."


    Quinn looked up to find a Hufflepuff standing there with a smile on his face. "Can I too have one of those sheets? I, too, forgot to do my homework."


    Quinn smiled, "Buzz of dude. I don''t know you. I couldn''t care less if you get a troll in the assignment." The tone of his voice was warm, but the message was anything but warm and fuzzy.


    Quinn then proceeded to ignore the unknown Hufflepuff and finally was able to return to his book.


    - (Scene Break) -


    On a usual Saturday, after spending some time at the library, Quinn was walking towards the staircase to go to the Room Of Requirement, but he froze when he heard Flitwick call out to him, "Mr. West, fancy meeting you here. I hope you wouldn''t mind walking with me."


    Quinn unfroze and turned back to face Flitwick with a smile, "Good Afternoon, Professor Flitwick. Of course, I wouldn''t mind walking with you."


    Flitwick caught up with Quinn, and they walked together. "So, where are you heading to, Mr. West?"


    Quinn politely answered, "I was at the library and am heading to themon room. What about you, Professor?" Quinn was going to the seventh floor, but there was nothing above the fourth floor that would have anything to do with a first-year like Quinn. There were Arithmancy and Runes on the sixth and seventh floor, but Quinn wasn''t a third-year. So, he could only saw the Ravenwmon room that had its entrance on the fifth floor.


    "Excellent, I am heading to my office, so we are going to the same floor. I have something to talk to you about?" Quinn mentally groaned as he now had to walk to themon room before going to the Room Of Requirement.


    But he was curious what Flitwick wanted to talk to him about, "What is it, professor?"


    Flitwick looked at Quinn with twinkling eyes and asked, "Have you finished the homework that is due thising Monday."


    Quinn nodded with a smile, "Yes, professor, I havepleted it and can give it to you right now if you want." He hadpleted the homework on the day it was assigned, in the ss itself.


    Flitwick chuckled and spoke, "Of course, of course, you are neverte on assignments. Why would you be? Youplete the homework in the very same ss it was assigned."


    Quinn''s breathing hitched as he froze for a step before speaking awkwardly, "Ah, so you knew about that, huh."


    Flitwickughed in his squeaky voice, "Of course, all the professors know that you do your homework in the ss. It was one of the first things we talked about you during the faculty meeting."


    "All the prof-?! I mean, aww, you talk about me?" Quinn was shocked to hear that all the teachers knew he did homework in ss. But then he finished with a joke and instantly regretted it. ''Why did I do that?!'' Quinn berated himself.


    Flitwickughed and revealed, "Of course, we noticed. You don''t take more than a single attempt on any spell that is taught in the ss. In potions, you know exactly when to pay attention while brewing." Flitwick paused before continuing, "Ah, my mistake. I don''t think professor Binn knows that you do your homework in the ss. He usually sleeps in our faculty meetings."


    Quinn sighed and asked, "If that is true, I am truly curious why Professor Snape never said something about it." Given Snape''s reputation, Quinn was sure that he would''ve had at least gotten a month''s worth of detentions.


    "Contrary to popr belief, Professor Snape doesn''t enjoy tormenting his students. He simply doesn''t want any mishaps happening while brewing. It irritates him when students can''t follow simple instructions, so Professor Snape is extra tough in his ss. Other than that, he couldn''t care less what students do in his ss. And you don''t cause him trouble, so he doesn''t say anything. But, do understand that he would punish you the second you make a mistake, and because of your skill, he pays special attention to you," exined Flitwick as they reached the fifth floor that housed both the entrance to the Ravenwmon room and the Head of Ravenw''s office.


    After parting their ways, Quinn walked while feeling embarrassed about getting found out. Quinn truly felt flustered when Flitwick told him the truth.


    When Quinn reached the seventh floor, he spoke to himself, "Teachers really do see everything." Though he wasn''t going to stop, as long as it saved time, he was okay with some attention from the professors. "I am sure they would get used to it and, with time, ignore me."


    - (Scene Break) -


    One day, Quinn was approached by some of the first-year Ravenws. With Eddie in the lead, he asked, "Hey, Quinn, you are a pureblood, right?"


    Quinn quirked his brows and thought why they were asking, so instead of doing the obvious and asking why he used Legilimency on every single one of them and read their surface thoughts. ''Ah, so they are wondering why I use paper and pen, huh.''


    Quinn closed his book and decided to entertain them, "Yes, Ie from a pureblood family. Why do you ask?"


    Eddie looked at the group of first years before speaking, "Umm... we were wondering why do you always use muggle quill and parchment."


    Quinn chuckled and pointed at the pen and paper in front of him, "The muggle quill is called a pen, and the muggle parchment is called a paper. The reason why I use these is that they are more convenient than quill and parchment. I don''t have to dip my quill into ink repeatedly, and the parchments are tough to write on."


    In response to that, one from the group asked, "What about self-inking quills and treated parchments. They cover the problems of the standard quills and parchments."


    Quinn nodded before asking, "True, but do you know the downside of using charmed quills and parchments."


    A different first-year raised his hand like he was in a ss that amused Quinn, so Quinn pointed at him to speak. "Charmed quills and parchments breakdown with time. Feathers of a bird needed to be thoroughly treated to make themst longer, but the cost of producing them is much too high, and the same thing applies to parchments."


    Quinn pped for the guy and said, "See, you guys already knew the answer. You just needed to put your minds together. For the fantastic job you guys did, go treat yourselves with candy. You deserve it," he then gestured to them to go away, "Now, scamper off." While saying that, he casted a mild Confundus charm on the group to make them much more susceptible to his words.


    He smiled when Quinn saw the group walk away like a group of gazelles. He was about to return topiling notes on undead creatures like Vampires, Banshees, Vampires, and Duhans when he heard a giggle.


    When Quinn turned back, he saw Penelope Clearwater standing there with a hand on her mouth. Quinn tilted his head and asked, "What is it?"


    She shook her head andughed, "The way you talked to them was funny. You coaxed the answer out of them and then sent them away." She also narrowed her eyes and asked, "Their behavior was also unnatural. Did you cast a Confundus charm on them?"


    Quinn''s fake wand was in his room above in the dorm, so he grinned at her, and with a twitch of his finger, conjured a wand replica in his right hand, which was not visible to her.


    "Yeah," saying that Quinn raised his right hand to show Penelope Clearwater the conjured replica.


    "Confudus Charm is an advanced skill, Quinn. It is in the fifth-year charms curriculum, and you are in the first year," Penelope stared at Quinn, curiosity apparent in her eyes.


    Quinn stared back at her and considered using legilimency to scan her thoughts but decided there was no need and spoke shyly, "I learned it from the fifth-year book I took from our library. I was curious and tried casting it, and it worked. Though I wasn''t able to make any other spells work, hehehe."


    Penelope stayed silent before smiling, "Is that right. Sometimes a wizard or witch can use a spell beyond their capabilities."


    Quinn smiled but didn''t say anything as he didn''t want to continue the conversation with her, but just to be sure, he changed the subject, "So, how are your O.W.L. preparations going?"


    Penelope was currently in her fourth year, so next year was her O.W.L year.


    "Oh, it is going well. I am thoroughly following Professor Flitwick''s schedule, so I pretty much all covered. What about you? Are you ready for the end-of-year examinations?"


    Quinn showed an ''OK'' hand gesture and replied, "I am all set for the exams. It will be a breeze~."


    Quinn sighed when Penelope went away. He was d that the conversation didn''t cause him problems as he still wasn''t able to use the Memory Charm.


    ''I need to be more careful when using magic in public. It would be a pain in the butt if people know I can cast spell way above my grade,'' Quinn breathed a sigh of relief.


    - (Scene Break) -


    At the end of the year, exams came, and Quinn aced the tests without breaking a sweat. Quinnpleted the theory part with ease but only mentioned the parts he learned from the Hogwarts course books and library. Quinn didn''t want to answer where he learned all the extra information. But, Quinn was sure that he would still get all Os in the exams.


    During the practicals, Quinn had to resist rolling his eyes when he mimicked wand movements and chant incantations. When the results came, Quinn was pleased to see that he had all Os and Flitwick personally congratted him for being at the top of his year.


    And, the first year ended without any incidents and idents.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Number One, Numero Uno, Top Dog, Victor, Student Of The Year.


    Filius Flitwick - Charms Teacher - Waddles like a Penguin.


    Katie Bell - Gryffindor - Shadowing the Gryffindor Quidditch Team


    Marcus Belby - Ravenw - Ravenws'' Ron


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 23 - Returning Home, Dueling, And The Request

    FINALLY HAVE A PATRE¨­N!


    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @??


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn de-boarded the Hogwarts Express and peered around the tform, searching for his family. After strolling a couple of steps, he saw a young woman waving her hand overhead with a smile on her face.


    Seeing her made Quinn quicken his steps and dart towards her. With a simr smile on his face, Quinn set down his suitcase and hugged her.


    "I missed you, Lia," spoke Quinn into the hug. He felt his sister tighten her hug around him and say, "Me too."


    After a few seconds, they parted, and Quinn was widely smiling as he looked up at her. "Did grandfathere?"


    Lia shook his head and answered, "He is waiting for you at home."


    As the two walked to the apparition point, Lia asked Quinn to point out the people he knew.


    "Okay, that is Eddie Carmichael, you know my roommate. Oh, there is Marcus Belby, my other roommate... See that girl over there, yeah, that is Katie Bell; I met her on the train..." Quinn sighed at ament from Lia, "Yes, yes, she is my first friend... Moving on... There are Cho Chang and Marietta Edgbe, also from Ravenw, but I don''t talk to them much... Oh, those are the Weasley twins I told them about. I don''t like them that much, but I guess they are fine. Other than those, hmm... Cedric Diggory, Roger Davies, Penelope Clearwater, Adrian Pucey... they are a year older than me."


    Though Quinn pointed the people out, he didn''t introduce them to Lia as he wasn''t particrly close to any one of them. Quinn had spent most of his free time in the Library and Room Of Requirement. So, his interactions with people were not extensive. But Quinn had cultivated the reputation as the helpful guy among his acquaintances.


    When they reached the Apparition point, Lia took Quinn''s suitcase and ced a hand on his shoulder before apparating away from the tform.


    After returning home, catching up with everyone, and resting for a couple of days, Quinn returned to learning magic full time. Now that he had possessed a wand and had his grandfather''s permission to use it, Quinn made the hall where Lia practiced her magic during her school years his second home. He spent all day long in that hall, and by mid-July, Quinn had finally cultivated the level of magic-focus required to cast seventh-year level spells.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn stood in the hall and took a deep breath. His magic core thrummed with magic. He looked at the empty space in front of him and concentrated, and the next second, things started appearing in front of him. Near the ground, a wooden base started forming, and seven feet above the ground, small gears, levers, and other delicate parts made from copper, aluminum, and steel popped into existence. With snappy speed, the wood structure built itself up from the ground, and metal parts appeared increasingly faster, assembling themselves to form an intricate mechanism.


    Quinn smiled as he saw a longcase clock (grandfather clock) with a pendulum system stood in front of him with all its mechanical glory. A conjuration with so many moving parts; it required both magic and mental focus to conjure out of nothing. This was Quinn''s best level of transfiguration/conjuration at the moment.


    Feeling confident, Quinn spread his arms, and dozens of butterflies appeared in the air. Another wave of conjuration and dragonflies mingled with the butterflies. Quinn looked at the ground, and squirrels ran around the hall, climbing the clock in the middle of the room. Quinn still had to work on organic conjurations and could only conjure smaller animals.


    When Quinn was admiring his work, he heard a knock on the door. When Quinn turned back and saw Elliot opening the door and entering the room with a pitcher of lemonade.


    When Elliot looked inside the room, he saw nothing but Quinn standing in the middle of the room looking at him.


    "Young master Quinn, it is quite hot today; please drink something," said Elliot as he poured a ss of lemonade for Quinn. Quinn received the ss from Elliot, "Thank you."


    Elliot looked around the room and asked, "What are you doing, young master Quinn?"


    While taking a sip from the ss, Quinn raised his fake wand and created a small block of ice on the floor. "Just practicing some charms." But then Quinn thought of something and excitedly asked, "Hey! Would you duel with me, please?!"


    Elliot put on a thoughtful expression before saying, "Alright, but I have a few conditions."


    "Do tell," said Quinn feeling good about convincing Elliot about having a duel with him.


    "No lethal spells," said Elliot. Quinn nodded and replied, "Alright, let''s specify a list of spells."


    "Disarming spell," offered Elliot. Quinn nodded and added, "Sheild Charm."


    "Full-Body bind." "Knockback jinx."


    "Fire-making spell." "No, not happening" "Then how about Ice Jinx." "Agreed."


    "Smokescreen spell?" "Only if we add Windy Charm to counter it."


    "How about transfiguring ground into small objects to shoot it each other."


    "Sounds fair, but no pointed objects. The same goes with Ice jinx, no pointed pieces of ice."


    .


    .


    .


    Quinn and Elliot agreed upon a list of spells and then moved to the backyard for some room to move. They were alone in the house, George and Lia were out for work, Ms. Rosey had no interest in watching them fight, and Polly, the house-elf, was happy doing work around the manor.


    Elliot and Quinn stood fifteen (15) meters apart, and both had wands in their hands; well, Quinn had his fake wand.


    "Are you ready, young master Quinn?" asked Elliot as he pulled up his sleeves. Quinn nodded and jumped on his toes, "Yes, I am ready. What should be the signal for us to start?"


    Elliot waved his wand, and a conjured feather appeared in his hand. "I will levitate this feather and then let it go. The moment the feather hits the ground, we start."


    Quinn nodded and took a stance. Elliot levitated the feather to four (4) meters and then let it go. Both of them waited for the feather to touch the ground. Quinn started grinning in excitement as the feather got closer to the ground, and magic started toe to life in his body. Elliot stood calmly in his spot and followed the feather from his peripheral vision.


    The moment the feather touched the ground, the two casted Stunning Spell as the first spell of choice. The flying jets of magic canceled each other. Quinn got ready to cast another spell but saw Elliot was one step ahead and had already casted a spell towards him.


    "Oh shit!" Quinn used the Sheild Charm (Protego) to block against the spell. An invisible shield appeared in front of Quinn, but the moment Elliot''s spell hit the shield, the impact made the shield visible with silverish tremors.


    From his spot, Elliot kept on casting Stunning Spell towards Quinn and spoke, "Young master, isn''t it a little too earlier for getting pushed to the backfoot? I heard that the young were aggressive."


    Quinn gritted his teeth, and after a few seconds, canceled his shield, side-stepped the iing spell, and casted a strong Knockback hex. That prompted Elliot to cast a Shield Charm of his own, but the moment the hex touched the shield, Elliot was skidded back a step.


    "Oh ho, that was quite some power behind that young master, " Elliot spoke as he canceled his shields and deflected the uing spells with ease. The next opening Elliot saw, he casted a body-bind towards Quinn''s feet, which Quinn dodged by jumping, and casted a Smokescreen spell to shroud the space between him and Elliot with dark mist.


    Quinn moved to the right while casting multiple Smokescreens to thicken the shroud. He was waiting for Elliot to cast a Windy spell. The movement of the disced mist would give Quinn an idea about Elliot''s position.


    But, as Quinn slowly moved, a jet of yellow and red shot out of the dark shroud andtched itself onto Quinn''s hand like a rope, and it almost made Quinn''s eyes pop in shock. It was the seize-and-pull charm (Carpe Retractum)


    "What the-!" was all Quinn could say when the yellowish-red cord of light pulled Quinn into the dark mist.


    On the other side of the mist, Elliot was waiting for Quinn to appear on his side so he could disarm him, but what came out of the mist was a huge chunk of ice that headed right towards him. The huge chunk of ice made Elliot drop his seize-and-pull charm and cast a shield spell to protect himself.


    Just behind the ice, Quinn got up from the ground. ''Whew! That was some quick thinking I did.'' When Quinn was pulled, he used the ice hex to create a block of ice and shot it towards Elliot.


    Quinn looked around and saw the mist disappearing and decided to get aggressive. He stepped outside of the disappearing mist, and the moment he saw Elliot, he casted a spell chain of Full-body Bind Curse (Petrificus Totalus), Stunning Spell (Stupefy), and Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus).


    Elliot had just recovered from his surprise when he saw Quinn''s spell chain; he side-stepped the Full-body Bind Curse, deflected the Stunning Spell, but the Disarming Charm caught him dead-on and forced the wand out of his hand.


    Quinn was so happy to see the wand out of Elliot''s hand that he cheered while jumping madly, "Woohoo!" Quinn had won his first duel, and it bought him a whole lot of joy. After jumping in joy, Quinn copsed onto the ground, spread-eagle. He felt the adrenaline slowly leaving his body as his chest heaved up and down.


    Elliot walked to Quinn after collecting his wand and said, "Congrattions, young master. That block of ice was masterfully ced."


    Quinn looked up at Elliot from his position on the ground, "The Ice hex was just an impulsive action. I have to say, the seize-and-pull spell caught me by surprise. Can we do this every day? Because this was thrilling!"


    Elliot sat beside Quinn and looked thoughtful. "Well, I see no harm if we take proper security measures, but just to be safe, let''s ask your grandfather."


    Quinn sat up and replied, "I will ask him when he gets home."


    That evening, George gave Quinn and Elliot the permission to duel, though not after some stoic and silent consideration. He also talked with Elliot to make sure Quinn wasn''t overdoing things, and he was to make sure Quinn wasn''t injured.


    - (Scene Break) -


    From that day on, Quinn would duel with Elliot every day for some time, getting used to casting spells on the move while looking out for Elliot''s movements.


    Elliot also helped out Quinn with his words of wisdom.


    "Young master, I am no dueling champion, but I can point out some obvious things that aremon knowledge while dueling," spoke Elliot as the two met in the backyard for their daily dueling sessions.


    Elliot waved his wand in a pattern, and slowly, a substantial amount of ground transfigured itself into a real-life lion that roared at Quinn, causing him to flinch and back away a few steps. Just as the lion came to life, Elliot canceled the transfiguration, and the lion turned back to dirt.


    "Transfiguration can be used in a duel to cause harm or buy time, but let''s say I used this transfiguration in a duel. If I chose my opportunity, I could order the lion to attack my opponent, and it would at the very least serve as a distraction. But, what if I did this?"


    With a much simpler wand movement, the same ground changed into a lion, but it was not a real lion; it was the ground in the shape of a lion. The mud lion roared all the same and once again caused Quinn to flinch.


    When the lion copsed back into dirt, Elliot asked, "Young master, did you notice something different?"


    Quinn nodded and pointed at Elliot''s wand and spoke, "The wand movement was much simpler," he pointed at the pile of dirt and continued, "and the mud lion came to shape much quicker than the real lion."


    Elliot smiled at the answer, "Yes. While dueling someone, there isn''t a ce for shy moves. If you can aplish what you want to do with less, then learn to do it. Saving energy and quickly finishing the fight should be the aim. Get in ready and get out quickly."


    Quinn nodded as it made sense when magic was involved; a single killing curse (Avada Kedavra) could end someone''s life instantly. There was no merit to draw out fights when a single spell could seriously injure you, or worse, lead to death.


    Sometimes, Quinn also dueled against Lia, and he had to say, dueling against Lia was much challenging than Elliot. But that was just because she enjoyed toying with him while Elliot made sure that Quinn was learning something.


    But she did teach Quinn something of importance.


    Quinn and Lia were dueling, and Lia was rapidly firing spells in his directions. Most of the spells were not even hitting Quinn and passed by his sides. But, it was the barrage of spells that restricted Quinn''s movement; he was too busy evading and block the iing spells to attack.


    A solid attack from Lia didn''te in the form of a head-on spell but as a trap. Quin moved a couple of steps to the left when his left foot sank into the ground and stumbled to the ground. Immediately after that, he was hit by a Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus) from Lia and was stripped of his fake wand.


    "Dammit!" Quinn pounded the ground as he stood up and removed his foot from the soft patch ofnd.


    Lia giggled in victory as she walked to Quinn and casted a Cleaning Spell on his clothes. "Did you like that? It was clever, right?"


    Quinn stared at the soft ground before looking at Lia, "All of those spells were just a cover-up for this trap." When Lia nodded, Quinn once again spoke, "What if I had gone to the right?"


    Lia smirked while answering, "As long as you didn''t go back, you would have still fallen for my trap. I set up multiple of these all around you." She casted at multiple patched of ground, and all of them sank. "See? Any direction, and you were toast."


    Quinn groaned but also thought that disrupting the bnce of the opponent was an excellent strategy. ''But, I could do it better,'' thought Quinn while he walked towards his fake wand to retrieve it.


    - (Scene Break) -


    In the first week of August, Quinn wrote a letter to Flitwick regarding a request. He wanted sole ess to one of the empty rooms in the castle. He wanted a base of operations in Hogwarts; themon room was too much ofmonce, his dorm room was too small and had the same problem of being a shared ce.


    The Room Of Requirement was the perfect private ce, and it catered to his every need, but he needed a ce that could be essible to anyone. The Room Of Requirements was his secret, and he would like it to remain as a secret as long as possible. He needed a personal ce for himself, but he could invite people there without causing a problem.


    Quinn was going to a service where he would help the students of Hogwarts for a price. He would take in requests and ask for something of equal value in exchange. Quinn had the n for starting out small by helping out people with housework, then move up and take more important requests that would put people in his debt, and slowly he would cultivate awork of people who owed him.


    The main objective of this service was to build connections with people in all four houses. The Potters were different in this world, and he needed to adapt to that change. He needed eyes and ears to know what was happening in Hogwarts and stay ahead of the curve. Quinn was going to use this service to aplish that.


    It was a weekter when Flitwick replied with a letter. The response bought a smile to Quinn''s face. In his letter, Flitwick agreed to provide Quinn sole ess to a Fifth-floor room as long as he assured it was to be used professionally and no improper activities would take ce in the room.


    Quinn immediately replied with a stern promise that he won''t misuse the room and would honor the trust Flitwick was cing on him.


    Quinn eyed the letter and smiled, ''With this, I am one step closer to bing the most influential student in Hogwarts.''


    Now, he just needed to wait for the school year to start.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - At Home - 3, 2, 1, Let it Rip!


    Elliot Dalton - Butler - Dueling Partner - Ah, the youth.


    Lia West - Elder sister - Messing with Quinn is fun.


    Filius Flitwick - Hogwarts - Professor of Charms - New Session. Busy. Request Approved.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 24 - Potters, Twins, And A.I.D

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    In the second week of August, Quinn decided to go to Diagon Alley for his annual visit. He didn''t have to buy the books, but he did want some potion supplies like cauldrons of different sizes and materials and Rune equipment.


    Near the Floo-firece in the West Manor, Quinn stood with George and Elliot.


    "Are you sure you would be fine on your own?" asked George as he was worried about Quinn going to Diagon Alley alone without any supervision.


    Quinn nodded and assured him, "Yes, I will make sure to be careful. I have the portkey that you gave me," Quinn fished out a thin silver chain ne from under his shirt, "I will immediately activate it if I get in trouble."


    "Alright. And, you have your wand? Don''t worry about the underage magic restriction; use magic in case of emergency. I will handle the ministry if they send you a notice." George didn''t know that Quinn''s real wand was locked in his suitcase, and the fake wand with him didn''t have a trace on it. As long as Quinn was considered, he could do magic all day long in public, and he still won''t get a single notice from the ministry.


    Finally, George nodded and nudged his chin towards the firece. Quinn acknowledged, and with ast look of goodbye, he threw the floo-powder in the firece, watching it turn green, and spoke, "Diagon Alley." Then he stepped in and disappeared from the West Manor into the green jets of mes.


    Elliot looked at George andforted, "He will be fine. Quinn is a responsible child and wise beyond his age."


    George sighed and replied while staring at the mes of the firece, "I hope so, old friend. I am just nervous because it is his first time going out on his own."


    Elliot smiled and recalled, "If his letters from Hogwarts are any indication, then he loves to roam around the castle, exploring. It was just a matter of time before Quinn would have explored outside. And you are forgetting how much he pulled us during our travel with him; he wanted to see everything."


    George fondly remembered the memories and chuckled, " I thought I was getting on with the age because the little fe never got tired and always wanted to do something new."


    Elliot and George exited the room while reminiscing about the past.


    - (Scene Break) -


    On the other side, Quinn was walking among the crowd of people in Diagon Alley. It was nice to be among this many people after being at the West Manor for a month. He missed being able to just look at a person and read their surface thoughts. Now, in Diagon Alley, Quinn had ess to so many unprotected minds.


    ''Mr. n was right; this can get addictive.'' Quinn smiled as he heard random stranger''s thoughts. Quinn had discovered that people''s thoughts at a market could be a fine source of humor. Somedies were bitching about otherdies, children and men were pinning after quidditch brooms, and vendors/shop owners were mentally smirking about ripping off customers. Quinn could hear all sorts of fun things from the crowd as he weaved through the waves of people.


    First, Quinn went to Gringotts to withdraw money and then went to the potion store to order cauldrons of different configurations and crystal vials. Crushers, made from different metals. Mortar and pestles of specific stones. Quinn was in the process of expanding his potion repertoire, and the ingredients and preparations were gettingplicated.


    After bargaining the price to the lowest price by reading the shop owner''s mind and getting free shipping, Quinn skipped to the Rune supplies store.


    Runes was an application of magic that utilized magic by means ofnguage. Runes were symbols, graphemes, morphemes, logograms, hieroglyphs, and all kinds of scripts that supported magic. Each rune had its own name and a variety of esoteric meanings that represent the metaphysical concepts, the so-called gic code of the universe. The user must understand the meanings of the runes and how they apply to their intended use.


    But, you couldn''t just take a pen and write runes on paper and expect it to work. No, you needed specific materials to make runes work. If you were writing runes on paper/parchments, you needed special parchment that sustained magic and specific ink blends that conducted magic. If you were etching runes into metals or wood, you needed carving tools that would help precisely etch symbols into the material. Staining solutions that would bind magic into the wood or mixtures that prepared metals for sustaining and holding runic magic.


    Quinn also realized that a lot of magic branches crossed each other at some point. Charms coincided with Potions in ingredient preparation. Transfiguration concepts were used in Transmutation and vice versa. Dark Arts and Defense Against the Dark Arts were two sides of the same coin. Arithmancy was used in almost every field of magic. You needed to know how to brew potions for solutions to draw runes so on and so forth. Herbology was used in Potions and then in turn in Runic magic. Alchemy was even moreplicated, but that would be a discussion for a different time.


    After yet another victory in bargaining by employing legilimency,


    Quinn happily exited the rune equipment store in Horizont Alley. Thanking thex behavior of the magical world. He pitied the people who didn''t know lumency and were clueless to the dangers of being their minds read.


    He looked around and thought, ''Well, I am done. I guess walking around wouldn''t hurt. See if something catches my eye.'' As he was walking the street, Quinn saw a crowd standing in front of the Flourish and Blotts.


    Quinn got curious and walked to a person in the crowd and asked, "Hey, what is going on?"


    The adult took a single nce at Quinn before turning back to look into the bookstore, "They are saying that the Boy-Who-Lived is in the store. People are waiting for him toe out."


    Quinn raised his eyebrows at this piece of information, ''Potter, huh?'' The reputation of Potters was much more prominent than canon Harry''s fame. Potters have been active in the Britain magical world, so they had been in the public eye, unlike when canon Harry was isted from the magical world.


    Quinn thought about what he should do, and after thinking for a few moments, he smiled and yelled, "Make way, Hogwarts student iing! Let me through... Yeah, I am talking to you; get out of the way... Hogwarts students, Hogwarts students. A Hogwarts student wants to buy some books! Get the hell out of my way, people!"


    Quinn shamelessly pushed his way through the crowd and knocked on the door to get the manager''s attention. The manager looked at the door, thinking it would be a person from the crowd, and wanted to scold them, but then he saw Quinn waving his hand at him with a smile.


    The manager cracked the door a little and heard Quinn speak, "Hogwarts, want to buy books. I am alone, so don''t worry about me bringing someone in the store."


    The manager smiled apologetically and let Quinn in and spoke, "Sorry about all of this. I can''t do much about the crowd outside."


    Quinn shook his head and said in understanding, "Don''t worry, I understand. Your business would go under if you refused to sell to the Boy-Who-Lived."


    The manager smiled a little before asking, "Do you need help with finding something?" Quinn shook his head and replied, "Na, I am fine. You should stay here at the door; I would rather take time in peace than shop with people flooding into the shop."


    After conversing with the manager, Quinn headed into the bookshop and made his way to the magazine section. He wanted to grab a copy of the magazines; Transfiguration Monthly and Popr Potions before taking a look at this world''s Harry Potter, and if he was here, then the rest of the Potters would be here too.


    He grabbed the magazines and was going to go search for the Potters, but the cover of Popr Potions caught his interest. "Ooh, they found a use for Doxy''s saliva! So interesting!" but then Quinn stopped and reprimanded himself, "No! What are you doing man? You can read thister." Quinn slipped the magazines under his arms and then set out to get a look at the Potters.


    The first person he found was surprisingly not a Potter, but a Weasley. Quinn saw Percy Weasley browsing through a bookshelf, and it made him wonder, ''Are Weasleys friends with the Potters? Both the parents were in Dumbledore''s Order Of Pheonix.''


    Quinn slipped past Percy and shifted the shelves to find a Potter and found a Potter. He found the smartest witch of her generation, Lily Potter. She was just as the books had described her; a beautiful woman with dark red shoulder-length hair and almond-shaped green eyes. Quinn has once wondered if the green eyes were such a big deal, but looking at Lily Potter''s green eyes made him realize that Harry Potter''s green eyes might just be his greatest feature because Lily''s green eyes were really mesmerizing.


    She was reading a book, so she didn''t notice Quinn staring at her. And he also decided that he had stared enough and moved on to find his next target and once again found the Weasleys, and this time he found three of them; Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, and their youngest son, Ronald Weasley. Quinn stopped and heard what they were talking about, and the conversation was about Ron whining about wanting new books while Molly was having nothing of it and saying that he would use the twins'' books, while Arthur was standing there silently, not saying a word.


    Quinn could understand Ron not wanting hand-me-downs from his brother. No young child wanted to use hand-me-downs. But with the Weasley family''s financial situation, new books were not an option. Education was an expensive affair, after all.


    Quinn sidestepped the heated family discussion and walked to the next row of shelves. He immediately came face-to-face with the Weasley twins, and they recognized him. They walked close to him and spoke, "Quinn West." "Ravenw." "Smartest in his year." "Top of his ss." "And, we meet him here at the bookshop." "Not a surprise at all."


    Quinn smiled at the twin talk and greeted, "It is nice to meet you two as well. The crowd outside is insane, isn''t it?"


    The twins nodded and answered, "The Boy-Who-Lived is here." "The people want to see their savior." "To think they don''t tire of surrounding him after ten years." "Speaking of." "Did you see him?"


    Quinn shook his head answered, "Not yet, but I did see Mrs. Potter. She was reading a book. Who else is here?"


    "Potter Twins." "Mr. and Mrs. Potter." "Us, Weasley Twins." "Percy, our brother." "Ron, our younger brother, and our parents." spoke the twins with perfect synchroneity


    "Do the Potter-Twins speak like you two?" asked Quinn, to which they snorted in unison, "No, those two are opposite to each other." "You will understand when theye to the school." "We are one of a kind." "It is a pity." "We could have used them to prank McGonagall." "s, it is not possible."


    Quinn chuckled and thought about something before fishing out a business/calling card from his pocket and handed it to the twins. The card was ck in the background with gold writing. It was the card for Quinn''s consultation service that he named as A.I.D. It was a simple card with the letters A, I, and D, and under it was the room number and floor of Quinn''s new room of operation.


    "What is this?" asked one twin.


    "If you want a solution to a problem or any task that needs assistance, or if you want any information you want to know,e to this room, and I would help you for a price. It doesn''t have to be money; I can work with IOUs (I owe you). Just make sure to onlye to this room when there is a golden {IN} written on the backside of the card," exined Quinn. He had charmed the card to show an {IN} when he was avable for consultation.


    The twins tilted their heads and asked, "How do we know you can get the job done." "And, keep things a secret." "How will you gather information?" "Are you any good?" "Why should wee to you?"


    Quinn smiled and motioned them toe closer and whispered, "I am good. Do you know why? Because I know about the map that you guys have. What was it? Marauder''s map, and ah, what were the words?" Quinn smirked and quoted, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Quinn felt ted seeing the twins'' stunned and silent faces and continued, "Think what would happen if one of the people you pranked know about the map and tattled to the teachers. The map must be quite important to you, right?"


    The twins looked at each other, and one of them spoke, "The map is useful, but we don''t need it that much." They had turned defensive and were trying to not seem nervous.


    Quinn''s smile widened and continued, "Oh well, then you won''t mind if McGonagall knew about the secret passages, would you? Or, are they also not important?"


    The twins sucked in sharp breaths and blurted, "Okay, we understand!" "You are good." "No, you are great!" "We kneel before your prowess." "We wille to you if we have any problems."


    Quinn chuckled and finished, "Good, now if you see someone having a problem,e to me, and I will give you one of these cards to give to them. Only people with the card would be able to enter the room." He patted them on their shoulders and said, "Now I will go and get a look at the rest of the Potters. See youter. Let''s hope we can work together in the future."


    He walked past them and waved them goodbye without looking at them.


    In one aisle, Quinn came to find the Potter father and son duo. Quinn could see the stunning simrity between them. The only difference Quinn could see was their eyes.


    The father-son duo was looking at the book, Curses, and Counter-Curses. [Bewitch your friends and befuddle your enemies with thetest revenge: Hair loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and much, much more.]


    It was a ssic book for a prankster, and from the look on their faces, Quinn could understand the personality of this iteration of Harry Potter.


    ''He is going to be a pain in the ass, isn''t he?'' If Harry Potter was anything like the younger James Potter, then there were chances that Harry would go around the school pranking people.


    ''I wonder if this Harry would have a saving people thing,'' wondered Quinn. Harry Potter''s willingness to help people and charge into dangerous situations was one of his good(?) qualities, but Quinn also thought, ''But... if he doesn''t head into those situations, maybe it will be easier to solve those problems all by myself. One less variable less to worry about.''


    He left them alone and headed to find the brand new unknown addition to the Potter family. Lily and James were dead in the canon, but this one didn''t exist at all. And, in the deepest corner of the bookstore, Quinn found her. He had seen photos of her, but all of them were ck and white in color, so Quinn noticed she had the same dark red hair but longer than her mother''s and stopped above her mid-back, and her eyes were startlingly green.


    Ivy Potter, the twin of Boy-Who-Lived, the Potter Princess, was sitting on the floor holding a book in one hand and imitating wand movements with her other hand. She was engrossed in her book, just like Quinn had seen her mother do a few minutes ago.


    If Harry Potter was going to be like James Potter, then from Quinn''s first impression of Ivy Potter, she was definitely going to be Lily Potter.


    Quinn didn''t say and just observed the anomaly in front of him, wondering what role she would y in the future. But if one thing was for sure, then it would be that she would be an integral part of the future, all Potters would be. They were at the center of things in Britain.


    Quinn snapped out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps heading his way and decided to leave the spot and walked away. He didn''t notice that the red-haired girl also heard the footsteps causing her to look away from her book. When she looked up, she was able to get a clear look at Quinn as he was leaving.


    She wondered who he was, but her mother''s voice interrupted her thoughts. "Ivy, it is time to go." And she wouldn''t recall the ck-haired boy until she would see him at Hogwarts.


    Time passed, and it was once again time for going to Hogwarts. Time for Quinn''s second year hade.


    .


    End of Volume 2: Hogwarts: Year One


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Created the consultation service A.I.D (Assistance In Distress)


    Weasley Twins - Masters of Twinspeak - Holders of First-Gen A.I.D cards.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 25 - Hogwarts Express Once More

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    On September 1, 1991, Quinn decided to get to the train station early.


    He told his grandfather the day before and gave him the reason. "The Potters are going to be there tomorrow, and I am sure that parents of the children are going to stay and crowd the tform. Plus, reporters are going to be there to click photos for their articles. I don''t want to get in the middle of all that chaos and would prefer to get apartment before it gets too crowded. So, can we go early, please?"


    So, on the day, Quinn reached the tform early and got himself apartment. When Quinn saw outside from his window and saw reporters standing around the tform waiting for the Potters to arrive. And as time passed, Quinn also saw parents of students not leaving and staying at the tform.


    Quinn sighed and thought, ''Poor people, most of these people won''t even get a look at the Potters. Then there would be the nervous non-magical parents. What would they think when they see the crowd of people and reporters.''


    Quinn also thought about how some of the parents would ask about the Potters. He could imagine the horrified look on the parent''s faces while listening about the war and Voldemort. Quinn was sure that Hogwarts faculty didn''t share that information with the parents as it would be terrible publicity. One thing was for sure, some parents were going to have one hell of an experience, and that too just before sending their children off to a strange and unknown world.


    After a while, Quinn got bored and took out a book on Healing magic from Egypt. And Quinn began reading a chapter on bones. It had all kinds of information on bones, theposition of different bones, herbs, and magical beast organs that facilitated bone healing, potions recipes for various bone anomalies, and healing charms that repaired bones.


    The information in the book impressed Quinn, "Huh, so you don''t need to use Skele-Gro for every bone injury. Now, where do I get people with broken bones..."


    It was then that Quinn heard the crowd outside be noisy and made him look outside, "The Potters are here, huh." He shook his head and dove back into his book.


    Ten minutester, Quinn heard a knock on his door that made him give a distracted nce to the door. There he saw two girls, one blond and one brte. Quinn sighed before gesturing them to enter.


    The brte opened the door and asked, "Are you saving the seats for someone? Or, can we join you in here?"


    Quinn shook his head and gestured to the seats, "Please, enter. The seats are free. You are wee to join me." Saying that, Quinn stood up from his ce to help them with their luggage. He pulled his fake wand and clearly showed it to them; following proper protocol, he asked, "I will be using my wand to get your luggage to the racks above if that is eptable to you."


    It was the polite social norm to ask before using magic on other people or their belongings. The brte smiled and nodded while the straight-faced blonde stared at him for a while before giving a single slight nod to show that she permitted Quinn''s help.


    Quinn pretended to follow the luggage with his fake wand even though he wasn''t using pointing to direct the luggage. After he ced their luggage on the luggage racks, Quinn asked, "I haven''t seen you two at Hogwarts. Are you two by any chance first years?"


    The brte excitedly answered, "Yes! It is all so exciting. You must be a senior, can you tell me about Hogwarts? Is it true that there is a giant squid at Hogwarts?"


    Quinn chuckled in reply, "Yes, there is a giant squid in Hogwarts, but it is quite difficult to see the squid. It doesn''t emerge from the Great Lake for long periods." He paused before continuing, "By the way, My name is Quinn West. May I get your name?"


    "Oh! My name is Tracey Davis. It is nice to meet you," answered the brte with an ever-present smile on her face.


    Quinn smile and held out his hand that Tracey took. Quinn turned her hand to kiss her knuckles, causing her to giggle. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Davis." Quinn usually shook hands as a greeting but changed greeting ording to the person in front of him, but he switched it to this style seeing their attire. He could clearly see that they were from traditional, old-school British magical families. A traditional greeting was much appropriate for these two.


    Then the two turned to the straight-faced blonde, and Quinn thought, ''No way is she who I think she is. But... blonde, straight-faced, no expressions, and she clearly is from a pureblood family. Friends with Tracey Davis... yup, she is the child of fanon.''


    The expressionless blonde critically stared at Quinn''s outstretched hand and finally spoke her first words since entering thepartment while gracefully allowing Quinn to hold her hand, "Daphne Greengrass."


    Quinn repeated the same action of kissing her knuckles. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Greengrass." He was once again met with silence, but Tracey chatted with him.


    "Which house are you from, and what year are you in, Quinn? And, can I call you Quinn?" babbled Tracey, full of energy.


    "I am from Ravenw, second year, and yes, you can call me Quinn," answered Quinn before asking, "You must be excited to get to Hogwarts. Have you thought about which house do you want to join?"


    Tracey shrugged in response, "I don''t know. I am fine with any house." Quinn turned to Daphne Greengrass, expecting an answer, but she didn''t say anything, and Tracey spoke, "Sorry about her, Daph is really shy. And to answer your question, she wants to be in Slytherin."


    The blonde Greengrass snapped her head towards her friend and red, "I am not shy, don''t speak nonsense." Tracey giggled at getting a response out of her friend.


    Suddenly, all three felt a jerk as the Hogwarts Express began moving. Quinn took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, "Only ten minuteste. I was expecting more dy. I was clearly expecting a thirty-minute dy."


    "The Potters really attracted a crowd, huh. I wonder which house would the Boy-Who-Lived go to?" spoke Tracey as she watched the crowd outside.


    To Quinn''s massive surprise, it was Daphne Greengrass who answered the question. She scoffed, "The golden boy would definitely go to Gryffindor. To him, any other house is a lesser option." Quinn could hear the dripping condescending tone in her words and voice.


    "Oh my, from your words, I assume that you know Harry Potter," Quinn asked, wishing to learn more about this connection.


    Daphne frowned at him, "Why are you a fan of him? Do you want me to introduce you to him?" She looked like she was going to say more, but Tracey interjected and answered, "She is friends with his sister, Ivy Potter."


    "Am not-!" she said heatedly but then closed her eyes to calm down. Quinn seriously wanted to read Daphne Greengrass''s mind, but he could see the telltale signs of lumency in use. Her expressionless face was a clear sign of emotional aspect lumency, and it wasn''t farfetched to assume that she had defense shields up. He didn''t want to risk getting caught and decided to use legilimency at ater date when he was better prepared.


    But all was not finished; Quinn had gathered enough information to deduce, ''Daphne Greengrass is at least acquaintance with Ivy Potter, so there might be a connection between the Potters and Greengrasses. From what grandfather has told me, the Greengrass family is firmly nted in the Grey faction, which means the connection is not political, which indicates a personal rtionship. But of what kind? I doubt James Potter is friends with Jacob Greengrass; they are too different. What then? What prompted Daphne Greengrass and Ivy Potter to meet? Self-note: Find more about this connection.''


    Quinn also thought about Daphne''s words about Harry Potter, ''She clearly doesn''t like Harry Potter. Any other house than Gryffindor is a lesser choice were her words... does that mean this Harry Potter thinks less of people in other houses? That is not good, is it? Oh Merlin, don''t let him be like Gryffindor''s Draco Malfoy.''


    Quinn looked at Daphne, who had calmed down and spoke, "A snappy one, aren''t you? I have no need to go through you to get to Potter. If I wanted to meet them, I would have approached them myself. But, thank you for the offer." After saying that, Quinn changed the topic and talked to Tracey about Hogwarts as Daphne listened.


    The next part of the train ride was quite simr tost year''s; When the Trolleydy came, he ordered the same bar of chocte just asst year and asked for the buffet car timing. But then Draco Malfoy came into thepartment. He was walking to the back of the train when something caught his eye, and he barged into Quinn''s with his two bodyguards, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.


    "Hey, Greengrass, you are friends with Potter. Do you know where he is sitting?" asked - no, demanded Draco. Quinn slightly tilted his head and looked at the scene with interest.


    Daphne looked at Draco and spoke, "No, I don''t. Now, don''t disturb me and get out." She didn''t give him a second look and returned to the book she was reading.


    Draco seemed miffed and then looked at Tracey and sneered while speaking to Daphne, "It looks like you are still hanging with your filthy half-blood pet."


    Tracey''s face darkened as she looked down, and Daphne snapped her book close and confronted Draco, "Dare to say that again, Malfoy, and I will hex you to tomorrow! Tracey is my best friend, and you would treat her properly. Speak to her like this again, and I will make your life miserable." By the end of her rant, Daphne had her wand out and was pointing it at Draco.


    Daphne''s momentum overwhelmed Draco. His face turned red, and he spluttered, "M-my father will hear of this Greengrass."


    That prompted augh from Quinn. The whole scene was just too damn funny. Seeing Draco splutter in a panic about his father wasedy gold.


    Quinn''s stifledugh reached Draco''s ears, and when he saw Quinn, Draco decided to save some dignity by targeting Quinn. He looked at Quinn and spoke, "What are youughing at? Do you know who I am?"


    Quinn gently closed his book and stood up. He walked closer to Draco and held out his hand for a handshake, and Draco actually took Quinn''s hand. Draco didn''t know why he was holding Quinn''s hand, but somethingpelled him to shake Quinn''s hand, and it wasn''t magic. It was pure bodynguage and confidence that allowed Quinn tomand the room.


    Quinn squeezed Draco''s hand firmly and answered, "I know who you are, Mr. Malfoy. For who I am, my name is Quinn West. You asked me what I wasughing at? I wasughing at you. Now, why don''t you apologize to Ms. Davis, and we can call this over. I would rather not look at you more than the bare minimum."


    All of Draco''s ns or quips were already out of his head. He was just staring into Quinn, who was smiling, but the smile seemed discordant to Draco and made him ufortable.


    "Haha, w-what will you do if I don''t apologize? I will have you know that you are talking to a Malfoy. You are in the presence of someone better than you," spoke Draco, hoping that he would scare, but it didn''t.


    "I already told you that I recognize you, Mr. Malfoy. As for what I would do? You will only leave here if you apologize to Ms. Davis, or I will hold you for the rest of the train ride. And, trust me, I am not joking. And, for you being better than me; yeah, that is a good joke," spoke Quinn in a humorous tone, but everybody could decipher the true meaning from his words.


    "M-My father w-will know of this. He is close to the minister! I will have your wand snapped," spoke Draco, pulling out the daddy card.


    Quinn nodded and replied, "Sure, you can write to your father, but for now, you are still apologizing." saying that Quinn tightened his grip on Malfoys hand and gave a stern look to Crabbe and Goyle; warning them not to interfere.


    Draco winced, feeling the grip on his hand. He looked at Tracey and murmured an apology, "I am sorry."


    "Now, repeat that again and add that you won''t do it again," instructed Quinn. Draco wanted to protest, but a look from Quinn made him stop.


    "I am sorry. I won''t do it again," spoke Draco with a face flushed red with embarrassment.


    Quinn smile and released Draco''s hand, who quickly put it behind his back. Quinn patted Draco''s clothes in a cleaning motion and said, "That wasn''t difficult, was it? Now that you have apologized, please leave. You were talking about Potter''s cabin, right? Go find it, go on, hurry along." After saying that, Quinn shut the door close and ignored the stunned and embarrassed Draco.


    Quinn walked back to his seat and sat in the now silentpartment.


    Tracey looked at Quinn with an amazed and thankful look, "Thank you." It truly amazed her at how Quinn had handled Draco. It was quite a sight to watch.


    Quinn smiled and replied, "Please, it was nothing. He made you ufortable and was about to get on my nerves, so I made him leave, but not before teaching him a lesson. And overall, it was a fun experience."


    Daphne humphed and interjected, "We could have taken care of it ourselves. You didn''t need to interfere." She was unhappy that she was not the one to make Draco apologize to her friend.


    Quinn slightly tilted his head in confusion, "Us? You must be confused, Ms. Greengrass. I only stood up for Ms. Davis. I wasn''t thinking about you at all. That is why I only asked Mr. Malfoy to apologize to Ms. Davis and not you, remember?" Hearing Quinn''s words made Tracey giggle, and Daphne frowned and red at him.


    Quinn looked at the time on his pocket watch and asked his twopanions, "Would you two like to apany me to the Buffet car for lunch?"


    Tracey jumped at the invitation, "Sure, we would love to join you." Daphne was about to say something, but Tracey pinched her to get her to stop talking. Daphne could only rub the pinched spot and relented in silence.


    - (Scene Break) -


    After they returned from lunch, the peace of Quinn''spartment was once again interrupted. A person opened the door causing all three people to look up at the person. Oh boy, were they surprised to see Ivy Potter standing at the door.


    Ivy was about to say something when she met eyes with Daphne and said, "Oh, Daphne, didn''t see you there. How are you?"


    Daphne quirked her brow and replied, "Your eyesight must be getting worse. Why don''t you get them checked? Maybe then you and your brother would match."


    Ivy narrowed her eyes and countered, "Or maybe it was because I mistook you for a statue. There isn''t much difference between you and a statue, you know?"


    While they were arguing, Quinn nudged Tracey and asked, "Ms. Davis, what is happening? Didn''t you say these two were friends?"


    Tracey giggled and replied, "Oh, they are friends, alright. They just don''t know how to express themselves. They are cute like that." Quinn could tell that there was more to this story, but he let it go andmented, "If you say so, and I would have to say this is much more interesting."


    Tracey smiled brightly and responded, "I know, right!"


    The two girls exhausted their insults for each other, and Ivy turned to Tracey and asked while waving her hello, "Hey Tracey, I am looking for a toad. Have you seen one?"


    Tracey waved back and shook her head, "No, I haven''t seen a toad, sorry."


    Just then, another person came, and Quinn recognized her as Hermione Granger. Looking at her, Quinn had one thought, ''Yeah, that is Emma Watson, alright.'' She looked at Ivy and asked, "Did you find Neville''s toad?"


    Ivy shook her head and replied, "No, not yet."


    Quinn decided to offer them some help, "You should approach one of the prefects and tell them about the missing toad. Ask them to ry the message to the driver, who would announce it over the speakers across the train; that way, you would reach all the students in the train."


    It would be much more efficient for them to ask the driver rather than going to everypartment. Plus, he didn''t give the idiotic advice of using a Summoning Charm (io) as it didn''t summon living beings.


    Ivy looked at the third person in the room for the first time and saw Quinn. She immediately recognized him from the bookstore, "You-"


    But, Hermione spoke before her, "Thank you, we would do that." And, before Ivy could start again, she was once again cut by Daphne, who stood up and spoke before Ivy, "Good, now that you got some help, leave." She didn''t wait for Ivy to respond and shut the door. Outside of the room, Hermione dragged Ivy along.


    Daphne sat back and nced at Tracey and Quinn, who were smiling at her. She asked, "What?"


    Both of them shook her head and replied in unison, "Nurthing~."


    When the Hogwarts Express was about to reach the Hogsmeade station and Daphne, Tracey, and Quinn had changed, Quinn decided to give them his consultation calling cards.


    He handed them the ck calling cards and exined, "If you need help with anything. Pleasee to this room, and I will help you at a suitable price. I also ept IOUs of equal value. I would be in for a consultation when the back of the card shows you an {IN} symbol. So, don''t be shy toe to me for help."


    The two girls looked at the ck and gold card and saw the front side switch between {AID} and {Solution to any of your problems}.


    Then he kissed Tracey''s knuckles and did a mock-bow to Daphne before separating from them to join the other students.


    Tracey waved his goodbye and said to Daphne, "Quinn is so dreamy~." Daphne just stared at her friend like she was crazy, but she did look at the card he had handed to her.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - 12 years old - Hogwarts (2nd Year) - Novice Consultant.


    Daphne Greengrass - 11 years old - Hogwarts (1st Year) - Stone-faced blonde


    Tracey Davis - 11 years old - Hogwarts (1st Year) - Bubbly Brte


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 26 - New Professor, And Prediction Party

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn walked into the Great Hall, once again taking in the grandness of the hall, and made his way to Ravenw bench. He looked at the long bench of Hogwarts robes customized to contain Ravenw colors. Robes had blue linings, a Ravenw symbol on the left chest, and a blue tie with white and silver stripes. Quinn, too, was wearing the same robes;st year, the house-elves had customized Quinn''s robes on his first night at Hogwarts. Quinn had taken a liking to the Ravenw blue after wearing it every day.


    Quinn searched for his roommates and found them. Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby, Ravenws from the same year as Quinn. He made a beeline towards them and smiled when he saw their seating arrangement. As usual, Eddie was sitting opposite Marcus, prepared to stay away from his terrible eating habits. Quinn also made the same decision and walked to Eddie''s side. He patted Eddie on his back as he sat beside him. "Good to see you again, guys. How are you two?" said Quinn in greeting.


    "Hey, Quinn, where were you? I didn''t see you on the train," asked Eddie from his side. "Oh, I got early and sat down before the Potters got to the tform," answered Quinn.


    "You could havee to see me,"ined Eddie. Quinn shrugged and responded, "I forgot, I had some interestingpany. And, you could have done the same; I didn''t see youing to me." Both the boys looked at each other before smiling and dapping in greeting.


    "Oh, I got a littlete at the tform. Believe me when I say that for a second, I wasn''t sure if I would be able to make it aboard the train. The crowd to see the Potters was crazy," Marcus shared his experience of the morning at the tform.


    Eddie leaned towards Marcus and asked, "So, did you see the Potters? I wasn''t able to see them. I did go to theirpartment, but they had drawn the curtains."


    Marcus shook his head, and Quinn spoke, "Hey, I saw Ivy Potter, Boy-Who-Lived''s twin sister. She came to mypartment looking for a toad."


    Eddie, Marcus, and other Ravenw near them leaned towards Quinn for more details. "A toad?" asked Marcus.


    Quinn told nodded and told them about her, that she had red hair and green eyes and that the train announcement was his idea, but nothing of the interaction that she and Daphne had; that stuff was personal.


    As time passed, Quinn also greeted other Ravenw as they arrived in the Great Hall.


    "Chang and Edgbe, how are you two girls doing? Did anything fun in the break?" Quinn made small talk with Cho Chang and Marietta Edgbe, who stopped by for saying hi.


    "I went to Italy with my family. How about you?" chatted Cho.


    "Oh! Italy, beautiful country, isn''t it? Did you go to the Vatican?" asked Quinn and shrugged in response, "Na, I didn''t go anywhere this year. My family was busy this summer. But I did have a lot of fun. Did a lot of reading. "


    He also congratted Penelope Clearwater when he saw her. "Clearwater is that a prefect badge I see. Congrattion, you deserve it."


    Penelope smiled and replied, "Thank you, Quinn. I hope I won''t be seeing you out after curfew." Quinn put on an innocent expression and said, "What? I am always in themon room after curfew. You know I love to follow the rules."


    She swatted his shoulder and shoulder, "Stop with that look. You are always thest one to enter themon room. Most of the time, youe back in is after curfew. So, please don''t let me catch you, or I would have to give you a detention."


    Quinn shrugged and proudly said, "Oh,e on. I start my day early and end itte. You should look at with positivity, recognize my hard work that would make a Hufflepuff proud."


    She shook his head andmented, "Or, a silver tongue that would make a Slytherin proud." Quinn winked and smiled, "Prefect Clearwater, you are giving me a poor reputation; I call it smooth-talking and not a silver tongue. It is one of my good points."


    She sighed and relented, "Only you, West. Only you." She left but not before saying, "But, I will still give you a detention if I see you."


    After a little while, Quinn was looking around when he saw someone enter the hall, and Quinn wasn''t sure what to make of it. He truly wasn''t expecting this person to be here. Quinn watched as Lily Potter entered the Great Hall and walked to the staff''s High Table. The student body murmured, seeing Lily Potter, and whispered among themselves.


    After wrapping his head around seeing Lily Potter at Hogwarts, most definitely as a new teacher, Quinnughed... hard.


    Eddie looked at Quinn and asked, "Why are youughing?" Quinn shook his head and chuckled to himself, "It''s nothing. This is all so amusing to me. Right, amusing. We were already getting two Potter. One more isn''t nothing to worry about." Quinn looked at Dumbledore chatting with Lily and thought, ''Oh, Dumbledore, you clever old goat.''


    In Quinn''s mind, Lily Potter being here was an obvious attempt from Dumbledore to keep the Potters close. He wanted to have maximum influence over the Potters, and what better way than to allow Lily Potter to stay close to her children. Potters already held Dumbledore in high regards, and with this, he had done them another substantial favor.


    Quinn also nced at Quirinus Quirrell. He was wearing a turban and fidgeted in his chair. Quinn looked at the turban and could imagine Voldemort''s face on the back of Quirrell''s head. The canon was afoot, and Quinn was here at ground zero.


    - (Scene Break) -


    When all the students, second-year and above, settled down in their house long-tables, McGonagall came to the Great Hall and announced, "The new first-years are ready and waiting in the Antechamber, so please behave and support them as they get sorted."


    And then McGonagall led the new students into the Great Hall. With McGonagall in the lead, the new first-years walked in a line, taking in the grand sight of the Great Hall, forgetting their nervousness for just a moment.


    When the students reached the front of the hall, they gathered just below the steps that led to the High Table. Seeing them look all nervous made Quinn''s heart swell.


    "Look at their expressions; they all look so nervous," said Quinn as he smiled. Marcus looked at him with doubt and asked, "And that makes you happy?" Quinn nodded and smiled widely, "Yeah!"


    The sorting hat sang its introductory song, but Quinn didn''t join the rest of the school in apuse as he associated the hat with bad memories, andst year on that stool made him feel exposed.


    The sorting finally started, and Eddie looked at Marcus and Quinn, "Remember your bets. The first student of this year will go to which house. I choose Ravenw, Marcus choose Gryffindor, and Quinn chose Hufflepuff. The winner gets five sickles from the other two. Put the money on the table." Quinn had proposed a bet among his roommates, and they had enthusiastically agreed to it. The surrounding people also heard them and began betting with each other. Soon the entire student body was betting.


    McGonagall unrolled a roll of parchment and spoke the first name, "Abbot, Hannah." A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line. McGonagall put the hat on her, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. After a pause, the hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"


    Quinn smiled and collected the money on the table, "Payday~." Then he looked at his two friends and purposed another wager, "How about this, If I guess thirty students'' houses correctly, you two will give me half-galleon, but if I get even one less than thirty, I will give you both a galleon each. How about it, deal?" He ced two galleons on the table.


    The two looked at each other and nodded. Both pulled eight sickles and fifteen knuts out of their pockets and ced them on the table. Eddie looked at Quinn and repeated, "Thirty and no less."


    Quinn smiled and said, "Get ready boys, you are about to see something truly magical. Also, the first girl that went Hufflepuff is included."


    Quinn rubbed his hands. He saw Susan Bones go up the steps and said, "Hufflepuff." The next moment the hat yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF." Then Quinn advantage of his knowledge and nailed the houses of every character he recognized.


    "Ravenw." "Boot, Terry." "RAVENCLAW!"


    "Ravenw." "Brocklehurst, Mandy." "RAVENCLAW!"


    "Gryffindor." "Brown, Lavender." "GRYFFINDOR!"


    "Slytherin. "Bulstrode, Millicent." "SLYTHERIN!"


    .


    .


    "Oh, I am not sure about this one but, Slytherin." "Davis, Tracey." "SLYTHERIN!"


    "Another Badger, Hufflepuff." "Finch-Fletchley, Justin." "HUFFLEPUFF!"


    .


    .


    "Gryffindor." "Finnigan, Seamus." "GRYFFINDOR!"


    "Definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent sure, Gryffindor." "Granger, Hermione." "GRYFFINDOR!"


    "Ah, she is the ssic Slytherin material and the better kind!" "Greengrass, Daphne." "SLYTHERIN!"


    "Sigh, the big guy is going to Slytherin." "Goyle, Gregory." "SLYTHERIN!"


    .


    .


    .


    "Our housemate, a prestigious Ravenw." "Li, Sue." "RAVENCLAW!"


    "He looks like he is about to wet his pant. You know what, Gryffindor!" "Longbottom, Neville." "GRYFFINDOR!"


    "Hmm... Hufflepuff." "MacDougal, Morag." "HUFFLEPUFF!"


    "Slytherin, no other choice. A pity for the Slytherin house. Well, at least they would have money." "Malfoy, Draco." "SLYTHERIN!"


    .


    .


    .


    "Looks like a typical Slytherin." "Nott, Theodore." "SLYTHERIN!"


    "Slytherin all the way." "Parkinson, Pancy." "SLYTHERIN!"


    "She feels like a Ravenw." "Patil, Padma." "RAVENCLAW!"


    "Twins, huh? Gryffindor!" "Patil, Parvati." "GRYFFINDOR!"


    By the time Quinn had gotten ten students correct, the entirety of Ravenw table was hanging onto his every word. Quinn''s predictions were passed onto the entire table via word of mouth. Because of Quinn, the Ravenw table had the most fun during the sorting ceremony.


    On the staff''s High Table, Lily Potter was sitting beside her favorite teacher, Filius Flitwick. She noticed how the Ravenw table was ooh-ing, aww-ing, and pping for every student. Even for those who were being sorted into Slytherin. She knew how intense the house rivalry could be. In fact, the cheers were increasing with every student.


    Lily turned to the Flitwick and said, "Professor, your students are showing great inter-house unity; they are cheering so enthusiastically for every student. It is quite nice to see it; In my time, only the house cheered for their sorties. I am impressed that you were able to teach them to rise above house rivalry."


    Flitwick also noticed his house table, and after listening to his new former student now colleague''s praise, he felt pride as Ravenw''s head of the house. He didn''t know what was the difference this year, but he was happy about it. It would be quite a shock for him when he wouldter learn that the Ravenw students weren''t cheering for the new students, but for Quinn, who was on a roll of guessing the sorting of the new students.


    Finally, it was Potters'' turn on the sorting chair. McGonagall looked at the scroll and then looked at the new students before announcing, "Potter, Harry."


    While everybody on Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin tables were standing and craning their necks to get a look at the Boy-Who-Lived, the Ravenw table was watching Quinn, who had his elbows on the table, fingers interlocked. He looked left and then right before speaking, "Gryffindor."


    A series of nods and murmurs went through the Ravenw table as the Ravenw students turned their eyes to Harry Potter, who was climbing the steps to the stool.


    Quinn observed this version of Harry Potter and, for the first time, took note of the difference between him and the canon Harry. This one looked confident unlike, the nervous canon Harry. He was smiling as he sat on the barstool, and his eyes were looking at the Gryffindor table.


    The moment the hat dropped on Harry''s head, it shouted its decision, "GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table went wild, and Harry also stood up from the barstool with a bright smile. But, he stopped in confusion when the Ravenw table''s cheers drowned the Gryffindor table''s cheers.


    Harry was confused; were they happy that he didn''te to Ravenw? The staff and faculty, along with the other three houses, also felt puzzled. What was wrong with Ravenw this year?


    Quinn didn''t feel surprised at the swift decision; this version of Harry differed from the canon version and wasn''t a hatstop. He turned his eyes to Lily Potter. She was looking at Harry and fondly smiling while pping.


    ''She must be quite happy to have her child in the same house as herself,'' thought Quinn.


    His friends prompted him to make the prediction, and Quinn looked at McGonagall, who said the next name.


    "Potter, Ivy."


    Quinn wasn''t sure about this one. He had seen her at the bookstore lost in the book, but she was also raised in the Potter household with two Gryffindor parents and Sirius ck as a frequent visitor. Quinn looked at the galleon on the table. He picked one and tossed it into the air. He caught the coin when it came down and looked at it. He looked at the people around him and said, "It was a close decision between Gryffindor and Ravenw, but the galleon has spoken, Ivy Potter will go to Gryffindor."


    The hall went quiet as everybody waited for the hat''s decision. The hat stayed on Ivy''s head for almost a minute. Everybody saw the hat move and knew the time hade.


    "GRYFFINDOR!"


    It was followed by a chant from the Weasley twins, "We got Potters, We got Potters."


    Quinn pumped his fist and spoke, "Yeah!" Quinn knew that not all studious people went to Ravenw. It was a person''s beliefs and choices that decided their house in Hogwarts. He didn''t know Ivy Potter well enough to know where she would end up, and Quinn solely based his prediction on what he had seen and heard of her. Ivy going to Gryffindor was pure luck and spection.


    For example, Quinn knew Hermione Granger is smart and studious, but her beliefs weren''t the same as a Ravenw; she didn''t hold a Ravenws'' values of being clever, schrly over Gryffindor''s bravery and courage. In the books, Hermione herself had said to Harry, "Books, cleverness, but there are far more important things like bravery."


    The hat also added his own thought to the decision, like where the child would grow the most. If Hermione had gone to Ravenw, she might not have been able to make friends.


    ''When ites to academics, Ravenw is a cutthroat house. There are plenty of backstabbings and betrayals in Ravenw,'' thought Quinn as he looked around the joyous house that became ultrapetitive during examination time. He looked at Gryffindor and Hermione and thought, ''Maybe that is why Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor.''


    The sorting continued, and only one person was remaining. McGonagall called him to the barstool, "Zabani, ise."


    Quinn stared at ise and announced, "He will go to Slytherin." The Ravenw house waited with bated breath for the hat to announce its decision.


    "SLYTHERIN!"


    The second the hat announced the sorting, some of the older Ravenw students lifted Quinn and threw him in the air to celebrate. "Whoa! This is somewhat whacky. Hey, do it more!" But they had to stop when McGonagall yelled at them.


    Albus Dumbledore was chuckling when he got to his feet. He beamed at the Ravenw student before looking at all the students, his arms opened wide.


    "Wee all!" he said. "Wee to a brand new year at Hogwarts! Before we start the banquet, and I get to know about all the fun the house Ravenw is having, I would like to say a few words. Here we go, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"


    Previous year Quinn had taken a trip to the kitchens and confirmed his theory. Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak were indeed the name of the house-elves, and they were the oldest house-elves in Hogwarts and took care of the first meal of the year.


    After the meals were done, Dumbledore made his annual announcements. "I have a few start-of-term notices to give you." He looked at all the student body and continued, "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well..." He repeated the same words asst year before saying, "And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."


    Quinn, who had just finished his pudding, put his spoon down and sighed as he heard those words, "Lovely. Absolutely lovely."


    Marcus looked at Quinn before asking, "What is?" Quinn sighed before smiling towards his roommate, "The pudding, of course."


    Dumbledore continued as he had said nothing out of order, "Lastly, I would like to introduce you to a new addition to Hogwarts." He gestured towards Lily Potter, who stood up and smiled at the student body. "From this year onwards, Madame Lily Potter will be joining Hogwarts'' staff. She would take the position of Professor of Muggle Studies. Please, give her a warm round of apuse."


    Quinn looked at Lily Potter and then the Potter Twins before finally looking at Quirinus Quirrell, Voldemort''s host.


    ''Potters and Voldemort, both are here, and so is the Philosopher''s Stone. All the yers have gathered for the first time... the game has begun,'' thought Quinn giving Dumbledore, Quirinus Quirrell, Lily Potter onest nce before walking and fading away in the crowd of students.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Made a galleon in a wager - Star entertainer.


    Lily Potter - Muggle Studies Professor - Excited to teach at her Alma Mater


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 27 - Rant, And The New Base

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    In Ravenwmon room, everyplimented Quinn on his predictions. Then the prefects asked them to leave themon room for the first year''s inauguration to Ravenw by Flitwick.


    Quinn checked the assignment chart for the dorm room and climbed the boy''s dorm stairs to his new dorm. He found that Eddie and Marcus were already there.


    "We are roommates again this year, nice," said Quinn to his first-year and now second-year roommates. After getting changed, Quinn retrieved two A.I.D calling cards and presented them to Eddie and Marcus.


    Eddie looked at the ck and gold card in his hand and questioned, "What is this?"


    Quinn moved his hand behind his back and exined, "If you ever need help. Help with anything, anything at all. Come to this room, and I will help you for a suitable price or an I.O.U. In this room, you would find the solutions to all of your problems."


    Marcus looked away from the card and asked, "Even for homework?"


    Quinn chuckled and waved his hand, "No, you can ask me about homework here. I won''t charge you guys for homework; just think of it as roommate perks. But, anything other than that,e to that room, and I will give you a roommate discount."


    "Do you have permission to use this room?" asked Eddie as he ced his card in his dorm desk drawer. Quinn nodded and replied, "Yeah, I have Flitwick''s permission. Wrote him a letter in the break."


    Quinn was transferring his clothes to his dorm cupboard when he heard a knock on the door. He looked up to see one was one of the Ravenw prefects at the door.


    "Yes?" asked Quinn as he walked towards the door. The prefect handed Quinn three sheets of parchment. "Here you go, this is the timetable for second-year students, take one and pass the others to your roommates."


    Quinn received the sheets from the prefect and spoke, "Thank you."


    He dropped the other sheets on Eddie''s and Marcus''s bed and climbed his own bed to check the timetable. "Oh, this is great! I have the whole of Friday free. This is much better thanst year," Quinn spoke with delighted in his tone. With the Friday free, Quinn would have three straight free days.


    After sorting his memories for the day in his mindscape by memory immersion, Quinn decided to turn in for the day and sleep for the first working day of his second year at Hogwarts.


    - (Scene Break) -


    The next day, Quinn got up nice and early for his day. After brushing his teeth and washing his face. He took out his running shoes and changed into sportswear, and headed to one of the grounds in Hogwarts'' premises.


    Mind, Body, and Soul were three facilities for magic. Quinn had been developing mind since he was eight and met n D. Baddeley. He took on developing the body: the second facility when he was nine years old and started exercising outside of his dance lessons with Ms. Rosey.


    Every morning he would go out for a run and run a 5k (5 km/5000m/3.1 mile) every day. It would usually take him around twenty-two minutes every day toplete his track in which he would think about the uing day and what he wanted to do on that day. Quinn found that going on a run was an excellent way to start his day with a clear mind. So after roughly a quarter of an hour after waking up, Quinn would be back in his dorm room, getting ready to take a bath.


    After spending fifteen minutes in the bathroom, he woulde out refreshed and wake his roommates. Marcus would wake up with a light nudge, but Eddie wouldn''t wake up with anything less than a kick.


    By ten past seven (7:10), Quinn would be out of his dorm room and the Ravenwmon room and would be on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast.


    Today, Quinn was eating his breakfast like usual when he heard Flitwick calling out to him from the High table.


    "Mr. West, pleasee here when you have finished your meal," said Flitwick from his chair at the High Table. Quinn nodded in response, and he especially noted that no one else heard Flitwick.


    ''His voice only made its way to my ears. Now, how did he aplish this? Sound istion? No, that would restrict the movement of voice in an area. He must have used a sound spell that allowed him to target his voice to the listener. But then how did he make sure that his voice didn''t leak as the distance increased...,'' Quinn thought as his hands moved automatically to feed himself as he thought about the concepts behind Flitwick''s show of magic.


    Quinn didn''t notice that Flitwick was looking at him andughing in his squeaky voice. Flitwick could have charmed a parchment to fly to Quinn to convey his message, but he decided to use his current method to see Quinn''s reaction. It did not disappoint him when he saw Quinn deep in thought, obviously thinking about how he could talk to him with no one knowing.


    After Quinn finished eating his breakfast, he made his way to the High Table and greeted the professors who were looking at him, "Good morning, Professors. I hope you all had a pleasant sleepst night."


    Flitwick smiled at his charge and immediately spoke, "Good morning to you as well, Mr. West. Did you figure out how I called you?" Hearing that, Quinn realized Flitwick did it on purpose, knowing that he would think about it. It made him chuckle in reply, "Not yet, professor. But, do give me a day or two, and I will get back to you with an answer."


    Flitwick grinned and asked, "Or, I could give you an answer right now." Quinn shook his head and refused, "No, thank you, professor. But, I would like to find an answer on my own. This way, I would learn a lot more than if you spoon-fed me the answer right now."


    Flitwick pped his hands and praise, "I wouldn''t expect anything less than you, Mr. West."


    Quinn felt a gaze on him and turned to the source and found Lily Potter staring at him with interest. He decided to ask, "Is something wrong, Professor Potter?"


    She shook her head and responded, "Oh, it''s nothing. I was just listening to your conversation."


    Flitwick jumped in and introduced Quinn to Lily, "Lily, meet Quinn West. He is at the top of his year, the smartest of his ss. He scored number one around all the subjects."


    Quinn smiled in humbleness, "You exaggerate, professor."


    Lily looked at Quinn and asked, "So, Mr. West, do you have ns to take Muggle Studies next year?"


    The question elicited augh out of Quinn, "Oh god no. No offense to your teaching capabilities, professor, but the Muggle Studies subject at Hogwarts is worthless."


    Lily Potter frowned as she heard Quinn''s response, "Do you consider muggles lesser than you, Mr. West?"


    Quinnughed a little louder and responded, "Of course not, professor. The magical kind is just a minor part of the world. The non-magical kind outnumbers us in poption by an extremelyrge margin. I don''t consider le non-magiques, the muggle, the no-maj, the can''t-spells, lesser than me, I do not. I believe the muggles are not lesser, but others. Not worthless, but of other value. Not disposable, but of a different disposition. Magic is a gift that blooms in rare individuals, and even among them, a few really appreciate it. I don''t look down on non-magicals, but I do consider them different from me, a person who can use magic, not because I can do magic, but because of the society I was raised in." Quinn gestured at the Great Hall behind him and continued, "Most of the people from magical families have no connection to the world outside the magicalmunity. They do not know howrge the world is, and the ss at Hogwarts will not help them understand that."


    Quinn turned back to Lily and asked, "Professor, you are a first-generation magical, right?" Lily seemed confused and asked, "First-generation magical?" Quinn understood her confusion and answered, "A muggleborn, professor."


    "Oh, yes. I am a muggleborn," answered Lily after she understood what Quinn meant.


    "I have read the curriculum of muggle studies; do you as a muggleborn really think that the severely outdated curriculum would help them understand them about the big world outside? Professor Potter, I am a pureblood with no non-magical ancestors for generations upon generations. But, I know the non-magical world, I visit it frequently, I love watching movies, eating at fast-food joints, trying out their clothes, and experiencing many other things the magicals couldn''t even imagine. The architecture, the technology, they have things we haven''t even started to dive in. I know how different it is from this one, and I can, at this moment, leave the magical world and be a part of the non-magical world. It is because I genuinely gave it a chance. Opting for muggle studies isn''t giving the non-magical world a chance. So, my final answer? No, I am not going to join the muggle studies ss next year."


    Quinn immediately turned to Flitwick and asked, "Professor Flitwick, why did you call me?" Flitwick snapped out of his trance and took out a key from his pocket, and spoke while giving it to Quinn, "This is the key to the room you asked for."


    Quinn took the key and smiled brightly, "Thank you, professor. It was really kind of you to ept my request. I promise I will use the room properly. Now, please excuse me, I have to prepare for my sses." Quinn was going to leave but decided to say onest thing to Lily, "professor, if you really want to introduce the non-magical world, then I would suggest that you change diverge from the curriculum and teach what you think would help. It probably won''t help them pass their exams, but it would help them understand the non-magicals." He smiled before finishing, "Professor Potter, I hope that you would have a great time at Hogwarts." And with that, Quinn left.


    Flitwick and Lily sat in stunned silence about what had just taken ce. It was a while before Flitwick spoke, "Last year when I had just met Mr. West, I thought he was like you. Bright, smart, intelligent, but as I came to know him better, I realized Mr. West differed greatly from any student I had ever taught. He is smart, he is bright, intelligent, and much more. From what I have seen, Mr. West truly loves magic. As long as it has something to do with magic, he would be interested in it, but he doesn''t ignore the things that have nothing to do with magic. He loves new experiences. Do you know he explores the castle every single day? To him, this castle isn''t just a building but a magical marvel that needs to be studied and explored. He just doesn''t learn a spell''s incantation and wand movement; he dives deep into the concept behind the spell and works to truly understand the magic from its very core."


    Flitwick smiled before continuing, "He is polite and curt. He knows how to hold a conversation and has excellent social skills. He is quite popr among his peers because of his personality and how he handles himself." He chuckled before continuing, "Mr. West is the only student in Hogwarts that Severus doesn''t dislike, and that is quite something. If it wasn''t for his obsession with magic that keeps him busy and gives him barely enough time to socialize with others, I would have considered Mr. West to be a perfect child. I really look forward to his growth, Mr. West is an enigma, and I want to see him grow."


    Flitwick didn''tment on what Lily should do with her subject as it wasn''t his ce to tell her, and Flitwick himself didn''t know too much about the non-magical world. But he understood what Quinn was trying to say as he himself had to navigate between two different worlds because of his ancestry.


    Lily Potter just stayed silent as she thought about the things Quinn had said to her. She had imagined a lot of ways her first day as a teacher at Hogwarts would go, but one thing was for sure, that what happened now wasn''t one of them.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn didn''t have his first ss till eleven o''clock, so he decided to visit his newly acquired base of operations for A.I.D and set it up for business. Quinn was excited to see the ssroom and excitedly climbed the stair to the fifth floor. He was so excited that he almost got caught in one of the trap stairs in a staircase.


    The allotted ssroom was in the opposite direction from the fifth-floor entrance to the Ravenw tower. So, there weren''t many students loitering around in this area. Quinn found the room quite easily, as it was on the main corridor of the fifth floor.


    ''Hats off to Flitwick; he gave me a prime piece of property,'' thought Quinn as he used the key to unlock the door to the ssroom. The door unlocked with a thump, and Quinn entered the ssroom by pushing the door open. Age-old dust immediately greeted him and prompted Quinn to fan the area in front of his face.


    He saw arge ssroom caked with dust; in the room were a few desks and chairs piled in the corner and ckboards on both sides of the room; the floors near the walls where the ckboards were hanging were raised to form tforms for teachers. It had no windows because of its location, and the only source of lighting was the three candle chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.


    Quinn walked to the center of inside the empty ssroom and closed his eyes. He began concentrating his magic, gathering more and more magic from his magical core. When he thought the magic was enough, he casted an abnormally powerful Scouring charm (Scourgify) for cleaning theyers of dust and dirt in the room and a Skurge Charm (Skurge) to clean the sticky green ectosm created by passing ghosts.


    The wave magic emitted from Quinn as the center and inch-by-inch the grim dirt and choking dust cleared out of the room, leaving squeaky clean surfaces all around the room. The green ectosm was eradicated from existence by the Skurge charm.


    Quinn looked around the room with a smile, "Much better." The room still needed a lot of work. He needed to polish the floors, touch up the walls, and ask the house-elves to provide magic candles for the chandeliers.


    Quinn roamed the room and decided how he was going to use it. He decided to partition one part of the room near the door for the meeting room for A.I.D and use the rest of the wide ssroom as a workshop to work on projects.


    "I would need a big table, some chairs, and decor for the meeting room," he turned to look at the rest of the room and noted, "A lot of workstation tables to line the walls, cabs to store the paperwork, maybe a center ind." He stepped back a few steps and continued, "The partition would go right about here."


    Quinn tapped his chin with a finger and said to himself, "I could get most of the stuff I need from Room Of Requirement. The room of hidden things would have all the furniture I would need, and I could use the ss panes in the room of hidden things for the partition. A little Transmutation to make one huge ss partition, unbreakable charms to strengthen the ss, and maybe frosting it to make it opaque."


    Quinn took out his pocket watch and considered, "I still have time... Okay, I will go to the room of hidden things to get the stuff."


    - (Scene Break) -


    It had taken Quinn quite a while to find the appropriate furniture for his new base, and all of it was broken in some way; Quinn would have to fix every piece of furniture to make it useable, but overall it was a great find. He shrunk all of them down and transferred them to the new A.I.D base.


    He looked at his pocket watch and thought, ''I will return after school to fix all of this.'' It had taken quite some time to find the things as the room of hidden things disabled the use of Summoning Charm (io) to find objects. Quinn had to manually find all the furniture he needed. He was also very grateful that he didn''t find Voldemort''s diadem Horcrux, as he was neither equipped nor confident to deal with a Horcrux.


    After his sses for the day were over, Quinn went to his dorm to get changed, and then instead of going to the new base, he went to the outskirts of the forbidden forest to collect wood scraps and swiped wood used for lighting the fireces. He needed the wood to fix the furniture; they were missing parts that couldn''t be restored with the Repairing charm (Reparo), so he needed extra wood to substitute missing parts.


    In the base, Quinn began fixing the wooden furniture by using the Repairing charm and used transmutation to add wood to the broken furniture and finished the furniture with liberal use of color-changing charm to give the repaired furniture an even color.


    Next, he dumped all the ss he had found in the room of hidden things on the floor. Quinn didn''t care if it broke; it was all going to be broken down by transmutation. One by one, Quinn transmuted the ss into one enormous ss wall that went from floor to ceiling that divided the room into two parts. He finished the work byyering Unbreakable charms on the partition to strengthen it.


    He moved the table and chair to the meeting/office area and stepped back to admire his work. The office was nd and empty. The ss wall looked beyond ugly because of the numerous different ss used to create it. The walls were faded and looked old, plus the floor beneath his feet was dull, and overall the room needed a lot of work to make it presentable.


    "But it is a start," spoke Quinn as he thought about the future of this operation.


    "I hope it will be fun."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Repairman/Handyman - Wood thief - Entrepreneur.


    Filius Flitwick - Charms professor - Finds Quinn interesting.


    Lily Potter - Muggle Studies professor - Deep in thought about her future as an educator.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis.

 Chapter 28 - Recon, And The First Customer

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    It took Quinn a week toplete the makeover of the office and the workshop. He had touched up everything that he could find. Waxed the floors, paint the walls, put paintings and knick-knacks in the office, some nts to make everything look presentable.


    Afterpletion of the decoration, Quinn began his first major project. Quinn was going to recreate the Marauder''s map for his own purposes. The Marauder''s map was a document that revealed all the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: not only did it show every ssroom, hallway, and corner of the castle, but it also showed every inch of the grounds, as well as all the secret passages that were hidden within its walls.


    The most noteworthy feature of the Marauder''s map was its ability to track people''s positions within its range. The map could also urately identify each person and was not fooled by animagi, Polyjuice Potions, or invisibility cloaks; even the Hogwarts ghosts were not exempt.


    In the workshop part of his ssroom, Quinn stood in front of the center ind with his hand folded. "The Marauder''s map is created from the use of Homonculous charm, enabling the possessor of the map to track the movements of every person in the castle."


    Quinn unfolded his hands and picked up a fountain pen, and scribbled notes on a sheet of paper. Quinn wasn''t going to use the Homonculous charm to create the map; Quinn decided he would use runes and runic magic to build his version.


    "Let''s begin from the start," Quinn said while walking to one of the drawers in the workshop and removed a 60 cm X 40 cm (23 inches X 15 inches) piece of off-white fabric from the drawer.


    "Note: Base; I am going to use cloth in ce of parchment for the base of the map," Quinn said as he ced the fabric on the table and wrote the observation in his notes. "Parchment or paper would be much more fragile than cloth fabric. Parchment is more susceptible to wear and tear than cloth; therefore, it is the better choice for the base of my map."


    "Next step is to prepare the fabric for runic magic. I need to create a solution to soak the cloth in it to enable the fabric to house the runes and sustain the flow of magic," Quinn noted and took out a book from his bookbag. The book that Quinn took out was a text on preparing various materials to enable runic magic. He flipped the pages to reach the chapter on cloth fabric and noted the potion/solution recipe in his project notes.


    "The base recipe for the solution has been established. The subsequent step would be to research the ingredients and steps in the recipe and try to improve and optimize the recipe for my project." Runic magic required the surface on which the runes were drawn to be prepared, and this where potion brewing came into ce. Quinn was also going to take this chance to improve the potion/solution recipe for future uses.


    The next stage of the project was to draw a n for designing the rune cluster and runeyers for the map''s working. Unlike Marauder''s map, Quinn was going to use runes, and he needed to draw schematics for the runes that would go into the map.


    "I am going to use two systems of runes, Elder Futhark and Japanese system''s Kanji," noted Quinn as he thought about the system of runes he was going to follow. Traditionally, using a minimum number ofnguages/systems while using runic magic was the best practice; too manynguages caused heterogeneity in the rune cluster, which didn''t sit well in runic magic.


    Quinn''s idea behind using Elder Futhark and Kanji was rather simple. Not allnguages had the same connection with magic; differentnguages had different connections with magic. Some had a powerful connection with magic and channeled magic with ease. Others held the advantage of flexibility in use, and using them would provide a variety of options.


    Over that, not allnguages were connected with magic. For example, Tamil was the oldestnguage in the world, but it had no connection to magic. You couldn''t use Tamil in runic magic. The same went for English; even though English had its roots in magicalnguage, but it had no magical capabilities.


    Out of all runguages Quinn wasfortable using, Elder Futhark had the deepest connection with magic, so Quinn chose to build his map based on Elder Futhark as it would provide the map a deep connection with magic. Kanji, on the other hand, was anguage with the flexibility of options. Quinn required an amount of flexibility for something like the map. The problem faced was how to integrate these two runguages together so they could work in harmony.


    "Note: Work out the arithmancy needed for Elder Futhark and Kanji to work together. By the end of the week, create a feasible model for integrating these twonguages," Quinn set a realistic goal for this stage.


    The next part of this project was the most important one. How would a cloth with runes know about the names and locations of the people in the castle? In the Marauder''s Map, the Homonculous charm took care of this part, but Quinn wasn''t going to take this approach.


    Quinn looked at the ceiling and walls, and he was looking at the answer. The answer was Hogwarts itself. He was going to use the castle to obtain the names of the people present on the premises. Hogwarts was a magical building that held some sort of sentience and would provide Quinn with all the information he needed. Quinn was sure of this method because Hogwarts was connected to powerful artifacts like Quill of eptance and Book of Admittance. All Quinn needed was to connect his version of the map to Hogwarts, and the map would have the names and locations of all the people present in Hogwarts. Information straight from a source that couldn''t be fooled and was the most trustworthy of them all.


    Quinn had thought for hard and long how to establish this connection and finally had figured out a method to aplish it. He was going to use the wards around Hogwarts. The very wards that were connected to Hogwarts and protected the people inside it, and if Quinn''s map formed a connection to these wards, that would give him indirect ess to Hogwarts'' information.


    After finishing nning for every stage of the project, he drafted a project document and schedule and finally stored everything in the man folder.


    And on the cover of the man folder, Quinn wrote the project name.


    ¡¸Project Watch¡¹


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Four weeks after Quinn drafted the n for ¡¸Project Watch¡¹, he stood in his workshop in front of the center ind. On the center ind were the various equipment and materials needed to assemble the map.


    Quinn put on his protective gloves and safety goggles, "Let''s start."


    He moved to the empty side of the ind table. Quinn reached for a sheet tray and ced it in front of him. Next, he picked a transparent ss container with a transparent liquid in it. The liquid was a potion/solution that would enable the cloth fabric for runic magic.


    Quinn had worked on the base recipe for this enabling potion and improved the form by employing his potion brewing knowledge. The resultant potion was much more potent and could sustain a substantial amount of the magic.


    Quinn uncorked the container and carefully poured the liquid into the sheet tray. Then he carefully picked the off-white fabric andid it in the sheet tray to soak in the solution.


    Quinn removed his gloves and picked up his pocket watch to keep track of time. Just before the soak time hit nine-minute, Quinn once again wore his gloves, and the second the time reached nine minutes, he removed the base of the map from the liquid and ced it on anotherrge thick sheet of cloth to absorb the rest of the liquid.


    It took just above one minute before the map''s cloth absorbed all the liquid and returned to a dry state. Quinn cleared the table and cleaned the table''s surface, then ced a smooth wooden writing board on the table, and thenid the map''s cloth base on it.


    He walked to the project''s man folder, opened it, and took out multiple sheets with rune schematics drawn on them. These were all the runes that he had to draw on the map''s cloth base. He had researched and experimented with Elder Futhark and Kanji to create a working rune model for the map.


    He walked back to the wooden writing board andid the schematic papers around the board for an unobstructed view. Then Quinn picked up his roll-up brush bag that held all his calligraphy brushes and rolled it open. He also screwed upon multiple small bottles of runic inks for writing runes on the cloth base.


    Quinn wore his artist''s glove and began the long process of drawing runes on the cloth with brushes. Each rune was carefully drawn, just as Quinn had practiced drawing in calligraphy. From time to time, he would change brushes and inks. Rune by rune, he built up the rune cluster for the map.


    With eachyer of runes, Quinn would wait for the ink to dry and then activate them by running his magic through them, and then they would glow before disappearing into the fabric. Halfway through painting runes, Quinn retrieved the Hogwarts floor ns he had drawn from exploring the castle and its grounds for a whole school year. Quinn wasn''t able to find the floor ns from the library or the Room of Requirements, so he had produced his own set.


    It was time toy the Hogwarts floor n into the ce created by the runes to record the structure of Hogwarts.


    When Quinn finished drawing the runes and recording floor ns into the map, it was time to connect the map to Hogwarts.


    Quinn cleaned the table and the surroundings once again so that only the map was on the table. He took a deep breath and ced his whole hand on the map. Quinn pushed his magic into the cloth base, and both his magic and the cloth thrummed. Runes started to flicker on the cloth base, Quinn''s magic activating every single rune in theyers uponyers of clusters drawn into the cloth, and suddenly Quinn felt a foreign wave of magic wash over him.


    Quinn knew the source of this magic; it was Hogwarts. It was scanning him, deciding if Quinn and his map should be allowed to be connected to the wards. He had expected this but experiencing it was another thing. Quinn felt nervous and just silently waited, hoping that it would give him ess. After a few seconds, the wave of foreign magic disappeared, and Quinn looked down to see the cloth base glowing.


    Quinn removed his hand, and when the glow subsided, the map came to life. Quinn smiled as he saw the words appear on the cloth.


    ¡¸Wee To Recon¡¹


    Quinn''s smile reached his ears and his eyes wide in glee as the words disappeared and the map showed him in the center, with the fifth-floor schematics surrounding him. A Blue dot showed his position on the map.


    Quinn had constructed his map, Recon, to be much better than Marauder''s map. He had color-coded the map for different people; Blue for students, deep-violet for teachers, yellow for ghosts, green for elves, orange for portraits, and red for outsiders.


    Quinn stared at himself on the map; the map would always start on his position when activated.


    Quinn stared at the map and tested the next feature. He opened his mouth and said a name, "Eddie Carmichael." The map immediately changed and shifted to Eddie''s position on the map; he was also on the fifth floor but on the other side in the Ravenwmon room. The map now showed the structure of themon room around Eddie and the people around him. With Recon, Quinn could immediately find a person just by saying their name. It was quite a handy feature that Quinn wanted in his map. So, he decided to enchant it into the map.


    ''I mean, it would be a pain to find the person you are looking for throughout the castle. Imagine the time it would take to find someone on the map.''


    Quinn could also zoom in and out of the map. And he could manually switch to any floor or person in Hogwarts, including ghosts, portraits, and elves. Another handy feature of the map was it showed passwords to every door and pathway in the school. Recon showed himmon room passwords, staff''s offices and residence passwords, Headmaster''s office''s password, or any locked room or pathway. With Recon in his hands, there was no ce in Hogwarts that was out of Quinn''s reach.


    With a wave of his hand, the cloth stiffened. Quinn had used his magic to stabilize the cloth so that it wouldn''t crumble as a normal cloth does. Another wave and the cloth levitated in front of him.


    "Harry Potter," Quinn ordered, and the map immediately changed to Harry Potter''s location. The Boy-Who-Lived was currently in the Viaduct Courtyard, and beside him were Ron Weasley and some other Gryffindor.


    ''Maybe ying Gobstones with them,'' thought Quinn.


    "Albus Dumbledore," Quinn spoke another name, and the mapplied and showed Albus Dumbledore''s spot in deep-violet. He was in his Headmaster''s tower, in the Headmaster''s office. Quinn could see the password to Dumbledore''s office.


    Quinn smiled and ordered, "Nights out." The map turned off and crumbled down to the table. Quinn used his magic, and the cloth folded itself and shrunk down to the size of a standard handkerchief. He picked it up and pocketed it.


    The map''s security was such that it would only work for Quinn. Recon, unlike the Marauder''s Map, couldn''t be used by anyone but him. Recon needed a code word in his voice, his touch, and Quinn''s own magic molded in a specific manner to activate. If even one of them was missing, Recon wouldn''t work and would essentially be a piece of cloth.


    Quinn walked to one of the wall-side tables and pulled out some sheets of paper from the ream of papers, and wrote down all the things that happened today during the construction of Recon. He made detailed notes, and at the end, made his remark.


    [


    Project Watch was a sess. The creation of the tracking map, Recon, happened without a hitch. Hogwarts provided me ess to view the wards. But as expected, I didn''t gain ess to change them. I believe Hogwarts gave me ess because I am a student and no reason else.


    Tests of the map also went well, and all the features of the map are functional. I am proud to note that Recon has surpassed Marauder''s Map in functionality.


    Signing off,


    Quinn West.


    ]


    Quinn picked up the papers and walked to the man folder assigned to the project, and charmed every page in the folder to be unreadable. No one except Quinn could read the contents of the pages. After charming the pages, Quinn packed the pages in the man folder and sealed the folder so that only he could open it.


    Quinn picked up the folder and opened an empty drawer in a filing cab, and ced the man folder of Project Watch in it.


    "And, we are done. I always loved a good session of documentation and paperwork," Quinn exhaled a sigh of content.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Just a few days after Quinn created Recon, he got his first customer. As usual, Quinn was working in his workshop when he heard a bell. It was one of those bells above the door that would jingle when the door was opened.


    Quinn''s eyes shined as he conjured a mirror in mid-air and fixed his appearance. He took in a deep breath and said to his reflection, "Let''s do this! It is your first customer, be sure to create a great first impression. It might be the make it or break it moment for me."


    When he entered the office, he found a Hufflepuff girl standing near the door, looking nervous. Quinn had memorized the names and faces of every student in Hogwarts. So, he knew she was a first-year student.


    Quinn put on aforting smile and said, "Wee to A.I.D. how may I help you?" He gestured to the girl to sit down as he sat down behind his office desk.


    The girl, still nervous, took a seat in the chair in front of the table.


    "Before we start, may I ask where did you get my card?" asked Quinn.


    The girl looked up towards Quinn and answered, "Umm, I found it in the holders under one of the desks in the Transfiguration ssroom."


    "Ah, thank you for answering," smiled Quinn. He had left many of his cards in ssrooms to increase his customer base, and now looking at this girl, Quinn knew it was the right move.


    "What is your name?" asked Quinn as gently as he could.


    "Megan Jones," said the girl, and Quinn nodded. Of course, he already knew that.


    "I see, now, Ms. Jones, what help do you need from me?"


    Megan took out a ss globe on a stand from her book bag and set it on the table. Inside the globe were figures of a man and a woman, and they looked like they were dancing, but the figures were not moving.


    "I was wondering if you could fix this for me. The figures in the globe dance, but they haven''t been dancing since yesterday," said Megan as she pushed the globe towards Quinn.


    Quinn nodded and took the globe in his hands. ''Well, either a part is broken causing the figures to stop dancing, or maybe the animation spell on it has worn down.''


    He looked at Megan and asked, "May I use some magic on the globe?" When Megan nodded, Quinn took out his fake wand and casted a Repairing charm (Reparo). The globe glowed, and the figures started dancing realistically.


    ''It turned out it was the first one,'' thought Quinn as he smiled and pushed the now working globe back to Megan, who was smiling in joy and relief.


    "Thank you, thank you. My mother gave it to me on my eleventh birthday. I was worried that I had broken it so quickly," Megan said as she hugged the globe, but then she once again became nervous.


    "Umm, umm... How much does the repair cost?"


    Quinn smiled and answered, "You don''t need to pay me, Ms. Jones. Instead, you can owe me a favor in return. Rest assured, it will not be something difficult."


    Megan seemed confused but then nodded, "Alright, if it is alright for you. I will take my leave." Quinn nodded but called for her, "Ms. Jones?"


    "Yes?" she asked as she got up.


    "Do you have my card with you?"


    She nodded and took out the A.I.D card from her pocket, "This one, right?"


    Quinn nodded and handed her another identical card, "If you see someone in need of help, please give them this card, and send them here."


    "Alright, I will. Thank you, again," said Megan before leaving the room.


    Quinn closed his eyes and dived into his mindscape. He found himself in a room where he kept records of all Hogwarts students. Quinn recorded everything he knew about the students here. He recorded people''s likes, dislikes, friends, enemies, preferences, grades, their thoughts he chanced upon when using legilimency, and anything Quinn knew about a student, it would be here.


    Quinn walked to the book he had allotted to Megan Jones, and with a wave of his hand, he had the memory book of his current interaction with her. He pulled out Megan''s record memory book from the shelf, and with books in both hands, he bought them close, and the moment they touched, the booksbined to be one.


    This was one of the techniques Quinn had learned to sort his memories. He could merge memory books for better ess. Finally, Quinn immersed himself in Megan''s newly updated book to increase his immersion and retention of his memory of her.


    When Quinn came out of his mindscape, he smiled and spoke to himself, "One little step closer."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Has thetest technology in the field of stalking.


    Megan Jones - Hufflepuff - First Years - Now owes the devil a favor.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 29 - Change In Events, And The New Quest

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn was peacefully eating his breakfast in the Great Hall when Eddie came barging in and sat beside Quinn, "Hey, did you hear what happenedst night?"


    Quinn waited till there was no food in his mouth before asking, "You are early today."


    "Of course, I am early. You woke me up by kicking me off my bed. I was wide awake the second I felt the ground. Thanks for being gentle," grumbled Eddie as he piled food on his table.


    Quinnughed, "Sorry about that. I misjudged my strength, and you were sleeping too close to the edge of the bed. Don''t sweat the small stuff. So, what was the thing you were talking about?" Quinn took a bite from his food.


    "Oh, yeah," excitement clear in his voice, "Yesterday, Harry Potter was caught roaming outside after curfew. Then he tried to me Draco Malfoy for tricking him into breaking the curfew, something about a wizard''s duel. I am not really sure."


    "Oh, really? That is really interesting," said Quinn as he recalled the book''s event of the Midnight duel, where Draco tricked Harry and Ron intoing to the Trophy room on the third floor for a wizard''s duel but didn''t show up as part of Draco''s n and tipped Filch so that Harry would get in trouble.


    ''In the canon, they didn''t get caught, but this time they did; I wonder if they still found the Cerberus behind the locked door on the third-floor corridor,'' thought Quinn before asking, "Was he alone?"


    Eddie shook his head, and with food still in his mouth, spoke, "He had Weasley twin''s younger brother... and a Gryffindor girl with them."


    "Who caught them?"


    "They were caught by Filch just outside the Gryffindormon room. Apparently, they were returning from the so-called duel farce," revealed Eddie. "I heard they got a stern scolding from Professor McGonagall and Professor Potter and they say the girl was so scared that she cried, like really hard."


    "Ouch," Quinn uttered with a smile on his face. Being scolded by a professor for breaking rules was probably the current Hermione''s biggest fear.


    "Professor McGonagall said if he did something like this once again, his Quidditch privileges would be taken away, and he won''t be allowed to y this year. Here I was thinking McGonagall was bing what Snape is to Slytherin," scoffed Eddie as he thought about the tant favoritism given to the Boy-Who-Lived.


    Yes, even in this timeline, Harry Potter had managed to get a spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. If he was good on a broom without ever holding it in eleven years of living in the non-magicalmunity, then this time where he was raised in a magical household, he was just too good to ignore.


    Lily did try to forbid Harry from joining the Quidditch team in his first year, but McGonagall was able to convince her to let him join. Quinn wondered what McGonagall say to convince Lily.


    Quinn turned to look back towards the Gryffindor; he searched and found Harry Potter and Ron Weasley sitting together.


    ''Where is Hermione?'' wondered Quinn as he searched for her, and to his surprise, Quinn found her sitting with Ivy Potter far away from Harry and Ron. ''Huh, this is new.''


    From what he knew, the Potter twins weren''t like the Weasley twins and didn''t hang out together all the time. The Potter twins were more like Patil twins, where they talked to each other when they got time but mostly did their own thing and sat in different circles.


    Quinn watched as both girls talked to each other in hushed tones. From where Quinn could see it, Ivy was consoling a clearly upset Hermione.


    ''I wonder how would the future pan out for the golden trio,'' Quinn looked at Ivy and Hermione and thought, ''I wonder if there will even be a trio this time?''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    On a Thursday, one hour after the curfew, Quinn was on the tallest tower of Hogwarts, the Astronomy Tower. The highest height one could be in Hogwarts. He was here with his telescope, mapping the star ands'' position for a potion brew that required a specific celestial positioning in one of its steps within the recipe.


    He had beening to the Astronomy Tower for a week to note the position to get some observations required while brewing.


    Quinn had his eye looking into the eyepiece of the telescope when he heard a voice that startled him, "Child, you do know that it is after hours, right?"


    A startled Quinn almost knocked down his telescope when he turned to see how it was. It slightly relieved Quinn when he saw the Hufflepuff ghost, Fat Friar floating behind him.


    "Friar, you almost scared me to death. What are you doing here?" asked Quinn as he patted his chest to calm down his beating heart.


    "I should be the one asking that question, little raven. It is after curfew; you should be in yourmon room and not outside," said Friar as he watched Quinn.


    "Ah, I was just doing some work with my telescope," said Quinn, not wanting to give out much information.


    Friar stared at Quinn before smiling, "You know, we wondered if you had stopped roaming Hogwarts after curfew, but seeing you here shows that you still have that exploring spirit in you."


    "Eh, what do you mean?" asked Quinn in confusion. ''What does Fat Friar mean by that,'' he thought.


    "Oh, you know,st year, you spent every night outside yourmon room walking around the castle. We ghosts saw you plenty of times,"ughed Friar. "We even saw you earlier this year, but then a few months ago, you stopped appearing, so we wondered where were you?"


    Quinn realized what Friar was talking about. After creating Recon, Quinn made sure that no portrait, ghost, house-elf would ever see him in the castle, but before Recon, he didn''t have the best tool sneaking tool, so it wasn''t a surprise that some ghosts saw him roaming the halls of the castle.


    Quinn sat down on the floor of the tower''s roof and spoke, "Ah, no, I stille out every day, but I have gotten better at not being seen, haven''t I?"


    Friar sat down beside Quinn and answered, "Yes, you have. Tell me, why do you hold such interest in the castle?"


    "Hmm... I traveled many ces throughout the world, saw many intriguing and magical sights in those ces, but I never stayed more than a few days. Hogwarts is a wondrous ce, and in my mind, it would be an utter waste not to know more about it. I have time so why not explore it," Quinn looked at Friar and said, "You studied here when the founders were alive. Has it changed since then?"


    Friar hummed in thought before saying, "Oh yes, it has changed. The castle wasn''t as great during the founders'' time. The castle has aged well with time, as wine does. I have been here for so long and have seen the change. It has gone from being a building built by the founders and the architect to be a magnificent and magical ce. Full of life and joy. Magic is a great thing and it breathed life into the castle."


    Quinn stared at the stars in thought, "It is indeed a mysterious ce. I have learned a lot from it. Full of knowledge and wisdom."


    "There has been chatter among the ghosts that you have been helping students. That room of yours on the fifth floor. You have been doing a lot of good," said Friar.


    Quinn chuckled at Friar''s words, "Now I know I have made it big if even the dead are talking about me."


    Quinn''s consultation service business has beening along quite nicely. Even though the requests he was getting were minor repairs, help with homework, and other menial tasks, his customer base was still growing steadily.


    But, these minor tasks were enough for Friar as it was his nature to look at people''s good qualities and ignore their faults.


    "I think that you have been doing an excellent job, and I appreciate your services to your fellow students, so I will give you a gift, a gift that you will like," Friar said in a joyous tone.


    Quinn was skeptical about the so-called gift, but he still listened; after all, Helen Ravenw led Voldemort to her mother''s diadem.


    "As you love exploring the castle so much. I will start you on an adventure, little raven. In Hogwarts, there are these Cursed Vaults, legendary rooms hidden around the castle, they are hiding secrets, not known to anyone but the creators." Friar stared into Quinn''s eyes as he revealed, "Each room is guarded, guarded by curses and wards that stop the seekers from entering them, keeping the secrets inside safe. Not even us house ghosts know who built them or when they were built. The origin of the vaults has been forgotten by everyone. Among the many theories circting, some say that the founders created them or that a Headmaster who suffered from paranoia created them to hide his treasure, or that the architect who helped the founders build Hogwarts built these vaults to hide something of great importance."


    Friar''s words fully captured Quinn''s attention, a part of Hogwarts that he didn''t know or mentioned in the books. He wanted to learn more about these vaults.


    "If you asked my friend, Nichs, he would say that the vaults hold back dangerous things from being unleashed into the world, or house dangerous secrets that would bring doom if fallen into the wrong hands, but he is always overthinking stuff. Other ghosts alleged that these vaults house priceless treasures such as gold, prophecies, and other powerful magical artifacts dating back to before the school was founded, while others believe they contained Dark Magic. But, ultimately, no one knows what is inside," said Friar.


    "Noting your interest in exploration and learning, I will give you some hints for location of the vaults, and it is up to you if you can find the vaults and enter them to find what is inside. Do note that the vaults might be dangerous and might cause you harm, so I will advise that you proceed cautiously."


    Friar floated up and asked seriously, "So, I ask you, little raven. Do you want to embark on this adventure, knowing well that it might not end well? Do you want to uncover the secrets of Hogwarts, not knowing what you will see inside? Say the word, and you shall receive my answer. Refuse and we will part ways."


    Quinn stood up and faced Friar. He had immediately made his decision. In front of him was an opportunity that not many received, a chance to explore an unknown part of Hogwarts.


    "Friar, I will take on this adventure from you, I will see what Hogwarts hides, what it offers, knowing that it might not end well, knowing that I might not get anything from these vaults. Despite all of this, I want to know, I want to know the hint to the vaults."


    Friar nodded and sang,


    [


    Beyond sight exist five vaults, not known to many.


    Their source unknown; lost in time.


    Bearing the knowledge that death mighte,


    I give you the hint of the first one.


    A vault so cold that even death might die,


    You will find it on the level five stories high.


    ]


    Quinn nodded and immediately memorized the hint, and just to be safe, he noted the words on a sheet of paper.


    "I have given this riddle to many students and even some teachers throughout the years, but only a handful of them were able to find the first vault. And, none of those were ever able to enter the first vault and were stopped at the vault entrance," said Friar as he gazed down on Quinn.


    Quinn read the riddle over and over again before looking up at the floating Friar and grinned, "Then get ready; I will be the first one to enter the vault and move onto the second one and the next. Someday, I will enter all five."


    Friar gently smiled and floated away without saying a word while Quinn stared at the clue and then at the stars, wondering about this new adventure that had fallen into hisp.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Time slowly passed, and Halloween rolled around. When Quinn exited themon room for his morning run, the smell of baking pumpkin greeted him, wafting through the corridors.


    "The elves are hard at work, as always," Quinn spoke to himself as he jogged down the corridors to the grounds for his run. Quinn was in a good mood, as today he would get to meet a troll. He was not going to miss this opportunity.


    "Oh troll~, I aming for you. Going to do some ass-kicking, and no one is going to know, nobody, nobody. Dancing with the trolls, Halloween hase. Oh, magic, you are AMAZING!" sang Quinn as he ran his usual route. Quinn was excited that he colored the grass on his entire route orange and purple in the spirit of Halloween.


    When Quinn dressed up for the day, he put on his wizard''s hat that no one wore for the day and pinned a conjured smallpel pin in the shape of a carved pumpkin to his robes for fun.


    When he got down to the Great Hall for breakfast, his eyes caught Flitwick reading the Daily Prophet, so he decided to wish him a happy Halloween, but in a special way.


    Quinn stood just beside the entrance of the great hall and took out his fake wand for show. He then used the same magic Flitwick had used to call him to give his keys on the first day of school.


    "Professor Flitwick, good morning, and I wish you a spooky Halloween." Quinn''s words went straight to Flitwick without leaking mid-way.


    Flitwick smiled and raised his head from the table to greet the student who spoke and found no one in front of his spot on the High Table.


    "Huh, who was that?" Flitwick looked around the confusion.


    "Over here, professor.," spoke Quinn while still standing near the Great Hall entrance.


    Flitwick frantically stood on his chair and looked around to see who was calling for him but still couldn''t find anyone.


    Quinn smiled and decided to end this and said, "Near the entrance, professor." And raised his hand to wave so that Flitwick could see him.


    Flitwick, from his table, looked towards the entrance and saw Quinn waving his hand with his wand tip on his throat.


    "This is how you did it, professor. I must say it is a fun piece of magic," said Quinn.


    A wide smile bloomed on Flitwick''s face as he jumped on his chair while pping. He also took out his wand and ced it on his throat, and spoke, "Excellent execution, Mr. West. Five points for an impressive showcase and five more because it is Halloween." His words charmed to reach Quinn''s ears only.


    "Thank you, professor," Quinn replied and then skipped to the Ravenw table for a hearty breakfast.


    When Quinn was eating, he felt a pat on his shoulder. He looked back to see Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass.


    "Happy Halloween, Quinn," Tracey spoke, being her usual bubbly self.


    Quinn smiled wide and said, "Ah, my favorite Slytherin." He turned to Daphne and spoke to her, "Just to be clear, I am talking about Davis and not you, Greengrass." Quinn had promoted Tracey and Daphne from Ms. Davis and Ms. Greengrass to just their surname.


    Daphne narrowed her eyes but didn''t say anything, while Tracey giggled in response.


    "Davis, if more Slytherin were like you, the world would be a better ce," Quinn spoke to Tracey but looked at Daphne with a smile.


    Traceyughed again while Daphne continued to ignore him.


    "So, what is happening with you guys, anything new with you?" asked Quinn.


    Tracey''s eyes sparkled as she talked, "We finally learned how to make things fly." The first-year students were finally learning the Levitation Charm.


    Quinn pped once before picking two apples from a tter and cing them on the table. He gestured to the two girls and said, "Do try."


    Tracey looked at Daphne and telling her to take her wand and cast some magic. Daphne sighed and took out her wand, knowing that her best friend won''t stop if she refused. Tracey grinned and took out her wand as well.


    "Wingardium Leviosa," chanted both the Slytherin girls. The two apples rose from the table, albeit a little slowly. Quinn smiled as he looked from the apples to the girls with a smile and spoke, "Good work, a little slow, but a good start. Remember, practice makes perfect."


    Both of them stopped casting at the same time, and the apples stopped floating. Luckily Quinn was ready, he immediately caught them and ced them back on the table


    Daphne pocketed her wand and humphed, "Why don''t you show if you are so good." The smile on Quinn''s face turned into one of amusement, and he said, "Alright."


    He turned back to the Ravenw and called out, "Hilliard, a Scouring charm on my hands, please."


    Hilliards, a fifth-year prefect, looked up from his book and took out his wand with a sigh before casting a Scrouring charm (Scrougefy) charm on Quinn''s hand, cleaning them instantly.


    "Thanks," said Quinn before turning to Tracey and Daphne. "Had to get my hands clean, now, where were we? Ah, yes, the Levitation charm." Quinn took out his fake wand and performed the wand movement just for show and whispered the incantation, "Wingardium Leviosa."


    The apples that Quinn had set on the table began floating and started rapidly moving.


    "Levitating multiple objects, neat, right? With some practice, you could do it too. Remember, the wand movement and incantation are not the main part of a spell. You have to understand the underlying concept behind the spell. Understand that, and you will master spells at a quick pace," Quinn pointed at the High table and continued, "Not my words, this piece of wisdomes directly from Professor Flitwick."


    Quinn waved his fake wand straight down, and the apples set themselves down gently on the table.


    "As I said, practice makes perfect." Quinn pocketed his fake wand and folded his hands in hisp.


    Daphne looked at the two apples and then at Quinn before seriously nodding.


    Quinn smiled; from his interaction with Daphne, he hade to understand her personality. She didn''t trust people quickly and preferred a few close and genuine friends rather than many friendly acquaintances. She was a private person. Plus, she had seen the difference between how Quinn interacted with Tracey and other students; Quinn was much friendlier to Tracey than others, so she had doubts about him.


    Quinn waved the Slytherin girls goodbye and proceeded on with his day, waiting for the evening to arrive.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1]: The concept of these Vaultses from the game, Harry Potter: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. I haven''t yed the games, so a lot of the things might be different, plus I am working off the Wiki page.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - A lot is going in his life; Consultation, Vaults, and Trolls.


    Fat Friar - Hufflepuff''s ghost - A clergy when he was alive.


    Tracey Davis - Slytherin - Hides Slytherin qualities behind her bubbly personality.


    Daphne Greengrass - Slytherin - Doesn''t trust people easily.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 30 - Troll Hunting, And Reading Memories

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The time was ten minutes before the Halloween feast, and Quinn was on the first floor hiding in the History of Magic ssroom, waiting for the feast to start, and in turn, the beginning of the first of many Halloween mishaps in the life of Harry Potter.


    Recon, the tracking map,id on the table in front of him. He was looking at the map and tracking people of interest on Recon. He saw Hermione Granger in the first floor''s girl''svatory.


    ''Probably crying in there because of Ron Weasley,'' thought Quinn as he absentmindedly tapped on the map. There was still no sign of trolls, and Quirrell wasn''t in Hogwarts as when Quinn spoke his name, the map didn''t react.


    Just a minute before the feast, the map reacted when Quinn searched for Quirrell, and the map switched to show the first floor, near Gregory the Smarmy''s statue, a deep-violet spot showing Quirrell and a red spot with Troll written on it.


    ''He is here!'' Quinn stood up from his chair and looked at the map. ''Gregory the Smarmy''s statue, that is a secret passage, isn''t it? Was he hiding a troll in that passage? Is this why the Troll didn''t show up on the map?'' The secret passage''s entrances and the part of passages within Hogwarts premises were visible on the map, but the outer part of the secret passages wasn''t part of Hogwarts, so they didn''t show up on the map.


    Quinn watched the map as the Troll and Quirrell parted ways as the Troll slowly wandered around the first floor, and Quirrell headed towards the staircase, but what happened next betrayed Quinn''s expectation as Quirrell didn''t climb down the stairs but climbed up to the second floor.


    Quinn frowned as the map switched to the staircase and then the second floor, "Where is he going?" Quinn began tapping his feet as he felt the events change from his canon knowledge.


    ''No, don''t rush. Quirrell might have something to do and might get back to the feast after this. The books didn''t specify when Quirrell entered the Great Hall to reveal the Troll.''


    Quinn''s hunch turned out to be correct as Quirrell stopped next to the stairs to the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor''s office. He disappeared into the secret passage there, and a minuteter, Quirrell emerged with another Troll.


    "Another Troll?! What is happening?" Quinn pounded his fist on the table as he decided to look at the first Troll and got another shock when he found Ivy Potter in the girlvatory with Hermione Granger.


    "What is she doing there?! Come on, people, why are you doing this to me?" Quinn whined as he didn''t know what to do.


    ''Which Troll should I go to?''


    Quinn needed to decide quickly, and after thinking about it, he decided to go to the new Troll on the second floor. The second Troll was hanging out near the staircase, and if it made its way to the stairs, the Troll might meet the Gryffindor and Ravenw students when they are going to theirmon room.


    He decided to leave Hermione and Ivy in the hands of fate. He convinced himself that they won''t be harmed and woulde out of this unharmed.


    ''Fate''s a bitch, but she has her moments. Let''s hope she doesn''t screw this up,'' Quinn thought as he levitated Recon beside him, and the second Quirrell was on the ground floor, he ran up the stairs to the second floor.


    "Let''s take down a Troll, shall we?" Quinn looked at Recon, and before proceeding forward, turned himself invisible. He didn''t want any ghosts, house-elves, or portraits seeing him fight a troll.


    He smirked and quoted a line from the books, "I don''t need a cloak to be invisible."


    Quinn followed the path to the Troll by observing Recon and stopped just a turn away from the Troll. He deactivated Recon and stored it in his clothes.


    He walked ahead, and after turning right on a corner, saw Quirrell''s second Troll.


    The Troll was twelve feet tall; its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with t, horny feet. The smelling from it was incredible. It held a massive wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.


    A terrible sight right out of a horror movie, but Quinn had been in the magical world long enough to have seen a lot of magical beasts, and the sight of Troll didn''t disturb him, but the smell sure did. It was so bad that Quinn wanted to leave right away, but he had work to do.


    "Let''s get this over with you smelly bastard."


    Quinn primed his magic for battle, and for his first course of action, immediately sent a highly charged Dark Art''s version of Explosion charm toward the Troll''s groin, aiming for the delicate part of a male''s body. The result was as Quinn expected as the Troll moved his hands towards the region of the explosion while roaring in pain and shook.


    During his studies, Quinn had found some interesting facts about some non-dark that could be used to cause damage to a person. It turned out that spells like Explosion charm that exploded objects, Severing Charm that could be used to cut objects, Reductor charm that turned objects to dust were inherently created for non-living targets.


    They could be used on humans and could definitely cause bodily harm but weren''t efficient magic-wise. The amount of magic used to cause substantial damage to the human body didn''t sit well with Quinn, and the creators did not design the formation of these spells for living beings, so he leaned into Dark Art''s spells for bodily harm.


    Dark Arts spells were specially crafted for causing harm to the living and caused much greater damage with less magic and more efficiency.


    "Aaargh!" roared the Troll in pain. Quinn might have overdone it with the Dark-Explosion charm''s strength.


    ''Ouchy! Well, at least I know the Troll is a male,'' thought Quinn but didn''t stop; he had to continue as trolls were dangerous beings.


    ''I have to get rid of that club in his hand,'' nned Quinn, and to aplish disarming the Troll of his huge club, immediately shot a Dark-Reductor curse on the Troll''s club bearing hand, causing the Troll to drop the club.


    Quinn noticed why the Trolls were ssified as highly dangerous magical beings. The heavily charged Dark-Reductor curse Quinn just shot right now would have turned a person''s hand to a bloody pulp, but all it did to the Troll was causing a flesh wound.


    ''Need to practice the Dark spells to increase my mastery,'' analyzed Quinn, not considering that he was basing his standards on a tough-skinned Troll.


    Quinn''s eyes shed as he sent a Banishing spell towards the fallen club to distance it from the Troll. The club went flying away from the Troll, and with the club away from the Troll, Quinn raised his hand and aimed towards the Troll; taking a deep breath, Quinn started a continuous spell chain of Dark-Explosion charm and Dark-Reductor curse on the Troll''s body.


    "Aargh!" "oOoOO!!" "Rawr!" The Troll''s scream echoed in the corridor as the spell did damage to the Troll.


    In the empty corridor with fire torches as the only source of light, every other second, a dark spell would be shot from Quinn, illuminating the surroundings and zap towards the Troll, aiming for weak spots like the face, neck, kneecaps, and not the least the groin. Quinn, without mercy, ripped the Troll''s body bloody, not stopping until the Troll fell down to the ground with a heavy thump, causing slight tremors to pass through the floor.


    From the groans and grunts of agonying from the Troll, Quinn could hear that the Troll was alive, but having been the one to do damage, Quinn was sure that it won''t be standing up anytime soon.


    ''And, Ron Weasley knocked the troll down with a blunt blow to the head,'' spected Quinn as hepared his method of dismantling the Troll to the canon''s Troll fight.


    Taking out his pocket watch, Quinn looked at the time. He had spent a considerable amount of time here; he needed to join the other students to avoid suspicion. Quinn turned away from the Troll and ran away. As he ran, Quinn activated Recon and looked for the Ravenw students; he found them moving up the staircase and decided to blend in with the crowd at the stairs. Quinn waited until they were a little ahead of him and then lifted his invisibility.


    Making sure that he wasn''t seen, he entered the crowd and pushed his way into the horde of students to reach Eddie and Marcus.


    "Hey, mates." casually greeting his roommates as nothing had happened, and Quinn hadn''t just returned from a fight with a Troll.


    Eddie grabbed Quinn by the robes and harshly whispered, "Where in the world were you?! Do you know what is happening out there?! I was worried about you, man!" If they weren''t on the stairs, Eddie would have pulled Quinn into a hug.


    Quinn put on a nervous expression and spun a story, "Well, I was in the library and was running a littlete. I was walking to the Great Hall, but then nature called, and I had to visit the loo. When I was done and was finally on my way to the Great Hall for the feast, one portrait warned me that there was a Troll loose in the castle and told me that the students were returning to theirmon rooms, and then I found you guys here."


    Eddie and Marcus breathed a sigh of relief that Quinn didn''t meet or saw the Troll.


    But, Quinn was a little upied as with other thoughts; to make sure that professors did not suspect him when they found the second Troll, he had rushed to join the students, so he hadn''t the time to check what happened with the first Troll, he wasn''t sure if Ivy and Hermione had escaped unharmed. Currently, he wanted to get to themon room and check Recon for their status.


    After a long and thorough roll call in themon room, Quinn hurriedly climbed up the stairs to the boy''s dorm, went to his bed, and drew the curtain for the excuse of privacy for changing clothes; he took out Recon and sharply whispered, "Hermione Granger."


    Theyout of Recon switched to a corridor near the Gryffindor Tower. Quinn saw Hermione, Ivy, Harry, Ron, and Lily Potter walking towards the Gryffindormon room.


    "They are safe," sighed Quinn as he leaned on the backboard of his bed. Quinn continued to watch as the group reached themon room entrance, and it made Quinn smile as Recon showed the Gryffindormon room password, ''Pig snout.''


    He turned Recon off, Quinn was hungry, and the food was ready in themon room. If he had stayed and checked on the Trolls, he would have found the professors moving towards the Troll he took down.


    - (Scene Break) -


    All the professors, excluding Dumbledore, Snape, and Binns, walked on the second floor. A ghost had told them about a second Troll on the second floor.


    "The ghost seemed troubled by something. What was wrong with that ghost?" Pomona Sprout asked her colleagues as she recalled how the ghost had run away just after telling them about the second Troll.


    Flitwick looked at the Herbology master and shrugged, "I don''t know, but the ghost did seem awfully frantic."


    When they reached a corner, all the professors smelled a rancid and offending stench. McGonagall stopped and warned, "Wands out, the Troll is just around the corner."


    The professors didn''t need a second warning as everybody drew their wands. Though they did hear Quirrell make a sound, ''Eep!'' as the Defense Against Dark Arts professor fumbled to take out his wand.


    "Don''t lose focus," warned McGonagall as all of them turned the corridor to see a shocking sight. They saw a Troll, but not in the condition they were expecting.


    "W-Why is itying d-down," stuttered Quirrell as he looked at the second Troll that he had released in Hogwarts. Today wasn''t panning out as Quirrell and Voldemort had nned, the first Troll was taken down the damned Potters, and now this second Troll wasying down in the middle of a corridor.


    "Is it sleeping?" Aurora Sinistra, the Astronomy professor, took a guess.


    Silvanus Kettleburn, the professor of Care of Magical Creatures, grunted in response, "No, you stupid girl, look closely; the Troll is bleeding." With his prosthetic legs, he moved towards the Troll.


    "Kettleburn!" McGonagall tried to stop Silvanus, but the old professor kept walking towards the Troll.


    "Oh, Morgana!" they heard Silvanus gasp. "Come here, right now!" Silvanus called out to them.


    When they reached the Troll''s body, they saw the gruesome sight that made all of them gasp.


    "Merlin!" "What is this?" "Who-!" "How horrific."


    They saw the terrible injuries and trauma on the Troll''s body. Horrifying wounds that were bleeding profusely, leaking blood everywhere.


    "These wounds..." muttered Lily as she took in the horrendous sight in front of her.


    Silvanus looked at Flitwick and grunted, "Flitwick, check them."


    The half-goblin immediately understood the meaning behind Silvanus'' words and casted some spell all over the Troll''s body, and the spell light all turned grey the second they hit the Troll.


    "Dark spells," announced Flitwick as he looked at Silvanus.


    "What!" McGonagall was shocked to hear that. She casted her own spells on the Troll, and they too turned grey on contact.


    "Who could do this?" Septima Vector, the Arithmancy professor, wondered aloud. All the professors were wondering the same, someone had fought a Troll in Hogwarts with Dark spells, and no one knew who it was.


    Some of them even noticed how the damage was isted to the jaw, neck, kneecaps, and groin. Plus, they also saw the club far away from where the Troll had copsed. The person who fought the Troll knew what they were doing.


    "How did someone even know that there was a second Troll," asked Lily. She then turned to Quirrell and asked, "Professor Quirrell, is this the Troll from the third floor?"


    Quirrell shook his head while fidgeting and stuttered, "N-No, t-the cloth-thes are different. T-This one is a di-fferent one."


    McGonagall looked at all her colleagues and said, "Let''s get the Troll out of here, this ce needs to be cleaned before a student sees it, and I need to take to Albus about this."


    - (Scene Break) -


    The next day, Quinn had his ears up to listen if there was any news about the Trolls, but there was no news. No one was talking about there being a second Troll on the loose.


    ''The staff suppressed the news among themselves, huh,'' spected Quinn. He also noticed that even though people talked about the first Troll, no one chattered about the Potters, which meant that no one knew what happened yesterday.


    Unfortunately, that also meant Quinn didn''t have a clue of what took ce yesterday. But, he had a way of knowing about it, and he was currently on his way to find out.


    It was lunchtime, and Quinn was using Recon to tracking the position of Ron Weasley. He was waiting for Ron to be alone, so he could get some information from the redhead, and the chance came when Ron separated from his friends and headed to thevatory.


    Quinn deactivated Recon and followed Ron to thevatory. Just before he entered thevatory, Quinn put on gloves and made himself invisible. Quinn entered thevatory and waited for Ron to finish business, and when Ron was washing his hand, Quinn stepped behind him and took out a small vial of potion.


    The potion in the vial was a sedative agent that would make the consumer calm and put them in a hazy state susceptible to suggestions.


    Quinn was going to use Legilimency on Ron, but his level of Legilimency wasn''t at the level where he could find the memories quickly. If Quinn wanted to target specific memories, it would take him time to find and reach said memories, and in this case, he didn''t have the time. So, Quinn was nning to use this potion to render Ron into a semiconscious state and work with that.


    He opened the vial and used the magic to manipte the liquid to turn into mist, then he directed the mist to enter Ron through his nose, and the effect was almost immediate. Ron felt the potion''s effects and felt the world turn cloudy, and an unnatural sense of emptiness and haziness fell on him.


    "Wha'' is happenin''?" Ron''s words slurred, and the next second he felt his eyes get covered. Quinn, who was behind Ron, gently used his hand to make Ron close his eyes. He raised his other hand and put his index finger on Ron''s temple, and spoke, "How are you feeling, Ron?"


    There was a pause before Ron slurred, "Wierrdd~."


    "It''s okay, mate, everything is going to be fine. Follow my lead, and you feel normal. Do you want to feel normal?" Quinn guided Ron and made him feelfortable.


    "Yezz~."


    "Good, now all you have to do is think about yesterday when you met the Troll. Can you do that for me, mate?"


    Quinn couldn''t search through someone''s memories quickly, but if someone was thinking about them, then it would be mighty easy as the memory would be on the surface of the person''s psyche. Quinn was using his words and the potion to bring yesterday''s memories to the surface.


    "Trull~?" as Ron said that Quinn used Legilimency and dived into Ron''s mind, and as he expected, found the memory.


    In the memory, Harry noticed his sister Ivy wasn''t in the Great Hall. Then Ron and Harry recalled Parvati Patil telling them about Hermione crying in thevatory and how Ivy had torn into them just after the Charms ss when Ron had said rude things to Hermione.


    In the memory, Harry spoke, "I am sure that Ivy went to see Hermione; they might not know about the Troll. We have to find them."


    Ron replied, "Oh, all right," he snapped. "But, Percy better not see us."


    On their way, they saw Snape, but Harry was too worried about Ivy to care about Snape, so he pulled Ron with him, and when they reached thevatory, they saw the Troll.


    The Troll had his club raised, but it was tilting sideways. In the memory, Quinn noticed that the Troll was trying to hit Ivy and Hermione with its club, but the girls had their wands out, pointed towards the Troll''s club.


    A sh of realization stuck Quinn, ''They are using the Levitation charm to keep the Troll''s club away from them.'' The Troll being the epitome of stupidity wasn''t letting the club go and held onto it. It was trying to use its club to hit the girls.


    Ivy looked at Harry and yelled, "Use the Levitation charm on the club. The Troll is too strong; we can''t get it out its hand."


    Harry was confused but followed nevertheless. He took out his wand, and Ron followed. Harry seeded in using the spell with moderate sess, but Ron was having trouble using the spell.


    The memory switched to Hermione trying to teach Ron how to use the Levitation charm. The memory shifted back to thevatory, and Ron properly yelled, "Wingardium Leviosa!"


    The club that was now subjected to four Levitation charm pulled itself free out of the Troll''s hands as the Troll tried to reach out for it, and then just like the canon, fell onto the Troll''s head apanied by a loud, sickening crack. The Troll swayed on the spot and then fell t on its face, with a thud that made the entire room tremble.


    Quinn had seen enough, so he stopped and bought himself out of the memory.


    "Good job, mate. You have done well. Now, everything will be alright, and when everything returns to normal, we will talk about Quidditch," calmly said, Quinn.


    "Quiwwitch!" slurred an excited Ron.


    Quinn removed his index finger from Ron''s temple and took out another vial from his pockets, and vaporized the contents for Ron to inhale. It was the counter agent for the earlier potion.


    The second Quinn was done, he removed his hand from Ron''s eyes and walked away without looking away.


    It took a few seconds for Ron to regain his mental facilities, and when he was back to normal, he had a pleasant urge to talk about Quidditch.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Troll Hunter - Experienced in Hypnotism.


    The second Troll - Mountain Troll - Argh!


    Ron Weasley - Gryffindor - "Hey, Harry, let''s talk about Quidditch!"


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 31 - Working On The Riddle, And The Stone’s Chamber

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn sat in his workshop with a sheet of paper sitting on the table in front of Quinn. The sheet of paper contained the riddle given to him by Friar that held the clue to the first unknown vault.


    [


    Beyond sight exist five vaults, not known to many.


    Their source unknown; lost in time.


    Bearing the knowledge that death mighte,


    I give you the hint of the first one.


    A vault so cold that even death might die,


    You will find it on the level five stories high.


    ]


    Quinn tapped his finger on the table as he read the riddle, and it was fairly easy to understand.


    "There are five cursed vaults in Hogwarts, and as Friar said, not many people know about the vaults. No one knows how they were created or who created them. And because they have never been opened, no one knows about the contents," Quinn deciphered the meaning of the first paragraph of the riddle.


    Now, the second paragraph contained some information that Friar hadn''t given him. "Now, how does Friar know that there is danger in the vaults; he has never been in there, which could mean that the entrance of the first vault holds some sort of danger, and people have died attempting to enter the vault."


    This part of the riddle did worry him a tiny bit. Quinn wasn''t a fearless person; he worried about his health and safety and wanted to be perfectly safe before proceeding forward. But, in this situation, he didn''t know how to ensure his safety. There were no precedents for Quinn to reference; he was going in blind this time.


    Until now, Quinn had been preupied with preparing for the Troll incident, but he had tried to collect some information about these vaults from any source he could, but he wasn''t able to find anything. The Room of Requirement didn''t have anything on the vaults, neither did the library. The ghosts couldn''t tell him anything regarding the vault. He even went to the kitchen to talk to the elves, but they too had nothing to inform him.


    "This will be a new challenge for me," muttered Quinn as he exhaled a sigh.


    Thest paragraph of the riddle was the real clue. The lines represented information about the first vault.


    "A vault so cold that even death might die," recited Quinn as he tried to understand the meaning behind the sentence.


    "A vault so cold..." murmured Quinn as he tapped his finger on the table. "What can that mean? Is the room freezing; is it a room with an alternate environment, a tundra, or a permafrost type environment." Quinn had read about artificially cultivated environments within closed spaces. The best example he could give was Newt Scamander''s trunk; it had various habitats for different magical beasts.


    The second part of the sentence was also intriguing, "... that even death might die." Quinn wrinkled his nose before clinking his tongue, "I hate metaphors. Death might die... what does that mean?"


    From the top of his head, Quinn could only think that the room was north pole cold, "Maybe whatever is in the room is encased by an icecap, is that it?" Quinn scribbled some notes before moving to the final line.


    "You will find it on the level five stories high," Quinn smiled when he read this line, "Now this is much better, on the level five stories high means the fifth floor, but if we count the basement, then it might be the fourth floor... hmm, two whole floors worth of search-area."


    Recon didn''t show any sign of vaults, just like it didn''t show the Room Of Requirements. Well, Quinn had tried to enchant the position of the Room Of Requirements in the map but didn''t achieve any sess as any person inside the room was invisible. When Quinn opened the map inside the Room Of Requirements, he didn''t show up on Recon.


    The vaults were unplottable. Or, at least Quinn couldn''t plot them with his current capabilities.


    "I have been on the fourth-floor and fifth-floor a lot, but I haven''t felt any unnatural cold on any of the floors," pondered Quinn.


    Quinn had mapped out Hogwarts'' entirety for Recon, and he had memorized every inch of the castle for his mindscape transition. Quinn had given himself two years for replicating a working model of Hogwarts in his mind, and his current progress covered floors ground till sixth. Only the dungeons and seventh floor were remaining in Quinn''s mind replica. But despite this, Quinn had no clue about there being a vault on the fourth or fifth floor.


    "This demands another round ofte-night, after-curfew exploration."


    Quinn opened a new project in his workshop and named it,


    ¡¸Project: Vaults¡¹


    Under the ¡¸Project: Vaults¡¹ he opened a chapter,


    ¡¸Chapter: Vault One (Temp.)¡¹


    From that day onwards, Quinnbed through the two floors at night, after the curfew.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    At night, Quinn searched for Vault number one. But, during the day, he was still a student of Hogwarts, attending ss, learning magic, practicing magic in Room Of Requirements, working at the A.I.D office, and monitoring what was happening around Hogwarts.


    As the year entered November, the weather turned frigid. The mountains around the school became icy gray and theke like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost, and students had to walk carefully to not risk slipping. Quinn created an exercise out of the frosted surface.


    In the morning, during his run, Quinn would turn all the ice he encountered into ice objects like flowers, ravens, snakes, lions, badgers, and anything that came into his mind. An exercise designed to exercise his focus and control over his magic.


    But, enough about that, and back to the next key event of this year, Harry Potter''s first Quidditch event. In the canon, Quirrell and Snape were locked in a battle of cursing and counter-cursing Harry''s broom, and Hermione had unknowingly knocked Quirrellmort while trying to get to Snape.


    Speaking of Harry and Hermione, the golden trio didn''t form in this world. Quinn had observed them and found that Hermione and Ivy had gotten really close, whereas Harry and Ron were already friends from before.


    Harry Potter in this world was confident and outgoing. He was also involved in pranks, so he was always butting heads with rule-loving Hermione, so their rtionship was quite rocky in this world.


    But after the Troll incident, they had mellowed towards each other and were much more willing to tolerate each other. Ron had also toned down his insults towards Hermione and only provoked her if she berated Ron''s intelligence and manners.


    Instead of Harry and Ron bing best friends with Hermione, Ivy had be best friends with Hermione. The two girls did everything together, and it reminded Quinn of Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass.


    Still, Quinn was relieved by this oue. At least with this, Hermione would still be in the loop regarding things around Harry as the Boy-Who-Lived was close to his twin sister, and Hermione was close to Ivy Potter. Quinn was sure that the challenges they had ahead of them would help these four build a bond simr to that of the golden trio of the canon.


    Coming to the present time, Quinn was standing near the restricted part of the third-floor corridor, the part that held the entrance to the Philosopher''s stone chamber, guarded by the creations of the Hogwarts professors. He was going to enter the special chamber and try to look at the Philosopher''s stone.


    It was broad daylight and not the usual hour of operation for Quinn, who liked to pretend as a normal student during the day and do his extra-curricr work after school during the evening and night.


    But, the opportunity was perfect as today was the first match of the Quidditch season, and the Boy-Who-Lived, the youngest seeker in Hogwarts history, was ying. A great majority of the school poption was at the stadium to see the game.


    This game was also the one where Quirrellmort tried to curse Harry''s broom so that he could injure Harry, and Snape fought against Quirrellmort by counter-cursing to save Harry. In the canon, Hermione thought Snape was trying to harm Harry and took action to stop him but unknowingly knocked into Quirrell, who was the real preparator.


    Quinn didn''t care for this event and was going to leave Harry''s protection to Snape. ''He will work harder. I am sure he doesn''t want his love of life to see her child get gravely injured in front of her,'' thought Quinn as he prepared for infiltration.


    Quinn was going to use the game and infiltrate the defenses guarding the stone. Quinn really wanted to observe the stone for educational curiosity. With the whole school there, Quinn had plenty of time to go in and out.


    Quinn stood in front of the door, and before opening it, he checked it out for wards. He shot out detection spells all around the locked door but didn''t find a single ward on the door.


    "This is reckless carelessness. Did Dumbledore really not put a single ward on the door; what was he thinking? Or, maybe there are wards, and I just can''t detect them," wondered Quinn. He hesitated about their being high-level wards he couldn''t detect but decided to risk it, "Whatever, let''s enter this thing."


    Quinn silently casted an Unlocking charm (Alohomora), and with a click, the door opened. Before entering the room, Quinn made himself invisible and took a deep breath before entered the room. He was immediately was greeted by low, rumbling growls.


    Quinn saw the first challenge/defense, set up by Rubeus Hagrid. The obstacle was to get past Fluffy was a gigantic, monstrous male three-headed dog, a magical beast species known as Cerberus who was once cared for by Rubeus Hagrid. Fluffy was raised by Hagrid and loaned to Albus Dumbledore. To aid in guarding the Philosopher''s Stone. Fluffy''s greatest weakness was the inability to resist falling asleep to the sound of music.


    Quinn saw the Cerberus get up and sniffed around to the person who it couldn''t see. Quinn stood perfectly still before slowly conjuring a violin; It was an exact replica of Quinn''s violin. Quinn didn''t want to bring his beloved violin in fear that it would get damaged.


    Quinn scowled at the conjured violin. It felt different in Quinn''s hand; It felt like an inferior product. Quinn sighed before starting ying a tune on the violin.


    Vaughan Williams''s The Lark Ascending began flowing through the room as the Cerberus stopped looking around and looked towards the floating violin with all its three heads and six eyes.


    Slowly, but surely, the Cerberus'' eyes drooped, and his frequent growls ceased, and it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.


    Quinn moved through the room while ying the violin, and after walking by one of the Cerberus'' paws, he found the trapdoor. With a look at the door, the ring handle pulled itself up, followed up by the trapdoor itself.


    Quinn stopped ying the violin, vanished it, and immediately jumped into the darkness inside the trapdoor. The Cerberus slowly woke up, shaking off the sleepiness, and looked around but saw no one, its three heads and six eyes missing the swiftly closing trapdoor.


    Quinnnded on soft ground. The cold, damp air surrounded him as he felt nts around him.


    ''Devil''s snare,'' thought Quinn. The second challenge/defense, set up by the Herbology professor, Pomona Sprout.


    Devil''s Snare was a magical nt in the shape of a mass of soft, springy tendrils and vines that possess some sense of touch with the instinct to constrict or strangle anything in its surrounding environment or something that happens to touch it. Devil''s Snare wasn''t a carnivorous nt and didn''t consume its victim.


    The nt used its creepers and tendrils to entrap anyone who touched it, binding their arms and legs and eventually choking them. The harder a person struggles against Devil''s Snare, the faster and more tightly it binds them.


    Quinn felt the Devil''s Snare creep up his body, but he didn''t move or even tried to use magic. He just stood there, waiting for the Devil''s Snare to surround him, and it did, slowly creeping over his over body, entrapping him in its vines and tendrils.


    Quinn had read about the Devil''s Snare and how if you stayed rxed, it wouldn''t suffocate a person, and Quinn wanted to see if it was true. He waited for thirty seconds, and the wines didn''t tighten around him and just covered him, treating him like a wall or an immovable object.


    ''Okay, this is enough,'' thinking that he charged up his magic, and multiple balls of harsh light appeared in the room full of Devil''s Snare, scaring them as the wines hurriedly retreated from Quinn''s body as it tried to shield itself away from the light.


    Quinn didn''t use fire to not wanting to damage the wines. He didn''t want to leave any evidence in case the professors came to check on the defenses.


    Wasting no time, Quinn walked towards the stony passageway free of Devil''s Snare. The passage was dead silent as Quinn walked down the downward slope towards the next room.


    Quinn knew he was near the next obstacle as he heard the rustling and clinking sounds from ahead. He reached the end of the passageway and saw a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.


    "The winged keys," muttered Quinn as he took in the sight of at least a hundred winged keys. The flock moved randomly and rapidly, making it hard to keep track of an individual key.


    Quinn looked at the old wooden door and then back to the flock of key birds.


    "An old key for an old door," thought Quinn, but before that, he tried to summon the ring by using a Summoning charm (io), but s, Flitwick had charmed them impervious to being summoned.


    Quinn nced at the brooms in the room, put there to chase the correct winged key. He scoffed and looked back at the crazy flock of winged keys. "Yeah, right. Like I am going to use a broom to chase the correct key."


    Quinn trained his eyes on the flock, trying to spot the vintage-styled key, and the second he spotted it, Quinn never let his eyes wander off it. He raised his right hand, and the next second, a jet of yellow and red shot out of Quinn''s right palm andtched on to the winged key.


    He had just used the Seize-and-pull charm (Carpe Retractum). Quinn grinned, and with another thought, the cord of light started bing shorter as it pulled the key towards Quinn, and within seconds, Quinn had the vintage fashioned key in his hand.


    "Now, that is how you do it. Didn''t have to move at all," Quinn praised himself as he walked to the wooden door. While humming, Quinn inserted the key into the door and turned it to unlock the door.


    The next room was Minerva McGonagall''s handiwork. A game of giant chess set with cool-looking chess pieces.


    Quinn stopped for a minute and observed the chessboard, admiring the work of masterful and artistic Transfiguration. Quinn looked for clues and signs for what went into creating this work. A prolonged work of Transfiguration was a difficult job.


    "The chess pieces are Transmuted into their shapes. Hmm... I can''t decipher the original material of the pieces, but they are Transfigured into stone."


    Quinn squatted and further examined, "Oh man, the animation charms are brutal on this one. Hot stuff! The swords, axes, shields, and even the bodies."


    Like a student in front of a work of a master, Quinn spent some time examining the chessboard till he was satisfied. "Good, now let''s bypass," said Quinn as he stood up and started pilling on charms on himself.


    First, he made himself invisible so that the chess pieces couldn''t see him. Then he casted a charm on every article of his clothing so that they didn''t make a sound. Just for safety, Quinn erased his scent in case McGonagall had charmed them to sense smells.


    ''Let''s go!'' thought Quinn as he walked on to the chessboard, and step by step, he walked from the white side to the ck side. Carefully, looking at the chess pieces to see if they would move and attack him, but they didn''t. His heart was pounding when he reached the rows of ck pieces and slowly, awfully slowly, stepped between a ck pawn and the ck queen.


    Quinn finally exhaled a breath he didn''t know he was holding and ran to the next room and shut the door behind him.


    "Oh well, that was stressful." Quinn leaned against the door. He was sure that if the pieces moved a single centimeter, he would have sted them smithereens.


    At that moment, Quinn noticed the horrendous smell in the new room, and he was immediately reminded of the Troll he fought a few weeks before.


    A massive mountain Troll stood in front of him; this one was at least two to three feetrger than the one Quinn had fought. The Troll hadn''t noticed Quinn, and Quinn was d that he hadn''t.


    In the books, Harry and Hermione didn''t have to fight this Troll because Quirrellmort had already taken off it by knocking it out before the duo got to this room.


    Quinn, on the other hand, wasn''t that lucky and had to deal with this Troll.


    "And, I have to deal with it without injuring this one," Quinn sighed, "Luckily, I prepared for this." He took arge round vial out of his robes.


    The vial contained a pale lc-colored potion. The potion was the Draught of Living Death, one of the stronger Sleeping potions, and sent the drinker into a deathlike slumber, but the potion in Quinn''s vial was a unique blend.


    The Draught of Living Death was a clear-colored potion, but the one in Quinn''s vial was a pale lc. The reason behind this was because it was highly concentrated. It needed to be concentrated because of the Troll''s size and physique.


    The Troll was sitting on the floor, so Quinn gently rolled the vial towards it. The Troll noticed the vial, picked it up with his index finger and thumb, and bought it close to his face.


    This was the sign Quinn was waiting for as heunched a Transmutation spell towards the ss of vial, instantly disintegrating it, and the moment the potion came into contact with air, it turned to mist and became aerosol. Another handy change Quinn made to the recipe, modifying the recipe so the potion would turn to mist whening into contact with air.


    The Troll breathed in the vapor, and within a dozen seconds, the effects showed. The Troll became drowsy and fell to its side, sleeping.


    Quinn immediately began moving towards the Troll, continuously casting air freshening charms around him to keep the Troll stink away.


    He pulled open the next door, and there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.


    "Snape''s puzzles," spoke Quinn as his voice echoed in the empty room.


    The moment Quinn crossed the Threshold, a fire sprang up behind him in the doorway. It wasn''t ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, ck mes shot up in the doorway, leading onward.


    Quinn was trapped.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Explorer of Hogwarts.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 32 - Potion Riddle, Mirror Of Erised, And Another Talk

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    In Snape''s obstacle room, Quinn stood in front of the potion table that held seven potion vials.


    The room had two handles; one entry and one exit. A purple fire covered the room''s entrance, and jets of ck fire blocked the exit.


    This all was part of the room''s defense, the enchanted fires trapped a person inside, and the potions on the table contained the antidotes to both fires.


    Quinn looked at both the fires before shrugging and walking to the potion table, ''If I cannot solve the puzzle, then I would just try to undo the charms on the fires.''


    Quinn was sure that he could figure out the charms on the fires. It would take time, but Quinn could do it, and a good puzzle was always wee.


    Quinn conjured a barstool in front of the table and sat on it while picking up the parchment. The parchment contained the riddle for the antidotes that allowed Quinn to pass the fires without harm.


    The riddle read,


    [


    Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,


    Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,


    One among us seven will let you move ahead,


    Another will transport the drinker back instead,


    Two among our number hold onlytle wine,


    Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.


    Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,


    To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:


    First, however slyly the poison tries to hide


    You will always find some ontle wine''s left side;


    Second, different are those who stand at either end,


    But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;


    Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,


    Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;


    Fourth, the second left and the second on the right


    Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.


    ] [Image in the paragraphment.]


    From the first half of the riddle, Quinn deciphered that one bottle will move him ahead (line 3), one will send him back (line 4), two holdtle wine (line 5), three hold poison (line 6).


    "There are seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get me safely through the ck fire, and one will get me back through the purple fire," said Quinn as he continued to decipher the riddle.


    From lines nine and ten (9-10), Quinn deciphered,


    "There is always poison to the left oftle wine."


    From lines eleven and twelve (11-12), Quinn cracked,


    "The bottles on either end of the line contain different contents, but neither will move you forward."


    The next two lines, thirteen and fourteen (13-14) revealed,


    "The smallest (dwarf) andrgest (giant) bottles do not contain poison."


    Thest two lines (15-16) spoke to Quinn,


    "The second from the left and the second from the right is housed in different-sized bottles, but they hold the same contents."


    Now, Quinn had all the clues from the riddle, and he could start solving the potion identities.


    "First, let''s set the with unchangeable constants," Quinn said as he numbered the positions from our left to right.


    [1] - [2] - [3] - [4] - [5] - [6] - [7]


    "Now, insert the constants: the elements second from the left and second from the right are identical, though in different-looking bottles, and poison will always be to the left oftle wine," said Quinn, but he stopped just before marking things.


    "There are two possible ways to arrange these bottles, depending on whether [totle wine bottle''s left side] means from our left or from the wine bottle''s left. But both arrangements ultimately lead to the same end solution of the puzzle," said Quinn as he finally marked the potions.


    Firstbination,


    [1 - Poison] - [2 - Wine] - [3 - x] - [4 - y] - [5 - Poison] - [6 - Wine] - [7 - z]


    Secondbination,


    [1 - Wine] - [2 - Poison] - [3 - x] - [4 - y] - [5 - Wine] - [6 - Poison] - [7 - z]


    Quinn smiled as he noted, "Whichever way I do it, I satisfy the requirement that the elements second from the end (Position 2 and Position 6) hold the same contents (2 - Wine, 6 - Wine; or 2 - Poison, 6 - Poison), and I also satisfy the requirement on either end. Poison will always appear to the left of the wine, depending on whose left I am using."


    Quinn began swinging his legs as he continued to solve the riddle.


    "Okay, so now that I have positioned the poison/wine sequences (the constants), we now have three bottles remaining. One is poison, one moves you backward, one moves you forward. Poison cannot be in either giant or dwarf bottle. The bottle on one end of the line cannot hold the same contents as the bottle on the opposite ends. And neither of the bottles on end will move you forward."


    "Now, I am going to use that tle wine''s left] means our left. Poison is always ontle wine''s left, so we can erase the secondbination," noted Quinn from clue number one.


    [1 - Poison] - [2 - Wine] - [3 - x] - [4 - y] - [5 - Poison] - [6 - Wine] - [7 - z]


    "The second clue says that bottles at the ends have different contents and won''t help me move forward, which means that it can''t be poison and won''t be the forward potion," said Quinn, so he noted. "That means it can only be the backward potions! Alright!"


    [1 - Poison] - [2 - Wine] - [3 - x] - [4 - y] - [5 - Poison] - [6 - Wine] - [7 - Backward]


    "Finally, (3 - x) and (4 - y) can either be poison or forward potion," pped Quinn and finally used the third clue that says that dwarf and giant potions don''t have poison.


    While the books didn''t show the readers theyout, but Quinn could see theyout, and (3 - x) was the shortest bottle and thus the dwarf bottle.


    "If it isn''t poison, then it is the forward potion, and the remaining (4 - y) is the remaining poison," solved Quinn, and the final result was as follows,


    [1 - Poison] - [2 - Wine] - [3 - Forward] - [4 - Poison] - [5 - Poison] - [6 - Wine] - [7 - Backward]


    Quinn folded the sheet of paper and pocketed it. He took out two vials and poured the contents of the forward and backward potions into them.


    He ced the now empty vials back on the table and looked to see if they would fill themselves up, but nothing happened.


    Quinn shrugged, "I will break one leg of the table, so it would seem that the potion drained when the table broke."


    He walked to the ck fire and chugged down the forward potion. He pocketed the bottle and walked forward; he braced himself, saw the ck mes licking his body, but couldn''t feel them ¡ª for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire ¡ª then he was on the other side, in thest chamber.


    The chamber was empty, not unlike the previous one, and in the center of the room stood a mirror. The mirror was on the base level of the floor with steps leading down to it.


    Quinn climbed down the steps and approached the mirror. The writing engraved on the frame of the mirror said,


    ¡¸Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.¡¹


    Quinn smiled softly and repeated, "I show not your face but your heart''s desire."


    Quinn''s heart beat faster as he shifted his eyes from the frame to the mirror itself. He was a little nervous about what he would see in the mirror. Quinn closed his eyes before opening them to see what his heart desired.


    In the mirror, a version of Quinn stared back at him. The mirror-Quinn was exuding a humongous amount of magic; the current Quinn hadrge magic reserves, but mirror-Quinn was on another level. To Quinn, it seemed that mirror-Quinn could never run out of magic.


    Quinn also saw that mirror-Quinn''s eyes were a deep-violet instead of his usual stone-grey eyes. Quinn found himself staring into the deep-violet eyes, wondering the reason behind the color change.


    From what Quinn could decipher, the mirror-Quinn was a master at magic, a powerful magical at that. It had always been one of Quinn''s top goals.


    Quinn looked around the mirror-Quinn and saw his family, all smiling. He saw Lia, George, Elliot, Ms. Rosey, and Polly. Even n D. Baddeley, his mind arts teacher, was present in the mirror image. In the background, Quinn could see a globe turning slowly; it signified Quinn''s desire to learn magic from all around the world.


    Quinn finally looked at mirror-Quinn wanting the Philosopher''s stone, but mirror-Quinn smiled apologetically and shook his head.


    Quinn frowned and asked, "Why?"


    Mirror-Quinn took out a ruby-red stone from his robes and showed it to Quinn; it was the Philosopher''s stone. Then mirror-Quinn took out his fake wand and then stared at both of his hands. Quinn watched as the fake wand in mirror-Quinn''s hand turned into gold. Mirror-Quinn didn''t stop and took out a potion vial and put the stone on the vial, and Quinn saw the vial fill up with a crystal blue liquid; it was the Elixir of Life.


    Quinn ruefully smiled and spoke, "If I get the stone, I will end up using it, aren''t I?" Albus Dumbledore had charmed the mirror so that only those who wanted to ''find'' it and not ''use'' it for themselves.


    The mirror-Quinn nodded in agreement, and that made Quinn sigh.


    "All this work was for nothing?" exasperated Quinn and ran a hand through his hair. He backed away from the mirror and sat on the steps, sighing.


    He looked up at the dark ceiling and pondered. Quinn had already thought about this oue, but he still tried this, convincing himself that he only wanted to see the stone.


    "I guess I can''t fool my own heart?" Quinn said to himself and kept sitting there before deciding he had brooded enough and it was time to exit the stone''s chambers.


    Quinn climbed the steps but not before giving the Mirror of Erised onest time.


    Quinn ran through the ck fire and entered Snape''s room, and noticed that the vials were against full. He walked to the table and muttered, "Maybe, it takes time to recharge." He shrugged and took the backward potion to pass the purple fire.


    He groaned as the Troll''s stench hit him and kicked the unconscious Troll to release some frustration. Then once again walked as he stepping on eggshells as he passed through McGonagall''s chessboard, hurriedly walked through Flitwick''s winged-key room, and reached Sprout''s Devil''s Snare.


    Once again, multiple orbs of harsh light scared the vines away and used the Seize-and-pull spell (Carpus Retractum) totch one end of the cord to just near the trapdoor and pulled himself up.


    Just before he opened the trapdoor, Quinn conjured a violin, animated it to y a piece, and sent it out of the trapdoor so that when Quinn exited, Fluffy, the Cerberus would be fast asleep.


    Quinn waited for half a minute before exiting the trapdoor to see a sleeping Fluffy and walked out the Underground chambers, but not before turning invisible and checking the surroundings in Recon.


    When the Ravenw students returned, Quinn was waiting for Eddie and Marcus for them in themon room.


    Quinn asked the moment Eddie and Marcus walked to him, "How was the game?"


    Marcus looked excited and answered, "It was one exciting game; you should have seen Harry Potter on the broom. He was weaving through the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle."


    Quinn turned to Eddie when he spoke, "He was pretty good. No, he was mad-good for his age. His broom did give him some problems during the game, but he still managed to snatch the snitch." He scoffed, "You would think that Nimbus would make good brooms."


    Quinn absentmindedly nodded and thought, ''No change in this event.''


    "I see."


    - (Scene Break) -


    A few dayster, Quinn had an interesting conversation with someone he wasn''t expecting to talk to. Quinn was walking from the Room Of Requirement to the Great Hall when he met Lily Potter. Quinn didn''t want to talk to her after his passionate rant, but the Muggle studies professor called out to him.


    "Mr. West," Lily called when she saw him.


    Quinn groaned internally before turning to face her, "Evening, Professor Potter."


    "A good evening to you as well, Mr. West. I assume you are going to the Great Hall," she asked, and when Quinn nodded, she asked, "Wonderful, walk with me."


    Quinn fell in step with Lily and was wondering if he should make small talk, but Lily took care of that,


    "I thought about the things you said to me when we first met," she said, and Quinn really didn''t want to talk about that, but then she asked, "Tell me, Mr. West. When did you start visiting the muggle world?"


    Quinn wondered why she was asking that but then shrugged and answered, "I have been in contact with the non-magical world as long as I can remember. I, with my sister, regrly spend our time together in the non-magical world. I have also been to various parts of the world and have experienced both their magical and non-magical parts."


    Now that the conversation was on a roll, Quinn decided to ask, "What about you, Professor Potter; how did you raise the twins? Are they familiar with the non-magical world?"


    "Yes, they are. Both of my children attended muggle schools beforeing to Hogwarts," Lily smiled as she revealed.


    Quinn nodded in appreciation, "Is that so? I never did that. I was homeschooled, but not in non-magical subjects. Maybe one day, I will study those subjects." He looked up towards her and asked, "What about you? Did you catch up with your non-magical studies?"


    Lily shook her head while chuckling, "Oh, no. I was too busy with the twins, and now I am teaching here at Hogwarts."


    She hesitated before asking, "May I ask how did you build such a good rapport with Professor Snape?"


    Quinn quirked his brows and spoke in confusion, "Professor Potter, maybe you are misinformed; I barely talk to Professor Snape, much less have a good rapport with him."


    "But, the other Professor said that you are his favorite student, so I wondered..." she sounded that she really wanted an answer.


    "Professor, from what I have heard and observed, Professor Snape ..." he stopped before staring her dead in the eyes and asked, "I am going to tell you something in confidence, and anything I say wouldn''t make its way to anyone else, can you keep this a secret. I don''t want Professor Snape to hear this. Can you promise me that?"


    Lily was confused but nodded, so Quinn continued, "Honestly speaking, Professor Snape doesn''t enjoy teaching. Heck, Professor Snape doesn''t know how to teach;pared to Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall, he seems like a poor novice." Snape was a master potioneer, but that mastery didn''t convert to skill in teaching, and if Snape heard this, then Quinn''s potion lessons would go from pleasantly calm to outright miserable.


    "From his point of view, all the students are dunderheads, which is not really how a teacher should view his students, and the reason I am treated differently is that I follow his instructions without any mistakes, am not annoying, and keep out of his way. Plus, I am not sure about this, but I think he tolerates me because I am genuinely interested in Potions, but the jury is still out on thest one." Quinn looked proud as he continued, "I am proud to say that Professor Snape hasn''t yelled at me or cut points from me even once. I onlymunicate with Professor Snape when he asks me to answer a question or during the roll call, except that he and I don''t talk that much."


    "But, don''t you have questions for him; you just said that he is a master potioneer; don''t you want to learn from someone of that level?" asked Lily. She had been the smartest witch of her generation, and notmunicating with her teachers seemed absolutely strange to her.


    Quinn hummed in thought before replying, "Professor, there are many types of learners. Some require another person to stand on their head to motivate them to learn, some need step-by-step guidance, some learn by doing, and some prefer to learn by themselves. I am of thest type; I prefer to learn at my own pace and at my own convenience. Books and other texts are my best friends; they have everything I need. I haven''t felt the need to consult with a professor if I can learn it by myself. Of course, by this, I am not saying that there is no need for teachers; as I said, there are all kinds of learners, and teachers help all types of learners."


    "But, why the sudden interest in Professor Snape," asked Quinn, who felt that the conversation was getting out of track and slowly bing about him, so he brought it back to the original topic.


    Lily ruefully smiled, hearing that, asked, "You see, Severus, is... was my friend, but we had a falling out, and I am thinking how to make up with him, but I have no idea how to approach that." She didn''t know why she was asking a twelve for advice.


    Quinn stayed silent for a moment, and Lily thought she had made him ufortable. She was about to say something when Quinn spoke, "I am not an authority on rtionships, and I do not know how Professor Snape is in his personal life. But if I were to give advice, then I would say to be prepared, a broken rtionship can have a lot of hidden emotions, and the message you are trying to convey might not go across, so choose your words wisely."


    Quinn paused for just a second, "And if the other party is not willing to start the conversation, you must be the one to approach them. Take charge and show that your friendship means something. Exin why you felt hurt or angry. Ask about your friend''s perspective. Keep an open mind as you listen to your friend speak. And, atst, be ready to walk away if you two can''t resolve the issue."''


    Quinn knew why Lily and Snape had a falling out, and while it was entirely Snape''s fault, it wasn''t weird that Lily had forgiven him after so many years, time heals wounds, and now she wanted to rebuild her friendship with her childhood friend, the one who introduced her to magic.


    By the time Quinn finished giving his opinion, they had reached the Great Hall, and Quinn said before parting, "I hope you may be sessful in your endeavor, Professor Potter. Now, please excuse me."


    Quinn left without giving Lily a chance to reply, leaving her to think about what she just heard and what she needed to do.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Solving riddles, giving advice, what can''t he do?!


    Quirrell''s second Troll - Mountain Troll - *Grunt* *Ugh* [Troll sleepy]...


    Lily Potter - Muggle studies professor - A kind woman.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 33 - Ministry Ball, Fudge, And Greengrass

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    The link is also in the synopsis...


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The Christmas break was here, and like most of the students, Quinn was back at home. He only had a day to rest before his grandfather give him some news.


    He was having dinner with George when the older of the two spoke, "Tomorrow, there is a Yuletide ball at the Ministry, and you will be attending the ball with me."


    Quinn didn''t respond immediately and took a moment to think about this piece of information. He hadn''t been to a formal public gathering like this, and if he attended this one, it would be his first one.


    "Is my attendance necessary?" probed Quinn as he would prefer not to go to these kinds of events.


    George nced at his grandson and replied, "Yes, you areing with me tomorrow. You are not allowed to skip this one."


    Quinn nodded and asked, "Is it because I have not been to these kinds of events?"


    "Yes, you have shown no interest in these types of gathering, so I have not forced you toe with me, but now is high time for people to know that I have another grandchild. Few know that I have another grandchild. It will be beneficial for you to familiarize yourself with people at that ball and at the same time for others to know that there is another person in the West family."


    Quinn silently nodded and thought, ''Oh boy, herees my public debut.''


    Quinn thought that he would be busy at the ball, but he was mistaken; Ms. Rosey had him upied from the moment he woke up. She took him to have a haircut in the morning, and then Quinn spent hours in a clothing store getting fitted for formal robes, and because they were neededter during the evening, and was forced to try on different colors, styles, and fits.


    Ms. Rosey even had him dance practice before the ball just to check if he remembered everything; he wanted to argue who he was going to dance with but didn''t after seeing the look on Ms. Rosey''s face.


    And, just when Quinn was about to sit down for a rxing read, George pulled in him to quiz him about the significant peopleing at the ball.


    By the time Quinn was free, it was time to get ready for the ball. He put on his newly stitched bespoke robes and waited for his grandfather in the living hall.


    When George entered the hall, Quinn asked while sitting on a sofa, "How are we going to the location? Floo, Apparation, or Portkey?"


    George replied with a smile on his face, "We are taking a carriage. It is already ready at the front door." He gestured with his chin, "Come on."


    Quinn got up from his seat and said, "Oh, is it a flying one; because I haven''t gotten on one for a while." Quinn had been on Thestral pulled carriages at Hogwarts, but they didn''t fly for safety reasons; students could be rather stupid and reckless.


    "Yes, it is a flying carriage. I ordered it for a change," said George as Quinn fell into step with him as they walked to the front door, where Elliot waited to bid them farewell.


    Elliot smiled towards Quinn and said, "Young master, don''t be pressured. You just have to be your usual charming self, and everything would be alright." He then frowned and whispered, "Don''t tell Ms. Rosey about any of this; she will not agree with me at all, and then I would have to sit as she reprimands me."


    Quinn chuckled and nodded in reply.


    Elliot opened the door, and the grandfather-grandson stepped out as Elliot followed them. In front of the manor stood a carriage with winged horses attached to it.


    Quinn moved close to the winged horses and noted, "Judging by the chestnut color, they are of the Aethonan breed."


    The winged horse was a magical species of horse, distinct for possessing wings that enabled them to fly. Winged horses were found worldwide, with many different breeds existing, including the Abraxan, Aethonan, Granian, and Thestral. Law required owners of winged horses to cast Disillusionment charms on them regrly.


    Aethonan breed of winged horses was popr in Great Britain and Irnd as they were bred in the country and even had winged horse racing leagues simr to the equestrian sport of horse racing.


    Quinn looked at the driver who opened the door for them and thought, ''This guy must be pretty good at Disillusionment charms; maybe I should ask for some tips.''


    Inside of the carriage was much bigger and quite luxuriously furnished. Quinn sat opposite George, and the driver opened up a window from the front and pointed his wand towards the half ss globe, and a white fire appeared inside the ss globe.


    Quinn looked at the white fire and thought about the candle chandelier in his A.I.D office and all other rooms he frequented, ''All the sources of light are mes... maybe I should design a light artifact that uses lighting charms. Now, what would go into creating something like that?''


    Elliot peered inside the carriage and wished, "I wish you a safe journey, and I hope you will enjoy the ball."


    Quinn smiled and said, "Thank you, Uncle Elliot."


    Elliot stepped back and nodded towards the driver, and Quinn heard the crack of a whip. Quinn looked outside the window to see the carriage moving, and after a dozen seconds, the carriage took off the ground into the air. Little by little, thend became distant with other trees and fields around the West Manor.


    After taking in the view for a few minutes, Quinn asked, "Is the ball at the ministry?"


    In response, George shook his head, "No, they have booked another building for the ball. It is the same building as every year, and to think they would learn to switch things up once in a while."


    Usually, Lia would apany George on these kinds of events; but this year, she was busy with another country''s Yuletide ball, maintaining the business rtionship in different countries.


    - (Scene Break) -


    The carriagended in front of amon-looking building. The driver drove the horse-pulled carriage into an underground floor of the building, functioning as a parking station.


    When Quinn and George exited the carriage, a ministry employee was waiting there to receive them. The ministry employee was a young man who stepped forward and greeted George,


    "Good evening, Mr. West. I am Malcolm MacDonald from the Department of International Magical Cooperation. I will be guiding you to the ball this evening."


    George nodded and silently followed Malcolm MacDonald, the ministry employee. Quinn walked with his grandfather; he also noticed that Malcolm MacDonald was sneaking peeks towards him.


    ''Well, it is my first time here. I guess Malcolm MacDonald didn''t know about me,'' thought Quinn and also made eye contact with Malcolm once, and because of habit, Quinn extended his magic towards Malcolm''s mind and felt no shields around his mind, but held back from reading his mind.


    After walking for a couple of minutes, they reached the hall. Quinn took in the hall room with its silverish and golden decor, shining every corner of therge room, velvet curtains framing the sides of the hall, and tens of circr tables set up in the hall with arge empty area in the middle for dancing.


    In the hall, multiple people dressed in robes and dresses mingling together, talking andughing with each other.


    Malcolm MacDonald turned to face George and said, "I hope you enjoy the evening, Mr. West." and gave Quinn a light nod before leaving the pair.


    Quinn followed him with his eyes and saw that he was making a beeline towards a crowd of people, most probably alerting the Minister that George West had arrived.


    Quinn looked up at George, asking with his eyes about what he should do. George smiled and replied, "You have to follow me for a while, and after introducing yourself to some significant people, you can rx and do whatever you want for the rest of the evening."


    Quinn smiled and nodded, "Alright, let''s go and meet some people." He chuckled and added, "How should I y this, maybe a shy kid or maybe a charmer, hmm... should I go the spoiled route?"


    George hugged him by the shoulder and warned with a small smile, "Don''t cause mischief, and just be yourself."


    Quinn grinned and looked around, "Who should we talk to first?"


    George shook his head and stated, "We don''t need to approach. Just wait, and people wille to us. Let''s just grab a spot and let the otherse to us." Quinn nodded, impressed by his grandfather''s demeanor. George truly believed that people would flock around him.


    ''He does have the qualifications to back up his confidence,'' thought Quinn as he followed George and looked at the back of his grandfather with admiration. If it was social skills and values as a person, Quinn would be fine if he became half as good as George.


    George had just picked up a drink for himself, and his previous statement came true as the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Oswald Fudge, walked towards them with a big smile on his face, behind a small group followed. Quinn noticed a woman who looked like a toad, but decided to ignore as long she didn''t talk to him.


    "Mr. West, you made it. I wasn''t sure you would be showing up. I am immensely delighted to see that you are here," the minister said in his most ttering voice.


    It made Quinn smile a little when he heard Fudge addressing his grandfather with mister. Quinn clearly recalled that Fudge didn''t do that with Albus Dumbledore or even Lucius Malfoy. It just showed how much influence George West held in Britain.


    "I had no ns this time of the year, so I decided to ept your invitation, Cornelius," said George with a stoic expression. He swept his eyes to the people behind Fudge, and that made them stand straighter. Even the toad woman didn''t say a single word.


    George put a hand on Quinn''s shoulder and introduced, "Let me introduce you to my grandson Quinn."


    All the people at once noticed that there was a kid beside George West. They didn''t notice the kid before, and themon thought struck all, ''George West''s grandson?!''


    Quinn smiled and put out his hand for a handshake, "Happy Yuletide, Minister."


    Cornelius Fudge grabbed Quinn''s hand while feeling stunned. ''George West had a grandson? Why didn''t I know about this?'' He also had the urge to grill Malcolm McDonald about why didn''t he feel the need to tell about George West''s grandson.


    "Oh ho, Quinn West, is it? How old are you, Quinn?" smile Fudge.


    Quinn let go of Fudge''s hand and replied, "I am twelve years old."


    ''Twelve? Then...'', Fudge thought as he asked, "Where are you going to school, Quinn?" He knew that Lia West had studied at Beauxbaton, so he wanted to know where this grandchild studied.


    "I study at Hogwarts and am in my second year," Quinn offered politely.


    ''Oh! this one goes to Hogwarts, excellent!'' thought Fudge as he thought about West family money staying in Britain. "I see; how are you liking it?"


    "It has been learning about magic. The castle is also quite fascinating," replied Quinn.


    George decided to brag about Quinn, "Quinn is at the top of his ss. He scored above a hundred percent in Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Defense Against Dark Arts, and Astronomy."


    Fudge pped and smiled, "Excellent! Excellent! It is important to be a good student."


    With that, Quinn spent some time standing by his grandfather while George chatted with the minister. After that, George allowed Quinn to leave his side and do whatever he wanted.


    "Juste see me once in a while so that I know you are still in the hall," warned George before letting him go. Quinn had met the minister, so it wouldn''t be long before he would be known throughout the ball andter to more people.


    Quinn nodded and decided to see if there was something for him to drink here. He walked to the bar and got a ss of a pineapple orange punch to drink. Quinn walked across the hall and looked at people to see if he recognized someone, and as he was sipping from his ss, he heard a startled voice, "You!"


    Quinn turned back with the ss still at his lips and saw a familiar blonde dressed in avender dress standing in front of him as she stared at him with a stunned look on her face.


    Quinn removed the ss as he smiled towards the girl and said, "Looking good, Greengrass."


    The stunned-looking blonde was his junior Daphne Greengrass. Quinn slowly walked towards her and took her gloved hand, bent over it and ced a kiss on her knuckles, and wished, "Happy Yuletide."


    Daphne was still stunned seeing Quinn here at the ministry as she knew little about Quinn, so it came as a surprise to her to see him here at the ball. Then she felt a heat rush through her cheeks when heplimented her and kissed her hand.


    It was when Quinn stepped back that she snapped out of her state and pulled her emotional lumency skills to get control of her emotions and erase the blush off her cheeks.


    "You were invited to the ball?" Daphne immediately asked.


    Quinn nodded and answered, "Yes, well, my grandfather was invited, and I am here with him."


    Daphne hummed as she wondered who Quinn''s grandfather was.


    "Would you like something to drink?" politely asked Quinn. When Daphne nodded, Quinn walked back to the bar to get her a drink and refill his own.


    "So, who did youe with?" Quinn asked as he handed Daphne a ss of strawberry punch.


    "With my parents."


    Daphne''s parents were Jacob and Sophie Greengrass. Jacob Greengrass was the head of the Grey political faction, and his wife Sophie Greengrass was no slouch either; she was the one who organized all the Grey faction gathering at her home to keep the Grey faction close with the help of these gatherings. The Grey faction members and families frequented Sophie''s events to exchange information and strengthen their connections to remain strong and a tight bunch within Wizengamot. Her contributions to the faction made her one of the core members of the Grey faction.


    "So, what does your grandfather do?" a nonchnt question came from Daphne as she sipped her punch.


    Quinn nced at her, ''Look at her, discreetly trying to fish for information, so sneaky,'' it made Quinn smile inwardly. He gave the question thought for a split second and answered, "My grandfather owns the Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop in Hogsmeade. Proudly supplying quills and parchment to Hogwarts since I don''t know when."


    It was technically a legitimate answer, and Quinn wasn''t lying; he was just omitting most of the things his grandfather did for a living.


    "Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop...?" Daphne asked, not sure what to make of what Quinn had told her, ''Is a Quill and Parchment Shop enough to be invited to a ministry ball?''


    "Yes, Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop, you must have ordered some stationary through mail order," said Quinn while enjoying the confusion that Daphne was feeling.


    "Y-Yes, I have." said the girl. She wanted to ask how warranted an invitation to the ministry ball but held back as it woulde out as rude.


    ''This is so much fun.'' Quinn was going to have some more, but their conversation was interrupted when ady appeared and spoke, "Daphne, dear."


    Ady dressed in dark forest green walked to the pair and called for Daphne, and the girl turned to address thedy, "Yes, mum?"


    Sophie Greengrass had the same blonde hair as her daughter, but unlike her daughter, who had blue eyes, she had hazel irises. She had her blonde locks styled in a single braid falling over her shoulder and had simple-yet-elegant jewelry adorning her neck and ears, and looked overall a graceful and stunning woman.


    Quinn''s mischievous thoughts all vanished as he single-mindedly stared at thedy in front of him. Quinn couldn''t take his eyes off of her and simply looked at her without blinking.


    ''Beautiful,'' was the only word he could think of to describe her. He could do better, but right now, Quinn wasn''t thinking normally.


    "Daphne, would you introduce your friend to me," Sophie Greengrass asked her daughter; she knew how her daughter was when it came to friends, so it came as a surprise when she saw her daughter talk to a person Sophie didn''t recognize, much less a boy.


    Daphne nodded and introduced, "This is Quinn West; he studies at Hogwarts, second-year, Ravenw."


    Sophie''s pupils widened a fraction as he heard the surname West. She carefully looked at the now introduced Quinn West and saw the ck hair and stone-grey eyes.


    ''He is from the West family, alright; the features match. I didn''t know that he had another child in his family,'' thought Sophie as she watched Quinn.


    Quinn, who was stunned because of Sophie Greengrass, came back to his senses and stepped closer to her and took her hand to kiss her knuckles. Quinn looked up and asked, "Ma''am, are you by chance a Ve?" Words of ttery flowed out Quinn''s mouth as he held Sophie''s hand.


    Sophie was surprised for a second before a chuckle escaped her lips as he smiled at the little guy in front of her while the other Greengrass looked scandalized at her schoolmate''s words.


    "No, little child, I am not a Ve," said a smiling Sophie Greengrass.


    Quinn shook his head and said, "Please, call me Quinn."


    Daphne cleared her throat and frowned towards Quinn, "Would you let go of my mother''s hand, already."


    Quinn looked at his own hands and saw that he was still holding Sophie''s hands and let go of her hand, "My apologies." He felt a heat of embarrassment rush to his cheeks but shook it off without any dy and asked, "May I know your name, mydy?"


    "My name is Sophie Greengrass from the house of Greengrass," she replied with a beautiful smile on her face and offered a question of her own, "By any chance, are you rted to George West."


    Quinn straightened up at that question and nodded with a modest smile on his face, "Yes, Mrs. Greengrass, I am Quinn West, grandson of George West. It is a pleasure to meet you."


    "Quinn, I must ask; I have never seen you before. Usually, it is your grandfather, or sometimes your sister, but it is the first time I have seen you."


    "Indeed, it is my first time at one of these events. I must say just meeting you have madeing to this ball worth it," Quinn didn''t know why, but he wasying it on thick.


    Sophie once again chuckled at the ttering words before turning to Daphne, "I have interrupted enough; I will leave you two alone." She needed to tell her husband about George West''s other grandchild and how apparently he was friends with their daughter.


    She nodded towards Quinn, who waved her goodbye and sighed with a smile on his face. He turned to Daphne and said, "Now, where were we?"


    Daphne just red at Quinn and walked away, and Quinn followed after her while saying, "Hey, what did I do? Greengrass? Greengrass?!"


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Dressed Up - Smitten at first sight.


    George West - Grandfather - Manners Maketh Man.


    Cornelius Fudge - Minister - Master boot licker.


    Daphne Greengrass - Greengrass Family - Currently Cross with Quinn.


    Sophie Greengrass - Greengrass Family - Perfect example of Beauty and Brains.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 34 - Malfoys, And Dancing

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    It took a while before Quinn could make Daphne talk to him again. Quinn felt embarrassed because of his reaction towards Daphne''s mother, Sophie Greengrass, and apologized to Daphne for them.


    ''But, she is absolutely gorgeous,'' he thought but didn''t say it out loud in the fear that the only person he could talk to at the ball would not speak to him again.


    "So, Daphne, tell me about Slytherinmon room; I want to know the difference between all four houses''mon room; if you tell me, I will tell you about the Ravenwmon room, " asked Quinn, hoping to break the ice and keep the conversation going.


    Daphne took a moment topose her words before saying, "Ourmon room is a dungeon-like room with greenishmps and chairs. The dungeon extends partway under theke, giving the light in the room a green tinge."


    Quinn stopped her and asked with wide eyes, "You are saying that the Slytherinmon room had windows that show an underwater scene?" It fascinated for him to hear about such architectural design in Slytherin''smon room.


    Daphne lightly nodded and added, "The water near the windows is never murky, allowing a lot of light to pass through, and because of theke, the color of the light is a really bewitching green. Themon room has lots of low-backed ck and dark green button-tufted, leather sofas; and dark wood cupboards. It is decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous Medieval Slytherins. It has quite a grand atmosphere, albeit quite a cold one."


    "Have you seen the giant squid from themon room windows?" he asked, genuinely excited about the scenery. Daphne looked at him, her eyes shining, "Yes, I have seen the tentacles of the giant squid, often they would pass by the windows, and the sound of swishing water created is quite rxing, especially at night."


    She looked at Quinn and asked, "Your turn." Quinn smiled and revealed, "Hmm... Ravenwmon room has an exclusive library that is furnished by Professor Flitwick; he makes sure that they are relevant to the current topics in the ss and quite a few interesting reads outside of the ssroom material."


    "That sounds like a significant advantage to the Ravenw students," said Daphne, showing a glimpse of herpetitive side.


    Quinn shrugged and countered, "Professor Snape gives private Potion and Defense Against Dark Arts lessons to Slytherin students; that is also a significant advantage. I have heard that a lot of Slytherin students perform well in exam practicals."


    "How did you know that? We aren''t allowed to reveal that to anyone outside the house," Daphne asked with suspicion evident in her turquoise-blue eyes.


    Quinn scoffed, "Not all Slytherin are secretive. Some of your housemates can be quite braggy when they think no one is listening." When Daphne quirked her brow, Quinn winked mischievously.


    Quinn looked at Daphne and said, "My grandfather said to show up to see him once in a while. How about we go see him? You seemed interested in meeting him."


    Daphne nodded, thinking about when her mother asked Quinn if he was rted to George West.


    "Excellent, let''s see... where is he?" Quinn looked around the hall, spotted a small group, and saw his grandfather standing tall among the people. "There is he, let''s go."


    - (Scene Break) -


    George West was mingling with other people at the ball, listening to their offers of so-called once-in-a-lifetime business opportunities with one ear and zoning out their actually third-rate business ns with another ear.


    "Grandfather," he heard the familiar voice of his grandson and turned back to see Quinn walking towards him. It greatly surprised George to see Quinn walking with a girl.


    "Grandfather, let me introduce," Quinn gestured towards the girl with him and continued, "Daphne Greengrass, a... friend of mine from Hogwarts."


    Quinn turned to Daphne and repeated, "This is my grandfather, George West."


    ''A Greengrass, huh,'' thought George as he smiled towards the girl and said, "Happy Yuletide, littledy." After greeting her, he asked, "Are you rted to Jacob Greengrass?"


    Daphne Greengrass nodded while courtesying, "Yes, I am Jacob Greengrass''s daughter."


    Speaking of the devil, Jacob Greengrass appeared with Sophie Greengrass just as Daphne finished introduced herself.


    "A happy Yuletide to you, Mr. West." said the man as he strolled to the group with a smile on his face. Jacob Greengrass was a tall man with ck hair and blue eyes; he had traditional aristocratic features with an angr face and a strong jawline.


    Quinn observed the man named Jacob Greengrass and noticed, ''His legs are aligned with his shoulders... five inches apart, weight is distributed equally, and his whole body is projected as a straight line. Standard bodynguage for confidence.''


    Jacob had a ss in one hand, and his other arm was looped with his wife''s arm. Quinn moved his eyes to look at the Greengrass couple as a whole and sawfortable chemistry between the two, none of the pair overshadowing each other.


    ''Yeah, this guy is set.'' thought Quinn as he concluded studying Jacob Greengrass.


    George greeted the man with a firm handshake, "Jacob." Jacob freed his arm from his wife''s and shook it back. George looked at Sophie and smiled while kissing her knuckles, "Sophie."


    He looked at the pair greeted them together, "A Prosperous Yuletide to you as well."


    "Did you meet my eldest daughter?" said Jacob while ncing at Daphne with a warm smile.


    George nodded in response, "Yes, my grandson introduced me to her." He patted Quinn''s shoulder.


    Quinn stepped forward and shook hands with Jacob Greengrass, "Happy Yuletide, Mr. Greengrass. My name is Quinn West." He turned to Sophie Greengrass and smiled, "We meet again, Mrs. Greengrass."


    "So, I hear you study at Hogwarts. How are you finding studying?" said Jacob as he observed Quinn.


    "Yes, sir. I am a second-year student, Ravenw. As for studying, it is quite exciting to learn magic every day. The teachers are talented and helpful... well, most of them are." When Quinn said that, Daphne almost snorted, thinking about the droning Binns and stuttering Quirrell.


    "Good, good, Sophie was a Ravenw when she was studying at Hogwarts, and I was a Slytherin," said Jacob as he looked at his wife.


    Quinn nodded, and a stray thought passed his mind, ''Beauty and Brains...'' he thought about Sophie and then mentally shook his head, ''Focus, Quinn!'' Though he did brightly smile towards Sophie when he heard she was a Ravenw.


    Jacob nced at Daphne before asking, "How did you get to meet my daughter?"


    Quinn smiled while recalling the train ride to Hogwarts, "I met her during the train ride to Hogwarts. She and Tracey Davis came to mypartment looking for a space to sit." His interactions that day made him chuckle, "It was quite the fun train ride."


    - (Scene Break) -


    After talking for a while, Quinn and Daphne decided to leave the adults and talk amongst themselves, but just a minute after leaving the adults, they heard,


    "Greengrass, fancy meeting you here."


    Both of them turned back to see a slender boy with sleek tinum-blond hair that were slicked back tightly. He had cold-grey eyes, a paleplexion, and rather sharp and pointed features.


    When Quinn saw the boy, a smile appeared on his face while Daphne sighed in exasperation.


    "Mr. Malfoy, indeed, it is quite a fancy meeting you here," said Quinn as he grinned at Draco. Looking at the smiling Quinn made Daphne calm down and made Draco frown.


    "You!" Draco immediately recognized Quinn and was shocked to see him here. "What are you doing here?"


    Quinn looked around the hall before answering, "You know, attending the ball, enjoying some delicacies, what people do at balls..."


    "I mean, what are you doing at the ministry ball!" Draco''s eyes narrowed, "Who would invite someone like you!"


    Quinn shrugged, "It is the ministry ball, so I guess the ministry... why where did you get your invitation. Mr. Malfoy, you might not like to hear this but, if you got your invitation from somewhere else, it might not be valid. It could get you into trouble." By the end, Quinn had a look of fake worry on his face. He thoroughly enjoyed Draco''s red face.


    "Greengrass, why would you like to hang with someone like him. He has no respect for his betters," asked Draco, not answering Quinn''s retort.


    "Better him than you," was all she said in response. Hearing that, Quinn voiced his discontent, "Hey... that makes it sound as I am on the same level as him. Not cool, and I bought you a drink."


    Daphne said nothing in response, and Quinn crossed his arms in mock-anger.


    Seeing the two ignore him, Draco stomped in rage and stormed off.


    Quinn looked back towards Draco, not hearing him, but didn''t see him in front of them. "Where did he go? I didn''t get to wish him a happy Yuletide."


    "He left when you were being dramatic," Daphne replied. Quinn quirked his brow, "Dramatic? You hurt me, Greengrass. I am not dramatic; I just have a colorful personality."


    "Right..."


    "There is he, father." Quinn turned to see Draco dragging Lucius Malfoy with him.


    ''Draco, what are you doing, man. You are really hurting my impression of you.'' was Quinn''s thoughts before Draco and Lucius Malfoy arrived near him.


    "So, you are the one who is insulting him," sneered Lucius as he looked down at Quinn. Quinn looked confused, "You seem to be misinformed; I said nothing of sorts to your son."


    "He lies; he made fun of me at the Hogwarts Express and just before," screamed Draco as he pointed at Quinn.


    Lucius looked at Quinn and noticed that the child was just smiling, not looking nervous at all. So, he decided to inform the ignorant child who he was dealing with.


    "Child, what is your name, and where are your parents? Call them so I can have a talk with them and teach them how to raise a child," sneered Lucius.


    Quinn nodded and replied, "Okay, wait a moment. I will bring my parents." Then Quinn ran off to follow Lucius'' orders.


    Draco sneered and announced, "He will finally get what wasing for him."


    After a minute, Quinn back and called out to Lucius, "I brought him."


    Lucius smirked as he thought about ripping into some chump, but when he turned back, Lucius froze. The person he saw shocked him out of his mind.


    "What is this I hear, Lucius. You are taking part in children''s squabble," said George West as he stared at Lucius with a seemingly bored expression.


    Lucius stared wordlessly at one of the people he feared. If Lucius Malfoy considered Jacob Greengrass his rival, then George West was another level than him. George West was a sleeping threat to his political and financial authority in Britain.


    When he was young, his father, Abraxas Malfoy, had told him that when it came to money, West family outssed every other family in Britain, including the cks, when they were at their highest point. He had told Lucius that, unlike the other British families, the West family business spanned across continents; If they deployed all their resources, they could take over magical Britain''s economy.


    After that, Lucius Malfoy had firsthand seen George West''s viciousness in business. George West had left the country before the war got worse. When it ended, there were opportunities to make money, and Lucius wanted to use this chance to recover the wealth he had lost in the war. But by the time he was done with his trials at the ministry, George West had nonchntly returned to Britain and took advantage of the aftermath of the war before Lucius could even start. Even Jacob Greengrass had difficultypeting for resources, even though Greengrass was the first to start.


    "Mr. West, I heard you were at the ball. But, why are you following this child?" asked Lucius, praying that it won''t be what he was thinking; s, it was the thing he was fearing.


    "This is my grandson, Quinn West. You asked for him to get his parents, so I came, now what is it you wanted to talk about," said George.


    Lucius looked down towards Quinn and saw the striking simrities between him and George West; both had ck hair and stone-grey eyes.


    "I didn''t know you were his grandfather," said Lucius, not knowing what to say next.


    "Now you know, so what is it you want to talk about," asked George.


    Lucius cursed his luck that bought him face to face against this man, "It is nothing, I just wanted to solve this children''s fight peacefully. You know how children can take things too far."


    "I see, then I proim this squabble over," said George and turned to Quinn. "Quinn, behave and get along with others," but he didn''t sound serious at all.


    "Come now, Lucius, apany me for a drink. Let''s talk business. I have been doing some stuff you would absolutely love to hear about," said George with a smile that didn''t fit well with Lucius at all.


    Quinn watched as the two adults walked away, and Lucius was not looking enthusiastic at all. He turned to face Draco and said, "Ah, Mr. Malfoy, I missed the chance, but I wish you a happy Yuletide."


    Malfoy looked awkward, standing in front of Quinn and Daphne, not knowing what to do. He had called his father to take care of Quinn, but somehow his father had been taken away by another man with his father not being able to refuse.


    Listening to Quinn wish him a happy Yuletide was all the ''humiliation'' he could take for the day and stomped away.


    Daphne turned to Quinn and asked, "Do you dislike Malfoy?"


    Quinn shook his head, answering, "Not at all. It takes a lot more than that to make me dislike someone. Maybe a couple more years of this on a regr basis would be enough for me to develop a dislike for him. I don''t even consider him an annoyance at this point." Quinn cared little for Draco''s attitude and found it not worth his time to care for his silly, spoiled behavior.


    He turned to Daphne and asked, "Do you want to dance?"


    Daphne stood still and blinked a couple of times, "Why?"


    "I have been learning to dance for so many years; it would be a waste not to make use of it," said Quinn while shrugging.


    The blonde stared at Quinn for a while before nodding. Quinn smiled and extended his hand to Daphne, who took it and let Quinn lead her onto the floor.


    On the floor, both Quinn and Daphne straightened their backs and stepped closer to each other. Quinn took Daphne''s raised right hand in his raised left hand, and Quinn ced his right on her shoulder de while she put her left on his shoulder. Daphne shifted a smidge to her left such that she would be on Quinn''s right, so their legs move between each other and knees don''t hit.


    When they were set, Quinn took the lead, and both began dancing, with Quinn pleasantly smiling as he made conversation, "Any ns for the vacations?"


    "Spend some time with my sister; she felt down when I left for Hogwarts and was quite excited when I returned home for the break," said Daphne, a soft look in her usually sharp eyes.


    She looked at Quinn, expecting him to answer his own question.


    "Hmm... I will probably remain at home for the break, doing nothing interesting. Oh, yeah, I am going to learn how to make clothes."


    Daphne tipped her head to the side, "You mean sewing?"


    Quinn nodded enthusiastically, "Kind of; I found a book list on tailoring charms and how to make all kinds of clothes from different fabrics like cotton, wool, even leather. I skimmed through it, and the books also show how to weave various charms into threads or clothes," he remembered how Madam Malkin''s shop had prepared his clothes in such a short time. Even the robes he was wearing today were made within hours.


    "I am most excited to work on the leather of different animals and beasts. Oh, goody!" Quinn finished with a twinkle in his eyes.


    "You are weird," was all Daphne said in reply. She alsoplimented him, "You are a good dancer."


    Quinn smiled, "Only because you are making leading so easy." Complimenting her in an offhand way.


    - (Scene Break) -


    "Look dear, Daphne is dancing," said Sophie Greengrass, getting the attention of her husband.


    Jacob Greengrass turned his head to see his eldest daughter dancing on the floor, "With the West boy," he looked closer and added, "And, she is talking with him."


    Sophie rested a hand on her cheek andmented, "They look cute, maybe, I should ask the person with the camera to snap some photos."


    Jacob hummed, not liking the idea at all. His eyes narrowing as he watched the West boy chuckle, and even though his daughter wasn''t, he could tell that she was enjoying herself.


    Jacob nced towards George West, who was talking with a clearly ufortable-looking Lucius Malfoy. He turned back to look at the dancing pair.


    Sophie Greengrass looped her arm around her husband''s arm and asked, "Would you like to dance?"


    Jacob looked at his wife, smiling, "Of course, mydy. I would love to have this dance with you." He took her hand and guided her to the floor.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Want to make himself a whip, "Heeyah!"


    Daphne Greengrass - Dance Partner - Currently enjoying dancing.


    Draco Malfoy - Red-faced and angry. - Sulking in a corner.


    Lucius Malfoy - Clearly ufortable - Not enjoying the ball.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 35 - Entrance Of The Vault, Icy Corridor, And The Disaster

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The break ended, and the Hogwarts student poption returned to the castle via the Hogwarts Express. A snowy Hogwarts castle greeted them, with its entirety covered in ice and snow because of the January snowfall. Even in the cold, the castle looked majestic and full of life.


    Quinn passed by themon room when he noticed Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein sitting in front of a foxglove herb sitting in a jar. Anthony had the ss jar in his hand, his other hand on the lid, unscrewing it.


    Quinn frowned and immediately whipped out his fake-wand and shot a light Pinching hex on Anthony''s hand that was unscrewing the lid.


    "Ouch," squealed Anthony as he rubbed the back of his hand on his robes. Both of them turned to the offender and watched Quinn walk towards them.


    "What was that for?" asked Anthony as he frowned at Quinn.


    Quinn pointed at the foxglove jar, "That herb is poisonous. You would definitely have gone to the Hospital Wing if you had picked it with bare hands. It can lead to death, and if Professor Snape found out, he would make your life miserable in the potions lesson," He waved his fake wand, and the ss jar floated from Anthony''s hands back to the table.


    "Just a piece of advice, when handling potion ingredients or tending to herbs in herbology, always," Quinn repeated, "... always, wear gloves. It is much safer and is an excellent work habit."


    Quinn sat down near them, took out a pair of leather gloves from his robes, and put them on. Micheal''s brow twitched; he looked towards Quinn''s face and asked, "You keep gloves in your robes?"


    Quinn nodded, picking up the ss jar, looking at the foxglove, "I have all sorts of things in my robes; gloves is just one of those things." He looked at Anthony and questioned, "What are you brewing with a foxglove?"


    Micheal took out the first-year potions book from his bookbag and showed it to Quinn.


    "We are preparing for the Pompion Potion that Professor Snape is going to teach in our next potions ss."


    Quinn nced at the chapter for the Pompion Potion and smiled as he recalled its effects. "Ah, the potion that turns the drinker''s head into a pumpkin. This was a good one," chuckled Quinn. Last year, he had used the potion on himself to scare many unsuspecting Ravenw''s as they entered themon room on Halloween. It scared the crap out of them to see a pumpkin head charge towards them.


    Anthony nodded but frowned in criticism, "Why didn''t they teach us this before Halloween? It would have been perfect for Halloween."


    "They teach it after Halloween because the staff doesn''t want hordes of students with pumpkin heads on Halloween, though it would be quite fun to orchestrate such a scene," said Quinn, flipping through the pages of the book. He had learned to brew this potion when he was eight with Elliot at the West Manor.


    "Why do they even this type of potion," asked Micheal, not seeing the practical use of the spell.


    "Turning a person''s head into a pumpkin sure isn''t practical, but the reason it is taught because it is one of the simpler transfiguration potions. Pompion Potion is the best way to introduce this line of potions to students," exined Quinn as he returned the book to Micheal.


    If Pompion Potion was on the simple end of the transfiguration potion difficulty scale, then Polyjuice Potion was on the hard end of the Transfiguration potions.


    "Hmm... okay, keep this in mind," Quinn waved his wand, and a transfigured replica of foxglove appeared on the table. He took out a knife from his robes and removed the cover from the de.


    "You would want to slice the foxglove at a diagonal angle, like this." Quinn showed the type of cut on the transfigured foxglove. "This way, you would get maximum surface area on the slices. It is an important part of the recipe for Pompion Potion."


    They did not specify the instruction to slice foxglove in the recipe from the Hogwarts book. Quinn had researched foxglove and its properties, the Pompion Potion, and why was foxglove used in the potion. From all these things, Quinn was able to discover the ideal cut for the foxglove.


    "Something as simple as a specific way to cut a single ingredient can change how the potion would end up at the end. Always research the ingredients before you brew," advised Quinn as he cleaned his knife before sheathing it back into the covers and storing his things back into his robes.


    "Remember it or note it down before I vanish it," said Quinn to the two first years. The two scrambled, fishing out their parchments to write everything Quinn had told them.


    Quinn vanished the transfigured foxglove and said while getting up, "Always remember to wear gloves while handling herbs and potion ingredients. Now, see you guyster."


    Anthony and Micheal looked at each other before taking out their gloves from their bookbags, wearing them so that they could get a hand on the real foxglove.


    - (Scene Break) -


    After curfew, Quinn searched the corridors of the fifth-floor, looking for the first vault. He had scoured the fourth and fifth floor with the bare eye but had found nothing out of the ordinary, but after returning from the Christmas break, he had switched his means of investigating by using various detection magics.


    Wisps of magic emanated from Quinn towards all walls, floors, and the ceiling. Quinn was walking around, checking his surroundings for illusions, hollow walls, trap doors, heat signatures, out-of-ce charms nted into the walls, or any parameter that Quinn could think about and find in books on detection magic.


    Quinn walked with his eyes on Recon, checking and making sure that he wasn''t seen. When he reached the left-most corridor on the fifth floor, various detection spells returned positive feedback from a specific square piece of wall.


    "What do we have here?" said Quinn as he stepped back from the wall, shooting another wave of detection spells on the wall and once again getting positive feedback.


    "Great, this is great," said Quinn, walking to the wall and putting his hand on it, funneling magic into the wall, trying distinct patterns and arrangements to get some kind of reaction.


    After trying various methods, the wall gave no reaction whatsoever. It didn''t budge, shift, morph, or outright disappear.


    "This is the wall. It has to be," said Quinn, summoning Recon and shifting it to his current position. He ced his finger on the wall''s position on Recon, marking it so that Quinn could easily find his way to this area of the fifth floor.


    "I need to find a way to unlock this wall," muttered Quinn, staring at the unassuming wall. It had no distinct features than the surrounding walls, but Quinn could feel the variety of charms ced into the bricks making up the wall.


    After observing the wall for another half an hour, Quinn moved away from the wall. He was thoroughly determined to do some research work to find what the charmed wall was hiding.


    - (Scene Break) -


    "Test #1: Projecting magic in the pattern of {mannaz} alphabet. Alphabet meaning: Man," announced Quinn as a charmed pen that did the same work as a dictation pen, wrote notes for Quinn.


    With his hand on the wall, Quinn sent his magic into the wall. Tracing the pre-decided pattern. A pattern appeared on the wall in the shape of the {mannaz} alphabet.


    The wall glowed once, but the glow died down, and the wall showed no sign of change.


    Quinn cracked his knuckles and announced to his dicta-pen.


    "Test #2: Projecting magic in the pattern of {mannaz} alphabet. Alphabet meaning: Man. Applied in a triangle configuration."


    This time three {mannaz} alphabets glowed on the wall, and when they fully formed, three faint lines of magic joined them to each other. The wall glowed up and died down, but Quinn saw no difference in the wall.


    "Test #3: Projecting magic in the pattern of {mannaz} alphabet. Alphabet meaning: Man. Applied in a pentagon configuration."


    .


    .


    .


    "Test #83: Projecting magic in the pattern of {gyfu} alphabet. Alphabet meaning: Gift. Applied in an off-side double star configuration."


    .


    .


    .


    "Test #346: Projecting magic in the pattern of {feoh}, {eoel}, and {entrok} alphabets. Alphabet meanings: Castle, estate, entrance. Applied in a linear configuration."


    .


    .


    .


    "Test #421: Projecting magic in the pattern of {isa}, and {logr} alphabets. Alphabet meanings: Ice and sea. Applied in an ovepping configuration."


    .


    .


    .


    "Test #613: Projecting magic in the pattern of {feir}, {agni}, {wirl}, and {oen} alphabets. Alphabet meanings: Fire, fire, wall, and open. Applied in a diamond configuration."


    .


    .


    .


    After two months of running tests on the bloody piece of wall that refused to budge, Quinn finally got a hit.


    "Test # 713: Projecting magic in the pattern of {isa}, {isaz}, {Yr}, and {is} alphabets. Alphabet meanings: Ice, Ice, Death, and Ice. Applied in a dual-branch (Y) configuration."


    Quinn''s one hand was on the wall while he was holding his notes in his other hand. Quinn wasn''t expecting the wall to open and read the next configuration from his one thousand pattern list.


    But, his eyes widen when the patterns he was funneling magic in glowed, glowed brighter than ever in his two-month-long trials. Quinn stepped back a step, looking with wide eyes as he saw the bricks vibrate and came to a sudden stop.


    Line-by-line, the bricks moved aside, leaving a square entrance in the wall he had spent hours in front of.


    "Merlin, Morgana, Solomon, Circe...! The stupid wall opened up. Take that you unresponsive, dumb, freaking mad piece of brick," shouted Quinn as he collected his notes, storing them into his bookbag. Quinn vanished the barstool he was sitting on and gleefully yet carefully entered the entrance in the wall.


    Quinn stepped into the opening and felt that he passed through a membrane. The moment he stepped past the membrane, a freezing cold suddenly appeared, lowering the surrounding temperature drastically.


    "W-Woah, Friar w-wasn''t j-oki-ng when he said a v-vault so co-o-o-ld that even d-death might die," said Quinn as his teeth rattled because of the cold.


    The charms in his clothes did absolutely nothing to shield Quinn from the biting cold as he walked deeper into the new corridor. Within a few steps, there was a thinyer of ice on the walls, and Quinn''s breath became visible.


    Quinn could barely get by; he had to ramp the heat around him with magic so that he could function normally in the freezing cold. Even then, he still felt cold because he couldn''t turn the heat up anymore in fear of burning his clothes.


    Slowly, the ice got thicker, and the surrounding turned icy-blue because of the thick casings of ice everywhere.


    After a short walk, Quinn finally reached a pure icy-blue corner of the corridor. The height and width of the corridor increased to open into an enormous gate. A gate made of pure ice, and in front of the gate waszily spinning snowke-shaped icicle. The snowke was huge, big enough to cover the enormous gate.


    Quinn climbed down the stairs that lead to therger end of the corridor, but the moment Quinn climbed down thest step, the cold, which he thought was already freezing, turned into a cold so frigid, so bone-biting that Quinn''s body immediately began showing signs of hypothermia.


    Quinn looked down to see his fingers slowly turning blue, freezing over. Ice began covering his hair, quickly freezing them. Quinn''s heartbeat began to slow down, and his eyesight started to turn dim. And, these were the things that Quinn could feel. There were a lot more symptoms that Quinn wasn''t even aware of.


    Quinn''s survival instincts started to go crazy as his entire being screamed at him to leave this ce. It took all of Quinn''s focus and the entirety of his magic capabilities to push himself back up the stairs and escape the freezing cold.


    The moment the cold reduced, Quinn copsed on the floor. The surrounding temperature felt like heavenpared to the frigid hell down the steps.


    Quinn''s body started to glow a bright red as his magic began to show itself in this time of need. Quinn''s magic began operating on its own, working to keep him alive. Raising the temperature of his body, preventing him from going into shock. His magic was responding to his will and wish to live, a special brand of idental magic. All Quinn could do was to make sure he was awake and not unconscious, giving his magic a fair chance to fight for survival.


    And, that was what he did, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes as his pale bodyid on the floor, waiting and wishing for his magic to make it so that he could live past this disaster.


    The red light formed a cacoon around Quinn,pletely covering him in its light.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn didn''t know how much time had passed, but the red cacoon of light subsided, and he was finally in a condition to eventually able to stand up. His legs felt like lead and jelly at the same time. Quinn slowly dragged his weak and dead pale body out of the Icy corridor to the fifth-floor corridor. He was so out of it that he didn''t even notice the wall close behind him.


    Currently, Quinn only had one objective, and that was to haul himself to the Hospital Wing. Slowly but surely, Quinn made his way from the fifth floor to the first floor where the Hospital Wing was located. Quinn had to be extra careful at the grand staircase, so the journey was excruciatingly long. Quinn almost fainted several times along the way.


    Quinn entered the Hospital Wing and plopped himself on one of the beds. The room was dim, with scare lighting from the few candles and moonlight. The time was already past midnight, and the room was dead silent. He dazedly looked around the room to see if there was anyone here but couldn''t find a patient or the Matron.


    Quinn wasn''t even sure how to call for the Matron, Madam Poppy Pomfrey. He had been to the Hospital Wing, but he never interacted with the medi-witch who ran this whole operation. He didn''t have the magic or mental faculties to heal himself from this, so she was his only choice.


    Quinn wheezed in pain and fatigue; it was getting difficult for him to stay awake. The moment he had stood up in the Icy corridor, his magic was back in his control, no longer working on its own. So, Quinn had consciously maintained his body temperature throughout his journey and barely had any magic left in him; the idental magic had taken a lot out of him, leaving him peanuts to work with.


    Eventually, Quinn ran out of magic and sank into unconsciousness. With thest drop of magic exhausted, Quinn fell unconscious, saying goodbye to the conscious world.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn groggily woke up to see the Hospital Wing ceiling he had fallen unconscious tost night. Unlikest night, Quinn felt warm and cozy and not the freezing and frigid cold ofst night.


    Quinn could see the daylighting from the windows, illuminating the room. He had slept through the night. He could feel a bed cover on his body, which meant that Madame Pomfrey had found him and had at least started his treatment.


    He tried to get up but felt a body-wide pain erupt from every corner.


    "Aaaaaaah!" he yelled in pain as he copsed back on the bed. The pain came from his bones, skin, organs, head, and everywhere Quinn could imagine.


    "Oh, Morgana! You are awake, Mr. West," said a voice, moving closer to him.


    Quinn slowly turned his neck, not wanting the pain to assault him again, to see Madame Pomfrey, dressed in her usual medi-witch uniform, standing by his bedside, casting charms all over his body. Various spell lights made contact with his body, telling Madame Pomfrey the current status of his health.


    "Should I set my affairs in order, Madam Pomfrey..." said Quinn in a crackling, barely audible voice. He tried to crack a joke, but his voice turned it into a morbid statement.


    "Mr. West, what in the world happenedst night! I found you with severe ice burns, frostbite, damaged organs, brittle bones, and, and...." she couldn''tplete her list thinking about the severity of Quinn''s condition.


    "I found you after I woke up this morning, and imagine my shock to see you battered, pale, lying on one of my beds,pletely unconscious," she said as she applied balms and creams on his body, causing Quinn to hiss in pain. He clutched his fist to endure the pain, and even that bought him more pain.


    Quinn looked at Madame Pomfrey and asked, "Dear Matron, can you give me something for pain... I can''t even move my finger without harsh p-pain. I will p-pray to you every day if you just f-fix me up with s-s-something." His voice was still raspy and barely a whisper. The jokes were just Quinn''s way to distract himself from the pain.


    Poppy Pomfrey frowned, "Mr. West, if you can still joke around, then maybe you don''t need to something for pain." She ignored his repeated hisses due to pain and continued to apply ointments on his body.


    Quinn wanted to cry and couldn''t do anything but stare at the ceiling, thinking aboutst night.


    ''I got too excited about opening the vault and rushed in blindly,'' thought Quinn. He knew the warnings from Friar''s words and riddles but neglected them because of foolish emotions. Quinn felt that Fiddle''s riddle was easy, and it was for a reason. The cold in the vault was too much for Quinn''s body or magic to handle; it was pure luck that Quinn was able to push himself up the stairs to exit the killing cold.


    ''A vault so cold that even death might die,'' repeated Quinn in his mind, thinking how true that statement had turned out to be.


    "What led to this, Mr. West," asked Pomfrey, her voice showing that she didn''t want any nonsense. Quinn''s condition was gravely serious when she found him this morning.


    "I fell into a size-F cauldron full of freezing potion," was the answer Quinn gave. Quinn just made up an answer that would lead Quinn to his current condition.


    "You fell into a cauldron of the freezing potion?" asked Pomfrey, incredulously.


    Quinn nodded weakly.


    "Why were you brewing a freezing potion in March?!"


    Quinn sighed, and even that hurt a little bit, causing him to cough, which in turn a little more. "I am Ravenw... I saw the recipe, had the urge to brew it... so I did... Madam Pomfrey, it might surprise you to h-hear that we can be quite stupid."


    Madam Pomfrey stared at Quinn and interrogated, "Mr. West, a cauldron full of freezing potion won''t cause this level of harm. Your injuries are much too severe."


    Quinn called on his confidence and scoffed, "It will if I am the one brewing the potion. Matron, heal me back to normal, and I will brew you top-grade potions. Murp Essence, Calming Draught, Sleeping Draught, Poison Antidotes, Blood-Replenishing Potion, Pepper-up Potion, Cure For Boils, or any healing-grade potions you like for an entire school year." By the time Quinn was done speaking, his throat was burning with agony.


    Madam Pomfrey sighed in annoyance, thinking about the stupidity of the students. She had gotten numb at the student''s bumbling action that bought them to her doors.


    She sighed once more and informed, "Wait here, I will inform Professor Flitwick. He asked me to inform him when you wake up."


    Quinn gave a light nod and waited for his head of the house toe and tear him a new one. The half-goblin had clearly inherited the fierce traits from his lineage, and Quinn didn''t want to face that in his current condition.


    Quinn just hoped that Flitwick would go easy on him.


    "MR. QUINN WEST!" Quinn heard the bellowing voice from his Charms Professor.


    ''Of course not,'' sighed Quinn as he got ready to face the music.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Almost turned into a White Walker.


    Icy Corridor - Cursed Vault - A vault so cold that even death might die.


    Poppy Pomfrey - Matron/Medi-witch - Children are inherently stupid.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis.

 Chapter 36 - Recovery, Plan, And Rage

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The stone-grey eyed boy sat on a Hospital Wing bed, with his feet stretched straight and his back leaning against the headboard. He was reading a book on cold-rted injuries and mdies.


    Quinn had borrowed the book from Madam Pomfrey. She had given it to him because Quinn was bored and was disturbing her by trying to talk to her.


    Just in front of Quinn''s torsoid a bed table with multitudes of notes and papers on cold-rted dangers that Quinn had read in the medical book he was given. If he was going to enter the vault, he needed to know the dangers. Reading upon the medical viewpoint was an excellent ce to start as any.


    "Hmm... I have to worry about hypothermia, frostnip, chilins, immersion foot, and frostbite." Extreme climatic conditions didn''t suit the human body. The low temperature could do severe damage to the human body.


    "Oh, there are more... psychiatric and psychosocial disorders, snow blindness, dehydration,... and constipation?" Quinn heaved a heavy sigh as he picked up another sheet of paper and found the most worrying thing he had discovered while researching.


    "Prolonged stay in the extreme frigid cold can cause the magical activity in the body to be sluggish and hindered because of the effect cold can have on the body."


    Quinn''s primary asset was magic, and if the extreme coldness in the Icy corridor could hinder his magical capabilities, then Quinn was in big problem.


    "I need a way to keep my body warm in there, or else I am screwed," murmured Quinn. If he could keep his body from being affected by the cold, he could keep his magical prowess in there to work on getting to the gate and open it.


    Picking another paper, Quinn read the core problem he needed to deal with while in the Icy corridor.


    "Blood," whispered Quinn.


    Blood was the problem and solution to his survival in the vault. Blood was everywhere in the body; it was deep inside the bones, and it was present just under the skin. To keep his body at a proper temperature, Quinn needed to keep his blood warm so that it could flow throughout his body and keep it warm.


    When body temperature fell on exposure to cold, several protective mechanisms were recruited to generate additional heat. For example, the muscles produce additional heat through shivering. Peripheral vasoconstriction diverted blood flow to organs, such as the heart and brain. However, as less warm blood reaches the skin, body parts such as the fingers, toes, ears, and nose cool more rapidly. If body temperature fell much below a certain point, these protective mechanisms would stop working, and the body couldn''t rewarm itself.


    As tissue began to freeze, ice crystals were formed within the cells. Rubbing the frozen tissue would promote cell damage from these crystals, leading to more damage Quinn didn''t want.


    Additionally, as intracellr fluids freeze, extracellr fluid enters the cell, and there is an increase in the levels of extracellr salts due to water transfer. This caused damage even after exiting the frigid region as when the ice melts, there would be an influx of salts into the tissue, further damaging the cell membranes.


    Blood got its heat mainly from the energy given off by cellr metabolism, and the cold in the Icy corridor would slow all down the cellr metabolism throughout his body. The moment that happened, hypothermia would set in, and most of his organs, especially the heart and brain, would be sluggish and eventually stop working.


    ''Blood magic. I need to research upon blood magic,'' thought Quinn. Blood magic was ssified under Dark Arts, which meant that they did not teach it in Hogwarts. ''All of these problems could be subverted if I can keep an even flow of warm blood throughout my body.''


    ''I have some books on Blood magic from the travel collection, two that I bought after that, three medi-healing books,'' Quinn thought. Quinn tapped his chin and continued, ''There might be some in the restricted section in the library.''


    "I might have to search the Room Of Requirement for books on Blood magic," muttered Quinn as he charmed all the pages with dangerous material so that no one could read them.


    "Woa-ho! You have no hair." a voice bought Quinn out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Eddie and Marcus looking at him with big grins on their faces.


    "You have no eyebrows," said Marcus, moving closer to his bedside.


    Quinn grinned and tapped his fingers on his bald head, "Yeah... all of it was damaged beyond repair. Madam Pomfrey had to vanish all of it. It will grow back to their normal length in a day or two."


    Eddie lightly squinted his eyes andmented, "Your skin is peeling, looks mad creepy."


    Quinn nodded as he stroked his face, "Yup, that too was damaged, so she had to grow a newyer. The old one is going toe out slowly."


    "What else got damaged?" asked Marcus as he sat down.


    "A lot of my muscles, outer part of my bones, skin, my vocal cords, ears, and some of my organs," Quinn listed things off.


    "Wicked! Here you go," said Eddie, "This is the homework for this week." He handed Quinn a parchment roll with all homework topics listed on it.


    Quinn noticed Marcus staring at the bed table with a slight frown on his face.


    "What''s up, mate. Why the frown," asked Quinn.


    "How did you get all this stuff? You are the only person I have seen using muggle quill and parchment," asked Marcus, pointing at the paper on Quinn''s bed table.


    Quinn smirked, "I asked one of the house-elves to bring them to me." Quinn looked proud and continued, "It took praising them regrly, but now they sometimes respond if I call them. I asked them to bring my stuff here."


    Eddie sighed and asked, "How did you even see them. I haven''t seen a single one in all my time here."


    Quinn shrugged but didn''t reply. Quinn didn''t want to reveal that he regrly visited them at the kitchens and sometimes found house-elves while he was scouting through Recon and greeted them.


    Quinn didn''t dare the West family house-elf, Polly, because he didn''t want his grandfather to know about his current state. Calling Polly would be doing just that. Quinn was sure she would pop here at Hogwarts, take a single look at him, and then pop back to the Manor to inform his grandfather.


    "How long are you going to stay here," asked Eddie as he popped a grape from Quinn''s bedside stand.


    "Three to four more days, and I will be fully healed, back to my usual charming and remarkable self," replied Quinn as he put all his research material so that Marcus and Eddie won''t pick them up for a read.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "You are bald!" Quinn sighed as he looked up again to see the two familiar girls standing in front of his bed.


    "And, you have no brows! Oh, Merlin, you look mad hrious!" said the bubbly brte as she moved closer to him.


    Quinn smiled and greeted the two Slytherin girls, "Davis and Greengrass, what caused you two toe here in the Hospital Wing?"


    Tracey put her hand on Quinn''s bald head while speaking, "We wanted to see how you were doing." She gave his bald top a good rub, giggling all the time she did it.


    Quinn shook his head and said, "Thank you foring. I appreciate it." He looked at Daphne and said, "Greengrass, I haven''t seen you since the ball. How are you doing?"


    She nodded in return, but Tracey grinned as she danced her way back to Daphne''s side, "Oh, yes! The ministry ball where you two danced. A real pity that there weren''t any photos."


    Daphne rolled her eyes and simultaneously thought, ''Believe me, mother tried to have the photographer click some, but thankfully father prevented her.''


    A silly smile appeared on Quinn''s face as he recalled Sophie Greengrass from the ball, but then he felt Daphne''s re and cleared his throat and put on a mischievous expression, wiggling his hairless brows, "Oh, fates! To think it would embarrass the great Daphne Greengrass to be seen with someone like me."


    He turned to Tracey and asked, "Aren''t I pitiful." Giving his best pitiful expression.


    Tracey nodded rapidly, siding with Quinn. She turned to Daphne, giving her the same look.


    The blonde Slytherin looked at her best friend and at Quinn, showing the same expression. She looked at them as if asking if their expressions were supposed to do something.


    Quinn and Tracey deted and looked at each other.


    "Her defenses are quite impregnable," said Tracey.


    "We would have to develop a better attack strategy," replied Quinn


    Then both of them shook hands like they were lifelongrades on a journey towards truth.


    "Okay, stop this foolishness," said Daphne as she tapped on her wristwatch. "We need to go if we want to reach the ss on time."


    Quinn nodded to Tracey, who waved him goodbye. He turned to Daphne, who was looking at him.


    The blonde opened her mouth and addressed him for this first time, "Get well soon West."


    Quinn smiled and replied, "Thank you, Greengrass. I will."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ten days after the incident in the Icy corridor, Quinn was released from the Hospital Wing.


    He looked at Madam Pomfrey as he held her hands, "Matron, you came to me in time of need. Like a sole orb of brightness in a dark world. Like the relief in the world of anguish, you were there for me. You were there for me. I promise I won''t ever forget you and visit you every week. You will wait for me, right?" Quinn''s voice was gentle and his eyes warm.


    Pomfrey withdrew one of her hands from Quinn''s and pped him on the head that now had ck hair.


    "Why do you have to be so talkative when you aren''t reading?" she said with a sigh. "And, please don''te back here. I fear with you here, I won''t be able to concentrate with your continuous talking."


    Quinn rubbed his head and replied, "No, I already promised that I will visit you, so look forward to my visits. And, I promised you potions, so I have to take care of that." He put on an expression of seriousness and pride, his eyes looking far away, "I am a man of my word."


    She sighed and shooed him away, not wanting to argue with her patient for ten days.


    Quinn went to the Ravenwmon room, answered the eagle''s riddle on his first try, and entered the room. There, many students congratted him on his recovery.


    Quinn thanked them with a huge grin on his face but had to cut short the conversation because he was running a littlete and had to make his way to his ss.


    He picked his bookbag from his dorm, packed it for his needs, and ran to the Charms ssroom for his lesson with Professor Flitwick.


    Quinn was two minuteste when he reached the ssroom but opened the door without fear. Flitwick and students from Ravenw and Gryffindor all turned to look at him.


    "May Ie in, Professor," asked Quinn with a smile on his face.


    Flitwick jumped on his stack of books and chuckled, "Yes, Mr. West. Come in,e in. Take a seat. You look like you have fully recovered."


    Quinn nodded and replied as he took a seat, "Yes, sir. I am back to normal. Madam Pomfrey did an outstanding job."


    Flitwick nodded and proceeded with his lecture, "Now, where was I? Yes! We were talking about the Slowing charm. Does anyone know what is the use of the Slowing charm?"


    Quinn''s hand raised immediately at the speed of light.


    Flitwick pointed at Quinn, "Yes, Mr. West."


    "The Slowing Charm is a charm that could be used to slow the velocity of an object, and if performed with enough mastery, the spell can even cause the target topletely stop," answered Quinn.


    "Three points to Ravenw. Now, who would tell me the incantation for the Slowing charm."


    Quinn''s arm shot up once again, showing that he wanted to answer the question. When Flitwick gestured to Quinn, he exined, "The incantation for Slowing charm is Arresto Momentum."


    "Excellent, take another five points. Next, who would tell me the wand movement for the Slowing charm."


    Once again, Quinn''s arm shot up, prompting Flitwick to ask him.


    "The wand movement is in the shape of the alphabet {M} with sharp corners, and all the lines are nting," replied Quinn with no breaks in his voice.


    "Excellent, seven points to Ravenw," announced Flitwick, sounding extremely happy.


    Everybody looked at Quinn, wanting to know what was happening. Usually, Quinn would only answer when the teachers asked him to or wait till no one answered.


    Quinn looked at the ss and grinned, "I missed the sses. Wait for a day or two; it will pass." He winked and returned to raise his hand for another question.


    He kept the behavior for the entire day and answered every question in every ss. He was sure that he annoyed a lot of people for the day.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn opened the door to his A.I.D. office and entered it after whole ten days. There was some dust, but with a wave of his hand, the office became clean instantly.


    "Now, that is more like it," he smiled and then turned to the door in the ss partition that led to the workshop, but before entering, he checked the safety measures he installed every day before exiting the workshop.


    He first checked if the charms on the doors had been triggered. The result came out negative as the charms were still intact. Then Quinn crouched down to see if someone had ripped the strip of paper he pasted between the door and the frame, but the strip was still intact.


    Satisfied with his finding, Quinn opened the door, ripping the strip and triggering the charms, and entered his workshop. Once again, the room was cleaned the instant Quinn stepped into the shop.


    He walked around the shop, his hand gliding on the tables set up along the shop''s walls. He smiled at the various tools hanging off the walls, cabs, and cupboards holding notes and files on the work he had done here.


    Quinn looked up at the ceiling, and with a blink of his eyes, the evesting candles lit up, illuminating the shop in yellow light. He ced his hands on the center ind, looking around the shop.


    Quinn took out the cloth on which he built Recon and ced it on the table. He unfolded it and unshrunk it on the center ind. He put his hand on the cloth, funneled just a tiny bit of magic into the cloth, and said, "Sun is up, time to wake up."


    Quinn''s face scrunched up as he saw broken words and lines appeared on the cloth. The cold below the stairs in the Icy corridor had damaged the map.


    "Oh, buddy. The cold did a number on you, didn''t it," said Quinn as he checked on the damage within the rune clusters in theyers of the map.


    After a while, Quinn stood up straight and spread his hand. The next second, various cabs and cupboards opened up, and numerous vials and tools flew out and set themselves on the table.


    Quinn put on his gloves and spoke, "Let''s fix you up."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The same night, Quinn walked to the fifth-floor corridor with Recon floating in front of him. He was going to the entrance of the Icy corridor. Quinn wanted to see the Icy vault once more before starting his research on Blood magic.


    Upon reaching the wall, he funneled magic into the wall, and just like before, the bricks appeared from below the paint and started to shake before giving way to create a square opening.


    Quinn took a breath and stepped inside, immediately twitching uponing in contact with the cold. As he walked inside, the walls starting freezing over, and icy-blue ice covered the walls.


    Finally, Quinn reached the corridor''s opening, where the corridor opened up to the extreme cold zone with the vault gate visible just below the short steps. He didn''t climb down the steps, not wanting to experience the killing cold.


    Slowly Quinn''s expression turned furious, and he growled in rage as he shot the vilest and damaging magic he knew on the snowke icicle in front of the vault gate.


    The rage-fueled magic was the strongest Quinn had ever produced.


    "F**king vault! You almost killed me, you frozen piece of shit!" yelled the boy who had almost died here before. Quinn kept shooting magic blindly, not even stopping to check if it was working. Gradually, a mist filled the corridor, decreasing the visibility, but Quinn kept shooting spells with apanying slurs.


    He only stopped when Quinn felt exhausted from his magic expenditure. Quinn was quite angry at the incident that almost killed him, and even though it was his fault for being careless. But Quinn needed something to me, and he chose the Icy vault to take out his anger.


    Slowly, the mist lifted, and the gate and snowke icicle stood unscathed. Not a single scratch could be seen on any surface of ice around the vault.


    None of Quinn''s magic was able to damage the ice.


    "If I can''t break you open, then I would learn how to open you." Quinn pointed at the snowke icicle and the gate and decreed, "Just you wait, I will get to the thing that you are hiding and make it mine."


    Then he left without looking back at the vault.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - No hair and a whole lot of emotion.


    Madam Pomfrey - Matron/Medi-witch - Worries that Quinn woulde back every week, and she is right in her worries.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 37 - Blood Magic, And Successful Entry

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    In a small room with a sizeable wooden table, a single chair, and a single shelf bookcase hanging from the wall as decor, sat the sole resident of the room going through numerous books and tomes.


    The walls of the room were colored a dark red, giving it a unique look. If another person saw the room''s color, it would slightly disturb them as it resembled the color of blood. The resident didn''t seem to mind it as he was the one who gave the room its blood-red color.


    The single shelf bookcase on the wall waspletely empty as its contents were on the table; books and texts spread open haphazardly, ovepping each other, sitting side by side in a manner that made it difficult to track down a book. But, the resident of the room could see the order in the chaos as he was the one who set them in the seemingly random manner.


    The room was the Room Of Requirement, transformed into a room with knowledge on Blood magic, and the room gave a single table, chair, and small shelf with books rted to Blood magic. Every book from the room was branded with a sigil in the shape of a stylish script reading {RoR}, showing the books'' ownership belonged to the Room Of Requirements.


    The one who called for the room''s services and its sole resident was our very own Quinn West, who wanted to learn more about Blood magic. Blood magic was categorized as Dark magic in Britain and many other countries by their respective Ministries and, as such, banned from use.


    Quinn, of course, ignored all that. He was cautious and took all safety measures before practicing Blood magic that affected blood, a person''s lifeline.


    "Blood magic, also known as Blood Sorcery or Hemomancy or Haemomancy or Hematokinesis. The magic of blood maniption, a dangerous form of magic, this mystical theurgy is used to cast spells, enchantments, and even curses through blood itself, the very bodily fluid which is the potent force as the essence of life that keeps most living beings alive."


    "Well, currently, I don''t want to perform curses and spells with my blood as the medium," said Quinn as he rolled up the sleeve of his left hand.


    "I just need to maintain a certain temperature...," murmured Quinn, trailing at the end as he saw the veins and arteries in his forearm glow a shallow red before the red glow subsided, leaving his forearm warmer than the rest of his body.


    Quinn exhaled, feeling the warmth from the small amount of warm blood traveling up his arm, mixing with the rest of his blood, and within seconds his body temperature was back to normal, with no extra warmth remaining.


    Quinn opened his eyes and stared straight ahead, "I need to maintain this for the entire time I am around the Icy vault."


    Quinn put an arm on his heart, licking his lip in nervousness as when the time came, instead of his arms, he needed his heart to be the source of the Blood magic. His heart would pump the enchanted blood throughout his body, maintaining the temperature of his body, protecting him from the cruel nature of the death-cold.


    Quinn waved his hand, and the table moved away from him, setting itself against the wall. He stood up from his barstool, removed his robes, unfastened his necktie, and unbuttoned his shirt, leaving him with only a cotton vest.


    Quinn took a deep breath and opened and closed his hands before channeling his magic into his blood, targeting the blood in his forearms. The magic reacted, and his veins and arteries glowed in a shallow red.


    Quinn closed his eyes and took in deep breaths, carefully controlling the magic. Blood was an integral part of a human''s body, and any mistake would cause extensive damage to Quinn''s body. He didn''t want to go to the Hospital Wing and exin what he was doing with Blood magic, and he couldn''t even lie about the cause as the damage would be too obvious.


    "Slowly... slowly... slowly. Baby steps," repeated Quinn as he increased the target area of blood enchantment, extending the magic from the tips of his fingers up his forearm.


    By the end of the day, both his arms'' veins and arteries were illuminated in a shallow red glow.


    "Heh," Quinn smiled in fascination as he slowly moved his arms, raising them to his eye level, turning them to observe the visiblework of surface veins and deep-seated arteries.


    "Time to check if I can cast magic with Blood enchantments activated," said Quinn as he stretched his arm forward, palm facing up.


    With a crack and buzz, whitish-blue currents of lightning appeared throughout his forearm, crawling around his arm like snakes made from lightning.


    "Hmm~," voiced Quinn, satisfied with the result. If he touched someone, then they would be met with a jolt of electricity akin to a supercharged stun gun coursing through their body.


    With another breath, Quinn canceled the magic. The glow of the enchanted blood subsided, leaving a sweaty Quinn with his vest sticking to him.


    "Ugh," grunted Quinn as he pulled the vest off his torso and immediately casted magic to clean his body and insta-dry his clothes.


    "Much better," sighed Quinn.


    This wouldn''t happen in the Icy vault, but here in the Room Of Requirement, where the temperature wasn''t below freezing point, Quinn was sweating like crazy and was on his way to be dehydrated.


    "Maybe I should practice in the Icy corridor," considered Quinn as he put his clothes back on, ready to head out for the day. He gathered the books he had bought from his own collection and put the Room Of Requirement''s book back on the shelf.


    Quinn had found out early that the books marked with the sigil of {RoR} couldn''t be taken and had to be left behind. The books could be copied with a Replication charm (Geminio), but the originals stayed in the room.


    Quinn was working on a project on the side, trying to create a device that would help him copy the books in the Room Of Requirements as the replicas made from the Replication charm broke down and degraded quickly, usually within a month.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn sat in his office chair, doing thest bit of his homework. It was an ordinary day with no business, and he hadn''t entertained a single student, but all that changed when he heard the door chime and looked up to find a student with Gryffindor-styled robes entering the A.I.D office.


    Quinn smiled and greeted the student, "Wee back, Ms. Dunn."


    Elora Dunn, a fourth-year student from Gryffindor, nervously smiled as she stepped into the office and silently sat down on the chair set up for the clients.


    "Have you decided if you want to hire my services," asked Quinn with a slight smile on his face.


    This wasn''t Elora''s first time in the A.I.D office; she consulted with Quinn once before, but because of the nature of the solution Quinn offered her and her own personality, she decided she wanted some time to think before making her decision.


    She looked at herp and twiddled her thumbs before giving a short nod.


    "I see," said Quinn and asked, "Have you brought your trunk with you?"


    She once again nodded and replied in her tiny voice, "It is outside."


    "Please bring it in. I would enchant it in front of you," directed Quinn as he got up from his chair.


    She nodded and got up from her own chair to bring her trunk inside the office.


    As she exited the office, Quinn thought back to her request. It was a simple case of someone mishandling her trunk when she was not around. Elora would find her belongings flung around her dorm room at least thrice a week.


    She had no clue who was doing it, and her roommates refused to the deed. It was a ssic case of bullying, and Elora wanted it to stop, so she came to Quinn for help.


    The solution Quinn gave her was a simple one.


    "I will enchant your trunk so that if any other than you touches it, then their skin color would change to a color of your choice. The jinx I would ce on the trunk would not allow the perpetrator to remove the color from their skin until I want it to disappear. This way, we would be immediately to identify them."


    "But-but..." mumbled Elora; she wasn''t sure if she wanted to take the approach.


    Elora Dunn was the type of person who didn''t like confrontation and just wanted the harassment to end. She didn''t want to confront her unknown bully.


    "Ms. Dunn, we know nothing about your bully, so the only way to catch them is to get some proof. So, we have to catch them in the act, but that doesn''t seem to be possible as they clearly act when you are out, so the other option is to mark them forter identification," exined Quinn.


    He had also given her an option that did avoid confrontation.


    "I can charm your trunk to shock anyone who isn''t you. That would inflict enough pain and trauma to keep them away from your stuff. If that is eptable," offered Quinn.


    But, she shut that idea down immediately.


    So, here they were, on her second visit, Elora deciding to go with the n to mark her bully.


    "Okay, I will charm your trunk so that it would change the skin color of anyone other than you, and when you spot them, you can report them to your head of the house," answered Quinn.


    "But what about if they deny doing it," asked Elora.


    Quinn chuckled and replied, "Just as I said, the jinx I am cing is very hard to remove, and I assure you it would stay on their skin."


    Elora nodded in return, "Okay."


    "Great, now please ce your hands on the trunk," asked Quinn, and Eloraplied.


    Quinn took out his fake wand and made up some bogus wand movement. Elora''s trunk glowed in white light before the white glow died down.


    "You can remove your hands," smiled Quinn.


    Elora looked at the trunk with suspicion, so Quinn asked, "Do you want to see the effects."


    Elora nodded hesitantly, and Quinn put his hands on the trunk, and instantly his skin turned the color of mustard. The jinx stained every bit of his skin in a mustard color.


    Quinn looked at Elora with a mustard-colored face and asked, "It will be something like this. Quite easy to spot, right?!"


    Elora nodded with a stunned expression.


    Quinn chuckled and removed the mustard color from his skin. He pointed at the trunk and asked, "Please ce your hand on the trunk. I have to recast the charm."


    After recasting the charm, Quinn said goodbye to her as she exited the office.


    "I hope your bully would leave you alone, Ms. Dunn..." he paused before adding, "I hope you would help me out when Ie to im my I.O.U."


    Elora looked back towards Quinn to see him with his hands behind his back and a slight smile on his face. She nodded and exited with Quinn smiling as she departed, closing the door behind her.


    It took two days before Quinn saw the results of his nifty jinx on Elora''s trunk.


    Quinn was talking with his friends in the Great Hall, but his eyes caught the sight of Gryffindor girl running into the hall. It made Quinn grin when he saw the mustard color on the girl''s skin.


    ''Teresa Grant, sixth year,'' thought Quinn as he recalled the name of the mustard-colored girl.


    Quinn watched as Teresa Grant ran to Elora with tears streaming down her face. She yelled at Elora, and Elora shrunk back because of the yelling. Thankfully, McGonagall came running to the scene and interrogated Teresa for her loud yelling.


    Elora, in the panic of confrontation, looked towards the Ravenw table. Her eyes met Quinn''s. Quinn nodded towards her, and she nodded back, showing determination.


    ''Go get ''em, girl,'' thought Quinn as he observed the conversation. Elora told McGonagall her side of the story and how she charmed it so that she could know who was messing with her trunk.


    McGonagall turned to Teresa and asked her if she was the one who was mishandling Elora''s cousin. Teresa buckled under the pressing re from McGonagall and confessed.


    When McGonagall asked Elora to undo her charm, the mustard color drained from Teresa''s skin with a twitch of Quinn''s finger.


    ''Taskpleted,'' thought Quinn before returning to chatting with his friends.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stood in the Icy corridor, facing the Icy vault. He was standing just up the steps, stretching his body before walking into the vault region.


    "Let''s do this," said Quinn as his breath became visible in the cold.


    With a deep breath, Quinn began using Blood magic. Under his clothes, all of Quinn''s veins and arteries in Quinn''s chest be visible with a red glow. The left side of Quinn''s chest glowed exceptionally red because Quinn''s heart glowed up.


    "Haa~. Haa~," breathed Quinn as he felt his body warm up in the cold.


    "It''s working," spoke Quinn, smiling.


    With another deep breath, Quinn descended the steps to the Icy vault. The moment he stepped down thest stair step, a cold that could kill instantly descended on Quinn.


    Quinn groaned as he still could feel the harshness of the cold.


    "Ugh!" groaned Quinn as he stood still on the spot. Quinn felt something and looked down at his hand, seeing his fingers turning blue.


    "Dammit!" yelled Quinn as he ascended the steps back to safety.


    He immediately put his hands on his chest, wanting the heat from his chest to warm his fingers. Quinn stomped on the floor because of the first failure.


    "I have to increase the area," was the observation that Quinn came up with just seconds in the Icy vault region.


    Currently, Quinn was only heating up the blood in the heart region. He hoped his heart would pump the warm blood to all parts of his body, but he was wrong.


    "The heat is leached off too quickly," growled Quinn as he noticed that the warming the blood in his heart and sending it to the rest of his body wasn''t enough.


    "Okay, Quinn, you can do this," Quinn spoke to himself, psyching himself up.


    Quinn hadn''t tried to use Blood magic on the majority of his body at the same time. He deemed his entire body to be an area toorge for his current mastery. But seeing that the limited use wasn''t working, Quinn decided to proceed with it.


    "No risk it, no biscuit," quoted Quinn before pping his hands loudly and jumped up and down to psych himself.


    He clenched his hands into fists before channeling magic throughout his body.


    Under his clothes, the red glow of Blood magic gradually increased from his chest to his entire torso. His fingertips glowed as the red glow traveled up his arms. And from the soles of his feet, the magic climbed up towards his hips.


    Quinn craned his neck as the red glow crept up to his jaw, passing through his neck. The capiries around his eyes also glowed up, and even the eyes'' whites were glowing a very faint red. The only part of his body that Quinn left were the regions that were too close to his brain, not wanting to risk any ident to his brain.


    "Yeeeesss. I did it. I am the best!" celebrated Quinn as he felt Blood magic activated throughout his body. He stayed still for a while to stabilize the magic before once again descending into the frozen vault region.


    Quinn walked into the deadly chill and immediately felt it. It was cold, freezing, but now it was barely tolerable. He still felt chilly, more chilly than he had ever felt, excluding the first time he stepped here.


    "W-working like this would be a-absolutely miserable,"ined Quinn as he closed in on the snowke icicle, his teeth rattling because of the cold.


    Quinn couldn''t increase the temperature of his blood because any more than this and his blood would start boiling, and no one wanted that.


    The snowke icicle was a sight to behold. It was beautiful to look at if you could ignore the biting chill. The way it slowly rotated gave it a unique feel of vitality in the frozen area of icy blue.


    Quinn raised his gloved hand and touched the icicle, but the second the leather glove came in contact with the icicle, it started to freeze, causing Quinn to snatch his hand back.


    "Shit," thought Quinn as he brushed the sudden ice deposit on his glove.


    "Of course, if the area around the gate is so deadly, then this thing attached to it wouldn''t be a walk in the park," grumbled Quinn as he raised his now ice-free gloved hand to cast magic on the snowke to check itsposition.


    A minute in the vault area, Quinn was immersed in studying the ke. Three minutes, he felt that the cold had increased. Five minutes in, and Quinn was getting slightly irritated. As seven minutes came to pass, he was shaking in his clothes, feeling really cold.


    When the ninth minutes passed, Quinn turned away from the snowke and rushed back up the stairs, running away from the cold.


    He gasped for air the second he felt the cold decrease. The red glow of Blood magic subsided as Quinn''s focus limit reached.


    "L-Less than t-t-ten minutes is the limit-t," stuttered Quinn as he heavily breathed.


    Just under ten minutes was Quinn''s time limit for continuously maintaining Blood magic throughout his body. Quinn had plenty of magic to spare - No, he had loads of magic to spare.


    The problem was Quinn''s concentration. He could only concentrate for ten minutes while working on the icicle, and that too with deteriorating results. It was quite the effort on Quinn''s part to keep most of his body''s blood warm and make sure that blood stayed warm.


    Quinn sat down on the floor but immediately stood up because the cold stone stung his bottoms.


    "Ouch!" said Quinn as he rubbed his behind.


    He began pacing the corridor, thinking about what to do next. After thinking about it sometime, he concluded.


    "I can''t raise the temperature of my body through Blood magic, though I can work on my mastery to keep the current temperature," noted Quinn. He could keep the Blood magic from deteriorating with this pace.


    "But, this isn''t enough. I need more..." thought Quinn. Quinn''s time in the vault region was excessively ufortable. He needed to make it morefortable so that he could work without constantly feeling like a popsicle.


    "I need to increase the surrounding temperature," reasoned Quinn, but it was easier said than done. He did not know how to increase the temperature in the frozen hell. His grasp on fire magic wasn''t on the level that would work against that level of cold. Any heat he could produce would be snuffed out in an instant.


    Quinn closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them to look at the vault, "I have to work with what I have." Quinn would slowly work on increasing his efficiency. But right now, he had to work with what he had.


    "Things I do for magic."


    Quinn cracked his knuckles as the glow from Blood magic crept on his body.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Exploring the frozen hell - "I run hot."


    Elora Dunn - Client - Gryffindor - Hates confrontation - Free from her bully. - Owes a favor.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 38 - Ice, Cold Ice, And More Freezing Ice.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The Icy vault was as cold as ever, with its icy-blue walls, frosted floors, threatening to kill anyone who dared venture into its freezing, killing, hellish depths.


    In that freezing environment stood a lone figure, a hand raised to the snowke icicle. The figure was d in thick winter clothing, but the exposed parts of skin showed glowing red lines streaking across the skin.


    The figure looked at the part of the snowke icicle in front of his raised hand, and suddenly an invisible wave shot towards the icicle, and in one fell swoop, detached a chunk of ice from the icicle, creating the noise of ice being crushed.


    The figure moved quickly and waved his other hand over the separated piece of ice. The chunk of ice rapidly moved away, gliding away from the ce it fell. The figure watched as the moving chunk of ice began fading while slipping on the floor. He turned his head towards the snowke icicle and saw that the snowke icicle that a few moments ago was missing a piece was now whole as ever.


    The figure sighed before walking away from the snowke icicle towards the steps that separated the frosted hell from a less freezing one.


    The figure removed his hood and goggles as soon as he crossed the steps and revealed the face of Quinn West, the guy who had been practically living in the Icy hell for the past two months, suffering in the freezing cold, trying to get rid of the snowke icicle.


    "Well, for the hundredth time, that snowke sure does regenerate fast," sighed Quinn, breathing out a white plume because of the cold.


    During Quinn''s rage-induced attack with the intent to exterminate the snowke icicle, he misunderstood that the snowke icicle was too tough for him to destroy. But it turned out that the snowke could be damaged, obliterated even, but it regenerated almost instantly. Quinn had not seen this during his attack, and that had cost him a week because Quinn didn''t attack the snowke for the first week, but when he did for some experiment, he saw the instant regeneration.


    He sat down behind a workstation he had set in the Icy corridor and looked at the Ivy vault region, thinking about thest two months. Every day of thest two months, Quinn had spent time on this vault, reading on ice, water, and Blood magic.


    .


    .


    .


    The vault was an extraordinary system of magical mechanisms. It impressed Quinn because it was a mystery to Quinn. He knew about what the Icy vault mechanism did, but he still had little idea about how it worked.


    "The air is too dry; almost all the moisture is locked into the snowke." Quinn had noticed this while observing the vault region; it had opened doors for Quinn in terms of progress.


    The mechanism in the vaultmanded all the natural moisture in the vault. If any moisture, water, or ice was present in the vault region, it woulde under the mechanism''s control, aiding the recovery of the snowke in case it was damaged.


    Quinn had once thrown a bottle of boiling water into the vault region, saw it turn into steam because of the cold, and instantly the steam rushed to the snowke, adding to its body. Since that day, Quinn didn''t dare any water to the vault as it would just help the mechanism guarding the vault.


    Damaging the snowke using offensive magic to gain entry to the gate behind the snowke icicle was out of the way, so Quinn needed another way to reach the gate. After searching for an answer, Quinn finally found a way that might help.


    "To disable the regeneration of the icicle, I need to find a way to first break down the ice while keeping away from the mechanism''s control. To do that, I need to break down the ice... gently, so that when the ice detaches itself from the main structure, I would have some form of control over the detached ice."


    To method to break down the ice gently was Transfiguration and Transmutation. The concepts of these two magics would help Quinn break down the ice while maintaining control over the detached ice.


    But finding an idea wasn''t the same as knowing how to execute the solution, and that was where Quinn had a major setback. Even though Quinn knew about Transfiguration and Transmutation ideas, he failed to apply them to the snowke icicle.


    "The dense structure and frighteningly low internal temperature of the ice makes it extremely difficult to alter the state of matter. It makes it difficult for me to detach the ice from the snowke."


    When Quinn detached the ice from the snowke, the mechanism would wrestle Quinn for control, and in an instant, the snowke icicle would be whole again.


    Quinn had spent a little over three weeks banging his head against the snowke, thinking that if Quinn improved his mastery, then he would be able to get rid of the snowke. But by the end of three weeks, Quinn had be better at changing the ice into water, he could change three-quarters of the snowke into the water, but nothing really changed as it would turn back into ice.


    Things changed for the better when Quinn stopped being stupid.


    Quinn sat in the Great Hall for lunch, clutching his head in his hands and groaning.


    "Ugh... haa~... hmm.... burrr... this sucks so bad," groaned Quinn.


    He wasmenting about making no actual progress. Even though he had gotten better at performing Transmutation on ice, the mechanism would wrest control away from him.


    "You look sad today."


    Quinn turned his head to see Penelope Clearwater staring down at him.


    "I''m sad every day; I just don''t have the energy to hide it today," quipped Quinn.


    Penelope quirked her brow and sat down beside him.


    "Come on now, don''t be like that. Tell me what''s wrong with you."


    Quinn stared at Penelope for a moment before starting, "I am having problems with something that I can''t solve. No matter what I try, it doesn''t work," he put his head on the table and groaned, "It is driving me crazy."


    "How about I take a look at it; maybe I would be able to help you out," said the kind fifth-year Ravenw Prefect with a cordial smile on her face.


    Quinn stared at her with his eyes narrowing and shook his head, "Yeah... I don''t think that is going to help."


    Penelope widened her eyes and said with a sarcastic smile, "Oh my, you are not sad... you are moody!" She snorted and continued, "I must say this is a new color on you. You are always smiling, so I thought it was your resting expression."


    Quinn sighed and apologized, "Sorry about that. Thest few weeks have been tough. I was not trying to be a git."


    "Don''t worry. I didn''t take any offense," Penelope assured and then gave some advice, "And, if you don''t think I can help, you can go to one of the Professors. I am sure they would be able to help."


    Quinn perked up hearing that. He looked at Penelope and said, "Professors... I can ask the professors, can''t I?"


    He grinned and pped the table, "Of course, I can do that!"


    Quinn hadn''t gone to a Professor for help since he hade to Hogwarts, so somewhere in his head Quinn had excluded asking them for help. Plus, the nature of the vault was secretive, and he didn''t want to lead any of the faculty members to the vault as it would lead to him being banned from essing the Icy vault because of the danger.


    ''But, if I can just ask them for advice without revealing anything about the vault, then I can get some insight. Yeah, that would work,'' thought Quinn.


    "Professors! They are masters of their craft! Of course, they would be able to help me!" said Quinn as he got up from his spot.


    He turned to Penelope and said, "Clearwater, expect a crate of butterbeer from me. You have done me great help."


    Penelope watched as Quinn ran out of the Great Hall. She shook her head, "Sometimes, smart ones can be dumb, so dumb."


    Later that evening, Quinn stood in front of Minerva McGonagall''s office on the first floor. With a look at his clothes, he straightened them out with magic.


    He looked at the lion''s head protruding out of the door of the office and asked, "I am here to see Professor McGonagall."


    The lion''s head stared at him before the door opened, and Quinn entered the office. McGonagall''s office is a small study; it had arge firece, windows overlooking the Training Grounds, and the Quidditch pitch.


    Back in her day, McGonagall had been the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. In herst game, she had suffered a concussion and some broken bones because of a Slytherin yer''s illegal move, and from that day forward, she had nursed an obsession to see the Slytherin house crushed at the Quidditch field. Despite her looks and attitude, Minerva McGonagall was a Quidditch fanatic; that''s why she always spent every game besides thementator. This was also the reason behind her pushing for Harry Potter to join the Quidditch team in his first year.


    She looked up from her desk and was surprised to see the person who entered her office.


    "Mr. West, what a surprise. What can I help you with?" she asked, gesturing to Quinn to sit down.


    "Good evening, Professor. I would like to ask you for some help," Quinn said as he walked to the offered chair and sat down.


    McGonagall was once more surprised. Quinn West was the brightest student of his year, and based on his performance in homework assignments and tests, he was more knowledgeable than most of his direct seniors. Unlike most of his peers, Quinn never came to Professors for any help, be it studies-rted or anything else.


    "I see, and I assumeing to me instead of Professor Flitwick is because you want some help with Transfiguration," asked McGonagall.


    Quinn nodded, "Yes, I have a few questions about Transfiguration and... about Transmutation," Quinn took a pause before he mentioned Transmutation. Hogwarts didn''t teach Transmutation, and even though Transmutation and Transfiguration concepts crossed each other and despite that, Hogwarts students still didn''t know about Transmutation.


    "Transmutation," said McGonagall, leaning forward, not expecting to hear it from Quinn. "You are familiar with Transmutation, Mr. West?"


    Quinn nodded and took out his fake wand, conjuring a log of wood with a proper wand movement, making sure that McGonagall believed he was using a real wand. With another wave, the piece of wood changed into a miniature eagle.


    "My grandfather bought me a book while he was traveling," said Quinn, not telling her anything else. He didn''t want to face any questions on it, so he continued, "Today, I want to get some help with Ice magic."


    "Ice?" she asked. McGonagall thought of something and asked, "Mr. Quinn, didn''t you fell into a cauldron of freezing potion?"


    Quinn made a sour look, "Yes, Professor. I was on bed rest for around ten days."


    The Professor folded her hands and said, "Do tell, what do you want to know about ice?"


    Quinn waved his wand and conjured a chunk of ice, and immediately levitated it so that it didn''t McGonagall''s desk.


    "Now, when I turn the ice into water," with another wave, the ice chunk slowly turned into water. A little stream of water emerged from the ice chunk that traveled left and formed an increasing blob of water. Quinn made it slow for demonstrative purposes.


    "The ice I am working is charmed such that anything detached from it would immediately turn back to ice and join the main structure." He waved his wand, and all the water rushed to the ice chunk and turned back into ice.


    Quinn didn''t want to reveal the Icy vault and the mechanism ced inside it, so he just made up a charmed ice scenario.


    He looked at McGonagall and asked, "This is what I am trying to aplish." The ice again turned into water, but this time the entirety of ice turned into water. And, with another swing of the wand, the water turned into a metal pipe.


    "I want to Transfigure the water into something else so that it won''t go back to the ice," exined Quinn.


    "How do I do that?"


    McGonagall stared at the floating metal pipe, staying silent for a while before asking, "Have you tried to take out small pieces of ice and individually transfiguring them till you go through the entire ice block?"


    "I have tried that, but the internal temperature of the ice is surprisingly low," he waved his hand in frustration, "Targeting small chunks is met with extra resistance."


    Quinn didn''t tell her that targeting small chunks prompted the mechanism to decrease the temperature of the ice more, making Quinn''s job harder than it already was.


    "I see," said McGonagall, putting down her quill that she had been holding till now. The problem that Quinn had put in front of her had now intrigued her.


    "The conversion of water into ice is faster than the time you need to change the ice into water and in turn into another substance."


    Quinn nodded in reply. This was his current problem.


    "How about changing ice into vapor and then transfiguring the vapor into another material?" she offered.


    Quinn shook his head, "No, I can''t even change ice into water fast enough, forget about changing ice into water and then water into vapor."


    "Mr. West, I am not talking about changing ice into water into vapor. I am talking about changing ice directly into vapor," said McGonagall as she looked at Quinn.


    Quinn stared at the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts without blinking. He stood up from his chair and started pacing around the office.


    "So, you are saying that I should skip the liquid state altogether," asked Quinn.


    "Yes, and do you know the reason behind this suggestion," said McGonagall, trying to make Quinn think about the answer.


    Quinn stopped pacing and answered, "Gas is harder to control than liquid because the water is much loosely packed. The loosely packing arrangement makes it harder to spread magic and get every particle under control."


    "And...?" asked McGonagall.


    "I would have the initial control over the vapor because I am changing ice into vapor. That would give me a slight edge over the charm ced on the ice. My chances to Transfigure the vapor into another substance would rise because of the increased time needed for the charm to work."


    McGonagall smiled, "Exactly, and now you have the answer."


    "But, how do I go from Solid to gas without going through the liquid phase," asked Quinn. It was the same problem as before; Quinn had the idea butcked the execution.


    McGonagall took out her wand and waved it to form a massive chunk of ice, muchrger than Quinn had conjured.


    "Usually, to turn ice into water vapor, you would give the ice heat so that it would melt into water and the water would evaporate into vapor."


    Quinn watched as the ice floating above McGonagall''s desk melted into water, and then the water started to boil, slowly turning into vapor. McGonagall was masterfully controlling the water vapor so that it would not leak around the room.


    "But, you don''t need to supply ice with heat to change its state. You can supply any kind of energy that can break the bonds between the particles. Magic can break the bonds holding the bonds that hold the ice together."


    The vapor turned into water, then into ice. The next moment, the ice poofed directly into water vapor. [1]


    Quinn stared at the floating vapor, thinking about the implications of this knowledge. Cogs turned in his brain, specting the usibility of this method. It worked here on ordinary ice, but the snowke icicle was anything but ordinary; that was some super ice.


    "Thank you, Professor... I will try using this approach," said Quinn as he turned his eyes away from the cloud of vapor and looked at McGonagall.


    McGonagall saw Quinn wasn''t paying attention to her and was lost in thought, so she decided to tell him to leave and don''t disturb him, "Alright, you can leave, Mr. West. Have a good day."


    "... You too, Professor," said Quinn, nkly, as he walked out of the office.


    He came to himself, looked around, and found himself standing in front of the fifth-floor corridor wall that held the entrance to the Icy corridor.


    "How in the world did I get here," said Quinn as he looked around.


    "Well, whatever."


    Quinn ced his hand on the wall and channeled his magic into the wall, causing it to open.


    He walked inside to the Icy corridor, and when he reached the end to the opening of the Icy vault. Quinn slipped on theyers of thick snow clothing and charged his blood with Blood magic before stepping into the vault region.


    "Aww, this sucks as much as ever," said Quinn as he strolled to the snowke icicle, feeling the cold.


    Quinn raised both of his hands to the snowke and closed his eyes. He concentrated and focused his magic, channeling it to the snowke, reaching every branch, and when it was enough, Quinnmanded his magic to break the bonds between the particles.


    His magic started work and filling the snowke with energy, and just when Quinn felt that the ice was about to turn into water, Quinn pushed more magic into the ice.


    He opened his eyes and watch as the snowke icicle vibrated violently before half of the icicle mass sizzled and turned into water vapor, and then saw it turned back into ice. But this time, it was a tad bit slower.


    Quinn raised his hands and yelled, "Hoho! It worked... it really worked!" Quinn jumped up and down in front of the now whole snowke.


    The result might not have been much different, but Quinn saw and felt the difference. It took more magic than his usual approach, but Quinn saw ag in regeneration, and he also felt that if he worked hard, he could fight the mechanism for control.


    .


    .


    .


    Two months had passed since entering the Icy vault had passed, and Quinn had made significant progress. Quinn could now convert all the ice into vapor; he was now working towards Transfiguring the vapor into metal, in this case, magnesium.


    It was like a fight for control between the mechanism and Quinn, both sides trying to wrest control of the vapor; Quinn trying to Transfigure it while the vault mechanism was working to regenerate the snowke icicle.


    Quinn retrieved a bottle from under the workstation and took a sip from it, but nothing came out as everything inside was frozen. He sighed and began heating the iced water inside.


    "Yup," said Quinn, with popping the ''P'' sound, "this ce sucks."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - "You stupid! Hahaha," says a particr author.


    Penelope Clearwater - Ravenw Prefect - Received a twelve-case of butterbeer at her dorm step. - Worries how Quinn got it above the girl''s dormitory stairs.


    Minerva McGonagall - Transfiguration master - Lifelong Hogwarts Quidditch Obsession.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 39 - Notes Publication

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Around the same time Quinn started to dive into the Icy vault, he was visited by a student at the A.I.D office.


    He was working in the workspace when he heard the over-the-door chime ring, followed by a voice, "Is anyone here?"


    "Yeah, please wait. Take a seat. I will be there in a moment," said Quinn as he removed his work gloves and leather apron. He waved his hand over his workstation, making sure that everything was packed and arranged for him when he returned.


    Quinn''s clothes straightened them up as he walked towards the office door. When he entered the office, Quinn saw Padma Patil, a first-year Ravenw, sitting in the client chair.


    "Wee to the A.I.D office. How may I help you?" Quinn greeted her with a smile.


    Quinn sat down on his chair and asked, "Now that the standard greeting is out of the way. What can I do for you, Ms. Patil? This is your first time here at my office."


    Quinn already knew the British girl with Indian heritage because they were in the same house, and Quinn was just a year older than her. He had frequentmunication with most of the Ravenw first-year students.


    This year, Quinn had gained most of his business from the students from his own age and then from the new first years. Most older students still didn''t treat Quinn''s venture as a serious service because of Quinn''s age.


    Why would they go to a second-year who was still new to Hogwarts? This line of thought and the belief that they knew more than Quinn was why Quinn''s A.I.D wasn''t popr among the older students. And, Quinn had no intention to lord his actual knowledge and skills to the upperssmen just so he could gain more business.


    Padma Patil looked at Quinn and straightforwardly said, "The final exams areing in a few months, so I would like to have your first-year notes."


    "My notes?" asked Quinn. His expression was one of a mix of surprise and intrigue.


    "Yes, your notes. I have heard that you scored more than a hundred percent on all subjects other than Potions and History of Magic. With your reputation, I think your notes would be a lot of help to me," answered the studious of the Patil twins.


    Quinn smiled and inquired, "And, where did you learn this reputation of mine?"


    "Professor Sprout told us during her Herbology lessons," answered Padma.


    Quinn nodded, though it slightly surprised him she didn''t hear it from Professor Flitwick.


    "Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, and History of Magic," listed Quinn. "Seven first-year subjects, and you want notes on all these subjects."


    Padma nodded.


    "I can arrange that. You will have my notes of all seven first-year subjects in your hands in a week''s worth of time," replied Quinn.


    "And, how much will these notes cost me?" asked the Ravenw Patil. She had researched Quinn''s service beforeing to him. She knew he charged money for the help he provided, plus the card stated the terms themselves.


    Quinn did some quick math in his head and answered, "Five (5) sickles a subject, that makes thirty-five (35) sickles... so, two (2) galleons and one (1) sickle."


    Padma nodded and left after saying goodbye.


    Quinn didn''t move from his office chair for a long while, thinking about the job he had just taken.


    ''A great business opportunity hase to my doorstep. It would be a crime not to exploit this, wouldn''t it?'' thought Quinn.


    "I can sell my notes to the entire first and second-year student poption," spoke Quinn.


    Quinn knew of his reputation for being the smartest of his ss, and his notes would be a hugemodity for students preparing for their end-of-year examinations.


    "I have to thank Padma. There are still months before the exams, and even Ravenws haven''t started going into the preparation mode. I still have a lot of time to advertise this," said Quinn. If Padma Patil didn''te here, Quinn wouldn''t have thought of this idea this year.


    ''But, then there is that problem,'' sighed Quinn. While it sounded as easy as taking out his first-year notes andpiling them so anybody could read them, but the reality of it was rather different.


    His notes weren''t just from Hogwarts but from a boatload of differentmunities. They had a lot of viewpoints and information that wasn''t taught in Hogwarts.


    "I need to separate the Hogwarts material," said Quinn, rubbing his forehead, "That would take some time."


    End-of-year exam notes had to be short and concise. Quinn''s actual notes were short and concise but on a different level; they weren''t suitable for end-of-year examinations. Quinn''s notes had information and knowledge from a boatload of variousmunities that would not help students in Hogwarts examinations.


    "Plus, if these notes be popr, then they would most probably make their way to at least one of the teachers," sighed Quinn.


    Quinn needed to be very careful that something out of Hogwarts course books and Hogwarts library didn''t make itself into his notes because teachers might see it, and they might notice the oddities.


    "Keep the cards close to the chest... all about that long-term game," murmured Quinn.


    He stood up from his desk and exhaled, "This is going to be a busy week."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stood in front of forty-nine stacked sheets of parchment paper, arranged neatly in the order of seven-by-seven. A fountain penid on every sheet of parchment paper.


    He was standing in his workshop, and usually, there would be a center ind table standing in the ce of the stacks of paper, but that ind table had been shrunk down and set on the side.


    Quinn sat down in front of the stacks of parchments, took in deep breaths, and closed his eyes. Quinn appeared in his mindscape and stood in front of seven books. Seven books, set in a single shelf bookcase, in a room with nothing else inside.


    These seven books were the essence of Quinn''s knowledge of seven Hogwarts subjects with information from Hogwarts course books and Hogwarts library. He had sorted these seven books from his knowledge bank of Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, and History of Magic.


    He had carefully crafted these seven memory books and made sure that there was no extra knowledge from foreignmunities.


    The seven memory books radiated with light, and when Quinn opened his eyes, all forty-nine of the fountain pens suddenly stood up straight and started to write on sheets of parchments.


    Quinn used every ounce of his lumency mastery of the efficiency aspect to control forty-nine different objects to performplex tasks. Simultaneous multitasking was one of the lumency skills Quinn was working on, and this was a great way to practice that skill.


    He allotted seven stacks of parchments to every subject, and the pens wrote notes on the parchments. The fountain pens wrote paragraphs, drewplex diagrams, and referenced every point for extra information and validation if required.


    Little by little, Quinn got in the grove, and the pens began moving faster and faster. As the process became faster and faster, the sheets of parchments also changed quicker and quicker.


    Quinn''s eyes were now only showing white as the forty-nine pens wrote, wrote, and wrote.


    After an unidentified amount of time, all the pens stopped and set themselves down on the few remaining sheets of parchments.


    Quinn''s eyes still showed white for at least a minute before the irises came back down to the front of the eyes, and Quinn started to badly cough as he leaned down to his side with one hand supported his body and the other hand on his chest.


    "Th- *cough* *cough* this needs more work. Definitely needs more work," coughed Quinn. Heid down on the floor and breathed heavily as his chest raised up and down.


    He turned his head to the side and saw multiple stacks of parchments, more than the initial forty-nine stacks. There were hundreds of thin stacks of parchments lining the wide floor of Quinn''s workshop.


    "But, it was worth it," he sighed, watching the sweet result of his work.


    He turned his head to look up at the ceiling and sighed, "Now, I have to do this once more for the second-year course." Quinn groaned as he got up from the floor and groaned because of the slight headache.


    He looked at the stacks and then at one of the tables on the side of the workshop, and thin post-it-sized slips flew to the hundreds of stacks. The thin post-it slips stuck to the stacks, and after all the parchment stacks were marked, with a snap of Quinn''s finger, all the slips changed colors to one of the seven rainbow colors, each representing one of the subjects.


    The marked stacks flew up in the air and arranged themselves into seven neat stacks for seven subjects.


    Quinn yawned as he walked out of the workshop, "I need a quick nap."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Three days before the deadline he gave to Padma Patil, Quinn entered the Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop in Hogsmeade. The shop was owned by the West family, and as the name suggested, it was a stationery store.


    Quinn walked inside and approached the counter. He looked around and saw no one behind the counter. Looking down, he saw a bell, so he rang it and waited.


    "I will be right there," heard Quinn from a back room.


    Quinn turned away from the counter and looked at the store. It was a simple store that sold rolls of parchments, quills, inks, notebooks, binding material, and all other kinds of charmed stationery material.


    Quinn noticed things in the store that screamed business strategy to him.


    ''The Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop catered to Hogwarts students, but with no Hogsmeade weekend nearby, they reduced the section dedicated to Hogwarts to a small corner,'' thought Quinn.


    He looked around the store and saw the current ambiance of the store was catered to another audience. ''This seems more like a printing business rather than a stationery store.''


    The majority of the store''s adverts showed the different types of printing parchments, leather bindings, ink packages, charms the store offered that animated letters and drawings in books.


    Seeing the store being run dynamically to the demand made him smile.


    "Sorry for the wait. How may I help you?" heard Quinn, and when he turned, he saw a middle-aged man walking behind the counter, looking at some letters in his hands.


    When the person looked up and saw Quinn, he frowned.


    "You... are you a Hogwarts student?" asked the person. Quinn''s looks showed that he was definitely over eleven, so the shop employee was skeptical about seeing Quinn. But, Quinn wasn''t wearing a Hogwarts uniform, so the shop employee wasn''t sure.


    Quinn smiled and walked towards the counter and said,


    "Yes, I am a Hogwarts student. My name is Quinn West. I was told that you would be expecting me."


    The shop owner''s jaw dropped as he eximed, "West?!"


    "Yes, you heard it correctly," replied Quinn, taking out multiple matchbox-sized stacks of parchment.


    "But, I thought you would be owling the documents you needed to be printed. I never thought you would being here personally. There isn''t a Hogsmeade weekend anywhere near... scratch that... today is a weekday. How are you here?!" spoke the employee, still feeling a little shock.


    "Let''s not sweat the small stuff," said Quinn as he took out his fake wand and unshrunk the multiple stacks of parchment on the countertop and continued,


    "Now, take note as what I am about to say is important. There are seven color strips, one of those strips mark every stack. This means that the stacks marked by the red strips go together," Quinn looked up and asked, "Are you with me?"


    The shop employee nodded, so Quinn continued,


    "Good, every strip is marked with a number, which denotes the order they go in while binding the pages. Every page also has a page number just in case the order gets messed up," Quinn continued to exin all the details of the print and binding he wanted.


    He stared at the shop employee and asked, "Would you be able to remember all of this?"


    The shop employee nodded.


    "Good, nevertheless, here you go," Quinn retrieved a couple of sheets of paper and handed it to the employee.


    "Everything I said is on the sheets, and there is even more like the design of the cover and the in-between cover pages." He tapped on the pages and insisted, "I want things done exactly ording to these documents."


    The shop employee looked through the instructions and asked, "And, how many copies do you want?"


    "For now, I want twenty copies of each final package, but please keep the print with you. I will need more in the future," answered Quinn.


    Quinn also looked up and asked, "How much will all this cost?"


    "I can''t take money from you," said the employee, his tone incredulous.


    Quinn shook his head and answered, "No, this is my personal endeavor. I will pay for this myself."


    When Quinn had contacted his family to ask for the services of the Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop, his grandfather had outright told him he would have to pay from his own trust vault, and Quinn had no problem with it.


    Quinn''s trust vault had a lot of money,pared to the capital Quinn used for buying beast parts, herbs, books, and other stuff. This bill would be rtively small, and he would most probably break even if a few sets sold.


    ''Profit was never really the motive,'' though Quinn.


    "I will send you the bill after the delivery," answered the shop employee. Quinn''s family owned the business, and it wouldn''t be a problem if Quinn never paid.


    "I will be needing these in three days. Would that time be enough," asked Quinn.


    The shop employee nodded and responded, "You will have these in two days." He looked at Quinn and asked, "Would youe here to collect?"


    Quinn shook his head, "No, shrunk the notebooks and owl them to Hogwarts."


    "Understood."


    Quinn nodded, "Excellent. Now, I would have to leave. I have to return to the castle."


    The shop employee stepped from behind the counter and said, "I will escort you."


    Quinn waved his hand and said, "It''s okay. I can find my way. By the way, I didn''t get your name."


    "Oh, my name is Gary," answered the now-named shop employee.


    "Good evening, Gary. Let''s hope this goes well and we can work more," said Quinn as he bid farewell to Gary.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    As Gary promised, Quinn got his delivery on the day he had to give the notes to Padma Patil.


    During breakfast, the owl raid brought the Scrivenshaft''s package dropped on the table in front of Quinn.


    Quinn saw the Scrivenshaft''s logo on the package, and a wide grin surfaced on his face. He picked the parcel and ced it in his bookbag.


    He hummed a tune while eating his breakfast.


    Marcus, who was looking at Quinn, asked, "What got you in a good mood?"


    "Today will be a momentous day, Belby. A momentous day," said Quinn. Quinn looked at Marcus, but he was already back eating his food, not paying attention to him.


    "You just missed the footnote, you glutton," deadpanned Quinn.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn sat in his office reading a book on Blood magic when he heard the door chime ring. He closed the book and looked up to see Padma Patil enter the office.


    "Good evening, Ms. Patil. Your notes are ready," greeted Quinn. He opened a drawer in his desk and took out seven bound stacks of parchments.


    The cover of each stack had a different color, the seven books covered all seven colors of the rainbow. The design on the cover was quite mentalistic. Mentioned in the center of the cover page were the subject names and the year. On the bottom right corner, there was a small box with A.I.D written inside it.


    The cover page was made from a slightly thicker parchment than the pages inside, but it was still parchment, so the notes had a paperback feel instead of a hardback.


    Quinn had the notes made from parchment instead of paper so that all would readily ept them.


    He pushed the seven notebooks towards Padma and let her take a look.


    The looks of notes surprised her. She wasn''t expecting them to look so aesthetically pleasing.


    "These are your notes?" she asked as she opened the Charms notebook.


    "Yes, these are my notes, an amalgamation of my knowledge. These notes contain everything I consider important, written in easy words and figures. You will find everything from the course books and the books I have read from the library," said Quinn, not lying at all. He was just omitting that he knew a lot more than this.


    "Why do they look like this," asked Padma, not looking at Quinn at all. The notebooks intrigued her too much.


    "Oh that," Quinn smiled and said, "I have decided to sell these notes, so I made them look good. This design will attract a lot more attention."


    He leaned forward and spoke, "Now, Ms. Patil, I have a proposition that I would like to offer you."


    Padma looked up from the notes and asked, "What proposition?"


    "I would give you a discount of ten (10) sickles, or two of these seven notebooks if you advertise these notes to your friends. Study in themon room. Keep the notes out on the tables; so they remain in view, and everyone can see them. You know that kind of stuff," answered Quinn.


    Padma thought for a second before nodding, "I can do that." She put twenty-five (25) sickles on the table.


    Quinn counted the money before asking, "Can you sign your name, the subjects you purchased, and the money you gave me on here?" He pulled out a paper from his desk with a table on it. "Write your name here, tick the subjects you purchased and write the amount in sickles... Excellent."


    Quinn shook hands with Padma and said, "Pleasure doing business with you."


    When Padma left, Quinn looked at the sole name written on the table and talked, "Let''s start phase-2."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Has a n in mind... *Mwuhahahahaha!*


    Padma Patil - Ravenw - Talks less - Wants to get a head start on exam prep.


    Gary - Shop Employee - "How did he get out of Hogwarts..."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 40 - Spreading Influence, And Important Customers

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Katie Bell and her friends were walking in the corridors, walking back to theirmon room after sses, when they were stopped by a voice,


    "Bell!"


    The Gryffindor Chaser looked back to see Quinn West wave his hand as he weaved through a crowd of students.


    "Yeah, what is it?" asked Katie when the Ravenw walked near her.


    She saw Quinn put his hand into his bookbag and take out a stack of notebooks. She could see the thin colorful spines of the notebooks with the violet notebook on the top.


    "What are these?" she asked as Quinn handed them to her. Katie read the topmost violet notebook, "Charms, year two?"


    "Yup," said Quinn, popping the ''P'' at the end.


    "These are my examination notes for all seven subjects for our year," smiled Quinn.


    Katie frowned and uttered, "But, the exams aren''t for another couple of months..."


    Quinn nodded, replying to the Quidditch athlete, "True, but I am giving these to you because I am going to sell these notes from now on."


    He tapped the corner of the notebook, directing the attention of Katie and her friends to the words A.I.D written in the box.


    "You can buy them at the A.I.D office for five (5) sickles a subject. No need to buy the entire set."


    He looked at Katie''s two friends and raised his hand to show an A.I.D card. He shifted his thumb to reveal that he had two cards in his hands, showcasing sleight of hand.


    "These are for youdies," said Quinn as he gave the cards to them. "If you want to buy my notes. You cane to this room. As I said, you don''t have to buy theplete set, and you can pool money among a group to buy the entire set and share the notebooks."


    He turned back to Katie and spoke, "This set is free. But, I want you to do something for me."


    When Katie nodded, Quinn continued, "Spread the word that I am selling these notebooks among the Gryffindor house. I have notes for all subjects of the first and second year. Tell them the cost and say that the price is negotiable."


    He ced his hand on top of the notebooks, and when he removed it, there was another ck and gold A.I.D card sitting on the top of the notebook.


    "They cane to visit at the A.I.D office. I will discuss prices with them there," finished Quinn.


    Katie looked at the card sitting on top of the notebook, "How many of these do you carry?"


    Quinn waved his empty hand and shook it for another card to suddenly appear in his hand. He held the card with his other hand and revealed a whole deck of contacting cards in his hand, spreading them like a deck of ying cards.


    "A lot of them," smirked Quinn, enjoying the look on their faces at the show of simple sleight-of-hand ''magic.''


    "Do this for me, will you? Remember, first and second-year subjects only, and the prices are negotiable," said Quinn as he walked backward and waved them goodbye before disappearing among the students.


    ''Gryffindor seed nted,'' thought Quinn.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Megan Jones stood near the Hogwarts kitchen with a dozen sheets of paper in her hands.


    "Ms. Jones, as per our agreement, I want you to take these flyers and stick them on the Hufflepuff notice board, entrances of both the girls'' and boys'' dormitories, and all the ces you think these flyers would stick out," said Quinn


    Megan Jones was Quinn''s very first client. She hade with a simple task of fixing a gift from her mother, Quinn had fixed it without even blinking, and now he was cashing the favor.


    A simple task for a small favor that she owed.


    She nodded, showing her understanding.


    "You just have to ce these flyers on the surface, tap them with your wand while saying stick. I have charmed them to stick when you do that. No mess, no fuss," exined Quinn.


    "Okay, I will do it," replied Megan.


    He waved her goodbye as she ran towards the Hufflepuffmon room.


    Quinn didn''t give anyone in Hufflepuff a free set because he didn''t know any first-year and second-year students on a personal level. So he decided to use flyers for marketing the exam notes.


    He charmed the flyers with animation charms that really made them stand out and were catchy to look at.


    ''Heck, they even glow in the dark,'' thought Quinn.


    He waited for Megan to return to give him a confirmation, and after ten minutes, she returned.


    "I did it. I pasted all the flyers on the walls." Her face was a little red as she came running from the Hufflepuffmon room.


    "Excellent. Thank you, Ms. Jones," replied Quinn, smiling, hoping the flyers would garner some traction in Hufflepuff.


    As he was about to leave, Megan suddenly asked, "Will I be able to get your notester when I start preparing for the exams?"


    The exams were still a couple months away, and other than the majority of Ravenw students and some studious students in other houses, no one else had started studying. So, Megan didn''t want to buy them now and wondered if they would be avableter.


    Quinn grinned in reply, "You cane to the office on the day of the exams, and you would still get the notes. So, drop by when you are in need."


    He waved her goodbye and walked away thinking,


    ''Hufflepuff is a go.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis sat under the shade of a tree, doing homework in peace. They were sitting on a checkered sheet, with all their thingsyingfortably on the cloth.


    Tracy was thinking about an answer in her homework when a butterfly caught her attention. The butterfly was no ordinary one, and Tracey tugged on Daphne''s clothes, getting her attention.


    "What?" asked the blonde in annoyance.


    Tracey pointed at the butterfly and eximed, "Look! The butterfly changes color with every p of its wing."


    Daphne frowned but followed Tracey''s finger and saw a butterfly pping its way towards the trunk of the tree they were sitting under. She noticed how with every p, the butterfly''s wings would change color.


    "You are right," murmured Daphne as she and Tracey turned their heads toward the trunk, following the butterfly as it moved upwards and eventually went behind the trunk of the tree.


    The girls waited for the butterfly to reemerge, but it never came back.


    "Aww, I should''ve followed it," whined Tracey. Daphne just shook her, but she too wanted to see the color-changing butterfly.


    When they turned back to the front, both noticed somethingpletely unexpected.


    "Eep!" shrieked Daphne, shocked at the sudden scare she just felt. While Tracy didn''t squeal, she too was shocked and had a hand on her chest, breathing deeply.


    The thing that scared them was actually a person. A person both were quite familiar with.


    Sitting in front of them was Quinn, sitting there like he had always been with them. He was reading Tracey''s homework parchments.


    He looked up at Tracey and pointed at the parchment. "Wormwood doesn''t have a taproot but a fibrous root. We add wormwood to the Draught of the Living Death because it eliminates the side-effect. You missed it here."


    Both of them looked on as Quinn pointed at things in Tracey''s homework with a smile.


    "... so, we learn that by drying the leaves of the Nettle nt, we can get the desired effect and use it in the potion for a cure for boils. Neat, right?"


    He passed the parchment to Tracey, who took it from Quinn and then threw a fresh roll of parchment in his face. Daphne followed and threw her own roll at Quinn.


    "Prat!" thundered Tracey, ring at Quinn. A new look on her usual smiling face.


    "Oh,e on. It was an innocent joke. I didn''t jump out to scare you and silently sat here helping you out," said Quinn, busting out his best innocent look.


    The two girls just gave a deadpanned look to Quinn.


    "How did you get here? I didn''t see you walking," asked Daphne.


    Quinn smiled widely, took out his fake wand, and casted a spell. The girls saw Quinn''s other hand disappeared from sight.


    "A Disillusionment charm to make myself invisible coupled with that butterfly to distract your attention was enough for me to sneak up on you," answered Quinn, conjuring two of the color-changing butterflies that fluttered around the two girls.


    He skipped the details that it wasn''t a simple Disillusionment charm but advanced light magic to make himself invisible and erasing the surrounding sound.


    "Magic with simple misdirection. Quite simple really," said Quinn.


    "So, what brings you here?" asked Tracey, as she wrote everything Quinn had said about her homework. She might have been angry, but she was listening. While Daphne admired the butterfly thatnded on her finger.


    "Oh, Ie bearing gifts for you two," said Quinn as he took out two sets of exam notes and handed one to each of them.


    "I present to you my notes for all first-year subjects. They have everything you will need to pass your end-of-year examinations. Exined every topic in easy words with diagrams for exnations. Tips and tricks for practical usage. These notes have everything and will help you greatly for your end-of-year exams," exined Quinn, putting on his best salesman smile.


    The two Slytherin girls undid the binding on the notebook set, picked the first notebook from the stack, and started reading.


    Quinn patiently waited while the girls read the material in the notes. He looked at the grass on the ground and had a sudden urge to pull on it but abstained from doing it.


    After a while, Tracey spoke, "These are amazing. They have so much in so fewer words." She looked at Quinn and asked, "You wrote these?"


    Quinn smirked, "Of course, I did. And, I am going to sell these." He tapped on the A.I.D symbol on the cover of the notes.


    "For that reason, I am going to need a little help." Quinn took out another set of flyers that he had given to Megan Jones and ced them on the pic nket.


    "In return for these notes, all I am asking from you two is a little promotion in the Slytherin house. You can post these flyers in themon room, and a little word of mouth would also be helpful."


    "I thought these were gifts," asked Daphne.


    Quinn chuckled and responded, "You can treat my request as a return gift from you two."


    Tracey picked up a flyer and said, "Of course, we will help. These notes are going to be a great help."


    "Thank you," smiled Quinn. He also handed them a few A.I.D cards for distribution and exined everything about selling first and second-year subjects and how the prices were negotiable.


    ''With this, Slytherin is locked in too.''


    Quinn was going to do the promotion in Ravenw on his own, and he was absolutely sure that Ravenw students would be his first customers and most extensive buyers.


    ''As long I am top, Ravenw students will buy whatever I sell.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It took a couple of days before the orders started pouring in, and as Quinn had expected, the first batch of orders were all from Ravenw students.


    The first one to visit his office was Terry Boot, first-year Ravenw.


    "I want to buy aplete set," asked the boy.


    "Are you sure? It will cost you two (2) galleons and one (1) sickle. It is a sizeable amount. Can you afford it?" asked Quinn, retrieving a set of notes from below his desk.


    Terry took out one galleon and the remaining amount in sickles and set them on the table. He looked pained as he did it.


    Quinn faintly smiled and ced one finger on the galleon and one sickle and slid them towards himself.


    "I am willing to give you a fifty percent discount if you just owe me a favor in the future. You just have to do some work for me in the future. How about it?" asked Quinn.


    Terry, with no hesitation, said, "I will do it!" He picked up the remaining sickles from the table and ced them back into his pocket.


    "Good," smiled Quinn. He took out the buyer''s sheet and asked, "Sign your name here, tick under the subjects you took, which means tick under all of them, and finally, write the amount you paid; in your case, it is seventeen (17), sickles."


    Terry picked up the quill that Quinn offered and excitedly wrote on the buyer''s sheet.


    Quinn pushed the note set towards Terry and smiled, "Thank you for doing business with me. I hope you will like the notes ande back next year."


    After Terry, the damn broke, and all of Ravenw''s first-year and second-year students came running to the A.I.D office for the exam notes set.


    All of them asked for a fifty percent discount, and Quinn dly gave them the deduction in return for a favor.


    ''Damn, all of them bought full sets,'' thought Quinn, smiling at the buyer''s table.


    After the Ravenw wave came, two people, who Quinn had forgotten about, visited the A.I.D. office for the exam notes.


    Quinn was working in the workshop when he heard the door chime and walked to the office with a small ss vial in his hand. He was drying it with a cloth because he didn''t want magical residue on the vial from using a drying spell.


    "Wee to A.I.D. How may I help you today," greeted Quinn as he walked into the office with the vial and drying cloth in his hand.


    He had his eyes on the vial, and when he looked up, Quinn found two Gryffindor looking at him. Not any two Gryffindor, but Ivy Potter and Hermione Granger.


    Quinn was surprised but didn''t show a change in expression and calmly wrapped the vial in the drying cloth and set it down on the ledge in the wall behind his desk.


    Sitting down on his chair, Quinn gestured both of them to sit down and spoke, "Please take a seat. Make yourselvesfortable."


    After the Gryffindor brte and redhead sat down, Quinn asked, "Now, how may I help you two?"


    After the Troll incident, Ivy and Hermione had gotten close. Now hung out together all the time and rarely could be seen away from each other.


    So, it wasn''t a surprise that they came together.


    ''But, damn, I forgot about these two because of the Icy vault,'' thought Quinn as he waited for them to speak.


    Hermione took the lead and questioned, "We are here because we were told that you are selling exam notes for first-year subjects."


    Quinn put on his sales smile and answered, "You have heard correctly. I am selling exam notes for all first-year and second-year students." He took out a flyer and asked, "Have you seen these?"


    Quinn had given Katie the flyers to make her job a little easier. He also wanted to increase his footprint in the Gryffindormon room. When the time for the exams arrives, those flyers would still be there, and they will attract the eyes of panicking students.


    Hermione nced at the flyer and nodded, "Yes, we have seen them."


    "Good, then you are familiar with the deal. I sell the notes for five (5) sickles a subject," exined Quinn.


    This was a great opportunity if he could have the Potter princess and the future smartest witch of her age owe him a debt.


    ''Let''s not rush things,'' thought Quinn. He didn''t outright say anything about the negotiability of the prices.


    And it seemed that the Ravenw students had dipped their toes in the Hogwarts rumor mill, and Ivy Potter had heard something.


    "What about the fifty percent discount that you have been handing out?" asked the redhead Potter.


    Quinn internally smiled, but on the outside, he shrugged and responded, "I give a fifty percent discount if you are willing to owe me a favor. In the future, you will have to do something for me to get this discount. As simple as that."


    Then he waited, waited for them to either reject the offer or ept it.


    The answer came immediately.


    "No, thank you. We will pay in full," replied Ivy. She was the child of the Potter family. She knew better than to owe someone a favor for something so minor.


    Quinn shrugged. He felt a little disappointed, but there was nothing he could do about it.


    "So, are you going to buy the entire set, or do you want individual subjects."


    "We want two entire sets," answered Hermione.


    Both girls took out two (2) galleons and one (1) sickle each and ced them on the table.


    Quinn took out two sets and slid them towards the girls.


    Picking up the coins off the table, Quinn said. "Please, sign your names here, tick the subjects and write the amount you gave." Giving them the buyer''s sheet.


    He picked them coins and ced them in his pockets.


    After the twopleted the form, Quinn said, "Thank you for doing business with me. If you have any problems that you need to get solved or want to gain any information, juste here, and I will help you out." cing two A.I.D cards in front of them.


    Hermione picked up the card and asked, "Any information, you say?" She looked at Quinn and asked, "Then tell me you are utilizing this room, but do you have permission for using it?"


    Quinn smiled and answered, "Two galleons, and I will give you the answer. Five more galleons, and I will give you the proof."


    Hermione narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Quinn for a while before shaking her head, "You are asking too much money for that information."


    Quinn smiled while shrugging, "The information is always avable. Come whenever you think the price is eptable."


    Ivy, who had been silent for a while, looked up and asked, "Do you know who Nics mel is?"


    "Ivy!" hissed Hermione, not wanting to reveal that they had been looking for Nics mel, or they had been to the third-floor corridor. If news leaked, they would be in deep trouble.


    Unknown to Hermione, Quinn had just heard all her fears through Legilimency. He had activated the moment Hermione had asked him the question.


    He turned his eyes towards Ivy, but here he could only sense emotions and no thoughts or memories.


    ''She has decent shields,'' thought Quinn. If Quinn wanted to hear her thoughts, he would have to spend some time poking around her shields, finding a crack, and gain ess, or he could force through the shields, but Ivy might feel a little pain, and that might tip her off.


    Right now, he had business to do.


    "Of course, I know about Nics mel," answered Quinn, watching as both Ivy and Hermione snap their heads towards Quinn.


    "You do?" inquired Ivy.


    Quinn nodded and showed her seven fingers, "For the price of seven (7) galleons, the information would be yours."


    He leaned back in his chair, giving them time to think as he peered into Hermione''s mind, getting a feel of her thoughts.


    ''She is worried but wants to know about Nics mel. Hmm... oh my, the time she spent in the library looking for mel.''


    Quinn turned his eyes towards Ivy and could sense that she wanted to proceed with Quinn''s offer.


    After some whispering, Hermione sighed, and Ivy turned to Quinn and asked, "I will pay, so tell me about Nics mel."


    Quinn stood up from his chair and said, "Excuse me for a couple of minutes. I would return with the information."


    He walked into the workshop, and the moment he was out of their sight, a wide grin appeared on his face.


    ''I got in,'' thought Quinn. If Quinn could provide them with the information, then it would create a positive impression and return if they have problems in the future.


    Quinn took out a sheet of paper and summoned a fountain pen. Quinn manipted the fountain pen through magic to write every piece of information he could recall about Nics mel.


    He wrote about his personal history, schooling, achievement of being the only known creator of Philosopher''s stone and a grandmaster in Alchemy, and his connection with Albus Dumbledore. He mentioned everything that would point to them that a Philosopher''s stone was behind the door on the third-floor corridor.


    He took the sheet of paper and slipped it into an A-4 size document envelope.


    "Here you go; information on one Nics mel," said Quinn as he put the envelope in front of the two girls.


    Ivy tried to pick up the envelope, but the envelope didn''t budge from the table.


    "What is this?" demanded Ivy, a frown marring her face.


    Quinn took out a galleon from his pocket and said, "Pay up, and you will be able to pick it up."


    Ivy huffed while she retrieved five galleons from her pocket and looked at Hermione, "Do you have two? I will return them to youter."


    The girls pooled the money and gave it to Quinn, and Quinn tapped his fake wand on the envelope, releasing it from the table.


    Ivy swiped the envelope and hurriedly read the papers inside it. Hermione joined her, and both read the contents, their eyes widening as they realized what Fluffy the Cerberus was guarding.


    The two girls looked at each other,municating with each other, and nodded. They stood up and looked at Quinn.


    "Thank you for this," said Ivy, Hermione nodding in affirmation.


    Quinn stood up from his chair and said, "I am d that you liked my services. Please doe back if you have other problems."


    He followed them to the door, and when they were out, Quinn spoke to them, "Ms. Potter and Ms. Granger, the restricted part of the third-floor corridor, is dangerous. The headmaster wasn''t joking when he warned about a painful death."


    Both the girls turned back with wide eyes and saw Quinn with a mysterious smile on his face.


    "Wha-!" eximed Ivy, but the door was shut closed before she could finish.


    The two girls stood in shock as they looked at the closed door, not knowing what to feel about the unexpected warming from the person who had given them valuable information that they were looking for months.


    On the other side of the door, Quinn was grinning widely.


    ''Mysterious vibe established! Oh~ that felt good. Yeah, that was perfect,'' thought Quinn, feeling great about his performance.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1]: Aaah~ Man, this chapter was long, really long.


    *


    A/N [2]: I contemted if I should add thest part. But, in the end, it went like most of my decisions; I was like... meh, and thought if I have it then it would go in.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Going through a magician phase.


    Ivy Potter - Potter princess - Got what she asked for.


    Hermione Granger - Smartest Gryffindor - A little miffed because of the time spent searching for Nics mel.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 41 - Absolute Zero, Booming Business, And Professors Visiting

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The time wasst week of May, and the Icy corridor was still as miserable as ever, at least for Quinn.


    He had thick winter clothing, safety goggles, plus Quinn had eaten foods that heated the body for dinner. Blood magic was keeping him alive in the killing cold.


    He had gotten better at using Blood magic and could now remain in the Icy vault for thirty (30) minutes, and out of that time, he was perfectlyfortable for twenty (20) minutes.


    Quinn stood in front of the snowke icicle, using magic that he had been using for the past months. He had used it so many times that at this point, he could absentmindedly perform Ice Transmutation and Transfiguration on the snowke icicle.


    Hands raised, channeling magic, Quinn changed the ice into vapor and tried to change the water vapor into magnesium but failed time and time again. Over time, he had gotten loads better at the Transmutation part of the process and could change the entire snowke into vapor.


    The problem was Transfiguring the water vapor into magnesium; Quinn was just missing a single step; the moment the water vapor was in the state of flux, but at that moment, the mechanism would wrest away the control from him and change the water vapor back into ice.


    Today was no different as Quinn failed time and time again, and Quinn''s time was ending as his magic reserves were depleting and his bedtime was approaching.


    With his mindpletely empty, Quinn began the process. The ice turned to water vapor and covert the water vapor into magnesium. He expected his magic to be disrupted, but the disruption never came, and the magicpleted its execution.


    "Eh? Huh? What?" The focus slowly returned to Quinn''s eyes, and he turned away from the snowke icicle''s original position. There he saw a massive, oddly formed lump of pure silvery magnesium.


    The light returned fully to Quinn''s eyes as he turned back to his front and saw the icy-blue gate unobstructed by the snowke icicle barrier.


    "I did it?" asked Quinn, not believing that he had defeated the snowke icicle.


    He looked back and forth from the lump of magnesium and gate and yelled, "I did it!"


    He walked to the lump of magnesium and pointed at it, "Haha! Suck it, you giant piece of Transfigured ice. I defeated you; nothing can stop me! I am never going to die!"


    After his narcissistic celebration, Quinn calmed down to an ordinary excitement level and bombarded the ice gate with tones of detection and diagnostic charms that he learned and researched for this very moment.


    It took a couple of minutes before Quinn wasn''t sure that touching or opening the gate would freeze him or cause him mortal harm.


    "Cool, let''s do it," said Quinn and was about to open the icy gate but suddenly leaned back and stepped away from the frozen gate.


    He waved his hand, and the lump of magnesium metal moved away from the direction of the vault gate. He also stepped to the side and used magic to push open the vault''s icy gate.


    The second the gate opened halfway, a ton of ice spikes shot from the inside and stabbed everything in their way, which in the case were the floor and walls.


    "Aeeii~. Nice," smiled Quinn as he nodded in admiration of the hidden trap.


    He carefully tip-toed in front of the fully open gate and peered inside to see if there was anything else.


    Inside he saw a faint blue light in the center of the room, but it wasn''t visible from the spot Quinn was standing, so Quinn shot multiple bright light orbs into the vault to light it up.


    Quinn didn''t move and just stared at the now lit up the vault, looking if there were more traps or something, but saw nothing more than a surprisingly small room with a high ceiling.


    He carefully stepped into the room, his magic primed to react with at a moment''s notice. His eyes were on the walls, observing the room to see if there were any deadly traps, but after a couple of minutes, Quinn found no traps in the vault.


    "Good," sighed Quinn. He noticed the vault room wasn''t cold; it wasn''t even at the level of the beginning of the icy corridor.


    While exhaling, Quinn released the Blood magic, keeping him alive in the freezing climate. He also removed a couple ofyers of clothing and finally paid attention to the source of blue light in the center of the room.


    It was floating in mid-air, eleven (11) feet above the floor, glowing in a cold yet soft blue light. When Quinn looked closely, he saw signs of a liquified semi-fluid contracting and expanding every second. [A/N: Like Aether from the MCU, but in blue.]


    "Now, what is this?..." said Quinn as he shot another wave of detection, diagnostic, and indicative charms and spell to see if there were any clues that he could find and got a ton of responses and feedbacks.


    From the feedback of the spells, Quinn found responses that runes and charmsid into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room. And while Quinn still had no idea about the origin of the blue semi-fluid in mid-air, he perfectly recognized the runes and the property of the charms spelled into the vault.


    He sat down on the floor and began fitting in all the runes and charms into ces so that he could piece together a bigger picture and find out how the mechanism outside worked and what was the blue semi-liquid.


    Quinn forgot he needed to sleep and go back to hismon room, and for the first time in a very long time, he pulled an all-nighter going through every inch of magical structure, and finally, just before sunrise, not that Quinn knew about it, the bigger picture clicked in.


    His head snapped towards the semi-liquid, eyes widened like saucers, and his jaw, hanging like a buffoon. Quinn hurriedly got to his feet, but his feet were asleep, so he fell down to his knees. He crawled towards the blue semi-liquid and finally stuttered the identity of the unknown material,


    "A-Absolute Zero... It is Absolute Zero. I can''t believe it." Quinn''s voice raised as he eximed, "I. Friggin. Can. Not. Believe. It!"


    Absolute Zero was an Alchemic material, a magical material that had a temperature of zero (0) Kelvin, - 273.15 Celsius, or -459.7 Fahrenheit.


    Or in simple words, a temperature of Absolute Zero, the lowest temperature possible on the thermodynamic temperature scale.


    And most importantly, it was a Paradoxical material because reaching absolute zero was impossible. You could reach temperatures close to absolute zero, but getting absolute zero was impossible because that would signify there was no existence of any type of energy present, and that was impossible.


    And yet, Absolute Zero material existed.


    It wasn''t as catchy as the Philosopher''s stone and didn''t grant eternal life, turned anything into gold, or produced Panacea that could cure any disease in the world. But Absolute Zero was an Alchemic achievement that would provide an alchemist with eternal glory and cement their position in the annals of time.


    Different materials would demonstrate astonishing properties if provided the cold energy from Absolute Zero. It was theorized that gold, the best conductor of magic if cooled down to absolute zero, would be the perfect magic conductor. It would allow a flow of magic unprecedented by anything possible.


    Currently, there weren''t any known existences of Absolute Zero material in the entire magical world.


    "A magical marvel made possible with Alchemy," murmured Quinn as he stared at the blue semi-liquid floating in the air.


    Quinn was just a novice Alchemist and couldn''t even imagine the process of creation of Absolute Zero, but he understood what it signified. He could appreciate the wondrous existence in front of him.


    He turned his eyes to the outside, finally understanding the mechanism that created the icy hell outside. The ice outside resulted from leaking some of the cold from the Absolute Zero to construct a defensive mechanism.


    The freezing hell that could kill people instantly was just a small leakage from the Absolute Zero. And the primary purpose of leaking cold energy to the outside was to keep the Absolute Zero stable, and the defensive mechanism was just an added benefit.


    Quinn looked at the Absolute Zero for a while before putting on theyers of clothes. He needed to exit the vault and go back to hismon room.


    He gave the Absolute Zero a final look before sighing. Quinn understood the reason behind the runes and charms in the vault. They were keeping Absolute Zero contained in this vault because Absolute Zero was extremely dangerous.


    If Quinn released it from the bindings, the result would be far worse than the icy region outside. If kept uncontained Absolute Zero would turn entire Hogwarts into a freezing hell far worse than the defensive mechanism keeping it in check.


    The temperatures would drop so low that even Quinn, with his Blood magic, would die instantly. The defensive mechanism would seem like a paradisepared to the unchecked power of Absolute Zero. It would be the sure death of every living being in the vicinity. Quinn wasn''t even sure that the ghosts would survive; their souls might die in the intense cold.


    Heck, it could possibly cool down the earth''s core before copsing because of the intense heat.


    While Quinn understood the runes and charms, he couldn''t replicate them to make a portable version for himself, and leaving Absolute Zero here was his own choice.


    ''So cold that even death might die...,'' thought Quinn, feeling a little fear at the possible ramification, but his eyes showed a determination shine,


    ''One day... I will reach this level... one day,'' thought Quinn. nning to thoroughly research the Absolute Zero to gain another level of insight into Alchemy.


    Just before leaving, Quinn undid the Transfiguration on the water vapor, and the moment the magic lifted, the gas instantly rushed to the gate and froze into the snowke icicle.


    He once again focused on the snowke icicle and turned it into water vapor, Transfigured it into magnesium, and this time it went without a hitch.


    "Phew... d that wasn''t a fluke," chuckled Quinn, not wanting to imagine how pissed he would be if he unlocked the Icy vault at a fluke.


    Lifting the magic onest time, Quinn reset the defensive mechanism and finally walked away with a hop in his step, even though he was tired from pulling an all-nighter.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Next week was the end-of-year examinations, and that kept Quinn a little busy, but when Quinn looked at the buyer''s sheet table, a smile parted his face.


    In thest two to three weeks, Quinn had a boatload of business. Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and a part of Slytherin house students came in like a flood to buy Quinn''s notes. The sudden realization that the examinations were near and the apanying panic was a major boost to Quinn''s business.


    The students came flooding in for copies of exam notes, and Quinn sold them like hotcakes. He even had to send for a reprint order so that he could keep up with the demand.


    Quinn was sure that in a year or two, he could fill up a tub with sickles.


    ''Laying down in a tub of money. Oh yeah, that would be cool, alright,'' had thought Quinn when he checked the total gains from the sales.


    Almost all of the students had jumped on the fifty percent discount and agreed to owe Quinn a favor. There were a few people who paid in full and didn''t take the deduction.


    Like students from wealthy families didn''t bother with the discount and bought the set in full. A few didn''t want to owe Quinn a favor, so they either pooled money to buy an entire set or bought selected subjects.


    Quinn remembered chuckling when Crabbe and Goyle came into the A.I.D office and bought three sets for themselves and Draco. He had read their minds, and it made a glorious memory for Quinn.


    The result was that in a few weeks, Quinn had amassed more influence than he had been able to in the past several months.


    And, as Quinn predicted, a few professors had visited him at the A.I.D office. It was thest week of April when a trioprising Lily Potter, Filius Flitwick, and Minerva McGonagall came knocking.


    Quinn was sitting behind his office desk doing some work when the door chime rang, and instinctively Quinn spoke.


    "Wee to A.I.D. How may I help..." but when he raised his, Quinn saw the three professors and trailed off at the end.


    "Professors, what an unexpected surprise," said Quinn, standing up from his chair, "What brings you three here?"


    The three visitors didn''t reply for a moment, taking in the ambiance of the A.I.D office. In the past few months, Quinn had actively changed the decor and feel of the office. The ss wall no longer looked ugly and was now the best feature of the room.


    There were a lot of random paintings hanging from the walls that Quinn liked to look at. A few nts, giving the room some green color, and some trinkets that Quinn ced because they looked cool.


    The office now looked a lot more put together and homogenous. The decor and vibe fit together andpleted the look.


    Flitwick was the first one to speak up, "It is the first time I havee to this ssroom, but you have changed it quite a bit, Mr. West."


    Quinn smiled in reply, "Had to make some changes, professor."


    McGonagall, who was touching the ss partition wall and noticed, "This is transmutation. Now that I recall, you do know about transmutation, don''t you, Mr. West?" McGonagall remembered the conversation she had with Quinn a month ago.


    "You are correct, professor. I transmuted many panes of ss to create a big ss wall," answered Quinn as he put down an additional stool in front of his desk, increasing the number to three.


    He didn''t want the professors to enter his workshop because there was a lot of stuff in there that, even though it won''t get Quinn in trouble, would reveal that Quinn was exceedingly advanced for his age.


    "Please take a seat," gestured Quinn as he went to his chair. He wanted to control the direction of the conversation.


    "So, what brings you here, professors? I hope I am not in trouble," asked Quinn as the three professors sat down.


    "Oh, nothing like that, Mr. West. We came here to discuss the exam notes that you have been selling," responded Lily Potter.


    Quinn slightly tilted his head and asked, "I see... what about them?"


    "We wanted to check and make sure that there aren''t any mistakes in the notes. The entirety of the Ravenw first and second-year populous is using your notes, and we wanted to just check the uracy of the notes," said Flitwick, chiming in.


    Quinn lightly shrugged, "I have no problems with that," said Quinn, taking out a set of both year''s notes and pushing them towards the professors.


    "Actually, if you guys give the notes your approval, I could add that straight to the cover for advertisement," said Quinn, thinking about treating this as quality certification from a higher authority.


    Flitwick and Lily chuckled while McGonagall put on her sses, pulling out the Transfiguration notes. Flitwick pulled out the charms notes while Lily targeted the potion notes.


    Quinn sat back and didn''t disturb the professors. He eventually returned to his work. The room fell silent as the three professors continued to read the notes while Quinn continued to do his homework.


    When Flitwick was done with Charms, he picked up Defense Against Dark Arts, while Lily and McGonagall picked up Herbology and History of Magic, respectively.


    When Lily was done, she left Astronomy to the other two teachers and observed Quinn.


    Ivy told her all about the A.I.D service that was being run by a student, and when Lily asked for a name, she was surprised to hear the name Quinn West.


    And, when she asked around, it surprised her that Quinn had Flitwicks permission to permanently upy an empty ssroom for personal use.


    When Flitwick revealed that all Ravenw first and second-years were using Quinn''s notes, McGonagall had decided to assess the uracy of the notes, and thus they were here.


    "Mr. West, what other services do you provide here?" asked Lily.


    Quinn looked up from his work and answered, "I work to fulfill any request that is asked of me. Bring me broken stuff, and I will fix it. Have a problem with homework, and I will help you with it."


    He looked at McGonagall, who looked up from the notes and assured her, "I don''t do it for them, and neither do I let them copy from mine. I just tell them where to look for it."


    He returned to Lily and continued, "You need information about a topic, and I will research it for you. I also charm objects on request. My most popr requests for charm work are date items that guys ask me for Hogsmeade weekends," smiled Quinn.


    Quinn took out three cards from his desk and passed one to each of the professors.


    "Please do think of me when you have a problem that needs to be solved," said Quinn as he gave them the A.I.D cards.


    Lily looked at the card and then asked, "Can I have a first-year set? I would like to buy one for my son."


    Quinn smiled, "Of course, professor. That would be two galleons and one sickle," said Quinn, retrieving a fresh set for her. He didn''t offer her a discount as he didn''t want to raise suspicion.


    Lily smiled and pulled out the asked amount, and gave it to Quinn.


    "Please fill your name, subjects, and amount paid in sickles in this table," said Quinn, giving the buyer''s list to Lily.


    Lily looked at the sheet of paper and was surprised to see so many names on the sheet. She followed the example of the person above her and filled all the slots.


    Finally, McGonagall closed the final notebook and dered, "There weren''t any mistakes in your notes, Mr. West. These notebooks have been well thought of; they will be of great help. I will rmend these to students."


    Quinn''s face lit up, and he grinned, "Thank you, professor."


    She nodded, but then she looked at the ss wall and asked, "Mr. West, what is on the other side of the ss wall?"


    Quinn looked at the ss wall and casually answered, "Oh, I practice my magic on the other side."


    McGonagall nodded, looking away from the ss wall, and focused her attention on the office itself.


    After talking for a few minutes, the three teachers left the office, and Quinn leaned into his chair, breathing a sigh of relief.


    "Never thought I would give the professors my card," spoke Quinn.


    He paused before smiling, "Business is doing wonders... grandfather would be proud."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N:


    Absolute Zero might not seem something great but wait. I have ns for it... kind of, at least it will appear in the next volume. I am researching ways that cold can be beneficial, so it might take time to get some use out of it.


    If you have some uses for cold, then do tell me. I will try to spin something out of it.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Absolute Zero! Absolute Zero!


    Filius Flitwick - Charms Professor - Likes the charm of the cards.


    Minerva McGonagall - Transfiguration Professor - Intrigued by the ss wall in Quinn''s office.


    Lily Potter - First staff client - Impressed by the A.I.D consultation service.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 42 - Ending The School Year On A Positive Note

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The end-of-year exams were over, and Quinn was finally free from sitting for tests and givingst-minute lectures the entirety of Ravenw''s second-year poption.


    The downside of being the top scorer on exams and being nice to most of his housemates was that people came to him just before exams for help, so Quinn held up court in the Ravenwmon room and took doubts and questions before every exam.


    Now, he sat in his workshop with a small stack of paper plus a mani folder sitting in front of him.


    The title on the mani folder read,


    ¡¸Chapter: Vault One (Temp.)¡¹


    Quinn categorized this chapter under ¡¸Project: Vaults¡¹.


    He had opened this project for the cursed vaults present in Hogwarts. If things went ording to n and he didn''t face any unforeseen problems, this project would have five chapters corrting to the five cursed vaults present in Hogwarts.


    Quinn waved a hand over the mani folder, and the writing disappeared.


    Picking up his fountain pen, he changed the title on the mani folder.


    ¡¸Chapter: Icy Vault¡¹


    The once named Vault One was now turned to Icy Vault.


    "Let''s start," spoke Quinn, picking up a sheet from the stack and started transcribing all of his experience from his first interaction with Friar to this very day.


    The document had everything from how to find the wall on the fifth-floor corridor. What charms and spells were used to detect the wall, and what were the exact responses wanted from the detection spells. Quinn wrote in detail about the methodology he used and referenced every technique he used to find the entrance to the Icy corridor.


    Next, Quinn wrote about how to open the entrance to the Icy corridor. He gave a detailed description of how to channel magic into the wall in a particr sequence so that wall would give way to the Icy corridor. He exined how his method reacted and triggered the charms in the wall.


    The next part of the document detailed everything about the Icy corridor. How the temperature increased as you walked deeper inside, recording the decreasing temperature at regr distances till the end of the corridor where an invisible barrier existed that separated the corridor from the Icy vault region.


    The vault region was extensive as Quinn had to write about the temperature, the defensive mechanism, and the magic he has used. The Blood magic was an essential part of the document report as it was the magic that kept a person alive in there, and without it or a suitable alternative, death was guaranteed.


    The subtopic in the report mentioned how Quinn used Blood magic and every traditional spell that allowed a person who used a magical focus to replicate his results. Quinn was sure that if he published the Blood magic part of the document, he would gain fame in the magicalmunity for using dark magic and the fascinating theory behind the Blood magic application.


    The document continued by exining the defense mechanism of the vault and went through every part of the rune, charm, transfiguration, and transmutation work that the mechanism employed to create the effects that the operation showed.


    There were pages upon pages on how every rune corresponded to the mechanism''s function, how the charms operated to keep the system online, and working from the source energy provided by the Absolute Zero material locked in the vault.


    With the defensive mechanism came the method to open it and enter the vault. The section was filled with observations on ice and water properties and how to perform transmutation and transfiguration on the snowke icicle. Quinn theoretically exined the sublimation process of ice into water vapor and why he transfigured the gas into magnesium.


    Every tweak required to make the magic work and wrest the control from the defensive mechanism was mentioned; Quinn spun a perfect blend of theoretical and experimental observation to produce a result that worked a hundred percent of the time.


    Finally, Quinn mentioned the center of it all, the Absolute Zero in the vault. Quinn didn''t dive into details because first, he knew little about Absolute Zero and its alchemic properties, and second, Quinn was going to create another separate record for Absolute Zero.


    The presence of Absolute Zero near Quinn was a fortuitous encounter, and Quinn was going to research extensively. The observations and experimental records would be of extraordinary value in the magical research and alchemicmunity.


    There weren''t any known instances of Absolute Zero in the current time, so any records from Absolute Zero would be groundbreaking.


    It took Quinn a week toplete the document under the Icy vault chapter, and when he finished, Quinn had penned seventy-eight pages worth of material.


    Thest page of the report was Quinn''s personal remarks about the entire experience.


    .


    [


    The exploration of the first cursed vault, which I have named the Icy vault, was a long and arduous process. The experience challenged me time after time to find new methods to solve the numerous problems I faced.


    I spent months of my life working on the Icy vault, but despite the difficulties I faced and the time I devoted to it, I am d that I could experience it and would do it again if given a choice.


    I haven''t even started to explore the mysteries of Absolute Zero, and yet I have learned so much.


    It started me on a new field of magic, Blood magic. I will continue to learn more about this branch of magic. I thoroughly researched the elemental magic of ice and water to aid me in my progress. In the process, I learned so much that I can say that water and ice magic are my strongest suit.


    While working on the defensive mechanism, I gained another level of insight into transmutation and transfiguration. The resistance from the defensive mechanism forced me to optimize my magic usage. Now, my efficiency and skill in both these fields are on a different level.


    I wouldugh at past me if he said that he was good at transfiguration and transmutation.


    Looking at the future, I figure that the remaining four vaults would also help me gain valuable experience and lead me to grow as a magic-user. I look forward to the future in the hope that it would be eventful.


    Signing off,


    Quinn West.


    ]


    .


    After editing, proofreading, and cleaning up the document, Quinn admired his work before charming every single page of the Icy vault document so that no one else could read it and then sealed all the pages inside the mani folder.


    He walked to the file cab in the workshop and dropped the folder inside, finally ending the Icy vault exploration.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Late at night, Quinn walked with Recon floating in front of him. The corridors of Hogwarts were silent and dark, most of the portraits were sleeping, and Quinn was making sure that no one saw him, so he was alone and unseen.


    He took a turn and finally found the one he was looking for. Quinn smiled and decided to dramatic. He ramped up his magic and started to freeze his surroundings. Thin sheets of ice emerged as the surrounding temperature dropped.


    The floating ghost was looking at the night sky, felt something. He turned to see Quinn standing at a distance from him, with ice surrounding the floors and walls.


    "Follow me, Friar, you gave me a quest, and I havepleted it. Come with me to witness a first in the thousand-year history of Hogwarts," said Quinn to the Hufflepuff ghost who gave him the quest to open the cursed vaults.


    Friar''s ghostly eyes widened as he heard Quinn and saw the ice. He knew the signs.


    "You... you opened it?" asked Friar as he floated towards Quinn.


    The two walked in silence as they made their way towards the fifth-floor corridor. Friar eyed Quinn suspiciously. He didn''t believe that Quinn had opened the vault. He wasn''t even sure that Quinn had opened the entrance.


    It was too soon. People had tried and failed time and time again.


    Living and dead reached the fifth floor. To the ce that both knew was the entrance of the Icy corridor.


    Quinn ced his hand on the wall and smiled towards Friar. Friar''s eyes widened as he saw the bricks shake and the wall give space to reveal the Icy corridor.


    Friar followed Quinn, still stunned to see the progress Quinn had made in less than a year. He had seen others take several years just to open this wall.


    "You know, this vault gave me a lot of problems. I almost died the first time I entered, and it was pure luck that I survived. My magic really came in clutch," said Quinn as he put on his usual cold clothing.


    Friar looked at Quinn and warned, "Are you sure that you opened the wall? It won''t do any good from bragging. Don''t enter there if you aren''t ready. I have seen better men die by descending those steps."


    Quinn smirked as he repeated, "Better men? You must not have chosen them carefully. Let me show you how it is done."


    Friar stared as he saw glowing veins appeared on Quinn''s face.


    "What is that magic," questioned Friar, moving closer to Quinn, but stopped when he got closer to the steps.


    "This? This is the answer," said Quinn as he descended the steps, entering the vault region.


    Friar watched, scared that Quinn would die, but his eyes widened as he saw Quinn turn around and raise his arms.


    "This is how it is done. I don''t brag, Friar. Everything I saw I can do, I can deliver,"ughed Quinn.


    Quinn turned on the spot and thrusted his hands towards the snowke icicle.


    Friar looked away from Quinn and towards the vault gate. He saw the snowke icicle shake. With every passing second, the trembles be more pronounced.


    ''Did he really aplish it?'' though Friar, his faith in Quinn increasing.


    Friar''s gasped when he saw the snowke turn into water vapor, but it wasn''t the end, he watched as the gas collected itself, and in mid-air, it turned into a lump of metal. The lump of metal fell to the floor with a thud.


    Quinn waved his hand, and the gate opened. Like usual, spears of ice came shooting out.


    "Be careful!" yelled Friar, trying to warn Quinn.


    Quinn stood with his hands behind his back and watched the spears close on him, and the second they came near him, the spears turned into water, and the water parted. Not a single drop touched Quinn.


    Quinn turned to face Friar and smirked, "Well, do you believe me now?"


    Friar nodded as he stared at the blue light he could see in the vault. He pointed at it and asked, "What is that?"


    Quinn looked inside the vault and answered, "That is Absolute Zero."


    Friar looked at Quinn, confused, "What is that?"


    Quinn shook his head and spoke, "Don''t worry about it. Just know that it is freezing. Much colder than where I am standing. It is the reason behind all the cold in the vault."


    Both stared at the blue light.


    The dead because it was something that the ghost had wanted to see in a long time, but it took centuries, and now Friar had finally seen it.


    The living because it reminded him of the time he spent here and the future of new findings.


    After a while, the pair left the Icy corridor and went back to the fifth floor.


    Friar looked at Quinn and spoke, "I believe congrattions are in order."


    "Thank you," replied Quinn.


    "Now, let me tell you about the next vault," said Friar, but Quinn shook his head and said,


    "No."


    Friar frowned and asked, "What do you mean, no?"


    Quinn sighed and answered, "I spent a lot of time this year on this vault and would like a break. If you tell me the clue to the next one, I will end up thinking about it. So, for now, hold that clue. When I return next year, we will continue." Quinn didn''t want to take on another vault clue and then spend his summer break contemting on it.


    Friar watched Quinn before speaking, "Alright. I respect your decision. I will give you the vault clue next year when you return."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After talking to Friar, Quinn spent a week going to sleep early and didn''t break curfew. He just rxed and read some books for light reading.


    And, in that week, one day, Quinn went to the Great Hall for breakfast. His eyes fell upon the High table, and he noticed Quirrell wasn''t at breakfast.


    rm bells rang in Quinn''s mind as Quirrell had been punctual at eating breakfast in the Great Hall. Quinn looked at the Gryffindor table and saw that Ron, Hermione, and Ivy were sitting close to each other and were talking in hushed voices. Harry Potter was missing from the group.


    Quinn''s brows raised, and he thought, ''Oh, damn. Harry did in Quirrell, didn''t he? I missed it, huh.'' Quinn leaned onto the table and rested his upper body on it, arms crossed.


    ''Well, whatever, nothing to do with me,'' thought Quinn. He lost interest in the Philosopher''s stone after his failed attempt to get a look at it. He realized that even if he was present at Quirrell versus Harry, he wouldn''t have been able to swipe the stone.


    In the books, Dumbledore had gotten there just when Harry had cremated Quirrell into ashes, and Quinn didn''t want to take the risk of being there at that moment. He wasn''t confident in hiding from Dumbledore. So, Quinn had given up on getting the Philosopher''s stone.


    ''But, I would have loved to meet Nics mel,'' thought Quinn. He was very jealous of Lia when she told him that mels gave an annual lecture at Beauxbatons, and she had gotten to talk to the alchemist and his wife during her school days.


    Quinn gave ast look to the Gryffindor table and thought, ''Maybe I should go visit the hospital wing.''


    Eddie looked at Quinn and asked, "What is up with you? You have been weirdly loose and rxed for the past few days. It is creeping me out."


    Quinn turned his face towards his roommate and raised his hand. His hand went behind Eddie''s ear, and when he brought it back, he had a chocte ball in his hand.


    "Carmichael, you worked hard for the exams. You deserve sweets for breakfast. Go on, have this chocte," said Quinn.


    Eddie took the chocte from Quinn and eximed in awe, "How do you that?! Making things appear from nowhere. Did you learn some advanced conjuration spell?"


    Quinnzily smiled and said a single word, "Magic."


    "Hey, I want a chocte too," said Marcus from across the table.


    Quinn smiled and spoke, "Check your right pant pocket."


    Marcus put his hand in his pant pocket, and his eyes widened as he pulled out a chocte ball, "Now, how did you do that?!"


    "Like I told you, magic," was all Quinn said because a magician never revealed his secrets.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn''s mood had improved considerably, and he danced his way into the hospital wing. In his hand was a small crate with numerous vials of various potions.


    "Madam Pomfrey, I havee to visit~," said Quinn, looking for the matron.


    The medi-witch poked her head from one of the curtains and sighed, "What is it, Mr. West? I am busy."


    Quinn grinned as he walked towards the matron, "Madam Pomfrey, you always say that. We don''t talk anymore. It is like you are avoiding me..."


    Quinn''s voice trailed at the end as he saw that Madam Pomfrey wasn''t alone. On the bedid one Harry Potter, and on his bedside sat Professor Lily Potter and her husband, James Potter. On the other side of the bed, Ivy Potter stared at him.


    "Uuuu..." uttered Quinn. He looked at Lily and greeted, "Good afternoon, professor."


    "Good afternoon, Mr. West," greeted the older redhead.


    Quinn felt a gaze on him and looked at the source to find Ivy Potter staring at him. Quinn tilted his head and did a barely noticeable shrug as if telling her, ''I told you so.''


    He looked at Pomfrey and said, "I bought some potions and was thinking we could have some afternoon tea, but it seems you are busy, so let''s do thatter." He lifted the crate slightly and asked, "Where should I put these?"


    "Put them beside my table," said the matron.


    Quinn nodded, and with ast cursory nce at the Potter family, he left.


    After Quinn left, Lily looked at Pomfrey and asked, "How do you know Mr. West?"


    Pomfrey sighed as she checked on Harry, "He was in an ident and had to stay here for a while. From then on, hees by every week pestering me on Healing magic." She once again sighed and said, "That child talks a little too much for my taste."


    She still remembered how Quinn talk to her while admitted here. When she said that his loud voice, while she worked, was disturbing other patients, he started to use magic to deliver his sound directly to her ears.


    She, on multiple asions, had to face weird looks from other patients and questions about why she was talking to herself. She had to take away Quinn''s wand to stop his talking.


    "What about those potions?" this time, the inquiry came from Ivy Potter. She was extremely curious about the person who knew about the restricted area.


    "That child brews potions for the hospital wing every time hees for a visit. It is his way to thank me for answering his questions," replied the matron.


    "Potions? You are saying that he is brewing medical potions? He doesn''t look much older than Harry or Ivy," asked James Potter.


    "Mr. West is great at brewing potions. His potions stand up to standards, so there are no problems with the quality of the potions," revealed the matron.


    Quinn, who knew nothing about the conversation, walked to the A.I.D office while humming a happy tune.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1]: We have reached 1 MILLION views. Hell yeah! This week, we averaged around 25th position on the power stone ranking (fanfiction category).


    *


    A/N [2]: I got an excellent response in thest chapter. I will be sure to feature the use of Absolute Zero, or more specifically cold. Theories and uses derived from Absolute Zero.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Rxed, Chill, Happy.


    Friar - Hufflepuff ghost - Excited for theing year.


    Poppy Pomfrey - Matron - Likes Quinn even though he is noisy.


    Ivy Potter - Potter Princess - Slightly suspicious of Quinn.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 43 - House Cup Shenanigans, And Dark Lord’s Life

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The end-of-year feast was always a hearty process. All the students were in the Great Hall, filling the hall with bustling activity.


    The Great Hall was decked out in Slytherin colors of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin''s winning the House Cup for the seventh year in a row. A huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table.


    Quinn looked at the emerald green covering the hall and thought,


    ''I could change it to Ravenw colors... no one will ever know, no one.''


    The current score on the House point scoreboard was Slytherin in the lead with 482 points, the runner-up Ravenw with 476 points, in the third-ce was Hufflepuff with 342 points, and in thest ce was Gryffindor with 322 points.


    Quinn had scored lots of points for Ravenw this year, so the difference between the first and second ce was just a measly six points.


    ''Not like I care,'' thought Quinn. He looked at the Slytherin colors and banners and thought, ''The Slytherin dynasty is about to end. They did well, six years in the running. Now, the Gryffindor era would start with the golden boy in the lead.''


    "Ah, the illusion created by the system," said Quinn, stretching his arms in his seat.


    "Man, we were so close. We could''ve beaten Slytherin this year," said Eddie, pping Quinn on his back.


    "Don''t worry about winning, Carmichael. Just be a podium guy. You know, be in the top three, and you would be fine," spoke Quinn, speaking words of wisdom.


    "Then you would be fine if you didn''t score at the top in the exams?" spoke Eddie.


    Quinn made a face and delivered, "What nonsense you are talking about? It makes sense no sense if I don''te out on top." He patted Eddie''s head and continued, "You guys are like goldfish to me. Ravenws are smart goldfish, Slytherins are sneaky goldfish, but some are foolish, Hufflepuffs are normal goldfish, and Gryffindors are dumb goldfish. I can''t lose to you guys."


    "That was rude, like really rude," deadpanned Eddie.


    "Take no offense. Here have this chocte; it will make you feel better," said Quinn, opening his hand as a plume of smoke puffed to reveal a chocte-covered hazelnut.


    Eddie took the chocte and smiled, "Thank you, dude."


    Quinn watched as Eddie ate the chocte, ''Should I experiment with this? No... right?''


    Suddenly the hall became silent, and heads turned towards the Great Hall''s gate.


    Quinn followed everyone and saw Harry Potter standing there with a wide grin on his face. Harry confidently walked to the Gryffindor table with confidence and strutting stride.


    ''Yeah, this Harry Potter is a different one,'' thought Quinn. He had observed Harry the entire school year, at least kept a wandering eye on him, and this one was confident, more outgoing, and didn''t shy away from attention.


    The Great Hall once again bustled with activity after the sudden dip to silence. They were talking about the rumor that was circting in the Hogwarts rumor mill.


    The story circting was the golden quartet; Harry Potter, Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley stopped Quirinus Quirrell from stealing what was inside the restricted section of the third floor.


    Students talked about wild stories about their adventure and bravery, all courtesy of the Weasley twins. They spun ridiculous stories; students being students believed everything they spewed in the rumor mill.


    "Do you really think Ivy Potter killed a troll?" asked Marcus from across the table.


    "She fought a troll during Halloween, so maybe she really did," said Eddie, giving into the rumor.


    Quinn shook his head to himself. He had talked to his contacts in Gryffindor and found that Ivy Potter had taken the troll using the same method as during Halloween; bonking it over the head and knocking it out.


    It surprised Quinn that troll wasn''t knocked out by Quirrell, another event that changed from the canon timeline.


    Dumbledore arrived momentster, and the babble died away.


    "With another year gone!" spoke Dumbledore cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man''s wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the entire summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts..."


    He looked at the student body through his half-moon sses and continued, "Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus..."


    Dumbledore listed off the points of each house, and a storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table.


    "This year, thepetition was extremely close; Ravenw house was just six points behind the reigning cup holder, Slytherin. A lot ofmunity service made it possible for this closepetition," announced Dumbledore.


    The entire Ravenw table cheered for Quinn, and he raised his hand to acknowledge the cheers.


    "And, I made a lot of money,"ughed Quinn, but the ps and cheers drowned his voice.


    "However, recent events must be taken into ount," continued Dumbledore.


    The room went very still. The Slytherins'' smiles faded a little.


    "Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a fewst-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes..." he cleared his throat and announced, "First to Mr. Ronald Weasley. For the best-yed game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house forty (40) points."


    Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall''s giant chess set!"


    "Second to Ms. Ivy Potter, for showing bravery in the face of danger, to the defeater of trolls, I award Gryffindor House forty (40) points," said Dumbledore, looking at Ivy Potter.


    The redhead looked proud and embarrassed at the same time.


    "Third, I award another forty (40) points to Ms. Hermione Granger for the use of cool logic in the face of fire. I award Gryffindor House forty (40) points."


    Hermione buried her face in her arms, and Gryffindor students were beside themselves. They were a hundred and twenty (120) points up.


    "Third, to Mr. Harry Potter..." said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "... for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house another forty (40) points."


    The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had four hundred and eighty-two (82) points, the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the House cup... if only Dumbledore had given Harry just one more point.


    Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.


    "There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to enemies and, more importantly, to friends. I, therefore, award ten (10) points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."


    Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken ce, so loud was the noise that erupted from the Gryffindor table. Harry, Ron, Ivy, and Hermione stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryffindor before. In fact, he was usually the prime target of Snape''s point deductions.


    "Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of apuse, for even Ravenw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, "We need a little change of decoration."


    In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet, and the silver became gold; the Slytherin serpent vanished, and a towering Gryffindor lion took its ce. Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall''s hand with a forced smile.


    Quinn, on the other hand, wasughing so hard that his sides hurt.


    "The system is broken," he cackled.


    He looked over to the Slytherin table and saw the tragic and shocked faces at the sudden change of events. He felt joy seeing the Slytherin defeated by the system that they had exploited for six straight years.


    Snape had helped Slytherin with house points by offering them plenty of house points and cutting house points from thepetition. Now, Dumbledore had injected Gryffindor with a hundred and seventy points, giving them the House cup.


    The broken system that kept Hogwarts students in check being exploited boughtughter to Quinn.


    His eyes caught the eyes of Daphne, and that made him stopughing and start whistling cluelessly. The Slytherin blonde red at the whistling fool with a scoff.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The day the students boarded the Hogwarts Express for returning home, all students except fifth and seventh-year students got their exam results.


    Quinn looked at the sheet of parchment and casually looked over it.


    All Os showed on the report card with asterisks on every subject except Potions and History of Magic, showing that he scored over a hundred percent on the tests.


    He created a dozen copies of his report card with the Doubling charm and packed the original with his luggage. With report card day in Ravenw, he knew his year mates would want to see his results, so to avoid the whole interrogatory session, he made the copies to hand out.


    As he predicted, the moment he came down from his dorm room, second years surrounded him.


    "Okay! Aye, wait - wait! You hooligans! Here, take these, and leave me alone," he handed the copies to the mindless second years.


    "Oh,e on! How do you score more than a hundred percent?!" asked one of them.


    Quinn lifted his hands and showed it to them, "These hands have magic in them. Whatever they write turns to pure intellectual gold."


    Marietta Edgbe raised her hand and asked, "Quinn, I have a job for you."


    Quinn tilted his head, "Now?"


    She nodded and took out a sickle, "Let me kick you, and I will give you this sickle."


    Quinn joined his hands in front of him and politely bowed, "I would like to inform you we at A.I.D reserve our right to ept requests and would like to politely refuse this task."


    Edgbe snorted and crossed her arms in amusements.


    Second-year at Hogwarts was over, and Quinn was returning home.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn got off the red train and looked around the tform. He saw the reporters scattered around. They were waiting for the Potters toe down from the train. Students needed to board the Hogwarts Express without exceptions to exit and enter Hogwarts.


    He didn''t take a few steps, and a reporter stopped him.


    ''Why is he stopping me?'' thought Quinn, puzzled at the situation.


    "Hey little buddy, can you tell me something about Harry Potter?" asked the reporter.


    ''Ah, of course,'' realized Quinn.


    Not wanting to entertain the reporter, Quinn pointed to his left and yelled, "Look, Ivy Potter just came out of the train!"


    When the reporter looked to the side, Quinn slipped by and letting the horde of deboarding students act as his camouge.


    Quinn looked for the one who was picking him up and immediately found the person. It was Uncle Elliot, the West family butler. He still looked perfect, with not a single thing out of ce. Clothes perfectly ironed, shoes polished, hairbed perfectly, and his patent kind expression on his face.


    "Uncle Elliot!" Quinn yelled, beaming as he hurried towards the older gentleman.


    Elliot looked towards the voice and smiled as he saw Quinn hurrying towards him, "Young master."


    "It has been too long, Uncle," said Quinn, hugging Elliot. Elliot hugged Quinn back before saying,


    "Young master, let''s leave from here. The tform is getting a bit too crowded."


    Quinn nodded, and the two walked to the apparition point.


    "How was school, young master?" asked Elliot.


    "It was quite eventful. I learned a lot, and a lot of interesting stuff happened this year," answered Quinn.


    "Oh, tell me all about it," asked Elliot, interested in Quinn''s experience.


    "You won''t believe me if I told you," Quinn chuckled as he looked up towards Elliot.


    "Try me," responded Elliot.


    Quinn smiled and asked, "What do you know about the Philosopher''s stone?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    When Rowena Ravenw''s daughter, Helena, stole her mother''s diadem, she hid it in an Albanian forest. The Bloody Baron came to the forest to retrieve her but ended up killing her on impulse when she refused and then himself in repentance.


    The diadem remained hidden for several centuries until Tom Marvolo Riddle discovered Helena was the Grey Lady, the House Ghost of Ravenw, and managed to get the information about its resting ce from her. He recovered it, murdered a peasant, and turned it into one of his Horcruxes.


    Following his downfall in 1981, Tom Riddle, now known as Lord Voldemort, fled to the forests in Albania in his weakened state.


    In 1991 he encountered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry''s Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, who was looking for him so that he could at the very least try to capture him, or at best learn from him. However, Quirrell overestimated himself, and Voldemortpletely overpowered the man, thus leaving Albania.


    And, now following his failed attempt to steal the Philosopher''s Stone, Voldemort had returned to Albania, weaker than ever. Voldemort lost his physical form and magical powers, but he remained alive in ghostly form. The Horcruxes he had created kept his spirit bound to the physical world.


    His one remaining power was possession. Voldemort gained physical form by inhabiting animals, mainly snakes. Though he disliked doing so because the bodies of such animals were ill-equipped to perform magic and because his possession significantly reduced their lifespans, none of his hosts survived for too long.


    After his downfall against the infant Harry Potter, Voldemort had lived like this for a decade, possessing animals, corroding their bodies with his unfitting soul, and at the same time fighting the animalistic instincts from his host bodies.


    In 1981, he was angry when he had lost his physical body, raged at the thought of being bested by Euphemia Potter and her use of ancient magic, and it angered him greatly when he found his demise had been publicized by the hands of a one-year-old babe.


    The great Dark Lord Voldemort had lost to a one-year-old child. There was no greater slight on his honor and reputation.


    Grindelwald had lost to Albus Dumbledore, but an infant had bested him? It made Voldemort''s blood boil thinking about it.


    Quirinus Quirrell had made a voyage to Albania, where his foolish and gullible mind was vulnerable to Voldemort. Hetched onto Quirrell''s body and came back to Ennd with him. It was a ray of hope for the first time in a decade.


    He ordered Quirrell to steal the Philosopher''s stone from a Vault 713 in Gringotts Wizarding Bank so he could make the Elixir of Life, creating a body for himself. Voldemort discovered the stone had been removed earlier that same day, and through Quirrell''s connections at Hogwarts, learned it was hidden at the school.


    It turned out that even a human''s body wasn''t resilient enough to host two souls and needed external help. Thus, Voldemort ordered Quirrell to prey on unicorns in the Forbidden Forest and drink their blood so he could gain strength from the unicorn''s healing abilities and keep Quirrell alive.


    After an entire school year of trying to get to the stone, Voldemort ordered Quirrell to send a fake letter to Albus Dumbledore, asking him to go to the Ministry of Magic. Voldemort moved forward with his goal, moving through the security barriers to the Mirror of Erised. Quirrell saw himself presenting the stone to his master but could not figure out how to get it.


    Then Harry Potter arrived, and when Quirrell attacked Harry, Euphemia Potter''s ancient magic struck again. It burned Quirrell''s body, and Voldemort barely fled from the harm. Now here he was for a second time, without a human body, back to inhabiting animal bodies.


    This time around, Voldemort''s emotions weren''t of anger but of despair. His first and only hope in ten years had gone down the drain. Now, he didn''t know when would the next chancee along.


    He slithered in his current snake body, moving to the familiar area of the Albanian forest. The ce that he had spent a lot of time in his body less exile.


    When he entered the area, Voldemort hissed with all his might, trying to message someone in Parseltongue. It took a minute before Voldemort picked up vibrations from his inner snake ears. He turned his snake body and saw an enormous, green snake, roughly twelve feet long and as thick as a man''s thigh.


    "Oh, Nagini," hissed Voldemort, moving closer to the green snake.


    He liked Nagini; she was rather cunning and deceptive and understood how humans behaved. Possessing a powerful bond with Voldemort, Nagini alone did not fear his wrathful moments, as he never punished her for failures nor took it out on her when misfortune struck him.


    He was as close to her as he could be to any living being. Voldemort didn''t fear her betraying him, she was loyal to him with all her life, and that point provided him withfort.


    The onlyfort in the hellish life he was living.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - System stinks! And he likes that.


    Elliot Dalton - Sebas-... Butler - Gentleman, through and through.


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - Spectre - Snake body - At a low point.


    Nagini - A female Maledictus - Curse has run its course...


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis.

 Chapter 44 - Change In Mindscape, And The Sales Pitch

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis..


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    A few days into the summer break between two school years, Quinnid in the bed in his room. The room had changed little in the years Quinn had upied it. The only changes were therger study table and pictures on the wall, umted over the years, capturing precious memories in their frames.


    Not all of them moved like the magical photographs did and remained still like non-magical photography. There was something in still photos that Quinn liked, and some shots were stripped off their magic, leaving the exact moment they were clicked.


    The room''s upant had his eyes closed,ying on his back, away from the real world, and inside his mindscape.


    The same mindscape that once had been a white space and was turned into a vast green grass field with clouds above, gracing the blue sky with their pearly white contrast.


    On the grassy field stood a manor, a building that acted as a gateway to the ce in the mind where the memories resided, bringing them into the mindscape for better ess. Inside the manor, memories manifested in the form of books.


    Thousands of books sat on hundreds of shelves, each book representing a memory, memories from all over Quinn''s life. Be it something as trivial as what he ate at dinner over a month ago to vital things like the proper method for channeling Blood magic without harming the body.


    Outside the mind-replica of the West manor stood Quinn, gazing at the building that he had built years ago and had since spent hours upon hours changing the sorting scheme of the memory books, creating and developing methods of crafting new memory books.


    Sorting memories so that they would be easier to find and ess and, at the same time, the configuration scheme of the books would make it difficult for a legilimens to see his memories.


    Quinn turned away from the West manor replica and looked in the opposite direction, suddenly the scenery shifted, and Quinn stood in a muchrger building. A building that outssed the West manor in every size aspect; it covered more ground and stood much taller than the West manor.


    Aplete replica of Hogwarts castle stood in Quinn''s mindscape, exuding the grandeur like the actual one in the real world. He had modified the grassy terrain of the mindscape to suit the castle''s surroundings. Rocky canyons,kes, and trees were now part of the fabricated ecosystem in Quinn''s mindscape.


    It had taken Quinn two years toplete this replica in his mindscape. Hundreds of nights and days of exploration of the castle, several miles/kilometers of foot mileage, tons of memorization, and hours of immersion in memories of the castle to construct a stronger image of the building and its interior.


    Quinn took a step forward, and the scenery once again changed. He stood inside the castle; In the Great Hall, looking at the charmed ceiling, which now showed a clear sky. The same as Quinn''s simple fabrication of the sky.


    With each step Quinn took, he was in a different room in a distinct part of the castle. There were quite a few differences between the real and replica of Hogwarts.


    The portraits in the actual version weren''t present here, and the walls were now covered with empty frames. Quinn''s variant didn''t have a Room of Requirements as he didn''t have the time to create a working version of Room of Requirements, so he left it out for now.


    Professor''s offices and housing were omitted from Quinn''s version. Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Hufflepuffmon rooms and dorms were just copies of Ravenwmon room. Even Ravenw girl''s dorms were a replica of the boy''s dorms because he had never been there. Despite all these differences, the Hogwarts replica was a stable structure with no breaks or fissures.


    After Quinn was satisfied with the final audit of the castle, he turned away, and he was outside the castle replica.


    "Okay, let''s do this."


    Quinn closed his eyes, and at the West manor replica, the gateway for his memory to appear in the mindscape closed.


    "Connection closed," whispered Quinn.


    He took a deep breath and focused on the Hogwarts castle.


    The castle started to rumble as termors filled the building, and the surrounding areas shook with quakes. A new connection to the memories opened up, and the Hogwarts castle became a gateway for memories to gather in Quinn''s mindscape.


    The whole process took a few moments and consisted of lots of groaning and grunts from Quinn.


    "Phew... well, that wasn''t any easy than thest time," sighed Quinn.


    "New connection established."


    He raised his hand and swung it down towards the castle. Quinn turned away from the Hogwarts replica and looked at the sky. Within seconds, thousands and thousands of books fluttered across the sky and entered the castle through windows and gates.


    "Memories injected into the replica,plete," noted Quinn.


    With Hogwarts standing in his mindscape, he now had arger space to work with. He could also experiment with new sorting techniques that could use the expanded space, rooms, and floors. The architecture and floor ns of Hogwarts were also much moreplex than the more simplistic West manor.


    Quinn took a step away from the castle to instantaneously arrive at the West manor in his mindscape.


    He looked at the manor with nostalgia and entered the building to find it empty without any memory books; all left in the buildings were vacant bookshelves.


    Quinn touched one of the walls in the building and said, "Don''t worry, buddy, I still have plenty of use for you."


    He had no intention of destroying the West manor replica in his mindscape. He had other ns for it,


    "I am going to store all my happiest memories in here," smiled Quinn, feeling sentimental about the first structure in his mind.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Uncle Elliot," said Quinn, calling out Elliot, who was drinking his tea in the living hall.


    Elliot looked up from the book he was reading and asked, "What is it, young master?"


    Quinn sat on the sofa in front of Elliot and cleared his throat, "I have something I want you to do."


    Elliot put down his cup of tea and closed his book, "Yes, what do you want me to do?"


    Quinn put on a slight smile and asked, "I want you to arrange a meeting for me with grandfather."


    "... Young master, what do you mean by arranging a meeting? You can go and see your grandfather anytime you desire. He won''t turn you away." Quinn''s request greatly confused Elliot; he wasn''t sure what Quinn was asking for from him.


    Quinn shook his head in response, "I don''t want to meet my grandfather for a personal reason." He took a short breath and continued, "I want to meet George West for a business proposition. So, my meeting is not for a personal motive, but a professional reason."


    Elliot''s brows raised as he leaned forward, "A business proposition?"


    "Yes, I want to sell grandfather something and thought if I arranged a meeting via you, it would seem more professional," grinned Quinn.


    "But, doesn''t all this sound a bit silly?" asked Elliot, observing Quinn, interested in the direction of the conversation.


    Quinn nodded, but at the same nodded, "Yes, but as grandfather says, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and ..."


    "... while many make a good first impression, only a few will make a goodsting impression," finished Elliot, smiling as he remembered the words often spoken by George.


    Quinn nodded and spoke, "If I do this, it will create an impression on grandfather, and it will help me out when I go and put my proposal out in front of him."


    Elliot stayed silent for a moment before saying, "Alright, I will do it. I will set up a meeting with your grandfather."


    Quinn smiled, but Elliot continued,


    "But, if I am going to do this, I would have to know that what you are nning is worth it."


    Quinn paused listening to that and blinked in confusion.


    "What do you mean?"


    Elliot crossed his leg over the other and rested his hands on hisp.


    "If we are taking this seriously, then by setting this meeting, I am vouching that you are a legit opportunity and not some waste of time. If I am going to use my name for this meeting, then I have to be sure that you are not wasting your grandfather''s time."


    Quinn pursed his lips and asked, "Alright, what do you want from me?"


    "Opportunity is a haughtydy who wastes no time with those who are unprepared," quoted Elliot, before continuing, "Before the meeting, we are going to clear out the kinks from your proposal."


    Quinn nodded. He could certainly use some help on this matter.


    "But before that, I have to hear your n. I have to see what you are building on and if it is useful enough," said Elliot.


    Quinn nodded and revealed his idea,


    "So, you know about..."


    Elliot listened as Quinn spoke about his n, and as Quinn talked more and more about his idea, Elliot became increasingly interested.


    "... Young master, if you can deliver what you are saying, then this would be big," said Elliot, his eyes shining with eagerness, "enormous, a game-changer."


    Quinn smiled and spoke while nodding, "Oh, believe me, I can deliver."


    Elliot nodded, leaned forward, and looked Quinn in the eye, "Alright then, let''s make sure that this goes perfectly."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    George West sat in his study, doing work when he heard a knock on his door.


    "Come in," he said, knowing who it was from the knocks.


    Elliot entered the study and closed the door behind him. He sat on the chairs in front of the desk and waited for George to speak to him.


    George asked, not looking up from his papers, "What is it, Elliot?"


    "I have a person who I want you to meet," started Elliot.


    He and Quinn had been working on his presentation for quite a few days, and Elliot thought that Quinn was ready, so here he was setting up a meeting for Quinn.


    "Hmm? You want me to meet someone? Who?" asked George.


    "A person with a product that I think is great. He contacted me hoping to get a meeting with you," answered Elliot.


    "That is rare, a reference from you, that is," said George as he continued to work.


    "Well, I have a certain standard to maintain, and this one passed the criteria I set up," responded Elliot, with a smile on his face.


    "Alright, look up a spot on my calendar and set up a meeting in one of the free spots. Within the usual timings," said George.


    Elliot nodded and stood up, "It will be done."


    As Elliot walked to the door, George asked, "What is the name of the person?"


    Elliot looked back with a grin and answered, "Oh, it is Quinn West."


    George stopped his pen and looked up with his eyes wide, "What did you say?"


    Elliot''s grin was so broad that it split his face, "I said the name is Quinn West, and I was thinking that we would set up the meeting here. It will be easy to meet for both parties."


    George stared at Elliot and uttered, "... What?"


    Elliot sat back down, enjoying the look on George''s face.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Lia and George sat in one of the rooms in the West manor. The room was turned into a conference room. The room had two chairs behind a table for Lia and George to sit. In front of the table was an empty ce for the presenter to stand and present.


    Lia looked at her grandfather and spoke, "Grandfather, please tell me more about the person we are meeting. You know I don''t like going to meetings without knowing what I am here for."


    She sighed irritably and continued, "I don''t like to be unprepared."


    Lia wasn''t feeling positive about this meeting. Her grandfather has called her while she wasn''t in the country on brief notice and didn''t give her an option to refuse. And, he didn''t tell her anything about the meeting.


    "Be patient. Elliot is the one who rmended this person," said George, not revealing who the meeting was with.


    Lia sighed and just looked at the empty disy stand in front of the room.


    The door opened, and the grandfather-granddaughter pair watched as Elliot stood with the door wide open.


    "He is here," said Elliot with a smile on his face.


    Lia rolled her eyes and said, "Finally."


    Elliot turned his face to outside the room and called out, "You may enter."


    Lia''s eyes widened as she saw her little brother enter the room, dressed in formal wear. He had a big envelope in his hand and was dragging a small trunk on wheels behind me.


    "Quinn?!" eximed Lia, not sure what to make of this. While George sat in his chair, not a single expression on his face.


    Quinn sat the envelope on the disy stand and set the trunk a little behind the disy stand. He brushed his clothes and confidently walked towards the table.


    "Good morning. My name is Quinn West," greeted Quinn with a smile on his face, his hand extended for a handshake with George.


    George shook Quinn''s hand and said, "George West."


    George grinned when it came to Lia, "Nice to see you, Lia." Taking her hand and kissing her knuckles.


    He stepped back and moved towards the stand. Taking out his fake wand, Quinn used magic. A thin white cardboard sheet floated out and set them on the disy stand. With another swing, the cardboard sheet expanded to its full sizes, fitting the size of the disy stand.


    Quinn turned around to his family members and spoke,


    "My name is Quinn West, and I believe what I am about to show you will change the way wemunicate with each other," he paused before smiling, "I am here to present what I perceive as the future ofmunication in the magical world. Something that will change be conceived as a great change in the world."


    Quinn waved his fake wand, and a picture letter envelope appeared on the cardboard.


    "When wemunicate with people who aren''t close to us, we write and send them letters," said Quinn as the picture of the letter envelope shrunk and two stick figures appeared on the white. The letter went from one stick figure to the other, depicting that the mail was sent.


    "Now, how do we send that letter to another person. We use owls or eagles as the carrier of our message," as he said that the cardboard went nk before an owl appeared on it clutching a letter in its ws, pping its wings as if flying somewhere.


    "Owls and other carrier birds have been in the magical society for centuries. We have been using these trained birds to deliver messages of trivial gossip to important documents for as long as we can remember."


    Quinn stared at George and Lia and asked, "But, is this the best we can do? We have the power of magic at our fingertips, and messenger bird is the best we can manage? No, I think we can do much better."


    Quinn waved his wand, and the Ministry of Magic''s symbol appeared on the white cardboard.


    "British ministry of magic stopped using owls for in-house memos because of all the mess that the owls made and themotions that our trusted mail birds caused."


    Small paper airnes appeared on the white as they flew around the ministry symbol.


    "Now, they charm their documents so that they would fold themselves into paper airnes and fly to their destination."


    Quinn made a ''meh'' expression andmented, "A somewhat interesting solution, but it has a major shoring. What happens if some jerk is having a bad day and decides to mess up someone else''s day. He or she would yank a random airne out of the air and tear it to pieces."


    The picture on the cardboard depicted an angry-looking man shredding the paper ne into pieces.


    Quinn cleared his throat and spoke, "We got a little off-topic. Let''s return to owls," he walked around the room with his hands behind his back.


    "What are some shorings of owlmunication," Quinn uncurled his pinky finger from his fist, "They take time to deliver the letter as it takes time to fly to ces, and the time increases with the distances, owls make a mess as every bird does. It takes time and money to raise mail owls. Owl mail is not totally secure as they can get in trouble with other birds and can get distracted," with every point, Quinn uncurled another finger.


    He stopped in the center of the room and spoke, "And anyone can capture owls to see the message inside; there is very little security when using owls." Quinn stared at George and said, "Our very own ministry has the authority to monitor owl messages... the big brother is always watching."


    He slowly walked towards the table behind which Lia and George were sitting and dered, "What if I can solve every single of these problems. What if I can provide you a solution that would change the way people send letters to each other."


    A smile slowly emerged on Quinn''s face as he spoke, "Today, here and now, I have a product that will allow a person to send a message to another person." Quinn snapped his fingers. "Instantly... eradicating the need of any wait time for getting a letter. With excellent security that no one wouldn''t allow people to snipe the owls and read our messages. A product that would cover all the shoring of owl mails."


    George and Lia watched Quinn as he spoke about his product. While George still had no expression on his face, Lia''s eyes showed curiosity about this product.


    Quinn turned away from the table and walked to the trunk, and rolled it towards the table.


    Quinn spoke while crouched down to open the trunk, "I am going to show you something that will convince you that I can break the long-running usage of owls to deliver messages."


    He took out two wooden objects; they were the size of a shirt box. Each wooden box had a slot on one of the short sides. On the top of the side of the wooden boxes, there was a rectangr copper te in the size of A-4 size sheet embedded in the wood.


    He took out two sheets of paper and set one sheet in front of Lia, and while handing a pen to her, Quinn said, "Would you write something on this paper. Anything would do; you can ever draw on the paper if you like."


    Lia took the pen from Quinn. She uncapped it, and in the middle of the page, she wrote her name in fancy handwriting.


    "Good, know would you ce it upside down on the copper te and tap your wand on the paper," instructed Quinn with a smile. As he said that, Quinn put the other sheet in the other box''s slot in front of George.


    Lia followed the instruction and put the sheet down upside down on the copper te. She took out her wand and tapped the page.


    George and Lia watched as the copper te under Lia''s page glowed blue before turning green. On George''s side, a blue light came from the paper slot before turning green.


    Quinn smiled and looked at George, "Mr. West, would you take out the page from the slot."


    George took out the paper from the slot, and his eyes widened as he saw Lia''s name in the same handwriting on the page he just pulled out.


    When Lia looked at the page in George''s hand, she gasped to see her handwriting on another sheet.


    "I give you instantaneous mail," said Quinn with a smile on his face.


    Quinn had invented the magical equivalent of the fax machine.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N [1] - The fax machines became popr in thete 1980s. Quinn developed a magical version when the fax machines in the prime of the muggle fax machine.


    *


    A/N [2] - I will exin the working of the magical fax machine in the next chapter.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Invented the fax machine.


    Elliot Dalton - Sales Pitch Guru - Actually has a really high position in the West business.


    George West - Big Boss - Proud of Quinn''s presentation skills.


    Lia West - Small Boss - In awe of the artifact in front of her.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 45 - Fax Machine, Plans For Monopoly, And Omake (?)

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Back to the time when Quinn was still in Hogwarts, and he had some time at hand. He stood in his workshop flipping through a small notepad, looking for ideas. The tiny notepad in his hand was where Quinn noted down the random project ideas that came to him.


    "Let''s see... typewriter, hmm, not today."


    .


    .


    .


    "A charmed pair of hands for a piano duet? Maybe when I am bored out my mind."


    .


    .


    .


    "Thermal vision eye drops... oh, this sounds interesting. Ah, but I don''t have the ingredients."


    .


    .


    .


    "Artificial magical eye... Na, this will need a lot of research."


    .


    .


    .


    After bouncing off some ideas, Quinn finally found something that interested him and was doable for the time constraints.


    "Fax machine," spoke Quinn, rubbing his thumb over the page.


    "Fax machine... meaning a scanner and printer. Two or more nodes connected to each other," Quinn began mumbling as he sat down on the barstool in his workshop.


    After contemting for a few minutes, Quinn stood up and pped his hands, "Okay, let''s go with this."


    He closed his notepad and took out a sheet of paper for drafting the rough idea.


    "First, let''s decide how to connect two device nodes to each other," said Quinn as he uncapped his fountain pen and started to write.


    "I would have to make use of the Protean charm to synchronize the two devices, but what should be the part to be synchronized."


    Quinn got up and moved towards a drawer full of scrap metals. He took out two spare pieces of copper from his scrap pile and transmuted them into identical square chips.


    With his chin resting on his palm, Quinn charmed the square chips with the Protean charm.


    "Here we go," said Quinn as he touched one of the copper chips, and it turned to show a picture of an eagle. He nced at the other copper chip and saw the same eagle picture on it.


    Protean charm was the charm that Hermione Granger used to link fake coins tomunicate with the members of Dumbledore''s Army. A change in one fake Galleon, in her case, a master coin, would be magically reflected in the others so that when Harry Potter transfigured his charmed coin to show a new date for a D.A. meeting, all the other coins would also exhibit the same changes.


    "I will need to formte a customized version of Protean charm," noted Quinn as he thought of things to aplish.


    Quinn needed to create a charm that would be scble, which meant that he needed to figure out a way to add new devices to the existingworks of fax devices.


    "I also need to figure out how to direct and iste signals to particr devices."


    Another challenge was that, unlike in Dumbledore''s Army coins, Quinn didn''t need a master device that signaled all other coins. Quinn needed to create a method to send signals to intended devices so that not everyone would get a message for just one device.


    "Well, that wouldn''t be much of a problem. At least, I hope it wouldn''t be a problem," murmured Quinn.


    Arithmancy models were needed to develop a customized version of a spell. He needed to define how the magic would be molded to create the intended effect.


    Then there were things like if he wanted to use runes in the artifact or if he wanted to stick to charms. Then there were things like how he was going to use Protean charm for scanning and printing.


    In the Dumbledore''s Army coins, the changes happened when the master coin was transfigured, but Quinn needed the device to detect the ink on paper and work from there.


    There were many things that Quinn needed to consider for making the entire system work.


    "Let''s start from the top up," said Quinn and started to draft the schematics for the n.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    George looked at the two pages in front of him, and other than the slight difference in ink, the contents on the pages were precisely identical.


    He looked up from the pages and asked, "How does it work?"


    Quinn pulled a stool and sat in front of the table. He pointed his fake wand at the magical fax machine, and all heard a click from both the boxes.


    The copper insides of the devices levitated out their wooden frame and floated for all to see.


    "I won''t go into details, but the device is a clever usage of Protean charm, transfiguration, some light spells, and few other things needed to sum up all of it," Quinn said as he took a nk page and drew a letter envelope on it.


    Quinn waved his fake wand, and the lower part of the paper tray slot came out, revealing the upper wall of the paper slot.


    "You can''t see it, but the upper wall of the slot where you insert the paper has thousands of pores thinner than human hair, and just above the upper wall of the paper slot, there is a hollow space filled with ink."


    He ced the paper on the top of the scanner of the other fax prototype and said, "Now, watch."


    There was a blue glow below the paper before it turned green. When the light turned green, George and Lia watched as the exposed upper wall of the second fax prototype transfigured to make a protrusion in the shape of the drawn envelope.


    "You see the shape of the envelope? The next part is when the pores in the copper would open up to eject a tiny amount of ink, every pore in this envelope-shaped outdent would eject some ink to print the envelope onto a new sheet. Right now, I froze the ink inside, so you can''t see the inke out," exined Quinn.


    He had taken the impression of the printer part of the magical apparatus from the inkjet printer technology and imitated the way they printed images onto paper.


    "Whatever text or image is scanned on the first machine, the second would copy it out on a new page. And, you noted the speed; itpleted the process within seconds," spoke Quinn as he reattached the removed part of the paper slot and lowered the copper insides into the wooden case.


    George tapped his finger on the table before asking, "The idea is interesting, but this won''t work in the real world. This is too limited."


    Quinn smiled and pointed at the magical fax replica, "This right here is just a proof of concepts. I have schematics and models for a practical version ready to be constructed. I just need the materials, and I can deliver in a week tops."


    The practical version would be much like a traditional photocopier with different paper sizes, protocols that would not allow printing if there were was no paper.


    Lia chimed in and asked, "How many of these can you connect to each other? And, do you have a way to specify who the copy goes to?"


    Quinn smirked and responded, "There is no limit to how many of these I can connect to each other. Even if we create as many as magicals on this, there will be no problem in connectivity."


    Magic didn''t have connectivity issues like electric and phone lines. There would be no busy lines or slow connections. The only limit was how fast Quinn''s magical printer could print the pages. Everything else was instantaneous as magic didn''t have the processing limitations of aputer.


    "And, yes. I have a way to decide how to send the message to a specific person. I am thinking of using abination of three letters and five digits. That would give us a total of over a billion (1,757,600,000)binations to assign, meaning we can create a billion of these machines. The sender would dial in the code assigned to the receiver to send the message to the correct person."


    George hummed before asking, "How long will it take someone to copy the product?"


    Quinn shrugged and replied, "It depends. If it is someone smart, they can figure it out within a couple of months. If I put in some effort, then I can extend that by a couple of months. If I really put my mind to it, it would take someone much better than me closer to a year''s worth of time."


    George stayed silent for a moment before saying, "That is an excellent margin. We can work with that. How much time would it take to train some people to build these?"


    Quinn shrugged, "Once again, it would depend on the person''s skills. I can build these myself till you can train some people. I will build a manual for that."


    George nodded, and Lia suggested, "How about we first test these out in our offices and shops. Get their opinions and see if it works well in a real workce environment."


    Quinn was okay with that and actually supported it. Getting the product tested before rolling it out to the public was standard procedure, and it would help the product development. In the end, the product would improve before the initial release.


    George and Lia started to discuss how to proceed from here on, and Quinn just smiled.


    ''They didn''t notice,'' he thought before revealing the greatest feature of the product, one that was much bigger than a simple scanner and copier.


    "Grandfather, Lia, you are missing something out," said Quinn.


    Both of them looked at Quinn, and Lia asked, "What are you talking about?"


    "You asked me how a sender will send the message to a particr person," spoke Quinn.


    Lia nodded, "You said that every piece would be assigned a code. But, what about that?"


    A smile bloomed on Quinn''s face, "And, we will be the one to assign those codes to the devices and add those pieces to thework..."


    George''s eyes widened as he continued for Quinn, "... Awork that would be maintained by us, but that means..." He understood what Quinn was talking about.


    Quinn chuckled and said while looking at George, "It doesn''t matter if some copies our design andunch a product of their own. We control thework that connects all the devices. Without thework and connections, they are nothing but scanners and copiers with nomunication capabilities. And, anyone could use a Geminio charm if they want a temporary copy."


    "...Even if someone copies our product, they would be toote as we already have an establishedwork, and if they want to sell their version, they would have toe to us for the connection," Lia spoke with a thoughtful look on her face.


    "I have designed a runic artifact that would work as connection hubs for the entirework. In easier words, it works like the ward stone used to anchor the wards and protective charms to a building or area. These will also solve the distance problem with faraway countries."


    Ward stones were an application of runic magic to cast powerful wards and protective spells to an area. The ward stones provided the protective wards and spells the magic to keep working and were a versatile piece of magic.


    Hogwarts had a ward stone that held numerous wards like anti-apparition wards to protect the castle.


    Quinn stood on from his stool and bowed, "And, with this, I finish my sales presentation."


    George and Lia stared at him with a shocked expression. Quinn had just given them something that would establish them as a monopoly in this business. A monopoly share orplete market domination in an industry with extremely high potential.


    Quinn turned towards the door from where Elliot was watching and walked towards him with one hand raised high. Elliot raised his hand in response, and the two shared a loud high five.


    "That''s how you do it," said Quinn with uumph in his voice and a grin in his voice.


    After that, he turned back and asked, "Oh yeah, how much are you going to pay me for this?"


    George stared at Quinn and asked, "How much do you want?"


    "Double the amount in my student trust vault," responded Quinn, staring into George''s eyes.


    "Deal," finished George, not taking any time to consider the offer.


    "Nice," said Quinn, giving his grandfather a thumbs-up.


    .


    - (Omake: Extra | "I don''t know ...") -


    .


    Quinn and Lia came out from a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark and asked, "So, how did you like it? It was good, right?"


    His eyes twinkled as he looked up at Lia, expecting a glowing remark from Lia.


    Lia hummed in response before speaking, "It was nice, but Indiana Jones didn''t y a part in the movie."


    Quinn frowned but then chuckled, "Oh, Lia. You must misunderstand things. The person with the fedora and the whip is Indiana Jones. Oh, Lia, what would you do without me." His eyes shined, and he suggested, "On that point, let''s get me a fedora. I want to see how they are made so that I can make my own."


    Lia sighed and said, "I know who Indiana Jones is, but if he weren''t in the movie, the Nazis would have still found the Ark, taken it to the ind, opened it up, and all died... just like they did. Indiana Jones didn''t need to be in the movie."


    Quinn''s jaw dropped as he stared at Lia in shock.


    He raised his index finger and uttered, "Uh...," but had no point to make.


    Lia gently ced a finger under Quinn''s chin and slowly closed his mouth for him, "Sorry about that, kiddo."


    Quinn just stared at Lia, his mind going nk for the shock he just received.


    .


    .


    .


    Lia had boggled Quinn''s mind, so to un-boggle it, he did what was required; he spent hours topletely immerse himself in the film''s memory. The film Raider''s of the Lost Ark was one of the few memories on which Quinn had aplishedplete immersion. He could recall every scene of the movie in his head.


    But it wasn''t enough; Quinn went a step further and went to a couple more screenings that showed extra footage to find any clue. He attended every screening that promised to show unshown footage. Quinn talked to fellow enthusiasts about the film, and sometimes in frustration, he would tell them what Lia had said to him, destroying their moods in the process.


    The question gued Quinn''s thoughts as, over time, one of his room''s walls was covered with plot points, sketches of scenes straight out of memory, questions that needed to be solved, discussion with people he met during the screening, and gatherings he visited.


    A bright red yarn connected everything on the walls, making it seem like an investigation board of a crime in the police station.


    And finally, one day, he found something. A ray of hope that illuminated his world arrived. A scene that didn''t make it to thest cut and gave the proof that Indiana Jones had some influence on the final result.


    "Hahahahahahaha!"ughed Quinn, maniacally. He immediately set afoot and sent a message to Lia through the magical fax machine, which they were currently calling the West-mail.


    [


    Dear sister,


    I wholeheartedly believe you are wrong, and it rtes to a scene that isn''t in the movie. I know for a fact that nazis had the incorrect length staff because they only had one side of the headpiece.


    I saw this scene in an extended cut of the movie.


    Not only that, but the second side of the headpiece contains more info than just the ''correct'' staff length. Also written on the backside are instructions not to look into the Ark...this is how Indy knows to ''KEEP YOUR EYES SHUT'' when the Ark is opened.


    So, in theory, I am correct, and you are wrong.


    Take that!


    Love,


    Quinn.


    ]


    Quinn smirked when he sent the message, d that he had shown that the masterpiece film couldn''t be wrong.


    Her reply cameter that evening in a brief message.


    [


    Quinn,


    Huh, what are you talking about?


    Lia.


    ]


    Quinn stared at the message in his hand. It made him realize he might be the only one getting worked up on this topic.


    He looked at the wall with red yarn and loads of paper on the wall and then looked at his hands.


    "What have I be..."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Would go down in history as the inventor of West-mail or W-mail - Also had a brief spell of madness.


    Lia West - Business Women - Ruined the official cut of Raiders of the Last Ark.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Tried something because he couldn''t find a way to end the chapter.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 46 - Upcoming Year, And Testing Out Wards.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis..


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The designated room for Quinn''s magic in the West manor was a spacious hall with ample space and had sturdy walls, ceiling, and floor just in case magic hit the walls. The sturdy walls would prevent damage to anything outside the hall, protecting the structure of the entire manor.


    In that hall, with no decor or furniture, Quinn sat in the dead center. He sat in the lotus position, his back straight and eyes closed. The room was dead silent, with not a single sound that could disturb the peace.


    In the middle of summer, Britain was always hot. While it was because of the heat, the main factor that really made the summers ufortable was the humidity content in the air which made the entire experience ufortable.


    And, even in that humid climate, Quinn dispersed more and more conjured water into the air of the room. Slowly increasing the moisture content in the room to where the water droplets dripped from the walls, but Quinn didn''t stop and kept on pumping more water in the form of thin mist.


    He even made it so that the water won''t condense and start dripping in excess, and the air would retain more and more liquid.


    At some point, Quinn felt that if he increased the humidity content of the room, it would get difficult to breathe, so he stopped dispersing more water into the air.


    He stopped and instantly changed gears. Instead of dispersing water, Quinn was releasing cold energy and escting the chill as the cold built up in the room.


    The room''s temperature dropped as water in the room condensed, and the humidity in the air formed a hazy white mist. The floor around Quinn froze and started to spread outwards, slowly creeping towards the walls.


    As the temperature dropped below the point where warming spells were proving to be inefficient, Quinn turned to Blood magic to warm up his blood, and it came easy as breathing because he had experience using it daily for months.


    And the current level of cold was nothingpared to the Icy vault that was colder than any natural spot on the. Currently, Quinn wasn''t even trying to push his Blood magic and kept it on the down-low to befortable in the current temperature.


    ''I need more water.''


    With that thought, Quinn, once again dispersing more water into the air, but unlike the previous dispersion, which was gradual and gentle, Quinn pushed his magic to create waves and waves of dispersed water.


    He also kept rolling out the cold energy, and because of it, the dispersed water instantly turned into mist, and the visibility in the room dropped because of the white fog everywhere.


    With each passing minute, the walls, floors, and ceiling of the hall started to show deposits of ice sheets, getting thicker with time and renewed water supply in the form of mist.


    Slowly, the hall looked a lot like the Icy vault, albeit not as cold. The walls were a frozen icy-blue, and the scene looked from the time of the ice age.


    Quinn stood up from his spot, looked around, and sighed a white plume.


    "I need to be much quicker than this."


    Quinn''s third year at Hogwarts was going to be a dangerous one. Tom Riddle, a.k.a. Voldemort''s first Horcrux, was going to wreak havoc in Hogwarts by releasing the Slytherin''s monster from the Chamber of Secrets.


    "I need to be much faster than if I want to escape from the Basilisk," murmured Quinn.


    The Basilisk was a giant serpent, grander than any known snake species. It was known to be the King of Serpents, a snake species that could be the apex predator in most ecosystems and food chains.


    The Basilisk wasn''t a naturally growing creature and needed a magical person''s assistance to give birth to. Herpo the Foul was the first one to breed a Basilisk. He aplished this by hatching a chicken egg beneath a toad which resulted in the creature known as a Basilisk.


    But just putting an egg under a toad wasn''t enough. Extremely harsh conditions were needed to breed the King of Serpents. Everything from the toad''s type, age, gender, and various other specifications, to the hen whoid the chicken egg used, were harshly stringy.


    The egg and toad needed to be perfect andpatible with each other, and the magical breeding the Basilisk required to maintain constant care for a Basilisk to be perceived.


    It was nature''s way to limit a magical beast like Basilisk to spread its poption on Earth. In exchange for the transcendent abilities, naturalw took from the Basilisk the capabilities to breed on its own and needed assistance from another species toe into this world.


    Looking a Basilisk directly in the eye causes instant death, but an indirect look will merely render the victim Petrified. Because of these deadly capabilities, it was categorized as an XXXXX creature, meaning it was a known wizard-killer that couldn''t be domesticated because of its immense powers.


    Quinn didn''t want to confront a beast that could kill him with a look, and he didn''t want to be petrified for most of the school year just because he wanted to meet one.


    "I am staying the hell away from the damn monster," was the decision Quinn made when he thought about the uing school year.


    He had given thought to the feasibility of taking the dairy turned into Horcrux from Ginny Weasley and throw it away into the Room of Lost Things and forget all about the Basilisk incident.


    The n was totally doable if Quinn moved quickly and took the diary from Ginny around the start of the year, but this n wasn''t full proof as Ginny Weasley had the Horcrux diary for around a month before she came to Hogwarts.


    He didn''t know how much influence the Horcrux had on Ginny Weasley. Heck, he wasn''t even sure if what the books depicted were the full capabilities of the Horcrux diary.


    Then there was the whole issue of destroying the Horcrux. Room of Requirements had surprisingly less information on Horcrux. Quinn knew how to create a Horcrux. He even knew that Fiendfyre could destroy the Horcrux, but there was nothing more than that on Horcrux destruction.


    Basilisk''s venom wasn''t listed in the text he had written, and that was a surprise. This told Quinn that Basilisk venom was a new and idental discovery.


    But, Quinn didn''t have Basilisk''s venom as the serpent was still sleeping in the Chamber of Secrets, and he didn''t have expertise over the use of Fiendfyre that destroyed a Horcrux. Quinn hadn''t even attempted to practice casting the cursed mes; he didn''t want to fire Fiendfyre and kill himself in the process.


    And, for that, he was practicing the Ice magic.


    The Basilisk might be a magical beast, and the King of Serpents, in the end, was a snake. It was a widely known fact that snakes didn''t like cold weather, and a Basilisk wasn''t any different.


    He was trying to produce instant ice and drop the temperature of an area in a short period. Snakes were sensitive to cold, and Quinn hoped that if he dropped the surrounding temperature when he walked around the castle, the Basilisk would stay away.


    "If it did get close, then I would just have to terrorize it away with the cry of a rooster," said Quinn, nning to transfigure tons of roosters to kill the shit out of the Basilisk.


    But, Quinn wanted to avoid that because if by chance the Basilisk escaped death by fleeing through the pipes, then young Tom Riddle would know his identity, and it would directly put him in harm''s way.


    So, as the saying went, ''Prevention is better than the cure.''


    Quinn wanted to keep the Basilisk away from him rather than confronting it and taking a chance to kill it.


    He wasn''t even sure if the Basilisk would show on Recon, so to make sure that it stayed away, Quinn had to make sure that giant snake stayed the hell away from him.


    Quinn exhaled in the room, which was now sealed by the iceyers, covering every inch of the room.


    "Something like this would work," said Quinn. Hebed a hand through his hair and sighed, "I have to get better at this."


    "Oh boy, this is going to take a lot of magic to sustain, doesn''t it," Quinn smiled as he thought about the expenditure of magic. It was not every day he could use magic that took copious amounts of magic, big even for Quinn''s reserves.


    While Quinn was smiling at the prospect of using magic-heavy ice magic, the door of the training hall busted open with a loud st.


    "Whaoooo!" Quinn was so shocked that he let out a long startled yelp. He jumped back and looked at the busted door.


    "Young master! Are you alright!"


    Quinn recognized Elliot''s voice and immediately adjusted Blood magic so that it wasn''t visible on his face or any exposed part of his skin.


    "Yeah! I am alright," eximed Quinn, with his hand on his heart, feeling the erratic pulse.


    Elliot looked inside the frozen solid room, his eyes wide because of the scene. It was not every day that you witnessed something like this in the smack middle of summer.


    "What was that, Uncle Elliot? Why did you do that?!" said Quinn, pointing at the broken door covered in ice.


    Elliot looked at Quinn, his hands went his waist as he frowned, "Young master when I came here, I saw that the door hadyers of ice on it. I tried to call out for you, but you didn''t respond."


    He steered his hands at the broken door and continued, "When I tried to open the door, it won''t budge, so I had no choice to break it open. I was worried that something might have gone wrong."


    Quinn scrunched his nose as he looked at the ice-sealed room and could understand the problem.


    "Oops," said the fool, showing the silly expression.


    Elliot just stared at Quinn, standing in the frozen room, not knowing what to think.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    And while learning cold magic to prepare for life preservation at Hogwarts was fun, Quinn needed something else to do, and in his curiosity, he took up warding as the theme for the summer break.


    The backyards and gardens were meticulously maintained by thebined effort of Elliot and the house-elf, Polly. Those two worked together to grow the grass fields and gardens in the West Manor. The area around the mansion increased the beauty of the building, giving it a regal look.


    They would be devastated if something disturbed the lush greens and blossoming herbs, perennials, and other flora.


    "Fire-repellent wards, let''s try these," said Quinn, goofily smiling while standing on the beautiful grass. A fire that could ruin the effort put into making the grass look luscious.


    Quinn raised his hand, and a redyer of magic originated from it, forming a dome of warding magic. The redyer glowed a little brighter before disappearing.


    Warding magic was a branch of magic that could be performed employing either charms or runes or both. A type of barrier magic that ''rejected'' phenomenon within the bounds of the barriers. Protective enchantments that exerted control inside the area under the barriers of magic.


    For example, in the Room of Lost Things, an anti-summoning ward covered the entire room that rejected summoning spells in the room. Hogwarts was covered with anti-apparition that didn''t allow apparition for humans.


    He looked above the space of fire-resistance barrier, and a light wisp of fire manifested in the air.


    "Let''s hope this works," said Quinn as he dropped the fire. The wisp of fire fell down, and the moment it touched the now invisible barrier, a patch of it shown red.


    Quinn smiled as the wisp of fire exhausted itself before it hit the ground.


    "Excellent."


    He upped the ante and dropped multiple wisps of fire, and every single one of them snuffed out by the magic of the ward.


    The wisps of fire increased in number until the entirety of the barrier was facing a barrage and did a great job at snuffing every single wisp.


    Quinn showed an impressed expression and decided to take it to the next level. He stepped back, and gone were the wisps of fire. Quinn raised his hand and came out jets of mes came out of them colliding with the barrier, and the moment the jets passed the barrier, it snuffed the fire out of existence.


    He continued to raise the amount and temperature of the fire. While Quinn was happy to see the ward stand up to the mes, he frowned when the heat and quantity of mes exceeded the current spell''s capabilities.


    One thing Quinn hated was the inefficient use of magic. It was one of his best pet peeves. If a magic was supposed to go from one to ten, then Quinn hated when it was used to go to eleven. It was inefficient for a spell to exceeds its limits.


    In theory, you could push magic into a base-level fire spell like the Incendio spell to produce extremely hot mes, but you could also use a high-level fire spell to achieve the same result with much less magic.


    Quinn clicked his tongue and stopped the jets of fire, thus ceasing the testing of the maximum capabilities of the fire-repellent ward.


    "Any more than this, and I would enter danger category."


    While Quinn was ballsy enough to use fire magic in the backyard, he wasn''t ballsy enough to risk testing the ward he had casted for the first time and damaging the pasture.


    With a casual wave, the ward broke down. Quinn turned back to walk to a book on warding.


    "Water-repellent, Lightning-repellent, Explosion-repellent,... hmm, room sterilization wards, that wille in handy."


    Quinn turned the pages in the book, looking at warding charms he could try, and found an interesting one.


    "Oh, this might be fun," said Quinn, packing his stuff and heading towards the mansion.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Elliot sat in the living room, sitting down for his afternoon tea. As usual, he had the most traditional tea setup. An afternoon treat of tea, sandwiches, scones, and cake. A lot of choices to choose from served on special tters.


    Elliot looked left and right before taking out a pair of sses from his pocket, the type that hung from the chain.


    He put them on, setting them on the bridge of his nose. Peering through them at a newspaper, holding a newspaper with a pen, doing the daily crossword.


    Opposite to Elliot sat Quinn under an invisibility ward. Looking at Elliot with wide eyes, more specifically, he was looking at Elliot''s sses.


    ''Merlin''s beard, he had sses. I didn''t know that,'' thought Quinn. ''Man, that is a lot of sugar in your tea. And, you said that honey is better.''


    Invisibility ward was a simple warding spell that captured an image of everything inside the barrier. And, when you entered the warded area, it would hide you by disying a static image of what it captured.


    Quinn casted an Invisibility ward on the part of the sofa Quinn was going to sit on and let the ward take a still of everything under the barrier. And, when he sat down under the ward, he was not visible to any on the outside.


    That whole day, Quinn sat in different parts of the house, observing people in the manor.


    He found that Ms. Rosey liked to read romantic novels in her free time. It was the greatest shock of the day as he never expected the always serious Ms. Rosey to find entertainment in cheesy romance novels.


    Polly, the house-elf, liked to spend her break time in the different parts of the house, experimenting with various elf magics in cooking, cleaning, gardening,undry, and other household activities. Quinn had seen some awful results of the experiment, and he felt a little closer to her as Quinn, too had, his share of failed experiments.


    Unfortunately, all fun things came to an end when Quinn sat in the home bar on the manor, waiting for his grandfather toe here to rx like he did every other evening.


    Like clockwork, George came to the home bar and walked to the cer for his choice drink of the evening. Quinn silently waited for his grandfather toe back, and when he did, everything went ck for Quinn.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    When Quinn came back up, he was still sitting in the seat he had taken before everything went ck.


    "Mmmm," groaned Quinn, sitting up in the chair.


    "What the hell happened," asked Quinn to no one.


    "I stunned you," came the reply he wasn''t looking for.


    Quinn looked to the side to see his grandfather with a ss of whisky in his hand. Quinn sat right up, feeling embarrassed and mortified.


    "Sorry," he eked out, looking at his grandfather, his expression both awkward and meek.


    "What were you doing under that ward," came a question from George.


    Quinn pursed his lips before answering, "Trying it out. I have been doing it all day. Looking at others while under the ward."


    George sighed, "You are lucky that I only stunned you. I could have done much worse."


    "I am sorry."


    "It is alright. Just be more careful while using magic and keep the mischief to the minimum. Now, you may leave. I want to enjoy my drink in peace," said George, taking a sip of his whiskey.


    Quinn was quite happy to oblige, standing up with a slight wince and walking towards the door, but before he exited, Quinn asked,


    "What gave me away?"


    George looked at his grandson and saw a look of strange curiosity. He recognized the look on Quinn''s face, seeing the expression quite a few times on his grandson''s face.


    It was the expression that showed Quinn''s cold curiosity towards topics that interested Quinn. In times like these, Quinn was surprisingly single-minded. Purely wanting to know the answers to his question.


    "The lighting was different. I brightened the mes of the candles in the room when I entered. I am guessing, but your ward didn''t ount for that," answered George, watching as the wheels turned in his grandson''s mind.


    "Thank you, and once again, I apologize."


    After saying that, Quinn left the room, leaving George alone. Once again, reminding George that Quinn loved magic.


    .


    .


    - (End of Volume Three: Year Two.) -


    .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Trying to emte a Disney Princess.


    Elliot Dalton - Butler - Likes sugar and has secret reading sses.


    Ms. Rosey - Caretaker/Maid - Sucker for sickly romance novels (Would love Shoujo manga if she ever got a hand on one.)


    Polly - West family house-elf - Leveling up.


    George West - Is very cool - Gives really awesome vibes.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 47 - Thestrals, And Carriage Ride.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    In thest two years, Hogwarts had firmly be the nucleus of his operation.


    The Room of Requirement provided him with precious knowledge and a covert ce to practice all kinds of magic, some that were not looked upon highly. While his A.I.D workshop was a ce that he had built on his own, it was a room where everything was ording to his preference. Then there was his suitcase, his expanded suitcase that housed his library, the library that contained books from all around the world, and Quinn''s obsession with magic kept the library ever-expanding.


    So, while Quinn was sad a little to leave the West manor and his family, he was happy to return to Hogwarts. At Hogwarts, Quinn could do whatever he wanted, and with some care, no one would ever know what he was doing.


    The Hogwarts Express reached the Hogsmeade station, and Quinn deboarded the train. Like always, Quinn stepped onto the damp tform of the station.


    "It''s like it rains here on every first of September," he muttered, looking at the small shallow puddles littered across the tform.


    Quinn watched the numerous students moving to the carriages that went to Hogwarts. He followed the crowd, and just like everyone, he got in a carriage.


    Suddenly, it began raining, and a roof sprung from the back of the carriage, covering the previously open carriage.


    "Yup, it rains every single year," said Quinn, looking at the groups of students hurrying to find a carriage. He turned his attention to the beings pulling the carriages.


    "Thestrals."


    The Thestrals were a breed of winged horses with skeletal-like bodies, faces with reptilian features, and wide, leathery wings that resembled bats.


    "Omens of misfortune," whispered Quinn, watching the sinister and spooky appearance of the magical beasts.


    He wasn''t sure why he could see the Thestrals. Maybe it was because he had seen the Original Quinn die, or maybe, it was because he was in this body, which meant that he had died in his original world.


    "Not that I could remember any of it," whispered Quinn, his tone hiding the bitterness he was feeling.


    But, the reality was that he could see the Thestrals, and they reminded him how he got here.


    "Original Quinn," he recalled how he addressed the previous host of the body and the identity which he had taken over.


    He had long gotten used to the identity of Quinn West. He was Quinn West and responded to the name. He truly felt that he was Quinn West, and had stopped thinking about his previous life identity, ceased the efforts to figure who he was before, and had epted that both the past him and the original Quinn had died.


    But, time like these when he came across beings like Thestrals bought those thoughts to the surface, and his own self tried to pull himself in a spiral of doubt, guilt, and confusion. Every thought that disturbed him during the first couple of years in this world would try to drag him into a pit of negativity.


    "Ah, damn it. Why am I like this," Quinn murmured in slight self-loathing, leaning forward till his elbows touched his thighs and covered his eyes with his hands. Exhaling heavily, trying to get himself out of this mood. He didn''t want to feel like this and hated when it happened.


    "Hey, I found a carriage with space. Come on, let''s just get on this one."


    Quinn immediately sat up straight and inhaled deeply to make sure that nothing seemed out of the sort.


    Looking to the side, Quinn saw a red-haired girl board the carriage, followed by another girl, who was hurrying like the first one did to get out of the rain.


    Quinn put on a slight smile and watched the two girls breathing in relief that they had escaped the rain and had sessfully found shelter against the downpour. He immediately recognized the two girls, had met themst year.


    One of them finally looked at him, and her eyes widened in recognition.


    "Ms. Potter," greeted Quinn. The redhead Ivy Potter looked stunned and surprised to see Quinn sitting in the carriage they had chosen.


    The brte also looked at Quinn, and her eyes showed recognition.


    Quinn turned to her and greeted her the same, "Ms. Granger."


    The carriage started moving, and silence settled inside the carriage. None of the three people spoke a single word to each other.


    Ivy stared at Quinn with a sharp look in her eyes. She had suspected Quinn since thest year. First, he gave them the information about Nics mel, which didn''t arouse her suspicion; Quinn aroused her suspicion when he warned her about the stone''s chambers like he already knew why she was looking for the information on Nics mel.


    Then they met by ident in the Hospital wing when she was visiting her brother with her family. He had given her a look that said he already knew about what had happened. It made her wonder how he knew Harry got injured in the stone''s chambers when that information wasn''t public until a few dayster.


    To Ivy, Quinn West was a person who acted like he knew everything about everything.


    Hermione Granger also nced at Quinn West, but not one of suspicion like Ivy. Her nces were of curiosity and wonder. She had heard of Quinn from almost all her professors about how Quinn was intelligent and was a model student.


    On multiple asions, Professor Flitwick had given her a copy of Quinn''s assignments while returning her graded versions of her assignments. His assignments were always shorter than her, and he didn''t quote phrases from books or at least from the ones she had read. Quinn''s assignments always had points that seemed obvious but were insightful in nature.


    Then there were his exam notes, which she had bought because almost all Ravenw students talked about them, and she had been exposed to Quinn''s charms assignments throughout the year, so she bought a set. The notes were helpful for her exam preparation, so she was extremely curious about the person known as Quinn West.


    Quinn broke the silence in the carriage by addressing Hermione, "Ah, Ms. Granger, before I forget, I missed the chance to congratte you for scoring the highestst year. You must have worked hard. So, congrattions."


    Hermione blinked a few times before replying, "...Thank you. Same to you as well." She felt surprised that Quinn congratted her. She wasn''t expecting a congrattion, and not from Quinn, who she barely knew, at least personally.


    Quinn turned to Ivy and said, "You too, Ms. Potter. I heard you scored high as well." He was being polite despite the not-so-positive looks from Ivy.


    "... Yes, I did," was all the green-eyed redhead said, still tantly staring at Quinn. And, the tant staring made Quinn feel a tad bit ufortable, but he didn''t show it and moved on to the next person.


    Ivy stared at the boy sitting in front of her. He had changed little fromst year. He had grown a little taller, but other than that, Quinn West hadn''t physically changed. The same neatly cut ck hair and the stone-grey eyes that shone brightly.


    "Last year... did you go inside the restricted part of the third-floor corridor?" Ivy asked directly, with no warning or poking around. The wordsing out of her couldn''t be more direct.


    "Ivy!" eximed Hermione. She didn''t mind the question, but she was a little shocked at the direct confrontation. But, she did nce at Quinn after her initial shock, wanting to know the answer to the question.


    "And, why do you ask that question, Ms. Potter?" replied Quinn, answering the question with a question. He wanted to know her intentions.


    "You said that the restricted area was dangerous," said Ivy, but when Quinn was about to speak, she interrupted with her index finger up. "I clearly remember that you said that the headmaster wasn''t joking when he said he warned about a painful death. So, don''t give the excuse that you were following Professor Dumbledore''s words. You said it like you were supporting him with your own experience."


    Quinn rested his hands in hisp and contemted before answering. "I heard it from someone who may or may not have stumbled into the restricted area and may and may not have opened the door to may or may not see an enormous beast, and that person may or may not have talked about it. Of course, I don''t know who it was as I just happened upon a conversation and couldn''t find the identity of the speaker."


    Ivy and Hermione gawked at Quinn with wide eyes. They couldn''t believe the words that came out of Quinn''s mouth. It was so full of bullshit that they didn''t think that it was possible to give such an answer.


    "What in the flippin-" eximed Ivy, mightily frowning, her eyes reflecting her expression, but Hermione cut her off and asked, "So, you are saying that you personally didn''t go to the restricted area and just heard about it from someone."


    Quinn shamelessly nodded with a wide grin on his face. He refused to acknowledge that he ever went exploring the stone''s chamber and had fun while denying it.


    "I am a rule-abiding student, Ms. Granger. I take rules seriously," he looked deeply at her and said, "You understand me, right?"


    Hermione nodded deeply, for a moment forgetting Quinn''s answer and wholeheartedly agreeing with the importance of rules. Ivy stared at Hermione with an incredulous expression before shaking her head and turning to Quinn, her brows snapped together.


    "Do you really believe that anyone would ept such a ridiculous answer?!"


    Quinn shrugged with the corners of his mouth turned up, "What can I say... guess, I was lucky to hear such an important piece of information. I figured even if it wasn''t true, it was still wise to spread the news that the restricted corridor was dangerous."


    Ivy nced up at the roof before looking at Quinn, her eyes bored into him. "Then how did you know about Nics mel?"


    Quinn''s eyes sparkled as he replied to the question, "Oh, that? My sister studied at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and Nics mel gives a lecture there every year. I know all about Nics mel from her."


    He peered at both the girls and smiled mysteriously, "Philosopher''s stone is an extraordinary creation, isn''t it? The dream of eternal life right at your fingertips, the ability to turn any material into gold or anything material you desire, and the power to cure any disease in existence. Nics mel warrants more credit than he is credited."


    Ivy and Hermione were now hundred percent sure that Quinn had been inside the restricted area, and he knew what it hid. They couldn''t get him to ept anything, but they couldn''t be more sure that Quinn West had broken all the traps set by various professors with nobody knowing.


    Quinn decided to change the subject and inquired, "Tell me, Ms. Granger, what do your parents do for a living?"


    Hermione was a little surprised by the sudden question but answered it nevertheless, "My parents are dentists."


    Ivy looked at Quinn and was about to exin what dentists were. She had a lot of exposure to the Weasley family and knew that purebloods could be grossly clueless about muggle culture. But, she didn''t get to exin as Quinn spoke,


    "I haven''t been to a dentist in my entire life. We don''t have healers that specialize in dentistry." Quinn''s time at home between school years was filled with healer visits for annual checkups and safety screenings. George West lost his wife to disease. He didn''t want to lose anymore, so he was extremely strict with healthcare.


    "Do they own a practice?" asked Quinn, keeping up the conversation.


    "Yes, both my parent co-own a practice."


    Quinn nodded, already knowing answers to the question he was asking, but it was better than awkward silence, not that he minded the awkward silences. Quinn had thick enough skin to ignore such things.


    Ivy sat in her spot, stunned that Quinn knew about muggle professions. She doubted the little information she had about Quinn West and asked,


    "You are a pureblood, right?"


    Quinn studied Ivy before answering, "Yes, why do you ask?"


    "Nothing was just wondering." Ivy didn''t want to say that she didn''t expect a pureblood to know about muggle society. Even with her limited interactions with Quinn, Ivy knew he would jump on it and use her of stereotyping.


    "Is Professor Potter returning to Hogwarts this year?" asked Quinn, wondering if Lily Potter would be teaching muggle studies again this year.


    "She is... Why?" asked Ivy.


    "Oh, right!" Hermione pped her hands and asked, "You are in your third year; you get to choose electives. Have you taken muggle studies as an elective?"


    Quinn shook his head. He would never attend muggle studies sses at Hogwarts. An opinion that he had told the professor of muggle studies to her face. "Oh no, I have selected Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Study of Ancient Runes for my electives."


    The decision of adding Care of Magical Creatures to his electives alongside Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes was a long one. Quinn knew how to handle beast ingredients if given to him dead, but he didn''t know what to do with live ones. Quinn wasn''t sure if he wanted to learn about live ones. But after contemting, he decided to take the ss on Care of Magical Creatures.


    "That makes ten subjects. You will be getting ten O.W.L. in your fifth year," counted Hermione, getting excited at the prospect of taking tests.


    "Well... I may take O.W.L exams in Divination and Muggle studies if I feel like it. You don''t have to take the sses to apply for O.W.Ls," said Quinn. Of course, these were just Hogwarts subjects. Quinn was determined to test for all kinds of O.W.L and N.E.W.T equivalent examinations in various countries for various branches of magic. He wanted to fulfill his vanity by getting all sorts of certifications from all over the world.


    The carriage stopped, signaling that they had arrived at the castle. Quinn got down from the carriage and helped the two girls get down, offering them his hand. Hermione shyly took his hand and thanked him. Quinn thought Ivy would refuse his hand, but she took it.


    "Well,dies, if you have any problems. You know where to find me. See you around," said Quinn before taking his leave.


    Ivy watched as Quinn left. Her eyes caught the glimmer of a golden ring Quinn was wearing on his left-hand middle finger.


    It shone faintly in the dark.


    She found herself staring at the ring but was brought out of her stare by Hermione.


    She turned to Hermione before looking at Quinn''s back and once again to Hermione and asked, "Hermione, did you notice the ring on West''s hand?"


    Hermione immediately nodded and answered, "It was a charming ring, wasn''t it? It glimmered beautifully."


    "... Yeah, it did," said Ivy, trailing off.


    "Come on, we need to find the boys. They might have gone ahead of us," said Hermione.


    Ivy tossed her current chain of thought to the back of her head and replied, "Yeah, we need to find them. I want to ask where they were on the train. They made us go look for them all over the train."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn strutted to the Great Hall. Taking in the hall and its bewitched ceiling, hanging chandeliers, long tables, High table, students talking to each other, greeting other after a long summer break.


    "Oh yeah, this is nice," said Quinn, smiling all the way to a spot on the Ravenw table. He adjusted his butt on the wooden bench and nodded, "Yup, this still sucks." But there was a smile on Quinn''s face as he said it.


    "Quinn!"


    Quinn smiled and turned to watch Eddie jogging towards him. His arm raised, waving his hand.


    "Carmichael, my main man. It had been a while, buddy," said Quinn, hugging Eddie.


    Eddie sat down beside Quinn and talked about their breaks. Eddie''s family had gone to Spain for a family vacation.


    A few minutester, Marcus joined the duo and sat across them,pleting the usual trio''s seating arrangement.


    "Good evening," greeted Marcus.


    Quinn sized up Marcus and said, "Man, you grew in the break, didn''t you." Among Marcus, Eddie, and Quinn, Quinn had been the tallest, but now Marcus had grown to be the tallest of the group.


    "Yeah, kinda grew a little this break. Had to buy a lot of new clothes," replied Marcus, looking around. "When will the sorting start? I am getting hungry."


    Quinn took out a cauldron cake from his robes and threw it across the table, "Got you covered."


    Marcus''s eyes glittered with delight as he tore the wrapper off the sweet and took a huge bite. The in-house glutton spoke with cake in his mouth, "Thwank Fyu."


    Eddie and Quinnughed. They had gotten used to theck of table manners from their friend.


    Eddie''s eyes caught something, and he looked down at the table. He saw a gold ring on Quinn''s hand andmented, "Since when did you start wearing that ring."


    Marcus also looked at Quinn''s hand and remarked, "Oh, that looks cool."


    Quinn looked at the ring on his left hand. The gold of the ring, reflecting in his eyes. He faintly smiled and said, "Yeah, it is a new thing."


    The ring shone as Quinn closed his hand into a fist.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Third-year student.


    Ivy Potter - Potter Princess - Not a fan of Quinn.


    Hermione Granger - Top of her ss - Knows Quinn in an academic capacity.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas..


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 48 - Setting Up Office, Lovegood, Return To The Icy Vault

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    The link is also in the synopsis..


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    After his first day at Hogwarts, the owner of A.I.D services walked to the office with a suitcase in hand. He hummed a tune as he inserted the key into the key slot, turning it to unlock the door. The lock clicked to release the bolt that secured the door to the frame.


    But the door wasn''t unlocked, as there were a couple more things Quinn needed to do to unlock the door. He ced his hand on the door and funneled magic into the door. Before leavingst year, Quinn had fused the wood of the door to the wood of the frame by using transmutation, forming a weld between the woods of both structures.


    Lifting his hand up to lift up the four wooden nks that barred the door from opening.


    Finally, Quinn held the handle on the door and was about to push the door open when he got jolted with a stun of lightning.


    "Fu-, motherfu-, shit, bloody hell, Merlin''s saggy balls I forgot about that," heaved Quinn, his face all scrunched up in pain, clutching his hand and jumping up and down. There was a charm on the door handle that shocked anyone who touched it.


    Quinn angrily disabled the charm on the door after recovering from the shock. He grabbed the handle and was about to push the door but stopped.


    "Did I ce something else in there?" After a few seconds of thinking, Quinn determined he was safe and entered the office.


    White sheets covered the entire office furniture, and some dust flew in the room because of the sudden disturbance of the opened door. Quinn looked to the right and saw the big ss wall, which used to have a door slot to enter the workshop, but now didn''t have a single opening. Quinn had sealed the door slot when he left for the summer break.


    He walked to the ss wall and touched it to transmute a door slot into the ss wall, making a rectangr opening into the ss. He stepped into the opening, entering the workshop, which too was covered in white sheets covering the table and cabs.


    He sat down his suitcase on the floor and gathered his magic as he walked around the familiar room, smiling the entire time.


    Quinn pped his hand once, and the room came to life as white sheets in the office and workshop flew up and folded themselves into a neat stack on the floor. A wave of magic hit the entire ssroom-turned-office-and-workshop and cleaned every nook and cranny of the room, eliminating the dust in the room.


    Every drawer and door of every cupboard and cab opened and went through the same cleaning process, turning the entire room into a squeaky clean ce.


    The suitcase on the floor fell to the side and opened up with a dozen or more clicks of locks unlocking. It took a while before things flew out of the suitcase.


    Various types of tools, vials of potions, reams of papers, other utensils, and all kinds of things that once filled the cupboards in the workshop once again took their rightful ce in the workshop. Quinn again filled the file cabs that he had emptied before leaving with documents and mani folders.


    In the office, decor adorned the walls. Furnishing the look that Quinn had decided for the office. With a snap of fingers, the chandeliers on the roof lit up the room, evesting candles shining the room with their mes.


    "Now, this feels right," said Quinn. And, atst, Quinn looked at the door leaning against the ss wall. The door lifted itself and took its ce in the ss wall, covering the opening in the wall.


    A.I.D was back in business


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Gilderoy Lockhart didn''t make a positive first or any impression on Quinn. The entire first ss, the pompous lying piece of phony lied his butt off about everything. He had wasted an hour of Quinn''s time, and even though Quirrell and Binns did thatst year, they weren''t annoying as Lockhart.


    Quinn hated every second of his Defense Against Dark Arts ss and had to hold the urge to stun the blonde bastard into oblivion. He spent an hour listening to the bragging that came out of Lockhart''s mouth, and there was something about Lockhart''s voice that Quinn couldn''t ignore. It was like a mosquito''s buzz, extremely annoying and hard to ignore.


    "Order of Merlin, Third ss, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly''s Most Charming-Smile Award, my ass," groaned Quinn, rubbing his temple, entering the Ravenwmon room.


    He made a beeline to his favorite chair in themon room and stopped when he saw a first-year sitting in his spot.


    Quinn stared at the chair and the first-year sitting in it, and the first-year noticed Quinn staring at him. The first-year kid felt ufortable at being stared down by a senior. He looked around, wondering why Quinn was staring and concluded that Quinn wanted to sit in the chair.


    He bounced up from the chair, not wanting to fight with an older student, and walked away from the spot, avoiding confrontation.


    "Hey, kid," called out Quinn, causing the first-year Ravenw to freeze in his spot. He slowly turned to face and saw something thrown at him and instinctively caught it in his hand. The kid looked at his hands and saw chocte sitting there. When he looked up at Quinn, he saw Quinn not looking at him and sitting down on the chair.


    Quinn sat down on his chair and thought, ''Kids are weird.'' Not noticing the reason behind why the kid left the chair.


    Quinn slumped down in the chair and looked around themon room. When he looked to his side, he came across a pair of silvery eyes staring at him with a look of distinct dottiness. The girl was extremely close to him and almost startled him out of his chair.


    "Can I have a chocte?" asked the girl with silver eyes.


    Quinn studied at the girl, and it took a second, but Quinn recognized the girl.


    Stood in front of him, leaning down close to his face, was the girl with waist-length, straggly, dirty blonde hair and a feel about her that made her seem otherworldly.


    Luna Lovegood wanted chocte.


    Quinn slowly took out a chocte cube from his robes and ced it on Luna Lovegood''s outstretched hand. She sat down on the chair beside him, unwrapped the sweet chocte, and put the whole cube in her mouth.


    She turned to Quinn, and he could see the small chocte cube poking against the inside of her cheeks as she put it aside to speak, "Thank you."


    Quinn nodded, observing Luna as if she was a rare creature, and extended his hand for a handshake.


    "Quinn West," said Quinn, introducing himself.


    Luna looked at Quinn''s hand for a moment before taking it with both her hands, turning it so that Quinn''s palm was facing her.


    ''Is she... reading my palm?'' thought Quinn, but let the blonde do whatever she was doing, finding her behavior interesting.


    "Your hands are amusing," spoke Luna. Her voice had a dreamy quality. If her words and voice were solid, they would fly and float away like a feather in a breeze.


    "Amusing?" asked Quinn, not knowing what she meant by it. He looked at his other hand to see if anything was amusing with it but couldn''t find anything particrly amusing.


    She nodded while tracing the lines on his palm with her fingers, "Very amusing." She moved the chocte cube in her mouth before continuing, "You love magic, don''t you."


    "... You found that from my hand?" inquired Quinn, watching her still ying with his hand.


    She nodded, humming in agreement. Luna pulled on his fingers, popping knuckled while doing so, and smiling when his hand made popping sounds.


    "I am sure that you would have no Wrackspurts around you. Your hands say so," said Luna, smiling in delight, but then frowned. "I forgot my pair of Spectrespecs at home, or else I would have been able to see them... maybe I should write a letter to daddy to send them to me."


    She suddenly looked at Quinn''s face and asked, "Can I have one more chocte?"


    Quinn took another chocte cube from his robes and put the cube on his other hand that was still in Luna''s grasp. The ever entric Luna requested something from Quinn, "Please unwrap it."


    Quinn unwrapped the chocte with magic, making sure that he had his fake wand out. His eyes almost bulged out when Luna leaned forward and ate the chocte straight from Quinn''s hand.


    ''"Thank you. It is quite delectable," said Luna licking her lips that were stained with chocte.


    "... You are wee," said Quinn, not really sure how he should feel about the current situation.


    "What is your name?" Luna stared into Quinn''s eyes, silver meeting stone-grey. Usually, in these kinds of situations where he wasn''t sure what to do, Quinn would take the opportunity to read the mind to get some hold of the conversation. But right now, he didn''t have that in mind.


    "My name is Quinn West," introduced Quinn, even though he already did it once. "And, you are Luna Lovegood."


    "Yes." She finally released Quinn''s hand and now was staring at Quinn''s face.


    "Your father is the editor of Quibbler, right? Can I buy a subscription," asked Quinn, trying to build a connection with Luna.


    Her stare changed a little as if looking for something. She looked at Quinn for a good while before nodding, "I would need you to fill a form and pay the subscription fees. I will send it to daddy."


    "That''s it?" asked Quinn.


    "That''s it," replied Luna.


    "Alright, thanks."


    Luna got up from her seat and left, saying nothing.


    Sitting in his chair, Quinn wondered what just happened. He met Luna Lovegood, gave her chocte, had his palm read, gotplimented that it was amusing, asked for a Quibbler subscription, and all this happened while he got caught up in Luna''s pace.


    "... Huh?" was all he coulde up with in the end.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The first thing Quinn did after getting some free time was visiting the Icy vault. The Icy vault was as miserable as ever. A hellish cold ce that no same human would like to spend time in.


    Quinn silently put on thickyers of clothes that he specially stitched up himself for enduring the cold in the vault region. Putting on his sses, he stepped down the stairs. His spiked boots provided Quinn with the grip needed on the iced floors.


    Immediately a freezing chill hit him, trying to sap the heat from his body, but Quinn fought back with Blood magic heating up his blood throughout the body. The blood flowed through his body, keeping the body warm, sustaining his body in the harsh cold.


    Quinn walked towards the snowke icicle, not minding the cold one bit. He had be used to it, and if Quinn ever thought about this fact, he would wonder what was wrong with him.


    He nced at the snowke, and it began to shake, and in one fell swoop, the ice came apart and changed into water vapor. The next second, the cloud vapor turned into a lump of magnesium metal, falling onto the frozen floor with a thump.


    Quinn''s magic pushed on the gates with his magic, and halfway through, ice spears shot from inside with the sole intention of killing Quinn, but they stopped mid-flight and dropped to the ground as Quinn walked inside the vault.


    Immediately, the temperature changed, and Quinn''s Blood magic gradually adjusted his body temperature and bought it to a natural temperature, making sure that the sudden shift in condition didn''t cause problems in his body.


    Immediately, Quinn shed down theyers of clothes and walked around the vault, observing Absolute Zero floating in mid-air, contained by the runes and charms inside the vault.


    "Alright, nothing has changed. Good, good," said Quinn as he retrieved a case from his clothes and kneeled on the floor, setting the case on the floor.


    With a single click, Quinn opened the case. Inside the container were seven pieces of metal.


    Quinn took out three spherical metal balls from the case and looked around the vault, focusing on the vault walls.


    "Here goes nothing," said Quinn before rolling the ball on the ground. The three balls rolled their way in different directions. The movement of the three spheres was unnatural as they adjusted their path until they reached the decided spot and came to a sudden stop.


    The next second, the three spherical metal balls reconstructed themselves into three pyramids of simr sizes. If seen from above, the three pyramids were in a triangr position. Each one at the vertices of an equteral triangle, with Absolute Zero in the middle of said triangle.


    Quinn took a deep breath before raising his hand in front of him. Three soft streams of continuous magic made their way to a metal pyramid each. The pyramids started to glow in a green light; the light grew stronger until Quinn cut off the magic supply.


    "Okay, do your thing," whispered Quinn, hoping that his creation worked ording to its purpose.


    The three pyramids started to hum, and after a few seconds, thin beams of green magic shot in different directions towards the vault''s wall. Small bursts of magical light shot one by one, making contact with the vault''s circr wall.


    Quinn inhaled a deep breath when he saw the runes etched into the wall glow in an icy blue light. Thousands of runes of various sizes illuminated the vault.


    "Okay, okay, it works," Quinn spoke fast and moved faster as he took the three more metal pieces from his case. These pieces were triangr discs, and Quinn slid them on the floor. They repeated the movements of the previous pieces and arranged themselves in a smaller triangle.


    The triangr metal discs received magic from Quinn, but this time the input was much more intense and longer, and the output was also much drastic. The triangr discs shot glowed and hummed just like the pyramids, and the intensity grew until the discs emitted circr waves of magic.


    Quinn clutched his hand when he felt the vault faintly shake and looked around with gleaming eyes as he watched the runes on the wall switch ces, rearranging themselves on the wall.


    ''Let this work,'' thought Quinn, his heart beating hard with both excitement and a tinge of fear. He had made thorough preparation with triple-checking every calction and decision. But, there was always a chance that thing would fail, and it would release Absolute Zero from its containment, killing him immediately.


    It took maybe ten seconds before the runes stopped arranging themselves and the new arrangement glowed brighter with a burst before settling down.


    Quinn moved his eyes to his six pieces and urged, ''Come on.'' The moment the thought ended, all six metal pieces shot continuous beams of magic towards the Absolute Zero. His breathing hitched as there was a screeching sound from the Absolute Zero, but nothing happened as everything calmed down.


    The six metal pieces, three pyramids, and three triangr disks were now connected to the rune formation of the room and Absolute Zero.


    Quinn exhaled heavily as he silently watched six beams of magic light connecting Absolute Zero with his metal structure.


    He made the metal structures with runic magic. He had etched runes into the metalposite, giving them the functionality to change the rune formation of the vault to add a feature of his choice.


    "Phew... that was stressful," said Quinn as he stood up from his spot and walked to the ce just below the floating Absolute Zero. He had thest piece of metal in his hand.


    Thest piece was a circr disc with an indent in which you could horizontally fit a thin cylinder. If you looked closer, you would see faint impressions of runes on the surface. The faint patterns were present on every metal piece that Quinn brought.


    Quinn squatted under Absolute Zero and ced the circr disc on the ground, and immediately it moved to calibrate itself to the six metal pieces around the vault.


    He went into his clothes and retrieved a small silk pouch. He loosened the string on the top and tilted the pouch for a thin gold cylinder to fall out. Quinn felt the weight of the gold cylinder in his hand for a moment before cing it in the indent of the circr disc. The metal moved around the gold cylinder and clutched it snuggly.


    Getting up, Quinn moved away from the circr disc, walking towards the gate of the vault, and stood beside his cold clothes. With his finger raised, he shot a single burst of magic into the circr disc.


    "Commencing thest phase," as Quinn said those words. The circr disc shot six beams of green light, one to every metal piece. The second the beam hit the six pieces, every piece shot simr beams to the others, connecting all to each other.


    Above in the air, the Absolute Zero showed activity as rings of icy-blue energy appeared around it. Every ring was made up of the cold energy from the intense energy of Absolute Zero.


    The temperature in the vault dropped as Quinn activated Blood magic to protect himself, his hand crossed across his chest, observing every change with an eagle eye.


    The rings started to revolve and rotate faster around Absolute Zero. After a dozen seconds of eleration and intense humming from the Absolute Zero, aser of energy as thin as a human hair shot down at the circr disc, more specifically at the golden cylinder.


    *Tink*


    It produced the sound when the energy hit the gold.


    *Tink* *Tink* ... *Tink* *Tink* *Tink* ... .... .... *Tink* *Tink* ... ... *Tink*


    With every hit on the gold cylinder, it produced a sound. The hair-thin energy kept hitting the gold cylinder for a few minutes before it finally stopped, and the rings of energy around Absolute Zero also absorbed back into it. The temperature also rose back to normal.


    Quinn waited for half a minute before uncrossing his arms and walking towards the circr disc. There was a cold fog around it, and the surrounding ground was also frozen.


    "Hmm... too much energy was wasted. The concentration of theser wasn''t optimal. There was abundant leakage. I need to improve the design and rune formation for the next use," noted Quinn, as he observed the circr disc and the surrounding area.


    The gold cylinder detached itself from the circr disc as Quinn moved closer. Quinn looked at the gold, and as he expected, it wasn''t frozen in iceyers. But, the cold mist emanating showed that it was extremely cold.


    Quinn''s mouth curved into a grin, and his eyes gleamed with delight,


    "It worked."


    His eyes locked onto the gold cylinder floating above his hand.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Has his hands on something amazing.


    Luna Lovegood - entric Ravenw - "Hmmm~ Hmm~ Hnmm~ HNMm~ hnHMh~."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 49 - Second Riddle, Fan Club Talks, And Lockhart

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis..


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The highest tower at Hogwarts was the Astronomy Tower. You could look down on the entirety of Hogwarts from the Astronomy, and while the sun was up, you could clearly see Hogsmeade at a distance. At night, while stars glimmered in the sky, you coulde up there and get the best view of the celestial bodies.


    Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost, floated at the highest point of Hogwarts, admiring the view of the stars, looking at their bright shine, making their position known to everyone who could see. In the centuries he had been here, Friar had made visiting the Astronomy Tower to look at the stars a habit.


    Tonight was one of those nights when he came here to be at peace, away from the hustle-bustle of the students and the loneliness of the castle when those same students rested in theirmon rooms and dorms.


    "Friar."


    The ghost, who was once a clergy of the mendicant religious order, turned around his spectral body to see a student standing there in casual clothing. Friar recognized the child immediately.


    "Quinn West," greeted Friar, floating closer to the young Ravenw who had dared to explore the mystery of the cursed vaults and had, against all odds, achieved the aplishment of being the first one to survive the first vault and sessfully opening it. He found the secrets that the cursed vault hid behind the millennia-old gates.


    "It is nice to see you again, Friar. You look as jolly as ever," greeted Quinn. He gazed at the sky and remarked, "Looking at the stars, eh?"


    Friar studied the child in front of him before speaking, "A hobby of mine. Looking at stars calms me down." Friar looked above at the clear sky.


    A quiet fell between the ghost and the living person, as both relished the sight of the vast universe that was visible to the naked eye.


    Friar was the first one to break the silence as he asked, "I presume that you havee to me for the clue for the next vault."


    "Aye, I had enough time to rest. The next adventure awaits for me," replied Quinn, still looking at the night sky above.


    A cool breeze blew on the tower, not so chilly and just the right amount of cool that it feltfortable as it brushed against the skin.


    "Do you remember how I told you that no one went past the first vault?" asked Friar. Memories of the numerous people who attempted to challenge the vault passed through his mind; ones who failed, died, lived but gave up, and many others.


    "Yes, I remember that," spoke Quinn. "I am the first one to open the first vault or, as I like to call it, the Icy vault."


    The defense mechanism to prevent people from essing Absolute Zero had kept people at bay, instilling fear into their hearts and chill into their bodies.


    "Yes, you are the first one. So, you will be the first one to explore the second vault." He nced at Quinn, his ghostly eyes peering at Quinn, "The second vault is a mystery, even to me. I don''t know much about it."


    Quinn pulled his gaze away from the sky and trained them on Friar, who showed a worried expression on his translucent face.


    "You look worried."


    Friar clenched his hands, gathering his monk robes as he balled his fist.


    "The second vault is very dangerous. At least it is dangerous, possibly fatal to use ghosts."


    Quinn furrowed his brows as his lines appeared between them, "Why do you say that?"


    Friar nervously floated as he revealed, "Whenever we ghosts go near the second vault, we felt a danger to our being. It is like if we go near it, we will experience something that we may not like. It instills something deeply unsettling inside our very being." He paused for a moment, contemting how to form his following words, "All ghosts know better than to go there. Even Peeves won''t take the risk when ites to the second vault."


    Quinn took the information, paying attention to Friar''s every word. Anything that would give him an edge against the vault, he wanted to hear about it.


    ''... Something that ghosts dread?''


    He thought about it, but nothing came to mind. He had little expertise with ghosts.


    ''Need to read up on ghosts. I wonder if there is something in Room of Requirements about ghosts,'' thought Quinn, as he made a mental note on ghost research.


    "Has any of the Hogwarts ghosts ever entered the second vault?" asked Quinn. If there was a precedent, then it would be an excellent point to start.


    Friar showed a pained expression. It was not a story he wanted to remember,


    "There was a ghost in Hogwarts around five centuries ago. He was a curious one, that fellow. Didn''t listen to the warnings of us old ghosts, scoffed about what do we oldies know... a monthter, there was a screech that filled the castle... and we never saw him again."


    "And, did anyone saw this ghost before he disappeared?" asked Quinn.


    "No, we only heard a miserable screech and never saw him after that day," Friar sighed in answer. "Before his death, he had started to roam the castle alone, asked us to leave him alone. We barely saw him in the fortnight before his death."


    Friar floated to face Quinn and glided towards him. "Enough of this. Receive the riddle to the second one, find it, and maybe you will be able to find the truth behind the ghost''s death and bring light to the secret of the vault."


    Quinn stood a little straighter, ready to listen to the riddle. The second vault was waiting for him, and this was going to be the start.


    Friar watched the eyes buzzing with excitement, and the expression brightened with anticipation.


    *


    [


    The ensuing vault cursed like the first one,


    One that... terrifies the dead ones.


    It dwells on the stage ofpleteness,


    Sheltered by the oil of green revenge.


    If you want to taste the reward,


    des you need to appreciate.


    But are you ready? It will be anything but easy.


    The roads we walk have demons beneath,


    Are you ready to face what lies underneath?


    ]


    *


    Quinn felt goosebumps on his skins. Not because he felt scared, but because of the way Friar delivered the riddle. Thest time he sang the puzzle for Quinn, Friar had built it from what he had seen throughout the year, but this time... this time, it was different.


    This riddle came from Friar''s heart, his personal experience, thought Quinn. Something that Friar had felt and not seen others doing.


    Snapping out of his thoughts, Quinn scribbled down the riddle on paper for future reference.


    Looking at the written riddle, Quinn frowned slightly, "This one seems harder, I mean, more abstruse than thest one." He scratched his head in slight disappointment that he would need to think more about the riddle before he could actually get to the vault.


    "I will pray that you will be sessful in your search. From what I sawst year, I have great hopes of you," said Friar, smiling as he gazed at Quinn. Last year had been monumental in the ghost''s life.


    Every few decades, all four house ghosts would take turns to appoint a person each to go after the vaults, and Friar''s stock had gone up because Quinn was able to survive the first vault, the first one to do so.


    Friar had gained bragging rights among his ghost friends.


    He watched as Quinn walked away with a hand scratching his head and looking down at the paper in his other hand.


    He had high hopes that Quinn would solve this one as well, and he would be able to stand high amongst his ghostly friends.


    "This year''s Deathday part would be quite fun," smiled Friar, humming a tune as he went back to look at the stars, a jolly expression gracing his face.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Can you repeat that again, please? I am not sure if I heard you correctly," said Quinn, sitting behind his office desk.


    "We want you to start a Hogwarts fan club for Professor Lockhart," said one of the Hufflepuff girls sitting in the client chairs of the A.I.D office. Three Hufflepuff girls hade into the A.I.D office and requested something that stunned Quinn.


    While Quinn understood Gilderoy Lockhart''s poprity among the general popce but knowing the truth about the phony professor and spending a few sses suffering for hours under his ridiculous brags.


    So, when Quinn looked at the three older Hufflepuff girls, he could only see a trio of idiots looking at him with dumb gazes.


    Quinn shook his head off the derisive thoughts about the older girls and said, "Alright, I can do that for you guys."


    He took out a sheet of paper from his drawer and wrote stuff on it.


    "First, we need to identify the club''s objectives: Think about what kind of club you want to start and what you hope to achieve... In your case, you want to meet other people with simr interests."


    One girl perked up and chimed in, "We want to discuss Professor Lockhart and share it with other people. We want more people to about the professor''s greatness."


    "He is so charming, so handsome, and not to mention so brave," dreamily sighed another girl. It bought dreamy expressions to the other girls'' faces.


    Quinn held back a gag and spoke, "Alright, the best way to spread Professor Lockhart''s good deeds," he emphasized on ''good.'' "is to make sure that everybody has ess to his work, so it would be best if you girls could donate some of his works to the club."


    "We can do that! I have all the professor''s books with me," eximed one girl. Quinn nodded, not mirroring her excitement.


    "Excellent, I would need some seed money for the start of the club to create some flyers for promotion and things like banners and decoration, you can provide me with designs so I can make them, or I can take care of it," said Quinn. He looked up and said, "If you guys want, I can arrange a room for you guys to meet for meetings, or you can get permission on your own."


    "About the meetings, I would also need you guys to choose a day of the week when your potential members are likely to be avable, such as a Saturday or Sunday, because there are no sses on the weekends, but I would suggest that you avoid Sunday. Once you recruit more members, you can discuss everyone''s avability and a meeting schedule."


    Quinn wrote something and continued, "The best ce to find members is from your own social circle, so you can promote among yourmon room, and if you hire me, I can promote this in all fourmon rooms."


    "After you gather members, which will not be difficult given the professor''s reputation, you need to prepare for the first meeting. The first meeting is important as it needs to be interesting so that you can retain interested people. You could prepare some games or icebreakers so your members can get to know each other. Then, spend some time talking about what each member hopes to get out of the club, what they think it should focus on, and ideas for activities or events."


    Quinn went on droning about what the girls needed to about the fan club, and the girls just sat in their seats, stunned, staring at Quinn with open jaws. They became a little worried about the work that needed to go into creating a fan club. This was supposed to be a fun activity, but Quinn made it seem like a tough job.


    "W-Wait, this is too much," said one girl, causing Quinn to look up for his sheet of paper on which he was listing the tasks to aplish.


    He noticed the difort on their faces and scolded himself for causing them difort. The client needed to befortable while doing business.


    ''Grandfather taught me better,'' thought Quinn and immediately switched gears. He put on a calming smile and eased the worries of the girls.


    "I know it might seem a little too much, but you don''t need to worry about it. I will take care of it. You guys just need to decide what you want to do in the club. I will take care of all theplicated stuff. Rest assured, you won''t hear a single thing about all the tedious tasks, so just spread your creative wings and work on how to make the fan club fun."


    Quinn didn''t apologize for overwhelming them, as he wanted them to feel that Quinn was giving them a great deal of help by taking care of all the hard stuff.


    And his words did bring the girls somefort as their stiff expression softened up.


    "I see, that is good to hear. Thank you for helping us. We never though it would be so difficult."


    Waving his hand to dissuade their worries, "Please, I am just doing my job. I will make sure that you girls'' fan club would be the best in Hogwarts."


    Quinn talked to them for a while, this time making sure that they werefortable and happy. By the time they were out of the A.I.D office, they were excited about the future of the uing Lockhart fan club.


    When they left, Quinn leaned back in his chair and groaned loudly. He didn''t want to create a fan club for the jerk, but a job was a job; he couldn''t start the year with a rejected job. That was just bad business.


    After groaning and whining for a minute, Quinn suddenly sat up straight, his eyes shining with euphemistic sparkle.


    "Wait a minute, isn''t this great?!" eximed Quinn. He was dreading doing this job, but right now, the gears were turning his head.


    "I could use this," said Quinn, taking out a new sheet of paper and started to write the things he needed to do.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn knocked on the door but not before taking a deep breath and putting on a joyous smile on his face.


    "Professor Lockhart, may Ie in?"


    Yes, Quinn was doing a thing he never thought he would do; talking to Gilderoy Lockhart on his own ord.


    Lockhart, who had his signature smile on his face, looked up from his desk. Quinn assumed he was replying to fan mails.


    "Yes, child, pleasee in," said the phony, with his smile widening.


    Quinn walked inside and reached Lockhart''s table. He was here for something that, if it went smoothly, would be profitable for Quinn.


    "Good evening, professor. I have something to talk to you about," greeted Quinn, his eyes gazing across at loads of fan letters on Lockhart''s desk. Yup, he was right in his presumption.


    "Of course, you havee to the right ce. Talk to me, I will help you out, and you will be singing my praise by the time you are out of the room," bragged Lockhart.


    ''No, you would be quite happy by the time I am done with you,'' thought Quinn. He took a seat and smiled, "I am here because I have been charged with creating a Hogwarts-based fan club for you."


    Quinn threw the bait, and the Gilderoy-fish jumped at it like a tasty treat.


    "A fan club, you say. What a noble and novel idea! Tell me more about this fan club," spoke Lockhart, with enthusiasm shining in his eyes.


    If there was one thing Gilderoy Lockhart loved, it was fame.


    Gilderoy Lockhart was born to a non-magical father and magical mother. Out of the three children of the couple, Gilderoy was the only one with magic, and it brought a lot of joy to his mother. She treated Gilderoy as her favorite child and pampered him rotten.


    When Gilderoy got his Hogwarts letter, a seed of vanity to grow like a tenacious weed. He had hoped to be greeted by whispers and stares, as in his mind, he was already a fully-fledged genius with exceptional magical prowess. The fact that he was merely ordinary, that more talented and gifted children were there, and his naturally wavy hair particrly impressed nobody, disappointed him.


    He did have above-average abilities. Lockhart was cleverer than most of his ssmates but had a terrible w in that Lockhart would not try unless he was confident he would be the best of whichever particr team, group, or ss he was with at the time.


    Even if he fell short of his ambitions that he would freely share with anyone who bothered listening. He bragged he would seed in creating the Philosopher''s Stone before leaving school and intended to captain Ennd''s Quidditch team to World Cup glory before knuckling down to bing Britain''s youngest Minister for Magic.


    His vanity was such that he valued learning not for education but because it granted him attention; he craved attention and prizes and begged the Headmaster to start a school newspaper purely so he could see his own name in print.


    When these exploits failed to grant him attention, he took to grander, more dramatic means of garnering attention.


    He achieved minor notoriety by carving his signature in twenty-foot-long letters into the Quidditch pitch, earning him a weeks'' worth of detentions. Created a spell that shot a hologram of his own face into the sky in imitation of the Dark Mark and sending himself eight-hundred Valentines, causing breakfast to be canceled because of the number of droppings and feathers in the porridge.


    He increasingly devoted his talents to insincere shortcuts and cowardly dodges, focused on attention and neglecting genuine learning.


    After he graduated from Hogwarts, he employed the same habit of cowardly methods, deceit, and fraud but took them to the next level and became an aplished author. Traveling to exotic parts of the world and having mastered Memory charm shortly after graduation, tricking aplished witches and wizards into revealing their grandest of deeds and then erasing their memories, promoting them as his own.


    So, hearing about a fan club in his alma mater interested him greatly. He understood Hogwarts was the premier institute for all British and Irish wizards, so he knew what kind of reach and demographic he could develop if a fan club was set up here in Hogwarts.


    "There has been a demand for creating a club focused on you and your work. I have been charged to create it, and I need a little help from you in your capacity as a professor."


    "Oh! Do tell me, I would help you with everything you will need," offered Lockhart, showing full enthusiasm for the matter.


    Quinn took out a bunch of sheets of parchment and said, "While it is possible to create a club with no need for professor''s permission, but I think that if I have permission from a professor, then it would provide the club with a solid foundation."


    He set down the small stack of parchment in front of Lockhart and spoke, "I need you to sign these requests for an allotted ssroom as the club base, permission to promote the club without getting into trouble, and other technicalities that enable the club. Please sign these so I can get the ball rolling."


    Lockhart didn''t even look at the papers and used his quill to sign on every nk space that Quinn had marked.


    "What about the activities in the club? I have plenty of ideas regarding that matter?"


    Quinn stood up and collected the paper while saying, "Of course, your creative ideas would be a significant addition. I will make sure to send the members in charge of that part. You would be able to get your ideas across better with those students."


    Quinn shook hands with Lockhart, "Thank you for the help, professor. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Please look forward to it; students are excited to talk to you about you. Good evening, professor."


    Quinn didn''t wait for Lockhart to respond and bolted out of the room. He didn''t want to talk to Lockhart more than the needed minimum.


    A smile made its way to Quinn''s face as he stared at the stack of parchments.


    ''He didn''t read the Terms and Conditions, sucker!''


    While Lockhart did sign papers for club creation, he also signed some papers not rted to club creation, like permission to ess the restricted section of the Hogwarts library.


    "Yeah, Lockhart was easy to fool~," grinned Quinn.


    Quinn had refrained from asking permission to restricted sections of the Hogwarts library as it would bring him unnecessary scrutiny. But with Lockhart''s permission, Quinn had now received ess for his third year.


    He took out another sheet of parchment, and this one also bought a smile to Quinn''s face.


    "Oh, this is going to make me a lot of money, isn''t it? Much more money than the notes didst year."


    On the signed sheet of parchment, Lockhart had given Quinn the permission to produce and sell merchandise in Hogwarts, and Lockhart had relinquished any im on the profits.


    It was a proverbial gold mine.


    Quinn hummed as he walked his way to get the whole thing started.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    (Extra: Shorts)


    "We want you to set up a fan club for Harry Potter," asked a Hogwarts girl.


    "Oh,e on!" yelled Quinn. "Not again!"


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Devious - Opportunist.


    Fat Friar - Hufflepuff ghost - Looking forward to being the center of attention at the Deathday party.


    Fan Club Girls - Creating fandoms - Can be identified in the wild by their shrill squeals.


    Gilderoy Lockhart - ... - "Sucker!" ~ by Quinn.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 50 - Weaslette, Divergence, And Profits

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis..


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Walking in the Hogwarts corridors could be a daunting challenge if you didn''t know your way around. There were too many corridors, cuts, paths, doors, and goddamn stairs that liked to shit with people. But, those who spend an ample amount of time in Hogwarts could find order in chaos.


    So, when Quinn walked in the corridors of Hogwarts, with a dazed look in his eyes, you didn''t need to worry about him. As even with his mind somewhere else, his legs were taking care of the navigation.


    The cause for the dazed Quinn was because he was thinking, which was crossing over to daydreaming about the riddle of the second vault. It had been a couple of days, but he hadn''t been able to make any serious progress.


    The wording of the riddle was vague, and Quinn didn''t know what to make out of it.


    ''What is the stage ofpleteness? Is there something known as oil of green revenge? To get to the reward, I need to appreciate des? What was Friar on when he was thinking of this?'' Multiple thoughts circled in Quinn''s mind as he walked in the corridors, not really paying attention to his surroundings.


    "Ouch."


    "Umph."


    Quinn walked into something, and while he didn''t move at all, the thing he collided into did fell down.


    Focus returned to his eyes, and he looked at the ''thing'' he walked into and saw the ''thing'' was actually a person.


    A head of ming red hair greeted him. The person looked up to show her freckledplexion with light skin, a very petite stature, and bright brown eyes.


    The person on the floor was the only female progeny of the Weasley family, Ginny Weasley.


    Quinn''s mind, which had been solely focused on figuring the sense of the riddle, stopped and reassigned itself to the person in front of him.


    "I am very sorry. I wasn''t paying attention, and look what happened," spoke Quinn, as he helped the first year Weasley up.


    "It''s okay. I, too, wasn''t looking," said the girl. She noticed the golden ring on Quinn''s finger before she looked up and saw Quinn''s face.


    "Red hair, hmm... a Weasley? Oh, wait. I remember you. You are a first-year, aren''t you?" said Quinn, breaking ice into a conversation. "What is your name?"


    This was the perfect chance to have a conversation with the carrier of Tom Riddle''s diary, a.k.a Voldemort''s first Horcrux.


    "My name is Ginny," replied the Weaslette.


    "I see, Ginny. What are you doing here? There aren''t any first-year ssrooms here?" said Quinn, ncing around to see if there was around. It would be better for him if there wasn''t anyone around. Easier for him to work when there weren''t any witnesses.


    But, at the same time, Quinn was nervous as he wondered if the girl in front of him wasn''t Ginny but Tom Riddle. It would answer what a first-year was doing far away from the usual first-year student hotspot locations.


    "... am l-...."


    "Pardon me, but I wasn''t able to get that," said Quinn, leaning towards her.


    "I am lost!" half-shouted Ginny, her face bing as red as her hair in embarrassment.


    Or, it was a lost Ginny Weasley in front of him, thought Quinn, not really sure if Tom Riddle would be able to pull off a red-hot embarrassed expression.


    "Ah~ well, there is no reason to get embarrassed because of that," assured Quinn,forting the girl who truly had be red as her hair. "You are a first-year, and Hogwarts is a confusing ce."


    He smiled and offered, "Where do you want to go? I will take you there."


    Ginny looked relieved as her flush receded, leaving behind a faint blush on her cheeks. "I want to go to the charms ssroom."


    "Alright, let''s go. We are on the fourth floor, but the charms ssroom is on the third floor. You must have stepped on the wrong flight of stairs," replied Quinn.


    And, when Ginny made eye contact with him, Quinn wasted no time and took the opportunity to send a mental probe into Ginny''s mind.


    ''Got in,'' thought Quinn,tching his probe into Ginny''s unprotected mind.


    "Come on, let''s go, or you will bete," said Quinn, as he broke eye contact and funneled magic and focus for maintaining the connection with Ginny''s mind. This technique, while tricky for most Legilimency practitioners, for Quinn was easy as his way of practicing Legilimency was to sit in the Great Hall and eavesdrop into people''s minds, ''listen'' to their surface thoughts and emotions.


    In the past two years at Hogwarts, Quinn had be weirdly good at using Legilimency without maintaining eye contact.


    "So, how are you finding Hogwarts? Having any fun?" asked Quinn, making idle questions as he navigated his probe deeper into her mind, trying to reach theyer where memories resided.


    "... Gryffindormon room is fun," said Ginny as she finished speaking, showing the starry-eyed expression of any new first-year.


    "Nice, when I was in my first year, I kept a diary and wrote every new and fun thing I saw in it. Believe me, Hogwarts doesn''t have a shortage of fascinating things. By the end of the year, my diary was full of fun stuff."


    Quinn sneakily and smoothly deployed his standard Modulus Operandi (M.O.) of mentioning a keyword rting to the memory he was looking for. Hoping that it would trigger the memory in the target''s mind, causing it to rise on the surface, making it easier for Quinn to find the relevant memory.


    Quinn furrowed his brows a fraction as nothing relevant came to the surface, only Molly Weasley''s house budget diary and Arthur Weasley''s work diary.


    ''Gotta do it the long way,'' thinking that Quinn focused deeper and dove deeper into Ginny''s mind, trying to find anything relevant, and it was when they reached the grand staircase did Quinn finally found something.


    ''Got it!''


    It was the memory of the day of shopping. The Weasley family, along with the Potter family, went shopping for school supplies. Just like the books, they met up with the Granger family. They ended up meeting Gilderoy Lockhart at his signing event.


    Like the books, the real-life didn''t cut out the brawl between Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy. It almost made Quinn chuckle when he saw Arthur throw himself on Lucius. The two men knocked themselves into a bookshelf, starting a domino chain of falling bookshelves.


    While Quinn watched the memory, the duo of younger Gryffindor and older Ravenw walked down the stair. As they descended, they heard a shout,


    "Ginny!"


    Quinn focused and saw four people on another flight of moving stairs. It was the golden squad: Harry Potter, Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. The one who called out to Ginny was her brother, Ron.


    ''Time''s up, I guess,'' thought Quinn as he looked at them.


    Quinn and Ginny reached a ry point to change stairs. Quinn looked at Ginny and smiled, "It seems my job ends here. Your friends would guide you from here on."


    Quinn took out an A.I.D card from his pocket and handed it to Ginny.


    "If you need help with anything, you can see me here. I will try my best to help you out," said Quinn. Ginny looked at the card and nodded.


    "Good, now I will take my leave," said Quinn and stepped onto a staircase that came to the ry point.


    "Wait, what is your name?!" called out Ginny.


    Quinn turned as the staircase started to move and smiled, "Quinn West, and it might bete, but wee to Hogwarts!"


    The next set of stairs that arrived at the ry point were the golden squad''s stairs, and as they stepped off the stairs onto the tform, Ivy asked,


    "Ginny, what did he wanted from you?"


    "Hmm? Nothing, I was lost, and he was guiding me to the charms ssroom. He was nice," said Ginny. While Quinn did spend all the time looking at Ginny''s memories, he made sure to hold a proper conversation with Ginny.


    "What did he give you to at the end there?" asked Ron.


    Ginny held the card in both her hands and showed it to Ron, "He gave me his card."


    "Show it to me," said Ron as he tried to take it from Ginny, but the smaller Weasley was faster and snatched back her hand before Ron could get his hand on the card.


    "Nope, if you want one, get it from Quinn," said Ginny, looking at the card in her hands. It was the first time she had received something like this, and she didn''t trust Ron with it.


    "I will give it to youter," Hermione spoke to Ron, who was trying to get the card from Ginny, who was effortlessly evading her brother.


    Harry nced at Hermione and asked, "You have one?"


    "I have multiple cards. They aren''t difficult to find. You can usually find them under the ssroom tables," replied Hermione, and then quipped, "Of course, you wouldn''t know it, would you."


    She wasmenting on Harry''sck of attention during lessons.


    "What do you mean by that?" asked Harry, getting ready to quarrel with Hermione.


    Ivy looked at her brother and best friend and immediately recognized the signs of another childish exchange, their usual thing.


    "Okay, you two stop," she interrupted the two who were rearing to go at each other. She looked up and was just able to see onest look at Quinn before he was out of their sight.


    She turned to Hermione and asked, "Why do you have multiple of those?"


    Hermione''s eyes shined as she eximed, "The cards aren''t always the same. I have six different versions of cards, each one better than thest one. The charms on the cards are so fascinating; every card has charms I don''t recognize. Even now, I don''tpletely understand what went into creating them. I am seriously considering taking the card to professor Flitwick to get some answers."


    Ever since Hermione had found that there were multiple versions of A.I.D cards, she had started to collect them. She even went to older students to look at their cards. And had traded with them to have all the versions.


    Hermione Granger was Hogwarts'' first A.I.D card collector.


    Ron didn''t know about the guy and just thought it was another one of the bookworms from Ravenw, and Hermione''s fascination with Quinn cemented his image of Quinn.


    Harry, on the other hand, knew about Quinn. He had seen Quinn plenty of times talking to Katie Bell, who was his Quidditch teammate. He had seen him talking to Daphne Greengrass, who he recognized.


    Plus, he had seen him oncest year during his time in the Hospital Wing, and his mother had praised Quinn for being a good student.


    Now, he caught the sight of the card in Ginny''s hand and noticed the words A.I.D.


    "Where have I seen that," Harry thought out loud. He couldn''t ce a finger on where he had seen those words.


    Ivy helped her brother out and spoke, "A.I.D or Quinn West is the one who wrote the exam notes mum gave you. The colorful one."


    It finally clicked in Harry''s mind, "He made those notes?! I thought mum wrote those for us."


    While Harry wasn''t particrly active in the ssroom, he wasn''t stupid. He had been raised by Lily Potter; he made sure to regrly study as he had been taught to do by his mother.


    Ivy looked at her twin like he was an idiot and said, "Didn''t you see them with like everybody? Why would mum make them from everyone?"


    "Hey, I don''t really have a carefreest year," said Harry, defending himself.


    Ivy didn''t give him a hard time, asst year had been a little rough on Harry. He had been in close contact with Voldemort, and that caused his scar to hurt a lot. Plus, there were some attacks on his life.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    While the golden squad was talking among themselves, Quinn had a peculiar experience.


    ''Damn it! Damnit! Damn it! Damn it!'' repeated Quinn in his mind.


    "This cannot be happening," eximed Quinn, his tone showcasing panic. He had just experienced something that shouldn''t have happened, or at least Quinn hadn''t thought of happening.


    Like a wrecking ball, a grave piece of information had hit him while he thought he was making progress.


    When in Ginny''s mind, reading her memories to see the influence of the diary-Horcrux on her mind, Quinn could only find a single memory rted to Tom Riddle''s diary, and that was the fight at Flourish and Blotts.


    In that memory, he noticed a ring issue. A smoking gun that blew the whole situation apart.


    Lucius Malfoy didn''t sneakily give the diary to Ginny.


    Meaning that Ginny Weasley didn''t have the diary-Horcrux.


    Meaning that there was a divergence from canon events.


    Quinn had checked thoroughly and didn''t notice anything going to Ginny or any Potter or Weasley children. Lucius Malfoy didn''t have a chance to slip anything into Potters, Weasleys, or Hermione when he was busy being restrained by Auror James Potter for disrupting order by fighting in a public ce.


    Tom Riddle''s diary wasn''t with Ginny, and that made some ring problems. Problems that down the line could create grave situations.


    "Now, I don''t know if the diary is in Hogwarts or not." Quinn paced back and forth, thinking about the ramification of his discovery.


    The locations of Horcrux were crucial information to Quinn. As long as he was aware of the position of the Horcruxes, he had the upper hand on Voldemort.


    But now, he did not know where the diary-Horcrux was.


    Quinn began to think about the diary-Horcrux and came up with three possibilities.


    First, the diary-Horcrux could still have made its way to Hogwarts but with another student. Lucius Malfoy could have simply dropped it with another student, resulting in iting to Hogwarts. If this was the case, it was the closest to the canon events, and Quinn would like it the most.


    Second, the diary-Horcrux remained at the Malfoy Manor, safe in the protected Manor, as it had been since Voldemort had entrusted it to Lucius. If this was the case, it caused some problems, as when Voldemort gets a body, there was a high chance Malfoy Manor would be Voldemort''s headquarters. If that happens, it would mean that Voldemort would have a Horcrux close to him, which was not a pleasant thought.


    Third, Lucius had sold the diary-Horcrux, and its location was unknown. This was the worst of the scenario, as that would mean that a Horcrux was out there, and as long as it was intact, Voldemort couldn''t die.


    This scenario was the least usible, as Lucious might not sell something given to him by Voldemort. But, one could argue against it by saying that Lucius was carrying the diary with him on the day he was selling dark objects to Borgin and Burkes to get rid of it. He wanted to sell dark items to protect himself if the Ministry arrived knocking at his door because of the stricter standards.


    And, let''s say that diary-Horcrux never came to Hogwarts, which would mean that diary-Riddle would never wake the Basilisk up and Harry would never kill the beast, and it would be still alive. If Voldemort attacked Hogwarts, then the Basilisk would definitely be part of his forces. A magical beast that could kill with a single nce was a game-changer. It would be more effective on a battlefield than Voldemort himself.


    Quinn heaved a heavy sigh as he thought about the situation that was getting out of his hand. The future knowledge was an essential asset for Quinn, and every change would decrease his safety in this world.


    He looked up at the ceiling before ring hard.


    "I me fate for this. Did you hear me?! I me you!" screamed Quinn at an entity he didn''t know if it even existed, but it was the action he took, and while it didn''t solve the situation, it did help slightly to alleviate frustration.


    He stomped hard on the floor before walking away; he needed time to think and make sure he was safe in Hogwarts.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was true that Quinn was having a not-so-good time because of the Horcrux situation or that he had made little progress with the vault riddle, but there was a single thing that was buzzing with positive activity.


    Gilderoy Lockhart merchandise produced by Quinn and sold in Hogwarts were selling like hotcakes. Lockhart was good at one thing other than using Memory charm, and that was his ability to create an excellent public presence and knew how to maintain a positive image of himself. His fame and reputation were always riding high, and themon public was full of praises for him.


    Riding on the wave of Lockhart''s poprity and fame, Quinn sold tons and tons of Lockhart figurines, posters,pel pins, exclusive trading cards that showcased Lockhart in different poses and with different quotes on each card, and many more products.


    Countless students, mostly girls, coughed serious cash to get their hands on the Lockhart products. Quinn worked hard to meet the demand, and because of good nning and preparation, Quinn was able to keep up production and sold so many items that his dream of swimming in a pool of sickles took a significant jump in progress.


    Lockharts, the Hogwarts fan club, was the official site for the sales as Quinn had hired a girl in the fan club to handle the sales for a small payment. He didn''t have the time or the want to deal with sales, and neither did he want to stay in the club room all day to sell to take orders. He didn''t need the A.I.D office to be a ce where Lockhart fanatics mingled, so he made sure everybody knew that the club room was the ce to go.


    Quinn''s life wasplicated as he made the most money he had ever in his life but didn''t have the opportunity to celebrate.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Has money - check, Hates fate - check.


    Ginny Weasley - Gryffindor - Things are looking up for her as she escaped the fate of Voldemort controlling her - Good for her.


    Hermione Granger - Collector - Looking forward to the new edition of A.I.D cards.


    Lockharts - Cash cows - Being milked for money~.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    50 Chapters!


    Half-century!


    Hurray!


    Banzai!


    Kampai!

 Chapter 51 - Oil Of Green Revenge, Room Of Rewards, And Black Binders

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    The ensuing vault cursed like the first one,


    One that... terrifies the dead ones.


    It dwells on the stage ofpleteness,


    Sheltered by the oil of green revenge.


    If you want to taste the reward,


    des you need to appreciate.


    But are you ready? It will be anything but easy.


    The roads we walk have demons beneath,


    Are you ready to face what lies underneath?


    ]


    Quinn hummed in giddiness, staring at the riddle on his left and the third-year Hogwarts Arithmancy book on the right. It was a pure coincidence, but while doing his Arithmancy homework in the Arithmancy, he noted something written on the Arithmancy book.


    It was the symbolism of number six, and ording to Arithmancy, number six was the number ofpleteness.


    It was also a perfect number, and a perfect number was a rarity. A perfect number was when all the numbers divisors, excluding the number itself, are added, and the sum equals the number itself.


    Divisors of six (6) = 1, 2, and 3.


    [Sum of divisors = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6]


    Ancient Greek Arithmancy master Euclid had discovered the first four perfect numbers, 6, 28, 496, and 8128.


    Seeing that Hogwarts didn''t have floors in double digits, corrting this with Friar''sst riddle, Quinn was sure that stage''s meaning here was the floor.


    The stage ofpleteness was the sixth floor of Hogwarts.


    "I don''t want to scan the whole damn floor just to find the entrance," grumbled Quinn. He slid the riddle paper in front of him and reread it again.


    Last time, the riddle had minimum information about the actual vault, and it was more of an introduction to the cursed vaults in general, but this time, the entire puzzle was focused on the second vault.


    "Hmm, now, what does oil of green revenge mean?"


    Sitting in his office, Quinn tapped on his table, looking around the room, wondering about the wording. The ticking of the clock could be heard clearly in the quiet room.


    The tapping of the table turned rhythmic as he tapped out a tune. Slowly all five fingers and palm came into y, performing a tap-tune with his hand beating against the table. His head started to bob with the music.


    *p!*


    The sound of Quinn pping his forehead with his other hand reverberated in the quiet room.


    "... What are you doing, man?" scolded Quinn. He got up from his chair and paced up and down in the room. Trying to think of a solution.


    Time ticked away as Quinn tried all kinds of things like doing a handstand,ying down on the floor, sitting lotus style, eyes closed, and anything that might work, but nothing worked.


    After an unidentified time, Quinn ended up watching a non-magical painting on his office wall. It didn''t move because of charms or did anything magical, but Quinn liked it because of its simplicity and the simplistic color pte.


    "Colors are amazing," spoke Quinn, his eyes reflecting the colors in the oil painting.


    "Hmm?" Quinn tilted his head and rewound through his thoughts.


    "Wait a minute."


    He turned his head to the riddle page on his desk and back to the painting on the wall. He repeated it twice before saying,


    "Oil... Painting... Oil painting... Portrait... Magical Portrait... Friar, you beautiful fat monk." From the start of the sentence, Quinn''s voice rose with every word till he came to the final conclusion, and facts all fell into their ce.


    Quinn didn''t wait for a single second before he put on his Hogwarts robe, and while he did that, his table packed itself, and the page of the riddle flew into his hand. He pocketed the page and spoke to himself as he exited the office.


    "Oh yeah, I am feeling it now. There is no point in being nut if you can''t have a little fun."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Like every floor of the Hogwarts castle, the sixth floor was vast and grand. Full of different corridors and turns, with rooms that hadn''t been opened in hundreds of years because the castle was so huge that the upants never needed all the extra amodations.


    Ghost and portraits were a charming feature of Hogwarts. Its magical nature attracted ghosts to tie themselves to the castle, while people''s time in the Hogwarts castle, while they were still alive, was so significant that they liked to send their portraits to the school.


    Even to this day, a lot of dead people sent their portraits to Hogwarts.


    ''Maybe I will do the same when I am all old, sickly, and dead,'' thought Quinn as he ran his way to the sixth floor.


    He reached the floor and walked to the first portrait he saw.


    "What''s your name?"


    The man in the portrait looked at Quinn before stroking his mustache as he introduced himself,


    "Tatum kesleye is my name; mustache is my game."


    Quinn cut him off and said, "Tate''s homestead? No, that isn''t anywhere near green revenge."


    He looked at the next portrait, "What about you?"


    "Lady Ebba Hornee."


    Quinn shook his head, "From the fortress, that doesn''t match either."


    Quinn went one by one to every portrait and asked their names. Trying to rte them to green revenge, but nothing matched.


    He stopped after a couple of tens of portraits and grunted, "Okay, this is taking too much time. Need to speed up the process."


    He took a deep breath and gathered his magic, and initiated the magic he wanted to use. Quinn opened his mouth and spoke, but not a single sound came out of it.


    But to every portrait in his sight, they could hear the same sentence.


    "Everybody, tell me your names."


    Every single portrait that could see Quinn heard the sentence, and they began moving closer to Quinn by traveling between frames. Some portrait people away from Quinn also came to see what was happening. And, tons of portrait people peered at Quinn from the picture frames on the walls.


    Quinn shrug-nodded in amazement at the number, "Alright, a little more than I was expecting, but why not? Go ahead, speak your names together at the same time."


    He closed his eyes and focused, diving deep into his magic, channeling it to enable the lumency he had developed throughout the years. His mind thrummed with activity, and then it came.


    Portraits were copies of their subjects while they were painted, which meant they too had personalities. The portraits began speaking their names; some took the lead, some followed after the first group, while others hung at the back of the group before speaking.


    A cacophony of names came crashing into Quinn as he sorted through every single name that was thrown at him.


    "Bonifatius Teg." "Eustorgius Nerva." "Rodachan Nni."


    .


    .


    .


    "Amara Nero." "Sionn Henness." "Ad Dreschnerg."


    .


    .


    .


    "Hrabanus Lentinus." "Eardwulf Fryee." "Madison lestone."


    .


    .


    .


    "Sidonius Dorso." "Roswita Bohng." "Cyneric Harlowe."


    .


    .


    .


    "Eustorgius Nerva." " Vindictus Viridian." "Hildebrand Forsbergs."


    Quinn visualized every single first andst name in his mind, looking at their meanings from their rootnguage and culture. Every name appeared in front of a mental image of Quinn, and it would immediately turn into its closest meaning before Quinn would swipe his hand, and it would disappear, and the process would be repeated with a new name.


    Celtics, Roman, Germanic, and Old English meanings floated in his mind; tens and tens of words shed in his mind at an lumency-aided speed that was remarkable for someone Quinn''s age.


    "Wait, a second!" shouted Quinn. He swiped his hand from left to right, and a pair of words appeared in his mind.


    Vindictus Viridian.


    ''Vindictus is derived from the Latin vindicta, meaning revenge, and the surname Viridian from the Latin Viridis, meaning green.''


    ''Revenge'' and ''Green'' floated in Quinn''s mind, and he switched the words to get ...


    "Green revenge," he whispered and slowly opened his eyes. "... I found it."


    He looked at the horde of portrait people and asked, "Who among you is Vindictus Viridian?"


    Ady stepped in front of the group, and that confused Quinn, "You are Vindictus Viridian?" He thought it was a guy''s name.


    Thedy shook her head and spoke, "No, Mr. Viridian left. He doesn''t like noisy ces, so when we spoke all the names, he left because it got too noisy."


    Quinn clicked his tongue and asked, "Where can I find him then?"


    Another portrait spoke from the herd, "Y-Yeah, we can''t tell. Mr. Viridian doesn''t like that, says that it just attracts more noise."


    Quinn looked at the entire herd of staring eyes and asked, "Anyone else who wants to speak up?"


    No one spoke and just shifted on their painted feet. Quinn was surprised by this and thought Vindictus Viridian might be an important man.


    "Alright...dies and gentleman, you were helpful. You may leave and go back to your lives... I mean frames." The portraits weren''t alive, so telling them to continue on with their lives was wrong.


    "Sorry about that," said Quinn before walking away to a ce with no portraits. He leaned against a wall, crossed his arms, and began thinking.


    ''Let''s see. Who is Vindictus Viridian?''


    He wanted to check if there was someone with the name in his memory. A faraway look appeared in his eyes as Quinn dived into his mindscape and started looking for anything that would mention Vindictus Viridian.


    After a minute or two, Quinn finally found a mention of the name in his memory and was surprised to see that Quinn did know a lot about Vindictus Viridian.


    "Professor Vindictus Viridian, potioneer, author, and Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the early eighteenth century. Now, I see why the portraits weren''t willing to speak about him."


    During his lifetime, he published a famous book on minor dark charms known as Curses and Counter-Curses: Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges.


    A book that was still extremely famous among students in Hogwarts and could be found with arge part of the student poption. In other words, he was still a best-selling author centuries after his death.


    Focus returned to Quinn''s eyes as he moved away from the wall and exhaled, "He will be on the sixth floor. It won''t be difficult to find him."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Damn, it was hard to find you!" eximed Quinn as he stared at the portrait of Vindictus Viridian. He had to look at every portrait frame, and through extraordinary events, Vindictus Viridian''s portrait frame was thest one he found.


    Vindictus Viridian looked up from a book he was reading and stared at Quinn, "You are the boy who was asking for names. Why have youe to find me, child?"


    Quinn observed the portrait frame, which covered the whole door to a room, and said, "I want to get in there."


    The portrait of Vindictus Viridian was guarding the room to the Room of Rewards, a secret room at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that noted students'' various achievements. It was different from the Trophy room on the third floor. Quinn didn''t know how it was different, but he didn''t care about that.


    ''Damn, Friar really thought this through, didn''t he? If I just thought about the next part of the riddle. I wouldn''t have spent all that time searching for this,'' thought Quinn.


    The next part of the riddle was about rewards and des. If Quinn figured that out, there was a chance he might not have to spend so much time wandering around.


    "No, you can''t. Students aren''t allowed to go inside," said the portrait of the ex-headmaster.


    "Why?"


    "Because I say so," said Vindictus while going back to reading his book.


    Quinn squinted his eyes before asking, "Is it because there is a rule against entering the room, or is it just because you just don''t want to open the door?"


    "Thetter," answered Vindictus, not looking at Quinn and reading his book.


    "Alright, if this is how you want to y." Quinn turned away from the portrait and walked to a ce where a Vindictus couldn''t see him and took out Recon.


    "Let''s see if you are so stuck up after this." He looked at the map and found the thing that would help him show up Vindictus.


    He closed Recon and walked back to the portrait.


    Portrait-Vindictus sighed as he looked at Quinn, "Boy, I will repeat, you aren''t getting -."


    "Summa Praemium."


    Portrait-Vindictus stilled in his chair and turned to face Quinn, "What did you say?"


    "Summa Praemium. Now, open up. Let me through. Reveal the treasure... Get out of my way, grandpa," said Quinn, smirking his face off. He had read the password for Room of Rewards from Recon and now was rubbing it in Vindictus'' face.


    Portrait-Vindictus didn''t say a word as the door to the Room of Rewards opened up, but he did stare at Quinn the whole time.


    Quinn stared back at the ex-headmaster as he strutted his way into the Room of Reward.


    The inside of Room of Rewards wasn''t filled with trophies or awards. But with shelves and shelves of ck leather binders, with names written in gold on the spines of the binders.


    He didn''t touch anything in this room because of paranoia and just took slow steps to explore the room. He didn''t want to make any unwarranted moves in here. Quinn had no n to have a repeat of thest year.


    After an infuriating amount of time, Quinn finally concluded that he could walk normally in this room without triggering any deadly trap.


    "Phew... that was stressful," sighed Quinn. He finally rxed his tense body and just looked at the room. It wasn''t anything special, just shelves of ck leather binders and nothing else.


    The first thing he did was cast tons of detections charms on one of the ck binders to check if they were safe to pick up, and the result was that there was nothing on the binders other than preservation charms.


    Quinn picked up the binder and opened it to read it. There were tons of parchments inside the binder that told a story about a student named Paige Winthorpe. She was a student around three hundred years ago, and in her time as a Hogwarts student, she was made a prefect in her fifth year and continued her way to be a Head Girl in her seventh year. She was a top scorer in her exams in her time, and it showed in the report cards attached in the binder. Paige Winthorpe wasn''t only good at academics; she excelled at sports and part of the Slytherin Quidditch team from her fourth to the sixth year. In short, Paige Winthorpe of Slytherin was an exemry student.


    Quinn picked up another binder and saw simr facts about another student and another one and one more. He went through five of these binders, and every single one of them was some kind of valedictorian or simr, someone who shined in Hogwarts in a way or another.


    "Do I have to read all of these binders?" asked Quinn as he remembered about the line in the riddle.


    [If you want to taste the reward,


    des you need to appreciate.]


    It made Quinn think he needed to ''appreciate'' the des that were written in the binders. They showed the student career of the brightest students of Hogwarts, and these binders showed their des.


    Quinn looked at the hundreds and maybe thousands of binders and dreaded going through this much material. He enjoyed reading, but only if it added to his knowledge or if he enjoyed reading something. And, he had just read those five binders and Quinn was sure that it would get boring real quick.


    "I-I am going to through the room once again. Have to check it to find if I missed something," said Quinn, hoping that he missed something. He didn''t want to read everything in this room.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. A sudden spate of colds among the staff and students kept Madam Pomfrey, the matron, busy, her Pepper-up Potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward.


    Quinn, too, had spent an amount of time in the Hospital Wing, brewing Pepper-up potions for the season-changing cold, helping the matron with the brewing load. In return, she answered every healing-rted question he had.


    A profitable exchange for both.


    On the vault of side things, Quinn had little luck finding anything in the room. So, he had no choice but to read the binders. He would spend a lot of time in the Room of Rewards reading about many students.


    It turned out that the Room of Rewards was reserved for the very best of the students of Hogwarts, and every year, the professors would sit and have a meeting to decide who would be admitted into the Room of Rewards.


    Those binders held every remarkable detail about the students and the teachers'' remarks about the student. Stunning rmendation letters and proof of character from faculty if the students needed them.


    Quinn was sure that if any students had these, they wouldn''t need a resume for the start of their career. Just pick one of these binders and walk into a ce of hiring, and they would seriously give you a look over.


    But, despite that, Quinn still didn''t enjoy reading them, but he didn''t have a choice. He just read the ck binders and practiced magic while reading them.


    Portrait-Vindictus tried to change passwords, but his efforts were for nothing as with Recon, no room in Hogwarts was blocked to Quinn. Of course, except the Chamber of Secrets that opened up with Parseltongue.


    Speaking of Chamber of Secrets, while Quinn was immersed in reading the ck binders, October passed, and Halloween arrived.


    And, Halloween at Hogwarts with Potter''s fate was always eventful.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Solving Riddles, reading tons, brewing medicine.


    Portrait-Vindictus - Portrait of Ex-headmaster - Likes quiet.


    Poppy Pomfrey - Matron - October is her peak season.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 52 - Hallowe’en Of Illusions And Symbols

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    The dinner feast at Halloween was always special at Hogwarts.


    The decor of the Great Hall was all Halloweeny and spooky. Floating pumpkin heads from the ceiling and spooky bats flew around the dark, enchanted sky.


    The lighting on the Great Hall was also dimmed by a level, giving it a different feel than usual. It was oddly stimting to see a ce that you saw every day changed slightly.


    The goblets had engravings of pumpkin, and the food came in cauldrons instead of the usual utensils.


    Like every year, Quinn had put on his pointed hat for the asion and had a pumpkin and batpel pin on his robes. It was his way of being festive.


    Plus, he had dipped into his chocte reserves and distributed chocte to every Ravenw he came across in the Ravenwmon room.


    Unknown to him, they gave him the nickname Chocte West because of the chocte he had been giving out. It didn''t help when he would randomly produce chocte and give them to people even before Halloween.


    Quinn cleaned his hands and corners of his mouth before turning to Eddie and smiling, "What Halloween candy is never on time for the party?"


    Eddie gave the question a thought before shrugging, "I don''t know. Which one is it?"


    "Choco-LATE,"ughed Quinn.


    Eddie gave him a t look and spoke, "That wasn''t funny."


    Quinn pursed his lips and nodded, "I know, here you go." cing something on Eddie''s hand.


    Eddie looked at his hand, expecting to see the usual chocte, but it turned out not to be chocte.


    "A candy cane?" asked Eddie, his brows quirking up.


    Quinn showed a shallow lopsided grin and chortled, "The chocte iste."


    Eddie''s jaw fell as he gawked at Quinn. He closed his mouth before asking, "Did you n that?"


    "No, it just came to me!" smiled Quinn, shaking his hands around his head. "Genius, right?!"


    "... No, it wasn''t," spoke Eddie, his face showing hisplete disagreement.


    Both friends got up from their bench spots and started to walk towards the exit


    Quinn threw his arm around Eddie''s shoulder and poked his cheek, "Come on, admit I got you."


    "Nope, it didn''t."


    "It did." "Didn''t."


    "It did." "Didn''t."


    "It did." "Didn''t."


    .


    .


    .


    "It did."


    "Didn''t!"


    Quinn and Eddie walked together among the crowd of students who were going to themon room. He would walk with them till the fifth floor, then he was going to part with them to go to the Room of Requirements.


    But then the crowd of students slowed down till every stopped and stilled. A murmur spread across the students, and then all of them heard something that bought chills to Quinn.


    "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You''ll be next, Mudbloods!"


    Quinn froze when he heard Draco Malfoy''s familiar voice. He had familiarised with it from all the times he had quarreled with Harry Potter in the Great Hall.


    Eddie felt Quinn''s arm slip away from his shoulder and watched as his friend step away from him and walk towards the front of the crowd.


    "Hey, where are you going?" Eddie called out to Quinn but didn''t get a reply from his roommate. "Quinn!"


    Quinn didn''t hear Eddie as he moved through the crowd towards the front of the traffic. His fingers twitched asionally, and numerous students felt tugs on their clothes, shifting them slightly to the side as Quinn used magic to make a path from himself.


    Quinn finally reached the front of the crowd and saw the scene he had read about and seen in the cinematic representation of the books.


    Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the ming torches. And, not any words, but words, written in blood red, and the dripping marks certainly upped the graveness of the wording.


    THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.


    His eyes shifted away from the bloody words and saw Mrs. Norris, the caretaker''s cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.


    ''Is she dead?'' thought Quinn and immediately looked at the floor to see a puddle of water.


    ''Okay, there is a chance that it might be alive.'' The events exactly matched the canon, so there was a chance that Mrs. Norris was alive and was just petrified.


    Quinn finally took note of his surroundings. The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Ron, Ivy, and Hermione stood alone in the middle of the corridor as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the bloody sight.


    Attracted no doubt by Malfoy''s shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.


    "My cat! My cat! What''s happened to Mrs. Norris?" He shrieked at Harry, his eyes popping red as he looked feral.


    You!" he screeched. "You! You''ve murdered my cat! You''ve killed her!


    I''ll kill you! I''ll ¡ª"


    "Argus!"


    Quinn looked as Dumbledore made his entry on the scene, followed by the professors. In seconds, he had swept past the golden quartet and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch basket.


    He handled the situation swiftly and immediately asked Filch and the golden quartet to follow him to his office, and Lockhart offered his office because it was the closest.


    The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and significant, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall, Lily Potter, and Snape.


    Quinn felt relieved as he saw the events happening just as canon progression. It made him feel in control and brought calmness that the diary-Horcrux was in the castle and not out of Hogwarts, which meant there was a solid chance the Basilisk might die at the hands of Harry Potter this year.


    But...


    Quinn didn''t know that his relief would turn against him as without his knowledge, someone had seen his relief, someone that didn''t have a good impression of him.


    Ivy Potter, the Potter Princess, part of the golden quartet, caught sight of Quinn''s figure in the crowd''s front. And, something caught her attention, and when she observed, she saw a look of recognition in Quinn''s eyes as he stared at the bloody scene.


    Her eyes widened as she saw relief and something else in Quinn''s expression as he watched the wording on the wall and the hanging cat.


    A seed of apprehension gripped her heart as she saw him not showing the stunned and dismayed expression matching the others surrounding them.


    Ivy continued to nce at him with the corner of her wide green eyes as her mother pulled them away from the crowd.


    Without Quinn''s knowledge, his hated wench had struck again.


    Fate had ced an impending crisis on Quinn''s head, and he did not know what was about toe.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The knowledge that the Basilisk was active in Hogwarts was a positive and negative thing at the same time.


    The positive from the situation was that the course of events remained close to the canon progression. Quinn didn''t need to worry about canon blowing itself out of the pool and the Basilisk wrecking havocter on.


    The negative of the diary-Horcrux being at Hogwarts was in the short term. It wasn''t sunshine and daisies when you lived in the same building as the deadliest snake in the world, one that could kill you with a single look.


    To feel a moment of safety, Quinn hade to the Room of Requirement to think about... something. He couldn''t think much about how to handle the Basilisk.


    Quinn''s first priority was to stay away from the serpent and make sure he and the snake never met. He had no delusions of taking on the Basilisk.


    ''If it was blinded, then I would take my chances,'' thought Quinn, tapping away at the armrest of the chair he had asked from the Room of Requirement.


    There were two ces in Hogwarts where he was safe from the Basilisk, he was sitting in the first, and the second was the Icy vault. Snakes didn''t like cold, and Basilisk wasn''t an exception; if Quinn became a squatter in the Icy vault, he would be safe from the Basilisk as it would avoid the cold climate of the vault.


    ''Even Voldemort won''t be able tomand the Basilisk to go in there.''


    "I do not know who is the pitiful victim of the diary-Horcrux. That itself is a problem," contemted Quinn. If Ginny Weasley was the Horcrux host, he would have robbed the diary from her and chucked it into the Room of Lost Things.


    But, there was a part of Quinn''s mind that didn''t worry about the Basilisk, and it was because of his blood status.


    Quinn came from a pure-blood family, and the young Tom Riddle was obsessed with his Slytherin lineage. Slytherin didn''t want students of non-magical or mixed-lineage to enter Hogwarts, and the young Tom Riddle followed that mindset with his heart.


    He wanted to rid Hogwarts of first-generation magicals (muggleborns). All his victims were muggleborns, except Penelope Clearwater, who was coteral damage, an unnned victim.


    Quinn was a pureblood wizard, so there was a part of Quinn''s mind that thought he was safe. That the controlled Basilisk won''t target him. The one time in his life that his blood status would help him out. His being pureblood would help him out in this situation.


    He didn''t believe in pureblood propaganda. Why would he? It didn''t help him in magic. His hard work was what helped him progress in his magic capabilities. Blood purity had nothing to do with it.


    But now, here he sat, wondering if this ''blood purity'' would save him from mortal danger. An archaic way of thinking that led to gic abnormalities, gene poll degradation, the possibility of declination of magic, and the birth of Squibs.


    He didn''t like this fact at all. It didn''t fit well with him that this inherently corrupt doctrine might possibly help him out.


    Quinn just sat there in his chair, staring at the floor, lost in thought about the time toe.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Mr. Veridian, how are you today? Having a quiet day, I hope," said Quinn as he put on a pair of gloves over his head.


    Portrait-Vindictus stared down at Quinn but didn''t open his mouth to utter a single sound in greeting.


    Quinn waited for some chat back, but as every day, the Portrait didn''t entertain him, so he moved on, "Alright, please open up, I have to go inside."


    "Password," demanded Portrait-Vindictus.


    Quinn exhaled a sigh and put his hands on his waist before asking, "You know if you didn''t ask me for a password every day. We would have been good friends."


    "Password."


    Quinn clicked his tongue and spoke, "Immortalis."


    The door opened up without a single word of response, and Quinn stepped but not before saying, "See you in a bit, Mr. Viridian."


    The inside of the Room of Rewards was dull as ever, with ck binders resting on shelves.


    Orbs of light manifested around Quinn, providing proper lighting for him to navigate and read.


    "Okay, time for another session of reading random people''s school records," said Quinn. He started from where he left off yesterday.


    ''Like a damn blue-cor worker.''


    Quinn sat down his butt down on the floor and began reading, and while he read, a small holographic image of the binder appeared in front of him in mid-air.


    The holographic binder opened up, and it was the exact copy of the binder in Quinn''s hands. When he looked at a parchment, a holographic image of parchment would appear in the holographic binder.


    If you looked closely at the holographic parchment, you would see words appear on it. If you backed up and looked at Quinn and the binder on his hand, you would notice that the words on the holographic parchment were the same as Quinn was reading.


    As Quinn read, the words were appearing on the holographic image on the parchment.


    Quinn didn''t want to waste his time just reading, so he devised a practice exercise to utilize his time.


    The practice was to get better at illusion magic.


    An illusion was a distortion of the senses, revealing how the mind usually organizes and interprets sensory stimtion. By disrupting and manipting the sensory input to the brain, a magical could their perception of reality.


    Currently, Quinn was casting illusion magic on himself. He was disrupting his own senses to make himself feel the illusions. It was the best way to practice illusion magic. If he understood how his mind interpreted sensory input, then he would have an understanding of every single mind out there.


    There were six base sensory perceptions; Sight (Visual), Smell (Olfactory), Touch (Tactile), Hearing (Auditory), Taste (Gustatory), and Magic (Extrasensory).


    Currently, he was working on the visual sense or the perception of sight; he was working on how the eye interpreted light and was deceiving his own eyes to believe that there is a holograph of the binder he was reading.


    By using the binder, he was changing the illusion with every second by adding words to parchments. It was great practice by creating dynamic illusions.


    The only limitation to Illusion magic was the imagination and understanding of the caster. If you wanted to cast an illusion of fire, you needed to know the physical characteristics of fire. How the wisps of fire moved, the heat of the fire, the color, the light projected by fire, and everything that would make the fire illusion believable.


    Illusions worked the best when the target believed that the illusion was real. It made the caster''s work easier because the target was digging themselves a hole, and all the caster was to give them a push.


    In the quiet room, the only sound was the turning of the pages. Quinn continued to read the student binders, sitting on the floor, and binders would float into his hands, and the ones he read would return to their ces on the shelves.


    After two dozen binders, Quinn stood up from his spot on the floor to stretch his body. He walked to the shelf of the binder he was holding in his hand.


    He arrived at the section of the Room of Rewards that held the records of students from the time Hogwarts was under a century old. Both the shelves and the binders were old despite the preservations charms cast on them.


    With a sigh, Quinn looked for the empty slot in the shelf to put the binder back.


    "Ah, there is it," said Quinn, walking to the empty and was about to put the binder back when he noticed something weird.


    There was some kind of engraving on the shelf wood that was visible because there wasn''t a binder covering it. He hadn''t noticed it before because he used magic to draw the binders to his spot on the floor.


    Quinn put the binder back into its ce and stepped back. With a twitch of his magic, the entire row of binders floated out of the shelf and glided overhead.


    The dust on the empty shelf cleared, and small orbs of light appeared to shed some light on the rack. Quinn moved closer to get a better look and saw that the entire nk of wood was engraved. He thought of something and saw that the roof of the rack, too, was embossed with symbols.


    "Alright," responded Quinn and memorized the symbols on the nk before putting the binders back into the rack.


    He concentrated on the entire multi-row shelf and pulled out all the binders from top to bottom. And, lo-and-behold, the entire bookshelf was engraved with symbols.


    Heughed in discovery, "Now, we are talking!"


    Quinn looked left to right and saw that the designs of the shelves in this section were identical. He had ignored the fact because he didn''t think it was relevant, but now it gave him a starting point.


    He ran to one corner of the section of shelves and pulled out entire rows of binders to memorize the symbols on the wooden nks. Repeating the process on every row of binders and every rack in the section.


    It took some before Quinn had managed to memorize every single rectangle of symbols.


    "These aren''t from a traditionalnguage," noted Quinn, while he paced up and down the room, thinking about the symbols he saw.


    He suddenly stopped and blurted, "They weren''tplete!" He looked around the room and decided that it was time to leave the room for today.


    "I need to work on this," spoke Quinn. A toothy grin reared on his face, threatening to split his face. He had been reading the boring binders for closer to two months now. He knew about people''s test scores who were dead centuries ago.


    Finding this clue was like an escape from his personal hell.


    Quinn hopped his way out of the Room of Reward and turned back to shoot finger guns at Portrait-Vindictus.


    "See youter, Mr. Veridian. I will see youter~."


    The stoic man in the Portrait just stared at Quinn and began to think of a new password for tomorrow.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    (Omake: Extra)


    Quinn: ": If an old man and a childe in front of your broom, what will you hit?"


    Eddie: "The old man."


    Quinn: "Idiot. You should hit the BRAKE."


    Eddie: "..."


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Oh boy, here we go again.


    Ivy Potter - Observer - Yeah, her stock of Quinn is dropping really low.


    Eddie Carmichael - Loves sweet - Not gonna lie, the first half didn''t get him, but the second one did.


    Portrait-Vindictus Veridian - Gatekeeper - One day, he would triumph over the smug brat.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 53 - Cipher, Decoding, And Descent

    The Room of Requirements has always provided its user with what they desired. Today, too, the person who called out to the room got what they sought from the magical room.


    On a very long table sat long strips of paper with symbols written on them in ck ink. There were hundreds of these strips. Each long strip of paper representing a nk of symbols that Quinn copied from the Room of Rewards.??


    He arranged them in the order of time. The nk which held the oldest binders went first, followed by the nks which had binders that came after them.


    This arrangement was the one that made the most sense to Quinn because he did not know what the symbols meant. They weren''t alphabets from any traditionalnguage that Quinn knew.


    The symbols were made from figures with angles, triangles, with at most one dot per symbol.


    "This is a cipher," was the conclusion that Quinn came up with. The symbols weren''t random, and Quinn could see the pattern and repetition in the symbols.


    "There are twenty-five (25) distinct symbols. One less than the English alphabet? Hmm... is there a missing letter in the code?" noted Quinn, his hand holding his chin in thought.


    Within a blink of his eyes, twenty-five symbols in red appeared in front of Quinn, floating in mid-air. These were all the unique symbols present in the cipher.


    Using illusions instead of writing the symbols down was redundant, as Quinn needed to maintain his magic while focusing on deciphering the cipher, but he did it for a reason.


    Last year, Quinn had noticed that he was spending too much time in the Icy vault. He did nothing but try to get into the vault and spent a lot of time doing it. The time that could have been better managed by him to focus on other areas of magic.


    So to avoid that problem this year, Quinn had decided that while he focused on the vault, he was going to make sure not to let his other magical studies fall behind. Practicing Illusion magic was just one example of Quinn making sure that he didn''t spend all of his time on the vault.


    Quinn stared at the twenty-five symbols for a while before deciding the next step of action.


    "Alright, let''s apply the usual substitution cipher techniques." He pped his hand and rubbed them rapidly as he roamed his eyes over the multiple strips of paper and symbol.


    Quinn judged the cipher as a substitution cipher. A substitution cipher was a way to encrypt data by recing the intext with ciphertext. In Quinn''s case, the ciphertext were symbols, but they could be anything from letters, numbers, arcane symbols, lines, and dots, or weird alien squiggles.


    For example, Ceaser cipher was a way to encrypt information using substitution. The key to the Ceaser cipher was to involve a simple shift to the alphabet. The following represents a Ceaser cipher with a shift of three ces,


    intext: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.


    Ciphertext: XYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW.


    In the above example, ''A'' was ciphered by shifting three ces to the left and getting ''X.'' So when you wanted to write ''A'' in your ciphered text, you would write it as ''X.''


    And, thus began long hours of rational and logical reasoning and study of ciphertext. Quinn was not experienced with ciphers and was the first time he was working on something like this. It took days over days of grind to work on the ciphered text that might give him the vault''s location.


    While working on the ciphertext, Quinn learned a lot about substitution ciphers and how to decode/decipher this type of cipher. There were techniques, tips, and methods that went into decoding substitution ciphers.


    The first step to solving a substitution cipher was to look for single-letter words because they were almost definitely ''A'' or ''I.'' By having a guess on the singr-lettered words, Quinn could have a solid estimate on two letters.


    Another technique was to count the frequency of the cipher symbols that appeared in the text. In the Englishnguage, or more specifically, an English text, some letters appeared more than others.


    ording to the statistics,


    E - T - A - O - I - N - S - H - R - D - L - U,


    Were the most appearing letters, with ''E'' appearing the most and the frequency decreasing as we moved onto the right.


    A technique that might have worked was to look for apostrophes as --T, -D, -M, -LL, or -RE typically followed them. But, there were no apostrophes in the text, so that went out of the window. This did make Quinn realize contractions like ''can''t'' were written in their expanded form of ''cannot.''


    From here on out, things got tough as Quinn had to search for repeating letter patterns. They weremon repeating letter groups such as -TH, -SH, -RE, -CH, -TR, -ING, -ION, and -ENT.


    With time, he started on trying to decipher two-, three-, and four-letter words.


    Two-letter words almost always had one vowel and one consonant. The five mostmon two-letter words, in order of frequency, were -OF, -TO, -IN, -IS, and -IT. The five mostmon three-letter words, in order of frequency, were -THE, -AND, -FOR, -WAS, and -HIS.


    The mostmon four-letter word was ''THAT.'' An encrypted term with the pattern { [#] _ _ [#] } was likely to be THAT. However, the pattern { [#] _ _ [#] } also represented thirty other words, so Quin had a lot ofbinations to work on.


    Quinn also scanned for double letters. They''re most likely to be -LL, followed in frequency by -EE, -SS, -OO, and -TT.


    Decrypting a cipher with hand took time, but slowly and surely, Quinn began making increasingly urate guesses. Typical word fragments start to reveal themselves, though Quinn had to start over quite a few times because he guessed wrong.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn sat in the History of Magic ss, his head resting on his palm. Professor Cuthbert Binns droned about various Goblin Rebellions and Giant wars to bored, sleeping students. The ghost''s lessons were regarded as some of the most boring at Hogwarts, leading many students to not paying attention in his sses.


    The reason Quinn didn''t listen in Binns'' lecture was that the ghost spoke in straight facts. Those facts were all stated in the books, and Quinn felt that reading the Hogwarts text was sufficient for the History of Magic ssroom. Plus, Quinn knew more about the History of Magic because he had read about said history from the perspective of variousmunities.


    He was ying with his pen, his mind lost in thought about the cipher. He had hit a bit of a snag with his decoding of the ciphertext. There were only twenty-five (25) symbols in the cipher, but Quinn''s initial assumption that the intext was in English, and there were twenty-six (26) letters in the English alphabet.


    Quinn knew the intext was in English because he had been getting solid results in the form of proper words and coherent sentences, but there sizeable gaps in the text where Quinn couldn''t make sense of the terms.


    The legible parts and paragraphs didn''t help Quinn to the vault''s location or its content. From what Quinn had deciphered, the text was religious sermons from a group known as the Order of Solomon''s Temple.


    He felt a shake from his side and snapped out of his thought to look at the side, "Yeah, what is it?" He asked, looking at Marcus, who sat to his right side.


    "You should seriously join Muggle studies. Professor Potter is genuinely fun. Her ss is on its way to bing my favorite," whispered Marcus. "If you ask Professor Flitwick, he might allow you to add another subject to your schedule."


    "I am not joining. I already all too much on my te," Quinn whispered back. He had no interest in joining the Muggle studies, no matter how fun Lily Potter''s sses were.


    "Really?" He smiled and continued, "Let me tell you something fun that Professor Potter told us in her ss today. Maybe that will motivate you to join the ss."


    Quinn gave him a ''go on,'' chin jut, and Marcus began,


    "Did you know scribes used interchangeably ''I'' and ''J'' to express the sound of both the vowel and the consonant? It wasn''t until 1524 when Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian known as the father of the letter ''J'' distinguished between the two sounds by creating the letter ''J.''"


    Quinn''s eye almost popped out from their sockets when he heard the juicy piece of information from Marcus''s mouth.


    ''J didn''t exist?!'' he thought. ''Holy shit, this makes so much sense. There were only twenty-five before ''J.'' Of course, now it all fits together.''


    Quinn stilled for a second before another thought urred to him. He looked at his hands and thought, ''Maybe I have plot armor... because this timing was definitely plot armor... heh, plot armor~.''


    He turned to Marcus and hugged the dude, "Belby, you magnificent ball of sunshine. If you have any problem,e to me. I will fix it for you free of cost. Next time someone calls you something mean, holler me, and I will beat the crap out of them."


    "... Okay," responded Marcus. He felt weirded out because he saw Quinn''s eyes pop out before he looked at his hands and chuckled strangely. Not to mention he wasn''t expecting the hug from Quinn.


    He untangled himself from Quinn before beaming, "Then will you join Muggle studies?"


    "Huh, no way. Why would I do that?" said Quinn, as he swung his legs under the desk. "How about you join Care of Magical Creature?"


    Marcus made a face, "Eww, no way. Those creatures are gross."


    "Yeah, but it is fun when you get to look at others squeak in fear or groan when touching something that you eloquently called as gross,"ughed Quinn. "Yeah... that is always so much fun~."


    "... You are weird," was Marcus'' to-the-point reaction.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After Marcus told Quinn that ''J'' didn''t exist before, Quinn ran to the Room of Requirements and entered the room.


    Inside, he unpacked a regr-sized version of the entire ciphertext and applied ''J'' and ''I'' to the text, and finally, he had the full deciphered text that Quinn thought was the correct interpretation.


    "Yes! Let''s do this," said Quinn, and red English lettering floated from the paper. Illusion magic did its job as the English intext of the ciphertext floated just above the page.


    The deciphered full text was from the Order of Solomon''s Temple''s sermons about religion, and just as he expected, there was nothing about the vault in the text.


    He pounded on the table and yelled, "What in the world is this?! Are you telling me that all of this was for nothing?!" The illusion of the deciphered text flickered away because of the bout of anger.


    Quinn angrily paced in the room before stomping his way to the table with the text. "No, there must be something in here. I just have to look closer."


    Taking a deep breath, Quinn focused all his attention on the deciphered cipher that reappeared as an illusion. His eyes roamed all over the English text, looking for anything that would stand out.


    "Maybe, there is something hidden in here," mumbled Quinn.


    He hunched over the table, and with his hands supporting his body, he concentrated, and seemingly random words turned from red to blue. The blue words would string together to form sentences before going back, and another set of words would turn blue and form another sentence.


    The process repeated repeatedly, the speed of formation of blue sentences sped up, and the words shed faster with Quinn''s pupils moving over every word.


    Then there was a sharp intake of air before Quinn stood straight as another set of blue words floated above the red words before the red words disappeared like sand in the wind, leaving behind a string of blue words.


    "Under the seal, the antechamber of sin would be revealed."


    The first words of the lines in the Fiboni sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34...)


    .


    [


    1 - Under,


    2 - The,


    3 - Seal,


    5 - The,


    8 - Antechamber,


    13 - Of,


    21 - Sin,


    34 - Would,


    55 - Be,


    89 - Revealed.


    ]


    .


    "I know what to do," said Quinn. His stone-grey eyes glowed as he stared at those words.


    Quinn immediately moved. He wanted to see the results of his work,


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn walked to the Portrait-Vindictus and looked at the man in the painting.


    Vindictus Viridian stared at Quinn from his painting and noticed the smug child was here again.


    "Password," he asked like he usually did.


    "Insolubili Muro," came the immediate reply.


    The immediate answer surprised the portrait and, finally, noticed that the child wasn''t smiling his smug smirk. Today, the child was serious. A determined and focused look on his face as he stared forward.


    Portrait-Vindictus opened the door to the Room of Reward, and the child marched inside, not giving him a second look.


    Inside the Room of Rewards, Quinn walked straight to the center of the room.


    "This is the seal, isn''t it?" Quinn said as he squatted on the floor and touched the Hogwarts seal on the floor of the Room of Rewards. An ''H'' in the middle with a Lion, Badger, Eagle, and Snake around it.


    Quinn traced his finger on the motto of the school.


    [Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titindus.]


    "Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon," he muttered before pumping magic into the seal.


    When Quinn had first checked the room, he had investigated the entire room for any extrinsic charms or wards, but nothing popped out, which meant that either there was nothing in the room, or the charms and wards were hidden beyond Quinn''s capabilities.


    Now, if he had deciphered the ciphertext correctly and was right about the Fiboni sequence, then this seal should react to his magic.


    Quinn could feel his magic being absorbed into the Hogwarts seal, but there was nothing triggered.


    His eyes caught the Hogwarts motto and took a chance,


    "Aperio."


    It was Latin for open, reveal, uncover, and in this case, unseal.


    There was a slight rumble as Quinn noticed that every word on the seal changed into the cipher symbols, showing that he was correct about his interpretation of the cipher.


    The faint rumble stopped, and the circr seal disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a dark opening on the floor.


    "Huh, no chilling cold. Always a good sign," spoke Quinn as he stared inside the pitch-ck darkness.


    He raised his hand over the opening as an orb of light appeared in his hand. Quinn uncurled his hand and let the orb of light fall into the opening. He craned his neck and watched as the light illuminated a long circr tunnel going deep below the room.


    The orb finally contacted the ground, and Quinn judged it was around twenty feet deep.


    "Alright, that is pretty doable," nodded Quinn as he stood up and looked near the entrance for a metallic disc to conjure into existence.


    The metal disc moved to the top of the opening before Quinn stepped onto the disc.


    "Beginning descent," Quinn spoke to himself.


    The disc started to sink with Quinn standing upon it. He took a deep breath when his body sank into the opening, and he could no longer see the shelves. Slowly, the disc traveled down, Quinn making sure that there was no incident on his way down.


    Finally, Quinn exited the tunnel and was inside the antechamber, or as he thought, the vault.


    He didn''t step down from the disc and focused his magic, and instantly twenty-something white orbs of light illuminated into life. He waved his hand, sending them in every direction.


    The orbs reached the ends of the room, revealing a sizeable room, the same size as that of an average Hogwarts ssroom, which couldfortably hold forty-fifty people with plenty of space for every upant.


    The problem was that the room was bare. There was nothing in the room, and the floor, ceiling, and walls were also in with nothing to look at.


    "Did someone already cleared out this one?" was Quinn''s thought. Maybe someone found this vault without getting to know about it from the ghosts.


    Quinn sighed as he stepped down from the disc as it disappeared behind him. He walked around the room, his fingers gliding over the smooth walls. Quinn sent his magic into the walls, but nothing happened. The walls didn''t absorb his magic or show any changes.


    "Man, this one is really weird. Maybe I should go ask Friar for another cl-..."


    *Thud*


    In the in room, Quinn copsed without any warning.


    With him fainting, the orbs of light around the room extinguished, plunging the room into darkness. The opening tunnel was the only source of faint light.


    For a moment, there was no movement in the antechamber.


    Then the smooth walls of the heptagonal antechamber transformed to show seven rune circles, one on each wall.


    Each one glowed in a different light; violet, green, orange, blue, yellow, pink, and red.


    The centers of the seven individual runic circles brightly glowed before they shot seven sharp beams towards Quinn, covering his body in a harsh array of mixed light.


    The process was swift, with the beams only appearing for less than a minute before everything in the room returned to normal.


    Leaving behind the unconscious body of Quinn West.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - I am the author''s little b*tch. He can f**k me over and I can''t do anything about it.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Damn right he can''t do anything.


    Marcus Belbly - Vessel (One time) - The Plot Armor worked through him.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 54 - Unknown, And Commentary

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The feeling of the side of his face squished against the cold and dusty floor was not the feeling you wanted when waking up, but it was the one that Quinn felt when he groggily opened his eyes.


    He coughed, dislocating the dust and at the same time inhaling said dust into his mouth.


    Quinn immediately sat up but felt a dizzy spell hit him. His ears rang with a continuous buzzing, and the world around him was unstable and out of focus.


    The thought of conjuring a mouthful of water to clean his mouth was out of his mind as he struggled to properly assess his situation. The ringing in his ears and the blurry vision didn''t help as Quinn tried to stand up, almost falling back to the floor in his effort.


    When he stood up, Quinn wavered to his sides. Like a drunk with alcohol impairing his bnce. Quinn grabbed his head because a headache assaulted him, making the ringing in his ears much more annoying.


    All the vtility in his body finally caught up to Quinn, and he stumbled forward, falling to the ground, his hands and forearm supporting his body from makingplete contact with the floor.


    He cried out a mighty groan of pain as he turned toy down on his back. Coincidentally, all his wobbling trying to walk caused him to fall just under the tunnel to this room, the sole source of dim light that fell from the Room of Rewards above.


    Under the circled of light, Quinn''s chest moved up and down as he stared at the light. Slowly, his mental faculties returned to him, the ringing in his ears subsided, and the world returned to focus. The fading headache finally allowed Quinn to think where he was.


    "... The second vault," croaked Quinn, his voice cracking because of a dried-out throat.


    Quinn couldn''t recall anything about how he had fallen unconscious. All he could remember was walking in the room, and then he woke up with a nasty case of disorientation. The time between was just like sleep.


    ''I was so careful this time,'' thought Quinn; he hadn''t taken any hasty steps while exploring the vault. He didn''t even dare to step off the metal disc before he was sure that there was no trap in the chamber.


    "But, it still happened... damn it, it still happened." Quinnughed derisively. His light chuckles amplified in the quiet room before falling back into the consuming silence.


    Closing his eyes, Quinn decided to check the condition of his body. Several healing-grade diagnostic charms flowed through his body, giving back their result to Quinn. He couldn''t find anything wrong with his body except a concussion. He guessed he hit his head on the floor on his fall.


    "Nothing Madam Pomfrey can''t fix," groaned Quinn. "What time is it?" Quinn took out his pocket watch from his robes and saw that there was only an hour before the curfew. He never stayed in the Room of Rewards after curfew because Portrait-Vindictus was an ex-headmaster, and Quinn didn''t want the portrait to snitch on him being out after curfew.


    Quinn sat up from hisying position and sighed, "Time to get out of here." He pulled himself up to his feet and looked behind him at the dark vault chamber before raising both his hands to shoot out cords of light of the seize-and-pull spell. A cord each shot out of Quinn''s hands and attached themselves to the tunnel near its entrance.


    With a sigh, the spell pulled him up the tunnel. When he got out, Quinn saw the Hogwarts seal reappear on the ce, hiding the tunnel, returning the room to its usual appearance, leaving no clue that there was a tunnel underneath the floor.


    Quinn vanished the dust on his clothes and walked to the exit. He pushed the door open and stepped out to nod a greeting towards Portrait-Vindictus, but said nothing and directly left.


    He made his way to the Hospital Wing, walking carefully as he still didn''t haveplete control over his coordination and felt a little nauseous.


    "Madam Pomfrey," called out Quinn, plopping his butt down on one of the chairs, rubbing his temple to alleviate the headache that had returned.


    The Matron turned towards the voice to see Quinn sitting in a chair and was about to turn him away because it was alreadyte, but then she saw the pale look on Quinn, with him showing a pained expression.


    She switched to her healer mode and hurried to the patient, "What happened to you." She pulled out her wand and started to cast spells on Quinn, getting a full diagnostics.


    "I think it is a concussion," responded Quinn. He said nothing else as Poppy Pomfrey was a professional, and he didn''t need to tell about the spells he cast on himself. ''She just casted more spells than I casted, so she probably already knows.''


    The Matron finally stated her diagnostic results, "You have a concussion, and your magic core is surprisingly drained. What were you doing?" She walked away, and when she came back, she had a potion vial in her hand.


    "Down this," ordered the Matron, putting the vial in Quinn''s face.


    He took it without aint and gulped the awful-tasting potion in a single gulp.


    "Yuck," said Quinn, sticking out his tongue in disgust.


    "Don''t be a baby," chided the medi-healer. "How are you feeling?"


    Quinn exhaled a heavy sigh as he felt the potion doing its work. He already felt so much better. "It is working."


    He looked up at Madam Pomfrey and saw the question in her eyes.


    "I over-practiced and fainted on the floor." It surprised Quinn when Pomfrey told him about the depleted magical core. He hadn''t checked on his magical core when he was in the vault chamber.


    ''I didn''t use much magic inside the vault. What the hell inside happened while I was out?!'' wondered Quinn. At least thest time he knew what happened, but this time he had no idea what took ce.


    Pomfrey sighed before offering, "Do you want to sleep here today?"


    Quinn shook his head and rejected the kind offer, "No, it is alright. I would like to sleep in my own bed." He had no problem sleeping in the Hospital wing, but this year, Quinn felt morefortable inside the dorm because of the Basilisk.


    She stared at Quinn for a moment before saying, "Alright, bute back here if you feel off about something."


    Quinn put his hands on his knees, propping himself up. The exhaustion was finally settling in. "I will, thank you, Madam Pomfrey."


    Poppy Pomfrey saw of Quinn, looking at the tired back of the boy who was usually full of energy.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The first thing Quinn did when he reached his dormitory room was to take a warm shower. He stayed under the shower tiredly thinking about the events today.


    Unlike thest vault, this vault was aplete mystery. There was nothing of note in the underground chamber.


    ''Or, there is something in that vault, but it is beyond my level.''


    Something had happened to Quinn inside that vault, which meant there definitely was something inside that vault. His sudden unconsciousness and depleted magical core were solid proof of a type of magic in there.


    Quinn got out of the shower, deep in thought. The next course of action was different.


    "I need to visit the vault chamber once again tomorrow," decided Quinn.


    As soon as Quinn decided to visit the second vault, a momentary sh of soft blue light illuminated a spot on Quinn''s nape.


    The moment the blue appeared on his nape, his eyes blurred for a split second before Quinn spoke.


    "Maybe, I will go sometimeter. I don''t have to hurry about the vault. Yes, that sounds great. Slow and steady wins the race." He yawned and looked towards his bed, "I am exhausted. Oh~ the bed looks reallyfortable. I should go to sleep."


    He walked towards his bed andid down on it. "Yeah, this feels great~." He curled up and made himselffortable.


    With a smile on his face, he closed his eyes and sunk into a pleasant sleep.


    Another blue sh flickered on Quinn''s nape before it faded away, leaving behind a sleeping Quinn.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The entire school gathered on the Quidditch pitch at eleven o''clock on a Saturday. A game was scheduled between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Quidditch in Hogwarts was a big deal, with almost all of the student poption gathering in the stands to watch the game.


    The games were such a big deal that the stadium had seats for outsiders to watch the game.


    Plus, this game was between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the most bitter rivalry in the history of Hogwarts.


    Quinn sat in thementator''s seat, a smile gracing his face. Flitwick had asked him to volunteer for thementator''s job, and he had readily epted the request without even thinking about it.


    He turned to look at McGonagall and asked, "Can I start?"


    McGonagall looked at her wristwatch and then looked at the stadium seats and nodded, "Yes, the majority of the seats are filled. I think it is alright to start."


    Quinn grinned and turned to the microphone and turned it on.


    "Ahem, mic check. Pop-pop popsicles, Ice-ice icicles, Test-test testing, one, two, three... ba dum tss."


    Quinn watched as his words turned heads all over the stands, and he grinned, "Alright, I can see many heads turning, which means the microphone is working. We are live."


    He turned to face McGonagall and waggled his eyebrows. The transfiguration professor just stared at Quinn, but her stern expression spoke loudly.


    Quinn turned back to the microphone and started,


    "GOOD MORNING, HOGWARTS!"


    He grabbed the microphone and continued,


    "Wee to Hogwarts Quidditch. I am Quinn West and will be yourmentator for the exciting game today. Before we start, thismentary was brought to you by the A.I.D consultation service. Are you a Hogwarts student? Are you facing a problem? Come to our office on the fifth floor, and we will sort you out. A.I.D is always happy and ready to help."


    He could feel McGonagall''s eyes boring into his eyes, but Quinn continued nevertheless.


    Quinn looked up at the sky andmented,


    "Today seems to be a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the sky, so there are chances it might rain during the game. Rainy day games aren''t good because of low visibility. Let''s hope that it doesn''t rain." He took the chance to give a shout out, "My good friend Luna Lovegood hung Japanese Teru-Teru-bozu dolls that are believed to ward off rain."


    "The game today is an exciting one, one with the long-standing rivalry between the houses of Gryffindor and Slytherin. The two houses have pitted against each other on the field of Quidditch for centuries. Vying for supremacy in the sport beloved by all of Hogwarts."


    The two teams entered the pitch, and Quinn veered the attention towards the yers.


    "The two teams have entered the pitch. Slytherin in green and Gryffindor in red. Both teams look like they are rearing to start the game."


    "This game is going to be an exciting one with the Slytherin team riding on Nimbus 2001, the fastest professional brooms on the market. The seven yers each have a Nimbus 2001. Courtesy of Lucius Malfoy, but we can all say that it would have been better if he donated that money to upgrade the brooms that students use in flying sses. I am sure Madam Hooch would have been d to work with some updated equipment, and Madam Pomfrey wouldn''t have to grimace every time she looks at the brooms the students currently use. Believe me, it horrifies her that students ride on those arcane brooms."


    There were a lot of ''ayes'' from the stands. Old brooms didn''t inspire motivation in anyone.


    "Alright, Slytherin is led by their Captain Marcus Flint. This year, they have the new seeker, the second year, Draco Malfoy. I won''t say that this came to me as a surprise. If you know what I mean. Of course, you all know what I mean."


    Quinn stared at the Slytherin team and remarked, "Hmm... an all-male team, huh. Well, that is boring. Let''s move on."


    A pink light shed on Quinn''s nape as he grinned,


    "Let''s move on to the Gryffindor team. Now, the Gryffindor team is much more interesting. We have the three chasers, Alicia Spi, Angelina Johnson, and Katie Bell. Now, this... this is something we can work with."


    "Mr. West!" McGonagall''s shout transmitted into the stands.


    "Alright, alright... can I get a heck yeah from the crowd?"


    And Quinn did get a chant of heck yeah. A lot of boys yelled out their ''heck yeahs'' quite freely, appreciating Quinn''s effort.


    "Moving on, Gryffindor captain Oliver Wood leads the team with tenacity and hard work. Sources say that he is a ferocious ve driver that lives for Quidditch. I have also heard that he has professor McGonagall''s permission and approval to be rough with the teammates."


    The back of Quinn''s neck shone red as he proceeded, "I guess professor McGonagall''sst game as a Gryffindor student against Slytherin in which she crashed and burned into the stands, still haunts her dream. I would pay serious money for that memory - Ouch! Who shot me with a pinching hex!"


    Laughter boomed across the stands, with Quinn''smentary entertaining everybody.


    Quinn rubbed his bum while ring at McGonagall before returning to the microphone, "Next, we have the twins. The Weasley twins rank number one on the Hogwarts twins rankings. I personally like the Patil twins more because they are really diametrically opposite to each other. Returning to the Weasley twins, they have the best coordination as a beater duo, but at the same time, they also have the highest number of fouls of sending the bludger into the stands. So everyone, please look out for stray bludgersing out for your heads."


    "Finally, we have the Gryffindor Seeker, Harry Potter. The second, or maybe the third most famous Potter in the castle. It depends on who you ask, but all of us know that professor Potter is the number Potter in the castle," said Quinn while a pink light shed on his nape.


    "Now, Harry Potter rides a Nimbus 2000, which is the predecessor to the Slytherin houses'' Nimbus 2001. The key difference between 2000 and 2001 is the top speed; 2001 out speeds 2000 by a tiny margin. But other than that, both versions have the same top eleration, handling, turning radius, and braking capabilities. But, top speed can be a crucial factor for professional level yers, but here, versions 2000 and 2001 wouldn''t be distinguishable on a performance basis."


    He looked at the Slytherin team andmented, "But, all seven members of the Slytherin team equipped Nimbus 2001 will give them a great advantage..."


    A yellow light shed on Quinn''s nape as he continued, "Damn, I should have opened a betting tab for the game. The money I could''ve earned. Maybe, next time."


    "Mr. West, betting has no ce in the honorable sport of Quidditch," berated McGonagall from his back.


    "How about if I give good odds to the professors?"


    "... How much are you talkin-. I mean, no! It is not allowed!"


    "Alright, you know where to find me if you want to get in on the action."


    The game was about to start as Madam Hooch descended on the pitch on her broom. And the two teams lined in front of each other.


    A roar of cheers overflowed the stadium. Gryffindor, Ravenw, and Hufflepuff were anxious to see Slytherin beaten, but the Slytherins in the crowd made their boos and hisses heard, too.


    Madam Hooch, the Quidditch teacher, asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather harder than was necessary.


    The game began when the fourteen yers and one referee rose up the leaden sky.


    Quinn also started his in-gamementary,


    "Harry Potter has taken the high sky, higher than the rest of the other yers, a standard strategy for snitch hunting."


    At that very moment, a heavy ck Bludger came pelting toward Harry, who avoided it with a very slim margin. The crowd sucked in their breaths at the close call.


    "Oh boy, that was a close call. That Buldger was about to give Potter an intense love hug. George Weasley streaks towards the bludger, but what is this?! The bludger avoids him and once again rushes towards Potter... Oh! What a close call; that bludger almost took out Potter''s head."


    Seeing, this Quinn thought that Dobby was also part of this timeline as the rogue bludger that was continuously targetting Harry Potter was charmed by Dobby to do so.


    But, while Quinn was in deep thought, a blue light appeared on his nape, and suddenly Quinn dropped his line of thought about Dobby. ''I will think about Dobbyter. This game is much more fun than thinking about Dobby.''


    "Looks like the Gryffindor team has called a time-out. Maybe it is to discuss the bludger that is particrly matey towards their seeker." Quinn continued to diligently providementary.


    Quinn looked at the sky and spoke, "Looks like the weather is not on our side. It has started to rain. Please, make sure to cover yourself to avoid getting wet and risk catching a cold."


    The Gryffindor team ended their time-out without stopping the match to check out the bludger and continued the game in the increasingly pouring rain.


    And, the moment the game continued, the bludger whistled towards Harry Potter like a homing missile. Harry flew expertly, avoiding the bludger narrowly every time.


    Finally, Harry had spotted the golden snitch, but while he caught it, the bludger rammed into his shoulder hard. Quinn winced, thinking about the shattered bones.


    "Oh boy, that will surely hurt a lotter. Wait... Harry Potter has caught the snitch. The golden seeker has caught the golden snitch! The game is over! Gryffindor, against the clear equipment deficit, has defeated Slytherin and has clinched the victory from their mouths. Oliver Wood and his team have done it. Gryffindor is VICTORIOUS!"


    Another sh of blue graced his nape, and Quinn lost all his energy. He sat down on his seat and felt a little tired from all the talking he did.


    "This was more tiring than I thought," said Quinn, not knowing that something was happening to him.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Blue - ???


    Pink - ???


    Red - ???


    Yellow - ???


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Something is wrong with him.


    McGonagall - Quidditch Junkee - Avid Gryffindor supporter.


    Harry Potter - Seeker - Busted arm (Lockhart still vanishes his arm)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 55 - Engraving Tool, And Duelling Club

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stood in his workshop, working on a new piece of equipment. He had worked hard to get this piece of equipment and had kind-off risked his life while obtaining it.


    In front of him sat a thin ck rectangr case on a table in his workshop. He gazed at the ck case, and it unlocked with a click. The case''s lid rose up and moved aside, revealing behind a thin golden cylinder with a four millimeter (4 mm) diameter and a length of twelve centimeters (12 cm).


    The thin golden cylinder was the same cylinder that super chilled using the cold energy from Absolute Zero. Quinn didn''t touch the box or the gold cylinder because they were intensely cold.


    He nced at the spot on the table beyond the ck case, and there sat a hexagonal metal cylinder with a conical tip on one end; in simpler words, it was in the shape of a pencil.


    The metallic pencil rose from the table and flew into Quinn''s hand. The metallic pencil was made from vanadium and steel alloy. He moved the metallic pencil closer to his face and saw the faint runic markings all over the pencil''s surface.


    He turned it to the non-conical side to reveal a cylindrical hole in the pencil. This was the ce where the chilled gold cylinder was going to fit. The metallic pencil was a runic tool that used a super chilled magic conductor as its core to channel magic into the runes etched into the metal.


    The metallic pencil floated in his hand, and his other hand veered his hand towards the gold cylinder and used his magic to lift it off the case. Quinn could feel his magic react to the cold, and it was slightly more difficult to control, but to Quinn, it was nothing as he had operated his magic on a super-chilled block of ice for months.


    The hexagonal metallic pencil and the gold cylindrical core lined with each other, and with a move of magic, the gold cylindrical core slipped inside the metallic pencil. The opening immediately closed when the gold cylinder was fully inserted into the metal.


    Quinn gently channeled magic into the metallic pencil, and immediately, all the runic markings on the surface glowed with white, and the tip of the metallic pencil also turned white.


    "Excellent," grinned Quinn.


    The back of his nape shone in violet color. Quinn felt extremely proud of the magical tool floating over his hands. He genuinely thought that this was the best thing that came out of this room in the entire thousand-year history of Hogwarts.


    "Alright, let''s go and test this out," Quinn spoke and cleared out the ck case from the table and bought out a thin circr metal disc of the size of a coaster.


    cing the thin metallic disc on the table, Quinn stuck it to the table with a sticking charm.


    "Okay, testing the new concentrated magic engraving tool for shallow rune engraving,"mented Quinn while he put on his leather apron, leather gloves, and safety goggles.


    Quinn''s metallic pencil engraving tool floated above the metal disc, and with a thrum of Quinn''s magic, the rune marking light up in white, and the tip shone brighter than any rune on the metal.


    The metal engraver lowered down to the metal disc, and the white tip contacted the metal. There was a trill as Quinn used magic to draw runes on the metal disc, carefully sliding the glowing tip over the disc to mark runes over the metal.


    The glow on the runes and tip changed as Quinn dynamically altered the flow of magic as per the requirement. It took a few minutes before the entire surface of the metal disc was marked with very shallow runes.


    The runes on the engraver dimmed as Quinn stopped supplying magic to the gold core inside the metal body.


    Quinn vanished the fumes created because of the engraving before pulling the engraver closer to him. He released the gold core from the body and observed its condition after a session of rune engraving.


    "Hmm, at this rate, it willst for another... maybe ten sessions before I need to recharge the cold energy from Absolute Zero," noted Quinn as he attentively examined the thin gold cylindrical core.


    The core floated to the side and took its ce back inside the ck case as Quinn moved towards the engraved metal disc.


    Shallow engravings of less than a millimeter (<=0.9 mm) depth covered the entire metal surface.


    "Oh yeah, now this is precision art," Quinn admired the runic marking engraved by the rune engraver. The results were as stunning as Quinn expected.


    Runes were all about the material used and the shape of the runes that were drawn. The more urate the constructs, the better the runes would perform their tasks.


    Before today, Quinn had been using transmutation to engrave runes on solid surfaces like wood and metals, but there was a slight problem with that method, and it was precision. Quinn could sessfully mark runes into the solids, but they were not the best engravings as Quinn struggled with dimensions.


    He couldn''t make engravings that had a depth of less than two to three millimeters (2 - 3 mm) with transmutation because that level of precision was out of his current mastery level. Some runes needed to be of depths less than that amount, and unless Quinn could improve his mastery, those runes would work, but not as effectively as Quinn wanted them to. But, with the rune engraver, Quinn could ovee the problem until he could improve his mastery over transmutation.


    He picked up the metal disc into a wooden frame and fitted a ss dome over the wooden frame to cover the metal disc. Quinn set everything in their ce with sticking charms.


    Quinn looked up at the ceiling chandelier, and all the candles extinguished with a gust of wind.


    The room went dark with no light source.


    Light from the table bathed the room with white as Quinn''s newly engraved metallic disc performed its function. It was a rune cluster that produced an orb of light above the metal disc, providing light like a standard light bulb.


    Quinn looked around and finally saw how everything in his workshop looked like in white light instead of the yellow light of the candles.


    "Yeah, white light is better than yellow light. Much better," Quinn picked up the magical light bulb and moved around the room to shine a light on everything. "Three more for the workshop and two for the office would be enough."


    He stared at the magical light bulb with a proud smile on his face. The violet on his nape bloomed and thrummed with activity.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now lying in the Hospital wing as though dead. Such news had spread through the entire school. The air was suddenly thick with rumor and suspicion. The first years were now moving around the castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone.


    Before, Mrs. Norris was petrified, so no one really cared about the event as the victim was a cat, but this time the victim was a student, and with the rumor mill, the teenage minds believed whatever was fed to them.


    And, amongst all this tension, the school announced an event that excited all students in Hogwarts.


    Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus stood in front of the notice board in front of the entrance hall. A small knot of people stood with them, who were simrly reading a piece of parchment pinned on the board.


    "They''re starting a Dueling Club!" said Marcus. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn''t mind dueling lessons; they mighte in handy one of these days..."


    "What, you reckon Slytherin''s monster can duel?" joked Eddie, but he, too, read the sign with interest.


    "Could be useful," Quinn said to Eddie and Marcus as they walked to the Great Hall for dinner. "At the very least, it would be fun. Let''s drop by tonight."


    Eddie and Marcus were all for it. So, at nine o''clock that evening, three pals hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished, and a circr stage had in the middle of the hall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety ck once more, and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.


    It surprised Quinn to see a circr stage instead of the long straight one like in the series.


    "I wonder who''ll be teaching us?" said Marcus as they edged into the chattering crowd.


    "It will be Flitwick, of course. He was a dueling champion, who better than him," replied Eddie.


    Quinn grinned as he nudged them to look at the stage. "At least one of you is right," Quinn spoke, but it surprised him as well because Filius Flitwick apanied Gilderoy Lockhart instead of Snape in the canon Snape and Lockhart pairing.


    Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"


    "Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless asions ¡ª for full details, see my published works."


    "Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Flitwick," said Lockhart, shing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don''t want any of you, youngsters, to worry ¡ª you''ll still have your Charms master when I''m through with him, never fear!"


    Flitwick''s lip was curled into an almost feral smile in response.


    Quinn cackled and repeatedly pped Eddie on his shoulder, "Lockhart is an idiot!"


    Eddie and Marcus actually felt second-hand embarrassment because of Lockhart.


    Lockhart and Flitwick turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Flitwick simply nodded. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.


    "As you see, we are holding our wands in the eptedbative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will aim to kill, of course."


    "One - two - three -"


    Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Flitwick cried, "Stupefy!" There was a dazzling sh of scarlet light, and the next second, Lockhart crumpled into a heap on the floor.


    Quinn could see Malfoy and his gang of Slytherin cheered. Many girls gasped and squealed their fingers.


    Flitwick turned to look at the crowd of students and spoke, "Looks like professor Lockhart would be out ofmission for a while, so I will be taking over this lesson." Flitwick swung his wand, and Lockhart''s clothes tugged upward and dragged him off the stage to a corner of the Great Hall.


    "The charm I used was a Stunning charm - as you saw, it stunned professor Lockhart unconscious. Now, I think you saw sufficient demonstration. Does anyone like to volunteer?"


    Flitwick turned around to look at the entire crowd and didn''t see any hands rising. Maybe it was because they just saw Flitwick stun Lockhart or because no one wanted to go first.


    Quinn also looked around to see if anyone would volunteer when he felt his shoulders being grabbed. He looked to his sides to see Eddie and Marcus smiling, and then they pushed him forward.


    "Whoa! You gormless little pieces of naffers," cursed Quinn as he stumbled to the front of the crowd.


    Flitwick''s eyes shined as he excitedly pped in bony hands, "Looks like Mr. West wants to take part, excellent, ten points to Ravenw. Come on up."


    Quinn sighed before shaking his head with a smile. He removed his robes and turned back to throw them at Eddie, "You two better note up there because I will make your lives miserable." ring at his two friends as they stuck out their tongues at him.


    The crowd cheered when Quinn removed his robes and climbed up onto the stage while loosening his necktie. He raised his hand to the crowd with a chill smile on his face.


    "Now, who will be the other one," Flitwick twirled around his spot. "Students, don''t be shy, and please step up."


    Quinn was absentmindedly ying with his fake wand when he heard the Slytherin cheer up. He turned in their direction to find a Slytherin student climb upstairs to the stage.


    ''Miles Bletchley, fourth-year,'' Quinn tilted his head as he identified the Slytherin student.''Slytherin Quidditch team, a mean-spirited individual whocked good sportsmanship. He takes enjoyment in mocking others and likes to y rough. Hmm, did hee up because he thinks he can win this fight?''


    The red light took root on his nape as Quinn felt disrespected. He could see the slight smirk on Miles Bletchley''s face, which made Quinn feel angry.


    Flitwick grinned in delight as he motioned his two participants to face each other.


    "Face your partners!" called Flitwick, back on the tform. "And bow!"


    Neither of the two duelers bowed to each other and just stared at the other. Bletchley smirked at Quinn, while Quinn didn''t smile or anything and just stared back.


    "Wands at the ready!" shouted Flitwick. "When I count to three, cast your charms to Disarm your opponents ¡ª only to disarm them - we don''t want any idents - one... two... three, GO!"


    Quinn didn''t bother raising his wand high and just stared at Bletchley. On the other hand, Bletchley moved immediately and casted a curse, and it was not the Disarming charm.


    "Furnunculus!"


    The Furnunculus Curse caused the target to erupt in painful boils/pimples. If you had mastery over the curse, then the boils could be pretty painful and continuously ooze with puss.


    A gold sh of spell light zapped toward Quinn, who simply side-stepped to avoid the curse.


    Bletchley clicked his tongue and casted one more curse.


    "Calvorio," A dark curse that removed all hair from the curses'' victim.


    Quinn ducked and let the spell pass him.


    ''Alright, if this is how he wants to y,'' thought Quinn and walked towards Bletchley.


    Bletchley frowned and cursed another charm.


    "Lotor Mortis!" A curse that is used to bind the legs of the victim together.


    Quinn hopped to let the curse hit the floor.


    Bletchley growled as he saw a mocking grin on Quinn''s face.


    "STUPEFY!" Bletchley roared in frustration. A jet of red coursed through the air aimed right at Quinn''s face.


    Quinn tilted his head with a smirk, and the red jet whistled past him.


    Bletchley stood stunned at yet another dodge and was startled when he saw Quinn running towards him. He raised his wand and tried to cast a charm, but in his agitated state, he wasn''t able to decide on a spell.


    Quinn stopped right in front of Bletchley, winked at his opponent, and snatched Bletchley''s wand straight from his hand and chucked it over his head into the crowd.


    "Aww, nice try. Those were some serious nasty curses, you know? If one of those hit me, that would have been bad." Quinn tapped Bletchley''s face with the back of his hand. "Better luck next time!"


    The red glow on his nape turned violet as he turned his back to Bletchley and pumped his hand in the air.


    "That''s how you do it!"


    The crowd, which was silent while watching the duel, erupted in cheers and apuses for Quinn. To watch a person dodging every spell and win without using magic in the manner Quinn did was exciting to see.


    Quinn put his fake wand on the side of his neck, and it amplified his voice for all to hear, "Alright, who is next. Let''s get this party started."


    Flitwick, who was watching from the side, just beamed and walked off the stage. He was surprised that Quinn didn''t cast a single spell, but he was amused by the effortless dodging. Looking at the crowd''s mood, he decided it would be a waste to remove Quinn from the stage.


    No time was wasted as one of the Weasley twins stepped on the stage and the Gryffindor students cheered for him,


    "Take the birdbrain down!" "Gryffindor rules!"


    Quinn spread his arms and smiled towards the Weasley twin, "Ah, before we start, which one are you?"


    The Weasleyughed before speaking, "I am Fred, or maybe I am George. Or, maybe I am Forge or neither of them and am Gred."


    Quinn nodded with a tilt andughed, "True, true, what is in a name? Let''s start, shall we?"


    Both nodded and readied their wands. From below the stage, Flitwick counted them off,


    "One - two - three, GO!"


    This time Quinn moved first and swiftly took a step forward while kneeling down on one knee to shoot a conjured rope towards Fred/George''s legs.


    The sudden spell took the twin by surprise, and the rope wrapped around his legs, sealing any movement from his lower body and also messing up his bnce.


    Quinn grinned and waved his wand. Suddenly, The rope around Fred/George''s legs rose up into the air with its captive in the tow.


    "Woah!" shouted Fred/George as he found himself being lifted into the air, upside down at that.


    Quinn let the Weasley hang in the air for a bit before levitating the rope so that Fred/George moved towards the Gryffindor crowd and lowered him close to the ground before releasing the rope spell, letting Weasley fall onto the floor.


    Everyone, including a lot of Gryffindor students, cheered for Quinn at yet another win.


    The victor raised both his hands and prompting the crowd to cheer more loudly.


    Quinnughed in delight as he bathed in the cheers. The violet on his nape deepened in color and turned vivid and dark. Inside his body, Quinn''s magic sang with power and vibrated with activity; Quinn felt his magic''s presence much clearer than ever before.


    He closed his eyes and felt his connection with his magic deepen in real-time. The feeling was exhrating, lifting his already good mood even better.


    ''This feels so good!''


    The patch of violet on Quinn''s nape had gained another level of depth as Quinn felt the change in his magic.


    Not for a second did the thought of why his magic was reacting the way it did, cross Quinn''s mind. His mind was too distracted by the stimtion his magic was providing right now.


    Quinn''s magic was changing.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - _ _ _ T _


    Pink - ???


    Red - _ _ _ _ H


    Yellow - _ _ E _ _


    Violet - _ _ I _ E


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Having a good time...


    Filius Flitwick - Duel Master - Scoot over it is my time.


    Gilderoy Lockhart - "- Professor -" - Stunned unconscious.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 56 - Quinn Vs Tracy, Parseltongue, And Gossip

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The change in his magic bought immense pleasure and delight to Quinn as he found his mood uplifted and a skip apanying his step. Quinn looked around the crowd to see if anyone wanted to be his next opponent. And, his eyes met with those of Tracy.


    He smiled and beckoned his Slytherin friend with his hands.


    The gesture surprised the brte Slytherin as she shook her head side-to-side, but Quinn ryed everything would be okay with his eyes, and it was okay toe up.


    Tracy hesitated if she wanted to go up to the stage, and after some thinking, decided to go up. She stepped forward and directly climbed the steps to the stage.


    There was a lot of boo-ing from the other three houses because of Tracy''s status as a Slytherin. The harsh boos affected Tracy, and she did her best not to show that it affected her. But if you looked closely, you could see the slight slump in her gait.


    "Ignore the other, and let''s have some fun, Tracy."


    It startled Tracy to hear Quinn''s voice so close to her; it was like that he was directly whispering into her ear, but when she looked up, Quinn was standing a distance from her, showing aforting smile, and when their eyes met, Quinn gave her a quick wink.


    "You called me Tracy," she spoke in utter surprise. After an entire year of Mrs. Davis and Davis, she finally heard Quinn call her by her given name.


    Tracy''s words made Quinn realize he had called the girl by her first name, and it was quite a surprise to himself as well.


    Tracey saw Quinn''s lips move and once again heard his voice like he was standing right beside her. "Yes, I did. It looks like I will be calling you by Tracy from now on. You are the first one, you know? The first one I called by their first name. Ha ha ha, be honored, little girl."


    Tracy''s eyes sparkled with delight at being first, and she couldn''t feel any negativity from the boos of the crowd. She took out her wand with confidence and aimed it at Quinn, following Quinn''s lead.


    "Remember, cast a Disarming spell, Expelliarmus." Tracy nodded, hearing Quinn''s exnation, directly delivered to her ears and no one else''s.


    "One - two - three, GO!"


    The second Flitwick yelled go, Tracy moved first and cast a Disarming spell.


    "Expelliarmus!"


    An impulse of scarlet magic burst out of her wand and buzzed towards Quinn. Quinn also pointed his fake wand and whispered Expelliarmus in the likely event anyone was listening and countered with his own scarlet burst of spell light.


    The two spells made contact in between the two casters and canceled each other out.


    Quinn grinned and again cast a Disarming spell towards Tracy. Tracy, who now was feeling confident, and countered with her own Disarming spell.


    The crowd ooh-ed and aah-ed when they saw the two spells collided with each other. Once again, they canceled each other, giving the crowd the show they wanted.


    Tracy was back in her element and showed her taking-charge personality and shot a stream of Disarming spell light which hurled towards Quinn.


    "Now we are taking,"ughed Quinn as he shot out a stream of the same spell towards Tracy''s.


    The two red jets of magic met in the middle, colliding with each other, fighting for dominance. It entranced the younger students when they saw the continuous jets of magic meeting each other.


    Tracy held her wands with both her hands when she felt Quinn''s magic overpowering her and tried to channel magic into her wand, trying to push back.


    But, the struggle was futile as Quinn''s magic continued to overpower hers, and Quinn''s spell light moved closer and closer to hers.


    The Slytherin students in the crowd cheered for their representative. Quinn had humiliated thest one, but she stood steadfast against Quinn, which was had redeemed the house of Slytherin.


    Quinn calmly smiled as he inserted a burst of magic into the spell and overpowered Tracy''s magic in one fell swoop, forcing Tracy''s hand open and driving her wand out it, disarming her in the process.


    The wand wheeled in the air before itnded in Quinn''s hand, who caught it with a cheeky smile on his face.


    "I won," heughed, walking towards Tracy, handing her the wand back. "Good duel?"


    Tracy held her wand back in her hands and grinned her usual bubbly smile, "Good duel!"


    "Great," he smiled before turning to look at Flitwick and gestured that he was done for today.


    Flitwick picked up the gesture and climbed up to the stage while Quinn and Tracy took the other set of steps to get down.


    Tracy and Quinn parted their ways, and Tracy ran to Daphne and got looks of approval from many Slytherin students.


    "Are you okay?" asked Daphne, worried about her friend. "He didn''t overdo it, did he?"


    Tracy swayed on her spot with her hands behind her back and grinned a boastful smile, "He called me Tracy."


    Daphne tilted her head in confusion and asked, "What?"


    "Quinn called me Tracy," she repeated, waiting for the news to sink in her friends'' pretty head.


    "What else would he call-," Daphne began speaking, but mid-sentence realization struck her, and she stopped. "He called you Tracy?"


    Tracy giggled and bumped Daphne''s shoulder with her''s. "He said I was the first one he called by their first name. He he he."


    The blonde turned her blue eyes to look at the Ravenw in question and saw him putting his robes back on,ughing with his friends and housemates.


    She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked back to see Tracy gazing at her with an encouraging expression, "Don''t worry, he will call you by your given name soon."


    Daphne stared at her best friend and spoke in a t voice, "I couldn''t care less."


    Tracy waggled her eyebrows, opting not to say anything, but gave a ''sure you do'' look to her best friend.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was like someone pasted a permanent smile on Quinn''s face causing him to beam like the happiest person in the world. He was experiencing something like a euphoric high. The change in his magic was bing more pronounced to Quinn when he took a moment to feel it and could sense the enchanting feel of his magic under his control better than ever.


    He just wanted to let his magic loose and cast a massive freeze wave in the Great hall or transfiguring the floor to change the terrain of the hall. Anything would do as long as it would allow him to flex his magical capabilities, but he held back and looked at the stage, watching the duels.


    His interest deepened when he saw Harry Potter climb up the stage with a swagger in his step and confidence in his gait. The boy-who-lived lookedfortable on the big stage and under the gaze of the majority of the student poption.


    Harry walked near the Slytherin side and pointed at Draco, hooking his index finger to beckon his enemy/rival toe up to the stage to duel him.


    "You won''t be a no-show like thatst time, would you Malfoy? Becausest year was an utter disappointment. Let''s have the duel you so much wanted," said the boy-who-lived, speaking so that everyone could hear him.


    Draco''s face heated up with anger as he growled, "POTTAH!"


    The blonde Malfoy stepped onto the stage, stepping up to face Harry Potter in a duel.


    Both second-year students faced each other on the circr stage and looked at each other with their chins raised slightly, not bothering to bow to each other.


    Flitwick looked side-to-side at Harry and Draco and didn''t bother telling them to use Disarming spells. From the looks the two gave each other, it didn''t look like they would listen to him.


    The half-goblin wasn''t actually worried about the spells the two would use against each other. If they got injured, that would only serve as a lesson to them that the spells were dangerous.


    "One - two - three, GO!"


    Harry swung his wand high, but Malfoy had already started on ''two,'' his spell hit Harry so hard that Harry felt as though someone had hit him over the head with a saucepan. He stumbled, but everything still seemed to work, and wasting no more time, Harry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy and shouted,


    "Rictusempra!"


    A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach, and he doubled up, wheezing withughter. Harry had hit him with a Tickling charm, and he could barely move forughing.


    Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry''s knees, choked,


    "Tarantallegra!"


    And the next second, Harry''s legs jerked around out of his control in a kind of quickstep. It was the spell that made a target''s legs spasm wildly out of control, making it appear as though they were dancing.


    Harry was startled but cast a Finite on his knees, stopping them from spasming. Draco, on the other side, did the same to make himself stopughing.


    Below the stage, Quinn, with his arms crossed, observed the duel and thought, ''I would have obliterated both of them together multiple times by now.''


    "Serpensortia!"


    Bellowed Draco, and Quinn watched as the end of Draco''s wand exploded with light as a long ck snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them, and raised itself, ready to strike.


    ''... It is happening,'' thought Quinn, stepping a step forward while everybody stepped back in fear.


    Harry brandished his wand at the snake, and there was a loud bang; the snake was pushed back with force. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley, who was standing a bit too close to the stage and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.


    Quinn wasn''t looking at the snake of Justin Finch-Fletchley and trained his eyes on Harry Potter. Quinn''s eyes opened a fraction when he saw Harry walk towards the snake.


    A green shade bloomed on Quinn''s nape as he heard the boy-who-lived hiss as the snake and saw miraculously - inexplicably - the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, ck garden hose, its eyes now on Harry.


    "Parseltongue, thenguage of serpents," spoke Quinn, not knowing that everyone around him heard him. Quinn''s words bought them out of their fear and set a fire of murmurs across the students.


    Everybody had one thought in their heads; Is Harry Potter - The heir of Slytherin?


    Quinn didn''t have thoughts like that. He just stared at Harry with an envious gaze. Harry Potter had a magical ability that he didn''t have. The ability tomunicate andmand another species to a degree was always a plus point. It was an umon skill and was known to be an almost exclusively hereditary trait.


    Quinn was jealous that he did not have the ability to speak Parseltongue. Neither did he know if it was possible to learn Parseltongue; he had heard the lore that Dumbledore could speak it, but Quinn wasn''t sure if it was true. He had been to India, and the Parselmouths there told him it was something you were born with.


    The green patch deepened with Quinn''s emotions, nting its roots in Quinn, but it stopped when Quinn heard a screech from the snake that burned into the nothingness from a spell from Flitwick.


    The charms professor had lost the excited smile he had on his face and had an urgent look on his face and a suspicious look in his eyes as he looked at Harry.


    Suddenly, Ivy ran up to the stage and pulled on Harry''s robes, dragging her twin off the stage. Ron Weasley shoved the students aside, making way for the golden squad so that they could leave the Great Hall and the suspicious eyes that bore into the back of Harry.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn groaned as he woke up in the morning and sat in his bed. He didn''t want to get up from his bed and contemted skipping his morning run.


    Yesterday, he had gotten excited about his new magical improvement and had run an obstacle course full of moving targets and dummies ced around an irregr terrain. He had runps around the course while shooting magic-heavy spells while running, jumping, and doing all kinds of physical exertion.


    He rolled in his bed for a while before noticing something. The sleepy boy looked towards his legs and felt something peculiar. He lifted his sheet to what was inside.


    There was a tent standing in his pant. Quinn watched it with an intrigued look on his face.


    "Hmm, heh."


    Quinn stared at the tent and the tent... well, didn''t stare back, but stayed tent-like.


    A pink hue developed on Quinn''s nape as he looked at the tent, and thoughts appeared in his mind. Minute changes took ce in Quinn''s magic happened as the pink shade stayed on Quinn''s nape.


    "Alright," Quinn smiled, hopped off his bed, and walked to the bathroom. He looked at his right hand and smirked, "I am counting on you, buddy. Let''s go and have a good time."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    For the next few days, the major topic of conversation in Hogwarts was how Harry Potter was the Heir of Slytherin, and he was out for all muggleborns in the castle.


    Sitting in the library, Quinn could hear the conversation of a group of the Hufflepuff who should have been in Herbology sses. But because of the heavy snow outside, they canceled the sses. He could see that their heads were close together, and they were having what looked like an absorbing conversation.


    "So anyway," a stout boy was saying, "I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, if Potter''s marked him down as his next victim, it''s best if he keeps a low profile for a while. Of course, Justin has been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let it slip to Potter that he was a muggleborn. That''s not the kind of thing you band about with Slytherin''s heir on the loose, is it?"


    "You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?" said a girl with blonde


    pigtails, anxiously.


    "Hannah," said the stout boy solemnly, "He is a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that is the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-tongue."


    There was some heavy murmuring at this, and Ernie went on, "Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. Potter had some sort of run-in with Filch. Next thing we know, Filch''s cat''s attacked. That first year, Creevey was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of him while lying in the mud. Next thing we know - Creevey''s been attacked."


    "Does this mean that Potter would go after professor Potter," said Hannah Abbot uncertainly, "She is a muggleborn as well." A pitiful look appeared on her face, "Professor Potter seems so nice. Now, she will be his target."


    Ernie lowered his voice mysteriously. The Hufflepuff''s bent closer and Quinn bnced his chair on its back two legs to get nearer so that he could catch Ernie''s words.


    "No one knows how he survived that attack by You-Know-Who. I mean to say, he was only a baby when it happened. He should have been sted into smithereens. Only a powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that." He dropped his voice until it was barely more than a whisper and said, "That probably is why You-Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first ce. Didn''t want another Dark Lordpeting with him. I wonder what other things Potter''s been hiding?"


    Then suddenly, the person in question barged in and pped his hands on the question and leaned on it as he peered at the group of Hufflepuffs, "Alright, dumb tweaks. I am looking for Finch-Fletchley Where is he?"


    The Hufflepuffs'' worst fears had clearly been confirmed. They all looked fearfully at Ernie.


    "What do you want with him?" asked Ernie in a quavering voice.


    "He has been running his trap about me being the Heir of Slytherin," Harry sneered and continued, "I need to get it inside his head that I was just trying to help him."


    Ernie bit his white lips and then, taking a deep breath, said, "We were all there. We saw what happened."


    "Then you all saw that the bloody snake backed off when I spoke to it," Harry made hissing noises at the group and continued, "Or, are you guy blind as well?"


    "All I saw," said Ernie stubbornly, though he was trembling as he spoke, "Was you speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake toward Justin."


    "I didn''t chase it at him!" Harry said, his voice shaking with anger. "It


    didn''t even touch him!"


    "It was a very near miss," said Ernie. "And in case you''re getting ideas," he added hastily, "I might tell you that you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks, and my blood''s as pure as anyone''s, so -"


    Harry kicked the leg of the table and yelled, "I don''t give rat''s ass about what sort of blood you have got! Urgh!"


    He turned on his heel and stormed out of the library, earning himself a reproving re from Madam Pince, who was polishing the gilded cover of arge spellbook.


    ''Oh boy, you made he made it much worse,'' thought Quinn looking at the Hufflepuff group, ''Look how scared they are. He hissed at them for Merlin''s sake.''


    He shook his head and sighed, ''This Harry Potter isn''t good at damage control. Boy, this is going to blow up... goody!''


    A smirk surfaced on Quinn''s face as a green appeared on his neck, deepening by the second, changing Quinn''s magic.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - _ _ O T _ <-- > _ _ _ _ _ _


    Pink - _ _ S _ <-- > _ _ _ _ _ _ _


    Red - _ R _ _ H <-- > _ _ _


    Yellow - _ _ E E _ <-- > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


    Violet - _ R I _ E <-- > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


    Green - _ _ V _ <-- > _ _ _ _ _ _ _


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 57 - Harry Potter And Tom Marvolo Riddle

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    AUTHOR''S NOTE REGARDING THE DIRECTION OF THIS STORY.


    Read if you don''t like the now dubbed COLORS ARC.


    [


    I will be honest, I wasn''t expecting that much of a push back against this concept. But after I thought about it I realized that the other stories have betrayed you guys because of something simr happening and then things going south.


    To the readers who don''t know about me that much, I would like to tell you guys that I am not one of those deep-thinking authors who can churn out storylines so unique that it stands out from the canon plot.


    I love the canon timeline. I like to stick to the source material.


    You guys saw how I remove Ginny as the Horcrux host, but then a few chapterster, I brought the storyline back to close to the canon by Mrs. Norris'' petrification.


    The canon plot gives mefort, which I really like.


    The ''cursed vault'' wasn''t even my idea. I discovered the existence of the cursed vaults in the games from a Discord member/fellow writer.


    I admit I adapted it so that Quinn could do his own thing because I remember a reader telling me that Quinn and the story would be a ve to the canon plot at this rate.


    This turned out to be good as I was able to spend an entire volume/story-year away from the plot with just a few intersections. Perfect for that point of the story.


    *


    Now, we came to this year (Quinn''s third year/Canon second year/Chamber of Secrets.)


    I introduced the COLORS arc (I am using this now). The response is not so great.


    A lot of readers said that this ruined the story for them. That it is cliche, overused, and doesn''t make sense.


    But, please take a moment as I bring to your attention the key features of this story.


    -*-*-


    First is that Quinn is a pragmatic character (thank you @passive for using this adjective to describe Quinn). But a lot of you thought that because of the colors I am derailing the character because he is being influenced.


    I would like to assure you guys that Quinn won''t be going overboard. He would do things that are slightly out of character, but they won''t be things like r¨¡p¨¦ or torture or any other over-the-top things. The only time you guys might feel a little difort from his actions woulde in the CLIMAX (a two-chapter simultaneous release.)


    You don''t have to worry about him going bat shit crazy and switching to the dark side. A lot of you may even like the things he will do under the influence of the colors.


    .


    -*-*-


    The second feature of this story is the steady progression of Quinn''s power level.


    This is one of the top-selling points if not the best-selling point of this story. It doesn''t help me and the story if I throw it away.


    He is not OP from the get-go; he works for the power he gains. I am not looking to kick him up the power chart in one fell swoop by using the colors because in thest two chapters you can see that the colors are improving his magic.


    There is a twist during the CLIMAX. But that DOESN''T means that it would be NERF.


    I may sometimes like to read stories without ups and downs, adversity, and trials, but I don''t enjoy writing them. I showed itst year when he almost froze to death.


    So, I would like to say that this isn''t my way to give a huge power boost to Quinn.


    .


    -*-*-


    This isn''t a feature, but aint that Quinn shouldn''te under the influence of colors because he has lumency.


    But, I haven''t even told you guys the magic behind the colors. True, it has a major mental/mind portion, but even then, I have exined nothing about what the rune circles down in the vault did to Quinn.


    The reason why he is under influence despite lumency? I already mention ? (half) of the reason already. It just needs the other ? (half) so that it would click in the minds of the readers and make you pop out a reaction like ''Ah, that is why.'' (At least I hope so.)


    I will exin itter when Quinn manages to escape the colors.


    .


    -*-*-


    Now, the reason why I choose to add COLORS ARC to this story.


    At first, it was just an idea I thought was good and entertaining. But as I wrote, @passive (big brain helper) told me that the vaults should help Quinn gain/learn something.


    He told me that when the founders built Hogwarts, their main motive was to teach young ones about magic. Even though the DADA, History of Magic, Muggle Studies, and Divination doesn''t reflect that motive, the main objective of Hogwarts is to impart knowledge.


    So, I decided that I would try to write the story in such a way that every vault would be a way for Quinn to grow not only as a magic-user but also as a person.


    It is my way of telling that Hogwarts did help Quinn grow as a person. That him giving the school seven years of life isn''t going to waste.


    I didn''t think this while writing the Icy vault, but still, Quinn gained perseverance and caution from it because he didn''t give up even after he almost died. And caution so that he won''t make hasty mistakes.


    .


    -*-*-


    This vault and the colors are actually a major/good/important point in the storyline as it allows me to answer a few unanswered questions from the very first volume (Pre-Hogwarts: If any of you guys noticed the name of this volume you would have known that the choice between Hogwarts and Beauxbaton was an illusion.)


    The aftermath which wille in the summer after the school year will give you guys a chance to know Quinn a lot more. It will be serious character development that will allow you to connect to Quinn.


    (You guys can level up with Quinn too! For reference check out the image in the paragraphment. Refresh if you can''t see it.)


    This volume also gives me the chance to tie up some loose ends and gives me the ability to create some new loose ends that I can tie upter in the story.


    .


    -*-*-


    And finally, I can''t snap this arc out of existence because I have 7 chapters in my stack out of which 5 chapters are on Patre¨®n, and the remaining two are for rainy days.


    So, if you really don''t want to read this arc, I would suggest that you start stacking up chapters so that you can ze through them in one sitting and don''t have to sit through something you guys don''t enjoy every single day till this is over.


    .


    -*-*-


    Andst but not the least, I would again reassure you that Quinn would be back to his dandy self by the end of this volume/year. In fact, he would be better as I would have injected a booster shot of character development.


    I would iterate something I stated in the Aux chapter of this novel.


    "Let''s start something new, hoping it would turn out into something enjoyable."


    So, give this content a chance, and I hope that this novel would stand up to your expectations.


    ]


    *


    THE ABOVE MESSAGE WAS FROM THE AUTHOR -- FictionOnlyReader.


    THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS FROM THE PERSON BEHIND FictionOnlyReader.


    Click this paragraphment to read the message.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    || START OF THE STORY || - You guys didn''t want colors, so you won''t get in this one.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "You are an idiot!" yelled Ivy, ring at her brother, who was looking away from her. "You hissed at people in the library. Everybody there heard you hissing."


    She tore a handful of grass from the ground and threw it at him, "What were you thinking?!"


    "I wasn''t thinking, alright!" barked Harry, cleaning the des of grass from his clothes, "They were being stupid, so I just did it to scare them."


    "They are already plenty scare of you," scoffed Hermione, looking at the ck Lake in the distance.


    The castle had be a little too stuffy for Harry. So the gang decided to take a walk. Spending their time outside, away from the eyes of everyone in the castle.


    "I don''t understand what is wrong with everyone," Ron chimed in, lying in the grass, "Harry isn''t the Heir of Slytherin. I am sure that it is that git, Malfoy. Just look at him; he hates muggle and muggleborns."


    "And, if he had held his tongue for a few more days," said Ivy, pointing at Harry, "Then the Polyjuice potion would have allowed us to get some information. Do you know how difficult it is to move around the castle with eyes following you everywhere?"


    From the looks of it, Ivy was more worried about this situation than Harry. While the girl twin was pulling her hair in frustration, the boy twin was silently brooding.


    Harry decided he needed some time alone, away from Ivy''s asional res and Hermione''s quips. He stood up from his spot, ready to leave.


    "Now, where are you going?" asked Ivy.


    "I just need some time alone," replied Harry, brushing his clothes, "Don''t follow me."


    Ivy tried to stop him, but Harry ignored his sister and walked away from his friends, deciding to return to the castle.


    This wasn''t how he wanted his second year to go. Last year, he had spent worrying about Snape and how he was trying to steal Philosopher''s stone, but in the end, it turned out it wasn''t Snape, but Voldemort stuck to the back of his Defense Against Dark Arts, Quirrell.


    An entire year of his scar hurting, asional headaches, and burning pains were stressful for him. Not to mention he had almost lost his sister to a Troll (she would disagree).


    Thinking about his second year, Harry had hoped to be free of situations like these and hoped that it would be a carefree year with no extraordinary events, but it wasn''t in his luck.


    Even before his year started, Harry had met with an oddity, a house-elf by the name of Dobby, who warned him not to go to Hogwarts this year, talking about a danger that awaited him, but Harry had ignored the elf''s ramblings and thought little about them.


    At the start of the year, he and Ron had been blocked from entering tform nine and three-quarters. They had flown to Hogwarts in Ron''s father''s car. Which, in foresight, was an idiotic decision.


    A decision that had almost gotten him expelled. Harry''s mum had scolded him for hours and had been angry with him for a couple of weeks. Even his usual chill dad had been furious at Harry because multiple muggles had noticed the car flying in the sky.


    Not to mention that the Whomping Willow had almost killed them by crushing the car while they were inside it. He and Ron got dirty looks from professor Sprout because of the damage to the tree by the car.


    His new Defense Against Dark Arts didn''t turn out like he imagined and taught them nothing and just made them recreate the scenes from his books and had them write poems about him and his achievements. His detentions with Lockhart were a menial work of replying to fan letters. And listening to him ramble on how to get famous and earn fame.


    Then came the whole Chamber of Secret debacle with the Heir of Slytherin. Harry was determined the Heir as many people suspected him of being the Heir and petrified Filch''s cat. He and his friends were sure that Draco was the Heir of Slytherin from the way he enjoyed looking at the bloody message and his very public despise of muggles and muggleborns.


    Hermione hade up with the n to use the Polyjuice potion to infiltrate the Slytherin house and gain some information, but in the time required to brew the potion, Colin Creevey had also been petrified.


    And, he had found that the murderous bludger during the Quidditch game was Dobby the house-elf''s doing so that Harry would get injured and go back home. Harry has almost strangled the scrawny elf in anger.


    Above that, Harry had been hearing some disturbing voices about killing, blood, ripping, and all kinds of creepy dialogues. He had tried to share this with his friends, but it seemed no one else could hear the voices.


    Just when he thought that the year couldn''t get worse, he (and the rest of the school) found that he was a Parselmouth and could speak thenguage of the serpentine creatures. Something that was widely associated with dark wizards.


    From that situation, Justin Finch-Fletchley had freaked out when he had tried to help him by asking the snake to leave Justin alone. The fallout was Justin being a scardey cat, and the entire school had made up their minds that he was the Heir of Slytherin.


    "Bloody Fletchley!" cursed Harry, stamping his feet as he walked, "If I get my hands on him, he is looking for an ass-whooping."


    Harry stamped up the stairs and turned along another corridor, which was particrly dark; a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane had extinguished the torches. He was halfway down the passage when he tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.


    He turned to squint at what he had fallen over and felt as though his stomach had dissolved.


    Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring nkly at the ceiling. And that wasn''t all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Harry had ever seen.


    It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but ck and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off, and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin''s.


    Harry got to his feet, his breathing fast and shallow, his heart doing a kind of drumroll against his ribs.


    When he said he was going to get his hands on Justin, he meant nothing like this.


    He looked wildly up and down the deserted corridor and saw a line of spiders scuttling as fast as they could away from the bodies. The only sounds were the muffled voices of teachers from the sses on either side.


    ''I could run, and no one would ever know I had been here.'' Harry thought, but he couldn''t just leave them lying here... He had to get help... Would anyone believe he had nothing to do with this?


    As he stood there, panicking, a door right next to him opened with a bang. Peeves the Poltergeist came shooting out.


    "Why it''s potty wee Potter!" cackled Peeves, knocking Harry''s sses askew as he bounced past him. "What''s Potter up to? Why is Potter lurking -"


    Peeves stopped, halfway through a mid-air somersault. Upside down, the ghost spotted Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He flipped the right way up, filled his lungs, and before Harry could stop him, screamed,


    "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"


    Crash - crash - crash - door after door flew open along the corridor, and people flooded out. For several long minutes, there was a scene of such confusion that Justin was in danger of being squashed, and people kept standing in Nearly Headless Nick. Harry found himself pinned against the wall as the teachers shouted for quiet. Professor McGonagall came running, followed by her own ss, one of whom still had ck-and-white-striped hair. She used her wand to set off a loud bang, which restored silence and ordered everyone back into their sses.


    No sooner had the scene cleared somewhat than Ernie the Hufflepuff arrived, panting, on the scene.


    "Caught in the Act!" Ernie yelled, his face stark white, pointing his finger dramatically at Harry.


    Peeves was bobbing overhead, now grinning wickedly, surveying the scene; Peeves always loved chaos. As the teachers bent over Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, examining them, Peeves broke into song:


    "Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done. You''re killing off students, you think it''s good fun -"


    "That''s enough, Peeves!" barked Professor McGonagall, and Peeves


    zoomed away backward, with his tongue out at Harry.


    Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department carried Justin up to the hospital wing, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Nearly Headless Nick. In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured arge fan out of thin air, which she gave to Ernie with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs. This Ernie did, fanning Nick along with like a silent ck hovercraft.


    This left Harry and Professor McGonagall alone together.


    "This way, Potter," she said.


    "Professor," said Harry at once, "I swear I didn''t -"


    "This is out of my hands, Potter," replied Professor McGonagall curtly.


    They marched in silence around a corner, and she stopped before arge and exceptionally ugly stone gargoyle.


    ''I am screwed,'' Harry thought as he stared at the gargoyle, ''So, screwed.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Hogwarts hadn''t changed in the years he had studied here in his day. The castle was the same as ever, a magical and majestic building standing for a millennium. The professors and students had changed, but that changed nothing in the ambiance of the mystical castle of Hogwarts.


    Children''s chatter, portraits passing their time, the specters floating around the corridors, and house-elves hurrying around doing their work. Everything was the same as the time he had studied and stayed here.


    In the night''s cover, he roamed in the spacious corridors, feeling the cool breeze caressing ''his'' face. He had been walking around Hogwarts ever since he had got here; it was his home, after all, it was the only ce that epted him, provided him shelter and the means to be different than others like he always meant to be.


    Being sorted into the Slytherin house was a nod to his ancestor Szar Slytherin. The proof that the blood in his veins was of a noble lineage, a genealogy of the highest order. He saw it as the sign that he was meant to great things and destined to stand above others.


    Due to his exceptional acting abilities, he could convince virtually all the Hogwarts staff and instructors that this facade was his true personality. The sole exception to this was Dumbledore, who, though not necessarily suspicious of him, never forgetting about his misdeeds or his unsettling behavior during their first meeting.


    In turn, he realized that he had been careless in showing Dumbledore his true character upon their first meeting and never attempted to win him over as he had with his other instructors.


    In time, he came to fear and despise Dumbledore. The old goat was too much of a hindrance to him.


    But, now he was here, and Dumbledore had no idea that it was all his doing.


    Gazing down, he admired the green trims on the clothing, fitting to his status as a member of house Slytherin. The greatest of the four, the noblest of them. And the one who knew what was best for the wizarding world.


    He made his way to the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom he had ever set foot in. Under arge, cracked, and spotted mirror were a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were king and scratched, and one of them was dangling off its hinges.


    Looking around, he saw that the girl wasn''t there, maybe upying another bathroom in the castle. It was better this way; he didn''t want the girl to stare at him every time he visited here; it got bothersome quickly.


    He walked to one of the unassuming sinks in the tattered bathroom and looked at one of the copper taps with a small snake engraved on it. A smile made it on ''his'' face at the sight of the little snake.


    "Open," he said.


    Except that the words weren''t in English; a strange hissing had escaped him, and at once, the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and spun. Next second, the sink moved; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving arge pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.


    He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as broad as his, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons.


    At the end of the pipe''s end, he jumped and expertlynded on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnelrge enough to stand in.


    "Lumos," he chanted the incantation, and his wand''s tip lit up with white.


    Walking on the tunnel''s wet floor made loud pping noise against the water, and the light from the wand cast shadows on the soaking walls that looked monstrous in the wand light.


    The tunnel was quiet as a graveyard at night, and the only sound was the asional crunch made when he stepped on the bones of small animals like rats littered around the floor.


    The wand light shone the path after a dark bend and shed light over a gigantic snakeskin of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.


    He smiled as he glided his hand against the snakeskin, feeling its texture as he walked beside the humongous shedding. And then, atst, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.


    "Open," came the words in a low, faint hiss.


    The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight.


    Inside stood at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pirs entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, ck shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the ce.


    Every footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls as the hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him.


    Then, as he drew level with thest pair of pirs, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.


    He had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard''s sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor.


    "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four," he hissed and watched as the giant stone face moved, mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge ck hole. And something was stirring inside the statue''s mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.


    "Come out," he smiled as he watched the enormous body hit the stone floor of the Chamber. A serpent uncoiled itself from Slytherin''s mouth.


    He stared at the titanic serpent as it stared back at him.


    If he had been anyone else, he would have been dead with a single look from the king of serpents. But because he spoke in thenguage of snakes, Parseltongue, the Basilisk didn''t kill him with the gaze that could kill with a single nce.


    A translucent third eyelid covered its acid yellow eyes, blocking the innate magic that resided in the Basilisk''s eyes. The translucent eyelids were part of Basilisk''s biology, present there in case the snake didn''t want to use its killing gaze.


    "You did well. Another mudblood down. Just like the great Slytherin wanted," he hissed at the snake.


    "More, kill, rip, blood..." the Basilisk hissed in reply.


    The Basilisk was a dreadful and dangerous beast. A horrifying monster with dark green scales, that creature was a violent and bloodthirsty beast of titanic size. After being put to sleep inside the Chamber for centuries, it wanted nothing but to get out and rampage.


    "More wille," heughed, "As soon as I gain a body, we will reap lives of those who are inferior and unworthy."


    Heughed loudly and proimed,


    "Soon, I, Tom Marvolo Riddle, will return to this world as Lord Voldemort and take my rightful ce as the ruler of wizardkind and beyond."


    "But before that," Riddle took out a diary from ''his'' robes and spoke, "I want to know more about Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived. I want to know how a one-year-old babe took down my future."


    Riddle nned to get the diary to the boy, wanting to find more about him and what he possessed to defeat the Dark lord.


    The Basilisk hissed something that made Riddle chuckle in reply, "Yes, he will be quite fun to y with." He looked at the Basilisk and recalled, "He has a mudblood girl in his entourage, we should go for her next."


    The Basilisk hissed in horrid glee, thrashing its tail in delight.


    A boy and Basilisk stood in a dreary Chamber, nning to go after their next victim.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Harry Potter - Boy-who-lived - Boy-who-broods.


    Tom Marvolo Riddle (Sixteen years old) - Lord Voldemort (Soul fragment)- Heir of Slytherin.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 58 - Teaching The Slytherin Duo

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Oh boy, you have been eating a lot these past few weeks, haven''t you?" asked Eddie as he looked to his side, "If you didn''t eat with proper table manners, you would be indistinguishable from Marcus."


    Quinn ate another piece of sausage before speaking, "I have been feeling starved these past few weeks," he swallowed a mouthful of fries and continued, "It is like there is a bottomless pit in my stomach."


    "I am here to tell you something, my friend, you can eat and eat and eat, but nothing will ever fill that void," spoke Marcus from across the table, "You want a slice of banoffee pie?"


    "I feel you, brother," said Quinn, pointing his fork at Marcus, "And, yes, I will take two slices. My sweet tooth is tingling."


    Quinn food-moaned as he ate some of the banoffee pie that Marcus passed on to him. An orange hue developed on his nape as Quinn indulged himself in the delicious food.


    ''Maybe I should live in the kitchen with the house-elves,'' thought Quinn as he nodded towards Marcus while pointing towards the dessert. "This is damn good!"


    Thest few weeks had been brilliant for and to Quinn. He had found himself enjoying his student life, feeling that he was on cloud seven all the time; he always had a skip in his step, a smile on his face, and joy in his words. He felt nothing could pull him down to earth.


    Quinn was sure that if the number of times he had broken into songs were stringed together, they would be enough for an entire script of a musical y.


    His magic had been improving every day at a visible rate, and Quinn couldn''t be more excited than seeing his connection with his magic improve every other day. It was like he had been wearing weights all his life, and now they were removed. Casting spells was bing easier, and his magic responded to him faster and smoother like never before.


    If his magic before the improvement was him pulling water out of well, and he had to work to mold his magic into spells, then right now, his magic was waiting for him to give a singlemand, and it would spring out with no effort.


    His magic was a servant waiting to fulfill his every whim. No adversity could make him feel helpless and hopeless.


    Spending time in Room of Requirement to destroy things was bing his new hobby. If someone stumbled upon the Room of Requirements during Quinn''s upancy, they would have a heart attack by the sheer amount of destructive and dark magic remnants in the room.


    The pure exhration Quinn felt when he exerted his magic to annihte everything in his way: a feeling beyond words.


    It made him feel powerful beyond measure. He felt empowered; it made him feel like he could do anything, and nothing was outside his capabilities.


    Quinn finished his meal, patting his belly in culinary satisfaction, and tapped danced his way outside the Great Hall.


    When Quinn turned a bend, a stone-faced blonde greeted him, scaring the shit out of him.


    "Bloody hell!" Quinn jumped back in shock as he stared at Daphne Greengrass standing there with her arms crossed.


    "Hullo!" said Tracy, revealing herself from behind Daphne with a grin on her face and twinkled in her eye. She covered her mouth inughter andmented, "That was wicked fun!"


    "Yeah, it was wicked scary! You almost scared the soul out of my body!" Quinn patted his heart and asked, "What is it?"


    Tracy stepped forward and asked, "We were wondering if you would help us with a spell. We have been having some problems with the cast."


    Quinn quirked his brow and spoke, "Sure, I can help. What is the spell?"


    "It is the seize-and-pull spell," replied Daphne. Her face was twisted in frustration and irritation. The spell had been giving her and Tracy a lot of problems. No matter how much they tried, the magic refused to operate properly.


    Quinn''s eyes shined in joy, "Oh boy, Carpe Retractum! The seize-and-pull." He pped his hands, "Do you know it is one of my favorite spells."


    "So, you will help us?" asked Daphne, surprising Quinn with her forwardness. She usually let Tracy do the talking, but right now, she was taking the lead.


    The truth was that Daphne didn''t like things she couldn''t figure out, and this spell had been giving her problems longer than she anticipated.


    "Alright, I will help out," said Quinn, "I am free today, so do you want to start after sses?"


    "Yes," replied both the girls in unison.


    "Perfect, then it is decided," smiled Quinn, "We will meet after sses."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Daphne and Tracey entered the ssroom in which the three had decided to meet and practice. There they saw Quinn sitting there on a stool. It looked like he hadn''t noticed the two Slytherin girls enter the room.


    He was sitting there with a dazed look on his face. Looking into the distance with a nk look on his face.


    Daphne and Tracy stilled for a moment and stared at Quinn with mild surprise. In the time they had known Quinn, they had never seen him like this, doing nothing and zoning out while sitting in a chair. Every time they had seen Quinn, he was doing something. Quinn would always have something to do like read a book, or scribble or draw on a paper, or talking to someone, but never in their time had these two seen Quinn doing... well, nothing.


    Then there was the look in his eyes. The Quinn they knew always had a focused look in his eyes like he was always thinking and on point, and the depth in his stone-grey orbs reflected the knowledge held in them. The current shallow and dazed was out of ce for Quinn.


    And finally, the thing that stood out was Quinn''s posture. No matter what the time, Quinn always sat with his back straight and shoulders back, but the Quinn in front of them had a slouch in his posture: his back was curved, and shoulders hunched slightly.


    It was so unusual that Daphne and Tracy felt worried for Quinn, seeing him so different from his usual self. There was a feeling of conflict rising inside them. There was a stark difference between this version of Quinn and the image of Quinn they had in their mind.


    Tracy stepped forward and carefully voiced, "Hey Quinn, are you alright?"


    Her words seemed to snap Quinn out of his daze as he turned his face to the duo.


    The two girls saw focus return to Quinn''s eyes as he stood up from his stool, recognition shing in his eyes. A smile bloomed on his face as he greeted them, "Good evening, you two. Now that you are here - let''s get started."


    Daphne and Tracey stared at Quinn with another bout of shock at the sudden change in energy. Just a moment ago, Quinn looked like he could sit on his stool doing nothing but stare at the wall for hours, but the next second, he was on his feet, full of rigor and ready to get the practice session started.


    "Hey Quinn, are you sure you are alright?" asked Tracy, still worried about her friend, "We can do this another day if you aren''t feeling well."


    Quinn turned his body towards them, a confused expression clear on his face, like he wasn''t sure what Tracy was talking about.


    "What do you mean?" he chuckled, "There is nothing wrong with me. In fact, I can''t be feeling any better."


    Quinn pped his hands and showed a confused wrinkle in his brows, "Come on, let''s get moving, or do you not want to learn?"


    Tracy looked at Daphne and asked her best friend what to do with her eyes. Daphne turned to look at Quinn, who was peering at them with a confused look on his face, his hands raised, asking them what was happening.


    Daphne also felt a little worried about Quinn, but looking at him now, he looked normal.


    "Let''s start," said Daphne, announcing her decision to the other two in the room.


    "That is the spirit," grinned Quinn, "Okay, stand here. Yeah, side-by-side like that. Excellent."


    Daphne and Tracy stood side-by-side, standing close to one of the ssroom''s walls, and took out their wands at ready.


    Quinn, who had walked to the stool he was sitting at before, looked back and saw the two girls with their wands out. He waved his hands and spoke, "Alright, let''s sheath the wands for just a minute or two."


    He picked up two ropes from the corner and walked to the girls, handing them each a rope.


    Quinn smiled when he saw the confused look on their faces, "The seize-and-pull spell produces a magical, retractable cord of light that could be used to pull objects towards the caster, or, if the target was fixed in ce, to pull the caster towards the target."


    He pulled out his fake wand, and the ropes uncurled into straight lines, another swing and two iron weights transfigured on the ends of the ropes. The irons had substantial weight but weren''t heavy enough for the girls to have difficulty pulling.


    "So, you are going to be pulling when you seize-and-pull spell, so it would be good if you know what does it feel like to pull something," he raised his hands when Daphne was about to speak, "I know you know what it is like to pull things but do it now so it is fresh in your mind."


    He walked between the two ropes and continued, "I am making you pull these weights because if you do it now, you would remember it more vividly than ever before. Your brain knows that I am making you do it for the spell, so it would remember the sensation much more clearly."


    "Now, pull on those ropes and get a clear feeling," he gestured towards the rope before stepping to the side, "Go."


    The two girls looked skeptical at the exercise but did it anyway. Putting both of their hands on the rope and then pulling at the iron weights.


    "Let me ask you a question," spoke Quinn, gaining their attention, "When you learn a spell, do you understand it better when you learn the mechanics behind it? When the professor exins what the spell is actually doing, does it help?"


    "Of course, that is obvious," replied Tracy pulling on the rope.


    Quinn nodded and exined, "Understanding andprehension are an essential part of the magic. If you understand what you are doing, things get a lot easier, much simpler." He raised his fake wand and pointed it at his other open palm, and a miniature version of Quinn in ice appeared on his palm, "Knowing means having control over what you are doing, and control inck of better words is good."


    He walked in between the two girls and faced the same way they did, "The seize-and-pull spell is a retractable cord, so while you won''t be pulling and your magic would be doing the work for you."


    Quinn raised his fake wand and shot out a red-yellow cord of light at the opposing wall. The end of the cord attached itself to the wall, sticking to the surface.


    Daphne and Tracy looked at the end attached to the wall to Quinn, who put his hand on the cord, and their eyes widened when they saw the cord detached from the wand tip and rest in Quinn''s hand.


    "How are you doing that?" eximed Daphne, "You can''t detach the cord from the wand. That should break the spell!"


    "If you know what you are doing. If you understand the mechanics," Quinn cracked a smile, "you will have... control, control over what you are doing." He pulled on the cord, and girls could see it taut because of the pull.


    "Now, that was enough," Quinn waved his fake wand, the weights vanished, and the ropes curled up, "Let''s see you girls try it."


    He took a step back, giving space to the girl, "Carpe Retractum is the incantation, and the wand movement is in the shape of V. Now, off you go."


    The two girls readied their wands, pointed them at the wall, and cast,


    " "Carpe Retractum." "


    Two flimsy cords of light shot out of their wands, darting towards the wall, but fell down to the floor before reaching it.


    The two turned back to look at Quinn, and the older Ravenw just said, "Both of you have to be more aggressive, provide more magic, and if I am right, you guys should focus more on the wall. The spell would conjure the cord for you; you need to want the cord to go to the wall."


    "Here, look at this," said Quinn stepping forward and pointing his fake wand at the stool. A thick cord of light shot out of his wand and wrapped around the barstool in the distance. "See, I made the cord wrap around the barstool. It usually sticks, but because I wanted it to wrap around the target. You have to be clear about what you are doing."


    He gestured to them to try again.


    The two girls raised their wands, and as Quinn instructed, they focused more on the wall. Both wanted their cords to stick to the wall in front of them.


    " "Carpe Retractum!" "


    Two cords of light exploded out of their wands and darted towards the wall. Both cords reached the wall and stuck to the surface; Daphne''s cord was faster than Tracy''s and struck the wall first.


    "Excellent, well done!" congratted Quinn, "But, hold it, don''t stop the spell." He stepped forward, walking halfway to the opposing wall. H flicked both the cord to check them the tangibility and pulled on them to see the adhesive quality at the end.


    He nodded before turning to them, "Alright, everything seems good. Tracy, you have to work on getting the cord faster to the target, but yours stuck more firmly to the wall." He turned to Daphne and remarked, "Daphne, you had a greatunch, but you need to work on the tangibility of your cord. It looks like it would snap if there is too much weight at the end."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn met with Daphne and Tracy a couple more times to walk them through the spell.


    "Today, we are going to pull on stuff," Quinn said, standing in front of the two girls, "Did you two practice in your own time?"


    "We did," the girls replied


    "Alright, then let''s move on," he pointed to the two barstools and said, "Aim at the barstools and pull them towards you."


    "Wands at ready," he instructed while stepping out of the way, "Go nuts."


    Red-yellow cords of light darted to the barstools and adhered to the wood. The girls had enough practice with the spell and could stick the cords to the target with outstanding sess.


    Quinn silently watched from the side, observing them cast the magic, trying to pull the barstool towards them, but their efforts were giving irregr sess at best.


    "You guys are pulling your arms back to pull, don''t do that," spoke Quinn as he stepped forward and pointed at their arms, "The magic is a retractable cord; you don''t have to physically pull on the cord; you have to retract it."


    Quinn put his hand and took out a standard yellow retractable tape measure, showing it to the girls. It was one of the things that resided in Quinn''s robes.


    "Take this for an example," he pulled the metallic tape measure out of its casing, "Now, observe," he continued and released the tape, and the girls watched as the yellow metal strip rushed back inside the casing.


    "It is something like this," said Quinn, "This what you call retractable. You need to suck in the magical cord back into your wand."


    He walked to their front and grinned mischievously. Taking out his fake wand, he pointed it at Tracy and shot out the cord of seize-and-pull spell. The cord wrapped around her.


    Tracy let out a surprised yelp before she screamed when she was pulled towards Quinn, who caught her with his arms and spun her around in circles, while Tracyughed in fun with little fear mixed in.


    Quinn widely grinned as he put Tracy down, who walked unsteadily because of the dizziness and walked like a drunk person.


    Daphne shifted her gaze from Tracy to Quinn and saw the grin, and her eyes widened in realization, "Oh no, you don''t -," but she waste as Quinn had already shot a seize-and-pull cord towards her.


    She let out a simrly startled yelp when she was pulled towards Quinn.


    Unlike Tracy, she wasn''t spun around circles and was held close to Quinn. He took her waist with his hands, holding her close to him. When she looked up toward''s Quinn''s face, she saw a smile different from Quinn''s usual smile.


    She saw Quinn raise his hand and tuck a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.


    "If you weren''t a second year, I would have invited you out to Hogsmeade," she heard Quinn speak, "What a pity."


    He pulled her closer for a second before letting her go and moving to Tracy, helping her stand up; she had sat down because of the dizziness.


    Daphne Greengrass stood in a distracted daze, thinking about what had just happened. She didn''t know what to make of the interaction she just had with Quinn. One thing was for sure: she wouldn''t be forgetting about this for a long time.


    After five lessons in two weeks, Quinn trained Daphne and Tracy in the seize-and-pull to the point that they could pull it off every single time wlessly. Their original flimsy cords had thickened to something respectable, and they could pull anything with reasonable weight towards them without breaking a sweat.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - _ _ O T _ <-- > A _ _ D _ _


    Pink - _ U _ _ <-- > _ _ X _ _ I _


    Red - _ R _ _ H <-- > _ _ _


    Yellow - _ _ E E _ <-- > _ _ A _ _ T I _


    Violet - _ R I _ E <-- > _ _ P _ _ B _ _


    Green - _ _ V _ <-- > _ _ _ I _ I _


    Orange - _ _ _ T _ _ N _ <--> _ _ L _


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Teacher Extraordinaire.


    Tracy Davis - Slytherin - Learning magic and having fun.


    Daphne Green - Slytherin - Learning magic and feeling confused.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 59 - Polyjuice Incident, Debt, And Diary

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Ivy Potter were nning an infiltration operation into the Slytherin housemon room by employing the miraculous Polyjuice potion. The potion allowed a person to change their appearance to someone else''s and all it took was a strand of their hair.


    The four Gryffindor stood in Moaning Myrtle''s bathroom, gathered around the stall that issued thick ck smoke while Hermione stirred the cauldron full of bubbling, glutinous potion.


    "Does everyone have the hairs of their targets?" asked Hermione. When the other three nodded, Hermione continued, "Good, now we need to separate the potion into the four sses and add the hairs."


    While Hermione poured the Polyjuice potion into goblets, Ivy spoke up, "I sneaked these spare robes out of theundry," throwing a sack on the floor, "We will need robes with Slytherin trims, so wear these before exiting here."


    The four of them stared into the cauldron. Close up, the potion looked like thick, dark mud, bubbling sluggishly.


    "I''m sure I''ve done everything right," said Hermione, nervously re-reading the splotched page of Moste Potente Potions. "It looks like the book says it should... once we''ve drunk it, we''ll have exactly an hour before we change back into ourselves."


    Hermione handed the goblets to her three friends and instructed, "Add your hairs to the goblets."


    The four added the hair into the bubbling goblets and watched as the potion hissed loudly like a boiling kettle and frothed madly.


    Harry Potter added Gregory Goyle''s hair strand into his potion and watched as it turned into khaki color.


    Ron Weasley added Vincent Crabbe''s hair strand into his goblet and the potion frothed before turning a dark, murky brown.


    Hermione Granger dropped a strand of hair from Tracy Davis into hers''s and it turned into a lc color.


    Atst, Ivy Potter inserted a blonde strand from the head of Daphne Greengrass and watched as an icy-blue color spread through the potion.


    "Now, get into the stalls and down them," said Ivy, "Don''t drink them out here and change before drinking because your clothes won''t fit."


    "Good call,"mented Ron, picking a set of clothes from the sack, and the others followed.


    Careful not to spill a drop of their Polyjuice potion, the golden squad slipped into their individual stalls.


    "Ready?" called out Harry.


    "Ready," came Ron''s, Hermione''s, and Ivy''s reply.


    "One - two - three -" Pinching their noses, the four chugged down their potion in two to three gulps.


    There were groans and grunts from all four people before there was silence, followed by gasps of shock, and finally, the rustling of clothes could be heard at the end.


    Three people came out at the same time and looked at each other with a stunned expression.


    "This is unbelievable," said Ron, approaching the mirror and prodding


    Crabbe''s t nose. "Unbelievable." His voice was exactly the same as Crabbe''s, and it surprised Ron a lot.


    "This is wicked and jarring at the same time," Goyle''s low rasp of a voice issued from Harry''s mouth.


    The two transformed boys turned their heads to look at Ivy, who had altered into Daphne Greengrass, watching herself in a broken mirror with aplicated expression on her face.


    Harry (Goyle) and Ron (Crabbe) watched with wide eyes as Ivy (Daphne) exhaled before an expressionless look took its ce on Daphne Greengrass''s face.


    "Wow," eximed Ron, "She looks exactly like exactly like her." If Ron didn''t know that the girl in front of her was Ivy, he would have bet his entire pocket money on Daphne Greengrass standing in front of him.


    Harry silently watched his sister put on the same expression as Daphne. He could understand theplicated look before the expressionless face; his twin sister and Daphne Greengrass did have aplicated rtionship.


    "Are you sure that Greengrass and Davis won''t walk in on us," asked Harry. While Harry and Ron had put Crabbe and Goyle to sleep with mild sleeping potions, Tracy and Daphne were still awake and in the castle.


    Ivy stared at Daphne''s face in the mirror for a while before replying, "At this time, Tracy and Daphne are in the library doing their homework. Those two follow this schedule without fail," she paused before continuing, "She is quite methodical about it."


    She sighed before speaking, "We have plenty of time before those two will return to the Slytherinmon room, so we don''t have to worry about them."


    Harry nodded before noticing that Hermione wasn''t out of her stall, "Hermione,e one, we need to go," he called out while banging on Hermione''s door.


    A high-pitched voice answered him.


    "I-I don''t think I''m going toe after all. You go on without me."


    "Hermione, we know Tracy Davis differs greatly from you, but no one''s going to know it''s you -"


    "No, really, I don''t think I''lle. You three hurry up; you are wasting time -" said Hermione in a weirdly high-pitched voice.


    Harry looked at Ron, bewildered.


    "That looks more like Goyle," said Ron. "That''s how he looks every time a teacher asks him a question."


    "Hermione, are you okay?" asked Ivy through the door.


    "Fine, I''m fine. Go on," came Hermione''s response.


    Ivy looked at her watch. Five of their precious sixty minutes had already passed.


    "We will meet you back here, all right?" she said.


    And, so Harry (Goyle), Ron (Crabbe), and Ivy (Daphne) were off to the Slytherin housemon room.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Harry (Goyle) and Ron (Crabbe) walked ahead while Ivy (Daphne) walked a distance behind them because Daphne Greengrass wouldn''t hang out, much less walk with the dumb duo of Slytherin.


    The three went down the marble staircase, all they needed now was a Slytherin that they could follow to the Slytherinmon room, but there was nobody around.


    "Any ideas?" muttered Harry.


    Harry and Ron didn''t know where the Slytherinmon room was located in the dungeons.


    "The Slytherins alwayse up to breakfast from over there," said Ron, nodding at the entrance to the dungeons. The words had barely left his mouth when a boy with ck hair emerged from the entrance.


    "Excuse me," said Ron, hurrying up to her. "We''ve forgotten the way to ourmon room."


    Ivy (Daphne) who, just turned the bend, looked at the duo and frowned, ''What in the world are those two doing?'' She heard thest part of the sentence and had the urge to p her forehead and then beat the two with a beater''s bat.


    ''They didn''t know the location of Slytherinmon room?!'' thought Ivy, ''Of course, they didn''t! Ugh, these idiots!''


    The Ravenw boy looked at them with interest and chuckled, "I beg your pardon?" He pointed at his tie and trims on his robes, "Ourmon room? I''m a Ravenw."


    "You guys must be really dumb," the Ravenw boyughed till tears wereing out of his eyes. He looked them straight in their eyes and said, "Don''t get lost, alright?"


    Ivy felt embarrassed at her twin brother and their friend, not only because they jumped into the n without knowing the first part and because the person who wasughing at them was the one person who she didn''t want them to be embarrassed in front of.


    The Ravenw with ck hair had stone-grey eyes, and there was only one Ravenw with those features.


    ''Quinn West,'' groaned Ivy.


    She watched as Harry and Ron hurried down the stone steps into the darkness, their footsteps echoing particrly loudly as Crabbe''s and Goyle''s huge feet hit the floor.


    Quinn chuckled as he watched the two climb down to the dungeon and turned back to see Daphne standing there, and his eyes shed.


    "Greengrass," he waved and smiled, "Fancy meeting you here."


    Ivy (Daphne) froze when she saw Quinn walked towards her but quickly gathered herself and spoke in a Daphne-esque fashion, "Quinn."


    "Where is Tracy," asked Quinn, looking behind her, "You two are usually together."


    "She is in the library. She was behind on her homework," replied Ivy (Daphne).


    "Oh, is that so," said Quinn. He thought of something and looked worried, "Is it because of the Duro transfiguration spell? Did she spend time too much time practicing the spell?" Quinn sounded apologetic and continued, "We have been practicing it a lot together. Maybe we should pull back a little."


    Ivy, who didn''t know about what Quinn was speaking, just nodded.


    "How about you?" asked Quinn, "Are youfortable transfiguring various materials into stone?"


    "Of course," spoke Ivy, imitating Daphne, "It wasn''t that difficult after I understood it." She replied such that even though her expression remained unchanged, her voice portrayed pride.


    Quinn smiled and then seemed to recall something, "Before I forget. I got the thing that you wanted," he put his hands in his robes, and the thing that came out was his wand.


    Ivy''s (Daphne''s) eyes widened as she felt ropes conjure around her and tightened around her body. The ropes pulled her back, and she was mmed against the wall. The next second, the wall behind her transfigured into a liquid form, covered her entire body, and hardened to trap her inside.


    "What are you doing?!" shrieked Ivy (Daphne), looking angry and furious.


    "You are not Daphne Greengrass," Quinn looked at her. She felt his eyes were looking right through her, "So, who are you?"


    "What bloody nonsense are you talking about?!" she screamed, feeling panic bubbling inside her.


    Quinn peered at her and said, "You see, when I called you Greengrass, you didn''t show any reaction."


    Ivy felt confused at the statement, but Quinn cleared it for her.


    "Recently, I switched the way I address her. I call her Daphne now," Quinn exined, "She would roll her eyes at the start, but now she doesn''t even bat an eye. With her personality, she would definitely quip at me reverting back to her family name."


    "Next, we never practiced the Duro spell, so that gave you away," said, "That was the second strike."


    Ivy was the full force of panic and couldn''t think of anything to speak or rebuke.


    "And, thest strike is this," Quinn raised his hand to reveal a wand in his hand, "This isn''t Daphne''s wand."


    Ivy''s eyes almost popped out, and she nearly screamed at Quinn to return her wand back.


    ''When did he take it from me?'' thought Ivy.


    "So, you clearly not Daphne Greengrass. Which prompts the question, if you are not Daphne, then who are you?" Quinn spoke as he looked at the wand in his hand.


    "Hmm..." a sound came out of him as he narrowed his eyes and then looked up at Daphne look alike.


    "You know, now that I remember. There was a break-in in professor Snape''s potion ingredient storage. Now that I see you in the form of Daphne, the stolen ingredients were of the Polyjuice potion, weren''t they?"


    A wide smirk formed on his face as he said, "Professor Snape would be delighted if he found who stole his things."


    Ivy, in the form of Daphne, paled.


    The charges on her would be stealing from a professor, impersonating another student without their permission, intent-to-infiltrate another house''smon room.


    This could very well end up in expulsion.


    She could clearly imagine how her mother and father would feel if this got out.


    But it seemed that her capturer wasn''t done as he dropped another bombshell on her.


    "Plus, I am now sure that Crabbe and Goyle I just saw now weren''t the real one," said Quinn, "Those two are dumb, but not enough to forget the location of a ce they have been living in for one and half year."


    He stared into her eyes and raise the wand, "So, Ms. Ivy Potter, tell me what should I do with you?"


    Ivy was beyond the point of shock and panic, and a strange rity filled her, "How did you know it is me?"


    Quinn pointed at her wand, "I remember this wand. I remember it from the Duelling club," he pointed at his temple and smirked, "You see, I have an excellent memory."


    He raised his hand to point in behind towards the dungeon entrance, "I am willing to bet good money that those two were Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley." His smirk widened, "Now, imagine what would happen if I alert professor Snape that two Gryffindors are inside the Slytherinmon room. After the flying car incident, this would definitely kick those two out of the school."


    Ivy was once again back to feeling massive panic. Her father had faced a lot of criticism because of Harry''s action at the start of the year. James Potter was an Auror, and one of their responsibilities was to maintain the International Statute of Secrecy.


    It did not look good when one of his children was caught breaking the same code that could reveal the existence of magic to the world.


    "I am willing to forget all of this if you owe me a huge favor," he tapped her nose before continuing, " I am willing to spare your brother''s reputation by letting all of this go. He is already suffering because of the whole Heir of Slytherin, and if he gets expelled, no matter what the reason, people would believe they sacked him for all the petrifications."


    Ivy was sure that she was about to die from shock.


    Harry''s reputation was already at rock bottom because of the ridiculous rumor. She was sure that if the situation was given time, then Harry''s reputation would improve. But right now, it would ruin Harry Potter, and in turn Potter family''s reputation.


    Quinn stood straighter and spoke in a deeper voice, "So, what is your decision, Potter princess?"


    Ivy gulped before nodding. She had no choice but to agree.


    "Alright, I will do whatever you want. So don''t reveal any of this."


    Quinn hummed with a bright smile before turning stern, "Don''t try to refuse thister because it will not go the way you want to. Do. You. Understand?"


    Ivy nodded with a hard expression.


    "Say that you understand."


    "I understand," she spat out.


    "Good," said Quinn, and the wall went back to normal, and the ropes restraining her also loosened before vanishing.


    Quinn patted her cheek before saying, "Now, go hide until the effects of the potion wear off. Daphne is my friend, and I don''t want a look-alike roaming around."


    He pointed at the wall behind her, "Your wand is right there."


    When Ivy looked back, she saw her wand stuck to the wall.


    "It wille off in half a minute," said Quinn, "Now, while it was good profiting off you, I am busy person, so I would take my leave."


    Quinn softly smiled before walking away, leaving Ivy stunned, looking between Quinn''s retreating and her wand stuck to the wall.


    Her thoughts were that this operation went nothing like she was expecting. Her''s and Hermione''s n had been dismantled within minutes.


    They had thought that it would be a fairly straightforward n for them to get the information from Draco, but the n had failed before it even started.


    Hermione, for some reason, didn''te with them.


    Quinn West had caught her, restrained her, and had revealed her identity. Plus, he had forced her into being under his debt.


    She had didn''t know how Ron and Harry were doing without her to guide them. Those two fools didn''t even know the location of the Slytherinmon room.


    Quinn West came in like a cool breeze and left like a terrifying typhoon.


    She wouldter find out that even though Harry and Ron had sessfully gained entry to the Slytherinmon room and had talked to Draco Malfoy, it turned out that Malfoy wasn''t the one to open the Chamber of Secret.


    So, they were back to square one.


    And not to mention the ident Hermione had with the Polyjuice potion and had gained a... tail.


    When Ivy Potter found all of this, she, without an ounce of doubt and hesitation, ssified this mission as a big fat failure.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Harry Potter heavily sighed as he walked toward the bathroom.


    He wasn''t in a great mood. The entire school was literally against him and considered him the next dark lord. Everyone med him for the petrification of the muggleborn students. And because of it, he was being avoided like the gue.


    Before, everyone would be noisy when he entered, but now? Now, they would quiet down and avert their eyes so that they wouldn''t catch his eyes.


    There were select few people he could spend time with, and now one of them was stuck in the Hospital wing because she added the wrong hair into her Polyjuice potion.


    Harry and Hermione quarreled a lot, but Harry seriously considered her to be one of his closest friends because of all the help she wasst year. And, people who faced a Troll and deadly obstacles together were bound to develop someradery.


    This year was the same. Hermione was the one toe up with the Polyjuice n despite her love of rules and authority, showing that she treasured their friendship.


    His twin sister as well was acting weird and looked stressed about something since the whole Polyjuice n. She didn''t join them inside the Slytherinmon room because someone stopped her (she didn''t specify who).


    When he asked what was wrong, she said that nothing was wrong and she was just stressed about Hermione and the Chamber of Secrets, but Harry could tell that there was something else. He stopped push when she started to get irritated and had left the matter alone.


    Finally, Ron was well... Ron. While heughed at Hermione''s furry appearance, Harry could tell that his best friend was worried about their friend.


    Harry, somewhere in his heart, med himself for dragging them in all this mess, and now all of them were stressed and worried.


    While Harry was brooding about his, depressing thoughts collided with someone and yelled, "Hey, watch it, man!"


    But the other person didn''t even look at him or say sorry and just ran off.


    "Jerk," muttered Harry, and when he turned to walk, his foot kicked something.


    He looked down to see a small thin book with a shabby ck cover.


    Harry picked it up and turned back to return it but, the person had already run off and out of his sight.


    Lowering his eyes to examine the thin book. Harry saw at once that it was a diary, and the faded year on the cover told him it was fifty years old. He opened it, and on the first page of the diary, Harry could barely read out the name {T. M. Riddle} written in smudged ink. When he turned the pages, and there were no words written on the pages.


    In the quiet and eerie corridor stood the lone figure of Harry Potter, staring at the ck diary clutched in his hand with an unblinking gaze.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - Out of character - Gained a significant debt.


    Ivy Potter - Polyjuiced into Daphne Greengrass - In debt.


    Harry Potter - Boy-who-lived - ... Diary, a ck diary.....


    Hermione Granger - Having furry problems - Her tail feels weird.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 60 - Calm Day, And Ivy’s Heir Of Slytherin Theory

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was a rare moment of peace in thest few months as Quinnid in the cool grass looking up at the sky.


    The past few months had been a rollercoaster for Quinn. His magic has been going through rapid change, not only in quantity but also in control. There were many types of magic that Quinn didn''t think were possible for him for a couple of years were now within his grasps.


    His magic did his bidding with noints, and almost every day, dummies and targets of the Room and Requirements would get annihted into smithereens.


    The Restricted Section of Hogwarts library had also proven to be helpful. The thing about the Room of Requirement was that it had been hidden for so long that nobody knew how it operated, and as such, no one knew how to add books to it.


    The books and tomes in the Room of Requirement''s knowledge base were extremely old. The books were from the founder''s time, and as far as Quinn could tell, they weren''t updated from that time, which meant that the Room of Requirement was missing out on a millennium''s worth of advancements in magic.


    The Room of Requirements had a lot of knowledge that would be ssified as lost knowledge. Lost knowledge was the knowledge about fields of magic lost to the magical civilization with time, but the thing about that lost magical knowledge from Room of Requirements was that a lot of it was tooplex for Quinn.


    While Quinn''s magical prowesses grew at an unprecedented rate, his knowledge about magic didn''t experience a simr boost. He was still building his magical knowledge step-by-step.


    So, the Restricted Section of Hogwarts Library came in as resourceful because Hogwarts did a decent job at supplementing their library with new books throughout the ages.


    Quinn did notice that even though there was a lot of information about magic that could be hazardous if not handled or properly understood, there was nothing too crazy in the library.


    Dumbledore moderating the books in the library was one of Quinn''s theories. Another theory was that Hogwarts was a school for children who came here to learn to control their magic. Those children might not need books that delved into high-levelplexities about magic. As such, the Hogwarts administration never thought of buying books above a certain level.


    The magical world and not just magical Britain didn''t have a university system for higher education. Instead, it followed an apprentice system to gain higher knowledge about magic.


    You could buy high-level magic knowledge for the right price, but most people only did it when they gained a master to apprentice under because magic grew more and more dangerous as you dove deeper into its mysteries. Researching esoteric magic without guidance could be fatal, and as such, people needed some form of teaching to get started.


    The Restricted Section of Hogwarts library had some fascinating books and tomes. Quinn had been quite busy greedily researching knowledge that would supplement what he already knew.


    In Quinn''s eyes, Lockhart had finally done something worthwhile with his life by signing the permission note to the Restricted Section for him.


    Between studying, having fun, and enjoying himself, Quinn had been quite busy.


    Today, he found himself free from everything, lying down in the grass looking at the white clouds slowly floating in the sky. He felt as free as the clouds he was gazing at.


    Quinn didn''t feel angry when he looked at Lockhart''s stupid face.


    He didn''t feel ted when he received the weekly sales report of Lockhart goods.


    His daily run didn''t leave him so tired that he wanted to sleep the entire day.


    He didn''t randomly make his way to the kitchen to stuff his face with food.


    Last night''s Duelling lesson didn''t inspire superiority inside Quinn.


    His eyes didn''t immediately follow a group of older girls when they walked by, looking all nice.


    And he didn''t feel the weekly bout of jealousy at Madam Hooch''s excellent broom riding skill.


    But, even with his calm, Quinn didn''t question his behavior this entire school year. He didn''t even think that something was wrong with his behavior. To him, his year had been like a fun rollercoaster, but nothing wrong.


    It was a peaceful day, and while Quinn enjoyed the time he was having for the past few months, he enjoyed this calm and quiet day.


    Quinn peacefully smiled and spoke without looking to his side.


    "So, how have you been finding Hogwarts?" he asked hispanion, whoid in the grass with him, simrly looking at the clouds, or at least he thought she was.


    "It is fun, but I think Nargles took some of my belongings," said the girl beside him, "They are known to be quite the naughty thieves."


    Quinn''s eyes narrowed, and he felt a bout of anger climb up into his mind. While she thought Nargles were stealing her stuff, Quinn knew better.


    "Do you want me to help," he offered, a nasty grin forming on his face, "... If you leave it up to me, then Nargles would return your stuff and never... ever... and I mean it, never will they steal your stuff ever again."


    One word from her, and he would tear those shitheads apart, enjoying every - single - moment of the process.


    Luna Lovegood turned her head to face him and spoke, "No, it is fine. The Nargles will return my stuff, they might be naughty, but they won''t go overboard."


    Quinn pursed his lips and took a deep breath to curb his anger, imagining it draining into the vast ground below him.


    "Alright, but if the Nargles ever disturb you too much, tell it to me," Quinn spoke seriously, "I will take care of them."


    "Uh-huh, I will call you," spoke Luna, raising her hand towards the sky as if trying to grab the clouds in her grasp.


    The anger finally left him, and Quinn closed his eyes, feeling the ground below him. He channeled magic into the ground around him and focused on the grass below and around him.


    It was a unique sensation of his magic covering thousands of des of grass, filling them with energy, providing them with another source of vitality other than the sunlight from the glorious sun, the giver of life.


    ''Feels good,'' thought Quinn, a calm bliss spreading through his body and mind. He tapped into his magic core, and more ground was saturated with his magic.


    Quinn''s magic did nothing to the ground or the grass. He didn''t make his magic do anything. He was just extending his magic, nothing more or nothing less.


    But, in a few years, there would be a few trees growing here in the same spot; a holly tree, the tree of luck; a Rowan tree, the wizards'' tree; and an Alder tree, the fairy''s favorite tree.


    The rxed boy didn''t know thatst night, the stars in the night sky had aligned in a special arrangement, providing him ease against the condition he was facing. A condition he knew nothing about or even knew that he had said condition.


    It was just the calm before the storm.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy Potter looked outside the window in her dorm room. She shared the dorm room with Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, and Hermione Granger.


    The presence of the four girls divided the room into four different styles.


    Parvati''s section was all girly and a little messy. Lavender''s section was simrly girly pink but a lot cleaner than her best friends. Hermione''s side was filled with books and faintly smelled of parchment and ink.


    Her part of the room was practical. She had textbooks but didn''t have as much as Hermione. Her room was neater than Lavender''s but less than Hermione''s. She also possessed things that a normal teenage girl would have but didn''t go overboard like Parvati.


    Distinct from her roommates - Ivy had many pictures of her friends and family on her side''s walls and table. Many happy memories were captured in the framed photos, all of them magically charmed to move, showing the happiness of the moments.


    The redhead''s mind was filled with thoughts about the past few months. Ever since the day she and her friends have drunk Polyjuice potion to get some answers, things had gone downhill.


    She was caught and ckmailed into owing an enormous debt to a guy she didn''t want to owe anything at all. Ivy had felt helpless when he took her wand, even without her knowing, and trapped her inside a wall.


    Hermione had mixed Tracy Davis''s pet cat''s hair into her Polyjuice potion, and it caused a reaction, turning her into a furry cat girl. Ivy''s best friend had to spend a lot of time in the Hospital wing, hiding from others.


    Her brother had found a diary with the initials T.M. Riddle. Ron had led them to the Trophy room to show that the guy was a Head boy and won an award from the school for his meritious services.


    The same diary had given them a clue about the Chamber of Secrets. It turned out Tom Riddle had gotten the award because he caught the person who opened the Chamber of Secret fifty years ago.


    Shockingly, it was someone she knew. Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, and one of her dear friends had opened the Chamber of Secrets when he was attending Hogwarts.


    But, ever since getting the diary, Harry had gotten quiet and talked little to anybody and spent a lot of time alone. He wrote in the diary a lot, apparently talking to Tom Riddle''s diary was her brother''s newest obsession.


    But that all changed when Harry lost the diary and became irritable, taking out his anger on random people in Gryffindor. He looked for the diary a lot but couldn''t find anything.


    Eventually, he stopped looking for the diary, and his behavior improved, but he still acted as the world owed him money.


    Just when Ivy thought things were improving, another attack happened, and they found a muggleborn Ravenw girl petrified in one of the bathrooms, lying on the floor. She was found the next day after a search when she didn''t show up for any sses.


    Then things took another dip for the worse because the minister came for Hagrid and took him away because of all the petrifications. On top of all that, Malfoy and the board of Governors suspended Dumbledore from his position as the Headmaster.


    Then her brother and Ron did something stupid and went into the Forbidden Forest and almost got killed by Hagrid''s deadly human flesh loving pet, Aragog the Acromant. An Acromant was a giant magical species of spider. They were spiders the size of carthorses, eight-eyed, eight-legged, ck, hairy, and gigantic.


    "Ivy?"


    Hearing her name broke her away from her thoughts, and when she looked back, she saw her best friend, a worried look on her face.


    "Yes?" asked Ivy, turning her body to face Hermione.


    "What is happening? You have been looking stressed in thest few days," asked Hermione, moving closer and sitting on Ivy''s bed.


    Ivy looked down at her hands, contemting something before looking up at Hermione and saying,


    "I-I think I know who opened the Chamber of Secrets," Ivy carefully spoke, thinking about her every word, "I am notpletely sure, but I think I know the identity of Heir Of Slytherin."


    Hermione''s eyes widened to the size of golf balls, and her brows disappeared up her hairline,


    "Who is it?"


    Ivy gulped before saying, "I think it is Quinn West."


    Hermione''s wide eyes immediately turned into a frown, "Ivy, I know you don''t like him, but you can''t just me-"


    Ivy grabbed Hermione''s hand and cut Hermione off, "I am not saying this because I don''t like him. I have some reasons behind the usation."


    "And, what are they?"


    Ivy looked ufortable for a second before steeling herself and revealing the thing she had kept a secret,


    "The day we used the Polyjuice potion, do you remember how I said I didn''t make it to the Slytherinmon room because I got caught up in something."


    Hermione nodded, not knowing where this was going.


    "Well, West was the one who caught me," said Ivy and watched Hermione gasp.


    Everybody knew that Quinn West was Daphne Greengrass''s friend. If Ivy met Quinn while she was transformed into Daphne, then...


    Ivy confirmed her doubts,


    "He immediately recognized me and then trapped me." Ivy gritted her teeth and continued, "He trapped me in a damn wall and took away my wand after a simple exchange of words."


    Hermione could see the anger and frustration in Ivy''s eyes as she continued, "It was like he already knew I wasn''t Daphne even before we talked."


    "Every sentence he spoke was a test to see if I was Daphne," Ivy told Hermione about their conversation before Ivy was trapped, "How did he know I wasn''t Daphne with a single look! He then somehow deduced that Crabbe and Goyle were Ron and Harry!"


    "It made me think, what if Heir of Slytherin could tell if a student was from Slytherin house or not," Ivy put down her theory, "West saw us and immediately could tell we weren''t Slytherin students and were just imposters."


    "He ckmailed me into owing him a favor in exchange for not talking about the incident," Ivy heavily exhaled before saying, "I agreed."


    Hermione squeezed her friend''s hand and said, "Ivy, I am sorry you had to go through that," she paused for a moment before continuing, "But, this is just a theory."


    Ivy shook her head and shifted in her spot.


    "I know, but let me tell you about Mrs. Norris'' petrification," Ivy exined what she saw that day. The look of recognition in Quinn''s eyes and the relief while he saw the scene. "It was like he already knew this was about to happen. Who else but the Heir of Slytherin, the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets, would know about the attack?!"


    Hermione was about to say that this was still not enough and just Ivy''s dislike for Quinn West clouding her judgment, but Ivy raised her hand and continued,


    "Do you know West is famous for staying outside after curfew," said Ivy, borating on her reasoning, "I asked around, and everybody in the Ravenw house knows that West stays outside after curfew. He onlyes backterte in the night."


    She grabbed Hermione''s shoulders and continued,


    "He did it the entirest year, and from what I heard, he did it every day, and not once was he caught," her voice raised as she continued, "What if West was looking for the Chamber of Secrets the entirest year and found it. He didn''t get caught because no one knew the Chamber''s location, and he stayed inside. And this year, he released Slytherin''s monster."


    Ivy licked her lips and looked Hermione in the eye, "And, I don''t know how this adds up but do you remember about West''s ring?"


    Hermione frowned before nodding, "Yes, the gold ring, what about it?"


    "He didn''t have itst year, and he started wearing it this year," Ivy thought about the gold ring, which caught her attention every time she looked at Quinn West, "What if the ring controls the Slytherin''s monster?"


    Listening to Ivy listing off points against Quinn West did make her believe her friends, at least somewhat,


    "I don''t know, Ivy," said Hermione, "There are too many what-ifs in there."


    "I know. That is why I think that we should go to West''s A.I.D office," said Ivy, "He spends a lot of time in there. Maybe there is something in there. We may find something there that connects him to the Chamber of Secrets."


    Hermione bit on her lower lip, thinking about the petrified students. She didn''t want anymore to get petrified, so if they could find a lead, that would stop this...


    "Alright, I will go with you," she stood up and said, "Come on, we should tell the boys."


    Ivy grabbed her arm and stopped Hermoine.


    "No! We can''t do that. The boys would be reckless and maybe even jump West without thinking. We should do this alone."


    Hermione needed no more convincing, "Agreed. Let''s do this alone."


    "Alright, when should we do this?"


    "We would need the third year schedule for Ravenw," Hermione thought out loud, "After that, we would need to find an hour when he has a ss, and we don''t, so we would have time to get in his office and exit without him knowing."


    Ivy felt relieved when Hermione started to build a n. Hermione taking the lead to help her friends was normal, and currently, Ivy was craving normal.


    It was decided,


    Ivy Potter and Hermione Granger were going to break into the A.I.D office owned and operated by Quinn West.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    A/N [1]: So, as you can see. I introduced many changes in the canon events. So, if youmented about me messing up, I didn''t because I changed the events on purpose.


    *


    A/N [2]:


    There is another muggleborn student who got petrified. I added her. Hermione wasn''t the next target. [Change 1.]


    Hermione didn''t figure out about the Basilisk because the diary-Horcrux affected Harry and withdrew into himself, not talking to people, so he didn''t tell them he could hear voices, and such Hermione didn''t connect his Parseltongue and voices. [Change 2.]


    Harry still hasn''t figured out about Moaning Myrtle being killed by Slytherin''s monster, so the timelines have been skewed. He will figure it out in maybe the next chapter or one after that [Change 3.]


    *


    A/N [3]: If you can remember any more changes, doment!


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - _ _ O T _ <-- > A _ _ D _ _


    Pink - _ U _ _ <-- > L _ X _ _ I _


    Red - _ R _ T H <-- > _ R _


    Yellow - _ _ E E _ <-- > _ _ A _ I T I _


    Violet - _ R I _ E <-- > S _ P _ _ B _ _


    Green - _ N V _ <-- > _ _ V I _ I _


    Orange - _ L _ T T _ N _ <--> _ U L _


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - Third-year Ravenw - Experiencing a calm day.


    Luna Lovegood - First-year Ravenw - Struggling from Nargles.


    Ivy Potter - Second-year Gryffindor - Heir of Slytherin = Quinn West.


    Hermione Granger - Back from Furry-ness - nning for yet another infiltration.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 61 - The Break-In At A.I.D

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Eddie and Quinn headed towards the History of Magic ssroom to attend another history lecture by Cuthbert Binns, the professor ghost of Hogwarts.


    "What are we going to study," asked Quinn, "I stopped listening to him months ago."


    "Hmm, ah, today we are going to learn about one of the goblin leaders," answered Eddie. Trying to remember topics for today''s lecture, "I can''t recall the name. It was something followed by a weapon."


    That brought a chuckled out Quinn, "Isn''t that most of them?"


    "Why does Hogwarts let professor Binns teach after his death," wondered Eddie, "He clearly had an obsession with goblins. I mean, look at his sses; he rushes through anything that isn''t goblin rted and spends most of his time on the goblin rebellions."


    Quinn thought about the reasoning and could onlye up with reasoning.


    "Hogwarts is a school. Professors are its employees, so maybe, they keep letting Binns teach because they don''t need to pay him. A ghost doesn''t have the use of money. Plus, as far as I know, now states that ghosts need to be paid," Quinn nodded as he looked at Eddie, "Yeah, I guess that is it."


    "So, money is the reason, huh," Eddie held his chin with his hand, "Never thought about that. Maybe you are right."


    Quinn bumped Eddie with his shoulder and spoke, "Maybe before we graduate from Hogwarts, we would exorcise professor Binns and save the future generation from boredom incarnate."


    Eddie wagged his finger in disagreement, "And, take away the one hour of practically free time from them? I don''t think so."


    "Hmm, maybe you are right,"ughed Quinn, "After a while, everything Binns speaks turns into white background noise."


    "Exactly."


    Eddie and Quinnughed as they entered the History of Magic ssroom.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy Potter and Hermione Granger walked at a fair distance away from Quinn West, following him, tailing their prime suspect.


    Both girls watched Quinn and his friendughing and joking around like it was any other day.


    Ivy grabbed Hermione''s arms when they reached the corridor with the History of Magic ssroom and hurriedly whispered, "As soon as the ss starts, we are going to run to the A.I.D ssroom."


    Hermione nodded and hid behind a pir, waiting for the ss to start so that they could sneak into the A.I.D ssroom-turned-office.


    "Do you know what is behind the ss wall in there?" asked Hermione as they waited.


    Ivy shook her and replied, "I tried to ask around, but nobody knows what is behind the ss. Everybody has only ever seen the office part."


    Both she and Hermione had only been to the A.I.D office once, but they clearly remembered the ss wall. The ss was heavily frosted, so not much visible through the wall panel.


    "Maybe we would find something in there," said Ivy, "There was a door built into the wall, so we know there is something in there."


    She was anxious about what they were about to do. The Polyjuice n didn''t cause her this much anxiety because they knew Draco was an idiot. But Quinn West? He was an entirely different ballgame.


    Quinn West was a smart person. Ivy could still remember the first time he had warned them about the stone''s defenses or when he refused to admit that he had been in the chambers, even though he clearly knew what was inside.


    When he caught her, Quinn West exactly knew what he was doing. His words and demeanor reflected his end goal, and that was to bring her under his debt, which he seeded in doing without breaking a beat.


    There always had been a sense of mystery around Quinn West, and today would be the day she would remove the curtain of the mystery away from him.


    "Ivy, let''s go," she heard Hermione speak, "The ss has started."


    Hermione''s words snapped Ivy out of her thoughts. She looked at the empty corridor and could hear the faint sound of Binn droning about goblins and one of the early rebellions.


    "Let''s go."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Eddie and Quinn sat side-by-side, a deck of mini cards spread on the table in front of them. The cards were regrly sized, but Quinn had shrunk them to fit on the somewhat narrow table.


    The two boys yed the game, Concentration, Matching Pairs, Match Match, Match Up, Memory, Pelmanism, Shinkei-suijaku, Pexeso, or anything you wanted to call the game.


    The game was simple: all the cards wereid face down on the table, and two cards were flipped face up over each turn. The object of the game is to turn over pairs of matching cards.


    "You know you never win this game," whispered Quinn, "Yet, you still challenge me to this every so often. Why is that? You do know that we can y something else instead."


    He had his cheek resting on his palm, with his elbow on the table, looking like a standardid-back fellow.


    "One day, I will win against you," said Eddie, flipping over two simr cards, gaining a point for himself, "And when that dayes, victory will be that much sweeter. Oh, Merlin, it will be glorious, and you will rue the day."


    A low scoff came from Quinn before he spoke, "The only way you can beat me at this to drug me till I am doozy and then challenge me." He turned a pair of simr cards and gained a point, followed by another identical pair, gaining yet another point for himself.


    "Yeah, that is myst option, my n-Z as to speak," spoke Eddie as he hovered his hand over the cards, deciding which one to flip, "If I don''t win till we are in our seventh year, I am going to hand you the dessert you like with tons of potion mixed in and then challenge you to a game."


    "...," Quinn stared at his friend with stunned silence, "That won''t be a genuine victory, you know?"


    "So? It is your fault. Who told you to be so good at this game."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy and Hermione reached the west corner corridor of the fifth floor. This hallway was where the A.I.D office lived, right on the main corridor, so it was easy to find.


    The two girls stood in front of the door to the ssroom-turned-office. They stared at it for a few seconds before Hermione took action.


    She took out her wand and pointed it at the door lock, "Alohomora," the whisper of the incantation left her mouth apanied by an invisible spell light to the door lock.


    Hermione''s eye twitched when the door didn''t unlock. She turned to Ivy and spoke, "He has charmed it against the unlocking spell." She bit her lower lip, "Just like professor Flitwick did in the stone''s defenses."


    "I thought he might do that, so," the redhead put her hands in her robe pocket and revealed a key in her head, "I swiped the key from Filch''s key hoop. He has keys to all the rooms in the castle."


    The redhead, green-eyed Potter looked proud as she inserted the key into the lock hole and turned it to unlock the door. There was a click before the lock released the door from its bindings.


    She held the doorknob and looked at Hermione before pushing the door to enter inside.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Inside the History of Magic ssroom, Quinn inhaled a deep breath and sat up straight in his chair, his eye wide open as he stared straight ahead.


    The ward on the front door of his office triggered itself. Someone had opened just opened the front door and entered his office.


    It was a simple sensory ward used on doors and entrances that warned the caster if someone opened the door and entered. The ward was simple to cast and had a simple yet elegant function, plus the ward had an added hidden ability which made it moderately problematic to detect.


    Of course, it did have its disadvantages; the ward once found was easy to dismantle or bypass without the caster''s knowledge.


    But that didn''t matter right now because, with a sh of red on his nape, Quinn felt anger building inside him as someone had just broken into his office.


    Quinn didn''t know who it was, but that didn''t matter.


    He hadn''t done anything to warrant a spot check from the professors if the intruder was a faculty member. They had no proper justification for going through his stuff.


    This was the better scenario because he couldn''t do anything drastic against the professors.


    But, if it was not a faculty member, which meant it was a student. And if the intruder was indeed a student, then they didn''t know what was good for them. Cause there was a f***ing storm going to rain down on their bloody heads.


    The red on Quinn''s deepened as he thought about the intruder in his office.


    ''I have to know who it is?'' fumed Quinn. He needed to get out of here.


    Neither the office nor the workshop had currently any defenses set up that stopped people from going in if they really tried to break in.


    He had removed the shock on the doorknob because he was afraid that someone would get shocked while he was not in the office and it might get the professors involved. Even though the A.I.D cards clearly stated if he has in or out of the office, the reality wasn''t so ideal and people still showed up when he was not in.


    And, around a month ago, he was feeling especially sleepy while he working in the workshop, so he just left for the night by locking the door. Ever since then there had been no magical defenses on the workshop door. Plus, this was a first, no one actually tried to break into his workshop since the time he opened shop, so he might have beenx on security.


    Even though there was nothing in the workshop other than some files, he still wanted to go there right now.


    He looked to his side at Eddie and whispered, "I am not feeling well. I am going to the hospital wing."


    "Now?" asked Eddie as they were in the middle of a ss.


    Quinn nodded as he packed his book bag and spoke, "Yeah, I am going right now. See youter."


    He stood up and directly spoke to Binns. "Professor Binns, I am not feeling well. I am going to the hospital wing."


    The ghost of a professor looked at Quinn before nodding. No more words were spoken as Quinn briskly walked outside of the ssroom.


    As soon as Quinn was out, he immediately pulled out Recon and activated it while walking.


    "Fifth floor, west corner, main corridor!" Quinn spoke with raging heat behind his words. Red shed on his nape.


    The Hogwarts tracking map immediately obeyed its master''s orders, and the ink on the fabric shifted to show the precise location that Quinn had specified.


    With a look from Quinn, the map zoomed and honed on the A.I.D office, and the second he saw two blue dots on the map in his office, his feet stopped, and he came to a halt.


    Blue dot meant that the person on the map was a student.


    Quinn stared at the text tags above the two blue dots, and his gaze turned into a re, his face twisting into a fierce expression before every expression drained from his face.


    It wasn''t lumency that took expressions away from his face, the look on Quinn''s face was an expression of ice-cold anger.


    Recon showed two names,


    ¡¸Ivy Potter¡¹ and ¡¸Hermione Granger¡¹.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy and Hermione looked around the office area of the ssroom, and the room was dark with no windows to provide light to the room.


    Hermione looked up at the ceiling with her wand raised but saw that there were no chandeliers with ever-burning candles on the roof.


    "There are no chandeliers on the roof," she said as her wand tip lit up, "Use the Lumos charm."


    Ivy took out her wand, and her wand tip lit up after a murmur of the incantation.


    In the light from the two glowing tips of wands, the room revealed itself in the light.


    The room had changed from thest time they had been inside. A lot more wall decor on the walls. Odd trinkets that somehow looked right in ce in their current arrangements.


    The door in the ss wall immediately attracted Ivy''s attention, as it was the entrance to a ce no one had seen.


    "I will go inside there. You try to find if there is anything in here," Ivy said to Hermione and moved towards the door in the ss wall.


    She didn''t have the key to this door, and the Unlocking charm (Alohomora) didn''t unlock the door. The only thing that remained was to break the door down.


    She knelt in front of the door and pointed her wand at the door, and took a deep breath.


    "Diffindo," she spoke the incantation, and the lower half of the wooden door suddenly had a shallow cut on the in it.


    Ivy frowned at the result of her magic. The Severing Charm (Diffindo) was a charm used to precisely and urately cut something. Her mastery over the spell wasn''t at the level where she could cut through the wood in one fell swoop.


    She shook her head and cast multiple Severing Charm to create cuts in the outline of a rectangle.


    "Ugh!" she silently cursed that the door didn''t cut all the way through. Ivy made a decision and sat down on the floor. With both of her feet in front of her body, she kicked the carved outline. The next second, a rectangr chunk of wood broke with a woody snap.


    The sudden noise startled Hermione as she snapped her head towards Ivy and eximed, "What are you doing?! Why did you break the door?!"


    "The door wasn''t opening, so I kicked it down." Ivy got on all fours and carefully crawled inside.


    "Are you mad?!" screamed Hermione. "West would know someone was here."


    "No, he won''t," came Ivy''s voice from the other side of the door. "A simple Repairing Charm and the door would be back to normal. No one will ever know that the door was broken."


    "Oh," came out of Hermione. Not knowing a retort to that. So, she continued to search in the office.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn was fuming in rage as he watched Recon and saw Ivy Potter enter his workshop. He was so angry that his fists were shaking with anger as he moved towards his office.


    ''How dare they break into my office!'' thought Quinn as he stepped on the fifth floor.


    Every step of Quinn''s feet left a patch of ice on the floor, which instantly evaporated into mist by the next second. The red hue on his nape had be deeper than ever before. And, his magic was now in control of his magic, idental magic happening with his every step.


    ''Ivy Potter!'' Quinn growled in his mind. ''I helped her out not too long ago, and this is how she repays me?! What gall!''


    Quinn''s mind wasn''t even considering that he was the one to trap and ckmail her. The help he was talking about was to let her go with her owing a debt to him.


    The office door finally came into his views, and immediately Recon turned off, folded itself with snappy motions, and flew into Quinn''s robes.


    Quinn cracked his neck for it to create popping noises.


    And, the second he was in touching distance of the door, the wood on the door parted from the middle, thin slivers of wood continuously moved to the side as the wooden door created a space for Quinn to step inside, showing Quinn''s skill in transmutation.


    All noise disappeared for Quinn as he stepped inside the office through the opening in the door, and the first thing he saw was Hermione looking at the bookshelf behind his desk, reading a book.


    He saw her ears perk up from the noise of wood moving aside, but the second she saw Quinn step inside and her eyes widen in shock, darkness overtook her.


    Quinn, in the span of two to three seconds, had stunned Hermione Granger. He followed by putting her into a full-body bind and conjured ropes to bind her body.


    The conjured ropes felt a tug as they moved with Quinn''s wishes, and by using them, Hermione''s unconscious body was lifted into the air and carelessly dumped into one of the client chairs.


    Quinn''s expressionless, angry face turned towards the door in the ss wall which led to his workshop, and he clenched his fist tighter.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy Potter looked at the darkroom, illuminated by the light from her wand tip with wonder. There were a lot of fascinating things in here that she wasn''t expecting.


    There were a lot of tables, cabs, and cupboards along the walls. She could see various potion vials behind the ss of the cupboards; there were many potions, and she could see all the rainbow colors.


    As she moved around the room, she was tools hung on walls. She could see hammers, picks, measures, grip pliers, des, try squares, gloves, goggles, scissors, snips, handsaws, and mps.


    When she opened one of the shallow but wide drawers inside it wererge sheets of different fabrics. Another simr drawer had distinct qualities and varieties of papers.


    She saw tons of different metals and woods in deep drawers. There were in the form of blocks, nks, strips, and even scraps.


    When she was walking around, she also found what looked like drafts for the notes that Quinn West had madest year, and surprisingly, there was another set for third-year subjects.


    Ivy decided to hurry and opened what looked like a file cab and saw a few man folders. Each had a title on them. She lifted them each to read the titles.


    ...


    ¡¸Project: Watch¡¹


    ¡¸Project: Vaults (Overview)¡¹


    ¡¸Project: Fax¡¹


    ¡¸Project: Edison¡¹


    ¡¸Project: Engraver¡¹


    ¡¸Project: Icebox¡¹


    ¡¸Project: Noir¡¹


    ¡¸Project: Drone-Vision¡¹


    ...


    But Ivy couldn''t even manage to open the mani folders as they were sealed, and they didn''t unseal with the use of Finite, so she had to put all of them back into the cab with frustration.


    It was at that point when she heard a thump and on the other side of the door.


    "Hermione, did you find something," she said as she looked at more stuff, "There is a lot of weird stuff in here."


    She froze when she heard the sound of a door opening with a creak.


    Ivy Potter turned on instinct, and thest thing Ivy saw before darkness took over her was the face of Quinn West staring at her from the door that she had previously broken.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - _ L O T _ <-- > A C _ D _ _


    Pink - _ U S _ <-- > L _ X U _ I _


    Red - W R A T H <-- > I R A


    Yellow - _ _ E E _ <-- > _ _ A _ I T I _


    Violet - _ R I _ E <-- > S _ P E _ B _ _


    Green - _ N V _ <-- > I _ V I _ I _


    Orange - _ L _ T T _ N _ <--> _ U L _


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - Owner of A.I.D - Anger, Rage, Fury.


    Hermione Granger - Infiltrator #1 - Covers the front office.


    Ivy Potter - Infiltrator #2 - Covers the back workshop.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadow banning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically DELETED.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 62 - The One With Lambs And The Devil

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Ivy Potter groggily opened her eyes and saw herself staring at herp because her neck wasn''t supporting her head. She groaned and tried to lift her head, but maybe because she wasn''tpletely awake, she ended up throwing her head back and found herself staring straight up.


    The redhead squinted because of the bright light on the ceiling, and her dted pupils couldn''t let so much light into her eyes, causing her to squint so that her eyes could adjust themselves. Of course, the green-eyed girl wasn''t thinking about any of this and just ended up groaning because of the bright light going into her eye.


    Her head swiveled to the side to remove her line of sight from the direct contact to the bright light, and when her eyes limated to the light, she saw her friend Hermione.


    Ivy''s eyes opened wide when she saw Hermione''s hands and torso tied to the chair she was sitting in with ropes.


    "Hermione!" she called out and tried to leave her chair to free her friend, but when her hands didn''t move, she looked at her own body and saw ropes around her torso, forearms, and she could feel ropes binding her legs together.


    "What in the bloody-" shock could be heard from her voice as she struggled against the ropes while simultaneously tried to wake up her friend. "Hermione, wake up! Hermione!"


    Her words seemed to work as the bushy-haired brte groaned and moved her head, showing signs of regaining consciousness.


    Hermione went through the same routine as Ivy and panicked a little when she felt her body bound to the chair she was sitting on.


    She struggled against her bindings until she finally heard Ivy''s voice.


    "Hermione!"


    When she looked to her right, she saw Ivy simrly bounder to a chair, just like her.


    "Ivy!" eximed Hermione, immediately feeling a little better to see her friend with her, "What happened? How did this happen?"


    "I don''t know," Ivy replied. She tried to think back to what happened before she was knocked out, and her eyes widened as she remembered. "It was Wes-."


    "You two seem lively."


    That sentence cut Ivy off, and both girls stilled when they heard the words spoke in a grave tone.


    The girls finally looked to the front and saw the grand table in front of them. On the table, they saw two hands resting on it. When their eyes looked up, they saw that the rest of the person was hidden in the dark, and they could only make out the person''s silhouette.


    "You two are either really brave or extremely stupid to break into my office," said the person.


    The two girls immediately knew who the person was, and a momentter, it was confirmed as a light shone from the ceiling, illuminating the person sitting behind the table.


    Quinn West was staring at them with an apathetic look.


    If Ivy and Hermione weren''t panicking, they would have noticed that the light in the room wasn''t yellow but white, and it wasn''ting from a type of evesting candles like it usually did in magical ces.


    A light bulb in Hogwarts? That question would have been their first thought. But right now, all their attention was on Quinn West staring at them.


    "It has been maybe five minutes since I stunned and bound both of you," started Quinn, cing a pocket watch on the table. It was a silver timepiece with roman numerals written on ck with blue for indicating time. The mechanism was exposed in the center. The hour, minute, and second hand were a simr blue, with the clock mechanism made of a golden material.


    "I gave myself five minutes to calm down before I spoke to you two," he continued, "But believe me when I say that those five minutes didn''t help much. I am pretty much at the same level of anger I was before."


    Ivy and Hermione felt the ropes around them tighten a smidge. Both girls fidgeted in their seats.


    "So, I will give you some free advice that will help you here," he leaned forward. "Don''t lie, don''t bullshit, don''t give me someme excuses. I want to know why did you guys break into my office."


    After that, he went quiet and simply stared at them like he was waiting for an answer.


    Ivy and Hermione looked at each other andmunicated with their eyes before they came to a decision which was to remain quiet.


    But the second they decided to remain silent, Quinn spoke up.


    "Not saying isn''t an option. You will be in deep trouble if you don''t speak up," Quinn warned. "Don''t force my hand because it won''t end well for both of you."


    Quinn reached into his robes and took out two wands: Ivy''s and Hermione''s wands.


    "The Reverse Spell, Prior Incantato is a charm that forces the wand to create an echo of spells that were performed through it," he exined while he put the wands on the table, and they stood up straight, pointing towards the ceiling.


    "I tried it out and found that both of you used Alohomora recently, which means you tried to open my office door," Quinn stared right into their eyes as he spoke. "I have charmed my door against the unlocking charm, which means you most probably have the key, and only Filch has duplicate keys to all rooms. So I am confident to deduce that you girls stole the key from the caretaker."


    "That is one strike against you guys. Stealing from the staff," he looked at them and scoffed. "And, I thought you would learn your lesson. What would McGonagall think when I reveal these adventures to them."


    Ivy felt heat rush to her face because of the humiliation she was experiencing.


    "Let''s talk about Ms. Potter," Quinn continued. "You used Diffindo: the cutting spell for damaging my other door and then forced your way through..." Quinn looked at the broken door to his left and spoke, "... by kicking the weakened wood."


    "That, my pitiful intruders, is what you call the destruction of personal property. I crafted that door by myself, it is not the school''s property," Quinn spoke with a leveled voice. "The second strike."


    "For thest strike, I am going to use the Polyjuice incident," Ivy''s and Hermione''s eyes widened with those words. "Ms. Granger was stuck in the hospital wing for weeks before the mishap passed, so we clearly established that she brewed the Polyjuice potion. Madam Pomfrey would attest to that."


    "The ingredients stolen from Professor Snape''s storage were for multiple doses of the potion. Believe me, I checked, but you already know that, don''t you?" he scoffed once again. "So, if I spin my story right and bring in Draco Malfoy, he will dly tell that his twopanions, Crabbe and Goyle, were acting very suspiciously that day."


    Quinn put his hand on his chest and talked, "Plus, my own ount about catching Ivy Potter as Daphne Greengrass would be very damning. The Professors would believe me because first, I am a model student. And second, I have the high ground here. I will bury you guys into the ground."


    He had one more card, and that was Prefect Percy Weasley meeting the two Polyjuiced Gryffindor while they were disguised, but because he was busy ckmailing Ivy at that time, he wasn''t sure if that event happened.


    Quinn tapped his table with his right-hand index finger and asked, "Now tell me why you are here, or else I would have you guys in deep trouble."


    Ivy gritted her teeth in humiliation, frustration, panic, and slight fear. She didn''t want to say anything, but when she thought that Ron, Harry, and Hermione would get in trouble because of her, she spat out.


    "I thought you opened the Chamber of Secrets," she sounded defeated. "I thought you were the Heir of Slytherin."


    The answer bought the anger in Quinn to a still. He, for a moment, didn''t know what to think. Quinn had assumed that the two were here to get back at him for ckmailing Ivy.


    If he wasn''t so angry, Quinn would have used legilimency on Hermione to dig out the information, but the red spot on his nape was so dark that Quinn wasn''t thinking straight out of rage.


    But, the bewildered feeling didn''tst long before anger returned, and he pounded on the table.


    "Why in the shitty world would you think that?!" he yelled at the two girls, who recoiled because of the loud shout.


    Ivy, who didn''t like the shouting, snapped back with her reasoning.


    "You are famous for staying out after curfew. And no prefect, teacher, ghost, or even portraits have seen you outside after the curfew, despite that, everyone knows you roam outside," she exined, "So, I thought you were looking for the Chamber of Secretsst year and found it. And, this year, you released it upon the school."


    "Oh,e on!" Quinn rolled his eyes, "So, now anyone who breaks curfew is the Heir of Slytherin. I thought you were, I don''t know, what is the word, SMART?! What kind of idiotic reasoning is that?!"


    The redhead red at her capturer and bit back, "Then what about our conversation when I was Polyjuiced into Daphne?! Everything from your first words to me there was a test to see if I was the real deal or not. How did you even assume that I wasn''t the real one?! I thought that Heir of Slytherin could recognize Slytherin students."


    Quinn made a face that could only be described as ''I am looking at stupid.''


    "I taught Daphne and Tracey for a week, plus I have known them sincest year and as I told you, my memory is excellent. I knew you weren''t Daphne because even though you looked like her, spoke like her, and even your expression was on point, you didn''t walk like Daphne. You didn''t have the feel of Daphne Greengrass. She has a really refined way of holding herself, and the moment I saw you, I was sure that you weren''t the real deal."


    Even though Quinn was angry, it was righteous anger, so he was able to lie right through his teeth and speak the bullshit about posture and gait, which, even though true, Quinn didn''t notice at first nce.


    Ivy, on the other hand, was feeling angry at being captured. Plus, she just heard Quinn imply she wasn''t as refined as Daphne Greengrass.


    "Then what about your expression during the time when Mrs. Norris got petrified? You looked relieved, and I saw it clearly, so don''t deny it!"


    Quinn was taken aback at that. He didn''t think that someone was paying attention to him when there were more shocking things to see like, words written in blood on the wall and a possibly dead cat.


    "I thought the bloody cat was dead and was relieved that it wasn''t a student!" Quinn fought back with his reasoning. "Come on."


    He looked at Hermione and asked, "Don''t tell me she convinced you with this kind of clearly idiotic reasoning! I expected better from you, Ms. Granger."


    Ivy felt more pissed from that and yelled, "Oh yeah?! Then what about the ring that you are wearing? What is the deal with that? It is clearly some kind of artifact. It is abnormally eye-catching for a normal ring. I am sure that it controls the Slytherin''s monster."


    Quinnughed augh full of mocking, "Oh my god, you are clearly dumber than your brother. I can''t believe I made a mistake judging a person."


    Hermione, who was on the side, wasn''t sure how to feel. She sat in a chair, bound by ropes, as she looked back and forth between her best friend and her captor. Those two were exchanging words with each other, as she didn''t exist at all.


    Don''t get her wrong, she didn''t want Quinn West to yell and mock her, but beingpletely ignored when she sat just an eye nce away was a little bit hurtful.


    As she looked at the two yelling at each other, and even though their conversation was mainly Quinn shut down Ivy''s usations, Hermione thought they would get along in another setting.


    Quinn stoppedughing mockingly at Ivy as he raised his left hand with the gold ring on his middle finger and pointed at it with his other hand, "This ring you so stupidly think is a monster controlling artifact isn''t actually a ring at all!"


    Ivy and Hermione frowned at those words.


    "Look carefully," as Quinn said that the ring disappeared from his finger. "Now, both of you, look at your left hands."


    The two girls looked at their hands, and two pairs of eyes widened as they saw identical gold rings on their middle fingers.


    "The ring was an illusion made from illusion magic that I have been keeping up the entire year," Quinn exined. "And the reason it is so eye-catching is that I made it so it would catch eyes." [A/N - 1]


    He rubbed his temple as he continued, "It is a way for me to practice magic. If the ring was eye-catching and noticeable, then more people would stare at it, and that would increase the difficulty as the eyes stay at the illusion longer and increase the probability of someone figuring out the illusion."


    Ivy opened her mouth a couple of times, but she couldn''t think of anything to say. Plus, when she looked at her finger, she didn''t know what to say. She could clearly see the ring, but there was no feeling of metal against her skin. This clearly was the sign that the gold ring was an illusion.


    Quinn was now feeling too tired to be feeling angry. He was exhausted from all the yelling and feeling furious.


    ''Ugh, this a stool, why couldn''t it be a chair with a back to it,'' Quinn sighed as a faint blue color graced his nape.


    He looked at the two bound girls and thought what to do with them when an intensely deep shade of yellow. Quinn suddenly took a deep breath before his eyes beser-focused.


    "I will confirm this from my side," Quinn spoke. "I am not the Heir of Slytherin, and I didn''t open the Chamber of Secrets. I have no rtion to the incidents happening."


    "Plus, if I was the Heir of Slytherin," he smirked and ckly pointed at the two girls. "You two would be dead by now."


    Ivy and Hermione felt a chill go down their spines as they thought about the scenario. Quinn had stunned them without breaking a sweat, and if he was the Heir of Slytherin, they might not have woken up.


    "If we don''t return, you would be in big trouble," Ivy tried to bluff in case Quinn tried something. "I have told Harry and Ron that we would being here, and if we don''t return, they would know where to find us."


    The bluff didn''t even stand up for a single second.


    "No, they don''t. Given Harry Potter''s and Ronald Weasley''s personalities, they would have been jumped me by now."


    Ivy''s lips twitched at the swift reply.


    "I will tell you the thoughts which are in my head right now. Right now, nothing will give me more satisfaction to throw you guys to the wolves and see them chew you out. Believe me, it will make me very, very happy," Red shed momentarily before the yellow came back. "But, that won''t do me any good in the long term, and I really like the long-term game. So, I going to do you both a favor."


    He interlocked his fingers and spoke to Ivy, "Ms. Potter, I will offer the same deal as before. I am willing to forget this slight behavior action of yours if you owe me big time." He nced at Hermione and added, "The same goes for you, Ms. Granger."


    He turned back to Ivy and continued, "Before this, I wasn''t going to make you do anything ufortable when I cash in what you owe me, but this time..." Ivy felt suddenly felt nervous at Quinn''s words. "... With what you just did, be ready for being forced into some really ufortable situations in the future because I will not hold back. And, don''t even think about getting out of this anytime soon because you messed up big time."


    Quinn looked at the two and spoke.


    "So, what is your decision? Just know that if you ept now and refuse responsibilityter, I would make your lives miserable," he paused for effect before speaking. "And, I assure you, you will regret every moment, so think carefully. You can ept my proposition and get a chance to escape the consequences of your actions, or you can go down now as I involve the professors and really stack the cards against you. And even if somehow you got away with a p on your wrist, I will start a campaign to ruin your reputation among the students."


    When Quinn was done speaking, he raised the fake wand for the first time since entering the office and waved it so that the two chairs of his captives were close to each other. Quinn was allowing them to have a private conversation by whispering to each other.


    But he did sneakily sent a probe into Hermione''s unprotected mind to monitor her thoughts.


    The thoughts and emotions were pretty standard ones like fear, nervousness, unwillingness, and some hopelessness. But added to that was the quick-thinking nature of Hermione Granger, she was thinking about the pro and cons of the situation, and Quinn was happy to see that she considered taking the deal would be better than to let it go to the professors.


    After a minute of muffled conversation, Ivy spoke up with unwillingness apparent in his voice.


    "We ept," the answer was brief as she didn''t want to speak anything else to Quinn.


    Quinn nodded and pointed his wand at the broken workshop door.


    "Are you sure? Because the second I repair the door, the deal would be set in stone. The second I release the spell, you both would be under my debt. I will not listen to words like we changed our minds, and if I did hear those words, then the response would be wee to hell, and I hope you hate your stay."


    Hermione nodded with a defeated sigh, "Yes, we agree."


    "Good," said Quinn as he waved his wand and spoke the incantation. The broken part of the door floated back to the main body, and all three people saw the door repair itself back to its form before it was brutally smashed.


    "The deal is set," smiled Quinn, feeling good about increasing his influence upon the brains of the golden squad.


    Hermione and Ivy looked down at their bodies and watched the ropes loosen before vanishing into the nothingness.


    "You guys are free to go, and please take your wands," said Quinn, once again feeling some mental exhaustion, plus his throat was a little sore.


    Ivy carefully extended her hand and took hold of her''s and Hermione''s wand before handing her friend her wand.


    The two girls looked up before they stood up, ready to leave.


    As Ivy turned around, she had a random thought and recalled Quinn''s words the first time she hade here.


    ''Information is always avable at the right price.''


    She didn''t know what possessed, but she turned back and bluntly asked,


    "What can you tell me about the Slytherin''s monster and Chamber of Secrets?"


    Hermione was about to say something, but Ivy sped her hand to stop her from talking.


    Quinn made a face and said, "Didn''t we just go through this whole farce? I am not the Heir of Slythe-"


    Ivy cut him by asking, "I am asking for information about it," she took a breath before saying. "I am employing your services. I am willing to pay."


    Quinn would be lying if he said that this didn''t surprise him. He wasn''t expecting this question from Ivy at this moment, and he let it show on his face.


    If Ivy wasn''tpletely serious, she would have felt the triumph of surprising Quinn, but right now, she wanted an answer.


    A vain violet shed, and Quinn decided to go for it, showing that he indeed knew everything. He stared at the redhead girl before saying, "Give me a minute."


    He stood up, entered his workshop, and returned with a sheet of paper in his hand. He put the sheet of paper upside down on his office table and gestured them to sit.


    When the girls sat down, Quinn spoke up, "The price for this information is simple. I want you to get me the Marauder''s Map."


    Ivy''s eyes widened when she heard the word Marauder came out of Quinn''s mouth.


    Quinn caught the look of recognition in Ivy''s expression, "You know about them; they are rted to you."


    "Yes," Ivy nodded. "But, I have no idea what is the Marauder''s Map."


    It didn''t surprise Quinn that she didn''t know about it. The original map was confiscated from the creators years ago. It wasn''t exaggerating to say they thought it didn''t survive. [A/N - 2]


    "You will find it with the Weasley twins," informed Quinn. "Get it to me before the end of this year. Do you agree?"


    Ivy thought about it before agreeing.


    "I will get it for you."


    "Good," Quinn smiled, "Remember, it is the Marauder''s Map."


    He opened a drawer in his table and took out a parchment roll, a pot of ink, and a quill.


    "Copy the content in your handwriting. You aren''t to tell anyone that you got the information from me," said Quinn. He didn''t want any physical connecting it to him. "I have written the sources of everything I am giving you. You can find everything in the Hogwarts library. So, nothinges back to me."


    Ivy nodded before hurriedly flipping the paper and reading the contents with Hermione.


    The girls were shocked to see the answer.


    "Basilisk?"


    "Uh-huh," spoke Quinn, "Szar Slytherin was a Parseltongue, so I made an assumption that it would be a serpentine creature. Did a little digging, and the Basilisk was sitting right there. Plus, all the roosters are dead."


    Hermione frowned and read the contents, "Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. The students who were targeted aren''t dead."


    "None of them saw the Basilisk''s eyes directly," exined Quinn, "Mrs. Norris, the cat, had a puddle of water near where we found it. Colin Creevy saw it through the viewfinder of his camera. Justin Finch-Fletchley saw it through Nearly Headless Nick''s ghost body, and the ghost can''t die because he is already dead. And, finally, Susanna Hesleden, thetest victim, saw it in the bathroom mirror."


    "So, even though they didn''t die, everyone still got petrified," Quinn ominously smiled, "So, when you go out, remember to look around the bends through mirrors because petrification is much better than death."


    Ivy and Hermione felt cold go down their bodies at the words and that scary smile.


    As Ivy started to write everything down, Hermione asked, "What about the Chamber of Secrets?"


    Quinn nced at her and said, "You would have to ask Moaning Myrtle about it. Just ask how she died and lead from there." Quinn had actually talked to the dead girl, so the information really came from her, and it covered him from all bases.


    After the girls were done with copying the contents, they stood up and proceeding to leave. No goodbyes or even looks were exchanged. The two parties weren''t on friendly terms after what happened in the room.


    When the two girls walked to the door, Quinn waved his finger and made some slight changes.


    The Gryffindor girls closed the door behind them, and when Ivy looked back at the door, she saw a que with the ¡¸773H¡¹written on it.


    Ivy frowned as the que wasn''t there when they entered, "Hermione, was this here before?"


    Hermione turned her attention from the paper, thinking that she needed to conjure some mirrors to look around the corners. She looked at the que, and it immediately understood the wording.


    "Read it backward and upside down," said Hermione.


    Ivy tilted her head and thought about the wording backward and upside down.


    "HELL," she spoke. It was just like their experience just now. It was hell for them, and they only escaped from it by making a deal with the devil.


    Inside the office, Quinn smiled as if he could see through the door and stare at the twombs, who just lost their souls to the devil.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Blue - S L O T H <-- > A C E D I A


    Pink - _ U S _ <-- > L _ X U _ I _


    Red - W R A T H <-- > I R A


    Yellow - _ _ E E _ <-- > _ _ A _ I T I _


    Violet - P R I D E <-- > S U P E R B I A


    Green - _ N V _ <-- > I _ V I _ I _


    Orange - _ L _ T T _ N _ <--> _ U L _


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Devil in the office.


    Ivy Potter - Lamb #1 - Has guts to do business after all that.


    Hermione Granger - Lamb #2 - Sidelined during the whole ordeal.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    [


    A/N [1]: It goes two ways. It attracted the attention of many people, and then it attracted the reader''s attention... if you get what I mean.


    *


    A/N [2]:


    So my reasoning behind downying Marauders is because first, it was something they called themselves in school. I mean, who carries their school group name to their adulthood.


    Second, one Marauder betrayed them by defecting to the other side, and led to the death of one member''s (James) parents to die protecting the Potter Twins. Plus, it is said that Sirius was always wee to the Potter house, which meant he was also close to the Potter parents. That is the parental figure of at least two members... dead.


    So, I don''t think they would like to call themselves Marauders in their adulthood because it would bring bad memories.


    At least, that is my reasoning. Tell me what do you guys think.


    *


    A/N [3]: Longest Chapter yet! YEET!


    ]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 63 - Into The Chamber Of Secrets

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    .


    Quinn stayed in his office for a while after Hermione and Ivy left his office. Thinking about what had happened in thest few minutes.


    At first, Quinn was dead set on getting them into trouble. The only motive in his mind was to catch them, force them to reveal what they were doing, and then throw them to the professors. He was ready to throw his family''s weight around if Dumbledore tried to pull some favoritism bullshit.


    But, as he talked to them and Ivy Potter told him she suspected him of being the Heir of Slytherin, it stunned Quinn, shocked at the idiocy, and while it didn''t extinguish his anger, it did lower it to a level where he didn''t want them to get into trouble.


    So, he decided to suck Ivy Potter and Hermione Granger into the quagmire of debt. He gave them an option, to do whatever the hell he wanted from them, with no questions asked. It was always good to have favors saved in the bank forter use.


    But, the thing that happened next was the most surprising. Ivy Potter asked him for information; it dazed him for a moment. Typically, he wouldn''t have given that type of information, but something in him wanted to impress, so he dished out the information.


    Now that he sat, Ivy Potter''s actions impressed. She was resourceful and quick to act, and if forced to admit, quite daring.


    Thest thing at the door was just theatrics to solidify an impression. And a way of warning them not to try something that they would regret.


    His payment for the information was to get the Marauder''s Map. He could have gotten the map by himself, but he felt it would be less work for him if he outsourced the acquisition of the map to someone familiar with the current owners.


    As for what he wanted from the map? He just wanted to check something out, and then the map would be returned back. His Recon was better than the Marauder''s Map. He had no desire to possess the Marauder''s Map.


    "Alright, let''s leave," muttered Quinn, stood up, and after giving the office onest look, Quinn exited the office, looking in behind him, resetting the sensory ward on the door.


    Quinn had a free hour, so he decided to walk to the kitchen and grab something to eat. He was hungry after all the shouting he did.


    Quinn walked down the grand staircase and was on a moving staircase climbing down.


    As he was halfway through the staircase, he saw a fifth-year Slytherin student alsoing up the stairs from the ground floor.


    ''Terence Higgins,'' identified Quinn as he looked at the older student. It made him wonder what Terence Higgins was doing here, but he had just crossed the entrance to the grand staircase, so Quinn assumed the Slytherin was going there.


    Ravenw and Slytherin met eyes while they were on their respective staircase. Quinn saw an apathetic look from the Slytherin, and Terence saw the same expression from the Ravenw.


    The two climbed up/down their sets of stairs without a single word to each other. The two did nce at each other from the corner of their eyes.


    Quinn paused his steps, and he didn''t know why but Terence Higgins attracted his attention. He turned back to look at the Slytherin student and saw that Terence was also staring back at him. The two stared at each other; none of the two blinked or removing their eyes from each other and maintained firm eye contact.


    Terence Higgins seemed satisfied with the stare-down, turned back, and walked away from Quinn.


    Quinn''s eyes lingered on the Slytherin for a moment longer before he simrly turned away and walked away.


    ''Terence Higgins,'' thought Quinn. ''He seemed interesting.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After having a hearty meal, Quinn neared the Ravenwmon room. His belly was full and happy, and with a soft smile on his face, he reached near themon room and caught the sight of a prefect standing near the corridor which led to the entrance. Quinn wasn''t going to greet the prefect and just walk into themon room, but the prefect called out to him.


    "West," the prefect called, "There is an emergency curfew until further notice. Professor Flitwick said that no one is to remain outside."


    Quinn''s legs stopped and turned towards the prefect, "Oh? Why is that?"


    "The Slytherin''s monster struck again," he exined. "They found Hermione Granger petrified near the library, and Ivy Potter is missing."


    She leaned in and whispered, "The Heir of Slytherin left another message, right underneath the first one." There was a pause before she spoke the message, "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."


    The gears in Quinn''s mind moved at a rapid speed as he connected the dots.


    ''They must have gone to the library to verify the information.'' Quinn had given references, so it wasn''t a wild assumption. ''And the Heir of Slytherin attacked.''


    Quinn looked at the prefect and nodded, "Thanks for the hard work. I will go to themon room right away."


    The prefect nodded, and Quinn left, but the moment the prefect turned her back, Quinn disappeared out of sight.


    Quinn, who made himself invisible and silenced his footsteps, looked at the prefect and cast magic.


    The Ravenw prefect was on the guard/guide duty saw a rubber ball bounce in front of her, and it bounced away to a bend. She furrowed her brows and walked to the bend in the corridor, but when she looked, the ball wasn''t anywhere to be seen.


    She felt something, causing her to turn back. The result was the same, and there was nothing to be seen.


    And for Quinn? He was already far away from the prefect and was walking towards Moaning Myrtle''s bathroom.


    The magic he used on the prefect was illusion magic. The rubber ball was an auditory and visual illusion to draw the prefect away from the direction he was going. And the slight presence near her back was just a tactile sensation of wind brushing against to make her look towards themon room so she wouldn''t notice the invisible Quinn is he was slightly noticeable while walking.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Moaning Myrtle''s bathroom was a second-floor girls''vatory. It was situated right above the Great Hall. Myrtle Warren''s death had caused the restroom to be ced out of order, not functioning as a typical restroom since the tragedy.


    When Quinn entered thevatory, still invisible and the sound of his clothes and shoes silenced, his eyes shined when he saw the vast hole in one stall.


    ''He is already in,'' thought Quinn. By ''he'' Quinn meant Harry Potter as he was sure that Voldemort would know more about the Chamber and would close the tunnel down.


    The invisible boy wasted no time and jumped right into the pipe tunnel. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as broad as his, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons.


    Quinn held himself back from screaming out of part excitement and part fear at the sheer length of the slide ride.


    The second Quinn exited the tunnel, he came across a nervously fidgeting Ron Weasley in his spot. The redhead Weasley was repeatedly ncing at the path going inside.


    Seeing that, Quinn frowned and immediately sent a mental probe into Ron''s mind and found why he was standing here.


    The gist of the situation from Ron''s mind was that they found the information on Hermione just like the canon. Harry, just like the canon, figured out the location, and he did it in almost instantly.


    ''This Harry Potter is smarter,'' Quinn remarked in his mind. ''But...''


    The part different from canon was that Harry and Ron came down here alone, without Lockhart or any professor at all.


    ''He might be smarter, buting here alone was dumb.'' Quinn didn''t even think that he, too, hade here alone with no assistance.


    Harry had told Ron to wait here and if he didn''t return in an hour, go and call someone. Ron had tried to refuse and apany him, but Harry had convinced his best mate to stay here.


    Quinn moved along, leaving behind Ron Weasley, who didn''t know that someone had passed by without him knowing.


    After walking on the path, Quinn reached a bend, and when he turned on it, he saw a solid wall with a circr hole in it.


    ''Alright, this is it,'' thought Quinn and just stood there. He stood near the circr hole and tried to listen to any noiseing from inside. Quinn had no intention to go inside till he got some confirmation that it was safe to go inside.


    Harry Potter might have survived the Basilisk without any counter to the Basilisk''s death gaze, but Quinn West wasn''t taking any chances.


    After a while and a few rumbles and tremors, Quinn finally heard a yell.


    "NO!" Quinn heard from who he thought was Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!"


    "Alright, that is the cue," Quinn whispered as he just heard Riddle scream at the Basilisk to find Harry by smell, which meant that the Basilisk was blind. "Good riddance to the death re."


    Walking inside, Quinn saw towering stone pirs entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, ck shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the ce. After crossing the hallway slowly, taking his time, not hurrying at all, cruising along the path as he heard more shouts and some phoenix singing, he finally saw the giant face statue, the mouth open.


    He would have spent time just watching the face statue, but his eyes were stuck on the enormous green-scaled body of the Basilisk. As Quinn walked closer, he saw Harry Potter half-sitting, supporting his body with the stone wall behind.


    But, Harry Potter was unconscious. Fawkes the phoenix cried some tears on Harry Potter''s wounds.


    "You''re dead, Harry Potter," said Riddle''s specter. "Dead. Even Dumbledore''s bird knows it. Do you see what he''s doing, Potter? He''s crying."


    He ignored the specter for a second and paid attention to Harry Potter. He could see the pained expression on Harry''s face ease, but the boy-who-lived was still unconscious.


    Fawkes stopped crying, and then there was a bright sh of fire, and the majestic turkey bird turned into ash.


    ''Burning day?'' eximed Quinn. From the ashes, a baby phoenix poked its head out. The newly born bird, who was really ugly, and looked like a decrepit-looking, half-plucked turkey, red at the specter of Tom Riddle with its young eyes.


    Burning Day was the name of the day in which a Phoenix burst into me and was reborn from the ashes.


    ''What a sucky timing,'' Quinn shook his head. This event was different from the canon, as Fawkes'' burning day was much before the current day.


    "I am impressed that you managed to kill the Basilisk with the help of the dumb bird. I wasn''t expecting to lose the Basilisk today," Riddle''s specter smirked and chuckled as he looked at the unconscious body of Harry Potter. "But, it doesn''t matter. In a few minutes, I will return to this world of the living."


    "It is a pity that even with the phoenix''s tears, you won''t be able to leave here alive."


    He turned to look at the face statue of Szar Slytherin, "I will make my ancestor proud and return the name of Slytherin back to its intended glory. And it will start with the sacrifice of the boy-who-lived and his sister. My future self somehow died by his hand, and today I will take revenge."


    The specter looked back to the body of Harry Potter, intending to finish the boy, but his brows furrowed when he saw a stone dome over the ce where the diminutive phoenix sat.


    "It is really a pity," specter-Tom heard a voice from his back. He turned back to see a boy standing as he looked down at his host and the petrified body of Ivy Potter. "You came really close toing back to life, you know? Really close."


    Specter-Tom Riddle clutched Harry Potter''s wand in his hand, the wand which was the sister to his own.


    "You..." he peered at the boy. "You are Quinn West." He knew about the boy, the so-called smartest of his age. And the owner of the weird consultation of his in Hogwarts.


    Quinn looked down at the host of Tom Riddle''s diary-Horcrux.


    "Terence Higgins," Quinn spoke. "So, I found Tom Riddle possessing you interesting and not the guy itself. I didn''t see thating."


    Quinn looked at the specter that was a soul-split molded into Horcrux.


    Specter-Riddle saw Quinn raise his hand towards him, and the next second he found the wand flying from his hand into the air before it paused for a second in the air and rushed into Quinn''s hand.


    "Wandless magic!" specter-Riddle eximed at the magic.


    "Yup," Quinn smiled as he fiddled with the wand. "I am pretty good at it... Why am I being modest? You are going to be dead shortly. I am really good at it."


    "Me, Dead?" specter-Riddleughed, but his eyes were eyeing Quinn critically. The boy hade out of nowhere and had just taken the wand from him.


    "Of course," he replied as he moved towards the Basilisk head while putting gloves on his hands. "A Horcrux doesn''t mean immortality, you know?"


    Specter-Riddle''s eyes sharply narrowed as he growled, "How did you know?"


    Quinn smirked as he put his hand on one of the Basilisk fangs and pulled it out in one fell swoop.


    "You have been here for the entire year," Quinn said as he appraised the venomous fang. "So, you must have heard about my consultation service. I am an information dealer, so of course, I know what is happening in my territory."


    Scepter-Riddle started to feel nervous as he saw the boy move towards his diary/container with the fang in his hand.


    "What are you doing?" Scepter-Tom yelled and followed after Quinn, "Answer me!"


    "Do you know that Basilisk venom can destroy Horcruxes? It is quite ironic, you know, Basilisk and Horcruxes were Herpo the Foul''s creations." He stood on top of the diary-Horcrux and grinned towards the Horcrux projection, "He created magic that wouldn''t allow him to die, but at the same time, he created something that could destroy said magic."


    The projection red at Quinn, and immediately Quinn felt a mental attack hit against his shields.


    Red, violet, and green hues switched on Quinn''s nape before settling on the green. He pursed his lips before smiling, "It won''t work, that mental attack. I have shields powerful enough to deflect the attack. But, I have to say, you are better than me at legilimency. I can''t induce mental pain with mental attacks yet. I haven''t reached that far yet."


    Specter-Riddle didn''t speak and shot out a scarlet jet of magic towards Quinn, but it met an invisible shield before it could reach Quinn.


    "It is useless," Quinn''s soft voice reached the specter. "You aren''t my match without a wand, and even if you had a wand, I still would have crushed you."


    A farewell smile graced Quinn''s lips as he spoke, "So, Tom Riddle, or as you like to be called, Lord Voldemort, it is a farewell. Goodbye." All the while, Specter-Riddle kept shooting low-level spells at Quinn, but Quinn''s shield defended against them without taking a major load.


    Quinn seized the basilisk fang and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.


    There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Quinn''s gloved hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and iling, and then the specter was gone.


    Silence except for the steady drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.


    Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Quinn looked up to see Terence Higgins stirring up and immediately sent a stunning charm towards the waking up Slytherin, knocking him out. Quinn didn''t want anyone else to see him here.


    "I have to move quickly," murmured Quinn and hurried towards the Basilisk and took out six vials from his robes, and with a twitch of magic, the vials expanded into their original size. The original vials had quite arge volume.


    One by one, the beaker vials were ced below the fangs. Quinn focused his magic on the muscle that released the venom from the secondary venom ducts in the fangs and exerted a lot of magic to milk out the Basilisk venom.


    Hepletely filled the six big beaker vials with venom, and Quinn was sure that there still was a lot of Basilisk venom in the venom sac.


    "Hot damn," Quinn expressed his admiration. "Basilisk body sure is magic resistance. Even the inside is quite tough." He had forced a lot of magic on the muscles that pushed the venom out of the fangs.


    After retrieving the lids for the special beakers, Quinn transmuted the caps on the beaker vials to create six closed cylinders. His eyes shed with delight as he saw the six full vials, yellow briefly shing on his nape.


    "This is more than enough," nodded Quinn. He currently had no ns for the venom other than to use it to destroy the Horcruxes. Even one of these vials was way too much for destroying all the remaining Horcruxes.


    Quinn stared at the Basilisk smelly mouth. A yellow shed on his nape, and he broke a dozen fangs from the Basilisk. Eying the fangs with a captivated look. The fangs were wrapped into thick bundles of cloth and then pocketed into Quinn''s robes.


    Looking around, Quinn took in the scene and smiled. "Not bad for a day''s work. Not bad at all."


    His eyes saw the petrified Ivy Potter and muttered, "You bettere back to normal. I want that payment paid to me this year."


    Quinn turned invisible and walked away from the ordeal without looking back, not forgetting to vanish the stone dome from over the ugly baby bird.


    If he wasn''t in stealth mode, Quinn would have hummed a song in joy.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - S L O T H <-- > A C E D I A


    Pink - _ U S _ <-- > L U X U R I A


    Red - W R A T H <-- > I R A


    Yellow - G R E E D <-- > _ _ A _ I T I _


    Violet - P R I D E <-- > S U P E R B I A


    Green - _ N V _ <-- > I _ V I _ I A


    Orange - _ L _ T T _ N _ <--> G U L A


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Basilisks, gone~! Horcrux, gone~! Venom, have it all~!


    Specter-Riddle - Horcrux - Ooooh, he dead. So dead.


    Harry Potter - Basilisk yer - Props to the dude.


    Fawkes - Pheonix - Going from big-beautiful turkey to baby-ugly turkey.


    Ivy Potter - Petrified - Even when turned to stone, her creditor wants the payment - Pitiful.


    Terence Higgins - Slytherin - Random dude victim to Lucius Malfoy''s decision.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 64 - Descent Into Madness

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    A/N: This the start of the two-part CLIMAX of the [COLORS ARC].


    - [Climax Part 1: Descent into Madness] -


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The day after Quinn went into the Chamber of Secret and killed the first Tom Riddle/Voldemort''s Horcrux, Quinn was sitting in his office, cleaning his tools and other things in his office.


    Diary-Horcrux of the sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle was destroyed when Quinn stabbed it with Basilisk venom while making small talk with the soul-split tied into the Horcrux. From that entire ordeal, Quinn took his payment for doing the job. The fee was in the form of liters of Basilisk venom and a dozen fangs from the Basilisk.


    Last night, he also made sure that the four students it out of the Chamber of Secrets by checking their location status on Recon. And as he expected, three out of the four people were in the hospital wing. The three being petrified Ivy Potter, Basilisk-bit Harry Potter, and Horcrux-possessed Terence Higgs.


    Ronald Weasley, who was untouched from the Chamber of Secrets, was back in the Gryffindor dorm, sleeping at night in his own dorm bed.


    Quinn, who was the invisible participant, was able to enter and exit the Chamber of Secrets without being detected. Reaped some benefits and slew a part of the dark Lord Voldemort. There was nothing in the entire ordeal that was detrimental to Quinn.


    The owner of the A.I.D consultation service sat in his workshop, doing spring cleaning of his various tools and utensils in the workshop. It was a good day, followed by a fruitful day.


    As Quinn worked away in silence, there was a knock on his door, followed by the door chime ringing with the door opening.


    Quinn set down equipment in his hand on the table and walked to the office to meet the client. Waiting for him in the office was Gilderoy Lockhart, Hogwarts'' current Defense Against Dark Arts professor.


    "Ah, good afternoon, professor," Quinn greeted as he sat behind the table and gestured Lockhart to take a seat. "How may I help you, professor?"


    To Quinn, Lockhart was a cash cow he had milked throughout the year, and if that cash cow walked to his doorstep, he won''t reject it and wee it in pleasantly because of its services. Plus, Lockhart had signed an all-year pass to the Restricted Section of the Library, so Lockhart, who Quinn previously considered as an annoying bug, was now his golden eggying goose.


    "Quinn, just the student I was hoping to see," said Lockhart, his every motion brimming with theatrics. He sat down and put on that blinding, million-watt smile. "I have a matter of utmost importance to discuss with you."


    "Of course, professor, do tell," smiled Quinn, being polite to the man who had bought him close to his goal of filling a tub with sickles. The man had single-handedly given Quinn the asset, which allowed Quinn toplete ny percent of his aim. ording to his estimates, he would reach the target by the end of the school year.


    "Quinn, I want to talk to you about the fan club," said Lockhart, opening the conversation.


    "Professor, I am sure that you would be able to gain more by talking to the managers of your club," Quinn put on an apologetic smile. "I am not involved in the daily activities of the fan club."


    "I am not talking about the club," Lockhart shook his head and exined. "I am talking about the merchandise sold in the club."


    Quinn''s eyes sparkled as he pped his hands in excitement. "Professor, do you have a new product idea," Quinn took out a sheet of paper and uncapped his pen, ready to take notes. "Do tell." He wasn''t going to let this opportunity pass by.


    "Yes, I am talking about the products you sell. But I am not here to tell you about a new product."


    Quinn''s shoulders slumped as he capped his pen and put it down on the table. His initial excitement, deting in an instant.


    "So, what is it do you want to talk about, professor."


    Lockhart cleared his throat and spoke. "Those merchandises that you have been selling through the club are all based on me." Lockhart puffed his chest and bragged. "Order of Merlin, Third ss, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly''s Most Charming-Smile Award."


    "So, it is normal that you should divide the profits with me," Lockharts'' voice was filled with confidence. He spoke like the thing he was saying was obvious. "How about we spit up the profits ny-to-ten? Of course, ny to me and ten to you."


    Lockhart looked down on Quinn as he spoke, "Your products only sold because of my reputation. Without me, no one would buy things from a child." Lockhart looked at Quinn as an easy-to-push-around child who would buckle under his words.


    Quinn tilted his head in confusion, putting on an expression of confusion. All the previous politeness from him draining from his face and eyes.


    "What are you talking about, professor?" Quinn opened a drawer on his table and took out a sheet of parchment. "This is not what we discussed."


    Quinn slid the parchment towards Lockhart so that he could read it.


    "This document clearly states that you relinquish all earnings of my sales. The profits from anything I sell will go to me and not to you."


    Lockharts'' eyes popped when he saw the signature on the page while Quinn talked.


    "T-This!" stuttered Lockhart as he looked up from the document. "I have no recollection of this. I don''t remember signing this."


    "I don''t know what to say, professor," said Quinn. Putting on an oblivious expression. "You were the one to sign it; it is your sign. You can even have it checked for magic forgery."


    "With this document, you have no right to ask me for even a single knut of what I made from selling the products even though they are based on you," Quinn intertwined his fingers and finished, "Sorry, professor, but I can''t help you in this matter. You are already signed over the rights to me."


    It stunned Lockhart into silence, which was a lot to say because the man rarely stopped talking. He just kept staring at the document in front of him.


    "... Does anyone else know about this," asked Lockhart, staring at the document, "And, do you have a copy of this? I want one so that I have a copy."


    "This is a private venture, professor. I, alone, handle the production and supply of the merchandise," Quinn took the document which Lockhart ced on the table and said. "This is the original. I will make a permanent copy and bring it out to you just in a minute."


    Lockharts'' eyes shined as he immediately took out his wand and pointed it at Quinn. "Then it is settled. I will do you a favor and erase the memory of this document from your mind, and then you will give me the money you made from the sales. Previously, I was going to give you a ten percent share, but now, I am going to cut that in half, and you will only get five percent."


    Lockhart loudlyughed as he watched Quinn, "You might not know this, but the Memory charm is my premier skill. It is my bread-and-butter as to speak. I built myself on this charm, so don''t worry about idents because I am really good at it."


    The Memory Charm (Obliviate), also known as the Forgetfulness Charm, was a charm used to erase specific memories from an individual''s mind.


    "I focused my considerable talents solely on the Memory Charm until I perfected it, making it the only spell I can perform without fail," Lockhart eyed Quinn with delight in his eyes. "In my pursuit of fame and glory, I utilized the charm extensively on people who performed heroic feats after interviewing them on every detail of their works, so they would not go ''babbling'' while I take their credits in the form of my books."


    He smiled appreciatively at Quinn and spoke, "I am nning to leave Hogwarts tomorrow. This school has dangers lurking in every corner. The monster of Slytherin is still on the loose, and it struck again yesterday. I have to leave this ce before it gets to me."


    No one had told Lockhart that the monster of Slytherin was already taken care of, and the school was safe from further petrification. The fraud author still believed that the horror was still roaming in the castle.


    "The money I get from you will be more than enough for another expedition to a foreignnd to interview another fellow and do ''research'' on my ext book," he pointed his wand at Quinn, ready to cast the charm, and grinned. "Maybe I will thank you in my next books for your help. Not that you will remember it."


    Quinn stood in his ce looking at Lockhart with an expression that showed no fear, horror, or any negative emotion and conversely portrayed boredom. His face screamed, ''why did I expect anything else'' through the expression.


    He nced at Lockhart''s wand, and the next moment Lockhart''s hand was forced open as the wand shot out his hand into Quinn''s grasp.


    "And here I thought you escaped your original fate yesterday," a sigh escaped Quinn. He looked up at the shocked fraud in front of him and spoke. "That is the problems with viins. They spend too much time exining their ns. You should have straight out erased my memories without the monologue. Not that it would have worked."


    An alternating yellow and red shed on Quinn''s nape as he used magic, and Lockhart''s knees buckled. The blonde pompous fraud fell onto the chair that Quinn expertly positioned just underneath him.


    Lockhart looked down at his hands and watched as ropes slithered around his hands, legs, and torso.


    "I ept I didn''t use honorable means to get you to sign the document," said Quinn as he walked towards Lockhart. "But neither did you. All your works are based on lies and deceit. So, in this case, I like to think of myself as a thief stealing from a thief. Plus, it is not my fault that people believe in the silly books that you wrote."


    Putting his hands on Lockhart''s shoulder, Quinn leaned in and whispered, "The attempt to erase my memories was a mistake because it got me furious. But the bigger mistake was to try and take my money from me."


    "My family is exceedingly rich, richest in magical Britain. I don''t need to care about money as I can use all I want, and I would have more if I ask for it. I don''t need to work a single day in my life, and I won''t ever run out of riches." He chuckled before continuing. "But, there is something special about the money I earned myself. This money results from my hard work and cunning to hoodwink you and then draft interesting things products that the students would buy."


    Lockhart winced when he felt Quinn''s grip tighten on his shoulders.


    "You, trying to get your hands on that money, is uneptable to me. It isn''t something I can forgive even though you were a sizable reason that I was able to earn a lot of it." Lockhart heard a throaty chuckle in his ear as Quinn spoke. "So, a punishment is in order."


    Quinn removed his hand from Lockhart''s shoulder and stood up straight as he ced his hand on Lockhart''s head and swirled it around.


    "You said Memory charm is your best charm, correct. So I think it will be fitting that I perform my first Memory charm on you."


    "N-No, p-please forgive me," Lockhart stuttered as he begged Quinn to let him go. "You can keep the money. I promise I won''te here ever again. Please, let me go."


    "Tut, tut, tut," said Quinn as he shook Lockhart''s head from side to side. "Toote, I can''t let you go anymore."


    Quinn grinned, and signs of mania were evident in his expression.


    "N-No! Please let me go!"


    Magic stimted in Quinn''s magical core as the Memory charm got activated.


    ''I will erase everything about your job from your memory. Your only aplishment in your life will be gone,'' smirked Quinn. He was going to erase knowledge about Lockhart''s travel, the people he interviewed, how Lockhart''s obliviated them to steal the credit, or that he was an author from Lockhart''s memory.


    But then something happened.


    A curse triggered inside Hogwarts. An esoteric and abstruse curse ced on Defense Against Dark Arts teaching position activated.


    On the day Tom Marvolo Riddle / Voldemort got turned down the Defense Against Dark Arts teaching position by Dumbledore a few yearster, he ced a curse on the Defense Against Dark Arts position. The curse ensures that no Defense Against Dark Arts professor would stay for longer than a year.


    The curse slightly gave a nudge to Quinn''s mind, which was already under the influence of another magic.


    A smirk so broad that it split Quinn''s face appeared as heughed.


    "Screw it, let''s go the canon way! Which we know is ALL THE WAY!"


    Quinn''s magic entered Lockhart''s mind, rampaging inside it and erasing everything that made Gilderoy Lockhart, well, Gilderoy Lockhart.


    In a few seconds, the magic settled, and Quinn removed his hand, and Lockhart''s head slumped forward.


    Quinn frowned and walked to Lockhart''s front and lifted the newly obliviated man''s head with his chin.


    "Lockhart?" Quinn called out. Quinn pped the man on his cheeks, trying to wake him up. But the only response was some groaning.


    "Alright, everything is fine," Quinn beamed, and ropes-over-ropes covered Lockhart and propped him straight up on his feet.


    "Let''s go, Mr. Lockhart," Quinn smiled. "Let''s get you to your office. I know you will be morefortable there."


    Lockhart''s body floated up and turned, so it was horizontal to the ground. Another look from Quinn and Lockhart with ropes turned invisible.


    The boy hummed a happy tune as he skipped his way to Lockhart''s office.


    On his nape, seven colors oscited, shining with deep shades, giving the impression of deep entrenchment.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - S L O T H <-- > A C E D I A


    Pink - L U S T <-- > L U X U R I A


    Red - W R A T H <-- > I R A


    Yellow - G R E E D <-- > A V A R I T I A


    Violet - P R I D E <-- > S U P E R B I A


    Green - E N V Y <-- > I N V I D I A


    Orange - G L U T T O N Y <--> G U L A


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Colors, colors, what are you?!


    Gilderoy Lockhart - ??? - Gilderoy Lockhart no more.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 65 - Madness, Chaos, And Silence

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    A/N: This is the second part of the two-part CLIMAX of the [COLORS ARC].


    - [Climax Part 2: Madness, Chaos, and Silence.] -


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Nights at Hogwarts were quiet withfortable yet eerie silence. Studentsfortably slept in their dorms, teachers who were off-duty either went out to Hogsmeade to enjoy some nightlife or stayed in for a quiet day. House-elves performed tasks in the cover of the night. Portraits also went to sleep in their frames, emting human behavior. Ghosts who were awake and couldn''t sleep were few in numbers to bring ''life'' to the castle.


    In that quiet castle, a boy could be seen dancing in the Hogwarts castle as he moved in the corridors. He was doing nothing but taking a walk in the silent castle, feeling the cool breeze caress his skin.


    Today had been another good day in series of good days for him.


    Gilderoy Lockhart, the fraud, the person who had tried to wrong him by trying to erase his memories and take his memory, was stripped of his position as the professor of Defense Against Dark Arts.


    The official reason was that Gilderoy Lockhart had be sick and was quitting his job because of health reasons.


    But he knew better.


    Anyway, Gilderoy Lockhart had quit his job, and to soften the blow for his numerous fans, he had announced a sale for the next week, dubbing it the Get-Well-Soon sale week. The Lockhart goods were being sold at never-before-seen prices just so that his fans could show their support in the time of need.


    Even in his absence, Gilderoy Lockhart was giving him profits.


    A pity that he had to go.


    While he was dancing in the corridors, Recon, his trusty map, was floating in front of him, diligently doing its job to show who was present around him.


    His walks in the night were a private affair, and he preferred them to remain that way. With no people, elves, ghosts in his sight.


    He would asionally look at the map, changing his direction if he was moving towards someone or they were moving towards him.


    It was polite to give people their space. And while they didn''t know that he was here, he did know that others were around, so it was only normal to get out of their way so that both he and the other party could enjoy their peaceful night.


    When he looked at the map, he found someone ahead in his path. It was a blue dot, meaning that the other party was a student. A rare sight thiste in the night.


    He was about to follow the usual protocol and avoid them, but the name tag with the blue dot caused him to still in his path.


    The map showed that Luna Lovegood was around the corner from him.


    This puzzled him greatly. Why was Luna here? She didn''t stay up thiste. It was past her bedtime; she had told him so.


    Worried about his friend, he moved towards the girl. Softly taking steps as he turned around the corner bend and saw her.


    She was standing there, at the side of the corner. Looking outside at the bright moon that was illuminating the velvety night sky. She looked like a fairy, admiring natural beauty in a way humans couldn''t.


    But her appearance caused him to frown.


    She was wearing her Hogwarts robe. But there was nothing on her feet, barefoot were her soles.


    She looked fine, but that didn''t say anything about why she was here sote in the night. So, after some contemtion, he called out.


    "Luna."


    The younger girl had badgered him to call her by her first name, going as far as not responding to her family name. ording to her, it was nice to hear Luna instead of Loony, like everybody had started to call her.


    The silvery-blonde swirled her head towards the voice. There she saw him standing there, looking at her with a worried look on his face.


    "Quinn," she said. Her feet moved, moving her body towards him.


    "What are you doing here, Luna?" Quinn, who saw Luna moving towards him, asked. "It is past your bedtime."


    The blonde stopped in front of him and replied with questions of her own.


    "What are you doing here? Why aren''t you sleeping?"


    Quinn''s reply was a simple one.


    "It is not my bedtime, so I am taking a walk."


    To Luna Lovegood, the answer was a fitting one. She got answers to both of her questions.


    "So, tell me, youngdy. Why are you here and not in your bed, sleeping?" asked Quinn. "And, why aren''t you wearing anything on your feet?"


    Luna looked down at her feet; her toes moved in nervousness. She spoke softly.


    "I was kicked out of themon room, and now I can''t enter themon room."


    Quinn frowned at the answer.


    "What do you mean you were kicked out of themon room?" No person other than the faculty members could kick a student out of the housemon room. And he was sure that Flitwick wouldn''t kick a student out of themon room thiste at night.


    "Some seventh-year girls came to my dorm room and stunned me," Luna answered while clutching the ends of her robe. "When I came to be, I only had this robe on me and was in the first-floor girls''vatory."


    Quinn''s blood went cold as he heard that.


    She narrated her story straightforwardly with no cracks in her voice, but he could see the signs she disyed. She hadn''t looked at his face ever since she walked near him. Her hands had been clutching her robe so hard that her hands were white.


    "When I went to themon room. I couldn''t answer the riddle from the eagle, and no one came in or out of themon room, so I was locked out."


    "And, why didn''t you go to professor Flitwick or any other professor?" Quinn asked. He sessfully hid the anger he was feeling.


    "I don''t know professor Flitwick''s bedtime," she answered. Her face still facing downwards. "What if I woke him up from sleep."


    Quinn closed because of the anger he was feeling. His anger rose again because even though Luna''s words sounded idiotic, Quinn knew that Luna was scared to even ask for help. She was just saying this to hide the real reason.


    "Luna," he spoke to the young girl in front of her. When she didn''t look up, he used her hands to cup her cheeks. Lifting her head up to such that she was looking at him. "You don''t have to be scared to ask for help. You can go to any professor. Even if it is professor Snape in the middle of the night. You can even knock on the headmaster''s door, and it would be fine."


    Luna stared at Quinn as he spoke.


    "And, you cane to me with any problems you have." He showed aforting smile and spoke. "You are my friend, and I always help my friends out. So,e to me anytime you want, and I would be waiting for you."


    "Really?" asked Luna. Her eyes stared at Quinn as if looking for something.


    "Really."


    Luna''s chin quivered a little. She released her robes from her hands and raised them to hug Quinn. Her thin arms grabbed onto Quinn tightly.


    Quinn, who was surprised for a moment, snapped out of it and hugged back. He could feel her silent sobs and gently stroked her back and let her cry it out.


    Luna didn''t have any friends in Hogwarts. Her quirky personality didn''t help her make friends.


    She was friends with Ginny Weasley, but the Gryffindor girl was in another house and busy with her new friends. The two couldn''t meet as frequently as they did before Hogwarts, leaving Luna alone.


    Quinn was Luna''s friend, but he had been too busy himself. Spending his time in the Restricted Section of Library, Room of Requirements, or the A.I.D office. He was rarely seen in the Ravenwmon room.


    Luna would usually spend her time in the gardens exploring the greens by her lonesome. But she could only do it so much, and after that, any child would want someone to y with them.


    So, when Quinn heard that Luna coulde to him anytime and that he was her friend. She broke down.


    When she woke up in the bathroom, she was scared and alone. It frightened her when she couldn''t figure out the puzzle to go inside hermon room. She was sure that she would have to spend the night, out, alone.


    Quinn waited for Luna to calm down before he spoke.


    "Are you feeling fine?"


    The girls in his arms nodded but didn''t separate from him.


    "Good, now let''s get you home," said Quinn. It was toote in the night, and it was time to sleep. Even Quinn was feeling sleepy. "It iste, and we should go sleep."


    Luna finally released him from her hug but grabbed the edge of his sleeve as if scared that Quinn would disappear if she let him go.


    The two walked infortable silence until they reached themon room entrance on the fifth floor.


    Quinn looked at the bronze eagle knocker and used it to knock on the door. Immediately the eagle spoke the entry riddle.


    "A container without hinges, lock, or a key,


    Yet a golden treasure lies inside me.


    What am I?"


    The answer from Quinn came immediately,


    "An egg."


    Luna, on the side, finally understood the riddle, and her eyes shone when she heard the answer.


    There was no answer from the eagle, but Quinn and Luna knew the answer was correct when the door opened, allowing them entry to themon room.


    The two Ravenws stepped inside. When the pair reached the stairs to the girls'' dormitory. Quinn made Luna face him and looked her into the eye and asked.


    "Luna, tell me the names of the girls who stunned you."


    Luna''s eyes widened before she shook her head, refusing to answer.


    "Luna, I can help," Quinn tried to exin. "We will go to professor Flitwick together, and he will punish those girls. It will be fine."


    Luna still shook her head. She didn''t want to go to the professor. Today terrified her, and she was afraid that if sheined, then the girls would do something terrible again.


    "Alright," sighed Quinn. He tried, but Luna didn''t speak a single word. "Now go up and sleep. I will be waiting for you here tomorrow morning. We will go to breakfast together, okay?"


    Luna showed a sleepy smile and nodded.


    "Good, now go sleep. Good night, Luna."


    "Good night, Quinn." She gave Quinn one final hug before climbing the stairs to the girls'' dormitory.


    Quinn waited for a while before all expression drained from his face.


    "Sorry, Luna." He apologized. "But, if you don''t want to go to the professors, then I would have to take this matter into my own hands."


    He already knew the identity of the girls who bullied Luna. He had pulled the knowledge when he looked into the eyes using legilimency.


    The thing was that the ssh of red was present on Quinn''s nape from the second Luna told him about what happened to her. It only deepened in color with time, and Quinn only hid the anger because Luna didn''t need anger butfort from him.


    "Maximum suffering," Quinn spoke in the emptymon room.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The next few days, Quinn stalked the group of three seventh-year Ravenw girls.


    From his observations, the three girls were high up in the Ravenw social hierarchy. The three were below average on the Ravenw exam grading scale, which meant they were above average in the Hogwarts exam grading scale.


    Two of them had boyfriends, third had broken up with her''s two months ago. Not a useful piece of information. But information nevertheless.


    What Quinn did in the few days was to find their daily routine. Find their usual routes, timings, people they sit and stand with. When they were in themon room. ces they went to in their free time.


    He found things that would help him track them. This time around, Quinn didn''t call in his favors to get some ckmail material because he wasn''t looking to ckmail the girls. He was going to hurt them they did to Luna.


    Tit-for-Tat was the theme.


    When Quinn thought that he had enough information and familiarity with their daily routine, he decided to strike.


    On the day he was nning to execute the n, he went down inside his suitcase and retrieved an object that he would use against them.


    Quinn looked at the thing in his hand and smiled,


    "Maximum suffering."


    He pocketed the thing and moved out. After spending the school day attending sses, he was finally free. So were the three girls.


    It was a Friday, and on Fridays, these three girls would go to one of the many secluded in Hogwarts with a bottle of Fire-whiskey and drink the fire-inducing booze, alone away from the eyes of anyone who could get them in trouble.


    Quinn chose this moment because the area they drank was secluded, and no one would be there to see Quinn or the girls. He could work without any witnesses, so no danger of him getting into trouble.


    The girls arrived in the secluded ce full of boulders.


    Quinn waited behind an enormous boulder till they were settled down, and he was sure no one else was joining them.


    With his eyes on the girls, Quinn''s hand went into his robes, and when it came out, he was holding something.


    He lifted his hand and pointed at the girls. His face had a savage grin on it.


    But then something happened, something clicked in Quinn''s mind.


    Quinn looked at the object in his raised hand and stared at it.


    ''...What?'' he thought.


    In his hand was the thing that he hadn''t touched for more than two-and-half years, close to three years. He had not looked at it for the same amount of time.


    And, thest time he was near it was before the school year started, but other than that, Quinn had no contact with the object.


    So, imagine his surprise when he found the object in his hand that he wasn''t willing to touch other than the situation where things were on the level of FUBAR.


    This situation was nowhere near the level of FUBAR, but Quinn still had it in his hand.


    This told him one thing. Just having the object in his hand eliminated all other possibilities and left one single possibility.


    Which was... that something was wrong with him.


    Why did hee to this conclusion? It was because Quinn was pointing a wand at the girls. Not his fake wand that he made before his first year. The wand in his hand was the real deal.


    The wand in his hand was an Ollivander piece. Made from the wood of an Acacia tree. With a phoenix''s feather as the core. Fourteen inches and rigid flexibility.


    It was indeed like the calm before the storm.


    Quinn stayed still for a moment. In that stillness, a rity befell upon Quinn. A rity that felt strange to Quinn because he hadn''t felt like this in months. It was like something clogging the back of his head was cleaned, and all motors were running smoothly again.


    Instinctively Quinn dove into his mind, and the first memory that popped into his mind was when he dropped unconscious in the second vault. From there on out, Quinn introspected the entire school term, and it finally became clear what he had done.


    All the things he did, which he would usually steer clear of. His attitude towards things, slight changes in his personality, and substantially lowered inhibitions.


    Time passed as Quinn stood in his hiding spot. It was like a Basilisk had petrified him as three girls he was going to target drank the booze, had a fun time, and left the ce.


    Finally, Quinn reached the part where he obliviated into forgetting everything about his identity, and now, as he looked at the real wand in his hand, Quinn''s heart started to beat quicker.


    "What have I done?" Quinn''s tone was grave and remorseful. "What was I going to do with those girls."


    There was a clear sound of ss shattering in Quinn''s mind. The sudden sound startled him, and he turned towards his back. And while there was no one behind him, Quinn''s magic moved on its own and froze the rocks behind him.


    "Huh?"


    He didn''t mean to use ice magic to freeze the rocks. It just happened on its own. Then Quinn heard the sound of sizzling behind him, and turning, he saw that half a boulder had been turned into dust.


    "W-What?"


    Suddenly, Quinn''s hands felt hot, and when he looked down, he saw veins of blood magic on his forearm.


    At this point, Quinn was experiencing a full-blown panic attack, and with those erratic feelings, the magic around started to be more and more unstable.


    More and more of the area froze and melted at the same time. Rocks transfigured and transmuted before everything turned into dust or exploded. Lacerations and deep gashes made from destructive and dark magic appeared on the rocks and boulders around him.


    Withbored breathing and sweating from all over Quinn''s body, he looked around as his vision blurred and his ears buzzed.


    "S-St-op," Broken words came out of Quinn''s mouth as he clutched his head and attempted to stop his magic fromshing out without his will.


    It took a while, but the magic stopped, leaving the horrid destruction around him. But, the trouble wasn''t over as Quinn stood up on his feet and immediately ran inside the castle.


    He was holding magic, but he was hanging on a thread, and the magic, was pushing against his control, rampaging his body, threatening to break out.


    Quinn somehow got to the seventh floor. His entire journey to the seventh floor had been rough as some of his magic had leaked out, leaving patches of magical damage in his path.


    ''A strong room... a strong room... a strong room.''


    Quinn desperately thought about wanting a strong room as he paced up and down to activate the Room of Requirement.


    When the door finally appeared, Quinn directly ran into the door, opening it with his body. He stumbled into the Room of Requirements, falling within a few unstable steps.


    "Aaaaaaaah!" A scream pierced the room as Quinn finally couldn''t stop the bubbling magic inside him, and instantly, the surrounding room shook.


    Whips of fire,yers of ice, streaks of lightning, quaking floor,cerations, and cracks appeared along the walls and floor. The room descended into pandemonium as Quinn''s magic wreak chaos in the room while the Room of Requirement fixed the damages continuously.


    After an unknown period, Quinn gained some semnce of control. Quinn once again tried to stop his magic, which wasn''t following his will and order, but nothing worked. Itshed out without his lead.


    Quinn had no control over his rampaging magic. Any effort to direct his magic was met with failure.


    The rapid expulsion of magic started to hurt his body as Quinn felt like his veins were on fire. In that desperate time, an idea struck him, and he reached into his mind.


    He used the emotional aspect of lumency to reach out to all his turbulent emotions, and at that moment, he cut all his connections to his emotions.


    He disconnected his emotions from his body, and instantly his face went nk.


    Next went the emotional connection to his mind, and everything he was feeling be distant and like a buzzing in his mind, annoying but manageable.


    Finally, Quinn cut the emotional connection to his magic. His wandless focus ability heavily depended on emotions and his will to perform magic. Theck of magical focus made Quinn''s emotions and will crucial to his ability to cast magic.


    Now, without a single ounce of emotional connection from Quinn, the magic stopped. The room went silent as Quinn sat on his knees, his hands hanging loosely to his sides.


    There was not an expression on his face or a look in his eyes.


    He opened his mouth, and words came out in a monotone.


    "I screwed up. I need help."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Blue - S L O T H <-- > A C E D I A


    Pink - L U S T <-- > L U X U R I A


    Red - W R A T H <-- > I R A


    Yellow - G R E E D <-- > A V A R I T I A


    Violet - P R I D E <-- > S U P E R B I A


    Green - E N V Y <-- > I N V I D I A


    Orange - G L U T T O N Y <--> G U L A


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - !!FUBAR!!


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 66 - Grandfather And Grandson Talk

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    George West looked around the room he was in. It was a in room that clearly been cleaned recently to make it presentable. Presentable to whom? His best and probably correct guess was for him. He owned the building of which the room was part. Actually, this building was owned by the West family business, and he was the owner of said business, so technically, he owned this building.


    Back to the room, he was in; It had a single wooden table and two chairs, sitting opposite to each other on opposite sides of the table. On the table rested a pitcher of water with two sses, courtesy of the manager of the small, West-financed ventures operated in the building.


    There was no decor on the walls, and the walls were painted in a simple white color that looked dull because of the time it had been since the room was given a coat of paint. Other than the table and the chairs, the room was bare.


    He got and walked to the window and looked outside the window. Through the ss, he could see the view of the all-wizard Hogsmeade vige. People who lived in the settlement went on with their lives as George watched them from above. Not knowing that the richest man in the country was looking at them.


    George thought of the reason he was here. Quinn, his younger grandchild, had sent him a mail through the machine they were calling MagiFax.


    The MagiFax was a big hit in the offices of the West business. In the past year, MagiFax was introduced to almost all of the West family offices and ventures. And as it was expected, the addition of the machines was a big hit everywhere. The memos were being sent faster than ever before.


    Just by employing the instantaneous feature of the MagiFax, the business all around the world had gained major profits. The information was being exchanged much faster than their localpetitors, that West business was faster and better at everything because they had more time to n and act.


    George smiled when he thought about the profits that the MagiFax brought them. Soon, the MagiFax would be rolled out for all to buy and bring in more profits.


    His grandson, Quinn, didn''t know it, but George had opened an ount for him that would hold a part of the profit for every MagiFax sold. His grandson didn''t know it, but he was about to get very rich in theing future.


    George walked back to his chair and sat down. He didn''t know why Quinn had called him here at the Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop at Hogsmeade, but the letter said that he needed to get here as quickly as possible even if it meant to drop everything he was doing.


    George did what he was asked for and immediately replied that he would meet him the next day, and here he was, sitting in a room in Hogsmeade, waiting for his grandson to arrive.


    "But, today isn''t a Hogsmeade weekend," murmured George. He had asked the shop manager, and he was told that today (a Saturday) wasn''t marked as a Hogsmeade weekend. "I wonder how Quinn will get out of the castle."


    George didn''t know that there were hidden passages to get in and out of the castle, and Quinn knew every one of them.


    He picked up a ss from the tray and ced it on the table, took out his wand, and cleaned it himself with magic before pouring himself a ss of water. Just as his ss was full, the door to the room opened.


    George looked up to see his grandson, Quinn, standing at the door.


    "Grandfather," greeted Quinn. George noticed the t tone in which Quinn spoke and the slump in Quinn''s shoulders, and the tiredness in his posture.


    "Quinn, you look..." George greeted back but couldn''t finish his sentence as there was something off about Quinn. George couldn''t know what it was, but something about Quinn looked unnatural.


    Quinn sat down on the opposite chair and looked at George. When the eyes met each other, George''s widened when the unnatural feeling disappeared, but what remained wasn''t what George was expecting.


    George saw Quinn''s face distort, and gone was the unnatural feeling and what remained was heavy bags under Quinn''s eyes and sickeningly pale skin. His tired face didn''t have an expression on it.


    "Quinn!" George eximed in worry as he reached out his hands towards Quinn''s face and held it against his cheek. "Oh my dear child, what happened to you?"


    Quinn stared at George with the same expressionless face he had on since thest two days and spoke monotonously.


    "I got into trouble. I am in big trouble and need help."


    George frowned in worry as he noticed the monotone in Quinn''s voice and no expression.


    "Quinn, why are you using lumency to hide your emotions?"


    After another stare, Quinn spoke, "Please, step back and keep your wand at ready."


    "What?" George was confused. Quinn''s words didn''t answer his question. His words only confused him more and caused more worry.


    "If you push your chair back and make some distance between us, I would be properly able to exin what is happening," The t tone seemed to be the only tone that Quinn spoke in. "And, please keep your wand ready to protect yourself."


    He stared into George''s eyes and asked, "Do you understand?"


    George observed Quinn with a critical eye before following his grandson''s instruction. He pushed his chair away from the table and readied his wand to defend himself.


    "I am going to undo my lumency." Quinn''s voice cracked a little. "Be ready."


    George didn''t know what to expect, but what happened blew his mind.


    A pained expression appeared on Quinn''s face. It was the first facial expression he had shown since entering the room.


    Then it all started.


    The walls of the room changed. Some of the patches of the wall turned into liquid and dripped. Spikes jutted out from other patches. Paint on the wall caught on fire, but at the same time, the walls became whiter than ever.


    George gripped his wand as he felt the room getting colder and colder, but when he looked up at the ceiling, it was on fire. The table shook violently before floating up in the air. Deep gashes and horridceration tortured the floor.


    George removed his eyes from the bizarreness around, looked at Quinn, and saw multicolored veins all over his face.


    The rampant magic stopped after ten seconds, leaving a panting Quinn, who slowly went back to bing expressionless within the following few seconds. The room, on the other hand, didn''t go back to normal. It remained damaged from Quinn''s magic.


    "Please do damage control," came Quinn''s request in the same monotone.


    George didn''t respond for several seconds and just stared at Quinn before he finally used magic to extinguish the fires, repairing the destroyed table and fixing the walls to a certain degree. The room didn''t go back to before Quinn''s magic bruised it, but it was much better than the mess when Quinn cut the emotional connection from his magic.


    "What happened," George pulled his chair towards the table and put his hand on Quinn''s hand, which was shivering. "What was that?"


    Quinn held George''s hand. George felt the nervousness in the grip.


    "Then, I should start from the beginning."


    Quinn pulled his hand back and took out a wooden cuboid from his clothes, and ced it in the middle of the table. The cuboidal box had crude runes carved on its surface.


    "What is this?"


    Quinn stared at the box with a nk expression, but no one but him knew what was going inside his mind.


    "Inside that wooden block is my wand."


    George frowned as he asked, "Your wand?" He couldn''tprehend why Quinn would keep his wand in a wooden box.


    He wasn''t expecting the answer that Quinn gave him.


    "Grandfather, I have only held my wand two times since the day I bought it. The first time was on the day we bought the day and the second time was before this week. Other than those two times, I haven''t touched the wand with any part of my body."


    "That doesn''t make sense," George spoke, not believing what Quinn said because his situation didn''t allow Quinn to leave his wand. "Child, you are learning magic; you can''t perform magic without a wand."


    Quinn''s hands were palm-faced down on the table. He slightly raised his index finger on his right hand, and immediately George''s wand expelled from his hand and twirled in the air before falling over the table.


    "I don''t need a wand to use magic."


    George looked at his wand on the table, which was snatched from his hands. He couldn''t believe that an unarmed child had just disarmed him.


    Then came the story that exined to George what just happened.


    "Grandfather, if you remember, I showed my first sign of magic when I was four." there was a pause before Quinn continued again, "When I fell from my room''s window, and that triggered the idental magic to save my life."


    George, of course, remembered the day. All the people had a scare followed by joy because of Quinn''s fall.


    "It was exactly one year after that I gained deliberate control over my magic," Quinn narrated the event where he first used magic. "It was frustration-induced, idental magic. I sent a rubber ball across the room. That allowed me to control my magic on smaller levels."


    Quinn remembered the days he would y with ss marbles and rubber balls.


    "I moved small objects by using magic for an entire year before I got my hands on one of Lia''s books." If Quinn didn''t have a tight grasp on his lumency, he would have smiled. "From that day onwards, I learned about magic theory and how it worked."


    George recalled the days when Quinn would carry Lia''s book with him all around the house.


    "Then came the time when he left for the world tour. That was the start of my magical journey. Lia had given me books of my own as a gift, and I had you buy books from every country we visited. Unlike what everybody thought I didn''t buy them because I enjoyed reading, I bought them because I wanted to learn more about my magic."


    George''s eyes widened at the revtion. He couldn''t believe that his grandson had been doing wandless magic since he was five years old.


    "I learned on that trip. To this day, I consider those years were the best time of my life. I traveled the world while learning magic. At that time, it was everything I wanted from my life."


    "I never stopped practicing magic after that." Quinn stared at George''s face and continued, "I have over eight years, closer to nine years of experience with wandless magic. I can use magic without a focus with no problems. I don''t even notice it anymore."


    Quinn stopped talking to let George absorb the information. After a while, George put up a question.


    "Why didn''t you use your wand after we bought it for you?"


    Memories of the day he bought his wand passed through Quinn''s mind, "As I said, I had been using magic without a focus since I was five years old. That was six-year of experience of wandless magic. By that time, I had a solid connection to my magic. But when I held the wand, what it did was try to divert the connection between me and my magic through the wand. Meaning that if I kept using my magic, then there woulde the point where I would reach a point where I would have to use the wand as a link between me and my magic."


    Quinn did a robotic shrug as he exined, "I didn''t want my solid connection to my magic to wither away with time. But the wand made me feel so powerful. Just holding the wand in my hand increased my magical capabilities by several levels. I struggled with the temptation of the power it made me feel, so to escape it, I locked the wand in a woodblock and threw it in one of the rooms in my suitcase."


    George couldn''t understand what Quinn was talking about as magic theory wasn''t his forte.


    But, George did have another question for Quinn.


    "Quinn," he looked at his grandson with a slightly hurt look on his face. "Why did you think you needed something like this hidden from me or anyone in the family?"


    Seeing the hurt look on George''s face shook Quinn. He almost lost control over his lumency. The look of vulnerability was not something he had seen on George''s face. The older man always had a stern and stoic exterior. Quinn knew that George was a caring person, but the hurt expression on his face something Quinn had never seen before.


    There was a long pause before Quinn replied.


    "I didn''t tell anyone because I thought you would stop me from using magic."


    Quinn was grateful for the lumency that kept his magic at bay because it made his voice sound absolutely t with no emotion in it. If Quinn wasn''t using lumency right now, he wasn''t sure if he would have been able to lie to George.


    It was aplete lie when Quinn said that he thought they would stop him from using magic.


    The real reason was something entirely different.


    The five-year-old Quinn didn''t consider the Wests as his family.


    He didn''t trust them even a single bit.


    He didn''t see George West as his grandfather, nor did he see Lia West as his sister.


    He was dropped in this world with no warning. He had suffered from a panic attack within minutes ofing to this world.


    Quinn found himself in an unfamiliar body and lived in a house with the original Quinn''s family. At that point in time, they wereplete strangers to him. And, they weren''t any strangers, who were family to the original owner of this body, who was now dead.


    He didn''t dare to reveal that he could do magic without a magical focus because it scared him that they would somehow know that he wasn''t their family and just somebody possessing their family member''s body.


    If they ever found out, he was sure that he would be dead, with no one ever finding of his death.


    It was the reason why he acted as the perfect child so that they won''t get suspicious. Quinn did what every child would do and behaved as a well-behaved child so that they won''t have any reason to be suspicious.


    For the first two years, Quinn wore a permanent mask of a perfectly behaved child. A method actor as he had once called himself.


    It was all an act to maintain his life in this world.


    It took time before Quinn learned to see them as his family. It took spending years with them to finally see them as his family. To finally look at George West as his grandfather, Lia West as his sister, Elliot Dalton and Ms. Rosey as his all-but-in-blood family, and Polly as the dependable house-elf whopleted his family.


    It took time to finally consider himself as a genuine member of the West family and not some imposter.


    But by the time he finally epted them, it was already had been years since he started practicing magic. He felt guilty for not telling them and decided to keep it a secret until he got a good chance to reveal that he could do magic without a wand.


    Losing control over his magic wasn''t the lemon he imagined about, but it was the one that life gave him, so he made lemonade with it.


    There was a long silence between George and Quinn as they stared at each other. Neither of the two said a single word.


    "I am sorry," spoke Quinn. He apologized for being sote. "I am sorry for hiding it this long."


    "I will not lie and say that it didn''t hurt me to see that you thought I would stop you from doing something you so clearly loved," George spoke, his voice softer than Quinn had ever heard from the man. "But I am d that you told me about this. And Quinn, I would say this: I would never ever stop you from doing what you love."


    "Thank you," said Quinn.


    "But, this still doesn''t exin why you are in this condition," asked George. While his talk with his grandson had brought them together, it said nothing about the condition Quinn was currently in. "What happened to you that you lost control of magic."


    Quinn poured himself a ss of water from the slightly deformed pitcher before continuing.


    "There exist a few secret mysteries in Hogwarts that not many know about." Quinn was starting the cursed vaults exnation to his grandfather. "The castle is a thousand years old with generations of magical humans starting their magical journey with Hogwarts. So, it is not strange that there are unidentified areas in the castle. I just so happened toe across one of those mysteries."


    Quinn reminisced about the day he met Friar and how it changed his life in Hogwarts.


    "In my second year at Hogwarts, I found that there are these five vaults hidden across Hogwarts. Only the ghosts remember about them because some of them have been here for centuries. The Hufflepuff ghost, Friar, shared with me the knowledge about these vaults."


    George listened to Quinn, who spoke with a t tone and nk expression, but George could see how these vaults would have excited Quinn.


    "I cleared the first vaultst year." There was a pause in which Quinn thought if he should tell George about how he got hospitalized for ten days because he almost died. Quinn decided that if he was going to tell George about the vaults. Then he should just opt for full disclosure, sort off. "I got hospitalized for ten days, had to grow most of my skin, all of my hair, heal my bones and plenty of organs."


    "What?!" George screamed. "Why wasn''t I told about this?!"


    Quinn expected that reaction. He was just d that he didn''t use the words like death or almost died in his sentence.


    "It was nothing to worry about." Quinn lied to lessen his grandfather''s worries. "Madam Pomfrey fixed me up in no time. Plus, she is a greatpany."


    "Moving on, I solved the first vault and found what was behind it. No problems, it just took a lot of time and effort." Quinn looked George in the eyes. "The problem started this year when I found the second vault, and in my first and only exploration of the vault, I fell unconscious."


    George sharply inhaled. He didn''t like where this was going.


    Quinn took a deep breath before continuing.


    "Something happened to me that day. And whatever happened was undone before this week because I now have no control over my magic." Quinn''s hand shivered as some emotions started leaking. "I went from feeling on the top of my game to having no control over my magic. It actively tries to escape my body and cause rampage."


    George could feel that Quinn was struggling because he could feel the slight temperature dropping in the room, and there were small glimmers of facial expression on Quinn''s face.


    He took Quinn''s hand in his and spoke.


    "But, you just used magic when you disarmed me."


    Quinn shook his head and exined,


    "I can still do minor magic that I find easy. My magic is seriously limited right now. Plus, right now, I feel stifled when I use magic. Using magic without a connection to my will feels extremely wrong."


    He pointed to the time just a few minutes ago.


    "You remember when Ie into this room, I was hiding my face with magic? That was illusion magic, at least a physical illusion, not a mental illusion. I am not in the condition to perform much mental magic, and your lumency defenses are too much for even the normal me to use a mental illusion."


    Quinn looked at George''s face and realized that he had gotten off the point. "Ah, anyway, I saw your face and noticed that you found something wrong. The current me wasn''t able to pull off a physical illusion with my magical capabilities. I am not having a good time with my magic. I don''t feel good."


    "It is alright, Quinn," George spoke in aforting voice. "Everything would be alright. I will find a way to fix whatever is wrong with you. So, don''t worry. Everyone in the house would help."


    George meant it as he already started to n to hire the best healers money could buy. He needed to find the best in the fields and provide his grandson with the best healthcare.


    "Help! Yes, help." Quinn''s eyes shined, and he gripped George''s hands. "I need help with this, and you can help me with this."


    "Of course, anything you want, Quinn." George didn''t deny any request. While he couldn''t see any expression on Quinn''s face, he could tell that something was wrong with Quinn. His emotions were all over the ce.


    "I want you to call someone," Quinn said. "I want you to get them to West manor the day I return home."


    The request confused George. He didn''t know who his grandson wanted to meet so eagerly.


    "Who is it?"


    Quinn took another deep breath before speaking in a t monotone.


    "I want you to call n D. Baddeley."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - More stone-faced than a certain blonde.


    George West - Grandfather - Extremely worried about his grandson.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 67 - De-petrified, Unknown Stabber, And Marauder’s Map.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was weird to wake up from petrification, thought Ivy Potter as she looked at the hospital wing ward from her bed. One moment she was looking around the corner through mirrors just to make sure there wasn''t a gigantic snake waiting for her, but then she saw acid-yellow eyes in the mirror, and everything went ck.


    The advice saved her life even though she didn''t like the source of the said advice.


    She was miffed that she was taken out twice in a single day. Once by Quinn West and then by the Basiliskter that day. It was a weird thought to have after being petrified anding as close to death as she had been, but for Ivy, those events were thest memories she had before the petrification.


    There was no fear or dread when she was petrified as the petrification from Basilisk was instant. It didn''t give Ivy a chance to feel anything at all. Sure she woke up with a slight scream of terror because she could remember the Basilisk, but what she saw was her mother standing by her bed, hugging her tightly.


    Ah, she was petrified, were her thoughts. It felt almost anticlimactic, being petrified by the deadliest snake in the world. The only thing she didn''t like was the stiffness in her body from no activity for weeks, but Madam Pomfrey cured it in a jiffy.


    Ivy''s first worry came when she remembered Hermione was with her and asked what happened to her best friend. She was told that the students were being released from their petrified state one every half hour so that Madam Pomfrey could have ample time to check if something was wrong before moving on to the next student.


    Ivy was the secondst to be cured, and Hermione was after her, making Hermione thest student to be given the mandrake juice.


    The bushy-haired witch''s first reaction was funny. She woke with a yell of "Bullocks!" That was something Ivy wasn''t expecting from a person who always chided Ron for hisnguage.


    Then Ivy was told that the Heir of Slytherin took her into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron had gone in there to save her. It made her feel grateful to her brother and childhood friend.


    The two dummies had ventured into the Chamber of Secrets just for her. There was no way that her heart didn''t feel warm for the two. She forgave them for being so annoying all the time.


    Then came the tough part where the now reinstated Headmaster told the students before them that the Slytherin''s monster had petrified them for months. It wasn''t a nice thing to see when Colin Creevey found he had lost a big chunk of his first year at Hogwarts or when Susanna Heselden found she missed out on crucial time in school during her O.W.L year.


    Justin Finch-Fletchley yelled that they should kick her brother Harry out of Hogwarts. But the Headmaster exined to him that Harry wasn''t the Heir of Slytherin and the whole incident was because of a dark magic artifact that opened the Chamber of Secrets but didn''t go into detail.


    Ivy thought that she and Hermione were lucky because they were only out for a few weeks and didn''t lose time on the level as the others did.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy, Hermione, Harry, and Ron sat huddled in Harry''s bed in the Gryffindor boys'' dormitory. The curtains around the poster bed were drawn, providing privacy to the golden squad. It was the first time since Ivy and Hermione were waken up from petrification that the four had sat down together to talk about what happened.


    "Let''s start," Ivy spoke to her friends. She was leaning against the headboard of the bed. "Tell us what happened down in the chamber."


    Harry and Ron looked at each other before Harry started telling the events that transpired.


    "We found the parchment in Hermione''s clutches and immediately found the information about the Basilisk in it. Then there was the note on it which said that Moaning Myrtle knew about the location of the Chamber of Secrets."


    "Then it clicked in my head," Harry exined, "That if the Basilisk could kill with its gaze, then the what if the girl who died thest time the Chamber of Secrets was opened never left the ce which she died. What if she was there the whole time?"


    Ivy and Hermione''s eyes widened as they understood. Harry, who saw the expression, nodded.


    "Moaning Myrtle was the girl killed by the Basiliskst time the Chamber of Secrets was opened," Harry recalled the conversation he had with the ghost. Ron, who was on the side, nodded. "Myrtle said that she was crying in a stall when she heard a boy making strange sounds while Myrtle was in thevatory and when Myrtle stepped out, all Myrtle saw were big yellow eyes before she died."


    Hermione had a strange thought that she decided to put out.


    "Do you think sses provide protection against Basilisk''s re?" Hermione asked, wondering about the information Quinn had given her and Ivy. "I mean, look at all of us who got petrified; we all saw the Basilisk''s eyes indirectly. Shouldn''t meeting the Basilisk''s eyes through the ss count as looking at it indirectly?"


    Ivy shook her head in disapproval, "I don''t think so. In every case this time, the Basilisk''s eyes were seen through reflections. Water, mirrors, and viewfinder, all of which showed reflections of the eyes. And, Creevey saw the Basilisk through a ghost; I don''t think we can take ghost bodies and sses as the same thing."


    She looked at Harry and thought of something.


    "And, even if sses do provide protection against death by re, then I don''t think Myrtle was wearing sses at that time."


    Hermione frowned and questioned, "Why do you think that? Myrtle''s ghost always has sses on, which means she had sses when she was alive."


    "Harry said that she was crying when she was in thevatory," Ivy jutted her chin towards Harry and said, "I have seen him cry. He always removes his sses when he cries. I mean, doesn''t everyone who wears sses remove their sses when they cry. So, it is reasonable to think that Myrtle wasn''t wearing her sses at that time."


    Harry, who was telling them the ordeal he went through, was bbergasted when the two girls started to talk about him crying. How did they go from Basilisk and Chamber of Secrets to him crying?


    "Alright, stop talking about me crying. I don''t cry," Harry said so that they could move on from the current topic and spoke thest words with some weight as if insisting on them. "Let''s move on."


    Ivy and Hermione giggled while Ron chuckled as he looked at his best mate. Harry felt heat rush to his cheeks and hurriedly spoke.


    "So, when we asked about what she saw that day. Myrtle pointed at the sink right in front of the toilet she haunts. And, when we searched the sink, Ron found a tap with a snake on it."


    Harry gave Ron a thumbs up before turning back to the girls and revealed.


    "There is something that you don''t know about this year is that I have been hearing voices." Harry winced when he saw Hermione and Ivy red at him.


    Ivy massaged her temple and spoke in a voice that rified that she was holding back her anger. "I have said this a lot through the year, and I can stress this enough, but you are really an idiot! Do you know what you just-..! If you had just told us-..!"


    Ivy and Hermione had gone into Quinn West''s office and got caught by him and were ckmailed into being under his debt. Ivy was sure that either she or Hermione would have figured out the monster''s identity with that piece of information.


    And while Ivy didn''t know if she would have broken into Quinn West''s space. Ivy was sure she wouldn''t have asked West for the monster''s identity, and that would have saved her from doing a job for him.


    Harry remained quiet for a while and observed his two female friends. He waited for them to calm down before continuing.


    "Well, then I spoke to the tap in Parseltongue, and the whole sink came disappeared and left behind a huge hole which was the entrance to a tunnel that I think went down below Hogwarts."


    He remembered the entire tunnel ride into the Chamber of Secrets. With him trying to stifle his screams and Ron loudly screaming as he slid behind him.


    "When I reached the Chamber of Secrets, I saw an unconscious student there." Harry stopped to recall his name. "His name is Terence Higgins, a Slytherin."


    Ivy and Hermione noticed Harry didn''t show his usual reaction when he talked about Slytherin. Harry would show signs like a shallow frown or a wrinkled of his nose. But right now, he didn''t show any of those. Even Ron didn''t snort in derision or snarl things like bloody snakes.


    Ivy even saw light sympathy in her twin''s eyes. That was new, she thought.


    "So, Terence Higgins was the Heir of Slytherin," Hermione asked the question.


    Harry shook his head and revealed. "No, Higgins wasn''t the Heir of Slytherin," he looked at the two girls and spoke, "Voldemort was the Heir of Slytherin."


    Ivy and Hermione''s eyes widen at the revtion.


    "What do you mean Voldemort was the Heir of Slytherin?!" Hermione''s voice fully expressed her shock.


    "Terence Higgins was being controlled by Voldemort. Voldemort possessed him and opened the Chamber of Secrets and released the Basilisk."


    Hermione was still frowning as she asked, "But, how did he possess Higgins?"


    A haunted look shed on Harry''s face as he exined, "He used Tom Riddle''s diary to possess Terence Higgins."


    "What do you mean?"


    Harry got up from his bed and walked to his desk. He picked up a piece of parchment and quill from his table and wrote something on it.


    After staring at the parchment for a while, he returned to the bed. The parchment went to the middle of the bed.


    Ivy, Hermione, and Ron leaned forward to look at the parchment.


    *


    [


    [ TOM MARVALO RIDDLE ]


    [ I AM LORD VOLDEMORT ]


    ]


    *


    Every letter of the first line was connected to the letters of the second line with arrowed lines.


    Ivy, Hermione, and Ron were shocked to see the words transform into Voldemorts'' name.


    "An anagram," gasped Hermione.


    "Yes, Tom Riddle was Voldemort," Harry''s face was pale as he stared at the parchment. "There was a memory of Tom Riddle in that diary which could manipte people who wrote on it."


    The other three understood what that meant. Harry had that diary for some time, and in that time, he had be withdrawn and something of a recluse. Harry was under the control of Tom Riddle''s diary, and they could see how that knowledge was affecting Harry. A slight change in events, and Harry could have been lying in the Chamber instead of Terence Higgins.


    "Tom Riddle was the one who opened the Chamber thest time," Harry told them about the memories that Riddle had shown him. "He didn''t want Hogwarts to close because of Myrtle''s death, so he med Hagrid for it, and everyone believed it because of Aragog."


    Harry then proceeded to tell them about his struggle with the Basilisk and how Fawkes, the phoenix, helped him by blinding the Basilisk and how the Sorting hat gave him the sword of Gryffindor.


    "... Fawkes cried on my wound and healed them and then burst into mes. I was so scared that he died, but it turned it was just a burning day. It is normal for phoenixes, and Fawkes had exerted himself enough to trigger a rebirth from ashes."


    The other three listened with silent attention. Taking in every wording out of Harry''s mouth. It wasn''t every day when they heard a tale from a person who fought the Basilisk and lived to tell the fable.


    "What happened after that?" asked Ron, engrossed in the story.


    "Oh, then I passed out."


    "You passed out?!" The same sentence came from the mouth of the three listeners.


    Harry scratched the back of his head and ruffled, "Well, I had just been bitten by a Basilisk after I drove a sword through its head. I think it is normal for anyone to pass out after that."


    "But what happened to the young Voldemort? Did he escape?" asked Ivy.


    Harry shook his head and revealed something that surprised all.


    "That is the thing. When I woke up to baby Fawkes''s loud chirps, I saw that Riddle''s diary had a Basilisk fang stabbed into the diary." Harry said the sentence like he couldn''t figure it out. "Riddle said that he was going to use Higgin toe back to life, but when I woke up, he was still alive, and Riddle wasn''t anywhere to be seen."


    "But, that doesn''t mean that Voldemort is gone. What if he escaped?! What is he is out there right now?!" eximed Ivy. Voldemort being out there scared her a lot.


    Harry shook his head and refuted Ivy''s worries, "Professor Dumbledore told me that when the diary was stabbed with the Basilisk fang, the memory of Tom Riddle inside was destroyed. He assured me that Tom Riddle didn''t return to life. He was destroyed with the diary."


    Ivy, Hermione, and Ron breathed a sigh of relief at that. Dumbledore''s assurance was all they needed to believe that Voldemort wasn''t returning as Tom Riddle.


    "What I don''t understand is that who stabbed the diary. There wasn''t anyone in the Chamber other than Riddle and I." Harry nced at Ron and said. "Neither did Ron see anyone entering the Chamber."


    Ivy and Hermoine shot quick and discreet nces at each other.


    Someone entered the Chamber, he says? Which meant that someone knew the Chamber''s location. And, both of them knew someone who fit that description.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Hey, Ivy?" muttered Hermione as the two climbed down the stairs from the boys'' dormitory to themon room. "Do you think..."


    "It might be him," answered Ivy. "But we can''t be sure. It could be entirely someone else."


    Both girls knew who they were talking about. The person who had given them the information about the Basilisk knew the Chamber''s location.


    "I am sure that even if we asked him. He would deny everything," added Ivy.


    Hermione nodded at that.


    "What about the payment? What do we about it?"


    The two girls exited the staircase as Ivy answered. "We need to get West what he wanted. I don''t know what he will do if we don''t get him the Marauder''s Map."


    She jutted her chin across themon room and spoke, "And we are going to do it now."


    Hermione looked in the direction Ivy pointed at and saw the Weasley twins huddled together in one corner.


    The two walked over to the twins, and Ivy spoke,


    "Fred, George, we need to talk."


    Weasley twins looked up from whatever they were doing and spoke in their usual twin-speak.


    "Ivy," "Hermione," "What can we" "do for you today?"


    Ivy wasted no time and got to the point.


    "I want you to give me the Marauder''s Map."


    The identical twins made identical expressions of surprise. They looked at each other before staring at Ivy and asked.


    "Why do you" "want the map?" "No, let us ask," "How did you know" "about the map?"


    Ivy sighed as she answered, "My father is part of Marauders. He told me about the map. Now, give it to me."


    The Weasley twins'' jaw dropped as I stunned them at the sudden revtion.


    "James Potter," "Senior Auror," "Is a Marauder?" "You must be joking!"


    "No, he is Prongs. Do you know about that name?" she said, giving them proof her father was a part of the Marauders.


    The twins nodded in unison and perfect coordination.


    "Good, so now give me the map. I really need it."


    Fred, or maybe it was George, took out a folded parchment from his pocket and handed it to Ivy.


    The daughter of Prongs took the parchment and awkwardly stared at it as she didn''t know what it was. She licked her lips before asking the twins."Dad didn''t tell me what it was or how it works," she spoke. "Tell me about it."


    ''Ah, I should have given this more thought,'' she thought simultaneously.


    Fred took the map from Ivy''s hands andid it on the floor. He gestured his twins and the girls to stand facing towards the wall to create a barrier.


    "This, Ivy, is the secret of our sess," said Fred, patting the parchment, fondly.


    "It''s a wrench, giving it to you," said George, "but your father did make it, so we guess it can''t be helped."


    "Anyway, we know it by heart," said Fred. "We bequeath it to you. We don''t really need it anymore."


    Ivy and Hermione noticed that the twin-speak had gone down. Even though they spoke in turns, they weren''tpleting each other''s sentences.


    ''The map must be genuinely important to them,'' she thought.


    "Ah, we got emotional," said George, wiping an imaginary tear with his finger. "Exin, Fred."


    "Well... when we were in our first year, Ivy - young, carefree, and innocent -"


    Ivy snorted. She doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent.


    "-well, more innocent than we are now - we got into a spot of bother with Filch."


    "We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor, and it upset him for some reason-" "-So, he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual -." "-Detentions, disembowelment. It was then -," "- we couldn''t help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabs marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."


    "Don''t tell me -" gasped Hermione. Ivy gave her friend a side look, the rule-abiding witch had stolen from Snape; why was she acting so shocked now.


    ''Not that I am the one to talk,'' thought Ivy, having stolen from Filch.


    "George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb. I whipped the drawer open and grabbed - this." pointing at the folded parchment.


    "It''s not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George. "We don''t reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was, though, or he wouldn''t have confiscated it."


    "And you know how to work it?" asked Ivy, getting curious about the parchment''s functionality.


    "Oh yes," said Fred, smirking. "This little beauty''s taught us more than all the teachers in this school."


    "Get to the point," sighed Ivy.


    George smiled as he took out his wand, touched the parchment lightly, and said,


    "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."


    And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider''s web from the point that George''s wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly words, that proimed:


    [


    ¡¸Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present -¡¹


    ¡¸THE MARAUDER''S MAP.¡¹


    ]


    It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing was the tiny ink dots moving around it, eachbeled with a name in minuscule writing.


    Astounded, Ivy and Hermione bent over it.


    Abeled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; the caretaker''s cat, Mrs. Norris, was prowling the second floor; and Peeves, the Poltergeist, was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as Ivy''s eyes traveled up and down the familiar corridors, she noticed something else.


    This map showed a set of passages she had never entered.


    "Hidden passages are littered around Hogwarts," said Fred and George continued for him, "Passages that go out to Hogsmeade, or passages that connect different parts of the castle."


    "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," sighed George, patting the heading of the map. "We owe them so much."


    "Noblemen, working tirelessly to help a new generation ofwbreakers," said Fred solemnly.


    "Right," said George briskly. "Don''t forget to wipe it after you''ve used it -" "- or anyone can read it," Fred said warningly.


    "Just tap it again and say," "Mischief managed!" "And it''ll go nk."


    Ivy traced her finger on the map as if trying to find someone, and finally, her finger stopped on the fifth floor, in the West corner, at a certain ssroom.


    ¡¸Quinn West¡¹


    George saw Ivy''s finger stopping on Quinn''s name. "Ah, little lord West -" "- the information broker, the all-knowing Ravenw."pleted Fred.


    "Now that I remember, he knows about the map, doesn''t he, my less handsome twin?"


    "Yes, he does. It was a big surprise, wasn''t it?"


    Ivy looked at them with shock and said, "You two know that he knows about the map?"


    "Oh, yes. We don''t know how West knows about it -" "- but he does. It was a surprise back then, but now?-" "- now it just seems normal given that he seems to know everything."


    Fred and George had plenty of interaction with the Quinn West. They regrly employed Quinn West for testing out their trick potions. It was a boon for them because they didn''t need to check the trick/prank potions on themselves.


    The twins didn''t know how he did it, but Quinn West would modify the potion recipes and return recipes that would be better than before and perfectly safe to consume with nosting effects. Perfect for prank potions.


    "We asionally have tried to follow him -" "- but he would always slip away from us." "He probably knows the castle-" "-as well as we do."


    The twins saluted and said in unison, "We can respect that."


    "So, youngdies," said Fred, in an uncanny impersonation of Percy, "mind you behave yourself."


    "See you girlster," said George, winking.


    The twins bounced away, leaving behind Ivy and Hermione with the map with them.


    It was time to go back to the ce they were held captive and talk to the devil.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Harry Potter - Boy-who-lived - After being bitten by the Basilisk, that is.


    Ron Weasley - Didn''t do much - But, props for bravery.


    Ivy Potter - Nani Intensifies! - Obtained [Marauder''s Map] x1


    Hermione Granger - Un-petrified - Bullocks!


    Fred and George - Weasley Twins - ... Goodbye, map - Man, they are superb guys, aren''t they?!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 68 - Payment, Simple, And Returning Home

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Even though she had only been to this part of the fifth floor twice, it was one of her least favorite ces in Hogwarts. The first time she had been here, Ivy had gotten help, and the host had been pleasant enough, and she had gotten what she wanted with something little extra for a great price. It was just that the parting had been a mixture of shock and surprise.


    The second time, she hade to do something not so ethical, and the results were not the ones she was expecting. She would still groan and sigh for several minutes after remembering the events that had transpired.


    And she sincerely considered that it wasn''t wholly her fault. Quinn West had shown so many signs of suspicious activity. Yeah, he had brought that on himself.


    Now, here she was for the third time, standing at the door of the same ssroom-turned-office, her hand on the doorknob of the entrance. She genuinely didn''t want to enter the room.


    Ivy could feel the stare of her best friend from her side and muttered, "Alright, alright, just give me a second."


    "You already had two minutes'' worth of seconds," replied Hermione in a slightly exasperated tone. "If you don''t want to, I can take the lead. He did ask us both to get the map."


    Shaking her head, Ivy replied, "No, I asked for the information, and the map belongs to my dad. I need to deal with this."


    "You are overthinking it, you know? Think back to the time when we came here for the notes. The exchange at that time was simple." Hermione sighed at her friend''s actions. "We gave him money and got the notes and the information on the Philosopher''s stone. There was no stunning and being bound to chairs."


    "But, what if tells us to do something," Ivy looked worried. Quinn had said that he might make her do something that she was ufortable with. "And, we can''t really refuse him after all that happened."


    "Again, we can do nothing about it. If West wanted us to do something, he would have found us to collect his favors." Hermione shrugged and even though she didn''t like someone having her under their control. She had given this situation some thought. "It is inevitable; he will ask for something one day, might as well worry about it when the problemes. No reason to waste time by worrying about it right now."


    Hermione gave Ivy a push and asked Ivy to open the door and enter the door.


    The redhead pursed her lips before opening the door with determination.


    Inside the office, the two girls saw Quinn West sitting behind his table. His eyes were closed, and there was no expression on his face. He was sitting so still that they thought he was a statue.


    But, the door chime on the top of the door alerted Quinn of their presence as he opened his eyes and saw the visitors.


    He showed no change in expression and just stared at them. No, he was observing them.


    "Yes?" he asked with a t tone.


    Ivy, who was walking towards the table, frowned when she saw Quinn. She could see the telltale signs that he was using that.


    "What are you doing?" she asked. The question was vague, and Hermione, who was just behind her, frowned.


    ''Is she again going to start something?'' Hermione''s experience while Ivy and Quinn West interacted was full of situations like this. Ivy would act recklessly and ask questions that stumped Hermione.


    She wanted nothing out of the ordinary to happen this time around and just wanted to quicklyplete the transaction and get out of here.


    "You know what I am doing, exactly." Quinn''s reply came in the same t tone and no expression.


    Ivy''s eyes narrowed, and she asked back, "I know what you are doing. What I meant was, why now? Drop it - it is unsettling."


    "I am practicing," said Quinn. "Not my fault you find it unsettling. Deal with it."


    Hermione was part confused, part confused, and part irritated. It was always like this. Whenever these two meet, she was sidelined.


    "What are you two talking about?"


    "He is using lumency," came the reply.


    Hermione didn''t know what lumency was, so it still didn''t clear Hermione''s confusion. "What is lumency?"


    "I will tell youter." She quickly replied before turning back to Quinn and asked, "You are more expressionless than Daph - I mean Greengrass."


    "You know that Daphne''s expression is not because she is using lumency," Quinn replied back. "That is just her resting face."


    "Let''s move on. Why are you two here?" Quinn wasn''t having a good time, and right now, he didn''t want to deal with anything. Especially with these two. "The card isn''t showing that I am in for consults, so why did you twoe here?"


    Ivy frowned before talking out the folded parchment and said, "We bought you the Marauder''s Map."


    She was expecting a crack in Quinn''s face, but he stayed expressionless.


    "Ah... I see. So you bought it. Good job, I guess." replied Quinn. He stood up from his barstool and raised his hand for the map.


    Ivy didn''t immediately hand the map over and asked. "What are you going to do with the map? I hope you are not going to keep it. It is my dad''s, and I am not going to let you keep it."


    "I have no wish or desire to keep the map," Quinn replied. He didn''t need it. "I just want it for a couple of minutes, and you will get it back after that."


    "But, what are you going to do with it?" Ivy pressed on. She didn''t care that this could get her in trouble. She wanted to know.


    "You are smart. You will figure it out after I am done." He once again raised his hand to ask for the map. "Rest assured, I won''t damage it."


    Ivy''s eyes wandered between Quinn''s hand and face before she handed the map over. "Take care of it." she softly said.


    "Sure," came Quinn''s reply as he stared at the parchment.


    Ivy sighed because Quinn''s t voice made it impossible to detect any vocal tone clues. It was like she was talking to a robot.


    "Feel free to sit while I return in a while," Quinn offered without looking at them and entered his workshop leaving the two girls behind.


    "So, what is lumency?" Hermione immediately asked.


    "Sit down," Ivy sighed as she took a seat. "This will take some time to exin."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    On the other side of the ss wall, Quinn stood with both his hands on the table, his head hanging down and eyes closed.


    The reason he had asked for ten minutes and not a minute to work on the map because he was busy groaning in his head. Trying to maintain his lumency because of the stupidity he had done while he was under the influence was threatening to break his already thin spread emotional lumency bounds.


    ''Why did I have to ask her to get the map?!'' While Quinn''s face was calm as a cucumber, inside it was a raging turmoil of emotions and regrets. ''Why me?!''


    His entire interaction with Ivy Potter after he hade out of the second vault had been a series of blunders that had now be a huge mistake.


    The first and biggest mistake was to confront Ivy Potter while she was Polyjuiced into Daphne. This whole mess started at that point. If he was not under the influence at that time, Quinn would have ignored the thing and just turned a blind eye to the entire situation.


    Getting a Potter under his debt was outstanding in almost every situation. But this situation wasn''t one of those.


    ''Hell, no! It is the worst situation!'' cried Quinn. ''ckmail! Really, ckmail! What was I thinking?!''


    After that came the break-in, which Quinn was fine with. He would have done the same thing even without the influence from the second vault.


    He would have stunned them and then probably got them to owe him just like he did, but he would have done it much more calmly and did damage control by the time they were done.


    And, then was the bigger deal.


    ''Why did I have to tell them about the Basilisk?!'' screamed Quinn internally. It was the mistake that could have and might still backfire. ''How am I going to answer if somebody asks me why didn''t I tell professors? How am I going to answer this?!''


    Simrly, he was slumped because he had given them the Chamber''s location. Just these two things could ruin his peaceful life at Hogwarts.


    Quinn was snapped out of his self-loathing when he felt something. He looked down and saw that his hands were sinking into the wooden table because the entire tabletop had turned into sand.


    He mped down on his lumency to cut down his leaking emotions.


    Quinn raised his hands as the surrounding sand trickled down, and almost in a robotic and inorganic manner, bits and pieces of sand turned back into the wooden table as Quinn used his iplete magic.


    After taking in a lot of deep breaths, Quinn calmed down his emotions and decided to end this, and after that, never to talk to anyone in the golden squad.


    He touched the parchment and softly spoke,


    "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."


    The map came to life, and Quinn immediately found his position on the map by browsing through the spread parchment. He put his finger on his position, and within the next few seconds, the footsteps and name tag representing Quinn West on the map lightened until it was no longer visible.


    "Done," said Quinn. "Now, I am free from any tracking."


    This was the only good thing that came from this. If Quinn was under the radar of Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and with them the golden squad, then erasing himself from Marauder''s Map allowed him to roam unseen.


    He had Recon, and they had nothing to track him. He could outrun them all day long, and they could never find him.


    "Mischief Managed."


    After he was done, Quinn moved back to his office.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Here you go. I am done." were Quinn''s first words while he returned the map to Ivy Potter. "Your payment has been recorded andpleted. The deal is finished. Thank you for doing business with me."


    Quinn skipped the part where he says to the clients to return if they had problems. He didn''t want them to ever return.


    Ivy took the map from Quinn and gave it a close observation. Trying to figure out what Quinn did.


    "You can look at it after you get out of here," said Quinn. "Please, leave."


    Ivy and Hermione raised their heads and stared at Quinn, who stared back. The two parties stared at each other before Ivy nodded and stood up from her seat to leave. Hermione looked at Ivy and then Quinn before fidgeting a little and decided to go for it.


    "Are you selling the notes for this year?"


    Quinn, who wanted them to leave, clenched his hand under the table and nodded. He stood up, went to his workshop, and brought out two sets of notes.


    Quinn ced one set in front of Hermione and then eyed Ivy, "Do you want one?"


    Ivy nodded but didn''t say a single word. Neither Quinn nor Ivy wanted to speak to each other at this point in time.


    "Same asst year," Quinn quoted the price. He didn''t say anything about a discount because right now, it wouldn''t even be funny.


    Hermione put down money for both sets and replied to Ivy, who looked at her with a quirked brow.


    "... I was always nning to buy these and well thought it won''t harm in carrying money for yours as well." Hermione blushed under the gaze of the other two people in the room as she picked up the notes.


    "Let''s leave," muttered Ivy as she turned to the door and exited without saying a word.


    Hermione followed after her friend but not before throwing a quick nce at Quinn.


    After the door was closed, Quinn suddenly felt very tired. He wanted the school year to end.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I found it," Ivy yelled. She had the Marauder''s Map opened on her bed as she touched a spot on the map.


    "What did you find?" asked Hermione. Looking up from the notes she had gotten today.


    "I found what he did to the map," Ivy was frowning.


    Hermione stood up from her table and walked to Ivy''s bed, and asked, "What did he do?"


    "He erased himself from the map," spoke Ivy. "I can''t find him anywhere on the map. Yeah, that must be it."


    Hermione sat down on Ivy''s bed and looked at the Marauder''s Map. She studied the map, which was one of the more fascinating works of magic she had seen.


    But right now, she had something else on her mind.


    "So, you didn''t ask him if he was down in the Chamber of Secrets," asked Hermione.


    Ivy stilled at the sudden question before answering the question, but she didn''t look at Hermione.


    "It doesn''t matter, and I don''t care."


    But Ivy knew why she didn''t ask that particr question.


    The reason was simple...


    She didn''t want it to be true. She didn''t want to hear from Quinn''s mouth that he was down in the Chamber of Secrets.


    Ivy Potter didn''t want to hear that Quinn West saved her and her twin''s life.


    He had threatened and ckmailed her twice. In both cases, he had implied that he would make her family''s life hard. Her image of Quinn was anything but positive.


    She didn''t know how she would feel if she was told from that same person''s mouth that he was indeed the one to save her and Harry''s life.


    Things were simple this way.


    As long as Quinn West was the bad guy in her mind, things would remain simple.


    And, Ivy Potter preferred simple after the events of this year.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Thest few weeks had been tough. Quinn had found that if someone went from happy to the point of extreme giddiness to showing no expression, people would notice something was wrong.


    Tobat that problem, Quinn had to force himself to show fake expressions. Which proved to be mighty difficult when he was so detached from his emotions. He even had to put fake emotions in his voice, which was difficult in its way.


    Quinn''s magic was just too glitchy to keep illusions on his face the entire day. Which made it necessary to fake his expression.


    To lesson this hardship, Quinn had chosen to spend the entirety of his in hiding. He would spend all his time in the Room of Requirement.


    Room of Requirements was the reason he had chosen to stay in Hogwarts rather than going home. He didn''t know what was happening to him, and while his grandfather contacted Mr. n, it could be dangerous for Quinn to stay at home and risk losing control of his magic.


    His family could get injured by him. And Quinn didn''t trust anyone other than n with his mind.


    Every day inside the Room of Requirements, Quinn would undo the bindings on his emotions, letting them and his rampant magic flow out.


    While letting his magic was painful, it was also stress-relieving. Quinn binding his emotions all day wasn''t good for his health.


    For the few minutes that Quinn let go of his emotions, he felt whole again. While it was painful, and Quinn struggled to force his magic to stay inside the entire time he let loose, it was the only time he felt whole.


    His exams weren''t a problem because even with his current condition. Quinn could still perform magic above the asked level. He made sure that his results would be the same asst year because he didn''t want anyone to know that he was suffering from an ailment.


    All his free time went in researching what had happened to him. But in the few weeks before the term end, he made little progress about his condition.


    So, when he deboarded the Hogwarts Express and saw his grandfather standing there. It was like a beacon of hope in the darkest of nights.


    "Is he at home?" Quinn skipped the greetings and directly asked.


    "Yes, he is waiting," answered George.


    George had sent a MagiFax to Quinn, telling him he had agreed to see Quinn and meet him the day Quinn returned home.


    "Good, let''s go home," Quinn said in the t tone he had for weeks.


    George had prepared a winged-horse-pulled carriage because Quinn didn''t trust himself with magical transportations like Floo, Apparation, or Portkey.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Where is he?" Quinn asked Elliot just as he entered the manor. His patience had run thin the second he saw the West manor from the carriage.


    And usually, this would be considered rude Elliot knew what was happening to Quinn and answered,


    "He is sitting in the reinforced training hall."


    Quinn nodded and bee-lined his way to the hall, which was reinforced just in case Quinn went ballistics. It was reinforced to withstand strong magic.


    He opened the door to the hall and saw the old man from which he had learned the magic that kept his magic at bay.


    The old man turned his face towards the door and then shifted his body when he saw Quinn.


    "Oh, Quinn. It has been a while, hasn''t it?"


    n D. Baddeley had arrived.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - My favorite character - Guess, who is back?


    Quinn West - MC - Hey, why am I in the second ce?! I am always in the first ce!


    Ivy Potter - Complicated emotions - Possessor of modified Marauder''s Map.


    Hermione Granger - Bookworm - Worried about exams.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 69 - Home, Potion, And Cure

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn turned back and closed the door behind him. He nodded to George and Elliot, who were standing there as he closed the door. "I will be back in a few."


    Turning back towards n, Quinn slowly walked to the chair in front of the old man and took a seat.


    "Hello, Mr. n," greeted Quinn. n could see the clear signs of lumency from Quinn''s face.


    "So, I hear you messed up," n spoke, and Quinn just stared at his mind-arts teacher''s usual, almost ever-present smile.


    He hadn''t changed a single bit in the three years. n D. Baddeley was still the joyous old man who had a penchant for peeking into other''s mind,


    "I did. I really did." Quinn nodded in response. n was here to help him, so Quinn didn''t gain anything from lying or hiding things. And, currently, with his lumency operating full time, he had a serious edge of logic in his thoughts.


    "I want you to ready your bracelet and get ready to defend yourself." Quinn got straight to the point. "This is what is happening with me."


    "Ah, yes. The rampaging magic I was told about. I think that is a good ce to start." n brought his hands together and touched his focus bracelet with his other hand. "Go ahead. I am ready."


    The two people in the room didn''t waste any time catching up after three years of separation. Both knew that they could do it afterward. Quinn desperately wanted to know what was happening to him and solve it to get this crisis behind him. While n could see that Quinn wasn''t having a good time.


    "Okay, here I go."


    The next second, n immediately pulled up a transparent shield just as a spell was hurled towards him. "Oh, that was close."


    He watched with keen attention as various activities of magic manifested into the room. There was nothing to be observed from the out-of-control magic. As the name suggested, it was out of control.


    After n was satisfied seeing this unusual sight, he turned his eyes to his young student, who had his eyes squeezed shut and struggle on his face.


    Immediately n sent a mental probe into Quinn''s mind, and he was a little surprised to see that Quinn''s shields were fully down. Right now, he was no different from a person without an lumency shield.


    n dove into Quinn''s mind and saw that the mindscape had changed in thest three years.


    "Oh my, now that is a magnificent structure," n smiled as he saw the enormous building in front of him.


    Hogwarts castle stood in all its magnificent glory. Even the surroundings were changed to look like the surroundings of the real Hogwarts.


    "He built this in three years? Impressive." n was impressed because of the sheer size of the castle. He could tell that the castle was functioning memory storage and not a work in progress before a memory gateway initiation.


    But right now, he didn''t have time to admire the structure, neither did he need to go through Quinn''s memories.


    ''Let''s go check his emotional status,'' said n, and instantly, he was not in the mindscape with the enormous castle.


    The space he arrived in was grey, with the color tending towards ck rather than white. Inside the grey, there were dark distortion-like vortexes littered around the space.


    "Well, with his magic out of control, it makes sense that his head is not right," noted n as he looked around. "He loves magic after all."


    n was standing in Quinn''s emotional representation. An experienced legilimens or lumens could ess their own or someone else''s sentimental representation. You couldn''t influence emotions from here, and this was just a ce you could judge a person''s emotions.


    Emotions were aplex concept that every mind-arts user studied extensively. And if they were serious about learning about mind-arts and the mysteries of the mind, then there woulde a time in every mind-art user when they would have to confront their emotions.


    The dark greyness in Quinn''s emotional representation clearly showed that Quinn was in a darker state of mind, and the darker vortexes that he was struggling with some mental problems.


    Take n for an example: he was an avid advocate of mental health, and if anyone got the almost non-existent opportunity to get a look inside n''s emotional representation, then they would find that it was a very light color of grey, a color very close to white.


    The lighter the color of the space, the better mental condition they were in.


    n took care of his mental condition and didn''t have any delusions about himself. He confronted almost every issue about himself and got to the root of the problem. In doing that, he would attain closure and help his mental situation.


    Aplete white emotional space was only present in infants, toddlers, or very young children. Any age above that would have different shades of grey because such was life, and they were sentimental beings; no person was perfect.


    The distortion-like vortexes were the real cause of problems; they were what messed up with Quinn''s mind and, in turn, his magic.


    Removing his eyes from the grey space, n gazed at the bright and colorful arrangement in front of him.


    What n was seeing was a vastwork of light orbs of various sizes connected to each other. The connections between them were of varying lengths and pulsed from time to time. n could think of every color he knew, and he would find it in the bright and colorfulwork.


    There were so many connections that, to the naked eye, it was aplexwork of lines and orbs. But, to a mind-arts specialist like n, it was nothing but an open book.


    "No matter how many times I see this. It never ceases to amaze me," murmured n as he looked at theplexwork.


    This was the core of Quinn''s emotions. Every emotion he had ever felt connected to each other in aplexwork.


    This was a core part of Quinn West''s personality. Personality was defined as the character sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors.


    Emotions heavily influenced a person''s personality and attitude toward things. The more you experienced various situations, the more you form opinions, and with those opinions woulde emotions regarding those experiences.


    "Hmm... this isn''t out of coordination," noticed n. There was nothing wrong with Quinn''s emotionalwork. "He isn''t feeling unnatural bouts and spurts of emotions or nothing else."


    "Well, Quinn did state that whatever was done to him came undone."


    n remembered the day when George West personally hade to his door to request his help. It was a shock to see the influential man contact him personally and not through someone else.


    George had told him that Quinn had requested his help. The initial information given to him was that Quinn''s magic was out of control, and it was because he was under the influence of some kind of magic.


    Quinn stated when the magic came undone, his magic went out of control.


    "This enough for now," said n.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    When n came out of Quinn''s mind, he spoke to his student.


    "Alright, you can stop, Quinn," spoke n.


    With a sudden, sharp, and erratic intake of air, Quinn mped down on his lumency. Immediately, all magic stopped, and Quinn went expressionless.


    Quinn''s eyes remained closed for around a minute before he opened them and tly asked, "What is wrong with me?"


    "Other than a darker state of mind, I have found nothing wrong with your mind," replied n. "Of course -."


    But a shout from Quinn cut n''s exnation.


    "What!" Immediately, Quinn''s lumency cracked slightly under the bout of anger. "Did you just not see the rampant magic?! How can you say that nothing is wrong with me?"


    Rampant magic once again manifested in the room as the temperature rose.


    n sighed before he cast magic, and immediately Quinn''s pupils dted, and he calmed down.


    "I am using mind magic on you to calm you down," spoke n. "How are you feeling now? Calmed down?"


    Quinn nodded as he patched up his lumency and detached his emotions from himself. n also retrieved his magic as Quinn brought himself under control.


    "As I was saying, that there is nothing wrong with your emotions right now. They are functioning like a normal person, albeit a normal person under a lot of stress," n spoke in a calming voice, making sure that he didn''t agitate Quinn. "But, we have only started. There is a good chance that I might have missed something, so have patience. You have already been like this for a few weeks; you can wait for a little while."


    Quinn nodded in reply and patiently waited for n''s instruction.


    "I will need some memories," n said as he crossed his on hisp. "I need to know what actually happened to you."


    n didn''t even ask for Quinn''s ount of the entire situation and went straight for the memories. He was sure that his student would recognize that showing memories would be much more efficient and resourceful than Quinn telling him things using words.


    "I expected that," replied Quinn. "It took me days under this condition to create a collection of memories that will get you up to speed."


    "Oh ho ho, you are prepared. That is nice," n remarked at the news from Quinn.


    "I had weeks to think about this situation. Even though I wasn''t able to get myself better, I did make sure that I had everything in hand for you."


    n tilted his head and asked, "What would you have done if I had refused?"


    Quinn mechanically shrugged, "I wasn''t thinking about that. I am sure that if you refused, grandfather would have brought in someone else. But, if I am being honest, I knew you woulde."


    If Quinn didn''t have his lumency detaching his emotion from him, then he would have been smiling, but he couldn''t even do that as his magic would havee alive and shot out fireworks into the air at the very least.


    nughed at that statement, "Well, it turned out you were right. Here I am sitting in front of you."


    The old man rubbed his hands before saying, "Alright, show me those memories."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    A mental representation of Quinn waited inside his mindscape with a book in hand. He looked up to see n manifest into the mindscape.


    "Let''s get started," said the representation of n as he walked to Quinn. He looked at the book in Quinn''s hand and asked, "Is that the collection?"


    Quinn nodded as he raised his hand. "Put your hand on it."


    n followed, and without a break, put his hand on Quinn''s memory-book, and immediately the memories, snippets from the time Friar told him the riddle to the memories of a few days back, greeted n.


    It took n just over a minute to go through every single memory present in theption. It would have taken Quinn at least a couple of hours to do the same.


    "Meet me outside," n said and promptly disappeared from Quinn''s mind.


    When Quinn opened his eyes to return to the real world because right now, to do anything inside his mind took his entire concentration, and he couldn''t operate in the real world and his mindscape at the same time.


    n sat in deep thought about what he had seen. The memories had given him a lot to think about, a lot of information to process.


    "Well, did you find something?" Quinn asked in impatience.


    "Hmm... there were a lot of snippets," said n as he stood up. Quinn looked up at the standing man, waiting for the mind-arts master to tell him some good news.


    "I have some ideas. Give me some time to analyze." n walked to Quinn and put a hand on his head. Ruffling his hair. "Until then... sleep."


    Quinn was confused to hear it, but the next second, darkness took over him.


    n looked at his sleeping student and sighed.


    There were a lot of things to go over in Quinn''sption. He needed some time to think those through, and he needed some hours for preparation, so he just put Quinn to sleep until then.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn opened his eyes with a groan. He sat up on the bed and just stared forward towards the wall. Quinn frowned when the wall ahead wasn''t part of his dorm room or his room in the West Manor.


    ''Where am I?'' he thought, and immediately he recalled what happened before he went to sleep.


    He was in the training hall sitting across n when he put his hand on his head, and then everything went ck.


    "He put me to sleep, didn''t he?" spoke Quinn. He ruefully smiled at the old man''s actions. It fit n''s personality, dropping him without warning.


    But then immediately, Quinn''s eyes widened as he recalled he wasn''t using his lumency. Every morning since the ident, Quinn would wake up, and within a few seconds, he would be assaulted with pain that would function as a reminder to pull up his lumency.


    Right now, there was no pain and, more importantly, no outbursts of magic.


    "Good morning."


    Quinn moved his head to see n sitting in a chair with a book in his hand. A small table with tea and snacks stood beside him as he enjoyed the treats while reading his book.


    "Did you cure me?" Quinn asked with hope. For the first time in weeks, his voice wasn''t t and had emotion in it.


    "Of course not, child." n smashed the hope within seconds. "You should know better that your condition is much more serious to be cured overnight."


    Quinn closed his eyes in shattered hope and felt miserable that he wasn''t cured but opened his eyes to ask the question.


    "Then why isn''t my magic acting up? What did you do?" Currently, he was feeling as normal as he had ever been. His magic wasn''t acting up, his emotions weren''t detached, and he felt whole again.


    n sipped some tea from his cup before answering, "I gave you a magic dampening potion ten minutes before I woke you up."


    "A magic dampening potion?" Quinn eximed. He felt around for his magic and felt that his connection to it was weak. "Something like that exists?" If he had known that something like this existed, he would have used it a long time ago.


    "Oh yes, magic dampeners exist." n chuckled and took a bit of a scone before continuing. "They aren''t used that much, so it is not strange that you haven''t heard of them."


    Quinn didn''t care that he wasn''t aware of something like a magic dampening potion. He was just d that something like this existed. "Thank magic. At least with this, I won''t have to keep using my lumency to keep my magic under control."


    "... About that," n closed his book and looked at stared at Quinn. "I am afraid that things aren''t that simple."


    "What do you mean?" Quinn felt dread build up in his ribcage.


    "The reason that the magic dampening potion isn''t famous or widely known is that it is harmful to the drinker," n dropped a bomb on Quinn.


    "What? W-What do you mean it is harmful?"


    "If someone is put under the effects of magic dampening potion every day, all day, then their body starts to malfunction." n imparted grim knowledge to Quinn, who was under the effects of magic dampening potion. "Tumors form in various parts of bodies, the immune system starts to weaken, multiple organ failures, degradation of senses, and overall the body starts to give up."


    "Then why did you give it to me?!" Quinn screamed at his teacher, who just that he had given him a potion that could kill him.


    "One dose of the potion won''t do anything like that. You would need multiple doses every day for a certain period will cause what I was talking about." n waved his hand in dismissal as it wasn''t a big deal.


    Then he dropped a bomb.


    "But yeah, you will be taking it every day."


    Quinn wanted to shout and scream, but he was just too much in shock to do so. He had just woken up, and this was the first thing he heard. He already knew how this day was framing out to be.


    "...Please, exin."


    n cleared his throat before starting, "You can sense your magic, right? It is notpletely cut off from you."


    Quinn nodded. The connection to his magic was weak, but it was there.


    "The potion I gave you is a diluted recipe. It just weakens your connection and doesn''t hamper itpletely." n raised one finger in his right hand. "This is the first thing that will reduce the negative effects of the potion."


    He raised another finger and continued, "The dose you will be given will only work for maybe six to seven hours. So, the rest of the time, your magic will still be rampant, and well... you will have to use your lumency. That also reduces the progress of negative effects of the potion."


    n smiled and finished, "That way, I can keep giving you the potion for an extended period, and the effects won''t creep on you like they are supposed to do when given the full treatment." n made air quotes as he said treatment.


    "Wait, wait, wait," Quinn raised his hand to speak up, "All the things regarding the potion are fine, well...no, it is not fine, but let''s put that aside for a second. I want to know the cure for this. I can keep taking the potion, but it will not help me cure anything."


    n put down his empty teacup and said, "Quinn, there is nothing to cure with you. You are fine. There is nothing wrong with you."


    n enunciated every sentence to stress them.


    Quinn stared at the mind-arts teacher with an expression that was a mix between shock, confusion, and disbelief.


    "What do you mean there is nothing wrong with me?"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - What the hell is the old man talking about? Has he finally gone senile?


    n D. Baddeley - Master of Mind-arts - I am not old... well I am, but I am not senile.


    FictionOnlyReader - It is a cliff SuckerZz - Eh, the word count was reached.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 70 - Aftermath: Questions Answered

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "What do you mean there is nothing wrong with me?"


    Quinn was stunned to hear n''s statement. Here he had been having trouble controlling his magic. Whenever he set his magic free, it would go berserk and hurt him in the process.


    Just so that his magic doesn''t go out of control, he had tortured himself and detached his emotions from himself. He had learned the very first day he had read upon the emotional aspect of lumency that blocking his emotions for long periods was harmful. But, he still did it because it was the only way he could think.


    Now, the old man in front of him was telling Quinn that he had nothing wrong with him.


    "What the hell do you mean by that?"


    n sighed at his student and exined.


    "Quinn, I diagnosed you while you slept. I didn''t find anything wrong with you," n raised his hand when Quinn tried to speak up. "I know your magic isn''t under your control. But, that isn''t a disease or injury."


    "Then why is acting out and rampaging?"


    "Before I answer that, let''s go back to the start," n suggested and put up his first question. "Tell me, what do you think happened to you?"


    "I was clearly under the control of magic or curse. It all started when I fell unconscious in the vault," Quinn recalled the time when he returned to his dormitory. "It lowered my inhibitions. I did plenty of things that I wouldn''t do. Plus, vault made it so that I won''t return to it for exploration. I was nning to return to the vault but changed my mind and didn''t visit. I was clearly under some kind of mental curse..."


    Quinn trailed off at the end and then raised his voice at n.


    "Why in the bloody name of magic didn''t lumency work?! I regrly spend time on that damn magic. Why didn''t it work for months, months!"


    "Hmm, tell me, Quinn, what is your current system of lumency defense?" n asked a question from his student. He already knew the answer to the question. But was walking his student through the process so that he would arrive at the answer.


    "It hasn''t changed from the time we ended our lesson," said Quinn. He wondered why n was asking him the question. "A shieldyer built under a defenseyer, with another set of the same configuration following under the first set."


    "Correct, and I have to say that you have made noteworthy progress in strengthening your shields. They have grown quite a bit since the time I taught you." n gave Quinn praise on his progress before asking. "Now, let me ask you this. Do you think that right now, I am inside your mind?"


    "Definitely," Quinn replied almost immediately. He knew his teacher''s personality. He had spent a couple of years under his tutge, and he was sure that n was in his mind the entire time.


    "Did you sense me entering? Or can you feel me operating legilimency right now?"


    "... No, but where are you going with this," asked Quinn. He wasn''t following whatever n was trying to show him.


    n sighed before he said, "Quinn, with your current system of lumency, you won''t be able to detect anything as long as they get past your shield. If someone or in this case something passes through your defenses, you will have no idea that they are inside."


    "Your defenses will tell you that there is an iing attack if they are strong enough, but once the attack is inside, your defenses won''t do squat." n folded his hands on hisp and continued, "Don''t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the system you are following. You can build your defenses until they are at my level. There is no limit there, but your system of lumency defenses doesn''t have any other feature beyond that. Your defenses won''t do something that it wasn''t designed for."


    n pointed at himself and said, "If someone manages to break past my covering shields, that doesn''t mean my defense is over. I have various fail-safes present beyond that to protect my mind." He pointed at Quinn and continued, "You, on the other hand, have nothing other than your detectionyers and shields. You have the castle and the manor inside, and you have sorted the memories in a way that even if someone gets past your defenses, they would have a mighty difficult time to get to the memory they are looking."


    "And, while I was teaching you, we never went over the possibility of something like this happening. We worked on legilimens breaking into your mind to get ess to your memories. We never worked on something like this that would target you in such a way that would alter your personality." n paused and stated, "You don''t have a way to protect your mind from being manipted like this."


    "B-But, I-I worked hard on t-this," Quinn was shocked to hear that his defenses were useless. He wasn''t expecting to hear that after the time and effort he put on his lumency.


    "I know you worked hard. Your defense-aspect and your efficiency-aspect have grown beyond what I had thought you would be able to aplish at your current age. I can assure you that your progress is quick, and other than myself and some select individuals, your speed of progress is second to none."


    Then came the ''but'' of the sentence.


    "But... your progress in the emotional-aspect iscking. While you are able to detach your emotions so that be nothing but a buzz at the back of your head, and that allowed you to keep your magic in check all this time..."


    n had seen the memories, and with his level of legilimency, he didn''t just watch the memories like a film and was able to feel what Quinn was feeling during his memories.


    "...You have done nothing to make sure that your emotions won''t be manipted. The one to me here is time. You just didn''t have enough time to devote to the emotional-aspect while you learned other magic."


    When n said Quinn''s progress was below himself and some other individuals, he didn''t consider that Quinn devoted time not just to lumency but various other fields of magic.


    Quinn had recovered from the reeling shock that his lumency had failed him because he hadn''t designed it sufficiently.


    "...Shields."


    Quinn said something that n wasn''t able to hear, so he leaned forward and asked. "Pardon, I didn''t get that."


    "Shields, you said my shields are strong. Why didn''t they stop the magic from entering my mind? Even if my emotional-aspect lumency wascking, my defense-aspect was strong enough to block out an attack."


    n nodded to that question and gathered his thoughts to answer. "Friar? was that his name. Yes, Friar. The ghost who gave you the riddle said that another ghost had ceased to exist because of that vault. What did you think about that?"


    "That the vault was harmful to ghosts, what about it? I am not a ghost," said Quinn. He would have answered better if he was in another time, but right now, Quinn was defending his lumency.


    "Alright, what are ghosts?" asked n.


    "A ghost is the imprint of the soul of a once-living magical, and as such, a type of spirit. These fleshless spirits are either afraid of death or have some extremely potent connection to the locations they haunt." Quinn gave him the textbook definition of a ghost.


    n smiled as the words were right there. "Exactly, they are imprints of souls. Imprints of souls have simr properties as actual souls. You get what I am talking, right?"


    Quinn gave it a thought, and after some time, he exhaled.


    "The curse was soul-based. Is that what you are talking about?"


    n made a face that said, ''kind of, but not really.''


    "The curse was emotion-based, but I can safely conclude that the curse definitely had a soul aspect. It might as well have been the entry point as after that your neither your mind nor soul had no defense for your emotions."


    n gazed at Quinn as he thought about how to exin it to his student.


    "Emotions are connected to both mind and soul. Some believe that it might even be connected to the body as negative emotional states can affect physical output. But, emotions are definitely connected to mind and soul. Mind connection, you already know, and the existence of ghosts show conclusive proof of the soul connection."


    They remained in the mortal world because they had unfinished business, whether in the form of fear, guilt, regrets, or overt attachment to the material world who refuse to move on to the next dimension. The choice toe back as a ghost was emotionally based.


    "You never noticed something was wrong with you the entire time the curse was active. You made decisions and acted in ways that you wouldn''t have. A lot of things should have triggered some suspicion inside you, but it never did. Not once did you think that there was something wrong with you. All of this was because the curse was acting on your emotions and, in turn, your personality. It attacked from two sources, both closely connected to magic; Mind and Soul."


    Quinn just grabbed his head and groaned. He was regretting the decision to dive into the second vault.


    "What about my magic rampaging out," Quinn questioned. "How is that connected to my magic? What about the changes the curse bought to my magic before it broke?"


    "About that, I have no idea how did the curse, if we can even call it that at this point, increased the capacity of your magic, but I can tell you that the increase in control was because emotion and will is an essential aspect to magic. The curse definitely brought your emotions close to your magic. Your magic responded to your emotions better than ever while you were under its influence."


    A magical''s emotional state can affect their inherent abilities. For instance, an agent of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force was said to have produced better results with their Inn Charm after channeling the goodwill they received from inn-keepers they met on their travels into their spell-casting.


    While in service, Gareth Greengrass, a senior researcher in the Department of Mysteries, at one point, documented over seven hundred instances of spells being cast in anger. He found they were all more powerful than even the casters themselves had thought themselves capable of producing.


    "The curse targeted your emotions with cardinal sins, or the capital vices, or the seven deadly sins."


    Quinn copsed back into his bed, and while gazing at the ceiling, he asked, "Do continue."


    "It triggered your emotions when you felt things that were even remotely in connection to the cardinal sins," n listed all the seven sins. "Pride. Greed. Envy. Sloth. Wrath. Gluttony. Lust."


    "Let''s talk some examples of how the curse affected you," spoke n as he got up from his chair and walked around Quinn''s bed.


    "First, let''s take an example of how it amplified your emotions from something small to an exaggerated state. Your first duel in that dueling club of yours."


    The mention of the event bought Quinn''s memory of the duel against Miles Bletchley to the surface.


    "You felt a little insulted by the way he looked at you. Tell me, what would you have done if you had another chance and weren''t influenced by the curse."


    Quinn didn''t have to think much about it, and he answered, "A single Disarming spell and end the duel within seconds. I would have ended the duel so fast that he wouldn''t have a chance to even twitch a muscle, but I wouldn''t have humiliated him by not even drawing my wand. That was too shy for me."


    Quinn could hear n''s footsteps as he walked around, "That was wrath. He insulted you, and that triggered wrath. Your opponent just looked at you funny, and I think you decided to humiliate him even before the nasty spells he shot."


    "I guess you are right," Quinn thought about the times he had been angry in thest few months. Some regrettable decisions shed through his mind.


    "Next, let''s move on to the times where the curse took advantage of your body to take effect," n spoke, moving on to the next observation. If Quinn could see his teacher''s face, he would have found a huge shit-eating grin on the old man''s face.


    "Body? When did the curse affect my body?" Quinn wasn''t sure there were changes to his body. Quinn was sure that his body wasn''t touched by the curse.


    "I am talking about puberty, Quinn."


    Quinn froze in his bed, and he immediately knew n was talking about lust.


    "I am sure that you wouldn''t have included those memories in the memory package, but you were working with logical thinking that spanned for days on end. So, a lot of those ended up in there."


    nughed for a while before continuing.


    "Lust triggered in short, but many bursts, and that was because of your hormones. You were so affected by it because you started to feel attracted to the fairer sex." n chuckled at the embarrassment his student was feeling. "Lust just took over from that point on. I really saw youth in there."


    Quinn had spanked the monkey, jacked the beanstalk, auditioned with his hand puppet, charmed the snake, took the dog out for a walk, or wanked... twice a day without fail.


    Nowying in his bed, Quinn remembered the times he had been doing something and just ended up staring at the passing by girls. Then there was the incident with Daphne.


    ''Dammit, why did I have to say that Daphne,'' Quinn mushed his face into the pillow. Lust might have been the most enjoyable, but just like others. It made him do things he regretted.


    "Let''s move on, please."


    A muffled shout from Quinn made nugh.


    "Alright, let''s move on to the case where curse made sure that you won''t go back to the antechamber. Only one sin kept you away from the vault."


    Quinn gritted his teeth and almost snarled, "Sloth."


    "Yes, sloth." n had gone through Quinn''s memories, and the one sin that was as far away from Quinn was the sin of sloth.


    Quinn West was a busy person. He had magic to learn, and Quinn made sure to spend every productive minute of his time learning magic. So, Sloth was Quinn''s mortal enemy.


    "Surprisingly, it didn''t affect you that much, didn''t it? Except making sure that you didn''t go to the antechamber, skipping your morning runs, and the frequent short shes of zoning out, all you got was bing extremely rowdy if you were awake past your bedtime."


    Quinn didn''t say anything because it was true. The reason sloth didn''t take root inside Quinn was because...


    "Greed didn''t let me bezy," said Quinn as he stood up from the bed. The talk about sloth made him want to get away from the bed.


    "Right, about that. I never understood why you spent that much time in the library? I know you like to learn, but the time you spent in the library was unusually lengthy. I, for a fact, know that you like to use magic as much as you like to read about it," asked n as he watched Quinn stand up from the bed and stretch.


    Quinn spoke while he stretched his body.


    "I had tricked a professor into signing a pass to the Restricted Section of the library. The problem was that there is a curse on the position of the Defense Against Dark Arts position. No professorsts more than a year. I think it has been going on for decades. The teacher I tricked was the Defense Against Dark Arts professor."


    A strange sh passed through n''s eyes as Quinn mentioned the Defense Against Dark Arts professor.


    "I was sure that the professor would be gone by the end of the year, which meant that pass would onlyst for a year. So, I had to make sure to squeeze the maximum out of the one school year I had," Quinn made eye contact with n and continued, "My magic was increasing by the day, and my control was getting better, so the decision I made was to spend all my time in the library."


    "Now that you mentioned the sins, I think greed was the most prominent sin out of all seven. It was always present in the back of my head. Guiding me to learn more and more," Quinn sighed as he leaned against a wall with his hands behind his back.


    "Sitting in that library made you happy, and that was because greed made it such. Your greed for knowledge was fulfilled while you stayed in the library, and it affected your emotions, making you happy," n made some conclusions out from the knowledge he had.


    Quinn nodded, but then he pushed away from the wall and point-nk asked.


    "Enough of this. Tell me what had happened to my magic?"


    n stopped his walk and turned to face Quinn. The two stared at each other for a moment before n spoke up.


    "Your mind, soul, and magic are fine. They don''t have anything wrong with them. The problem is that while the curse was active, it increased your capacity and focus, but the way it was achieved was not natural, or should I say the process was artificial."


    Quinn felt his heart beat faster as n continued to speak.


    "I don''t think that curse was supposed to break down. I don''t know what it was designed to achieve, but it wasn''t meant to break down in the middle like it did in your case. With my knowledge, it was meant to go until the end, whatever the end was."


    All of this was what n had been able to find out from Quinn''s memories and an entire night of diagnostics on Quinn while he slept.


    "The curse had total control over your focus abilities as it was raising it artificially. So when it came undone, your bond to your magic which was being raised artificially broke down and with it everything you had worked hard to established."


    n pursed his lips when he saw the despair on Quinn''s face. He knew that Quinn had worked hard to build his control since he was five years old. But now, it was all gone.


    "O-Okay... Mr. n, this isn''t helping me," Quinn''s voice had a shakiness and desperation in his voice. "W-What does this mean?"


    n knew what wasing, but he had to continue,


    "Your focus ability is gonepletely, Quinn, and the reason your magic isshing out is that it was had been artificially raised. You weren''t meant to gain that much magic in that short amount of time. Your own magic is rejecting itself and is trying to get out."


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    Quinn West - MC - No control over his magic.


    n D. Baddeley - Teacher - Breaker of bad news.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Don''t worry, things will be fixed in the next chapter. (I hope nobody reads this because I am kind of building tension here, but... I know what happens when I do it.)


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    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 71 - Road To Recovery, Lesson, Closure

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    "Your focus ability ispletely gone, Quinn and the reason your magic isshing out is that it has been artificially raised. You weren''t meant to gain that much magic in that short amount of time. Your own magic is rejecting itself and is trying to get out."


    Quinn, who had his eyes wide open, started to tap a foot against the floor. He didn''t blink his eyes; all his attention was on n. He was hanging on his every word. The news wasn''t getting good, but it was something he needed to hear.


    "If you want to get your magic back, you just need to get it back under your control. The current you doesn''t have even a bit of focus ability. You might be the only one at your age who can''t keep his magic under wraps even when everything is alright. People don''t have magicshing out against their will. Their magic might not respond to them, but it doesn''t act on its own."


    n was as straightforward as he could be and sledgehammered his way to tell Quinn his current situation.


    "Any solution?" asked Quinn. There was a lump in his throat that was threatening to break out.


    "It''s simple," n smiled. The usual smile that he always had. "You need to build it up like you did since you started learning magic. The connection has broken down, and you need to build it back up."


    "You could have started to get your magic back the second it went out of control. I didn''t need toe back here to help you out," n walked towards Quinn while speaking. "The only thing I can actually do to help is to make things easier."


    "With your magic rampaging against you, it will be difficult for you to keep it under control." n took out a vial from his robes and showed it to Quinn.


    "So the solution to all that is to numb down the magic. By giving you the magic dampening potion, we can level the field. By numbing your connection to your magic, we can make sure that you can work in a calm sea and not in a storm."


    Quinn closed his eyes to hide the pain he was feeling. The question came out,


    "I lost all my progress?"


    n nodded and confirmed his fears. "Yes, you lost all your progress."


    "But, I can regain it back?"


    The question made n''s eyes sparkle and widen his smile. The old Quinn wasing back, the Quinn who surprised him time after time. He could feel it.


    "Yes, you can. You built a tower, and it broke down. You just need to build it again."


    Quinn opened his eyes, and there was a glint in his eyes, "I will build a damn pyramid this time. Something that can''t be broken down. Hell to it all if I am going to let something like this happen again."


    "Excellent, that is the spirit, my child. You did it once, and you can do it again," n patted Quinn''s shoulders and said, "Now, go meet your family. They had been worried sick since you came home. Go and assure them that everything is fine."


    Quinn looked up at n and earnestly said, "Thank you for all of this."


    n smiled but said nothing, prompting Quinn to walk outside the room to meet his family.


    Just after he closed the door, Quinn looked down at his left hand, and immediately an orb of white light manifested above it. A simple, small, somewhat dim orb of light.


    In the hallway, with no one else but Quinn.


    He stared at the dim orb of light, which flickered as if it were almost about to go out. The intensity wavered every second. It would brighten for a moment but dim the next.


    The light was weak, but it shone brightly in Quinn''s eyes.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn emotionlessly stared at the vial that n had handed to him. It had been three days since Quinn had returned home, and his daily routine was to wake up, go out for a run, have breakfast, wait for n to arrive, and then drink the magic dampening potion to finally free himself from the binds of lumency.


    He looked up at n, who watched him, before opening the cork on the vial and downing the potion in one gulp. Quinn closed his eyes and felt the potion take its effects. As Quinn felt the magic dim down, his lumency also weakened till he was no longer able to keep it operational.


    It was a weird feeling, not having his mind operating with lumency aid. He couldn''t remember what it was like before he got the mind-aiding art. Right now, it just felt like there were drapes over his mind, stopping him from peeking inside.


    "So, what do you want to talk about?" Quinn asked as he opened his eyes. He looked at n, who sat on a chair in front of him. A table in between them separated the young and the old.


    "I am going to leave today," announced n. "I have nothing else to offer. Your grandfather has the recipe for the potion, and I am sure that he has potioneers at his disposal, so I am not really needed. Your magic is your problem, and no one but you can solve it."


    Quinn crossed his legs before asking, "You could always help me out with the emotional-aspect of lumency. I learned the other two aspects from you; how about making it aplete set of three?"


    n chuckled as he refused, "I think it would be better if you learn it yourself. Your spoonfeeding days have passed. Learn it on your own: you already know how to disconnect emotions on different levels, so you have already started on the path; just keep going."


    "You didn''t spoon feed me anything," Quinn sounded miffed. He surprised n quite a bit, so Quinn did anything but being spoonfed knowledge.


    "Whatever you say, kid," n chuckled before continuing on a serious note. "Before I go, I think this is the right time to address some issues."


    Quinn furrowed his brows, uncertain, "Issues? You said that there was nothing wrong with me other than that I am the worst magic user in the world... For now, that is."


    n gave one of those soft stares that Quinn was not used to when they came from n.


    "What?" Quinn questioned, eyeing at his teacher.


    "Quinn, we need to talk about the obliviation incident," n''s voice was soft. He tried to make sure that Quinn was not threatened and felt asfortable as he could.


    Quinn froze on his barstool and stilled as he stared at n with vignt eyes.


    "That incident wasn''t in the memories I gave you," Quinn red at n, who showed no reaction at all to the re.


    "True, but a lot of times, patients hide things from their healers. You especially like to hold your cards close to your chest." n pointed at his temple and then pointed at Quinn. "You were in a dark state of mind when I first checked. Even though there is nothing physically or magically wrong with you, your mental health is still not at the level I consider healthy."


    Quinn continued to re at n for a solid minute before softening his re. "Alright, let''s talk about it." The harshness in the tone was still evident, even if it wasn''t as pronounced as before.


    "Let''s get this clear, what you did was wrong," n came out strong without beating around the bush. This matter wasn''t when n wanted to dance around the topic and bring Quinn to enlightenment.


    "Of course, I know what I did was wrong," Quinn growled. "You don''t think I know that? I erased a person''s life, leaving them without an identity."


    It was one of, if not Quinn''s biggest, regret out of all the things Quinn did while under the influence of the curse.


    "He was a prick, a fraud, and built his entire life by robbing people of their memories," Quinn clenched his hands and spat. "Despite all that, I still feel wrong about erasing his entire identity off of him."


    He massaged his temples but couldn''t meet the eye of his mind-arts teacher. Even if the fate of Lockhart was the same as canon, it didn''t fit well with Quinn that he was the one to cause that fate.


    "The reason I am bringing this up is that I have experienced something simr," said n, shocking and causing Quinn to look up towards his teacher.


    It was the first time Quinn had seen such a somber expression on n''s face. There was a haunting reminiscence in the mind-arts master.


    "You see, when I was young... I was forty years old at that time. Making way into the field of the mind arts. I was well into my travels when I arrived in a country. I won''t name names."


    Quinn tried to imagine how a young n D. Baddeley would look like.


    "It turned out that one of the ministry bigwigs there knew about me. He also held an interest in my work, so he offered me an opportunity. An opportunity that at that time interested me a bit too much." n looked Quinn straight in the eye and spoke in a grim voice. "He offered me dispensation to experiment on human subjects who were on death row."


    Quinn sucked in a deep breath at that. There was nothing wrong with human trials if they were conducted properly, but with how the topic started made Quinn feel that this would not end well.


    "It was a rare chance to ethically perform mind magic on humans. At that time, using the Killing curse to execute death row subjects was considered a normal practice. So me experimenting on people who were sentenced to death wasn''t a moral dilemma either." n leaned back into his chair and stated, "So, as you might have guessed, I readily epted. I took the opportunity to experiment on death row inmates with no restriction on the things I could do. I was given full reign on how to operate. I didn''t even have to care about their health or well beings."


    "So, I got six people to work with. Their fates before their deathid in my hands," A faraway look appeared in n''s eyes as he continued. "I was so arrogant and full of myself at that time. I thought I couldn''t do anything wrong, so I did whatever I wanted with the patients. I followed the protocol well because I was a professional in how I did things."


    "The experiments went well. The six inmates were left all twitchy and with some tics because of the constant experimentation. I might have gone a little overboard, but there wasn''t any permanent damage to any of them. But you see, during the experiments, a single thought gued my mind."


    n''s gaze locked on Quinn as a self-mocking smile rose on his face.


    "I thought, I have never actually seen what would happen if I went all out of someone''s mind." n opened and closed his fist. "Mind-arts is a controlled art; it needs finesse and subtlety. So I never actually knew what the mind-arts could do if someone turned the dial all the way up. It was a professional curiosity that I shouldn''t have tried to sate."


    "So after thinking about it, I choose to use the Memory charm. I decided to use an unchecked Memory charm on one of the six people. To see what would happen, what woulde out on the other side."


    There was a long pause as n went silent, and Quinn watched without saying a word as the tension in the room built up.


    "The result was that the inmate forgot everything. He forgot every single thing."


    n tilted his head to the side and borated.


    "Your guy just lost his identity, but he can still start a new life if he wanted. But, my guy? My guy forgot everything. He forgot his identity, his life experiences, and he forgot how to be a human. I ended up making him forget how to function as a human. I erased a human out of existence, and what I left behind was nothing better than a newborn baby."


    n derisivelyughed at himself. "The jailors thought I drove him mad. But they didn''t understand. I hadn''t driven him insane. No, I had erased a person out of existence. In a way, I had killed that inmate before the authorities executed him. It hit me a week after I had done it, and it took me time to get over it."


    Quinn gulped as he heard n recount his story. He felt chills go down his spine as he found out the conclusion of the incident. It wasborious to erase Procedural memories because they were so deep-seated in a person.


    Procedural memory was a part of the long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things, also known as ''motor skills''. As the name implies, Procedural memory stores information on performing various procedures, such as walking, talking, and riding a bike.


    n had erased everything that was learned through living. He had reverted the inmate back to a newborn state, who had just entered the world.


    "Quinn, I don''t know what you feel about obliviating your professor. I don''t know if you feel guilty about it, or if you don''t consider it your fault as it was done under the influence of the curse," n addressed Quinn after letting the story sink in Quinn''s mind.


    "But whatever it is, don''t ignore it. Think about the incident and get some closure, whatever, to put this behind. I didn''t get closure for a long time, and I don''t want you to go through the same. So, just make sure that you have no lingering regrets about it," n tapped the table in between them, and Quinn felt the taps on his shoulders. "Believe me, it will do you good. Clear things when they are fresh. Don''t put out things forter and work while the wound is still ripe."


    Quinn nodded and got up when he saw n get up.


    "Come, let''s go out for a walk. The mood is too heavy for my liking," said n. His usual smile was back on his face.


    "You should have seen iting when you brought it up," replied Quinn.


    Quinn didn''tment on the sudden change in n''s mood. He was used to it, and he didn''t understand how the mind of a person with n''s level of lumency worked.


    The student and teacher, young and old, walked outside the room towards the garden.


    "So, tell me more about this A.I.D thing of yours. What happened toying low, not wanting to garner attention and all that jazz you talked about before you started school?"


    "Oh, that. That n went down the drain in a single year. But let''s talk about you. What have you been doing for the past three years?"


    "Hmm... Well, I met this beautifuldy whom I have been spending time with."


    "Really? You dawg!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Thank you, Polly, I will be fine from here," Quinn looked at the house-elf and thanked her. "I will call you when I am done."


    "Will little master be alright? Polly worried that you get all hurt," asked the house-elf with worry in her big eyes. She knew what was wrong with Quinn and that he had taken a potion that weakened his magic.


    "Don''t worry, Polly. I will be fine. I will go in there, and when Ie out, I will call for you," Quinn pointed at the building in front of him and smiled infort.


    "... Okay, call Polly if in trouble," asserted the motherly house-elf before popping away back to the manor.


    Quinn looked at the building; it was a red-bricked, condemned departmental store called Purge and Dowse Ltd. The departmental store was the magical gateway to St. Mungo''s Hospital for Magical Mdies and Injuries.


    The ce had a shabby, miserable air; the window disys consisted of a few chipped dummies with wigs askew, standing at random and modeling fashions at least ten years out of date. Large signs on all the dusty doors read:


    ¡¸CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT¡¹


    The hospital was ced here because no one could find a better ce to house it. Everywhere in Diagon Alley was too small, so people came up with ideas to build it underground like the Ministry of Magic, but it was decided that underground was too unhealthy. Eventually, a muggle building was purchased so that patients coulde and go and fit in with the crowds.


    Quinn walked towards a window disying nothing but a particrly ugly female dummy whose false eyshes were hanging off and modeled a green nylon pinafore dress. He leaned close to the ss, looking up at the very ugly dummy and said,


    "I am here to see Gilderoy Lockhart."


    The dummy gave a tiny nod and beckoned its jointed finger. Quinn took that as the signal and stepped into the building. Just like the barrier at King''s Cross Station to tform Nine and Three-Quarters, he didn''t crash into the building and arrived in a different ce.


    He was in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of men and women sat upon rickety wooden chairs; some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly. Others sported gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests.


    The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises... people in lime-green robes were walking up and down the rows, asking questions and making notes on clipboards. Quinn noticed the emblem embroidered on their chests: a wand and bone, crossed.


    Quinn ignored all the hustle and bustle of the area and just made his way into the hospital. He found the floor guide on a wall and found the ce he was looking for.


    ¡¸


    SPELL DAMAGE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Fourth Floor


    (Unliftable jinxes, hexes, and incorrectly applied charms, etc.)


    ¡¹


    He found the stairs and made his way to the fourth floor. It took some asking around, but he was able to find the right ce. He stared at the double doors that marked the start of a corridor signposted:


    ¡¸SPELL DAMAGE¡¹.


    He entered the corridor and looked around to find the ward, "Janus Thickey ward, Janus Thickey, Janus, ah, found it."


    It was the ward for permanent spell damage. The door was locked. Quinn took a deep breath, and with a shaking hand, channeled all the bits and pieces of magic that he could muster and unlocked the locked door.


    Gilderoy Lockhart sat in his bed. He had a quill in his hand and parchment in front of him. The man was scribbling on it with his tongue sticking out.


    He knocked on the door, and Lockhart looked up.


    "Yes," asked the man in hospital clothing.


    Quinn walked towards the bed and sat on the armchair beside it.


    "Good afternoon. My name is Quinn West."


    Lockhart smiled and introduced himself, "A wonderful afternoon to you as well. My name is Gilderoy L-Lockhart. Do you want an autograph?"


    Quinn smiled and nodded, "I would love to have an autograph."


    "Alright, wait a minute. I am going to write up a good one. I am getting better at this."


    "Sure, I will wait."


    Quinn watched as the man drew on the parchment with his quill. He didn''t feel much guilt about erasing Lockhart''s memories. The man would have continued to steal credit from people if he got out of Hogwarts unharmed.


    Then the time woulde when Lockhart wouldn''t be satisfied with his current level of fame, and it was inevitable with his personality that he would end up doing things much worse than what he did before.


    So, in Quinn''s mind, what happened was better for all because from what he remembered, Gilderoy was able to continue his work as an author, after a fashion, getting someone to help him write the book:


    ¡¸Who Am I?¡¹.


    Quinn felt Lockhart got what he deserved. The only thing that irked Quinn was that he was the one to deliver that fate.


    "Here you go, one autograph," said Lockhart, handing Quinn the parchment. "From me to Quinn West."


    Quinn took the parchment and saw one decent-looking piece of calligraphy. He could see the shes of Lockhart in there.


    His hand went to the satchel he was carrying and took out a box and set it on the bed-top table in front of Lockhart.


    "What is this?" asked Lockhart, excitement shing in his eyes.


    "A gift, Mr. Lockhart," replied Quinn, as he got up from his chair. "Please open it. It is all yours."


    The man ripped open the box and took out a figurine.


    "Oh! Isn''t this me! How handsome am I."


    Lockhart was so engrossed in the stuff in the box that he didn''t notice that Quinn had left him long ago.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - A journey to regain magic.


    n D. Baddeley - Mind-arts - Has made his share of mistakes.


    Gilderoy Lockhart - Hospital patient - Recovering.


    FictionOnlyReader - I lied, kind of - It will take two more chapters.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 72 - Family Time, And Conversations.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter was edited by my new Editor: n_Loo / nL.]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The calm and sereneke was a beautiful sight to experience. The steady, undisturbed water of theke''s surface reflected the sky above and theke''s surrounding scenery. The scenic beauty was enhanced as theke was surrounded by lush green.


    The current location was as described. Quinn and Lia were sitting at thekeside with fishing rods set up in front of them.


    "Neither of us knows how to fish," Quinn said as his other sibling stared at theke. One could only watch the reflection in theke for so long before it got boring. "This is a bad idea."


    "We just need to give it time. Fishing is all about patience, my little brother," pointed out Lia. She then raised her wand to send a pinching hex on Quinn''s upper arm.


    "Ow! Why would you do that," red Quinn at his sister as he rubbed the hurting spot.


    "I am spending my precious free time with you," Lia took out a bottle of beer from the cooler beside her and popped the cap off with magic. "Be grateful."


    "Yeah, yeah. I am Lia West, look at me, I am a big businessdy," Quinn mocked his sister. He rubbed the red spot on his arm and whined. "Dammit, this still hurts. Couldn''t you have been gentler?"


    "Like you are any better. I am Quinn West; look at me. I will be the big magic guy in the future," Lia imitated Quinn, her voice filled with sarcasm. "But I am stupid enough to lose all control over my magic, so maybe I won''t be the big magic guy."


    "I am going to be the ''big magic guy''. This is just part of my glorious journey to the top," said Quinn, and gave his sister a sideways nce.


    Their grandfather had been caring and supportive throughout the ordeal. He just wanted Quinn to be safe and didn''t care about anything else. Elliot had been supportive in the same way and always spent time with Quinn when he wasn''t under the magic dampening potion. Ms. Rosey had scolded him some before taking care of him in her own way.


    Lia, on the other hand, showed a different reaction. Quinn''s elder sister hadn''t known about the entire ordeal until she returned from spending a month in Barcelona for work.


    The first thing Lia had done after she was told of the situation was giving Quinn a tight p. If you asked Quinn, it was a really tight p.


    Quinn, who hadn''t been hit in this manner, was shocked. He had been hit with magic during his duels with Elliot. Sure, he had been hurt by bacshes while he learned and experimented, but he hadn''t been pped on the face in this life.


    After pping him, Lia had made him sit in front of her and recount the story in detail. She had listened with a stoic face that closely resembled George when he was in his serious mode. Lia''s momentum swept Quinn, who was in shock after being pped, and he retold everything that happened.


    She was the only one to actually scold him for being careless. And after screaming and yelling at Quinn, she hugged him tightly. Quinn could still clearly remember her tears on his shoulders as she hugged him.


    Before she went back to work, Lia freed herself up for a weekend, and here they were, West siblings camping overnight at akeside.


    "Do we have food in case we don''t catch any fish," asked Quinn. He wasn''t optimistic about the prospects of catching fish for their meal.


    "Unlike you, I make sure to prepare for things," quipped Lia at Quinn''s recent screw-up.


    Quinn winced and sighed, but the younger sibling couldn''t say anything in reply because what she said was true, and the whole ordeal was rather recent.


    "Excellent, what are we eating tonight?" asked Quinn. He was getting hungry as they had skipped lunch.


    "If, and only if we don''t catch any fish," Lia stressed her words because she really wanted to fish. "Then we are going to eat Beef Stroganoff."


    Quinn liked the sound of that, "Nice, that sounds perfect."


    He looked at his sister and said, "You know you can just cast a bubble-head charm around your face and go into theke to catch some fish."


    Lia finished her beer before replying, "I want to catch fish with the rod. Otherwise, I wouldn''t have rented them. And, I know what you are thinking, but no, I am not going to cast one on you so that you can go diving."


    "Oh,e on, why not? I know how to swim."


    "You are going to sit here and rx," said the overprotective hen.


    "Buzzkill," grumbled Quinn.


    "I am in my early twenties. I travel all the time. Between you, who is stuck in a castle for the most part of the year, and me, who do you think has more fun?" said Lia as she chewed on some jerky.


    "You travel for work," countered Quinn.


    "Ha!" Liaughed, "I don''t work all day long. My nights are free for me to do whatever I want. My nightlife is much more colorful than yours."


    "Don''t you feel embarrassed when youpare yourself with a teenager?" asked Quinn because Lia''s nightlife was indeed more colorful than Quinn''s. He would usually spend his nighttime in the Room of Requirements repeatedly practicing spells, manning potion cauldrons, or hunching over different materials, trying to find what worked for them.


    While it may be fun for Quinn, it wasn''t what you usually considered fun.


    "Nope, no embarrassment here," came Lia''s joyful reply. She looked at her brother before saying, "But Quinn, you should really spend some time on things other than magic. Get a hobby or something."


    "I have my piano and violin. ying instruments is a hobby," said Quinn as he got up from his seat and stretched. "Magic is my hobby and passion. Doing magic is all the fun I need," Quinn said as he looked at the blue sky.


    "That is probably true," said Lia. She could still remember how her dear brother had be so attached to her first-year magic theory book.


    "You did a terrific job on MagiFax, Quinn," Lia praised Quinn. The invention of MagiFax was the thing that really opened her eyes to Quinn''s passion for magic.


    "Hmm? Oh, that. Thanks. I actually have some design improvements for it. Even though MagiFax hasn''t beenunched, when it does, I''m sure it will gain traction at a professional level. I have a few designs for models for personal home use. Remind me to give you those when we get home."


    MagiFax was set tounch in a few weeks, and the first motive for it was to set its feet in the professional environment. If MagiFax was a hit in the professional market, then the personal home use market would open up. By using the reputation from the professional modelunch, they couldunch models suited for home use.


    Lia remembered something and shared it with Quinn because she knew he would love to hear about it.


    "Quinn, do you remember the pitch meeting you did for MagiFax?"


    "Hmm, yeah, what about it?" asked Quinn as he looked for jerky in a bag. ''Where is that jerky? I just saw it.''


    "Well, you said that it would probably take a year for someone to figure out how to make MagiFax, but no one is anywhere near to figuring it out."


    That caught Quinn''s attention. He got up from squatting near a bag and turned to face Lia. "How do you know no one has gotten close to figuring out the design? No, wait, did anyone get their hands on a MagiFax unit? There''s still a few days until the release, right? Did you disconnect it from thework?"


    "No, no, nothing like that,"ughed Lia. "I actually set up two separate groups of researchers in order to make them figure out how MagiFax works. I gave them a year''s worth of time to work out how MagiFax was designed because you gave us that estimated time. But neither group is nowhere near figuring out how it works."


    Lia''s motive for setting up research groups was to get a proven estimate of the time taken to figure out the design of MagiFax. Even though Quinn had said one year, she couldn''t just take his word for it, so she set up two separate groups to research the design of MagiFax.


    Her doubts turned out to be correct, as Quinn was wrong in his estimate, but she wasn''t expecting the result she saw. She was expecting them to figure it out quicker, but almost a year had passed, and both teams were not even close to figuring out how it worked.


    "Really? I really thought it would take at most a year," Quinn thought his estimate was a pretty urate one as he hadn''t actually invented something new to make the MagiFax. All the magic used was already discovered; he just found new practical ways to use it.


    "Are you sure you hired the right people? Did they have adequate qualifications?" Quinn asked to confirm.


    Lia widely smiled. "Yes, all of them are learned, magic researchers."


    ''They might not be good ones,'' thought Quinn but didn''t say it aloud.


    "Come on, let''s make that Beef Stroganoff, already. We are not going to catch any fish," said Quinn. He was really getting hungry and the jerky had gone missing.


    "Alright, get all the stuff ready. We will start then," Lia didn''t want to get up, so she instructed her little brother without making a move.


    "Roger!" saluted Quinn and ran off to prepare the food.


    ...


    After Quinn was done setting things up, he smiled and finally hoped that he could get something to eat.


    Just as he was about to call out to Lia that the meal was ready to be prepared, he heard:


    "Quinn! Quinn! I think I caught something huge! Come help me out!"


    Quinn''s jaw dropped before he gritted his teeth as he ran towards Lia.


    "Dammit! I am hungry! This better be worth it!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was after dinner, and Quinn was sitting with George in the parlor. The grandson and grandfather pair were ying chess as an after-dinner activity.


    Quinn was expressionless, as the magic dampening potion''s effects were already over, and the limit was a single dose a day.


    Currently, he was mping on his lumency to detach his emotions from himself. All his emotions were like a buzz in the back of his head; he could still feel them, but they were at a distance.


    "How are you feeling? Any problems?" asked George as he made his move on the chessboard.


    Quinn stared at the chessboard and the pieces at the middle of the squares.


    "I haven''t felt any problems with my body yet; no weakness, loss of appetite, or anything else. Everything seems fine right now," Quinn answered as he moved his bishop four spots diagonally.


    "What about your magic? Any improvements on that front? How is iting along," asked George as he took one of Quinn''s pawns.


    Quinn stayed silent. He had no expression on his face, so George had no idea what his grandson was thinking about. Quinn spoke after they had exchanged a few moves between them.


    "It hasn''t been going well, at least not at a level I want it to go." Quinn''s voice was quieter than before. It was the only difference George could discern in the voice of his grandson. "My connection to the magic is weak when I take the potion; it gets difficult to draw out the magic under that condition. On the other hand, my magic is just too turbulent for me to even get started when I am not under the effects of the potion."


    Quinn massaged his temple as he spoke after a pause, "I am struggling between two extremities. Too less or too much."


    "But are you making progress?" George didn''t mind if Quinn wasn''t making substantial progress with his magic as long as he made some progress.


    The magic dampening potion was harmful to the body. As such, George wanted Quinn off the potion as soon as possible.


    "Some progress, sure," answered Quinn as he moved his queen to a more offensive position. "Things are trudging along."


    "I see, I see..." George wanted to say something but trailed off at the end, opting to not say whatever was on his mind.


    But Quinn noticed his grandfather wanted to say something.


    "What is it?"


    George leaned back into his chair and took a drink from his whiskey ss. He made up his mind before speaking,


    "Do you think you''ll be able to go back to school at the end of your break?"


    Quinn''s hand, which was just above his rook, stilled. He stayed in that position for a second before pulling his hand back and setting it on the armrest.


    "At my current progress, I think I will be barely able to get myself to the level required for my fourth-year sses at Hogwarts. I will definitely struggle, but I''ll manage. But, I don''t know when my magic will calm down. The amount of magic inside my core was raised unnaturally. I don''t know how long it will be before it settles down."


    Quinn''s hand clenched as his lumency slipped a bit and some of the magic leaked outside, rocking the chessboard. Quinn had to take deep breaths to get his emotions back in his control.


    "I don''t know how much longer I have to stay like this," Quinn pointed at his face. His expressionless face, the distant state of emotion he had to keep for a part of his day, every day. It wasn''t something Quinn enjoyed but had to do it for his own safety.


    "If you want to rest for a year, you can take an off-year and join back next year," George suggested even though he already knew the answer.


    Quinn raised his head to look at George and gave a tight shake of his head, "I am not skipping a year. I will be going back after the break."


    George nodded before speaking about something he didn''tpletely understand, but maybe Quinn did. "Quinn, I am a businessman. I don''t use lots of kinds of magic daily, just some magic that makes my daily life easier."


    Quinn felt confused at George''s words. He couldn''t connect the conversation with them.


    "I''ve read a lot about the magic that there is being in products. Specially, on what is being used by ourpetitors in their products. I have to keep myself updated on different fields because it helps me be a better leader," said George. "Take the MagiFax for an example. I read how MagiFax works. I know that the Protean charm is used in it, and the other magic used to create it, but I just understand things on a surface level. I don''t understand the finer details that you exined, the details that even Lia''s teams of researchers failed to deduce."


    Quinn was getting more confused by the minute. He didn''t understand where this was going.


    George looked at Quinn and pointed out, "I don''t know how wandless magic works. I tried to read about it when you told me about it, but I couldn''tprehend much of it. I don''t know the mechanics behind using magic with an external focus. Just that it is difficult to learn."


    "You have been using magic without focus your entire life. You use magic in a different way than I do, but now this situation hase along. You have lost all your progress, and now you are struggling to get your magic back," George paused just a second before asking, "Do you think you will try using your wand if you aren''t able to get back your magic to the level you were before?"


    Quinn would have frowned if he didn''t have his lumency up, "Are you telling me to start using a wand?"


    George shook his head and exined, "Not at all. I am fine with your decisions as long as you are healthy. I don''t care if you take time off to build your magic to its previous level. But, what if your magic takes time to get back to its previous level and clearly this is bothering you. Do you think you will switch to using a wand? Because from what I understand, a wand helps you focus your magic, and that is exactly what you need right now."


    George really wanted Quinn to stop taking the magic dampening potion, so even though he knew Quinn wouldn''t like his suggestion, he still had to try.


    Quinn didn''t know what to say or think at this point. He hadn''t thought of using a wand to get his magic under control. A wand was never part of his magic, so it didn''t enter his mind to use a focus to get his magic.


    And...


    ''If I used a wand right now, wouldn''t all my hard work would have gone to waste.''


    Channeling magic without a focus was something Quinn prided himself in. He felt different from others around him. It made him feel unique.


    Quinn would be lying if he said he hadn''t considered using a wand. During the time he had been under the influence of the sin curse, Quinn had felt envious of the entire school poption because by using wands, their magic came easier to them. The only reason he hadn''t used his wand at that time was that pride overpowered envy.


    "I don''t know," answered Quinn. He didn''t know the future of his magic.


    He looked at George and asked to be excused


    George nodded, and Quinn got up and left by wishing George a good night.


    As Quinn walked back to the training hall where he was living since he came back from Hogwarts, he only had one thought.


    ''Things need to change.''


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Deep in the Aftermath.


    Lia West - Elder sister - *p!*


    George West - Grandfather - Health is wealth.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 73 - Wise Words, Mix Of Light And Dark, And He Is Back

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo / nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Are you going to that ce today as well?" asked Ms. Rosey as she saw Quinn off at the gate of the West manor. "You have been going there daily."


    Quinn tied his shoes and replied with a single word, "Yes."


    It was five-thirty in the morning, and Quinn was dressed in a tracksuit, ready to go out. He hadn''t taken the magic dampening potion because he liked to take it sometime around noon, and that wouldst him till dinner time.


    "Is fighting that much fun?" Ms. Rosey asked. She didn''t like the prospect of Quinn participating in something so inelegant.


    "It isn''t the fighting I like, Ms. Rosey... Well, I don''t dislike it, but I like the physical exertion thates with it. I like my body responding swiftly to mymands when I am sparring against someone else. It gives me a sense of control."


    Quinn answered as he got up and spoke out, "Polly, let''s go."


    When he opened the door, he found the house-elf was standing there as if waiting for Quinn to get ready.


    He turned back towards Ms. Rosey and informed her, "I will be back before lunchtime."


    Polly raised her hand, and Quinn held it. The next second, both the house-elf and human disappeared with a pop.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Polly and Quinn appeared in a deserted alleyway, appearing with the distinct pop of elf-apparition.


    "Thank you, Polly," said Quinn letting go of the hand of the West family house-elf. "I will call you when I''m ready to leave."


    Polly nodded and popped away, leaving Quinn in the alleyway.


    The raven-head boy exited the alley, crossed the road, and walked for half a minute, and reached the destination he visited every day at the same time.


    ¡¸Kaewpadung Gym¡¹


    It was one of the few Muay Thai gyms in Britain. Quinn had beening here in the summer breaks since he had started Hogwarts.


    At first, it was just for fun, and didn''t take things too seriously, and just did it to remain fit because he thought that he had been spending too much time sitting. But, this year, he had been going there every day and had been spending many hours in that ce before returning home.


    Muay Thai was developed centuries ago as a form of closebat that utilizes the entire body as a weapon. Referred to as the art of eight limbs, Muay Thai uses eight points of contact that mimicked the weapons of war.


    The hands be the swords and dagger. Shins and forearms hardened in training transform into armor.


    Fighters used the elbow as a mace or hammer. Legs and knees became the ax and staff.


    The body acted altogether as one unit.


    ...


    He entered the gym and shouted "Good morning!" as he walked inside.


    "Morning!" ... "West." ... "Kid." ... "Good morning!" ... "Morning."


    Multiple shouts greeted him back as he entered the gym. He went to the back, deposited his duffle bag, and walked back out.


    "When are we starting," asked Quinn as he walked to the group of young adults and adults.


    One of the guys in the group ruffled Quinn''s hair and said, "You should smile more, kid."


    Quinn sighed and swatted away the hand on his head. He had learned to portray fabricated expressions while under emotional lumency. But even then, Quinn came out as a quiet boy.


    "I will smile when I find something funny," said Quinn as he stretched as he waited for the instructor to arrive so that they could start.


    Suddenly a rather loud yell greeted the people present,


    "Good morning!"


    Instinctively, everyone responded back in unison.


    " "Good morning!" "


    The people who were sitting down or talking in separate groups gathered around as the man walked towards them.


    "How is everyone today? I presume all of you are feeling well."


    There were lots of ayes and ''yes'' in response, which made the man smile.


    The man standing in front of the group of ten was Sken Kaewpadung. He was a British-based Thai Muay Thai trainer, fight choreographer, and fighter promoter. Sken decided to learn Muay Thai to avenge his father''s murder, but in the end, was dissuaded from such a path to devote his life to teaching Muay Thai to anyone who wished to learn.


    Sken Kaewpadung was the only personrgely credited with bringing Muay Thai to the United Kingdom.


    "Let''s get started with a five-kilometer run to warm ourselves up," said Sken as everybody nodded.


    As everyone there was an adult, Quinn trailed behind the group and arrived a couple of minutes after them.


    "Alright, fifteen minutes, skip-rope, three sets of five," shouted Sken as he moved around the gym, instructing everybody. "Boxer step, high knee, criss-cross, and show me some speed!"


    The repetitive motions of skipping rope while staying light on their feet helped the fighter be fast on their feet when moving around an opponent in the ring. It improved coordination and timing; to jump a rope for a sustained period required coordination and timing, or you would keep snatching the rope with your ankles. Jumping rope was a highly energetic cardiovascr exercise that made it great for conditioning training for boxers and other striking styles. And finally, it was a great way to build stamina, keeping the intensity high during skipping.


    After everyone was done skipping, it was time to do rounds of shadowboxing.


    Quinn started his own drills of jab, cross, hook, followed by a knee. But just as he was about to get into it, he heard a shout.


    "Quinn! Move after a rep. You don''t want to stay in the same position after striking. Move to a different position," Sken shouted from a distance. "Build that into your muscle memory. I don''t want to see you standing still. Move! Plus, give me a double-teep double-check after this. You are ignoring the legs."


    "Yes, sir!" Quinn replied.


    "Louder!" shouted Sken.


    "YES, SIR!"


    "Excellent!"


    They ended the shadowboxing session with burnouts and pushups.


    After that was time on the bag. It was just more striking but against a heavy bag. Quinn repeated the same drills he did during shadowboxing.


    Shadowboxing and bag-workplemented each other.


    The heavy bag was great for developing power and explosive endurance. You were essentially punching the bag with a very high degree of force you can exert over time. But there were limitations to overworking the heavy bag. Generally, people tended to stand way too close to the heavy bag, at a distance where you would not stand in a real fight situation. This was okay when strictly working for power. But if overused, it could inhibit the perception of proper distance and striking ability at full reach of the fighter.


    Shadowboxing helped with that as it forced you to focus on your own body movements and proprioception (awareness of your body with its environment) without looking for the satisfying feel or sound of striking. This was a good thing because people often strayed into poor techniques to hit harder or hear what they thought sounded impressive.


    Heavy bags were for working more on the form while hitting a moving target. Fighters had to focus on speed, coordination, and power while also having to move to hit the target they wished to strike.


    Shadowboxing allowed total freedom of footwork as you didn''t have to position yourself rtive to an apparatus like a punching bag. Plus, it also allowed unrestricted body methods as strikes weren''t unimpeded by the unhuman-like dimensions of the heavy bag.


    ...


    Pad work is arguably the most representative and important part of training in Muay Thai. Unlike many gyms in the West, pad-holding is a task that is moremonly performed by a trainer and not a gym partner. It is a role that is taken seriously by the Thai trainers. Pad work was one of the most intimate moments in training. Where an instructor got to shape and sharpen the style of a fighter. Something that couldn''t be achieved by only training with a partner.


    Sken and other trainers made sure to point out things during pad work. Besides, pad-work at Sken''s gym was intense as the gym''s standard practice was to mimic ring action with three to five rounds of three to eight minutes. Quinn did four rounds of three minutes in one stretch of pad-work.


    After that came the part of training that Quinn hated; clinch wrestling.


    The clinch was defined as ''stand-up close-quarters grappling''. This is a position where bothpetitors are fighting for control to gain a dominant position.


    What made the Muay Thai clinch so different from clinching in other strikingbat sports like Boxing or Kickboxing was that the referee would not immediately break the clinch up. Clinch was allowed As as long as there was action going on in the clinch. Which meant that as long as either fighter was in a fighting position to get in strikes, the clinch was allowed to continue.


    Unlike some other Muay Thai gyms in the West part of the world, Sken paid extra attention to teach clinching just as it was done in thebat sports'' homnd, Thand.


    Afterwards, all the people in the group ended their session with warmup and stretches. All either had work or college, so they needed to go home to get prepared.


    Quinn, who didn''t have anything to do, just continued with his shadowboxing and heavy bag. He didn''t have anywhere to go and liked to spend his time there because there was nothing much to do at home.


    "Quinn,e, let''s do some light pad work," said Sken as he was free around this time. He would do with Quinn another session of pad work.


    Quinn walked over and did pad work with Sken.


    "No, not like that. You need to nt your other foot firmly on the ground to create ample force for a knee strike. Do it again."


    .


    .


    .


    "Don''t p your foot while kicking. Bring your knee up fully before extending it. You want to kick like you are stabbing something. Good, that''s it."


    .


    .


    .


    "Keep your hands up and try to grab some kicks to counter. You need to take advantage of the openings."


    ...


    Quinn kept on doing whatever Sken was throwing at him.


    "So, Quinn. Why did you join the gym?" asked Sken as Quinn continued to kick and punch.


    "Hmm... For fun, I guess," replied Quinn between moves. He had other motives, but those motives were for the future.


    "Why do you onlye in the summer?"


    "I attend a boarding school in Scond," replied Quinn. He wasn''t lying as Hogwarts was a boarding school in Scond. "So I am not at home for most of the year."


    "Oh, why did your parents send you off to a boarding school? Have you caused trouble?"


    Quinn fakely chuckled and denied it, "No, my grandfather attended the school, so I also went there. It is quite fun, actually."


    "Hmm..." Sken hit Quinn with his shin, who wasn''t able to dodge, and asked as Quinn punched in retaliation. "But, you have beening here daily this summer, and you have been working hard as well. Is it just for fun?"


    Quinn didn''t know where Sken was going. "...Yeah, why?"


    "Even though you don''t show it in your expression or words, your strikes show great anger and frustration. So I''m sorry, but I can''t believe that you are still doing it for fun."


    The student was surprised to hear that, and it showed when he was flipped over by Sken. Quinn went down with an ''oof.''


    "So, tell me, what angers you so much?"


    He justid down there, and while staring at the gym''s ceiling, Quinn didn''t know what came over him, but he spoke,


    "I was good at it, you know. I didn''t consider myself a genius or something. Even when everybody praised me for being so great, I didn''t think I was some kind of prodigy. I thought of myself as a normal bloke who just worked hard at what I loved."


    Sken listened to Quinn. He didn''t know what the ''it'' meant. But he just listened as the boy vented.


    "I spent all my time on it. I barely had a life out of it. Now, when all my hard work has broken down into shambles because I''ve made a mistake, I don''t know what to do. I don''t even know how to fix this. It''s just so frustrating when all the work I put in crumbled, when I was just trying to gain more, just trying to get better at it."


    Quinn''s detached emotions felt numb. It had been a month and a half since he lost his magic. He had already spent a little less than half of his summer break doing what felt like pushing against a wall, trying to make it move.


    "It is just so damn frustrating."


    Sken sat down beside Quinn and spoke,


    "You know, I trained in the art of Muay Thai because I wanted to avenge my father who was killed by some bastard back in Thand. I thought that if I became strong enough, I would be able to kill that man," Sken said, not considering the fact he was talking to a nearly fourteen-year-old teenager. "I was so focused on to achieve that goal that I lost sight of everything else. Just like you, I had no life outside of fighting. Just going into fights to hone my skills and earn money to live another day."


    Quinn turned his head and stared at Sken as he spoke.


    "But, one day, I found out that, without knowing it, that bastard had already died. There I was, having trained all my life, without knowing what to do. All of a sudden, I had no aim in life. Nothing to focus upon. All I was left with was skills in fighting."


    Quinn opened his mouth to ask, "So, what did you do?"


    Sken nced at Quinn and smiled, "Negative emotions like rage, fear, loneliness, or anything that isn''t considered positive have an important role to y in a happy life; they are big, shing signs that announce that something needs to change." He looked around the gym and motioned at it. "I left the country because it brought me so many bad emotions within myself. I needed a change, so I traveled here and opened this gym, as teaching was the only thing I knew to do."


    Sken took a deep breath and spoke,


    "When something bad happens, you have three choices." One by one, Sken counted the things on his fingers. "You can either let it define you. Let it destroy you. Or, you can let it strengthen you."


    Quinn''s pupils dted in surprise. It just clicked in his mind. It was sitting there, and he didn''t see it.


    ''Ah, maybe this would work,'' Quinn thought as he looked at Sken. He got up and spoke, "Thank you, let''s continue."


    Sken nodded and set up his pads for Quinn to strike against. After some strikes, Sken smiled. He felt it; something that had changed, as Quinn''s strikes were no longer of anger but of hope and determination.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Time passed and August 31, 1993, arrived. It was just one day before Quinn had to leave for Hogwarts.


    "So, where is he?" asked n. The old mind-arts master hade to get one final look at Quinn.


    "He is in the garden. He''s been outside for quite some time this past week," replied George.


    George had called n in order to have him take a look at Quinn. He feared that Quinn wasn''t ready to go back to Hogwarts. It worried him that Quinn would force himself to go to Hogwarts and keep on taking on the magic dampening potion.


    "How long do you think it will take for the potion to show a negative effect?" asked George. Quinn hadn''t been showing any negative effect, but George wanted to know if something could go wrong.


    "From my estimates, I think he could take it for another month before his physical condition starts to deteriorate," answered n. "The potion is a modified version. The effects are diluted, and the doses are regted so that it isn''t active around the clock. It isn''t strange that Quinn hasn''t shown any symptoms."


    "I''m worried that he will be dependent on the potion." George sighed. He knew his grandson''s personality; Quinn loved magic more than anything else and would do anything to be near magic.


    "Well, let''s see how has he been doing. Do you know what his progress with magic istely?," n asked. Quinn''s progress with his magic would be the deciding factor. He would look at Quinn''s condition before making any suggestion. "Has he been doing magic while under the potion?"


    "I don''t know, actually," answered George, causing n to frown.


    "What do you mean?"


    "Quinn spends a lot of his time running in the backyard, doing exercises. While he is in the house, he ys his instruments or silently reads a book. When he is not under the potion, he either goes to the gym he has been going to or locks himself in his room to onlye out for meals."


    At first, George thought Quinn was distracting himself, but after a month of Quinn not speaking much at all, he started to get worried. Plus, George had been told that sometimes Quinn would spend hours intensely thinking about something.


    "... I see," murmured n. He couldn''t think of a reason why Quinn would behave as he did. But he was about to meet Quinn, so maybe he would get some answers.


    The two adults arrived at the West estate garden, and in the lush green of a well-maintained garden, they saw Quinn standing with his hands behind his back, facing away from them.


    George was about to call Quinn when n raised his hand and quietly asked, "Is Quinn under the potion right now?"


    "Yes, why do you ask?" questioned George. Quinn had been taking the potion at the same time every day, so today shouldn''t be different.


    "Quinn''s shields are operating in full effect," n replied, and for once, he didn''t sneak into Quinn''s mind. He was confused. "Let''s go talk to him."


    The two adults walked towards Quinn, and the sound of their footsteps in the grass caught Quinn''s attention, as the boy turned around. They saw Quinn had a smile on his face.


    "Mr. n, what a surprise. Not that it is not good to see you. What are you doing here?" asked Quinn. He wasn''t expecting to see n today.


    n eyed Quinn before asking, "I''m here to see if you''re doing okay..." He took a pause before continuing. "... and to see if you are set to go back to school."


    Quinnughed in response. He guessed the motive of n''s visit and George tagging along with him. It was just a day before he had to leave.


    "You two don''t have to worry. I am fine now." Quinn looked at his hands and spoke. "I''m back to my full capabilities and healthy as ever."


    "What about your magic?" asked n. George looked curious about the question, too.


    Quinn stared at the two older men and grinned. Immediately, flowers sprouted out of the ground. Rainbow-colored flowers littered around the green of the ground.


    The two men''s eyes widened as they saw the flowers growing, and the next thing they knew - bees, butterflies, and beetles started to futter around the flowers as if to collect pollen from the newly grown flowers.


    "My magic is back under my control," Quinn smiled when a butterfly on his finger. "I haven''t felt better in such a long time."


    "How? How did you regain your magic so quickly?" asked n, bewildered at the scene. He could only exin the rapidly growing flowers with magic, as the tiny butterflies fluttering around them weren''t indigenous to the region.


    George chimed in and asked a question of his own, "But you said that you were having trouble with progressing your magic."


    "That was a month ago, grandfather," replied Quinn as he stretched his arms. "I have made a steady and fast recovery since then."


    "How? How did you regain your control so fast?" questioned n, genuinely curious.


    "I always thought that I understood the ce of emotion and will in magic," Quinn spoke as he walked towards the two. "But it turned out I was wrong. I was so wrong. The past ''me'' knew nothing about the ce of emotion in magic."


    A cool breeze of wind swept through the area as Quinn continued spoke,


    "I thought about it, you know. If the curse increased my control by utilizing the emotional connection between me and my magic, why couldn''t I use the same method? I could use my emotions to strengthen and build up the focus I lost."


    Suddenly the three watched as a deer hoped into the garden before stopping to nibble on some grass.


    "I drew on all my emotions to increase my connection to my magic. Steadily, I used my emotions to emte the same thing that the sin curse did to me. And, you know what? It worked," Quinnughed as he joined his hands. When he separated them, tiny orbs of light flew out of his hands.


    "The curse forced my connection to my magic by manipting my magic. It wasn''t me who was in control. This time around, I was the one who felt my emotions on a deeper level and actively tried to connect them to my magic."


    n frowned. He knew about emotions and this wasn''t how emotions and magic worked together.


    "Quinn, that is not how things are supposed to go. You couldn''t have gained your focus back so fast. You lost years worth of progress." He stepped forward. "How about you let me check if there is something wrong."


    Quinn chuckled, "Of course, you can check. But you are wrong. The thing about magic is that there is no dark or light magic. We, humans, categorize magic as such. I always subscribed to this school of thought. And then I thought, why aren''t emotions subjected to the same way of thinking? Why are emotions like fear, anger, hate, and suffering termed as negative emotions?"


    "Love is said to be the strongest emotion of all, but I think every emotion can be just as strong if utilized properly." Quinn stared at George and n and revealed, "I used the so-called dark emotions to regain my focus."


    n''s eyes widened at the statement.


    "Quinn, you know that the negative emotions could consume you. Rage, resentment, failure, sadness can consume magic users. Especially someone with a deep connection to magic as yourself." He was getting worried about Quinn. If Quinn utilized the darker emotions, then it could be a problemter. The darker emotions had a seductive charm that had ruined a lot of people.


    Quinn quickly stepped forward and spoke, "True, they have a certain quality to them, don''t they? But, they will only consume you if you aren''t true to yourself." He quoted what Sken had told him, "I could have let them define me, I could have let them destroy me, or I could use them to strengthen myself."


    "I felt frustrated that I was not able to use magic. I feared that I would never be able to get my magic back. I hated myself for not having thought it through. I was miserable because I had nothing other than magic going for me. I was drowning in feelings like those." Quinn looked at his two hands, bending his fingers into w shapes. "I had all these emotions, emotions that I was trying to run away from. I had them in such abundance. Now, wouldn''t it be a waste to let them go unused?"


    Quinn had a sad smile on his face which then turned into the brightest of smiles as he said, "So I tapped into every single type of emotion I was capable of feeling, it didn''t matter if it was ''good'' or ''bad''. I opened every door, turned every stone, and plundered everything I could get my hands on. I used the frustration I felt ¡ªas I wasn''t able to use magic¡ª to push myself towards, in the hope of, one day, regain my magic back. I hated my previous self, so I strived to be better than him. The determination that this wasn''t my ceiling overcame the fear of never getting back my magic. I didn''t believe that this was the end of my magic."


    He stared n right into the eye andughed, "Don''t you get it. I used both sides of the spectrum to progress my magic. I didn''t struggle by using the only side which is seen as proper. No matter what I am feeling, be it joy or misery, turmoil or serenity... all the emotions are mine. I had to ept that I was feeling down and the emotions that went along of it. A mix of emotionsing together to create a magnificent symphony. When you mixed that blend with magic? Magic would reward you, it would dance at your fingertips, move at a single thought of your mind. You just need to¡­ feel."


    Quinn turned to George and beamed. "Adversity is what builds character and strength. I was at rock bottom, and you know what? After hitting rock bottom, there is nowhere else but to go up."


    "I used adversity to regain whatever I lost in just a month. I used everything that I had, every resource I had avable, to w my way out of the pit." Quinn''s voice gained some solemnity as he continued, "Humans need adversity to grow. They need hardship to appreciate the good times. Without it, we bezy and stale. Adversity to gain happiness keeps us moving. Being happy all the time is not at all bad. Everyone should aim for happiness, but without knowing what is on the other side, how would you learn to understand yourself."


    "Do you know that I haven''t taken the potion in close to three weeks, and even before that I was skimming on doses" Quinn softly smiled as he looked at the two older men, who were stunned at the sudden piece of information. "I stopped taking it because it was dulling my connection to magic as it was supposed to do. I shouldn''t have run away from my magic in the first ce. I should''ve faced it head-on. But let''s not talk about the past."


    "I let my magic flow. It was painful, oh so painful... I hated every second of that time, but I had to continue because it was helping me," sighed Quinn as he remembered those times. "Pain is a powerful motivator, so I endured it. Slowly but surely, under the pressure to reduce the pain and solve the consequences, I was able to stop my rampaging magic by getting all of it under control. Negative thoughtsbined with the positivity I was feeling from seeing progress, so Ibined it together to boost my progress. It helped that I was rebuilding something that I had lost, so my progress was so fast."


    "The time I spent feeling all these emotions, even those I didn''t want to feel, made me learn a lot about myself and my magic. I felt free. I actually feel much better from before the sin curse got a hold on," Quinn stretched his hands above his head and stated, "My magic, which was made to grow artificially, is now under my control. Do you know that I gained an extra year and a half of progress? My artificially expanded magical core has now be a natural part of my magical physiology. My control might not have gotten the same boost because I had to rebuild it in such a small amount of time, but I learned a lot about emotion and will, and that will help me in the long run."


    By the time Quinn stopped speaking. The garden was full of short shrubs and beautiful flowers. Squirrels, butterflies, three dears, one peacock graced the transformedndscape.


    "Do you know how difficult it is to fool the senses of two practiced lumens? It gets more difficult when one of them is literally on the top of the mind-arts field," Quinn waved his hand over the colorful scene and said. "This much amount of work is required. I wouldn''t have been able to do it before, but now I''ve been able to pull it off."


    "What do you mean?" asked a frowning George.


    Quinn raised his hand and snapped his finger. Instantly, half of the flowers and shrubs vanished like they were a mirage. Therger animals like deers and peacocks ceased to exist.


    "I did not conjure those things or transfigure those animals. They were the work of an borate illusion," Quinn stated in a quiet voice. He pointed at the butterflies and bees and said: "Only a quarter of these flying insects are conjured; the rest of them aren''t real. A huge share of the flowers and shrubs weren''t even corporal and were just apanying the small amount of transfigured flora. They gave an illusion that they were real. I used small details so you wouldn''t look at the bigger picture."


    He turned to face n and said, "I distracted you with the buzzing of bees, the chirping of crickets, so you would believe that all of this was real. My words kept most of your focus on me as I continued to add more illusions. None of them were mental illusions because you would catch them instantly, so I used physical light maniption. I faked sounds, created light gusts of wind to immerse you in the scene. A lot of delicate illusion workbined with a small amount of corporal mixed together to form something you thought waspletely real."


    Quinn gave a beaming chuckle, "Fooling a master of mind-arts, who hasplete control over his mind is great for a day''s work, don''t you think?"


    Quinn closed his eyes and yelled at the sky.


    "I AM BACK! QUINN WEST IS BACK! WOOHOO!"


    .


    End of Volume Four: Hogwarts: Year Three


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - Light and Dark mix to create brilliance - Yeah~!


    Sken Kaewpadung - Your typical wise master - My words are wise and I am real.


    n D. Baddeley - Mind-arts master - Feeling shocked.


    George West - Worried grandfather - Still hasn''tprehended what happened.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 74 - Another Year, Another Train Journey

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter was edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    In northwestern Londony King''s Cross Station, a Muggle railway station that was one of the busiest in the city. It was a perfectly ordinary station, with big stic numbers over each track and guards who had never heard of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


    However, every September 1st, as the clock overhead approached eleven o''clock, the InterCity-125 was pulled into tform nine. A strange crowd turned the asional people''s heads. The pack was wizarding children, bearing enormous trunks and caged owls and other unusual pets, making their way toward ¡ªand then through¡ª the solid metal barrier between tforms nine and ten.


    Through this barrier, of course,y tform Nine and Three-Quarters, home of the famous Hogwarts Express. A look back at the barrier revealed it was a wrought-iron archway with the words "tform Nine and Three-Quarters [tform 9?]" on it. Over the scarlet steam train''s billowing smoke was a signboard that said the Hogwarts Express would depart at eleven o''clock.


    Though the tform was only used six days a year, a round trip for the beginning and end of term. One on Christmas and Easter holidays each; the tform on those days, was awash with activity. Steam from the scarlet engine flooded the tform as cats wound their way around the wizards'' legs and owls hooted to each other, as hordes of students and parents moved around through the steam "like dark ghosts", their voices carrying through the mist.


    Near one of the pirs inside tform 9?, stood Quinn with Lia talking with each other until the time for Hogwarts Express to leave.


    "So what do you think about the Azkaban breakout? Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters," asked Quinn, having idle talk with his sister.


    "Hmm... I would say that he choose the right time to break out. A lot of Aurors are busy right now," replied Lia, thinking about the recent events that had been going on the front page of every magical newspaper and magazine.


    Quinn nodded in agreement. "What do they call themselves, ah, yes, Novellus ionites. They have been targeting no-majs and first-generation magicals in Voldemort''s name. Not sure if Novellus ionites is a good name, though."


    "Why not?" questioned Lia. She knew about the origins of the group''s name. "Weren''t the ionites, a group of anti-no-maj, magicals? That seems a good name for their group; it goes well with their current agenda."


    "Maybe you are right. People don''t know theplete history of the group," conceded Quinn. Then he proceeded to tell Lia the history of the original group.


    "The thing about original ionites is that their leader was dumb, really dumb. First, he tried to steal from the goblins by summoning gold from the Gringotts. He got away with a mere lifetime ban. In that time, goblins executed anyone who tried to steal from them. After all that, he died when he summoned arge barn over his head."


    Quinnughed as he snorted, "So dumb~. I can''t take those guys seriously knowing what I know."


    "Quinn," called out a voice.


    Lia turned her head to see who was calling her brother to see two girls walking towards them. One of them was waving her hand with a beaming smile on her face while the other girl followed her with a nd expression on her face.


    ''Now, who are these two girls,'' she thought as a mischievous light shed in her eyes.


    "Hey, you two. How have you been?" said Quinn, greeting his two favorite Slytherins.


    He had avoided everyone he knew as much as he could. Hepletely avoided Tracy and Daphne because, first, they were in a different house, and second, they were not in the same year as him. So it was fairly easy to avoid them.


    Tracy was about to continue speaking when she met the person Quinn was standing with. The bubbly brte peered at the woman and observed her.


    She was beautiful. Tracy would describe her as one of those girls who often caused double-takes as she passed by and looked good no matter the asion. Her first impression was that she was someone confident and outgoing.


    Daphne also looked at the women with some curiosity. Given that the unknown person was talking to Quinn, it was clear that Quinn knew her. And after a second look, Daphne noticed the ck hair and stone-grey eyes.


    ''Same as Quinn,'' the blonde thought, noticing the simrities between Quinn and the woman.


    "Why don''t you introduce her to us, Quinn?" asked Tracy, curious about the woman.


    "Oh, right," Quinn turned and introduced the two parties.


    "This is Lia West, my sister," said Quinn, gesturing at Lia. Then the younger West child turned his face to his two friends and spoke, "And these two are Tracy Davis-," pointing at the brte. "- and Daphne Greengrass," pointing at the blonde. "They are my friends."


    Lia pushed herself off the wall, put a hand on Quinn''s shoulder, and asked, "So which one do you like?"


    Tracy and even Daphne blushed at the sudden question.


    Tracy looked at Quinn and found that her male friend had changed in the break. For one, Quinn had grown a few inches. Overall, his jaw and face was now sharper as he had lost the baby fat. Tracy felt his shoulders had widened a little. Even his arms looked a little bigger overall, and Quinn was more filled out than before.


    He was much more handsome thanst year.


    Daphne, on the other hand, recalled the memory of Quinn holding her close. She remembered him saying that he would have invited her to Hogsmeade if she wasn''t a second year. She was a third-year now and was allowed to go to Hogsmeade this year onwards.


    Would he invite her this year... were Daphne Greengrass'' thoughts as she stared at the boy in front of her.


    Quinn closed his eyes as he held the bridge of his nose. He was really feeling embarrassed and was trying to hide it. "You know, I wondered whether you would do anything to embarrass me if we met my friends. I really thought you wouldn''t do it, but it turned out I was wrong."


    "Why did you have to do that?" Quinn deadpanned towards his sister.


    A smile bloomed on Lia''s face as she gave her exnation, "Because it''s so much fun!"


    Quinn was about to say something, but his eyes caught sight of something. He spoke to the three girls: "I will be back in a minute. You guys talk to each other..." He turned to Lia and warned her, "... and you... behave."


    Quinn ran off somewhere, leaving Tracy, Daphne and Lia behind.


    "So how did you two meet my baby brother?" asked Lia with a friendly smile on her face.


    "We met Quinn in our first year. In fact, we met today, two years ago in the Hogwarts Express," answered Tracy. She giggled and recalled, "Oh, that day was fun."


    "What is Quinn like at home?" It was Tracy''s turn to ask a question. And she really wanted to know if Quinn was the same as he was outside. "He is annoyingly put together all the time." She pointed at Daphne behind her. "Along with this girl; the two dress so perfectly that it makes me feel quite annoyed. I mean, not a single hair out of ce."


    Lia turned her eyes to the one called Daphne Greengrass and observed the blonde. And she could see what Tracy Davis was talking about.


    "Well, Quinn was raised by Ms. Rosey, and she is very particr about caring for one''s appearance at every time, so being well put together is ingrained into Quinn''s bones." Lia chuckled as she remembered the times Ms. Rosey yelled at Quinn for having an untucked shirt or messy hair. "Given that it is Quinn, I am sure that he uses magic to fix his appearance every hour or so."


    Tracy''s eyes widened, and a smile appeared on her face. She grabbed Daphne''s arm andughed. "She does it too. Every hour, she waves her wand and fixes her appearance. Like clockwork!"


    Lia began to like Tracy. The brte seemed to be a fun girl. Additionally, Lia was interested in Daphne even though she hadn''t said a single word since their meeting.


    What interested Lia was that when she asked Quinn the question, she saw Daphne''s eyes blur as if she remembered something, and then the girl had looked at Quinn with a blush on her face.


    She wanted to know if Daphne liked her brother. "Daphne Greengrass, was it? Do you li-"


    But before she couldplete her sentence, a joyous shout cut her off.


    "Lia!"


    The three girls turned to see Quinn walking towards them, a grin on his face. They saw Quinn pulling a girl with him.


    Quinn stopped near them, brought the girl in front of him, and then slipped his hands under the girl''s shoulder and lifted her up as if showing her off.


    The girl that Quinn brought and lifted had waist-length, straggly, dirty blond hair. Interestingly or weirdly, the girl was wearing dirigible plum-shaped earrings on her ears.


    Lia found herself looking at the girl as the girl stared back at her with her silvery eyes.


    "Meet Luna Lovegood," Quinn introduced the young girl with a bright smile on his face. "She''s my junior in Ravenw. Absolutely adorable, isn''t she?"


    Quinn put the now named Luna Lovegood down and spoke to the young Ravenw, "Luna, this is my sister, Lia."


    Luna''s eyes shined as she moved towards Lia and observed her by orbiting around her. Then she sized Lia up, sweeping her eyes up and down before saying, "You look like Quinn."


    "... That I do," replied Lia. Sure, Lia found Luna Lovegood cute to look at, but she wasn''t sure who she was looking at. "I''m his sister, after all."


    Luna nodded before turning her back to Lia. She walked back to Quinn''s side, who gave her chocte, patted her head, and told her: "Good work."


    "So what did you three talk about?" Quinn asked after giving Luna chocte.


    "Oh, Tracy was telling me about the first time you guys met," replied Lia.


    "Ah, it was today, wasn''t it? You two weren''t able to find apartment, so you guys came into mypartment." Quinn chuckled as he recalled that day and said, "That was a fun day. Did you know I guessed the houses of almost all first-years being sorted that year? Yeah~ that was fun."


    Quinn looked at the clock that was hanging on a pir and said, "Okay, we should get moving if we want to get apartment." He turned to Tracy and Daphne and asked, "Do you want to join Luna and I? We''re sharing apartment."


    Tracy looked at Daphne, who nodded. "Sure, we will join you," replied Tracy.


    "Can we bring another person?" asked Daphne, staring at Quinn.


    Quinn looked at Luna to see if she was alright with another person, but his entric junior seemed really interested in the wrapper of the chocte he gave her.


    "I don''t see why not. The more, the merrier," replied Quinn.


    "Alright, we''ll say goodbye to our parents and then meet you on the train," said Tracy. Daphne also needed to find the person she wanted to bring along, so she nodded.


    "Excellent, I''m going to choose apartment somewhere along the middle of the train, so start somewhere there," said Quinn before he turned his face to Luna and shook her to get her attention. "Luna, go ahead and say goodbye to your father. We will get going then."


    The three girls went back to their respective families, leaving Lia and Quinn alone.


    "Do you have any male friends, or are all your friends girls," smirked Lia. She put a hand on her cheek, "My baby brother sure is popr. Are you nning to be adies'' man?"


    "There is nothing wrong with being a little bit of adies'' man," snorted Quinn at herment, which was another attempt to make him feel embarrassed. "And, I do have male friends." He looked around the tform. "But I just can''t seem to find Eddie and Marcus at the tform or on the train. It will be the fourth straight year if I don''t see them today."


    When Quinn returned his eyes to Lia, he found her looking at him with slight worry in her eyes.


    "What is it?" sighed Quinn. He knew that look. It was the same George had given him as they were leaving home before in the morning.


    "Promise me you won''t do something reckless and dangerous." She held Quinn''s face and forced him to look at her.


    "... I''ll try," said Quinn. He couldn''t im he wouldn''t get into trouble. He would surely try not to get into trouble as he didn''t want to seek trouble. "I will try my best to stay safe. Despite my track record, I don''t enjoy getting into trouble."


    Lia scrutinized Quinn for a while before she sighed. "Why couldn''t you just say that you won''t get into trouble." She squished Quinn''s face and med him. "You like to cause me worry, don''t you?"


    "Oh, nothing like that," replied Quinn, smiling as he looked at his sister. She was always the one who got worried about him the most. "I just do it so you won''t forget me."


    Lia''s hands left Quinn''s face and wrapped around him to pull him into a hug. "Why do you have to say such silly things? I will never forget you. You are my precious baby brother."


    "Will I ever be elevated from baby brother to little brother?" smiled Quinn, hugging Lia back. "I have been working hard. I deserve a promotion. Maybe a pay-raise to apany it, and if you are feeling generous, some benefits."


    "I''m sorry to inform you you have reached the peak of your career in this field." Lia giggled and joked back, "You would still be my baby brother even if we were oldies full of white hair."


    "Heh, you might get old and wrinkly, but I''ll never grow old," dered Quinn, scoffing.


    The West siblings separated, and Lia sighed. "Send me plenty of MagiFax. You remember my WMF-id, right?"


    "I decided on all our families'' WMF-ids. Of course I remember them," answered Quinn, and with a final sigh, he added, "Take care of yourself and don''t overwork. Remember to have fun and keep sending me souvenirs."


    "You bet," promised Lia and stroked Quinn''s cheek onest time. "Now, leave. I don''t want to see you cry."


    "Of course," smiled Quinn. He picked up his suitcase, turned back towards the Hogwarts Express, and walked away. He waved to Lia as he walked away.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn threaded his way through the narrow corridors of the train. Weaving through the students standing in the corridors. He made his way to the middle of the train, looking for an emptypartment.


    After a minute or two, Quinn found an emptypartment and immediatelyid his im on it.


    "Conquest...pleted," dered victory Quinn as he sent his suitcase to the top rack and shot multiple cleaning and scouring charms to make everything spotless.


    After half a minute, Luna entered thepartment, and Quinn helped transfer all her stuff to the racks above.


    "Looking forward to this year, Luna?" asked Quinn as he took a seat next to the window.


    Luna sat down beside Quinn and nodded, "I''m hoping to see a lot of magical creatures this year. Maybe even find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, but daddy said it can only be found in the Nethends. So maybe I won''t find it at Hogwarts?"


    "Who knows, maybe you will, or maybe you won''t. The only way to find out is to look for it," answered Quinn.


    He didn''t know if the Crumple-Horned Snorkack was a real creature or a figment of Xenophilius Lovegood''s imagination. But he wasn''t outright going to deny the existence of the said creature. He lived in a magical world. Maybe the mysterious creature was real.


    "I heard that Rubeus Hagrid is going to teach Care of Magical Creatures subject this year," informed Quinn. "He spends a lot of time in the Forbidden Forest, and I have heard he knows a lot about magical creatures. So we may learn about a lot of new creatures. That''ll be fun, don''t you think?"


    Luna''s eyes shined, and she looked up at Quinn. "Really? Hagrid is nice. Hmm, I''m looking forward to learning from him. He''s very tall, though. My neck hurts when I look up at him."


    Quinn grinned at thest part. Luna was a small girl, and the half-giant was very tall.


    "Ah, found them."


    Quinn and Luna turned their heads towards the door of thepartment and saw Tracy. She was looking to her right and called out: "They are here,e on."


    Quinn stood up and helped Tracy with her luggage but stayed away from her cat because he thought the feline was ring at him. That was the cat whose hair went into Hermione''s polyjuice potion.


    After Quinn set up Tracy''s luggage, he turned to the door and blinked when he saw two girls standing there. One taller than the other. One had blonde hair, and the other one had ck hair. Both girls had blue eyes.


    Quinn could immediately see the simrities between the two girls.


    Daphne Greengrass, the taller of the two girls, spoke up and introduced the ck-haired girl to Quinn.


    "This is Astoria. My sister."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Fourth-year Ravenw. Back to school.


    Lia West - Elder Sister - Fulfilling the duty of older siblings by embarrassing younger siblings.


    Luna Lovegood - Second-year Ravenw - Quite easy to lift her up the ground.


    Tracy Davis - Third-year Slytherin- Admiring the changes in Quinn.


    Daphne Greengrass - Third-year Slytherin - Memories.


    Astoria Greengrass - First-year - Daphne''s sister.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


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    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 75 - Dementors, Patronus, And Chocolate West

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis...


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The ck-haired, round-faced with baby fat mini-version of Daphne Greengrass stepped forward and introduced herself.


    "My name is Astoria Greengrass. Nice to meet you."


    The little Greengrass raised her hand, presenting it to Quinn.


    Quinn took it because of his etiquette education, kissed her knuckles, and introduced himself.


    "Quinn West. Pleased to meet you, too."


    Tracy, who was on the side, chimed in with a bright tone,


    "My name is Tracy Davis."


    Luna thought that everyone was introducing themselves and took part in joining the foray.


    "I''m Luna Lovegood."


    Tracy giggled and looked at Daphne. The blonde Greengrass looked back at her best friend and looked in confusion.


    "You are the only one who hasn''t said your name," exined Tracy with a beaming grin on her face.


    Daphne rolled her eyes. She wasn''t going to participate in the childishness. But then she noted that everyone in thepartment was staring at her.


    "Fine," she sighed exasperatedly and returned, "My name is Daphne Greengrass. Happy?"


    Everybody repeatedly nodded in unison.


    After everyone was introduced to each other and their luggage was in ce, they took a seat. Quinn sat near the window, Luna sat beside him. On the other side, Astoria sat across Quinn, Daphne sat beside her sister, and Tracy sat next to Daphne.


    "So you are that Quinn West. I''ve heard about you," said Astoria as soon as everyone got settled. "I have heard a lot about you."


    "You have?" Quinn inquired. "From whom?" He gave a quick nce to the side.


    "From my sister, of course. And some from Tracy. But mostly from Daphne," disclosed Astoria.


    "Tori!" Daphne hissed at her sister.


    Quinn moved his eyes on Astoria while moving his head towards Tracy before looking at her. Hemented: "This one, this one talks."


    "She does. It can get quite fun," admitted Tracy. "Yeah~, really fun."


    Quinn gave an excited grin as he turned back to Astoria and met Daphne''s as he did.


    "So, Astoria, tell me, which house do you want to join? Are you going to follow in your sister''s footsteps? And what does Daphne say about me?"


    Astoria hummed in thought and responded, "Well, I want to be in Slytherin, but not because Daphne is in there. I want to join Slytherin because daddy was in Slytherin. And Daphne told me that you are smart, intelligent, and funny, but she says that you joke a little too much. She also said that she felt hurt- oomph!"


    Daphne mped her sister''s mouth with her hand to stop her from talking. Astoria was starting to talk about things she didn''t want anyone to know, especially not Quinn.


    "- mah! So, I was saying- ouch!" Astoria freed herself from Daphne''s grasp and tried to continue, but she was again interrupted when Daphne pinched and twisted her waist.


    "Not a single word," Daphne Greengrass red at her sister.


    Quinn pulled out an A.I.D card from his robes and presented it to Astoria. "Please, visit me when you have free time. I believe we''ll get along splendidly."


    Daphne tried to take the card, but Astoria got to it first and examined it with interest, "I''ve heard of this, too. Mum really liked the idea when Daphne told us about it."


    Quinn shifted in his seat and asked, "Really, Mrs. Greengrass said that? Tell me more." He earned a re from Daphne and a giggle from Tracy.


    The Hogwarts Express moved steadily to the North, and the scenery outside the window became wilder and darker while the clouds overhead thickened. People were running backward and forward past the door of theirpartment.


    Time passed as the group continued to talk. Quinn was having a lot of fun talking to the younger Greengrass and her stories about the usually unppable Daphne.


    The rain thickened as the train sped yet farther north; the windows were now a solid, shimmering gray, which gradually darkened untilnterns flickered into life all along the corridors and over the luggage racks. The train rattled, the rain hammered, and the wind roared.


    "We must be nearly there," said Tracy, leaning forward to look past


    Daphne and Astoria at the nowpletely ck window.


    "We can''t be there yet," said Daphne, checking her watch.


    The words had hardly left her when the train started to slow down.


    "Why are we stopping?"


    The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons died away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows.


    Quinn looked at the dark outside, and his pupils shrunk and his eyes narrowed. He remembered what was about to happen and knew the reason behind the train''s unusual stop.


    The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that some other people''s luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all themps went out, which plunged the train into total darkness.


    "What''s going on?" asked Luna''s from beside Quinn. She tugged on his clothes to ascertain his position in the dark.


    Quinn turned his face towards Luna''s position and assured her, "Don''t worry. It''ll be fine."


    "Do you think we''ve broken down?" said Astoria as she tried to peer out what was going on from thepartment door, but there was barely any light for anything to be visible.


    "I don''t know," whispered Tracy, pulling her cat into herp.


    There was a squeaking sound, and Quinn saw the dim ck outline of Astoria, wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out.


    There''s something moving out there," Astoria said. "I think people areing aboard... does this happen every year?"


    "No, it doesn''t. The train doesn''t stop at all during the journey," answered Daphne''s voice.


    Quinn knew who wasing aboard and silently pulled out his fake wand. There was a soft hum before three orbs manifested on thepartment''s ceiling, lighting the room in soft yet illuminating light.


    All four girls looked up at the three orbs of light at the ceiling before looking at each other.


    "Stay where you are," instructed Quinn as he sat in attention. He slightly cracked the window so his hand could go outside. He got up and moved towards the door.


    And just as he was expecting, the door to thepartment opened up.


    Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the light orbs on the ceiling, was a cloaked figure that reached up to the roof. Its face waspletely hidden beneath its hood. Quinn''s eyes darted downward, and what he saw made his stomach contract slightly. There was a hand protruding from the cloak, and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water.


    But it was visible only for a split second. As though the creature beneath the cloak sensed Quinn''s gaze, it suddenly withdrew the hand into the folds of its ck shroud. And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.


    An intense cold swept over them all, causing all to shiver. Quinn also felt the cold. He found it as equally bone-chilling as in the Icy vault. The current cold had a soul-numbing chill.


    Quinn opened his mouth and spoke up in a clear voice, "Back off at once. Leave, or you will regret it."


    The hooded figure looked down at the room''s upants and sensed deep fear and the promise of positive feelings that it could feed off of. The hooded figure gave into temptation and moved forward.


    "Bad move," whispered Quinn in the cold.


    A blinding silver light sted the hooded figure at a point-nk range.


    There was no noise, no shrieking from the hooded figure of darkness. The figure just suddenly retreated from the light and crashed into the opposingpartment''s door, before flying away in what seemed fear and loathing.


    The blinding silver light didn''t stop and immediately darted across the train.


    Quinn, too, didn''t stop and immediately turned back and cracked the window of hispartment open, letting in a chilly breeze. He looked around the train''s roof and saw more of those hooded figures floating above the train. Quinn pointed out his fake wand holding hand and shot out another burst of silver light that had the shape of an avian animal.


    The silvery avian zoomed forward, letting out waves of silver energy. The swarm of hooded figures felt the silver energy hit them and immediately scattered away from the train as the silvery guardian cruised around the train, dutifully providing protection against the creatures of darkness.


    An avian guardian stood above the train, emitting massive waves of positive silver energy, and repelling every foul creature in the vicinity.


    And as the hooded figures escaped and moved away from the train, a spot opened up between the clouds in the dark sky, allowing light to fall over the silver guardian.


    It was as if the vast sky itself was supporting the spirit guardian.


    The caster of the silver entity ducked his head back inside the train. From his robes, he took out chocte spheres, magically unwrapping the silver wrapping, and made them hover in front of hispanions, who were all shivering and shaking.


    "Eat the choctes," he spoke in a calming voice, smiling as they looked at him. "It will help."


    The girls grabbed the floating choctes that were in front of them and popped them into their mouths, and actually felt the shivering decrease as the chocte''s taste covered their ptes.


    "Good. Do you guys feel better?" asked Quinn, shooting diagnostic looks at each of the four girls and getting affirmative nods in return.


    "Excellent, sit tight. I''ll be back," answered Quinn and, as he was turning back, he felt a tug on his clothes. When he looked back, Tracy was holding his robe.


    "Where are you going?" questioned Tracy, her voice filled with worry.


    Quinn grinned in reply.


    "I''ve always wondered, what is the reason for my birth? And today, after this happened, I finally know it."


    The girls watched as Quinn took his hands out of his pockets. Between all his fingers, Quinn held the same type of chocte spheres they had just eaten.


    "I''m going on a chocte route. I was born for this," Quinn was grinning so hard that his face was almost split in half. "I''ll see you four in a while."


    He exited thepartment and moved towards the front of the train. He then opened every single door with magic and shot out chocte spheres inside thepartments, and made them hover in front of the passengers while shouting.


    "Eat chocte! It will make you feel better. I''m raining chocte today."


    Pumping his fists into the air, Quinn dered.


    "Chocte West is back!"


    Quinn''s cavalier attitude didn''t match the dark vibe in the train. But something about his shouting and shooting chocte while making pew-pew noises brought people out of dark thoughts. The floating chocte ¡ª and Quinn, who celebrated his return, almost made people forget the dread-inducing hooded figures of grim and bleakness.


    Some Chocte West skidded in front of anotherpartment, and this one''s door was already open.


    "Indulge in the sweet-," but Quinn stopped talking after he found that thepartment he was standing in was upied by the golden squad.


    Inside thepartment, Harry Potter, the golden boy, or better known as the boy-who-lived, was unconscious in his seat while the other three of the group were around him.


    Ivy Potter, the Potter twin, was shaking her brother, trying to get him to wake up.


    Quinn sighed and entered thepartment and spoke, "Get away from him. You are overwhelming him. Let the bloke breathe."


    The second Quinn stepped inside thepartment, thenterns came back to life, and the Hogwarts Express resumed its way with a jolt.


    Ivy, who was worried about her brother, followed the instructions on instinct, but when she looked at the person who gave the instructions, her eyes contracted.


    "You, what are you doing here?"


    Quinn internally groaned but decided to ignore Ivy and Hermione''s suspicious looks and asked, "Did hee into contact with a Dementor?"


    "Dementor? Do you mean that foul, hooded creature?" asked Ron. He didn''t notice the suspicious and cautious looks his two friends were giving the ck-haired boy.


    "Oh, so you guys had a chance to get acquainted with the Dementors," Quinn conversed as he checked on Harry Potter. "Bad luck, I guess."


    ''Alright, he is breathing, so a Dementor''s kiss is out of the question,'' diagnosed Quinn. He moved Harry''s face around to check him out and silently funneled some magic to check the status of the boy-who-lived. ''He doesn''t seem that pale, and I''m not getting any serious hits.''


    Quinn stood straight and announced, "He is alright. This sudden close contact with the Dementor knocked him out."


    "How do you know that?" questioned Ivy, she was still giving a cautious look, but Quinn could see her gaze shifting to Harry, worry shing in her eyes every time she did so.


    Quinn sighed, turned to the unconscious Harry Potter, and gave him a tight p.


    *Ppah!*


    The sound of p reverberated in thepartment as Harry Potter woke up with an abrupt and deep inhale of breath and looked around wildly.


    "W-what?!"


    Harry opened his eyes to see West, or whatever was his name, standing over him. Thenterns above him were back on, the floor was shaking ¡ª the Hogwarts Express was moving again. Harry felt very sick; when he put up his hand to push his sses back on, he felt cold sweat on his face.


    And his left cheek was stinging.


    "Dip or pour?" asked West. He still couldn''t recall the guy''s first name.


    "P-Pour," he answered on instinct. Harry could feel his heart racing.


    Quinn clicked his tongue, looked at Ivy, and shrugged with his arms up. "I take it back. There is something definitely wrong with him. I mean, who pours instead of dipping."


    Hermione rolled her eyes at Quinn''s entricity. Even Ivy wasn''t sure what to do, so she just stared at Quinn.


    Quinn, on the other hand, was unwrapping a chocte sphere. He leaned down towards Harry. "Here, eat the chocte. It will make you feel better."


    "What was that thing?" asked Hermione.


    "A Dementor," answered Quinn, who was now giving chocte to the other three. "One of the Dementors from Azkaban, I presume."


    "What is a Dementor?" Hermione asked, bewildered. The hooded creature was something out of a horror story.


    "Dementors are one nasty piece of work. They infest the darkest, filthiest ces, they glory in decay and despair; they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the surrounding air. Get too near a Dementor, and every good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and corrupt. You will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life."


    Quinn looked at the golden squad, who didn''t look too well. He also noticed that none of them had eaten the chocte.


    "Eat the damn choctes. It''ll help."


    He turned to Hermione and offered her something that would satisfy her. "Chocte is one of the remedies to Dementor exposure. You can read it in one of the Dark Against Dark Arts remedy books. Just go to the Dark creatures section of the library and pick the book on Dementors."


    Hermoine looked back and forth between the chocte and Quinn before taking the risk and popping the chocte into her mouth. Immediately, to her great surprise, she felt a warmth spread suddenly to the tips of his fingers and toes.


    Quinn caught the look on Hermione''s face and knew that his work was done here, so he just turned and walked out of theirpartment.


    "I need to cover more area, so I''ll excuse myself."


    With that, he was gone, leaving the golden squad alone.


    "Are you sure you''re okay, Harry?" said Ivy, looking at Harry anxiously.


    "I don''t understand... What happened?" groaned Harry. He was sweating, and his left cheek was still hurting.


    "Well, that thing - the Dementor, stood there and looked around," said Ivy. She then mumbled, "I mean, I think it did, I couldn''t see its face," she shook her head and said clearly this time, "and you, you -"


    "I thought you went into shock or something," said Ron, who still looked scared. "You became sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching -"


    "Then suddenly a bright silver light appeared and mmed into the Dementor," continued Hermione. She could recall the feeling of relief she felt when the Dementor ran away from the silver light. "I couldn''t see it clearly, but it was some sort of bird. I definitely saw wings."


    "It was horrible," said Ron, in a higher voice than usual. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"


    "I felt weird,"mented Hermione, shifting her shoulders ufortably. "Like I would never be happy again..."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    They were already near Hogwarts when Quinn returned, and the girls had already changed into their uniforms. They stepped out to give Quinn room to change.


    They didn''t talk much during the remainder of the journey. And Quinn didn''t force them to speak up and talk. The Dementor was a dreadful creature; even Quinn felt some despair when it came near. He had been reminded of the days when he had lost his magic and didn''t know what to do.


    It was after Quinn conjured his Patronus that the effects disappeared. He actively concentrated on his happy thoughts. Quinn dispelled his Patronus when they were within sight of Hogsmeade.


    At longst the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get outside; some owls hooted, some other cats meowed. It was freezing on the tiny tform; rain was falling down as an icy sheet.


    "I swear it rains every time," grumbled Quinn as he walked on the slippery tform. However, the ice beneath his steps melted away, leaving not a single trace of unsafe ice or water.


    Quinn got on the moldy carriages with Luna, Tracy, and Daphne after wishing good luck and saying goodbye to Astoria, who went to the boats with her would-be ssmates.


    After entering the castle, Quinn and Luna got separated from Tracy and Daphne and joined the crowd that was swarming up the steps. They then went through the giant oak front doors and set their feet into the cavernous entrance hall that was lit with ming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors.


    The door into the Great Hall stood open at the right; Quinn followed the crowd toward it and had barely glimpsed the enchanted ceiling, which was ck and cloudy tonight, when a voice called, "Mr. West, I want to see you in my office!"


    Quinn turned his head to see Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher, head of Gryffindor House and Deputy Headmistress, calling out to him. She was a stern-looking witch who wore her hair in a tight bun; her sharp eyes were framed with square spectacles.


    Quinn sighed and shouted back, "Professor, can''t we do this after the feast? I don''t want to miss dinner."


    "It won''t take much time. I just want a brief word in my office," assured the Scottish witch. "You shall have plenty of time to eat at the feast."


    Quinn sighed once more before following his professor to her office.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Chocte West... At your service.


    Astoria Greengrass - Talkative Greengrass sister - Has heard of Quinn.


    Harry Potter - Boy-who-fainted - Damn it! My cheek still hurts!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis

 Chapter 76 - Quinn’s Trust In Magic

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sat in the deputy headmistress'' office, waiting for McGonagall to return. The transfiguration professor had told him to stay inside her office while she was out.


    He took out his pocket watch, watched the time, and grumbled, "One more minute and I''m leaving." Quinn snapped shut his pocket watch and got up from his chair.


    The office hadn''t changed since thest time he had been here. It was still the same small study with a big firece and a window that overlooked the quidditch field.


    Walking up to McGonagall''s desk, Quinn raised his head to look at what was above her desk. This was the same ce where McGonagall had conjured the giant chunk of ice and showed him sublimation, which had been a paradigm-shifting moment for his exploration of the Icy vault.


    Quinn blinked at the ce above McGonagall''s desk, and a knob of ice manifested. The tiny ice knob started to rotate as more and more ice appeared around the initial knob, increasing the size of the ice above the desk.


    Within seconds, Quinn had created a hunk of iceparable to the one McGonagall did two years ago.


    ''She was definitely showing off at that time,'' thought Quinn as he swept his eyes over the ice.


    The sound of the door opening alerted Quinn as he brought his hands in front of him, and his fake wand was shot out of the holster into his right hand. His robes hid his wanding out of its holster, and the ice was eye-catching enough that no one noticed Quinn moving his hand to his front.


    "Mr. West, what are you doing?" McGonagall announced herself in her office. She eyed the ice floating above her desk.


    Quinn turned towards McGonagall, "I was remembering the good old days, professor." He smiled and waved his wand at the ice. Instantly, the ice poofed into vapor. He also contained it so it wouldn''t leak around the room.


    Recognition shed in McGonagall''s eyes, "Oh, the self-recovering ice that we discussed in your second year. Yes, I remember that." A ghost of a smile appeared on her face as she noted the ice. "You have grasped the concept quite well, Mr. West."


    Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, who stood behind McGonagall, stared at the contained mist of vapor hanging in the air. Their head of the house had pulled them away from the crowd, and now they were standing in her office watching Quinn West and McGonagall talking about something.


    "Why did you call me, professor?" asked Quinn as he dispelled the vapor and returned to his chair. He nced at Harry and Granger and guessed, "This is about what happened on the train, isn''t it?"


    Professor McGonagall motioned Harry and Hermione to sit down. She settled herself behind her desk and abruptly said, "The train driver sent an owl ahead to say that you were feeling a bit under the weather on the train, Mr. Potter."


    Before Harry could reply, there was a soft knock on the door and Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, bustled in.


    Harry felt a blushing to his face. It was bad enough that he had passed out, or whatever he had done, without everyone making all this fuss.


    "I''m fine," he said, "I don''t need anything -"


    "Oh, it''s you, isn''t it?" scoffed Madam Pomfrey, ignoring this and bending down to stare closely at him. "I suppose you''ve been doing something dangerous again?"


    "It was a dementor, Poppy," said Professor McGonagall.


    They exchanged a dark look, and Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly.


    "Setting dementors around a school," she muttered, pushing back Harry''s hair to touch his forehead. "He won''t be thest one who copses. Yes, he is all mmy. Terrible things, dementors, and the effect they have on people who are already delicate -"


    "I''m not delicate!" sputtered Harry crossly.


    "Of course, of course," said Madam Pomfrey absentmindedly, now taking his pulse.


    "What does he need?" asked Professor McGonagall crisply. "Bedrest? Should he perhaps spend tonight in the hospital wing?"


    "I''m fine!" ranted Harry, jumping up. The thought of what Draco Malfoy would say if he had to go to the hospital wing was torture.


    "Well, he should have some chocte, at the very least," said Madam Pomfrey, who was now examining Harry''s eyes.


    "I''ve already had some," said Harry. He pointed at Quinn and said. "He- I mean, West, gave me some. He gave chocte to everyone on the train."


    Pomfrey turned her head towards Quinn, who waved at her with a beaming smile. "Hello, Madam Pomfrey. May I say you look absolutely glowing today?"


    "Good work, West," praised Madam Pomfrey approvingly. "Excellent response by distributing chocte."


    Quinn smiled before looking at McGonagall and notified, "I''ll be sending you a bill for reimbursement, as I went through a couple of months'' worth of chocte."


    McGonagall sighed and nodded before looking at Harry and asked, "Are you sure you feel all right, Mr. Potter?"


    "Yes," Harry insisted, stubbornly.


    "Very well," she epted and turned to Quinn. "Now, Mr. West, was the Patronus in the train your doing? The driver said that he saw some kind of bird-shaped Patronus."


    "Yes, professor," Quinn raised his wand and whispered for show. "Expecto Patronum." Intense waves of silver energy filled with positivity escaped his wand tip and hovered like mist before him.


    Harry, Hermione, and Pomfrey stared at the silver wavesing out of Quinn''s wand with wide eyes.


    Quinn didn''t expel a corporeal Patronus because he wasn''t feeling like showing his Patronus form. Anyone who could properly witness his Patronus knew it was some kind of bird, and he decided to keep it like that.


    "I see," McGonagall nodded and smiled in gratitude. "Between the Patronus and the chocte, you did a great service to our school, Mr. West. I sincerely thank you on behalf of Hogwarts."


    "It was the least I could do, professor," said Quinn humbly before campaigning. "That''s part of the full servicemitment you can expect if you do business with me, so if you want a problem solved, A.I.D will-"


    "Thank you, Mr. West," McGonagall cut off Quinn''s attempt at self-advertisement and said, "Please wait outside while I have a quick word with Ms. Granger about her course schedule, we shall go down to the feast together then."


    Quinn raised a finger before veering it down and nodding.


    Harry and Quinn went back to the corridor with Madam Pomfrey, who left for the hospital wing, muttering some indecipherable words to herself.


    Just as Quinn and Harry came out of McGonagall''s office they saw Lily Potter running towards them and the second she reached Harry, the worried mother hugged her son.


    "Oh, Harry! Are you alright?! Oh, my dear boy."


    She hade running to see if her son making sure that her daughter was not injured by the vile Dementors. And while Ivy had assured that Harry was fine, she needed to see it on her own. Only after seeing that both her children were okay would a mother''s heart would calm down.


    Quinn, on the other hand, stepped away from the mother-son pair and stood as still as possible to reduce his physical presence to the point he was invisible. He didn''t want to disturb them and give them some space.


    ''Let''s just hope that I can leave here as soon as possible,'' he thought eyeing McGonagall''s office door, hoping the transfiguration professor woulde out with Hermione Granger and he could goto the feast.


    He had to wait only a few minutes, and it seemed like Lily didn''t notice him and Harry had seemingly forgotten that he was here. Then, followed by Professor McGonagall, Hermione emerged looking thrilled about something and the three of them made their way back down the marble staircase to the Great Hall.


    There was a sea of pointy ck hats; each of the long House tables was lined with students, their faces glimmering by the light of thousands of candles which hovered above the tables in the air. Professor Flitwick was carrying an ancient-looking hat and a four-legged stool out of the hall.


    "Oh," said Hermione softly, "We''ve missed the Sorting!"


    "That we did," remarked Quinn, looking at the Slytherin table. There he saw Astoria sitting in her new green trims with Daphne and Tracy. "The hat sorted her in Slytherin, huh."


    Professor McGonagall and Lily Potter strode off towards her empty seat at the staff table, and Harry and Hermione set off in the other direction, as quietly as possible, toward the Gryffindor table.


    Quinn cast a surveying nce to Hermione and thought, ''She got the permission to use the Time-Turner, didn''t she? Hmm...''


    He walked to the empty spot between Marcus and Luna, and took his ce between his two friends.


    "So where were you?" asked Marcus, who was sitting across from them.


    Quinn started to exin what happened in a whisper. But at that moment, the Headmaster stood up to speak, so he was cut off.


    Dumbledore, despite being well over a century old, always gave an impression of great energy. He had long white hair and a beard that was at least two feet long; he wore half-moon sses and had a slightly crooked nose.


    Quinn looked around and saw the eyes of all the students focused on the headmaster. He had to admit that Dumbledore had cemented his position in the hearts of the general student popce. The kind of reputation that was on the verge of being unshakable.


    "Wee!" said Dumbledore, the candlelight shimmering on his beard. "Wee to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say. And as one of them is quite serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before we be befuddled by our excellent feast..."


    Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "As you may be aware, our school is presently hosting some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here under the order of the Ministry of Magic."


    Quinn noticed a barely visible look of displeasure passing in Dumbledore''s eyes. Hogwarts was Dumbledore''s territory; he didn''t like the Ministry intruding on it, much less with Dementors.


    "They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued, "and while they are with us, I must make it in that nobody is to leave the school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises ¡ª or even Invisibility Cloaks," he added ndly. "It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I, therefore, warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors," he said.


    "On a happier note," he continued, "I am pleased to wee two new teachers to our ranks this year."


    "First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the vacancy there was in Defense Against the Dark Arts." There was some scattered, rather unenthusiastic apuse. No one was expecting this fellow tost more than a year, and the recent record of the teachers didn''t inspire confidence that he would be any better than the previous two professors.


    Quinn observed Remus John Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts, the Marauder afflicted with Lycanthropy and cursed to turn into a werewolf at every full moon. He noticed that this version of Lupin was dressed appropriately and not shabby at all. In the books, Lupin was always in financial trouble. The werewolf wasn''t able to get a stable job because of his condition.


    ''Must be because of his friends,'' hypothesized Quinn. ''This Lupin didn''t lose all of his friends in a single night. They must have helped him get a stable job or something.''


    Quinn caught another thing at the staff table that made him chuckle.


    Severus Snape, the Potions master, was staring along the staff table at Lupin. It wasmon knowledge that Snape wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts post. It didn''t help his mood that the job he coveted went to a ''Marauder,'' one of his school bullies. The expression on Snape''s face was beyond anger; there was pure and unfiltered loathing.


    "As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm apuse for Professor Lupin died away. "I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end ofst year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs -."


    Quinn made an ''ooh~!'' expression and vocalized, "Burn~!"


    "- However, I am delighted to say that his ce will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching post in addition to his gamekeeping duties."


    The student body pped for the promoted gamekeeper. The Gryffindor table''s apuse was tumultuous in particr.


    "Well, I think that''s everything of importance," said Dumbledore. "Let the feast begin!"


    The golden tes and goblets before them were filled suddenly with food and drink. Quinn, who was already ravenous, helped himself to some food and began eating. It was a delicious feast, and the hall echoed with talk,ughter, and the tter of knives and forks.


    "I didn''t see you on the train," said Quinn, taking a bite from his bowl of Cranachan. "And I traveled through the train distributing chocte. Where the hell were you two?"


    "You did pass by ourpartment," answered Eddie from Quinn''s side. "Ourpartment door snapped open, and chocte flew in as you walked away while shouting at everybody to eat chocte."


    "... Damn it," cursed Quinn. Once again, he wasn''t able to find his two roommates on the Hogwarts Express. "This makes it four years in a row. Next year, we will board the train together."


    "What do you think about the new professor?" asked Marcus, turning his head to look at Lupin. "Do you think he will be any good?"


    "I don''t think so. I think this one will also be a bust," guessed Eddie, showing little confidence in Remus Lupin.


    Quinn put his chin on his palm and hummed, "I don''t know. He might be bad or unexpectedly good. Let''s hope for something more reasonable and say that he will be decent. How about that?"


    Luna decided to chime in, "Daddy says the middle is boring. I say that he will be good."


    "I see. That makes it three people and three different opinions," Marcuspiled the results and chuckled, "It seems professor Lupin is already doing fairly well on the opinion poll."


    "Meh, we will know when he actually teaches," Quinn said and continued with an example. "Lockhart had an overwhelmingly positive reception. Look how he turned out."


    ''He ended up in the hospital without memories,'' he added in his head as some things were better unspoken.


    Quinn looked around the Great Hall and noticed Friar floating above the Hufflepuff table, chatting with the new Hufflepuff inductees.


    ''Yeah,'' thought Quinn.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was the night after Quinn hade back to Hogwarts, and now he was making his way to the Astronomy tower. As he climbed the stairs to the tower, Quinn thought about the uing conversation with the ghost he had most contact with.


    He didn''t me Friar for the things that had happened to him in thest few months. Oh, no, the Hufflepuff ghost couldn''t be med at all. Friar had warned him about the vaults and the danger that was within them.


    Sure, Quinn had cursed Friar a lot while he was suffering from his ailment, but after thinking about it a lot and epting the situation, he realized that Friar had given him plenty of warnings.


    Quinn sighed as he finally reached the top of the Astronomy Tower, and there stood the ghost of the religious monk, looking at the stars like he did every so often.


    After taking a deep breath, Quinn alerted the ghost of his presence.


    "Friar."


    The translucent ghost turned around mid-hover and greeted Quinn on seeing his favorite Ravenw.


    "Quinn, it''s nice to you after this time." Friar hovered near Quinn and smiled. "How have you been?"


    "I''m fine. Thank you for asking, Friar," Quinn walked towards the edge of the tower and looked at the waning moon shining in the sky. "I''m better now than I was a few months ago."


    "A few months ago?" Friar asked as he floated close to Quinn. "Did something happen?"


    "Yes. Something happened, Friar," Quinn clenched his fists behind his back. "I underestimated the second vault and lost my magic."


    "Y-You lost your magic?!" Friar wasn''t expecting to hear this piece of information.


    "I''m fine, Friar." Deep patterns suddenly etched on the floor of the tower, glowing with a fiery light. Showing Friar that his magic was fine, Quinn calmed the ghost down. "My magic is fine now. I have it under control."


    "What did the vault do to you? What was in there?" Friar asked with curiosity.


    "I can''t be sure, Friar," replied Quinn truthfully.


    He turned to face the ghost and continued, "I asked someone who knows about all this better than me." Quinn was talking about n. The two had discussed the true nature of the vault. The conclusion that we came up with was that the vault was an experiment to see if it was possible to artificially increase the magic of a human by tapping into the emotional connection and strengthening it to gain more magic."


    "B-But, why would something like that be Hogwarts?" asked Friar, confused in disbelief.


    "That is the thing, Friar," Quinn looked at the ghost and spread his hand to point at Hogwarts. "What better ce to set up an experiment like this than a school full of adolescent children."


    "Do you know why Hogwarts has be such a mystical ce?" Quinn asked Friar a question about the nature of Hogwarts.


    The ghost shook his head. He always assumed that Hogwarts was great because the founders built it, but he felt that wasn''t the answer Quinn was looking for.


    "The magic grows at an elerated rate between the ages eleven to eighteen; the seven years of magical development thates once in a lifetime. Children go through this change and development of magic, and it might not be the correct way to exin it, but the magic during this age is unstable."


    Quinn held his chin and thought for a second.


    "If I were to give a better word, then it would be in flux. And that state of flux is in children who experience extreme emotions, both positive and negative. Magic behaves abnormally when mixed with extreme emotion."


    He looked at the Hogwarts castle and continued.


    "The magic influxbined with extreme emotions is the reason Hogwarts is so mystical and magical. A millennium of hundreds of adolescent children staying in the castle for most of the year would change even the most normal ces into a magical ce. Hogwarts, even when it was newly built, was anything but normal."


    Friar listened to Quinn, who continued to speak.


    "Children with ''unstable'' magic were the best test subjects for an experiment that targeted emotion. Maybe it was one of the Headmasters that dabbled in the art of emotions and didn''t mind using the children as test subjects."


    Quinn pointed at Friar and revealed.


    "The reason that ghost disappeared was maybe that the magic inside the vault has a soul aspect. The magic in the vault wasn''t meant for ghosts, and it caused the ghost to cease to exist. Ghosts have strong emotional ties to the ce they haunt. So when you go near the vault, your emotions are affected. Your ghostly instincts tell you that if you go near the vault, you will cease to exist."


    A twisted smile of self-derision appeared on Friars as hepleted what Quinn was speaking. "... And ghosts don''t want to pass on. Even though we know it is wrong to remain in the mortal world, we continue to exist. The vault is a threat to our existence, and thus we feel dread and fear from it."


    "Yes, that is the conclusion I havee up with. It is up to you if you want to ept it," Quinn told his understanding of the second vault.


    There were a few minutes of silence in the Astronomy Tower before Friar spoke up, "Will you go inside the second vault?"


    "No," came Quinn''s response. It was so quick and firm that Friar was taken aback. "I''m not going back there. The only way I go in there is if my life depends on it."


    It was unusual to see such a serious expression in Quinn''s eyes and voice. Even though Quinn had regained his magic and had a better understanding of what emotions were, this didn''t mean he wasn''t afraid of the second vault. The second vault exploration had be a frightful experience for him, and nothing about it would change that opinion. One visit and he was under the influence of magic for months.


    There was once again a period of silence before Friar broke it, "Do you want to continue exploring the third vault?" Friar wasn''t sure if Quinn would want to continue after what had happened to him.


    Quinn focused on the ghost, "I had a lot of time to think in the absence of magic, Friar. At that time, I thought about the possibility of what would happen if I didn''t get my magic. I thought of what would I do if I didn''t regain the control of my magic and somehow could lock it away to live a magic-less life. What would be my future? What route would my life go?"


    Friar stared Quinn with slightly wide eyes as a twisted and contorted smile marred Quinn''s face.


    "Do you know what I found? I realized I didn''t want a life without magic. I had devoted years of this life and being to this one thing, and if you took it away, I would be left with nothing, nothing at all... Quinn West is nothing without magic."


    Quinn broke intoughter for a stretch before proiming.


    "Oh, Friar. I don''t love magic. Oh, no, love isn''t the correct emotion that I feel for magic. No, the correct emotion would be..."


    The twisted smile split Quinn''s face as he revealed,


    "... Obsession."


    Quinn''s glimmered at the stars as he went on.


    "The cursed vaults are a way for me to learn about magic. I only have a few more years in this castle, and after that, I will be gone. Before that happens, I want to go into all the vaults and find the secrets. So my answer is yes, Friar, I want to continue."


    Quinn turned his eyes back to Friar and said,


    "There is just one teeny-tiny problem that I need to take care of before I continue on the quest of the cursed vaults and my life in general."


    Quinn slowly walked backward while facing Friar.


    "The thing is, I have this small irrational fear that has taken root inside of me. I lost control of my magic, and I fear that it would happen again." Quinn no longer had that contorted smile on his face, but instead, a sad smile took its ce. "Gosh, it is an irrational fear. I can feel my magic under my firm control, but you see, I can''t just get rid of the thought that one day it will once again rampage."


    Friar frowned when he saw that Quinn was inching towards the edge of the tower roof. "Quinn, what are you doing?"


    "I thought about it, and the only way for me to get rid of this fear is if I canpletely trust my magic once more."


    Quinn finally reached the edge of the Astronomy Tower and held onto the railing with his back to the tower''s railings.


    "My magic must not betray me at the one moment I need it," Quinn smiled and stated. "And that moment is when my life is in danger. I need to confirm the bottom line. I need to make sure my magic won''t leave me when I am about to die."


    He turned his head to see the distance between him and the ground below before turning back to Friar, who was staring at Quinn with a worried gaze.


    "My meeting with you here at the Astronomy Tower started all this, and if things are going to end, then I want it to end here and with you present." Quinn chuckled and added, "It is fitting in a way."


    "Q-Quinn, what are you doing," Friar hovered closer and quavered. "Please step away from the railing and walk my way."


    "Your words won''t have the effect you are hoping, Friar," Quinn sighed as he looked at the ghost. "And you, a ghost, can''t interact with material things, so you can''t stop me."


    He looked at the bright half-moon and smiled, "It is a clear night today. Suitable if I am to die."


    He turned to face Friar and spoke, "See you in a bit, Friar."


    Friar''s ghostly eyes widened in horror as he saw Quinn shifting his weight over the railings and falling off Hogwarts'' tallest tower.


    Quinn, who was off the roof''s floor and in this air, shifted himself while falling to face the ground below.


    There were no unnecessary thoughts in Quinn''s mind as he fell. No revolvingntern, showing him his life shing by. No thoughts about his family or friends.


    Quinn''s mind was focusing on his magic. Every fiber of his being was calling on his magic as he rushed closer to the ground.


    In this life-threatening moment, Quinn felt the wind pping against his face and body, his beating heart, the pulsating magic inside his body, and the Friar''s faint shouts from above him.


    He locked his eyes on the approaching ground, and even though he never did it, Quinn felt that the moment was appropriate, and so he closed his eyes and whispered.


    "Arresto Momentum."


    A bright blue shed just moments before Quinn was about to hit the ground and turned into a bloody mess.


    There was no collision with the ground, no breaking of bones, no stter of blood, no exploding skulls, or gore of any kind.


    Quinn opened his and saw that he was floating above the ground.


    He grinned and released the magic and fell to the ground with his elbows and knees supporting his body on the ground.


    The boy pushed himself off the ground so that he was on his knees. He looked up at the sky and roared inughter.


    "Hahahahahaha!"


    His magic hadn''t betrayed him. It was there with him at the moment he was about to die.


    The irrational fear in Quinn''s heart vanished as magic amplified hisughter, carrying it all over the castle.


    Every single resident of Hogwarts heard a roaring, joyfulughter that night.


    No one ever found where theughter came from or who wasughing, but in the years toe, it would be talked about it.


    Only one person knew the meaning of theughter.


    And it was...


    Quinn West was finally and truly back.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Reboot Complete


    Friar - Hufflepuff Ghost - Scared out of his ghostly existence.


    FictionOnlyReader - No Author''s note - I will answerments.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 77 - Tempered Glass Wall, New Door, And Lock System

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn started the first weekend of his fourth year at Hogwarts by visiting the Room of Requirements to begin the first motive of the year.


    "Oh boy, it''s been a while," Quinn rubbed his hands together as he looked around the Room of Requirement with delight in his eyes. "Haa~, now, let''s start immediately."


    He took out a small ss pane from his robes and gently set it down on the floor before walking a few strides away from it. As soon as Quinn was at an appropriate distance away from the ss, the ss expanded till it was back to full size.


    The ss pane lying on the floor was the ss wall from the A.I.D office. He had brought it to the Room of Requirements to make some changes to it.


    One of the main objectives for his fourth year was to fortify the A.I.D workshop, and the first step to achieving that was to strengthen the ss wall that separated the office from the workshop.


    "Okay, let''s create tempered ss," Quinn said as he squatted at the edge of the ss pane and looked at the surface and the thickness of the ss. "First, I have to thicken the ss. This one is a bit thin, I think."


    Quinn took out a cloth pouch bag from his robes. He opened the string binding the bag and scattered shards of ss all over the ss pane, expanding the ss shards back to their original size.


    Wisps of wavy magic flowed from Quinn to the ss, and the ss turned into a state of transformation and then a liquid. All the liquid ss mixed with each other to form a giant blob of liquid ss. Quinn applied transmutation magic to reform the ss into one uniform pane of ss and molded it to appropriate shapes and dimensions.


    Tempered or toughened ss was a type of safety ss processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strengthpared with traditional ss. Tempering sets the outer surfaces intopression and the interior into tension. Tempered ss was about four times stronger than conventional ss. The higher contraction of the inneryer during manufacturing inducedpressive stresses in the ss''s surface bnced by tensile stresses in the ss''s body.


    The result of tempering the ss was that it had four times the strength and durability of the previous one.


    "I have to make cuts and mold the ss into shape," Quinn said as a tape measure came out of his robes and started to measure the ss. A felt-tip pen also came out from his robes and made markings and shapes to help the cutting that would be done afterwards.


    The tempered ss had to be cut to the appropriate size or pressed to shape prior to tempering. Besides, it couldn''t be re-worked once tempered. Polishing the edges or drilling holes in the ss had to be carried out before the tempering process started. Due to the bnced stresses in the tempered ss, damage to any portion would eventually result in the ss shattering into thumbnail-sized pieces.


    Of course, magic could ovee that problem, but Quinn wanted to do it the traditional way and prepare the shape andyout of the ss wall before tempering the ss. He hadn''t done this before, so Quinn wanted to do the tried and tested way.


    "Okay, let''s do this," Quinn put on his trusty leather gloves and levitated the ss that had been cut, polished, frosted, and molded in a uniform shape.


    "First step of tempering a ss. Heat it to a temperature of six hundred and eighty-three degrees Celsius," read Quinn from the small notepad in his hand.


    Quinn''s approach for tempering the ss was the thermal approach. He would heat the ss topress it and form an inteyer of tension between twopressions.


    The only good thing that hade out of the sin curse was the time Quinn had spent in the library. He spent hours every day voraciously reading books, and a topic of study that he had covered during his readings was fire, or more specifically, the concept of heat.


    Taking a deep breath, Quinn channeled his magic into the ss and flooded the entire thick pane of ss. Closing his eyes, Quinn triggered a change in his magic and heated up the ss. Quinn needed a fast, uniform thermal temperature throughout the ss.


    After the temperature reached six hundred and eighty-three degrees Celsius, Quinn opened his eyes and immediately changed the magic from hot to cold.


    The ss immediately went from molten to frozen... but it promptly shattered.


    Quinn didn''t look discouraged and walked to the shattered ss, which was still levitating in the air, and observed what had happened. After a minute of studying the failed result, Quinn judged,


    "I need to heat it faster. Again!"


    The shattered ss returned to its unbroken state through transmutation, and the process repeated over again.


    This time, Quinn raised the temperature of the ss faster. He channeled magic and used a different heating spell design to increase the heat more quickly and with higher efficiency for heating ss.


    "Shifting to cold," Quinn murmured. The heat switched off, and cold reigned supreme in the ss, quenching the ss uniformly.


    *Crunch!!*


    The ss cracked into rough shards, and countless ss pieces floated in the air.


    "I can try to keep the same heat and cool it slower," spected Quinn and hypothesized, before saying, "Again!"


    There was a smile on Quinn''s face the entire time as he heated the ss and cooled it down. The smile even remained when the ss deformed, shattered, or didn''te out tempered.


    ''Ah, this feels nice,'' that thought epassed Quinn''s state of mind.


    Doing magic that he foundpelling felt nice to Quinn. It didn''t have the exhrating feeling of sting objects with destructive magic that he feltst year.


    This was different.


    Watching how the wisps of me danced on the ss''s surface or when the ice rxed down the ss and sizzled brought joy to Quinn. Changing the temperatures, heat, cold, the timing of heating and cooling, small changes that just made sense.


    All of it was mesmerizing to Quinn.


    It was fun, it was calm... It was magic.


    After an hour and a half of shattering ss, making changes to the process, and trying dozens of times, Quinn finally produced a perfect pane of tempered ss.


    "Done," Quinn raised his hands and admired his new ss wall that would be in his office.


    He shrunk the ss wall down to a pocket-sized version, put it inside his robes, and exited the Room of Requirements to have lunch before going to the A.I.D ssroom and set up the wall.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    A well-fed Quinn entered the empty A.I.D ssroom with his suitcase in hand. He turned the key twice in the keyhole and opened the door.


    The ssroom was bare and empty. Not a sign of the room being ever upied.


    Afterst year, he had taken every single thing inside the office and the workshop. After losing control of his magic, Quinn wasn''t in any shape to fortify his workshop, so he just packed up everything home with him.


    Tables, workstations, desks, cupboards, cabs, raw material, tools, and everything there was in the ssroom went home with Quinn.


    Quinn set down the suitcase on the floor, and opened it with a couple of clicks. The owner descended into the expanded suitcase and entered the room with all the stuff from the A.I.D ssroom.


    A powerful wave of magic mmed into every single object in the room, and the entire inventory shrunk down for Quinn to levitate and bring out of the suitcase. After thoroughly cleaning the room, Quinn set up everything where it belonged and got back to setting up the wall.


    First, Quinn widened the wall to wall indent in the roof and floor to amodate the increased thickness of the ss wall. He then pulled out the shrunken ss wall and expanded it slowly so he could line it into the indents that were on the top and at the bottom.


    The wall fitted snugly into the indents at its regr size. A momentter, the wall and the floor were transmuted to grip the surface of the ss wall, and the building material Quinn had taken out to increase the size of the indents also went to the roof and floor to create more support for the ss wall.


    Quinn stepped back and admired the ss wall and double-checked if it was firmly in its ce before making a beckoning gesture and pulling a barstool for him to sit on.


    He touched the wall with his right hand, resting his palm and fingers snug against the cool ss. After eyeing the wall for a moment, Quinn injected magic into the ss wall.


    Purple waves of magic went through the ss every few seconds, reaching every corner of the wall. The purple waves of magic were the unbreakable charms being imbibed into the ss.


    Unbreakable charm wasn''t the correct name for the spell because it didn''t make an object unbreakable. No, it only strengthened objects so that they would be more resilient to external forces.


    Quinn was increasing the resilience of the ss so that it would be difficult to break.


    Why not do this to a regr pane of ss instead of a tempered pane of ss? Well, the stronger the base material, the stronger result after cing the unbreakable charm. Tempered ss was naturally tougher than regr ss. So if you put unbreakable charms on it, the result would be much better.


    Quinn sat there for five minutes channeling magic into the ss before the charm saturated the ss and could no longer make it any stronger.


    The next step of fortifying the ss wall was to make it resistant to transfiguration and transmutation. The strengthened ss would be useless if you could just create a hole in it through transfiguration and pass through it.


    There wasn''t a way to fully disable transfiguration and transmutation as it was not feasible to iste every single spell type and individually disable them one by one. So the next best thing Quinn could do was to make it resistant to magical changes.


    The concept behind achieving something like that was easy.


    ''Using transfiguration and transmutation to defend against transfiguration and transmutation,'' smiled Quinn, in thought.


    Pushing more magic into the wall, Quinnmanded his magic to transfigure the ss that made up the wall to stay the same. Quinn was forcing ss matter to stay as ss. He was making his magic to freeze/jam the state of matter so that when someone tried magic against the ss, it would be difficult to budge as Quinn''s magic was forcing the ss to stay the way it was currently.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After the wall was done came the turn for the door.


    The thing about doors in walls was that people went for the door when trying to break in. No one tried to break the actual wall when you had a door in it.


    The doors were thinner than the walls they were fitted in and were made from a rtively weaker material. Quinn''s wooden door was no different, and it clearly showed when Ivy Potter kicked the door down to enter the workshop.


    So to make sure his door wouldn''t be the hole in his defense, Quinn decided to make sure it would be a hassle to break.


    Quinn started with the door''s wood. He used the hardest wood avable to him and bought a few logs of Australian Buloke wood. This wood had a very strength-toughness level on a pound-force scale.


    "I have to stain it in a hardening solution," uttered Quinn as he took out a bucket of a red potion solution that he had finished brewing yesterday. He looked at the viscous red liquid and chuckled, "This baby took three days to brew. Oh, this is going to be good~."


    The red solution would strengthen the wood fibers when absorbed into the material.


    "Plus, it will give the wood a nice red sheen."


    Quinn looked at the Australian Buloke wood logs and levitated them over the center ind. Slowly, he turned the wood into sawdust by breaking down the wooden logs into a coarse powder. He made sure that the wood powder didn''t fly over the room.


    He separated the sawdust into multiple trays and poured the red hardening solution into the trays. As he poured the liquid over the sawdust, the sawdust started to move and mix with the red potion liquid.


    Quinn had converted the wood into sawdust so that every fiber would get exposed to the potion, strengthening the wood at a deeper level.


    "Okay, done." Quinn finished pouring the liquid over the multiple trays. Now, he just needed to give it time for the solution to get mixed and getpletely absorbed into the wood. Quinn continued mixing the wood using magic and moved along.


    "Now, where is that high-carbon steel te," Quinn looked around the workshop and found a sheet of high-carbon steel. "Alright, this will do. This will do very well."


    Quinnid the metal sheet on the floor and punched ten holes in the sheet; two rows of four holes and one row of two holes. The metal sheet was going inside the door, and the holes were there so the wood could go through them and really bind the metal with the wood.


    The next part of the door was the lock. Quinn used the same high-carbon steel to craft a lock system with a regr lock opened with a key.


    The other part of the lock was a system of thirteen steel cylinders that would enter the door from the frame around the door. And these cylinders couldn''t be released from the door with the key. They had to be released by magic, and if no one knew about the cylinders, no one would figure out how to disable the cylinder system.


    Ten minutes of unbreakable charms into the metal finally saturated the metal with magic. It couldn''t be made any stronger by the use of the unbreakable charm.


    By the time Quinn was done, the wood was prepared. It was ready to be turned into a wooden door with a metal te inside.


    The punched high-carbon steel sheet along with the lock system floated in the air as Quinn directed it with his left hand. He pointed his right hand towards sawdust trays, and around three-quarters of treated sawdust flew towards the metal sheet.


    The wood fibers gathered around the metal and formed a red door made from treated Australian Buloke wood and a high-carbon steel core and locks. Thepleted door also went through the same treatment of transfiguration and transmutation resistance.


    The remaining quarter of the treated sawdust flew towards the rectangr opening in the ss wall and formed a wooden frame for the door to fit in. The rectangr opening in the ss wall had notches around it for the wooden frame to fit on the ss wall.


    Quinn fitted the door in the frame and entered the thirteen cylinders into the wooden frame, five on both lengths of the door and three on the top breath of the door.


    "Done," celebrated Quinn as he opened the door and went back and forth. When he closed the door, the steel cylinders were inserted into the door in such a way that the cylinders were door and frame at the same time, jamming the door with the frame.


    "Now, let''s put some charms to punish anyone who touches the door." Quinn shot spells at the door that would shock and burn anyone who would touch the door and an anti-unlocking charm on the regr lock.


    "Yeah, try to break this door, Ivy Potter," smirked Quinn.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Fortifying the A.I.D ssroom.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Don''t know why I wrote this chapter, but I did. So... thanks for reading.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 78 - Third Riddle, Novellus Accionites, And Hothoof.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Now that the A.I.D office and workshop were fortified, Quinn sat at his office desk and read the sheet of paper on the desk.


    *


    [


    You can swallow it.


    .


    Deep in the Bane of Neptune''s home,


    Find the forgotten dome.


    .


    It can devour you.


    Beware the force or it will crush you,


    .


    Life is something you cherish.


    If not careful, you will perish


    .


    Yet, it is the source.


    ]


    *


    The riddle to the third vault was written in the paper. Friar had given him the riddle after his stunt at the Astronomy tower.


    The Hufflepuff ghost had lectured him a lot before handing over the starting clue. And Friar''s worries were reflected in the riddle.


    "Life is something you cherish," Quinn sighed and shook his head at the religious ghost''s attempt to make sure he didn''t repeat things like jumping off the Astronomy tower. "He should know better than anyone that the cursed vaults are more dangerous than a bungee jump without a rope."


    Quinn tapped his finger on the paper and read through the riddle over and over again.


    "Bane of Neptune, now that is definitely some mythological stuff," Quinn murmured, studying the riddle. "That will need some research."


    He took out a small notepad out of his robes; uncapped his pen, wrote Neptune''s Bane, circled it a couple of times, made an arrow extending outside, and finished it with the word research.


    "... Next, beware of some kind of force," Quinn felt that this was the dangerous part of the third vault because it was followed by, "If not careful, I will perish. Now, that just screams danger."


    Quinn nodded appreciatively and praised Friar, "Props to Friar for making it clear. This... this is what I like. Danger clearly specified."


    The word force went on the notepad, another set of circles, and an arrow pointing to danger.


    Quinn frowned and sighed, "life is something you cherish. This is useless."


    Quinn copied the phrase on the notepad, put a line through it and a small cross next to the sentence. "Friar''s drabble," wrote Quinn with an arrowing out of the crossed sentence.


    "Come on, Friar. Show some professionalism," Quinnined to the ghost who wasn''t there. "Has he learned anything in his long ghostly life? Well, Myrtle hasn''t grown up from her Hogwarts days, so maybe ghosts are incapable of growth."


    In the end, Quinn reached the three individual phrases of the riddle and felt some connection existed between the separate lines.


    "You can swallow it."


    "It can devour you."


    "Yet, it is the source."


    The three lines were the remaining lines from the riddle, and all of them had something inmon between them.


    "What is the ''it'' mentioned here," Quinn asked himself, hoping to get some random epiphany. "It, it, it... What is it?"


    Writing the sentences on a fresh notepad page, Quinn put a circle on all three ''it''-s and connected them with lines.


    "Hmm... I think I will target this from the Bane of Neptune''s angle to get the things rolling," Quinn closed his notepad with a snap and put it back into his robes along with his pen.


    Hogwarts taught the subject History of Magic, and such the Hogwarts Library was equipped with books about history. Not that Binns taught the subject properly, but Hogwarts Library would definitely hold texts on different parts of the history of the magical world.


    And the myths of the non-magical world tended to be magical anomalies of the magical world.


    It was a start.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch. Yesterday''s rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as he set off to his first Care of Magical Creatures ss.


    Eddie and Marcus walked by his side, talking about the new terrorist group Novellus ionites.


    "This time, they targeted three muggles. Aren''t they scared of the Aurors?" Marcus spoke about thetest news that had been circting across the country. "They have been really aggressive in their approach."


    "At least, they are targeting people at night," Eddiemented about the actions of Novellus ionites. "The only reason the aurors knew about the muggle attacks is because of the clear traces of magic there are on the muggles."


    "What do you think, Quinn?" Marcus asked for his other friend''s opinion.


    "Hmm, if they continue to attack, I think the aurors will set up a task force against them," affirmed Quinn on the new and uing terrorist group. "As Eddie said, they only strike at night, so the Muggle authorities are still treating their few attacks as Muggle matters."


    "If they increase their attacks and act in daylight, the ministry will start a task force of Aurors and Hit-Wizards. The ministry will only move when the pressure from the non-magical world grows," Quinn sighed and finished his opinion on the new terrorist group.


    "But why?" Eddie frowned in question. He couldn''t understand why the ministry had only issued a lookout notice for such a clear threat. "I mean, what was it called? -"


    "-Manifest," Marcus offered the word Eddie was looking for.


    "Yes, the manifest. The manifest clearly stated that the Novellus ionites were the supporters of You-Know-Who," Eddie shuddered in the thought of the Dark Lord. He frowned in disbelief, "Why isn''t the ministry being more vignt against these terrorists?"


    Quinn patted Eddie''s shoulder and exined to his friend the world of politics.


    The war had brought influence on The Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Former Head Bartemius Crouch Senior utilized his powers to permit the usage of the Unforgivable Curses against enemies, among otherw changes that seemed atrocious under times of peace.


    Crouch Senior was so incredibly popr that he was ted to be the next Minister for Magic. If not for his son, Crouch Junior, being a Death Eater, Bartemius Crouch Senior would be sitting in the minister''s office instead of Cornelius Fudge.


    "A few years back, at a Wizengamot vote, it was decided to reduce the budget of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement from their war era funding. It was an attempt from the minister''s faction to limit the growing poprity of the Auror''s Office. The vote was passed with a vast majority because none of the factions wanted the increasing influence of the militant Auror''s office."


    The Dark-Faction had obvious reasons. As supporters of Voldemort, they didn''t want future troubles. A lot of them had bribed their way out of a lengthy stay at Azkaban. But they weren''t sure if it would work in the future because the Auror''s office was bing more and more popr.


    Light-Faction, led by Albus Dumbledore, also lobbied to decrease the funding in The Department of Magical Law Enforcement, or specifically, the Auror''s office. Even though James Potter, Sirius ck, theatose Longbottom Couple and many other Light-Faction members were Aurors, and many didn''t like the decision, they still followed the decision because the majority of the Light-Faction was in favor.


    Albus Dumbledore actively participated and supported the motion because he wasn''t happy with the wartime decision of using the Unforgivable Curses. Dumbledore''s forget-and-forgive philosophy didn''t support the direction the Auror''s office was going.


    The Grey-Faction went along with the flow and voted in favor for the motion because they, too, didn''t want over-vignt policing from the Auror''s office. Grey-Faction liked freedom so that they could conduct their business in peace.


    "Now, let''s talk about the present. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement took a short-term hit from the reduced funding, but it was, as I speak, a short-term hit. Even though they had to struggle for a year or two, excellent leadership brought The Department of Magical Law Enforcement back to stability and glory."


    Quinn smiled in admiration as he went on.


    "Under the direction of DMLE head Amelia Bones, the department recovered and regained their influence. Amelia Bones is so popr among the public that she is believed she will be the winner of the next ministerial election. Even at this moment, Amelia Bones is already far ahead of Cornelius Fudge in poprity."


    The world of politics was aplicated and treacherous one.


    "So to limit her rising poprity, the minister''s faction is trying to downy the activities of Novellus ionites. They don''t want to add fuel to Amelia Bone''s poprity by handing the operational authority to the Auror''s office and let them take another victory. So they have been downying Novellus ionites so that Amelia Bones won''t start a campaign that might boost her poprity at the next election."


    Marcus and Eddie didn''t like what they were hearing. A terrorist group was hardly being given any coverage because the ministry wanted to y politics.


    "That doesn''t sound good. Why isn''t anyone doing something?" Marcus frowned in disgust. The two fourteen-year-old boys didn''t understand politics. It was their first discussion on politics, and well, they didn''t like it.


    "It''s not like they are doing nothing. Aurors are on the lookout. Aurors won''t stop their basic duties because of politics; they will still protect people," Quinnforted them with some positivity of the situation. "And there is another reason why the Aurors and ministry aren''t moving more aggressively."


    "What is it?" inquired Eddie curiously.


    "Novellus ionites are public supporters of Vol- I mean, Rid- I mean, You-Know-Who," Quinn stopped himself from speaking the wrong term twice.


    In his mind, he addressed the Dark Lord as Voldemort or Tom Riddle. Quinn never addressed the Dark Lord as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But to keep appearances, Quinn had to call him with the hyphenated pseudonyms.


    Plus, he wasn''t sure if the Taboo on the name Voldemort would return, so he made sure to keep a habit of using hyphenated pseudonyms to not identally get into trouble.


    Quinn coughed before continuing, "So, as I was saying, Novellus ionites im themselves to be supporters of the Dark Lord. Due to that, the ministry doesn''t want to spread panic in which ''somehow the Dark Lord is back'', because, then, there would be rumors that would spread the idea that Novellus ionites are actually Death Eaters."


    "The ministry is trying to portray a message in which Novellus ionites aren''t a big deal, just some stupid dafts who aren''t a huge threat. They are keeping this under the wraps. It is all about maintaining order by avoiding chaos," Quinn shrugged at the end. "They want to leave the Dark Lord''s reign behind them."


    Eddie and Marcus didn''t give any response. Quinn turned to regard his friends and saw contemtive expressions on their faces.


    Quinn didn''t disturb them and walked beside them in silence as they went down the slopingwns to Rubeus Hagrid''s hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest for Care of Magical Creatures.


    Meanwhile, Eddie and Marcus were thinking about the situation and forming their own views. He kept silent so that they could think about the situation. Things were never ck or white; there were always shades of grey present in everything.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Rubeus Hagrid was waiting for his ss at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat with Fang the boarhound at his heels. He seemed impatient to start.


    "C''mon, now, move on!" he called as the ss approached. "Got a real treat for you today! Great lessoning up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"


    The ss followed as Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutester, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.


    "Everyone gather around the fence here!" Hagrid called. "That''s it ¡ªmake sure you can see¡ª now, the first thing you''ll want to do is to open your books."


    The students were confused as they had no idea how to open the book.


    The Ravenw students frowned darkly; lots of them even looked frustrated as they hadn''t got the chance to open their textbooks before the ss.


    Eddie also squinted at his Care of Magical Creatures'' book before he caught Quinn in his peripheral vision. He snapped towards Quinn and blurted.


    "How did you open the book?!"


    Quinn, who was in the middle of reading, shook his head slightly, turned to Eddie and said with an usatory tone, "What is wrong with you! Don''t surprise a man when he''s reading!"


    Eddie''s and Quinn''s louder than regr argument brought the attention of the rest of the ss to them. Everyone saw that Quinn''s Care of Magical Creature book was open. And now, everyone wanted to know how Quinn opened the damned book, which tried to bite anyone who tried to open it.


    Quinn sighed and looked for Hagrid, but the giant had stepped into the woods and wasn''t nearby.


    ''I guess I have to show them,'' Quinn thought as he raised his hand towards Eddie and made a gesture to make him hand over his book.


    Eddie handed over his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope.


    After watching that some others also took out their books: some, like Eddie, had used ropes to bound their books shut; others, had crammed them inside tight bags or mped them together with binder clips.


    "Stroke the spine," Quinn announced to anyone who was paying attention. "Look here, like this."


    He removed the length of rope from Eddie''s book, dodged the book''s bite and gently used three fingers to gently stroke the spine. The book shivered and then fell open andy quietly in his hand.


    "How did you know how to do that?" Marcus asked, as he stroked the spine of his copy and opened the book after it calmed down.


    Quinn shrugged in reply, "I asked the bookstore manager and he told me." His tone was like he was stating the most obvious thing in the world.


    And he wasn''t lying. Quinn had to buy The Monster Book of Monsters for this year. He hadn''t purchased this book for his British book collection. So when he went to the bookstore, Quinn did ask the book shop manager to demonstrate how to open the biting book.


    "I''m back. Look who is here to meet you!"


    Trotting towards them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures Quinn had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-colored beaks andrge, sparkling orange eyes. The sharp talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly-looking. Each of the beasts had a thick leather cor around its neck attached to a long chain. Hagrid, who came out jogging, held the chains that were attached to the cors.


    "Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains and urging the creatures to move toward the fence where the ss stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them and tethered the creatures to the fence.


    "Hippogriffs!" shouted Hagrid happily, waving a hand at them. "Beautiful, aren''t they?"


    Quinn tilted his head and tried to see the beauty in the creatures. Once he got over the first shock of seeing something that was half horse, half-bird, Quinn observed the hippogriffs'' gleaming coats: changing smoothly from feather to hair, each of them of a different color; stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut, and inky ck.


    "So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if you want toe a bit nearer -"


    No one seemed to want to. But Quinn, with a mischievous grin on his face, grabbed Eddie''s and Marcus''s robes above their shoulders and dragged them closer to the fence.


    "W-What are you doing?!" Marcus whimpered as he stammered in his words.


    "Have you gone mad?!" Eddie croaked back as he tried to stand his ground, but Quinn was stronger than him.


    "I still remember how you pushed me forward duringst year''s dueling club," Quinn cackled as he brought them to the fence. "Come now, don''t be scared, but do remember that if the hippogriffs attack, I will use you as meat shields."


    "Now, the first thing you gotta know about hippogriffs is, they''re proud," warned Hagrid. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Never insult one because it might be thest thing you do."


    "Always wait for the hippogriff to make the first move. Give the proud bird the initiative," Hagrid continued. "It is polite, see? You walk towards them; then you bow, and finally, you wait. If they bow back, you are allowed to touch them. If they don''t bow, then walk away, but keep an eye on their talons."


    "Now, who wants to go first?"


    Most of the ss backed farther away in answer. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their mighty wings; they didn''t seem to like being tethered like this.


    "No one?" said Hagrid, with a pleading look.


    "I''ll do it," volunteered Quinn, raising his hand high as Eddie and Marcus slowly inched back away.


    Don''t get Quinn wrong, while he volunteered for a one-on-one with a hippogriff, he did feel fear. Quinn guessed he could defend against hippogriffs. No problem on that front; he could instantly injure the half-horse, half-bird, and get away, but that didn''t mean that Quinn wasn''t afraid.


    He still feared that he could get injured. But in Quinn''s mind, it was a waste of an opportunity to not try out new things. If he avoided risks, then he would miss out on a lot of fun stuff in his life.


    "Good man!" roared the half-giant, his voice booming with joy. "Right then, let''s see you get on Hothoof."


    Quinn jumped over the fence as Hagrid untied one of the chains, pulled the bronze hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off its leather cor. The ss on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath.


    "Easy, now," whispered Hagrid quietly. "You have to make eye contact, but don''t blink too much. They don''t trust you if you blink too much."


    Quinn immediately moistened his eyes with magic he learned from n when he was learning lumency.


    Hothoof turned his great, sharp head and stared at Quinn with one fierce red eye.


    "That''s it," Hagrid guided from the side, "Now, bow, bow..."


    Quinn followed the instructions, even though he wasn''t a fan of exposing his nape to the hippogriff. He gave a short bow and then looked up.


    The hippogriff was still staring haughtily at him. It didn''t move.


    Quinn was about to give the hippogriff the same haughty look, but then the hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into what was an unmistakable bow.


    "Alright," Quinn beamed as he swiftly walked his way to Hothoof and patted the hippogriff''s beak. He patted the beak several times, and the hippogriff closed its eyeszily, as though it was enjoying it.


    The ss broke into apuse.


    "Who is a good boy?" Quinn cooed as he used his other hand to stroke the feathers, but then he turned his head to Hagrid and asked. "Hothoof is a boy, right?"


    "Nay, Hothoof is ady," Hagrid shook his head in correction.


    "Oh, my," Quinn turned back to the female hippogriff and cooed once more. "Who is a good girl? You are, aren''t you?"


    Hothoof titled her neck to better guide Quinn''s hands to the spot that felt better.


    "Right then," pped Hagrid. "I reckon she might let you ride her!"


    "Hmm..." Quinn voiced as he looked into Hothoofs red eyes and gave it a thought. "Uh, why not? I could always jump off if things get wild. Ooh~, maybe that would feel the same as skydiving."


    "You climb up there, just behind the wing joint," said Hagrid, "And mind you, don''t pull any of her feathers out, she won''t like that..."


    Quinn put his foot on the top of Hothoof wing and hoisted himself onto its back. He used sticking charms to stick himself to the hippogriff''s back.


    "Let''s go, bigdy," Quinn gently patted Hothoof''s nape, and Hothoof stood up.


    "Go on, then!" roared Hagrid, pping the hippogriff''s hindquarters.


    Hothoof''s wings pped open on either side of Quinn, and before he knew it, he was soaring into the sky. The hippogriff''s wings beat ufortably, catching him under his legs and making him feel he was about to be thrown off.


    ''Maybe this is like life bull riding,'' Quinn thought as he looked below at the trees that made up the forest.


    "Oh, yeah. I should do that," Quinn put his hand over his head, and conjured a cowboy hat over his head. He also made it stick to his head so it wouldn''t fly away.


    "Yee-haw!" Quinn''s voice was drowned by the wind, but his grin was still present on his face.


    Hothoof flew him once around the paddock and then headed back to the ground. With a thud, Hothoof''s four ill-assorted feet hit the ground.


    Quinn looked at the rest of his ssmates, pushed up his cowboy hat, and jutted his chin towards them, "Howdy, people."


    "Good work, Quinn!" roared Hagrid as everyone cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"


    Emboldened by Quinn''s sess, the rest of the ss climbed cautiously into the paddock. Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon there were people bowing nervously all over the paddock.


    Eddie and Marcus practiced on the inky ck hippogriff named Stormswift, but they had to run backward repeatedly because Stormswift didn''t seem to want to bend its knees.


    Quinn stayed back and watched his ssmates; his conjured cowboy hat still on his head.


    "What a good day."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - We ride, never worry about the fall. Guess that is just the cowboy in us all. *Click-Click*


    Hothoof - Hippogriff - Big Lady of the sky.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 79 - Neptune, Scheme(?), And Boggart

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It turned out that the Roman gods weren''t ancient magicals. They were mythology in both the magical and non-magical worlds.


    "But Jupiter''s thunderbolt, Neptune''s trident, and Pluto''s pitchfork are real magical artifacts," said Quinn while reading from an ancient tome he had found in Hogwarts library. Then he scoffed at the next piece of information. "Of course, all of them are either lost, missing, or possibly destroyed."


    "Maybe they were real and became so powerful that no one believed their existence," considered Quinn about the identity of the Roman gods. "If that is true, then those guys were total legends."


    Quinn sighed as he read through Neptune''s status in the magical Roman dynasty.


    "Neptune is the Roman equivalent of Poseidon. As Neptune, he bes more disciplined, militant and warlike than his Greek counterpart. For the Greeks, Poseidon was a major civic god and was highly respected for being the god of the sea and earthquakes. However, the Romans, who were not seafaring people, associated Neptune more with fresh water and horses and treated him with fearful respect."


    Quinn stopped reading for a second before thinking about a tangent. "Why am I assuming that the riddle is about the Roman god Neptune and not about the Neptune." Quinn groaned and took out his notepad, and added a note.


    ''Do research on Neptune ).''


    "Maybe the divination section will help me out in this one." Quinn wondered before returning to the ancient tome and sighed, "Oh well, let''s worry about thatter. Let''s continue on with this."


    "The Romans believed in a series of gods associated with the world around them. They designated Neptune as the god of water and the sea, a close parallel to the Greek god Poseidon. As the god of freshwater, Romans prayed to Neptune to provide water for their crops. In ancient Italy, farmers would honor Neptune with a festival in July, when frequent droughts would destroy their fields. He was also a horses'' patron and had temples built near racetracks."


    Quinn frowned at this paragraph.


    ''So you are saying that in Greek society, he was a big badass with storms and earthquakes. But in Roman society he was demoted to the god of freshwater.''


    Quinn understood that Neptune was still the god of seas, but the Romans didn''t know how to build sturdy ships to sail in the violent sea, so the sea was nothing but something foreboding to them. That meant that they didn''t pray to the sea god Neptune and associated the god more with fresh water and horses.


    ''Alright, now this is bing more and more of a situation where there will be a presence of something like a Bane,'' Quinn felt happy about the progress he had made and wrote everything down. ''Now, I just need to find what is the bane in this situation. Is it another god?''


    There was only one way to find out, and that was to read more books. And Quinn was really good at that.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Hey, what do you think about the hippogriff that attacked Malfoy?" gossiped Eddie over the table. "Some are saying that the hippogriff tried to kill Malfoy."


    Quinn wagged his finger and corrected the gossip that had been going around. "That is something Malfoy and his goonies have been spreading around. ording to my sources, Malfoy called the hippogriff an ''ugly brute'' while he was sitting on it."


    Marcus almost spat out his food after hearing that, "He was on the top of the hippogriff?! Now, that is not the poppycock behavior I''m expecting from a Slytherin."


    Quinnughed at Marcus'' statement till his sides were hurting, "We''re in our fourth year. You should have learned by now that to be in Slytherin isn''t synonymous with being cunning nowadays."


    He nced over his shoulder to peek at the Slytherin table and scoffed, "We have been witnessing Malfoy''s antics for two years now. Can you expect anything else? Plus, at-present, he''s doing something really foolish."


    "Foolish?" Eddie turned in his seat to peep at Draco Malfoy, who was sitting at Slytherin''s table. Draco''s right arm was covered in bandages and bound up in a sling; acting, in Eddie''s opinion, as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.


    "What do you mean by foolish?" Eddie solicited an exnation as he turned back.


    "Look at his sling," Quinn brought their attention to Draco''s broken arm. Eddie and Marcus, however, didn''t see anything weird about the situation.


    "The sling in his arm doesn''t make any sense. Madam Pomfrey can regrow all bones in an arm in a single day," Quinn pointed his thumb back in the direction of the Slytherin table. "Malfoy''s arm is just broken. She could fix him up and then announce that Malfoy''s fit to continue his life as normal under an hour. That sling in his arm is just a hoax."


    Realization dawned over Eddie and Marcus as they finally noticed the anomaly that was the sling in Dracos'' arm.


    "Even if Malfoy''s arm was weak because his muscles were torn from the hippogriff''s talon and needed to recuperate, then it would take maybe two days at most to get it back to full functionality."


    Draco had been parading the arm in his sling for just under a week. So there was no reason for his arm to be in a sling.


    Heck, Quinn had taken just ten days in the hospital wing, and he had been injured quite severely. There were lots of injuries in his organs, and that kind of thing had taken just ten days to get fixed. Draco''s arm was a piece of cake for any decent medic.


    "But maybe Malfoy is cunning," Quinn added another outlook to this situation.


    "Huh, how?" Marcus looked confused at the sudden counter addition. "You just pointed out that he is doing something foolish by keeping his arm in a sling."


    "That is exactly it. I mean, look at you two," Quinn pointed at his two friends with his fork before continuing. "No offense to you guys, but you guys didn''t notice anything wrong with Malfoy''s arm in a sling. Think how many people will believe the same thing. A sling in his arm creates an image of injury, and with the story propagated by the Malfoy''s group, this image will be upgraded to a serious injury. So maybe with this arm sling drama, Malfoy is trying to make the situation seem more serious and portray that he survived a deadly ident. So he''s showing traces of cunningness with this ploy."


    Quinn thought about the uing Buckbeak execution plotline that happened this year. Malfoy Senior lobbied for the execution of the hippogriff who ''almost killed'' his son.


    If the sling in his arm was a ploy to elevate the situation, Quinn had to admit that this was an excellent tactic, as his two friends didn''t see anything wrong with it, and both hade from magical families. Students from non-magical families who were used to the idea of using a sling to heal arms after getting broken would eat this up without a second thought.


    "A good maniption of the public," Quinn nodded in appreciation. "The final question is whether this came from Malfoy or his father, Lucius Malfoy. If it came from Malfoy, then props to him, but if it came from his father, yeah, this guy''s still a fool."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Lupin wasn''t there when they arrived at their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. They sat down, took their books out, quills, parchment, and talked to one another when he finally entered the room. Lupin gave a faint smile and ced his briefcase on the teacher''s desk.


    "Good afternoon," he said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today will be a practical lesson. Only your wands will be needed."


    The students and, at some level, even Quinn, were surprised, as the ss put away their books. Lots of curious nces were exchanged as they had never had a practical ss in Defense Against the Dark Arts.


    The current third-year students had one memorable ssst year when their old teacher had brought a cageful of pixies to lesson and set them loose. But, they, fourth years, hadn''t had a practical Defense Against Dark Arts lesson. Not even in their first year, when they had a decent enough teacher, as she never gave them a practical ss.


    "Right then," said Lupin when everyone was ready. "If you''d follow me."


    Puzzled but interested, the ss got to its feet and followed Professor Lupin out of the ssroom. He led them along the deserted corridor and around a corner into another ssroom.


    The room was empty, with no chairs or tables.


    "Now, then," said Professor Lupin, beckoning the ss toward the end of the room, where there was nothing but an old wardrobe. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall.


    "Nothing to worry about," said Professor Lupin calmly because a few people had jumped backward in rm. "There''s a boggart in there."


    Quinn knew this wasing. And Quinn would be lying if he said he wasn''t looking forward to this.


    After getting in touch with his emotions during the summer break, Quinn understood the importance of negative emotions and their ce in his magic. He learned to ept that he had emotions that made him vulnerable, emotions like fear which a creature like Boggart exploited.


    With that realization, Quinn felt he needed to really know all his negative emotions, what caused them and, then, ept them rather than outright rejecting them.


    A Boggart would be an excellent way to start on understanding his fears.


    Most people seemed to feel that the thing inside the wardrobe was something to worry about. Marcus at Quinn''s side was eyeing the rattling doorknob apprehensively.


    "Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," informed Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I once met one that had lodged itself in an old man''s clock. This one was moved in here two afternoons ago, so I asked the headmaster if I could use it as a practical lesson for all years."


    Everyone knew that permission was granted.


    "So the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a boggart?" Professor Lupin threw out a question to the ss.


    Quinn followed his usual routine and looked left and then to the right to see if anyone had raised their hand. Seeing that no one was going to volunteer to answer the question, Quinn raised his hand.


    When Lupin pointed at Quinn, he promptly answered.


    "A Boggart is an amortal shape-shifting non-being that takes on the form of its observer''s worst fear. Because of their shape-shifting ability, no one knows what a Boggart looks like when it is alone, as it changes shape instantly upon encountering someone."


    The words amortal and non-being were the words to focus on here.


    A Non-Human Spirituous Apparition, also known as a non-being, was a magical spirit created of human emotions. They were notable because they had no equivalent in the non-magical world and their simrity to ghosts, despite never being truly alive. While non-beings were not truly alive and could not be truly destroyed, magic users had invented over the centuries various spells that could drive off these spirits using positive emotions. Their numbers could also be limited by reducing the conditions that would generate them.


    Amortality was the condition of never having died and being unable to die, as an amortal entity was never "alive" to begin with. As amortality referred to entities that were never alive at any point in their lives. It was different from "immortality," which described living beings who were unable to die or had an infinite lifespan.


    Dementors, Boggarts, and Poltergeist were examples of non-being and amoral entities, as they weren''t ever alive and couldn''t be killed.


    In the distant future, someone with ck hair and stone-grey eyes would discover a way to kill various amoral beings, putting the concept of Amortality in need of revision.


    "That is actually better than I was expecting," Lupin blinked in surprise as he regarded Quinn with interest. "Well, Quinn," Lupin was pleased with the answer, so he rewarded the answer. "Take twenty points to Ravenw for an excellent answer."


    Quinn gave a slight nod, and Lupin continued with his lesson.


    "So a Boggart that resides in the darkness doesn''t assume a form. It doesn''t know yet what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but if I let him out, he will immediately be whatever each of us fear the most."


    Lupin raised both his hands and gestured to the students who had be restless. "Please, calm down. The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires mental prowess. You see, the thing that really ends a boggart isughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape you find amusing."


    The professor lowered his hands as he continued, "We''ll practice the charm without wands first. After me, please... Riddikulus!"


    "Riddikulus!" chanted the ss together.


    "Good," smiled Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I''m afraid. You see, only saying the word isn''t enough. And this is where youe in, Jessica."


    Jessica Tring, a fourth-year Hufflepuff stepped forward, while shaking slightly.


    "Right, Jessica," said Professor Lupin. "First things first. What would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?"


    "... Snakes," Jessica answered with a tremble in her voice.


    "Right, have you seen one of these rubber balloon animals," Lupin asked Jessica, who nodded.


    "Excellent, when the boggart bursts out of this wardrobe and sees you, Jessica, it will assume the form of a snake," Lupin exined at a slower pace so that Jessica would catch every word. "You''ll have to raise your wand ¡ªlike this¡ª and say ''Riddikulus''. Concentrate hard on the image of the snake turning into a balloon version which then detes while creating a fun noise."


    "If Jessica is sessful, the boggart will likely shift its attention to another one of us in turn," said Professor Lupin. "I''d like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most and imagine how you might force it to lookical..."


    The room went quiet as everyone began thinking about their greatest fear and how to make itical.


    "Everyone ready?" asked Professor Lupin. He looked at Jessica and instructed, "Jessica, we''re going to back away. Let''s get you a better field of vision, all right? I''ll call the next person forward. Everyone, back. Now Jessica has a clear shot."


    They all retreated and backed against the walls, leaving Jessica alone along the wardrobe. She looked slightly pale and frightened, but had pushed up the sleeves from her robes and was holding her wand, ready.


    "On the count of three, Jessica," said Professor Lupin, who was pointing his own wand at the handle of the wardrobe. "One, two, three - Now!"


    A jet of sparks shot from the end of Professor Lupin''s wand and hit the doorknob. The wardrobe burst open. A long forest green snake with shiny scales slithered out while making loud hissing sounds.


    Jessica backed away, her wand up, and cried, "Riddikulus!"


    There was a squeaky noise of a blown balloon being touched, and the green snake turned into a balloon art, and immediately after, it started deting while making a noise that sounded like a fart.


    There was a roar ofughter and as the Boggart kept on leaking air and making fart noises, Lupin shouted, "Carmicheal, next!"


    Then the entire ss went through the same thing as they faced something they feared and then turned it into something funny.


    There were many animals and creatures, a few renditions of Snape, one of Filch, some parents, mummies, zombies, one big eye... but everything was turned intoic relief after a cry of ''Riddikulus''.


    Eddie was scared of his mom, who looked furious and had adle in her hand. Marcus, on the other hand, feared screaming banshees.


    Finally, it was Quinn''s turn, who stepped forward after everyone was done and were talking among themselves.


    Lupin thought everyone was done, but stopped when he saw Quinn step forward towards a disco-ball-shaped Boggart. He was interested to see what would be the Boggart of the Quinn West. Flitwick had said that Quinn was the brightest student he had ever taught. And the half-goblin had said it when Lily Potter was sitting with them.


    His eyes widened when the Boggart turned into a replica of Quinn. But Boggart-Quinn had a wide smirk on his face and a wand in his hand.


    ''What in the world?'' Lupin didn''t know what to think. He wasn''t sure what it meant when a Boggart turned into the person itself. Lupin turned his face to the real Quinn and thought, ''He fears himself?''


    ...


    Quinn, who was looking at his Boggart, immediately knew what his greatest fear was.


    ''That smirk and the wand in his hand,'' Quinn thought as he observed his Boggart, and he knew that this was his greatest fear, as his heart was starting to beat slightly faster.


    Quinn''s current biggest fear was him never escaping the sin''s curse and giving in to the temptation of his wand. He feared how he would have turned out had the curse continued to have a hold on him. Quinn had even erased Lockhart''s memories and was going to cause pain and suffering to Luna''s bullies. He didn''t want to think about what would have happened if the curse had continued to change him.


    He feared that if the curse continued, then he would''ve been reced by someone who looked like him but wasn''t him. The fear that the base of his existence, his identity would''ve been erased without anyone knowing.


    ''Just like I reced the original Quinn,'' thought Quinn as he stared at the Boggart-Quinn and tightly balled his hands in a fist.


    Quinn also dreaded the possibility that one day he would give in to the temptation that posed his wand, abandoning all the hard work he had done to develop his wandless magic. Quinn knew better than anybody else that if he started to use his wand, he would never be able to put it down. The temptation of power would be too much for him, a fatal w that would ruin him.


    Those two things were Quinn''s greatest fears.


    He took a deep breath and raised his fake wand, and softly chanted, "Riddikulus."


    Immediately, the Boggart-Quinn turned into green slime that tried to stay upright but then copsed into a puddle.


    He turned back and informed a bemused Lupin, "Professor, everybody is done."


    Quinn''s voice brought Lupin out of his thoughts, as he waited for a second and replied in a dyed manner, "... Ah, yes, Quinn. Please, join your ssmates. I''ll lock the Boggart back into the wardrobe."


    Quinn didn''t notice the oddness in Lupin as he was upied with thinking about his fear.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - A lot of introspection.


    Draco Malfoy - Slytherin - Cunning genius or Daddy''s boy


    Remus Lupin - Werewolf - [Boggart = Full moon.]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 80 - New Employee, And Hogsmeade Attack.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "So you''re looking for a job at A.I.D."


    Quinn was sitting behind his desk in the A.I.D office looking at a sheet of parchment in his hands.


    "No. I don''t. You called me here," answered Luna, sitting in front of the desk, her legs swinging in the air while she sat in her chair.


    "Then what about this resum¨¦?" asked Quinn as he raised the sheet of parchment to show it to Luna.


    "You asked me to write this and bring it to you," Luna replied, picking up a transparent golf-ball-sized ss spheroid from the desk. The second she picked it up, the ss spheroid gained colors, which took on the appearance of the earth globe.


    "Of course, of course," Quinn nodded as he pretended to interview Luna. He set down Luna''s resum¨¦ and asked, "Tell me, Ms. Lovegood, why are you suitable for this job?"


    "Tell me, Mr. West, why does this job deserve me?" Luna counter-questioned Quinn as she tossed the ss globe up and down. "And what is the job exactly?"


    "Oh, well, we offer excellent benefits; state-of-the-art tools, raw materials of all kinds, personal tutoring from me if I am free..." Quinn pped with a proud smile and added, "We also have a library with guides written by me, Quinn West. Finally, we also provide a batch of cookies a day, courtesy of the kitchen house-elves. They are quite good."


    Quinn''s guides contained his understanding of some magic branches he had obtained from different magical cultures. The books that would be avable to Luna would be about the Hogwarts subjects because he didn''t want to share the other things he had been cooking.


    "As for the job, you''ll have to sit in the office for some time to take in the requests from anyone whoes in. Plus, you will be my assistant."


    Quinn''s motive for taking Luna to A.I.D was to improve hermunication skills. If she talked to the students who came in for requests and asked them for their requirements, it would help her develop hermunication skills. With time, Luna would get better at talking to people and she would be more confident in herself.


    Luna''s ears twitched, and she took her eyes off the ss globe.


    "Cookies? You have cookies?"


    Quinn leaned down in his chair, opened a drawer in his desk, and took out a ss jar full of cookies.


    "Please, take one," Quinn offered the cookies, removing the lid from the jar.


    Luna picked one from the jar, looked at the cookies, then the cookie jar, and finally raised her head to peek at Quinn, "Can I take another one?"


    "Hmm," Quinn pretended to think before negotiating with his interviewee. "Only if you take the job."


    Luna, without hesitation, dipped her hand into the cookie jar and took out another cookie. "When do I start?"


    "You start tomorrow," Quinn smiled, shook hands with Luna, and said, "Wee to A.I.D."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I really thought you would ask some girl out," Eddie asked as he settled an arm over Quinn''s shoulders as he, Quinn, and Marcus walked to Hogsmeade.


    "Now, now, why would you think that?" Quinn asked as he and his two friends entered Hogsmeade on the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. Which was the following day after Halloween.


    "You know more girls than both, Marcus and I,bined," replied Eddie as he tightened his hold over Quinn. "And you talk to them regrly. I really thought you would have asked one of them out."


    "You''re thinking small, Eddie," Marcus chirped in as he eyed Quinn. "This guy could have asked out almost any girl, and they most probably would have said yes to a date."


    Eddie clicked his tongue and grumbled, "Yeah, this guy is annoyingly popr." He removed his arm from Quinn''s shoulder, grabbed his cheeks, and turned his face left to right. "I mean, yeah, he''s a good-looking bloke. He can be funny sometimes. No one is smarter than him if a girl wants that. Polite? Sure." Eddie sighed and released Quinn''s face from his grasp, "Yeah, I get it."


    Quinn smiled with an exhale, bumped his shoulders into Eddie''s and Marcus''s shoulder, and imed, "I didn''t ask a girl out because, then, I thought you two would end up lonely. I''m honoring our friendship. Be grateful."


    A picture of him pulling Daphne close shed through Quinn''s mind. He shook his head to shake that image. He had been pretending that incident never happened because he had no idea how to approach that situation.


    "If you want us to be grateful, then get a girlfriend and then set us up with her friends," Eddie suggested. Quinn realized both his friends looked sincere enough to know they weren''t joking.


    "Good man!" Marcus looked particrly enthusiastic about Eddie''s suggestion. "Let''s make a pact. If one of us ever has a girlfriend, then the person who gets it first will have to ask his girlfriend to introduce her friends to us."


    "How about you guys first try to ask out a girl? Then we''ll talk about this pact," Quinn spoke while shaking his head, not believing that they were making a girlfriend pact when they hadn''t even asked out a girl on their own.


    "Sure, sure, we''ll do that, but let''s make the pact just in case," Marcus stopped, and so did Eddie. Both put out one hand forward and brought them together.


    They looked towards Quinn and saw him walking away while looking at them. He was shaking his head.


    "So you''re saying that we are not good enough for your girlfriend''s friends?!" Eddie shouted at Quinn. He pointed his finger at him and yelled, "You have changed ever since you got a girlfriend, man! You were a decent bloke who honored our friendship before!"


    "I don''t have a girlfriend!"


    "Whatever, you suck!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    A group of individuals dressed in thick robes covering their entire bodies stood in a circle in a room with stone-covered walls. Ominous dark maroon candles on the stone walls cast a dim light on the room''s upants.


    "Today is a Hogsmeade weekend at Hogwarts," One of the robed figures spoke to the rest of the group. "A lot of people will be present in Hogsmeade, there will be plenty of activity."


    He swept his eyes around and went on, "Parents dropping by to meet their children. Shops full of Hogwarts students, stalls set specially for the Hogsmeade weekend." The person who was speaking smirked and continued, "A lot of filthy mudbloods walking around in the open."


    A wave of malicious chuckles and savage smiles streaked across the room.


    "Those filthy mudblood children must be eradicated before they enter our prestigious society. So today we will descend on Hogsmeade and purge ourmunity from the mudbloods," the speaker, who seemed like the leader of the group, announced their objective.


    "How will we distinguish the mudblood from the others," asked one of the other robed individuals.


    "The clothes they wear will be their undoing. Target anyone who wears muggle attire."


    Another person asked, "What if someone that is not a mudblood wears muggle clothing."


    "Then they are blood traitors," the leader''s words came without hesitation. "This is a crusade. In the pursuit of what is right and pure, there will have to be some sacrifices. We are doing good for our society, so don''t hesitate and raise your wands against all that is evil."


    He raised his wand and voiced.


    "Novellus ionites!"


    All the others raised their wands and chanted in unison.


    " "Novellus ionites!!!" "


    The leader immediately disapparated from the stone chamber. The others followed behind, disapparating one by one, leaving behind an empty room.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn came out of the Three Broomsticks with a big mug made of ss of cherry syrup and soda with ice and a paper parasol. He had conjured a big ss in order to take his drink out so he didn''t have to drink it inside the pub.


    He drank the beverage from a conjured straw and roamed around Hogsmeade. Quinn was alone because Eddie and Marcus were getting their haircut at the barber.


    He had offered to cut their hair, but they hadn''t epted the generous offer. He had been cutting his own hair at Hogwarts. It was easy when you had magic and knew exactly what needed to be trimmed.


    "Their loss," Quinn said as he put his mouth on the straw. He was walking around to see if something caught his eyes, and something did catch his eyes when a group of robed individuals apparated ten feet right in front of him. All of the robed individuals were wearing masks with a symbol that was clearly a derivative from Voldemort''s Dark Mark.


    ''Novellus ionites,'' Quinn recognized immediately the symbol from the newspapers and turned around without wasting a second.


    "Need to get away from them. ASAP," Quinn muttered with the straw in his mouth, his hands raising the ss mug, the cherry beverage still being sucked through the straw.


    The leader of ionites noticed Quinn and saw that he was wearing muggle clothing. Plus, the way he turned on the spot showed that he recognized them.


    "Get that kid." the leader ordered the two other members, pointing at the retreating Quinn. "We''ll use him as an example."


    Quinn, who was walking quickly, didn''t know that the only reason the terrorist group was targeting him was that he was wearing afortable jumper.


    The two ionites smirked under their masks when they saw Quinn turn into an alley. He just made their jobs easier by separating from the crowd. The duo of ionites entered the dark alleyway and saw that Quinn was walking to the end of a closed alleyway, probably thinking that if he hid, they wouldn''t be able to find him.


    One of the ionites raised his wand and shot a spell on Quinn''s back, smirking at the easy target, but the spell just passed through Quinn and hit the wall in front of him.


    Both ionites looked at each other with bewilderment on their faces. When they returned their eyes to Quinn, he stopped. The other ionite had just pulled his wand out to cast another spell at Quinn when they heard a thumping noise at their back.


    When they turned back, they witnessed Quinn standing behind them, and before they even had the chance to widen their eyes in surprise, their wands were expelled from their hands.


    The next moment, four chains with cuffs came out of the ground beneath them and mped on their wrists, pulling them to the ground.


    "Wha-!"


    "Oof!"


    The ionite duo couldn''t ept the sudden turn of events and were wide-eyed as Quinn removed their masks.


    "You guys are lucky that I finished my drink. You were this close to getting to me before I emptied out the mug," Quinn brought his fingers closer to emphasize how close they were.


    "Release us, you filth -." one of the unmasked individuals growled at Quinn, but Quinn pped him hard before he couldplete his sentence.


    "Shut up," Quinn promptly exined his actions after pping the guy.


    "You! Do you know who -." the other one spoke to get the same p from Quinn.


    "I won''t repeat myself, shut up."


    Quinn sighed and decided to get them over. He stepped forward and ced one palm on both of their heads and immediately used Legilimency on the ionites. After under half a minute, Quinn had a general sense on why Novellus ionites were there at Hogsmeade.


    "Rid Britain of muggleborns, h, h, h... Targeting students. Yup, checks out."


    He stepped back, and then ice spikes pierced one shoulder and one thigh of both the ionites.


    "AAAAAAHH!!!!"


    Bloodcurdling screams filled the alleyway but didn''t get out because Quinn had warded the area so that noise didn''t get out.


    "You both have killed others, and even though I''m notfortable with murder, I am not above inflicting pain," said Quinn with almost no expression on his face.


    Quinn ignored the screams and went on, "I''m leaving those spikes in there but don''t worry, you won''t bleed to death because I have frozen the entry points. You will still feel pain and cold on your shoulders and thighs..."


    He looked at the two and saw that both of them were kneeling.


    "... and your calves. I wasn''t aiming for those. I apologize. Or not."


    Quinn once again ced his palms on their foreheads, ignoring their begging and whimpers.


    "Time to forget about me," whispered Quinn and wiped their memory of him from their minds.


    The two ionites were near the opening of the alleyway and clearly visible, so it was easy for them to be found.


    If anyone was paying attention, they would have noticed three people going inside the alleyway and noneing out.


    After he was done, Quinn stepped behind them, shot ropes from the seize-and-pull spells towards the rooftops, and pulled himself towards the roof of the buildings. Just as he reached the top, two bricks protruded out from the sides of the building to act as foot support and Quinn used them to climb onto the roof. He turned himself invisible and then climbed some more till he was near the very top of the building''s chimney.


    "Let''s see. Where are the other ones?"


    Quinn was high enough so he could see a decent part of Hogsmeade that wasn''t obstructed by other buildings. He judged from the frightened, running people that a sizable group of ionites had headed towards the south.


    "Let''s slow them down till the Aurors get here," Quinn decided and jumped off the rooftop. He cast Arresto Momentum to kill his falling speed just beforending on the ground.


    A map of Hogsmeade appeared in Quinn''s mind as he moved south, running through alleyways and taking shortcuts to get there faster.


    The frightened screams alerted Quinn that the group of terrorists were nearby, so he once again climbed up a nearby rooftop and got a clear view of a trio of ionites with their wands out. From what he could see, the ionites were trying to spot muggleborns students, but since the majority of the students were wearing Hogwarts robes over their casual clothes, it was difficult for the assant to get a clear look.


    "Lucky for me, you''re wearing masks."


    While saying that, three ice spikes manifested in the air - cold air emitting from the surface of the spikes. The spikes were long and had pointed edges on both sides.


    Quinn locked his eyes on the three terrorists, and with a flick of his wrist, the three long ice spikes whistled towards their targets. All three were pierced in their thighs or calves, which forced them to drop to their knees.


    " " "Aaaaaaaaaaah!" " "


    The three ionites screamed, causing the panicked public to scream more since they thought the shrieks of pain were from someone attacked by the terrorists.


    Quinn winced at the raisedmotion.


    ''Maybe I should have simply stunned them.''


    He sighed and cast Depulso towards their upper backs, forcing their bodies to m against the ground and stunned them the next second.


    Jumping from the roof, Quinn ran towards the unconscious terrorists, removed their masks, stuck the removed masks to their backs, took their wands, and simrly stuck them to their backs. He didn''t snap their wands because wands were a crucial piece of evidence.


    After he was done, chains with cuffs shot out from the ground and firmly mped their wrists and ankles around, snugly contacting every part of the skin. With the ionites being chained to the ground, they wouldn''t be able to apparate without tugging on the chains and getting splinched in the process.


    Finally, to make sure they wouldn''t be going anywhere, Quinn transmuted the ground to engulf them and trapped them into the ground.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Oh ho, Harry Potter..."


    The golden squad, who had just be aware of the conflict and themotion, were about to return to the castle when they heard someone call out to Harry with a chuckle in their voice. It wasn''t the voice of someone in panic or hurry.


    On reflex, the golden squad turned toward the voice''s source. When they turned around, they saw a robed individual with a mask on their face. He stood facing them and had his wand out in his hand.


    "To think I woulde across the boy-who-lived," the masked person slowly stepped towards them as he talked. "I wasn''t expecting to meet the one who vanquished our lord."


    All four Gryffindors stumbled to get their wands out and readied them, pointing them at the masked terrorist. But the ionite didn''t react. He didn''t seem scared of the four wands that pointed at him.


    "So courageous. Gryffindors, heh." The masked individualughed at the four third-year kids. "Children shouldn''t y with wands. You could get hurt."


    He regarded the four with disgust. "Two Potter half-bloods, one mudblood, and one blood traitor; a good mix of filth that needs to be taken out from this society."


    Harry growled while raising his wand threateningly, "Who are you?"


    The ionite spread his arms in grandeur and introduced himself.


    "We are the new generation of the pure. The sacred revived order that fought for pure supremacy."


    There was a faint devotion in the person''s voice as he went on.


    "We are the knights that protect the world from the foul mud. We denounce the evils of impure blood. We eradicate those who act superior and hide they are inferior."


    The golden squad could hear the smile in the voice that chanted something like a motto while leering at them like they were bugs.


    "The Dark Lord was the bright light that was going to lead us, wizards, to a greater height and show the unworthy muggles that they were nothing but bugs in front of us." He red at Harry and spat. "But, you somehow defeated him, so today I am going to kill you and protect the legacy of our great lord."


    He took a deep breath before announcing.


    "In the name of the Dark Lord, we of Novellus Ac-"


    The ionite didn''t get toplete his sentence as he sensed something to his left and barely had the time to conjure a shield against the curse that bolted towards him. The curse tore through the shield and still had enough magic to force the ionite to take a few steps back.


    His sudden predicament wasn''t over when another curse followed after the first one and made full contact. The curse blew up in a contained but forceful explosion, throwing the ionite against the wall of the building to his right.


    "Oooof-!"


    The ionite spurted some blood as he crashed into the building. His ears rang and his vision blurred. His impaired vision noticed two more curses speeding towards him. The two curses made contact, and two more contained, powerful explosions contacted his body. Rendering him unconscious and badly hurt.


    Harry, Ivy, Hermoine, and Ron stood there stunned. They gawked at the broken, bloodied, and bruised body of the masked individual. There they were listening to the bloke telling his agenda, about how he was going to avenge Voldemort, etc., and the next second, the man was sted into the building wall, followed by two more explosions that battered the man''s body.


    If things didn''t happen so quickly, their first reaction would have been sickening revulsion from seeing the bloodied appearance of the masked man, but impulsively they looked in the direction from which the curses came... but there was no one there.


    The assant, who had just beaten a man to a pulp, wasn''t even aware that his victim was targeting the golden squad.


    No, Quinn was just too busy jumping around rooftops, attacking any masked individual he could see. Parkour wasn''t his specialty; he was stumbling to get around Hogsmeade before the ionites spread too much and were out of Quinn''s reach.


    He wanted to get more of them while they were still together in big groups and before they moved in different directions in small duos trying to kill more and more muggleborns.


    "There, two more spotted," Quinn caught sight of two more masked individuals, so he immediately jumped off the rooftop, ran across the street from one alleyway towards another, and cast Dark-Diffindos towards their legs, making them drop to the ground with horrid screams.


    "Who is there?!"


    Quinn, who was running across the street, still invisible, turned his head towards the shout and saw two wanded people running in his direction. He noticed the coat of arms on their clothes, and his eye twitched.


    ''Shit! Aurors. Time to bounce!''


    He knew the disadvantages of turning invisible. When running at full speed, the invisibility spell would not effectively hide the person and show a transparent silhouette.


    Quinn sprinted and ducked into an alleyway.


    "You check out those two. I''ll follow the assant," one Auror spoke to her partner and sprinted towards the alleyway.


    When the Auror arrived at the opening in the alleyway, she saw a transparent silhouette rushing out from the other opening of the alleyway. She gritted her teeth and sprinted to follow.


    "Auror, freeze!"


    In the empty alleyway, Quinn looked down from the building wall he was sticking to and thought.


    ''Alright, she is gone.''


    The transparent silhouette that the Auror saw exiting an alleyway was an illusion that he cast to get her away from the alleyway, so he could escape.


    He shot ropes from the seize-and-pull spell towards the rooftop and pulled himself up. Quinn walked across the sloped rooftop, dropped in the next alleyway, and walked out looking scared and clutching his clothes, so he would mix in with the current situation.


    As Quinn walked near the Hogwarts entry of the Hogsmeade, he came across Auror guards guiding the students towards Hogwarts. The person who attacked numerous members of Novellus ionites, some to the point that they needed to be rushed to the hospital immediately, exited Hogsmeade, the site of the attacks, with Aurors guiding him to safety.


    ...


    The Novellus ionites'' attack at Hogsmeade concluded with two muggleborn deaths. None of the casualties were Hogwarts students; the two fatal victims were adults who came to Hogsmeade for work.


    After the attack eight members of Novellus ionites were found incapacitated; the authorities had to rush three of the injured ionite to St. Mungo''s hospital because of the critical nature of their injuries.


    ording to witness statements collected by the Aurors, no one saw the person who attacked the Novellus ionites members. The two Aurors who did notice a transparent silhouette running out from the scene weren''t able to catch the prime suspect.


    At the end of the investigation, the Aurors ended up having no identification of the mystery assant that put eight people in the hospital.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Invisible / Mystery Assant - Because I can...


    Luna Lovegood - A.I.D Employee - Takes cookies for her sry.


    Eddie Carmichael - Bro #1 - "Quinn sucks!"


    Marcus Belby - Bro #2 - "He broke the sacred bond!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 81 - Returns, And Patronus Vs. Dementors

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn entered the Great Hall, where the students were being directed by the prefects, Head Boy and Girl, and the professors. The Great Hall emptied out its four long house tables, and the entire student poption gathered inside it.


    Looking at the hordes of students, Quinn made his way towards the students d in blue. Towards the gathering of the Ravenw house. Quinn walked at a slow pace; all the sprinting, climbing, and jumping he did at Hogsmeade had left him physically exhausted.


    Just a second before Quinn reached the Ravenw gathering, a blonde blur mmed into him and wrapped its slim arms around his waist.


    "Oof!"


    Quinn stumbled to his back feet, and when he looked down, he saw his dainty little employee, junior, and friend: Luna Lovegood.


    "Don''t worry, I''m one hundred percent fine," Quinn smiled and gently patted Luna''s hair in an effort tofort her. "I actually had a fun time. Had a delicious beverage. I even bought one for you, you know."


    Luna stayed like that for a moment before separating from Quinn. She wasn''t done as she eyed his body to audit if there were any injuries. Her eyes caught a torn patch on his right arm, and she immediately shifted to Quinn''s right and carefully used her hands to look under Quinn''s torn sleeve at his skin and saw a shallow cut.


    Quinn sighed when Luna examined him.


    "Okay, I''m ny-nine percent fine. This was caused by random rubble from a building struck by an explosion spell."


    He took out his fake wand and cast a healing spell to heal the cut on his arm. He fixed his clothes after his healing results satisfied Luna.


    Quinn looked up from Luna and saw Eddie and Marcus standing a few steps away from him.


    "Nice haircuts. You guys look good," Quinn gave them a lop-sided smile. He was happy to see both of them safe. He didn''t go and check them because, first, they were in the opposite direction to Novellus ionites'' travel direction; and second, both of his roommates were inside a building, safe from stray spells.


    Eddie and Marcus wordlessly hugged Quinn, happy to see their friend safe. They were terribly worried and stressed when the two didn''t see him in the castle when they arrived. The anxiety crept every minute they waited in the Great Hall, peeking at the entrance to see if Quinn was there or not.


    Quinn closed his eyes as he hugged his roommates. The tiredness was setting in; the adrenaline previously coursing in Quinn''s body during his sneak attacks at the ionites was now taking its toll, making him feel exhausted.


    "Let''s make that girlfriend pact, alright?" chuckled Quinn as he said the words while hugging them, elicitingughs from the two boys.


    After separating from the hug, Quinn made walked around the Great Hall, checking on his friends, regr customers, friendly acquaintances, and A.I.D-rted acquaintances.


    Starting with Ravenw, Quinn greeted everybody he knew in his own house. He checked on some of his juniors and peers who hade to him when they had a doubt.


    He went to see Katie Bell at the Gryffindor table and checked on her. Quinn greeted the Weasley twins and swept azy eye over the golden squad.


    At the Hufflepuff gathering, Quinn said hello to Cedric Diggory, who he sometimes chatted. He also talked to his frequent Hufflepuff customers. He made small talk before finally moving to the Slytherin table.


    At Slytherin, he directly went to Daphne and Tracy and saw the two girls standing with Astoria.


    "Are you two alright?"


    The three Slytherin girls turned toe across Quinn, who was standing there with them.


    "Y-Yeah, we are fine," Tracy spoke, still shocked at what happened at Hogsmeade.


    "Where were you guys during the attack?" Quinn asked as he observed the girls, looking if there were any signs of injury.


    "We were inside the Three Broomsticks," answered Daphne, who was, simrly, observing Quinn.


    Quinn sighed in relief and nodded, "Then you were in one of the safest ces in Hogsmeade."


    Astoria tilted her head and questioned Quinn, "A pub is the safest ce at Hogsmeade? What makes you say that?"


    Quinn chuckled and tossed a chocte cube towards Astoria, who caught it and wondered how did Quinn suddenly make chocte appear in his hand.


    "The pub is usually filled with adults, so there surely were plenty of wands to protect students," Quinn exined, smiling as he saw Astoria observing the chocte in her hand and ncing at Quinn''s hand.


    "Apart from Madam Rosmerta''s Three Broomsticks, Abeforth Dumbledore''s Hog''s Head Inn would be the safest ce in Hogsmeade. Nay, Hog''s Head beats out the more busy Three Broomsticks. The clientele of the Hog''s Head is much more interesting than the one of the Three Broomsticks."


    The people who visited Hog''s Head liked to keep their faces covered, and the inn was famous for being shady. If someone hostile entered the ce, then they would faced a barrage of spells from the clientele who liked to spend their time quietly and without disturbance.


    "Where were you? Were you near those men?" Daphne inquired in worry.


    Quinnughed and waved his hand to dissuade their worries, "Fortunately¡­ and weirdly, I didn''te across a single of those rowdy characters that use to visit Hogsmeade today." Quinn raised one finger and added. "I dide near an exploding building wall, so maybe that counts."


    Daphne''s and Tracey''s eyes widened as they immediately looked to see if Quinn was injured.


    "Did you get hit?" Tracy asked with worry heavy in her voice.


    "Nope. Not a single scratch," Quinn rotated on the spot to show them that he had no injuries on his bodies. "I bounced the second the wall exploded. Right into the opposite direction." He extended his hand forward.


    Quinn''s chill attitude made the girls feel relieved. They put their worries aside and calmed down.


    "How did you toss me this chocte? Did you have it already in your hand?" Astoria was weirdly interested in how Quinn gave her chocte without taking anything out of his clothes.


    Quinn chuckled and showed the younger Greengrass his empty hands. Then, he extended her hand behind her ear, and when he pulled his hand back, there was a chocte cube in hand.


    "Like this," he smiled, wiggling his eyebrows.


    Astoria took the chocte from Quinn''s hand with a surprised expression and blurted in amazement, "Now, how did you do that?!"


    "My apologies, littledy. But a magician never reveals his secrets."


    "Huh? What do you mean?" asked Astoria in confusion. She didn''t recognize the famous phrase.


    Quinn justughed and didn''t reply, which confused Astoria even more.


    ...


    That day, the students were allowed to return to their regr lives after professors did a roll call and made sure that no student was missing.


    Everybody was relieved to know that no student was missing after the terrorist attack. They learned the full details of the incident the following day when the morning owl raid brought the newspapers to the students and professors.


    Two people dead, eleven Novellus ionites caught by the Aurors, and eight of them were found incapacitated when the Aurors found them, littered across Hogsmeade. Then there was a section on the mysterious invisible vignte, who aided in stopping the terrorist group before the Aurors arrived.


    The newspapers portrayed a positive image of the invisible vignte, a hero who helped the public and then vanished without iming any credit.


    The Aurors put a message in the newspaper asking for any information about the invisible vignte. They were after this invisible vignte for having used harmful magic in public.


    Quinn, who read the newspaper, faintly smiled when he saw that the Aurors had no clue regarding his identity. He didn''t care about his image in the newspaper. The invisible vignte wouldn''t be making an appearance anytime soon.


    But he did keep clippings from the Quibbler magazine, which did a whole article on the invisible vignte''s identity. It was an entertaining read with a whole lot of wild theories.


    Heck, even Luna asked Quinn for his opinion on the future articles on the invisible vignte since she was a co-writer on the future articles on the invisible vignte. Quinn enthusiastically helped her by suggesting more theories far away from the truth.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Good people of Hogwarts, wee to yet another entertaining game of Hogwarts Quidditch. We are here to watch an exciting game between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff."


    Quinn sat behind the microphone in thementators'' seat, smiling at the crowded stands with a beaming smile. A smile that didn''t match the weather. The noise of storms thundered above in the dark sky. The grey clouds darkened the usually bright sky that appeared in the morning time.


    "By popr demand, I, Quinn West, have returned as thementator. First of all, I would like to thank you all for the support you people showed to me. Your push to have me as thementator made me wonder if I should do this for a living."


    Quinn heard a few chuckles at his back. He turned to see Lily Potter, Filius Flitwick, and Aurora Sinistraughing at Quinn''s words.


    "Now, I know the weather today is not optimal for you viewers. The visibility might degrade, and it might hinder the viewing experience. But do not worry! I am here with a solution to this very problem."


    Quinn rubbed his hands as he could feel the scent of money tickle his nose. Even though no one could see his face from a distance, he still put on his best sales smile and announced.


    "Brought to you by A.I.D productions¡­ Rain-o-scopes! Eyewear, vision-aides that will help you enjoy the game as clearly as in a well lit, cloudless day. The revolutionary goggles are fitted with thetest perception-enhancing magic, allowing you to adjust the brightness of your vision. They elevate the experience by increasing visibility no matter what the situation; they are impervious to rain or even hail, and over that, the rain-o-scopes include zoom capabilities that will allow you to look up super close, like if you were right there in the sky with the yers!"


    "Mr. West, you aren''t allowed to sell products without permission," McGonagall''s stern voice traveled throughout the stadium.


    Everybody heard Quinn chuckle, and then him talking to McGonagall, "Here you go, professor. This one''s for you, free of cost. Please, wear it and decide whether this is a gift to the sport of Quidditch or not."


    There was a brief moment of silence as everybody in the stands carefully listened, waiting for McGonagall''s response.


    "Oh, things have gotten clearer¡­ oh, so this is how you zoom. Oh my, t-this is impressive. What a handy tool."


    Quinn immediately turned his face to the microphones and said with enthusiasm.


    "People of Hogwarts, you''ve heard it. The premier Quidditch nut, Madam McGonagall, the Scottish dame, has approved the rain-o-scope! You know it when you hear the praise in her words. The rain-o-scope is revolutionary, and unlike the traditional omniocrs, you don''t have to keep holding them in your hands; just put them on your eyes and forget they are even there. The light goggles won''t be a hindrance in any way, so you''ll be able to enjoy your snacks! Even hold hands, or hold banners and gs for your teams."


    Now it was time to open the stores and start selling those babies. Quinn looked over the stands and saw that his salespeople had entered the stands just as he had instructed them to.


    "You can buy the rain-o-scopes in the stands since, as I speak, the hard-working volunteers are roaming the stands for your benefit."


    ''And for my benefit,'' Quinn''s thoughts went unheard as he smiled, golden galleons shining in his eyes.


    "Buy the rain-o-scopes as soon as possible because we only have limited stock. Remember, these kinds of opportunities onlye once in a lifetime -"


    ''And every Quidditch game going forth,'' Quinnughed devilishly in his mind.


    "- so buy the handy goggles and stand out from your fellow students with a fashionable Quidditch essory."


    Quinn stood up from his seat as he swept his eyes throughout the stands. He was pleased to see that students were buying his merchandise.


    "Mr. West, please get back to Quidditch," said McGonagall with a sigh, a little embarrassed for losing herself moments ago.


    Quinn beamed at the deputy Headmistress and grinned, "Of course, professor."


    Turning back to the field, Quinn noted that the yers were entering the Quidditch field. At the same time, he looked up at the sky and observed that the storm was getting stronger.


    ''Is it possible to even hear me?'' wondered Quinn. He decided to spruce up magic on the microphone so everyone could hear his voice.


    Quinn''s fingers wrapped around the microphone and pumped magic into the magical microphone; he could feel a faint thrum of magic in it, which brought a smile to his face.


    "The yers have entered the field. The game is about to start, so grab onto your rain covers and get ready to see some dangerous flying, especially with all this rain. Oh, boy! Let''s hope people crash! -"


    Quinn''s voice reached every corner of the stadium and even the yers themselves, who couldn''t even hear the crowd''s cheer.


    "Mr. West!" warned McGonagall at his back.


    "- So, as I was saying, ahem,dies and gentlemen, Oliver Wood, Cedric Diggory... and Harry Potter, have entered the field, so grab the rain-o-scopes and zoom on them. -"


    "Mr. West!"


    "- Anyway, I don''t have to tell you what to do. Go crazy," said Quinn very quickly. He finally took a deep breath and roared, "Let the game begin!"


    As Quinn announced the start of the game, the yers took off into the air.


    Quinn himself turned back and gave a thumbs-up to Lily Potter with a goofy smirk since she had yelled to her son.


    Lily Potter sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Appearance-wise, her son, Harry, was a copy of her husband, but on the inside, Harry had plenty of things that reminded her of his godfather, Sirius ck. James had spent his entire school career chasing after her, but Sirius had been famous for being a flirt with any girl that caught his attention. She didn''t want her son to copy his godfather''s behavior while he was in school.


    The game continued as the sky got darker and darker. The rain started to pour heavily. It was growing harder for the broom-riders to maintain a grip on their brooms. The yers felt very cold and numb; the rain was leeching any enthusiasm to remain on the field. The visibility got so low that yers bumped into each other, without knowing if it was a teammate or an opponent.


    After half an hour under the pouring water, anyone who had rain-o-scopes saw that Harry Potter had abruptly gone up; his broom climbing up the sky. He rose above the other yers, gaining altitude against the pouring rain.


    Quinn''s eyes widened when he recalled the events of this game. Quinn killed the magic in the microphone, turned back towards the teachers, and said.


    "You might want to release your Patronuses towards the sky. Potter is gaining altitude, I''m pretty sure that all the Dementors are just above the stadium¡­ you know with the stands filled with happy people."


    At once, the teacher''s eyes widened. They bolted up from their chairs, looked at each other, whipped out their wands, and shouted at once.


    " " " "Expecto Patronum!!!" " " "


    Multiple corporeal Patronus shot out from their wands. Silvery guardians climbed up towards the sky.


    Quinn was about to return his attention back to the sky, but then he heard the groaning of a chair and felt some magic. He turned his face to the other side and saw Albus Dumbledore dressed in dark blue robes, standing up from his chair. In the current weather, his robes looked closer to ck than blue.


    ''Oh, he is mad,'' Quinn thought, seeing the darkened face of Albus Dumbledore.


    The Headmaster looked madder than Quinn had ever seen him. There was pure fury etched on his face as he raised the death stick towards and shot his Patronus towards the sky, brighter than every other professor''s Patronus.


    The silver Phoenix rose, spread its wings, and flew up towards the hundreds of Dementors closing on Harry Potter.


    Quinn raised his head and saw the Patronuses dancing around Harry Potter, protecting him from therge horde of Dementors while Dumbledore''s Phoenix Patronus went after the Dementors with a vengeance, chasing them away from the stands and Hogwarts in general.


    But, it seemed that Harry was flying in the rain, and the remote contact from the hundred Dementors before the Patronus got to his aide was enough to make him lose consciousness.


    The seeker let go of his broom and started to fall towards the ground.


    "Harry''s falling off his broom; he''sing down!" Quinn warned the professors so they could slow Harry down and stop his fall.


    "I shall take care of Harry," alerted Dumbledore the other professors.


    A blue light was cast from the Elder wand. The spell darted towards the falling body of Harry Potter and slowed him down, decreasing his speed. Harry came to aplete stop on the ground of the Quidditch field.


    Quinn stared at the unconscious boy before catching with his eyes the smiling figure of Cedric Diggory and the golden snitch in his hands.


    "Oh, Hufflepuff won the game."


    Of course, no one heard it because Quinn had cut the magic of the microphone.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Money, money, money!!!


    Eddie and Marcus - Roommates - Nay, they are more than roommates; they are BROS!


    Minerva McGonagall - Quidditch nut - Quite easy to persuade when ites to Quidditch.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Rage, motherf***ers!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 82 - Fifth Element, Upgrading, And Giant Squid

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sat in the mostfortable chair he had ever sat in. Everything from the seat height, width, depth, tilt, backrest lumbar support and recline was perfect as far as Quinn was concerned. The materials used in the chair, armrest, and headrest were the best he had ever experienced. For the person who rarely sat in chairs with backrests, this was heaven in a room because Quinn''s body was feelingfort all over.


    Pulling back a little, Quinn, in his chair, was in a simple room with a firece and a small library. There was a small table beside Quinn''s chair with a candlemp on it providing light. The room screamed of being Quinn''sfort zone.


    The chair was facing the firece and Quin closed his eyes. His eyes were darting underneath his closed eyelids.


    Diving into his mind, he saw himself, standing in his mindscape; his eyes looking around the mindscape, watching something only visible to him.


    Many magical cultures used to talk about four ssical elements. ssical elements were typically referred to as water, earth, fire, and air, which were proposed to exin the nature andplexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient magical cultures in Greece, Ancient Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India had all simr lists, sometimes referring in localnguages to the air as wind.


    These different cultures and even individual magical schrs had widely varying exnations concerning their attributes and how these theories rted to observable phenomena like magical cosmology. Sometimes these theories ovepped with mythology and were personified in deities. Some of these interpretations included atomism (the idea of tiny, indivisible portions of matter). Other interpretations considered the elements to be divisible into infinitely small pieces without changing their basic nature.


    The trials of time and advancement had tested these beliefs in magic, and many magical cultures still believed that these four elements made up the entire material world.


    Quinn didn''t believe in ssical element theory because he knew about modern atomic theory. However, he didn''t consider the non-magical theory of matter to be theplete and correct interpretation to be the base of all matter because atomic theory didn''t take magic into consideration.


    He had also given the four ssical elemental theories a thought, and he wondered if air, water, earth, and fire were magical equivalents to gas, liquid, solid, and sma. But Quinn''s interpretation was shot down after reading about the ssical elemental theories from all the cultures.


    While states of solid, liquid, gas, and sma shared many attributes with the ssical elements of earth, water, air, and fire respectively, these states were as such due to the simr behavior of different types of atoms atparable energy levels. Not because they contained a type of atom or building block or a type of substance.


    But in the ssical elemental theory, Quinn had found something interesting. Something that he personally believed to be true.


    Many cultures that subscribed to some form of the ssical elemental theory believed in the existence of another element.


    The non-magical scientists disregarded the fifth element through experimentation.


    The fifth ssical element, known as aether: also spelled ?ther, aither, or ether or the other name, quintessence: the material that filled the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.


    Quinn believed the fifth element to be magic itself. The fifth element, that was present everywhere; something that the non-magical weren''t able to find because they weren''t capable of finding it. It wasn''t in their heritage to find magic.


    The prevailing axiom regarding magic was that it was present in living beings. It was present in magical humans, other magical species, magical flora, and fauna. Magic was present inside those who were capable of possessing it.


    The modern magic schrs didn''t believe that magic was omnipresent in the environment around them and that magical-enabled species were magic generators. Magic was a supernatural force present inside select beings that allowed them to change aspects of the world at a fundamental level.


    But Quinn thought differently; he believed that magic was omnipresent and that the fifth element that was apparently disproved even by the magicalmunities was indeed genuine and was magic.


    While Quinn didn''t have conclusive proof about this theory of the fifth element being the magic force, he did have abstract evidence and reasons to believe in the fifth element.


    The reason he believed in the fifth element being magic and that it was omnipresent was the existence of poltergeists.


    A poltergeist was an indestructible spirit of chaos. They were like ghosts and haunted one specific ce at a time. But unlike ghosts, they weren''t alive before they died.


    A poltergeist didn''t have a living part in their existence.


    They were amortal, beings that never had died and never would, as an amortal entity was never ''alive'' to begin with.


    Thus, poltergeists weren''t born from anything and just manifested into existence.


    Humans, animals, nts, and a lot of other species reproduced through procreation. Even the Dementors divided to create another one of themselves.


    But poltergeists didn''te from their own species. They weren''t born through reproduction but formed out of nothingness. Quinn believed they were from magic, and when certain conditions were met, it would trigger the magic in that ce to give birth to a poltergeist.


    The sole existence of poltergeists made the base of Quinn''s belief in the presence of an omnipresent element which he considered being magic. Because if magic wasn''t omnipresent, then poltergeists wouldn''t be able to manifest into this world.


    Whether Quinn was right or wrong was far in the future. But right now, Quinn was using the idea of an omnipresent element that existed everywhere in the universe to improve his lumency.


    ording to n, Quinn''s defense-aspect lumency was useless if someone could get past his primary and secondary shields without him noticing it. If a stealth infiltration was sessful, then Quinn was screwed because beyond that point.


    The solution to that problem was to add extra features to his lumency defenses.


    To detect any foreign mental attack that got past Quinn''s shields, Quinn came up with an idea and decided to fill his entire mindscape with an omnipresent substance. Something like the fifth element from the ssical elemental theory, but its base properties were tobat foreign mental magic.


    Quinn had drafted a timeline to set up the invisible yet omnipresent mental element that would elevate his lumency defense to another level.


    The first part of the process was to fill his entire mindscape with an invisible matter.


    The challenges of this stage were that Quinn''s mindscape didn''t have definite dimensions. It was an infinite space that stretched in all directions, so Quinn needed to figure out how to fill an infinite space with an omnipresent matter. The second challenge was to make the matter invisible in nature, that wouldn''t be visible to anyone or anything that tried to enter his mind.


    He had given a thought to turn his entire mind invisible to anyone looking for it, but Quinn wasn''t even sure how to do that. He had tried to make his shields work like an invisibility cloak, but that didn''t work because Quinn couldn''t figure out how to hide something that was so clearly supposed to be present inside of him.


    Plus, a mindscape was tooplex and heterogeneous in nature for Quinn to hide. But in the case of the omnipresent matter, it was homogeneous in nature and rtively uplicated enough for Quinn to make things work.


    Back to the challenge to add the invisible matter to his mindscape, which stretched infinitely in all directions.


    Instead of taking the approach of filling a ss with water, Quinn decided to add the invisible matter into the very essence of his mindscape. To add the presence of the invisible matter into the very gic/source code of his mindscape.


    In the months he had been in Hogwarts, Quinn was able toplete this process. He was able to add a naturally existing matter to his mindscape. His mindscape now had an omnipresent matter, epassing everything from his both replicas to the empty that extended infinitely.


    "Oh yeah, I can feel it," sighed Quinn. He could see and feel the addition to his mindscape. "Yeah, this will work, won''t it."


    "The first challenge is over, but this is just the start," Quinn moved his eyes around, moving his body to see in every direction. "Now I need to make itpletely invisible to any mental probe."


    The second challenge to Quinn''s n of developing his defense was to make the matter invisible to any mental probe. He needed the attackers to be unaware that there was something that was watching them. The motive to do this was to make them drop their guard. Quinn wanted to make them believe that their job was done, and now they didn''t need to be sneaky and careful.


    One of the things Quinn had learned from the second vault was that you couldn''t defend against something you didn''t know about. So if his attackers didn''t know about the invisible matter, then they wouldn''t be cautious against it, making the job of the omnipresent matter easier.


    "This is going to be so difficult," whined Quinn in a sing-song voice.


    Making the matter invisible to the attacker meant that he needed to be better than them. He needed to out-skill them and cover all bases so the invisible matter wouldn''t show up on any legilimency detection probes.


    "This is going to be another repeat of my detectionyer training," Quinn licked his lip and exhaled a deep breath. "This will be a huge part of my next few months."


    Quinn had developed his detectionyer by testing it against various legilimency attacks: actively trying to detect masked legilimency attacks until his detectionyer was strengthened enough to do it passively.


    "This time around, it will be the opposite," mumbled Quinn to himself as he waved a hand through the air of his mindscape, "I have to develop the matter to the point that an attacker won''t be able to detect it. Last time around, it was seeking from hide-and-seek; this time, it would be hiding from hide-and-seek."


    When this part of the upgrade waspleted, the next part would be the actual defense, where Quinn would change the nature of the invisible matter to hinder foreign mental magic. That would turn the very environment of Quinn''s mindscape into a defensive asset.


    And Quinn had already started on the preparation for the development of a lethal environment.


    The mental representation of Quinn closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, the sight had changed. Now he stood in the emotional core of his mind.


    It was an extensivework of small point lights connected to each other. Awork that spanned many kilometers if taken in scale to the small mental representation of Quinn. Every tiny point light was some emotion rted to an event in Quinn''s life. And because of the continuity in a person''s life, every event was connected to other events, creating an extensivework.


    This ce differed from the emotional representation that n had visited to check on Quinn''s emotional status. This was the full expanse. If someone gained ess to this part of Quinn''s mind, they would haveplete control over Quinn''s emotions.


    "Phew, I forgot how time-consuming constructing this was," sighed Quinn with a sense of achievement, his hands resting on his waist as he admired his work.


    There was a cover over the expansivework of emotion that Quinn had spent his entire life feeling. It was the same graphene-inspired defensiveyer that Quinn used for his normal defensiveyer, which covered his mindscape. Tenyers of interconnected hexagons made a solid cover, proven to work against legilimency attacks.


    Quinn''s primary and secondary defensive shields were over a hundredyers and fiftyyers thick respectively, so this shield looked very thin inparison. But this defensive shield had an additional feature that the original defensive shields didn''t have.


    Faint radiation in the shape of circr waves radiated from every vertex of the expansive hexagon matrix; thousands upon thousands of vertices radiated a mild radiation, which created a protectiveyer of radiation that covered the shieldyers. All ten protectiveyers had the same feature, so that resulted in tenyers of radiation.


    "This is working splendidly," whispered Quinn, his work brightly reflected in his eyes. "This proves that I can replicate this with the invisible matter."


    The radiation was a legilimency inhibiting application of lumency. Its sole purpose was to degrade the mental probes, such that the probe got weaker as it made its way through theyers of shields. Plus, the strength of the radiation got stronger as the probe made its way deeper into the shield because theyers of radiation piled on.


    "Even if I stop now, I can add this to my main shields, and this would push them to another level, a qualitative change." A smile made its way onto Quinn''s face as he thought about the future of his defensive shields.


    "Now, I need to figure out how to add this to the invisible matter. I have to think of a name for the invisible material; I can''t keep calling it ''invisible matter''."


    The radiation-shields were a proof of concept, but to add this effect to the invisible matter was another challenge that Quinn needed to study up on and figure out how to do.


    "Just thinking about it gives me a mental boner. A whole mindscape turned into an active radiation zone, yeah, yeah-" Quinn repeatedly nodded his head with an excited smile on his face. "- This is going to be my greatest work. Ooh~, I can imagine it, the legilimens entering my mindscape and immediately getting hit with radiation, and from a source that they can''t see. Yeah~, I knew this would be good when I figured it out. Slowly the mental attack would crumble and snuff out like a candle me in a windy night."


    Quinn made a fist and closed it with a snap, squeezing it tight as if crushing something in his grasp.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    At the snowykeside of the Greatke, Quinn stood staring at theke''s surface, wondering about the third vault and Neptune.


    "It is definitely Neptune, the god, and I am sure the clue is definitely rted to the Greatke. Would I have to venture out of Hogwarts via the waterway?"


    While building upon the third vault being in water theory, Quinn found out that the Great Lake was connected to the ocean through underground waterways. When he thought more about this information, it made sense because next year when the Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts, the Durmstrang ship had emerged from inside theke, and with this piece of information, it made sense.


    "The ''it'' is also most definitely referring to water," muttered Quinn, his hands behind his back as he looked at the snow near his feet. "''I can swallow it, and I can drown in it'' which is most probably the meaning of ''devour'' in the riddle."


    But there was still something that was missing, and it stopped Quinn from finalizing his reasoning.


    "What the hell is Neptune''s Bane? This is tied to the forgotten dome. I need to know if I am going in the same direction," grumbled Quinn, kicking the snow near his feet.


    ¡¸Deep in the Bane of Neptune''s home¡¹


    The riddle pointed to Neptune''s Bane, not Neptune himself, but Quinn still hadn''t been able to pinpoint the identity of Neptune''s Bane.


    The home of Neptune''s Bane, it could be possible that the Bane''s home wasn''t in the Greatke or in water at all. Neptune''s enemy might not live in water; it could be somewhere entirely else, and Quinn was thinking about this all wrong.


    "Who or what is the Bane?"''


    The sound of sshing water gained Quinn''s and brought him out his thoughts. He looked up and saw arge tentacleing out of the water.


    "The giant squid," mumbled Quinn, looking at the tentacle of one of the Greatke''s residents.


    Giant squids could reach tremendous sizes and are one of thergest living organisms on earth. It was strongly suspected that Giant squids had magical powers, but there was no evidence because the gigantic cephalopod never showed any signs of performing magic.


    It was difficult to study the creatures because they were very hard to find and rarely made appearances. The ones that did make the rare appearances attacked those who witnessed them.


    This particr giant squid was inhabiting the Great Lake on the grounds of Hogwarts Castle: A castle full of children, and it was only allowed to do so because it was a semi-domesticated giant squid.


    It was very docile and helpful to the Hogwarts'' students, such as when students fell into theke during the first year boat ride, it immediately pushed them safely back into the boat. The squid was also known to have yed with students, such as when Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Lee Jordan tickled its tentacles as it was lying partway out of theke. And to have epted food from students, such as when it received toast from Harry Potter.


    Quinn smiled when he remembered that despite the generalized fear of the giant species, a Chocte Frog Card for Hogwarts'' beloved giant squid.


    "The... b-bane... of ancient m-mariners and students at Hogwarts should thetter decide to go for a dip in theke."


    Quinn stilled and stuttered as he recalled the Chocte Frog Card description. Partly because he just found the word ''Bane,'' but partly because of an absurd yet heartbeat fastening thought that struck Quinn.


    "Neptune, mariners, giant squid," throaty whispers escaped Quinn as he stared at the giant tentacle.


    Quinn recalled a description of a legendary monster. A highly popr mythological animal, a legendary sea monster of gigantic size and cephalopod-like appearance, dwelling off the coasts of dangerous waters and terrorizing nearby sailors.


    The beast that made water travel difficult, scaring the people from setting sail in the vast water.


    ''Indirectly reducing Neptune''s role in Roman religion because they feared the water.''


    Things started to click inside Quinn''s mind. He couldn''t believe that the creature in front of him was Neptune''s Bane.


    It fit, but at the same time, it seemed absurd.


    "Bloody hell... bloody hell... BLOODY HELL!" Quinn yelled with an astonished expression as he set a palm over his forehead and used his other hand, all fingers pointing at the lone giant tentacle.


    Arge quantity of water sshed everywhere as the ''giant squid'' whipped its tentacle against theke''s surface.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    "This is not a GIANT SQUID... THIS IS A BLOODY KRAKEN!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - !!BLOODY HELL!!


    Hogwarts'' giant squid - Peace-loving - Kraken.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - RELEASE! THE! KRAKEN!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 83 - First Expedition, And Guiding Growth

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I need to rethink my life choices," sighed Quinn as he walked towards the Great Lake.


    It was the start of January, and Quinn had just returned to Hogwarts after the Christmas break. The weather was the coldest of the year. Snow was falling almost constantly, and it covered the entirendscape around Hogwarts in white.


    In that heavy snow, Quinn was out of the warmth of the castle. He was about to start his expedition to thendlocked, freshwaterke that served as a natural reserve for magical marine creatures.


    "Why am I going swimming in January," muttered Quinn to himself as he stomped his foot on the ground. Half a dome of the earth arose from underneath the white snow. "Why couldn''t it be April orter, or anytime that is warmer. Then, the water would feel nice."


    Quinn removed the manyyers of clothes he was wearing and stuffed them into a small string bag with a minor expansion charm cast on it, leaving behind a pair of swimming trunks on his body. He tightened the string to squeeze shut the opening and stuck it to the inside surface of the dome.


    With a tap, the half-dome closed itself to form a full-dome. Surrounding snow climbed the earth dome, covering it with white to camouge it into the snowy surroundings.


    "Haah~, this is cold," Quinn breathed the chilly wind and exhaled icy mist. His skin was covered with goose pimples. However, Quinn wasn''t shivering, nor were his teeth chattering due to the cold.


    Despite not having cast heating charms on his body, Quinn was used to this level of cold because he had suffered worse in the Icy vault. Even though he used Blood magic in the vault, he could still feel an amount of chill, so this wasn''t that big of a deal to Quinn.


    "Let''s do this!"


    Quinn rubbed his hands to generate heat as he waded into the water.


    "Oh yeah, now this cold," he felt the cold water against his skin, searing as though it was fire and not icy water.


    Quinn sucked in a sharp breath when he felt the chill from the water before his condition returned to normal as heating charms worked their charm to warm up his body.


    The icy water wasn''t cold enough to warrant the use of Blood magic. Blood magic was to deal with cold that could literally kill you within minutes.


    As Quinn walked into theke, water rose and the depth of theke increased. Just when the water was at his chest level, a bubble appeared on the lower half of his face, forming a mask covering his nose, mouth, cheeks, jaw, and extended down to his neck.


    For his first deepwater expedition, Quinn had cast a bubble-head charm that produced a bubble around the caster''s face, giving them a continuous supply of oxygen and allowing them to breathe where they could not otherwise.


    Submerging himself into the water, Quinn pushed himself off the stone floor and dove into theke. The bubble-head charm did its work and Quinn was able to breathe normally.


    Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggyndscape. He could only see ten feet around him so, as he swam through the water, new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oing darkness; rippling forests, tangled ck weed, wide ins of mud, littered with dull, glimmering stones. He swam deeper and deeper; out toward the middle of theke. His eyes widened, and he stared through the eerily gray-lit water around him and the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque.


    Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw somethingrger moving ahead of him, but when Quinn got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but arge, ckened log or a dense clump of weed. Light green weed stretched ahead of him as far as he could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass.


    Quinn was staring unblinkingly ahead of him, trying to discern shapes through the darkness... and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.


    He twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small pale-green skinned, horned water demon, poking out of the weed; its long fingers clutching tightly around Quinn''s leg, its pointed fangs bared. Quinn sighed under his protective bubble, and a burst of magic from Quinn''s foot sted the tiny water demon away.


    A small group of grindylows emerged from the weeds and tried totch onto Quinn, but they crashed into an invisible shield before getting sted off like the first one.


    The tiny water demons didn''t seem to understand the situation from watching their brethren getting sted off, as more and more jumped out of the weeds, trying totch onto Quinn. Their target stood still in his spot and continued to eject them far away from him, pelting them with magic as their green skins grew angry red patches.


    Quinn didn''t run away from the waves of grindylows and just kept shooting at them like it was some fun game, and the tiny suckers kepting out of the weeds, trying to get their tiny ws on Quinn.


    "Haha, this is fun! It''s like a first-person shooter," chuckled Quinn under his protection.


    He continued to shoot at them for a couple of minutes before the grindylows understood what was happening and stopped attacking Quinn. They retreated back into the weeds and froze, peeking at him with their leafy green eyes.


    Quinn swam away, and after swimming for a while, he turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against his eardrums. Quinn knew he must be even deeper in theke now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed.


    ''I am lost,'' thought Quinn and decided to swim to the surface to gain a sense of his location.


    Swimming up to the surface, Quinn saw he had swum further to the south and away from the castle. He had moved towards the Hogsmeade train station and the dock from where the first-year students boarded their boats to get to the castle.


    "I need to swim westwards," said Quinn, moving his hair out of his face. Quinn had observed the Kraken''s tentacles, and he was able to deduce that the Kraken''s main body hung out somewhere to the castle''s west.


    Quinn had given the giant squid being a Kraken theory a thought while he was home.


    True giant squids (genus Architeuthis [1]) were deep-sea-dwelling creatures and can not live in freshwater, such as ind lochs in Scond. It would not be able to stand the sunlight, pressure, salinity (orck thereof) of the water, the space, or theck of food. At one point during the books, it was fed bread, which it could not digest. Giant squids also had very tender skin that would break if touched, but the cephalopod giant living in the Greatke could push out children who fell into theke.


    This meant that the Hogwarts giant squid was of a magical species, and the Kraken was exactly the creature that would match the magical counterpart of the non-magical giant squid.


    ''Lucky that this one isn''t a violent ship sinking monster but a semi-domesticated, peace-loving school pet that loves to chill,'' thought Quinn as he dove back into the water and headed west.


    This time around, Quinn swam a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there. He swam on for what felt like at least thirty minutes. He passed over vast expanses of ck mud now, which murkily swirled as he disturbed the water.


    ''Ugh, this is getting tiring,'' thought Quinn. He started to feel tired. He had already been swimming for over fifty minutes.


    ''I need to learn magic that makes swimming easier, or at least I need to make some diving fins,'' thought Quinn. Then, he stopped swimming for a second and looked at his feet; the next second, he conjured a pair of swimming fins on his feet. ''Alrighty, that was easy. Good job...''


    Another ten minutes and Quinn finally caught a glimpse of the Kraken''s tentacle. The giant and long tentacleid on theke''s bottom floor and covered arge surface area.


    He swam up to create some distance between him and the tentacle and slowly swam forward, watching as the tentacle got thicker and thicker.


    ''Merlin''s beard... what I saw outside of the water was just the tip of the iceberg, wasn''t it?''


    As Quinn felt amazed by the side of the Kraken''s tentacle. The end of said tentacle slowly rose and crept in the water, moving towards the tiny human who had gotten deep into its territory. And just when it got near Quinn, the tentacle sped up and moved in for the grab.


    "WHAT! THE HE-!!"


    Quinn, who was busy being amazed at the Kraken, suddenly was in the tip of the tentacle in his peripheral vision. The Kraken was trying to wrap its tentacle around him: it was trying to trap him.


    On instinct, Quinn released a magic force field shield which covered him three hundred sixty (360) degrees.


    At first, the tentacle wrapped gently around the shield, but the next second, Quinn felt a tremendous force exerted from the tentacle as it tried to tighten its wrap around Quinn''s safeguard.


    "...s-h-I-T!"


    The force field shield strained as Quinn pushed more magic into the force field shield, trying desperately to maintain the structural integrity.


    The Kraken, who had spotted a tiny human in its territory, wanted to grab him, but it was confused because something was stopping his tentacles from reaching him. It took the Kraken a few seconds to realize that the tiny human had magic around, so it stopped trying to reach the human.


    What felt like an eternity of struggle to Quinn was just three measly seconds before the squeezing force vanished.


    Quinn opened his tightly shut eyes with heavy breathing and he felt himself move. Afterwards, he saw that the tentacle wrapped around his shield was lifting him up.


    ''What is it doing? Where is it taking me?''


    The tentacle took Quinn out of the water. The force field, which was still active, trapped theke water inside the force field. From outside, it looked like the tentacle was holding a sphere of water with Quinn inside.


    ''I need to get away,'' thought Quinn.


    He immediately deactivated the force field, and immediately Quinn dropped down towards the water: the tentacle was holding on to the force field, so when Quinn released the magic, the water inside with Quinn slipped away from the tentacle''s grasp.


    Unfortunately for Quinn, the Kraken was one step ahead of him: another tentacle was waiting for him in the water.


    The second tentacle rose from theke''s surface and captured Quinn in one of its suction cups. Because of the sheer size of the Kraken, the suction cups lining its tentacles were huge. Quinn was swallowed inside the suction cup; he was trapped to his neck inside the suction cup.


    "Fu-! Argh!"


    Quinn struggled against the Kraken''s bounds.


    He wanted to get out of here and was really tempted to use magic to tear through the Kraken''s flesh. The only thing holding him back was because even though the Kraken had trapped him, it was only trapping him and not choking him out. Plus, the Kraken''s reputation for decades was one of a friendly and peaceful creature.


    The Kraken''s tentacle moved in the air and stopped right over thekeside. The suction cup holding Quinn released its hold and unceremoniously dropped him onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.


    Quinn immediately stood up and vigntly stared at the retreating tentacle. He was sure that the tentacle gave him a wave as it returned inside the water.


    "... What in the world just happened?"


    He wasn''t sure what happened; Quinn had swum for close to an hour, and just when he finally reached the Kraken, Neptune''s Bane, he was caught and ejected back to thend.


    Looking around, Quinn found he was on thekeside, which was near the herbology greenhouses.


    "... My clothes bag is in the opposite direction," grumbled Quinn as he peered at the opposite bank of the Greatke. "I don''t want to walk. I am so tired."


    With slumped shoulders, Quinn dried himself off theke water. He conjured clothes over his body and started the long walk towards the other side of theke to get his clothes back.


    ''Damn it, that was humiliating,'' thought Quinn as he walked. He was thinking about what to do next.


    From today Quinn had understood that if he got too close to the Kraken''s body, it would eject him out of theke. If he wanted to get to the vault, then he would have to get past the Kraken.


    "I need to be faster," he thought based on today''s events.


    "First, I can''t spend half an hour just to get near the Kraken; I need to find a way to get there faster than before. Second, I have to gain control while I am inside the water. The Kraken has too many tentacles, but I have the size advantage. I''m shorter, so I can evade him. To do that, though, I need to gain speed and nimbleness in my swimming."


    The gears in Quinn''s mind turned as he pondered what magic would help him out in this situation.


    "Water magic is definitely a plus; nothing better than water magic inside water. I could probably use it as jets to increase my speed so I can move much faster. It will also improve the things I can do while I''m under the water. As long as the Kraken doesn''t have water magic capabilities, then I will be able to outmaneuver past him."


    He brushed a hand through his hair and prayed.


    "Let''s hope that whatever the vault is, it''s inside some kind of building or room because I don''t want to work on the vault while continuously evading the Kraken trying to get me out of water."


    The next part of the problem was Quinn''s surviving under the water. A human being like himself wasn''t meant to stay in the water for extended amounts of time. Sure, he was athletic enough to swim for a long time, but if he was going to stay deep beneath the surface, then it would be dangerous.


    "The bubble-head charm is not durable enough; it might break if I''m not careful. I can''t take that kind of risk," spected Quinn and cracked his neck as he continued to walk. "I need to find another source of oxygen; this one will need to be more durable and needs tost as long as I need."


    Quinn had some ideas on achieving the solution to the oxygen problem, but it would need some study and research because his method required some finesse and delicate magic work.


    "This is going to be a fun year."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It waste at night inside Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus''s dorm room, and all three residents were ready to go to bed.


    "Quinn, do you have any idea about the ministry notice?" asked Marcus from his bed. "I heard someone talking about a notice. Do you have any idea what it is about?"


    Quinn, who was reading a book on transfiguration from the Caribbean region, closed his book and turned his face towards Marcus.


    "It''s about Hogsmeade. The attack by the Novellus ionites triggered the ministry, so they are taking some precautions," answered Quinn. Then, he got up from his bed.


    He walked to his study table in his dorm room and opened a drawer. He took out a sheet of paper.


    "This is a copy of the notice," informed Quinn as he walked towards Marcus'' bed to hand him the paper.


    Elliot had sent him the copy of the notice by the MagiFax installed at the West manor. The ministry notice was apanied by a letter. The letter advised that if Quinn wanted things from Hogsmeade, then he should preferably get them by mail-order, and if he absolutely needed to visit Hogsmeade, he was to keep his visits short as possible.


    Marcus received the paper and read the ministry notice.


    .


    ¡¸


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª BY ORDER OF ¡ª¡ª¡ª


    THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC


    We have the duty to inform you that, until further notice, Dementors from Azkaban will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown.


    This measure has been put in ce for the safety of the Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted when the Ministry brings the terrorist group going by the name of Novellus ionites.


    It is therefore advisable that youplete your shopping well before nightfall.


    Happy and Prosperous New Year.


    ¡¹


    .


    Eddie also got curious, so he got up from his bed and walked over to Marcus''s bed. He took the notice paper after Marcus was done reading it and read it.


    "Are they serious?" Eddie asked as he dropped the notice on Marcus'' bed. "They are putting Dementors in Hogsmeade? Isn''t that a little too much? What is wrong with appointing some Aurors in the vige?"


    "I guess they were thinking that if Dementors patrolled Hogwarts, then why not Hogsmeade," spected Quinn, shrugging as he spoke. "It will not be good for business, though."


    Marcus, who heard Quinn''s answer, asked a question in response.


    "Do you think the ministry is still restricting the DMLE? By cing Dementors at Hogsmeade, are they trying to keep the Auror''s away from the case?"


    Marcus recalled the talk he and Eddie had with Quinn regarding the friction between the ministry and the DMLE. This situation, to Marcus, that is, allowing Dementors to patrol Hogsmeade, seemed like the minister''s faction was still trying to restrict Auror''s office''s movements.


    Quinn plopped himself down on Marcus'' bed and said, "I''m not sure if this is because of politics or because of the Dementors themselves."


    "Dementors? What do they have to do with this?" asked Eddie, confused. The situation was because of the minister''s faction and the DMLE; he couldn''t see how the Dementors fit into this situation.


    "The Dementors feed off from the positive feelings. I don''t know their level of sapience, but it is clear that they are sentient enough to taste and sense fear, as they are drawn to it and the promise of positive memories," continued Quinn.


    "They obeyed the Ministry of Magic for years because, in guarding Azkaban, they were provided with the sustenance of any remaining hope or happiness from the prisoners. But now a lot of them are away from their food table; Azkaban. And Dumbledore doesn''t allow them inside the castle, so they must have been growing restless for some time... furious at his refusal to let them inside the grounds. So I suppose the ministry is trying to appease the Dementors by allowing them to patrol Hogsmeade at night."


    Marcus rubbed his temple and sighed, "This is all so confusing."


    Some of the conversations that Marcus, Eddie, and Quinn had this year were politics-rted, and those conversations made both Marcus and Eddie increasingly involved in politics. Both of Quinn''s roommates had started to think about the ministry and what was happening around them.


    Quinn personally had seen both of his friends exchange thoughts on articles they had read in the newspaper and talk about things they hadn''t addressed before. And the divide in the ministry due to the Novellus ionites was at the forefront in many of their conversations.


    "Why don''t you write letters to your parents? Write to them asking what they think about the current situation," suggested Quinn, while trying to provide them a way to gain more insight on the topic. "Of course, I''m not saying to follow whatever they say. Just hear whatever they have to say and think about how you feel about it. Look up for more facts and get aplete picture. Maybe, then, you will be able to get a clear picture that would erase any confusion."


    Quinn was trying to make his friends people with critical thinking; people who weren''t like the sheep that abounded the British magical society. He wanted them to be freethinkers, and, given the situation, having them form their own political views was a good start.


    People like Albus Dumbledore had an image in the public''s mind that bordered worship; it made people trust him without giving it a second thought.


    And one thing George had taught Quinn was that blind trust was just like nails; the longer you have them, the more dangerous they get.


    Quinn didn''t want his friends to be like the sheep that was everybody. He didn''t need ''yes-men'' around him who just followed whatever he said. While that sounded good in a way, Quinn wanted the people with whom he interacted to be winners and not losers who couldn''t think for themselves.


    Eddie and Marcus nodded at Quinn''s suggestion of writing to their parents, and that brought a smile to Quinn''s friends.


    It was a start.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.


    Eddie Carmichael - A thinking Ravenw - On a path that will set him apart.


    Marcus Belby - A Ravenw, seeking answers - Sheep, he will never be.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 84 - Interactive Learning, And Illusion Of Help

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Humming a pleasant tune, Quinn walked towards his office, ready to start another shift of quality consultation.


    ''I wonder how many wille today?'' wondered Quinn, thinking about what kind of problems he would get to see today.


    On an average day, Quinn would get maybe two to three customers. They would bring their problems to him, expecting a solution.


    ''Let''s hope that some of them are non-homework-rted problems,'' sighed Quinn, hoping that something interesting woulde along.


    Homework-rted requests consisted of Quinn giving homework-rted resources to the clients and charging a few knuts for the information. The problem with this kind of problem was that there was no margin for getting students under his debt.


    He couldn''t do their homework for them as that would attract unwanted attention from professors, and second, he didn''t want to do people''s homework.


    Quinn reached the office door and twisted the doorknob to open the door; he already knew that his assistant was already in there, so he didn''t bother reaching for the key.


    When he opened the door, Quinn saw Luna sitting on his office barstool behind his table with a client sitting in front of the table.


    The chime above the door rang, alerting the upants of Quinn''s entrance, causing both of them to look at him. He greeted them.


    "Good evening."


    Luna, who had her wand tucked behind her ear, waved a hand to Quinn and greeted him back.


    "Good evening."


    The client simply nodded when he saw Quinn but didn''t verbally greet him.


    Quinn nodded back in response before silently walking to the workshop door and entering the workshop after unlocking the door. He didn''t take over the conversation from Luna and let her deal with the client as talking with people was what he had hired her for.


    He set his book bag down and removed his robe. Luna knocked on the door before entering the workshop.


    "He has brought an interesting request," informed Luna, twirling a few strands of her hair with her fingers. Quinn had told her to call him if the request was interesting.


    It had taken some time before Quinn sessfully taught Luna what he meant by interesting, but eventually, Quinn and Luna came to the same page on what interesting meant.


    "Alright, I''ll be there," replied Quinn and asked a question. "Are you done with your homework?"


    "Uh-huh, I''m done," responded Luna in a sing-song voice. "I just need to bottle the potion in a vial for the ss."


    "Excellent," praised Quinn before asking. "What about my assignments? How is the progress on that?"


    Ever since Quinn had ''hired'' Luna, he had been giving her topics to study every week. Sometimes it would be theory; other times, it would be practical. He had given her easy study topics, asked her to practice spells until she got used to them, or long-term projects like growing herbs and keeping track of their progress.


    He had been giving her fun stuff like treasure map hunts and riddles, just like Friar gave him: but in ce of deadly vaults, he had been cing mystery objects around the castle that Luna needed to find and figure out how to solve-sh-open them to get the treasure inside. Every mystery object would require some kind of transfiguration, charms, herbology, or potion brewing to open, making learning more fun for the quirky and entric Luna.


    Quinn wanted Luna to learn and utilize more magic because teenage years were the age where magic grew more rapidly, and he wanted Luna to take advantage of it. He understood that people wouldn''t go to the extremes like him by exhausting his magic core every day, but he could make sure that Luna would use more magic while making it fun.


    All the assignments and projects that Quinn gave Luna were interconnected with each other. Quinn had nned out things so when shepleted her fifth year, Luna would be done with her N.E.W.T level education in all subjects other than Care of Magical Creatures practical portion ¡ª as bringing creatures into Hogwarts was a hassle. But if canon Luna was anything of reference, then he was sure that his Luna would somehow cover that portion on her own.


    On top of that, he intended to closely monitor her progress to see if Luna was progressing faster because if she showed more interest in learning, he would put in extra things that he thought she would learn and things that Luna would find interesting.


    He didn''t burden her withplicated things beyond her level or dump lengthy assignments which would eat away all her time. But he wanted to make sure that Luna wouldplete her N.E.W.T education by the end of her fifth year because, by that time, Quinn would be at the end of his seventh year, and that meant graduation, a.k.a, he would be leaving Hogwarts.


    N.E.W.T level education by the end of the fifth year wasn''t much of a challenge because a fifth-year student with a wand did have enough focus ability to perform all the seventh-year magic there was in the curriculum. And with Quinn making study ns fitting to Luna''s needs and aptitude, he was sure that not only would Luna understand N.E.W.T level topics, but she would also have better magic capacity and control than her peers.


    Luna twirled on the spot and smiled in a fun way, "I''m still working on the nk parchment and riddle that you gave me."


    Quinn smiled as he thought of the riddle and nk parchment. The nk parchment was a secret treasure map, and the riddle was the clue to a potion that would make the treasure map visible and another indication that would give her a clue on how to open the mystery object that he had hid.


    "I see. Well, keep working on it," said Quinn, ruffling her hair. Now that he had caught up with her, Quinn asked, "So what is he here for?"


    Luna''s answer put a smile on his face.


    "Now that is an interesting request, alright," smiled Quinn. He knew exactly how to solve the client''s problem, but he wasn''t expecting this particr request toe through his doors.


    He walked to the office and looked at the client as he sat down on his barstool behind his desk.


    "Mr. Longbottom, you have brought one interesting request. Tell me, what made you request something like this from us."


    On the client stool sat Neville Longbottom; round-faced, short, chubby but not overly fat, brown hair. The Longbottom child was clumsy, forgetful, shy, and many considered him ill-suited for Gryffindor house because he seemed timid.


    He was the other child who qualified to be the prophecy child in Sybill Trwney''s prophecy as he was the child of the Longbottom couple, who had defied Voldemort thrice. Fortunately, Voldemort had decided to target the Potters first and had set in Harry Potter''s fate to be the chosen one.


    "Uhm, I keep forgetting the password to themon room. So I write the passwords on a piece of parchment in case I forget it, but one of the p-prefects caught me as I was looking at my note," Neville''s timid voice narrated his story. He was looking down at hisp as he spoke, not making eye contact with Quinn. "He dragged me to professor McGonagall, and she scolded me for writing the password. Then when I returned to themon room, everybody wasughing at me."


    Neville looked like he was about to cry. Quinn could literally see tears pooling at the edges of his eyes.


    "So you havee to me ¡ªa Ravenw¡ª to help you with the Gryffindormon room pass-"


    Neville''s ears reddened as he heard Quinn''s words and cut him by standing from his barstool and sputtered, "I''m sorry, this was stupid. Please, excuse me. I will leave."


    Quinn raised his hand with a smile on his face and stopped Neville, "Not at all, Mr. Longbottom. You have a problem, and you came to us to get a solution. We strive to solve any problem, so no, this isn''t stupid." He gestured for Neville to return to his seat. "Please take a seat. I believe I can solve your problem."


    Neville blinked a couple of times at Quinn before sitting down. This time he made proper eye contact with Quinn, his eyes shing with hope.


    "As you said, you always forget themon room password; there is nothing wrong with that," Quinn reassured Neville that this was something verymonce. "I''m sure a lot of your housemates also forget the password and have it written down somewhere. The prefect who caught you might have been having a bad day, and if not that, then we both can agree that he is a jerk."


    Badmouthing a third person behind their back, especially if that person wasn''t well-liked, was a proven way to improve rtions between two people. Quinn was using it to make Neville feelfortable and assert that he wasn''t at fault.


    "From what I know, Gryffindormon room password changes once every three weeks, correct?"


    Neville nodded in response to Quinn''s question.


    Of course, Quinn already knew that. He knew that Gryffindor and Hufflepuffmon room passwords changed every three weeks, while the Slytherinmon room password changed every other week. He had Recon long enough to figure out the change schedules.


    "And you sometimes forget it, so you need a way to remember it. That is what you are asking me, correct?"


    Quinn didn''t even go in the direction where Neville didn''t forget the password, as that would be a lengthy process that Quinn didn''t want to overtake.


    When Neville nodded, Quinn continued, "Excellent, I have just the solution for you. It will allow you to keep a secret copy of the passwords with no one ever finding out. There will be no parchment trail; you just need to make sure that you are alone when you look at it."


    Quinn stood up from his seat and spoke, "Please wait a moment, and I will be back with the solution."


    He left Neville behind in the office and walked into the workshop.


    Inside the workshop, Luna was lying on the floor intently staring at the riddle parchment. The parchment was levitating above her, with Luna''s wand in her hand.


    As Quinn walked to a potion cupboard, he stared at Luna. It looked like she didn''t notice Quinn walking as she kept staring at the parchment.


    ''She''s weird,'' thought Quinn with a smile on his face.


    Quinn opened a cupboard and searched for a potion vial. It was one of the potions that he had learned to brew before Hogwarts. He brewed it because it sounded fun, and he had all the ingredients lying around.


    "Ah, found it."


    Taking a vial of inky ck potion out of the cupboard, Quinn walked to another part of the room, stepped over Luna''s body, and opened a drawer to get a thick calligraphy brush.


    Once again, Quinn stepped over Luna''s body and walked outside to the office, and instead of sitting on his barstool behind the table, Quinn sat beside Neville in the other client''s stool.


    "We''re ready," said Quinn as he set down the potion vial and calligraphy brush on the table.


    He turned to face Neville and started,


    "Alright, before we start, I would like to exin what is this about in case you don''t want to go through this." Quinn needed consent before he did anything; he didn''t wantints after he was done.


    "So this potion is a type of ink that is used on the skin. It is generally used by healers to mark parts on a patient''s bodies if ever needed," exined Quinn, picking up the vial off the table. "But this is a little different recipe. I changed the recipe so that the ink sinks into the patient''s body. That way, if the healer has drawn too many lines, they could hide some lines to avoid clutter. You know, small improvements to increase ease-of-use."


    Quinn lifted the sleeve of his left hand and ced a finger on his forearm. "I''m going to stain a patch of your forearm in this ink and then change it so that it will read the Gryffindormon room password. When you need the password, you can make it appear, and when you''re done, you can hide it."


    Quinn looked up at Neville and asked, "Any questions?"


    "W-Will it hurt?" asked Neville with a wince in his voice.


    "Not at all," assured Quinn as he picked up the calligraphy brush from the table and showed it to Neville. "I''m going to use this brush to paint some ink on your arm. It might tickle, but after that, you won''t feel anything. It won''t hurt even when you make the ink appear or when you hide it."


    Neville looked relieved to hear that it wouldn''t hurt. Neville thought that Quinn was a cool person, and he didn''t want to cry in front of him. Plus, there was that other girl inside, and if he cried she mighte out and see him cry.


    "We need a code word to make the ink appear," said Quinn. He wanted a code word that would reveal the password. "Tell me, Neville, what is your favorite tree, herb, nt, or any flora?"


    Neville tilted his head confused, wondering why Quinn was asking like this but answered nevertheless.


    "Chamomile."


    "Excellent, then that will be your code word," pped Quinn, smiling at Neville.


    He knew Neville was a herbology lover, so assigning the code word as Neville''s favorite nt would make sure that Neville would never forget it.


    ''Or I could''ve just used his name as the code word, but that is so boring,'' thought Quinn before speaking. "Now, let''s get started and ink your forearm. Lift your sleeve and hold it in ce."


    Quinn uncorked the vial and dipped the calligraphy brush into the vial. He waited as Neville clumsily pulled up his sleeve and awkwardly held it in ce.


    "Alright, let''s begin."


    Quinn removed the brush from the vial and gently painted a stroke back and forth, drawing nothing in particr and just trying to put more and more ink on Neville''s hand. After half a minute, Quinn felt that the ink was enough for any phrase that would be chosen as the Gryffindormon room password.


    "I think this is enough," said Quinn as he ced the brush on the table and pulled out his fake wand. cing the wand tip on the inked area, Quinn fake-chanted.


    "Immutatio."


    The ink moved on Neville''s skin and took the form of the words,


    ¡¸Facta, nonverba.¡¹


    As Quinn removed the wand tip to observe the result, Neville asked with his jaw open in shock, "H-How did you know the password."


    "That isn''t something you should waste your time thinking about, Mr. Longbottom; some things aren''t meant to be known, and this is one of them. Sometimes not knowing is better; knowledge can turn into a curse if you''re not careful."


    Quinn''s voice was smooth and had a slower than usual flow to it, which made his words sound silky.


    It stopped Neville from trying to continue the questioning. The Gryffindor gulped while nodding, deciding to forget he had asked that question.


    "Please take out your wand and ce it on the inked words," instructed Quinn.


    Neville used the hand holding his sleeve to take out his father''s wand, giving Quinn the chance to magically fold Neville''s sleeve properly, unlike the awkward crumpled way Neville had done.


    "Say ''chamomile'' to set it as the code word," said Quinn as he once again ced his fake-wand tip on the inked words.


    Neville nervously ced his wand beside Quinn''s and spoke, "Chamomile."


    The ink shed, affirming that the code word was set, and immediately the ink disappeared as they sunk into Neville''s skin leaving behind no signs.


    "Try saying the code word to see if it is working," instructed Quinn.


    Neville spoke "Chamomile" with his wand tip pressed against his skin, and the words ''Facta, nonverba'' appeared on his skin.


    Neville''s eyes shed with happiness as he repeatedly spoke "Chamomile," making the words appear and vanish on his skin.


    "T-Thank you," said Neville, a smile on his face. He was relieved that now he wouldn''t have to keep a parchment with the password written on it. He could just whip out his wand and would have the password on his hand.


    "No worries. But you will have toe back every time the password changes so I can modify the words. Plus, this ink will slowly dissipate from your body, so you need toe back here to refill the ink."


    Neville nodded without any difort or reluctance. He was ready toe here as long as he was able to keep the password in his hand.


    "What do I have to pay?" asked Neville. He was so happy that he was ready to empty his pocket money into Quinn''s hands.


    "Oh about that, no need to pay me anything," smiled Quinn as he stood up with Neville following him. Quinn extended his hand for a handshake with Neville and spoke. "I scratch your back; you''ll scratch mine. This was just me helping you out, so when in the future I need your help, help me out... You''ll help me out, right, Neville."


    Neville repeatedly nodded as he spoke, "Of course, I will help you. I will help you with anything. This is great, thank you. Thank you so much."


    "No worries. Come back anytime you want," said Quinn with a kind and helpful smile.


    After Neville left, Quinn cleaned up things and sat behind his table, thinking about Neville Longbottom''s request.


    While it seemed that Quinn had helped Neville with his request, the truth was that Neville was no better than before he entered the A.I.D offices. Quinn hadn''t helped out Neville one bit. What he had provided was just an illusion of help.


    Neville was now looking at his arm instead of paper. He could still very well get caught if he was careless and someone saw him revealing the password on his arm.


    Plus, now, Neville was under the assumption that he would have to return to A.I.D offices to reset the password and refill the ink in his arm.


    Neville had gone from simply writing the password on parchment, which he did on his own, to writing the password on his arm, which required Quinn''s assistance.


    Quinn, of course, knew all this, and despite that, had chosen to use such a ''solution.'' No... to better phrase it, Quinn had given Neville the ''solution'' knowing that it wouldn''t help out Neville. Quinn wanted Neville to retain the problem and repeatedly return to his office to avail his services, as that would enable Quinn to increase the amount of ''help'' he handed out to Neville.


    A day woulde in the future when Neville would feel that he had gotten so much help from Quinn that he wouldn''t be able to refuse anything that Quinn asked from him.


    Quinn sat on his barstool, looking at where Neville had sat as he tapped his fingers on the table.


    Eventually, a soft closed-mouth smile made its way to Quinn''s face.


    Like a spider watching a butterfly flying towards its web.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC- Provided ''help'', and is ready to ''help'' more.


    Neville Longbottom - Gryffindor - Entered the cycle of problem and help.


    Luna Lovegood - Weird - Put on an elerated learning path without her knowing.


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 85 - Aquatic Showdown, And Exposed!

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Sitting by a bank in the Great Lake, soaking his feet in the cold water, Quinn readied himself for another deep dive into the it''s depths.


    It had been a few weeks since Quinn had tried to get close to the Kraken; he had been practicing his swimming near the surface, away from the Kraken''s main body. He had been practicing his magic so that when he did approach the Kraken once more, he wouldn''t be helpless.


    "Well, I''m not exactly helpless. I could injure it and take my chance... Yeah, but that would probably not go my or the Kraken''s way," grumbled Quinn, while swinging his soaking feet in theke water.


    Quinn was sure that he could reasonably injure the Kraken;st year, while under the sin curse, Quinn had learned a lot of destructive magic and had practiced it even more. The Room of Requirement had dealt with a lot of abuse from Quinn, who had a penchant for destruction.


    So Quinn was sure that if he turned his magic against the Kraken, he would make the legendary monster feel a lot of pain and rip and detach at least one of its tentacles from its body.


    But at the same time, Quinn wasn''t sure what he would do when it came to defending. The water was the Kraken''s territory, his home ground, and Quinn was an outsider, ying an away game, which meant that Kraken had the field advantage. Quinn had done some mental ''simtions''¡ª that is, he had imagined how things would go if he fought the Kraken. In lots of them, he ended up crushed by a Kraken''s tentacle or eaten by the Kraken or being repeatedly smacked into thekebed till he was broken and dead.


    "I wanted to say that our battle would be legendary," smirked Quinn but sighed while shaking his head. "s, it won''t happen... but, maybe! ¡ª Naw, it won''t happen..."


    Quinn stood up and walked into theke, water climbing up his body as he wadded forward. When his feet no longer touched the ground and had swum a distance from the shore, he stopped himself from floating and let himself sink into the water, disappearing from the surface.


    In the deep blue and somewhat murky green, he closed his eyes and held his breath. Afterward, Quinn brought his hands to the sides of his neck and sunk deeper into the water. Magic flowed in his body and thrummed as it showed its charm.


    Quinn opened his mouth and let water flow in, and a few secondster, bubbles emerged from beneath Quinn''s hand.


    He opened his eyes and put away his hands from his neck, which revealed threerge slits just below his ears, pping in the cold air.


    Gills were a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracted dissolved oxygen from water and expelled carbon dioxide. Gills were tissues that were like short threads, protein structures called fments. Each fment contained a blood capirywork that provided arge surface area for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.


    Human Transfiguration was a sub-branch of Transfiguration and a kind of transformation where one transfigures human body parts or an entire human being into another form. Human Transfiguration on oneself was an arduous process because you added organic parts to the human body that weren''t part of the original human physiology. If not performed correctly and carefully, then the caster would be in a world ofplications.


    Adding gills to himself for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange under the water was a simple enough idea that Quinn borrowed from Harry Potter and Viktor Krum''s performance in the second task of the Triwizard tournament.


    Harry had used Gillyweed, a magical nt, to achieve underwater breathing. When eaten, it gave the consumer gills, allowing them to breathe underwater and webbing between the fingers and toes, allowing them to swim underwater with ease.


    Viktor Krum chose to attempt human transfigure on himself and tried to transform himself into a shark but managed only to transfigure his head. Still, it worked well enough for him to reach the merpeople vige because the shark head had gills that allowed him to breathe underwater.


    So Quinnbined both of those examples and gave him a pair of gills without turning into another species. He studied the anatomy of the gills from multiple aquatic species before he was able to clearly understand how the gills worked.


    From there on, Quinn had to transfigure gill structures with fments that had a blood capirywork. He connected those capiries to his own natural blood vesselwork. Finally, he blocked his windpipe so that the water wouldn''t go in his lungs and diverted to the gills,pleting an artificial aquatic respiratory system in his body.


    The first gulp of icyke water felt like the breath of life. He took another swallow of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. The oxygen cirction was established, and Quinn''s body got a healthy dose of oxygen from the water.


    ''Alright, everything seems to be working fine,'' thought Quinn, intaking more water to suck the oxygen out of the liquid. The gill ps closed when Quinn took in water, and his mouth shut when the gill ps opened to let out the water.


    ''Good, let''s go.''


    Quinn''s magic leaked into the surrounding water, causing it to react with a short wave of vibration before it settled down to normalcy, but Quinn knew that it wasn''t back to normal.


    With a single thought, the water reacted and pushed Quinn forward. He left behind a jet of water as Quinn''s speed in water increased, and he zoomed across theke towards thergest resident of the area.


    If you looked closely, it''d be possible to see Quinn covered in a teardrop-shaped envelope of calm water, as the turbulent water around that stable envelope made Quinn move inside theke.


    After practicing for a few weeks, Quinn had learned a lot about using water magic to practice underwater swimming. Quinn had found that he needed to maintain calm water around him, as steady and stable water was ideal for proper oxygen cirction.


    The turbulent water hindered Quinn''s ability to take in water, so to solve that, he tried many options, like covering his face with stable water, but that failed the integrity test and would turn turbulent after a certain speed.


    After many tests and configurations, Quinn had found that covering his entire body with a teardrop-shaped stable water cover was better, as not only did it pass the integrity test. It also spared Quinn''s body from the water-resistance he experienced while learning how to use water magic for swimming.


    ''Hydrodynamics for the win,'' smiled Quinn as he exerted more magic, pushing his speed up as he moved towards the Kraken.


    What previously took tens of minutes of physical swimming, now with the help of water magic, it took under five minutes for Quinn to start from his usual starting point to where the Kraken usually resided.


    ''There it is,'' thought Quinn as a tentacle entered his sight.


    Quinn stopped at a distance away from the tentacle and took a moment to form his n. This would be his second encounter with the Kraken, although this time his goal was to at least make sure that the Kraken didn''t touch him. That was all he wanted to aplish today.


    ''Let''s start.'' Quinn cracked his knuckles underwater, and the water once again formed a teardrop around Quinn. Quinn, then, contracted his body before extending it straight and shot himself towards the Kraken.


    Immediately, the Kraken''s tentacle twitched as it felt a tiny human moving towards him at a faster speed than before. The next second, two tentacles rose from theke floor and shot towards the smaller figure in the water.


    Quinn, who registered the twin tentacle pincer attack immediately shot upward to avoid a tentacle. The next second, though, the other tentacle went upon Quinn, ready to grab him.


    ''Oh, no, I''m not going to the surface soon,'' thought Quinn. The water magic showed its maneuverability advantages as the teardrop cover narrowed.


    Water forces from different directions came into y, and Quinn moved towards the iing tentacle, intending to escape it''s grasp with an aggressive approach. Quinn and the tentacle close on to each other, and at thest second, Quinn spun around the cylindrical body of the tentacle, leaving behind coils of water propulsions around the tentacle''s body as he zoomed forward.


    ''YES!'' celebrated Quinn as he put in more magic into speed and zoomed towards the Kraken''s main body while intending to see its face.


    But the thing about tentacles is that they don''t work like hands; they weren''t single jointed limbs and could fold and turn at any point of their length.


    And the Kraken knew it better than anyone else. So when Quinn escaped its first attempt, both tentacles immediately moved, turning towards Quinn and darting with speed to catch up with Quinn like homing missiles.


    Quinn, who was zooming forward, felt something behind him and saw that the tentacles he dodged were once again on his tail, and they were much faster than Quinn, so the distance was shortening as he watched them.


    He knew running away wasn''t going to work for long, so he decided to use another branch of magic, a magic that had a massive advantage in his current situation.


    Turning his body towards the tentacles while still moving away from them, Quinn took a deep breath of water and called upon his magic. The magic from his magical core shot out into the water and waited for Quinn to give themand.


    Quinn waited ¡ª he waited for the tentacles to get closer and closer to each other as they moved nearer to Quinn, patiently watching for the right moment. When they were just about the distance Quinn wanted them to be, he dwelled deep into his memories.


    ''... Ice.''


    That single word brought him the memories of the chilling freeze of the Icy vault, all the time he had spent in the area, feeling the cold seep into his bones. Just for the moment, Quinn felt that he was back in the Icy vault, working on the snowke icicle, trying to get inside the vault.


    ''Ice.''


    With that thought, the magic got themand it was waiting for, and it made the wishe true in reality.


    Ice bloomed in the Greatke, two giant bands of ice formed around the two tentacles, working as cuffs when the ice from the band shot towards each other, meeting to lock the tentacles with each other, causing them to slow down and snatch against each other.


    In an environment where water was everywhere, where the base material for making ice was in so much abundance, Quinn''s ice magic worked with greater ease. He was able to push it to greater heights than he had ever reached.


    More and more ice bands formed around the surface of the tentacles, weighing them down as they locked them to each other.


    With a smirk on his face, Quinn raised an arm up, and a gigantic upward curving ice barrier formed just as a third tentacle tried to capture Quinn from above.


    ''Ha! I was expecting that!'' reveled Quinn as he made a fist with his raised hand.


    The third tentacle, which collided with the barrier, started to freeze as ice formed on its surface, climbing up at an rming rate.


    But the next things Quinn saw wiped the smirk off Quinn''s face.


    The initial two tentacles, sinking down because of the ice, moved and tugged to opposite sides. Immediately, there were cracks and crevices appeared in the ice constraints.


    Quinn''s eyes widened as he saw the cracks in the ice. In response, he concentrated his magic to fill those cracks with more ice.


    But as he did that, he felt something on his side, and when Quinn moved his eyes to the side, he saw a fourth tentacle darting towards him.


    ''Motherfuc-!'' Quinn tried to curse as he formed an ice sphere around him, and just as the ice sphere was about toplete, the collision with the fourth tentacle happened, sending the ice sphere with Quinn inside rushing to the opposite direction.


    "SHiT!" he shouted, but underwater all that did was to create a gurgle.


    The whirling ice sphere stole Quinn''s bnce, and he tumbled inside for a good couple of seconds before he exerted magic and dissolved the ice sphere, leaving Quinn''s body iling.


    It took another few seconds before Quinn could regain bnce, but he was still moving uncontrobly. Turning back to the direction he was drifting in an attempt to stop himself, Quinn came into another shock.


    ''Crap!''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The Slytherinmon room was a dungeon-like room with greenishmps and chairs. This dungeon extended part way under theke, giving the light in the room a green tinge.


    The room had lots of low-backed, ck and dark green, button-tufted, leather sofas, skulls, and dark wood cupboards. One of the wooden tables had a Wizard''s Chess set on it.


    Themon room was decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous Medieval Slytherins. It had quite a dignified atmosphere, albeit quite a cold one.


    Daphne Greengrass, her sister, Astoria Greengrass, and Tracey Davis were sitting in there. Tracey and Astoria were ying a game of Wizard''s Chess while Daphne was reading a book.


    There was no one else in the spacious area. So except for the asional cross-talk between Tracy and Astoria, the only sounds in the room were the ticking of a clock, moving of chess pieces, and turning pages.


    The three upants werefortable in the room''s tranquility until a heavy thump broke it.


    All three girls jumped in their chairs and looked at each other before hastily looking towards the source of the shattering thump.


    The three girls saw a person pressed up t against the ss panels that showed the underwater view of the Greatke.


    Tracy blinked a couple of times, squinted her eyes to thoroughly look at the person, and her eyes opened when she recognized the person.


    "Quinn!"


    The Greengrass sister''s jaw dropped when it clicked in their minds, and now they could see that the man dressed only in shorts was the Ravenw, and their friend, Quinn West.


    "What in Slytherin''s name is he doing there?" asked Astoria as she moved towards the ss panels.


    "Are those slits on his neck?" pointed out Daphne when she noticed his gills.


    Tracy and Astoria turned to Daphne and looked at her with a face that said, ''That is the first thing you notice?''


    Quinn, who was on the other side of the ss, opened his eyes to see his three Slytherin friends.


    The three girls watched as Quinn''s eyes widened when he noticed them. They saw his jaw drop in shock and then the banging of his head against the ss.


    Quinn pped his hand against the ss, and they saw the reddish-yellow glowing words form on the ss.


    ¡¸NOT A WORD TO ANYONE.¡¹


    After a moment, another line formed below the first line.


    ¡¸NOT A WORD.¡¹


    The words stayed there for a few seconds before they disappeared, and the girls saw Quinn push against the ss and swim away.


    "... He didn''t say goodbye,"mented Astoria as Quinn disappeared away from their sights.


    This time the older girls looked at Astoria and made faces that said, ''That is what you say first?''


    Quinn''s sudden ''visit'' surprised the three girls enough for them not to notice that he didn''t have a wand in his hand.


    At least then, that is.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn didn''t encounter the Kraken during his journey back to the shore. Just before he got out of the water, Quinn''s transfigured gills disappeared, and so did other modifications.


    He brought his face out of the water and took a couple of deep breaths through his mouth till his lungs were once again filled with oxygen-rich air and performing as normal.


    Walking out of theke, Quinnid down on the ground and groaned for a good minute before opening his eyes and sighing.


    "I just wanted a peaceful year, and now this happens."


    While he was sure that Daphne, Tracy, and Astoria wouldn''t speak about it to anyone else, he didn''t want them to know.


    A secret was strongest when only one person knew about it.


    Quinn had no n of telling them anything about the vault or what he was actually doing there, but he was sure that he was going to have a talk with them.


    ''I need to think about what I am going to tell them.''


    Quinn sighed, and then his mind went back to today''s encounter with the Kraken.


    "Damn it, that Kraken is a toughie. The number of tentacles is just not fair. I need to get more practice," sighed Quinn before some other things. "I need to change some things. Yeah, definitely change some things."


    The second encounter with the Kraken ended up a failure.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Fought the tentacles.


    Hogwarts'' giant squid - Kraken - Tricky tiny human, hmph!


    Daphne Greengrass - Slytherin #1 - Slits? But why..?


    Tracy Davis - Slytherin #2 - It is too cold for a swim, isn''t it?


    Astoria Greengrass - Slytherin #3 - Didn''t speak goodbye, how rude.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!


    .

 Chapter 86 - Hosting The Slytherin Three, And Wormtail

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The thing about the ambiance of the A.I.D office was that the room was designed to make the people who came in feelfortable. The entire room was set up to create aforting and inviting environment.


    It had a lot of elbow room to make the clients feel that the room was spacious and not stuffy. At the same time, the number of knick-knacks, decor, and paintings gave the illusion of being in a small space that made the room feel cozy and safe.


    The walls were painted in a light blue to make the clients more agreeable and rxed. The nts ced in the room were carefully chosen to provide a fresh aspect to the ambiance, making the room feel more organic.


    The room''s entire purpose was to make the person who came in feelfortable enough to open up about their troubles. To provide a safe space that put them at ease. And the things that tied it everything in the room were the main focus in the room; the host, the person who owned and operated the ce.


    And currently, that host was totally focused on maximizing thefort level of the people sitting in front of him.


    "Please make yourselvesfortable," stated Quinn with a calm smile on his face. "Do you girls want something to drink? I have butterbeer, gillywater, soda, or milkshakes. I have lots of fruits that you can choose from."


    The eyes of two of the three girls sitting in front of Quinn shined. They spoke up.


    "I want a butterbeer," asked Tracy with a shine in her eyes and joy in her voice. She had some butterbeer for the first time at Hogsmeade and enjoyed it very much. So when Quinn offered, she jumped at it.


    "Gillywater, please," replied Astoria from her chair, looking at the various knick-knacks and paintings.


    The third girl sighed at her twopanions before replying.


    "Nothing, thank you."


    Quinn stood up from behind his desk and walked to his workshop. When he came out with a bottle each of butterbeer and gillywater.


    "Daphne, are you sure you don''t want anything," asked Quinn as he put down the chilled bottles on the coasters on the table in front of Tracy and Astoria. "I can brew a pot of tea if you don''t want something cold. I have a variety of tea leaves that you can pick from."


    "I would like to know what were you doing in the Great Lake" asked Daphne, making clear eye contact with Quinn.


    "... Straight to business. I can respect that," said Quinn sitting back down on his barstool.


    "Ahem, what I was doing in the Great Lake? Well, I was swimming," replied Quinn after clearing his throat, hoping that this would clear every doubt. But Quinn knew that he was kidding himself.


    "Inte January?" persisted the blonde Greengrass, with a toneced with skepticism. She didn''t believe Quinn would go for a simple swim in the icy waters.


    Quinn matched eyes with Daphne and answered with a straight face. "... Yes, one warming charm, and I was all set for a nice swim."


    "What about the gills beneath your ears? Why were you using magic that isn''t taught until the sixth year?" asked Daphne, pushing for more information when she heard the short answer from Quinn.


    Quinn snorted and scoffed at those words. He bragged with self-confidenceced in his tone, "I''m the smartest student at Hogwarts. Year restrictions have never stopped me and never will. I wanted to go deep diving, so I gave myself a pair of gills, nothingplex."


    He took out his fake wand with his right hand and waved it to perform magic on his left hand. The digits of his left hand twitched, lengthened a bit, and gained another joint.


    Flexing his fingers, Quinn showed the girls his fingers with three interphngeal joints and a thumb with two joints.


    "I have enough mastery over magic to perform partial human transfiguration over limited parts of my body," boasted Quinn.


    Even if he was boasting, Quinn was still holding back what he was capable of. He was more advanced than what he was letting on.


    ''Now that I think about that. I need to improve on that thing,'' thought Quinn. He needed to make certain changes before he went back for another confrontation with the Kraken.


    The younger Greengrass was holding the bottle of gillywater with both her hands and was looking at the bottle''sbel when she asked.


    "Then why did you crash into the ss?"


    All three girls remembered the shocked expression on his face when he was pressed against the ss. Quinn was clearly not expecting to be there nor wanted them to see him, so something had happened when he was swimming, and with Astoria''s question, all three stared at Quinn, expecting an answer.


    ''The little one knows how to talk. Of course, that would turn in the other direction,'' thought Quinn with a straight face before speaking.


    "I kind of got flicked by the giant squid when I was running away from a flurry of grindylows. The giant squid took me by surprise, so I ended up casting a spell at it, and then it flung me away with its tentacle because of that spell..."


    To keep his story believable, Quinn decided to stick to the facts that he had experienced. He regrly met grindylows while he practiced his water magic and ran away from them to practice his speed, and the Kraken did push him away because of the ice magic.


    By spinning his actual experiences into fake exnations, Quinn was making sure to establish a believable story, plus it allowed him to present it believably and confidently.


    "... And since this could be seen as dangerous, I asked you three not to tell anyone," finished Quinn, rolling his eyes as he air-quoted the word dangerous.


    Quinn was handing the girls the initiative, but anything that followed was under control. He waited for any question because that allowed him to answer questions they bothered to ask and not anything extra that he might speak about if he took the lead.


    "Can we also go swimming? That would be fun," suggested Tracy, thinking about ying in the water, having fun.


    Quinn grabbed the opportunity when he saw it and steered the conversation in the presented direction.


    "Sure, I can teach you a simple bubble-head charm that would allow you to breathe underwater, but whether you''re able to learn it, it is up to you. And if you guys do learn it, let''s do this when the weather gets warmer; I don''t want you guys to get sick."


    "Eh~, but you went for a swim in the cold, why not us?" whined Tracy, slightly frowning towards Quinn.


    "It will take you a lot of time to learn the bubble-head charm if you are able to learn it; the spell is a sixth-year charm," reasoned Quinn ignoring the re from Daphne.


    He knew the re was because he had just said that year restrictions didn''t hinder him, and now he was saying that they wouldn''t learn it because it was a higher-year spell.


    "If you want to go for a swim at the surface, that doesn''t warrant the bubble-head charm. The water is freezing, you know, even with the warming charm, you still feel the cold against the skin. Believe me, most people don''t like it; I didn''t mind it, but I''m not sure if you''d like it."


    Quinn wasn''t lying about the cold against the skin. He felt the bitter chill against his skin the entire time he was inside theke. Quinn didn''t heat the water envelope around him to make himselffortable because he just didn''t mind the cold and was used to it, but not all could stay in that cold.


    While saying that, the workshop''s door pushed open, and Luna came skipping out with arge sheet of old parchment in her hands.


    "I did it!" she eximed, looking at Quinn, unrolling the parchment and showing a detailed map drawn on the parchment. "It was mud rue-based ink! It reacted with pidecory and efameg tarring potion."


    Luna giggled as she pushed the parchment near Quinn, showing it to Quinn. The blonde Ravenw wasn''t even looking at the three Slytherin girls.


    Quinn took the map parchment from her and gave it a look over. From Luna''s excited reaction, Quinn knew that she had gotten the correct potions and herbs. He still observed the parchment to judge the quality of her brew, as he wanted to determine her progress in potion brewing, and he was pleased to see that she had done a more than decent brew for her first time brewing the potion.


    "Good job, Luna," praised Quinn, smiling at the parchment before smiling at his friend/junior/assistant. "And you are right, it was pidecory and efameg tarring potion."


    "It was in the riddle. It was so clear when I finally noticed. You hid it so cleverly," beamed Luna, swinging with joy in her spot. She was so happy that she couldn''t contain herself.


    Quinn handed the map parchment back to Luna and spoke, "How about you go and explore with the map. Revealing the map was only step one; you still have to find the treasure."


    "Really!" eximed Luna, but then she looked back at the workshop and spoke. Her voice didn''t have as much excitement as before, "But I still have to clean up the equipment I used."


    Quinn chuckled and responded, "I will clean it. You go and have fun."


    Luna squeed and gave Quinn a tight hug before turning to the office entrance. She was about to rush out when she saw that Quinn hadpany.


    "Hi!" greeted Luna when she saw the three girls, immediately following the greeting with: "Bye!"


    And with that, she rushed to the door.


    "Don''t run in the hallways!" shouted Quinn just before she exited.


    "Okay!" was all Luna said before she was gone.


    Daphne, who had turned her head to look at Luna, who had rushed out, turned it back towards Quinn and inquired, "She was in there the entire time?"


    "Hmm? Oh yeah, she''s been spending a lot of time in there, brewing potions," answered Quinn as he walked back to his barstool after closing the workshop door.


    "And why does she brew potions in there and not in the potion wing?" asked Daphne, looking between the workshop door and Quinn.


    The potion wing in Hogwarts were multiple ssrooms with potion workstations where students could practice potion brewing.


    "Oh right, not many people know it, but Luna is my employee. I hired her as my assistant," answered Quinn. He was still smiling because of Luna''s progress with the learning quest he made for her. "She gets to use the space behind the wall."


    "What is behind the wall?" Astoria chirped in, curiosity evident in her eyes as she looked at the workshop''s red door.


    "That''s a secret," smiled Quinn in response.


    Many people had asked Quinn about the area behind the wall. And all of them had different ideas about what was behind there. Some thought it was a storage room because Quinn brought out their orders from inside; others assumed it was empty because they never saw Quinn go back there.


    Now some people like Daphne, Tracy, and Astoria knew that there was at least a potion workstation inside.


    But no one except Quinn, Luna, Ivy Potter, and whoever she told knew what was actually knew what was inside.


    "Oh,e on, tell us!" inquired Tracy. Now that Quinn refused to tell them, it stirred her curiosity.


    "Maybe another day. I''ll give you a tour of what is behind the wall. I will say this, though; behind the wall, you''ll find something enjoyable and of your liking," grinned Quinn, enjoying himself as he increased the allure of the unknown ce behind the ss wall and watching how a three girls'' became even more curious.


    Tracy and Astoria shifted in their seats, while Daphne narrowed her eyes at the red door. The three wondered what there was inside and had a mental image of what was behind the wall.


    ''Phew, at least now they aren''t thinking about what I was doing in theke,'' sighed Quinn, feeling relieved that he was sessfully able to divert the whole situation. ''I somehow need to thank Luna and her timing. What does she like... Ah, she likes to paint! Okay, then I need to find out what kind of paints and brushes she uses and get a new assortment for her.''


    To make sure that they don''t return to yesterday''s incident, Quinn shifted the topic of conversation.


    "So Astoria, tell me what Daphne is like at home..."


    The younger sister''s eyes shined as she opened her mouth, and things flew out. The older sister was quick on the outtake and tried to stop her sister.


    Tracy and Quinn sat back andughed at the sisters.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In a cursed building that looked like no one had upied for years, as there were broken windows, stripped paints, exposed bricks and cracks creeping across the outside, making the building unpleasant to the eye.


    If the building''s facade was in bad shape, then the inside was worse; there were broken tiles, paint falling from every wall, exposed pipes, broken and left behind furniture, mold, and spider webs in every corner. The insides were so dusty and covered with fallen building material that no patch of the floor was empty.


    It was a building that even the most impoverished squatters would avoid.


    In that same building lied a man; a dangerously skinny and skeletal-looking man. The man looked sickly and pale like he hadn''t eaten properly in months.


    The man was exceedingly short, no taller than the average thirteen-year-old child with pale grubby waxy skin, small watery eyes, a pointed nose, sunken cheeks and eyes, yellow teeth, and a balding head of reddish hair.


    If someone looked at the man at the very moment, they would think that the man was a corpse that had died in the building.


    But the man was no corpse; This man was the greatest betrayer in recent history.


    Peter Pettigrew.


    Peter Pettigrew was called by some of his former friends as ''Wormtail''. He began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1971 and was sorted into Gryffindor House after the Sorting Hat pondered over which house he belonged in for over five minutes, a true Hatstall.


    During his years at Hogwarts, he became one of the Marauders; he was best friends with Sirius ck, James Potter, and Remus Lupin, and together they created the Marauder''s Map.


    During the First Wizarding War, Peter was a member of the Order of the Phoenix but became a spy when he got forced into joining Lord Voldemort. He was made the Secret Keeper for the Potters when they went into hiding with the Fidelius Charm. But he betrayed James, his wife Lily, and their children Harry and Ivy to Lord Voldemort. Leading this to the death of Euphemia and Fleamont Potter, the parents of James Potter.


    After Voldemort''s fall, he tried to fake his own death and frame Sirius for betraying Fleamont and Euphemia, as well as for his own murder and those of the twelve Muggles he killed during his escape. But Sirius ck was sharper and more magically capable than Peter and saw through the deception and caught the ''rat.''


    Peter was arrested by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and sentenced by Barty Crouch Senior to life imprisonment in Azkaban. He was charged of twelve crimes of murder with the killing curse and for giving the information about the Potters'' whereabouts, which lead to their death by the hands of Lord Voldemort.


    Peter was ced in solitary confinement at the mercy of the Azkaban guards, the Dementors. But the ''rat'' was persistent and had cockroach-like tenacity; that tenacity to live could not be detected by the Dementors but still allowed him to maintain a sense of self and regain enough strength to transform into his Animagus form in his cell. Since Dementors have difficulty sensing the lessplex emotions of animals, he could remain rtively unaffected as a rat. It was not trouble at all to the amortal guards, though, since they thought it meant he was losing his mind like every other convict in their custody, including Betrix and some of her fellow Death Eaters.


    Peter spent twelve years living in his Animagus form in Azkaban. Just a few months ago, he seized an opportunity and became the only known person to escape the prison unassisted. He did it by transforming into his Animagus form of a rat.


    The decision to escape after twelve years of imprisonment was the news he had heard from the guards. A new terrorist group had been causing chaos outside in the real world. The group had caused stress on the Auror''s office to deploy Aurors to patrol muggle areas to guard the unaware muggle poption from any surprise attacks.


    For the first time in a long time, Wormtail mustered whatever courage he had and decided to escape the hell of the ce he was living.


    The motivation of that escape wasn''t to better his own life but to make someone else''s life miserable.


    In his twelve-year incarceration, his former ''friend'' Sirius ck had regrly visited him to gloat and give him regr news about how great his and his other friend''s lives were.


    Peter couldn''t help but hear what ck would tell him about the fame, prestige, and happiness they had gotten after the war. He bragged about how everyone knew about them while he was dumped there in filth, forgotten by everyone.


    In twelve years, Peter developed an obsession and hateful loathing towards his former ''friends.'' He hated Sirius because of his regr visits and hated James and Lupin because they didn''t even bother to visit him. He thought that thetter two couldn''t even be bothered to visit him because of their morous lives.


    Obsession wasn''t something that Dementors could detect and that was why he kept his sanity even when the Dementors sucked everything worth living for out of him.


    So for the first time, Peter took action without knowing whatid in his future. He escaped Azkaban to get back his former master to the top so that Voldemort would burn down his former ''friends'' to the ground and he could be there as Voldemort did it.


    He didn''t know if Voldemort was even alive, but spending a lot of time in Azkaban with nothing but his thoughts made him convinced that Voldemort was still alive.


    The sole aim of his life became to see the ck, Potter, Lupin, and therefore,the Order of Phoenix to be destroyed. He wanted anyone who opposed Voldemort to suffer because it was their fault that Voldemort had fallen and robbed him of a glorious future.


    In the broken-down building, Peter Pettigrew opened his gaunt eyes and in them was a strong fire of hatred.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Master conversationalist.


    Luna Lovegood - Assistant - On an adventure of her own.


    Daphne Greengrass - Witness #1 - Surprised to see Quinn working closely with someone.


    Tracy Greengrass - Witness #2 - Curious like a cat about what is behind the wall.


    Astoria Greengrass - Witness #3 - "So Daphne has this small nket that she hug-" *Mumph* Muffle* *...*


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 87 - Third Encounter, And Fail To Succeed.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    After spending a few hours every day underwater for months inside the Great Lake, Quinn had gotten used to the water so much he felt it was just another part of his life. Everything, from moving his body underwater to how to breathe with gills, had be natural to Quinn. He no longer felt that water was outside of hisfort zone.


    Just two weeks ago, he had been smacked by the Kraken and had ended up revealing himself to Daphne, Tracy, and Astoria. But with some work and luck, he had been able to put that incident behind him.


    Now Quinn was ready to get another dig against the Kraken. Within two weeks, Quinn had done more practice with water magic and human transfiguration, and he had be better at both fields.


    His progress with human transfiguration was clearly visible in his body. Previously Quinn had had three pairs of gills that allowed him to breathe underwater on his neck and underneath his ears.


    But now he had a moreplex underwater respiratory system. Instead of the three-neck pair of gills, Quinn had made himself a more extensive system, with another six pairs of gills on his chest ced between the opening of the bones in the rib cage, connecting them to his lungs.


    Inside his body, Quinn had opened up his windpipe to let water in and hadyered his lungs to prevent them from getting irritated and protected both the bronchus, bronchioleswork and alveoli branches from getting in contact with water. He had transformed his lungs into a water chamber where water could enter from his windpipe, reach the lungs, and exit through the gills, leaving behind oxygen in his blood.


    What prompted this change was that Quinn''s body wasrge and needed more oxygen. Quinn had noticed that when he tussled with the Kraken he was getting out of breath, as he moved rigorously in the water and used a lot of magic.


    Even though Quinn was using water magic to move around, there was still a physical aspect to his underwater swimming. During his skirmish with the Kraken, Quinn had to make lots of movements quickly in a short amount of time, which left him feeling out of breath. That induced him to gulp down a lot of water to gain the sufficient amount of oxygen.


    It took some practice and reading, but Quinn managed to get it done, and even after performing crazy moves underwater, he didn''t feel theck of oxygen in his body.


    And now that he was ready, Quinn cruised towards the Kraken''s primary location, while speeding at a velocity faster than thest time he had tried to get past the Kraken.


    ''This time, I need to find a sign of the area where the third vault is kept,'' thought Quinn as he pumped more magic to increase his speed. ''It''s going to be different this time.''


    And things turned out to be different.


    Just as Quinn was about to reach the point where he could usually see the Kraken''s tentacle, instead of seeing a tentacleying on theke bed, Quinn saw two tentacles moving directly towards him.


    ''Oh, shit!'' screamed Quinn in his head as he saw the Kraken taking the initiative in their third meeting.


    Punching the proverbial brakes, Quinnmanded the water toe to a stop and immediately swam upwards to avoid the two tentacles.


    ''That was clos -," his thoughts of relief shattered when Quinn saw five more tentacles appear in his zone visibility and zoom towards him, "Oh! You''ve got to be kidding me!''


    Quinn''s magic thrummed into life as more and more of it was released into the water, bringing the water under his control. With the water at his service, Quinn swam at faster and faster speeds, making tight brakes in water and maneuvering sharp direction changes on the dime, all in the attempts to stay away from the grasp of the Kraken.


    ''Damn, I wasn''t expecting-'' thought Quinn dodging another tentacle jab. ''- such aggression and momentum from the Kraken.''


    As seven tentacles wriggled and moved in the water, trying to catch something much smaller and weaker than them, Quinn was getting more confident in his ability because he wasn''t feeling the pressure like thest time.


    ''Let''s drop some ~freeze~ in here,'' thought Quinn as ice magic made another appearance, and walls of ice manifested from the freezing of theke water, held in ce by Quinn to deflect and block the tentacles that were getting a little too close forfort.


    But because of the speedy casting of magic while evading the continuous and tenacious attack of the tentacles, Quinn could only create ice walls that could stop a tentacle once, and a second hit would cause them to crack and break.


    ''I need to find an opening to dive in closer,'' nned Quinn as he shifted to his left, avoiding an iing tentacle, simultaneously creating two ice walls to block two tentacles. One ice blockade for the tentacleing from the left and the second wall for the tentacle that he had just dodged, which wasing back from his back.


    Quinn swam up before the ice walls broke and alertly looked for an opening while still keeping an eye on the tentacles because while he was sessfully evading the Kraken''s grasp, Quinn didn''t know when the tables could turn.


    ''There it is!'' yelled Quinn as he saw an opening straight ahead; all the tentacles were far enough for Quinn to sprint full speed and without getting caught by them. Just to be sure, he barraged a near hundred ice spheres in all directions in an attempt to stall the tentacles.


    ''Go!'' with a mental yell, Quinn zapped forwards, but not even three seconds in his full speed swim-sprint, two new tentacles appeared in front of Quinn.


    ''Hell no!''


    Quinn had enough and pped his hand in front of himself, and immediately the surrounding water with Quinn in the center turned ck. Waves and waves of ck erupted, covering everything in inky ck. He had released so much magic in a low costing color change spell that it was slightly visible on the Greatke''s surface if someone was paying attention.


    To make sure that he didn''t get in contact with tentacles by ident, Quinn dropped down to theke bed and started to swim close to the surface.


    ''The damn Kraken took me by surprise!''


    Quinn wasn''t a great fan of his current situation. He had been avoiding both of the actions he had just taken because of the disadvantage that they put him in.


    Turning the water into a color that reduced visibility did provide Quinn cover from the Kraken, but it also heavily reduced away his own ability to see in the water.


    Plus, Quinn wasn''t sure if the Kraken had some form of water perception. If it did, then his effort was a waste.


    Second, Quinn avoided swimming close to theke bed because it took away his ability to move downwards. He had been staying a good distance above theke bed because that allowed him to move in any direction, a three-sixty degree movement possibility.


    But now, with him swimming so close to theke bed, Quinn had lost a variety of evading options.


    ''Don''t let it find me. Don''t let it find me. Don''t let it find me,'' repeatedly chanted Quinn in his mind as he carefully and silently swam forward.


    Three tentacles suddenly came from above and stabbed the ground behind Quinn.


    ''Did it find me?! Did it find me?! Did it find me?! Did it find me?! Shiiiit!''


    He didn''t know if Kraken had locked onto his position, so Quinn did what he felt right in the moment and kicked up the speed and darted forward, throwing zig-zags every few meters.


    Quinn could hear the sounds of the stabbing of the ground by the tentacles; this told Quinn that Kraken had a vague idea of his location, but that piece of information wasn''t favorable to Quinn, so he kept going, and finally Kraken''s body.


    This was the first time in his months of starting his dives that Quinn had seen the Kraken''s main body.


    It remarkably looked like a squid with an elongated tube-shaped body,rge yellow eyes, skin that certainly didn''t match a typical squid''s skin; it had that hard and rough texture, unlike the squid''s soft outeryer.


    There were so many tentaclesing out of the Kraken''s body that Quinn couldn''t tell how many did it have. One thing that Quinn did notice was,


    ''It wasn''t going serious against me...''


    Even though Quinn couldn''t count or even see the number of tentacle bases, he knew that there were far more than the Kraken had used on him.


    Kraken''s eyes met with Quinn''s, and at that moment, he studied Kraken''s eyes. In those eyes, Quinn saw no hostility or anger of any kind. All he could discern in the wholly yellow eyes was curiosity and interest towards Quinn.


    The Kraken saw in Quinn''s eyes fascination, interest, and slight concern.


    The Kraken clearly had an idea of what the tiny human wanted. The tiny human child clearly wanted to get to the ce that it was hiding. It knew that this human child knew of the ce that it hid beneath its body.


    The Kraken knew of the ''vault'' because it knew everything about its home. The Kraken was the oldest of all living inside the Greatke.


    The Kraken could be the apex predator if it wanted to be and wipe every being in theke, but it didn''t. All it wanted to do was to live its life peacefully. Even the colony of militant merpeople avoided the Kraken because of fear and respect.


    Decades ago, it hade through the waterway connecting the Great Lake to the ocean and ever since lived inside theke. During its time here, it found about the ce that he now guarded. The ''vault'' wasn''t much to someone as great as itself. But to the little human children that came to the castle every year, it was dangerous.


    It had taken upon himself from getting humans inside there. It wanted to protect human children.


    So when this little child was clearly trying to get inside the dangerous ce, it stopped the child twice, but here he wasing for the third time, and he had almost slipped away this time.


    The beast and the human stared at each other for a moment of peace and stillness before the game of cat and mouse started again as tentacles rose to catch Quinn and Quinn took off with water magic.


    Quinn, who had gotten so close to the Kraken, looked for a gate or entrance of some kind. He had gotten so close and wasn''t going to let this opportunity pass away.


    ''It doesn''t matter if the Kraken likes it or not, but I am going in there,'' thought Quinn as he dodged tentacles that seemed to increase in number and increasing the difficulty by another level.


    ''Where is it? Where is it?''


    Quinn swam at top speeds around the Kraken, trying to find the vault and avoiding the tentacles at the same time when he came across a clearly carved design into theke bed. Upon a closer look, Quinn was that it was some kind of tunnel partially blocked by the Kraken''s tentacle.


    ''That is it! That must be it,'' smiled Quinn and immediately shot towards it in an attempt to get inside. ''Yes!'' celebrated Quinn when he saw within touching distance of the tunnel.


    But then his body snapped to stop, and Quinn clearly felt something wrap around his leg and pull him back.


    The Kraken had got Quinn''s legs with one of its tentacles.


    "NO!" yelled Quinn into the water, but no voice came out.


    All he could do was see the tunnel getting distant from him as the Kraken''s tentacle pulled him away.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    On thekeside, Quinnid on the ground watching the sky the afternoon sky. The Kraken had dropped him on the shore immediately after his capture.


    Quinn had been caught inches away from the tunnel and dragged away from the prize he was seeking. For the third time, Quinn had been bested by the Kraken.


    Both parties didn''t want the other to get hurt and had taken the lethality out of their moves. And in that ying field, Quinn had been defeated thrice.


    Currently, Quinn was feeling a deep sense of failure. The goal line was in front of him, and he was about to reach it, but then he literally was thrown out of the race.


    The reason for that unusual sense of deep failure was because of thest year''s events. Last year, Quinn had been taken over by the sin curse and taken for a ride that he clearly didn''t sign up for.


    Even though Quinn hade out stronger on the other side, but the truth was that the second vault had utterly defeated him without even giving Quinn a fighting chance. He was defeated before he even knew the fight had started.


    So to make up for that humiliating defeat, Quinn wanted to cruise through the third vault and show that the results of thest vault were not his top ability and that the Icy vault wasn''t a fluke.


    He wanted to crush the third vault without breaking a sweat.


    But even before entering the vault, Quinn had been thwarted thrice.


    "No."


    A barely audible whisper escaped Quinn.


    Quinn got up from the ground and stood up straight, looking at theke with a straight expression, but there was a fire in his eyes.


    "Failure isn''t the opposite of sess," spat out Quinn with heat in his voice. He turned away from theke and walked some steps away before turning back to face theke and cracked his neck. "It''s a part of sess."


    He ran towards theke, and as he ran, gills appeared on his neck and sides of his chest.


    Quinn jumped into theke, and the second his body was fully inside the water, he opened his eyes, and the water surrounding him heard themand of magic; A calm envelope of water formed around Quinn, but outside of that water envelope, the water roared with energy.


    With a single thought from Quinn, he shot forward with full speed towards the Kraken.


    ''Not towards the Kraken,'' thought Quinn. He wasn''t going towards the Kraken. ''The Kraken is a stepping stone. I am going towards that tunnel. I am going towards sess.''


    Within a few minutes, Quinn reached the Kraken''s tentacles, and instead of going straight for the tunnel, Quinnnded on theke bed, closed his eyes, and raised his hands.


    *Failure* he was feeling.


    *Determination* to get past the Kraken.


    *Anger* of failing to get past the Kraken thrice.


    *Serenity* he felt in the current moment as he focused on his magic.


    *Resentment* towards the Kraken, who blocked his path.


    *Excitement* of having his goal so close.


    Every emotion Quinn felt mixed together and touched his magic.


    The failure of the second vault wasn''t a worthless experience. It was one of the most important events of Quinn''s life.


    And right now, Quinn was going to use what he had learned in that failure.


    All sound vanished for Quinn as he opened his eyes and casted the magic.


    ...


    The Kraken, who had just sent the human child away, ''frowned'' when he felt the child return and was about to once again throw him out of his house when it felt a tingle through the water.


    It felt magic. A lot of magic coursing through the water.


    The Kraken could tell that the magic was from the human child, and the second that thought shed through its mind, the Kraken saw.


    The mighty beast of water watched as the water around its skin turned to ice, covering his body in ice. Within a blink of an eye, the front side of the Kraken was covered in thick ice.


    The Kraken was confused because it felt no pain or difort from the ice. All the ice did was cover his body.


    But then the Kraken understood the reason for the ice as the nket of ice suddenly pushed against its body and dislodged its body from theke floor, pushing him up to make him tumble.


    The tiny human child was pushing with ice so that he could get inside the dangerous ce.


    It wasn''t going to let him go in so easily.


    The Kraken tried to break the ice, but anotheryer of ice would rece the crackedyer.


    No matter what the Kraken tried, the ice reappeared thicker than before, and eventually, he was pushed and tumbled over to his side, leaving the tunnel to the dangerous wide open.


    ...


    Quinn lowered his hands with a deep exhale of water before jumping with water magic his movements, and in one leap, he was beside the tunnel with the carvings around the edges of the entrance of the tunnel.


    He gave the fallen Kraken one final look and saw that one of the tentacles had risen and was making its way towards Quinn.


    A smirk appeared on Quinn as he waved the tentacle goodbye while jumping down the tunnel, leaving behind the fallen Kraken.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Channeling his inner young Mao and finding that bnce.


    Kraken - Mighty Beast of Water - Had a big fall.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 88 - Entering The Third Vault

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The tunnel leading to the third vault was a long one. While falling through the tunnel, Quinn estimated that the depth was at least thirty meters. He could see light at the end of the tunnel, but the passage to that light was dark, making it hard for Quinn to see anything other than the end he was swimming towards.


    Thus, the second Quinn entered the tunnel, he lit up his surroundings to observe, not because he wanted to have some light as he was half falling-half swimming to increase his falling speed, but in case there was something of interest and importance on the tunnel''s walls. The result he was able to glean at, as he passed the stone walls, was that the tunnel walls were smooth and clean. There were no signs of any markings or etchings that gave any information about what was toe.


    Quinn felt relieved and worried while swimming through the tunnel. He was relieved because there was no extra information that needed to be memorized on the fly before exiting the tunnel, and he was worried because he was once again stepping into the unknown with no idea of what woulde.


    He was sure that whatever came was rted to water because it was what he had interpreted from Friar''s riddle. So he ramped up the water magic around him and got himself ready as he closed in towards the light at the end.


    The thing at the end of the tunnel wasn''t what he was expecting. Quinn was expecting there to be water when he exited the tunnel, but the reality was one-eighty degrees different.


    The moment his head exited the tunnel, his breathing hitched because there was no water outside the tunnel. He couldn''t get any more water inside his body through his mouth. The second he came out of the tunnel, Quinn''s pupils narrowed because of the sudden cut from an oxygen source. His respiratory system was magically transformed to work inside water, but that also meant that his natural respiratory system was reshaped and, thus, he couldn''t exchange gases from the air.


    Quinn gasped for a solid two to three seconds before his mind caught up to what was happening, prompting him to reverse all the transfigurations in his body and went back to his human respiratory system.


    The water from his lung cavity was immediately gathered up and vanished so that there wasn''t any fluid buildup, and when everything was cleared, Quinn took deep breaths through his mouth to get the airflow going. The erratic gasping subsided, and Quinn went back to breathing through his nose.


    Recovering from the sudden surprise, Quinn noticed something unnatural in his current position. His eyes widened when he saw that his arms were resting on the rim of the tunnel.


    "... I was swimming down, right?" asked Quinn to himself.


    Quinn had swum into the tunnel down from theke bed and expected to emerge from the other end; like falling ''down'' from a ceiling vent. But instead, he climbed ''up'' from a manhole in a road.


    He stretched his hand to push himself back and looked ''below'' to see that he could still see theke end of the tunnel.


    "Okay, this is freaky and really interesting,"mented Quinn. He then decided to get out of the tunnel. He ced his hands on the rim of the tunnel and pushed himself up out of the water.


    Standing on the edge of the tunnel, Quinn looked down, and even now, he could see the other side of the tunnel that opened up in the Great Lake. Quinn just needed to jump in the tunnel and sink or swim down toe out of theke bed of the Great Lake.


    "How did they do this?" remarked Quinn, looking at the dull stone cave, briefly looking for signs. "This cave is upside down. So cool~."


    "Did gravity somehow switch without me knowing? Water does mess up with gravity perception," holding his chin with his hand, Quinn spected, "Or is the tunnel some kind of portal, and I am in a separate dimension? Hoho, I will need to see what this is all about."


    Quinn wasn''t nning to research further this topic beforepleting the vault, because if the tunnel was indeed a portal, then messing with it could end up damaging the portal, and in turn, destroying the only known way to the third vault.


    After admiring the magical phenomenon, Quinn roamed his eyes all over the cave.


    Starting from the tunnel, Quinn noticed that not a single drop of water from the tunnel made its way into the stone cave itself. The tunnel was filled with water to the brim, but not a single drop had sshed into the cave after Quinn had pulled himself into the stone cave.


    "There is some kind of anti-water ward in here," observed Quinn as he looked at the dry cave floor and then looked down at his body.


    Not a single drop of water could be seen on Quinn''s body. Combing a hand through his hair told him that even his hair was dry as if he had never swum his way into the cave.


    "Yup, a version of anti-water ward," confirmed Quinn as he examined the credibility of his spection by dunking his hand into the tunnel and pulling it back to see that not a single drop of water had made its way into the cave on his hand. "Does it mean I can''t sweat in here, or do the hydrophobic properties only extend to theke water?"


    Scanning the other parts of the cave, Quinn looked up and examined the light source that illuminated the entire stone cave. It was a load of crystal sticking out of the roof, scattering soft water blue light all around the stone cave.


    "A natural luminescent mineral crystal and a blue one at that. Blue ones are so rare!" slightly gasped Quinn. He had seen luminescent mineral crystals in his travels but had never seen the particr shade of blue like the one he was looking at right now.


    The luminescent mineral crystal could be replicated with alchemy, but because the alchemists were rare, artificial crystals weren''t widely avable. The people who hired alchemists didn''t ask for glowing crystals when they could have an alchemist produce other, more significant things.


    "Maybe I could make some of them for the living hall," murmured Quinn, thinking about how the living hall would look like in the light of a luminescent mineral crystal. "Nah, I should make runic lights for the entire manor. At least that way, they could be turned off when not needed."


    Strolling away from the tunnel, Quinn wandered towards the part of the cave that had a room-wide, three-step short staircase.


    The stone steps on the floor acted as a divider inside the cave. The cave before the steps was like any stone cave you could find in the wild, but the area after the steps was definitely man-made.


    Instead of the rough walls and ceiling of the first part of the cave, the second part of the cave had no partition between the walls and ceiling. All the surface part floors were melded together to form a dome.


    And at the furthest end of the dome, there was a triangr opening in the dome wall. Simr to the tunnel, it, too, was filled entirely with water. And just like the tunnel, there wasn''t a drop of water spilled out of the triangr opening, despite the triangr opening standing vertically to the floor.


    Slowly descending the short steps, Quinn came across some movement because of the triangr entrance. The second Quinn stepped down for thest time, the stone sunk at some ces to form engraved words in the wall.


    Large engraved words formed above the entrance to form the words,


    .


    ¡¸<-~| POSEIDON''S WRATH |~->¡¹


    .


    Words appeared on the left side of the entrance.


    .


    ¡¸Beware, challenger! Enter the entrance and you shall feel the wrath of god! ''This is not for the soft-hearted and weak! Think before entering because god''s fury doesn''t have eyes.¡¹


    .


    Another set of words appeared on the right side of the wall that said.


    .


    ¡¸The trials are long and arduous! To understand the Law, you, brave challenger, will need some aid. Wish it upon the water, and you will return to the safety, away from peril!¡¹


    .


    Fluidly an orb of water came out of the water inside the triangr entrance and gently floated towards Quinn. It stopped a short distance away from him.


    The orb of water emitted faint magic. Quinn noticed that the words were on the right side of the wall. In addition, he could tell that this orb of water was the aid he was told that he''d have in the words engraved on the right side of the wall.


    He walked around the water orb, observing it and carefully casting some magic to see what kind of magic was used inside the water. After some deliberation and internal debate, Quinn confirmed that the water orb wasn''t harmful to him.


    "No harm in giving it some help," shrugged Quinn as he stepped closer to the orb and gracefully lifted his right hand towards the water orb and gently touched the water orb with his index finger.


    The water orb shone faint blue before the water rippled and went inside Quinn through his finger.


    "Woah! Hey! Woah! Flippin'' hell," eximed Quinn as he watched the water get sucked into his body, followed by a brief spike of light on his inner forearm.


    In a surprise, Quinn withdrew his hand and turned it over to see that his previously unmarked forearm now had a navy blue symbol on it. Quinn could feel that if he channeled magic into the emblem on his skin, it would trigger whatever magic present in the water that went inside Quinn''s body.


    "Not cool! I hope this isn''t permanent," sighed Quinn as he rubbed his marked skin. "This design isn''t what I want my first tattoo to be. Hell, I don''t even want a tattoo!" eximed Quinn while shaking his head.


    Quinn closed his eyes while heavily exhaling, but when he opened them, Quinn had changed to a focused expression as he stared at the triangr entrance filled with water.


    "Let''s do this."


    He walked to the triangr opening, held his breath, closed his eyes, and dived into the water without hesitation. Feeling the lukewarm water against his skin, which was much warmer than the cold Great Lake, Quinn primed his magic to change his body through transfiguration. After submerging his entire body, Quinn opened his eyes and noticed that the water was cleaner than theke water, and, because of that, he could see better in that water.


    Quinn was about to transfigure his body to add the underwater respiratory system with transfiguration, when he felt the familiar feeling that he had felt many times in his life, especially during this past summer break.


    There was a tug on his entire body and the momentaryck of sensory input. He had felt the simr tug at least twice every day while he went back and forth between the West manor and Kaewpadung Gym.


    ''I''m being teleported!'' thought Quinn, and just then, he re-emerged into apletely different ce. He didn''t appear in the water anymore, but somewhere he was least expecting to be.


    A wide-eyed Quinn stared down from a height of five meters down a humongous raging whirlpool. Watching the gigantic sinkhole sucking and spitting out water, something that was formed because of opposing forces meeting each other to create a chaotic maelstrom, a fierce force of nature.


    "Oh, shit!" yelled Quinn as he fell.


    The five-meter fall went very quickly. Between the shock of being teleported and the stunning surprise at seeing that monstrous water vortex, Quinn didn''t have time or the initiative to make any magic work.


    Sshing heavily, Quinn entered the turbulent water and was immediately swept into the stormy waves. The strong waves sted against Quinn''s entire body as he quickly was pulled deeper into the brutal maelstrom.


    For a full ten seconds, that became the longest ten seconds of Quinn''s life, as his entire body was being pulled apart from all directions by the might from the revolving water waves.


    It took him ten seconds, an amount of time that was a critical time inside these conditions to get his mind back on track to difficulty pulling his body into a fetal position.


    Every ounce of water magic he knew was used to barely being able to pull himself together and attain a position with minimal surface area for the whirlpool water to work on. He had gone from using water magic to swimming in calm water, to using it to decrease his injury chances.


    With his eyes closed, Quinn concentrated his magic to transfigure himself a gill system. He already had water inside his body because of the suddenness of his fall, which caused Quinn to swallow a lot of water that went straight to his lungs.


    Transfiguring with water continuously mming into his body was difficult, and he even failed once before he was able to get the aquatic respiratory system working.


    But the situation gave him another twist when water entered his body through the gill ps, and the second Quinn felt it, he pulled the plug. The turbulent water could critically damage his insides if he didn''t leave now.


    He channeled magic into the insignia on his arm, and it glowed for a split second before Quinn disappeared from the whirlpool.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The water inside the triangle entrance rippled for a second before Quinn came out with a calm water sphere surrounding him. The water sphere floated a distance from the entrance before gently setting Quinn on the ground before vanishing like it was never there.


    For a few seconds, Quinnid on the floor, showing no movements except for the furrowed before his chest throbbed, and he coughed out some water inside his body that was promptly vanished by the cave ward the second it came outside Quinn''s body.


    Quinn rolled over and his elbow to lift his chest up and used his other hand to pound his chest while coughing. He had just vanished the backlog of water that was not expelled from the previous cough.


    He copsed back on the floor, rolled over to his back, and took deep breaths through his mouth as his chest heaved up and down.


    There was no cursing externally or internally as Quinn regained his mental facilities and showed it by lifting his right arm to observe it.


    ''The mark is gone,'' noticed Quinn, entering full analysis mode.


    ''One-time usage,'' thought Quinn and then raised his head to see in the entrance''s direction and saw another water orb floating there as if waiting for Quinn to touch it and take its ce in his arm.


    ''A portkey type of magic? At least something simr with additional magic,'' theorized Quinn, thinking back to his experience. ''I went from turbulent water to the calm water at the entrance. I was definitely teleported and then brought out here.''


    He sat up and stared past the water orb at the triangr entrance. Quinn couldn''t see anything inside, but the words [Poseidon''s Wrath] were staring him in the eye, telling him that the entrance was the gate to the chaotic waters.


    Quinn got up and started pacing back and forth under the dome-shaped part of the cave.


    "A big-ass maelstrom. That wasn''t natural. Not at all," dismissed Quinn with a shake of his head. "Natural water whirlpools aren''t that powerful. That was definitely maintained deliberately to perform with that level of rotational force."


    "I barely have any information. Was it a real ce on Earth, or was it an expanded dimension? I couldn''t see the ''sky'' or else I would have known."


    Quinn clicked his tongue because of the extremity of the conditions and the short time he had spent inside.


    "If it was an expanded dimension -." Quinn''s guess between a ce on Earth or a magically created dimension was thetter. "- then how big was the ce. Is there a limit to the depth? Would I have reached depth if I had stayed in there?"


    There were a lot of questions rted to the properties of the magical maelstrom in his mind. But the biggest question in his mind was,


    "What do I have to aplish in there? What''s the goal? The end line?"


    Quinn sighed as he stretched his body and felt the dull ache erupting in his limbs and joints.


    "Argh, I took some beating in there," groaned Quinn. His chest, back, and limbs hurt from being pulled apart inside the whirlpool. "I need to fix that before tomorrow."


    The injuries weren''t serious, and he could fix them in a jiffy, but he wasn''t looking forward to getting this beat up every day.


    "Just need to get better at water magic to make myselffortable there. Oh gosh, look at me~. My first thought is to getfortable instead of avoiding that. How far I havee," smiled Quinn,pletely oblivious that he was on the M-path.


    "Baby steps~" sighed Quinn and looked at the words etched in the stone walls.


    Even though the first attempt was a total failure, Quinn had a smile on his face because it was a start.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Whirlpool~ Whirlpool~~ - (Does any get this reference. It is a TV jingle.)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 89 - Kraken’s Approval(?) And New Exercise Partner

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    After healing himself off the dull ache in his body, Quinn decided to leave the vault for the day. He felt saturated from the day''s work; between dodging the Kraken to get inside, the vault, and swirling inside the maelstrom, Quinn felt that he had his fill of adventure and action for today.


    Quinn walked to the tunnel and peered down into the water, and saw theke end opening. He made a face between annoyance and fatigue and sighed, "I don''t want to fight the Kraken. Not right now."


    He looked back around at the stone cave and wondered, "Should I take a short nap in here before I go back?"


    "Nah, let''s just get this over with. The Kraken will just throw me out, which is what I want now," grumbled Quinn. He squatted down, and slipped down into the tunnel, head first.


    While swimming inside the tunnel, Quinn tried to feel the magic behind the tunnel, but it escaped his natural senses. He had no idea how the switch from up and down was done.


    ''I would need to actively try to cast magic to see what is behind the cover,'' thought Quinn as he came ''up'' from the tunnel.


    The first thing that he saw when he exited the tunnel were big solid yellow eyes staring down at him intently.


    ''Woah!'' eximed Quinn, and even though no sound came out, Quinn gulped in a fresh batch ofke water.


    The Kraken''s tentacles immediately surrounded him. Unlike their previous encounters, the tentacles didn''t coil around Quinn, but instead, one of the tentacles came near Quinn and poked him with its tip. The tentacle''s tip was sorge that it pushed against almost half of his entire body, pushing him to the ground.


    Quinn, who fell to theke bed, looked up at the Kraken, who kept staring at him with big yellow eyes. Then, at that moment, he finally realized how enormous the Kraken really was. In the past, the biggest thing Quinn had seen was a mountain troll, but the Kraken was on another level.


    ''What? What? What does it want?'' thought Quinn as he stared back at the Kraken. ''Does it want to eat me? I''m tired, but bring it on!''


    He revved up his magic and readied for another bout. Quinn hoped for the Kraken to give him a ride to the shore. But if it wanted to fight, Quinn was going to give it one.


    It turned out that Kraken didn''t want to fight because it withdrew its enormous body and assumed afortable position. One tentacle wrapped around the tunnel entrance, forming a coiled wall around the tunnel entrance, but didn''t block it from above.


    ''Huh? What?'' wondered Quinn bewilderedly. He had no idea why the Kraken backed off after some staring and a poke.


    Quinn didn''t know that the reason the Kraken had stared him down was because it was checking if Quinn was alright. It wanted to check if Quinn happened to be fine after going inside the dangerous ce. After it confirmed that Quinn was uninjured, it backed off and went back to his chillke life.


    The Kraken didn''t block the entrance as a show of his intentions; it was going to continue to guard the dangerous ce in case another tiny human came looking, but if Quinn wanted to go in, he could go in because as far as the Kraken was concerned, Quinn had made it back alive after going in, so he probably would be fine if Quinn went in again.


    Plus, the Kraken was prideful and considered Quinn to be capable. Quinn had sessfully made the Kraken move, and that in the Kraken''s eyes was a sign of strength. As far as the Kraken was concerned, Quinn was strong and could handle himself.


    Quinn stared at the Kraken for a while before swimming away, still not knowing the reason behind the Kraken''s actions.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Why are you here again?" asked Quinn, stretching his body for his morning run and workout.


    Quinn looked to Eddie as both stood at the starting point of Quinn''s daily run route. Yesterday after dinner, Eddie had informed Quinn that he would like to join him for his morning exercises. Quinn, who had been lost in thought, thinking about the third vault, had heard Eddie''s words and had absentmindedly nodded and hadn''t asked for the reason.


    "About that... The Quidditch tryouts are in two months, and I was thinking about joining the team," spoke Eddie as he awkwardly tried to copy Quinn''s stretching movements. "I want to pass the tryouts so that I can make the bench this year and then y on the field next year."


    Eddie knew that Quinn went for a run every morning and decided to follow him to get fit for theing tryouts so that he could have an extra edge.


    "I see. Quidditch, huh. I know you followed the sport but never knew that you wanted to y for the team," asked Quinn. He was happy that Eddie decided to do exercise to get fit.


    "I wasn''t nning on joining the team before, but I decided to give it a try this year. It would be fun to y Quidditch for the house. Everybody would be looking while I y," replied Eddie, a bright smile on his face.


    "... So what you mean to say is that you want to y so that you can get popr and get a girlfriend," said Quinn, reading between the lines and finding out the real reason behind his friend''s sudden interest in ying Quidditch.


    Eddie unabashedly put a hand over Quinn''s shoulder and gave him a lopsided grin, "You know me so well. No wonder we are so close."


    Quinn shook his head with a small smile before asking, "But are you sure you want to join the team? We have the O.W.L.s next year, you know? Will you be able to bnce Quidditch and studies?"


    "I''ll be fine. If I see my grades slipping, I''ll have you tutor me. With you helping me out, I''ll probably do better than I do now," responded Eddie and gave Quinn a thumbs up as if saying thank you in advance.


    "I''ll help you out if you need it, but I''m going to only help you out with the practical side. I''m not good at exining the theory," said Quinn, agreeing to help his friend.


    Eddie gave Quinn a silent stare before speaking, "... So what you are implying is that you get frustrated when we don''t understand things after you exin them once. In times like those, you probably think of us as monkeys, don''t you?"


    This time Quinn put his hand on Eddie''s shoulder, beamed, and unabashedly spoke, "You''re right! We''re close! Come on, give me a hug."


    But Eddie pushed Quinn away with a ''f**k you, stay away'' face.


    "Alright, let''s get started," said Quinn with a p. "I usually run before doing push-ups, squats, and crunches. I finish by skipping rope."


    He pointed at Eddie and advised, "You should run a kilometer today and increase the length as you progress. Aim for afortable three kilometers before the tryouts. I would suggest that you focus more on your upper body because there are a lot of upper body movements while being on a broom. So I''d advise sit-ups, pushups, and pullups. Later on, we can add nks and leg raises."


    "Also, what position are you nning to y?" asked Quinn after he was done suggesting an exercise n.


    "... Chaser," replied Eddie.


    "Great, now, I would suggest that you run at your pace. Don''t try a full-on sprint. If you sprint, you''ll build up fatigue quicker, and that won''t do you any good," warned Quinn. Afterward, he told Eddie how much he needed to run toplete a kilometer. He then pped Eddie on his back and ran away.


    Quinn still ran a five-kilometer route every day. He hadn''t tried to increase the distance because he did more things now, so he just tried to reduce his time and had been slowly getting faster with time.


    He usually ran a route that would be exactly five kilometers when he returned to the starting line. But today, Quinn decided to run a route that would have him pass nearby where Eddie was running so that Quinn could see how he was doing.


    When Quinn came around the first time, he saw Eddie standing with his hands on his knees, so he raised his voice and called out to Eddie, "Eddie! Don''t stop. If you can''t run, walk! Just don''t stop!"


    Eddie looked up and saw Quinn waving at him as he ran a distance away from him. He groaned and started running because he was embarrassed that Quinn had seen him stop.


    When Quinn returned frompleting his run, he saw Eddie sitting on the ground, pulling away at the grass.


    "Are you done?" asked Quinn.


    He hadn''t chosen to run Eddie''s route five times because he was sure that Eddie would try to keep up with him despite his warning. And as much as fun it would''ve been to say ''on your left,'' as he passed him by, Quinn wanted Eddie to rx and have a positive first day: he would return the next day and keep up till the tryouts and after.


    Eddie looked up and nodded as he stood up, "Yeah, what''s next?"


    "You will start with pushups," instructed Quinn before asking, "Can you do a couple of pushups, or are you aplete beginner?"


    "I can do five," replied Eddie, looking offended that Quinn would even think that he was aplete beginner who couldn''t do one pushup.


    "Don''t give me that face. I was just asking a question," grinned Quinn before continuing. "Do three sets of five. Keep your back straight and properly go down. I don''t want to see sloppy push-ups."


    Eddie nodded and asked, "What are you going to do?"


    "I''ll be doing burpees. They are basically thebination of a squat, kick back feet to get into a pushup stance(high-nk positions), a pushup, return to a squatting position, stand, and end with a jump."


    Quinn showed Eddie how to execute a burpee before both of them started to do their stuff. Eddie did his three sets of five, while Quinn did his three sets of twelve.


    At first, Quinn hated burpees because they were tough, but as time went on, they got easier to execute andplete, but that wasn''t why he stopped hating them. The results of the burpees made him like doing burpees.


    After he was half a month in, doing burpees every day, Quinn noticed that his running had improved. He started running faster without consciously ramping up my speed. His lungs felt clear, and he found him coasting through the miles. A month after adding burpees into his routine, Quinn felt that his strides felt stronger and felt that his breathing was moreposed than at the start of the month. To Quinn, who ran every day, seeing noticeable improvement was enough for him to keep doing burpees.


    Quinn was done with two sets of twelve when Eddie called to him, "Hey, I''m done. What do I''ve to do next?"


    Quinnid down on the ground,pletely t on his back with his legs bent at knees with feet nted firmly on the ground, about shoulder-width apart.


    "I want you to raise your head and shoulders from the floor and feel your abdominal muscles contract. You don''t have to fully sit up; just lift enough till you feel your abdominal muscles contract," instructed Quinn as he showed Eddie how to do a crunch. "Try to avoid pulling your head forward, as it may strain your neck. Lower your head and shoulders back towards your starting position. Remember to exhale as you raise your head and shoulders, then inhale as you lower them."


    Getting up from the ground, Quinn exined, "That is called a crunch. It will target your abs, and if you maybe work really hard and eat right, run a lot, you might show some abster."


    "Do you have abs?" asked Eddie, looking down at Quinn''s stomach area.


    Quinn raised his shirt and showed Eddie his stomach. He had a four-pack, but they were faint and not toned enough to see sharp squares andcked definition. But Quinn did have visible oblique abs on his side and a faint v-cut near on his lower waist from practicing Muay Thai every day in the evening.


    "Holy shit! When did you get those?!" eximed Eddie as he stared at Quinn''s abs before looking up and suggesting. "How about we find a way for you to walk around shirtless. That way, you can showcase the goods, and I can take advantage of the pact when you get a girlfriend."


    Quinn stared at his friend and thought about how much Eddie had been thinking about getting a girlfriend. He could see gears turning inside Eddie''s head, probably thinking about how to use him to get a girlfriend.


    "What if I don''t get a girlfriend," asked Quinn, a bit interested in the answer that Eddie would give him.


    "Even if you don''t get a girlfriend, there is an excellent, near hundred percent chance that a lot of girls would flirt with you," said Eddie as he crossed his hands and smiled. "Like a moth to a me, they will gather around you, and I will be standing there with my of charisma to trap them under my spell."


    Quinn blinked a couple of times before speaking, "Cool, cool, cool, but I''d really suggest you change the terminology... no, how about we don''t talk about this ever again. Yeah, that would be good for both of us."


    "Huh? Sure, whatever, let me think more about this n," said Eddie distractedly, thinking about how to exploit Quinn for his future dating life.


    Ever since Quinn had known Eddie, his friend took action when he got motivated to aplish something.


    ....


    Last year, Eddie had gotten the news that his family cat, which had been with his family before Eddie was born, had died because of old age. The cat had been very close to Eddie, and he hadn''t taken the news well; Eddie had gone into a mourning state for a while after he had gotten the news.


    During that time, there had been an older Ravenw student who was a dickhead and major a-hole. When he found out that Eddie''s cat had died, he decided to grace Eddie with his awful presence.


    Every time the bully had a chance, he would sit near Eddie and loudly talk about how funny it was that Eddie''s cat had died.


    The older bully would regrly corner Eddie when he was alone and urged him to cry.


    "Are you going to cry? Are you going to cry about it? Like a big baby? Big baby cry over your stupid cat? Everyone''s going to see you cry. You''re about to cry, aren''t you..." And more simr things.


    At that time, Quinn, who was under the influence of the sin curse, had wanted to rip the bully apart so much that it would haunt him for a lifetime.


    Eddie had stopped Quinn from brutalizing the dipshit and had shaken his head with a resolute face while clutching Quinn''s arm. Eddie''s refusal had been firm enough for then Quinn to back off.


    But after a month, Eddie had approached Quinn and had asked for his help to teach the older Ravenw shitstain a lesson.


    "I was grieving for my cat. Now I''m done, and I''m feeling angry. Plus, I didn''t want you to do something without me," was what Eddie had replied when Quinn had asked about the sudden change in heart.


    The piece-of-shit had tried to make Eddie cry, so Eddie decided to turn it the other way.


    "I''ve found this potion recipe that will make a person cry," has spoken Eddie as he dropped a heavy tome in front of Quinn. "I can''t brew this, but I think you can, so brew this for me. That guy wants to see me crying, but I will be the one who''s going to see him crying."


    Quinn still recalled how he had given a smirk that had promised humiliation. He had spent many hours on that project; he had improved the recipe to make it more potent andst longer. After Quinn finished, the recipe he had devised would induce someone to cry like a baby, snot with a constantly runny nose, and make them sweat heavily.


    Eddie had taken the new potion and had slipped it to the target, sat back, and saw the show unfold. The shithead took the potion and it took maybe an hour before the crying started.


    Eddie had slipped in the potion during breakfast, so the crying started during a ss. McGonagall had to send the crying boy with a runny nose so bad that his handkerchief and sleeves were dripping wet to the hospital wing to get him fixed.


    Madam Pomfrey had tried to give the snot baby a counter potion that she had concocted. But Quinn''s potion was a modified recipe that had taken the counter potion for the original recipe into ount. The counter potion failed, and the ''bully'' was told to stay in the hospital wing until she could brew a flushing potion that would flush out every potion inside the body.


    When Eddie got the news that the potion had worked, he went with Quinn to the hospital wing. Quinn made sure that Madam Pomfrey was away and gave Eddie the nod. Eddie had taken one of his potion gloves with him, so when they reached the hospital wing, Eddie was wearing the glove. He then walked to the boy who had made the grieving process so much harder.


    "Hey, dipshit. You wanted to see me crying, satisfied now?" said Eddie as he stood by the bedside.


    The still crying Ravenw''s eyes widened when he realized that Eddie was the one who had caused what he was going through right now.


    "You-!"


    He tried to speak up, but Eddie tightly clutched his face with his gloved hand, cutting him off.


    "Everybody saw you, bawling like a baby, and I''m going to spread that you''re a ''crybaby'' and make sure it sticks, so even when you graduate from Hogwarts, people will still remember your new nickname," threatened Eddie with a scathing tone. "If you don''t want things to get worse, stay away from me, don''t talk to me. Don''t even look at me. If I''m walking towards you, turn the other way round. I don''t want to see your ugly mug ever again."


    Eddie jerked his hand from his face and wiped it off on the stunned bully''s hair before adding.


    "It seems Madam Pomfrey doesn''t have the counter potion. It takes three days to brew a flushing potion, so get ready to face the snot fest for three days because you aren''t going anywhere else," he smirked and added onest bit. "When someone drinks a flushing potion, the person goes through hours of vomiting and violent diarrhea. I''m sure you''ll enjoy the experience. Good luck."


    Eddie turned back and walked out of the hospital wing without turning around.


    Quinn, who was still standing inside the hospital wing, waited until Eddie was out to take a picture of the boy in the bed from a borrowed camera the second the subject looked his way.


    After clicking the photo, Quinn spoke with gestures, ''Talk, and this goes out to everyone.''


    He gave a wide smile with a wave before exiting the hospital wing.


    ...


    Eddie, who wasing back to the real world after thinking about exploiting Quinn to get himself a girlfriend, noticed a smile on Quinn''s face.


    "Why are you smiling?"


    Quinn looked at Eddie with the smile still on his face and replied, "I was remembering the crybaby incident. That day at the hospital wing was fun~."


    Eddie''s eyes shined in remembrance. He nodded with a small smile, "Yeah, that was a fun day. I was so cool that day."


    Quinn nodded before jutting his chin towards the ground and said, "Enough chit-chat. Drop and give me three sets of ten. I''m worried about you. I''ll make you work hard and sweat away all that pent-up horny energy you have inside you."


    "You don''t have to say it like that!"ined Eddie, causing Quinn tough.


    The two buddies continued to have fun first thing in the morning.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Mad Scientist (School version)


    Eddie Carmichael - Horny Adolescent - Don''t make fun of my cat.


    Kraken - Self-appointed guard - Tiny human will be fine.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 90 - Baby Steps Against The Whirlpool

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sighed as he rubbed the insignia from the third vault safety mechanism. He really wanted to know how this tattoo could teleport the bearer. Assuming that no person was casting a portkey or a simr spell, then there was an enchantment that could produce teleportation magic without human or any magical species'' help.


    "Both the first and this vault hadplex runic and warding magic," noted Quinn as he looked into the triangr entrance to the whirlpool. "Just how much nning and execution went into creating the vaults. The people who created them must have given all of it a lot of thought when creating them."


    Quinn still usually went inside the first vault to do research and learn more about the mechanism. He would collect the energy from Absolute Zero for his engraver and make observations for an uing project that he was working on.


    But all the time, includingst year, when Quinn had be greedy towards a lot of things, and one of them was Absolute Zero. He had tried hard to figure out a way to get the Absolute Zero out of the vault. But Quinn still didn''t know a way to create a portable containment system that would allow him to carry the Absolute Zero without dead-freezing everything around and causing a long-term climate change that would plunge Hogwarts into an ice age for decades toe.


    Whoever built the first vault knew what they were doing. The builder had used the energy from the Absolute Zero to trap itself. A self-sustained system that wouldn''t degrade as long as the prisoner itself stayed strong.


    It was clear that the builder who had made the rune cluster knew how Absolute Zero worked because without an understanding of the alchemic material that was being contained, without the proper knowledge of the power source and runes, the containment arrangement would''ve copsed a long time ago because of the corrosive, cold energy from Absolute Zero.


    Standing inside the third vault, Quinn went into thinking about the first vault, the Icy vault, for several minutes, before taking a sharp breath and shaking his head.


    "Not the right time or ce, Quinn," berated Quinn himself, looked at the ceiling of the cave, and said, "Sorry about that." Quinn talked to the third vault as if it was a girl, apologizing because he was thinking about another girl while on a date.


    "Let''s effin'' go," said Quinn to hype himself as he looked at the triangr entrance.


    Quinn loosened his body, wriggled his arms and legs, and made sure he was ready before running towards the triangr water-filled entrance where was Poseidon''s Wrath. He felt the water cover his body, immediately followed by a tug on his body, and with a ripple in the water, Quinn was gone.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After a momentary loss of his sensation, Quinn''s senses returned: his eyes showed him the raging water, his ears made him hear the loud and continuous sshes of water; he could feel the moisture in the air against his skin, his sense of smell detected the heavy scent of water. Finally, even his tongue sent a signal of a nearby presence of water.


    This time, though, Quinn wasn''t surprised and was ready for the sudden teleportation. He turned upside down, away from the water, faced upwards, and immediately used one of the spells he hade to look forward to.


    The second the magic triggered, Quinn stopped dead in the air; the charm slowed his body''s velocity to zero, to the point he was no longer falling and stayed in a spot in the air.


    Arresto Momentum was a fascinating spell that was capable of slowing the velocity of the target. If used properly, it could also stop the targetpletely.


    Of course, there were limitations to the Arresto Momentum spell.


    First, the difficulty of slowing down objects was directly proportional to the initial velocity of the object. The faster the speed of the target, the more magic and skill from the user it would take to slow down the target. Factors like mass, surface area, and eleration of the target all added to the spell''s difficulty.


    For example, an object dropping at its terminal speed would be much tougher to slow down than an object thrown from the top of a short building.


    Second, if an object was brought to aplete stop, it would get harder to keep it stationary if the object ''moves'' while it''s held stationary with magic. Any external force that wasn''t in work before theplete stop would be against the nature of the magic and would break the spell after certain limits.


    If Quinn wriggled his body in the situation he was currently in, he would break the spell and he would continue to fall. A turn of the head, curl of his wrist, or anything minor wouldn''t threaten to break the spell. Anything greater than some minor movements would exponentially increase the difficulty of keeping himself stationary in the air.


    So Quinn had to make sure he didn''t make any excessive movements. As such, he first turned his backside to the vortex so that his front body would be facing upwards.


    Quinn could''ve used the levitation spell, Wingardium Leviosa, on his clothes to anchor himself in the air, just like the creator, Jarleth Hobart, had done in the first public use of the charm, even though at that time Hobart himself didn''t understand what he had created. Nheless, that wasn''t possible because Quinn only had a pair of trunks on him and those weren''t enough to anchor himself in the air.


    "Well, I could''ve transfigured clothes to provide more support," considered Quinn before lightly shrugging. "Whatever, I like this spell better."


    Quinn looked up above and smiled because his conjecture was correct.


    "I knew I was right; this is an expanded dimension," chuckled Quinn, watching the pure white ceiling and walls of the ce he was currently in. The white walls were telltale signs that this was a created dimension like the one in his suitcase.


    "Okay, you can do it. No pressure," reassured Quinn as he took in several deep breaths before taking an extra deep breath and stored it inside his lungs and eked out without breathing out. "Here Ie."


    The magic stopping his fall disappeared, and Quinn began falling. In the short few seconds of his fall, Quinn crossed his hands over his chest and made sure that he would enter the whirlpool feet first.


    Quinn entered the water vortex with a loud ssh and immediately sank inside the raging water.


    Inside the water, Quinn held his breath as he allowed the turbulent flow to pull him. He kept his body t as a board and seized his body straight in order to not get hurt from the water.


    He hadn''t transfigured the gill respiratory system that allowed him to breathe underwater because it didn''t work inside chaotic water. Even while in the Greatke, Quinn maintained a calm water envelope to allow a stable water flow because he used water magic to push himself to speeds greater than any aquatic species he knew.


    Plus, the bubble-head charm was alsopletely out of the race because it was too fragile and would pop the second Quinn entered the raging water.


    So why was Quinn diving inside the most dangerous waters he had experienced without proper breathing measures? Well, the motive of this dive was to observe the conditions inside the water so he could gather some data.


    Last time, the sudden teleportation had taken Quinn by surprise, so he didn''t get a clear read on the conditions. But this time, he was ready and was getting a feel of the current with his body.


    Quinn had made a n to get his transfigured gill respiratory system work in his current conditions, but he needed physical data to verify if his method would work.


    The flow of the water inside the maelstrom was rough, and thest time, Quinn had experienced water entering his body through the gill side. This wasn''t suitable because the water was supposed to enter through his mouth and gently flow over the gill leaves before exiting through the gill ps.


    Water entering through his gills with speed could injure his lungs and causeplications that Quinn didn''t want to deal with. So before implementing the changes that would allow him to breathe in his current conditions, Quinn needed the physical data that would roughly show that his idea would work.


    Hence, for three minutes, which was his limit for holding his breath, Quinn, with his eyes closed, focused all his attention on his body, feeling the water current, carefully and consciously perceiving the water velocity.


    When Quinn felt he couldn''t hold his breath any longer, he sent magic to the insignia, and at a certain point, he felt the tug of teleportation. Right after, Quinn disappeared from inside the water.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    With a ripple in the water inside the triangr entrance, Quinn came out with water surrounding him as itid him on the floor before disappearing without a trace.


    Quinn opened his eyes and immediately took long breaths of air. Heid on the floor for half a minute before sitting up and saying, "Okay, that was good."


    He got up and started to pace around the room, a look of deep thought evident on his face.


    Quinn had got the physical data he was looking for, and the results he observed looked positive. Now he just needed to do some calctions and make some decisions before he could get started.


    "Alright, I need to increase the thickness. The flow was on the higher end of my safe zone," muttered Quinn and did more calctions in his head. "Do I need to have them inside or outside? Nope, not inside, the gills have nerves, and I''ll definitely feel pain. Yup, yup, yup. Definitely on the outside."


    "Hmm, I will need to eject water as usual, but it will take more effort this time around," groaned Quinn with a sigh. "If only the Gillyweed potion didn''t have side effects on repeated consumption."


    Gillyweed was a magical nt that, when eaten, allowed a human to breathe underwater. It was said to resemble a bundle of slimy, grey-green rat tails. When eaten, it gave the consumer gills, allowing them to breathe underwater and webbing between the fingers and toes, allowing them to swim underwater with ease.


    Then, there was the Gillyweed potion, which would enhance the effects of the original nt. The Gillyweed when brewed into a potion would increase the efficiency of the nt by multiple times and would allow the consumer to breathe underwater for a few hours ¡ª in the same amount of Gillyweed that would only allow one hour of underwater breathing.


    The advantage of consuming Gillyweed was that the respiratory system given by the nt was automatic. Quinn had taken the potion while traveling around the world, and at that time, he only had needed to gulp in water, and his work was done.


    The muscles given by the magical nt took care of everything. Quinn''s system was entirely manual, and he needed to direct the water into his lungs and then eject it through the gill openings using water magic.


    If Quinn wanted the automatic system, then he would either have to research aquatic creatures in more depth than he had done, or he would need to transfigure his body into an aquatic species as Victor Krum did. Quinn didn''t think that doing more research was worth the returns, and changing himself into another animal wasn''t something Quinn was thrilled about.


    But there were the side effects of consuming raw Gillyweed or the Gillyweed potion when taken regrly. The side effects included developing fishlike features, pale and oily skin, webbing between fingers and toes, and the worst: fishy breath and, simrly, fishy body odor.


    From the second Quinn confirmed that the third vault was going underwater, he knew Gillyweed wouldn''t be in his n. Quinn knew he was going to spend a lot of time in the water. There was no way he was going to keep consuming Gillyweed every time he went into the water.


    "Okay, I''m done," dered Quinn, raised both his hands above his head and closed his for a few seconds before opening them. "Come on, you can do it."


    Quinn channeled his magic through his body, and the muscles under the skin of his neck and chest wriggled violently before his skin split apart and grew into gill ps. From the outside, there was nothing different from before, but Quinn could feel the changes inside.


    He immediately walked towards the triangr entrance and touched the safety water orb. The orb got sucked in, and once again, Quinn had the royal blue teleportation insignia on his arm.


    As Quinn''s upper body immersed in the water, he felt the breath of life return to him. He gulped in more water.


    ''Alright, it''s working in calm water,'' affirmed Quinn as he flexed his gill muscles and felt the new addition working on hismands. ''Let''s hope it will work in the vortex.''


    Quinn teleported with a ripple in the water and a tug on his body. The second the water teleported him into the air, Quinn conjured a pair of swimming goggles over his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.


    Quinn said out loud hisst words before plunging into the water: "Let''s go!"


    The water swept him away, and with a prayer to the water gods, Quinn took a couple of big gulps of water into his body.


    He felt the water travel through his body. Some water diverged to his neck gills while the majority went to his lungs. Quinn patiently waited for the water to cover the gills and spread over the blood vessels inside the gill leaves. The oxygen moved from the oxygen-rich water to the oxygen-deficient blood inside the blood vessels.


    Now came the main event, the climax of Quinn''s motive today.


    The problem with his respiratory system was that the turbulent water would rush into his restructured lungs through the gill openings.


    Thus, in order to fix that problem, Quinn turned to biology to find a solution. And Quinn didn''t have to travel far because the answer was inside the human body all along.


    The human heart consisted of four chambers: two upper chambers and two lower chambers. There was a valve through which blood passed before leaving each heart chamber. These valves prevented blood from flowing backwards.


    These valves were actual ps located on each end of the two lower heart chambers. They acted as one-way inlets of blood on one side of a ventricle and one-way outlets of blood on the other side of a ventricle. As the heart muscle contracted and rxed, the valves opened and shut, letting blood flow into the lower chamber and upper chamber at alternate times.


    Quinn realized that his water problem was somehow simr to how the water rushed from the wrong direction. He needed to stop that backflow, so he decided to copy the heart valve system.


    Quinn increased, first of all, the size of the valves and made them more sturdy than the heart valves because the pressure of water from the undertow was much higher than the pressure created by a human heart.


    He devised ayer in these valves that would sit under the gill ps and above the actual gill leaves that held the blood vessels, so after the water was done with the gas exchange, Quinn would guide it towards the valveyer. When the gill ps would open to let the water out, the valveyer would stop the water from rushing in.


    And then Quinn would loosen the valve muscles and push out the water with water magic. He would have the initiative as the valve openings were small enough to give Quinn the advantage and eject the water like jet streams, opposing the back-flowing water at the same time.


    This was all theory, and now came the time to see if the system would work in real-life conditions.


    The batch of water went through the gills, and, as it moved on for ejection, Quinn opened the gill p. Immediately, he felt the water from outside trying to rush in, but in times of need, Quinn''s new valve cover held strong against the water.


    That observation and sess brought a smile to Quinn''s face as he confidently moved onto the next stage, which was loosening the valves for ejection.


    Quinn readied his water magic and covered the water inside with his magic while simultaneously slowly loosening the new gill valves. When the valves opened up, Quinnmanded the water to shoot out, and it obeyed and went out, flowing against the water flow outside.


    Inside Quinn''s body, the water had formed a blob with Quinn''s water magic in control of every droplet. As the water went out, it acted as a seal that didn''t let water inside, emptying out Quinn''s reconstructed lung cavity for the next batch of freshwater.


    The process was sessful, and the blood had fresh oxygen circting around Quinn''s body.


    Quinn, who felt the sess, raised both his hands on instinct above and kicked his legs. Immediately, he lost his bnce, which made him tumble and rotate inside the vortex.


    ''Shiiiit!'' screamed Quinn as he triggered the safety insignia for the second time and disappeared away.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In the stone chamber, Quinn had a big smile on his face. He was happy even though he had to deploy his safety measure.


    "I definitely need more practice on the valve system to make sure that I can do it more easily," smiled Quinn andughed as he joked. "I''ming for you, Aquaman. One day, I will rule Antis... Wait, is Antis a city here? Oh, another thing I have to check out. Goody!"


    Quinn West had found a way to safely breathe in turbulent water, which was a first step in his exploration of the third vault.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Aquaman (Cool rebooted version) in making.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 91 - Getting A Healing Magic Teacher

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Healing magic is used to restore any biological beings to their optimal health, as it cures damaged or withered organisms, wounds, broken bones, low vitality, and diseases or poisoning. Though a healer may potentially heal any form of body damage, the patient must be alive, even if hanging by a thin thread, to be healed."


    Poppy Pomfrey picked up her cup of tea after giving a concise description of the magic she had spent most of her professional life practicing.


    She was crisply dressed in her medi-healer''s uniform; she was d very simrly to the uniforms worn by Victorian and Edwardian nurses. She wore the typical nurse''s uniform, which consisted of a maroon dress, white pinafore apron, and a white nurse''s cap. On her apron was a brooch that showed her status as a trained medi-healer.


    Currently, the matron was sitting in her office with Quinn. Both healer and student were enjoying a cup of afternoon tea. Of course, Quinn was the one who had approached the Hogwarts matron. He had invited her to have a conversation over a cup of tea.


    Poppy had realized a long time ago that when Quinn entered the hospital wing, it would be because he wanted to talk to her and not because of some injury or disease as every other student did.


    She knew that if she tried to ignore Quinn, the Ravenw would just hang in the hospital wing and keep on talking to her. It didn''t matter if she was tending to another patient, brewing potions, cleaning, or preparing an inventory, as Quinn would keep up a one-sided conversation, and somehow every time, he would be sessful in making her talk. Every single time, she would be roped into a conversation, and before Poppy knew it, she would have talked to Quinn for nearly an hour.


    After months of that, Poppy had realized that if Quinn entered the hospital wing when she wasn''t terribly busy and could afford to talk as she worked, then she would''ve to talk to Quinn. So at times like now, when there were no patients in the hospital wing, she would''ve tea with Quinn.


    She hade to console herself that at least Quinn didn''t visit her injured; things could always be worse.


    "We have been doing this for a while, and I have yet to see you drink tea. Why is that?" asked Poppy after sipping her tea, looking at the beverage in front of Quinn.


    "I don''t like tea," replied Quinn as he picked up his non-alcoholic Ginger beer ss mug. "I don''t like the taste, even with milk added to it."


    Poppy looked at Quinn with mock apprehension andmented, "And you call yourself an English man?! How can you not like tea?"


    Quinn rolled his eyes at the quip before asking, "When you heal an injury such as a lesion or broken bone, is the healing process the same as the natural healing process?"


    In his second year at Hogwarts, Friar had introduced the cursed vaults to Quinn, and Quinn had spent a majority of that school year solving the first Icy vault. But after he was done, Quinn realized that he had spent most of his time with the vault. The exploration had disrupted his magic learning and researching n that Quinn had set up before knowing about the existence of the vaults.


    So Quinn had made a resolution that he would give ample enough time to learn magic that he had nned to learn before he knew the existence of the vaults.


    Last year, Quinn had started strong and started upon illusion magic while researching the second vaults. But after that, Quinn had been inflicted by the sin curse. Because of the influence of the sin curse, Quinn had not given the second vault a second nce and had spent a lot of time in the library.


    That had pushed Quinn to gain a lot of knowledge, which was great for Quinn as he had learned more than he had estimated at the start of the year.


    But this year, Quinn was working on the third vault, which resulted in the vault taking a chunk of his time.


    So in order to fulfill his resolution, Quinn started strong and looked for a branch of magic that wasn''t directly rted to the vault and that would be advantageous to learn.


    The branch he chose to research in earnest was Healing magic, and no better ce to start than his favorite faculty, Matron Poppy Pomfrey.


    "I presume you are talking about the traditional wound healing without magic?" inquired Poppy and got a nod from Quinn.


    "The healing process of a wound consists in recing destroyed or damaged tissue with newly produced tissue. When someone is injured, a regted sequence of biochemical events is set into motion to repair the damage."


    "This process is divided into predictable phases: blood clotting, inmmation, tissue growth, and tissue remodeling. The wound healing process is not onlyplex but also fragile, and it is susceptible to interruption or failure leading to the formation of non-healing chronic wounds," a serious expression crossed the matron''s face as she warned. "Therefore, under inexperienced hands, Healing magic can do more harm than good. That is why healers have harsher N.E.W.T grade requirements than any other mainstream field."


    "Healing magic reces the four steps and semi-reces them to the point that you can see the regenerative process progressing with the naked eye."


    Poppy cut a forkful of cake and ate it before exining how healing of wounds worked.


    "For example, if a patientes with a cut in their arm, I would first rece the natural blood-clotting stage by magically slowing down the flow of blood and making sure that it doesn''t ooze outside the body to avoid death by blood loss. Next, magic would simrly rece the inmmation process, ensuring no infection in the wound and damage and it clears out dead and damaged cells to make space for the new cells. The final step of that process is to trigger cell division and then elerate the healing process till the wound ispletely healed."


    She smiled and asked Quinn a question about the thing that she exined. "What is the thing you will never see in magical healing that is always seen during natural healing?"


    "Hmm... Is it the presence of scabbing?" replied Quinn in a questioning tone before exining, "Scab is formed to separate the wound from the outside environment. Because it takes time for wounds to heal, scabbing is necessary to prevent infections from outside."


    Poppy nodded with a smile, "Correct. The presence of a scab is not needed with Healing magic. So healing spells make sure that scabs aren''t formed by the body."


    "But what about wounds that are more critical than small cuts? The wounds that can''t be healed in one go, do they also don''t need scabbing?" asked Quinn as he thought about wounds that could potentially kill a person within a minute.


    "No, they don''t need scabbing. A wound, no matter how severe, and as long as it isn''t cursed, can be healed within a day or two. Even if a person''s entire body was heavily injured -"


    Poppy stared intently at Quinn as she continued.


    "- like someone who doused themselves into a high-grade freezing potion and caused damage to their internal organs, could be stabilized until we heal their injuries to the point that they aren''t life-threatening."


    Quinn cleared his throat and picked up his mug of ginger beer to drink from it.


    The injury from entering the Icy vault without blood magic had caused too much damage to Quinn. At that time, Poppy had to work hard and move quickly to stabilize Quinn''s situation from deteriorating.


    She was lucky that Quinn''s magic had taken care of the critical part, and she just needed to make sure that he didn''t rpse. If Quinn''s magic hadn''t helped out, Poppy would''ve transferred Quinn to St. Mungo to be handled by healers who had experience with that level of critical injuries.


    "Then it means that magical healing is an elerated version of natural healing," concluded Quinn from the information given to him by Poppy.


    Poppy hummed in response before speaking, "We in the healingmunity like to call it Regenerative medicine."


    When Quinn tilted his head in confusion, Poppy exined,


    "Regenerative medicine deals with the ''process of recing, engineering or regenerating cells, tissues, or organs, to restore or establish their normal function.'' Normally, our bodies aren''t naturally able to heal organs that are badly injured or are under the risk of failing. But with Healing magic, we can make those previously impossible things possible. You know that as long as your limbs aren''t cursed off by dark magic, we can even regrow them. Such is the power of magic."


    Quinn nodded deeply in agreement that Healing magic transcended normal healing and wasn''t just elerated natural healing.


    "Plus, that is just healing wounds. Healing magic also cures diseases of both magical and muggle kinds. The possibilities are endless. As long as it isn''t toote, Healing magic has the power to heal any illness, diseases, and mutations. Dragon Pox, ck Death, Spattergroit, Scrofungulus, and other diseases were once incurable. But with advancement in Healing magic, they now don''t pose a threat to wizardkind if taken care of properly."


    "How did you start on your training with Healing magic?" asked Quinn, wondering how to get some practice. "I''m sure that you didn''t directly start on humans, right? That would be just inviting trouble."


    Poppy nodded in agreement with a smile and recalled the time she was doing her apprenticeship at St. Mungos. There were less experienced trainee healers who messed up healing humans, even after they were trained off humans.


    "You start with small animals like rats, mice, and fish. After you have a good handle on them, we move you onto bigger animals like pigs, goats, and cows. I personally also trained on birds and rabbits, as rmended by my mentor. After some time training on animals, the trainee, then, is moved onto humans."


    Of course, people who weren''t training to be healers and just wanted to learn some Healing spells didn''t go through this gradual stage of progress. They simply learned spells and hoped they would work whening across some minor injuries.


    An example that came to mind was Gilderoy Lockhart using a healing spell that mended bones, but instead, Lockhart ended up vanishing all bones in the arm.


    That is why trainee healers had to go through a gradual off-human process before they were allowed to operate on humans. So when they finally operated on humans, they would have confidence and experience backing them.


    Poppy looked at Quinn and asked, "Why do you ask? Wait, let me guess, are you thinking about learning Healing magic?"


    "Actually, yes, I am thinking about learning Healing magic," admitted Quinn before asking, "Will you teach me? I think having a guide will help me out."


    Quinn had books on Healing magic: spells, charms, herbology, and potions. He had it all. And Quinn didn''t necessarily need guidance. But Quinn felt that having a guide or someone who would specify a learning n would help him immensely.


    Poppy was Quinn''s favorite faculty member, and that''s the reason why Quinn decided to ask Poppy if she would teach him. If there hadn''t been any rtion between the two, Quinn would''ve learned Healing magic on his own, even if that meant it would take him more time.


    The Hogwarts healer studied Quinn for a while and contemted what he had said. Healing magic was an extensive subject and required a considerable amount of skill and knowledge.


    Poppy knew Quinn was knowledgeable and smart from their conversations. She also knew that Quinn scored high grades from the passing talks she had with the professors. Finally, she knew Quinn''s skill in potion brewing from the potions he regrly dropped off.


    She was just worried if it was too soon to teach Quinn Healing magic because if she was to teach him like she was taught, then it would take a lot of time, and it might affect his performance in sses.


    "If I were to teach you. Do you promise you won''t let your grades fall?" asked Poppy in seriousness.


    "Grades? Yeah, why would they fall?" asked Quinn in confusion. "My grades never fall."


    "If I''m going to teach you, I want you to be serious about it, meaning that you will have to devote time to Healing magic. If that affects your ss performance, then we''ll stop immediately," warned Poppy as she looked into Quinn''s eyes. "One dip, and we stop. If you want to learn Healing magic after that, wait until after Hogwarts to study."


    "I''m fine with that. If my grades dip, we stop," acknowledged Quinn. It was a no-brainer for him because his grades wouldn''t dip even if he slept through every ss all year long.


    "Okay, then. We''ll start next week. Two lessons every week, when you have free periods."


    Quinn thought about his ss schedule and his othermitments beforeing up with a reply, "Thursday and Saturday mornings."


    "Then it''s decided. You''lle here on Thursdays and Saturdays," said Poppy with a smile, before demanding, "You aren''t to tell anyone about these lessons. I don''t want other studentsing to me and asking for lessons. This is just between you and me, understood?"


    Quinn gave a thumbs up with a beaming smile, happy to have gotten a Healing mentor.


    The two fell into afortable silence before Quinn decided to change the topic of the conversation.


    "So, do you think we''ll cure Lycanthropy in the future?" asked Quinn, nonchntly, not giving any indication that he knew something.


    Poppy twitched at the naming of Lycanthropy. The mere mention of the illness made her remember that there was a Lycanthrope in the castle right now.


    Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against Dark Arts professor, was an unwilling victim of the illness that had been with him through most of his life.


    A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope, was a human being, who, upon theplete rising of the full moon, became an uncontroble, fearsome and deadly humanoid wolf. This condition was caused by infection with Lycanthropy, also known as werewolfry. Werewolves appeared in the form of wolves, but there were distinctions between them and regr wolves.


    A mixture of powdered silver and dittany applied to a fresh bite would seal the wound and allow the victim to live on as a werewolf. Although tragic tales were told of knowing victims begging for death rather than bing werewolves.


    "Why do you ask about Lycanthropy?" asked Poppy. She wanted to probe Quinn in case he knew about Remus Lupin''s condition.


    Two students in Hogwarts knew about Lupin''s Lycanthropy condition; Harry Potter and Ivy Potter were aware of Lupin''s condition before Lupin took the job, so they knew not to spread the news about Lupin being a Werewolf/Lycanthrope.


    If Quinn knew, then she would instruct him not to spread the news. Things spread fast in Hogwarts through the infamous rumor mill, and if Lupin''s condition was to be known, it would incite panic in the student body.


    "Oh, I happen to know someone connected to Lycanthropy and werewolves," smiled Quinn as he looked at Poppy. "And they are in the school at this moment."


    The matron''s heart skipped a beat when she heard Quinn''s words.


    ''Oh, no! He knows!'' thought Poppy worriedly.


    There was only one person who was connected to Lycanthropy, and that was Remus Lupin.


    "My friend, Marcus Belby," grinned Quinn, leaving Poppy stunned and confused.


    "... What?"


    "Yeah, it turns out that his uncle, Damocles Belby, is the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion," revealed Quinn, a fact that was closely rted to Lycanthropy.


    The Wolfsbane Potion was an innovative andplex potion that relieved but did not cure the symptoms of Lycanthropy. But even though it wasn''t a cure, it was the only medicine that provided some relief to Lycanthropes.


    The way one had to imbibe it was unique among potions, in that a goblet full of wolfsbane potion must have to be taken each day for a week preceding the full moon.


    Quinn had the recipe for the wolfsbane potion, and, after reading about it in-depth, he had to admit that Damocles Belby must have put in immense effort on his part to create the potion.


    ''Haha, her expression is so much fun!'' thought Quinn as he looked at Poppy''s slightly open mouth as she stared at Quinn.


    Poppy was right in suspecting that Quinn knew about Remus Lupin''s conditions. He knew about the Dark Against Defense Arts professor''s furry little problem, but in no way was he going to tell anyone that he knew. It would bring the faculty''s eyes upon him, and that was something he didn''t want, even if it might not be that much of a problem.


    But that didn''t mean that Quinn couldn''t have some fun without anyone knowing. When Poppy brought out the topic of illness and disease, Quinn recognized the opportunity to spook Poppy a little and see her startled/confused expression.


    Even if Quinn didn''t have the knowledge from the books, he still would''ve figured out the truth because of the person who substituted for Lupin when he retreated into istion during the full moon.


    Severus Snape, as the substitute professor of Defense Against Dark Arts, had tried to teach students about werewolves.


    The spiteful man, who wanted the position but had been denied it time after time, and over that had to brew the Wolfsbane Potion for the man who was in the position Snape wanted.


    From what Quinn had gathered through his debtwork of students, Snape had brought up werewolves in his substitute sses as a revision topic every year from fourth to seventh so that they could get anyone to recognize that Lupin was a Lycanthrope.


    Quinn still recalled the Defense Against Dark Arts lesson he had had with Snape and how in that lesson Snape had been repeatedly looking at Quinn.


    ''Man, that day was so awkward. I had to keep an oblivious face for the entire lesson,'' recalled Quinn, remembering the day he had to spend an hour ignoring Snape''s looks.


    "A-Ah is that so. That is an interesting fact. I didn''t know that," stuttered Poppy and kept the conversation going.


    She felt relieved that Quinn didn''t know about Lupin and the secret was still with the least amount of people and with the same amount of people at the start of the year.


    Poppy looked at Quinn, who was applying jam and cream on his scone with gleaming eyes, silently took out her wand.


    When Quinn was done bringing it near his mouth, the scone floated out of his hands and drifted towards Poppy. The matron picked the scone out of the air and ate it in front of Quinn.


    "Wha-!?" eximed Quinn at the sight of food being snatched from his hands just before he was about to eat it. "Why?" he asked in astonishment.


    "Sometimes you can be too much of a hassle," came Poppy''s reply as she enjoyed the scone that Quinn had prepared for himself.


    "What did I do?!" asked Quinn, confused.


    "Be amb and make another scone and put more jam this time," ordered Poppy, not answering Quinn''s question.


    "... Okay?" responded Quinn in confusion before shrugging andplying with the order. "One scone with cream and extra jaming up."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Gotta get that White Mage ss.


    Poppy Pomfrey - Healer - Got herself a semi-apprentice.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 92 - Confrontation With Gryffindor Quidditch Team

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was a clear, sunny day. White fluffy clouds drifted across the clear blue sky. The sun shone brightly.


    Feeling the grass tickle his feet, Quinn tilted his back to behold a field of blue that stretched far beyond what his eyes could track and where small birds cut across the air as they swooped, spinned, spiraled, and dived.


    Quinn was lying on a corner on the ground of the Quidditch field, rxing as he read a book.


    He once again turned to his side and looked towards one of the goalposts and saw his two friends on brooms, flying alone in the field, ying a game of quaffle-hoop as practice for Eddie.


    Quaffle-hoop consisted simply of one yer trying to get a quaffle through the hoops while the second yer yed as keeper, that is, trying to defend against the quaffle going through the goal hoops.


    Eddie was the one trying to score, while Marcus tried to defend against him. Quinn, on the other hand, was not ying with them. He was simply lying on the green ground, showing his silent support through his presence.


    Eddie was training to get into the Ravenw Quidditch team as a chaser.


    Chaser was a position in Quidditch. There were three chasers per team. The chasers controlled the quaffle and attempted to put it through the goal hoops and make it past the keeper. Each goal was worth ten points. This made the chaser position simr to the forward in football. The game generally started when the referee released the quaffle into the air and the chasers imed possession of the quaffle.


    Chasers were generally considered the most exhrating yers to watch by spectators during a Quidditch game, at least until the Golden Snitch had been spotted.


    While the seeker attracted short bursts of attention from the spectators, chasers were always the center of attention. Competing against the other team, trying to score as many points as possible so that even if the opposite team''s seeker caught the golden snitch it wouldn''t matter, as they would''ve outscored the other team by a wide margin.


    ''Man, he is really putting in the effort,'' thought Quinn as he stared at Eddie, who was trying to hurl the quaffle in a curve shot. ''If I didn''t know what his real motivation was, I probably would have thought that he was interested in Quidditch.''


    Eddie''s motive to get on the team was to get popr and hope that would increase his chances to get a girlfriend, but the amount of effort he was putting in was like he was trying to be the best chaser in Hogwarts.


    Quinn shrugged and turned to the opposite side to go back to reading on medical potions. The healing magic system in this world was half spells and half potions. Every healer needed to know his potions to be effective and be prepared for the job.


    An unknown amount of time passed as Quinn continued to read. However, something broke his concentration. He heard some people talking in the distance.


    Listening to the chatter, Quinn identified it to being from his back, so he turned to look and found that Eddie and Marcus were talking to some people.


    ''Isn''t that the Gryffindor team?'' noticed Quinn after giving the group a closer look.


    Deciding to see why there was amotion, Quinn stood up from the ground and started to walk towards his friends.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Look, I don''t see what the problem is," said Eddie as he pointed at the other side of the field with his arm. "I don''t see why you people can''t practice on one half of the field. You aren''t ying a game, so why do you need the entire field?"


    Eddie was talking to the Gryffindor team captain, seventh-year student, Oliver Wood.


    "You ain''t a lion, so we can''t let you witness our practice. We are at the top this year, and Ravenw is trailing in second ce," replied Oliver as he eyed the two Ravenws. "As such, we can''t risk our tactics getting exposed to you two, who are from Ravenw. I''ll have to ask you to leave."


    Eddie didn''t like the reason Oliver was giving one bit and crossed his arms over his chest, "Not my problem, you can''t make me leave. I was here first."


    "Look, why don''t we make some sort of arrangement. I''m sure we cane up with some sort of deal," offered Oliver, trying not to sound confrontational and aggressive. This year was hisst year at Hogwarts, and he didn''t want any mishaps that would somehow debar him or his team from ying Quidditch.


    But it turned out that luck wasn''t at his side, and his wish for a peaceful confrontation was crushed when his seeker started to speak.


    "Let''s just ignore them and y," voiced Harry, intervening in the conversation. He looked at the two Ravenws and shrugged, "Don''t me us if you get hit by a bludger. It won''t be our problem if you spend a night in the hospital wing."


    Marcus gulped in slight fear of getting hit by a bludger, but the statement did not scare Eddie; he took a deep breath and thought to himself, ''Calm down, Eddie. Don''t get riled up. Remember what mum said: Count to nine, and everything will be fine.''


    ''One¡­ two¡­ three¡­ four¡­ five¡­ what the hell is with that smile!''


    Eddie saw Harry smirking and his attempts to calm himself down went down the gutter. He scoffed and retorted, "Of course you would know about hospital wings, don''t you, Potter? Seeing that you practically live there."


    The Weasley twins in the backgroundughed as they put their hands on their faces.


    Harry frowned and gave Eddie the stink eye.


    "What? Are you going toin to your mum? Go on, mama''s boy, I don''t mind," smirked Eddie, delighted to see that his words did damage as he punched in another taunt.


    Harry growled and stepped forward towards Eddie but was held back by Oliver, who could already feel a headacheing up.


    "Let''s not fight. Harry, back off," Oliver warned Harry and pulled him back with a jerk. He turned back to Eddie and said, "Listen, mate, we really want to practice. We need the field."


    He made a hand gesture regarding the brooms and quaffle in the duo''s hands andmented, "You can y your little game elsewhere. There are other free spaces, I''m sure you''ll be able to find one where you can y, but we are a team and need to practice on the field."


    "Hey! I''m not ying a game," grunted Eddie. He didn''t like the tone in which Oliver just spoke. "I have to practice to get on the team. You don''t want to get on my bad side because if I make the team, I''ll go extra hard against you, guys."


    "Yeah, right," scoffed Harry in response and smirked at Eddie.


    "Did you say something, ''Crash-and-burns-every-game'' Potter?" mocked Eddie and put a hand next to his ear.


    Harry wanted to say something but stopped when Oliver raised his hand.


    "Look-" started Oliver but was cut off.


    "Uh-oh." "Uh-oh, indeed."


    The voices of the Weasley twins gathered everyone''s attention and everyone looked at them.


    "What?" asked Alicia Spi, one of the three Gryffindor Chasers.


    The twins pointed in a direction behind them and spoke in unison,


    " "Little lord West ising." "


    Fred and George hade to call Quinn ''little lord West'' because of his mannerisms and their interactions with Quinn inside the A.I.D office.


    Both the twins felt that inside the A.I.D room, everything was in Quinn''s control. Despite Quinn''s effort to make the office weing andforting for the visitors, to the twins, the office was Quinn''s territory, and he was its lord, who ruled every single thing that happened.


    Everybody looked in the direction the twins were pointing and saw Quinn walking towards them. And it seemed that Quinn had seen them looking at him because he waved with a small smile on his face.


    "Good afternoon, people. What a great day we are having today," greeted Quinn as he walked to Eddie''s side. "What seems to be the problem here?"


    "They want us to get out of here," replied Eddie, looking bored as he couldn''t see why he was wasting his time here.


    "I see," began Quinn before turning to Oliver. He asked, "Do you have a written permission that states you can use the field exclusively?"


    "... Umm, no," replied Oliver, looking ufortable. He wasn''t expecting Quinn to get straight to the point to ask whether they had permission.


    This training session was a spur-of-the-moment thing and was set this morning after Oliver had seen that the weather was clear and no other team had booked it. So he jumped at the chance and gathered his team for practice. He didn''t get permission that would grant him exclusive possession of the field.


    "Then, Wood, you can''t kick us out," shrugged Quinn. Wood had no authoritative power to kick Eddie and Marcus out of the field. "Also, why do you need the entire field? Just give us this scoring area, and you can take the rest of the field," suggested Quinn.


    "No, they need the entire field," responded Eddie with a roll of his eyes. "They''re scared we''ll leak their tactics to the Ravenw team."


    Quinn gave the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team a look and started.


    He pointed at the Weasley twins and spoke, "Dopple-beater Defense and Bludger Backbeat for the Beaters."


    "Checking and Power y for the Chasers," continued Quinn as he pointed at the three chasers: Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spi.


    He turned to the captain and gave him a thumbs-up, "Double Eight Loop, and Starfish and Stick for the keeper. Those two are tough to pull off."


    Finally, Quinn addressed Harry, "No hands and less than decent attempts at Wronski Feint for the seeker."


    The Gryffindor team stood still, their jaws on the floor as Quinn rapidly fired the tactics they had been preparing for the second stretch of this year''s Quidditch season. Those things were a secret, and no one except the team was supposed to know.


    Even if someone knew a partial part of the tactics ¡ª they wouldn''t be happy, but it wasn''t impossible for that to happen. But here they stood, watching a guy with an innocent smile on his face revealing their entire bag of tricks and tactics.


    "... H-How?" stuttered Katie in shock. She asked a question that everyone on the Gryffindor team wanted to ask. "How do you know all that?!"


    Quinn raised his arm and flicked his wrist for an A.I.D card to appear in his previously empty hand.


    Everybody there recognized the card as they had seen it at least a couple of times in their school years.


    "Information is my bread and butter; I know what is going on inside Hogwarts, and that includes Quidditch knowledge," informed Quinn and then proudly smiled. "I was also hired permanently as thementator for the Quidditch games, so I had to know what all four teams were nning to do for bettermentary experience."


    "You aren''t going to reveal this knowledge to anyone, will you?" asked Oliver, sounding apprehensive.


    The card in Quinn''s hand burned to ashes, and all of them suddenly became aware that Quinn had his wand in hand.


    None of them had seen when Quinn had taken out his wand. One moment both his hands were empty; the next second, he had a card in one and a wand in the other. And while this was happening, he kept a friendly smile on his face.


    "Of course not. I''m not mad," snorted Quinn derisively. He humphed and pointed at the castle, "If it became known that I leaked information to a team, the entire student body would pelt me with spells. There wouldn''t be any safe space for me inside Hogwarts. Plus, that would be bad for business, and I don''t want that."


    Harry looked at Quinn, a scowl prominent on his face.


    Harry and Ivy Potter, the Potter twins, had spent a lot of time together since birth, as the majority of twins did. Both were their automatic best friends, study buddies,petitors, and confidants. There was never any worry about being alone.


    Both had spent way too much time together and knew way too much about each other. When Ivy hid something, Harry knew that Ivy wasn''t saying something and vice versa.


    So whenever Ivy showed signs of unusual behavior, Harry noticed and knew that something had happened with Ivy that he didn''t know about.


    As time passed, Harry observed her sister and came to realize that those unusual signs only showed up when Quinn West was nearby.


    At first, Harry thought her sister liked Quinn, but after further observation, he noticed Ivy didn''t show signs of liking Quinn but instead showed slight difort when Quinn was nearby.


    Ivy had a problem with Quinn, was what Harry concluded.


    He decided to confront Ivy about the subject, but Ivy denied having any problems with Quinn. She didn''t fess up even after he pestered for an entire day.


    After seeing she didn''t want to reveal anything, Harry decided to wait for the day she would tell him about the matter, and till that day, Harry would always have his sister''s back.


    When Harry saw Quinn, he decided not to talk to him because he didn''t know what happened between Quinn and his sister. But after Quinn rapid-fired his team''s tactics, some of the ''dislike'' he had developed for Quinn slipped out.


    "Yeah, you better not," harrumphed Harry, slightly scowling at Quinn.


    Quinn tilted his head as he turned towards Harry, straightened his back, smiled, and was about to speak, but Eddie spoke up before him.


    "Huh?! What did you say? Speak up louder, ''Mr. Coming-to-school-in-a-flying-car-and-once-again-crashing-and-burning'' Potter," thundered Eddie, a mocking smirk stered on his face.


    ''He is so annoying!'' thought Harry as he gritted his teeth and red at Eddie. He was starting to dislike Eddie more than Quinn.


    Quinn looked at Eddie with a surprised expression. He wanted to know what had happened between Harry and Eddie. Eddie was in full-on aggressive mode and Harry was somehow on the back foot.


    He took out his pocket watch and nced at the time. Turning to Eddie, he said, "You have been here for a while. Why don''t we go back to the castle? Don''t you have a Charms assignment toplete?"


    Eddie looked at Quinn''s pocket watch and saw that they indeed had been practicing for a while, more than he had nned to practice.


    ncing at the Gryffindor team, Eddie clicked his tongue before speaking to Quinn, "Yeah, let''s go back."


    As they walked past the Gryffindor team, Eddie pulled on his best delinquent punk face towards Harry.


    Marcus politely nodded in their direction, while trying to end the conversation in a calm way.


    Quinn, on the other hand, smiled and waved towards Katie as he walked away. Katie waved back with an apologetic smile.


    After they were at a distance, Marcus spoke up, "Didn''t you want to just get popr? Why would you pick a fight with them?" Marcus was a member of the trio that didn''t like confrontation and fights.


    Eddie stomped on the ground and hollered, "Screw that, I have decided it; I''m going to join the team as soon as possible. And when I''m on the team, I am going to y against that arrogant prick and score so many points that a snitch will not help."


    He was feeling pissed because of the Gryffindor team.


    Quinn wrapped his arm around Eddie''s shoulders and added, "I''m surprised that you didn''t back off and give them the field."


    "Huh?! Why in the world would I do that?!" spat out Eddie. "I won''ty down and let them walk over me!"


    Quinn nodded and then exined his statement.


    "What I meant was that I was surprised that you didn''t take the chance to leave a good impression on Katie. I remember you asked me to introduce her to you, so I thought you were interested, and wouldn''t this be a perfect chance to establish an impression. Instead, you shed against her team, so I was just wondering..."


    Eddie''s entire motivation was to get a girlfriend, so it surprised Quinn that he didn''t jump on a good opportunity.


    Eddie blinked a couple of times and suddenly squatted on the floor.


    "Danggumit!" groaned Eddie with his hands clutching his hair. "How could I let the opportunity get past my grasp?! How?"


    "That damn four-eyed Potter screwed me over," he looked up at Quinn and Marcus and hissed, "Why did I have to get all riled up?!"


    "NO!" howled Eddie towards the sky.


    Marcus shook his head with a hand on his temple. While Quinn cackled.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    A/N: So when I was preparing for this chapter, thinking how this interaction should go. In my mind, I went through events like; Quinn dunking on Harry; Quinn having a polite talk with Harry. I even thought of a duel between the two.


    None of those fit the situation and feel I was going for. I thought that if I made Harry and Quinn ''fight,'' then Harry''s image would dip too low. I wasn''t confident in keeping Harry''s image afloat to the level of an arrogant kid (James Potter level) and thought that his image would plummet to a level below Draco''s (at least his image in the earlier books where he was an outright bully.).


    But then a thought struck me: Even though Quinn is the MC, he doesn''t have to do everything. So, I decided to pit someone else against Harry. The character I could think of in such a role was Eddie Carmichael.


    Now, I had mixed reviews for Eddie''s behavior. Some said they liked him and others said they didn''t like it. To me, Eddie here is a normal teenager who doesn''t want to lose and back off. He tried to negotiate at first,promise, but then things went as you saw.


    Do tell me what did you guys think about Eddie and this chapter in general.


    This was fun for me to write. Yeah~, This was fun~.


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Little Lord West.


    Eddie Carmichael - Chaser in the making - No! My chance to get a girlfriend!!


    Marcus Belby - Practice Keeper - Let''s talk it out peacefully.


    Oliver Wood - Gryffindor Quidditch Captain - Sought-after young Keeper prospect.


    Harry Potter - Seeker - Defeated in the battle of words.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 93 - Conquering Poseidon’s Wrath

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Sound worked differently when you were inside water. It wasn''t possible to tell from what direction it wasing or how far away it was. You probably would hear high-pitched sounds miss onnd. And suddenly turn deaf to low rumbles that one would typically hear.


    When on drynd, sound traveled in waves through the air. When those waves reached the ear, they vibrated the tiny audio bones in the inner ear. But while underwater, the sound waves didn''t move through the air: they moved through the water.


    Underwater, those sound waves didn''t vibrate the audio bones in the inner ear. They went straight to the skull bones and vibrated that heavy bone that was behind the ear. Because of that, one would hear higher frequencies underwater but lose lower ones ¡ª and would get a disrupted sense of direction and depth.


    And that entire experience turned chaotic when swimming inside turbulent, moving waters. The water sounds were so loud that nothing else was audible.


    At that moment, Quinn was experiencing all that, as he was frowning through his swimming goggles. He was looking towards the center of the vortex and in spite of the moving water that reduced visibility, Quinn knew that the center of the vortex was the ce he had to go.


    But getting there was what Quinn was working towards. And it was the one thing he had been working on for close to two weeks.


    After getting fortable'' ¡ªand Quinn used the word in the loosest way possible¡ª in the vortex, Quinn realized that the water whirlpool wasn''t the typical whirlpool formed in sea and oceans.


    Typical maelstroms would suck a person or objects down and towards the center, where the pulling force was maximum. But this vortex wasn''t like that. After going there every day, Quinn realized that the vortex was a thick water ring and not a swirl that sucked water.


    Quinn realized this when he tried to stay in the vortex for a long continuous stretch. In that long stretch, Quinn realized he was going around in circles. Not moving inside or outside from where he was dropped into the water.


    In the following few days after that revtion, Quinn tried to move towards the center of the ring, but soon found that to moveterally in the vortex was the true challenge.


    The resistance inside the water due to the high speeds was so harsh that Quinn couldn''t move side-to-side, and for a few days, all he could do was an experiment with water magic to move to the other side.


    But today, Quinn hade prepared with an approach that would help him moveterally inside the water.


    ''Okay, let''s start the test,'' thought Quinn as he looked to his front and all he could see was water just like he did every time. The shades of blue were all Quinn saw when he was inside the water maelstrom.


    Train tracks were the source of Quinn''s inspiration; train track shifters, to be exact. A train track switch was a mechanical instation that enabled railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off.


    Quinn was treating the circr ring he was swimming in as a closed circr train track. Quinn wanted to create a temporary switch that would forcibly shift him to another ''track'' closer to the vortex''s center.


    The flow of water was pushing Quinn forward, and he wanted to create an external force that would shortly alter the flow of the water, so he could create a ry from his ''track'' to another ''track'' to his side.


    ''Come on~, water magic!''


    Calling upon his magic from the depth of his magic core, he gathered more and more magic. The magic within him rolled in waves as it got stronger and stronger. When Quinn thought it was enough, he released it in a single burst in front of him in the water.


    An arctic blue burst of magic came out of Quinn and shot forward. The magic was supposed to push the water flow to the side so that Quinn could simply flow into that altered flow and inch closer to the center.


    Quinn widened his eyes when he saw that instead of signs of water flowing sideways, the water in front of him blew up.


    ''Oooh, shiiit!'' screamed Quinn, immediately curled his body into a ball and braced for impact.


    Quinn knew what was about toe. He knew that he wasn''t going to be sted back. Oh, no; the circr flow of the water ring mixed with the disturbance he caused had created a random flow of water.


    He entered the disturbed zone and was immediately spinned in random directions. It was like a ball spinning on multiple axes. Quinn lost control over his body as the water current spun him at high speed.


    ''I-I''m getting dizzy~!'' stuttered Quinn after trying to regain bnce, but the pressure around his body was too much for him to open up.


    He injected magic into the safety insignia and teleported away from the whirlpool.


    In the main room, Quinn stumbled as he tried to stand up.


    "Oh, my, heavens,e on, world, stop moving," said Quinn as he closed his eyes,ying on the floor. He put a hand on his mouth and croaked, "Don''t vomit. Don''t vomit... just don''t."


    After calming down, Quinn stood up. Staying still for a second before taking a deep breath.


    "I''m going to pee in there," muttered Quinn as he entered the water entrance.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    For an entire week, Quinn struggled to form an altered flow that would allow him to create a shift and move closer to the center.


    Every day, Quinn would go inside the water vortex at least two dozen times and repeatedly fail time and time again. Hundreds of bursts of water magic, each different from thest, were tested inside the harsh conditions of the vortex.


    A lot of them blew up in his face. Many of the attempts caused him to m into walls of water resulting from the magic reacting with the water. Some didn''t phase the water, even a single bit. Others caused him to spin around so much that he was on the urge to vomit out his stomach''s contents.


    But after those hundreds of tests, Quinn slowly collected data and experience using water magic to control the turbulent water maintained by magic.


    "In a way, this is simr to the first vault," thought Quinn. He recalled the snowke icicle that had blocked his way for months. "The ice was resisting my magic, and now, this water''s strong flow is resisting my magic."


    Breakthroughs came naturally after many attempts. It was just a matter of time before Quinn could figure out how to alter the flow that would move him closer to the center.


    ''Come on, make way for me, magic,'' said Quinn as he collected magic and changed its nature into water magic.


    The arctic blue magic emerged in front of Quinn and grew brighter as it expanded in size before contracting into a tiny sphere. It shot forward and, after a bright sh, the water that was following its intended path suddenly shifted at an angle.


    ''Let''s go!'' eximed Quinn, and with a high swimming speed, he flowed into the altered flow and moved closer to the center.


    ''Yes!'' celebrated his sess Quinn. ''That was a solid three-meter shift!''


    Quinn always dropped at sixty meters from the center, so he needed to create around twenty shifts to get to the center.


    Gulping in a bottle full of water, Quinn felt the breath return to him and closed his eyes to focus, ''This is going to take time. Let''s see if I can get to the center today.''


    He wasn''t able to get it done that day. Quinn spent around two to three hours every day inside the vault. Any more than that would take time out of his daily schedule.


    He had to attend sses, spend time in the A.I.D office andplete requests, his two daily workout sessions, study magic in the library, practice using magic inside the Room of Requirements, and spend time eating and socializing.


    If he spent more time in the vault, he would be reverting back to his second year, where he was spending too much time on other things.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It took another two days until Quinn was fast enough to cover the sixty meters in three-meter shifts before time ran out.


    ''One more shift and I''ll be inside the center,'' noted Quinn as he looked to the side. He could faintly see the boundary where the water ended.


    The circr water whirlpool had a five-meter waterless wide center. Quinn saw it every time he fell into the water.


    In fact, in the beginning, which was a few days ago, Quinn would try to get into the center without entering the water.


    He would try to use the seize-and-pull spell to fasten himself to a wall or the ceiling, but they were too far away for Quinn to get any use out of them.


    Transfiguring an object underneath while riding it using levitation also didn''t work. The transfigured material would glow red and immediately vanish, and Quinn would drop into the water.


    He had even tried to get a broom inside, but it wouldn''t take flight no matter what, and once again, Quinn would drop inside the water. Because of that, he had lost the broom he had used since he was eight years old. The wood brutally snapped because of the turbulent flow, and the pieces flew away before Quinn could get to them.


    The ward administration inside the expanded ce was so extensive that Quinn didn''t have a choice but to get to the center via the water. [1]


    ''Onest time,'' thought Quinn, gathering his magic and shooting it for the final time.


    The water flow changed and was now aimed towards the center. Quinn naturally swam with the flow, and in a moment, his head emerged from the water.


    "I did it!" eximed Quinn, but his eyes widened when he realized that with his exit speed, his body was going to enter the water from the opposite side.


    "Oh, hell! No!" yelled Quinn and immediately killed his fall with Arresto Momentum. He stopped right in the middle of the center of the vortex.


    He looked down and saw another triangr entrance on the floor, although this one also was filled with water. As he dropped, Quinn saw words appear above an edge of a triangle.


    ¡¸<-~| TEHOM''S DELIGHT |~->¡¹


    Quinn stopped just above the entrance and stared at the words etched on the floor.


    "There''s another ce after this?"


    But then the words at the first gate shed in his mind,


    ¡¸The trials are long and arduous...¡¹


    "Ah, it was ''trials,'' plural. Alright, that checks it out," nodded Quinn.


    Then his eyes went to the name of the next trial.


    "Tehom''s delight?" Quinn tilted his head in cluelessness. "Who the hell is Tehom? Damn, another god or someone?"


    But that wasn''t the thing that Quinn was mainly concerned about. The other word was more concerning to him.


    "Delight? Yeah, no way this is anything good or delightful." Quinn didn''t for a second believe that the positive-sounding words in the title were anything but negative. "That just screams trouble," scoffed Quinn and shook his head.


    He went silent and stared at the water inside the entrance.


    "Should I go in?" contemted Quinn. He had just spent a lot of time slowly shifting sixty meters, and he wasn''t sure if he wanted to drop down into another trial. "Should I research ''Tehom'' before going in? Or should I just go and see what''s inside?"


    He felt the insignia on his arm and was reminded of its existence.


    "I have the teleportation insignia. I can always pull out at any moment," mused Quinn. It was the safety mechanism that would pull him out immediately the moment he activated it. "Yeah, I should check it out."


    With a sharp exhale, Quinn released the magic holding him in ce and sunk into the water. He felt the same tug as thest entrance and the momentary loss of sensation.


    But this time, his sense of sight didn''t return.


    He could feel the water against his skin, his ears picked up sounds, he could smell some scent of water and taste the water as he gulped it down. But he couldn''t see anything through his eyes. Darkness dominated his vision as he turned in the water, trying to see anything.


    Quinn felt fear grip his heart as he looked around. Suddenly losing your sight wasn''t a pleasant feeling. Quinn could feel his heart racing as, no matter what direction he turned, he didn''t manage to see anything.


    ''Okay, this is freaking me out. I need to get out. I need to get out, right now!'' thundered Quinn and activated the safety insignia.


    The next second, he was back in the stone cave, and to Quinn''s relief, his sight was back along with all his other senses.


    "Oh! Colors, pretty colors, and light!" smiled Quinn as he stared at the crystal light sticking out of the ceiling. "Oh, I love sight."


    Quinn ced his hand on his beating heart and took deep breaths to calm himself down.


    "Yeah, what could go wrong, indeed!"


    Even though Quinn hadn''t gotten injured, he would have ended up extremely scared if his vision didn''t return after he was teleported. At that moment, Quinn didn''t think it would be another trial; he was just worried about his eyes.


    "Delight, my ass," spat out Quinn in displeasure.


    He looked back to check something and saw that the triangr entrance in the dome''s wall still had the words Poseidon''s Wrath etched into the stone above it.


    "Aww! Don''t tell me I have to go through the Poseidon''s Wrath before I reach the Tohem''s Delight?!"ined Quinn. He hadpleted the first trial, so he was expecting the door to change, but it didn''t. "Will I have to go through every trial to get to the one at the end of the line? That sucks!"


    Quinn only hadpleted the first of many trials.


    Nheless, Poseidon''s Wrath had been ovee.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I love to see.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 94 - Tehom, Alchemy, And Sub-Zero

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Tehom, literally ''the Deep'' or ''Abyss''," read Quinn from another old tome in the Hogwarts library.


    After having a scare of a lifetime inside the second trial, Tehom''s Delight, Quinn''s first course of action was to see who or what Tehom in the title was?


    "Refers to the Great Deep of the primordial waters of creation in the Bible," hummed Quinn as he summarized the information he had been able to get on Tehom. "An entity from the Christian pantheon mentioned in the Old Testament Bible, Book of Genesis, Genesis 1:2"


    Tapping his finger on the table, Quinn thought about his experience of no sight in the second trial room. Theplete darkness had taken him by surprise. Being robbed of the sense that he used the most was something deeply unsettling.


    "The entire vault is revolving around water, and then there was the word w'' in the text. The trials are definitely based on something that can be found in water."


    Quinn nced down at the word ''Tehom'' on the parchment of the tome.


    "There is no light in the depth of an ocean, and Tehom symbolizes deep or abyss. Having no light must be the reason I wasn''t able to see anything but darkness," theorized Quinn. "That meant that my sense of sight was okay, but there was no light. Thus, I couldn''t see. Ah, that is just in annoying~. I respect that."


    Another thing that Quinn focused on was the ambiance of the second trial room.


    "I was inside a water-filled region with no surface beneath my feet," remembered Quinn, while closing his eyes to relive that moment. "Calm water with no violent, turbulent flow like the first room. The temperature; slightly cold."


    Even though he had been only inside the second trial room for less than thirty seconds, Quinn ended up having some questions.


    "What''s the aim of the second trial? Do I need to find another entrance? How do I navigate there? Is there something in there other than me? What danger there is?"


    But spending mere seconds inside the second trial room wasn''t enough to answer any of the questions. If Quinn wanted to get answers, then he would need to dive in there and get they of thend.


    Then his thoughts went further beyond the second trial room.


    "How many trials are in the third vault?"


    The third vault was still covered in mystery because Quinn couldn''t see the end, and that unknown element slightly excited Quinn.


    Mystery creates wonder, and wonder was the basis of man''s desire to understand the world. And Quinn wanted to understand everything. It was in his nature.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Alchemy was a branch of magic; an ancient discipline that involved studying the secrets ofposition, structure, and magical properties of the four ssical elements, as well as the transmutation and transfiguration of substances and, thus, it was connected intimately with potion-brewing, charms and transfiguration.


    Of course, Quinn didn''t believe in the four ssical elements because of the atomic theory. But he did believe in the fifth element, which he considered to be magic itself.


    Back to alchemy. The branch of magic was a beautiful conjugation of various magics: transfiguration, transmutation, potions, herbology, metallurgy, charms, and other magics used to supplement it ording to its needs.


    Alchemy was said to be the ultimate transformation magic. Alchemic counterparts were many times more potent than their potion counterparts. Properties could be permanently added to objects: something that was extremely difficult with charms. It could convert materials intopletely different states from their initial forms; something that could only be a work of transfiguration but permanent.


    Today, inside the Room of Requirement, Quinn was in the middle of performing alchemy. The young alchemist was in the midst of one of his long-term projects. The project was still in its initial stages, but Quinn was making some progress.


    "Project sub-zero. Series one (1), form number twenty-seven (27)," announced Quinn, reading from a sheet of paper that had ''S-1 F#19'' written on it.


    ¡¸Project Sub-Zero.¡¹


    Absolute Zero was the alchemic material that Quinn had found inside the first vault, the Icy vault. It was an alchemic material that was at a perpetual temperature of zero Kelvin (0 K). The paradoxical material contained cold energy capable of dropping the temperature of anything it came in direct contact with to zero Kelvin (0 K).


    It was the physical incarnation of infinite cold.


    And while Quinn couldn''t get it out yet, he wasn''t going to miss the chance to research it. So twice or thrice a month, Quinn would go down into the vault and collect samples of the cold energy for research.


    There was no information on Absolute Zero except the description. Quinn had scoured the Room of Requirement library to find any information on Absolute Zero but couldn''t find a creation methodology or a clue to get started.


    It was a magic lost to the world.


    Project Sub-Zero was Quinn''s attempt to study Absolute Zero. So that one day, he could create the alchemic marvel himself. It was an experimental approach where Quinn began at two hundred and seventy-three Kelvin (273 K) and made his way down to zero Kelvin (0 K).


    He had divided the project into six stages.


    [


    Stage One (S-1) - 273 K - 224 K


    Stage Two (S-2) - 223.99 K - 175 K


    Stage Three (S-3) - 174.99 K - 126 K


    Stage Four (S-4) - 125.99 K - 77 K


    Stage Five (S-5) - 76.99 K - 28K


    Stage Six (S-6) - 27.99 K - 0 K


    ]


    The first five stages had a forty-nine Kelvin (49 K) range, the square of the most magical number; seven.


    But in thest stage, S-6 had the remaining twenty-two Kelvin (28 K), which was in a seven times four (7 x 4) range. It had the power of seven and a stable foundation of four. The sixth stage signified that, after six stages, Quinn would reach the perfect seventh stage and obtain the paradoxical yet stable Absolute Zero.


    Quinn chose the above stages as each would be a milestone in his quest to create Absolute Zero.


    Seeing that Quinn was operating on [S-1 F#19] meant that he was still in the initial leg of the project.


    "F#18 showed the temperature of 209 K / -63.15¡ãC. Five degrees lower than F#17," recited Quinn as he took notes under [S-1 F#19] paper. "But, F#18 was unstable and broke down in under ten minutes (10 mins). F#19 is the attempt to solve the instability of F#18 and create a stable form with the temperature of 209 K / -63.15¡ãC or below."


    Quinn lit up a fire and ced a potion cauldron on it. Alchemy, or at least the alchemy Quinn knew, closely resembled potion brewing as it required a cauldron.


    Slowly Quinn added the ingredients into the cauldrons ording to the form. There were a lot of processed ingredients, like liquid essence extracted from nts, magically treated nt roots, frozen animal organs, transfigured filings of metal, and other ingredients that Quinn had chosen for [S-1 F#19].


    After adjusting the heat and stirring at predefined times to activate the ingredients, came some steps that set apart alchemy from potion brewing.


    When the mixture inside the cauldron was at the optimal state for the next step, Quinn took a deep breath and raised his hands over the cauldron, and magic flowed.


    Potion brewing didn''t have a ce for spells because they could incite instability in the in-flux mixtures brewing inside the cauldron. But alchemy did precisely that and introduced external magic into the mix.


    Quinn, with the utmost caution, injected his magic through alchemic transformation spells. His eyes observed the mixture for any signs of deviation. Any signs of trouble could cause the mixture to deteriorate into instability. The worst oue would result in the cauldron exploding, which would heavily harm Quinn in the process.


    This was the reason such a small number of people pursued alchemy. There was a risk in every alchemic brew; a mistimed decision due to apse in concentration could cause injuries.


    That is why, even among those who did pursue alchemy, many didn''t proceed further because their spell work wasn''t good enough to safely perform alchemy.


    Of course, not all failed attempts exploded and caused drastic injuries. If one didn''t make any major mistakes, the oue would be a failed cauldron full of sludge. But why tempt fate and attempt a magic that had such high standards?


    With an observant gaze and a tight hold on his magic, Quinn injected property-adding charms, state-changing transmutations, and stabilizing shes of transfiguration.


    The initially yellow mixture turned brown, which indicated it was time for the next step. He immediately picked up a bronze metal disc from the ground and carefully covered the cauldron. He used the disc as a lid cover. The second the disc covered the cauldron, Quinn dimmed the heat to a simmer.


    Quinn rxed his body as he exhaled a breath he didn''t know he was holding. He walked to the desk at a distance from the cauldron and took the inactive downtime to note his observation. Quinn picked up a pen and started writing.


    "[S-1 F#19] has passed both the ingredient activation stage and active magic injection stage. There were no noted anomalies, though the magically treated cold-resistant aluminum gave the initial mixture a yellow color. The cured brown color shows that there was a resonance between the elements, showing signs of binding and stability."


    Quinn raised his head and looked at the cauldron before looking back at the table and continuing, "Estimated binding time is fifteen minutes with an error margin of three minutes. The required temperature is 300 ¡ãC."


    After writing down the notes, Quinn didn''t sit down and rx for the next fifteen minutes but got up and moved to another table with a white cloth covering the tabletop. On the tabletop, there was a cloth-covered cage and a small potion vial.


    Quinn removed the cloth from the cage and, immediately, three rats squeaked from the sudden exposure to light. Quinn looked at the rats and magically held two rats down as the third rat floated outside the now opened gate.


    The three rats were provided to him by Poppy for healing practice. The one he took out was a perfectly healthy rat in which Quinn would perform wound healing.


    The other two rats were sick rats with diseases that Quinn practiced cure healing magic on. He had no idea what the diseases were, and needed to first identify the illness from their symptoms and, then, cure them with healing spells or healing potions.


    "You two willeter," said Quin to the two sick-looking rats. "So sit tight because the doctor will see you in a bit."


    Quinn again covered the cage with a cloth and floated off the table to the floor.


    He looked at the squealing rat pinned to the white table. With a twitch of his magic, all the hair from the rat disappeared and turned into an ugly hairless rat.


    Quinn picked up the potion vial and, after uncapping the lid, a drop of potion flew out of the vial and entered the rat''s mouth. The squealing rat slowly turned quiet and fell unconscious. The potion was a magic anesthetic with a sleepingponent attached to it.


    "Don''t worry, buddy, this won''t hurt at all," muttered Quinn as he looked at the unconscious rat. A small cut appeared on the rat''s hairless skin with trace amounts of blood leaking from the wound.


    Quinn stared at the cut wound as he funneled magic onto the cut wound. Like magic, the blood stopped leaking, the cut knitted back, joining the two sides of the cut together, healing the rat''s body like the cut never existed.


    "Sess," smiled Quinn and shot a diagnostic charm at the rat to see the overall condition. The results came back positive as the rat was at full health, albeit with a slight blood loss. Nothing dangerous.


    "Let''s try the bones," said Quinn to himself and broke the rat''s leg bone with magic. By now, Quinn was used to harming unconscious rats, and breaking bones or detaching limbs elicited nothing out of Quinn.


    Once again, Quinn molded his magic as he knitted back the broken bones and healed the muscles, blood vessels, nerves back to normal. The heal was performed phenomenally, and when the rat eventually woke up, he won''t notice a difference.


    "Snip-snip," clicked Quinn with his tongue as the rat''s tail came off from its body. "Operation tail reattachment. Beginning now."


    Without moving his hand or arms, Quinn''s magic held the detached tail of the rat''s body and used healing magic to reattach it. The muscle and skin from both wriggled as they knitted back together. When the outeryer was reattached, the thin bones set themselves together and clicked back together with magic.


    After that, Quinn continued to perform the list of activities on the unconscious rats given to him by Poppy.


    When ten minutes passed, Quinn stopped harming and healing the rat and moved back to the cauldron before the time was up. He used a spell to check the internal temperature, and the result showed that it was about to get to the desired level. Quinn wore his protective gloves and safety goggles and removed the bronze metal lid from the top after the temperature reached the optimal level.


    "Excellent!" grinned Quinn when he saw the change in the downtime.


    The brown boiling mixture had turned into transparent bubbling viscous liquid. The brown had a heavy sour smell, but the transparent liquid was scent-free.


    "Time to remove it from heat," said Quinn as he cut the heat at the bottom of the cauldron, and then Quinn''s eyes shined with focus because it was now time for thest stretch of the process.


    Quinn''s magic flowed out of his body and assaulted every drop of the transparent liquid with chilling cold. Ice magic came in contact and bled inside the potion, and reached everywhere inside the thick viscous liquid.


    The ice magic thrummed with activity as an icy blue light started to taint the transparent liquid. Quinn kept on dropping the internal temperature and the icy blue color deepened. After a minute of channeling magic, the liquid lit up with a brilliant light.


    The ethereal light reflected inside Quinn''s eyes as he cut the supply of ice magic and stepped back a couple of steps. A smile lengthened on his lips as he saw the condensation appear on the cauldron''s outside and froze into a white cover of ice.


    Quinn waited till the blue light dimmed to a level that it was faintly present before raising his hand and, with his rising hand, the contents inside the cauldron were levitated outside.


    The faintly shining liquid floated in the air as Quinn did a temperature and pumped his hands up and celebrated, "207 K, two Kelvin less than expected!"


    Quinn danced around the floating [S-1 F#19] in celebration.


    But after celebrating the initial celebration, Quinn conjured an iron rod in his hand.


    "me on," grinned Quinn and bombarded the conjured rod with powerful heat magic. Focusing his magic so that it would be concentrated on the other end. "Come on, get nice and hot, so papa can hear some sizzling goodness."


    The moment the quarter of the rod was red hot, Quinn gestured with his fingers, and half of the liquid broke from the floating blob and flew towards Quinn.


    Quinn brought it so that it was floating at his knee level. He held the iron rod in a reverse grip before stabbing it inside the viscous liquid.


    Immediately, there was intense sizzling as the iron rod cooled down rapidly, and within seconds, the iron rod had lost all the heat. Quinn removed the rod and threw it away; the rod vanished mid-flight.


    Wasting no time, Quinn checked the temperature of the cold liquid in front of him, and the spell showed him the temperature 210 K. The temperature had risen three Kelvin.


    "Wait, wait, wait," Quinn raised his hand as if quieting a crowd around him.


    He watched as, within seconds, the temperature went back to 207 K.


    Quinn threw his arms up and announced, "We''ve done it, people! It has enough energy to recover. It is stable, it is beautiful, and finally, it is cold. It is Quinn-made!"


    Not really thinking that the only ones who could hear his celebration announcements were two rats with hair and one hairless rat who had woken up from the potion''s effects.


    The two halves merged back together, and they floated to a container that Quinn had prepared for it. The containers were also a progressive project because these containers also got stronger as Quinn continued to improve on project Sub-Zero. Plus, as Quinn had been working on containment longer than Project Sub-Zero, he was way ahead in containment technology.


    Quinn hummed in pleasure and joy to the table to make notes, and after that, his day continued to get better because that day, none of his three rats died. This only happened maybe thrice a week because Quinn usually ended up killing the healthy rat after failing to heal a critical injury quick enough.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Alchemist in making


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 95 - Tehom’s Trap, And Plagiarising A Game

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I need to get faster. I''m not going to make any progress otherwise," sighed Quinn, as he stopped himself above the triangr entrance to the second trail area. "If I keep going at this rate, I''m going to use most of my time just to get past the vortex."


    The third vault ¡ªor as Quinn hade to call it, the Aquatic Vault¡ª was set up such that if Quinn wanted to progress and make it to the next trial area, he would need to sessively get past the previous trials.


    The vortex in Poseidon''s Wrath was very turbulent. Every time he plunged into the violent water, it would take at least half an hour to get to the center of the vortex. To Quinn, that half an hour was time wasted; time in which he could be making progress in the second trial ¡ª Tehom''s Delight.


    "Well, practice makes perfect, so I have to keeping here every day. I''ll eventually get faster," sighed Quinn before releasing the Arresto Momentum, which was holding him in his ce.


    The water engulfed Quinn as he was pulled into the waters leading to the second trial. Tehom''s Delight.


    ...


    Like before, Quinn opened his eyes to see nothing. Complete darkness, with only a sensation of slightly cold water covering him from all sides.


    He felt that visually and aurally. Quinn wasn''t able to see his hand pass in front of his face. The only way Quinn could tell that his eyes were open was through blinking consciously.


    The only sounds Quinn could hear came from himself, like when he wildly moved his limbs to create some sound ¡ª but even then the noise died immediately, and every sound that Quinn made from floating inside water sounded strange.


    Tehom''s Delight was hauntingly still and silent.


    After the first minute or so, he shifted slightly and experienced a sudden revtion: ''Oh, my shoulder makes a sound when I move it, apparently.'' A couple of minutes in, Quinn was able to experience a nothingness he had never felt before, with his mind startlingly clear.


    And just like that, within minutes, Quinn''s calm mind slipped into nothingness, and he lost himself inside Tehom''s Delight. With a clear, yet nk mind, Quinn closed his eyes in the dark. And sunk into a state of emptiness.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After an unidentified amount of time, Quinn''s empty mind suddenly sparked with activity. He wasn''t seeing anything and had to consciously blink his eyes to assure him that his eyes were open.


    ''Damn it! I did it again!'' yelled Quinn in his mind, berating himself.


    He channeled the magic in the teleportation insignia that was on his hand, and soundlessly, he disappeared from Tehom''s Delight.


    Quinn came out of the water from the triangr entrance and entered the front stone cave. Not a drop of water could be seen on his body because of the wards. The second he stepped on the floor, Quinn furiously looked towards the waterproof proof bag he had been bringing with him for a week, and it snapped open. A pocket watch flew out.


    The pocket watch stopped in front of Quinn, and the lid opened to show the watch''s face to him. He saw it had already been one and a half-hour since he had arrived in the vault.


    "This is great! Just f$#king great!" cursed Quinn, his face twisted by anger. He got angry with himself, though. "#$%@, I only have two hours today!"


    "Argh!" with a throaty roar, Quinn stomped on the ground. A wave of magic traveled through his legs down into the ground. The ground beneath Quinn got transfigured and suddenly sunk down in a dent.


    And because he wasn''t careful, Quinn stumbled and fell down on his butt.


    As he sat on the ground, Quinn thought about why he disliked Tehom''s Delight. The reason was simple; he liked it a bit too much.


    If he didn''t move and just stayed still, he felt the perfect stillness and serenity of the second trial room. Quinn heard nothing, saw nothing; he began to feel as though he was stretching in all directions, that his being was filling the void. Of course, it was all in his head, but he loved every instant of it.


    The feeling was absolutely Transcendent. It was addicting.


    After the events ofst year, Quinn had developed a strong desire to be in control. He craved it and rigorously sought it after. The feeling of being in control hadn''t drastically changed his life; even before the events of the Sin vault, Quinn still had some tendencies in which he liked to be in control. Presently, these tendencies were considerably stronger than before, but nothing life-altering.


    Usually, that desire became fulfilled when he was inplete control of his magic, with day-to-day activities, and when he controlled his speech and behavior. He exercised Muay Thai every day without fail because it gave him a sense of control over his body. The interior design of the A.I.D office was specifically designed to put Quinn in control. Quinn had also decided the ce of everything inside the workshop. Luna, the other user of the workshop, wasn''t allowed to change anything.


    But then there was Tehom''s Delight. It cleared Quinn''s mind to an unnatural level and made him feel that losing control was fine, that he could rx; that he didn''t have to worry about anything. He had purposely alloted two to three hours every day to the Aquatic Vault, although in his initial few visits Quinn had exceeded that time by at least an hour because he would lose himself inside the vault.


    Lately, he had gotten it under control and didn''t lose himself as much, but there were times like this when he slipped up and let the ambiance of the second trial lull him into total nkness.


    The time he spent inside Tehom''s Delight felt great to Quinn, but when he exited Tehom''s Delight, the realization that he had lost self-control struck him, and that didn''t feel well to Quinn.


    The ''delight'' in Tehom''s Delight truly made sense, but as Quinn had thought when he learned the trial''s name for the first time... it was pure trouble.


    "#$&^@, `[emailprotected]</a>(*)+, **{%$}, ~!##*&, -$%#$," cursed Quinn. He usually didn''t curse, but when he rarely did, he didn''t stop in the middle. It was quite clear how pissed Tehom''s Delight made him.


    Quinn got up, packed up his bag, threw it to the side, and turned back to the triangr entrance of Poseidon''s Wrath. Even though he only had half an hour remaining, Quinn wouldn''t let that time go to waste.


    "#$%^&*!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn was sitting behind his office desk while reading a book on Magical Pathologies. It introduced the effects of magical diseases on the human body.


    To properly learn Healing Magic, one needed to read up on loads and loads of books. The amounts of subjects that needed to be covered were vast and extensive.


    These days, Quinn had been studying anatomy, physiology, and pathology. He was bncing Healing Magic, his own studies, and the vaults.


    "It will take some time to make them essible memory books," muttered Quinn, turning the pages. He read every word while trying to understand the anomalies that were written in the tome. "Should I try a different method to connect concepts? The Josh Kaufman method seems interesting."


    Storing knowledge inside his mindscape that he gained from books (or tomes) was moreplicated than storing daily events.


    Recalling every word in a book only from his memory was simple enough; the problem came when he needed toprehend the concepts and information.


    Truly retaining information took more time, and it also took more time to create the memory book immersion that increased the time andplexity of the process. Quinn connected concepts to other concepts and thenpiled the concept into a memory book. After that, numerous concept memory books needed to be linked to fasten his recall speed.


    Quinn wasn''t new to concept retention, as he had been doing it before he came to Hogwarts. It was one of the things that enabled Quinn to go through information quickly and keep uniform progress in multiple disciplines of magic without leaving anyone behind.


    And because he was taking on more magic as he grew up, Quinn actively researched efficiency-aspect lumency, as he was interested in that field. Efficiency-aspect lumency was Quinn''s most advanced magic. It was more advanced than any other magic he had learned sinceing to this world.


    Take the present example, Healing Magic was an extensive subject, and even though at start Poppy had set a pace that she thought wouldn''t interfere with his general school studies, Quinn had thrown that pace away the moment he received it.


    He studied at his own pace, and that pace was much faster than what Poppy had imagined. Quinn''s learning pace made Poppy think that he was just studying Healing Magic, as he was learning very fast.


    She thought that Quinn was cking in his general school studies, but Quinn had squashed that line of thought by performing all the magic a fourth year student needed to know to Poppy, which showed her that she didn''t need to worry about anything.


    As he continued to read, Quinn heard a knock followed by the ring of the door chime.


    Quinn looked up from his book to see who was visiting, and his eyes slightly widened when he saw the person who had entered the office.


    With shoulder-length red hair, almond-shaped green eyes d with a forest green robe, the professor of muggle studies entered the A.I.D office with a slight smile on her face.


    "Professor Potter, what a surprise. I wasn''t expecting your visit," greeted Quinn. He then stood up from his barstool while closing his book.


    "Good evening, Mr. West," replied Lily as she admired the interior of the room, which had changed since herst visit. She looked at the paintings on the walls and asked while looking at the paintings, "Mr. West, I have to ask, is there a reason you don''t have magical paintings?"


    Magical paintings, unlike their non-magical counterparts, moved. The painting''s subject, background and foreground were all animated to move in a lifelike manner.


    "I''m not a fan of magical paintings, professor. I like my paintings when they don''t move. I think they are more beautiful that way. It leaves more to the imagination," replied Quinn, observing the professor as she appraised the art.


    Lily turned towards Quinn, and the host gestured to the visitor to take a seat.


    "What can I do for you today, professor?" asked Quinn as both of them took their seats.


    He couldn''t think of any reason why Lily Potter hade to the office.


    ''From her expression, it doesn''t seem like she knows about my interactions with her daughter,'' spected Quinn.


    Quinn didn''tunch a Legilimency probe because, first, he wanted to try the spoken means ofmunication before snooping inside Lily''s mind.


    "I have been thinking of new ways to introduce the muggle culture to my students, but I haven''t been able to think of a way that would engage the students and not leave them confused and feeling detached," sighed Lily as she introduced her reason for her visit.


    She looked up at Quinn and suggested, "I came here to see if you would be able to help me find a solution." And as she said that, Lily pulled out an A.I.D card and showed it to Quinn.


    "Hmm... now that is a unique problem that you have brought me, professor," hummed Quinn thinking about the problem. "Something that would engage us, the students?"


    "Yes, I''m thinking something they could use in their daily lives," added Lily, watching Quinn, who now had a thoughtful solution on his face.


    After half a minute of thinking, Quinn broke the silence, "From the top of my head, I can think of one thing that would engage your students."


    "What is it?" asked Lily, excited for the idea.


    Quinn smiled as he replied, "Isn''t it obvious, professor? All of your students are teenagers, and teenagers or children in general, love games."


    "Games?" asked Lily in confusion. She wasn''t sure if games would help her students who came from wizarding households.


    "I understand your skepticism," chuckled Quinn as he noticed the expression on the redhead''s face. "Games might not be the thing you were looking for, but I assure you that it is the thing you need. "


    "But, how? How would a game help?" Lily wasn''t feeling positive about the idea because she had already tried it. "I tried to introduce football and cricket to the students, but they didn''t seem interested in either of the two. None of the students from wizarding households asked me if they could y the sports."


    "Ah, now I understand your reluctance," nodded Quinn at the failed attempt to introduce non-magical sports. "I think the reason why your attempts failed is that the students from magical households weren''t able to connect to both of the sports. With a thrilling game as Quidditch being part of their lives, games like football and cricket might not seem that interesting."


    "But professor, I''m not talking about sports," grinned Quinn. Oh no, he wasn''t thinking about sports, nope. He was thinking about something else.


    ''Something that would be mighty fun to create,'' thought Quinn as he told Lily of his n.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The first thing the students heard as they entered the muggle studies ssroom was professor Lily''s jubnt voice.


    "Good afternoon, students. Please step in and gather around the table in the center!"


    When they looked around the ssroom, they saw that the desks and tables had been removed. Instead, there were six square tables around the ssroom, with a seventh square table in the center of the room.


    They noticed something on every table, but they couldn''t recognize the object on the table because a sheet covered it.


    The third-year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students slowly arrived at the ssroom in batches, and Lily waited near the door with an excited smile on her face while greeting them pleasantly. She was looking forward to today''s lesson.


    Hermione bumped Ivy''s shoulder and whispered while looking at the covered center table, "Hey, do you have any idea what''s all this?"


    Ivy looked at all seven tables before ncing at her mother.


    "No, I have no clue about what is all of this. Mu- I mean, professor Potter didn''t tell me about this," replied Ivy with a whisper back to Hermione. Lily had instructed both Potter twins to call her professor Potter when they were in public at the school.


    "I wonder what the professor has nned for today," whispered Hermione as he narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what was below the cloth.


    All the students had arrived and were chatting to each other, discussing what would happen today.


    "Now that everyone is here, let''s get started," announced Lily as he made her way across the crowd of students to the center table. "Today, we are going to do something fun."


    She looked at her students with a smile and continued, "We are going to y a muggle game today. A game that I yed when I was a child, and I am sure that the muggleborn students would recognize the game."


    The students from the wizarding household looked uninterested. Some half-blood students who were familiar with the non-magical side seemed moderately interested. While the muggleborn students looked at the center table, trying to figure out the game''s identity.


    "Today, we are going to y-" announced Lily as she pulled the cloth off the table and revealed the game, "- Monopoly!"


    All muggleborns recognized the game at once because of its poprity. Some half-blood students recognized the game, and the pureblood students studied the board game.


    Hermione recognized the game instantly. The game wasn''t yed in the Potter household, but Ivy recognized the game from the times she had gone to the house of some of her non-magical friends.


    "Monopoly is a board game. In this game, yers have to roll two six-sided dice and move around this game board with their tokens, buy and trade properties, and develop them with houses and hotels. yers collect rent from their opponents. The goal is to drive them to the point that they have no money or properties...." exined Lily with nostalgia and an ever-present smile on her face.


    By the time she was finished exining the rules, the ss''s opinion was divided into two. Half of the ss seemed interested, while the other half didn''t look particrly excited about the game.


    But then Lily introduced something that changed the entire ss''s opinion to positive.


    "But we aren''t going to y this one because a lot of students here don''t feel attached to the properties on the board."


    She took out her wand, and with a wave, the Monopoly board folded and packed itself in the game box. The box flew away to the teacher''s table.


    "We are going to y-," beamed Lily as she waved her wand, and another box flew from beneath the table and set itself on the table. "- Monopoly, Hogwarts version!"


    All the students suddenly became fully interested in the game as they stared at the box with an animated image of Hogwarts castle as the night and the day alternated in the background. Murmurs and chatter broke out in the ssroom as everyone spoke to everyone.


    "... Hogwarts version?" blinked Hermione as she watched as the box opened itself and a board slid out to show why it was called the Hogwarts version.


    A moving Hogwarts coat of arms in the middle of the board with a miniature Albus Dumbledore sticking its torso out of the letter ''O'' of Hogwarts.


    All the properties were changed to suit the theme: Hagrid''s hut, all four housemon rooms, the Great Hall, Owlery, Kitchen, Quidditch stadium, Greenhouses, Hospital Wing, Whooping Willow, Headmaster''s Office, the Great Lake, and many other Hogwarts hotspots.


    The game started at tform nine-and-three-quarters. Instead of jail, there was Azkaban and Detention.


    The Community cards and Chance cards were renamed ''Potions'' and ''Spells''.


    The tokens were in the form of brooms, the sorting hat, a wand, a golden snitch, a quaffle, a bludger, quills, cauldrons, and others. Houses were turned into huts, and the hotels were turned into castles.


    The money was still in the paper currency form to teach the students about muggle currency.


    Other than that, everything on the board was animated and truly looked like a part of the wizardingmunity.


    "To make sure that even those who aren''t familiar with muggle ces, I''ve made this special version so that you all can enjoy the game," smiled Lily as she looked around the ssroom, happy to see activity among her students.


    Quinn had told her that if she could make the children like the game, she would be able to improve their view of the muggle world. Quinn reasoned that if she could connect the muggle world to something fun, the students would keep their minds open when introduced to other muggle things.


    ''If you can make them interested in trying new things, then you have already passed the most difficult part of the problem,'' Quinn had said when pitching the idea for using a board game as a way to get students interested. ''You want to make them think that if something fun like this is from the non-magical world, then what other fun things are out there? You have to work up curiosity within them. A curiosity that they would try to fulfill on their own.''


    After listening to Quinn, she realized that something as simple as a board game could help the students get interested in the muggle world.


    She waved her wand, and the covers from the rest of the table flew away, revealing six more game sets.


    "Please take seats around the tables and start ying. There will be no studying today. Today we''re going to y the game and have fun," announced Lily with a bright smile on her face.


    Other than making her students interested in the muggle worlds, Lily also agreed to this idea for personal reasons.


    Monopoly reminded Lily of the times before Hogwarts. It reminded her of the time when Lily and her sister, Petunia, were still on good terms and yed the game together with their parents as a family. Those were simpler and happy times, and she wanted her students to experience that.


    ''Maybe with this, I can reduce house rivalry a little bit,'' thought Lily as she saw Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students mingling together.


    ...


    Ivy Potter marveled at the Hogwarts-themed Monopoly game when she felt a tug on her arm and distractedly looked towards her side.


    "Yeah? What is it?" Ivy asked Hermione, who was staring at the game board.


    "Look in the bottom right corner of the board," whispered Hermione and pointed at the game board with her eyes.


    Ivy''s eyes returned to the game board and went to the bottom right corner of the board. Her eyes widened when she saw the small logo that silently sat there.


    "... A.I.D!"


    The small logo of A.I.D productions on the board meant that her mother had gone to that person. And that the new game was his work.


    "...Quinn West made this," uttered Ivy as she continued to stare at the board.


    It made her wonder about Quinn. He had neither approached her nor Hermione to im the ''debt'' they owed him. Forget approaching them, Quinn didn''t even look at them when they passed each other in the hallways.


    Sometimes she felt relieved that he ignored her because if he looked at her regrly, she would automatically think that he wanted something and that was stressful for her.


    On the other hand, whenever she thought about Quinn, it made her nervous because she wanted to be free of the debt, and him not acting on it just made her wonder when the day woulde when he would ask them to do something and free them of their debt.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The creator''s question was amid drafting instruction documentation and building models to send home.


    The reason Quinn had thought Lily''s request was going to be fun was because he saw a business opportunity in it. And not just an A.I.D business opportunity, but a West business opportunity.


    He had made a simple Hogwarts version of Monopoly, and that was just something that Lily Potter could use in her ss.


    On another note, Quinn had created a better Hogwarts version with more charms and features. The version that he had built had tokens and pieces that moved on their own, like wizarding chess. Three-dimensional animations were applied on the boards for a more immersive feel.


    Quinn knew that not all people wanted to y the Hogwarts version of Monopoly, so he also designed another version, a Magical Britain version. This version featured properties from all across magical Britain and was much more expensive than the Hogwarts one.


    He was especially proud of how the miniature goblins handled the banking for the yers so that they could enjoy the game without the additional responsibility of the banker. The money was in the standard wizarding currency with an additional tinum coin.


    "This is going to make money," chuckled Quinn as he transmuted and charmed a piece of quartz to take the shape of the yer. "Once this hits the market, children are going to pester their parents to dish out money."


    "This time, I''m going to fill a bathtub with galleons instead of sickles."


    Quinnughed alone in his workshop as he continued to build a model that he was going to send home for demonstration purposes.


    "Money~. Oh, sweet money~."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Copyright can''t touch me.


    Lily Potter - Professor - Enjoying the nostalgia.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 96 - Aurors, Hit Wizards, And Raid

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    .


    A small, lonely single-story wood cabin built with logs notched at the endsid one upon another with the spaces filled with mortar, stood in a small clearing inside a dense forest. The log cabin was traditional in its design; a sloping, single-gabled timbered roof and small windows.


    Inside the forest trees surrounding the log cabin stood men and women in various attires, although all of their clothes had one thing inmon; all wore some kind of overcoat.


    "Are you sure the intel is solid?" asked a tall, well-built, fair-skinned, handsome man who had lustrous ck hair. The man had an air of casual elegance with a tinge of mischievousness.


    "It''s legit information; Conebush and Clocks saw them gathering inside the cabin," answered a tall, thin man with hazel-colored eyes and untidy ck hair that stuck up at the back. The man was well-groomed and had an indefinable air of confidence.


    "Potter, ck,e on, the Hit Wizards are ready," called out Captain Auror Gawain Robards. "It''s time to infiltrate the site."


    Senior Aurors, James Potter, and Sirius ck turned to face their captain and nodded in response.


    An Auror was a magic-user who acted as a highly trainedw enforcement official for magical governments. Auror training was immensely difficult and intensive, so there were few qualified applicants. Aurors of different countries dealt with different high-risk situations that were most prominent to them. Their training and areas of responsibility varied greatly depending on the type of threats for which they were prepared for and the magical education they had received beforehand.


    The hierarchy within the British Auror''s office went as follows.


    Trainee Auror, -> Junior Auror, -> Senior Auror, -> Captain Auror, -> Head Auror.


    James Potter and Sirius ck were Senior Aurors with a considerable amount of experience. On the other hand, Gawain Robards was a Captain Auror with excellent leadership skills. In charge of his own squad of two Senior Aurors and five Junior Aurors.


    Gawain Robards was one of the few Captain Auror in the Auror Office and reported to the Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour, who was in charge of the entire Auror Office.


    The Department of Magical Law Enforcement had squads of trained Hit Wizards and Witches, whose job was to move out in dire and dangerous situations at a moment''s notice, either to disperse a crowd during riots or to apprehend dangerous wizarding criminals once they had been located.


    While Hit Wizards were trained to fight Dark Wizards, just like the Aurors, Aurors were more of an elite force whose abilities went far beyond simply arresting suspects, such as investigation, concealment, disguise, stealth, tracking, poisons and antidotes. Hit Wizards seemed to be primarily a fighting and controlling force and did high-risk arrests, riot controls, and hostage situations and weren''t trained to investigate crime.


    In non-magical terms, the distinction would be roughlyparable to that of the Homicide and Major Crimes Command and the specialist firearms officers of the Metropolitan Police. In the United States, the equivalent of this would be the differing roles of elite paramilitary units (example, S.W.A.T.)pared to national criminal investigative bodies (example, F.B.I).


    In the current situation where Aurors were going to a potentially dangerous situation, they would call upon Hit Wizards, who had superior offensive training and capabilities.


    Many Aurors and Hit Wizards gathered for the final briefing before they started the operation.


    "ording to the information we have, the log cabin you see there is the meeting ce of the Novellus ionites. Currently, multiple members are in the cabin. We''re going to apprehend them," stated Gawain as he addressed the gathered team. "We all know this is an important mission. Some issues between the higher-ups have dyed this mission; we should''ve been deployed to deal with this situation a long time ago."


    The conflict between the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Head, Madam Amelia Bones, and the Cornelius Fudge''s Minister faction had finally been put aside because of the looming threat from the Novellus ionites.


    "This operation is going to be the first of many. As such, we need to obtain sess so that the higher-ups get off our backs and let us do our work. Failure isn''t an option, so don''t mess up."


    "ck and Buttonwood are going to be at the front. Check for charms and wards, make sure we aren''t detected. I want the element of surprise with us," ordered Gawain, looking at Sirius and Junior Auror Shelly Buttonwood.


    Both Aurors and Hit Wizards were trained in stealth and detection. Sirius ck and Shelly Buttonwood were his two best ward charms experts, so he chose them to make sure they went inside undetected.


    He turned to the four Hit Wizards that had been assigned to him for this operation andmanded, "I want two of you to be behind ck and Buttonwood. We will provide cover for you two, so do crowd control and put them into the backfoot. The other two will be at the back in case of an ambush and will provide further cover."


    "James, you take your two and apprehend as many as you see. Act as a three-man team and handle the hostiles," Gawain instructed James and the two Junior Aurors under him. He then turned to the remaining two Junior Aurors and ordered, "You two will be with me. We''ll be in the center and we will act ording to the situation."


    Looking at the entire team, Gawain finished with, "Take care of yourselves, cover for your teammates, don''t be hasty, trust your partners and work as a squad. Now, let''s get in. ck, cast the group disillusionment spell. Let''s move in formation."


    The team moved in formation as Sirius raised his wand and cast an enchantment that turned a group of people invisible, while the people disillusioned could still see each other. It was a spell used by the more talented Aurors and Hit Wizards that were talented in the field of charms.


    Dull, silvery light was emitted from Sirius''s wand tip in a circr wave, and as it passed through the Aurors and Hit Wizards, they turned invisible to the world.


    "Let''s go,"manded Gawain, and the team silently moved towards the log cabin.


    With Sirius ck and Shelly Buttonwood in the lead, the group moved forward as the two in front continuously cast to check the presence of wards. The two didn''t find any ward until they reached the threshold of the cabin, where they found a detection ward.


    Shelly Buttonwood raised her hand in a fist, which caused everybody to stop. She looked at Sirius, and the Senior Auror nodded before holding his wand vertically. He waved it in a pattern and, slowly, a red tint appeared in front of them and expanded.


    Buttonwood opened her fisted hand and moved her wrist forward to motion the team that it was time to move again.


    Everybody walked ahead and passed through the red tint. The red coloration corresponded to the region whose function had been disabled. As long as everyone passed through the redyer, the detection ward wouldn''t pick anyone up.


    The invisible squad entered the log cabin with a simple unlocking charm, as the door had nothing on it.


    Dust, cobwebs, sheets on furniture, broken tables, chairs, windows,mps, gaps in the floorboards, holes in the walls, chandelier with broken strings of crystals, broken ss on the floor, rust, mildew, ripped curtains, and shadows around the room greeted the team.


    It looked like no one had lived or even visited this ce for ages. But the scouts had clearly reported that they had seen people going inside the abandoned log cabin.


    All sets of eyes looked around the cabin to see the entry point, and one of the Hit Wizards gained everybody''s attention by pointing at the corner of the log cabin. The rest of the team followed the lead and saw crates lined on the floor against the wall.


    The Hit Wizard carefully stepped out of formation, stood in front of the second box from the left, and pointed at the wooden crate.


    It took the rest of the team a couple of seconds to understand what they were looking at before it clicked. The dust pattern on the crate was different from the rest of the boxes. Meaning, it had been moved. And in the abandoned ce, this was the only indication of disturbance.


    Gawain nodded, giving authorization to the hit wizard, who then used his wand to lift the crate and rotate before setting it down. And immediately, a piece of floorboard disappeared to reveal a flight of stairs going underground.


    The team had found one of the meeting ces of the Novellus ionites.


    Gawain pointed at one of the Hit Wizards and James told them to take the lead down the stairs and rearrange the formation to fit the narrow stairs. He also asked two of the junior Aurors to stay in the cabin for safety and lookout.


    The group, part two members, moved down the stone stairs. The stair tunnel was lit with fire torches which had a design of a hand holding a torch.


    The stair tunnel finally opened up in a corridor, and the invisible infiltrators could hear voices from the end of that corridor.


    James alone walked forward with the leading Hit Wizard trailing closely, and the rest of the team followed. As he reached the end of the corridor, James raised his wand and stepped out of the corridor.


    There he discovered the source of the voices. James saw a group of people standing around in small groups talking to each other in an enormous hall. A gathering of men and women who wore the same outfits, talking to each other over wine and confectionaries.


    The same outfits had the Novellus ionites symbol on them, which clearly provided that this was a gathering full of terrorists and the people who supported them.


    He had counted that there were around thirty to thirty-five people in the hall. The mission group had twelve members, and with two people above in the log cabin, the current body count was ten people: one Captain Auror, two Senior Aurors, three Junior Aurors, and four Hit Wizards.


    James noticed that all the people present looked young, but that didn''t give him an idea about their age. Magical kind had slower aging than their non-magical counterparts. Because their lifespan was twice to thrice as long as the non-magical humans, magical humans'' aging had be different.


    First, magical humans usually reached physical maturity earlier than their non-magical counterparts. Most of them reached their physical maturity at eighteen or neen years old (18-19 yrs.). After that, aging slowed down drastically.


    James, who was thirty-three years old (33 yrs. old) this year, didn''t look one day over that of the early twenties. He had this same physical appearance for closer than a decade. And people who were gathered here also looked the same age as him. Despite that, James didn''t know the actual ages of the people.


    After getting a clear picture of the gathering, James gestured for everyone to walk into the hall and take positions. The Aurors and Hit Wizards entered the hall while in formation. They moved very slowly, so their disillusionment didn''t show any distortions.


    Gawain had his arm raised and, when everyone was in their position, he brought his arm down. And that was the signal for everyone to open fire.


    Suddenly, the jolly vibe of the hall changed as spells rained down on the Novellus ionites members. Every single member of the squad rained down Stunning spells on unarmed people.


    Screams filled the hall as the people closest to the squad were hit with stunning spells and, because of the element of surprise and chaos, ten people immediately hit the ground unconscious.


    One of the ionites in the back of the hall didn''t lose calm in the chaos. She threw a Revealing charm toward the group that revealed them to the rest of the party.


    "Aurors!" yelled someone in the hall, and people who were still conscious got their wands out. The hall turned into a battlefield.


    Immediately the squad switched their tactics as some of them switched to defense against the iing spells. Stunning spells were reduced and turned into Disarming spells to get rid of their wands.


    James Potter nced at the chandeliers on the ceiling. And while being covered by a Shield charm, he raised his wand towards the ceiling and cast a transfiguration spell.


    The spell targeted the ss around the candles and turned them into ss birds with sharp beaks, wings, and talons. The vicious birds descended on a group of ionites and started to cut them. The transfigured ss birds were meant to be a distraction as, when ionites tried to get rid of the birds, one of the squad members stunned or disarmed them.


    Auror''s training and areas of responsibility varied greatly depending on the type of threats for which they were prepared and the magical education they received beforehand. Transfiguration became easy to James Potter, so he was the type of duelist that heavily utilized transfiguration. Lots of his spell repertoire were material spells: the silver-shield spell or Arrowhead spells, and other simr spells.


    That is why when one of the ionites shot a killing curse, James immediately used a silver shield spell to block out the green light from reaching his team.


    The state of the battle changed as half the remaining ionites were getting used to the situation. But the mission squad couldn''t let that happen.


    One of the Hit Witches stepped forward and showed how they were different from Aurors. She swung her wand in a grand gesture and shot a huge Explosion charm towards one of the tables, annihting it into pieces. She didn''t stop and continued her aggressive attack and used powerful Banishing charms to violently m ionites into walls, and brutally knock them out.


    Some of the ionites who noticed their dwindling numbers decided to get out of there. Two ionites used apparition to get out. But the thing about apparition was that most people didn''t use apparition because of the danger of splinching and difort, and even those who did use it regrly used it when they were calm.


    Out of the two who apparated, one of them ended up splinching himself because of panic; he left an entire leg behind.


    Within three minutes, thirty-four ionites were disarmed, stunned, and bound by ten Aurors and Hit Wizards. It showed how trained professionals pitted against people who didn''t have the same training.


    "Two escaped," spat Sirius said as he walked towards the splinched leg. He kicked it hard and smirked, "At least they will be feeling like hell."


    "We should''ve set up an anti-apparition ward around the ce," one of the Hit Wizards chimed in as he collected the wand off from the floor.


    The ten squad members walked around the room, bounding people and collecting wands for safety reasons.


    "This is good enough," replied Gawain as he looked at the thirty-something unconscious/injured bodies. "This will get us a task force up and running."


    ...


    The next day, the news about the first sessful raid against Novellus ionites hit the Daily Prophet and other news outlets. The papers, who had been badmouthing theck of action from Auror''s part, were suddenly raining praises on them.


    That same week, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement interrogated all the captured members and put them on trial by the end of the week. Unlike the end of the First Wizarding War, the Light faction was strong this time. So in Wizengamot, the trials didn''t go in favor of the pureblood Novellus ionties.


    Out of the thirty-four people, ten of them were sent to low Dementor-exposure sections for a few years. Three people were sent to medium Dementor-exposure.


    And the rest of those who weren''t guilty of the murder of muggleborns and muggles had their wands taken for a year. To people who heavily depended on wands to perform magic, this was like taking their magic away from them.


    The first raid and trials were the start of a fight against Novellus ionites.


    .


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    .


    James Potter - Senior Auror - Prefers using Transfiguration.


    Sirius ck - Senior Auror - Prefers using Charms.


    Gawain Robards - Captain Auror - Specializes in criminal investigations.


    Hit Wizards - Lucrative career - Starting sry of 700 Galleons per month.


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 97 - Sonar Vision, Another Bout, Tehom’s End

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Working with no light and minimal sensory input was confusing when trying to gain a sense of direction. And when youpletely took away sensory stimuli mostly used to navigate in your life, it created a heavy disability.


    In Quinn''s case, it got more difficult because he wasn''t even sure what side was up. There was no floor beneath his feet. Floating in the deep waters made Quinn''s search area much wider.


    Quinn consciously blinked his eyes to make sure they were open before creating dozens of light orbs with magic. He used some spells that made bright lights and pushed them away from him at a distance in the water.


    ''Whoever made this vault thought things through,'' thought Quinn, observing the lights in the distance.


    The light orbs that he had released immediately went dull as they moved away from Quinn. A couple feet away and Quinn could barely see any light. And the problem wasn''t in the spell; they were properly functioning. It was just that the water inside Tehom''s Delight interfered with the propagation of light.


    Quinn conjured another light orb between his hands and stared at the very dull light that should''ve been very bright. Feeling the water around the light orb, Quinn felt that the water had formed a peculiarposition that didn''t allow the light to travel through the water.


    The second trial area had made the use of light useless. Using light inside there to provide any form of usable visibility wasn''t a viable option. The lights were dulled to the point that any light source was barely visible.


    ''This is fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.'' Admired Quinn the water, even though it made his work there difficult, ''Not sure where I can use this, though.''


    Quinn dispelled the lights and concentrated on his magic to use another approach to navigate.


    A very brief burst of water magic emitted from Quinn, and a circr wave traveled outwards. Quinn couldn''t see his magic, but vibrations were clearly detectable to him.


    Human echolocation was the human ability to actively create sound and detect objects in their environment by sensing the echoes those objects made. People trained to orient with echolocation could interpret the sound waves reflected by nearby objects and urately identify their location and size.


    Visually impaired humans mostly used it to navigate their surroundings by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their feet, snapping their fingers, or making clicking noises with their mouths. They interpreted the sound echo from the objects in their surroundings.


    What Quinn used was a highly advanced form of echolocation, made possible through water magic. By immersing himself in water, Quinn attempted to ''feel'' and ''see'' even the most minute aquatic vibrations in the earth. But instead of using sound waves, Quinn used aquatic vibrations, and instead of using his sense of hearing, he used his sense of touch.


    By sending pulses of water into his surroundings, Quinn hoped that his sense of touch, or more specifically, the mechanoreceptors in his skin that responded to mechanical pressure or distortions, would give him some clues about the area drowned inplete darkness.


    ''No returns again,'' thought Quinn. He had been doing this for two weeks, but not once had he gotten a hit. ''Time to switch frequency.''


    Quinn started practicing this method of detection in the Great Lake. There he had gotten great results within days and, within a week, Quinn ended up developing the skill that allowed him to have a rough position of the objects that were nearby him.


    He was recalling the time when he used his version of an underwater sonar against the best target practice.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn was standing inside the waters of the Great Lake as he looked down at the Kraken.


    If he had to be honest, Quinn wasn''t sure about his rtionship with the Kraken. Quinn had tussled against the Kraken four times, but only once he had been able to get past the titanic creature. And that was because he had taken the Kraken by surprise.


    Quinn wasn''t sure if he would win a fifth-round against a fully alert and ready Kraken. One thing was for sure, though. Which was; if the Kraken and Quinn had yed cat and mouse every time Quinn visited the third vault then, at least fifty percent of the times, Quinn would have been thrown out of theke.


    ''Thank God, that isn''t the case. I can''t afford to fight the Kraken every day,'' thought Quinn as he stared at the Kraken''s main body.


    The cephalopod had its eyes closed and looked like it was sleeping. So Quinn did the only sensible thing, raised his hand and shot a powerful cannon st of water towards the Kraken.


    The second the water st hit the Kraken, it opened its yellow eyes and stared at Quinn with confusion and slight annoyance.


    "Yeah, you get up. Now isn''t the time to sleep," smirked Quinn and immediately sent two more water cannon sts towards the Kraken.


    The reason behind his actions was that every time Quinn exited the third vault after a session of exploration, the Kraken would push Quinn down to theke bed and then proceed to ignore him. The Kraken would throw ''seaweed'' in his face before he entered the tunnel and then, proceed to ignore him.


    And that confused the heck out of Quinn. He couldn''t understand why the Kraken was messing with him. Quinn had tried to stop it, but the Kraken only stopped for a day before messing with Quinn again.


    So Quinn decided to channel his annoyance and irritation to productivity... and picked a fight with the Kraken.


    "Come on, you big squid bully. Let''s get some use out of you," smirked Quinn as he continued to shoot blunt water sts that wouldn''t injure the Kraken but had enough to push its body around. Just like what the Kraken did to Quinn.


    The Kraken felt irritated from being awakened from its nap and from the continuous body blows from Quinn. It raised its two tentacles, and both moved towards Quinn, bringing a smile to the target''s face.


    "Now we are talking!" grinned Quinn and pped his hand in front of himself, and immediately the surrounding water with Quinn in the center turned ck. Waves and waves of ck erupted, covering everything in inky ck.


    Now both the Kraken and Quinn had their vision impaired by the opacity of ck water.


    Practical learning was what suited Quinn. So that''s why he had decided to learn aquatic sonar detection. As Quinn personally learned better with stress and pressure, he picked up a fight with the Kraken, rather than just sitting around and just detect the grindylows hiding in the weeds.


    ''Activating Sonar. Test one, burst frequency: 40 kHz.''


    One spherical wave of water exuded outwards with Quinn as the source.


    Then, Quinn waited, waited for a response, a response from the Kraken''s iing tentacles.


    Quinn had trust in the method. He was sure that the special water wave created from his water magic would return to him before the Kraken''s tentacle.


    And it did.


    Quinn felt vibrations with traces of magice back to him. The traces of magic marking the vibrations in the water told him that these vibrations were from the water wave he had exuded.


    ''Ah, so this is how it feels when something is rushing at you. The haptics are amazing,'' wondered Quinn with a smile blooming his face as he waved his hand to his right, and a wall of ice manifested moments before a tentacle came swimming towards Quinn.


    "Oh, Kraken! It''s time to y!"ughed Quinn and immediately moved from his spot and once again started sending water waves out.


    ''Test two, burst frequency - 47 kHz.''


    ''Test three, burst frequency - 51 kHz.''


    .


    .


    .


    ''Test fifteen, burst frequency - 93 kHz.''


    Spherical waves upon waves with different speeds and amplitudes rolled out from Quinn and spread out in the water. Every different frequency of the water wave sent back distinct vibrations, so when Quinn''s haptic sense sensed them, he ''saw'' something miraculous.


    Quinn received tons and tons of vibrations that he would feel against his skin. Usually, his haptic sense wouldn''t be able to differentiate these vibrations independently. But with his magic marking the vibrations, he ended up having the skill to discern them: which was, as Quinn thought, a mix of haptic and magical.


    His lumency aided brain was able to handle the mass informationing to him and quickly interpret it into understandable information for him to perceive.


    "I can see it! I can see it all," gasped Quinn as he looked to his front and even with his eyes showing inky ckness. He could even ''see'' the enormous body of the Kraken and the five tentacles racing towards him.


    It was like another world had been opened to him. Quinn could ''see'' his surroundings in all directions instead of just the normal span in front of him. The ability to observe both in the front and the back was an amazing and novel experience that Quinn absolutely loved.


    He detected every tentacle and could see them as they closed on him. Quinn readied his magic. He didn''t use ice magic to block the tentacles, but decided to go with the riskier option and evade the tentacles by swimming through the iing entanglement of tentacles.


    The water magic, which struggled against the Kraken''s tentacles'' speed, had been tempered against the chaos of Poseidon''s Wrath, so it was no longer the same. All the time Quinn had spent working out on harsh waters made swimming inside water much easier.


    Water undted around Quinn as he darted in faster than any creature inside the Great Lake. The water magic user swam quicker than the fastest non-magical fish, the ck marlin, which had a top speed of 129km/h (80 mph)! He swam at a pace of over 200km/h (124.27 mph).


    With abnormal dexterity and speed, Quinn, twisted and turned around by the five tentacles, avoided every single of them by inches.


    With every passing second, Quinn''s mind ran at a faster speed than before. Itputed and calcted, and he made micro-decisions as the frequency, speed, amplitude, density of the waves that changed.


    With every adjustment, Quinn''s ''vision'' became better and sharper, which allowed him to truly ''see''.


    It was instinct.


    It was intuition.


    It was magic.


    ...


    The Kraken, who had been trying to get back at Quinn for waking him up, felt a little frustrated because of the ck water. The ck water didn''t hinder It that much, but the Kraken was sure that this was why it wasn''t able to catch the tiny human. Otherwise, it would have smacked the tiny human, pushed him around a little, before throwing him out of his home.


    But then, the Kraken saw that the ck water returned to normal. Finally, it was able to see the tiny human floating at a distance away, and he had his eyes closed.


    The Kraken didn''t think much of it and sent seven of its tentacles after the tiny human. But what the Kraken saw surprised it because the tiny human seemed to control water much better than before and even with its seven tentacles, the tiny human seemed rxed as he dodged all of them.


    Eight... Nine... Ten tentacles were sent after the tiny human, but the tiny human dodged every one of them without a problem. Even when it increased the speed, the tiny human continued to swim around its tentacle and refused toe into its grasp.


    It was at that time that the Kraken''s five hearts started to beat faster. It had been a while since the mighty beast of the water had felt this way.


    Even though it liked to live harmoniously and spend its time in peace. The titanic creature was, as its name suggested, a Kraken. It was the legendary creature that was famous for sinking ships.


    Now seeing something that it couldn''t catch, the Kraken became excited, and the natural, primal instincts came up to the surface.


    The Kraken wanted to go all out.


    It wanted to face the challenge of the tiny human. No. The special human.


    Yellow eyes shined with rigor, and theke shook uncountable tall, massive tentacles fully came out and raised themselves. Fully showcasing the legitimate size of the titanic creature.


    The grindylows all around scurried into their weed homes because of the tremors in theke. The fishes panicked as they ran to find ces to hide. In the distance, the merpeople in their vige looked in the Kraken''s direction with fear.


    Quinn, who was now exclusively using the water sonar vision to perceive his surroundings, felt the tremors from the Kraken and had to adjust his magic to work in the great disturbance, and what Quinn saw shocked him.


    Before, he had thought that the Kraken was already a giant. But now, with it standing tall with all of its tentacles out. Quinn finally understood that the creature in front of him was a titan on a different level.


    It was so shocking that Quinn opened his eyes to actually see the Kraken, and he wasn''t disappointed because the Kraken was absolutely massive.


    Instead of feeling scared and regretful about his decision of provoking the Kraken, Quinn''s heart pumped hard as an enthusiastic grin stretched on his face.


    The water around Quinn erupted with energy as heughed in the water and felt the rush of excitement.


    He closed his eyes as waves of water restarted going out. The sonar vision returned as Quinn yelled, "Yeah,e on!"


    That day, the Great Lake''s residents spent the day in anxiousness, as tentacles, masses of ice, and undtions of water shook the entireke.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The day Quinn battled the Kraken while the legendary beast tried to catch him for over an hour was definitely one of the highlights of his year.


    The progress he had made that day was so extensive that Quinn felt he hadn''t learned something so quickly in his entire life. The only thing that he couldpare it with was the month Quinn spent regaining his magic.


    But right now, even that progress wasn''t enough, as Quinn was struggling inside Tehom''s Delight.


    ''The vibrations ain''t returning,'' sighed Quinn as he kept on sending more and more waves out.


    The waters in Tehom''s Delight were eerie still, and unlike the Great Lake, Quinn couldn''t sense any ambient vibrations that weren''t traced by him. The natural water vibrations gave Quinn a passive aquatic sensory vision, while his marked vibrations gave him the specifics and increased his perception to another level.


    But there was nothing in Tehom''s Delight. No vibrations at all, nothing that would give him any clue about his situation. Even the feedback vibrations that were caused by his water magic didn''t return to him.


    ''I''m so lost,'' murmured Quinn as he crossed his legs in lotus position and ''sat'' down.


    Quinn tried to swim in one direction to see if he could reach some kind of edge, but after spending a three-hour session swimming that way, Quinn ended up without finding any sort of edge or boundary.


    ''Hmm... maybe I should send out stronger waves,'' theorized Quinn as he thought about how to clear this room. ''But how do I keep them stable. Stronger andrger waves copse into themselves.''


    Tehom''s Delight made people clear their heads, let go of all thoughts and rx. And that was a feature of this trial that Quinn despised because of how it affected him.


    But the same feature was great when one wanted to think about problems. If one could concentrate, then the no external stimtion environment heightened the ability to analyze and meditate upon problems.


    And that showed, as Quinn arrived at a solution after thinking about the problem inside Tehom''s Delight.


    ''I need to increase the wavelength and amplitude of my waves for extra stability. Yeah, what was it? Ah, yes,rge-amplitude ocean waves with certain shapes can propagate unchanged.''


    Quinn had read about ocean waves while he was studying water magic and, in there, it was written that certain oceanic waves could retain their shapes for a long time and travel enormous distances without losing their form.


    Without getting up, Quinn regted his water magic and created a wave of water with arge wavelength and amplitude so that the waves would have deep and long crests and troughs.


    He sent multiple spherical waves at regr intervals for half a minute before kicking back and waiting for the feedback.


    Quinn waited for a minute for the feedback and sighed in disappointment when nothing returned.


    ''I need to think something out. This isn''t worki- !!!''


    Quinn''s thoughts were cut off when he felt a very faint of his magic returned as feedback and caused his eyes to widen like saucers.


    ''Holy shit, they came back!''


    Every single wave he sent came back with a very faint feedback, but Quinn concentrated hard to catch all those faint signals.


    Immediately afterward, Quinn used lumency to increase his immersion in the memory and increased his connection with the memory. This was something Quinn did every time he thought something was very important that he needed to be at his fingertips.


    After several minutes, Quinn was finally able to get the level of recall that he wanted on a few seconds of memories.


    "I know what I want to do."


    Quinn took a big gulp of water for oxygen before extending both of his hands. Quinn readied the water magic and used his hands as sources of the waves. He started to send out simultaneous waves.


    The two waves matched each other, creating a unified wave with the help of a nifty little concept known as constructive interference. The resulting waves were stronger than the individual ones and were much more stable.


    After a while, feedback returned, rtively louder than before but still weaker than he would''ve liked.


    ''I found it! Yes, I found it!'' celebrated Quinn, turning towards his back as that was the direction from where he sensed something. ''There is nothing in here, so that must be the exit!''


    He kept on sending waves to get a continuous sense of the direction because Quinn was sure that Tehom''s Delight messed up with his directional perception.


    After swimming for a mere minute at full speed, Quinn arrived at the ce, and now that he was so close to the anomaly he detected, things were much clearer. The sonar vision was showing him a clear triangr ''entrance.''


    It wasn''t a traditional entrance in the sense that there wasn''t any door, doorframe, or anything that showed that it was an entrance of some sort.


    Quinn''s sonar vision, nheless, demonstrated there was a triangr spot of water reacting differently.


    ''No text of any kind,'' noticed Quinn. He wondered whether to enter then or not.


    After some thinking, Quinn decided to get in there and stepped into the triangr water. He immediately disappeared from Tehom''s Delight, leaving behind a representation of ocean depths where no light ever reached.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Can turn into Toph, and Daredevil while in water.


    Kraken - Messed with Quinn because it was fun - While peace-loving, some excitement is always appreciated.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    ]


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 98 - Hadal Encumbrance, And Apologising

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [This chapter isn''t edited. I did go through it before posting, but I am not good at this, so have fun!]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    After another water teleportation, Quinn arrived at an appropriately lit area, and immediately his eyes hurt, causing him to wince.


    "Ugh, should''ve seen thating," grunted Quinn and squinted his eyes to let them adjust to the new lighting. After a few seconds, when his eyes adjusted to the light, he opened them up and looked around.


    "Much better."


    Looking at his surroundings, Quinn found he was standing on a white marbled floor and was inside a cylindrical room with walls that matched the white marble floor.


    When he looked up, Quinn saw that the ceiling of the room was around twenty feet high. In the walls of the cylindrical room were crystals, iid in a grid pattern that went up to the ceiling, bathing the room in bright white light.


    The next feature of the room that caught Quinn''s eyes was the circr hole in the marbled floor. Quinn measured with his eyes and guessed that the circr floor had a fifteen-feet diameter, while the hole in the middle of the floor was of a ten-feet diameter.


    Quinn walked closer to the hole and squatted near the edge.


    "More water, huh," Quinn breathed out and touched the water with his hand, and at first touch, nothing stood out to him.


    "What is the deal with this one?" asked Quinn to himself, and he got the answer when Quinn turned his head and looked at the wall behind. "Ah, there it is. Let''s see..."


    .


    ¡¸<-~| HADAL ENCUMBRANCE |~->¡¹


    .


    "Hadal Encumbrance, now what in the name of Tehom does that mean?" sighed Quinn as he moved closer to the words etched on the wall with a bold and grand font.


    "Encumbrance, now that is a big boy word," chuckled Quinn and crossed his arms as he stared at the wall. "An impediment or burden. Yeah, that checks out. At least it isn''t something like delight. This gives me so much relief... And, there is Hadal. What does that mean? Pretty sure a mythological reference."


    He turned back to the ''well'' filled with water and wondered, "Now, what is the impediment or burden inside there." He walked to the edge and looked down to see if he could see the bottom of the water-filled hole, and surprisingly, Quinn could see the end clearly.


    "Oh, there is the exit. Oh my, what a... pleasant... surprise," spoke Quinn as he stared down into the water. There saw the triangr exit on the floor of the cylindrical well. "I am getting weird. Why can''t I just feel safe when I see positive signs. The side-effects of being a veteran are so stressful."


    Quinn squinted to read the wording of the next door, but the text was too far away for him to make out the words.


    "I guess I would just have to dive inside to see the words clearly," hummed Quinn and then rubbed the royal blue insignia on his arm, wondering about his next n of action.


    "Well, let''s start slow," decided Quinn, and dipped his legs inside the water before slipping down into the blue waters.


    From the second his body submerged into the water, Quinn put himself on full alert and very slowly let himself slip down the water.


    ''Hmm?! This...''


    Immediately, Quinn felt something off. As Quinn continued to sink inch by inch, the pressure around his body started to increase at an elerated rate.


    The density of water causes ambient pressures that increase dramatically with depth. But right now, Quinn could feel that same pressure increasing unnaturally, something that wouldn''t happen at the shallow depth Quinn was currently at.


    ''Underwater atmospheric pressure is increasing!'' thought Quinn, and he understood what the trial title''s meant. ''So this is the encumbrance, huh. Certainly, this is a burden.''


    He looked at the distance he had sunk and then at the depth that Quinn had to sink to get to the bottom. He had barely sunk down five percent of the total depth, and already Quinn could feel a considerable amount of pressure.


    ''T-The pressure at the bottom must be incredible, huh,'' thought Quinn, but then a smirk appeared on his face. ''But this is not that serious, is it?''


    Quinn cast magic, and water magic showed its charm to create a sphere of water around him. The pressure that Quinn was feeling disappearedpletely. It was like he was swimming at the base sea level.


    "I can use water magic to adjust the water pressure," smirked Quinn before a serious expression appeared on his face. "Now, let''s see how deep I can go."


    Quinn had observed the increase in the pressure in his five percent descent, and if the development in water pressure was linear, then with Quinn''s calctions, he didn''t believe that he could cancel out it after a certain point.


    "At least I would get some data to work with." Quinn gulped in some water and restarted his descent.


    ...


    Ten percent mark: Quinn didn''t break a sweat and continued on.


    "What did the ocean say to the shore?" "Nothing. It just waved." "Then it became salty because thend didn''t wave back."


    ...


    Twenty percent mark: Quinn had to put in some conscious effort to cancel out the pressure.


    "A cube of ice flexed on a ss of water by saying, I was water before it was cool."


    ...


    Thirty percent mark: Quinn began feeling some difficulty in canceling out the pressure.


    "The hipster fish didn''t swim in the river because it was too mainstream."


    ...


    Forty percent mark: Quinn had his eyes closed to concentrate and was solely focused on resisting the pressure.


    ''How do you make holy water?'' ''You boil the hell out of it.''


    ...


    Fifty percent mark: The water sphere around Quinn maintained at normal atmospheric pressure and started to ripple at the boundaries.


    ''R.I.P boiled water, you will be mist.''


    ...


    Sixty percent mark: The protective sphere around Quinn had reduced to half the size it was in the fifty percent mark and was rippling wildly at the boundaries, and it looked like it was going to copse.


    ''...''


    ...


    Quinn didn''t descend beyond the sixty percent mark, deciding to stay at the spot. Any more than that and Quinn wouldn''t be able to keep normal atmospheric pressure.


    It would start to slip, and the pressure would increase. Some slippage wasn''t bad, but it turned out that while the increment in pressure was linear, the slope on the graph was too steep. If Quinn went down from his current spot, the pressure would start to slip too quickly and causeplications inside his body.


    Nitrogen narcosis, the ''narks,'' starts with the perception of euphoria and over-confidence but then leads to numbness and memory impairment simr to alcohol intoxication. Those symptoms were never a good sign and especially not in the current situation.


    If he took the chance and couldn''t handle the pressure and then tried toe up a bit too quickly, Quinn would suffer from dpression sickness, or the ''bends'' and excess inert gas left the solution in the blood and tissues forming bubbles. Since bubbles could be developed in or migrated to any part of the body, they produced many symptoms, and its effects may vary from joint pain and rashes to paralysis and death.


    His body could suffer from Bone degeneration and could injure while he was inside the water. Those injuries might cause him to lose control of the pressure sphere and cause furtherplications.


    And above all of that, there was a danger of oxygen toxicity resulting from the harmful effects of breathing molecr oxygen at increased partial pressures. Severe cases could result in cell damage and death, with effects most often seen in the central nervous system, lungs, and eyes which would be fatal in his current environment.


    Immediately Quinn swam back up, and because he was at normal atmospheric pressure, he was able toe out quickly withoutplications that deep divers needed to look out when emerging from deep down below.


    "... Sixty percent cleared, not bad for the first try. I was totally expecting to escape using teleportation,"ughed Quinn after taking deep breaths to recover from the rtively heavy magic exertion that was used to hold back the pressure.


    "How much was that? Six hundred times the normal atmospheric pressure? How much is that? It is definitely more than the sperm whale can handle," shrugged Quinn because he didn''t know the exact pressure values. "I need to see how much pressure is that in terms of underwater depth levels."


    Overall, Quinn was feeling really good because, in a single day, he was able to clear Tehom''s delight and had made substantial progress with Hadal Encumbrance. This level of progress was first for Quinn.


    "After the water wave sonar progress against the Kraken, things are going good for Quinn. Good job, buddy,"ughed Quinn as he patted himself on the back before triggering teleportation insignia on his arm.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn was reading his ass off in the Hogwarts library about how to deal with water pressure. He had books on water magic sprawled in front of him. Quinn had already gone through his own ever-growing collection and the books he could find in the Room of Requirements.


    The amount of information he had read on water magic increased by the day, and Quinn enjoyed studying water magic more than any magic he was learning these days.


    Quinn was so immersed in his reading that he didn''t realize that someone had walked near his table.


    "Quinn."


    The person frowned when Quinn didn''t respond and continued to read.


    "Quinn."


    The person called out again, and once again, Quinn didn''t respond. So the person crossed to Quinn''s side of the table and tapped him on his shoulder.


    "West!"


    Quinn trembled in his chair at the touch on his shoulder. His concentration snapped, and he returned out of the world of him and the book in front of him to hear someone call him.


    He turned and raised his head to see the person who called him.


    "Why would you call me by myst name?" asked Quinn with a frown of confusion of marring his brows.


    "You didn''t seem to respond to your given name. So I thought you forgot it," humphed Daphne Greengrass with her chin raised.


    "Alright, calm down. No need to be snarky," replied Quinn, and gestured her to take a seat. "You just caught me at the wrong time. I wasn''t cognizant of my surroundings. Please take a seat."


    Quinn took out his fake wand, and with azy swing, the books closed and set themselves into neat stacks at the side of the table. Another fake wave and a transparent dome manifested around their table. Starting from the top, and flowing down to the floor, before stabilizing and no longer visible.


    "What was that?" asked Daphne as she sat down in the chair opposite Quinn. "The dome that just appeared over us."


    "That was a simple privacy ward," replied Quinn as he ced his fake wand back into the wand holster. "To be more urate. It was a sound-isting ward. Any sound that is made inside the cover of the dome won''t get out. We are going to talk, and I don''t want Madam Pince hounding at us because we were making too much noise."


    "All sound?" inquired Daphne as he put some books on the table.


    "All sounds," nodded Quinn before borating. "Well, if we go above a certain limit, the ward will break, and sound will go out. But I don''t think it is humanly possible for two of us to produce the decibels to break the ward I cast. At least without magic, that is."


    "I can teach it to you. It is actually simple," offered Quinn with a simple smile on his face.


    Daphne stared at him but didn''t give responded. And Quinn didn''t notice the look in Daphne''s eyes because he was looking at her books.


    "Oh my, that book has potion recipes for that are on the level of fifth-year and sixth-year students,"mented Quinn when he recognized the book. He had referenced that book in his first year of Hogwarts. "Now that is some advanced reading. I have read it so ask me if you have any problems."


    "... You probably think that I won''t be able to understand without your help, don''t you?" asked Daphne with her eyes narrowing a fraction.


    Quinn, who had just offered help, stopped and stared at Daphne, confused at her words. But he could tell that Daphne wasn''t happy with him.


    "I am sorry? What do you mean by that?"


    "Bubble-head charm, sixth-year charm, do you remember," answered Daphne, her words to the point and concise.


    The stone grey-eyed boy thought about the keywords, and it took him a moment, but he recalled what Daphne was talking about.


    "The day you girls came to my office after you saw me in theke," spoke Quinn.


    He remembered that he ended up implying that the girls wouldn''t be able to learn the sixth-year spell as they were in the third year. But he only said that to dissuade them from going into theke and move away from theke topic.


    Daphne didn''t say anything and just stared at Quinn, making full eye contact.


    "Well, I am sorry if I ended up offending you. It was wrong of me to imply that," apologized Quinn because if he was, to be honest, anyone with decent enough magic knowledge could cast charms above their grade level with a focus.


    And now that Quinn thought about it. To him, who liked magic a bit too much, that sounded like a pretty intense insult.


    "I did think about what I said after you left, and from I know about you. I was pretty sure that you won''t forget about it and thought you would prove me wrong."


    Quinn pointed at the books that Daphne had brought and continued,


    "And looks like I was right. You proved me wrong by learning outside of what they learn in the ssroom. Not many people study ahead of the year material, and you taking the initiative, learning more about magic, impresses me a lot."


    Quinn smiled broadly and wholeheartedly praised her, "So, Daphne Greengrass, I was wrong, and you can aplish anything you want."


    A small smile surfaced on Daphne''s face, "Good thing you understand."


    "It''s a good thing, indeed," nodded Quinn in agreement.


    ...


    A distance away from Quinn and Daphne''s table, two people were looking at the pair.


    "Both of them are smiling," said Tracey Davis, looking at the pair.


    "Yeah, they are," nodded Astoria Greengrass as she stared at her sister. "Daph smiling in public. Now, that is rare."


    "What do you think they are talking about?" asked Tracey, curious about what her best friend and her favorite Ravenw were talking about.


    Astoria shrugged before asking, "Does my sister like Quinn? You know as in like, like."


    The sudden question surprised Tracey but then gave it some thought before answering: "I am not sure. But between like and dislike, I will say that she definitely likes Quinn, but that is obvious. As for if she ''likes'' Quinn, hmm, that is a difficult question. She hasn''t talked to me about any of that stuff."


    Astoria nodded, and the two continued to watch as Quinn chuckled, and Daphne still had a small smile on her face, but things changed quickly.


    "Oh, why is Daphne pulling out her wand? She isn''t smiling anymore," Tracey asked at the sudden change. "Quinn is raising his hand in surrender but is still smiling. What did he say?"


    "... Ah, I might have told him about the time when Daphne sneaked into the kitchen at night for ice cream and got caught," replied Astoria, and then immediately froze when she saw Quinn raise his arm to point in their direction.


    "Crap, she saw me. Try to slow her down for me," asked Astoria before running away to escape her angry sister, who had gotten up from her chair and was looking mad with anger.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Immersed in water magic.


    Daphne Greengrass - Smart Slytherin - "Astoria!"


    Astoria Greengrass - Lil'' sister - "You will never catch me!"


    Tracy Davis - Confused - "... What? What happened?"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 99 - Golden Boy Comes Looking For Answers

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    People came into the room with their problems. They sat in the chairs, talked about what troubled them, opened up, and poured their worries onto the man behind the table. When they were done, the young man behind the table would give a solution, and the people would leave happier than when they entered.


    Not all problems were memorable, and the man behind the table encountered the same types of problems every day. So when people came with unique questions, the man became happy because it made his job fun and interesting.


    And it turned out that today was the day that he was going to get to talk to a person with quite the memorable issue.


    ...


    Quinn was standing in front of a potion cauldron watching the Fanta orange liquid simmering slowly over medium heat.


    There was a sheet of paper floating with a clip on it. A pen was levitating above the paper, which was controlled by Quinn. Its purpose was to write notes about the potion.


    Walking over to a nearby wall side table, Quinn looked down at a long brown worm with red veins all over its body.


    "Braid Wigglers. My god, these things are gross," said Quinn, disgust clear in his voice.


    Nheless, despite the heavy disgust in his voice, Quinn put on himself a thin white cloth glove. And without hesitation, he picked a very thin scalpel and started to cut the body of the worm.


    Blood spilled onto the wooden board. But because of charms on the wood beneath, the blood beaded up on the surface of the wooden board. Quinn had charmed the surface of the wood to be hydrophobic. Any liquid that made contact with the wood wouldn''t get absorbed but would end up beading on the top.


    The beaded up blood slid to the side of the board and drained out the board through a small outlet pipe built into the wood board into a container forter experimentation.


    ''Uwaa, gross, so gross,'' thought Quinn, even though he was enthusiastically cutting the worm and poking the magical worm''s internal organs.


    ''Yuck, to think that something this gross worm would grow inside a person and at maturity would try to escape through the rectum,'' gagged Quinn and recalled what he learned about the Braid Wigglers. ''Holy crap, look at these ws; these would surely rupture the inner lining of the colon as it wriggles out of the anus. Haha, so gross~.''


    The Braid Wigglers was just one of the many parasitic creatures that used a magical human''s body as the host. Quinn had been reading about all kinds of these creatures as a part of his Healing magic education.


    The Fanta orange-colored liquid brewing inside the cauldron was a potion that killed the Braid Wiggler and dissolved its remains into something more suitable for passing out of the body naturally.


    "I would like even more to operate on a person who has a fully matured Braid Wiggler inside their body, though. Those need to be taken out through surgery," muttered Quinn as he beckoned the clipboard and operated the pen through magic to take notes on the dissected Braid Wiggler.


    As Quinn continued to take biological observations on the dissected Briad Wiggler and kept an eye on the cauldron brewing potion, he heard the door chime ring.


    "Now?" groaned Quinn as he looked at the ss wall as if trying to look through it before looking at the bloody Braid Wiggler. "I''ll be back; you wait here." A tender green pyramid-shaped ward manifested around the bloody carcass of the centipede-like creature for temporary preservation purposes.


    He walked towards the workshop door and gave a cursory nce to the potion, checking the progress.


    ''Hmm... another half hour of simmering before I need to touch it. That would be enough,'' noted Quinn as he walked past the cauldron.


    Quinn was about to put a hand on the door''s handle when he noticed that he was still wearing the bloody gloves.


    "Oops," blinked Quinn. He removed the gloves and tossed them into the cleaning hamper with other dirty gloves. ''That would''ve been bad. If I went out wearing those.''


    Just before opening the door, in a second, Quinn fixed his clothes with magic. He opened the door and entered his office with what he called a ''TV host''s'' smile on his face.


    "Pardon the wait," Quinn said, greeting the person that was in the room as he closed the door to the workshop. When he looked up at the client, he trailed off, "Thank you for your patience..."


    In his office stood Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, The Chosen One, The-One-With-The-Scar, and other titles that people use to refer to the boy who had been credited with vanquishing thetest Dark Lord.


    "Mr. Potter, wee to A.I.D.," said Quinn as he sat down on his barstool, turning into ''the man behind the table''. "How may I help you today? Please take a seat, make yourselffortable."


    Harry silently sat down on the chair while keeping his gaze on Quinn.


    Ever since he could remember, Harry recalled the way people looked at him. Anyone who wasn''t a friend or family would immediately look at his forehead to nce at the infamous scar. And, because of that, Harry had been conscious of how people looked at him.


    Over time, he hade to judge people depending on where their eyes went while talking to him. Harry was fine with people ncing at the scar once and had be used to it; to Harry, it was the norm. If they nced at the scar from time to time during their talk, Harry''s view of that person would drop considerably. But if they spend their entire time looking at the scar, Harry would deem them as someone who wasn''t worth talking to.


    In the very few meetings Harry had with Quinn West, he had noticed that Quinn hadn''t looked at his scar even once. Not a single time had Harry seen Quinn look at his scar. He didn''t show any interest whatsoever.


    Even now, Quinn hadn''t looked at his forehead scar once. And that only happened with family members or the people whom he had spent a lot of time with. When he entered the room. Quinn gave him a look over him before maintaining firm eye contact.


    So even before talking to Quinn West, Harry''s impression of him had improved considerably.


    "I''m here to get answers to some questions," started Harry after making himselffortable in his chair.


    "Of course, if you''ve questions, we at A.I.D will do everything possible to answer them," nodded Quinn, internally interested in what Harry Potter had in his mind.


    "What can you tell me about Peter Pettigrew?" asked Harry bluntly while watching Quinn''s reaction trying to see if he could glean something out of his expression.


    But Quinn had been subtly using his lumency to control his expression. The summer vacation had taught him lots of things, and one of those was to fake facial expressions when he had to detach from real emotions using emotional lumency.


    There were three levels of emotional detachment provided by emotional lumency: One, detaching emotions from your face. Two, detaching emotions so that they would be a buzz in the back of the head, reducing the bluntness of said emotions in the judgment-making process. The third andst level was topletely cut off emotions from magic.


    One had to activate the previous levels to activate the next level. And currently, Quinn was only using level one of emotional detachment. Which he usually did when he was cautious.


    Before the sin curse, Quinn wouldn''t use level two much. He didn''t use level three at all. But, after the sin curse, Quinn had developed a dislike for levels two and three because detaching his emotions didn''t feel good. He only proceeded to level two when he was at a heavy disadvantage.


    Using emotional lumency to control facial expressions drained every emotion from the user. And that was just parading the fact that someone was using lumency to hide their emotions. But that could be bypassed by simply faking the facial expression, which was what Quinn was doing.


    It surprised Quinn that Harry asked him about Peter Pettigrew, but he didn''t show that surprise on his face.


    "You would''ve to be more precise with your questions, Mr. Potter."


    The first rule that Quinn abided by when giving out information was to not answer vague or broad questions. Quinn wanted the requester to ask precise questions so that they only got the information that they asked for. It was just something Quinn did to make them think they were getting more information because they would ask multiple questions.


    There were exceptions to this rule, but currently, those exceptions didn''t apply because the inquiry from Harry raised some questions in Quinn''s mind.


    Harry took a moment in silence to think of a more well-defined question.


    He knew that Peter Pettigrew was a Death Eater. The problem was that before returning to Hogwarts this year, he had heard a talk between his father, James Potter, and his godfather, Sirius ck, and from what he was able to eavesdrop, they were having a pretty heated discussion.


    At that time, Harry had thought little of that conversation and believed that the two Aurors were talking about a Death Eater''s escape.


    Then, he would asionally hear conversations about Peter Pettigrew from multiple individuals across the year: his mother; Lily Potter, uncle/professor Remus Lupin, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick all had talked about him sometimes.


    After hearing so much about that person, Harry got interested in Peter Pettigrew. He asked multiple people about the Death Eater, but no matter who he asked, the people would invariably change the subject without telling him anything.


    The only thing he knew about Peter Pettigrew was that the man was a Death Eater. And that had been in Azkaban for twelve years before breaking out this year.


    "What did Peter Pettigrew do to end up in Azkaban?" asked Harry.


    Quinn, who had been sitting on his barstool, nodded at the question.


    The second the words Peter Pettigrew came out of Harry Potter''s mouth, Quinn made an executive decision to use Legilimency to infiltrate Harry''s mind.


    ''His shield is weaker than his sister''s,'' thought Quinn as he broke in without the bespectacled Potter''s knowledge.


    And as Harry was thinking about what to ask, Quinn snooped around and found the entire backstory about why Harry came asking about the question.


    ''He doesn''t know the details about the night he got the scar. His parents and family haven''t told him about Peter Pettigrew''s involvement.''


    Quinn saw some memories that showed some major decisions from James Potter and Lily Potter or Marauders in general. Quinn was able to make a quick nce of a photo wall in the Potter cottage.


    ''They erased Pettigrew from all the photos. They erased every evidence that Pettigrew ever existed as their friend while in Hogwarts.''


    That didn''t surprise Quinn. Given what they lost that day, it''s no wonder that they didn''t want to have any memories of Peter Pettigrew.


    ''This Harry Potter is insightful,'' thought Quinn when he heard Harry''s surface thoughts. ''He knows how most of the Death Eaters escaped imprisonment because of the Imperius curse defense. Not surprising given that his father is an Auror.''


    Harry realized that the only Death Eaters who went to Azkaban were outspoken and fanatic supporters of Voldemort.


    Twelve Death Eaters had gone to Azkaban after the war; Betrix Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Barty Crouch Jr., Augustus Rookwood, Antonin Dolohov, Thorfinn Rowle, Gibbon, Jugson, Mulciber, Travers, and, finally, Peter Pettigrew.


    ''Except Peter Pettigrew, all of those were avid supporters of Voldemort and didn''t or couldn''t use the Imperius curse defense,'' thought Quinn as he stared at Harry. ''He knows that and realizes that Peter Pettigrew must have done something outrageous to end up in Azkaban.''


    "Mr. Potter, I know about Peter Pettigrew. But are you sure that you want to know?" asked Quinn. "You might not like what I''ll tell you."


    Harry frowned at the question. He didn''t give it a second thought before nodding.


    "It''s rted to you and your family. There is a reason why your parents haven''t told you about Peter Pettigrew," once again asked Quinn, making sure that Harry really wanted to know.


    Harry''s frown deepened. It surprised him a little that it was rted to his family. However, most of the Death Eater-rted activities could be connected to his family.


    "Yes, I want to know. No need to continue asking" he said while nodding firmly, wanting to get the point.


    "Alright, you asked for it," said Quinn before dropping the truth bomb on Harry Potter''s head.


    "During the First Wizarding War, Peter Pettigrew was a member of the Order of the Phoenix but became a spy when he was coerced into joining the Dark Lord. He was made the Secret-Keeper for the Potters when they went into hiding with the use of the Fidelius Charm. He ended up betraying the Potter family."


    Quinn stared straight into Harry''s as he revealed the hidden facts.


    "He personally led the Dark Lord to the Potter residence that was the Secret-Keeper to, and that day the Potters lost Fleamont and Euphemia Potter. That was the day when you got the scar, and the Dark Lord was defeated. He also killed twelve non-magicals in an attempt to escape the Aurors."


    Quinn went silent after he finished speaking and closed his eyes. He gave Harry time to absorb the information.


    Harry Potter was close to his father, James Potter, and his godfather, Sirius ck. And to them, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter had been an extremely influential part of their lives.


    For James Potter, they had been his parents, the ones who had given birth to him and raised him to be the man he was today. He had had an excellent rtionship with his parents, who loved him very much, and he loved them back with all his heart. Before he got married and started his own family, his parents had been his only family.


    For Sirius ck, they were the parental figure he never had. The nature of Sirius'' rtionship with his family during his early childhood was unknown, but at the age of eleven, Sirius earned severe disappointment and disapproval from his family by being sorted into the Gryffindor house. Sirius, in turn, became increasingly rebellious, unting his house affiliation and disdain for his family''s pure-blood values. When Sirius ran away from home at age sixteen, the Potters took him in and treated him as their own family.


    Harry Potter had grown up listening to stories about his paternal grandparents from both his father and godfather. When they talked about their death, he had been told that they had died in the war against Voldemort. But not that they had been killed by Voldemort himself, or that they were there on the day he got his scar.


    "... What is the Fidelius Charm, and what do you mean by ''Secret-Keeper''," asked Harry after a long pause and with pain evident in his eyes.


    "It''s an immenselyplex spell which involves the magical concealment of a secret inside a single living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to know; unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge the secret," exined Quinn. "If a dwelling is protected by this spell, it will then be invisible, intangible, unptable, and soundproof. An extremely old spell, one of the most ancient there are."


    After another pause, Harry asked, "Peter Pettigrew was the Secret-Keeper, and our house was the secret? And he gave the secret away to Voldemort?"


    "Yes," said Quinn shortly.


    "... Why?" asked Harry, licking his dry lips. "Why was Peter Pettigrew made the Secret-Keeper? Why did my parents trust him so much?" He wanted to know. Harry desperately wanted to know.


    "... Mr. Potter, do you know about the Marauder''s Map?" asked Quinn, as that was the only thing he could think of to answer that question.


    Harry, who was looking down, raised his head to look at Quinn and asked in surprise. "How do you know about that?"


    The map was a secret known to him, Ivy, Hermione, Ron, and the Weasley Twins. The Marauders and his mum knew, but he wasn''t counting them.


    "It is my job to know, Mr. Potter," replied Quinn before giving a short reason. "And I havemunications with the Weasley twins."


    He omitted the part about Ivy Potter because Harry didn''t know about it. And Quinn was okay with it staying that way.


    "Mr. Potter, there are four Marauders. You know three of them, and we are talking about the fourth."


    Harry''s eyes widened to the size of saucers. He didn''t know the identity of the fourth because he was told that the fourth Marauder was no longer with them. Harry just assumed that he was dead, and the other three didn''t want to talk about it.


    "Pettigrew had been trusted, and he broke that trust."


    Another long pause ensued as Harry stared in the distance, thinking about what he had just heard. He hadn''t even noticed that Quinn had gotten up from his seat, had gone to the workshop, and quickly continued to work on the potion, and came back to take his stool.


    "... How do you all know of this?" asked Harry, his eyes focused on Quinn.


    "I keep track of general happenings, Mr. Potter," replied Quinn as he took out a sheet of paper and started writing with a fountain pen. "Do you read the newspaper, Mr. Potter?"


    "Newspaper? No, why do you ask?" replied Harry and then immediately asked. "Was it printed in the newspaper? Then Ivy or Hermione would''ve known. Both of them read the newspaper."


    Hearing that Harry didn''t read the newspaper wasn''t surprising. There weren''t many preteens, even teens, that thought of picking up a newspaper.


    "No, detailed information about Peter Pettigrew isn''t published in the Daily Prophet," answered Quinn, continuing to write on the paper from his memory. "The only thing present in the Daily Prophet is that Peter Pettigrew escaped from Azkaban and that he was a heinous Death Eater who killed twelve non-magicals."


    "Huh? Are you implying that the Prophet didn''t write the entire story?"


    "Yes, but not really," said Quinn as he turned the paper he was writing on upside down and capped his pen. He was done writing. "They did write about Peter Pettigrew''s entire story, but not this year."


    "What do you mean?" asked Harry in confusion.


    "When they caught Pettigrew, the newspaper covered his story, but not to the sufficient extent," Quinn pointed at Harry as he continued, "Their main story at the time was about how you, the Boy-Who-Lived, vanquished the Dark Lord. No one was actually paying attention to Peter Pettigrew."


    "Wizarding Britain was in an after-war celebration, and no one really cared about Peter Pettigrew. Unlike the inner circle Death Eaters, he wasn''t from an influential background or famous in any way. Those days, the Daily Prophet, which was the mainstream media, had been suffering from the oppression of the Dark Lord''s regime. They found themselves free and wrote about the most famous of the Death Eaters. The unknown Peter Pettigrew slipped away from the public eye. Of course, many people knew about him killing 12 muggles. The papers had covered that when they wrote about his trial, but that wasn''t nearly enough to trump what the others were being charged."


    "Peter Pettigrew''s contributions and deeds went unnoticed at that time because the media focused on the inner circle of Death Eaters. Of course, that doesn''t mean that what he did wasn''t published, just, it wasn''t visible enough to anyone who wasn''t particrly looking for it."


    Quinn stopped talking for a second before continuing,


    "It has been over a decade since the end of the war. A decade is a long time. It isn''t weird that people have forgotten about Peter Pettigrew. Even though he yed an important part in the course of events, it was never brought to light."


    "But why didn''t they write about it now?!" asked Harry, baffled. Pettigrew might not have been well known back then, but he was now. "Pettigrew is the first to ever sessfully break out of Azkaban, a momentous event. That is a huge deal! Why didn''t they write about him now?"


    "The answer is easy, Mr. Potter," replied Quinn with ease and flow. "Censorship is the cause why Peter Pettigrew''s deeds haven''t been brought to light."


    Quinn didn''t give Harry a chance to respond with a question, as he continued.


    "As you know, there is a new radical group active. The Novellus ionites, who support the Dark Lord''s ideology and work in his name. The ministry has tried to downy the Novellus ionites activities because of their ideology. They don''t want the public to think of this group as the new Death Eaters. So what do you think will happen when they find that the person betrayed the Potters to lead the Dark Lord to the Boy-Who-Lived escaped Azkaban at the same time a group is flouting the Dark Lord''s name?"


    "... Everybody would think that Novellus ionites are the Death Eaters as they would think that Pettigrew started the group? Is this why?" answered Harry after some consideration.


    "Correct, Mr. Potter. The ministry is actively trying to suppress anything rted to the Dark Lord. Recently they have started arresting the ionites and putting their members on trial. The ministry really wants this to be over. Hence, they are keeping a tight leash on what is written about Peter Pettigrew. It helps that he hasn''t made any appearances and haspletely disappeared after his escape."


    "How do you know all of this?" asked Harry after Quinn finished speaking. From where he sat, Quinn looked like an expert on this topic. "You said that people don''t know much about Pettigrew, so how do you know so much about him?"


    Quinn smiled peacefully. He then answered the question.


    "I said that people who weren''t looking for what happened wouldn''t be able to find the truth. However, Mr. Potter, I was looking for the truth. I''ve actively looked for the story behind Peter Pettigrew. I wanted to know about the first man that broke out of Azkaban, which led me to all kinds of information. Everything is out there; you just need for someone good to go looking," Quinn then pointed around the room as he continued. "And, as you know, it is my job to know about things. I wouldn''t be able to solve problems quickly if I didn''t know enough."


    Quinn had been surprised when Harry asked about Peter Pettigrew, even though Quinn hadn''t been surprised that Harry came to him.


    A.I.D. had a reputation that had been built upon real results. Quinn had a very highpletion rate that spoke for itself. So Quinn didn''t think of it as anything other than obvious that if a Hogwarts student wanted to know something, they woulde to him for answers. As such, Harry Pottering to him wouldn''t be something difficult to imagine.


    "There is an archive of old Daily Prophet and other newspapers in the library. I just went there and spent some time finding information about Pettigrew. No matter how close-knit the Order of Phoenix was, people talked, and at that time, lots of people had been interested in listening to what was said. I found about the Fidelius Charm from a niche monthly magazine that discussed interesting magic, and there was an issue where they talked about nothing else other than that charm because of its involvement with you."


    "... I see," spoke Harry, taking a breath before looking at Quinn and saying, "I don''t want anyone to know that I was here. Especially my mum. She mustn''t know that I know about Pettigrew. I need time to take things in."


    "That''s fine, Mr. Potter. I don''t want anyone to know that I''m the one who told you this. If you reveal what I told you this to anyone, then I''ll say that you found it on your own," said Quinn as he slid the paper he was writing on towards Harry. "These are the names of the newspapers and magazines I went looking into with the edition number and date."


    Quinn also passed Harry an inkpot and a parchment, "Copy everything down on that paper to this parchment in your handwriting. I will burn that paper after you''re done."


    Harry and Quinn had the same wish, and that was to not let anybody know about their involvement, they smoothly reached an agreement.


    "... What do I need to pay for this and the information," said Harry pointing at the thin roll of parchment.


    "Oh, nothing, you don''t need to pay me anything. Just, as I helped you out, help me out if I ever ask," replied Quinn, trying to establish a connection with the Golden Boy, a golden opportunity.


    "Alright. I''ll help you out," said Harry as he stared at the parchment in his hands. His mind was too preupied to think about Quinn''s words and readily agreed to what sounded to him like a fair deal.


    "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Potter," said Quinn as he walked to the door while Harry exited.


    Harry briefly looked up from the parchment and nodded. When the door closed, Harry once again looked up at the closed door. When he had entered the room, Harry had two things he wanted to ask, but in the end, the first topic had turned out to be too much for him.


    ''I''ll ask him some other day,'' thought Harry as he walked away. ''Maybe she will tell me before that dayes.''


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Had a memorable customer.


    Harry Potter - Client - Can''t say that he left happier than when he entered.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 100 - Hogsmeade Surprise

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    After his talk with Harry, Quinn went back to study the butchered-up Braid Wiggle. He was wearing a fresh pair of white cloth gloves and used his magic to separate the guts, but then stopped even before his fresh gloves were stained with blood or bodily fluids.


    He once again cast the tender green pyramid-shaped short-term preservation field before taking a seat. He thought about the conversation.


    "That was unexpected," sighed Quinn.


    Quinn still thought that the A.I.D. had developed into a ce where students would bring their problems more than they brought to the professors. But he never would think that Harry Potter woulde to him, given his close connection to the professors.


    Remus Lupin, Rubeus Hagrid, and Albus Dumbledore were part of the Order of Phoenix in the First Wizarding War, and Harry had grown up with plenty of contact with the above members. Lily Potter, his own mother, was a professor and another viable option. Even though Minerva McGonagall wasn''t part of the Order of Phoenix, she was Gryffindor''s Head of House and had good rtions with Harry''s parents.


    Ivy''s case was different from Harry''s, and her interactions with Quinn had started with purely academic purposes. But because of several series of events, their interactions had increased beyond that point. If those events hadn''t taken ce, Quinn imagined that his interactions with Ivy would have been limited to the annual purchase of study notes.


    "I wonder how he will proceed with the knowledge he has now," wondered Quinn as he tapped his finger on the tabletop.


    Quinn had read Harry''s thoughts when he was exiting the room, and in those thoughts, he had seen impulses of confronting his mother, but from where Quinn was reading, they weren''t strong enough for Harry to react on.


    "He would definitely share the new information with his sister. That one is inevitable. The first thought in his mind was to share that information with her," murmured Quinn as he continued to tap on the table. "At least he has no intention of telling her the source of information. Let''s just hope he does his due diligence before talking to anyone about it."


    "I''m really looking forward to seeing how this entire thing turns out," smiled Quinn. He then thought about asking some people some sleeper-favors inside Gryffindor.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -..


    Quinn took a deep breath in Hogsmeade. "The air''s free of something and with that..." Quinn took another deep breath with a smile on his face.


    "... What?" uttered Eddie, a confused furrow in his brow.


    "Ignore him," said Marcus, eying Quinn, who had a confident expression on his face. "He started intending to say something cool and wise sounding but very quickly realized that he doesn''t have anything fitting to say." Marcus sharply pointed at Quinn and continued, "Look at him. Always stering that confident look on his face, expecting us to buy it, which isplete bullcrap."


    Quinn clicked his tongue as he gave Marcus a side look, "You''re getting too smart for your own good."


    "Nope, we are spending too much time with you," Marcus shook his head as he responded.


    Quinn queried a brow as he said, "So you''re saying that my presence is making you smarter. Huh, never thought it like that. That is good to hear." A soft yet wide smile made its way to Quinn''s face as if he was feeling fulfilled after doing a good deed.


    "No! That isn''t what I mean-," rebuked Marcus but stopped and sighed, shaking his head, "You know what, leave it." Marcus narrowed his eyes at Quinn andined, "You know how annoying it is when you lead the conversations that way. Don''t do that."


    Eddie chuckled at the side as the three amigos moved across the streets of Hogsmeade.


    "What are we going to do today?" asked Marcus as he and Eddie followed Quinn.


    "I have got to pick something from Scrivenshaft''s. Then we''ll have fun," answered Quinn as he led the group towards the West family-owned business.


    He had gotten a MagiFax message from home in which it said that there was a package for him at the shop and that he should pick it up today. When he wrote back for more details, all he got back was that it was a surprise.


    ''They could''ve just shrunk it and sent it to me via an owl,'' thought Quinn, and that made him wonder what was it about the package that it couldn''t be sent directly to him.


    Eddie and Marcus looked at each other and shrugged. They knew that Quinn''s family owned the Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop in Hogsmeade. Quinn never talked about his family, so they didn''t know much about it. Both of them knew that Quinn''s family was loaded, but neither of them knew about the true extent of Quinn''s family wealth.


    Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus entered the door as the door chime above the door rang to announce their entry. There were a substantial number of customers inside the store, which were mostly students browsing through school supplies.


    "Good morning, Gary," greeted Quinn as he walked towards the counter.


    At once, he saw something different in the shop manager of Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop.


    Whenever Quinn saw thenky man he would dress casually and, most of the time, he would have a work apron on and would''ve ink stains all over his fingers and clothes, ubed clothes, and overall, no personal grooming. But today, Gary was wearing a pressed checkered shirt and a new set of pants with no ink stain on any part of his body. He also had very neatlybed his hair, clean shaved, and had cleaned up quite well.


    "... Gary, you look great. What''s up," asked Quinn, smiling at the man he met whenever he came out to Hogsmeade.


    "Good morning, Mr. West," greeted Gary nervously, trying to do a proper greeting, fumbling as he tried.


    ''Okay, something is wrong,'' thought Quinn as Gary didn''t call him, ''Mr. West.'' Quinn had asked Gary to call him by his first name, so the sudden name change was suspicious.


    "... Gary, you are acting weird. What is wrong? Tell me, and I''ll solve it," said Quinn, trying to reassure his acquaintance. Also, he was part of the family business, so if Gary had a problem, Quinn would try to make it disappear.


    "Nothing is wrong with me. The package is waiting for you in the back room," replied Gary stiffly, clearly looking nervous and anxious.


    "... I see," said Quinn and nced at the door that led to the backroom. He turned to look at Eddie and Marcus and said, "... You guys wait. I will be back."


    He nced at Gary as he walked to the back door, and he could see that sweat was beading on Gary''s forehead.


    Just behind the door was the staircase that went up to the second floor. Quinn climbed the steps; with each step, the stair beneath him would creak because of his weight.


    There was a single corridor on the second floor, and on that corridor were three rooms: two on the sides and one straight ahead. The two rooms at the sides of the corridor were storage rooms filled with shop merchandise and raw materials.


    Quinn stared at the white door straight ahead. He had been into the room before. And that was why Gary hadn''t specified the room and had just said the backroom. It was the door to the same room in which Quinn had told his secrets to his grandfather, George West.


    Quinn opened the door and entered the room. He already knew what was waiting for him inside.


    In the room, which had beenpletely fixed from thest time Quinn''s magic had gone ham on it, sat a woman in front of a table, looking over some books. She had been peacefully reading and looked up from the books, which looked like ledges.


    "Oh, you''re here. Good morning, Quinn," greeted the woman when she looked at Quinn.


    "What the hell, Lia. You could''ve just told me you wereing. For a second, I thought I was going to get jumped and get kidnapped," sighed Quinn as he closed the door and walked towards.


    The woman, Lia West, Quinn''s sister, smiled as she got up from her chair, walked towards Quinn, and hugged him.


    "It is called a surprise, dummy," said Lia as she broke the hug. "Aren''t you surprised?" There was a mischievous look in her eyes and a yful smile on her face.


    "Of course, I am surprised! If I didn''t peek into Gary''s mind, I would''ve bombarded this room with spells," said exasperatedly Quinn. He had used a light Legilimency probe on the shop manager''s mind and extracted Lia''s face and name in the few seconds Quinn maintained the probe. He sighed as he then asked, "What did you do to Gary? He was all jittery and stiff in his shoes. I haven''t seen him dressed properly before this."


    "Hmm? I didn''t do anything to him. I just asked him to bring me the shop ount books. I thought I would audit them as I pass the time while waiting for you. And for his clothes, I am not sure how he usually dresses; this is my first time visiting this particr shop," answered Lia as she and Quinn sat down.


    "I see; he was getting audited. That is why he addressed me by our family name," sighed Quinn and reached for a biscuit from a tter on the side of the table.


    "I didn''t say anything to him. And his ounts are all fine. I can''t see any discrepancies, and the shop is pulling good profits. He shouldn''t be nervous if he knows that his shop is working properly," talked Lia as she studied her brother.


    "Anyone would be nervous if the owner popped one day and asked for the ledger," said Quinn as he cleaned his hands with magic. "So why are you here?"


    "Isn''t that obvious, dumb baby brother of mine? I''m here to see you. I was in the country, and I was talking to grandfather one day when he mentioned you had ¡ªwhat is it called, oh, yeah¡ª Hogsmeade weekend, so I decided to visit."


    Quinn sighed once more before another smile made its way to his face. He was happy to see Lia while at school.


    "How have you been?" he asked while observing Lia. As he was studying Healing, Quinn''s eyes automatically looked for signs about her health. He didn''t use magic, but he could tell that she was healthy.


    "I''m great. I went to Peru for a week with my friends," started Lia, telling Quinn about her vacation.


    "Oh, did you? How was it?" asked Quinn. He was interested because he hadn''t been to Peru while traveling.


    "It''s a beautiful country. We had lots of fun. I brought you some souvenirs. They are at home."


    "Bought apany in Thand," informed Lia with a proud smile on her face.


    "Wait, did we have holdings in Thand?"


    "No, we didn''t. This is the first one, and I took care of all of it. Grandfather handed me the project. It will be my biggest project to date. I have already submitted a ten-year development n for Thand."


    "Congrattions!" cheered Quinn, happy for a clearly prominent asion for Lia''s career.


    "Thanks! What else I did, hmm," thought Lia with a finger on her chin before her eyes sparkled and she spoke with a brag in her tone, "I entered a flying-horse tourney in Greece and won the entire event."


    "Seriously! Woah, that is awesome! Did you get a trophy?" asked Quinn, clearly impressed by this event.


    "I did. It''s at home."


    "What else did you do?"


    "Oh, this one is my favorite. Listen to this. I found an old Oakshift 79 broomstick, but not any Oakshift 79, no, it was Jocunda Sykes''s Oakshift 79 that she used for the first-ever flight across the Antic."


    Jocunda Sykes was a woman who was famous for flying across the Antic Ocean - the first magical to do so. The broomstick that she used for the historical event would be absolutely priceless.


    "No way! How did you manage that? Where is it? Is it also at home?" eximed Quinn.


    "At home, no. I sold it," smiled Lia.


    "Huh?" blinked Quinn, confused by the sudden reversal. "Why would you do that?! That thing is really priceless."


    "I found two bottles of Dagueneau Seibel," Lia said as a very wide smirk made its way towards her face.


    "... no, you didn''t," said Quinn with a face full of disbelief. "From 1905? Are they from 1905?"


    "Yes, the 1905 Dagueneau Seibel," nodded Lia smugly. "And I found two of those. I traded the broom for two of those bottles. The guy I traded was a big broom collector, and he didn''t even blink when I put down the offer." She raised her hand and showed two fingers. "TWO! I found two. Haha!"


    Dagueneau Seibel was a type of magical wine enjoyed by people who liked to indulge in wine. And Dagueneau Seibel, 1905 was an edition of Dagueneau Seibel, coveted by wine collectors. An edition that, with time, had be increasingly difficult to procure. Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, had be a collector and wine lover''s dream.


    But the reason Quinn and Lia were so animated about this wine was that their grandfather, George West, loved this wine. George only ever had a tasting pour of said wine; a tasting pour was half a regr serving. And after that single pour, George West had proimed that Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, was the best wine he ever had.


    After that day, George tried to buy a bottle of Dagueneau Seibel, 1905, but was unsessful in acquiring a bottle because it had be increasingly rare, and no collector was willing to part from their bottles.


    Another reason that this wine held a special ce in George''s heart was because the wine was as old as him. George West was born in 1905, and so was Dagueneau Seibel, 1905.


    "It seems this year I will be winning the birthday gift contest as well," smirked Lia smugly. If you asked Quinn, she was too damn smugly.


    Every year, both siblings wouldpete on who could get a better gift for their grandfather, and even though both George never told them whose gift he liked more, both grandchildrenpared gifts and decided who got the better gift.


    In thatpetition, Lia, who literally traveled almost all the time, got gifts from around the world and had the edge over Quinn, whereas Quinn''s reach was limited. But Quinn didn''t give up. Even if he couldn''t find exotic items like Lia, Quinn explored the non-magical and found items that would be unfamiliar yet interesting items that would work inside a magical home.


    But Dagueneau Seibel, 1905 was just another level. This was something that Quinn couldn''t top. Even if he found something amazingly interesting, there wasn''t anything George had tried so hard to find.


    "This year, I''m going to make grandfather say that he likes my gift," smirked Lia as she giggled at the defeated sight of her brother. "Oh Quinn, you won''t be beating me this year."


    Quinn groaned because things weren''t looking good. Thispetition was an annual affair that both he and Lia took seriously. And neither of the siblings liked to lose.


    "You, you, came here to rub this in my face, didn''t you?"


    Liaughed louder and nodded,


    "... Yeah. I was so excited today. And I am not disappointed. This feels good~."


    "Dammit! I will remember this humiliation," grumbled Quinn as he put his head in his hands. "I''m going to destroy you next year. I am going to utterly leave you in the dust."


    "Yeah, we will see about that, you squirt," scoffed Lia, smugness oozing out of her.


    After the West siblings got back to normal from theirpetition crazy state, Quinn suddenly stood up and eximed, "Oh, I forgot!" He looked at Lia and said, "You wait here. I will be right back."


    Lia watched as Quinn ran out of the room, and she waited for around two minutes before Quinn returned. Quinn wasn''t alone when he returned and had two other people in tow.


    "Lia, meet my friends and roommates; Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby," introduced Quinn as he presented his two best friends to his sister. He turned to Eddie and Marcus and introduced the other way, "Eddie, Marcus, this is my older sister, Lia West."


    Eddie and Marcus, who were shocked, stood still as they stared at Lia.


    When Quinn hade running to them in the store to find them, all Quinn had said was that he wanted to show them something. He didn''t tell them what he wanted to show. He just hurried them to follow him; he practically dragged them to the room.


    So when the two entered the room, they had no idea that they woulde across a stunningly beautiful woman. The two froze in their spots as heat rushed to their faces as they stared at the woman who was just introduced to them as Quinn''s sister, Lia.


    "Hello, it is nice to meet you two. I have heard a lot about you two," smiled Lia brightly as she stood up and from her chair. "Thank you for taking care of my troublesome baby brother."


    "N-No, it is fine."


    "Ah, h-he isn''t trouble."


    Eddie and Marcus stuttered as they replied to Lia. The two couldn''t look away from Lia, partially because she was just too pretty, but primarily because the thought of looking away wasn''t anywhere in their adolescent heads.


    Quinn smiled widely because Lia always teased him by saying that Eddie and Marcus weren''t real and that Quinn had made them up because he didn''t have any male friends.


    "Take that. They are real," humped Quinn at Lia before looking at Eddie and Marcus. He had to do a double-take when he saw the slightly open jaws of his friends.


    "... Seriously," said Quinn in disbelief before sending harsh pinching hexes towards both of them.


    Both Eddie and Marcus felt excruciating pinching pain on the sides of their waist as they squealed and snapped out of their dazed state. The two realized what they were doing, and their cheeks burned up for different reasons as they turned their faces towards Quinn, who was making an expression that promised pain afterward.


    "Hello, I''m Marcus. Nice to meet you. We didn''t know that Quinn had a sister. This is surprising," said Marcus, turning his attention to Lia and this time talking to her properly. He still found Lia very beautiful, but that feeling was overridden by the death stare from the guy who slept in the same room as him for most of the year.


    Lia turned towards Quinn and pouted, "You don''t talk about me?"


    "Don''t start," sighed Quinn, shaking his head.


    Eddie and Marcus talked to Lia for a short while before leaving the West siblings alone to catch up.


    Lia and Quinn remained in the room, talking, trading stories. Lia told him about the ces she went, the people she met, the things she had experienced. Quinn would talk about the magics he learned, the students he had had contact with and fun tidbits about his school life. The two siblings talked for an hour or so before Lia had to leave.


    "Do you have to leave so soon?" asked Quinn. He wanted to hear more from Lia. It was nice to see a family member after so many days, and the short time together felt that it wasn''t enough.


    "I have to. I have a portkey arranged for travel. I would have stayed longer, but the Thand ministry requires that the people entering the countrye at a time they specify. As such, I need to leave now to prepare for the trip."


    "I see," nodded Quinn before his eyes shined, and he spoke, "Buy me books rted to body magic. Thand has a rich culture of body magic, and I would like to enrich myself with it. The books I have aren''t that advanced, and I would like to have more information with me."


    One of the reasons why Quinn practiced Muay Thai ¡ªwhich wasn''t widespread in Britain¡ª instead of Kick Boxing, was because the few books that Quinn had on Body magic referenced the use of Muay Thai for developing a base physique before starting learning Body magic.


    Quinn had been slowly and consistently building his body by exercising every day because he wanted to study Body Magic one day. So when Lia mentioned Thand, he immediately thought of getting more books, and Lia going to Thand was perfect.


    "Alright, I will hire a local who knows about Body Magic to pick out a selection," nodded Lia.


    "I want everything on the subjects, so instruct the one you hire to get books that have extensive knowledge. I don''t want books that describe things easily. I want the real deal that goes into depth."


    Lia ruffled Quinn''s hair and said, "I know, I know, you don''t have to repeat it every time I go abroad. I already know what kinds of books you want."


    "Then don''t try to filter the books you hand to me. I want every one of them. Don''t take out books you think are dangerous," said Quinn as he narrowed his eyes on his sister.


    "I did that one time! Sorry for being a good sister and looking out for her brother," humped Lia and ruffled Quinn''s rougher than before.


    "If I don''t say it every time, you''ll do it again," retorted Quinn and removed Lia''s hand from his head.


    "See youter, alright?" said Lia. The two stood near the floo-firece inside the shop.


    "Yeah, see youter," replied Quinn and watched Lia as she threw in the floo-powder and vanished inside the green mes.


    Quinn looked behind to see Gary almost lying on his chair. The man looked like he had the most tiring day of his life.


    "Don''t worry, Lia said that your ounts are fine, and she was satisfied with the way you run the shop," said Quinn, giving Gary the good news to relieve him of his worries. "You don''t have to worry about anything."


    "Really?" asked Gary feebly but with hope.


    "Yeah."


    "... I want to close the shop early today."


    "Of course."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The same day, Quinn was back in his dorm room reading a book on ''spell damage to muscles'' when Eddie suddenly sat on his bed with a jump.


    "You know I don''t like people on my bed," said Quinn without looking up from his book.


    "Do you have any other siblings," asked Eddie, not getting up from Quinn''s bed. "Maybe a twin sister or someone near our age."


    Quinn abruptly looked up from his book and spat, "Do you want me to beat you up?"


    "... No."


    "Then sod off from my bed."


    Eddie got up from his bed, and as he did that, he heard Quinn speak up.


    "We''ll be waking up an hour early tomorrow. We''re going to have an intense workout session. It will be fun."


    "Come on! Not fair! I just asked a question!" whined Eddie and groaned.


    "Yeah, whatever. Go to sleep. You have a busy day tomorrow."


    Eddie walked to his bed with slumped shoulders, but before climbing up his bed, he spoke,


    "... You didn''t tell me if you have another sister."


    Quinn closed his book with a snap and got up from his bed, "I''m going to beat you up."


    "Wait, wait, wait! I was just kidding! Wait... Ouch! Aaah! Stop, no, not the nut tap! F**k!..."


    Marcus, who stepped out of the bathroom, looked at his two friends as Quinn was trapping Eddie into a head leglock.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I will win next year.


    Lia West - Big sis - Haha, I am the winner!


    Gary - Shop Manager - Had a stressful day - Want a drink and then go to sleep.


    Eddie Carmichael - His horniness doomed him - Stop! Aaah! I am sorry!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 101 - Aquatic Trials, Friendships, Rat

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn looked down into the ''well'' known as Hadal Encumbrance. It was definitely of the most intriguing concepts Quinn had seen, and only by researching the subject he had realized why it was called as such.


    ''Hadal'', from the Greek god of the underworld, Hades. The underworld, which was the realm of Hades, was under the ground. Simrly, it would be the aquatic world that resided below the ''ground level.''


    The Hadal Encumbrance represented the ocean depths in its deepest regions, where oceanic trenchesy. A ce where humans couldn''t survive and only those species evolved to withstand the harsh conditions would tread the waters where the warmth and light of the sun didn''t reach.


    "It is interesting how the creator was able to emte the water pressure at ocean depths," noted Quinn as he stared down the well, and he could see the extraordinarily still water, remembering the pressure that would assault as he went down.


    One of the simplest definitions of pressure stated that ''pressure was the force exerted on a body''. The air around the globe had weight, and it pressed against everything it touched. That pressure was called ''atmospheric pressure'' or ''air pressure'': it was the force exerted on a surface by the air above it as gravity pulled it to the Earth.


    The oceans were deep. If one was to shave off all the continents and fill the trenches in the oceans with the ground from the continents, the entire globe would be covered with water about 2 miles in depth.


    And within those depths was the world of pressure.


    When one was in contact with air, a body would feel the pressure from the air, and it was dubbed air pressure. Simrly, when in contact with water, a body would feel the pressure from water and had the name hydrostatic pressure, or water pressure.


    But the main difference between air and water pressure was that air was 830 times less dense than water. Meaning that water pressure was much higher than air pressure.


    As one went down into a sea or an ocean, more water would get piled up on top and thus increase the weight of water above and thus increase the pressure on the body.


    "Here, the water pressure increases much quicker than natural aquatic depth," said Quinn as he sat by the ledge with his chin resting on the palm. "I guess this would be difficult for some people."


    Quinn had gone through two trials: Poseidon''s Wrath and Tehom''s Delight. And in those trials, Quinn had struggled a lot.


    "Poseidon''s Wrath required fine control over magic to get to the center. Without fine control, I would''ve stuck there without any progress."


    "Tehom''s Delight required ingenuity or maybe luck. Without the Ripple sonar, I probably would''ve found the entrance, but it would''ve beenpletely up to luck."


    He continued to stare down the well and recited his thoughts about what was required by this trial.


    "Hadal Encumbrance simply requires power. Pure magical force to ovee, oppose and repel the emted oceanic pressure. I guess this trial ispatible with me."


    Quinn had magical power in abundance. He had deep magic reserves that had been built through the daily exhaustion of his magic. Ever since Quinn was five, Quinn had used all of his magic every day. The only exception to that rule was the time he didn''t have any control over his magic.


    That had given Quinn deep reserves of magic that were perfect for Hadal Encumbrance. He just needed to optimize his magic usage against the pressure and pour his vast reserves into the magic till he reached the bottom.


    So unlike the first two trials, Quinn was having a breezy time in going through Hadal Encumbrance.


    "Alright, let''s see if I can break my high score," said Quinn and dove into the well of water with elerated water pressure increase.


    With his body facing downward and aligning his entire body horizontally with the surface of the water/floor of the well, he sank down. The purpose of this posture was to decrease his surface area vertically.


    The pressure in the vertical water column changed very quickly, meaning that the pressure at his head would be significantly less than that at his feet. So to get a uniform pressure all over his body, he distributed his body surface area horizontally. That way, his body mostly would have a uniform pressure.


    As Quinn sank down, a cylindrical area constructed with water magic manifested around Quinn. The pressure inside the cylinder was normalized to the level of surface-level pressure.


    In no time, Quinn reached fifty percent of the total depth without feeling any difficulty at all. The difficulty to keep the pressure normalized came when he hit sixty percent depth.


    ''I wonder if the pressure here is because of gravity maniption or it is simply water magic that is pulling down the water.''


    Quinn realized that the entire Aquatic Vault was based around water concepts. The instructions in the stone cave explicitly talked about Laws, but that didn''t mean that the trials were created via water magic.


    In Poseidon''s Wrath, the vortex had been definitely created through water magic. But the vast array of conjuration and charm disablers weren''t part of water magic.


    The sheer calmness of the water that even weakened Quinn''s Ripple Sonar was definitely achieved by water magic in Tehom''s Delight. But Quinn realized that the extensive sensory deprivation didn''t have anything to do with water magic. The zero ambient noise could have been achieved through a sound-dampening magic application. That state where the light was getting blocked could have been light magic weaved into the water and not an application of water magic.


    And just like that, the elerated gradient pressure increase might have been aplished by other magic and not water magic.


    But one thing Quinn was sure of was that if he was toplete the vault, he would need to use water magic to get past every trial.


    Not because the trials were closely rted to water; sure, that was a part of it, but the real reason was that Quinn constantly used water magic as he thought using water magic made his job easier.


    It was clear that everything was rted to water. From that, it could be inferred that the vault wanted Quinn to use water magic. And if he was to use water magic, then his journey would be a whole lot easier.


    Sure, inside Poseidon''s Wrath, Quinn could have extensively studied conjuration magic and try different spell designs till he got a hit that wasn''t covered by the wards. Or he could design a new type of broom that didn''t use the traditional broom charms and reinvent the wheel.


    But all of those required much more thinking and effort on Quinn''s part just to make the end result easier. If he had something that would allow him to fly over the vortex into the center, he wouldn''t have to struggle against the raging water, but at what cost? How much time and research would it take him to aplish that?


    And when Quinn did create something like that, would he start the next trial? Would the broom that worked in Poseidon''s Trial be helpful in Tehom''s Delight? No, it wouldn''t be helpful.


    What would be effective was the knowledge and experience of water magic that he practiced and researched to get past one trial.


    That is why Quinn didn''t try to find ''unique'' methods outside of water magic to solve the trials.


    Because Quinn knew that if he stuck with water magic, then it would make his job much smoother.


    And the results were showing right now.


    Quinn had plenty of magic to expend from his reserves. What he needed was simply to change how he was directing his magic. Poseidon''s Wrath had driven him to gain fine control over water magic so that he wouldn''t be sted every time he tried to water magic, and that was working now when extreme pressures were bearing down on him.


    ¡¸90%¡¹


    The water magic cylinder''s surface thrummed with erratic ripples. A humongous pressure was being normalized by using water magic as Quinn applied an equal and opposite force.


    ''Just a little more, and I will pass this trial without much problems or injuries.''


    Quinn dipped further down and reached 92% percent but stopped because the pressure inside his normalized cylinder suddenly increased, and Quinn could feel the pressure against his bones.


    ''Some pressure is leaking through. This is the limit for now.''


    Quinn retreated by a percent and stayed at 91%, and carefully tried to figure out how to normalize the pressure back to the surface level. He was extremely careful because one mistake and the pressure would bear down on him, and his muscles wouldn''t contract, which would seal away his movement capabilities¡ª while the water inside his lung cavity with lower internal pressure would be pushed out, and he wouldn''t be able to breathe.


    In the water column, Quinn swam alone inside the dangerous waters while trying to figure out how powerful the deep oceanic waters were.


    .


    - (Scenes Break) -


    .


    "It doesn''t work that way," sighed Marcus as he sat in the Ravenwmon room in front of a chessboard. "The knight only moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically."


    "But why? The horsie should be able to charge straight ahead," spoke Luna as she stared at the knight chess piece on the wizarding chessboard. "I have seen them. They are fast, you know?"


    Wizard''s Chess was the magical variant of the ssic board game Chess, in which the pieces were enchanted to move of their own ord whenmanded by the yer. The moving chess pieces were reasonably sentient and could offer advice to the yers who weren''t good or experienced at the game.


    The white knight piece on the board turned its head towards and looked towards itsmander. The animated knight chess piece wasn''t sure how to proceed. The chess piece wasn''t sure how to react to this situation. The magic that made it animated didn''t cover what to do when themander wanted the ''horsie'' to charge forward.


    It looked at his whitepanions as if to ask what to do, but they looked as confused as it was and shrugged towards the white knight. The ck chess pieces, on the other hand, wereughing hysterically. And that made the white pieces feel embarrassed.


    Marcus turned his face towards Quinn, who was on the floor and sitting in the lotus position. He had his eyes closed, with his hand resting on hisp. "Quinn, exin to her that the knight piece can''t move straight ahead."


    Luna also turned towards Quinn. "Quinn, why didn''t you make the horsie move forward. Why can it only move one way?"


    Quinn, who was in his mindscape sorting and strengthening his memories using lumency, opened his eyes and looked at his two friends.


    Marcus was trying to teach Luna how to y Chess on the wizarding chessboard that Quinn had made for Marcus as a birthday present. The board and pieces could change colors and shapes.


    The chessboard was a box with a grid on the top, and within the chessboard were number dials that could be used to alter the animation used by chess pieces to destroy each other when eliminating other chess pieces.


    He had also crammed a copious amount of chess strategies inside the Chess set to advise inexperienced yers. Quinn had ordered tons of Chess books from both the non-magical and magical worlds because both worlds had different chess strategies and philosophies. Using that data, Quinn had given his Chess set a more diverse rmendation/advice system than any other Chess set on the market.


    It was an borate set with extensive charm work that Quinn had devoted time to create for his friend''s birthday. But it seemed that even he had failed to take Luna Lovegood into consideration.


    Quinn turned to look at the white chess pieces, who were holding his head while trying to think what it should do. Then he looked at Luna and gave an exnation.


    "Luna, you see, the horse can charge straight ahead. But the knight on the horse doesn''t want to move straight ahead; it only wants the horse to move a certain way. The horse belongs to the knight, so the horse will only listen to the knight. There is nothing we can do."


    Luna furrowed her brows and turned to stare at four knights on the chessboard, who stared back while stroking the back of their horses, making them neigh and nicer.


    "I see. If that is the case, then that''s fine," shrugged Luna, as she epted Quinn''s reason quite easily. She stood up and spoke to Marcus. "I''m parched. I''m going for water; do you two want anything?"


    Marcus politely refused while Quinn, who had once again closed his eyes, silently shook his head.


    When Luna went away, Marcus turned to Quinn and asked. "What are you going to do when she finds a Chess set with only a horse as a knight piece?"


    "Let''s worry about that when the timees," replied Quinn without opening his eyes.


    Marcus sighed before flipping a switch on the side of the chessboard that made the chess pieces stick to the grid so that when the box opened, they wouldn''t fall off. He looked at the array of dials and switches that customized the ying experience and turned off the destruction feature when attacked.


    He didn''t want to answer Luna''s questions ¡ªwhich were full of curiosity¡ª on why the chess pieces were acting mean to each other.


    Quinn, who had his eyes closed, smiled very softly at the sight of his friends getting along.


    Marcus was the one to invite Luna to y Chess when he saw her sitting by Quinn''s side, drawing random scribbles. And Luna had epted the offer with enthusiasm and without doubt or skepticism.


    It had taken a lot of time for Marcus and Eddie to warm up to Luna because of her entric personality, and even though Quinn was still the connection between the two parties, the two boys and one girl had be friends.


    And Quinn felt happy because of that.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After learning the whereabouts of the Potter family from Pettigrew, Voldemort traveled to Godric''s Hollow on the fateful night of October 31, 1981. After breaking the protections on the house, Voldemort was able to enter the residence and sted the front door open, catching its inhabitants off-guard.


    Fleamont Potter, who had left his wand on the sofa, was murdered quickly trying to defend his wife and grandchildren. After Voldemort killed Fleamont Potter, he preceded to go up-stairs to Harry''s and Ivy''s nursery, where the grandmother and the twins were trapped inside.


    Cornered in the nursery, Euphemia Potter was murdered after trying to oppose Voldemort and defend her grandchildren, the green light from this act actually lighting up the entire upper floor.


    When the Dark Lord then attempted to murder the one prophesied to defeat him, the protectionid down by his grandmother''s loving sacrifice caused the Killing Curse to rebound. It destroyed Voldemort''s corporeal body but unfortunately also took out a significant chunk of the cottage''s upper floor.


    Harry was left with nothing but a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, and Ivy miraculously came out unscathed from the incident while Dark Lord Voldemort''s powers were temporarily destroyed. Henceforth Harry was known as the "Boy Who Lived" and was marked as Lord Voldemort''s equal, thus sealing his fate.


    But there was someone else there, who waited outside, and saw the entire upper floor roof blew up.


    Peter Pettigrew, who nervously stood outside, was feeling ecstatic on the inside. He was the one who led the Dark Lord to the Potter cottage, and for that, he was going to be rewarded. But then he saw the roof blew up, and immediately Pettigrew knew something was wrong.


    The rat Animagus cautiously entered the cottage, and on the ground floor, he saw Fleamont Potter on the ground. But after a short nce, Pettigrew ran up the stairs, and there he saw the dead body of Euphemia Potter and two crying infants.


    Pettigrew was stunned out of his mind. He couldn''t believe the sight in front of him. He looked at the floor of the bust-up room and saw the unique wand of Dark Lord Voldemort lying down in front of him.


    ''The Dark Lord is dead. And Lily and James aren''t here.'' Those thoughts scared the life out of Peter. He had betrayed the Order of Phoenix and ''corrupted to the evil side. That decision was made because Peter thought that he was choosing the winning side.


    He had stacked a stable life where he livedfortably to risk it for a life of luxury and superiority. And the scene he was seeing screamed at him that the dream was over and he had destroyed his life.


    As Peter panicked from his innermost being, he heard the sound of Sirius''s motorcycle from outside the house, with several pops of apparition following.


    ''They are here!''


    In that moment of trepidation and fright, Peter picked up the wand from the floor, and because of the broken wards, he apparated out from the room itself and faded away from the scene. From there on he started following the events that led him to be captured and imprisoned in Azkaban.


    And now, twelve yearster, Peter was inside his old house, sold to some old couple, who were dead from killing curse cast from a wand that he had stolen from a chump who had left it on a table of a pub while refilling his drink.


    Peter, still as sickly and gaunt as he was when he got out of Azkaban, looked down on the bathroom floor and waved the wand to perform magic: violently, every single tile was pulled out from the floor. The foundation then was butchered by sting curses until three feet in depth and a wooden chest surface out on the top.


    Therge chest levitated out of the dirt onto the floor. Two snaps of unlocking, and Peter used his skeleton hands to open the lid to reveal the sole object inside the wooden chest.


    "... Here you are," said Peter, his voice wispy and coarse, but his eyes shined with vigor and tinge of mania. Peter picked up the object and stared at it with fascination. "The lord''s wand. The symbol of his power."


    In his hand was a 13? inches long, crafted from yew, and affixed with a phoenix feather core.


    The phoenix feather wand showed its pickiness and didn''t react to Peter''s touch and magic. In the hand of Wormtail, the yew wand would be the same as a stick.


    From his pocket, Peter took out a rat and watched the familiar creature stunned and unconscious. "It is time to bring him back," dered Peter as he clutched the wand in his hand, closed his eyes, and imagined the day he would''ve his revenge.


    After covering up the mess in the bathroom, Peter left his old house and silently yet determinedly looked into a particr direction as a n formed in his mind.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - The water is always deeper than what it reflects.


    Marcus Belby - Likes to y Chess - Owner of the only Chess set crafted by Q. West.


    Luna Lovegood - Learning Chess - Likes activities that require more people.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [A/N: Sorry about the no chapter yesterday. I faced some technical issues and wasn''t able to upload. So two today. See ya~!]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 102 - Marcus Belby, Deal Of Friendship!

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Marcus Belby was a wizard and a Ravenw student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was a year above the famous Harry Potter.


    He was from the British Isles and of the magical Belby family. The Belby name wasn''t famous in political circles or in the world of business. The ce one would recognize the Belby name was in the academic circles.


    Two members of the Belby family had substantial contributions to the study of magic.


    vius Belby had been the first person toe across a Lethifold and survived to tell the tale. In addition, he had been a master in charms and well-versed in the art of Defense Against Dark Arts. And he was the person who discovered the way to chase away Lethifolds, also known as Living Shrouds, a carnivorous and extremely dangerous magical beast. It was also considered a Dark creature because of its extremely aggressive and violent nature.


    In a surprisebat against a Lethifold, vius had discovered that the Lethifold could be driven away with a Patronus Charm. That day vius, while fighting for his life, aplished a never-before-seen act.


    vius went on to research his discovery and its credibility and finally gave the world a method to drive away a dangerous creature like Lethifold, a dangerous Dark creature.


    His aplishments were celebrated for centuries after his death and he was immortalized on Chocte Frog Cards and every Magizoology book that mentioned Lethifolds, credited for his contributions.


    The second famous member of the Belby family had an even greater impact than his ancestor. He had won an Order of Merlin, and was a potioneer who single-handedly had changed the lives and fates of people infected by Lycanthropy. A person who had helped people''s lives all around the globe and arguably became the most famous potioneer of the 20th century.


    Damocles Belby was a famous potioneer credited for the invention of the Wolfsbane Potion, which was his greatest achievement among his other contributions to the field of potions.


    Before the Wolfsbane, the unwilling Lycanthropes would rather die than suffer the consequences of losing sanity once every month for the rest of their lives. But after Wolfsbane, there was a beacon of hope in the Lycanthropemunity.


    Even though the Wolfsbane potion didn''t cure Lycanthrope, it was the symbol of progress. It represented faith in magic, that with time, maybe, one day a cure would be found that would rid an unwilling person of the curse of Lycanthropy.


    And from that family came Marcus Belby. He was not the brightest tool in the shed but had a passion for learning thatnded him in the Ravenw house. Whenever people met Marcus, they saw a soft-spoken, shy boy who was polite and curt.


    To people with whom Marcus wasfortable, he was a trustworthy friend who was a good listener, a keen observer, and a person who appreciated the little things. When you got him out of his shy shell, he happened to be a person with a bright personality, capable of talking at lengths on the topics he was interested in. And a friend who would be there for you no matter what.


    In Hogwarts, Marcus had two close friends, Eddie Carmichael and Quinn West. Eddie and Quinn had extroverted personalities. They were outgoing and socially confident.


    And one would think that Marcus would have problems getting along with the two people who had very different personalities than his, but that wasn''t the case. He was veryfortable with his roommates.


    Marcus, who wasn''tfortable taking the lead on things, was grateful that Eddie and Quinn always knew what to do and would pull him along with them.


    It was easier for Marcus to talk to both Eddie and Quinn because he didn''t need to initiate conversation, as the two of them would, for most of the time, would have topics and things to talk about. They would keep the conversation going while Marcus silently listened and sometimes chimed in when he wanted to contribute something.


    But these days, Marcus found himself alone frequently. Both of his best friends were busy with their own activities.


    Quinn West, his raven-haired friend, had always been a busy bee. He would start the day early (before him) and finish his dayte (after him). Quinn would be busy during the sses doing the homework given to them; after sses, Quinn would disappear, and no one would know where to find him. In the evening, Quinn would spend his time in the A.I.D office that Quinn had built in his second year, and at night, he would regrly break curfew to do his own things.


    The only reliable way to track down Quinn West was to approach him in the Great Hall, during mealtimes, where you would always, without fail, find him eating his food. For some reason, Quinn ate a lot of food for his size, and if he could help it, he would not miss a meal.


    Marcus usually hung out with Quinn between sses, mealtimes, and just before sleep time, when Quinn returned after curfew. Or if Quinn didn''t decide to disappear.


    Then there was his second roommate, Eddie Carmichael, blonde-haired, talkative, loud,petitive, not afraid to say his opinions out loud; the exact opposite to Marcus. And many times, Marcus envied Eddie''s personality.


    Tillst year, Eddie had been ''free'' like Marcus and didn''t have an ''extra-curricr'' activity that required time from him. The two would hang around, spend time together ying gobstones, exploding snaps, Quidditch-catching and any other games they could find to y.


    But this year, Eddie had decided to train for the Quidditch tryouts, and for that, he would wake up early and join Quinn for an early morning workout. And after sses, Eddie would do his own personal flying and Quaffle-control training.


    Eddie was way less busy than Quinn and had a lot of free time for ying around. And Marcus still spent much more time with Eddie than he did with Quinn. But things had still changed a lot from thest three years.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Sitting in a chair inside the Ravenwmon room, Marcus looked around the room and roamed his eyes over the room. Most of his fellow Ravenw students, both younger and older, were studying alone or in groups eitherpleting their homework, studying in advance for the uing ss or going through extra rmended material from the exclusive Ravenw in-house library with the faculty rmendations, among other things.


    He sighed and looked at the busy people around him, and sighed. ''At least they know what they are doing. On the other hand, I...'' Another sigh escaped him, and he sunk further into his chair.


    A hand suddenly was ced on his shoulder, followed by: "Now, now, don''t sigh. At least not a heavy sigh like that one."


    Marcus raised his head to see Quinn standing there, smiling. His stone-grey-eyed friend had a barstool in his hand. He then sat in his chair.


    As he watched Quinn sitting on a barstool, Marcus thought about how in nearly five years he had known his friend, the number of times he had seen Quinn sitting on a chair with a backrest was frighteningly low. Even when the client chairs in the A.I.D office were chairs with backrests, Quinn always sat behind his desk on a barstool.


    Marcus looked at Quinn, who sat with the best posture he had ever seen from anyone he had met. ''Proper as always. Quinn always sits perfectly well, doesn''t he?'' thought Marcus and put himself back together from his slumped posture in his chair.


    "You know what they say, right? A sigh is an amplifier for people who suffer in silence," said Quinn.


    That made Marcus tilt his head and ask. "So you don''t sigh?"


    At that, Quinnughed and shook his head. "Oh, no, I wish that was true. I sigh a lot, every day." Quinn then sighed, which made point his finger at himself and smile. "See! I just did it."


    "Let''s not talk about me. Tell me about you," asked Quinn and tapped Marcus''s thighs, "Tell me why were you slumped in the chair with that introspective expression that you tend to get on your face when you are overthinking stuff."


    ''This is it. How does he do it so smoothly?'' thought Marcus when he heard Quinn.


    Marcus was used to listening to Quinn. He noticed that whenever Quinn wanted the conversation to go his way, he would very smoothly turn the direction of the conversation to his interest.


    And right now, he was watching Quinn do it again. But it didn''t bring difort to his heart to see his friend manipting the conversation. The reason for that was because Marcus could see the expression on Quinn''s face.


    Usually, whenever Quinn influenced or manipted the conversation, he would have a situation-appropriate expression on his face. And the times that Quinn smiled, he would have a calm and restrained smile on his lips. That same smile would slightly change ording to the need, and those small changes would change the meaning of the smiles; confident, friendly, dominant, polite, embarrassed, and any other smile that Quinn wanted to portray.


    But right now, Quinn didn''t have that restrained smile. The smile on his face was wide and joyous, supportive,forting, bright and free. This was the real deal and not something that was put on just because the situation demanded it.


    "... What? why are you looking at me like that?" asked Quinn and touched his face with confusion. "Is there something on my face?" Marcus saw Quinn take out his wand and conjure a mirror to check out his face.


    "Why are you smiling? Tell me, is there something wrong with me? Come on, tell me!" stressed Quinn when he looked away from the mirror to Marcus''s smiling face.


    "It''s nothing. I just remembered something funny. There is nothing on your face," chuckled Marcus.


    Quinn looked at Marcus with a suspicious face before banishing the mirror. "Now, tell me what had turned you into sad sap," asked Quinn, getting the conversation back on track.


    Marcus stared at Quinn for a while before finally opening his mouth to speak. "I was thinking about how both you and Eddie have something you guys do so seriously."


    It was clear to Marcus that Quinn loved magic. His friend spent time reading books out of the course material. This wasn''t umon for a Ravenw, but to put it clearly, Marcus would rarely see Quinn read the course material. Most of the time, he would see Quinn reading something that wasn''t even close to what was being taught in the school.


    Even recently, Marcus had seen Quinn had been going through numerous books on Healing magic and biology. The number of books that changed Quinn''s hands had been baffling to Marcus.


    Then there was Eddie, who had started ying and practicing Quidditch because he wanted to get a girlfriend. Eddie was a person who got dialed in when motivated, he devoted so much time and effort to Quidditch that if one was told the real reason behind his actions, they wouldn''t believe it.


    Of course, Marcus and Quinn knew about Eddie''s ultrapetitive nature from their early days of friendship. Eddie liked to win and seed, and when he didn''t win, he would get upset, but instead of throwing a tantrum, Eddie would try again to see if he could win.


    Quinn and Eddie had been ying the card game Concentration for three years, and despite not winning a single time, Eddie would challenge Quinn regrly. Even after losing for three years, Eddie''spetitiveness didn''t let him back down.


    Eddie was sopetitive that he even challenged Quinn at magic. The two would often y the magical game of Tug-of-io. In the game, two to more people would simultaneously cast an io spell on an object. The objective of the game was to pull the target object towards them. And the one who was able to get the target object near them would win.


    Despite knowing that Quinn was better at magic, Eddie would often initiate a game, trying to defeat Quinn at magic, which for obvious reasons never panned out. But that didn''t stop Eddie from time and time challenging Quinn. Such was Eddie''s personality.


    "You have magic. You love it so much, we all knew that just after a few days of our meeting in the first year. The time you put in just shows how much you love it. Even Eddie is dialed in on Quidditch and won''t leave his broom in his free time. That always-wants-to-win idiot won''t stop till he makes it to the team," sighed Marcus, looking into hisp and whispering in a downtrodden tone. "Only, I have nothing to do. I don''t feel passionate about stuff like you guys do. And, well..." he paused because it affected him a lot. "... I feel left out. Like I am wasting my time and that you guys are going to leave me behind."


    Marcus looked up from hisp and saw Quinn staring at him with wide eyes. Immediately, Marcus thought he had made Quinn would feel ufortable and felt embarrassed because of it.


    He was about to speak up, but Quinn interjected. "Marcus, do you remember my sister, Lia? You met her at Hogsmeade, remember?"


    Marcus blinked at the question and silently nodded for the reply.


    "You see, my sister travels a lot, like, a whole lot. She travels almost the entire year and goes to different parts of the world. One week she would be in Europe and the next week in Australia," spoke Quinn, but Marcus wasn''t following where Quinn was going with this. "But you see, my sister doesn''t decide where she goes. My grandfather decides where she is deployed, and he still sends her away. He''s been doing that for a couple of years. Can you guess why he does that?"


    Marcus silently shook his head. He barely knew Quinn''s sister; he had no idea what Quinn''s grandfather was like.


    "My grandfather is trying to make Lia experience new and different things. He keeps sending her to different ces to handle business, and while a representative is needed tomunicate between countries, there is no need to send Lia as much as he has been sending her."


    Quinn beamed as he continued.


    "My grandfather knows Lia quite well. He knows that if you give Lia new and exciting things, she will try to find more things about them and see what it''s all about. So by sending her to different countries that are different from ours, he stimtes Lia''s curiosity by introducing her new experiences."


    Marcus listened as Quinn spoke, and he felt like he understood what Quinn was talking about, though it was out of his reach.


    "Eddie''s character will make him pursue things just because he wants to win, but nobody knows how long he will keep doing things that way. He might get bored and drop them to pursue other interests. You say that you don''t have anything you are passionate about. And I will tell you this, neither is Eddie. I think the reason Eddie does all these different things and tries to seed is that he is trying to find something that clicks with him."


    Marcus saw Quinn raise his hand and bring it near him (Marcus) to repeatedly poke his chest.


    "The only difference between you and Eddie is that he tries all kinds of things and tries to get better at them. Eddie is trying to find something he enjoys, and he has already found one thing. He enjoys ying games, and that might not be something of importance, but it is still something Eddie clearly enjoys. Marcus, if you want to find something that clicks with you have to do new things."


    Quinn then ced his hand on his own chest and continued.


    "Yes, I love magic, and that is good for me, hurray! But don''t you think I spend too much time on it. Look at the three of us. You and Eddie hang out and have fun while I am alone doing who knows what?"


    Pointed out Quinn, and Marcus felt surprised to hear Quinn speak like this.


    "I spend so much time on magic that I have barely any time left for other things. I love to y violin and piano, but because I spend so much time in the library in the A.I.D office, and practicing magic, I haven''t yed my violin for weeks, closer to a month, and that sucks! Then there is the piano which calms me down. And I haven''t touched the keys for so long. I can''t spend enough time with you guys. I miss so many things that you two do; many times, I don''t understand the inside jokes and then realize that I didn''t understand them because I missed things, yet again, and that sucks! I know it sucks, and despite that, I don''t try to manage my time better."


    Marcus felt more and more surprised as Quinn mockingly chuckled at himself.


    "You and I aren''t that much different, you know? While you haven''t tried to explore new things to see what makes you interested, I have wrapped myself in this thing so tightly that I haven''t tried something new in a long while and am losing touch with things that I did earlier. Sure, I learn new magics, and it is so much fun for me. And while that might be seen as doing new things, to me personally, it is the same thing: magic is magic no matter what the branch. And my own view is what matters at the end."


    Marcus didn''t know that Quinn felt like this about himself. The Quinn that Marcus knew was always prepared, confident; a person whomanded any room andpany of people he was among. A person who had everything figured out and had his life set.


    But now, here he was listening to Quinn vent about things that he didn''t know existed a few minutes back.


    And while Marcus knew that he should feel sympathetic for his friend, Marcus felt good. Quinn sharing all this made Marcus feel close to him. It made Quinn someone who wasn''t flying miles above him, but someone who was right beside him.


    "So step out of thatfort zone and try to do new things. Out in the wide world, many unique, intriguing, entertaining, mind-opening things exist. It is aplete waste and pity if you don''t try them out. You only live once, Marcus, and it isn''t toote to try them. Seriously. If you don''t have something you aren''t passionate about, then find things, try them out. I guarantee that you will find something that suits you, something that will feel like it was made especially for you."


    Quinn suddenly and abruptly stood up and stared down at the surprised Marcus.


    "Let''s make a promise. No, a deal. As long as you try out new things without worry, I will try to get out the bind I have trapped myself in and get myself back to try things, both old and new."


    Marcus felt his heart beat faster and felt his blood boil with enthusiasm as he stood up. He grabbed and shook Quinn''s hand tightly as if the firm grip signified the sincerity of his determination andmitment to this deal with Quinn.


    "Deal?" questioned Quinn, staring into Marcus''s that now showed seemingly boundless energy.


    "Deal!" affirmed Marcus, smiling a curve from the bottom of his heart.


    .


    - (Omake: Two Weirdos) -


    .


    Eddie Carmichael entered the Ravenwmon room after performing maneuvers he deemed necessary to be in a Chaser''s arsenal after an intense session of flying around Hogwarts.


    ''Ah, my chest hurts,'' groaned Eddie as he stepped inside, and the first thing he saw with his tired eyes were his two roommates staring at each other with passionate eyes and ardent smiles on their faces, their hands locked in a handshake as they stood in the smack dab middle of the Ravenw room.


    He stood there for half a minute, staring at his roommates, but they didn''t move or break the handshake.


    "What the hell are these two weirdos doing?"


    But looking at them didn''t give him answers, and he was exhausted. So Eddie acted like he didn''t know them and walked past them to his dorm room.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Marcus!"


    Marcus Belby - A deal of friendship - "Quinn!"


    Eddie Carmichael - Grinding hard - "I am too tired for this shit..."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 103 - Leviathan’s Underpass, And The Raven

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡¸90%¡¹


    A very calm Quinn horizontally floated at the near bottom of Hadal Encumbrance and gazed at the triangr entrance in front of him.


    ¡¸Leviathan''s Underpass¡¹


    ''This time it''s a monster,'' noticed Quinn as he stared at the words written above the dark entrance. He had read that after keeping his eyes open at 70% and had, consequently, done some research on the Leviathan.


    The Leviathan. A mythical creature with the form of a sea serpent. Known originally as a ''great sea monster'' in the first chapter of Genesis, the Leviathan has be synonymous with any enormous monster or creature. It was asionally invoked to ept me for tsunamis.


    ording to legends, the Leviathan was a fire-breathing creature with such immense size that the sea boiled when it swam on the surface. It ruthlessly and fearlessly rules over all the creatures of the sea. The Leviathan''s skin is like a double coat of mail with ovepping scales asrge as shields on its back and as sharp and tough as broken pottery on its under-parts. Swords and harpoons would simply bounce off such protection. It breathed smoke from its nostrils and expelled mes from its mouth, which was rimmed with teeth. Its fins radiated a brilliant light, and its eyes were like the glimmerings of dawn.


    In the magical world, the Leviathan was a type of dragon that lived in the deep oceans. The non-magical legends had gotten the description right; it was an enormous, long, thick serpent-type dragon and, ording to the records, it weighed five tonnes (five thousand kilograms), clocking at just one tonne less than thergest dragon species in the world, The Ukrainian Ironbelly.


    Even though the Leviathan was an aquatic species, they were just like any other dragon species; it was magic-resistant, had resilient scales and had fire-breath. On a side note, every part of its body had magical properties.


    Quinn had thought about the uing trial, and one of his worries was toe across an actual Leviathan. If a Basilisk could be kept alive for a thousand years through deep hibernation, then there was no reason a Leviathan couldn''t be kept alive the same way.


    After thinking it thoroughly, Quinn was ny percent sure that a Leviathan wouldn''t be in there because of the trials he had been through. It didn''t make sense to put a Leviathan inside because of the prevailing water concept themes.


    ''Well, the Leviathan is a predator species in the ocean. It might be a guardian-type trial,'' thought Quinn, followed by another curious line of thought: ''Who would win between a Kraken and Leviathan, I wonder?''


    Quinn flexed his muscles, and immediately arctic blue magic shed. The magic originated from his body and went towards the triangr entrance, which created a glowing arctic blue tunnel of water.


    ''Let''s go in there with the hope that there''s no Leviathan,'' wished Quinn, but there was a sharp glint in his eyes. He was prepared to do what must be done, even if it meant killing a dragon.


    He floated down. His hands touched the edges of the entrance, and though he was at 100% depth, Quinn wasn''t feeling an iota of it. The 100% of the pressure intensity was being thwarted by Quinn''s magic, where he was applying an equal and opposite force to cancel the weight bearing down on him.


    Pulling his feet to his front, Quinn went in the entrance to Leviathan''s Underpass.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn found himself teleported to the trial, and like in most Tehom''s Delight, he was directly transported underwater. However, unlike Tehom''s Delight, this room was lit brightly.


    Quinn looked down and saw that his feet were touching a white marble floor. When he advanced, the white floor extended ahead for around fifty meters. The entire passage was covered with a circr wall of water. It was a tunnel with a white marble straight path as the floor. The space outside the water tunnel was an expanse of blue, and Quinn couldn''t see an end to the expanse.


    "Ah, so this is the underpass, huh. A tunnel through the water. Though I am still underwater," noted Quinn as he took in the surrounding scene.


    He looked straight ahead to the other end of the tunnel and saw another triangr entrance, but this one without a title above it. This entrance was like the one in Tehom''s Delight; although it had another patch of water with a different flow than the surrounding water, there was nothing solid at the end of the tunnel and a wall of water sealed off the end.


    Noticing that, Quinn looked back and saw the same wall of water. He raised his hand to touch the water wall. He found that the water wall was solid, and his hand didn''t cross through the water wall.


    "Now, what is the deal here? I can see that I have to walk to the other end of the tunnel and enter that entrance," observed Quinn and thought about what this trial wasposed of, but nothing popped out to him from the get-go. "No way, this is a simple path. What is the catch here?"


    Quinn raised his hand, and some of the surrounding water 5 to form a long ice spear in front of him. "Let''s see how this does." Saying that Quinn shot the icence straight ahead towards the other end.


    The icence raced through the water, and contrary to Quinn''s expectation, the icence didn''t face any obstructions, didn''t trigger anything before it entered the triangr entrance, and disappeared.


    ''Hmm, unexpected, really unexpected,'' thought Quinn before turning his eyes to the floor. Another seven icences manifested from the water and shot towards seven different parts of the path, but every one of them bounced off without scratching the marble. ''Nothing at that, too? Ah, I need to go in myself. Don''t want to do that, really don''t.''


    Quinn sighed and took a step forward on the whiter marble, one more, and then another. As he moved forward, a very faint blue line shone on the marble floor. That delicate line on the floor went unnoticed by the boy as he walked ahead.


    *Fwipp.*


    Ten strides in the walk towards the other end of the white floor, Quinn felt something on his body, the feeling was confusing and sudden, and it was only after two additional steps that he abruptly stopped and looked down on his shoulder.


    There he saw reding out of his shoulder. He couldn''t see his shoulder because of the red staining the water, but Quinn could feel a deep gash above his corbone.


    As the realization hit and the pain set in, Quinn felt two more parts of his body rip; more blood spurted out from his calf and waist as deep gashes marred his body. One of Quinn''s transfigured gills also got cut, creating furtherplications.


    ''W-What the hell-l!!'' rms red inside Quinn''s head as his eyes showed panic and alertness muddled with pain and onsetting heaviness because of the continuous blood loss.


    His mind was slowing down because of his condition: it took Quinn a few moments to focus through the pain and channel his magic into the safety insignia.


    And as he did that, Quinn''s darkening vision saw a swirl of water fissuree into existence ten meters in front of him, and from the center of that swirl a pressurized jet of water appeared, ripping through the water towards Quinn.


    In defense, Quinn was only able to raise his hand; it didn''t help much because the jet of water had cut through the muscles of his arm and pierced his body below his chest, just out of the heart''s vicinity.


    He activated the teleportation, and before disappearing from the Leviathan''s Underpass, Quinn saw four more swirls forming in the water, ready to shoot lethal, cutting jets of water.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The water from the triangr entrance set Quinn down on the floor of the stone cave. For a moment, Quinn''s eyes remained close as he leaked red blood on the floor. Then his eyes snapped open, and no emotion could be seen in his eyes or on his face.


    Pain.


    Pain was something Quinn was familiar with; it was something that he had constantly felt during the time he was trying to get his magic back. Every time he loosened the hold on magic, his magic would rush out, and that would cause pain.


    With the volume of magic inside Quinn''s magical core, the rampant magic had enough juice to cause pain for hours before it drained the core of magic. When Quinn finally decided to confront his magic, that pain followed him for hours every day, and Quinn had to bear with it for a good chunk of the day, every day, till he was able to get his magic back under his control.


    But in those unpleasant days, the pain was Quinn''s primary motivator. It was something that Quinn didn''t want to feel; as such, Quinn focused on his emotions to ignore the pain.


    And now, the pain had returned because of injuries. And with those injuries came back panic, a rush of urgency, and fear among multitudes of emotions.


    Negative emotions were absent from Quinn''s regr, peaceful life, but under the current circumstances, they surfaced and came back to his life.


    lumency detached Quinn''s emotions to the second level so that they were all but a buzz at the back of his head, but his magic remained firmly connected to his emotions.


    ''Five points of injury: shoulder, nk, calf, upper abdomen, and forearm.'' Quinn''s mind sunk into an analytical mode as he analysed his body.


    Quinn slightly moved his shoulder and felt the first point of injury. ''Shoulder: deep cut in the Trapezius muscle. Left shoulder disabled. The vicle bone is safe and unharmed.''


    His attention moved down his body to his waist, and Quinn slightly flexed his abdominal muscles. ''F-nk muscles: External oblique, internal oblique, transversus abdominis; threeyer of muscle pration.'' Quinn groaned in pain because of the injury. ''I-Internal injury:rge intestine injury possible, degree of injury unknown.''


    Then came Quinn''s analysis of his mobility, and that was dependent on his legs. ''Severe calf tear; diagonal tear. Conclusion: right leg mobility severely restricted.'' Another critical injury had sharply reduced Quinn''s ability to move. He had practically lost his right leg.


    After that was the turn of the injury Quinn was most worried about. ''Upper abdomen wound: no exit wound confirmed with severe blood loss. Punctured lung hindering breathing.'' Quinn was relieved that his heart wasn''t injured. The closeness of the injury had been very stressful to him.


    Thest injury was to his forearm and had slightly fractured his bone and had a flexor tendon, which had rendered his left hand''s finger useless.


    Finally, Quinn closed his eyes, and his study and practice of Healing magic came to use. A mix of blue and green light shed inside and across his wounds and slowed down his blood loss. But the blood work wasn''t over as Quinn''s skill with Blood Magic came into y, and he mitigated the blood flow to the uninjured veins and arteries.


    ''The injuries are too serious for me to heal right now. I need to get out of here,'' decided Quinn thinking about his physical situation.


    His injuries were severe, and Quinn wasn''t sure if he would be able to heal them on his own. He wanted to get out of the Aquatic Vault because apparition was disabled in here, meaning that if he failed to stabilize himself in here, Quinn wouldn''t be able to call Polly to pop him to the Hospital wing where Poppy could take him.


    While inside Hogwarts grounds, house-elves could elf-apparate inside or outside on their own. But if they had another being with them, they couldn''t bring them out or in with them. Meaning that if Polly came to Hogwarts, she wouldn''t be able to bring Quinn out of the castle grounds, but she was allowed to apparate him to any part of the castle that wasn''t warded off to the house-elves.


    Quinn wanted to get out of there before his condition degraded so that if he did fail to heal himself, he would have Polly pop him to the Hospital wing.


    With grunts and groans of pain, Quinn conjured a stretcher to his side. After rolling onto the stretcher, Quinn stuck his body to the stretcher with magic.


    The stretcher was levitated and brought Quinn to the tunnel, and after raising itself vertically, the stretcher with Quinn attached to it entered the tunnel. The bubblehead charm covered Quinn''s face to provide him oxygen inside water.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The stretcher with Quinn came out of the tunnel into the Great Lake. Water magic took over and raised Quinn above as he controlled the direction he wanted to go.


    Quinn strenuously looked to the side, hoping that the Kraken would notice him and carry him to thekeshore so that he wouldn''t have to use water magic to get out, but it seemed that the fates weren''t with him today because the Kraken''s eyes were closed and it seemed to be sleeping.


    ''Need to hurry,'' thought Quinn. He didn''t stop toment his bad luck. He immediately ramped up the water magic, which would have been difficult because of his current condition. But the negative emotions were very potent when it came to magic, and Quinn was solely channeling them to provide that extra juice.


    The water around him pushed him up, and Quinn zoomed to thekeshore while a calm bubble of water protected him from any disturbance.


    Working through the pain, which Quinn hadn''t numbed because it was helping him with a stronger connection to magic and kept him awake, Quinn came out to a portion of the shore with trees. He didn''t want to be disturbed and wanted to work in peace.


    The stretcherid itself on the ground, and immediately, Quinn started to heal himself. Very slowly, Healing Magic began to work on Quinn''s body and started to knit the very inner portion of his injuries. Quinn knew that he wouldn''t be able topletely heal himself andpletely recover at the moment; he would need potions and multiple healing sessions for that.


    So, currently, Quinn''s focus was to stabilize himself so that his wounds weren''t life-threatening and he could move without degrading his injuries.


    With his eyes closed, Quinn worked Healing charms and spells to slowly and carefully heal his injuries.


    But it seemed that fate anddy luck definitely weren''t at his side because Quinn felt a chill descend on him. Something that sucked seemed to want all the joy out of everything.


    Quinn opened his eyes, and through his tired eyes, saw half a dozen Dementors descend upon him, with more Dementors circling above in the distance. And from the looks of it, they too wereing down towards him.


    "Ah, this is great. Just f**king great." Spat out a tired and busy Quinn and stared at the six Dementors.


    A Patronus was out of the question because Quinn was working with negative emotions, and right now, he was amid fixing his body. If he tried to use a Patronus, the Healing magic would be interrupted and furtherplicate his injuries.


    Panic increased, and even though he couldn''t feel it, the annoying buzz in the back of his head got stronger.


    Quinn heavily sighed and murmured to himself. "I didn''t want to do this. I really don''t want to do this. I don''t want to dip into that." His eyes got a little sharper as he decided. "But it is the best of all the choices I have."


    He didn''t want Polly toe here and see him all injured with a horde of Dementorsing down to get him. If she saw this, Quinn was sure that his grandfather would pull him out of Hogwarts, and he wasn''t ready for that. Not to mention there would be further consequences to his lifestyle.


    Quinn closed his eyes and firmly dered to himself. "Do it! Ask for it. And, hurry! We don''t have much time!"


    Then Quinn waited, waited for the thing he wanted to happen as he continued to heal himself.


    The chilling presence from the Dementors became colder, but just before the happiness-sucking demons sucked the joy out of him, warm and positive energy enveloped him, bringing a smile to Quinn''s face.


    "Excellent," smiled Quinn and opened his eyes to see a bright-silver, translucent Raven flying between him and the Dementors.


    The Raven Patronus turned towards Quinn and stared at him for a second before turning back towards the Dementors.


    Then Raven pped its wings fiercely, and as it did, the Raven increased in size from a normal-sized small Raven to an eagle-sized bird, but the size increase didn''t end, and the Raven continued to grow.


    Within a span of seconds, the small Raven had grown to an elephant-sized behemoth of a bird.


    The silver light from the Raven Patronus was so bright that Quinn had to close his eyes to protect his eyes, but a small smile graced his face. Feeling relieved, Quinn went back to concentrating on healing.


    The elephant-sized Raven flew up and towards the horde of more than a hundred Dementors. The wraithlike Dark creatures ran away fastly in all directions, doing their best to avoid the Raven Patronus and even the slightest silver lighting from it. The creatures that made beings cower were now fleeing in fear because of the silver guardian.


    After chasing away the Dementors, the Raven Patronus returned. It shrunk down to the size of a regr Raven and flew circles around Quinn.


    Quinn opened his eyes as the Healing magic stopped working. He was stabilized, no longer in life-threatening danger, and was healed enough to move around slowly without moving.


    "Off you go," said Quinn and dispelled the Raven Patronus but not before saying, "Thank you for protecting me."


    The Patronus pped its wing rapidly before it was dispelled by Quinn.


    "Ugh, now I need to work this out," sighed Quinn as he got up from the ground with a grunt.


    "This sucks."


    Quinn conjured a robe over his body and walked towards the castle as the sky dark, onsetting the nighttime.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Low on HP (Hit Points). Status: Injured.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 104 - Summons, Repayment, Negotiation

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn entered the A.I.D. office limping. He had conjured a shirt and pants over his body and under his robes in the time he had traveled from the Great Lake''s shore to the A.I.D. office.


    Other than his punctured lung, which he mostly had patched at thekeshore, most of Quinn''s injuries were still raw. All the muscle wounds were being protected and being medically stabilized by magic.


    The fractured bone didn''t lose any bone fragments, so Quinn was able topletely fix it. But the muscles were torn and ripped apart by the pressure jet. To fix them, Quinn needed to drink a muscle-protein nutrient potion that would provide the body with the material to restore the muscles.


    Quinn slumped down in one of the client chairs and leaned into it before diving into his mind and recalled the information about his potion inventory. "I don''t have enough doses. Two standard dose vials won''t work." He looked at the red workshop door and sighed, "I will have to make it work for now."


    Quinn raised a single finger, and a painting on the wall levitated and from behind a rose-gold key flew out. The rose-gold key flew towards the red workshop door and entered the key slot before turning to open the door.


    This rose-gold key was a spare as Quinn''s clothes were still hidden near thekeshore. Quinn had built detachable pockets that he attached to his clean robes every morning. The primary key was in one of those pockets, so Quinn had to use this spare key.


    The door lock unlocked with a click, and with an act of magic, Quinn manually opened the cylinder bars lock system that kept the door extra secured in case someone found a key.


    After the door opened, two vials of dull, dark red potion flew out towards Quinn. Quinn grabbed one vial while the other one entered the conjured pants'' pocket.


    Uncorking the vial, Quinn drank the potion in one gulp and set down the empty vial on the table. He closed his eyes and felt the muscle-protein nutrient potion immediately took effect. The potion provided the muscle-protein nutrient to the body, and Quinn cast Healing Magic to utilize that concentrated intake of the nutrients.


    With the Healing Magic doing its work, Quinn got up from the client chair and moved to his barstool behind the table. Opening the stationary drawer of his table, Quinn took out a sheet of ck paper and a fountain pen with golden ink inside it.


    It was the same color scheme as the A.I.D. cards; gold on ck.


    But before he used the pen and paper, Quinn opened another drawer and took out a fake silver sickle. He pumped magic into it; previously, he hadn''t wanted to risk diverting focus and magic because the injuries were severe, but now he wasfortable diverting magic and focus as his wounds were stabilized.


    The fake silver sickle transformed to say ''OFFICE'' on both sides. Quinn put the coin back into the drawer and turned his attention back to the ck paper.


    "Let''s keep it simple and authoritative," said Quinn as he uncapped the pen and thought about what to write on the ck paper.


    After forming the words and sentences in his mind, Quinn began writing.


    .


    [


    To,


    Ms. Hermione Granger,


    Date: May 16, 1994.


    Subjects: Summons for repayment.


    Ms. Granger,


    You are duly summoned and required to report at the A.I.D. office on the main corridor, west sections, fifth-floor, for repaying the debt owed to me for helping you in your time of need.


    You are required to appear within 30 MINUTES of receiving this letter. The moment you open the envelope this letter came in, I would be informed, and the clock would start.


    For your sake, pleaseply with the instructions to the point and without any dy.


    Regards,


    Q. West,


    Proprietor,


    A.I.D. consultations.


    ]


    .


    "This will do," nodded Quinn, folded the ck paper into thirds and put it into a white envelope, and addressed it to Hermione. As he sealed the envelope, Quinn charmed the lip of the envelope in such a way that when it was opened, Quinn would know.


    As hepleted the letter, the office door opened, and his assistant, Luna Lovegood, entered the room.


    "You called?" asked Luna as she skipped into the room. She raised her arm to show a leather and sterling silver bracelet on her wrist. The silver piece on the bracelet showed the words ''OFFICE'' on it.


    The sterling silver piece was charmed with the Protean charm connecting the bracelet with the fake silver sickle. It was a way for Quinn to summon


    Quinn raised the letter in his hand and asked. "Yes, can you go to the library and hand this to Hermione Granger. She will most probably be there, but if she isn''t, go to the Gryffindormon room and ask a Gryffindor to call Hermione Granger out."


    Unfortunately, Quinn didn''t have Recon on his person, or else he would have told Luna Hermione''s precise location. But fortunately, Quinn had a lot of key people''s regr routines memorized.


    Luna took out the envelope from Quinn and looked at the Hermione Granger written on it.


    "Okay," shrugged Luna and put the envelope inside her robes.


    "Luna, please make sure that she gets the envelope immediately and tell her that she is to open it immediately. You have to give it to her as soon as possible," insisted Quinn, as he only had a little over four hours before the window closed, and he wanted this to end within an hour or two. "Also, after you give it to her, don''t return to the office for today. When you go to dinner, tell Eddie and Marcus that I am busy and won''t be attending the meal today. Tell them it isn''t something to worry about and to not look for me."


    Luna tilted her head and seemed confused about why Quinn was asking these things. But the serious tone in his voice told her that she should justply. She did stare at him observantly, but nothing seemed out of order.


    "Now, go on and hurry," instructed Quinn.


    Luna nodded and exited the office to find Hermione Granger to hand over Quinn''s letter to her.


    Quinn sighed in relief and dropped the mor spell, revealing a slightly pale Quinn. "Good thing I thought of disguising myself."


    He closed his eyes to concentrate on the Healing Magic to direct the healing process, waiting for Hermione to arrive.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    As Quinn had predicted, Luna found Hermione in the library, reading away from a thick tome with brows furrowed in concentration.


    And even though she looked severe, Hermione was having a good time as she read the book.


    "Hermione Granger."


    The mention of her name made Hermione look up from her book and notice a girl with blond hair and silvery eyes looking at her, standing really close to the table, which surprised Hermione.


    "Yes?" asked Hermione tentatively. She recognized the girl in front of her and knew who Luna was. She had noticed the younger girl because she usually hung out with Quinn West''s group of friends.


    Luna frowned at the tone and asked. "You are Hermione Granger, right?"


    Hermione blinked and nodded in response.


    "Oh, good. I thought I found the wrong person."


    Luna took out the envelope that Quinn gave to her from robes and presented it to Hermione. "This is for you."


    Hermione confusedly received the white letter envelope from Luna and read her name written in beautiful cursive calligraphy with gold ink.


    "Who is this from?" asked Hermione. Something told her that the letter envelope wasn''t from Luna.


    "The letter is from Quinn," answered Luna.


    "Quinn?" The person who was sitting at the table with Hermione, reading her own books, spoke up. She had been listening to the conversation, but when Quinn came up, she joined the conversation. "Quinn West?"


    Luna looked at the person and saw a girl with red hair and green eyes, a sharp look in the girl''s eyes as she stared at her.


    "You are Ivy Potter. You are pretty,"mented Luna,plimenting the girl. "From what I know, there isn''t another Quinn in Hogwarts. But yes, Quinn West."


    "What does he want?" asked Ivy, briefly ncing at the letter in Hermione''s hand.


    Luna shrugged her shoulders as she replied. "I don''t know. He just said to deliver the letter." She turned to Hermione and instructed, "He said to open the letter immediately."


    "And now I am done, so bye." After saying that, Luna turned and left without giving the two girls a chance. She would have stayed and talked to the two, but she had an article to write for Quibbler, and Quinn wanted Hermione to read the letter immediately, so she didn''t want to dy that.


    Luna''s abrupt exit surprised Ivy and Hermione, and they just stared at her back as she walked away. Only after Luna had disappeared from their sight did Ivy and Hermione look at each other with surprise.


    "That was... I don''t know what that was,"mented Hermione, still taking in the meeting with entric Ravenw.


    "Yes... it was rushed." added Ivy and then pointed at the envelope in Hermione''s hand. "Open it. Let''s see what he wants?"


    Hermione opened the envelope and took out a thicker than usual ck paper. "This is definitely from him," said Hermione, immediately connecting the ck sheet with the ck A.I.D. cards. Her guess was strengthened when she saw the gold words upon unfolding the letter.


    Ivy watched as Hermione read the letter and noticed that her eyes widened almost immediately.


    "What is it? What does it say?"


    "It is a summons for repayment. He is going to ask me to do something for him, just as he said he would," said Hermione, passing the ck letter to Ivy for reading. "I need to be there within thirty minutes, and he knows that I opened it, read it."


    Hermione had always told Ivy not to worry about the incident as they couldn''t change what had happened, and they would worry about it when Quinn asked them for repayment. But now that time hade, Hermione started to worry about what Quinn would ask from her.


    Ivy read the letter twice and then looked at Hermione. "Let''s go. I wille with you." She held the worried Hermione''s hand and assured. "I will be there for you, don''t worry."


    Hermione breathed and nodded, thankful for her best friend''s support.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn opened his eyes when he heard the door chime ring. He immediately put on a mor so that everything seemed normal. It masked the pale skin with some exhaustion with magic, and Quinn looked no different from the norm.


    Hermione Granger and Ivy Potter entered the office with different expressions: Hermione had nervousness on her face which she was trying to hide whereas Ivy Potter had caution and vignce shing in her eyes.


    The two girls looked around the office, and the two couldn''t get used to the fact that the A.I.D. office was lit up with white lighting from an unknown source instead of candle chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.


    "Wee, Ms. Granger, pleasee in, and I would be lying if I said I didn''t expect you to tag along with her, Ms. Potter," sighed Quinn when he saw two people enter his office instead of one. "Now that you two are here, please take seats so that we can start. We have much work to do."


    Ivy didn''t reply and followed Quinn''s instructions and sat down in the client chair, with Hermione sitting in the other chair.


    Quinn raised his hand towards Hermione with palm up.


    Hermione looked at the hand with confusion, but a split secondter, she understood the meaning, retrieved the letter Luna had given her and ced it on Quinn''s hand.


    Quinn gripped the letter and threw it above his head behind him. The letter was incinerated into nothingness and smoke immediately after.


    He ignored the astonished expression from the Gryffindor girls and started. "So we all know why I have called you here."


    "To repay the debt," answered Hermione shortly. She nced at Ivy, who was staring at Quinn, who wasn''t paying any attention to Ivy.


    "You are correct. And before we start, I can see that you are nervous. So I would like to reassure you that what I am about to ask will affect nobody other than myself. What I am trying to convey is that your lives won''t be any different from before you received the letter today; you can pretend that nothing happened, and it won''t make any difference."


    Ivy narrowed her eyes: Quinn''s words didn''t reassure her one bit. "What''s the task?" She would decide if the task would affect people after listening to what Quinn had to say.


    Quinn locked eyes with Hermione and opened his mouth to say a phrase that revealed a lot.


    "... I need the Time-Turner."


    Hermione and Ivy''s eyes widened to the size of saucers when the words came out of Quinn''s mouth.


    "T-Time-Turner? W-What do you mean? I don''t understand," stuttered Hermione, trying very hard to pretend to be clueless.


    Ivy, on her side, closed her eyes when she heard the shakiness in Hermione''s voice. The obvious yet poor attempt to hide didn''t help one bit.


    "That stutter reveals everything, Ms. Granger. You need to practice lying if you want to fool anyone." A ghost of a smile graced Quinn''s lips. "Ms. Granger, you have been attending sses for twelve subjects; without special circumstances, there is no way you would have been able to attend all those sses."


    "You have to understand that twelve O.W.Ls are rare but not unprecedented. A lot of to-be Headboys and Headgirls have attempted and seeded in aplishing this feat. But the difference between them and you is that those people didn''t sign up for all the subjects. Whereas you? You signed up for every subject ss, and from what I have gathered, you attend every single subject."


    It wasn''tpulsory to sign up for all sses to take O.W.L exams. In theory, a student could give all twelve O.W.L exams without attending a single session of all subjects. Most of the students who got twelve O.W.Ls did exactly that.


    Hermione rubbed her temple as she asked with a sigh. "But how did you know that I was using a Time-turner?" Time-turners weren''t mainstream knowledge, it weren''t the first thing that popped into one''s mind when thinking about Hermione''s situation.


    Even when Ivy Potter noticed something weird about Hermione and noticed that her timetable didn''t make sense. It took Ivy to pry the answer off of Hermione to know how she managed to attend sses from twelve subjects; Ivy wouldn''t have figured it out on her own.


    "Most people, when hearing about your situation, wouldn''t think about it if they aren''t close to you. Most people would just sigh thinking about the load that you were taking and then move on with their life." Quinn pointed at himself and continued. "Unfortunately or fortunately, I am not like most people. When I heard what you were doing because I am a busy person and have a strict time management schedule, I immediately thought about how you were doing this. And one day, I decided to investigate, and after some days of eliminating multitudes of viable and nonviable scenarios, I was able to figure out how you were doing this. Thest remaining theory was a Time-Turner."


    Then Quinn decided to plug an event that would strengthen his made-up argument. "Do you remember the first day of school when you and Harry Potter were called out to professor McGonagall''s office by her?"


    Hermione nodded as that was the day she got the information about the Time-turner.


    "I understood why Harry Potter and I were there, but you didn''t have to be there, so while investigating, that thought popped into my mind. It made me assume that professor McGonagall assisted you in some way, that you didn''t find a way on your own, and that made the search radius a lot shorter. Professor McGonagall is a busy person and wouldn''t be able to help you out every hour, so I was able to deduce that you were using a magical item from that."


    Hermione and Ivy sat in their seats and watched as Quinn went on to state surprising insights about how he was able to narrow his final guess to a Time-Turner, all while keeping an expression that seemed to appear that what he did wasn''t anything special.


    "... And that is how you got the Time-turner, but enough about this, let''se to why I have called you here," exined Quinn before putting on his business face and stating his demands. "I want to go back in time. You have the means to aplish that and will provide me with the Time-Turner."


    "No," came Hermione''s immediate answer.


    Lending out her Time-turner wasn''t an option in Hermione''s mind. Once Ivy had asked to take the tag along because she wanted to see how it felt, but Hermione had put that idea down before Ivy could finish a single sentence.


    "... I understand your apprehension. The ministry has tight control over Time-tuners; I assume that professor McGonagall got your Time-Turner from the ministry. You are only allowed to use it only for your studies and nothing else," stated Quinn, knowing that he would face some resistance. "But as I told you. What I will do while back in time wouldn''t affect anyone but me; my actions are extremely isted and won''t affect anyone. The only people who even know that something happened are already in this room."


    Quinn could still see the resistance and unwillingness on Hermione''s face, so he decided to give her another piece of reassurance that could possibly convince her to allow him to time travel.


    "Ms. Granger, how about this? You and Ms. Potter here cane with me. I won''t go alone, and you can see firsthand what I do while in the past. If you think I am doing something that you aren''tfortable with, you can ask me to stop, and I will give you my word that I will stop."


    He gauged Hermione''s expression and thought as he waited for her response. ''Don''t make me stun you and steal the Time-Turner. I don''t want to erase your memories. I would have to erase Luna''s memories, Eddie''s and Marcus''s to tie loose ends, and I don''t want that.''


    Luna had delivered the letter to Hermione, and Quinn had instructed her to inform Eddie and Marcus that he would miss the meal. So to effectively tie all loose ends, he would have to erase that Luna was ever called into the office and asked to deliver the letter. And by now, she would have met Eddie and Marcus, rying the information, so he would also have to erase their memories toplete the erasure of the entire incident.


    Hermione took a while to make her decision. Ivy Potter sat by her side, silent; this was Hermione''s decision, and if Hermione wanted some advice, Ivy would offer it, but not before asking.


    Ivy had listened to the entire conversation, and if she was in Hermione''s ce, she too wouldn''t have beenfortable allowing Quinn to go back in the past. But the conditions that Quinn was putting forward were favorable to them. If she didn''t have a choice to refuse, then Ivy would agree to Quinn''s demand, given that he followed through with his promises.


    "... I agree with your demands. All three of us will go jump back to the past," dered Hermione with a half-resigned and half-determined expression.


    Quinn smiled and responded,


    "Excellent."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Negotiating a deal - Tik-tok, Tik-tok, Tik-tok.


    Hermione Granger - Frequent Time-traveler - Holds the only Time-turner currently in Hogwarts.


    Ivy Potter - Moral support - Vigntly watching Quinn''s every offer.


    nL - Editor - Watching everything unfolding while eating popcorn (*¡ä¦Ø£à*)


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Nani!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 105 - Jumping Back In Time

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Excellent," smiled Quinn. The tough and first part of the problem was done. Now he only needed to get the straightforward part over with. "I have done some research with the Time-Turner, but you are the authority here; tell me, how should we do this?"


    Hermione Granger was anything but uncertain. When she decided to do something, she went forward withposure, focus, and without second-guessing her decisions. Now that she had agreed to Quinn''s demands, her previous hesitations were put aside.


    She put her hand inside her shirt and pulled out a sparkling ne that had an hourss with blue sand.


    "Oh, that is shiny,"mented Quinn. Now that the difficult part was over, he was much rxed, so carefreements flowed out.


    Ivy and Hermione looked up from the Time-Turner and saw that Quinn was closely observing the Time-Turner with a smile on his face.


    "Time-Turners that are issued by the Ministry of Magic have an Hour-Reversal Charm ced onto them. They had a limit of traveling back a maximum of five hours, which is the determined safety limit to the person and the fabrics of time itself," exined Hermione before asking Quinn a question. "So, how long do you need to go in time, because if it is more than five hours, then we are already over before we start."


    Quinn knew that because of his knowledge, and that was why he had hurried to call Hermione. If there wasn''t a time limit, Quinn would have waited till he was fully recovered.


    "I want to go a little under three hours back in time."


    "I see, then it''s fine. This Time-Turner turns back time in hours, meaning that we will go back three hours in time," nodded Hermione.


    "Next, we need a ce where we can''t be seen. Somewhere we won''t be disturbed. We need to find a ce that has been empty for thest five hours," conveyed Hermione, another rule about Time-Turners. "Professor McGonagall has given me a key to one of the deserted and unused ssrooms that I use when jumping back in time. "


    Quinn pointed his hand towards the office as he said, "I knew that, so I have taken measures to ensure that we won''t be disturbed in here. No one will being here today. I will lock the door, and just to be extra careful, we will start here." Quinn pointed at the workshop as he finished.


    Ivy and Hermione looked at the workshop door and noticed that the door was different. Especially Ivy, who noticed that the new door looked much sturdier than before.


    "Yes, the door is new. I had to make another one after our previous altercation. You won''t be able to break it as easily as you did before," chuckled Quinn as he read their thoughts from their expressions.


    The two girls twitched after hearing Quinn''s remark. Hermione retrieved her eyes from the red door and nodded. "This will do. Now, before we go back, where are we going?"


    "We will be going to the woods near the Hogsmeade station, near thekeside. As I told you, my actions are going to be extremely isted, and the location is the reason for that istion."


    "What are you going to do?"


    Quinn shook his head and spoke, "I will tell you after we make the jump and reach the woods."


    Ivy narrowed her eyes at Quinn''s refusal to tell the details, but because Hermione didn''t say anything, she kept quiet.


    "... Well, let''s get this over with," sighed Hermione, while guessing that asking Quinn again would be a waste of time and effort. The boy in front of her always had a shroud of mystery around him, and she didn''t think that the shroud woulde off today.


    "Good, follow me so we can get started," said Quinn as he stood up from his barstool. He took out his fake wand and pointed it at the office door, melding the door and frame together.


    The two Gryffindor girls stood up and followed after Quinn as he pushed open the red workshop door. Quinn closed the door after everyone was inside.


    Last time, when Ivy was in the workshop, it was dark because she didn''t know how to turn on the lights, but this time with Quinn with them, the workshop was brightly lit, and everything was clearly visible for them to see.


    Hermione and Ivy watched with wide eyes, taking in the things that they could see. There was so much stuff in the room that the variety stunned Ivy and Hermione.


    "Ms. Granger, let''s get going. I would like to get started quickly, so we can get this over with quickly," spoke Quinn to the girls, who were upied looking around.


    "... Yes. Come closer to me," said Hermione as she pulled on the chain of the ne with the Time-Turner. Then, the chain expanded. It actually kept on expanding until its length satisfied Hermione. "Get under the chain such that it is surrounding all three of us."


    Ivy and Quinn walked closer and lifted the chains over their heads to walk inside the circle. The redhead girl and ck-haired boy looked at each other with their vivid-green and stone-grey eyes as they stood in close proximity.


    Quinn slightly smiled as he looked down towards the shorter girl while Ivy stared up with a stern, non-nonsense face.


    "You look like Daphne, right now,"mented Quinn suddenly and smiled when Ivy''s face twitched. His objective had been fulfilled.


    Hermione looked at the two and cleared her throat, and asked. "Are you sure? Three hours?"


    "Yes, three hours will do. We''ll be back here by the end of these three hours." He looked at Hermione and added, "We should hurry because three people just entered the office." Quinn pointed at the ss wall.


    Hermione''s eyes widened as she immediately understood what Quinn meant by his word. The three people that entered the office were the ones from the future.


    She immediately turned the hourss timepiece thrice, triggering the Time-Turner and slipping through the sands of times.


    The bright workshop dissolved. Quinn had the sensation that he was flying very fast, backward. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past him; his ears were pounding; he kept calm and observed the phenomenon through all his senses.


    And then he felt solid ground beneath his feet, and everything came into focus again. Quinn stood next to Hermione and Ivy inside the dark workshop. There was no light because there weren''t any windows, and the rune lights were not turned on.


    Quinn turned his neck slightly to adjust the chain of the hourss-timepiece cutting into his neck.


    "We''ve gone back in time," Hermione whispered, lifting the chain off and looking at Ivy and Quinn''s figures appeared in the darkness. "We went three hours back..."


    "Excellent. Let''s get going. It will take longer than usual for us to get to the woods," said Quinn as he walked towards the workshop door.


    "Huh, what do you -" Ivy asked what Quinn was talking about when she noticed a clearly visible limp in Quinn''s stride that was previously missing. "Why are you limping?"


    Quinn opened the workshop door and turned his face back to look at Ivy to state in a voice that made it seem that he was saying something obvious: "I am injured."


    "The limp wasn''t there before we jumped back in time," chimed Hermione as she looked at Quinn''s feet.


    "I was being careful, but now that we are here, I can tell you," said Quinn as he entered the office. The girls followed as his voice became faint. "I got injured, and we are going to make it so that I don''t get injured further."


    Ivy and Hermione looked at each other and followed, who kept walking with the limp in his step.


    "You got injured in the woods?" questioned Ivy, trying to get information from Quinn.


    "Kind of. Yeah, I got injured near the woods," said Quinn as the three exited the office and the door locked itself.


    Ivy watched as Quinn looked around the corridor with an ufortable expression.


    "What happened?"


    Quinn briefly nced at Ivy before going back to look at the corridor. "We have to make sure that we aren''t seen. We aren''t part of this time till the three hours pass: we don''t belong to this time just yet. So, I would like to not be seen until the time after we return to the office after three hours."


    To make sure that this entire operation remained isted and contained as much as possible, Quinn wanted that three of them to not be seen.


    Ivy and Hermione understood Quinn''s point of view. Hermione looked at Ivy, who looked at her, and the two best friends talked with their eyes behind Quinn''s back. After a few seconds, Ivy sighed and nodded.


    "I have the Marauder''s Map on me. We can use that," said Ivy looking at Quinn''s back, who turned to face Ivy and locked eyes with her.


    "Really? Finally, some luck. Then let''s use the map. It will make our job much easier. I guess your tagging along is paying off."


    The map alternated between the Potter siblings every day, and it turned out that today was Ivy''s turn. She took out the map from her robes and activated the original inspiration for Recon with the secret phrase.


    "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."


    The ink appeared on the old parchment as Ivy unfolded the map and manually looked for their position.


    ''My Recon has a voice-activated, auto-locator,'' thought Quinn proudly.


    Ivy found their position, and as she did, Quinn noticed that the map only showed Hermione and Ivy; Quinn was missing from the map.


    "It seems I''m still not traceable with the map," smiled Quinn as he looked at the map. "That makes me happy."


    "... We tried to fix it, but it didn''t work," spat Ivy as he lightly red at Quinn.


    "That makes me happier,"ughed Quinn at her tone.


    "Let''s talk about thister," reminded Hermione, who was the only one experienced with time travel. She had gotten used to managing time, and her twopanions were wasting precious time.


    "Ah, yes, we should hurry. With my limp, it will take us longer to get there," nodded Quinn before motioning Ivy to step forward. "If you would be so kind as to lead the way, pathfinder."


    Ivy ignored Quinn and stepped forward to lead the way, while keeping an eye on the map to see the people in their surroundings.


    Quinn, who was following Ivy, sneakily and silently cast a group Disillusionment Charm that worked on Quinn''s understanding of physical illusions and light maniption to turn the trio invisible. It was high-quality magic, and it was much better than his previous work this year as an invisible vignte.


    The fact that he had been noticed prompted Quinn to figure out a better spell that wouldn''t be vulnerable while moving. The general Disillusionment charms worked on light maniption, so Quinn upped the quality of light maniption and beyond by adding aspects of physical illusions to provide anotheryer of depth to the stealth.


    The three eventually made their way towards the woods, taking the party around three-quarters of an hour to get to the point that Quinn wanted.


    "Alright, we are here. We are going to make camp here and wait till the event starts," informed Quinn.


    He took out his fake wand for show and transmuted the ground to rise up to form three teaus before transforming them into stone.


    Quinn plopped himself down on one of the t stones and gestured to the girls to take their seats as well.


    Ivy and Hermione looked to their surroundings and saw that they were barely inside the woods, which had the Greatke on one side and the Hogsmeade station on the other.


    From the way Quinn was sitting, they could deduce that whatever was about to happen was going to happen at the Great Lake''s side.


    After the two finally sat down on the transfigured stones, Quinn spoke up, "We have time before I have to start working, so to pass the time, I would like to make some things clear."


    Ivy and Hermione nced at each other while thinking that Quinn was about to tell them what was about to happen, but what followed differedpletely from what happened.


    "First, Ms. Potter," addressed Quinn. He took a short pause before continuing. "You were at the wrong ce at the wrong time. I was going through a bad time when you came across me. And well, you know what followed."


    Ivy silently stared at Quinn with a totally expressionless face. It was clear she was using lumency. She knew that Quinn was talking about the Polyjuice incident.


    "If times had been better, even though I wouldn''t have condoned your actions¡ª I would''ve simply ignored you and moved along minding my own business. But the circumstances lead to what happened. And I truly and from the bottom of my heart am sorry that I threatened you and your family."


    It was true; Quinn would have ignored Ivy in Daphne''s form and would have walked away because of his then reluctance to get involved with the events. The sin curse had decreased those inhibitions, and he vaulted into the incident with a particr savageness.


    Emotions could be peeked from behind Ivy''s lumency barrier as surprise appeared on her face. She wasn''t expecting this from Quinn when he said that he wanted to pass the time.


    "Next, I don''t really mind you breaking into professor Snape''s ingredient inventory to get the potion ingredients. To me, it just showed that you guys were resourceful. I probably would have just mail-ordered the ingredients, but I''m sure you didn''t have that option."


    Quinn knew he was saying that he didn''t mind identity theft and breaking and entry. But the truth was that he truly didn''t mind it.


    Quinn was what you called a serial Legilimens, which meant that he regrly used Legilimency. Every mealtime while he was in the Great Hall, Quinn would use Legilimency to peek into the unsuspecting mind of numerous students. Tens of students had no idea that their minds were being read while they chatted and ate their meals.


    In his second year, Quinn had drugged Ron Weasley to get information out of him, which was again a tremendous vition of privacy. His first meeting with Ginny Weasley had turned into a walk where he tried to go through the girl''s recent life.


    He had practically hacked into aputer system to get the private passwords of numerous ounts. Recon was just that as he even had the passwords to the professor''s private quarters that were practically like their apartments.


    So when Quinn said that he didn''t mind the stuff that he had held against them, he was speaking the truth.


    "... Nheless, I vehemently oppose you breaking into MY office. That wasn''t cool at all. The reasoning that you girls based your opinion were ¡ªpardon mynguage¡ª idiotic." Hermoine was about to speak, but Quinn stopped her and continued, "I know what I am saying is highly hypocritical, but the truth of the matter is that I am somewhat of a hypocrite."


    Another example of Quinn''s hypocrisy was his thoughts about the Lockhart incident. He felt that Lockhart got his punishment but didn''t like the fact that it hade from himself: Quinn would have been fine if it came from anyone else than him. And that was ssic hypocritical behavior.


    When Quinn stopped and Hermione said what she was nning to say, "You know that what you said makes things worse."


    "I know, but the thing is, what I said is the honest truth. The only reason I am telling you guys this is because, at that time, I was going through a tough time, and telling you guys just lets me get a load off my chest."


    Hermione Granger and Ivy Potter stared at Quinn, who had an honest smile on his face. Both of them knew what Quinn said was in some ways a lot worse, but the tone and delivery of his words made them confused if they should take it positively or negatively.


    "If you are sorry, then why did you call us to repay?" asked Ivy. She had dropped her lumency.


    "Hmm? I said that I didn''t appreciate you breaking into my office. That thing is still pretty much entirely on the table. And while I never wanted to ask you guys to repay the debt, Ms. Granger''s debt was my best option. If I had something that would help me resolve this on my own, then I wouldn''t have given her a single second of thought."


    Quinn shrugged and referenced. "I praised you guys for being resourceful because I like to think I am resourceful as well. This was just me being resourceful. So no hard feelings, alright."


    Quinn was now done with what he wanted to tell them. He had said everything he wanted to say; he had apologized for threatening the Potter family, about staining James Potter''s reputation, getting them expelled, among other things.


    He didn''t mean any of those things, and those kinds of threats would only be true if they had done something that Quinn couldn''t reverse or get out of easily. Because even though his grandfather and Lia would support him and he would inadvertently gain the support of the Dark Faction, the whole spiel would be a tremendous pain in the ass for Quinn.


    The party of three sat in silence, with Quinn monitoring thekeshore while Ivy and Hermione contemted the words that Quinn had spoken to them.


    After half an hour, Quinn suddenly stood up from his stone and garnered the attention of hispanions.


    "It is time," said Quinn as he stared at thekeshore.


    Quinn''s abrupt stand surprised Ivy and Hermione, who were sitting silently for the past half hour. They followed his eyesight, and their eyes widened in shock when they saw a heavily injured Quinn Weste out of theke.


    They were sitting at a distance, but even from there, both could clearly see the wounds on Quinn''s body. The gashes on his body were deep and broad, and only their distance from the ''past'' Quinn dissociated them from the gory scene.


    "W-What happened to you?!" eximed Ivy as she removed her eyes from the ''past'' Quinn to theirpanion, Quinn.


    "... I got injured and am currently in the process of healing myself," replied Quinn, who had his eyes fixed on his ''past'' self.


    "Should we help you out? What should we do? You should''ve told us about this earlier!" rapid-fired Hermione as she frantically looked back and forth from both Quinns.


    Quinn raised his arm to motion them to calm down. "You two don''t have to do anything. Please remember that you are only here to keep an eye on me. You two simply need to stay put. I will take care of everything."


    Hermione and Ivy had stood up from their seats and were now looking at the ''past'' Quinn.


    Both waited for Quinn to do something, but he just stood still and kept on staring at his past self.


    "Why aren''t you doing something?! You are going to die," eximed Ivy, anxiously looking at the injured ''past'' Quinn. With every second that Quinn didn''t respond, she grew more uneasy, and after some time, she couldn''t hold it back anymore. "You are mad! I''m going to help him. He is going to die!" And stepped forward, fully intending to help the ''past'' Quinn.


    Quinn nced at Ivy and sighed. With a slight twitch of his finger, a white dome force field appeared around Ivy, causing her to halt within the confines of the magic.


    There was a sudden and sharp jump in tension between the group. Ivy threw a wary look at the dome around as she took out her wand. Hermione, who was still standing near her stone, also took out her wand in apprehension.


    "Ms. Potter, nothing will happen to him. He will not die from his wounds. The fact that I am standing here is proof that he wille out of this alive," spoke Quinn, attempting to pacify Ivy as he threw a nce towards Hermione. "He is currently healing his wounds. I''m proficient in healing wounds. I''d like you to calm down. I assure you that he won''t die."


    Neither Ivy nor Hermione at this point knew how time worked, so it wasn''t unusual that they would be stimted by the sight of a badly cut-up person.


    ''People withwful-good alignments can be a hassle sometimes,'' thought Quinn. But he was a little surprised: even after what had happened between them, Ivy would readily try to save him...


    The force field around Ivy disappeared, freeing her from the confines.


    "And please try to remain quiet. I had to cast a silencing ward around us to stop the voice from reaching him. We need toplete this stealthily," instructed Quinn before going back to observing his past self.


    Hermione gingerly walked to Ivy and stood by her friend. "Did you notice him casting a ward? Because I didn''t."


    Ivy shook her head in response, her eyes locked on Quinn, who didn''t look worried at all. "Do you have any idea what is happening? Why isn''t he doing anything? Didn''t he say that he wanted to reduce his injuries? Why isn''t he helping his past self?"


    "I don''t kno -" started Hermione, but her voice came to an abrupt stop.


    Ivy watched as Hermione''s face took an expression of horrified shock.


    "... What?" spoke Ivy and turned towards where Hermione was looking and saw the thing that had Hermione stuck in frightening shock.


    A flying tornado of dark cloaks descended from the dark evening sky. Hundreds of gliding wraiths gathered above the ''past'' Quinn, circling in the sky as some of them silently flew down towards the injured boy.


    The hundreds of creatures had a grim effect on the surroundings as Ivy and Hermione felt the temperature drop around them.


    "It''s time." They heard Quinn speak as he calmly looked at the hundreds of hooded-cloaks nearing his past self.


    "The Dementors are here."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I am a hypocrite of a high-order.


    Ivy Potter - Pathfinder - Lawful Good


    Hermione Granger - Tensed - What is happening?!


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Alright, Dementors, 3..2..1. Go! Go! Go!


    nL - Editor - This is getting interesting¡­ (^_^)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 106 - Dementor Horde, Time Magic, Free Will

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "The dementors are here."


    Quinn, Ivy, and Hermione watched a horde of more than a hundred Dementors descend upon the injured ''past'' Quinn.


    Ivy''s eyes went back and forth between Quinn and the scene near thekeside. She stood frozen, troubled by the scene; every second, her nervousness and impatience grew stronger.


    She turned to Quinn and outright screamed. "What in the world are you waiting for?! Do something! You are going to die!" She knew that Quinn could cast a Patronus, as Hermione had told her about Quinn''s Patronus demonstration in McGonagall''s office.


    "... It isn''t time yet. He has to say it for me to move. I need his permission to act. Without it, I''m not going to act," dered Quinn, still staring at his past self with unblinking eyes.


    "What? What?! WHAT?!" thundered Ivy as she incredulously gawked at Quinn. She couldn''t understand what was going on in Quinn''s mind.


    It was then that the ''past'' Quinn spoke some words that were audible to the group.


    "Do it! Ask for it. And hurry! We don''t have much time!"


    Ivy, who was thundering at Quinn, went silent. "What did he say?" she asked.


    "He said, ''Do it. Ask for it. And hurry. We don''t much time.''" Hermione repeated the words said by ''past'' Quinn and nced at Quinn, who had finally raised his fake wand.


    "Not the most urate wording. I already asked and am already here. But I will let it slide since you''re injured," chuckled Quinn, and immediately after, a silver glow of light burst out his fake wand.


    Ivy and Hermione had seen Quinn''s Patronus during the train ride to Hogwarts, and at that time, they were only able to identify it as a bird, but this time, they clearly saw the form of Quinn''s Patronus.


    "A Raven," muttered Hermione, watching the silver bird fly towards the ''past'' Quinn.


    Previously, they were stunned because of Quinn''sck of action. But now they were astonished as they gawked at the small-sized bird growing into an elephant-sized raptor, who chased away the horde of Dementors that numbered greater than a hundred.


    ''I''m still injured,'' sighed Quinn internally as he looked at the elephant-sized Raven Patronus. ''If I wasn''t injured, I could have ramped it up to the size of a giant.''


    After the Raven Patronus chased away the Dementors, Quinn made it fly around his past self for protection.


    "It''s done. Now, we have to wait for him to get up and go to the office," sighed Quinn as he plopped back down on his stone.


    The two girls turned their heads from the guardian Patronus to Quinn. Their eyes widened another fraction after they saw a paler than before Quinn.


    Quinn took out the dull, dark red, muscle-protein nutrient potion vial from his pocket and gulped it down to replenish his body with another dose.


    "Sit down; he will take some time to heal himself and go back to the castle," called out Quinn to the stunned girls.


    "... What did you just drink?" questioned Ivy, eying Quinn''s hand, which pocketed the empty vial.


    Quinn briefly pulled up his left sleeve in response to show the girls aceration, and inside the wound, they saw the muscle fibers constantly twitching.


    The wound was covered quickly, after which Quinn exined. "I''m still not healed. What is happening to him happened to me a few hours ago. I couldn''t heal the wounds of this level in the time I had."


    ''On that note, I need to prepare some dittany to make sure that these don''t scar,'' thought Quinn. Quinn was still rtively new to Healing magic, and even though he was miles better than the people who had studied with the time he had, Quinn still couldn''t heal the wounds of this level without leaving scars.


    Hermione walked back to her stone, and after sitting down, asked, "Can you please tell me what is going on? I need to understand what is happening."


    Ivy had also sat down and was looking at Quinn with a look that asked the same question.


    "Alright, let''s start with a question from my side, and this is open to both of you. What is the greatest magic of all?" asked Quinn with a smile on his face.


    "Friendship?"


    "Love?"


    Quinn put on an off-put face as if repelled by their answer. After seeing that expression, the two girls felt embarrassed.


    "What the hell is wrong with you two?"


    He looked at Hermione and spoke, "Friendship?! Friendships break all the damn time. You won''t even talk to most of the people you know from Hogwarts after you graduate."


    Then turning to Ivy, Quinn spoke in the same incredulous tone. "If a mother and son are iced in an alleyway by a psychotic murderer, it isn''t because they didn''t love each other enough! That is ridiculous."


    "Love is love! Magic is magic! Even if you are talking about the strongest emotion that can stimte magic, Ms. Potter, all emotions are the same. Love is just easier to ess because of how we humans perceive emotions."


    "Then what is the answer?!" asked Ivy, feeling embarrassed of Quinn''s expression and tone.


    "Chronomancy!" eximed Quinn. "The Greatest magic of all is chronomancy, the magic of time itself. If a person can manipte time, then they are invincible beyond anything. Every change in the world is in reference to time. Life and death are just states thate with time. One moment, you are alive, but the next, you can be dead. But if you control the time, you can control life and death."


    "Everything can be at your fingertips with time. If you look into the future, you''ll know what is toe. Nothing would ever be able to phase you because you can already see iting. Even if you can''t solve something, you have the ability to rewind time until you are sessful. If you can slow, reverse, fast-forward time, then there is nothing you can''t aplish."


    Quinn raised his right hand wide while keeping his left hand down to reduce movement. "And right now, we are manipting time to our advantage." He looked at Hermione and continued, "Something Ms. Granger has been doing for the entire year."


    "But with such great poweres danger equal to the advantages. Time is dangerous,plex, chaotic, and not something to be messed with without proper understanding and knowledge. You must know what you are trying to aplish and how you want to aplish that," said Quinn with an earnest tone, enunciating his every word so that they would be clear and intelligible.


    "So you understand time? You know what you are doing?" questioned Ivy.


    Quinn slightly chuckled at the questions. "Oh, no. Not at all. I don''t understand time. It''s tooplex for me to even get into the basics. But I know what I''m doing. I know enough to pull off what I''m trying to do... or maybe not? Yeah, I''m sure I don''t know enough."


    Hermione and Ivy looked at each other with skepticism. Quinn''s words didn''t actually inspire confidence in him.


    Quinn continued to exin, ignoring their expression. "I can''t manipte time with magic; the Time-Turner takes care of that. I just needed to make sure that I keep my presence as little as possible to reduce my influence on the timeline. This is why I insisted we must be hidden to the limit. No interaction with anyone after making the jump back in time makes sure that we have a minimum effect."


    "Now, do any of you know of the ''closed-loop theory'' or ''causal loop theory'' of time?" asked Quinn.


    The two girls shook their heads. They didn''t know the answer.


    "A causal loop is a temporal proposition in which, by means of time travel, a sequence of events is among the causes of another event, which is, in turn, among the causes of the first-mentioned event. In simpler... no, just in other words, when a future event is the cause of a past event, which in turn is the cause of the future event."


    Seeing that the girls were still confused, Quinn rolled out the current situation as an example.


    "Let''s take this current situation as a reference and an example. I got injured, and while I healed myself, a horde of Dementors swarmed around me to prey upon my soul. In that moment of desperation, I called upon a future version of myself to help me out from this situation by protecting me with a Patronus," exined Quinn and then pointed to Hermione. "All of this was only possible because I had the knowledge and means to procure a Time-Tuner from Ms. Granger. Without her Time-turner, it wouldn''t have been possible."


    "Moving on, a future version of mine came back in time and helped me out, allowing me to live past this unfortunate situation -."


    Quinn was cut off, and Hermione raised a doubt. "So you are saying that time works in this closed-loop theory?" It made sense because what she had been doing was like this, but from what Quinn said, time was supposed to beplex and not something as simple as this.


    "Oh, no. Of course not. I wish it was something so simple. Professor McGonagall must have told you about the catastrophic events that unleash with Time-Turners," said Quinn and then gave some examples. "Killing their past or future selves by mistake or altering one''s life path in such a drastic fashion that it can result in temporal anomalies such as un-births. And these scenarios are anything but closed-loops."


    "Did you know? Once, the Unspeakables down in the ministry, sent back one of their people five hundred years into the past. She stayed there for five days, and when the Unspeakables finally pulled her back, she died because it turned out that if you sent some back and forth in time, they age the time they travel back. The Unspeakable aged rapidly and died because of old age. And a lot more consequences that really caused more problems."


    Quinn scoffed before he pointed out the restrictions ced upon the Time-turners. "The five-hour restrictions might be due to safety reasons, but believe me when I say this, we can do substantial damage to the timeline in mere five hours."


    Ivy and Hermione didn''t know Quinn well enough. But after what they had seen today, both were sure that he wasn''t jesting.


    "Coming back to the point. What I did was create an artificial closed-loop. I created circumstances that would keep the series of events as close to the actual events. By doing this, I would reach the same ce where my future self did when saving me."


    This time Ivy had a question, and from the tone, the subject irked her. "Doesn''t this mean that there is no free will? Once the cycle starts, you will have to follow the course that was set for you."


    Quinn ever so faintly smiled and turned his gaze towards his past self. "You may be correct, Ms. Potter. This type of time travel doesn''t allow free will. Once started, every Quinn West will have to follow the path of events that was set for them." He turned back to Ivy and asked. "But I did have free will in this case. The events that you saw are exactly the same as I encountered. Look back to the events and think about when my free will came into y."


    Both the girls went into retrospection about the recent events. It took a couple of minutes before Ivy came up with an answer.


    "When you refused to move until you heard the words from your past self. Is that the free will you are talking about?" opined Ivy, though not sure if her answer was correct or not.


    "Ding dong ding~," nodded Quinn and sang as the answer was correct. "I know myself better than anyone else. So I know that in this situation, every Quinn West would use this method because all of them would think this is the best choice. But even though they know that: it is their choice, their free will to start the loop despite knowing that they would have to continue onto a path that won''t give them any more free will."


    "... But what if your past didn''t make the same choice? What would happen then?" asked Hermione.


    Quinn shook his head as he answered. "I don''t know. Maybe we would have disappeared, our existence erased forever; maybe we would have stayed here and we would have two sets of Quinn West, Hermione Granger, and Ivy Potter. Most probably, the Unspeakables in the ministry would detect the disturbance in time and then hunt us down to somehow fix things up."


    Quinn was sure that if the past ''himself'' that was healing himself right now didn''t go back in time, around the same time he traveled here, then the Unspeakables would notice some form of agitation in time.


    "... And you still did this?" asked Ivy in disbelief at Quinn''s decision to go through this.


    "Yes, I did. I told you, didn''t I, Ms. Potter? You need to know what and how you are doing things, and if you know those things, the results will turn out how you want them to be. Every step I took was to ensure that things went smoothly," dered Quinn with confidence and certainty about his preparation. "And the fact that it worked for my future self, who helped me out, shows that it is possible for me."


    "But your past self still hasn''t gone back to the past? What if he decides not to go back? What if Ivy and I refuse to go back with you?" questioned Hermione, as from what Quinn said, all three of them need to go back in time.


    "Oh, he will go back, Ms. Granger. He knows the fact that I am here and that the Time-Turner only allows one-way travel. My past self owes me for saving him; he will repay me by exiting this time, so I can take his ce,"ughed Quinn merrily and looked the two girls straight in the eye. "You thought that I only ced others in my debt? Oh, no, even me, Quinn West, owes myself a debt. He will now go to another time and get another Quinn West under his debt, who will pay the debt, and the cycle will continue."


    Quinn straightened up and softly smiled with superiority shing in his eyes. "This might sound corny but, One Mountain Cannot Contain Two Tigers. There can''t exist two Quinn West at the same time. There can only be one and, in this timeline, it will be me."


    As much as Quinn loved himself, he wasn''t on board with another one of him existing alongside him.


    "Ms. Granger, tell me, why do you think I brought you both here?" quizzed Quinn.


    "... I know you are expecting to give you a different answer than us trying to stop you from doing things we are ufortable with," presumed Hermione.


    "Smart girl. Yes, I brought you two here for a reason beneficial to me. Give it a thought," smiled Quinn, curious if they would be able to figure it out.


    While Hermione and Ivy thought of the answer, Quinn thought something inside his mind. ''Why am I giving them all these questions? I should just tell them the answers. Whatever, this is going well.'' Quinn knew he let people ask questions to control the flow of information. But today, he was asking them questions and guiding them to the answers.


    "I knew that there was a personal angle,"mented Ivy, as her eyes narrowed a fraction. "But I can''t figure it out. What is it?"


    Quinn smiled before looking at Hermione to see if she had an answer, but the holder of Time-Turner too didn''t have an answer.


    Quinn thought back to the time he was thinking about stealing the Time-Turner. Even though he thought of doing that, Quinn knew that Hermione would being with him. Ivying with them was decided the moment she decided to step into the office. He wasn''t going to let them stay with the knowledge of what he was doing.


    "Alright then, I will tell you. The reason I proposed the idea of you twoing along with me was that I wanted to turn you two into aplices," revealed Quinn. He wanted them to know what position they were currently in.


    "I was determined to get the Time-Turner from you, Ms. Granger. And when you decided to allow the use of a ministry-restricted artifact, given to you for education purposes, for something not even closely rted to education made you an essory to a crime. But when you made the decision to apany me, your status jumped to an aplice."


    Hermione''s eyes widened because she knew that allowing Quinn to use the Time-Turner could get in her trouble. Hearing that her original reasoning of making sure Quinn didn''t do damage had turned against her.


    Quinn turned to Ivy and told the redhead about her contribution. "Ms. Potter, if you, on a side note, didn''t apany me, you would be, at first, what we can call an ''abettor''; someone who allowed the crime to happen, although didn''t help in the crime. Now though, you turned into an aplice by apanying me back in time."


    While Hermione''s jump was from an essory to an aplice, Ivy''s jump was wider, as she turned from an abettor to an aplice.


    The reason Quinn allowed them toe with him so readily was that he wanted to implicate them with him. So, if a time came where the two girls were feeling loose-lipped, they would remember that the secret they were about to slip could get them in trouble.


    "I''m sorry if this hurts, but I had to do it. I can''t allow this to get out. This is something very private to me," apologized Quinn.


    Hermione''s Time-Turner was the resource that had allowed him to maintain anonymity. If it wasn''t an option, Quinn could potentially have to reveal the existence of the third vault.


    "You were a great help, so I do feel sorry for chaining you down like this. But just as I promised at the office, this doesn''t affect anyone other than me. Ms. Potter made sure that no one saw us inside the castle, and our location made sure that no one saw this event."


    "... We can forget about this, and it won''t matter," muttered Ivy, staring at Quinn, who nodded.


    "Yes, I''m not nning to tell this to anyone, and if you don''t, it will remain a secret between us three."


    The three fell into silence, with none of them wanting to speak. The two girls contemted the events that had transpired while Quinn observed them.


    After some time, Quinn noticed that his past self got up. He silently cast a minor mental illusion on the two girls, so they wouldn''t see him getting up from the ground and clothe himself with conjured clothes without a wand.


    When his past self was done, Quinn lifted the mental illusion and alerted the girls. "He''s done."


    Ivy and Hermione turned their heads to see the clothed ''past'' Quinn limping towards the castle.


    "What''s next?" asked Hermione.


    "We wait for Luna to enter the office. When she leaves the office, we go to the office," responded Quinn, looking at Ivy as she possessed the Marauder''s map. "I want to be in the castle the less the better before our past selves leave. Minimum footprint, minimal interference."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn, Ivy, and Hermione reached the A.I.D. office while making sure they weren''t seen.


    "Are they gone?" asked Hermione to Ivy, who had the Marauder''s map open in front of her.


    Ivy nodded to affirm that their past selves were no longer in the workshop, which prompted Quinn to limp towards the red workshop and open it to check inside, to confirm that the workshop was empty.


    "They are gone," smiled Quinn, turning to the girls. "Congrattions! The mission isplete and sessful."


    He limped to the barstool behind his table. Quinn looked towards the girls and spoke. "If you hurry, you can still get to the feast with enough time to get a quick bite."


    Hermione nodded with a sigh. She was definitely feeling both tired and hungry.


    "Thank you once again. Both of you helped me out a lot, and I''m grateful for that," smiled Quinn.


    Hermione looked at Ivy and was about to gesture to her best friend that they should leave, but then saw that expression on her face, and for some reason, it reminded her of the time when she asked Quinn about the information on the Basilisk after they had been ckmailed by Quinn.


    ''Oh, no, what is she about to do,'' thought Hermione with worry, and then Ivy spoke.


    "Were you the one who saved us inside the Chamber of Secrets?"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Yeah, even me owes me a debt."


    Ivy Potter - Abettor to Aplice - Next time on HP: AMJ! What answer will she get?


    Hermione Granger - essory to Aplice - Thinks today was more stressful than the night before an examination.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.


    So, if you arementing with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.


    ]


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 107 - The Slip, Hoverboard, Leader

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Were you the one who saved us in the Chamber of Secrets?"


    Quinn, who was nning to brew a batch of muscle-protein nutrient potion and prepare an Essence of Dittany for his wounds, stilled for a split-second; he wasn''t expecting this question, the thought that Ivy Potter would ask him this hadn''t entered his mind.


    There were still sometimes where Quinn didn''t associate the decision and actions he had madest year with himself. So when Ivy threw this sudden bomb at him, he genuinely stopped for a moment.


    But his acting skills came in clutch as there were no sudden actions from Quinn''s side as he gainedposure almost instantaneously and nced up at Ivy, following the eye contact with a confused tilt of his head.


    "Pardon me? Ms. Potter, I might have told you about the Chamber''s location, but I haven''t been to the actual Chamber of Secrets. I only know that its entrance is somewhere inside Myrtle''svatory, so believe me when I say that I didn''t save you," said Quinn before putting on an expression of curiosity. "I actually don''t know what happened down in the mysterious Chamber of Secrets. Can you tell me what happened?"


    He had no intention of ever telling anyone that he had been down in the Chamber of Secrets. It would raise many questions that Quinn currently didn''t want to answer. Even now, there were ss vessels full of Basilisk venom and multiple Basilisk fangs, locked away in his suitcase, secured for the day when Quinn needed them.


    Ivy didn''t respond and continued to stare at Quinn for a solid few seconds before turning her back to Quinn and walking towards the office door.


    "We''re leaving," said Ivy to Hermione.


    Quinn turned towards Hermione and nodded to her as a goodbye, who returned it before following Ivy to leave.


    After they left, Quinn groaned as he got up from his barstool. "That was sudden. At least I handled it smoothly," sighed Quinn. He limped to the workshop and spoke as the door opened. "Now, let''s get my body fixed."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Hermione and Ivy walked away from the A.I.D. office. As Quinn had said, there was still some time left in the dinner feast, and both were walking to the Great Hall.


    "...Ivy?" probed Hermione, ncing at her silent and contemtive best friend. Hermione could guess it was about her question to Quinn but still asked. "What are you thinking?"


    The question had been sudden as most of Ivy''s abrupt actions when dealing with Quinn, but Hermione had to give it to Ivy because she asked questions that she was curious about or found useful.


    Ivy didn''t look at Hermione as she replied, "... He was the one who saved us. It was Quinn West who destroyed Riddle''s diary."


    "But West said he didn''t."


    "He did, and he was lying," spoke Ivy, still not looking at Hermione as she continued. "He mentioned something that only someone who has seen the Chamber''s entrance would know."


    "He did?" furrowed Hermione, trying to recall what Quinn said, but nothing popped out to her.


    "Yes, West said that the Chamber''s entrance was somewhere in Myrtle''svatory, and that implies that he had never seen the entrance, but then he slipped up. He asked me what happened to us in the Chamber."


    "Yes, but how is this him slipping?" asked Hermione, confused.


    "It''s the words he used; he didn''t use something like ''inside'' the Chamber but used ''down in'' the Chamber," said Ivy, finally turning to Hermione. "West ims that he had never seen the entrance, so how does he know that the entrance is a tube that goes ''down'' to the Chamber?"


    Last year''s event had led Ivy Potter to think a lot about her interactions with Quinn West. And one thing that she had perceived about Quinn West was his carefulness with words. He chose what to reveal carefully.


    "Usually, he wouldn''t make such a slip, but West was clearly hurt and ufortable. With those injuries, he unknowingly let that slip. From that, we not only know that he has seen the entrance but also has been inside there."


    Ivy was convinced that her reason was correct.


    "He was the one who saved us. I am sure of it."


    And just as she thoughtst year, this made thingsplicated.


    To Ivy Potter, Quinn West was a person who never did anything without a reason or some kind of self-interest. So why would hee down to Chamber of Secrets when he knew that there was a deadly monster like the Basilisk present there.


    After thinking a lot about it, Ivy couldn''t think of a reason Quinn woulde down to a dangerous ce. There was nothing inside there that would be worth it for Quinn to risk his life.


    She didn''t want to think that Quinn did it selflessly, without any profit, and that made thingsplicated.


    Ivy Potter was conflicted.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Come on, run faster; this pace isn''t good enough. Show me some spirit. You want to y as soon as possible, right?" said Quinn as he moved behind a slightly panting and sweating Eddie.


    "What... are you... doing? Why are you pushing me today?" asked Eddie as he huffed and puffed.


    Eddie had attended the Ravenw Quidditch team tryouts for the Chaser position. With his daily workouts with Quinn, mixed with his own flying sessions, Eddie passed the tryouts with flying colors and was by far the best Chaser applicant from the lot that tried out.


    It turned out that Eddie was like a game character whopleted all the side-quests before attempting the main boss because the result from three months of persistent workouts, broom training, and the daily grind had allowed Eddie to breeze through anything that was put in front of him.


    Eddie was innately tough and didn''t seem to scare away from iing Bludgers and didn''t dodge too early, which could lead to missing opportunities and was one the biggest problem with new Chasers. During the tryouts, Eddie''s Bludger dodges were so close yet so smooth that the people watching were in awe while sweating at the sheer fearlessness that he disyed.


    It had prompted Quinn to yell out, "Mad Lad!" a ton of times from the stands.


    But that wasn''t even the crazy part about Eddie''s tryouts. It was his Quaffle-throwing skills that had everybody in shock.


    It turned out that Eddie had a way with the Quaffle. He was able to swing the Quaffle in every possible direction. Eddie was so damn good that none of the Ravenw Keeper applicants couldn''t block a single throw from Eddie.


    And it didn''t get any better when the official Ravenw Keeper switched in to test him. Eddie, the Quaffle-bender, sessfully scored every single time he threw the ball.


    In fact, Eddie''s performance was so good that he was already better than the three starting Chasers. And the only reason he wasn''t on the team was that the Chaser position required teamwork.


    Unlike Seeker and Keeper, Chasers and Beaters had to work together to keep the Quaffle and Bludgers moving.


    Eddie needed to be inducted into the Chaser system to function on the team. The team was already nning to make Eddie the primary scorer because of his Quaffle throwing skills.


    Eddie thought that now that he had joined the team, he could rx a little, but it seemed Quinn had different ns.


    "You passed the tryouts, but if you want to be the best chaser, you need to be able to handle the beating from other chasers, who will try to fly into you to knock the Quaffle out of your grasp. You need stamina and strength to withstand those blows, so we are upping your training," replied Quinn while still following behind Eddie. "Don''t think now that you have made the team, you can rx. Nope, to attract thedies, you need to shine, and I am going to make you shine on that field."


    Eddoe turned his head back towards Quinn and looked down at Quinn''s feet. "And what the hell is that?!"


    Quinn was ''following'' behind Eddie, but he wasn''t running like Eddie was. Beneath Quinn''s feet was a dark-blue skateboard deck-shaped structure with bronze streaks, but without the otherponents like the truck and the wheels.


    And Quinn was standing on a wheeless skateboard that hovered off the ground and gilded behind Eddie as he ran.


    "Oh, this? This is a hoverboard," smiled Quinn, leaning forward that made his speed increase and overtook Eddie.


    He rotated after he got past Eddie and faced him while moving and was now moving along the board''s breadth instead of the length.


    "It uses simr charms employed to make brooms. Though I have made changes to them. This baby isn''t as fast as a broom and can only hover a few feet above the ground, but it has much better control with a silky smooth ride. And if you can hold onto it, you can scale any surface as it can grip onto surfaces while hovering over them. It is pretty easy to control it by shifting your weight to change speeds and brake."


    Eddie looked at the hoverboard painted in Ravenw colors with fascination and wonder.


    "Holy shit, this is amazing! Are you nning to sell these? I want to buy one," asked Eddie as he continued to run.


    "You can have one," smiled Quinn before saying. "But, I am not going to sell these."


    Eddie looked up at Quinn''s face and spoke in surprise. "But why?! This will probably sell more than brooms. I think parents would buy these instead of toy brooms. You have to sell these."


    "Don''t you think I thought of that? I already know if I sell these, they will fly off the shelves. But I can''t sell them," sighed Quinn before revealing his reasoning. "If they go out, people will stop walking. And that is how people get fat." He looked at his feet and dered. "This invention of mine is too dangerous for the magical kind. I''m doing this for the sake of the world."


    Brooms were big and long, so people didn''t use them in their daily lives. But Quinn''s hoverboards were small andpact. If he sold them, Quinn was sure that obesity would increase among the magical kind. People would stop walking and literally stand on his invention to get ces.


    "Also, this looks almost exactly the same as the non-magical skateboard. I''m sure that most of the governments would ban it because if people bought these, one of them could easily get into the hands of a non-magical person."


    "Then change the shape into something else, problem solved," shrugged Eddie, without realizing that Quinn was very slowly increasing his speed, and he was subconsciously trying to keep up with it.


    "I know that, but as I''m not going to sell these, I don''t need to. I will change the shape of the one I''ll give you, so it won''t cause you trouble."


    The only reason Quinn had brought the hoverboard out was that he was injured and needed to act like nothing was out of ce. The first thing he did in the morning was the workout with Eddie. And Quinn never skipped a workout, so to make sure that Eddie didn''t notice anything was wrong with him, Quinn decided to sacrifice Eddie''sfort by pushing his workout intensity up a notch while pretending to be a trainer monitoring him.


    "Now,e on. Move those legs. I want to see enough sweat to fill a ss, but remember to stay hydrated."


    Eddie groaned as he picked up the pace. "This sucks!"


    "Yeah, show me that spirit! Whine more if it helps, I don''t care."


    "You suck!"


    "Aww, thank you for thepliment."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Rivers Lock returned from his low-level clerk job at the ministry to his humble home. He opened his letterbox to check to see if he had some mail waiting for him. Taking out the contents, Rivers shuffled through the various pamphlets, advertisements, subscriptions and some personal letters.


    "Hmm?"


    Rivers looked at a cheap envelope with nothing written on it, not even the sender''s name or who it was addressed to.


    He opened the envelope and retrieved a folded parchment with words written in untidy scribbles.


    As Rivers read the parchment and his eyes widened in shock. He immediately folded the parchment, looked around the street, and hurriedly entered his home.


    ...


    Inside his home, Rivers sat down on his dining table. And once again read the letter that was left in his letterbox.


    "This is fascinating. I didn''t know this existed," muttered Rivers to himself as he re-read the contents. "The Shrieking Shack has a secret passageway that opens up beneath the Whomping Willow!"


    Rivers Lock, pureblood, was a man in his mid-twenties who worked at the ministry as a low-level clerk. His daily job was collecting the memos from his office area and charm them into airnes, so they would reach their destination across different parts of the office. A job that caused him to face a lot of abuse when someone didn''t get the memo or pretended to not get the charmed memos.


    It was a menial and repetitive job that had no scope of future progress, and Rivers only did it because he needed to pay the bills.


    On the personal side of his life, Rivers lived a lonely life, alone without a significant other or even a pet. He didn''t have much contact with his family because they liked his older brother better because of his more noteworthy ministry job, while he was stuck as a lowly clerk.


    That was the Rivers Lock, which was presented to the public for everyone to see. A person with low self-esteem, who didn''t stand up for himself, let others walk all over him, let others take advantage of him, didn''t know how to socially navigate a work environment... someone others wouldn''t give a single look of significance.


    He was just another face in the crowd, forgotten after a single nce.


    In actuality, Rivers Lock was anything but how he showed himself to the world.


    A person with low self-esteem? No, Rivers Lock was a person with overflowing confidence in himself and pride that he was better than others.


    He wasn''t a person who didn''t stand up for himself. If you crossed Rivers Lock, he would make sure that things woulde around to bite them back. He didn''t forget easily and held grudges.


    It would seem that others were taking advantage of Rivers, but it only was because Rivers did nothing about it. If he wanted, they would end up losing instead of taking advantage.


    He wasn''t a socially inept person. Rivers knew exactly what he was doing. He made sure that people wouldn''t give him another nce, that they wouldn''t think of him aspetent. It was all just for show.


    All of it was a fa?ade so that people wouldn''t find the real him. The real him that the world wouldn''t ept because they couldn''t understand him.


    So Rivers Lock hid away and put on a mask, something that wouldn''t gain him much attention, so that he wouldn''t have to pretend much. He didn''t make friends because that would be more pretending. He didn''t get into rtions because he wasn''t interested. His family didn''t seem to take an interest in him, and that was fine with Rivers.


    But, unfortunately, or fortunately, Rivers found that he couldn''t hide his authentic self. He needed an outlet that would let him vent the things that were locked away.


    To achieve that, he created Novellus ionites.


    Somewhere he could be himself but at the same time remain in the shadows.


    Rivers knew what he was doing, and because of that, some Aurors or even some members of Novellus ionites knew who he was.


    He was able to control an entire terrorist group without ever revealing his identity, not a single aspect that would point out that Rivers Lock was the one who started Novellus ionites.


    And right now, the anonymous leader of Novellus ionites was sitting on a vital piece of information that allowed him to get inside the castle, which was said to be the most secure ce in the country.


    Rivers rubbed his finger over the bottom of the parchment, and while he considered the information in the letter extremely useful, he didn''t like the fact that this letter was delivered to his home.


    The sender had somehow figured out his identity that he had been able to hide from hundreds of people and the authorities that were out to get him.


    "Peter Pettigrew," muttered Rivers with a t voice as he stared at the sender''s name at the end of the letter, with not a single emotion on his face.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Rolling on a hoverboard with style.


    Ivy Potter - Smarter of the Potter twins - Conflicted with the knowledge.


    Eddie Carmichael - Passed the tryouts - "I hate moving!"


    Rivers Lock - Leader of Novellus ionites - Anonymous


    nL - Editor - So Quinn doesn''t want people to get fat, huh? He''s soo noble¡­


    ( ¡ä? ?©f?`)

 Chapter 108 - Getting Better By Learning

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stood in front of the full-size mirror in his, Eddie''s, and Marcus''s dorm room while twisting and turning his body. He was looking to the mirror to see the state of his body.


    "Alright, no pain, no scarring, the coloration is consistent; everything seems to be back to normal," noted Quinn as he jumped, flexed, and moved his body to check if his body was functioning normally.


    The Leviathan''s Underpass incident had been three days ago, and it had taken Quinn this time to heal himself while pretending that nothing was wrong with him. With copious use of mors and illusions, Quinn was able to hide the fact that he was walking around with a punctured lung and a ripped intestine amid healing.


    After the Time-Turner events, Quinn had pulled an all-nighter to fix enough stuff that would allow him to function without arousing suspicion. For three days, Quinn had spent almost all his time in the Room of Requirements, fully concentrating on healing.


    Quinn didn''t have experience with healing humans. Sure he could heal minor wounds, but this level of injuries wasn''t something he had tackled. So every step he took was nned with caution and executed with excess care, even if it meant that Quinn spent almost every waking second of his day casting Healing magic.


    But that hard work and persistence were rewarded with aplete recovery. If someone were to look at Quinn, they wouldn''t realize that he was stabbed, cut, and fractured just three days ago.


    "Damn, I look good," smirked Quinn narcissistically, flexing poses in front of the mirror.


    At that moment, Marcus walked out of the attached bathroom after having taken a bath to see Quinn making poses in front of the mirror while dressed only in his underwear.


    "Don''t be creepy, and drop that smirk; it''s weird," said Marcus as he passed by Quinn towards his wardrobe. "Dress up quickly. I''m hungry; we need to go to breakfast."


    "... yeah," said Quinn, clearing his throat as he stopped posing and walked towards his bed where he hadid down his clothes.


    Then Marcus saw Eddie, lying face-side down on his bed, not really moving.


    "What happened to him?"


    "Hmm? Oh, it''s nothing. I just put him through an anaerobic course. He is gassed out," replied Quinn, as he buttoned up his shirt.


    Marcus lifted his leg and gently kicked Eddie on his bum. Eddie groaned.


    "Come on, get in the shower. We need to get going," spoke Marcus as he too started to get ready for the day.


    Eddie groaned for a solid ten seconds before pushing himself off the bed. He walked towards the bathroom. As he passed by Quinn, Eddie tried to kick him, but Quinn arched his back forward, making him miss.


    Quinn chuckled as Eddie clicked his tongue and walked into the bathroom.


    After getting dressed, Quinn and Marcus went down to themon room to wait for Eddie as he got ready.


    "Good morning, Luna," greeted Quinn and sat beside his favorite Ravenw, excluding himself, of course.


    Luna lifted her head from this week''s copy of Quibbler to face Quinn. "Good morning..." She then stared at Quinn for a good few seconds before asking. "It seems you are feeling alright."


    Quinn sat down beside Luna and raised a brow in inquiry. "What do you mean? I was always alright, Luna." Inside he was feeling a little worried.


    "You weren''t feeling well for the past three days, but today you seem fine," answered Luna.


    "Why do you say that?"


    Luna took out a package from her bookbag and turned to Quinn. "When talking to the clients in the office, you were less... Quinn-like, it wasn''t that different, but I noticed it. Second, you were smiling and speaking less than usual, so I assumed you weren''t feeling well."


    She ced the package onto Quinn''sp and said, "This is your copy of the special issue of The Quibbler. It goes out next week, but daddy sent two in advance; one for me and this one for you."


    Quinn stared at Luna in amazement as the blonde went back to reading the special issue of Quibbler while holding it sideways because of the sidewaysyout of one of the articles inside.


    He had thought that he had sessfully pulled acting normal, but it seemed like someone observant like Luna, who spent a lot of time with him, noticed that something was wrong.


    ''I still have a long way to go, it seems,'' smiled Quinn, but then another thought entered his mind, and it made him think, ''Maybe it''s a good thing.''


    Quinn took out a chocte from his pocket and held his hand in front of Luna. "This is for you, Luna. But don''t eat it now, okay?"


    Luna nced at the chocte, picked it up from Quinn''s hand, pocketed the small chocte before going back to reading.


    Marcus came back from checking the in-house library to see if it was updated. "There are two new books: one on Arithmancy and the second on Astronomy... Why are you smiling?" asked Marcus when he noticed a broad smile on Quinn''s face.


    "It''s nothing," replied Quinn as he put the special issue of The Quibbler into his book bag.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stretched inside the Aquatic Vault''s stone cave with a severe expression on his face.


    He raised his eyes towards the triangr entrance and walked towards it to start the trials. As Quinn walked towards the entrance, he smoothly raised his hand to touch the orb of water, which provided him with the safety teleportation insignia.


    The water orb was absorbed into his body, and the blue insignia appeared on his body.


    "Let''s do a speed run."


    As Quinn stepped into the triangr entrance, he began transfiguring himself. The insides and outside of his body wriggled, and the underwater respiratory system began to form. By the time he was teleported, Quinn had already taken the first gulp of water, which activated the system.


    ...


    Quinn opened his eyes. He felt the water around him disappear and saw the raging vortex beneath him.


    Without using any magic to slow himself down, Quinn assumed a diving posture and plunged into Poseidon''s Wrath with zero hesitation.


    Inside the violent water, Quinn raised his hands wide and exerted water magic. Immediately the rampaging water started to curve around him, leaving behind a much gentler flow for him to stand in.


    His eyes sharpened as he looked towards the center of the vortex, and even though he couldn''t see the center because of the moving water, Quinn knew it was there, and he had to get there.


    Out was the gradual path switch approach which Quinn had used when he had been helpless against the roaring currents.


    But now?


    Quinn looked at the gentle stream of water surrounding him.


    Now, the angry maelstrom bent under his will, under his magic, under the control he was able to exert on anything water.


    Quinn contorted his body slightly, and with that movement, the magic started to build inside him. It rushed, ready to perform supernatural feats, and with amand from Quinn, it released into the world.


    He shot forward, and the arctic blue magic rushed ahead and around him, forcing the water to calm down for Quinn to cruise through the path as if he owned it.


    Poseidon''s Wrath, which required Quinn to go in circles around the vortex as he got close to the center, was conquered as Quinn paved a straight route directly to the center.


    When he came out to the center with speed, Quinn dropped straight down, without bothering to slow himself down, and entered Tohem''s Delight without an intermission.


    ...


    Quinn enjoyed the calm embrace of the chasm of darkness.


    But he instantly broke the calm by creating spherical waves of water tounch a search operation to the next trial.


    Tehom''s Delight shook as wave after wave of deepwater vibrations were sent out from Quinn, who stood straight in the water, already used to the unusual calmness of Tehom''s Delight. He could shake the effects if he concentrated.


    Within a few seconds, Quinn got back the vibrations, and using haptics and magical senses, he interpreted them to find the location of the next triangr entrance.


    ''Up,'' thought Quinn as the entrance was above him.


    A burst of arctic blue magic pushed Quinn up at a jet speed. He left behind shock waves of water in trail.


    Quinn didn''t slow down and directly entered the entrance, which teleported him out of Tehom''s Delight.


    ...


    The light from the crystalttice assaulted Quinn''s eyes, causing him to squint a little, but the moment his eyes adjusted, Quinn focused on his next target.


    The well of Hadal Encumbrance that aimed to crush anyone who dared to venture inside. And it waited for Quinn to get inside and face the challenge.


    Quinn stepped into the well, and despite it being a deep hole, Quinn walked to the center as if he was walking from the shallow end of the pool to the deeper side.


    Ripples shook the water inside Hadal Encumbrance as Quinn sank down into the well.


    Instead of just creating a small area of normalized pressure, Quinn normalized the entire well and all the water inside.


    The entirety of the pressure that threatened to crush Quinn disappeared as his magic applied dynamic water force to push up against the downward pressure.


    His magic overrode the oppressive nature of the trial and forced it to convert into something that Quinn desired.


    Quinn stared down towards the entrance at the bottom of the well. The words etched above the entrance stared back at him, which made him recall the jets of razor sharp water that pierced holes in his body.


    His eyes closed them as he slipped into the entrance and was taken away to the ce that was named The Leviathan''s Underpass.


    ...


    The same tunnel greeted Quinn with its white marbled floor and the circr wall of water that encased Quinn inside in a tubr form.


    His feet touched the white marble, which had a grainy surface, probably designed to prevent slippage since there was water there.


    ''I''m back again,'' thought Quinn, as he stared straight ahead at the entrance that was fifty meters ahead of him.


    Quinn closed his eyes, and water started to ripple around him.


    He felt some rage bubble inside of him. Quinn had been channeling anger the entire way. His usual methods of passing the trials were injected with the emotion of anger. And that added an aspect of brute-forcing through his actions today.


    Quinn wanted to get here as quickly as possible without wasting time in the trials he had already passed.


    ''You have caused me a lot of trouble in thest few days,'' thought Quinn, staring at the Leviathan''s Underpass. It was as if he was talking to the trial.


    ''I had to mess with time without knowing how it actually works. It could''ve gone wrong, and I could''ve lost my life.''


    Just remembering the thought of asking someone else ¡ªeven if that someone else was himself¡ª made his blood boil. That, in consequence, made the rippling more and more pronounced.


    ''You made me use a debt that I wasn''t nning to cash in. I had to reveal a part of my life that I didn''t want to share.''


    Ivy Potter and Hermione Granger''s debt had been gained while under the influence of the sin curse. And it had been obtained through ckmail, which wasn''t Quinn''s preferred means of gaining favors.


    He liked people to think that they were simply helping Quinn back when he helped them out. Quinn preferred when the other party thought they were doing things with their own free will and not because he held something to their heads.


    Calling that debt not only meant that he had been backed into a corner but it also revealed something that he had been keeping under the wraps.


    Last year, he had to reveal the second vault to his family, and while he didn''t regret it, Quinn didn''t want more people to know about the cursed vaults. But then, this happened; Ivy and Hermione ended up seeing him in his most prone state, and even though they never found about the vaults, it was too close forfort.


    It pissed him off.


    "Let''s get this started."


    Quinn stepped forward, and the spherical waves rippled out from him, initiating his sonar vision. The waves went out, bounced off the water walls, and came back to him to whisper about the things around him.


    Ten steps in, Quinn felt four chaotic swirls twisted into existence in the surrounding water; two behind him, one above him, and thest right in front of him.


    Quinn did azy wave, and the water swirls shed in arctic blue before fizzling into oblivion.


    "More!"


    From then on out, with each step Quinn took, more and more swirls started to appear at an increasingly fast rate.


    ''You get a boop, you get a boop, you get a boop, everyone gets a boop!'' thought Quinn. He had his hands behind his back as he walked forward.


    Quinn destroyed the water swirls that were supposed to shoot pressurized jets of water before they could get them out.


    From outside of the water tunnel it looked like Quinn was walking on the white marble while several artic blue lights shed all around him.


    After passing the quarter mark, Quinn cancelled out thirty water swirls every few seconds. His lumency was working overtime to decipher the information from the sonar, and his magic casting skill was being pushed to the limit by targeting thirty randomly emerging targets.


    ''Hmm...''


    Halfway through the second quarter, Quinn had to handle forty targets every couple of seconds. It was getting difficult to consistently destroy all targets.


    ''Need to change tactics,'' decided Quinn; he was getting into the territory in which one miss would hit Quinn with a pressurized jet of water that would rip any part of his body.


    So right after he stopped a wave of swirls to annihte him, Quinn raised his arm up, and a dome of transparent arctic blue briefly shed around him.


    ''Let''s see how the defense works.''


    Quinn stopped walking, and just when the arctic blue light disappeared, another forty swirls appeared, and for the first time today, forty spears of pressurized jets of water shot out.


    All forty water spears collided against Quinn''s dome, and every contact point glowed in arctic blue while ripples went out on impact.


    ''Alright, pretty stable integrity. Nothing seems to be getting past,'' noted Quinn and once again started walking.


    What started at four swirls had now be fifty swirls and thus fifty simultaneous hits against his dome of protection. Fifty hits every couple of seconds were so abundant that Quinn''s dome of protection was fully glowing in arctic blue.


    The color wouldn''t even get to fade before another volley would light up the dome.


    Quinn finally crossed twenty-five meters which marked the halfway point of the fifty-meter path. Then, the barrage of pressured water stopped.


    ''... What?''


    He immediately became cautious and pushed magic into the dome of protection, making it glow a fluorescent arctic blue all around.


    The sudden stop of attacks didn''t fit well, and Quinn''s hunch proved to be correct when ten bigger, more contorted swirls of magic appeared around him.


    These new swirls looked more menacing, and looking at them closely, Quinn could see that water was being funneled and sucked into the swirls, making them wider and more contorted.


    Then the attack came.


    Ten beams of pressurized water came out of ten swirls.


    ''Ooh,'' voice Quinn as he felt the push of the beams against his protection.


    Unlike the previous swirl attacks, which shot spears of water before disappearing for new ones to appear, these were continuous sharp emissions of water endlessly assaulting Quinn''s dome of protections.


    The power of impact was much higher than the previous type.


    ''But... it''s not enough.''


    Quinn stood up straight and once again began confidently walking ahead.


    For each step he took, five more water beams would be added to the tally, and within eight steps, Quinn was again back to fifty attacks, but this time, he was facing a continuous assault.


    ''This is still not enough,'' thought Quinn.


    Just as Quinn had predicted, with every passing trial, things got easier for him.


    Not because of the trials getting easier. No. The trials were getting tough in their own way. It was because of Quinn''s decision to apply water magic to solve the trials.


    The second he entered, Quinn employed the sonar vision he developed for Tehom''s Delight. He was able to tell when and where the attacks wereing and thus had an easier time defending against them.


    Before deploying the shield to defend, Quinn had been on the offense, fizzling out the swirls before they could shoot out their attacks. He had learnt to manipte water from Poseidon''s Wrath. As he had to learn the art of controlling turbulent water, the spears of pressurized water became simply another form of that.


    If Poseidon''s Wrath was an application ¡ªwhere moving water was used to sweep everything in its path¡ª then, the swirls in Leviathan''s Underpass were applications where moving water was being used to cut through anything ced in front of them.


    The dome of protection which Quinn used was also water magic. The swirls were a physical offense where water was being shot at high pressure to form concentrated beams of destruction.


    Unlike ice, where the molecules were densely packed, water had an element of flexibility. Quinn''s water magic dome, when assaulted, transferred the energy from the iing water beam. It employed the flexibility of water to carry that iing energy, divert it away across the dome''s surface, and finally released it into the surroundings.


    With every trial, Quinn had gotten better at using water magic. This year he had studied a lot of water magic, and because he had to go through different water terrains every time he entered the Aquatic Vault, Quinn had been able to gain tons of experience with water magic.


    And all that experience wasing into y right now, which allowed him to stroll through Leviathan''s Underpass.


    Quinn couldn''t see anything because the fifty water beams obstructed his view, but under his dome, Quinn felt safe, so he continued to walk.


    Quinn noticed when he walked into the fourth quarter as the fifty water beams suddenly gained a ton of strength.


    ''Oh, my, if these hit me, my body won''t be solid anymore,'' thought Quinn, but continued to walk. ''What would it be? Instant gory mush.''


    The first few shots at the start of the path, which were much weaker than the current attacks, had disabled Quinn. If he had stayed there for a few seconds more, he would''ve been dead.


    It made Quinn think about how much magic could achieve.


    Then suddenly, all attacks stopped, and Quinn found himself in front of the entrance at the end of the tunnel.


    ''So, it''s done, huh,'' thought Quinn.


    He looked back to see the white marbled floor and the opposite end he had started at. If Quinn was honest, he expected more out of the trial that had almost killed him.


    ''I guess the element of surprise was the thing that doomed me.''


    After thinking that, Quinn turned back to the triangr unnamed entrance. He took a big gulp of water and went through it.


    He disappeared from Leviathan''s Underpass.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I am gooood looking~!


    Luna Lovegood - Observant - Knows her boss.


    Eddie Carmichael - Chaser - Uuuuggggghhhhh.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Next chapter is the end and the reward


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 109 - Water Visions, Magic Of Water, Reactions

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn opened his eyes and, once again, he was in the water. That didn''t surprise him. It was thest thing that would surprise him.


    He looked to his side and saw that he was lying on a white marbled floor.


    ''What''s the deal here?'' asked Quinn to himself and tried to get up, but then things changed.


    The second Quinn tried to get up, the entirety of water around him glowed artic-blue, and Quinn''s eyes widened because of an emotion he couldn''t describe.


    All thoughts of getting up from the floor disappeared, and Quinnid back, not moving a single muscle in his body.


    ''... What is this?''


    A warm andfortable feeling enveloped Quinn, and it was like nothing he had ever experienced. Quinn felt like he had been living in unrelenting conditions, struggling with the harsh realities of the world, and now he was at the end of the road, finally able to rest in peace.


    His taut muscles all over his body rxed as the magic in the water made him rx.


    Without Quinn knowing, the injuries he had healed topletion somehow healed some more and then went even further.


    Quinn didn''t realize it, but his body was going through a process of healing so thorough and miraculous that it wasn''t something he had ever experienced. Things that Quinn''s own body didn''t realize needed healing were healing.


    Every single part of the body was going through healing.


    Every system in the eleven organ systems, including the integumentary, skeletal, muscr, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascr, urinary, and reproductive systems was covered.


    Not a single cell in Quinn''s body was left behind. Every cell in his body was being filled with a never seen before vitality.


    While all this happened, Quinn was busy feeling his magic.


    For someone like him, who used all his magic every day, it was needed to know how much magic he had to n for consumption. Quinn had an excellent awareness of how much magic was there in his body.


    Right now, Quinn was feeling something mysterious and enchanting.


    ''My magic is being regenerated, but at this speed...''


    Every magical human had a magical core that held all their magic, and one could increase the capacity of said cores by using more magic. Quinn did that every day by using all his magic and was absolutely confident in dering that he had the best magic growth in the entire world.


    When someone used magic, they also regenerated it back, and everybody had their own magic regeneration speed.


    It depended on a few factors:


    The size of the magical core: as the capacity increased, so did the recovery speed.


    A person''s health: if a person was facing injury, was sick because an injury, or facing some kind of affliction, their rate of recovery would be on a down low.


    A person''s lifestyle: if one lived a healthy lifestyle, the recovery speed would be higher than a person with an unhealthy lifestyle.


    Rest: the recovery speed increased when a person was resting. Activities like rxing or sleeping would exponentially increase the rate of recovery.


    And currently, Quinn was feeling his magic recover at a rate that he hadn''t ever experienced before. It was even faster than when Quinn was asleep at his best health.


    ''At this rate, I could recover from zero to hundred within three hours, no, maybe even faster.''


    Quinn closed his eyes and immersed in the fabulous feeling. Quinn felt that he could stay in here for his entire life and wouldn''t regret a single second of it.


    He was feeling so absolutely fantastic that it was borderline euphoric.


    Then Quinn felt a very gentle nudge of mental magic against his lumency shields. It wasn''t trying to break into his mind; its intention was different. The mental magic was asking for permission to enter.


    Quinn thought for a moment before deciding to send a legilimency probe towards mental magic poking against his shields. He wanted to see if he could find something out before allowing it entry, and the response Quinn got was that it was some kind of memory.


    ''A memory, how surprising!'' thought Quinn, feeling very intrigued.


    He had no idea who had constructed the Ivy vault or the Sin vault because of theck of any kind of trace indicating their creator''s identity, so to see a memory made Quinn think he would be able to find who created this vault.


    Quinn rescinded the legilimency probe and opened his lumency shield to let the mental magic carrying a memorye in.


    Inside Quinn''s mindscape, a mental representation of him looked up to see a glowing water orb followed by various shades of blue manifest, from the lightest of baby blues to the darkest of the midnight blues.


    And with that, the memory was revealed with a bright sh of blue.


    Outside, Quinn''s eyes snapped wide open, and his eyes ¡ªboth his irises and the sclera¡ª turned a solid glowing arctic blue. His chest raised up as the water surrounding him lifted Quinn up from the white floor, and as he lifted up, his body glowed in different shades of blue.


    The iing memory engulfed his entire being.


    ...


    The memory started with a vision of extremely hot bubbling water. To match that, the water surrounding Quinn heated up, not to the point in the vision, but enough for Quinn to feel the heat.


    There was nothing at first, but slowly things started to change as microscopically small organisms emerged and developed in the extremely scorching water. Then the vision seemed to fast forward at an incredible speed as the water started to cool down, and with time which seemed to be eons, different mysterious creatures roamed those waters.


    ...


    The vision switched, and now Quinn saw a gigantic huge Tsunami waveing right towards him, and within seconds, it crashed against him. The water outside turned turbulent to match the memory and rode all over him.


    Rain and storm apanied the Tsunami waves, creating a tandem whose sole aim was to cause destruction.


    The enormity of the Tsunami waves was more terrifying than whatever Quinn had ever seen, and it caused his heart to race in fear. Against the titanic waves, Quinn felt they could erase him like an insignificant bug.


    ...


    The vision shifted, and Quinn found himself among a myriad of fishes swimming underwater. There were all kinds of aquatic creatures that swarmed around and past him; he saw both magical and non-magical creatures gliding around. He looked down to see beautiful coral reefs below him.


    He felt a shadow cast upon him and the reefs, and when he looked over, he saw arge blue whale swimming over him. But then what Quinn recognized as a Leviathan appeared above the whale, and the gigantic serpentine dragon dwarfed the whale and cast an even deeper shadow over both him and the blue whale.


    ...


    The image dissolved, and Quinn was suddenly in the air overseeing a forest full of lush and vibrant trees. Then, Quinn heard a rush of water; he turned and saw a horrifying flood trampling towards the woods. Within seconds, the angry flood crashed against the lush tree forest, and he could hear the shaking crunch of trees breaking through the roaring waves of water.


    Suddenly, the vision made Quinn descend into the forest, and there he saw the sickening sight of animals that lived within the forest struggling against the flood. Quinn heard the screams and witnessed the death of a beautiful ecosphere rich with flora and fauna, something that would take the area years to recover from.


    ...


    The scene once again disappeared like sand in the air to show a drastic change in the scenery.


    Quinn stood at the bank of a river stream, and on the opposite side of the stream was a herd of deer drinking water, and it was not just the deers but all kinds of animals near it that relied on the river.


    He looked into the clear water and watched fishes swimming by. Quinn followed a fish with his eyes, and suddenly a heron bird, who was standing by the bank, swooped in with its beak, picked a fish out of the river, and flew away.


    ...


    The vision again went through a change, and now he stood near a pond of steaming water. Quinn stood still for ten seconds staring at the steaming water before, without warning, the water started to bubble, followed by an eruption as a water geyser emerged from the pond.


    The water from the geyser came down, steamy mist filled with the area, obstructing Quinn''s vision. In the foggy mist, the atmosphere changed from humid wetness to a chilly cold.


    And when it cleared, Quinn stood on an icecap over the vast, cold, unforgiving ocean. He was facing a spanning cier that stretched across the horizon.


    Unlike the violent and noisy geyser, the cier and ice caps were silent, reserved, and deadly.


    The icecap beneath Quinn''s feet abruptly cracked and, just as abruptly he had appeared, he sank down into the bone-chilling water.


    Quinn sshed around in the water; he tried to move and was unexpectedly sessful. He raised his body and Quinn found himselfing up a stream of running water.


    At the end of the stream, Quinn heard a roaring noise, and when he reached the end of the stream, his eyes popped out because he was flung down from an edge of what seemed to be a gigantic waterfall.


    Quinn fell into the sting water at the base of the waterfall, and suddenly there was no wild water. It became calm, and the model of serenity surrounded him.


    He felt his back touch and settle against a surface, and when Quinn opened his eyes, he was back in the Aquatic Vault, his back against the water marble, while staring at the light streaming through the water.


    Quinn didn''t say anything and silentlyy against the white marble floor. His mind was going through the scenes he had seen in the memory and contemted what he had seen.


    His initial hope of seeing the creator of the Aquatic Vault had been dashed, and what he was shown had left a deep impression on his life.


    Quinn closed his eyes and let the feelings he was experiencing sink in.


    It was an indefinite time after which Quinn opened up his eyes, and they showed tranquility, unagitation, and peace.


    The teleportation insignia on Quinn''s arm shed with a blue light and whisked him away from the ce, leaving behind a ripple.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The Kraken watched one of its tentacles as it swished back and forth and was about to add another tentacle to create a double swish when its yellow eye caught the special humaning out of the dangerous ce.


    Kraken''s eyes sparkled when it saw the special human, because it had decided today that it was going to push the tiny human a whole seven times before letting him go.


    But then the Kraken noticed something odd with the special human. Through its mighty eyes, the Kraken could see a noble blue aura around the special human, something that hadn''t been around the tiny human before.


    It had seen the same aura once before.


    It was a time before the Kraken hade to rest in this ce and lived in the oceans. During those times, no creature of water dared to go against its mighty self; all of them bowed their heads to it and feared him.


    But one day, a traveler came to its territory, simply passing by, as if he was looking for a ce to rest. The traveler had the same appearance as the fish-people (merpeople) that lived along with him now.


    But unlike the weak fish-people, the traveler was strong.


    The traveler had the same blue aura around him, and the water seemed to talk to him. The water seemed to enjoy moving along the traveler''s will, enjoyed his touch, and seemed more lively when the traveler was around.


    The Kraken didn''t know what the blue aura meant, but it knew that the blue aura was special.


    And now it was seeing it for the second time on the special human.


    In Kraken''s mind, the special human just became more special. More special than almost any human it had ever seen.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stood on thekebed in the center of theke with his eyes closed.


    Water was one of the mysterious gifts of nature that supported and held life on earth. Many indigenousmunities had known the value of water for a long time. On the surface, water could be seen as food, a means of transport, an element for cleansing, purification, and initiation in cultural ceremonies.


    But deep down, water was something much more important, and while everybody knew it, Quinn became aware of it on a deeper level.


    ''Yet, it''s the source,'' thought Quinn back to the sentence in the riddle. ''Friar was right; it was the source.''


    ''Water is The Cradle of Life.''


    If the sacred gift of the earth was life. Water was the custodian of life.


    Water was sacred because it held life on earth. A seed in the soil does not germinate until it receives water. No life on earth could live without water.


    But at the same time, there was a duality to water.


    ''It can give life, but it can also destroy it at the same time.''


    While rain brought life to the earth, storms uprooted the same life that it nurtured.


    If water was life, then the absence of it was death. Without water, drought and famine would overrun the earth.


    Tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, tidal waves could wipe out all life in its path with no regard. They were the destructive phenomenon of nature that harnessed the power of the thing that covered seventy-one percent of all earth.


    No matter how much any species on earth tried to avoid it, they wouldn''t be able toe out of it unscathed. Even humans, who built structures that tried to stand up to these agents of destruction, couldn''te out of it without suffering massive losses.


    In many mythologies across the world, floods were seen as divine retribution from higher powers sent to destroy the corrupt civilizations so that rebirth could start from those waters.


    Water was the driving force of all nature, good or bad.


    Quinn had been looking at water from the perspective of magic. He thought about how it could be manipted, how he could use it for his advantage. To Quinn, it was just something he could use magic on.


    The visions he had seen inside the vault made Quinn realize how small his view of water was.


    The visions had caused him to gain enlightenment of sorts.


    And from the bottom of his heart, Quinn wanted to showcase that enlightenment.


    Quinn deeply desired to show what he had experienced. For him, magic was the best way in which he could disy his understanding, and the Great Lake was the best canvas, on which the brush of magic would showcase its charm.


    He knew that what he was about to do would garner a lot of attention, and if he was found out, it would be a giant pain in the future.


    But Quinn couldn''t hold it back. Quinn could feel his magic demanded that he do it now; his ego desired it more than anything in the world; every cell inside Quinn''s body urged him to do it.


    His mind, body, and soul wished for it.


    So Quinn let his restraints go.


    For this one time, Quinn let desire trump logic and let his ego overtake his identity.


    Quinn''s eyes opened, and instead of the stone-grey, two orbs of glowing purple greeted the world.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy, Harry, and Lily Potter walked together through a corridor to Lily''s private quarter in Hogwarts.


    "How are your studies going?" asked Lily as they walked.


    Harry, looking at the chocte card of vius Belby and trying to remember why it seemed familiar, shrugged in response.


    "Except potions with Snape, everything is fine."


    Lily furrowed her brows before sighing, "I have tried to talk to him, but he doesn''t seem to want to listen. And Harry, it''s Professor Snape."


    Harry rolled his eyes in response and shook the card in his hand, hoping that would jog his memory, but he drew a nk.


    "What about you, Ivy, dear?" smiled Lily, looking at her daughter. While her son took after his father, her daughter took after her.


    Ivy had better grades than Harry, and Lily liked to think it was because of her.


    "Everything is fine. Hermione and I are already on revision," answered Ivy smoothly.


    The redhead Potter twin took her studies seriously. Unlike Hermione, who seemed to have made books of her daily sustenance, she liked to learn by doing; she enjoyed the practical experience rather than the extensive reading that her best friend enjoyed. That didn''t mean that she didn''t read; Ivy still read much more than the average person; she just enjoyed casting magic more.


    "Bookworms," muttered Harry at the mention of revision.


    "Whatever, four eyes," retorted Ivy at the quip.


    Lily smiled at her two children''s antics before asking, "On the subject of revision, did any of you two buy Quinn West''s notes this year? If you haven''t, I''ll give you the money to buy them; they are quite a good buy."


    The Potter twins stilled for a second and didn''t reply. Both thought about their interaction with Quinn.


    Harry still hadn''t talked about Peter Pettigrew with anyone other than Ivy. The twins had decided to research Peter on their own and to simply wait for the day their parents would talk to them about Peter on their own.


    Ivy, on the other hand, thought about the time travel events. It didn''t help when the events had taken ce just a few days ago. She still couldn''t wrap her head around what happened that day. Not to mention when she found that Quinn was the one to save her and Harry from the Chamber of Secrets.


    As Lily didn''t hear a response from her twins she assumed that the two hadn''t bought the guides. "If you two want to buy it, I highly rmend them. Come to me for the money if you decide to buy them."


    "Yes," replied the Potter twins at the same time.


    Ivy sighed and decided to look out at the scenery to distract her from her thoughts, but lo-and-behold, she saw the Great Lake in full view.


    ''Lovely,'' sighed Ivy, but then she stopped in her tracks when she saw ripples on the surface of theke.


    Lily and Harry also slowed when they saw Ivy suddenly stop.


    "What is it, Ivy?" asked Lily and walked towards her daughter.


    "There are ripples in theke," replied Ivy and pointed at the Great Lake in the distance.


    The mother and son followed Ivy''s directions and saw rapid ripples on the surface of theke.


    But the situation changed very quickly when they saw some very drastic changes in theke.


    Their eyes widened to the limit when they saw a drain right in the middle of theke. It started with a narrow point, but then, the water sank down in a line, and in a few seconds, the water started to split in the middle.


    "... Theke is splitting?" spoke Harry, trying to put the scene in front of him in words.


    The girls didn''t say anything and just stared at the bizarre scene in front of them, and within a minute, the entireke was split into two parts, and they could see thekebed path in the middle of theke.


    Lily finally snapped out of it and realized that she had to do something. "I-I have to alert the other professors." She turned to her children and ordered, "You two go to yourmon room."


    Immediately after saying that, she ran off to alert the other faculty.


    Ivy and Harry, of course, didn''t listen to their mother; they stepped closer to the edge of the corridor and stared at theke.


    Ivy thought about who was causing this, and only one person came to her mind. The person who hade out of the Great Lake, heavily injured.


    But just like her previous many suspicions and conjectures about the person, she had no proof that he was the one causing this.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost, was gliding his merry way through the walls of Hogwarts. It was just another day of his ghostly life, but that changed when he got out a wall, and right in front of him was the view of the Great Lake.


    "In the name of Helga herself! What..." eximed Friar as his belly jiggled in shock.


    He stared at the spit that was right in the middle of the Great Lake.


    The single body of water was turned into two with a clear and visible divide in the middle as the water tried toe back together but couldn''t because something was stopping it.


    And just when he thought that his ghostly self couldn''t be more shocked today, another change happened in the Great Lake, and two whirlpools appeared in theke, one on each side.


    Anyone who could see this would assume that it was because of magic, and Friar was no different. So his next thought was that whose work was this.


    Then the answer struck, and he uttered the name.


    "Quinn... Is this because of the cursed vault down below?"


    At first, he thought it couldn''t be Quinn, this feat of magic was too much for a child of Quinn''s age, but when he thought about it more, the more the possibility of it being Quinn got stronger.


    ''If it''s indeed Quinn, then how is that child capable of splitting theke? How strong is that child,'' such thoughts revolved in the mind of the ghostly being.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Albus Dumbledore stared out of his window in his office, which was located on the headmaster''s tower, and at a height only second to the Astronomy tower.


    The headmaster with a long beard, who was over a hundred years old, stared at the Great Lake with his aged eyes full of wisdom.


    He had just returned from the ministry after handling some business, and when he was passing by his window with a bowl full of sour candy in his hand, he saw the Great Lake divided into two with a whirlpool on each side.


    And now, as Dumbledore continued to stare at the strange and out of the ce phenomenon, he saw two massive masses of watere out of the center of whirlpools, floating up into the air.


    "Oh my, that''s some impressive magic," chuckled Dumbledore in an impressed tone, but his eyes weren''t portraying the same emotions.


    The blue eyes shined in a calctive and analytical light as Dumbledore stared at the Great Lake.


    The holder of the Elder Wand thought about who was doing this and where did theye from.


    Dumbledore first eliminated the possibility of the person being a student because the reserves and knowledge of water magic required was something he believed a student couldn''t achieve. He knew of a few smart students in the castle, but even the smartest of them couldn''t possibly achieve this.


    Dumbledore was so sure of it because the brightest student he had seen Hogwarts produce was the one named Tom Riddle, and even he couldn''t do this while he was in his school years.


    So the remaining options were a professor, a resident of the Great Lake, or an unknown outsider.


    He eliminated the Great Lake resident because only merpeople in there could manipte water, and he was sure that none of them was this capable.


    The remaining options were professors or an outsider, and he was leaning towards intruders because none of his professors were this powerful.


    "It''s an outsider, then. I have to make sure the students are safe," said Dumbledore, and the bowl in his hand levitated to the nearby table as he walked out of the office with the Death Stick in his hand.


    But it turned out that by the time he got to the Great Lake, the waters had gone back to normal. Even after investigating, he didn''t find anything but rich and heavy traces of advanced water magic.


    He talked to the merpeople inside, and the only unusual thing they told him was that the recent upheavals in theke had been caused by the Giant Squid.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Moses!


    Ivy Potter - Girl twin - ''... This is him, isn''t it?''


    Harry Potter - Boy twin - Rapidly blinking in confusion.


    Lily Potter - Professor - Fan/promoter of the A.I.D. guides.


    Friar - Hufflepuff ghost - His belly shakes like a bowl full of jelly.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Going through a sour candy phase.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 110 - Music, Scheme, And Promise

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was a time of the year that Quinn really enjoyed. Just as his second year when hepleted the Icy Vault; this year, he hadpleted the Aquatic Vault, and now he was feeling as cool as a cucumber.


    There was spring in his steps and dance in his moves. At random times, he would break into a dance and enjoy the vibe he was feeling. The same thing happened when he finished the Icy Vault.


    While he very much enjoyed going through the vaults, there was always a sense of urgency in the back of Quinn''s head in which he needed toplete one vault a year.


    So when he wrapped up the Aquatic Vault, Quinn felt he was done for the year. If he had to draw a very loose parallel, then the cursed vaults to him were what examinations were to students. When they ended, students rejoiced like they were part of a nation that just got independence from an oppressive power. The only difference was that Quinn enjoyed the time he spent down in the vaults, unlike many students who didn''t enjoy exams.


    And for the first time in months, Quinn was free, so he took out his violin, and with it, decided to cast some magic to lighten up that extra-high tension exam mood that gued the Ravenw house every year.


    He rested the violin on his shoulder and his fingers on the strings; the other hand grasped the bow. He then gently descended on the strings to y a vibrant tune with sweet calm tones.


    At first, the sound was only audible inside Quinn''s dorm room and partially audible to the nearby rooms, but as the minutes progressed, the fiddle of the violin traveled all across the boys'' dorm.


    Some of the boys didn''t appreciate the sudden disturbance when they studied for the exams, which were close, but no one got up from their seats and asked the yer to stop; something in the sound made them keep still and listen.


    In his room, Quinn smiled with his eyes closed. Seeing that no one was here to stop him from ying meant that the magic was working and, thus, he could increase the radius.


    Streams of magic traveled down from Quinn''s arms to the violin and bow, and the sound started to flow with an extra something behind it. The slow tempo mixed with magic carried all the way to themon room and the girls'' dormitory on the other side, and filled the entire Ravenw dorms with Quinn''s music.


    Anyone who heard the music felt the tension drain from their bones, and calm seep into their minds and bodies. The slow sound made them forget about the stress of the iing exams. That moment made them stop running, stop and kick back to get a rxing pit-stop.


    Quinn, who had his eyes closed while ying the violin, mixed two types of magic together to create his desired effect.


    He blended mind magic together with the enchanting sorcery of sound and music to create magical melodies. Using the wings provided by the harmonies, Quinn spread the influence of the mind arts to sway the mood of those who listened.


    This idea came from two sources: the first was, of course, the dreaded Sin vault, which had messed with his mind and emotion on a deep level; the second inspiration was from his mind magic teacher, n D. Baddeley, who had once used mind magic to forcefully calm him down.


    Like n, Quinn subtly altered the listeners'' present mood. It wasn''t as intrusive as the Sin Vault, but did reside on the same mental magic line.


    The use of sound magic was to increase the range and effectiveness of magic. Quinn, who had studied illusion magic, knew how to influence the human senses and recognized its efficacy while manipting a target.


    People would subconsciously concentrate on sounds, and this was especially true for magic. So when Quinnced the music with mental magic, the listeners got quickly influenced because their minds were concentrating on the music. Of course, there were downsides to this usage¡ª it wasn''t particrly effective when people were at guard against it, or if they had earplugs on and couldn''t listen to the music, or were outright deaf.


    ''Alright, let''s hype up this performance,'' thought Quinn, and the tune went through a drastic change. The rhythm started to build up, and the sound turned from gentle and calming to upbeat and exciting.


    Everyone in Ravenw started to tap their feet and bob their head to the rhythm of the cheerful tune. Slowly they were being guided from the calmness of the earlier piece to the bop of the current one.


    The person who felt the most was Quinn himself, who channeled his current spirit into the animated funk. His moves while he yed the violin were wild and crazy.


    ''Oh, yeah, let''s blow the roof off this ce. Come on, move it~,'' thought Quinn as he continued to y; the more he got into ying, the more freely his magic flowed, making everyone who was listening to the melody, felt their hearts beat faster with excitement and exhration.


    ''Rum, pum, tum, and we are done~,'' thought Quinn as he finished his piece and bowed to no one.


    "WOOHOO!!!!"


    "I''m going to ace these exams!"


    "Bring it on! I''m going to smash the O.W.L.s!"


    "I''m going to get a girlfriend!"


    "Exams are nothing! I''m the smartest girl alive!"


    "Wrackspurts!"


    "I will recreate Rowena Ravenw''s Diadem!"


    "Where is Professor Flitwick. I challenge him to a duel!"


    Quinn''s piece had left the people in a hyped-up state and filled with confidence and enthusiasm. It caused them to feel exhrated and happy.


    Quinn smiled at the shoutsing from themon room and the dorms around him and knew that his showcase of mental and sound magic was a huge sess.


    Looking at the violin and bow in his hands, Quinn nodded with a grin, "Yeah~, I still got it."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    A shady figure stood under the shade of a tree looking at the abandoned house with the windows and doors boarded up.


    "The Shrieking Shack," muttered the figure looking at the building, which was supposed to be the most haunted in Britain. "To think this shack would be hiding something of such importance."


    Rivers Lock smirked at the thought, "It seems this building is just like me. And that''s why it''s going to get me what I want."


    The smirk from his face dropped like it was never there, and he thought about the circumstances that brought him here.


    "A bunch of cowards, they are. How can they be scared when I''m nning their moves."


    Rivers Lock was the one who created and managed the group known as Novellus ionites. Just within a couple years, he had been able to gather people together into his banner, and he did it without ever showing his face.


    But the series of raids from the Auror Office had instilled fear in the members of Novellus ionites, and when he tried to bring down the order, he didn''t get much of a favorable response.


    "I didn''t ask them to go to those gatherings," Rivers clicked his tongue in distaste. "If they wanted to mingle together like fools, they could''ve at least made sure they weren''t tracked."


    The disadvantage of being a hidden leader was that he couldn''t be involved too deeply without being in danger of revealing his identity. As such, he couldn''t control what his followers did outside of the ns he drafted for them.


    He wanted people to be good with the Disillusionment charm. People who would be able to get around without others noticing. But all he got was some dumb bozos who were absolutely shit at magic, who wereplete rock brains and didn''t have an ounce of cunning in them.


    But this opportunity was too critical for him to miss. The school was about to end soon, and if he didn''t act, he would''ve to wait for the next few months to get the next chance.


    Rivers didn''t have those months. The Aurors were striking hard on his minions, and he couldn''t be sure what would be the situation down the line.


    And this opportunity was what he needed to gain the momentum back. If he could pull this off, then the world would know about Novellus ionites, and all the members who refused his calls like cowards woulde scurrying back.


    "I guess I will have to do this on my own. This is too important for me to leave it to the idiots," muttered Rivers. He decided that he would be going inside on his own with a couple more members that were at his disposal.


    The gears in his mind turned as he continued to stare at the abandoned and decrypt shack.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn shimmied his way to the hospital wing with a rabbit in a cage. The rabbit had been very sick, infected with rabbit calicivirus, which was an illness that had an incubation period of 48-72 hours.


    Poppy had given him the brown rabbit and told him that he had a day and a half to return with a perfectly healthy rabbit. He knew nothing about calicivirus; it was a type of hemorrhagic disease virus. So he had only 48-72 hours to learn everyone about the disease and then heal the rabbit before it died.


    The research had been easy but lengthy, so by the time Quinn was done learning about the rabbit calicivirus, the rabbit was suffering from lethargy and fever.


    Quinn eradicated the disease from the brown rabbit and then healed the fluffy bunny. He did it within the confines of the time Poppy had given him; the rabbit was back to new in twenty-four hours.


    ''Poppy is slowly getting used to my learning speed. If I was still spending time at the vault, it probably would''ve taken me a day and a half.''


    Quinn walked across the tiled floor of the hospital wing towards Poppy''s office as he looked to the sides at the beds to see if she was tending to some students.


    And at the end of the wing hallway, Quinn stopped because he came across two people who he wasn''t expecting to see in the hospital wing.


    "Daphne. Astoria..." said Quinn, finding the Greengrass sisters with Astoria sitting on the bed while Daphne sat on a stool by her side. Multiple thoughts ran through his mind within the second he firstid eyes on the sister. What came out of his mouth was: "Have you seen Madam Pomfrey? I have something to talk with her."


    "She is out for the moment. Went down to the dungeon to meet Professor Snape to get some potion ingredients," replied Daphne, and while Quinn couldn''t get a read from her expression, her bodynguage told him that she was feeling ufortable.


    "You just missed her. She went out a minute ago," chimed in Astoria with a smile on her face.


    Quinn turned his eyes to the younger sister, and his stone-grey orbs noticed a pale pallor on her skin, a thin sheen of sweat on her face; her whites of eyes were muddled, and many other signs that Quinn had learned to pick up from his time with Poppy learning Healing Magic.


    ''She is obviously sick. The fact Poppy had to go out to obtain potion ingredients means this isn''t amon ailment. I wonder what gues her?'' thought Quinn before smiling and asking, "May I join you two,dies?"


    Daphne opened her mouth to speak something, but Astoria beat it to her.


    "Yes, please. You''re free to join us," spoke Astoria with a smile on her face.


    Daphne nced at her sister with an inscrutable expression that Astoria ignored, as she continued to smile towards Quinn.


    Quinn nodded and pulled a stool from beneath the bed. He took a seat and set the rabbit cage down on the floor. Astoria was sick, and Quinn didn''t want to make it worse by introducing a rabbit to the girl.


    ''She does look the type who loves fluffy and cute things.''


    "How have you two been?" asked Quinn, opening up the conversation. "I hope you two are feeling fine, nothing serious, I hope." Quinn knew the topic woulde with their location, so he decided to use it as an opener.


    "Thank you for asking; we are doing fine, just a small dip in health," replied Daphne, matching eyes with Quinn.


    ''Ah, it is serious, then,'' thought Quinn and then he heard Daphne speak up. ''She must be worried.'' Even though she had used ''we'' in his answer, all three knew who she was talking to.


    "You don''t have to lie. We can''t change anything about it, so why hide it?" sighed Astoria and softly nced at her older sister. She turned to Quinn and spoke without hesitation. "I have-"


    "Astoria!"


    "No, I''m telling him. There is nothing to hide, and I don''t get why you get to decide. I''m the one who has it. I should be able to decide who to tell and who not to," answered Astoria in a firm tone, which was less weaker than her usual voice.


    Daphne softly sighed and closed her eyes in eptance. She knew her little sister better than anyone and knew that when Astoria decided to do something, then even their parents wouldn''t be able to change her mind.


    "I have a condition known as ''blood malediction''. A ''blood malediction'' is a curse of the darkest type, passed down to the descendants for generations. Even the mostmon type of blood malediction is known to stay in the family for half a century," said Astoria with a smile on her face as she was retelling a fascinating story. "One of our ancestors was cursed with the curse, and from then on, the curse resurfaces even though it skips some generations. Our great-grandfather had it, and for two generations, our family was free of it, but it turned out that our generation wasn''t so lucky because I got it."


    Quinn held his expression in ce as he continued to listen to Astoria, and while the younger Greengrass spoke, Quinn felt the older sister nce at him from time to time.


    "There are many types of blood malediction: the one I have causes debilitation, leaving me frail and sickly. From time to time, I suffer from thesepses in health that will leave me in a very fragile state."


    The usually young and bubbly of the Greengrass sisters smiled helplessly and sighed, "Unfortunately, the curse also reduces my lifespan. None of my ancestors who suffered from the curse ever lived past fifty."


    Quinn silently listened to Astoria tell her story without uttering a word, and while he heard all of it, two things stood out to him.


    The blood malediction and the resignation in her voice hidden behind her smile.


    "I see. So you have a blood malediction. Now, that is rare, isn''t it?" started Quinn, and as he spoke, Quinn removed his Hogwarts robe from his shoulder. "A curse that carries down to the descendants. Descendants that suffer from their ancestors'' mistakes or misfortune. I guess if you can get your ancestors'' fortunes, then getting their misfortune is a fair part of the deal."


    "And while getting the curse is unfortunate, and I might seem presumptuous for saying it, I don''t think I like the fact that you have epted you''ll never get rid of the curse."


    Quinn folded up the sleeves on both of his hands and secured them in ce so they wouldn''t slip.


    "Astoria, don''t get me wrong, I like the fact that you don''t live your life in despair about your unfortunate circumstances, but your reason is wrong. You should happily live because you know that one day your curse will be erased and you will get to live just as everyone else does¡ª not because you are trying to live the most of your limited life."


    He smiled a wide grin as he spoke, "Where is the fun in that? If you ept that then there is no hope. That''s no fun at all."


    Quinn put out both of his hands towards Astoria and gestured with his finger as he asked, "Give me your hands."


    Astoria and Daphne looked at Quinn with bewilderment. The light-hearted tone that Quinn spoke with made it seem that he was not taking this clearly heavy condition seriously. But the words did make some sense to them, and that left both the girls confused.


    "Come on, now, don''t be scared. I won''t eat you. Give me your hands," asked Quinn once more.


    Astoria looked at Daphne for guidance, but the look in Daphne''s eyes reflected the same confusion as her. So she hesitantly ced both her hands in Quinn''s.


    "Excellent, thank you for trusting me," smiled Quinn and gently grasped Astoria''s petite hands. "Now, let me show you some nifty magic. I think you two will like this." He pointed at his and Astoria''s joined hands.


    The two Greengrass sisters looked down and witnessed the glowing red veins on Quinn''s visible arms and hands.


    "Astoria, I don''t think you realize that we, who possess magic, are in the presence of something truly grand and extraordinary."


    The two girls watched with wide eyes as the glowing red veins seemed to creep from Quinn''s hands to Astoria''s hands through the connections of their hands.


    "Magic has infinite potential, infinite! There is nothing that magic can''t aplish. Those who possess magic can be saints, gods, devils, or anything they want if they understand and know how to use what was so graciously given to them."


    The glowing red veins traveled up Astoria''s arm, and as Quinn spoke, her entire body was covered in fiery red glowing veins. Astoria could feel afortable heat all around her body.


    "I know this curse has been in your family for generations. And in all that time, there hasn''t been a cure to this ailment that you don''t deserve. But losing hope is losing the battle before even starting the fight."


    The glowing red veins on Quinn''s forearms and Astoria''s entire body turned into a sparkling blue color, showing a beautiful charm to the world.


    Astoria, who had been feeling afortable heat, now with the color change, felt a refreshing cool feeling envelope her body. She closed her eyes because it was the most pleasant she had ever felt. It felt like she was swimming in cool water, and she let go of everything and simply enjoying the bliss as she listlessly floated in the coolness.


    But then her eyes snapped open as she felt the frailness and sickness lessen and slowly disappear from her body. It wasn''t just that, but the true shock was that her own delicate constitution felt strength and vitality that she had never felt before.


    She had never felt so... lively. Astoria felt like she could do anything right now.


    Astoria looked up from her hands and looked at Quinn, who was smiling with confidence.


    "Astoria Greengrass, I, Quinn West, here and now, deres this to you. From this moment onwards. I assure you that as long as I am alive, you will never ever again feel the presence of the blood curse."


    Quinn''s smile widened, and as did the eyes of Astoria.


    "I will ensure that you will never suffer and feel weak because of the blood malediction. You will live a long life, and it will be a healthy life just like anyone else''s."


    Astoria felt Quinn''s grip slightly tighten as he announced.


    "It''s my promise to you, and I will never forget it."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Promise of a lifetime.


    Astoria Greengrass - Cursed - Received a promise.


    Daphne Greengrass - Worried Elder Sister - Witnessed something magical.


    Rivers Lock - Prideful - nning something big.


    Editor - nL - Worried. (;?©n?)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis.

 Chapter 111 - Cure, Dreams, And Another Deal

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Astoria watched as Quinn''s hand left her, the glowing veins disappear and the glow recede.


    She lifted her hands and clenched her fists, and surprisingly, she was able to mp them hard instead of the weak fist that she usually made while suffering from the blood curse. Her body also no longer felt weak and fatigued, like she was feeling a few minutes ago.


    ''... I feel strong, but how?'' she thought and looked up at the reason this was happening, who was pulling down his sleeves and buttoning them back into ce.


    "... Astoria?"


    She turned her face to her sister Daphne, still spinning from the shock and surprise.


    "A-Are you alright? You''re crying. Is something wrong; do you feel well," asked Daphne in surprise and worry.


    Astoria touched her face, and indeed she felt her fingers stained wet with tears. "N-No, I-I am fine. Everything is fine," said Astoria, with her voice cracking with emotion.


    And with that, the dam broke, and Astoria started to cry, startling both Quinn and Daphne.


    Quinn, who was putting back his outer robe, became startled when he heard Astoria break down and looked at Daphne for assistance.


    Daphne leaped into action to her sister''s side on the bed and hugged her close to providefort. Astoria grabbed onto her sister and hugged her tight.


    Quinn felt like he was intruding on a family moment, just as he did at the start of the year, so he once again stood very still to be invisible while his magic silently fixed his clothes.


    Astoria calmed down and gently pulled herself out of Daphne''s embrace. She turned to face Quinn and swiftly got off the bed to trap Quinn in a very tight hug, surprising the boy with the strengthing from the small figure.


    "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you..." repeated Astoria while trying to meld herself into Quinn.


    Quinn gently hugged the girl, who he felt was trying to perform a fusion with him and patted her on the back. "Don''t mention it. Also, don''t cry because it''s over; smile because it happened."


    Astoria nodded into his shirt and gradually stopped crying before separating from Quinn. She looked up towards Quinn and smiled as he had told her to.


    "See, that looks much better," smiled Quinn and booped Astoria on her nose. "Also, we need to talk, so get back on the bed."


    Astoria nodded before climbing back onto the bed, and from the way she was sitting, anyone could tell that she was feeling much better.


    Quinn sat back down on his stool and spoke, "Now, I fulfilled what I promised, but-" He stared at both the Greengrass sisters and continued after a pause. "- you can''t tell anyone outside your family about what I did."


    Daphne and Astoria immediately had confused expressions on their faces. They couldn''t understand why Quinn would want to hide the fact that he could erase the blood curse.


    "I''m not supposed to know what I did. What I used to repress the curse isn''t looked positively at by the world," spoke Quinn and rolled his eyes at the end of the sentence.


    "What do you mean?"


    Quinn knew that if he wanted to continue to treat Astoria, he would need to tell them what he was doing. She needed to know what he was using to help her. "The curse is called ''blood malediction'', so I used the same branch of magic to repress the effects of the curse... I used blood magic."


    Daphne and Astoria''s eyes widened because they knew what Quinn was implying. Blood magic was considered dark magic and something not to dwell in; thag branch of magic was associated with evil sacrifices, to defiance nature in twisted ways, cruelty, and was seen as forbidden theurgy.


    The blood malediction, as the name suggested, was a type of blood magic. It was the ssic type of magic which was seen as dark magic.


    "You might not know this, but I have been studying Healing Magic with Madam Pomfrey, so she especially can''t know that I used blood magic to help you. If she knew what I did, she would definitely stop teaching me, and I don''t want that," stated Quinn, and he was serious about the rtionship that he had with Poppy and didn''t want this to jeopardize what he had built over the years.


    "Of course, we all know that blood magic is considered dark magic. But I couldn''t give two hoots about that. Magic isn''t dark or light; thebels are our creation. Your ancestor was cursed with blood magic, and now I used the same magic to cure you. This just shows you that magic can transform into whatever the user desires."


    "Unfortunately, others and even you two might not see things as I do, and that is fine because I don''t care. But I don''t want others to know that I can use it because it will bring me a lot of trouble, which I would like to avoid," sighed Quinn when he thought about society''s views. "So if you don''t want to continue with this, Ipletely understand, but then I''d have to pretend that this never happened."


    "When Madam Pomfrey returns, you can simply tell her that you are feeling better. She won''t know why you suddenly feel better if she doesn''t know what to look for, so if you don''t tell her, this entire treatment will go unnoticed. She will scratch her head for a while but, after a while, she''ll attibute this to the curse''s unpredictability, and you will be free."


    Quinn folded his hands over hisp and asked, "So what is your decision?"


    "Any side-effects and/or bacshes that maye up because of this treatment?" Daphne inquired because of the nature of the magic.


    "As long as I''m not kicked in the face while I treating Astoria, she will not suffer fromplications of any kind."


    The magic that Quinn had used on Astoria was abination of his knowledge on three separate sources. He knew about blood magic from having studied for two years and he had never stopped learning it since then; healing magic was in his current active rotation; and thest was the most recent enlightenment in water magic.


    One of theponents that made up blood was sma and constituted more than fifty percent of blood. And ny percent of sma was water.


    Having mastery over water magic didn''t allow blood maniption because it was closely tied to magic and a being''s life force. But because Quinn knew both blood and water magic, he could apply the knowledge about water''s connection to life and transfer it to blood, which was also connected to the life force.


    Quinn had a firm grasp on what he had done to Astoria; as long as he wasn''t uprooted during the treatment, there were zero percent chances that he would fail.


    Astoria, who was a first-year and didn''t consider herself knowledgeable about magic, left the decision to Daphne.


    Daphne thought for a while before answering, "We will have to ask our parents before we make any decision."


    "Of course, I have noints if you consult your parents. Talk it out, and if you feelfortable, I will continue to help Astoria out," nodded Quinn. "From my estimates, Astoria will be fine for another month and a week before the curse surfaces again. So get in contact with me before that."


    The Greengrass sisters nodded in response.


    Quinn got up from his stool, picked up the rabbit cage from the floor, and ced it on the bed. "Good, I think it''s time for me to leave. When Madam Pomfrey returns, please pass her this cage and tell her that I dropped by."


    But then he suddenly turned his head back and whispered, "Forget it, she is here." He turned back to the sisters and reminded, "Hush on what happened."


    A mischievous glint sparkled Quinn''s eyes as a grin made its way to Quinn''s face. He picked up the rabbit cage in his hands and jumped out from behind the curtains that covered the view of the bed.


    "Madam Pomfrey, I''m here~!"


    Poppy, who had just entered the hospital wing after a trip to the dungeons and was thinking about the potion she needed to brew for the poor Astoria Greengrass, suddenly and unexpectedly came face to face with her student, Quinn West.


    "Kyaaaah!"


    A surprised cry filled the hall as the small crate of ingredients she had brought dropped.


    Quinn, who wasn''t expecting her to be holding things, moved very quickly and levitated the crate and all items inside it before any of them hit the floor and made them fly towards him. Now, he had the rabbit cage in one hand and the ingredient crate in the other.


    Poppy calmed down and was now ring death beams at Quinn with a palm above her heart.


    Quinn blinked and half-chuckled in nervousness, "... Oops."


    "Quinn... stand still and let me pelt you with stinging hexes. I promise it will hurt a lot, so just stand here," huffed Poppy and took out her wand with hands shaking in anger.


    "Madam Pomfrey, you can hurt meter, but I believe you will want to check up on your patient. She tells me that her condition has suddenly changed," informed Quinn in an attempt to not get hit by stinging hexes.


    Poppy''s anger vanished in an instant, and she hurried towards Astoria''s bed to check up on her.


    "What happened? How are you feeling? Did it get worse," asked Poppy as soon as sheid her eyes upon Astoria and moved closer to observe her.


    "No, no, it didn''t get worse. I''m feeling much better," beamed Astoria, and her eyes subconsciously moved towards Quinn at the back.


    Poppy frowned at the response, but as she checked the signs, she did see that Astoria''splexion had improved, and she looked much more lively. Poppy cast some spells to check on her condition, and simr results came up; Astoria had indeed recovered, and the previous signs she had diagnosed were no longer evident.


    And just like Quinn had said, Poppy fussed for a while, but when she wasn''t able to see any negative signs, Poppy concluded that Astoria was indeed healthy.


    "Stay here today for observation. If there are noplications, you can leave," concluded Poppy.


    "That''s good, isn''t it, Astoria?" grinned Quinn before turning to Poppy and speaking, "Madam Pomfrey, here you go, this is the rabbit you gave me yesterday. I have cured and healed him, and he is ready to hop and hump like any other bunny."


    Quinn suddenly set the cage into Poppy''s hands and waved goodbye to everybody. "See you allter. Madam Pomfrey, I will drop by tomorrow." He had to get out here before Poppy remembered that she needed to kill Quinn with stinging hexes.


    Astoria waved back before speaking to Daphne as she pushed. "I''m fine now; you should also leave." She faced Quinn and said, "Quinn, would you escort my sister?"


    Quinn, who was about to bolt, stopped and nodded. "Sure, I wouldn''t mind." He turned to Daphne and asked, "Shall we?"


    "Are you sure you don''t need me here?" asked Daphne.


    "No, I''m fine, and Madam Pomfrey is here to take care of me," smiled Astoria and once gave her a sister a little push.


    Daphne observed Astoria for a moment before nodding. She walked towards Quinn and the two left the hospital wing.


    "Hmm, should I say it?" Astoria looked at the now-empty hospital wing and smacked her lips.


    She then faced Madam Pomfrey and spoke with a mischievous shine in her eyes, "Quinn escaped from the pinching hexes."


    "He thinks that, but when hees back tomorrow, I''m going to get him," snorted Poppy as she went through the ingredient crate to see if anything was broken.


    Astoria giggled before asking, "Anyway, Madam Pomfrey, what do you do in a day as the Matron?"


    Poppy suddenly had a bad feeling, and when she looked up, she saw Astoria with a big smile on her face.


    She immediately knew the reason for the bad feeling, and the reason was the smile on Astoria''s face was the same one Quinn had had when he came to the hospital wing and wanted to talk.


    "Oh, no. You''re just like him, aren''t you?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Daphne and Quinn walked out of the hospital wing and, as Astoria had asked of him, Quinn escorted Daphne to the dungeons.


    He looked at Daphne and noticed that there was a lost expression on her face.


    "What are you thinking about?"


    Daphne looked up at Quinn and stared at him for a few seconds before opening up.


    "I want to be a healer."


    "A noble profession," responded Quinn shortly because he could see that Daphne had more to say.


    "I was seven years old when Astoria showed the first sign of the curse. Our parents clearly exined what the curse was, and it took a while to understand the seriousness of the condition. But when I did, I decided to be a healer so that I would one day cure the blood curse from Astoria."


    There was a faraway look on her face while Daphne continued to speak.


    "As the years passed, I saw Astoria get sick every month because of the curse, and that strengthened my desire to be a healer," she paused for a second and took a deep breath before continuing. "She is theplete opposite of me. So lively, cheery, bright. She''s a person that always wants to run to discover new things. But she can''t do any of that because the curse will reemerge if she gets too physically active."


    "Her curse always gets in the way of doing the things she loves. She likes the outdoors but she can''t go outside because she gets sick. She''d love to run around and fly on the broom all day long but she can''t because of that curse," she turned to Quinn and looked Quinn straight in the eyes. "Do you know we were worried about whether she would be able to get around Hogwarts with all the corridors and staircase without the curse reemerging? That''s how much the curse affects her. We even worried if she would be able to attend the school."


    Quinn gently directed Daphne to the side of the corridor and stopped walking because Daphne was feeling very emotional right now. Something that surprised Quinn because this was the most emotion he had seen from Daphne.


    "Are you sure that Astoria will be free from the blood curse as long as you continue to treat her?" asked Daphne, and to assert the seriousness, she grabbed Quinn''s wrist and maintained firm eye contact with him.


    "I''m assuming that you''re wondering whether the curse will reemerge if she gets more active?" asked Quinn.


    "Yes."


    "No matter what she does, even if she somehow manages to move around so much that she copses because of fatigue, the curse won''t re. As long as I continue to treat her, the curse won''t ever reemerge. Daphne, if I continue to treat Astoria, she won''t even face the fifty-year age limit; she will, without a doubt, live way past it and continue to her natural lifespan."


    Daphne exhaled a breath she didn''t know she was holding.


    "I can tell you right now that if what you say is true, then our parents will agree no matter what. As long as this doesn''t hurt Astoria, they wille to you and plead that you take care of her."


    Quinn noticed that Daphne didn''t have a smile on her face even though her body had lost that tension that she had before Quinn answered her question.


    "What is it? Is there still something on your mind? If you have any doubts, then ask me because I can answer them."


    Daphne leaned against the wall, stayed silent, and stared at the floor for a good while before starting.


    "I wanted to be a healer because I could cure Astoria. But with you, I don''t need to, do I? I¡­ Now I feel a little lost and even though it might sound silly, a little sad."


    Ever since she understood Astoria''s condition, Daphne had made it her life goal to be a healer to cure Astoria. And even though she was happy that Astoria would live a healthy life, Daphne wanted to be the one who helped her, but now with Quinn, that was over.


    "I think you are misunderstanding something here, Daphne," spoke Quinn, causing Daphne to look at him in confusion.


    "What do you mean?"


    "Astoria isn''t cured. I''m simply repressing her curse, and that isn''t a cure. If I stop, she will once again start to live as she has been until now."


    Daphne frowned because she knew all this but wasn''t following what Quinn was trying to say.


    "Life is unpredictable. I can die on a random day, and that would start the clock on Astoria''s life. She can be struck with a curse that might hinder my ability to work blood magic without making things worse. As I said, magic has infinite potential, and that also means that things can go wrong in so many ways."


    Daphne''s eyes widened, and she now got what Quinn was trying to convey. What Quinn had wasn''t a permanent cure, and as he said, if things went wrong, Astoria would return to square one.


    "So don''t let go of that dream just yet because I have no idea how to actually cure Astoria. I might figure it out one day, but that day isn''t anywhere soon. So, if you be a healer, you might be able to figure it out before me," shrugged Quinn.


    He was learning magic from an all-around perspective and didn''t have any ns to specialize. Quinn wanted to learn everything and master everything, but that would take a long time, and that would also dy the discovering of Astoria''s cure.


    "I have no ns to die and will continue to treat Astoria. And you know what? See this as an opportunity," smiled Quinn and put a different perspective on things. "I''m giving you time; I will keep Astoria healthy. So study, learn, experience magic while living your ideal life. And no matter how much time it takes, find the remedy and cure your sister."


    Quinn put out a hand forward for a handshake and asked, "Deal?"


    Daphne looked at the outstretched hand and then at Quinn. She thought back to the things Quinn said, and a determined light appeared in her eyes.


    She grabbed Quinn''s hand and shook it, "Deal."


    "Excellent," beamed Quinn.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Made another deal with another friend.


    Daphne Greengrass - Future Healer - I will fulfill that deal.


    Astoria Greengrass - About to start a new chapter in her life - "... So, then Quinn points at me. And when I saw it, I knew that he had betrayed me. I told him about Daphne in confidence!"


    Poppy Pomfrey - Medi-healer - "No, no, no! Not another one!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 112 - Infiltration, Kidnapping, Shrieking Shack

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Three men stood at a shady and hidden corner of Hogsmeade. The three men had arrived individually and converged at the position they had been given.


    "Do you know what we''re going to do today?" asked one of the three men.


    Another man nced at the one who had said that and asked back, "Are you new? Is this your first time?"


    "I have been on one of the sweeps for muggles and muggleborns, but there were more people than this..." he looked at the other two and said, "... If you get what I mean."


    The third man joined the discussion and shared his own experience. "This is different from the sweeps. If I am correct, this is going to be something different."


    "... So you don''t know what we are going to do today?" asked the first man.


    The other two looked at each other before shrugging and shaking their heads.


    "No, I was just asked to arrive at this ce at a certain time," answered the second man.


    "The same instructions for me as well," said the third man, but then he asked. "Were you guys asked to bring that?"


    "The uniform, you mean?" asked the man and pulled out a matchstick bag from his robes.


    "Yeah, the uniform. I mean, if that was asked... Do you think we have to?"


    As the three men talked, an invisible Rivers Lock, under cover of a Disillusionment spell, was listening and observing the three men. These three men had been selected from the ionites that had responded to his calls.


    All three were chosen because they were easy to control and had something that would help him in what he was trying to aplish.


    But before he revealed himself, Rivers wanted to see how these three reacted to the other; how were they feeling today; what did they discuss, the information they exchanged, and other traits that would help him decide on the finer details of the n.


    Rivers never shared theplete n with anyone. He always made sure that other than him, no one knew the entire picture. This way, he could limit the flow of information and iste leaks if anyone decided to switch to the other side.


    And today, these three knew nothing other than the fact they were asked to bring their Hogwarts uniforms with them.


    ''These three will work. Yes, these three will do just fine,'' thought Rivers and decided that it was time to start.


    He dropped the charm and revealed himself, startling them and caused them to take out their wands.


    "It''s good that all of you are here on time. It would''ve been unfortunate if you werete," said Rivers before ncing at the wands and then at their owners. "Drop the wands. I''m your leader today."


    The three breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew their wands back into their robes.


    "Do you have the orders," asked one of the men.


    "Yes, I do. I received the orders from one of the higher-ups; they said that this is quite important," replied Rivers and began establishing his image among the three.


    "Alright, who is A, B, and D," asked Rivers.


    The three told Rivers about their assigned alphabets.


    "I see; here you go. These are your potion vials," said Rivers as he handed them potion vials with the letters A, B, and D and kept the vial with the letter C.


    Of course, he already knew about their letters, but he wanted to establish that he was just one of them and was assigned to be the leader. That is why he gave himself the alphabet C, as that would imply that he wasn''t unique or separate from them.


    "What are we going to do?"


    Rivers took out a shrunk-down uniform from his robes and showed it to them.


    "I think you have already guessed it, but we are going to Hogwarts," he lifted his vial and continued. "These are reverse-aging potions. They will return your outer appearance to your Hogwarts years. We''re going to drink these, put on our uniforms, and go inside the castle."


    "How are we going to get inside Hogwarts? Today isn''t a Hogsmeade weekend," asked the second man.


    Rivers put on a fake yet wless grin as he answered. "Through the Shrieking Shack."


    All three men shivered and looked at each other in worry. The building was famous for being haunted. None of them had ever approached the abandoned building in their school years.


    "I have been briefed that there''s a secret tunnel in there that opens up in the castle grounds. We are going to use that tunnel and get inside toplete the mission."


    "... What are we going to do inside?" asked the third man.


    The other two men also looked on with the same curiosity, wondering what they were about to do inside Hogwarts.


    Rivers dropped the grin and revealed today''s objective in simple words.


    "We are going to kidnap the Boy-Who-Lived and kill him in front of everyone..." he paused and put on a proud expression. "... For the Dark Lord."


    The three young, pureblood men, who had joined Novellus ionites because they believed the Voldemort ideology, nodded and felt the fear of entering the Shrieking Shack lessen as they felt they were doing something revolutionary.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Are you sure we aren''t going to be recognized?" asked one of the ionites, looking ufortable in the state he was.


    He looked around the castle and, if the situation had been different, he would''ve felt nostalgia. Nheless, right now, all he felt was anxiety.


    Rivers looked at the man, who looked ufortable, and nodded. "No one will be looking at your faces. You can hide behind your clothes, and people will turn blind. Within the school, if you have a uniform, no one will give you a second look."


    All four people had entered the castle wearing Gryffindor-styled Hogwarts uniforms. Rivers was also wearing a Gryffindor-styles robe, but he had been Slytherin in his time at Hogwarts. The three men had been chosen because they had been from Gryffindor and knew some key areas of the castle like the Gryffindor Tower.


    "Tell me, where would be the best ce to grab and stun a Gryffindor student?" asked Rivers, his body rxed.


    Rivers had ordered one of the men to take him to the ces where Gryffindors frequented so that he could scout the ces where the nabbing could take ce.


    He had left the rest of the group to one of the ces he had found in his school career that wasn''t frequented by students.


    "I would say that the base of Gryffindor Tower is a good ce. Every lion will have to pass through there to get to themon room," replied the ionite grunt.


    Rivers hummed in thought before scratching the location out of the viable options. "No. If every Gryffindor goes through there, then the chances of being seen are high."


    "How about the passages around the Quad, especially the ones near the suspension bridge? We can wait at the ones that lead to the Gryffindor Tower and get the brat there," offered the man-turned-into-child.


    Rivers rolled his eyes in a way such that the grunt couldn''t see it and internally sighed.


    "Not there; students from all houses walk those passages. Too much risk and exposure," said Rivers, keeping his voice straight to hide the contempt towards the stupid n.


    As they passed the Great Hall, Rivers'' eyes caught the notice wall, which had, understandingly, all kinds of notices on it. He stopped and walked towards the wall to get a good look.


    The man-child grunt followed Rivers and gave the wall a cursory nce while Rivers read every notice, and it seemed it was the right move because he found something good.


    "I found the perfect ce," smiled Rivers, and a n immediately formed in his mind.


    "Huh, where?" asked the grunt in confusion.


    "The Gryffindor team booked the pitch from after lunch till the closing time." Rivers pointed out the notice that mentioned the pitch''s schedule.


    "Harry Potter, the youngest seeker in Hogwarts'' history," River''s smile widened as he decided how he was going to pull his n.


    "This is going to work."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Ugh, I''m so tired!" groaned Fred, wiping his body down with a towel.


    "Oliver is going to kill us at this rate," continued George as he put a fresh shirt on his body.


    The Quidditch practice had just ended, and in the boy''s locker room were the Weasley twins, Fred and George, along with Harry Potter. They were changing out from their Quidditch gear. While the captain was out to lock the ball kit into the storage closet.


    Harry sighed and stretched his hands above, trying to elevate the tension after keeping them at the broom for the entire practice. He was tired but not as much as Fred and George, who had to be on alert for the bludgers all the time and had to use extra energy and stamina in hitting the bludgers with their Beater bats.


    "Hey, did you hear about the new Ravenw chaser? What''s his name," asked Fred. He turned to George expecting an answer, but the other twin also couldn''t recall. "I don''t know, but they''re saying that he is the real deal. The Ravenw Keeper can''t stop him from scoring."


    They both turned to Harry and asked in unison,


    " "Harry, do you know??" "


    Harry shut his locker and spat out the name of the newly added Chaser of the Ravenw team. "Eddie Carmichael."


    Harry didn''t like Eddie since their previous meeting. He hadn''t talked to Eddie after that, but whenever their eyes would meet, Eddie would raise up his chin and look at him as if he was looking down at him.


    "I mean, let the bloke y a game before putting him over the shoulders. ying in practice and in a game is different," grumbled Harry.


    He had been hearing the name too much. Even Oliver, who had been strict with his praises, had sung some after scouting a single Ravenw practice in secret.


    Fred and George got dressed quickly and left the locker room with their stuff.


    "Harry, we''ll be waiting-" "- outside, so hurry up-" "-ande out."


    Harry turned and said, "I''ll wait for Oliver. You guys go and see if the girls are ready."


    "Alright-" "-we will see-" "-see you-" "-two outside."


    Harry heard the door close and started packing his thing into his bag.


    Then he heard the door open up.


    "Oliver, hurry up," said Harry thinking that Oliver hade back. "The rest are waiting outside."


    He turned back to see two people dressed in Gryffindor robes standing at the door, and then his world went ck.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "It has been a while since we have done this, hasn''t it?" said James Potter looking at the decrypted walls of the two-store building.


    "It''s been a while. We haven''t done this since the wolfsbane potion was discovered," answered Sirius ck as he whipped out his wand to clean the room they were standing in.


    "You both didn''t have to do this. With me on the potion, I usually just sleep after I transform," spoke Remus Lupin, looking at his two friends who were here to keep himpany.


    The three Marauders stood in a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Wallpaper was peeling from the walls. There were stains all over the floor. Every piece of furniture was broken as if somebody had smashed it. And the windows were all boarded up.


    "To be honest, we aren''t doing this for you," grinned Sirius as he took two bottles out from his coat. "We just wanted an excuse to get together so we can get stered."


    Sirius and James were quite busy with their jobs as Senior Aurors, and the load had been recently heavier, with them interrogating and preparing for trials of the people arrested from the raids.


    Plus, both of them were also upied with their seats in Wizengamot. James had been involved with politics since a long time ago. But Sirius was new to the scene and had only been handed the position after his grandfather, Arcturus ck III, had died. In his will he had reinstated Sirius into the family before his death.


    Remus, too, had a busy schedule as a professor at Hogwarts. A professor at Hogwarts needed to handle seven years'' worth of students and thus it was quite a hectic job.


    With three friends busy with their lives, they decided to use Remus'' Werewolf transformation as a short time to catch up with each other. It was also a nostalgic thing for them as they did it during their school life.


    James squatted in front of a broken chair and pointed it as he looked at Remus. "Hey, do you remember this chair? I remember lifting it up with my antlers and throwing it at you."


    "I don''t think that it''s that chair. I''m not even sure it was this room," remarked Remus. "Though I might be wrong. I don''t remember much of those days. I didn''t have the potion back then. All of it was kind of a blur."


    Sirius lifted and shook the two booze bottles with a rascal-like grin. "That is what we are trying to do. Make things blurry, but you know, more fun."


    "Are you sure you can drink?" asked James as he got up from the floor and turned to Remus. "Will the effects change when you transform? Thest thing we need to look out for is a drunk Werewolf."


    Remus chuckled and shook his head. "No, as long as I take the potion without any addition to it when I drink it. I''ll be fine. As for any changes? I will just be more sleepy, more silent, and probably go to sleep more easily."


    "Aww~, I wanted to wrestle like the old days," mock-whined Sirius, who had now sat down on a conjured sheet on the old floor with the booze bottles and sses in front of him.


    He smacked the floor and called out. "Come on, now. Let''s hurry. I want to get that buzz going."


    James and Remus chuckled before sitting down on the sheet as Sirius poured them drinks.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "What should we do with his stuff?" asked one of the ionite grunt, holding up Harry''s Quidditch.


    Rivers, who was making sure that Harry Potter was tightly bound and secured, looked at the grunt.


    "Drop it in here," replied Rivers.


    They had slowly and stealthily made their way back into the Shrieking Shack-Whooping Willow secret tunnel. It had taken a while because Rivers wanted to make sure that they weren''t seen.


    The task to smuggle the unconscious Harry Potter to this point had been difficult because they had to travel outdoors with nothing to hide them. Rivers had to purposely make the entire group move slower so as to not distort the effects of the Disillusionment charm a lot.


    The grunt dropped the kit on the floor and asked, "Why did you make me take this?"


    "If someone saw that the Potter brat was missing, but his things were still there, it would create some suspicion. But if his things aren''t in view, they would think that he left on his own. And it would take time for them to figure out that he is missing," exined Rivers as he sat down on the ground of the rough tunnel.


    Unlike the grunts he had brought along, Rivers had thought about things and took steps that were beneficial to him and the sess of this mission.


    "Why have you sat down," asked another grunt.


    Rivers nced at him and pointed at himself. "We''re still under the effect of the potions. We can''t go out like this. This isn''t over; we still have work to do." Internally he was sighing at the idiocy of everyone around him.


    "What do we have to do more?"


    "We are going to kill the Boy-Who-Lived and make him a showpiece in the middle of the Hogsmeade. I want the world to know that their savior is dead. That will start the revolution," said Rivers, but he didn''t have a smile on his face as things were going in his mind. "But we have to do it, and we have to do it quickly."


    "... Why?"


    "Someone will know that the Boy-Who-Lived is missing and when they do, the entire Auror''s office will move to find him out. The general public, too, will start looking for him. The entiremunity will be looking for him. And I mean everyone, even Death Eaters," he stared at the three grunts and said very severely. "And finally, Albus Dumbledore will look for him, and that is the worst threat. If Dumbledore starts looking, he''ll find the boy quickly. That man is dangerous."


    Unlike almost everyone who looked at Dumbledore as he was the greatest thing under the sun, Rivers knew how much power Dumbledore held. He knew that Dumbledore had both political and magical power, and he had both of them in excess.


    To Rivers, Dumbledore was a person who was capable of controlling everything. He even thought that he was probably doing it already.


    "We need toplete this quickly and then separate from this boy. The longer we stay with him, the greater the chance of us getting caught. As I said, people will be looking for him, and when they do find him, we will be there."


    He stared at them and ordered.


    "We will move as soon as possible."


    And when they nodded, Rivers thought,


    ''Though you guys won''t being out of it alive.''


    They had seen his face, and that connected him to Novellus ionites.


    He couldn''t have that, so they needed to die.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Yeah, this is about it, I guess," smiled Quinn as he sat in front of Gary while approving some designs.


    "Good, you will get them by next week," nodded Gary and collected all the design papers.


    Quinn had arrived at Hogsmeade quite early and had been inside the Scrivenshaft''s, deciding upon the designs on the new A.I.D. cards and ordering more copies of his notes.


    He had arrived quite early, but Gary had showed him some new stuff, and that got Quinn interested, and he ended up going into research mode.


    And because Gary was free, Gary and Quinn bounce ideas off each other. Then came lunch, tea, and what was nned to be a single-hour ordeal turned into a multiple-hour affair.


    "I''m gettingte. I need to get back to the castle," said Quinn as he looked at his pocket watch. He looked up and smiled. "Today was fun, Gary. Let''s do it again sometime."


    After saying goodbye to Gary, Quinn looked in different directions and wondered.


    "Which passage should I take?"


    Seven passages connected Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, and Quinn liked to not repeat the passages.


    "Let''s go through Shrieking Shack today," decided Quinn and started to walk towards the so-called haunted building. Without looking at all at the rising full moon that shone in the evening sky.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - That wasn''t enough screen-time.


    Rivers Lock - Leader - Can''t let his identity get out.


    James Potter - Senior Auror - Reminiscing about things he broke.


    Sirius ck - Senior Auror - Let''s get shit-faced~!


    Remus Lupin - Werewolf - Ugh, Wolfsbane tastes nasty.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis

 Chapter 113 - Three-Way Mexican Standoff

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Is everyone ready?" asked Rivers, putting on his Novellus ionite robe and throwing away the Hogwarts uniform.


    He looked at the soon-to-be-dead grunts and saw that they were still putting on their clothes.


    "Hurry up, we need to get out of here and get to Hogsmeade," urged Rivers and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Soon, the friends of Potter will realize he''s missing."


    After everybody changed into their robes, Rivers ordered.


    "One of you will be at the back with me, while two others will carry Potter. Levitate him, and let''s get going."


    Two pulled out their wands and targeted the ropes around Harry''s body and levitated him off the ground.


    With Rivers at the back, the four with an unconscious Harry started to walk towards the Shrieking Shack.


    The grunt in front raised his wand to cast the wand-lighting charm, Lumos. With the three guys in front of Rivers, their shadows hid River''s expression in the darkness, who looked at them with an apathetic expression.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Where is Harry?" asked Ron as Fred and George entered the Gryffindormon room through the portrait entrance guarded by the Fat Lady.


    "We don''t know-" "-he suddenly disappeared-" "-we think he''s pulling-" "-a joke!-" "-We think he used-" "-the Invisibility Cloak-" "-to get past us.-" "-Sneaky boy~!-"


    When Oliver came out of the stadium, he came out alone. When Fred and George asked about Harry, Oliver said he thought Harry was waiting with them because he didn''t see Harry in the locker room.


    Fred and George had been pulling practical jokes on people before Harry came to Hogwarts. When Harry came along, he showed his Invisibility Cloak to the Weasley twins, and it seemed to open up the possibilities. Harry and the jester twins often coborated to pull practical jokes on the students.


    After Harry didn''te out with Oliver, they thought Harry had used the Invisibility Cloak to get past them.


    "That doesn''t sound right. Harry couldn''t have used the Cloak," said Ivy, who was sitting beside Ron along with Hermione. She frowned in confusion and exined. "Today is my day with the Cloak. Harry has the map while I have the Cloak."


    She opened her book bag and took out the folded silvery fabric cloak.


    "I have it right here."


    Fred and George looked at each other before smiling as if they understood everything.


    "You''re kidding, too-" "-aren''t you?-" "-Harry must''vee here-" "-and he''s given you that-" "-to make us confused."


    They walked towards Ivy, kneeled in front of her, and patted her shoulder in unison.


    "To think-" "-you would be-" "-pulling-" "-jokes, too!-" "-We are very-" "-proud of you!-" "-We will look-" "-forward to working-" "-with you!"


    Satisfied with their reasoning, the twins got up and walked towards their dorms to take a shower.


    The three members of the golden squad looked at each other in confusion.


    "... Do you have any idea where Harry is?" asked Ron, looking at his twopanions.


    "Probably somewhere pulling a joke on someone," humphed Hermione. The bushy-haired girl still didn''t approve of her friend''s jester antics. "He''ll be back in a while." After saying that, Hermione went back to studying.


    Ivy and Ron also thought that Harry was pulling a joke on someone and went back to their own things.


    If only they had the Marauder''s Map. They would''ve seen that the map didn''t show Harry''s position.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I''ll say this! Really, listen to me!"ughed James as he snacked on pigs-in-nket as the three marauders drank. "Tell me, what are the three magical words?!"


    "I love you," answered Remus, a light smile on his lips while feeling a little drunk.


    "Let''s have sex!" shouted Sirius, already having drunk what James and Remus had.


    "No! ''Let''s have sex'' doesn''t work!" chuckled James and then pointed at Remus. "Yes, it''s ''I love you''. Those are the words!"


    He giggled before saying. "I''ve been married for fifteen years. I''m telling you. When you are married this long, the magical words are no longer, I love you. They change from ''I love you'' to ''I told you.'' Lily says ''I told you'' more than ''I love you''."


    After having said that, Jamesughed loudly at his own joke. And even though Sirius and Remus didn''t understand it, they tooughed because they were a little tipsy.


    As Remusughed, his eyes widened as he felt something familiare up.


    He looked at James and Remus and blurted. "It''s happening! Ready yourselves."


    James and Sirius immediately sobered up and stood up from their spots. As James vanished the sses, Sirius pocketed the bottles. Both of them stepped back and got ready to transform into their Animagus forms.


    Werewolf instincts didn''t re when surrounded by animals. They would still be feral, but as long as the animals didn''t threaten the transformed lycanthrope, they wouldn''t attack animals.


    While Remus had already taken the Wolfsbane, there was no harm in being cautious.


    Remus transformed; his body started to shake with violent tremors. Remus'' head lengthened and also his body. His shoulders hunched. His hair sprouted visibly on his face and hands, which curled into wed paws.


    But then, as the Werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, the door of the secret entrance that connected the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow opened up.


    The two Senior Aurors and the in-control Werewolf looked at the door and saw four people barge into the room.


    The man in front had a wand out and pointing forward. When he saw people in the room, he yelled out to hispanions.


    "There are people in here!"


    "What?!" came out an exmation from the back as the people entered the room.


    Suddenly, the room became crowded as everyone took out their wands and pointed at each other. There was a loud thump when the new people ¡ªthe ionites¡ª pointed their wands at James, Sirius, and Remus.


    "With my authority as an Auror, I order you to drop your wands,"manded James as he wielded his wand at the intruders.


    His mind rapidly worked as he thought about his current location, the door they had entered through, and what this all meant.


    ''They came from Hogwarts!'' thought James and nced at Sirius, who nodded, showing that he understood what was happening.


    The lighting in the room was insufficient because of the boarded-up windows. Only the candle on the floor illuminated the room. So it took a brief moment for one of the ionites to finally notice Remus.


    "A-A W-Werewolf! T-There is a f**king W-Werewolf in here! Shit!" the ionite screamed and pointed his wand straight at Remus.


    And as this was happening, Sirius observed the intruders, and his eyes caught something on the floor. At first, he thought it was a sack, but when he looked carefully, he saw there was a person tied up. And when the person who freaked out seeing Remus moved, he saw the person''s forehead.


    Sirius'' eyes widened to the limit, and he yelled. "James, they have Harry! These bastards kidnapped Harry!"


    "What!" thundered James, while furiously ring at the intruders.


    Rivers, who was standing close to the door, positioned himself near Harry''s bound body. He looked at the three people who weren''t from his group.


    ''James Potter and Sirius ck! What are they doing here?!'' he quickly thought and then looked at the third one. ''And a Werewolf. This isn''t making any sense.''


    Rivers deduced that the Werewolf was on Wolfsbane potion because he wasn''t attacking anyone.


    He flinched when the Werewolf growled at him threateningly with a savage re in his eyes. ''Still very dangerous,'' he thought and started to think of a n.


    ''Three-on-three, I can get out of here. Yes, I can get out here,'' thought Rivers and immediately moved. He swung his wand, and Harry''s bound body flew up.


    Rivers levitated the body of the child that had a small build, of course, one suitable for ying Seeker. He then held it in front of him while pointing his wand at Harry''s neck.


    "No sudden moves, or the Boy-Who-Lived is dead!" threatened Rivers and then addressed his otherpanions. "Point your wands at the three, and immobilize them if any one of them moves as much as a squeak."


    Rivers understood that he had the best possible hostage he could have had in this situation. James Potter and Sirius ck wouldn''t move a single bit as long as he had Harry Potter in his hands. And even though he wasn''t sure about the Werewolf, he could see that it was restrained and cautious.


    "Keep a strong stand. This is for the Dark Lord. We will avenge him today. It''ll be glorious," announced Rivers. He said that to make sure his meat shields were motivated and didn''t surrender. "This moment will go down in the annals of history. We will trump the likes of Lestrange and be his greatest followers."


    And his words seemed to do the work. Of course, he knew they would work. He had selected these three because they were the most fanatic of the followers. They had donated frequently amounts that were surprising given each of their sries.


    Rivers had done his research when he chose them. He knew that they could be manipted with a few words, and given their personalities, they would stay devoted and loyal under situations like the current one.


    "You! You are one of those Novellus ionite shits," snarled Sirius as he gripped his wand tighter but didn''t move because Harry could be in mortal danger.


    "Yes, we are the most devoted followers of the Dark Lord. We are the messengers who will spread his teachings far and wide. We will erase the filth and give rise to True Justice," replied Rivers fanatically.


    The truth was that Rivers didn''t give a shit about Voldemort. Voldemort and his ideology was simply something he used because it would allow to further his goals.


    Rivers Lock had spent his entire life hiding his true personality. He had created Novellus ionites so he could let loose and let his true self y out a bit.


    He wanted to manipte and scheme.


    He craved to influence people in a way that wouldn''t be seen as the norm to society.


    Rivers Lock wanted to spread chaos among the people who tied themselves in fake notions of morals andws. He wished to disrupt the norm and spread the seed of turmoil, discord, and disorder.


    To do that, he neededborers who would help him out. He needed people who would be his pawns and do his bidding while he sat back and watched.


    So he used something that would give him the quickest and most results. He used the influence of the now-dead Dark Lord. Appealing the young and brash. Calling out to their fake superiority, fanning their pureblood egos to make them believe that they were doing something of great importance.


    In actuality, Rivers was a man of wisdom, intelligence and intellect. He didn''t believe in pureblood supremacy and would spit on it if it didn''t put him at a disadvantage.


    He only believed in one power, and that was intelligence. Rivers believed that if one had sufficient intellect, they could take down anyone. If you were unrivaled in terms of brainpower, even the strongest wizards and witches wouldn''t do anything but submit.


    And Rivers had proved it by controlling many people without ever putting himself in the sights of authorities.


    Rivers Lock only wanted one thing.


    He wanted to see the world burn and look down at it burning like a god hidden in the shadows while controlling everything and everybody.


    This situation wasn''t great, but Rivers wasn''t going to let himself fail here.


    He had Harry Potter, the savior of the Wizarding World, in his hands.


    The death of the Boy-Who-Lived would sow enough chaos to satisfy Rivers'' soul.


    ''I''m the smartest man in the room. I can get out of here unharmed.''


    "Cover me, we''re going to get out of here andplete our mission," ordered Rivers while moving behind his three meatshields.


    The Marauders couldn''t do anything with Harry being held hostage. All three men would''ve thought better if the hostage hadn''t been Harry, but right now, all three were drawing a nk in worry.


    As River''s group moved towards the door that led out of the room towards the main entrance of the shack, it suddenly opened up.


    Every single person immediately tensed up and looked at the door.


    "Oh."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn opened the door of the room that had the entrance to the passage. And, oh, boy, he wasn''t expecting what was waiting inside.


    He stared at seven people and...


    ''Is that Harry Potter?''


    One bound and unconscious Harry Potter being used as what seemed to be a hostage.


    Quinn almost did a double-take when he saw a Werewolf in the room.


    ''Oh, for magic''s sake! Today''s a full moon?!'' he eximed in his mind and knew this was Remus Lupin in his Lycan form. ''What the hell is he doing here?! Shouldn''t he be in his residence sleeping!?''


    Quinn had monitored Remus on a few full moon nights. Remus, who had been getting his Wolfsbane potion, didn''te to Shrieking Shack. He had enough control to just sleep in his residence inside Hogwarts.


    Then he looked at James Potter and Sirius ck and pieced together that these two were the reason for Remus'' sudden change of location.


    And finally, Quinn looked at four people who were in the middle of the room.


    ''Woah, they''ve kidnapped Harry. Now that''s more than anyone has ever aplished,'' thought Quinn. ''They''re the Novellus ionites. Yup, I''m pretty sure they are.''


    He thought all of this within a few seconds, and after Quinn was done with specting and observing, he said.


    "Oh."


    Quinn didn''t remove his left hand from the doorknob and raised his right hand to point a thumb back.


    "... Excuse me? I feel like I''m interrupting something important. How about I leave you to your... thing here and let you continue? Yes, I''ll do that," said Quinn and very slowly stepped back and tried to close the door.


    Trying to get out of the ce so it won''t turn into a Mexican standoff.


    "Don''t close that door! Kid, if you don''t want to get hurt, I suggest that you do whatever I ask you to do," yelled Rivers, who stopped Quinn from closing the door.


    Rivers was slowly getting frustrated. This situation was already tough, but now, some kid had strolled into the situation and made things a little moreplicated.


    ''Just how many people know about this secret passage,'' thought Rivers furiously.


    The matchup was four-on-three, and he couldn''t let it turn into four-on-four, so he tried to intimidate Quinn.


    "You see who I''m holding? This is Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. If you don''t do as I say, I''m going to blow up his brains. You don''t want to be the person who let the Boy-Who-Lived die, do you?" said Rivers, trying to make sure Quinn didn''t make any erratic moves.


    "See the man on the left? He''s James Potter, the father of Harry Potter. If you don''t do as I saw, I will kill his son, and he will me you. You''ll let his precious son die. Let me tell you something. James Potter here is a Senior Auror and has a seat on Wizengamot, and that makes him a powerful man. He can ruin your family and put you in Azkaban, and you don''t want that, do you?"


    Quinn shook his head in response.


    ''There''s no way in hell he could do that. If I was arrested, I''d be out before they could even think of harming me.''


    George West would tear down the ministry walls if he ever heard that his grandson was under arrest. The richest man in the country and probably the magical world would bring down hell if he heard a word about putting Quinn in Azkaban.


    If Death Eaters were able to bribe their way out, George could do much, much more. Not only would George get Quinn out, but he would also cause massive problems for anyone involved. George would put so much pressure on the ministry higher-ups that they would have no choice but to tread very, very lightly, because their future would very well depend on their next decisions.


    Sure, James Potter was politically powerful, but George West was on another level. James Potter could gather the support of the Light faction, but George West could buy out the Grey and Dark factions and even get his hands on some of the Light faction.


    But of course, Rivers didn''t know that the random kid he was threatening had such a background.


    And Quinn wasn''t about to whip his background out. It wasn''t time for that. He had different ns for the current situation.


    When Quinn shook his head, Rivers internally smiled and said, ""Now back off and move to the side with your hands raised above your head. I don''t want you reaching for your wand."


    Quinn raised his hands above his head and walked back as instructed, moving sideways, out of the view of everyone but Rivers. He showedpletepliance.


    Rivers nodded and slowly moved forward towards the open door while his grunts covered him.


    Quinn stared at Rivers with a silent gaze and waited for an opportunity.


    ''Just a little more and it will be the time.''


    They were still behind the threshold of the door the moment Rivers got out of the room, as his grunts were still behind and bunched up.


    ''It''s time,'' thought Quinn.


    Suddenly the wand in Rivers'' hands went flying. Right after, the door snapped closed.


    Quinn lowered his hand and ran towards Rivers. He used magic to pull on Harry''s binding to separate him from Rivers.


    Rivers became too stunned-sh-shocked at the sudden change of events. He couldn''t help but look to his side just to feel a kick nted in his stomach.


    The force of the kick knocked the air out of him, and he immediately knelt. The next second, he once again felt a kick, this time in his chest, and it made him lie on the ground.


    Suffering from panic, he looked through his shaky vision and saw Quinn as he descended on top of him. Then he felt his arms being trapped under Quinn''s knees.


    "This will hurt, so brace yourself," said Quinn and raised his fist and brought it down onto Rivers'' face.


    The solid fist impacted Rivers'' jaw and cheeks, making a sickening sound.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    As soon as the door closed, the Marauders took action.


    They raised their wands and shot spells on the ionite grunts.


    The grunts were surprised to see their path cut off, and in thatpse of concentration and focus, they were hit with spells. It was over for them.


    The Aurors and the lycanthrope stunned and bound their opponents within seconds while using extra power just to make sure they wouldn''t be waking anytime soon.


    The second the grunts'' wands were retrieved, the three men ran towards the door, but when they opened the closed door, they were greeted with a shocking sight.


    In front of them was Harry''s unconscious body. James immediately moved towards his son to check upon him.


    And on the side, Sirius and Remus saw the kid that had barged in standing up on top of the Novellus ionite who led the others.


    It shocked them to see him raining punches on the ionite''s face.


    Then they heard him speak,


    "Dammit! My knuckles hurt! Oh, Rowena, I haven''t punched anyone without gloves before and it hurts."


    They saw as the kid looked down. He then shrugged his shoulders and elbowed the ionite in the face.


    Sirius moved to stop the kid, but the kid stopped on his own and stood up.


    Sirius, who was closer to the kind, saw the bloodied face of the ionite. And from the looks of it, he waspletely and totally out.


    Sirius looked up and saw that the teenager was facing him. He was scrunching his face and raised his hands to look at them.


    "I think I injured my hands. This really hurt. I definitely need to go to Madam Pomfrey. They don''t look well."


    The tense situation inside the Shrieking Shack hade to a sudden and dramatic end.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I think I fractured my knuckles! Shit, it hurts!


    Rivers Lock - Wants chaos - Broken face and knocked out.


    James Potter - Auror, Off-duty, Tipsy - Has been married for a long time.


    Sirius ck - Auror, Off-duty, Tipsier - Have to collect the booze, first.


    Remus Lupin - Lycanthrope, Werewolf - What the hell! What the hell! What the hell!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 114 - Potter’s Thoughts And Time Before Meeting

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I think I injured my hands. This really hurts. I definitely need to go to Madam Pomfrey. They don''t look well," said Quinn with his arms raised in front of him and his hands hung limply from below the wrist area.


    "Who are you?" asked Sirius ck, while moving his eyes from Quinn to the bloodied face and back to Quinn. "And what are you doing here?"


    Quinn weaved magic into his hands and numbed the pain. He didn''t attempt to heal his battered-up hands and only stuck to eliminating the pain from his injured knuckles and wrist.


    "Oh, I''m Quinn West, a fourth-year student at Hogwarts," introduced Quinn while scrunching up his face to portray that he was feeling pain.


    He then focused on the Werewolf in the room and said, "Professor Lupin might know me from his sses."


    Sirius, Remus, and even James, who was checking up on his son, widened their eyes when they heard Quinn address Remus in his Werewolf form as Professor Lupin.


    "What are you talking about?" uttered Sirius, while trying to separate Remus Lupin from the Werewolf that stood beside him.


    "Oh, please. I already know that Professor Lupin is a werewolf," scoffed Quinn and turned his head to look at the Lycanthrope. "The signs were all there; he disappeared for a few days because of weak health and the absence period was always after the full moon."


    Quinn then brought in the statement that would close this line of conversation.


    "Professor Snape tried really hard to point out that Professor Lupin is a Werewolf. The preparation he did for the Werewolf revision lesson was outstanding. For once, he waspletely involved in teaching. He even asked if anyone of us had doubts," shrugged Quinn and then finished with a smile. "It was an unusual yet fascinating day. It made me think that people can aplish anything if they put their hearts into it."


    "What! That snake did that?!" eximed Sirius, his hands tightening into fists at the thought of Snape trying to out his friend. "I''ll st him when I see that twat!"


    Werewolf-Remus put his hairy paw on Sirius to wind his friend down.


    After calming down, Sirius continued the conversation.


    "If you knew, why didn''t you tell anyone," he paused and then slowly asked. "... Did you tell anyone?"


    "I didn''t tell anyone. When I realized that Professor Lupin was a Werewolf, I gave it a thought. Then I realized that if Professor was allowed to work here, then he must''ve been provided a supply of Wolfsbane," said Quinn, and then nced at Remus. "From the looks of it, he''s on the Wolfsbane. Or else, he would''ve already tried to bite me."


    Werewolves, when transformed, had the instinct to bite anyone they could get their paws on. The average Werewolf didn''t aim to kill; their wild instincts knew that the only way to continue their race was to turn other people into Werewolves, so the damage that a Werewolf would do was a few bites.


    Sometimes, the bites would be at some of the body''s vital spots, and the victim could die because of blood loss and shock. Of course, there were exceptions like Fenrir Greyback, who had that innate desire to kill and ughter at times.


    "Aren''t you scared?" asked Sirius.


    Sirius knew from experience that Werewolves were proper people and not monsters. He knew better than anyone that, even though Werewolves were dangerous, a lot of them tried hard to live normally and had hopes and dreams like everyone else.


    But he asked because there was always a risk. He still asked, even with Remus right beside him. And Remus didn''t mind because he understood where the question wasing from and was curious about Quinn''s answer.


    "Scared? No. I was cautious, not scared. I prepared myself and made sure that if one day Professor Lupin stood in front of me in his current form, I''d be ready," smiled Quinn as he unveiled his magic prep. " I know the Homorphus Charm and have practiced it a lot to get it down on my fingertips."


    The Homorphus Charm was a charm used to temporarily change a transformed werewolf back into their human form. It would forcibly turn back the transformation and would revert the Werewolf into a human. Quite valuable for stopping a werewolf in its tracks.


    In the room''s darkness, Quinn''s expression wasn''t clearly visible. But Quinn was looking at Werewolf-Remus as he was a test subject.


    He was thinking about how the spell would work against a Werewolf. Because the spell only temporarily reverted the transformation, the Lycan transformation woulde back very shortly. But that small window was enough to incapacitate the Werewolf.


    However, Quinn''s usage was a tad bit too powerful than your average user. His spell''s effects would linger instead of ending after a bit. And that would cause a tussle between the Lycan transformation and Quinn''s magic.


    Even though Quinn hadn''t tested it out against a real Werewolf, he, at some level, was sure that the tussle between the transformation and his magic would be very painful for the target. Two opposing forces trying to forcibly change a person''s body wasn''t optimal, and it would, in normal circumstances, cause immense pain.


    As Quinn finished his thinking, James spoke for the first time and informed everybody of Harry''s condition.


    "Harry''s fine. He''s just knocked out. I checked for the basic signs, but we should send him to Madam Pomfrey just to be sure," informed James with his eyes still on his son.


    "Alright, then let''s divide the tasks," nodded Sirius and looked at everyone in the room. "I will take these shits to Holdings and see if I can get something worthwhile out of them. James, you take Harry, and... Quinn to Madam Pomfrey and inform Dumbledore of what happened here. Remus, you stay here. I know this isn''t good for your body, so take a rest and go to sleep."


    Sirius took the lead and assigned everyone their tasks, all the conscious people nodded in consent and understanding.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    James Potter, with Harry Potter on his back, walked with Quinn. They made their way through the secret tunnel that connected Shrieking Shack and Whomping Willow tree.


    Harry was still unconscious while Quinn''s hands were still injured. Sirius and James had tried to offer to cast Healing spells on him, but Quinn had politely refused and said that he could wait for Poppy, the Medi-healer, to take a look at them.


    "Why do you know about this passage?" initiated James to fill the very silent underground passage with conversation.


    "Hmm? Oh, I found it a few years back when I tried to get a good look at the Whomping Willow. Saw it when I finally figured out that I needed to shoot a pocking hex at the knot at the base of the tree to make it calm down."


    The Whomping Willow would attack anyone who woulde closer, but if you pressed the knot at the base of its trunk, the magical tree would calm down for a while.


    Pomona Sprout used this method when she needed to check if the Whomping Willow was healthy, and so did Quinn when he needed to use the secret passage.


    "I know that, too," smiled James as he reminisced about theter of his school years when the Marauders would sneak in after Remus to keep himpany.


    The elder Potter nced at Quinn while wondering whether he should say it or not. He, then, decided to say it.


    "Quinn, about the thing that person said about me doing those things to you and your family," said James carefully. "None of those words hold any truth. I would never do any of that. Those actions wouldn''t be ethical, and no matter what could''ve happened back there, I would have never med you for any of it."


    James wanted to erase the thought that Aurors would take advantage of their position. Aurors were the people who withheld justice, and he wanted to make sure that a child around the same as his son wouldn''t build a negative image.


    "Don''t worry about it. I actually don''t care about the threat," smiled Quinn. "Even if things went south and you developed a grudge. I wouldn''t be worried if you tried to do what that man said."


    "You wouldn''t?" questioned James confusedly.


    "Not at all. I''m a West," smirked Quinn. "If you tried to do things that you describe as hical, you wouldn''t be able to move a finger. I would''ve been out of your reach before you could''ve even thought about what to do."


    When Quinn mentioned hisst name, James finally recalled Quinn''s full name, and then it hit him what Quinn was trying to say.


    "West, as in George West?" asked James, his eyes widening.


    He had only met George West a couple of times. He didn''t know the man personally. But he knew who George West was. His work at Wizengamot and in the political circle made sure that he knew of the man who held a substantial amount of influence in every social and professional circle.


    James also knew that his parents knew George West. He sparsely recalled that his parents had been invited to dinner with George West a few times and had a business rtionship with the head of the West business empire.


    "Yes, West as in George West. He''s my grandfather," confirmed Quinn, and that was why he wasn''t worried. As long as Quinn didn''t do anything wildly illegal or wrong, he would be fine.


    James was still surprised that Quinn was the grandson of George West, but then it dawned on him how dangerous things could''ve turned out.


    ''What would''ve happened if he had got severely injured or harmed? What if he had died?'' thought James in mild horror.


    He could almost imagine what George West would''ve done when he found that his only grandson had been involved in a potentially dangerous situation. James was sure that his life would have been terribly difficult for a long time.


    James looked at Quinn''s hands and nervously thought, ''He won''t make a big deal about this, right? He did that to himself on his own and isn''t very bothered about it. So we are good, right¡­? Right?''


    While James was thinking about if he was in trouble, Quinn was silently thinking about what would happen when they reached Hogwarts.


    ''I need to handle this carefully. There will be only one chance for me to work with,'' thought Quinn. He saw the end of the tunnel. ''Let''s hope he won''te out and stay inside.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn and James, along with the unconscious Harry, entered the hospital wing.


    "Madam Pomfrey! I am here to visit~!" called out Quinn with a chipper voice.


    Both James and Quinn heard a sigh from the inside, and it brought a smile to Quinn''s face.


    "Quinn, it''s almost dinner time. Why are you here right now?"


    James and Quinn saw the Matron walk out from her office.


    "What do you want to ask that couldn''t wait-" sighed Poppy as she walked out while straightening a crease on her clothes, but when she looked up, she saw that it wasn''t just Quinn.


    "James Potter? What are you doing here?" asked Poppy. She saw the former student and now Auror standing there beside Quinn, and, then, she saw Harry in his arms. "Is this Harry Potter? Merlin, what happened to him?"


    She walked forward and towards a bed that was beside the three.


    "What are you standing there for? Lay the boy down on the bed."


    James moved as instructed and gingerlyy his son on the bed.


    "Did you check up on him?" asked Poppy as she diagnosed Harry.


    "I did. Harry is knocked out. He was dropped to the ground. I think he has a concussion on his head," nodded James as he replied.


    "Huh?" Poppy looked up from Harry at James. "I was talking to Quinn. But, yes, you are an Auror, so I guess you have some elementary healing skills."


    James looked at Quinn with confusion.


    "I was in a bit of a pinch, Madam Pomfrey. I couldn''t concentrate with the pain," smiled Quinn.


    "Pain?" Poppy once again looked at Harry and saw Quinn raise his arms and show his hands. Quinn''s hands had swollen from below the wrist, and the knuckles had turned green and purple.


    "What really happened to the both of you?!" asked Poppy, shocked.


    Quinn would''ve waved his hands if they weren''t hurt, but he assured, "Oh, it''s nothing. I just punched a man and, well, this happened. If you''re concerned, then that man was more injured than I am. In any case, all''s well when it ends well."


    "I wasn''t concerned about that," sighed Poppy in exasperation. "Show me those hands."


    Poppy looked at Quinn''s hands and pulled out her wand to cast healing spells on the bones and swollen areas. The fractures in the bones started to knit back while the swelling began to subside as the color in Quinn''s hand returned to normal.


    "Wait for a while, and they''ll be good as new. Even stronger than before," said Poppy before turning to James. "Your son is fine. He will be up in a few hours. I could wake him up now, but let him wake up on his own."


    James breathed a sigh of relief at the assurance of the healer.


    "Good, then I''ll go find McGonagall. She''ll take me to Dumbledore. I need to talk to him," said James.


    "I see. Wait for a second," stopped Poppy and then called out. "Tipsy!"


    A Hogwarts house-elf appeared in the hospital wing after a pop.


    "What can Tipsy do for Healydy Poppy?" said the house-elf in her squeaky voice and looked at Poppy with her big eyes.


    "Tipsy, where''s Professor McGonagall?" asked Poppy.


    The house-elf tilted her head and spoke after a short silence, "Proffy Cat be in her office."


    Poppy turned to James and said, "You heard her. Minerva is in her office. You remember where her office is, right?"


    James nodded, and after saying a short thank you, he left the hospital wing to find the Scottish Professor.


    After James left, Poppy turned to Quinn.


    "You''re staying here till your hands are healed; don''t even think of leaving before I give you my consent," warned Poppy as her eyes narrowed.


    "Madam Pomfrey, have you ever seen me trying to leave yourpany early? I''ll stay with you as long as you desire," grinned Quinn.


    "I still don''t know what happened. How did you get injured? And what about the person who you punched? Where is he? Doesn''t he need medical attention? And why was an Auror here at Hogwarts?" rapid fired Poppy, adamant about knowing what was happening.


    Quinn slightly smiled and narrated the events from his point of view, emphasizing his heroics that saved the day.


    "... Thus, a visit to Hogsmeade turned into an adventure where I saved the Boy-Who-Lived and the Aurors from the ionites. Not bad for a day''s work, right?" beamed Quinn.


    Poppy stared at Quinn with her mouth slightly open and then smacked him on the back of his head.


    "Why?!" eximed Quinn, not expecting the sudden beating.


    "You-you knew about Remus being a Werewolf," fumed Poppy. "You were messing with me that day when you brought up Werewolves! Do you know how scared I was?!"


    "Oh," uttered Quinn, and then a smile bloomed on his face. "Yeah, that was fun. I loved the tea. We should do it again soon, how about next Thursday? How does that sound?"


    Poppy raised her hand for another smack, but Quinn dodged it with a grin on his face.


    "So you don''t mind that Remus Lupin is a Werewolf?"


    "I don''t mind. As long as I or anyone else isn''t bitten without their consent," spoke Quinn. "Lycanthropy is a disease. I don''t me people who have it. As long as they don''t try to spread it, I couldn''t care less if they are Werewolves."


    "Without their consent?" asked Poppy with a tiny bit of confusion.


    "Yeah, people are stupid. If they went near a Werewolf during a full moon intending to get bitten. I wouldn''t me the Werewolf. Their instinctsmand them to bite. You can''t me someone for what they can''t control."


    After talking to Poppy, Quinn sat down on a bed and closed his eyes. He needed to concentrate. He needed to be prepared for what was about toe.


    There were two possibilities, and Quinn needed to simte how they would unfold.


    ''That''s difficult given the fact that I haven''t talked to him,'' thought Quinn.


    He hade to the hospital wing so that if the first possibility unfolded he would have an audience, which would restrict any possible foul y.


    And if the second possibility came to happen, then Quinn would need to be in a ce where he would have the chance to gain back up.


    ''It depends on who will be the messenger. If they are good, I''ll have a chance to exin it in-depth, otherwise, if they aren''t, I can still get the message across, but it''ll have to be short,'' thought Quinn as he kept thinking about how things would unfold.


    Both possibilities had their own pros and cons.


    What Quinn needed was to think about how to maximize the pros and minimize the cons.


    "Mr. West, you have gotten yourself involved in something big, haven''t you?"


    Quinn opened his eyes and saw his Head of House standing there, arms crossed, looking up at him.


    "Professor Flitwick. I hope I''m not in trouble," smiled Quinn, and at the same time, he thought, ''what will happen, though?''


    "You''re in trouble, Mr. West. You''re going to be in detention," sighed Flitwick. "Now, if you are healed, let''s go. The headmaster has called you to his office."


    ''The second one, it is,'' thought Quinn.


    The first meeting between Quinn West and Albus Dumbledore was ahead.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Oh boy, let''s go meet the old man in the tower."


    James Potter - Auror, Wizengamot member - Still worried if he is in trouble.


    Poppy Pomfrey - Matron, Med-healer - This kid is too much trouble.


    George West - Grandfather - I don''t need to be in the chapter to flex.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 115 - Preparations And Warm-Up

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn and Filius exited the hospital wing after Quinn''s hands had healed enough. Poppy had bandaged them up and told Quinn not to move them. She finally told him to return after he was done toplete his recovery.


    "Professor, would it be alright if we take a detour?" requested Quinn to the diminutive goblin at his side. "I would like to change out of these clothes."


    Quinn straightened his clothes to show that the front of his shirt was stained in blood. The bloodstains were from when Quinn had wiped his knuckles that had the ionites'' blood on them with his shirt.


    "I wouldn''t feelfortable when I have blood on my clothes. Especially when I am about to visit the Headmaster."


    Filius looked at and saw that Quinn''s clothes were indeed stained with blood.


    "If you want, Mr. West, I can vanish that blood off your shirt," offered Filius, knowing that it wouldn''t be good for a child to walk around with blood on his clothes.


    "I appreciate the offer, Professor, but I would like to change these out. Even if these clothes were cleaned of the blood, I''ll still be ufortable in them," replied Quinn.


    Filius nodded and epted Quinn''s request, "If that is so, then we can take a detour to change your clothes. I''m sure that the Headmaster won''t mind."


    ''Excellent, he is indeed a good messenger,'' thought Quinn. He felt positive that things would end up without anyplications.


    Quinn and Filius climbed up to the fifth floor, but then, Quinn turned to the opposite direction from the Ravenw dorms. Filius asked, "Where are you going, Mr. West?"


    "To the A.I.D. ssroom, Professor. I have a set of clothes there," answered Quinn. "I don''t want to go to the dorms and worry my friends."


    "I understand, Mr. West. Let''s proceed to your office, then" nodded Filius, empathizing with Quinn.


    Quinn and Filius walked to the A.I.D. office and Quinn invited his Head of House inside.


    "Professor, please, make yourselffortable. I''ll change my clothes, and we''ll be off in no time," said Quinn. He aimed his hand at the client chairs while he unlocked the workshop door and entered inside.


    He closed the door behind him and immediately started to move quickly.


    ''I don''t have much time. Let''s get everything over with quickly,'' thought Quinn, a few things moved in the workshop.


    One of the drawers opened, and a few sheets of paper flew out from the ream of paper inside. From the same drawer, a fountain pen flew out after the sheet of paper.


    On the other side of the workshop, a cab opened, and from inside came a white short-sleeved t-shirt, a grey-and-white dynamic work jacket, and red-grey-ck work trousers.


    As Quinn started to change his clothes, the fountain pen uncapped and glided across the page. It penned the words Quinn wanted.


    By the time Quinn was done dressing up, the pen had penned two-and-a-half pages of words.


    The pages flew towards a side of the room, and after two glows of light, Quinn exited the workshop. His work was done.


    "Let''s go, Professor. I''m ready," said Quinn, dressed in new clothes. His jacket wasn''t zipped up, so the white t-shirt he was wearing inside could be seen.


    Filius saw Quinn dressed up in new clothes and nodded before he hopped out of his chair.


    "Excellent. Let''s go, Mr. West."


    As the two exited the office, Filius couldn''t help but ask, "What are you using to light up the room, Mr. West. I was surprised to see no candles in the room."


    "I knew you would ask about them, Professor,"ughed Quinn. "I used rune applications on metal tings designed to work as light sources. I used the basic Lumos spell as a base inspiration and then worked up from there. I had to specify the dispersion, color tone, warmth, and intensity. The resulting rune cluster was what you saw up there."


    Quinn had already thought of pitching his light-rune designs in the summer break to his grandfather and Lia. This was another thing that could bring a revolution in the existing industry and could rece the standard evesting (longsting) candles that were used everywhere.


    Flitwick looked at his smiling student and asked, "Why are you smiling, Mr. West? From what I''ve told you, you are in trouble."


    He was a little concerned because Quinn wasn''t showing any of the signs that would be visible after what had transpired. Quinn was cavalier and engaging instead of silent and shocked.


    "I''m alright, Professor. I understand the situation I was in and how things could have turned out if things had gone differently. If you are thinking why I am so casual about the situation," said Quinn as the smile drained from his face. "This is my attempt at self-preservation through disassociation. I''m detaching myself from the situation by acting like it''s nothing serious. I wanted to change clothes because they made me think that blood could very easily have been mine."


    Quinn sneakily nced at Filius to see if his lie worked. From the moment Quinn had opened the door, he hadn''t been scared in the least. He had assessed the situation and made sure to secure his safety before taking any action.


    All of them would find that Quinn''s behavior was consistent throughout the ordeal, as from the very first words in which Quinn had joked about disturbing the conversation between the ionites and Marauders to him acting goofily with Poppy he had acted in a simr way.


    "... I see, Mr. West," said Filius after a pause. "Please be assured that those people will be brought to justice, and the faculty will do its best to improve security. I personally will make sure that none of my students are harmed."


    "Thank you for your kind words, Professor. They mean a lot," smiled Quinn. He chuckled as he continued. "I''m guessing that the Shrieking Shack passage will be closed down."


    "Definitely, Mr. West," smiled Filius. "No more outside castle visits for you."


    "Aw, that''sme!"ughed Quinn, not worried about it because he knew many more passageways that would allow him to sneak out of the castle.


    As the student and Professor continued to talk, the pair arrived at the Headmaster''s office.


    ''Alright, let''s see how this goes,'' thought Quinn as Filius said the password. The entrance opened.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Lily and Ivy Potter practically rushed to the hospital wing. They had been told that Harry hade close to being kidnapped by the terrorist group called Novellus ionites, who had infiltrated Hogwarts and had captured Harry in broad daylight.


    They were semi-relieved to hear that the attempt was thwarted because the Marauders had been partying in the Shrieking Shack.


    When they heard that Harry was resting at the hospital, both mother and sister ran to see Harry.


    Inside the hospital wing, they saw Poppy tending a sleeping Harry while casting some spells at Harry''s head.


    "Poppy, how is he?" asked Lily, her eyes stuck to her son.


    Poppy turned to her colleague and gave her the same answer that she had given the father.


    "He hit his head on the ground. Other than that, he is fine. He''s sleeping and will wake up in a while."


    She waved her wand, and two barstools came gliding for Lily and Ivy to sit down.


    "This was close, wasn''t it?" said Poppy as she herself took a seat. "To think they used the tunnel made for Remus. I used to guide him to that house every month when he was still a student here."


    Everything from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack, including the passage that joined the two, had been added after Remus Lupin had sent back the reply in which he said he would be attending Hogwarts.


    The school had added thesendmarks to ensure that Remus could go through his lycanthrope transformation in istion and continue to study at the school with no one knowing about his condition.


    Every evening, Poppy would guide the then-teenager Remus to the Shrieking Shack. The house had beenmissioned by the school and got its name because, in the absence of Wolfsbane potion, Remus would bite and scratch himself due to ack of humans to infect.


    Albus Dumbledore encouraged the rumors about the house being haunted because they would keep people from approaching the building, making it a safe haven for Remus to go through his monthly transformation.


    "James, Sirius, and Remus were lucky to be there. To think Remus''s condition would help thwart the attempt," sighed Lily as she ran a hand through Harry''s hair.


    "They were indeed lucky," Poppy, too, sighed. "To think not only those three were at the shack for Remus, but the kidnappers also used the same route¡­ and finally Quinn also used the same passage."


    Lily and Ivy both looked up at the Matron, who was shaking her head at her semi apprentice''s antics.


    "... Quinn?" asked Ivy, surprised to hear that name in the current situation.


    "Yes, apparently that child had been sneaking in-and-out of the castle to visit Hogsmeade outside of the Hogsmeade weekend. He used that passage as his sneak route. Today, after he was returning from Hogsmeade, he chanced upon the tense situation and saw wands pointed from both parties."


    "How''s he?" asked Lily with wide eyes, looking around to see if Quinn was lying on another bed.


    "He''s fine. Filius took him to meet the Headmaster. Quinn punched the man who was holding Harry hostage," sighed Poppy, thinking about Quinn''s hands. "That child''s hands were in bad shape. He, a fourteen-year-old, hit an adult enough times to draw blood and break his bones. Despite this, he smiled the entire time."


    A fourteen-year-old wasn''t developed enough and had low strength. Poppy realized that, and when Quinn told her that he broke the man''s jaw, she imagined from checking Quinn''s hands how many times Quinn had to punch to break a person''s face.


    Quinn''s knuckles would''ve been injured way before aplishing what he had. So Poppy realized that Quinn had ignored the pain and had kept hitting.


    While Poppy was thinking about Quinn, Ivy, too, was thinking about him.


    She couldn''t believe that Quinn had once again saved Harry from another dangerous situation. Ivy had just managed to put aside the thoughts about Quinn''s slip about the Chamber of Secrets, but now this happened, and she again thought about Quinn.


    From her very first year, Quinn West had been a part of her school life one way or another. He would always be connected to the bizarre and wild incidents that happened to her and her friends.


    In the first year, he had warned them about the Philosopher''s stone''s chambers, and she was sure that he had been inside those chambers.


    In the second year, he had caught her trying to sneak into Slytherin''smon room; he had told them about the Basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets and saved them from the monster inside the chamber. He had found things before anyone else and seemed to know everything about what was happening.


    In her third year, he had made Hermione take him to the past because he wanted to save himself by creating a time travel loop. How did he get injured? She still doesn''t know because Quinn was somehow able to avoid that entire line of questioning. Then she saw Quinn produce the biggest Patronus she had ever seen.


    She thought that those few hourspleted the yearly quota of interaction with Quinn West, but now that she heard this, Ivy realized she was wrong. He had saved her brother and had gotten injured while doing it.


    Ivy remained silent in her thoughts as Lily and Poppy continued to talk about the incident that took ce today.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn walked inside the Headmaster''s office and he had to say that Dumbledore''s office was interesting, to say the least.


    It was arge and beautiful circr room, full of funny little noises. Several curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables. They whirred and emitted little puffs of smoke. Portraits of old Headmasters and Headmistresses, some gently snoozing, covered the walls of the office. Every headmaster (or headmistress) had their names and their period of tenure on their frames. He also saw an enormous, w-footed desk and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tattered wizard''s hat¡ª the Sorting Hat.


    Quinn''s eyes were also attracted to the shelves-after-shelves of old tomes and books that graced a knowledgeable presence to the Headmaster''s chaotic office. If Quinn had been left here with no supervision, he would''ve definitely opened every book and read through every page.


    As Quinn walked in, he looked over his shoulder and saw a golden perch beside the room''s entrance. Quinn identified the golden perch as the Phoenix''s resting ce.


    After taking in the interior of the Headmaster''s office, Quinn nodded in satisfaction.


    "Mr. West, would you like to share your thoughts with us?"


    Quinn looked to his front and saw Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, d in purple robes with stars, sitting behind his desk. He was looking at him through the half-moon sses with a smile on his face.


    "Certainly, Headmaster. I was thinking that, after observing your office''s interior, my office on the fifth-floor is better," a rxed smile on his face as he spoke.


    A chuckle came from the right, and a deep hum from the left came in response as James Potter chuckled and Severus Snape looked at Quinn warningly.


    "Is that so? It saddens me a little to hear that. I have put in a lot of work to make my office unique and fun." The owner of the office smiled through his beard. "I even had to suffer from the nagging of the previous owners for years before they settled down."


    Dumbledore roamed his eyes at the sleeping portraits of previous Headmasters and Headmistresses who upied this office before him.


    "I''m not saying that your office isn''t unique and fun, Headmaster. I agree with you. Your office has a charm that sets it apart from others. It''s just that mine is better," smiled Quinn.


    Dumbledore smiled and then looked at the other three men in the room.


    "James, Severus, Filius. You three can leave. James, you should join your family down in the hospital wing. My dear professors, it''s almost dinnertime, I''m sure you all are hungry. Please, proceed to the Great Hall," said Dumbledore before turning Quinn. "Mr. West and I will have a short talk before joining you at the Great Hall."


    James Potter and Severus Snape walked past Quinn. Both had different thoughts in their minds.


    James was thankful to Quinn for knocking out the ionite, who was about to get away with his son. If Quinn hadn''t interfered, James didn''t know what he would be doing now. He wasn''t sure where his son would be or if he would even be safe.


    Snape looked both pleased and conflicted. He was pleased that his attempt to convey that Remus Lupin was a Werewolf was sessful because, from what James had said, Quinn already knew about it and had understood what he was trying to do. Snape was conflicted because Quinn hadn''t outed Remus as a Werewolf to the school or family.


    Their eyes met and they immediately became hostile towards each other. Before Quinn had entered the office, they had been exchanging taunts to each other. They only stopped because Dumbledore scolded them both.


    Filius tagged along with his former students, so the three men exited the Headmaster''s office. They left behind Quinn and Dumbledore in the office.


    "Please take a seat, Mr. West," said Dumbledore, and with a wave of his hand, a chair was pulled back for Quinn.


    "Thank you, Headmaster," said Quinn as he sat down.


    "You can call me Professor like your other teachers, Mr. West," said Dumbledore as Quinn made himselffortable.


    "You are the head of the school, Headmaster. I like to use the proper title when I address people," smiled Quinn. "Maybe if you teach the Alchemy ss in my sixth and seventh year, I''ll call you professor."


    Dumbledore looked interested at the mention of Alchemy. He asked with his eyes shining with interest.


    "You are interested in Alchemy, Mr. West? I haven''t seen many students who are interested in Alchemy. Theck of interested students is the reason we have to cancel the Alchemy subject every year."


    "Alchemy is magic, Headmaster. I''m interested in anything that is magic," stated Quinn as if he was stating a universal fact.


    "Your grades certainly show that. They are truly impressive, Mr. West," said Dumbledore as he turned parchments on his desk. "Other than Potions and History of Magic. You have scored more than a hundred percent in every exam of every subject in your four years at Hogwarts. Even in the two mentioned subjects, you haven''t once scored anything less than an Outstanding."


    Quinn shrugged and smiled, "I do well in ss, Headmaster. It''s what I like to do."


    Dumbledore continued to turn parchments, stopped at a certain parchment, and said.


    "Your establishment of an office on the fifth-floor, allowed by Filius. You''ve called it the A.I.D., and if I recall correctly, it has been a huge sess. The notes that you release every year have been a great sess; even though I haven''t read them, the faculty have told me that they are excellent. You have been known to create interesting knick-knacks that see great sales, and interestingly, none of them have been banned by our caretaker, something that I consider a big aplishment. The A.I.D. has be popr for helping other students which is another great and unique aplishment."


    "Tell me, Mr. West. Why did you start this initiative of yours?" asked Dumbledore, curious about the birth of the A.I.D. He hadn''t seen something like this in Hogwarts before.


    Usually, Prefects, Headboys, and Headgirls would be the students who helped the other students. If they couldn''t solve the problem, they would go to the Professors. But ever since A.I.D. had opened up in Hogwarts, there had been a steady increase of students relying on Quinn to help them.


    In one of the faculty meetings this year, the faculty had noted that they had seen a dive in the number of younger studentsing to them for help. They connected it to the presence and ever-growing poprity of A.I.D. Every year the A.I.D. would gain a new batch of students.


    After the professors exchanged their experiences, they realized that the A.I.D. had been equally popr in every house: no student, regardless of their house, had ever turned away from the door of A.I.D. If they had a problem, A.I.D was the space.


    Pureblood students who had a strong sense of blood supremacy used A.I.D''s services because Quinn was a pureblood himself. Muggleborn students, who were on the opposite side of the spectrum, didn''t shy away from the A.I.D. because it was a ce that would exin anything they wanted to know about the new and unknown magical world.


    The A.I.D. was an establishment that reached every type of student present in Hogwarts.


    Dumbledore, who got informed about what was happening in the school from the faculty meeting, became impressed and curious about the A.I.D. and how it was able to rise up to this point in only three years.


    "Hmm, originally, I wanted to do something different. Create something that nobody in Hogwarts had ever done and something different from what my schoolmates were currently doing," answered Quinn, not telling the real reason about A.I.D.s'' founding. He still provided Dumbledore with some actual facts, though. "I wanted to create something of my own and, in-process, use magic. I wasn''t expecting it to get this big. But well, I guess I''m happy how things turned out."


    ''I have more than a hundred students who would do what I ask of them, students from all houses on every step of the socialdder. Indeed, I guess I''m happy how things turned out,'' thought Quinn.


    "I see," said Dumbledore and once again started to turn the parchments and stopped when he saw something that interested him. "Hmm... this here says that you had ess to the Restricted Section of the Library for the entire year,st year." He looked up at Quinn and said, "It was given to you by Professor Lockhart."


    Quinn nodded and confirmed the statement from Dumbledore but didn''t say a single word in response.


    Dumbledore waited for a moment for Quinn to speak something, but when he didn''t say anything, Dumbledore asked, "May I ask why did you ask for the pass to the Restricted Section?"


    "I was interested in the books there, Headmaster," replied Quinn, keeping it short.


    "... And Professor Lockhart gave you the pass for the entire year? Not a particr book, but an entire year?" asked Dumbledore.


    Quinn shrugged in reply, "I established his fan club at Hogwarts. I was the reason for his poprity in the school, so I guess he simply allowed me to browse through the library because of that."


    "Yes, I recall hearing about Professor Lockhart''s fan club," said Dumbledore before asking with a pause. "... Did you have contact with Professor Lockhart after he left the school?"


    "Unfortunately, I lost contact with Professor Lockhart after he left his post. He was a fun person to listen to and hang around. He had fascinating stories to tell," answered Quinn.


    "What books interested you, Mr. West," asked Dumbledore as he observed Quinn through his half-moon sses.


    "Hmm, there were many, but mostly some advanced applications of what I was studying at the moment," answered Quinn, and he didn''t lie. Dumbledore didn''t know what level of magic he was studying at that point.


    Dumbledore once again waited for Quinn to exin what he meant by the vague answer, but Quinn didn''t say a single more word.


    He once again looked down at his desk and turned some sheets before once again asking.


    "You''ve been learning Healing Magic from Madam Pomfrey," stated Dumbledore as he looked at Quinn with surprise.


    "Yes," answered Quinn with a single word.


    The third time around, Dumbledore finally caught up with what was happening.


    "... Do you want to be a healer, Mr. West?"


    "No, sir. Not at all. Healing is a type of magic, and I''m interested in anything that''s magic," smiled Quinn.


    The Headmaster stared at the student while the student looked around the office with a curious gaze.


    "Headmaster, my view of your office is improving by the minute. It''s growing on me,"plimented Quinn.


    If Dumbledore didn''t want to get straight to the point, Quinn also didn''t mind stretching things along. Plus, he employed his usual strategy of letting the other person ask questions to control the flow of information.


    "It seems I have gone off the topic, Mr. West," said Dumbledore and closed the file of parchments. "It''s just that I don''t get to talk to students often. So whenever I do get to talk to a student, I get a little distracted as I want to know more about them."


    "It''s fine, sir. You are a busy man; the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the Supreme Mugwump of the I.C.W., and the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot. All these titles and the responsibilities thate with them are time-consuming," said Quinn and then suggested as he looked at Dumbledore. "If you aren''t enjoying your current workload and if it makes you feel ufortable... perhaps you could drop a position or two and concentrate on fewer things."


    Dumbledore watched Quinn, and as Quinn said thest sentence, the Headmaster smiled widely, more widely than he had smiled since Quinn had entered the office.


    "Let''s get to the point, Mr. West. Let''s talk about what happened at the Shrieking Shack."


    Quinn held back the smile that was threatening to break out on his face and nodded.


    "Let''s."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Let''s get started.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Yes, let''s get started.


    Ivy Potter - Has a Quinn-encounter quota in her mind - *Sigh.*


    Poppy Pomfrey - Matron, healer - I repeat, Quinn is troublesome.


    Severus Snape - Conflicted - I knew that brat knew!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 116 - The Talk, And The Events That Built Upto It

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "What were you doing at the Shrieking Shack, Mr. West?" asked Dumbledore to the student sitting in front of him.


    "I was returning from Hogsmeade, Headmaster," answered Quinn to the question. "And Shrieking Shack is the route that I used to travel back-and-forth from the castle and vige."


    Today''s situation had revealed that Quinn went out of the castle, so there was no reason for him to hide the fact that he went out to Hogsmeade.


    "What were you doing in the vige?" questioned Dumbledore. "What prompted you to leave the castle?"


    Quinn raised his right hand and snapped his fingers for a ying card - a joker - with a royal blue back appear in his hands.


    "I was out at the vige to confirm the new design on my business cards."


    He then, with a flick of his wrist, threw the ying card from his right to left at a snapping speed, making a faint noise as the card jumped hands.


    Dumbledore''s eyes from Quinn''s right to left, following the card, and they widened a fraction when instead of the throwing card, Quinn''s left was holding a ck card with golden lettering.


    "These cards are my main source of advertisement, Headmaster," said Quinn as he leaned forward and gracefully ced the card on Dumbledore''s desk and the ck business card glided on top of the polished surface of the table towards Dumbledore.


    Dumbledore removed his surprised eyes from the business card on his desk and looked at Quinn''s hand, which had returned to resting on hisp.


    "And you couldn''t do it from within the castle? Communicating via owls, perhaps," asked Dumbledore as he continued to stare at the card on the table.


    "Somethingse out better when you discuss them face-to-face, sir. As I said, these cards are my primary source of advertisement. I need for them to be perfect."


    Other than the slight widening of his eyes, the old Headmaster didn''t show any signs of surprise and picked up the card from the table to observe it.


    His experienced hands and knowledgeable eyes looked for magicid into the cards. Dumbledore found that hidden under ayer of bogus charmsid animation charms and a Protean charm, but other than that, no other magic was woven into the card.


    Dumbledore looked for how Quinn transformed a ying card into a business card, searching for a transfiguration charm or a simple cantrip, but there was nothing like that on the card. Which told Dumbledore that Quinn had aplished it without magic, surprising him further.


    "That was an impressive show of sleight-of-hand, Mr. West,"plimented Dumbledore as he gently shook the card in his hand. "I''ve heard that muggle magicians do tricks like these, but this is my first time seeing something like this."


    "Thank you for the praise," smiled Quinn. "Sleight-of-hand seems like magic, a skill that requires pure skill and dexterity to fool people." The smile widened into a wide grin. "And I have found that it does wonder when I show it to magicals. I can get individuals to look at me with funny and, quite frankly, dumb faces."


    "Did I make the same expression that you see on others?"


    Quinn shook his head with a shallow smile, "You barely made an expression, Headmaster. It made me think that I should''ve done something more... wilder."


    "Oh no, Mr. West. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was surprised," answered Dumbledore. "I''m an old dog, who was a little slow on the uptake, that''s all."


    "Oh, please, Headmaster. You aren''t that old. You are what? A little over a hundred years old. You still have a full life ahead of you," chuckled Quinn and then gave a nce over to Dumbledore''s face. "You have the dressing sense; if you trim that beard off, you would immediately shave decades off your appearance."


    Dumbledore stroked his long beard and smiled, "Is that so? I will give it a thought. I''m a little attached to my beard: it has been with me for a long time."


    "Follow your heart, sire. It will take you ways."


    Dumbledore was about tough in agreement, but then he realized that Quinn had taken him off the tangent and blinked a bit at the smiling student in front of him.


    There was a slight pause after Quinn''s statement, and Dumbledore directly brought the conversation back on track.


    "James tells me that you -." Dumbledore started to speak, but Quinn cut him off.


    "James?" question Quinn, despite knowing who Dumbledore was talking about.


    The conversation a few seconds, even if it was off-topic, was going smoothly, and Quinn wanted to break the rhythm, so he asked the question to which he already knew the answer.


    "... James Potter, the person who escorted you to the castle," said Dumbledore, who indeed was slightly thrown off his rhythm.


    He wasn''t used to being interrupted or being pulled out of topic. It had been years, even decades, since Dumbledore had experienced close to what he was doing with Quinn.


    "Ah, Auror Potter. I wasn''t able to attribute the first name to him. Please do continue," gestured Quinn.


    "Yes... as I was saying, James tells me that you knew that Professor Lupin is a Werewolf. My question to you, Mr. West, is that if you understood what Professor Snape was trying to tell you, why didn''t you reveal to anyone," asked Dumbledore, and his eyes shined with curiosity.


    Dumbledore was shocked that Snape had tried to reveal Remus''s identity despite his insistence and order to not disclose the condition. But to think that the childish feuds would carry over to adulthood and Snape would try to circumvent the rules he had set and attempt to point the students towards the answers.


    "I understand that Lycanthropy or the more funny word, Werewolfry, is a disease. As long as people with Lycanthropy take proper precautions, I wouldn''t treat them negatively. Professor Lupin, from my view, took those proper precautions and made sure that the surrounding people wouldn''t be affected," answered Quinn, speaking things from his heart. "I don''t think that just because Professor Lupin was something he can''t do anything about, he should be segregated. As for why I didn''t reveal his identity? He and the faculty were clearly trying to keep it a secret. I can read the room, so I kept quiet. Of course, if he had been a danger to the students. I would''ve revealed his identity to the entire school and have him kicked out of the school."


    Quinn had already spoken these things at the Shrieking Shack, so he didn''t mind repeating them. Anything to keep the conversation where and how Quinn wanted to go.


    "Let''s talk about the fact that you intercepted the terrorist."


    But, Dumbledore was an experienced old goat. Even with Quinn''s little tactics to keep the conversation moving in the direction he wanted, Dumbledore simply used blunt questions and his position as the Headmaster to force the conversation back where he wanted.


    ''Hmm... I wanted a little more time before we got here, but things are still within my expectations,'' thought Quinn and once again waited for Dumbledore to front a question.


    "From what James described, the man that held Harry hostage got out of the room, the door suddenly shut close, and when the others got out, you were on top of the man and beating his face red with your fists," recalled Dumbledore.


    The Headmaster took a conscious pause in which he stared at Quinn before asking.


    "You didn''t have your wand in your hands, Mr. West. How were you able to shut the door that was clearly shut with magic?"


    Quinn stared at Dumbledore for a good few moments before raising his hand and pointing it at the folder of parchments that Dumbledore was previously reading from.


    His face scrunched up in concentration as one... two... five seconds went by before the folder flew up from the table and zoomed into Quinn''s hand.


    Quinn breathed out a heavy breathe and lightly smiled. "I-I can do a little wandless magic, Headmasters. At that moment, I thought it was the best option for everyone if I separated the man from his associates."


    ''There, I established my limit,'' internally smiled Quinn.


    He looked down at the folder and opened it to read what Dumbledore had on him, but the speed at which he turned the pages made it seem like he was simply turning pages.


    "I can''t do any more than that. And that man had a wand pointed at Harry Potter, so I chose the physical route and forced him away from Harry, and then to make sure that he didn''t have any other moment, I punched him." Quinn looked up from the parchments and continued. "I''ve been told that you can''t stop after an initial blow. You''ve to keep going until the hostile is no longer, well.... hostile."


    Quinn rubbed his upper arm with his opposite hand and whispered, "I was scared and just followed what came to me instinctually."


    Feeling frightened in that situation was natural, and Quinn, on some level, was scared. Even if he had nned things to ensure that he was safe, Quinn still felt the fear that the situation could go wrong. So, right now, Quinn was simply using that slight feeling of fear to portray a dread that brought out his instincts.


    "... I understand, Mr. West. Things must''ve been terrifying for you at that moment. I will tell you something that I''ve heard from several Aurors and Hit Wizards I have met. Most of them told me that even after doing what they do for years, they still fear afraid before going into a dangerous situation. They tell me that fear is what keeps them on their toes and keeps their mind cautious."


    Quinn nodded, whole-heartedly agreeing with the fact that a healthy dose of fear helped in dangerous situations.


    ...


    Dumbledore observed Quinn with an inspecting gaze.


    There was something about Quinn that was bothering him. Ever since Quinn had entered the room, there was something that had been bothering Dumbledore. Something that he couldn''t put his finger on.


    Quinn didn''t show any signs of nervousness or worry about being in his office. And while Dumbledore wasn''t trying to make anyone nervous, he understood that his position and reputation did bring that something in people when they met him.


    Then there was the fact that Quinn had shown that even though he wasn''t reluctant to talk, his answers told him that Quinn wasn''t going topletely open up.


    Dumbledore wasn''t dense or a greenhorn; he understood what Quinn was trying to do. Short and vague answers... going off topics... trying to interrupt the conversations... not providing anything new that he didn''t already know.


    He had deduced that Quinn used wandless magic to close the door. There was no other reasoning for the door suddenly closing. And Quinn had simply confirmed the clear fact by showcasing that he had wandless capabilities just enough to shut a door.


    Quinn simply confirmed that he punched the man to stop him. Dumbledore already knew that. Other than a few additional background facts, Quinn hadn''t told him anything that would add to the narrative.


    Even before the two started to talk about the incident, Quinn had simply agreed with statements that he had put forward.


    Lockhart gave him an all-ess pass to the Restricted Section for an entire year.


    Quinn''s answer? Yes. Short and simply confirming a recorded fact.


    Why? I don''t know, maybe he liked me. Vague conjecture and nothing definitive.


    What did he study? Advance concepts. Everything in Restricted Section was advance. Once again, too broad of an answer.


    He provided simr answers when asked about his Healing lesson with Poppy.


    Dumbledore thought about it what didn''t fit into ce.


    ''He is prepared, a bit too prepared. He is too rxed,'' noticed Dumbledore.


    But when he thought about Quinn''s background and what he had learned from his faculty. It was just barely within an eptable behavior from Quinn.


    ''He is too epting,'' thought Dumbledore. ''Yes, that''s it. He transitioned a bit too quickly.''


    When Quinn spoke about fear, he showed some emotion that would be normal given the situation he had been through.


    ''But when I told him about Aurors and Hit Wizards. He epted it too easily,'' recalled Dumbledore and reflected on it. ''The look in his eyes wasn''t relief at not being judged. It was as if he already knew it and was showing his agreement.''


    This tipped the scales in Dumbledore''s head. He wanted to know what Quinn West was thinking.


    Here in front of him was George West''s grandson. The grandson of the person with immense wealth and resources, who he had tried to bring to his side.


    Dumbledore had failed to persuade George West to join his side and his cause. Fortunately for him, George West had also refused to go to the other side and join Voldemort. If George West had joined Voldemort, then Malfoy''s financial support would have seemed like pocket money allowance.


    Dumbledore''s bubbling curiosity about Quinn, along with his family background, made Dumbledore decide his next course of action. He was going to use some magic to see what was going inside Quinn''s head.


    ...


    Quinn was looking around Dumbledore''s office when he noticed something from the corner of his eyes.


    ''Hmm?''


    He turned to face Dumbledore and saw the Headmaster''s eyes glittering and shining with an unnatural light.


    ''Ah! He is using magic to attract my eyes to his,'' thought Quinn. ''He is going to use Legilimency!''


    But Quinn wasn''t scared.


    Not at all.


    Instead, he was excited.


    Except for n, his teacher, no person had ever challenged his mental lumency shields. He wanted to see if Dumbledore''s attack could pass through.


    ''The invisible, omnipresent radiation matter is also ready and present in my mind,'' thought Quinn and thought about thetest addition to his mindscape. ''Let''s see if he can even get to that point.''


    Quinn slightly raised his chin in confidence and locked his eyes with Dumbledore. With a barely noticeable smile gracing his lips, his shields went into active mode as they solidified, and the radiation edges started emitting waves of mental probe degradation magic.


    Dumbledore, who saw Quinn lock eyes with him, gathered his magic and engaged his mental magic to cast Legilimency.


    The mental probe went forward and was about to reach Quinn''s mind when the two parties heard a pop.


    Dumbledore and Quinn broke eye contact and looked towards the direction of the sound. There they saw a house-elf standing with a letter in his hands.


    ''I guess my ticket is here,'' thought Quinn when he saw the letter in the house-elves hands. ''It came at the right time. It''s good to see I know him well.''


    "What is Galry?" asked Dumbledore to the house-elf who had the responsibility to clean up his office and was the only elf who was allowed to enter the Headmaster''s office.


    "A letter came for the Headymaster," said Galry the house-elf and handed the letter to Dumbledore. "One of me kind pop to Hogwarts and told us house-elves to give this to you and give it fast."


    Galry then twirled his fingers and spoke in a distracted voice.


    "She wore pretty toga and was so pretty. Like the best elf, Darly had ever seen... so pretty."


    Quinn''s eyes smiled when he heard the little house-elf spoke in a dreamy tone. ''Of course, she is pretty.''


    Dumbledore opened the letter as the Garly the Hogwarts house-elf popped away. He began reading it, and Quinn didn''t see any reaction on the Headmaster''s face before he looked up and spoke.


    "It seems your grandfather doesn''t want me to speak to you without his presence, Mr. West."


    "I see."


    Rewinding back time to the moment Quinn had opened the door in the Shrieking Shack.


    The second Quinn saw the men inside the room, he was sure of one thing, one thing that was sure to happen.


    Quinn thought about the future, and no matter what decision he took, every path led to him meeting the old man in the tower and talking about what happened today.


    All paths lead to Albus Dumbledore.


    And at that time, the meeting with Dumbledore became his main priority, and Quinn started to prepare for it.


    The first thing Quinn had to do was to get out of there alive. And make sure Harry Potter wasn''t hurt and taken away. Doing this was easy enough. But when he added Dumbledore to the equation, Quinn had to select his methods.


    He took the physical way rather than the magical way. Quinn started by discreetly disarming the hostage-taker. The door shutting close made sure that no one noticed that fact, meaning if Dumbledore examined the memory, he wouldn''t find a wand flying because Quinn made sure that the wand went in a direction that wasn''t visible to the Marauders.


    Quinn didn''t want to show his actual magical capabilities to Dumbledore. But because the door was closed with magic, Quinn decided to use his reputation as a prodigious student to exin that he had enough wandless skills to close the door.


    But that was it. Quinn couldn''t show anymore, so he turned to his trusty fists and battered the man into submission.


    Going physical and hurting wasn''t only to hide his magic. Quinn needed time to prepare. He made sure the Marauders knew he was hurt so they would take him to the hospital wing.


    This went great because Harry Potter was unconscious and needed medical attention, and Quinn simply tagged along.


    The reason Quinn wanted to go to the hospital wing was to separate from James Potter. He didn''t want to meet Dumbledore right off the bat and wanted to prepare his exit ticket in advance.


    In the hospital wing, there were two options:


    Number one, Dumbledore woulde to the hospital wing and talk to him there. In this option, Quinn wasn''t able to set up the exit ticket, but he would have an audience who would see him and Dumbledore talk.


    He would have Poppy and most probably the rest of the Potter family in the hospital wing. If Dumbledore asked to talk in private, Quinn would''ve refused and would reply that they could talk about it in front of everyone. That he trusted Poppy and that the Potter family deserved to know what happened.


    This way, Dumbledore would''ve to carefully tread if he tried some hanky-panky.


    The second option was Quinn being called into the Headmaster''s office. Which was the version of events that happened.


    In this option, Quinn had further sub-possibilities. The possibility was the messenger, who would escort him to Dumbledore. On the scale, Quinn had someone like Severus Snape who wouldn''t listen to any of his requests on one side and someone like Filius Flitwick, who was much more empathetic and would allow Quinn to go into his office. With everyone else in between these two people.


    Quinn''s blood-stained clothes weren''t an incident. He could havee out of the mess without a single speck of dust on him. Quinn needed to go to his office so that he could prepare his exit ticket.


    The exit ticket was a MagiFax mail sent to every MagiFax unit inside the West Manor. Quinn had sent the same two pages that he drafted while changing clothes to Ms. Rosey, Elliot, his grandfather, and to the MagiFax unit for general use at West Manor.


    The two pages covered the events, what was about to happen, and some instructions.


    If Snape hade to escort Quinn and had refused his request to change clothes, Quinn would have directly called Polly, who was the one who had delivered the letter to the Hogwarts house-elves and would have given her a short message for his grandfather.


    Quinn was confident that even with a short message, his grandfather would''ve pulled off the same thing as he had done now, and he would get his exit ticket.


    Quinn had used MagiFax because Filius, the charms master, was sitting right outside. Quinn wasn''t sure if Filius would be able to detect a sudden ward that Quinn would have cast to silence the elf-apparate pop of Polly arriving to collect the pages.


    He was okay with Snape seeing him speaking to Polly because after being refused a change of clothes, Quinn had the justification ofining to his grandfather.


    Then came the talk with Dumbledore.


    Quinn didn''t know what would happen in the office. The talk could have gone pleasantly where he and Dumbledore could''ve exchanged pleasantries, and after making sure that Quinn was fine, Dumbledore allowing Quinn to leave and rest.


    But Dumbledore pulled out a file on Quinn and started to ask questions that didn''t have anything to do with today''s incident. Dumbledore brought up everything from his grades to his thoughts about various subjects and his activities.


    Quinn knew that there was a possibility that Dumbledore would try something, and thus he wanted to get out of the office, and his grandfather''s letter was enough to aplish that. But to make sure that it got here in time, Quinn had to make sure that he extended the conversation without revealing too much.


    Dumbledore using Legilimency was within Quinn''s expectations. Quinn knew the power of Legilimency: he used it every day. So, he knew that if Dumbledore could, he would use Legilimency because if Quinn was in his ce, he would have done the same thing.


    Sure Quinn was confident in his lumency, but his opponent was Dumbledore, and Quinn knew that the over hundred-year-old man was strong. That is why Quinn went to all the trouble to create an exit ticket.


    In the words of George West, the exit ticket told Albus Dumbledore to back off and leave his grandson alone.


    Albus Dumbledore was magically and politically powerful, but hecked the financial wealth that George West had plenty of. If Dumbledore refused to heed his warning, George would make his life difficult.


    The saying that money made the world go round was built on solid ground.


    Dumbledore looked up from the letter towards Quinn stated, "It seems your grandfather is aware of the incident."


    "So it seems," nodded Quinn.


    "I wonder how he got to know them so quickly," inquired Dumbledore.


    "I wouldn''t know, Headmaster. My grandfather is a resourceful man. I''m sure he has his way," replied Quinn, not admitting that he was the source.


    Quinn put the folder which held the information on him back on the desk. He had already nced at it and just needed to use lumency to strengthen what his eyes saw.


    "It seems we would''ve to end our talk, sir," smiled Quinn as he got up from his chair. "As much as I enjoyed our talk, my grandfather has the authority to ground me for the entire summer, and I don''t want that."


    Dumbledore nced between the letter and Quinn and nodded.


    Quinn turned back and walked towards the door but stopped when he heard Dumbledore speak.


    "Detentions till the end of the term, Mr. West. For sneaking outside the castle without permission."


    Quinn didn''t turn back and simply replied with: "I understand, sir." And then walked out of the office, leaving behind Albus Dumbledore alone, with the letter from George West.


    Outside the office, Quinn took a deep breath with a big smile and thought.


    ''That went rather well.''


    The first meeting between Albus Dumbledore and Quinn West hade to an end.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Mind games! Let''s y mind games!


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster, sir. - "... Quinn West, hmm..."


    George West - Exit ticket - Back off! I don''t want my grandson alone in a room with an old man.


    Garly - Hogwarts house-elf - "... She was pretty."


    Polly - West house-elf - Well dressed and pretty house-elf


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 117 - Invitation, Interrogation, And Twin’s Talk

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn walked back to the hospital wing. He was stretching his limbs while thinking about his conversation with Dumbledore.


    ''It went well. I was pulled out at an appropriate time. I need to thank grandfather for that.''


    Quinn looked at his bandaged hands. They were almost healed, which was the reason he had been able to do a sleight-of-hand card swap in front of Dumbledore.


    ''I''ll write him a letter after Madam Pomfrey gives me her consent.''


    The matron had asked Quinn to return after his talk with the Headmaster. Quinn knew that if he didn''t return Poppy woulde to his dorms and drag him to the hospital wing.


    ''I''ll probably have the reply waiting for me at the workshop,'' thought Quinn as he entered the hospital wing.


    "Madam Pomfrey, I''m back!" called out Quinn as he began to remove the bandages so as to make it easier for Poppy to cast the spells and get his hands healed.


    Quinn''s attention was on the bandages wrapped around his hands. As such, he wasn''t looking to his front but, then, he sensed something in his front. He stopped.


    He looked up and saw Lily Potter standing in front of him. Suddenly, she walked to Quinn and hugged him.


    Quinn''s arm immediately went up in the air as Lily Potter embraced him.


    ''What? What''s this? What''s she doing?'' thought Quinn while being hugged tighter.


    He could look over her shoulder and saw Ivy Potter standing at a distance. After spotting her, Quinn mouthed out some words.


    ''What''s happening?''


    Ivy didn''t say anything and simply gestured to Quinn to allow Lily to do whatever she was doing.


    "Thank you. Thank you for saving Harry. Thank you so much." Lily finally spoke as she continued to hug Quinn.


    Quinn gingerly patted thedy with one arm on the back to soothe her. "It''s alright, Professor Potter. I simply did what seemed right at that moment."


    Lily finally let go of Quinn. She thanked him for thest time before stepping away from him.


    But it seemed this wasn''t over as James Potter stepped forward after his wife. He heavily padded Quinn on both his shoulders.


    "You did well out there, son," praised James with an approving smile on his face. "Damn good quick thinking. You saved the day."


    "Thank you for thepliment. It means a lot when ites from the mouth of an Auror of your calibre," replied Quinn humbly.


    James, too, was done thanking him and stepped back.


    This time Quinn was sure it was over and was about to go find Poppy, but he was wrong once again.


    He couldn''t move as Ivy Potter walked near and stood in front of him.


    The two students stared at each other as Quinn waited for Ivy to say something.


    "...k y..." said Ivy, not looking at Quinn. She seemed very interested in the floor between her and Quinn''s feet.


    "Pardon, I didn''t catch that," said Quinn, not able to hear Ivy''s words.


    Ivy bit her lower lip before looking up at Quinn and spoke again, this time loud enough for Quinn to hear.


    "Thank you."


    Quinn was surprised for a moment. Not because of her words, but because of the expression the redhead had and the look in her eyes.


    Except for their first meeting, Ivy had always looked at Quinn with a guarded and cautious look. The way she looked at him worsened after Quinn mmed her into a wall as he threatened and ckmailed her.


    Right now, however, there was a true and honest thankfulness in her eyes. There wasn''t any caution. There were no worries. It could be seen that her face truly reflected how she felt.


    "... You''re wee," replied Quinn. He had to recover from the surprise of seeing someone he was used to seeing explicitly angry with him in another way.


    Ivy wordlessly nodded and stepped away. She walked towards Harry''s bed and disappeared behind the curtains that framed the beds.


    With his eyes following Ivy, Quinn didn''t notice Lily step forward once again.


    "Quinn, I would like to invite you for dinner at our house during the summer break," invited Lily.


    Quinn, who was watching Ivy, abruptly turned to Lily when her wordsnded on his ears.


    "That won''t be -"


    He politely tried to decline the invitation, but the mother of the twins cut him off before he could even finish his sentence.


    "I insist, Quinn," pressed Lily. "You saved my son today. Please give me the chance to thank you for it."


    Quinn opened his mouth to once again refuse, but Lily''s expression stopped him. He nodded.


    "I would be delighted, Professor Potter."


    A beautiful smile bloomed on Lily''s face when Quinn epted her offer.


    "I''ll send an invitation to your house for your parents," smiled Lily.


    "That would be helpful, Professor," nodded Quinn in reply. He then looked up and spoke. "Please excuse me, Professor. I need to meet Madam Pomfrey so that she canplete the healing."


    Saying that, Quinn raised his unbandaged hands.


    "Oh my, yes. Sorry for making you wait. These must hurt," said Lily hurriedly.


    Quinn politely nodded and walked past both the Potter parents towards the matron''s office, who saw Quinn and noticed that his hands weren''t bandaged.


    "Quinn! Didn''t I tell you not to remove the bandages! Why did you remove them?" scolded the Matron. "This is why children are foolish. They don''t know what''s good for them."


    Quinn blinked his eyes and opened and closed his mouth a few times before saying.


    "... I didn''t!"


    "Liar! I can see from your hands that the bandages weren''t removed right now."


    "But, but, but..."


    "Don''t make excuses. Now sit down and let me heal them!"


    Quinn, who had been stopped because of the Potter family, sat down as Poppy focused on healing his hands while she lectured him about the importance of following the proper recuperation practices.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Sirius ck and his direct senior, Captain Auror Gawain Robards, sat inside an interrogation room. In front of them sat Rivers Lock.


    The two Aurors had the leader of the Novellus ionites, but neither of them knew this crucial piece of information. With no one actually knowing Rivers'' true identity, they had no idea that they were sitting in front of the kingpin.


    "Talk, Rivers," asked Gawain as he stared at the prisoner in front of him. "You were caught trying to kidnap the Boy-Who-Lived. Something that the court won''t look lightly at."


    "You''re screwed, Lock," cackled Sirius at Gawain''s side. "A long stay awaits you in Azkaban."


    Rivers didn''t say a single word. Not a peep could be heard from him ever since he came here. His face still wasn''t fully healed. The Aurors had healed him enough to not feel pain, but if Rivers moved his face and expression too much, he''d feel the burning sting of his injuries.


    To Rivers, the pain was a reminder that he had failed.


    "As ck here says, you''ll be in Azkaban for a long time, Rivers. You tried to kidnap Harry Potter and, to boot directly from Hogwarts. That isn''t something the heads will look lightly at," said Gawain and then leaned forward. "But if you help us out. Provide us with some information, and we will help you out. We''ll ask the Chief Warlock to reduce your sentence based on your cooperation."


    "Forget it, Captain," scoffed Sirius. "This shrimp doesn''t look like he knows something. We should just chuck him in Azkaban, and the world would be better for it."


    Gawain and Sirius had interrogated many ionite members in the past few months. The aggressive raids had brought in many people through their doors. As such, they had tried to get information about them.


    Nheless, even if they had tried to get information about the internal structure of Novellus ionite. The problem was that when they tried to build a clear view of the structure, there were nks and misses one after another.


    After interrogating hundreds, they couldn''t tell who was in the inner circle of the Novellus ionites. There were some who led muggle and muggleborn hunts, so many people pointed at them when asked about the inner circle.


    But when the Aurors interrogated those people, they found that the people who had multiple leads under their belts knew absolutely nothing.


    Those people simply received detailed instructions about the hunts and were asked toplete them for people who had a higher position in the Novellus ionites. Sessful people would be granted titles and positions that would let them show superiority over others, but other than that, they had no control over the actual organization.


    It stunned the Aurors that such a big operation was built solely viamunication through letters. Letters from an unknown source.


    The Auror department hadn''t been able to find who was sending the letters. They wanted to get their hands on the people who nned everything because those were the true inner circle and not the people with bogus titles.


    Unfortunately, despite their rigorous attempts, they failed to locate the person or people who sent these letters.


    When Gawain heard about the attempted kidnapping while enjoying an early dinner with his wife, he immediately had toe to the Auror office because he thought something of this level would reveal something about the inner circle of the Novellus ionites.


    "Rivers, if you tell us about the people who write the mission ns. We won''t not only try to reduce your sentence, but we will also make sure that you aren''t in the area of Azkaban frequented by Dementors."


    But Rivers didn''t even look at them. He kept staring at the table between the two parties. It looked like he wasn''t going to cooperate.


    The thing was that even if Rivers wanted to cooperate, he couldn''t. He was the person in the inner circle they were looking for. No other person drafted the mission ns. Rivers curated and created everything himself, so there was no one that Rivers could point at.


    And giving himself away was thest thing he would do. If they found that he was the person behind Novellus ionites, the Aurors wouldn''t bat an eye before chucking him into the deepest hells of Azkaban.


    This was the biggest failure of Rivers'' life. In an attempt to be the sole controlling force hidden in the shadows, he had isted himself from any friends or scapegoats. In his arrogance, Rivers had dug a hole to himself, and now there was no way to climb out of it.


    After seeing there wasn''t any response from Rivers, Gawain and Rivers looked at each other and nodded to move onto the next stage.


    The Bad Auror and Good Auror tactic wasn''t working, so they had to try something more aggressive to see it achieved something.


    Sirius slid a file to Gawain, who opened it and started reading it out loud.


    "Rivers Lock. A clerk who works for the ministry memo department," spoke Gawain as he read from the file in front of him. "You''ve been working in the same position ever since graduating from Hogwarts. You''ve rented the same house from the time you started working. No partner. No friends. Nothing to look at, and absolutely nothing to work with."


    Gawain looked up at Rives and asked, "Tell me, Rivers Lock. Why were you made the leader on the kidnapping of the Boy-Who-Lived? Why would someone as mediocre, ordinary, and average as you, who hasn''t done anything relevant in his life, be chosen to front something as important as this?"


    The two Aurors finally saw a reaction, as they saw Rivers clench the fist of the hand he had on the table. They had finally been able to elicit a reaction out of Rivers. It was the first reaction he had given ever since being brought to the holding cell.


    Inside Rivers, the words ''mediocre'', ''ordinary'', and ''average'' rung loudly. He had been used to hearing these and was able to control the rage he felt when someone said words like these to him. But right now, after the biggest failure and amid the crisis of his life. Some of that rage leaked out.


    Gawain nced at Sirius, and Auror ck pulled on a sneering face.


    "Haha, these Novellus ionites must beplete idiots!" he scoffed derisively. "To think they would handle something so important to someone like you. If it was me, I think any musclehead would have been a better choice than... you."


    Sirius'' voice dripped with mocking and belittlement. He drew those words directly from his family members from when he had been sorted into Gryffindor. He even was channeling the same tone he had gotten used to hearing whenever he was at home.


    And for once in his life, these words brought him joy, as he saw Rivers look up at him with a look full of hatred.


    ''It''s working,'' thought the Auror inside Sirius.


    He knew this was his job and he had work to do.


    "Why are you looking at me like that? Huh?!" Sirius leaned back into his chair and smirked.


    "Look at the difference between us. I''m the head of the ck House, while you''re just an important son of a small pureblood family. I am an elite Auror while you are a f**cking useless clerk. I''m sitting here deciding your fate while you are sitting there with a broken face."


    Siriusughed loudly and then continued to mock Rives.


    "Can you believe that this shit got beaten in by a fourteen-year-old? A fourteen-year-old! That''s hrious! Getting his face broken by a damn kid!"


    Rivers started to shake as he looked at Sirius. Sirius''s words were bing super effective and were doing critical damage.


    Rivers knew that his entire n had failed because a kid had beaten him. The kid that he had thought nothing of, had disarmed him. Then kicked him twice and punched him till he lost consciousness.


    Everything had failed because of one kid.


    And that thought haunted him from the moment he had regained his consciousness.


    Rivers considered it the darkest stain of his life.


    He wanted to tell the two in front of him that he wasn''t ordinary. He wanted to reveal that he was anything but ordinary. That he was the one they were looking for.


    But...


    Rivers Lock knew that if he spoke, he was dead. So he bit his tongue strong enough to draw blood and used the pain to regain logic.


    *Spit*


    He spat saliva mixed with blood on the table. Rivers put on an ugly smirk and said.


    "F**k you."


    Sirius and Gawain looked at blood mixed spit on the table, and something told them that Rivers wasn''t going to talk.


    But Rivers wanted to get in one blow in, so he looked at Sirius ck and cackled.


    "Oi, ck."


    Sirius looked up from the table at Rivers, and when he did, Sirius saw superiority on Rivers'' face as he spoke.


    "Peter Pettigrew says hello."


    Sirius and Gawain''s eyes widened after they heard Rivers and immediately pressed to get answers, but Rives onlyughed at them as the two Aurors coaxed him unsessfully in order to get him to talk.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy Potter sat beside her brother under the cover of the Potter Family''s Invisibility Cloak.


    Harry was still sleeping and, although the Potter family had wanted to remain in the hospital wing, Poppy chased them out as it waste.


    James left Hogwarts to the Auror''s office as he got a call from his seniors. Lily was kicked out because she had wanted to stay the entire night.


    Ivy was also kicked out of the hospital wing, but the girl twin returned under the Invisibility Cloak and sat down beside her twin just in case he woke up in the middle of the night.


    Her decision had been wise. Harry did wake up in the middle of the night.


    Ivy watched as Harry shifted in his bed. He then silently sat straight on his bed.


    He didn''t seem to panic, so Ivy simply watched her brother while still under the cloak.


    Harry stretched his arms and blinked as he looked around with his sleepy eyes. It took him a full five seconds to shake the sleep of his eyes and recall where he was and what he was doing before going to sleep.


    "W-What!" stuttered Harry as he looked around cautiously.


    Ivy pulled off her cloak to reveal herself when she saw Harry panicking.


    "Hey," called out Ivy to gain her brother''s attention.


    Harry snapped his eyes towards the voice in surprise but calmed down when he saw Ivy.


    "Ivy, what am I doing in the hospital wing. I was in the locker room then everything went ck. What happened?"


    "You were almost kidnapped by the Novellus ionites," replied Ivy as she poured water from a pitcher into a ss.


    "What?! Oh, thank you," spoke Harry as he took the ss, and after taking a short sip, he asked. "What do you mean? I was kidnapped?!"


    Ivy then proceeded to exin what had happened. She had listened to everything their father had told their mother while they talked in the hospital, so she had a good grasp of what happened in the Shrieking Shack.


    After Ivy finished talking, Harry copsed back in his bed and stared up at the ceiling.


    Harry didn''t know how to feel about this. He just went through a serious situation, but he couldn''t rte to any of it because he hadn''t been conscious.


    "... So in short, Quinn West stumbled upon my kidnapping and then saved me by beating the man into a pulp," summarized Harry.


    "Yes, something like that," nodded Ivy.


    "How do you feel about that?" asked Harry, still lying on his bed and looking at his twin.


    "How do I feel? I feel relieved. What kind of question is that?" asked Ivy looking at Harry''s head wondering if he was dropped too hard.


    "What I mean is how do you feel about Quinn West saving me?"


    Ivy stared at Harry in confusion as she asked, "What do you mean?"


    "I know that you don''t like him, so I was wondering your thoughts about it?" rified Harry and observed his twin.


    "Why would you think that? I don''t hate him or anything," asked and replied Ivy suspiciously.


    "Oh,e on. You be all jittery when we find Quinn West in the hallways. Don''t try to deny it," pressed Harry.


    Ivy averted her eyes, but she still could feel Harry''s gaze boring into her. She turned back to face Harry and sighed.


    "I had something against him, but things areplicated now. I don''t know what to think," said Ivy while looking at Harry. "I don''t want to talk about it right now."


    Harry wanted to press her more but decided against it. He really wanted to know what happened, but seeing that Ivy really didn''t want to talk about it, he didn''t force her to speak.


    "I know I''m not supposed to tell anyone this, but I visited Quinn West alone once," said Harry, and it caught Ivy''s attention at once.


    "What? When? Why?"


    "He''s the one who gave me the information on Peter Pettigrew. I wanted to get answers, and you know how everyone says that he has all of them. So I visited him, and he indeed answered all my questions in frightening detail," spoke Harry.


    Ivy instantly became worried and asked the first thing that came to her mind.


    "Did he allow you to reveal that he was the one who gave you the information?"


    Quinn had clearly specified to not let anyone know he was the one providing the information. Ivy and Hermione had been repeatedly warned not to leak the information he had provided them.


    She had been worried if he had given the same condition to Harry.


    "Hmm? I was the one who asked to keep things between us. West did say that if someone asked him whether he was the one to give me the information, he would straight out deny it," replied Harry. "But he didn''t say that I wasn''t allowed to tell someone. He would just reply that I''m lying. He even asked me to copy the new article and magazine issues and then burned the paper with his handwriting on it."


    Ivy was able to rte to thest sentence. Quinn had burned every sheet of paper with the information he had ever given to her. He even burned the letter he had given to Hermione. He always made sure there weren''t any physical traces of theirmunication.


    Harry observed his sister, and he deduced from her question that she had experienced something simr, or else she wouldn''t have asked that specific question.


    ''She must''ve asked West something,'' thought Harry, and his curiosity grew. ''I wonder if Hermoine knows something. Maybe I should ask her... no, l should wait. Perhaps I could go to West and ask him directly¡­ or not. Yeah, I''ll wait.''


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - The healer is bullying me... unfair.


    Lily Potter - Professor - Gives strong hugs.


    James Potter - Auror - Got a big shock when he reached his office.


    Rivers Lock - Leader, prisoner - Has his mind on one person.


    Ivy Potter - Girl Twin - It seems the Quinn-encounter rate keeps increasing.


    Harry Potter - Boy Twin - Man, I was just kidnapped... huh, well... whatever.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - That ends the quota of an ident from Harry Potter per year.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 118 - Year End, Platform Talk, Servant Meets The Master

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn entered the Great Hall with a newspaper tucked under his arms and walked towards the Ravenw table to get himself a seat. He found an empty area at the table, so he sat down on the seating bench. He put the newspaper on the table.


    "Let''s see what does this say," said Quinn and picked up one of the newspapers from the left stack. He started to look for what he was looking for. "As expected, it''s on the down-low now. They pushed it down to the sixth page."


    Quinn''s eyes read the article that interested him. Right after, he reached the end of the page and turned to the instructed page to read the article''s continuation.


    As Quinn continued to read the newspaper, Ravenw students walked by, saw him, and went to sit to another spot on the bench. No one sat near Quinn.


    The Hogwarts students sat down at Great Hall thrice a day for meals, and because of that, the students from the same house knew about the groups and cliques that existed. As such, everyone knew not to sit adjacent to Quinn if he was sitting in a certain spot.


    "Excellent, there''s nothing at all" smiled Quinn as he folded the newspaper and ced it below the te in front of him.


    Both Quinn and George knew that this incident would go viral. The newspapers, magazines, and any other form of media would definitely want to publish that story, so George had to silence any mentions of Quinn''s name in any published articles.


    Most articles outright omitted there ever being someone else other than the Aurors and ionites at the scene and only specified that the Aurors freed Harry Potter from the kidnappers. The few that mentioned there being someone else on the scene termed Quinn as an unidentified Hogwarts student, and even then, Quinn''s role was disguised as a bystander.


    Quinn would check the newspapers daily to see if someone published his name and, in the following weeks, his name didn''te up even once.


    The people in Hogwarts who knew about the incident were instructed not to talk about the incident. This essentially ced a gag order in regards to the kidnapping incident.


    Thus, the general public ended up without knowing his identity, which ensured Quinn''s anonymity. It was something he appreciated. Quinn was d Hogwarts students who wanted to know what happened hadn''t crowded him.


    Just when Quinn finished reading through the newspaper, he felt a tap on his shoulder and a soft pat on his head.


    He looked to the sides to see Eddie''s hand on his shoulder and Luna on his other side, who had patted him on his head.


    Quinn looked at his front and smiled at Marcus, who sat down opposite to him. The newspaper stack was in front of him.


    "Good morning. Ready to go home?" said Quinn.


    Today was theirst day at Hogwarts, and after eating breakfast, everyone would head to the Hogsmeade station, board the train, and go home.


    "Of course, I can''t wait to get home," said Eddie and questioned back. "What about you? Are you happy to be free from the daily detentions?"


    Quinn had been serving detentions every day for weeks. Yesterday had been hisst detention session.


    As the faculty had to mask Quinn''s participation, another reason for his detention was required. The faculty and Quinn discussed it and decided to make Snape catch Quinn out of the dorm after hours and because Snape was Snape, he''d dish out severe detention to him.


    Snape''s bad reputation among the students had finallye to use, as after Quinn told everyone that Snape caught him, everyone instantly epted he had to serve detention without question.


    Quinn had been a little miffed that his perfect record of not being caught while breaking curfew was tainted. To boot, he hadn''t even been caught while breaking curfew.


    "Come on, my detentions haven''t been that bad," smiled Quinn. "I''ve had a lot of fun hanging out with the Professors. Even Filch is fun to hang out with; that man knows a whole lot about the castle."


    Quinn''s detentions rotated among the faculty. Within his detention period, he had spent time with all the faculty members, including Poppy and Filch.


    "Your standard of fun is weird," said Marcus, shaking his head as he piled up food on his te.


    "Weird, yes." nodded Luna fervently in agreement. She had had several talks with Quinn where he had tried to tell her what he thought of as fun and interesting.


    "Well, my definition is wide and refined. It''s not my fault you don''t understand it," humphed Quinn with a smile.


    Quinn looked around the Great Hall and thought about the recent events that happened.


    His eyes turned to Draco Malfoy, who wasughing with his friends. He then thought about Buckbeak, and about the Hippogriff case, where Lucius Malfoy had tried to push for Buckbeak to be put down.


    But the case had been thrown out of Wizengamot. Unlike the canon, Hagrid and Buckbeak had the full support of the Light faction.


    The Light faction, in fact, had used this case to introduce Sirius ck to the Wizengamot as the holder of the ck seat. Sirius ck, and consequently the House of ck, had officially joined the Light faction. Tomemorate that moment, they allowed Sirius to lead the opposition. He smoothly handled the case.


    It was decided that Buckbeak wouldn''t be executed, although the third-year students wouldn''t be allowed to interact with the Hippogriff. The only thing that Lucius Malfoy was able to achieve was light-pping Hagrid and the Hogwarts administration.


    ''From the looks of it, Draco doesn''t seem to be bothered with it,'' thought Quinn. ''Well, it wasn''t a big deal.''


    Quinn then looked at the High Table. He noticed the entire staff was present.


    He looked at Remus and thought about the talk he and the Lycanthrope had had during one of his detentions.


    ...


    Quinn was seated in Remus Lupin''s office as he helped him grade Lupin''s students¡ª except the fifth and seventh year for record purposes.


    "I''m leaving Hogwarts," said Remus, suddenly.


    Quinn stopped writing grades onto the parchment and looked up at Lupin.


    "I don''t think your identity as a Werewolf ever came up in any of the ionite trials," stated Quinn. "Those four ionites did talk about a Werewolf but, well, no one believed them."


    The Wizengamot had dismissed the talk about a Werewolf. It was thought the four ionites were trying to waste time, and the Auror prosecution did a fine job of keeping things on track.


    "James and Sirius omitted me being in the Shack in their reports," spoke Remus, looking down. "They had to lie while being on duty because of me. I can''t stay here. It might bite them in the future."


    Quinn looked at Remus to see if he was making a pun with the ''bite''. But he didn''t seem to, so Quinn continued the conversation.


    "Well, I also got out of the entire situation without anyone knowing. I don''t really me those two for helping you out," replied Quinn. "But I guess you''re right about this backfiring if you stay here. I figured out your identity, and the longer you stay, the greater the chance of someone else finding out."


    Both Quinn and Remus knew that the longer he stayed, the more familiar the students would get with him. So it wouldn''t be long until someone noticed.


    "That''s true. I''m sure that if I stay for another year, Severus will get more agitated and angry. I wouldn''t be surprised if he directly told the students," spoke Remus.


    "I guess you''re right," chuckled Quinn. "Given Professor Snape''s desire for the Defense of Dark Arts position, his attempts to out you will get more direct."


    Remus nodded, and his mind wandered to his school days and the rtionship he had had with Severus Snape. Snape had been the first student outside of his friends who had known he was a Werewolf, and he had kept that secret for more than a decade. Remus knew that if he hade to Hogwarts, Snape would have never tried something like this.


    Remus Lupin, a Gryffindor, saw himself thinking about his school years, and he realized how much of a coward he had been. The friendship he had with James and Sirius also led him to not stop their bullying of other students. A most notable example being Snape. But Remus had been terrified of losing them, so he didn''t do anything to stop them, something that he regretted to this day.


    "I only agreed to attend Hogwarts as a Professor for a year," said Remus. "I''ll get back my previous job. It''s better this way."


    "Your previous job? What did you do before this?" asked Quinn. The canon Remus Lupin lived a disorderly life. He could only manage to work for short periods of time, so he was curious about what this version did for a living.


    "I''m a woodworker. I make furniture, sculptures, joinery, and cabmaking. When you have magic on your side, you can create things quite easily," replied Remus with a wide smile. "I sell to both muggles and wizardkind. I have Squib associates who run shops in the muggle world and sell my creations for me."


    Remus used magic to create intricate pieces of woodwork. With the help of James and Sirius, he had figured out a way to build woodworks that would be considered of excellent quality in the muggle world but were within the confines of wizardingws of secrecy.


    Remus liked the job because he felt peaceful, level-headed, and calm while working. He could do it with his condition because it didn''t take long to create things with magic, and he could rest for the period after he transformed.


    "Oh my, now, that''s an excellent job. Great idea, turning the non-magical world into a stable asset. I respect that," nodded Quinn.


    ...


    Remus had revealed what he was about to do next year, which was to return to his previous job.


    ''Well, at least this will keep the canon timeline more or less the same. At least, I hope so,'' hoped Quinn.


    It was to his benefit that the timeline had remained more or less the same. As long as the major events were more or less the same, Quinn would continue to have information beneficial to him; he would know the future.


    ''Next year is where it all starts,'' thought Quinn.


    The first three canon years had been just the opening act. An innocent world. Just magic and the golden trio, who got up to all sorts of mischief while they tried to solve the mysteries and its surrounding problems.


    But then, things changed. As the main characters grew older, the problems got heavier and the world got darker. That world of magical enjoyment became quite different.


    The Goblet of Fire had been the turning point. It had been the transition from the magical world of fantasy to a moreplex world. And thisplex social world came into y, and with that came new dynamics in the rtionships between the characters. And because of that, jarring shifts happened as a result of those new rtionships.


    ''Not to mention The Goblet of Fire is the book where Voldemort returns. Not as a specter, parasite or a mind-controlling soul fragment, but a magical entity with a body that had his soul, this leading to him returning to his previous power.''


    Quinn knew what that meant. He realized what the return of Voldemort signified and how it would affect the future.


    ''It will reintroduce a magical powerhouse to the ying field. And not just any powerhouse; a powerhouse with the backing of an entire political faction and the capability of changing political circles and converting others.''


    After Voldemort returned in the canon timeline, the Dark Faction acquired the leader the greedy and distrusting Dark Faction members werecking. They got what they needed toe together under the same banner.


    Quinn turned his attention to Albus Dumbledore, who was conversing with other Professors.


    ''If Albus Dumbledore is the Light Faction''s backing, then Voldemort is the Dark Faction''s backing,'' thought Quinn.


    Even though magical power wasn''t needed to gain political power, the wizardingmunity considered magic as might. Lots of magical species considered themselves to be better than the non-magical kin because they had magic. And when one of their kind mastered the magic to a level considered impossible to others, they gained respect and standing.


    That was one of the reasons both Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort were at the top of their groups-sh-factions. They had the skills to lead and the magical ability to back it up.


    Quinn turned his eye to the Slytherin table and focused his vision on Daphne and Astoria Greengrass.


    ''I wonder whether Jacob and Sophie Greengrass will manage to keep the Grey Faction together,'' sighed Quinn. ''I hope their efforts over this year will allow them to maintain firm control over the Grey Faction.''


    The Grey Faction was a cooperative group and, while the Greengrass family acted as the leaders, they weren''t leaders like Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort. The Greengrass couple, in fact, were more managers than leaders, and with the times that were ahead, managing the Grey Faction would be harder.


    "Hey, why are you brooding? Get some food; we have to leave soon."


    Quinn snapped out of his thoughts from Eddie''s voice.


    "Yeah, let''s eat."


    He collected himself and left his thoughts for ater time.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn deboarded the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross Station and stepped on tform Nine and Three-Quarters.


    As every year, there were groups of parents and guardians waiting for their children, eager to meet them after months of separation.


    "Now, where''s my family?" murmured Quinn to himself while looking around.


    While looking around, Quinn noticed a familiar figure.


    "Oh my, someone''s flirting with her," smiled Quinn as he watched a man try to hit on his sister, Lia West.


    A man was trying to talk to her but Lia stood there without bothering to show the man any attention. She even looked bored.


    "Now, what should I do? Well, let''s help her out," sighed Quinn, and as he walked towards her, he called out. "Lia! I''m back!"


    Lia West, who was tuning out whatever the man beside her was spewing, turned back when she heard her name and saw her precious baby brother walking towards her.


    "Quinn," smiled Lia. She went towards her brother without even bothering to give the man a single nce.


    Quinn and Lia hugged for a moment. Then Quinn walked up to the man that had been talking to Lia and was now leering at her.


    "Hey," smiled Quinn and beckoned the man to lean down a little. "Do you want to know a secret?" Quinn gave a discreet nce over his shoulder towards Lia.


    The man nodded and leaned down to Quinn''s height level.


    Quinn calmly raised his head. Then, a barely visible mist of pink escaped his fingers and went into the man''s forehead. The man''s eyes zed over and he became unaware of the current situation.


    "Walk, walk away. Walk, and keep walking," whispered Quinn into the ear of the man before leaning away and walking to Lia.


    As Quinn walked towards Lia, the man stood up straight and started to walk away, just as Quinn had told him.


    "What did you do?" asked Lia as she watched the man walk away on the tform.


    "A little Confundus charm, nothing major," smiled Quinn.


    "And what did you ask him to do?" asked Lia, knowing what the Confundus charm did.


    "I simply asked him to walk."


    "Mhm, walking is easy enough to aplish. No wonder he obeyed so easily," nodded Lia.


    "I could''ve asked him to strip, given his mood. It would have taken just a little more magic, but I could have made him do all sorts of things," said Quinn. He then asked, "And why were you standing there without bothering to talk to him?"


    "I had him as a white noise machine. Also, it kept others away," shrugged Lia.


    "You could have used magic as I did. See how easy it was. He walked away without saying a word," replied Quinn. He especially knew how easy it was to influence people''s minds temporarily. "That man will probably wonder what he did after he snaps out, but then, after just a bit, he will continue on with his life, as simple as that."


    Lia ruffled Quinn''s hair but then lightly gripped his head and rocked his head.


    "You got in trouble once again," said Lia in a somewhat strict voice. "This time, it was a kidnapping."


    Quinn raised his hand and a finger. "First of all, I wasn''t the one being kidnapped. Second, I wasn''t nning to be a part of that thing."


    "You just stumbled into it," finished Lia. "Still, it was dangerous to confront that ionite and beat him up. You could''ve gotten seriously injured."


    Quinn wanted to tell her that he was in no danger but didn''t say anything, as then, the conversation would ensue and Lia would get angry with him.


    He gave her a look of silent apology, and that seemed to do the trick, as she released his head, and she smiled.


    "Alright, let''s get going. The others are waiting."


    "Let''s go. I hope you have gotten better at apparating. Side-apparating with you isn''tfortable, and that is assuming that apparating isfortable," grinned Quinn.


    "Shush, I don''t apparate that often and even less bring someone with me."


    The West siblings turned to walk to the apparition point. Nheless, they stopped, as they heard two voices say in unison.


    " " Quinn. " "


    Lia and Quinn stopped, and Quinn turned to look back to see who was calling him.


    On his left side, Quinn saw the Potter family. Harry Potter, Lily Potter, and James Potter along with Ivy Potter.


    On his right side, Quinn turned to see the Greengrass family. Jacob Greengrass and Sophie Greengrass were there with their two daughters, Astoria Greengrass and Daphne Greengrass. There were the others who had called out Quinn.


    Lia suddenly looked very interested and excited as she saw two girls call out for Quinn.


    "Yes?" asked Quinn. He moved his head side-to-side to look at both parties.


    The two parties looked at each other. The fathers were the first to speak to each other.


    "Potter," said Jacob Greengrass with a rxed smile.


    "Greengrass," returned James Potter with a barely discernible nod.


    Then it was time for the mothers to greet each other. Those two were much friendlier to each other than their husbands.


    "Lily, it''s been a while since we''ve seen each other," smiled Sophie as she stepped forward towards Lily Potter. "You''ve been so busy with your new job that you seem to have forgotten me. Is this what our friendship hase to?"


    Lily also stepped forward and hugged Sophie in greeting.


    "Of course not. Don''t tease me like that. You haven''t written to me either in such a long time," replied Lily. "It''s summer; I''m free for a while. How about we get together to catch up? Just like the old times."


    Quinn scooted near Lia and asked, "They''ve called for me, but then they ignore me. Isn''t this a bit rude?" asked Quinn.


    But Lia wasn''t listening to her brother. She was too busy looking at the two girls who had called for Quinn.


    She had seen and met Daphne Greengrass before, though Daphne hadn''t talked much during that meeting. Her impression of the girl was that she was the quiet type who didn''t speak to people she just met.


    Then there was this other girl. And Lia also recognized this girl as the sister to the Boy-Who-Lived. She had never met Ivy Potter, but she could remember her from the pictures in the newspapers.


    And now, she was watching the two girls staring at each other. If she read them correctly, they were slightly ring at each other.


    ''What''s this? This is exciting. So exciting!'' thought Lia as she looked at the girls with interest.


    Astoria waved at Quinn and smiled. Quinn waved back. Harry Potter nodded and Quinn returned the nod.


    After Jacob and James finished staring at each other and the mothers finished making ns, the two families finally turned to Quinn and Lia.


    "Quinn, it''s been two years since we met. At the ministry ball, remember?" asked Jacob Greengrass, taking the initiative.


    "Indeed, Mr. Greengrass. I remember," nodded Quinn. "We were briefly introduced at the ball."


    Quinn then turned to Sophie Greengrass. And from the bottom of his heart came the most charming smile he had ever graced his face.


    "Mrs. Greengrass. It''s a pleasure to see you again after so much time. I can''t believe we haven''t had the opportunity to meet a second time till now."


    He was about to greet her physically but stopped when he felt a re from a certain someone and stood in his spot before turning the other side.


    "Auror and Professor Potter, I hope you are doing well."


    He didn''t say anything more because he didn''t want to spread any knowledge about what happened at the Shrieking Shack. Though he understood that the Potter family already knew about it. There was an excellent, close to a hundred percent chance that Jacob Greengrass was aware of the actual events and, thus, the rest of his family.


    He gestured to Lia and briefly introduced, "I believe you are already acquainted with her," He fixed his eyes on the Greengrass Family. He then turned his head to the Potter Family. "This is my sister, Lia West."


    Lia nodded gracefully to everybody with a smart and beautiful smile.


    "May I inquire what both of you want to talk about?" asked Quinn, cutting straight to the subject.


    Lily Potter was the first one to speak and brought up what the Potter family wanted with him.


    "Quinn, about the dinner. When are you free for it? We can set it up whenever you want."


    From the corner of his eyes, Quinn saw that neither Jacob nor Sophie looked surprised or curious. Though Daphne and Astoria did have those looks that their parentscked.


    ''So the sisters don''t know, but the parents do. He does have a high enough position to know about it, I guess'' thought Quinn and shrugged.


    "It would be prudent for you to write a formal invitation addressed to my grandfather, George West. I''ll be the one to reply and decide the date, but it''s more convenient if you address the invitation to him," replied Quinn. "I advise you to keep the invitation precise and polite. My grandfather will surely appreciate it. If he approves your invitation, I''ll be at your house for dinner without any hitches."


    "I understand. We will act as advised," replied Lily. "We''re looking forward to hosting you and your family."


    "And I''m looking forward to the evening. I''m sure it will be a lot of fun, Professor," nodded Quinn.


    He then turned to the Greengrass side, and even though he knew what they wanted, he waited, as waiting was what the social protocol demanded.


    "I wanted to talk about the deal and discuss the details," replied Jacob.


    As Daphne had said, Jacob and Sophie Greengrass would agree to whatever was needed as long as Astoria got healthy again.


    "I believe you also need to write to my grandfather. This time, it should be a letter to set up a meeting with him to discuss the details. You''ll probably have toe to visit us, I''m afraid" stated Quinn.


    Lia looked confused, as she didn''t know what Jacob was talking about.


    "Also, please make sure that the letter doesn''t arrive today, tomorrow, or the following day. I haven''t talked to him about it yet, so it would be beneficial to everyone if I have the necessary time to catch up with him."


    Jacob nodded. He wanted his daughter to be healthy; following Quinn''s instructions would be the best way to achieve that.


    "Excellent, now that both of you know what to do, I''m afraid it''s time for me to leave. I''m looking forward to your letters and our eventual meetings."


    He turned and walked away without turning his head back. Staying there any longer would attract attention to him and draw questions. Besides, there wasn''t anything else to talk about; any further fruitful talk would happen after they wrote to his grandfather.


    Lia looked at both families and, after a nod, she too walked away. She followed Quinn.


    The two families looked at each other, and its members wondered how and why they were connected to Quinn West.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Peter Pettigrew sat in an inn in Albania while enjoying a warm meal after weeks of traveling. He was currently under no guise.


    The people here, unlike Britain, didn''t know his face. They didn''t see his ''wanted'' posters daily.


    ''Not that it matters,'' thought Peter as he read a local newspaper. ''I look nothing like in those posters.''


    The image for the posters had been taken before he had been brought to Azkaban. The physical appearance of his past self was totally different from the one he had now. The difference was substantial.


    But it turned out that Peter was wrong about people not recognizing him in Albania. He hadn''t taken into ount one type of person.


    "Peter? Peter Pettigrew? Is that you?"


    Peter froze. One of his hands sneaked into his robes and grasped apatible wand he had stolen.


    He looked up and saw a plump woman standing in front of him. It took him a few moments to recognize her, but he did recognize her.


    ''Bertha Jorkins. What''s she doing here?'' he thought, and then it struck him. ''Work? No, she''s here for tourism.''


    After years in Azkaban, Peter had gotten infinitely better at controlling his emotions and his actions. He was naturally able to control his emotions without the use of magic such as lumency.


    "Sorry,dy, but you''ve got the wrong chap. I don''t know this Peter guy you''re talking about."


    He kept a confused and slightly annoyed face as he said that.


    "No, no, I know you. You''re Peter Pettigrew," insisted Bertha Jorkins.


    Bertha Jorkins was a British witch. A Ministry of Magic employee who worked in the Department of Magical Games and Sports.


    Bertha Jorkins had been a few years ahead of James Potter, Sirius ck, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew when they studied at Hogwarts.


    She had been a gossipy girl and not very bright, which Peter noted to not be a goodbination. During her school years, she would regrlyin about the mistreatment other students apparently had. She would even spread rumors. That had pushed Dumbledore to act on one asion following one incident.


    "Nope, not me. How about you sit down and tell me why you think I''m this Peter Pettigrew bloke," said Peter. He wanted to make sure whether his guess about Bertha''s personality had been correct. He had his wand ready just in case.


    It turned out he had been right, as Bertha sat down at Peter''s table and started to tell him why she thought he was Peter Pettigrew.


    ''Gossipy and not bright. Not a goodbination, I''m afraid,'' thought Peter as he continued to listen to her while nodding and humming in response.


    After a while, Peter had his fill of food and drinks and was ready to leave. He turned to Bertha.


    "Let''s go take a walk. I want to talk more but I need to stretch my legs."


    He got up and went to the barkeep to pay for his food. He then walked out of the inn with Bertha following him out.


    "Are you sure you aren''t Peter Pettigrew? You look like him if he was thin," asked Bertha.


    "I guess I''m Peter Pettigrew, after all," replied Peter when they were alone.


    "So you say, but I think-." Then Bertha stopped when she heard what Peter said. "You said it! You said that you''re Peter; no takebacks!"


    Peter smiled, calmly raised his wand, and pointed it at her.


    "Imperio."


    Bertha''s eyes zed over, and she stopped talking and became silent.


    "Follow me."


    Peter and the Imperio-ed Bertha Jorkins headed to the Albanian forest for a few hours without stopping.


    Peter Pettigrew was also Wormtail, a rat Animagus. And with that transformation came the ability to talk to rats while in his Animagus state.


    He had been at a loss as he didn''t know how to find the Dark Lord, but then he heard some chatter among the rats. For years, there had been a dark shadow that lived in the Albanian forest. Someone who took over other animals, killed them, and then moved on.


    The Albanian forest had be a feared ce for these creatures, and no one went there as their instincts screamed at them to run away.


    Peter had nothing to go on with, and as such he investigated the only lead he had.


    ''Where''s he? Let him be here,'' thought Peter and looked at the sky to see the sun setting. ''I should leave before it gets dark.'' He looked to his side and thought. ''I should get rid of her.''


    He had only brought Bertha along with him because the rats said that the shadow used bodies of animals. Peter had thought that a human body would be more suitable if the dark shadow was the Dark Lord.


    As he raised his wand to kill Bertha Jorkins, but then, Peter heard a loud and deep hissing sound.


    He looked around and saw nothing, yet the hissing sound continued toe from all around him.


    Then all of a sudden, it stopped, and the area went eerie silent.


    What followed put a smile on Peter''s face.


    "... Wormtail," came a voice like a whisper, yet it was everywhere.


    Peter stood up straight and smiled.


    "I''m here, my lord. At your service."


    .


    - (End of Volume 5: Year Four) -


    .


    [


    A/N [1] - Same deal as thest time. Will take a small break before returning. Two/three/four days.


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    A/N[2] - I will be floating a poll tomorrow so be sure to vote what you prefer.


    ]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - This will be a busy summer.


    Peter Pettigrew - Wormtail - Determined, tempered, strong.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - See you guyster.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 119 - Start Of The Summer

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sat down on the chair in a semi-ornate and elegant office. To his front was the office''s owner, who sat behind a desk.


    "I assume we''re going to talk about the Greengrass and Potter matters," asked Quinn.


    "Yes, we are," replied the older gentleman. "I understand the Potters, but you didn''t tell me anything about the Greengrass family. What rtion do you have with them?"


    It was the day after Quinn had returned from Hogwarts. He was sitting in his grandfather''s office talking about his associations with children of affluent and well-connected families.


    "The Potters want to invite me to show hospitality and their gratitude for having helped them out. When their invitations arrive, I''ll reply at my own discretion," answered Quinn before moving on to the next family.


    "... The Greengrass matter is a bit moreplicated and yet so simple," sighed Quinn. "The Greengrass bloodline suffers from a blood curse, a generational curse that is passed along to the descendants. It causes them to have a limited lifespan and an even weaker constitution. The curse skips generations and doesn''t affect everyone, but this generation was out of luck."


    "This curse resurfaced? Who is it?"


    "Astoria Greengrass, the younger of the Greengrass children. She bears the curse and with it, all its malignant effects," answered Quinn thinking about the weak Astoria that he saw in the hospital wing bed.


    "And you have a way to cure the blood curse?"


    Quinn shook his head in rejection. "No, I''m not able to cure it. If I had the cure, we wouldn''t have this talk. I would''ve cured her, and that would have been the end."


    "It seems you''ve made friends. Friends you don''t mind helping out with nothing in return."


    "Yes, I have. I have made a few close friends," nodded Quinn. "I gave Astoria my word that I would help her mitigate the symptoms of the blood curse whenever she needed. And I assured her older sister that I will continue to palliate Astoria''s symptoms until a cure is found or discovered. And that can be in many, many years from now."


    "How have you been able to help the younger daughter? I''m sure the Greengrass Family must have been looking for the cure for centuries."


    Quinn sighed and then raised his hands. He willed his magic and his forearm glowed in a fiery red light, highlighting his veins.


    "Blood magic," sighed Quinn. He didn''t want to show magics that were questionable from a moral point of view. "I used blood magic to repress the curse. It worked wonders because the blood curse has been created with the same branch of magic."


    He didn''t go into the details of the magic as it wasn''t necessary.


    "Blood magic. Yes, I remember there being a few books in your collections. I just hoped it would be a while till you started to dabble in dangerous magic," sighed George West. "The books weren''t from around here, that''s for sure. Are you sure it''s safe for you? Any dangers in general?"


    "There aren''t. It''s just like any healing spell. I won''t be in danger of any harm from the blood curse and neither will Astoria," answered Quinn.


    "So what do you want me to do? She''s your friend. Of course you can continue to heal her," said George.


    "Astoria is my friend, but Jacob Greengrass isn''t. He is the Greengrass householder," said Quinn. "I was thinking you could use this opportunity to build some positive and profitable ties with the Greengrass Family. I will leave the matters to you. I will continue to heal Astoria regardless of whether you get a partnership or not."


    "Mhm, you think Jacob Greengrass will likely show some goodwill towards us because you''re healing his daughter."


    "Yes, his daughter will continue to receive my treatment. If you could take advantage of the situation, strike a deal and start a business venture together, it will be a win-win for everyone. I''m sure Jacob Greengrass will be thrilled to do business with us and, thus, he will be quite proactive," suggested Quinn, seeing this situation as a viable business opportunity.


    George nodded. He agreed that this would indeed be a good business opportunity.


    "Alright, after Jacob Greengrass sends over a letter, I shall set up a meeting. We''ll see if he wants to cooperate."


    Quinn nodded. He didn''t want to be part of such matters.


    "Now, about the Potters?" asked George.


    "What about them?"


    "Do you want us to go with you?"


    "Hmm, if you want. You''re wee to join me," said Quinn. He shrugged. He didn''t care whether his grandfather came along with him or not.


    "I see, then I won''t being along," dered George. "I''ve nothing to talk about with the Potter Family. You could ask Lia. Perhaps she''ll want toe with you."


    "Alright, I''ll ask Lia." nodded Quinn.


    "Anything else you want to talk about?" trying to end the conversation. He needed to leave for a meeting in a while.


    "Oh, yes. I want to learn apparition, so I''ll need you to book me an apparition course..." said Quinn, and when he saw George didn''t look averse to the idea, he continued. "... in Denmark."


    George was about to agree but then stopped at Quinn''s words. "In Denmark? Why?"


    "They have legalized under-seventeen apparition there, so I thought, if I am going to learn apparition, why not learn it where it''s legal at my age," shrugged Quinn, exining his reasoning to his grandfather. "Also, I thought it would be fun to get out of the country for a week."


    "A week?" smiled George. "Are you implying that it will take you only a week to learn how to apparate? That''s too little time to learn apparition, don''t you think?"


    A smile of confidence surfaced on Quinn''s face as he replied, "Of course not, I''m sure it will take longer to be a master, but I''m sure I''ll get the basics down in under a week. Enough to get around, I presume."


    George tapped his finger on his desk. He gazed at Quinn for a few seconds before nodding.


    "Alright, I will arrange your travel and stay. One of our associates will chaperon you while you stay in Denmark."


    "I don''t require a chaperon," rebuked Quinn.


    "Of course, I understand, yet I insist that there be one," inquired Geroge. "Of course, whomever I choose won''t restrict your movements. They will only make sure that you''re safe."


    Quinn sighed. He knew that no matter what he said, it wouldn''t work. George West had decided it, and Quinn wasn''t feeling rebellious enough to defy his grandfather.


    "Please choose someone fun. At least someone who is... flexible. You know, not reluctant to do some exploration," asked Quinn.


    George smiled in reply.


    "I shall see what I can do."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "You''ve be sloppy. Your fingers are rigid, the flow is terrible, and the sound, oh my ears, the sound. It''s like the chords have been substituted by arpeggios."


    Quinn winced as he yed the piano. Listening to cutting taunts and criticism to his ying wasn''t his cup of tea.


    ''Now I know why I never got the urge to y after I returned home,'' thought Quinn as he continued to y Diabelli''s Sonatina Op. 151.


    He nced over his shoulder to see his strict piano teacher looking at him disapprovingly.


    "I didn''t have much time to regrly practice, Ms. Rosey," said Quinn. He was conscious that he had yed the piano a little more than a handful of times.


    "I didn''t expect you to make excuses, young master," humphed Ms. Rosey as her eyes narrowed. "If one wants to make time, they''ll find the time. It''s called time management. If you want to make excuses, at least choose a believable one."


    Quinn suppressed a groan but didn''t stop ying, as stopping while ying a piece in the middle wasn''t an option.


    He closed his eyes, and the efficiency aspect of his lumency came into y. His mind became sharper, and so did his control over his body.


    The fingers became mechanical as the sound of the piano began to flow. Itcked individuality and emotions, but it was correct, precise, and how the piece was supposed to be yed.


    Ms. Rosey looked at the piano, then at Quinn''s hands, and finally at Quinn. She didn''t say anything until Quinn was done finishing the piece.


    The piece was finally done, and Quinn''s fingers finally came to a stop. He looked up at Ms. Rosey and asked, "How was thest act? It flowed, didn''t it?"


    "It was more than decent," nodded Ms. Rosey. "But you used magic as an aid. It wasn''t your natural skill. But I will allow it. It will, at least, shake off the rust."


    ''I can''t get a break,'' sighed Quinn.


    "I will get better than this by the end of the break," assured Quinn.


    "No magic?"


    "No magic," nodded Quinn. "Pure skill."


    Quinn turned back to the piano and once again began ying. This time the piece was more mainstream: Mozart''s Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major.


    He didn''t use lumency to improve his skill. The uracy while ying was lower, but the individuality and emotion remained.


    "Better,"plimented Ms. Rosey as she could tell the difference.


    As he continued to y, Quinn heard Ms. Rosey speak up again.


    "I heard you''ll soon be going to the Potter''s for dinner?"


    "Yes," replied with a furrow of his brow in confusion.


    "I see. Then we shall revise your table manners and other skills. I want to see how bad you''ve gotten," sniffed Ms. Rosey. "I wonder how bad your manners have be after eating with children."


    *Tang*


    "Ms. Rosey!" whined Quinn and stopped ying with a discordant note. "My manners are fine. I consciously made sure they stayed the same, as you taught me to."


    Quinn was expecting a hot retort in return, but he got a hand brushing through his hair.


    "How else am I supposed to spend time with you?" asked the woman who had been the motherly figure for Quinn. "If I don''t try to nag you, would you spend time with me?"


    Quinn looked at the oldest person in the West manor. She was even older than his grandfather.


    "Now, why would you say that?" asked Quinn as he stood up from his seat. "You just have to say it, and I''ll spend all the time you want with you."


    Out of all adults in his life, Quinn considered Ms. Rosey to be the one who influenced him the most. More than his grandfather, more this sister, more than Elliot and, finally, more than n.


    Quinn''s personality was an amalgam of qualities that he liked in the adults surrounding him. These qualities, along with his own base personality, hadbined together to form the personality of Quinn West.


    But the thing that first attracted people to Quinn was the way he held himself. The way he walked, sat, and moved his body was all thanks to Ms. Rosey.


    Peoplemunicated in two ways. There was verbal and nonverbalmunication. But what people often took for granted was bodynguage, and the truth was that 70 to 93 percent of allmunication was nonverbal.


    Quinn''s current personality was based upon his old personality. His old self from his previous life was still the base for his new one.


    But Quinn''s bodynguage had nothing of his old one. Everything from his previous home had been erased, stripped away. He was the way he was now thanks to Ms. Rosey.


    Quinn''s bodynguage apanied his words with the backbone and backing that they needed. The slight gestures he made while talking, such as the tilt of his head, the movement of his hands, the way he sat, the bnce of his weight while he stood¡­ were what made his words gain that plus that made people listen to him.


    Quinn liked magic, but what about the hard work that he put in? He was nowhere this hard-working in his previous life.


    It was Ms. Rosey''s constant pestering that forced him to work on things. He wasn''t good at any of the things Ms. Rosey taught him, but her tutge was what showed Quinn how good it felt when hard work paid off.


    Quinn was sure that if he hadn''t had Ms. Rosey in his life, Quinn wouldn''t have been able to maintain the level of hard work he put in now.


    "I promise that I will spend time with you," said Quinn as he gave Ms. Rosey a side hug. "You know I can''t live with you. If you weren''t here, I''d bezy, like Lia."


    Ms. Rosey lightly pped Quinn''s shoulder. She gave him a little smile.


    "Your sister isn''tzy. I sometimes worry about that girl. Your grandfather makes Lia work a little too hard. Georgie needs to reel it in a little."


    While Ms. Rosey had raised Quinn ever since he was a one-year-old baby, Ms. Rosey had also raised Lia ever since she was eleven years old. And simr to Quinn, she had been the only motherly figure to Lia, and that was even more important to Lia, as she was a girl.


    Quinn smiled after he heard Ms. Rosey calling his grandfather ''Georgie''. That nickname would escape her mouth sometimes whenever she felt safe enough.


    "She is fine after all, I guess," chuckled Quinn. "I''m sure she has fun after work. Besides, I think she is a secret workaholic."


    Ms. Rosey shook her head before separating from Quinn. She, then, returned to her usual strict mode.


    "Now, let''s get to the piano," instructed Ms. Rosey. "I need to see you better than now by the end of summer."


    Quinn smiled. As much as he enjoyed ying the piano on his own, as it calmed him down, ying with Ms. Rosey standing near his back let him feel nostalgia. It had another kind of charm.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Elliot watched as Quinn stood in their old wood shack near a herb garden that he and Quinn had built together when Quinn had been younger.


    No one other than Quinn used the shack, and it would be in the summer breaks when Quinn would use it. Aside from that time, the shack would remain closed. Nevertheless, Elliot made sure the shack was kept functional throughout the year.


    Last year, Quinn hadn''t used it once because of his inability to use magic. He even refused to even touch the shack even after Elliot had offered to handle the magic portion of the potion brewing.


    So it was a pleasant sight to Elliot to see Quinn working on potion brewing in the old shack where he taught Quinn the art of brewing.


    "What are you brewing?"


    Quinn looked up to see Elliot standing near the shack''s door.


    "Uncle Elliot, I didn''t see you there," smiled Quinn as he moved to another table and retrieved a light yellow powder. "I''m performing some Alchemy."


    Elliot''s eyes widened when he heard Quinn.


    "Alchemy! Young master, I didn''t know you knew how to perform Alchemy."


    Alchemy was an advanced branch of magic, and he didn''t think that someone as young as Quinn would know how to perform Alchemy.


    "I know a thing or two," smiled Quinn as he carefully sprinkled the yellow powder into the bubbling cauldron.


    "What are you doing?" asked Elliot in fascination and curiosity. He had only met a few Alchemists in his life but he hadn''t seen any of them work. So this was an exciting moment for him.


    "I''m brewing a fertilizer of sorts," replied Quinn. "I''ve been working on alchemic solutions that encourage and enhance nt growth."


    Quinn pointed at the cauldron in front of him and continued, "This one here is a solution that would enable the growth of a magical herb that only grows near the radiating heat of volcanoes. If I add this solution to a soil patch in our garden, that magical nt will grow here even if the environment isn''t suitable for it."


    A smile surfaced on Quinn''s face as he observed the change inside the cauldron.


    "It''s almost ready," smiled Quinn.


    Elliot saw Quinn raise his hand. Suddenly, orange magic beams appeared and entered the cauldron. That made Elliot gasp because in potion brewing, inserting external magic into a boiling brew was inviting an explosion to the face.


    But this was alchemy, and it was all about external magic to push the magic essence of ingredients to create something extraordinary.


    After Quinn was done, he stepped back as the brew inside the cauldron started to sh in earthy colors. The shing lights grew stronger and brighter before everything died down, and what remained was a sizzling sound from inside the cauldron.


    Quinn stepped closer, peaked inside the cauldron before turning to Elliot in satisfaction. "It''s a sess."


    He collected the resulting solution, which had reduced from a full cauldron to a jug.


    "Let''s see this in action," grinned Quinn. He raised the jug full of the alchemic fertilizer and showed it to Elliot.


    Elliot and Quinn walked to the herb garden, where Quinn had prepared a wide and shallow reinforced w pot filled with soil from the garden.


    "I don''t want the other nts to be affected, so I''ll be using it in here," exined Quinn to Elliot, who listened thoroughly. "The seeds are already in there, so let''s pour it in and see the result."


    Quinn poured the jug of alchemic solution into the soil, and the effects were instant.


    The brown soil turned ck as the solution seeped and spread throughout the pot. But it wasn''t over, as the ck soil also gained a red sheen that would very dully sh when the sun reflected on it.


    Elliot could feel that the color change wasn''t the only thing it changed. He could feel an intense heating from the pot. If he weren''t looking, he would have thought that he was standing near a zing fire.


    "Now we will have to wait for a few days to see the results," guessed Elliot. "I''m looking forward to seeing how the nt will grow inside this soil."


    "Oh, no, Uncle Elliot," chuckled Quinn. "While it would indeed take weeks for the nt to grow to full maturity. This is alchemy; a wondrous art."


    Quinn pointed at the soil, and Elliot saw brown twigs emerge out of the hot ck soil.


    "The solution I brewed had a little boost in it. The sprouting of the seeds is the hardest part for this nt due to the conditions it grows in. But with alchemy, we''ll be able to kick start that sprouting, and now every seed will be able to grow to maturity."


    Elliot continued to watch as Quinn continued.


    "This could also have been aplished with potions, but it would''ve taken weeks or even months for me to brew a potion with simr effects," smiled Quinn. "Luckily, this is alchemy. I''ve been able to recreate months of potion brewing within a day. Uncle. I know you once said potions are the ultimate transformative magic, but I think alchemy takes that crown."


    Elliot wordlessly nodded as he continued to see seeds sprout from inside the ck soil.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Back home and catching up.


    George West - Grandfather - A lot of times, people can''t refuse me.


    Ms. Rosey - Motherly figure - Raised two excellent and talented children.


    Elliot Dalton - Potion Master - Finally saw alchemy in person.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 120 - Greengrasses Visit The West Manor

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_L / n_Loo]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    George West and Elliot Dalton stood near the firece of West Manor, which was in an ornate room that was used to greet guests who arrived at the vi via floo travel.


    "Are the floo wards adjusted?" asked George, making sure for thest time.


    A floo firece could be warded to block its connection to the floowork, and the West Manor floo firece had those wards always active until needed. So until the wards were adjusted, no one could enter the West Manor via the firece.


    Elliot nodded in reply. "Yes, the wards were adjusted half an hour ago."


    "Where''s my grandson?" asked George, looking at Elliot, who was standing beside him. Ms. Rosey, on the other hand, was behind them, near the door.


    "I am afraid I am not sure." Elliot shook his head.


    He looked back at Ms. Rosey to see whether she knew Quinn''s whereabouts.


    "He is in the rehearsal room," replied Ms. Rosey.


    George nced back at Ms. Rosey and asked. "Why isn''t he here? Is he not aware of the time of arrival?"


    "I don''t think he is aware," replied Elliot after thinking if Quinn had been made aware of today''s events. "It seems we forgot to tell him."


    "They areing because of him," sighed George and then looked at Ms. Rosey to ask. "Is he presentable?"


    Ms. Rosey nodded her head in confidence, as though that wasn''t even a question.


    "Good," nodded back George, before turning towards the firece. At that moment, the fire turned green, which signified the arrival of someone at the West Manor floo-point.


    Four figures came out of the firece. They gracefully stepped onto the floor of the floo-room of the West Manor. All of them were dressed in smart, semi-casual clothing.


    George stepped forward and greeted the new arrivals.


    "Wee to the West Manor." greeted George.


    "Mr. West, it has been a while," greeted Jacob Greengrass as he stepped forward to shake hands with George.


    "It has been, Jacob. It''s good to see you after such a long time."


    George turned to thedy beside Jacob and softly smiled.


    "Lady Sophie, you''re still as beautiful as I saw you thest time," he took the offered hand and kissed it on the knuckles.


    "Thank you for thepliment, Mr. West," smiled Sophie gracefully. "You, too, are as charming as ever."


    George turned to the remaining two of the four and greeted them with a friendly and calm smile.


    "Daphne and Astoria, right?" greeted George to the two Greengrass sisters. "It''s lovely to meet you two. Quinn has told me a lot about you two."


    The two girls curtsied as practiced and greeted Quinn''s grandfather.


    "Nice to meet you, Mr. West."


    George looked at the Greengrass parents and said. "How about we adults move to the lounge..." he turned to nce at Daphne and Astoria. "... and leave them alone? Let''s not bore you with our talks."


    He turned back to face the door and face the door where Ms. Rosey stood.


    "Ms. Rosey, would you lead these twodies to Quinn?" instructed George and then looked at the Greengrass sisters. "If you two would follow Ms. Rosey, she will lead you to Quinn."


    Both daughters looked at their mother for permission, who nodded in agreement.


    Daphne and Astoria followed after Ms. Rosey. The three left the floo firece room.


    After the three left, George turned to Jacob and Sophie Greengrass.


    "Let''s talk."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "How''s Quinn when he is at home?"


    Ms. Rosey looked to her left at the younger Greengrass sister, who looked at her with starry curiosity in her eyes as she asked the question.


    "Could you borate?" returned Ms. Rosey, as the three continued to walk to the rehearsal room.


    "I mean, is he different at home than when he is outside, in front of others when he haspany," asked Astoria. She wanted to know if Quinn was the same at home as he was at school.


    Ms. Rosey briefly nced at the girl. She thought about the question and how she should answer it before speaking.


    "From what I have observed, the young master is the same at home as when he is outside. If there was a difference, then it would be that the young master is much more rxed at home. He is much more carefree and unrestricted while he is at home."


    ."


    Astoria felt confused because, from what she had seen, Quinn was always carefree and rxed. And from what she had heard from Daphne and Tracey, Quinn was pretty much the most unrestricted person in Hogwarts.


    "So he isn''t sloppy or a slob at home," asked Astoria. She was secretly hoping that Quinn was the total opposite of what he was outside.


    Ms. Rosey raised her eyebrow. She had known Quinn since he was born and, from what she remembered, he had never been a slob or sloppy while he was at home.


    Astoria seemed to understand the answer from Ms. Rosey''s look.


    "Has Quinn lived in this manor ever since he was a babe?" This time it was Daphne who asked the question. And while Astoria asked the questions, Daphne looked around. They were walking through the corridors of a reallyrge home.


    The mansion at the Greengrass estate wasrge, but it was way smaller than West Manor.


    "Yes, the young master has lived in this vi ever since he was a babe," replied Ms. Rosey with a smile as she recalled the days before Quinn started school.


    "How was Quinn when he was a child?" asked Astoria. Even Daphne seemed thoroughly interested in how Quinn was when he was a child.


    "The young master was a lively child. When he wasn''t staying still, he would be moving all over the manor," smiled Ms. Rosey. "If we didn''t keep an eye on him, he would be gone before we knew it. He covered a lot of ground back in those days."


    Daphne and Astoria imagined a baby Quinn with a childish grin on his face as he ran away on his chubby feet whileughing with a baby chortle.


    "We are here," informed Ms. Rosey. She stopped in front of arge double door. "The young master is inside."


    She stepped forward and opened the door and a faint sound of a piano immediately leaked out.


    Ms. Rosey ced a finger on her lips before stepping inside. Daphne and Astoria looked at each other and then stepped inside the room. The sound of the piano became louder, more pronounced and clearer than when they were outside of the room.


    The rehearsal room was covered in sound charms that provided great acoustics. Originally, the grand piano inside the West Manor wasn''t in this room. Quinn had moved it to this room to help him experiment with sound charms. Hence, he had gradually added charms to the room, so he built up and changed the charm scheme there was in the room.


    The result was the room achieved the best acoustics Quinn could aplish with magic, which were much better than the acoustics there were in the original room.


    The three entered the rehearsal room, which opened into a corner of the room.


    Daphne and Astoria turned to their right and saw Quinn ying the piano. He had his back facing them.


    The music was fast and loud. The piece Quinn was ying didn''t seem to have slow moments.


    Daphne and Astoria could see Quinn''s head moving slightly as his fingers glided over the keys. Because of the pace, Quinn''s fingers stuck close to the keys, while not getting a second of rest.


    Whereas Ms. Rosey listened to the music with her experienced ear and judged Quinn''s ying, Daphne and Astoria became wholly entranced by the music that came out of the piano and was flowing around them.


    The music made them feel they needed to move around. It became impossible to stand still doing anything. Daphne softly tapped her foot and Astoria swayed her body.


    It took two minutes for Quinn to finish his piece. When the music ended, silence gained a hold on the room.


    "Young master, you have guests," said Ms. Rosey after Quinn had stopped ying the piano.


    Quinn turned back, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Daphne and Astoria standing beside Ms. Rosey.


    He looked at Ms. Rosey and asked. "They arrived today? Was I told about this? Did I forget?" He did a shallow and quick dive into his mindscape and sorted memories, but he couldn''t recall hearing about the Greengrass Familying today.


    "It seems we forgot to inform you," replied Ms. Rosey. "They''ve just arrived. Jacob and Sophie Greengrass are with your grandfather." She politely gestured to Daphne and Astoria. "I was asked to escort these twodies to you."


    Quinn stood up from his piano stool and walked towards the girls with a smile on his face. He wore a grey crew neck shirt and white shorts that went a little below his knees. On his feet were a pair of slippers that he wore forfort while inside the house.


    "What has it been, two weeks?" smiled Quinn. "It''s good to see you two." He pointed at the piano at his back and continued. "Did you like my ying?"


    "It was great. I felt I needed to move the entire time," nodded Astoria enthusiastically.


    Quinn looked at the other sister to see whether she had something to say.


    "I didn''t know that you yed the piano," asked Daphne.


    "I do," he gestured to Ms. Rosey by their side. "Ms. Rosey has been teaching me since I was young. I can also y the violin."


    Quinn then addressed Ms. Rosey, "Where''s grandfather and his guests?"


    "In the lounge."


    "Then we will go to the living room," told Quinn. "Please prepare refreshments for us."


    "Yes, young master."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    While the lounge was a sitting area with a more formal vibe, the living room was a sitting area with more of an informal feel. So while the adults did their thing, Quinn brought the Greengrass sisters to unwind in a rxed setting.


    "How are you two?" asked Quinn, as he sat down on the sofa. Daphne and Astoria took a seat on the sofa in front of Quinn. "How''s the summer break going?"


    "I rode a horse!" eximed Astoria. "It was my first time, and even though it was frightening at first, it became so much funter on."


    The Greengrass estate had a working horse stable. The horses there were bred and taken care of by the family. Every member of the Greengrass family learned how to ride a horse. But because of Astoria''s health, she hadn''t been allowed to learn.


    Now, however, as the blood curse had been repressed, Astoria could finally do things she had missed out on. And learning how to ride a horse was one of the things she had on her list. As such, the first thing Astoria asked after she had been ''cured'' was to be taught horseback riding.


    "Now isn''t that great," smiled Quinn. "I have only ridden horses a couple of times. I''ve ridden a winged horse, though, which is awesome."


    "Really! That sounds fun! I want to try it, too," eximed Astoria. She mentally added that to her to-do list.


    Daphne, on the other hand, softly sighed. She could almost see what Astoria was thinking of. It had been tough for her and their parents to get used to the new hyper-active Astoria, who wanted to do everything she hadn''t been able to do previously.


    They still had the necessity to treat Astoria as someone who couldn''t do strenuous physical activities. Even after Quinn had repressed the curse, they would get urges to stop Astoria from moving around so much. The three had to consciously remind themselves that Astoria''s curse was no longer a problem.


    Quinn nced towards Daphne and asked her the same question.


    "What about you, Daphne? What have you been doing?"


    "I''ve been busy keeping herpany," sighed Daphne as she pointed at Astoria. "She drags me everywhere and makes me do all the things she''s doing. Honestly, I don''t know how someone can have so much energy. She''s been moving all day without taking a break."


    Astoria stuck out a tongue and then hugged Daphne''s arm. "Yet you still keep mypany withoutining."


    Daphne shook her head with a sigh. Actually, she had been having fun. Astoria had been all smiles recently, and seeing her like that made Daphne joyous from the bottom of her heart.


    "What have you been doing?" asked Daphne as she shifted in her spot to getfortable (Astoria kept snuggling into her side).


    Quinn shrugged in reply. "As of now, nothing new; I''m spending time with my family, rxing, and doing things I can''t do in Hogwarts. I''ve been going to many markets, too, both magical and non-magical."


    That surprised Daphne and Astoria as they didn''t have much contact with the non-magical world. But unlike many of their pureblood peers, the Greengrass sisters had a curiosity about the non-magical world.


    "How is a muggle market?" asked Daphne, interested. "Is it different from something like... Diagon Alley, for example?"


    "Markets are the same everywhere. Shops selling all sorts of items and assortments. The only difference is that the items are non-magic," answered Quinn. "Well, some items out there might interest you because of their exotic origin. How about I take you out to the non-magical world someday? It will be a fun trip, I''m sure."


    Daphne looked at Quinn, who had just offered to take her to the muggle world, and thought. ''...Is he talking about a... date? Is he taking me out on a date?''


    The mind of the adolescent girl began to whirl. Lots of thoughts began to revolve around her. Daphne ended up thinking that Quinn''s offer of escorting her to the non-magical world was him asking out for a date.


    "... Daphne... Daphne?.. Daphne..."


    Daphne snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Quinn, who was calling her.


    "Yes?"


    "Are you alright? You seemed to zoom out there," asked Quinn. "Something you''d like to share with us?"


    "It''s nothing. I was just thinking about the muggle world," replied Daphne. She then sat up straight. She became attentive. "I will take you on that offer to show me the muggle world."


    Quinn nodded with a lop-sided smile. "It would be my honor to escort you, mydy."


    Daphne held back the blush that was threatening to break out on her cheeks. It took all her will to not show how she was feeling. In the end, she simply nodded.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was after lunchtime, and everyone had gathered in the living room to witness Quinn repressing Astoria''s curse.


    The trace ced on wands by the ministry to track underage magic didn''t work in magical households. The trace functioned by detecting magic when it happened around traced wands. But inside a magical home, the detected magic could be from an adult, so the ministry ignored any magic detections if the marked wands were inside magic-heavy areas.


    Not that it mattered because Quinn hadn''t touched his wand in a year, and the wand that he was holding while sitting in front of Astoria was the fake that he had crafted before his first year.


    "Are you ready, Astoria," asked Quinn as he gazed at the condition of the girl in front of him. The curse was still a week away from resurfacing, but Quinn had decided that he would heal Astoria a week before the due date so she wouldn''t ever feel the slightest of the effects.


    "Yes, I am ready," answered Astoria, sounding nervous.


    Thest time she hadn''t known what Quinn was doing. It happened so abruptly and swiftly that she didn''t have time toprehend what was happening. But this time, she was aware of what Quinn was doing and, thus, it made her feel a little nervous in case something went wrong.


    "It will be alright. You just need to sit back and rx. I will take care of everything," assured Quinn with a smile as if trying to calm a child before they got an injection. "Concentrate on the pretty blue that will appear on your body and enjoy the process. It will be over before you even know it."


    Quinn put hands out just ahead of hisp, and Astoria ced her hands into Quinn''s, though not before exhaling a deep sigh.


    For a few moments, Quinn did nothing but hold hands with Astoria, giving her time to adjust and get ready. After he thought she was ready, Quinn gently released his right from Astoria''s left, held the fake wand in his hand, and did a bogus swing to get the wand out of the way.


    Red fiery glowing veins appeared on Quinn''s forearms, covering his hands in awork of blood that was channeling blood magic.


    He gently grasped Astoria''s hands and then looked at her to see that Astoria was still a little nervous.


    "Astoria, look at me," he called out, causing Astoria to look up from his hands to his face. "Look at my face if you are feeling nervous. Concentrate on my eyes and forget about the magic. It will feel rxing in a minute."


    Astoria nodded and concentrated on Quinn''s stone-grey eyes, which were smiling. She tried to ignore the magic in Quinn''s arms.


    Jacob and Sophie Greengrass watched as the glowing red veins traveled up Astoria''s arms and covered her entire body in awork of illuminated veins. They both felt anxious about the treatment that was happening in front of their eyes.


    They had had a healer who had been really experienced in curses check on Astoria when she returned home. And the healer confirmed that Astoria''s blood curse had been repressed, and that she wasn''t in any immediate danger.


    But even then, they were nervous about the current treatment. The two parents had no idea what Quinn was doing and only knew that blood magic was dangerous. It caused them to be anxious. As such, they prayed that everything would go smoothly.


    George, Elliot, and Ms. Rosey also watched Quinn healing Astoria. Aside from George, who had seen Quinn briefly activate blood magic, for the others it was the first time they had seen blood magic performed.


    None in the room knew Quinn''s full capabilities in the room, and his family was no exception. His family knew Quinn was advanced for his age, but none of them knew the specifics. Hence, it was their first time seeing Quinn perform blood magic.


    They all watched. Then, the shing veins covering Astoria''s body and Quinn''s forearms turned a sparkling blue. It was at that moment that the knowledge from healing magic and water magic came into y, as Quinn started to repress the blood curse to sleep for a while.


    Daphne sat perpendicr, and she breathed a sigh of relief as the color changed to blue, as she saw Astoria immediately rx and loosen up. It was clear that Astoria was feeling better already.


    Her eyes then went to Quinn, who she saw was still smiling, though she could see his eyes were observing Astoria with concentration and focus. It was clear he wanted to make sure nothing went wrong.


    As she watched, Daphne got lost watching Quinn, who was different from what she usually saw. She was used to seeing Quinn joking around,ughing, making jokes, joining up with Tracey to act silly.


    But she hadn''t seen Quinn acting seriously that much. The only time she could recall him being that serious was when he chased away the Dementors. Nheless, at that time, she had been scared of the dementor and wasn''t paying much attention. By the time she returned to normal, Quinn was grinning and talking about chocte.


    So this was Daphne''s first time seeing Quinn really focused on something, and because she was so close to him, she couldn''t help but find herself lost at the sight that was in front of her.


    It took a few minutes toplete the process. After finishing, Quinn breathed a sigh to release the magic; the blue colored veins retreated from Astoria''s body and his forearms. Then, he cut the connection by releasing Astoria''s hands.


    "How are you feeling?" asked Quinn.


    "It felt good while you were doing magic, but right now, I don''t feel any different from before," answered Astoria. "Maybe a little skippy, but nothing else."


    "Excellent, that means it went fine," nodded Quinn and then turned to the Greengrass parents.


    "She''ll be quite energetic and active today. It would be something like a child hopped up on sugar, so let her run around and tire herself out, or she won''t sleep at night," said Quinn, giving follow-up remarks to the parents of his patients. "She will be fine for the rest of the summer break. I think we should do this once more before going to school. For the rest of the sessions, I will take care of this inside the school itself."


    Sophie Greengrass stepped forwards towards and took his hands in hers. "Thank you, Quinn. You''ve done a great favor to my family. I can''t express how grateful we are to you."


    It took Quinn a moment before he was able to speak. "... Oh, not a problem at all, Mrs. Greengrass. It was my pleasure to help Astoria out. Astoria is more fun when she''s like this."


    Jacob Greengrass, too, thanked Quinn for his help and told him that if Quinn ever needed any help, he only needed to ask.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was time for the Greengrass to return home. Everyone was standing in the firece room.


    "Mr. West. Thank you for your hospitality," smiled Jacob Greengrass as he shook hands with George. "It was a pleasure to meet you again, and I look forward to our cooperation in the future."


    As Quinn had suggested, George had proposed a business proposition and, as Quinn had thought, Jacob had been open to participating in a profitable venture with the West Family.


    "Let''s meet soon to talk, Jacob," nodded George.


    As the adults talked, Astoria approached Quinn and beckoned him to lean down.


    "What is it?" asked Quinn as he leaned down. He wondered why Astoria wanted to whisper something in his ear.


    But Astoria had other ns as she ced her hand on Quinn''s shoulder and then ced a soft peck on his cheek.


    "Astoria!" eximed Daphne, who was standing nearby with her mother. She felt a little annoyed at Astoria''s actions.


    "Oh my~," smiled Sophie with a hand in front of her lips. She had watched with interest when her younger daughter kissed Quinn on his cheek.


    The younger Greengrass then shyly giggled and ran towards the firece, threw the floo-powder into the firece, and then jumped inside after speaking of her destination.


    Quinn couldn''t help but be stunned. His hand went to his cheek.


    He suddenly became conscious of the eyes of others in the room and felt a little shy as everyone stared at him.


    Unfortunately for him, unlike Astoria, he couldn''t disappear into the floo-firece. He could only stand still as the adults chuckled while a blonde girl red at him from the corner of his eyes.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC- Don''t just leave me alone here!


    Astoria Greengrass - Escaped from the scene - Hehe~, I kissed Quinn.


    Daphne Greengrass - Stunned - Feeling miffed and another emotion that she can''t recognize.


    nL - Editor - Fufufufu~


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 121 - Quinn West Arrives At Denmark

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_L / n_Loo]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sat inside in the living room of the West Manor. He had his trusty suitcase by his side. In his hand rested a work on sound and auditory magic. Illusion magic and mours had been one of the magics that Quinn went back to studying from time to time.


    In his free time, Quinn would learn about the five senses and how to manipte them. To use them to create convincing and persuasive illusions that would hold capabilities to alter the target''s sense of reality.


    "Auditory pareidolia: tendency to make meaningful interpretations from a nebulous stimulus. Those who suffer from this have a tendency to perceive meaningful patterns when hearing obscure sounds," read Quinn from one of the more interesting parts of the tome. "Isn''t pareidolia usually a visual phenomenon? Like the moon rabbit. How could one put this in the auditory spectrum?"


    Quinn thought about it for a while beforeing to a rudimentary conclusion. "Hmm, maybe it''s those hidden messages inside a song. Or maybe an audio clip yed backward to reveal a message. No, those are too simple. I''ll have to think of something else, something I can exploit."


    But Quinn saw himself without any more time to think as he heard footsteps. The thing about family (or close friends) was that, if you belonged to that family, you ended up recognizing each other''s footsteps.


    He stood up from the sofa and closed the tome he had in his hands. He put it then into one of his every day expanded pockets that he had attached to the insides of the summer jacket he was wearing.


    The footsteps entered the room from the living room entrance and called out to Quinn.


    "The portkey is ready. The departure time is in ten minutes," announced Elliot. "I hope you''re packed and ready to go."


    Quinn picked the suitcase that had been gifted to him by Lia before his first year. The suitcase held his entire personal library, his personal effects from his workshop, and the stuff Quinn never showed to anyone. Such objects remained most of the time inside the suitcase.


    "I''m always packed," replied Quinn with a smile.


    Elliot and Quinn started to walk outside the ward line of the West estate. The ward line that enclosed the West estate stretched beyond the manor and epassed a sizablend. Furthermore, to indicate the limits of the vi, high walls surrounded the property.


    In order to get outside the ward line, one would need to get outside the manor and walk outside the estate''s main gates, which were rarely used by anyone in the family. The only time they were used was for using the portkey and, as such, Lia was the only one who would use them when she traveled outside of the country.


    "Do you have any information about the chaperone that grandfather has appointed for this trip?" asked Quinn, as he and Elliot walked on the tiled pathway that started from the manor gates to the front gates and passed through the green meadows of the estate.


    "Unfortunately, the only information about your chaperone is their name and that they work for our family business," replied Elliot.


    Quinn nced at Elliot and gave him a look of unbelief. "That''s false, isn''t it? I''m sure you have read through the person''s entire file."


    Elliot was the close confidant to George West, and his position in the business was only second to George. There was only so much a butler could do when the family had a house-elf who had magic that specialized in house care.


    And Ms. Rosey was in charge of the West family''s personal side, like managing the estates that spread around the countries.


    As such, Elliot was heavily involved in the business side of things. Even Lia, at the level she was now, had less authority than Elliot. It would take some for even the heir apparent to surpass Elliot when it came to business affairs.


    Elliot smiled at Quinn''s words and nodded. "I do know a lot about the person. But I''m afraid I''ve been told not to share those details with you."


    "Why? I should know who will be apanying me on my first solo trip outside the country."


    "If we were to give you the detailed files on the person, you would have probably figured out how to evade ''them'' or exploit ''them'' in some way," chuckled Elliot and looked at the teenager who boasted to have over a hundred people owing to him. "But if we send you without knowing anything, we assume that by the time you figure ''them'' out, it will be time to return home."


    Quinn clicked his tongue in disappointment. If he had some background information, he would know what buttons to push to make things go easier as, no matter what his grandfather said, Quinn was sure that his chaperone would try to restrict some of his movements.


    "Alright, then tell me his name," asked Quinn. If nothing else, he could start with the name.


    "Aksel Thorn," replied Elliot.


    Quinn raised his left brow in response. "Is this name amon one, because that''s a cool name. I mean, just listen to it, Aksel Thorn. It sounds badass."


    "Young master, I''m not an expert on Danish names, so I can''tment on the rarity of the name."


    "Hmm, whatever. Is this Aksel Thorn meeting me here, or will he be meeting me in Denmark?"


    "He will meet you on the other side," answered Elliot as they finally reached the main gate. "Wouldn''t it be a hassle for him to take a portkey here and then return to Denmark immediately? He will be the first person you will meet."


    Quinn looked at therge metal gates that stood as the ''official'' gates of the West estate. The gates were needlesslyrge and didn''t have any small sub-gates built into them for easy ess. One of the things that the architects forgot to add because of how little they were used.


    Quinnzily waved his right hand once to unlock the chains that locked gate. Right then, the heavy chains slipped down. The lock holding them in ce opened. Slowly, therge and heavy main gate creaked open just enough for Quinn and Elliot to pass through.


    "Should I transmute the metal to create a more practical gate?" asked Quinn as he and Elliot stepped onto the dirt road outside the estate.


    "I don''t believe that''s a good idea. Your grandfather doesn''t like the architecture of this manor to change," denied Elliot. "If you want to, you will have to ask your grandfather."


    Elliot then took out a Breton hat from his inner pocket and handed it to Quinn. Quinn grabbed it.


    "This is the portkey?" asked Quinn looking over the blue Breton hat.


    "Yes," replied Elliot. "It should be active by now. The keywords to trigger the magic are ''happy travel.''"


    Quinn clenched the cap tight before giving Elliot a hug.


    "I''ll see you in a week or so," said Quinn. "I have a MagiFax unit in my suitcase. I''ll write every day, and you can write to me every day."


    "That would be nice," nodded Elliot. "Do alert us if you require something. We will ry the message to our associates in Denmark, and you will have what you require as soon as possible."


    "I expect nothing less."


    Quinn ended the hug and stepped back from Elliot, and smiled. "See youter. I will send you a letter in a couple of hours."


    "Have a safe trip, young master."


    Quinn nodded, raised the Breton hat, and uttered the keyword.


    "Happy travels."


    It happened immediately. Quinn felt a hook just behind his navel suddenly jerk him irresistibly forward. His feet left the ground, and he sped forward in a howl of wind and swirling color; his hand always clenched the Breton hat. His hands were stuck to the cap as though it was pulling him maically onward. Then, he felt that the ride was about to end, so Quinn prepared fornding.


    He felt the end of the speedy travel that had him in transition for an entire minute because of the cross-country travel. Quinn prepared his feet and softlynded, without being flung onto the ground.


    "This is wild," sighed Quinn, taking a couple of seconds to readjust himself. He was feeling a bit windblown. He then looked at the hat in his hand.


    "Huh, perfect timing." Quinn put on the Breton hat on his head and, as he expected, it was his size.


    There was a clear opening in front of him. A forest began not far away. It was clearly an isted ce where non-magical people won''t wander around to see a person suddenly appear out of nowhere.


    "Quinn West."


    Quinn heard his name be called, so he looked at his back to see a tall Caucasian man with brte hair and long stubble adorning his face. He wore a Louis brown leather jacket over a ck shirt, dark-grey denim pants, and leather boots.


    "My name is Aksel Thorn, and I will be your guide while you stay here in Denmark," greeted Aksel.


    "Ah, yes, Mr. Thorn," replied Quinn as he stepped forward to shake hands with his babysitter. "I''ve heard about you. It''s nice to meet you."


    Aksel shook hands with Quinn and asked. "Really? What have you heard?"


    "Just some tidbits," responded Quinn. Of course, he didn''t know crap about Aksel. Except for his name, he had no knowledge about Aksel. "But I would like to hear from you. Tell me about yourself."


    Aksel looked at the person he was to follow around and make sure he didn''t get hurt.


    "You already know my name. I work for the West Family business here in Denmark," started Aksel.


    "What do you do?" asked Quinn. "What''s your role? I''m sure you aren''t a full-time guide, are you?"


    "No, of course not," replied Aksel. "I hold a management position at one of the businesses owned by the West family."


    "... Is that so," said Quinn and nced at Aksel.


    Aksel Thorn was a well-built man, and while Quinn understood that people with desk jobs could be fit, Aksel Thorn looked a different kind of fit.


    If Quinn had topare, then Aksel Thorn reminded him of -


    ''He walks as James Potter did,'' thought Quinn. He was starting to notice some simrities between the Senior Auror and his guide. ''Is he an Auror... or maybe a Hit wizard?''


    ''I wonder what he actually does?'' Quinn nced at Aksel''s head and thought. ''Should I get a little peek? Hmm, maybe ''not now. I just met him. Let''s do that if he gets in my way.''


    Quinn withdrew his eyes from Aksel and looked around to see his surroundings.


    And as he did that, Aksel Thorn started to observe Quinn and thought about his current assignment. He had been called out of his regr job to be a guide and bodyguard for George West''s grandson. He had been charged with the safety of someone from the West Family.


    Whenever the order came from the very top, he couldn''t refuse. He had to ept this assignment that was keeping him away from his real job.


    ''Quinn West,'' thought Aksel.


    He had been giving a briefing about his current charge. Aksel had been told not to let Quinn out of his sight. As long as Quinn wanted to do something, Aksel had to apany him. He was asked to allow Quinn freedom as long as it wasn''t dangerous.


    ''The file did say that there was a possibility that Quinn West would try to go out alone,'' recalled Aksel. He had been told a few things about Quinn, and one of those was that there was a possibility that Quinn would try to explore the area and the magical hotspots and that he would try to do it alone.


    ''I will need to keep an eye out on him,'' noted Aksel. He saw that they had arrived at the beginning of the forest.


    "What''s your preferred method of travel? Do you want to get to the hotel by floo, or would you be fine if we apparate?" asked Aksel.


    Quinn smiled in reply. "I''m here to learn apparition, so let''s go with apparition. From now on, as long as it''s possible, let''s go with apparition."


    Aksel offered his arm to Quinn, which he held, and immediately it felt like he was being forced through a rubber tube. Quinn held his breath to make sure he wouldn''t be knocked out. He felt as if had iron chains around his chest. As his eyeballs were being forced back into his head. As his ear-drums were being pushed deeper into his skull.


    After a short few seconds, Quinn felt the world return to normal, and he was on his feet.


    "Ugh, tell me that apparition feels better than side-along apparition because that won''t feel good no matter how many times I do it," asked Quinn with a grimace on his face.


    "It feels better than side-along," answered Aksel. "It''s like driving a broom with someone riding along with you. You feel fine no matter how much you fly, but the person behind is scared half to death."


    Quinn nodded at the analogy. It was the magical version of sitting in the passenger seat of a speeding car.


    "Where are we?" asked Quinn as he looked around.


    He saw that they were in what looked like a lobby of a hotel. There was a marbled floor below his feet, a big crystal chandelier over his head, luxurious sofas (where people sat and chatted with each other) and other furniture ced around, filling the room with lively energy.


    Bellboys carried the luggage as their services. But because it was a magical hotel, the luggage floated behind the bellboys in queues.


    Aksel patted Quinn on his shoulder and walked towards the front desk. Quinn followed behind Aksel while taking in his surroundings.


    "Balbh East," said Aksel to the hotel concierge, announcing the name under which the room had been booked.


    Quinn raised his brow at the fake name Aksel had used.


    "Yes, a master suite has been booked under that name," confirmed the concierge, and then his eyes widened a little when he saw a note against the record, which said that the guest was to be treated with extreme care and utmost importance.


    The concierge called upon a bellboy to ask him to escort them to their room while giving him a look that clearly said to be extra polite to Quinn and Aksel.


    When Quinn and Aksel stepped into the hotel''s lift, Quinn asked. "Did you choose that name on your own?"


    The fake name Balbh East was theplete opposite of Quinn West. Quinn was a word of Irish origin, and it meant wise, while Balbh was the Irish word for dumb, the opposite of Quinn. The family name was self-exnatory, being in the opposite directions.


    "No," denied Aksel. He didn''t even know what the name meant. "I was asked to book the room under that name."


    "Then it must be her," sighed Quinn with a smile. He realized that Lia was the only one who woulde up with that name.


    He looked at Aksel and asked again, "Where are we? As in, where are we in Denmark?"


    "We are in Aarhus," replied Aksel as they stepped off the elevator and followed after the bellboy. "Aarhus is the secondrgest city in Denmark. It is located on the eastern shore of Jund in the Kattegat sea, in the northwest of Copenhagen. Aarhus is the central hub of Denmark''s sorcerer society."


    The magical people of Denmarks called themselves ''sorcerers'' and ''sorceresses'' instead of ''wizards'' and ''witches'', as was preferred in Britain.


    The two reached the master suite that had been booked for them, and the bellboy handed them the keys after opening the door.


    The master suite was more luxurious than Quinn expected. It had two rooms with amon living room space, which connected the two rooms.


    "Please ring the bell at any time of the day, and someone will be at your service," said the bellboy. He then left after making sure the guests were settled.


    "You should take the master bedroom," said Aksel and walked to the other room. "I will take this one. You should rest for the day. Your sses start tomorrow."


    Quinn nodded, but before Aksel could leave, he said. "I''d like to see the magical society today. So please be ready to escort me."


    Then he walked into his room without giving Aksel a single look. Aksel Thorn might be his chaperone, but that didn''t mean that he could control his actions. If Quinn West wanted to go sightseeing, then Aksel would have toply.


    Quinn West had arrived in Denmark.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Hej, Danmark!


    Elliot Dalton - Confidant of the West family - More of a part-time Butler.


    Aksel Thorn - Cool name - What''s his actual job?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 122 - Apparition: The Art Of Teleportation

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_L / n_Loo]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was ten in the morning, and Quinn was walking through a green field with Aksel following behind him. It was the day after Quinn had arrived at Aarhus, Denmark, and Quinn had gotten up at six in the morning to start his day with the two-hour workout exercise he had started in the summer break.


    Unlike Hogwarts, where he had to walk across the lengthy webs of corridors and go down the stairs between every period to get to his next destination, the summers at West Manor were different, as theycked the staircases and intricate corridors.


    Therefore, Quinn had decided topensate that by adding an hour to his morning conditioning session and his evening Muay Thai practices. Quinn had been thinking about upping the intensity and length of his sessions for the uing year. He had ns to tackle the mind, his body and soul.


    After eating breakfast, Quinn and Aksel arrived at the ce where Quinn was going to learn apparition.


    Aksel looked at Quinn''s back and thought about yesterday and this morning. Quinn had been perfectly polite and manageable while he escorted him through every ce Quinn asked for. He had followed his lead and didn''t seem to be a problem at all.


    Yesterday, Quinn had promptly informed him that he exercised in the morning and asked Aksel to show him to a park to work out, preferably outdoors.


    Aksel had met his share of kids from wealthy families; his job had made hime across a few of them. Rich kids who had all kinds of luxuries and, more often than not, those luxuries would make themcent. They wouldn''t know the fruit of hard work.


    In his experience, rich kids didn''t like to wake up early in the morning and work out till sweat was dripping down their entire bodies. But he had seen Quinn voluntarily wake up and vigorously work out. And from the looks of it, Quinn had been doing it for a while as he lookedfortable doing it despite putting a lot into it.


    "When will this teacher of mine show up, I wonder" asked Quinn as he looked around the patch of green that surrounded him.


    "There are a few minutes to go before the agreed time," replied Aksel, looking at his wristwatch.


    The location of this ce was also a good distance from the urban Aarhus. It was in the countryside. Many magical ces were like this because they would provide a decent enough cover from non-magical people.


    ''There''s only a simple non-magical repellent ward around the ce,'' noticed Quinn. He looked at the small wooden cabin in front of him and saw the sign hanging on the cabin roof. ''I wonder if it''s a charm covering the area, or is there a ward stone inside that cabin with runes keyed to it.''


    "What does that sign mean?" asked Quinn. He knew a number ofnguages, but Danish wasn''t one of them.


    Aksel gazed at the wooden sign and read the text written in his mother tongue.


    "Haldor''s Apparition ss."


    ''Haldor, that''s a male name,'' thought Quinn.


    After a minute, Quinn and Aksel heard a familiar pop sound; they saw a man dressed in a jacket and pants with a cap over his head appear in the field.


    The man had his hands tucked deep into his pockets, and the way he walked looked like he had just woken up and was slowly strolling through his house. It looked like the man didn''t notice them because he kept walking towards the wooden cabin without looking at either Quinn or Aksel.


    "Hello," called out Quinn.


    The man stopped in his spot and turned his head to see two people standing nearby him. His face lightly scrunched up as he wanted to get a cup of coffee before starting his day.


    "... Yes?" said the man in Danish. Quinn understood it as he had learned a fewmon phrases from Aksel yesterday.


    "Are you the owner of this ce?" asked Quinn.


    The man stared at Quinn, who spoke in English, and from his ent, the man could guess that he was British. Then he nced at Aksel suspiciously. The kid was smiling, but the big fellow with the kid had his arms crossed and was staring at him with unblinking and observing eyes.


    "... yeah, I''m the owner, Haldor," replied the man in English, who owned and operated the Haldor''s Apparition sses.


    "Excellent! Nice to meet you, Haldor. My name is Quinn West," introduced Quinn, happy to know that he could finally get started. "I''m here from my apparition lessons. You asked us to meet you here at ten."


    The man looked confused for a second as he couldn''t recall setting up a meeting today. Then he slightly grimaced because his head hurt.


    ''Damn, I shouldn''t have drunk so much. This hangover is killing me,'' thought the man. He suppressed a groan before saying. "Yeah, wait here. I''ll be back in a second."


    He entered the cabin and closed the door behind him. The interior of the cabin had only a single room with no partition or walls separating anything.


    The cabin was messy, as if it wasn''t cleaned regrly, and the things inside weren''t arranged properly.


    A small wooden desk stood near the wall that was opposite to the door with a wooden chair a distance behind it in the opposite direction from the table. Moving to the side, one could see a metal closet in a corner near the desk that had its door ajar open.


    The door to the cabin was near the corner of a wall and on the other corner of that wallid a cot that had enough space for one person to sleepfortably. The covering sheet was haphazardly spread out, and the bedding, too, was a mess.


    On one side was a brick firece built into a wall that looked like it had been recently used. It was connected to the chimney. The brickwork framed the firece and had a ledge over it for storing things. Right now, the ledge held empty liquor bottles, dirty mugs, sses, and ash.


    Haldor walked to the table in the cabin and started to riffle through the unorganized mess of parchment, newspaper, magazines to find something.


    "Where is it?" asked Haldor, reading papers, seams of the newspapers, and flipping through the magazines in an attempt to find a particr parchment.


    Haldor''s hands moved through the pile, and his eyes studied until they caught sight of the item he was looking for. He snatched up the crumpled sheet of parchment and moved it in the path of the sole window in the cabin to get some light on it.


    "Here it is," muttered Haldor. "Quinn West; paid in full. Today at ten. sses will be every day, yes, I remember now."


    Haldor, through his hangover haze, remembered being contacted for this case. He had got this client through hisndy, who had suddenly, out of nowhere, brought him a customer.


    ''Didn''t she say that the kid out there is someone from a rich family?'' thought Haldor while rubbing his shoulder.


    Haldor''sndy had suddenly knocked on his door and said that she had a job for him and wanted him to teach a kid how to apparate, which wasn''t unusual here in Denmark, but then, she said that the kid would be a foreigner.


    She told him that some kid from Britain would being to Denmark to learn apparition and that she had snatched this opportunity for him. Thendy told him that the kid was from a rich and powerful family, so the pay would be extremely good.


    Haldor, who was short on money and was deep in debt, had epted because he ran apparition sses and knew how to speak English. Haldor really needed the money because the people he owed were getting annoyed that he couldn''t pay up; some of them had evene up to his house to ask for money.


    It wasn''t until he had a fat pouch of coins in his hand that Haldor realized thendy wasn''t kidding when she said that the kid was from a rich family. He was able to pay all his debt, pay his bills for the month, and still had some coins left. So to celebrate being debt-free for the first time in years, he went to drink and splurged to his heart''s desire.


    And now here he was, suffering from a heavy hangover on the day he needed to teach.


    ''Well, whatever, I''m sure they won''t notice,'' thought Haldor, and a yawn overcame him and then another bout of headache. ''Ugh, I''m not drinking ever again.''


    Haldor, who was thinking about getting a coffee before starting his day, threw the thought out of his mind and walked out to do the job.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Good morning," greeted Haldor. "My name is Haldor, no family name, just Haldor. I''ll be your apparition instructor as long as it takes you to learn apparition. I realize that you aren''t from Denmark, but I hope that by the end of our time together you pass the apparition test set up by our ministry."


    Haldor looked at Quinn, who stood in front of him, listening to him attentively. Then looked at Aksel, who stood under the shade of trees, observing them with azy, yet watchful eye.


    Haldor withdrew his eyes from Aksel and looked back to Quinn. "Before we start, I would like to warn you that apparition, if not used properly, is a dangerous magic. There are ces where you can''t apparate because of wards and enchantments. And some of those wards can be nasty, so I insist that you exercise caution."


    Quinn nodded. He knew about the danger of anti-apparition wards. He had read about anti-apparition wards and knew the variety of extra effects that could be added into the wards aside from just prohibiting spatial travel.


    Some wards wouldn''t allow apparition when you tried it from your origin/destination point. The apparator wouldn''t be able to jump to the destination and would simply remain in their spot while feeling a wall-like feeling while trying to apparate to the ward destination.


    Other wards would allow the apparition to be initiated. But just before reaching the destination, the ward woulde into effect and they would be violently thrown just outside the ward line. If the person was skilled at apparating, they would only suffer physical damage from being thrown down mid-travel, but if they weren''t, there were good chances of being severely splinched.


    "This area here doesn''t have restrictions against apparition. Thus there won''t be any danger in that regard," assured Haldor. He didn''t want to scare Quinn before they could even get started.


    "That''s good to hear," smiled Quinn. He took out his fake wand.


    "Let''s get started," said Haldor and took out his wand from his pocket and held it in his hands which were covered in fingerless gloves.


    He pointed his wand, and at a distance of ten feet, a patch of grass turned bright yellow.


    "As you can see, I turned a patch of grass to yellow. The yellow color is the most noticeable color to the human eye, you see," exined Haldor and then instructed. "I would like you to concentrate on that spot and properly memorize it. Make sure that you can hold it in your mind."


    Quinn nodded and gazed at the yellow patch of grass and nothing else for a few seconds before diving into his mindscape to use lumency to strengthen that memory by magical means.


    Haldor continued to stand beside Quinn, but didn''t urge him to hurry up. He wanted Quinn to be satisfied with his image of the yellow spot so that the uing tasks would be smoother. Plus, he felt lethargic and didn''t want to speak anything more than his usual teaching dialogue.


    "I''m ready. What''s next?"


    Haldor nodded and started. "There are three important things you need to remember while apparating..." Haldor paused for a second before continuing. "... In English, they would be Destination, Purpose, and Deliberation."


    "How about we call them, Destination, Determination, and Deliberation," smiled Quinn as gave him the three concepts he had read in some books. "That would make it three D''s. The three D''s of apparition."


    "I see. Alright, let''s go with that," nodded Haldor at the suggestion. It didn''t matter what the three principles were called as long Quinn understood what the three points meant. And it was Haldor''s job to exin to him right now.


    "Step one: Focus your mind firmly on the desired destination," started Haldor. "We already have done that. You''ve already memorized the yellow patch, which is the destination that we will be going to. But still, concentrate upon that destination once more, please."


    Quinn nodded and immersed himself into the memory book that held the image of the yellow patch of grass.


    "Alright, I''m done," informed Quinn.


    "Step two," said Haldor and tried to put some strength into the speech. "Focus. Be determined, as if you were upying the visualized space! You have to long for it. Let that thought invade your mind, to every particle of your body! You want to feel from the bottom of heart that you want to be on top of that yellow spot!"


    Quinn followed the instruction and willed his magic to transport him to the yellow spot. Quinn called upon the magic inside his body to permeate all over his body.


    "Step three," called Haldor, "And only when I give you themand... Rotate around yourself. Feel yourself delve into nothing, but always with deliberation! At my count of three. On mymand, now... one -"


    Quinn took a deep breath, looked at the yellow grass patch, and focused on the image that he had created in his mind.


    "- two -"


    The sight from his eyes and the image in his mind started to ovep as Haldor continued to countdown.


    "- THREE!"


    Quinn triggered and felt himself spin; he momentarily felt the tug and the slight feeling of being sucked, and just when Quinn thought he was sessful, then proceeded to lose his bnce, and fell over the ground... on his butt.


    What greeted him was the clear blue sky staring down at him with fluffy clouds carelessly floating away.


    "Never mind, never mind," said Haldor dryly, who did not seem to have expected anything better. "Get up, please, and we will try again..."


    Haldor had been teaching apparition for a while now, and even though he didn''t get students regrly, he had enough teaching experience to be used to seeing his students fail.


    Aksel, on the side, under the shade of the tree, also didn''t look surprised. He had learned apparition in a group with his friends and remembered that it had taken him and his friends a lot of time to get themselves from one spot to another.


    And even though Aksel was supposed to protect Quinn, he couldn''t protect him from splinching mishaps. Of course, Aksel was going to make sure that if Quinn left behind some of his body parts, the damage would be fixed as soon as possible.


    Quinn got up from the ground and brushed his clothes.


    "That was fun," said Quinn. "Let''s do this again."


    He thought back to his recent and first failed attempt at apparition.


    ''What went wrong? The first D, that is, destination, was perfect. My memory wasn''t the problem,'' thought Quinn, ''which means it was one of thest two Ds.''


    Quinn prided himself on having firm control over his emotions and, consequently, his will. As long as it was magic, Quinn''s will was the one thing he could count upon. And as Quinn never used a focus, so he was pretty sure his will when it came to magic was quite strong.


    ''Let''s hope it''s not will that I amcking,'' thought Quinn.


    Determination was the part where Quinn had to imagine traveling to the ce that he was imagining; wanting his magic to make him travel to the destination. Deliberation was the part where he would trigger the magic to apparate; it was the thing that would let his magic do the job and appear on the other side.


    Quinn closed his eyes and imagined the yellow patch of grass. He then let his magic flow throughout his body so that every part of his body could apparate when he triggered the magic. And then, he triggered the magic so he could transfer his body to the yellow grass patch.


    Once again, Quinn felt the tug of the apparition and felt being sucked in. This time it was a little more than before, but once again, the magic was interrupted. And Quinn, once again, fell down.


    "Damn," muttered Quinn as he admired the clouds. "That cloud looks like a wolf, or is it a dog."


    Haldor sat down on the grass beside Quinn and said. "Don''t give up; it will take a lot more time to get to the destination. Apparition is a difficult art; it takes a lot more practice time to get the hang of it."


    Quinn didn''t reply and used his hands to roll on his back. He then pushed himself into a handstand, and then he thrust himself up to get up on his feet.


    He walked to the starting point, lightly held his fake wand in his hand, and slightly tilted his head as he gazed at the yellow patch ten feet in front of him. Magic once again covered his body, and the desire to get to his destination coursed throughout the active magic.


    A cool breeze rustled the grass on the ground and the leaves on the trees. pping of wings could be heard as birds took off in the distance. The sun shone warmly from above the clouds. All of it came together to create the perfect day to be outside.


    Then everything went silent as the wind paused for a moment.


    Aksel was looking at the leaves above his head and the light filtering through the gaps in the canopy. Haldor let his eyes drop to give them a rest after a night of drinking and short sleep.


    And in that moment, Quinn imagined traveling through the fabric of space to the yellow patch.


    Quinn recalled the words that Haldor had spoken to him.


    ''Feeling my way into the nothingness. That''s it.''


    Quinn felt the tug and pull of the apparition. It wasn''t like a side-along apparition; it wasn''t his entire being was being remodeled to be fit into a pipe. No, this felt much natural, a little ufortable, but natural.


    And then he was gone.


    *Pop*


    Haldor and Aksel heard a loud pop, one that akin to a small explosion. Their eyes widened after they noticed what happened. Both adults looked up to see Quinn, who had disappeared from where he was standing.


    Their eyes immediately went to the yellow patch of grass, and there he stood, looking at his arms and body with a watchful eye.


    The two grown men looked at Quinn with their eyes as wide as saucers. Haldor even had a slightly open jaw. Both were shocked that the kid in front of them only took three attempts to sessfully apparate.


    But to Quinn, it wasn''t surprising. Even though it was Quinn''s first day performing apparition; it wasn''t his first day at reading about it. He had read a lot about apparition magic. Knew what to look for, and that''s what he did.


    In his first turn, Quinn attempted to apparate and failed. But in doing so, he was able to identify the process of activating apparition. From that identification, Quinn was able to draft a list of possible fail-points.


    In his second turn, after activating apparition, Quinn analyzed every fail-point he had considered and checked listed to see what caused the travel to fail. And in doing so, he was able to find what the problem was.


    After thinking about it, Quinn realized why his magic failed¡ª his magic had resisted aparating. Apparition was magic that, when activated properly, made sure that the user would be teleported without fault.


    Splinching happened when some parts of the body weren''t covered with the ''apparating magic'' and, thus, was left behind. As long as the entire body was covered, apparition magic would take care of the rest by itself.


    But Quinn''s apparition had failed because he didn''t relinquish control to the magic. Apparition magic wanted to teleport Quinn, but his magic wouldn''t let the ''apparating magic'' take control. Quinn''s tight rein over his magic after the sin vault interfered with his ability to apparate.


    When Quinn was lying down on the ground, looking at the sky, he also thought about why he could side-along apparate just fine. Why didn''t his magic resist side-along apparition?


    Quinn concluded that his magic didn''t act up because he let the other person take him along. It was like he was letting someone drive him to a ce, and as such, his magic didn''t act up.


    Back to the problem. What was the answer? Quinn had to let the magic do its job.


    If this was any other situation, Quinn wouldn''t have relinquished control, but this was his own magic, so he let the apparition magic take him.


    And his imagination of traveling through the fabric of space became a reality through the use of magic.


    Quinn had traveled from the spot beside Haldor to the yellow grass patch.


    He turned to them and grinned. "I am whole. I didn''t leave anything behind. But I think I need to work on the sound. It was rather loud, wasn''t it?"


    Quinn looked at the stunned men and then at the sky above.


    "It''s a really good day today."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "I can teleport! Pop-pop-pop!"


    Haldor - Apparition instructor - Hungover but debt-free, so he can''tin.


    Aksel Thorn - Standing under the tree - "... How?"


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 123 - Mastering Apparition, Plans, And Dreams

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    *Pop!*


    Quinn vanished from his spot and appeared near Aksel, who was standing under a tree.


    "Pop!" grinned Quinn, enjoying his new ability to apparate.


    It was two days after Quinn learned to apparate. On the first day, he had shocked both Aksel and Haldor by seeding apparition in mere three tries. At first, both of them thought that Quinn had gotten lucky, but then he proceeded to apparate five times in a row and established that it wasn''t a fluke.


    On the second day, Haldor repeated the exercise from the first day and kept it safe. He wanted Quinn to get used to the feeling of apparition before moving on.


    Aksel looked at Quinn, who was grinning, and asked. "If you want, we can switch instructors and join someone morepetent."


    "Hmm? Now, what would prompt you to say that?" questioned Quinn.


    "You saw how he arrived yesterday," pointed Aksel. "He was clearly hungover and not prepared. That wasn''t professional. You already understand the first level of apparition. So, if you want, we can go and choose another instructor. I know some good ones and can arrange sses with them by the end of the day."


    Aksel didn''t have a positive impression of Haldor. He didn''t like those who didn''t take their jobs seriously, and Haldoring to his job in an unsightly manner didn''t make a good impression.


    Quinn shook his head with a small smile. "Actually, I think Haldor is a good teacher. A teacher needs to be two things to be a good educator. First, they need to be good at what they teach, and Haldor was clearly good at apparition."


    Quinn, too, had noticed Haldor''s condition when he had arrived, but he also noticed something else.


    "Haldor wasn''t feeling good, and from the looks of it, he was feeling it bad, yet he still apparated without a problem. Despite suffering from what I am guessing, headaches, nausea, and dizziness, which are all big red signs for not apparating, he did it without splinching."


    "That just shows he is good at apparition," shrugged Quinn.


    "Point the second, a teacher needs to be good at teaching," continued Quinn. If Haldor wasn''t good at exining, it wouldn''t matter how good he was at his craft. "Haldor taught just fine. If he was hungover yesterday and I still managed to apparate, then I''m sure that he would do better today, given that he isn''t hungover."


    A light pop was heard behind them.


    "Speaking of the devil..." said Quinn and turned saw Haldor standing at a distance from them. "... See, he is better today."


    Unlike yesterday, when Haldor arrived with a messy appearance: ubed hair, rumpled clothes, ck circles under his eyes, and his mood was also down. Today''s Haldor looked like he had taken a bath, used ab on his hair, wore clothes that weren''t from thest day, and had a good night''s sleep.


    "... Good morning," greeted Haldor, his voice held more energy than yesterday.


    "Morning," replied Quinn while Aksel silently nodded.


    Haldor beckoned Quinn to the center of the field and started today''s lesson.


    "Yesterday, we got you familiarized with apparition. And you somehow grasped it quickly, too quickly, really quickly," said Haldor. He still couldn''t believe what Quinn had aplished yesterday. "So today, we will be moving on and practice the next step. Follow me."


    Haldor and Quinn walked to the edge of the circr clearing, just beneath the trees surrounding the clearing, which Haldor used as his instruction center.


    "Yesterday, we stuck to apparating to a three-meter (10 feet) distance," recapped Haldor. "So today, we will be going beyond that and go further."


    He pointed somewhere around the center of the circr clearing and expressed. "The distance from here to the center of the field is thirty meters (100 feet). I want you to apparate to the center."


    Haldor then, without any warning, disapparated from beside Quinn and appeared at the center of the field.


    "Right around here!" shouted Haldor as he looked at Quinn from his new spot.


    Quinn grinned, visualized his destination, covered his body with magic, triggered the apparition magic, and then let the magic do its work.


    Haldor watched Quinn disapparate from his spot and was expecting Quinn to appear beside him, but Quinn didn''t. Haldor heard the loud pop and looked in that direction to see Quinn standing near the opposite edge of the clearing and was waving his hand.


    "How about we move on to the next step?" beamed Quinn, traveling double the distance Haldor had specified. "You should change the exercise to something more fun."


    Haldor looked at Quinn and felt amazed. When still new to apparating, people tend to be scared about apparating to lengthy distances. Unlike Quinn, a majority of people experienced splinching or at the very least witnessed splinching while learning. And that created a slight fear about apparating longer distances.


    But Quinncked the experience of splinching and thuscked the fear. He understood that as long as the distances weren''t changed exponentially, the difficulty remained the same.


    "Well, let''s do something else," sighed Haldor and called Quinn closer, who apparated to arrive near Haldor.


    Haldor took out a thin tie from his pocket and handed it to Quinn. "Blindfold yourself with this, and then you will try apparating without your sight. You will try to picture the ce and apparate to it." He pointed back to the initial spot Quinn apparate from and continued. "Apparate back the point we started from. You won''t be able to see it, so let''s see how strong your imagination is. It''s all about the image, Quinn. It all starts with the picture in your head."


    Quinn shrugged and wrapped the tie around his eyes and secured it tightly so that he couldn''t see anything.


    ''Hmm, this is different from Tehom''s Delight,'' thought Quinn. The time spent in Tehom''s Delight had taught Quinn thatck of sense wasn''t a bad thing.


    He had spent a lot of time in the darkness of Tehom''s Delight before he got the ripple sonar. All that time had numbed to theck of sight, numbness of hearing, the dullness of touch, altered hearing, and scent deadness.


    Quinn imagined the spot he apparated from and then let the apparition magic do its work. And Haldor and Aksel watched as Quinn apparated to a destination that wasn''t in his vision.


    "How was it?" asked Quinn, still blindfolded and confident smile on his face. "Did I get it right?"


    "Yes, you did," answered Haldor. But before he could continue, Quinn disappeared and popped right in front of Haldor. "What''s next?"


    Haldor blinked at his blindfolded student and sighed. "Now, remove your blindfold. I have the next task for you."


    Quinn removed his blindfold and walked towards Haldor as he described the task.


    "Where are you staying?"


    "At a hotel."


    "Is it warded against apparition?"


    "I haven''t checked my room, but the lobby isn''t warded against apparition."


    "Where is it?"


    Quinn turned to Aksel and jutted with his chin.


    Haldor turned to Aksled and called out in Danish. Aksel turned his attention to Haldor and replied back in Danish. The twomunicated about the hotel''s location and how far it was from here.


    "That works out for us," nodded Haldor. "The distance within the range that will be perfect for this. I want you to apparate to the hotel ande back. It''s a distance much greater than the one you just traveled. If you are able to apparate to the hotel, it shows that you have the basics of apparition under your belt."


    The distance from Haldor''s apparition sses to Quinn''s hotel was within the range most people used apparition for travel. It was nearly the same distance that the apparition-license test in Denmark used as a benchmark. If a person could travel that distance, they would check one of the things off the list.


    "Alright, let''s see if I can do it," nodded Quinn and loosened his body and was about to start the apparition magic when Aksel spoke up.


    "Wait. I will go to the hotel lobby first. If you mess up and splinch, I will be there to take care of you." And before he apparated, Aksel advised, "Do remember to imagine the lobby. Specifically, the center of the lobby. That''s what the hotel tells you to do."


    After then Aksel apparated off to the hotel lobby.


    Quinn put his hands behind his back, his fake wand in his hands, and smiled. He stood straight up and looked at Haldor while smiling.


    "I will be back in a little bit."


    Then his body was taken by the apparition magic as he very momentarily traveled through the fabric of space while his body was forced into a narrow pipe-like tunnel.


    On the other side, Quinn was greeted with the hustle and bustle of the hotel lobby. He looked around to see guests passing by the lobby, bellboys doing their services, and Akseld standing in front of him.


    "It seems I passed, didn''t I?" said Quinn.


    Aksel shook his head in reply. "You still have to go back. He asked for a round-trip." Then he disapparated back to Haldor''s apparition sses.


    The concierge behind the wee counter looked at Aksel disapparate after barely a minute of getting here. If it was another customer, he would''ve talked to them, but the instructions were very clear, Quinn and Aksel could do practically anything and they wouldn''t get in trouble.


    "That''s technically true," said Quinn with an epting nod but then turned to face the entrance to the hotel. It showed the street outside, and Quinn could see non-magical folk walking by and cars driving on the road.


    The people outside couldn''t see into the hotel. It had been charmed to show a closed and locked door. And over that, the area had been charmed with a non-magical-repent ward, which made sure that no non-magical would even give the building the first look, forget about a second look.


    ording to the International Statute of Magical Secrecy, every magical building near a non-magical area was required to ward off the buildings with extra precaution. The hotel followed the code to a T. The entire building wouldn''t attract the eyes of any non-magical person, theoretically cutting it off to anyone who couldn''t interact with magic.


    ''Hmm...'' wondered Quinn and stared at the view outside. ''It''s the third day. Should I?''


    If he included the day he went sightseeing with Aksel, it was the fourth day. And in those four days, Quinn had dragged out Aksel every day to show him more of the magicalmunity. And Denmark had been fun, but Quinn had some other ns regarding Denmark and the magicalmunity in Aarhus.


    But after giving it a thought, he shook his head and looked away and apparated away with a final thought.


    ''I will start tomorrow. It will be fun.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Thousands of miles away, the boy called Harry Potter woke with a start.


    Harry Pottery t on his back, breathing hard as though he had been running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over his face. The old scar on Harry''s forehead shaped like a bolt of lightning was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just pressed a white-hot wire to his skin.


    He sat up, one hand still on his scar, the other reaching out in the darkness for his sses, which were on the bedside table. He put them on, and his bedroom came into clearer focus, lit by a faint, misty orange light that was filtering through the curtains from the streetmp outside the window.


    Harry ran his fingers over the scar again. It was still painful.


    Harry turned on themp beside him, scrambled out of bed and crossed the room. He opened his wardrobe and peered into the mirror on the inside of the door. A fourteen-year boy looked back at him, his bright green eyes puzzled under his untidy ck hair. He examined the lightning-bolt scar of his reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.


    Harry tried to recall what he had been dreaming about before he had awoken. It had seemed so real. There had been two people he knew and one he didn''t. He concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember...


    The dim picture of a darkened room came to him. There had been a snake on a hearth rug, a small man called Peter, nicknamed Wormtail, and a cold, high voice... the voice of Lord Voldemort. Harry felt as though an ice cube had slipped down into his stomach at the very thought...


    Harry concentrated on the image of Peter. He looked so different from the picture he had seen in the posters. Wormtail, as Harry had heard in the dream, was a thin man rather than the fat in the poster. No wonder no one recognized him: he lookedpletely different.


    He closed his eyes tightly and tried to remember what Voldemort had looked like, but it was impossible. All Harry knew was that at the moment when Voldemort''s chair had swung around, and he, Harry, had seen what was sitting in it. He had felt a spasm of horror, which had awoken him... or had that been the pain in his scar?


    And who had the old man been? For there had definitely been an old man in his dream; Harry had watched him fall to the ground. It was all bing confused. Harry put his face into his hands, blocking out his bedroom, trying to hold on to the picture of that dimly lit room, but it was like trying to keep water in his cupped hands; the details were now trickling away as fast as he tried to hold on to them.


    Voldemort and Wormtail had been talking about someone they had killed, though Harry could not remember the name, and they had been plotting to kill someone else him! No, he could remember something. It was a woman; he could barely remember Wormtail talking about a woman and some kind of cup. But as seconds passed, that image was also sinking away.


    Harry took his face out of his hands, opened his eyes, and stared around his bedroom as though expecting to see something unusual there. But instead of his usual room, there was nothing that stood out as unusual.


    Arge wooden trunk stood open at the foot of his bed, revealing a cauldron and assorted spellbooks. Rolls of parchment littered that part of his desk that was not taken up by therge, empty cage in which his snowy owl, Hedwig, usually perched.


    On the floor beside his bed: a booky open; Harry had been reading it before he fell asleepst night. The pictures in this book were all moving. Men in bright orange robes were zooming in and out of sight on broomsticks, throwing a red ball to one another.


    Harry walked over to the book, picked it up, and watched one of the wizards score a spectacr goal by putting the ball through a fifty-foot-high hoop. Then he snapped the book shut. Even Quidditch - in Harry''s opinion, the best sport in the world - couldn''t distract him at the moment.


    Harry went restlessly back to the bed and sat down on it, running a finger over his scar again. It wasn''t the pain that bothered him; Harry was no stranger to pain and injury.


    He had lost all the bones from his right arm once and had them painfully regrown in a night. The same arm had been pierced by a venomous foot-long fang not long afterward.


    Onlyst year, Harry had fallen fifty feet from an airborne broomstick. He was used to bizarre idents and injuries; they were unavoidable if you attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and had a knack for attracting a lot of trouble.


    No, the thing that bothered Harry was that thest time his scar had hurt him, it had been because Voldemort had been close by. But Voldemort couldn''t be here, now... The idea of Voldemort lurking in Godric Hollow was absurd, impossible.


    Harry knew a thing or two about his house. This was the house where Voldemort hade to kill him but had instead died. At least, the ground was the same; the house itself was dismantled down and built anew.


    When he had met Voldemort in his first year, and Quirrell had burned on touching him. And after that night, his parents had told him that because of ancient magic that his grandmother had cast, Voldemort couldn''t touch him or harm him. As long as Harry lived with his family in this house, Voldemort wouldn''t harm him.


    Harry shook himself mentally; he was being stupid. There was no one in the house with him except his father, mother, and Ivy, and they were inly still asleep, their dreams untroubled and painless.


    And he liked it to keep it that way. They didn''t need to be worried for him. At least for now, he didn''t want to wake them up and ruin their night''s sleep. He went back to bed andid back down on his bed. Harry''smp seemed to grow dimmer as the cold gray light that precedes sunrise slowly crept into the room.


    But Harry didn''t notice that he had been forgetting. That the images of the dream were slipping away from his mind. He didn''t know that the moment he went back to sleep, he would forget about the dream until the moment something that would trigger this specific memory.


    The residents of Godric Hallow slept in peace, not knowing the turbulent year in front of them.


    .


    [


    A/N:


    As I wrote in the poll. I experimented with my writing and for it was half-good and half-bad. The bad was that I messed up the pacing of the Denmark Ark. I wrote a little too much in decriptive text, so it''s stretched out a little.


    The chapters all have something fun(?) but they could''ve been wrapped up quicker. It will be at least this week where you will see a little too much of decriptive text, but after that I will amp it up a bit. Don''t want another Aquatic Vault.


    ]


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    -*-*-*-*-*


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    Quinn West - MC - Denmark wouldn''t be fun without him nning something.


    Haldor - Apparition teacher - Huh, that was easy money.


    Aksel - Unknown upation - Isn''t a man of words.


    Harry Potter - Boy-With-Scar - Scar and Dreams


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 124 - Self-Exploring, Nordic, Squabble

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Aksel Thorn sat on the sofa in the lounge area of the hotel''s master suite, booked for Quinn to stay in for his time in Denmark, reading the newspaper Daily Eyewitness for the daily happenings in themunity. He, too, had been staying with Quinn instead of living in thefort of his own home. The instructions for his job had been clear; he was to stay with Quinn and don''t leave him alone.


    It was eight days since Quinn had arrived in Aarhus, Denmark, and today was also thest day of his stay here. Tomorrow morning, the portkey back to Quinn''s home, Herefordshire in West Minds of Ennd, would activate, and Quinn West would return to his own country. Setting Aksel free from being a chaperone so that he could return to his actual and much more meaningful job.


    He looked up from his newspaper to the closed door of the master bedroom that Quinn was using. The British teenager had been spending a lot of his time inside his room since day five.


    Quinn would wake up at the same time as him and would go work out at a park nearby, wash up, eat breakfast at a new restaurant, and then they would go to Haldor''s apparition sses to learn apparition. They would return after Quinn spent two to three hours practicing apparition. A time that both he and Haldor believed to be a ridiculous amount of time to devote to apparition magic every day. Most people would practice it for a quarter of an hour each session and not the time Quinn put in.


    They would return just before lunch and eat their second meal at a new restaurant yet again, and then Quinn would rest for an hour in his room before he would drag him to explore more of themunity for the rest of the day and call it a day after eating dinner a new restaurant. After that, Quinn would retreat into his room, and it would be thest time Aksel would see him for the day.


    But this tourist-guide routine changed on the fifth day when Quinn didn''t ask him to continue exploring his homnd and choose to rest for the day inside his room.


    Aksel assumed it was magic fatigue from the long sessions of apparition every day. Apparition magic was magic-heavy sorcery, and it was already astonishing that Quinn was able to go three days without choosing to rest after spending more than two hours of continuous apparitions.


    Aksel''s assumption seemed right when on the sixth day, Quinn once again asked him to be his guide for the day, and they repeated the routine they had been following. Quinn seemed to be feeling as energetic as ever, suggesting that the day''s rest had worked for the magic recovery. But then the same thing happened on the seventh day when Quinn decided to stay inside his room for the entire day, onlying out for meals at new restaurants.


    And today, on the eighth day, Quinn was once again holed up in his room after returning from apparition sses and lunch. Aksel raised his wrist to check the time on his watch and saw that the time was five in the evening and decided to check on Quinn.


    Quinn had been civil in his stay here with him and hadn''t given him much trouble, unlike what the briefing had warned him. Today was Quinn''sst day in Denmark, and Aksel wanted to find if he wanted to go out today.


    Aksel got up from his sofa and walked to Quinn''s door.


    "Quinn," called Aksel, knocking on the door. Then waited for his charge to answer, but no answer came from the inside. So he knocked on the door once again and called out a bit louder this time. Once again, the silence was returned to his calls.


    Aksel''s first thought was that Quinn was asleep and turned away from the door to let him sleep until it was time for dinner. But after talking a few steps away from Quinn''s door, Aksel stopped and turned back to the door. He thought back to the briefing he had been provided on Quinn, and another thought entered Aksel''s mind.


    "... Would he? No, right? He didn''t give me any trouble," muttered Aksel as he stood still for a moment before walking to Quinn''s door and turning the door handle to open the door.


    Inside he saw that the candles were lit, bathing the room in light, but his eyes widened when he saw no signs of Quinn inside the room. Aksel immediately entered the room, briskly walked to the attached bathroom, and opened the door to see it empty.


    "Oh, no," spoke Aksel as his hands tightened into a fist.


    Quinn West had evaded him without knowing, and he had no idea where the person he was supposed to protect was.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn smiled as he walked through the biggest magical hotspots of Aarhus, wandering between the magical poption of Denmark, which gathered to work, shop, and enjoy themselves. The streets he strolled through were simr to the ones of Daigon Alley and the other markets surrounding it.


    He had already visited the area with Aksel, so he knew theyout and had memorized the streets. lumency had helped him greatly to remember the details needed to navigate without the assistance of Aksel or any other native.


    Exploring with Aksel was fine-and-all, but the Danish chaperone stuck to the shops in the central area and some of the local spots he knew from living in Aarhus, refusing to be adventurous and detour to new and exciting ces.


    ''ces simr to Knockturn Alley back home. ces frequented by those who deal in the so-called "darker" arts,'' thought Quinn as he browsed through the shops on the central street where people who wanted nothing to do with the "darker" aspect of the society.


    These were the ces that Aksel took him to, but Quinn was only in Denmark for a week and didn''t have much time, so he needed to move along and dive deeper to get what he wanted. And to aplish that, he started to sneak out of the hotel room starting from the fifth day.


    It wasn''t easy to get past Aksel; as it turned out, his chaperone was great at his job. It had taken a bit of magic to get past without Aksel doing aware that he was gone. Quinn had employed very subtle use of confundus charms, illusion magic, sound magic, and watching his timing of sneaking out.


    He was sessful on his first day, which turned out to be great because it didn''t arise Aksel''s suspicion, and Quinn could easily sneak out today and the day yesterday. He had to stay with Aksel on the sixth day to check if the Danish man was suspicious: fortunately, Aksel didn''t have any inkling of what had transpired.


    Quinn ducked into a dark alley between two buildings, momentarily distancing himself from the crowd. No one came out of the tunnel for a full minute before a grown man with golden hair and blue eyes walked out of the dark alley with a handsome smile on his face.


    He casually walked back into the crowd and continued to walk among them with his hands behind his back, but if one was paying attention, they would notice that the man was trying not to make even the slightest contact with anyone.


    The man was, of course, Quinn West, albeit not in his usual form. This was the form Quinn used to mingle amongst the market while hiding himself from everyone.


    There were a couple of ways through which a person could change their appearance. The ones Quinn knew were Polyjuice potion that could copy the target''s appearance to a T, full-body transfiguration to alter the body structure, and finally, illusion magic to cast a mor that would deceive the eyes of an observer.


    Polyjuice potion wasn''t usable in this situation because Quinn didn''t have any hair from a British person, and taking hair from a Danish person would be risky with chances of getting recognized. Plus, the Polyjuice potion took a month to brew, and Quinn only had a few doses that he was saving for emergencies.


    Full-body transfiguration was an application of transfiguring the body to alter the structure and appearance to resemble someone else. The concept was a simpler version of what a metamorphmagus did instinctively on a daily basis.


    A highly skilled and trained transfiguration master who specialized in self-transfiguration could recreate a metamorphmagus''s gic ability. What came naturally to a metamorphmagi required hard work to a person whocked the trait. Quinn, on his current level, could perform a self full-body transfiguration. But not on a level where he could change his body structure on a whim.


    Thest option was illusion magic, something Quinn was quite skilled at, and it was the method he was using. The face he wore was an amalgamation of features from a couple of different people from non-magical Ennd. A random face, yet slightly charming face, made from borrowed facial features to create something that couldn''t be tracked as the person didn''t exist.


    Recreated by the use of illusion magic to sculpt a body over Quinn''s actual body. The body was taller than Quinn''s, meaning that if he were to turn his head, then the illusion''s head a few inches above him would also turn the exact same way. If he raised his hand, then the surrounding illusion would raise his hand.


    If he grabbed something, then it would be through magically produced telekinesis. Even if Quinn collided with someone, then they would being in contact with a force field roughly in the shape of Quinn''s illusion body, and they would feel like that they came in contact with an actual body through the means of tactile illusion magic that messed with the sense of touch.


    But it was best Quinn didn''te in contact with anyone at all. Prevention was better than cure, after all.


    Slowly the crowd thinned, and people started to turn away from the direction Quinn was walking in. The central area that shone with activity and beaming with lively air slowly faded into grey streets and dim buildings. The ce''s turned dull and simple, but yet there was a freeness in the air.


    As Quinn walked, the few people in the different streets would give him a nce over for identification as if he was prey. The shopkeepers inside their shops would check him out to see if they could profit from him as they ripped him off his money for artifacts that would turn out to be a fake.


    But Quinn didn''t give any of them a single look. He simply walked with a smile of confidence on his face that radiated that he belonged here and knew what he was doing. Walking for five minutes and deep into a darker side of the Danish magicalmunity, Quinn arrived at a storefront with no signboard on it.


    None of the stores in this part of the area had name boards. The people who visited here either already the names and function of the shops. If they were new, the information wasmunicated via word of mouth. No advertisement was ever required or necessary.


    Quinn had gotten the information about the entire region on the first day when he let a woman lure him into a shop where she tried to con him into buying a book that she described as a grimoire with a thousand ancient spells. Quinn let her talk and went along by pretending to believe her lies. In actuality, he was simply listening to gain time as he used legilimency on her to find all he needed to know about the ce known as M?rke Gade.


    The door-chime over the door rang while it loudly creaked open as Quinn entered the store. The ringing and creaking filled the otherwise quiet store, alerting an old man behind the counter who had his eyes closed to open them to see Quinn''s illusion form standing there.


    "Mr. John," greeted the old man. "You''re here once again."


    Quinn, or the name he was using, John without a family name, just like Haldor greeted back. "Of course, old man Gamel. You''ve things that I''m interested in, and you drive a hard bargain. But today, I''m going to get what I want.


    The old owner of the store chuckled slyly. "You''re asking me for something precious, Mr. John." He then looked at Quinn with a gaze as clever as a fox. "Not only it''s precious, but the tomes you seek are also dangerous. If I give them to you, would you be able to handle them?"


    Quinn, in the form of John,ughed lightly. "Thank you for your concern, old man Gamel. But, I will be fine." He then reached into his clothes and took out a medium-sized pouch, and jiggled it for the bag to make clinking sounds. "I have coin and lot of it. You want it, so let''s put an end to this farce, and you tell me how much do you want."


    Gamel, the shop owner, was able to speak English, and because Quinn couldn''t speak Danish, he had tomunicate with someone who spoke English. Gamel was one of them, and he had the thing that Quinn wanted.


    The old man stood up from his seat and walked to the back room of the simple store with his walking stick for support. Gamel returned with an ancient tome in his hands. It had a thick brown case as its cover, and the pages inside were thick parchment which had turned yellow with time.


    The tome looked like it could fall apart any moment, and yet Quinn knew that it wouldn''t fall apart. He could feel traces of esoteric magicing from the tome, and that''s what told him that the ancient tome was the real deal and not just some old book.


    Gamel set down the tome on the counter, and there was word engraved on the thick leather-bound cover of the tome.


    ¡¸Book.¡¹


    That was all the cover of the tome said. But that wasn''t important; the important thing was thenguage of the word. Quinn was able to read it because he knew the characters. It was written in runes and a type of runguage he recognized.


    ''Younger Futhark,'' thought Quinn and looked up at old man Gamel when he said the source of this book.


    "The tome is from the Nordic warlocks of the Viking age."


    Vikings.


    It was the modern name given to seafaring Nordic pirates from southern Scandinavia who, from thete 8th to thete 11th centuries, raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America.


    And in this world, with the presence of magic, there existed Nordic magicals, who called themselves Nordic warlocks. A sub-group of magicals that practiced and developed magic that was rumored to have destructive capabilities that could wipe out areas without traces.


    Quinn didn''t know if the rumors were true or not. He didn''t know if the records were exaggerated to boast the power of Nordic warlocks. All he knew was if there was smoke, then there must be a fire.


    The Vikings had their ownws, art, and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. Popr conceptions of the Vikings often strongly differ from theplex, advanced civilization that emerged from archaeology and historical sources.


    This meant that the romanticized picture of Vikings as noble savages must''vee from a ce where people really felt despair. And Quinn believed that it was those Nordic warlocks'' actions thatpletely changed the conception of Vikings as it was today.


    So when Quinn came to Denmark, which was once part of the Viking''s homnd, he couldn''t let a chance like this get away from him. Quinn wanted to see if there was a way he could find the tomes from an age that closely preceded even the Hogwarts founders. And to his luck, Quinn was able to find a single book that held magic inside. Quinn''s razor-sharp magical focus, which allowed him to do spells without an external focus, picked up the traces of esoteric magic hidden behind the old tome.


    The clever old Gamel, too, realized that this tome was somehow significant, so he jacked up the price. And Quinn had toe back every day because he wanted that book, but he would not fork the ridiculous amount Gamel asked for. At least not until the veryst moment, at which point he would give the money and take the risk.


    Quinn didn''t know what the book held; it could be a tome with basic-level spells or even a memoir preserved like a magical tome. Meaning that it could be useless to Quinn, and he would''ve wasted his time and money.


    "You know the price," said Gamel, still persistent on the price he had quoted to Quinn yesterday.


    "That''s ridiculous, and you know it," sighed Quinn with the voice he had chosen for John. "I''m going to be generous and raise my offer by a hundred. But this is myst offer. Any more than this, and it won''t be worth it."


    Gamel remained silent for a moment before returning. "Two hundred."


    "One twenty-five and not a single more," said Quinn shaking his head.


    "One seventy-five."


    "One twenty-five."


    "One seventy."


    "One twenty-five."


    Gamel sighed and nodded in eptance. "I will take it."


    Quinn put down the pouch in his hand on the table and then took out two more pouches and slid the three to Gamel.


    "Do count."


    Gamel didn''t need to be told as he counted the golden currency of Denmark''s magical society and checked random ones with his wand for authenticity.


    "It''s the correct amount. You can take the book."


    "That''s good," said Quinn, picking up the tome and slipping it inside his expanded pocket. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."


    Quinn turned back towards the door to leave, and just as he was about to exit, two men appeared and blocked Quinn''s path. Quinn recognized both of them as he had seen them every time he entered and exited M?rke Gade.


    Quinn stopped for a second before trying to get past the two men standing at the door, but one of them stepped directly in front of Quinn and stared down at him. Quinn looked at them and saw that both of them had wands in their hands.


    "The price has doubled, John," heard Quinn from his behind. "You need to give me the other half."


    Quinn turned back towards Gamel and saw the old man looking at him with an apathetic gaze and a natural smile.


    "Gamel, I don''t want any trouble," spoke Quinn, trying to reason. "We already did the exchange. I got my book, and you got your coin. You don''t have to make it like this."


    Gamel shrugged, but his look didn''t change. "Pay me or leave the book behind."


    Quinn stared at Gamel for a second before asking. "If I give the book back, then will I get my money back? Let''s pretend this purchase never happened."


    "I''m sorry, but I can''t agree to that, John. I will be keeping that as a service fee."


    Quinn sighed and groaned as he covered his face with his hands: the illusion of John did the same.


    "Alright, I understand," spoke Quinn from behind his hands.


    Gamel and his two helpers smiled when they heard Quinn. They were going to get paid double the price for a stupid book that Gamel had lying around from before he could remember. And he wouldn''t get in trouble because he realized that Quinn(John) was a foreigner and not a local. Tourists were always an easy target.


    "It''s good that you understand, John. It''s good for everyone this way," replied Gamel, his smile widening. But then he felt confused when he saw Quinn remove his hands, and there wasn''t a single touch of worry on his face.


    Gamel saw Quinn raise his hand, and suddenly his two helpers went rigid. He watched as his two helpers turned pale and started to shake and struggle.


    "I warned you, Gamel," said Quinn, walking towards Gamel.


    Gamel hastily turned his eye to Quinn and raised his wand in a warning. "Don''te near, or I will attack."


    Quinn looked at the wandzily, and it went flying away out of Gamel''s hand, shocking the old man.


    "I''m feeling good today, Gamel," said Quinn as he picked up the three pouches that he had paid Gamel while staring into his eyes. "So I won''t do anything to you. You brought me this book and because you''re old. I will leave you alone. But the other boys won''t be so lucky."


    Quinn blinked, and cracking was heard in the store. And then muffled screams filled the store as the two men copsed on the floor. They couldn''t move an inch, and it was like something had bound every inch of their body. And then they felt the paine in, but because they couldn''t even open their mouths, the screams were muffled.


    "I broke every bone in their arms and legs," answered Quinn. "They are in a tremendous amount of pain. I did it in a way that small shrapnels of bones are digging away at their flesh from inside. They won''t die from this, but those small pieces of bone will continue to tear through their arms and legs."


    Gamel''s gulped when he looked into Quinn''s eyes and heard his words.


    Quinn tapped his knuckles against the table and continued.


    "It''s easy to rid them of their pain. You just have to vanish the bones, and they will be fine." Quinn twitched his finger, and Gamel''s wand came flying up from the floor. "But the deal is that you won''t be able to vanish anything because-"


    Quinn held Gamel''s wand in his hand and snapped it.


    "- you don''t have a wand anymore."


    Quinn dropped the pieces on the counter and then stroked one of Gamel''s cheeks.


    "I know you do shady business, but do it honorably. Because someday, someone like me won''t be in a good mood. Someday, you might just be lying on the floor with your bones broken. I hope you have a good day, Gamel."


    Quinn pocketed the gold pouches, turned back, and walked away. As he walked away, he broke the two men''s wands. Just before he exited the store, Quinn turned back and smiled at Gamel.


    "Oh, before I forgot. I can''t have you call for help, can I?"


    Gamel''s eyes widened before everything went ck as he was stunned.


    Quinn closed the door behind as he exited the store, and as the door closed, the binding charm that holding the two men in ce broke, and they started to thrash around in pain. The bone shrapnels dug deeper into their bodies, causing more pain.


    It would be a couple minutester when someone passing by would hear faint screams and look inside to see two men limp on the ground on the verge of fainting and an old man hunched over a counter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - My name is John... just John: no Wick, no Doe, no Cena.


    Aksel Thorn - Chaperone - Code: Red! I repeat, code: red!


    Gamel - Store owner, horrified - Messed with the wrong foreigner.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Exnation in the next chapter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 125 - Times To Come And The Limax Group

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn arrived at the dark alley where he applied the illusion mor upon himself and dropped the magic to return to his usual ck hair and stone-grey eyes. John was gone, and Quinn was back, and with today being Quinn''sst day in Denmark, John''s appearance would nevere back again. At least in Denmark, John would never step on the Danish soil, in case Gamel and his chaps think of revenge.


    ''Why did he have to make things difficult?'' thought Quinn with a heavy sigh as he stepped out of the dark alley and joined the crowd of people back in the central region.


    While Quinn didn''t consider magic to be light or dark, he did consider people to be tending towards light and dark: ranging from lighter shades of grey to the deep, dark hues of murky grey. And the ce like M?rke Gade was full of shady people who had different moralpasses than the average person.


    Quinn understood the reason behind''s intimidating-extortion strategy, which Gamel had tried to employ. He was clearly a foreigner who couldn''t speak thenguage and was carrying arge amount of money on him. Quinn was sure that in Gamel''s eyes, he was a fat cow that Gamel could milk a lot out of.


    ''Didn''t think that I would be using the bone-breaking curse here in Denmark.''


    The curse was a cousin to the deboning curse sometimes used while healing magic and surgeries to clear out a bone: used in cases where the bone had problems that couldn''t be fixed in a short amount of time, like the bone being afflicted with a curse that took time to cure.


    The bone-breaking curse used the magical-medical knowledge of bones and tranted it into offensive magic. The skeletal system was the supporting frame of many creatures, and if one snapped that underlying supporting structure, they could cause take away a target''s mobility, rendering them immobile.


    Quinn initially had learned the spell in his sin curse days from the Room of Requirements under one of the "dark" spell books and had practiced it against animal bones to get better at it. But it was in his fourth year that Quinn was able to tap into the bone-breaking curse''s true potential. After learning about the human body in healing magic, and was able to understand the spell on a deeper level. This allowed him to work with the bone more profoundly.


    "I hope they use the bone-vanishing curse," humphed Quinn, shaking his head. He had intentionally suggested the bone-vanishing curse was because then the vanished bones would need to be regrown, and Skele-Gro would make sure they didn''t sleep at night from the pain and excruciating difort.


    "Even if someone uses the bone-mending charm, it would still cause more pain," shrugged Quinn. There were so many bone shrapnels inside Quinn''s target''s bodies that when they would be put back, they would scrape against the muscles and cause more pain.


    Quinn had no guilt regarding the amount of damage he had caused. Gamel and the two men looked used to what they were doing and seemed pretty confident while confronting him, meaning that they had been sessful at it. And that was all reason he needed to break their bones and leave them in pain. Plus, the injuries were reversible and won''t leave any permanent harm. The losses they would suffer were their wands and the free book that Quinn hade away with.


    ''I can''t feel guilt with something like that,'' thought Quinn knowing what was toe. If he felt guilty at this level,ter he won''t be able to do his part in the future. There were terrible things in the future, and if Quinn wanted to get rid of them, he needed to fight the terrible with some terrible of his own. Something like breaking bones would seem minor to what was going toe in the future.


    Quinn slid the thoughts to the back of his head and looked around the Danish market streets, thinking how it was hisst day here and tomorrow morning he would be going back home.


    "I should probably buy souvenirs, or they would hound meter," reminded Quinn. People like Eddie and Luna had outright demanded him to get them something when he wrote them letters about going to Denmark. If he didn''t buy Lia something, she wouldn''t bring him back books, and that wouldn''t be good for him.


    "I wonder what I should buy? Oh, right! I should buy them Legos. We are in Denmark. after all. Should I charm them somehow? Or should I give them the stock version? Oh goody~!"


    But then Quinn stopped and looked around among the magical people of Denmark and wondered aloud.


    "Now, where would I get Legos?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After roaming around some and luckily finding a store, Quinn bought a ton of Legos. He was sure that Luna would want a lot of them when she discovers what they were. So he made sure to buy an amount that shocked the shop owner.


    "I wonder what she would make with them," smiled Quinn as he stood in front of the hotel door and cast disillusionment on himself before silently opening the door.


    The door wasn''t visible from the living room, so as long as Quinn was silent, no one would see him entering. And sound magic was something Quinn researched since his second year when Filius Flitwick had introduced it to him.


    With silent and slow steps, Quinn walked into the living room area to find five new people sitting in his living room along with Aksel, who was looking at a map on the table in front of him.


    Aksel raised his wand and pointed at the map for red spots to appear all over the map. "These are all the ces where I took him. I stuck to the central and a whole lot of the muggle areas. I would''ve preferred not to go muggle, but he dragged me along."


    "When did he leave?" asked a guy dressed in a suit and overcoat.


    "I don''t know," sighed Aksel while observing the map. "I found him missing around half an hour ago. But, I''ve no idea when he left the room."


    Aksel''s words brought a smile to Quinn''s face. He could barely understand them speaking in Danish, but he did recognize some phrases, and to him, it sounded like an achievement because he had been gone for hours.


    "... Leave? Are we sure that he left on his own discretion, or was he taken away?" asked another man, dressed in casual clothing. "Quinn West is from the West family, and they are filthy rich. So are we sure he wasn''t abducted?"


    "I was here the entire day," replied Aksel shaking his head. "He wasn''t abducted. If he was, I would''ve known."


    "Yeah, right," scoffed the guy in the suit. "If that''s true, then you let a kid get away from you right under your nose."


    Aksel withdrew his eyes from the map and looked up at his colleague with a heated gaze. "Are you sure you want to do this now? Because my principal is missing and I want to find him, and do it quick. So I will make it very quick: all it would take is one spell."


    The guy in the suit and Aksel locked eyes for a few seconds before the suit guy broke eye contact and looked away. Aksel gave every other man in the room a stern gaze, asking if they wanted to say something else and the promise that he wasn''t kidding.


    "Good, then let''s get a move along. As time passes, the search radius lengthens. We have to find Quinn and quick..." Aksel looked at the band of his colleagues and finished his sentence. "... because if we don''t, we will be over. Everything we have built will go drain. Even if we start over, the Wests will ruin us."


    All men looked at each other and solemnly nodded. The West family was the owner of their business. A lot of what they did depended on the West family, and if they lost the support, they would have to start again and build up from the ground. Plus, if they didn''t find Quinn or if Quinn got hurt, their future would be in trouble as Quinn was the grandson of George West, and that man with his resources could ruin their lives.


    Everyone got up, and that made Quinn decide that it was over for the day. And that he should probably reveal himself before they go out looking for. Though Quinn wouldn''t lie if he said that, he didn''t entertain the thought of letting them go out and sweat a little.


    But in the end, Quinn decided to end before it ended up getting out of hand. So he dropped the disillusionment on himself and revealed himself to the group.


    "Hello, everyone," greeted Quinn with a smile. "My name is Quinn, and it''s a pleasure to meet you all."


    The six men, including Aksel''s first reaction, were to whip out their wands and point them at Quinn. Within two seconds, six wands were trained on Quinn as the six adults went intobat mode and were ready to cast at a moment''s notice.


    Quinn slowly raised his hands in the surrender posture with a smile on his face. "Calm down, calm down, no need to be so wand-happy. Let''s rx and have some good fun."


    He opened both his fists to show choco-balls between his index and middle fingers.


    "Chocte?" asked Quinn, wiggling his fingers that held the choco-balls.


    Aksel dropped his hand down and stopped pointing his wand at Quinn. The others also put their wands down as Aksel spoke in a stern voice. "Where were you? Why did you leave? How long were you out?"


    "Now, there is no need to take that tone," responded Quinn, giving Aksel a look. "I was out, exploring the city. I have to say it has quite a lot to offer. There is no need to get all huffy about that. Also, you should''ve told me about the vored milk tavern? The choices they had were just Magnifique." He did a chef''s kiss to show his delight.


    "... But why did you go out on your own?! You should''ve asked me, and I would''ve taken you. It''s my job to guide you and show you around," frowned Aksel.


    "That''s true, but you were restricting my moments, Mr. Thorn," said Quinn as he unwrapped one of the choco-balls and popped it into his mouth. "I wanted to see both magical and non-magical Aarhus, not just the magical parts. But you insisted that I restricted my movements. You even protested against the random and new restaurant n. No offense, but I explore better alone."


    Quinn was also sure that if he asked Aksel to take him to M?rke Gade. He would''ve got shut down before even saying the entire sentence. The area was just too shady for a teen like Quinn to wander around.


    "But what if you had got lost," asked one of Aksel''s colleagues in English. "This isn''t your country, and you could''ve gotten lost with no one to ask for help from."


    "Oh, please," scoffed Quinn in response. "I know how the hotel''s lobby from memory. With its image and some apparition, I can return from anywhere a few kilometers without breaking a sweat, do ask Aksel. I can''t get lost in public, and even if I do, I can teleport at will to return to the safe lobby.


    Quinn walked past and settled on one of the single-seater sofas in the living room. "I can tell that you guys are Mr. Thorn''s friends, and from the looks of it, you also work together with him. How about you guys sit down and we talk?"


    None of the guys sat down as Aksel once again asked. "Why would you leave? Did you not know how much panic you caused? How did you even sneak out?"


    "Mr. Thorn, why are you even surprised? Didn''t your briefing stress on the part that I will try to sneak out?" replied Quinn. He took out a Durum shawarma wrapped in foil out of his pockets and spoke as he unwrapped it. "It was your fault that you put your guard down. Just because I acted politely, you assumed that the information you had turned null and void. Is this what they taught you when you were training to be an Auror?"


    Aksel''s eyes went wide open when he heard Quinn speak up. "I didn''t tell you that. How did you know that?"


    "I didn''t," smiled Quinn and took a bite of the pita and the meat inside. He pointed at Aksel and chuckled. "I simply guessed, and just you confirmed it. So, thanks for that. I was genuinely curious if my guess was correct."


    Quinn then looked at the other five men: except for the suit guy and Aksel, the rest of the gang had sat back down and were listening to Quinn speak. He observed every one of them and took in what they gave to him. Every one of them looked fit, and the way they had whipped out their wands the second they saw Quinn was indicative of a few things. Whenbined that with Aksel''s confirmation, Quinn concluded.


    "All of you are either Aurors or Hit Wizards," started Quinn. "To be precise, ex-Auror and ex-Hit Wizards. Given that you guys work for the family business means that you all left the ministry jobs."


    Quinn looked at the detailed map on the table and recognized the detail in the map. "Hmm... let me front a guess. You guys are bodyguards or maybe wands for hire that work under the banner of the West family."


    And looking at them, Quinn could see that his guess was correct.


    "I didn''t know that we worked in this business."


    Quinn heard pping and turned to see the man in casual clothes and flip-flops pping his hands while smiling.


    "Aren''t you a smart one," grinned the man. "I am Niel. And yes, you''re correct. We are bodyguards for hire. Got trained to be Aurors and Hit Wizards, did some time as Aurors and Hit Wizards, and then left the ministry to start this up."


    Aksel, Neil, and Lucas: the guy in the suit, were three childhood friends. One pureblood, one half-blood, and thest a first-gen magical. All of them were poor or came from tough backgrounds. Two were orphans, while one of them had an abusive parent. So they banded together and formed a lifelong bond to stick together and be the family none of them had.


    The three were bright students, and when they graduated, all of them applied for Auror and Hit Wizard apprenticeships, and with their grades and aptitude, passed the tests and got trained to be Aurors and Hit Wizards. The three, who didn''t have much money in their lives, finally had a substantial ie with the job.


    "But you see. People can hire Auror and Hit Wizards for protection when they have a good reason to do so, or they have the money and influence to haul around Aurors are guards," spoke Neil with a smile as he crossed his legs; his flip-flop removed from his hanging foot. "We saw an opportunity to earn more money than we were already making, and thus, we left our jobs to start our protection service. We could be hired as bodyguards at a fee. And as it turned out, many rich folks are willing to fork out money for some protection."


    Quinn nodded, well familiar with the private security industry, which was prevalent in the non-magical world. But in the magical world, it wasn''tmon, and thus, this here could be considered a new industry and job line.


    "How does the West family businesse into y?"


    "The connections," answered Lucas, dressed meticulously in a suit. "Not a lot of people do what we do. Most of them were used to going to the ministry for such services, and the ministry would take care of it. But unlike the ministry, we didn''t have that level of credibility. Sure we were trained butcked the connections to get the business started."


    Gathering cliental was always one of the hardest parts of starting a business. And this was also for the trio of private bodyguards.


    "At that time, we met with Adam West," continued Lucas.


    "Adam West," repeated Quinn at the mention of the name. Adam West was his father, who had died in an ident when Quinn was a one year infant. Quinn didn''t know much about ''his'' parents. He never asked, and none of his family members told him about them.


    "Yes, he offered us the connections of the Wests and provided us with clients," nodded Lucas. "From then on, everything was uphill. We never ran out of clients as someone was always looking for guards and defenders. It has been fifteen years, and we have grown from the group of three to forty trained wands working in Scandinavia."


    Quinn felt impressed and whistled at the growth. This was the first private securitypany he had seen, and from what Quinn knew, Britain didn''t have something like this. There were retired Aurors who sometimes did something simr for money, but there wasn''t anything organized like this, not even close.


    "What do you guys call yourselves?"


    Aksel, Neil, and Lucas exchanged before Aksel turned to Quinn and answered.


    "Limax."


    The Limax was a magical creature with a wide, hammer-shaped head, four arms, and a serpent-like lower body. It was capable of wielding multiple weapons at once, including axes, maces, and daggers.


    Quinn smiled at the choice of the name and praised.


    "Now, that''s cool."


    .


    [


    A/N:


    If the storyline permits, and if I am able to find time in the progression of events, I will bring up the plot hook of exploration of parent''s death. Looking forward to if I will be able to create an out-of-Hogwarts plot with the death of Quinn''s parents.


    Just to be clear, it''s not decided yet. It''s just an plot idea.


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Has a foodie side to him.


    Aksel Thorn - Founder (Limax Group) - Bodyguard, ex-Auror.


    Neil - Founder (Limax Group) - Bodyguard, ex-Hit Wizard.


    Lucas - Founder (Limax Group) - Bodyguard, ex-Auror.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 126 - Topic: The West Family

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stood in the hotel lobby of the hotel with his suitcase in his hands. He tapped his foot against the floor as he absentmindedly gazed around the hotel lobby to pass the time. The hall was silent because it was just before seven in the morning. The lobby would regain its activity when the breakfast time down in the hotel restaurant would start, and people would start their day.


    He retrieved his trusty pocket watch from its pocket and checked on the time. There were only a few seconds till the minute-hand struck twelve, and the hour-hand arrived at seven on the watch dial. Quinn watched the second hand smoothly travel clockwise and arrive at number twelve, marking the time seven in the morning.


    The clock''s interface shifted as the dial background shifted from the indigo shade of the sixth hour to the gold of the seventh hour. A faint yet visible outline of the number six also changed to seven, and some other changes magically appeared on the watch front to signify the change of hours.


    When the clock turned seven, Quinn looked up, and like clockwork, the man he was waiting for walked into the lobby and walked towards Quinn with a steady stride and semi-brisk pace. Aksel Thorn, his Danish bodyguard/guide who he had evaded many a time in his stay.


    "Good morning, Mr. Thorn," greeted Quinn. "I hope my portkey is ready to be deployed?"


    Aksel nodded and took out a small wooden cube with blunt edges which rested on his palm. Quinn picked up the dark wood cube from Aksel''s palm and observed it. The wooden cube wasrger than a cuboidal die, but it wasn''t big enough to cover the entire palm. Quinn couldfortably close his first around the cube, and it would bepletely enveloped.


    "It will activate at five past seven. The portkey will trigger on its own; there is no activation phrase," answered Aksel.


    Quinn nodded in response and wrapped his fist around the cube. As there was no activation phrase, Quinn needed to hold the cube because, at five past seven, the portkey would trigger and take him to the destination with no dy.


    "It was a fun week, Mr. Thorn. Thank you for your services; you were an excellent guide," praised Quinn.


    "... And yet you sneaked away without me,"mented Aksel. The fact that a teen could sneak away from him under his nose was embarrassing for someone from his line of upation and his position, and Aksel wasn''t taking it lightly. His partners and subordinates were having fun at his expense. And from what he knew about hispany, they weren''t going to let it go anytime soon.


    "Now, now, don''t beat yourself up that much up. It happens to the best of people," chuckled Quinn. He could see that it bothered Aksel, so he tried to soothe the wound before returning home. "It was simply a little too motivated to go out on my own, so it''s not your fault that you missed out on my escapes. I''m good at magic, after all."


    Quinn took out a card from his pockets and handed it to Aksel. "This is my personal contact details. If you evere to Ennd, do contact me, and I will be your guide just as you were mine."


    Aksel looked at the deep royal blue card. On the royal blue background was a monogram logo in the shape of QW, and beside the logo was Quinn''s name full name, also written in gold. He turned the card to see a WMF-id printed on the back.


    "That''s my personal WMF-id. Not many people have that number, so please don''t share it. I like this id I have and don''t want to change it," pointed Quinn.


    This card differed from his AID cards, which were for promotion and avability, as the cards changed when Quinn or Luna was inside the office for a consultation. This card held his very personal WMF-id, which not a lot of people were aware of. Other than his family, only Luna knew of his WMF-id because her father had purchased an office version MagiFax and put it in his home as Xenophilius Lovegood worked as a reporter/writer from his own.


    Quinn hoped he could give a few others his contact details as the MagiFax personal home models wereunched just before Quinn left for Denmark. Quinn was sure that as the year passed, his friends would have a MagiFax unit at their respective homes.


    "Do you have a personal WMF-id?" asked Quinn.


    Aksel shook his head in reply. "I don''t have a personal machine, but our office has one." Saying that, Aksel took out a white business card with ck text reading contact information of the Limax group, such as their WMF-ids, address, and Aksel''s name in the top-left corner on the card.


    Every West business subsidiary had made MagiFax a part of their office culture. And because the West business empire spanned across continents, the MagiFax had bridged the gaps inmunication that existed before the invention of MagiFax. Quinn''s invention had transformed the waymunication was handled between and within different organizations.


    Quinn pocketed the card, and as he did, the cube started to faintly glow. Within ten seconds, the portkey would trigger, and he would be whisked away.


    "It seems time''s up," noted Quinn and then said thest words to Aksel. "Once again, Mr. Thorn. It was a nice week. Thank you for keeping it time; let''s meet someday. Maybe it will be youing to Ennd, or I return here to Denmark. Until then, it''s a farewell."


    Quinn made a small wave before the portkey glowed up, and he was gone.


    But Quinn missed the look that came over Aksel''s face when he left with the portkey.


    "... Quinn West, huh. I wonder what they would say if I told them about him," muttered Aksel as he stared at the card in his hand.


    Quinn''s time in Denmark hade to an end.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "We got a reply to the invitation."


    The rest of the Potter family, who were sitting in the living room of the Potter home, looked up at their mother/wife. They saw thedy of the house waving a letter in her hand with a smile on her face.


    "West family sent back a reply to our invitation," announced Lily.


    James, Ivy, and Harry Potter all became attentive for different reasons. James Potter wanted to know if George West would be visiting because then he would need to prepare. And the twins wondered what reply their one year senior, the mysterious Ravenw Quinn West, had sent.


    "Only one member, Quinn, would being for dinner," revealed Lily and passed the letter written in Quinn''s handwriting down to her family. "The rest of the family, unfortunately, is busy or unavable, and he would be visiting this Saturday."


    James Potter read the reply twice before breathing a relieved sigh that George West wasn''t visiting. Sitting with George West for an evening was something he wasn''t prepared to do, not after what had transpired.


    Ivy and Harry received the letter from their father and read the reply together. They both noticed the handwriting and recognized that it was Quinn who had written the letter. They had seen Quinn''s writing, and even though the lettering on the reply was fancier, they could tell that it was Quinn who wrote it.


    "Alright, everybody. Sit down," said James.


    The twins nced at each other, wondering what their father wanted to talk about. Theymunicated with their eyes if they knew what this was about. But none of the two had any idea what this was about. Lily also sat down beside her children to listen to what her husband wanted to say.


    "Ivy, Harry, what can you tell me about Quinn West," asked James. "I''ve only talked to him for a few minutes, so I don''t know how he is? Can you tell me about him? I know you aren''t in the same year, but words travel; how is he seen in the school?"


    Ivy and Harry exchanged nces once more, again initiating a round of twin-eye-talk discussing what to reveal and hide. In the end, they decided to tell what they thought about Quinn without revealing their interactions with him.


    "Well, he is smart: scores at the top of his ss. Runs a... club? Yeah, let''s go with a club. He runs a club to help out students," started Ivy to sum up how others who didn''t have much interaction with Quinn saw the Ravenw.


    "He is pretty popr," continued Harry. "I think almost everyone likes him. No matter what the house or year, he''s friendly with everyone. I think even professors like him, especially professor Flitwick. He likes him a lot."


    "That''s true," nodded Lily in agreement. "Except for the fact that he''s known for breaking curfew, Quinn West is the perfect student."


    "What about his personality?"


    "A diligent and hard-working child," answered Lily with an earnest smile. From the times she had interacted with Quinn, she had a great impression of Quinn and genuinely thought that he was a charming child. "He''s also so kind. Not only he helped me out with the Monopoly game, but his notes are also always on discount. I think he made it so everyone could buy his notes."


    Ivy''s brows twitched when she heard her mother''s impression of Quinn. On the outside, Quinn did seem like Lily''s description. But then she thought about her first few interactions with Quinn.


    "Likes to act all mysterious," shared Ivy. When they were looking for the Philosopher''s Stone, Quinn had acted all cryptic and had shut the door in their face after giving them a sudden warning.


    Harry thought about his experience with Quinn, and him going to Quinn was the only time he could draw upon him.


    "A know-it-all, but not in an annoying way. It''s more like a guy who has answers to your every question," spoke Harry, nodding as he felt satisfied with his answer.


    "Control freak," added Ivy, reaching deep into her bag of adjectives for Quinn.


    "You don''t want to y tag with the guy," said Harry, looking very serious. "One of the Hufflepuffs said that it took five guys ten minutes to chase him down and trap him into being tagged."


    Ivy gave Harry a look like she was looking at an idiot.


    "He''s very good with magic," continued Ivy,menting about Quinn''s magical ability. From the time he trapped her into a wall to the time he conjured an elephant-sized Patronus towards a horde of hundred Dementors, Ivy had plenty of experience with Quinn''s magical abilities.


    "I can beat him,"mented Harry with his arms crossed, the pride of the Auror''s soning out.


    "He went sixty-nine to zero in the dueling club. Most of his opponents were older students," reasoned Ivy, eying her brother and then humphed. "You lost to me two out of four times and once to Hermione."


    Harry grumbled but didn''t try to debate with Ivy because what she said had indeed been correct.


    Quinn''s aplishment in Lockhart''s (Flitwick) dueling club was legendary. Not once was Quinn hit with a spell in his entire sixty-nine fights, and more often than not, he defeated his opponent with a single, swift spell. And just when students thought Quinn would cross into the higher double digits, he stopped at sixty-nine duels and didn''t step on to the dueling stage anymore.


    When asked why he stopped, Quinn would grin while saying the words to everyone: "Sixty-nine, nice." And didn''t exin what it meant.


    "... So, he is a reasonable person, right?" asked James. While Quinn had been a massive help to them, James didn''t have a hang of Quinn''s personality in that short period.


    Ivy opened her mouth but then closed it without speaking. Quinn was a reasonable person, but he had called himself a hypocrite of a high order. And from what Ivy saw, Quinn was a tad bit prideful, had hidden greed, gued with paranoia that supported his contrtive nature, and finally was a maniptive person who seemed to be always operating in the background.


    Ivy had been cautious of Quinn ever since she met him, and that cautiousness had increased as time had passed. After Ivy deduced that Quinn was her and Harry''s savior in the Chamber of Secrets and heard about the recent event of him saving Harry from terrorist abductors, her wariness had almost vanished.


    She still felt a little wary of Quinn because her debt was still unpaid, but there was a deep sense of gratitude and thankfulness towards Quinn.


    "What are you talking about? Of course, he is a reasonable person," said Lily. The muggle studies professor from the very first conversation with Quinn had nothing but praises for him. "Why are you asking these questions?"


    James thought about his reasons for worries. If this was any other kid, he wouldn''t have been worried, but Quinn West wasn''t any other kid.


    "It''s nothing," sighed James and semi-exined. "I was just worried about the West family, that''s all."


    "What do you mean worried about the West family?" asked Ivy, and the same question floated up in Harry''s mind while Lily somewhat understood what James was talking about.


    "West family is an influential family here in Britain," started James to exin the significance of the West family. "They have their hands in almost every major sector here in Britain and many minor profitable businesses. From agriculture, mining, forestry, fishing, potions, textile, metalworking to transport, hospitality, consulting, legal practice, healthcare, tourism, they do it all. And every single business they open gets support from their resources, so more often than not, their business quickly grows and bes one of the top contenders for major market share."


    James looked up noticed that while his family understood what he said, they weren''t where he wasing from. So he simplified it for them so they would realize what he actually meant.


    "They are rich," he said, and that was understood by the three, but then he gave them aparison of wealth to get his point across. "Topare if webine the wealth of say... Malfoys and Greengrasses, even that amount would lose out to West family''s wealth in Britain. If we were to add on the ck family''s wealth when they were at their peak, then that amount would beat West family''s wealth in Britain."


    "So, they are filthy rich," summarized Harry in concise words.


    "Yes, son. They are filthy rich."


    Lily furrowed her brows because even though she understood what James was saying, but one thing from James''s words bugged her.


    "Why do you keep saying West family''s wealth in Britain?"


    James turned to his wife and nodded as if he was expecting this question. "That''s the real reason that sets West family apart from any other wealthy families. The West family business isn''t concentrated in Britain; it goes way beyond that."


    He paused before telling them what he had heard from his father and found from his job. "... West family''s business spans across continents and has such reach that the amount of money and influence they have is more than any family in Britain and probably more than any group or organization that exists in the wizarding society. That makes Malfoy''s wealth look like they are a bunch of poor chaps."


    "Then why aren''t they more famous?" asked Ivy because before she met, Ivy didn''t have any idea about the West family.


    "There are a few reasons for that," answered James. "First, they aren''t involved in politics, so they aren''t in the center of attention. If they want to get something done, they do it behind the doors, away from people''s eyes."


    "Second, the newspapers don''t report on them because none of the family members appear in public," continued James and then revealed the size of the West family. "The West family only has three people; George West and his two grandchildren, Quinn and Lia West."


    "People don''t see George West any other ce other than official events; he doesn''t speak to newspapers, so most people don''t know about it. Lia West, whom I researched, has been working outside of the country. She was only featured a couple of times since she entered the business, but that''s because she spends a lot of time out of the country. She does get plenty of media attention, but because she moves a lot, no one country gets too much of news about Lia West."


    "Lastly, there is Quinn West, who is still in Hogwarts. He spends most of his time in the castle, outside of the eyes of the media," spoke James before picking up on one of the tangents. "George West went to Hogwarts, and then after him, Quinn went to Hogwarts, but between those two, none of the other members went to Hogwarts. Lia West studied in France. Quinn''s father also studied in France, and his mother studied in Italy. Lastly, George West''s wife also came from France."


    All three Potter audience noticed that James mentioned Quinn''s parents. But previously, he had said there were only three West members in the family. Which meant that they were no longer alive. Ivy recalled how Lia was the one who came to pick up Quinn from the King''s Cross Station. She hadn''t given it a thought, but now she realized that Quinn''s parents didn''te because they weren''t alive.


    "So the West family hasn''t personally been active in Britain for some time, and that''s the reason why most people don''t know about them," spoke James, taking a sip of water from the ss of water on the table to quench his parched his throat.


    No one cared about rich people if they weren''t involved in some sort of scandal, and the members of the West family remained out of trouble.


    "The members of Wizengamot know about them, most of the ministry bigwigs know about them, but from below that level, not a lot of people know about them. For some reason, their businesses aren''t named after their family name, so the family isn''t a household name," exined James, and he was done exining to his family why the West family was such a big deal.


    "The same day Harry was kidnapped, George West walked into the ministry and made his way straight to the minister''s office," retold James the tale that he had heard from his peers in the Auror''s office. "From what I heard, he walked to the minister''s office and had his secretary announce that he was here to meet the minister. In under a minute, Fudge came running out with panic on his face. Fudge walked George West into his office, and when he left, Fudge issued an internal memo that essentially was a gag order to not let Quinn''s namee in any of the forting proceedings."


    Such was the power of the West family. George West could walk into the ministry, and his wants would be entertained by the Minister of Magic himself.


    "Voldemort had tried to recruit George West to his inner circle, no question asked, but he refused and fled the country, taking his family with him. They returned only after the war," brought up James. "This was the power of West family. Voldemort wanted West''s financial support so much that Dumbledore had to go beg George just to make sure that he didn''t support Voldemort. Forget about getting the West''s supports for our side. If George West had decided to support any one side, the war could''ve gone very differently."


    "So, I was just wondering if he is a type of person who gets offended easily because then I would step around him carefully," finished James. He didn''t want to invite trouble just because he said something that offended Quinn, and that went to George West because that would be a huge trouble for him.


    Ivy and Harry thought about Quinn and thenpared him to Draco but didn''t see many parallels between them. Draco liked to brag about his family, money, and the new things his dad had brought him. But Quinn didn''t do anything of that; students didn''t even know or thought that he was rich even though they paid him for multitudes of things.


    Ivy thought back to the day she asked Quinn for the information about Nichs mel, and that day he had asked her to pay upfront before she could even pick up the envelope that the information came in. She had to borrow money from Hermione to pay for that information.


    ''Ah... now with hindsight, Quinn did say that he would''ve mail-ordered the ingredients instead of picking them from Snape''s inventory,'' thought Ivy, picking up on things that showed he was from a wealthy family.


    That day the Potters continued to talk about Quinn and the West family just because Quinn wasing to their hometer that week.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I know


    Aksel Thorn - Founder (Limax Group) - How is he connected?


    James Potter - Soar throat - I haven''t spoken so much in a while.


    Ivy Potter - Some hindsight - Opinions in transition.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - "... What? Tag is important."


    Lily Potter - Professor - Has a really good impression of Quinn.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 127 - Description, Knight’s Bus, Godric’s Hollow

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stood in front of a full-sized mirror inside his room, watching his reflection in the mirror. He wore a well-fitting white shirt and ck denim pantsyered with a hunter-green blouson jacket. His pants were fastened around his waist with a tan belt, and down in his feet were a pair of brown leather loafers over checkered grey socks.


    Quinn''s appearance had evolved and transformed as he grew up. He was going to turn fifteen years old in a week and had changed a lot from his pre-teen eleven-years-old self at the start of Hogwarts to today, where he was a budding teen in his growing years.


    Over the years, the innocent look of a child had transformed into a boyish youth of a teen. The smart appearance that Quinn was known for had gained a tinge of roguishness that people would miss if they weren''t looking closely.


    His hairstyle, which was tapered on sides and back while the top kept short, giving him an easy to maintain Ivy league haircut, had slightly changed with his age. Now Quinn''s matte-ck hair was kept short on the sides and back while the top part was of a medium length and styled into choppy, texturedbed backyers with a side part.


    Quinn''s wiry frame that came with his young age and daily workouts was finally experiencing change, with puberty kicking into full effect. In thest few months, his chest had widened, and not only his arms and legs grew faster, but he also gained some height, finally pushing past the hundred seventy centimeter mark and stopping at hundred seventy-six.


    And the final change that came with puberty was Quinn''s voice. His vocal pitch deepened by nearly an octave. And the process of voice change to his adult voice finally started and would continue to deepen until his eighteenth or neenth birthday, as magical humans reached physical maturity by that age. After that, aging slowed down because of their increased lifespan than their non-magical counterpart.


    The air and vibe around Quinn had also changed, not because of his age but because of his magic. Magic was an essential aspect of his life, maybe even the most vital part of his life. Quinn''s attitude and personality were deeply tied to his magic.


    When Quinn had lost his magic, he rarely spoke to anyone and would like to remain alone rather than spend time with anyone. He became so obsessed with regaining his magic that Quinn pretty much ignored every person in his life and acted that he and his magic were the only two existences in the world.


    Quinn lost his magic, regained it while suffering from pain. He came very close to dying from injuries and Dementors and had to time travel to save his life. Learned a magic that was much higher than his capabilities, beyond what he was currently capable of. And finally met with Dumbledore and got out without getting his mind read.


    After all those ups and downs in a single year, Quinn hade out with a new level of maturity, confidence about his magical capabilities, and faith that he coulde out of situations no matter what. He was much morefortable with himself and felt secure with his magic beside him. And the trip to Denmark with the apparition lessons had given him the magic that increased his ability to move around, providing Quinn with a sense of freedom.


    If previously, Quinn had a hidden and reserved attitude to his public persona, now he wasing out of his shell. For the first time sinceing to this world, Quinn truly felt safe. He knew that with his family around, he would be safe from most dangers.


    But Quinn always had that sense of urgency in the back of his head to get stronger so that he could be safe on his own. To be able to protect himself from dangers on his own without depending on others.


    That was Quinn West''s thing: On His Own.


    In many of Quinn''s retrospective sessions, he thought about why he had such a terrible reaction to a wand that clearly suited him and had chosen him to be its wielder. The answer that Quinn came up with was his view of magic: he wanted to be self-sufficient, free from any form of support and dependence, and that carried over to his magic.


    Quinn wanted his magic to be always present with him so that if one day he was dropped buck naked into an unknown ce, he would be able not only be able to survive but also return home safely with ease. But a wand stopped Quinn from achieving that. Take the magical focus from a magic-user, and except for a handful of people, everyone else would essentially lose their magic and be the same as non-magicals.


    Even those handful of people couldn''t ess their full capabilities if one took away their preferred choice of focus from them. But Quinn could confidently say that he was the same no matter what the situation.


    And now here he was, standing in front of a full-sized mirror inside his room, straightening out his semi-casual clothes while checking them out to see if they were proper and if he looked presentable or not. Soon he had to leave for the Potter cottage in Godric''s Hollows for dinner with the Potter family.


    "This will do," nodded Quinn after confirming that his outfit was appropriate for the asion. He turned away from the full-sized mirror beside which hung beside his closet and walked to his bed.


    From the bed top, he picked up three white pockets shaped objects and one by one applied them to the inner lining of his hunter-green jacket. When white of the pocket-shaped fabric would touch the dark green fabric of the inner lining, threads would appear and stitch the white secure to the green, and then the white color would change to match the green.


    These were Quinn''s trusty detachable pockets, spelled to have an expanded inside them. The idea hade to Quinn in his second: the year in which he had just begun working with fabrics and leather. Quinn had taken inspiration from a certain blue robotic cat, who had a half-moon-shaped pocket that held numerous fascinating gadgets.


    The three pockets didn''t hold gadgets from the future. But the pockets did store the things Quinn wanted to carry with him: vials of numerous potions, safety equipment, a couple of tools, a lot of chocte, two decks of cards, coins, and other misceneous things that Quinn always wanted on hand.


    "Alright, I am ready. Let''s go," said Quinn before exiting his room and walking to the general study of the mansion.


    He entered the study to find the person he was searching for and found Ms. Rosey sitting in the sport that was usually reserved for her, and from the looks of it, she was working on the monthly budget and inventory of the West mansion.


    "Ms. Rosey, I''m leaving for the dinner at Potters," informed Quinn to the only adult in the house. Lia was in France with her friends while George and Elliot were out for business.


    Ms. Rosey looked up from the ount books at Quinn and gave him a look over, examining his outfit and judging if it was proper for the function he was going to attend.


    "I still don''t understand why you enjoy muggle clothing so much," sighed Ms. Rosey. The old caretaker was a conservativedy and didn''t understand the appeal of clothing from the non-magical society. "When will you return from the Potters?"


    Seeing that Ms. Rosey didn''t critique his clothing meant that it passed her check and got her approval, meaning that he was good to go.


    "It will end quickly, from what I am guessing. I will go there, converse a little before dinner time, enjoy a meal and wrap up things with a short after-meal talk," shrugged Quinn. "I''m not particrly close to the Potter children, so I think it will be back just a little after grandfather and unclee back home."


    "Do they have the floo prepared for your arrival?"


    "I''m not traveling via the floowork," answered Quinn with a shake of his head. "I will be taking the Knight bus to Godric''s Hollows, and then I will walk to the Potter cottage."


    "Again, with the Knights bus, you have been using that service a lot, haven''t you?"


    Ever since returning from Denmark, Quinn had stopped using floo-travel as a mode of transportation altogether. Instead, he had shifted to Knights bus to get around. Taking the bus was time-consuming, but it was all for the sake of magic.


    "Ms. Rosey, I finally know apparition," grinned Quinn. "I''ve to know the ces so that I can pop by anytime I want. The Knight bus simply allows me to travel ces I can''t travel by a floo-firece, especially the muggle ones. My current long-time goal is to map the entire country, so I can get anywhere via apparition."


    Apparition required the user to have memory or a clear image of the destination they wanted to visit. And that clear image could only be obtained by visiting the ce and couldn''t be replicated by the destination''s image.


    So Quinn, while he was outside of Hogwarts, was trying to use his time to go to important ces so that he could increase the destinations he could travel to.


    "But you can use the floo-firece to travel to the Potters," pointed out Ms. Rosey.


    "Yes," nodded Quinn and then grinned in reply. "but the Knight bus is so much more fun."


    Ms. Rosey sighed at the teen in front of her and lightly waved her hand. "Alright, off you go. Remember to maintain decorum, go straight to the Potter cottage and return directly. Don''t take things from strangers, don''t follow anyone you don''t know, and if in trouble, immediately apparate. If you can''t apparate or get out of trouble, you know how to send an emergency signal."


    The emergency signal was a ring alert system that Quinn had set up inside the West mansion. Everybody in the West family wore a piece of jewelry connected to the alert system in the manor. If, in any case, they were in trouble, the family member could use the jewelry to fire off the alert inside the mansion. Effectively send an SOS signal to get help.


    "Ms. Rosey, I''m not a child anymore. You don''t have to repeat that every time I go outside," pouted Quinn while touching the thin silver chain ne with a hexagon piece hanging from it around his neck. This was the jewelry Quinn had chosen for himself and was connected to the emergency/SOS system inside the manor.


    Ms. Rosey didn''t grace him with a reply and went back to work while ignoring Quinn. To her, Quinn would always be a child.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn walked out of the West mansion gate, which he had been using a lot these days. As he exited, the enormous gate, which was slightly open, closed back up, and the chains that locked it went back around the two panels of the gate, binding the two together before the lock snapped into ce.


    "Maybe, I should talk to grandfather about changing this gate," thought Quinn.


    He didn''t mind opening the entire gate every time, and it wasn''t even a task because, with magic, he could do it every day, all day without breaking a sweat. But opening the gate just so that he could walk out seemed inefficient.


    Quinn raised his hand with his fake wand in his grasp. The wand tip glowed as he held the fake wand over his head. He waited in silence as the fake wand tip glowed and gazed around to look for something noticeable.


    It took a minute before the silence in the darkening evening sky broke, and there was a deafening BANG, which made Quinn involuntarily twitch.


    ''I can''t get used to this even after all this time,'' sighed Quinn as he watched to see a gigantic pair of wheels and headlights screeched to a halt just in front of him. They belonged, as Quinn saw when he raised his head, to a triple-decker, violently purple bus, model name AEC Regent III RT, which had appeared out of thin air. Gold lettering over the windshield spelled The Knight Bus.


    Then a conductor in a purple uniform leaped out of the bus and began to speak loudly to the night. "Wee to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Kevin Kendall, and I will be your conductor this eve -"


    The conductor stopped abruptly. He had just caught sight of Quinn, who was putting his fake wand back into his pockets.


    "Oh, it''s you again," spoke Kevin Kendall, who looked to be the age of eighteen or neen, withrge, protruding eyes and a thick beard for his age, but that only meant that he could be below thirty.


    Quinn had been using the Knights Bus for travel so much that Stan had gotten acquainted with him.


    It was so ridiculous that when Quinn was visiting ces, so that he could use apparitionter, he would call upon the Knight Bus twenty times a day so that he could travel around. Quinn traveled so much that he was acquainted with a good part of the Knight Buses fleet and their conductors.


    Unlike in the books, where the Knight Bus wasn''t explored in detail, Quinn had found that more than one Knight Bus was running all over the country. Every Knight bus operated in their own area and didn''t go out of their territory. Quinn''s destination list was so extensive that the conductors hade to recognize him.


    "Good evening, Kevin," greeted Quinn nodding to the recognizable conductor. "How are you today?"


    The conductor didn''t reply to the question. Instead, he returned with a question. "Are you going to travel today?"


    Quinn had called the Knight Bus to travel, or why else would he call upon it? But Quinn understood what Kevin meant. He meant if Quinn was going to a ce, walk around that ce to memorize a generalyout and scenery before calling the Knight Bus again.


    "No, Kevin. I''m not going to do that today. Just one ce today," answered Quinn.


    Kevin looked a little disappointed because that meant that Quinn wouldn''t be shedding money to travel, which, in turn, meant that Kevin won''t be earning more today. All Knight Bus conductors not only got a base sry but also got paid on amission basis.


    "Alright, where do you want to go?" asked Kevin, going back to conductor mode.


    "Godric''s Hollow," answered Quinn and reached into his pockets. "How much will it cost me?"


    Godric''s Hollow was a vige in the West Country of Ennd. The West Country was a region of south-western Ennd. And covered the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and finally, Herefordshire, where West manor was situated.


    This region of Ennd also yed home to many other wizarding families, including the Weasleys, Malfoys, Lovegoods, Diggories, Abbotts, Scamanders, and once the Dumbledores. Indicating that the region was densely popted as a residential area by the magicalmunity.


    "Eight sickles is the price," quoted Kevin.


    Quinn paid the amount and stepped onto the bus. There were no seats; instead, half a dozen brass bedsteads stood beside the


    curtained windows. Candles were burning in brackets beside each bed, illuminating the wood-paneled walls. There were a couple of passengers other than Quinn sitting/lying on the beds.


    Heid down on the bed as if it was his own home. Quinn knew what was about toe, and he was prepared for it.


    Kevin walked up to the driver''s seat and spoke to the old driver, who had been driving the bus ever since its founding.


    "Take ''er away, Bol," said Stan, sitting down in the armchair next to Bol''s.


    There was another tremendous BANG, and the next moment Quinn found himself t on his bed, pushed down by the speed of the Knight Bus. He had been thrown back a couple times before Quinn learned that it was best to start the journey lying down. Pulling himself up, Quinn stared out of the dark window and saw that they were now bowling along a path outlined by trees.


    "Best go wake up Madam Marsh, Stan," said Bol. "We''ll be in Wiltshire in a minute."


    Kevin passed Quinn''s bed and disappeared up a narrow wooden staircase. Quinn continued to look out of the window and recalled the first few rides on the bus. None of the Knight Bus drivers seemed to have mastered the use of a steering wheel, and it had freaked him half to his death. The Knight Bus kept mounting the pavement, but it didn''t hit anything; lines ofmpposts, mailboxes, and trash cans jumped out of its way as it approached and back into position once it had passed.


    Kevin came back downstairs, followed by a faintly green witch wrapped in a traveling cloak.


    "Here you go, Madam Marsh," said Kevin happily as Bol stamped on the brake and the beds slid a foot or so toward the front of the bus. Madam Marsh mped a handkerchief to her mouth and tottered down the steps. Kevin threw her bag out after her and rammed the doors shut; there was another loud BANG, and they were thundering down a narrow countryne, trees leaping out of the way.


    Bol mmed on the brakes, and the Knight Bus skidded to a halt in front of a small pub.


    "Thanks," Quinn said to Kevin.


    Kevin tipped his conductor cap and then mmed the door close before there was another loud BANG, and the Knight Bus was off doing its duty.


    Godric''s Hollow could be described as being quaint. There was a narrow road with look-a-like cottages that resided on either side of it. There were streetlights at the center of the vige, indicating it as the square. Beyond that square was a church, and even though Quinn couldn''t see it, there was a graveyard behind the church.


    "Now, which one is Potter cottage," muttered Quinn as he walked inside the vige and looked around the cottages on the side of the roads.


    "Oh, I see them. These must be the homes," spoke Quinn as he noticed non-magical-repent charms and wards around some cottages riddled around the viges. "Which one of these belongs to the Potters."


    Quinn walked for a couple of minutes before he arrived at the edge of the vige and saw afortably sized, two-story building with a small gate and hedges surrounding the front yard. He peered at the wall beside the door and saw the sign that read Potter.


    He lifted thetch of the small gate and entered the well-maintained greens and lush front yard with a small garden with colorful flowers to the side. Quinn walked down the paved path from the small fence gate to the main door and knocked using the door knocker installed in ce of a bell.


    After half a minute, the door opened by the girl with red hair, and the moment their eyes met, Quinn greeted with a smile.


    "Good evening."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Buses are useful.


    Ms. Rosey - Conservative nature - Motherly figure.


    Kevin Kendall - Conductor - Let''s keep ''em rolling.


    Bol - Bus Driver - Even though it doesn''t seem like it, he''s a master of the wheel.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 128 - An Evening With The Potter Family

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The sound of a calming chime reverberated inside the Potter cottage, filling the home of the Potter family with a familiar sound.


    Lily Potter, the Lady of the house, Professor of muggle studies at Hogwarts, was setting up the table for dinner with the special cutlery that only came out when special guests wereing to their home. When she heard the chime, which only rang when the knocker at the main door was used.


    "Someone open the door!" shouted Lily across the house to her family.


    "I will do it!" A voice came in reply to Lily''s instructions, and footsteps moved towards the main door.


    Lily stepped back from the table and gazed at it to see if she missed something, but the table setting for five people was set up perfectly. She moved her eyes to the kitchen, where food was currently being prepared by utensils autonomously with magic. She observed that the food was close to being done cooking.


    It was then when Harry came walking into the dining area to get a ss of water for himself.


    Lily looked at her son and immediately questioned him. "Did you clean your room?"


    Harry was about to pour himself a ss of water but stopped when he heard her mother''s question. "Mum, he isn''t going toe up to my room to see if I have cleaned it or not. Why do I have to clean it?" sighed Harry and went back to pouring himself a ss of water.


    "Don''t give me that and go clean your room," ordered Lily, her eyes narrowing threateningly. "Quinn is already here... gob your hair a little. It''s like there is a bird''s nest on your head."


    Harry ignored his mother and silently walked out of the room with the ss of water. He wasn''t going to clean his room; he, for his life, couldn''tprehend why did he have to clean up his room every time someone visited.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Someone open the door!"


    Ivy Potter sitting in the living room, reading Witch Weekly, a magazine targeted towards women in the Britain magicalmunity, looked up from her magazine.


    "I will do it!" replied Ivy to her mother''s call and got up from the sofa and walked through her house towards the main door.


    She opened the door, and there stood the person supposed to visit her home for a thank-you dinner for saving her brother from a bunch of abductors. Her deep-green eyes met the stone-grey and saw the smile bloom on his face as he spoke up.


    "Good evening."


    Ivy Potter had Quinn West a lot while they were in Hogwarts. Even if she only talked to him a little while in a year, all students gathered in the Great hall three times a day for meals. Everyone got to see everyone if they caught the eye, and Quinn was somewhat of an eye-catching figure.


    He was popr in the school for running A.I.D and generally famous for helping everyone out. So if any nced at the Ravenw long table, their eyes would briefly stop at Quinn before moving on. And Ivy was no different; she, too, would sometimes have her attention caught by Quinn because of their shared history.


    In the near three years she had known about the person named Quinn West. Ivy could recall seeing him in Hogwarts school uniform. The uniform was the same for everyone except the house color, and thus, the school uniform wasn''t exciting to look at when every student you knew wore the same thing every day. And Quinn was among the students who would wear the uniform to the T with the robes and all. The only variation she had seen was when Quinn would remove the outer robes inside the A.I.D office.


    But now, here he stood, in front of her, in casual clothes. She looked down to see the white shirt, ck pants, and green jacket alling together. Ivy Potter had many thoughts regarding Quinn West. But before today, thoughts like good-looking, handsome, and attractive weren''t among them.


    Suddenly, she could notice all the things she had seemingly missed. Quinn was tall, not as tall as her friend Ron Weasley, but quite tall. Unlike Ron, Quinn wasn''tnky: he was quite fit under those clothes, something the school uniform robes had hidden. With her mind not filled with thoughts about if Quinn was nning something could finally notice that Quinn was remarkably handsome, particrly with that smile on his face.


    "Ms. Potter?" Quinn called to Ivy. Wondering why she was staring at his face without speaking anything.


    "... Ivy," muttered the girl with rich red hair and vivid green eyes.


    "Pardon?" spoke Quinn, confused.


    Ivy matched eyes with Quinn and spoke. "You should call me Ivy. Or are you going to address me as Ms. Potter, Harry as Mr. Potter, mum as Professor Potter, and dad as Auror Potter? Surely not, right?"


    "... Now that you mention it. That''s a mouthful of Potter," nodded Quinn seeing the Potter-point. He looked at Ivy and smiled. "Alright... Ivy, let''s start again... Good evening. I''m here for dinner."


    Ivy nodded and stepped back to clear the way for Quinn to enter her house. "Please enter."


    Quinn nodded, stepped beyond the threshold of the Potter cottage, and entered the Potter home. He looked around and saw an interior much different from his own home.


    The West manor was ornate, and Ms. Rosey, who was in charge, ced everything to form a clear structure and design that screamed a dignified beauty. The only parts of the West mansion under others'' control were their own rooms and offices. Quinn himself had only control over his own room, the practice hall, and the piano room. Other than that, Ms. Rosey decided the ce of everything.


    While the Potter cottage, from one look, was much more personalized to the residents and very homely and homey. Right by the door were photos of family and friends along the walls. A shoe rack by the side, coat hangers on the other side. They painted green and white wallpapers along the walls while the ceiling was white.


    Ivy watched as Quinn watched her home and recalled that Quinn''s family was exceedingly prosperous. Her father had told her that the West family lived in an enormous mansion in the distant countryside and owned vastnd in that area.


    ''He must think that the house is too small,'' thought Ivy, but Quinn had other ns.


    "This is a nice home,"plimented Quinn. "When I grow up, I''m going to get something like this for my own. Something personal and cozy. I like my home, but there is just so much walking! I spend a lot of time walking, you know. Not as much as Hogwarts, though: that ce is crazy. And think about the cleaning that''s needed. Thank Morgana, we have Polly, or we would be so screwed."


    He turned to Ivy and asked, "Shall we move in?"


    Ivy snapped out of her thoughts and gestured, "Yes, mum is looking forward to seeing you. She hasn''t stopped talking about you ever since you sent the reply."


    "Not surprising," grinned Quinn. "I''m most teacher''s favorite student. They can''t love me enough. All of them want some Quinn. Let''s go and meet Professor." He winked with a cheesy grin, making Ivy roll her eyes.


    The pair went inside the home with Ivy in the lead as Quinn continued to examine and observe the house. The chance to be inside Potter cottage was a rare opportunity, so Quinn was taking in everything he could see with his eyes. The two entered the living room where Harry Potter was sitting with a Quidditch magazine in his hand.


    "Mum, Quinn is here," called out Ivy to inside the and turned to Quinn. "Please sit down and make yourselffortable."


    Harry stood up from the sofa and stepped towards Quinn to shake hands with him and greeted, "Good to have you here, mate. Also, I didn''t get the chance to say this, but thanks for saving me. Seriously, I don''t know what happened, but from what I heard, it could''ve been gone very wrong."


    Quinn shook the Boy-Who-Lived''s hand and shook his head, "Don''t mention it. It was just luck that I happen to be here. Also, the situation was set up for me to have an advantage."


    Being humble and courteous was much better than being cocky and overwhelming when creating an impression. Quinn was definitely going to exploit the fact that he saved Harry in the future, but until then, he would rather be a friendly acquaintance so that when the time came, he could exploit this connection.


    Lily Potter finally entered the living room with a smile on her face and greeted Quinn. "Wee, Quinn. Were you able to find the house easily?"


    "Yes, it wasn''t a problem. The repent wards made it easier for me to narrow the houses down," answered Quinn. "And we live in the same Knight Bus area, so it was just a bus ride away."


    "That''s good to hear," nodded Lily and then gestured around the house to ask. "How did you find our house?"


    Quinn looked around as he answered, "It''s a lovely home, Professor. I can feel the time and effort you put in to turn a house into a home. But I do have to see one more thing before I can give my final remark."


    "What is it?"


    Quinn turned to Harry and asked with perfect seriousness, "I want to see your room. You did clean it, right? Let''s go see it right now."


    Harry''s jaw dropped when he heard Quinn, and he started to feel flustered. He nced to his side towards Lily and saw her mum staring at him like she expected him to show Quinn his room.


    "... Okay, let''s go see my... room," said Harry, sounding shy with a low voice. In his mind, he was nning on how to convince Quinn to keep quiet about his messy room. ''I will even grovel to Eddie Carmichael if he keeps quiet.''


    The other three exchanged looks as Harry turned to walk to his room and burst intoughter. Harry turned to face them and was surprised to see the three loudlyughing like they had heard the joke of the century.


    "Harry, d-don''t worry, he''s joking," spoke Ivy between herughs. "No one is going to see your room."


    Harry turned towards Quinn, who was giving him a thumbs up. "You have a talent, mate. Don''t let it go to waste."


    Harry Potter, the young prankster, grown under the wing of Marauders, felt embarrassed about getting caught in a prank. He hadn''t been caught in a prank since his first year when the Weasley twinsunched a week of prankster hazing to show him that they were the prankster general.


    "How did you know that mum asked me to clean my room."


    "Every mum says that. I was sure that here was the same deal," grinned Quinn. "I know you are a prankster, so I wanted to see if I could pull one under from you."


    Now that Quinn was here, he decided to showcase some of his charms and entertain his hosts: a good way to pass his time here.


    "Before I forget. I brought you a gift for you," said Quinn as he put his hand down in one of the expandable pockets.


    "You didn''t have to bring us anything. We are the ones who invited you to thank you," spoke Lily and wanted to refuse, but Quinn had already taken her with surprise, and she was holding an envelope.


    She opened up the envelope and took a dense golden straight pressed parchment out of it.


    "What''s this?" asked Lily and read the bold and sizeable words on the golden parchment. "MagiFax Q1?"


    "Yes, Professor, do you know what a fax machine is?" asked Quinn to the first-generation witch. He wasn''t sure if Lily knew about the fax machine because she had been in the magicalmunity for so long, and the fax machine wasn''t popr in her childhood.


    But Lily Potter wasn''t dubbed as the smartest witch of her age for no reason and the Professor of muggle studies of two years. "Yes, I know of the fax machine."


    "Excellent, MagiFax is the same thing but made from magical technology. It performs the same function using none of the non-magical technology," answered Quinn and then point at the slip in Lily''s hand. "MagiFax Q1 is for personal home use. It''spact and is optimized to work in homes instead of the office as our original line of productsunched one and half years ago. I think Mr. Potter might know of it because the British ministry approved the use of MagiFax inmunications recently."


    "The slip in your hand is a discount coupon that will get you a fifty-percent discount in our store in Horizont Alley on MagiFax Q1. Take this to the store, and they will exin to you about our entire line of products."


    "You replicated a muggle item, and it got ministry approved?" asked Lily, stunned about what she was hearing.


    "It might function as the non-magical fax machine, but as I said, it''s nothing like the non-magical fax machine. Unlike the Hogwarts Express and Knight Bus, our product isn''t based on the fax machine, so there was no way they would g it. There was some resistance because we released the first MagiFax nearly two years ago, and it took the ministry more than a year to decide to introduce this in their offices even though weunched it here first."


    The British ministry was forced to integrate MagiFax into their offices because other ministries were finally getting used to their MagiFax system. And they would ask to bemunicated via MagiFax because it was so much easier this way. But British ministry wasn''t able to do so because they were showing resistance to the system.


    "Where is Mr. Potter?" asked Quinn after everyone settled down in the living room.


    "He was called to the office because of some important work," answered Ivy.


    Quinn nodded, and inside his mind, connected it to one particr thing. ''It must be because of the Tri-wizard tournament.''


    Quinn turned to the Potter twins and started to converse with them. "So, what have you two been doing? How is the break going?" asked Quinn.


    The Potter twins exchanged nces because they felt a bit awkward. The boy in front of them wasn''t their friend particrly, and both of them had their own rtionship with Quinn. Before the abduction, Ivy never got along with Quinn, and it was touchy for her to talk to Quinn as those things never happened. Harry didn''t have much of a rtionship with Quinn except for the one time he went to get information. The fact Harry and Eddie hated each other with such passion made Harry never initiate a talk with Quinn because of his close friendship with Eddie.


    And yet, he was here talking to them like it was nothing. So the two twins felt lost on how to talk to Quinn.


    "I keep my business and personal life separated," spoke Quinn startling the twins. "You don''t have to worry about your respective dealings with me because I won''t bring them up. There is a time and ce for everything, and right now isn''t time to talk business. I came here because Professor Potter asked me to, so I will be the perfect guest and have a good time. I suggest that you do the same time and given this is your house, you should rx."


    Quinn picked up the ss of mixed-fruit juice that Lily had offered him and observed the twins. He already peaked into their mind to see that Harry had spilled his side to Ivy, which he didn''t mind. As long as Ivy kept her side a secret, Quinn didn''t mind Harry sharing. If someone came to him, Quinn would deny everything they threw at him because that was the deal made with Harry.


    "Dad has been busy, so we decided to stay in for this year," answered Ivy deciding to take Quinn''s advice. If he was so rxed in her home, why shouldn''t she be? "What about you? What did you do?"


    "I went to Denmark for a week, alone."


    "Alone?" asked Ivy.


    "Yes, it was my first solo trip... well, kind of. But yeah, you can say it was a solo trip. It was an excellent trip."


    Quinn turned to Harry, saw him reading the quidditch magazine, and decided to rope him into a conversation.


    "Are you excited about the world cup game?" asked Quinn, pointing to the magazine.


    "Yeah, it will be a fun game," nodded Harry, and his eyes shined, thinking about the uing game.


    "Who are you supporting?"


    "Irnd, of course. They are the ones who be winning the game," dered Harry with utter confidence.


    "Not Bulgaria with Viktor Krum. His season record has been way better than any of the active seekers," asked Quinn. He had little idea what was going in the quidditch world, but Quinn read enough of everything that he could hold a conversation if he wanted.


    "... He isn''t that good," humphed Harry, feelingpetitive with a pro yer while being a student-athlete.


    "You like quidditch, any ns to go pro in the future," asked Quinn, genuinely curious what this version of Harry Potter wanted to be in the future.


    "Hell yeah, I''m going to be a pro in the future," responded Harry as if there was no other thing he wanted to do. "I''m going to apply for the teams when I turn sixteen."


    "Yeah, right," Ivy snorted and held back augh, but a lot of it escaped out.


    "What?" questioned Harry, looking at his twin.


    "Like mum is going to let you go professional before graduation. Dad might agree, but mum will close the door on that before you could even suggest it."


    "You don''t know that."


    "I know it. You know it. And even he knows it," said Ivy to Harry and pointed at Quinn.


    Quinn raised his hands to separate him from the conversation, even though he was the one who started.


    The twins started to argue, and as they did, Quinn''s mind wandered to the Tri-wizard tournament, but with the quidditch talk going on, his mind connected those two things.


    "Oh, shit..."


    Harry and Ivy looked at Quinn, who was suddenly holding his face in his hands.


    "Aah, this isn''t good. This isn''t good at all. How didn''t I connect those two?" groaned Quinn.


    "What happened?" asked Ivy.


    Quinn raised one hand and waved the question off while his other hand was still hiding his face.


    ''Eddie is going to kill me when he hears they will cancel quidditch this year,'' thought Quinn. ''He is going to try to kill me.''


    Quinn had run Eddie hard all year long in the preparation of the next year. But if Eddie hears that there won''t be quidditch because of the Tri-wizard tournament, he woulde after Quinn to release the frustration. Eddie could be exceedingly single-minded when he put his mind to it.


    ''I need to fix that somehow. I really need to fix that somehow,'' thought Quinn before he looked at Harry, who was looking at with confusion. ''Alright, I would''ve to pull the biggest pitch of my life.''


    Harry and Ivy seemed confused to see Quinn hide his face, groan, and then pat his thigh as if deciding something. They exchanged looks of confusion, wondering why Quinn was suddenly acting weird.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "So Quinn," spoke James Potter, finally home from work after the sudden call to the office. "This year is going to be your O.W.L year, isn''t it? Are you nervous about the end-of-year examinations?"


    "Yes, it''s my O.W.L year theing year," answered Quinn as he sat down at the dinner table for dinner. "But no, I''m not worried. Exams are easy if you study regrly."


    "As expected of a Ravenw," smiled James as he too sat down.


    "Oh, no, no, no," chuckled Quinn, wagging his finger in refusal. "Ravenws aren''t good at handling examinations. For Ravenw, the examination period is really stressful. Most of them turn into backward savaged when the time for examse."


    "... Backward savages?" All four Gryffindors: former and current, turned to Quinn for an answer.


    Quinnid a napkin down on hisp before he answered, "An average Ravenw wants nothing more than to score well on an exam and want to score more than anybody, and that includes other Ravenws. During exam times, it''s every man for himself as the house unity is thrown into the trash. Then there are betrayals, backstabbings, fake notes, fake leaked papers, bogus potions, and herbs that are supposed to sharpen the mind, and so on..."


    He looked up at everyone on the table and continued, "One thing that every Ravenw has inmon is that they study regrly. Meaning that when exam timese, they are already on revisions. So to get thatpetitive edge, they try to mess up with theirpetition. Employ any means that would reduce even a single mark of others would mean that their rank would increase by some number."


    "My notes eliminated the fake note problem because mine is the best, and no other notes are needed," spoke Quinn as if stating a fact. "But other than that, Ravenws are known used to employxatives to make each other miserable. When exam timees, Ravenw gains the ambitiousness of a Slytherin, the courage of Gryffindor, and the hard work of Hufflepuff. Of course, every one of those traits is used in not-so-positive ways."


    Quinn looked at the food in front of him as the four Gryffindors looked at him because he spoke of tales of betrayals, backstabbings, and sabotage as if he was already used to it.


    "Do you also do it?" asked Harry.


    "Hmm? Oh no, I don''t do any of that. I don''t need any of that. My grades are the result of simple and pure intellectual superiority," said Quinn before turning to Lily andplimented her. "Professor, all of this food looks absolutely appetizing and stunning. I can''t wait to get started."


    "Ah, please start," gestured Lily, and the meal started.


    As everyone ate, Ivy continued the previous conversation. "Has anyone tried to sabotage you... during exams?"


    "Plenty of times," answered Quinn between bites. "They have tried to give me foodsced withxatives, vomit-inducers, bloating potions, and a lot more things that would cause trouble if it got out of Ravenw walls, so I''m not at liberty of disclosing any of that. Have to keep the darkness inside the walls."


    "Did they seed?"


    "Not once. I know to check my food around that time." Then Quinn chuckled at a thought, "If we ever show all those sabotage potions to Professor Snape, he would be stunned to see the quality of potions that we Ravenw can produce when we are motivated. They are fantastic."


    Quinn looked up at Lily and once again threw apliment at her. "Professor, I didn''t know you could cook this good. Have you ever thought of changing professions? If you have, please contact me so we can set something up because this... this will be an overnight sess."


    Lily brightly smiled and seemed happily embarrassed because of the repeatedpliments. The twins looked at their food and then at Quinn''s te, wondering if he was eating something else because what they ate was the usual cooking of Lily, who was an average cook, and that was with magic.


    James, though, understood what Quinn was doing. He could see the deliberate charm talk that Quinn wasying on. He had done this a lot back in the day when he was pursuing Lily.


    "Lily flower, this is really good." Jamesplimented his wife''s cooking.


    "Huh? thank you, dear," replied Lily shortly before turning back to their guest. "Quinn, would you like something else? You aren''t eating enough." Lily was getting excited because Quinn''s charm was working, and she reciprocated by being more friendly and hospitable.


    "Yes, Professor. I would like some mashed peas. I never liked mashed peas, but these are delectable. I can''t get enough."


    Lily happily passed Quinn some mashed peas, and he ate them as if they were the most delicious thing he had ever eaten.


    ''Oh,e on, enough with that. Reel some of it in,'' thought James as he couldn''t believe how thick Quinn wasying it and how well it was working.


    Then he saw Quinn look at him and winked before going to talk to Lily.


    ''This kid!'' thought James, bbergasted.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After spending some time with the Potters after dinner, it was time for Quinn to leave.


    "Thank you for the wonderful evening, Professor," smiled Quinn towards Lily and kissed the knuckles of her offered hand. "I had an excellent time in yourpany."


    "Oh Quinn, stop it. You are embarrassing me," replied Lily. If before today she was the fan of Quinn West, the student, today Lily had be a fan of the person known as Quinn West.


    James Potter rolled his eyes at that. Even Ivy had caught up with what Quinn was doing and sighed with an eye roll just like her father. Harry knew that something was off, but he couldn''t put his finger on it.


    "Harry, meet you at school," spoke Quinn to Harry. "Tell me about the world cup game. I won''t be able to attend because of some previousmitment."


    "Yeah, sure. Let''s do that." Harry nodded and was okay with that, even looked forward to it. As long as it was quidditch, he could talk about it for days. Quinn had given him an impression that he liked quidditch, and it helped that Quinnmentated on most Hogwarts games.


    Next in line was Ivy, who Quinn spoke to briefly. "Ivy, it''s always fun talking to you. Let''s talk some more when we meet again... and if you need any help, you know where to find me."


    Ivy nodded but didn''t reply in words. She had a fun evening with Quinn West, and that thought seemed unreal to her some time back. She never thought she could even speak to Quinn politely, forget about having fun.


    "Mr. Potter, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to host me. I''m sure that the current time is hectic for you," spoke Quinn to James, who was the final member.


    James gazed at Quinn and wondered if the West child knew about the reason behind his business. And after thinking about it, he concluded that Quinn knew about the uing Tri-wizard tournament.


    "Are you excited about it?" asked James, making Harry and Ivy confused while Lily understood what her husband was talking about.


    "Oh, yes. It will be mighty fun," nodded Quinn with a small grin.


    After saying goodbyes, Quinn left. He exited the boundary of Godric''s Hollow, and after looking around for a second, there was a pop, and Quinn disappeared.


    Back at the Potter cottage, the Potter family entered their homes after seeing Quinn off.


    "What were you two talking about?" asked Ivy about the small talk that her father had with Quinn.


    "It''s a surprise," grinned James but didn''t reply.


    Ivy didn''t seem satisfied with the answer and tried to pester her father for an actual answer, but the Auror refused to answer.


    The Tri-wizard tournament was on its way.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Perfect guest. His charms work well on olderdies.


    Lily Potter - Lady of the house - Fan of Quinn. Thinks he is an excellent child.


    Ivy Potter - Girl Twin - For the first time, she noticed Quinn and...


    Harry Potter - Boy Twin - Wants to be a pro-quidditch yer before Hogwarts ends.


    James Potter - Auror - "Oh,e on. Now that''s too much, right?! How is that working?!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 129 - Q.W.A.S.P.P.: Development In Picture

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [This chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "What do you think he is going to show us this time?" asked Lia West to her grandfather and career mentor about the uing event that she was so excited about.


    George West nced at his beloved granddaughter and faintly beamed the excitement the young woman was showing. Two years ago, she had been reluctant to sit at the same spot in the same room andined about why she was called back home while working on another project.


    But the sess from the meeting''s result had charmed Lia and George as well. While he didn''t show it, George was equally excited about the meeting that was about to start. The result of the first meeting was by far the best product that West business had ever created. It had revolutionized a majority of the mail industry, bringing in massive profits by the day.


    "I''m in the same position as you, my child. I have no idea what he will show us today," smiled George and thought about how blessed he was to have Lia and Quinn as his grandchildren.


    He had taken Lia under his wing when she graduated from Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic and had been guiding-sh-grooming her to be the next head of the business and his sessor. George had some expectations of his granddaughter because Lia had always been an intelligent child ever since she was young. She was the top of her ss, had excellentmunication skills, and held a genuine interest in joining the business and being a part of the family legacy.


    However, Lia had surpassed his expectations. She disyed grit and a hard-working attitude towards the work she was assigned, something George thought Lia wouldck at the start and gain with time. She actively took on responsibilities, and even though she made mistakes along the way, her tenacity to learn and implement what she learnt had seen that Lia grew at a steady and rapid rate.


    As things were going now, George was confident that the future of the West family and his own legacy would flourish under Lia''s hands, and when the time came, he would step down and let the next generation take the lead.


    Then there was Quinn West, his amazing grandson. Unlike his sister Lia, Quinn wasn''t interested in the family business. George knew that Quinn ran a sessful mini-business/service inside Hogwarts, something the ancient school had never seen before. And Quinn was the main contributor to the most significant product that had seen the West business and in the entire magical world in decades.


    Regardless, Quinn was interested in magic rather than running a business. Quinn''s passion had been clear from a very tender age. Ever since Quinn had performed his first idental magic, he had been hooked on magic, always looking at magic with starry eyes and with a young curiosity. Besides that, Quinn showed overwhelming talent in the field of magic, a talent level that George had never seen before.


    The fact that Quinn could practice wandless magic since the age of five (Quinn''s own ount) had stunned George and the entire family. At that point, everyone in the family realized how talented Quinn was in magic. All of them came to the anonymous decision that if Quinn wanted to pursue a life in magic, they would fully support him to the best of their ability.


    ''Oh... Maria, if only you were here...'' thought George about histe wife, the love of his life, and felt sad that he couldn''t share his happiness with the person he had loved the most.


    A knock on the door snapped George out of his thoughts. Lia perked up in her chair.


    The door opened, and Quinn entered the room. He was smartly dressed in a well-fit white buttoned-up shirt with faint light blue strips tucked into light gray pants under a darker stone-grey sleeve suit vest. The craftsmanship of the clothes looked non-magical, showing his penchant for buying clothes from the non-magical world and modifying them to his tastes. Though the light brown shoes on his feet were of a magical origin, made from the leather of a Re''em, a magical creature that resembled a giant Ox with golden hide.


    Quinn looked calm and rxed as he entered the room with afortable smile on his face. George and Lia immediately felt confident about the uing hour because of how Quinn held himself. They both were business people and knew how big MagiFax was and knew that expecting something as notable as MagiFax wouldn''t be unreasonable. Their expectation from today was to enjoy what Quinn created, and if it was marketable, they would put it into production. Quinn''s rxed demeanor showed them that he was confident in what he was about to show them, and that raised their confidence in Quinn.


    "Good afternoon," greeted Quinn as he closed the door behind him and walked towards the table George and Lia were sitting behind; interestingly, he didn''t have anything in his hands. He effortlessly waved his hands for the barstool at a corner which slid across the room, and stopped beside Quinn.


    To this day, George and Lia still felt surprised when Quinn used wandless magic. Last summer, Quinn didn''t have control over magic, and when he regained it, it was time for him to go back to Hogwarts. They didn''t get to see wandless magic from him until Quinn returned home for Christmas and Easter breaks. Quinn entertained their requests during those breaks and showed him what he could do without a wand or a focus.


    It boggled their minds how great at magic Quinn was; he, without a wand, was leagues better than children his age were with wands. He had shown them enough magic to confirm that Quinn was way better than most adult magicals and could be considered well versed in magic.


    "I hope I didn''t make you two wait," spoke Quinn as he sat down on the barstool and faced them. "It''s good to do this after so long; a shame that we had to skip out on thisst year. Unfortunately, my health didn''t permit me to conduct an event like this." Quinn didn''t look sad as he summarized the events ofst summer: although a tough time, he had gained essential lessons from it.


    "I''m healthy this time and I had a lot more time to create some interesting items and products that might intrigue you," continued Quinn making eye contact with his grandfather and sister. "And with some luck, let''s hope that the items I show you today will bring prosperity to our family and, in turn, all the people around the world who work for us."


    Quinn felt good sitting in front of George and Lia. He then introduced some of his inventions to them. His inventions were practical applications of the magic he learned; Quinn strongly believed in applying whatever he studied. Theoretical knowledge was iplete if it couldn''t be used in real life to create something. Of course, Quinn couldn''t use everything he learned, but he tried to utilise whatever he could apply.


    "Wee to Quinn West''s Annual Summer Product Pitch Meetings, abbreviated as QWASPPM," grinned Quinn. He had coined his pitch meeting with a new title and a long, nonsensical abbreviation.


    George lightly chuckled while Lia softly giggled; if it was someone else, they wouldn''t have shown this reaction, but this was Quinn, and they were family, so being dpressed like this was eptable. And even if Quinn spoke like this to someone else, he wouldn''t have gotten in trouble after the sess of MagiFax.


    One product had turned into multiple lines of products with various specifications for diverse customer bases. The profits that MagiFax brought were enough for Quinn to act any way he liked. Of course, except for the family, no one knew that Quinn had developed MagiFax. The designs for MagiFax were under the name of the West business, and Quinn was simply granted a share of profits that George had set up for him.


    "So what do you have for us today?" inquired Lia; her excitement peaking in anticipation.


    Quinn gazed at Lia, slipped his hand inside his vest, and took out a potion vial from his detachable expanded pocket. After cing the vial with the translucent red potion on the table, Quinn''s hand once again went into the pockets and took out a rectangle, long policy-styled envelope, cing it on the table beside the vial.


    "As you know, I usually frequent Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop in Hogsmeade during my time at Hogwarts," started Quinn, and the other two nodded. Quinn had been caught in between the abduction of Harry Potter when he was returning from Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop. It was safe to say that Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop was the store that Quinn visited the most in Hogsmeade. "The shop, being a stationery-cum-printing store, provides many printing services when not serving the students of Hogwarts with their stationery needs. And one of the services that the manager Gary provides is developing film to produce photographs..."


    The cameras that were used by magical society were analog film cameras and were non-magical products from the early nies. These cameras didn''t need a single spell to take photographs; everything from the cameraponents to the film used was non-magical in origin. This was the reason why they weren''t gged by the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, which regted the use of magic on non-magical objects and tried to keep items that had been bewitched away from non-magical folks.


    The magic behind the signature moving photographs of the magical world didn''te from the camera but from the developing method. The developing solution was a potion that, when used in the developing of photographs, allowed the pictures to move. And because of that developing potion, the magical world could use non-magical equipment to add photography into their culture.


    "... Let''s put the moving photographs aside for this talk and focus on color," continued Quinn while talking out three more objects from inside his suit vest, ced them on the table, and faced them towards Lia and George. "Now, let''s see what we have here."


    The three objects that Quinn took out were two pages and one photograph. The two pages had one photo on them; one colored and one ck-and-white. The third photograph was a colored print like any other shot printed on a photo paper. This one was a 3R(3.5"X5" / 8.89cm X 12.7cm) size.


    "We know that adding color to a picture is possible as seen on this paper and photo," noted Quinn while tapping on the paper with the colored picture and the colored photograph. "But the problem is that it is costlier to achieve colour in photographs. Colour photographs are only seen in framed photographs or family albums because we can''t achieve it in mass production."


    Quinn ced his finger on the page with the ck-and-white picture and pushed it towards Lia and George. "Pictures like this are what we see in books, newspapers, and magazines. Only a few very costly books and magazines with high subscription costs showcase colored pictures, and even those have a limited number of colored pictures."


    Lia and George stared at the three pictures on the table, and they were well familiar with what Quinn was talking about. Both of them had subscriptions to a few magazines that showcased colored pictures, but they were priced much higher than something like the Quibbler that Quinn was subscribed to.


    "The cost of the ingredients used in the developing solution that enables colored pictures to move is just too high for mass production printing like newspapers. That''s why the market is filled with ck-and-white images andcks the gift of vibrant colors which, whenbined with moving pictures, really catches the eye."


    George and Lia''s eyes immediately went to the potion vial as they took a guess about the vial''s contents. Quinn, who saw their reactions beamed, they were correct in their guess about the vial contents.


    "Yes... you''re guessing correctly. It''s exactly what you think it is," said Quinn, causing George and Lia to look above at him. "Once again, I present to you a product that will revolutionise the world of printing."


    Quinn picked up the vial and shook it in front of them. "This one potion can be used to develop films with color and can be used to add color to mass printing like newspapers. If you put this potion into the developing tank of photo films it will give color to moving pictures. If you mix this potion with any of the cheapest of the coloured inks that don''t support moving photos, the inks will move, so we''ll get coloured photos."


    Lia and George waited without speaking a word because the main issue still wasn''t addressed. If the main problem for why colored moving photos weren''t more prevalent wasn''t solved, then all of this was useless.


    "... I got estimates from Gary about how cheap the potion must be for printers to turn a profit by selling colored newspapers and books." The confident smile on Quinn gained then a bit of smugness. "This potion is below the price that Gary quoted, and thus, I, Quinn West, will provide the world''s cheapest colored developing potion."


    Lia and George stared at the potion vial on the table and the translucent red solution inside. The possibilities shed inside their brains, and if what was promised was true, then this was huge. They would once again hold a monopoly over print media supplies because before anyone figured the recipe or created a recipe with simr effects, they wouldn''t have anypetitors.


    This product was also perfect for a business like Wests. They operated in multiple countries and would directly spread the product without a middleman in numerous countries. Even the countries they didn''t have a base in would be a targeted market if they could figure out transportation logistics.


    "With colour wille the need for new printing press," exined Quinn. His potion had the potential to revolutionize the printing industry and push them into the color era in one push, but to aplish that, the world needed infrastructure. "The ck-and-white printing machines that can print fast for newspapers and books won''t work anymore. We need printing machines that print fast and in color."


    Unlike George and Lia, who had just heard this, Quinn had worked on this for a few months. He had time to think about what would be needed to make the item a widespread sess and not a modest one.


    "During the Easter break, I went to some non-magical ces, and even though it took some searching and magic, I found the blueprints of some of the colour printing presses that existed beforeputers," revealed Quinn. Whenever he went to non-magical ces, Quinn would leave while informing that he was going to a non-magical zone; Quinn never specified where he was going except if it was to the gym. That''s why none of his family had any idea when he got his hand on blueprints for the printing presses.


    Quinn saw a confused look on George''s face, while Lia knew what he was talking about. "It''s okay, grandfather, you don''t have to know what aputer is. I''ll exin it to you some other day. It''s quite fascinating. We''ll have to take a trip to the non-magical society, though."


    Quinn had made sure that Lia was normalized with the non-magical culture, and that included theputer. If she was to do business in the non-magical world, she needed to know what aputer was and how it worked. It was lucky that Lia was adaptive, if nothing else, and knew how to follow up to keep up with the development in the non-magical world.


    "In any case, I found a printing press that could work without aputer, but did work on electricity, so I had to strip the electricalponents from the design from it and had to modify it so that it would work with magic instead," sighed Quinn.


    He thought about the hours upon hours he had spent for months to figure out how the printer worked and study the mechanics so that he didn''t mess things up. It had taken Quinn a hell of a lot of time because he had to build it up from a blueprint and understand every single problem, including troubleshooting the hups that he faced along the way.


    "After figuring out how to get electricity out of the equation, the rest of it was easy. Recing electricity with magic was mighty easy because I know magic better than I know electricity. And I know what you''re thinking; the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Offices from across the globe banning this press. Don''t worry, while it works on magic and is automated to arge extent, I made it so that in the hands of a non-magical, it would be arge useless waste of metal."


    "I will give you the final designter, and you can have it checkedter. Though you would have to move the prototype built in my suitcase out of there to take it away." Finally, Quinn pushed the envelope towards the front and tapped on it for emphasis. "This here is the recipe for the developing potions. But I have a few simple demands before I allow the family business to use these."


    "Demands?" repeated George and leaned away from the envelope. He studied his grandson while trying to deduce what he wanted in return for the potion recipe. "... and, what are these demands?"


    "Nothing serious. I''m not going to ask something outrageous... I''d like the subsidiary where we''ll release the potion and printing presses to be named Silver Moon Printing Magitech."


    Whenever the West family business entered a new sector, they would create a new subsidiary with a new name. The West family business would act as the parentpany to all their subsidiaries that spread across diverse markets.


    "And the developer potion to be named ''Lunar developer 1''" smiled Quinn, remembering the day he decided to start this project


    . . .


    Quinn walked into his A.I.D. workshop the week after the Christmas break and felt the festive spirit die down, as the Christmas/New year decorations were removed.


    Inside the workshop, he found Luna sitting by the center aisle workstation with her painting set opened up on the worktop. Quinn smiled after he saw the paint set. He had been the one who had gifted her that paint set along with many other supplies to Luna a short while back.


    "Good evening, Luna," greeted Quinn. He removed his robe and took out a hanger from a cupboard to hang his outer Hogwarts robe. "What are you painting today?"


    "Good evening, I''m painting the Quibbler," replied Luna shortly, not looking up at Quinn.


    "The Quibbler?" repeated Quinn in surprise and confusion as he turned towards his assistant and saw this week''s issue of Quibbler opened in front of her.


    "Uh-huh," nodded Luna as he picked up pink paint on her brush from the color palette. "The Quibbler doesn''t have color. I asked daddy to add color to the pictures and pages, but he said it wasn''t possible. All these creatures in the articles are so pretty and happy, but they don''t have colour. So I decided to paint all my Quibbler issues to give them colour."


    Quinn sat down opposite Luna and stared at the blonde as she hummed a tune while continuing to paint and swinging her legs under the desk. He looked at his assistant/junior/dear friend and knew that out of everybody he knew, Luna was the person who held the greatest interest and love towards the fine arts.


    She would regrly take on new projects like paintings, drawings, mosaics, caricatures, portraits, calligraphy, and other types of visual arts. It was the reason Quinn had brought her the paint supplies in return for her incidental but much-appreciated disturbance while he was talking to Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria about him being sighted by the Slytherinmon roomke windows.


    ''Colour, huh...'' thought Quinn as he stared at the half uncolored page of The Quibbler magazine and Luna''s color palette. ''Let''s make something new, shall we?''


    From that day onwards, Quinn started to research why coloured moving pictures were so costly and found that the existing recipes spread across the market were too high for mass production. The ingredients that were used took time to grow, and the potion took time to brew.


    Hence, Quinn took some books inside his ever-growing library and started to read on pigment potions and the range of ingredients that could be used to brew the various types of development potions. The answer to the solution was present right in front of Quinn; his books from across the globe held snippets of knowledge that,bined, could create a cheap potion recipe that stood above the colour standards of the current market.


    He used the preferred colour pigments and developing-solution potions of different magical cultures since the times of ages-old paintings and murals. He studied theirposition, contacted Gary to get his opinion, wrote home to Elliot to get samples, and conducted experiments to create a modern alternative to them that was cheaper and took less time to brew.


    It took months of research and development while working on other projects but Quinn sessfully developed a potion recipe that worked with photographs, paints, inks, and a few other types of pigments.


    ...


    Luna had been the inspiration and reason behind creating his potion recipe, so he decided that Luna must be mentioned in some way. Quinn knew how the West family business operated and how they built subsidiaries for every new industry and since he was the creator of the product, he should have a say in the name.


    So here he was, demanding that the inspiration behind his creation be honoured.


    Lia and George looked at each other, and Lia shrugged in eptance. She didn''t mind naming the new subsidiary what Quinn wanted, and because the product name matched thepany name, it was all good.


    "Lunar developer 1?" asked George, wondering about the number in the product name.


    "You can use the number one (1) in the internal records and remove it from the marketing name," answered Quinn and then crossed his arms as he stared at the potion vial on the table. "This potion recipe still has a lot of room for development. I''m sure that after some time, the potion recipe will improve, so Lunar developer 1 is the current product; the future might hold a better product than this."


    Quinn knew that it wouldn''t take time to figure out the potion recipe when it spread across the world, and alternates would rise given time. In those times, the Lunar developer would need to grow to stand apart from thepetition.


    "Set up a research and development department inside the newpany and ask them to find ways to constantly research improvements to the recipe," said Quinn and removed his eyes from the vial to look up. "With all the other things I''m doing, it will take maybe a couple of years before I can revamp the entire recipe and give you a new version that will be much better than this one. So until then, employ potioneers and herbologists should add subtle improvements to remain at the top of the industry."


    Quinn didn''t have time to keep working on the potion recipe, and there was no need to create a better one while the one he had was the best on the market, and nothing else was even close to it. He was going to pause his research of pigment potions for a while until it was time to develop a new one, which would be a major improvement.


    "Do you agree?" asked Quinn.


    "We agree," nodded Lia, and George, too, nodded with a smile.


    Quinn had provided them another product to put them on the top of yet another market and bring in rolling profits.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Inventor extraordinaire.


    George West - Grandfather/Big boss - Happy that his legacy is secure.


    Lia West - Sister/Rising in ranks - Thinking about how this will change the advertisement and marketing game.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 130 - Q.W.A.S.P.P.: World Of Light

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Let''s move onto the next product, shall we?" said Quinn after the film-developing potion and the new color printing press pitch was over. "I''ve another market-dominating product that has the potential to rece the existing product and rece it till it no longer has a market share."


    "That sounds promising,"mented Lia. Her confidence in Quinn was at an all-time high. In Lia''s eyes, Quinn was the treasure chest that would give out precious treasures when opened.


    "I have been using this since my second year," spoke Quinn while taking out a thin metal strip with a rune etched onto the surface. "I''ve been using this in office and workshop at Hogwarts. It''s also everywhere in my suitcase."


    Lia and George stared at the hexagonal te of metal the size of a drink coaster. They could see a rune cluster of shallow depth etched across the surface; they couldn''t recognize the function of the runes from a first nce, so they looked up at Quinn for an introduction and exnation.


    The window in the room that let in sunlight, lighting up the space in natural light, turned opaque, blocking the majority of the light from entering inside and plunging the room into darkness.


    "When the sun sets, the source of light in all buildings across the globe are eversting (longsting) candles." Quinn''s voice sounded in the dark as he introduced the product. "Be it rooms without windows or underground areas, you would find eversting candles or torches lighting up the room. It''s a household item that people probably couldn''t live without, but what if I told you that I have created something that could rece something as prominent as eversting candles."


    Around this time, Lia and George''s eyes adjusted to the light, and they could see a faint smile across Quinn''s face.


    "I present you M.L.E: Magical Light Emitter," spoke Quinn as he said it; the hexagonal metal te glowed up and bathed the room in a faint white light. As Quinn continued to talk, the light from the M.L.E. got stronger. "An amalgamation of light-based runes, integrated together to produce light rivaling a well-executed and boosted Lumos charm and perfect for lighting up rooms."


    Just before the light got ufortably bright to directly look at, Quinn took out a ss hemisphere from his pockets and fixed it above the hexagonal te. The ss worked as an excellent buffer and diffused the light from the runes to create simr effects to an electric light bulb.


    The M.L.E floated up as Quinn levitated it with his magic, and soon it was at the ceiling, dome side down, dispersing clean white light to a part of the room.


    "Now the question is why should we switch from eversting candles to M.L.E," spoke Quinn, bringing to attention the biggest challenge to the sess of a product. "I would say that because of the nature of an open me, the setting of candles and torches is limited. The number of candles needed to properly isrge. But with M.L.E, that number is cut short by a lot."


    He pointed at the M.L.E on the roof and pointed out. "This one is the simplest model that I have created, and it can light up a third of a fairly sizeable room. I have stronger models and can be used in different scenarios: ambient indoor lighting, ambient outdoor lighting, task lighting, ent lightings. In short, I have different a line of products that have been optimized to work in different scenarios. Unlike the massively inefficient eversting me products, I have created products that target efficiency and would be massively better than the current eversting products."


    Quinn pped his hands, and the white light turned to yellow, then to red, purple, green, blue, and multitudes of colors. Lia and George stared above to see the color of light change with every second, and under Quinn''smand, the intensity and warmth of the light also switched with the second.


    "I can do all this with just one prototype, so think what I could do with things that created to fit certain needs," spoke Quinn.


    What had started as ¡¸Project: Edison¡¹ in his A.I.D project files had be so big that it had turned into a vast array of applications. And because Quinn lived in Hogwarts for most of his year, he saw different types of rooms and spaces requiring different lighting types. Somewhere along the line, Quinn started to analyze areas in terms of lighting, and soon, he had a line of products that he could use to light any ce he desired.


    "How about I give you a little demonstration about what I am talking about. Something that will exactly show you what I am talking about," spoke Quinn, and the M.L.E on the top dropped down for Quinn to catch it and ce it back on the table. He also switched the M.L.E off, and the room went dark once again.


    "This is what I saw when I say proper lighting," dered Quinn, and suddenly the room was lit up like it was a non-magical conference room. The M.L.E Quinn had hidden in the ceilings using illusion charms became visible and lit up ording to the configuration he had pre-determined. The room was lit up evenly and clearly, while the table area was slightly brighter than the rest of the room.


    George looked at the room and felt more impressed than anyone because he was used to candle lighting, which always left parts of the room in darkness. But currently, every single corner of the room was lit. And he felt the new white hue much better than the yellow light that he was used to; grandson and grandfather both preferred white to yellow.


    "We can install these in our stores, and it will attract more customers," spoke up George as his mind started to turn on applications. "Just by using these lighting, our stores would stand out more than any other store in the area."


    "And if we can get more people in the stores, the chances of them buying something would increase, meaning more sales," concluded Lia as her mind too made connections.


    Quinn nodded as he had first-hand seen the effect of lighting. When he had changed the lighting in his office, it created an impressive impact on every student that ever visited the office. For an entire year, students would stare at the lights before talking about their problems. And it extended to every new student he served this year. Just one little change made the students think that Quinn''s office was unique and reinforced a positive impression of A.I.D as a service.


    "... There is one another thing that I would like to discuss with you two," spoke Quinn, and he wasn''t sure how Lia and George would react to his uing suggestion.


    "What is it?" asked George, still staring at the lights on the ceilings.


    "Would you like me to build a nned obsolescence in the various M.L.E products?" spoke Quinn, hesitant about adding something in his products that would knowingly limit the actual capabilities.


    "nned obsolescence?" questioned George, not familiar with the term. Even Lia didn''t understand the word.


    "nning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it bes obsolete after a certain pre-determined period upon which it decrementally functions or suddenly ceases to function," exined Quinn and introduced his family with the new concept. "The rationale behind this strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases. It is the deliberate shortening of a lifespan of a product to force people to purchase functional recements."


    Quinn tapped the M.L.E on the table and continued with context, "My current designs of M.L.E have a life expectancy of a hundred thousand hours (100,00 hrs). After those active hours, the runes on the metal would stop working... but I can add some runes that would reduce the life expectancy to say something like... ten thousand hours (10,000 hrs). That way, the customers would have to buy new ones after those ten thousand hours (10,000 hrs)."


    Contrived durability was a strategy of shortening the product lifetime before releasing it onto the market by designing it to deteriorate before the actual lifespan. The idea of nned obsolescence was something Quinn thought of because of its urrence in non-magical history.


    On 23 December 1924, a group of leading international businessmen gathered in Geneva for a meeting that would alter the world for decades toe. Present were top representatives from all the major lightbulb manufacturers, including Germany''s Osram, the Nethends'' Philips, France''s Compagnie des Lampes, and the United States''s General Electric.


    As revelers hung Christmas lights elsewhere in the city, the group founded the ¡¸Phoebus Cartel¡¹. This supervisory body would carve up the worldwide incandescent lightbulb market, with each national and regional zone assigned its own manufacturers and production quotas. It was the first cartel in history to enjoy a truly global reach.


    The Phoebus Cartel''s grip on the lightbulb marketsted into the 1930s. The cartel''s far more enduring legacy was to engineer a shorter life span for the incandescent lightbulb. By early 1925, this became codified at 1,000 hours for a pear-shaped household bulb, a marked reduction from the 1,500 to 2,000 hours that had previously beenmon.


    Cartel members rationalized this approach as a trade-off: Their lightbulbs were of higher quality, more efficient, and brighter burning than other bulbs. They also cost a lot more. Indeed, all evidence points to the cartel''s being motivated by profits and increased sales, not by what was best for the consumer.


    In carefully crafting a lightbulb with a rtively short life span, the cartel thus hatched the industrial strategy known as nned obsolescence. They reduced the lifetime capacity of their bulbs from 2,500 hrs to 1,000 hrs and thus ensuring that their profits would increase due to the demand they had artificially manufactured.


    And Quinn stood in the same position as them. His M.L.E were better in every single aspect than the current products, and that included the lifespan. If Quinn was to release the M.L.E as they were, they wouldst forty-five years with an average of six hours of daily usage. That meant buying M.L.E would be a once or twice in a lifetime purchase, meaning that the West profits see explosive profits, but they would subside when the demand would be fulfilled after a single purchase.


    "What do you suggest?" asked Lia; she calcted the lifespan from what data Quinn had given and understood what it entailed. "If what you suggest is true, then we might eradicate the lighting industry upon the release of these."


    "From a business point of view, I would suggest that we cap the lifespan of M.L.E products ording to their use. Like, personal home bulbs go bad after ten thousand hours (10,000 hrs), and for products likerge floodlights that might be used in underground ces like the Ministry of Magic, I could design them tost longer because those work all day round. In short, we can decide the lifespan ording to the use of a specific product," suggested Quinn.


    Lia thought for a second before turning to George and asked, "What should we do?"


    George moved his eyes between his two grandchildren, and after thinking for a good minute, he turned to Lia and announced his decision.


    "You decide."


    Lia blinked a couple of seconds, and afterprehending the short sentence, she inquired, "I decide?"


    "Yes, what you decide will be the path of thepany. This decision is solely for you to take. I am leaving this up to you," rified George. This was the best opportunity to test Lia''s progress and her decision-making abilities. Lia had been working under his mentorship for nearly seven years, and George thought that this was the correct time to see how she would perform when faced with a vital decision.


    Lia briefly nced at Quinn, who looked at her without any change in expression, before turning back to George to see if he was serious. The older man was entirely serious and looked at his granddaughter, waiting for her decision.


    Lia West, a seven-year career woman, turned her eyes to the M.L.E on the table before looking up at M.L.Es on the ceiling. She thought hard and long about the decision that had been ced on her. The decision that could change the lives of many and transform the lifestyle of millions of people.


    "We will go with the nned obsolescence like Quinn suggested," started Lia as she gazed at Quinn. "We will decide the lifespanster on, and you will give me a write-up on your rmendations. I want to know what do you think the lifespan should be. This is what we''re going to do. When we sell the M.L.Es, we will say that runes wear off after the time that we''re going to decide. We''re going to offer the customers an offer: when the M.L.E dies, they can bring in the old rune te and deposit it to us for a discount for the new M.L.E."


    She turned to Quinn and asked, "If you nt nned obsolescence into the M.L.E, what are the chances that someone will figure out what we''re doing? Do you think someone will decode the runes while trying to figure out how to make the M.L.Es?"


    "No, unlike this one," pointed Quinn at the M.L.E on the table. "The designs that I will pass onto you won''t have the runes carved on the surface for everyone to see. I took nned obsolescence into ount and designed the entire product line with an anti-piracy design approach. If they open the product up for any reason, the rune cluster will break down and be gibberish."


    "That''s great; one less worry to stress about," nodded Lia in appreciation. "On the production side of things, we''re going to divide the production between different groups. No single worker will know how to carve the entire runic cluster. I''m going to go on a limb and say that we''re going to split the production process between countries. Every stage of the process would be in a different factory. It will up the cost by a level, but I think I can figure out a way to cut costs... grandfather, you will have to help me out on this one. I''m not experienced in the multi-country production process."


    "Don''t worry, I will guide you through the process," smiled George, satisfied with the decisions that Lia was making. The decision to split the production to keep the trade information a secret had impressed George, given that Lia only had a brief time toe up with a base strategy.


    Quinn silently watched as his sister and grandfather bounced ideas back and forth on a product that he created. His worries about introducing something that could eradicate an entire industry was relieved seeing his family''s initiative and response. Quinn had taken out the M.L.E with the full expectations that it would be rejected by them and had set his expectations ordingly: he would''ve been satisfied with creating M.L.Es for family and friends and no one else.


    He didn''t have the desire to make everything he made to be popr and be avable to the public. The products that he mad were foremost just a way to solidify and check his learnings. The decision to sell them was because he came from a business family and if he could help them grow, then that would be a thing that Quinn would dly help in.


    The second Q.W.A.S.P.P ended after Quinn, the inventor, introduced two lines of products that had massive market-changing potential to his investors, Lia and George.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Conscious about the potential of his products.


    Lia West - Career Woman - Somethings are too good to pass upon.


    George West - Big boss - Proud granddaddy.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Read some interesting history and had to share it with you all.


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 131 - Azkaban Duo, Lovegood House

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Junior entered a well-decorated hall with a scowl that didn''t suit the beauty of the room. If the gaze in his eyes held magic within them, he would''ve burned through everything he set his eyes upon.


    "What has made you so upset, eh, Barty?"


    Barty Jr. gazed towards the ornate dining table in the room to see Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew reading a newspaper while sitting in a chair with a cup of tea on the table in front of him. He looked rxed, as if he didn''t have any care in the world. As if he was enjoying the small pleasures of life.


    "Moody! That one-eyed freak is weirdly resistant to the Imperious," spat Barty with a toxic tone. "He has begun to somewhat refuse to answer my questions."


    Peter looked at Barty. He attributed this to two reasons. First, that stor "Mad-Eye" Moody was simply a freak of nature with an iron will to resist an Imperious, and second, that Barty Jr., who had not been allowed a wand for over a decade was still rusty when it came to magic. Even he himself had been terrible with magic for a few months after getting out of Azkaban.


    "I''ll help you to worm information out of Mad-Eye," spoke Peter, picking his cup to sip on some tea. "It''s imperative that we get as much information from him before you go to Hogwarts. You have to know everything about him, from the way he moves to the way he behaves. You will be working in close quarters with Dumbledore; anything less than perfect isn''t eptable."


    After they found out that Dumbledore had asked Moody toe to Hogwarts and teach Defense Against Dark Arts, the Dark Lord had ordered them to capture the ex-Auror so that they could infiltrate Hogwarts for his ns and schemes for his revival. He had been kept under the Imperius curse constantly to gain information about himself so that Barty Jr. could impersonate him.


    "You will help me?" scoffed Barty Jr. He looked down on Wormtail as he continued, "Don''t act all high and mighty just because you found the Dark Lord. I still remember the cowardly you. Don''t behave as if nobody remembers that. You''ll always be that pathetic rat who twitches at the slightest of movements. You''ll never be a true servant of our Lord."


    Peter set down his teacup back on the table and folded his newspaper. He then stood up from his chair and walked towards Barty Jr. He didn''t seem angry at Barty Jr.''s cutting words.


    "If I remember correctly, you cried for your mum during the time you were in Azkaban, didn''t you?" spoke Wormtail with a calm tone. Barty Jr.''s eyes twitched. He growled. "What was it? Only a month with six dementors assigned to you? That''s what you enjoyed in Azkaban, wasn''t it? Before your mother took your ce and allowed you to escape. You say that you remember the old me, but do you know that the ''true'' Death Eaters you respect who didn''t escape Azkaban were there when you screamed for your mum like a f**cking whiny little b*tch? They will remember that."


    In 1982, his mother''s health deteriorated drastically from the stress of her son''s imprisonment. In the end, she persuaded her husband to help smuggle their son out of Azkaban. The couple had been allowed to visit due to Bartemius'' high status in the Ministry and as Mrs. Crouch''s dying wish. Using Polyjuice Potion, undetected by the blind Dementors, Mrs. Crouch took her son''s ce. She died a short timeter and was buried outside the fortress under the guise of her son.


    "What you experienced was a happy trip to Azkaban," chuckled Wormtial, but Barty Jr. could see his haunting eyes. "I suffered ten dementors for over a decade. Do you know how it feels to have everything sucked out by those relentless demons for eleven long years? Not spared a single moment of happiness. To be drowned in misery for a decade."


    Barty Jr., who thought of himself as the greatest follower to Lord Voldemort, became silent for once and listened to Wormtail. He couldn''t recognise this Wormtail from the one he knew before.


    "Hmm? Tell me, how is it to be cared for as if you were an infant by a house-elf as we experienced hell in Azkaban," mocked Wormtail. "Was it hard to get three hot meals, a soft bed, and luxuries? Tell me your struggles, Barty. Tell me the horrifying moments you suffered through while the dementors hovered over you."


    Peter stared up at the taller man and smiled, "Don''t forget that I just didn''t find the Dark Lord. If I hadn''t found Bertha Jorkins, the Dark Lord would''ve never ripped past through the memory charm that your father ced on her. If not for me, we wouldn''t havee to rescue you. Without me, you would still be rotting beneath an invisibility cloak under your father''s imperious..."


    All of it had started when the Dark Lord decided to gather information about the wizarding world. He started with Bertha Jorkins, a ministry employee that Peter had brought along with him while looking for the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord had been surprised after he found that someone had put a powerful Memory Charm on her upon torturing her. After breaking the charm, he learned from her that this year the Triwizard Tournament would be held at Hogwarts and that stor Moody, an ex-Auror, would teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. She also knew that Bartemius Crouch Jr, one of his most loyal Death Eaters that apparently had been imprisoned in Azkaban after his fall and was thought to be dead, was alive.


    Voldemort, unable to possess her body and mind that was damaged by the spells he cast, killed her. Voldemort also knew that Peter''s status would attract too much attention, so he didn''t possess his body either. Together, they built a rudimentary body that Voldemort used for travel and performing magic. While in this form, Voldemort was forced to drink a Rudimentary body potion made from unicorn blood and venom from Nagini, whom he had turned his Horcrux using Bertha Jorkins.


    After creating himself a body, Peter and Voldemort moved to the Crouch residence. Voldemort needed a loyal follower to help him regain power and easily managed to free Barty Jr. from his father''s imprisonment. They put Bartemius Sr. under the Imperius Curse and forced him to keep working at the Ministry as he usually would. The house-elf, Winky, who had been caring for Barty Jr. for a decade, was killed without a single thought as she, sadly, provoked the wrath of the Dark Lord.


    They stayed at the Riddle House in Little Hangleton for a while because Voldemort wanted to stay close to Little Hangleton''s graveyard. Still, Peter convinced Voldemort to move to the house of the Crouch family, away from the muggle poption. Since then, the trio had been living in the Crouch residence while nning their future moves.


    "... Bartemius Junior, keep in mind why you are here and who you''re talking to because, if you don''t, things might just surprise you, and that surprise won''t be a pleasant one," said Wormtail before walking back to his chair and resume what he was doing.


    Barty Jr. looked at Peter and recalled a chat he had had with the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord had told him that he had rescued him because of his loyalty. The Dark Lord told him that he didn''t trust Wormtail and that Barty''s presence filled him with relief in that turbulent time.


    Right then, he understood why the Dark Lord didn''t trust Peter Pettigrew. The man he saw now and the man he was a decade ago were just too different. Neither he nor the Dark Lord believed that Peter would look for the Dark Lord after escaping Azkaban; that he would run away from everything and leave behind the life that had put him into Azkaban. But unexpectedly, Peter didn''t run away and looked for the Dark Lord.


    As he stood there looking at Peter, Barty held himself fromshing back.


    ''It isn''t the right time,'' thought Barty Jr. ''The Dark Lord will reward me when he returns to power. Then, we will see who matters more. All that matters is the Dark Lord and his return.''


    Barty Jr. gave Peter onest look and then turned towards the door. It was time to see his Lord, who had called him to discuss some things. Unlike Peter, Barty Jr. was a true and faithful follower and would never betray his Lord. He didn''t notice the look that Peter gave him when he turned, missing his cold, calctive gaze.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinnid on the bed. He was reading a book that hovered in his head while asionally turning pages without actually touching the book. His fake wandzilyid in his hand and his eyes moved left-to-right on the lines as he moved down the pages.


    He removed his eyes from the book. He had heard the noise of a discordant crunch and continuous things snapping together, which created a popcorn of satisfying clicks in his ears. The repeated sound rang in Quinn''s ears. It was like white noise, but was so satisfying that Quinn had to look at the source of the noise.


    Quinn watched as a dainty hand picked up tan-colored stic bricks while adding them to a grand, yet iplete structure with a satisfying snap. One by one, the stic blocks, which looked like bricks, started to be added to the structure. And with each addition, the structure moved towards what looked like a castle. The conical tops were grey, whereas the rest of the building was tan in color.


    "Luna, there are two protrusions rather than three in the big tower," said Quinn as he saw his blonde junior add a mini castle head to the side of two other castle heads that extended from a muchrger castle tower.


    Luna Lovegood looked at him with her dreamy eyes and blinked a couple of times before nodding and silently removing the third mini castle head, leaving the other two alone. She looked at the work-in-progress, which was a representation of Hogwarts made from what Quinn had gifted her, Legos.


    At first, she didn''t understand the aim of those Lego bricks, but after Quinn sat her down and made a small cabin surrounded by woods from a load of bricks together, she understood the potential of the gift Quinn had given to her. From that day onwards, Luna got obsessed with Legos and started to build so many things from her imagination; from buildings to magical creatures to¡­ well, anything Luna could imagine. Just as Quinn had promised her when he gifted her the boxes full of colorful bricks, tiles, tes, studs, and tubes type Legos.


    "Are you going to help me?" asked Luna while continuing to add Legos to the iplete Hogwarts castle, which was only in an initial stage- as Luna nned to recreate thendscape around the castle.


    "Yeah," spoke Quinn, took out a thin A-4 size notebook, and handed it to Luna.


    "What''s this?" inquired Luna and opened the notebook to see detailed sketches of every part of the Hogwarts exterior sketched onto the numerous pages. Some were up close; others were from far away, from a bird-eyes view, or from the ground. As Luna flipped the pages, she saw every conceivable angle of Hogwarts she could think of.


    "You can reference those for your build," muttered Quinn and continued to read his book. He had a mental structure of Hogwarts inside his head; he was sure that he knew Hogwarts better than anyone else. So after Luna sent him a MagiFax about her uing build, Quinn drew up an entire notebook worth of Hogwart shorts.


    "So you aren''t going to help me?" asked Luna once again, setting the notebook aside. Quinn raised his fake wand prompting Luna to immediately interject, "Without magic."


    Quinn snatched the book out of the air and snapped it close. The book went back into his expandable pockets, and he slipped down from the bed to the blue rug that was spread on the floor of Luna''s room in the Lovegood house.


    "What do you want me to take care of?" asked Quinn.


    "The viaduct bridge, please," answered Luna.


    "Alright. One bridgeing up," nodded Quinn, and his hands went into the box of legos.


    As the two Ravenws built Hogwarts, Quinn asionally looked around the room while recalling how Luna''s room had been described in the books. He remembered that in The Deathly Hallows, Harry had described Luna''s room and hade across his and the other Ministry Five''s faces painted on the ceiling with the word "friends" written in golden ink, creating a circle around each of them and connecting them together. Currently, the top was bare with no faces or any other mural painted on it.


    In the books, Harry described Luna as having pictures of hers and her mother in the frame, and this was true, as he saw Luna and Pandora Lovegood in photos together. But what made Quinn smile was the fact that there were more photos in Luna''s room other than her mother''s.


    He saw familiar photos: photos of him, Luna, Eddie, and Marcus, together at Hogwarts. He and Luna together at the A.I.D. office. Luna ying catch with Eddie while flying on a broom. Marcus and Luna ying chess in the Ravenwmon room. A few photos from Luna''s second year at Hogwarts, the year she became a part of Quinn''s friend circle.


    ''Have to make sure that she makes more memories,'' thought Quinn and went back to putting blocks into the structure.


    "Quinn, is Hogwarts a girl or a boy?" asked Luna.


    "Hogwarts is ady, Luna," answered Quinn.


    "How do you know?"


    "Don''t know, I just think Hogwarts is ady... Lady Hogwarts just sounds right."


    "Lady Hogwarts... Lord Hogwarts... hmm, you''re right, Lady Hogwarts sounds better," nodded Luna. "So we live inside a girl?"


    "..."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley walked on a stamped-out path between the grass. They were surrounded by trees and flowers that grew in patches; there wasn''t a single sign of urbanization in sight.


    "How much more do we have to walk?" asked Ivy as they moved across the small, quaint vige known as Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, Ennd.


    The vige had both muggle and magicalmunities, thetter being quietly established after the Statute of Secrecy in the 17th century. Four wizarding families were known to live around Ottery St. Catchpole: the Weasleys, the Fawcetts, the Diggorys, and the Lovegoods.


    "It''s a fifteen-minute walk, so maybe five minutes more," answered Ginny. She paused to pick up a wildvender flower. She added it to a bouquet of flowers she had collected during their walk.


    The three were walking towards the Lovegood house on the other side of Ottery St. Catchpole. The three girls had escaped the Burrow, home to the Weasley family when the Quidditch talk about the uing tournament had be too much for Ivy and Hermione.


    And as much as Ginny enjoyed Quidditch, she, too, wanted to get out so she tagged along with Ivy and Hermione. After they got out of the house, they thought about what to do and somehow came to the conclusion that they should go see Luna Lovegood, who lived on the opposite side of the vige.


    "How is Luna Lovegood?," asked Hermione. "I mean, I know a little about her; she is a little weird, but how is she exactly?" The intelligent witch had once called the Quibbler "rubbish" without knowing that Luna''s father was the editor. Luna had heard it and had called her mean. It was safe to say that the two didn''t get along well.


    "Even though we both live here, I don''t know Luna that well. We yed a couple of times when we were little, but then, Luna''s mum died and she stoppeding over," answered Ginny. Thest time she had yed with her was when she had been nine. "Luna is... peculiar to say the least. But if you ignore her entric behaviour, Luna is nice... it''s just that she has different interests."


    "Some call her ''Loony Lovegood,'' though,"mented Hermione.


    "Er, don''t call her that," interjected Ivy.


    "Huh, of course, I''m not going to call her that. It''s rude."


    "No, I mean don''t even say it behind her back," continued Ivy. "If someone hears you call her Loony, then there are good chances that you''ll be corneredter that day."


    "What do you mean?"


    "You know Luna Lovegood is friends with West, right? She also works with him at the A.I.D... so, if you talk about someone calling Luna'' Loony,'' then people wille for a talk with you."


    "Who wille?" asked Ginny. Hermione wondered the same.


    "West, Carmicheal, and Belby; Luna''s three friends," Ivy said. "If the person who called Lovegood'' Loony'' is a first or second year, then they will be visited by Belby, who will talk to them peacefully and ask them not to call Luna that. If the offending person is a third, fourth, or fifth year, then Carmicheal will corner them and straight out threaten them to back off, or they will get beat up; from what I have heard, one Hufflepuff and two Slytherin did get beat up by Carmichael. Finally, if it''s someone from sixth or seventh year, West will call them in for a talk, and then... they''ll stop. If they call Luna'' Loony'' to the face, they''ll have to apologise to her on the same day or the day after. If Luna doesn''t hear it, then they are only released after a warning."


    "What does West do?" asked Hermione as Ivy didn''t specify it.


    "I tried asking a seventh-year Gryffindor, but they wouldn''t say anything. They would just shake their heads with a cramped smile. No one has given me a clear answer."


    Hermione and Ginny looked at each other and then lightly gulped. Getting beat up by Eddie Carmichael sounded terrible enough, but from how Ivy described it, getting called in by Quinn West sounded more nerve-wracking.


    "How do you know all this?" asked Ginny as neither she nor Hermione had heard about this.


    "... they only started doing this after the Christmas break," she replied shortly, not wanting to reveal that when he had been in his third year, Ivy had kept tabs on Quinn''s activities as much as she could.


    "Ahaa!" shouted Ginny, as the wind whipped their hair and clothes. She was pointing upward toward the top of the hill, where a strange-looking house rose vertically against the sky, a great ck cylinder with a ghostly moon hanging behind it in the afternoon sky.


    "That''s Luna''s house, right? It suits her. It looks like a giant rook!"


    "Do you see a bird, really?," said Hermione, frowning at the tower.


    "I was talking about a chess rook," said Ginny. "A castle to you."


    Ginny''s legs reached the hilltop first. When Ivy and Hermione caught up with her, panting and clutching stitches in their sides, they found her grinning broadly.


    "Finally," said Ginny. "Look."


    Three hand-painted signs were tacked to a broken-down gate. The first read,


    ¡¸THE QUIBBLER. EDITOR: X. LOVEGOOD¡¹


    The second,


    ¡¸PICK YOUR OWN MISTLETOE¡¹


    The third,


    ¡¸KEEP OFF THE DIRIGIBLE PLUMS¡¹


    The gate creaked as they opened it. The zigzagging path leading to the front door was overgrown with a variety of odd nts, including a bush covered in the orange radish like fruit. Ivy thought she recognized a Snargaluff and gave the wizened stump a wide berth. There were two aged crab apple trees without many leafs bent because of the wind, though they were still heavy with berry-sized red fruits and bushy crowns of white-beaded mistletoe. The trees stood as sentinels on one side of the front door. A little owl with a slightly ttened, hawklike head peered down at them from one of the branches.


    Ginny stepped forward to rap on the thick ck door, but before she could even raise her hand, the door opened, and someone they weren''t expecting greeted their sights.


    Ivy''s eyes widened in surprise. "Huh, what are you doing here?"


    "That would be my question as well. Why are you here?" He turned his eyes to the younger redhead of the trio. "I get why she is here. Her house being what... ten minutes away."


    The trio of girls stared at Quinn West dressed in a ck cored tee and khaki cargo shorts, a positively clear muggle attire on a pureblood.


    "We were wondering whether Luna was avable to y with us," said Ginny.


    At that point, Luna Lovegood popped up from behind Quinn with sparkling eyes. "y? I want to y. What are we ying?"


    Two pairs of silver stone-grey eyes stared at the girls. One excited in dreamy curiosity, the second in... slight surprise and gradual eptance.


    "Didn''t we just spend hours building Hogwarts in Legos? You still want to y?"


    Hermione, who heard the word Legos, did a double take because of her current location. She hadn''t expected to hear that Luna owned Lego or that Quinn had been ying with Legos for hours.


    "Is there a limit as to how much I can y? Daddy has never said anything like that."


    Quinn crossed his arms and stared at the girls for a few seconds. "I suppose." ''Luna spending time with girls for a change was good for her, he thought. She did spend most of her time with him, Eddie and Marcus. Plus, he didn''t have a say in who Luna decided to spend time with.


    "Just tell her dad before you take her out, would you?"


    "I''ll go tell him," said Luna before skipping back to the house towards her father''s study.


    Quinn turned to Hermione and addressed her, "I''m surprised to see you here, Ms. Granger; the break is about to end. Shouldn''t you be with your family?"


    Hermione, surprised with the sudden question, took a moment to reply. "Ivy has invited me to see the World Cup''s final; the tickets are rare." Plus, she had already spent the first half of the summer break vacationing in France with her family.


    "Of course, the World Cup''s final. Yes, the tickets are rare. Just over a hundred thousand seats to be distributed to magicals from the six continents."


    "From what you told, you aren''t going, are you?" asked Ivy.


    "Well, yes, I''ll be going to see some games. Only I''m not going to be there at the stadium to see the World Cup''s final."


    Quinn nced back into the house before looking back at the girls and smiled. "Now, if you excuse me, I was about to leave, and I should probably leave before Lunaes back and tries to rope me into joining you guys. I''m sure you all are an excellentpany, but unfortunately, I have previousmitments."


    He wasn''t sure if he would be able to refuse Luna if she asked him to stay. He spoiled her too much.


    "Say goodbye to Luna for me, if you would," he said while taking out his shrunken hoverboard and expanding it to full size. "It was nice seeing you three. Ms. Granger, Ms. Weasley, and Ivy. I guess I''ll see you at Hogwarts."


    Then he was off, gliding away on the magic-powered skateboard-styled hoverboard.


    And a few seconds after Quinn left, Luna came out, while pulling an older man with her. "Quinn, you should y with us... huh, where did he go?"


    "He left and asked us to say goodbye for him."


    "Aww, well, nothing we can do about that," she said and tugged on the man''s hand, who looked like he wasn''t paying attention. "This is my daddy."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    A/N: Do you know that in the books, the attire of wizards is described as robes. But interestingly, J.K. hasn''t specified what they wear inside those robes... Or if they even wear anything inside.


    In the books, the school uniform was just Hogwarts robes and no uniform. Movies added the standard uniform that British schools (among many other countries) follow.


    And just to specify, my version of pureblood/magical society attire is old-style muggle clothing or specific, simplest of the muggle clothing. Barebones stuff like shirts and pants and, of course, suits are necessary. Also, I don''t have a clear image of girls/women clothing: I am just going with what Molly, Narcissa, and Betrix wore in the movies.


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "... I can build the entire thing under a minute with magic."


    Luna Lovegood - Artist - Lego is hertest obsession.


    Bartemius ''Barty'' Crouch Jr. - Death Eater (Hates the ones that went free) - Technically, he is the first one to escape Azkaban


    Peter Pettigrew - Wormtail - That makes him the second one, even though he did it alone, without any help.


    Ivy Potter - "Ivy" - Keeping tabs.


    Hermione Granger - "Ms. Granger" - Living at the Potter cottage since a few days ago.


    Ginny Weasley - "Ms. Weasley" - Luna''s childhood ymate.


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 132 - August 25, 1994: Fury Of Noir

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Uncle, I''m going to London," said Quinn as he peeked inside Elliot Dalton''s study inside the West Manor. The older man was focused on his work.


    Elliot looked up from the documents on his desk. Quinn was dressed in his non-magical-styled clothes, which he wore most of the time, except when he needed to wear clothing prevalent in the magical world for appropriate asions.


    "London? May I ask why you want to go there?"


    Quinn raised his hand. He had a ticket stub in his hand. "I''m heading to the cinema. I might returnte, so please don''t wait for me at supper. I will eat dinner at home, though. So please ask Polly to set up something for me."


    "I see, be careful with the time, then, and try not to stay out toote," nodded Elliot. "Return home before your grandfather goes to sleep."


    "Understood," said Quinn.


    As Quinn left, Elliot''s eyes caught a glimpse of something white around Quinn''s neck. Nheless, the door closed before he could get a clear look. He shook his head and assumed that it would be some sort of non-magical style clothing. He forgot about the matter and returned to his work.


    Outside Elliot''s office, Quinn started walking towards the manor''s door. He looked at the ticket stub in his hand that showed today''s date. August 25, 1994. A week before he had to leave for Hogwarts. Today, however, the day itself was of great importance.


    ''Sorry for lying, but I had to do it,'' thought Quinn as he pocketed the ticket stub that was going to go unused.


    Determination shed through Quinn''s eyes as he thought of what he was about to do and the possible repercussions that his actions might cause. Among such thoughts, Quinn wished that today went without a hitch, that nobody would know what he was about to do. Everybody would be better if that was the case.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    *Pop*


    With a popping noise as if it was a stic bag popping, Quinn''s feet touched misty moor. He had apparated in a familiar ce. His eyes immediately looked around to check for any living and observing presence; after carefully observing his surroundings along with the Human-presence-revealing spell (Homenum Revelio), Quinn concluded that he was alone in the deserted stretch.


    He looked at a line of wooden posts that were ced consecutively creating a line. Between the consecutive posts there were broken barbed wires. When they had been intact they had formed a fence.


    Quinn blinked and casted the Point-Me Charm In front of him, an arrow appeared pointing north. Then he set off across the deserted moor. He was unable to make out much through the mist, so he simply relied on the north-facing arrow to guide him. After about ten minutes, a small stone cottage next to a gate swam into focus. Beyond it, Quinn could make out the ghostly shapes of hundreds and hundreds of tents. They rose up to a slightly slopingrge field. On the horizon, a dark forest could be seen.


    He dispelled the Point-Me Charm, and stopped before he was too near to a stone cottage. The custom-made disillusionment charm he had made from his knowledge of sensory illusion magic covered his body and made him invisible to all five senses. After making sure that he was invisible, Quinn resumed walking and passed by the stone cottage, ignoring the muggle who lived inside and the ministry employee who hid in the cabin in case he asked too many questions and needed to obliviate him.


    Quinn entered the gate of the campsite. He trudged up the misty field in the middle of long rows of tents. Most looked almost ordinary; their owners had clearly tried to make them as non-magical as possible. Some, though, slipped up by adding chimneys, bellpulls, or weather vanes. On a side note, there were tents so obviously magical that Quinn wondered if its owners were even trying to hide that they were magicals. Halfway up the field stood an extravagant silk like miniature pce, with several live peacocks tethered at the entrance. A little farther on, he passed a tent that had three floors and several turrets, and a short way beyond, there was a tent that had a front garden with a birdbath, sundial, and fountain.


    ''Showoffs,'' thought Quinn. The tant disregard of the Statute of Secrecy in this ce made Quinn realise once again the huge disconnection there was between the magical and non-magical society. Thew to separate the twomunities had isted the magical society so much that they didn''t even know what was considered non-magical. An apparent fault from the education system failing to educate their students about the one thing they are supposed to hide from.


    He reached the very edge of the wood at the top of the field and stared at the litter of magical tents blocking his vision of the horizon. Every four years, only one event would cause this many magicals to gather in one ce, and that event was today. On August 18, 1994, magicals from the six continents gathered at Dartmoor, Ennd, to attend the Quidditch World Cup, and today was the finals between Irnd and Bulgaria.


    The man in the stone cabin that Quinn passed by, Mr. Roberts, owned and operated many campsites in the area, and one of those campsites had been booked by the British Ministry of Magic for the Quidditch World Cup. Quinn hade here because today was the day the Death Eaters would ravage the campsites and prey upon muggle-borns for sport.


    Quinn looked up and wondered whether the Dark Mark would make an appearance. Barty Crouch Junior had been the one who hadunched the Dark Mark to the sky over the campground in the original books.


    Quinn knew Junior''s backstory, and if the current events followed the original path, then he would be here at the finals, beneath an invisibility cloak under the Imperius Charm. Junior would regain control here ande upon the scene of Death Eaters destroying everything in their way. In response, he would get angry and cast the Dark Mark. His anger would stem from theirck of initiative in finding their master, which he yearned to do and yet was unable.


    ''An emotional, yet stupid decision. Bringing him here is foolish,'' thought Quinn. Time made people ck, and it was the case in this situation.


    He didn''t me Senior that much, though. It had been over a decade since he had kept his son holed up in the house. And only because of the continuous insistence of their house-elf, Winky, and his son''s love for Quidditch, did Senior allow Junior toe to the finals.


    Quinn didn''t know if the events of the original books would ur today. He knew that Barty Junior was out of Azkaban because both Mrs. Crouch and Barty Junior were legally dead, which meant that the events of the original books were followed to some extent. However, he didn''t know whether the Death Eaters would attack or if Barty Junior would be able to regain control of his body. There was a chance that things might go south, though. Because of that, Quinn was there.


    ''Let''s see how many I can take down today,'' thought Quinn. He sat down near one of the trees, still invisible, waiting for the Death Eaters to arrive.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The game was over, and people started to return to campsites from the stadium that had been set up by the Ministry. Raucous singing could be heard on the night air as he stepped back a bit into the woods, where the leprechauns''ntern''s light couldn''t reach as they kept shooting over his head, cackling and waving theirnterns.


    ''It''s time,'' thought Quinn, he turned himself visible again and started to remove his clothes. He removed all of his non-magical styled garments. Under them was stark white spandex that stuck close to Quinn''s body. The spandex had white patches stuck all over: two on the chest (one on each pec), two on the abdomen, two on each arm (one above and below the elbow each), one on each of the back of his palms, four on each legs, one on each feet and, finally, three patches that covered his back.


    Luckily, no one was there to see him, or Quinn would''ve died of sheer embarrassment. Fortunately, Quinn wouldn''t be wearing only white spandex. He tapped his chest, and blue waves of energy traveled throughout the white fabric. After the wave traversed the entire material, the fabric changed.


    The white transformed into multiple colors; green-brown, olive drab, dark chestnut, and fern green covered Quinn''s body. The spandex that had been stuck to Quinn''s body expanded and turned into cargo trousers and a hooded military-style jacket. All of this was over a ck skin-tight full-sleeved shirt that covered his head, hiding all of his hair, and on the bottom below the cargo pants were ckpression pants.


    Quinn raised his hands and saw them covered in tactical gloves. If you looked down at his feet he had tactical boots, both in dark green camo that suited the night and the forest. Every inch of his body except his face''s front was covered. And even his face was hidden beneath the shadow of the hood.


    ¡¸Project Noir¡¹


    A project Quinn hadunched in his second year, just a few days before Quinn had ventured into the Sin vault. The project had been put on hold by sin-Quinn, who didn''t like the prospect of hiding himself. However, regr Quinn wanted his identity hidden whenever he desired, so he reinitiated the project. Furthermore, he had started researching and developing a rotation between his projects after the day he encountered in Hogsmeade the Novellus ionites trying to kill first-gen magicals.


    He had been lucky that day as no one identified him or shot a Revelio charm his way to disable his invisibility. But Quinn knew that luck was fickle. As such, he prepared a transformative set of tactile attire which Quinn would design to change ording to his needs. The spandex and patches over the spandex held enough clothing to transform into practically anything Quinn wanted to wear: if Quinn wanted swimming trunks, the material would retract until he was wearing just trunks, or if he wished to donyers of winter clothing, the extra material inside the magically expanded patches would release the required material.


    The version Quinn was wearing only held non-magical fabrics and didn''t contain magic-resistant leathers because Quinn couldn''t fit those materials into the designs. Those materials didn''t interact with Quinn''s magic and would malfunction. Sometimes, the fabric would eject out randomly. Quinn, personally, didn''t like transformative clothing like that because they were unstable, and an ample enough magical interference would cause them to break down. Nheless, Quinn had managed to aplish just enough resistance with charms so that this setup wouldn''t malfunction.


    However, for now, if for some reason Quinn''s disillusionment was turned off, then his identity wouldn''t be instantly revealed.


    Suddenly, Quinn heard somemotion from the campsite.


    ''Time for the invisible vignte to return.''


    A plume of smoke appeared in his palm, a front mask appeared in front of his face. The gear wasplete.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn entered the campsite, his invisibility back on as he moved in the dark, unseen. He could only be noticed under the light of the torches as a negligible distortion, and that was only when Quinn sprinted.


    Under the light of the few fires that were still burning, he could see people running away into the woods, opposite to the direction he was running towards. People fled en masse, running away from something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd shes of light and noises simr to gunfire. Loud jeerings, roars ofughter, and drunken yells could be heard; then, a burst of intense green light appeared, illuminating the scene.


    A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. Quinn squinted at them... They had their heads under a hood, and their faces were masked, just like him.


    High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marites operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.


    More masked Death Eaters joined the marching group,ughing and pointing at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd became bigger. Once or twice Quinn saw one of the marchers st a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.


    The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Quinn recognised one of them. Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous mounds, and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.


    ''They are alive,'' thought Quinn in relief, and then he moved his head above and watched the smallest child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side.


    ''Good, good, good,'' thought Quinn as he took in deep breaths. ''This is helping; this is clearly helping. These f**ckers are helping me... helping me to bring their doom.''


    Emotions were a tricky factor in magic. A wizard or witch couldn''t use emotions any time they desired; things weren''t that simple. If a magical user wanted to draw upon the emotion of anger, but they were happy and didn''t have a powerful enough source that would provoke anger, then they wouldn''t be able to draw their wrath at all.


    Any wizard or witch needed to feel the emotion to use said emotion. And currently, Quinn was brimming with rage. He wasn''t a person with a solid moralpass and didn''t mind inflicting pain to those who deserved it for his own avail, but the scene in front of him wasn''t right even under the most loose morals.


    Mr. Roberts and his family had been subjected to multiple memory spells because the magical poption gathered here didn''t understand how to act like the non-magicals. Because of the magical people''s ipetence, an innocent family had their memories altered for a week just so that the wizarding society could enjoy a sports tournament.


    Now, they were being levitated above and made a joke out of. The children were man-handled so roughly that Quinn feared that they would be injured, and this entire thing was making him feel so angry that the magic was bubbling with fury inside his body.


    Quinn raised his hand, and the family of four stopped in midair; they stopped flopping around and became rigid. The Death Eaters that were puppeteering them stopped because the muggles they were ying were suddenly out of control, causing the entire march of Death Eaters to stop and stare up.


    The Levitation Charm (Wingardium Leviosa) wouldn''t levitate living objects, but there were spells created to levitate living beings. The problem with those Charms was that the target''s internal magic interfered heavily with the control of the Charms. If a target''s magic was more potent than the caster''s, then the Charm wouldn''t work correctly, or in some cases, outright fail without even working for a second.


    The family of four didn''t have magic, so they could be easily controlled, and Quinn''s magic was leagues more potent than any Death Eater present in the campsite. Exhausting the core every day for nearly eleven years was nothing to sneeze at. And out of those eleven years, roughly half of the time had been when Quinn''s body was in a flux of elerated growth because of his physical age.


    The Death Eaters saw the muggle family being floated away and tried to get them back in control, but their magical attempts were thwarted and snapped as if they were thin, dry branches.


    "Shit! Why isn''t this working? Hey! Help me out here," shouted a Death Eater, getting frustrated.


    Multiple of them banded up together. However, they weren''t able to get a hold of the family. It felt as if they were trying to oppose an unstoppable force. They could only watch as the four captives floated away from their reach.


    "... What''s happening?"


    "How is this possible?"


    "Why aren''t our spells working?!"


    The answer came to them in the form of a violet spell-lighting straight towards them. One of the less drunk Death Eaters pulled up a shield charm against the uing spell, but all that did was spread its effects. The violet spell-light came into contact with the transparent shield and didn''t cut through it but created an immense explosion that sted half a dozen Death Eaters.


    "... Who is it?!" yelled one of the Death Eaters. All of them had their wands out, ready to curse the one who cast the spell.


    The response was another two violet spell-lights screeching towards them. This time they were ready, and four Death Eaters in front pulled up their Shield Charms, but once again, the violet spells exploded and made them tumble like bowling pins.


    The onught wasn''t over; this time, the violet spell came from their left instead of the front. And it scared them because the intensity and size of the violet spell light were thrice asrge as before. When the light came in contact with them, the Death Eaters were sted away like they had been hit by a hippogriff at full speed.


    Seeing that the Death Eater march was broken, Quinn moved in closer, and as he did, his hands showed in a pale icy-blue light that was capable of giving a chill to anyone who saw it. His steps were silent as a wild feline going in for a kill, his stone-grey orbs shining with a calm fury and his magic stirring, deadly.


    Spells started to shoot out from the disorganised Death Eaters; they tried to take out anyone near them by making a barrage of attacks, but Quinn would simply swat them away like they weren''t dangerous charges of destructive magic.


    The Death Eaters then heard a voice. It was a throaty whisper, distorted beyond what could be perceived as human. It sounded like it came from just behind their ear, yet it seemed like it was everywhere, surrounding them like a nket. It crept over them like vines of Devil''s Snare, but instead of strangting them, it told them a single word.


    "Run."


    Then hell broke loose as a dozen ice spikes whistled towards them. Screams filled among the Death Eaters as one of the spikes nearly tore an arm out of one of their members. Others weren''t that lucky as some instantly lost their legs and arms as the ice spikes pierced through flesh and bone alike.


    The voice once again sounded near them, like it was standing among them. Just like the ice spikes that tore through them, it was cold and triggered a dread inside them.


    "Toote."


    It was time for the hunters to be hunted.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Dressed in full camo-gear - in Silent Fury.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 133 - August 25, 1994: Tetani Nervum

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    A man dressed in Death Eater garb ran through the field while asionally looking at his back in fear and terror. His breathing wasboured from sprinting. He was not used to running, but the threat of pain and possible death was a great motivator. He peered forward at the almost dark night. The moon was the only light source. He ran towards the forest that he could see in the distance. The thought of using a Lumos to spread some light in the misty fields didn''t even crack into his mind because of the danger it could bring him.


    ''I just need to get to the forest,'' thought the man. ''I shall be safe then... safe from that demon.''


    Today, he had entered the campsite with a prim-perfect Death Eater uniform that he hadn''t worn in a decade, but now that same uniform had tears and burns. It was ripped in some ces and caked with blood from the wounds that were below it.


    ''It wasn''t supposed to go like this.''


    They only wanted to get drunk and have some fun with the muggle and the muggleborn. They craved to bathe in the glory they had before they had been crushed all those years ago by the Light faction. Then, they were forced to hide their injured pride and live their lives without the power that they had when the Dark Lord was with them.


    Not all Death Eaters were as rich as the likes of Malfoy and couldn''t strut around like nothing happened after their reign broke. Many of them had to keep their heads down and act carefully as the Light faction built their power. With James Potter in a leading position, he and a group of light-aligned Aurors started to get particrly interested in their dealings.


    Today was supposed to be a day where they could blow off steam. To show their power and superiority to foreigners and the British wizarding society. It was an audience that they wouldn''t be able to have even when their Lord was alive, and they wanted to make good use of it.


    Everything had begun smoothly as they captured the muggle family and yed with them while defacing the hideous muggle tents that everybody had set up to ''blend in.'' Just the sight of wizards trying to pretend as muggles made their stomachs turn, and they wanted nothing more than to destroy the disgusting things that were beneath them.


    But then ''it'' arrived. He and hispanion weren''t sure if it was even human. I didn''t sound like a human, and its actions and magic were feral. Its spells were powerful, viscous with magic, and every attack that came their way was aimed as if trying to obliterate them.


    He wasn''t used to facing dark spells; it had been years since they had faced attacks like these. During their Lord''s rise to power, the Aurors were authorized to use the Unforgivable Curses on suspects, but after that, he hadn''t faced a single dark spell in his life. He recalled the stories of Aurors casting Cruciatus Curse on them and the rare Killing Curse, but nothing like the spells he had witnessed today.


    Bone breakers, flesh stripping spells or blood boiling curses... and he could go on. He had seen horrifying spells of dark magic. The Cruciatus Curse only gave them the screams, but these showed them real pain and horror.


    The Death Eater finally saw a ghostly blue of the forest in front of him, and hope returned to him. ''I can finally apparate,'' he thought. Facing those horrifying curses, everyone had the thought of apparating away from the danger. But every time they could muster enough concentration to safelyunch an apparition -which was hard considering the sheer horror gore around them- the demon would hit them with a dark spell.


    The group realised that they wouldn''t have a chance to apparate if they stayed together because the demon would easily target them. So everyone ran in different directions; every person for themselves. He remembered the screams of his friends when he turned his back. He had to hold back the impulse to stop and see what had happened, but he didn''t dare.


    The heaving and huffing Death Eater was a stone''s throw distance away from the forest, but then, he felt an explosive force down on his legs and was sent flying away. He rolled on the ground like a broken doll, and his heart thumped in terror.


    ''No! I''m close,'' thought the man. ''I can make it. I just need to take a few steps. I will be safe.''


    The tenacity in the face of death was an impressive force. The Death Eater could see the forest, and all his being was focused on getting to it. He ignored the fact that a spell had hit him and got up... only to copse back on the ground.


    "Huh?"


    He hadn''t copsed because of an attack. He had fallen because his left foot hadn''t pushed him off the ground. He tried again, but he missed, and the left foot didn''t make it to the ground again. The man hastily looked at his left foot to see what the problem was and saw an ankle-less stump in ce of his foot.


    The world started to blur and spin as a guttural scream escaped the man. "My leeeegg! No, my leg!" The pain that came when he realised he had lost his leg made the man more and more desperate. He clutched his paining leg with one hand and started to drag himself to the forest. His mind was filled with getting to the forest so that he could live.


    Then he felt something grip his right leg, and his heart inside his chest dropped low; for a couple of seconds, the man thought that his heart had stopped beating. Everything went silent for a split-second before reality set on him, and at the same time, his body was pulled back by whatever was clutching his right leg.


    "NoooOOoooOoOOoo! LET ME GOOOO! ForgIve meEeEEe!"


    Without a shred of care, the man was dragged away from the forest. His left leg, which no longer had anything below the ankle, brutally met the ground as the open wound was caked with dirt. The Death Eater thrashed, clutched the grass with his hands, and tried everything to stop being dragged away from the forest; s, nothing worked, and soon the forest only seemed a blur in the darkness.


    The man eventually stopped struggling and clutched his wand tight in his hand. If he couldn''t escape, then he wasn''t going down without a fight. If today was the day he died, then he was going to take the demon with him.


    As he continued to get dragged, his body froze when he heard screams. Screams of asking someone to stop, painful moans of apologies and dreadful cries of misery. His rtively shallow breathing returned to its previousboured state.


    The dragging came to a sudden stop, and the man found himself between two other bodies that he recognised as being Death Eaters that had joined the march today. He shivered as he watched that one of them had his entire right leg missing while the other one had deep gashes all across his body.


    His attention was pulled from the horrifying scene when he felt a chill on his leg and saw that his ankle-less stump was now covered in ice... just like everyone else''s injuries were. His body tensed as the ice was too cold, and it stung like needles being dug into his flesh. Even a single twitch on his leg would send shock and pain across his leg.


    "Oh, servants of the Dark Lord. Your glory is forgotten, just like a mere memory," The man heard the distorted voice of the demon as he fought through the pain. "You, who hold yourselves as superior, are nowying down in the mud. You, whomitted abominations at this festivity and in the past, are now paying the price."


    The demon ¡ªQuinn¡ª looked at the man that he had just dragged to this ce, and with a wave, stripped the Death Eater''s wand out of hand. He caught the Death Eater''s wand and clenched his fist to snap the wand in half. The now useless pieces of wood were dropped near a pile of simrly snapped wands.


    "Is this the audacity from an order fallen a decade past," he spoke, his voice distorted. "You mongrels yed with the weak and covered under the strong... Today, you shall feel what is to be unfortunate. Today will be the day that shall haunt you. You shall remember it as the day that you lost the one thing that made you special."


    Quinn took a deep breath and focused his magic; he ignored the wails and screams from the almost fifteen people lying around him. They were the people that Quinn had managed to catch and injure enough so they weren''t in condition to run away.


    A ghastly reddish-ck spell resembling soot and haze emanated from Quinn''s entire body and slowly wafted down towards the ground. The Death Eater, who had been only hearing the distorted voice of the demon, watched as a reddish-ck smoke slowly started to build on the ground, originating from the center of the circle they were all lying in.


    Those who could witness through the pain had their eyes stuck on the reddish-ck smokey unknown that was rolling down in small waves, and as it moved towards them with deathly silence, their senses screamed that this was something dangerous and deadly. They could feel that this was a magic of the darkest kinds, something that oozed evil.


    Soon the fifteen people were covered in the reddish-ck mist. Quinn looked up at the sky and reinforced his decision about what he was going to do. He closed his eyes and recalled the young child who had gone unconscious, yet the scum continued to spin him like a toy top. The rage returned, and with it, his decision solidified as if it was stone.


    "Tetani Nervum." Quinn breathed out, and even though he only used nonverbal spells, this was special. He whispered the words that disappeared among the terrified Death Eaters, who broke the silence of the night.


    "I curse you with a body that shall betray you. "


    The reddish-ck mist agitated as it started to radiate in an ominous blood-red light, and with that began the horrifying screams.


    "I curse you to a life with magic that shall be near, yet far from you."


    The Death Eaters'' entire bodies spasmed uncontrobly. Then, the blood-red mist glowed brighter. The spasms grew wilder.


    "I curse you with the constant reminder that you are no longer better..."


    An uncontroble pain flowed through their nerves and, along with it, came an unbearable burning feeling.


    Quinn looked up at the sky and whispered ever so slightly, "I curse you ."


    The mist shone once with a short bright burst of blood-red. Then, it vanished in the breeze of the cold night.


    ''So this is how it feels, huh,'' thought Quinn, staring at the circle of spasming bodies.


    The curse, Tetani Nervum, had been a spell of his. It had been a curse he had createdst year. By utilising his recently gained knowledge of healing magic and human anatomy andbining it with some really questionable knowledge he had found in the Room Of Requirement and his own personal library, Quinn had been able to create a really ''dark'' spell. He had only a few, though.


    Tetani Nervum had been inspired by the well-known disease Tetanus. Tetanus is a bacterial infection characterized by muscle spasms that could range anywhere from light tremors to spasms severe enough to fracture bones. Other symptoms of Tetanus included fever, sweating, headaches, trouble swallowing, high blood pressure, and a fast heart rate. But for his spell, Quinn had focused on the spasms that tortured the infected.


    The motivation behind Tetani Nervum had been to disable the target''s body. The bacteria that caused Tetanus functioned by creating toxins that interfered with motor neurons. This interfered with the regr muscle contractions. Quinn also targeted the motor neurons in the nerves but reced the bacteria with magic. The nervous system would continuously interfere with muscle contractions and would cause the body to spasm. As long as the curse was active, the target wouldn''t be able to move a single muscle in their body. Their entire nervous system would be out of their own control and at mercy of Quinn''s magic.


    But the sole function of Tetani Nervum wasn''t replicating Tetanus spasms. The spasms were just the carrier of the actual damage of the spell. The real aim of Tetani Nervum came from the word ''Nervum'', which was the Latin word for ''nerves''. While Tetanus spasms ran rampant, the curse would dig through the nervous system and severely damage it.


    And just like most of the ''dark'' curses, Tetani Nervum had the added feature of being resistant to healing magic. If the target was brought to the hospital, the medi-healers would immediately notice the signs of wounds caused by ''dark'' curses. Besides that, Tetani Nervum was a new curse that had been created from the knowledge of different magical cultures, which meant that the medi-healers would have a tough time even knowing where to start. Meaning that the nerves affected by the corrosive magic would be... lost and not able to function.


    Quinn looked at the piles of bodies. More specifically, their arms and hands. He had snapped their wands and disabled their hands and arms. To wand users who relied on the external focus meant that they would no longer be able to draw on magic, practically turning them into squibs. They still had their magic but no way to ess it.


    But unlike Quinn, these Death Eaters had been using wands for decades which meant wands had integrated themselves into their magic system. Consequently, if you took the focus from them, they would be useless.


    "... I believe that people are capable of change," said Quinn. He didn''t care whether his victims were listening to him or not. "Perhaps I''lle back to you to see if you have repented. Understand the severity of your actions and the consequences of decisions. If that day I see that you have truly repented, then your hands and, thus, your magic, shall be returned. That day, you will be reborn. I hope you have a better life then."


    Tetani Nervum had been Quinn''s creation, which meant that he also knew how to cure it. He could reverse the effects and free them from the curse. Quinn had already peaked inside their minds to note their names. If one day, these people changed for the better, he would undo the curse.


    Quinn stood up straight. His work was done. Other than these Death Eaters, all of the others had already fled. Quinn had considered putting an anti-apparition ward around the campsite, but that would mean that bystanders wouldn''t be able to apparate out.


    ''These are enough,'' thought Quinn. ''These many will be enough to instill fear.''


    Quinn was about to apparate out of the campsite, but he stopped to look at the left to see a blue spell-light zapping towards him. Quinn tilted his head, and just before the blue spell-light reached Quinn, it crashed into an orange translucent magic shield. The blue spell tried to pierce through the orange obstacle, but all of its effects were for naught as it couldn''t get past. It fizzled away as the magic ran out.


    ''Reducto,'' thought Quinn, and as the shield turned down, he saw the offender whounched a spell at him and surprisingly, but not shockingly, saw Sirius ck with his wand pointing at him. Quinn noticed that Sirius''s eyes were moving between him and behind him.


    "... Hmm?"


    Quinn''s eyes gleamed in understanding as he turned the magic back up, which was the right decision as another spell assaulted his shield. The only difference was that it was aimed at his back. Quinn turned around to see James Potter also pointing his wand at him.


    ''Ah, they were checking,'' Quinn deduced. He was invisible, and the first spell from Sirius was to see if there was anyone in his ce. The second spell from James was one to take him down after confirmation.


    "You... the one who''s there, immediately surrender," shouted Sirius.


    "Drop the disillusionment and throw your wand away," yelled James. "Nobody needs to get..." James looked at the pile of bodies. "... more injured."


    "It seems I have overstayed my wee," whispered Quinn and errantly waved his hand for ayer of ice forming a dome around him. It was just thick enough to bear the force of one spell and it gave just enough time for Quinn to apparate.


    And with a pop, Quinn was gone. Not even a second after, the ice dome was shredded into shards by thebined efforts of James and Sirius.


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    [


    A/N:


    How was it? My first ''dark'' spell. Tetani Nervum. I always wanted to make a spell inspired by something medical, and this spell came out.


    You all heard Quinn''s motivation to create the spell. Let''s talk about mine. I simply want Quinn''s first kill to be... special... and not some rando Death Eaters. But, I wanted Quinn to gain a method to disable people without killing them.


    When Quinn does kills someone, I want to add some drama, emotion, struggle, hesitation, and other stuff to mark it as a monumental point in Quinn''s life.


    ]


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    Quinn West - Spell creator - "Need to use weird English..."


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Next chapter is reactions. (2+1)


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 134 - August 25, 1994: As The Night Sets

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    In a clearing between a circling of trees, a pop rang, breaking the silence of the night, and a Quinn West dressed in shades of green apparated into an environment suited to his camouge. Soft steps pressed against the ground, moving the boy forward. The green clothes turned the original white.


    Audible breathing could be heard in the silence as Quinn''s back slid down against the trunk of a tree. He sat down with his legs stretched straight. His arms rested between his thighs. His head hung low with the eyes squeezed shut and brows furrowed in tension, distress, and confusion.


    While emotion was a powerful source of magic, it had its own demerits. Emotion could do wonders and elevate the user''s magic to the next level when used correctly, but at the same time it would be hard to reign when they exceeded a limit. This would cause some repercussions. The general consensus about some of the vilest dark magic being harmful to the user came actually from the effects emotion gave, as most of those spells required strong emotions to function. Usually, emotions of the negative kind.


    Quinn focused on his erratic heartbeat inside his chest in an attempt to calm down and wind down the rage he felt. Seeing the Death Eater''s behaviour towards the muggle family had riled up Quinn more than he had imagined.


    This wasn''t saying that Quinn was a saint; he would use magic too on non-magicals every time he went out to the muggle society. Legilimency on a crowd of unsuspecting non-magicals was one of Quinn''s favourite uses of mind magic. He would peek into their minds but he would never use anything he saw against them. He simply used them for practice and research purposes. Quinn never harmed them, and with the time he spent in the non-magical society, it seemed he wouldn''t be meeting people who needed to be stopped soon.


    Quinn felt the rage attach itself to his magic and go through his body, the residual influence of the rage-filled magic when anger had been out of control. His fists clenched hard to stop fromshing out physically or magically.


    ''Calm down, calm down, calm down...''


    The words repeated inside his mind as Quinn tried to calm himself down. When he channeled his rage, he didn''t feel the effect, but after the outlet closed, the anger would bubble inside. Using emotion-based lumency to keep the emotions in check wouldn''t help as the protection magic didn''t erase emotions. It simply blocked them.


    He had to manually calm himself down to get out of his current predicament. Emotion-based lumency wouldn''t work, but memory-based lumency could undoubtedly help.


    Quinn opened his eyes to find himself standing face-to-face with a grand mansion that elicitedfort and ease. He entered the structure through the rich, brown elegant doors. Walking on the marbled floor, which reflected him in their shiny, smooth allurement, Quinn gazed around to study the numerous doors lining the corridors.


    He stopped in front of one of the doors and twisted the golden doorknob to enter the room. Inside, rows of bookshelves greeted him with books filled neatly, ready for him to pick one and dive in. He strolled through the rows of shelves, browsing through the shelves. Some had books on the left, some on the right, others had space in the middle, but all had one thing inmon: brown books with golden linings.


    The touch of the cool leather against his finger as he pulled a book out seemed natural. Quinn''s eyes studied the book as his hands felt the weight; there was no title on the book, but Quinn already knew what it was. He raised his free hand, ced it on the cover, and closed his eyes for an entirely new scene to unfold in front of him.


    A party ofughter greeted Quinn''s ears, and when he opened his eyes, he beheld Lia, George, Elliot, and Ms. Rosey sitting around a table with him there alongside them. ''His'' hands moved on their own and threw a pair of cards on the table. Lia stretched her arms and retained the pile of galleons that were on the table while Elliot collected the cards that everybody put on the table.


    ''The poker party from three years ago,'' recalled Quinn, recognising the family activity that the West family had yed once a while. A smile bloomed on Quinn''s face as he looked at the scene through his eyes. He was a passenger inside his own body, re-living the memory through the wonders of mind magic.


    The mental replica of the West manor held all of his cherished and happy memories. Whenever Quinn experienced something peaceful, happy or positive; something that was close to his heart, he would take the memory out of his mind-Hogwarts and put it inside the manor. It was a haven that Quinn had made so he could walk in and enjoy everything good that he had in his life.


    And it seemed to be working as Quinn outside felt his heart gradually calm down. The burning feeling ofshing out slowly subsided, and a serene smile made its way to Quinn''s face. After a couple of minutes, Quinn opened his eyes. They had lost the irritation he had and were back to his usual cool, collected rested state.


    "Always remember... add something to maintain bnce," said Quinn, groaning as he stood up from beneath the tree.


    Quinn''s personal rule for using intense emotions was to attach another feeling that would ensure that he wasn''t solely running on a single emotion. Most of the time, theplementary emotion that granted Quinn control wasn''t as strong as the primary fueling emotion, but it was enough for Quinn to escape the after-effects.


    "I should''ve used something simr from the beginning," sighed Quinn, cracking his back. Controlling his emotions while using rage would''ve reduced the power by a margin, but Quinn wouldn''t have sufferedter like he just did.


    "As expected, Tetani Nervum for more than a dozen people at the same time isn''t a mere trifle."


    The haze and smoke-styled spell was different from the usual light-shot spell or the invisible spell. It had been designed in Africa to castpatible spells in an area instead of targeting something at a time. The downside of this mode of delivery was that it took increased focus and magic volume requirements. Luckily for Quinn, he had plenty of both.


    Quinn had aplished what he wanted despite the problems and difficulties he had had while participating in a possible life-threatening situation.


    ''Tetani Nervum... Test subject count: fifteen. Initial results: excellent, severe nerve damage with residual magic that won''t allow recovery," whispered Quinn to himself in an analytical tone. "Human test phase, stage one,plete. Stage two: short term observation of the acquired subjects willmence tomorrow.''


    Quinn had wanted test subjects for his newest curse and, because of the magic''s nature, he wanted human test subjects. The timing had heen perfect as the Word Cup would be the ideal ce to get those subjects. Human subjects that Quinn could use without guilt and morals guing his consciousness. Fifteen Death Eater who enjoyed dealing torment and torture. This was all the justification Quinn needed to convince himself.


    He looked up at the bright crescent moon peeking from behind the night clouds, and...


    "Ah, shit! I''mte! Damn, damn, damn, grandfather is going to bite my head off."


    For him, the Quidditch World Cup was now over, and just like Irnd, he hade out on top.


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    James Potter and Sirius ck watched from a side as the St. Mungo''s hospital staff carefully lifted the battered and broken bodies onto their stretchers.


    "That''s dark magic, all right," said James Potter. "I didn''t think I would see something like this during the World Cup."


    "Sickening, isn''t it?" agreed Sirius ck. And that was saying something, with their career as Aurors for the Ministry. As Aurors, they had seen some extreme stuff, and this was definitely in the upper levels of the most horrifying things they had seen with magic.


    James Potter looked at the unconscious people, d in Death Eater garbs. Some still twitched and spasmed, while a few had broken bones throughout their bodies. Some of them had some part of their legs cut-off.


    "Do you recognise the magic?" he asked.


    The new family head of the infamous ck family shook his head. "At first nce, no..." Meaning that he would''ve to go to the library and browse through some questionable magic. Something he wasn''t looking forward to. "Do you think that smoke was from a potion or something?"


    "I don''t know," replied James, remembering the reddish-ck smoke that resembled burning soot and haze. "Maybe we should consult Dumbledore for this."


    "... How about we first take this to the Unspeakables first, before bringing an outsider to the investigation."


    James wanted to reply that Dumbledore wasn''t an outsider, but he refrained from voicing his thoughts as he knew Sirius was right. "Do you think Robards will allow that? You know he doesn''t like to get help from the Unspeakables."


    "With this happening at the World Cup and so close to the Tournament... Robards will have to get this over quickly, even if it means involving the Unspeakables."


    The Quidditch World Cup and the uing Tournament were both international affairs. That would pressure the Ministry, who would then pressure the Auror Office to solve and close the matter as quickly as possible. The pressure chain would start on the top and move its way to the bottom till everybody was yelling. In that scenario, any help was eptable.


    "Let''s forget about that for a second," said Sirius, and he moved towards the ground where the bodies were lying. He squatted on the ground as saw what was left behind. "Who do you think did this?"


    James stood by Sirius and studied the scene. "There was ice closing every wound.. and then the ice dome at the end¡­" He pointed at the heap of broken ice on the ground. "This makes me rememberst years'' attack in Hogsmeade."


    "You mean, the invisible vignte?" The ''invisible vignte'', the one hailed by the newspapers as the savior of the students of Hogwarts and the wizarding vige of Hogsmeade. For an entire week, the wizardingmunity had read theories on the unknown hero, and for a month, the Auror Office had tried to find the person to no avail.


    "Yes, the invisible vignte used ice magic, and well¡­. he was invisible as well."


    "Now that you say it... The injuries were brutal, weren''t they? Wounds pierced with ice, detaching body parts, sealing everything with ice¡­ They were more brutal this time, but I can see a pattern."


    James nodded and then pointed his finger at the small pile of wood. "Unlike thest attack, the wands are broken now. Last time, they were stuck to their bodies, but this time every single one of them is broken."


    "Who do you think it is?" asked Sirius.


    "My guess would be a Voldemort hater... He only struck twice and only on Voldemort supporters. Other than that, there isn''t a single sign of them."


    "Age?"


    "Older... look at the magic. They could take out fifteen people, use unknown magic¡­ Those shields aren''t a simple Protego. It also looked like neither your or my attack didn''t phase them much."


    "Gender?"


    "Your guess is as good as mine, mate."


    "How do we narrow it down? We don''t have a visual clue."


    "From the top of my head, we should look at people who have lost family members to Voldemort and the Death Eaters."


    Sirius looked up at James with a ''really?'' expression. "That doesn''t narrow it down. You know how those days were, right?"


    "Of course, I know that," said James. "But if we add someone good with magic, we can narrow it down by a lot. It''s just a matter of choosing how good with magic they are."


    "Hmm... if we are going with that... we can record the spell residue here to get matches against wands," added Sirius. Spell residues against wands was a technique used by Aurors to check if a specific spell came from wands. The caveat of the method was a low uracy rate and wasn''t taken as evidence in court hearings. But Aurors still employed it to narrow down their suspect list.


    "Ugh, I wanted to go to a bar and discuss the game... being an Auror can suck sometimes," sighed James.


    Siriusughed at his ex-partner during their Trainee Auror and Junior Auror days and patted his shoulder, "Come on, let''s get this logged in quick. The quicker we move, the earlier we will be able to go home."


    The following day, the Auror Office would get the shocking information about the condition of the admitted people and would realise what the spell had done to them.


    The ''invisible vignte''s'' infamy would travel far and wide.


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    The door creaked open as Barty Jr. carefully stepped inside arge room, trying not to make any noise so as not to disturb the room resident. Barty''s eyes were drawn to whaty ahead as, standing on a nightstand adjacent to a king-sized opposite the door was a candle, illuminating a small portion of therge bed.


    As he gently closed the door behind him, Barty heard a man''s voice, but it was strangely high-pitched, rough, and cold, as a sudden st of icy wind. "You''ve returned, Barty."


    "Yes, my lord," replied Barty, standing still in his spot.


    "Did you do as I asked?" asked the voice.


    Barty gulped before answering honestly, "... No, my Lord. I didn''t."


    There was a straining silence of seconds before the voice returned, and Barty could hear the much colder response he feared. "Tell me why, Barty. All I asked was to brand my symbol in the sky."


    "T-There wereplications, my Lord."


    "Whatplications, Bartemius..."


    "Some of your servants decided to y with the muggles and muggleborns after the game, my Lord," replied Barty Jr.


    "And how is that aplication? Wouldn''t that have been the perfect time tounch my mark. It would have shown my servants that I have returned, and, as nned, the marked ones would have confirmed it at the sight of the mark growing stronger," said the voice, and by the end, the shrill voice had turned into a hiss.


    A cold touch on his leg made Barty Jr. flinch into a still stop. He looked down with bated breath to see a thigh-sized green snake slither by as it surrounded him with its long body. He could hear a whispered hiss around him as the snake circled him.


    "My Lord, someone annihted the Death Eaters who were causing the ruckus," spoke Barty quickly as he felt his Lord''s familiar slowly reduce the radius of the circle. "I-I couldn''t see all of it... but when I arrived... all your servants were lying on the ground under the effects of some kind of magic. I couldn''t see the wizard who cast the magic, but there was someone there."


    There was a hissing sound from the bed, and the snake around Barty Jr.''s feet slithered away from him without a hiss. Seeing the giant snake leave made Barty Jr. feel safe. He had seen the snake''s fangs, and the venom would keep injury wounds open.


    "Come near me, Bartemius."


    Barty Jr. followed themands and quickly walked towards the bedside, not wanting to keep the Dark Lord waiting even a single second. His legs bent as naturally as he breathed. He showed his respect by getting on his knees and staring down at the floor.


    "Look at me, Bartemius," ordered the Dark Lord. Barty didn''t hesitate. It was an ugly sight: the shape of a crouched human child, hairless and scaly-looking white pale skin. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble. Its face had a t nose and overall a snakelike appearance. Its eyes shone blood red.


    When Barty Jr.''s eyes met the gleaming red eyes, a sharp pain assaulted his head. It felt like his brain was being poked with multiple hot needles: heat, pain, burn, cold... Barty Jr.''s screams filled the room, but the next second, his screams abruptly went silent. Voldemort had used a silencing spell to quiet down the screaming Barty Jr. He was in no mood to enjoy the screams and wanted to see what his servant had seen.


    The Dark Lord dove into the mind without any care, and soon he found the fresh memory of the World Cup. Through the eyes of Barty Jr., Voldemort watched the scene in front of him. A dozen or so of his Death Eater servants wereying in the middle of the campsite while Barty Jr. stood behind the remains of a burned tent, observing the scene.


    Voldemort''s expert and experienced reptilian red eye slits stared at the magic of soot, haze, and smoke emanating from the middle of the circle up from his servants. The reddish-ck mist flowed down like gas and yet, the magic remained within a boundary, all over his minions.


    ''African... how rare, I have never seen this magic in Britain.'' His eyes shone with interest. Voldmert continued to look in interest, and curiosity shed his eyes as the memory continued. He couldn''t stop but look at the magic, but even he failed to get any useful clue. He only could confirm that there was someone there, and the caster had used magic that wasn''t British.


    Barty Jr.''s memory ended when James Potter and Sirius ck sted the ice doom into smithereens, but the person who cast orange shields had already apparated out of the campsite. Voldemort released Barty from the Legilimency, and the servant copsed on the ground, curling up and shivering.


    ''I shall take care of this when I get my body back,'' thought Voldemort. ''For now, I need to announce...''


    "Give me your arm, Bartemius... the left arm," said Voldemort, ignoring the terrible state Barty was in.


    Barty stood up. His head buzzed and he had shivers. He groggily and painfully raised his left arm. The shirt sleeve was violently ripped, leaving the faded Death Eater mark in all its glory.


    A thin, boney hand with an ash bone wand appeared from the shadows of the bed. The Dark Lord tapped his wand against the mark and it grew deeper in colour. The faded ink slowly regained some of its deep ck glory.


    Some wizards and witches around their houses, pubs, shops, clutched their arms as they had a short, yet intense, burst of burning pain on their arms. All of them curled up their sleeves to see the dormant mark which had faded thirteen years ago had regained a shade of ck. Every marked servant shivered. Some out of fear, others out of joy, while many felt both.


    Down in the Crouch home, Peter Pettigrew had put down his fork and knife, while he, too, looked at the darkening mark. "So it begins."


    A solemn and bleak fortress stood on an ind in the middle of the North Sea surrounded by turbulent water. A ce where the scums of society were sent as punishment and spent time with the vilest creatures known to man. A ce where hope and joy were lost, and all that remained was misery and grim, making it hell on Earth.


    But on this day, with heavy rain pouring down the fortress and seas raging in the distance, the loudughter of a woman rang out, filling the void and breaking the silence. It was a burst of maniacalughter that somehow suited the fortress; if there was a type ofughter that existed in the ce, then this was to be it. But herughter wasn''t shallow, for there was pure joy, unprecedented delight, and unadulterated tion. Emotions that weren''t supposed to exist in the fortress known as Azkaban, but yet there they were.


    A message had been sent.


    The Dark Lord had returned.


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    Quinn West - MC - Hypocrite of a high order...


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - Let the servants know... their master is back.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 135 - Arrival, Fake-Eye, Triwizard

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Like a twisted hose spewing out its first spurt of liquid, a multi-colored shapeless mass seemed to appear in the air. The twisted mass divided itself into two parts within a split second, before two figures stood on a tiled floor.


    "How was it?" asked the taller of the two. A smile graced the boy''s mouth as his eyes shed, wanting praise.


    The shorter yet older of the two first brushed her clothes smooth before replying to his question, "I have certainly been part of worse side-apparitions."


    The not-so-obvious praise widened the smile on the boy''s face. He knew that this was her way of saying he had done well.


    "Are you sure this was fine?" asked the strict Ms. Rosey as she looked around the King''s Cross Station''s apparition point. "Risking being the one to apparate us here... you aren''t supposed to know apparition yet."


    "It''s okay. People aren''t that attentive. Besides, the dy between the one who apparates and its passenger is almost null. My apparition pop has be quieter and doesn''t attract that much attention," said Quinn, not worried about the situation.


    "If you say so."


    The two walked forward towards the tform 9?. The Hogwarts Express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine, was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it. Many Hogwarts students and parents on the tform appeared as if they were dark ghosts. Quinn moved his eyes through the hustle and bustle, looking at the new and familiar faces, trying to spot a friend. Ms. Rosey, being a posterdy of manners, was properly walking alongside Quinn, but on the inside she was delighted that Quinn had asked her to see him off this year.


    "Are you sure you don''t want to reserve apartment?" she asked. "You cane back out after making sure you have a seat reserved." Ms. Rosey hadn''t seen the Hogwarts Express since her own Hogwarts days, as, after getting her job, she hadn''t had the need to apany someone to the Express (Neither Adam nor Lia had gone to Hogwarts). Her eyes were stuck to the bright red train, remembering her youth.


    Quinn shook his head and took out a blue-and-bronze badge. "I''m a Prefect. There is apartment reserved for us in the front of the train, so even if I don''t find apartment, I will have a seat for the journey¡­ Of course, you already know that."


    Ms. Rosey nodded with a small smile. During her time, she had been a Prefect for the Hufflepuff house in her fifth and sixth year and Head Girl in her seventh. She knew the privileges that the school provided to Prefects and the Head pair.


    "Your grandfather, Elliot, me, and now you. Everyone in the family has been a Prefect now," spoke Ms. Rosey. "Even Lia and your father held important positions in Beauxbatons."


    Quinn already knew that because he had seen George, Elliot, and Ms. Rosey''s files in the Room of Rewards that held the ck binders and the entrance to the Sin vault. While he hadn''t been there since his second year, Quinn, while searching for clues, had taken a detour to nce at his family''s files and all of them had splendid marks and rmendations.


    "Being the owner of the A.I.D. is better than being a Prefect," said Quinn, turning the shiny badge to the other side so that it could reflect light. "However, I guess ites with its own advantages. I don''t have curfew restrictions anymore; I can roam around all night if I want."


    While Quinn didn''t like the house point system, he appreciated the Prefect and Head Boy/Girl system because it rewarded selected students with power and perks in return for the added responsibility. The students who got the student authority positions were the favorites of teachers, and Quinn was all for it. He liked this system because the student who would get the position would necessarily have a good rapport with the teacher, and that was a valuable skill known asworking. One could be excellent at their craft, but if they didn''t have themunication skills, that technical skill would only get them so far.


    He didn''t think that the Prefect and Head Boy/Girl positions were worthless. Sure,ter in their lives, these positions might not matter, but students weren''t thinking ten or twenty years in the future. They lived in the present and wanted to be rewarded immediately; authority positions were perfect for that.


    "Yes, you can, but please make sure to get enough sleep," said the ever-worrying Ms. Rosey.


    "I love sleeping, Ms. Rosey," smiled Quinn. "Except when I''m doing magic, it''s the best part of the day."


    Ms. Rosey studied Quinn for a moment before bringing up the main thing George had asked her to say to Quinn. "Young master... the tournament... Please don''t try topete in it. None of us want youpeting in something that was banned for a reason."


    "The tournament is only for those of age, Ms. Rosey. I''m not of age," said Quinn, although that information had been known in the West manor for a while.


    "... We know that, but we also know that nothing is sure with you. Lia was considering not letting you go to school this year because she thought you would figure out a way to bypass whatever measures they put in ce."


    "I''m not going to participate in the tournament... Eternal glory and a thousand galleons. That''s what the Tri-Wizard tournament promises." Quinn put a palm on his chest. "But I''m a West; eternal glory is my birthright. As for the thousand galleons. I earn more than that every day in royalties. There is no need for me to join the tournament¡­ although¡­ fighting a dragon might be fun."


    "-That. That''s what we are afraid of," she sighed. "We worry that you will try to join the tournament so that you can fight a dragon. Please don''t do that."


    Quinn chuckled, and internally he thought, ''Well, I guess I don''t have to fight a dragon... I have a Kraken sparring partner if I ever feel the need...''


    "I promise, Ms. Rosey... I won''t participate in the tournament. It wouldn''t be fair for the others otherwise," smirked Quinn. "Anyway, as I said, I have no desire to join the tournament as a participant; it''s not worth it."


    "Promise me that you won''t try to see how the Goblet of Fire works." The caretaker who had been looking over Quinn for a decade sharply demanded.


    "Er... Ahem... I mean, sure, I won''t. I won''t go anywhere near the chalice."


    "You aren''t doing a good job in persuading me, young master.," sighed Ms. Rosey. She gave the slightly flustered Quinn a pointed look. "Anyway, I will repeat this for my own sake. Do not go anywhere near the Goblet of Fire. It''s a dangerous magical artifact, and we don''t want you taking any chances."


    "... I understand," he nodded.


    Ms. Rosey looked around the tform and saw the crowd gettingrger. "It''s time. You should board the train." She ced a hand on Quinn''s shoulder and gave him one good final look. "Remember to take care of yourself, write to us regrly and tell us whenever you have any problems."


    "I will," he said. Then, he hugged Ms. Rosey and boarded the train with his suitcase.


    ...


    The corridor of the Hogwarts Express was popted with Hogwarts students. Some looked for space to sit while others were catching up with their friends after the long break. Everyone was in haste to get settled before the train took off. In short, there was plenty of activity inside the train; even inside thepartments, as there were students whose parents were still around were saying goodbyes to each other.


    Within that liveliness, Quinn was dressed in a ck half-sleeved, buttoned-up cored shirt tucked under light-brown trousers. He also wore dark brown derby shoes, which attracted eyes as he shuffled along the corridor. For a moment, everyone would stop what they were doing, and their heads would turn as Quinn passed by.


    Quinn arrived at the front and opened the door to apartment. At first sight, he saw that it was double the size of the standard one. Inside he saw seven people already seated, but they weren''t talking to each other.


    "Good morning, people," greeting Quinn his fellow fifth-year Prefects, eyeing the Prefect badges that everybody except him were wearing over their non-uniform clothes. Some girls blushed a little when they saw Quinn smiling, while the boys sat up straight.


    He closed the doors behind him and, as the doors closed, Quinn was heard speaking to the other Prefects, "Before the older Prefectse, let''s make some things clear..." What he said would remain a secret between Quinn and the fifth-year Prefects.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn smoothed out his Hogwarts uniform with magic and checked thepel badge over his chest. He watched the Hogwarts Express slow down atst and finally stop in the pitch-darkness of Hogsmeade station.


    As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. The rain was nowing down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over everyone''s heads. But Quinn seemed to be impervious to the downpour as raindrops seemed to bend away above Quinn as if avoiding him.


    "Yeah... it''s good to be back," grinned Quinn at the weather. Always, without exception, the Hogsmeade station was wet because of the rain.


    He looked around calmly, as other students hurried towards the hundred horseless carriages that were standing, waiting for them outside the station. Among the crowd, Quinn noticed a group of three. Of the three, the only girl was waving her hand towards him.


    Quinn''s happy smile dropped immediately as he all but shouted as the trio came near him. "Oh, for Merlin''s sake! This makes it the fifth year! How in magic do I keep missing you guys?!"


    In front of him stood his two best friends: Eddie Carmicheal, Marcus Belby, and his much-loved junior/secretary/friend Luna Lovegood. In all five years of boarding the Hogwarts Express, not even once had Quinn seen Eddie and Marcus on the train.


    "Maybe it''s the Nargles!" Luna gave her two cents on the matter.


    "Couldn''t care less," yawned Eddie. He had just woken up five minutes ago.


    "It''s good to see you, mate," smiled Marcus, delighted to see his best friend.


    "It could be Luna; the nargles are surely powerful... I love you too, Eddie... Ah, yes, Marcus, I missed you the most," replied Quinn to his friends.


    "Do that to us too," said Eddie pointing towards the top of Quinn''s head at the diverging rain.


    Quinn took out his fake wand, and the rain parted above his friend''s head. As long as it was water, Quinn could do all kinds of stuff with it.


    "As expected, you became the Prefect," noted Marcus, pointing at thepel badge. "Not surprising, to be honest. There''s no one better for the role."


    Eddie put his hands on Quinn''s robes and fiddled with the blue-and-bronze badge. "I guess we won''t have to worry about detentions."


    "As long as you don''t do anything extremely foolish, you will enjoy the privileges of a Prefect pal."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Oooh, I wouldn''t fancy crossing theke in this weather," grimaced Marcus, shivering as they inched slowly along the dark tform with the rest of the crowd. A hundred horseless carriages were standing, waiting for them outside the station. Quinn, Luna, Eddie, and Marcus climbed gratefully into one of them, the door shut with a snap, and a few momentster, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages was rumbling and sshing its way up the track toward Hogwarts Castle.


    "Did you read about the World Cup?" asked Marcus in the carriage.


    "I was there when those people got there," joined Eddie. "My father got us out of there quick."


    Quinn subtly nced at Eddie. On the fateful day, Quinn had gotten to the campsite before the game started, and while he waited for the Death Eaters, Quinn, while scouting the grounds, had seen the Carmichael tent. It wasn''t near where Quinn had dragged the Death Eaters to disable them, but it hadn''t been far enough. If perchance a Death Eater tried to go that way, Quinn would be extra brutal; two had tried, and Quinn had sliced both of their legs cleanly.


    "It''s great that you got out early," nodded Quinn. The scene he had caused hadn''t been pretty. The noise had been enough to make some people''s stomachs turn.


    The incident had had a lot of media coverage. Afterwards, it had been dubbed as the "World Cup Carnage" because of the fifteen people taken to St. Mungos. The Medi-healers had been so shocked that, after stabilizing all the patients, the entire staff had had a meeting to figure out how to undo whatever curse was cast on the fifteen. Someone from the hospital staff had ratted on the details of the treatment and conditions.


    The details had been on the front page the next day, and all Britain came to know about the events. After that article, from the second day onwards, Rita Skeeter took over and she wrote all the cover stories for the Daily Profit. She picked up on the simrities between the Hogsmeade attack and came up with a trending article that attracted a lot of eyes and ignited a lot of conversations:


    ¡¸Vignte or Viin: The True Identity.¡¹


    The catchy headline boosted the sales of Daily Profit and every other newspaper and magazine that covered the World Cup carnage. It had been a boon for Quinn because he could keep track of the situation and the fifteen test subjects without moving too much. Rita Skeeter''s investigation did all the work for him, and because the story was scoop-worthy, Skeeter for once didn''t manipte the facts, as the facts were juicy enough on their own.


    Quinn had been happy to see that all fifteen test subjects showed favorable reactions. The reactions had been adverse to the victims, but they had been the best reactions Quinn could have hoped for. His sole visit to St. Mungos while legilimencing the lead Medi-healer had disclosed that everything from the shoulder below had been paralyzed because of the intense nerve damage. None of the fifteen couldn''t so much as twitch their fingers, much less, raise their hands or grip something.


    Through the gates, nked with statues of winged boars, the carriages trundled up the sweeping drive while swaying dangerously in what was fast bing a gale. Leaning against the window, Quinn could see Hogwartsing nearer, its many lighted windows blurred and shimmering behind the thick curtain of rain.


    Lightning shed across the sky as their carriage came to a halt before the great oak front doors. People who had upied the carriages in front were already hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Quinn, Luna, Eddie, and Marcus jumped down from their carriage and dashed up the steps, too, looking up only when they were safely inside the cavernous, torch-lit entrance hall with its magnificent marble staircase.


    "Blimey," said Marcus, looking at the dripping people, all soaking except them, "Theke''s going to be in need of wat - WOAH!"


    A big, blobby, red, water-filled balloon dropped from the ceiling onto Marcus''s head and nearly exploded on impact - but it suddenly stopped in the air. Sputtering at almost being hit, Marcus staggered sideways into Eddie, just as a second water bomb dropped¡ª narrowly missing Luna and almost bursting at Quinn''s feet, but didn''t, as it suddenly flew away and sshed away from the group, sending a wave of cold water over someone other''s shoes and into the socks.


    People all around shrieked and started pushing others in their efforts to get out of the line of fire. Quinn looked up and saw, floating twenty feet above them, Peeves the Poltergeist, a little man in a bell-covered hat and orange bow tie, his broad, malicious face contorted with concentration as he retook aim.


    The first balloon, which had stopped in midair because Quinn was controlling it before it hit Marcus, suddenly turned back and shot towards the Peeves, drowning the Poltergeist in water. The vindictive Poltergeist screamed at being hit from his own water balloon.


    "PEEVES!" yelled an angry voice. "Peeves,e down here at ONCE!" Professor McGonagall, deputy headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House, hade dashing out of the Great Hall but then slid on the wet flood, so she grabbed Quinn around to stop herself from falling. Quinn took the Scottish witch into his arms and effortlessly stabilized her.


    "Ouch ¡ª Excuse me, Mr. West ¡ª"


    "That''s all right, Professor." Quinn grinned. She pulled McGonagall up as if she didn''t weigh anything.


    McGonagall then proceeded to screech hell on Peeves. Quinn gestured to his friends to move along.


    "Thank you for stopping the balloon," said Marcus.


    Quinn put his left arm over Marcus''s shoulder. "Don''t mention it." He smirked. He raised his fake wand with his right hand and moved the water on the floor away from their path so that they wouldn''t slip and slide.


    The Great Hall was splendidly decorated as usual. Golden tes and goblets gleaned by the light of the hundreds and hundreds of candles that hovered over the tables in midair. The fourrge house tables were packed with chattering students and, at the top of the Hall, the staff sat along, facing their pupils. It was much warmer there.


    The group walked past the Slytherins, Gryffindors, and Hufflepuffs and sat down with the rest of the Ravenws in the middle of the Hall, next to the Grey Lady, Helena Ravenw, the Ravenw ghost. Translucent as always, the Grey Lady was dressed tonight in her usual blueish grey dress, which held an aristocratic elegance in it despite being of simple design.


    "Good evening," she said, staring at the current challenger of the vaults.


    "Good evening to you too, mydy," greeted Quinn to the ghost who led Voldemort to Rowena Ravenw''s Diadem.


    The conversation stopped as the Grey Lady went silent and Quinn went back to his friends. One of them didn''t want to talk, while the other already knew the secret of the first.


    "Where''s the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Eddie, who was also looking up at the teachers. They had never had a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who hadsted more than three terms. Their favorite, Professor Lupin, had resignedst year. After looking up and down the staff table, they didn''t see anyone.


    "Don''t worry about it; whoever it is will be here," said Quinn, looking bored, but inside, he was waiting for them to arrive so he could whip out Recon to confirm what he suspected.


    In the very center of the High Table sat Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster while his sweeping silver hair and beard shining in the candlelight. His magnificent deep green robes were embroidered with many stars and moons. The tips of Dumbledore''s long, thin fingers were together, and he was resting his chin upon them, staring up at the ceiling through his half-moon spectacles as though lost in thought. Quinn nced up at the top too. It had been enchanted to look like the sky outside, and he had never seen it look this stormy. ck and purple clouds were swirling across it, and as another thunderp sounded out, a fork of lightning shed across it.


    "Aw,e on," Marcus moaned, opposite to the other three, "I could eat a hippogriff."


    Just after he finished saying that, the doors of the Great Hall opened. Everyone became silent. Professor McGonagall started leading a long line of first years up to the front of the High Table. If the rest of the school were wet, it was nothing like these first years looked. They appeared to have swum across theke rather than sailed. All of them were cold, shivering and nervous as they faced the staff table, halting in a line.


    Professor McGonagall now ced a four-legged stool on the ground before the first years and, on top of it, an ancient, dirty, patched wizard''s hat. And thus started the long yet festive tradition of house sorting.


    And finally, with "Whitby, Kevin!" ("HUFFLEPUFF!"), the Sorting ended. Professor McGonagall picked up the hat and the stool and carried them away.


    "About time," said Marcus, seizing his knife and fork and looking expectantly at his golden te.


    Dumbledore got to his feet. He was smiling around at the students, his arms opened wide in wee.


    "I have only two words to say to you," he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."


    "Hear, hear!" said Marcus loudly as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes.


    The rain was still drumming heavily against the high, dark ss. Another p of thunder shook the windows, and the stormy ceiling shed, illuminating the golden tes. The remains of the first course vanished and were reced, instantly, with puddings.


    After the puddings too had been finished, and thest crumbs had faded off the tes, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.


    "Now that we''ve sated our hunger and quenched our thirst," said Dumbledore, smiling. "I must once again beg your attention."


    "Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to remind you that the list of objects forbidden this year includes Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full listprises over four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be seen in Mr. Filch''s office should you like to check."


    Quinn nodded in satisfaction, as none of A.I.D. products were on the forbidden list.


    The corners of Dumbledore''s mouth twitched. He continued, "As always, I would like to insist that the Forbidden Forest is out-of-bounds to all students."


    "It is my duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take ce this year."


    There were many murmurs throughout the Great Hall and a few loud ''whats'' from the Gryffindor table, but the loudest voice in the entirety of Hogwarts came from the Ravenw.


    "What!... WHAT!... WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!" Eddie Carmichael stood from his seat and fixed his eyes on Dumbledore. He seemed as if he had killed his entire family. Every head except Luna''s, busy eating an extra pudding, and Quinn with his eyes behind his hands turned to him.


    Quinn''s other hand went to Eddie''s shoulder and pulled him down.


    "Stop! Don''t pull me down! Why the hell would he say that?! Who does he think he -" The voice cut off as Quinn silenced him with a silencing spell.


    Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will start in October and will continue throughout the school year. As such, it will take up much of the teachers'' time and energy¡ª However, I am most sure we will enjoy it immensely. I have the great pleasure to announce that this year ¡ª"


    But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder, and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.


    A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a ck traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled towards the stranger who, suddenly, became brightly illuminated by the lightning that shed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, and began to walk up toward the teachers'' table.


    A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily towards Dumbledore. Another sh of lightning crossed the ceiling. Luna gasped.


    The lightning had thrown the man''s face into a sharp relief, and it was a face unlike any student had ever seen. He looked as though he had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like. Every inch of his skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and arge chunk of the nose was missing. But it was the man''s eyes that made him truly terrifying.


    One of his eyes was small and dark. The other wasrge, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye moved ceaselessly, without blinking, rolling up, down, and from side to side, quite independently from the normal eye ¡ª then it rolled right over, pointing at his back.


    The stranger reached Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand that was badly scarred (just as his face) and Dumbledore shook it, muttering to him some words Quinn couldn''t hear. He studied the stranger with an observant eye. The man sat down, shook his mane of dark gray hair out of his face, pulled a te of sausages toward him, raised it to what was left of his nose, and sniffed it. He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it, and began to eat. His normal eye was fixed upon the links, but the blue eye was still darted restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students.


    "May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said


    Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."


    It was usual for new staff members to be greeted with apuse. Still, none of the staff or students pped except Dumbledore, Quinn, Eddie, and Hagrid, who both put their hands together and apuded. Eddie pped to release the frustration he was feeling. But the sound echoed dismally into the silence, and they stopped pretty quickly. Everyone else seemed too transfixed by Moody''s bizarre appearance to do more than stare at him.


    Moody seemed totally indifferent to his less-than-warm wee. Ignoring the jug of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached again to his traveling cloak, pulled out a hip sk, and took a long draught from it. As he lifted his arm to drink, his cloak pulled a few inches from the ground, and some saw, below the table, several inches of a carved wooden leg, ending in a wed foot.


    ''Polyjuice or not?'' thought Quinn, and his hand went near the inner lining of his robe. In the end, he exercised patience and decided to wait.


    Dumbledore cleared his throat. "As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody. "We have the honour of hosting a fascinating event over theing months, an event that has not been held for over three centuries."


    "It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament shall be taking ce at Hogwarts this year."


    "You''re JOKING!" said Fred Weasley loudly from the Gryffindor table. Both twins were grinning widely.


    The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody''s arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyoneughed, and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively.


    "I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar¡­"


    Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.


    "Er ¡ª but maybe this is not the time¡­ No..." said Dumbledore, "Where was I? Ah, yes, the Triwizard Tournament¡­ Well, I''m sure some won''t know what this tournament is. As such, I hope those who do know forgive me for giving an exnation.


    The Triwizard Tournament was first established about seven hundred years ago as a friendlypetition between the threergest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three championspeted in three magical tasks. The schools would host the tournament once every five years. It had been agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities. Until, that is, the death toll became so high that the tournament was discontinued."


    "Death toll?" Marcus whispered, looking rmed. But his anxiety was not shared by the majority of students in the Hall. Many of them whispered excitedly to one another, more interested in hearing about the tournament than in worrying about the deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago.


    "There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which have been very sessful. However, our own Departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided that time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that no champion would find themself in mortal danger this time."


    "The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their shortlisted contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take ce on October 31. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy ofpeting. The prize is a thousand Galleons."


    "F**k it! I''m going topete!" Eddie hissed, released from his silence. If there was no Quidditch, then he was going to use this to get a girlfriend. He didn''t seem to be the only person who seemed to be visualizing himself as the Hogwarts champion. At every House table, Quinn could see people either gazing raptly at Dumbledore or whispering fervently to their neighbours.


    Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall quieted once more. "As eager as I know you are," he said, "the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on the contenders. Only students of age ¡ªthat is to say, seventeen years or older¡ª shall be allowed to put forward their names for consideration."


    ''Yeah, right!'' scoffed Quinn internally.


    Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage. Eddie looked absolutely furious: "This is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous. All the precautions we take wouldn''t be enough, as it is improbable that students below the sixth and seventh year would be able to sessfullyplete each task. I will personally ensure that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them the Hogwarts champion."


    His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Eddie''s mutinous face. "I, therefore, beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."


    The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive in October and will stay with us for the more significant part of this year. I know that you will extend our courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when they are selected. In any case, it iste, and I know how important it is to be rested to follow ss as well as possible. Goodnight! Chop chop!"


    Dumbledore sat down again and turned to talk to Mad-Eye Moody. There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed toward the double doors into the entrance hall.


    "*&^#$% *&#[emailprotected]</a>$ %09$#!!!" A string of profanities escaped Eddie''s mouth. The Irish descendant seemed to have picked a lot of new and innovative terminology in the summer break.


    "Don''t worry. I have something nned," spoke Quinn nudging Eddie with his shoulder. "I may be able to pull something out of my hat that will please you."


    The hurling of continuous abuses stopped as Eddie looked over towards Quinn. "What?"


    "Not right now; I will tell you after I know," said Quinn. He then put his arm around Eddie. "Don''t try to get into the tournament. Don''t even think about it. If you even go near it, I''ll break your legs." Eddie felt constricted with the arm around him tightening.


    "It?" asked Eddie, struggling to escape, but Quinn''s grip was too firm.


    "My fault... forget about it. If I see or hear you trying to get into the tournament..." The sentence didn''t need to beplete as Eddie got the message loud and clear. He didn''t know why Quinn was so strict about this, but looking at his expression, Eddie wasn''t going to argue.


    "Er, Quinn... aren''t you going to guide the first years to themon room?" said Marcus from the side.


    "Oh, crap!" Quinn released Eddie from his grip and turned back to see his female counterpart struggling with the firsties. "I''ll see you guys in the dorms... Need to guide these little ones to the best beds of Hogwarts, first."


    "Go get ''em~," said Luna with a yawn, her eyes drooping.


    Quinn ran towards the Ravenw table. They had been out of the Great Hall after Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.


    "Sorry about that," he apologised to his Prefectpanion and then turned to the first years. "I am Quinn West, fifth-year, Prefect. If you have any questions regarding anything, don''t hesitate to ask me."


    He paused and gave a smile to every first-year student and said, "If you check your pocket, you will find something special..."


    The firsties looked at each other as their hands went to their pockets, but instead of empty pockets, they were surprised when their hands felt something. All of them hurriedly took out the mysterious object to find a ck card in their hands.


    "You hold the most powerful thing in Hogwarts other than your magic..." grinned Quinn as his words got their full attention.


    ''Time for advertising...'' he thought, before opening his mouth to introduce them to his A.I.D.work system.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After the day ended, Quinn sat on his poster bed inside his dorm room with the curtains drawn for privacy. He could hear the soft snores from his roommates. The midnight moon shone outside.


    A sizeable rectangle of fabricid on the fluffy bed. With a touch along with a whisper, the magic inside came to life. Multi-colored inks came from within it and coloured the fabric in its pre-decided design.


    ¡¸Wee to Recon¡¹


    The text and the graphics on the fabric thrummed, spiked with activity as the wee text in blue disappeared. A detailed floor schematic appeared on the cloth with colorful dots dotting on the map with name tags beside every dot. Three blue dots: Quinn West, Eddie Carmichael, and Marcus Belby sat in the room, unmoving. Quinn looked to the right and saw Luna Lovegood in blue inside the girl''s dorms. Two green dots pranced around themon room below.


    "... stor Moody." The second the words escaped his mouth, the Recon''s schematic moved. The map moved and switched to the fourth floor, near the faculty apartments.


    A red dot of an outsider with red text showed stor Moody in the corner of the room.


    "I guess that because he still hasn''t taught a ss, he is still considered an outsider," noted Quinn. Recon showed outsiders in red while the teachers in purple.


    Quinn didn''t have to say the other name because another dot walked into the room and moved closer to stor Moody. "Bartemius Crouch Junior," said Quinn, and he watched as the two reds almost coincided.


    "What should I do with you?" The mind of the boy-wonder began spinning as some thoughts and ns began to build themselves for the future.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Bow down to the perfect Prefect!


    Ms. Rosey - West family caretaker - Has given her warnings.


    Eddie Carmichael - In shock - "F**k you, F**k him, F**k everybody!"


    Marcus Belby - Dry and hungry - Kind as honey.


    Luna Lovegood - Third-year, Ravenw - Sleepy...


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Death toll... anyway, let''s move on.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 136 - DADA, Unforgivable, Prefect

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The storm had faded the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy clouds swirled over their heads as Eddie, Marcus, and Luna examined their new schedules at breakfast. Quinn, unlike them, was reading a book from his personal library.


    "Ugh, I should''ve taken Divination; this is getting ridiculous," said Eddie grimacing about his new weekly schedule, "Maybe I could drop Care this year. I don''t want my O.W.Ls scores to suffer."


    "It''s our O.W.Ls year; it doesn''t matter how many subjects you have. What matters is the subjects you prepare for," said Quinn. His hand held a goblet of chocte-vored milk. He continued to say with his eyes still roaming the pages, "The O.W.Ls will allow you to take N.E.W.T level subjects. If you think you can''t handle all the subjects, then focus on the subjects you want to attend next year and drop the rest. The O.W.L scores don''t matter after that, but the N.E.W.Ts will matter when you look for a job, so make sure to keep rethinking the decision about what you want to study. Consult with Professor Flitwick or me if you have any kind of doubts."


    Quinn was going to take the O.W.Ls for all subjects this year just for the flex, but others weren''t in his situation; they needed to think about their decisions. With the Triwizard Tournament upon them, many students would get swept in the excitement and lost focus. Quinn was going to make sure his friends wouldn''t be those people.


    "Today''s not bad¡­ at least we are inside," said Marcus, looking at the gloomy ceiling. "Charms with the Hufflepuffs and with the Gryffindors we have... Defense Against Dark Arts." He gulped. He was thinking about their new DADA teacher.


    "I think Mad-Eye is wicked!" said Eddie, his face showing that he was somehow impressed by Moody''s ghastly appearance. "I mean, that eye¡­ the way it rotates in its socket is just¡­ ohoho!"


    "If you ever lose your eye to a dark curse, I''ll make a special one just for you," chuckled Quinn. He took a sip from the goblet. He then took a piece of fruit that Luna was holding in front of him.


    "... I think that it''s wicked; never said anything about getting one for myself," shivered Eddie.


    There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. Instinctively, Quinn looked up. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. His MagiFax, for the most part, had been able to dominate themunication market, but owls were still employed for package delivery. Plus, owls weren''t out of the letter business. His own grandfather still used owls to deliver enveloped letters for certain correspondences.


    Arge tawny owl soared down to Luna and deposited a parcel into herp.


    Looking at Luna opening her parcel, Quinn asked, "Are these this week''s Quibbler?"


    "Uh-huh," nodded Luna in confirmation as her dainty fingers ripped the wrapping. There were a dozen copies of the magazine, one each for Luna and Quinn while others for Luna to sell to the students. "Daddy published the article you submitted in this issue."


    "Really? That''s great," said Quinn, taking his copy from Luna and flipped through. The magazine in his hand rotated at unusual angles because of the unconventional page orientations.


    "Ah, here it is," smiled Quinn, "Ten ces to see when visiting wizarding Denmark."


    "Daddy liked the ces you rmended and instantly decided to add it to this week''s issue," said Luna, her patent dreamy smile gracing her lips. She had been the one who had asked Quinn to write an article for Quibbler. "He says that if you have other things to write, you can send them in, and he will read them over."


    "I will see what I can put together," said Quinn. He was reading his published article. He then discreetly nced at Luna and smiled when he thought about the birthday surprise he had for her. Her birthday was in February, when Silver Moon Printing MagiTech would open its doors and introduce Quinn''s developing potion, inks, and printers to the world.


    ''The Quibbler will be the first magazine to gain colour,'' smiled Quinn, thinking about how giddy Luna would be to see her family magazine in colour.


    His happy moodsted all the way across the corridors of Hogwarts until they arrived at a ssroom on the second floor (after attending the Charms ss). Then, he was put off by Barty Crouch Jr. posing as stor Moody. He entered the room which looked strange and frightening. Quinn could just see his wed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.


    ''Polyjuice sure is a handy potion,'' thought Quinn. He wondered how he would replicate Moody''s unusual appearance with illusion magic. To make his disguise believable, he would have to add all the tiny details, like Moody''s distinctive clunking footsteps. Something Barty Jr. didn''t have to worry about, as he simply had to strap the wooden leg to his modified limb and be done with it.


    "Mhm!" growled ''Moody'', stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "All books, you really like books, eh? But let me tell you¡­ they will be useless in my ss. Put them away; you won''t be needing them."


    Quinn''s eyes twitched when he heard books are useless. If he had been cautious of Barty Jr., now he straight-up didn''t like him. How dare he say books were useless?!


    The students returned the books to their bags. The Gryffindors seemed excited..


    ''Moody'' took out a list, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, while his normal eye moved steadily down the list. In contrast, his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as they answered.


    "Right then," he said, when thest person had dered themselves present, "I''ve received a letter from Professor Lupin about this ss. Seems you''ve had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures."


    There was a general murmur of assent.


    "But you''re behind ¡ªfar behind¡ª on how to deal with curses," said Moody.


    "I''ll have one year to teach you how to battle other wizards. Specially, Dark ¡ª"


    "You''ll only teach for one year?" asked Eddie.


    Moody''s magical eye spun around to stare at Eddie. Eddie looked highly delighted that the magical eye was focusing on him. After a moment, Moody smiled¡ª the first time anyone had seen him do so. His heavily scarred face looked more twisted and contorted than ever.


    "I''m retired,d," said Moody. "Yeah, I''m staying for just one year. Special favor to Dumbledore¡­ One year, and then I''ll be back to my quiet home."


    He gave a harshugh and then pped his gnarled hands together.


    "So! Let''s get into it. Curses. They have forms and uses. Now, ording to the Ministry of Magic, I''m supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I''m not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you''re in sixth year. You''re supposedly not mature enough to deal with them till then. But Professor Dumbledore''s got a higher opinion of your nerves; and he reckons you can cope..."


    Really? It surprised Quinn that Dumbledore would give his approval to this. On a second thought, Hogwarts was Dumbledore''s school, so it made sense that Moody would take permission from Dumbledore.


    "...and I say, the sooner you know what you''re up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you''ve never seen? A wizard who''s about to put an illegal curse on you isn''t going to tell you what he''s about to do. He''s not going to be friendly and polite about it. You need to be prepared. You need to be constantly alert and watchful."


    Quinn internally debated that. He could be friendly and polite and still curse someone with some colourful spells. Get into their personal space without making them suspicious and strike when they weren''t expecting it. Ambush 101.


    "Mr. Belby, put that away when I''m talking," said Moody.


    Marcus jumped in his seat and blushed in fluster. He had been reading the book under his desk.


    ''X-ray, huh,'' noted Quinn.


    "Your uncle did a great deed to wizardkind, so I''m going to let that go. Make sure it doesn''t happen again," said Moody, and Marcus shyly nodded, embarrassed.


    "So... Do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by Wizarding Law?"


    Every Ravenw raised their hand, and even several Gryffindors hands rose tentatively into the air. Moody pointed at Katie Bell, but his magical eye was still fixed on Marcus.


    "The Unforgivable curses, sir," answered Katie.


    "How many are there, Ms. Bell?"


    "Three, sir."


    "Correct. Mr. Carmichael, can you name the curses?" asked Moody.


    Eddie got up and answered, "The Imperius Curse, Cruciatus Curse, and¡­ the Killing Curse." He gulped nervously at the end.


    "Yes, be scared,d. The three unforgivables aren''t nothing to sneeze at." Moody''s regr eye and magical eye moved in all directions to look at the entire ss, who became ufortable under his gaze. "All of you should feel fear at those names. Fear will keep you sharp. CONSTANT VIGILANCE," he barked, and almost everybody jumped. "That''s what you need to do to be safe."


    Moody then opened his desk drawer, and took out a ss jar. Threerge ck spiders were scuttling around inside it. He reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"


    The spider leaped from Moody''s hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a backflip, breaking the thread andnding on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.


    Everyoneughed¡ª except a few, like Moody, Quinn, and Marcus.


    "Think it''s funny, do you?" Moody growled. "Total control, I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats... You''d like it then, if I did it to you?"


    Theughter died away almost instantly.


    "You are in your O.W.L. year. Already big boys and girls, old enough to be responsible. Any volunteers who woulde here and show the ss what it feels like to be cursed with the Imperius?" said Moody, and with his magical eye constantly turning, he loudly asked. "The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I''ll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone can do it."


    The entire ss looked ufortable; no one wanted to get an unforgivable cast on them. Moody turned towards where Gryffindors sat but suddenly stopped as his magical eye rolled over into the back of his head.


    "Mr. West, do you have a question to ask?" he said, turning towards the Ravenw to see Quinn raising his hand.


    "No, Professor. I would like to volunteer¡­ for the Imperius Curse, that is," answered Quinn.


    Every person, including ''Moody'', opened their eyes so much that it seemed they would almost pop out. They couldn''tprehend or believe what they were seeing and hearing. Him raising his hand and confirming his decision to volunteer was mind-boggling to them.


    "Quinn!" whispered Marcus harshly, something not usually seen from the gentle Ravenw. "What are you doing?! Put that hand down; have you gone mad?!"


    Marcus''s words went ignored as Quinn and Moody stared at each other.


    "All right,d,e on then," nodded Moody and looked at the rest of the ss. "You don''t know, but you''re lucky that you are fortunate to have a ssmate like this. You''ll be able to witness one of the unforgivable curses in a ssroom without any danger."


    Quinn stood up, patted an anxious Marcus''s shoulder, and stepped outside to the front with several pairs of eyes following his every move. The disguised Death Eater and the volunteering student stood facing each other. One had a scarred and weathered face and the other was young and handsome.


    "Are you sure,d?" asked Moody. "You might regret it."


    "As you said, Professor. It''s a golden opportunity for me to see how the Imperius works. Better experience it now rather than at an unfortunate time."


    No one in Quinn''s life would willingly cast an Imperius Curse on him. His family would shut it down before he could say the "un" of the "unforgivables." Quinn was sure that he would be harshly reprimanded on even bringing the topic up. The only person who would remotely be willing to cast an unforgivable on him would be his teacher, n D. Baddeley. If Quinn asked n to cast Imperius (not sure about Cruciatus Curse) on him, the old man would do it without hesitation and quite happily. But n wasn''t nearby, and Quinn couldn''t ask n to drop by so that he could cast an Imperius on him.


    ''Moody'' was the perfect opportunity to get exposure to the Imperius Curse.


    "Remember, you asked for it," said Moody, and his wand went up pointing at Quinn. "Imperio!"


    It was a most wonderful feeling. Quinn felt as if he was floating, a sensation where all worries were wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. He stood there feeling immensely rxed, only dimly aware that everyone was watching him.


    And then he heard Mad-Eye Moody''s voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: Give me all the monies you have to me¡­ Give all the money you have on you to me...


    ''Hmm, yeah, right! Like I would do that!'' Quinn enjoyed the floating sensation but scoffed at the part where the voice asked him to fork out his money.


    ¡¸Give me all your monies to me...¡¹


    ''Hey! It''s my money; I earned it! This rxing feeling is nice! Besides, who says ''monies'' nowadays?


    ¡¸GIVE THEM TO ME RIGHT NOW!¡¹


    ''Aight, this got old pretty quickly,'' thought Quinn, and his magic moved at hismand. Like a ss dropping on the floor, all the fluffy goodness Quinn was feeling shattered.


    Quinn raised his hand and fixed his already in ce necktie. "Thank you for that, Professor. It was a unique experience," internally thinking, ''next time, I''ll shatter the effects the second I start feeling good''.


    "Look at that... West fought the curse! He fought it, and he beat it!" growled Moody in a happy voice. "We''ll try that again, West. The rest of you, pay attention ¡ªwatch his eyes, that''s where you see it¡ª that''s perfect, West, outstanding indeed! Anyone will have trouble controlling you!"


    Quinn exited the ss feeling happy, as Moody cast the Imperius five more times to him, making Quinn more familiar with the curse. His confidence was high; he had fought off Barty Jr.''s Imperius without any effort. Which made Quinn feel like if someone more powerful than Barty Jr. cast Imperius on him, he would have high chances to escape its effects with some struggle and would have a chance to resist it, rather than to instantly lose control of himself.


    "Quinn? How are you feeling, mate? Do you feel sick? Should I take you to the hospital wing?" asked Marcus, his face etched with deep worry. He wasn''tfortable with his best friend being subjected to the Imperius Curse.


    "I''m fine, Marcus," said Quinn, putting his arm over Marcus'' shoulder. "If you see me acting funny, just sock me in the face and take me to a faculty member, preferably Madam Pomfrey, then Professor Flitwick, followed by Professor McGonagall, and finally Professor Potter."


    "I''ll be happy to do that," grinned Eddie.


    "You two...!" Marcus couldn''t believe how lightly they were taking the matter.


    "Marcus¡­ this is just the start. Today he only showed the Imperius on a spider. He will show the other two in the next ss. Be ready for it," said Quinn.


    "B- But..."


    "Don''t worry about it. I will be there, mate. You don''t have to worry about anything. I''ll take care of you if anything goes wrong."


    "Quinn... thank you, that means a lot."


    Eddie gagged on the side and spoke.


    "Get a room!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was after curfew, and Quinn was sitting at his office''s table. His hands held a pair of stainless steel micro tweezers with tiny metal gears gripped at the end. In front of him was an open timepiece with gears and springs inside. It was Quinn''s new timepiece, and he was currently building it from scratch.


    *Knock* *Knock*


    The knock on the office door startled Quinn, and he ended up jamming the tweezers inside the mechanism, screwing his progress, rendering it null and void. He pursed his lips, held back a groan, and finally licked his lips to hold back his frustration.


    He looked at the work-in-progress timepiece. He could assemble the mechanism in under ten seconds with one call, and Quinn was tempted to use magic but held back. He wasn''t one to give up.


    "Come in," he called, cing the tweezers down.


    To his surprise, Minerva McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress, entered the office. And from the looks of it, she wasn''t happy.


    "Professor, what can I do for you today?"


    "Mr. West, may I know why aren''t you patrolling your assigned area for curfew-offending students," she asked, feeling a little strange that she was saying this to the prime curfew offender in Hogwarts history.


    "But I''m patrolling, Professor. I''m patrolling my area," smiled Quinn. "I handle everything from my office, which is the entire west block of the fifth floor."


    "... I don''t see you patrolling, Mr. West."


    "I don''t need to patrol physically, Professor," grinned Quinn and pointed to his forehead. "I haveyered my entire area with wards. If someone walks inside my area, they will trigger the wards." Quinn''s office was on the edge of the west block, so Quinn would know if someone walked five meters west past his office.


    "Working hard is good, Professor, but that is if you work smart. If someone enters the area, I can simply get up and chase them down instead of aimlessly roaming a fixed route."


    "And what if you don''t get this area again?" asked McGonagall.


    Quinn chuckled and interlinked his fingers over his table. "We Prefects along with the Head pair have already distributed the castle, and I got this area for the rest of the year. If they reassign me, I can ward the area again and set my base in another ssroom. Though I doubt I''ll be losing this area anytime soon¡­ I can be very persuasive."


    "Of course, I know that, Mr. West," sighed McGonagall. She was surprised by the patrolling approach, but when she took Quinn West into consideration, it wasn''t surprising at all.


    "Mr. West... I heard about you volunteering for Defense Against the Dark Arts. How are you feeling? I heard that you broke through the Imperius, but I don''t think it would''ve felt good."


    "On the contrary, Professor. Being under Imperius is quite rxing. As long as you ignore themands... it''s quite nice, actually."


    McGonagall seemed relieved to hear that. If Quinn wasn''t happy and he informed George West, Hogwarts, especially Moody and Dumbledore, would have a lot to answer.


    After conversing a little about the O.W.Ls and other things McGonagall said farewell and took her leave. When the Professor left, Quinn took out Recon and switched to Moody and Barty Jr.''s ce.


    "Hmm, now that''s surprising, is it?"


    Barty Jr.''s redbel had turned to purple.


    "Well, he did teach, so it kind of makes sense. Anyway, let''s get back to it," said Quinn and returned to building the timepiece for his new pocket watch.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Work hard, work smarter."


    Marcus Belbly - A good friend - Will punch Quinn, if necessary.


    Eddie Carmichael - Ravenw Jock - Like Quinn, he loves Moody''s fake eyes, but for different reasons.


    Luna Lovegood - Hogwarts Quibbler supplier - D.O.B: February 13, 1981.


    Barty Crouch Jr. - stor Moody - Feeling doubt in his magic capabilities.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 137 - Eleven Years, Trifecta, And The Fourth

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The night sky was aglow with the bright lights of the stars, shining upon even the most remote ces. The pale crescent moon shone like a silvery w among the nket of stars that stretched to infinity.


    Quinn was standing on his favorite outdoor ce in all Hogwarts; the Astronomy Tower. The tallest tower. The calm wind of the night stroked Quinn''s face, making his skin tingle with a slight cold. He liked the Astronomy Tower because of the unique peace it had.


    "A couple more minutes," said Quinn while looking at his new pocket watch. "Just a little more to September Eighth."


    In a couple of minutes, the day would turn to September Eighth, that is, the day Quinn had arrived in this world. Eleven years of living in the magical world of Harry Potter. He sighed; how long had it been since he had thought of this world as the world of ''Harry Potter.'' It had been a while since he had stopped looking at the world he lived in as a fantasy world of fiction and hade to recognise it as something real.


    He had lived in this world seven years beforeing into contact with the Potters. He had gained a new family, formed new rtionships, and made a ce for himself in this world. He had found something he loved from the bottom of his heart and had developed close connections with people he cared about.


    All those elements had made this world go from something he had read about in books and enjoyed as movies to something real and genuine. A thought that didn''t seep through him until now that he was thinking about it. A part of him still couldn''t believe that it had been so long; he had been living in a world of magic for over a decade.


    He moved to the side and started to remove his clothes till he was in a simple white tee and white shorts before returning to the center of the tower. He stood there waiting for it to happen.


    Four years ago, he had experienced ate transition to the stage of magic development that children from eleven to seventeen years old enjoyed. They would enter a state of magical flux and have a better focus ability and an increase in the quantity of magic in their core. Using magic would elerate and boost their results.


    Quinn wasn''t sure if it would happen again, but he hoped that it would, as he would gain lots of benefits. He had tried to research on this subject matter, but upon extensive reading in his personal library, the Room of Requirements, and the few days of ess to the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library that he had been able to get from multiple Professors (stating that he needed research material on their subjects), hadn''t given him anything conclusive.


    "I''m prepared... if it happens, then good. If it doesn''t, I will go on with my life."


    Quinn would have no qualms about spending eleven years in this world even if they went unrewarded. After the day four years ago, Quinn had already mapped out how much magic he would have at his eighteenth birthday, which was the day the flux state would transition into maturation. He knew how much work he would have to put to get maximum gains from the seven years and had nned short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals for achieving the best he could.


    The boost from the Sin vault had been an unexpected blip in his n, and he had had to redraw the development n to assimte the bizarre year and the changes it had brought.


    ''As long as I keep working hard, I wille out as the world''s most magically powerful eighteen-year-old at the end of this. Better than Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Voldemort, or any other magical that has walked on this,'' thought Quinn. These were the gains he would naturally get in his life; thus, Quinn wanted to be the person who took the most advantage of it by the time his life ended.


    A sound resembling a tuning fork being hit broke the silence of the night and caused Quinn to look at a corner where his neatly folded outer garment with his new pocket watch sat.


    "It''s time."


    It was already September 8. Quinn closed his eyes... seconds passed, and Quinn stood still with no movement, and all he noticed was the sound of crickets in the background.


    He opened one eye and looked left and right. ''... What? Is it happening? No¡­? Let''s wait a bit more'' He closed his eyes once again and waited for a while. But nothing happened. Eventually, an hour passed, and nothing happened.


    "... Was it wishful thinking? I seem like a fool. Yeah, an idiot," said Quinn, smacking his lips. He picked up his clothes, got dressed, and went back to the Ravenwmon room after wasting one hour.


    "That was stupid!"ined Quinn in his bed as he pulled up the sheets. He went to sleep feeling irritated with himself.


    Sleep took over Quinn after half an hour of silent bitching and moaning. The second Quinn entered REM sleep, inside Quinn, his soul started to thrum and vibrate in a space outside of the physical ne. The foreign soul that chanced upon a different world and resided in a body, not of its world, started to go through a transformation.


    The soul that had nothing to do with magic was able to ess it through the native body. Through the years of being in contact with the mystical energy known as magic, the soul had been slowly changing, transforming to gain ess to magic. After eleven long years, the transformation wasplete. The soul had normalised being in contact with magic. It now held the same properties as any other soul that could be found in a magical.


    And as Quinn slept, the soul finally went through a qualitative change.


    The ¡¸BODY¡¹ had always been from this world, had always been able to ess magic.


    The ¡¸MIND, through its connection to the brain, which was a part of the ¡¸BODY¡¹, also could ess magic and, with ample training and daily use, had be enabled with magic.


    Now that the ¡¸SOUL¡¹ was going to get direct ess to magic, "Quinn" would finally be one.


    The magic from the soul ne crossed over to the physical ne, and the dorm room that had three fifth-year boys lit up. The light was so bright that it passed right through the bed curtains. A window that shone with a bright light could be visible from Hogwarts, and anyone looking from the outside would wonder what the hell was happening. Themon room down the stairs was getting light from up above, and even the other dorm rooms along the staircase had bright lighting through the doors.


    The owner of the soul slept through the entire process along with the whole Ravenw student body.


    Mind, Body, Soul.


    The ultimate trifecta was nowplete. Working in a symbiotic union to function as the magical human known as Quinn West.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinny on his back, looking at the ceiling. After waking up at six in the morning for years, his internal body clock made him wake up at six o''clock. He sat upon his bed, his hands stretching above his head. As always, his sheet slipped off his body and started to fold itself, and as he stood up, the bed cover would fix itself, and the pillows would be fluffy once again.


    He then walked to the bathroom the three had to brush their teeth. With a sway of his hand, he made his toothbrush magically move. Quinn''s eyes were staring down, still a little drowsy from thetest night. He breathed through his nose and stood up straight. He closed his eyes and stretched his body to shake off his lethargy.


    His eyes opened up with sleep out of them and peered at the mirror in front of him. For a second, the toothbrush kept brushing, but what Quinn saw surprised him so much that he lost control of the brush. The toothbrush withthered paste fell down, but before it could touch the floor, it stopped, hovering a bit.


    Staring back, Quinn had his handsome face, with a mild case of bed hair. But instead of his usual stone-grey eyes, his two orbs were a vivid purple in color.


    "What the hell," said Quinn with toothpaste in his mouth. He leaned closer to the mirror, left hand on the edge of the sink, while the right pulling down the lower eyelid to get a better look at his eyes.


    "Why are they purple?" But before Quinn could get an answer, he blinked, and his iris were back to their usual stone-grey.


    "What?!"


    He spat out the paste into the sink, and twisted the tap to let out water for gargling. Quinn felt the usual control he had over water when he touched the tap, but then he found himself staring at the running water. The running water stream thrummed, disturbing the flow. As he stared at the water, Quinn''s ears picked up the sound of his heartbeat. As that sound got louder, the thrum in the water started to match with the heartbeat, eventually coinciding with each other. Every beat of his heart matched a thrum in the water.


    His eyes went up from the tap to the mirror, but this time he wasn''t looking at his image, but the water pipes behind that carried water to the faucet. Quinn slipped into the feeling and found that he could feel every water pipe in the bathroom. The sense of water inside the walls became stronger as he sunk deeper into the state.


    Quinn felt like he could squeeze the water out of the metal pipes, the bricked walls, painted surfaces or simply force the water to burst out, ravaging everything in the way between the water and him.


    He didn''t do any of that.


    "Something happenedst night." Quinn was sure of it. "I didn''t have this level of controlst night." Quinn''s control over water was top-notch, but this level of sense where he could sense it throughyers of obstruction hadn''t been in his skill set.


    The young magical dove deep into his body and snooped around his magic control, but there were no changes. With him just waking up, the magic core was full, and it was as full as yesterday. His mind immediately went tost night.


    "Something definitely happened," repeated Quinn and flexed his magic to test out if something was different. Everything in the bathroom, from the mirror to the showerhead to the far right, rattled.


    But he wasn''t expecting the sudden yell from outside, and Quinn knew exactly who yelled and why. He ran out to see Eddie on the floor beside his bed and Marcus standing up on his bed, looking alert in confusion and surprise at being woken because of the sudden sound and shake of his head.


    "What? What? Was it an earthquake?" said Marcus.


    "I don''t know! Ugh, my elbow hurts," groaned Eddie as he held his elbow, which contacted the ground when he fell off the bed.


    "I didn''t feel anything," said Quinn, lying, as he was the reason behind everything. Inside his mind, the thoughts were running at the speed of light, ''Holy shit! It just came pouring out.''


    Quinn had to pull out the magic from his core every time he wanted ess to it. As his focus ability increased, the process got more essible, faster, and he could pull out more and be more precise with the measurements. Right now, he had wanted to pull an amount to rattle everything in the bathroom, but the amount that hade out had been enough to shake everything in their dorm.


    "Whatever, now that you guys are up don''t go to sleep. You are bothing with me to run," he said, ignoring the groans.


    He went back into the bathroom and threw up a silencing ward.


    "For the love of magic! I. AM. AWESOME!"


    The rapturousughter echoed inside the bathroom, staying inside the four walls, as the silencing ward did its job. Quinn then walked out and found that both of his friends had gone back to sleep.


    "Marcus! All you can eat at the Three Broomsticks at the next Hogsmeade weekend; it''s on me. Eddie, you too, I will buy you enough butterbeer so you can bathe with it if you want. The response he got was two pillows to his face.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    For an entire week, Quinn''s mood had been at an all-time high. Experimenting with his new magical capabilities had been exhrating. His control now was so smooth that Quinn felt he had been running with weights around his ankles.


    That entire week he busied himself with going over every piece he had ever learned and performing them one after another. He found that not only his control over them got better, but his magic regeneration was also faster.


    If before he could call upon one unit of magic out of his core, now it was more precise to say he could call a third of that amount as the minimum. An ability that helped him out immensely with delicate applications of magic like transmutation with great details and alchemic procedures that required a tight grip on magic flow.


    Right now, he was sitting in his workshop looking over a cauldron inside. In it there was a bubbling poison that turned the stomach acid into a corrosive liquid capable of burning through the stomach and other entrails. A bubble-head charmid over his face for protection from the fumes.


    His concentration was interrupted when he heard a voice inside his workshops.


    "Quinn..."


    Looking up from the cauldron, Quinn saw a half-transparent, fat ghost dressed in monk robes sticking out of his ss wall.


    "Friar, fancy seeing you here," said Quinn. At the same time, he thought about researching for some wards to keep ghosts out. Which was difficult, as a ghosts'' existence was tied to the very magic of Hogwarts.


    "Aye, you didn''t visit me, so I decided toe to you," said the Ravenw ghost.


    "Oh, sorry about that, Friar. I was going to visit you but got a bit distracted," said Quinn, as he continued to stir the cauldron.


    "... I wondered whether you want to challenge the next vault," said Friar, studying Quinn''s reaction.


    "I will challenge it, Friar. It''s one per year for me," answered Quinn. "Now that you''re here to give me the next clue... Heh, with you here, I''m getting excited for the next vault, Friar. Come on, tell me about it."


    Last year, Quinn and Friar had a talk about the results, and Quinn''s performance was all Friar needed to see to believe he hadpleted the vault. Friar thought that Quinn had found secrets to some ancient magics that had allowed him to perform feats not possible for a child of his age.


    "If that''s what the challenger desires, then that will be what he gets," nodded Friar. He came out of the wall and floated above the cauldron. His greyish body turned a slimy yellow.


    .


    [


    Dark is the forest and deep, and overhead


    Hang stars like seeds of light


    In vain, though not since they were sown, was bred


    Anything more bright.


    And evermore mighty multitude ride


    About, nor enter in;


    Of the other multitudes that dwell inside.


    Outside is white and gold,


    Inside is for brave and bold.


    Venture through the deep and treacherous mines


    Pointless all it would seem;


    But persist through the endless vines


    The reward is grand, I deem.


    ]


    .


    "Huh," said Quinn as he sat down on a barstool. "Friar, did you work on the rhyming?"


    "That I did," said Friar feeling proud. "I got tips from the sorting hat. It taught me from its millennia of experience."


    That made Quinnugh. He could imagine the hat and Friar talking to each other about poems, rhymes, and songs. A magical artifact with a personality and an imprint of a departed soul exchanging notes on building music and riddles. Quite bizarre, indeed.


    "It definitely worked," he said, noting down the fourth riddle, "... a-and done. That''s it, Friar." Quinn looked up and smiled, "I''m ready for the challenge."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I am not aputer; I don''t need to shut down to install an update.


    Friar - Hufflepuff ghost - Music... is mighty!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 138 - Forbidden Forest, Centaurs, Underworld

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    [


    AUTHOR''S NOTE | PLEASE READ BEFORE PROCEEDING.


    There is a public post on my Patre0n page. Meaning that it''s free for all, unlocked for everyone to see. You don''t have to pay a single knut to ess it.


    The post has what I see of when I think of Quinn. It''s his character appearance.


    Of course, I''m a firm believer of free imagination, so you can imagine him in any way you desire, while adhering to the simple written descriptions that I''ve provided through out the story.


    The link to my page is in the synopsis and at the top of this chapter. Change the "ented ¨®" to a "standard o"


    You can also search FictionOnlyReader Patre¨®n on google to get to my page or add fictiononlyreader in front of the standard Patre¨®n URL.


    Thank you. . . Please proceed as you wish.


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Three days after Friar gave Quinn the riddle, he was walking across Hogwarts'' grounds. There was short green grass under his steps as he moved north, away from the castle. The sun was bright, although there were clouds skidding along the sky that provided a much-needed aide from the heat to the inhabitants of thend.


    Ahead, Quinn could see the Whomping Willow standing in all its glory. It swayed gently, as if performing a dance to the sound of nature. While it seemed gentle, it wasn''t. If you stepped close without precautions, the big Willow wouldn''t show mercy, and branches as thick as pythons would assault whoever approached without mercy. However, a pinching hex from afar to the knot at the base of the tree would calm the woody guardian.


    He walked past the Whomping Willow and started walking on a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into thick ck trees. While Quinn was looking at the forest, a light breeze lifted his hair.


    "Dark in the forest and deep, and overhead, hang stars like seeds of light," sang Quinn. He stepped into the forest that was dark as coal.


    The bright and sunny day rapidly shifted into darkness. Quinn lifted his chin to look up at the thick canopy that covered the sky from his view. Thin beams of light would asionally sift through the spaces between the leaves like... stars in the night sky.


    "In vain, though not since they were sown, was bred, anything more bright." His hands brushed against the dark bark of one of the trees. Quinn stopped near one of them and scouted the area ahead.


    He could see beech, oak, and yew filling the forest. Kneeling down, Quinn let his hand ruffle through the grass. He plucked a small herb that growed in the darkness of an epassing canopy.


    "Knotgrass," said Quinn in identification. Quinn twisted the grass-like herb with his fingers. "Essential for Polyjuice. I wonder if Barty hase to pick some up."


    Quinn got up and continued his walk. A ce where more than a few students had disappeared over the centuries since the school''s inception (that was the reason the forest had been named ''Forbidden Forest'').


    As Quinn continued to walk deeper, the forest started getting denser; its trees started growing closer to each other, and not a peep of noise could be heard except his footsteps.


    "And evermore mighty multitude ride about, nor enter in; of the other multitudes that dwell inside," he continued to sing the riddle.


    He didn''t have to walk in silence for long, as Quinn heard knocking of hoovers and a gallop from his right, beyond a maze of trees, just outside of his vision.


    "Oh, they found me, huh," whispered Quinn. Precisely what he wanted.


    Quinn patted his chest, and the Noir transformative suit, which had been in the green camouge mode, changed to a ck camouge to suit the dim lighting and dark trees around him. He pulled up the hood over his head, and with a wave of his hand, a ck mask covered his face.


    And into the view came... Was it a man or a horse? The figure had the waist of a man with red hair and beard, but below, he had a horse''s gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. A centaur. Behind that centaur were six more of different shades and colors, bringing up the tally to an auspicious seven.


    The half-men galloped around Quinn with arrows drawn upon their bows pointing at Quinn. After seeing that the human wasn''t making any movements, they stopped running around and surrounded him. Their arrows, though, were still pointed at the unknown figure.


    "Human¡­ Why have you intruded into our home?" asked the red centaur.


    Quinn turned in his spot and observed the seven centaurs. He had seen centaurs during his travels and talked to a few, but this was the first time he had met some with their weapons pointed at him.


    Seeing that the human in front of him wasn''t replying, one of the more hot-hearted centaurs pulled the bowstring tauter.


    "Speak human!"


    "Centaurs... residents of the forest," started Quinn, his voice distorted. "I have no qualms with your kind. I want nothing from your kind. I solely desire to reach my goal." He turned towards the calmer leader and asked, "Lead me to the vault that is cursed, and I will be on my way, not to be seen ever again."


    The Forbidden Forest was too big and clustered for Quinn to spend his valuable time searching for the vault. He needed a guide.


    The mention of "the vault that is cursed" sent a wave of whispers among the centaurs. They were not prepared to hear those words, and a few of them rested their bowstrings and lowered their weapons.


    "Human, how do you know about the cursed mines," asked a centaur, his horsetail swaying gently. He looked older than the rest of hispanions.


    ''Hmm¡­ so the mine in the riddle is literal,'' thought Quinn back to thest paragraph of the riddle. "I am a challenger who aspires to test my mettle against the cursed vault that is here in the Forbidden Forest."


    "Impossible! There hasn''t been a human challenger for the cursed mines," eximed the hot-hearted centaur. The hot-headed centaur hadn''t been born back then, but he had grown up listening to stories about challengers from the elders. Stories about multiple centaurs that had ventured the vaults and paid it with the ultimate price; their lives.


    "Show me which way to go, centaur, and I will be off," said Quinn. He didn''t need a guide. He could find the path on his own.


    "We won''t do that."


    "Why," asked Quinn with his magically distorted voice.


    "We don''t trust you," answered the head of the small herd. He looked Quinn up and down. He wasn''t impressed by his attire. "Shed that disguise of yours, and then we talk."


    "That isn''t needed, centaur," said Quinn. "Show me the correct path, and I will leave your kind alone, just as your kind desires."


    Quinn''s words caused their bows to be aimed at him again. This time, though, the threat didn''t go unanswered. The centaurs heard a crackle and saw icy blue beneath the human''s feet. The temperature dropped. Suddenly an unnatural cold enveloped them.


    "I don''t wish to fight," said Quinn in warning.


    "This is our territory, human. You won''t tell us what to do!"


    Quinn turned to the centaur who had said that. "Be careful, centaur. I''m not of your kind, so think carefully before you decide to shoot at me."


    The tension between the two parties grew, as some of the centaurs felt the need tounch their arrows with cold growing increasingly chilly around them. And just when the dam was about to break ¡ª


    "Stop!"


    A voice gave a pause to everything. Eight pairs of eyes turned to see another centaur; he had blond human hair and the body of a palomino horse. He looked younger than the rest of the centaurs.


    "Firenze, what are you doing?" asked the leading centaur.


    "Mercury has left the House of Secrets and has entered the House of Ambitions," said Firenze. "The stars were clearer than everst night. I believe they were showing me something."


    Quinn tilted his head in confusion. If there was one magic that Quinn didn''t understand, that was Divination-sh-Seer magic. He had no aptitude for it. Although he used the stars ands'' positions when he brewed some potions, when he performed alchemy, and when he needed to do some runic interpretations.


    "Have you gone senile, Firenze?!ary movements don''t trouble themselves with actions of worthless humans," yelled the oldest centaur of the group.


    Quinn ignored the rude jab. In a way, living beings had no worth at all, considering the size of the universe.


    "He wants to challenge the cursed mines. As far as I know, no human has ever challenged it. Even we ourselves haven''t dared in decades. This is big enough for the stars to show me something," dered Firenze.


    Quinn stayed silent. This Firenze was making his job easier. He didn''t mind letting him do the job for him.


    "Besides, we can''t harm a child. It''s against our honour."


    lumency came faster than ever and mped on Quinn''s surprise. Donning his Noir transformative suit hadn''t been a fashion statement; he used it to stay hidden, to keep his identity confidential. And now that centaur just revealed his age.


    "Child? I don''t see it," muttered the red-haired centaur and turned to look at Quinn.


    "He has the vitality of a child. Look closer, and you will see it. The sun illuminates him," instructed Firenze. His younger age didn''t make him a lesser Divinator. No. Firenze had a more potent Seer blood running through his body, which gave him a stronger connection to his Sight.


    Three of the seven centaurs found Firenze to be correct and put down their weapons. The rest who weren''t well-versed in Divination followed the others. A centaur''s honour didn''t allow them to hurt a child.


    Firenze gazed at the figure dressed in pitch ck, and even though he couldn''t see the face, much less the eyes, he knew that the human child was looking back at him.


    "I shall guide you to where you want to go. Follow me."


    Quinn stared at Firenze and at the rest of the centaurs for a while before finally stepping forward. The chill that enveloped the area subsided. Though he didn''t drop his vignce, as he exited the circle of centaurs. He moved to Firenze''s side.


    The centaur and the human lead the way. The seven other centaurs followed behind, keeping their distance from the human who had intruded in their home.


    "Why do you desire to enter the cursed ce, human?" asked Firenze. "I never understood why even my kind wanted to go there. So many have lost their lives, saddening their families, just because they wanted to explore the unknown."


    Quinn didn''t reply. He just walked through the forest, asionally snapping the branches, tendrils, and roots that threatened to trip him.


    "Tell me, child. How did you know about the cursed pits? We thought that the pits were the secret of our forest. I wonder how you, a human, know about them."


    The question was returned with silence. Quinn saved in his memory the path they were taking. He didn''t want to interact with the centaur, but he couldn''t concentrate on his task when he could feel Firenze''s intense gaze looking at him from his side.


    "What are you doing, centaur?" Quinn gave Firenze a side look.


    "It''s strange, very strange," muttered Firenze. His eyes stared at Quinn as if looking through him. "There seems to be a haze over your fate. I can''t see through it. I haven''t seen something like this before. . ."


    Quinn''s eyes widened a fraction, and his distorted voice warned, "Stop it, centaur. Stop whatever you''re doing. I don''t want the Sight to be used on me."


    "Why?" asked Friar in surprise. Looking for signs of the future was a part of centaur culture; he couldn''t understand why Quinn would refuse.


    "I and fate don''t get along. I don''t want to hear what she wishes for me. I stay outside of her interventions. Thest thing I want is for her to take notice of me," exined Quinn.


    He didn''t want anyone with the Sight or power of a Seer to tell his fate to him. Quinn feared that someday, a Divinator would make a prophecy about him. That was thest thing Quinn would ever want. He preferred to have freedom instead of knowing something vague about an uncertain future where there was a high chance of him getting involved.


    "We are here," noted Firenze. He pointed out the way with his hand.


    Quinn looked at the ce the centaur''s hand indicated. The ce he stood in was dim by all standards; the canopies did a good job in blocking the majority of the light. It was almost impossible to see whaty ahead. It was too dark. The trees looked darker than ever, and the eerie chill didn''t seem to wee many living beings. It looked like the pitch-ck darkness of the ce seemed to suck in everything, not even letting the light escape.


    "The ones who live inside aren''t kind even to us residents, much less to an outsider like you. Have you made up your mind, young challenger? If you go inside, you might note out."


    "If I go inside, then the ones who live inside might not ever get a chance to get out," said Quinn. His distorted voice and dark attire made it seem like a demon issuing an ultimatum.


    He turned to Firenze, "Don''t bother to wait, centaur. I''ll manage to find my way out." With that, Quinn stepped into the darkness until Firenze couldn''t see him anymore.


    "May the stars be with you, challenger," said Firenze and he walked away.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stood still in the ckness. He was unable to see a single thing around him. But unlike in Tehom''s Delight, he wasn''t able to move unrestrictedly because of the branches, vines, trees in his path.


    ''Unlike in Tehom''s Delight...'' Orbs of light appeared around Quinn. ''... I can light things up.'' The shimmering orbs of light floated away, cycling around Quinn, creating a circle of visibility, illuminating everything within.


    "Much better." He stepped over a now visible over-the-ground root and began his journey to the unknown part of Forbidden Forest.


    Slowly making his way inside, he passed through a maze of beech, oak, pine, sycamore, and yew. Every tree had been tainted with a coal-like tinge. A tinge that matched its surroundings. Even with shimmering magical orbs shedding ethereal light, the surroundings remained bleak and morose.


    The dead in through which Quinn passed quickly came alive as a rustling of leaves began to be heard. Suddenly, a horse-sized, eight-eyed, eight-legged, ck, hairy, gigantic spider leaped toward him from a crouched position. Quinn turned his head back.


    A screech shattered the silence as an acromant smashed against a magic blue crystal shield. The shield caused its skin to scorch, causing the spider to leave the ce screaming.


    ''Knew that it woulde in handy,'' thought Quinn. Not a shield spell he would regrly use as he would normally strike from the distance.


    Click, click, click.


    The spider wasn''t alone; he had brought hispanions along and they didn''t seem to like Quinn, as acromants of various sizes threw themselves against his shield.


    "What in the world?" Quinn''s eyes darted from side to side as his shield was continuously attacked by carelessly lunging acromant bodies.


    Quinn began to worry as he began to see their bodies pierce the shields just before they walked away from the pain of the intense burns.


    "I''m not that tasty," gulped Quinn. His mind was racing among the screams, screeches, and click-ck of pincers.


    "All right, I''ve had enough. Time to go on the offensive."


    Ice started to form around Quinn. Tens of spikes started hovering around him, growing till they were the size of his arms... And then it began. The spikes shot out towards the spiders, nailing them and drawing their blood. Immediately after, another set of ice spikes would appear, and another wave of spears would hit out.


    "I need to get out of here. I''m not equipped for this," sighed Quinn while keeping on shooting out spears towards the horde of spiders. He couldn''t see anything outside his cycling lights, and Quinn couldn''t have that. Right now, he didn''t even have an idea about the number of foes that surrounded him.


    He started to ran while firing ice spikes and pouring magic into the shield. The spiders in the meanwhile were trying to ram him from behind, right, left and above. If it hadn''t been Quinn, they would have been in trouble from the strain of magic consumption. Having to deploy hundreds of ice spears while maintaining a shield would have been like an impossible feat for most wizards.


    "Ah, I can see light," said Quinn. But... "I''m not going to make it out this way... need a little boom-boom." There were just too many spiders in front of him to get out without an explosion, after all.


    Quinn melted the ice and sped his hands together. Suddenly, an orange light started to build up between his palms. Quinn''s eyes remained fixed on his hands, ignoring the fact that the acromant''s pincers wereing dangerously close to him, only being safe because the spiders couldn''t stand the pain of being burned.


    The orange light began to get brighter as the seconds passed. 2... 6... 10... 15 seconds passed before Quinn looked straight ahead and opened his hands. An orange sh covered the entire area. The light was so bright that all the shadows seemed to disappear.


    Even though Quinn couldn''t see, he believed in his magic, so he ran forward. He didn''t meet a single spider in his path. He kept hearing clicks and squeaks in all directions, but his path ahead was clear. With his eyes on the ground, he jumped over arge root. He rolled in the darkness to aparatively brighter part of the Forbidden Forest.


    He did not let go of his shield and immediately prepared himself. Curses with destructive capacity red over his hands, but there was nothing. The spider seemed to have disappeared as if they had never existed.


    Quinn''s breathing becameboured, his eyes alert. But nothing came out. He looked at the violet spell on his left and the maroon spell on his right. He shot them into the darkness.... To no avail... not a sound could be heard.


    "What the hell."


    He hadn''t been injured, but that had been the most overwhelming experience Quinn had ever had.


    Who knew what creatures awaited inside for him. Quinn for sure didn''t know what to expect. What he knew was that if he wanted to achieve his goal, he would''ve to go through their residence. Residents that lived in the dark, ck, and gloom¡­ Residents that lived in the underworld.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Was worried for a second.


    Firenze - Centaur - Strong Seer with a connection to the luminaries.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 139 - Imposter, Delegation, Small Talk

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Just as Quinn had predicted, Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.


    "But... but you said it was illegal, Professor," said Marcus, uncertain, as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving ample clear space in the middle of the room. "You said¡­ that to use it against another human was..."


    "Dumbledore wants you to know what it feels like," answered Moody, his magical eye swiveling on Marcus with an unblinking, eerie stare. "And I''ve already performed it to West. I should go to Azkaban for all we know. It won''t cost me anything to do it again on you.


    However, If you''d rather learn the hard way ¡ªwhen someone''s attacking you¡ª fine. You''re excused. Off you go."


    Marcus hung his head and walked back in defeat. Quinn rested his elbow on his shoulder. "You''re overthinking about it. Rx a little. It will be over before you know it."


    "W-What if he asks me to do something horrible?" asked Marcus, his forehead sweating with anxiety he was feeling.


    "You''ll be fine," said Eddie chiming in. Unlike Marcus, he didn''t seem worried. "Whatever he does, it won''t be worse than you almost fainting and wetting your pants in front of the Banshee Boggart."


    "L-Like you''re any better. Who was the one to clean his bed for a week after seeing a Boggart bing his mum," quipped Marcus.


    Quinn couldn''t help it. A shortugh escaped him despite trying to hold it in. He turned his head away, but Eddie could see Quinn shaking inughter.


    "Oh, shut up!" spat Eddie, his cheeks pink. The Boggart bing his mum had scared him enough to clean up for an entire week.


    The timid and gentle Ravenw seemed to have forgotten his anxiety and worries about being subjected to the Imperius Curse. His shoulders were no longer tense and the pallor of his skin was improving.


    ''I wonder if the Ministry knows about this,'' thought Quinn, wondering whether Dumbledore had informed the Ministry about this teaching method or not. ''Well, I hope the Ministry won''t interfere. He is a good teacher, I guess.''


    Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Quinn watched as, one by one, his ssmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Eddie hopped three times around the room, yelling out the lyrics of his favorite song. Katie Brown imitated a grumpy cat. Marcus performed a series of quite astonishing dance moves he would certainly wouldn''t have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody removed it.


    "West," called out Moody as students walked out at the end of the ss. "Stay back. I want to talk to you."


    Quinn gazed at the imposter before gesturing to Eddie and Marcus to go on without him. "I will catch up to you, guys."


    Eddie and Marcus exchanged looks before nodding and exiting the ssroom with the rest of the students, leaving Quinn and Moody alone in the ssroom. The desks were pushed to the side and Moody was standing in the middle.


    "Yes, Professor. What do you want to talk about?"


    "It''s your fifth year,d. Have you thought about what you want to do in the future? After Hogwarts," asked Moody, his natural eye fixed on Quinn, and surprisingly, the usually restless artificial eye, too.


    "... I want to travel the world, Professor. Learn magic and have new experiences," answered Quinn, his eyes trying to see where this was going.


    "Hmm, have you thought about bing an Auror after Hogwarts?" said Moody, as he took out a silver sk from his waist. He pushed it up against his scarred lips and took a swig.


    "Auror, Professor?"


    "Yes, Auror. We haven''t been doing well on recruitmenttely. We need some new good blood within our ranks. You being able to shrug off the Imperious along with your grades would make you a perfect candidate," spoke Moody, his eyes darting up and down.


    ''Oh ho, he certainly is ying his role,'' thought Quinn. He found it absolutely hrious that a disguised Death Eater was recruiting him to be an Auror.


    "I haven''t thought about being an Auror yet, Professor. From what I have heard, it''s a rewarding job, but other than that, I haven''t given much thought about bing an Auror or a Hit Wizard."


    "What subjects are you going to take next year?" asked ''Moody''. The man seemed to have gotten used to his new Professor upation.


    "All the subjects that I have now. I''m trying to keep my options open," replied Quinn. He was sure he wouldn''t get something below an Outstanding (O).


    "Good, good. Give it a thought. We need wizards like you in the force. You never know when the next Dark Lord wille along," nodded Moody, putting on a face of vignce. "If you ever have any problems, don''t hesitate toe to me. I would love to see you grow to your full potential, West. I see a lot of promise in you."


    "Thank you, professor," nodded Quinn.


    Moody nodded and, without a word, briskly exited the ssroom with his wooden leg making distinctive clunking footsteps going up the corridor.


    "Trying to build connections, eh, Barty," whispered Quinn, smiling. "I''m Quinn West, all professors love me. I''ll y along with you for now."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After finishing their sses, twenty-four students gathered inside a ssroom in the Transfiguration wing of Hogwarts. They sat in different parts of the room and divided themselves into groups. The door opened, and Minerva McGonagall and two students entered the ssroom.


    "Good evening, Prefects. I hope everyone is well," said McGonagall. "Is everybody here? Let''s see, ten... eighteen... twenty-four. Excellent, everyone is present."


    She walked to the Professor''s podium and looked over the four groups and the two students that hade with her; the Head boy and Head girl. They were sitting down in the center of the room.


    "As you all are aware, the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang shall be arriving in a week, and we will need to make them feel weed," said McGonagall, pausing for a second. "As representatives of Hogwarts, you will need, as prefects, to be role models for the entire student body. As such, I expect all of you to be on your best behaviour. Furthermore, make sure that every student follows your lead. It is crucial that we maintain a proper image in the eyes of the delegations. We mustn''t show any unsightly behaviour. Especially in front of them."


    She gave the twenty-six students a no-nonsense look.


    "Am I understood?"


    The student representatives silently nodded. No one was willing to crack a joke in front of McGonagall when she was like this.


    "Excellent," nodded the Deputy Headmistress. "Moving onto the next topic of this meeting. I need volunteers to help out the foreign students during their stay at Hogwarts. Your responsibility will include: to be an intermediary between them and our students, to answer any questions they have, to guide them through Hogwarts until they are used to the castle, to cater to their needs, and to solve any problems that might arise between them and us."


    McGonagall, who was looking at the parchment on the podium, didn''t notice that every prefect was giving a discreet nce to one person in the room.


    "Any volunteers?" asked McGonagall, looking up from the podium.


    A few hands raised in response. All of them were curious about the foreign students, but only a few were confident enough to deal with the responsibilities.


    "Good," nodded McGonagall, smiling at the number of raised hands. "Before I assign you into two groups, I want to know if any of you speak either French or Russian or both."


    A seventh-year Slytherin girl Prefect that was sitting with the Slytherin group raised her hand.


    "Ms. Parlet, whichnguage do you speak?" asked McGonagall.


    "I have a question, Professor," said Parlet, lowering her hand. "I understand that Beauxbatons is in France, but Durmstrang''s location is unknown. As the students speak Russian, does that mean Durmstrang is in Russia?"


    "No, Ms. Parlet. The location of Durmstrang is still unknown. Russian is thenguage requirement if you want to attend Durmstrang. Studentsmunicate and learn in Russian. It''s their lingua franca, so to speak. Whether Durmstrang is in Russia or not? That we don''t know."


    "It''s in Norway," came a voice from the Ravenw group of Prefects.


    Every pair of eyes in the room, without exception, turned to the voice.


    "Mr. West¡­ why do you say so." asked McGonagall, sighing. She knew she wouldn''t be able to move on without listening to the answer.


    The fifth-year boy Prefect, Quinn West, sitting smack in the middle of the Ravenw group, spoke up.


    "I believe we should start with the coat of arms in order to figure out the location of this school of magic," The tone of voice and pace of words grabbed the attention of everyone. "There''s a double-headed eagle in the Durmstrang coat of arms. And this eagle was the symbol of the Byzantine Empire. Afterwards, Albania, Austria, Germany, Greece, Russia, Serbia took it, too. Another thing we can see is an onion dome which is associated with the architecture of the orthodox church in eastern Europe. Furthermore, the word ''Durmstrang'' is written in Latin and Cyrillic alphabet."


    Almost everyone in the room except Quinn blinked when he started toy down some history. Some of them, who noticed Quinn''s neutral expression, started to wonder whether this was consideredmon knowledge or not. It didn''t seem so to them, at least.


    "Even though we don''t know the precise location of Durmstrang, a lot of people have tried to locate the school. From all that effort, we have found with hundred percent certainty that the school is in the north of Scandinavia. That much we already know," quoted Quinn, some knowledge he had gathered. "Given that they will be arriving by ship, we can deduce -"


    "Mr. West, how do you know the Durmstrang delegation will be arriving by ship?" asked McGonagall, as she had yet to reveal that piece of information.


    "- I have my sources, Professor," answered Quinn offhandedly. "Where was I? Ah, yes. As they will being by ship and the fact that the Great Lake is connected to the ocean with waterways, we can assume that the school is near a water body like a sea or an ocean."


    The Prefects and the Head pair looked at each other with questions in their eyes. The Great Lake was connected to an ocean? They didn''t know that. McGonagall, who noticed the looks, sighed inwardly. This information wasn''t restricted so to speak, but it had been kept secret. This had gotten to the point that, aside from a few students, no one knew about that.


    "If we put this information together, I can say with reasonable certainty that Durmstrang is in Svalbard, which is a Norwegian archipgo in the Arctic Ocean. Everything fits. The archipgo was discovered the same century the school was founded. Moreover, for centuries it had been part of the Russian Empire. That is, until the 1920s, when it became Norway''s. The poption is partially Norwegian and partially Russian, which exins the cultural hints in the symbols of school. And thends there¡ª there are mountains andkes! Also, thesends are almost not popted by muggles, which makes it a great ce to hide a school of magic."


    There were no words spoken after Quinn finished, and except a few short ps from the Hufflepuff group, the room was silent for a moment.


    "... Mr. West, do you know how to speak Russian?" asked McGonagall.


    "Hmm? Ah, no, Professor, I can''t speak Russian," replied Quinn; he wasn''t acquainted with Eastern vguages.


    McGonagall held back a sigh and took a moment for herself. While the history and theory were fascinating, it wasn''t the time for it. The deputy had a lot on her te, and she needed to finish this meeting quickly so that she could move on.


    "Let''s get back to the topic. Is there anyone who can speak either French or Russian?"


    One arm raised from the crowd, and McGonagall once again held back a sigh, "Yes, Mr. West. What is it?"


    "I can speak French, Professor."


    "... You can?" asked McGonagall, taken aback.


    "Yes, Professor. I''m half French from my mother''s side," answered Quinn. "I can speak French with near-native fluency. I can also speak Latin and Italian at a level where I can hold a conversation with a native without any problems. I''m getting Spanish to that level. Just need a little work on it; I need a speaking partner to get some practice. Finally, I added Portuguese to my repertoirest year, but I find speaking it hard. I will probably be fluent by next year."


    The romancenguages were thenguages that had evolved from vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries. The six most spoken romancenguages were Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catn. Quinn had learned French from his grandfather. Latin on his own because a lot of his books in his library were in Latin. In regards to Italian, he had practiced it together with Lia because their mother spoke it. Finally, he had picked up Spanish and Portuguese because all the Romancenguages were quite easy to learn if you knew Latin. As he learned more and more romancenguages, it got progressively easier for Quinn to pick them up.


    "That''s great!" said McGonagall, lethargy disappearing from her face in an instant. "Mr. West, you will be a part of the French group. Please make sure that they don''t have any problem."


    Quinn took out an A.I.D. card from his pocket, held it with his finger, and with a flick of his wrist, the ck card went flying across the room, arching beautifully in mid-air before gracefullynding on the Professor''s Podium.


    "Way ahead of you, Professor."


    McGonagall picked up the card. It was the familiar ck card with golden text, but her eyes widened a fraction when she noticed thenguage. It wasn''t English.


    "This is..."


    "French, Professor," said Quinn. "The Russian cards will arrive here by the end of the week. As I said, I''m not fluent in Russian, so I had to ask a Russian trantor to trante the text. The Russians cards will arrive here before the delegations, so we''re good."


    "I-I see..." said McGonagall. She could almost see it. French and Russian students taking the modified cards and finding the A.I.D. office to solve their problems. "... Mr. West, you... you aren''t going to charge them, right?"


    Quinn smiled, "If they ask me something that enters in the role of being a Prefect, then no. If they ask the owner of the A.I.D. I''m sure we can work something out. It''s just a matter of the services they require, Professor."


    "Please make sure to inform them, would you, Mr. West. I don''t wantints from their side," said McGonagall.


    "Of course, Professor. Always absolute professionalism."


    The meeting ended after McGonagall divided the Prefects into groups. The French delegation with Quinn in it would be led by the Head Girl from Hufflepuff. They had a small meet of their own, before the Prefects would be free for the day, except their routine patrolling.


    Quinn was getting out of the Transfiguration wing making his way to his office when his name. He turned to see Cedric Diggory jogging his way towards him.


    "Diggory, what can I do for you?" asked Quinn. He and Cedric were acquainted well enough for him to talk to Cedric twice or thrice a week.


    "I was going to the fourth floor and wondered if you would walk with me," said Cedric, his patient calm, yet charming smile on his face.


    "Of course. There is no need to ask," replied Quinn as Cedric fell into step with him. "So I heard you''re going to participate in the tournament."


    Cedric was in his sixth year, but since his birthday was after September, he joined a yearter and was already of age, making the Hufflepuff seeker eligible to participate in the Triwizard Tournament.


    "Wha-! How did you know? I haven''t..." asked Cedric, genuinely feeling shocked that Quinn knew about his decision.


    "I''ve my ways, Mr. Diggory," said Quinn with a hint of a smile on his face. "Have you thought it through? From what I''ve found out, the tournament is going to be dangerous. Are you confident in your abilities?"


    Cedric recovered from his shock and nodded with confidence. His bodynguage was screaming that there was no doubt about his participation.


    "Yeah, I''m sure."


    "Hmm¡­ Well, right now, all I can do is to wish you luck. The chances are strong though," said Quinn. He took out an A.I.D. card and held it in front of the Hufflepuff.


    Cedric was about to politely refuse ¡ªas he already had a card with him¡ª but then he saw that it had a new design, so he took it.


    "If you ever need anything, anytime, contact me, and I will sort it out," said Quinn as he joined his hands behind his back. "If you get selected as the champion, then you''ll get a massive discount. I would help you out at dirt cheap prices. Practically free, I say."


    Cedric grinned at those words. He had been to A.I.D. a couple times, and not once he had been disappointed. "I will probablye to practice my spells against you. Who knows, maybe I''ll win."


    Quinughed at the statement. Cedric was talented and knew his magic, but his chances were infinitely low in front of him. "Let''s keep them private. I don''t want my record to be tainted. Need to keep it at sixty-nine, can''t have it go to seventy, can I?"


    The sixty-nine streak had been paused because of his Lust-infected brain, but Quinn was trying to get over it now.


    If Cedric knew the significance of it, then he didn''t show it and simply nodded. They separated on the fourth floor, with Quinn climbing up to the fifth floor.


    ''I need to keep an eye on him,'' thought Quinn. The events had changed, and Quinn was sure that what happened in the books wouldn''t happen. But... ''There''s no harm in keeping an eye out for all of them,'' thought Quinn; he was going to be very observant this year.


    He needed to be.


    There was only one week until all parties arrived at Hogwarts.


    The clock was ticking.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Romancenguage enthusiast.


    stor Moody - Barty Crouch Jr. - Has his own ns.


    Minerva McGonagall - Deputy Headmaster - The busiest she had been in Decades.


    Cedric Diggory - Hufflepuff - Champion candidate, prefect.


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    -*-*-*-*-*


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 140 - Tournament Preparation, Consultation

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    The next day, notices were drafted and put up on the notice boards in themon rooms and the ces that had high activity for students to see.


    .


    [


    >>>> ABOUT THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT <<<<


    The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive at 6 o''clock on Friday, 13th October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in the Great Hall to greet our guests.


    Participation is mandatory. Absence from the Feast or any unsightly behaviour will have consequences.


    ]


    .


    "Brilliant!" said Eddie. "I''ll have Care on Friday. I''m seriously thinking about dropping the subject. I like Hagrid, but the man just demands too much." Eddie sighed. He was thinking about how much time he had had to spend observing and handling magical creatures to write his reports.


    "The 30th, that''s less than a week away. I can''t believe we''ll be sharing sses with two other schools." Marcus spoke, his eyes still looking over the notice, memorizing the spellings of the school names.


    "Uh-huh... more customers," smiled Quinn. "Luna, we have to be prepared for them. Today we''ll be going through the changes we''ll make to amodate them."


    "Okay, I''ll bring pudding," nodded Luna. "I hope they don''t bring Nargles in. It would be a pity for the Nargles to return; they haven''t done so sincest year."


    The three boys exchanged nces, nodding in recognition. They knew what Luna meant when she said Nargles. Sincest Christmas, they had been making sure no one made fun of Luna, but they hadn''t been sure hundred percent because Luna never told them anything, so hearing that the ''Nargles'' had disappeared from her life was confirmation that she wasn''t having any problems.


    "They won''t, Luna," said Marcus, smiling gently. "Your Nargle-repent items must have finally worked."


    The appearance of the notices around the castle had a profound effect upon its inhabitants. The Triwizard Tournament seemed the only topic discussed in the following week. Lots of rumors started to spread from student to student as if they were a highly contagious virus; who was going to apply for the Hogwarts champion, what the tournament would ask for, how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would differ from each other, etc.


    Quinn noticed, too, that the castle seemed to be undergoing an extra-thorough cleaning. Several grimy portraits had been scrubbed, much to the displeasure of their subjects, who sat huddled in their frames muttering darkly and wincing as if they had raw pink faces. All armour started to gleam and move without needing to hear squeaking noises. Argus Filch, the caretaker, was so ferocious to any students who forgot to wipe their shoes that he terrified a pair of first-year girls into hysterics.


    Other members of the staff seemed oddly tense too.


    After a stressful and challenging ss, McGonagall could be heard reprimanding Neville about his dismal magical skills ¡ªhe had knitted cactuses on his ears¡ª and begging him not to show this to the delegations. Flitwick, who had used a stack of books to make himself taller so that he could see above the podium while teaching, would fall down multiple times a day. Sprout almost had a killyshoot weed breakout in one of her greenhouses, which nearly reached the other greenhouses in a single night and came dangerously close to destroying other produce. Snape would be more snappy at the students, which, in consequence, would make their lives a little bit miserable every second both inside and outside his ssroom.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    However, Quinn wasn''t worried about it. The tensions that grew between Prefects and Professors didn''t affect him. He was used to dealing with multiple different people everyday and knew thenguage of the people he was going to handle. There were cultural differences that he would need to look out for, but other than that, Quinn was all set up for the job.


    Quinn went on his day without change. He had a lot of work to do, and one day only had twenty-four hours in it.


    Currently, he stood in front of a raised table deck, his eyes focused on the task in front of him. On the table sat a wooden quad-stand, and atop of that stand was fixed a tri-wed gripper. His hands were by the sides of the stand. From his fingertips, a pulsating red sphere with magical yellow threads moved into the gripper.


    "Test #41," said Quinn, and a fountain pen scribbled Quinn''s words.


    The yellow threads of magic glowed intensely as Quinn poured in the magic. The red sphere began to change, with veins appearing all over the sphere. Quinn''s face brightened as he saw positive progress, but his joy was a bit too early as the red sphere began to squirm and wriggle before the sphere turned into a blob of goo and dripped on the stand.


    "For the love of -!" groaned Quinn and waved an irritated hand over the mess for it to vanish as if it was never there.


    With a face that seemed as if he had sucked on a sour lemon, Quinn said, "Result failure,ption failed. Reverting the process back by ten stages to Test #31." Quinn had made a development decision on Test #31, which was supposed toe together on Test #41, but he had being wrong, as Test #41 had shown.


    "Ugh, back to the drawing board." With another wave, potion vials, beakers, burners, herbs, preservation jars, among other things, flew across the room to their respective ces.


    A paper slid across the table, and with a fountain pen that Quinn had grabbed out of the air, Quinn started to write out some notes. He did as such whenever he made some progress or to correct something.


    *Ding, ding* Quinn heard the familiar charm his office had. A customer had arrived. He cleaned up and walked out to greet the student-in-need. He found...


    "Ms. Granger," he said, before turning to herpanion, the redhead, green-eyed girl. "... Ivy." The think tank of the Golden Squad was standing in his office. Something he hadn''t been expecting anytime soon. Not after the memories associated with this office in particr.


    "How may I help you,dies?" he said as he sat down. He invited them to sit down as well. The duo wasted no time in doing so.


    Quinn expected them to start right off the bat, but they didn''t. After a little while, he noticed their expressions and the general vibe that was between the two best friends.


    "Did you two fight or something?" asked Quinn, noticing that the two faces were facing slightly away from each other and the light crease between their brows.


    "She''s being stubborn," said Ivy, giving Hermione a subtle side look.


    "She''s being archaic," said Hermione, full-on ring at Ivy.


    "Huh, that is... interesting," said Quinn, humming. A fight between the inseparable power duo? Not something you could see every day. "... what I don''t understand is why are you two here? Don''t get me wrong, I''ll be happy to solve your conflict, but you know..."


    "We are here so that you can stamp some sense in her head," said Hermione with a tinge of viciousness.


    "Not from where I''m sitting. You''re the wrong one here," spat Ivy. She said that with such fury that it seemed Hermione was an offending stranger.


    "Hoho, I see, tell me, then. What''s the issue here? I would love to help," said Quinn. The two girls were so busy ring at each other that they didn''t hear theugh in Quinn''s voice and the glitter in his eyes.


    "House-elves!" eximed Hermione with some heat. "There are house-elves at Hogwarts and not some, but hundreds of them! Did you know about this?"


    Quinn blinked his eyes, and he immediately understood what they were fighting about. He had never been so fast in deducing something. He was very familiar with what was going to follow.


    "Yes, Ms. Granger, I''m aware of the presence of house-elves in the castle," said Quinn; he regrly met them when he dropped by the kitchen.


    "Then you must know that they don''t get paid! Or get holidays! They have never heard about sick leaves or pensions! They. Are. Being. Treated. As. ves! Besides, there is not a single mention of them in Hogwarts: A History! What is this!" This was the first time Quinn had heard as much passion from the top scorer of her year and, if he was honest, he was a little surprised by its intensity, even though he knew it wasing.


    "See?" scoffed Ivy jutting her chin towards Hermione with her arms folded, a derisive smile on her face. "Hear the nonsense she''s spouting? This idiot has no idea what she''s talking about."


    ''Daamn~!!!'' thought Quinn. He was enjoying this a bit too much.


    He turned to Hermione and asked her a question, "Ms. Granger, may I ask why you came here? You know that I''m a pureblood who has been born and brought up in a magical household andmunity."


    "-I¡­! I-I didn''t think of that," replied Hermione. For a moment, it looked like she would be able to restrain her anger a bit. She nced at Ivy and saw her smirking and that... brought the frustration and anger back.


    "You could''ve simply gone to Professor Potter. She is a first-generation witch just like you but, unlike you, she has been a part of the magicalmunity for way longer," said Quinn.


    "She''s too busy with the tournament preparations. We decided not to disturb her," exined Ivy.


    "I see, let me ask you something, Ivy. Why do you think it''s alright for the house-elves to work under these conditions?"


    Ivy shrugged in answer, "They obviously like to do work. I haven''t met a single house-elf who doesn''t like to work, so why take it away from them." To Ivy Potter or any person who had grown up in the magicalmunity, the existence of house-elves wasmon sense.


    "Look what she''s saying! As they like to work, let them work. They are obviously brainwashed for who knows how long, and now all of them feel like their current situation is something normal," said Hermione.


    "Okay, I understand the crux of the matter and what seems to be the problem," said Quinn, nodding. "I understand both of your positions. Your background and upbringing are the reason behind your thoughts. However, unfortunately, none of you are right, I''m afraid."


    Their arguments had no logical or solid reasoning behind them.


    "I guess I''ll have to exin to you why house-elves behave as they do. I hope that by the end of my exnation, both of you will have a level of understanding behind house-elf behaviour," said Quinn.


    "House-elves are magical beings. In fact, on average, they use more magic than we humans do every single day¡­ Unfortunately, they don''t possess magic of their own."


    The expression of surprise and confusion was evident on both of their faces. Ivy, because she hadn''t been taught that fact, and Hermione¡­ Well, she knew through books that house-elves used magic to perform household tasks, so she didn''t clearly understand what Quinn meant.


    "They don''t require a focus to perform magic because their internal focus is potent enough for them to perform a wide range of magic but, in exchange for that versatility and magic conduction, they lose out on the internal source of magic. If we, humans, didn''t have our intelligence, we wouldn''t be the dominating magical race on the; we don''t have that naturally potent internal focus that so many other races have."


    Like their non-magical counterparts, magical humans'' intelligence was why they could be the top race capable of hunting more powerful races like Dragons, Nundus, Thunderbirds, among many other powerful races.


    "Unlike us, who have a magical core in our bodies, house-elvesck that. They can perform magic, but they aren''t able to garner it¡­ but nature and evolution granted them a way to gain magic. They evolved with the ability to draw magic from an external source," smiled Quinn, thinking about the wonders of magic and magical creatures. "The source? A few races werepatible with them, humans being one of those races. And because humans popted the earth more than any otherpatible races, house-elves gravitated towards humans."


    "They have the ability to use magic in return to ve-like life, that doesn''t sound like a fair deal to me," argued Hermione.


    "To us humans? Yes, that isn''t a fair deal, but house-elves aren''t humans. Magic shares a deeper connection to them than to us. They need to perform magic to feel free; without it, they feel restricted, their existence bound. Their life without magic isn''t great at all."


    In some cultures, house-elf blood was used as focus cores because of their potent internal focus core. It wasn''t used in any of the wand-using countries because of the image house-elfs had, but a few countries had no qualms using house-elf blood.


    "In some ways, you''re both correct," said Quinn to both of the girls. "House-elves don''t have to serve to use their magic, but after being under the rule of humans for generations, they have eventually understood that if they took care of their houses, then humans would give them magic. Repeat that for centuries, and you''ll get a race that has servitude as a normal part of their lives; they have epted it and crave for it because their instincts tell them that this will get them magic. I guess, ''brainwashing'' might not be the correct term, but it''s close. They enjoy work because it allows them to use magic, and if they do their job correctly, humans will be happy and thus they''ll keep getting magic."


    "Polly!" he called, and with a pop, there was a house-elf standing on the table.


    "Why little master call me?"


    Ivy and Hermione watched with interest and surprise at the house-elf that stood on the table. They had seen house-elves, but this one was different from the others. She wasn''t dressed from a dirty pillowcase or rags but in a clean toga. She had a simple crest of crossed wands, with a galleon on the intersection and behind that was a peacock with its plume spread.


    Magic, money, and wisdom.


    "This is Polly, the West family house-elf. She''s part of the family. I wouldn''t be able to imagine a day where she isn''t family," said Quinn.


    Polly turned to see two girls sitting in the chairs, and then looked at the table. "Little master had guestys and gave no tea? Missy Rosey no be happy."


    "It''s fine, Polly; they''ll be leaving in a bit," smiled Quinn before turning to the girls. "The problem isn''t servitude. It''s the way humans treat house-elves. You don''t need to free them because their lives would be miserable if you do that. What you need to do is change the way they are treated."


    He turned to Polly and asked, "Who are you bound to, Polly?"


    "Little master''s father''s fathers."


    "And has grandfather ever mistreated you?"


    "No, the big master is good."


    Quinn turned back to the girls and continued, "Polly is family. Yes, she does most of the housework, but that''s because it''s her life. We don''t stop her from doing things essential to her life. She has her own interests. Polly likes to learn new recipes, new ways to clean the house¡­ she likes to find paints that go well with each other, and myriads of other things. She is her own individual, and we respect that... Nothing special, just basic humane treatment."


    "Little master need Polly?" asked Polly, looking impatient.


    "... No, Polly, I just wanted to prove a point."


    "Okay, Polly go now. Polly busy." And then she popped away without another word.


    "I have a question," said Ivy, unfolding her hands. She leant forward.


    "Ask away."


    "Are all house-elves here connected to the Headmaster?"


    "Oh, no," said Quinn, shaking his head with a small smile. "One hundred and thirty-seven house-elves would bee too much of a load for one person. The house-elves are connected to the castle; they are connected to Hogwarts."


    Hermione raised her hand in question, "But you said..."


    "Hogwarts is a special ce, Ms. Granger," said Quinn. "It is filled with us students, and that has changed its nature to a mystical one. I haven''t found the reason yet, but house-elves arepatible with Hogwarts."


    Hermione and Ivy stayed silent for a moment.


    Quinn didn''t disturb them but took out two half-slips of paper and started writing on them.


    "Thanks for exining... I would have gone down a different path if I didn''t know this," said Hermione.


    "I know," chuckled Quinn. He slid two half-slips across the table. They stopped when they were before the girls. "This is for the both of you."


    The girls picked one slip each and looked at them with confusion. On the paper, they saw a charge of three galleons for a consultation session.


    "Apologies if I assume wrong, but I split the bill," smiled Quinn and looked at them.


    Ivy looked up from her bill. She said with an expression of disbelief,


    "You are rich!"


    "I know," nodded Quinn. "Believe it or not, the rich care more about money than the poor¡­ Now, pay up."


    Their meeting ended with Quinn smiling at the sound of galleons hitting his table.


    "Happy to be of service."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Cough up the money,ssies.


    Polly - House-elf - Little master can be silly. Wasting Polly''s time.


    Ivy Potter - Red cat - Short 3 galleons, but made up with Hermione.


    Hermione Granger - Brte Cat - Short 3 galleons, but made up with Ivy.


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 Chapter 141 - Arrival Of Delegations

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    When the students came down for breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, they found that the Great Dining Hall had been decorated overnight. Huge silk banners hung on the walls, each representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenw, yellow with a ck badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver snake for Slytherin. Behind the teachers'' Head Table was the most prominent banner of all, the Hogwarts banner; a lion, eagle, badger and snake joined together by arge letter H.


    There was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air. Nobody (professors included) was very attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang that evening; even the students who had Potions found it more bearable than usual, as Snape was quieter than usual. The bell rang early, and the entire student body went to their dormitories, deposited their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back downstairs to the Great Hall.


    Each Head of House was ordering their students to sit.


    "Sit down, children!" shouted Flitwich with his squeaky voice. At that moment, it held a lot of power. "Remain in your seats and don''t move around. You can do whatever you want after, but right now I want discipline...! Carmichael! Get down from the table and sit on the bench!"


    The squeaky yell almost made Eddie fall from the table. He stumbled around as he rushed to sit back on the bench.


    "Ms. Lovegood, please remove that dragon hat from your head," sighed Flitwick. "Yes, yes, I know you want to represent the school. Right now, you need to sit down like a good student. Yes, thank you... you know what? Please, give me that hat. I will return it to you after the feast."


    He took the headwear that had the shape of a dragon from Luna, shrinking it down so he could pocket it.


    "Mr. Belby... If I see your hands moving towards your mouth¡­ If I see you chewing, swallowing, or eating anything in general, I''ll deprive you of your sense of taste and smell for an entire week. Put that candy down and clean the table! Don''t try your chances, it won''t go well."


    The threat caused the table to be cleaned faster than what any house-elf could ever aplish. Within seconds, the candy pack disappeared, and the table was sparkling clean.


    "Prefects!" called out the half-goblin half-human Professor. "Follow me, please. It''s time."


    "See you guys in a bit," said Quinn smiling to his friends, who all had been reprimanded by Flitwick.


    The Prefects, the Head Boy and Girl, every Head of House, and Dumbledore came down the steps and lined up in front of the castle.


    It was a cool, clear evening; twilight was peeking over the horizon, and a pale, translucent moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Quinn stood with the Ravenws prefects, and as prescribed, he took his ce at the front with the fifth year prefects, just behind the Headmasters and the faculty.


    They were watching excitingly the darkening grounds, but nothing was moving yet; everything was still, silent, and quiet as usual. The students started to feel cold. They wished the delegation would hurry up... Maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance¡­ There was a tendency among the magical kind to show off when gathering in groups.


    Quinn, too, wanted them to hurry up, he wasfortable in the cold, but he wasn''t okay with boredom. Standing there doing nothing wasn''t his style. He couldn''t take out a book to read because Flitwick would yell at him, and he couldn''t mess with magic because... Flitwick would yell at him.


    Suddenly, Dumbledore called out from the back row where he was standing with the other teachers. "Aha! Unless I am mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"


    "Where are they?" asked a sixth-year Hufflepuff Prefect, looking eagerly in various directions.


    "There!" said the Head Boy, pointing over the forest.


    Somethingrge, muchrger than a broomstick¡ª or, perhaps, a hundred broomsticks¡ª was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growingrger.


    "It''s a dragon!" shrieked one of the Gryffindors.


    "Don''t be stupid... it''s a flying house!" said a Slytherin.


    The Slytherin''s guess was closer... As the gigantic ck shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights that shone from the castle windows lit the shape up, they saw a massive, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of arge house, soaring toward them. The carriage was flying thanks to a dozen Abraxan winged horses, each the size of an elephant.


    The Hogwarts professors drew backward, as the carriage hurtled ever lower,ing in tond at a tremendous speed. Then, with an almighty crash that made Flitwick jump back onto Snape''s foot, the horses'' hooves, wider than dinner tes, hit the ground. A secondter, the carriagended too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolledrge, fiery-red eyes.


    ''Elephantine palomino Abraxan winged horses,'' noted Quinn. He had just the time to see that the carriage door bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened.


    A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully.


    Then they saw a shining, high-heeled ck shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage ¡ªa shoe the size of a child''s sled¡ª followed, almost immediately, by thergest woman he had ever seen in his life. The enormous size of the carriage and the horses was immediately exined. A few people gasped.


    Lots had only ever seen one person asrge as this woman in his life, and that was the gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures Hagrid; and they doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow ¡ªmaybe simply because they were used to Hagrid¡ª this woman (she was on the ground, now) seemed even more unnaturallyrge.


    As she stepped into the lighting from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face,rge, ck, liquid-looking eyes, and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in ck satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.


    Quinn and Dumbledore started to p; following their lead, the others broke into apuse too, a few of them craning their necks to get a better look at this woman.


    Her face rxed into a gracious smile. She walked towards Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, and barely bent to kiss it.


    "My dear Madame Maxime," said Dumbledore. "Wee to Hogwarts."


    "Dumbly-dorr," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I hope you are well?"


    "Excellent as always, thank you," he said.


    "My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.


    Quinn, whose attention had been focused entirely upon Madame Maxime, now noticed there were about a dozen boys and girls in theirte teens. They emerged from the carriage and were standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what Quinn could see (they were standing in Madame Maxime''s enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.


    "Has Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.


    "He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him, or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a bit?"


    "Warm-up, I think," said Madame Maxime in ented English. "But the horses ¡ª"


    "I believe our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said Dumbledore, "he''ll take care of the horses when he finishes dealing with a situation he has with other ¡ªer¡ª of his charges."


    "Skrewts," supplied Sprout.


    "My steeds require... forceful handling," said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted that any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. "They are very strong..."


    "I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," said Dumbledore, smiling.


    "Very well," said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "Would you please inform Hagrid that the horses drink only single-malt whiskey?"


    "I shall inform him," said Dumbledore, also bowing. "One of our students will escort you inside."


    McGonagall turned towards the Ravenw group and spoke, "Mr. West, please escort the Beauxbatons delegation into the castle."


    "Yes, Professor," said Quinn and stepped out of the group towards the French delegation.


    "Bonsoir," said Quinn with a smile. He continued to speak in French. "Please follow me. I will lead you to the castle."


    The sudden fluent French from a Hogwarts student surprised the Beauxbatons group, but they didn''t have time to react, as Quinn turned and started to walk. They could only exchange looks and follow him.


    "Thank you for traveling all this way. I''m sure it wasn''t an easy journey," said Quinn as he took out his fake wand and pointed it up while casting magic. The Beauxbatons students suddenly felt the cold leave as warmth enveloped them.


    "Your French is excellent," said Maxine, looking at Quinn with interest.


    "Thank you for thepliment, ma''am," smiled Quinn as the group climbed up the stairs to the entrance hall. "My grandmother was French. I have been taught thenguage since I was young."


    The group entered the hall, and the surroundings were illuminated by the light in the hall. As he was requested, Quinn stopped in the middle of the hall and turned towards the Beauxbatons group.


    "We will enter the hall when the Durmstrang delegation arrives," informed Quinn. "Until then, please make yourselvesfortable, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me questions. I will try my best to answer all of your queries."


    "What is your name, child?" asked Maxine; looking down from her towering height, there was a look in her eyes.


    "Oh, my, how forgetful of me," he said and, with a smile, introduced himself. "My name is Quinn. I''m a fifth-year student here at Hogwarts."


    Maxime continued to look at Quinn for a few seconds. "You are a West, aren''t you?"


    Quinn held the twitch in his eye and a click in his tongue. While he never hid his name from anyone in Hogwarts, he never had wanted anyone to know his real background. It was convenient that not a lot of people knew about the Wests. Besides, he only bothered to interact with people whom he got along with, such as the Greengrass sisters, the Potter twins, or the faculty. He didn''t try to get close to others who he didn''t like; for instance, Draco Malfoy.


    To him, it would be tremendously annoying if people realised his family background. Bugs would start to wander around, trying to please him because of his family wealth. To his luck, his background had been able to remain mostly anonymous. He had, for a reason, not given his family name to Olympe Maxime.


    "What gave it away?" asked Quinn.


    "Your eyes, little one," answered Maxine. "Your sister has the same eyes as you. And child... you remind me too much of George West. You know, I was disappointed when I got your rejection letter. I wish you had attended Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts."


    "I''m sure I would''ve loved it," spoke Quinn.


    The conversation ended there. Quinn looked over towards the students and saw them looking towards him.


    He smiled and initiated a conversation, "Hello, how are you all? Are you excited about your being in Hogwarts?"


    One of the Beauxbatons boys nodded with a friendly smile, "Yes, it will be a unique experience, I''m sure."


    "Are all of you going to enter your names for the tournament?"


    "Yes, we went through a selection process; the fifteen of us have been selected as champion candidates," said thete-teen proud of himself. The rest, too, held some level of proud expressions.


    "Well, congrattions for being the best," said Quinn. "As I said, if you have any questions, I''ll always be there. If you have any problems that you need to solve, feel free to contact me."


    After saying that, Quinn took out a thin stack of French A.I.D. cards and handed them one card each.


    "These cards have a map that will lead you to my office," he said, and the Beauxbatons students saw a small square with an arrow pointing towards a direction. "If you follow the arrow, you''ll arrive somewhere where you''ll have solutions to all of your problems."


    Quinn got to thest student. He looked at the girl in front of him.


    ''Beautiful,'' was the first thing Quinn thought.


    She was tall and willowy, with an air of grace that made her seem like she was a princess in an ivory pce. Her very presence seemed to emanate a faint, silvery glow. She had long, silvery-blonde hair that fell almost to her waist. She had shining, deep blue eyes, fair skin, and very white, even teeth. All about the girl in front of him was breathtakingly beautiful.


    Quinn immediately knew who she was, but as he handed her the card, he asked, "May I know your name?"


    The question brought smiles to a few Beauxbatons students, while others didn''t look so happy. They knew what was happening, and to some it was amusing, but to others, it wasn''t, because they didn''t want to be in Quinn''s ce when everything ended.


    The girl grasped the card with her dainty gloved hand, and with a smile that screamed pride, self-confidence, haughtiness... and a sense of superiority. She introduced herself.


    "Fleur Dcour."


    Quinn nodded, and with the card out of his hand, he walked away without any further words. The sudden leave stunned Fleur, and her eyes followed Quinn with a surprised expression. Beauxbatons students were also rendered stunned as they were expecting apletely opposite reaction. Maxime, too, looked at Quinn with interest in her eyes, although her expression betrayed nothing.


    ''So that''s how it feels, huh,'' thought Quinn as he walked. ''Ves and their allure can be dangerous... uh-huh, yes they are.''


    The second heid his eyes on her, he realised what an absolute beauty Fleur Dcour was. She was at the level that she would be able to turn a hundred out of a hundred heads when passing by, but when he stood face-to-face, the French Ve transcended all levels of beauty that Quinn had ever witnessed.


    Quinn had felt his heart quicken just a notch. His pupils dted, as if he couldn''t take his eyes off her. The allure washed over him, doing what it did best, enhancing her natural beauty to an enchanting level. But, then, his magic kicked in; it felt the foreign magic, recognized the effects, and finally, the will be had honed through cold, pain, suffering, and turbulent waters took care of it. Even without her Ve allure, Fleur was an absolute beauty; nevertheless, not on a level that Quinn would turn into a blubbering fool.


    "It seems the Durmstrang delegation is here," said Quinn, turning the Beauxbatons delegation''s eyes away from him towards the hall''s entrance. They saw Dumbledore walk in with a tall and thin, white haired man with a goatee (that finished in a slight curl). Behind them were the Head of Houses, Hogwarts students, and around a dozen Durmstrang students dressed in some shaggy, matted fur cloaks.


    "Madame Maxime. It has been a long time since ourst meeting," smiled the man who led the Durmstrang students, but his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd.


    "Karkaroff," nodded Maxime. She didn''t return the smile. She didn''t like the Durmstrang headmaster and had no desire to hide that behind a fake, polite smile.


    "We should hurry and move inside. I''m sure all students are starving and would like to enjoy a hot meal," said Dumbledore, but from the looks of it, he was only speaking to the Hogwarts group.


    McGonagall walked towards Quinn. She took him a step away from everyone else. "Mr. West, please coordinate the delegation''s entrance. Allow them entry only when you hear the headmaster introduce them."


    "Yes, Professor, I will make sure that everything will be seamless."


    The Hogwarts Professor and the Hogwarts students moved to the Great Hall from a side entrance, leaving behind the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegation alone in a tense silence. Maxime and Karkaroff ignored each other and talked to their students about how they had to enter.


    "If I may get everybody''s attention," called out Quinn clear and loud, breaking their talks and bringing all pairs of eyes on him.


    He retrieved what looked like a ck earbud from his pocket and plugged it in his right ear. "Inside, Headmaster Dumbledore will be introducing your entry to the students. The moment he''ll utter your name will be the moment you will have to enter-" he pointed at the massive gate. "-that massive gate to the Great Hall."


    "I will be coordinating the operation, so when I give you the signal, please move in immediately and showcase the show of magic you have prepared," said Quinn. Both delegations wanted to make a strong impression on the Hogwarts students. Besides, magicals loved to show off, so they had prepared coordinated magic performances to aplish that.


    "Beauxbatons will enter first, followed by Durmstrang," notified Quinn and then looked at Beauxbatons. He told them to get ready.


    After giving them instructions, Quinn tapped an earbud in his ear. Inside the Great Hall, Dumbledore was standing behind a podium as he addressed the students. If one looked closely on that podium''s front side, one would see a small, square metallic chip that was stuck to the podium''s front. After Quinn tapped his earbud, the chip shone in a short blue glow. Outside, the earbuds came to life, and the sound of Dumbledore''s voice filled Quinn''s ears.


    He had been inspired by the Weasley''s Extendable Ears to create his own listening device. The difference between his and Weasley''s creation was that his design had been based on non-magical earbuds. His were wireless, meaning they weren''t inhibited by the length of a string, and thus had a greater range.


    Quinn had designed a transmission system that could transfer MagiFax documents across the globe, so creating a wireless sound receiver that could transfer voice across the Great Hall wasn''t that much of a challenge. His only limit was the size, as it didn''t allow him to etch many runes on a square chip and an earbud. The range was barely passable by Quinn''s high standards.


    "Excuse me."


    Quinn turned while keeping an ear on what Dumbledore was speaking.


    "Yes, Ms. Dcour, how may I help you?"


    "Why does the headmistress know you?" she asked, and while she was interested in her question, actually, she wanted to have another go against Quinn.


    ''Ah, she''s amped it up, huh.'' Quinn could feel a wave of magic rush around him, but affected him as much as one did when pushing a mountain with their hands. That is, nothing at all.


    "My sister studied at Beauxbatons, and she is also one of Beauxbatons'' most prominent alumni recruiters. That''s the reason why headmistress Maxime knows of me. You might know of her; she gives an annual talk at your school. Her name is Lia West," he answered with a polite smile.


    Fleur, of course, recalled Lia West. All final year students who wanted to work or pursue an apprenticeship would have to know Lia West, as she was the most prominent recruiter/sponsor at Beauxbatons. Nheless, she wasn''t satisfied after she noticed Quinn didn''t show any reaction to her shooting allure.


    "Why-" she began, but Quinn cut her off.


    "Ms. Dcour, I would be happy to talk more, but I''m afraid it will be after the introductions. Our headmaster is about to introduce Beauxbatons; please join your group."


    Fleur wanted to speak something, but Maxime called her back to the group.


    Quinn walked to the door as the Beauxbatons group moved closer. He looked at them and then counted down from ten before opening the door. It was time for the Beauxbatons delegation to meet the rest of the school.


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    Quinn West - MC - Busy performing his Prefect duties.


    Filius Flitwick - Professor - Stressed like other Professors.


    Olympe Maxime - Half-giantess - Knows of the West family.


    Fleur Dcour - Ve - Interested in the boy.


    Editor - nL - Shipping Fleur X Quinn hard. (^¦Ø^)


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 142 - Performance And Goblet Of Fire

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    What followed after was simr to the movie version; Beauxbatons delegation put on a magical performance. The only difference was that Beauxbatons was co-ed instead of an all-girls school.


    "Durmstrang delegation, please be ready. The Beauxbatons delegation is almost over," notified Quinn to the gruff-looking boys and girls of Durmstrang and their posh-looking headmaster.


    Karkaroff raised his hand, and immediately the Durmstrang students got into two lines, both lines a mix of boys and girls (each of them separated by the other gender).


    ''I wonder if this is how all of Durmstrang students act,'' thought Quinn. He wondered whether Karkaroff could control a school whose students were only from pureblood families, and where pureblood dogma was a substantial part of their culture.


    Quinn''s eyes, then, found a well-builtte-teen who was leading the left row. Viktor Krum was thin, had dark hair, and sallow-skinned, with arge curved nose and thick ck eyebrows. He looked like an overgrown bird of prey. It was hard to believe he was only eighteen.


    The future champion looked surly, moody, and a bit grumpy. Krum didn''t look very enthusiastic about the show of magic that was about to happen. It made Quinn think about Krum''s personality from the original works: reserved and not fond of the attention he garnered due to his celebrity status.


    If Quinn was honest, he was quite interested in the Durmstrang students. Out of the three schools, Durmstrang students were the ones who shared closer affinity with him. They practiced the Dark Arts just like him and the school didn''t exclude those magics from their studies. To Quinn, in some way, Durmstrang was a moreplete school of magic than either Hogwarts or Beauxbatons.


    His thoughts wandered to the most well-known fact about the school. ''Durmstrang... the school where Gellert Grindlewald studied, huh.''


    "Beauxbatons'' performance is over," notified Quinn. He ced his hand on the door while listening through his earbud. Dumbledore was praising Beauxbatons'' performance. He then moved onto the introduction of Durmstrang. Quinn once again started the countdown. At one, he pushed the door. Durmstrang''s delegation entered the Great Hall, and immediately started the performance with a show of fire.


    He stood in front of the Great hall door, and a peculiar thought about this entire ceremony entered his mind. "Three schools, three heads, technically three champions, three representatives... so ''three'' should continue, shouldn''t it?"


    A scenario morphed into his mind as he continued to hear the faint ooh-aahs from the Hogwarts students through his earbud. When Durmstrang''s performance ended and Dumbledore took the podium again, Quinn finished his n and took his fake wand into his hand.


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    Inside the Great Hall, Dumbledore watched the students of two schools sitting together with his own students, and it brought a smile to his face thinking about the new experience they would have.


    "I would like to thank Beauxbatons and Durmstrang for those exhrating performances. They have been an absolute delight to experience. With great pleasure we wee you to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be bothfortable and enjoyable... The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast. Now, I''d like to invite you to -"


    Dumbledore was about to open the feast, but his words stopped when he himself and everybody in the Great Hall saw silk banners hanging from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts House: a gold lion, a bronze eagle, a ck badger, and a silver serpent, shiver and shake. The animals started to shimmer with dazzling lights. The banners started to sway as if they were moved by a light wind.


    The sudden change in the banners caused everyone to quiet down. Just before the hustle-bustle returned in the form of whispers and talks, the green banner with the silver serpent glowed brighter before a shimmering green serpent silhouette burst out from the banner. The serpent silhouette didn''t have any defined features and was wholly made from solid shades of green. It slithered around in the air above everyone''s heads. After circling the hall, the serpentine form emitted a deep hiss and the silhouette moved over the Slytherin table, its lower body curling with its head standing tall. The Slytherin students eximed and cheered when the serpent that stood above them majestically.


    But their cheers subsided when the red banner with the gold lion simrly shimmered with a red lion silhouette walked out with its four legs stepping on air. The featureless lion face made up from solid reddish hues seemed to alert the green serpent. With its tail swinging gently, the lion stood above the Gryffindor table. Then the lion figure seemed to tense its body as a fierce roar shook the hall. The Gryffindor table exploded in cheers as their house animal roared against the green serpent. After the roar subsided, the lion stood tall with its head raised in pride.


    Just when it looked like the lion and serpent were going to fight, the yellow banner of the ck Hufflepuff badger on the banners glowed harshly and a yellow badger form stepped out with wed paws and a short tail behind its back. The low pitch growl from the badger stopped the lion and serpent from jumping at each other. The Hufflepuff students, like the other two tables, also cheered for their mascot animal. The badger silhouette seemed to be pleased that the threat he posed had stopped the two other figures. The three figures now looked at each other in warning, and with slight movements, they stood equidistant to each other.


    By now, everyone knew what would happen, and they eyed the Ravenw banner. The Ravenw students were looking at their g in heightened excitement. Even the three animal forms had their eyes on the blue banner.


    As everyone expected, the banner shimmered, and a blue eagle flew out of the bronze. Unlike the other three animals, the eagle was fast and, unlike them, small. The eagle flew high, above the charmed hovering candles of the Great Hall. As everyone watched, a shrill shriek pierced everyone to their core, and they noticed the eagle growingrger till it was the same size as the other three. What had started as a normal-sized eagle was now a majestic creature of prey. It pped its wings and glided above the Ravenw table. It then shrieked for the Ravenw table to be backed by loud cheers from the students of the wittiest house.


    The four creatures stood above their tables in a square formation, and just when everyone thought they were going to fight, the four animal figures started to shine brightly in green, red, yellow, and blue.


    Their forms started to change.


    The green serpent turned into a bald man in a long robe holding a long staff. The man was standing straight, and even though it had no features, he struck a cunning figure. The red lion with a short roar morphed into a man with a bear-belly and, as the human becameplete, it took out a great sword, and with two hands on the hilt, the sword tip was mmed down to the "ground" with a loud ting. The badger stood up on its two hind feet and began the transformation into a figure of a homely woman with a round and plump figure dressed in a dress. She crossed her arms, and in one of her hands was a darker yellow outline of a wand. Then, with a fierce p of its wings, the blue eagle turned into a tall woman dressed in flowing robes with wide sleeves. She had a book in her right hand; in the other, she twirled a dark blue wand.


    Whereas the students and teachers alike had been dazed by what was happening, the four house ghosts, including the Bloody Baron, had alle to the Great Hall for this event. Of the four house ghosts, except the Gryffindor ghost, Nichs de Mimsy-Porpington, three had had strong connections to the figures.


    Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost, looked at the yellow figure. His eyes started tearing up with the memories he suddenly remembered of his childhood. A throaty whisper escaped him: "Oh, Helga..." He looked at the matronlydy, which couldn''t be anyone other than his own teacher and mentor, Helga Hufflepuff.


    Helena Ravenw, the Ravenw ghost, stilled as she stared at the blue outline. Emotions from her mortal life flooded her ghostly mind. The feelings she had be numbed to came back in full force, and the regret of not meeting her mother at her deathbed brought tears to her ghostly eyes. She wanted to go away, but her ethereal body didn''t move. She could only continue to stare at the blue silhouette of Rowena Ravenw.


    The Bloody Baron, the recluse Slytherin ghost, stared at the familiar figure of the man who had taught him the magical arts. The man who had tried to teach him the importance of restraint and not to let his violent, uncontrolled anger take the best of him. Nevertheless, he had ignored the man''s teachings. If he had just listened to his mentor, the Baron wouldn''t have be Bloody. The noble Baron, after a millennium, bowed to the figure of his mentor, Szar Slytherin.


    The final red figure, the fourth founder, Godric Gryffindor, raised his wand to the sky while tapping his sword down. In his life, he had had a versatile mindset as he chose to wield a sword as well as a wand, making him a rather dynamic man who deferred the dueling style to his opponent, were they magicals or non-magicals.


    Following his lead, the other three founders raised their staff-sh-wands. Four beams of lights, green, red, yellow, and blue, zapped out into the center of the Great Hall. Then, everyone began to see a structure start to build itself, and before they knew it, a scaled-down Hogwarts castle was standing in the sky. The four figures turned into orbs of shining light and flew towards the castle for it to glow in a bright sh, almost blinding everyone, causing many to shield their eyes.


    When it subsided, they saw a burning coat of arms with the Gryffindor lion, the Slytherin serpent, the Ravenw eagle, and the Hufflepuff badger, all circling the letter H. And below the coat arms, it could be seen the motto, "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titindus," in an escroll beneath the shield.


    "... Wee To Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." A voice reached everyone in the hall, and with it, the entire student body of Hogwarts got up from their seats with loud cheers, ps filled with the hall, and fists were pumped up. The apuse was so loud that one would have heard it from outside. The apuse startled various creatures, such as owls, roosters and pigs, among other animals that lived in Hogwarts grounds.


    Among all themotion and cheering, the Professors seated on the Head table tried to find the one who had cast the magic, while the few who weren''t trying to calm the students down had their eyes attracted towards the hall entrance. There they saw a familiar figure decked in Hogwarts robes with blue trims, pocketing a wand into his clothes.


    He seemed to notice their gaze as he looked up at them with his stone-gray eyes. A smile bloomed on his face as he bowed to them and, as if it was a performance ending, the burning coat of arms in the air above blew up with a sound and turned into golden glitter dust, raining down on everybody, but disappeared before anyone could touch them.


    Hogwarts had been appropriately represented. And it had been represented with style.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I''m back," said Quinn. He sat down on the seat saved for him by his friends.


    "You''re toote! Merlin''s ball-" started Eddie but was cut-off when Marcus gave him a tight kick to the shin with a re. Eddie secretly nced at Luna and changed his words, "Merlin''s beard! That was bloody marvelous!"


    "I saw some of it, and you''re right... that was sublime," chuckled Quinn. He didn''t want to reveal the fact that it had been him behind the demonstration.


    "The golden dust was pretty. I think it was pixie dust!" said Luna, her eyes shining in curiosity and excitement.


    Quinn smiled and looked around. He heard the praises from his demonstration and felt the excitement in the air. The talk about the Triwizard had been left out; the entire hall was filled with gossip about his work. He looked at the Slytherin table and the Durmstrang students, who were excitedly looking at each other, a stark contrast from their previous looks. Quinn leaned back to take a nce ahead at the Ravenw table. He saw Beauxbatons students excitedly talking with each other. Some of them were even interacting with other Ravenw students.


    "All right, international rtions are secured," muttered Quinn before the feast started and with tes in front of them filled with food. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Quinn had ever seen at Hogwarts, including several that were foreign.


    The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely thirty additional students there; perhaps it had been because their differently colored uniforms stood out so clearly against the ck of the Hogwarts robes. Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing deep blood red robes while Beauxbatons sported their blue robes.


    Hagrid sidled into the hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. His hands were covered with bandages.


    ''The horses must have been vicious,'' thought Quinn as Hagrid passed by.


    Once the golden tes had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the hall now. Everyone felt a slight thrill of excitement, wondering what wasing.


    "The moment hase," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words before we bring in the casket ¡ª"


    "The what?" Eddie muttered.


    Marcus shrugged.


    "¡ª just to rify the procedure that we will be following this year. First, though, let me introduce, for those who do not know him, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" ¡ªthere was a smattering of polite apuse¡ª "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."


    There was a much louder round of apuse for Bagman than for Crouch.


    Perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a cheery wave of his hand.


    Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced.


    Quinn, on the other hand, pped more actively for Bartemius Crouch Senior. The man was a wartime leader who had legalised, for aurors, the use of unforgivable curses against the Death Eaters. Sure, he had helped his son escape Azkaban, but Quinn knew that positive things shouldn''t be ignored in the face of the negative and vice-versa.


    ''Speaking of the son, what''s Junior doing?'' thought Quinn. He looked at the polyjuiced Barty Crouch Junior to see that stor Moody was looking at Dumbledore with his normal eye. His magical eye, though, was definitely locked on to his father.


    "Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over thest few months to arrange the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "they will be joining Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime and myself on the panel that will judge the champions'' efforts."


    At the mention of the word "champions," the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. Perhaps Dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."


    Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the hall, now approached Dumbledore while carrying a massive wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked ancient. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students.


    The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," said Dumbledore. Filch ced the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year. Each task will test the champions in many different ways... their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."


    Quinn shook his head sideways. To the current him, the tasks didn''t seem so... dangerous.


    The hall was filled with absolute silence. Nobody seemed to be breathing.


    "As you know, only three champions willpete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be assessed on how well they perform each of the tournament tasks. The champion with the highest total after the third task will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector. The Goblet of Fire."


    Dumbledore took out his wand and tapped it three times on the top of the casket. The lid creaked and it slowly opened. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out arge, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white mes.


    Dumbledore closed the casket and ced the Goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the hall.


    "Those who wish to submit themselves as champions must write their name and school clearly in a slip of parchment and drop it into the Goblet," said Dumbledore. "All aspiring champions will have twenty-four hours to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Hallowe''en, the Goblet shall select the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The Goblet will be ced in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely essible to all those who wish topete.


    "To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said Dumbledore, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been ced in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line."


    Quinn barely... barely! held back a scoff (andughter) at the mention of the Age Line. The Age Line hadn''t prevented anything in the original book.


    ''If it was me, I would''ve kept the Goblet hidden and asked the headmasters to choose the candidates before taking the slips from them to put the names myself,'' thought Quinn.


    Of course, that was in hindsight. Quinn wasn''t sure what he would''ve done if he hadn''t been aware of the n brewing up in the background.


    "Finally, I wish to impress upon whomever wants topete that this tournament is not to be treaded lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, they are obliged to end the tournament through to the end. The cing of your name in the Goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. You won''t be able to withdraw once you have be a champion. Therefore, I implore you that you wholeheartedly prepare yourselves to the idea ofpeting before dropping your name into the Goblet. In any case, I think it is time for bed. Good night and happy dreams."


    Quinn watched the wooden cup.


    ''I need to make some preparations,'' thought Quinn. He looked at the Goblet once again with ns forming in his mind.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I am the greatest showman!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 143 - Prevention, Candidates, Unknown Event

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: nL/n_Loo]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The same night the Goblet of Fire was revealed to the students and the Triwizard Tournament was opened. A figure walked alone in the empty corridors of Hogwarts castle. The figure, dressed in a dark brown hooded attire, silently moved on the castle''s ground floor in the dead of the night. They appeared in front of a great closed door. The figure stepped towards the door but stopped before he could enter and the raised hands could push the door open.


    The figure stepped back and took something out from their pocket. After muttering a few words, the figure watched the object intently. Satisfied with their findings, the figure pocketed the article before raising both hands. A white light membrane spread outwards, soon covering the great door. Seeing that the magical membrane remained white, the figure pushed the great door open to enter the hall.


    "He should really start using detection wards. He is the headmaster for magic''s sake," sighed the figure. He pulled up the hood. It was Quinn.


    Standing in the Great Hall, Quinn looked ahead. He walked forward. A hewn wooden goblet stood with dancing blue-white mes in it. It had been ced in the hall''s center on the stool that usually bore the Sorting Hat. Surrounding the goblet, a thin golden line had been traced on the floor.


    As Quinn stood just outside the boundary, he squatted down and nodded in appreciation, "Well, I have to give it to Dumbledore. This certainly will keep the students out." The Age Line was strong, very strong. But that wasn''t exactly surprising, as the one who cast the Age Line was an aplished magical user that even had the Death Stick as a focus.


    "Now... let''s see if what is said is true or not," smiled Quinn and took out a nk slip of paper. The paper slip levitated and flew into the area past the Age Line, but the moment it did, the paper burned into ashes.


    "All right, levitating a slip into the Goblet is covered," nodded Quinn. Then, he continued to test out different things. Like conjuring a bird and, with a slip in its beak to drop it in Goblet, throwing a crumpled ball of paper without magic, and so on. But every time, the nk slip of paper would burn in a white-ish blue re, turning into dust.


    "Is this Dumbledore''s spell work or the Goblet''s innate magic?" pondered Quinn beforeing to a circumstantial conclusion that as the paper burned in white-blue just like the Goblet''s mes, the magic must be from the Goblet.


    ''I should hurry.'' He took out a piece of light-red chalk from his pockets and started to draw along the Age Line, circling the Goblet till a dull-red circle enclosed the Age Line.


    He knelt down and touched the chalk line with a finger. He closed his eyes and started to channel his magic into the chalk. Suddenly, the dull-red chalk started to glow up in a neon-red colour. Then, the circle''s line transformed into thrumming runic characters that sent out slight undtions of magic.


    And promptly... everything disappeared.


    ''Phew, this chalk sure is a powerful conduit,'' thought Quinn. The red chalk was one of the runic conduit materials that he had researched and developed in his free time. The chalk stick wasn''t something Quinn regrly used to draw runes with, as he preferred to either etch runes into wood/metal or inscribe them in parchment, cloth, or leather.


    "Let''s see whether this works," said Quinn. He took out one of his personal royal blue WMF-id cards. Then, he moved the card to see his signature in bronze ink. Below the signature written in bronze was Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


    He raised his right hand towards and the space near his hand distorted, and at the same time, the area surrounding the Goblet distorted. With every second, the distortion became stronger.


    "Come on! This shouldn''t be hard. Barty Jr. could do it; I should be able to do the same," groaned Quinn. He hadn''t considered that Barty Jr. had had help from a master of magical arts, though.


    Even though he didn''t know, when Quinn surpassed eighty percent of his total output, his eyes turned from stone-grey to purple. Starting at forty percent percent output, Quinn''s magic had already reached a point that couldn''t be seen from a minor. It was so potent that the distortion had grown to form a path between his hand and the Goblet


    The Goblet of Fire was now glowing so bright that Quinn was having trouble looking at it, and the entire hall was illuminated in a white-bluish light. The mes inside the Goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. The next moment, a tongue of me shot into the air for a while before the fire subsided to their usual calm state. What changed, however, was the color; the mes remained red.


    "... It worked, finally! That was one powerful confundus," sighed Quinn, and his purple eyes turned stone-gray once again.


    The Goblet was in its active state; right now, it would ept every single name put out into it. The Goblet of Fire didn''t have an age limit, which meant that if someone got past the Age Line, they would be able to put in their names, but Quinn didn''t want to mess with the Age Line in case Dumbledore had done something special with it. So he targeted the Goblet itself by disabling all the innate security measures.


    "Now, I can enter my name," said Quinn and flicked his signed WMF-id card towards the Goblet, fully intending to enter his name for the tournament. From the bottom of his heart, Quinn wanted his name to enter the Goblet so he could be a champion.


    The card flew in a curved path towards the Goblet, but mid-flight, the royal blue card was attacked by a red zap of lightning, shredding and incinerating it simultaneously.


    "Oh! It worked," said Quinn pping his hand.


    Quinn West had nothing to gain by entering the Triwizard tournament. He had the money, and even if he wanted personal fame unrted to his family, Quinn had plenty of ways to publicize him.


    The red chalk line was a warding charm bound to the chalk conduit, which was designed to eliminate any mention of his name and a few other names. While Quinn ensured that he carelessly didn''t leave behind his signatures and name written by his own hand, a few things outside his secure personal collection contained them. So if someone got their hands on those select few samples and used them to enter his name, he needed to make sure they wouldn''t work.


    Quinn could enter himself in the Tri-wizard, but no one else was allowed.


    "Intent is paramount," whispered Quinn.


    The best way to check that his defense worked was if Quinn HIMSELF entered his name with the FULL INTENTION to participate in a WEAKENED/CONFUSED Goblet of Fire. Putting all those conditions together resulted in the optimal situation to enter a name.


    "My work is done here," smiled Quinn, giving the Goblet of Fire a nce. Red mes shed before turning back to their normal white-bluish state.


    He pulled up his hood, took out Recon, which he had checked before entering the Great Hall, and observed his vicinity. The map showed no one was near him, but Quinn did see the Death Eater out in the corridors outside of the Professor''s apartments when he said Barty Jr.''s name.


    "Everybody is working hard, even the bad guys," chuckled Quinn before pulling on his hood and disappearing out of sight.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    As the next day was Saturday, most students would generally have breakfastte. However, many students rose much earlier than they usually did on weekends. Quinn and the gang were alwaysparatively early to get because of Quinn and Eddie''s early morning workouts; as such, Marcus and Luna had gained a habit to get up early so they could go have breakfast early. When they went down into the Great hall, they saw about twenty people milling around it, some of them eating toast, all examining the Goblet of Fire. It was in the same ce Quinn had seen it at night, and they stood outside of the Golden Age Line.


    "Anyone put their name in yet?" Eddie asked a third-year girl eagerly.


    "All the Durmstrang lot," she replied. "But I haven''t seen anyone from Hogwarts yet."


    "Bet some of them put it inst night after we''d all gone to bed," said Marcus. "I would''ve if it had been me¡­ wouldn''t have wanted everyone watching. What if the Goblet just gobbled you right back out again?"


    Someoneughed behind them. Turning, all saw Fred and George Weasley, along with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, entering the hall, looking extremely excited.


    Quinn watched, semi-interestingly, as Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket bearing the words "Fred Weasley. Hogwarts." Fred Weasley walked right up to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the entrance hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line.


    For a split second, everyone thought it had worked ¡ªGeorge, Harry, and Ron certainly thought so, for they let out a yell of triumph and leaped after Fred¡ª but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and all four were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot putter. Theynded painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.


    Quinn looked at Harry lying on the ground and thought in amusement, ''You don''t need to try so hard, buddy. Someone already did your work for you.''


    The Great hall rang withughter. Even Fred and George joined in once they had gotten to their feet and taken a good look at each other''s beards.


    "I did warn you," said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledoreing into the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. "I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Ms. Fawcett, of Ravenw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours."


    Quinn nced at the headmaster and thought, ''He appeared out of nowhere. . . Does he have a detection imbibed into the Age Line? Maybe something that would trigger with the Age Line.'' He looked at the golden line and then shrugged in indifference. As long as his or his close friends'' names weren''t put in, he couldn''t care less.


    The four set off for the hospital wing, apanied by Lee, who was howling withughter.


    The decorations in the Great Hall had changed this morning. As it was Halloween, a cloud of live bats fluttered around the enchanted ceiling while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner. Quinn, of course, for the asion, had put on his pointe hat with a few Halloween-themedpel pins just like he did every year. Luna had copied him and worn her hat a few self-made Halloween essories. Marcus celebrated by eating pumpkin pie for breakfast, and Eddie enjoyed the asion by scaring some first and second years with homebrewed horror stories.


    "There''s a rumor going around that Warrington got up early and put his name in," said Marcus. "That big bloke from Slytherin who looks like a sloth."


    Eddie, who had yed Quidditch with the Ravenw team and heard about Warrington, looked away from the little ones and shook his head in disgust.


    "We can''t have him as a champion!"


    "And all the Hufflepuffs are talking about Diggory,"" continued Eddie mockingly. "But I wouldn''t have thought he''d have wanted to risk his good looks."


    "Oh, he will enter his name. There is no doubt about that, he told me himself, and I think he already did it," said Quinn informing.


    People suddenly cheered in the Great hall. They all swiveled around in their seats and saw Angelina Johnsoning into the hall, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way. She walked over to Goblet and entered her name.


    ''Hmm, she turned seventeenst week, didn''t she?'' thought Quinn, a finger on his temple as he pulled out information from his mindscape.


    The students from Beauxbatons camethrough the front doors from the entrance hall, among them, the Ve, Fleur Dcour. Those gathered around the Goblet of Fire stood back to let them pass, watching eagerly.


    Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organized them into a line. One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white mes. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks.


    "What do you reckon will happen to the ones who aren''t chosen?" Marcus muttered to Quinn as the Fleur dropped her parchment into the Goblet of Fire. "Reckon they''ll go back to school or hang around to watch the tournament?"


    "They will stay and study with sixth and seventh-year students," answered Quinn. "Can''t have them wasting time here and not have them study."


    When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame


    Maxime led them back out of the hall and out onto the grounds again.


    Quinn closed his eyes for a second and thought as the Beauxbatons students exited. ''Thatpletes the entry of all four champions. The preparations are clear, the stage is set. Time to open the game.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I finally have some free time, Mr. West," said McGonagall, turning to Quinn, who was sitting in front of her inside her office. "We have something to talk about, and you have a lot to answer about."


    "Answers to all of your questions, Professor," replied Quinn with a smile.


    "Let''s talk about what you did in the Great hall yesterday," started McGonagall. "I''m sure that wasn''t included in your duties."


    "Indeed it wasn''t, ma''am," said Quinn as he continued to smile. "But, if Beauxbatons and Durmstrang can show off their magic, Hogwarts should be able to get a chance to represent itself."


    "... and you took that responsibility on yourself."


    "That I did. Four mascots, four founders, four houses alling together to create one school binding everyone under one banner. With the time I was given, I came up with a performance that represented Hogwarts as a whole. I think it was nice, don''t you?" spoke Quinn, confident and pleased with his work.


    "You could''ve talked with us before you put on that. We were trying to be weing, but then you spurred on something muchrger than what Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had prepared," sighed McGonagall. "Olympe Maxime and Igor Karkaroff weren''t happy with the sudden situation. You have to understand that the Triwizard tournament has been set up to improve international rtions."


    "Hmm, I can see that happening," nodded Quinn, understanding her point. "... but those two don''t matter. What matters are the students. If we have a positive outlook towards each other, then two people won''t matter in the long run. Durmstrang and Slytherin bonded together because of their simr ideology, and Ravenw students were able to interact with Beauxbatons students with my performance as the topic. It was the fact that our students didn''t know about my performance that they felt a true surprise and were able to rte with the foreign students."


    He shrugged and summarized his actions in simple words, "All I did was provide an ice-breaker of sorts. One simple step to set off a domino of positivity."


    McGonagall seemed to be at a loss for words. She could see sense in Quinn''s words. The students were the future, and if they were happy and positively reacting to each other, then the older generation indeed didn''t matter in the long run.


    "But I see what you''re worried about, Professor," said Quinn, gaining her attention. "Professors can have a big impact on the students... Hmm, I guess we can do something to improve their impression of us."


    McGonagall felt relieved about Quinn''s willingness to work with her. But then she saw a wide smile bloom on Quinn''s face, which plunged her heart into sudden caution and suspicion.


    "Mr. West... I will be honest with you. I don''t like that smile of yours."


    Quinnughed happily at her reaction. "No need to worry about it, Professor. Actually, you will be the happiest about the reason behind my smile."


    He took out a folded sheet of paper from his clothes. After unfolding it and eliminating creases with magic, he slid the paper across the tables towards McGonagall. He sat back as the premier Quidditch nut picked the sheet and started to read it.


    As McGonagall read it, her eyes widened in surprise. "Mr. - Mr. West¡­ this! Are you sure... are you sure we can do this? Please tell me you have given it thought! It won''t be easy... not in our school."


    McGonagall was surprised, hopeful, and suspicious because of doubt about Quinn''s ns. It didn''t look like it would seed, but if it did... then it would be huge.


    "I have thought it through, Professor. I can make it happen," smirked Quinn. "All I require isplete control over the operation. The power and authority to do it my own way and don''t have to answer to anyone. I will approach them on my own with no supervision."


    "That!" McGonagall hesitated for a good while before nodding. "If you can get results, then I will grant you the permission... but if it fails then..."


    "It won''t fail, Professor." smiled Quinn, and a deal was set.


    He was going to put up a show.


    ''With this, step one isplete,'' thought Quinn grinning inside.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - nning and plotting.


    Minerva McGonagall - Deputy headmistress - If this seeds... This!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 144 - Four Champions, Venturing Into The Darkness

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]??


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual. Perhaps because it was their second feast in two days, people didn''t seem to fancy the extravagantly prepared food as much as they would typically have. Like everyone else in the hall, judging by the constantly craning necks, the impatient expressions on every face, the fidgeting, and then standing up to see whether Dumbledore had finished eating yet, Quinn too wanted the tes to clear, and to hear who had been selected as champions. His reason wasn''t the same as others. Quinn ny-nine percent knew who would get chosen; he simply wanted to enjoy themotion that would follow.


    At longst, the golden tes returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, seemed entirely uninterested, almost bored.


    "Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions'' names are called, I would ask them to pleasee up to the top of the hall, walk along with the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" ¡ª he indicated the door behind the staff table ¡ª "where they will be receiving their first instructions."


    He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness.


    "Show off," muttered Quinn, but with a smile on his face as he enjoyed the dramatics.


    The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the mes almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting. . . . A few people kept checking their watches. . . .


    "Any second," Eddie whispered, a seat away from Quinn.


    The mes inside the Goblet turned suddenly red again, turning to its activation state. Sparks began to fly from it. The next moment, a tongue of me shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it ¡ª the whole room gasped.


    Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm''s length so that he could read it by the light of the mes, which had turned back to blue-white.


    "The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."


    As a storm of apuse and cheering swept the Hall, Quinn saw Viktor Krum rise from the Slytherin table and slouch up toward Dumbledore; he turned right, walked along with the staff table, and disappeared through the door into the next chamber.


    "Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the apuse. "Knew you had it in you!"


    The pping and chatting died down. Now everyone''s attention was focused again on the Goblet, which, secondster, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the mes.


    "The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Dcour!"


    Quinn leaned back to see the Ve get up gracefully to her feet, shook back her sheet of silvery blonde hair, and swept up between the Ravenw and Hufflepuff tables. She passed by him confidently towards Dumbledore.


    "Oh look, they''re all disappointed," Luna said over the noise, nodding toward the remainder of the Beauxbatons party. "Disappointed" was a bit of an understatement, Quinn thought. Two of the girls who had not been selected had dissolved into tears and were sobbing with their heads in their arms.


    When Fleur Dcour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next. . .


    And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of me shot high into the air, and from its tip, Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.


    "The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"


    Every single Hufflepuff had jumped to Their feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers'' table. Indeed, the apuse for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.


    "Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as, atst, the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real ¡ª"


    But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him. The fire in the Goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long me shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.


    Quinn''s heartbeat quickened as automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out with an extended hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it.


    ''Come on, old man. . . spit it out,'' thought Quinn, staring intently at Dumbledore.


    There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands. Everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out ¡ª "Harry Potter."


    Quinn clenched his fist, and inside his head, he did an imaginary fist pump of celebration.


    ''Hell yeah! Not me sucka!'' The paranoia of Quinn West finally calmed down.


    After Quinn''s short celebration, he turned his attention back to his surroundings. There was no apuse. As though of angry bees, a buzzing was starting to fill the hall; some students were standing up to get a better look at Harry Potter as he sat, frozen, in his seat.


    While Harry had tried to put his name into the Goblet with the Weasley twins and Ron, he had failed. Even if he had seeded in getting his name, Harry had never thought he would get selected. But now, Dumbledore was calling out his name. . . to see this took him by shock was an understatement.


    Quinn removed his fourth champion and turned his sight to more interesting people in the hall. Up at the Head table, Professor McGonagall had got to her feet and swept past Ludo Bagman and Professor Karkaroff to whisper urgently to Professor Dumbledore, who bent his ear toward her, frowning slightly.


    Still watching from his table, Quinn raised an eyebrow as he observed them before another Professor caught his eye. Lily Potter sat on her chair, but the mother of two looked shell-shocked, her face portraying her current emotions clear and transparently.


    ''Now I feel bad for her,'' thought Quinn, and seeing that his eyes were on a Potter, he decided to shift his sight to the third Potter and watched the girl twin with her hand on her twin''s shoulder. Ivy Potter looked as if she was rapidly asking questions to Harry. Her twin, though, sat still on his seat, not answering her question.


    Finally, Quinn looked at the initiator of this situation and watched the figure of Barty Crouch Jr. in the form of stor Moody with a hidden gaze. For once, Moody''s eyes were still, and if one could ignore the strap holding the magical artificial eye, Moody''s eye pair looked like they were normal.


    At the top table, Dumbledore had straightened up, nodding to Professor McGonagall.


    "Harry Potter!" he called again. "Harry! Up here, if you please!"


    Harry got to his feet, trod on the hem of his robes, and stumbled slightly. He set off up the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. The Boy-Who-Lived, with hundreds of eyes on him, took a long walk towards the Head table. The buzzing grew louder and louder as he reached the Head table before following Dumbledore''s instruction to exit the Great hall to the antechamber.


    "Now that''s an eventful Halloween," nodded Quinn, but his voice drowned way in the voice of the entire Great hall''s chatter and talk.


    Quinn took out a chocte cube from his pocket. The dice-sized cube cooled down with a faint gush of ice magic, and as he popped the cold chocte into his mouth, Quinn only had one thought.


    ''Halloween sure isn''t good for Potters.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The next day, while the castle was still fresh with thest day''s events, Quinn could be found near the Forbidden Forest dressed in Noir transformative gear. He wasn''t interested in listening to everyone talk about the fourth champion and wanted to get some work done.


    Firenze had guided him on his first visit, but now Quinn had navigated his own way to the darkness within the Forbidden Forest. Standing at the edge of darkness, Quinn looked into the darkness with his hood still up.


    "This is going to be tough," his voice distorted, "there are too many of them inside."


    Thest time Quinn had gone in, he was attacked by a clutter of Acromant. They had tried to tear him apart and feast on him with ferocious intensity as Quinn had to fend off Arcumants trying to get to him even if it meant they would get burned.


    "A few minutes and I nearly burned through fifty percent of my capacity," spat Quinn. The shield spell, which burned when touch. The spikes from Quinn''s patent ice magic. And the orange spell which had cleared a path in front of him. The three spells had burned through a lot of magic.


    "Well, most of it was used by the shield," said Quinn clicking his tongue. "I can''t blow the ce up. . ." If he did that, the residents - living inside the darkness or not - wouldn''t appreciate their home being torn apart by explosions.


    "I can''t be on defense; putting up the shield isn''t doing me any favors."


    If he wanted to get past the Acromants, Quinn needed to preserve the magic and not spend his entire capacity on them, leaving him vulnerable to other danger.


    "For that, I need my sight back."


    Unlike inside water, Quinn didn''t know how to use a magical ripple sonar radar to navigate without sight. So, Quinn needed to find another way to see, and in the time between this visit and the first, Quinn had found a way to get his sight back inside the darkness.


    He ced his palms over his hands, and magic entered his eyes through his palms.


    The human eye lets light in through a hole called the pupil. A lens inside the eye focused on the image, and the retina detected that image. The retina contained two structures called rods and cones that detected light and sent the image to the brain.


    Rods were great at capturing very dim light and movement. However, they do not detect colors. Humans could see colors so vividly because of cones, which can only function with plenty of light. They had four times the number of rods than we have cones.


    This ratio meant that humans could see pretty well during the day, and though they have more rods than cones overall, humans had more cones than many animals. They could see many kinds of colors during the day, and we still see reasonably well in the dark. However, other animals with more rods and fewer cones than humans could see even better in the dark, even if their color vision wasn''t as good during the day.


    Right now, Quinn''s magic was altering the structure of his eyes. Inside his eyes, rods increased in quantity while cones sinking in numbers.


    Cats, owls, roons, red foxes, bullfrogs. . . Quinn had ordered eyes of various nocturnal animals with a ratio of rods and cones, which allowed night vision. Going through them, he created an eye structure that would let him see in the dark.


    "Ugh, I don''t like doing this one," said Quinn, and when he removed his hands, Quinn''s iris had widened, and inside, the pupils were sorge that the stone grey was nothing but a thin ring on the outside.


    As he looked around, Quinn found that the dim forest was brighter, as if he was standing under clear sunlight. He looked ahead, and the darkness had turned into ate evening light.


    "Yeah, I can work with that," he smiled, but it wasn''t at his sess. The smile was at the shining dots he could see inside. Numerous eight-eyed sets stared at him from just within the darkness. Watching. . . observing if Quinn would enter their territory.


    "Let''s get started." With the hood on, he stepped inside the darkness, and pandemonium ensued.


    The second the ck-d Quinn entered the darkness, twoparatively small Acromant dove down from the tree canopy and jumped on Quinn, their pincers cking in excitement.


    Quinn''s transfigured eyes briefly nced up and grinned, "I can see you~."


    The two spiders that had jumped on their target felt a force against their bodies. Like taking a giant sledgehammer straight to the body, they were blown away before the two could touch the ground.


    With a serviceable sight providing him with visuals, Quinn could finally focus on individual targets. Something he couldn''t previously as his vision was short and limited. Plus, Acromant held venom in their pincers, a single cut, and Quinn would be in deep trouble.


    Not even a second had passed since Quinn hadunched two Banishing charms; he twitched when he felt something at his back. A transparent shield formed behind his back just before an Acromant mmed against it, sending silvery waves along with the shield. With a turn on his neck, Quinn gave a brief nce for the offending Acromant to feel a heavy force from above and found himself being mmed into the dirt.


    "You need to do better if you want to eat me," said Quinn as his eyes moved left to the right, looking at the Acromants creeping towards him on their cking pincers.


    The provocation seemed to work as one of the biggest, baddest Acromant jumped Quinn with a loud shriek. Quinn raised his arm for a shield to appear, and the Acromant mmed against the shield. He used the shield to push the massive, hairy spider down, thrusting the spider into the ground before casting a point-nk Explosion charm to rip three out of eight legs apart.


    A painful screech filled the darkness, and for a split second, the spiders backed away, but the agony from their kind made their blood boil and simultaneously jumped out on Quinn.


    From above, one could see a ck figure standing in the center with gigantic spiders throwing themselves at him. Shields would appear to stop the spiders who go too close while Quinn rammed their siblings away with magic.


    With every second, the scene started to get violent. What had begun as harmless, yet a little tough, spell push from Banishing spell was now a bloody scene as Quinn was breaking their pincers to make sure they won''t return any any time soon.


    ''Not so proactive after losing three legs, aren''t you,'' thought Quinn. He could see that the clutter was lightening up, bringing a smile to his face.


    But then there was sudden reversal as Quinn saw something white from the corner of his eyes. He had no time to react as something thick and gooey attached itself on Quinn''s elbow.


    His eyes widened when he saw what it was, "Spider web!"


    The exmation was met with a pull as Quinn''s body was pulled to the right towards an Acromant shrieking in glee, but before Quinn''s feet could leave the ground, another spider web stuck to his body and pulled him to the left.


    The Acromants weren''t coordinating and mainly moving on their own, which helped Quinn as he felt the two opposite forces pull him in opposite directions. The force lifted him up from the ground, but he stayed in a single spot, giving Quinn enough time to release a sharp cold wave into the thick, sticky, yet steel-like webs and froze them till they were rigid.


    He cast sting curses on the frozen bindings for them to shatter into ice shards.


    "Yes!" he celebrated, but then his pupils shrunk as he felt a stinky smell waft across his nose; he moved his eyes up to see an open mouth with fangs inside about to bite his head off. A shiver went through his body as he found himself in a life-death moment.


    Time seemed to slow down as Quinn continued to stare at the Acromant''s hairy feature, and strangely, he could see joy inside the leader. His magic moved on instinct, and a deep, murky dark maroon orb formed in front of Quim before it stretched out and zapped straight into the mouth.


    The magic entered the body through the body, and the Acromant started to feel quizzy as its body heat raised. It went fromfortable warmth to burning heat in a matter of spans seconds. It began to shriek and dropped right in front of Quinn, writhing in pain.


    Quinn shot two spells, each on the two different sides towards his almost-captures. There were sts, and shrieks were intense and short build as a second spell hit them. He hadn''t removed his eyes from the Acromantual who was writhing on the floor.


    The spell was a dark curse, one that would corrode the target user. Right now, the spider was feeling everything burn as the curse worked its charm.


    Seeing the Acromant so close, Quinn raised his hand, and a murky yellow spell light appeared over his hand. He was about to take out all of the Acromantua''s legs in one clean sweep, essentially destroying the spider''s life; a yell filled the surroundings.


    "Halt!"


    .


    [


    A/N: Hello peeps, FictionOnlyReader this side.


    This Author''s Note is to inform you that till the end of this month (which means 4 days), the release/update schedule is going to be pretty janky/erractic. My mid-terms are upon me and I haven''t studied jack. I need to pull all-nights (hate ''em) to make sure I don''t fail.


    As such, I might not be able to post regrly.


    But from 1st of September, I''ll be back as my mid-terms will be over.


    This ends the PSA, you can proceed to the short post-chapter credit section


    ]


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    Quinn West - MC - Spiders vs Me; let''s dance.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author who makes lots of grammer mistakes - nL (Mighty editor) isn''t feeling well, please send best wishes.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 145 - Argog And The Other Tournament

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by Editor: n_Loo/nL]


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    "Wait! Stop!"


    A clutter of Acromants surrounding Quinn were attacking him with the sole desire to feast on his flesh. They were trying hard to get a taste of human flesh and blood, but stopped when they heard a word from a voice. With piercing cackles and shrieks, they protested against getting held back, but a louder, more piercing, mighty shrill screech made them cower and bend their eight legs in submission.


    The human, on the other hand, exhaled a deep breath, releasing a small puff of icy mist into the air, and with it, dozens of ice spears manifested into the dark surrounding, gleaming in the spiders'' eight-set eyes.


    ''That was, ugh,'' thought Quinn, refraining his hands to go to his ears, ''so damn harsh!'' He moved towards the source of the shrill to see a bigger, meaner, bulkier Acromant slowly creeping towards him as the crowd of regr Acromant parted way for the eight-legged elephant-sized monstrosity.


    ''Wait, wait, wait...'' thought Quinn with a mental chuckle of disbelief, ''Isn''t this one too big?'' The ice spikes around him rotated to face the new arrival, but in the face of the arachnid, they were akin to thin ice picks.


    "Human..." There was grey in the ck of his body and legs, and each of the eyes on his ugly, pincered head were milky white. It was blind.


    "... You must be the one who is called Aragog," said Quinn, raising his chin to peer at the leader of the Acromant colonyposed of all of his sons and daughters.


    "That I am," he said, clicking his pincers rapidly. "Why have you entered my home, human?" He looked around, and with his eight white eyes, he made a sidelong nce around his children. "... Not only that, but you dare to harm my children. Give me a reason why I shouldn''t kill you on the spot."


    Aragog could sense that some of his children were gravely injured; a few of those not in any condition to live much longer, but he showed no grief for them. This was the Forbidden Forest: the strong lived, and the weak perished.


    "I want to venture inside to get to the cursed vault," said Quinn, his voice amplified and distorted, ringing inside a silent forest.


    "So? Why should I care about it?"


    "Do I look like I care about what you think? I don''t give a shit about what you and your children think or want."


    The entire cluster of spiders stepped closer to Quinn, their pincers clicking rapidly and continuously, filling the forest with a sickening noise capable of bringing shivers down the spine of most people.


    "Don''t test your luck, human. I can make your death¡­ not so swift," spoke Aragog, the fangs inside his mouth gleaming as he calmly snarled.


    "Oh, yeah?" scoffed Quinn, taking the provocation as a chance to pump magic into his spikes, erging them as ice creaked and cracked while manifesting. "Bring it on; let''s see whoes out alive. I like that hide of yours; maybe I will strip it off your carcass."


    The colossal arachnid didn''t make any moves or spoke anything in reply. The eight blind eyes focused on the vague figure of Quinn. His pincers were slowly opening and closing. Before long, Aragog clicked his pincers once for a fast and crisp noise to shatter the pregnant silence.


    "Hmph, cursed vault you say..." Aragog scoffed with derision. "Humans have always been dull-brained. Go. I am looking forward to the day you die and rot inside."


    Aragog screeched and clicked his pincers, and it seemed to be an order to his children because the Acromant retreated away from Quinn, shooting webs above to the trees, climbing up to disappear in the dark forage of forest. Leaving Aragog and Quinn on the ground as they kept watch upon the two.


    "Beware, human, if youe out injured. Neither me nor my children like you. Should we get a scent of your blood wafting around, we will drag you to our nest," there was a gleeful tenor in his voice as he too made webs up to climb up the forage, "I look forward to the day when I get to taste your flesh and blood... I hope the dayes soon."


    Aragog, the Acromant, disappeared and left before Quinn could say anything.


    "Yeah, run, you better run, big freak," grumbled Quinn. He waved his hand and the ice spikes puffed in a cold mist.


    He moved his gaze towards the fallen Acromants, which had gotten too injured in the fight for them to move. They were heavily wounded and, as such, were now thrown out of the colony.


    "Thew of the jungle, huh," muttered Quinn moving towards the fallen. Noticing Quinn approaching, the Acromant''s eight eyes shifted towards him.


    "Human..." said the spider with four twisted legs.


    Quinn stared down at the spider, which he had ended up injuring. He matched eyes with the arachnid and nodded,


    "Yeah, I understand..."


    "... Thank you."


    Quinn extended his hand towards the spider as he looked up above at the leaves, ignoring the Acromant eyes peering down at him. He looked past them and breathed out.


    *Crack¡­*


    Closing his eyes, Quinn heard the silence of the forest before looking down. Laid near his feet was the lifeless body of the spider. The eight-set of dull, wholly ck eyes with no whites were looking as if staring at him.


    He turned his head to the left to see the inner depth of the ce he hade to call the Underworld. He realised there were more and more ckened trees, greyish ground, and dull grass. And perhaps it was because of his transfigured eyes, but Quinn felt that the Underworld was more lifeless than thest time. To his right was the path that led him to the outside; he could see the brightness inviting him to move towards it in the distance. The trail led back to the brighter portion of the Forbidden Fore with plenty of lights to light up the surroundings.


    He sighed. The mood to go left deeper into the Underworld had disappeared. Right now, he wanted to go back to the castle and rx. But before that, he had work to do. He turned away from the spider body and walked a few steps before..


    *Crack*... *Crack*... *Crack*...


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Inside a ssroom in the Transfiguration wing of the castle stood four people, looking at each other apprehensively. From the looks of it, they weren''t happy to be in the same room. The four were dressed in simr ck robes and grey uniforms beneath. The only difference was the colour of the trims present on the robes and the personalization in the uniform; Red and Gold, Blue and Bronze, Yellow and ck, Green and Silver.


    "Why in the world are we called here?" asked the person dressed in Green and Silver. He was known to the students for his ever-present mocking smirk, but currently, his face was locked in an ufortable expression as he stared at the other three.


    "I have no idea," said the girl dressed in Red and Gold, shaking her head. She had been nervousing here, but when the girl saw herpany, she calmed down.


    "I have no idea, but we can pretty much assume what this is about," shrugged the boy in Blue and Bronze. Slight intelligence shed in his eyes as he observed the pattern he saw in the people with him.


    "Well, he is the one who called us. I''m sure he has something important to say," spoke the boy dressed in yellow and ck. If he had been in another group, his lovely smile would have charmed others, but the other three just wanted to bash his face in just so that they wouldn''t need to see it.


    Before it opened, there was a knock on the door for another person dressed in Blue and Bronze to enter the room. He gazed at them, and a smile bloomed on his face as if joyous to see them all.


    "Pucey, Johnson, Davies, and Diggory," said the ck-haired boy in a pleased tone, "I''m d you''ve epted my invitation. I was worried that you might be busy."


    The four watched as their inviter, Quinn West, fifth-year Ravenw, stood by the door, looking at them. He turned his head outside the room and said, "Everyone is here; you can enter."


    The four watched with confusion and curiosity, wondering who Quinn was talking to. Two people enter the room; one blond posh-looking boy and a mboyant brte girl.


    Quinn took out his fake wand and waved it once, for seven chairs to be pulled out from the room''s corner. The seven chairs circrly arranged themselves in the center of the room. He nonchntly pulled a chair and sat down, making himselffortable.


    "Sit down. We have a lot to discuss," he said, causing others to look at him as he acted like this ssroom was his home.


    "West, why did you call me here? I''m busy," grumbled Adrian Pucey, sixth-year Slytherin. He looked at the other Hogwarts student and sneered, "and you invited these plebs toe here."


    "Who do you think you''re calling a pleb, snake," sneered Roger Davies, sixth-year Ravenw, looking defiantly at Pucey as if ready to fight.


    "You both should calm down," sighed Quinn, pointing to the two who came with him, "we have guests."


    Angelina Johnson looked at the two unfamiliar people and asked, "You are from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, right?"


    "Yes," said the mboyant girl in heavily ented English, dressed casually with her legs crossed as she leaned into the back of her chair, "Kari Haugen, from Durmstrang. I''m seventeen years old."


    The posh-looking blonde boy seeing Kari introducing herself, also decided to introduce himself, "Good evening, my name is Albert Acy, seventh-year, Beauxbatons, at your service."


    "I''m guessing that all of you are interested in the reason why you were called here," said Quinn addressing their primary source of curiosity about this gathering.


    "Given that all of us here are the captains for the house Quidditch teams. I can safely assume that it''s about Quidditch," offered Cedric as he looked at the people present in the room.


    "Nothing less expected from the champion," said Quinn, lightly pping, "Yes, you''re correct. It''s rted to Quidditch." He pointed at the two foreign students and continued, "These two are also Quidditch yers from their respective schools... They are both captains. They will be my contact with their schools."


    "Not Krum?" asked Roger Davies as he nced at Kari.


    Kari narrowed her eyes in response. "Yes, me and not Krum. Krum went pro. He has nothing to do with Durmstrang Quidditch anymore. Neither the school nor his pro-club team wants him to y at Dumrstrang."


    Davies had the decency to look embarrassed after being indirectly berated.


    "You''ve heard her," said Quinn, "The reason I have called you here is that I''ve been handed to manage the Quidditch season at Hogwarts this year ¡ª"


    "West, you do know that Quidditch was canceled this year for the tournament, right?" said Angelina. She nced towards Cedric at the mention of the tournament.


    "Why are you all looking at me?! It''s not my fault," protested Cedric when everyone, not just Angelina, gave him the same look.


    Quinn chuckled at the scene before answering, "Ms. Johnson, the Quidditch house tournament might have been canceled, but that doesn''t mean that we can''t enjoy Quidditch this year. I''ve decided to continue with the theme of improving international rtions and start a Quidditch tournament involving students from all three schools."


    "What do you mean?" asked Adrian, confused.


    "It will be a Quidditch tournament with the same rules, no difference there. Unlike our house tournaments that have only four teams, I have decided that there will be ten teamspeting for the top spot, sounds good?" exined Quinn while observing how the others were taking it.


    After everyone nodded, Quinn continued, "While this tournament is open to everyone, the teams will be decided by the ten team captains. They will be in charge of who they want to take in their teams. As there are ten teams, that means that seventy students will be participating in the Quidditch tournament."


    The four Hogwarts captains, along with Kari and Albert, looked interested and excited about the idea. They had thought that they would be missing Quidditch this year, but from what Quinn was saying, it was looking like they would not only be ying Quidditch, but it would be a unique experience from their usual annual tournaments.


    "Out of the ten team captains, six of them will be from Hogwarts, two of them will be from Beauxbatons, and thest two will be from Durmstrang," said Quinn and cut off Albert before he could speak, "Given the number of students at Hogwarts, this is fair... Also, I''m not finished. There are some conditions to build a team."


    "What conditions?"


    "First, let''s talk about the Hogwarts teams. Let''s say the captain is from Ravenw. Excluding them, there will be six more members. Out of those six members, only two members can be from Ravenw. As such, only 3 students can be from the same house as the captain."


    "What?!" eximed Adrian, "You can''t do that!"


    Even the other Hogwarts house team captains looked ufortable with Quinn''s conditions.


    "I can do that and all other kinds of things. I haveplete control over this tournament. To be blunt, I don''t answer to any of the faculty members. If I wanted the snitch to be ten points instead of one-fifty, then that would be the official rules," said Quinn, leaving the others stunned.


    "Let''s continue," he said. "Out of the remaining four members, one each needs to be from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. That means two of the members from every team won''t be from Hogwarts, allowing Beauxbatons and Durmstrang to have plenty of representation. Finally, thest two members can be chosen from other Hogwarts houses or from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. It''s up to the team who they want."


    Quinn turned to Kari and Albert and gave them their team building conditions, "Let'' say if the captain is Kari. Then other than her, she can only recruit one other Dumrstrang member in her team. One of the team members must be from Beauxbatons, while the remaining four will be from Hogwarts. The condition on Hogwarts members is that out of those four members, only two can be from the same house."


    His eyes nced at every member of the team. He enjoyed their stunned expression.


    "I know the first thing that popped in all your minds when I spoke about teams. All of you thought about entering your usual squads," said Quinn. "Four out of ten teams would''ve ended up being our house teams while at least two more would''ve been solely from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. I''m willing to bet a lot of money that the rest of the four would''ve gone the same way... But where''s the fun in that? Let''s try out something different while we have the chance."


    "I have a few questions," spoke Cedric, a slight crease between his brows.


    "Of course."


    "I am assuming that we all are going to be captains," asked Cedric, pointing to the six Quidditch captains.


    "Yes, all of you will get a team," answered Quinn, and seeing that it was Cedric who asked the question, Quinn notified him, "If you don''t wish to participate, given that you''re a champion, you can hand over your spot to another Hufflepuff."


    Cedric nodded. The tasks hadn''t been revealed; as such, Cedric didn''t know if he would need to back out of the Quidditch tournament.


    "My question is about the other two Hogwarts teams. With us four," said Cedric point at the house team captains, "every house gets one team each, but what about the other two? Which two houses get two teams?"


    The house loyalty was strong in Hogwarts, so Quinn had expected the question, "It will be a lucky draw. I will have someone neutral pull the houses out."


    "What about us?" asked Albert. "Who gets the second team from our schools?"


    "Durmstrang''s second team will go to Krum. Of course, he can opt-out." He then turned to Albert and asked, "Does Ms. Dcour y Quidditch?"


    Albert shook his head in reply.


    "I see. Please give me a rmendation," asked Quinn. He then looked at the captains and smiled, "Start recruiting people, captains. This is going to be different from your usual seasons. There''s no continuity. You will be building everything from scratch."


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    Quinn West - MC - Challenger, organizer.


    Aragog - Acromant - Power is thew. (exception = Hagrid)


    FictionOnlyReader - I''m back! - Writing is fun. So much Fun!


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 146 - Body Magic, Lapel Badges

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn stood inside the Room of Requirements dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. The room had transformed ording to his wishes and was now a simple, spacious room with no furniture. The only thing that was present was a heavy bag that hung from a stand.


    He looked down on the floor. He lightly skipped on his feet. The floor had a little spring. He had given it a rubber surface.


    "Softening charm- check," said Quinn, continuing to jump on his feet.


    "The trifecta," said Quinn to himself. "The mind: the physical entity that deals with thinking, reasoning, our ability to make choices, and partially deals with emotions, beliefs, and attitude."


    While continuing to jump, he closed his eyes and dove into his mindscape. He then saw Hogwarts on one side and the West manor on the other side. He looked up in his mental image, at the simted blue sky, and looked beyond to see a faint hexagonalyer barely visible. Quinn raised his hand and waved it in front of him to feel the invisible radioactive matter omnipresent inside his mindscape.


    "Soul: the immaterial part of a being, the part considered to be its essence. Deeply connected to the magical core, along with emotions, self, consciousness, and connectedness."


    Quinn ced his hand on his chest. He couldn''t feel his soul. It was out of his reach, with no way to gain ess to it. His brow twitched when his memories sent him back to his third year. The year in which he had been under the influence of the Sin curse. The curse had affected his soul and then it had gained control over his emotions, affecting his personality and attitude. To this day, Quinn hadn''t touched anything rted to the soul.


    "Body: the physical entity which houses both the mind and the soul. Itprises eleven systems thate together to form oneplete system. Aplex machine that is designed to support life by aligning the mind and soul to create a bnce. It''s the most fragile one of the three... one snap and the body can be useless, and lead to its death."


    He stopped jumping and took a standard Muay Thai fighting stance. Exhaling a heavy breath, and started shadow boxing: punches, kicks, elbow strikes, knee blows. He went through a continuous series that feltfortable to him.


    A minute, two minutes, five minutes... ten minutes and then some more time passed. The continuous movements had Quinn sweating all over. His breathing wasboured, but Quinn didn''t stop; he kept going. When he felt that he couldn''t keep up, he would switch to an easier series, but he didn''t stop.


    "An average person can only ess 40-50% of their muscr mass when performing any physical task or exertion," he said. He chuckled. "What terrible efficiency, it makes one wonder about the limitations... But when doing continuous exercise with an increasing load, the body starts to warm up, muscles begin to open up, and a normal person can climb up to ess 60% of their physical capabilities."


    Quinn took in a deep breath and suddenly stepped forward to get in reach of the brown, heavy bag. He upped his speed and power and started to attack the bag with rigourbined with practiced skill.


    "Top p-professional athletes with merciless, relentless, and continuous training can gain ess to 80% of their muscr mass. Combining that 80% with the fact that their bodies have transcended the average by several degrees, they reach a level of not being superhuman, but they can definitely be called super humans. But not all professional athletes can reach that level; gics with excellent physical properties is what allows the select few to reach that level."


    Quinn''s body began shaking as the continuous exertion was affecting his body, but he continued to push himself despite that.


    "The body doesn''t allow us to go beyond the limit in the fear that the person would hurt himself... but some conditions allow us to break those limits. Extreme emotions can cause a person to ess the ending 20% by pumping excessively, potentially dangerous amounts of adrenaline into their bodies."


    He smiled as his elbow smashed into the leather of the bag.


    "B-But... that is for normal people. People without ess to the supernatural force that reside in rare individuals."


    Quinn pulled his fist back and regained the standard stance. With a swift movement, Quinn twisted his body to generate force that would travel from his legs and would be exerted through his fist via punch into the heavy bed.


    Once again, Quinn regained a standard stance, but now, he had a grin on his face. His body moved as if to punch just like thest time; but this time, Quinn used his feet to generate force, which added more physical power to his punch. Quinn''s grin widened when he felt force travel up his body. He snapped his arm forward to punch the heavy bag.


    Fwip!


    With the speed of a whip, Quinn''s arm punched forward. Quinn watched as his fist got buried into the leather with a force that even surprised him, as the stand holding the bag got knocked over.


    With heavy,boured breathing, a rising and lowering chest, Quinn stared at the fallen bag. Slowly, a smile reced his surprised face. Quinn raised his hand to look at his fists.


    "Magic... physical, body magic," he mutters. Quinn flexed his hands and observed his first use of the new body magic. "I was able to get up to 70% of my best while being dead tired... I guess that is to be expected."


    Quinn had always been active since his pre-teen days, but after his third year, Quinn had been working out twice a day. An outdoor workout in the morning and an entire Muay Thai session inside the Room of Requirements in the evening. That had not only made him fit but also had built up some skill when he boxed. Reaching 70% at an activity that he was familiar with was a satisfactory result.


    "Next is 80%... the regr limit of the human limit," smiled Quinn, aiming to aplish something that would take years of constant training within a short time, "After that, I will go beyond."


    The magic of the body was just getting started.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Tick, tick, tick. The wall clock in the A.I.D. office ticked away, as Quinn sat at his desk, writing away on a sheet of paper. From the year Quinn had gotten his first set of magic-rted books from Lia, he hadpiled his own collection of records on every branch and topic of magic he ever learned. Throughout the years, his ever-growing library continued to get more books; in fact, he mainly joined Hogwarts to gain ess to the school library along with the collections of books inside Room of Requirements. With those resources at his fingertips, Quinn''s magic records grew both in quantity and quality.


    Compiling improved potion recipes, examining myriads of materials for transfiguration, researching thousands of herbs for their magical properties, extensively studying the essence and theory behind every spell or charm, observings and luminaries movements over the years, and so on... Quinn had tried to study everything in detail and genuinely understand why magic performed as it did.


    There was a section filled with Quinn''s research material in his personal library, a treasure trove that even the most learned magicals would salivate at because of its cross-cultured nature. No one except Quinn knew the extent of the knowledge he had amassed.


    Though not all of it was unknown to the outside world. Over the years, some of it had been released to the outside world. The A.I.D. notes which optimized the Hogwarts material to the limit were avable to every student of the magical school. His A.I.D. personal collection, which stood a level above the notes, was primarily used by Luna Lovegood for her guided and elerated studies.


    Quinn West''spendium of herbs and magical creatures in the hands of Elliot was updated every year when he returned home, which allowed the potion enthusiast to continue learning whenever he had the time. His book of charms and spells for daily use had be one of Ms. Rosey''s favorite reads because of the sheer brutal practical nature of the included charms. While his personal tips on lumency were nowhere near n D. Baddeley''s masterpiece of guides, George still cherished the writings that Quinn sent him from time to time. Lia''s little diary, which updated itself with tidbits from various branches of magic, allowed her to hold conversations with people from many walks of magic, earning her the reputation of being a well-versed, knowledgeable person all over the globe.


    Currently, he was jotting down one of the many theories of Arithmancy that Quinn had recently researched upon. As he penned thest sentence of the document, Quinn heard a familiar chime. Quinn looked up to see a face that surprised him. The person in front of him wasn''t one he expected to visit his office.


    "Mr. Malfoy," he said, identifying his guest, "what a surprise for you to visit my office. How may I help you?"


    Draco Malfoy was a slender boy with sleek white-blond hair, cold grey eyes, a paleplexion, and rather sharp, pointed, aristocratic features. The fourth-year Slytherin, like many others, gazed at his office in wonderment and curiosity. It was only after the Malfoy heir was satisfied with his observations that he looked at Quinn.


    Stone-grey eyes met Cold-grey ones, as Quinn smiled at his junior. "Please, sit, Mr. Malfoy. I must say I wasn''t expecting you to visit me anytime soon. Seeing you here makes me as curious, as it makes me happy."


    Draco sat down on the chair and stared at Quinn for a while. The Malfoy heir had been educated about the West family. As such, before talking, Draco was cautious about his words.


    "I have something I want tomission," started Draco, getting to the point. Draco reckoned that if he got down to brass tacks, the chances of offending Quinn would be the lowest.


    "Amission, you say," said Quinn. He set aside his documents as someone like Draco deserved his full attention. "Go ahead. What do you want me to make for you?" From time to time, Quinn would take in some jobs of creating trivial things for students.


    Draco took out a parchment from his robes and handed them to Quinn, who opened it to look at neat and blocky handwriting.


    ''Ah,'' sighed Quinn internally as he read the contents.


    On the parchment, Draco had written two simple quotes:


    The first,


    ¡¸Support CEDRIC DIGGORY - The REAL Hogwarts Champion ¡¹


    The second,


    ¡¸POTTER STINKS¡¹


    Below those quotes was a surprisingly neat drawing of the upper part of a Hogwarts robe, and a badge on thepel area was a badge that read ''Potter Stinks''.


    "A badge that switches between these two quotes, huh," sighed Quinn as he ced the parchment on the desk.


    "Er, yeah," replied Draco, surprised that Quinn had understood without the need of an exnation.


    "I''m sorry, Mr. Malfoy, but I have to refuse this job."


    "Huh, why?!" said Draco eximing at the direct refusal. "Is it because of Potter? You don''t want to offend the golden boy. Are you afraid of his mudblood mother?" Draco looked at Quinn with a look of disgust.


    Quinn stared at his client and didn''t take any offense onment or the derogatory term. Instead, he looked at Draco as if he was a child throwing a tantrum. He waited for a moment before speaking.


    "It isn''t that I don''t want to offend Harry Potter or Professor Potter. Well, I would prefer it if I don''t offend anyone, but that''s not the reason I''m refusing the job."


    "Then why?" asked Draco, feeling suspicious.


    "Mr. Malfoy... the aim behind the Triwizard tournament is to promote international rtions and unfortunately, Mr. Potter is a Hogwarts champion," he leaned forward, "What do you think would happen when the foreign delegation sees around half of the school sporting these badges... The reputation of our school would be dragged through the mud in front of the outsiders."


    Draco wanted to retort with a snippyment, but Quinn cut him off as he wasn''t finished.


    "I have a few very good friends in Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy."


    The sudden statement made Draco confused as he couldn''t see how it was relevant.


    "From them, I know how Slytherin operates. No matter what happens between the members of the house, it doesn''t get out. Outside of the walls of the house, no matter what the rtion, the house remains united. Strength through unity."


    Draco blinked in astonishment at Quinn''s sudden knowledge of his house. He, of course, knew about the rules inside Slytherin. It didn''t matter if two Slytherin students hated each other from the bottom of their hearts; they would have each other''s back outside the walls of themon room. The rule was one of the rules that no Slytherin broke, and on some level, it was more prevalent than the pureblood dogma.


    "It''s because of that practice that the Slytherin house doesn''t get overwhelmed by the three other houses, who think you''re slimy snakes... Right now, Hogwarts needs that. To Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, we aren''t Ravenw, Slytherin, Gryffindor, or Hufflepuff; to them, we''re just Hogwarts. Any negative action from one house will reflect on all of us. Any positive action from one house will benefit us all. Right now, we need to see ourselves as Hogwarts students, not house students, and that''s why I''m not going to ept this request of yours."


    Draco, who sat in front of him, stared at the parchment he had brought. He hadn''t thought the conversation would go this way; he expected Quinn to either ept his request or outright reject it because of their strained rtionship.


    He wasn''t expecting Quinn to spring out Slytherin house ideology to refuse the request¡­ and even though his request had been denied, Draco felt proud because of how Quinn described Slytherin''s house standing against the other three houses.


    "I won''t stop you from pursuing your n if you take it to someone else. It''s your prerogative to do whatever you want, but I''ll not be taking any part in it."


    "... So you''re saying that I need to be all chummy to Potter," asked Draco, not enthusiastic about it.


    "Of course not. Just like in Slytherin, you just need to act like you have no problems with Mr. Potter... Forget that; you two don''t run in the same circles, so you simply need to move on with your life."


    Since Quinn had ever met Draco, he had never disliked him. Quinn saw him as the child he was, a child raised by parents who looked down on anyone but purebloods, and grew up in a circle that held the same beliefs. Hogwarts should''ve been where Draco got acquainted with different ideologies, but the system put him into Slytherin, and thus the cycle continued.


    ''The system that should''ve promoted growth is now hindering it. A system wed to its core,'' thought Quinn.


    "I, I ¡ª." Draco didn''t know how to reply. He felt embarrassed because of his motives.


    "If I may suggest something, Mr. Malfoy," said Quinn, a n forming in his head.


    "Huh?" uttered Draco in confusion, but that only made Quinn smile more.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Two dayster, Harry, Ivy, and Hermione walked into the Great Hall for breakfast. Since Harry had be the fourth champion, the golden squad hadn''t been having a good time. Ron had left them. The Hufflepuffs gave Harry ring looks whenever he passed them by. Slytherins snickered at them. Ravenw also looked at Harry with judgmental eyes.


    They thought that today would be no different, and outside Gryffindor, Harry, and through association, Ivy and Hermione would have to face the pointed looks and whispers for another day.


    Harry clicked his tongue when he saw someone walk towards him with a big smirk on his face.


    "I''m not in the mood, Malfoy," growled Harry.


    Draco, along with a couple of Slytherins, were walking towards them. When Draco and others were close enough, they noticed something, each and every one of them wearing arge badge on the front of their robes. They saw that they all bore the same message, in luminous yellow letters that burnt brightly on a ck background:


    ¡¸Support CEDRIC DIGGORY - Hogwarts Champion ¡¹


    The message vanished to be reced by another one, which glowed white on a light blue background.


    ¡¸Support FLEUR DELACOUR - Beauxbatons Champion ¡¹


    Once again, the message turned, now it glowed gold on a brown background.


    ¡¸Support VICTOR KRUM - Durmstrang Champion ¡¹


    Harry felt irritated as he knew that given Draco, he wasn''t going to be on the badge, or if he was, then it was going to be something insulting, and his eyes twitched when the badge once again changed.


    ¡¸Support HARRY POTTER - Hogwarts Champion ¡¹


    Ivy, Hermione, and Harry''s eyes widened when they saw thetest red on gold. They waited to see if something would happen, but nothing did, as the batch continued to cycle between four.


    Draco stepped close to Harry and smirked.


    "Potter, you have to realize that I''m better than you. I''m up here," he said, putting his right hand near their head level, "and you are here down below." His left hand went as down as it could go.


    "We''re on entirely different levels. It''s a pity that we have to tolerate you as our representative," he patted Harry''s shoulder before scoffing, "You better not embarrass us, Potter."


    With that, Draco ced three badges in Harry''s hand, which the Boy-Who-Lived grabbed because of the suddenness of all of this. Harry could only watch in stunned silence as Draco and his Slytherin buddies walked away, leaving him very confused.


    ". . .What the hell."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - This year''s theme is international rtions, huh.


    Draco Malfoy - Slytherin - Pretending to have raised above conflict.


    Harry Potter - Fourth Champion - Things aren''t going his way.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 147 - Buzzing Of An Annoying Bug

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I know I''m productive and all, but they can''t just foist all of this stuff on me. I''m a busy man for magic''s sake," grumbled Quinn, making his way to the dungeons.


    He had just exited charms ss when McGonagall cornered him out of the ssroom and handed him a task.


    "It''s my only free break. I''m bloody booked for the rest of the day," he said, taking a turn. He could finally see his destination.


    However, when he had been within an earshot of the room, he heard a voice yelling out in a tone that was as unpleasant as nails scratching against a chalkboard.


    "Antidotes! You should all have prepared your recipes by now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will choose someone that will try one..."


    Quinn peeked inside from the ssroom''s door. Snape was looking over his ss. His students looked visibly ufortable.


    ''Aha... So that''s how everyone looks in Snape''s ss, huh,'' thought Quinn, feeling the vibe oozing out of the room. Quinn never felt it while in ss as he was busy brewing potions and doing his homework.


    He stood there and enjoyed everyone looking super ufortable for a few more seconds before knocking on the dungeon door, shattering the painful silence.


    He entered the ssroom and made his way to Snape''s desk.


    "Yes, Mr. West?" said Snape curtly.


    "Good afternoon, Professor. I''m supposed to take Mr. Potter upstairs," said Quinn, smiling, as he turned his face towards the ss. Harry was looking at him, with his sister Ivy and Hermione sitting behind him.


    He turned back to look up at Snape, who stared down at him. There was no joy on his face or any delight in his eyes. The man looked like he had juste out of Azkaban.


    "Potter has another hour of potions toplete," said Snape coldly. "He will apany you when this ss is finished."


    "I am aware of that, sir, but he is needed upstairs," replied Quinn, matching eyes with Potion master, "All the champions are being summoned up to take photographs for the press release. From what I have been made aware of, Mr. Bagman and Mr. Couch along with the Daily Prophet team, have already arrived, so I think it''s of priority that Mr. Potter gets up there."


    Harry, on his seat, looked both d and ufortable. He was more than happy to exit the Potion ss, but he wished Quinn wouldn''t have told them details. He nced to his right to look at Ron, who was sitting with Dean Thomas.


    "Very well," Snape snapped. "Potter, leave your things here. I want you back down hereter to test your antidote."


    "Actually, Mr. Potter, bring your things along," interjected Quinn, directly addressing Harry. "They want to see you in your school attire, book bag and everything."


    "Very well!" said Snape. "Potter- take your bag and get out of my sight!"


    Quinn ignored Snape''s tone and words and moved back to the door. He saw Harry swung his bag over his shoulder, got up, and headed for the door.


    "Now that wasn''t pleasant, was it, Harry," chuckled Quinn when they were out of earshot of the ssroom. "His mood was worse than usual. Did something happen?"


    "... I don''t know," replied Harry, looking down at the floor as he walked. "That git is always in a bad mood... ugh, why does he have to be so nasty to everyone."


    "Hmm... I have no idea," answered Quinn. No way Quinn was going to exin to him that Snape pinned after his mother.


    Harry looked up from the ground and turned to nce at Quinn. Out of all the students he had seen interact with Snape, Quinn was the only one who lookedfortable doing so. Other than him, no one wanted to have a prolonged conversation with Snape.


    His eyes caught the badge on Quinn''s robe as it turned from Krum''s name to his.


    "You made those."


    "Hmm?" Quinn nced at Harry and then followed his eyes to the badge on hispel. "That I did. You like them?"


    "Yeah, I saw the A.I.D. mark on the back," said Harry, putting his hand into his pocket, feeling his own badge. He looked up and then asked what he wanted to know, "But Malfoy has been distributing these, why?"


    "Mr. Malfoy was the one who came up with the idea," answered Quinn, "I suggested some changes and produced them. I offered to take on the distribution, but he wanted to do it on his own. I guess he is doing fine, given that almost all students have a badge."


    "Did Malfoy reallye up with this?"


    Quinn chuckled in reply, "I won''t lie, Harry. Mr. Malfoy hade in with different motivations, but he had this badge in hand when he left, so we can say that all''s well that ends well."


    "If you say so," said Harry heavily as they climbed up the stairs to the ground floor. "What do they want photos for again?"


    "The information about the Triwizard Tournament is going to be published in the papers and magazines. You and the other champions are going to be interviewed and photographed for the articles."


    "Great," said Harry dully. "Exactly what I need. More publicity."


    "Harry, you''re already in the tournament. Lamenting your luck and feeling down about it isn''t going to do you any good. You''re already chosen as a champion, so I would personally suggest that you own it. I''m sure someone must''ve already told you about this, but you''re now representing Hogwarts. To see one of our champions looking down and unenthusiastic all the damn time isn''t something you want to show to outsiders... They will look down on you and take advantage of you. I''m assuming you don''t want that. If I was in your ce, I wouldn''t want that."


    "Do you? Would you want to be in my ce?" asked Harry, staring at the guy who scored the highest in the entire school, who was undefeated in dueling, who was a Prefect, who owned his own unique thing inside Hogwarts and had saved him from getting kidnapped.


    "Hmm," he thought about the question before answering, "If the circumstances were different, I probably would have entered my name. I don''t care much about the rewards, but I would love to have the range of freedom that a champion gets during the year. Exemption from sitting in the sses is something beneficial to someone like me."


    They reached their destination, so Quinn turned to Harry and gave him onest free piece of advice, "Move on, Harry. You might not like it, but you''re the Boy-Who-Lived; you will be expected to act and perform a certain way. So, pull yourself together because you have a long year in front of you."


    Harry heard what Quinn was talking about, and even though he couldn''t wrap his head around it immediately, he nodded.


    "Good, let''s go in," said Quinn, opening the door and nudging the boy-champion into the room.


    They entered a reasonably small ssroom. Most of the desks had been pushed away to the room''s back, leaving the room''s half empty; three of the desks, however, had been ced end-to-end in front of the ckboard and were covered in velvet fabric. Five chairs had been set behind the velvet-covered desks. Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to ady they had never seen before in Hogwarts, who was wearing magenta robes.


    Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual. He wasn''t talking to anyone. Cedric and Fleur were having a conversation. Fleur looked much happier than Quinn had seen her so far; she sometimes moved her head back to let her long silver hair catch the light. A paunchy man, holding arge ck camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.


    Bagman suddenly spotted Harry, got up quickly, approaching him.


    "Ah, here he is! The fourth champion! Come in, Harry,e in¡­ there''s nothing to worry about; it''s just a wand weighing ceremony. The rest of the judges will arrive here in a moment¡ª"


    "Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously, but he seemed much better than before they entered.


    "We have to check that your wands are fully functional, you know, as they''re your most important tools in the tasks ahead," said Bagman. "The expert''s upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then, there''s going to be a little photoshoot. This is Rita Skeeter," he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. "She''s going to write a little article about the tournament for the Daily Prophet..."


    "Maybe not that little, Ludo," said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry.


    Her hair was set in borate and curiously rigid curls that contrasted oddly with her light-jawed face. She wore jeweled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile-skin handbag ended in two-inch nails, painted crimson.


    "I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?" she said to Bagman but still staring at Harry. "He is the youngest champion, you know... to add a bit of colour?"


    "Certainly!" cried Bagman. "That is- if Harry has no objection?"


    "Er-" said Harry.


    "Lovely," said Rita Skeeter, and in a second, her scarlet-taloned fingers grabbed Harry''s upper arm in a surprisingly firm grip, and she was about to steer him out of the room¡­ but stopped when she nced upon the student beside Harry.


    "Quinn? Quinn West?" she gasped. Her hand released Harry''s arm, and like a hawk seeing her pray, she swapped near Quinn, staring at him with a starry-eyed look.


    "Hmm, yes?" Quinn looked at the woman in front of him. "Ms. Skeeter, was it? What can I do for you."


    Outside, Quinn was his usual calm self, but inside, he felt like publicly clicking his tongue and making a face. He held it inside, though.


    ''She has recognized me? Was I photographed somewhere? Or she just remembers my face,'' thought Quinn.


    The one who represented the West family outside was Lia, while George and Quinn remained out of the limelight. But there were times when he and George would go to official events, which were sometimes photographed. In those events, Quinn would try his best to not get photographed, but it seemed Rita knew his face enough to recognize at first nce.


    "It''s so rare to see a West. I must take this chance," she harped as if others weren''t there at all. "I would like to interview you before we start."


    Bagman and Harry looked at Rita. They couldn''t believe the woman''s thick skin. She had just asked Harry for a short interview, but now she had jumped ships and targeted Quinn.


    Quinn''s eyes shed for a second as he thought about his answer. After a few seconds, he answered, "I don''t mind."


    "Marvelous!" eximed Rita. She grabbed Quinn''s arm and pulled him out of the room, opening another that was nearby.


    "We don''t want to be in there with all that noise," she said. "Let''s see... ah, yes, this is nice and cozy."


    It was a broom cupboard. Quinn stared at her.


    "Or we can go inside that ssroom," said Quinn, pointing towards a door opposite to the broom cupboard.


    He didn''t wait for Rita to object or reply and walked to the door, put his hand on the knob, silently unlocked it, and entered the room. Inside, he pulled out a desk and set two chairs, one on each side. He sat down and looked at Rita, who stood near the door.


    "Ms. Skeeter, please, do sit. I''m sure you will want to hurry with the tournament press release starting soon," said Quinn gesturing to Rita to sit down.


    The journalist didn''t waste a single moment and sat down in front of Quinn with a swift speed that would put the nimblest of people to shame. She unsnapped her crocodile-skin handbag and pulled out a handful of candles, which she lit with a wave of her wand and magicked into midair so that they could see what they were doing.


    "You won''t mind, Quinn, if I use a Quick-Quotes Quill? It leaves me free to talk to you normally..."


    Rita Skeeter''s smile widened. Quinn counted three gold teeth. She reached again into her crocodile bag and drew out a long acid-green quill and a roll of parchment, which she stretched out between them on a crate of Mrs. Skower''s All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover. She put the tip of the green quill into her mouth, sucked it for a moment with apparent relish, then ced it upright on the parchment, where it stood bnced on its point, quivering slightly.


    Quinn smiled in return, leaned forward, and gently snatched the long acid-green quill out of Rita''s hand.


    "Wha-!" said Rita, about to ask what Quinn was doing, but her words died in her mouth when Quinn snapped the quill in half.


    "I will be straight with you, Ms. Skeeter," said Quinn raising his eyes to look at Quinn. The smile on his face had changed; now, the corners of his lips were barely raised to form a very faint smile. "You will not be writing anything about me. Not a single word about Quinn West or the Wests, in general, will be published in the Daily Prophet or any other newspaper that you write for under aliases."


    Rita giggled and took out another Quick-Quotes Quill of her bag. She performed the same ritual as before she began speaking.


    "Testing... My name is Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter."


    Quinn looked down quickly at the quill. The moment Rita Skeeter had spoken, the green quill had started to scribble, skidding across the parchment:


    ¡¸ Attractive blonde Rita Skeeter, forty-three, whose savage quill has


    punctured many inted reputations ¡ª ¡¹


    "Lovely," said Rita Skeeter, yet again, and she ripped the top piece of parchment off, crumpled it up, and stuffed it into her handbag. Now she leaned toward Quinn and said, "So, Quinn¡­ What do you have to say about the life of a child of the West family?"


    Quinn''s eyes remained on the quill, and even though he wasn''t speaking, it was dashing across the parchment, and in its wake, he could make out a new sentence:


    ¡¸A charming face, arrogant expression of a spoiled upbringing, a look that stares down on people as if regarding them as mere insignificant fleas ¡ª¡¹


    Quinn ignored the quill and the writing. He reached into his pockets and took out a ying card with a ck and gold back and set it down on the desk.


    "Ms. Skeeter. I don''t care what you write about anyone. It could be as fake as your golden teeth, and I wouldn''t bat an eye. As long as it isn''t about my family or me, I honestly don''t care. However, if you write about me, you won''t enjoy whates afterward."


    He gently flipped the card, and instead of it being a number or a face card, what emerged was an image of a water beetle. Seeing the picture of the water beetle on the card made Rita freeze. Her wide, closed mouth smile cramped immediately.


    "You''re at the top of your game. Probably one of the most celebrated names in the business," said Quinn tapping his finger near the card. "You, at some level, have be a household name. It would be an absolute shame if all that hard work¡ª"


    The card was turned over, and instead of the ck and gold back, there was a squashed water beetle with red blood in the background.


    "¡ª was crushed in an instant, turned to dust, forgotten with time as you are isted in a dark cell with some not-so-colorful jailers... You wouldn''t want that, right?"


    Rita had gone stark white and very still. She, with a slight tremble in her eyes, stared at Quinn with fear evident all over. Her quill had gone limp, noiseless, with the tip just hovering over the parchment.


    "... what do you want?" she asked, her fingertips white from clutching her crocodile-skin bag. If her identity as an illegal Animagus was released to the ministry, she would be hunted by the Aurors quicker than she could write her own name.


    "I don''t like repeating myself, Ms. Skeeter," he said, his face expressionless. "This will be thest time, so listen carefully. I don''t want to see any article rted to me or anyone I am connected to. If you do that, your naughty little secret will remain hidden, and if we''re lucky, you and I will never see each other again. Understood?"


    Rita wordlessly nodded, and Quinn waved his hand over the card for it to change back to a standard ying card.


    "Let''s return, shall we? I don''t want to miss the ceremony." Quinn stood up, pocketed the card, and walked towards the door, but before he exited, he turned and warned, "Ms. Skeeter, if I see you fluttering around, getting your career ruined will be thest thing you will have to worry about... so be careful if you do visit Hogwarts."


    Not giving her another look, Quinn exited the room towards the previous room to witness the weighing of the wands ceremony.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Asserting control, schooling the troll.


    Harry Potter - Fourth Champion - Has been having a few stressful days.


    Rita Skeeter - Journalist - Water beetles are quite annoying.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 148 - How A West Closes A Deal

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    d to have put Rita Skeeter in her ce, Quinn walked back into the room. He nced to his right to see the champions sitting in chairs near the door. Turning his eyes to the front, Quinn saw the five judges; Igor Karkaroff, Olympe Maxime, Bartemius Crouch Senior, Ludo Bagman, and Albus Dumbledore sitting on a velvet-covered table.


    ncing to his left, he noticed Rita Skeeter settle herself down in a corner. He saw her slip the parchment out of her bag again, spread it on her knee, suck the end of the Quick-Quotes Quill, and ce it once more on the parchment. Her professionalism fascinated Quinn. It was impressive how quickly Skeeter bounced back and was back to normal. Just as he promised, Quinn didn''t stop her from writing as it wasn''t about him or his close ones.


    He silently walked to another wall and stood close to it, choosing not to lean against it.


    "May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" said Dumbledore, from his ce at the judges'' table and talking to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."


    Quinn looked around, and with mild surprise, saw an old wizard withrge, pale eyes standing quietly by the window. Quinn had met Ollivander once before¡ª he was the wandmaker from whom Quinn had bought his own wand all those years ago in Diagon Alley.


    ''His presence sure is feeble,'' thought Quinn. He overlooked the wandmaker when he entered the room.


    "Mademoiselle Dcour, could we have you first, please?" said Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.


    Fleur Dcour swept over to Mr. Ollivander and handed him her wand.


    "Hmmm¡­" he said.


    He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton, and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it close to his eyes and scrutinized it.


    "Yes," he said quietly, "nine and a half inches¡­ inflexible¡­ rosewood... containing... Dear me..."


    "A lock of hair from the head of a Ve," provided Fleur. "One of my grandmothers."


    ''Part Ve. Bullshit,'' thought Quinn.


    There were no male Ves in existence and as such a daughter born from a Ve was a Ve and not a part-Ve like in the original works. Like her mother and grandmother, Fleur Dcour was a full Ve and not some illogical quarter-Ve as had been written by the Duchess of Magic.


    "Yes," said Ollivander, "yes, I''ve never used Ve hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands... however, to each his own, and if this suits you..."


    Quinn turned his gaze to Fleur''s silver hair, and the fact that her hair when she grew up could be used as aponent of a magical focus fascinated him much.


    ''House-elf blood, Ve hair, Goblin heart, Dwarf bone,'' listed Quinn in his mind, ''so many intelligent and humanoid races with a part of their body that can be used as a magical focus¡­''


    He looked down at his hand and clenched it briefly before opening it to see the blood which had been pushed back return to his palm. Human blood had some magical properties but not enough to use as a magical focus. No part of the human body had enough magical characteristics; it made him wonder how his magic would have been if he was from a different race.


    ''If I was a Ve, could my hair be used as an internal focus? If I was from a race connected deeper to magic than a human... how would my magic have turned out,'' he thought. He shook his head. He liked himself as a human, and there was no use in thinking about his race.


    Ollivander ran his fingers along with the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, "Orchideous!" and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand-tip.


    "Very well, very well, it''s in fine working order," said Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. "Mr. Diggory, you are next."


    Fleur sat back to her seat, smiling at Cedric as he passed her.


    "Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn''t it?" said Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm. Cedric handed over his wand. "Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of a magnificent male unicorn... must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches... ash... pleasantly springy. It''s in fine condition... Do you take care of it regrly?"


    "Polished itst night," said Cedric, grinning.


    Harry, who was among the champions, looked down at his own wand. He could see finger marks all over it. He gathered a fistful of the robe from his knee and tried to rub it clean surreptitiously. Several gold sparks shot out of the end of it. Fleur Dcour gave him a very patronizing look, and he desisted.


    Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Cedric''s wand, pronounced himself satisfied, and then said, "Mr. Krum if you please."


    Viktor Krum got up and slouched, round-shouldered and duck-footed, toward Ollivander. He thrust out his wand and stood scowling, with his hands in the pockets of his robes.


    "Hmm," said Ollivander, "this is a Gregorovitch creation unless I''m mistaken? A fine wandmaker, though the styling is never quite what I... however..."


    He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it over and over before his eyes.


    "Yes... hornbeam and dragon heartstring?" he shot at Krum, who nodded. "Rather thicker than one usually sees... quite rigid... ten and a quarter inches... Avis!"


    The hornbeam wand let off a st like a gun, and several small, twittering birds flew out of the end and through the open window into the watery sunlight.


    "Good," said Ollivander, handing Krum back his wand. "Which leaves us... Mr. Potter."


    Harry got to his feet, and from the corner of his eyes, he could see Quinn. He recalled the words the Ravenw had said to him... The fourth champion squared his shoulders, lifted his chin straight before confidently walking past Krum to Ollivander. He handed over his wand.


    "Aaaah, yes," said Ollivander, his pale eyes suddenly gleaming. "Yes, yes, yes. I remember it well."


    Harry could remember it, too. He could remember it as though it had happened yesterday...


    . . .


    Four summers ago, on his eleventh birthday, he had entered Ollivander''s shop with his parents and Ivy to buy a wand. Ollivander had taken his measurements and then started handing him wands to try. Harry had waved what felt like every wand in the shop until, atst, he had found the one that suited him¡ª one that was made of holly, measured eleven inches long, and contained a single feather from the tail of a phoenix. Ollivander had been very surprised that Harry had been sopatible with this wand.


    "Curious," he had said, "curious," and not until Harry asked what was curious had Mr. Ollivander exined that the phoenix feather in Harry''s wand hade from the same bird that had supplied the core of Voldemort''s.


    His parents hadn''t been happy to hear that particr piece of information. They had made Ollivander show Harry some more wands, but in the end, Harry hade out of the shop with the holly, phoenix feather wand.


    . . .


    Harry had been forbidden to share this piece of information with anybody. And he was okay with that order, as he was very fond of his wand, and as far as Harry was concerned, its rtion to Voldemort''s wand was something it couldn''t be helped. However, Harry really hoped that Ollivander wasn''t about to tell the room about it. Harry had a funny feeling that Rita Skeeter might just explode with excitement if he did.


    Ollivander spent much longer examining Harry''s wand than anyone else''s. Eventually, however, he made a fountain of wine and handed it back to Harry, announcing that it was still in perfect condition.


    "Thank you," said Dumbledore, standing up at the judges'' table. "You may¡ª"


    "Now, now, Albus," interrupted Ollivander, "we have another student among us. How about I examine his wand first before you dismiss all of us?" Ollivander turned to his right, and with a smile in his pale eyes, he said, "Mr. West, please bring your wand to me. I will check it before I leave."


    Everybody in the room looked at the lone non-champion student in the room. The eyes of Bartemius Crouch Senior and Ludo Bagman widened when they heard how Ollivander addressed the boy. They almost snapped their necks from the speed they turned their heads to look at the boy who was suddenly revealed to be from the West family.


    Quinn acted as if he didn''t notice the looks of the others. He shook his head towards the wandmaker with a smile. "As much as I would like my wand to get examined by you, Mr. Ollivander, unfortunately, I don''t have my wand with me."


    Dumbledore, who had gotten up from his chair, looked at Quinn in shock and surprise. "Mr. West... you don''t have your wand with you?" The headmaster couldn''t believe that Quinn ¡ªQuinn West in particr¡ª didn''t have his wand with him.


    Quinn shifted his robes to reveal the left side of his trousers to show that the wand holster he usually magically merged with his clothes there was missing.


    "Yes, Headmaster," chuckled Quinn at Dumbledore''s surprise, "as strange it might seem, today, Professor McGonagall went to me just enough that I forgot my wand holster in my bookbag. I removed it for our potions'' ss... as, ording to Professor Snape, it isn''t a ce for wand waving."


    He turned to Ollivander and performed a short head-bow, "I will visit you in the summer, Mr. Ollivander; we can go over my wand then."


    Quinn, of course, had thought of the possibility of his wand being asked for a friendly inspection. So he had purposely left his fake wand and holster in his book bag behind in his office.


    "... I see," said Dumbledore slowly. "You may go back to your lessons now¡ª or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as sses are about to end."


    Feeling that he had diverted his wand situation well, Quinn took one step forward, but the man with the ck camera jumped up and cleared his throat.


    "Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" cried Bagman excitedly. "All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?"


    "Er¡ª yes, let''s do those first," said Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Harry again. "And then perhaps some individual shots."


    Quinn stayed put and decided to stay still and wait for the event to end, but it turned out that was a mistake.


    The photographs took a long time. Madame Maxime cast everyone else into shadow wherever she stood, and the photographer couldn''t stand far enough back to get her into the frame; eventually, she had to sit while everyone else stood around her. Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee around his finger to give it an extra curl.


    Krum, whom Quinn would have thought would have been used to this sort of thing, skulked, half-hidden, at the back of the group. The photographer seemed keenest to get Fleur at the front, but Rita Skeeter kept hurrying forward and dragging Harry into greater prominence. Then she insisted on separate shots of all the champions. Atst, they were free to go.


    Quinn stepped outside of the room, stretching his slightly tired legs from standing still for too long. He wanted to go to his office and resume his work, but there was one thing he wanted to aplish; the reason he had not left after delivering Harry for the press release.


    He eyed the blue-eyed, blond man with rosy skin whose once athletic build had "gone to seed." It was akin to a sack of potatoes now.


    "Mr. Bagman," he called out, stepping near the ex-Quidditch athlete.


    Ludovic "Ludo" Bagman turned, and his eyes widened in surprise when he came across Quinn standing behind him. The now ministry employee knew what the child represented, so even though he was tired from the lengthy session, he greeted him with a smile.


    "Quinn, was it? What can I do for you?"


    "Walk with me," said Quinn and, without waiting for a reply, he started walking.


    Ludo blinked a couple times but fell into step with Quinn, already under the influence of Quinn''s momentum and rhythm.


    "Mr. Bagman, if I''m correct, you''ll be part of the judging panel for the tournament, correct?"


    "Ah, yes. Along with the Headmasters and Mr. Crouch."


    "Hmm, and you will also be hosting said tasks, correct?"


    "Er¡ª yes."


    "Be honest with me, Mr. Bagman," asked Quinn, "are you truly interested in hosting the tasks?"


    "Eh? I don''t understand," replied Bagman.


    "The Head of Department of Magical Games and Sports shouldn''t be here for the Triwizard tournament," said Quinn. Bagman expected a "no offense" from him, but it didn''te. "The tournament might sound like ites under the jurisdiction of your department, but it doesn''t. That made me wonder, what were you actually doing here? So I did some light investigation and found that you volunteered for the judgingmittee."


    He nced at Bagman as he said, "I found that very peculiar."


    Bagman, who saw the look in Quinn''s eyes, gulped, "Why¡­ do you think so?"


    "I mean, wouldn''t it make anyone wonder why a Head of a Department that hasn''t had a single big initiative other than the World Cup- is suddenly bing wildly interested in the Triwizard tournament?" Quinn spoke as if telling a story. "But then everything cleared up when I found that you are in debt¡ª nay, crushing debt from the goblins. It became so apparent why you were here."


    Bagman almost tripped on his own feet when he heard Quinn. His debt had been a well-kept secret. Despite the Goblins looking for him everywhere, he had been able to keep things under a hush.


    "You definitely put in some effort in getting this job, didn''t you? If Mr. Crouch had been the one in charge, I presume things wouldn''t have been easy for you."


    A fact that not many people knew about Ludo Bagman was that he had given information about the Ministry to Death Eaters during the First Wizarding War. He had given information to the Death Eater Unspeakable Augustus Rookwood, and after the Death Eaters fell, he had been put on trial for treason.


    The one who spearheaded the trial was none other than the then Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch Senior. He had tried hard to put Bagman in Azkaban, but Ludo was cleared of all charges to Crouch''s extreme annoyance. This was partly due to him being a famous Quidditch yer. One witch within the jury stood up and congratted Bagman for his rather impressive y in the previous Quidditch match, with the others cheering him. Ludo was never used of his allegiance with Death Eaters again.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about," said Ludo, pulling a smile on his face, but couldn''t hide the fact of how ufortable he was feeling right now.


    "Of course, of course, I''m sure I''m just misinformed," said Quinn, nodding. "But the fact remains that you''re in soul-crushing debt and you need a way to pay it back. To do so, you need money which you are going to get by illegally betting on the tournament and stacking the odds in your favour. You''ll manipte the oue to the best of your¡­ ability."


    Quinn suddenly stopped and fixed his eyes on Ludo Bagman, causing the man to stare into the stone-grey orbs; the thought that he was talking to a kid had exited his head ever since the start of the conversation.


    "Mr. Bagman, I''m sure you realize what my family represents. I, right here and now, within a few minutes can," he snapped his fingers for a galleon to appear between his thumb and index finger, "snap your debt out of existence like it was never there. It won''t take me any effort to do so, and by the time you wake up tomorrow, you could have a letter from Gringotts reading that your debt has been cleared."


    Bagman''s heart was beating loudly in his chest. The debt had been weighing on his head and chest ever since the Goblins had cornered after the World Cup finals. They had stunned him and stripped him down until he waspletely nude to get their money back. He had been so shocked to find himself naked and in between a Death Eater raid after he got up that he decided to solve the problem by joining the judging panel and helping the Hogwarts Champion win the tournament.


    When he found that Harry Potter had been chosen as the fourth champion, he thought his luck couldn''t be better. Despite his reputation as the Boy-Who-Lived, the fourteen-year-old champion didn''t inspire much confidence in the underground betting scene. So he decided that he would help Harry Potter win the tournament and pocket the huge returns from his bettings.


    "I can solve your problems," said Quinn with a depthless smile, "all you have to do is to step inside after me."


    He gracefully raised his hand and pointed it to his side.


    Bagman''s eyes followed Quinn''s hand, and he saw a door. It was just like any other ssroom doors in Hogwarts but with just one difference.


    "What do I have to do?" asked Bagman.


    Quinn smiled and opened the door, inviting Bagman and stepping inside after him.


    The standard Hogwarts door was shut with an out-of-the-ordinary t, ck que hanging snug against the door pane. In golden letters, the que read:


    ¡¸773H¡¹


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Really stepping up his game, isn''t he?


    Garrick Ollivander - Wandmaker - Thinks a lot about his work.


    Ludovic Bagman - Under crushing debt - Stepped into the deal of a lifetime.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 149 - Seeking Help, Signing Krum, Providing Help

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The portrait door to the Gryffindormon room flung open on its hinges, and from the opening entered Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, fourth champion. The fourteen-year-old boy was stark pale, white like a ghost as if he had seen the most horrifying scene of his life.


    With a bead of sweat trailing down his forehead, he sat himself down in a corner, slumping in his seat, tapping his feet while looking at the floor with unblinking eyes.


    Ever since he had be champion, he had been attracting a lot of eyes no matter where he went, and it was something that he didn''t enjoy because people at Hogwarts had just gotten used to his reputation as the Boy-Who-Lived. Currently, though, he didn''t care about the looks of others; he couldn''t care less if someone red or smiled at him.


    He didn''t know how long he sat in his seat, but Hermione and Ivy had returned from their daily library visit. The two girls saw him sitting in the corner, his eyes haunted.


    "What happened to you?" asked Hermione upon reaching Harry''s seat.


    Upon not getting an answer, Ivy pushed Harry''s shoulder to get his attention, and it seemed to work when Harry trembled as he looked up with a surprised look on his face.


    "W- What?!"


    "We asked what happened to you," said Ivy, "Wait... why are you looking like that?"


    The two girls finally noticed the pale pallor of Harry''s skin when he looked up at them, causing them to get worried.


    He only had one word in reply:


    "Dragons."


    He recalled his trip with Hagrid.


    . . .


    Four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick nks of wood. Roaring and snorting¡ª torrents of fire shot into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground on their outstretched necks. There was a silvery-blue one with long, pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground. A smooth scaled green one, who was writhing and stamping with all its might. A red one with an odd fringe of refined gold spikes around its face, which was shooting mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air. And finally, a gigantic ck one, more lizard-like than the others, nearest to them.


    At least thirty wizards, seven or eight to each dragon, attempted to control them, pulling on the chains connected to heavy leather straps around their necks and legs. Mesmerized, Harry looked up, high above him, and saw the eyes of the ck dragon, with vertical pupils like a cat''s, bulging with either fear or rage, he couldn''t tell which... It was making a horrible noise, a yowling, screeching schriek¡­


    "It''s no good!" yelled another wizard. "Stunning Spells, on the count of three!"


    Harry had seen each of the dragon keepers pull out their wand.


    "Stupefy!" they shouted in unison, and the Stunning Spells shot into the darkness like fiery rockets, bursting in showers of stars on the dragons'' scaly hides¡ª


    Harry watched the dragon nearest to them teeter dangerously on its back legs; its jaws stretched wide in a silent howl; its nostrils were suddenly devoid of me, though still smoking¡ª then, very slowly, the dragon fell. Several tons of sinewy, scaly-ck dragons hit the ground with a thud that Harry could have sworn made the trees behind him quake.


    The dragon keepers lowered their wands and walked forward to their fallen charges, each of which was the size of a small hill. They hurried to tighten the chains and fasten them securely to iron pegs, which they forced deep into the ground with their wands.


    A Common Welsh,


    A Swedish Short-Snout,


    A Chinese Fireball,


    And¡­ the Hungarian Horntail.


    Four lethal, pissed-off dragons, breathing fire in anger of captivity.


    He didn''t know whether he was d he''d seen what wasing or not. Perhaps this way was better. The first shock was over now. Maybe if he''d seen the dragons for the first time on the task day, he would have passed out cold in front of the whole school¡­ but maybe he would, anyway... Harry was going to be armed with his wand ¡ªwhich, just now, felt like nothing more than a narrow strip of wood¡ª against a fifty-foot-high, scaly, spike ridden, fire-breathing dragon. And he had to get past it, with everyone watching.


    How?


    . . .


    The girls looked at each other, not knowing what to do. The thought of a dragon was terrifying to them, and that was when they weren''t going to face them in a battle that might end in maiming, severe muttion, or death.


    "Harry¡ª" started Ivy, but Harry cut him off.


    He stood up from his seat, and suddenly he had a look of determination in his eyes.


    "I''m going to him for help," he said.


    He was already enrolled as a champion; there was no going back. So the least he could do was take some steps to increase his survival.


    "Him? Who do you mean?" asked Hermione.


    Harry gave a brief side nce to Ivy, and the girl-twin tilted her head in confusion, but the very next second, her eyes widened to the size of saucers.


    "You mean him?"


    Harry nodded. "He is the best choice, isn''t he?"


    "Well... he is... skilled," said Ivy; she could suddenly feel the phantom sensation of walls clutching around her. "But are you sure? This is big... he is going to ask for a lot."


    "Mum can''t help in the open. Dad isn''t here, nor is Sirius here. Out of everybody, I think he is one good choice, isn''t he?" said Harry, listing.


    "Or we can just practice among ourselves," Hermione chimed in, catching up to the conversation.


    Harry turned to the brte and asked, "Do you know how to deal with a dragon?"


    "Well¡ª not really..." replied the smartest of the group.


    "He will be able to help. Didn''t you say that he''s undefeated," pointed out Harry to his sister, "Also, if I remember correctly, he defeated Cedric; doesn''t that make him the best person to go to. A person who defeated a champion could certainly help."


    "If you say it like that..." The points made sense to her, but the thought of Harry incurring a heavy debt worried Ivy.


    "I would like to survive this instead of worrying what he would ask of me."


    Ivy still hesitated but conceded in the end, "All right, you can go to him for help."


    "Good," nodded Harry while stepping forward.


    "Where are you going?" asked Ivy.


    "To him."


    "Now?" said Hermione, looking at her watch; there wasn''t much time for dinner.


    "I would like to meet him as soon as possible," was Harry''s reply as he made his way to the exit, prompting the two girls to follow after him.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn sat behind his desk, gazing at the people sitting in front of him.


    "What do you two think?" he asked with a smile, "A fun and productive proposal to spend your time at Hogwarts? You''re going to be here for a while, so why not make it unique, something to remember and tell in the future as a story."


    Across him stood two people; one dressed in Durmstrang and the other in Beauxbatons.


    Quinn turned to the Durmstrang student and smiled, "Mr. Krum, your time here will definitely be something we will remember. What do you think, some Quidditch, while you''re stuck here, doesn''t sound bad, does it?"


    The grumpy and taciturn champion, who had been grouchy the entire time he had been in Hogwarts, who had been extra irritable when Kari, his ssmate, had escorted him to this ¡ªoffice¡ª to meet some kid. He thought that it was going to be another person asking him for his signature. But now, as he sat here in this seat listening to the kid ¡ªQuinn West¡ª talking about a Quidditch tournament, Krum felt the happiest he had been ever sinceing here.


    "I will participate," he nodded. He was more excited to participate in this than he was to take part in the Triwizard tournament.


    Quinn then turned to the other person, a boy, blonde, blue eyes, and asked the same question. "What about you, Mr. Dupont? Would you like to lead a Beauxbatons team?"


    Gael Dupont was the first guy from Beauxbatons that Quinn had talked to. He was a friendly and affable seventh year student.


    "I would be honoured to, Quinn," smiled the French wizard.


    "Excellent!" smiled Quinn pushing a thin stack of papers each towards the two people. This would be an borate thing, and he needed ample paperwork to keep track of things.


    "Please sign these at the crossed lines. This is some boilerte stuff; you can read them if you want," notified Quinn, and it was true; he hadn''t messed with any of the wording.


    "Mr. Krum, any other professional contract I should be aware of? Something that wouldn''t allow you to y Quidditch on your own?" he asked, knowing that, as Krum was a professional athlete, perhaps he could have some restrictions normal people didn''t have.


    "No," replied the Bulgarian, "I was contracted to the national team. The negotiations with the clubs are still ongoing. I''m still free to y anywhere I want to."


    "Good, that saves me legal trouble."


    The two new captains signed the contract for the interschool Quidditch tournament.


    "Now, you don''t have to worry about setting up teams right now," said Quinn, slipping the form into envelopes, "I will announce the tournament after the first task, which is on November 24. Thus, we are going to announce it on November 25. That day I will introduce the captains along with the rules. The official tournament will start on January 1, so you will have an entire month to set things up and get in some training."


    He stood up from his seat, prompting the other two to do the same.


    "It was nice meeting you two," he said, shaking their hands, "I will keep in touch. Please look forward to this tournament; it''s going to be something special."


    The two future captains exited the office feeling satisfied and excited about their future. Even Quinn was happy with how things were going. Things were running smoothly.


    "Nevertheless... the tough part is yet toe," he said, groaning and stretching. He sighed. Setting up teams was easy; he just needed to choose captains and let them do all the work, "So much of the logistics is left."


    As he walked to the red door in the ss wall, ready to get some magical work done, he heard a knock on his door. He turned back just in time to listen to the door-chime ring in a clear, soothing melody.


    "Oh, my," he said in surprise and curiosity, "I wasn''t expecting you three toe here today."


    In front of him were the Potter twins and the smartest witch of her age. They were standing at his doorstep; one determined, one hesitant, and thest curiously looking around his office.


    "Harry, Ivy, Ms. Granger. How may I help you out today?" Quinn asked as he moved away from the red door back to the barstool behind his desk. "Please,e in and have a seat."


    He sat on his own seat and waited for the three to settle down. He judged them from their current looks and bodynguage and saw that all of them were pretty nervous. Something he found interesting, as the girls hadn''t been anxious during theirst visit.


    "Do you know about the first task?" asked Harry, deciding to be straight to the point.


    "Yes," answered Quinn. "Why?"


    "I just saw them near the forest," continued Harry, as Ivy and Hermione exchanged a look; as they were expecting, Quinn was aware of the first task, and from the looks of it, he knew about it before today.


    "Ah," nodded Quinn with a smile, "Magnificent creatures, aren''t they? They are wonders of magic. In my opinion, their connection to magic is something to behold... So what do you want from me?"


    "I want to live," said the Boy-Who-Lived, "I don''t want to die from getting burned to ashes by a dragon."


    "And?"


    Harry nced at Ivy and Hermione before turning back to Quinn. "I want you to teach me how to survive the dragon."


    Quinn stared at Harry for a second ¡ªa very long second¡ª before replying. "Sure, I can do that."


    The three clients blinked. They stared at Quinn, who looked like what he had said was no big deal.


    "... You will?" asked Ivy, honestly expecting something more or¡­ just something.


    "Yeah, it''s all right. I don''t consider myself a good teacher, but I think you will handle it just fine."


    "What will you charge?" asked the redhead. She had experience.


    "The usual charges apply; in exchange for my services, you owe me a favor of equal importance," answered Quinn, interlinking his fingers over the desk.


    "I ept," dered Harry without hesitation. "When do we start?"


    "Tomorrow," answered Quinn, "I will have a schedule sent over to you; build your day around that. I''m not going to adjust to yours; you''re going to adapt to mine. Though I warn you, it is going to be tough. I''m not a great teacher because I don''t have any patience for those who don''t work hard. If the problem is me, I will change, but if you aren''t going to put in the work, then you''re not going to like me much for the next two weeks."


    Quinn had two students ¡ªif he could call them that¡ª Eddie and Luna.


    Eddie worked quite well with Quinn because his best friend worked hard and hated to lose. Eddie''s personality made sure that he kept on working hard, and thus, under Quinn''s training, he had been able to get fit quite quickly.


    On the other hand, Luna wasn''t as hard-working as Eddie, but because Quinn had tailormade the learning method just for her, Luna was able to maintain consistent progress. As long as he was able to keep Luna interested, she would work and show good progress.


    However, unlike Luna, Quinn didn''t have the time to tailor a regime to Harry. He didn''t know how Harry learned or how quickly he learned, and with only a fortnight to the first task, Quinn didn''t have time to build Harry an optimal learning path.


    "Can we learn too?" asked Hermione. The opportunity to learn from Quinn interested her a lot.


    "Hmm," Quinn gave it a thought before nodding, "As long as you don''t cause a dy in Harry''s progress, you and Ivy, if she desires, can watch. But no one else."


    After setting up more terms, the three left, leaving Quinn behind in his office.


    "Another year, another request," he said.


    Ever since the first time Ivy Potter had entered his office along with Hermione Granger, he had provided the members of the Golden Squad the best help and solution he could provide. No matter what request they put in front of him, he offered a great solution to them. Sure, he asked them for something in return, but it was always just a token to make it seem that he wouldn''t give them help for free.


    The only favour he had cashed in was from their break-in.


    He wasn''t dense or ignorant; every time Ivy Potter had entered this office, she exited with some form of information. He knew what he was doing when he provided them with the knowledge and how it helped them. As long as anyone from Golden Squad came to the A.I.D. office and him, Quinn was going to help them out.


    With their identity and fate, Quinn didn''t mind helping them out. As long as it helped them along with Voldemort''s death as the goal, or simply the progression of the plot, Quinn was more than happy to be of help. If Ron Weasley came into his office and read a request from a slip of parchment one day, Quinn would help him out as long as it didn''t put him at a disadvantage.


    "It''s good they''re cautious of me," muttered Quinn, "it will keep their requests in check."


    He smiled, stood up, and walked to his workshop, ready to start his magical research.


    Quinn West was a busy wizard, after all.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    A/N:


    Hullo people,


    Now, I''ve been seeing somements saying that the chapters are shorter.


    It turns out that the statements are in fact true.


    Hear me out,


    I made a mistake and that was to undersell my word count.


    I generally publicized that my chapters are 3K words long because it''s easy to write and 3K sounds a good rounded number, but the truth is that before my little mid-term break, I''ve been pumping out chapters which were closer to 3.5K than 3k.


    The recent few chapters have truly been 3K words chapters and that might be the reason they seem short inparison.


    Don''t get me wrong, I''ve always aimed for 3K word chapters, but almost every time I write a chapter, it seems that whenever I reach that 3K line, my brain decides to get productive and I end up with chapters that are over 3K.


    That was my analysis.


    Thank you for reading,


    FictionOnlyReader.


    ]


    .


    Quinn West - MC - This is seriously going to be a hectic year.


    Harry Potter - Fourth champion - The Boy-Who-Lived wants to continue to live.


    Victor Krum - Durmstrang Champion - He didn''t enter the tournament entirely of his own will, did he.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 150 - Troll’s Eye, Best Allies

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The darkness of the Forbidden Forest''s Underworld looked quite different in Quinn''s night vision. Everything was coloured in shades of grey, the objectscked details¡­ yet his eyes were highly susceptible to movements. His other senses worked harder topensate for the fact that his vision was iplete.


    From his peripheral vision, Quinn noticed a mid-size acromant crawl out of the bushes between the ckened trees, making soft clicking sounds from the faint rustle of leaves.


    ''Another attack?'' he wondered, ice crackling with a faint mist below his palm.


    He raised his arm up, a jagged ice spike floating along with it. The acromant didn''t seem to feel any fear in the face of the ice. Seeing theck of reaction, Quinn''s eye twitched, and he sighed. He raised his arm straight above his head and shot the ice spike straight up into the air with loaded force.


    Instantly, a screeching scream sounded as a small-sized acromant fell down just ahead of his feet. A thick rope of spider web attached from its spinneret was hanging above.


    ''If force isn''t working, they''re using brains, huh. I can respect that.''


    The mid-size acromant that was working as a distraction saw another spike manifest into existence, and this time it felt fear. The spider leaped into the bushes and scurried away before Quinn could send a spike its way.


    He knelt on the floor, and with a pair of protective gloves adorning his hands, Quinn extracted some venom from the pincers and the already produced web-silk from its spinneret. He didn''t doubt obtaining one of the more unusual materials on the market.


    "If this keeps going, I will soon have a hefty stock of this stuff."


    It had been a couple of weeks since he had started to explore the forest, and in all of his visits, Quinn had met acromants every single time. Argog didn''t have control over his children, at least not much as he liked to think. The flesh-eating magical spiders were hungry for human flesh, and Quinn''s regr visits were simply too much of a temptation.


    After collecting the venom and silk, Quinn walked ahead; deeper into the forest. Within a minute of walking, treading between the trees, vines, and knee-length bushes, Quinn finally arrived at another region of the woods. His erged, dted pupils and modified eyes reverted to their original state as he saw a stream of light illuminate a circr clearing.


    He knelt down just away from the edge and peered into the only area he had reached, which had natural sunlight hitting the ground. He looked at the reason behind the reason.


    Within the clearing were broken stumps, uprooted trees, grassless ground, skid marks ravaging thend, and within all of it, he saw the residents of the great clearing. Among all of that, ferocious roars and grunts resounded as Quinn watched forest trolls, pale-green skin, and straggly hair, armed with clubs crafted from uprooted trees.


    The twelve-foot-tall, muscr monstrosities savagely fought each other. They bashed their clubs against each other, earnestly trying to defeat their opponent. One of the trolls finally seemed to gain an advantage as he struck the other trolls'' clubs aside and raised his own club above his head before bringing down the sturdy clubs straight down on the head of the other troll.


    A loud crack filled with an area with a painful roar, causing Quinn to flinch. But the sound was just the start, as a wave of more deafening roars pervaded the area. A horde of trolls sitting around the clearing, some of the tree logs, others on the ground, cheered at the fight''s brutal conclusion.


    ''Damn, do they do this every day?''


    Two times, he had watched the same scene two times. He had seen the forest trolls duking it out, and both times he had left after observing them, not daring to enter the light.


    ''One troll took a barrage of spells from the twelve-year-old me,'' thought Quinn, ''I can incapacitate them quicker now, but a dozen of them? That doesn''t...''


    The danger was just too great. With no free water source near Quinn, he didn''t have a magic that could use to wipe the trolls in one fell swoop.


    ''Fire could work, but the coteral damage would be too great.''


    The area and power of magic weren''t a problem. He could use some other elements with a lot of "firepower," but the problem was control. He was good with the other elements, but the level of control that Quinn needed to eliminate the trolls without the risk of setting the forest on fire wasn''t a level that he currently had.


    ''Fortunately, I have something I can use,'' he smiled and his body covered in ck camouge turned invisible. He stood up walked forward into the clearing.


    The reason he had returned two times was because of scouting. He had found the density of trolls inside the darkness was much denser than outside. If he wanted to get past this part of the forest, he had to go through the clearing. Even with his invisibility magic, the terrain of the forest was rough enough for Quinn to hide all the noise. The grassless ground was his safest choice.


    Step-by-step, he moved towards smack dab in the middle of the clearing.


    ''This reminds me of the chessboard,'' he thought, smiling, ''The risks are around the same, aren''t they?''


    "Roar!"


    His smile broke when he heard a roar from behind. Quinn turned to see a forest troll,rger than other of his kin, entering the clearing. His club seemed grander than others, ornated with various leathers and spiked with carved bones all around its surface.


    The new forest troll had spotted Quinn.


    ''How in hell?!'' he thought, but the answer struck him like a bolt of lightning as he saw the troll''s eyes. The green troll''s eyes were an off-white color, a shade barely different from the white of the eyes. Quinn knew in his heart that it wasn''t just abnormal eye color but something magical.


    "Trolls, like hags, possess rudimentary magic that in rare cases manifests in additional physical features."


    A tidbit of information about trolls popped up in his mind. It had been so rare, that that information had been stuck in the corner of a page. It seemed it was something that was so rarely seen that it was barely notable enough to get printed in... "one freaking book!"


    ''He can see me. Something in his eyes can see me. What is it? Magic sight? Heat vision? Or something entirely different?''


    He tried to think of the reason, but almost as soon as the thought entered, it was forcibly squashed as right now Quinn''s priorities were different. He had to get out of here as quickly as possible.


    His magic-aided mind worked overtime, and while he thought, the regr forest trolls stood up in confusion. They couldn''t see Quinn, but their leader alerted them that there was an intruder here ¡ªand not just any intruder¡ª they had a human among them.


    Trolls, just like their neighbours, acromants, also loved human flesh, and they liked to eat the meat raw.


    Quinn finally thought of a solution, spurring a line in his mind. It was one line that he recalled from the original works.


    ''Anyone can speak, troll. All you have to do is point and grunt.''


    So that''s what he was going to do.


    ''If this doesn''t work. I am going to go on a rampage and run in the chaos.''


    The magic started to leak out of Quinn; invisible streams of magic rose up, popting the area around him. He closed his eyes and concentrated. The image, sound, scent, and feel were unmistakable in his mind. Quinn already had everything, and the magic was within him.


    ''Let''s go.''


    The forest trolls had all armed themselves with their clubs and bones. The white-eye leader pointed at the spot Quinn was standing, telling his kind who couldn''t see Quinn''s position.


    But before they could take a step closer, abruptly, a dominant roar shook the area. They saw a fifteen feet tall figuree running out of the woods. It was the same size as their leader, but it looked much wilder and more muscr than their leader. Instead of a club, it had a dull, rusted sword in his hand, which he dragged across the ground, gashing the earth as he stomped forward.


    All trolls stepped back with their weapons clutched in their hands. They were scared of the neer''s roar and size. The weapon, too, intimidated them. The dumb trolls had enough intelligence to gauge this one''s intentions before charging in... the thought of the so-called invisible human.


    The leader troll, unlike his lesser kind, could see what was going on. He could see that the new troll was just some magic done by the human, as he was standing behind the "new troll." It grunted to tell them the truth, but the new troll roared louder and raised his sword towards him, challenging him to a fight.


    The forest trolls grunted in joy, excited to see a fight. They were confused about who to follow, and a "war" would solve that problem. They sat down, mming their clubs against the floor repeatedly as in the tradition of forest trolls.


    Quinn behind the "new troll" smiled. His n was working.


    ''Illusions sure are handy,'' he thought. ''thankfully, these guys are dumb, so dumb.''


    He had copied the leader troll, altering some features, making his creation more intimidating. The sword interacting with the ground leaving gashes? That was simply earth magic emting metal being dragged across the soil. The roars were sound magic, like the ones during his Tri-wizard performance, something he had mastered. He roared and grunted, challenging the big-bad troll to a brawl.


    ''If I win, I can walk out of here without arising suspicion,'' he thought and looked at the leader, who looked pissed. He had walked to the middle, with his bone-spike club ready for attack.


    ''Oh, you big dummy, you''re unlucky,'' sighed Quinn with a smile, ''You might be big and a little special, but in the end, you''re still a troll. The current me can wipe the floor of the twelve-year-old me... I could probably make him cry if I wanted, though that son of a bitch would probably try to pull something off...'' Quinn shook his head to stop himself from thinking off-topic, ''So you''re going down. Hard.''


    Quinn decided to take on the role of the aggressive alpha troll and decided to make the first move. His illusion troll raised his blunt sword and ran forward to strike. On the other hand, he prepared a flesh-shredding curse in his hand, ready to shoot it when the metal made contact.


    With his special sight, the leader troll knew that the troll in front of him was a fake, so his troll-brain decided to take the attack head-on; no defense was needed.


    ''Idiot.''


    The rusted sword descended on the defenseless leader, and the moment the illusion met his corporal body, the troll''s shoulder was shredded; it wasn''t deep, but neither was it a shallow cut due to the tough troll skin. It was enough to send the leader into panic and shock. He grabbed his shoulder and raised his club for defense, but Quinn had already anticipated the actions.


    ''Can''t let him rest, need to keep attacking,'' thought Quinn and prepared a strong Depulso ¡ªit wasn''t a duo or maxima¡ª Quinn never used those versions, they usednguage to gain the extra power, and he never used any words while casting magic. His "spells" resulted from his pure understanding of the magic and transcended the limit of chant-triggered magic. Even though he called it Depulso, it was at its essence a push spell whose upper power limit was decided upon Quinn''s understanding and the amount of magic he put in.


    The illusion raised his foot and kicked the troll, and simultaneously the Depulso-replication made contact, sending the leader to the floor.


    "Wu-argh!" grunted the leader in pain and surprise.


    "WARGH!" roared the illusion and raised his sword in a reverse grip, moving in for a stab.


    The leader was a tough and brawling-adept troll as he rolled aside to avoid the sword, causing the ground where he was just before to be ravaged by Quinn''s magic.


    ''Tch, he dodged,'' thought Quinn clicking his tongue, ''but... your opponent isn''t a real troll; he is an illusion'' A savage smile appeared on Quinn''s face as he finished his thoughts, ''he can move faster.''


    The illusion pulled out the heavy sword, which probably would have weighed a lot if real, out of the ground with an unnaturally swift speed and brought it up shed down again. The experienced leader, with a mind only for brawling, sent out a kick, tried to sweep the illusion''s legs.


    Quinn scrunched up his face and made his illusion jump to avoid the sweep. He couldn''t have the leadernd even a single hit, which would take away the illusion; he could control his movement, but not the leaders''.


    The illusion kicked the leader once in the shoulder, worsening the injury getting a howl from the leader. Quinn''s troll took the chance and ced his foot on the leader''s chest, holding him down.


    ''I won''t kill you, but I can''t have you interfering with me,'' thought Quinn, ''I''m sorry... really, really sorry.''


    The sword was raised and shed across the leader''s eyes, spurting blood, causing howls, effectively blinding the leader, taking away his only gift.


    "RaaRgH!" screamed the leader, clutching his eyes.


    Quinn''s troll stepped back and grunted and roared at the smallest of the trolls among the troll horde. In a show ofpassion and apology, Quinn ordered them to take care of the leader. Three smaller trolls lifted the leader up and took him away from the clearing into the darkness. The mournful screams eventually subsided, leaving Quinn alone with the remaining troll.


    The illusion walked away without saying a word to the others, stepping out of the clearing. And in darkness, Quinn erased the illusion and decided to end the day with this.


    ''Next time, I will move on,'' he decided, walking away from the forest troll inhabitants living in the Forbidden Forest.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Barty Crouch Sr. returned to his home after a busy day at the Ministry. He removed his coat and hat and hung them on the hangers, his eyes looking slightly confused and ufortable as he ced his hat on the hook; the man wasn''t used to this particr action.


    "Is work getting me?" he sighed, "Is my age getting to me? To think I would be tired just with this. This much was nothing in the old days."


    He chuckled in derision at his current situation. From the prestigious position of DMLE Head to the Head of International Rtions... how far he had fallen.


    "All because my son decided that it was fine to join a Dark Lord," he sighed, and for a brief painful moment, the thought of histe wife shed through his mind. "I should check on how that idiot son of mine is doing."


    With his wand in hand, Crouch Sr. walked towards his son''s room. He didn''t know that Barty Jr. needed a newyer of Imperius cast on him. But as he reached the staircase that led to his son''s room, the father noticed that a room not used in the house had lighting from inside. Confused with this sight, Barty Sr. removed his foot from the stair-step and walked towards the door with light across the edges.


    The owner''s hand reached the doorknob, but before he could grab it, Barty Sr.''s eyes zed over; he withdrew his hand and stood still in his spot with a nk look. Within seconds, rity returned to Barty Sr.''s eyes as he turned away from the room and the section of the house.


    "He will be fine. No need to worry," he said, sighing, "I need to fix myself a drink."


    But as he walked away, Barty Sr. turned his head back to look at the door, his eyes shaking as if struggling against something, before he zed over once again and became calm as if the tremor had been a lie.


    Inside the room left behind, still with light leaking through the gaps, sat two people; one thin and short with rat-like features while the other a wrinkled and hideous baby.


    "Wormtail, any news from Barty?" asked the ugly baby.


    "Yes, master," answered the calm man, matching eye with the ugly baby he called master. "Barty says that the boy has been made aware of the dragons awaiting him for the first task. Rubeus Hagrid took the boy and showed him the dragons."


    "I see; what do you think of the boy, Wormtail?"


    "I wouldn''t know, master. Thest time I saw Harry was when he was a year old; after that, I haven''t had much contact with the Potter family," said Peter Pettigrew, "but from what I''ve heard, he''s like James. If that''s true, then Harry Potter is brash, reckless, and popr, but I''m sure Lily must''ve given something of hers to the boy."


    Babymort stared at the follower who had brought him back with a cold gaze. His followers in his presence showed various behaviors; worship, fear, happiness, nervousness, servitude, and all other kinds of emotions, but he never had seen calm indifference as he saw now.


    "Tell me, Wormtail, why did you seek me in Albania?"


    Peter nced up from the internal Ministry memos provided by the Imperius-ed Barty Sr. "The ruin of the Potters and theirpatriots master. That''s the reason I returned instead of leaving my previous life behind."


    "... Meaning that you didn''t find me for my sake. That''s something dangerous to admit, don''t you think Wormtail?"


    "No reason to lie now, master. You already went through my mind after we got you this body. Neither you nor I gain anything from me lying about my motives. Not that it matters, the destruction of Potters is my main goal, and for you, it''s a crucial step for your return to the crown of the wizarding world."


    "What after that Wormtail? What after I do kill the boy and with him Dumbledores'' little annoying group? What are going you going to do then?"


    "Sometimes to achieve something, we have to lose something else," answered Peter looking at the burning firece, "as much as I would like to finally rest at the end of the Potters, I doubt you would allow that. So, servitude in return for my revenge that is the current n."


    "What makes you think I won''t kill you when I''m done with you, Wormtail?"


    Wormatil chuckled, an absolutely fake and dull chuckle as if the man had forgotten what it was like tough, causing Babymort''s eyes to narrow a fraction.


    "I don''t know what the future holds or what are your ns for me, master. Currently, I simply yearn to see the lifeless eyes of James, Sirius, and Remus. Ask me the same question on that day; maybe I will have an answer then."


    "You''re ying a dangerous game," said Babymort in his squeaky voice.


    "The moment I turned up at your doorstep all those years ago, I was already part of the game, master. It''s just now I''m finally ying to my fullest," responded Peter removing his eyes from the firece.


    "I don''t trust you, Wormtail."


    "A wise decision, master."


    The conversation between master and servant ended. The room regained its previous silence.


    Neither cared about each other, and both knew that fact well, and maybe it was because of that that they worked so well together. As long as their goals aligned, the threat of betrayal was not present, making the two each other''s greatest allies.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Let''s go! Real-life Fighting game!


    Leader - Forest troll - Possess-ED magical eyesight.


    Babymort - Voldemort - Doesn''t have the Cruciatus urge in his current form.


    Peter Pettigrew - Wormtail - Has forgotten what it''s like tough.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - How did you like the fight? I will be switching things up in the future.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 151 - Training Starts, Two Charming People

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, Professor of Transfiguration, sat in her office gazing at the student in front of her, genuinely wondering whether it had been a right decision to hand over the entire organization of an event of such size to a student.


    "Did you procure all the permissions, Professor?" asked the body in front of her, "I hope you did because I''m working on short time and deadlines here, so I will really need those permissions as soon as possible."


    "... Mr. West, I have the permissions here with me, but I truly have to ask, do you require these many people inside Hogwarts? The Headmaster wasn''t happy to have these many inside the castle."


    "Of course, ma''am," said Quinn nodding, "I don''t have a budget for this, so I need to gain funding some other way. All the peopleing are required for me to make my vision possible. Without them, I''ll not be able to get anything moving."


    "The Headmaster Dumbledore suggested that we got the Ministry involved. They might sponsor the Quidditch tournament just as they are doing the Triwizard tournament."


    "I don''t think so," said Quinn shaking his head, "They won''t give me enough money to sponsor what I''m thinking. They are offering the winning champion a thousand galleons; that''s a Junior Auror''s starting monthly sry. I get that Auror''s job can be dangerous, but fighting a dragon for a thousand galleons? Nah, I don''t think so."


    "Mr. West... the dragons are a secret," the deputy sighed, "I won''t bother asking how you know this."


    Quinn shrugged and chose not to tell thedy that at least three champions knew about the dragons.


    "It''s not like I''m asking all these people to stay at Hogwarts," he reasoned, "I simply want them toe in for meetings and to pitch my ideas. After we are done, they''ll leave." He then smiled and put on an alternative, "I can always meet them out in Hogsmeade, of course. But I''d need permission to leave the castle anytime I want."


    McGonagall''s sigh was all the response both of them needed. She could imagine how much Quinn would use the permission if he was granted it.


    "I do have to ask, how did the Headmaster ept after you told him of my ns," asked Quinn as McGonagall was the only faculty he talked to regarding this matter.


    "He... was skeptical of it at first. He didn''t think it was possible to host it in such a short time," answered McGonagall, pursing her lips, "I was able to convince him, but he still isn''t that optimistic about it."


    "Then I will just have to show him that it''s possible," smiled Quinn, "Even impossible says that I''m-possible."


    She slid across the stack of parchments across the table towards Quinn. "These are the permissions. The times and dates are mentioned here. You can''t bring them deep into the castle; there is a room prepared for you. When they arrive, you''ll have to go and fetch them from the gates; the responsibility for escorting them falls entirely upon you."


    Quinn picked up the parchments and quickly went through every single sheet before nodding, "Everything seems to be in order. The next few days are going to be busy for me."


    "To be honest, I don''t even understand why you are inviting half of those people. Are they all vital for the tournament? We ourselves didn''t meet that many people for the Triwizard Tournament," she said.


    Quinn replied, getting up from his barstool, "Everyone and everything is crucial, Professor. I am building a clock, and every task I do is a gear in the mechanism. Only when all of them work properly will the big clock function perfectly."


    "If you say so. I hope you know what you''re doing."


    "I do, ma''am. Now, I will take my leave. Good afternoon, Professor."


    "Good afternoon, Mr. West."


    The boy left, leaving the woman alone in her office, who sighed when she saw the stack of assignments that needed to be checked and marked.


    "This Quidditch tournament better be really good."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Harry Potter''s evenings were usually for hanging out and spending time with his friends; he had fun, yed around, or simply flew outside while catching quaffles. Today was different, as he had broken away from his daily normality. He was standing on grey stone pebbles, which were littered around a ce a distance away from the castle.


    "It''s good that you three are on time," said the person in front of him. They were dressed in a simple white t-shirt and ck cargo shorts.


    Harry turned to his right as he heard his sister speak. "What are we going to do today?"


    Hermione also raised her hand, "Are we really going to learn how to fight a dragon?"


    He looked at Quinn. The Ravenw staring at him with a peculiar look as if expecting something, but... "What?" asked Harry.


    "Before we start, I''m going to make one thing clear," said Quinn walking towards Harry, "I am here to teach you, Harry. Your sister and Ms. Granger are getting to watch me teach and nothing else. How much they learn is up to their aptitude. I''m not going to engage with them as much as with you. They''re not my priority; these two won''t be facing a dragon; these two will be sitting in the stands, watching you¡ª" he poked Harry at his chest "¡ª possibly getting mauled by a fire-breathing beast with a spell-resistant hide. So, the first thing you can do to not get mauled is ask questions. Whatever pops in your mind gets out of your mouth and flows into my ears. Now, how much you follow this advice is up to you."


    Quinn stepped back and looked at the three of the Golden squad. To some level, he knew their capabilities, as he sometimes peeled into their matters.


    "The goal of this ''training'' course is simple," said Quinn, "you need to survive the dragon and not get killed. The result I want to achieve is you not going to Madam Pomfrey after the task to get fixed up. If we can achieve that, this course will be a sess. Unfortunately, we don''t have time to get you to a level where you will be able to survive a dragon every time you end up meeting one."


    The three ''students'' gazed at Quinn as he talked like meeting a dragon wasmon.


    "Thus, we are going to optimize this course to suit the first task," said Quinn.


    "You know about the first task?" asked Hermione.


    "Yes, the first task is retrieving an egg from a dragon''s nest." answered Quinn, briefly ncing as once again it wasn''t Harry who had asked a question, "There is a catch, though. The dragons aren''t going to be just any dragons; they are going to be nesting dragons."


    "Nesting dragons!" gasped Ivy.


    "It seems you know about it. Yes, nesting dragons," sighed Quinn, "Mother dragons are ferociously protective of their eggs, so they will be extra nasty to those who try to get close to their unborn progeny. The four champions who will be tasked to retrieve an egg will face their wrath. All of this just makes the task harder."


    He pped with a smile, "Now that you know all of this, what do you think is the best course of action for thepletion of the first task safely?"


    The three trainees sunk into thought, trying to conceive of an answer.


    "Don''t go near the mother dragon," said Hermione.


    "Don''t attack the mother dragon," provided Ivy.


    "Er¡ª don''t attack the eggs?" spoke Harry, taken aback by the tiny amount of time his friends took.


    "Let''s see," started Quinn and first pointed at Hermione, "Staying away from the mother dragon is a smart decision. If you can get that egg while keeping away, then there is nothing better than that. It keeps you away from a direct jet of dragon fire which is always a plus point."


    He pointed at Ivy. "Your statement is a little iffy. Any spell cast against the dragon is an attack; the possibility of not trying to shoot spells at the dragon isn''t realistic. I can think of some situations and¡­ well, now I can think of some of them. Okay, we will talk about themter."


    "Finally, Harry," said Quinn, "Your point is of utmost importance. Thest thing you want is to harm the eggs. Do that, and your job will get exponentially more challenging. The dragon will turn from a protective mum to a breserking monster."


    "Now, I will tell you how I would''ve answered the question," he said, "My action n is to get in, move swiftly and get out as quickly as possible. The less time you''re in front of a dragon the less the chances of you getting burned."


    His bouts with the Kraken hadn''t ended quickly as he was suggesting now because the Kraken wasn''t trying to kill him, but the dragons were different; they would definitely try to kill him if he walked in front of one.


    "Decrease your movements to reduce the danger, huh,"mented Ivy.


    "Exactly," smiled Quinn, getting the reference from their time-travel chronicles.


    "But how do we steal the egg without getting close to the dragon?" asked Harry.


    "There are a few options, and in the uing days, we''re going to go through all of them," replied Quinn and peered intently at Harry, "and Harry? I''m going to cover some of the methods, so you better practice your best until the next session, when I''ll teach you another one. If I don''t see progress, you won''t like me very much. It can be the barest of progress, but I need that progress."


    Harry nodded in response, ready to do whatever was needed from him.


    "Excellent," spoke Quinn in acknowledgment, "Now, let''s actually get started. We''re going to go learn one of the methods that will suit the first task. This method is a simple enough spell that every wizard should know; the summoning spell."


    The gears in Harry''s mind turned, and with sparkling eyes, he answered, "I''m going to summon my broom and then ride it. The dragon will follow me, and after the diversion, I will grab the egg and exit the stadium."


    "Sure, you can do that if you want," said Quinn. He knew that was the method used by the original Harry Potter, "but I wasn''t talking about using the summoning charm to pull the egg towards you. Not only will you be at a distance, the speed of the summoning ¡ªafter you practice it¡ª will be fast enough for you to get the egg before the dragones after you or breathes fire."


    Hermione raised her hand and questioned, "The rest of the champions are all sixth or seventh year. Wouldn''t the judges know to charm the egg against the summoning charm?"


    "Astute observation, Ms. Granger," he smiled, happy with the observation, "There exist charms that disable summoning charms. Many upper mid-range and above wizarding goods sold as of the 20th century and early 21st centurye pre-enchanted with an Anti-theft charm to keep them from being summoned by anyone but their rightful owners. Thus, you''re correct; most probably, the egg will be charmed against the summoning charm."


    "Then what''s the use of learning the spell?" asked Harry.


    "Well, you can do your broom thing," replied Quinn, "or you can wrap something like cloth around the egg and summon the cloth tugging the egg along with it. The anti-summoning charm will be bypassed with simple strategy."


    "How do I get a cloth around the egg with the dragon guarding it?" asked Harry.


    "Let''s see... see that rock right over there?" Quinn pointed at a rock nearly the size of a dragon egg, which was a fraction bigger than an ostrich egg, "We are going to assume that it''s the dragon egg."


    As Quinn took out his fake wand, Ivy spoke up, "Are you going to transfigure the piece of clothing? It will be tough with the dragon there¡ª"


    The sentence died as Quinn pointed his fake wand at the stone, and at aser beam speed, a blue spell light shot out, zapping the pebbles near the rock in an instant. Within a split second, the pebbles merged together and transfigured into cloth which jumped at the rock, wrapping around it. An upwards wave of his fake wand and the stone was tugged along with the cloth, zooming into Quinn''s hand at rocket speed.


    The entire process registered under four seconds.


    "¡ª near the egg..." finished Ivy, watching the rock in Quinn''s with utter amazement. The reaction was mimicked by the other two.


    "It doesn''t matter if a dragon is guarding it," said Quinn nonchntly, dropping the stone on the ground with the de-transfigured pebbles scattering, "if I''m this fast, it won''t have the time to react. I''m not asking you to be this fast. But if you''re able to distract the dragon, a fast enough version of this will work for you during the first task."


    He put a hand in his trousers'' pocket andzily waved his other hand towards the trio. "Now try to practice this same thing till the end of the hour."


    Quinn walked backward and sat against a stone, watching the three take out their wands.


    "Oh, I almost forgot it," he spoke up before they started, "the chant for the summoning spell is ''io.'' Listen carefully, it''s ah-kee-oh. Not ''see'', nor ''she,'' but ''kee.''"


    Harry nodded, but the other two girls nced at Quinn, realizing he hadn''t voiced the spell out while casting.


    ''Nonverbal casting,'' thought both simultaneously. On the other hand, Quinn hadn''t noticed that as he never used verbal casting in his life.


    The hour passed with Quinn half working with the three, half concentrating on his lumency.


    After all, he had no time to waste.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    With all the responsibilities Quinn had taken, dinner time at Great Hall was the only time Quinn was actually free. From six in the morning when he woke up to one after midnight when he went to sleep, every single movement was spent working, practicing magic, and studying.


    Even now, while he put a piece of bread into his mouth, he was thinking about what he needed toplete before going to sleep.


    ''Tomorrow is going to be a long day; I need to prepare for that,'' he thought as he ate a spoonful of Lancashire hot pot.


    Eddie, who was sitting beside Quinn, felt a pat on his shoulder and turned his head to look.


    "Can I sit here," asked the person.


    "Huh, hell no ¡ª" said Eddie, answering with his instincts, but when he saw the person, his eyes widened, and his lips parted ever so slightly.


    Eddie slowly nodded with a dreamy smile on his face. He dly got up from his seat, allowing the person to sit in his ce. The person smiled, and Eddie felt his world brighten, as if he had been in a shadowy world and it was the first time he was walking under the glorious sun.


    "You can go now," the person said in a voice that seemed melodious to Eddie.


    Eddie frowned a fraction, not liking the request, and when the person noticed it, she too frowned, not expecting the resistance. But then she smiled and requested again with a smile, "Please?"


    "... Okay, if you say so," nodded Eddie, still not happy. Nevertheless, he followed the request.


    With Eddie gone, the person ced her chin on the back of her fair hand, which was resting on the table, and looked at Quinn, who was oblivious that Eddie had left his side, to be reced by someone else. She raised her other hand and tapped his shoulder with one dainty finger.


    Quinn, feeling the light tap, came out of his thoughts and turned. Immediately he came face-to-face with a curious Fleur Dcour. He blinked, and even though the allure wasn''t affecting him, Quinn noticed it gliding over him.


    "Ms. Dcour? May I ask where did the boy who sat here go?" asked Quinn, dabbing his face with a napkin.


    Fleurughed, showing him her pearly smile, "He went away."


    "You mean you sent him away."


    "Something like that," she confessed, "though surprisingly, it took a lot of my allure to affect him. Are all your friends like that?"


    "Of course not; Eddie is just a tad bit stubborn," he then paused for a bit, "actually, if you met him in different and certain circumstances, you would''ve been more surprised by him."


    "And what about you? Why can you resist my allure? What''s the story behind that," asked the ve, cing her hand barely an inch away from Quinn''s hand.


    Quinn, seeing what she was doing, decided to humour her. He shifted to face her and charmingly smiled, "Hmm, maybe it''s because my own charm is so strong that I''m not affected by yours."


    Fleur giggled, and the world seemed to get more vivid and lively at her every movement. Those who sat around the two were now staring at Fleur with unblinking eyes.


    "Maybe you''re right. You''re certainly very charming, Quinn," She leaned towards Quinn ever so slightly.


    "Thank you for thepliment, Ms. Dcour," smiled Quinn, not pulling away and flirting back, "your beauty too has no bounds. You''re absolutely stunning if you ask me."


    "Aren''t you quite the tterer, Quinn?"


    "It isn''t ttery if it''s the truth."


    Across from them, Marcus stared between the two.


    "Huh..."


    Around the Great Hall, a certain few people from different house tables also gazed at Quinn while he chatted with a giggling Fleur.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - The Wests¡­ have a certain charm. Quinn West? He has an abundance of it.


    Fleur Dcour - Ve, champion - This is more fun than I thought.


    Minerva McGonagall - Deputy Headmaster - Doesn''t yet understand the scale of Quinn''s ns.


    Harry Potter - Fourth Champion - In-Training.


    Eddie Carmichael - Status: Allured - Wait a minute¡­ something doesn''t feel right.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Let''s have them flirt a little.


    nL - Editor - My wish ising true~


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 152 - Meeting With Vendors

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Looking around a bare room with minimal furniture and decorations made Quinn frown.


    "I don''t like this room," sighed Quinn, leaning against the shabby long table inside the room, "I should''ve asked McGonagall to allow them to be in my office."


    He gazed around the room, turning his head to look everywhere, and as he turned his head, the room started to change. The walls turned cream-coloured while the ceiling shifted to a pleasing white. Starting from his feet, the floor transformed from an old marble to a smooth dark patterned wood. He pushed himself away from the shabby long table as it started to twist and shrunk into a point before erging out in a spiral, having transformed into a professional white marble top table. The chairs surrounding the new table also twisted and turned into ck leather cantilever chairs, contrasting against the white marble.


    "Yeah, that isn''t going to work," he said, looking at the ceiling chandelier. With a twitch of his finger, it detached itself from the ceiling mount, shrunk to the size of a rubik''s cube before flying into his pocket. From the same pocket, six MLEs flew out and strategically ced themselves in the room for appropriate lighting.


    After he finished his transfigurations, Quinn nodded in satisfaction, "Now this is more like it."


    Quinn heard a knock on the door. He turned to see it open, and a young girl peeked inside.


    "Quinn, they''re here," said the girl dressed in Hufflepuff trims.


    "Ah, Ms. Di, thank you," smiled Quinn at the third-year girl, "please let them in."


    "No, this was the least I could do," said the girl, recalling the time when Quinn had helped her with rune supplies ten minutes before there had been a scheduled test in the Ancient Runes ss.


    She pushed the doorpletely open and stepped aside for two people (a man and woman) to enter. They were dressed in usual wizarding robes, though they did have leather gloves covering their hands and sturdy boots on their feet.


    As they looked around the room, Quinn addressed the couple. "Mr. and Mrs. Ingelbee from Spintwitches Sporting Needs?"


    The woman removed her eyes from the MLEs on the ceiling and looked at Quinn. "Yes. You must be Quinn West."


    "That''s right, please take a seat so we can get started," said Quinn and whispered a name under his breath and followed with: "Two sses of water." Suddenly, there were two sses of water along with a pitcher on the table.


    The Ingelbee couple sat down opposite Quinn.


    Mr. Ingelbee took out a parchment from his robes and ced it on the table, "ording to this MagiFax, Hogwarts requires quidditch robes and gear? Usually, Professor McGonagall contacts us, but she said there wouldn''t be any orders this year? So why...? Also, where is Professor McGonagall?"


    "Professor won''t being; I''m in charge," spoke Quinn, "I wrote that letter to you; I will be handling all ourmunication and negotiations."


    "You? Are you sure?"


    "Yes."


    "... If you say so."


    "Good. Let''s get started. This meeting isn''t for the Hogwarts quidditch tournament. You won''t be making our usual four house robes," said Quinn and smiled, "this year, there is going to be a different tournament, and we require new robes for it."


    "A different tournament?" asked Mrs. Ingelbee, interested.


    "Yes, a different tournament," replied Quinn, "As you all know, we''re currently hosting Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students. Hogwarts will be hosting a quidditch tournament with students from all three schools to improve the rtionship between the three schools. For that, we need new uniforms to be drafted soon. You''ve been a trusted partner for Hogwarts all these years, and because of that rtion, Spintwitches has been our first choice."


    Ingelbees'' interest seemed to rise with every word that came out of Quinn''s mouth.


    "So you''re saying, four brand new teams," counted Mrs. Ingelbee, "that makes twenty-eight new orders."


    "Actually," said Quinn, his smile widening, "it''s not four teams, but ten teams. That means, it won''t be twenty-eight orders either..."


    Mrs. Ingelbeepleted Quinn''s sentence for him, "Seventy new orders!"


    "Yes, seventy new orders," nodded Quinn and then added another bonus, "Some might even be looking for a brand new personal gear. So there are chances that you will get new orders from them."


    Ingelbees'' eyes shined brighter at the prospect of new business.


    "When do we start? We will have to take measurements, decide the color schemes, logos, names. There is a lot of work to do!"


    Quinn gazed at the couple, who had started to talk among each other about the work they had to do.


    "There is one more thing I have to say," he said. When the couple looked at him, Quinn continued, "we won''t be able to pay you in money for this order."


    "... What?" said Mr. Ingelbee, "What do you mean by that? If you aren''t going to pay us in money, then how are we getting to pay us?"


    "You¡ª you aren''t asking us to do this for free, are you? That won''t be possible," added Mrs. Ingelbee, "The order is toorge."


    "You will be paid, just not in money," said Quinn and took out an A-4 sized envelope from his pockets and ced it in front of the couple, "but this is how I''m nning to pay Spintwitches for their services."


    Mr. Ingelbee opened up the envelope, and the couple started to read the half dozen pages inside. With every page they read, their reaction moved towards higher levels of surprise and shock.


    "Is this true?" asked Mrs. Ingelbee, holding thest page in her hand.


    "A hundred percent true," responded Quinn, "neen weeks of high-level exposure. As this is a brand new and such a unique event, the level of publicity this will gain will be on another level. There are good chances that it might just be a once-in-a-lifetime event, so it''s up to you if you want to take part in this. I really hope you ept, as we want to continue our partnership with you."


    "We ept!" said Mr. Ingelbee, "If this is exactly what you''re offering, then we will provide the robes. There won''t be any problems at all!"


    "Excellent," smiled Quinn and took out another envelope with more papers, "please read this contract over. You have a week to send the signed contract. We''re going to start soon."


    He ended the meeting with Spintwitches Sports Need.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After the Ingelbees left, thirty minutester, there was another knock on the conference room door.


    Quinn, from his seat, looked over and saw a young boye inside.


    "Umm, Quinn, the ones you asked me to bring in are here," said the second-year.


    "Mr. Gand, thank you for guiding them in; please let them in," smiled Quinn, thanking the Gryffindor boy.


    The boy left and another two people came in. The door closed behind them and when Quinn saw one of the two people he shed a genuine smile.


    "Quinn, how have you been?" said one of the two men.


    Quinn stood up and greeted back, "Gary, it has been a while."


    Standing in front of him was Gary, the manager of Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop, Hogsmeade.


    "No, that isn''t correct," said Quinn, "you''re now the Head of Silver Moon Printing MagiTech. Congrattions on the promotion, Gary. How is life treating you?"


    "It has been hectic, but the work is exciting, so I guess everything is going well," said Gary. He turned to the young man beside him and introduced, "This is Ben Sapworthy. He is the new manager of Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop."


    Quinn shook hands with the newly introduced man. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Sapworthy. With Gary gone from Hogsmeade, I''ll be seeing you from now on."


    "Of-Of course, Mr. West. I-I will make sure that you face no problem," stuttered Ben in the face of Quinn West. "P-Please call me, Ben."


    Quinn nced at Gary. "You didn''t say anything to him?"


    "Not really," grinned Gary, "I thought this would be more fun. I went through it, too, so him doing the same is fair."


    Quinnughed before addressing the new manager. "Ben, you don''t have to be formal with me. As long as I''m inside Hogwarts, treat me just like any other customer and not a West. What we have nned for today here inside Hogwarts doesn''t have a connection to the Wests. I will act and pay like any other customer."


    Ben nodded, but his nervousness didn''t decrease one bit.


    "All right, sit down. Let''s get to work."


    Once again, Quinn sat down to discuss details about the quidditch tournament.


    "You read the letter I sent you, right?" asked Quinn.


    "I did," answered Gary, "from what I could see, it''s an ambitious project."


    "If I''m going to do something, then I''ll do it as perfectly as I can," said Quinn, "Everything, from the smallest details to the biggest spotlight. Everything will be as great as I can achieve with what I''ve been given."


    "So, what are you looking for?"


    "Team banners and printed merchandise, sponsor banners, entry tickets, posters for advertisement," said Quinn listing things he wanted from the printers. "Of course, everything will be in colour. From the smallest pamphlet to the biggest of the banners, every single thing."


    "The n to release the Lunar developer is still on next year," said Gary, knowing that February was theunch. "but given that you''re the creator, I got orders to allow the use of the form for this one."


    "You created the Lunar developer?!" blurted Ben. Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop had officially shifted under the management of Silver Moon Printing MagiTech; as such, he knew about the existence of the Lunar developer.


    "Yes, I did," nodded Quinn in answer, "but keep it a secret. This information is to be kept restricted even after theunch. I don''t want it to go out just yet."


    "O-Okay!" The new manager got even more nervous.


    "So we''re going to use this tournament as a promotion," said Gary, looking over the documents that Quinn had just pushed over the table.


    "Exactly, the promotion is going to be the payment," replied Quinn, "with the Triwizard Tournament being hosted here, the amount of eyes on the quidditch tournament is going to be massive. This might as well be the best promotion for the Silver Moon Printing MagiTech¡ª at least in the countries that send their students to Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang."


    Gary stayed silent as he continued to read the documents provided by Quinn. While he was given green light to use the Lunar developer for Quinn''s quidditch tournament, Gary had been explicitly ordered that, should Quinn''s n wasn''t inviting enough, he was to reject the proposition.


    Before Quinn contacted them with the quidditch n, Silver Moon had solid and well-defined strategies for the unveiling and promotion of Lunar developer. If Gary was to green-light the use of Lunar developer here, he needed to make the right decision, as bad marketing could harm the initial release and consequently, the business altogether.


    After a solid minute of thinking, Gary announced his verdict, "The name of Silver Moon will be present on everything we print. We also want a banner during the events. Whoever hosts the games will explicitly announce thepany name and the product. If you can do that, we have a deal."


    Quinn stared at Gary, who stared back.


    "The name on the prints will be subtle. I don''t want the name sticking out, disrupting the aesthetics of the banners" said Quinn before adding, "If you can provide extensive animation on banners, I can allow a couple seconds of promotion on each banner. Of course, everything will be on a loop."


    "Hmm¡­ Extensive animations can be expensive,"mented Gary. He thought about whether he had the budget before nodding, "Okay, we can animate a select few banners. I will leave the choice of banners to you."


    "Great. Anything else?" asked Quinn. Gary shook his head, so Quinn continued, "All right, I will send the updated contract to you by tomorrow."


    He then turned to Ben and said, "Thest batch of English A.I.D. cards that Gary sent me are about to run out, so I will need another batch soon. Please prepare one for me."


    Ben nervously nodded and briefly nced at Gary.


    "Don''t worry," chuckled Gary, "he is the one who prepared the French and Russian cards. The new batch will have the same quality that you''ve been getting."


    Quinn looked at Ben and spoke, "Gary gave you his endorsement; that means something to me, Ben. I will be looking forward to working with you."


    He extended his hand towards Ben, who grabbed it with both his hands, shaking it profusely.


    With that, Quinn''s meeting with Silver Moon Printing MagiTech ended with his promotional needs procured.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "What does Quinn West want from us?"


    Quinn sat on a tiny little low ground stool with his knees bent in front of his chest, looking at the tens of bulging, tennis-sized pairs of eyes that had oversized heads with bat-like ears.


    "I want help with food," said Quinn, the Hogwarts house-elves.


    "We have pie, chicken, vegetables, pumpkin juice," said a house-elf, "No student be hungry. How much want?"


    Quinn chuckled and shook his head, "I don''t want food for me. I want meals for people from outside Hogwarts."


    "... We elves no do that. Food only for Hogywarts student."


    Quinn took out a parchment sheet from his pocket and handed it to the leading elf.


    "Professor McGonagall has given me permission."


    The old elf read the parchment, and indeed the house-elves were allowed to ept Quinn''s request. Seeing the permission, the elves became utterly willing to help a student out.


    "How much food? Ten, thirty, hundred?"


    Quinn moved his eyes across the house-elves and answered, "One thousand."


    There was a wave of murmurs among the house-elves as they discussed among themselves.


    "T-Thousand can''t do. Too much."


    "I don''t need it every day, just once a week," said Quinn.


    "One day too much. Castle work won''tplete," said a girl house-elf.


    Over a hundred house-elves worked hard to keep the enormous castle clean, but if they took Quinn''s task, their regr tasks would be iplete, causing students problems.


    Quinn realized that and was prepared to turn the willingness into his corner. "I can give you the best wine-making equipment if you do this for me."


    At once, all house-elf floppy ears jerked up in attention. If there was one personal thing that all house-elves loved to do, it was making wine. Their wine was famous all around the world because of its quality. Even George''s wine cer was predominantly filled with elf wines.


    "Wine tools?"


    "Fermenters, carboys, barrels of any wood, canes, and tubes... everything you need," said Quinn.


    "Give time," said the leading elf, and he shouted: "Meeting!"


    The elves all around the kitchen left their stations and assembled in a giant hurdle. After talking for a while, they all turned to Quinn, and the leading elf said.


    "We will do it."


    Quinn grinned at that.


    The food and beverages were secured.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    For three days, Quinn continued to meet different vendors and suppliers for his needs. And eventually, on the third day, the time to meet with the final party came.


    And for this final party, Quinn personally went to receive them. He stood at the bridge that connected the castle to the area outside the Hogwarts ground. An apparition pop was just outside the Hogwarts boundary, near the entrance that connected Hogsmeade and Hogwarts alerted Quinn of thest merchant''s arrival.


    "Wee," greeted Quinn. He pointed at the castle behind him and asked, "Do you like it?"


    "So this is it, huh. Well, it looks grand, all right."


    "Oh,e on. You can say more than that," said Quinn.


    "I''ll say more when we get inside," she smiled.


    In front of Quinn stood a beautiful young woman with waist-length, jet ck hair and stone grey eyes that shone with intelligence.


    "Wee to Hogwarts, Lia."


    The final merchant was the direct representative of the business giant, Lia West.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Meetings. More meetings. Some more meetings.


    Ingelbees - Spintwitches Sporting Needs - The quidditch supply couple.


    Gary - Got a promotion - New Head of Silver Moon Printing MagiTech.


    Ben Sapworthy - Nervous to the point of sweating - New manager of Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop.


    Hogwarts house elves - Foodmittee established - Drink most of their wine on their own.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 153 - West Siblings Roaming Hogwarts

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The West siblings were walking through the Hogwarts corridors. Quinn showed Lia all his favorite spots.


    "From what I''ve heard from others, they''ll usually spend time in a conference room,"mented Lia, "and not roaming the halls. Not that I''mining; this is a good tour. I always wanted to see where grandfather, Ms. Rosey, Uncle Elliot and you studied."


    "You already know how the meetings go?"


    "70% of the people you met were our subsidiaries," said Lia, "I asked them how it went. I''ve to say the deals you gave them could''ve been more profitable to us. Those guys epted anything you threw at them. I wonder how the deals would''ve gone if they didn''t know your name."


    "Don''t say that," chuckled Quinn, "Gary drove a hard bargain. He didn''t go easy at all. For a second, I thought he was going to reject my proposal. Imagine how awkward it would''ve been for both of us, knowing that I made the Lunar developer."


    "He was the only one who followed the instructions properly," she said. "But yes, if he had rejected you, that would''ve been pretty awkward."


    "Well, can''t say that I didn''t take advantage of that," smiled Quinn, "Originally, I was only going to use the 50% of funds from our business, but the ns wereing short with absolutely zero funding, so I had to up that percentage by 20%."


    "I should''ve juste myself for all of them."


    "Are you trying to make me fail?"


    "Not really, just wanted to have some fun," chuckled Lia.


    "Yeah, that doesn''t sound fun to me at all," said Quinn, deadpanning.


    The two were making their way towards Quinn''s A.I.D. office and had just made a turn¡­ when they came across a familiar pair of girls. Lia recognized them immediately and greeted them before Quinn or the girls could say anything,


    "I remember you two. Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass, right?"


    The bubbly brte and the usually stoic blonde stilled in their spots, stunned to see an unexpected face in front of them. It took them both a second to recognize Lia, but with Quinn standing beside her, the two girls soon realized who the young woman was.


    "You''re... Quinn''s sister, Lia, if I remember correctly," started Tracey, "Yeah! I remember now, we met at King''s Cross."


    "You remember me, aren''t you nice," smiled Lia. The both smiled back.


    "What are you doing here?" asked Daphne, eyeing Quinn.


    "Quinn invited me," answered Lia, "I have some business with him. Currently, he is breaking the rules by giving me a tour of the castle. Well, he has always been a naughty child." She sighed at the end, as if she had given up hope.


    "And what about it?! I didn''t hear youining," rebuked Quinn.


    "If we get questioned, I''m not the one getting into trouble: you''re the one who brought me here; I''m just tagging along," said Lia grinning at her brother, adamant about embarrassing him in front of his friends.


    "Yeah, yeah, whatever."


    Lia looked at the Slytherin girls. She had something to ask.


    "It''s good that I came across you two. You two seem to know him¡ª" she ruffled Quinn''s hair just to get her hand swatted away "¡ªhe doesn''t tell us about school much at home. How does he act here? I hope he doesn''t remain cooped up in that office all day."


    "There is one thing most here at Hogwarts know," said Daphne. There was a factoid that most students knew, "If you want to find Quinn West, then he will either be at his office or at the Great Hall. If he isn''t at one of these ces, then you can forget about seeing him at all." She gave Quinn an observant nce as she continued, "No one knows where he goes, but even the Weasley twins ¡ªand they know the castle very well¡ª know where he disappears to."


    "I heard that! I heard that from Marcus! What''s with this school-wide betting pool to see if the Weasley twins are able to find where I go!" said Quinn, annoyed, "Do you know how annoying it''s to get tailed for an entire month! And those guys became increasingly shameless by the end of the month; they straight out tried to tag along me. No attempt to even hide themselves from me."


    Listening to Quinn''s mini-rant with his arms crossed made Lia and Tracey giggle and even made Daphne crack a smile.


    "Oh! I''ve something interesting," said Tracey, pping her hands once.


    "What is it?" prompted Lia excitedly.


    "There have been rumors, or should I say, definite news, that the French champion has taken a liking to Quinn," revealed Tracey. She coyly snickered behind her hand.


    Daphne nodded. The memory of Quinnughing with Fleur at the Ravenw entrance came to mind.


    "The French champion?" asked Lia, a hum in her tone, "From what I''ve heard, isn''t she a Ve?" She nced at Quinn, "You say that she likes him... hmm. Did you do something?"


    "... What? I didn''t do anything," said Quinn defending himself against... "Wait! I shouldn''t be exining myself. Ms. Dcour and I simply got along well and became friends quickly."


    "... Ms. Dcour," repeated Tracey, "hmm... it seems the news was a little exaggerated."


    Daphne, too, agreed with a nod, noticing that he still said herst name. It seemed that the Ve hadn''t ensnared Quinn yet.


    "Huh? What do you mean?" asked Quinn, confused.


    "It''s nothing," replied Lia, once again ruffling her brother''s hair, "don''t worry your pretty little head about it."


    He swatted her hand once again. "My head is not little... I guess it''s pretty; I will give you that."


    Eventually, the West siblings went on their way without the Slytherin Duo to continue their journey towards Quinn''s A.I.D. office. As they walked away, Lia turned her head to gaze at Daphne''s back. She turned back to the front and a smile bloomed on her face. Quinn, walking by her side, looked at his sister, who had started to hum a happy tune.


    "What''s with you?" he asked.


    "Hmm? Oh nothing~," she replied.


    The sibling duo reached the grand staircase. The moving staircase surprised Lia as she craned her neck up to look at the stairs upon stairs connecting seven above-the-ground floors of Hogwarts.


    "You navigate this every day?" asked Lia, "Also, is the movements random?"


    "Every student and faculty member at Hogwarts navigate these stairs every day," answered Quinn, "the movement of the stairs might seem random, but they are far from it. The staircases are charmed to detect the pattern of students'' movements throughout the day. With the students following timetables, by the end of the first week, the pattern changes such that students will find the stairs just at the right ce at the right time."


    "Come on, let''s go," said Quinn, stepping onto a flight of stairs, pulling Lia along with him. "W-Wait, wait," eximed Lia, grabbing onto Quinn and the railing just in time for the staircase to start moving.


    "What floor is your office on?" asked Lia. Being it her first time, she wasn''t thrilled about being on the continuously moving grand staircase.


    "Fifth floor," he answered.


    "Ugh!"


    After two floors of Lia''sints, she quickly got used to the moving stairs, and soon she acted as if she had been a part of Hogwarts for years. She looked around the stairs with curiosity. Then, she spotted a familiar face.


    "Quinn, isn''t that Eddie?" she asked, pointing at a staircase that set itself at a floor.


    Quinn turned his head to see Eddie pulling along a Ravenw with Eddie''s arm around his shoulders. "... Yeah."


    "We should go greet him," said Lia and at once started to move up the staircase.


    "Wait, we can go meet himter!" said Quinn trying to stop Lia, but unfortunately, Lia was already running upstairs, and their staircase was moving to the same stop that Eddie had gotten off at.


    He clicked his tongue when Lia stepped onto the floor. He knew what would happen, and it could be seen utterly opposite to what it was without context. Skipping steps while climbing the stairs, Quinn ran after his sister to ensure she didn''t misunderstand.


    Lia turned around the corner and saw Eddie standing face to face with another student. She was about to call out to him, but the words stuck in her throat when she was pulled back.


    "What are you doing?!" asked Lia, frowning at her brother.


    Quinn ced a finger on his lips and shushed her, "Stay quiet. Eddie is going to do something serious."


    Lia felt confused at the vague sentence and was about to ask for an exnation when she heard a dull thud. She turned to look around the corner and saw Eddie grabbing the other student''s cor, twisting it up while the student was pushed against a wall, looking ufortable.


    She blinked in surprise at the sudden turn of events and nced at Quinn, but he looked at the scene as if it was somethingmonce.


    Straining her ears, she picked up their conversation as Eddie spoke,


    "... do that again, and you will regret it," said the Irish man, "You and I live in the same dormitory, so if I catch you the next time, I''lle to your room at night while you''re sleeping¡­"


    She saw the threatened student gulp in apprehension.


    "... you won''t like me very much when you wake up the next day," continued Eddie, "so take this as thest warning, If I hear those words out of your mouth again, it won''t be a happy experience... Quinn is very particr about this, so believe me when I say he will tag along next time. Dipshit."


    Eddie pulled the guy forward before pushing him back into the wall once again. He grabbed his broom, which he had brought along, and stepped over a big window ledge, jumping out with his broom underneath him, flying away from the scene.


    "What?" uttered Lia, but Quinn pulled her away, and soon they were back on a moving staircase. Lia focused on Quinn and asked, "What was that? Why did Eddie say that next time you''ll tag along? What was he doing?"


    "You remember Luna?" sighed Quinn.


    Lia nodded.


    "Well, Luna is a unique person. entric and quirky are the closest adjectives I can think of to describe her. She is a charming person when you get to know her, but her first impression isn''t great; most of the time, shees out as weird," he sighed before his eye twitched in annoyance, "Just because she doesn''t say anything, some idiots try to have fun bullying her. Eddie Marcus and I have repeatedly told people not to call her that, but we scraped the request and turned to warnings when things didn''t improve. If they mistreat her, we will sometimes return the favor by making them not sofortable."


    Lia stared at her brother. He rarely showed actual displeasure in others'' presence, preferring to smile andugh.


    "... I would like to meet Luna once more. She has be something akin to a little sister to you, it seems," she said and continued with a Cheshire grin, "I would like to meet my new little sister as soon as possible."


    "She isn''t¡ª!" but he stopped thinking it through. His rtionship with Luna had indeed grown to be like a brother-sister rtion.


    "I guess you can say that," he sighed before ncing at her, "you can meet Luna right now. She''s in the office."


    "Oh, my, isn''t that lucky," she smiled.


    "Don''t coddle her."


    "I won''t."


    "Really?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Finally, the siblings reached the AID office, and seeing the door, Lia read the que out loud, "773H? What does that mean?"


    "It''s not a secret, but I can''t tell you," he smiled, "anyone who wants the answer will have to find it on their own."


    Lia stared at the que and memorized the alpha-numerical wanting to solve itter.


    Quinn turned the doorknob and opened the door to his office, entering inside while keeping the door open for Lia. "Enter the ce where problems get solved, and questions get answered."


    Lia stepped inside, and the office interior greeted her. Even just with a single look, she could tell that this was designed and built by Quinn. Everything inside the office exuded her brother''s craftsmanship. ncing at the top, she could see MLE attached to the ceiling. She realized that she stood in the birthce of Quinn''s inventions.


    "You copied grandfather''s desk," shemented, tracing a finger over the table, "same wood, color, and even the design is simr."


    "I always liked the table," he smiled, "when I got enough funds to get a new one, I bought the same wood and materials to build my own, though I did add my own touch and ir to it."


    "You said that Luna was inside, but I can''t see her here," asked Lia.


    Quinn pointed at the red door in the ss wall. "Luna! pleasee out; we have a guest."


    "What''s inside there?"


    "My workshop."


    The red door opened up slowly, and from inside stepped out barefoot. With her hair weirdly curly today, Luna looked at Quinn with a half dreamy-half sleepy look in her eyes.


    "Guest?" she asked.


    Quinn jutted his chin towards the size. Luna turned her eyes towards Lia and tilted her head. She hadn''t seen the young woman in Hogwarts, and this confused her, but then, slowly, recognition dawned on her.


    "Sister," she said, stepping towards Lia, "You''re Quinn''s sister, Lia."


    "I am," replied Lia before asking, "why is your hair like this?"


    "Because of Quinn," replied Luna.


    When Lia looked at Quinn, he raised his hands: "Again, I didn''t do anything." He turned to Luna and asked, "What did I do?"


    "The potion to grow hair without using Pechimin didn''t work, and it poofed in my face," she yed with her hair, "I tried it three more times, but it still didn''t work, and with each time, my hair got more like this."


    He nodded and walked near her. Taking out her fake wand, Quinn performed magic to fix her hair, turning her hair back to normal.


    "What did you use instead of Pechimin?" he asked.


    "Liv¨¨che de Chagrin," replied Luna


    "That isn''t going to work." Lia chimed in. "Liv¨¨che de Chagrin is too vtile. It won''t work with human hair. Try using Bechiraway instead; it''s much more gentle and has the advantage of being a great blending agent."


    Quinn smiled and lightly pped. His sister was right on point. If Luna asked him for the answer, he would''ve given the same solution and reason.


    Luna stood still for a moment before silently walking back the workshop to go brew another batch of potion.


    "What happened?" asked Lia.


    Quinn cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don''t know if it''s my fault, but ever since I started teaching her, whenever she gets an answer to the problems I give her, she drops everything and starts working on them. At times, she walks away mid-eating just so that she could try out a charm."


    Lia looked at Quinn and pointed out something. "Why are you smiling?"


    "Oh, it''s nothing," heughed, "her behavior at these moments makes me really proud... Wit beyond measure, the man''s greatest treasure. Though Luna did get in trouble trying to get out of a Potions ss because she thought she had the answer."


    "We should probably leave," he continued, "I don''t want to disturb her while she is concentrating."


    "Already? But we just got here," whined Lia.


    "How about we go meet Madame Maxime. I''m sure she would be surprised to meet you."


    "Oh! That''s a good idea! Let''s go!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The half-giant, Olympe Maxime, was sitting in one of the Hogwartswns. The Beauxbatons carriage was parked behind her. She picked up a veryrge teacup from the garden table beside her and took a sip while reading a French newspaper through thin-rimmed sses sitting on the bridge of her nose.


    Today was a rare free day for her. With the first task getting progressively closer, she had been swamped with work, so having a day without a full schedule felt great. She decided not to do anything and simply rx outside and catch up on what was going on in her homnd.


    She allowed her students to roam the castle without her escorting them. All of her students, without fail, took the chance and ran away to explore the castle. After living on Hogwarts grounds, Maxime had decided that the school was safe enough for her students.


    "The Ministry is adding unnecessary steps to their hiring process," she sighed, "Can''t they see that if they keep doing this, it will get difficult for them to hire good candidates."


    "Isn''t that great? This way, I will be able to get more people into my business."


    Maxime looked up from her newspaper to look at the person whomented, and her eyes widenedically.


    "Lia?!" said the half-giantess, standing up from her chair.


    "Good morning, Professor," smiled her student, "you look like you''re enjoying your Saturday."


    "What are you doing here, child?"


    "I had some business with my brother," said Lia, and Maxime looked at the boy standing two steps behind his sister.


    "Business?"


    "Yes, I''m here regarding the quidditch tournament."


    "Ah, yes," nodded Maxime, recalling her talk with Dumbledore, "I didn''t expect you two toe here. Isn''t it just a simple school tournament?"


    "Oh, no," chuckled Lia, "He has overdone it. The tournament is going to be something special."


    Just when the student and teacher were catching up, they heard a voice call out.


    "Headmistress?"


    Lia and Maxime turned their heads to see a silver blonde standing there looking at them.


    "Oh!" smiled Maxime and beckoned the girl forward, "Fleur,e here, you know Lia West. She has dropped by. Lia, this is our champion, Fleur Dcour."


    Lia West and Fleur Dcour met eyes, and Quinn, standing at a distance, sneezed lightly.


    "Am I getting a cold?"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Something is off... I just can''t tell what it is.


    Lia West - Big sis - This ce sure is big...


    Tracey Davis - Rumour enthusiast - Wait, wait, wait, let''s analyse this.


    Daphne Greengrass - ... - *Nod* *Nod* *Nod*


    Luna Lovegood - Student of Magic - The researcher inside her is growing.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 154 - Big Sister Lia WEST

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Ah, Fleur, dear. You remember Lia West, right" called Maxime, beckoning the champion Ve towards her.


    "Yes, headmistress," nodded Fleur. Looking at Lia, who she had only seen twice or thrice from a distance so closely made the Ve, for once, a little conscious of herself.


    It wasn''t beauty that made Fleur ufortable; she was a Ve, only other Ves and those from the Subus race could match her in terms of beauty. No, Fleur felt that, except for physical beauty, Lia West was someone superior to her. Her position, way of dressing, and even presence, seemed to becking in front of her. Even hertest aplishment as a Triwizard champion seemed pale in the face of Lia West.


    "Congrattions on making it a champion, Fleur," said Lia in French. She didn''t have her brother''s habit of addressing others by theirst name. "I heard you''ve already be friends with my baby brother."


    Fleur had been so focused on Lia that she overlooked Quinn, who was standing at a distance, looking at the sereneke.


    "Yes, Quinn has been most helpful," said Fleur, "recently, he has been taking time to show us around the castle."


    "What? So it wasn''t special. I feel hurt, brother mine."


    "Oh, stop it," sighed Quinn. He was used to this. This sister of his was adamant about quipping jokes whenever she saw an opening.


    "Fleur, back me up, would you?" said Lia. "At my home, all have attended Hogwarts. I alone went to Beauxbatons, and whenever I try to say that our school is better, they all shut me down, saying that Hogwarts is better. Don''t you think that ours is better?"


    "Beauxbatons is better, no doubt about it," replied Fleur instantly.


    "Of course, that was never even a question," added Maxime.


    The threedies looked at Quinn, daring him to say anything against their school. Quinn read the room and didn''t reply, though inside he did think, ''We have the Room of Requirements, Absolute Zero, a Sin vault, a Kraken, Water vault, Forbidden Forest. . .'' he realized that only one(possibly two) of those things were safe, ''. . . whatever it''s better.''


    "Yeah, take that," smirked Lia, asserting her newly found dominance.


    He just gave her an eye roll.


    Lia and Maxime decided to catch up, and as they talked, Fleur walked beside Quinn.


    "Good morning, Ms. Dcour," greeted Quinn, "May I ask why are you here alone with your schoolmates exploring the castle?"


    "It''s nothing," she replied, and Quinn noticed the quick and short reply.


    "Apologies if I''m wrong, but I did feel some tension between you and the rest of the group when we went on their castle tours."


    The French champion stayed silent for a brief moment before speaking up, "I can''t control my allure; it sometimes gets in the way."


    "Are you sure? It didn''t seem like that when we first met,"mented Quinn giving her a side nce.


    The girl didn''t look abashed at all. "Letting it out isn''t difficult. Letting out our Allure is the easiest thing for a Ve. It''s keeping the Allure hidden and restrained that gives me trouble." She sighed before continuing, "Ves my age already have the allurepletely under control, but I just can''t seem to get it under control."


    The fact that the boy beside her could shrug of her Allure on full force made herfortable enough to talk about her problem. She had tried to tell this problem to other people, but all of them just treated it like an excuse or turn into a blubbering fool.


    "Hmm, what does your mother say?"


    "She tells me that I should practice," she sighed, "it has been getting better, but I still have a long way to go."


    Fleur nced at Quinn, and seeing that the other two were still talking, she asked a question that Quinn had evaded every time she had brought it up.


    "Why can you ignore my Allure so well? Do you have someone you like so much that it doesn''t affect you?"


    There were two ways non-magical ways by which one could ignore the effects of Allure. The first was to have an iron will to brute force shake away the impact of Allure. The second was to be wholeheartedly in love with someone so that the Allure never attracted them.


    "Love? I don''t think so," said Quinn nonchntly, "I just can, so I do. Nothing more, nothing less."


    Will and Love were to non-magical ways. Magical methods like lumency were also effective against Allure. Quinn had used a mix of will and assimtion to be indifferent to Allure.


    "Nothing much. . . most people wouldn''t term it as nothing much," said Fleur.


    Quinn shrugged in response. He couldn''t say that he had done some crazy stuff to get to this point.


    "I wonder if you would be able to shrug off my mother and grandmother''s Allure. Their Allure is much more potent than mine, especially my grandmothers''," wondered Fleur aloud.


    "Yes, I have read about that. The older a Ve gets, the more potent their Allure gets," said Quinn, "Your grandmother''s Allure must be quite strong for her hair to be able to be used in your wand. I would love to sit down with her to ask some questions."


    "Hmm, if you evere to France, I will see if I can set up a meeting with her. She usually doesn''t meet with people outside of the coven."


    "Heh," a chuckle escaped Quinn, "same with my grandfather. He also doesn''t meet people out of a select group of people."


    As the two students talked, Lia and Maxime were gazing at them.


    "Your brother is quite different from you,"mented Maxime.


    "How so?" asked Lia.


    "He''s a little cold."


    "That doesn''t sound right," said Lia quirking her brow, "my brother''s entire thing here in Hogwarts isworking andmunication."


    "Not like that; heworks just fine," replied the headmistress, "there is something about you that makes people warm up to you instantly. Unlike you, your brother keeps people at a distance. Do you know he didn''t give his family name when meeting me?"


    "My brother is wiser than me when I was his age," imed Lia, "My identity was revealed pretty quickly while I was in school; you remember it, right?"


    "I do," nodded Maxime, "you were swamped for an entire year before it somewhat died down."


    "Yeah, I was an idiot in those days," she sighed, "my brother, on the other hand, has somehow made sure that people don''t know about our family. He has hidden that behind his AID service. People don''t see beyond it. Ugh, I should''ve done something like that. Simply ying quidditch would''ve done the job."


    "From the looks of it, he is going to join the business when he graduates."


    "Oh no," chuckled Lia, "my brother is more interested in magic. Grandfather and all of us in the family already know about it. The higher-ups in the business know that they won''t be seeing Quinn West as much as they see me."


    "A child of West not going into business? That''s rare, isn''t it?"


    "Money, Wisdom, Magic," stated Lia, the three qualities of the West house, "the Wests along the ages have leaned towards the first two qualities, Quinn leans towards magic and wisdom. He takes money as if it''s something fun and game."


    Lia stared at her brother, talking to Fleur, and asked, "Fleur Dcour, what can you tell me about her?"


    Maxime nced at her former student and smiled, "Asking for your brother? Worried that he will be charmed by a Ve?"


    "While I''m confident in my brother''s lumency, there is nothing wrong about keeping tabs," shrugged the big sister, "He is still a kid. I''m just worried that he will be taken by her looks and let her guard down."


    "It''s fine; she isn''t like that," assured Maxime, "she can''t control her Allure well. That makes it difficult for her to make friends. None of those few friends made it in the delegation. There are some friendlies, but they are acquaintances at best."


    "Hmm, that''s sad," but there wasn''t a matching expression on Lia''s face. A sad story wasn''t enough to let down her worries. "Well, whatever, he will probably be fine, but if something does happen, I can always give them a visit. Dcour, was it?"


    Lia dove into her mindscape and searched for some information on thest name. "Hmm, oh my, Bureau de Justice Magique with a background in Bureau des Aurors. That''s impressive. Her father is Pierre Dcour, correct?"


    ". . . Yes," sighed Maxime. She was slightly amazed Lia had that level of information filed in her mind.


    "Great, I can work with that," nodded Lia, making a mental note to find more information about the man.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn and Lia felt behind the Beauxbatons camp and had made their way into the quidditch stadium. They sat in an upper deck of the stands, overlooking the green pitch untouched from flyers skidding and crashing down during a game.


    In the silence of just the two of them being there, Li asked, "So this is going to be the construction site?"


    "Yeah, the stands are too small for my likings. I need you to make it bigger," answered Quinn.


    "How many people are you nning to invite to the games?"


    "Let''s see. . . at least six times the current capacity," answered Quinn, "I think that''s just the right amount of people who wille down to Hogwarts. Of course, I added a healthy amount of error margin."


    "Hmm, I see, I see," said Lia humming, "well, reconstruction isn''t going to be difficult. Given a week or two, I can turn it to your likings."


    "I don''t want aplete remodel," spoke Quinn in exnation, "I want this stadium to return to this state after my tournament closes by the end of this year."


    "Really, why?" asked Lia. "Isn''t having a bigger stadium better for the school?"


    "If we nned to invite people to the school, then it would''ve been better," answered Quinn with a shake of his head, "but Hogwarts quidditch house cup is for the students and no one else. asionally, parents show up, but other than that, the audience is just students. I don''t want to blow up the seating capacity just to be stuck with a stadium that looks empty at every game. It''s not good for morale."


    "Ah, the makes sense."


    "So, make temporary adjustments that can stand for the entire year and yet can be easily removed," then he continued with a juicy piece of information, "the third task is going to be a magical maze. As such, this stadium is going to be broken down to make space for the said maze. My tournament is set to end before the third and final task with ample time to grow the maze."


    "A magical maze, you say. . . well, it''s not going to be a problem to build the stadium," she said.


    "I''ve already sent you the design briefs. I''m not an architect, so you can make the necessary adjustments, but I want the stadium to look something close to my image. The banners and all will be designed to maximize the real estate I will have in the new stadium."


    "Don''t worry, I''ll take care of everything," said Lia, "you just need to make sure that our construction firm gets enough exposure in terms of advertisement."


    "That will be taken care of, no problem."


    "Good, let''s shake on it," she said, and the siblings exchanged a handshake to seal the deal.


    "Now that we''re done, I wanted to ask," said Lia, "why are you doing all of this? Professor Maxime told me that the justification you gave for starting this tournament was international rtions, but do tell me the real reason behind all of this."


    "Who says there is another motive except for international rtions," grinned Quinn, "we of all know how vital international rtions are. Almost all of our business abroad is built on positive interaction with the ministries and local people."


    "Okay, and?" said Lia, not buying it.


    ". . . I wanted to do something different this year," answered Quinn, "the regr AID work had gotten repetitive, same people with same problems year after year, all year long. So when the headmaster announced the Tri-wizard tournament and with it the cancetion of the quidditch cup, I decided to work on it. At first, it wasn''t going to be this big, but it had reached this stage by the time I pitched it to my professor. Other than that, Eddie had been training very hard for the quidditch season this year, so I had to do something that won''t waste his year. I''m sure if this wasn''t happening, he would''ve dropped quidditch and moved onto doing something else without getting a closure of sorts about what he had trained for an entire year."


    "Aren''t you a nice friend," said Lia poking Quinn''s cheek with a cheeky smile, "just don''t overwork yourself, okay?"


    "Yes, mum," replied Quinn rolling his eyes.


    "Don''t take that tone with me, young man," returned Lia, ying on with it.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After a couple of hours in Hogwarts, it was time for Lia to leave the premises. Both she and Quinn were busy people with their ownmitments and needed to get on with their day.


    As they moved towards the castle entrance, Quinn heard a voice call out to him,


    "Mr. West."


    The pair of siblings paused and turned their heads to look towards the source of the voice to see the headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.


    He was tall, thin, and old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He wore long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles sitting on his nose.


    "Headmaster," greeted Quinn.


    Dumbledore walked to them with a smile on his face. "I heard that your sister wasing by today, so I had to take this chance to meet the family of the smartest student in the castle. I went to the assigned room, but it seemed you didn''t use it today."


    "The smartest student; Headmaster, you tter me," said Quinn continuing the conversation while inside thinking what Dumbledore meant.


    "You must be Lia West," said Dumbledore observing the elder child of the Wests.


    "Yes, and you''re Albus Dumbledore," said Lia, engaging in conversation with the widely famous man. "I''ve heard a lot about you, Headmaster Dumbledore."


    "All good, I hope," smiled Dumbledore beneath his beard.


    "Indeed, your reputation precedes you," said Lia putting on a smile. She knew the most famous man in all of magical Britain, along with magicalmunities all around Europe.


    While Lia hadn''t been given the talk about being vignt of Albus Dumbledore as Quinn had gotten, but Lia knew an anomaly when she saw one. For a person of his position, Albus Dumbledore had too much of a positive image. Except for the asional scathing article from Rita Skeeter, Dumbledore was as clean as a whistle. Even the businesses owned by Wests weren''t as clean as Dumbledore.


    "Were you leaving?" asked Dumbledore, seeing that they were towards the gate.


    "Yes, I came here to see the construction site for the quidditch tournament," replied Lia, "from the looks of it, it''s going to be an exciting year at Hogwarts; first Tri-wizard and now this. A lot of eyes on the school."


    Dumbledore nced at Quinn, who stood beside his sister with a small smile on his face, the same smile that he had seen in his office, "With how things are proceeding, it''s going to be bigger than I expected."


    "The moment you read out Harry Potter''s name as champion, the attention that the Tri-wizard tournament gained rose to another level, headmaster,"mented Quinn.


    "That''s an understatement, Mr. West," sighed Dumbledore. Then he smiled as he spoke towards Quinn, "I was surprised by your initiative, Mr. West. In all my years at Hogwarts, I haven''t seen a student initiative of this magnitude. This is going to be the first of its kind."


    "You can''t take quidditch out of Hogwarts,"ughed Quinn, "I just made things more interesting. This year''s theme is international rtions, after all."


    Dumbledore nodded. "I was skeptical at first, but when you started to send me those detailed progress documents, I couldn''t say anything, could I?"


    "The need to report the progress arose when Professor McGonagall started to look anxious every time we met. I had to do something to ease her worries."


    "Mr. West, if you pull this off, you''ll get a unanimous vote Special Award for Service from the Board of Governors," said Dumbledore smiling.


    "Isn''t that great, Quinn," beamed Lia, happy for the recognition of her brother''s hard work.


    "It is," nodded Quinn humbly.


    Three people had gotten the reward in the history of Hogwarts. Tom Riddle for his alleged capture of the student (Hagrid) who had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley for defeating Tom Riddle and the Serpent of Slytherin in the Chamber of Secrets; the information about Tom Riddle was omitted from the record.


    Dumbledore faced Lia and asked, "Would you being to the games, Ms. West?"


    "If I''m free, I would definitely be here," answered Lia with a smile, "it''s my baby brother''s big project, after all."


    Quinn just smiled in response.


    "What about your grandfather?" asked Dumbledore, getting to the point, "Will hee? I would love to meet him. I haven''t met him in a long time and would like to catch up."


    "I can''tment on his behalf," answered Lia, "if he''s free, our grandfather will definitelye to every game. Unfortunately, he has been busytely," George was busy working on Quinn''stest products, "though I will ry your desire to meet him to grandfather."


    "That would be much appreciated."


    "It was nice talking to you, headmaster Dumbledore, but I must take my leave," said Lia ending the conversation.


    "Of course, of course," said Dumbledore and then spoke to Quinn, "Mr. West, please escort your sister out."


    "Yes, of course," said Quinn, and the Wests exited the castle, leaving behind Dumbledore alone.


    When they reached the boundary, Lia asked. "Why do you think he wants to meet grandfather?"


    "Probably about some political agenda; looking for his support," replied Quinn, "tell grandfather, he will decide if he wants to meet Dumbledore. Though if he doese to the games, I''m sure Dumbledore will corner him for a talk."


    "Well, I''m sure grandfather will handle himself," shrugged Lia.


    "No doubt, no doubt."


    . . .


    As Quinn returned to the castle, he thought about going to the Room of Requirements to get in a workout. When he entered the castle, he was surprised and came to a stop.


    "Headmaster?"


    Dumbledore turned his gaze away from the ceiling to Quinn, and with a twinkle in his eyes, he spoke.


    "Walk with me, Mr. West."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Aren''t we meeting too many people today?


    Lia West - Elder sister - She still has that protectiveness for Quinn.


    Fleur Dcour - Poor control over Allure - Wants Quinn to meet her grandmother.


    Olympe Maxime - Headmistress - Beauxbatons is better.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Spotted two Wests in the wild.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 155 - "As I Thought."

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Walk with me, Mr. West."


    Quinn''s mind sharpened when he heard the headmaster. His paranoia regarding Albus Dumbledore was screaming at him that this wasn''t a simple social headmaster-student walk through the halls.


    "Of course, headmaster," said Quinn. Using an excuse to avoid the talk wasn''t going to work, and he himself was curious about what Dumbledore wanted to talk about.


    Quinn fell into step beside Dumbledore, and both started to stroll through the hallways.


    "Mr. West, you recall the Age line that I cast around the goblet of fire to keep the younger students out?" asked Dumbledore.


    "I do; a fascinating ward. Fitting for putting down restrictions," replied Quinn and nced sideways towards the caster. "though it failed to keep Mr. Potter out of the tournament."


    "A most unfortunate event," sighed Dumbledore, "Mr. Potter is way too young and inexperienced to be entering the Tri-wizard tournament." He then looked at Quinn and asked, "From your words, it seems that you don''t think that Mr. Potter entered his name in the goblet."


    "Just as you said, headmaster, Mr. Potter is inexperienced ¡ª in magic ¡ª to find out a way to bypass the Age line ced by someone of your level," stated Quinn, "I doubt any student, not of age, would have been able to break your Age line."


    "Ho," smiled Dumbledore, "you think so? By chance, did you garner a close look at the ward?"


    Quinn held back the impulse to stare up at Dumbledore. "I observed it from a distance. There were too many people at the boundary for me to observe it closely infort."


    "Is that so," hummed the headmaster, "I''m sure you could have managed something. Youmand a substantial amount of respect from your peers in Hogwarts."


    Dumbledore was well aware of Quinn''s unique position in Hogwarts. It was different than any other student he had seen. Be it himself in his Hogwarts; he was well known and respected, but that only went a tad bit above what you could gain as the head boy; he wasn''t as well connected as Quinn (a fifth-year) was.


    ''He even leaves behind Tom in the quantity of connections,'' thought Dumbledore. ''No. . . not just quantity, he has better quality connections than Tom; unlike Tom, he is well connected to all houses and social groups.''


    "I could have," epted Quinn with a nod, "but I didn''t see the point. If I ever want to see that Age line again, I can simply approach you with the request; after all, you''re the headmaster and technically a professor of Hogwarts."


    "That''s true," beamed Dumbledore, "I see that as thest time, you still don''t consider me a teaching faculty of Hogwarts. . ." Students of Hogwarts addressed Dumbledore as a professor, but not Quinn; he consistently used headmaster. "Maybe I should pick up the fifth year transfiguration ss for Ravenw students from Professor McGonagall so that you will call me professor."


    Quinnughed before replying, "I would prefer that you start next year, headmaster. I would rather have you restart the Introduction to Alchemy ss in the sixth year and Alchemy Essentials for seventh-year students. No use teaching something that Professor McGonagall can teach second to none."


    "If you can gather enough students, I will restart it again, Mr. West," said Dumbledore, "I can''t restart the ss if there aren''t sufficient interested students, and unfortunately, you alone don''t fill that quota."


    "I tried to recruit and convince the more clever minds in Ravenw to learn Alchemy, but unfortunately, Alchemy isn''t popr among students," sighed Quinn, "such a waste, isn''t it? With you here, it''s a golden opportunity to learn."


    "nning for the next two years already, Mr. West? It''s only the start of your fifth year."


    "Hogwarts is a seven-year program, headmaster," responded Quinn, "for me, it''s not ''only'' the start of the fifth year but ''already'' the fifth year with only two years left. I need to make most of my remaining time here."


    He still had major projects like duplication of books in Room of Requirments and the unsolved vaults remaining and only a little under three school years toplete.


    "Only two years, you say," nodded Dumbledore, "have you thought about doing an apprenticeship, Mr. West? At Hogwarts perchance."


    Quinn looked up at the taller man and questioned, "Apprenticeship at Hogwarts? Wasn''t that program closed ages ago? I''m sure it was closed by the time my grandfather entered Hogwarts."


    "You''re correct," affirmed Dumbledore, "It was closed a couple decades before your grandfather entered Hogwarts; I think it was around the same time I graduated Hogwarts." His blue eyes gazed at Quinn as he offered. "If you truly desire to stay at Hogwarts, I can offer you an Alchemy apprenticeship under me. . . well, I can offer you an apprenticeship under me in any subject other than Magioology and Divination."


    Quinn chuckled at the not-so-subtle brag from the aged and diverse magical. "I appreciate the offer, headmaster, but may I ask what prompted this?"


    "A teacher''s desire, Mr. West," answered Dumbledore. "You''re a gifted student of magic. Any teacher worth his salt wouldn''t miss a chance to take someone like you under their wing. Actually, I''m surprised that the Head of Houses hasn''t tried to offer you apprenticeships; we semi-joked about this matter in many of our faculty meetings."


    Dumbledore thenughed in addition, "Poppy would always look proud of herself when that topices. You''re essentially doing half an apprenticeship under her."


    The mention of his favorite faculty brought a smile to Quinn''s face. He had been making steady yet swift progress in his healing studies.


    "I appreciate the offer, headmaster," said Quinn smiling, "but if I domit to an apprenticeship, my first one is already set in stone."


    "Oh? That piques my curiosity. Who is the master you have chosen, Mr. West?"


    With a grin on his face and an impish delight in his eyes, Quinn revealed, "n D. Baddeley."


    Dumbledore almost faltered a step when he heard the name. It took an errant moment of silence before he spoke up. ". . . n D. Baddeley. . . Mr. West, are you talking about the mind magic specialist, n D. Baddeley and not someone else?"


    "As expected, headmaster, you know of Mr. n. Yes, I am talking about the same n D. Baddeley."


    Dumbledore, of course, knew about n. How couldn''t he? The name was at the apex of mind magic. n D. Baddeley to mind magic was what Nichs mel was to Alchemy. Both were considered legends in their respective fields. After a point in a magicals'' study of magic, most people tend to focus on one branch of magic. There were exceptions like Dumbledore and Voldemort, but most people stuck to one and someplementaries. But people like n D. Baddeley, who took one field of magic to the extreme, were mythically rare.


    "Mr. West. . . how do you know Mr. Baddeley?"


    "Hmm? Ah, he taught me everything I know," replied Quinn and tapped a finger against his temple, and Dumbledore immediately understood that Quinn was talking about mind magic.


    "He offered me an apprenticeship when our time together came to an end," spoke Quinn fondly, "If and when I do start an apprenticeship, it will be a mind magic specialization and under Mr. n. . . but maybe after that, I will take your offer of an Alchemy apprenticeship, headmaster. I''m not one to waste an opportunity that fell in myp."


    ". . . Ah! I see. Yes, yes," replied Dumbledore, still a little surprised by the sudden nugget of information thrown at him. He looked at Quinn, specifically his head, and one thing was cemented in his mind; Quinn West''s mental defenses and faculties were solid. The child in front of him had been able to get an apprenticeship from n D. Baddeley; there was no doubt about the quality of Quinn''s lumency.


    "Speaking of mind magic, it seems that we have diverted from the topic I wanted to speak with you," said Dumbledore filling the new revtions in his mind, "so before I forget, I want to continue our discussion."


    "You were talking about the Age line," supplied Quinn.


    "Yes, the Age line," repeated Dumbledore and intently gazed at Quinn, "Mr. West, would you like to guess how Mr. Potter''s name was entered into the goblet?"


    Quinn gathered his thoughts for a few seconds. "Well, from what I know about the Age line and the goblet of fire, the real submitter was clearly someone of age and used magic to confude the goblet of fire ¡ª while a powerful magical artifact, it still has some weak spots, and this one was its. Continuing onwards, the perpetrator clearly knew what they were doing. They used another school name so that Harry Potter would be a champion because, let''s be honest, right now, I will take Cedric Diggory over Harry Potter any time of the day."


    "Mr. West," interrupted Dumbledore, "how do you know about Mr. Potter''s name slip being added under a fourth school? That wasn''t made public."


    "I''ve my sources, headmaster. I''m Quinn West, and a certain group of people really love me," replied Quinn.


    "I see, well I can imagine that," said Dumbledore, not bothered. "Mr. West, it looks like you''re well-read on the goblet of fire; you''ve done your research."


    "Well, you can say that. . ." Even though it didn''t sound like it, Quinn had trailed at the end. The subtle gaze from Dumbledore wasn''t looking good to Quinn.


    "Mr. West, you see, I had to remove the Age line when the goblet of fire was removed from the Great hall," said Dumbledore, and Quinn knew where this was going, "and to my absolute surprise, I came across another ward line concentric to my Age line. I, of course, investigated the unknown ward, and to my surprise, it was an ingenious design to destroy objects with specific names on. To my estimate, it could destroy a thick piece of leather or a thin b of brittle stone when triggered."


    Quinn showed absolutely no change in his expression.


    ''It''s okay. I''m fine. Dumbledore has no proof. I made sure to add fail-safes.'' While he assured himself, another part of himself was berating himself for not moving more quickly to remove his prevention ward.


    He went one level ahead and put on a confused expression on his face. "That''s indeed surprising, headmaster."


    "Yes, but the surprise doesn''t end here," continued Dumbledore, "the surprise was the names that were tied to the wards. The names that the ward was supposed to target."


    ''It''s okay. It''s okay. It will be fine.'' Dumbledore was a master of his craft. While the situation was shocking, Dumbledore decoding his ward to the level where he could get names while frustrating wasn''t surprising.


    "I found multitudes of names," said Dumbledore. "Names of students from the very first year to the very top at the seventh year. I found dozens and dozens of names tied to the ward."


    From his bright blue robes, Dumbledore retrieved a roll of parchment and handed it to Quinn.


    "I''m hoping to find the one who drew the ward, and you''re the best person I know who would be able to help me with this small problem. Give your position in the school and the sheer amount of interaction you have with your fellow students; I was wondering if you could look at these names and tell me if you can see a pattern in them."


    Quinn wordlessly nodded and unrolled the parchment. Inside it was a list of names of Hogwarts students arranged by both house and year.


    He gave it a read-over before shaking his head. "I''m sorry, headmaster, but I can''t see a pattern in this list of names. These really look to me as a random list of names."


    This was Quinn''s fail-safe. While nning about drawing the ward, Quinn had thought about the scenario if someone discovered the ward and reach the level that Dumbledore had reached.


    He knew that the culprit would be too obvious if he just stuck with his and his friends'' names. Given that he was by far the most knowledgeable and adept at magic, he would be the prime suspect. To prevent that, Quinn nned a contingency; he added random names from all over Hogwarts to the ward so that anyone of those people''s name slips would be destroyed.


    He knew that there were overwhelming chances that some of those people would try to enter their names inside, so he made sure to build in a discreet method of destruction. As long as the goblet of fire wasn''t confuded, only the ink of the names would be discreetly burned just before the goblet''s fire engulfed the slip. That along the goblet''s innate defenses would be enough to bar the listed people from entering. Only when the goblet was full-on confuded intoplete activation mode did Quinn unleash the ward''s entire lightning and incinerating force, as that was the time where no chance of error could be allowed.


    "Is that so. . ." sighed the headmaster.


    "Headmaster, can I keep this? While I can''t see anything right now, I may be able to discern something if I give it more time," offered Quinn as a good student.


    "Of course, Mr. West. You can keep the parchment," said Dumbledore, "If you do find something, please contact me. I truly want to meet the person who drew the ward. It''s quite an amazing application of runes, ward theory, and esoteric charms."


    "I will try my best," said Quinn. Of course, he was going to do anything but that.


    "Thank you would be of great help."


    "Now, headmaster, by your leave, I would like to part here."


    "Of course, of course. I''m sure you''re busy."


    With Dumbledore''s permission, Quinn slightly bowed his head and left with the parchment roll in his hand.


    As he walked away, he let out a sigh of relief. This was again one of those situations where his reveal might not harm or put him at a disadvantage in any way, but Quinn still wished to remain anonymous.


    ''Still, I didn''t expect him to offer me an apprenticeship,'' thought Quinn, ''I wonder if he really wants to teach me or is it just because of my background ¡ª or maybe it''s both.''


    He looked back at Dumbledore and saw the headmaster with his back turned back to him. ''Maybe I will take him up on that offer.''


    . . .


    But Quinn West didn''t know that he had missed something that, if he had seen, would have been of utmost importance to him.


    Albus Dumbledore, with his posterior, turned to Quinn, took out a miniature ss vial from his robes ¡ª holding it in between his index finger and thumb, Dumbledore stared at the contents.


    Inside the ss vial rested a tiny mound of pinkish-red chalk dust, which glowed, and as Quinn walked away from Dumbledore, the glow of the chalkdust weakened until Quinn had gone out of sight and the chalkdust had stopped glowing.


    "As I thought."


    The smile on Dumbledore''s face was a sight to behold.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The day of the first task was moving closing closer, and it had already been ten days since Quinn had started teaching his three temporary students, with one of them being the fourth champion.


    "Why are we doing this?!"


    Quinn looked up from a list of ounting statements towards the three people (Harry, Ivy, and Hermione) who currently had strained expressions on their faces.


    "It''s a simple exercise to build that spell''s strength," answered Quinn, "it''s a little straining, but Harry doesn''t have time, and we need to speed things up."


    He gazed at Hermione, who had asked the question, and continued, "It turns out that you two tagging along was the right decision."


    Currently, the three Gryffindors were locked in deadlock, standing in a triangr position. They had a heavy metal ball in between them, which had three handles. The metal ball was floating in the air, with a red-orange cord of light wrapped around each handle.


    The cord of lights was from one of Quinn''s all-time favorite spells: Carpe Retractum. All three were pulling on the metal ball, struggling to keep it in the air while trying their best to pull the metal ball towards them.


    "So you''re just going to sit there doing nothing?!" asked Ivy, groaning against her brother and best friend.


    "I''m not doing nothing," replied Quinn flipping a page of the ledger, "I''m a busy person who turns out to be an innovative teacher. If you tried to struggle against me, it would''ve been trying to pull a building, and that''s not fun, is it?"


    "And you think this is fun?!" said Harry, his voice straining. "Let me tell you! This isn''t fun!"


    "Never said it was supposed to be fun . . . for you," spoke Quinn, "it wouldn''t have been fun for me."


    "Are you sure this is going to help me?" asked Harry.


    "Yeah," responded Quinn, "the egg will be much lighter than this, so if you can work with this, you would have an easy time that. Believe me, you will thank me for that ease when you have a dragon on your tail. How about this ¡ª you''re wee, you can thank meter."


    The three struggled with each other. Harry Potter was the most magically strong of the three, but his efficiency and casting skill were the least. Hermione Granger was the weakest of the trio magically, but her efficiency and casting were the greatest, keeping her in the fighting. Ivy Potter was the bnced one of the trio; she was magically stronger than Hermione while more skilled than Harry, as such she was able to keep herself in the running.


    "Yeah, keep it up~," said Quinn, "You''re doing great!"


    " " "You aren''t even looking!" " "


    Quinn simply chuckled in response.


    He looked at the clear blue sky and smiled.


    The first task of the Tri-wizard tournament was on the horizon.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I got away~.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - No, you didn''t.


    Golden Trio - Sub-group of Golden Squad - "Ugh!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 156 - Seven Rings Of Beginning

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [The chapter is edited by my dear friend and Editor: n_Loo/nL]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Hermione," Harry whispered when he had sped into the greenhouse three minutester, uttering a hurried apology to Professor Sprout as he passed her. "Hermione¡ª was he serious?"


    "It''s Quinn West; I''m pretty sure he wasn''t having you on. Not with the first take so close," she whispered back, her eyes round with anxiety over the top of the quivering Flutterby Bush she was pruning.


    "But the task is tomorrow after lunch," he said.


    "Quinn said that if you use the spells correctly, you''ll be fine," whispered Hermione. She didn''t look at Harry¡ª maybe it was because she was concentrating on the nt in front of her or wasn''t confident in her words.


    Yesterday morning, Quinn had called them outside the Great Hall and announced that Harry''s training was over and that he had already taught him everything he needed to survive a dragon.


    . . .


    "Don''t be stupid, and you''ll be fine. Rx till the first task, rest, and make sure you''re in tip-top condition." This was Quinn''sst statement to the group before he up and left without any prior indication.


    After that, they didn''t talk to him even once¡ª or, to be specific, Quinn didn''t speak to him. They saw him briefly at the Great Hall, but that was it.


    . . .


    "If you''re nervous, we can always practice," said a voice.


    Harry craned his head to see Ivy, his sister, standing behind Hermione, with a weirdly subdued nt in her hand.


    And so they practiced. The trio didn''t have lunch. They headed for a free ssroom, where Harry tried with all his might to make various objects fly across the room toward him. Quinn had taught him a short assortment of spells that he could use against the dragon at his own discretion.


    "Concentrate, Harry, concentrate..."


    "What d''you think I''m trying to do?" said Harry, snapping. "A great big dragon keeps popping up in my head for some reason... Okay, try again..."


    He wanted to skip Divination to keep practicing, but Hermione and Ivy point-nk refused to skive off Arithmancy, and there was no point in staying without them. He, therefore, endured over an hour of Professor Trwney, who spent half the lesson telling everyone that the position of Mars with rtion to Saturn at that moment meant that people born in July were in great danger of sudden, violent deaths.


    "Well, that''s good," said Harry loudly, his temper getting the better of him, "just as long as it''s not drawn-out. I don''t want to suffer." Ron looked for a moment as though he wouldugh; he certainly caught Harry''s eye for the first time in days, but Harry was still feeling too resentful toward Ron to care. He spent the rest of the lesson trying to attract small objects toward him under the table with his wand.


    After Divination, he forced down some dinner, then returned to the empty ssroom with the girls, using the Invisibility Cloak to avoid the teachers. They kept practicing until past midnight. They would have stayed longer, but Peeves turned up and, pretending to think that Harry wanted things thrown at him, he started chucking chairs across the room. They left in a hurry before the noise attracted Filch and went back to the Gryffindormon room, which was now mercifully empty.


    Harry stood near the firece at two o''clock in the morning, surrounded by heaps of objects: books, quills, several upturned chairs, an old set of Gobstones, and Neville''s toad, Trevor. Only in thest hour had Harry felt that he had gotten used to all the spells taught to him.


    "That''s better, Harry, that''s loads better," Ivy said, looking exhausted but very pleased.


    "Well, now we know what to do next time I can''t manage spells," Harry said, throwing a rune dictionary back to Hermione, so he could try again, "threaten me with a dragon. Right..." He raised his wand once more. "io Dictionary!"


    The heavy book soared out of Hermione''s hand, flew across the room, and Harry caught it.


    "Harry, I really think you''re ready!" said Hermione delightedly.


    "Just as long as it works tomorrow," Harry said.


    Harry had been focusing so hard on learning the spells that evening that some of his blind panic had left him. It returned in full measure, however, on the following morning. The atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement. Lessons were to stop at midday, giving all the students time to get down to the dragons'' enclosure¡ª though, of course, they didn''t yet know what they would find there.


    Harry felt oddly separated from everyone around him, whether they wished him good luck or they hissed "We''ll have a box of tissues ready, Potter" as he passed. It was a state of nervousness so advanced that he wondered whether he mightn''t just lose his head when they tried to lead him out to his dragon and start trying to curse everyone in sight. Time was behaving more peculiarly than ever, rushing past in great dollops, so in a moment he seemed to be sitting down in his first lesson, History of Magic, and the next, walking into lunch... and then (where had the morning gone? thest of the dragon-free hours?), Professor McGonagall was hurrying over to him in the Great Hall. Lots of people were watching.


    "Potter, the champions have toe down onto the grounds now... You have to get ready for your first task."


    "Okay," said Harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his te with a tter.


    "Good luck, Harry," Hermione whispered. "You''ll be fine!"


    "Thank you, Hermione," smiled Harry in return.


    ''Hmm?'' Ivy looked at her brother and best friend. It was a little strange to see two people who quarreled almost every day, acting so cordially towards each other. Looking at them individually and together, she felt that something had changed.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Harry left the Great Hall with Professor McGonagall. She didn''t seem herself either; in fact, she looked nearly as anxious as Hermione. As she walked him down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, she put her hand on his shoulder.


    "Now, don''t panic," she said, "just keep a cool head¡­ We''ve got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand... The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any worse of you... Are you all right?"


    "Yes," Harry heard himself say. "Yes, I''m fine."


    She was leading him toward the ce where the dragons were, around the edge of the forest, but when they approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible, Harry saw that a tent had been erected, its entrance facing them, screening the dragons from view.


    "You''re to go in here with the other champions," said Professor McGonagall, in a rather shaky sort of voice, "and wait for your turn, Potter. Mr. Bagman is in there¡­ he''ll be telling you the¡ª the procedure¡­ Good luck."


    "Thanks," said Harry, in a t, distant voice. She left him at the entrance of the tent. Harry went inside.


    Fleur Dcour was sitting in a corner on a low wooden stool. She didn''t look nearly asposed as usual but rather pale and mmy. Viktor Krum looked even surlier than expected, which Harry supposed was his way of showing nerves. Cedric was pacing up and down. When Harry entered, Cedric gave him a small smile, which Harry returned, feeling the muscles in his face working somewhat hard, as though they had forgotten how to smile.


    "Harry! Good-o!" said Bagman happily, looking around at him. "Come in,e in, make yourself at home!"


    Bagman looked somehow like a slightly overblown cartoon figure, standing amid all the pale-faced champions. He was wearing his old Wasp robes again.


    "Well, now we''re all here¡ª time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly. "When the audience has assembled, I''m going to be offering each of you this bag" ¡ªhe held up a small sack of purple silk and showed it to them¡ª "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different ¡ªer¡ª varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too¡­ ah, yes... your task is to collect the golden egg!"


    Harry stared at the golden egg, and except blinking, not a single part of his body moved.


    ''Aah¡ª So this is what he meant by the egg!'' thought Harry. Now that he thought about it, Quinn had been weirdly insistent about the term ''egg.''


    Harry nced around. Cedric had nodded once to show that he understood Bagman''s words and then started pacing around the tent again; he looked slightly green. Fleur Dcour and Krum hadn''t reacted at all. Perhaps they thought they might be sick if they opened their mouths; that was certainly how Harry felt. But they, at least, had volunteered for this...


    And in no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly,ughing, joking... Harry felt as separate from the crowd as though they were a different species. And then ¡ªit seemed like about a secondter to Harry¡ª Bagman opened the neck of the purple silk sack.


    "Ladies first," he said, offering it to Fleur Dcour.


    She put a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a dragon¡ª a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck. And Harry knew, by the fact that Fleur showed no sign of surprise, but rather a determined resignation, that he had been right: Madame Maxime had told her what wasing.


    The same held true for Krum. He pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball. It had a number three around its neck. He didn''t even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground. Cedric put his hand into the bag, and out came the blueish-gray Swedish Short-Snout, the number one tied around its neck. Knowing what was left, Harry put his hand into the silk bag, pulled out the Hungarian Horntail and the number four. It stretched its wings as he looked down at it and bared its little fangs.


    "Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Mr. Diggory, you''re first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle¡ª"


    The loud cheer from the hundreds outside made Bagman flinch. The champions were inside, so what had got the audience so excited.


    Everyone inside saw a wisp of me enter their tent through the open p, which surprised everyone even more. All looked at each other wondering if someone knew what was happening. But none knew what was going on outside.


    "D-Did they let out the dragons," asked Cedric.


    Bagman shook his head. "... No, the dragons should be still inside."


    "Then what is it?" questioned Krum.


    "I don''t know," muttered Bagman and had just taken a step towards the tent p when they heard a voice resound throughout the stadium.


    "Ladies and gentlemen and interesting miscenea¡ª beloved friends and tolerated acquaintances," the voice paused, "Wee... to the Triwizard Tournament!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    A couple minutes before the audience went wild, Eddie Carmichael sighed as he looked to his right.


    "Do you really have to do this," he asked, "can''t you like ¡ª be normal."


    "You don''t like it? I thought you would be stoked."


    "No, you nutter!" blurted Eddie, "this is absolutely rubbish!"


    "Don''t say that," smiled Eddie''spanion, his best friend, the grinning Quinn West, "didn''t you like it when I showed it to you yesterday? You even praised me."


    "I did no such thing!"


    Eddie sighed and recalled the events of yesterday.


    . . .


    After the dinner feast, Eddie strolled through the Hogwarts ground with a toothpick sticking off his mouth. It was a calm night, with a clear sky, no signs of any iing rain. The weather was truly great for the area around Hogwarts.


    "Why in the world would that bloke call me here after supper," muttered Eddie. While he enjoyed the good weather, he wasn''t the type to go out for a night stroll.


    He finally stopped at the decided spot, standing just below the Astronomy tower.


    .


    "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,


    Teach us something please,


    Whether we be old and bald,


    Or young with scabby knees,


    Our heads could do with filling,


    With some interesting stuff,


    For now, they''re bare and full of air,


    Dead flies and bits of fluff,


    So teach us things worth knowing,


    Bring back what we''ve forgot,


    Just do your best, we''ll do the rest,


    And learn until our brains all rot."


    .


    Eddie sang Hogwarts school song as he waited for Quinn to arrive, while still wondering why he was called here.


    Then he heard Quinn''s voice from behind: "Hey Eddie, you''re on time." He turned to the left, but there was no one there, same with his right.


    A chilly wind brushed the back of his neck, sending a shiver down his spine. He felt goosebumps rise on his skin, and suddenly he felt that his surroundings were a little too quiet.


    The toothpick which had been lying peacefully in Eddie''s mouth suddenly felt the assault from his teeth.


    "Quinn?!" called out Eddie, "This isn''t bloody funny! Come out and stop this dodgy shit! Come out, or else I''m leaving!"


    "All right, all right, no need to have your knickers in a twist," once again, Eddie heard Quinn''s voice from all around, "Look up."


    Eddie craned his neck to look up, and his eyes widened as a startling sight reflected in his dark irises.


    Words suitable to the situation escaped the mouth of the Irish descendant.


    "Bloody hell!!!"


    . . .


    Quinn grinned as he, too, recalled the incident fromst night. "That bloody hell wasn''t a praise?"


    "Of course not, you git," said Eddie and then sighed, "I will ask once again, are you sure about this? You know you can just stroll down there, and everything will be just as dandy."


    "Let me tell you something, Eddie; if possible, this is one of the things that I will take every single time," said Quinn with a beaming smile.


    "All right, don''t say that I didn''t warn you."


    "I won''t. Now, you know what you''ve to do, right?"


    "Yes, yes," nodded Eddie and removed one of his hands from the Cleansweep Eleven broom under him and held onto the shaft of Quinn''s Nimbus 2001. The two flew above the stadium built for the first task, hovering at a height where the stadium was nothing but a bowl and the people in it were tiny ants.


    "All right, see you on the other side, mate," smiled Quinn and slipped down from his broom, falling towards the ground.


    Eddie held the now lifeless broom in his hand and spoke as he watched Quinn descend in a starfish position.


    "WOohoO" He heard Quinn yell out.


    "Shit, he is going to die, isn''t he?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In the Durmstrang camp of the stadium, Kari Haugen tapped her feet impatiently¡ª patience had never been her strong suit. She looked around her surroundings, seeing the crowd of Hogwarts students chattering away. Kari looked to the opposite side and saw the Beauxbatons'' students enjoying the festivity. Even her own schoolmates looked excited; she was the same, but...


    "What''s taking so long?" she grumbled, "I want this to start, whatever this is."


    Katie heard a sudden dip in the chatter before it went back¡ª louder than before. She was about to look around to find out when she felt her friend shake her shoulder.


    "What is it?" she asked.


    Kari''s friend pointed her finger up to the sky, and Kari followed. Her eyes widened when she saw the clear blue sky and found the reason for all the chatter.


    "What''s that?"


    . . .


    Ivy Potter and Hermoine Granger sitting in the stands, too, looked up like everyone else and saw arge violet smoke ring growing outwards, expanding to greater size.


    "Morning skyworks?" spoke Hermione.


    Another smoke ring appeared below the violet ring; this time, it was indigo-colored.


    "The Ministry is really going all out on this,"mented Ivy as a third blue smoke ring graced the sky.


    The girls looked at a fourth green smoke ring that appeared below the blue circle.


    . . .


    "It''s a rainbow!"mented Luna, pointing at the sky, "Violet, indigo, blue, and green... and the next one will be yellow¡ª" and just as she said it, a yellow ring appeared ¡ª "See I was right!"


    "You''re right," nodded Marcus as he ate a piece of fried chicken, "It really is a rainbow."


    He looked at the empty seat beside him that he had reserved by cing another bucket of fried chicken. "Where is Eddie? He''ste."


    "Maybe he found a crumple-horned snorkack," guessed Luna.


    "... I doubt that."


    They didn''t know that Eddie was currently watching the smokeworks from a unique position, semi-enjoying and semi-worrying the experience.


    "Do you want chicken?"


    "Yes, please."


    . . .


    Tracey Davis pped her hand as an orange plume of angry smoke puffed in the sky and expanded into an orange ring.


    "This is quite the show," she said to the Greengrass sisters sitting beside her.


    "It is. It''s in the colours of the rainbow," smiled Astoria, who held a small g with ''Cedric Diggory'' written on it, waving it around, making it shimmer in yellow and ck. She turned to her elder sister, "What do you think, Daphne?"


    Daphne Greengrass watched as the seventh red ringpleted the rainbow spectrum. There was a barrage of ps and apuse as everyone guessed the VIBGYOR rings, but the sharp-eyed Daphne furrowed her eyes.


    "... Is that ¡ª" Daphne took a moment to gather what she saw before speaking, "¡ª a person?"


    Tracey and Astoria, feeling confused, looked back at the seven smoke rings, and their eyes widened to the limit as they caught sight of a person appearing out of the seven-ring tunnel.


    "Holy shit, look, someone is falling through the sky!" A Slytherin behind the Slytherin trio yelled, earning everyone''s attention. All spectators, without fail, watched as a body sped down through the sky.


    . . .


    Albus Dumbledore, who had just removed his eyes from the totally unexpected colorful disy in the sky to talk with Olympe Maxime in the judging panel asking about the skyworks and if she was the one who ordered it was rudely taken out of the conversation by a rough tug on his robes.


    "Albus!" said the offender in shock and called the headmaster by his given name.


    "What is it, Minerva?" he asked, frowning.


    "Look!" she eximed and pointed her finger towards the smoke rings.


    Dumbledore followed his deputies'' finger and saw the same thing as everybody¡ª a person falling through the sky.


    For a split fraction of a second, Dumbledore took in the situation before a spark of urgency and energy shed in his eyes as he hastily got up from his chair. The person was falling at speeds much higher than Harry had done during the Dementor game, so he whipped out the Death stick to focus his magic.


    s... it was already toote as the figure was already too close to the ground for Dumbledore to do anything.


    There was a collective sucking in of breath, averted eyes, many gulps in anticipation of a st to the ground.


    But¡ª just before the body hit the ground, a harsh blue light zapped out of the figure towards the ground, momentarily causing everyone to avert their eyes.


    There was no sound of the body hitting the ground, and instead, a cover of dust covered the rocky terrain of the arena.


    There wasplete silence in the arena. Not a single person had a mind to talk to someone else as they were entirelymitted to looking past the thick dust cover.


    Suddenly there was a sudden sh of fire, causing everyone to pull back with gasps filling every corner of the stadium. The fire seemed to consume everything in its path as the dust was incinerated into nothingness, leaving a clearly visible arena in view.


    Everyone saw a person standing right in the smack dab middle of the arena, dressed in red and white robes. The figure looked up, and everyone in the stadium recognized Quinn West.


    "Ladies, gentlemen, and interesting miscenea¡ª beloved friends and tolerated acquaintances," he said and took a pause as a big smile appeared on his face, "Wee... to the Triwizard Tournament¡ª first task: Dancing with Dragons."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Arresto Momentum ¡ª "Perfect!"


    Eddie Carmichael - Broom Collector - "Ooooh shiiiiit!"


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - "My dear friend, I wish you the best of luck. Hope you return soon. AMJ is iplete without you."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 157 - Dogs And Slumber

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Ladies, gentlemen, and interesting miscenea ¡ª beloved friends and tolerated acquaintance," he said and took a pause as a big smile appeared on his face, "Wee . . . to the Tri-wizard Tournament ¡ª first task: Dancing with Dragons."


    The second he finished, the students in the stands shattered the stunning silence, and if there was a roof over the stadium, the cheers of awes and excitement would''ve blown it off. The seven smoke rings, falling from the sky without dying, the fiery entry was already broke every expectation they had set for today.


    ''Holy shit, that is a lot of eyes,'' thought Quinn as he turned on his feet to look at the entire stadium, roaming his eyes over all the excited and exhrated people sitting in the stands. This was the first time he had this many eyes on him.


    ''Potato heads and nudes, was it?'' considered Quinn before scrapping the idea; it wasn''t his style.


    "Most of you might know me from the AID services in Hogwarts ¡ª diligently helping people since 1991," announced Quinn, his amplified voice reaching far and wide. "But those who don''t know me, I will introduce myself to you all: I''m Quinn West, a fifth-year student at Hogwarts ¡ª and today, on the exciting event of the Tri-wizard tournament''s first, I will be your host for the festivities ¡ª and let me assure you something, the things we will see today will be all but boring or dull. They will be as colorful as the smokeworks in the sky."


    From the corner of his eyes, Quinn noticed someone, and that cued him to continue speaking.


    "Mr. Ludovic ''Ludo'' Bagman," said Quinn pointing at Bagman entering the judge''s box, "celebrated Quidditch athlete and the currently the decorated Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. I would like everyone to give him a big round of apuse."


    Quinn''s words were heeded to the full without any prompting as the waves upon pping serenaded the recently debt-free Ludo Bagman. The man had thought about silently entering the judge''s box and sit himself down without arousing any attention, much less suspicion. The sudden spotlight made him freeze at the sheer suddenness, and he could only wave his hand with a stiff smile on his face.


    "Mr. Bagman was supposed to be your host today," announced Quinn growing the audiences'' anticipation, "but then he graciously handed the role to me, a student. So, here I''m standing in front of you all, about to kick this event off."


    He deliberately kept out the part where he had paid Bagman''s debt and kept the goblins froming after Bagman''s head, and Quinn didn''t know Bagman enough to give some credit.


    The three headmasters/headmistress, Barty Crouch Sr., and the Hogwarts teachers looked at Bagman, wondering why he would pass on his hosting job to a student with varying feelings and judgmental thoughts.


    Quinn was about to continue when a loud voice from the stands spoke before him. "Did you say dragons?!"


    He turned towards the direction of the voice and beamed in answer, "Yes, Astoria, I did say dragons." Her question and Quinn''s answer gathered many eyes on the young Astoria Greengrass, who flushed a faint red at the sudden attention.


    "The theme of the Tri-wizard tournament''s first task is Dancing with Dragons," continued Quinn, "our four brave champions will be going head-to-head with the mighty dragons in showdowns of their life."


    He raised his fake wand over his head, and a shimmering golden light projected out of the wand tip. In the air above him, golden light began to twist, turn, bend and shift into the shape of an ornate egg with beautiful runic patterns etched on the surface.


    "This the goal of our champions," all eyes gathered over the gently rotating egg, "a golden egg."


    The holographic golden egg shimmered once before it began shrinking down and, at the same time, descend down. By the time it reached the ground, the giant magical hologram had shrunk down to the size of an ostrich egg.


    "But this golden egg is no ordinary. . . er, golden egg," said Quinn getting him a round of chuckles. A graceful wave of his fake wand made standard dragon eggs around the golden egg, and now all rested inside a nest, "this golden egg will be ced in the nest of a mother dragon."


    "All dragons that you''ll see today are mother dragons who haveid eggs are currently in the incubation period." He pointed at the golden egg, "Four such golden eggs were secretly ced among the mothers'' nests so that the mothers would treat it as their own egg. And with time through the great work of the dragon handlers from the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, the golden egg is now treated as a real one."


    Then Quinn raised his arms wide, and his fake wand tip shed a brief red.


    What followed was a monstrosity with dark, rough scales, ridges along its back, and a tail tipped with an arrow-shaped spike faze out of the stony ground beneath Quinn''s feet. The holographic figure pped its wild wings and flew up into the sky.


    "Dance with the Dragons," repeated Quinn as he moved away from the egg hologram. He stared at his illusion replication of a Hebridean ck dragon that circled the sky above the stadium.


    "Four different breeds of dragons, one for each champion," grinned Quinn, but none were looking at him. All eyes were fixed on the ck dragon flying in the sky.


    The dragon turned its brilliant purple eyes towards the nest of eggs, and immediately, with a mighty p of its wings, it descended towards the ground at neck-breaking speeds, but just before it reached the base, it stopped itself with an all-powerful p before letting go andnding on the stony ground with a loud thump.


    The realistic dragon hologram crawled towards the egg nest with agility, not suiting a creature of its size, but not one person doubted that this wasn''t its actual speed.


    "The mother dragon will protect its unborn children," notified Quinn, and as he did that, the Hebridean ck raised its head towards Quinn, and the purple reptilian eyes glowed maliciously.


    There were gasps and shouts of warning when they saw the dragon open its maw ¡ª inside, they saw a burning blue ¡ª what followed was a forceful jet of violet mes hurled towards Quinn. In an instant, amidst screams and cries, Quinn was engulfed in the roaring mes as the dragon mercilessly breathed fire.


    The ming jetsted for a solid five seconds before it stopped, and many expected to see a burnt body of Quinn West, but as the fire cleared, he stood there unfazed.


    They turned their eyes away from Quinn towards the dragon just to see its body gradually disappearing into golden floating glitter along with the egg nest. Those who had stood up sat down with a thump ¡ª the illusion had been so real that they, in the moment, had forgotten that the dragon wasn''t real and just a magical fabrication.


    "Dragons can breathe fire, have great physical strength, and have a hide that is resistant to magic," listed Quinn as he moved back to the centre, "today, our champions will face these creatures akin to the diators of the yore."


    He once again roamed his eyes over the stadium and dered,


    "Let the games begin!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn climbed into the judging panel and greeted everyone there with a smile.


    "Mr. West, I wasn''t expecting another surprise from you today," said Dumbledore with his patent smile on his face.


    "Mr. Bagman was generous enough to bestow such an important task on to me, so when he offered, I epted," spoke Quinn, ncing at Bagman, who just smiled. "It was an excellent opportunity to see if I can make a career in the announcer business. I have got a pretty good handle on Quidditchmentary, and this seemed to be perfect for trying out some diversification."


    Flitwick and a few Hogwartsughed, and even McGonagall had a smile on her face from Quinn''s words.


    "It does seem to be an exciting career line, Mr. West," chuckled Dumbledore, "if every show and event was like this, I''m sure you would be booked all year long."


    "That''s the dream, headmaster," grinned Quinn.


    "Mr. West, if you would start," asked Barty Sr. from his chair.


    "Of course, of course, let''s get the festivities started," nodded Quinn and raised his fake wand; its tip glowed blue, and that was the signal as a dragon handler came into the arena with an egg nest levitating behind him. He ced it in the centre and nodded to Quinn before nodding towards a gate in the arena guarded by a barred-iron gate.


    The moment the handler exited, the gate was pulled up, and from inside, came charging out a Swedish Short-Snout; the magical beast wildly whipped her head searching for her eggs to notice the nest nearby. Jets of blue mes issued out of her nostrils as she half-jumped, half-flew to her eggs, cradling them under her protection.


    "The Swedish Short-Snout is an attractive silvery-blue dragon whose skin is sought after for the manufacture of protective gloves and shields. The me that issues from its nostrils is a brilliant blue and can reduce timber and bone to ash in a matter of seconds. The Short-Snout has fewer human killings to its name than most dragons, though as it prefers to live in wild and uninhabited mountainous areas, this is not much to its credit."


    Quinn announced to the spectators before taking out a whistle from his pocket to blow in it, for it to emit a shrill sound.


    A few secondster, a green-looking Cedric Diggory entered the stony arena. The first champion was sweating, and even before, he had somewhat of abored breath from the stressful thoughts.


    "Give it up for the Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory," said Quinn, "let''s see how our first champion struggles against the Swedish Short-Snout."


    . . .


    In the arena, Cedric took out his wand and held it ready for defense. He didn''t know which of his movements could trigger the giant creature in front of him.


    He looked around the arena and spotted loose rocks lying across the field. ''Three. . . seven. . . fifteen,'' Cedric continued to count, ''this many will be enough. . . at least I hope they are enough.''


    Cedric then finally looked over at the dragon, and for a time that seemed to be an eternity and a single second, he took every feature of the dragon in. When he found that he was going to face a dragon, Cedric wasn''t thrilled about it, and even though Cedric was d to obtain the information in advance, there wasn''t much he could do about it.


    Through many sleepless nights, Cedric was able toe out with one strategy.


    ''I need to distract it.''


    Cedric took in a deep breath to calm himself, but hisposure went back into nervousness when he saw the Short-Snout''s blue mes.


    ''I can do it, I can do it.'' Cedric repeated in his mind before raising his wand and pointing it towards a rock distant from him. A faint cream spell-light zapped towards the rock, and with a crunching noise, the stone transformed into a bullmastiff dog.


    The transfigured dog ran towards the dragon, barking loudly as it picked up speed. The dragon''s eyes locked onto the dog, and immediately, it got up and swiftly ce itself between the nest and sprinting dog. Its maw with razer sharp canines opened up for a jet of zing hot blue mes to assault the dog, zing it into a pile of a burning pile of rocks.


    "Yes, it worked," muttered Cedric, clenching his fist at his sess as the dragon sat down in the new spot ¡ª leaving the eggs uncovered.


    With his newfound confidence, Cedric shot two more transfiguration spells towards free rocks for another two bullmastiffs to run towards the dragon, approaching it from the left, which made the dragon move another few steps away from the eggs.


    From there on out, Cedric sent out dogs to make the dragon move in his preferred direction and then wait for a minute so that she would getfortable in her new position.


    ''Okay, this is enough,'' decided Cedric, and three jets of magic transformed rocks into dogs.


    The moment the dragon moved to eliminate the dogs, Cedric rushed towards the nest. Mid-sprint, he shot transfiguration spells towards the dragon''s right to keep it busy using quantity. The decision turned out to be correct as just one touch from the mes turned the dogs back into burning stone.


    Cedric slid beside the nest and picked the golden egg up. The second he made contact with the egg, six dragon handlers entered the arena. The task was to retrieve the egg, so the second the champions touched the egg, the task was deemed sessful.


    Cedric saw the dragon handles enter the arena and the sight, along with the fact that he had the golden egg in his hands, made him rx ¡ª that was a mistake.


    He was ying by the rules, dragon handling was moving by the rules, the judges would give scored ording to the rules . . . but the dragon wasn''t ying by the rules. The moment the mother got rid of all the dogs, she looked towards her eggs to see a human clutching one of them outside her nest.


    Red took over as she pped her wings and took flight towards Cedric; she aimed to cover the distance in one wing-aided leap.


    "Back away, kid!" yelled a dragon handler, and three out of the six of the zapped curses towards the blue dragon, causing her to falter mid-flight.


    However, the mother dragon was adamant about getting back her egg, so she leaped forward, pushing with her legs. The other three dragon handles were ready and shot spells towards the dragon, and she faltered once again, stumbling to the ground. Five out of the six dragon handlers swung their wands, and thick iron chains flew into the arena and started to wrap around the dragon.


    Cedric, who had turned away to run, stopped when the dragon handlers subdued the dragon, and the sixth free handler walked to him to ensure his safety and status, and Cedric turned back to look at the chained dragon.


    That was a mistake.


    While the Short-Snout was bound in chains, her magic was still hers. She called upon it; the fire started to build up her throat as she held it in. She opened her jaw and shot a blue fireball towards Cedric.


    Cedric and the sixth dragon handler watched as a rolling ball of fire singed towards the pair. The experienced dragon handler instinctively cast a shield from years of experience. He immediately started to back away from the fireball''s path because he knew his protection wasn''t powerful enough to handle the mes and could only buy him some time.


    Cedric wasn''t privy to that dragon handler experience, and while the shield covered him, it was only partially.


    "AaaaAh," he screamed as tongues of blue me scorched his body. Cedric dropped the egg due to the pain of one part of his body being burnt by dragon mes, charred by the intense heat.


    The mother dragon wanted to shoot another fireball, but the dragon handlers weren''t going to let that happen as the chain roped around her maw, chaining it shut, and the built-up fire could only escape her nostril.


    The dragon handler who had cast a shield didn''t bat an eye when he saw Cedric screaming in pain from being burned and swiftly conjured a stretcher, put Cedric on it, and levitated him away out of the arena.


    . . .


    After the arena was cleared, Quinn once again spoke up, "Now that was a great disy of transfiguration and patience. Diggory used diversionary tactics to lead the dragon away, and he was entirely sessful in his venture, though he let his guard down a bit too quickly."


    While concerned about Cedric, not a single person in the stadium looked worried and bothered by what had transpired. The magical kind had a different perception of what could be ssified as a grave injury. A burn like Cedric''s, while fatal to a non-magical, was nothing in the magical society.


    "Oh boy, that burn covered a lot of ground,"mented Quinn, "he will be seeing a lot of skin peel tomorrow. No need to be worried as our residential medi-healer, Madam Poppy Pomfrey, will have him good as new by the end of the day."


    He turned towards the panel and asked, "Judges, your scores for Mr. Diggory''s performance."


    The four judged used their wands to write in the air: "Okay, thebined scoreses to a total of thirty-one. Let''s see how theing three perform to see how Mr. Diggory ces."


    . . .


    "Now, what do we have here," Quinn''s joyful voice reached the ears of all as they looked into the arena, "A Common Welsh Green, another native to Britain Isles. Green scales, thick hindlegs, thin forelegs; slow on their feet, quick on their wings. Common Welsh Green is famous for being a rtively subdued breed and prefers to prey mainly on sheep and other small mammals and avoid human contact altogether. Though they stumble out to muggles quite often, and our Ministry spends a lot of money to keep the damage under wraps."


    Standing over a new nest of eggs, the Common Welsh green released a melodious roar to scare away everyone from her and her nest of eggs.


    Quinn blew the whistle, and within seconds, Fleur Dcour walked into the clearing, "Ms. Dcour looks like she is ready to subdue the dragon; isn''t this the perfect representation of beauty and the beast, though I doubt the beauty will be falling in love with the beast."


    . . .


    Like Cedric, who hade before her, Fleur observed the mother dragon before making any move. She wasn''t as anxious and worried as she had been inside the tent. Watching the lying dragon made her seem like a harmless creature, but the fact that the dragon could rip her apart in seconds was every present in the back of Fleur''s mind.


    She nced up at the judge''s panel and saw her headmistress smiling towards her.


    ''I can do it,'' she thought, ''I just have to do as I practiced.''


    She raised her wand and pointed it at the dragon. Letting out her nervousness through an exhale and in sync with that exhale, a faint wisp emitted from her wand, and like sand flowing through the wind, the pink wisps traveled to the dragon, entering the mother''s body through her nostrils.


    . . .


    Back in the stands, Quinn analyzed the situation and gave the spectators his valuablementary.


    "Let''s talk about Ms. Dcour''s tactic for dealing with the dragon," he started, "from what I can see, the magic that our only female champion is casting is a bewitched sleep spell ¡ª an interesting choice, to say the least."


    "Bewitched sleep is an enchanted slumber of sorts. It is used to refer to a condition wherein the target''s body and mind are brought into a state in which their nervous system remains rtively inactive, their eyes closed, the postural muscles rxed, and consciousness practically suspended by magical means. So-called because of how reminiscent it is to the natural sleep that typically recurs for several hours every night, there are several ways in which this condition could be induced in people; such as by simple Sleeping Charms, which simply ces those subjected to it into a magically induced slumber that will eventually wear off, a more advanced spell, putting the target into such a deep sleep as to render them in a state akin to suspended animation.


    As they listened to Quinn, the spectators watched Fleur circled the area with careful steps; she still had her wand pointed at the dragon with the bewitching pink magic flowing into the dragon.


    "Dragons parts are used to craft wands as such it''s difficult to affect dragons with such a variety of magic that Ms. Dcour is constantly casting the spell to make sure to put the dragon to sleep."


    Eventually, everyone saw the spell take effect.


    "Ah, it seems that Ms. Dcour has sessfully put her dragon to sleep," announced Quinn, "I have to say that I''m feeling impressed by Ms. Dcour''s approach; putting the dragon to sleep, how simple and yet so effective."


    . . .


    Down at the stony arena, Fleur immediately took off with a run towards the egg nest. She covered the distance quickly and only slowed at the ending stretch as she was too close to the dragon.


    "Now, where is the egg?" she mumbled and trekked the rocky terrain around the slumbering dragon. "Ah, there it is!" she eximed on finding the nest egg just beside the dragon''s face.


    She leaped down from a height and briskly walked towards the nest, but just as she strolled past the dragon''s face, abruptly, a puff of fire threatened Fleur, who barely was able to pull up a shield charm. In that second, Fleur went from feeling oh so close to sess to outright terrified ¡ª she was too close to the dragon.


    The smoke cleared and what Fleur and the rest saw was a still asleep dragon.


    ". . . I-It''s snoring fire," muttered Fleur in disbelief. Her beating heart settled down with a sense of relief.


    She decided not to waste any time and soundlessly rushed to the nest and picked up the golden egg, and with that cue, dragon handlers entered the area, signifying Fleur''s sessfulpletion of the trial.


    Two out of four chapters were done, two remained.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - After magic and business, he would''ve done hosting.


    Cedric Diggory - Status: Severely burned - Approach: Distraction with Transfiguration.


    Fleur Dcour - Status: No injuries (elevated heartbeat) - Approach: Advance sleeping spell.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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 Chapter 158 - Blinding And Rope

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "An excellent performance by the Fleur Dcour," said Quinn, "the skillful use of bewitchment sleeping charm on an unsuspecting dragon was a smart decision."


    Quinn turned to face Dumbledore and posed him a question, "Headmaster Dumbledore, as someone who is credited to researched and found twelve uses of dragon blood, you must be knowledgeable about dragon physiology. So my question to you is ¡ª how much of Ms. Dcour''s undetection by the dragon can be attributed to the Common Welsh Green''s magic detection capability and how much to her personal casting skills?"


    Albus Dumbledore was ready to answer a question as part of the judging panel ¡ª a generic question, but he didn''t expect Quinn to go deep and connect his work to a champion''s performance.


    "An interesting question ¡ª no, a splendid question," started Dumbledore with a smile, "the answer to your question is that Ms. Dcour''s undetected performance depended on both her skill and the Common Welsh Green''s weak senses. . . As you spoke earlier, dragons have a magic-resistant hide, and so does this breed, but the Common Welsh''s hide has a peculiarity that makes its senses dull. Ms. Dcour was cautious about her output and only applied enough of the spell that she went undetected by the Common Welsh Green. ording to my estimate, if Ms. Dcour had gone around ten to twenty percent over her output, she would''ve alerted the dragon that there was something wrong with her body."


    "I see," the audience heard Quinn''s voice loud and clear, "thank you for that insightful answer. You heard it, audience members, next time youe face-to-face with a Common Welsh Green ¡ª it might seem impossible to hold back in the face of a dragon, but do remember to be light-handed on magic."


    Barty Crouch Sr. leaned near Bagman and whispered: "Never thought I would say this to you, Bagman, but good job on passing the hosting duties to a student. He''s doing a better job than I imagined you would''ve done."


    Bagman could do nothing but nod stiffly. It was all part of the offer he had been given in return for his debt being paid off by Quinn West. He was told by Quinn not to answer any question regarding why he had given Quinn the job.


    In Quinn''s words: "Sometimes, silence is better than poorly constructed lies. People fill in the unspoken with their own imagination and don''t bother asking questions."


    And Bagman was going to follow that to a T ¡ª Bagman had done his research and knew what kind of trouble he could get into if he didn''t hold up the end of the deal he made with the West child.


    . . .


    "It''s time for us to introduce you to the third dragon of the day," announced Quinn, "this dragon will be defending against the Bulgarian Quidditch star Victor Krum from Durmstrang."


    Quinn had visited the dragon handlers and had sorted out his calling cues. They knew when to let in the dragons so that their entrance would match Quinn''s hosting.


    As nned, the dragon gate opened and came barreling from inside a scarlet and smooth scaled with a fringe of golden spikes around its snub-snouted face and extremely protuberant eyes. Thest two dragons were worried, but they remained cautious and restrained about their surroundings ¡ª The Chinese Fireball, though? She was as aggressive as a shaken-up can of soda.


    The dragon ran around the arena until she spotted her eggs resting inside a nest in the middle of the arena, and the smaller dragon spread her wings and screeched a shrill scream before closing the distance in an instant, seating herself over the egg. She breathed a deep redrge mushroom-shaped me up in the air as a warning sign, threatening anyone who dared to approach her or her children.


    "The Chinese Fireball, also known as the Liondragon, is a dragon native to China. It was a brilliant red and gold dragon, named for the rounded balls of me that shot from its nostrils," Quinn''s voice gave the audience some detail about the beast they saw, "The Fireball is aggressive but, unlike other dragons, it was more tolerant of its own kind. It will sometimes consent to share its territory with up to two other dragons. They were also said to be very fast and clever, at least for a dragon."


    The whistle flew to Quinn''s lips, and the entry cue for the champion was sounded.


    Within half a minute, Victor Krum walked into the rocky arena. The champion who had been grumpy and grouchy ever since his arrival to Hogwarts was now seen alert and ready. His face had a thin sheen of sweat, but it didn''t look like anxious sweating.


    "It seems Krum has been warming up to face his opponent," noted Quinn, "Is he treating the task as one of his quidditch games; if so, then that''s an excellent way to calm his nerves. Let''s see how much this helps him."


    . . .


    It turned out that Quinn was correct, as Krum had gotten so stressed when he heard Cedric had been burned by the dragon that he decided to treat this as one of his games and did a quick warmup to calm down.


    He stared at the hyperactive dragon. She was turning her head all around the stands to look at all the hundreds of people.


    His heart skipped a beat when the Fireball locked eyes with him. The dragon fumed two mushroom-shaped me clouds from her nostrils, and in return, he clutched his wand tighter in his hand. The human and dragon stared at each other, neither blinking nor moving an inch with only the Fireball swishing its tail back and forth.


    Maybe it was minutes or mere seconds, but the one to break the staredown was Krum, who whipped his wand above his hand and pushed the gas pedal on his magic. A red zap of spell lighting coursed from his wands towards the dragon. The mother Fireball dragon snorted two mushroom-shaped clouds from her nostrils before opening her jaw wide and shooting out red mes to counter the spell.


    The spell and magical mes met in between, and there was a mini-explosion as a result. With it, the aggression had begun.


    Krum didn''t stop and ripped another spell towards the dragon, which was countered by another burst of fire. The result wasn''t an explosion but a gush of ck smoke spreading at an rming rate.


    The Fireball stood on her hind feet in alert caution. Her draconian brain telling her to be on alert. She stepped forward, keeping her eggs behind her.


    Suddenly a spell came charging from her right, parting the smoke. From within the hole in smoke, one could see Krum with his wand raised, but the next second, he was gone. The dragon raised its wing to receive the spell, and the magic collided with the magic-resistant hide. The result was a puff of hot smother, but the dragon came out without a scratch.


    "For the first time today, we see the power of dragonhide," Quinn''s voice was heard throughout the stadium. "This power is the reason that even though the hide loses a chunk of its resistance when stripped of the carcass, the leather is still used to create under-armors for Hit Wizard and Aurors."


    Krum ran around the rocky terrain, jumping from one boulder to another, trying to keep himself moving while keeping the dragon into the smoke.


    ''I just need one shot,'' thought Krum, ''one spell would be enough to get to the egg.''


    Just when his line of thought ended, Krum came to a screeching halt as his eyes caught a red from within the hazy smoke. His eyes widened in an instant as he understood what wasing.


    "Shit!"


    Without giving it a second thought, Krum jumped down from the boulder and slid down behind a tall piece of stone for cover. The second he squatted on the ground, deep red mes assaulted Krum''s cover. He looked up and could see tongues of mes reaching out from the edges.


    The second the mes stopped, Krum rolled over in an effort to get up. He was about to get up when his eyes caught a shift in the stone cover and looking up, he saw the Fireball''s head peeking from above.


    Krum sucked in a deep breath when he saw the jaw unhinge, and inside he saw red light at the end. He was about to face a dragon breath from point-nk range. In the life-and-death situation, Krum raised his wand and shoot the first spell that popped into his mind.


    A murky yellow spell shot out of his wand, and with the Fireball''s jaw opened, the magic entered the dragon''s mouth. The dragon snapped her jaw close and screamed in pain from the effects of the spell.


    . . .


    Quinn stood near the ledge in the judge''s box and watched Krum and the dragon with bright eyes.


    "Ah, that was a spell thatcerates flesh," announced Quinn, "a dark curse ¡ª as expected from a Durmstrang student ¡ª a student of the dark arts."


    Everyone in the judge''s box momentarily removed their eyes from the arena and nced at Quinn. They found it rare for a student of Hogwarts to not talk about dark arts with fear or disgust. Albus Dumbledore, the poster boy of anti-dark magic, had all but erased all traces of dark magic from the Hogwarts ground.


    Dumbledore looked at Quinn''s back and thought back to their first meeting. Quinn had told him that as long it was magic, he was interested.


    ''He identified the spell quite quickly,'' thought Dumbledore, and well, his thoughts went in a very particr direction involving three very specific people. Two people with who he could find parallels with Quinn. . . and a young himself.


    . . .


    Krum stared at the Chinese Fireball, and amidst the screams, he thought, ''This is the chance.'' He clumsily waved his wand, and a good enough invisible spell hit the dragon in the eyes.


    The dragon pulled her head back and used her wingtips to cover her eyes.


    "Ah, another one, the Conjunctivitis Curse," said the announcer''s voice," a curse that irritated the target''s eyes, forcing them to swell shut. Dragons were notably susceptible to this curse because while their hide made them resistant to most spells, their eyes remained vulnerable. Another pro-tip for you people: while every other part of a dragon''s body is durable as hell, their eyes are more squishy than ours. So poke ''em there because it hurts a lot."


    ording to his ns, Krum had only nned to temporarily impair the dragon''s eyesight so that he could get to the egg andplete the task. But now, not only had impaired vision, but he had alsounched a spell that caused injury to the dragon.


    He knew this was the moment. Krum stood up and rushed to the middle of the arena with his eyes set on the golden prize.


    The Chinese Fireball finally had enough; her mouth hurt, and she couldn''t open her eyes; her babies were unprotected. She let her instincts take over and moved her head towards the direction of the nest; she could smell her own scent on the eggs.


    A deep red illuminated her throat as she opened her jaw.


    Krum was within spitting distance of the nest when he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He turned back and saw a vivid jet of fireing towards him. His eyes widened; he looked ahead and dove for the egg. His hands caught the egg as he rolled over to his back, and with a body roll, he was back onto his feet.


    But his work wasn''t over yet. He saw a dragon handler entering the arena, and the man pointed at the tworge rocks, and Krum didn''t need to be told twice. He sprinted and once again dove ahead, this time into the crevice between the two rocks.


    "Aargh!" screamed Krum as a back was singed just before he could get to safety. He fell to the ground, but his hands clutched the egg as if it was the snitch in the World Cup finals.


    Apuse shattered the wintery air like breaking ss; Krum had finished.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Harry stood up, noticing dimly that his legs seemed to be made of marshmallows. He waited. And then Harry heard the whistle blow. He walked out through the entrance of the tent, the panic rising into a crescendo inside him. And now he was walking past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence.


    He saw everything in front of him as though it was a very highly colored dream. There were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at him from stands that had been magicked there since he''dst stood on this spot. And there was the Horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon him, a monstrous, scaly, ck lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground.


    The crowd was making a great deal of noise, but Harry didn''t know or care whether friendly or not. It was time to do what he had to do . . . to focus his mind, entirely and absolutely, upon the thing that was his only chance. . .


    His mind went back to the two weeks he spent listening to Quinn, who he had just seen in the judge''s box.


    He raised his wand.


    "io Golden Egg," he shouted. The egg didn''t move at all. "Well, worth the try."


    The Horntail covered the area around the eggs pretty well; as such, he couldn''t use the transfiguration trick to io the eggs to him. . . and the grappling tactic. . . and the push-up tactic. . .


    ''Hell! Every tactic he taught me is useless with the Horntail in the way.'' If Quinn had heard Harry''s thoughts, he would''ve used every tactic he had taught Harry before staring him down for a solid minute.


    He made his decision.


    "io Firebolt!" he shouted.


    In the judge''s box, Quinn sighed and cut the Sonorus just so that he could mutter, "Idiot."


    Harry waited, every fiber of him hoping, praying. . . . If it hadn''t worked . . . if it wasn''ting . . . He seemed to be looking at everything around him through some sort of shimmering, transparent barrier, like a heat haze, which made the enclosure and the hundreds of faces around him swim strangely. . . .


    And then he heard it, speeding through the air behind him; he turned and saw his Firebolt hurtling toward him around the edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead in midair beside him, waiting for him to mount. The crowd was making even more noise. . . . Quinn was shouting something . . . but Harry''s ears were not working correctly anymore . . . listening wasn''t necessary. . . .


    He swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground. And a second,ter, something miraculous happened. . . .


    As he soared upward, as the wind rushed through his hair, as the crowd''s faces became mere flesh-colored pinpricks below, and the Horntail shrank to the size of a dog, he realized that he had left not only the ground behind, but also his fear. . . . Harry was back where he belonged. . . .


    This was just another quidditch match, that was all . . . just another quidditch match and that Horntail was just another ugly opposing team. . . .


    He looked down at the clutch of eggs and spotted the gold one, gleaming against its cement-colored fellows, residing safely between the dragon''s front legs. He dived. The Horntail''s head followed him; he knew what it was going to do and pulled out of the dive just in time; a jet of fire had been released precisely where he would have been having he not swerved away.


    "Well, at least he can fly," sighed Quinn.


    Harry tried a couple more times to draw out the Horntail and dodged the dragon''s breath as many times as he attempted. But the Horntail didn''t seem to want to take off; she was too protective of her eggs. Though she writhed and twisted, furling and unfurling her wings and keeping those fearsome yellow eyes on Harry, she was afraid to move too far from them.


    "It seems that, unlike the other mother dragons, this one has taken an entirely different approach; a defensive approach," spoke Quinn, his sonorous back on.


    Harry knew he had to take the risk. He started to fly low, sticking to the walls of the arena. Slowly the speed of state-of-the-art Firebolt increased; soon, the Horntail was having trouble keeping up with Harry, and he knew it was the right moment.


    He made a hard turn, and with a booming speed of his Firebolt, he instantly closed the distance between him and the dragon. But the second he was close to the dragon, the Horntail swiped her head toward Harry and already had a fire working in her throat.


    But the Gryffindor Seeker was ready; he pulled up and flew up hard on a sharp angle, just missing the fire. But despite the danger, Harry had a big smile on his face. His wand was in his hand, and from it extended an orange-red cord of light on whose other end hung a shining golden egg.


    "Carpe Retracturm. . ." said the student, and outside the arena, the teacher finished, ". . . for the win."


    Harry Potter had grabbed the golden egg, without injury and overall that he had done it faster than any other candidate.


    ''Well, that wasn''t half bad,'' thought Quinn in the box and shrugged, ''Well, I trained him; he should at least get this level of results.''


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "I will take partial credit."


    Victor Krum - Status: Crisp - Approach: Conjunctivitis Curse.


    Harry Potter - Status: Uninjured and feeling good - Approach: Carpe Retractum.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 159 - Results, The Book, It’s Back!

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn walked down from the judge''s box to the rocky arena. The stage was abuzz with discussions about the performance, and no one was paying attention to the fact that Quinn stood in the center. He looked around, waiting to see if they would notice him and pay attention.


    "Doesn''t look like it," his voice drowning among the chatter of hundreds. So he raised his fake wand to get some attention.


    The people in the stands flinched when they heard a loud explosion. All eyes immediately went to the center of the field, where they saw a smiling Quinn twirling his wand.


    "Good, now that I''ve everybody''s attention, let''s get started," they heard him speak, "We saw four ster performances from our four brilliant, brave, bright, and boisterous champions." He pointed at the judge''s box, "Our esteemed judges have given their opinion and scores to the champions'' performance, and now I''m going to announce their positions rtive to each other."


    The rowdy crowd finally calmed down enough to listen to Quinn.


    "In the first position we have," he paused before continuing, "the Beauxabatons'' champions, FLEUR DELACOUR!" Quinn raised his wand and shot out fireworks in the shape of the Beauxbatons insignia, which turned into Fleur''s face before disappearing.


    "Shepleted the task the fastest and with the most skill out of all champions. The judgesbined those factors and decided to ce Ms. Dcour in the first ce."


    The Beauxbaton students were the first to jump in the air, cheering for their champion and school. But soon, they were drowned by the overwhelming hurrahs and roars of so many Hogwarts boys that even Quinn jerked back and looked at them with a startling surprise.


    ". . . O-Oh, it seems that Ms. Dcour has able to amass some fan following in her short time at Hogwarts," said Quinn, "From the looks of it, she''s well on her way to bing the people''s winning favorite."


    The boys roared louder at his words.


    Quinn waited for them to calm down, but the boys continued to shout, and it went a little too long that Quinn had to shoot another louder explosion to forcefully calm them down ¡ª but the little f**kers didn''t stop.


    "Ah, screw it," he muttered and aimed his fake wand straight at a part of the stands with the just boys and shot out a moderate explosive spell towards them.


    The rowdy students saw the spell hurled towards them, and in an instant, the shouts turned to screams as they ducked and covered their heads to save themselves. But it wasn''t needed as Quinn''s spell collided with an invisible dome ced there to protect the audience.


    "Ahem," said Quinn as the dome stopped rippling, "now that I''ve your attention, we can move on to the next champion in line."


    The boys stared at Quinn''s carefree as if he just hadn''t hurled a spell at them.


    "The runner-up for the first task is," said Quinn and imagined a drum roll in his mind, "one of the Hogwarts champion, HARRY POTTER!" The Hogwarts insignia followed by Hary''s face traced in fireworks.


    Hogwarts as a whole, especially Gryffindor students, cheered loud for their house champions captain while the other houses also showed varying levels of enthusiasm and excitement. All-in-all it was a good show of support for the discredit champion and a start for things to start fresh.


    "Thest one on the podium was close," stated Quinn as he turned to look at everyone, "both of our remaining champions were brave in their approach, but their ns were a bit too reckless as such ¡ª both got burned as they yed with fire."


    A few chuckles around the stadium told him that some found his joke funny, and others didn''t.


    "After much deliberation, the judges have decided that. . ." another round of drum rolls sounded in his mind, ". . .ing in the third ce is the Durmstrang champions, VICTOR KRUM!" The insignia of Durmstrang showed its glory, with the stern mug of Krum following shortly after.


    There was a rough chant from the Durmstrang students and a few shouts from girls taken by Krum''s stern and mind-your-own-business charm.


    "Finally, we have our very own the very charming Hogwarts champion, CEDRIC DIGGORY!" shouted Quinn with another round of fireworks.


    "No matter what their rank, our champions showed great ability and valor," continued Quinn. "Dragons are creatures of magic much stronger than us humans and even the fire-blessed Ves; to outmatch a mother dragon and steal an egg from them is no easy feat. So the next time you meet them, give them the praise they deserve and apud them for the heart and spirit they showed today ¡ª for they''re champions!"


    The response was. . . glorious.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Haaa~," breathed out Quinn as he sat himself on the barstool behind his desk. It was the evening after the first task, and Quinn had just got free; professors, head of schools, ministry employees, and students had praised him for his hosting, especially his entrance that jazzed the entire event up.


    "Madam Pomfrey really needs to get loose," he groaned, "no reason to smack me on the back of my head." The Matron wasn''t happy about Quinn''s little stunt at the start of the task.


    He nced at the full-body red robes with white highlights. "Maybe, I should have gone blue or maybe even ck. . . well, not ck, it would''ve been. . . tragic if someone died."


    "It went well," spoke Quinn to himself, "but was it worth to pay of Bagman''s debt?"


    Quinn wanted to be close to the action of the Tri-wizard tournament, and the sure-fire way to stay close constantly was to be a part of the tournament. Being a champion was struck off right from the get-go; except a champion, there wasn''t much a student could do, so Quinn decided to take someone else''s job from him.


    Ludo Bagman was the designated host, so Quinn exploited the debt and took the job from him. It was the first time ever Quinn had dug into his royalty ount to take out a minuscule amount of money from his earning made from his invention; other than this, Quinn never had to dip into that ount as his student ount at Gringotts was enough for his annual expenses.


    If there were any questions regarding Bagman''s sudden hosting assignment to Quinn, they were erased after his performance.


    "I would be close by in every event from now on," he said, "I do wonder if this was the correct decision ¡ª I gave up anonymity in return for ess."


    If Quinn had been any other student in the stands, he could''ve worked with certain invisibility; one didn''t know what to look for when they didn''t know it wasn''ting. But with being a host, Quinn would be near the scene and would have a much easier time working magic if needed.


    "Well, with that level of ess, I can get by without anyone knowing," shrugged Quinn.


    He studied the ancient, ck leather-bound book on his desk. He took out fresh sheets of paper and a ck-inked fountain pen. Straightening his back, he opened it gently and started carefully reading the contents, making detailed observational notes about the contents.


    After an entire noisy day of announcing and speaking to so many people, Quinn enjoyed the quiet and peace and was just getting into the rhythm, but it seemed that some people had other ns as the office door opened and four people walked, all had a skip in their step and a p in their hands as they seemed in a pretty celebratory mood.


    He looked up and saw the golden squad ¡ª all four members entered his office. Harry was in the lead with the golden egg resting in his hands; following him were Ivy and Hermione, and they were swaying to the beat of Ron pping his hands behind him.


    "All of you look happy,"mented Quinn, closing the book and setting the papers aside, "Mr. Weasley, wee to my office; this is your first time here."


    "Err, right," replied Ron, something about Quinn made him stop pping.


    "Harry, I''m a tad bit disappointed that you didn''t try Parseltongue against the dragon. I really wanted to see if the dragon would''ve reacted to the snake speak."


    "With all the people looking at me? Yeah, right. I would''ve been branded Voldemort''s nexting in tomorrow''s newspapers," scoffed Harry.


    "A little price to pay for the betterment of magic," shrugged Quinn. "I''m surprised that all of you are here," Quinn said as he waved his fake wand to set four chairs for his guests, "I assumed all of you would be busy with the celebrations inside with your fellow Gryffindors. What makes you alle here leaving all that behind?"


    "We wanted to show you the egg," answered Harry; he sat down and set the golden egg on the desk.


    "You helped Harry out a lot; it''s only natural that we let you have a look at the prize," chimed in Hermione.


    "We thought you would like to get your hands on the egg; you''re the type to get all excited about magic,"mented Ivy.


    "Well, you got that right," said Quinn, picking up the golden egg, weighing it in his gloved hands, "Oh my, this is heavy,"


    At first nce, the surface of the ostrich-sized golden egg looked like it was an ornate egg etched with beautiful and intricate patterns, but to anyone who had extensive runic knowledge, the designs became runes.


    As Quinn rotated the egg, the initially small smile widened till Quinn seemed amply happy. The answer to the riddle inside the egg was clearly inscribed in the runes etched on the surface. If one could read the runes, they would know what hid inside.


    "Why are you smiling?" asked the redhead Potter.


    Quinn held the egg in his left with palm up. "Did you open the egg up?"


    "Yes, I did. In front of the entire Gryffindor house," answered Harry.


    "Be honest with me, wasing here with to show me this egg wasn''t so a show of appreciation, was it?"


    The four Gryffindors nced at each other. Seeing that reaction made Quinn silently let out a single chuckle.


    "It''s a show of appreciation," answered Ivy, shrugging, "but stuff can be two things."


    "I can respect that," he answered.


    Ivy Potter stared at Quinn and then garnered a guess, "You already know what the egg is, don''t you?"


    "Yes, I do," he nodded, "but unfortunately for you all, I won''t be sharing my finding with you fine Gryffindors."


    "Eh? But why?" asked Ron, dumbfounded. The Weasley couldn''t understand why someone from Hogwarts (sans Slytherin) wouldn''t tell a Hogwarts champion about the egg.


    "Well, I can''t give it away; it wouldn''t be fun that way," grinned Quinn. He put the egg back down on the table. "Find the clue on your own. As far as I know, the champions don''t have an unfair advantage for the second task, so you won''t get any from me."


    "How about a hint? You do know what happens when we open it, don''t you?"


    "I know what will happen if I open it right here right now."


    "Sounded like a banshee. . . . Maybe you''ve got to get past one of those next, Harry!" said Ron. He could swear that his ears were still ringing from the time Harry had opened the egg in themon room.


    "It was someone being tortured!" sighed Harry. "I''m going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"


    "Don''t be daft, Harry, that''s illegal," chided Hermione. "They wouldn''t use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions.


    "I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing . . . maybe you''ve got to attack him while he''s in the shower, Harry," said Ron, giving another guess getting a chuckle from Quinn.


    Quinn noticed that Ivy was intently staring at him. "Ivy, is there something on my face?"


    "Will it be an unfair advantage if we paid you?" asked Ivy with a sly smile on her face. "What''s the word again? If I remember correctly, as you said, it was. . . resourceful. Yes, we are simply being resourceful here."


    The grin didn''t leave Quinn''s face as he nodded appreciatively. The girl in front of him had heard him carefully during their time-travel shenanigans. This was the second time she had brought something up from that time.


    "Good, that''s really good," praised Quinn, "How about this ¡ª if you can''t find it out halfway through, I will give you an answer."


    "There is a catch, isn''t there?" asked Hermione.


    Quinn turned to Hermione with a ''what-is-happening-here'' smiling expression. "You guys are getting smarter. I knew it; people get smarter when they spend time with me."


    Ron leaned forward, genuinely interested in what Quinn had just said.


    "Yes, there is a catch," continued Quinn, "The price on that halfway mark is too expensive ¡ª and to be bluntly honest, even if youbined all of your allowances, you wouldn''t be able to afford it."


    He raised a finger to cut them from speaking.


    "As the time goes on, I''ll decrease the price. If youe to me the day before the task, it will be practically free. It''s up to you how much you''re willing to shell out for the answer. Theter it is, the cheaper it will be."


    He didn''t tell them that even with the solution to hearing the riddle, they would''ve to decode the riddle and then find a way to execute during the day of the second day.


    While it seemed like a good thing for the golden squad to approach him for his services, Quinn didn''t want over-reliance from the golden squad. He wanted them toe to him but at the same time maintain a certain distance. Being too close to them was something Quinn was doubtful about; to him, it seemed an unnecessary hassle. But at the same time, he realized that his wish was too much of an ideal.


    With Quinn and Ivy going back and forth with smiles on their faces, Hermione''s mind wandered off to other things in the office. Her attention was particrly attracted by the ancient tome on Quinn''s desk.


    "Book?" she voiced, reading the rune etched onto the cover. "What kind of a book title is that?"


    Quinn stopped conversing about chocte with Ron and turned to Hermione. He ced a gentle hand on the tome and smiled, "Don''t you think it''s a fitting title? It shows what the book actually is ¡ª a book."


    "That thing looks it''s about to die,"mented Harry about the condition of the book. "What''s it about?"


    "Ah yes, it''s an olddy, this one," said Quinn, "I brought it from Aarhus, Denmark. A real bargain, if I say so myself." He didn''t pay a single knut for it.


    "From your trip?" said Ivy recalling the day Quinn had visited her house.


    Quinn nodded.


    "Is it written in Danish?" asked the second biggest bookworm in the room.


    "No, Ms. Granger," responded the biggest bookworm, "this baby is transcribed in pure Younger Futhark runes; quite a fascinating read."


    "What is it about?" Once again, the question came.


    Quinn contemted if he should tell them before shrugging. No harm in telling them the briefest of information.


    "It''s about winds."


    The Viking magic of wind and air.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The very next day, when the castle was animatedly discussing the first task and thought that nothing else could peak it. They came across something that first confused them, led them to feel surprised, and finally left them shocked.


    Inside the housemon rooms, the Hogwarts student saw a very peculiar notice on the house bulletin board.


    . . .


    Inside the Gryffindormon room, Harry came running down the dorm stairs.


    "Ron, let''s go, or we are going to gette," he said, patting Ron''s shoulder.


    On the other hand, Ron didn''t move his eyes toward Harry and raised his hands to find Harry, just to find his face, which he ended up lightly pping all over.


    "Pu! W-What the hell are you doing?!" said Harry smacking the offending hand away.


    "Look."


    "What?" asked Harry annoyed before he looked at the bulletin board, and within seconds, he went from annoyed to still ¡ª very still.


    "Holy¡ª!"


    . . .


    Draco Malfoy started his day by climbing down the dorm stairs and get a fresh look at the Slytherinmon room.


    "It will be a good day," he smiled. Looking at the standard room put him at ease as this ce was his to rule.


    He was about to turn back to his room when he noticed Crabbe and Goyle standing in front of the bulletin board.


    "Are they. . . reading?" Draco asked himself, "can they even. . . read?"


    His two goon-cum-friends weren''t the most intelligent kind, and seeing them in front of the bulletin board first thing in the morning wasn''t something he was used to.


    "Crabbe, Goyle, what are youds doing?"


    It seemed that Draco''s words fell on deaf ears as the two surprisingly simr-looking boys kept on looking at the bulletin board.


    "Are you two having problems with reading?" asked Draco, snickering. "Want me to help? Tell me, I''ll read it for you."


    He meant it as a joke, so when Crabbe raised his hands to point, Draco was stunned silent for a second. Draco turned his eyes to the board, and stuck on it was a colorful, long roll of parchment, sticking out like a sore thumb inside the sombermon room.


    Draco''s mouth opened and closes a couple of times as he read the contents. After failing to formte words, a short phrase came out the Malfoy heir.


    "Bloody hell! This is. . ."


    . . .


    Eddie Carmichael plopped himself down in a chair inside the Ravenwmon room. Just like others, he, too, was excited about the first task that took ce yesterday. The fact that they got to see dragons so up close was amazing that people didn''t get to witness regrly. But he was also a little miffed with what had followed the task. . .


    "Diggory this, Diggory that," said Eddie clicking his tongue, "Potter is so great; Krum is so cool. Even the Ve is taking girls away from me. . . I know I should''ve tried harder getting into the tournament. I could''ve done the same thing as Potter; that was easy."


    As he grumbled about the poprity and attention the champions were getting, Eddie noticed Quinn enter themon room from outside and head straight to the bulletin board.


    "Quinn, let me hit you once," said Eddie getting up from his chair, "how many girls did you get praised by yesterday. . . also, don''t hit me back."


    Quinn pasted a big poster right in the middle of the board with magic while chuckling from Eddie''s words. After confirming that the poster was stuck snug against the panel, Quinn turned back, and as he passed Eddie, he smiled and patted his shoulder.


    "What? ¡ª Hey, where are you going?" asked Eddie, but Quinn had already left.


    "What''s the deal with him?" said Eddie muttering as he turned to the bulletin, and almost immediately, his jaw dropped as he read the words and saw the moving pictures.


    In true Eddie fashion, his feelings came out in words that couldn''t have been truer.


    "Focking hell!"


    Quidditch wasing back to Hogwarts.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Getting posters insidemon rooms is easy when you''ve your people inside.


    Ivy Potter - Smarter every day - She has begun to see.


    Eddie Carmichael - Dropped Jaw - Mind blown.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 160 - Tournament Launch: Captain Selection

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If one saw students of Hogwarts assembled together in the Great hall, that usually meant that it was meal time and the children were ready to fill their stomachs with food. But today ¡ª the students had assembled in the hall, outside of meal timings and that too of their own volition.


    Just today, big colorful posters were found stuck in four housemon rooms and Beauxbatons and Dumrstrang residences, telling them that quidditch was returning to Hogwarts and that it was open to all ¡ª Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang.


    It read that if people wanted to know more, then at 6 O''Clock in the evening they coulde to the Great hall to learn more. Nowhere in the poster was it stated that attendance was mandatory, but if one were to count, ny-seven percent of Hogwarts students were there with Beauxbaton and Durmstrang present in full.


    The chatter was intense with the students. No matter the corner of the hall or social group, the topic of conversation was quidditch ¡ª something that was publicly canceled by the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.


    "I think Krum went to Dumbledore and got him to restart the tournament," said a boy.


    "Nu-uh," countered a girl, "I think it was Diggory; he might''ve asked for the tournament to start again."


    "I don''t think it was either of them," chimed in another one, "I think Harry Potter is behind this. The Boy-Who-Lived as the champion ¡ª his word will carry some weight."


    "How about a fourth option ¡ª the seeker alliance. Krum, Diggory, and Potter ¡ª three seekersing together to get quidditch back."


    At a distance from the group of boys stood two girls dressed in green trims.


    "Didn''t these guys see the logo?" said the blonde with cold blue eyes.


    The brte shrugged, "Well, it was in the corner; maybe they truly didn''t see it. The poster''s contents itself were pretty eye-catching."


    Daphne Greengrass didn''t look satisfied with the reasoning. "Do you think his sister came to school for this?"


    "It does seem that way," replied Tracey.


    Daphne looked around her, and she could hear the rumor about the "seeker alliance" and how they were the reason behind the restart of the quidditch tournament. As Daphne was looking around, her eyes caught a figure at the door. Seeing that figure made a small smile bloomed on her face.


    Quinn entered the Great hall and paused just inside the threshold. He took in the gathered crowd and nodded in satisfaction at the strength.


    ''First, need to set the scene,'' he thought. From his robes came out his fake wand, which he raised above his head and pointed it at the hundreds of overhead floating candles. With a surge of magic, the candles turned colors, and from in yellow, the mes turned into red, blue, dark-blue, yellow for four houses and mixed in equal quantities, were light-blue and a dark-maroon for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, respectively.


    The change in lighting attracted everyone''s attention. Everyone in the room craned their necks up to look above, and a soft wave of ''ooh'' and ''aah'' was heard through the students.


    "Alright, looks like everybody who wants to be present is already here." Everyone heard the same voice they heard yesterday.


    They saw Quinn walked towards the front of the hall from the gate, and as he walked, the crowd parted for Quinn, giving him the way to his destination.


    "Given that all of you''re here, I assume you all saw the posters or at least heard of it," spoke Quinn''s voice amplified, "Exciting news, is it not? We all get to see the new and thrilling Tri-wizard tournament along with the familiar excitement of the quidditch tournament. A good year for us hardworking students."


    Quinn reached the head of the hall and climbed up the steps to the elevated tform. He waved his fake wand out of thin air, and a set of hiking marble squares appeared, which Quinn climbed the blocks till he was at a height where he could see everyone in the hall.


    "Well, rest assured, people," announced Quinn with a smile, "the news is true. This year, Hogwarts, along with the Tri-wizard tournament, will be hosting a Tri-school quidditch tournament."


    Quinn paused, and the crowd cheer as quidditch was officially returning.


    He let them cheer for a bit before gesturing them to quiet down. "Let me be reiterate myself ¡ª while officially Hogwarts is hosting the tournament, AID is the one who in charge of the tournament. Which means *I* am in charge of the tournament. . . not a professor, not the headmaster, not the seeker alliance, no one else but ME. So before we start, everyone should get it in their minds that going behind my back to any professor will not do any of you any good. This is an AID initiative; as such, I make the rules. If any of you have problems, suggestions, doubts, youe to me and not the professors; go to them, and I will throw you out."


    His eyes roamed on their entire crowd and asked them, "Understood?"


    After three years of AID going into the fourth, along with the prefect title, Quinn West was very well known in Hogwarts. Yesterday, he hosted the first task, and now he was handling the quidditch tournament. All of that, along with Quinn''s reputation, made the Hogwarts students nod their heads and speak their ''ayes.''


    "Good," noted Quinn and then smiled, "With that, the serious stuff is over, and it''s time to get to the fun part, so cheer up, will you?"


    "Let''s get started with some details about the tournament," he continued, "First of all, this tournament will have ten teams ¡ª each team will be a mix of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang students. . . you can''t have more than three students from the same in each team. . ." there was almost instantaneous opposition from the crowd, ". . . I told you guys that I''m in charge, so I can''t and won''t change the team temte. You guys won''t be seeing house teams this year, so buckle up to find new teams to support."


    "The ten participating teams will be ying in a double-elimination tournament ¡ª essentially, for a team to be eliminated out of the tournament, they would have to lose twice, meaning that every team would have a second chance," exined Quinn. "If we add all the matches up, that will be a total of eighteen games ¡ª neen if a team is able to get to the finals undefeated; then they will get another chance after losing the finals. . . highlypetitive and extremely fun."


    Someone in the crowd raised their hand.


    "Yes, Ms. McLain?" asked Quinn to the girl in yellow trims.


    "Who decides the teams? Is it you?" said the Hufflepuff girl.


    "No," answered Quinn, "I chose the captains; the captains will build their own teams. In total, seventy students will be participating in the tournament."


    "Who are the captain?" asked someone else.


    "Now, now, don''t be impatient, people," beamed Quinn, "I''ll now announce the captains."


    He took out a scroll of parchment from his robes and rolled it open for effect; there was nothing on the parchment excepting a single word, ''PROP.''


    "The first captain is my fellow Ravenw, the suavely handsome prefect with a mind of fox, give it up for the current Ravenw captain, ROGER DAVIES," said Quinn and pped, prompting everyone to p as Roger came sliding out of the crowd. He chest bumped a couple of Ravenw quidditch blokes before dancing his way to the front. Roger climbed up the short steps and dapped Quinn before standing to the side.


    "The second captain is a brave lion, but I guess in the quidditch scene she is more poprly known as a vixen of Gryffindor; I present to you, the leader of Gryffindor quidditch team, ANGELINA JOHNSON." The dark-skinned, athletic girl came jogging out of the crowd and high-fived every Gryffindor in the way. The boys roared for her, and the Weasley twins kneeled in her, and she passed in between them, ruffling their heads. She and Quinn exchanged a nod and wink before she took her ce beside Roger.


    "The third captain is someone I personally like a lot; he has the tongue of the viper and is famous for his trash-talking in and out of the field. Let me invite up ADRAIN PUCEY, the Slytherin captain, the snake who has the skill to back it all up." There were some boos from Gryffindor''s side, but Adrain remained unfazed as he strolled out of the crowd and stuck out his long tongue out to every Gryffindor and gestured his hands towards his crotch, asking them to suck it. He and Quinn exchanged a simple nce with each other before he stood beside Angelina, who wanted to move away, but Adrain shamelessly stuck close to her.


    "The fourth captain, as you might''ve guessed, is also a captain ¡ª the Hufflepuff captain, to be precise. We all know who I''m talking about," grinned Quinn as everybody chanted the fourth captain''s name, "One of the newly minted seeker alliance, the champion of Hufflepuff and Hogwarts, the school heartthrob, CEDRIC DIGGORY." Cedric appeared out of the crowd with his hand up and head slightly leaned down with a smile on his face. The champion didn''t hurry and interacted with as many as he could before he reached Quinn, who squatted down to shake his hands. The fourth captain jogged and joined the selected ones by Adrian''s side.


    "These were the four house captains who gained captain positions in the tournament. Now let''s move on to the next batch of captains," said Quinn once again, unfurling the scroll.


    "She is the epitome of what people think of when hearing the word quidditch gal, one who fits in with both the guys and gals. Known in her school to be a mean seeker, a highly scouted prospect with eyes of the eagle and mind like a steel trap, I introduce to you the Durmstrang red bullet, KARI HAUGEN!!!" Kari walked out of the crowd with confidence and marched to the front with an attitude like she owned the entire ce. The knock of her heels only halted when she stopped beside Cedric before giving Quinn a chin jut of recognition.


    "Number six is a Frenchman, from Beauxbatons, where elegance is bred. When you look at our next captain, one word pops up in your mind, and that''s a gentleman. But don''t get deceived by his posh and polite looks; he is known to send a buldger towards his opponents with the same smile on his face; I wee up here, as called by his schoolmates, the vicious bastard, ALBERT ACY!!!" A boy that looked in histe teens stepped out of the crowd, dressed in such impable fashion that he could even give Quinn apetition. As described, he wore a polite smile on his face as he head-bowed to the people multiple times before he could reach Quinn, where both boys shook hands. He walked to beside Kari and tried to initiate a conversation with her, but the Russian simply nodded to anything and everything Albert threw at her.


    "For number seven, we remain in France and choose another one from Beauxbatons. He might be one of the most polite and good guys I''ve ever met; he was so nice that I gave him a 50% discount for all AID services. But when he is on the field, he defends the goals so well as a goalie that the opposing chasers regrly think of rage-quitting the game. I take this golden opportunity to call upon GAEL DUPONT!!!" A tallte-teen with equally long limbs walked out of the Beauxbatons camp and waved his hands to everyone. Gael climbed up the ascending blocks to hug Quinn before joining his fellow captains. Everyone liked that.


    "Now, number eight is someone I thought I wouldn''t be able to get to participate, but to my surprise, he was more than happy and enthusiastic to participate. Once in a generational talent who has already represented his country at the international level, give it up for another member of the seeker alliance, VICTOR KRUM!!!" Victor Krum wasn''t one to indulge in fanfare. He simply walked to the front, looking straight ahead. He nodded to Quinn and then just as silently walked to the captains'' lines. Despite that ne/boring nothing, Krum got the most apuse from the student crowd.


    "Now, I wanted to involve you guys in the captain selection process, so I decided that the final two captains will be selected in front of you guys," said Quinn, and once again, there were ''woohoo'' calls.


    He took out a shrunk-down ss globe from his robes before expanding it into a ss bowl with a lot of slips inside, "The names here were carefully curated by me from Hogwarts students. And to ensure there is no cheating involved, a neutral party will be picking out the name. . . And for that, I would like to call upon the very lovely, superbly talented, and the person who trumped over the entire seeker alliance, make some noise for the champion-in-lead, FLEUR DELACOUR!!!"


    The light, without the influence of any external magic of any sort, seemed to bend to put a spotlight on Fleur as she walked towards the front while waving her hand like a Miss Universe candidate. It was like she was destiny''s favorite child, and the world itself was supporting her. Gone was the powerful magical who had taken down a dragon; right now, the Ve was all about mor and beauty; she could make even the top models feel conscious.


    Quinn stepped down from his ascended marble blocks and released the magic. He walked down the steps, and when Fleur reached the base, he took her hands in his and escorted her up the stairs like a perfect gentleman.


    "Ms. Dcour ¡ª"


    "Quinn, the way you address me makes us sound distant; please call me Fleur," the Ve smiled so brightly that the people standing in front clutched their chests.


    ". . . I see. I understand. . . Fleur."


    Quinn and Fleur both had cast Sonorus on themselves to amplify their voices. As such, everyone heard the sweet voice of Fleur and Quinn''s response. The boys in the crowd instantly red at Quinn from all directions, while the girls looked jealous of the creature named Fleur Dcour.


    "Ah, he switched," said a certain bubbly brte wearing green trims.


    There were a couple of people in the crowd who both knowingly and unknowingly didn''t like when Quinn switched from Ms. Dcour to Fleur. One knew the reason, while the other seemed clueless about the displeasure.


    "So, Fleur," restarted Quinn, "What do you think of our eight captains? At first nce, who is your favorite. Who do you think will be able to build the best team ¡ª the team that will take home the cup."


    Fleur nced over at the captains. "I think Acy and Dupont will be able to build the best teams here. Though if I had to choose one, I will give Acy an edge on team building; Dupont might be better a goalie than Acy is a Beater, but Acy has better leadership skills. . . so, yeah, I think Acy would be able to make the best team."


    "Giving Beauxbatons a definite and undisclosed edge, eh, Fleur," smiled Quinn, "You didn''t even give the others a chance."


    "What can I say; I''m that type of girl," she said, making eye contact with Quinn.


    ". . . I see, well, fortunately, the names in this bowl are all Hogwarts students, and you won''t be able to favor your school here," said Quinn moving the ss bowl near Fleur, "please choose two names from the bowl so that we could get our final two chapters."


    Fleur gracefully inserted her dainty and fair hand into the ss bowl and took out two randoms folded slips with her pretty fingers. She showed both slips to the crowd and got cheers in return.


    "Please open one of them and tell us who is the lucky number nine."


    Fleur opened one of the slips and read the name out loud, "Alicia Spi."


    "Oh, now isn''t this an exciting development," said Quinn and looked at the crowd, spotting Alicia, "Ms. Spi is the part of Gryffindor Vixens along with Ms. Johnson. I was sure that Ms. Johnson would ask her teammate out to join her team, but if Ms. Spi bes a captain, that pairing wouldn''t be possible. . . so Ms. Spi, what''s your decision."


    Alicia looked at Quinn and then at Angelina. She took a dozen seconds before she spoke up, "I ept!"


    "You do?" smiled Quinn. "May I know the reason behind that decision?"


    "I get to y with Angelina every year, but this year, I get to y against her ¡ª that sounds exciting," she smiled, "I can do something that wouldn''t be possible normally, so why not take this opportunity and see where it goes and hopefully have some fun along the way."


    Angelina sighed, but her expression showed that she had epted the reason.


    "That''s the spirit, Ms. Spi," beamed Quinn, "I love your reasoning. This is what it''s all about! Having fun! Come on up and join the champions. Make some noise for ALICIA SPINNET, the ninth!"


    There were cheers and apuse for Alicia as she joined the captains and entered the line in between to stand beside Angelina.


    "Fleur, let''s find out who''s the next," said Quinn, "Who is the second person blessed by your luck touch."


    "Oh Quinn, you and your ttery," smiled Fleur.


    The people in the crowd grumbled, seeing the two having fun while they stood watching.


    "Let''s see. . . the tenth captain candidate is Lucian Bole."


    Quinn turned to the crowd and saw that the crowd lost its energy when the name was announced. . . Lucian Bole wasn''t a well-liked person, to say the least. He yed dirty to the limit and was hated by both the Hogwarts yers and the viewers. He had been forced off the team by Adrian because while Adrian was fine with rough, he wasn''t on board with dirty y.


    "Mr. Bole," called out Quinn. He wasn''t bothered by the reputation. Lucian Bole knew how to y and was suited to lead a team. ''Also, a dirty team always adds that dash of spice in the mix.''


    "Do you ept the captain position, or would you like to sit out to prepare for your NEWTs?" asked Quinn, seeing that Lucian was a seventh-year student.


    Lucian grinned evilly and stepped out of the Slytherin camp, "I''ll participate. . . it sounds fun." But unlike Alicia, his version didn''t appeal to no one except a select few.


    "Excellent,e on up, people give it for LUCIAN BOLE, the tenth and final captain!" But except the Slytherin house, who remained united outside theirmon room walls, no one pped.


    "Well, now we''re done with the captain selection, from tomorrow onwards, the team selection will begin. I''ll talk to the captains after this regarding the team selection criteria, and you all will also be made aware of the team temte tomorrow via bulletin board all across Hogwarts."


    Quinn grinned and raised his fake wands towards the ceiling.


    Ten bright spots appeared in the sky, and next to each spot was the image and name of the captain.


    "The Tri-school quidditch has officially begun people, let''s make it something that hasn''t been ever seen before."


    The floating candles suddenly went out, leaving the room in the dark, causing everyone to shout like children do when going through tunnels. But the bustle got louder when the hologram of ten captains exploded into colorful fireworks, illuminating the room in its brilliance.


    Quinn''srgest project had finally beenunched.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I decided the rules and on one else.


    Seeker Alliance - Krum, Diggory, and Potter - What did we do?!


    Fleur Dcour - Leading champion - Has moved to first name basis with Quinn.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 161 - Hiring Independent Contractors

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Two girls stood outside the AID office; both looked nervous about stepping inside. Both had gone to grab the doorknob just to back off at thest second.


    "What do you think he called us for?" asked one girl.


    "I don''t know!" replied the other, sounding a little snippy, "If I knew why he called us, I wouldn''t be pulling my hair out here."


    The first girl sighed and leaned against the wall. "That girl Luna. . . she just handed us the letter and then skipped. She could''ve told us something."


    "Yes, even that letter was just an invitation," though it felt like summons, "the reason wasn''t given inside."


    "Do you think we did something that he didn''t like?"


    "I-I hope not. You know what they say about the older students who got called in by him. They ¡ª"


    The second girl cut her off. "Yes, yes, I know what they say. You don''t have to repeat it. I prefer not to think about it."


    "I-I think we should leave," suggested the first girl, "we can talk to Cedric; he might be able to help us out."


    ". . . Yeah, that isn''t a bad idea," nodded the second, "we should leave and return with Cedric or just send Cedric to see what he wants to talk about."


    The girls reached a conclusion and nodded. They straightened themselves up and were about to leave when the door opened and stood there sighing was Quinn West.


    "I''ve been waiting for you two to enter for ten minutes. How can you two spend so much time out here doing nothing ¡ª I''m assuming you were doing nothing. Step inside, I have a lot of work to do, and you aren''t doing me any favors standing outside."


    Quinn turned and walking back inside the office.


    The two girls looked at each other with expressions of worry. They were just about to leave. They should''ve gone quicker, thought both of them. With no choice remaining, they entered the office, closing it behind them.


    "First of all, you have no reason to be scared or anxious," started Quinn as all three sat down, "You aren''t here because you made a mistake or anything ¡ª someday, I''m going to get the guys who''re spreading misinformation about me."


    ''You''re the one who is doing it by calling older students left and right like they mean nothing,'' thought the first girl.


    "I''m not that bad," said Quinn smiling at the first girl.


    "Huh?" uttered the girl, confused. ''Did I speak that out loud,'' she thought. But no, she didn''t say her thoughts out loud.


    Quinn''s smile grew a tad bit wider before he pped his hands once. "Now, we''re already working a few minutes behind my schedule, so I would like to move on immediately."


    He gazed at the two girls, one brte and the other a strawberry blonde.


    "Ms. Bones and Ms. Abbot," he addressed them, "I''ve actually called you two here because I''m in need of assistance. I have a lot of things to do for the quidditch tournament, and as such, there are some things that I simply can''t devote. Unfortunately for me, those unattended tasks can''t be ignored, so tobat my little problem, I''ve called upon both of you to inquire if you would be willing to help me."


    The Hufflepuff girls'' first reaction was to exhale a sigh of relief. They weren''t called here because of something that displeased Quinn ¡ª hearing that had lifted the stone off their chest.


    "What are these tasks that you talk about?" asked Susan Bones, the strawberry blonde and a fourth-year Hufflepuff.


    On her side, Hannah Abbot, the brte, a fellow fourth-year Hufflepuff, raised the same question.


    "The uing quidditch tournament is going to be held at a muchrger scale than our typical quidditch tournament. There will be a lot of fanfare around the tournament ¡ª seeing that AID has decided to sell tournament-exclusive merchandise to anyone who would like to buy them."


    "What kind of . . . merchandise, was it? What kind of merchandise?" asked Hannah.


    "Ah yes, I guess showing some samples would be clearer for everyone," said Quinn nodding in agreement. He pulled out two objects from his pockets and ced them on his desk.


    "These are?" muttered Susan picking up an object; Hannah did the same.


    As Hannah stared and studied the object in her hands, she questioned, "Is this Cedric?"


    In her hands was a small figurine of Cedric Diggory, decked out in Hufflepuff quidditch gear, flying on the broom, which wasn''t connected to the circr base and suspended in the air with magic. Simrly, Susan held Victor Krum''s quidditch action figure. This one wore Bulgarian national quidditch team and rode a Firebolt, chasing a miniature golden snitch.


    Both action figures were enchanted with the animation charms. Cedric''s robes and hair fluttered as his broom moved above the circr base. Simrly, Krum''s figurine chased a tiny golden snitch, and when he caught it, the figurine celebrated.


    "There will be many more things like team-specificpel badges, banners, gs, hats, jumpers, and yer cards when the final teams get decided," said Quinn listing things that he was nning to sell. "I''m nning to sell all of these among other things at the games, and I need your help regarding this ¡ª only if you''re willing, that is."


    "You don''t want us to make these, do you?" asked Hannah. Transfiguration wasn''t her strong suit.


    "Oh no," came the reply immediately. "Of course not. There will be too many of each object for a student toplete with their timetables. I will be making some of these things myself ¡ª," his efficiency-aspect lumency wasing along splendidly, enabling him to multitask production tasks, "¡ª the rest I''ve already outsourced to professional businesses."


    "Then?" asked Susan.


    "I want you to be in charge of sales," said Quinn, "I don''t have the time to man the sales of these merchandises; as such, I want you two to take care of it, and of course ¡ª I will provide you with appropriatepensation. What do you say?"


    Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot were well-established Hufflepuffs, and the duo ran in many circles ¡ª social butterflies if one were to attach a word to it. Quinn had judged them to be his first choice for his sales team ¡ª well, he wanted to hire the girls who handled the sales for his Lockhart merchandise, but they had already graduated.


    "Let''s say if we take the job," asked Susan Bones, the niece of Head of DMLE Amelia Bones, "Do you think we will be able to handle it? I''m not sure if Hannah and I are. . . prepared for this. We haven''t sold anything before."


    "You don''t have to worry about that," smiled Quinn, "there is a first time for everything. And I don''t want to brag, but I''m really good at sales, terrific even. A crash course from me is all you need to get started. Also, it''s not like I''ll be leaving you, leaving you alone without supervision ¡ª no, I''ll be there to help, but you two will be handling most of the stuff."


    The best friends looked at each other andmunicated with their gesture skills which bordered on telepathy. Quinn watched them with a smile, confident that they would ept.


    "What is thepensation that you talked about?"


    Quinn grinned. It was time for their first lesson. He was going to sell the job to them.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Hiring a sales team wasn''t enough. Quinn had more departments he wanted help in, and it was high time he got to hire more people. So he got to it and started with people close to him that he trusted.


    "You know what, we haven''t sat down like this and talked in such a long time," he started with a smile, "what happened? It''s like you two have gotten so busy to make time for us."


    Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis sat in front of his desk; both girls sported deadpan expressions, not feeling Quinn''s amusement.


    "Would you like to reframe that sentence?" asked Daphne.


    Quinn awkwardly chuckled. He knew that he had once again messed up his work-life bnce.


    "Okay, okay, I''m sorry," he spoke, "I got caught up in work, got busy, and wasn''t able to hang out."


    "And?" asked Tracey, raising her chin slightly.


    ". . . you warned me that this would happen," muttered Quinn, looking at them with his chin down and upturned eyes.


    "Yes, we did, and what did you say?"


    Quinn mumbled something that the girls missed.


    "Pardon, I didn''t catch that," said the blonde.


    ". . . that you were worrying about nothing it won''t happen," replied the boy, lightly pursing his lips.


    "And here we are," said the bubbly brte smugly.


    Quinn twidled his thumb over his desk as the three sat in momentary silence before Quinn spoke up.


    "Well, you know the saying ¡ª"


    But Daphne cut him off with, "We will help you."


    "Eh?" uttered Quinn with a loss of words.


    "You called us because you wanted help, did you not?" she asked.


    "Yeah, I did, but how did you¡ª"


    Again he was cut, this time by Tracey, "Just like you, we have our means."


    Quinn''s mind turned into a wide ''O'' as he stared at the girls, moving his eyes from one to the other.


    It took him a couple of seconds before he realized what he was doing.


    "Ahem," he cleared his throat and spoke in a voice a tad bit deeper than usual, "well, that saves me time from convincing. Thank you, I really need all the time I can get."


    "Uh-huh, so what do you want us to help you with," grinned Tracey; the brte was back to her bubbly mode.


    "Did you two see the construction going by the quidditch stadium?" asked Quinn.


    The girls nodded.


    "Do you know why?" When they shook their heads, he continued, "This year, the students wouldn''t be the only ones to see the games. . . This year! The quidditch tournament is open to the people outside. Anyone with a ticket would be able to see the tournament. Of course, every student will get a guaranteed seat, irrespective of attending or not. Only the remaining seats will be sold to outsiders."


    "I need someone to corroborate the tickets and seats," he then pointed, "Tracey, I want you to help me that."


    Tracey tilted her head in confusion. "I''m confused; what do I need to do?"


    "Don''t worry, it''s a desk job. You just need to authorize tickets and mail them to the buyers. Any ticket that isn''t authorized by you will be deemed fraudulent. The only maybe tough part will be that the job will get repetitive, and you''ll have to keep extensive records."


    "I see. . . I still don''t understand, but I''ll do it."


    "No worries about that. I''ll give you a rundown of the entire process and will be there with you every step of the way."


    Tracey gave a thumbs-up, so Quinn moved on to Daphne.


    "Daphne, you will be handlingmunications with the team," said Quinn. "Any and allmunication with the teams will go through you. They won''te to me but to you. You''ll answer their questions and solve any problems they have. When youe along with a problem that you can''t solve, you''lle to me. You''ll also keep me up to date with what''s happening with the teams; everything from recruitment to logo, name, and jersey creation, you''ll update me every day."


    Daphne and Tracey both stared at Quinn. . . They were confused. One job didn''t involve interaction with other people, but the other was primarily amunication-heavy duty. They were okay with the nature tasks, but. . .


    "Quinn. . . are you sure you don''t want to switch our tasks," asked Daphne, "Tracey will be better for this one. Are you sure you aren''t making a mistake?"


    Tracey nodded; she also thought that Daphne would be better at the ticket task. From what she understood, it was a task that required attention to detail and precision; it was right up Daphne''s alley.


    Quinn tilted his head. "Why?"


    His expression, more than his words, caused the girls to be at a loss of words. There was something there that they couldn''t put the finger on, but it stopped them from giving an answer.


    "I want Tracey at tickets and Daphne with the teams," he said in a neutral tone, "Are you saying that you won''t be able to do this? If so, we can stop right here."


    ". . . No, we can handle it," said Daphne, "Tracey will handle tickets and I the teams."


    Quinn was enlisting them because he needed help. They weren''t asking him anything in return, so he decided to pay them in a new experience. Tracey was an extrovert who could generally get along with anyone, so Quinn chose to put her into a position where she would''ve to be meticulous, something Tracey wasn''t that good at. On the other hand, while she didn''t have problems withmunication, Daphne liked to remain in a small circle of friends, so Quinn put her into a position that would actively have her talk to other people.


    In that way, he hoped that both would befortable outside their ownfort zone by the end of the year.


    "Good to hear that," smiled Quinn.


    "So, how are you going to pay us?" asked Tracey.


    It seems Quinn was wrong; they were asking for something in return.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Never thought that we would be called here by you ¡ª"


    "¡ª and that too because you want our help."


    " "Now, that''s a surprise!" "


    Quinn watched as another duo sat in his office. This duo, unlike others, was in sync.


    "It shouldn''t be that much of a surprise," said Quinn, "In the years of our correspondence, you guys know that I havee to . . . like you two."


    The Weasley twinsughed. " "We too like you." "


    "I''m d to hear that," smiled Quinn.


    "So, what do you need from us," asked George Weasley, and Fred Weasley continued, "do tell because it really makes us wonder."


    "The quidditch tournament, are you guys taking part?" asked Quinn.


    " "We are." "


    "Oh, have you guys decided on teams?"


    "Yes, Gryffindor team is already divided ¡ª" "¡ª we''re going with Angelina ¡ª" "¡ª while Harry and Katie are ying with Alicia."


    "Any progress with the non-Gryffindor part of the teams?" asked Quinn.


    " "Not yet." "


    "Alright, then. Let''s get to why I''ve called you here," said Quinn, "I think you both are going to enjoy with very much. It falls right up your alley."


    The Wesley twins smiled. They have known Quinn for a while. Their correspondence had reached a point that seventy percent of items on Filch''s list were made under the West-Weasley coboration. The Weasleys designed their items from scratch: design, constructions, spells, and constructed prototypes. When they were satisfied with their creations, they would pass it onto Quinn, who would give it a look over and optimize to create the final item.


    The Weasley got their items while Quinn got to use his magic knowledge, and from time-to-time get inspiration.


    " "Tell us." "


    "Gambling."


    A single word from Quinn made the twins lead forward. " "You''ve got our attention" "


    "Great. Every tournament has some sort of betting going on. Our regr Hogwarts tournaments also have it going. Students from all years of all houses. This year isn''t going to be any different ¡ª no, it''s going to be different, the bets will be on a different level this time. There are more teams, more games, more things to bet about and. . . a lot more money to be made."


    "That''s true ¡ª" "¡ª we thought about it too ¡ª" "¡ª what''re you thinking about?"


    "I want to keep all of the bettings under one umbre ¡ª under my umbre," said Quinn, "centralize the entire thing, create a framework that will eliminate the need of side betting."


    "An ambitious project¡ª" "¡ª we didn''t expect any less from you."


    "But if I want to make this a reality, I will need promotion and enforcement," he continued, "I can provide great odds to eliminate any and allpetition. But if we want to make it a regr operation that runs throughout the tournament, I need people who will work the field."


    Quinn pointed at the twins and smiled, "And who better than you two. So I would like you two to work with me to set up the betting scene for the quidditch tournament."


    "Hmm. . . let''s just say if we join you ¡ª" "¡ª what will we get in return ¡ª" "¡ª because while this sounds mad exciting, it''s also a lot of work."


    "Hmm, as expected, I was right to choose you two," beamed Quinn, "I will give you something that both of you are seeking. . . I will invest in the joke shop you both are nning."


    " ". . . How do you know ''bout that?!" "


    Quinn gave them a silent look and gesticted to them with a smile.


    "Yeah, that was a redundant question to ask ¡ª" "¡ª but are you serious because this is serious for us."


    "I''m serious; very serious. Work with me, and I will invest all the money you''ll ever need to set up the shop. The amount of capital I will give you will depend on the performance you show me. Do good, and you''ll have enough resources to let those ideas of yourse to life."


    "So what do you say," asked Quinn.


    The twins didn''t even look at each other as smiles split their faces.


    " "We agree!" "


    Quinn interlocked his fingers and nodded, "Merry cooperation,ds."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Gathering independent contractors.


    Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot - Independent Contracts (#1) & (#2) - Sales.


    Daphne Greengrass - Independent Contracts (#3) - HR.


    Tracey Davis - Independent Contracts (#4) - Logistics.


    Weasley Twins - Independent Contracts (#5) - Entrepreneurs.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 162 - Wonders Of Body Magic

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    A shadow rushed between two Forbidden Forest trees, cruising through the forest, zig-zagging among the trees. The figure seemed to know its way around the woods as they sprinted through the woonds without losing much speed while twisting, turning, and jumping through any obstacle that presented itself in the path.


    "This! Feels! Great!"


    Quinn didn''t know his way around the Forbidden Forest woond; sure, somewhere in his mind, he had theyout of trees he had seen memorized, but Quinn never essed or immersed those memories; it was inefficient for him to do so.


    So how could he move through a densely packed forest with plenty of short-range altitude obstacles? The answer was pure athleticism ¡ª an elevated level of athleticism enabled by the use of body magic.


    "These enhancements are mad!" he grinned as he spun to the side to avoid a tree, and then without missing a beat, he kept running.


    Quinn was a fifteen-year-old with an above-average base physique granted to him by gics. He exercised regrly without fail and took care of his body; as such, Quinn was the most physically fit among his weight ss. His jogging speed was higher than others'' sprinting speed. And currently, that person was essing ny percent of his total physical capability.


    He kept running, running, and running. Quinn didn''t stop, which was unusual as he couldn''t keep running for this long, even at his ny percent.


    The answer was once again body magic.


    There were two different ways a user could improve their body magic skills.


    First, they could increase their percentage essible throughout the board and enhance every category simultaneously. Quinn had employed this method to get himself ess to ny percent of his physical capabilities. But that was it ¡ª ny percent was Quinn''s limit; he couldn''t push it above ny as his magic failed due to instability. He didn''t have the skill to bring his body above ny percent.


    He had reached a cap ¡ª a cap that restricted his progress, and Quinn didn''t like his progress to be hindered, so he set on looking for ways to kickstart his progress so that he could continue to grow.


    And from that came the second method.


    Body magic was divided into five broad categories: Speed, Strength, Endurance, Durability, and Reflexes.


    For Quinn to reach ny percent, he had to ess ny percent in all five categories. He had done that and thus had reached his current limit, and that''s where the second method kicked in ¡ª if he couldn''t pull all five at the same time, how about tackling the five categories one at a time. One was much easier than five. Quinn didn''t have to corroborate five different sets of magic and only work with one-fifth load ¡ª that was something he could work with.


    Thus he started working using the second method. ording to the instructions, he targeted one of five ¡ª Endurance: the ability to sustain the prolonged physical effort.


    The start was slow: the first step along the way was to push his natural endurance above the ny percent he hadplete control over. Thest ten percent was a tricky block to cross; his human body showed resistance against his wishes. The limit that could be achieved by pure physical exercise was eighty percent, with thest twenty percent reserved for life-and-death situations. Quinn had already encroached half of that reserve, and his body wanted to keep the remaining for its original purpose ¡ª for emergencies.


    To perform any magic, the user needed to believe that what they were doing worked ¡ª During his lumency shields build, he had believed that his hexagon design would be solid and stable. While understanding took care of the actual functionality behind the magic, it was imagination that took shape to that functionality.


    So it was a slight problem when his physical instincts "believed" that thest ten percent of his physical capabilities wasn''t there at all, that there wasn''t anything to ess, and Quinn was already working with hundred percent. Talk about a wrench in his ns. It took Quinn a lot of time and effort before he could override that physical instinct that limited him.


    He did them all while channelling magic, trying different ways to mold magic to gain desired effects by running, shovelling ground, boxing, and whatnot. The result was ess to one hundred percent of his stamina. He could keep doing things longer, much longer than his non-magical-base sixty percent.


    Now, as Quinn ran, he passed the cautious acromant infested area, the troll clearing, and kept running. Soon he reached yet another clear area ¡ª it was dark as the surroundings'' canopy was so outreaching that they covered the sky above the clearing.


    "Finally," said Quinn, leaning forward as his hands on his thighs supported his body. "Oh boy, didn''t think maintaining a hundred and twenty percent of stamina would require that much control."


    No matter how hard Quinn trained, he couldn''t keep running at speeds closer to sprinting than jogging for a dozen minutes. To achieve that, he needed to surpass the natural hundred percent limit and enter the realm of magical augmentation.


    "As expected," he mused, "I can only augment my stamina by thirty points over the all-around ny percent. Anything above that will copse the magic."


    As the name suggested, body magic was magic and thus supernatural. It allowed Quinn to go above hundred percent and enter levels not achievable by his body. To achieve it, instead of his body, his magic covered anything above a hundred.


    Currently, he could only make his magic cover thirty points on his muscr endurance and cardiovascr endurance (ability to transport oxygen throughout the body).


    "Yeah, this was the right decision," affirmed Quinn, standing up straight, "Going with augmentation rather than hundred across the board. This will be a better fit for me."


    When Quinn reached the ny percent block, he was presented with two choices. The first was to get every individual stat to a hundred and then learn to manage all five on a hundred percent before entering the field on augmentation. The second choice was to get one stat to a hundred and then learn to artificially (magically) augment and repeating that with every stat before moving on to merging them to push his entire physical above its full capabilities.


    Both were equally apt, but Quinn went with the second as he thought if he learned to augment, it would be easier to grasp how to merge and manage all five when he learned it.


    "Alright, then, let''s move on," said Quinn, ending his body magic thoughts, "now, where am I. . ."


    He looked around, and there wasn''t much to see except for a tree-free area surrounded by many trees.


    "Well, let''s move on, I guess."


    He took in a deep breath and checked how long his body could take getting its endurance augmented; body magic had its limits ¡ª out of the one hundred and twenty percent that he was pulling, a hundred was his body''s natural endurance, and the magic would stop if he went lower than a certain point.


    "Hmm. . . without a rest, I can go another fifteen minutes," he formted. "Let''s go ¡ª"


    Suddenly, Quinn felt someone was staring towards him. His attention to his surroundings peaked, and he looked around to see what had triggered his senses. His dark vision eyes peeled through the darkness.


    "Found it," he whispered. It was very faint, but Quinn caught it among the tall grass and bushes present on the base of trees.


    He slid his hand from left to right for an arc of water to manifest in the air. He snapped his fingers for the water arc to be razer thin and cut through the air towards the one who was watching him. The razer sharp water cut through the tall grass and bushes, but there was no one there.


    "Hiding behind the tree, huh."


    Magic concentrated in front of him as Quinn cast a potent piercing spell; he was going to nail the offender by going through the tree. But just as he was about to unleash the attack when he heard a growl behind him. Immediately, Quinn raised his left hand behind him and initiated a spell that could disintegrate flesh and bones on contact while holding the piercing spell in his right.


    He looked back, and his eyes weren''t already diluted; they would''ve diluted to their fullest as ten feet away from Quinn stood a wolf, and Quinn could immediately tell that this wolf was of a magical species as even while on four legs, the wolf''s height came to his chest.


    Quinn heard a rustle where he was about to shoot the piercing spell, and he turned his head just enough to see another gigantic wolf walk out into the clearing.


    "Why do you invade ournd?"


    The second he heard the words, Quinn''s eyes widened, and he immediately cut the supply of magic to his spells and instead charged a brand new spell and shot it towards the wolf closer to him.


    The aurora blue spell hit the wolf right in the face, and Quinn watched in anticipation to see the effects, but nothing came. The wolf, other than being startled, stood there unaffected.


    "Huh? why didn''t it ¡ª"


    Quinn didn''t have time to finish his sentence as he heard a roar from the second wolf behind him. He turned to see the enormous wolf charging towards him with a snarl. The sight of the giant wolf was scary, and Quinn didn''t want the wolf anywhere near him.


    He tapped his foot on the ground once, and his magic responded as metal chains with cuffs shot out of the earth and snapped around the running wolf''s ankles. The wolf''s speed was so high that it didn''t get time to stop in time, and the chains became taut, pulling all four of its legs, causing it to m onto the ground.


    Quinn didn''t have time to celebrate. He turned back and saw that the first startled wolf had recovered and had just pushed the ground to charge Quinn. He breathed out, and arge strip of earth between them froze over. And from theyer of ice covering the ground, dozens of big gnarly spikes shot out with crunching and crinkling noise.


    The wolf didn''t seem bothered as it continued to charge, and the moment its front paws came one step within the iced region, the wolf nted its feet before taking a might leap.


    "Oh, shiiit!" uttered Quinn, his eyes wide as he saw the wolf''s feral face and sharp biteing towards him.


    He raised both of his to the front of him and cast. The air in front of his hands seemed to thrum in power as a circr ring distorted in front of Quinn.


    ¡¸Viking''s Charge¡¹


    It was a spell Quinn had learned from the Nordic book of Vikings he got from Denmark. It took him a lot of time to trante Younger Furthak for this spell into English to finally get the information on the spell''s working.


    The circr air ring shot the wolf and pushed him back like the wolf''s frame did nothing. The wolf went flying back and yelped when it hit the ground. With the force it was shot, the wolf rolled on the ground and skid in an effort to stop himself, but the task was arduous as it took a lot of effort to get back on its feet.


    But once again, didn''t have time to gain with this one as the second wolf had freed itself from Quinn''s chains and was already inbound for Quinn. It ran straight at Quinn with a feral shine in her eyes.


    "So fast!"mented Quinn. He pulled his hand back before fully pushing the hand solid. And the magic seemed to be in sync as a thick pir of ground projectile along with a feral for growl.


    It was an instant for the wolf; the pir shot out of the ground and hit it in the jaw. A painful yelp sounded out as the wolf rolled backward from the force.


    "Stop!" yelled Quinn, raising his hands towards each wolf, "Let''s talk!"


    The wolf, which had been sted in the face with the Viking''s Charge, snarled at the hooded and masked human in front of him. "You attacked first, human! Why stop now? I won''t stop till I get your neck in my jaws!"


    "I apologize; I was startled," said Quinn, his voice distorted. He wanted the fight to stop because of his initial spell failure.


    The wolf, who had been hit in the face with a pir, finally got up, and this spoke in a female voice, "Let''s see what the human has to say."


    The male wolf snarled indignantly before walking over to the female wolf while keeping a vignt eye on Quinn.


    "What do you want, human?" asked the she-wolf.


    Quinn stared at the two gigantic wolves, and he couldn''t believe that they were standing in front of him.


    "You two aren''t Animagus."


    The first spell he had shot was an Animagus cancetion spell that would revert a magical into their human form. Quinn knew that there were no wolves in the forest because there weren''t any records of a native wolf species, so when he heard the wolf speak up, he thought that someone had figured out how to speak while in their animal form.


    "Animagus, what''s that?" asked the male wolf cautiously.


    But it turned out that the records weren''t true or at least iplete.


    Quinn stared at the wolves, observing the two grey wolves with curious eyes. "Do the two of you know your ancestry?"


    The two wolves'' bodynguage immediately became defensive. The vignce in their eyes deepened.


    Quinn noticed that, and behind his mask, he smiled, "So you do know. I can''t believe that I''m seeing your kind, especially here in the Forbidden Forest. . . Tell me, are you direct-progenies or descendants?"


    "Y-You ¡ª! Human, you know about our kind?" spoke the female wolf. In their entire lives, they were told that their kinds were scarce in number.


    "I''ve heard about you," replied Quinn, "answer my question, or you direct progenies or descendants?"


    The two wolves exchanged nced at each other before the female wolf answered, "Descendants."


    "Fascinating!" voiced Quinn. "Is there any difference between you and the direct progenies?"


    "We don''t know. . . there hasn''t been a direct in our tribe since our first ancestors. Other than them, we all have been descendants," answered the he-wolf. "As for the difference, it''s said that they were stronger, faster, and tougher."


    "Hmm, I see, I see."


    The two wolves in front of were an extraordinary breed of wolves.


    It was known that werewolves couldn''t pass on their Lycanthropy to their children. As such, the only way to continue the species was to bite others. But there was one particr case in which werewolves could create special progenies.


    If two werewolves ¡ª one male and one female. If the two werewolves were to conceive a child on a full moon night, that child when born wasn''t a human but a pure magical wolf. A wolf breed that was bigger than any typical wolf species and held human-like intelligence and speech.


    But this wolf species was extremely rare. The two wolves in front of him weren''t children of werewolves, but children of the wolves born from werewolves. Which, in turn, was also rare as the breed was so rare that chances of seeing a direct male and direct female together were itself sparingly rare.


    "How many of you are there in the forest?"


    The wolves didn''t answer, but Quinn didn''t miss the he-wolf''s nce in a particr direction. It told him that these two weren''t alone and there were more of them.


    ''I see; I''lle to observe themter,'' he thought, nning to get some observational data about this very rare species.


    "Well then, wolves, point me in the direction of the cursed vault, and I''ll be on my way, away from yournd."


    "Cursed vault? What is that?" asked she-wolf. They didn''t know that term.


    ". . . how about cursed mines? Have you heard of that?"


    "Oh, you mean the Sunken Crypt?" said the she-wolf in recognition. "It''s that way. You''ll know when you see it." She said, lifting her paw to point in some direction.


    "Thank you, I''ll be on my way."


    "Human, are you thinking of going inside the crypt?"


    "Yes, I am. Have you two gone inside?"


    "No, we haven''t," replied the he-wolf before he nced at the she-wolf, who nodded back.


    The two wolves gave Quinn a stare down before they left wordlessly, leaving only Quinn behind.


    "I''m inquisitive about their culture and civilization; I wonder how it would be different and regr wolves," muttered Quinn before moving on to the pointed direction.


    "I''ll know when I see it, huh, let''s see what''s all this about."


    With that, Quinn had moved one step towards the fourth vault.


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    Quinn West - MC - STAMINAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!


    Forbidden Forest Wolves - Pure Werewolf''s Progenies - Wolves ~ By Selina Gomez.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 163 - Altar, Beelzebub’s Crawlers.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Meeting the Forbidden Forest wolves was an unexpected yet inviting experience. He didn''t think that he would chance upon an extremely rare species, and now that Quinn knew about their existence, he had made a note about observing them ¡ª he wasn''t a big fan of magizoology and "alive" creatures, but with a species so rare, Quinn wasn''t going to let his likes and dislikes color his judgment.


    "The wolves pointed towards East," he recalled and used a point me charm (east-direction version) to set himself a direction to trek in.


    Quinn sighed as he jogged East; the scenery had returned to the continuous gray dullness with the wolves gone. The bleakness was starting to get on his nerves because of the sheer monotony. He concentrated on the ground, running, jumping, sliding over overgrow vines, exposed roots, and fallen tree trunks. Quinn''s feet moved ording to his will, and the rhythm and sound of his steps against fallen, dry leaves dulled the boredom.


    But it seemed he was bored for nothing. He skipped over an old, fallen trunk log, and as his feet off the ground, his vision caught something.


    Rustle, rustle; he looked at the ground ahead of him and the small spread of dry leaves parted, and from within, cameunching out a bottle guard-sized leech with a hole full of pointy for a mouth; its gross and slimy wiggled in waves as it flew towards him.


    Quinn''s expression immediately turned into one of disgust and irritation. He should have known better to jinx the peace, and now he had to face these.


    He took in a deep breath and exhaled a white mist straight onto the leech, freezing it inside a thin sheet of ice. The momentum of leech carried it over, and Quinn caught the ice-covered worm in his hand before mercilessly turning it into a meat patty by crushing its entire body inside the ice.


    His feet finally touched the ground, and at that very moment, a gust of wind pushed every leaf up and away, revealing an infestation of big leeches lying on the ground.


    ''Bloody knew it!'' he thought. "Blood-sucking bugbears."


    As the name suggested, the leeches sucked blood, and Quinn hated them with a passion. He had been bitten by them once; it was during his surveince over the forest trolls that one bit Quinn''s arm, and within five seconds, Quinn felt like he had lost most of the blood in his arm. The leeches could suck in blood like a thirsty person in desert water. That day itself, Quinn had found that the leeches worked with teamwork.


    The moment Quinn''s other foot nted itself on the ground, the still leeches came to life, and at once, every one of them jumped up from the floor towards Quinn. In retaliation and defense, Quinn pulled up the same shield he had used against the acromants. The slugs met the protection and immediately burned up.


    But the semi-circr shield wasn''t enough as some leeches started within the boundary of the dome.


    "F**k!" cursed Quinn as two leeches bit through his Noir-gear onto his feet.


    He felt them sucking his blood, and unlikest time where he had tried to pull them just to fail and had to st them off his body, this time he went another one. Freshly drawn blood maintained a magical connection to the owner for a brief spell of time, and right now, Quinn could feel his inside the leeches'' body. He grinned cruelly, and immediately, his blood inside the leeches'' bodies bubbled and burned through their flesh like a corrosive acid.


    Simultaneously, both of the now-dead leeches fell down onto the ground. Quinn then pulled down his shield and then sted every bugbeard heid on his eyes.


    "Any more?" he asked to one in particr.


    Quinn looked around and looked vignt as an infestation of blood-sucking bugbears meant there was a good source of blood for them, and any source of blood inside the Forbidden Forest had a high chance of being dangerous to him.


    He silently jogged ahead, keeping a careful eye on his surroundings. He had dashed around twenty meters when he had toe to a skidding stop.


    "Haha," chuckled Quinn with a genuine smile on his face, "I forget that he was supposed to be here."


    In front of Quinnid a Cereberus: a hound, a monstrous hound that took so much space that it put elephants, Argog, and even the forest trolls to shame when it came to size. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in his direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.


    "Fluffy, that''s the name, right."


    Fluffy, the Cereberus got up on its feet that sported sharp and long ws on its paws. The six eyes remained fixed on Quinn as multiple guttural growls harmonized together.


    "Hoho, you look much more intimidating awake, bruv," smiled Quinn.


    Fluffy''s three heads barked and pounded its front paws on the dirt. The ground shook, and the barks filled the space between the trees.


    If it was someone else of this size, Quinn would have been worried, but this was someone who Quinn knew how to handle.


    Quinn built up magic into his throat before he started to whistle with a fun smile on his face. If Fleur Dcour put a dragon to sleep, then Quinn could put a Cereberus weak to music down to sleep with a whistle infused with thick bewitchment sleep spellced into the sound.


    Fluffy looked confused, and all three heads shook left-to-right, pping their six ears. Fluffy stepped one step ahead, and in response, Quinn moved one step back and to the right.


    He continued to whistle for half a minute before Fluffy went down to his feet, another ten seconds before he retreated into a dog sleeping posture, and by the end of the minute, Fluffy was sleeping soundly.


    "This might be the easiest thing I''ve done in these woods," whispered Quinn. He didn''t need to continue to whistle because of the infused, bewitching sleep magic.


    Quinn walked ahead and squatted near Fluffy''s paw, and stared at the ck ws in interest. He shot cleaning spells on one nail before touching it.


    "Hmm, I wonder how tough this nail is," pondered Quinn before shrugging and raising his arm to drop a chop charged with slicing spell on it, putting a deep gash on it.


    "Okay, this is tough enough," nodded Quinn before once again raising his hand, and this time when he dropped a chop, the tip of the w was cleanly chopped off, "well, it will get tougher when I''m done with it. Some alchemy will do the trick."


    Quinn bagged the hardened keratin into his pockets before moving further East but not before rubbing Fluffy''s head.


    "Sleep well, buddy. You''ll be up in no time."


    . . .


    "The wolves messed with me, didn''t they," spat Quinn, "it''s been a half-hour; where the hell is the vault?! Those mutts lied to me."


    He stood deep in the Forbidden Forest with his hands on his waist, looking around. He was so deep in that if Quinn couldn''t recall his every step, he might not have been able to get out of the dense and spanning woods.


    Quinn looked up and sighed because he couldn''t see what time it was. He took out the pocket watch he used with Noir ¡ª one of his designs, a minimalist construct that didn''t have any fancy functions and only a printed dial with two clock-arms covering a solid and urate mechanism.


    "It''s gettingte. I should ¡ª"


    Quinn stared straight ahead at the ground, but he was focusing on his peripheral vision.


    "Not going to lie, but I feel embarrassed," said Quinn, slowly turning to his left to see what he had caught. "How did I miss that? I''ve been standing here for a solid half-minute."


    Quinn walked forward and stopped after ten steps. He tilted his head and stared in all directions to his front.


    "A masterful work," hemented, "fascinating illusion work given the amount of light in here. Ah, now I see, it''s targetting my magic and not sight."


    Quinn clicked his tongue and scrunched his face. He didn''t like that his magic was manipted to influence his sense. Of the many magics he knew, Quinn considered his illusion magic to be one of the better ones. Now seeing that he was fooled wasn''t an irritating feeling.


    "Is this how people feel when they are humbled?" he pondered aloud while raising his hands. "Not a feeling I like, absolutely not a feeling I enjoy."


    He stabbed his hand forward, and it disappeared till his elbow joint.


    "Definitely an illusion," he sighed, "wait. . . what am I doing ying with it?!"


    Quinn gathered his magic and proceeded to get free from the illusion. Almost instantly, the illusion fell down for Quinn, and the sight inside made him take a sharp breath.


    The illusion was cast in a dome shape, and inside was another clearing.


    A golden ray of light fell down from a hole in the canopy. A ray from heaven dropping down to the destends, illuminating it with hope. On the ground, where the sunlight stuck, stood a square altar, bathing in the spotlight from mother itself.


    Even just this made Quinn think it was a beautiful sight, but the altar in golden sunlight wasn''t the only thing hidden under the illusion.


    Around the raised altar, outside of the sunlight, in the darkness of the dim woods, were signs of strong and vital life. One of the most charming nts that Quinn had seen graced thend around the altar with its stunning beauty.


    They didn''t have the gift of light bestowed upon them from the sun above, so mother nature decided to give them their own light. White flowers bloomed on the nts, and those flowers with white petals glowed with soothing light, softly showing that not everything in the Forbidden Forest was a shade of grey.


    Quinn canceled the transfiguration on his eyes as he stepped inside to see the scene like he was meant to see to it.


    "Outside is white and gold," he repeated.


    White was from the flowers, while the gold represented the golden light irradiating the altar.


    A perfect contrast of two opposites.


    "I''m moved."


    Quinn carefully walked forward, avoiding stepping on the glowing nts, and made his way towards the altar. He stopped near the base of the stairs that led up to the altar to check if there was something that would difort him. . . but the area was clean. In the hidden clearing, there was nothing other than him, the altar, and the nts.


    "Good to know."


    Quinn stepped on one of the four staircases ¡ª one on each side of the square altar and started climbing. There weren''t many steps in the stairs, but the height of each step was tall enough that he couldn''t see the top of the altar till he had climbed halfway.


    "Is that a hole?" noticed Quinn and hurried up the steps to reach the top, where he saw a hole in the floor. From its looks, the hole was part of the original design as it was perfectly round, and the tiling on the floorplimented the gaping gap smack dab in the middle.


    "What''s with vaults and tunnels," said Quinn squatting down, "Sin vault had one down to the antechamber, Aquatic vault going down to the front cave, and now this one." He stared inside, and with the light from above, he could see the base, and it wasn''t that deep.


    He stuck his hand inside and touched the walls of the tunnel going inside.


    "Hmm, there are no engravings," observed Quinn, "that doesn''t eliminate the presence of some magic." He sent a beat of magic through his hand into the walls, but nothing popped up on his radar.


    "Good enough," saying that, Quinn snapped an end of Carpe Retractum''s cord of light onto the floor, and with the other end clutched in his hand, Quinn rappelling down into the tunnel.


    He wanted to start on a positive note, so ¡ª "Whoopee~!"


    Squelch ¡ª The lower end of the tunnel was wet sloppy ground, and Quinn''s boots dug a couple of inches into the dirt.


    "Eww," groaned Quinn, "This wasn''t the start I was looking for. . . ugh." He looked around and saw the entire floor was loose mud. Not a single spot of solid ground to be seen.


    Quinn took a step forward, but the wet mud turned into a transfigured square of solid limestone just before his foot hit the ground, and with every step he took forward, Quinn transfigured some earth into limestone for him to walk on.


    "Word smart, people, work smart," said Quinn chuckling at the end.


    He lit up orbs of light for illumination, and finally, he could see inside the vault: it was a long curving corridor of which Quinn couldn''t see the end. Looking above, Quinn could see roots peeking out from the top. Quinn continued to walk forward, and soon he reached the end.


    "Oh, it opened up." The narrow corridor opened up to arge room ¡ª if it could be called that. The corridor''s end was on a wall, but that opening was nowhere near the floor nor the ceiling of the gigantic room. The corridor end was right in the middle of the wall.


    "Now, how do I get down there?" wondered Quinn aloud and peeked out. On the other end of the room, he could see a passage on the opposite wall, right beside the floor.


    "Well, let''s use my favorite way," he grinned and stepped a couple steps back before sprinting forward and jumping from the edge and out of the corridor. "I. Love. This!"


    He joined his feet and spread his hands wide like certain hooded individuals who followed a certain secret creed that liked to jump from high spaces into carts of hay and never ever caught anyone''s attention while doing it.


    Of course, Quinn didn''t have those skills andcked the haystack tond in, but instead, he had magic in his corner, so when he reached the ground, he shot out Arresto Momentum to cut all his momentum andnded with utmost grace.


    "And. . . that''s how you do it."


    Not wanting to waste any more time, Quinn jogged across the room towards the passageway in the wall. And he had just reached mid-way through the room when the ground beneath his feet broke apart and from within came out a vine that wrapped around his foot.


    Quinn stopped in his spot, faced his palm toward the vine creeping up his leg, and immediately the vine incinerated into ashes.


    "What the hell was that? It came out ¡ª"


    For the second time in the same hour, Quinn couldn''tplete his sentence as the ground beneath him started to break. The same vine that had clutched his feet began toe out the breaks.


    Ten. . . thirty. . . fifty. . . soon there were around a hundred breaks in the ground, and from every single one of them, dark moss green colored whips of vines with thorns all over their curvature appeared and rose above, increasing in length every second.


    Quinn didn''t have any words to describe his situation. He wasn''t even thinking ofmenting on anything. He immediately started to back up as the tips of vines turned towards him. The turning point of chaos was sudden as abruptly, hundreds of vines zapped towards him, all homing towards one target ¡ª Quinn.


    Body magic coursed through his body faster than ever as he pulled all his facilities to ny percent with endurance (the only stat he could augment) being augmented beyond his body''s natural capabilities.


    ''Throw zig-zags in there, zig-zags, zig-zags,'' repeated Quinn reminding himself not to run in a straight line. A wise decision as vines behind him stabbed ces where he had been just a moment ago.


    ''Beelzebub''s Crawlers,'' he knew the identity of the vines from taking one nce at them. Beelzebub''s Crawlers were like Devil''s Snare, but much worse. They attempted to constrict or strangle anything in their surrounding environment, but unlike the Devil''s Snare, they didn''t wait for their prey to near them; instead, they actively sought out any game that came remotely near them. Over that, they had thorns that would inject venom into their prey''s body before pulling them into their ground, where the bodies would dpose, turning into nutrients for the nt.


    Quinn hurriedly looked up at the passageway in the middle of the wall that connected this room to the altar''s entrance with a curved corridor.


    Now a problem presented itself to him in the face of danger; unlike when he jumped down from there, he couldn''t go up at the same speed.


    Quinn raised his hands, and suddenly, nks of earth protruded out of the great wall like a staircase along a diagonal of the surface. As Quinn jumped on the first one, it turned into limestone for durability, and with that, he started to scale the wall by climbing stairs that he created for himself.


    "Oh no, you don''t!" he yelled at a rough dozen vines that came stabbing towards him. His magic thrummed, and a strong cutting curse lopped a considerable chunk of the vines before they could even touch him.


    But it wasn''t enough; he continued to dodge, cut, and climb, but by the time he was three-quarters way up, the vines had be too much for Quinn to lop off in bunches.


    "Okay, I will try that," he decided and stopped on a step. Magic ran unrestricted in his body as gusts of winds started to circle around his body, rings of strong visible hurricane-like winds began manifesting and flowing around his body.


    Beelzebub''s Crawlers'' primitive mind didn''t seem to sense any danger. They sensing their prey stop in one ce saw an opportunity, and all at once, the hundreds of vines jumped at Quinn.


    ¡¸Viking''s Axe¡¹


    Quinn opened his eyes, and with a flex of his muscles, the violent winds, which had almost formed a dome around him, were unleashed in the form of razor-sharp wind cutters on the vines. If one could describe a nt massacre, then this was it. Shreds and scraps of vines fell down onto the ground. The venom inside the vines leaked onto the earth, and the soil sizzled from the sheer corrosiveness.


    With the vines seriously damaged, Quinn didn''t waste a beat and continued to climb; soon, he was inside the curved corridor.


    ''Don''t stop; you know what''s about to happen,'' popped in Quinn''s mind, and as if his thoughts were heard, the earth behind him started to shake akin to a light earthquake.


    "Come," he voiced and stopped at the end of the corridor, standing just below the altar tunnel. "I will show you who''s the boss here."


    The best way tobat nts was to target them with one thing that was so harmful to them that forests worldwide fell prey to it.


    "I didn''t use it above because of the risk, but I don''t have a problem here," spat Quinn and raised his right towards the corridor.


    The shaking on the ground stopped and a silence set inside the cave.


    ''Here theye.'' Quinn could feel it.


    Like a wave of water being released into a narrow ce, vines over vines of Beelzebub''s Crawlers rushed into the corridor towards Quinn, filling itpletely.


    "me on," grinned Quinn.


    It was abrupt. Eruptions of fire sparked across the corridor; instantly, the corridor covered with vines was now filled with yellowish-red mes, with the Beelzebub''s Crawlers burning within the angry fire.


    Quinn squeezed his fist, and the screams of fire became stronger as mes became stronger. He was nning to turn every vine that came after him into dust. When he stopped, the earthen walls and ground were scorched intoplete ckness, and if there was light inside the tunnel, he would see the ck ashes of the previously vibrant vines filled with vitality.


    Deciding that it was enough for today, Quinn climbed out of the tunnel andid on the altar beside the hole with his arm covering his eyes.


    He let out a long groan and whined before he cried out,


    "I don''t want to go through that every time I go inside!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Oh, screw this, I''m out."


    Fluffy - Cerberus - Woke up thinking which idiot cut his nails and what level of stupidity was it to just cut one.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 164 - Babel And Opening Day

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Angelina Johnson and Alicia Snippet sat in the AID office in front of the big desk. They looked at each other and then behind the desk.


    "So team names," they heard, "have you decided what you want to call yourselves?"


    "Y-Yes," replied Angelina, "The Remembralls. . . no one would be able to forget us."


    "For us, it''s Sonic Brooms," said Alicia.


    "Those are two good names," came a nod of approval, "much better than what Cedric and Eddie chose, what kind of name is Trolling Bogeys," before looking to the left and saying, "please not the names down."


    Both girls looked to their rights and saw Quinn standing on a barstool next to the ss wall, noting their team names down on the notepad.


    "Remembrealls with two L''s, right?" asked Quinn.


    ". . . Yes," replied Angelina.


    She then looked behind the desk where Luna Lovegood sat, looking at them.


    "What''s the color scheme? I hope it isn''t gold and red; that would be unfortunate," she asked. "If you haven''t decided, let''s first decide the logo before we reach the color scheme as coordinating colors then would be much easier."


    "O-Oh," replied Angelina, a sixth-year replied to Luna, a third-year.


    Quinn nced up from his notepad and looked at the two confused girls. "Don''t look at me; she''s the one in control here; I''m just the note taker. I suggest that youmunicate with her well because she''ll be the one who''ll be designing everything from your quidditch uniform design to your logo before everything goes to production. Especially the logo because it''ll be literally everywhere, you really don''t want to mess that up ¡ª take my word for it, you won''t be happy if you mess the logo up."


    Luna nced at Quinn and put her hand out. "Show me the notes; what''re you writing."


    Quinn handed the notepad to Luna, who flipped through it before looking at him, "I told you to write their team names, I didn''t ask for brief notes on conversion theory in organic transfiguration. . . you even made diagrams." She looked up and bluntly said, "I will do it on my own. You can leave if you want."


    Quinn nodded with a sad expression, and when Luna looked down on the notepad, trying to make some sense, he nced at the Gryffindor girls and winked.


    "I will see you guyster," he said, "Luna, there''s a list on the table with the timings of other teams'' arrival. Please wrap these two up before the next duo arrives."


    "Hmm," replied Luna.


    Saying that, Quinn left the office with a smile on his face, hands in his pocket. After a long time of being swamped with preparations for the tournament, he finally had free time.


    "Now, I know why people hire other people," hefortably groaned while stretching his hands up, "work bes so easy with other people doing it for me."


    His new team had taken a lot of work off his shoulder. Now he only needed tomunicate with the vendors, and that was just writtenmunication. Every other thing was handed to the students he had selected as unpaid (some paid) interns.


    He hummed his way through the corridors, and before he knew it, Quinn was standing in front of the Room of Requirements. He walked past the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, and on the third time, a metal gate with intricate and ornate metalwork appeared on the opposite wall.


    "Oh my friend, it has been a while," it had been a week, "I''ve missed you."


    Quinn''s palms rested on the locked door, and on his touch like the vaults in Gringotts, the metal design onset into a massive transformation of shift, and before long, a click was heard indicating that the door was now unlocked. He pushed the door open and stepped inside into a stark white room.


    As Quinn stepped through the threshold, he felt potent magic sweep him ¡ª to be urate, as Quinn stepped into the room, he entered a ward that stripped every speck of dust and grim on his body and clothes. Quinn wasn''t strange to this feeling as he had one inside his workshop, but this one was multiple times more robust than his.


    "She overdid it ¡ª I think my skin hurts," he smiled, thinking about what he assumed was Rowena Ravenw''s work.


    The room''s walls, floor, and ceiling were all stark white, with no spot disturbing the white. Quinn walked to the two brown wooden tables in the room and stood in between the two, which stood side-by-side to each other by length.


    He nced at the left long table, and on it sat ten identical tablemps equidistant in a line. Everymp had a one-foot rectangle strip of metal sheet turned into an MLE light source. Below eachmp sat thick tomes, each of them looking more ancient than the other. One such book beside Quinn gently turned a page on its own before themp above shed a bright red light for a single second.


    Seeing this, Quinn turned to his right to see the other long table, but on this one sat ten modified designs of MagiFax. He walked behind the table, and behind each MagiFax sat two stacks of papers, one nk and the other printed. He watched as a nk sheet was sucked into the machine, and a printed sheet came out ¡ª the contents were the same as the tome beneath themp that Quinn had just seen.


    Then he looked to the further right to see what at a nce looked like a 20x20-ish grid of paper stacks arranged neatly on the floor. One of the printed stacks behind a modified MagiFax lifted off the table and gently floated to the floor,nding on an empty spot, joining the grid of other stacks.


    .


    ¡¸Project Babel¡¹


    .


    The Library of Babel, written by Jorge Luis Borges, was a story about a library that contained every book to be ever penned in the entire universe. Quinn was a devout bibliophile, dreamed of owning such a ce, and was ambitious by nature. He set out to build something simr to the Library of Babel ¡ª a library with every knowledge about magic ever conceived and written down.


    The aim was grand, and he had to start somewhere ¡ª he had already begun when Lia gifted him his first set of magic books in French. Ever since then, Quinn had coveted magic books: The books that his grandfather George had brought him during their travels, the books he to this date regrly ordered, tomes inside the vast Hogwarts library, and. . . the ancient tomes that sat hidden inside the Room of Requirements.


    The stark room in which he stood was a room that Quinn had requested from the Room of Requirments: "A room that only I, Quinn West, could enter with all books and tomes marked by Room of Requirements." His wishes were answered by a room that only Quinn could open, and it existed even when he wasn''t present, just like the Room of Lost Things existed when someone wasn''t inside.


    He looked ahead of the tables and saw the result of the second part of his request. Bookshelves upon bookshelves upon lined up in the room, each filled with esoteric and old knowledge: some that were considered vile and dark, some that were looked at as "right" magic, some lost to the world, some disproved, some that were then rare but nowmonce knowledge ¡ª but all of them held some nugget of magical wisdom that interested Quinn.


    The books in here were so old that the Room of Requirements had added automatically added a sterilization ward without Quinn asking for one, and even if he wanted it gone, he couldn''t remove it ¡ª the books came tied with the warding magic.


    Quinn had built this room and the setup at the start of the year. He knew that it would take time to copy every book even when his copy system worked round the clock, all day, every day.


    "I just hope I cover most of it by the end of this year." The following year was when the Room of Requirements was found, and Quinn had built this n taking in that possibility.


    He didn''t know the whole story, but Dobby, the Malfoy house-elf (now-ex), worked as a Hogwarts employee. While Quinn hadn''t talked to Dobby, he knew from the house-elves that he did know that Dobby was still a Boy-Who-Lived fanboy. If somehow, the Room of Requirements was revealed to any other student, Quinn''s ess to it would be restricted. Thus, this year, with everyone invested in the Tri-wizard and interschool quidditch tournaments, Quinn decided to finish making copies of every book branded by Room of Requirements.


    "Let''s get to work," he pped and sat down at a big desk but not before taking ten books from the bookshelves.


    There were two types of books inside the Room of Requirements.


    The first type: regr books with the same number of sheets as printed pages ¡ª meaning that if there were a hundred pages worth of content in a book, then there were a hundred sheets of parchments in the books.


    The second type: charmed books that held lesser pages than the actual content. An example of such books was all the books that n had given Quinn; those books only had around thirty pages, but the content was worth three hundred pages. The ink would shift to transform into different pages.


    While the copying setup could cover the first type but the second type, that Quinn had to take care of on his own. He kicked back and started to read the book page-by-page while multiple fountains opened up and started to record everything that Quinn read.


    He had long hours ahead of him.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "H-He really changed the stadium, didn''t he," said Tracey as she sat down.


    Daphne, who sat down beside her, looked around the new quidditch stadium and nodded, "With people actually sitting inside, you can actually see the changes that had been made."


    Both had been inside the stadium once before, but at that time, everything was covered in scaffolding and covers, but now they saw the true glory of the new stadium.


    Today was the opening day of the quidditch tournament, and Hogwarts students, along with outsiders, had already filled most of the stadium, with only a few seats remaining that too were being quickly taken by their iing owners. The stadium had been re-constructed, the seating capacity had been increased, and the stands had been raised into an elevated setting instead of a previouslyparatively tter one. Even the lowest seats were raised above for a better watching experience.


    "Where is Astoria?" asked Tracey looking for her best friend''s younger sister.


    "She''s going to watch the game with her friends," replied Daphne.


    "Is she still miffed about not getting selected in a team?"


    "She got over that in two days," said Daphne shaking her head, "what did she expect? She hadn''t picked the broom more than a handful of times ever since she got better; no way was she going to get selected."


    The younger Astoria had tried to get into four different teams recruited via tryouts but failed to get into any of them.


    "She has been pretty active these days,"mented Tracey, "it seems like Quinn''s treatment is working well."


    "That it is." Daphne had told her best friend about her sister''s condition. "I need to remind Astoria that her next treatment date ising. All of us have been so busy that I almost forget about it."


    Tracey was about to continue but saw the pitched and pointed, "Look, Quinn came out."


    Daphne, along with many others, looked towards the pitch to see Quinn dressed in royal blue and gold robes.


    . . .


    "Wee. . . all," said Quinn looking at the crowd greater than he had addressed during the first task, "I''m Quinn West, and today, I wee you to Silver Moon Printing MagiTech presents Tri-school quidditch league ¡ª TQL."


    Along with the edge of the quidditch pitch and below the stands hung multiple banners of varying sizes, all stark white at the moment. As Quinn opened the tournament, every banner shifted ¡ª an ethereal design of a blue night sky with a silver crescent hanging in the sky. If one would look closely, both the sky and the moon designs were made from printed paper with actual readable content on every inch of all banners present in the stadium.


    "It''s my pleasure to kick off this event today in all your presence," smiled Quinn while walking on the pitch, "I''m sure you''ll are aware of the Tri-wizard tournament currently being held at Hogwart; as such, we have the exciting opportunity to host Baeuxbatons and Dumrstrang for the school year ¡ª but because of that, we had to cancel the quidditch season to make space for the Tri-wizard tournament. . ."


    Boos were thrown from the entire Hogwarts crowd ¡ª no one had been happy about that particr decision/announcement.


    "See? That''s what we at AID thought as well," grinned Quinn, "so we decided to bring it back along with certain twists to make things interesting after all, we''ve yers from three schools."


    There were cheers of approval, showing the joy and happiness towards just the fact that quidditch had returned.


    "Before we start, I would like to walk everyone through the new rules that this league and tournament will be following for all its games," announced Quinn before cing the first rule in front of them,


    "Every game yed will have a total duration of two hours ¡ª" There was a lot of murmur in the stands, "¡ª unlike the standard rules which allow games to go as long as the snitch isn''t caught, we(I) decided that to impose a time limit on the game; this way, the teams will have to think about time which will give rise to all kinds of interesting scenarios."


    Quinn didn''t stop and continued because the second rule change was tied to the first change.


    "The second rule is for the seekers and golden snitch," announced Quinn, "a standard golden snitch is worth a whopping hundred and fifty points ¡ª an amount that could turn the tides of the game in an instant. . . sounds exciting, right?"


    Crowd aye-d in agreement about the rule change when a seeker locked onto the snitch, the flying was definitely the most fun and exhrating with the seeker flying literally weaving in and out the game ¡ª with the risk of getting hit by others.


    "In this tournament, we''ve decided to change the worth of the golden snitch from a hundred fifty to a lower fifty points. In return for decreasing the snitch''s value, we created another home role or provision for the game: as I previously said, the game will end after two hours and not when the snitch is caught; therefore, we''ve decided that every time a snitch is caught, a minuteter, another snitch is released for yet another fifty point chance. That way, the seeker gets to y while staying a considerable part of the game."


    . . .


    "Oh my, what a smart idea," said professor quidditch-nut, "the snitch would be needed to be caught thrice for a seeker to get the same level of control over the game; this will relieve a lot of pressure from the chasers, beaters to increase the point game ¡ª maybe this is a good chance to see a slower-paced game with more passing and teamwork. . . interesting, truly interesting ¡ª I wonder if the teams have thought about chaser-beater routes and beater-to-beater cross-team defensive options. . ."


    In the professor''s box, the professors stared at McGonagall as she droned about the new possibilities that the rule brought in.


    Aurora Sinistra, the Astrology professor, leaned towards Lily Potter''s side and whispered, "I bet that today she is going to speak more than she speaks in her sses."


    Her voice, as it turned out, wasn''t as low she had nned, and many professors (sans McGonagall, who was too involved)ughed and snickered at thement. Let''s just say that even the professors who weren''t that interested in quidditch were going to have a good time.


    . . .


    "What do you think about this, James?" asked Sirius ck, pocking his mate in the side, "seeker won''t be the most popr position if these rules were imposed everywhere." Which Sirius liked as he yed as a Beater who didn''t get appropriate recognition, well he was okay with it as long as he got to swing his bat and flung bludgers towards smug chasers.


    "I don''t like it," replied James, "do you know how hard it is to first spot a snitch? Those things don''t shine as much they should. Even if we do spot them, it''s only one out of three-four times when you''re able to follow it ¡ª catching the damn thing is another shitstorm. . . this doesn''t make sense."


    "I like it. Everything will depend on chasers, beaters, and goalies. You guys can just have fun flying while we actually y."


    "I can y chaser if I want."


    Sirius scoffed, "Your stupid face would be the first I would''ve hit with a bludger ¡ª it would''ve been supremely satisfying."


    ". . . We were on the same team."


    "I know."


    . . .


    "Now, I''ll not waste any more of your time and introduce the teams that will be participating in the much anticipated open game sponsored by WesternForge Constructions," shouted Quinn.


    Smoke started to escape out of two tunnels opening to the pitch, and from inside came the yers on their brooms, shooting to the sky as fireworks lit the stadium up.


    "I present to you. . . Trolling Bogeys led by Cedric Diggory and Treacherous Barons led by Victor Krum. . . The battle of champions is afoot!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Glorified photocopier.


    Luna Lovegood - Designer - Out!


    Minerva McGonagall - Quidditch Nut - Omoshiroi!


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I don''t like the pacing and structure of this chapter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 165 - The Game And The People

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Cedric Diggory and Victor Krum faced each other in the center of the pitch, staring down at each other ¡ª not a word was spoken to each other. The captains stared at each other without blinking ¡ª the stare down went too long, but neither were willing to break the eye contact first.


    "Well, are you guys ready?"


    The voice seemed to be the cue to break the eye contact; they removed their eyes from each other and looked at the source of the voice ¡ª standing there was Quinn West, dressed in his royal blue with gold trims, smiling at them.


    "Trolling Bogeys are ready," replied Cedric; the man looked abashed as he said it.


    "I''ve to ask, why that name," asked Quinn; he was aware of the name from Daphne''s regr reports, but not the reason behind it.


    "Your dear friend," sighed Cedric, "Eddie decided that Trolling Bogeys would be a good name for us. . . I got busy with the golden egg, and well, missed the team name meeting."


    "Oh, that checks out. . . don''t worry, it''s a good name, it''s a viinous name ¡ª those always do good with the crowd," said Quinn, assuring the captain before jutting his chin towards Krum. "Look at Treacherous Barons, now that''s one badass name; whose suggestion was it?"


    "I did," said Krum.


    "Excellent choice," smiled Quinn. "Okay, let''s move on and get the game started; tell me the centre position ¡ª who''re you going to start with?"


    At the start of a quidditch game, the three balls (quaffle, bludger, and the snitch) were released, and two yers from each team would be right in the centre to contest for the quaffle and bludger.


    "We''re sending a chaser and beater each," said Krum.


    "Two beaters," replied Cedric.


    "Noted, I''ll ry it to Madam Hooch; get your teams ready for the throw-off; we''re starting in a couple of minutes."


    . . .


    "We''rete."


    "The game hasn''t started; we''re right on time."


    The older gentleman sighed as he sat down in his seat in the stands, "It''s only correct to arrive sometime earlier for any event; arriving early actually ¡ª"


    "¡ª Arriving early actually gives you time back in your day. You will more than recoup the ten minutes you arrive early in the productivity you gain by being able to catch up and prepare," finished the young woman,pleting the saying that she had heard oh so many times. "But this is a quidditch game, grandfather, no use in arriving early when we have reserved seats."


    "It''s about creating habits, youngdy," said George West sitting in simple yet elegant clothing, "only by practicing certain actions regrly would you be able to make them second nature; arriving early is one of those things that you need to want to do on your own."


    Lia West didn''t reply; she didn''t have to ¡ª the grandfather-grandchild pair knew that Lia was rarelyte for anything; it was only an elder''s nature to repeat things to that important advice stuck in their young one''s mind.


    "Oh, there he''s, down on the field," pointed Lia.


    George took out a pair of un-tinted sunsses from his pocket. He wore them before taking a look towards the field. From the sses, he could see what he would typically see, but after a single tap on the frames'' side, the image zoomed; as a result, he could see his grandson''s face clearly despite the distance between them.


    Lia nced at her grandfather and saw the sunsses. "Oh, right, I forgot Quinn sent those to us." Lia also took the pair of her own sunsses and zoomed-in her vision before looking at her baby brother.


    "I can''t believe he fit all those runes and charms inside such a thin frame,"mented Lia, "the omnirs on the market look bulky inparison to these."


    "He''s getting better," smiled proud granddaddy, "the pocket watch he sent mest month was on another level than the one he sent mest year. It''s like he''s a craftsman that is improving his craft, growing with every piece."


    "Hmm," voiced Lia before cing her hand on George''s shoulder, "grandfather, look there ¡ª right opposite to us centre row ¡ª that''s Luna Lovegood."


    "Oh, where?. . .The dazed-looking blonde child; is that Luna Lovegood?"


    "Yes, that''s her."


    "Hmm. . . why is she wearing a hat in the shape of a troll?"


    . . .


    The Wests had insisted that they were seated in nondescript seats, choosing to sit among students to avoid meeting people from their social circles so that they could watch the game in peace by not having to make small talk with literally everyone who had heard of them as initially, they were seated in the VIP section of the stadium booked for high-profile personnel.


    "That''s the West child down there? He sure has grown."


    Lucius Malfoy nced at the portly little man with rumpled grey hair sitting at his side. He wore a pinstriped suit, scarlet tie, long ck traveling cloak, pointed purple boots, and lime green bowler hat. The man was currently leaning forward, squinting his eyes towards the pitch down below.


    Lucius nced towards the pitch, but unlike hispanion, he didn''t lean and squint; instead, he took out a pair of Galilean binocrs (tiny binocrs on a stick) to use them to look at the pitch.


    "Yes, minister, that''s Quinn West," replied Lucius, thought the fact that the introduction had just been given a few minutes back went unsaid.


    Cornelius Fudge leaned back into his seat and nodded. "I''ve seen that child a few times at functions during the summer break but never got to talk to him. I should talk to him today after the game; I hear that he organized all of this on his own."


    "That''s a great idea. I''m sure that the child will be thrilled to meet the minister," replied Lucius, though inside, he doubted that Quinn West would even bat an eye on meeting Fudge.


    "Good, good," said Fudge sounding happy.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the field, waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand.


    "Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she said, once they were all gathered around her.


    She held out the golden snitch in front of everyone. "Regr rules for snitch release ¡ª thirty seconds before the quaffle and bludgers." She looked at both the seekers: Cedric and Krum, "When either of you catches the snitch, the time will stop, and the positions will reset, and we will once again start with a throw-off."


    "Mount your brooms, please."


    Madam Hooch gave a loud st on her silver whistle. Fifteen brooms rose up, high, high into the air.


    "Ahem, the brooms have taken off; the game is about to start," Quinn''s voice sounded throughout the stadium, "the snitch is out ¡ª I repeat the snitch is out. . . you can just see the yer rearing to go."


    Chaser was the most dangerous position in quidditch as not only they had to keep note of the beaters who were always trying to hurl bludgers at them, they also had to track opposing chasers as they were alsoing after them for quaffles and interceptions.


    In the pitch''s centre, the T. Baron''s non-center chaser looked at the T. Bogeys'' chaser, and he was taken aback by what he saw.


    ''Eddie Carmichael, right. . . why is he looking at me like that?'' He saw Eddie stare towards them as if he owed Eddie some money, and to be honest, it made him gulp ¡ª the look was intense.


    Piiii, the whistle sounded startling T. Baron''s chaser. The quaffle and bludger were thrown straight, and the second they reached their peak height, just before falling down, the yers moved.


    "The game is on! ¡ª Oh, what''s this! Bogeys'' beaters; aren''t going for the bludger or quaffle! ¡ª They are blocking the Baron''s yer from getting to the balls ¡ª It worked! It worked! T. Bogeys'' have the quaffle."


    T. Bogeys''s two beaters mmed right into the T. Barons'' center members (chaser and beater) and let the quaffle and bludgers drop down their flight level. The non-center yers moved like a swarm of bees towards the chaser and beater, all trying to get a hand on them.


    Eddie Carmichael, in his first y of his first official game, dropped down on his broom and zapped towards the quaffle ¡ª his hand touched the quaffle first, which he tucked under his arm ¡ª stiff-armed T. Bogeys'' chaser who tried to take the quaffle back and zoomed past the crowd straight towards the goal hoops.


    "Off he goes! Carmichael has the quaffle. What speed! Speed brought to you by Nimbus cooperation and their Nimbus 2001 line ¡ª the official broomstick of the league."


    Eddie alone flew towards the hoops with his teammates holding back the others. Eddie was already too far away by the time they got open ¡ª only the goalie stood his path. Noplex thoughts went through Eddie''s mind ¡ª he had the ball, and it had to go into the hoop, that''s it.


    The goalie saw Eddiee near him with the quaffle back in his hand, but the second he was within throwing distance, Eddie abruptly pulled straight up, confusing the goalie, and before he knew it, the quaffle went zooming past him, deflecting off from the rim into the hoop.


    "Score! Eddie Carmichael has scored the game''s first goal and season, with Trolling Bogeys taking the lead. What an exciting start to the game!"


    And it seemed genuine as the people in the stands went crazy.


    . . .


    "My apologies for beingte; I, for the life of myself, couldn''t find a pair of socks to wear."


    The people in the VIP box looked at Albus Dumbledore as he entered with a bright smile on his face, dressed in his colorful, entric robes, looking jolly as ever. His bright eyes peeked from behind his half-moon sses, taking in everyone in the room before finally stepping inside the box.


    "What''s the score?" he asked as he sat beside the other two heads of the school.


    "The game just started; fifty to seventy."


    "Oh, Ogden, I didn''t know you wereing. How long has it been since youe out of your distillery," smiled Dumbledore towards the owner of Ogden''s Old Firewhiskey.


    ". . . You just saw me in Wizengamotst week," said Ogden.


    "Ah, yes! It fell off my mind; how forgetful of me,"ughed Dumbledore before once again looking around the VIP box, "speaking of. . . where is George West, I was told he would be attending."


    "George West is attending!" eximed the minister in his bowler hat, looking around to see if he had missed the man.


    "That''s what I''ve been told," said Dumbledore, "but from the looks of it ¡ª" the VIP box was already full, "¡ª even if he was here, George West wouldn''t have sat here."


    "Who told you that he''ll be here?"


    Dumbledore held back a sigh at the minister''s question. Why wouldn''t he, the headmaster, be privy about the peopleing to his school for a highly organized event.


    "You see the student right in front of us ¡ª sitting with the professors ¡ª Quinn West, he''s the organizer, he submitted the guest list."


    The organizer, however, cleverly didn''t share the seating n with the headmaster, just the names.


    "Then where is he?"


    "Hmm, I''m assuming that if he''s attending, then he''s among the students," guessed Dumbledore ¡ª nay, Dumbledore was sure that George West was sitting in the stands.


    ''Not that I can me him,'' thought Dumbledore as he watched everyone in the VIP box whip out their omnirs, but they weren''t looking at the game but at the stands.


    "Oh! It seems the seekers have spotted the snitch."


    . . .


    Cedric Diggory and Victor Krum zoomed across the pitch, both seekers chasing after the ever-elusive golden snitch.


    Seekers were generally the smallest and lightest yers on a team and needed both a sharp eye and the ability to fly one- or no-handed ¡ª but today, both seekers didn''tply with the archetype.


    Cedric Diggory was a tall fellow with a not-so-wiry frame. His body caught too much drag from the wind, causing him to fly slower, just by a fraction, but those fractions were what mattered when one waspeting with a fast seeker chasing a faster snitch. With his bulky and stocky build, Victor Krum was theplete opposite of the seeker archetype ¡ª too heavy for a seeker. He was already heavier for adult seekers ¡ª there wasn''t even a need to mention school level.


    But for some reason, both of them were still the fastest yers on the field.


    "Diggory and Krum are hot on the tail of the snitch ¡ª Diggory to the front! ¡ª Krum is back in the lead! What an intense chase. What do we see here ¡ª Krum anticipated the dip from the seeker and has clutched a substantial lead! What''s this?! Diggory is gaining speed ¡ª will he catch up? ¡ª It''ste! It''ste! Krum has it! The snitch has been caught! T. Baron''s have caught the first snitch of the season!!!"


    Fireworks shot on cue as T. Barons surrounded Krum as the team circled the stadium, with snitch the held clutched high in Krum''s grasp.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In the professorsmentators box, the head of houses sat in the front row, just behind Quinn, who sat just behind the railings, to get a clear view of the game.


    "Minerva. . . did he really organize all of this?" asked Sprout looking at the new stadium, the animated and colorful banners with the game going in the center of all of the numerous little things that impressed the herbology mistress.


    "He did," answered McGonagall distractedly as he craned her neck with her favorite omnirs set on her eyes. "Yes, dive, dive, dive, yeah!"


    Sprout sighed at her colleague''s antics ¡ª the quidditch nut was in no condition to hold a conversation.


    She decided to talk to the "Filius, are you proud ¡ª" she saw the half-goblin snicker in amusement as he wrote something off a parchment, "¡ª what''re you doing?"


    Flitwick looked at Sprout with a toothy grin and showed her the parchment, "I just won 20 galleons on who would reach a hundred points first ¡ª I bet on Bogeys which had high odds because Mr. Krum is on Barons, but heh, my hunch was good, now I''m in profit."


    Suddenly Quinn turned towards them and gave Flitwick a thumbs up, "Good decision, professor. Bogeys'' chasers are on fire today; Do you have something on them today?"


    Flitwick pped his thigh, frustration shing in his eyes. "I didn''t think that Mr. Carmichael would be so good as a chaser ¡ª this is his first game, and he had already scored third of Bogeys points. I was actually counting on Mr. Diggory to pull the point total ¡ª a miss on my part."


    "Haha, don''t worry, professor, there are still many, many games remaining you can ¡ª"ughed Quinn but suddenly looked back at the field, "¡ª CHASER CRASH Two chasers crashed down into the grass; Carmichael from Bogeys and Bam from Barons ¡ª ah, Carmichael is already up and flying! What endurance, I wonder who''s his trainer!"


    Sprout looked between Quinn and Flitwick in shock. "Y-You''re betting! Filius ¡ª"


    "Loosen up, Pomona. Enjoy the game," grinned Flitwick, "Next time, I''ll take you with me; the Weasley twins have a great betting setup; they give great odds ¡ª shell some of your galleons on things other than seeds and nts."


    Sprout sighed, her eyes going to the fourth head, who was intently watching the game.


    ''No way. . . '' she thought. "Severus did you ¡ª"


    "No."


    "A-Ah, I see, of course, of course."


    "Oh! Diggory has beaten the pro to the snitch! Bogeys have their first snitch of the game! That puts them above the Barons with a great margin! A great offensive team effort by the Trolling Bogeys! What a game we''re getting to see brought to you by Blishen''s Fireworks."


    Smoke works filled the sky as green and ck colors of Trolling Bogeys menacingly made their presence known.


    Quinn once again turned back to the professors.


    "Professor Snape, here you go," he threw a roll of parchment along with a tiny vial towards Snape, who effortlessly caught it, "my personal recipe for smoke sky-shots, what do you think about it?"


    Snape stared at the vial with silver liquid for a moment before reading the parchment.


    ". . . Good enough," was the short response before Snape opened the vial and a small plume of green smoke rose to turn into a shape of a troll, "Better."


    Quinn grinned before once again turning back towards the game.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Marcus reached the T. Bogeys'' locker to meet Eddie and jumped when he heard a loud, frustrated shout.


    "How the hell did he catch two snitches in thest twenty minutes! $#@%!!!"


    Marcus saw Eddie angrily stuff his gear into his bag while throwing out profanities which from his mouth sounded weirdly melodious.


    "Krum was lucky; it popped up right in front of him ¡ª all he had to do was reach out to it," said a beater. None of the house beater duos were separated in the team recruitments, with the Hufflepuff duoing to Trolling Bogeys.


    "I know! We f**cking yed so well! Ah, that buzzcut of his pisses me off!"


    ''That pisses him off?'' thought Marcus, sometimes he couldn''t understand what went through his friend''s head.


    "We''ll win the next game and everying game," said Diggory, and his tonecked his usual happy style.


    Marcus was about to enter the locker room when Luna, with a troll hat on her head, walked past him and entered the locker room.


    "You lost."


    "I know! I was there!"


    The opening day game ended with plenty of fanfare.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - Plugging sponsors whenever I can.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Suggest credits. Too many people in this chapter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 166 - Boys And Girls — It’s Time

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    After closing the game by thanking everyone for attending, Quinn turned to the professors while getting up from his seat. "This was fun, professors. I hope you all enjoyed the game and the little changes we made to the gamey."


    "It was a fantastic game, Mr. West," nodded McGonagall, looking as if she had eaten a scrumptious meal, "now, I''m looking forward to the uing games ¡ª it''ll be a fun quidditch season."


    "That''s good," said Quinn smiling before pping his hand once, "Now, I''d take my leave; I''ve to meet some important people. . . I''ll see you all at the after-game party."


    Then he exited.


    There was nothing to do in the stadium, and they also had to make sure students went back correctly, so the professors also rose from their seats, but then Quinn peeked back in,


    "Even though I said it, please don''te to the after-game party. People will kill me if they know I invited you guys. Have your own party ¡ª I can arrange for drinks and snacks; contact me if you need that."


    He didn''t wait for a reply and ducked back out, leaving for real this time.


    Flitwick looked at his colleagues, raising his betting parchment, "I had a decent game today. Do you all want to gather this evening? I''ll pay ¡ª my treat."


    The professors looked at each other, contemting the offer; they all had a tough past few months with arrangements.


    "Sure, why not."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    For the guests to arrive at the stadium, they had to go through the grounds while walking a clearly marked path that went from the main entrance straight to the stadium.


    Near one of the stadium''s exits stood George and Lia West, waiting for Quinn to arrive ¡ª the family had decided that Quinn would escort the two out after the game.


    "I''m here, I''m here," said Quinn, jogging his way out of the stadium. "I came here as fast I could."


    "Yet, you''rete, my child," said George, taking in the appearance of his grandson.


    "What do you mean?"


    George didn''t pull his hands from behind his back, although he subtly nudged his chin towards Quinn''s back.


    Quinn turned halfway to see the minister with his peripherals, along with various VIP guests walking right towards them.


    "Ah, I''m indeedte," said Quinn turning back, "you don''t think we would be able to make a run for it without it looking like we''re avoiding them."


    "I''m too old for running," smiled George, "It doesn''t matter; I came here knowing well that I''ll have to talk to some people. . ." he sighed as at the sight of the iing people, "I just hoped that they would be a little smarter."


    "Not all of them are that bad,"mented Lia, matching the faces to the information she had in her memory.


    "Yes, but the one in the lead is as smart as a bait."


    "Okay, they''re here," said Quinn and acted like he never saw the iing people.


    "Mr. West!" called out Fudge, sounding absolutely delighted.


    "Minister," greeted George.


    "Mr. West, I heard that you were attending though I was surprised not to find you in the VIP box; may I ask why? Was there an error in seating arrangement?" Fudge nced at Quinn at the end.


    George caught the look. "Minister, do you really think my own grandson won''t put me in the VIP box."


    "No, I mean ¡ª"


    "There was no mistake; I asked for to be seated where I sat."


    Fudge spluttered in response, not knowing how to continue. Fortunately, there was another person to continue.


    "I''m sure there wasn''t a mistake, Mr. West ¡ª Mr. Quinn West, that is ¡ª is veryponent. So, the question remains ¡ªwhy were you seated there? I''m truly curious."


    George looked at the jolly old man standing just behind Fudge. "If one truly wants to enjoy a quidditch game, then the ce to do it is in the stands with others and not in a VIP box, Headmaster Dumbledore."


    "Ah, I see," smiled Dumbledore, "some say the secret behind enjoying a quidditch game lies with thepany."


    "Wise words."


    "That they are."


    Quinn stared at the two men stare at each other.


    ''This is nice,'' he thought; while Quinn always stepped carefully around Dumbledore, his grandfather was different; George West didn''t need to be careful.


    "How are you feeling about what your grandson has done here?"


    "I''m proud of him; something of this level takes time and effort. He did a great job with the organization of this event."


    "So, it was expected?"


    "Hmm, Quinn tends to seed at everything he picks up. Given his achievements, though an exceptional aplishment, isn''t something. . . unexpected."


    "What about him employing a lot of West-ownedpanies? Do you think Mr. West would''ve been able to pull this off if he didn''t have those resources?"


    "He just used the cards he had been dealt. Quinn utilizing, making legitimate business transactions, with West-ownedpanies was him simply being resourceful ¡ª a quality that I''m d that he has picked up.. . . Now, if he would have seeded if he didn''t have those ¡ª yes, would have; it would have required him to work faster and harder, but I''m sure he would''ve reached this same exact result or who knows, even better."


    "You think he could''ve done better than this? Surely not."


    "Everything can be improved, headmaster. I''m sure, a couple years down the line, when Quinn looks back at this time, he would think about how he could''ve done things differently ¡ª I, to this day, think back. That''s how people grow."


    "Isn''t that true for all of us?"


    "That it is."


    After a quick back-and-forth, the two men once again fell into silence.


    ''What was that? They just talked about me,'' thought Quinn, ''well, they''re my grandfather and headmaster.''


    "Ah, Quinn did a great job organizing the game," praised Fudge when he saw that Dumbledore and George had stopped talking and it was the right time to gain attention.


    "Thank you, minister. I''m d you liked it," said Quinn, smiling humbly, "I hope I''ll see you all again next week and the week after that to see more games."


    "Yes, yes," said Fudge with a big smile before turning to George, "Mr. West, I was hoping that I would get some of your time. . ."


    "Minister, you''re aware of how to schedule a meeting with me," replied George, giving the man a look.


    "A-Ah, yes, of course," sputtered Fudge.


    George studied the short and portly man for a second before silently sighing. "I''ve some free time next week, minister. I suggest that you make the appointments for then."


    "Thank you, Mr. West! Yes, I''ll get to it as soon as possible."


    The people stared at the smiling Fudge, and except the man himself, they all knew that it was ''pity'' that had got him a chance to talk with George.


    "I would also like to talk to you, Mr. West," chimed in Dumbledore, "I''ve some subjects that I would like to discuss with you."


    "Send a letter to our main office, and they''ll see if I have a free spot in my schedule ¡ª MagiFax is the preferred mode ofmunication," replied George; he, of course, how much free time he had and could give both Fudge and Dumbledore a slot right here and then, but George wasn''t sure if he wanted to give his precious time to these two men.


    ''I''m sure Dumbledore would be fine, but Fudge,'' sighed George in his thoughts. To this date, he couldn''t believe how Fudge had won the election; it made him think if he could have changed the results by endorsing other candidates.


    "Ah yes, MagiFax, I''ve bought one for myself but haven''t got to opening it," said Dumbledore, "this will finally give me the motivation to set it up; it will be a fun evening."


    "Don''t fiddle with it, headmaster," said Quinn, "if it breaks, repairing charms will put it, but it won''t work."


    Both Lia and George gave Quinn a brief and discreet look. While Quinn didn''t notice the look, he did feel the urge to smack himself in the head. His decision was to keep his name hidden as the inventor; not many people knew about his involvement in the development (like Gary and Ben). Right now, Quinn''s words didn''t give any inclination that he was the creator, but it did open him up to a multitude of questions.


    Fortunately, no one took the opportunity to ask the questions.


    "I will keep that in mind, Mr. West," said Dumbledore.


    "Now,dies and gents, it was a pleasure to meet you all, but I will take my leave now; I''ve some previousmitments that I need to take care of," said George.


    "Will you be visiting again?" asked Dumbledore.


    "If the time permits, I will," replied George.


    "I see; allow me to escort you to the main gate."


    "That''s not needed; Quinn is taking care of that."


    No more words were exchanged as the Wests walked away, leaving the others behind with their thoughts and chatter.


    "That wasn''t so bad,"mented Quinn.


    "Nothing bad could''ve happened with me talking to them. You worry too much," replied George. "I just didn''t want to waste time by making meaningless small talk with no clear motive in mind."


    "Are you going to meet Dumbledore?"


    "Yes, I''ve decided to see what he wants. That man is persistent if nothing else."


    "Keep me informed."


    The family of three talked about various things until they reached the main entrance.


    "So who will being next week?" asked Quinn.


    "Uncle Elliot wants to visit," said Lia, "He wants to visit the castle if possible."


    "Hmm, okay, I''ll see what I can do," said Quinn thinking about how to get Elliot inside the castle, ''Professor McGonagall or Flitwick will be my best bet, or should I act sick. . . no, I have to host. . . I''ll think of something.''


    He brushed his thoughts aside and addressed his family,


    "I guess I will see you two on Christmas."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Listen to me, you two!" said Eddie standing on his bed, "As I expected, my great mind was right to suffer for a year to y quidditch; just with one game, my reputation is flying high with no signs of evering down!"


    "Yeah~. . . good for you," said Quinn, finally fixing MLE in their dorm room while Marcus sat on his bed watching both his friends.


    "My magnificent skills have charmed thedies," dered Eddie, "I can tell ¡ª I''ve entered the scene!"


    "Yeah~. . . good for you."


    Eddie gave Quinn a stink eye before continuing with the same enthusiasm. "But this isn''t the time to rest on myurels ¡ª It''s time to strike the iron while it''s hot."


    "Yeah~. . . good for you."


    "Sod off!" barked Eddie before once again continuing his speech, ". . . ahem, as I was saying, I need to take this chance to score big, and the perfect opportunity has presented itself to do that ¡ª The Yule Ball."


    "Yeah~. . . good ¡ª Yule ball!" eximed Quinn, almost falling off the stool he was standing on.


    "Oh ho, it seems I have finally got your attention. Yes, the Yule ball! A traditional part of the Tri-wizard tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize if you know what I mean~. Perfect opportunity for me to turn one date into two, which will turn into another one, and before you know it, your mate would have already escaped singlehood."


    "Yule ball!" repeated Quinn jumping down from the stool, "When was this announced?"


    "Today, in thest ss," said Marcus, "it was after McGonagall called you out of the ss. Flitwick announced that the Yule ball will start at eight o''clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall."


    Quinn sat down on his bed, holding his face. He had been so busy that the Yule ball had slipped his mind. Even today, he had been so busy, after all the work, Quinn spent some quality time inside the Room of Requirements, peacefully reading on some new charms, and while reading, he lost track of time, missing the time for the dinner feast, making him eat in the kitchen ¡ª he remembered the hostages but how half of them were selected slipped his mind.


    "Marcus, are you going to go to the ball?" asked Quinn, looking at his shy friend; even Eddie looked interested and was about to offer his help to find Marcus a date.


    To their surprise, Marcus didn''t seem to be flustered and simply nodded.


    ". . . Are you going to take a girl with you?" asked Eddie, knowing that having a partner wasn''t mandatory, at least for anyone who wasn''t a champion.


    "Yes." Once again, Marcus seemed to be serene, as if he didn''t have a worry in the world.


    "Have you asked her?"


    "Not yet; I''ll ask her tomorrow."


    ''''Tomorrow?! So fast!'' ''thought Quinn and Eddie at the same time.


    Eddie jumped down from his bed and walked towards Marcus. "Who is it? Who''re you asking?"


    Even Quinn walked near them and stood behind Eddie with his arms crossed.


    "You''ll know," answered Marcus.


    "Tell us now," they demanded.


    "No, only after I ask her."


    "Tell me, I have a Quinn behind me," said Eddie, treating Quinn as if he was an interrogation device, and Quinn puffed up his chest, ying his assigned role.


    "He won''t do anything to me; Quinn likes me more than you."


    "That''s true," said Quinn immediately.


    "I''m standing right here!" eximed Eddie.


    In the end, the two decided that it was easier to stalk Marcus than trying to get the girl''s name out of him as one of Quinn''s very scarce legilimency rules dictated that he wouldn''t use legilimency against friends ¡ª they weren''t friends if he thought it was okay to use legilimency on them (T&C apply.)


    "Who''re you going to take?" This time it was Quinn''s turn to answer the question.


    Quinn looked at his friends as some faces shed through his mind. "I don''t know yet. I''ll have to see; if no one agrees, I''m going solo. One Quinn West can trump one couple."


    After saying that, Quinn went to brush his teeth so that he could go to sleep.


    "Yeah, right!" scoffed Eddie, "Like a girl will reject him; if he goes alone, that means he''s either gay, or he didn''t want to take anyone with him."


    ". . . What if he is actually gay?" asked Marcus.


    Eddie nced towards Marcus and shrugged, "You said it: he likes you more than he likes me."


    ". . ."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn had never known so many people to put their names down to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas; he did, of course, because of hosting responsibility and tournament organization; even if there would be no games that week, Quinn needed to take care of practice schedules. This year, however, everyone in the fourth year and above seemed to be staying, and they all seemed to Quinn to be obsessed with theing ball ¡ª or at least all the girls were, and it was amazing how many girls Hogwarts suddenly seemed to hold; he had never been cognizant about it before. Girls giggling and whispering in the corridors, girls shrieking withughter as boys passed them, girls excitedlyparing notes on what they were going to wear on Christmas night. . .


    "They seem to be staring at you. . . intently," Marcus said to Quinn as a dozen or so girls walked past them, sniggering and staring at Harry.


    "I noticed," said Quinn, not bothered by it.


    "Why do they have to move in packs? How''re you supposed to get one on their own to ask them?" said Eddie looking around. "Lasso them? ¡ª Wait, should I fly down on my broom, pull a girl up, and ask her while flying in the sky? How does that sound?"


    "That''s just kidna¡ª maybe it will work; prince on a white pegasus of sorts. Use it as yourst option," suggested Quinn.


    They reached the Great hall and made their way towards Ravenw.


    "Hey, Luna," they greeted as they sat down ¡ª Luna, Quinn, and Eddie on one side and Marcus on the other.


    Luna scribbled on her sketchbook with various crayonsid on the table.


    "Luna, you know the rule. This isn''t allowed on the dinner table," said Quinn.


    "But the food isn''t here yet."


    "Okay, then keep it away when it arrives."


    "Okay."


    Marcus looked at his three friends: Eddie gazing around the Great hall, surely trying to see who he should invite, Quinn arranging the crayons scattered around the table, and Luna scribbling with her tongue sticking out.


    "Luna," called Marcus.


    "Hmm?" came the reply.


    "Will youe to the ball with me?" he asked.


    Eddie snapped his head towards Marcus while Quinn''s impressive crayon pyramid scattered back on the table as he stared. Reflexively, big brother instincts were triggered as under the table Eddie pointed his wand while Quinn''s hand flexed. But the two looked at each other, realizing what they were doing, and retrieved their weapons while lightly clearing their throats.


    Luna looked up from her table and stared at Marcus for a good half-minute.


    "Okay."


    "Alright, then," said Marcus with a bit of grin on his face and nodded towards his two best friends.


    Eddie looked like his world had toppled over at the ease with which Marcus secured himself with a date while he was still thinking about who to ask.


    Quinn, on the other hand, clicked his tongue that he missed the opportunity to ask Luna. She was also his first option ¡ª his safest option.


    "Well yed, Belby. . . well yed."


    "It certainly was!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Highmodity that a lot of "people" have their eyes on.


    George West - Grandfather - Doesn''t like dull people.


    Marcus Belbly - Mad Lad - "He who strikes first wins."


    Eddie Carmichael - Has finally achieved popr jock status - It''s finally game time, people!


    Luna Lovegood - ( ^_^ ) - Ball? Sure.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - No, he isn''t gay. So, don''t start.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 167 - Rejections And Rejection

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I''m sorry. . . but I''d not befortable," said Quinn, "I hope you understand; it''s not you, it''s me. I''m sure someone as pretty as you''ll absolutely be able to find someone much better than me."


    A curly-haired fourth-year Hufflepuff girl to whom Quinn had only ever spoken to in passing and thrice in his office for notes looked down towards her feet and shakily nodded. Quinn held back from sighing as she walked away without again gazing at him, looking rather hurt.


    "She was quite good-looking," said Marcus fairly, after clearing a serving of crisps.


    "I don''t know her; if I epted, it would''ve turned awkward pretty quickly," answered Quinn, sitting down.


    "No, it wouldn''t," countered Marcus, "you don''t do awkward if it''s not on purpose."


    ". . .Yeah ¡ª you know me too well," sighed Quinn, who was he trying to fool, "I wasn''t one bit interested in taking her to the ball. The entire thing reeked of a day full of chores for me."


    "That''s what ¡ª the eighth girl you rejected ¡ª what the hell are you doing?!" grumbled Eddie chewing on a strip of bacon, "all the boys hate and admire you at the same time. You don''t know how annoying these contradictory views are ¡ª I want to bash your pretty face but at the same time want you to impart some wisdom to me."


    "I don''t have anything to offer. Just follow what Marcus did and go ask a girl out."


    "Yeah," nodded Marcus, pointing his fork at Eddie, "what''s the worse that can happen? She will say no; you lose nothing."


    "She could say eww. . ."


    Eddie and Marcus looked at Quinn, who ate a piece of roast chicken.


    "Sorry, what did you say? I missed that."


    "Me neither."


    Quinn waved his hand and shook his head with a smile, "Oh, it''s nothing, don''t worry about it. . . Marcus is right, Eddie. Pick a girl you want to take to the ball and ask her out."


    He hit Eddie on his arm, "Where did that year-long enthusiasm go? Bring it back; unleash the legendary virgin power and show everyone what you''re made up of or whatever."


    A pair of girls were passing behind the trio when Quinn spoke and broke into giggles at his words. Eddie tried to merge his face into the table while Marcus seemed unperturbed ¡ª he already had a date; Quinn turned towards the girls and shed them a smile. The blushes that the girls that sported would''ve made a healer worry about their health.


    "You reject eight girls, and then you do that; what''re you doing," asked Marcus seeing the short exchange.


    "Well, there has been girl-talk circting in the castle; I simply wanted to check if it was true," said Quinn shrugging.


    "The smile thing?" asked Eddie, the side of his face flush against the wood.


    "Yup~ I have the most charming smile in the entire school."


    "Not surprising given that you constantly moderate your smile,"mented Marcus.


    "Thank you, it''s a talent," Quinn gave Marcus a wink.


    "But seriously, what''re you going to do about your date," said Marcus, "it''s not like for you to leave things to thest date. Sixteen girls asked you out, but you haven''t tried once from your side."


    "I can''t decide who to ask out."


    "Ha!" Eddie sat up straight and pointed at Quinn. "Unleash your virgin power and whatnot and go get a girl. . . yeah, take that."


    "Mate, what''re you doing," said Quinn looking to his sides.


    "Yeah, Eddie, you can''t say things like that," added Marcus doing the same as Quinn.


    ". . .What? He did it first." Eddie pointed at Quinn.


    "That was different," scoffed Marcus.


    "How?!"


    "There is a time and ce for everything, mate. It wasn''t now," said Quinn shaking his head.


    Eddie stared at his two buddies with an expression of confusion and disbelief.


    "What?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Tap, tap, tap. . . Quinn''s finger tapped away at the desk in his office, staring at Reconid on his desk. He stared at the map, and the map stared back at him.


    Suddenly he leaned in and spoke to Recon, "Daphne Greengrass."


    The map obeyed its creator''s orders, and the ink on cloth shifted to a blue dot moving out of the Hogwarts library.


    Quinn leaned back and stared at the map while tapping his foot away. He watched as the dot moved across floors and climbed down the stairs.


    "Ah, let''s just do it," he said and got up from his barstool with Recon packing itself into Quinn''s pocket.


    He fixed his clothes while walking towards the door. He opened the door and froze in the spot.


    "Quinn."


    "Fleur, what''re you doing here?"


    The French Ve standing just outside the door spoke in French, "I''ve something I wanted to talk about."


    "Oh, please do tell; what''s the problem? I''ll try my best to help," said Quinn continuing in French.


    "Aren''t you going to invite me inside?"


    "Ah yes, of course, pleasee in,e in."


    The two entered the office with the MLEs lighting the moment Fleur entered.


    "So tell me what seems to be the problem?" asked Quinn as both sat down.


    "Are you sure you''re free? It seemed like you were going out," said Fleur, "if you''re busy, then we can do this when you''re free."


    Quinn shook his head, "It''s okay. . . I''ll take care of thatter." It could wait.


    "Good as I need to get this problem solved as soon as possible," said Fleur, "I''m not sure if I''d be able to solve it if I waited."


    "Oh, what is it?"


    "I would like you to be my date at the Yule Ball."


    ". . . Pardon?" The words escaped Quinn''s mouth before his mind could even process the words that were spoken.


    "It''s the tradition at Yule Ball that champions and their partners open the ball; as such, it''spulsory for the champions to have partners."


    "I''m aware of that, Fleur. But why me? It''s only been a few days, and you''ve already got multitudes of invitations. You can choose from one of them."


    "That can be said to you as well. You''ve rejected as many people as I have."


    "Surely you jest, Fleur. I''m sure you rejected far more than I did," smiled Quinn.


    "Let''s not go that way; there will be no end if we start."


    "If you say so, but the question remains, why me when you''ve so many choices to choose from."


    "I could ask the same, why did you reject so many?" asked Fleur crossing her legs.


    "I didn''t want to go with someone I don''t know."


    "Then, it goes the same for me."


    Quinn smiled and shook his finger. "Nuh-uh, one of Beauxbatons guys asked you out, but you rejected him the same. . . Fleur, if you don''t tell me the real reason, I won''t be able to help you."


    Fleur sighed and leaned back into her seat with her arms fully resting on the armrests. Fleur looked like she didn''t want to share, but she had to if she wanted to help.


    "You already know it," she said.


    "Yes, but I want you to say it," he insisted.


    ". . . Allure, my allure," she sighed, "none of the guys who invited me could resist it. . . Roger Davies, for a moment, I thought he wasn''t affected, but it turned out he''s just good at hiding it. I could tell from the fleeting nces that stayed a little too long ¡ª released a little more, and he was out."


    "Hmm. . . how do usually Ve find their partners? It soundsplicated."


    "Allure is a part of us. If a Ve wants it, they can retract itpletely. When Ves find someone who we like, wepletely retract our Allure. . . I can''t do that ¡ª yet."


    "I see," said Quinn followed by a silence in the room.


    Fleur watched as Quinn stared at his desk. She couldn''t tell the look in his eyes, but as time went by, she started to feel anxious ¡ª a feeling new to her in the current context.


    "It''s okay if you don''t¡ª"


    "I ept."


    The two people stared at each other, with Fleur watching Quinn with slightly wide eyes.


    "You ept? Are you sure?"


    Quinn felt the weight of Recon in his pockets that were charmed to be weightless. The thoughts of a blonde shed through his mind, but he put those aside. Fleur needed his help, and it was easy enough for him to provide.


    ". . .Yes, I''m sure," he said before putting on a smile, "It''ll be my honor to be your date for the Yule Ball. It''ll be a fun evening; I''m looking forward to it."


    "C''est parfait!" she beamed in exmation.


    "Indeed, it is."


    Fleur looked satisfied, but she had to ask onest thing, "You do know how to dance, right?"


    "Know? I''m great at dancing."


    "The day keeps getting better."


    "I live to impress, Fleur. Live and love to impress."


    It was decided ¡ª Quinn West and Fleur Dcour were attending the Yule Ball together.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn and Fleur decided not to tell anyone about them going together as each other''s date till it was absolutely necessary. The only one privy to the information was Olympe Maxime, as she had required Fleur to find a date as soon as possible, and if she wasn''t couldn''t find a date, Maxime would arrange one for her.


    A couple of days passed once again, and Quinn''s rejection continued to increase, yet the number of girls inviting him to the ball didn''t seem to slow down at all. He still got through one or two rejections a day. The girls seemed to have formed a mentality that there was no harm in trying as if they get rejected, Quinn would refuse gently and utter politeness.


    The great hall was no longer safe for him ¡ª especially lunches where girls would usually ask him to meet them in private so that they could invite him to the ball. It had be for him to be seen in public as a lot of eyes were on him watching to find if he had found a date; his office was the only "public" ce that he could be at peace as no girl dared to use his office to invite him out ¡ª Fleur Dcour, an outsider to Hogwarts was an exception.


    And while he was free from Yule Ball invitations inside his office, the Yule Ball didn''t leave him as the day the ball was introduced, most of his requests were rted to the ball. Guys after guysing to the office for help regarding dates ¡ª while it wasn''tpulsory to get a date for the ball, no guy wanted to go alone; all wanted a girl on their arm.


    Knock, knock. . . there was a knock on the door as the door chime alerted Quinn that someone had entered his office.


    ''I hope it isn''t another one of the Yule Ball requests,'' he sighed while walking out of his workshop.


    He saw a familiar client standing inside his office; she was looking towards the workshop door since before he had walked out.


    "Ivy, what can I do for you?" asked Quinn, sitting down on his barstool while asking the girl twin to make herselffortable. "Given that you''re here alone and not with together with your brother means that it isn''t about the Tri-wizard tournament. So, tell me. . . what has you in trouble?"


    "I can be here for the Tri-wizard tournament; you don''t know that."


    ''She''s testy today,'' he noticed.


    "You could be, but that seems unlikely given your brother''s attitude regarding this entire situation. . . he would be here if it''s regarding the tournament."


    Ivy didn''t speak immediately; moreover, she continued to stare at him. While Quinn would''ve preferred if she didn''t wordlessly stare at him, he wasn''t that bothered by it and stared back.


    When Ivy finally spoke, she dropped a bomb on him.


    "I want you to be my date at the Yule Ball."


    ''Why would she ask me out during business hours?'' were his genuine first thoughts, but his words asked a question: "Why?"


    "What do you mean why? I want to go with you, so I''m asking."


    Quinn silently stared at her, showing that he wasn''t buying whatever she was selling, and the stubborn girl tried to remain strong against the stare but eventually faltered under the intense stone greys.


    "All other boys are either pigs or gits," she all but whispered.


    ''Ah, I see. . .'' he thought, having an inkling where this conversation was going.


    "They are either too creepy ¡ª honestly, why would I go with someone who I haven''t talked to even once, and yet they act like we have known each other for ages, acting all chummy. . ugh, it sends jitters down my back," she looked ufortable even thinking about it, "the others who actually act civil and invite me properly just want to go with Ivy ''Potter'' and not me ¡ª just Ivy."


    She looked a mix between livid and tired. Harry got attention as the Boy-Who-Lived almost always, drawing the spotlight away from Ivy, who was okay with it as she found the attention tiresome. But this time, she was in as much spotlight as Harry, and it was getting on her nerves.


    "Pick a friend and go with him," suggested Quinn shrugging.


    "I can''t. . . I don''t want to go to the ball with Ron, my brother''s best friend. Neville has already found his date, and I don''t think it''s a good idea to go with other Gryffindor boys. . . other than that, I don''t know many boys outside of Gryffindor."


    "I can suggest one charming fellow¡ª"


    "I''m not going with Eddie Carmichael. . . Harry will blow his top if I do that. Not something I want to deal with right now."


    "Well, can''t say that I didn''t try," shrugged Quinn. "and why me, if I may ask?"


    "You''re the perfect shield," said Ivy, seemingly happy with her statement, "if you go with me, there won''t be a single peep from absolutely anyone. Seeing how much she likes you, even mum will be happy with my choice. Dad and Harry like you enough that they won''t act stupid ¡ª especially dad, after the incident, he has a splendid view of you."


    "I''m ttered," said Quinn with a smile which dimmed as he continued, "but unfortunately, I would''ve to respectfully decline, Ivy."


    "Eh, why?"


    "I already have a date."


    "You have?!" she eximed a bit too loudly. It wasn''t an exmation of upset but of surprise.


    "When?" asked Ivy.


    "A couple of days."


    "A couple of days?!"


    ". . . Now you''re just repeating my words."


    Ivy was genuinely shocked as one of the prime topics among the girls across the school was about who the ''most eligible'' boys were going with to the Yule Ball, and Quinn was there right at the top hanging with the champions and to hear that he already had a date when everyone was still wondering who he was taking was startling news.


    "Who''re you taking," she asked.


    Quinn stared at the redhead, and given their rtionship, he didn''t mind telling who he was taking to the ball, and Ivy knew better than to leak his secrets. So he replied,


    "Fleur Dcour."


    ". . .You''re taking the Ve?" asked Ivy and studied Quinn, looking for something.


    "I''m not under the influence of Allure if that''s what you''re wondering."


    "O-Oh."


    "So,. . . sorry about this, but I can''t take you."


    "It''s okay. . . It seems I was a little toote."


    ". . .Yeah."


    Ivy leaned into her chair and sighed while looking at the ceiling. She wanted to get up and escape immediately but held back as that would make things awkward.


    "Would you''ve epted if I came earlier?" she asked.


    "To be honest, I don''t know. . . I might or might not have epted it. It would''ve depended on that moment."


    "What about if I asked you to be my date as part of a job?"


    Ivy heard augh in response, followed by a happy-sounding Quinn saying: "You''re a smart girl, Ivy Potter. If you came to me leading with that, your chances would''ve definitely increased."


    His answer brought a bit of a smile to her face.


    Shortly after, Ivy got up to leave, with Quinn walking her out. As she exited, Ivy heard Quinn call out to her.


    "Yes?" she asked.


    "Save me a dance?"


    ". . . Sure," she answered.


    In a way, she had confirmed that she would be attending the ball.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy stood in the corridor, looking at the mood overhead while leaning on a ledge, thinking about her meeting with Quinn.


    "Ah, I got rejected."


    Even though her reason behind asking Quinn was so that she could escape the constant stream of boys bothering her. . .


    "And I was looking forward to it," she sighed.


    Quinn had worked with her, Harry, and Hermione for two weeks to prepare Harry for the first task. Those two weeks were tough, not only for Harry but for her and Hermoine as well. Quinn West was a taskmaster when he needed to be. They learned more than they had learned in a while, and that was saying something when you took Hermione Granger and Ivy Potter into context.


    But those same two weeks were fun as well. They had fun, and Quinn had managed to turn what would''ve been tense times into generally upbeat sessions.


    Ivy thought if she had gone with Quinn, her evening would''ve been the same fun.


    "I knew Dcour was a possibility, but I was sure it would be¡ª"


    "What are you doing?"


    Ivy turned to see a furrowed brow on the generally expressionless resting face of the blonde girl, with who she was well familiar.


    "Daphne."


    The girl who Ivy had been thinking had appeared in front of her.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Being famous is hard.


    Fleur Dcour - Champion - Being a Ve is hard.


    Ivy Potter - Potter Princess, Twin - Being a Potter is hard.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 168 - Two Girls, Asking Her Out

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    "What''re you doing here?"


    "Daphne."


    Both girls studied each other with observant eyes, scrutinizing. And for once, they didn''t start bickering with each other from the first nce. Ivy wasn''t in the mood to start anything with Daphne. The blonde saw that and thus retrieved the attack instinct they had around each other.


    Daphne watched as Ivy stood with her arms folded over the ledge, slightly leaning out as she gazed at the stars shining in the inky sky overhead. It was different for her to see Ivy like this. . . at least it had been a while. . .


    "What happened to you?" asked Daphne.


    Ivy breathed in before releasing an audible sigh. "I got rejected."


    "Rejected? What do you mean?"


    "Rejected as in I got turned down for a date at the Yule Ball."


    Daphne''s face faltered at Ivy''s words. She blinked in surprise as her mouth opened and closed a couple times before she finally could get something out.


    "You got turned down?" she said, and a taunt escaped her, "well, it''s not surprising that someone turned you down ¡ª not a lot of people can handle that brutish brash nature of yours."


    Daphne pursed her lips as soon as she said that ¡ª It was habit; it had been a very long time since Ivy and she had a talk where they didn''t go after each other''s throats. And now, even after her taunt, Ivy didn''t show as much as a twitch in return.


    It finally dawned on Daphne that Ivy really was affected by the rejection.


    "I''m curious; who turned you down?"


    Ivy nced at Daphne, and it was supposed to be a momentary nce but seeing the look in her made Ivy pause her sight on Daphne. Ivy didn''t like to hide her emotions. As such, she never liked lumency; the only reason she practiced it was because she knew its importance and wanted to beat Daphne at it. On the other hand, Daphne was a natural at it ¡ª she wasn''t a natural lumence, but the protective mind art came easier to Daphne than most.


    They had started learning the art together and even had taken many lessons together (their mothers were close friends). Not once since then had Ivy ever beaten Daphne at a single lumency activity/taskpetition.


    But there was one thing in all those times that Ivy had learned about Daphne ¡ª eyes were the window to the soul, and Daphne''s eyes tend to give her hidden emotions away.


    ''Ah, is that concern I see,'' she thought, noticing the sh in Daphne''s eyes, ''it''s been a while. . .''


    After all, they weren''t always like this.


    Ivy looked away from Daphne and once again gazed at the stars. "It was Quinn West."


    The words made Daphne froze. "Q-Quinn. . . you asked Quinn?"


    "Yeah," said Ivy, noticing the crack.


    "Why? I mean. . ."


    "Why not? He is handsome, well-mannered, fun to hang around, what''s not to like. And I like him enough for it to turn into a pretty great evening. I thought if I could get to attend the ball with someone like him ¡ª wouldn''t that be the best?"


    ". . .But he rejected you."


    "Yes, he did," she sighed, "Quinn said he already had a date."


    "What?!"


    Ivy turned toward Daphne, fully expecting the reaction; it was why she had told her that.


    "Yeah, Quinn already had a date for a couple of days, it seems."


    "I-I see. . . who is it?"


    Ivy contemted for a bit ¡ª if she should tell her the answer.


    "Fleur Dcour."


    Daphne stilled. . . it was like looking at a picture ¡ª the muggle kind. She was so still that for a moment, Ivy doubted if Daphne was breathing or not.


    ''She *really* likes him, huh,'' thought the redhead. There was no expression on the blonde''s face, but her eyes betrayed her chaotic emotions.


    Ivy turned her back to the ledge and continued to stare at Daphne. It might have been a minute after which Daphne once again spoke.


    "Who?"


    "Hmm? What do you mean?"


    "Who asked? Was it Quinn or that bi¡ª or Dcour?"


    Ivy held back a smile threatening to break on her face.


    ¡¸ Hogwarts'' Ice Queen¡¹ ¡ª that''s what they had started to call her. But Ivy knew the truth ¡ª Ice Queen was far from urate when it came to Daphne Greengrass. Sure she was cold, but Ice wasn''t the correct representation for it.


    ''More like cooled of magma turning into rock. Ayer of rock that hid the zen magma inside. . . that''s more like it.''


    There was no doubt that Daphne Greengrass was calm, cool(cold), and collected. Brutally logical when needed, but that wasn''t theplete her. The other side was only known to people who knew Daphne from her childhood days ¡ª people like Ivy Potter, Harry Potter, Tracey Davis, Draco Malfoy, and a few others outside her family.


    Those people knew and had seen the passionate emotions that run deep within the surface, coursing like molten magma, only emerging when the inherently steady Daphne was agitated ¡ª when her feelings swung to extremes; that was when the other side showed.


    "I don''t know," said Ivy, "he told me that he was going to attend with Fleur Dcour. He didn''t mention who asked who out."


    Daphne''s dainty hands clutched into fists as her eyes narrowed. If she knew this was going to happen, she would''ve gone asked Quinn out the second the ball was announced. . . of course she didn''t. Daphne thought that she knew Quinn quite well ¡ª the fifth-year boy had many "casual friends" and even more "acquaintance," but what he didn''t have many were "close friends" and "intimate friends."


    If one were to ask to name Quinn West''s intimate friends, then ny-nine out of hundred people would take three names: Eddie Carmichael, Marcus Belby, and Luna Lovegood. These were three people with whom Quinn held amitment to the development of each other''s characters, the mutual responsibility of utmost faith and trust, and a connection that ran soul deep in the non-magical sense. They were his closest confidants and whom he had bonded with over his and their vulnerabilities to reach the highest level of friendship.


    As much as Daphne wanted to be at that level, she wasn''t there. . . yet. But she was sure that she was Quinn''s close friend. Not only had they both invested in each other personally, but also emotionally. Because of the level of investment, close friends have shared more information. They are aware and familiar with each other''s family members and private life. Also, they both know and help each other aplish their life goals, hence emphasizing emotional investment.


    And Daphne was confident that she was the "closest" close friend Quinn had. More importantly, she was one of the few girls in that category.


    Luna Lovegood wasn''t a threat ¡ª as close as the girl was to Quinn and vice-versa, they were more of a brother-sister duo. ''And she is going with Marcus Belby,'' she thought.


    Then there was her own best friend, Tracey Davies. Sometimes, Daphne felt envious, jealous of Tracey. She and Quinn had clicked the moment they had met. The two constantly joked around every time they met and seemed to have the time of their lives. They went even as far as matching their sentences with each other. The only thing that relieved Daphne was that she had asked Tracey if she liked Quinn and Tracey refused.


    Her own sister was annoyingly close to Quinn. Whenever Quinn was in the vicinity, Astoria would run over towards him and glomp him as if he was a treat. It annoyed Daphne to the limit, but Astoria continued to do it, and Quinn allowed it. This year, Quinn had been so busy that he hadn''t talked to her for a month and only met her because he needed to treat Astoria ¡ª which she was grateful for (don''t judge.)


    Finally, there was the new girl Fleur Dcour. Ah, how much she hated the French hussy. She just swept in like it was nothing, all giggly with Quinn, who seemed to bepping it up. It took her such a long time for Quinn to use her first name. But she(Fleur) with her ''please call me Fleur'' made him say it in months!


    But Daphne was sure that if Quinn was going to ask a girl out, then it would be her. Especially after Quinn had asked for her help tomunicate with the quidditch team ¡ª every day, she would arrive at the AID office to give her daily report, and after that, both would walk to the Great hall for dinner, talking about everything and anything.


    They were having fun these days. So when the ball was introduced, she patiently waited. She was raised to think that the boy was supposed to ask the girl out and not the other way around. Her confidence increased with every girl Quinn rejected.


    But here she was hearing from Ivy Potter of all people that Quinn already had a date ¡ª a date with Fleur Dcour. If she knew this would happen, she would''ve trashed what she had been taught and asked Quinn instead of waiting for it to happen the other way round.


    Ivy continued to watch Daphne. She could only imagine what was going in her head ¡ª well, she could. . . she had seen it too many times.


    "You''re not going to do something stupid, are you?"


    Daphne''s eyes snapped towards Ivy. "What do you mean by that?"


    "Don''t act like you don''t know what I''m talking about."


    "No, I don''t. . . why don''t you exin it to me so I can understand."


    "Oh-okay, you know how you used to do those stupid things when we were little," scoffed Ivy.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about," denied Daphne.


    "Yeah, you keep saying that, but that isn''t going to make things any less true."


    Daphne simply shrugged in response, deciding to end this conversation.


    ''Ah, she calmed down; that was fast,'' thought Ivy, and it was a sign that the conversation was over.


    Ivy walked pushed herself away from the ledge, ready to leave. As she walked past Daphne, Ivy stopped.


    Daphne nced to her side at Ivy, waiting for her to say something, but the redhead gave her a fleeting nce before walking away while humming a tune.


    ''She''s annoying,'' thought Daphne and started her way towards the Slytherinmon room. She had to talk to Tracey about this; Tracey would know what to do with this.


    As Daphne reached the corridor just beyond themon room entrance, she heard.


    "Daphne?"


    The girl turned, and her eyes shed with recognition.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    On the whole, Harry had to admit that even with the slightly intimidating prospect of opening the ball before him, life had definitely improved since he had got through the first task. He wasn''t attracting nearly as much unpleasantness in the corridors anymore, which he suspected had a lot to do with his performance; the people who wore ''Support the Champions''pel badges finally had smiles on their faces when they looked at him.


    If he had toin, it would be about Rita Skeeter''s articles and Draco Malfoy''s whispers subtly supporting them in the Hogwarts rumor mill. Malfoy might not show his displeasure outwards in public, but that didn''t stop him from continuing in the back, where it wasn''t visible to Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.


    Thest week had be increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumors about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, though Harry didn''t believe half of them ¡ª for instance, that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta. However, it seemed to be a fact that he had booked the Weird Sisters ¡ª something everyone who had grown up listening to the WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) felt wildly excited about having the famous musical group at the ball.


    Some of the teachers, like little Professor Flitwick, gave up trying to teach them much when their minds were so clearly elsewhere; he allowed them to y games in his lesson on Wednesday and spent most of it talking to Harry about the perfect Carpe Retractum Charm Harry had used during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.


    Other teachers were not so generous. Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from plowing on through his notes on goblin rebellions ¡ª as Binns hadn''t let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, they supposed a small thing like Christmas wasn''t going to put him off. It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound as dull as Percy''s cauldron-bottom report.


    Professors McGonagall and Moody kept them working until the veryst second of their sses too (McGonagall would let her hair down on and before the quidditch game day), and Snape, of course, would no sooner let them y games in ss than adopt Harry. Staring nastily around at them all, he informed them that he would be testing them on poison antidotes during thest lesson of the term.


    "Evil, he is," Ron said bitterly in the Gryffindormon room, "springing a test on us on thest day. Ruining thest bit of term with a whole load of studying"


    "Mmm . . . you''re not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" said Hermione, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes. Ron was busy building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack ¡ª a much more exciting pastime than with non-magical cards because of the chance that the whole thing would blow up at any second.


    "It''s almost Christmas, Hermione," said Ivyzily; he was rereading Historical Witches Throughout The Ages for the tenth time in an armchair near the fire.


    "No, it''s not; there''s still ten days remaining."


    ". . . That''s almost Christmas, Hermione."


    Hermione sighed before looking at Harry severely. "I''d have thought you''d be doing something constructive, Harry, even if you don''t want to learn your antidotes!"


    "Like what?" asked the fourth champion.


    "The egg!"


    "Come on, Hermione, he''s got till February the twenty-fourth," said Ron, setting the cards.


    "But it might take weeks to work it out! You''re going to look a real idiot if everyone else knows what the next task is and you don''t!"


    "Leave him alone; he''s earned a bit of a break."


    And the arguing between the two opposites begun.


    Harry, who was doing nothing, stared at them ¡ª well, he stared at Hermione for the most part. He had been part of such arguments with Hermione an n-number of times. In the past, he always thought of them to be oh-so annoying, having to answer about any "fun" he had.


    ''Ah, the fun, huh,'' thought Harry, ''those things aren''t that fun now, are they?''


    The day his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, all those little fun things were thrown out of his mind and life ¡ª he didn''t have time for goofing around. And with that went away his and Hermione''s bickering.


    Then he saw it.


    The constant taunts and gibes weren''t out of spite but out of concern. That concern showed in earnest when he was struggling with a sudden crisis.


    Suddenly, her voice ¡ª gentle, not irritating; her words ¡ª soothing, not cutting; her gaze ¡ª worried, not mocking. It was a brand new Hermione, a Hermione he liked.


    "Hermione," he said. Harry Potter wasn''t one to be shy.


    The girl got in a gibe before looking at Harry. "Yes, what is it?"


    "Will you go to the Ball with me?"


    The group went silent, and themon room became attentive. Everyone watched in aplete hush as Harry gazed at Hermione, who stared back at him with a stunned and surprised face.


    Ivy, who had beenying down in an armchair, her feet dangling off the sides, instantly sat up while Ron''s hand holding cards stilled mid-air as he stared at his two friends.


    "Are you serious? This isn''t a prank," asked the smartest-witch-of-her-age.


    "Yes, I''m not serious, and this isn''t a prank," answered the Boy-Who-Lived.


    "Why me?"


    "You know me," said ''Harry,'' "and I like to think I know you too. . . I would like to take you, who I know, with me to the Ball."


    "That''s it?"


    "That''s it. Is that not enough?''


    "N-no, it''s enough."


    "So are you. . . ?"


    "Yes."


    The room was about to erupt, but Harry spoke up, dying it a bit.


    "I would like you to be a bit more. . . articte," he smiled, leaning forward.


    "Don''t push it, Potter."


    ''I''m a Potter too,'' thought a redhead, but she stayed quiet.


    "Please, I insist," asked Harry, using one word he had picked up from an old man who loved socks.


    The brte with wavy hair pushed one side behind her ear. "Okay, if you want it that much. . . I ept your offer; I''ll go with you to the Ball. It''s a date."


    "It''s a date."


    Now the crowd erupted ¡ª cheers and hoots, theplete package. Everyone surrounded the champion and his date ¡ª festivity ensured.


    Ronald Weasley looked to his side; he still didn''t have a date.


    "So. . . Ivy, should we go together?"


    The reply came quick. "No, thank you, Ron. I''ll be fine."


    "Oh,e on!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - "Uhm. . . hey, I guess. See you next time."


    Ivy Potter - Rival #1 - Got rejected. Now feels a little better.


    Daphne Greengrass - Rival #2 - Missed her chance. Isn''t feeling good.


    Harry Potter - Protagonist (A/N: Pfft!) - Well, I got a date for the party. How about you guys? Yes, I''m asking you.


    Hermione Granger - Still a champion''s date - Oh boy, she''s going in theke again.


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 169 - Awkwardness, Suits-&-Attraction

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    "Are you still mad? Are you going toin to him? Will you try to. . .you know. . . ?"


    Sitting in her chair, Daphne Greengrass sighed. She nced to her side, and sitting in another chair, swinging her feet, was Astoria Greengrass staring at her with curious eyes.


    "I''m not going to do anything of any sort. We''re here for your treatment ¡ª there isn''t any ce to bring that up, and I''m sure Quinn would appreciate us talking about those things in his office; he''s very particr about it."


    "But, you want to, right? If you had the option, you''d ask him."


    Daphne didn''t grace that question with an answer. What was she supposed to say? That Quinn should ditch the French hussy and take her to the ball ¡ª that wasn''t going to happen. Knowing Quinn, he wasn''t going to back out of hismitment and. . . .


    ''I don''t have that option anymore,'' she thought.


    Astoria continued to gaze at her sister. The still-secret news of Quinn going to the Yule Ball came as a surprise to her. Astoria, much like her sister, thought that Quinn would ask Daphne out to the ball ¡ª she was the best option after all.


    ''Can''t say I didn''t enjoy seeing her fret for hours to Tracey.''


    As much as Astoria loved her sister, the one thing she didn''t like was Daphne''s habit of keeping emotions away from her face.


    ''She is so pretty; it''s an absolute pity for it to be set in stone.''


    Daphne had been good at lumency from the very start, getting praise from everyone ¡ª Daphne''s lumency teacher had wildly apuded her when she was able to keep emotions off her face so well. Maybe it was because of the constant praises that Daphne kept few feelings on her face to this day.


    So Astoria felt joyous whenever someone could rile Daphne enough for her to break her lumency. That was the reason why she would always bother Daphne in one way or another ¡ª anything from making her sigh to smile.


    ''Then came Quinn,'' reminisced Astoria, ''suddenly she became more expressive. Now she talks more, smiles more. . . she evenughs.''


    It had started with Daphne only changing around Quinn, but little by little. . . Astoria smiled brightly. ''She is returning to the Daphne of before.''


    "Why''re you smiling so much?"


    "No reason," said Astoria grinning even more.


    "Oh, smiling, are we? Let me on the joke."


    The sisters turned their heads to see Quinn exit through the red door in the ss wall.


    "So, Astoria, ready for this month''s dose of oh-so-spooky dark magic?"


    The younger Greengrass bowed her head. "Y-Yes, Dark Lord W-West."


    "Good, good, I can feel the fear. . . I like it," said Quinn in a low, deep, and spooky voice. The smiling expression on his face, though, didn''t match his tone.


    The two looked at each other and broke outughing. No matter how many times Quinn treated Astoria, it was a little tension-raising for the girl to have blood magic run through her body ¡ª maybe it would get better with more time, but that time wasn''t now.


    So to ease her worries, Quinn would always make the ambiance as carefree as possible for Astoria to feel safe.


    "Before we get started, let''s go over the usual, shall we?" asked Quinn pulling his trusty barstool beside Astoria.


    "Certainly."


    "Okay, how are you feeling right now?"


    "Fit as a unicorn."


    "Excellent, unicorns don''t get sick. How about any anomalies during the month?"


    "Nothing I can remember of. . . . Ah wait, I have one!"


    Daphne looked rmed at Astoria''s sudden revtion.


    "Oh, please tell," asked Quinn.


    "Throughout the month, I felt a little too. . . happy!"


    Quinn chuckled in response, but Daphne wasn''t amused.


    "Astoria! This is serious! You can''t joke¡ª"


    "Oh, it''s fine. The healer isn''t angry; you shouldn''t be as well."


    Daphne looked towards Quinn, who shrugged with a smile ¡ª he honestly didn''t have a problem with it.


    "Okay, Astoria, jokes aside, any problems throughout the month?" asked Quinn.


    "No, I don''t recall having any problems."


    "That''s great."


    After taking Astoria''s ount of her own health, Quinn started to check on Astoria''s health. One of the principles of diagnostics that Poppy had taught him was that patients aren''t an urate source of patient condition as several of them lied or weren''t cognizant of their own state. It was a healer''s role to find and search for a moreplete diagnostic of their patient.


    "Alright, everything indeed looks good. I can''t sense anything odd except, well, you know ¡ª the blood curse."


    "That''s good, I guess."


    "Yeah, now let''s not waste any more time and get you good for another month."


    The same routine of blood magic was repeated in which Quinn used his own magic to repress the blood malediction in Astoria''s body. The results were, as usual, the amount of blood magic that he could use would keep the curse down for a month.


    "Okay, it''s done. You''ll be good for another month. How do you feel?"


    Astoria exhaled deeply as Quinn''s hands left her; she looked at her hands and clenched them; just like after every treatment, she felt a boost of energy as if she could go on forever.


    "Yeah, I can feel it," she said, "it''s done; it''s like every time."


    "Excellent. Now, how''re you doing, Astoria? What''s going in your life," asked Quinn as he got up with the barstool in hand behind his desk.


    Astoria tapped her chin with her finger in wonderment. The gears in the brain of the extrovert Greengrass turned as a naughty glitter shed in her eyes.


    "I''m a little sad, I guess."


    "Sad, why?" asked Quinn, furrowing his brows, "any problem I can solve. Tell me, I''ll have it clear in a jiffy."


    "No, it''s nothing like that," her puppy-dog eye were fatal, "I''m just sad that no one invited me to the Yule Ball. . . now I''ll have to go back home at Christmas."


    Daphne twitched, and her eyes widened as she realized what her dear sister was trying to do. ''She''s trying to bring the topic up!''


    Quinn, who was expecting an everyday problem, also froze for a split second. His eyes subconsciously moved towards Daphne, and to both of their surprise, both of their eyes met. Both immediately averted their eyes away.


    "O-Oh, that''s unfortunate."


    Astoria was delighted that just a single sentence from her was splendidly doing its job.


    "Yes, it is. . . Wait! ¡ª Quinn, you should take me. Please!"


    Quinn kept his eyes on Astoria, trying his best not to look at the other sister whose gaze he could feel on him. And he as did that, he noticed the subtle odd expression on Astoria''s face ¡ª an expression he was well familiar with.


    ''Wait a minute,'' the realization dawned on him, ''she knows! Astoria knows. . . that would mean. . .''


    He finally ended up looking to the side and saw Daphne staring at him.


    ''Ah. . .''


    Daphne knew about it ¡ª she at least knew that he had a date. He hoped that of all people, she would be thest one to know. But now that he thought that the cat was out of the bag, he decided toe clean and finally start disclosing from his end.


    "Sorry, Astoria, but I already have a date for the Ball."


    "Eh, you do?" Astoria looked between Quinn and Daphne, subtly implying a question if they were going together.


    "Yes, I have a date," said Quinn, ignoring the subtlety that was hitting him soundly in the face.


    "Who is it?!"


    ". . . Fleur Dcour."


    "The French champion? You''re taking the Ve to the Ball ¡ª hmm, I surely thought you''d be taking Daphne. Don''t you think so too, Daphne?"


    "Don''t talk nonsense, Astoria," said Daphne, half-ring at her sister.


    Astoria just stuck her tongue out in cute defiance.


    Daphne couldn''t do anything but sigh. However, now that the matter was blown up and out in the open, she turned to stare at Quinn. No words were exchanged, but both knew what the gaze meant.


    "She asked, I epted," said Quinn.


    "Dcour asked? Like Ivy Potter asked?" inquired Daphne.


    "Ah, you know about that, huh. Tell me one thing when did you hear this from Ivy?"


    "The day she got rejected," answered Daphne. At the same time, she notices how Quinn addressed Ivy, ''she sneaked in without me knowing.''


    "That was quick." Quinn wasn''t bothered by it. Any information he was willing to give out was information he was okay being spread.


    "What about you, Daphne? Will you be attending the ball or going back home with Astoria?"


    "I''ll be attending."


    "Oh? Who''s the lucky guy?" asked Quinn, leaning forward.


    Daphne opened her mouth to answer the question but then paused. She gazed at Quinn and changed her answer.


    "It''s a secret."


    Quinn''s eyes widened a fraction at the answer. "A secret?" He looked at Astoria, who seemed as clueless as him


    "No need to look at her. She doesn''t know. No one knows."


    "Okay, then tell me this. Is it someone I know?"


    Daphne sat on the question for a moment before nodding, "Yes, you do know of him."


    "Do I know him?" questioned Astoria.


    "No, you don''t."


    "Now that''s interesting," said Quinn holding his chin, "someone I know, but Astoria doesn''t. It must be someone older than Astoria."


    "That''s too many people."


    "I won''t lie by saying that I''m not curious, but I''ll wait," said Quinn, leaning back. "Also, Daphne?"


    "Yes?"


    "May I have a dance at the Ball?"


    Astoria turned to her sister, staring at Quinn, and thought, ''What''s she waiting for?''


    "Yes, you may."


    Quinn nodded and returned a smile to Daphne''s tiny smile that graced her lips.


    "I also want to dance!" eximed Astoria interjecting.


    "Grow up first," was the sister''s prompt response.


    . . .


    The Greengrass sisters left the AID office after chatting a bit with Quinn, who had to end their chat as he had previousmitments, and Daphne too had to meet with the teams who had a game theing day.


    "You should''ve asked him,"mented Astoria.


    "It isn''t proper for a girl to ask a boy. It''s the other way around."


    "Fleur Dcour, Ivy, and a dozen other girls did it. One of them got through."


    "If Quinn wanted to go with me, he would''ve asked."


    "I can''t deny that. But I''m just saying. . . the Ve clearly wanted something, and she took it."


    "Astoria¡ª"


    "I bet if you had asked, he would have said yes."


    ". . ."


    Daphne had no answer to that. She knew what Astoria meant by ¡ª ''the Ve clearly wanted something, and she took it.'' Their father had always said,


    "If you want something, then the world won''t hand it over to you ¡ª no, the world will try its level best to keep you away from it ¡ª so if you ever have a genuine desire for anything at all, it is your vocation to go and get it. . . because if you don''t, someone else will."


    As the Greengrass heir, she never truly had to work hard to obtain something; as such, she never connected with her father''s words.


    This was the first time she could understand what he meant. Unfortunately, the understanding came a bit toote.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "U-Uhm, is this really fine?" asked Eddie in a nervous tone not usual on the confident, outspoken, and loud boy.


    Quinn looked at himself in the mirror, turning to look at his sides and back. "Yes, it''s fine. The question is if you''refortable."


    "I-I guess. This isn''t something I''m used to," said Eddie.


    "Raise your hands wide,d."


    Eddie immediately raised his hands as he felt measuring tapes wrap around him as a pot-bellied middle-aged man with a cigar in his mouth walked around him.


    "Hmm, you two have good frames on you twods: broad shoulders, thin waists, long legs, shorter torso. . . a bit difficult to stitch, but nothing I can''t manage."


    Quinn checked himself in the mirror while adjusting the fitting jacket full of stitches and threads.


    "I''m looking forward to having theplete suit, Mr. Taylor. This will be my first bespoke three-piece suit. As much as I adore my two-piece suit collection ¡ª three-piece suits are a ss apart. Plus, I get to show off one of my pocket watch chain going throw the vest."


    "You''re grandfather loves his three-piece suits, little West. He has them stitched four times a year ¡ª I know an addict when I see one."


    Quinnughed, rting to Mr. Taylor''s description of his grandfather. Mr. Taylor was the tailor George, Quinn, and Elliot used for their suits (Lia had her own personal tailor).


    The thing about Mr. Taylor was that he had no filter whatsoever ¡ª anything that popped in his mind came out of his mouth. This quality of his, along with the fact that stitched killer suits, was the reason that George West hadn''t used another tailor in thirty years; he loved the fact that Mr. Taylor didn''t act reserve in front of him like so many others did.


    "Then get ready to get another addict as your client, Mr. Taylor, because I''ll being to you for all my suit, shirt, and pant needs ¡ª also, do you do belts?"


    "I''m okay with that, more money to me. I sell belts, ties, suspenders, anything you formal you want, you''ll get it," said Taylor as his eyes studied his charms working on Eddie''s fitting jacket, "how does it feel,d? Any tightness while moving."


    Eddie twisted his upper body to get a good feel of the jacket.


    "It isn''t as flexible as my quidditch uniform, but it''sfortable, no doubt."


    "Don''t worry, when I''m done with it, you would be able to wrestle in it."


    With the Yule Balling around, every boy and girl attending the Ball was getting their formal party wear prepared. Quinn and his friends were no different; they all were attending the Ball and needed formal wear for the asion.


    Being very particr about her dress, Luna had pulled Marcus along with her to coordinate their clothes so they would match. Poor Marcus had been stressed as his standard ck-and-white dress robes weren''t going to match Luna''s entric ideas, so he asked Quinn to change the color of his clothes to match Luna''s preferences.


    Quinn offered to have new dress robes stitched for Marcus to match Luna, but Marcus wanted to wear what he got from home, so Quinn agreed to cast the most potent color change charm he could cast.


    Eddie epted Quinn''s offer, so both boys had new formal wear stitched for them.


    Quinn didn''t want to wear dress robes; he found them tedious. He decided to go with a ssy three-piece suit ¡ª it didn''t matter if it was the magical or non-magical world, suits were in style everywhere.


    Eddie went along with whatever Quinn was wearing, so it was decided that both would wear three-piece suits ¡ª bowtie for Eddie and necktie for Quinn.


    "Are you sure she will like this?" asked Eddie sounding a bit worried.


    "Eddie, while clothes are powerful weapons but to wield their true power ¡ª to look your best, you need to feel your best; you''ve to believe that you look good."


    "But I don''t if I will look good in this."


    "Bah! Everyone looks good with my babies on. Take a bath and cut your hair and you''ll be no less than a dashing prince," shouted Mr. Taylor while writing down adjustments and measurements.


    "I still don''t get it, you know? How in the world did you get Tracey to agree to go with you to the Ball?" asked Quinn.


    He was shocked when he was looking for Tracey for the progress of ticket mailing and pulled out Recon to locate her. To his surprise, he saw her with Eddie in a ssroom.


    His curiosity peaked. At first, he thought they were nning a prank against him and decided to spy on them to be ready for their action. But to his surprise, they were practicing dancing in the ssroom.


    "It all started when Tracey wanted to know why you didn''t ask Daphne to the ball ¡ª thanks for telling me, by the way; it felt real good knowing about your date from someone else."


    "No hard feelings, man. It was a mutual decision."


    "Yet you had no problem telling Ivy Potter."


    "What did you expected me to do? I had just rejected a girl I know personally; I had to give her something."


    "Yeah, whatever. So we got talking, and Marcus'' advice popped in my head. . . so I asked her."


    "And she epted."


    "She did," grinned Eddie.


    ''It''s like he''s floating on clouds,'' smiled Quinn in thought.


    "So, you like her?"


    "Yeah, she''s nice and smart. . . and pretty," said Eddie.


    ''Oh ho, look at him all shy.''


    Eddie Carmichael was a guy who didn''t get bashful easily. He charged out towards every situation with a face thick as an elephant''s skin. Seeing him grinning like a buffoon and getting lost in thought was a unique look on him.


    "You''re smitten."


    "Am not!"


    "You so are. But you better not hurt Tracey ¡ª she''s a dear friend."


    "And I''m your best friend."


    "Yes, and that''s why Tracey will know exactly who toe, so she could spite you. Given that she doesn''t do it herself."


    "What if I''m the one who gets hurt?"


    "Then, I''ll stand behind you and spite her. It goes both ways ¡ª gender equality holds strong."


    "Good, that''s good. I''ll take that."


    Mr. Taylor puffed out a smoke ring and blurted, "If youdies are done with your chat. It''s time for me to take your pant measurements."


    "Of course, Mr. Taylor," said Quinn, removing his fitting jacket.


    Eddie leaned towards Quinn and whispered,


    "He''s not going to poke down there, is he?"


    Quinn turned to Eddie andughed out loud.


    ". . .T-That doesn''t give me the answer ¡ª Quinn? Quinn?!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Suits are dope!


    Daphne Greengrass - Feelings areplex - The entire situation is veryplicated.


    Astoria Greengrass - Little Cherub - Smart people can be dumb.


    Eddie Carmichael - Smitten - I! Have! A! Date!


    Mr. Taylor - Tailor - I do hats as well ¡ª if anyone''s wondering.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 170 - Christmas Day And Gifts

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Hogwarts staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress the visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas.


    When the decorations went up, Quinn noticed that they were the most stunning he had yet seen inside the school. Evesting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed them. It was quite something to hear "O Come, All Ye Faithful" sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words.


    Several times, Filch the caretaker had to extract Peeves from inside the armor, where he had taken to hiding, filling in the gaps in the songs with lyrics of his own invention, all of which were very rude.


    Soon, the term ended, and with it ended his busy schedule managing the quidditch tournament ¡ª he was free till the school term started again. As such, he was looking forward to spending his time leading up to Christmas enjoying himself as thoroughly as possible, along with everyone else.


    Ravenw Tower was hardly less crowded now than during term-time; it seemed to have shrunk slightly too, as its inhabitants were so much rowdier than usual.


    Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a giant, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid''s cabin, while the Durmstrang ship''s portholes were zed with ice, the rigging white with frost. The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings, and only Fleur seemed to be able to find anything toin about.


    "It''s too heavy, all this Hogwarts food," said the girl while sitting along with Quinn''s group, her voice reaching everywhere in the Great hall, "I will not fit into my dress robes!"


    "You''re a Ve, Fleur. You''re not going to gain weight so easily ¡ª your body won''t allow it."


    Eddie agreed with Quinn. "Yeah, that''s why it''s hard for Ves to y positions other than seekers and goalies. They can''t gain weight easily; that includes muscle mass as such they usually y beaters and chasers."


    When everyone looked at Eddie, he shrugged,


    "I read it in a book I picked up for light reading."


    Sometimes people forgot that Eddie was a Ravenw ¡ª he was a certified nerd despite jock status.


    Fleur''s littleint wasn''t registered as well as it did in Quinn group; for example, by the Gryffindor table, Hermione snapped.


    "Oooh, there''s a tragedy. She really thinks a lot of herself, that one, doesn''t she?"


    Ivy and other girls like Parvati Patil and Lavender Brow nodded feverously. None like the audacity of a Veining about gaining weight ¡ª it was as if a fish deep under the ocean to an aquarium fishining about having less space to swim.


    "Oye, Potter!" said Draco, behind them, "You''re not telling me the rumors are true ¡ª you asked that to the ball? Not the long-mred Mudblood?"


    Harry and Ron looked at Draco, instinctively turning their attention away from the food towards, but Hemione beat them to it and waved to


    somebody over Malfoy''s shoulder,


    "Hello, Professor Moody!"


    Malfoy went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.


    "Twitchy little ferret, aren''t you, Malfoy?" said Hermione scathingly before inaudibly sighing as her hands went to her teeth


    She gazed at Harry, who had joined Ron inughing at the embarrassed Draco at the Slytherin and then at the Ravenw table.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "You want me to shrink your teeth."


    Quinn sat across Hermione Granger, repeating her request back to her for confirmation.


    "Yes, I would like you to shrink them."


    "Are you sure?"


    "Yes."


    "Alright, let''s do it."


    Hemione stilled for a second; she was expecting a little more something. . . . anything.


    "Just like that? No questions pertaining to why?"


    Quinn shrugged his shoulders and lightly shook his head.


    "Not really."


    "Nothing?"


    "Ms. Granger, unlike you''re previous interactions with me, this request of me shrinking your teeth will have no possible negative consequences for me ¡ª null, nil, nada, zilch. . . . I have your consent, and that''s all I need to get started. . . . If you''re talking about the reason behind this particr request, I won''t ask if you don''t want to tell."


    "O-Oh, okay. Thank you for that."


    "Should we get started then?"


    "Yes, please."


    Quinn got up from his barstool and walked to the client-side, sitting on the chair beside Hermione.


    "Please show me your teeth and don''t lock your jaw together; keep them a little apart. Yes, excellent."


    Quinn retrieved his fake wand to shrink the two front buck teeth down using a healing-grade transmutation-based spell.


    "Teeth are one of the parts in a body that can easily be transmuted; enamel is an inorganic material, beneath it are Dentin and pulp, which might be organic materials, but are the type that can be easily transmuted ¡ª the very few areas of living tissue in the body which can be transmuted without immense risks involved."


    Hermione Granger, of course, had a lot to speak about the topic but couldn''t as her teeth were being operated on.


    The witch started to talk the second Quinn was done and removed his hand from Hermione''s chin. "With all the living matter inside a human body, it gets increasingly difficult to permanently change ¡ª especially with nerves running through everything."


    "Precisely," nodded Quinn.


    He conjured a hand mirror for Hermione to see the end result.


    The girl studied her modified dentures and nodded with satisfaction with their new size.


    "Mum and Dad won''t be too pleased. I''ve been trying to persuade them to let me shrink my teeth for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces. You know, they''re dentists. They just don''t think teeth and magic should go together."


    "It''s natural for them to think like that," said Quinn going back to the barstool behind his desk, "they''re in the profession as orthodontists ¡ª they had to study for years to start practicing their craft. Waving a wand to fix everything with magic ¡ª something they don''t understand, might not sound convincing to them. . . . For example, I have learned to y the violin and piano for years ¡ª ying them with magic doesn''t sound good to me."


    Sitting down, he asked Hermione. "Anything else you wanted to get done today?"


    "No, that''s it for today. . . . So I heard you''re going with Fleur Dcour."


    "That I''m,'' replied Quinn taking out a billing pad, "ah, do you want a receipt?"


    "How much are you charging?"


    "Just spare me some silver-sickles; this wasn''t hard, you could''ve gone to Madam Pomfrey, and she would''ve done it for you free of charge."


    "Then you don''t have to give me a bill."


    Hermione pulled her bookbag up from the floor and started to look for her coin purse.


    As she did that, Quinn continued with conversation, "It seems we both will be going as champions date."


    "Hmm? Ah yes!" said Hermione pulling out a pouch with a jingle of coins inside. "Any idea who is going with Krum and Cedric?"


    "Cho Chang is going with Cedric; they''re dating. I''m not sure about Krum; there is no news about him."


    "Is that so. . . . so, you rejected Ivy."


    Hermione slid the silver-sickles across the table.


    Quinn nced up from the table, looking at the girl before he pulled the coins towards him.


    "I did. Are you angry about that?"


    "Not really. I expected Ivy to get rejected. But I thought it would be Daphne Greengrass."


    "Yeah. . . that''s the official party line."


    "You''re going to dance with Ivy, though."


    "Only if it doesn''t make things awkward with her date. I don''t want to ruin her evening. I also want to dance with you so, save me a dance. Speaking of that, who''s she going with?"


    "No one yet."


    "No one?" said Quinn raising his brow.


    "You rejected her," said Hermione and shrugged, "she couldn''t recover."


    "Hahaha, you''re joking, right? . . . Right?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Christmas day had finally arrived. Quinn woke up to white covering the entire castle and grounds. It was a beautiful sight ¡ª a sight to behold.


    "A white Christmas," smiled Quinn, looking out of his window.


    He started his day with his usual morning workout; Eddie had paused his morning workouts to work with his teammates who had a different routine; as such, his mornings were spent exercising in silence.


    After a breaking sweat in the wintery, snowy cold, Quinn returned to themon room. The second he opened the door, he was greeted by an unusual scene ¡ª the usual thin crowd of early birds who had bathed ande down to themon room was reced by the entire Ravenw crowd dressed in their sleepwear, ripping through gift wraps off their Christmas presents and exchanging gifts with each other.


    "Everyone woke up early today."


    He weaved his way through the crowd of jolly festivity up the stairs to his dorm room.


    "Merry Christmas,ds; how''re you jolly doing today."


    His two roommates talking with each other looked up and greeted him with broad grins,


    ""Merry Christmas!" "


    Eddie picked up a wrapped-up cube box and threw it towards Quinn, who had to catch it with both hands because of its size.


    "What''s this?" smiled Quinn.


    He tapped his fingers against the box, and all strips of tapes came off. The light and casual use of wandless magic had already bemonce in Quinn''s dorm room. He had started to show very light wandless capabilities following his meeting with Dumbledore after the rescue of Harry Potter from Novellus ionites abductors ¡ª Quinn wanted to make sure that the people close to him knew that he could use rudimentary levels of magic without a wand, bringing them to the same level as Dumbledore.


    Quinn opened Eddie''s gift box, and inside it was a sturdy wooden mug tankard.


    "Whenever we go to Hogsmeade, you always have Madam Rosemary fill a conjured mug. So here you go, use that next time."


    "Thank you, Eddie, this is great!"


    Next was Marcus, who, unlike Eddie, didn''t throw his gift at Quinn and properly handed him a smaller box.


    "It isn''t much, but I hope you''ll like it."


    Quinn unwrapped the gift wrap, and immediately shiny metal peeked out. He looked at Marcus, who urged him to continue. Quinnplied and fully unwrapped the paper.


    ". . . Is that?" said Quinn.


    In his hands rested a stainless steel cuboidal case with beautiful engraving iid into it. On the broader faces of the case was engraved a monogram of ''QW'' ¡ª the same monogram that Quinn printed on his personal contact cards.


    "Rub your finger along the side face of the case," said Marcus.


    Quinn gently swiped his finger across the side face, and like a camera''s shutter opening up, the broad face opened, revealing a deck of cards inside. The back design was minimalistic, with only a ck background and a thin golden border.


    It was a card deck holder.


    "You can swap the deck inside to one of your choice."


    Quinn hummed as he started to y with the case and the deck inside. Pulling the cards out, putting them back inside, switching things up ¡ª soon the case and the deck had be part of one whole inside his hands.


    "Oh yeah, this just screams ss." He was satisfied with both his gifts.


    "Now it''s my time to give you both your gifts. . . Unlike you guys, I haven''t made unique gifts for you."


    Quinn took out his fake wand and summoned the gifts to him. His study table drawer opened, and two objects flew towards him, which he caught before presenting them to his best friends.


    Marcus was the first one to recognize the gift. "Aren''t these your expandable pocket?"


    "Yup, I made one each for both of you. No need to stuff your pant pockets to the point they bulge. Keep all of your odd stuff inside them, plus you''ll not feel their weight as I''ve charmed them to be weightless ¡ª so you can go nuts with the stuff you want to put inside as long as you know how to pull them out ¡ª I would suggest summoning charm for easy retrieval if the pockets get overcrowded."


    "They don''t have limits?" asked Eddie.


    "Of course, they do. Infinite space inside a pocket isn''t possible. There''ll always be a limit to space expansion. This also has a limit; explore it at your own discretion."


    "Nice, I''ll fit my broom in there."


    Quinn wasn''t done yet. He had another gift for them¡ª a somewhat serious gift. Two small packages flew through the hair towards him, and with heavy hands, he handed them to Eddie and Marcus.


    "Is this. . . a lighter?" asked Marcus.


    He held a silver Zippo lighter with aplicated yet subtle design etched into the silver surface ¡ª those designs weren''t for show, but for magical purposes, as everything etched on the cover was a rune.


    Eddie flicked the Zippo lighter and spun the wheel to light it up.


    "Oh yeah, this is cool."


    He closed it with a click before flicking it open again.


    "Uh-huh, this is very cool."


    Quinn smiled at their positive reaction. "I''m d you liked it, but I didn''t give this to you because it''s cool. . . . the lighter has another use."


    "Oh, what is it?" asked Marcus.


    Quinn took Marcus''s lighter and flicked it open; he pointed at a non-descript witch below the lighter wheel.


    "Now, I hope you never get to use this," he started, "but if you guys ever get attacked or get trapped in a situation that you need some extra. . . push of sorts ¡ª flip this switch, close the lid and throw it towards the target."


    Marcus gulped before asking nervously, "What does it do?"


    "It would be better if you don''t know ¡ª you won''t use it if you know."


    "Does it explode?" asked Eddie.


    "No, nothing like that. It won''t explode. But make sure you''re at least twenty feet away from the ce you''re throwing it."


    ". . . Seriously, what does it do?"


    - (Scene Break) -


    Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus met up with Luna in themon room, and they went down to breakfast together. Quinn gave the same gifts to Luna while getting a painting in return. They spent most of the morning in Ravenw Tower, where everyone enjoyed their presents, then returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent lunch, including at least a hundred turkeys and Christmas puddings and enormous piles of Cribbage''s Wizarding Crackers.


    They went out onto the grounds in the afternoon; the snow was untouched except for the deep channels made by the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students on their way up to the castle. Luna chose to watch the three-way snowball fight rather than join in, and at five o''clock, said she was going back upstairs to get ready for the ball.


    "What, you need three hours?" said Quinn, looking at her incredulously and paying for hispse in concentration when arge snowball, thrown by Quinn, hit him hard on the side of the head.


    "Oof!"


    "Haha, got you~."


    There was no Christmas tea today, as the ball included a feast, so at seven o''clock, when it had be hard to aim correctly, the trio abandoned their snowball fight and trooped back to themon room.


    Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus changed into their formal wear-up in


    their dormitory, Eddie and Marcus looking very self-conscious. On the other hand, Quinn looked like he was in his element, feeling out his suit and threading a pocket watch chain through his vest with a smile on his face.


    "Are you boys ready?" asked Quinn looking at his best friends.


    Quinn himself wore a light grey three-piece suit with a faint blue shirt and a royal blue tie around his neck. Eddie''s suit was of a deep and dark royal blue color with checks over a ck shirt and bowtie; unlike Quinn, Eddie had a folded handkerchief sticking out from his breast pocket.


    Marcus seemed happy with his clothes. He had gotten lucky with the color scheme required to match Luna with a bright yellow robe and pants over a ck shirt and white bowtie. He had pulled his hair slick back and set them Rudder fish''s gel, giving him a clean put-together look.


    "You chaps clean up well," smiled Quinn, e on, before we go down, let''s take a photo."


    He set out a prototype camera under development half as small as any current model in the magical world ¡ª with full intentions to reduce the size to the non-magical world''s DSLR cameras.


    The three boys lined up with Marcus in the middle and the suit boys standing at his sides, facing the camera fixed upon a tripod stand.


    "Three. . . two. . . one. . . smile with glee."


    With the MLE sh built into the camera prototype shining light on them, a memory was captured forever ¡ª an image that all boys would cherish for years toe.


    "Now, let''s go meet thedies."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Feeling good, Looking good.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Yule -> Vault -> Second Task.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 171 - Yule Ball: The Start

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Ravenwmon room looked strange, full of people wearing different colors instead of the usual mass of ck. School robes could only be customized so much; as such, party robes and dresses showed each student''s unique charm.


    Terry Boot looked Eddie from top-down and spoke in an unconvinced tone, "I still can''t work out how you got one of the best-looking girls in the year."


    Eddie put his hands into the pant pockets and answered suavely, "Animal maism."


    Marcus, who was talking to Michael Corner, turned and scoffed, "More like a bashful request."


    Marcus felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see his lovely date standing behind him. Luna Lovegood looked very pretty indeed, in robes of shocking yellow, with her blonde it braided with white flowers, white ribbons wrapped prettily around her hands, and silver satin gloves gracing her hands. She was glowing.


    "You look pretty."


    "Thank you. You are looking pretty as well."


    Marcus reached into his robes and pulled out a wrist corsage with three white roses and numerous faux-pearls. "This is for you. I thought it would look good with your dress."


    Luna presented her wrist. Marcus understood it immediately and gently clipped it around her wrist.


    The girl looked at her wrist for seconds, raised it near her face to take in the scent of roses preserved with a special potion to keep the freshness and enhance the fragrance. She looked up at Marcus with a smile in her dreamy eyes.


    "Thank you, it''s beautiful."


    "I think it''s you who makes it look even more beautiful."


    By the side, Eddie, Terry, and Michael stared at the scene between the two.


    Eddie clicked his tongue andmented, "Normally, he doesn''t speak much but now look, he''s spouting flowers out of his mouth."


    "Did you bring something like that?" asked Terry.


    Michael shook his head, "He''s making us look bad."


    Marcus and Luna joined the boys, with Luna asking, "I don''t see Quinn, where''s he?"


    Eddie pointed towards a corner of themon room. Everyone looked towards the corner to see Quinn surrounded by a horde of Ravenw girls, all giggling while Quinn smiled all the way while talking with them.


    "What''s he doing there?" inquired Luna.


    "Don''t know; they were suddenly all over him," replied Eddie shrugging.


    Eventually, the crowd of giggling girls dissipated, with Quinn waving them all off while making his towards them.


    "Luna! Now, don''t you look pretty," said Quinn with a beaming smile on his face. He looked at the guys and nodded, "Looking good, fes, ready to party hard?"


    "Do you have an after-party nned?" asked Michael.


    Quinn shook his head, "No, I was a bit too busy to organize an after-party, but I can get you inside the Weasley twin''s after-party; you''ll just have to pay a reasonable token entry fee."


    "Why don''t we know about this party? How do you know that?"


    "It''s a very exclusive thing; they don''t want just anyone toe in, but if you take my name, they''ll let you in. It will be even better if you guys take your dates with you; a better gender ratio always helps."


    Quinn''s name held weight in the Weasley twins'' world. He had a long history of cooperation with them, plus he was their future angel investor for their business.


    "We should get going," said Quinn, checking his pocket watch, looking pretty happy about using it.


    The entrance hall was packed with students, too, all milling around waiting for eight o''clock when the doors to the Great Hall would be thrown open. Those people who were meeting partners from different Houses were edging through the crowd, trying to find one another.


    Tracey arrived the same time they did and called out to Eddie when in earshot. The slightly nervous boy turned to be stunned out of his mind as Tracey Davis, his date, walked towards him in a dress of royal blue and turquoise; she had tied her hair in a messy bun with an ornate ss hair stick.


    "Hi," she said.


    "H-Hi," that was all Eddie could get out.


    Quinn leaned to mutter into Marcus'' ear, "It''s so entertaining to see him like this. He''s usually all attack; I knew he''d be weak to attacks."


    "I don''t think Tracey has done anything, though I see what attack you''re talking about."


    "I know, imagine if she did go on attack," cackled Quinn, "if Tracey wanted, she could have him wrapped around her finger by the end of the day."


    A group of Slytherins came up the steps from the dungeons. Malfoy was in front; he was wearing dress robes of ck velvet with a high cor, which made him look like a vicar in Quinn''s opinion. Pansy Parkinson, in very frilly robes of pale pink, was clutching Malfoy''s arm. Crabbe and Goyle were both wearing green; they resembled moss-colored boulders, and neither of them, Quinn wasn''t surprised to see, had managed to find a partner.


    Next came the group of Gryffindors with Harry Potter and his date in the lead.


    "Holy moly! Is that Hermione Granger," gawked Eddie as he saw the pretty girl dressed in periwinkle robes.


    "You can say that again," said Tracey in agreement, "it''s like she''s another person. What happened to her? What kind of magic is that."


    "Meh, spoke Quinn, "it''s a simple work of change of clothes and hairdo with some mor charms entuating everything. Hermione Granger was always pretty; she simply needed a little makeover to show that. Even without all of what we''re seeing and some minute changes, she would attract eyes."


    The Ravenw group looked at Quinn with varying gazes and expressions.


    Quinn stared back at them. "What? You know me, look at me, I like to dress well. I know that kind of stuff."


    "What about her then?" asked Terry Boot, his eyes stuck one person in the Gryffindor group.


    Walking just behind her brother and best friend was Ivy Potter. The Potter princess was dressed in a flowing red dress long enough to float just above the ground. Her usually straight hair was lightly styled into waves, flowing down her back and brilliant green earrings matching her eyes.


    Everything from her dress, hair, looks, the way she held herself looked like a fire goddess.


    "Yeah, I see it now. Why so many people asked her out," spoke Michael Corner.


    "She''s very pretty," spoke Luna; it was also the first thing ever she had said to Ivy Potter when she delivered Quinn''s letter to Hermione Granger.


    While everyone was looking at Ivy Potter, Eddie was looking somewhere else; redheads weren''t his types. But what he was seeing was totally in his range. He raised his hands and reached around to find Quinn''s shoulder and then face.


    "What are you doing, man?!" asked Quinn, swatting the offending hand away.


    "Look what you missed."


    "What?"


    Quinn looked to where Eddie was looking and stilled as his eyes caught what Eddie was seeing.


    The oak front doors were opened. Outside, he saw an area ofwn right in castle''s front had been transformed into a sort of grotto full of fairy lights ¡ª meaning hundreds of actual living fairies were sitting in the rosebushes that had been conjured there and fluttering over the statues of what seemed to be Father Christmas and his reindeer.


    Everyone turned to look as the Durmstrang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, apanied by his date in shimmering midnight ck robes.


    "You''re totally missing out, mate; a Ve as a date better be worth it."


    It was Daphne. Be it her blonde hair, blue eyes, or her ck dress, everything was what you would call perfect, in tune with each other, creating a sort of harmony that would be absolutely stunning if put into words.


    A lot of girls gazed at Daphne in unttering disbelief. When the doors to the Great Hall opened, Krum''s fan club stalked past, throwing Daphne looks of most profound loathing. Pansy Parkinson gaped at her as she walked by with Malfoy, and even he didn''t seem to be able to find an insult to throw at her.


    Tracey turned her gaze to Quinn and stared at his face. "Yeah, this is what I imagined. He is making the exact expression I thought he would make. Well, he''s missing the dropped jaw."


    "Oh yeah, no, he did just fine," Eddie spoke up, "it was a fair trade¡ª yup, he left a diamond mine, in return, he got a tinum lode."


    Once again, the crowd in the entrance hall buzzed with activity.


    It was as if an angel had descended down on Hogwarts.


    The Beauxbatons students were all very handsome and beautiful, but she stood on another level even among those people.


    Fleur Dcour''s every step seemed to light up the Hall. She was dressed in a simple silver-gray satin dress; despite that, if asked, anyone in the school, they would, with high certainty, crown Fleur as the prettiest girl in the school today ¡ª by dressing in such a simple dress, it was as if Fleur was saying that she didn''t have to dress up, she could do it ¡ª effortlessly.


    "Alright, people, time for me to go join my date," said Quinn with magic fixing his clothes, "I''ll see you inside in a bit; until then, I hope you enjoy your evening."


    "Look at him," smirked Eddie, "rearing to go to his date; he''s a dawg."


    Though suddenly, he felt an arm loop around his. He looked to his side and saw Tracey looking up at him with upturned eyes.


    "Should we head inside?"


    Eddie''s smirk drained, and he could only wordlessly nod ¡ª right now, he would agree to anything Tracey would ask of him.


    Quinn walked towards Fleur, who stood in the middle of the Hall as if she owned all of it.


    "I guessplimenting you on your appearance would be redundant, wouldn''t it?"


    Fleur looked at Quinn, and for a while, she didn''t say anything and simply observed Quinn. In turn, he stood there, letting her get a good look at him.


    "Redundant, hmm, I wouldn''t say that. Most special, especially I, like to hearpliments ¡ª especially from my date."


    Quinn nodded with a bit of a smile, "That''s true. Well then, Fleur ¡ª you looked unconditionally, utterly, unquestionably gorgeous."


    "Thank you for thepliments," a smile bloomed on her face, "you haven''t done a bad job yourself. I like you didn''t go with the tailcoat like so many others; I like the suit." She pointed at the lower part of the vest. "And the pocket watch, an effect I like very much."


    "You just said everything I would have wanted in apliment today," he said before taking out a long velvet box from his robes, "and for that excellentpliment, I have a gift for you."


    "Oh my, I like gifts."


    Quinn opened the box with a silent snap and showed the tinum ne with a violet teardrop-shaped jewel floating near the chain instead of hanging from it. He gently picked up the ne from the box.


    "May I?"


    "Yes, you may," said Fleur turning her back to Quinn ¡ª showing to him that her dress was a backless one.


    Quinn unclipped the thin chain and elegantly draped it around her neck.


    "What is this gem? It''s glowing faintly."


    "That Fleur. . . is an alchemic crystalline material ¡ª or a crystal to be simple."


    It was a simr type of alchemic crystal found in the Aquatic vault ¡ª Quinn had modified it to be clearer and have less glow, making it suitable for it to be molded into a jewel.


    Fleur didn''t know the rarity of the crystal around her neck, but she did know that it was beautiful.


    "Thank you, Quinn, it''s beautiful."


    "I think it''s you who makes it look even more beautiful," he said, speaking a line he had suggested to his shy friend.


    "ttery will get you everywhere, Mr. West."


    "But, I''m already there, Ms. Dcour."


    Then Professor McGonagall''s voice called, "Champions over here, please!"


    Professor McGonagall, who was wearing dress robes of red tartan and had arranged a rather ugly wreath of thistles around the brim of her hat, told them to wait on one side of the doors while everyone else went inside; they were to enter the Great Hall in procession when the rest of the students had sat down.


    Fleur and Quinn were stationed at the front of the line with other champions behind them. With some time still left, Quinn decided to break the tension hanging between the eight people (champions and their dates).


    "How''re you guys doing? I must say all of you''re looking remarkable today," he looked at all of them and shrugged, "but I''d have to say, I can see a lot of stiffness and nervousness."


    Everyone shifted on their feet, shifting their eyes off of Quinn for a moment, looking at each other.


    "There''s no need to be nervous. The Yule Ball, in essence, is a party ¡ª a party held so that we can enjoy ourselves and have the time of our lives."


    "But we''ve to open the dance," said Hermione, her features painted with a tinge of worry. "What if we screw up?"


    "I''ll not, that''s for sure," said Fleur looking confident.


    "Me neither," added Daphne; she looked as calm as she always did, as if today was just another day at school.


    Quinn stared between the two girls and nodded before focusing back on Hermione, "You''re looking at it all wrong, you know?"


    "How so?" she asked.


    "A good amount people in there can''t dance formally at Balls ¡ª over that, there''s are good chances those can dance aren''t going with those who can''t. . . pretty sure that a lot of the people inside will onlye to the dance floor only when the Weird Sisters y something funky."


    Out of the eight people here, everyone knew how to dance ¡ª enough to not embarrass them in front of everyone. But the prospect of dancing in front of everyone with all eyes fixed on them was a prospect not many were excited about.


    "So, in conclusion, rx and calm down," concluded Quinn, "some say potato head and birthday suits help, but if that isn''t your deal, I can always help with a bit of magic ¡ª it''ll take just a little, but it''ll get you through the dance. . . Any takers?"


    There were none.


    Once everyone else was settled in the Hall, Professor McGonagall told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and follow her.


    "It''s showtime." Quinn looked at Fleur. "Ready to impress?"


    "Always," she said, taking his arm.


    The champions entered, and everyone in the Great Hall apuded as they walked in and started walking up toward arge round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting.


    The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of gands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry ck ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, about a hundred smaller,ntern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.


    Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff wore an expression of deep dissatisfaction as he watched Krum and Daphne draw nearer. Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple withrge yellow stars, was pping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of ck satin for a flowing gown ofvender silk, was apuding them politely. But Mr. Crouch, Quinn noticed, was not there. The fifth seat at the table was upied by Percy Weasley.


    When the champions and their partners reached the table, Percy drew out the empty chair beside him, staring pointedly at Harry. Harry took the hint and sat down next to Percy, who was wearing brand-new, navy-blue dress robes and an expression of such smugness that Quinn thought it ought to be fined.


    Quinn asked Fleur to walk ahead and stopped behind Percy. "Mr. Weasley, I have to say, you''re looking good. Howe Mr. Crouch isn''t in attendance today?"


    "I''m afraid to say Mr. Crouch isn''t well, not well at all. Hasn''t been right since the World Cup. Hardly surprising ¡ª overwork. He''s not as young as he was ¡ª though still quite brilliant, of course, the mind remains as great as it ever was. But the World Cup was a fiasco for the whole Ministry, and then, Mr. Crouch suffered a huge personal shock with the sudden death of that house-elf of his, Blinky, or whatever she was called ¡ª well, as I say, he''s getting on, he needs looking after, and I think he''s found a definite drop in his homeforts since she left. And then we had the tournament to arrange, and the aftermath of the Cup to deal with ¡ª that revolting Skeeter woman buzzing around ¡ª no, poor man, he''s having a well-earned, quiet Christmas."


    "Then why are you here?" asked Harry.


    "I''ve been promoted," from his tone, he might have been announcing his election as supreme ruler of the universe. "I''m now Mr. Crouch''s personal assistant, and I''m here representing him."


    "I see; I hope he gets well soon," said Quinn, "it was night talking to you, Mr. Weasley, now I have to return to my date." He shook hands with Percy, who really looked like he was enjoying himself.


    Quinn walked towards his seat; it was only a few steps away, but he froze just as he saw where Fleur had seated herself.


    Of the pairs, Harry & Hermione and Cedric & Cho were sitting on the edges with Krum & Daphne and Quinn & Fleur in between the two pairs. The thing that made Quinn ufortable was that all the girls sat on the right, with the boys sitting on their left.


    "Hey," he said, sitting down beside Fleur.


    Then looked to his side and greeted, "Hey, Daphne."


    The Yule Ball had started.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Thinking if he should spike the punch.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Yeah, right! That''s what he is thinking, sure, buddy.


    Marcus Belby - Calm boi - Preparation is the key to sess.


    Luna Lovegood - Dreamy girl - Hoping to see lots of Fairies today.


    Eddie Carmichael - Suited-up - Animal maism! . . . A-Ah yes, Uhm, s-sure. Whatever you say.


    Tracey Davis - Dressed-up - She has the legendary move, Upturned eyes in her arsenal.


    Fleur Dcour - Beauxbatons Champion - Dressed-up Ve, ''nuff said.''''''


    Daphne Greengrass- Trained heiress - Perfect.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 172 - Yule Ball: Dancing Begins

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Sitting in between Fleur and Daphne was a bit awkward for Quinn, but he also had skin thick as an elephant ¡ª he soon got used to it.


    As it was already eight o''clock, the ball started with a feast. Quinn looked at the tes and cutlery set in front of him. There was no food as yet on the glittering golden tes, but small menus were lying in front of each of them.


    Quinn picked up his menu, read it carefully, then said very clearly to his te, "Pork chops!"


    And pork chops appeared. Getting the idea, the rest of the table ced their orders with their tes too. Quinn nced up at Hermione to see how she felt about this new and moreplicated method of dining ¡ª surely it meant plenty of extra work for the house-elves? But it seemed that his talk had made a change as Hermione didn''t seem to be bothered by it. She was deep in talks with Harry and hardly seemed to notice what she was eating.


    He looked to the other side and saw Daphne conversing with Krum. It surprised him immensely ¡ª all the times he had seen Krum, he had never seen the man talk so much, very enthusiastically at that.


    "Well, we have a castle also, not as big as this, nor asfortable, I am thinking," he was telling Hermione. "We have just four floors, and the fires are lit only for magical purposes. But we have groundsrger even than these ¡ª though, in winter, we have very little daylight, so we are not enjoying them. But in summer we are flying every day, over thekes and the mountains ¡ª"


    "Now, now, Viktor!" said Karkaroff with augh that didn''t reach his cold eyes, "don''t go giving away anything else, now, or your charming friend will know exactly where to find us!"


    Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Igor, all this secrecy . . . one would almost think you didn''t want visitors."


    "Well, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, disying his yellowing teeth to their fullest extent, "we are all protective of our private domains, are we not? Do we not jealously guard the halls of learning that have been entrusted to us? Are we not right to be proud that we alone know our school''s secrets and right to protect them?"


    "Oh, I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts'' secrets, Igor," said Dumbledore amicably. "Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only essible at five-thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon ¡ª or when the seeker has an exceptionally full dder."


    Quinn smiled into his bite of pork chop ¡ª he was really relieved he could smile at the mysterious bathroom. It wasn''t the Room of Requirements, but it had simrities; it would appear when one really wanted to go to a bathroom, but there wasn''t one nearby. He had stumbled upon it so many times that it wasn''t even funny.


    Given that Krum had shared something about Durmstrang, Fleur decided to continue the topic.


    "This is nothing," she said dismissively, looking around at the sparkling walls of the Great Hall. "At the Pce of Beauxbatons, we have ice sculptures all around the dining chamber at Christmas. They don''t melt, of course . . . they are like huge statues of diamond, glittering around the ce. And the food is simply superb. And we have choirs of wood nymphs, too serenade us as we eat. We have none of this ugly armor in the halls, and if a poltergeist ever entered into Beauxbatons, he would be expelled like that." She pped her hand onto the table impatiently.


    ''I can create ice that doesn''t melt,'' thought Quinn.


    Seeing that Fleur crapped on Hogwarts and praised Beauxbatons, the Hogwarts students on the table started to defend Hogwarts. A heated battle of words began on the table.


    ''Well, Hogwarts has me, isn''t that enough,'' mused Quinn in silence, ''hmm, since when did I be so narcissistic? But it''s the truth, isn''t it? Hmm, isn''t that again narcissism. Wait a minute, whiches first? Truth or narcissism. . . did I fall upon something profound.''


    "What about you, Quinn? What do you think," said Daphne from his left with a slight re in her eyes ¡ª re directed toward not at him, but his date towards his right.


    Quinn felt an arm snake around his right arm. He looked and saw Fleur oh so close to him. "Yes, Quinn. What do you think?"


    ". . . Uhm," Quinn gulped for a few different reasons; he could feel something very soft pressed against his arm and a pleasant scent tickle his nose.


    He tightly smiled before taking a deep breath to steady himself and started to think ¡ª indeed, what was about Hogwarts that interested him the most. He had been here more than four years ¡ª in those four years, what had called out to him the most.


    "Just as Headmaster Dumbledore said ¡ª even he doesn''t know all of Hogwarts ¡ª meaning there are so many ces to explore so many things to discover. People say that the ''unknown'' is scary, but I find the ''unknown'' inviting. . . . Hogwarts is filled with so many of those unknowns. To me, the castle, these grounds are a treasure trove waiting for someone to dive in and find all of its jewels and gems."


    He rested his chin on the back of his hand and smiled, "That. . . . gives me goosebumps just thinking about it."


    Daphne, Harry, Hermione, Cedric, and Cho all looked at Quinn ¡ª this peer of theirs was famous for many things, but, before being the best of his best, before AID, before everything else, Quinn West was recognized for his penchant for being out after curfew at night and that he couldn''t be found for hours at a time during the day.


    "That sounds like you, Mr. West. You''ve certainly have been an avid explorer," chuckled Dumbledore from his behind his half-moon sses, "do you know, Mr. West even found a secret passageway leading to outside the school grounds?"


    "Please, Headmaster, I would like if you don''t bring my dark past to light ¡ª to be caught sneaking out of the school, how embarrassing."


    His reply made Dumbledoreugh. The old Headmaster understood what Quinn actually meant.


    When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised tform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a flute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.


    The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic apuse; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in ck robes that had been artfully ripped and torn.


    "Let''s go. It''s time for us to open the dance," Quinn heard Fleur''s word whispered into his ear.


    The Weird Sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune; Quinn walked onto the brightly lit dance floor, and the next moment, he had Fleur''s hands in his with the other on her back.


    Everything in the world ceased to exist as Quinn directed all of his attention to his very beautiful partner, who also seemed to be looking just at him. Then they started to dance to the tune of the music, and the thoughts about a crowd watching them escaped their minds.


    "You dance well," praised Fleur.


    "You''re an easy partner to lead," replied Quinn in counter-praise.


    "I like that you''re giving me credit, but Quinn, you don''t have to do it every time; sometimes it''s better to simply ept the praise."


    "Then thank you for the praise, Fleur. I''m a good dancer."


    "Much better."


    The pair continued to talk, and other people had also entered the dance floor ¡ª they, along with other champion pairs, were no longer the centre of attention, but Quinn and Fleur didn''t care about them and simply continued dancing, enjoying each other''s proximity.


    . . .


    While Quinn and Fleur weren''t paying much attention to others, they were definitely paying attention to them.


    Fleur''s hold on her Allure had subconsciously weakened a level. Gentle waves of Ve Allure drifted from her, spreading towards the surroundings. In certain circumstances, a Ve''s Allure just didn''t make herself attractive ¡ª right now, as everybody watched, Fleur Dcour and Quinn West looked like a pair chosen by heaven. The pair looked so attractive that the people outside the dance floor only had eyes for them.


    .


    "They look so good together."


    .


    "Are they together?"


    "Wouldn''t that be fitting? They seem like the perfect couple."


    .


    "Only if I could get someone like Quinn."


    "If I would''ve asked Fleur out, it would''ve been there."


    "Dream on, pal."


    "I could say the same to you."


    . . .


    Quinn heard the final, quavering note from the bagpipe with a sense of satisfaction. The Weird Sisters stopped ying, apuse filled the hall once more, and Quinn smiled at Fleur.


    "The song is over, Fleur."


    "Yes, and?"


    "Your grips still on, you know?"


    Fleur didn''t let Quinn go from their dance stance, standing close to him, gazing up at him with a smile. "Do you not like it?"


    "There is nothing to not like here, Fleur, but as I told you before, I''ve some priormitments to fulfil."


    "Dancing with other girls even though you have me ¡ª that isn''t ttering, my dear date."


    "Oh, please. We both know you, too, have to go and mingle around."


    "That''s true," she sighed, "let''s hope some of them could handle me."


    The two separated and looked around the dance floor and the hall to find their respective objectives.


    "I think we should start with the other champions?" suggested Quinn.


    Fleur gazed around as she lightly hummed, "I see Harry Potter and his date. Should we go to them? Yes, Harry Potter would do; he can withstand a good amount."


    "Alright, let''s start with them; I did ask Hermione for a dance."


    . . .


    Harry Potter and Hermione Granger danced together, revolving slowly with gently steering around the floor; the two looked at peace with a tinge of embarrassment flushing their cheeks. The two had been facing many waves and sniggers while dancing alone with other champions.


    "You weren''t lying when you said you know how to dance," said Hermione.


    "d you finally believe me," grinned Harry, "Dad had always been insistent that Ivy and I should know how to dance; mum was all for it. Though I''ve only danced with Ivy for the most."


    Then the pair heard a cheerful voice call out, "Harry, my boy."


    Both looked to see Quinn walking towards them with a jolly look on his face. "You two look utterly dashing."


    Harry and Hermione exchanged nces. "Thank you. You too as well," said Harry.


    "Thank you, Harry. Now I would like to ask your very lovely date to a dance,'' said Quinn, then turning to Hermione, "May I have a dance, my fairdy."


    "Huh, what?" said Harry, confused.


    Quinn nced back at Harry and reached out his hand. "Here, take this."


    Harry instinctively raised his hand to receive and found a familiar wrapped chocte cube in his palm. "Chocte?"


    "You know what? Give that back," smiled Quinn and took back the cube, then pointed with chin towards Harry''s back, "you''re about to get something much sweeter."


    Harry turned and saw Fleur Dcour standing behind with a charming smile on her face, "Good evening Harry, you clean up well."


    The boy turned back just to see Quinn leading his equally surprised date away with his hand on her back.


    "Don''t worry, you''ll get her back after a dance," he heard Fleur say, "until then, let''s have some fun."


    "Huh?"


    . . .


    "Ms. Granger, I must admit, even though I think Fleur is unquestionably eye-catching, but you''re the one who made the most impact today," said Quinn dancing with a still reeling Hermione, "I mean look at you ¡ª you look spectacr tonight."


    Hermione looked the taller Quinn; he wasn''t as tall as Ron, but taller than Harry. Both Ron and Harry had lean physiques, but with Quinn''s much wider arms holding her, she couldn''t help butpare ¡ª Quinn West definitely worked out.


    ''What am I thinking?!'' Hermione lowered her face to hide the blush on her cheeks; her face was betraying her embarrassing thoughts.


    "T-Thank you."


    "Any progress on the golden egg?"


    Hermione sighed, hearing the question, "He''s taking it slow. I don''t think he has even been to the library to research on the golden egg. . . . What about Fleur Dcour, how much progress has she made?"


    "Ms. Granger, why do you assume that I know how''s Fleur doing on her egg?"


    "Are you not her date?"


    "While that might be true, I only get to talk to Fleur during meals. Other time, I''m busy with the tournament and my usualmitments."


    "About that. . . . I have to ask, what are thosemitments? I believe it''s just not me who''s curious about it. Everyone in the school wants to know."


    "Oh, you know, this and that. But mostly, it''s learning magic."


    "How are you so good at magic? You''re only one year above me," asked the girl who had fallen in love with magic.


    Quinn observed the girl in his arms and thought about his answer. "It''s not a fairparison, Mr. Granger. I''m from a magical household, who have been surrounded by magic ever since I can remember. . . . Tell me, do you have aputer at home, Ms. Granger."


    Hermione tilted her head in confusion, "Yes, we do. My mum uses it for work. Why do you ask?"


    "Do you know how to use it?"


    "Yes, mum taught me how to use it since I was five. I like it; it''s fun."


    "Then between you, who had been using it since childhood, and me, who uses it a couple times during summer break, who do you think can work aputer better?"


    "I suppose me. I''d be better than you."


    "And I''ve no doubt about it," agreed Quinn; he knew how to use aputer from his memories, but he was grossly out of touch with the machine, "just like that, it''s natural for me to be better at magic that you''re. I''ve been in contact with it for a time much longer than you have been."


    "But so have Ivy, Harry, and Ron."


    "Not many children learn magic before schooling. It''s a hassle for parents to manage magic-enabled children. Only a few learn things like potions and. . . . has Ivy started you on lumency?"


    "Eh? Ah, yes, she did. It''s a fascinating form of magic."


    "It is," he could feel her in-progress lumency shields, "my family allowed to me study magic without restraints. I could study magic as much I wanted, and unlike many children, I liked to read. . . you can understand that, don''t you?"


    ". . . .yes, I can," nodded Hermione, she knew precisely what Quinn meant, "you mean, you had a wand?"


    "Oh no, my family wasn''t that permitting. I just studied."


    Hermione nodded and shook her mind of the thought about how children could be very mean and changed the subject, "What did you use aputer for?"


    ". . . .for games."


    "Of course, you''re a boy."


    "That I am, and don''t pretend you didn''t y as well," beamed Quinn, "speaking of games, did you have the chance to open my Christmas present?"


    "Ah, yes! I saw it, the wooden box?" she talked excitedly, "what is it? I wasn''t able to open it. I know it can be opened ¡ª is it a trick box? It''s a trick box, isn''t it? Is there something in the box, or is the box itself a gift? No! ¡ª Don''t tell me! I want to see it on my own."


    Quinn chuckled as he twirled Hermione, "Alright then, I''ll leave it to you. A sense of reward is a strong motivator."


    ". . . .It''s not a jump scare, right?"


    A peal of freeughter escaped Quinn without restraint.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy Potter had been watching her friends the entire time she had been at the Yule Ball. Sitting near the side, watching them dance and having fun, while she sat without a date.


    ''I know I rejected a lot, but that doesn''t mean I don''t want to dance,'' she thought while sighing.


    She took a sip of the punch she had fetched herself and watched the people without a thought in her mind. As she did that, she saw a Quinn walk towards her in a grey suit and a smile on her face.


    "Ivy Potter. . . . I''m here for my promised dance."


    The Potter twin stared up at Quinn, and she to admit, he looked quite fetching.


    "I don''t know if I should be ttered or worried about your appraising gaze, Ivy," smiled Quinn, "well, I''m trying to look good, so I will take that glint of approval in your eyes as apliment."


    Ivy sighed and ced a hand into Quinn''s as she got up. "You''re lucky you''re looking good right now."


    "Thank you," smiled Quinn as he led the redhead to the dance floor, "you look gorgeous as well."


    "Of course, I do."


    ". . . .hmm, she was right; people should eptpliments."


    "What are you talking about?"


    "Hmm, oh nothing, just something I learned."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Dance baby, dance~.


    Fleur Dcour - Ve - Allue is a mysterious magic.


    Hermione Granger - Transformed Beauty - Got a puzzle box from Quinn.


    Ivy Potter - Wants To Dance - Sees what she sees, can''t be helped.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - To be continued. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 173 - Yule Ball: Red, Fun, Kiss.

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The song was a slow one, where the pair would slowly sway ¡ª the couples would usually stare into each other''s eyes, hold each close, feeling as intimate as one could while dancing in silence.


    Many pairs on the dance were doing just that, but not Quinn West and Ivy Potter; they were looking into each other''s eyes, but unlike others, they weren''t silent.


    "I heard from Hermione that you weren''t able to get yourself a date," said Quinn, "not a surprise, given that I was your first choice ¡ª your requirements were too high."


    "Oh, don''t tter yourself," she sniggered amusingly, "and since when did you start calling Hermione by her given name?"


    "Just before when I was dancing with her. . . . she''s a fascinating one, that girl ¡ª did you know that she has a terrific natural memory, better than mine. Thank magic for lumency." ''And a history of bullying beforeing to Hogwarts,'' but that went unsaid.


    "She''s sharp as a tack, alright," there was ayer of pride in her voice. "So, Daphne with Krum, huh," continued Ivy.


    Quinn looked across the dance floor to see Daphne and Krum sitting on a sidelined table. The pair seemed to be conversing with Krum speaking while Daphne listened with asional nods and inserts of her own.


    "Yes, it was a surprise," replied Quinn, "I wonder how those two got started talking ¡ª from what I know, those two aren''t the talking types."


    "I heard that they met in the library, and their friendship began from there."


    "Ah, the library. Yes, now I recall ¡ª Krum uses Madam Pince''s authoritarian rule over the library to escape from his developing fan club of fantasizing fangirls and obsessed fanboys. I''ve to say, Krum might not be the smartest tool in the shed, but he makes it up with street smarts ¡ª he picked up the situation in the library pretty quickly."


    "Then, you made Daphne the coordinator of the teams; that probably got them talking."


    "You know about that?"


    "I talk to every member of the Gryffindor quidditch team on a regr basis; I know Daphne''s in contact with every single one of them."


    "That makes sense," he nodded before studying the girl in his arms.


    Ivy noticed Quinn''s gaze. She waited for him to say something or look away, but he didn''t. "What is it? Why''re you looking at me like that?"


    "I''ve known Daphne for three years going four and you for two years and some ¡ª of course, our rtionship has been an on-and-off one, but I can say I know you pretty well. . . . but in all that time, I still don''t know both of your stories, what''s the deal between you and Daphne."


    Ivy''s eyes shed with multiple emotions, with her face falling into a smileless one. Quinn felt the slight tension in her body and immediately knew that she had be ufortable.


    "You don''t have to answer that," he said, "sorry if I brought up ufortable memories."


    "No, it''s fine, it''s not ufortable per se," she sighed, "we used to be friends, you know ¡ª best friends."


    "Best friends. . . . it doesn''t look like that, at least currently, it doesn''t."


    "Daphne and I have known each other since before I can remember. Our mothers are good friends. . . ."


    Quinn nodded as he recollected the interactions between Lily Potter and Sophie Greengrassst year at King''s Crossing. They looked and acted like close friends.


    ". . . . so ever since we were kids, our mothers visited each other; as such, Daphne, Harry, and I have spent countless days ying with each other at each other''s houses ¡ª she was my first friend outside of Harry." Ivy chuckled reminiscently before continuing.


    "What changed?"


    Quinn nced at his right arm as he felt Ivy''s grip tighten. He looked back at Ivy, but she didn''t seem to notice her actions and continued her tightened grip.


    ''Hmm, it''s nice; it''s like a massage,'' he thought. "Hey, littledy, if you want to y the squeeze game, please pick it up with someone on your level."


    "Huh, what?" Ivy''s subconscious grip loosened.


    Quinn gazed back at his hand before sighing. "You were about to say something about how you and Daphne fell out."


    "She is a jealous stone-faced prick who can''t handle if attention is taken off from her," and the rant started, "our mothers enjoyed ying teachers ¡ª well, my mum is a professor now, but that''s not the point. We used to learn everything together ¡ª my mum used to teach things that didn''t require magic while Aunty Sophie used to teach us about the traditions and cultural tidbits of the wizarding world."


    That made sense. Sophie Greengrass would be a much better person to teach the subjects like etiquette.


    "Did you learn how to dance from Mrs. Greengrass?"


    "Hmm? Yeah, she was the one to teach Harry, Daphne, Tracey, and me to dance. We took lessons together."


    ". . . . lucky ducks," muttered Quinn.


    "What did you say?"


    "Oh, nothing, please carry on."


    "She would always try to show me up. Whatever I tried, she would pick it up and try to be better than me. I once tried to take up baking because I wanted to eat cookies and asked Daphne if she wanted to do it together, but she declined ¡ª then when I started to bake and when I finally got a good batch out, the very next week, Aunty Sophie told that Daphne was ''suddenly'' very interested in backing and after that, she came home with cookies."


    Ivy peered right into Quinn''s eyes and stated, "and you might not believe this, but she smiled that day ¡ª that smug and arrogant smile. Then it started; every time I did anything new, she would do it too, and even after she became statue-face, her eyes would always have that same look."


    Ivy nced up from Ivy towards Daphne, and if he was being honest, he couldn''t see it. The Daphne he knew was a straight arrow ¡ª this sounded more like Astoria to him.


    "Sounds tough," he said. It might not have been a big deal ¡ª a children''s squabble rarely was.


    "You don''t believe me, do you?" asked Ivy.


    "It''s not that ¡ª but for me to truly understand a story, I need to know the full story."


    ". . . . You want to know her side?"


    "Yes, but not just Daphne. I want to see what Harry and Astoria think, though I doubt Astoria would remember any of it. Plus, I would like to see what your mother¡ª," and then he sighed in bliss, "¡ªand Mrs. Greengrass, I think."


    Ivy looked at Quinn as if he was being weird. If only she could listen to his thoughts, she would know how urate her thoughts were.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Believe it or not, but this is the dance I was looking to most this evening," said Quinn with a broad smile on his face.


    "Oh please, you''ve already danced with half a dozen girls already," the girl smiled, "to how many of them have you said the same line ¡ª I always thought you were somewhat of a yboy."


    "No, my dear, Tracey," smiled Quinn, earnestness shing, "dancing with girls was pleasant and enjoyable, but I know dancing with you will be mighty fun; I just know it"


    Tracey nced towards the Weird Sisters, and they had taken a pause from traditional ball music and had switched to the much morefortable and contemporary ball music.


    "See, even the music agrees with me; they just put their best track of the night," grinned Quinn.


    Tracey giggled as she scooted near Quinn as more and more people joined the dance floor. With time bingfortable about joining the dance floor ¡ª to dance with their dates.


    "So, how is your evening going with Eddie?" asked Quinn, "Also, where is he?"


    "His feet got tired from dancing, so we took a break. Last I saw him, Luna was pulling him and Marcus into a strange three-people dance," she smiled, "Eddie is doing just fine. He''s much more mellow than I thought he would be when we first met."


    Quinnughed, recalling Daphne and Tracey''s first official meeting with Eddie and Marcus. "He was going through the ''I-don''t-care'' phase and acted like he wasn''t interested in talking to you girls, and Marcus was so shy that he didn''t speak more than a handful of words. . . . yeah, that''s a fun day to remember."


    "Yes, do you remember Daphne and Marcus sitting side-by-side, not saying a word to each other ¡ª both for different reasons, of course. Daphne said that she almost forgot that Marcus was sitting beside her."


    "Really? Marcus remembers it quite differently. He quite liked sitting in silence beside Daphne ¡ª said he enjoyed thepany."


    "What were we doing at that time?"


    "If I remember correctly, you and Eddie were challenging me at a game of concentration each, two games at simultaneously ¡ª and I was solidly beating both of you."


    "Huh, is that so? I can''t seem to remember," said Tracey, smiling coyly.


    "Of course, you don''t," chuckled Quinn.


    The two fell into silence as the song went through a calm and slow yet deep buildup. Tracey watched Quinn as he seemed to enjoy the music, slowly leading her with him. He was cute, charming, funny and always knew what to say ¡ª a very attractive boy. . . .


    ''Don''t go there, Tracey,'' she thought, ''Daphne likes him, so you can''t.''


    She always had a little crush on Quinn ¡ª maybe ever since she met him. He was always fun, always upbeat, perpetually doing something new and exciting. It would always make her and the people close to him wonder about what he would do next.


    ''Oh, Daphne, why did you have to choose such a cute one,'' thought Tracey, ''well, I''ll let this one go, so you better not let him go.''


    "Well, it''s time for us to part, my dear Tracey," she heard Quinn speak.


    "Hmm, why?"


    "Your date has returned."


    Tracey separated from Quinn and turned back to see Eddie standing a little distance with two goblets in his hand. She turned back to see Quinn walking while waving his hand.


    "Hey," Eddie said, walking near her before presenting a goblet to her, "this is for you."


    Tracey took the goblet and felt the cold metal snugfortably around her palm. "Thank you, but why?"


    "I saw you dancing with Quinn, and you haven''t sat down once since the feast; I assumed that you would be parched ¡ª please drink. You should stay hydrated. . . . you don''t want to faint from dehydration, believe me, not fun."


    Tracey gazed down at the pinkish liquid in her cup before looking back up at Eddie, who watched her, waiting for her to drink. ''Alright, Tracey, this one is cute as well.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I''m back."


    Fleur was talking with one of the Durmstrang girls when she heard the voice of her date and turned to face him. "So, you finally remember me."


    "Oh, don''t be like that. I returned after every dance; it''s not my fault that you weren''t avable," said Quinn smiling with his hands behind his back, "but it seems you''re avable now; may I have a dance, my lovelydy?"


    "Don''t you get tired? You have been dancing for a long while now," she said, getting a shrug from Quinn, "I don''t want to dance anymore, but I do want to do something?"


    "Sure, we can do that if you don''t want to dance. What do you want to do?"


    Fleur nudged towards the Great hall entrance pointing across the entrance hall at the oak main doors. "Let''s go outside. Let''s go for a walk."


    Pretending they wanted more drinks, Quinn and Fleur left the Great hall, edged around the dance floor, and slipped out into the entrance hall. The front doors stood open, and the fluttering fairy lights in the rose garden winked and twinkled as they went down the front steps, where they found themselves surrounded by bushes, winding, ornamental paths, and giant stone statues.


    They could hear sshing water, which sounded like a fountain. Here and there, people were sitting on carved benches. He and Fleur set off along one of the winding paths through the rosebushes, and except the soft chirps, not a sound disturbed the pair.


    They had reached a giant stone reindeer, over which they could see the sparkling jets of a tall fountain and near it a stone bench. They decided to sit down and watch the water in the moonlight.


    Both of them didn''t speak a word to each other for a while before Fleur broke the silence. "This is not a good ce to sit, is it?"


    "Not, it is not," he replied.


    They could hear sounds of giggling, ruffling from the rosebushes around them. A lot of couples were getting busy on the lovely night of Christmas. Quinn pulled out his fake wand and cast a silencing ward along with another one.


    "What did you cast?" asked Fleur.


    Quinn ced his fake wand back into his suit. "I cast two wards. One is a sound istion ward ¡ª it keeps dulls sounds; it works both ways, inside and out. The second one is a static invisibility ward." There was a smile in his voice as he finished.


    Fleur gave him a look asking to exin why he sounded so happy.


    "The static invisibility ward is one of the first wards I ever learned," he exined, "the day I first used it, I sneaked into my grandfather''s cer and sat down, waiting for him. I wasn''t familiar with the usage of this ward back then, so I didn''t ount for the change in lighting ¡ª my grandfather thought I was an intruder and shot me with a charged stunning spell, which, as I now recall, hit me right in the chest."


    "You lie," she said, interest filling her voice.


    "No, it happened seriously. I was knocked out for a few minutes and woke up to see my grandfather with a drink in his hand ¡ª not going to lie, he was very cool at that moment."


    Quinn noticed a gaze on him and saw Fleur gazing at him intently with her blue eyes. The dulled night sounds set the perfect atmosphere, and both knew what wasing.


    It wasn''t clear who closed the distance, but a few momentster, they were kissing. They shared a short and chaste kiss before Quinn ended it.


    "What is it?" asked Fleur, though she did have an inkling.


    Quinn didn''t divert her eyes from Fleur and held it. "I like you a lot Fleur. You''re stunning and attractive; believe me, even without your Allure, you''re truly a very captivating girl. But I don''t think I like you that way."


    Fleur slowly pulled back and spoke, "Quinn, it doesn''t have to mean anything. It could be just two people fooling around, just having some fun. I find you attractive as well, but don''t get me wrong, I''m not trying to start something here ¡ª it won''t be sensible to start something here, I''ll be leaving Hogwarts by the end of this year, but you would still have two years of schooling at Hogwarts left. That. . . . doesn''t work for me."


    "Yeah, that''s logical and a smart decision on your part," said Quinn turning his eyes to the moon hanging above, "but you see, I can''t fool around, maybe in the future, but not right now." He nced back at her and continued, "That was my first kiss, you know."


    Fleur blinked in surprise. "W-What? You''re joking, right?" She couldn''t believe that someone like Quinn hadn''t had his first kiss till now ¡ª she had hers way before Quinn''s age.


    "Nope, all true," he said, leaning into the bench, "that''s the reason why I don''t want to fool around even though you''re the one who''s proposing it. . . . I have no problems with people fooling around, it''s their choice, and as long it''s consensual I''m a hundred percent fine with it."


    "But, I don''t want my first ever ''rtionship'', if we can this that, to be a casual fling, not even if it''s for a couple of minutes here alone at a bench. Maybe I''m overreacting to this, but these are my current thoughts and feelings," Quinn smiled as he finished, "and I can''t do anything about them."


    Fleur also leaned back into the stone bench and sighed, "That''s not how I thought today was going to end."


    "Thank you, I strive to surprise people," smiled Quinn and loosened his tie a little.


    "Really, that was your first kiss?" Fleur couldn''t help but ask.


    "A hundred percent true."


    "But how?"


    "Well, I''ve been a little too busy to explore that part of my life yet."


    "Are you sure you just didn''t get chances?"


    "Oh, please," snorted Quinn, "look at me. I''m a prime piece that everyone wants to get their hands on, and now I can say that my first kiss was with a Ve. . . . so, how was it?"


    "What?"


    "You know. . . the kiss. How did I do?"


    "Hmm. . . . it was okay," she said and got up.


    "Okay? It was okay?" he watched as Fleur stepped outside of the ward line, "Ms. Dcour, I have a long record of being exemry at my first attempts at anything I do."


    He got up as Fleur started to walk away.


    "Fleur? Fleur! Ms. Dcour! Please rify what you mean by okay."


    The Ve''s melodiousughs sounded as Quinn''s calls sounded in the night.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Yeah, this isn''t going to work. . . I''m not OK with that "okay."


    Ivy Potter - Potter Princess - Troubled friendship.


    Tracey Davis - Bubbly beauty - On the look out for cute boys.


    Fleur Dcour - Ve - What can I say, it was "okay."


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Yeah. . . so that''s how it went.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 174 - Yuletide End, Possibility

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn walked to the Great hall alone without Fleur. The Ve was tired from the hectic party and decided to retire for the night. Quinn wanted to escort her back to the Beauxbatons carriages, but they came across Headmistress Maxime ¡ª a very angry Olympe Maxime.


    She swept through corridors like an angry hippogriff, and when she saw them, Maxime sent Quinn away, stating that she''d take Fleur from there onwards. Neither Quinn nor Fleur wanted to argue with the angry half-giantess, so they obliged and separated, with Quinn returning to Great hall.


    "Why am I returning," he sighed, "I should''ve retired for the night. Today''s sleep is going to be a good and deep one." He was a right type of tired ¡ª the type where he would slip into sleep the second he hit the bed top.


    He entered the snow-white Christmas-decorated hall. The vibe of the ball had changed since he exited; in the middle of the hall, on the dance floor, a few couples slow danced to the rxed and romantic music of the Weird Sisters while others sat in groups, chatting with each other,ughing and mingling with each other ¡ª making cherished memories of a wonderful night.


    He saw Eddie & Tracey and Marcus & Luna still dancing, so he sat down at the table waiting for them to end so that he could return with them to the Ravenwmon room.


    Quinn stared down at the floor, saw sparkling confetti spread across the floor, and decided to pass some time. His learning from the Nordic Viking book he got from Denmark popped into his mind, and he called upon a bit of his magic. He blew softly towards the floor, and with magic wind magic backing up his breath, the confetti on an entire section of floor in front of him floated away, gliding across the floor.


    "Quinn." The call of his name broke him out of his little pass-time. Quinn turned toe to face with a pair of striking crystal blue eyes. "Daphne, I didn''t see you there. How are you? Enjoying yourself at the ball?"


    Daphne stared at Quinn while giving a nce towards the now confetti-free floor. ". . . .I am," she said before looking around, "where is Dcour?"


    "Fleur was tired, so she decided to retire for the night," said Quinn, "what about you? What''re you doing alone here? Where is Krum?"


    Daphne ran an errant hand through her silky straight blonde looks. "His friends came and took him away. I think they had firewhiskey with them." Which meant that they probably went to a secluded area to sneak some drinks.


    "You didn''t join them?"


    "I don''t drink, and it was only boys."


    "There''s always a first time for everything, though I would suggest that you go with something lighter than firewhiskey ¡ª I saw abel once, and oh boy, the spirit content scared me a little."


    "No, thank you," denied Daphne firmly, "I don''t want to go drinking right now. . . . you sound like you''ve got experience with drinking."


    Quinn ruffled the back of his head and sighed with a chuckle mixed in. "No, I haven''t drunk any liquor ¡ª technically, I haven''t." He had ingested quite a lot of questionable stuff that he brewed while experimenting with potions; some of them had alcoholic content. "I don''t like the feeling of being drunk ¡ª everything is a little too loose, a bit too light ¡ª that''s a little ufortable to me."


    He gazed at Daphne and asked, "Is Krum returning?"


    "I don''t know, he didn''t have to reply. . . . with his friends, pulling ¡ª dragging him along."


    "I see, well then," he got up and offered his hand to Daphne, "may I have onest dance?"


    Daphne quite readily took the offered hand and let Quinn lead her to the dance floor, where the song was still slow, and the ambiance was soothingly romantic.


    "I''m d that Krum went away, you know," said Quinn as they started to dance.


    Daphne''s heart skipped a beat. ". . . .What do you mean?"


    "Well, you and he were together all evening, so I didn''t have the chance to ask you to dance; it would''ve been a pity if I didn''t get a chance to dance with you. Not to mention how pretty you look today; it reminds me of the time we first danced together."


    Daphne reminisced about Quinn and her first dance at the Christmas ball a few years back ¡ª at that time, the boy dancing with her was just an annoying yet interesting boy.


    She looked up and gazed at the smiling face of Quinn. "That was a rememberable ball and dance."


    "Of course, it was," she saw him grin, "I was there with you, and I''m highly entertaining to hang around, ask anyone."


    "Yes, you are," she agreed with a smile of her own.


    Quinn''s eyes widened a fraction at the smile on Daphne''s face. He had made her plenty of times; small smiles were what he was used to seeing on Daphne''s face ¡ª not broad, unrestrained smiles on the neutral-faced Daphne. For a moment, it took his breath away ¡ª he couldn''t take his eyes off her and even slowed down a bit just to admire the sight in front of him.


    Daphne didn''t notice Quinn''s change and continued to gaze at him.


    To anyone who was seeing them, the pair were looking into each other''s eyes with no care of what was happening around them.


    And someone was indeed watching them. Victor Krum had finally been able to evade his schoolmates and friends'' attempts to get him to drink with them and leave them behind to return to the hall back to his date.


    Upon searching for Daphne, he found him dancing with another guy, which he was okay with ¡ª a girl like Daphne was bound to have many friends (his opinion). And the guy she was dancing with was also familiar to him ¡ª Quinn West, the organizer of the quidditch tournament and the person who had made his time at Hogwarts much more enjoyable; as such, his impression of Quinn was a great one despite some unusual things like having an office at school.


    If that was it, he would have walked onto the dance floor and informed Daphne that he was back and asked her onest dance before escorting her back (it was gettingte).


    Krum liked Daphne a lot ¡ª she wasn''t like others and didn''t act differently towards him because of his poprity and treated him like he was just another guy. It was a desirable quality that a lot of people in Krum''s position sought after in their friends and close ones. That''s why he asked her out to be his date at the ball.


    But as he now watched them, he noticed the smile on Daphne''s face ¡ª he had been acquainted with Daphne for a few months now but not once in that time had she showed him such a beautiful smile. It made him not go and watch them from the side.


    He then saw Quinn lean down towards Daphne. ''Is he going to kiss her,'' he thought. But it didn''t happen, and instead, Krum watched Quinn whisper something into Daphne''s ears. Daphne turned and saw him (Krum) before ncing back at Quinn, who was walking backward while giving her an exaggerated bow as he wished Daphne a Merry Yuletide.


    Krum saw Daphne fix her dress before walking towards.


    "Ah," escaped him.


    The smile on her face was gone.


    . . .


    When the Weird Sisters finished ying at midnight, everyone gave them ast, loud round of apuse and started to wend their way into the entrance hall. Many people were expressing the wish that the ball could have gone on longer, but Quinn was perfectly happy to be going to bed; he had overdone it, and now the soles of his feet were hurting.


    Out in the entrance hall, Quinn, Marcus, and Luna saw Eddie saying good night to Tracey before she went back to the dungeons. She gave him a sweet smile before walking away with Daphne in tow.


    Eddie joined Quinn and others with a silly smile on his face. "Sorry for the wait. Let''s go."


    "You should''ve walked her back to the Slytherinmon room," said Quinn.


    Marcus nodded, "Yeah, you missed a chance."


    Luna looked at Quinn and Marcus before giving repeated nods to Eddie.


    "Eh?" Eddie looked back, but Tracey was already out of the entrance hall, "should I go now? But Daphne''s with her."


    "It''s toote; forget it," said Marcus, "look, Quinn just yawned in public; that doesn''t happen a lot. Come on, let''s go; everybody is tired."


    "Damn, you saw that, huh," said Quinn stretching his hands up before wrapping his arm around Luna''s shoulder, "how was your day today, Luna?"


    A tired Luna leaned against Quinn. "It was fun. Dancing is fun ¡ª especially with more people."


    "Yes, it is," smiled Quinn.


    Christmas was over, and with it, the Yule Ball.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Everybody got upte on Boxing Day. The Gryffindormon room was much quieter than it had beentely, many yawns punctuating thezy conversations. Hermione''s hair were back to somewhere between bushy and wavy again; she confessed to Harry that she had used liberal amounts of Sleekeazy''s Hair Potion on it for the ball, "but it''s way too much bother to do every day," she said matter-of-factly, scratching a purring Crookshanks behind the ears.


    It was time now to think of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rtively t now that Christmas was over ¡ª everybody except Harry, that is, who was starting (once again) to feel slightly nervous.


    The trouble was that February the twenty-fourth looked a lot closer from this side of Christmas, and he still hadn''t done anything about working out the clue inside the golden egg.


    Therefore, he started taking the egg out of his trunk every time he went up to the dormitory, opened it, and listened intently, hoping that this time it would make some sense. He strained to think what the sound reminded him of, apart from thirty musical saws, but he had never heard anything else like it. He closed the egg, shook it vigorously, and opened it again to see if the sound had changed, but it hadn''t. He tried asking the egg questions, shouting over all the wailing, but nothing happened. He even threw the egg across the room ¡ª though he hadn''t really expected that to help.


    And so the first day of the new term arrived, and Harry set off to lessons, weighed down with books, parchment, and quills as usual, but also with the lurking worry of the egg heavy in his stomach, as though he were carrying that around with him too.


    "Hey ¡ª Harry!" It was Cedric Diggory. Harry could see Cho waiting for him in the entrance hall below.


    "Yeah?" said Harry, internallyparing Cho to Hermione and concluding that Hermione was better.


    Cedric looked as though he didn''t want to say whatever it was in front of Ron, who shrugged, looking bad-tempered, and continued to climb the stairs.


    "Listen . . ." Cedric lowered his voice as Ron disappeared. "I owe you one for telling me about the dragons. You know that golden egg? Does yours wail when you open it?"


    As much as Harry''spetitiveness wanted to beat Cedric, he couldn''t keep the news about dragons to himself and ryed it to the Hufflepuff seeker as he didn''t wish Cedric to die. Harry was sure if Hagrid hadn''t told him about the dragons, he would''ve died on the day of the first task.


    "Yeah," said Harry; all his egg did was wail.


    "Well . . . take a bath, okay?"


    "What?"


    "Take a bath, and ¡ª er ¡ª take the egg with you, and ¡ª er ¡ª just mull


    things over in hot water. It''ll help you think. . . . Trust me."


    Harry stared at him.


    "Tell you what," Cedric said, "use the prefects'' bathroom. Fourth door to the left of that statue of Boris the Bewildered on the fifth floor. Password''s ''ripe red apples.'' Gotta go . . . see you around ¡ª"


    He grinned at Harry again and hurried back down the stairs to Cho.


    Harry walked back to Gryffindor Tower alone. That had been bizarre advice. Why would a bath help him to work out what the wailing egg meant? Was Cedric pulling his leg? Was he trying to make Harry look like a fool?


    After thinking for a while, he decided to first take this strange advice to Hermione and Ivy ¡ª his "think tank" would know what to do.


    . . .


    As Harry had no idea how long a bath he would need to work out the secret of the golden egg, he decided to do it at night, when Harry would be able to take as much time as he wanted. Seeing that Cedric had suggested using the Prefects'' bathroom, he took him on the offer.


    "Um, I can do this on my own; you don''t have toe with me," he said, looking at his twopanions.


    "You''ve been toox for so long," said his twin sister, Ivy, "we can''t risk you wasting more time."


    "Uh-huh, we will find the egg''s secret tonight," said Hermione in agreement.


    Ron had been deemed too loud for him to apany to thiste-night excursion (and he was sleepy). They had been caught out of bed and out of bounds by Filch, the caretaker in the middle of the night once before, and had no desire to repeat the experience.


    "B-But, it''s the Boy-Prefect''s bathroom," he sent a weak rebuke, "you two are girls."


    "Not a problem, it''s after curfew," Ivy shot down him and raised an old parchment, the fabled Marauder''s Map, "and we already checked, there''s no one in the bath."


    When they reached the statue of Boris the Bewildered, a lost-looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands, Harry located the right door, leaned close to it, and muttered the password, "red ripe apples," just as Cedric had told him.


    The door creaked open. The trio slipped inside and bolted the door behind them.


    His immediate reaction was that it would be worth bing a prefect just to be able to use this bathroom. It was softly lit by a splendid candle-filled chandelier, and everything was made of white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangr swimming pool sunk into the middle of the floor.


    About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pool''s edges, each with a differently colored jewel set into its handle. There was also a diving board. Long white linen curtains hung at the windows; arge pile of fluffy white towels sat in a corner, and a single golden-framed painting was on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid who was fast asleep on a rock, her lengthy hair over her face. It fluttered every time she snored.


    "Who''s there?!"


    The sudden voice followed by a loud ssh of water ¡ª it was as if someone had dumped a lot of water from a height.


    The trio turned to stone and stiffly turned towards the source of the voice. But the trio couldn''t see the person as it was January ¡ª the peak of winter; due to that, the pool was filled with hot water; as a result, the bathroom was filled with dense white mist, limiting their vision.


    Then abruptly, the mist parted from over the pool, revealing the person.


    Ivy''s instantly recognized the person despite his hair went and down with most of his torso covered in colorful foam and multi-colored bubbles of varying sizes ¡ª some were even as big as footballs.


    "Quinn!" she eximed.


    In front of them, sitting near an edge of the pool, sat Quinn West, submerged, staring at them as if they had just done something punishable byw.


    "What are you three doing here?" he asked, hiding a sigh behind his words.


    "What are *you* doing here?" asked Harry, calming his beating heart down.


    "We''re on the fifth floor ¡ª the floor with the Ravenwmon room entrance and my office. This is the Prefects Bathroom," said Quinn before pointing at himself, "I''m a Prefect¡ª" he pointed at them, "¡ªyou three aren''t."


    "But, it''s after curfew," supplied Hermione.


    "Yeah, so?"


    The three realized who they were talking to ¡ª this guy didn''t understand the concept of curfew.


    "Again, why are you here," asked Quinn, pushing them for an answer. Quinn was surprised when he heard the echoing footsteps as, at that time, he had around half the pool water suspended into the air.


    "We''re here to solve the egg," said Harry.


    "Ah, so you finally found how the egg works, huh. Aren''t you guys a little toote, though?"


    The three Gryffindors saw Quinn get up, and instantly, Hermione and Ivy flushed a deep red. Quinn was topless with only a towel around his waist. Harry didn''t show any change as he had seen simr sights after every intense quidditch game or practice.


    "We don''t know how it works," said Ivy, pushing the blush down. "we just know that it has something to do with water."


    "That''s good enough, I guess," said Quinn, walking behind a changing screen to get some clothes; his rxation time was over, "what do you think you need to do for the egg to start working?"


    Harry, Ivy, and Hermione looked at each other and nodded. They stripped out of their clothing down to their bathing suits. They stepped into the pool. It was so deep that their feet barely touched the bottom.


    Harry stretched out his arms, lifted the egg in his wet hands, and opened it. The wailing, screeching sound filled the bathroom, echoing and reverberating off the marble walls, but it sounded just as iprehensible as ever, if not more so with all the echoes. He snapped it shut again, worried that the sound would attract Filch, wondering whether that hadn''t been Cedric''s n.


    "Try put it into the water," suggested Hermione while swimming in the pool.


    "Oh!" The three heard Quinn''s voice from behind the screen, and when he didn''t continue, they knew that Hermione had struck gold.


    "Go on, then . . . open it under the water!" nudged Ivy.


    Harry put the egg inside water and opened it with a wince in his eyes. . . . this time, it didn''t wail. They could hear gurgling soundsing out of the water with popping bubbles on the surface.


    It took Harry a moment to realize, but the answer struck like a lightning strike. "I need to put my head as well."


    Harry took a great breath and slid under the surface ¡ª and now, sitting on the marble bottom of the bubble-filled bath, he heard a chorus of eerie voices singing to him from the open egg in his hands:


    "Come seek us where our voices sound,


    We cannot sing above the ground,


    And while you''re searching, ponder this:


    We''ve taken what you''ll sorely miss,


    An hour-long you''ll have to look,


    And to recover what we took,


    But past an hour ¡ª the prospect''s ck,


    Toote, it''s gone; it won''te back."


    Harry let himself float back upward and broke the bubbly surface, shaking his hair out of his eyes.


    "So?" asked Ivy.


    "Yeah . . . ''Come seek us where our voices sound . . .'' and if I need persuading . . . hang on, I need to listen again. . . ."


    He sank back beneath the water, and this time, Hermione and Ivy joined them. It took three more underwater renditions of the egg''s song before Harry had it memorized (Ivy and Hermione were done in two dips).


    "I''ve got to go and look for people who can''t use their voices above the ground. . . ." he said slowly. "Er . . . who could that be."


    "Slow, aren''t you?" They looked up and saw Quinn ¡ª he had dressed up and was now smiling down at them from outside the pool. "But well, you''re on the right path ¡ª a pity that you didn''te to me ¡ª a lost opportunity for me, but oh well, I look forward to seeing you at the second task."


    Harry and Ivy furrowed his brows as, in the end, before he left, Quinn gave a fleeting nce to Hermione ¡ª a nce that didn''t seem a normal nce.


    "What was that?" asked Harry.


    Ivy shook her head. "I don''t know."


    . . .


    Outside the bath, Quinn stopped for a second as a thought struck his mind. He stood on the spot for a while as his mind churned with a single view.


    "Wait, does it mean. . . that I could be a hostage? . . . No, right? . . ."


    That thought gued him all night.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Is he clueless, or does he understand?


    Daphne Greengrass - Hostage candidate - From what people say, her smile is gorgeous.


    Victor Krum - Champion - Ah, he understands that he was working towards a dead end.


    Golden Sub-Trio - A diverse group - Out on the night expedition.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 175 - Runic Marble, Background Politics

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Standing near the edge of an opening in the wall, staring down at the floor below, Quinn cracked his neck and stretched his body. He was back into the fourth vault ¡ª The Underground Vault. Ready to give the Beelzebub''s Crawler field down below him yet another chance.


    "For the brave and the bold, huh," he muttered, "yeah, not this time." Saying that, Quinn mounted his broom and flew out of the tunnel. "This isn''t the Aquatic vault ¡ª I can fly all I want."


    He had done his research on Beelzebub''s Crawlers; they lived underground, due to that, they could only detect prey through tectonic vibrations in the ground; as such, if Quinn didn''t touch the ground, he would go undetected by the vines that could secrete flesh dissolving liquids from their thorns.


    Quinn flew straight to the wall opposite to him with the tunnel dug into it. At Quinn''smand, the broom flew close and hovered away from the walls and the floor as he studied the tunnel. A ball of sharp white light manifested in the air before it rushed across the tunnel, dividing itself into more and more orbs of light that lined up near the top of the tunnel, turning the dim pathway into a brightly lit one.


    He gently lowered himself enough to see straight into the tunnel while making absolutely sure that not a single part of his body touched the ground ¡ª Beelzebub''s Crawler had a peculiar trait which pushed the vine species to merge, or connect, with every other vine in the vicinity, thus creating a vastwork of them.


    This meant that if even a single vine came out of the ground to entrap prey, the entire hivework would be aware of its actions. And if that singr vine didn''t return with "meal," then the more vines would emerge to capture their "meal."


    After peering into the now-lit tunnel, Quinn observed ¡ª nothing was sticking out to him as unusual or, to be specific, there was nothing that looked it would harm or hinder harm him his current task at hand. After making decisions, Quinn flew into the tunnel with the magical orbs shining much-needed light for him to see.


    "How long does this tunnel go?" asked Quinn, looking around as he cautiously made his way through the tunnel while memorizing every scratch and cut on the rugged and dense stone walls ¡ª never knew what coulde in use afterward.


    His question was promptly answered as he saw the light at the path''s end, making Quinn pick up some speed. He flew out of the tunnel, and with him, the light inside also left, once again leaving the tunnel dark.


    The tunnel had opened up to another wide area. Quinn flew up to get a good look at the site, and the first thing that caught his eye was that a gigantic portion of the "ceiling" had broken off and had copsed down below.


    "Is that marble?" Quinn noticed white marble below all the copsed rubble. He could see it was a truly wide circr tform of marble beneath all the pileup. He could also see some markings on the marble.


    "Wait a minute. . ." He looked around and saw that there were no more exits other than the one he had entered.


    ". . . Is this it?" he uttered, "this isn''t the end, is it? It can''t be, right? That was too short. . . . only one obstacle."


    Quinn realized that the vault could''ve been made before brooms became popr and mainstream ¡ª the now amon household item the flying brooms that allowed anyone to fly were not somonce as once brooms were nothing but causes of "splinter-filled buttocks and bulging piles."


    If his assumption was correct, then Quinn''s use of the broom might not have been covered by the original creator.


    Quinn stared at the ground and conjured a big boulder before dropping it down to the ground. The boulder hit the ground with arge boom and shook the vault room. He waited. . . but Beelzebub''s Crawler didn''te out ¡ª the vines couldn''t differentiate between living and non-living.


    "Is this really it? What was so difficult about this?" he eximed in confusion. Somehow, he couldn''t get closure with such a simple vault, "but well, if I think it like that, then it makes sense. . . . it didn''t need to be tough."


    His thinking had been isted ¡ª he was thinking with just the Underground Vault and in mind ¡ª he had missed the bigger picture.


    "The Forbidden Forest was all the security one needed to hide something. Dangerous, cut-off from the outside world, and filled with beings who don''t want anything to do with people outside of the forest."


    There was no need to borate vault when the natural surroundings already provided the reliable security one could ask. Bow-slinging Centaurs, flesh-hungry Acromants, brutish Trolls, and many more species that had the forest held in its vast biodiverse embrace.


    Quinn descended down to the ground and dismounted off the broom, and sighed as he stared at the rubble in front of him." I guess I''ll work with this now. . . . but, this is a lot of it."


    He could see enough pileup that he could climb it and reach a good height ¡ª a height high enough to be considered dangerous to jump down from (without magic).


    Magic thrummed inside his body as Quin closed his eyes and concentrated on the rubble in front of him. He reached out to debris in front of him and exerted a lift.


    "O-Oh. . . this is heavy!" he groaned, his magic groaned, the wreck groaned. Quinn had to raise his hands towards the copse just so that his mind could better concentrate the magic into lifting.


    He opened the tap to his magic entirely and let it flow. His eyes opened, and purple orbs glowed at the wreck. The rubble started to shake as everything started to lift and began to fall to the sides.


    "Just a little more!"


    There was no need to struggle like this ¡ª Quinn could shave off all debris bit-by-bit. But he didn''t want to waste time ¡ª many hours spread across multiple visits would be spent just to clean the mess from the marble below. Every visit to the Forbidden Forest was essential and vital to Quinn ¡ª he had to slot visits to the forest between quidditch tournament preparation, Project Babel, other development projects, visits to the library, practicing magic to keep his skill up-to-date, among other things.


    He was a bit too busy this year.


    By the end, Quinn was sweat, heaving, and grabbing his knees as his chest heaved up and down.


    "This was clearly not the job for one person," said Quinn, standing up straight.


    But the result was worth it as Quinn could see the circr block of marble sitting in the middle of the cave. Quinn walked towards it before climbing up with a hop.


    "Oh, these are runes, aren''t they." Quinn could tell at one nce that the deep engravings on the marble were a cluster andwork ofrge-scale runes.


    There were many sses/groups on which runes could be ssified ¡ªnguage, the number ofyers, materials, effects, and among those categories, "size" ssification was among the myriads of ssifications.


    The size ssification was a scale-based category ¡ª it went from small-scale runes torge-scale in front of Quinn,id into the marble. To give an example of the importance and use of size ssification ¡ª a rune inscribed on a small wooden chip would be significantly weaker than one carved into a big piece of wood.


    Quinn, himself, specialized in small-scaled runes as he liked to create articles that were potable in nature and could be carried with him ¡ª Recon was such an example.


    Ironically, Quinn''s most notable achievement ¡ª MagiFax, which, even though employed small-scale rube inscription in its receivers, worked primarily throughrge-scale runes.


    MagiFax devices need awork to work, and thatwork was built through transmitting hubs spread throughout the globe ¡ª those transmitting hubs wererge-scaled rune applications. On West-owned properties throughout the world, unique buildings were constructed, and inside those buildings, every (majority) usable surface was etched with giant runes that connected every registered MagiFax device on the.


    Quinn walked on the marble, studying the runes, and after a while, he dered, "Yeah, no idea what this does."


    Right from the start, there were a few problems. First, the runes wereplex and needed to be mapped out before Quinn could even start studying. Second, Quinn had to check if there were runes beneath the surface as not all runes were required to be out on the surface. And, third. . . .


    "The ceiling copse broke the marble," said Quinn clicking his tongue. There were several cracks and crevices throughout the marble, essentially making the runes structure useless.


    "I need to get it fixed," said Quinn and touched one of those cracks, "I can''t use the Mending charm (Reparo) here, can I."


    If it was an ordinary tform of marble, Quinn could''ve fixed all the cracks and crevices with a single snap of his magic. But the marble held so many runes that if he carelessly used the Mending charm to fix things, it would break the subtle and meticulously ced connections.


    Quinn sat down on the marble and sighed, "This is going to require a lot of work, ugh. I don''t even know what I''ll get in the end."


    He looked up at the ceiling mingly. "Why did you have to fall down? If you didn''t, I would be having fun right now."


    He sighed at his lousy luck before a thought struck his mind. "The Sunken Crypt. . . . the wolves names the vault as such, didn''t they? Does that mean their territory is just above here? Huh, maybe I''m right. Nice. I will check it outter."


    Finally, after sitting in the dust, Quinn got up, dusted himself, took out a small notepad and pen from his pockets, and got ready to note the runes day.


    "Hmm. . . . I predict that this is a way tomunicate to the aliens, I call it!" and with that, he got to work.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn''t see out of them in Herbology.


    Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Marcus said, the fire-beetles would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them or methrowing so forcefully that Hagrid''s cabin would catch fire. However, when the Ravenw trio arrived at Hagrid''s cabin, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a prominent chin standing before his front door.


    "Hurry up, now; the bell is about to ring," she barked at them as they struggled toward her through the snow.


    "Who''re you?" said Eddie, staring at her. "Where''s Hagrid?"


    "My name is Professor Grubbly-nk," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."


    "Where''s Hagrid?" repeated someone loudly.


    "He is indisposed," said Professor Grubbly-nk shortly.


    Soft and unpleasantughter reached the students'' ears. They turned, and the rest of the Slytherins were joining the ss. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-nk.


    "This way, please," said Professor Grubbly-nk, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Quinn, Marcus, and Eddie followed her, looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid''s cabin.


    All the curtains were closed. Was Hagrid in there, alone and ill?


    "What''s wrong with Hagrid?" Marcus said, hurrying to catch up with


    Professor Grubbly-nk.


    "What do you reckon is wrong with him? You don''t think one of those skrewt that the fourth years are studying¡ª ?" spected Eddie.


    Quinn nced at his two friends and injected, "You two should get into the habit of reading the newspaper. It''s on the front page of the Daily Prophet." He put a hand into his attached pockets, pulled out a newspaper, and handed it to Marcus.


    "You keep newspapers in your pocket?" said Eddie.


    "I read a couple of them and can''t read them all during the breakfast. Daily Prophet always gets left out, so it tends to end up in my market."


    Marcus unfolded the paper and read it, with Eddie looking over his shoulder. It was an article topped with a picture of Hagrid looking extremely shifty.


    .


    >>> DUMBLEDORE''S GIANT MISTAKE <<<<


    Albus Dumbledore, the entric headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired stor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody''s well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures.


    Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher over the heads of many better-qualified candidates.


    An rminglyrge and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a session of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being "very frightening."


    "I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but we''re just too scared to say anything."


    Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. Last month, in conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter, he admitted breeding creatures he has dubbed "st-Ended Skrewts," highly dangerous crosses between manticores and fire-crabs. Of course, the creation of new breeds of magical creatures is an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regtion and Control of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions.


    "I was just having some fun," he says before hastily changing


    the subject.


    As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not ¡ª as he has always pretended ¡ª a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact, even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the giantess Fridwulfa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.


    Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by warring amongst themselves during thest century. The handful that remained joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and were responsible for some of the worst mass Muggle killings of his reign of terror.


    While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed by Aurors working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is possible she escaped to one of the giantmunities still existing in foreign mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any guide, however, Fridwulfa''s son appears to have inherited her brutal nature.


    In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reputed to have developed a close friendship with the boy who brought around You-Know-Who''s fall from power ¡ª thereby driving Hagrid''s own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who''s supporters, into hiding. Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about hisrge friend ¡ª but Albus Dumbledore indeed has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his fellow students, is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants.


    .


    Marcus finished reading and looked up at Eddie, whose mouth was hanging open. When Quinn saw that he asked, "You. . . didn''t think he was just a big guy, did you?"


    "E-Eh, said Eddie, "ahem, of course not. I knew that yeah."


    "Don''t worry, people really think he just has big bones," said Quinn as he got the paperback, "but you got to admit, Skeeter sure has excellent writing skills. She expertly painted the specific picture that she wanted."


    "That''s what you get from this?" said Marcus, raising his brow.


    "The article doesn''t matter," shrugged Quinn, "Hagrid has been here since he got expelled. Hagrid is around fifty, you know. He was here as the gamekeeper when your parent studied at Hogwarts. They know Hagrid personally; a lot of them know what Hagrid is really like, so this article might be tough for a while, but support will shine through."


    "But, how did she know?" asked Eddie.


    Quinn shrugged, but he knew the answer. ''She probably was here on the Yule Ball.'' He hadn''t checked Recon on that day, and even if he did, Quinn wouldn''t have checked for Skeeter ¡ª she wouldn''t write about him.


    But he did have some circumstantial proof about Skeeters'' presence.


    ''She might''ve listened to Hagrid and Olympe Maxime''s conversation,'' thought Quinn, thinking about the angry headmistress on that day, pulling Fleur with her. ''Skeeter must''ve listened to their conversation.''


    ''Though I did warn her about being careful about fluttering at Hogwarts, it seems she didn''t get the point,'' thought Quinn and hummed as the new professor proceeded to lead them towards today''s subject.


    "Oh! Unicorns! Nice," he eximed happily, and the somewhat threatening thoughts were thrown at the back of his head.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I have a need. . . need for_________ ? Fill in the nk.


    Hagrid - Half-giant - Suddenly, a topic of discussion.


    Rita Skeeter - Reporter - She knows her craft.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 176 - Bagman, Skeeter, And Hostage Candidate

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January, and as most Hogwarts students, Quinn was going out of the castle to the all-magical vige of Hogsmeade.


    Quinn, Marcus, and Eddie left the castle together on Saturday and set off through the cold, wet grounds toward the gates. As they passed the Durmstrang ship moored in theke, they saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. He was very well-built indeed and as tough as he looked because he climbed up onto the side of the ship, stretched out his arms, and dived right into theke.


    "He''s mad!" said Eddie, staring at Krum''s dark head as it bobbed out into


    the middle of theke. "It must be freezing; it''s January!"


    "It''s a lot colder where hees from," said Marcus. "But still, going swimming in mid-January is a bit too much."


    "Eh, it''s not that cold," shrugged Quinn. "It''s quite pleasant, actually. If you''re sleepy, it''ll wake you up ¡ª a dip in the winter is great for when you''re feeling lethargic."


    The two looked at Quinn as if he had grown a third head, collectively ignore his asinine advice.


    Eddie turned to Marcus and replied to hisst statement, "Yeah, but there''s still the giant squid," he didn''t sound anxious ¡ª if anything, he sounded hopeful. His team, Trolling Boogeys, after their first loss to Krum''s Treacherous Barons, hadn''t lost a single game ¡ª in fact, they had blown thepetition away ¡ª going as far as to win by double score margins.


    Quinn roamed his eyes around the snowy Hogsmeade, and peculiarly he caught a nce of a few goblins before they turned a corner. It wasn''t that goblins weren''t allowed in Hogsmeade ¡ª just they were rare to be seen in the vige and preferred staying in the underground city that they had built under and around Gringotts.


    Marcus suggested a visit to the Three Broomsticks to start off the weekend, and that''s what they did. The pub was as crowded as ever ¡ª adults, students, residents, passerbys, everyone was enjoying the lively ambiance of the merry bar.


    At the bar, the lovely Madam Rosmerta turned away from her various suitors to take orders from the three, "Wee, boys. What can I get for you today?"


    "Onerge butterbeer," replied Eddie, cing the coins on the table.


    "Same for me, please," said Marcus, getting the money from his pouch wallet.


    Madam Rosmerta counted the coins and nodded, "Alright, tworge butterbeersing up," she turned to Quinn and asked, "what about you?"


    "One vani milkshake with arge scoop of butterscotch and shaved chocte on the top, please," said Quinn, reciting his order, "how much would that be? I want arge serving as well."


    Eddie, Marcus, and Rosmerta didn''t show any reaction to Quinn''s order ¡ª his two friends were used to the variety of drinks that Quinn ordered every time they came to Hogsmeade, and Quinn had left an impression on Rosmerta because he had ever only ordered a butterbeer once and after that time, Quinn''s orders were always like his current one.


    "Three sickles," she asked, which Quinn paid. As Madam Rosmerta remembered Quinn, she also knew his habits, "Your mug." Quinn always handed her a conjured mug to carry his drinks around with him.


    Quinn smiled, and instead of conjuring a mug as she was expecting, he took out a wooden tankard from his robes. "Please, make the drink in this."


    Rosmerta surprised hands received the tankard as her eyes switched between Quinn and the tankard in her hands before she finally went to fix up the drinks.


    On the side, Eddie was grinning ¡ª the tankard was his Christmas gift to Quinn, after all.


    "Hey? Why didn''t Lunae with us?" asked Eddie.


    Quinn s stared around the bar and the people as he answered, "She is spending time with her other friend."


    "Eh? Who?"


    Marcus answered as he arrived with his and Eddie''s butterbeers. "You don''t know? She has been spending time with Astoria.''


    "Astoria? Astoria Greengrass as in Daphne''s sister?" said Eddie taking hisrge butterbeer.


    "Yeah, somehow, both of them are friends now."


    As Marcus and Eddie were talking, Quinn was looking into the mirror behind the bar and saw Ludo Bagman, reflected there, sitting in a shadowy corner with a bunch of goblins. Bagman was talking very fast in a low voice to the goblins, all of whom had their arms crossed and looked rather menacing.


    It was indeed odd, Quinn thought, that Bagman was here at the Three Broomsticks on a weekend when there was no Triwizard event, and therefore no judging to be done. He watched Bagman in the mirror. He was looking as if he was trying to convince the goblin of something.


    ''Ah, I get it now,'' thought Quinn. He received his shake from Madam Rosmerta before telling Eddie and Marcus, "I''ll be back in a bit."


    Then he walked towards the shady corners, towards Bagman.


    "Gentlemen," greeted Quinn as he sat down with them like they were all friends, and he was totally supposed to be there, "what a lovely day we have today. The snow is particrly lovely and glowing today. Having a cold drink like the one I''m having has a unique charm ¡ª you should try it out."


    "Q-Quinn," stuttered Bagman, and even in the cold, he started to sweat as his heart began to beat faster, "w-what are you doing here?"


    Quinn didn''t reply immediately; instead, he stared into Bagman''s eyes and reached out inside. ''Ah, as I feared. He''s an addict. No, he''s worse; he''s an idiot.''


    "Mr. Bagman, before you say anything else, I know what you''re trying to do here," sighed Quinn, "we talked about this when I generously decided to provide you with some much-needed help. I warned you what would happen if you tried to do exactly this."


    "N-No, you''ve got all this wrong," sputtered Bagman, "I wasn''t ¡ª"


    A goblin cut Bagman off, "Who are you?"


    Quinn nced at the goblin, scooped up a spoonful of ice cream, and ate it. "Quinn West."


    The four goblins, dressed in heavy robes, twitched at the mention of his names.


    "West," one goblin replied with a guttural voice, "I remember, you''re the one who has a student vault with us. The only West coin we have in Gringotts."


    "Yes," smiled Quinn, continuing to drink and eat, "I''m also the one who paid Mr. Bagman''s debt, and I would suggest that you don''t lend him more money."


    "That''s between us and Ludo Bagman. You''re not to interfere in our business."


    Quinn watched the toothy goblin, showing their sharp teeth, and shrugged. "Okay. . . I will take a guess about what is happening here. Mr. Bagman here is trying to convince you to lend him some money, which you''re hesitant to do because his past record with Gringotts isn''t particrly spotless. But Mr. Bagman assures you that he''ll pay you back on time."


    Bagman wasn''t even looking up right now. He had his eyes squeezed close, his head bowed down.


    "You see, the reason behind Mr. Bagman''s confidence is that he ns to put his money. . . once again into gambling. . . just likest time. This time around, he was going to put his money into the very lucrative quidditch tournament happening around right now."


    Quinn''s initial n had been to keep the betting system inside Hogwarts and for the Hogwarts student. The Weasley twins had other ideas ¡ª around the third week, they started expanded to the people in the stands, and when the fifth week rolled around, they came to Quinn and suggested that they open up the betting to anyone who wanted to bet.


    Their problem was that they didn''t have the capital for the expansion. It took a lot of cash and liquidity to match the bets and keep a betting operational. Moreover, they didn''t have the knowledge on how to work something of that level.


    Fortunately for them, Quinn was ambitious and liked the idea. Furthermore, he had his head crammed with business knowledge from George West, Elliot Dalton, and Lia West ¡ª liquified gems of wisdom and had the money to back everything up.


    "And I''m sure you fine gentlemen must know who run the Hogwarts quidditch betting scene," he pointed at himself, "I do; as such, I decide who gets to bet, and I have ced strict orders that Mr. Bagman is not to be allowed to ce any bets."


    Quinn stared up into Bagman''s round, rosy face and his wide, baby-blue eyes." But it seems that he has employed another to do his bidding ¡ª I thought of this happening, in fact, expected it, but sincerely hoped that he won''t go down that path."


    "I-I. . . ."


    Around that time, Rita Skeeter had just entered. She was wearing banana yellow robes today; her long nails were painted shocking pink, and she was apanied by her paunchy photographer. She bought drinks, and she and the photographer made their way through the crowds to a table nearby. Then she noticed Ludo Bagman, a bunch of goblins, and Quinn West sitting in a shady corner.


    "Bozo? What''s Bagman. . . what''s he doing with a pack of goblins in tow? Showing them the sights . . . what nonsense . . . he was always a bad liar. Reckon something''s up? Think we should do a bit of digging? And why is Quinn West sitting with them? . . . Come on, let''s go talk to them ¡ª a friendly chat, you know?"


    She, with her trusty photography, marched towards the corner and, with a brilliant smile and shrill voice, spoke, "Bagman! What a surprise to see you here."


    "Go away, Ms. Skeeter, you''re not required here," said Quinn without looking at the reporter.


    Rita Skeeter''s smile flickered very slightly, but she hitched it back almost at once; she snapped open her crocodile-skin handbag, pulled out her Quick- Quotes Quill, "Ah, Quinn, I didn''t see you there¡ª"


    "Ms. Skeeter, why are you still here?" asked Quinn, finally ncing at the woman.


    Rita''s eyes hardening as they fell on Quinn, "Quinn, seeing you with Ludo Bagman is a surprise. . . . I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl. . . ." She tried to garner some favor.


    If Ludo Bagman was scared before, he was more scared now. Rita Skeeter was like a blood-smelling hound who wouldn''t let go of a scoop if she could smell one. And right now, she was trying to garner favor with Quinn.


    Quinn sighed once again, "Ms. Skeeter, can I talk to you for a second."


    Rita made Bozo stay behind as she followed Quinn to another corner. "Yes, Quinn? What is it? Do you want to know about Bagman because I have a lot of things I can¡ª"


    "Ms. Skeeter," Quinn stopped her, "I knew about your little secret before I even met you. Don''t you think I would know Mr. Bagman''s dirty little secrets? I know what he did during the war, what he''s doing now, and what he''s going to do in the future."


    He took a pause before finally stating, "Ms. Skeeter, you don''t have to do this. All I desire from you is to not cross paths with me. If you can do that, I''ll note in your path if you do that, and we both will go out merry ways."


    Quinn understood that if he wanted, he could use Rita Skeeter as a very useful asset. But Quinn didn''t want to deal with Rita Skeeter as he had too much on his te to keep tabs on what she was doing, and Rita Skeeter was like a viper, and if he gave her a chance, she would bite him. He was a hundred percent sure that if he asked Rita Skeeter to do something, she would try to find something that would put Quinn at a disadvantage.


    "Do you understand me?"


    Rita''s quill hand went down, and she nodded silently.


    "Good, then. I wish you a pleasant day."


    He walked back to the goblin table, and as he sat down, he addressed Bozo, the photographer, "You can go now. Ms. Skeeter is calling for you."


    Bozo seemed confused as this wasn''t how things usually went. His partner(boss) would usually be smiling with the other party sweating. He walked away feeling very perplexed.


    "Now, where were we?" asked Quinn. "Ah, yes. As I was saying, if you want to make a loss, then go ahead, be my guest, lend him money because Mr. Bagman isn''t going to be doing any quidditch betting ¡ª but maybe this better; maybe he will use that money somewhere useful."


    The goblins had heard enough. They looked at each other before getting up and walking out of the bar. They didn''t even look at Bagman before leaving.


    "Mr. Bagman, I don''t care what you do after the tournament, but before it, I don''t want any problems from you. Even now, it won''t cause me any harm if I let you do whatever you want, but tell me, what was our deal?"


    ". . . .If I give you the hosting job and stay out of trouble till the tournament, you''ll pay off my debts," replied Bagman.


    "Exactly," said Quinn, finally finishing his milkshake, "I''ll let it go this time, but next time around, I won''t be so lenient. You may take this any way you want to or can. . . ."


    Quinn got up gave Bagman onest look before leaving. His job as the host of the Tri-wizard tournament was directly tied to Ludo Bagman being on the judging panel. If somehow, Bagman managed to get himself booted, then Quinn''s host duties mighte into jeopardy, and he would''ve to do extra work to keep that job.


    As he walked back towards the bar, he saw the Weasley twins enter the pub. "Fred, George, here!"


    " "Yeah, what is it?" "


    Quinn pointed at Bagman, sulking in the corner, and muttered, "Mr. Bagman there was trying to ce some bets. I''ve talked to them, but if he doese to you, don''t let hime to ce some bets ¡ª not even if he agrees to pay both of you back for the galleons he took from at the Worl Cup."


    "How did you. . . ¡ª" "¡ªNever mind," the twins sighed, "Okay, we will make sure that¡ª" "¡ªhe doesn''t ce any bets with us."


    "Good," nodded Quinn, satisfied, "also Bagman is using a couple students to ce his bets; I''ll be sending those names, so make sure they are banned for a couple of games." He had gleaned off the information right from the source.


    " "Roger." "


    When Quinn joined his friends back, Marcus asked, "What was that about?"


    "Oh, you know. Business as usual," Quinn replied before calling out to the hostess, "Madam Rosmerta, one hot chocte, please."


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    "So, will you do it?"


    Quinn stared at the five adults in front of him and pretended to ponder the question he just asked. "You''re asking me if I would be fine being put into an enchanted sleep and then spend a couple of hours inside the freezing waters of the Great Lake in February."


    Albus nodded as if it was amonce request, "Yes, that''s about right."


    "Hmm, I see," nodded Quinn, "While I would love to volunteer for this exciting opportunity, I''ve hosting responsibilities that I need to attend, so I''m unfortunately not avable."


    In the headmaster''s office, Quinn sat with the three heads of schools, Flitwick and Barty Crouch Sr.


    "Mr. West," started Crouch, "I assure you that you''ll be absolutely safe. Professor Dumbledore hasmunicated with the merpeople, and they will make sure that you''ll not be harmed down while you''re sleeping."


    Quinn, of course, wasn''t worried about being harmed ¡ª certainly not underwater. That was probably the safest ce for him.


    "I understand that Mr. Crouch, and I''ve full trust in the measures taken, but I''ve things nned for the second task. Mr. Bagman and I''ve been in regr contact, preparing just for this task."


    "And what might those preparations be?" asked Maxime.


    "That you''ll see on the day itself," smiled Quinn before asking back, "is there no else you can ask to be Fleur''s hostage? Like one of your students, someone close to her, maybe."


    "Well. . . Fleur''s younger sister just arrived as the second batch of students from Beauxbatons. We can have her go under theke. . . but I''m a little hesitant about putting someone as young as her in theke so soon after she gets here."


    Quinn groaned internally, not audibly, of course. It was true that Gabrielle Dcour was dangerously young to be put under theke, and looking at it, he should volunteer for it. Fleur was his friend, and she would definitely not like it when she found that her sister was put inside theke.


    Especially not when the egg riddle states that they would lose those hostages after an hour. Not a thing to be happy about.


    ''Ah, whatever. I should just do it. There''s no harm done to me anyway,'' thought Quinn, ''I could probably break from the enchanted sleep if I try hard enough. . . . it''ll be a good opportunity to see how well I can do against Dumbledore''s magic. But, what would I do while tied up down there, not that I can talk merespeak. . . . ah, I should speak up first.''


    But before he could, Olympe spoke up, "Quinn, are you dating Fleur?"


    Quinn, who was about to speak, closed his mouth at the sudden question before opening it again, ". . . No, I''m not. . . why?"


    "Alright, it''s decided then. Little Gabrielle will go inside. I think having her sister down there will be a greater motivation for Fleur, increasing her chances to win."


    "That''s one way to think about, I guess," said Quinn. He was a little taken aback by the reasoning, but he could see it working. If someone put Lia under theke, Quinn would literally tear theke apart to get to her.


    "This is over then?" said Karakoff, sounding bored mixed with a bit of irritation, "everyone''s hostages are decided. Three of them are already put into sleep for tomorrow; we just need to get that little girl down there."


    "Oh? Who''re the other three," asked Quinn.


    Dumbledore answered Quinn, "Ms. Ivy Potter for her brother Harry Potter; Ms. Cho Chang for Cedric Diggory; and finally, Ms. Daphne Greengrass for Victor Krum."


    Quinn''s brow twitched at the mention of Daphne going into theke. He knew that she would be going inside, but still hearing it now bothered him a little.


    ''Krum bettere first in this round,'' thought Quinn, ''and Ivy instead of Hermione looks like I was wrong. Well, sister trumps date, I guess. And Lily Potter must know about the real situation.''


    "Great to know," he said, "I''ll use that info while hosting."


    He was going to put on a show tomorrow morning.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Investor, Consultant, hostage candidate.


    Ludo Bagman - Gambling Addict - Working under strict terms.


    Rita Skeeter - Journalist - Sometimes being bold pays off, sometimes it doesn''t.


    Goblins - Profit-seeking - The West name subconsciously makes them snarl.


    Weasley Twins - Betting Kings - Learning the ways to run an operation.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Day 1 of 4 of end-terms is over. 2 out of 8 subjects are done. Three days and six subjects more to go.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 177 - Second Task, Project: Drone Vision

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The entrance hall contained a fewst-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. They stared as Harry shed past, sending Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as he leaped down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds.


    As he pounded down thewn, Harry saw the seats from the first task dragon stadium in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands built over the water of the Greatke that was packed to the bursting point and reflected in theke below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water as Harry ran t-out around the other side of theke toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water''s edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were beside the judges'' table, watching Harry sprint toward them.


    "I''m . . . here . . ." Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and identally sttering Fleur''s robes.


    "Where have you been, Mr. Potter?" said an authoritative, disapproving voice. "The task''s about to start!"


    Harry looked around. McGonagall was looking at him disappointedly and a little angrily.


    "Now, now, Professor McGonagall," said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely jolly to see Harry. "Let him catch his breath!"


    Dumbledore smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn''t look at all pleased to see him. . . . It was evident from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn''t going to turn up.


    Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; he had a stitch in his side that felt as though he had a knife between his ribs, but there was no time to get rid of it; Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready.


    "All right, Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you''re going to do?"


    "Yeah," Harry panted, massaging his ribs. The preparations for the task had caused him to be a littlete ¡ª a little toote.


    Bagman gave Harry''s shoulder a quick squeeze and returned to the judges'' table; he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.


    "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task. I won''t waste any more of your time and pass it on to Quinn West for him to continue the task."


    The stands were built above theke, supported by vertical beams holding them above the surface; as such, there was a good amount of space between the seating area and theke. From that gap below, the students saw Quinning out, and it set them lit in murmurs and discussion.


    Hermione and Ron were sitting with Lily Potter to support their friend''s mother because they knew that Ivy was under theke and Harry was about to go inside.


    As Hermione watched Quinn enter their sight, she elbowed Ron in the sides, hitting him in the ribs. ". . . Is he walking on water?"


    Ron was so engrossed to see Quinn walk on water that he could only nod his head. But Lily Potter did confirm Hermione''s question. "Yes, dear. Quinn is walking on water. . ."


    Quinn walked a little distance on the water to the point where he didn''t have to feel ufortable craning his neck to look at everyone in the stands.


    "Be honest," he started looking at everyone with a smile, "you''re thinking how I''m doing this, aren''t you?"


    There were many "yeses" from the crowd, and Quinn could see a lot of necks craning and students standing up to get a better look at him.


    "Being honest myself, I''m pretty cool right now," he hopped on the water a couple times, showing that there was no trick here and he was indeed solidly standing on water.


    It wasn''t that difficult to walk on water ¡ª an intermediatory water spell and anyone could replicate what Quinn was doing right now. The wow factor was because no one did it and because "walking-on-water" was an action tied closely to Jesus Christ, and religion was popr everywhere ¡ª be it magical or non-magical. Look at Friar; he was a cleric monk when he was alive, and even after his death, he was a devout practitioner of his religion.


    Quinn smiled at the nods he received from the crowd and was about to continue when he felt a tremor beneath his feet. His smile cramped for a second. He raised his right foot and tapped it on the water, sending tremors back into theke ¡ª hidden from everyone looking at him.


    "Ahem, I''m sure since November, all of you must have heard at least one or a couple theories about the second task ¡ª all kind of spections and conjectures in our beloved Hogwarts rumor mill, tingling curiosities up and down the castles."


    Another water tremor came back to him, and the Kraken, who was looking to y (fight), replied back sulkily at Quinn''s refusal water tremors.


    ''Alright, not that''s over with. . . .'' He spread his arms wide and continued.


    "Now, as we stand here, on the Greatke, all of you must have some inkling about the task ¡ª at least that it''s water-rted," he nced at the champions standing at a separate tform, "the champions know what they have to do and what is at stake here. The first task was all about them, but this time around, it''s not just themselves they have to worry about ¡ª this time around, there are more things on the line."


    All four champions disyed a different level of nervousness as they stood staring at theke ¡ª all four knew what Quinn was talking about.


    "Before I move on, I would start the task and get our champions working," said Quinn taking out a small white sphere with red veins all around. He dropped the sphere into the water. "I''m sure they''re eager to get inside there and start their task. Before they actually go in, I can only share a couple of things ¡ª they have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them."


    "But before they go, I would like you to introduce all of you and them to what we''re going to for the hour they''re inside."


    He closed his right eye and raised his fake wand to the sky. Once again, like the first task, the light bent in the sky and a vast illusion of an underwater scene.


    "This is the live feed of what''s happening inside the Greatke. There won''t be much to do for the hour the champions are underwater, so we will be watching them from here."


    Quinn still had his right eye closed, and that was because his right eye was currently connected to the sphere he had dropped underwater ¡ª an artificial eye that he had nned and researched since his second year (Chapter 61) and had been actively building since this year (Chapter 140).


    In ¡¸ Project: Drone-Vision ¡¹,


    Quinn''s right eye''s vision was cut, and his optic nerves that connected his eyes to the brain were magically getting optical signals from the artificial eye. The artificial eye was covered with a protective coating of an air bubble that kept it separated from the water.


    He could literally see what the artificial eye was catching ¡ª it was a little disorienting to see twopletely different scenes. But he had gotten used to it.


    "Now, champions, on the count of three, the countdown starts, then. One . . . two . . . three! Start!"


    The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and apuse; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, pulled a vial of moss green potion out of his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded out into theke. He had drunk a gillyweed potion that he and Hermione had brewed together. Harry pped his hands around his throat and felt tworge slits just below his ears, pping in the cold air. . . . Quinn had gills. Without pausing to think, he did the only thing that made sense ¡ª he dove deep inside theke ¡ª to get his twin out.


    Victor Krum cracked his neck as he pulled out his wand and pointed it towards his head. The action made Quinn furrow his brow a little; he knew what was about toe ¡ª partial transfiguration around the head area was a tricky thing, and Quinn wasn''t sure if the pro-seeker was adept enough to safely pull it off. Victor''s head twisted into a shark head with jagged teeth and beady eyes.


    And just like the originals, Cedric and Fleur used bubblehead charms to filter the air out of the water to provide them oxygen underwater before they dove inside to rescue her girlfriend and little sister. It was a charm that Quinn didn''t use underwater, but when he had to deal with potions that released toxic fumes during brewing.


    ''Ah, these guys have it so easy,'' thought Quinn and exhaled a big sigh as plenty of memories of being pushed around in the water, being lost in darkness, being cut, among other things like being smacked around by giant tentacles, shed inside his mind.


    Quinn shook his head and pulled himself out of the shbacks, ''Yeah, so easy. . . .''


    "Now that the champions are inside let''s see how they''re doing." The illusion overhead changed as the eye moved. They could only see ten feet ahead so that as the eye sped through the water, new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oing darkness: forests of rippling, tangled ck weed, vast ins of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones.


    First, they saw Cedric swimming freely, but the very next second, his ankles were grabbed a grindylow, a tiny, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around Cedric''s leg, its pointed fangs bared ¡ª Cedric stuck his hand quickly inside his robes and fumbled for his wand. By the time he had grasped it, two more grindylows had risen out of the weed, had seized handfuls of Cedric''s clothes, and were attempting to drag him down.


    Sparkles shot from his wand, and the grindylows were pelted with what seemed to be jets of hot water, for where it struck them, angry red patches appeared on their green skin. Cedric pulled his ankle out of the grindylow''s grip and swam as fast as he could, asionally sending more jets of hot water over his shoulder at random; every now and then, he felt one of the grindylows snatch at his foot again, and he kicked out, hard; finally, he felt his foot connect with a horned skull, and looking back, saw the dazed grindylow floating away, cross-eyed, while its fellows shook their fists at Cedric and sank back into the weed.


    "Grindlyows were a little blip, but it seems that Cedric is doing well ¡ª let''s move on to another champion." Hismentary wasn''t needed as people were a little too engrossed in the visuals.


    The eye moved, and soon they saw arge rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they carried spears and chased what looked like the giant squid. A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, everyone saw faces . . . faces that bore no resemnce at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects'' bathroom. . . .


    The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry Potter as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silverfish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.


    Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner, and an extraordinary sight met his eyes.


    A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a vige square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue, a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.


    Ivy was tied between Daphne and Cho. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made everyone feel sure that she was Fleur Dcour''s sister, Gabrielle Dcour. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.


    "Ah, Victor Krum is here," said Quinn as he, a half-shark half-man, entered the illusion above.


    Victor Krum sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. He looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears. He swam swiftly toward a seven-foot-tall merman with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs and tried to mime a request to borrow the spear.


    The mermanughed and shook his head.


    Victor roared fiercely (but only bubbles issued from his mouth), and he tried to pull the spear away from the merman, but the merman yanked it back, still shaking his head andughing.


    Harry was watching the entire thing from the side while keeping an eye on Ivy. He swirled around, staring about. Something sharp . . . anything . . . Rocks were littering theke bottom. He dived and snatched up a particrly jagged one and returned to the statue. He began to hack at the ropes binding Ivy, and after several minutes'' hard work, they broke apart. Ivy floated, unconscious, a few inches above theke bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.


    Harry looked around and saw that the shark-man swam straight to Daphne and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum''s new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for grinding anything smaller than a dolphin, and Harry was quite sure that if Krum wasn''t careful, he was going to rip Daphne in half.


    He looked at Ivy before turning to Daphne ¡ª he knew that while his sister and Daphne fought a lot, but once they had been very close ¡ª close enough that if Ivy was awake right now, she would help Daphne right now.


    Darting forward, Harry struck Krum on the shoulder and held up the jagged stone. Krum seized it and began to cut Daphne free. Within seconds, he had done it; he grabbed Daphne around the waist, and without a backward nce, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.


    ''Now what?'' Harry thought. Fleur''s Dcour sister looked a little too young to be here, and she was looking a little green. But after thinking for a while, he decided to leave ¡ª Fleur had done better than everyone else in the first task, better than him, and she had used pure magic and not other skills like flying like he had.


    ''She would be here soon,'' he thought and took off.


    And as Harry swam away, he saw Cedric swim past him towards the merperson stone statue.


    Cedric reached the statue, and now the merpeople were standing close to Cho and Gabrielle. Cedric pulled his wand out. "Get out of my way!"


    Only bubbles flew out of his bubblehead cover, but he had a distinct impression that the mermen had understood him because they suddenly stoppedughing. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Harry''s wand, and they looked cautious. They moved away, giving Cedric space, who immediately shot a slicing hex at the thick bindings, freeing Cho.


    "Alright, three hostages have been freed, with only one remaining. Let''s see how the fourth missing champion is doing. . . . now, we just have to find where she is."


    Quinn felt sonar tremors into theke, and eventually, he got the feedback. He had found her. The artificial eye immediately trod water, and the scene everyone saw what was Fleur Dcour up to.


    "Ah. . . so this is where she was."


    Fleur Dcour was wrapped up in ck weeds. They were tightly wound around her arms, legs, and torso. The ck weeds weren''t attached to the soil but were broken, and their other ends were held by multiple toothy grindylows, who were pulling the weedy-ropes while Fleur struggled, but the little demons'' gang work was a little too strong for Fleur.


    "It seems that Fleur has lost her wand,"mented Quinn, and the illusion zoomed into the wand sitting down at thekebed.


    Suddenly, Fleur directly looked at the "camera," and she mouthed out words frantically. While others weren''t able to understand the words, Quinn could as he read her lips. She was begging for Quinn ¡ª specifically, to rescue her sister and that there wasn''t much time left.


    Quinn, of course, knew that Gabrielle wasn''t in any danger; she would be pulled out at the end of the hour. But then he saw something that concerned him a lot. Fleur''s figure and face were slightly shifting.


    ''She is shifting into her Avian form.'' Fleur was panicking.


    From his talks with Fleur and his reading, Quinn knew that in their Avian form, Ves weren''t able to control magic properly. . . if she fully transformed, then there were solid chances that her bubblehead charms would pop and then. . . .


    "Ah, damn it."


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    Quinn West - MC - Human(Wizard/Magical) Projector/Drone.


    Champions - 4 people - Doing their thing.


    Hostages - 4 people - Doing nothing.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Inspired by Gaara''s sandeye.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author Update - Day 2 of 4 of end-terms is over. 4 out of 8 subjects are done. Half-way through. There won''t be chapter tomorrow as I need to prep. Actually, this was supposed to drop tomorrow, but Ipleted thetest chapter early, so here you go.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 178 - Rescuing The Damsel

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Quinn closed both of his eyes, and now all he could see was the scene transmitted by the artificial eye from Project: Drone Vision. In the originals, Fleur had somewhat gone through the same thing, and in that time, she hade out without any major mishaps.


    While the situation had changed this time around ¡ª the three champions had gotten to their hostages without much hassle or problems, but that didn''t mean Fleur woulde out unharmed as well. He contemted his next move, and with the loud discussions from stands made him think that he needed to make a discussion very soon.


    He opened his left "unconnected" eye to see the judges'' reactions and saw that Dumbledore, Bagman, Karkaroff, and Crouch all were looking at his overhead illusion, but other than the low varying level of worries, all men looked otherwise unbothered ¡ª it was only Olympe Maxime who looked genuinely anxious about her champion''s condition.


    Fleur''s unheard words were still sounding loud in his years.


    Then there were sudden gasps all across the stands as everyone saw Fleur''s bubblehead charm shrunk dangerously close to her face ¡ª receding from below the neck level to just below the chin.


    ''Okay, I need to do something ¡ª or she''s going to drown,'' he thought, feeling a little panicked himself, ''and it''s going to happen in front of everyone else ¡ª yup, yup, yup, I should do it right now.''


    Immediately, the water beneath his feet, which was keeping him afloat above, gave way, and he sank below without making a ssh, leaving behind just a hint of a circr wave from where he was standing.


    On the judges'' tform, Karkaroff red at Dumbledore, "Where did he go, Dumbledore? What are your students doing now?"


    Dumbledore nced at Karkaroff and shrugged with a hint of a smile on his face, "I have no idea what he''s doing. Mr. West. . . for the most part. . . . likes to do things on his own, at his own pace, at his own discretion."


    "You lie. First, you enter two champions, and now this!"


    "He hasn''t done anything yet, Igor," Dumbledore pointed up at the illusion still running, "let''s see what he does; I''m sure it will be entertaining and isn''t that what we are going here for?"


    Dumbledore merrilyughed while Karkaroff frowned deeply.


    Sitting by their side, Olympe''s eyes were fixed with the illusion; she tapped away at the armrest of her chair, with a pit sitting in the base of her stomach. She hadplete confidence in Fleur to handle herself, but that was when Fleur had a wand in her hand ¡ª right now, she didn''t have one, which in itself was the worst nightmare for a witch.


    "I see him. . . I can see Mr. West," said Barty Crouch Sr, as stern as ever. He hadn''t shown up at the Yule Ball or for work at the ministry because of bad health, but he was back now ¡ª healthy as a bull.


    Everyone saw Quinn in the illusion, swimming towards Fleur from her backside as the artificial eye was positioned at Fleur''s front.


    Tracey sitting in the stands, nudged Astoria and whispered, "It''s just like the time when he came outside themon room windows."


    Astoria nodded as she and everyone could see that Quinn''s hands and feet had gained webbing, and he had gill ps on his neck and chest.


    "Where did he ditch his clothes?" Tracey turned towards the speaker and gazed at Eddie, who was sitting beside her watching the illusion with a thoughtful look. In the illusion, Quinn was in nothing but a pair of swimming trunks.


    Dumbledore studied the illusion ¡ª specifically Quinn, and assessed the gills and webbed feet and hands. "Those aren''t from gillyweed like Mr. Potters. . . . then, they are transfigurations, hmm. But why does he have gills on his chest ¡ª wait a minute, are they directly connected? Oh my, if that''s the case, then that''s some impressive work." Even from seeing just an image fabricated from Quinn''s memory, Dumbledore could tell precisely what magic Quinn was using.


    . . .


    Quinn shot every grindylow, trapping Fleur with jets of stunning spell directed through his fake wand. Not a single little snickering water midget was able to escape or even had a chance to escape. He came to the front and was immediately stunned. . .


    ''She''s unconscious,'' he saw that her bubblehead charm was still intact, ''but she isn''t getting enough air through it.'' he poked his fake wand into her bubble and cast a much sturdier bubblehead charm, once again resuming an ample supply of oxygen for Fleur.


    Quinn grabbed her by the waist and looked up; he could send her back to the shore right from here, but that would attract attention and with it suspicion. His power stintst year, which led him to split theke, garnered a lot of attention. Students and professors alike had visited and staked theke for weeks to figure what had happened.


    Dumbledore himself, at that time and when nning for the second task, had extensively investigated the abnormality. Both times, he had examined theke for a month and talked with the merpeople. All he got from his efforts was that the giant squid (Kraken) had been active a lot, moving around, causing underwater waves, but other than that, even they didn''t know the cause of the bizarre incident.


    Quinn knew all of this because he had chanced upon Dumbledore talking to a merperson. That very day Quinn had gone and made sure that the entrance to the Aquatic vault was hidden from sight so that if Dumbledore ever did go close to the entrance, he would miss it.


    Standing on the water was fine, but if he sent Fleur up from here, that would be a massive giveaway and might turn him into a prime suspect.


    Quinn swam up, pulling Fleur with him; he had to shoot a couple more grindylows on the way, but otherwise, Quinn got Fleur out as soon as possible.


    Outside on the surface, everyone saw Quinn and Fleur pop out of the water. They watched as Quinn set Fleur t on the water surface as if it was solid and himself used theke surface to climb up before picking up Fleur in his arms and walked towards the stands.


    Poppy came running out on the tform from where the champions had jumped as he got close to the stands. "Quinn, how''s she, status?"


    "She''s fine, just fainted. Her bubblehead charm shrunk and couldn''t provide enough air to her," replied Quinn, "she''ll be fine ¡ª just need to get up on her own."


    "Okay, pass her up," she needed to check for herself just to be safe and sure.


    Quinn clutched his fake wand and was about to wave it in the motion for a body levitation charm but felt Fleur''s arms tighten around her neck.


    ". . . .Quinn," he heard a soft and faint whisper. He nced down and saw Fleur looking at him with half-lidded eyes.


    "Yes? I''m here."


    ". . . .Gabrielle."


    "She''s fine," he said, as unlike her, he knew that the hostages weren''t in any danger.


    "Where. . . is she?"


    ". . . She''s fine and safe."


    Her eyes once again began closing, but before they fully closed, she spoke onst time, "Bring her up, please."


    Quinn sighed as his lie failed the deception check, ". . . . Yeah, I will get her up."


    "Hmm. . . ."


    He sent her up to Poppy to get checked up and brought up back to health. Now it was time to get Gabrielle back up. He turned around, and before the judges could say anything, Quinn sunk back in, not giving them a chance to stop them.


    Quinn knew that Dumbledore would call up a merperson who would then go back to get Gabrielle back up. . . . while that was fine, it would take too much time ¡ª Fleur might be up and running, and if she saw her sister still missing, she would panic; as such, he wanted to get Gabrielle before Fleur woke up. . . . Because Quinn was sure that Fleur was barely half-conscious in their conscious.


    Quinn cut the connection to the artificial eye and, with it, erased the illusion. He finally opened his right eye, and immediately, water around started to move, and he zapped towards the merpeople vige to retrieve Gabrielle. He cut the water magic just before he was within sight and swam normally towards the statue to which Gabrielle was tied.


    He stepped on theke bed and finally saw an asleep, floating Gabrielle. He walked normally as if he wasn''t in the water, and when a merperson swam in his path, Quinn waved a hand, gesturing to move aside. But the merperson didn''t move and stared at Quinn sternly.


    Maybe it was because Quinn was in a hurry or because he had so much water around him, and it felt terrific as if power was filling him that he waved his hand once again, and the merperson was swept away by an underwater wave, leaving the path free which Quinn briskly walked to reach Gabrielle.


    He simply looked at the five merfolk standing nearby, and they didn''t dare approach him. He untied the little Ve, and just like his sister, he took off with her, this time just faster, courtesy of water magic. The merpeople could only stand and watch as Quinn left with the hostage that they had to protect.


    When he finally emerged, everyone screamed, cheered, and apuded as if he was a champion. Quinn stared at them with a partially surprised expression. Then his face changed from surprise to a bit of furrow in his brow because he saw a wide awake Fleur wrapped in towels, staring at him ¡ª no, staring at Gabrielle, who had woken up from her enchanted sleep ing out of the water was the trigger.)


    He walked to the champion''s tform and waved his fake wand, which made the water under his rise up, pushing him up ¡ª he kept it pretty wobbly just to be safe.


    "Oh, Gabrielle." French flew out of Fleur''s mouth as she received Gabrielle from Quinn and hugged her confused sister.


    "Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. She took Gabrielle from Fleur and, under the watchful eye of Fleur, warmed up Gabrielle and checked if the young girl was up.


    A third-year Hufflepuff called out softly to Quinn and shyly handed him a towel. Quinn smiled and received it with a smile ¡ª he didn''t actually need the towel, but he pretended to wipe his face as magic stipped water of from his body. He handed the towel back with a thank you, making the girl blush.


    He looked down, and he was still in his swim shorts and then at theke where he had stripped himself of his cloth in the heat of the moment. He shrugged and conjured a simple shirt around his body.


    "Well done, Mr. West!" Dumbledore cried. "you brought Ms. Dcour just in time, though going after Ms. Gabrielle was a little hasty ¡ª but, I understand."


    "Thank you, headmaster," smiled Quinn, "I was the closest; it was just natural for me to help out."


    He also noticed Karkaroff watching him. He was the only judge who had not left the table, the sole judge not showing signs of pleasure and relief that Fleur and Gabrielle had got back safely. Quinn smiled and nodded towards Karkaroff with a short head bow.


    Quinn looked back at Dumbledore just to find that the old headmaster was missing. Dumbledore was crouching at the water''s edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particrly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally, he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."


    The judges went into a huddle. Poppy had gone to rescue Ivy and Harry from Lily''s clutches; she led him over to Daphne and the others, gave them a nket and some Pepper up Potion. Quinn had been a little too fast in his rescue.


    As Poppy dealt with the champions and hostages, Quinn squatted at the tform''s edge and looked deeply at theke while pointing his fake wand. A dozen secondster, his clothes came flying out, sloshing in water, thoroughly soaking.


    "He-eh," he smiled and insta-dried his clothes. Quinn stood up and turned to see Fleur standing just behind him. "Woah! . . . . Hey, how''re you feeling?" he asked.


    The Ve threw her arms around Quinn''s neck and kissed him deeply right on the lips. Quinn was so surprised that he froze for a second before he remembered that. . . . kissing felt really good. So he leaned into it, and subconsciously his hands went to her waist.


    Everyone. . . . everyone who could see Fleur and Quinn stared at the couple ¡ª which was a lot of people, including all on the tform (judges, champions, hostages, Poppy, and Lily.)


    Harry, Cedric, and Krum stared at the pair with their mouths open a little (Cedric got a jab which closed his mouth). The judges held varying expressions with Dumbledore smiling, "young people. . ." Poppy and Lily looked a bit scandalized to see tant kissing happening in front of them.


    Finally, Ivy and Daphne, who were soaking wet with towels around them, stared at Quinn and Fleur. Almost immediately, Daphne''s dislike of Fleur deepened a few levels; she wanted to get up and separate the two but knew she couldn''t do it. Ivy stared at them, and her mind started to y her interaction with Quinn after he saved Harry ¡ª his visit to their house, her visits to the AID office, him training them, him rejecting her and how that felt, and finally the dance she shared with him at the Yule Ball. . . . Ivy decided that she didn''t like what was happening in front of her.


    After a long and deep kiss, they separated, out of breath. Fleur''s arms now rested on Quinn''s chest as he gazed down at her, his arms still on her waist.


    "Not going to lie, but this might be the best thing that happened to me this week ¡ª maybe even this month," and he had found the main, innermost chamber of the fourth vault this month.


    Fleur nodded in total agreement, "It was at the top for me as well."


    "Really?"


    "Yes."


    "So, I''m definitely much better than okay, aren''t I?"


    Fleur chuckled melodiously and nodded, "Yes, you''re better than okay," she looked up and licked her lips, "much better than okay."


    Quinn beamed, feeling really happy right now, and gazed at the girls in his arms. He knew what he said about not wanting his first rtionship to not be a fling, but right now, Fleur looked a little too appealing ¡ª he really wanted to kiss her again.


    "Ahem." That fake cough broke Quinn out of his thoughts. He looked and saw Ludo Bagman looking at them. Fleur and Quinn removed their hands from each other, realizing that they had a lot ofpany.


    "Mr. Bagman," said Quinn, "you can continue for today; please conclude the second task."


    Ludo nodded, knowing it was a request even if there was a please in there.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of theke and we also saw everything from here, so we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows. . . ."


    "Fleur Dcour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble- Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."


    Apuse from the stands.


    "I deserved zero," said Fleur, throatily, shaking her magnificent head.


    "Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was third to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Quinn saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look. "We, therefore, award him forty-one points."


    "Viktor Krum used an iplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty-four points."


    Karkaroff pped particrly hard, looking very superior.


    "Harry Potter used a gillyweed potion to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned first and well inside the time limit of an hour. He was the fastest and worked with the most efficiency; as such, we award him a total of forty-eight points."


    Harry looked proud, and Lily was pping very hard.


    Quinn gave a nce to Bagman before stepping forward to take thest announcement for himself, "The third and final task will take ce at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June. The champions will be notified of what ising precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."


    ''It''s over,'' Quinn thought, sighing, as Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes. . . . but then he felt arms wrap around his waist, and he looked down to see tiny silver-blonde staring at him with her big blue eyes.


    "Gabrielle, right?" asked Quinn, pulling a smile.


    The girl nodded and spoke in a voice that Quinn thought was very lovely and cute, "Thank you."


    "You''re wee."


    The little girl continued to stare at Quinn for a few seconds before running away. She had said her thank you, but she feared that Quinn would get all yucky-icky-kissy face with her if she stayed. If Quinn knew her thoughts, he would''ve experienced a very happy blow.


    He looked at theke and smiled. It was a good day. He didn''t notice a few sets of eyes observing him with varying looks.


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    Quinn West - MC - Kissing feels really good.


    Fleur Dcour - Ve - She failed the task, but the kiss bnced it out.


    Daphne Greengrass - Slytherin, Hostage - Doesn''t like Fleur at all.


    Ivy Potter - Gryffindor, Hostage - Things are in. . . flux.


    Gabrielle Dcour - Little Ve - Kisses are yucky-icky.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 179 - Catching The Eye

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    As the year entered March, the weather became drier, but cruel winds skinned peoples'' hands and faces every time they went out onto the grounds. There were dys in the post because the owls kept being blown off course, which was beneficial for MagiFax sales as they were finally picking up speed in the domestic household market after dominating the professional office market.


    It was a Friday morning in the great hall during breakfast with the Hogwarts poption was abuzz with the morning energy, and for once, a lot of students were surprisingly reading newspapers. The second task had been an exciting event with the host walking on water, the shy overhead live footage of underwater, and the very visible public disy affection, which marked the end of the second task.


    Every student in Hogwarts wanted to see what the papers wrote about the unique experience; as such, the students who didn''t even touch newspapers if it didn''t have a juicy story were gathered in groups, sharing the newspapers arriving at the great hall by the waves of daily owl raids.


    At the Gryffindor table, the golden squad sat together, leaning over a copy of today''s Daily Prophet, reading the very first page that detailed the second task through very thorough, in-depth articles and. . . . photographs.


    "It''s not here,"mented Ron, putting a spoonful of his breakfast in his mouth, "howe of everything mentioned that''s the only thing not photographed ¡ª hell, this doesn''t even mention the kiss in writing."


    Parvati Patil sitting right next to them with her bosom buddy Lavendar Brow. The chatty girls were hunched over an edition of Witch Weekly, scouring through the magazine pages with hungry eyes.


    "It''s not here; it''s not possible ¡ª how is it possible for Witch Weekly not write about the kiss,'' said Parvati passing the magazine to Lavendar, who insisted on going through it again.


    Ivy repeatedly stabbed her fork into her food, restraining herself from breaking the te as she heard everyone ¡ª everyone talking about the second task ¡ª specifically, the end. . . .


    "It''s not that big of a deal," she said, her tone held a hidden whish, "they wrote about the second task; that''s what they''re supposed to write. I don''t see a problem."


    "You just don''t get it," said Lavendar, resting her chin on her hand with a misty look in her eyes, "it was so romantic, Quinn rescuing Fleur like that, with everyone seeing. . ." she sighed a dreamy sigh.


    "I agree with Ivy that the article should be about the tournament," said Hermione, finishing reading the page.


    Ivy nodded. She knew she could depend on her best friend.


    "But, with how the Daily Prophet reports, it does seem strange that they didn''t mention the kiss," continued Hermoine, stunning Ivy. Hermione pointed at the byline, "Look ¡ª it''s written by Rita Skeeter; it seems almost impossible for that vile woman to write something as sensible and unembellished as this."


    Even Ivy had to concede to the point about Rita Skeeter writing a good article sounded like someone was trying to pull her leg. . . . strong enough to pull her into the ground. The truth was that despite the "Ve" champion kissing someone in public was a story worth for every writer in this country to have a parade day, and for it not to be published. . . . seemed odd.


    Harry and Ivy exchanged looks; both knew that his/her twins were thinking about the reason behind this and knew that they were thinking the same thing. Not just them, all across the great hall, there were people who had the same thought as them.


    The children of prominent people; the likes of politicians, high-ranking ministry officials, wealthy business owners, noble families ¡ª the Hogwarts students who knew that they shared ssrooms with a West. They had guessed the reason; furthermore, they were convinced that their reason was correct.


    Ivy looked over to the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing in a huddle together with Pansy Parkinson''s gang of Slytherin girls ¡ª they too were looking over a newspaper. Beside them, though, Daphne was rubbing her temple.


    The newspapers might have not written about Quinn and Fleur, but they did go ham on Daphne and Krum. The person who Victor Krum missed the most ¡ª that was tabloid-worthy.


    Ron ran his eyes over the great hall, stopping at the Ravenw table. "Fleur is here. . . . but, I can''t see Quinn," he turned to Harry and asked with a grin, "Harry, mate. go ask your mate friend Eddie where is Quinn."


    Harry''s brow twitched as his eyes subconsciously found Eddie Carmichael at the Ravenw. "Ron. . . . that little shi¡ª," Harry held his tongue, ". . . . Carmichael isn''t my friend; WHY! would you even say that?"


    "You looked pretty chummy with him at thest game."


    "I was not!" snapped Harry before groaning. Harry considered Draco Malfoy to be his nemesis, but he had to admit that Eddie Carmichael came in a very close second.


    Harry was part of Alicia Spt''s Sonic Brooms, andst tost week, before the second task, they had a game against Trolling Boogeys. Sonic Brooms went into the game undefeated withfortable winning margins in their every win ¡ª but they knew that despite the one loss, Trolling Boogeys were a dangerous team, and if they didn''t y well, they (Sonic Brooms) could lose the game. . . . and they did lose the game.


    Trolling Boogeys was an offensive team; they had Cedric Diggory as their seeker who had been having a fantastic season ¡ª he was the number three seeker after number one, Victor Krum, and number two, Harry Potter ¡ª this already put Trolling Boogey''s offense in the top fifty percent of the ten teams.


    Next came the beaters: the defensive position of the team. But in Trolling Boogeys, the beaters weren''t more focused on keeping the bludger away from their seeker and chaser; instead, they primarily followed an aggressive strategy of actively trying to knock the opposition yers by redirecting (hurling) the bludgers towards them. They were the prime example of "Offense is the Best Defense."


    Finally, there was the core offensive position ¡ª the chasers. And Trolling Boogey''s chaser squad was electrifying, to say the least ¡ª well, one chaser was electrifying enough for three people.


    Eddie Carmichael.


    The most entertaining yer to see in the entire tournament. Eddie Carmichael was by far the best chaser in the thirty chasers ying in the tournament, and he was beating them on leaderboard stats by such margins that it wasn''t even funny ¡ª be it be assists or points, Eddie outssed everyone.


    Eddie Carmichael merchandise sales came third in the entire league ¡ª only being beat by the pro who yed for his country, Victor Krum, and the Boy-Who-Lived, the youngest seeker to ever y in a Hogwarts game, Harry Potter ¡ª and both of them had the "champion" advantage.


    Eddie was a silent yer who didn''t speak much during the game, a tunnel focus vision towards victory as some of his teammates described it.


    But that was it.


    He was only silent during the game ¡ª not so quiet before and especially after the game.


    After Trolling Boogerys'' win against Sonic Brooms, Eddie had gone off. It was like he was saving it up during the game that after the game, he had trashed talk so much that Cedric had to transfigure Eddie''s lips together to prevent him from speaking. But before he could do that, Eddie had talked in length, especially to Harry, that the seeker was sure that his ears were bleeding.


    "Hey, Quinn''s here," said Ron, jutting his chin towards the door.


    Quinn entered the great hall like it was another day; strolled towards the Ravenw table, catching eyes as he passed through.


    ''What?'' thought Quinn and looked around as his daily morning Legilimency picked up surface thoughts from the few students around him. ''Ah, good to see, I''m not in the news.'' He had MagiFax-ed first thing after the second task ¡ª it was a little (a lot) embarrassing to ask them to scrub the potential news about him kissing in public. It was more embarrassing to get just an "okay" in reply.


    Quinn sat down at his desk, smiling at his friends.


    "You''rete," said Marcus, "where were you?"


    "I dropped by the office; there is a potion slow-brewing around the clock for two weeks now."


    "You weren''t having, maybe, a meeting, a tryst, a rendezvous, with the very lovely Fleur Dcour," asked Eddie, a grin stered over his face, "and decided to send her first andeter by yourself to avoid suspicion."


    Quinn shook his head with a bit of his smile. "That''s an interesting theory, mate. Also, did you look those synonyms up?"


    "Oh ho," chuckled Eddie, wiggling his brows, "he didn''t refuse people."


    "No, Eddie. . . . I didn''t meet with Fleur."


    Marcus leaned with a sparkle in his eyes and asked, "Are you dating?"


    "Didn''t we talk about this before," sighed Quinn, "no, I''m not dating her. That was just you know. . . . a thank you." He had time to calm himself down, and with it, the impulse to get handy with Fleur as well.


    "Uh-huh, sure it was," smirked Eddie.


    Quinn put down his knife and fork and looked at his dear friend. "How are things going with a very charming Ms. Tracey Davis."


    Eddie''s ears turned red.


    "Because from what I''m hearing, there had been some long walks by theke. . . . something you want to tell us, E.d.d.i.e."


    "N-No, nothing. There''s nothing. . . ."


    Quinn picked his knife and fork back up with a smile, "I see. I see. If you say so, then I''ll believe you."


    "Y-Yeah."


    "Good," grinned Quinn, "oh man, this is good bacon."


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    There was a knock on the dungeon door.


    "Enter," said Snape in his usual voice.


    The ss looked around as the door opened. Karkaroff came in. Everyone watched him as he walked up toward Snape''s desk. He was twisting his finger around his goatee and looking agitated.


    "We need to talk," said Karkaroff abruptly when he had reached Snape. He seemed so determined that nobody should hear what he was saying that he was barely opening his lips; it was as though he were a rtively poor ventriloquist. Quinn kept his eyes on his ginger roots, listening hard.


    "I''ll talk to you after my lesson, Karkaroff," Snape muttered, but Karkaroff interrupted him.


    I want to talk now, while you can''t slip off, Severus. You''ve been avoiding me.


    "After the lesson," Snape snapped.


    Under the pretext of holding up a measuring cup to see if he''d poured out enough armadillo bile, Quinn sneaked a sidelong nce at the pair of them. Karkaroff looked extremely worried, and Snape looked angry.


    Karkaroff hovered behind Snape''s desk for the rest of the double period. He seemed intent on preventing Snape from slipping away at the end of ss. Quinn wanted to see what they wanted to talk about, so he put his hand into his pocket and took out his chip-listening device, and stuck it near the two adults while the rest of the ss moved noisily toward the door.


    "What''s so urgent?" Quinn heard Snape hiss at Karkaroff.


    "This," said Karkaroff, and Quinn stood outside the dungeon ssroom, leaning against a wall so he could stay within range.


    ''Hmm, is he talking about the dark mark?'' thought Quinn. It was clear that Voldemort was back because Harry Potter was inside the Tri-wizard tournament, and Barty Crouch Jr was still roaming in the Hogwarts halls.


    "Well?" said Karkaroff. "Do you see? It''s never been this clear, never since ¡ª"


    "Put it away!" snarled Snape.


    "But you must have noticed ¡ª" Karkaroff began in an agitated voice.


    "We can talkter, Karkaroff!" spat Snape.


    "No, we have to talk now! This is important!"


    ". . . don''t see what there is to fuss about, Igor."


    "Severus, you cannot pretend this isn''t happening!" Karkaroff''s voice sounded anxious and hushed, as though keen not to be overheard. "It''s been getting clearer and clearer for months. I am bing seriously concerned, I can''t deny it ¡ª"


    "Then flee," said Snape''s voice curtly. "Flee ¡ª I will make your excuses. I, however, am remaining at Hogwarts."


    There was a pregnant pause before Quinn heard a swivel of heels. He knew that the talk was over, so he cast an illusion over himself and stood still.


    Karkaroff came out of the ssroom and then strode out of the dungeon. He looked both worried and angry.


    Quinn remained still until Snape left, and even after that, he stayed there. Karkaroff''s worries were reasonable as he was the one who snitched after Voldemort''s fall in return for immunity for his various crimes. If and when Voldemort returned, there were fair chances that the Durmstrang headmaster would be one of the first to go.


    Quinn began thinking about what to do with Babymort, who would turn back into Voldemort by the end of this school. A turning point in the series of events that would change many things and a mark for even more things to change.


    "Harry Potter and Voldemort. . . . either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives," he whispered part of the prophecy that he recalled. "If that''s still the prophecy."


    The truth was that he couldn''t stop the conflict between the Dark faction and the Light faction. Voldemort would never let go of the Potter or anyone who had opposed him during his fall, and the Light faction would never let Voldemort roam around even if the dark lord suddenly changed his mind and became a saint ¡ª there was too much history in this country for things to go any other way.


    "The Light faction is stronger this time around; that will hopefully have some changes in the situation."


    He had no idea about the political situation in the original timeline, but in this timeline where the Potters were alive, the Light faction was united with Dumbledore and Potters as leading figures.


    "Plus, they have Sirius ck, meaning that figuratively they have the cks behind them," even though the once prestigious ck family now amounted to just one Senior Auror, "but I guess Sirius ck can dip into those family vaults of his when the timeses." The ck family might have folded upon themselves, but that didn''t the money disappeared into nothingness ¡ª if Sirius ck didn''t splurge and lose it all, then the vast amount of coin stillid in the Gringotts vaults.


    But that went the other way around as well ¡ª Dark faction had to pull themselves together to fight the much stronger faction, and even though they were at a disadvantage to this day, they were united enough to stand against the opposing threat.


    "I hope they will get ready with time," muttered Quinn as they were going to need a lot of resources if they wanted toe out of this with minimal damages.


    "Third task, huh."


    June 24 was going to be an important day. With that thought, Quinn walked away. . . . before turning around and returning, "Yeah, I should probably take the transmitter chip back; need to erase that evidence."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    There was a knock on the door, and with the affirmation from inside, the door opened, and a figure entered the room.


    "Ah, Wormtail, you have returned," said the shrill and squeaky voice.


    Wormtail, a.k.a. Peter Pettigrew, the most wanted man in the British Isles, bowed his head in greeting, "Yes, my lord."


    "You''re a dayte, Wormtail," said Babymort with his menacing deep voidful eyes, "the second task ended yesterday. . . . so tell me, where were you?"


    Peter didn''t feel anxious or scared in the face of the homunculus who could still cast a Killing curse and various other powerful, painful, malignant curses even in this diminished form, "I had to make sure that I wasn''t suspected, my lord. The disguise I chose required me to stay a day outside to make sure no one felt that something was off."


    "Hmm," the dull eyes observed Peter for a few moments before letting go. "And? How was it? Has Barty being doing a good job guiding the Potter boy? We need that child to do good."


    "Harry Potter is doing just fine ¡ª he came first in this task; it puts him first overall. He will start first in thest task."


    "Good, good. How are the preparations at the preparations going at the graveyard?"


    "They''reing along ¡ª it''s taking a while to gather the ingredients for the ritual. . . . but there is no need to worry, we''ll have all by the end of April."


    "Hmm. . . ."


    "My lord. . . . there''s one thing that might be problematic."


    "What is it?"


    "There was something during the second task that might be a real problem."


    "Out with it, Wormtail!"


    "It might be better if you take a look at it on your own."


    Babymort shifted in his bed and beckoned Wormtail closer. There was a wand in his hand. "Show it to me, Wormtail. Show me the problem." Two pairs of eyes met, and magic flowed; there was a sharp pain inside Peter''s head, but he gritted his teeth and endured.


    "Hmm, I see. . . . I see. Illusion magic, fascinating, truly fascinating,"mented Babymort, "who''s this child? The child who cast this magic."


    "Q-Quinn West. Fifth Y-Year."


    Babymort stopped the strong legilimency and stared at Wormtail. "From the West family? George West''s family."


    "Yes," groaned Peter rubbing his temple, "George West''s grandson."


    "Quinn. . . . West," hummed Babymort, reying the scoured memory in his mind, "interesting, get me more information about this Quinn West."


    There was a toothless grin on his face.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - My name is West. . . Quinn West.


    Voldemort - Babymort - One ugly baby. . . . one powerful ugly baby.


    Peter Pettigrew - Wormtail - Information gathering.


    FictionOnlyReader - Writing Addict - I know I shouldn''t have posted another one, but I just couldn''t stop. . . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 180 - Rune Fix, West Meet Black

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    One of the best things about being in the innermost part of the Underground vault was the peace ¡ª in fact, the entire Underground vault was a delight to work in. Quinn didn''t have to travel through potentially life-threatening dangerous trials like those inside the Aquatic vault to get to the innermost region. He didn''t have to work with something capable of wiping his life in less than a fraction of a second like Absolute Zero (which Quinn still didn''t know so much about). Finally, nothing messed with his mind and emotions, and because of that, he could work while being 100% of himself.


    Here there was just him and one big-ass stratum of marble waiting for Quinn to work on to repair it to its former glory ¡ª whatever it was. Quinn still had to figure out what the runes etched into the marbles did, but he was making progress.


    Right now, Quinn sat above the marble tform with a plethora of papersid in front of him, spreading out and away from him as his eyes roamed on every single page visible to him.


    "Nineyers,"mented Quinn to himself, "nineyers worth of runes ¡ª everyyer not just connected to its adjacentyer, but to all other eightyers. What was the creator thinking while building this. . . . why did he even need these manyyers."


    To put it toparison, Quinn''s Recon was a threeyer construct, MagiFax was a fiveyer construct, the containment and defensive mechanism that kept Absolute Zero in check was a sevenyer construction, and that was already aplicated structure. Plus, the addition ofyers wasn''t linear; the addition of every subsequentyer was a more significant addition than the preceding one. ¡ª to see a nineyered runic construct was something Quinn couldn''t even begin thinking what it would result in ¡ª the usage when it wouldplete.


    "Well, at least, I have theplete ns with me," said Quinn while looking at the papers ¡ª he had sessfully figured out what the original construct was before the roof copsed and damaged the runes ¡ª right now, Quinn was sure that he knew all of the runes and the connection map to get the construct working.


    "Time to get to work," he said, getting up as the papers formed a stack and floated near him. "Now, where to start," he hummed. He turned around on the spot to iste a starting point, and as he did, the paper stack shuffled ¡ª bringing the relevant page to the top of the stack.


    "Alright, I will start there," he stared west, choosing to begin with his favorite direction, "but first. . . ." Quinn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, his vision had changed. Now, to Quinn, everything on the marble was divided into squares of one foot marked by red lines.


    "Casting illusion on myself," he muttered, blinking his eyes, but the red grid remained, "I''m not sure if I should like this or not."


    "Whatever, let''s get to work."


    Quinn sat down on the ground with his legs crossed. His focus was on just one box in the massive grid. Quinn ced his right hand in the middle on the marble stone with palm t resting against the cold surface.


    "Let''s see, what do I have to do here." Quinn read the page on the top of the stack and read the detailed blueprints written on it.


    The magic trickled from his core through his hands into the marble, seeping into the stone.


    "Transmutation."


    There were runes engraved on the marble, but they had been worn down with the passage of time and damaged from the fallen debris. Quinn''s magic fixed that ¡ª the rune engraving which looked like they had been etched with a hammer and chisel, crafted by a grandmaster, renewed their original charm and straightened out, smoothed down every surface while the cracks filled up by shifting and merging the stone together.


    Within a minute, the marble top had gone from ancient to something that looked it had been freshly carved.


    But Quinn didn''t smile in admiration or stopped funneling his magic; instead, he made his magic drip down deeper ¡ª as previously mentioned, there were nineyers of runes, and the carving on the surface was onlyyer-one ¡ª eight otheryers etched inside the stone remained to be fixed and cleaned up.


    Ten minutester, Quinn removed his hand and breathed out, "Alright, one block done," he looked around and smacked his lips together, "over a hundred more to go."


    .


    .


    .


    .


    From then onwards, Quinn spent two hours every day for an entire fortnight toplete the renovation of the carvings and another three days to prime the marble by imbibing it in potions and solutions to get the stone ready for conducting magic.


    "To the worms below and birds above, thank all that this is finally ready," pped Quinn, clenching his fist. He stood in the middle of an intricately carved, beautiful, and, more importantly, clean rune structure.


    "I should probably do onest check," he said, pushing his magic into the magic while flipping through the paper stack, which was now a file, "uh-huh ¡ª north, done. . . . south. . . . east. . . . west. . . . hmm, alright checked and done."


    "Now, let''s what this actually does," smiled Quinn while humming.


    He looked down, watching the spot he was standing ¡ª the middle of the marble tform was rune free, at least on the surface. This was the spot where he needed to input magic to start the magic.


    "This one will need a lot to get this beauty up and running," he squatted down and grinned, "let''s see if I can fill its appetite."


    Whilerge-scale runes were more powerful, they needed a lot more juice to get working. While Quinn had time-to-time reached the limit of the magic, he could push out at once; he never had, not once, ever encountered a single task that would exhaust his capacity ¡ª or evene close to it.


    It took dynamic ns that were constantly developed and updated throughout the years of daily magic usage every single day so that Quinn could exhaust his magic by the end of his day ¡ª by doing that, Quinn''s magic was abundant than ever, muchrger than what ordinary magicals could even imagine ¡ª Quinn had no doubt had more enormous reserves than anyone in Hogwarts and the British Isles. . . . that included the white-bearded, half-moon sses old man with sparkling eyes and maybe even the prime Dark Lord, who was currently stuck in a homunculus body.


    It was already a surprise that with his reserves, Quinn could exhaust his magic every single day ¡ª if someone saw how and how much magic Quinn used every day, they would ssify him as a. . . . monster.


    Quinn started to discharge in waves and waves of magic. Magicparable to rivers started ours into the marble and the runes. The white marble patterned with ck ssh patterns began to glow in rainbow lights.


    "Oh, oh, it''s working," smiled Quinn, but then the glow started to weaken, "huh, it''s not enough ¡ª need more?" It brought a deeper grin to Quinn''s face as he started to push more and more magic into the stone.


    "It''s getting stronger!" and with it, the light in Quinn''s eyes flickered, and soon, they were showing their purple glory.


    Hroom. . . . a thrum spread from the marble into the ground reaching every corner of the Underground vault.


    Quinn stopped, stood up before running and jumping out from the marble stratum, and then he watched the show. Rainbow lights grew so strong that the orbs of light that Quinn cast for light disappeared within the presence of the stronger light ¡ª he had to shield his eyes from the light that was still bright even though his eyes were closed.


    When the light finally subsided, Quinn opened his eyes and peeked around to observe what had happened, but nothing stood out.


    "Did something happened?"


    He walked to the marble stratum and touched the stone to see if he could diagnose the problem. "Ouch! Hot, tssss!" he pulled back his hand because the stone was skin-searing hot.


    Quinn looked at his hand, and he swore he could literally feel the heat from his wound travel through his body. "Man, that was hot, shit!" he cursed and healed his hand of the severe burn.


    "What''s the temperature on this?" when Quinn checked, the stone was at room temperature, "huh, it cooled off so quickly? Hmm. . . . well there were some runes in there that could be interpreted for cooling purposes."


    "But what the hell, man,"ined Quinn, "did I make a mistake somewhere? That doesn''t seem likely." He went over his notes, ns, and memories, but nothing stood out to him.


    "Does it mean that my ns arepletely wrong?" he questioned his entire research as he couldn''t find anything that stood out.


    Quinn couldn''t believe that he had made an error, so he started to look around and finally decided to collect samples ¡ª he collected a piece of marble, the surrounding soil, and the underground nts that had grown around the stratum.


    "There must be some change; the tests will surely reveal something."


    It was gettingte, and Quinn decided to end for today. He pulled on his Noir gear and exited the Forbidden Forest with the samples in tow. He hid in an isted and changed back into his Hogwarts uniform robes before stepping into the castle.


    "That was a good magical workout," if there was one thing that he was satisfied with, then it was the magic exertion.


    *Flutter* *Flutter*


    Quinn turned around when he heard the flutter of a bird''s wings, which was strange as he hadn''t seen a bird when he passed by.


    "Hmm?" And as he had thought, there was no flying bird or even a stray bird in sight. "Must''ve flown away. . . . Oh boy, I''m feeling famished ¡ª I wonder what''s for dinner."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was quidditch Saturday, and another tournament game had gone by sessfully. Right now, Quinn stood by the stadium exit, seeing the guests off.


    "Mr. Zangba, the tenth time in the row; look forward to seeing you once again, next week."


    "Mrs. Van Pelt, how''s your cat doing? Is she feeling any better?"


    "Ah, Mr. Straus! I wasn''t expecting you today; St. Mungos has been keeping you busy these days, hasn''t it?"


    Tracey stood by Quinn''s side and watched as he talked to anyone who made eye contact with him ¡ª be it new or someone he already had contact with; Quinn spoke with everyone as if they were his friends.


    This was vital. Let''s say while seeing a y, one enjoyed the beginning and the middle parts immensely, but if that end ¡ª that climax doesn''t follow up after the amazing buildup, then people tend to be disappointed; it taints their view of the other fabulous experience. . . . his tournament games were exciting, full of ups-and-downs, there was sufficient buildup and with riveting endings, no need to worry about the experience ¡ª but if he did this, then everyone will remember this moment as thest memory of their visit here and who doesn''t like to be remembered.


    ''Then they wille the next week and week after that until the tournament ends.''


    Quinn had to do this because he had started the tournament with zero cash. He had used all of the sponsorship resources in the setup. As such, to keep the tournament running week-after-week, Quinn needed a high attendance to keep bringing in the cash.


    "Ah, Quinn! It has been a while. How have you been?"


    Quinn turned to the voice and saw the entire Potter family with James Potter in the lead. The Senior Auror looked satisfied and happy as he greeted Quinn.


    "I''m doing just fine, Mr. Potter. How about you? Did you enjoy the game?"


    "It was a delight," beamed James Potter. The few tournament games he could attend were one of the few things he got to enjoy in his busy Auror life ¡ª there were perks of being a Senior Auror; James could sneak out once in a while, and as Quinn''s format had a limited duration, it ensured that he could return soon.


    Quinn nodded with a smile before greeting the rest of the family, "Professor, twins, good to see that all of you''re still supporting the tournament. . . . well, one of you ys in the tournament while the other two actively participate in betting."


    Lily blushed at the mention of her partaking in the school betting while Ivy shrugged, she was turning her allowance into more spending money, and she liked it.


    Suddenly a face peeked from between James and Lily and spoke, "Ah, so you''re Quinn West, huh. You''re the guy who kissed the Ve in front of everybody. . . . nice!"


    "Sirius!" rebuked Lily.


    "Actually, she. . . . never mind, yes I''m Quinn West, and you''re Sirius ck, Senior Auror."


    "In the flesh," smiled Sirius as he stepped forward to shake hands with Quinn.


    "It''s nice to meet you, Mr. ck," said Quinn and shook hands with Sirius.


    Sirius looked Quinn up and down and nodded. "I like you, kid."


    Quinn released Sirius'' hand and nodded back. ". . . .Okay."


    "So, tell me, kid. How did you bag the Ve? Do you have any tips?" Sirius ck dressed like an aristocratic man, but his personality was so roguish that it felt contradictory, but he could pull it together with overflowing self-confidence.


    "Sirius! Would you stop with that?!" eximed Lily; one would think that after so many years, she would get used to it, but she wasn''t.


    But Sirius ignored her and continued to gaze at Quinn with a smile.


    "Contrary to popr belief, I''m not dating Fleur," replied Quinn. No one believed when he said that sentence.


    ". . . .Really?" said Sirius. He reached towards his back in a grabbing before he found and shoulder and pulled Ivy to the front, "how about this one right here? I think one is prettier than her mum, and her mum is beautiful, you know," he pointed at Lily standing behind him, "you can see it for yourself, see?"


    The two redheads of the group started to shake. Without context, it seemed they were embarrassed, but Quinn knew the context and stepped back.


    Ivy whipped out her wand and straight out attacked Sirius with a stunning spell. But Sirius swatted away the spell with his suddenly out wand with flowing effortlessness. Sirius stared at Ivy and shrugged, "Not my first time, littledy. Not my first time."


    A spell came from his back, but Sirius raised his wand, and it struck an instantly conjured protego shield. He turned back while twirling his wand and once again shrugged, this time at Lily.


    "You''re really predictable, you know. You will have to do much better if you want to hit me. You should really know that I don''t go making fun of people without having the confidence to defend myself ¡ª and I''m an Auror, so ites with the craft."


    Ivy made a face at Sirius with a slight blush on her face.


    Sirius raised his hand and poked Ivy in her nose with a smile, "Boop," and grinned happily.


    Quinn watched Sirius ck and his first impression? He liked him.


    "Well, it''s nice to meet you, Mr. ck. But now I''ll take my leave."


    "Oh, sure," smiled Sirius, "let''s catch up the next time Ie to see a game."


    "Of course."


    Quinn saw of the Potter family and the ck tag-along, and as he turned around to also leave, he saw a ck crow perched just above the stadium gate.


    "Hmm, is that a crow or raven. . . . it''s massive, so I guess a raven."


    Then he walked away with the raven caw-ing in the background.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I can''t be wrong.


    Sirius ck - Senior Auror - I like having fun.


    Ivy Potter - Making money - Is still trying to attack a dog.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Day-4 of 4 of end-terms is over. . . . but, at the end, during thest exam (subject 8) was cancelled mid-exam. . . . 1 hour into the paper (90 minute paper). The college goofed up by giving us the exact same paper asst year (which we had from our seniors.) I had a five-day break from college. . . . but now? Now, I''ll have to wait in tension about the reschedule.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 181 - Brief, Morning, And "Duel."

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The AID office, while a calm environment, was a usually happening ce. Especially this year, with the room being the central hub for the quidditch tournament ¡ª teams, stadium tickets, merchandise sales, betting, and so many other things were being coordinated through the AID office.


    "I''m just the host," said Quinn to the four people in front of him, "I''m not in charge of the management of organizing the Tri-wizard tournament.. . . . I''ve repeated this so many times throughout the year."


    The four Tri-wizard champions ¡ª Fleur Dcour, Harry Potter, Cedric Diggory, and Victor Krum, looked at each other before looking back at Quinn, who was flipping through a very thick ledger.


    "So why do they time and time again delegate other tasks to me," he continued, "the final game is the next week, and I''m neck-deep in work," he looked up at them, "Cedric and Mr. Krum, congrattions on getting to the finals."


    Trolling Boogeys and Treacherous Barons had beat out the rest of the teams and came out on top topete in the finals. From the opening game between these very same team to the finals ¡ª it was aplete circle.


    The numbers from the credit and debit sides matched up in Quinn''s mind, and with a signature as a seal of authentication, Quinn closed the ounts book ¡ª the Weasley twins might be great at the betting operations, but they didn''t have the level of ounting and math skills to make sure all the money was ounted for.


    "Good, let''s get started," he said and finally gave the four champions hisplete attention, "now, with the third task being less than a month from now on, it''s time for you guys to know about the details."


    The four champions perked up and intently listened as this was going to be thest task.


    "Thest task is going to be a maze crawl where you''ll have to face many different magical beasts and get to the other end where the first one will find the Tri-wizard cup waiting for them. . . . the first to grab it, that is."


    Quinn''s eyes skirted towards Harry and Cedric for a split second before he was back at looking at all four.


    "What kind of magical beasts?" asked Fleur.


    "That will not be revealed; you''ll only find that out when you actually encounter them," answered Quinn.


    "Where will it be?" said Harry.


    "The quidditch stadium is going to be reced with the maze."


    Cedric and Harry jerked back at the answer. "They are going to uproot the stadium?" asked Cedric.


    "Yes," affirmed Quinn, "that''s why I made you guys y that one game during the snowfall. . . . I have to conclude the quidditch tournament theing week as it takes time to dismantle the stadium and then. . . . build the maze." He had to take a pause as he almost gave out the maze was made from nts.


    "Moving on, in the first two tasks, all of you were given points," he continued, "those points came in y right now. The earned points will be summed up and used to decide the order in which you four go inside the maze; of course, there will be intervals between each entry."


    The four champions nced at each other ¡ª all four knew their own point total and knew what the other three got, and from that, they were able to calcte the order.


    "Harry Potter goes first as his sum totalfortably puts him at the top. The second entry is for Victor Krum," said Quinn and gazed at Fleur, "your performance in the second task really hurt your sum total; as such, you get the third ce. Finally, Cedric Diggory goesst in the line."


    "But don''t feel disheartened," continued Quinn, "it''s a maze with beasts randomly ced across it. You never know what might one encounter ¡ª Harry might encounter one beast after another while Diggory might have smooth sailing to the end. While this task grants advantages and disadvantages, with a little luck, it can be the equalizer that might level the field."


    Krum leaned back into his chair and opened his mouth for the first time, "Is. . . . fighting allowed between champions?"


    Quinn smiled in response, "Yes, it''s allowed. As long as the spells aren''t lethal, you all will be allowed to engage each other inbat. Stunning yourpetition will be the best oue you can ask for."


    "They made us face dragons, but now they keep our spells non-lethal?" scoffed Fleur.


    "What can I say," shrugged Quinn, "champion killing champion isn''t good for the radio program and next-day articles. That''s why please make sure all of you have a level of kiddy gloves on. Other than that, you can get as creative and colorful as you can and want to be."


    " " " "Is flying allowed?" " " "


    At once, the four champions asked the same question.


    "First of all, don''t give your potential strategy away," said Quinn shaking his head, "now, to answer your question, no, flying isn''t allowed ¡ª the maze bes redundant otherwise."


    The four seemed disappointed, and as much as three quidditch yers on brooms and a Ve in her avian form sounded fun, it wasn''t going to happen.


    "Very well, if you haven''t got any questions, please leave. . . . I have a lot of work to do," said Quinn, waving them away ¡ª there was another ledger open on his table.


    The champions stood up; they didn''t want to intrude as Quinn did really look busy ¡ª all champions except one.


    "Yes, Mr. Krum?"


    "Could I have a word?"


    "Of course, what is it?"


    "Alone. . . . I don''t want to be overheard."


    Quinn looked at the three standing champions who were curious, but under Quinn''s gaze, they shuffled out, leaving Quinn and Krum alone.


    "Now then, do say."


    "I want to know," said Krum, glowering, "what is there between you and Daphne."


    Quinn, who from Krum''s secretive manner had expected something much more serious than this, stared up at Krum in amazement.


    "Nothing," he replied. But Krum was still glowering. "We''re friends ¡ª close friends. I have known Daphne for a while. . . . what makes you think there''s something going on between Daphne and me?"


    "Daphne talks about you very often."


    "Yeah, as I said, we''re friends."


    "You have never . . . you have not . . ."


    "It''s none of your business," said Quinn firmly, "if you want to know more, then go ask Daphne instead ofing to me."


    Krum didn''t look satisfied with the answer and got up, giving Quinn a lingering stare before leaving without saying another word. Quinn stared at the door through which Krum exited for a while and sighed before getting back to work.


    "Yeah, right, he isn''t good enough for her."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Hermione looked at her best friend with healthy energy in her body as the clock struck six and a half in the morning. "Don''t be like that. It''s good to wake up early in the morning once in a while."


    Ivy turned her half-lidded eyes with a sleepy-irritated gaze towards Hermoine. "There''s nothing good about this. . . . not a single thing. There is still time, you know? We''re still rtively near themon room ¡ª how about we go back and return to sleep. . . . Second sleeps are supposed to be very good."


    "Studies say that waking up early in the morning is good for your health," said Hermione, stating a fact, "even magic is affected by waking up in the morning. If one wakes up early in the morning, the rate of magic regeneration increases; though it takes a couple months to get that benefit. . . . so how about it; should we make this a daily thing."


    "Over my sleeping body, we will." The redhead wasn''t a morning person.


    The girls exited the castle and arrived in the green meadows of Hogwarts. A cool morning breeze caressed their faces, paired with the not so bright sun overhead and the lush greens below. . . .


    "Hmm, it''s not half bad," said Ivy.


    "So, every day?"


    "Still a no on that front."


    The girls had no specific ns, so they started to walk in the green, chatting about the uing day and the trivial things that came to their minds.


    ". . . . so I had to charm Ron''s things with a stinging spell so that if he got up before doing his homework to y, he would be stung if he touched any of his belongings." Hermione narrated thetest entry in the list of methods to make Ron do his homework when she noticed Ivy had stopped walking.


    "What happened?" she asked.


    When Ivy didn''t reply, Hermione followed Ivy''s line of sight.


    "Is that Quinn?" asked Hermione, seeing the familiar figure, "what is he doing?"


    The fifth-year Ravenw boy was dressed in a simple white t-shirt and ck shorts with running shoes on his feet. And instead of exercising as his attire portrayed, Quinn was standing still.


    "He is," Hermione followed Quinn''s line of sight and saw, "staring at a crow?"


    The girls watched as Quinn continued to stare unblinkingly at the crow, which was resting on the ground, looking for food in the trimmed grass. He didn''t even notice them as they walked towards him.


    "Quinn?" called out Ivy.


    Quinn jolted out his staring trance, almost jumped out of his shoes when he heard his name being called so close to him.


    "Ivy, Hermione," he started, seeing the two Gryffindors, "what are you two doing here," he put a hand in his pocket and took out a pocket watch as he continued, "what''s the time? Hmm? It''s only fifteen to seven. Thank god, I thought I waste."


    "What were you doing staring at that crow?" asked Ivy.


    Quinn nced at the bird for a second before returning, "It''s not a crow. It''s a raven. As for the reason ¡ª she''s really ck."


    ". . . .What?"


    "The raven," he repeated, "it''s really ck, and I guess I kind of got lost staring at her."


    "Her?" asked Hermione.


    "Yeah," said Quinn tilting his head, "can''t you tell? That bird is clearly a girl."


    Ivy and Hermione studied the ck raven, and they couldn''t tell that the bird was a female from any angle.


    "Anyway, forget about the raven," said Quinn with his hands on his waist, "what brings you two hear this early in the morning?"


    "Oh, we decided to enjoy early mornings today, take a walk, and start the day earlier than usual," said Hermione.


    "Did you know that waking up early in the morning does wonder to the rate of magic regeneration?" said Quinn sharing one of the reasons he got up early every day.


    Hermione turned to Ivy and gave her best friend a smug look. Ivy''s face twitched once before she decided to pretend to ignore the topic.


    "What about you," asked Ivy, "why are you here so early in the morning?"


    "This is a part of my daily routine. I wake up at six every day and start my day with some exercise. It helps me shed the sleepiness and gets me ready for the day."


    Hermione nodded, "I see ¡ª"


    Hermione watched as a figure came running out of the corner, sprinting at full speed with long strides and arm swinging wildly at his sides. He came blitzing towards them as he passed by; the three heard, "$#*@^%! ¡ªQUINN! $#*@^%!"


    "That was Eddie Carmichael. What''s he doing?"


    Quinn chuckled and peered at the sprinting Eddie, "You missed it, huh. Wait about a minute, he wille back, and you will see."


    "Missed what?" asked Ivy.


    As Quinn said, after a minute, Eddie came back, but this time was lightly jogging instead of running like a madman. Strangely, he didn''t stop and started to jog circles around them.


    "The good Potter and Granger," he said calmly as if he hadn''t run past them hurling profanities, "what are you two doing here?"


    Ivy nodded appreciatively at being called the good Potter even though she knew it was because Eddie didn''t get along with her brother.


    "What are YOU doing?" asked Hermione as Eddie continued jogging around them, but then she saw a golden glint following behind him. "Is that a snitch?"


    "Yeah, it''s the shitty snitch," spat Eddie, sending a re towards Quinn.


    "What?" said Quinn, "you were the one who asked to help you gain the edge against Krum. I''m just helping you."


    Eddie clicked his tongue but didn''t retort ¡ª he did ask for this.


    "Why is the snitch following him?" asked Ivy.


    "Ah, that''s actually part of his new training," answered Quinn, feeling like a new-age coach, "that''s a standard snitch which I''ve modified to follow instead of running away. As you can see, I''ve also cut most of its speed, so Eddie can actually run away from it ¡ª you don''t want to get caught by that snitch."


    "What happens if you get caught?"


    "You get a very creepy zap which carries throughout your body," said Eddie interjecting, "it doesn''t hurt, but it''s really unpleasant. . . . believe me, it feels really irksome." His body shivered, feeling the phantom feeling.


    "As he said," continued Quinn, "it''s just a basic carrot and stick policy¡ª"


    "There''s no carrot!" yelled Eddie.


    "¡ª It gives him the motivation to keep running," said Quinn, "of course, as he can''t keep running, it slows down at specific intervals."


    "I can do it without this behind my back!"


    "Don''t kid yourself. You don''t like to run; this is the only way to get yourzy arse running. Sometimes I''m worried if you''ll be able to keep up without me pushing you."


    "Don''t act like¡ª" started Eddie, but then he heard a beeping sound and immediately sprinted off to the distance with the snitch picking up speed.


    Quinn turned to them and smiled as he offered, "Do you want to exercise with me? I can guarantee it will be a productive experience."


    Ivy and Hermione shared nces.


    "No, thank you."


    The raven behind them spread her wings and silently took flight, rising above the blue sky and joining two other ravens in their flight as the three flew in circles in the sky around the boy below on the ground.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn removed his outer Hogwarts robes, folding it before setting it to the side on a barstool. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, "to be honest, it''s not a fairpetition."


    "Yes, I''m sure," answered Cedric, stretching his body, "about it being a fairpetition, we will see about that."


    Quinnughed and took out his fake wand, holding it in hand with azy grip.


    Given that the third task was so close, Cedric had booked a thirty-minute slot in Quinn''s schedule to have a mock duel with him to practice for the third task.


    "Alright then," smiled Quinn at the confidence, "tell me when you''re ready."


    "I''m ready," replied Cedric, folding his sleeves with his wand in hand.


    Both duelers took their stance, with Cedric holding his wand in front of him with a severe expression while Quinn sported a rxed expression with his wand hanging by his side.


    Quinn raised his left hand and showed a silver sickle pinched between his finger. "I will toss this sickle, and the moment we hear the sound of it hitting the ground will be the signal to start."


    Cedric nodded, and the coin was tossed up. While it was in the air, the two matched eyes, and Cedric saw a smile in Quinn''s eyes. His peripheral vision caught the silver glint of the sickle, and his eyes subconsciously followed the coin. Clink, clink, clink. . . . the coin hit the ground, and Cedric immediately charged magic while his eyes moved towards Quinn.


    "Huh?" uttered Cedric. He saw a glowing wand tip pointed at him ¡ª in the moment he had removed his eyes from Quinn, he(Quinn) had raised his wand to him(Cedric.)


    A spell zapped towards Cedric, and he had just enough time to pull up a shield, "Shit!" The attack hit the protection and fizzled away. But Cedric''s worries weren''t alone, as Quinn was already on the verge of casting his second spell.


    "You need to be quick," Quinn''s voice hit Cedric''s ears as he saw another red zapping towards him, which mmed hard against his shield, thoroughly damaging it, breaking its structural integrity.


    Cedric pushed more magic into the shield, trying to make it stronger, but then two spells once again assaulted the shield.


    "You can''t hide behind a shield," Cedric heard Quinn, "you have to go on attack sometime; train to strike first."


    Cedric step-shifted to his left and immediately shot a spell towards Quinn, who swatted the spell away with a smile.


    "Most of the time, it''s a game of speed," said Quinn and started to walk while continuing to swat and block Cedric''s spell. "striking first always helps. Hit them before they get a chance to hit you."


    Cedric, who had been offense and was in the midst of casting for a knockback hex on Quinn, abruptly had to cancel the spell when he saw a knockback hex jolting towards him.


    "Oof!" despite his best efforts, Cedric wasn''tpletely able to deflect the spell and had to take a partial knockback hex to the arm, making it numb immediately.


    Just when Cedric thought that the current volley was over, he saw another knockback hex appear, and this time, he felt a huge lung emptying grunt as he felt a chain of glint in his eye.


    "One spell isn''t enough. To make sure your target is hit, cast two spells and get ready for anything required for the solutions."


    Cedricid fat on the ground and saw Quinn walk into the edge of his vision.


    "How are you," asked Quinn.


    "I got a bad start," said Cedric, "next time, I won''t lose."


    Quinn pulled Cedric up andughed, "We will see about that."


    And they did see. Till the end of the allotted time, Quinn disarmed, knocked, stunned in twenty duels. And not once did Quinne into contact with any spell from Cedric.


    As Quinn had said, the exchange wasn''t fair.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I''m busy!


    Victor Krum - Champion - Or maybe he hasn''t given up.


    Eddie Carmichael - Ravenw Chaser - Being put through unorthodox training.


    Ivy Potter - Potter Twin - Not a morning person.


    Hermione Granger - Knows facts about anything she does - She knows her stuff.


    Cedric Diggory - Champion - Got his ass-whooped. . . a lot.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Sleepy, yawn.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 182 - Finals, Life, Crash...

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Bam, B-Bam, Bam, B-Bam. . ..


    Boom. . . Boom. . . Boom. . .


    The quidditch stadium was filled to the brim, and then some with Hogwarts students and outsiders ¡ª the entire crowd was dressed in the colors of red-&-pewter and ck-&-green; the two groups of colors dominated the stands, diving the stadium right into two associations.


    Bam, B-Bam, Bam, B-Bam. . . the sounds of drums from the red-&-pewter side as the supporters of Treacherous Barons roused up the stands with huge drums strategically ced around their side with students sounding them in perfect, rhythmic coordination.


    Boom. . . Boom. . . Boom. . . countering the drums were loud boom fromrge, shiny-ck, smoking cannons, firing nks at regr intervals for the rilled-up, rowdy crowd sporting Trolling Boogey''s ck-&-green who were waving ck gs with neon-green trolls dancing on them.


    Quinn watched the ambiance of the stands from the sky above and outside of the stadium while sitting on a broom. Taking in things for onest time before he had to go in and host his quidditch tournament onest time. It had been a long few months since the start of the tournament. Week after week, Quinn hade across a new problem that he solved and, in doing so, enjoyed/hated the process of organizing something of this scale.


    "Onest time," he sighed with a slight smile on his face, "ah, this time went by too quickly ¡ª should''ve enjoyed it a bit more." Quinn shook his head before breathing out ¡ª he was ready.


    He steered his broom and entered the stadium, flying into the center of everything. Quinn raised a hand, and the cannons stopped shooting nks, also the drums stopped beating.


    "Wee all," he said, his voice sounding far and wide, "wee to the finals of the best quidditch tournament the world had ever seen. Through the journey past seventeen weeks, we have seen everything ¡ª blowouts,st-minute stands, amazing goals, ever-amazing saves, crazy snitch races, and so many exciting things that made me get up from my seat and constantly be on edge. . . . I swear some of the games weren''t good for my health ¡ª I definitely lost a few years of my life since the start of the tournament."


    As he spoke, Quinn had a genuine smile on his face as he recalled all the times he had gone beyond enjoying hosting and got swept by excitement while watching amazing ys ¡ª sports tend to have that effect on people, and Quinn was no different.


    "Today is thest day I''ll have the pleasure of hosting all of you people," he smiled, "thest day that we will get to experience a format of quidditch which inspires excitement and thrill ¡ª focusing on providing the maximum entertainment possible per every second of the game."


    Slowly he descended down on the ground and took a deep breath, filling his lungs to the limit.


    "So! Let''s make this one more special than ever! Raise those voices! Let everyone hear that this is the ce to be! Let them hear what they''re missing! Let''s make some noise and get this party started!"


    And oh boy, they did make some noise! They made a lot of noise.


    Quinn raised his hands wide, and fireworks shot from the edges of the stadium, and the student volunteers flew above the stadium in intricate formations shooting smoke trails behind them.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The inside the Trolling Boogeys locker room was quiet, which was strange for them.


    The keeper looked to the center of the room before nudging Cedric, who was checking doing a final check on his equipment. "Do you know what''s wrong with him? He''s never this quiet ¡ª ever, especially before a game."


    Cedric nced to the room''s center, where Eddie sat with his head down and shook his head, "I don''t know ¡ª we can always ask him, but it looks like he''s concentrating, so let him be."


    Suddenly, Eddie stood up, and everyone twitched, thinking that he would finally return start and return to give speeches aimed to inspire them, but Eddie didn''t speak up and started to perform thest check on his equipment.


    "There''s definitely something different about him today."


    Cedric studied the silent Eddie and smiled, "Yes, there''s something different about him today. . ." ''He''s already in his game mode,'' he thought.


    . . .


    The ambiance in Treacherous Barons''s locker was militant ¡ª matching the leading style of the captain, Victor Krum.


    "Our ystyle is opposite to that of Boogeys''," said Krum, addressing his team, "unlike them, we''re a defensive team with me trying to get the snitches for our team for scores and the chaser squad working on counters and interceptions."


    It was a ystyle from the Bulgarian team that Krum had adjusted for the current team. It heavily depended on the beaters hindering the chasers and chasers constantly on the lookout for pass steals. More importantly, Krum had to get multiple snitches for the team to win because, unlike the pro-format, format-Quinn only gave fifty points per snitch.


    Krum looked at the beaters and instructed, "Focus on Eddie Carmichael. You have to make sure he doesn''t flyfortably around the pitch; don''t give him any space to move. Allowing Eddie Carmichael freedom can and will make things a little too tight to my liking."


    The beaters nodded and nced at each other. If Krum had said the same thing to them at the start of the tournament, they would have raised their hand in thumbs up and given a guarantee that Eddie wouldn''t get the chance to get in the rhythm, but right now, things had changed ¡ª Eddie Carmichael was THE threat on Trolling Boogeys ¡ª he was a super scorer who consistently matched what team seekers snitched together.


    "I will take care of Cedric Diggory, so make sure everyone does their job. If everyone does their job, we will definitely win."


    "Yes!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn sat down in hismentator chair and beamed, feeling the simr metal railing in front of him and the scoreboard that hung on the opposite side of the stadium.


    He nced back and greeted his constantpanions, apanying him every week during the games. "Oh, my, professors ¡ª all of you look sharp today."


    For thest day, the professors had decided to put on their freshest robes. The tournament had grown so big that it had long since surpassed in poprity of the Tri-wizard tournament. Outsiders coulde to the games on a weekly basis, which granted it greater visibility, and with a well-established betting system in ce, the poprity only increased more.


    "Well, I hope all of you have ced your bets; the money in y today surpasses every other game by great margins," continued Quinn, "it''s a pity that I can''t bet ¡ª it would''ve been fun to take part in the festivity."


    The professors stared at Quinn as if he was joking. All the profit that the "house" made went directly to Quinn as he was the "house." It was his money that started the betting system, and every knut of the profit went into Quinn''s pocket. They could only imagine how much money Quinn had made from the quidditch tournament.


    If someone asked Quinn, he would pull on a fat smile and reply with, "A lot of money," while patting his stomach as if have eaten a sumptuous meal, "enough to fill so many bathtubs."


    "Now, let''s get started!" grinned Quinn with the sonorous took effect, "let the finals begin ¡ª hold on to your seats, people, because things are going to fly."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Yeah! Go, Eddie!" yelled Tracey. She was wearing a ck-&-green jersey with Eddie''s name on the back and had put cute little greens strips on her cheeks.


    She looked and her side and urged, "Come on, Daphne. Wave that g with some enthusiasm. We have to support Eddie to the best of our ability."


    Daphne stared at the g in her hand, "It''s really heavy."


    "Choose better excuses," pouted Tracey, "lighten it up with a spell and get your hands moving," she then smirked, "or maybe it''s because Krum is ying and he was your date. . . . ufufu."


    The words irked Daphne ¡ª Tracey knew that she liked Quinn, and yet she was teasing her. But it worked as she lightened up her g and started to wave it gently.


    ''Hehe, I knew that would work,'' chuckled Tracey in her mind. Daphne had been very annoyed by people pairing her with Krum, and Tracey knew to employ that to her advantage. "Yeah, let''s make some noise!"


    . . .


    "You don''t look happy at all,"mented Ron looking at his best friend.


    Harry had crossed his hands and grumbled, "I want to y. Cedric and Krum are ying ¡ª"


    "You missed Carmichael."


    "Why would I care what he does," Harry clicked his tongue, "he can die in a ditch for all I care."


    "Don''t be a sore loser; it''s unsightly," said Ivy, wearing green-&-ck colors as Trolling Boogeys was a "Hogwarts" team.


    "Like you get to talk," Harry quipped back, "I had seen enough of you being a sore loser when we were little."


    Ivy red at her twin. It wasn''t her fault that Daphne tried to do whatever she did; her trying to one-up her was only normal. . . . Yeah, it wasn''t her fault, she thought.


    "Okay, stop it," the sane voice of the group raised her voice to stop the fighting. Hermione gave them all a look saying that she wasn''t in the mood to deal with a squabble, "let''s just enjoy the game ¡ª it''s thest game of this year, we won''t be able to see any more games after today."


    Harry sighed and nodded, "Yeah, you''re right."


    "Of course, I am," said Hermione, "also enjoy the game because we''re going back to the library after this to study for the third task."


    "Ugh," groaned Harry. He had been spending a lot of time in the library ever since the task had been revealed.


    Ivy nodded and added to Hermione, "Yes, after that, we''ll be practicing the spells. So be ready to get started right after Hermione is done with you."


    While Harry was okay with practicing spells, he was always mentally tired after sessions with Hermione. He knew that the task was close, but he really wanted some break.


    He sighed and decided to follow their advice and rx with the game in front of him. "If Carmichael doesn''t score any points, then it would be perfect."


    "That''s unlikely to happen."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The game was a heated one. Both teams went against each other with a heated passion. And because one of the teams was a pro-defensive team, the numbers on the scoreboard were low. But despite all that, the game was a nail-bitter and throat-soaring affair as there was a constant back-and-forth between the two teams.


    "I must say," Quinn''s voice red, "the game between these two teams might be perfect as the finals. . . . the tournament started with these two teams, and now we havee full circle and ending with these two teams. It''s like a journey on disy in front of us ¡ª I can see how the teams have changed from week one ¡ª the progress they have made through all the weeks, all the adjustments, improvements, and the built synergy is one disy in front of us."


    "Ah, how about what we hear from someone who knows much more about quidditch than me," said Quinn, before turning and pointing his fake wand as it was a microphone, "professor McGonagall, what do you think about the current game?"


    McGonagall blinked for a couple of seconds before taking her own wand to cast a Sonorous on herself,


    "Ahem, Ipletely agree with your words here, Quinn. Quidditch is indeed like a journey. I would even go as far as to say that it''s akin to life itself. A team is formed ¡ª it''s a birth. Teams go through their ups and downs just like a person in the form of wins and losses and learn from those lessons like any other person would from their life experience. Finally, today after this game, the teams would disband, which might bepared to death. . . . of course, to a well-prepared mind, death is but the next great adventure."


    Quinn smiled at the quote at the end, and so did those who had heard it from the original speaker himself.


    "But maybe it''s not akin to death. They will be taking precious memories with them and carry them with them for a long-long time," she smiled, "to me, it''s one of the most beautiful things in life."


    Quinn smiled in return and nodded, "Those were some beautiful and insightful words, professor. Though as you said,paring team disbandment with death¡ª"


    He stopped when he saw the widening of eyes on the professors'' faces as an expression of shock and what he identified as horror spread on their faces. Then he heard a collective gasp from the stands and restless chatter.


    Quinn turned back just in time to see a broom crash into the ground, and the rider skid across the green pitch violently. The force was so harsh that the green grass was pulled out on impact, with the brown dirt beneath showing.


    It wasn''t a usual crash that happened time from time during games. This was severe. . . . this was dangerous.


    ". . . . E-Eddie."


    The professors all got up as this was a serious matter and were about to take action when they heard the metal railing of the booth groan loudly. As if it was being forced to bend.


    "Quinn!" At the sound of his name, Quinn turned and saw Flitwick staring at him with serious eyes. "Please, control yourself!"


    Quinn frowned and realized that his magic had gotten out of his control. He heard the groaning metal and turned to see the metal railing being brutally bent out of shape.


    He took a deep breath and got his magic back under his control, and bowed his head to the professors, "My apologies. I lost my calm for a moment, and my emotions triggered idental magic."


    Quinn looked at McGonagall and addressed her, "Professor McGonagall, please take over thementary. I have to go. . . ."


    "Eh, Mr. West, I understand your worries, but you don''t have to¡ª"


    "I can''t do it right now, professor. . . . not right now. I will do a terrible job if I''m to return tomentary, so please take over."


    McGonagall stared at Quinn, but the boy had already turned away from her and was staring at the field. "Alright, Mr. West," she said, "I will take care of you. . . . so, you can go."


    "Thank you, professor."


    Then Quinn left.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn didn''t mind pushing his all into body magic, pushing his speed to the limit as he ran through Hogwarts and entered the hospital wing. Right now, he couldn''t give a rat''s ass if someone saw him running at speeds at the peak of human level.


    "Madam Pomfrey!" he yelled.


    The response was prompt and stern, "Don''t yell, this a hospital!"


    "How is he?" asked Quinn as he made his way towards the sound.


    ". . . . Cracked skull, shattered shoulders, broken ribs, punctured organs. . . . his knee caps and ankles busted from impact, he''s injured all over. . . and. . . he has lost a lot of blood."


    He reached the bed and found that it waspletely covered. "I want to help."


    "You stay out there," sounded Poppy, "I don''t need your help. You can sit there and wait. He''ll be fine, I promise."


    Quinn clenched his fists and obeyed ¡ª he stayed out but didn''t move from his spot.


    "Eddie!"


    Quinn turned to see a haggard Marcus at the entrance of the hospital wing. He was wheezing and sweating all over. Even though his lungs hurt, Marcus hurried towards Quinn and grabbed him by the shoulder.


    "How is he?!"


    "Madam Pomfrey says he''ll be fine. She''s treating him."


    "He¡ª"


    "He''ll be fine," assured Quinn to Marcus and himself.


    "O-Okay," said Marcus and left Quinn''s shoulders. Just like Quinn, he also stood there.


    Another set of footsteps sounded, and Luna ran into the hospital wing. The girl with a usually perpetual dreamy expression looked scared as she stared at Quinn and Marcus.


    "E-Eddie," she spoke, her voice cracking, "E-Eddie."


    Quinn patted Marcus and told him to sit down as he went to handle Luna. He hugged the little girl and helped her calm down by speaking words of assurance into her ears.


    The next to arrive were Tracey and Daphne, and both looked extremely worried ¡ª especially Tracey, who looked the most stressed anyone here had seen the brte.


    The group waited silently waited with a thick tension and worry in the room. No one made a sound or talked to each other as they waited for Madam Pomfrey toe out.


    And when the medi-witch dide out, all of them surrounded her.


    "How is he?" asked Quinn, his voice bordering at shouting levels.


    Poppy stared at the students in front of her and smiled, "He will be fine. It will take him some time to wake up, but he will be up by tomorrow."


    Quinn let out a breath of worry and squinted his eye as he felt the distress leave his body.


    "Thank you," he said and repeated, "thank you."


    "Thank you," he said once again.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Thank you. . . ."


    Eddie Carmichael - Injured - In aa.


    Poppy Pomfrey - Medi-witch - ''Having good friends is a blessing.''


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 183 - Rewards, Curses, Ravens.

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Uhmnngh."


    Eddie slowly opened his eyes, letting the dim light enter his eyes. His heartbeat fastened when he couldn''t see properly as everything was blurred, but before the panic could set in, his vision cleared, and he could see the white ceiling in his sight..


    "Nmuhmnghumn," his throat was really parched, and he could feel it hurt if he even gulped a little too hard.


    "You''re finally awake, huh, you little¡ª," he heard with a sigh at the end.


    Eddie slowly turned his head to the side to see Quinn sitting there with a book in his hands. Eddie didn''t say anything but took in the sight of his best friend.


    ". . . . You look terrible," said Eddie in a voice too quiet for him.


    The Quinn West, he knew, was meticulous in most of the things he did, especially in the way he dressed. But right now, Eddie could see ever so little out-of-ce hair, a shirt that wasn''t ironed, tie out of ce, and with half the shirt not tucked into the pants.


    "You look like you lost control of a broom at high speed and crashed hard into the ground," said Quinn.


    Eddie weakly smiled andughed just to fall into a coughing fit. . . . "Ah, so that happened, huh. I do remember being shing with the beaters and then taking a bludger into the back. . . ."


    "You lost control," said Quinn, snapping his book close, "you were too aggressive ¡ª no, you were in reckless. There''s a reason why chasers work in a three-man squad."


    "Hmm," said Eddie, avoidingmenting on the subject, "how long was I out?"


    "It''s been thirty hours since your crash."


    "Did we win?"


    Quinn silently stared at Eddie for a good few moments before sighing in answer, "Barons won. They say it was a blowout."


    "They?"


    ". . . . I wasn''t at the game."


    "Ah ¡ª you were here, huh. . . . It must be serious."


    "It was and wasn''t ¡ª you could''ve died on the spot, but because you held on, Madam Pomfrey was able to patch you up. It was either all or nothing."


    Eddieughed into another coughing fit, "Ah, it hurts. . . . of course, I held on ¡ª my life is too precious for me to let go of it."


    Quinn smiled just a bit, staring at Eddie. "You look like a mummy with the bandages all over you."


    "Hmm, I''m sure rocking this look. . . . also, I''ve been coughing here for a while, why are you just sitting here, can you call Madam Pomfrey? My throat is really hurting."


    "You will be fine," said Quinn, "you slept with your mouth open." He took waved his hand, and Eddie felt a soothing feeling in his throat. "I''ll give you a potionter; that will fix you uppletely."


    Eddie stared at Quinn''s empty hand and smiled before going back to staring at the ceiling. "When do I get out of here?"


    "You''ll be back to normal in three to four days. Madam Pomfrey will discharge you out of here in a week."


    Eddie groaned at the thought of staying in the hospital wing for a week under the vignt eye of prison warden Pomfrey.


    "You should rest; you really look like shit," said Eddie, "I''ll be fine and go back to the dorm to get some sleep."


    "I''ll be fine¡ª"


    "You''re too ugly for me to look at, so you should go."


    Quinn faulted for a second at the tant disrespect even though he had just spent an entire day by the bedside.


    "I will inform Madam Pomfrey; she''ll perform a check-up," said Quinn getting up with a sigh, "Marcus will being next to keep youpany."


    "He doesn''t have to do that."


    "He doesn''t have to, but he wants to, so don''tin and justy there. If we leave you alone, you''ll get bored out of your mind and try to do something stupid."


    "Even I can behave, you know?!"


    "Sure, you can."


    With that, Quinn left, leaving Eddie alone for the first time since his ident. Eddie sighed and stared intently at the ceiling, red at the ceiling, trying to hold it back, but he couldn''t.


    "Fuck, we lost. . . . and I wasn''t even there. . . . fuck. . . lost."


    Poppy entered the curtained-off bed and saw that her patient had red eyes, trembling lower lip and chin as if holding something back.


    "Are you crying?" she asked.


    "No! You''re crying!"


    "What?" she uttered before moving closer while thinking if Eddie had hit his head a little too hard.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Sorry to keep all of you waiting," said Quinn sitting down behind his desk in the AID office. It was a few hours after he had left the hospital wing, and he had freshened up and was back to his usual self.


    He looked up at the six people in front of him and smiled, "To start this off, I would like to thank all of you for all the hard work that you did for the past few months. It was because of your constant efforts that our quidditch tournament became as big of a thing as it did and proceeded as smoothly it did."


    Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Fred, and Geroge Weasley sat in front of Quinn, the students Quinn had hired to help him with the tournament.


    "Ms. Bones and Ms. Abbot," said Quinn to the Hufflepuff group in the room, "your efforts in maintaining the sales of merchandise were a great help to the tournament. The sales were more than enough to cover all the day-to-day costs needed to run the tournament. Your performance was outstanding, and the fact that you handled everything on your own for most of the time showed how capable you were. . . . please extend my gratitude to the students working under you."


    The two Hufflepuff girls smiled and nodded in appreciation. While the work had been tough, they had a lot of fun after getting used to it ¡ª over that, their poprity and status in Hogwarts had taken a jump.


    "Now, Daphne and Tracey," said Quinn to the Slytherin group in the room, "how do I even start. . . . if you two weren''t part of this ¡ª I''m pretty sure I would''ve been big, big trouble. The amount of work you guys put in was tremendous. Daphne, you were in contact with ten teams which were seventy people ¡ª the number of problems you solved for me was life-saving. And, Tracey, your job was even tougher ¡ª the number of unsavory letters you got really made me realize the number of shitty people out there; thank you for handling everything so well."


    Daphne gracefully nodded while Tracey beamed with pride. Both of their jobs were pretty time-consuming, and now with hindsight, Quinn would''ve contracted more people for the job the two Slytherin did alone.


    "To thank you for all that time you devoted week after week, I would like to thank you with a reward for your hard work," he said and levitated four rectangle coupons of parchment into the hands of the girls.


    "What is this??" asked Hannah.


    "In your hands are all-you-can-buy coupons for Madam Touswade''s at Horizont Alley."


    " " " "Madam Touswade!!" " " " All four girls in the room eximed at the same time. It was the premier store for woman''s fashion in the country, and having an all-you-can-buy coupon was


    "Uh-huh," smiled Quinn, "you can avail any service from there, and they will send the bill to me. You don''t have to feel shy so go nuts if you feel like it. The coupon is good till you another three years; as such, you don''t have to go right now and can use the coupon when you actually need it."


    The girls stared at the ornately printed coupons in their hands with amazement.


    "Well, I hope you like it. If you don''t, I can always switch it with a hefty amount of coin for you to use."


    "No, thank you," replied Susan while the other girls nodded.


    Quinn looked at the Weasly twins and just smiled at the Gryffindor group in the room. He wordlessly took out one stack of parchment and one of paper before handing it to the twin brothers.


    The brothers stared at Quinn, then at each other, before reading their respective stacks. For a couple of pages, the twins nodded and continued to read, and at a certain page, their eyes widened.


    "A-Are you serious?" "I-Is this amount real?!"


    "Oh, it''s real," smiled Quinn, "I will invest that amount in your shop. From what you have pitched to and I''ve calcted, the amount I''m promising will keep your shot afloat for a year even if you don''t sell a single thing ¡ª everything from store rent to research and production can and will be covered by the promised amount."


    The twins dumbfoundedly stared at the paper. Not only was the amount immense, but Quinn was only asking a very reasonable volume of share of the shop in return.


    "If you flip a few more pages. It also says that I will re-invest my part of profits back into the shop for the first three years to support the growth," said Quinn and leaned ahead with his arms crossed over the table, "so what do you two say? Is this enough of a reward for your services? Am I to look forward to working with you two as part-owner of the future Weasleys'' Wizard Wheezes?"


    "Yeah¡ª" "¡ª Absolutely."


    "Alright then, read the papers over a couple times and sign the one drafted in parchments and bring it back to me; I''ll sign it, and then it will be one West and two Weasleys ¡ª three W-s with my W hidden behind you two W-s."


    " "O-Okay." "


    Quinn pulled back and gazed at the four people and found that all were a little too engrossed in their rewards, so he dismissed them so that they could take it in.


    As they left, Quinn called out to Tracey.


    "Yes?" she asked.


    "Eddie is awake," said Quinn, "you can go see him if you want."


    Tracey''s eyes widened. She nodded and wordlessly left the room with a bit of hurry in her steps. Her destination had changed from themon room to the hospital wing.


    With everyone gone and Quinn left alone in the office, the smile that had been present the entire time he talked to the six members drained away.


    There was only one more thing left on the docket for today, it was the most important thing, and he was going to take care of it today itself.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "That was a great party yesterday," said one of the Treacherous Baron''s beaters, "those Durmstrang sure know how to party."


    "Uh-huh, the amount of firewhiskey they had was insane," said the other beater.


    The two beaters were Hogwarts students who were backup beaters for Slytherin as the starting beaters from every Hogwarts house team went with their house captains. As such, the other six teams had to do with backup beaters and then some.


    "It was worth it," said the first beater.


    "It sure was," the other one agreed, "we sure made a lot of money."


    They had a bet a lot of money that Treacherous Barons would win and that Eddie Carmichael would score less than a certain total, and the two had bet on a number that was not statistically probable given Eddie Carmichael''s performance ¡ª but their bet hade true in the form of Eddie not ying for arge portion of the, and thus they had a made money from outstanding odds.


    They reached the dungeon stair as they were going upwards, and when they looked up, they froze.


    "I heard you made a lot of money."


    The two Slytherin beaters immediately felt their throat dry up and body heat up with cold sweat drip down their backs. Quinn West was sitting on the steps, with his elbows resting on his knees, and was staring at them with half-lidded eyes.


    "Money is a great temptation," he said, "it incites greed, and believe me when I say that I know what greed feels like," the hollow look in Quinn''s eyes scared the Slytherin beaters, "and I know what you felt when you decided to give in to the greed. . . . it was so simple, wasn''t it? One night after supper, you were enjoying that stashed away firewhiskey and how it''s yourst year and were talking about what to do after ¡ª how it would be great to travel for a bit and only if you guys had the money."


    The two started to tremble in their shoes as Quinn spoke in a t tone. Everyone knew that Quinn West and Eddie Carmichael were as close as brothers, and right now, they were face-to-face with Quinn West.


    "Then it struck like the Eureka! You were sitting on coin multiplying well, so you decided to ce bets on the final game ¡ª the game in which you were ying and could. . . . manipte it," they saw Quinn stand up and climb down, "it''s just that you went a little far in that maniption ¡ª you gave a little too much into greed and let it take control over it."


    "I-I don''t know what you''re talking about, m-mate."


    "West, look, we don''t have this."


    "Yeah, mate. It was just an ident."


    "The crash had nothing to do with us."


    Quinn reached thest step, and a deep voice came from him, "I never said that you did." His hands went up and grabbed their temples with a loud snap; he gripped so hard that veins popped out from his arms.


    "W-What are you¡ª"


    "S-Stop ¡ª Stop!"


    They tried to protest, but before they could do anything more, their eyes rolled up, and the two guys went soundless. Their bodies remained stiff, and they remained standing, but their minds had been made to disable a lot of its functionality ¡ª namely conscious thought.


    Quinn stared at the two as his magic entered their bodies, "I''m going to exact some revenge, okay?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn sat near the edge of the greatke, looking over the calm surface of the water. Coincidentally, the spot he sat on was the same he hadid injured from the Aquatic vault, trying to heal himself while dementors descended above from above. He looked to the side at the trees where he had seen his past self heal himself and cast a Patronus for protection.


    Quinn had exacted revenge on the two beaters, as he stated.


    Now, whenever they would hear or spoke the word quidditch, they would violently hurl out their stomach contents and shit from behind without warning. Quinn cursed them such that while they would be fine till the end of this school year, but the second they graduated, the curse would take hold of them.


    "Good luck traveling or going out at all or talking to anyone," he said with no regret. Of course, he had erased their memories of the incident, erasing any evidence from him.


    Quinn sighed and rubbed his temple. He originally wanted to inflict the same injuries that Eddie suffered back on them by beating to an inch of their life, but his self-control decided against it and just went something that would haunt them for a very long time.


    ''Was my betting the reason. . . .'' thought Quinn, before shaking that thought off. He didn''t want to go into the direction.


    Flutter, Flutter. . . . a ravennded right now in front of him.


    "A raven," said Quinn, "what''s the deal with these ravens? I''ve been seeing so many of them these days. Is there a season or something, I don''t know about?"


    Flutter. . . . Quinn heard another flutter of wings and saw another ravennd to his side.


    Then another onended.


    "Huh."


    One after another, ravens started descending from the sky,nding on the ground and the trees to his side. He looked up and saw a murder of ravens flying above him.


    Quinn hurriedly stood up, and even though he knew this was an abnormal situation and something was off, he couldn''t remove his eyes from the sky. The murder of ravens that flew above his head was flying in a circle ¡ª a ring ¡ª and from through the center of that raven ring, Quinn could see the half-moon hanging in the sky.


    A blood half-moon.


    Beat, beat, beat. . . . Quinn''s hand went over his chest, and he could feel his heartbeat faster with no fault of his own.


    ''What?''


    Quinn looked down at his hands, and he could feel the magic inside his move. He wasn''t doing anything, yet his magic moved on his.


    ''Something ising.''


    Quinn could feel it from within that something was changing in his body and that he couldn''t stop it. What happening to him wasn''t the start ¡ª it was already the end.


    As Quinn was looking at his hands, his eyes caught the first raven that hadnded right in front of him. The human''s stone-grey eyes met with the raven''s pitch ck as the bird and human stared at each other.


    Then it happened.


    The ravens from all around him spread their wings and flew towards and formed a dome of flying ck around him,yers uponyers of birds of death covered Quinn.


    There was a sharp pulsating burst of white light from within the ck dome before it died down. When the ravens flew away, what remained wasn''t a human but a raven standing on the ground.


    The raven was the biggest a raven could be, and if you looked closer, the pitch-ck feathers had a purple sheen to them under a certain light. Thest thing that made this raven different was the eyes ¡ª they weren''t ck, but a deep stone-grey color.


    The raven spread its wings, raised its ws, cawed loudly, and pecked the ground before going still. Suddenly, the raven twisted and turned at wild, unnatural angles, and not long after, a human was standing in its ce.


    Quinn stared at his hands in shock, surprised, and a whole bunch of emotions shed on his face.


    "Holy shit! Holy Shit!! HOLY SHIT!!!"


    Quinn West was an Animagus.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - Anger Investor - Caw! Caw! Caw!


    Eddie Carmichael - Mummified - I''m not crying! *Sniff*


    George and Fred - Weasley twins - Just secured funding.


    Four Girls - Hufflepuff and Slytherin - There''s shopping in the future.


    Slytherin Beaters - Cursed - Future seems tough for them.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - It was an internal Hogwarts conspiracy.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 184 - Ritual, Special, Separate Ways

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "This isn''t a runic circle!" yelled Quinn, pointing at the marble stratum, "this is a fuc¡ª," his voice went high-pitched, "this is a ritual ¡ª a runic ritual!"


    What was a ritual? Ritual magic was an esoteric form of magic that delved into the deep mysteries of arcana. The works included in ritual magic were characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite essories to aid the practitioner. It can be seen as an extension of ceremonial magic and synonymous with it in most cases.. Poprized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it draws on such schools of philosophical and ult thought as Hermetic Qabh, Enochian magic, Thelema, and the magic of various grimoires.


    Ritual magic came in many forms ¡ª potions, alchemy, astrology, sacrificial, and in this case, runic.


    The practice of ritual magic often required tools made or explicitly consecrated for that use, which were necessary for a particr ritual or series of rituals. They were a symbolic representation of psychological elements of the magical or of metaphysical concepts.


    It just so happened the "tool" for this particr ritual was the entire marble tform and the nineyers of rune etched into the stone ¡ª the runes that Quinn had himself fixed with so much enthusiasm.


    "Damn it!" he cursed. Quinn wanted to pound the marble into shatters but didn''t ¡ª it had taken a lot of time to fix it.


    "Calm down, calm down," he breathed, reigning his anger, "it''s okay, it''s fine. . . . it''s just unlocked my animagus form. . . . it''s all good."


    But he groaned and squatted down, his head hanging down. If he knew that this was a ritual, he would''ve never activated it ¡ª at most, he would have fixed it and showed it to Friar, but other than that, Quinn would''ve left it alone.


    Rituals were a branch of magic that Quinn stayed away from ¡ª to be specific, he hadn''t studied ritual in any of its forms. . . . yet. Rituals were magic of a permanent kind, which meant once you performed a ritual to add a certain quality to the target, reversing the applied change became extremely difficult.


    This was a problem as ritual magic was highlyplicated and required a vast array of knowledge to perfect and gain practicalpetence ¡ª in some ways, ritual magic was even more difficult than traditional alchemy. Quinn knew better than anyone that he wasn''t ready to perform rituals as he severelycked esoteric magic knowledge.


    And the fact that the animagus ritual that he had just undergone was targeted at himself ¡ª a living body, made it even worse as if a permanent change applied to his body went wrong, Quinn would be stuck with it until he found a way to reverse it. This was one thing that Quinn refused to happen to him as he didn''t want topromise the integrity of his body.


    The trifecta ¡ª mind, body, and soul, were the essence of oneself, and only when they were in bnce was a magical able to pull and utilize magic to its full extent. This applied even more to Quinn as he didn''t use a wand; as such, he didn''t have an external focus to help things along if his trifecta sprung out of bnce.


    "I can''t have them go out of bnce, not again."


    Yes, Quinn had already experienced his trifecta going out of bnce once, and the result was him losing the entirety of his ability to focus and mold magic. The Sin curse had struck through the soul and then thrown a wrench into his mind, making the trifecta deviate from its original bnce.


    "Ugh, alright, let''s not think about it," he groaned beforeying down and doing a kip-up to get up, "let''s enjoy all the time and effort this saved me."


    In the end, the truth was that being part of this ritual had saved quite a bit of effort from his part.


    It took skill, practice, and patience for magicals to be Animagi. The process of bing an animagus was long and arduous and had the potential to backfire and cause the transformation to go horribly wrong. Many magicals simply felt that their time might better be employed in other ways, as the skill was of limited practical use unless one had a great need of disguise or concealment.


    Part of the process by which one became an animagus was holding a mandrake leaf in their mouth for an entire month ¡ª a whole month of having a leaf in his mouth while he spoke, drank, ate, and brushed his teeth sound torturous to Quinn ¡ª he had tasted a mandrake leaf before, it as far as from minty fresh as heaven was to hell.


    The significance of that month was to prepare the leaf to be used in the animagus potion, which required the brewer to recite an incantation (Amato Animo Animato Animagus) daily at very precise times, which were the only time of the day during which the brewer was allowed to tend to the potion.


    If done incorrectly, the process was extremely difficult and could result in disaster (such as permanent half-human, half-animal mutations). A magical had to keep a single mandrake leaf in their mouth for an entire month (from full moon to full moon). If the leaf was removed or swallowed, the witch or wizard would have to start over again.


    If, at the time of removing the leaf, which was the next visible full moon, the sky was cloudy, then the progress was ruined, and the magical was required to start over. At the next visible full moon, the wizard had to spit the leaf in a vial within range of the moon''s pure rays. To the moon-struck vial, the wizard or witch must add one of their own hairs, a silver teaspoon of dew that had not seen sunlight or been touched by human feet for seven days, and the chrysalis of a Death''s-head Hawk Moth. The mixture had to then be put in a quiet, dark ce and could not be in any way disturbed.


    Just this enough was soplicated that even many of those who were determined to attain their animagus form gave up halfway through.


    The next thing that had to happen was for the wizard to wait for a lightning storm, whenever that might be. During this waiting period, the magical would have to, at sunrise and sundown without fail, chant the incantation Amato Animo Animato Animagus with the tip of their wand ced over the heart. When, atst, there was a lightning storm, the wizard had to move immediately to arge and secure ce, recite the incantation one final time before then drinking the potion.


    "Rita Skeeter must really like her job to go through all that effort ¡ª total respect," thought Quinn out loud, "so did the Marauders ¡ª friendship goals right there."


    Quinn, of course, had ns to be an animagus; he was going to start the process during the summer break at home, where he would have the freedom to portkey to a dessert to avoid clouds on the full moon night and simrly go to a rainforest for lightning storms. Outside of school, he could use magic to speak without having to attract eyes and repeated questions.


    He rubbed his hand and looked all excited, "Now, let''s get to the good part."


    Quinn closed his eyes and felt the magic coursing through his body. He pulled on it, molded it, and finally triggered it ¡ª it was sudden ¡ª Quinn could feel his body change in real-time, being fashioned into another form as magic broke it down and reformed it into a much smaller and distinct shape.


    He opened his eyes and saw the ground was really close to his eye level ¡ª it was a feeling that he wasn''t used to, and if he was being honest, made him feel small ¡ª which he currently was. The feeling of not having fingers was another thing that felt odd ¡ª it wasn''t ufortable, just odd.


    ''As I thought, the ritual did actually add things to the mix.'' thought Raven-Quinn.


    An Animagus would still think as a human did when they were in their animal form, seeing as Rita Skeeter could eavesdrop on others'' conversations when she was in the form of a beetle. However, an Animagus'' feelings were not asplex when they were in their animal form. A Dementor''s influence on an Animagus in its animal form was weaker than on its human form. But right now, Quinn could feel the full spectrum of his emotions; there were no changes from his base human form.


    ''Nice,'' he felt satisfied; Quinn didn''t feel like dulling his emotions, "now, let''s get to the main act."


    Quinn spread his wings with what he thought was a charming caw and started to p them.


    "Caw, caw," what it meant was, ''Woah, this is uncanny.''


    His heart pounded in his bird chest, but strangely he didn''t feel scared ¡ª on the contrary, it was thrilling. Raven-Quinn sloppily pped his wing and flew like a chick on his first flight.


    ''Oh, I''m getting it. I''m getting it.'' Slowly but surely, Quinn got used to his wings, his very light body, and got a handle to fly.


    For ten mins, he flew above the marble before deciding that he was good enough and flew out of the room towards the Beelzebub''s Creepers mine, and withplete confidence, he flew out of the lower tunnel, traveled through the air, and flew into the upper tunnel without provoking any vines. Soon, Quinn was out of the Underground vault and was flying through the Forbidden Forest, doing the raven version of the obstacle course, weaving through canopies and tree vines.


    It felt amazing.


    Maybe this is what Eddie feels when he''s on a broom, thought Quinn. Eddie always spoke of the freedom he felt while flying ¡ª it was as if he was in another world. At this moment, Quinn finally understood why humankind craved wings ¡ª why flying held such mor in the minds of the countless individual.


    Quinn caw-ed loudly in excitement.


    Then suddenly, he sensed something from his left, and his stone-grey raven eyes saw a blob of white. He crookedly turned his bird body in the air and was able to dodge it just in time. Hended on a branch and vigntly gazed around to see a small acromant crawling down from a tree and towards his tree.


    ''Uh-huh, shouldn''t have done that. . . . but¡ª''


    He opened his beak, spread his wings, and caw-ed for gusts and des of wind to emit out to chop the acromant''s legs off.


    Quinn could use magic in his animagus form.


    It was how he could see in the Forbidden Forest.


    While in animagus form, magicals couldn''t use traditional magic, but the ritual had granted him the ability to continue cast magic.


    ''Though it''s a little difficult. I just need a little practice.''


    Quinn stared down at the legless acromant and retook flight, leaving the Forbidden Forest and flying towards the castle.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The mood in the castle as they entered June became excited and tense again. Everyone was looking forward to the third task, which would ur a week before the end of term.


    Cedric looked as they went together down the stone steps, out into the cloudy night, "What do you reckon it''s going to be? Fleur keeps going on about underground tunnels; she reckons we''ve got to find treasure."


    "That wouldn''t be too bad," said Harry, thinking that he would simply ask Hagrid for a niffler to do the job for him.


    They walked down the darkwn to the Quidditch stadium, turned through a gap in the stands, and walked out onto the field.


    "What''ve they done to it?" Cedric said indignantly, stopping dead.


    The Quidditch field was no longer smooth and t. It looked as though somebody had been building long, low walls all over it that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.


    "They''re hedges!" said Harry, bending to examine the nearest one.


    "Hello, there!" called a cheery voice.


    Quinn was standing in the middle of the field with Krum and Fleur. Harry and Cedric made their way toward them, climbing over the hedges.


    "Well, what do you think?" said Quinn happily as Harry and Cedric climbed over thest hedge. "Growing nicely, aren''t they? Give them one more week, and they''ll be twenty feet high. Don''t worry," he added, grinning, spotting the less-than-happy expressions on Harry''s and Cedric''s faces, "you''ll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we''re making here?"


    No one spoke for a moment. Then ¡ª


    "So this is the maze," grunted Krum.


    "That''s right!" said Bagman. "A maze. Just like I said before in our meeting. The third task''s really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be ced in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will win. There will be obstacles; Hagrid is providing several creatures."


    Harry, who knew only too well the kind of creatures that Hagrid was likely to provide for an event like this, thought it was unlikely to be any fun at all. However, he nodded politely like the other champions.


    "No underground tunnels?" asked Fleur.


    "No tunnels," replied Quinn. He looked at everyone waiting for questions. "Very well . . . if you haven''t got any questions, we''ll go back up to the castle, shall we, it''s a bit chilly. . . ."


    They had none.


    Krum went away like a lone wolf without saying a single word while Cedric and Harry left after saying a good night.


    Quinn nced back and saw Fleur still standing there behind him.


    "Hey," he said.


    "Hey," she replied.


    After their kiss at the second task, things hadn''t proceeded any further; instead of things getting heated, they had cooled down. While Quinn had let himself be taken over by the heat of the moment, but after that, he got himself back in control and went back to sticking to his initial decision to not start anything with Fleur.


    "You''re chipper today," said Fleur as she started to walk.


    "Yes," smiled Quinn and fell into step with Fleur, "I closed thest bit of remaining work rted to the tournament yesterday. Today was a free day for me after a very long time." Furthermore, he now knew what the marble runes did; as such, he wasn''t in a hurry to study them. Moreover, he had repaired the runes, so he knew the designs by memory and could study them anytime he wanted.


    "Ah, so that''s why you didn''tin like you didst time."


    Quinn chuckled and nodded, "Yes, unlikest time, I''m free now. So no problem to take out half an hour for this."


    "I see."


    The two fell into silence for a few seconds before Quinn asked, "What are your ns to do after this?"


    "I''ll probably go spend some time under the tutge of grandmother," replied Fleur while gazing at the moon, "mother says that it''s high time I fully got my Allure under control."


    "That sounds smart. What after that?"


    "I don''t know, haven''t thought about it yet."


    "Have you thought about, you know, joining one of the West firms? I''m sure Lia would love to have a Tri-wizard champion join the ranks. Moreover, it''s easier for Beauxbatons'' students to get in ¡ª the hiring team wouldn''t even blink if you apply."


    "Maybe," said Fleur. West hired a lot of students from Beauxbatons ¡ª it was up to a students'' skill what level of job they bagged. "Or maybe, I''ll go work under my father ¡ª he spent the entire breakst year trying to persuade me to join him."


    "Joining politics, huh. That might be a suitable upation for you ¡ª no offense, but a Ve has an edge with anything to with publicmunication."


    "None taken," she shrugged ¡ª it was true, "actually, my father wants me to start from the Auror department like he did and then make my way up from there."


    "Oh! Aurors ¡ª the best of the best. A good path if you want it."


    "It is, but I''m not sure if I want to do that. Being an Auror doesn''t sound appealing to me," said Fleur before turning the question to Quinn, "what about you? What do you wanna do after Hogwarts?"


    "I''m going to travel after Hogwarts ¡ª learn magic from all over the world," replied Quinn.


    "What about after that?"


    "Absolutely no idea. I''ll probably continue researching, but maybe I''ll give being an Auror a try or a professor or maybe continue traveling and be a traveling author. . . . who knows what the future me would want to do," said Quinn. He truly didn''t know what he was going to do except continue learning magic and keep inventing things.


    "Travel, huh. That sounds fun."


    "It is. You should give it a try. It really opens up the world view."


    "Maybe I''ll do that too."


    The two eventually reached the Beuxbatons carriages and faced each other.


    They both knew what the other was thinking ¡ª Fleur found Quinn attractive, and on some level, Quinn did too ¡ª he got along with Fleur, and she was undoubtedly pretty. There was potential.


    But. . .


    "Good night, Fleur."


    "Good night, Quinn."


    . . .It wasn''t to be.


    Fleur Dcour wasn''t interested in a long-term rtionship.


    Quinn West didn''t feel anything beyond finding her physically attractive. . . . and with the third tasking, the curtain was about to rise for a shift in the winds over the British Wizarding World.


    And he was going to spend two more years right in the middle of it.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Should I transfigure another eye while in animagus form.


    Fleur Dcour - Ve - She would do excellent in anything public speaking.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 185 - Pre-Third Task

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The mood in the castle as they entered June became excited and tense again. Everyone was looking forward to the third task, which would ur a week before the end of term. The champions were practicing hexes at every avable moment, and with every moving day, their confidence rose about the task. But as June the twenty-fourth drew closer, they started to get nervous ¡ª they were not as bad as those they had felt before the first and second tasks.. For one thing, he was confident that, this time, he had done everything in his power to prepare for the task. For another, this was the final hurdle, and however well or poorly they did, the tournament would, atst, be over, which would be an enormous relief.


    Breakfast on the day of the third task was a boisterous affair at the house tables on the morning of the third task. The post owls appeared, bringing the champions good-luck cards from well-wishers and screeching owls carrying Daily Prophets with another story from Rita Skeeter attacking Dumbledore and any decision he made.


    Which made the Slytherin table chuckle and snicker while Gryffindor would re at them ¡ª saying that it was only two particr groups fighting.


    Exempt from the end-of-term tests as a Triwizard champion, Harry had been sitting in the back of every exam ss so far, looking up new hexes for the third task. Right now, he was crouched over his seat, looking up fresh charms for the third task.


    Being the son of Auror had its perks, as in being master in the Impediment Curse, a spell to slow down and obstruct attackers; the Reductor Curse, which would enable him to st solid objects out of his way; and the Four-Point Spell, a valuable discovery of his that would make his wand point due north, therefore enabling him to check whether he was going in the right direction within the maze. He was especially good with the Shield Charm; a temporary, invisible wall around himself that deflected minor curses; Hermione, Ivy, and Ron had only been able to shatter it with their coordinated attacks.


    "Potter, the champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast," said McGonagall.


    "But the task''s not till tonight!" said Harry, identally spilling scrambled eggs down his front, afraid he had mistaken the time.


    "I''m aware of that, Potter," she said. "The champions'' families are invited to watch the final task, you know. This is simply a chance for you to greet them."


    She moved away. Harry gaped after her. "Oh my god. She almost snatched my heart out of my chest."


    Harry finished his breakfast in the emptying Great Hall. He saw Fleur Dcour get up from the Ravenw table and join Cedric as he crossed to the side chamber and entered. Krum slouched off to join them shortly afterward. He got up and followed after them.


    Cedric and his parents were just inside the door. Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. He had inherited his father''s hooked nose. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur''s little sister, Gabrielle, was holding her mother''s hand. Then he saw his mother and father, Lily and James Potter, standing there, smiling towards him.


    "Surprise!" James Potter said as he smiled broadly and walked over to him. "Thought we''de and watch you, Harry!" He enveloped Harry in a big ol'' hug.


    "It''s great being back here," continued James, looking around the chamber (Violet, the Fat Lady''s friend, winked at him from her frame). "Haven''t seen this ce for so many years. Is that picture of the mad knight still around? Sir Cadogan?"


    James had attended the quidditch tournament a couple of times, but he wasn''t allowed to enter the castle just like everyone else. And unlike the other professors'' Lily Potter didn''t have a personal chamber as her amodation as she went back to her house every evening to spend time with him. When he hadest year, James had gone straight to the hospital wing, then took the shortest path to the headmasters'' office and back again to the hospital wing before returning to headmasters'' office to floo out of Hogwarts.


    "Oh yeah," said Harry, who had met Sir Cadogan the previous year.


    "And the Fat Lady?" asked James, "She was here in my time. She gave me such a telling off one night when I got back to the dormitory at four in the morning ¡ª"


    "What were you doing out of your dormitory at four in the morning?"


    "Your mother and I had been for a nighttime stroll," grinned James, sneakily winking to his wife, "I got caught by Apollyon Pringle ¡ª he was the caretaker in those days." He looked at Harry and asked, "Fancy giving us a tour, Harry?"


    Before Harry could reply, Lily stepped forward, "Not me. I''ve sses to teach, so you boys go ahead and remember to behave."


    "Yeah, okay," grinned Harry, and they made their way back toward the door into the Great Hall. As they passed Amos Diggory, the man looked around.


    "There you are, are you?" he said, looking Harry up and down. "Bet you''re feeling quite as full of yourself now, aren''t you. But don''t be so proud, Cedric''s will you beat you soundly."


    "What?" said Harry.


    "Ignore him," said Cedric in a low voice to Harry, frowning after his father. "He''s been angry ever since Rita Skeeter''s article about the Triwizard Tournament ¡ª you know when she made out you were the only Hogwarts champion."


    "Didn''t bother to correct her, though, did he?" said Amos Diggory, loudly, "you''ll show him, Ced. Beaten him once before, haven''t you?" He was talking about the dueling club during the Lockhart year where Harry had gotten a little cocky and challenged Cedric just to be beaten soundly.


    Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked behind to see his father smiling broadly, "Oh ho, Amos, never knew you had such a tongue on you."


    Amos Diggory looked as though he would say something angry, but he stopped when he saw James Potter. He gulped ¡ª James Potter was a Senior Auror and a prominent member of the Wizengamot ¡ª not something he could afford to offend. He felt his wifey a hand on his arm, and he took the chance to merely shrugged and turned away, pretending that it was because of her that he was stopping.


    Harry had a delightful morning walking over the sunny grounds with his parents, showing his father the Beauxbatons carriage and the Durmstrang ship. They even went to the kitchens to grab a snack to eat while going around the castle.


    They went back to Great Hall for lunch.


    "Harry ¡ª Dad!" said Ivy looking stunned, as they joined the Gryffindor table. "What''re you doing here?"


    "Come to watch Harry in thest task!" said James brightly. "I must say, it makes a lovely change, not having to eat the ministry food for lunch. How was your exam ¡ª no wait, don''t tell me," he put on an inquisitive look before smiling, "it went great, didn''t it."


    "You bet!" beamed Ivy, hugging her father.


    James looked to the side and asked, "How about you, Ron?"


    "Uhm," said Ron, "Couldn''t remember all the goblin rebels'' names, so I invented a few. It''s all right," he said, helping himself to a Cornish pasty," they''re all called stuff like Bodrod the Bearded and Urg the Unclean; it wasn''t hard."


    Jamesughed loudly as he sat down on the table. He turned to the Weasley children, who had also sat down opposite to them asked, "So, twins, how are your ns for that business of yours going?"


    "Good" "Very good." "Excellent." "Exceeding Expectation." "Outstanding."


    "Really?" said James.


    "Yeah, just very recently¡ª" "¡ª we got ourselves an investor."


    "An investor, you say?" said James, "boys, are you sure this is legit? Money matters can beplicated. Be careful who you trust."


    "Thank you, but¡ª" "you don''t need to worry about us." "Our investor is one reliable guy¡ª" "¡ª and we trust him with a lot, so no need to worry."


    "Who is it?"


    "Sorry, can''t tell." "We''re keeping this on the down-low." "Also, this conversation never happened."


    They turned to Ron and spoke.


    ""You listen, Ron?" We never spoke about this." "


    "Huh, wha''?" Ron looked up, the corner of his mouth stained with sauce.


    " "Nothing." "


    James looked around and saw a familiar face. "Hello Hermione," he greeted as the girl arrived with her head buried in a book.


    "Hello, Mr. Potter," said Hermione, a little surprised to see James Potter sitting between Ivy and Harry. She turned to Harry and asked, "Are you ready for the task? Anything left you to want to learn or practice, we still have a little, we can go to the room and do somest-minute revision."


    Tired of walking in on Harry, Ivy, Hermione, and Ron all over the school, Professor McGonagall had given them permission to use the empty Transfiguration ssroom when they were free.


    "Yeah, if you want to, we can go over some things ¡ª I can help you out," said James, shooting a couple of detection spells at his food ¡ª he didn''t do this usually, but he could feel the eye of his mentor Alister "Constant Vignce" Moody digging into his back.


    "I-I would like that," said Harry, sighing out of relief.


    After lunch, they went to the empty ssroom and practiced for a few hours till they were satisfied, and after that, the group (Harry, Ivy, Hermione, Ron, and James) went back to roaming Hogwarts.


    "Hey, isn''t that Quinn West," said James, pointing at Quinn walking by while reading a thin stack of papers in his hands, "where''s he going? That part of the castle never had any sses; did they start sses there?"


    "No," answered Ivy, "I don''t think so. . . ."


    "We should follow him," smiled James, "I made some good bets in the tournament ¡ª I have to thank him." Without waiting for a response, he walked ahead. Ivy tried to stop him, but James continued to walk, and thus they had no choice but to follow him.


    They turned the corner just to find that Quinn wasn''t there anymore.


    "Where did he go?" said James. He turned to Harry and asked, "Harry can you give me the map?"


    "Hmm? Sure," said Harry and handed the map to James ¡ª it had initially been his after all.


    Ivy and Hermione watched the map exchange hands, and it took them a beat toprehend the situation ¡ª a beat toote; their eyes widened, but it was already toote as James had already activated it. All they could do was stomp on Harry''s feet and pinch him hard.


    "Let''s see. . . . where''s the hidden passage," said James, and indeed there was one in the corridor, "let''s go, we''ll use the same one." While a limited number of passages went out of Hogwarts, around a hundred internal passages connected different parts of Hogwarts.


    They kicked a brick in the wall twice, which opened a hidden staircase into the wall.


    "This goes to the west corridor on the fifth floor," said James with his wand tip lit, "what''s there? I don''t think there was anything in that part of the castle."


    "He has an office there," said Ron.


    "An office? Why does he have an office?"


    "It''s a long story," said Ivy, "one for another time." She didn''t want James to know that the map had been tampered with.


    "Wait a minute, I can''t see Quinn''s name on here."


    And it was out.


    James turned to the children. "Why can''t I see Quinn''s name on here?"


    All dodged his eyes until they couldn''t endure the gaze of the Senior Auror.


    "He removed his name from the map," said Ivy, relenting.


    "He. . . He removed his name from the Marauders'' Map?!"


    ". . . . Yeah."


    "When?!"


    "Two years ago."


    "Two years ago!" James stared at them, "how?"


    Ivy and Hermione didn''t want to answer that, and fortunately for them, they didn''t have to.


    "You guys should be quiet if you want to tail somebody," they heard and turned to saw Quinn a couple of steps above them, staring down at them, "especially in closed spaces like this ¡ª the sound really echos in here."


    "You removed your name from the map?" asked James bluntly, raising the charmed parchments.


    "Yeah, I did," answered Quinn.


    ". . . . how and why?"


    "How? It was easy enough, but I can''t tell you because that would put my name back on the map. Why? I don''t want my name on there ¡ª I like my privacy," answered Quinn, "I know it''s your map and all, but I hope you don''t mind; if it''s any constion, it works the same ¡ª just think of it as if I never existed. Simple, right?"


    James stared at Quinn and then at the map in his hand.


    ". . . . I can respect that," shrugged James, "and if you''re able to erase your name in a way that Ivy and Hermione can''t reverse it, you deserve to be off the map."


    "That''s good to hear," said Quinn, "now, why are you guys tailing me? There''s no need to follow me; you can approach me directly."


    "Ah, about that," said James, "I just wanted to congratte you for the tournament. You did an excellent job and an even outstanding job on the betting."


    "Oh, thank you," smiled Quinn.


    "And you rejected to be my daughter''s date."


    Everyone in the staircase except James froze for a good second. Ivy sighed deeply, hiding her embarrassment.


    "Uhm."


    James climbed up the steps and patted Quinn on the shoulder, "It''s not a bad thing. I would''ve been fine if you took her, but it was even better when she went alone," he turned to Ron, "no offense Ron."


    "Eh, ah, huh?" muttered the Weasley.


    "Now, as much as I would continue this conversation," said Quinn, "I have an event to prepare for, so I will take my leave," he looked at James, "let''s talk sometimeter, Mr. Potter. I''ll love to hear some of your stories."


    "Of course, don''t let us keep you waiting."


    When Quinn left, and the Gryffindor group got out of the staircase, James turned to the group and said, "Look, I like that guy a lot, but he needs to get pranked."


    "I tried," said Harry, "but he''s too sharp."


    Ivy and Hermione nodded. Even though they didn''t try to prank Quinn, they knew how sharp the guy was.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The Gryffindor group whiled away the afternoon with a long walk around the castle and then returned to the Great Hall for the evening feast. Ludo Bagman and Cornelius Fudge had joined the staff table now. Bagman looked quite cheerful, but Cornelius Fudge, sitting next to Madame Maxime, looked stern and was not talking. Madame Maxime was concentrating on her te, and Quinn thought her eyes looked red. Hagrid kept ncing along with the table at her.


    There were more courses than usual, but the champions, who were really nervous now, didn''t eat much. As the enchanted ceiling overhead began to fade from blue to a dusky purple, Dumbledore rose to his feet at the staff table, and silence fell.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch field for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. West down to the stadium now."


    The champions got up with the entire hall pping for them. With Quinn in the lead, They walked onto the Quidditch field, which was nowpletely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.


    Five minutester, the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick walked into the stadium and approached Quinn and the champions. They were wearingrge, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest.


    "We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," said Professor McGonagall to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us wille and get you, do you understand?"


    The champions nodded.


    "Well, before we get started," said Quinn, "I wish all of you the best of luck. Face whatever challenges in there with bravery and intelligence, and I hope that you guys put on a terrific show tonight," as he talked, Quinn approached every champion, he shook their hands and patted them firmly on their shoulder.


    The champions looked at Quinn with half-appreciative and half-confused looks, but Quinn now pointed his fake wand at his throat, muttered, "Sonorus," and his magically magnified voice echoed into the stands.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you that the scores from the previous tasks were tabted, and this is how the current champions stand ¡ª In the first ce, Harry Potter of Hogwarts School!" The cheers and apuse sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky. "In the second ce, Victor Krum from Durmstrang Institute," more apuse, "followed by Fleur Dcour from Beauxbatons Academy!" A lot of male cheers. "And in thest ce ¡ª Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts School!"


    "Now, the champions will go inside ording to their ranks with a three-minute interval between each champion," he continued, "now, let''s not waste any more time. So . . . on my whistle, Harry," Harry nodded, "three ¡ª two ¡ª one ¡ª"


    He gave a short st on his whistle, and Harry and hurried forward into the maze. One by one, all champions went into the tunnel, and when Cedric went into thebyrinth, Quinn looked at his hand and then at the maze.


    The clock had started.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Tik-tok-tik-tok.


    James Potter - Senior Auror - I''m a daddy. So, it''s in my character.


    Ron Weasley - Gryffindor - Feels like there''s something wrong, but can''t tell. . . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 186 - Third Task

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If the overhead projection that reflected the image of the artificial eye from Project: Drone Vision was a spectacr sight in the early blue evening sky, then its sight in the dark night sky was nothing less than stunning. The bright lights contrasted so well with the inky ck background that every neck was craned up towards the sky.


    "Dear viewers, the third task is a special one; unlike the first two tasks, the third task has the aspect of champion aggression ¡ª meaning that the champions have the opportunity to take each other out," said Quinn to all his viewers, "now, you might be thinking, the second task had the same opportunity; the champions could''ve attacked each other ¡ª but didn''t because they were working under a time constraint and the pressure of losing their loved ones.. . . trying to mess with yourpetition doesn''t really enter one''s mind."


    "But here, they don''t have that proverbial sword hanging over their head; the champions can work as freely as they want," he grinned, "that is if they can find their way inside the maze. . . . because let me tell you, mazes could be a real pain-in-the-butt."


    And Quinn was right; the four champions were totally lost, and that too in different directions of the maze.


    The audience saw Harry Potter at a fork in the maze, trying to figure out which split to take. He waved his lit wand tip in either direction, and after what looked like a serious contemtion, he decided to go left.


    The eye overhead turned into a different direction and zoomed in to show Fleur Dcour walking on a straight path, covered with towering hedges cast ck shadows across the way; she was constantly looking towards her back as if worried about a tail.


    The illusion shifted and focused on Cedric, who was running through a path full of odd silver mist floating above him. He was shooting spells left and right. But the fog remained intact, not being fazed at all.


    "About that silver mist,"ughed Quinn, "it''spletely harmless ¡ª does nothing at all, absolutely nothing. But in a pressure situation like the current one, it does wonders ¡ª ah the charms of the human mind."


    Quinn moved the artificial eye to the next champion, where they saw Krum walking slowly along a pathway with a golden mist overhead. He seemed to take every step after thinking thrice.


    "The gold mist, on the other hand, is apletely different monstrosity," announced Quinn, "right now, with every step Victor Krum takes, his perception of direction changes ¡ª he could be feeling like the sky is below him, or the world has shifted to his side," Quinn had once subjected himself to the golden mist for fun ¡ª turned out, pretty not fun.


    "The champions seem to be doing just fine right now, but I have to be honest, I''m looking forward to a confrontation."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Two men sat in their chairs, looking up above at the illusion in the sky.


    "Your spection turned out to be correct," said one of the men.


    "It was sort of obvious, don''t you think?" replied the second.


    The first man nced at the second for a moment before speaking, "Are you prepared for it? You understand that if you fail your task, this entire thing is doomed."


    "You don''t have to be worried about me," said the second, "I''m prepared for this ¡ª among our little group, I''m the one most capable for this one."


    "And why''s that," scoffed the first, "I''ve been here for months, I''m better than you ¡ª I don''t know why he chose you for this."


    The second man rested his chin on the back of his hand and spoke with a bored expression on his face, "I know Hogwarts more than you can ever imagine ¡ª but you already know that, don''t you? I''m the reason you''re still here. If I wasn''t here, you would''ve been found by the Potter children by now."


    The first man grunted unpleasantly. "So, why are you still sitting here? Shouldn''t you be doing what you''re supposed to do?"


    "I''m already done. I had the entire evening to do so."


    "Then why are you still here?"


    "Don''t worry, I''m leaving. Just needed to give it a little time."


    The second man got up and fixed his cloth before putting on a weak smile and turned to a person sitting a few seats from him, "Minister, unfortunately, I''ll have to leave ¡ª I''m feeling under the weather."


    Cornelius Fudge turned his eyes away from the sky, "Oh, Crouch, your sickness is acting up again? You''ve been like this for months. Have you gone to the hospital to see what is it?"


    "Barty Crouch Senior" smiled weekly and shook his head, "I should do that, Minister. I''ve been putting it off because of the tournament."


    "See that you do," said Fudge.


    Barty Senior walked past the panel of judges when he was stopped by a voice, "Bartemious, if you''re feeling unwell, how about letting Poppy take a look."


    Barty turned towards Dumbledore and shook his head, "Thank you for the offer, Dumbledore, but I would prefer to go home and take a rest before going to the St. Mungos tomorrow morning."


    "Ah, if that''s what you would prefer," said Dumbledore, "I just hoped you''d stay till the end."


    Barty looked up at the illusion. "I would also like that, but I''m feeling fragile. I think it would be better for me to just leave."


    "I see, then I hope you feel better soon."


    ''Thank you."


    Barty walked down from the judge''s panel, and as he passed through the general seating area, he caught a nce of James and Lily Potter, and immediately he turned his face away.


    He couldn''t keep his expression from turning neutral or his eyes from turning bloodshot. He feared that if he kept looking at them, he would chop their heads off with severing charms, for he was Peter Pettigrew and the sole motive of his life was to kill the Potters.


    ''Keep calm, Peter, keep calm. Your time wille soon.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In the maze, the champions made their way through the dark hedges ¡ª all were trying to move north, where they knew the Tri-wizard cup waited for them.


    Cedric Diggory emerged at a point in the maze, where including the path he entered through, eight pathsy in front of him, all going through different directions. His first instinct was to head straight north and take the path pointing north, but his feet halted ¡ª Cedric kenned that there was no way the north-facing course headed north.


    ''Where should I go?'' he thought; the only way to find out was to pick a route and work it till he reached the dead-end. ''Let''s go with that one,'' he decided on a path, but just as he stepped, Cedric heard a snap ¡ª his eyes widened and immediately ducked and rolled on the ground as a spell shot over his head, burning a hole into the maze hedge; the damage was instantly recovered.


    He looked behind and saw the offender. "Fleur, it''s nice to meet you as well," Cedric smiled as he got up with his wand pointed at her.


    "If so, then you should''ve epted my greeting," said Fleur.


    "And let you have all the fun?"


    The two stared at each other for a split second before their wands ripped out spells directly at each other, meeting in the middle momentarily ¡ª again and thrice, every time their spells met ¡ª canceling each other out.


    "Looks like we''re equally matched," said Cedric.


    "I would disagree," smiled Fleur, "I haven''t even started yet."


    Just as they were about to go for another bout, they heard a rustle of the leaves. They looked to sound to see a barrage of small rocks rocketing towards them. The two champions pulled up shield charms for protection; the rocks bounced off harmlessly against the transparent barriers.


    "Come out, Potter," yelled Cedric, pointing at one of the passageways, "I know you''re there,e out, or I will open fire," his wand started to glow in a violent red.


    Harry Potter walked out with a smile on his face, with his wand in front of him, "The rocks gave it away, didn''t they?"


    "They did," said Cedric, "you used that one a bit too much during the dueling club."


    "How about we two Hogwarts boys team up and take out the enemy," suggested Harry nudging his wand towards Fleur, "I''m sure we can work something out, but for now, it would make more sense to increase the chances of Hogwarts winning."


    Fleur became extra vignt as she backed up a few steps and stared at Cedric; her chances weren''t good if Cedric and Harry teamed up.


    Cedric contemted for a second before ncing up, "You know, Quinn is probably ¡ª definitely ¡ª watching us right now and with him, the entire school. It wouldn''t be chivalrous for us to gang up against ady."


    Harry shrugged in response, "And if Quinn was standing here, he would scoff andugh at you."


    "That he would,"ughed Cedric and then pointed his wand at Fleur, "sorry Fleur, but it''s nothing personal."


    "I''m offended, nevertheless," said Fleur as she cautiously gazed at the two wands pointed towards her, "you two boys reallyck manners," she sighed, "but ady needs to look out for herself, so don''t me me. . . . it''s nothing personal."


    She flicked her wand in a circr motion, and seven ming orbs of blue-red fire appeared around her. She shifted her head to push her hair back and spoke, "Ves can be vindictive when threatened."


    Six out of the seven fireballs rapidly spin before splitting into two groups of three and canon-bolted towards Harry and Cedric. The two boys immediately pulled up their shields ¡ª the first fire orbs made their shield reach their limit, the second began degrading their structural integrity, and the third exploded, throwing them back into the ground.


    She took a deep breath ¡ª the fire orbs were heavy magic for her. Every Ve had an affinity for fire, and so did Fleur ¡ª while the full potential was restricted when she wasn''t in her avian-form, Fleur could still get ess to the firepower that came with her heritage, and as it turned out, while she was dismal at controlling her Allure, she was exceptional at essing the fire aspect.


    The me orbs replenished back to seven as Fleur exhaled out. "Sorry, boys, but it seems you will be retiring from the tournament," she said.


    Cedric and Harry groaned while they stood up, but their eye widened as they saw four rapidly spinning orbs of fire (two for each of them.)


    Fleur was about tounch the fire orbs, but just a second before she could do that, Fleur felt jolt travel through her body, like a raging wave ¡ª the fire orbs extinguished, then her eyes rolled up before she copsed down onto the ground ¡ª behind her stood Victor Krum, staring down at Fleur''s unconscious body.


    A loud beep sounded from a distance. Cedric and Harry, who had taken the opportunity to get up along with Krum, looked in the direction; they knew the meaning of the sound ¡ª it was signaling the elimination of a champion from the tournament. They looked at the ground ¡ª it meant Fleur Dcour was now out of the running.


    "And here I was worried about teaming up,"mented Cedric. He nced at Harry, "We''re still a team, right?" Harry nodded, but his eyes didn''t leave Krum, who was watching them with an unblinking gaze, and Harry couldn''t say he enjoyed it.


    Krum''s dull eyes turned to Harry for a while before he went back to Cedric and raised his wand, andunched a juiced-up Reducto straight at the Hufflepuff champion. Cedric''s eyes almost popped out at the intensity of the spell, and he pulled up yet another shield charm for protection, and on his side, Harry, as his temporary ally, transfigured the ground in front of Cedric, raising a chunk of it up to add yet anotheryer of obstruction.


    "Uh-huh, buddy. Not so fast," said Harry, "you''re not going to¡ª." He couldn''t continue as Krum ripped a lightning bolt towards him, which Harry barely dodged in time.


    "Oh my god, that could''ve done a lot of damage!" yelled Harry.


    "Alright, let''s take this guy out," said Cedric, cracking his neck. The Reductor was a powerful one, powerful enough to rip him into pieces.


    A very real-looking eye watched them from above.


    . . .


    Near the spectator area, Quinn sighed as he watched the three champions through the artificial eye.


    ''Krum is under the Imperius,'' thought Quinn as he nced at Moody/Bartry Jr.


    His open eye twitched when the artificial eye picked up, Krum knocking out Cedric with a blow to the head ¡ª it was very violent. He sounded a loud beep to announce Cedric''s elimination as part of his duty.


    "Well, only two champions are remaining," announced Quinn, "Harry Potter and Victor Krum. Let''s see who''s going toe out on top. From the looks of it, Victor Krum has a strong possibility to win ¡ª that was one powerful Hammer hex."


    ''Now, let''s change the result of this tournament,'' thought Quinn as he stared at the illusion ¡ª the artificial eye and the illusion were two different entities ¡ª he could project anything he wanted ¡ª and that was what he was going to do.


    The illusion seamlessly turned from the live footage to a fabricated version edited before being projected.


    ''Let''s get the things going.''


    And with that, he snapped his fingers.


    . . .


    Back with Krum and Harry, the two champions fought with spells being fired at each other.


    Harry swung his wand in a bowling-ball throwing motion, and as he turned it in an arc, the ground beneath his wand bundled and bunched up into a spiked ball of metal ¡ª it was a transfiguration spell taught to him by his father, James Potter; a master inbat transfiguration.


    Krum grunted and met the metal ball head-on with a charged dark spell. The two attacks met, and the metal ball melted into a ball of molten metal before turning into ash.


    Harry growled, and silver spikes manifested around him. He was going to take Krum out and get this entire thing over with. But before he could do it, he saw Krum moving weirdly.


    On Krum''s side, he was looking at his clothes, which began to morph ¡ª his arms were forced to move behind his back as his sleeves merged together. He could barely keep his legs from staying still as his pant legs were being pulled wide apart.


    Harry didn''t know what was happening, but he saw the chance and directly shot a stunner to Krum''s face, immediately knocking him out.


    "Huh," he said and stared up at the sky just in time to hear the loud beep spread through the sky, "now, that''s what we are talking about."


    Harry ran stared at the three unconscious champions before running into one of the pathways.


    "Holy shit! I''m going to win this one!"


    He met nothing for ten minutes but kept running into dead ends. Twice he took the same wrong turning. Finally, he found a new route and started to jog along with it, his wand light waving, making his shadow flicker and distort on the hedge walls. Then he rounded another corner and found himself facing a st-Ended Skrewt. Ten feet long, it looked more like a giant scorpion than anything. Its long sting was curled over its back. Its thick armor glinted in the light from Harry''s wand, which he pointed at it. "Stupefy! Damn it! Why now?! I''m about to win."


    The spell hit the skrewt''s armor and rebounded; Harry ducked just in time


    but could smell burning hair; it had singed the top of his head. The skrewt


    issued a st of fire from its end and flew forward toward him.


    "Impedimenta!" Harry yelled. The spell hit the skrewt''s armor again and ricocheted off; Harry staggered back a few paces and fell over. "IMPEDIMENTA!"


    The skrewt was inches from him when it froze ¡ª he had managed to hit it on its fleshy, shell-less underside. Panting, Harry pushed himself away from it and ran, hard, in the opposite direction ¡ª the Impediment Curse was not permanent; the skrewt would be regaining the use of its legs at any moment.


    He took a left path and hit a dead end, a right, and hit another; forcing himself to stop, heart hammering, he performed the Four-Point Spell again, backtracked, and chose a path that would take him northwest.


    Every so often, he hit more dead ends, but the increasing darkness made him feel sure he was getting near the heart of the maze. He had to be close now, he had to be. . . .


    . . .


    Quinn''s artificial eye followed after Harry, and he was back to projecting the live feed.


    "Look at that! Harry Potter is on the final stretch! So exciting! People, watch closely! This is the end of the Tri-wizard tournament," his voice was full of excitement, but the expression was anything but.


    He knew where Harry was heading. He nced at Dumbledore; the headmaster was watching the scene with a smile under his long beard.


    ''Yes, keep it watching.''


    In the original timeline, no one knew what was happening in the maze, so the judges had no idea about the progress, but Quinn had provided them with the live progress with him here. Everyone would see Harry being portkey-ed away, but when Harry doesn''t arrive at the starting point, doubts will arise, and Quinn was sure that Dumbledore would pick on that.


    ''You better pull your weight, Dumbledore,'' thought Quinn.


    He didn''t like the choice he had taken to let Harry go on to meet Babymort, which would most definitely result in the revival of Voldemort. . .


    ''But, it has to be done,'' he thought, ''it''s the only for sure way to make sure that there''s a chance.''


    "Ah, he''s on the final long pathway," announced Quinn, "just a little bit more and Harry Potter would be cro¡ª"


    Everyone in the stands was watching the projection. The entire Hogwarts student body was already cheering, but then suddenly, the projection vanished into thin air. There was an immediate reaction of displeasure, and they heard that thementary had also gone silent.


    Every single person looked at Quinn, and he was standing still, staring up at the sky.


    "Mr. West," called out Dumbledore, "what¡ª"


    His words were cut when Quinn leaned forward and copsed on the ground.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC(Status: Unknown) - It was the only way to make sure. . . .


    Peter Pettigrew - Barty Crouch Senior - Calm down. I''ll make do with imagining the beheading.


    Fleur Dcour - Spelled in the back - Fire-blessed Ve.


    Cedric Diggory - Knocked out - Blunt force damage.


    Victor Krum - Imperius-ed - But why was he Imperius-ed?


    Harry Potter - Tri-wizard winner - Holy shit, I really won!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 187 - Revival, Rebirth, Return

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Harry felt his feet m into the ground; his injured leg gave way, and he fell forward; his hand let go of the Triwizard Cup atst. He raised his head.


    "Where is this?" he said..


    He had left the Hogwarts grounds entirely; they had obviously traveled miles ¡ª perhaps hundreds of miles ¡ª for even the mountains surrounding the castle were gone. They were standing instead in a dark and overgrown graveyard; the ck outline of a small church was visible beyond arge yew tree to their right. A hill rose above them to their left. Harry could just make out the outline of a fine old house on the hillside.


    "Why didn''t anyone tell me that the Cup was a Portkey?" he said, taking his wand out ¡ª his instincts were telling him that things weren''t as quiet as they were. He had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched.


    Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, which made every inch of his skin rise in surprise. He nced down at his shoulder to see a hand with a missing finger, then turned his head to find himself gazing at a new yet familiar face, and the words that followed almost made his heart jump out of his chest.


    "Good evening, Harry," said the lean man, with strangely dead eyes, "we are introduced yet, but I knew from a long time ago, and I''m sure you have heard about me," the strange man tly smiled, "my name is Peter Pettigrew, and I was a friend of your father''s."


    "You¡ª" Harry tried to speak, but then he felt a wave travel through every fiber of his body, and everything hazed out of focus before all went ck.


    Peter looked down at the unconscious Boy-Who-Lived. It was easier to work when his captive was out, "He sure has grown up, and the resemnce is striking. . . . a real pity," he sighed. Peter nced towards his back to stare into the darkness. It was time, and time was of the essence.


    Harry groggily opened his eye to find himself tied up on a hard, cold stone with something stuffed into his mouth. He was tied up from neck to ankles to what seemed to be a headstone. He tried to struggle against the ropes but was bound so tightly to the headstone that he couldn''t move an inch. Harry couldn''t make a sound, nor could he see where Peter Pettigrew had gone; he couldn''t turn his head to see beyond the headstone; he could see only what was right in front of him.


    Some way beyond him, glinting in the starlight,y the Triwizard Cup. Harry''s wand was on the ground at the Cup''s side. There was a bundle of robes some distance beyond that, at the foot of a grave, and when he looked closer, it seemed to be a baby or small-sized inside the bundle. It seemed to be stirring fretfully. Harry watched it, and then, without warning, Harry''s scar exploded with pain. It was agony such as he had never felt in all his life; if he could scream freely, he would''ve shattered ss; he could see nothing at all, and his head was about to split open. Harry suddenly knew that he didn''t want to see what was in those robes . . . he didn''t want that bundle opened. . . .


    He could hear noises at his feet. He looked down and saw a gigantic snake slithering through the grass, circling the headstone where he was tied. Then he heardborious breathing growing closer. It sounded as though someone was forcing something heavy across the ground. Then Peter came within Harry''s range of vision, and Harry saw him pushing a stone cauldron to the foot of the grave. It was full of what seemed to be water ¡ª Harry could hear it slopping around ¡ª and it wasrger than any cauldron Harry had ever used, a great stone bellyrge enough for a full-grown man to sit in.


    The thing inside the bundle of robes on the ground was stirring more persistently, as though it was trying to free itself. Now Peter was busying himself at the bottom of the cauldron with a wand. Suddenly there were crackling mes beneath it. The giant snake slithered away into the darkness. The liquid in the cauldron seemed to heat very fast. The surface began not only to bubble but to send out fiery sparks as though it were on fire. Steam was thickening, blurring the outline of Wormtail tending the fire. The movements beneath the robes became more agitated. And Harry heard the high, cold voice.


    "Hurry!"


    The whole surface of the water was alight with sparks now. It might have been encrusted with diamonds.


    "It is ready, Master."


    "Now . . ." said the cold voice.


    Peter pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was inside they and Harry let out a yell that was strangled in the wad of material blocking his mouth.


    It was as though Peter had flipped over a stone and revealed something ugly, slimy, and blind ¡ª but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing Peter had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish ck. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face ¡ª no child alive ever had a face like that ¡ª t and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes.


    The thing seemed almost helpless; it raised its thin arms, put them around Peter''s neck, and Peter lifted it. Harry expected a look of revulsion on Peter''s face, but as seen in the pale face in the firelight as he carried the creature to the rim of the cauldron, was a look of indifference. And then Peter lowered the creature into the cauldron; there was a hiss, and it vanished below the surface; Harry heard its frail body hit bottom with a soft thud.


    ''Yes, please let it drown!'' Harry thought, his scar burning almost past endurance, ''please . . . let it drown. . . .''


    Peter was speaking. His voice shook; he seemed frightened beyond his wits. He raised his wand, closed his eyes, and spoke to the night.


    "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"


    The surface of the grave at Harry''s feet cracked. Horrified, Harry watched as a delicate trickle of dust rose into the air at Wormtail''smand and fell softly into the cauldron. The diamond surface of the water broke and hissed; it sent sparks in all directions and turned a vivid, poisonous-looking blue.


    And now Peter pulled a long, thin, shining silver dagger from inside his cloak. He stared at the gleaming metal with the same dead eyes, but now there seemed to be a strange madness reflecting them. His voice became more assertive and filled with a mad passion.


    "Flesh ¡ª of the servant ¡ª willingly given ¡ª you will ¡ª revive ¡ª your master."


    He stretched his right hand out in front of him ¡ª the hand without the missing finger ¡ª the other hand with the missing finger was a reminder. He gripped the dagger firmly, and without hesitation, he swung it down.


    Harry realized what Peter was about to do a second before it happened ¡ª he closed his eyes as tightly as he could, but Harry could not block the screamingugh that pierced the night that went through Harry as though he had been stabbed with the dagger too.


    He heard something fall to the ground, heard Peter''s frantic respiring, then a sickening ssh, as something was dropped into the cauldron. Harry couldn''t stand to look . . . but the potion had turned a burning red; the light of it shone through Harry''s closed eyelids. . . .


    When Harry opened his eyes, he saw Peter standing right in front of him with the same dagger in hand.


    "I see you have woken up, Harry," there was a thick sheen of sweat on Peter''s face, but he looked more alive than ever, "that''s good ¡ª you''ll get to witness something truly great now," Peter raised the dagger, "the revival of my master. The Dark Lord will walk the Earth once more."


    Harry felt the knife-point prate the crook of his right arm and blood seeping down the sleeve of his torn robes. Peter, hissing in pain, reached into his pocket for a ss vial and held it to Harry''s cut so that a dribble of blood fell into it.


    "Blood of the enemy . . . forcibly taken . . . you will . . . resurrect your foe."


    Peter walked back to the cauldron with Harry''s blood. He poured it inside. The liquid within turned, instantly, a blinding white. Peter, his job done, dropped to his knees beside the cauldron, staring at it with the fire and light reflecting in his dark eyes.


    The cauldron was simmering, sending its diamond sparks in all directions, so blindingly bright that it turned all else to velvety ckness. Nothing happened. . . .


    ''Let it have drowned,'' Harry thought, ''let it have gone wrong. . . .''


    And then, suddenly, the sparks emanating from the cauldron were extinguished. A surge of white steam billowed thickly from the cauldron instead, obliterating everything in front of Harry so that he couldn''t see Peter or the Cup or anything but vapor hanging in the air.


    ''It''s gone wrong,'' he thought ''. . . it''s drowned . . . please . . . please let it be dead.''


    But then, through the mist in front of him, he saw, with an icy surge of terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising slowly from inside the cauldron.


    "Robe me," said the high, cold voice from behind the steam, and Peter, still cradling his mutted arm, got on his feet up from the ground with a ck robe, reached up, and pulled them one-handed over his master''s head.


    The thin man stepped out of the cauldron and lifted his chin up at the sky.


    Harry watched as the clouds slowly drifted away, freeing the bright moon from their cover. He saw as the pale yet luminous moonlight fell upon the man''s face and body, revealing the inhuman face which had its eyes closed.


    ''Oh no, oh no, oh no,'' thought Harry, ''no, this can''t be happening.''


    The man slowly opened his eyes and started chuckling, which eventually barreled into full-blown maniacalughter, shaking his thin frame.


    "This is it!" heughed, "I knew! This how is moonlight is supposed to feel! The flesh of the homunculus was too weak! The light, the wind, the heat, ah haha hahaha, this is how it''s supposed to be! It''s wonderful!"


    The man turned his face, his eyes now gazing at Harry. . . . and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his dreams, no nightmares for the past three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was t as a snake''s with slits for nostrils . . .


    "Harry Potter," he said.


    Lord Voldemort had risen again.


    The Dark Lord had returned.


    Voldemort looked away from Harry and began examining his own body. His hands were likerge, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat''s, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness. He held up his hands and flexed the fingers, his expression rapt and exultant. Voldemort slipped one of those unnaturally long-fingered hands into a deep pocket and drew out a wand. He caressed it gently too, and then he raised it and pointed it at Peter, who was lifted off the ground and thrown against the headstone where Harry was tied; he fell to the foot of it andy there, crumpled up, groaning and hissing. Voldemort turned his scarlet eyes upon Harry,ughing a high, cold, mirthlessugh.


    Peter propped himself up with the support of the headstone and bowed his head, "My Lord."


    "That was for all those times you talked back, Wormtail," said Voldemort while rotating his head to crack his neck.


    "I apologies, master," said Peter; he wasn''t bothered by it.


    "Hold out your arm," said Voldemortzily.


    Peter extended the bleeding stump, but Voldemortughed again.


    "The other arm, Wormtail."


    "I would suggest against it, master," said Peter, "we don''t know for sure if the spell at Hogwarts worked. We might not have much time ¡ª with Dumbledore there. . . ."


    ''Spell at Hogwarts?'' thought Harry, ''what''re they talking about?''


    "Ah, the magic to deal with the West child," hummed Voldemort, "did you cast it properly?"


    "I did. I made sure it was in ce and working."


    "Then, there''s no worry," replied Voldermort before looking at Harry. "You must be wondering what we''re talking about, Harry."


    Harry couldn''t speak because of the gag stuffed in his mouth.


    "You see, the audience wasn''t supposed to watch the third task. What happened inside the maze was supposed to go unseen, and the only indicators were the red sparks from the champions, and the winner arriving with the Cup ¡ª other than that, the people at Hogwarts were supposed to be blind to the events inside. . . ."


    Voldemort twirled his wand in his bony-long white digits.


    "I was supposed to take advantage of that situation by whisking you away, and as no one knew what was happening, they would happily wait for the winning champion''s arrival," said Voldemort, and he seemed to articte his every word as if enjoying speaking, "but the West child, Quinn West, threw a Finite into that n months before today," Voldemort didn''t look he was upset by it, "he came up with a way to allow everybody to watch the second task and I was sure that Quinn West would do the same at the third task ¡ª he hid it well, that smart child ¡ª Wests have a tendency to be a pesky but smart bunch."


    Voldemort''s slitted eyes smiled in pleasure, "But I noticed how he did it. It was simple yet an ingenious way to aplish what he was trying to do," the Dark Lord for once sounded impressed, "thank Wormtail for his sharp eyes that I was able to catch it ¡ª an artificial eye, I noticed. How creative! He connected that eye to himself and then simply projected what he saw ¡ª just from that, I can say that the child understands magic ¡ª a rare trait even among those of noble blood."


    "I gave Wormtail a task that would get rid of that as we couldn''t have people see you disappear to not appear at the start," Voldemort started to walk around the headstone, "it would have immediately alerted Dumbledore and his faction that something was wrong and we couldn''t have them put a stop into my revival. . . . So, I taught Wormtail a spell¡ª"


    Voldemort noticed that Peter had be deadly pale ¡ª he had lost a lot of blood. "Give me your hand, Wormtail. I can''t stand the sight of that disgusting stump of yours."


    "Yes, Master," moaned Peter weakly.


    Voldemort raised his wand again and whirled it through the air. A streak of what looked like molten silver hung shining in the wand''s wake. Momentarily shapeless, it writhed and then formed itself into a gleaming replica of a human hand, bright as moonlight, which soared downward and fixed itself upon Peter''s bleeding wrist. His breathing harsh and ragged, Peter raised his head and stared in disbelief at the silver hand, now attached seamlessly to his arm, as though he were wearing a dazzling glove. He flexed the shining fingers, then picked up a small twig on the ground and crushed it into powder.


    "My Lord," he whispered. "Master . . . it is beautiful . . ." Voldemort noticed the absence of thankfulness in Peter''s words, but he ignored it.


    "So, where was I?" continued Voldemort to Harry, "ah yes, I gave Wormtail the spell that would solve our problem and take care of the eye in the sky," heughed, "if the spell worked ¡ª which I''m sure it did ¡ª little eagle Quinn would be in for a little surprise when he wakes up."


    The Dark Lord nced at Peter, who was still admiring his new silver hand. "But Wormtail is right. An unconscious West might send Fudge and the ministry into chaos, but it won''t keep Dumbledore for long ¡ª the pathetic old goat might notice something is wrong and as Wormtail said, you never know with Dumbledore ¡ª he might just find us here."


    With his bare feet, Voldemort walked near Harry and grinned a smile which Harry could only describe as horrifying and sickening. "Seeing that you''re the Boy-Who-Lived, my supposed end and you''re here, with no better ce to be, I will tell you my story before we return you to your parents. . . ."


    Harry frowned as his scar began burning. He thought that the pain was messing with his hearing as he just heard something about Voldemort letting him go.


    "Wormtail here requested that we send you beheaded head to your parents," smiled Voldermort, "from what I know, he has prepared a letter which he wants to write in your blood and stuff it in your mouth so they would know he was the one who did it," Harry started to felt disgust rise up in his stomach as he witnessed Voldemort''s famed cruelty.


    "But before that, I will tell you that story as you''re sort of a guest of honor at my re-birth party, then I will duel with you to show just how fortunate you were to live that day. I want there to be no mistake in anybody''s mind. You escaped me by a lucky chance. And I am now going to prove my power by dueling you, here and now, in front of Wormtail, when there is no Dumbledore to help you and no grandmother to die for you. I will give you your chance. You will be allowed to fight, and you will be left in no doubt which of us is the stronger. And then after all that, finally, I will let Wormtail behead you ¡ª your corpse, of course."


    Harry''s ropes came undone within an instant, and he immediately fell down on the graveyard grass face first.


    "So, let''s begin, shall we?"ughed Voldemort, "You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of myte father. . . ."


    . . .


    It was ten minutester that Harry Potter appeared back at Hogwarts with the Tri-wizard Cup. He hade back to the edge of the maze. He could see the stands rising above him, the shapes of people moving in them, the stars above.


    He let go of the Cup but clutched his wand tighter.


    Then a pair of hands seized him roughly and turned him over.


    "Harry! Harry!"


    He opened his eyes. He was looking up at the starry sky, and Albus Dumbledore was crouched over him. The dark shadows of a crowd of people pressed in around them, pushing nearer; Harry felt the ground beneath his head reverberating with their footsteps.


    He raised his free hand and seized Dumbledore''s wrist while Dumbledore''s face swam in and out of focus.


    "He''s back," Harry all but shouted. "He''s back. Voldemort is back!"


    .


    [


    A/N: I wasn''t sure if I should write this chapter, it''s mostly the original scene. But I wanted to show the differences in Peter Pettigrew and give you a clue about what happened to Quinn in thest chapter.


    Voldemort, also. I wanted to give him some new lines, given that in my version, Death Eaters didn''t arrive because of Peter''s suggestion. I always thought that his reaction to getting back his body wasckluster, so I added some of that and took inspiration from a character (not from HP) who went through simr circumstances ¡ª guess who.


    I came to a decision that these changes were enough to devote a chapter to this.


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West- MC(Status: Unknown) - I don''t like when I''m not in a chapter of book that revolves around my life. Did you hear it?! I don''t like this!


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - Babymort no more - Revived | Re-birthed.


    Peter Pettigrew - Wormtail - As you can see, he didn''t get to write that letter.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived-Once-Again - Shit, he''s back! Shit! Shit! Oh crap, things are turning ck. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 188 - Waking-Up, Recap, Reveal

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Oh, look! He''s waking up," was the first thing Quinn heard when he opened his eyes ¡ª but something felt wrong ¡ª it was as if something was missing.


    "Where?" he asked. Quinn tried to groggily sit up, but his attempts brought a sharp pain in his head, causing him to hiss in pain..


    "Don''t get up," he heard his favorite faculty''s voice.


    "Madam Pomfrey. . . . where am I? What happened to me. . . ." Quinn looked around with his out of focus vision, and he could recognize hospital wings'' curtains and Poppy sitting on a barstool by his bedside.


    "You suddenly copsed in the middle of the third task and wouldn''t get up."


    "I copsed?" said Quinn in slight disbelief, "that doesn''t sound right¡ª"


    "Are you sure?" Poppy cut him off, "you have been pretty busy this year. Even with all the things you had to do for the quidditch tournament this year, you didn''t skip our lessons, neither did you skip your sses; furthermore, you took on the hosting ¡ª which would have been fine if you didn''t decide to go overboard with it."


    ". . . . but the quidditch tournament was over a couple weeks back, I had time to rest," argued Quinn while sitting up despite the protest from Poppy. His vision was still a little off ¡ª it was irritating him.


    Moreover, Poppy didn''t know his true magical capabilities ¡ª in no way would the magic used while hosting put so much stress on him that he would copse and that too in front of him.


    "Clearly, it wasn''t enough, or you didn''t actually rest in those past weeks," chided Poppy, "furthermore, you were using faulty magic," she sighed, "Quinn, you should take more care while using self-created, untested magic ¡ª it could be dangerous ¡ª no it was dangerous."


    "What?" Quinn tilted his head. His head was finally clearing up, and his mind was getting back on track, "my magic. . . . faulty? That''s not possible, Madam Pomfrey. My self-created magics aren''t faulty; they never were and won''t be in the future."


    "Then how do you exin that?" Poppy pointed towards Quinn''s hand.


    "Huh? What?" Quinn raised his hand to touch his face, and his eye widened when his fingers found the rough texture, "why is my head bandaged," he felt around to find that the upper right side of his face was covered, "did I hit my head when I copsed?"


    Then it hit Quinn. Why his vision felt wrong. It wasn''t his head that was covered in gauze bandages ¡ª it was his right eye that was covered. He looked at Poppy and asked,


    "Madam Pomfrey. . . . what did you mean when you said how do I exin that? What''s wrong with me?"


    Poppy sighed at the confusion on Quinn''s covered face, "Quinn, whatever magic you used, it faulted, and it burned through your eye. . . .pletely."


    Quinn stared at the matron as if she was joking, but she wasn''t.


    "By the time I got to you, your eyeball was nothing more than goopy sludge, resulting in severe damage to your optic nerves, which caused you to pass out from the trauma."


    ". . . . I lost my eye!" eximed Quinn, almost wing out his bandages. "M-Madam Pomfrey, is¡ª"


    "You''ll be fine. Fortunately, there wasn''t any permanent damage ¡ª your faulty magic didn''t turn into a dark curse. You''ll have your eye back in a week, and by the end of the second, your vision will mature to normal."


    "Two weeks, huh," sighed Quinn, "two weeks with one eye. Damn it! But, Madam Pomfrey, I''m quite sure that I didn''t make a mistake while designing the magic. It took months to¡ª"


    "Quinn, I''m not aware of the details of the magic you used, but I do know your eye melted due to a magic overload. From what I learned from my time in the spell damage ward at St. Mungos is that spells mostly fail due to the imbnce in the internal magic structure ¡ª your case is a ssic example of that."


    Quinn wanted to continue his progress but held his tongue. He knew that there was no use to continue. Quinn still believed that his magic was airtight solid ¡ª the second task wasn''t the first time he had used the artificial eye; he had been using it for tests for much longer; not only that, but Quinn had spent many hours using the eye to make himself used to the dual vision and not once had the spell gone bad on him ¡ª he seriously doubted that it was the magic''s fault.


    "Your family has been made aware of your condition this morning. They''ve sent back that they will be here sometime after noon. You''ll be going with them instead of the Hogwarts Express," said Poppy as she stood up.


    "Noon, huh," groaned Quinn; he wasn''t looking forward to that conversation, "wait a minute, noon?! How long was I out? What time is it?"


    "It''s nine. You slept through the night," said Poppy, "now, excuse me, Quinn. I have some important appointments that I need to deal with." She had to make sure that the Hogwart female students understood what they needed to take (potion-wise) for regtion of their monthly cycle ¡ª for the next couple of months, she wasn''t going to be with them, and Poppy preferred that they continued with the potion regime as it made her job much more manageable when they returned.


    "Ah, yes, thank you, Madam Pomfrey," nodded Quinn; while he wanted to ask her what happenedst night, he knew the matron was busy this time of the year.


    After she left, Quinn silently sat on his bed ¡ª he was at least sure that Harry Potter was alive because if he was dead, Poppy would''ve said something ¡ª the death of the Boy-Who-Lived would''ve been hard to ignore.


    "Let''s just hope Voldemort is revived," whispered Quinn; his decision to send Harry off was a sess only if Voldemort was back in power. "I need to find out what happened. But before that. . . ."


    Quinn conjured in front of him and looked at his reflection ¡ª he looked like a certain evil head of a super-secret organization of elemental-controlling ninjas who kept one of his eyes hidden under bandages.


    "This isn''t my style," said Quinn and snapped his finger for the gauze toe undone and fall into hisp. His nose scrunched up when he saw the ck-blue-red around his eye and the loose eyelid, "I hope two weeks would pass soon enough."


    Quinn nced down at the white roll of gauze and concentrated his magic for the bandage to shift and distort before it turned into a ck-triangr eyepatch (without string.) He picked it up and gently ced it over his eye such that it would cover all the colored parts of his eye.


    "Much, much better," smiled Quinn into the mirror. This way, not only did he look good, but it also dulled the impact of the injury ¡ª something he critically needed when his family came to take him home.


    "Now, let''s go and find out what happened."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn wasn''t the only one in the hospital wing at the moment. In another corner sat the Potter family with Dumbledore and Moody ¡ª once again going over Harry''s ount of what had happenedst night.


    Cornelius Fudge had denied any of their pleas to dere that Voldemort hade back to life. The minister had grabbed onto the Peter Pettigrew part of the story and had ignored every aspect, dering Harry a victim of dark magic that had caused him to be confused. The official ministry-approved news in the papers was that Peter Pettigrew had abducted Harry Potter with intentions to kill him(100% true), but Harry Potter was able to fight his captor off and return to Hogwarts.


    Seeing that the first and most impactful release of information had told an incorrect story, Dumbledore once again wanted to hear the details now that Harry was calm and settled so that he could have a better grasp of the situation.


    "Voldemort''s back, Harry, I believe you," said Dumbledore; he was never really gone, "but how did he do it?"


    Harry nced at his feet on the bed and recalled what he had seen, "He took bones from his father''s grave and from Wormtail, and then from me," he rubbed his forehead, "Wormtail recited it ¡ª bone of father, unknowingly given, the flesh of servant willingly sacrificed, and blood enemy taken forcibly ¡ª yeah, that''s what he had said," Harry looked at Dumbledore and gravely spoke, "he was able to touch me, professor."


    Harry could only weakly smiled at his mother when he felt her squeeze in hand in support. It meant that the protection granted by his grandmother''s sacrifice couldn''t protect him anymore.


    "How did he look, Harry?" asked Dumbledore.


    "t and snakelike face, with gleaming red eyes," answered Harry; he couldn''t forget that face even if he wanted to, "tall and skeletally thin with a grey pallor ¡ª he was barely human."


    Ivy, who was also present, thought back to the photo of Tom Riddle she had seen in an old record stored in the library. The Hogwarts Voldemort was a charming person. If she didn''t know the name of that face, she would''ve never pegged him to be a Dark Lord.


    "It seems that Voldemort has deviated further from the norm," sighed Dumbledore, "anything else you can tell us, Harry."


    ". . . . there was a giant snake," told Harry, "it was really thick and long. It didn''t hiss, so I wasn''t able to hear anything."


    "That''s good, Harry. Anything new information would help," smiled Dumbledore before turning a bit serious, "can you tell me about the golden phenomenon that you mentionedst night."


    "I-I don''t know what it was," started Harry, "but when I shot a Reducto and Voldemort a Killing Curse. . . . I felt a vibration going through my wand as though an electric charge were surging through it; my hand seized up around it; I couldn''t release my wand if I wanted to ¡ª and then a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither blue nor green, but bright, deep gold."


    "Voldemort didn''t know what it was because he and I were both raised into the air ¡ª he was as shocked by it as I was ¡ª a thousand more beams arced high over us, crisscrossing all around us until we were enclosed in a golden, dome-shaped web, a cage of light," Harry gulped, "then I heard the song of a phoenix ¡ª it was telling me to not break the connection, and I didn''t. The beams of light changed asrge beads of light slid up and down the thread connecting our wands. Then a bead touched my wand, my wand grew hotter, and almost vibrated my hand, suddenly, I was somehow overpowering Voldemort before," he sucked a deep breath, "then I saw grandpa and grandma."


    James Potter''s eyes widened as he leaned forward, "W-What do you mean, Harry?"


    "They came out of Voldemort''s wand ¡ª they were like ghosts and helped me ¡ª they said to hold on. Slowly more and more ghosts appeared by my side, and the more ghosts appeared, the easier it got for me to fight Voldemort. . . . But they couldn''t hold. . . . and said that I needed to run for the Cup when the connection ended. . . . when the connection stopped, they surrounded Voldemort ¡ª and I did as they asked. . . . then I was at Hogwarts."


    James Potter had his head in his hands with Ivy rubbing his back. Just hearing that his parents had once again helped his son had brought up too much emotion ¡ª he felt useless; he was supposed to protect his family and not his dead parents from beyond the grave.


    "I''m not familiar with that magic," said Dumbledore, "but whatever it was made you able to stand against Voldemort ¡ª I''ll try to find what the magic was."


    "And the Death Eaters? They returned?" asked Moody.


    Harry shook his head, "No, there was only Wormtail and no one else." Harry nced to his left to see a dark expression on his father''s face at the mention of Peter Pettigrew.


    Moody seemed to be dissatisfied with the answer.


    "Did you find Karkaroff?" asked Harry. Karkaroff was the Death Eater that everyone suspected to be the one to put Harry''s name into the goblet, but the man had been missing sincest night.


    "Karkaroff?" said Moody with an oddugh. "Karkaroff fled when he felt the Dark Mark burn upon his arm. He must''ve returned to the Dark Lord when his job was done, but we''ll find him," he stood up from his chair, "I''ll go to Little Hangleton to see if I can find anything at Tom Riddle Senior''s grave."


    Harry momentarily nodded, but then a thought struck him. He looked up at Moody, ". . . . I never told that Voldemort''s father''s name was Tom Riddle Senior."


    Dumbledore''s eyes widened as he immediately picked up at the discrepancy, "stor. . . . I as well never told you this information. How did you know about it?"


    Moody''s magical eye rotated in its socket as a disturbing smile appeared on his scarred face. Before anyone could do anything, Moody had whipped out his wand and pointed it at Ivy, who suddenly felt a force grab hold over her before she was lifted and flew into Moody''s clutches with her back to him.


    Moody wrapped his arm around Ivy''s neck and pointed his wand at her, "Anyone makes any sudden moves, and I blow the girl''s head."


    Dumbledore slowly got up and asked in a sorrowful voice, "stor, why are you doing this?"


    Moody''s magical eye was now fixed at the door. He uncharacteristically cackled, "You old fool! I''m not Moody!"


    "Then who''re you?"


    "Hmm. . . . I wonder if I should tell you," said not-Moody, "well, since Master is alive, so there''s no harm. . . . my name is Barty. Crouch. Junior."


    "You''re supposed to be dead," said James Potter, his eyes fixed upon his daughter.


    "Yeah, yeah, and I''m also supposed to be Madeye. Things aren''t as they seem," said now-revealed-Barty before ncing at Harry, "tell me, Harry, did Master mention me? Did he talk about his most faithful servant ¡ª did he say that I, I alone remained faithful. . . . prepared to risk everything to deliver to him the one thing he wanted above all . . . you."


    "So, you''re the one who entered Harry''s name into the Cup," said Dumbledore calmly.


    "Yes, I put Harry''s name into the Cup. I also nudged Hagrid into showing you the dragons. I was also the one who told Cedric to open the egg underwater; I trusted that he would pass the information on to you. Decent people are so easy to manipte. . . . I even went ahead by nting the herbology books in various ces in the Gryffindor dorms so that you could find everything in your dorm itself. . . . I also Imperius-ed Victor Krum to take out the Ve and Diggory first before knocking you out and bring you to the Cup. Still, you ended up defeating him. . . . nevertheless, everything turned out well."


    Barty(Moody) looked at them with a mocking grin, "Now, I would love to tell you more about my work here, but I need to join my Master, so I would like to take my leave," he shook Ivy, "I want safe passage out of Hogwarts ¡ª if I see any obstruction, say goodbye to your lovely princess here. . . . I''m sure the Dark Lord would be happy to hear that thest thing I did was take out a Potter with me, but I''m sure you don''t want that."


    "I will allow you to leave," said Dumbledore, "only keep the end of your bargain and tell me what you did with the real stor."


    Barty snickered, "I''m in a good mood, so I''ll tell you. He''s locked in my office inside my suitcase. You''ll find him there, rxing."


    But then Barty saw everyone stop moving; it was as if they were even careful about breathing. When he looked closer, Barty noticed they were looking behind him.


    ''What?'' he thought as his magical eye moved behind. His magic eye turned just in time to see a wand fly into a hand; his focus shifted to see ck hair, one stone-grey eye, and one ck triangle, and before his brain could process his vision, a blinding bright red overwhelmed his vision.


    Ivy felt the arm around her neck loosen up, and before she knew it, there was a thump behind her. She carefully looked behind to see her captor''s body crumpled on the floor. When Ivy looked up, her eyes widened.


    "Sorry, but I sort of eavesdropped," said the boy with the eyepatch, "but you guys weren''t really trying to be quiet. . . . you know this ce being the hospital wing and all."


    Quinn West walked forward and kicked the fallen body once, twice, and then thrice, "Alright, he''s out cold, I have confirmed it," he then looked up, "are you alright, Ivy? Did he hurt you?"


    Ivy shook her head with a stunned expression. Her green eyes remained fixed on his face, ". . . . What happened to your eye?" She saw Quinn reach up to the cheek beneath the ck eyepatch.


    "It sort of melted away. Faulty magic, they saw, but the jury is still out on that." Quinn noticed that Ivy was still staring at him. He waved his hand in front of her, "Ivy, are you sure everything is alright?"


    Ivy finally snapped out of her trance, bowed her head down away from Quinn''s gaze, and lightly nodded. Quinn stared at her for a few more seconds before looking up at the others and said,


    "So, can anyone catch me up with what happened? I sort of missed the main part."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - One-eyed with a cool eyepatch.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - Went through a duel of a lifetime.


    James Potter - Senior Auror - Feeling useless.


    Ivy Potter - Hostage once again - She kept staring. . . .


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Politics isplicated.


    star Moody - Barty Crouch Junior - Stunned and then kicked.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 189 - Reason, Invite, Going Home

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Mr. West, that was unnecessarily risky for you to attack like that," said Dumbledore as he conjured ropes around Barty Crouch Jr. (still in Moody-form)..


    "I know, Headmaster," said Quinn, "even if I didn''t do it, you would have taken care of Mr. Crouch here ¡ª you were only trying to get information out of him. . . . But I had that element of surprise and speed at my side, so I took it ¡ª no biggie."


    Dumbledore nodded. It was easier to get information out of Barty Jr. when he was feeling confident than when he was in captivity. ''Though, I could have just used a little Legilimency to get what I want ¡ª well, I''ll do it moving forward.''


    Quinn turned to Harry, "Harry, even though it was a rough night, I have to say ¡ª congrattions on winning the Tri-wizard tournament."


    ". . . .Thank you," said Harry, and a smile made its way to his face; everybody had been worried sick since he had returned and acted like he was made out of fragile ss. It was nice to be congratted and treated as usual.


    "I actually had a very amazing ceremony nned to crown the winning champion ¡ª fireworks, music, the whole gig. It was going to be grand. . . . a pity that we ended up having to cancel it."


    "I agree; it truly was a damper on the festivities," said Dumbledore in agreement.


    The Potters stared at the two, a little confused by the calm disposition disyed by Quinn and Dumbledore ¡ª they were acting as if the canceled winner''s celebration ceremony was the biggest displeasure of yesterday night ¡ª and between two of them, one of them had lost an eye, and other had to deal with consequences of a ruthless Dark Lord''s return.


    The Potter family(sans Harry) and Dumbledore were thrown out of the hospital wing by Poppy for making too much noise; she wanted to throw out Quinn too but couldn''t because he was under her observation.


    Quinn didn''t have anything to do to pass his time, so he sat down on Harry''s bed to make idle conversation with him. "So, Harry," he started, "what''s in your ns for the summers? Anything special nned after the challenging months spent as a champion?"


    "I honestly had no idea," said Harry, "I wasn''t thinking about the future, you know. I was a little too upied by what was going in the moment to think about the after," he took in a deep breath, "if I think about it now, probably y a lot of quidditch. . . . but Voldemort is back, so I don''t think that''s going to work."


    "Is he really back?"


    "Yeah, he is," told Harry, "saw him with my own eyes and felt it through my own magic," he stared at Quinn, "do you. . . . believe me?"


    "I do. I mean, I can''t think of a reason you would want to lie about it. If you wanted attention ¡ª you just won the Tri-wizard tournament;bine it with your status as the Boy-Who-Lived, and that''s got you covered for a good while," said Quinn with a smile while thinking, ''plus, I was the one who allowed your abduction.''


    The decision to let Voldemort resurrect himself through Harry''s blood was one that Quinn had thought a lot about. It had taken him countless sessions of deep thinking, weighing pros and cons, making sense of his thoughts, and analyzing the risk involved.


    Quinn''s judgment hinged upon a single moment in the original timeline, the one weaved by the Duchess of Magic herself. It was the moment when Harry Potter surrendered himself to Voldemort and let himself be killed ¡ª after repeated encounters with the Dark Lord where Harry struggled with his life, he had decided to stop and let Voldemort kill him because of the deal proposed by the Dark Lord himself in return for the safety of all who rebelled and fought against him.


    Voldemort had wasted no time and quickly cursed his prophesized doom dead with the eerie green Killing Curse. The result was instant death, as one would expect. But this great work of fiction was named Harry Potter, and things were far from over ¡ª Harry arrived at a kind-off Limbo ¡ª a strange between life and death.


    The original Harry found himself in a pearly white, misty version of King''s Cross Railway Station. He also finds a grotesque being struggling to survive nearby, and of course, all of this could be choked up to be some kind of magic; after all, he lived in a magical world.


    But then Dumbledore, who was a hundred percent dead, approaches him, and Harry realizes that this was a ce where he could interact with the dead without the power of an artifact like the Ressurection Stone and that he was truly dead ¡ª but. . . . this was Harry''s perception of the situation, his assumption based on things he experienced.


    However, Quinn believed that it was the Ressurection Stone that Harry had with him at his moment of death responsible for his presence at the Limbo and his meeting with the dead Dumbledore.


    After all, Harry Potter wasn''t dead.


    Voldemort, in his greed, his cruelty, had taken Harry''s blood to resurrect himself. The Dark Lord could have anyone who fits the description of his enemy to supply the blood for the ritual, but he chose Harry Potter.


    Why?


    It was because of the blood protection cast by the original Lily Potter through her sacrifice (which in Quinn''s timeline was cast by Harry''s grandmother: Euphemia Potter). He believed that by taking in the blood of the blessed Harry, he would also receive the protection, thus making the protection redundant.


    His thinking, ording to Quinn, was correct. . . . but iplete.


    It wasn''t Voldemort''s fault ¡ª he didn''t have theplete information. Because the host soul couldn''t detect the presence of the cut-off Horcruxes, Voldemort didn''t know that his actions of cutting his soul several times had caused it to be unstable. What he didn''t know was the day that he went to kill baby Harry, but ended had failed, and when Voldemort escaped, he left with much less than Voldemort thought he had.


    He, in the obvious trauma of losing his body, hadn''t noticed that he had left a portion of his soul behind ¡ª in the form of an unintended Horcrux ¡ª the Horcrux in the form of the infamous scar defined the Boy-Who-Lived.


    Voldemort had tethered his life to Harry''s life.


    That was the sole reason why Quinn decided to let the event took ce.


    If Voldemort was to be taken down, Quinn either had to find a way to get rid of the Horcrux in Harry''s scar or kill Harry Potter. Thetter was something Quinn didn''t want to do, and there was no information on how to diffuse a living-Horcrux; at least, Quinn hadn''t found one yet.


    So, the problem had presented itself, and Quinn needed to do the logical thing ¡ª which was to find a solution. So he began from the start and chained all of his knowledge about the original timeline ¡ª it turned out that the answer was on the most significant turning point of the magical saga.


    It was the day Voldemort regained his body and re-attained his full power.


    When Voldemort had taken Harry''s blood, he had indeed found a way to bypass the sacrifice''s protection. . . . but, it turned out that "he" was the only one who got that advantage.


    If someone with perfect knowledge (or even iplete knowledge like Quinn) was to look back on the fateful day that the Dark Lord met the soon-to-be Boy-Who-Lived, they would find that in the series of events, Voldemort had cast the Killing Curse, followed by Euphemia Potter countering it by the sacrificial protection, which then shielded Harry from the Killing Curse by bouncing it back at Voldemort and maybe it was because that the Killing Curse had reacted with sacrificial protection, its nature had been slightly altered causing Voldemort to lose his body.


    . . . . It was only after all that Voldemort''s unstable soul fragment had attached itself to Harry.


    ''Meaning that small soul fragment didn''t get the protection of Euphemia''s sacrifice,'' that was the conclusion that Quinn came to. Voldemort''s main soul, the host soul, had gotten protection because of Harry''s blood, but the Horcrux inside Harry was still as unprotected as it was from day one.


    ''Maybe that was why Voldemort''s stronger soul, even if it was only a fragment wasn''t able to take over Harry''s weaker soul ¡ª because the protection prevented it from doing so ¡ª and because Voldemort''s ritual didn''t affect the Horcrux, it still couldn''t take over Harry.'' And even though Quinn ssified this chain of thought as a ''maybe,'' he was sure that this was the case. . . . because wasn''t his case a simr one and his target didn''t have any sort of protection.


    The Horcrux might have been a part of Harry Potter since that day, but in the end, it was still Voldemort. ''So, when Voldemort cast the Killing Curse in the Forbidden Forest, the protection certainly worked and protected Harry''s soul, leaving the Killing Curse to strike the unprotected Horcrux.''


    That was the theory that Quinn came up with ¡ª Voldemort''s action that was supposed to eliminate his weakness was the reason that doomed.


    As for the reason why Harry''s soul reached the Limbo even though he wasn''t dead? Quinn thought that the answer was a mix of Killing Curse''s soul-ejecting effect and the thing in Harry''s pocket when he died.


    Quinn stared at Harry thinking, ''Sorry, man, but it seems you will once again have to get hit by the Killing Curse from Voldemort ¡ª but don''t worry, Voldemort and I got you covered.''


    "So, what have you nned for the summer?" asked Harry in return.


    "Hmm, first, I''ll have to go to a few people''s houses to pacify their worries," said Quinn with a wry smile ¡ª his friends were already on the Hogwarts Express to their homes. "I''m not sure what I would do for the rest of the summer; I don''t have concrete ns. Like you, I too got a bit too involved in what happened this year."


    "Then how about youe to my and Ivy''s birthday. We would love to have you there," smiled Harry. Quinn had helped him this year, and he had technically just saved Ivy from danger.


    "Your and Ivy''s birthday, huh," Quinn brows and nose scrunched up slightly, "it''s on the 31st of July, you know. . . . that''s right in the middle of the summer break. . . . I am usually very busy at that time," he sighed, "Alright, you have so generously invited so I wille to the Potter Twins'' birthday bash."


    "Nice," smiled Harry.


    "What do you want for your gift?"


    ". . . . A quidditch team."


    ". . . . I like you, Potter, but not that much."


    "Well, I tried. Get me anything man, I like a surprise."


    "Alright, I''ll see that you like my gift," said Quinn, "what about Ivy? What would she like?"


    "Hmm, maybe a book. Ivy might not be Hermione, but she likes her books."


    "That''s my specialty. I''ll get a good one," said Quinn inplete confidence; when it came to books, he was the boss, plus ¡ª ''Project Babel was a sess,'' he thought.


    "Uhm, Quinn. . . ." called Harry.


    "Yeah?" returned Quinn, then noticed the expression on Harry''s face, "what''s wrong."


    "It sort of slipped my mind but," Harry pointed at Quinn''s eyepatch, "that was caused by Voldemort ¡ª by Wormtail. . . . Peter Pettigrew, who got the spell from Voldemort."


    ". . . . You''re saying that the Dark Lord costed me my eye?"


    Harry nodded.


    "Are you sure, Harry? Are you absolutely sure?"


    Harry was a little taken back by the serious tone from Quinn, "Y-Yeah, I''m sure. He said so himself. Voldemort couldn''t have me seen disappear, so he had to stop your magic."


    Then Harry saw Quinn''s hand clench, which worried him, but just before Harry could say something, Quinn raised his fist and shook it. . . . in celebration.


    "Yeah! I knew it!" eximed Quinn loudly, "I knew my magic wasn''t faulty! My magic can never be faulty," he thenughed, "take that, Madam Pomfrey," the matron was, of course, not present.


    "Huh?" uttered Harry, "What¡ª"


    But before he could continue, Quinn brought down his hands onto his shoulders and gripped them tightly, "You can''t tell this to anyone, Harry. Not your family, not your friends, and especially to Headmaster Dumbledore."


    "Eh, why?"


    "If my grandfather gets a whiff of this. Not only will he take me out of Hogwarts and move me to another school out of the British Isles, but he might also move against Voldemort as retaliation, and I don''t want that to happen," Quinn pulled his most severe tone.


    "I-I get the first part, but why the second. . . ."


    "I''ve read about the First British Wizarding War," sighed Quinn, "a lot of people died, Harry. The Dark Lord''s reign was full of blood and death for those who opposed him. During that time, the Wests remained neutral ¡ª my grandfather neither supported nor opposed the Dark Lord and even went as far as to flee the country during the high point of the way," he looked straight into Harry''s eyes to get his point across, "my family is powerful Quinn. They could hire ample security to ensure their safety, but my grandfather or anyone in my family won''t do that; they''ll flee the country if the Dark Lord gains control and establish his reign. . . . but if they know that my injury was caused by the Dark Lord, my grandfather will get involved. . . . he''ll invest our family resource to enact revenge. I don''t want that. . . . I don''t want my family to be involved in the war. . . . you know what I''m talking about, don''t you, Harry?"


    Harry nodded. He would hate it if something happened to his family. Ivy getting dragged into the Chamber of Secrets was one of the worst experiences of his life; he wouldn''t have that kind of experience for anyone.


    "I understand, mate," he assured Quinn, "I''ll keep this a secret. I promise."


    "Thank you, Harry," smiled Quinn ¡ª as Barty Crouch Junior had said, it was easy to manipte decent people.


    The West family might not get involved, but he had every intention to get involved.


    . . .


    After talking to Harry for a while, the Boy-Who-Lived expressed his desire to get some sleep, he hadn''t sleptst night because of the stressful experience, and it seemed that the talk with Quinn had somewhat helped him calm his nerves.


    Quinn excused himself before going into Poppy''s personal library to see if something interested him. He found a book rted to his current eye injury and started reading it to upskill his knowledge. He walked back and forth across the hospital wings'' floor with the healing book in hand.


    "Quinn."


    The call of his name made him turn around to see a well-suited man standing with Poppy, who seemed to be acting strange.


    ''Is she blushing?'' thought Quinn, but threw that thought out as it seemed absurd. Instead, he focused on the man and smiled, "Uncle Elliot."


    The perfect example of a gentleman removed his fedora as he gazed at Quinn with his eyepatched eye. He had already got the gist of Quinn''s situation from the matron who had guided him in, but seeing Quinn with his own eyes did put him to ease.


    "Young master. . . .You should be careful about experimenting with magic. You were lucky this time, getting out with only losing an eye, and that already is too much in my book," sighed Elliot Dalton, walking near Quinn to get a good look at him.


    "Sorry to worry you," said Quinn, looking at the taller Elliot, "I''ll be careful moving forward."


    "See that you do," Elliot moved Quinn''s head by the chin, "how''re you feeling? Any difort?"


    "Nothing except for the missing eye messing with spatial perception and that I have a huge blind spot on one side," replied Quinn; he could only imagine who this would affect his daily Muay Thai training.


    "Hmm, I already have a medi-healer waiting for you at the manor."


    "There''s no need for a healer," said Quinn, "I can grow it back on my own. It''s¡ª"


    " "No!" "


    Quinn backed up a step from the in-sync response from Poppy and Elliot.


    "You''ll get treated by a proper, trained, certified healer ¡ª not buts and ifs," said Poppy in a no-nonsense tone, and Elliot nodded in support.


    ". . . . Okay," said Quinn, sounding defeated.


    Quinn had already packed all of his things into his suitcase the day before yesterday; thus, after picking up luggage, Elliot and Quinn immediately left.


    "So. . . . did you talk to grandfather?" asked Quinn as they walked through the Hogwarts ground, heading out so that they could apparate back to the West estate.


    "He was in a meeting when I gave him the news," replied Elliot, "he''ll meet you tonight," he turned to Quinn, "we all realize that magic can sometimes be dangerous, and injuries like this wille in future ¡ª but do try to be more careful."


    Quinn could nod in response. He couldn''t tell that Voldemort was the reason and not his magic. ''One day, I''ll show the world. Mwahaha, ahem, yeah,'' he thought.


    "What about Lia?" he asked.


    "Get ready to get yelled at a lot."


    "Ugh, shouldn''t have done this entire thing ¡ª not worth it."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Summer, huh. Well, need to book the 31st of July on my calendar.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - I''ll keep a secret.


    Albus Dumbledore - About to get real busy - I don''t get paid enough for this.


    Poppy Pomfrey - First time meeting Elliot - Oh my, what a gentleman. . . .


    Elliot Dalton - Perfect Gentleman - Can absolutely rock a fedora.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 190 - Home & Dark Reunion

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "The medi-healer''s diagnoses said that if you follow his potion regime, you''ll have your eye back in ten days," said George West, staring at his grandson''s ck eyepatch, "he also suggests that you rest for a couple of weeks to help the recovery; which Ipletely agree with."


    Quinn nodded while tapping his finger on the armrest of his chair. Ever since he had returned from Hogwarts (which was yesterday), he had been treated like he hade close to losing his life..


    "I''ve no strenuous ns in the recent future," he replied, "though I''ll need to leave to go visit my friends ¡ª I already got anxious letters from them; it looks like they won''t be satisfied if I don''t visit them."


    "Hmm," paused George, contemting, "you''ll have strict time curfew imposed on you. Cross them even once, and I''ll have you grounded here for the entire summer break."


    Quinn held back a sigh and nodded, "I understand. I will abide by your rules."


    "Good," said George, "now tell me, what do you think about Dumbledore''s sudden announcement of the Dark Lord''s return."


    "What do you think?" answered Quinn with a question.


    "I don''t want to believe it, s Dumbledore is anything but a daft fool who would propagate such a severe thing if it was not a lie," said George, "though I can''t say the same about the boy. What do you think of the Boy-Who-Lived ¡ª are his words trustworthy?"


    "Harry Potter might not shy away from attention and fame, but I''m don''t think he will lie about something of this magnitude. Also, from the time I spent with him in the hospital wing, I don''t think he was lying."


    "Did you. . . peek?"


    "Ah, I could''ve done that, couldn''t I?. . . but the missing eye had me off my game there."


    "And yet, you engaged a Death Eater," said George.


    Quinn''s one eye twitched, "I ambushed the Death Eater. He had his wand aimed at Ivy Potter; if he didn''t want to get taken out by Headmaster Dumbledore or Auror Potter or both, he wouldn''t have pointed his wand at me ¡ª I waspletely safe in that scenario."


    George didn''t look satisfied with Quinn''s exnation, no matter how much sense it made. ". . . . So it''s safe to say that the Dark Lord has returned?"


    "It seems so."


    George sighed. This news wasn''t faring well ¡ª plus, it was terrible for business. "I''ll send out for definitive news of the Dark Lord''s return. I''m sure someone from the Dark Faction would be more than happy to pass along the information."


    Quinn nodded. There was always someone waiting to brag.


    "Alright then, let''s move on. How did your OWLs go?" asked George.


    "Ah, the OWLs," said Quinn, "I almost forgot about them ¡ª they were exhaustingly easy. . . . I was tempted to go sleep after an hour of writing. Fortunately, practicals are a quick affair ¡ª it was quite simple to impress the external examiners with some basic nonverbal casting. . . . All-in-all, I''ll pass with rainbow-colored Os with beyond hundred points."


    "That''s great to hear," nodded George, "what about Ms. Fleur Dcour, are you two. . . ."


    "You don''t beat around the bush, do you," sighed Quinn, expecting a little tact from his grandfather, but it seemed that a parent''s curiosity was strong with George West, "I''m not involved with Fleur. That was just a one-time, brief. . . . thing."


    "You can be honest with me, son. There''s no need to be shy."


    The grandson and grandfather stared at each other for a good few seconds before Quinn graced George with an answer,


    ". . . . I am being honest with you, grandfather," Quinn enunciated every syble that rolled of his tongue, "I do not have any sort of intimate rtionship with Ms. Fleaur Dcour."


    "I see. . . . if you say so."


    ". . ."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "35. . . 36. . . 37. . . 38. . ."


    The sudden loss of vision in one caused multitudes of problems for Quinn. Besides being blind on one side and having terrible spatial perception, Quinn had to suffer through bnce disorders, decreased visual rity, eyestrain, headaches because his other good eye was stressing itself bypensating for its missing partner.


    After just one Muay Thai training session, Quinn hade near to throwing up because of nausea. By the end of that session, Quinn had decided to suspend Muay Thai till he got his eye back and elected to only do physical conditioning.


    Theck of daily hitting, punching, and kicking the crap out of the heavy bag bummed Quinn out, so he chose to take on a new challenge and thus altered the way he performed conditioning ¡ª he started to do every exercise much slower than his usual speed.


    If it was a pushup, Quinn would do every single one very slowly, making his muscles hold the weight for much longer ¡ª the same went for pullups, squats, and any exercise he could introduce it into. Furthermore, he tried out isometrics into his new routine because it didn''t stress his vision.


    "O-Oh-ho, I have to make Eddie do this," panted Quinn mid a slow pushup, "this feels exhrating." The base physique of a body-magic user mattered when it came to the elevation provided by magic, albeit only in the basic versions of body magic ¡ª a fit body was required even at the advanced levels, but it no longer affected the productivity of the magic.


    Even without that initial reasoning, now Quinn had fallen in love with martial arts and physical fitness. It made him feel good, and working towards his ideal physique was a rewarding feeling.


    And as Quinn got some work in, the door to the training hall busted open with a bang.


    "Quinn, I heard you lost an eye!" Lia West, freshly home from yet another trip outside the country, announced herself with full vigor.


    The older sister nced down to see her shirtless baby brother doing a pushup over a puddle of sweat beneath him with sweat dripping off his body. She could see him from the side ¡ª the side which was blinded.


    "Huh, Wah! Lia is that you?!" she heard, "damn it, that scared me! Ugh, I can''t see you properly."


    Quinn got up and turned his entire body to the door to finally get aplete look at his sister, who, for some reason, had her wand pointed at him. "Why do¡ª" before Quinn could ask her, Lia waved her wand, and he found all the sweat vanished into a puff of vapor.


    "Ah, thanks," he said before smiling, "hey, Lia. Wee back, sis. How''re you doing? Brought me any gifts? Any exotic and exciting books. . . ." He tried to talk his way out of getting scolded, only to trail off when he couldn''t pick a scolding on Lia''s face.


    "That eyepatch looks needlessly cool," said Lia.


    "Thank you?" he said, judging the vibe, "you also look good. New haircut?"


    "No."


    "It doesn''t matter; you''re glowing."


    Lia stepped ahead, walked towards Quinn, and grabbed his face by the cheeks. "How is the treatment going?"


    "I''ve only been back one day, so nothing major," said Quinn with his cheeks being kneaded, "the potion tastes bad, and the eye drop burns when I put them in. . . . the empty eye socket."


    "You''ve been busy ¡ª organizing quidditch tournaments,mentating, hosting. . . . ying knight in shining armor and kissing Ves."


    Quinn fought down the intense cough that overcame him and settled to loudly cleared his throat, "Why are all of you so interested in it? It was only a one-time thing."


    "Because it''s interesting," replied Lia, now pinching Quinn''s hurting cheeks wide, "there''s only so much that goes on here."


    Quinn finally couldn''t take it anymore and released his now red, hot cheeks out from the torturous pincers. "You''re not going to scold me?" he asked directly.


    "Not really," shrugged Lia, "people make mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes, mostly small ¡ª I don''t do big mistakes ¡ª during my starting years, it took me a lot of time to get in the groove of things."


    Quinn, for the umpteenth time, suppressed a groan. It bugged him a lot that everyone thought that it was his mistake in magic that cost him his eye.


    ". . . . I will take more care moving forward."


    "Good, that''s the correct attitude," smiled Lia, "now get some clothes; we''re going out to the non-magical world to have some fun."


    Quinn grinned, "Wicked."


    Not only he got to go out because George would let him go out if Lia was apanying him, but he also didn''t have to listen to a long lecture.


    "You''re paying," she said.


    "dy," he was feeling generous today.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was the night of the 26th of June, 1995, just two days after the night of the third and final task of the Tri-wizard tournament. The night was clear, with the valley of stars shining in the inky ck.


    And beneath that sky, standing in a wide clearing with no civilization in sight, just the embrace of nature, stood Dark Lord Voldemort, staring up at the sky with his dull, ck, bottomless eyes.


    "Wormtail, it''s time to bring them all together," he said, removing his eye from the sky and turned to the man who looked like a humanized version of a thin-rat, "it''s time for my friends to gather to greet me, congratte me. . . . and finally face me."


    "Yes, My Lord," said Peter, stepping forward while pulling his robes'' sleeve past his elbow, revealing the vivid red tattoo ¡ª a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth: the Dark Mark ¡ª the symbol that struck fear into the hearts of all British magical society.


    "It''s clearly back," said Peter softly, "they will all have noticed it . . . and now, we shall see . . . now we shall know . . ."


    "Yes, let''s see how many will be brave enough to return when they feel it?" he whispered, his ck eyes suddenly turning orbs of gleaming red, fixed upon the mark. "And how many will be foolish enough to stay away?"


    He pressed his long white forefinger to the brand on Peter''s arm, and Peter let out a fresh hiss; Voldemort removed his fingers from Wormtail''s mark ¡ª the mark went from red to ck.


    With a look of cruel satisfaction on his face, Voldemort straightened up, threw back his head, and stared around the clearing ¡ª it was peaceful and beautiful. Voldemortughed again. Up and down, he paced, looking all around him as he walked, and the snake continued to circle in the grass.


    The air was suddenly full of the swishing of cloaks. Between trees, behind the shades, in every shadowy space, wizards were Apparating. All of them were hooded and masked. And one by one they moved forward . . . slowly, cautiously, as though they could hardly believe their eyes. Voldemort stood in silence, waiting for them.


    Then one of the Death Eaters fell to his knees, crawled toward Voldemort, and kissed the hem of his ck robes. "Master. . . . Master. . . ." he murmured.


    The Death Eaters behind him did the same, each of them approaching Voldemort on his knees and kissing his robes before backing away and standing up, forming a silent circle. Yet they left gaps in the ring, as though waiting for more people. Voldemort, however, did not seem to expect more. He looked around at the hooded faces, and though there was no wind, a rustling seemed to run around the circle, as though it had shivered.


    "Wee, Death Eaters," said Voldemort quietly. "Thirteen years . . . thirteen years sincest we met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday. . . . We are still united under the Dark Mark, then! Or are we?"


    He put back his terrible face and sniffed, his slit-like nostrils widening.


    "I smell guilt," he said. "There is a stench of guilt upon the air."


    A second shiver ran around the circle, as though each member of it longed, but did not dare, to step back from him.


    "I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact ¡ª such prompt appearances! ¡ª and I ask myself . . . why did this band of wizards nevere to the aid of their Master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty?"


    No one spoke. No one moved except Wormtail, who left Voldemort''s side and joined the others in the ring.


    "And I answer myself," whispered Voldemort, "they must have believed me broken; they thought I was gone. They slipped back among my enemies, and they pleaded innocence, and ignorance, and bewitchment. . . ."


    "And then I ask myself, but how could they have believed I would not rise again? They, who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death? They, who had seen proofs of the immensity of my power in the times when I was mightier than any wizard living?


    "And I answer myself, perhaps they believed a still greater power could exist, one that could vanquish even Lord Voldemort . . . perhaps they now pay allegiance to another . . . perhaps that champion ofmoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles, Albus Dumbledore and his merry band ¡ª what are they called, ah yes, Order of The Phoenix. . . . but I''ve heard that they''re called by a new name. . . . what was it? Wormtail, do you know?"


    "The Light Faction," replied Peter promptly.


    At the mention of Albus Dumbledore and the Light Faction, the circle members stirred, and some muttered and shook their heads. Voldemort ignored them.


    "It is a disappointment to me . . . I confess myself disappointed. . . ."


    One of the men suddenly flung himself forward, breaking the circle. Trembling from head to foot, he copsed at Voldemort''s feet. "Master!" he shrieked, "Master, forgive me! Forgive us all!"


    Voldemort began tough. He raised his wand ¡ª "Crucio!"


    The Death Eater on the ground writhed and shrieked; the sound spread throughout the surroundings. Voldemort raised his wand. The tortured Death Eatery t upon the ground, gasping.


    "Get up, Avery," said Voldemort softly. "Stand up. You ask for forgiveness? I do not forgive. I do not forget. Thirteen long years . . . I want thirteen years'' repayment before I forgive you. Wormtail here has paid his debt already, have you not, Wormtail?"


    "I could only hope, Master," said Peter; his voice was stable and steady.


    "You returned to me, not out of loyalty, but because you wanted to seek your personal revenge. . . . I should punish you, but as you already spent all those years in Azkaban, you were already punished enough and as traitorous as you are, you helped me . . . and Lord Voldemort rewards his helpers. . . . Wormtail, I will help you seek your revenge ¡ª you would drown in as much revenge as your greedy heart could ever desire."


    Peter strode forward, knelt on his knees, and kissed the hem of Voldemort''s robes.


    "May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail," said Voldemort.


    "No, my Lord . . . never, my Lord . . ."


    Peter stood up and returned to his ce; the other Death Eaters looked at him envy and regret ¡ª only if they had. . . .


    Voldemort now approached the man on Peter''s right.


    "Lucius, my slippery friend," he whispered, halting before him. "I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, though, to the world, you present a respectable face. You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe? Yet you never tried to find me, Lucius. . . . Your exploits at the Wizengamot were fun, I daresay . . . but might not your energies have been better directed toward finding and aiding your Master?


    "My Lord, I was constantly on the alert," came Lucius Malfoy''s voice swiftly from beneath the hood. "Had there been any sign from you, any whisper of your whereabouts, I would have been at your side immediately; nothing could have prevented me ¡ª"


    "Oh Lucius, you and your silver tongue," said Voldemortzily, and Lucius stopped talking abruptly, "if your tongue wasn''t so useful to me, I would''ve cut and made you eat it. . . . You have disappointed me. . . . I expect more faithful service in the future."


    "Of course, my Lord, of course. . . . You are merciful, thank you. . . ."


    Voldemort moved on and stopped, staring at the space ¡ªrge enough for two people ¡ª that separated Malfoy and the next man.


    "The Lestranges should stand here," said Voldemort quietly. "But they are entombed in Azkaban. They were faithful. They went to Azkaban rather than renounce me. . . . When Azkaban is broken open, the Lestranges will be honored beyond their dreams. The dementors will join us . . . they are our natural allies . . . we will recall the banished giants . . . I shall have all my devoted servants returned to me, and an army of creatures whom all fear. . . ."


    He walked on. He passed some of the Death Eaters in silence, but he paused before others and spoke to them.


    "Mair . . . destroying dangerous beasts for the Ministry of Magic now, Wormtail tells me? You shall have better victims than that soon, Mair. Lord Voldemort will provide. . . ."


    "Thank you, Master . . . thank you," murmured Mair.


    "And here" ¡ª Voldemort moved on to the tworgest hooded figures ¡ª "we have Crabbe . . . you will do better this time, will you not, Crabbe? And you, Goyle?"


    They bowed clumsily, muttering dully.


    "Yes, Master . . ."


    "We will, Master. . . ."


    "The same goes for you, Nott," said Voldemort quietly as he walked past a stooped figure in Mr. Goyle''s shadow.


    "My Lord, I prostrate myself before you, I am your most faithful ¡ª"


    "That will do," said Voldemort.


    He had reached thergest gap of all, and he stood surveying it with his nk, red eyes as though he could see people standing there.


    "And here we have six missing Death Eaters . . . three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return . . . he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever . . . he will be killed, of course . . . and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service ¡ª the one that Dumbledore just sent to Azkaban."


    There was a silence. Then the Death Eater to the right of Wormtail stepped forward, and Lucius Malfoy''s voice spoke from under the mask.


    "Master, we crave to know . . . we beg you to tell us . . . how you have achieved this . . . this miracle . . . how you managed to return to us. . . ."


    Voldemortughed and started to narrate his journey from the day he fell to two days before. And during his narration, the Death Eaters shivered when their Master, again and again, showed them all the opportunities they could''ve taken to save him and how close he had been to them for the past few years.


    He then looked back at the sky and spoke in but a whisper, "Harry Potter. . . . that child, he once again escaped me through some strange magic. . . . magic that I''m not aware of. That won''t do, that won''t do."


    Voldemort turned in a circle to see all those gathered and dered, "Gather my forces, Death Eaters. It''s time for us to build towards our previous glory. . . . no, this time we are going to surpass it and finally rule this wretched country."


    He raised his bone-like wand like a conductor of an opera and closed his eyes. The beautiful and serene scenery reflected in his mind and then with a smile. . . .


    The Death Eaters, who were all smiling at their Master''s promise, felt a tremor beneath their feet. All looked down just in time to see cracks begin appearing on the ground near them. They started to shake in their boots as the cracks grew bigger and deeper, closing towards them.


    "M-Master. . . ." said one of the Death Eater.


    Voldemort didn''t reply and raised his wand higher. The trees around them began copsing with the hundreds of meters ofnd all around them began to overturn, crack, rise, sink ¡ª the scenic ce within a few seconds had turned into a different ce.


    The Death Eaters looked at the ground, which was the only location that was unchanged.


    All realized all recalled. . . . who their Master was.


    Voldemort opened his eye to show glowing red orbs and cruelly grinned, "Gentlemen. . . . let there be chaos."


    He waved his wand down, and suddenly there were explosions. When the explosions stopped, the Death Eaters looked around ¡ª gone was the greenery and the beautiful nature ¡ª all there was left was destruction. . . . unbridled devastation. . . . and as he had said. . . . Chaos.


    The entirendscape had been changed.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - The only upside of the eyepatch is its coolness.


    George West - Grandfather - Wants to know if his grandson is dating.


    Lia West - Sister - She didn''t scold. . . . what a unique situation.


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - Powerhouse has returned.


    Death Eaters - Dark Mark Bearers - It''s time to return.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 191 - Going Around, A Letter

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stared to his front with one eye with a charming smile on his face. He was dressed sharply and sat with his best posture ¡ª he was trying to be the best he could be, and except the eyepatch, he was. . .. . perfect.


    "Quinn, dear, do you want more," said thedy sitting in front of him. She had short brte hair, wearing an apron over a long light blue midi dress, and Quinn could see the resemnce she bore with her son.


    "Yes, Mrs. Carmichael, I would love to have more," said Quinn, setting his ss on the table for a jug to float over it, refilling it for another serving of reddish-pink punch. "Thank you, it''s delightful, Mrs. Carmichael," smiled Quinn, "especially this shortbread. . . . it''s so good! No wonder Eddie is always ranting about the food at school."


    "He does, doesn''t he," said Eleanor Carmichael, ncing at her son who was sporting messy bed hair and sleep clothes, staring at the scene with difort, "what would I do with you, Ed? You knew Quinn was visiting today, and look at you ¡ª you didn''t have the decency to wake up early in the morning even when I woke you up," she gestured towards Quinn, "Look at your friend; he''s so well mannered and even brought gifts for us. Grow up a little and learn from Quinn."


    Eddie could only nod at his lovely mother''s rant in fear of being hit with her mightydle. But when he nced at Quinn, he saw his best friend grinning deeply into his ss. Eddie fought the urge to throw the tter on the table at Quinn ¡ª the bastard was acting like he was the best-behaved person in the world.


    "How''s your eye feeling dear," asked Mrs. Carmichael.


    "It''s growing properly, ma''am," said Quinn, "though it''s a little itchy."


    "This year wasn''t good at all," she sighed, "first Ed got into that ident ying quidditch, and then you lost your eye ¡ª and now, all the news about You-Know-Who and how Dumbledore has been saying that he has returned."


    "Things had been quite chaotic these few days," said Quinn smiling while picking himself a slice of cake, "I''m sure it will all settle down quite soon. I''m just hoping that it doesn''t get too hot this summer. You know how it gets. . . ."


    "Yes, it gets quite bothersome," Mrs. Carmichael agreed, "now dear, I hope you''re hungry and staying for lunch."


    "Yes, of course, ma''am," smiled Quinn; he was always ready for food, "I ate a lot of the food you sent to Hogwarts. I''m pretty sure that Marcus and I ate half of anything you sent."


    Mrs. Carmichael stood up and smiled, "It''s good that you did. I sent it for all you three boys. Now, let me set up the table, and we will be eating soon."


    "Thank you, Mrs. Carmichael," said Quinn as the woman exited the room. He turned to Eddie and smiled, "Your mum is nice. . . . and I have to say, a great cook."


    ". . . . You know what''s going to happen when you leave," said Eddie, "she''ll hound me for the entire day about Quinn this, Quinn that and then bring you up time and time again to win arguments. . . . couldn''t you have reeled it in a little."


    Quinn raised his hand and wiggled his index finger a little ¡ª Eddie shivered a little when he felt his hair stand up before settling down; his sleepwear got ironed, his shirt got tucked in, and the top button tied up. He touched his head to see his bed hair was nowbed.


    "See, much better," said Quinn, "you could''ve done this beforeing down; you would''ve been fine."


    "Unlike you, you wandless dipshit, I can''t use magic without a wand and can''t unless I want a letter from ministry up my arse."


    "Oh, I forgot about that," smiled Quinn, "it''s not like you''ll get a letter, you know? The letter won''te if you do magic inside your house. . . . the tracker will ssify it as your parents doing the magic."


    "Even so, I can''t. My wand is in my luggage, and mum stashed it in the attic."


    "Always keep your wand with yourself with you, mate ¡ª you never know when you need that zap of magic," said Quinn before switching to something of more importance, "how''s it looking? Does it look like your parents will allow you toe to Hogwarts?"


    "Hmm? Ah, that, huh. . . . well, as you saw mum, she doesn''t think much of it, but dad has been worried a little, but not to the level that they won''t allow me to go back to Hogwarts."


    "That''s good to hear," smiled Quinn, "Hogwarts wouldn''t be the same without you there cursing at me daily."


    "You bet it won''t, you little bitch."


    "Hey, Woah, Hey. . . ."


    "It''s already out, can''t take it back," said Eddie quickly, "what about you?"


    "I''m definitelying. No opposition from my side."


    "Great."


    Mrs. Carmichael entered back into the living room. "Come, you boys, the table is set," she asked when she saw them smiling, "what are you talking about?"


    Quinn leaped onto his feet, "We were talking about the OWLs. . . . Eddie was telling me¡ª"


    "Oh, OWLs! How did you do on your OWLs, Quinn," asked Mrs. Carmichael.


    "I think I did great," smiled Quinn, "though I''m a little worried that I didn''t get enough time to study with the quidditch tournament. . . "


    Eddie watched as Quinn walked with his mother while giving him a wink. Quinn had just made the aftermath that much worse.


    "Motherfuc¡ª"


    "EDDIE CARMICHAEL!" yelled Mrs. Carmichael.


    "Quinn kissed the French Ve champion in front of everyone!" blurted Eddie for no reason.


    Quinn turned to Eddie and threw his hands up with a ''what'' expression before turning to Mrs. Carmichael. "Eddie has gotten very close to his Yule Ball date, Tracey Davis," he turned to Eddie and maliciously grinned, "I have pictures."


    The expression of pure curiosity that bloomed on his mother''s face caused Eddie to let out a soundless scream.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The British summer was at its peak with the sun throwing its death beams of heat at the habitants, making their life quite miserable. The non-magical media dered the summer of 1995 as the hottest summer, breaking all records and setting new ones.


    "Marcus. . . ." hummed Quinn, his voice flowing with pleasurable delight.


    "Hmm?" came the reply.


    "Why didn''t you say that your house had a pool?" asked Quinn.


    Currently, he was floating weightlessly on his back inside the pool in Marcus''s home''s backyard. He had sunsses with a blue tint on and was dressed only in a conjured pair of swim trunks.


    ''I should ask Ms. Rosey to build a pool at home,'' he thought, ''or maybe I should do it on my own.''


    "You never asked," replied Marcus in a simr state as Quinn.


    "This is the life, my friend," said Quinn.


    ". . . . don''t pee, okay," said Marcus, but where he didn''t hear a reply, "don''t pee in the pool!"


    "I won''t, I won''t, don''t worry~."


    "Quinn, which NEWT level sses are you going to take? Didn''t you give OWLs for all twelve subjects?"


    "Yeah, I did," even though Quinn didn''t study Muggle Studies and Divination, he gave the OWLs for both of them ¡ª he wanted twelve Os on his diploma, "I''m going to take all NEWT-level sses except Divination, Muggle Studies, and maybe Care of Magical Creatures. . . . I will study Care after Hogwarts as that will be more extensive, but I''m not sure if I want to learn it in Hogwarts."


    "But you''re going to give NEWTS for all, correct?"


    "Yeah, that goes without saying."


    "What should I take?"


    "Just take whatever subjects that interest you."


    "Subjects that interest me. . . . I''m not big on Care, Divination, and Herbology. . . , but brewing potions can be fun, so I can''t discard Herbology."


    "Then take whatever you think you want to study, and then you can decide in the seventh year if you can keep it up or not," said Quinn, "and as long as you don''t want to be something like an Auror or Healer, you don''t have to score Outstanding across the board, as long as you have Exceeding Expectations, you''ll be fine. . . . marks on your degree bes redundant after a few years."


    Of course, as Marcus was Quinn''s friend, Marcus would get admission to any apprenticeship programs funded by the Wests or a job in the business. Quinn left that unsaid as he didn''t want Marcus to bex ¡ª he would tell Marcus this near the end of their seventh year, during the career counselling period.


    "Okay," said Marcus, "do you have any ns for next year. Anything grand like the quidditch tournament?"


    "No, oh no," replied Quinn, "the quidditch tournament was too much work to be done in a year. I don''t want to do that amount of work for a while."


    Then Quinn groaned. He put his hands on the surface of the water and pushed himself up, pulling his body out of the water, and soon he was standing on water. It was okay because Marcus and Quinn were alone at Marcus''s home as his parents were out shopping for the Belby family''s trip to Turkey.


    "That won''t get old no matter how many times I see it,"mented Marcus.


    "You want to do it?"


    Marcus stirred in the water, "I can do that?"


    "Well, you can''t do it on your own, but I can make it so you can stand on water."


    "Really?"


    "Yeah," Quinn pointed at a ce of water near Marcus for it to glow in an aqua-blue color, "that lit-up spot is essentially solid, so use it to pull yourself up."


    Marcus was doubtful, but when he touched the aqua-blue, it really seemed solid, and even when he put some weight, it didn''t copse or let his arms slip into the water. He gingerly used the glowing tform to pull himself out of the water.


    "W-Woah," chuckled Marcus amid bncing himself on the water. But his eyes widened in shock when the glow vanished, and he instinctively closed his eye, but he didn''t enter the water like he expected.


    "That glow was just for marking purposes," snickered Quinn, "you can walk anywhere inside the pool."


    Marcus took hesitant and careful steps on the pool, checking twice for the structural integrity. It took him a couple of minutes before he started walking normally, but that was the extent Marcus was ready to test the limits.


    Quinn, on the other hand, was doing cartwheels, summersaults, backflips on the pool. Which did nothing but provoke his bnce disorder, and he came close to puking all over the pool.


    Pool time ended with Marcus rubbing Quinn''s back as the two friends kneeled on the pool''s surface.


    When it came time for Quinn to leave, Marcus asked him to wait for a moment before he went running up to his room.


    "What is it?" asked Quinn when Marcus came back.


    "Here, this is for you," said Marcus, cing a small ring box in Quinn''s hand.


    "Yes, yes, yes ¡ª a hundred times yes," grinned Quinn, "when''s the wedding?"


    "Oh shut up," said Marcus, "open it; you''ll be surprised with what''s inside."


    Quinn followed Marcus'' words and opened the velvet-covered box with a smile ¡ª the smile which drained when he saw what was inside.


    "This is. . . ."


    Inside the box was a burnt, pitch-ck sphere that was missing a lot of its parts.


    "After you copsed, and the maze was cleared out the obstacles, I went into thebyrinth to see if I could find the eye," shrugged Marcus, "I thought you would like to have a look to see what went wrong with your magic ¡ª luckily, I was able to find it."


    Quinn stared at the charred artificial eye before gazing up at Marcus. "You went out looking for this because of me?"


    "Yeah," nodded Marcus, "I know how important magic is for you. So, I went out. . . . it''s not a big deal."


    "No, no, no," said Quinn, "what do you mean, it''s not a big deal? This is a big deal, Marcus," he stepped close to Marcus and engulfed him into a tight hug, "this is a huge deal for me that you did this."


    Marcus couldn''t do anything but hug Quinn back, and he had to admit it, the hug felt good ¡ª it was nice to be thanked. . . .


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "What are you doing here?" asked Ron Weasley, seeing Quinn West sitting in the middle of Burrow''s dining room while the family was busy packing up for a move.


    "I don''t know," said Quinn being honest, "I was going home after visiting Luna when your two older twin brothers cornered me and dragged me here."


    The Weasley twins were like a typhoon and had crazy persuasion skills that Quinn didn''t know, but before he knew it, he was sitting in the Burrow with a bowl of Raspberries in front of him. And


    "I let my guard down," said Quinn, and he didn''t mind it at all because all he could think was that his investment was going to give him great returns in the future.


    ". . . . and why is there paint on your face?" asked Ron because, with the eyepatch, the drawn up beard, and scar lines, Quinn looked like a pirate, and all he needed was a hat.


    "I was visiting Luna," said Quinn as if it exined everything. He didn''t have time to remove it ¡ª he was going to remove it when he was a little distance from Luna''s house, but just when he got far enough, the twins ambushed him.


    "Are you guys doing a summer cleaning?" asked Quinn, looking at the boxes everywhere.


    "Y-Yeah, something like that," said Ron. He couldn''t tell Quinn that they were going to move a secret headquarter. . . . the thing was the Ron didn''t need to say anything; Quinn already knew his thoughts.


    "Where are my brothers?" asked Ron.


    "They went up to their rooms to get some stuff."


    And on cue, the Weasley twins came down to the dining room with two big boxes.


    "Quinn, here take a look at this¡ª" "¡ªthis is what we havee up with for next year¡ª" "¡ªsome of them areplete¡ª" "while others are still under development."


    The twins dumped the boxes on the table for Quinn to see. Pirate-Quinn stood up and, with his one eye, started to shuffle through the things inside the box.


    "Boxing telescope, Comb-a-Chameleon, Demon Box, Lucky Dip, Otters Fizzy Orange Juice, Magical Moustache Miracle Stubble Grow, Self-propelling Custard Pies, Unlucky Dip, Wonderous Wands, Dragon Roasted Nuts, Tiny Twister, Sticky Trainers, Mysterious Midnight Moon Madness, Exploding Whizz Poppers, Silver Sparkling Snakes, Thor''s Thunder Cracker, Voodoo Fountain, Diabolic Dare Devils, Bang Bang Boggart Banger, Saunders'' Invisible Silk, Miraphorus Magic Set, Eduardo''s Unbreakable Eggs, Crush Blush, Flirting Fancies, Pygmy Puffs, Twilight Moonbeams, Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher. . . . "


    One by one, Quinn took out the items, saw what they did, got descriptions from the twins, critiqued them, suggested improvements, and asked them questions on the future of the iplete products.


    "I''m assuming your mother isn''t home," asked Quinn seeing all this stuff out in the open.


    "Yeah, mum is out¡ª" "¡ªshe went out just before you came¡ª" "¡ª that''s why we invited you in¡ª" "¡ª we have a little time before shees back."


    The twins pointed at the family clock ¡ª the clock hand with Molly written on it was pointing at the "Shopping" tab.


    "Eh? What''s happening?" asked Ron. All the different products didn''t faze him, but all theplex money and business talk that apanied confused the hell out of him.


    " "Nothing; don''t worry your little head about it." "It will hurt if you do so."


    "Huh?"


    Quinn packed everything back and gave his final words, "The products have value and will do well with a younger crowd ¡ª Hogwarts and younger, which is fine for now as it''s better to target a smaller niche at the start, but I will suggest that you start thinking and nning for things that cover an older demographic ¡ª it''s good if you start thinking about these things early."


    Twins nodded. They weren''t amateurs when it came to sales. They had been doing it at an informal level for years; they just needed to convert that knowledge earned through experience to a formal level ¡ª Quinn''s consultation provided them with a bridge to help them transition.


    "We can''t wait¡ª" "¡ªin just one more year."


    " "We will have our own shop!" "


    ''And with it, a new stream of ie for me,'' thought Quinn, ''my first step on a journey as an investor,'' he nced at the twins, ''hell, these two even manage to bag defense contract in the future. . . . they just might be the crown jewel in my portfolio.''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    George West came down to the dining hall for supper in the evening to see that other than Ms. Rosey and Elliot, his two grandchildren were absent.


    "Where are they?" he asked.


    "Lia took a Portkey to France for a night out with her Beauxbatons friends," informed Ms. Rosey. Because of the volume of Lia''s travels, she had learned to cast the Portkey spell for her travel needs. The young woman had more experience creating Portkeys than those her own age, who worked at Portkey departments in various Ministries.


    "And what about Quinn? I made myself clear that he wasn''t to remain outside after supper time."


    "Quinn''s having dinner at the Greengrass household."


    "The Greengrass, you say," hummed George, his hand went into his pocket and came out an envelope, "I wanted to discuss something with him. . . ."


    "What is it?" asked Ms. Rosey, noticing the unusual expression on George''s face.


    George slightly raised the letter andmented, "A letter came from the Abate-s."


    Elliot and Ms. Rosey went silent with surprise. It had been a while since they had heard of that name.


    ". . . .What do they want?" asked Elliot.


    "They want to meet him and are inviting him to visit," said George.


    "And?" asked Ms. Rosey, asking for George''s decision.


    "You know I can''t decide for Quinn, at least not for this. He''ll decide if he wants to go and meet them."


    That day, the dinner at the West manor went in silence as the three people ate in silence and thought.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - On a tour of friends'' homes.


    Eddie Carmichael - Profanity machine - That went down the other way quick.


    Eleanor Carmichael - Mother - Herdle is mighty.


    Marcus Belby - An Angel - Just what can one say about him.


    George West - Grandfather - The Abate(s). . . .


    FictionOnlyReader- Author - Next chapter we visit Greengrass and another one (Guess who, Quinn said he would visit this person.)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 192 - Greengrass Dinner, Warning Visit

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Now, tell me. . . .. which of my hands hold the galleon."


    Astoria Greengrass intently stared at the two closed fists in front of her, her eyes moving back and forth between the two trying to figure out the location of the hidden galleon.


    "Your right is slightly raised, so I will say that it''s in the left," she said.


    Quinn smiled and opened his right hand, "Too bad, you''re wrong," there sat a golden galleon sitting in his right palm.


    "Again?! I''ve lost ten times in a row," said Astoria, huffing, "how are you doing this? You''re using magic, aren''t you?"


    "Of course, I''m using magic, my dear Astoria," said Quinn with a smile, "but not the magic that you and I know how to use ¡ª this is a different type, and in the hands, just as charming.


    "You just have to look closely and ask yourself the right questions," said Quinn, gazing at the ck-haired Greengrass, "when you eliminate all other possibilities, the remaining answer, no matter how improbable, will be the correct one."


    Astoria narrowed her eyes, trying to deduce how Quinn did it, but ¡ª "I can''t tell. You''re definitely using magic ¡ª the first kind."


    "Do you want to how I did it?"


    "Yes!"


    Quinn opened his left hand, and there sat another galleon. Astoria gasped while heughed.


    "Whichever hand you chose, I opened the other to show you the coin ¡ª and with a little ir, I made sure your attention was off the hand you chose."


    "That''s not fair! You cheated," said Astoria,ining.


    "I didn''t, young one. We never set any rules ¡ª nowhere did we decide that I couldn''t use two coins."


    "If you can use two coins, then I should get two chances to guess."


    "Fair enough."


    "See you denied. . . . wait, really?"


    "Yeah, sure," shrugged Quinn, "you get two guesses every chance the next time we y this."


    "Next time?" then Astoria saw Quinn smirking and realized that the next time wasn''t going toe anytime soon. She eximed in frustration at getting her hopes up and threw a sofa cushion at Quinn, who caught it whileughing.


    "You two are making too much of a ruckus."


    The two turned to see Daphne enter the lounge, dressed in a white high-cored sleeved blouse and below the knee-length ck skirt. She sat down beside Astoria and greeted Quinn,


    "Apologies for keeping you wait," she said while pushing a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, "I was preupied with some lessons."


    "It''s fine. Astoria is an excellentpany," said Quinn, and as he couldn''t wink, he settled for a smile.


    Daphne stared at Quinn''s face for a good few seconds before asking, "How''s your eye faring?" her eyes still fixed on the red eyepatch, which matched with his shirt andplimented well with his ck pants.


    "It''sing along just fine. It''ll be back in a week," said Quinn before picking up his ss of elderflower cordial, "this is delightful; where can I buy this? I would love to have some of this at home."


    "We grow them at home," said Astoria, jumping into the conversation, "it''s Daphne''s favorite, so mum makes sure to grow it whenever it''s the season."


    "Oh? Is it now. That''s good to know," Quinn looked at Daphne, "as expected, Daphne, you have excellent taste."


    ". . . .Thank you," said Daphne giving her beaming sister a brief nce.


    "So, are you guys also going to the Potter twins'' birthday party?" asked Quinn.


    "I''m going!" said Astoria, raising her hand high.


    Daphne nodded with a sigh. It was a given with how close their mothers were to each other. Every year, at least, Daphne and Astoria would go to the Potters on the 31st of August, and vice-versa, the Potter twins would attend Daphne''s birthday.


    ''Wait,'' thought Daphne and asked, "what do you mean by ''also''?"


    "Hmm? Oh, I''m invited this year."


    ". . . . Which one of the twins invited you?" asked Daphne.


    "Harry did; why?" asked Quinn.


    "I know~! I know~!" said Astoria, before Daphne could, "every year, invitations to birthday celebration go out, but things get interesting as the invitations aren''t addressed by Ivy and Harry Potter together ¡ª any invitation can only have one name ¡ª either Harry or Ivy."


    Daphne sneakily sighed in relief. It wasn''t the reason why she had asked.


    "Oh, why is that?" asked Quinn, sounding interested.


    "It''s because of thepetition."


    "Competition?"


    Daphne took over from there and continued, "Every year at the Potters'' birthday, they hold apetition between the twins ¡ª the invitations are a way to gather teams for saidpetition. . . . taking your case, as Harry invited you, your invitation will have Harry''s name on it, and during the evening, you''ll be on team Harry."


    "That. . . . sounds really interesting," said Quinn, "what kind ofpetition are we talking about here?"


    "It changes every year," said the blonde, "we have put on ys, done fishingpetition, trivia contests, and so many other things."


    It turned out that the Potter twin didn''t celebrate their birthday at home, but at different destinations, because their house was in a mixed neighborhood and there wasn''t enough ce to host all the guests. Moreover, unlike the usual parties, it was a whole day event.


    "Oh ho. Now, I''m looking forward to attending the birthday," said Quinn, "then, what about you guys? Whose team are you two on?"


    "I''m on Harry''s," said Astoria.


    "Ivy''s," said Daphne.


    "Then it looks like Astoria, and I will be winning this time," said Quinn, high-fiving Astoria.


    Then there was a pop, and a spotty green house-elf wearing a tan pillowcase appeared in the lounge. The house-elf stared at the three with his big, watery eyes,


    "Food is ready. Master be calling," he said.


    "We will be there, Barley," said Daphne in acknowledgment, and the house-elf popped away. She turned to Quinn, "let''s go; mother and father must be waiting."


    Quinn nodded and stood up at once, "Let''s. We can''t keep Mrs.," he caught a re forming and quickly improvised, "and Mr. Greengrass waiting."


    "Let''s hurry. I''m hungry!" said Astoria and ran ahead.


    "Don''t run!" Daphne called out as she stood up, "she''s going to get herself hurt," she sighed.


    "Well, we can''t do anything about that," said Quinn, falling into step beside Daphne, "her energy levels will remain high for the rest of the day," he had just treated Astoria, "she''ll be back to being her usual rtively-manageable self tomorrow."


    . . .


    "So, Quinn. . . . bad luck, eh?" said Jacob Greengrass, "an excellent year throughout, but it ended up with a hup ¡ª quite a serious hup."


    "I wouldn''t say a big hup," smiled Quinn, "temporarily losing an eye isn''t that serious. I have been through worse."


    "Oh, like what?"


    "Like dunking himself into freeze potion," said Daphne, "freezing his entire body to the point that he had to stay inside in the hospital wing for ten days."


    "What she said," said Quinn.


    "Tracey told me that Quinn was bald during that time," said Astoria, chiming in.


    "That I was."


    "But as dear said, it was quite an eventful year for you, wasn''t it, Quinn," spoke Sophie Greengrass, "whenever I was with my friends, I think I heard your name more than I heard the champions''. When we heard that a student organized the tournament, everyone was impressed, and the result just deepened the amazement."


    "True," said Jacob, "I think I even heard that because the tournament was so sessful, many in the quidditch world are talking about adopting the Quinn-format as a new format."


    "Thank you, but I would like to correct you on one thing," said Quinn, "it wasn''t me alone who made the tournament as sessful as it was," he gazed at Daphne, "Daphne and my helpers aided me every step of the way to make things possible; as such, I can''t take all the credit."


    "How humble," smiled Sophie.


    "I would actually like to thank you for including Daphne in the tournament," said Jacob, "it was a good experience to have, which I''m d that Daphne and Tracey both got to be a part of."


    "I only chose those I thought were capable ¡ª Daphne is one of the most capable people I know, so selecting her was a no-brainer."


    The girl in question felt her cheeks flush, which she tried to push down. But not before her mother caught a nce of it and a knowing smile made onto her face.


    That evening, Quinn went on to say many things that made Daphne flush a lot while Sophie almost had a permanent knowing smile on her face as she observed her daughter from the side.


    "So, Quinn, what do you think about the Dark Lord?" asked Jacob suddenly out of nowhere when they were having dessert.


    "Jacob!" eximed Sophie at her husband''s abrupt inquiry. Daphne and Astoria, too, looked a little ufortable.


    "It''s fine, Mrs. Greengrass," said Quinn, putting down his ice cream bowl and spoon. "The Dark Lord, hmm. . . ."


    The Greengrass family all turned to Quinn with varying levels of surprise.


    "Magically talented," said Quinn, "the dark lord is a generational talent when ites to magic," he noticed the looks his hosts were giving him and shrugged, "just because he went down the path he took doesn''t mean he isn''t great ¡ª and you of all should know my views on magic.


    "I would say the Dark Lord was charismatic with a great talent for maniption," he continued, "otherwise, he wouldn''t have been able to gather so many followers." Tom Riddle had been as charming as Quinn when he was Hogwarts ¡ª the only one to suspect him was Dumbledore.


    "To be able to manage egotistical people from noble houses, even the infamously stubborn cks, and bring them under one banner; that takes some effective leadership." Even now, Tom''s style of leadership had changed from the original charismatic rule of the Hogwarts gang to the tyrannical andpletely ruthless - though no less highly effective -mand of his Death Eaters demonstrated throughout both the First Wizarding War.


    "He must be an excellent teacher, given how his inner circle Death Eaters were able to contend with highly trained Aurors," Quinn''s attack on the Death Eaters at the World Cup hadn''t been an urate representation of Death Eater''s skill as he had ambushed them and all of them were piss drunk and neither were they personally trained by the Voldemort himself.


    Of course, there were things that Quinn left unsaid ¡ª like Salesman skills that Riddle demonstrated at Borgin and Burke''s when he was in histe teens. The indomitable willpower that helped him survive more than a decade inside the Albanian forests as well as for several months on the back of Quirrell''s head as well as in the old Riddle House for an equally lengthy-time period, showing that aside from his determination, he had remarkable endurance and tolerance.


    "The Dark Lord is terrible, but that doesn''t take away from the fact that he''s great," said Quinn shrugging, "his fault was that he took down the wrong path ¡ª if he had just been more like me, then he would have been terrific and great."


    The Greengrass family just stared at Quinn as he finished his thoughts. At most, they were expecting to be a slightly different version of the oh so terrible Dark Lord.


    "I must say, Mrs. Greengrass, this ice cream ¡ª better than Florean Fortescue''s Ice Cream Parlor."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Garrick Ollivander worked in the back workshop of his narrow and shabby shop when he heard his shop''s tinkling bell, which rang when someone entered the shop. He stood up and walked outside to greet the new customer ¡ª it was near the time when he got eleven years old getting their first wands.


    But when he arrived at the front, he saw the back of a person who looked older than an eleven-year-old. Ollivander silently opened the partition in the counter to step outside for his standard surprise greeting, but just when he had taken a single step, the customer spoke,


    "I appreciate you keeping things fun, Mr. Ollivander. But, I think you should just do it with the eleven-year-olds. . . . doing that with everyone will wear the novelty off. Leave a one-time solid impression that will stay with the kids for the rest of their lives."


    The customer turned, and Ollivander recognized the person at once.


    "Quinn West," he said and then addressed the most obvious detail, "you have lost your eye?"


    "Just for a short time."


    "I see. . . . if I remember correctly, you did say you''ll visit me in the summer. Are you here for some maintenance on your wand?"


    "I don''t think my wand will need maintenance, Mr. Ollivander. . . . mine is as good as the day I received it from you," his wand was still encased in a block of wood, inside a heavily warded room inside his suitcase.


    "Then, what do I owe this pleasure to?"


    "Do you follow the news, Mr. Ollivander?"


    "I try to, but my works keeps me busy."


    "Then have you heard about what Dumbledore has been saying?" asked Quinn.


    "About You-Know-Who''s return? Yes, I have read about it."


    "Has Dumbledore visited you?"


    "No, he hasn''t," said Ollivander, sounding confused, "what''s going on, Mr. West?"


    ''It seems either Dumbledore either hasn''t figured it out yet, or he has been too busy,'' thought Quinn.


    In the original timeline, Ollivander had shared this piece of information about Harry''s wand being a brother wand to Voldemort''s with Dumbledore as Harry didn''t have a guardian, but because this time around, Harry did have guardians, and because Potter parents didn''t the information want the information out, Dumbledore wasn''t privy to it.


    "Priori Incantatem," said Quinn.


    Ollivander''s eyes gazed into Quinn''s, and it was almost as though an invisible beam of understanding shot between them.


    "The Reverse Spell effect?" said Ollivander, his mind turning in thought.


    "Exactly," said Quinn. "Harry Potter''s and the Dark Lord''s wand share cores, don''t they? Each of them contains a feather from the tail of the same phoenix."


    "How do you know that?" said the wandmaker, and as he asked this, his thoughts clicked, "wait. . . . are you saying that Dumbledore''s telling the truth. . . . and Harry Potter met with You-Know-Who?"


    "They met; they dueled; their wands connected. . . . you know what happens when a wand meets its brother."


    "They will not work properly against each other," said Ollivander. "If, however, the owners of the wands force the wands to do battle . . . a very rare effect will take ce. One of the wands will force the other to regurgitate spells it has performed ¡ª in reverse. The most recent first . . . and then those which preceded it. . . ."


    He looked interrogatively at Quinn, and Quinn nodded.


    "The wand to be overwhelmed was Voldemort''s, and the spell he cast was Killing curse," he said.


    The fact that Voldemort was overwhelmed by Harry Potter would have been unlikely, but given the circumstances ¡ª Voldemort had been just recently revived ¡ª it wasn''t farfetched to think that his magic was in a period of instability.


    ". . . . An echo," said Ollivander, "I am guessing that apparitions appeared. . . . and retained known forms. . . . less recent victims of You-Know-Who''s wand. . . ." he added, "Thest murders the wand performed. In reverse order."


    "The Dark Lord will want answers, Mr. Ollivander," said Quinn, "and who better to ask than the wandmaker who crafted his and Harry Potter''s wands ¡ª the two wands in question."


    "What are you saying?" asked Ollivander, a gulp preceding his words.


    "The Dark Lord wille, Mr. Ollivander. And from what I had heard from about him, he isn''t a person who will invite you for tea so that you could give him lessons about wandlore," Quinn moved a step closer to the old man, "no, he will torture you no matter how quick you give him the answer. He might even, you know. . . . if your answer displeases him."


    Ollivander gulped harder. His eyes trembled a touch.


    "I suggest that you make preparations for your safety, Mr. Ollivander. Or you might ¡ª you will be ¡ª in serious danger."


    "B-But, I can''t!" eximed the usually serene man, "so many new children will require wands. I can''t just leave and take that away from them."


    Quinn sighed. The man in front of him didn''t have a personal life at all ¡ª a work-a-holic at its worst. But he understood ¡ª wand crafting was Ollivander''s life. If you take that away, there was nothing left. To some, a life without meaning was as good as death.


    "He won''te now," said Quinn, "the Dark Lord isn''t in a position of power to show himself. He will brew chaos from the shadows, bidding in silence for the time when his arrangements arepounded intopletion ¡ª you have until before the start of the next summer. For now, you can keep working. . . . but don''t getfortable, Mr. Ollivander."


    "W-What do you suggest I do?"


    "Get in contact with Dumbledore and others in the Light Faction ¡ª separately and together. Tell them what you know and, in return, ask for shelter. Dumbledore will want Hogwarts to be a point of normalcy, and for that to happen, new students must get their wands ¡ª he will provide you with protection."


    If Quinn didn''t want his family to get involved, he would have offered the West resources, but that was out of the picture. And Quinn, while he had his more than plenty personal riches, he didn''t have much influence and resources outside of Hogwarts.


    "Yes, yes, that sounds right. I will do that," nodded Ollivander, sitting down on a barstool.


    "Of course, it goes without saying, but you must not talk about our little chat with anyone ¡ª anyone at all, not even Dumbledore himself."


    "Eh, why so?"


    "This was me being generous and a Good Samaritan," smiled Quinn, "but there''s a limit to what I''m willing to do in the name of good deeds. If the Dark Lordes to know that I''m the reason behind the setback, he will not be happy ¡ª and I would prefer if he''s feeling jolly ¡ª it will do the world a lot of good."


    The truth was that Quinn wanted to buy some time. If Ollivander was to remain hidden and away from Voldemort''s reach, then Voldemort''s discovery behind the twin cores would be dyed even if it''s a little. That little time would extend Voldemort''s passive ''waiting-in-the-shadows'' stance.


    The extra time that everyone could have some use of.


    "I s-see. I''ll keep this a secret."


    "Excellent," said Quinn with a big smile, "then, I''ll take my leave, Mr. Ollivander, "I can only be outside for so much with this ol'' thing," he pointed at his deep yellow eyepatch.


    Ollivander got up on his old knees and shook hands with Quinn, thanking him profusely for his warnings and advice. After Quinn stepped out of the shop, he looked back and snapped his fingers with a smile.


    Inside, Ollinvader got up to return back to work when he heard a ton of footsteps to see dozens of people ¡ª big and small ¡ª enter the shop with more people waiting outside.


    "Oh my," he smiled, "wee all of you, please form a line. . . ."


    .


    [


    A/N:


    Water magic doesn''t mean that he gets an all-in-one healing magic. It would help, sure, if Quinn used it. *He still needs to learn all the healing knowledge*, to actually use water magic for healing ¡ª Quinn knew blood magic, and that''s why he was able to apply water magic in treating Astoria.


    He wanted to use healing magic, but Quinn has a medi-healer (hired by his family) treating his eye. His family thinks that his eye injury was due to faulty magic, now how do you think they would feel if Quinn decides to put his own input when his eye was taken out by a faulty eye magic.


    As for him taking potions and calling it *Archaic*? A majority of the healing magic is potion based ¡ª there is no way to eliminate potion. Even the Elixir of Life extracted from the Philosopher''s Stone is a potion. There was a cauldron full of potion present in Voldemort''s revival. Healing in Harry Potter isn''t like Wolverine''s and Deadpool''s, please keep that in mind. This isn''t a Retcon.


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Pioneering eyepatch fashion.


    Astoria Greengrass - Hyperactive - Primary subject for muggle-magic demonstration.


    Daphne Greengrass - Likes Elderflower - Her cheeks match Quinn''s eyepatch.


    Jacob Greengrass - Papa Greengrass - Asked the question.


    Sophie Greengrass - Mama Greengrass - Excellent Ice cream.


    Garrick Ollivander - Wandmaker - Loves his job a little too much.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 193 - Q.W.A.S.P.P. Again, Vacation Time

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was that time of the year once again.


    The time where granddaughter and grandfather would take a day out of their busy schedules and make sure that they wouldn''t have anymitments on one day of summer..


    Today was the day for Quinn West''s Annual Summer Product Pitch Meeting, or as Quinn had so graciously abbreviated as QWASPP.


    Every year, this pitching would start the West business in the process of releasing the most significant product release of every year ¡ª infusing new blood into the business, and ever since Quinn had started doing it, the business has been thriving in diversity.


    "Do you have any idea what he''ll be showing today," asked Lia, ncing at her grandfather, "anything you noticed in the weeks he has been here?"


    Lia traveled a lot, which she had cut down by a level sincest year, but even then, she was rarely at the West estate anymore ¡ª the young woman had moved out from the home nest, finally, having brought home of her own. Of course, Lia''s first home wasn''t a rental, nor was it a small apartment; rather, it was a gorgeous vi ¡ª suiting for someone with Lia''s sry.


    "I asked both Elliot, Rosey, and even Polly; none of them noticed Quinn doing out of the ordinary," said George. Of course, Quinn''s ordinary was anything but mundane ¡ª but they had gotten used to it.


    Suddenly the pair heard a flutter of wings and saw a big ck raven fly into the room through the window they hadn''t noticed was open.


    Liazily took her wand out to shoo the bird away but froze when the bird expanded into an entire human being ¡ª her brother human being.


    "That was a nice flight," smiled Quinn, gazing at Lia and George with his both good stone-grey eyes, "I''ve deduced that one flight a day does wonder for perception. It''s like taking a walk, but if the walk had taken a potion and there is no path to follow."


    "Y-You''re an Animagus!" eximed Lia, pointing at him.


    Quinn gestured down with his hand, which magically and gently lowered her hand that held her wand. "That I am. It''s a new thing ¡ª still getting to the entire turning into a bird ability," he said while fixing his clothes.


    "When did you attain this ability?" asked George calmly.


    "During Hogwarts," said Quinn.


    George and Lia knew what Animagus stood for, but neither actually knew how one became an Animagus ¡ª the specifics weren''t taught in school even if Animagus was introduced as a branch of transfiguration.


    "You do know that Animagus needs to be registered," said Lia.


    "I do know that," Quinn sat down on the barstool prepared for him, "but that takes most of the use out of being Animagus ¡ª they observe you and take down all identifiable features for the public records. With there being only a handful of Animagi, it bes very easy to memorize the details for every one of them ¡ª believe me, I have all of them filed in my head."


    "So you don''t n to register yourself?" asked George.


    "No, I don''t."


    "I see; then we won''t bring it up. Keep going on your flights; just make sure you''re not seen ¡ª I don''t want to deal with all the things that would happen if you get found out."


    "Not going to happen, that. Being a secret Animagus is too much of an important asset for me to let someone find it out."


    "Let''s have it then; what do you have for us today?" asked George.


    Quinn rubbed his hands, "I''ve something different for you today," he reached into his deep pockets and retrieved a thick leader-bound hardback tome and cing it on the table between them with a heavy thump.


    "You see, the quidditch tournament wasn''t a spur of the moment thing that I thought up in in a day ¡ª not it was an initiative that I started working on before I went back to Hogwarts," said Quinn, "as such; I knew from the very start that I was going to be busy this year, which meant that it would be difficult for me to hold a QWASPP this year because I work on my inventions during the school year and the chances of meing up with something new weren''t looking great. . . . It turns out that I was right, and I wasn''t able toe up with anything to show at this meeting at all."


    "Quinn, you do realize that you initiate these meetings," stated Lia, "we only free a day up when you say that you have something to show."


    "I, of course, know that and am aware that I called you here, so of course, I have something to present today," he tapped his finger on the book. "You see, this past school year, I did start quite a few new projects, but I wasn''t able toplete none of them. . . . the tournament, as expected, took a lot of my time.


    "But, then an opportunity presented itself from the adversity," he tapped the tome once again, "with all the news of the return of the Dark Lord''s return that Dumbledore and the Light faction had been spreading, even with the ministry denying it at every step, has been getting to the masses. So, there I was, sitting on my bed with my one good eye to give it a rest when it struck me ¡ª what do the people desire?"


    "What is it?" asked Lia when Quinn took a pause.


    "Safety," answered Quinn, "with all the Dark Lord''s return talk going on, people desire safety or a sense of safety. The need for it is at an all-time high since the war. . . . Now that I had identified the need, it was time to see if I could provide, if I could satisfy with that need."


    Quinn lightly thumped his open palm on the tome and slid it towards Lia and George.


    "I found that I could satisfy those needs. That tome is my pitch for this year."


    George pulled the tome towards him to read it. He flipped a couple of pages, then skipped tens of pages at a time before pushing the book to Lia.


    "I can''t make sense of any of that," he said.


    "Uh-huh, me neither," dered Lia as well.


    "No worries, you don''t need to," he pointed at the tome, "that book is a manual for protective wards for homes and buildings ¡ª a guide soprehensive, intensive, exhaustive that even I was surprised that I coulde up with it in mere two weeks."


    "Quinn, you should know¡ª" spoke George.


    "I''m aware that we tried to get into the warding business, but the goblins beat us so bad that we had to shut down to cut our already extensive losses. Gringotts already had a monopoly on the warding business, so much so that any aspiring ward-enchanter or at least a protective ward enchanter," which was the opposite of curse/ward-breaker, "wanted tond a job at Gringotts for the hold they had and the scope they provided."


    "When we tried to change that monopoly into a duopoly, it turned into a massive-massive failure ¡ª one of our greatest failures, if I may so say," finished Quinn with a smile.


    "Yes, Quinn, we know that; please move one," urged George; it was a sore point for him.


    "With the problem in front of me and the solution in mind, I began thinking why our first attempt failed. What did the goblins have that we didn''t have? Were they doing something right, or were we doing something wrong. . . . the conclusion that I came up with was that goblin''s warding service was so much better than ours that our products didn''t have any upside and thus didn''t inspire any confidence."


    "And this," Lia pointed at the book, "can do that?"


    "Absolutely," he said, "the thing about runes is that anyone can carve runes ¡ª even a non-magical can do that given they won''t be able to activate. Anyone with good enough carving, drawing, painting, etching skills can draw warding or any rune-based magic, but what makes runes difficult is to make sense of said runes ¡ª it takes practice, study, hard work to learn thenguage of runes to actually make rune cluster designs.


    "Goblins had the brains and expertise to design such effective ward designs that it takes massive effort to break them. The only ones capable of breaking them are either highly knowledgable individuals or those who have worked for Gringotts in the past," he pointed up towards the roof. "The proof of their capabilities is that even we use goblin-crafted wards at the West estate. We failed because even we ourselves didn''t trust our product ¡ª that''s a no-go for me. The things that I make must be better than anything on the market, and even if they aren''t, at least should be customized to my needs ¡ª in short, they should have some additional value point."


    Quinn leaned forward with a toothy grin.


    "I decided to challenge them at their own game. . . . I created brand new ward schemes. So few people are able to crack goblin-wards because they add their own runenguage into their wards ¡ª which even their human employees aren''t knowledgable about. So, I did the same thing; I made something difficult to crack."


    Before Lia and George could say anything, Quinn ced a palm on his chest and continued.


    "I am in a position of being knowledgable about magics from multiple cultures, and with that knowledge came knowledge about numerous runenguages. And because I studied and practiced, I know how tobine them. . . . do you know how difficult it is to break a rune cluster with not three, not four, but five different nomentures of runebined together."


    They shook their head at the question.


    "The possibility of one person to know that specificbination of runenguages is already small, and even if they bring multiple people together, it still takes time tomunicate and coordinate their findings together to actually breaking together," said Quinn.


    Lia looked between Quinn and the book, "Which means that this is capable of matching goblin-wards?"


    "Yes, they are at least as strong as them, if not stronger."


    "What about breaking them? Where do they stand inparison?"


    "To be honest, they''reparatively easier to crack if the conditions as mentioned earlier are fulfilled ¡ª which are difficult to fulfill. Goblin wards are much cleaner because they have been developing for centuries, while I gave them much less time. All-in-all, in real-life conditions, mine and goblin-wards will be equally hard to crack."


    "Who can enchant them?"


    "That''s a plus point; it doesn''t take a genius to enchant my wards; mine don''t useplicated, advanced runes, which require months upon months of training."


    George had heard everything and now had a single question, "Why would people want to use ours instead of goblin because from what I hear, both are equally capable; ours don''t have any major significance."


    Quinn smiled as he answered, "Ours will be much cheaper," he pointed at the book, "as I said, mine doesn''tplex runes, that means they are easier to carve, which lowers the cost of hiring enchanters who take big bucks and the materials required are also much cheaper. . . . also, goblins are working in a monopoly, they can decide the price, but if we get in, we can introducepetitive prices, and attract people towards us."


    "Hmm, you have a written proposal," asked George.


    "Yes," said Quinn, pushing a file towards George, who slid it to Lia, but she didn''t pick it up to read.


    The grandson-grandfather looked at Lia to see her eyes closed.


    Lia opened her eyes and immediately started what she found, "Goblins have their high price which has made not many people buy their services, only. They only work for business and wealthy families who can afford and want to ward on their houses," she pointed at the title of the book, "this says home in the title, I''m assuming you already knew about the state of the warding market."


    "Yup, not many people have warded their houses because of the prices. two-fifths of that book is just home wards."


    "Good," she said, picking up the tome and the file, and got up from her chair, "I will put these to the test and see how they fare ¡ª if they pass the quality standards, I''ll start working on theunch."


    Then under the eyes of Quinn and George, Lia left the room without saying another word, her eyes already reading the file.


    ". . . . It seems that she''ll be taking the lead on that," said George at being left behind. Though he knew the real reason behind Lia''s abrupt exit.


    "I''ll also take my leave," said Quinn, standing up, "I''m working on special wards just for our home ¡ª I''m hoping that these will be stronger than the goblin ones or the ones Lia took with her."


    "Sit down," said George, "I have something to talk you about."


    Quinn observed his grandfather and noticed the sober expression on his face. "What is it?" he asked.


    George retrieved an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to him. Quinn observed the letter; it was addressed to George, but seeing that he had given it to him, Quinn took out the letter and began reading it.


    "Abate," spoke Quinn, noting the name in the letter. "Abate is my mother''s maiden name."


    Quinn and Lia''s mother, Aria West (nee. Abate), was of Italian descent. His parents had died when Quinn was a year old in an ident; as such, Quinn didn''t remember them from the memories, and he himself had never asked about his parents from anyone in his family. [1]


    From what Lia had told him, Aria was a sweet, kind, soft-spokendy. She had met Adam West, Quinn and Lia''s father, during his stay in Italy, and from what Lia had mentioned to him, it was a sort of love-at-first-sight deal. They had a very short dating period before they tied the knot, and with Lia''s description of their parent''s rtion, they had a happy marriage.


    But that was the extent what Quinn knew of his biological parents.


    "The Abate family is calling me to. . . . Rome," Quinn frowned, "we have been to Rome when we went on the world tour; why didn''t I meet them that time?"


    "Your mother''s family is heavily patriarchal. They don''t give their women much power. When your parents came to me and your grandmother with the news of them being engaged, I did some digging; the Abate family have a heavy history of using their daughters in political marriages ¡ª they weren''t happy when your mother ran away from home to marry your Adam, more so when Aria refused to provide them ess to our resources ¡ª it turns, that Aria didn''t like her family very much."


    "They also sort-off offended Lia, when she visited them with your parents and then again after she went there alone after their death," sighed George. "She didn''t want you to meet them. When we were in Rome, Iplied with her wish and kept you away from the Abate."


    "And now?" asked Quinn.


    "Given that you''re no longer a kid, it''s right for you to decide if you want to meet them ¡ª Lia, of course, still doesn''t like the idea. . . . that''s why she left so abruptly."


    "What about you?"


    "I don''t really have an opinion," shrugged George, "I''m not delusional to believe that this is an attempt to mend family tied. They''re probably thinking that now that you''re getting older, they will try to build a rtionship with you and develop with years so that when you''re old enough, you''ll provide them with our resources."


    "Ah, I see. . . . so what do you think? Should I ept?"


    "There''s no harm in going to visit them. You can have them butter you up for a couple of weeks before returning."


    Quinn hummed and began giving it a thought. Should he go or not.


    "I can use a break," he said, "it will be nice to spend some time in Italy. Alright, let''s go meet my mother''s family and spend a vacation on their dime."


    "If that''s what you," smile George, "then I''ll make preparation."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    A/N:


    Edit: Aria West is Italian and not French as mentioned before.


    I got myself confused.


    So, Quinn is half-Italian, quarter-French, quarter-British.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Italy, here Ie.


    Lia West - Elder child - Doesn''t like her mother''s side of the family.


    George West - Grandfather - Another reason he doesn''t like goblins.


    Aria West - Late mother - Ran away to marry.


    Adam West - Later father - I''m a West, not a Wayne.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 194 - Italy, I’m Here!

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The shopping area located in London, Ennd, consisted of Diagon Alley ¡ª a y on diagonally, Horizont Alley ¡ª a y on horizontally, Knockturn Alley ¡ª a y on the word nocturnally, and finally, there was Vertic Alley ¡ª a y on the term. Vertically had to do with every building in the alley having multiple floors above and below the ground.


    Within Vertic Alley stood a long-time restaurant, the Cirkus, proudly serving the magical poption of the British Isles for over a hundred years.. The restaurant was divided into three levels ¡ª the base level, three floors just above the ground open to any and everyone who would want to dine delicious food; the bottom level, three floors providing to the shady members who required privacy; and the top level, three levels catering to the needs to rich and wealthy with more personalized services.


    On the top level, two men sat facing each other in a private booth.


    "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Mr. West," said Dumbledore, sporting his trademark long white beard and hair and half-moon sses.


    George wordlessly nodded as he mixed a spoonful of red crystal sugar into his tea. After getting so many letters, both via owls and MagiFax, he decided to grant Dumbledore a meeting.


    "What is it that you want, Dumbledore," he asked.


    "I wanted to talk about getting your help and support," said Dumbledore, "now that Voldemort has returned, your support could be essential to stop his rise¡ª."


    "That is assuming that the Dark Lord has returned. You and your faction have been actively spouting about his return. . . . constantly. It was fine for a while, but now, it is just in annoying."


    "You know it as well as I do that the Dark Lord has returned."


    George hummed, "There has been some chatter."


    "Then you know if he is to return, we are on a path to another war."


    "I am aware of that possibility. You-Know-Who will start his conquest once, and if I know anything about him, he''ll be more aggressive this time around, more brutal, more ruthless, more cunning. . . ."


    "That''s why I''m asking for your help. If you would support our cause, then it would be of help to keep Voldemort away from taking over."


    "When you say your cause, what do you exactly mean by it."


    Dumbledore paused for a moment at the question from George. His mind went through the reason behind it. ". . . . In Wizengamot and the Order of Phoenix."


    "The Light faction and your little vignte group," said George tranting, "you know very well that the rare times I participate in Wizengamot, I tend to align myself with the interest of the Grey faction, and your little personal army while had been a crucial yer in the war, isn''t very efficient ¡ª I would be much more inclined to fund Amelia Bones and her Auror''s office than you."


    "West, I insist that we portray a united front against Voldemort and his Death Eater," said Dumbledore. "With your help, we could pull the Grey faction to our side, ensuring that Voldemort won''t be able to pull new blood from the Grey collective."


    "Tell me, Dumbledore. What was my stance in thest war?"


    "You remained neutral ¡ª The West family didn''t support Voldemort, but neither did they do anything to oppose him."


    "And, then."


    "Then you took your family and fled the country just before the war reached its peak."


    "Exactly. I don''t want to get involved in this war, Dumbledore," said the West patriarch, but before Dumbledore could interject, George continued, "how about this, Dumbledore, if you discard the non-lethal policy your vignte group follows, and employee lethal or even semi-lethal spells against Death Eaters, then I will provide resources to your little group."


    It was a well-known fact that while Barty Crouch Senior (who was now missing and many thought him to be dead) in his tenure as the Head of DMLE had managed to get his Aurors and Hit Wizards a license to kill, torture, and control by allowing them to use lethal and Unforgivable against Death Eaters.


    Death Eaters, of course, didn''t follow anyw and were unrestrained in the use of any and all spells they could perform. They used Unforgivables in all recorded and unrecorded confrontations without fail and piled up most kills out of all parties involved.


    Then there was Dumbledore''s Order of Phoenix. They only employed non-lethal means and handed anyone they caught to the Auror''s office for further judgment. The Order had Aurors in their ranks, and while they were on duty, they were given their choice of following the new policy, but when working for the Order, they were strictly off any lethal.


    "I can''t agree to that," said Dumbledore firmly.


    "Then there''s nothing to talk about," shrugged George.


    "West, you must understand¡ª"


    "No! I''m not going to fund an outfit that won''t use lethal spells against opponents who will kill them without a single thought. I refuse to help an organization whose members are on a sure-fire path to their deaths,"


    George stared firmly at Dumbledore.


    "Dumbledore, I don''t give a single knut of thought about blood purity, but the war was fought on it, and do you know how many noble families were extinguished in the war. So many of those now dead families or with only a few members left were from your faction. It was because of your choices that led them to their death."


    George reeled back and picked up his teacup once again, "If I''m to risk my family by taking a side, then it better be a side that is actually trying to make a difference."


    Dumbledore remained silent. As George had so firmly stated, the Order of Phoenix was a vignte group ¡ª they didn''t have the official authority to use lethal force against Death Eaters, at least not when they were trying to ''hunt'' said Death Eaters.


    "I can''t. . . ." he said.


    "Then any talk of me helping you with my resources is out of the question."


    "Voldemort wille for Hogwarts," said Dumbledore, trying to pull on an emotional nt.


    "I''m sure you will be able enough to protect Hogwarts, Dumbledore. I''veplete confidence in your ability to defend our shared alma mater from the big bad Dark Lord." While George had fond memories of Hogwarts, he wasn''t that attached to it.


    "Even when your grandson is inside?"


    George sighed as he set down his teacup, "Why did you have to bring Quinn up?"


    "Your grandson is an anomaly. He''s what one would see as far away from your average student ¡ª but if there''s one thing I do know about him is that he loves Hogwarts."


    "So what?"


    "If you ask him to leave Hogwarts, knowing that Voldemort might strike in the next two years, will he leave?"


    George stared into his steaming tea. Both he and Dumbledore knew the answer to that question.


    "You know Quinn won''t leave," Dumbledore answered for George.


    "What do you want, Dumbledore. We both know that you won''t let my men inside the castle grounds, and in case Voldemort does strike, I can''t do anything from the outside."


    "That''s alright," said Dumbledore, "I don''t want your men for protection ¡ª I''m more than capable of that. What I''m worried about are the children. When Voldemort moves, he will go after the children outside Hogwarts; as such, I want to keep the children inside the castle ¡ª I''m sure most parents would agree with it. But for that to happen, I would need money to keep the school running ¡ª I''m asking you that if such a timees, you will help me keep Hogwarts a safe-hold for the children."


    "You realize how this conversation just went from you stating Hogwarts will be a target to saying that you want to make that target into a safehold," said George before sighing, "if that''s all you want, I can provide it. If you can protect Hogwarts, then I''ll keep the school running when the times get hard."


    George knew the real reason why Quinn wouldn''t leave Hogwarts if he asked him to ¡ª it wasn''t the castle that Quinn loved, but the people inside Hogwarts. As long as his friends are inside Hogwarts, Quinn won''t leave them alone.


    ''That doesn''t mean I can''t try to make his friends leave Hogwarts during the time of dangers,'' thought George, and he wasn''t a West if he didn''t give it a try.


    "Speaking of, how is Quinn doing?" asked Dumbledore. "Has he recovered?"


    "His eyes back to normal. In fact," George looked at his pocket watch gifted to him by Quinn, "his Portkey must have left just a minute ago."


    "Oh my, where?"


    "Rome, Italy."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn opened his eyes to find himself in an empty street. Landmarked by red, orange, yellow stone buildings.


    "So, this is Rome, huh," he said.


    This street of Rome reminded him so much of Oxford, their narrowness, and the tallness of the stone buildings. They sprung up long before the invention of the car and will be here long after the non-magicals were done away with such things.


    He looked at a faraway corner of the street and found what he assumed to be a gteria shaped like a fancy chocte box. A line of locals and tourists alike stream from the open window, the newest customers walking away with every color of ice cream on the fanciest of waffle cones.


    The scene was enough to draw a smile from his lips; it was so right out of some children''s book, the hues so perfect. The ground is made up of deep grey bricks, and the buildings are the warm tones of sandstone. Against it, the gteria is pinks, blues, greens - almost bringing to mind a nursery for a baby.


    "I will be eating so much gto," he smiled.


    "I''m sure you will."


    Quinn turned to the deep voice and saw a man dressed in a white shirt and ck pants leaning against a brownstone door.


    "Mr. Aksel Thorn," a smile bloomed on Quinn''s face, "so you will be acting as my chauffeur once again."


    The man standing in front of him was his chauffeur at his time in Denmark. He was the part-owner of the private security contractor, The Limax Group ¡ª a firm owned by the Wests.


    "My job description this time is as your bodyguard."


    "It''s the same thing," chuckled Quinn. "The adventures of Askel Thorn and Balbh East are going to rock the restaurants of Italy."


    "If that''s what you wish to do, then I''ll apany you, though I would prefer you keep it to a minimum. Your anticsst time made my job much harder."


    "You''re still so serious. I told you to loosen up, didn''t I?"


    "I don''t think I''ll be able to rx while on duty with you."


    Quinn smiled before asking, "The Abates; my mother''s family. What do you know about them, Mr. Thorn?"


    "A very old family ¡ª one older than the Wests," started Aksel as the two started walking, "they have been residing in Rome ever since the inception of the Roman empire, and despite the ups-and-downs of this region, they have remained a constant. You can say that they are one of the oldest organizations in this country."


    "Oh? That sounds interesting."


    "You''re aware of your parents'' story, correct?"


    Quinn nodded.


    "Then you must know that Abate didn''t like their rtionship much. It was because while Wests are highly, highly influential, they are aparatively young family ¡ª and in their eyes. . . . upstarts."


    "Upstarts. . . . us?" said Quinn in disbelief.


    "To a family which has survived the rise and fall of nations, change of political boundaries, major restructure of cultures, West does seem like upstarts." The family had been around much before the Secrecy Laws were founded and implemented; the Abates had been involved in various historical events through the ages.


    "That. . . . is one way to see it, but Wests are much bigger than Abates."


    "It''s all about prestige and history for people like them," said Aksel.


    "Sounds boring," shrugged Quinn.


    The two went through a series of cobblestone alleys, staying away from the crowds until they came to a stop in front of a door that was sloppily thered with white paint, causing drip lines and uneven clumps; there was even paint on the golden doorknob.


    Quinn looked at the building in cold cream tan from top to down. "This is the building?"


    "No, it''s not," said Aksel as he took out an ornate skeleton key ¡ª a type of key that was meant to open multiple locks rather than one.


    "Then shouldn''t we apparating?"


    Aksel looked around before inserting it into the keyhole. He nced at Quinn and faintly smiled, "The Wests might be more influential than the Abates but. . ." he turned the key and starting from the doorknob, a royal red rippled out taking the ce of the white, and the design on the door shimmered in beautiful gold, ". . . in Italy, there''s nothing bigger than Abate."


    Quinn watched as Aksel opened the door, and instead of finding the inside of the building, what he saw was a marvelous work of Italian Renaissance architecture in the form of a stunning manor at a distance. The grounds around the mansion were covered in beautifully and meticulously maintained gardens and greens.


    Aksel retrieved the key, gestured for Quinn to step inside and outside of the door before following after him and closing the door behind him, and with the click, the red was sucked back into the doorknob, leaving the sloppily painted white door.


    "What was that?" asked Quinn, looking back at yet another white door, a part of a small stone t-roofed storeroom on the ground.


    "Being residents of this country for so long, the Abates have created an extensive personalwork of these doors that are connected with each other." He raised the golden key, "these special keys are the triggers for the magic to activate ¡ª without them, the doors are just as ordinary as any other. If I was to make aparison, it would be simr to a personal floowork just for the Abates and their associates."


    "Without all the dust and gyration and mes," added Quinn.


    Aksel nodded.


    "Where are we?"


    "Pzzo Abate," answered Aksel.


    "Abate pce," said Quinn in trantion.


    "It''s the Abate ancestral home. They have been living here since the early fourteenth century. Generations upon generation Abate have maintained this pce."


    "Yeah, I can see that the building is in excellent condition, though it''s not a tough deed with magic."


    "Ready to meet them?" asked Aksel.


    "Yeah, let''s meet with the people disliked by Lia."


    Aksel nced at Quinn and realized that the meeting wouldn''t be the familial connection that one would expect.


    . . .


    As Quinn and Aksel started to walk towards the mansion, people were waiting for them; a party of five men ¡ª three middle-aged and two young men. Of course, appearances were never an urate indicator of age when it came to non-magicals. Out of them, one middle-aged and one young man were standing at the front ¡ª the older man was dressed in luxurious and exuberant clothing while the young man was dressed in unadorned yet high-grade clothing while the other three men were dressed in uniforms.


    One of the uniformed middle-aged men stepped forward and whispered something into the ear of the young man.


    The luxuriously dressed man nced to his side, "What is it?"


    "Thorn has arrived with Quinn West. They are about to reach us," said the simply-dressed young man.


    "Are you sure this is going to work," said the middle-aged man, his voice tinged with nervousness.


    "I''m very sure," said the handsome young man, a confident smile on his face, "I''ve nned for everything. By the end of the boy''s vacation, we will have the key to everything we would ever need."


    "Can you at least tell me what you''re nning?! Anything would do, anything to give me peace of mind."


    "You know, how I operate. The less you know, the better."


    The middle-aged man sighed in anxious resignation. "If this pays off, it will be absolutely big. . . . but if we fail¡ª"


    "I don''t fail," the young man cut the sentence.


    "Let''s hope you don''t this time as well."


    It was about then when they saw Quinn and Thorn enter their sight. For the first time ever, they set their eyes on Quinn West, who was actively looking at the gardens around, asionally stopping to admire things closely.


    "Look at him," said the young man with a smile, "so carefree, so innocent. . . ."


    Seeing Quinn West in front of him did put the middle-aged at ease. It might not be that hard, he thought.


    But when Quinn and Thorn entered their earshot, the young man''s eyes widened, but there were no other changes in his expression.


    "Hurry, face me and start talking to me," he said, ordering, ugh some and then immediately leave!"


    "Eh, why?" asked the middle-aged man in confusion.


    The young man stared at Quinn West with a straight expression. His previous impression of Quinn West had outright drained.


    "West can use Legilimency," said the young man.


    The middle-aged man froze for a second and then hurriedly obeyed the instructions. He turned towards the young man, talked as if telling a joke. Bothughed before the middle-aged man bowed and left.


    The young man severely stared at the middle-aged man because of the piss poor performance. But it was fine; it was enough for now.


    Aksel and Quinn finally reached the young man.


    Aksel turned towards the young man and started, "I present to you Quinn West," then he turned to Quinn and introduced, "this is Dolion Abate, the youngest son of the current patriarch."


    "You can call me Dolion," said the young man in English.


    Quinn noticed something andmented, "Your ent, that sounds American."


    The young man''s smile widened, "Ipleted my studies in Salem."


    "Ah, that''s why. Well then, you can call me Quinn," said Quinn. "Dolion, was it? If I''m right, that''s Greek. . . . and it means deceitful."


    The young manughed, "What can I say? My father liked how it sounded. . . . and Quinn, that''s Irish. . . . isn''t that a girl''s name."


    "It''s unisex," smiled Quinn.


    The teenager and young man thenughed together.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Looking forward to saying "Mamma Mia" a lot.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Got his funding.


    George West - Head of Wests - I will help, but. . . .


    Aksel Thorn - Limax Group - Bodyguard, once again.


    Dolion Abate - Abate family - Youngest son.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - It took me time, but this was a fun chapter to write.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 195 - Meeting The Abates

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sat in an borately decorated lounge inside Pzzo Abate, sipping on a delightful strawberry cream soda. He was sitting across Dolion Abate, who had a slight smile on his face the entire time.


    "So, Dolion," started Quinn, "I don''t know much about the Abates other than that my mother was from the family.. I was quite impressed by the door system through which I arrived at the estate Dolion Abate ¡ª Mr. Thorn tells me that Abates have it spread throughout the country."


    "It''s one of our family''s greatest aplishments," said Dolion, "it took time, decades to slowly and carefully build the gates into the very essence of Italy ¡ª till this date, our family makes sure that the Abate gateway is properly maintained and when needed, new doors are added."


    Dolion paused for a second before continuing, "You know that Aria was my sister, right."


    Quinn nodded. "When I heard that you were the patriarch''s son, I clued things together. My mother was the oldest daughter; as such, your older sister. . . . that makes you my uncle."


    "That''s right, but you don''t have to call me that," said Dolion; a faraway look appeared in his eye, "she was my favorite sibling, you know. Aria was the only one who yed with me when I was little and was the only sibling to write to me when I was at Salem."


    "She sounds like a sweetheart."


    "She was an angel, the best of our family," said Dolion, nodding, "you never knew her, did you? If I''m correct, you were. . ."


    "I was barely one."


    "I''m sorry to bring that up. It must be painful for you. . . ."


    Quinn lightly shook his head, "It''s alright. I don''t remember my parents." He then again sipped on his beverage and began looking at the symmetry in the interior.


    Dolion gazed at Quinn. He didn''t like his dearte sister''s son that much ¡ª not since he had found that he could use Legilimency.


    Legilimens ¡ª they were scarce even in the world of mind magic practitioners. For every hundred lumens, there was one Legilimens. Even among those who were able to enter the world of Legilimency, only a very few were able to get past browsing an unprotected non-magical mind.


    Dolion knew that Quinn West would undoubtedly be trained in lumency as his sister, Lia was, and as was every child of old families. But never would he have thought that Quinn would be a Legilimens and. . . .


    ''He has trained in it,'' he thought. The sense he had got was strong ¡ª it was too strong for it to belong to an untrained Legilimens. ''This could be a problem,'' he thought.


    "How''s your family doing?" asked Dolion.


    "They''re quite alright, all of them. Though I would say they work a bit too much ¡ª they need to find a good work-life bnce."


    "The Wests have been thriving, which means that their hard work is paying off."


    "What can I say; the business is in good hands." Quinn set down the empty ss down and gazed at Aksel sitting in the far corner of the lounge before speaking to Dolion, "Are we waiting for someone? If not, I would like to move on with the day ¡ª Rome is a beautiful city, and I would like to see what it has to offer."


    Dolion felt pride about Quinn being so excited about seeing his hometown but didn''t know how to think about Quinn wanting to leave Pzzo Abate so soon after his arrival. But before he could say something, the door to the lounge opened, and an old man dressed in traditional robes entered. He had a cane in his hand, but other than that, he looked healthy for an old man.


    "Buon Giorno(Good morning)," said the old man to particrly no one as if it was a habit.


    ''He must be really old. He''s clearly much older than grandfather,'' thought Quinn.


    Dolion stood up and greeted the old man back.


    Quinn wondered if he should get up too. When he looked to the other side, he saw that even Aksel had stood up. He looked back towards the old man and Dolion to see that the old man was staring right towards him.


    ''I guess I should get up,'' he thought. He stood up and walked towards the old man. "You must be Brio Abate," said Quinn.


    "I''m your grandfather," said the old man ¡ª Brio Abate.


    "Technically. . . biologically." This man was histe mother''s father and the head/patriarch of the Abater family.


    "You''re my grandson."


    "As I said, biologic¡ª"


    The old Brio suddenly grabbed Quinn by the back of his nape and performed with a zealous double cheek kiss. Quinn''s instincts almost made him snap the man''s hands, but his reason reminded him of Brio''s identity and age.


    "You''re my grandson," said Brio matter-of-factly.


    "Okay, if you say so."


    Brio looked Quinn up and down, taking him in, "You''ve grown quite a lot. Thest time I saw you were but an infant." It was before Quinn''s parent''s death. "You have grown up to be quite a fine boy. I have heard about you. . . . your work,st year at your school, was mighty impressive."


    "It was, wasn''t it?" smiled Quinn, but all he could think was when Brio would remove is his hands from the back of his nape.


    "You''re still wet behind your ear and already doing so well. The future of Wests is bright," said Brio, finally letting Quinn go.


    "My sister is the future of the Wests," said Quinn, "I''m just having fun at school."


    "Rubbish."


    "If rubbish means superb, excellent, outstanding, then sure, it''s rubbish."


    "A girl can''t handle an empire as big as that of Wests."


    "Lia can; she can handle it better than my grandfather. . . . better than my father ever did. . . . and most definitely better than me."


    The young and old stared at each other. Neither was willing to back down from their beliefs.


    "I do not agree with you, boy. But I like you ¡ª family is more valuable than anything else," said Brio.


    "I also disagree with you; I''ve no opinion of you yet; but, I do agree that family is important," replied Quinn.


    Dolion decided to interject into the conversation and spoke, "Quinn said he wants to go around Rome to see the sights and the people. . . ."


    "Of course, the boy can go where ever he wants,"ughed Brio, "but not before we have lunch together. everyone wants to meet him."


    "Alright, let''s have lunch," smiled Quinn.


    As they were about to exit the lounge, Quinn felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Aksel, who leaned in close and whispered, "We will go out after five in the evening."


    "We don''t have to wait that long," said Quinn, "we can wrap the lunch up quick and go for the rest of the day."


    Aksel stared at Quinn for a second before speaking up, "You obviously don''t know much about Italian meals."


    "What?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It turned out that when arge number of Italians gathered, especially if it was a family gathering, the meal went on for long, for a very long time.


    "You were wrong," whispered Quinn into Aksel''s ear.


    The bodyguard leaned in and whispered back, "What do you mean?"


    "As things are going, we''re not going to leave here by five."


    "They are just excited to meet you."


    "That''s an understatement," said Quinn looking at the sheer amount of people sharing the long dining table with him.


    Suddenly a heavily Italian-ented English called out to him. Quinn turned to see a beautifully dressed middle-ageddy with a very homely feel standing beside him with a te.


    "Quinn dear, you should eat more. Here have some more," she said, recing his empty te with another one. On it was another serving of the main course ¡ª Agnello A Scottadito, which was grilledmb ribs in English.


    "Don''t mind if I do," smiled Quinn and dug in. Only the people close to him knew how much Quinn ate ¡ª his appetite was unusuallyrge for someone of his size. His daily magic usage made it so that he needed to eat a lot to replenish the energy he had spent.


    Thedy was happy with Quinn digging into the food. But then she gasped and giggled when a pair of hands circled around her waist.


    "The boy appreciates good food," said the man to whom the hands belonged; his voice contained boisterousughter. He was a tall man with a portly belly; his brown hair were swept slick back. He wore a printed shirt, with the top few buttons open, clearly disying his hairy chest.


    The man was Cesare Abate, the oldest son of Brio Abate, and the homelydy was Bianca Abate, Cesare''s wife.


    Brio Abate and his wife Francesca had five children ¡ª three boys and two girls. This family line was the main family with Cesare set up to inherit the patriarch position after Brio abdicated his seat. Besides Brio''s sons'' and their family, a few other non-mainline Abates lived in the Pzzo Abate.


    And Quinn had to say despite his initial intention of not being cooperative with the family, he found most of the Abate family charming and jolly people. If he ignored the family''s clear patriarchal structure, the Abate family was just one big joint family.


    "So Quinn, what are you nning to do with your time here?" asked Cesare.


    "First of all, I''m going to the Colosseum, St. Peter''s Basilica, Castel Sant''Angelo, Ponte Sant''Angelo, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and other sites," said Quinn stating his ns. "And, I''m nning to see if the Greek and Roman divinity were simply figments of imaginations, or if they were real magicals turned legends, or perhaps if they by off-chance were real divinity."


    "Ah, I have heard about your liking to magic," said Cesare before he wiggled his brows, "how about we do some more fun things, what do you say¡ª Ouch!" he turned back to see Bianca standing there with her wand in hand ring at him.


    "Ease it, woman!" She had just shot well ced a pinching hex at him.


    Biana humphed before walking away.


    "So, where were we?" said Cesare turning back to Quinn. "Ah yes, how about we make you a man today?"


    "As much fun as you make it sound, I would like to refuse," said Quinn.


    "Oh,e on, it will be fun!"


    "Cesare, stop trying to persuade Quinn to join you in your dalliances," a firm and deep voice with a heavy tone of displeasure.


    Quinn turned to see a tall man, and unlike Cesare, he was dressed impably in wizard robes. He could, though, see the strong resemnce the man had with Dolion and Cesare. He was leaner than the fat Cesare but bulkier than the wire-thin Dolion.


    The man was Brio Abate''s second son, Matteo Abate.


    He turned to Quinn and spoke, "Your enthusiasm with magic is admirable, Quinn. Not many people with our gift truly appreciate it."


    "Thank you," said Quinn. "I take that you''re also in a field of magic?"


    "Not at all. I don''t have the talent for magical excellence. My calling is something else."


    "Well, I wee your appreciation for the thing that so many take for granted," said Quinn.


    The thing about magicals was that not many actually wanted to research magic. It was a power that the majority of the magical poption on Earth didn''t really take as seriously as Quinn did. It was a natural part of their lives that they made it more essible, and as long their magic was able to perform those daily tasks, not many people wished to improve upon it.


    Such was human nature; they didn''t have the desire to go beyond as long as they werefortable. That''s why many who went beyond in magic than the others had onemon trait ¡ª they wanted to improve in their chosen craft/profession and thus utilized the gift of magic to aplish that.


    For example, George and Lia. They weren''t that much interested in magic, but they were interested in business. So even though they weren''t interested in magic, they used it to improve their business handling abilities. Both of them improved their lumency (efficiency-aspect) to help them retain memories and think quicker. Simrly, people in all sorts of upations used magic to be at the top of their field.


    That day, the lunch extended for a couple of hours, and Quinn was hounded by any Abate he came across. It seemed they were very interested in Aria''s boy and how he turned out. Quinn had scanned the minds of those with weaker lumency, and most of them were very disappointed that the child of the runaway girl (Aria) had turned out so well.


    ''I wonder what Ari. . . mother was like when she was here?'' he thought.


    Quinn leaned towards Aksel and spoke, "We will start the tour tomorrow, Mr. Thorn."


    "Hmm. . . . may I ask why?" asked Aksel


    "I have found something else I want to do today."


    "What will that be? I need to make sure I have prepared for it."


    "Don''t worry, I won''t be leaving Pzzo Abate. You don''t need to prepare for everything. Rest for the day; we''ll be busy tomorrow onwards."


    Quinn knew exactly who he was going to approach who could answer his questions.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In the evening, Quinn knocked on the door of a terrace in thete evening. Therge terrace was decorated with beautiful nts ¡ª they were in pots, a lot of them sat on the floor, and there were many which floated off the ground all around the terrace.


    "Come in," said a voice.


    Quinn entered the balcony, and to the right, he saw a mini roofed patio with a single swing bench on which sat an olddy with knitting needles and wool in hand.


    She turned her head, and surprise crossed her face when she recognized him. "Quinn, what are you doing there? Come here," she said.


    Quinn nodded with a smile and made his way to the roofed patio. "Grandmother," he said. Unlike Brio, Quinn wasfortable calling her that without prompting.


    Francesca Abate, the wife of Brio Abate and the mother of Aria West, thus Quinn''s grandmother.


    "Don''t be shy; sit with me," said Francesca smiling.


    Quinnplied and sat down on the bench, which was attached to a swing. He nced at the knitting needles in her hand and pointed, "Magic can make your work much easier, you know. I can charm the needles to work on their own, and you will have a beautiful jumper by this time tomorrow."


    "I know that silly boy," she smiled as she stared at the knitting needles, "but at this age, there is little one can do to pass the time."


    When Francesca turned to face Quinn, she found him staring at her. "What is it?" she asked.


    "Your face," he said, "I mean, your wrinkles."


    "Boy, you should never point a woman''s wrinkle. It''s rude. You will never get a wife this way."


    Quinn chuckled, "I know that. What I mean is that your wrinkles are pretty. When you smile, your wrinkles entuate your smile. It''s very beautiful."


    "It looks I was wrong. You will be able to find a wife just fine."


    "It''s a little too early for me to get a wife."


    This time it was Quinn who found himself being stared at by Francesca. The olddy was gazing at Quinn with an unblinking gaze, and there was a distinct look in her eyes.


    "I have seen your father and grandfather," she started, "the color of your eyes is a West family trait, but the shape of your eyes, that I thinkes from your other grandmother because while your father had the same shape, your grandfathercks it." She touched the top of his head, "ck hair is a shared trait between both Wests and Abate, but I know that your came from Aria. . . your hair is much cker than the West''s ck. . . not only that I can see Aria in your face. . ."


    Francesca stopped speaking and sighed heavily. Her hands went to her eyes as she wiped away some unshed tears.


    "Sorry for showing such a pitiful sight," she smiled sadly. "It is just that Aria never came to visit except the two times she came to show you, and your sister after both of you were born. . . . and I couldn''t go. . . ."


    Quinn realized what Francesca meant. His parents had run away to get married, performed their wedding rites, and registered themselves as a married couple in private, without telling their families. Aria had run away while Adam wasn''t on talking terms with George. Neither family was involved in their wedding.


    And from what he had learned from Ms. Rosey, Adam and Aria had only visited the Abates four times since their marriage. Both were married for some sixteen years, and in all that time, Francesca had only met her eldest daughter four times. For magicals who could travel across the world with Portkeys in a short time and especially Wests and Abates who could essentially afford as many Portkeys they needed. . . . four visits in sixteen years was abysmally low.


    "Look at me bringing skeletons of past out of the ground," said Francesca putting up a smile. "I know why you are here. You want to know about your mother, don''t you?"


    Quinn nodded. He wanted to know about the woman who Lia and everyone spoke so fondly about.


    "Well, Aria was a charming girl, not like you with your glib tongue." Her words made Quinn smile; he had left an impression at lunch. "Your mother was a sweet girl who couldn''t hurt a fly. When your bastard of a father," she held back no spite in her words, "took my darling daughter away, I was so scared that I couldn''t sleep for days. I swore I almost sted his head off when I saw him. . . ."


    For the rest of the evening, the pair talked about the life of Quinn''s mother from the very words of her own mother.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - First day was a little hectic.


    Brio Abate - Father - A very direct man.


    Francesca Abate - Mother - Misses her daughter very much.


    Dolion Abate - Third son - Studied in Salem.


    Matteo Abate - Second son - The serious one.


    Cesare Abate - First Son - A man who likes to have a certain kind of fun.


    Aksel Thorn - Bodyguard - Turned in early today.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 196 - Empyrean, Following Dreams

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Dolion and the luxuriously dressed middle-aged man sat in a room in a remote corner of Pzzo Abate. Nursing a ss of wine each in hand.


    "Quinn West is more of a problem than I thought," said Dolion in Italian..


    "Why?" asked hispanion.


    "When I firstid my eyes on him, it was evident that he was a practiced Legilimens, but the time he spent with the family made it clear that my initial impression of him was terriblycking."


    "I wasn''t there. You''ll have to see borate."


    "He spent the entire meal reading minds of people who talked to him. He spread his senses to all those with the weaker minds ¡ª those who could scan without getting detected."


    "Did he. . ."


    "No, he didn''t attempt to read mine and few others. . . . and in doing so has revealed the limits of what he can do without being detected."


    "Will I be able to. . . ?"


    "No, you don''t meet the requirements."


    "A pity," sighed the middle-aged man, but internally he was relieved. He didn''t need to interact with the target, which he preferred as Dolion refused to tell him much. "Can you enter his mind?" he asked.


    "I can," said Dolion with confidence, "but not without him knowing that I''m doing it. His lumency, if I detected correctly, is around the same level as his Legilimency. There are good chances that he will get a whiff of me if I try to get inside."


    "He''s that good?"


    "No, not really. I have seen better," scoffed Dolion, then turned a bit severe, "but his detection is unusually perceptive. It''splicated. . . I would have a way to pass through it if I spent enough time with him."


    "What''s your next move?" he asked.


    Dolion swirled the ss in hand and sighed deeply. "The next move, the next move. . . . I''ll have to think about to proceed. I need something to ease the process along. I have thought of a few options; the question is which one to employ."


    "Then you should hurry. Quinn West isn''t here for long."


    Dolion hummed in thought before his eyes lit up. "I know what will help me how to get through his mind."


    "Really, how?"


    "He''s a tourist." The smile on Dolion''s face indicated he had a n.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I must say, it''s quite exciting to be standing right in the middle of so much history," said Quinn as he stood upon the Roman bridge, Ponte Sant''Angelo crafted from travertine marble, arching over the lifeline of Ancient Rome, the river Tiber.


    His eyes were gazing upon the magnificence of towering Castel Sant''Angelo ¡ª a mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family. The sight of the tomb with the angel statues standing on either side was a scenic sight to behold.


    "I''m not that much of a history buff, but this is just great," he said without turning back to Aksel Thorn, the bodyguard standing just behind him, "I''m at the ce where Latin turned into a magical force of nature and became what is it today, empowering so many magical cultures throughout the world."


    Ancient Rome wasn''t only important to non-magical history; it also held importance in the magical history with so much cultural antiquity that it made Quinn fill with excitement and enthusiasm for exploration.


    The legend of the early establishment of Rome started with the legend of two twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. It was an ongoing debate among non-magical historians whether the twins'' myth was an original part of Roman myth orter development, but the non-magical records provided a more apparent record of their existence.


    Romulus and Remus were, without doubt, a pair of magicals who came from a long and rich line of magicals, being the descendants of the Trojan Aeneas and sons of the god Mars and princess Rhea Silvia. Aeneas was from the illustrious Troy n and a descendant of Aphrodite, while Mars was, ording to the historical records, just like Aphrodite, was a magical-turned-divinity.


    But in the genealogy of the founding twins, Quinn was most fascinated by Rhea Silvia, the pitful princess who was raped by Mars. She was a vestal virgin, a priestess of magical-turned-divinity Vesta. The thing that interested Quinn was the magical significance of being a Vestal, as they were regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome. As the name suggested, Vestals were virgins, which Quinn was sure had to do with the sacred fire they collectively cultivated. Looking through the records, he was able to form a conjecture that the sacred fire was some sort of lost magic of the ritual branch, with the virginity of the priestesses being an essential aspect of it.


    ''There must have been some benefits to Romulus and Remus when the virginity tied up in a ritual was broken by Mars,'' thought Quinn in tangential hypothesis.


    It was a practice that, in most parts of the magical world, had be a thing of the past, but in ancient times, magical parents (usually mothers) would undergo treatments of various forms of magic to promote the chances of the baby being magical with a strong talent for magic. And while Rhea Silvia never went through such things because of her Vow of Chastity, her role as part of a state-wide ritual might have had simr effects.


    "Mr. Thorn, did you know that Romulus and Remus'' uncle had ordered the twins to be drowned after he usurped power from their grandfather. But the twins were secretly spared and drifted in the Tiber river in a basket where they wereter discovered by a she-wolf who nursed the twins back to health. . . . Interestingly, I know someone named Remus, who also has an affinity for wolves."


    "An interesting story Quinn," said the man, not sounding interested at all.


    Quinn smiled but didn''t point it out. Instead, he wondered about the she-wolf mentioned in the legends.


    ''Could she be the same species of wolf that I saw in the Forbidden Forest,'' he thought about the wolves who were descendants of two werewolves conceiving on a full-moon night. It was a theory Quinn had no way of proving, but he liked it very much.


    "Quiz time, Mr. Thorn," said Quinn with a beaming smile. "When Romulus and Remus founded their city, how do you think they decided which twin was going to be king? If you answer correctly, you''ll get chocte."


    ". . . . I don''t know," said the voicecking any enthusiasm.


    "The records say the topic of king quickly became a matter of debate. . . . the debate that Romulus won by killing Remus. I must say, a move I wasn''t expecting to see in a debate. Then Romulus went ahead to form the small city of Rome, which would eventually turn into the dominating empire of unparalleled power." In those days, there were no Secrecy Laws; as such, the magicals roamed in the open.


    And while he enjoyed the story of the creation of Rome, he wasn''t interested in Romulus and Remus. Throughout history, conflict has been a great motivator of growth and innovation ¡ª to improve in the harsh times, the human mind had shown itself and hade up with pretty fascinating stuff. On the other side of the coin, the times of peace and prosperity promoted elegance and intricacy.


    "This country has a rich history, Mr. Thorn. They have seen glorious ups and disastrous downs. Let''s see what that history can do for me," he said before turning to Aksel, "where''s our guide?"


    "This is Italy," was all Aksel said.


    Quinn blinked a couple of times before it hit him, "Ah, Chronemics ¡ª the study of the use of time and the way that time is perceived and valued by individuals and cultures. Yes, I came across it during one of the short uneventful stints with the study of therger subject ¡ª interestingly, chronemics means much more in the magical world than it does in the non-magical."


    Italy was a Polychronic culture. Polychronic cultures have a less formal perception of time and are not ruled by specific calendars and schedules. Meaning in Italy, if the time to meet was decided to be at eleven, it wasn''t strange to see the person arrive half an hourte.


    "You guys are early." Quinn and Aksel turned to see the speaker. And speaking of the devil, it was their guide.


    "Dolion, thank you for taking the time to show us around," said Quinn smiling, "I''m excited to know more about your homnd and am looking forward to using the Abate gateways. They are quite fascinating."


    Dolion smiled as he fished out a blood-red skeletal key. It was different from the gold key that Aksel had with him. From what Quinn could specte, the blood-red key was some sort of master-key only avable to Abate family members, while the gold key was a guest key of types.


    "Let''s go then," smiled Dolion.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Dolion leaned against a pir with bookshelves on both sides, watching Quinn running his finger through the spines of the rows upon rows of Latin magical books. They had already been through three different book stores in Rome, and from what Dolion knew, Quinn had ns to visit tons of bookstores all around the country.


    He looked to the other side to see Aksel Thorn keeping an eye on everyone passing by. Dolion pushed himself on the pir and walked towards the bodyguard.


    "Is he really like this?" he asked, jutting his chin to Quinn.


    Thorn watched a guy pass through before finally answering, "As you already know, I guided him through Denmark. In all that time, he went through any book shop I could take him to and others he somehow found on his own. . . . I will suggest that you be ready to trante for him; Quinn will make you talk to any person he finds interesting, and those he founds interesting can be a strange bunch."


    Dolion looked back at Quinn to find that he had taken out a strange book with a protruding screaming face sticking out of the cover. The look on Quinn''s book was of extreme fascination.


    "So, he''s bookish, studious."


    "He''s clever, cunning, quick. . . skilled," said Aksel in reply.


    Dolion continued to stare at Quinn. Various thoughts went through his mind; he turned to Aksel and said, "Tell me more about him," he said.


    . . .


    Quinn made his way through the book store, his eyes reading the rich collections of Latin works. The Roman empire was the distributor of Latin through a wide area of European content, and after that, the British spread the magicalnguage once again through the aggressive colonialism of the various colonies worldwide.


    He had only browsed through some of the books here, but he already knew the works here were one of the most exquisitely written pieces of Latin he had seen in a while.


    As he was perusing the titles on the spines of books, he found one that made him stop in his tracks. It was a non-suspecting brown tan book without any unique features, but its title interested him.


    ¡¸The Theory Behind The Magic Of Constructs¡¹


    "Constructs?" he murmured as he picked it out of the row, "constructs, constructs, constructs." He opened the book and began reading.


    As the book described them, magical constructs were tangible manifestations created through molding magic and turning it into a unique malleable material that could take on a wide variety of physical properties ¡ª in fact, the author went as far as to say that with enough expertise and knowledge about magic and physical matter, the user could give the material any physical property the desired.


    The usage of the unique magical material was quite simple; it could be shaped into all sorts of forms ¡ª tools, objects, weapons, and other items.


    The name that the book provided to the material was:


    ¡¸Empyrean¡¹


    Quinn snapped the book close with a nonchnt expression. "I can conjure any object I like; there''s no need for a modifiable material." He ced the book back into its ce and began walking in search of something else that caught his eyes.


    But not two stepster, his feet halted. Quinn stood in his ce for a good half-minute before he turned back and gazed at the book. The previously ordinary book was now the center of his attention. Quinn walked towards the book, once again took it out, and stared at the cover for a good while.


    His eyes went up at the row from which he had taken the book out, and contrary to his expectations, the book in his hand was the only one on its topic. He checked every other book in the row. . . shelf. . . section, but he couldn''t find a single mention of magical constructs or Empyrean.


    "Dolion!" he called out.


    The third son who was engaged in conversation with Aksel looked towards Quinn to see his nephew beckoning him.


    "Yeah, what is it?" asked Dolion, reaching Quinn.


    Quinn handed him the book and spoke, "Ask the manager or owner of this ce to tell me where I can find more books on this topic."


    Quinn, Dolion, and Aksel made way to the manager, where Dolion asked him Quinn''s question and acted as the trantor. The manager looked at the book before going in deep in thought. She asked them to follow her, and they went to various spots in the store, but they went empty-handed.


    "The manager says that this must be the only book she has on magical constructs," said Dolion in trantion.


    "What about Empyrean; does she have anything on that?" said Quinn.


    Dolionmunicated. The manager turned to Quinn and shook her head.


    "She says that she doesn''t recognize the word," said Dolion.


    Quinn looked down at the book in his hand before raising it to the manager, "Tell her I want to buy this."


    A few minutester, Quinn came out of the book store with ¡¸The Theory Behind The Magic Of Constructs¡¹ in his hands. His eyes were still on the book, and there was a feeling in his heart.


    ''This is it,'' he thought, ''this is what I''m going to take home with me.''


    Quinn didn''t know why but the book in his hand called out to him. He had barely read a paragraph of the introduction, but despite that, he was sure that this was the discovery, the highlight of the trip.


    "I have to find more of this," he murmured before turning to his twopanions. "Gentlemen, we are going to be busy from now. It''s time to go on a country-wide bookstore-crawl."


    Aksel and Dolion looked at each other, and Aksel shrugged. The bodyguard turned to Quinn and took out a roll of parchment, "I have a list of prominent book stores," he had already prepared.


    "Excellent work, Mr. Thorn. Let''s get something to eat, then we will get to work."


    Aksel once again nodded and told Quinn about the restaurant he had reservations at while Dolion stared at the duo.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    A week passed, and despite his efforts to find books on magical constructs or Empyrean, Quinn could only find a couple of books after scrying Rome and the neighboring few cities. It was that either the topic was about to be a ''lost magic'' or wasn''t explored enough to gain enough attention from practitioners and authors.


    "Another disappointing day," sighed Quinn as he walked through the corridors of Pzzo Abate. He stared out a window, and the bright moon hung, giving the stars itspany, putting their collective shine in the canvas that was the night sky. His eyes absentmindedly roamed, and he had to say that the pce was absolutely massive ¡ª it was at least thrice the size of West manor in terms of square footage and was thrice as long in height.


    He made his way through the memorized corridor and arrived at the ce he had been visiting since the very first day. He arrived at a door that opened up to a terrace and stepped outside.


    "Grandmother, I''m here," he said.


    He turned, expecting to see Francesca, the sweet olddy with a mouth that could make even the most open people blush, sitting on the bench swing but was surprised to find that his maternal grandmother hadpany.


    "Why are you standing there boy,e sit," said Francesca.


    Quinn walked toward the covered mini-patio with his eyes fixed on the girl his age sitting beside Francesca. "You are Sara, right?" he knew the girl; she was Matteo Abate, the second son''s daughter.


    Sara Abate nodded. She was tall, had a brte, long curly hair, which was different from the usual Abate ck.


    Quinn took out his wand and conjured a barstool to sit in front of Francesca and Sara.


    "The girl wants to ask you some questions," said Francesca.


    "Sure, I will answer anything I can," said Quinn in reply.


    Sara remained silent for a while before she finally speaking up, "I want to be a teacher. . . ."


    Quinn waited for her to continue, but Sara didn''t and instead nced towards Francesca, who didn''t say anything. Quinn gazed at Sara thought for a minute before looking at Francesca, who nodded this time.


    "You want to be a teacher, but Abate women don''t work. That''s it, right?" said Quinn.


    Sara was surprised but nodded.


    In the week Quinn had been here, he had noticed that all the women he hade across were housewives. As Quinn had been told, the Abates was a patriarchal family where the men worked, and the woman took care of the home. It would have been fine if that''s what the woman wanted, but that wasn''t the case, as seen in Sara''s situation.


    "She wanted to talk to someone her own age," said Francesca.


    "And you don''t have a problem with this?" asked Quinn.


    "I don''t," said the old grandmother, "I never had a problem with how things were, but the times have changed. If Sara wants to work, then she should be able to," then she smiles bitterly, "but I can''t help her."


    "I see," nodded Quinn before gazing at Sara, "are you serious about it?"


    "Yes," said Sara firmly.


    "Have you talked to your parents? Do they approve?"


    "No, they don''t."


    "Alright then, that''s that. You have to understand that you don''t require your parents'' approval. To begin with, the sess of your goal is not contingent on your parents'' approval. Unless your parents are cutting you off, like throwing you out of the house or cutting off your allowance. . . ."


    "I have money saved!" said Sara.


    "Fantastic," smiled Quinn. "Then the next step is all talk is pointless if there are no results. You have already tried talking, but your parents don''t listen, it''s time to devote yourself to your goal. Let your results speak for themselves. With each discouragement, use it as ammunition to spur yourself to achieve more results. You want your parents to trust you, so show them why you deserve their trust by bringing your ns to live.


    "It''s clear that you will have to move out, which would mean that your parents won''t know the merits of your choice unless you show them. For example, when you get your first sry, show it to them ¡ª they will understand that the ball''s in your court, and there is no need to worry about you."


    Sara scoffed, "They don''t care about me."


    "I won''tment on that. I don''t know what your parents think. It doesn''t matter if they care about you or not. You can''t control that," said Quinn. "The ultimate step to showing the merit of your path is when you indicate that you are still alive, day after day, despite doing what they thought would be immensely dangerous. Or better still, thrive in it. Being happy every day. Being in charge of your life and being clear on your goals and ns. Achieving financial sess. Being recognized for your work. Making positive change. Showing that you are a wise adult who can now do well in her life without any intervention."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Still hasn''t got the chance to say, Mamma Mia!


    Dolion Abate - Third son - He has some ns.


    Aksel Thorn - Bodyguard - He''s prepared this time.


    Sara Abate - Has aspirations - Got an inspirational talk from Quinn.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I just wanted to write thest section.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 197 - Conspiracies Afoot

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was another pleasant day at zzo Abate with Quinn just finishing his morning workout and on course to return to his room to freshen up to officially start his day. As Quinn turned to the corridor to his room, he stopped when he heard something from his back. He turned to see Brio and Aksel talking with each other..


    His head tilted as he watched the pair talk with each other. Deciding to see what they were talking about, Quinn walked towards them and greeted the two adults with a smile,


    "Good morning, Mr. Thorn. . . grandfather," he said.


    It turned out that Brio Abate had no qualms about arguing with Quinn every time he had tried to call the man anything other than grandfather. After two weeks of almost daily arguments, Quinn had decided that it was a lesser pain to call the man by what he wanted.


    "So what are you two talking about so early in the morning," asked Quinn.


    "Thorn was just telling me how you have been liking it here. I hear that you are barely home. It seems like you have been having fun," said Brio.


    "Is that so. . . . it has been a busy time. But the beautiful country, fantastic people, and the amazing food help a lot. Time passes quickly in such a beautiful ce."


    "You should take it easy. Sightseeing is nice and all, but you should spend some time at home; get to know more of the family."


    "Hmm," Quinn thought about the offer and nced at Thorn before nodding, "alright, I will spend the day inside. Take it easy for a day or two."


    "Good, good. It''s important to rest," said Brio before leaving.


    Quinn turned to Aksel and spoke, "It''s decided, I will take the day off today. You can take easy for today."


    "What are you going to do?" asked Aksel.


    "Spend some more time with grandmother, maybe get started with knitting a scarf of my own hand; y some chess with Sara; most probably give one of the books a good read."


    Aksel stared for a good while before saying, "I will tag along; can''t take the risk."


    "Ah, theck of trust hurt, Mr. Thorn. And here I thought all the fun time we spent together would have created an unbreakable bond of faith and confidence between the two of us."


    "That doesn''t sound right at all."


    "Well, I''m disappointed by that; maybe we will develop that bond someday, but for today, I hope you''ll enjoy mypany."


    Aksel was on his way to get some breakfast, so he left to get something to eat while Quinn would take a shower and get himself ready for the day.


    As Aksel walked away, Quinn stared at him with some thoughts about the conversation. He wanted to go outside and weighed the possibility of fooling Aksel to go on a solo day trip across Rome.


    "Hmm, let''s just stay inside. I can''t take the risk of facing my grandfather''s wrath after the Tri-wizard incident. It''s better toy low this time around. . . . I can alwayse back on my own."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was sometime after noon; Quinn sat in his room with the door being locked shut and the windows curtained off. The room was properly lit with the portable MLEs that he carried around with him.


    In his hand sat ¡¸The Theory Behind The Magic Of Constructs¡¹. His eyes scanned through the pages withplete attentiveness, gleaming through ck letters printed on the parchment to get the nuggets of knowledge.


    "Alright, let''s see if my understanding is correct," said Quinn, putting the book aside on the king-sized bed and standing up to walk to the clear space in the front.


    He flexed the fingers in both of his hands. He shook his left hand for a reddish-yellow cord of light appeared out of his palm. It was the cord from one of Quinn''s all-time favorite spells: Carpe Retractum. Next, he shook his right hand, and glowing red material rippled out his palm like a liquid flowing out a tap, and instead of liquid polling on the ground, it retained the form of a rope and coiled on the floor.


    "So this is Empyrean, huh," muttered Quinn as he stared at the incandescent red color of Empyrean.


    He then raised both his hands to observe both Carpe Retractum and Empyrean. While both spells were in the form of cords/ropes, Quinn could tell how different they were. He whipped the ropes and threw the other ends into the wall, making them stuck to the wall.


    "This is fascinating."


    The fingers of his red hand twitched; the red Empyrean rippled, and the rope fell from his hand and polled down on the floor like a puddle of water.


    "Empyrean. . . . the material that could take on any number of physical properties," said Quinn, his stone-grey eye reflecting the red glow. "Fascinating, extremely fascinating. I can replicate Carpe Retractum down to the exact detail, and I can turn it into a puddle of liquid the very next second. . . what versatility!"


    He dispelled Carpe Retractum and focused on Empyrean. He stood up from beside the puddle of water and raised his hands for the liquid Empyrean to lift off the ground, and under Quinn''s molding, it formed a shoddy cube.


    "I still need a lot of practice; this is piss poor," he muttered, looking at the cube, which looked like it was about to break down. If another user of Empyrean heard Quinn, they would manifest a bat made from Empyrean and hit him until he was crying for help. The audacity to call his performance poor when people couldn''t produce Empyrean for the first couple of days.


    Quinn continued to stare at the Empyrean as the material trembled into various shapes under hismand; he looked back at the book sitting on the bed and smiled.


    "We are going to have much fun, a lot of fun," he then startedughing.


    The sphere made from Empyrean started to jiggle more and more with Quinn''sughter and suddenly exploded straight into his face, and it seemed that Empyrean had taken the physical properties of paint as Quinn''s front side was covered in glowing red.


    "But before that, I have a lot of work to do."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Thergest magical market of Italy was hidden in the heart of Florence, the birthce of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages and capital of the Tuscany region. The market was famously known as the Pisand Row and was the Italian equivalent of British Diagon Alley and its adjoining marketnes.


    Situated inside Pisand Row was a store called Rigenerare. A quaint little shop with a front shop much smaller than the back area of the shop, the ce where the magic happened. It was an apothecary specializing in medical potions and was a famous potion shop, providing its services to many magical hospitals.


    "Mario! Amity needs ten crates of Fire seed potion! And they needed it yesterday!" yelled a gaunt man in Italian with sunken cheeks and pale skin that looked like it hadn''t seen daylight for days.


    "W-We don''t have that prepared!" yelled another voice sounding anxious. The owner of the voice peeked out from a corner to show a man with a sweaty face.


    Nereo Polo, the gaunt man, was the manager of the Rigenerare and the apothecary''s head potion brewer, while the other man was Mario Spagnolo, one of the other potion brewers of the store.


    "Then get your ass up to a cauldron and start brewing because if I don''ty my beautiful eyes on a crate full of glowing orange, you better forget the weekend off you were begging for!"


    Mario sputtered at the threat and ran to get the batch of potions working with tears in his eyes. He was looking at another all-nighter.


    A stunning olive beauty peeked from the outside and yelled at the men working inside, "Shut your damned mouths! It''s leaking outside, and customers can hear it! I''m not going to lose mymission because you men can''t behave like civilized people!"


    Even though Rigenerare mainly tended to hospitals, they had a healthy amount of individual customers, and the olive beauty Antea was a front desk seller.


    "Alright, alright, we will be quiet," said Nereo Polo.


    "You better be," said Antea and then stacked off back outside.


    Nereo Polo grumbled in a low voice after Antea was out of earshot, "Only if that woman wasn''t good at what she did." He turned to the potion brewers under and yelled just enough so it wouldn''t get out of the back workshop, "Move your hands, keep those cauldrons hot! I don''t want to see a cauldron off fire if it isn''t being scrubbed."


    "Nereo!" Antea came back in.


    "What is it, woman?! I didn''t yell!"


    "Abate is here," she said.


    Nereo got up from his chair at once, "Dolion is here, but he isn''t supposed¡ª"


    "Yes, I''m here, Nereo," said Dolion in Italian, "can''t I just be here to visit a friend."


    "You can be, but. . . ."


    Dolion stepped forward, and two more people(one teenager, the other adult) entered the back room. Nereo being in charge of the brewing back room didn''t like unknown people entering his domain. "Who are they?" he asked.


    Nereo saw Dolion gesturing him to look at the teenager; Nereo was confused but studied the teenager closely. At first, he wasn''t sure what he was looking at, but a momentter, he noticed the stone-grey eyes that stared back at him.


    "A-A West!" eximed Nereo.


    "He said West," said Quinn, looking at Dolion.


    "He did," said Dolion before nodding to Nereo


    Nereo cleared his throat, quickly wiped his hand with a rag before stepping forward to say in ented English, "My name is Nereo Polo. You are. . . ."


    "I''m Quinn West," said Quinn introducing himself, "and you, Mr. Polo are the manager of Rigenerare, an apothecary owned by my family, but you already know that." He watched Nereo for a brief second, his eyes twitching for a brief second, before looking at the workshop. "I have seen Rigenerare''s records; the apothecary has seen good growth in the past three years."


    "Thank you," said Nereo with a proud smile.


    "But," there was always a but, "we haven''t received any records from Rigenerare for thest half-year. I''m here to know why?"


    ". . . .The machine broke."


    "The machine?"


    "The machine that sends letters."


    "You mean the MagiFax. It''s broken for half a year?"


    "Yes."


    Quinn gazed at Nereo, "Make up a better excuse."


    "I''m not making an excuse; it''s really broke. . . . I just didn''t get it fixed."


    "And why is that?"


    "I don''t understand how it works," said Nereo.


    The creator of MagiFax paused for a bit. "You can call a technician to exin how it works. They will exin how it works." When Nereo didn''t say anything, Quinn continued, "I''ll sign you up for a session," this wasn''t the first case of people refusing to leave owl-mail, "now, show me where''s the unit."


    Nereo led them to a small room, and Rigenerare''s MagiFax was stashed into a corner. "Alright, let''s get it out from here," said Quinn and wheeled out the MagiFax from the room into a more spacious area.


    Dolion leaned towards Aksel and whispered, "What''s he doing?"


    Aksel shrugged, "I don''t know."


    Quinn observed the MagiFax for a bit before speaking, "What did you do?"


    "Nothing," said Nereo, but when Quinn continued to stare, he said, "I kicked it. . . . many times."


    "No wonder it broke," said Quinn as he took out his fake wand.


    He waved it once in a diagonal, and everyone''s eyes in the room widened as the one-meter tall machine came apart with every single part of the machine floating in the air. Quinn stepped into the sphere of floating MagiFax pieces and started studying.


    "Found it," he said, pointing to ayer of broken rune tes that connected the machine to theworks that allowed MagiFaxes to send and receive messages. He waved his fake wand, and the set of rune tes glowed as Quinn applied transmutations to fix the crack and get the runes flowing.


    He stepped out of the sphere of floating parts and waved his fake wand once again for the machine to put itself back together.


    "Usually, you would need a MagiFax technician with proper authorization to connect the unit back to thework-sh-sever, but fortunately for you," he pointed at himself, "I''m a West and thus have the proper authorization to connect any unit," which was partially a lie because while Lia and George would have the proper authorization, they wouldn''t know how to do it.


    As Quinn connected the MagiFax to thework, Aksel whispered to Dolion, "Told you he is skilled."


    "It''s done," said Quinn, "I''ll book you for up for a session on how to work the MagiFax, so make sure you pay attention, but for now, send the records to Pzzo Abate and the WMF-id to which you send the records, I''ll send them in."


    "O-Okay," said Nereo.


    "Good, don''t kick the unit again, and don''t be stubborn; learn how to use MagiFax; it will do you a lot of good," said Quinn before turning to Aksel. "Let''s get out of here; I want to go to the library you mentioned; let''s see if they have a book that I can make a duplicate of."


    Aksel nodded and followed after Quinn while he exited the store under the eyes of Rigenerare''s employees.


    "Dolion," said Nereo.


    Dolion didn''t say anything and just shook his head which caused Nereo to sigh in relief.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It waste in the night; Dolion and his middle-agedpanion sat opposite each other on a long table.


    "It''s ready," said Dolion.


    "You really have it?" asked the middle-aged man.


    Dolion ced the object in question on the table. "This is it. This is what I''m going to use to open the way up for me."


    "Are you sure it will work?"


    "You can try some and see if it works or not."


    "N-No, i-it''s fine." If it worked, the man definitely didn''t want to try it.


    "Your choice," smiled Dolion.


    "If it works as you say it does, then we need to move soon. I''m running out of excuses as for why I''m not at home for the past couple of weeks."


    "I''ll move in a couple more days. I''m still thinking about how to make sure that West doesn''t feel anything is off."


    "Any ideas?"


    "Yes, I have narrowed it down to two choices. Both of them will be effective against West; it''s just a matter of which one is safer."


    Then Dolion went silent as he stared at the table.


    Before the marriage of Adam West and his sister Aria, the Wests and Abates only had a professional rtionship regarding West businesses in Italy. It was only after the runaway marriage that their interaction evolved.


    At first, the Abates had remained proud and stubborn about coborating with Wests. The elders weren''t happy that Aria had defied the family; to retaliate, they even tried to make business difficult for Wests in Italy, but Wests already had decent establishments in Italy before the marriage, and with the resources they had, they were able to hold on, even if barely ¡ª because as everyone knew, in Italy, there was nothing bigger than Abate.


    It was only after they realized that the Wests could be better serve as allies than enemies, so they decided to use the fact they had a daughter married to the heir of Wests to their advantage ¡ª the Abates were no stranger to this method; they had been employing political marriages for centuries ¡ª but things didn''t go their way as Aria refused to push their cause.


    The sweet little girl who would listen to every instruction since childhood had risen to be Madam West. . . . the Abates had no control over her and in turn the Wests. Adam West did work some cooperation with the Abates to help his inws save some face, but it was only a token gesture and nowhere the level that Abates were nning.


    Then came another opportunity to tap into the West resources in the form of Lia West wanting to connect with her mother''s family.


    ''They pissed on that opportunity with their worthless traditions,'' thought Dolion. He knew very well that his family didn''t believe that women were capable of responsibilities outside the house and offended an ambitious Lia West the very day she stepped into Pzzo Abate.


    Dolion, who had spent a lot of his formative years in America, didn''t align with his family''s views ¡ª at least not anymore; for him, anyone with a good head over their shoulders could do whatever they desired. It had physically pained him to see the opportunity known as Lia slip past, wasted.


    But it seemed that the Abate family''s luck hadn''t run dry, and they were given yet another opportunity. Arai had given to a son, a son who had finally grown up, and because of the patriarchal nature, this time it was the Abates who sent the invitation to the Wests to let them get to know Quinn West.


    Dolion had been so excited that he got to nning. He wasn''t going to let his family ruin things this time.


    ''I''m going to get a vein into the Wests. . . . no matter what it takes,'' he had thought.


    And he was going to keep what he earned to himself. His moronic family wouldn''t get anything. . . . they would only waste it away.


    "I have decided," said Dolion to hispanion, "I''m going to move, and by the end of this week, we will have everything we could ever desire."


    His name was Dolion, and there was no one better than him when it came to deceit.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - Learning a new spell and doing some family work.


    Dolion Abate - Third Son - Deceit runs in his veins.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I wanted this arc tost a little longer, but I think the next chapter is going to be the climax ¡ª I think, we never know. . .


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 198 - Got You! Or Did You?

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I''m bored of ying chess," said Sara Abate, the only person his age that Quinn had been able to make friends with during his stay at the Pzzo Abate.


    "We can always do something else," said Quinn as he moved his bishop across the board, "and from the look of it, we will be needing something else to do. .. . . checkmate."


    "Great, then let''s do something else."


    Quinn looked up at the girl, "Did you lose on purpose?"


    "No, of course not," said the girl, packing up the chess set, "so what should we do?"


    He looked at her with a suspecting gaze. "We can go see the Volcano of Stromboli on the Aeolian Inds and wait to see the explosions. . . . if we''re lucky, we could see some big ones."


    "Can we go up to the top?"


    ". . . . I don''t think so, that''s not safe, I''m guessing."


    "Then no, let''s think of something else," she said. The initially shy girl had opened up to Quinn with time.


    "Okay, how about we go to a beach?" he suggested, "I''m sure we can find a secluded one and spend a fun day by the seaside."


    "I''m not really in the mood to go outside," said Sara.


    "You''re the host, you know; you should be telling me what we should be doing. . . . can I interest you in some magic, though?" he asked, pulling out a deck of cards to perform a riffle shuffle while they were in his hands.


    "Magic? You mean card tricks; what can you do?"


    "A whole bunch of things," Quinn held the red deck with his left-hand fingers and waved the left in front of it for the deck to change to blue.


    "I can do that," said Sara.


    "Not without magic. . . . I need toe up with a term to differentiate the two types."


    "You do that while I get us something to drink," said Sara and got up from her chair. She exited the balcony where they sat, went to the first door she could find, took out a silver key, and inserted it into the keyhole before turning it for the door to turn a royal blue. Sara opened it, and the door was now connected to her own room. She went in and took out two bottles each of Limonata and Arinchatta and prepared two Coti con Panna for them.


    She turned to go back but stopped before she could even take a single step.


    "Uncle!" she eximed; her heart was trying to leap out of her chest, "what you doing. . . . " her voice trailed off as her eyes went glossy, dull, and out of focus.


    "Don''t worry, Sara," said the wire-thin man, "this will only take a few minutes," he gently took the ss bottles from her hands, "you won''t even remember it."


    "Okay. . . ." said Sara, her voice not louder than a murmur.


    The third son smiled as he made Sara sit down before looking at the bottle in his hands. "Quinn West, we''re going to have a lot of fun for a long, long time."


    . . .


    "I''m back."


    Quinn''s eyes left theyoff cards on the table and looked at Sara. He saw the bottles and the two croissants that Sara had with her and grew hungry.


    "I brought some refreshments," said Sara and set down the tray before passing a bottle to Quinn, who touched the cap for it to pop off with loud. . . . pop.


    "Bubbles, nice," smiled Quinn and drank the cold soda, "hmm, I can taste lemon," he smacked his lips, "and something else." He took another swig and tried to find what else he was tasting.


    Sara smiled and picked up a bottle for herself, "That''s the fun part; it''s a surprise."


    "Whatever it is, it tastes good," said Quinn looking at thebel.


    "I will tell you when you finish it. . . . till then keep guessing."


    Quinn went on to show Sara his magic tricks while enjoying his beverage. There were a lot of oohs and aahs from Sara as he proudly disyed the wonders of sleight of hand. But as he did that, Quinn started to feel a little dizzy, a bit lethargic, and a lot slower, but. . . .


    When things finally cleared up back to normal, he wasn''t on the terrace with Sara; instead, he was in an empty room lit up with candles ced around the room. He looked down to see that his hands, legs, and torso were thoroughly tied up.


    "He''s waking up."


    Quinn looked up towards the source of the voice and saw a man he had only seen once before, and beside him stood Dolion, who was staring at him.


    "Dolion. . . . were am I?" asked Quinn.


    "How are you feeling, Quinn?" asked Dolion in return and stared into Quinn''s eyes.


    "I feel slow. . . and my head feels heavy. . . . now ¡ª it''s gone. . . . Dolion ¡ª what''s happening?"


    Dolion''s eyes shined when Quinn told him about the heaviness disappearing. It meant that Quinn wasn''t able to detect him inside his head. ''I can work without worry now,'' he thought.


    "There''s nothing to worry about, Quinn," said Dolion smiling. "You''re just feeling that way because I have given you a magic-dampening potion. . . . it cuts your connection to your magic. . . . once upon a time it was given to prisoners." He had given Quinn a unique blend of magic-dampening potions that not only did its original function but also put the target into a hazy state.


    "That ¡ª sounds ¡ª interesting. . . . . why did ¡ª they ¡ª stop?"


    "It is interesting," smiled Dolion, "you don''t need to worry about why they stopped."


    A strong wind made the windows shake and shudder, making Dolion''s middle-agedpanion quake in surprise. He turned to Dolion and asked, "Are you sure the bodyguard isn''t going to find out?"


    "Aksel doesn''t stay by his side while he''s with mother or Sara. As long as Aksel is concerned, Quinn is currently with Sara. He won''t be interfering with this, and even if he does decide to check on him, we will be done by the time he finds him," a smirk made its way to Dolion''s face, "when he questions Quinn, the kid will say whatever we want him to, and Aksel will believe it because of Quinn''s actions in Denmark."


    Dolion then turned to hispanion and sighed, "You''re speaking too much. Why did I ever think that it was okay to get you involved? You have been absolutely useless," he smiled, "I know why. . . . you''re my puppet after all."


    "What are you saying?" asked the middle-aged man.


    Dolion raised his wands, and as the tip glowed with a dirty yellow, the middle-aged man''s eyes went nk, all expression drained, and the man seemed to have be something like a. . . . puppet.


    Dolion turned to Quinn, who was swirling his head as if not being able to support it. "Quinn," he called.


    "Yes?" said Quinn, looking at Doloin with out-of-focus eyes.


    "Do you know this person?" Dolion pointed to the puppet-like man.


    "No."


    "You should get to know him; he''s my puppet. Well, he''s my first cousin, Antonio Abate. . . . And soon you''re going to be his ''brother'' so it''s essential that you two get along," he smiled and then chuckled, "I don''t think it will be a problem with getting along. I can just make you two get along."


    He turned to Antonio Abate and spoke, "Go out and keep a lookout to see if there is someone whoes looking. Inform me if you see someone."


    Antonio mechanically nodded and turned to walk towards the door.


    "Now, where were we," Dolion turned back to Quinn, "it''s time to get you¡ª," his words died in his mouth, the sight in front of him made his heart skip a beat. . . . the chair was empty.


    ''Where. . . . where is he?!''


    "It''s fascinating, you know?"


    Dolion turned hastily towards the voice and saw Quinn with his hands behind his back standing in front of a still Antonio, staring at the man.


    "Antonio Abate, you said was this man''s name?" said Quinn, snapping his fingers in the face of Antonio, "this man has be an automaton. . . . and you say that you did this to this man," he turned to face Dolion, "if I didn''t know a thing or two about you, Dolion, I wouldn''t have believed it. . . . even now, I''m having a little difficulty believing that you are the cause of ''dead'' Antonio''s current status."


    "How?" asked Dolion and slowly walked behind the chair Quinn was previously sitting on.


    "What do you mean. . . . how?"


    "You know what," said Dolion, his hand slowly creeping towards his sides.


    "Magic-dampening potion," said Quinn, who was now waving his hand in front of Antonio, "a terrible, terrible potion. . . . as you stated it cuts or weakens connection to magic," Quinn tilted his neck towards Dolion with a smile, "and as it so happens I have taken magic-dampening potion in the past."


    "Huh. . . . what?"


    Quinn didn''t reply and simply raised his hand towards Dolion, and a bolt of white spell-lightning of fill body-bind zapped towards Dolion, who had been trying to sneak his wand out, had his hand on his wand, so he whipped it out and shed it to swat the spell away and was sessful in doing so. . . . or so he thought; Dolion felt a paralysis crawl through his fingertips, traveled up his arm, and before he knew it, his right upper body waspletely paralyzed.


    Dolion could only watch as another white spell-light zapped his as his wandy in his paralyzed right hand.


    Quinn then manipted Dolion''s body and strapped him to the chair he was previously bound to before releasing him of the temporary paralysis but not before taking Dolion''s wand from him.


    "You fascinate me, Dolion," said Quinn and then paused for a brief moment, wound his arm up and. . . . PAA! . . . he pped Antonio hard on his face, sending ripples through the chubby cheeks before falling down to the ground. . . . knocking him out ¡ª Quinn might have inserted a tiny boost of body magic to his p.


    Quinn stared at Antonio for a bit. Then pulled a chair, dragged it in front of Dolion, and sat down. "So, where were we? Ah yes, I was telling you how fascinating I found you. . . . you see, I have a problem," Quinn licked his lip, "I''m a serial mind reader. . . . I read a lot of people''s minds while talking to them."


    "A lot?" scoffed Dolion, "you read almost everyone''s mind at the first lunch."


    "So, I was right," smiled Quinn, "you''re a Legilimens. I had a hunch from the first time I met you. . . . I had felt a little something, but I had chalked it up to me imagining things. . . . at least for a couple of days."


    "Now, while there were a couple of people in the Abate family who I couldn''t mind-peek with sneaky Soft-Legilimency."


    When a Legilemens tried to break into a mind without the target knowing it was known as a Soft-Legilimency, but when they didn''t care about being known, it was known as Hard-Legilimency, and the final form was disregard all care and go all out, even if it caused severe pain and damage to the target, it was known as Brute-Force-Legilimency.


    "And while my Soft-Legilimency skills weren''t limited to what I was using, I couldn''t go past beyond them." Quinn smiled bitterly, "As I mentioned before, I''m a serial mind reader. . . . and it''s a problem. I tend to feel ufortable when I can''t read the mind of an unknown person. . . . I''m sure you know the feeling."


    Dolion didn''t respond even though he knew precisely what Quinn was talking about. It was amon problem among Legilimens across the globe.


    "To make sure my condition doesn''t worsen, I have self-imposed some rules upon myself to keep myself from slipping."


    "How noble of you," said Dolion sarcastically.


    Quinn ignored the jab and continued, "I would describe my current situation as a state of being ¡ª meaning that I''m not having trouble maintaining proper decorum with others'' minds, it''s under my control and not the other way around ¡ª my mind problem doesn''t hinder my daily life," his eyes shed with a somber glint, "but I don''t want it to turn into a constant state of struggle where I''m having difficulty stopping myself from breaking into people''s mind left and right. . . ." He sighed, "that''s where the rulese in ¡ª don''t use Legilimency on friends and families; if the person isn''t suspicious on the first scan, don''t scan them again; never even think about going above Soft-Legilimency unless there''s a solid reason; and a few others that keep my bad habit in check. . . ."


    Quinn had once thought that he wouldn''t get into this problem like n did, but here he was, but at least he was following a strict regime to help himself and the people around him. And like n, who liked to use his teaching job to keep his cravings in check, Quinn used his daily Hogwarts breakfast Soft-Legilimency sweep as a way as a treat.


    It was important for Quinn to restrain himself because if a day came where he stopped doing so, then that would be the day when Quinn would lose the ability to trust in anyone and, in turn, lose all his important rtionships and the ability to make new ones. . . . n had said so himself when Quinn had written to his teacher and Quinn agreed with the assessment.


    "Coming back to the matter at hand; among the other rules, there''s a rule regarding Soft-Legilimency, which is ¡ª only emotions and surface thoughts. . . no memories. . . . as such, I restrict myself from diving into memories which is why I never viewed any of the Abate family members," then Quinn raised his finger, "but then I found something strange. . . ."


    Dolion was trying to get free, but the bindings were too firm, so he couldn''t do anything but listen, and it wasn''t like he was uninterested.


    ". . . . Aksel Thorn was the problem," said Quinn making Dolion frown,


    "What do you mean?" asked Diloin in confusion. Aksel wasn''t part of the n.


    "I spent some time with Mr. Thorn in Denmark, and even though it was a brief stay, I had gotten a gist of what he was like. . . . so imagine my surprise when the fellow who was a man of few words in his own country where he spoke his mother tongue, was so chipper with various members of the Abate family. . . . In our travel across the country, you and he talked a lot when I was busy, and I know for a fact that he told you about me being skilled at magic; Mr. Thorn even told you about how quick I learned apparition. . . so I off-handedly sneaked some answers out him indirectly through conversations."


    It turned out that the Abate family was a regr client for Abates, which was why Aksel wasfortable with Abates as they were a regr and well-ying client. He wasfortable enough to discuss Quinn''s whereabouts with Brio Abate.


    "But that turned out to be Mr. Thorn justworking with a client, and this wasn''t enough for me to be suspicious that something like this," Quinn pointed between them, "would happen, but the thing that did convince me that there was something wrong was you Dolion, you were the final piece."


    "Me?" asked Dolion. He had been acting perfectly since Quinn''s arrival.


    "Yes, you, Dolion," smiled Quinn. "Even without the Legilimency, I was able to understand the dynamics of the current Abate family. . . . the family is essentially in control of four men ¡ª Brio and his three sons, Cesare, Matteo, and you."


    Brio Abate, while he was the patriarch of the family, the old man had already withdrawn himself from the responsibilities and had passed them onto his sons ¡ª he was only a figurehead, someone maintaining his position as a cholder.


    The first son, Cesare, was a phnderer who cheated on his wife with a new woman every week and had no interest in running the family. All he did was have fun on the money got as his position as the first son, in short, aplete wastrel.


    The second son, Matteo, was serious, by the books man and the direct opposite of his older brother. As he said to Quinn, Matteo''s calling wasn''t magic but running the family, which he did in ce of Cesare ¡ª but it turned out that Matteo wasn''t good at leading or managing. He had been struggling hard just to make sure that the business didn''t lose money, much less thinking about turning out a profit. This didn''t seem to be a problem for the current Abate family with their deep coffers, but it was a severe problem in the long term ¡ª that''s how old money ran out for many multi-generational families.


    "And you, my friend, the third son, are azy person," said Quinn with a shrug to a re forming in his captive''s eyes, "Dolion, you live avish lifestyle, and time-to-time indulge in the same pass time as your eldest brother, but you aren''t attached to someone, so it''s fine, and you are nowhere near Cesare. . . . You also don''t have any interest in running the family, and even though you are in charge of two shops, they are doing just well enough to turn a barely sufficient profit. . . . you''re sloth incarnated."


    Quinn stared at the tied-up Dolion and sighed with a smile, "It''s obvious why you wanted to make me a ''puppet'' as you said it," he pointed at Antonio''s leg, which was the only thing visible from their spot, "if you turned me into a puppet-like Antonio, you would have ess to all the money would ever need."


    "It seems you already know everything," said Dolion with a sigh, "how about we forget about everything that happened here. I''m sure you don''t want strife between our families; it won''t do any good to either side."


    Dolion was thinking. If Quinn removed his bindings, he would have a chance once again, and he could try once more when Quinn was flush with victory and guard down.


    "That is true; I don''t want bad blood between our families," said Quinn, but he Dolion had got one thing wrong, "but I don''t know everything. . . . I still have some questions that I will have you answer."


    "There''s nothing else, Quinn, just let me go, and I promise to forget to never do something like this again," said Dolion, putting on his best smile.


    Quinn stared at Dolion''s futile attempts to get free before shaking his head. "Just answer me a question, Dolion. . . . how did you protect Nereo Polo''s brain?"


    ". . . . What do you mean? I don''t understand."


    "You asked me how I was alright now even after drinking the magic-dampening potion. The answer is quite simple. . . . the dose wasn''t strong enough," Quinn saw a look of unconvinced on Dolion''s face, "I''m assuming that you made Nereo brew the potion, and he did a great job making the potion for someone my age, but you see, I''m not your average sixteen year old," his eyes shed purple for a split second, "a regr dose of magic-dampening potion which wouldpletely cut the connection with magic couldn''t do anything much to me. . . . I have too much magic inside me, and as absurd may it sound, it would take a concentrated dosage for it to work on me. . . . though I had to say, I didn''t see the modified potioning, and I was lucky that all it did was make me dizzy for a bit and nothing else."


    Before Dolion could rebuke, Quinn continued, "At Rigenerare, I tried to read Nereo Polo''s memories because I thought he was embezzling money and was the reason he hadn''t sent us any records, but to my surprise, Mr. Polo''s mind was an iron fortress, I couldn''t even sense his emotions," Quinn''s eyes shed with cold curiosity, "Dolion I know you did something. It isn''t possible for a second person to protect another''s mind. . . . but you somehow did it. . . . tell me how you did it."


    Dolion''s jaw set in ce as he stared at Quinn with an expressionless nk face, "I have no idea what you''re talking about."


    Quinn stared at Dolion''s face, which showed clear signs of lumency, and sighed. Quinn stood up from his spot and moved closer to Dolion. Under Dolion''s solid gaze, Quinn took out a small vial.


    "What''s that?" asked Dolion inly.


    "This is. . . .Veritaserum, Dolion," said Quinn, and if Dolion wasn''t using lumency, his eyes would''ve popped out, "I''m going to have to use this to loosen your tongue a little bit."


    Quinn wanted to know how Dolion did it, and he was going to get his answers.


    "You are going to tell me how you protected Nereo''s mind and how you turned Antonio into what he is because that''s not Imperious," he grabbed Dolion by the hair and the man suddenly felt a force opening his mouth.


    He could only struggle in vain as drop after drop of Veritaserum hit his tongue.


    "Let''s get started," said Quinn with a cold smile.


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    Quinn West - MC - Of course, I knew.


    Dolion Abate - Mastermind - Struck with Uno-Reverse.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - It turns out the next chapter is going to be thest of this arc.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 199 - The Italian Climax

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Veritaserum. . . . a potent truth serum so powerful that just mere three drops would have a person spill their innermost secrets for everyone to hear. The potion effectively forced the drinker to answer any questions put to them truthfully. . . .


    "Though there are methods of resistance," said Quinn as he saw Dolion, who had his eyes squeezed shut and looked like he was going through a massive struggle, "one can either take an antidote to the potion ¡ª but it isn''t a vine, and thus one will require to take it in a general vicinity of ingestion of Veritaserum. . . . and from the looks of it, you weren''t aware that you''ll be taking Veritaserum today."


    "No ¡ª Yes! I took an antidote," said Dolion through gritted teeth ¡ª he was trying to resist the Veritaserum.


    "The second method to resist Veritaserum is through lumency," said Quinn with a beaming smile, "which you''re doing now and from the looks of it, you''re having fun. . . . I want to give you more, but unfortunately, I do care about your mental health and don''t want to overload your brain with Veritaserum.


    "But, I can''t have you resist the Veritaserum," said Quinn sitting back down on his chair, "I have to say, Dolion, I''m pleased with how the events folded ¡ª I had this vial of Veritaserum for a very long time with no meaningful way to use it inside Hogwarts. . . . to be able to finally use it is as exciting as it gets for me. . . . And now with your resistance, I''m going to get a chance to use Hard-Legilimency to loosen you up which I rarely get to use."


    Dolion felt his eyelids being pulled to stay open and felt eyeballs jam up to look at the front, where stone-grey eyes were waiting for him. And then he clearly felt a mind probe m against his shields.


    ''Heavy!'' thought Dolion, experiencing the force of Quinn''s Legilimency.


    "It always feels pretty good to use Hard-Legilimency. . . . without hiding, with so little restriction and sneaking around," said Quinn, his eyes locked with Dolion and magic flowing.


    "Oh, an all-diamond cover," said Quinn looking at Dolion''s lumency shields ¡ª in front of him was a spread of sparkling polished diamond.


    In his time as Legilimens, Quinn had seen many lumency shields, and he hade to see a pattern ¡ª a heavy majority of people had their lumency shields in the form of brick walls or steel structures. And while the imaging of the shieldyer didn''t matter much as the actual strength came from a person''s confidence in their shields and hard work, but when people saw bricks being broken or steel being bent with magic, subconsciously, people''s faith in their shields would fail. Quinn''s hexagonal graphene-based shields weren''t actually seen in the natural world, which ensured that his confidence wouldn''t fall from seeing his shield material in the real world.


    "Diamond is a strong material, a good choice to choose it as a shielding material," said Quinn smiling, which didn''t give Dolion anyfort, "your shield is an arrangement of carbon, and mine is an arrangement of carbon. . . . of course, mine is stronger."


    Dolion then felt like a hammer had been unleashed on his diamond shield. He could imagine his shields thrumming as the force traveled everywhere.


    "This is so much more fun than sneaking around,"ughed Quinn. "Tell me, Dolion, how did you protect Nereo''s mind!"


    Bang! Bang! Bang! . . . continuous blows of Legilimency were making it challenging for Dolion to keep a hold on his tongue.


    "I ¡ª am ¡ª a ¡ª nat ¡ª NO!" Dolion took control just in time and defied the Veritaserum running through his body.


    Quinn sighed in disappointment, "It seems ytime is over. . . . I''m going to shatter your shield in one swoop. . . . don''t say I didn''t warn you."


    He charged up his Legilimency and speared into the diamond. Immediately, cracks appeared on the sparkling surfaces, spreading quickly as Quinn drilled down deeper.


    "Alright, just one more second," said Quinn as he could feel the ending soon.


    Shatter!. . . . the diamondyer broke down into million little pieces making Quinn smile, but then his eye narrowed as he felt a sharp mental attack appear out of nowhere.


    lumency and Legilimency were two sides of the same coin. And just so it happened, when a Legilimens tried to break into a mind, they extended their mind, leaving it open, leaving it vulnerable to the target. . . . and if that target so happened to be a Legilimens, they had a chance to retaliate.


    Dolion Abate was a Legilimens, and if he was going to be attacked, he wasn''t going down without a fight. He sent out a sharp mental attack, aiming to cause Quinn a lot of pain.


    Dolion saw Quinn close his eyes, then a frown appeared between his brows, and finally heard a groan escape his throat. He also felt Quinn''s Legilimency attack retreat, making him release a sigh of relief.


    "Ha, take tha¡ª"


    "That almost hurt!"


    Dolion''s word died in his throat as he saw Quinn open his eyes with a sigh.


    "That''s why it is such a pain breaking into Legilimens'' mind," said Quinn cracking his neck, "they always, without fail, try to retaliate," then he grinned, "and in doing so, leave their mind open."


    Dolion''s eyes widened when he realized what he had done. By attacking, he had extended his mind and allowed Quinn to exploit that opening.


    "You''re a decent Legilimens, Dolion," said Quinn, the corner of his lip raising up, "but ¡ª I ¡ª am ¡ª better. . . . much, much better."


    Dolion''s world went white as Quinn bombarded his entire mindscape with a mind-numbing detonation of Legilimency probe.


    "Now, let''s get started. . . . tell me your name."


    "Dolion Abate."


    "What''s your underwear color?"


    "White."


    "Tighty whities. . . . well, how were you able to protect Nereo''s mind from me?"


    "Through Legilimency."


    "Please borate."


    "I''m a natural Legilimens. . . ."


    Quinn paused for a bit. This was important information; a natural talent was a humongous gift. Dolion being a natural Legilimens, exined how he was able to fool Quinn. To a natural, their magical talent was the same as breathing.


    For example, a Metamorphmdagus was a natural talent in transfiguration, making Nymphadora Tonks a natural. Quinn personally knew another natural ¡ª he knew a person with two natural talents; an absolute monster of mind magic, his teacher, n D. Baddeley, the man with natural talent in Legilimency and lumency.


    Dolion continued, ". . . . I have developed the ability to intercept and block Legilimency probes. I stopped your soft-probe from reaching Nereo, and that''s why you didn''t feel a thing. . . . if you go back now, you will be able to read him."


    "Why did Nereo help you with the potion?"


    "He had been using Rigenerare''s money to support his gambling habit and was falsifying the records. I caught him and ckmailed him into owing me."


    "What about Antonio? Why is he acting like that?"


    "I re-wrote his mind to follow my everymand. It''s like hypnotism, but unlike hypnotism, he would do things that even if they go against his moral code. It grants meplete control like an Imperius curse does, but Antonio can''t escape my control with a strong will. . . . his will doesn''t evene into y. . . he''spletely subservient."


    This was the power of a natural. . . . they could do things that others would take years upon years of hard work to replicate. Quinn could imagine achieving blocking a Legilimency probe for a third after a couple of years of research and experimentation, but he couldn''t even believe how he could even get started on turning another person into a puppet without any chance to escape, changing them from the very inside.


    "Do you have any other puppets?" asked Quinn; he wasn''t going to ask if Dolion''s next target was him ¡ª that was obvious.


    "There are many. . . . but Antonio is my best."


    Quinn stared at Dolion and asked after a pause, "What do you mean by best?"


    "It took some time and trial and error to improve my puppeteer ability. There were many before Antonio, but they didn''te out of the procedure whole. . . . many lost their minds and became empty vessels. . . vegetables."


    Quinn bowed his head down. It wasn''t surprising to hear that, but that didn''t make it any less horrifying. "How many?" he asked.


    When no answer came, Quinn looked up and saw Dolion staring at him. The Veritaserum had run its course, and Dolion wasn''t going to answer any more questions.


    "That is myst question," said Quinn, "you can answer it, or I scrape it off your mind."


    Dolion just red. All his secrets had been exposed; he wasn''t going to answer anymore.


    "Your choice," spoke Quinn and then dove in deep, Dolion''s eye reddened, and a scream would''ve escaped him if he hadn''t been silenced by Quinn.


    The answer that Quinn found was as horrifying as he had thought. Dolion had left six people in vegetative states, seven with paralysis and permanent memory loss, and nine were just a tad bit inferior to Antonio, with the Antonio being the best.


    "So much talent, yet you waste it, you''rezy, Dolion." said Quinn, finally giving Dolion some breathing room, "You have such a tremendous talent, and all you created out of it was puppeteering magic; because you wanted some ves." Dolion''s abilities were impressive, but his basic Legilimency skills were sub-par for a natural; Quinn, who was less than half of Dolion''s age, was better, a travesty for someone with a natural talent.


    "I will kill you," said Dolion, a card snarl in his voice, "I will cripple your mind and turn into an empty vessel. . . . you are nothing in front of me. I can break you down to mere trash!"


    Dolion watched to expect a look of anger or fear on Quinn''s face, but all he got was a look of pity. "What!" he yelled. "Why are you looking at me like that?!"


    "I don''t expect every magical to excel magic or even pursue it as a career. People have their own interests, and they shouldn''t be tied down with something they had by birth," the look of pity on Quinn''s face deepened, "even you, Dolionm, if you didn''t explore your talent, I wouldn''t have judged you. . . . but you have nothing to rece it. . . . nothing at all, you are a waste of life."


    "Fuck you!" he cursed in his mother tongue.


    Quinn stood up without replying and walked closer to Dolion. He ced both his hands on Dolion''s temples and stared into his eyes.


    "What are you doing?!" yelled Dolion in Italian.


    "I have been practicing fabricating memories for a while now," stated Quinn, "mostly on myself, and I have progressed to the point that I have been able to fool myself with my own fake memories. . . . I''m going to erase your memories, then nt fake ones deep into your conscious. If I can fool myself, then I will definitely be able someone inferior to me," Dolion growled, "even if you ever start developing your skills, by the time you catch up to the current me, your brain would''ve assimted these false memories, ssifying them as organically real. . . . You''ll never get back what I erase."


    Quinn smiled and spoke a final word, "I will miss our little cat-and-mouse chase, Dolion, and some weird way, I will miss you; because the ''you'' that wille out of this will be a whole lot different."


    Magic flowed, and Quinn connected with Dolion''s mind and started to look for every memory rting to puppeteering magic, his victims, his ns to make Quinn into his puppet, and every other memory connected to his evil deeds. It took every bit of Quinn''s lumency to power his brain for processing the memory and his Legilimency to iste them, but he was able to reach every corner of Dolion''s memories, and in his grasp was every memory he was going to erase and rece.


    The fantastic thing about the human brain was that when it lost memories, it would actively rece them on its own to fill in the gaps. All Quinn had to do was let the brain do its work and simply use its powers as a guide to influence the brain so that when the memories formed, they would be to his liking.


    "Let''s change you from a puppet-creating maniac to a person who will be absolutely hated in Italy." Quinn went on to nt memories in which Dolion disliked pasta, meat, parmesan, garlic, cheek kisses, coffee ¡ªthought America was better than Italy ¡ª kept to himself ¡ª drank cappino after breakfast. . . . and threw in always wanted to partake in gardening to keep the new Dolion mellow.


    Of course, Quinn knew that these memories had the same chances of changing Dolion''s real taste as Quinn leaving magic. Legilimency would have been ssified as dark magic a long time ago if it was that easy. But he could do was give Dolion amnesia and make him lose his memories, so when the Abates invite a mind-healer to help Dolion, the memories which would surface will sh with his instinctual tastes and cause chaos on the person known as Dolion. He would start doubting the him before memory loss and reassess his life and hopefully take a new turn.


    "If I didn''t invite the threat of getting myself identified as my alter ego, I would have taken your hands from you and with it most of your magic," muttered Quinn as he stared at the unconscious Dolion ¡ª Tetani Nervum couldn''t be connected back to him.


    After giving Dolion amnesia by sealing away his memories (obliviation butparatively easier to reverse) and cing natural-looking memory blocks throughout his mindscape to hinder recovery and make the mind-healer''s work more difficult, Quinn dragged Dolion to a window, set him over the ledge before pushing him off.


    Dolion''s unconscious body fell from the middle floor of Pzzo Abate andnded on his legs, shattering them into pieces on impact.


    "Feel lucky that I don''t want a war between Abates and Wests because if not, I would''ve done much, much worse."


    "Alright, my work is done here," said Quinn, but then saw Antonio''s unconscious body, "ah, I need to dispose of this as well." Quinn simply obliviated Antonio off the n to turn Quinn into a puppet and dumped him in another room so that Antonio wouldn''t point fingers.


    . . .


    That night, Dolion was found, and he was immediately taken to hospital. The Abates found that Dolion had lost his memory, and the retrievable would be a sure but long process ¡ª the mind of a natural Legilimens wasn''t something a mind-healer could cruise through; it would require a degree of carefulness to not fear instinctual retaliation.


    The following day, Antonio Abate reported his Abate gateway key missing; upon the report, the key was immediately de-activated from the source to avoid exploitation.


    Around the same time, Quinn was given the news that Nereo Polo, the manager of Rigenerare on Pisand Row, was brutally maimedst night by an unknown assant and had turned in his resignation first thing in the morning after he gained consciousness ¡ª he had decided that life was too short and was going to spend time with his family.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After a day of break from sightseeing, Quinn and Aksel were again traveling and had started their day early with breakfast in a cafe in Venice.


    Aksel walked back to their table with their orders to see that Quinn was at another table, chatting it up andughing with a middle-ageddy. . . . in fluent Italian.


    "Sorry to keep you waiting," said Quinn, sitting down across Aksel, "I was just asking that sweet woman about restaurant rmendations in the area."


    "You speak Italian," stated Aksel and asked a question.


    "Of course, I do. . . it''s my mother''s mother tongue. What kind of son would I be if I didn''t Italian? And I''m half-Italian; I need to honor my blood someway."


    "You haven''t spoken a word of Italian the entire time we have been in the country. You spoke in English; you made Dolion trante every conversation you had."


    "Yes, that''s right," smiled Quinn, eating his food.


    "Why?"


    "No specific reason; it was a whim," replied Quinn. He couldn''t say that he was simply following the saying, ''keep friends close, enemies closer'' to make sure that Dolion stayed with them and gotfortable with his role as the guide/trantor, hoping that he would let something slip in Italian.


    "A whim?"


    Quinn winked before biting into his sandwich, "This is great stuff!"


    He looked at the beautiful city, clear skies, sparkling waters which reflected the sky, the ripples formed by gonds that rowed passed and smiled,


    "Mamma Mia!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Mamma Mia!"


    Dolion Abate - Adjusted - In the future was sent away to America after he changed so much.


    Antonio Abate - The best puppet - Continuous his life without change.


    Nereo Polo - Ex-manager - Beaten to a pulp.


    Aksel Thorn - Bodyguard - In the initial drafts, he had assassinated Quinn''s parents on a hit paid by Brio Abate.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 200 - July 31, 1995: Rules Of The Party

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The walls in the West manor were covered with patterned wallpapers, but Quinn''s room''s walls were painted in a two-toned color scheme with the ceiling and crown moldings painted in white while the walls were cobalt blue. The dark walnut floor hadn''t changed, which tied together all the wooden furniture like Quinn''s study table, bed, and the small round table and two chairs set that sat beside the room''s window, which was right above the room''s firece. The room''s right wall held a white two-panel door that opened into the walk-in closet; the door was surrounded by a top-to-bottom array of half-filled bookshelves from all three sides. The bed was opposite the room''s entrance and on the wall above the headboard was a wall painting made with hexagonal rings and solids of white and sparse golden-yellow contrasting well with the blue background. Finally, the room was equipped with MLEs which Quinn had embedded/fused right into the walls for lighting and in themps sitting on the bedside dressers and study table, which had reced the candle chandelier andmps which previously hung from the ceiling.


    Sitting on one of the chairs by the window, Quinn stared at the envelope in his hand. He had just returned from Italy yesterday, and today, his grandfather had handed him the letters which arrived in his absence.


    Quinn opened the envelope and read the calligraphy on the letter card inside, "You''re cordially invited to celebrate the Birthday Anniversary of Harry and Ivy Potter on July 30, 1995, at [. . .] as the guest of Harry Potter [. . .] Best Regards, James and Lily Potter."


    Quinn sighed, "Yeah, this almost slipped my mind. Damn, this is tomorrow, huh. I haven''t prepared any gifts for them," he looked around to see if something would do for a gift, and his eye fell upon the miniature Leaning Tower of Pisa sitting on the round table in front of him.


    "No, I''m not giving you away," he scoffed. The miniature was made from marble that Quinn had skimmed off the original Leaning Tower of Pisa using transmutation. It was too unique for him to give it away as a gift.


    As a side note, Quinn had miniatures of the Colosseum, the Duomo di Mno, Giotto''s Bell Tower, Duomo di Siena, Doge''s Pce, Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Pantheon, and many other buildings across Italy made from the materials stolen from very important ces inside the original buildings.


    Quinn stood up and entered the walk-in closet, which was essentially a mid-size room. Then he waved his hand for his suitcase toe out from a corner. The locks snapped open, and the suitcase opened, expanded to quadruple its size, and instead of standard insides, there was adder going down leading into the expanded space contained inside the suitcase.


    He climbed down and passed through a couple of corridors to push grand red-oak doors that opened up to Quinn''s ever-growing library. The same library which held all of the books that Quinn had obtained during the world tour, their trantions, the books which Quinn had personally brought since then, the books Lia had brought him as souvenirs, all of his notes and research that he had ever penned, and finally, it held the entire Room Of Requirements library copied as part of Project: Babel.


    "Now, what should I give Ivy?" he muttered to himself. He had a lot to choose from; Quinn was sure he could find something.


    Five hourster, Quinn was hunched over a table, holding his head between his arms. He had spent the first ten minutes looking for a gift for Ivy, but then he found an intriguing book (for himself), got distracted. . . . and recovered out of his booka five hourster with an empty fountain pen and twenty-odd pages of double-sided notes.


    He groaned loudly as the books flew back into their ces and pages filled themselves into appropriate files.


    "Screw it," he spat and made his way to a specific section of the library and took out a book. "This one will do," he said, staring at the book in hand.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The Potter family preferred living in their homely home, more thanfortable enough for the four family members, but their social circle was bigger than their home could support. As such, they had booked a great campground inside a forest with a stream nearby. Proper arrangements were made to amodate all their guests and have a great outdoor party.


    At the campground entrance, Harry and Ivy stood to greet the arriving guests while their parents took the shift inside.


    "I''m going to win this year," said Ivy after receiving birthday wishes from yet another guest, "like I didst year and the year before that ¡ª a champion''s three-peat."


    Harry scoffed, "Not a chance. I''m going to destroy you and your stupid friends this year."


    ". . . . A lot of them are your friends too."


    "Not today; they are not."


    "Whatever, Hermione and I are going to win to get our three-peat. You should work harder, you know; it''s only time that this starts gets boring," said Ivy with a smug smirk on her face.


    Harry stared at his sister with a look of disgust, "I''m going to have a lot of fun wiping that smug smirk off your face."


    "Dream on, four eyes."


    Harry briefly nced behind Ivy, whose back was turned towards the entrance, and caught a nce of a certain someone. He held back a smile that, if not, would have split his face.


    "Twins." ¡ª Ivy heard the voice, and thinking it was another guest, she turned to greet them with a smile, but the second sheid her eyes on the ''guest.''


    "Q-Quinn," she said in astonishment, "what are you doing here?"


    In front of her, dressed in a sea-green full t-shirt and white pants over tan boots. One could say that Quinn looked effortlessly good, and Ivy was one of them.


    Quinn didn''t immediately answer. Instead, he leaned forward and softly grazed his lips against Ivy''s cheeks, rendering the girl into stone. Quinn didn''t seem to notice the change in Ivy and moved towards Harry and repeated the same with him.


    "What?" uttered Harry, staring at Quinn in shock.


    "Hmm?" Quinn felt confused for a second, but then he too froze, realizing what he had just done. "A-Ah, sorry about that. . . . I-I just returned from Italy, and I guess I did that on auto-pilot. . . . again, my sincere apologies for making you two ufortable." Inside, he was smacking himself for making things awkward.


    Harry nodded, but Ivy was still quite flustered; she could feel her cheeks searing and felt like her entire face was on fire. Everything had happened so fast and so suddenly that her brain hadn''t had the time to catch up with the events. And it didn''t help when Quinn stepped closer to her, onsetting another bout of heartbeat elevation.


    "I was invited, of course," said Quinn answering Ivy''s question. He took out the invitation card and handed it to her.


    Ivy creakily received the letter and hadn''t been paying attention to Quinn''s words, so when she looked at the square letter in her hand, she froze. She could clearly see the invitation to the party, but what caught her attention was the ". . . as the guest of Harry Potter."


    All her previous embarrassment evaporated, and she all but snapped her head towards Harry to see her twin brother with a smugger smirk on his face. When Harry saw Ivy looking at him, he mouthed out the words, "I ¡ªam ¡ª going ¡ª to ¡ª win."


    "I take my arrival was kept a secret from you," said Quinn with a smile, facing both twins, who both nodded but with entirely opposite energies. "Well, I don''t know what thispetition would be like, but I''m looking forward to it."


    "Ah, and before I forget," continued Quinn, putting his hands behind his back, and when he brought them back to the front, he had two packages wrapped in a solid golden-tan gift wrap and tied up with a pistachio-green colored satin ribbon.


    "Those are your birthday presents," said Quinn, handing the twins their respective gifts, "I hope you will like them. You can open them now if you so desire."


    And desire they did. The twins undid the wrapping in their own ways and uncovered the gifts inside.


    First was Harry, who found himself a pair of sses inside; they were identical to what he wore. He looked up at Quinn in confusion, who smiled, "Give me your sses and the one I gifted you," he took Harry''s round sses, detached the eyesses making Harry squirm a little before attaching them to his gift.


    "I didn''t know your prescription, but fortunately for me, you wear like huge sses. . . . now they were perfect," said Quinn handing them to Harry, who confusedly put them on."Touched the thin button on the leg of the frame and look at yourself in this," he said, giving Harry a conjured mirror which he had pretended to take out from his pocket.


    Harry stared at his reflection and grasped around for the button to feel a slight bump. When he pressed the button, Harry saw his sses change from round to wayfare shape; he pressed it again, and the frame shifted to a square shape.


    "On the other side, you''ll find another button to change the thickness of the frame, and if you remove your sses, you''ll find two more buttons for lens and frame color. There''s a manual inside the box that you can refer to for different functionality, you know to experiment and find the perfect fit for yourself. . . . there''s even the option where they turn to quidditch goggles, so have fun and happy birthday, Harry."


    "Thank you, mate, this is great," said Harry, still looking at himself in the mirror.


    Quinn turned towards Ivy and saw her staring at a book in hand. As Harry had suggested when he had invited Quinn, Ivy would like a book, so he decided to give her a book that he thought was top-grade reading material.


    "That''s an original Quinn in your hand right there," he said, gaining Ivy''s attention.


    "You wrote this?" she asked.


    "Uh-huh, that''s the seventh edition Compendium of Charms written your truly and contains the most practical and useful that I havee across and provides practical insight to every mentioned spell." Quinn didn''t use a wand; as such, he couldn''t use the convenient wand movement, and it was a personal choice to not use vocal chants, so Quinn had to truly understand every spell to perform it to the best of his ability.


    "If you read that and actually implement the insights mentioned inside, you''ll be able to pass to pass OWLs and NEWTs without breaking a sweat," smiled Quinn and pointed at himself, "the proof is right in front of you ¡ª I crushed the OWLs. . . . also, there are some pretty cool spells inside, so you won''t be getting bored of this one in a very long time."


    Quinn had thought about simply gifting Ivy a rare book from Room of Requirement but decided that one from him would be better. This way, she would actually be able to apply every word inside in the short and long term. Of course, it went without saying that the version in Ivy''s hand was heavily curated.


    Inside, Ivy wasparing her''s and Harry''s gifts, and while her twin''s gift was clearly custom-made for him, her book, as Quinn has said, was a seventh edition, which meant that Quinn had handed her the result of at least a couple of years of his hard work. . . . and that touched her heart.


    "Thank you, Quinn. I''ll talk to you about this when I read the book," she said and was looking forward to the day Quinn and her could talk, talk and talk.


    "Sure, it would be my pleasure," nodded Quinn.


    . . .


    Quinn left the twins to their duties and headed inside to enjoy the party. The campground was set up pretty nicely, with plenty of tables for people to sit around and talk. There were food and drinks at every corner with the hired help refilling to keep the party going. The Potters had set up tents in case there was a need for privacy or someone wanted shelter from the sun. Not only that, Quinn could even make out a few game activities going on for younger children in the Potter family social circle.


    All in all, it seemed a pretty fun party. Quinn picked up some refreshments and decided to find some familiar faces, and found his favorite pair of sisters by the cotton candy booth.


    "It''s not nice to patronize with the enemy, Astoria," he said.


    The ck-haired Greengrass turned with a smile; she had already recognized the voice. "You''re finally here. I thought you wouldn''t being!"


    "I was a bit busy with somest-minute shopping," meaning that he had to do a rush job making Harry''s gift.


    The blonde older sister, too, turned and raised both her hands with fluffy pink clouds, "It looks like you got your eye back."


    "Yes, it is. It''s as good as new. Though I do miss the eyepatch look; it was the only good thing about that time."


    "You looked like a happy pirate," said Astoria.


    "Isn''t that the best kind?" smiled Quinn.


    "I thought he bore a resemnce to Odin," said Daphne.


    "I like that; Odin is much better," said Quinn; plus, he had the Raven connection going for him.


    "I bought the sausage rolls ¡ª oh, Quinn, you''re here!"


    Quinn turned to see Tracey with a tter of sausage rolls in hand. "Hey, Tracey. Which team are you on?"


    ". . . . You start with that?" said Tracey as Astoria took a couple rolls from the tter, "I''m on Ivy''s team, of course."


    "So, who else is on Harry''s team?" he asked.


    And soon, he got the answer.


    . . .


    "So, this is our team," said Quinn, looking at Team Harry members gathered around with Astoria by his side, looking at Harry and Ron, along with other Gryffindor boys, as in Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Lee Jordan, along with Katie Bell, and Terry Boot.


    He turned to hispetition and saw Team Ivy ¡ª Ivy, Hermione, Daphne, Tracey, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Ginny Weasley, George and Fred Weasley, and Sue Li.


    "Why in the world are the Weasley twins on Ivy''s side?" asked Quinn, "weren''t you guys supposed to be prankster buddies or something?"


    Harry turned his face away from Quinn''s gaze, "It was two years ago when I was sort of upset at them for a prank, and we had temporary falling down. . . . Ivy swept in and invited them as her guests ¡ª she hasn''t let go ever since then."


    "No wonder you lost two times in a row," said Quinn, "no offense to you guys, but Ivy''s been stacking her team with talent ¡ª look at them, Ivy, Hermione, and Daphne are top of the grade; Tracey might seem she''s all bubbly, but that girl is really clever and street smart. I have worked with Susan and Hannah; they are good at what they do. I don''t know much about Ginny, but Sue is intelligent and really athletic and freaky fast."


    "But worry no more, for I''m here," smiled Quinn as he raised his fake wand, "we will conquer this year and show who the real bosses are."


    "Uhm," Neville raised a hand and spoke hesitantly, "we are outside Hogwarts. . . . so no magic."


    Quinn paused for a moment before putting his fake wand back in, "Okay, we are screwed. Those fellows are winning."


    "Eh, why?" asked Astoria.


    "If you guys haven''t noticed, my ''thing'' is magic. If you took that away, all I got going for me is smart, handsome, great style, funny, fit, good at fighting, sick with a violin and piano, public speaking, selling stuff, and magic tricks. . . . I feel really restricted, you know."


    The nine people stared at Quinn, not knowing how to reply to that.


    "Alright, all you guys gather around." Both teams turned to see prank master general Sirius ck standing in full ck with two top buttons unbuttoned. When they gathered around, he spoke with a grin, "First of all, I wee the new ones to the Potter battles; it will be a fun thing, just ask the ones who have been here before."


    "Okay, move on," interrupted Ivy, "tell us what are we going to do today?"


    Quinn looked around and saw that none of his team or others showed any negative reaction to abrupt cut-off, so he shrugged and nodded in agreement. ''When in Rome, do as the Romans do,'' he thought while silently chuckling to himself.


    "Tch, tch, tch, so impatient,"ughed Sirius, taking Ivy''s word as enthusiasm. "If you do want to know, then we are going to y dodgeball today. . . ."


    The Wesley twins high-fived loudly.


    ". . . . with water balloons," continued Sirius, catching everyone''s attention. "Of course, seeing that this year I volunteered toe up with thepetition activity, you know that there is a twist." He took out a red water balloon, "the twist is in the balloon."


    "What do you mean?" asked Ron.


    Sirius smiled and turned towards Lily, who was watching with a smile. But then she saw Sirius raising his hand holding the water balloon, and her smile vanished. "Sirius, no!" was she could say before the Auror threw the water balloon in her direction.


    But contrary to her exception, the water balloon curved in the air at wild angles and hit not her but her husband right in the back of his head while he was talking to a guest. James Potter, soaking in dark red liquid, slowly turned towards Sirius with a stunned expression.


    "As you can see, the balloons will follow an irregr path," said Sirius, ignoring his best friend, "so you might be really close to your target, about to hit them just for the balloon to miss them."


    "Is there a pattern to how they balloon curves?" asked Hermione.


    "There is ¡ª but you will have to figure that out on your own, or believe in your luck and throw with faith that it will hit." Sirius then raised both of his hands in different directions, and there sat five buckets. "Red balloons are for Team Ivy and green for Team Harry." He then threw ten red and green tags each on the ground. "Stick them on your clothes, and if a balloon hits you anywhere, I will know. . . . each member gets three hits after that you''re out. . . . the team with thest person standing wins. Finally, every time a person gets hits, theye back here and stay for half a minute before rejoining the game."


    Sirius pped once and grinned, "Now, let''s get started and have a day of fun¡ª" He had justpleted his sentence when a massive ssh of ice-cold water hit him from behind.


    Everyone, including a shivering Sirius, turned to see James Potter, pointed at Sirius with his wand brandished in Sirius'' direction.


    "Have fun, kids," said James with a satisfied smile.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I am truly nothing without magic.


    Ivy Potter - Birthday Girl - She has been gathering talent for domination.


    Harry Potter - Birthday Boy - Recruited a Behemoth in hopes of victory.


    Sirius ck - Game Master - Worked on the game during work hours.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 201 - July 31, 1995: War & Love

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Okay, gather around everyone," said Ivy, calling for a huddle ¡ª Sirius had given them some time to n and discuss before the game officially started.


    Team Ivy, dressed in white jumpsuits with red stripes on their chest and upper arms for ease of identification, gathered around before Ivy stepped back and Hermione took the lead. It had been so ever since Hermione first attended Potter''s birthday after Ivy and Hermione had be friends, and Ivy had invited Hermione after their first year.


    It was necessary because before Hermione and Ivy had be friends, Team Ivy had always been a group filled with internal conflict, with Daphne and Ivy quarreling with each other and making teamwork difficult which was why before Hermione, Team Ivy had a losing record against Team Harry. Hermione had forcibly taken the reigns after getting frustrated by the two girls'' nonsensical quarreling and, in her first year, came close to winning, just losing by a hair, but the next two years, she had led Team Ivy to victory.


    "Okay, let''s go over the rules once, so everyone is clear about them," started Hermione, "As you can see, we are wearing white, and so is the other team, and as Sirius said, the balloons are filled with colored liquid, which would stain our clothes. So make sure to only those with green stripes."


    "Next, everyone gets three hits before they are out of the game. And every time someone gets hit, they are temporarily out of the game ¡ª this not only wastes a lot of time and puts the entire team at a disadvantage because our strength decreases by one for a couple of minutes that it takes to go back to the start point and wait out for half a minute. As such, please make sure to secure your safety before going in for a risky attack."


    Everyone nodded.


    "To ensure some additional safety, we will be moving in groups of two. Cover each others'' backs, and if your partner gets hit, try to take out the one who attacked them because that will take them out so they won''t be able to attack you. . . as I said before, it takes three hits to kick them out of the game, so it will take some time to get in thirty hits."


    Hermione exhaled a bit and thought about what to cover next. "Alright, next is one of the most important things," she stepped back a couple steps, turned to see the buckets filled with the water balloons near her feet, and picked one, "these balloons will be the deciding factor to who wins. As Sirius said, these balloons have a pattern to their erratic path change ¡ª the team that figures them out first will be the one to win."


    A balloon each was passed on to every member to see if they could see something. "Magic isn''t allowed; that means there must be a way to figure the pattern out without it," she said.


    "Can we take Sirius'' words for it?" voiced Ivy. "He might be ''pranking'' us, and there''s no pattern making it purely luck-based."


    "I wouldn''t be so quick to discredit your bother''s godfather there, Potter," everyone turned to see Daphne holding the balloon up in her palm, "there''s a square mark on my balloon; see if there''s one on yours."


    "Found one." "I got one too." said the Weasley twins. "Mine''s a triangle." "A circle for me."


    "I have a star on mine," notified Tracey.


    Everyone checked their balloons and found that there were only four markings (square, star, circle, and triangle.)


    "I''m guessing that the four markings decide how the balloons quirk while thrown," said Sue Li, the sole Ravenw in the group, "if we can figure out how these patterns co-rte with how the respective balloons move, then we can exponentially increase our chances to hit our targets."


    Sue raised her to throw the water balloon but was stopped by Ginny.


    "Don''t," said Ginny and pointed in the direction she was looking.


    Everyone followed their gaze and saw Quinn tossing and catching a balloon as he watched them with a smile on his face.


    "He''s tossing the balloon," said Hannah, "he''s tossing the balloon, and it''s not doing anything weird ¡ª did he figure out how the balloons work."


    "We can''t be sure," said Tracey, "he''s not throwing it high enough for us to be sure."


    "He probably wants us to think that he knows how the balloons work," said Ivy.


    Team Ivy saw Quinn stop tossing the ball and then squeeze it tight enough to burst it and taint his hand with green liquid. Then as if appearing out of nowhere, Astoria stepped out from behind Quinn and dragged her thumb across her neck.


    "What the hell," uttered Susan.


    "He''s ying mind games with us¡ª" "¡ªtrying to get into our heads before the games start¡ª" "¡ªso devious, so shrewd¡ª" "¡ªwe absolutely love it!"


    "I have a feeling that it''s not going to be so easy to win this, is it?"mented Hermione.


    "That''s why Harry invited him and kept it a secret from me," said Ivy, "and looks like he''s already doing it," she turned to her team, "let''s ignore him and don''t give him the satisfaction of thinking that he''s seeding."


    Daphne nodded in rare agreement, "Yes, we should try to figure out the balloons before the time ends¡ª"


    A sharp whistle pitch sounded out. Both teams turned to see Sirius with hand in hand.


    "It''s time, children; preparation time is over," said Sirius. "It''s time to start the fun and see you all getting pelted with balloons."


    Team Ivy turned towards Quinn and saw him grinning. He had sessfully wasted their time.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ginny Weasley and Sue Li walked in the small area specified by Sirius as legitimatepetition grounds. Everyone, including Ginny and Sue, had gone in different directions towards the areas popted with trees. Team had Ivy decide to test the balloons andmunicate the findings when they came across others or met each other in the waiting zone after being hit.


    "Let''s find a good spot and test out the balloons with us," the pockets in the jumpsuits were expanded enough to hold an adequate amount of balloons to allow them to stay for a while without needing to refill at the party area.


    "Yes, I have thought of a way we could figure out the balloons fastest," said Sue in reply.


    But then they heard a rustle of leaves and came out in the view were Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Lee Jordan from another direction, making both parties freeze when they saw each other. Almost immediately, both parties took out balloons and exchanged a round of fire on instinct before Team Harry took cover.


    "We should keep attacking them," said Ginny.


    "I couldn''t agree more," nodded Sue.


    Both girls took some cover of their own and started to throw balloons at each other whenever they got a chance, with Team Ivy being substantially more aggressive despite being a member less than Team Harry. Both parties eventually moved closer to each other to get better opportunities, and the end result of the heated exchange was Ginny and Sue taking out Seamus Finnigan and Lee Jordan in exchange for getting hit themselves.


    When the exchange was over, the four people who were hit decided to walk to the party area for the thirty-second respawn area together. But not before Seamus and Lee transferred some of their balloons to Dean, leaving him alone to wander among the trees.


    "That''s got to be against the rules," said Ginny in aint against the balloon transfer.


    "Sirius said nothing about the balloon transfer after getting hit; he neither denied or allowed it, so we can do whatever we want," said Lee in smug justification.


    . . .


    In another part of thepetition zone, Hermione and Ivy tested their balloons together.


    "Hey, Hermione," said Ivy.


    "Hmm?" said Hermione throwing a balloon and noting its trajectory.


    "There''s something I want to tell you," said Ivy, and Hermione noticed the tones of hesitation and a bizarrely out-of-ce shyness in her straightforward best friend.


    Hermione stopped throwing her balloons and asked, "What is it?"


    Ivy pursed her lips and paused a bit before speaking, "I have a bit of a crush on Quinn."


    "WHAT?!"


    "Shh!! Not so loud, do you want to get found?"


    "Then why would you say something like that so abruptly?!"


    "I mean. . . I just thought this was the right time. . . ." said Ivy, aimlessly kicking the ground.


    "When. . . . did this happen?" While Hermione knew that things had approved exponentially between Ivy and Quinn to the point that both had danced with each other at the Yule Ball, but she hadn''t thought things had improved so much that Ivy had developed a crush on Quinn.


    "I don''t know. I can''t put a date on it, you know," said the birthday girl, "it just happened."


    Even Ivy couldn''t believe that she had developed on Quinn ¡ª the guy she hadn''t liked so much in the first couple of years they had known each other. If Ivy could go back in time and tell her younger self that she woulde to like Quinn, then the younger girl would suggest getting checked for a love potion.


    "Okay. . . so, what are you going to do?" asked Hermione.


    "That''s something I wanted to ask. . . . well Quinn kissed me today, sort of."


    "WHAT?!!"


    "Shh! Shh! Pipe down, will you? I want to win this and establish the three-peat."


    "Then why are you dropping bombs on me, girl?! And what do you mean he kissed you? When did that happen?"


    ". . . Well, he had just arrived and sort of kissed me on both cheeks. Quinn said he had just returned from Italy and apologized."


    "Oh," was all Hermione said at first. What else could she say; she had no experience in the romantic business. "Then what do you want to do? I mean, it could be just as he said ¡ª a mistake. I mean, are we even sure he doesn''t have anyone he likes. . . . he was involved with Fleur Dcourst year."


    Ivy Potter didn''t like the French Ve. Her opinion had deepened after she hade to the realization about how she felt. "He said that there wasn''t anything between them. That the . . . . kiss was just a thank you."


    "Yeah, but we heard it from someone who had heard it from someone else who had supposedly heard Quinn say that."


    Ivy didn''t like Hermione''s reasoning, no matter how much sense it made ¡ª the Hogwarts rumor mill wasn''t the most credible of sources.


    "You can feel him out, or maybe ask Carmichael or Belby if he''s interested in someone. After that, you can let him know that you''re interested."


    "How do you do that?" asked Ivy. "Let someone know that you''re interested."


    "Maybe tell him directly or. . . . write a letter."


    Ivy turned to her best friend, "Write a letter, really?"


    "I don''t know. I haven''t done this before," said Hermione.


    "Ugh, this is frustrating!"


    *Ssh*


    Both girls jumped when they heard the voice and saw Terry Boot fishing out a balloon out of his jumpsuit, standing in the shadow of a tree.


    "We will talk about thister," said Ivy, as Hermione and she stepped back, taking out balloons of their own.


    "Sure, whenever you want."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Neville Longbottom came through a bush into an area enclosed by a thick growth of trees and the dense overhead canopies. There he saw Quinn sitting with his wall against a tree with Dean standing.


    "Wee, Neville. How did it go?" asked Quinn.


    "Terry got hit by Hermione and Ivy, but he took out Hermione," replied Neville. He was feeling guilty about leaving Terry behind and sneaking away even though he was doing as asked.


    "Hermione has only two hits left? That''s excellent news," smiled Quinn. "What about the other thing I asked you to do?"


    Neville took out some burst blue balloons and showed them to Quinn. "I did ask you asked and picked up the balloons of which I could remember the path of," and started to tell Quinn what he remembered.


    "I also did that same," pointing at the simr burst blue balloons on the ground near Quinn''s feet.


    Quinn nodded after hearing both Dean''s and Neville''s testimony. It was as he had thought. Quinn had already figured out Team Harry''s balloons, and he had sent out Dean''s squad and Neville''s squad to figure out the pattern of Team Ivy''s blue balloon pattern. It turned out that Sirius ck had been clever, and the simrly marked balloons of Team Harry and Team Ivy moved differently. But now he knew which one was which, and he could start phase two of his n.


    "What about Astoria?" asked Quinn.


    "Umm, about that. . . . we identally came across Greengrass and Davis," said Neville, "Astoria decided to tail them and ran away before we could stop her."


    "That girl can be so reckless," sighed Quinn. "Let''s hope she follows them quietly."


    "What about Harry''s group?" asked Dean.


    "No news from them yet," said Quinn. Harry, Ron, and Katie had gone after the Weasley twins. He got up and dusted his backside, "Let''s start with the second phase and get the real fun started. . . . you two have your next task, go find the others and tell them about the Team Ivy''s balloon patterns and then join the fun."


    "What are you going to do?" asked Dean.


    "It''s time to start the hunt," said Quinn with a beaming smile.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Daphne and Tracey were walking towards the party area to refill their balloon supply when Daphne caught a nce of white and stopped Tracey. Daphne pointed at the back of the white jumpsuit, but then both girls noticed the big ssh of green squarely in the middle. They sighed in relief because it meant that it was their own team.


    "You should hide better, you know," said Tracey, "we can clearly see you."


    The person quickly got up and hid behind a tree.


    "It''s okay, it''s us."


    Then the figure stepped out, and both of their eyes widened when they saw Quinn''s smiling face. And before they could say anything, Quinn threw balloons which he already in hand at odd angles and speeds ¡ª the slow balloon suddenly sped up and hit Tracey in the shoulder while the second balloon threw left to Daphne suddenly curved and hit Daphne in the side.


    "Well, that''s one for each of you," smiled Quinn as he walked towards the stunned girls. "Seeing that you stainless before tells me you got Astoria."


    "Yeah, she wasn''t quiet at all," said Tracey.


    "That''s unfortunate," said Quinn and winked before running away without saying another word. Leaving the two girls alone, still staring at the paint on their jumpsuits. It didn''t feel good.


    . . .


    "We should ask others about who they got," sighed Ivy. "It''s not fun, isn''t a good reason to not tell us the tally."


    "He did say that he will put up the tally board after fifteen hits from any team," replied Hermione before ncing at Ivy, "So, what do you like about him."


    Ivy blushed a little at the question. "He is different. He isn''t like other guys, you know."


    "Well, that is to say the least."


    "Not like that," said Ivy. "He can be maniptive, but I''ve seen times he had been kind and times he had been genuine." During the time Quinn had been training Harry ¡ª Ivy had seen Quinn having fun, and he was different; she had seen how Quinn''s eyes sparkled, and to her, Quinn seemed to be glowing when he talked about magic.


    "And he''s brave," she said, knowing the times he had saved her and Harry ¡ª including the time he refused to enter the Chamber of Secrets.


    Hermione gazed at Ivy''s face, and a smile bloomed on her face, "This is so exciting! My best friend has a crush~."


    "Oh, stop it," said Ivy, feeling the embarrassment creeping up.


    St, St. . . . out of nowhere, the two girls were hit with green water balloons ¡ª Ivy on the thigh and Hermione on her arm. The girls froze in their spots and gazed around their surroundings to see Quinn jump out from a tree and could only watch as their assant immediately ran away whileughing like a madman.


    "So him," said Hermione, not sounding impressed.


    Ivy could only muster a nod with incredible difficulty.


    . . .


    When Ivy and Hermione arrived at the penalty point, she saw more than half four of her team members (Daphne, Ivy, Susan, and Hannah) picking up their refills and exchanging details. They also noticed that the tally board was up and could see they had already suffered fifteen hits on their team.


    "What happened here?" asked Hermione.


    "We got deceived by Quinn," sighed Susan.


    "Same for us as well," said Tracey.


    "And he used the same trick," told Hannah.


    "What do you mean?" asked Hermione. She wanted to know to ensure they didn''t get hit by the same tactic.


    "He had a green ssh on his back that he used to deceive us and hit when we put our guards down," Daphne exined.


    "That doesn''t sound right," said Ivy. She turned to the tally board, and there Quinn hadn''t been hit even once. "If he was hit with a green balloon, it should''ve been there."


    "No, it''s something friendly fire, and it isn''t counted as a hit, at least not in this game," said Daphne, "do you remember when Quinn was tossing up the balloon up and down before the game?"


    "Yes, to waste our time," said Ivy, recalling the attempt at mind games.


    "That was only one part of the act," continued Daphne, "when he burst the balloon, he was testing his friendly fire theory."


    "That''s right." ¡ª Team Ivy turned to see Quinn, Astoria, and Neville step out of from behind the tally board with balloons in their hands. "I was waiting for the half a minute period to get over."


    "Sorry," said Neville before he, Astoria, and Quinn raised their hands and pelted the present Team Ivy members with green balloons.


    That day, Quinn-led Team Harry dominated Team Ivy. Even the Weasley twins, who had ounted for ten hits on their own, couldn''t win against a five-people ambush without magic and their items.


    .


    < - - (Volume Six: Year Five, Ends) - - >


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - If they want war, they will get defeat. ¡ª Sun Tzu.


    Ivy Potter - Girl-Who-Likes - Quinn saving her from imposter-Moody.


    Hermione Granger - Great Captain - The dream for a three-peat is gone.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 202 - Three, Two, One. . . SIX!!!

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The entrance hall was aze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the gged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.


    The four long House tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starless ck ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows. Candles floated in midair all along with the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other Houses, eyeing one another''s new haircuts and robes.


    It was a new year, and life had returned to Hogwarts.


    Quinn tapped his fingers against the Ravenw long table, surrounded by his friends, who apuded for every student who nervously crawled from under the sorting hats'' judgment. As he waited for the sorting ceremony to end, his eye wandered to the ancient wizard''s hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim, recalling fleetingly his own sorting experience, and wondered how things would go if he was tested now, and contemted if he should give it another try; subconsciously his lumency tightened a touch.


    He was interested in the sorting hat''s song that it had just sung. It had branched out quite a bit this year. The Sorting Hat usually confined itself to describing the different qualities looked for by each of the four Hogwarts Houses and its own role in sorting them, but today, it had warned the entirety of Hogwarts about a great danger ¡ª and to stand together, be strong from within. The hat sat inside Dumbledore''s office except for this one feast; it picked up all sorts of things.


    The sorting ceremony ended, and Dumbledore then rose from his ''throne'' to greet them all before the start-of-term feast.


    "To our neers," said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, "wee! To our old hands ¡ª wee back! There is a time for speech-making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"


    There was an appreciativeugh and an outbreak of apuse as Dumbledore sat down neatly and threw his long beard over his shoulder to keep it out of the way of his te ¡ª for food had appeared out of nowhere so that the five long tables were groaning under joints and pies and dishes of vegetables, bread, sauces, and gons of pumpkin juice.


    "Excellent," said Marcus, with a kind of groan of longing, and he seized the nearest te of chops and began piling them onto his te.


    "You know," said Eddie, "I thought they would give both Prefect positions to the Potters, but it seemed Granger beat out the good one, a pity that the badge went to the wrong one."


    Quinn looked over his shoulder towards the Gryffindor table, and from his distance, he could just make out the shine of the gold-and-redpel pins on the two new fifth-year Gryffindor Prefects.


    "Between Hermione and Ivy; the former is keener on obtaining a position of authority such as Prefect, maybe that was the deciding factor ¡ª I''m sure the decision must have been close," said Quinn, "as for Harry; I think he will revel in the position if," he stressed, "he takes on the duties responsibilities ¡ª which isn''t that difficult, Prefects don''t do much."


    "Don''t talk nonsense!" shouted his female sixth-year Prefect counterpart. "We do a lot of work!"


    Quinn waved her off, "As I was saying, it''s easy enough work with a lot of good perks."


    When all the students had finished eating and the noise level in the hall started to creep upward again, Dumbledore got to his feet once more. Talking ceased immediately as all turned to face the headmaster. Quinn could feel Luna leaning against his shoulder, feeling pleasantly drowsy, and muttering something about her four-poster bed that awaited somewhere above, wonderfully warm and soft. . . .


    "Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices," said Dumbledore. "First years ought to know that the forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students ¡ª and a few of our older students ought to know by now too."


    "Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four hundred and sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between sses, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch''s office door.


    "We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to wee back Professor Grubbly-nk, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."


    "Who''s that?" asked Marcus, pointing at Umbridge. "She seems familiar for some reason."


    "It looks like you have been reading the newspapers," said Quinn faintly smiling, "she is the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Dolores Umbridge. She has been making quite a few statements these past few months."


    Quinn eyed the woman. She looked, Harry thought, like somebody''s maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair and the horrible fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes. Then she turned her face slightly to take a sip from her goblet, and he saw a pallid, toadlike face and a pair of prominent, pouchy eyes.


    There was a round of polite but fairly unenthusiastic apuse.


    Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the House Quidditch teams will take ce on the ¡ª"


    He broke off, looking inquiringly at Professor Umbridge. As she was not much taller standing than sitting, there was a moment when nobody understood why Dumbledore had stopped talking, but then Professor Umbridge said, "Hem, hem," and it became clear that she had got to her feet and was intending to make a speech.


    Dumbledore only looked taken aback for a moment, then he sat back down smartly and looked alertly at Professor Umbridge as though he desired nothing better than to listen to her talk. Other members of staff were not as adept at hiding their surprise. Professor Sprout''s eyebrows had disappeared into her flyaway hair, and Professor McGonagall''s mouth was as thin as Harry had ever seen it. No new teacher had ever interrupted Dumbledore before. Many of the students were smirking; this woman obviously did not know how things were done at Hogwarts.


    "Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge simpered, "for those kind words of wee."


    Her voice was high-pitched, breathy, and little-girlish, and Eddie felt a powerful rush of dislike that he could not exin to himself; all he knew was that he loathed everything about her, from her stupid voice to her fluffy pink cardigan.


    "I do not like that woman," he voiced, "she gives me the jitters."


    Umbridge gave another little throat-clearing cough ("hem, hem") and continued: "Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"


    Quinn nced around. None of the faces he could see looked happy; on the contrary, they all looked rather taken aback at being addressed as though they were five years old.


    "I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I''m sure we''ll be excellent friends!"


    Umbridge cleared her throat again ("hem, hem"), but when she continued, some of the breathiness had vanished from her voice. She sounded much more businesslike, and now her words had a dull learned-by-heart sound to them.


    ''Uh-huh, bring the real pink monster out,'' thought Quinn.


    Umbridge went onto go on and on about the Ministry, wizarding society, traditions, the noble profession of teaching, how the Ministry cares about the children as they are the future, and how they''ll move forward into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and ountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited.


    She sat down. Dumbledore pped. The staff followed his lead, though Quinn noticed several of them brought their hands together only once or twice before stopping. A few students joined in, but most had been taken unawares by the end of the speech, not having listened to more than a few words of it, and before they could start apuding appropriately, Dumbledore had stood up again.


    "Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," he said, bowing to her. "Now ¡ª as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held . . ."


    "Yes, it certainly was illuminating," said Marcus in a low voice.


    "You''re not telling me you enjoyed it?" said Eddie, "That was about the dullest speech I''ve ever heard, and I have no problem staying up in Binns'' sses."


    "It exined a lot of things. Underneath all that drabble, the real meaning was quite clear ¡ª moving forward through her," Marcus pointed at Umbridge, "the Ministry will be interfering with Hogwarts."


    Quinn leaned forward, not because he was interested in what Marcus was saying ¡ª he already knew all that, but he was fascinated that Marcus was able to glean the real insight from the words when most were busyughing at her clothing and demeanor.


    ''I might need to change my ns for him,'' thought Quinn.


    There was a great ttering and banging all around them; Dumbledore had obviously just dismissed the school because everyone was standing up, ready to leave the hall. Quinn saw his female Prefect counterpart hurriedly stand up after snapping out of a conversation with her friends and look around to the crowd moving out.


    "Calm down," said Quinn, smiling, "we don''t have to do that anymore ¡ª we have underlings now," he turned to the newly promoted fifth-year Ravenw Prefects, who looked quite flustered, "time to pay for the perks you two, get on it!"


    Eddie stared at the first year walked shyly up the gap between the tables, all of them trying hard not to lead the group. "I''m sure I wasn''t this small when I was there age," he turned to Marcus and Quinn, "I mean they are tiny. . ."


    Marcus and Quinn simply grinned at the news students and waved as they passed by and at Luna, who was sleepily walking right in between the group of said new students.


    "So, I noticed that you didn''tment on Professor Umbridge," said Marcus to Quinn as they walked out of the Great hall while Eddie stuck close to Luna to make sure that she didn''t decide to sleep on the floor in the middle of a corridor.


    "Hmm, about what?" said Quinn.


    "About why she''s here," said Marcus. "All those years ago, you said to me to take in all the information, ask questions, see what''s what, find the hidden truth, and then make an opinion ¡ª an informed opinion."


    "And, what''s your informed opinion here," said Quinn with a hint of a smile on his face.


    "It''s not an informed one yet; I need more to be sure, but right now," Marcus paused a smidge to think, "she''s here because of all the You-Know-Who''s return that Dumbledore has been saying for the entire summer. Though it''s difficult for him to convince as many people what has happened because of the Ministry and Fudge''s position, since Fudge believes that Dumbledore is after his job; his fears make it easier for him to believe that, rather than admit You-Know-Who is back, which would end thest fourteen years of peace."


    Quinn''s smile widened with every word that came out of his mouth. He was feeling absolutely delighted right now.


    "You''re utterly correct, Marcus," he said. "Even though Dumbledore has his strong Light faction behind him, it doesn''t change the fact that Fudge sits in the Minister''s chair and is thus in control."


    It didn''t matter how strong every faction was; the fact remained that Fudge was the Minister ¡ª he held the key to power. There was a reason the Dark faction lined Fudge''s pockets even though every single house head had more influence in the relevant circles than Fudge ¡ª it was the Minister seat that allowed Fudge to roam unperturbed.


    For example, if George West wanted to get something done that he couldn''t get done on his own, he would need to pay bribes at various levels of the Ministry; however, if Fudge was to get a whiff of George''s moves and didn''t like them, he could squash them into oblivion, wasting all the efforts and resource put in. That was the reason those in high ces developed politicians to not let that happen.


    The only reason Fudge catered to the rich and powerful was because he wanted to get re-elected next term.


    "Ministry has been using the Daily Prophet to build on what Rita Skeeter started and is portraying Harry as an attention-seeking liar and Dumbledore as a bumbling buffoon," said Marcus. "The Ministry has been doing everything they can to curb stomp Dumbledore, and it seems to be working ¡ª people are losing confidence in Dumbledore; he''s reputation is taking a hit. He''s been sacked from the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards because he''s losing his marbles. . ."


    "It''s not only that," said Quinn, providing more facts to a motivated Marcus, "a lot of Light faction works in the Ministry as employees at different levels, which would be very good in usual circumstances, but right now, with Fudge being on a hunt, any action that opposes his stance on the situation, would be rewarded with a job termination."


    James Potter and Sirius ck, even without their Wizengamot chairs and political power, held substantial influence in the Ministry because of their Senior Auror designation ¡ª people respected Aurors because the Auror cloak and badge represented the cream of the crop.


    Quinn put his arm around Marcus'' shoulder and continued, "But that''s something out of our area. You asked me about Dolores Umbridge ¡ª how I feel about her would be clear when she starts teaching and her action as a Ministry representative-sh-mole. If she creates problems in the school, I''ll switch to the ''dislike'' train like you and so many others, but right now, I''m on the ''eh, whatever'' train.


    "But you, Marcus, should continue to think with your brain and feel with your heart. Peer into the logic and trust your instincts; they will show you what you need to know."


    Marcus nced at Quinn, "I will keep that in mind, but I still don''t like that woman."


    "I understand, buddy. I totally understand," said Quinn before ncing back to see Umbridge standing near her seat with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn heard a knock on his office door and someone trying to open it, which didn''t give because it was locked. He removed his hand from the ss wall he was in between instation ¡ª at the end of every school year, Quinn would pack up everything in his office, including the ss wall.


    He looked at the doorknob, and the lock snapped unlocked with a satisfying click. "Come in," he said.


    The door opened, and the chime above melodiously rang. And from outside, entered Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. The two Gryffindors saw Quinn sitting on a high chair with a ridiculously long elevation, sitting Quinn halfway up the room''s height.


    "See, I told you he would be here," said Harry, grinning.


    Hermione could only nod as she didn''t believe that Quinn would be in his office during the very first break hour in the sixth-year Ravenw timetable.


    "Harry and Hermione, what brings you two here," asked Quinn.


    Harry pointed at his Prefectpel pin and smiled, "We were just going around talking to the Prefects from other houses ¡ª saying hello of sorts."


    "That''s an interesting initiative," said Quinn, jumped down from the high chair, and punched the chair with the side of his fist to cast a simple finite on the conjured chair for it to disappear. "But, you didn''t need to that ¡ª every year, the Headboy and Headgirl throw a party of sorts to wee the new fifth-year Prefects and celebrate their own promotions. . . it gets quite rowdy with the Slytherin and Gryffindor Prefects quarrel. . . . it''s pretty fun."


    "A party," said Hermione in disbelief.


    "Hermione, despite the strict and disciplined image that many Prefects and Headboys and Headgirls try to portray and maintain, away from eyes of students; they party, share stories about the couples they catch in broom closets, hang around after curfews, and do a lot of stuff that they are responsible for stopping."


    "You do it too?" asked Hermione.


    "Sure, I partake in gossip when I wasn''t busy, though believe it or not, I haven''t given a single detention in the year I have been a Prefect." He just let them go and made sure to tell them that he was doing them a ''favor.'' "I don''t think anyone would take me seriously if I reprimanded them about curfew."


    "So Cedric is going to throw the party this year, huh," said Harry.


    "Yup, he was the shoo-in for Headboy this year," which he would have thrown even in the original timeline if he wasn''t murdered, "though if you do want to develop some positive rapport, I would suggest that you can use your Tri-wizard prize money to pitch in for the party, but make sure to ask Cedric and Patricia Stimpson to see if they are fine with it and don''t see it as you stealing their thunder."


    ". . . . That''s actually a good idea," said the winning champion.


    Quinn stared at Harry and asked, "You are doing it because of all the tension because of the the Dark Lord deal, aren''t you?"


    Harry matched eyes with Quinn before nodding, and Hermione nced at Harry with a worrying gaze. The first day hadn''t been kind to Harry with all the whispering, angry res, and constant chatter around him.


    "There was a lot of talking in the Ravenw, so I can only imagine what happened in Gryffindor."


    "It has been not so positive," said Harry, with a hollow chuckle.


    "It''s going to be a tough year then, seeing that Dumbledore and the Light faction are already involved too much for them to back out now."


    Harry clenched his hand. It was so unfair that no one believed him even though he had seen Voldemort with his own eyes and had almost lost his life.


    "Harry," said Quinn, "I have a certain influence inside Hogwarts. . . ."


    That was an understatement thought the two Gryffindors.


    ". . . I can''t make students stop thinking the way they are thinking about you right now. But what I can do, if you would like, is to inject a series of chatter into the Hogwarts popce that would support the Dark Lord being alive. . . . it won''t eliminate the ire against you, but it would lighten it up a bit, taking some pressure off you."


    "I. . . I-I. . . thank you for the offer, but I would like to refuse."


    "If that''s your choice, then I shall respect it. But may I ask why?"


    Harry took a deep breath before raising his head and standing up straighter, "I didn''t lie, I saw Voldemort. . . . I ¡ª did ¡ª nothing ¡ª wrong," there was a light of determination in his eyes, "so, I don''t need to mind what others think, when I know I''m right."


    Quinn gazed at Harry; he wasn''t expecting this answer, but it made the most sense.


    "Alright then," smiled Quinn widely, "my doors would be open for you if you ever need my help."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - First things first. . . I need to set up shop.


    Marcus Belby - Reads newspaper every day - Has a keen interest in what''s happening around.


    Harry Potter - Gryffindor Prefect - Boy-Who-Lies. . . . by Daily Prophet.


    Hermione Granger - Gryffindor Prefect - Doesn''t know how to think about the parties.


    Dolores Umbridge - DADA Professor - Currently on a sweet sabbatical.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 203 - First Lesson

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Well, good afternoon, everyone!" said the short, squat woman dressed in bright, in-your-face pink, looking over the ssroom with a sickeningly sweet smile.


    The ss was quiet when they entered the ssroom; Umbridge, as yet, was an unknown entity, and nobody knew yet how strict of a disciplinarian she was likely to be.


    "Good afternoon," said a few students while the other observed.


    "Tut, tut," said Professor Pink, "That won''t do, now, will it? I should like you to reply, ''Good afternoon Professor Umbridge.'' One more time, children. . . . Good afternoon, ss!"


    Quinn, Marcus, and Eddie nced at each other before shrugging.


    "Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her.


    "There, now," said Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn''t too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."


    Many of the ss exchanged gloomy looks; the order "wands away" had never yet been followed by a lesson they had found interesting. Quinn, in expectation, hadn''t taken out his wand and only had a notepad and his trusty fountain pen in front of him ¡ª neither of which, he thought, was going toe in much use today.


    Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her wand, an unusually short wand, and tapped the ckboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:


    >> Defense Against Dark Arts <<


    >> > An Ethical Guidance To Budding Wizards < <<


    "From what I have been informed and gathered on my own, your learning in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented for the past few years, hasn''t it, dears," said Umbridge, turning to face the ss, hands sped neatly in front of her. "The constantly changing faculty, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your OWL scores being thoroughly unsatisfactory."


    Utter bull crap thought many students in the room, especially the Ravenws in the room. A lot briefly nced towards Quinn as he was the reason that despite the rocky teacher situation, the grades hadn''t suffered to a level that Umbridge wanted to make it appear. The students who had genuinely read Quinn''s exam notes (everyone bought them) didn''t have much problem clearing the exams with grades above eptable. Quinn''s batchmates'' OWL result had a 10% Outstandings, 20% Exceeding Expectations, 50% eptables rate, with the remaining scoring below that level ¡ª which was a respectable result on any measuring standard.


    Quinn, of course, didn''t mind anything that came out of Umbridge''s mouth. He didn''t start the notes initiative because it would be beneficial to students ¡ª no, he started it because Padma Patil came to him for notes, and he saw an opportunity and took it to spread his influence in the school. Even if he cared about the entire school''s grades ¡ª he wouldn''t have referred to Umbridge; instead, he would have gone for the report cards to see authentic results.


    "You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. . . . Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"


    There was a dull murmur of assent throughout the ss.


    "I think we''ll try that again," said Umbridge. "When I ask you a question, I should like you to reply ''Yes, Professor Umbridge,'' or ''No, Professor Umbridge.'' So, has everyone got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"


    "Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang through the room.


    "Good," said Umbridge. "I should like you to turn to page five and read chapter one, ''Ethicality of Defense Magic.'' There will be no need to talk."


    Professor Umbridge left the ckboard and settled herself in the chair behind the teacher''s desk, observing them all with those pouchy toad''s eyes. Quinn looked to both his sides to see Eddie and Marcus flipping through their books. He looked around and saw people dully reading their books.


    Quinn closed his eyes and started to do his own thing ¡ª expend some magic, practice lumency, mess around with stuff. Several silent minutes passed, and silence reigned supreme in the ssroom. Next to him, Marcus noticed that Quinn had his eyes closed, and his focus began alternating between his quill and Quinn. Soon, Eddie got bored of the inane book, and he was just staring at Quinn.


    After several more silent minutes had passed, however, Eddie and Marcus weren''t the only ones watching Quinn. The chapter they had been instructed to read was so tedious that more and more people were choosing to watch the motionless Quinn, wondering if he had gone to sleep. When more than half the ss were staring at Quinn rather than at their books, Umbridge seemed to decide that she could ignore the situation no longer.


    Umbridge got up from her desk and walked to Quinn with her stumpy short legs; the new Professor stood in with hand sped behind her back. "Are you sleeping, my dear?" she asked, as though he had only just noticed Quinn.


    "No ma''am, I''m wide awake," came out from Quinn.


    "Then why do you have your eyes closed?"


    "I''m simply resting my eyes," said Quinn, "I''m done with my reading."


    Umbridge nced at the table and saw no book on the table, "I don''t see your book, dear. If you don''t have a copy, why didn''t you report it to me when I asked?"


    "I have the book. But as I said, I''ve alreadypleted my assignment. There''s no reason to have my book out."


    "Then you wouldn''t if I asked you to tell the ss about the first chapter," said Umbridge, showing her small, pointed teeth.


    "Chapter One: Ethicality of Defense Magic goes over the circumstances when a civilian is ethically and legally allowed to raise his-or-her wand against a fellow magical¡ª"


    "I hope you mean wizard, dear," Umbridge''s voice became determinedly sweeter, "and I require my students to know the course material by heart ¡ª word-for-word ¡ª so that theypletely and thoroughly understand what''s the correct way to use magic; so take out your book and study a little, please; I would take note of your progress at the end of the ss," she said before turning to walk back towards her desk.


    Quinn finally opened his eyes and nced at the woman''s pink-d back, and opened his mouth, "What is Defense Magic. . . . Defensive magic is divided into two main branches: jinxes and counter-jinxes. Jinxes deals with the spells that fall into the category, when used by a person, would disable their attacker, stopping the attack on the defender. By contrast, counter-jinxes deal with the spells that are used to deflect. . . ."


    Eddie raised one of his brows and removed his eyes from Quinn to his book. He turned back a dozen pages (he was a fast reader even if, in his own words, this was a piss poor and utterly dull read) and reached back to page five.


    "Holy shit, he''s reciting it word-for-word," muttered Eddie with a chuckle in his voice.


    The mutter wasn''t as quiet as Eddie was trying for it to be, and it reached many ears, including the ears of one Dolores Umbridge. She slowly turned around and found Quinn staring at her as his mouth spoke a word after another. Umbridge gently ced her hand on Marcus'' book and slowly yet forcefully dragged the book; she looked at the page Quinn was supposedly reciting for him, and there it was, Quinn''s words matched the books'' print.


    ". . . . that''s why instead of engaging your attacker, the first step would be to negotiate to either calm the attacker down or to buy time till an Aurores to your aid," Quinn finally stopped reciting. "Will that be enough? I have, as you asked, the assignment learned by heart. As I said before, I don''t require a book."


    "Yes," said Umbridge, smiling, then smiling more widely; she turned her back on Quinn and walked to the front of the ss; then faced the entire ss, "Don''t stop reading, the rest of you. Mr. . ." she faced Quinn to ask, "what''s your name, dear?"


    "Quinn West," answered Quinn inly.


    "Oh my, I have heard about you, my dear," the smile on Umbridge''s face was splitting her toad-like face. "for those who might not be aware, Mr. West scored the highest results in the OWL exams takenst year, and as you can see, he''s the perfect example of what all of you can achieve if you follow proper instruction and curriculum."


    ''The woman is decent,'' thought Quinn. She, at the start, probably wanted to make him an example, but when he foiled the n, she turned it around and turned Quinn into an example, just of another kind.


    Quinn once again closed his eyes.


    It had been a good two years ¡ª two years where Hogwarts had a decent enough Defense Against Dark Arts Professor. Remus Lupin was an excellent teacher and coached students in both theory and practical ¡ª he was the best Defense Against Dark Arts Hogwarts had in Quinn''s time here. Barty Crouch Junior, disguised as Moody, wasn''t a traditional teacher of the subject, but he had been trained by Voldemort himself, and to properly y his part as the ex-Auror, Barty had provided the students with a top-ss practically education and extensive demonstration on a wide variety of dark spells.


    But now, here she was, the pink monstrosity, Umbridge; Quinn knew this was going toe from, but just staring at the woman made him upset. Even Quirrell was better than her, even though both stuck to the theory. At least, Quirrell''s teaching made sense, and at that age, the theory held more weight than practicals. Quinn wasn''t worried about himself; he hadpleted his NEWT education years ago, but he was concerned about the education of his friends.


    A war wasing, and Defense Against Dark Arts was of the utmost importance in defending themselves. His friends not getting proper instruction wasn''t sitting well with him. He, of course, could train them on his own, and he had been doing that for years ¡ª Luna had been under his instruction for a while now; Marcus and Eddie had learned much from their proximity to him, and despite their worries about what subjects to take, both were already past NEWT level in studies because of Quinn''s influence ¡ª positive peer pressure did wonders when it gave way for positive motivation to arise.


    ''I might need to push them a bit,'' he thought, ''maybe I should put them on the same course as Luna.''


    The ss ended with Umbridge staring hidden daggers at Quinn while he continued to keep his eyes closed.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "You should mingle more, you know."


    Quinn looked away from the small crowd of Prefects and turned to face Cedric Diggory, who was staring down at him with two butterbeers in hand. He moved a bottle towards him, but Quinn shook his head,


    "Butterbeer is a bit too sweet for my taste," said Quinn, raising a vored soda, "but thank you for offering," he turned to the crowd and pointed with his chin. "Parties aren''t my scene; I tend to linger around the corners¡ª it''s a habit." All the balls he had been with his grandfather and sister, Quinn had spent in corners, staying away from all the ttery.


    "You have been doing fine withmentary," said the newly minted Headboy as he sat beside Quinn. They were inside a ssroom that they were unofficially for the Prefect/Headboy-girl party.


    "It''s just parties," said Quinn watching Harry and Draco exchanging barbed words. "How is the new title feeling?" he asked.


    "It''s the same thing as Prefect," sighed Cedric. "It''s just now I get to decide what you guys do ¡ª correction, I get to decide what you and I all do because I''m both a Prefect and Headboy. All I get in return is a new bedroom."


    "So, not worth it?"


    "Oh no, it''s totally worth it when I get out of Hogwarts ¡ª I get specialmendations and Letter of Rmendations."


    "That, along with being a Tri-wizard champion, has you sorted for the recent future. Damn, you have got it all figured out, haven''t you."


    Cedricughed; he really looked like he was free on any weight, not something seen in NEWT year students. "NEWTs are still going to be tough, but yeah, I do have things sorted out," he nced at Quinn and spoke with a change in subject, "I heard that you went head-to-head against the new Professor, the pink one."


    "I did no such thing," said Quinn, "I was simply following instructions. She wanted us to rote-memorize the book, I did so; nowhere did she say that I wasn''t allowed to rest my eyes and spend my time in peace."


    "Oh,e on. . . We both know youy low in sses, so you can do homework without gaining the ire of the Professors ¡ª your grades pretty much ensure that you can do whatever you want in the ss as long you don''t disturb it. . . . Why this sudden exception to Madam Undersecretary?"


    "Her reputation isn''t great. . . ."


    "That''s an understatement," chuckled Cedric, "I sat with the head of the house today, and none of the four are happy with Umbridge; they were actually quite satisfied with your little stunt. . . . But be careful, Quinn. Misbehavior in Dolores Umbridge''s ss could cost you much more than House points and detentions."


    "She won''t move against me; at least not like you are suggesting," stated Quinn, a solid fact, "she won''t move like that against you or any other student with parents with any decent level of influence. . . . but, first-generation magicals or those without much voice, they won''t be spared from her schemes, if she does anything, the chances of that happening are astronomically high."


    "I will need to look out for the younger ones and the rowdy ones," said Cedric, sighing, "make sure they don''t get out of their way to provoke or have fun with Umbridge."


    "She hasn''t done anything," Quinn nced at Cedric, "yet you act like she will act maliciously ¡ª your father must not have a positive experience with her."


    Cedric nodded, "Dolores Umbridge is an evil woman who represents the very worst of even scum. She''s extremely cruel, brutal, corrupt, sadistic, intolerant, power-hungry, and devoid of any kind of moral or ethical center. . . . my father once told me that she will go to any number of lengths to get what she wants. That woman has made my father''s job at the goblin liaison office difficult on several asions ¡ª I have seen his hair grey and wrinkles deepen with that woman standing over his head."


    It was no secret that Umbridge held a deep dislike for half-breeds and other intelligent humanoid species. As such, the goblin liaison office was one of Umbridge''s favored hunting grounds.


    "Well. my doors are opened to all and any who need help," said Quinn.


    Eventually, the back-and-forth between Draco and Harry was broken up before it turned physical. Draco sat himself down with a heavy thump, away from his Slytherin peers, trying to calm his anger and irritation. He popped open a butterbeer and felt the cold and fizzy go down his throat, cooling him down.


    ''Potter is an utter twat, tosser,'' he thought, his eyes ring at Harry, who sat among the Gryffindors, chatting it up andughing as they hadn''t fought at all.


    "You should frown less, Malfoy. I fear your face will set into that expression."


    Draco turned with a heavy frown on his face to suddenly feel a jump of surprise to see Quinn sitting an arm''s distance away from him. "When did you get here?" he asked.


    "I was here before you," said Quinn, cing a ssy red pellet in his mouth for it to turn into a mist upon touching the tongue. Quinn immediately closed his mouth, but his face went red before red fuming bubbles came steaming out of his nose and ears.


    "Oh, that was good. Weasley twins definitely know how to create good stuff," said Quinn before holding up a pellet, "you want to try one? It''s like getting drowned in carbonated fizz."


    "No, thank you," said Draco.


    "So, how it''s been going, Malfoy?" said Quinn, making small talk. "By the way, congrattion on bing a Prefect. You deserved it," Draco had excellent grades andbined that Snape was chummy with Malfoy Senior; he was a shoo-in for the position. "If you get bored during your after-curfew patrols, pop by the office ¡ª we will chat it up till it''s time to go sleep."


    Draco stared at Quinn, who looked as rxed one could be. "What are you doing?" he asked.


    "What do you mean?" said Quinn.


    "This," he said, pointing between them, "I know you don''t like me."


    "Now, where did you hear that from. It''s not true at all. Even if it was, I don''t think it would''ve made a difference ¡ª You and Harry talk enough to be very close acquaintances, and I''m willing to bet my entire fortune that there''s no love spared between you two."


    Draco made a displeased face at the analogy, and while could argue against it, looking at Quinn, there was no use doing so.


    "I never disliked you, Malfoy. I barely know you enough to actually dislike you. If you do want me to dislike you, how about we spend some time together, and then we will see where that takes us," said Quinn,zily grinning.


    "Then why would you get my father in trouble all those years ago?" asked Draco, pointing to the Christmas Ball.


    "I did nothing of sorts. You were the one who brought your father into the fray at the ball; I simply brought mine to counter it," said Quinn, "and why are you bringing up something so old. Move on ¡ª I barely remember that anymore. . . . though that day was fun ¡ª Daphne was easier to tease back then."


    Draco stared at Pansy Parkinson sitting with the rest of the Slytherin group. "You''re not upset that Pansy got the Prefect position instead of Greengrass?"


    "Just the fact that you bring this up shows that you think that Daphne would''ve been better than Parkinson," smiled Quinn, "hmm, it doesn''t really matter if Daphne got the Prefect position or not. It isn''t much use to her except the perks thate with it. That, of course, goes for me and you as well. And if she really wanted the position, she would have gotten it."


    Quinn checked the time on his pocket watch, got up from the conjured couch. He turned to face Draco and ced thetest-generation AID card beside Draco. "Don''t be a stranger, Malfoy. Drop by if you have any problems; I will solve them for you."


    Draco stared at the card and then at Quinn''s back as he walked away before going back to staring at the card. When the couch was eventually vanished, no card fell on the ground.


    With Quinn, he was simply thinking about how it was about time he should try to secure a critical asset as the Malfoy heir in his pocket. He never knew when Draco might juste in handy.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [


    A/N:


    Now, there''s something that I want to discuss. I want to talk about lumency-aided memory. I realize how this is seen ¡ª it''s seen as a BEYOND perfect/photographic/eidetic memory.


    But this is how I see it. . . . I, in real life, remember the English Alphabet by heart. I can recite it in my sleep without ever slipping. I''m sure it must be like this for everyone, if not the alphabet, then at least 1 to 10 numbers. OR how to write your name. OR your date of birth.


    As long it is just this, then everyone has a perfect memory.


    But I don''t have the English Alphabet in my mind, all the time, 24/7/365. When I need the Alphabet, it pops in my mind. I''m not thinking about it constantly.


    So, in my view, people with perfect/photographic/eidetic memory must be able to RECALL EVERYTHING when they IDENTIFY THE NEED for a memory. If they aren''t able to rte the situation with a memory, why would they think about it.


    For example, if you''re watching a very, very good mystery movie/show where the movie/show actually drops the clues throughout the movie so the viewers can actually deduce the truth/twist/climax before it actually happens. . . . Even if you remember every frame of the movie, if you aren''t able to connect the dots, it''s useless.


    Perfect memory doesn''t provide that ability to connect dots. (At least in my view). Unlike us, people with perfect memory have all the dots clear in their mind, but ability to connect said dots differs from person-to-person.


    What do you think about this topic?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Slow start to the year.


    Dolores Umbridge - "Professor" - Politician through and through.


    Cedric Diggory - Headboy - Continues his life after "death."


    Draco Malfoy - Fifth-year Slytherin Prefect - It''s already started. . . . he just doesn''t know it yet.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 204 - The Oldest One, Group Of Birds

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The time was after hours with the night curfew in full effect; the ce was the ever illustrious AID office owned and established by Quinn, who sat behind his desk, staring at the translucent silver entity ''sitting'' in the seat opposite to him.


    "To be honest, I never thought you would make it this far," said the ghost of the fat cleric, "us, the four house ghosts, including me, never thought that a student would be able toplete a single vault ¡ª never in our imaginations did we guess that someone would reach the fifth vault," Friar, the Ravenw house ghost stared at Quinn with fascination and excitement, "but here we are, about to talk about thest vault."


    "It has been quite a journey, that''s for sure, but it''s not over yet. We never know; I might not be able toplete this vault." He, of course, wasn''t thinking of that possibility ¡ª Quinn was going toplete the vault and get his reward.


    "Alright, tells hear about thest riddle. I want to know what I will be facing this time," said Quinn, rubbing his hands in excited curiosity.


    Friar gazed at Quinn with his ghostly eyes and smiled as pleasantly as a ghost could, "There is no riddle."


    The challenger of four vaults frowned a smudge, "What do you mean there''s no riddle?" asked Quinn in confusion. "That''s not ideal. I need something; anything; even something vague would be a start."


    "It''s not that I don''t want to give you a riddle, Quinn. It''s just there is no need for a riddle," said the ghost before smiling, "I will be guiding you to the entrance of the vault, and you will be taking it onwards from there."


    "I don''t have to find the vault?" said Quinn in surprise, "that''s unusually generous of you ¡ª I have spent months to find the vaults, and now you are saying that you will guide me to the entrance."


    "That''s the reason why we''re not giving you a riddle ¡ª us ghosts don''t know anything except the location of the entrance. . . . we ghosts have been here for so long, together we figured out the location of the vaults, and in most cases, and given that there isn''t much that can affect us, we were able to peek to see whatid inside," Friar sighed, "but in this case, we don''t know how the entrance works and in turn, what''s inside."


    "That. . . . doesn''t sound encouraging," said Quinn, "if you don''t know how the entrance works ¡ª are you even sure that you have got the location right?"


    "There''s no doubt about the legitimacy of the location," said Friar before asking, "tell me, Quinn, do you remember what I told you about Deathday parties?"


    Quinn nodded, "It''s a celebration thrown by ghosts tomemorate the anniversary of their death and their ''rebirth'' as ghosts."


    "That is correct. . . . Deathday parties at Hogwarts are quite grand; ghosts from far and widee to visit," Friar then stared at the ceiling above, "we get met many ghosts not from Hogwarts and in doing so we realized that we''re different from them. . . ."


    "Different, how so?" asked Quinn, leaning forward; he hadn''t read anything about types of ghosts.


    "Did you know that I can award and deduct house points," chuckled Friar, "there was once a time, we couldn''t do that, and except the four house ghosts, no other ghost can do so. For some magical reason, through the centuries, we have formed a connection to Hogwarts ¡ª it wasn''t our doing as we never even thought that it was possible, but as you once said ¡ª Hogwarts is a mystical ce. . . . because of that connection, we know that there''s something behind the entrance."


    Friar moved his eyes back to Quinn and revealed, "This vault was the oldest, Quinn. . . . I studied under Lady Ravenw herself and was killed fairly young beforeing to haunt Hogwarts. There''s isn''t much that pre-dates me, and even though the creators of the other vaults were able to hide their actions and were able to create the vaults without us knowing. . . ."


    Quinn was utterly engrossed in Friar''s words. Many forgot how old the house ghosts were.


    ". . . but thest vault. . . it is older than us," said Friar, "and unlike the other vaults. . . . it was part of the original design ¡ª the vault is as old as Hogwarts."


    "How. . . . how can you say it with such certainty?"


    Friar floated up from his seat, "Follow me."


    "Now?" asked Quinn, standing up.


    "Right now might be the best time."


    . . .


    Hogwarts was a fascinating ce; it was a beautiful castle with its entricities which gave it its charm, but in the shade of the night, when the lifeline of the school, the children, slumbered in Morpheus'' kingdom, the castle was as eerie as it could get ¡ª but to a ghost who couldn''t sleep and a guy who roamed the same lifeless halls every day, these corridors were home.


    "Are you serious?" said Quinn, staring at the ''entrance'' of thest vault.


    Friar nodded, "That''s why I said, this is the best time."


    Hogwarts'' entrance hall was so big that one could have fit an entire house in it, and there would still be space left in it. The ceiling was so high that it was almost difficult to make out. In the morning, the hall was lit in bright lights of fire torches, but right now, the same torches shed a dim and warm glow on the hall, casting giant shadows everywhere.


    Quinn and Friar stood in one corner of the entrance hall, illuminated by the same fire torches everywhere in the hall, but these torches shed cold blue light because of Friar''s ghostly influence on fire. They gazed up at the golden statue of a lean man sporting a majestic beard styled with curls akin to tornados; the man wore an ornate headrest and borately embroidered robes that flowed to the floor; clutched in his long and thin digits were a long roll of parchment charts in one hand and a model of the Hogwarts castle in other.


    "He''s the architect, isn''t he?" said Quinn; he had this same statue inside the mind-replica of Hogwarts inside his mindscape.


    "Yes, Stigweard Gragg, the personage who designed the very castle you stand inside," said Friar with admiration in his eyes, "not much known about him, but one thing is for sure that he has immortalized himself in the annals of history and magic. He has touched the countless lives of every person who ever studied in Hogwarts and will continue to do so till this glorious school continues to do its mission to propagate magic to the young witches and wizards of the future."


    Quinn nodded. Living forever wasn''t the only form of immortality after all.


    "So, you are saying that you can feel something from this statue," asked Quinn as he peeked behind the statue and touched the figure made from solid gold.


    "Yes, we can feel that there''s something in here."


    Quinn sighed as he scratched the back of his head, "This is going to be difficult. . . . I can''t work on this vault before curfew without gaining the eyes of literally everyone," every single person in Hogwarts passed through the entrance hall to get to the Great hall for meals.


    "This year is going to be a sleepless one," groaned Quinn. He turned to Friar and spoke, "are you sure you don''t have any information rted to how to proceed from here?"


    Friar shook his ghostly head.


    "Hmm, Quinn stared intently at the statue, "how much trouble do you think I would get in if I broke it?"


    "A lot," came Friar''s curt reply.


    Friar then saw Quinn sit down on the floor as he stared at the architects'' statue and knew that it was time for him to leave. He had given the challenge; now, it was up to Quinn to conquer the vault.


    But the four house ghosts would be lying if they said they didn''t have great expectations from theirtest challenger.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "What the hell, Dumbledore!" thundered Sirius ck angrily, mming an issue Daily Prophet on the table inside 12 Grimmauld ce, "what the hell are you nning at?!"


    "Sirius!" eximed Molly Weasley disapprovingly. But Sirius ignored the Weasley mother and the other hushed voices that apanied her.


    Dumbledore looked at the paper and saw a page which was devoted to an advertisement for Madame Malkin''s Robes for All asions, which was apparently having a sale.


    "I''ve got all the robes I want, Sirus," said Dumbledore.


    "Not that!" Sirius ced a finger on an article, "read this!"


    .


    >> TRESPASS AT MINISTRY <<


    Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, pham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 31st August. Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watch wizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o''clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defense, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.


    .


    "Why was an Order member caught breaking into the ministry?!" said Sirius. "Do you know how much work I had to do just to reduce his sentence to six months! I was almost questioned by Unspeakables, for god''s sake! Why would you order him to break into the Department of Mysteries?!"


    Dumbledore remained silent for a moment before starting, "I issued no such order. . . . Why would I want Sturgis to break into the Ministry?"


    "Then why would he go in there?"


    "I would guess that he was put under the Imperius curse and manipted into breaking into the Department of Mysteries."


    Sirius exhaled heavily and calmed himself down. It wasn''t like he hadn''t thought of that possibility. He was a Senior Auror; it was his job to think about the possibilities. But the case wasn''t handed to him and his team, Sirius couldn''t get ess to Sturgis and could only work from outside, so when Sturgis had refused to defend himself, he had assumed that Sturgis was protecting the Order and especially Dumbledore because of the scrutiny Dumbledore was under.


    "Death Eaters?" asked Sirius.


    "They are the most likely usible culprits," replied Dumbledore.


    "We don''t have any proof," sighed Sirius and nced at the other Senior Auror in the room. "Are you alright, James?"


    James Potter sat in the corner of the Order of Phoenix meeting, out of character for the Potter family head, who was always heavily involved in the Order matters.


    "I have said it time and time again that we should destroy the prophecy, but you," he looked at Dumbledore, "have refused to listen to me and now look!" he pointed at the paper, "Voldemort is aiming for the prophecy and is using our own people to do his bidding."


    "Because there''s no point in destroying the prophecy," said Dumbledore, "there isn''t anything in the prophecy that would help Voldemort move against Harry. The portion he knew, he had already acted upon it."


    "Then why have you kept the prophecy hidden from us for so long?" asked James in a tone harsh enough to surprise the attending members. It was a burden on James'' chest that he didn''t know the entirety of the prophecy pertaining to his son''s fate.


    "Only the people involved can hear the prophecy: Me, Harry, and Voldemort. Of course, there are Sybill and the Keeper of the prophecy hall, but Sybill doesn''t remember issuing the prophecy, and the Keeper has already passed away. This means currently, only I know the prophecy''s entire content," said Dumbledore.


    "That doesn''t answer my question."


    "James, wouldn''t you want to read a prophecy that mentioned you and your fate and how a child could end your life?" said Dumbledore. "Even if you didn''t want to, Voldemort would, without a shred of doubt would want to listen to that prophecy.


    "By making sure that only I know the entire contents, I''m making sure that Voldemort doesn''t have no choice to eithere and face me and pry the prophecy off my head or break into the Department of Mysteries and get his hands on the prophecy orb."


    Between the two options, thetter sounded much more easier. Going after Dumbledore wouldn''t only require incapacitating a magical powerhouse but also breaking into a highly fortified mind while looking out for surprise Legilimency attacks.


    "Voldemort won''te after me, so the only choice he has is to go to the Ministry and get to the prophecy orb. . . . which he wouldn''t do personally, at least not for some time. He has just returned, and his group, his organization, his cult, is weak after fourteen years of separation and absence ¡ª he can''t go out strolling to Ministry without taking a massive risk of being seen and proving Harry and me are right, exonerating me off any nder against me, thus strengthening the support towards us."


    "You want to keep him upied," said James.


    "Yes, as long as his attention is focused on the prophecy, the world would be safer from his maniacal actions," Dumbledore removed his sses to clean them and continued with his eyes closed, "it''s regrettable that Sturgis got arrested; we must definitely learn from this and ensure the safety of our members, especially those with higher ess and those who''re in charge of guarding the prophecy hall ¡ª they will be the Death Eaters'' prime target."


    After the meeting was over, Dumbledore asked James to remain in the meeting room, while others were asked to leave.


    "How is Harry doing?" asked Dumbledore. Even though he was the headmaster and Harry stayed in Hogwarts, he had been too busy to keep track of Harry''s wellbeing.


    "Lily says he has been doing okay," sighed James, "it''s inevitable there are children who don''t believe his words, but he has his friends around, supporting him. The Prefect duties keep him upied with some work, and his position makes other children think twice before speaking anything to Harry," James half-chuckled, "as you know, Harry isn''t the most forgiving person; from what Lily tells me, he''s enjoying taking points away and giving detentions."


    "He''s not abusing his power, is he?"


    "No. . . . fortunately, he has Hermione by his side; she makes sure Harry''s not deducting points and giving detentions because of personal reasons," said James while smiling.


    "Speaking of detentions, I''m surprised that Harry is able to control himself in front of Dolores," asked Dumbledore curiously.


    James leaned back into his chair and sighed, "We talked back at home. Made him understand to stay out of trouble and not to provoke Umbitch because she will particrly have an out for him. . . . I''m not sure how long Harry would be able to keep it down. . . . both my children don''t have good tempers."


    "I hope the presence of Lily would keep him calm," said Dumbledore, "it would be better if Harry stays out of Dolores'' ways. She will do anything to wrest away power inside Hogwarts," he sighed, "all of this is happening because of Fudge''s paranoia ¡ª why doesn''t he understand that I don''t have sights on his position."


    "Because he is an idiot," said James, stating it like a fact. He had been given the Minister protection detail sometimes, and Fudge had left him utterly frustrated every time.


    "He, with the Lucius'' support, has already kicked me out of Wizengamot, and I don''t think he will stop without getting me out of Hogwarts," sighed Dumbledore.


    ". . . If," James took a pause, "if you are indeed kicked out of Hogwarts, would George West still support the school as he promised?"


    "I don''t know," said Dumbledore, "if I know George West, then there are two oues after I''m kicked out of Hogwarts. First is as you suspect, he will pull his support ¡ª that man won''t make a move if he''s not entirely sure in his decision. . . . Second," Dumbledore chuckled, "is that George West will take over Hogwarts ¡ª I''m sure if he puts his mind to it, he will have Hogwarts under his control in no time."


    ". . . Do you think he will try to get control of Hogwarts?"


    "If I exit, Hogwarts will fall under the control of the politicalndscape, more than it has now. And if it does, George West can exert control over it with his resources; if he wants Hogwarts, then he will get it ¡ª everything will be set for him to take over, especially with Fudge being his current self."


    "I don''t know if it''ll be good or bad. . . . George West taking control of Hogwarts, that is," said James, and he really couldn''t imagine how Hogwarts would turn out.


    "Hmm, well, one thing is for sure, George West won''t be the headmaster," chuckled Dumbledore merrily, "so I suppose, the headmaster would either be a Ministry figurehead or maybe he''ll elect from within ¡ª if he does get control of Hogwarts, I hope he would elect McGonagall. . . . though there is a very high chance that Poppy might ascend to headmistress."


    "Poppy. . . as in Madam Pomfrey?"


    "Yes," smiled Dumbledore in amusement, imagining what it would be like. "It would be a fun new Hogwarts, that''s for sure," said the headmaster as he got up from his seat and walked away out of the room, leaving James alone.


    James watched the headmaster walk away with confusion and unanswered questions.


    "Why Madam Pomfrey?" he called out. All he got in return wasughter followed by a whoosh of fire.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "So. . . how''s it going?" he asked the statue.


    Friar - Hufflepuff house ghost - Challenge has been issued. . . have fun!


    Sirius ck - Senior Auror - My house is only avable from 11 to 5. After that, I want my bachelor pad back.


    James Potter - Senior Auror - I''m not the source of temper. . . I''m suave.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - I can only think what it would be like.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 205 - Educational Decree Twenty-Three

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sat behind his desk, his elbows resting on the table with a glowing red thread of Empyrean looping between his ten fingers as he yed cats cradle with the magical material for practice. In the time Quinn had begun studying Empyrean, he had realized that the magic could really do some fascinating things ¡ª for example, the thread which Quinn ying with was a width of a thick woollen thread, but he could thin it down to the length of a hair yet at the same time give it the strength of an intertwined steel cable.


    But while his hands and magic yed with the Empyrean malleability and maniption, Quinn''s mind was thinking about the fifth vault (he was torn between the names: Architect''s vault and Hogwarts vault).


    The Architect''s statute, which acted akin to a gatekeeper to the mysterious and hidden vault inside, refused to budge and give way for Quinn to proceed. He had tried channeling magic inside, looking for a key or switch, see if some type of puzzle, but nothing had popped out to him ¡ª he had essentially spent, night after night, just looking around, hoping to chance upon something that would allow him to make progress, but with no avail.


    ''I need to make some progress, or I''m just wasting my time,'' the thoughts passed through his mind as the strings in hand made the shape of a lion, ''there must be something-anything on the statue that would help me ¡ª I would hate to destroy it, who knows how much would they task me I broke the gold statue.''


    Quinn lifted his chin up a little to admire the raven reflected in thework of strings weaved and looped around his digits. As he did that, Quinn felt the detection ward ring in his ears ¡ª the Empyrean vanished from around his fingers, and Quinn lifted his eyes to look at the door just in time to hear the door chime ring and see a redhead and curly-haired brte enter his sanctum sanctorum.


    "Wee,dies," he smiled, "hope you''re doing well; what can I do for you today?"


    Ivy Potter gazed towards Quinn, and it was a bit strange for her to see him sitting idle in his office. "What''re you doing?"


    "I was contemting the meaning of life and its existence."


    ". . . Really?" said Hermione, wondering if he actually meant it.


    "Uh-huh, I had just reached the point of realizing that human life didn''t even amount to a grain of dust when inparison to the vast universe, the size of stars, and other stuff. . . . but then I got bored and realized that the stars didn''t have to work and they just explode and die ¡ª but I do have to work and don''t have the explosion option ¡ª well I have but, you know ¡ª so I started thinking about transfiguration and was about to descend into the rabbit hole just before you entered. . ."


    "I see, that''s nice," said Ivy as both girls took their seats.


    "So, what brings you two here?"


    "We came here to buy two sets of fifth-year OWL notes," said the top-of-her-year with a tinge of sparkle in her eyes.


    Quinn quirked his brow up, "That''s fast. We aren''t even a month into the school year," but he did lean down to pull out two sets of fifth-year notes from the desk drawers, "may I ask the reason for this early purchase?"


    "Umbridge," spat Ivy with an intense re forming in her green eyes, "that pathetic pink imbecile of professor is going to make every one of us fail the OWLs. Her lessons are getting more and more moronic every time she enters the ssroom," Quinn noticed that Hermione hadn''t rebuked Ivy, "she only teaches theory, and even that theory is so inane and out-of-context that it makes me want to pull that eyesore of a cardigan off her and stuff it into her mouth, whole, just to shut her mouth from spouting things which makes anyone who hears them dumber (ugh!)."


    "Oh my, that''s some strong emotions," said Quinn as he received the joint payment from Hermione.


    Ivy crossed her arms and silently fumed just thinking about the Ministry stooge ruining their school life.


    "What about you? What do you think of her?" she said to Quinn, "don''t tell me that she doesn''t piss you off."


    "Hmm, I would be lying if I said that I''m unppable, but I don''t feel any strong emotions toward her. . . at least not yet. . . . maybe she''ll do something in the future which will make reach your level. . . . but for now, I''m just sitting in her ss with my eyes closed."


    "I wanted to ask about that," said Hermione, looking up from the notes, "how''s she in the ss with you? I mean, with you not studying in her ss, I can imagine her taking in strides and being an angel about it."


    Ivy scoffed at even the thought ofparing Umbridge with an angel.


    Quinn nced at Ivy, thinking if she would be the one to break before Harry did.


    "She and I don''t interact much in her sses," he told Hermione while giving her the bill, "even after a couple of sses, she tries to catch me off guard," Quinn chuckled, "but in ourst ss, she made me handwrite the chapter just to make me do something."


    "Someone needs to do something, or this school is going to be in serious trouble," said Ivy, tapping her feet. It seemed that Umbridge had really affected her. "I just know worst has not passed yet, and it may seem not possible, but the pink toad is going to do something more abhorrent."


    Quinn smiled sympathetically as he knew that Umbridge had the potential to be worse, much worse.


    "The only thing that could be worse about her would be if she''s a Death Eater," said Hermione, channeling the frustration of being refuted proper answers time after time.


    "I doubt it," said Quinn, "I know her by reputation, and I''m sure she''s no Death Eater ¡ª"


    "She''s foul enough to be one," said Ivy scathingly.


    "Yes, but the world isn''t split into good people and Death Eaters," said Quinn with a wry smile. "I know she''s a nasty piece of work, though ¡ª two years ago, she almost seeded in passing something that could only be seen as an anti-werewolf legition which would have made nigh-impossible for werewolves such as everyone''s beloved ex-Professor Lupin to get a job in the magical world," he gazed at Ivy, "the bill was vehemently opposed and thwarted in Wizengamot by your father and Sirius ck."


    "What''s she got against werewolves?" said Hermione angrily.


    "Scared of them, I expect," said Quinn, smiling at her indignation. "Apparently, she loathes part-humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and taggedst year too. . . . and tried to have Fleur disqualified as a champion."


    "You don''t suppose she''s being extra revolting because of that, is she?" asked Ivy.


    "Who knows," said Quinn giving a shrug, "people are never rational and logical. . . . she might taking out her frustrations by trying to get a rise out of you to get you into detention."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It seemed that the very next day, Umbridge had indeed made things worse by pulling the move Quinn was expecting her to make, and he got confirmation while serving of eggs. He stared at arge photograph of Dolores Umbridge, smiling widely and blinking slowly at them from beneath the headline:


    >> MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST-EVER "HIGH INQUISITOR" <<


    "High Inquisitor," said Eddie darkly, his half-eaten bit of toast slipping from his fingers. "What does that mean?"


    Quinn nced behind the raised newspaper and looked at Marcus, "So, what do you think about this?"


    Marcus pulled back the newspaper and read aloud:


    "In a surprise move,st night, the Ministry of Magic passed new legition giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


    "''The Minister has been growing uneasy about the goings-on at Hogwarts for some time,'' said Junior Assistant to the Minister, Percy Weasley. ''He is now responding to concerns voiced by anxious parents, who feel the school may be moving in a direction they do not approve.''


    "This is not the first time in recent weeks Fudge has used newws to effect improvements at the Wizarding school. As recently as August 30th, Educational Decree Twenty-two was passed to ensure that, in the event of the current headmaster being unable to provide a candidate for a teaching post, the Ministry should select an appropriate person.


    "''That''s how Dolores Umbridge came to be appointed to the teaching staff at Hogwarts,'' said Weasleyst night. ''Dumbledore couldn''t find anyone, so the Minister put in Umbridge, and of course, she''s been an immediate sess ¡ª''"


    Loud chortles ofugher spouted out of Eddie and Quinn. There wasn''t a ce that held more hate for Umbridge than the Ravenw house. Especially the fifth and seventh-year Ravenw students who were worrying their hairs grey stressed about failing their OWLs and NEWTs. To say that the change was ''an immediate'' sess was the biggest joke.


    "Wait, there''s more," said Marcus grimly.


    "''¡ª an immediate sess, totally revolutionizing the teaching of Defense Against the Dark Arts and providing the Minister with on-the-ground feedback about what''s really happening at Hogwarts.''


    "It is thisst function that the Ministry has now formalized with the passing of Educational Decree Twenty-three, which creates the new position of ''Hogwarts High Inquisitor.''


    "''This is an exciting new phase in the Minister''s n to get to grips with what some are calling the "falling standards" at Hogwarts,'' said Weasley. ''The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they areing up to scratch. Professor Umbridge has been offered this position in addition to her own teaching post, and we are delighted to say that she has epted.''"


    Marcus finished reading and looked across the table at the other two.


    But before he could speak, Eddie craned his neck up and called out to Ron on the Gryffindor table "Hey, Weasley! When did your brother turn traitor!" he yelled across the tables.


    Ron looked up from his teful of bacon rashers with confusion shing on his face before realizing what Eddie was talking about, and his face colored up to match his hair.


    "Why are you being mean to the poor guy," asked Quinn inly while making himself a sandwich.


    Eddie was still grinning at Ron, trying to catch the redhead''s eyes, "I heard that he got selected as an option for Keeper. I''m just trying to get into his head ¡ª you know, easier for me if he''s even a bit frazzled. . . . the three Gryffindor vixens might be decent, but their efforts will be for naught if their Keeper is a sieve."


    A knock on the table by Marcus got their attention back to him.


    "So now we know how we ended up with Umbridge! Fudge passed this ''Educational Decree'' and forced her on us! And now he''s given her the power to inspect other teachers!" Marcus was breathing fast, and his eyes were very bright. "I can''t believe this. It''s outrageous . . ."


    "There''s nothing we can do about it," said Quinn with a candid shrug, putting the final touches on his sandwich, "but behave appropriately in the sses and not give professors a hard time. . . that''s the only way we can help." He then sighed, "If Umbridgees to inspect in one of our sses, I''ll have to stop doing my homework. . . what an utter nuisance."


    "That''s what you''re worried about?" said Marcus.


    "I''m already wasting an hour with Umbridge; of course, this inspection stint of her might end up wasting more of my time, and that''s a no-no," replied Quinn, licking his lip towards his delicious creation.


    "Then study in the ssroom, damn it," said Eddie and Marcus in unison.


    "Eh, where''s the fun in that," mock-whined Quinn before taking a bite of his sandwich. For a second, his went turned rolled back, and a short food-moan escaped him. "Marcus here, have a bite of this. It''s really good~."


    "O-Oh, really. T-Then I will have a bite," said Marcus taking the sandwich in hand; his mouth salivated as he had just seen Quinn''s reaction to the sandwich.


    "Yeah, take a bite. . . . only a bite. . . . hey, that''s a bit. . . . AAH! You fatso, that''s not a bite! You chomped off half of it! Give it back, give it back!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn didn''t end up meeting Umbridge in one of his sses for inspections, neither did Eddie, but Marcus wasn''t so lucky and ended up meeting ''High Inquisitor'' Dolores Umbridge.


    He was pulling out his muggle-observation diary in a seat right in the middle of the homely Muggle Studies ssroom when his seatmate elbowed him in the ribs and, looking around, he saw Umbridge emerging from the door with a broad, lip-thinning smile on her face, wearing yet another pink cardigan, making him think if she didn''t own any other color and if she didn''t, then why pink?


    The ss, which had been talking cheerily, fell silent at once. The abrupt fall in the noise level made Professor Lily Potter, who had been wafting about handing out her routine Muggle-Facts Pamphlet, look round.


    "Good afternoon, Professor Potter," said Professor Umbridge with her wide smile. "You received my note, I trust? Giving the time and date of your inspection?"


    Lily nodded curtly and, lookingposed, turned her back on the pink intruder as if Umbridge didn''t exist and continued to give out the pamphlets. Still smiling, Umbridge grasped the back of the nearest armchair and pulled it to the front of the ss so that it was a few inches behind Lily''s professor seat. She then sat down, took her clipboard from her flowery bag, and looked up expectantly, waiting for the ss to begin.


    Lily walked to the front of the ss and surveyed the ss with her vivid green eyes. "Good afternoon; I hope you have been having a lovely day," she spoke with her usual bright smile, "Today, we''ll be picking up from where we left in thest ss and continue talking about the Muggle inventions that changed the world."


    Lily raised her wand, and behind her, below the ckboard, a small wooden box opened, and from within, chalk powder rose up in lines. The lines of white flew to the ckboard and stuck to its surface in various to give shape to a figure as if it had been drawn from a chalk stick.


    "This is an airne," said Lily pointing at the illustration of a wide-body airliner. "Any guesses on what an airne is? Please, no guesses from muggleborn students or the half-bloods who know the answer; let your other ssmates take a guess."


    "It''s some sort of muggle toy?" said a student from an all-magical family.


    Lily hummed and turned to look at the ckboard. She raised her wand, and the sketch on the board changed to now show an airne standing in line beside drawings of the Whomping Willow, a forest troll, and a tiny little human.


    "Now, who would like to take another guess," said Lily with a smile as she watched the expressions of many of her students change when they deduced the actual size throughparison.


    There were various guesses from around the ss: a new type of muggle house, dragon catcher(?!), a ce for a muggle sport. . . . Each guess made those who knew the answers chuckle andugh while the guessers became bolder and bolder in their guesses.


    "Marcus, how about you answer the question," said Lily.


    "Professor, I already know the answer," said Marcus with a smile; Muggle studies were always fun.


    "Please enlighten your ssmates," said Lily.


    Marcus was nodded and was about to answer but was cut off. He looked at the seat behind where Lily was standing and saw that Umbridge had stood up from her chair with a "Hem, hem," making it clear that she wanted to speak. Marcus considered himself a mild-mannered person, but every time he heard the "Hem, hem," it made him want to cut her voice box and make her eat it.


    "Yes, Professor Umbridge? Do you want to contribute to the ss discussion?" said Lily, but inside she seriously doubted that Umbridge was capable of any positive contribution.


    "No, dear. I don''t think I can contribute in make-belief," said Umbridge, looking up at Lily, "you''ve been in this post how long, exactly?"


    Lily held back a scowl, sped her hands behind her back, and stood up straight to stand firm against the indignity of the ''inspection.'' After a slight pause in which she seemed to decide that the question was not so offensive that she could reasonably ignore it, she said in a t tone, "This will be my fifth year."


    "Hmm, you can''t be considered a new teacher with that amount of experience," said Umbridge, making a note on her clipboard. "So it was Professor Dumbledore who appointed you?"


    "That''s right."


    Umbridge made another note.


    "And you joined the same time as you children started their schooling at Hogwarts."


    ". . . Yes," said Lily; she still held her voice, but there was a twitch in her eyes at the implication.


    Umbridge scribbled more in her notepad, looking happier by the second. She looked up inquiringly, still smiling, "Which book do you use as the reference material?"


    "I don''t use any. I personally provide my students material every ss."


    "I see," said Umbridge, her toadlike smile widened as she made another note on her clipboard. She turned away, leaving Lily standing rooted to the spot.


    The entire ss watched and listened sneakily from behind their diaries; most of the ss were staring transfixed at Lily as she drew herself up to her full height. She turned to the ss, put on a smile a bit dimmer before speaking up.


    "Sorry for the disturbance. Let''s continue; where were we. . . ."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - My sandwich. . . . NOOOO!!!


    Ivy Potter - Gryffindor - Acid in her veins.


    Hermione Granger - Prefect - Feels just as frustrated but is keeping them hidden.


    Eddie Carmichael - Chaser - Won''t hesitate in using Yo Mama jokes.


    Marcus Belby - Not a fan of pink toads - Oh my god, this sandwich is so good!


    Lily Potter - Muggle Studies Professor - Result of inspections is. . . . unknown.


    Dolores Umbridge - High Inquisitor - "Hem, hem."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 206 - Architect’s Puzzle

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    In the dark, dimly lit entrance hall, a figure could be seen doing a moonwalk from one end of the enormous hall to the other. The figure was, of course, Quinn, who had gotten tired of sitting in front of the Architect''s Statue and had decided to think while walking, which somehow turned into him doing moonwalks on the entrance hall''s marble floor.


    "It''s night, and I''m lonely~," he softly sang in whispers, "the one who defies the destiny, waoho~ yeah~, I''m fate''s enemy~, uh-huh, can someone listen to me maybe~ ¡ª because right now this boy needs this problem''s re-re-remedy."


    Quinn was so engrossed in his ugly singing that he didn''t notice when he reached the end of the path. His back bumped into something pointy, startling himself, and he ended up jumping forward in surprise. He turned in a hurry to see what he had bumped into and saw Founder Rowena Ravenw cast in pure gold, standing with a diadem in one hand and a tome in the other.


    He let out a sigh of relief and stepped forward with a smile. Quinn knelt in front of the statue. "My fairdy, this student of yours asks for your guidance. This poor one''s wit has reached its limit, and only your divine intellect could grant me the hope to seed the Architect''s arduous trials," he said, exaggerating every word that came out of his mouth.


    There was a widespread belief that a change in perspective could help things along and sometimes allow a breakthrough when stuck at a problem. And technically, Quinn was looking from a different perspective ¡ª he was looking at Rowena Ravenw''s golden statue while kneeling instead of standing. . . . and in doing so, he noticed the palm on which the tome rested.


    It was a tiny thing, and at any other moment, he wouldn''t have noticed it, but as he looked up at the end, he noticed a ring on Rowena Ravenw''s middle finger, but that wasn''t the odd thing; the thing that popped out to Quinn was that the ring wasn''t melded into the finger as it would in a sculpture or stature ¡ª the ring looked like it had been put into the finger separately.


    Quinn stood up at once and looked around the entrance hall. There were, in total, six golden statues in the hall ¡ª Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenw, Szar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, Architect Stigweard Gragg, and the unnamed one-eyed witch.


    He hurriedly jogged to the nearest statue and reached Godric Gryffindor''s statue ¡ª the man with the portly stood tall dressed in leather armor under his robes; his hands rested on top of a vertically standing sheathed sword with the only very tip of the de touching the floor. With both handsying on top of each other, the lower hand was partially hidden from sight; Quinn bent his knees and got in close to finally get a glimpse of a ring on Godric Gryffindor''s ring finger.


    "That''s two," he muttered quickly before excitedly running to Helga Hufflepuff''s statue and the homely plump woman holding a small golden cup with two finely-wrought handles with a badger engraved on the side. Here too, the ring was ced in a hard-to-spot ce on the Hufflepuff''s curved index finger grasping the cup''s handle.


    The fourth founder, Szar Slytherin''s bald head and cold eyes were perfectly depicted in gold. The ancient and monkeyish man with a long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of his sweeping robes had so many rings on his hands that Quinn hadn''t noticed that one of Slytherin''s pinky was also not melded with the finger and was a separate entity.


    He looked at the founders'' statues standing in different corners of the room. "Four founders, four statues, four rings," said Quinn in but a whisper.


    His hand instantly snapped into a fist, and his magic flowed. The ''ringed'' fingers of the four founders straightened out with the power of transmutation as the gold heeded themand of Quinn''s magic. The four rings (one from each founder) slowly rotated around the fingers as Quinn pulled them out, and the second the rings left the fingers, they zapped through the air and arrived in front of Quinn in mere seconds.


    He stared at the rings and noticed themon denominator of the rings except that they were made from gold: "The four mascots," he voiced. The rings had etchings of the four house animals: lion, eagle, snake, and badger.


    Quinn knew what he had to do. He walked towards the Architect''s statue and rested his eyes on the Architect''s hand holding the model of Hogwarts with the fingers digging into the ground below the model ¡ª all of his digits were bare with not a single ring in sight. Once again, the magic worked its course ¡ª the Architect''s golden fingers were pulled out from the model and straightened out so Quinn could insert the rings.


    Rowena Ravenw''s eagle inscribed ring taken from her middle finger went into the Architect''s middle finger,


    Godric Gryffindor''s lion inscribed ring taken from his ring finger went into the Architect''s ring finger,


    Helga Hufflepuff''s badger inscribed ring taken from her index finger went into the Architect''s index finger,


    Szar Slytherin''s serpent inscribed ring taken from his little finger went into the Architect''s little finger.


    Quinn stepped back and used transmutation once again to curve the fingers back into Hogwart''s model and then waited for the show to happen. . . . but nothing happened.


    "Hmm?" he stepped forward to see if the fingers weren''t properly inserted or had he made a mistake in the ring cement. . . . but all the things seemed to be in order.


    "Then why isn''t something happening. . . . was my assumption wrong?" he muttered in contemtion, but then the bare fifth finger caught the attention ¡ª "the thumb is still unupied, there must be a fifth ring for it, yes. . . . the question is, where''s it?"


    He wondered for a few moments, whereafter he turned to the one remaining statue in the entrance hall and stared at the ugliest statue, which for some reason was also drawn in gold. Quinn walked towards the statue of the unnamed one-eyed witch ¡ª hair haggard, unsightly bumps on the skin, heavily hunched back, ragged robes, and a crooked staff ¡ª nothing about the one-eyed witch was pleasant, yet it was stationed in the entrance hall for an entire millennium.


    "It makes wonder, doesn''t," he mumbled and observed the statue of the woman blind in one eye. He first looked at her hands, but unexpectedly there were no rings on her bony fingers.


    "Okay, what else?"


    He looked at her staff which had big hoops on the top, but they were melded into the staff, which indicated that they weren''t what he was looking for.


    "Eyes. . . eye, singr."


    At first, Quinn thought it was because of the general vibe of the statue that the woman''s ''good'' eye was bulging and looking in an off direction, but the more he stared at it, the more he thought that the direction in which the statue was looking in was of significance.


    Quinn raised a hand and rubbed his index finger and thumb ¡ª when he pulled them apart, there was a thread of red Empyrean connecting them. He took the end attached to his thumb and stuck it right in the middle of the eye.


    "Alright, let''s see where this goes," said Quinn and started walking in the direction in which the statue was looking in. Soon, he reached a wall, but the statue wasn''t looking near the floor level but higher above.


    He looked up, then at his feet and tapped his heel against the floor twice for a tform of glowing red Empyrean develop beneath his feet which then pushed him up, and soon he was standing atop a solid pir ¡ª he had gotten decent enough to create massive concrete structures.


    The line of Empyrean was still in Quinn''s hand, and he pulled it a little for it became taut, then positioned it so that the glowing red line was perfectly perpendicr to the eyeball. When he looked at his end of the line, it pointed right in the middle of a very small-framed photo (there were hundreds of magical portraits in the entrance hall).


    When Quinn looked at the photo, his eyes widened in surprise ¡ª what he saw was a photo of the entrance hall ¡ª a perspective of the entrance hall as seen from the eye of the one-eyed witch.


    "That''s some cool nning," he said in amusement.


    The picture was too small for Quinn to discern anything valuable with the naked eye, so he conjured a magnifying ss and began observing the magnified picture inch by inch. From the viewpoint of the one-eyed witch, she could''ve seen all other statues, but because her field of vision was higher, she could only see the wall of photo frames.


    Minutes went by as Quinn tried to spot something of value, and just as he was about to give up, his breathing hitched, and Quinn gulped ¡ª he was looking at the very same spot that the statue was looking ¡ª at the photo in the small frame. . . . he could see the frame, but. . . . the picture inside the frame was different.


    He looked at another picture of the entrance hall from the one-eyed witch''s viewpoint, but this time there was an old man with tornado-like curls for a beard staring back at him as if knowing that Quinn was looking at him.


    It was the architect ¡ª it was Stigweard Gragg. . . . and he was standing right where Quinn was standing right now, next to the photo wall. The architect in the magical portrait smiled and turned to where the small frame should have been, but instead, there was nothing in that spot. The architect pointed at the empty square before turning back towards Quinn and continued to smile while staring squarely at him.


    He leaned back away from the frame, the magnifying ss in his hand vanishing in the process. He gazed at the square frame and the picture-in-picture inside it, thinking about what he had seen; at the very least, him spotting the architect meant Quinn was on the right path.


    Deciding to act on what he had seen, Quinn undid the sticking charm on the frame and pulled it off the wall to reveal an unnaturally white square area of the wall previously hidden by the frame. But when Quinn brushed his fingers against the newly exposed wall, his lightest touch sent the piece of wall caving in with a click before the entire white square popped out with another click.


    "Woah," Quinn wasn''t expecting this to happen; nevertheless, he braved forward and pulled the cube of wall out ¡ª the surface of the cube felt smooth against his fingertips, and the exposed brick he was expecting was absent. He turned the wall cube around, and saw that it was painted white all around.


    "This isn''t brick at all, is it?" Quinn felt the cube through his magic and knew what he held was a wooden block ¡ª wood that had gone through heavy processing to make it feel and look like a piece of wall.


    Quinn folded his legs and sat down, the wall cube in front of him. His fingers felt a faint lip around the cube, and with a flick of magic, the box opened up to reveal a hard cream-yellow material filling what would have been a hollow wooden box.


    "I know what this is." A heat produced through magic traveled from his digits into the cream-yellow filling, and immediately the solid substance gave way, and Quinn''s fingers sunk into a gooey viscous emulsion, making Quinn''s lips turn up on the sessful guess.


    Quinn further dunked his fingers and reached around to feel something solid in the emulsion; he grabbed the small object and pulled a goo-covered ring out of the box.


    "I knew it," said Quinn sounding pleased with himself. A strong gust of wind blew the goo away to reveal a tinum ring with a ck gem fitted in the crown.


    Quinn then jumped down from the Empyrean, his robes fluttering for a short moment before his feet touched the ground, and he went running towards the architect''s statue. He slipped the ring onto the statue''s thumb.


    It was almost instantaneous.


    The four founder rings zed in clear colored mes ¡ª red mes covered the lion ring, yellow wrapped the badger, green glittered across the serpent, and blue illuminated the eagle. On the other hand, the jeweled thumb ring didn''t burn, but the ck gem roused to throw out a deep, dark, and disturbed ckish-teal glow.


    Quinn immediately threw an illusion around him and the statue in case a ghost or house-elf was attracted by the glow of the rings. The mes grew brighter in a sh before they went out, and the only light was from jeweled ring glowing in a teal light. But it seemed everything wasn''t over yet as the founders'' rings started to shake, and suddenly their bottoms separated, and the rings flew out from the fingers, zooming through the sky and flying to their initial positions in the hands of the golden founder statues.


    The only remaining ring sat in front of Quinn''s eyes; he sent a pulse of magic ¡ª the thumb straightened out, and the ring spun out of the finger. He raised his hand, and the ring slowly floated down into his palm. Quinn noticed that the ck gem had transformed into a dark teal gem, and as the ring sat on his palm, he felt a slight constant thrum from the ring as it vibrated in his hand.


    Now that the ring was in his hand, Quinn did the only logical next step he could think of and put it on his ring finger ¡ª the ring, as many magical rings, adjusted to fit his finger.


    "In brightest day, in ckest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil''s might, beware my magic. Teal Lantern''s light!" By the end, Quinn had his hand raised up, expecting the ring to shoot a beam of light above, but it did no such thing.


    "Yeah, thought so," Quinn brought down his hand and, in earnest, began observing the ring. He felt that the ring was no longer warm, and his skin touched the cool of the metal, but like before, the vibration was still present.


    "What''s the mean of this?" he touched the ring with his other hand while contemting the significance of the vibration, but after thinking for a while, he couldn''t arrive at a conclusion.


    He raised his hands up, stood up his toes, and stretched his body from top-bottom, and groaned while doing it. "I should go to sleep; I''ll see what it does in the morning."


    He turned towards the direction of the grand staircase to climb up to the Ravenw dorm room entrance, but the moment he reached the ground floor level of the stairwell, Quinn noticed a glint from the corner of his eyes and turned his gaze towards it just in time to see the ring jewel shed brightly and shoot a teal beam of light towards the front.


    "Holy shit, it really shot a beam of light." He watched with wide eyes as the teal light beam hit the staircase, and at once, the every moving grand stairwell stopped moving.


    The feeling of shock was something Quinn couldn''t describe. In all the years he had been here, Quinn hadn''t seen the sight in front of him once ¡ª not once had he witnessed all the stairs stopped in one ce, especially not in the middle of them changing tforms.


    Theplete stoppage onlysted a moment as Quinn''s gaze was attracted to a set of stairs moving, and he watched as the stairs connected with each other all the way to the sixth floor; the second the connectionpletion happened, a teal radiance covered the side-railings, marking a path for him to follow.


    "I. . . . wanted to go sleep," he sighed, and from the looks of it, if he didn''t climb the prescribed path, the stairs weren''t going to return to normal.


    He climbed the illuminated stairs to reach the sixth floor and looking behind, the teal was gone, and the stairs were once again moving. He looked back ahead, and a clear line of teal was going through the middle of the floor. Following the teal line had him arrive at a dead-end in the corridor.


    The wall he faced was in with simple tan paint, but just like all other things, the presence of teal was evident on the wall ¡ª the line that aided Quinn to arrive at the wall climb up the wall and in the dead center of the wall, it made a small circle ring.


    Quinn nced at the ring in his hand; he walked forward and touched the jewel in the ring to the center of the circle.


    Teal overflowed the wall, with the light flooding the entire corridor. Quinn opened his squinted eyes and lowered his arm to see ayer of swirling teal had reced the wall. He conjured a ball and threw it in; the ball disappeared into the teal leaving behind a single ripple as it vanished.


    "There''s definitely something behind here."


    Quinn gingerly advanced a hand into the teal, which like the ball, disappeared behind theyer. He stepped forward, and soon, Quinn had left the corridor, leaving behind nothing but a ripple in the tealyer, which disappeared the next second, and all that left was a simple tan-colored wall in the dead of night where silence reigned supreme.


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    Quinn West - MC - The Architect is sure a creepy guy. . .


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Ugh, I had written 2/3rds of this chapter before going to sleep yesterday and was in a good mood that I didn''t have much to write tomorrow. But today, I saw an article on "Show, not tell," which disrupted my entire rhythm as I became conscious about my writing, and thest 1/3rd took so much time.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 207 - Architect’s Mechanism, Cat Vs. Toad

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    When he stepped across the teal permeableyer, Quinn''s shoes stepped on a coarse surface with a grainy texture that gripped the soles of his boots. Quinn briefly took in the room in front of him before turning back ¡ª the swirlingyer of different shades ofyers was still there ¡ª he exhaled a breath he didn''t know he was holding and turned to the front.


    Even with the room bathing in the soft teal light, the room was clearly colored in a darb dark grey, giving it a lifeless ambiance ¡ª unlike the ''public'' Hogwarts where every wall had a story to it, this room seemed to have been created without a thought of flourish or fanfare ¡ª the sheer monotony of the room made Quinn''s eyes strain and rx all at the same time. His step echoed in the empty room as he descended down a shallow circr well of stairs and gazed at the surrounding circle of pirs that supported the perfectly circr room''s equally dull ceiling.


    "Now, what''s this?" Quinn''s voice echoed along with his steps as he walked around the short, perfectly cylindrical pedestal present right at the room''s middle. Like everything in the room, the column-like pedestal was just as the name suggested ¡ª a cylinder.


    "Is this really from the same person who designed Hogwarts," despite the entric parts of the castle, Hogwarts was a beautiful construction of its time.


    To this day, the tradition of taking the first years on boats through theke was because of the castle''s architectural beauty that mesmerized the children and stayed them for a very long time ¡ª it certainly did with Quinn, who despite having seen a range of different architecture that changed with cultures across the globe in his world tour, had been all but hypnotized when he had set his eyes upon the moonlit castle with a thousand-year history and the ever-more enchanting reflection in the clearke surface.


    He squatted down fully on his knees and felt the base of the cylindrical pir ¡ª specifically, the ce from where the pedestal rose up from the floor. The pedestal wasn''t part of the floor, but neither was it sitting on the floor ¡ª no, the pedestal column came from within the floor, meaning that there was a length of pedestal beneath the surface of the floor.


    "Hmm." A thought struck his mind. He straightened his knees with body magic pushing through his muscles ¡ª he kicked the floor andunched himself atop the cylinder.


    "Now, let''s how my hunch pans out." With body magic still coursing through his body, Quinn took a mighty jump, joined his feet, and pushed down hard on the pedestal with hisnding.


    A slight tremor went down the pedestal as the force generated by Quinn''s weighting down on the pedestal pushed it down into the ground by mere millimeters. At the same instant, Quinn turned his face towards the loud sound of stone being dragged against stone ¡ª a part of the wall in the shape of an archway was pushed back a couple of inches. But the very next second, Quinn shifted his feet to maintain bnce as the pedestal rose to its original height in an instant, and with the archway merged back into the wall sending a big wave of tremor, causing Quinn to struggle maintaining bnce on the narrow pir.


    "A weight-based mechanism," Quinn nced down on the pir, "the pir needs force to be pushed down, which then, will push that section of wall," he gazed at the previously affect spot in the wall, "in the shape of an archway, which I''m guessing is the way to the next section of this vault."


    "Well, that''s easy enough to solve." Quinn jumped down to the floor and walked to the part of the wall that had shifted. "Why follow the rules when you can break the game."


    He drew up his sleeves before cing his palm snugly against the wall where the archway was supposed to be and pushed magic into the small.


    ¡¸ Transmutation ¡¹


    There was no need to push the pedestal into the ground when he could simply excavate the stone in the wall out and see whaty hidden behind the archway.


    But it turned out that the Architect wasn''t a dunce. The very next moment, Quinn''s magic was met by another force ¡ª a magical explosion, and Quinn was sent back, tumbling onto the ground on his back.


    He groaned with the dull pain spreading through his back and butt." I guess that''s why people don''t break the rules," he said while grimacing in pain ¡ª the stone wall was ''disabled'' against transmutation and transfiguration just like the ss in his office, but here, the creator, who Quinn was assuming to be the Architect, had provided with some ''motivation'' to not try to re-attempt breaking the rules.


    "I get it, I get it. I''ll follow the rules," said Quinn as he walked back to the center pedestal. He bowed his head down while closing his eyes and raised his hands above his head; magic flowed out in lumps over lumps.


    When he finally looked up, there stood a massive block of conjured steel hanging overhead, gradually rotating. He looked down at the stone pedestal and cracked his neck,


    "Time to get down into the ground."


    He retreated back up the shallow stairs and peeked from behind the stone pirs.


    "3. . . 2. . . 1. . . . go!"


    The looming steel cube looming overhead suddenly dropped, and its sheer size buried the thin pedestal within an instant. The entire room quaked, sending waves to every corner of the room, including Quinn, who felt the vibration down to his bones and had hugged the sturdy pir to not tumble over.


    When the dust settled and the room who longer shook, Quinn jogged to the archway.


    "Ah damn, really?" What he came across was a t wall with no signs of an exposed archway in near sight.


    Quinn sighed, and the massive conjured steel cube vanished into nothingness and stood in view was the undamaged cylindrical pedestal as if it hadn''t hugged the heavy steel block.


    "So that failed," he said, but in every failure, there was an opportunity to learn. Since his entry into the vault room, Quinn had noted a few observations.


    "The pedestal is connected to the archway and is operated with a weight-based mechanism," he walked to the pedestal and stood with his back leaning against it, "the force generated by my highest jump and factoring in my weight could shift the archway a couple of inches, meaning that the steel cube must have achieved that much. . . . but the mechanism needs a constant force to keep the archway exposed. The steel cube must have pushed the archway back, at least the length that I alone did; I can''t be sure of how much over that," he was too busy trying not to fall, "but given that I wasn''t able to see it means that the steel''s weight wasn''t enough to keep the archway open."


    He groaned. If the force created by the massive steel cube couldn''t push open the archway, then Quinn couldn''t see an option that would exceed that. Using an explosion charm or a banishing charm from the ceiling was not an option as it would require him to keep casting magic to keep the archway open.


    "Even if I am able to push the archway to reveal whatever hidden path enough for me to slip inside, it''s useless if I can''t keep it open while I''m in there," he said with a sigh. He had no ns to entomb himself in a wall after the archway closed up.


    He had reached a bottleneck in progress.


    Quinn spent some more time contemting the next step but then recalled that it was already well past midnight when he had figured out the Architect''s puzzle. So, he decided to call it in and retire for the day.


    He gazed around the dull grey room with his hand on his waist. Solving puzzles, struggling to find answers, and standing alone in an unknown, possibly dangerous part of Hogwarts. . . his lips curled up. . . this felt correct. . . this strangely felt like home.


    "Yeah, this is going to be yet another fun year," and he couldn''t feel more better about it.


    Later that night, as Quinny in his bed, he gazed up at the teal jewel wrapped around his ring finger; it glowed very faintly, reminding him of the journey he had left in front of him.


    "The architect, huh," this was the first time Quinn had a clue about a vault''s creator, "the library must''ve something on him ¡ª and I guess I need to look at physical mechanisms in case there''s a mechanical aspect to the weight-mechanism. I wonder if. . ." And sleep took him as he trailed off murmuring all the things he wanted to do tomorrow.


    - (Scene Break) -


    Hufflepuff and Slytherin houses sat in the perfectly set Transfiguration ssroom, waiting for the ss to start. But unlike the usual thoughts and emotions that went through everyone''s mind, today, they were all busy ncing at the corner of the room.


    Umbridge and her clipboard were sitting in a corner, staring at her wristwatch with a glint in her eyes.


    McGonagall marched into the room without giving the slightest indication that she knew Umbridge was there. The High Inquisitor thinned her lips; McGonagall had arrived in the ssroom five minutes before the ss ¡ª as a teacher was supposed to.


    "That will do," she said, and silence fell immediately. "Mr. Nott, kindlye here and hand back the homework ¡ª Ms. Jones, please take this box of mice ¡ª don''t be silly, girl, they won''t hurt you ¡ª and hand one to each student ¡ª"


    "Hem, hem," said Umbridge, employing the same silly little cough she had used to interrupt Dumbledore on the first night of term. McGonagall ignored her.


    Theodore Nott handed back Draco''s essay; Draco took it without looking at him and saw, as he had expected, that his grade was an EE.


    "Right then, everyone, listen closely ¡ª Tracey Davis, if you do that to the mouse again, I shall put you in detention ¡ª most of you have now sessfully vanished your snails, and even those who were left with a certain amount of shell have the gist of the spell. Today we shall be ¡ª"


    "Hem, hem," said Umbridge.


    "Yes?" said McGonagall, turning round, her eyebrows so close together they seemed to form one long, severe line.


    "I was just wondering, Professor, whether you received my note telling you of the date and time of your inspec ¡ª"


    "Obviously, I received it, or I would have asked you what you are doing in my ssroom," said McGonagall, turning her back firmly on Umbridge. Hufflepuff students exchanged looks of glee. "As I was saying, today we shall be practicing the altogether more difficult vanishment of mice. Now, the Vanishing Spell ¡ª"


    "Hem, hem."


    "I wonder," said McGonagall in cold fury, turning on Umbridge, "how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking.


    Umbridge looked as though she had just been pped in the face. She did not speak but straightened the parchment on her clipboard and began scribbling furiously. Looking supremely unconcerned, McGonagall addressed the ss once more.


    "As I was saying, the Vanishing Spell bes more difficult with theplexity of the animal to be vanished. The snail, as an invertebrate, does not present much of a challenge; the mouse, as a mammal, offers a much greater one. Bigger and moreplex animals, including humans, can''t be vanished as they presentplications that aren''t yet solved. This is not, therefore, magic you can aplish with your mind on your dinner. So ¡ª you know the incantation, let me see what you can do . . ."


    "McGonagall is angry," Tracey said to Daphne under her voice.


    "She is quite angry," replied Daphne. The expression on McGonagall''s face might have been stone, but many could feel that she wasn''t one bit happy to have a shred of pink in her ssroom.


    Umbridge did not follow McGonagall around the ss as everyone had heard she had done with Trwney; perhaps she thought that Professor McGonagall would not permit it. She did, however, take many more notes while she sat in her corner.


    "Toads are particrly easy to vanish," said McGonagall in her usualmanding voice, "they are such unimpressive and simplistic creatures that even a poorly performed vanish spell can work on a measly toad. . . . So ¡ª if you ever see one, you can try it out to test your skill and boost your confidence."


    Tracey couldn''t stop herugh, and a quick chortle escaped her. But the eyes of the two professors made her quieten up instantly. Daphne, at her side, shook her head, but there was a glint of amusement on her face. Many students from both houses had their heads bowed to hide the grins on their faces.


    When McGonagall finally told them all to pack away, Umbridge rose with a grim expression on her face.


    "Well, it''s a start," said McGonagall as she watched the students dropping the wiggling mouse pieces into the box by her table as they exited.


    Umbridge approached the teacher''s desk. "How long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" she asked.


    "Thirty-nine years this December," said Professor McGonagall brusquely, snapping her bag shut.


    Professor Umbridge made a note.


    "Very well," she said, "you will receive the results of your inspection in ten days'' time."


    "I can hardly wait," said Professor McGonagall in a coldly indifferent voice, and she strode off toward the door. "Hurry up, all of you!" she said at the lingering students. And a lot of them swore that the Scottish witch had a faint smile on her face.


    Among the leaving students, Draco Malfoy walked a little behind his two goons, who talked among each other about food, but he was looking down at his hands at the ck card with gold lettering. He couldn''t help but wonder a thing that the maker of this card had said to himst year.


    And the words that he heard just a few weeks ago.


    ''Don''t be a stranger, Malfoy. . .''


    ''Maybe. . . just maybe he would. . . he''s a noble pureblood after all,'' thought the Malfoy heir, clenching his free fist before turning back to see Umbridge walking out of the ssroom with an unhappy expression on her face, shouting at students to clear the way for her.


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    Quinn West - MC - Oh boy, here we go again.


    Minerva McGonagall - Transfiguration Mistress - Toads are easy to. . . disappear.


    Draco Malfoy - Malfoy Heir - Thoughts swirl in his mind.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 208 - Meeting For The Future

    - If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The morning of the first Hogsmeade visit in the first week of October was a bright but windy day. After breakfast, almost all students ¡ª third year and above ¡ª queued up in front of Filch, who matched their names to the long list of students who had permission from their parents or guardian to visit the vige.


    But while the majority of students went to various stores and shops in the vige, a small stream of students walked between the tall stone pirs topped with winged boars and turned left onto the road into the vige, the wind whipping their hair into their eyes. They walked down the main street past Zonko''s Joke Shop, past the post office, and turned up a side street at the top of which stood a small inn. A battered wooden sign hung from a rusty bracket over the door, with a picture upon it of a wild boar''s severed head leaking blood onto the white cloth around it.


    ¡¸ Hog''s Head Inn ¡¹


    The sign creaked in the wind as the people approached, and for the students of Hogwarts, it was a ce not many were used to visiting; as such, many hesitated before entering.


    It was not at all like the Three Broomsticks, whoserge bar gave an impression of gleaming warmth and cleanliness. The Hog''s Head barprised one small, dingy, and squalid room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. The bay windows were so encrusted with grime that very little daylight could permeate the room, which was lit instead with the stubs of candles sitting on rough wooden tables. The floor seemed at first nce to be earthy, but when one stepped on it, the soles of their boots would stick to the sticky floor.


    All who entered in time, there was a man at the bar whose whole head was wrapped in dirty gray bandages, though he was still managing to gulp endless sses of some smoking, fiery substance through a slit over his mouth. Two figures shrouded in hoods sat at a table in one of the windows; one might have thought them dementors if they had not been talking in strong Yorkshire ents; in a shadowy corner beside the firece sat a witch with a thick, ck veil that fell to her toes. They could just see the tip of her nose because it caused the veil to protrude slightly.


    "So, Potter," said Eddie loudly, who had been sitting silently in the middle of everything, "why have we gathered here ¡ª you know that I am a busy man," Marcus sitting by his side raised a brow, "so I hope this isn''t going to turn into a huge waste of my time. . . . I have only thought of ten ways to whoop your stuck-up arse in quidditch and quite frankly I don''t think that''s enough in my book, I need to at least n double to thoroughly embarrass you on the field ¡ª so ¡ª what''s the deal here."


    A silence had preceded Eddie, and the same silence followed him. Everyone was just staring at him with varying expressions ¡ª some amused, some not.


    "I didn''t call you here! I would never call your sorry self even if I was dying," said Harry acidly, ring at Eddie, who was leaning back into his chair with one arm hanging behind the backrest.


    "I know that," said Eddie with a smirking scoff, "like I would show up anywhere even if you came begging for it ¡ª maybe I will if you ept that I''m the better man."


    The rest of the students watched intently as what seemed to barrel into a fight, but just then, an irked voice with a mix of exasperation stopped both of them.


    "Okay, stop this childishness, you two," said Ivy Potter, "can you two not fight for once ¡ª do you two somehow feel obligated to go at each other''s throat when you see each other, because there''s no such thing, and if you can''t, then don''t speak at all," she turned to her brother, "I was the one who called Carmichael here ¡ª no! I don''t want to listen, Harry ¡ª now behave both of you, I want to start!"


    The barman sidled toward them out of a back room. He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long gray hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to some. The barman froze when he saw the crowd of children in his bar; possibly he had never seen his pub so full.


    "What?" he grunted with a re.


    "Hello," said Marcus, standing up from his chair and counting the gathered crowd quickly. "Could we have . . . forty-three butterbeers, please?"


    The man reached beneath the counter and pulled four dusty, very dirty crates of butterbeer, which he then mmed on the bar.


    "Take forty-three. . . . five galleons and a sickle. . . . give me five gold," he said.


    "I''ll get them," said Marcus and handed the man five galleons from his pocket before returning with the crates levitating behind him, "I paid. . . we can settle everyone''s share at the end of this meet."


    As Marcus set the crates on a table in the center, Luna took out her wand from her hair-bun, and after a chant and flourish of the wand, the bottles had been chilled with ice magic.


    Ivy watched numbly as therge chattering group took their beers from the table.


    First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho and one of her usually giggling girlfriends, then (on her own and looking so dreamy that she might have walked in by ident) Luna Lovegood; then Katie Bell, Alicia Spi, and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmin, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, and one of the most surprising attendees in Headboy Cedric Diggory and a Hufflepuff girl with a long it down her back whose name Ivy did not know; out of the five Ravenw boys, Ivy knew Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby (who was talking something seriously with Susan Bones), the other three she was pretty sure were called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, and Terry Boot; Ginny, followed by a tall skinny blond boy with an upturned nose whom Ivy recognized vaguely as being a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and bringing up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan, all three of whom were carryingrge paper bags crammed with Zonko''s merchandise.


    Ivy wasn''t expecting so many people to show up. Hermione scooted near her.


    "Wow," she said in a low voice, "this. . . . this is more that we thought."


    "Uh-huh, y-yeah," said Ivy nodding in agreement, "this is twenty people more than we thought ¡ª twenty people more than our best and most unlikely estimate."


    "Hi, Ivy," said Neville, beaming and taking a seat opposite to where Harry sat.


    Ivy gave a polite smile, still feeling a little nervous. Her worries didn''t lessen when everyone settled down in twos and threes around her, Hermione, Harry, and Ron, some looking rather excited, others curious, Luna gazing dreamily into space, Eddie looked bored, but his eyes seemed attentive. When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry.


    "Hello everyone," said Ivy, and despite hiding, her voice was still a bit higher than usual out of nerves.


    The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regrly to Harry.


    "Most of you must''ve some idea why you''re here. . . Well, we here had the idea ¡ª that it might be good if people who want to study Defense Against Dark Arts ¡ª and I mean really study it, you know, not the utter garbage that Umbitch had been teaching us" ¡ª Eddie whistled and suddenly Ivy''s voice became much more confident ¡ª "because nobody in there right or even wrong mind could call that Defense Against Dark Arts. . . ."


    ""Hear, hear,"" said the Weasley twins, and Ivy looked heartened.


    ". . . . well, I thought it would e good if we, well, took matters into our own hands." She paused, looking at everyone a few people in the room, and went on, "And by that, I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells ¡ª"


    "You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" said Michael Corner.


    "Of course, we do ¡ª don''t well all," said Hermione. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because . . . because . . . She took a great breath and finished, "Because Voldemort''s back."


    The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho''s friend shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough, and Eddie along with Marcus frowned deeply. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.


    "Well . . . that''s the n anyway," said Ivy. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we''re going to ¡ª"


    "Where''s the proof You-Know-Who''s back?" said the blond Hufflepuff yer in a rather aggressive voice.


    "Well, Dumbledore believes it ¡ª" Ivy began.


    "You mean, Dumbledore believes him," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry.


    "Who are you?" said Ron rather rudely.


    "Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we''ve got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who''s back."


    "Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that''s really not what this meeting was supposed to be about ¡ª"


    "It''s okay, Hermoine," said Harry.


    Harry knew that something like this was bound to happen and felt that both Ivy and Hermoine should have seen thising. Some of these people ¡ª maybe even most of them ¡ª had turned up in the hope of hearing his story firsthand. . . . And while they were nning this meet, Harry had stayed quiet when neither had bought up this issue because he knew they wouldn''t approve.


    "What makes me say You-Know-Who''s back, you say?" he asked, looking Zacharias straight in the face with his arms folded. "I saw him ¡ª because ¡ª I ¡ª was ¡ª there. . . . But Dumbledore told the whole school what happenedst year, and if you didn''t believe him, you don''t believe me, and I''m not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."


    The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Harry had the impression that even the barman was listening in. He was wiping the same ss with the filthy rag; it was bing steadily dirtier.


    Zacharias said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told usst year was that you got kidnapped by You-Know-Who and somehow got back to Hogwarts after a fight with him. He didn''t give us details, he didn''t tell us exactly how you escaped, I think we''d all like to know ¡ª"


    "Do I like look I give a knut''s worth of shit what you would like, eh, Smith?" Harry said. His temper, always so close to the surface these days, was rising again. He did not take his eyes from Zacharias Smith''s aggressive face and looked down at him. "Even though I fought with Voldemort, it wasn''t a what I would call a traditional duel, and nor was my experience a positive one ¡ª Voldemort is every bit as evil as all the stories say about him."


    Harry didn''t want to, but he kept the smirk off his face, which threatened to break on his face when Zacharias flinched at the sound of Voldemort''s name.


    "If anyone of you doesn''t like my answer or want to know the specifics, you might as well clear out. I couldn''t care less," said Harry nonchntly.


    Zacharias nced at Eddie, thinking that the Ravenw would take offense as Harry had addressed all of them; but. . .


    "What the hell are you looking at me like that?" said Eddie with jibe in his voice. "Potter said that he doesn''t give a knut''s worth of shit about what you like, in the same way, I won''t listen to his crap if someone paid me to do it."


    "Then why are you here?" asked Zacharias.


    "Were you listening, or are those ears just for show? The good Potter and Granger said that this is for Defense Against Dark Arts; why else do you think we are here for?"


    ". . . . They''re a year younger than you," said Zacharias as ast attempt, gritting his teeth.


    "Congrattions for stating the obvious, doofus," Eddie pointed his thumb towards his back, "the fucking Headboy and other seventh years are here; I''m going to learn from them ¡ª and unlike you, I don''t stick to the course material and actually learn to fucking apply myself ¡ª but that''s to expected, I''m smarter than you after all. . . . and a far better Chaser."


    In the end, no one left their seats, now even Zacharias Smith, though he no longer gazed at Harry.


    "S-So, erm," said Ivy, moving the conversation along so the group didn''t fall silent, "like I was saying. . . if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we''re going to do it, how often we''re going to meet, and where we''re going to meet."


    At the back, Cedric leaned forward from his chair and spoke up, "This is dandy and all, but we, the seventh year, have NEWTs to prepare for ¡ª how is this going to help us?"


    Harry, feeling impatient, rose from his chair and replied, "I can produce a corporeal Patronus."


    Cedric, along with the other seventh years, blinked in surprise.


    "A corporeal Patronus, you say," said Cedric. "That''s. . . actually pretty impressive."


    "I can teach it to you," said Harry, "and that''s a reason for you to attend if you would like to attend."


    "And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore''s office?" asked Terry Boot. "That''s what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in therest year . . ."


    "Er ¡ª yeah, I did, yeah," said Harry.


    Justin Finch-Fletchley whistled, the Creevey brothers exchanged awestruck looks, and Lavender Brown said "wow" softly. Harry was feeling slightly hot around the cor now.


    "And in our first year," said Neville to the group atrge, "he saved that Sorcerous Stone ¡ª"


    "Sorcerer''s," hissed Hermione.


    "Yes, that, from You-Know-Who," finished Neville.


    Hannah Abbott''s eyes were as round as Galleons.


    "And that''s not to mention," said Ron smiling proudly, "all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournamentst year ¡ª getting past dragons and merpeople and those god awful acromants and things . . ."


    There was a murmur of impressed agreement around the table.


    "Look," he said, and everyone fell silent at once, "I don''t want to sound like I''m trying to be modest or anything, but . . . I had a lot of help with all that stuff. . . and just like the help I got, we can help each other out and get ourselves out of the mess that Umbitch had dug for us."


    "Yes, well," said Ivy hastily, "moving on . . . the point is, who here wants to partake in this study group?"


    There was an approving murmur in the group. But in Hogwarts, there was something known as the house system, which could sometimes make thingsplicated.


    The Hufflepuffs nced at Cedric, who thought for a moment before nodding. "Hufflepuffs are in," he said, "and I will personally help by keeping you updated on what''s happening with the professors ¡ª meaning, I will spy on Umbridge for you."


    The Golden Squad being part of Gryffindor meant that the lions were in and probably the ones the most excited about this thing ¡ª defying Umbridge was right up Gryffindor alley.


    Finally, everyone looked at Ravenw, and the members of Golden Squad nced at Eddie, but the Ravenw students nced at Marcus, who thought for the longest time before looking up at the Golden Squad.


    "Ravenw is in, but this better be what you think it''s going to be," said Marcus. "The gamble of going behind Umbridge''s back better be worth the risk."


    "Right," said Ivy, looking relieved that something had atst been settled. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don''t think there''s any point in meeting less than once a week ¡ª"


    "Hang on," said Angelina, "we need to make sure this doesn''t sh with our Quidditch practice."


    "No," said Eddie, "nor with ours. . . . it better not."


    "Nor ours," added Cedric Diggory.


    "I''m sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione, slightly impatiently, "but you know, this is rather important, we''re talking about learning to defend ourselves against Voldemort''s Death Eaters ¡ª"


    "Well said!" barked Ernie Macmin. "Personally, I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we''ll do this year, even with our OWLsing up!"


    He looked around impressively, as though waiting for people to cry, "Surely not!" When nobody spoke, he went on, "I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon us at this critical period. Obviously, they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells ¡ª"


    "We think the reason Umbridge doesn''t want us trained in Defense Against Dark Arts," said Ivy, "is that she''s got some . . . some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he''d mobilize us against the Ministry."


    Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news; everybody except Luna Lovegood, who piped up, "Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army."


    "What?" said many,pletely thrown by this unexpected piece of information.


    "Yes, he''s got an army of heliopaths," said Luna solemnly.


    "No, he hasn''t," snapped Hermione.


    "Yes, he has," said Luna.


    "What are heliopaths?" asked Neville, looking nk.


    "They''re spirits of fire," said Luna, her protuberant eyes widening so that she looked madder than ever. "Great tall ming creatures that gallop across the ground burning everything in front of ¡ª"


    "They don''t exist, Neville," said Hermione tartly.


    "Oh yes, they do!" said Luna angrily.


    "I''m sorry, but where''s the proof of that?" snapped Hermione.


    "There are plenty of eyewitness ounts; just because you''re so narrow-minded, you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you believe anything isn''t everybody''s fault!"


    Hermione looked at Eddie, who shrugged, "Don''t look at me. I stopped arguing against this a long time ago. Plus, she spends so much time with an enabler who indulges her thoughts." Of course, said enabler wasn''t present here.


    "Hem, hem."


    At once, everyone in the inn''s bar shivered with their heart almost jumping out of their chest. They turned to expect the pink monster but saw Ginny Weasley smiling.


    "Weren''t we trying to decide how often we''re going to meet and get Defense lessons?" she said.


    "Yes," said Ivy at once, "yes, we were, you''re right . . . Well, the other thing to decide is where we''re going to meet . . ."


    This was somewhat more difficult; the whole group fell silent.


    "Right, well, we''ll try to find somewhere," said Hermione. "We''ll send a message round to everybody when we''ve got a time and a ce for the first meeting."


    She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, rather as though she was steeling herself to say something.


    "I-I think everybody should write their name down just so we know who was here. But I also think," she took a deep breath, "that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we''re doing. So if you sign, you agree not to tell Umbridge ¡ª or anybody else ¡ª what we''re up to."


    Some people signed the parchment, but there were several people who looked less than happy at the prospect of putting their names on the list. But eventually, as the list of names grew, the unwilling ones too joined under peer pressure. When thest person ¡ª Zacharias ¡ª had signed, Hermione took the parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag. There was an odd feeling in the group now. It was as though they had just signed some kind of contract.


    "Well, time''s ticking on," said Fred briskly, getting to his feet. "George and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase and progress reports to draw; we''ll be seeing you allter."


    "Same here," Cedric got up from his chair, "I have a date to attend," he looked at his girlfriend, Cho, who also got up, "see you guyster, keep me posted." The two lovebirds then left with fingers interlocked with each other.


    In twos and threes, the rest of the group took their leave too. Leaving only the Golden Squad and Eddie, Luna, ¡ª and Marcus, who was collecting money from everyone as they left.


    "Carmichael," said Ivy, calling to Eddie.


    "Hmm? Yeah, what?" said Eddie looking up from ying rock-paper-scissors with Luna.


    "Where is Quinn?" she asked. "He didn''t show up. . ."


    "My boy is busy today. . . well, he entered his annual busy seasonst week."


    "What''s he doing?"


    Luna raised her hand in answer, "He is worried about weight."


    ". . . Weight," Ivy spoke in confusion. "As in, he''s worry about his weight. . . I don''t think he''s fat, though."


    Luna shrugged and then went back to making rock, paper, and scissors shapes with her hand with full concentration between her brows.


    "There''s no use of thinking what Quinn is doing," continued Eddie, "he has the habit of disappearing from time to time ¡ª you get used to it."


    "I see," Ivy couldn''t say she wasn''t interested in where Quinn was, "do you think he will join this study group? I mean, if we are able to get him in, everyone will benefit greatly from it."


    "I don''t know if Quinn will join or not. I myself only came here because Marcus was keenly interested in what you were suggesting and because Luna and Cho were also going. . . . If you want to know if Quinn is willing, then you need to ask on his own, but as I said, he entered his busy seasonst week, and that usually goes for months."


    Ivy bit her lower lip and nodded. She really wanted Quinn to join.


    ''I mean, he will be perfect. He taught usst year, and that was amazing ¡ª yeah, I need to get Quinn to participate,'' she thought and by the end was determined to get Quinn to participate no matter what.


    "You know when and where to find him," said Eddie before turning to Ron, "see you on the field, Weasley; I''m really looking forward to seeing if I will be able to set some new record against you."


    "You wish. I''ll stop every¡ª" said Ron, but Eddie was already walking awayughing.


    Ivy turned to Hermione, who was reading names from the list. "Hermione, do you have the AID cards? I want one," she said.


    Hermione looked up and went off, "Which one do you want? I have more than forty generations worth of cards ¡ª do you know, with thetest issue card, you could press it against on any of the ssrooms'' doors, and it would turn into a game of tic-tac-toe ¡ª if you touch two transformed cards together, that will register them as yer-1 and yer-2. . . and then you can y while anywhere in the castle, no matter what the distance."


    ". . . I just need one that would tell me if Quinn''s in his office or not."


    "I have the perfect one for you! When we get back, I''ll be showing you Issue #19. It''s from a few years back, but it''s a ssic one."


    "O-Okay," said Ivy in the face of the sheer excitement from her best friend.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - What can I say? I love my calling cards.


    Eddie Carmichael - Talker - Let''s get some focking study in.


    Marcus Belby - Ravenw Ringleader - Got his money back in full.


    Hermione Granger - Collector - I have a Issue #1 in pristine, untouched condition.


    Ivy Potter - Organizer - I-I just need a card.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Extremely SICK (bcos of weather change) - But very long chapter, so see youter. . . Maybe tomorrow or day-after-tomorrow.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 209 - Agreement To Join

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Dark circles . . . dark bags under the eyes due to exhaustion orck of sleep, among other reasons ¡ª it wasn''t a condition that Quinn wasn''t familiar with; he had spent more than his share of all-nighters ¡ª but never in his life did Quinn had let himself slip so much that it would cause dark circles to appear on his face.


    One of his believes was: ''The number of hours you are awake doesn''t matter, as much how you spent those awake hours ¡ª sleeping seven to eight hours every day was perfectly fine if the remaining hours spent awake were spent efficiently and diligently.''


    The only exception to his track record was the two weeks in Hogwarts after the Sin curse had broken; in those days, Quinn''s condition deteriorated so much that he had on more than a few asions had taken Sleeping Draught just to put himself into sleep ¡ª a fact that he loathed because Sleeping Draughts were addictive if taken carelessly over a long period of time.


    "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh," he voiced with his face buried into his hands, "why is this so difficult . . . it''s just pushing a pedestal down into the ground . . . so why can''t I solve that."


    In the days that Quinn had been going at the weight-pedestal-archway problem, the amount of progress he had made couldn''t even amount to an iota ¡ª an imaginary number. No amount of force or way to apply said force he tried; the result was the same ¡ª the archway the same as it did when he jumped on the pedestal, and that was it ¡ª the pedestal refused to budge beyond that.


    In frustration, Quinn had attacked the archway wall, but that didn''t do him any good ¡ª the wall was too tough for him to break through force ¡ª not to mention it attacked back with explosions(which didn''t harm Quinn anymore, but that didn''t make the experience any less pleasant.)


    He took a deep breath, opened the notebook on the table, and stared at the pages upon pages of calctions, theories, decisions, possibilities, opportunities, hypotheses drafted by him to beat the mechanism.


    "Useless," he flipped a page, "ever more useless," some more, "what was I thinking here, this would never work" ¡ª he snapped the book close ¡ª "waste of time, all of this." He crossed his hands and stared straight ahead at a random cab door in his workshop, thinking how to proceed from here on.


    "There''s absolutely nothing in there that would tell me how to proceed." As Quinn had observed, the vault room was unbelievably in; the only extra piece of information from the room was the type of stone it was made from; other than that, the room had told him zilch.


    Quinn had even gone back to the entrance hall in case he had missed something. But after a thorough study of everything, the results were disappointed with no gains ¡ª even taking the portrait with the architect on it and keeping an eye on it for twenty-four hours had not unearthed any new information.


    With a heaving sigh, he got up on his feet and walked into the office. One step into the office, he heard the door chime bell as expected, saturating the room with a filling ting.


    "Wee to AID. How may I be of service today," the customary lines flowed out as he closed the red door behind him. Raising his eyes to the customer met him with familiar faces, "Ivy and Hermione, it''s you two again," the Gryffindor girl duo walked to his table, taking their seats, used to visiting his office, "so what''s going to be the agenda today?"


    "You don''t look good," said Ivy worried.


    "And you look gorgeous as well, my dear," said Quinn shing a smile, and that had some effect on Ivy. "I''mcking some sleep ¡ª it''s nothing to be worried about."


    "Are you sure?" said Hermoine. "We can alwayse backter."


    "It''s the middle of the day; I''m not going to sleep just to wake up in the middle of the night. . . Please, I appreciate your concerns, but be relieved it''s nothing that a good nap can''t fix."


    The two girls stared at Quinn for a moment before relenting.


    Ivy nodded and continued at Quinn''s assistance, "We want to talk to you about our study group¡ª"


    "Ah yes, I have heard about that from Marcus, and I recall Eddie mentioning that you were looking for me."


    "So you know what we are doing," said Hermione.


    "I know that it''s a study group for Defense Against Dark Arts and that you''ve been putting out feelers to see who''ll be interested," he had also gotten said feelers from Weasley twins in one of their meets, "you set up your first meet at Hog''s Head and from what the chatter I heard and what Marcus told me, it seemed to be a great sess ¡ª how many of them were there, again," ¡ª saying that Quinn opened a drawer and took out a sheet of paper and read from it, ¡ª "forty-six people attended the meeting, and all of them signed up."


    "What''s that?" asked Ivy as both girls stared at the paper in Quinn''s hand.


    "This is a copy of the list that you guys drafted that day," Quinn passed on the sheet to Hermione.


    Hermione, who was in charge of safe-keeping of the list (it falling into Umbridge''s hand, would have been nothing less than an apocalypse) stared at the so-called copy, and her jaw dropped when she saw that it wasn''t just a list of names ¡ª it was an exact replica with original handwritings intact.


    "H-How. . . how did you get this?!" eximed Hermione.


    "It''s quite obvious, isn''t it?" spoke Quinn. "Someone in that meeting made a duplicate using the doubling charm and gave the copy to me, which I then used to create a permanent copy before the charmed-duplicated vanished. . . of course, the identity of my informant will be kept a secret ording to their and my wishes."


    Seeing the expression of shock and doubt towards him in Hermione and Ivy''s eyes, Quinn sighed, "My motive behind doing this was not to hold this over you, which might be a bit difficult to believe given our history together, but believe me, I''m not trying to gain leverage on the people in the list."


    "Then why?" said Ivy, a bit unhappy. "If you wanted to see the list, I would have shown it to you upfront."


    "To make both of you feel threatened." ¡ª the expression on their faces turned confused ¡ª "If I can get my hands on that list so easily, when I wasn''t even in the meet, Umbridge can also get her hands on the list and then all of you will be in great trouble. . . so make sure to keep the original safe and," Quinn pointed at the copy, "you can keep that; it''s my only copy ¡ª as I said, I meant no harm, and it was just an attempt to get you aware of the stakes. . . Even though they know the risks, I don''t want Eddie, Marcus, and Luna to get in trouble."


    Ivy flourished her wand in hand, and a red zap turned the paper into a pile of dust on the table. Quinn vanished the ash pile and stared at the table to sigh in relief when he saw the absence of scorch marks on the wood.


    "Hey, I''m capable enough to burn a paper without surrounding damage," said Ivy.


    "I believe you, I promise."


    "Ahem," Hermione cleared her throat to gather their attention and continued with haste, "so will you take part in our group?"


    "Dumbledore''s Army," said Ivy adventurously.


    Quinn hummed as if in thought and then nced at both of the girls.


    "No," he said simply.


    "Eh, why?" "What''s the problem?!"


    "There are a few reasons, but the biggest reason is that," he pointed at the ce where Ivy had burned the list, "there were no Slytherins on that list ¡ª excluding one house while the other three y together is a big no-no."


    "We can''t take the risk," said Hermione, "if we tell them about our ns, we will be over before we even start ¡ª Slytherins will leak our ns to Umbridge; they love her."


    "I understand your worries, but what you''re doing is to segregate a group because of the actions of a part of said group. I won''t pretend what you are saying isn''t correct; you would have been shut down a hundred percent if you kept Slytherin in the loop," ¡ª he hushed them ¡ª, "but there is a good quantity of Slytherins who wouldn''t shake Umbridge''s hand with a ten-meter pole. . . and your group isting them form this opportunity doesn''t fit right with me ¡ª and don''t get me wrong, I''m not saying that it''s your responsibility to get Slytherin students; this is a private group and not a charitable cause, you can take in anyone you want, even Umbridge herself. . . but if you want me to join your group, then you''ll have you take in some Slytherins."


    If it was someone else, they wouldn''t have contemted even for a second, but the person in front of them wasn''t anyone else.


    "I can make your decision easier and get you a highly curated list of people who would want to be part of this group and would keep their lips sealed about it. . . I can guarantee thatst part."


    "Guarantee?" said Hermione.


    Quinn nodded lightly.


    "What else," said Ivy, not fiving Quinn an answer immediately.


    "The group name, Dumbledore''s Army," said Quinn with a sigh, "listen I don'' mind signing my name on the original parchment as everyone did; it wouldn''t be fair to everyone otherwise," circumventing Hermione''s charm was easy enough, "but I would prefer if I''m not taken as part of something known as Dumebldore''s Amry ¡ª so I would seriously suggest changing the name."


    "We can do that," said Ivy immediately because even though they had chosen Dumbledore''s Army as their group name, that was just because they thought of it as fitting. "We''ll get back to you with another name."


    "Great. Next, how is this group going to work," asked Quinn, "what''s going to be the system of learning because I would only attend in an instructor/tutor capacity ¡ª so I would need some amount of freedom on how to conduct things."


    "We were actually thinking about letting those good with a spell or concept to teach others. There are close to fifty people with us, so we thought it would be better to conduct it this way," said Hermione.


    "Good, that''s fine with me. Organize the slots in which you would like me toe in and help out, and I''ll be there."


    "You won''t be there for every session?" said Ivy asking. She thought Quinn would be there every week; she hoped that he would be there every week.


    "If you set me up to teach me every week, then I will be there every session," said Quinn shrugging; he didn''t mind taking a few hours every week to help out the study group ¡ª it would serve as a great break from his othersmitments.


    "Then we will do that," said Ivy without missing a beat.


    Hermione nced at her best friend. She was folding a bit too easily for Quinn''s request. ''Damn, the girl really likes him, huh,'' she thought.


    "Anything else?" asked Hermione.


    "Hmm, nothing I can think at this moment," said Quinn. "I''ll get you the list of names for the Slytherin people. You can approach them and tell them that I rmended them to you guys and that I rmend the study group ¡ª that will jump up the conversion rate."


    "Can you give us an idea who''s going to be on the list?" asked Hermione.


    "Some of my friends and a few regr clients who I think would like to attend."


    The Gryffindor girls knew about the friends, of course. There were only a few that Quinn would call friends.


    The conversation seemed to be over when the office door opened up with the door chime ringing. Quinn looked up while Hermione and Ivy turned back to see Luna enter the room with her satchel by her side and a gand of colorful flowers around her neck.


    "It''s evening," she said.


    "A good evening to you as well, Luna," said Quinn in reply.


    She nced at the Gryffindor girls as she walked to beside Quinn. "You look like a panda. A panda with no chubbiness. A panda without panda level cuteness."


    "No idea how to respond to that, so I will keep myments," he smiled.


    Luna shrugged before taking out a book from her satchel and handing the ancient leather-bound thing to Quinn. "I got the book that you wanted me to get."


    "Thank you," smiled Quinn, and Luna got an entire bar of chocte in return ¡ª something that Quinn didn''t give out that much.


    Luna unwrapped the chocte and took an uneven bite out of it as she turned to Hermione and Ivy. "Did you ask him to join Dumbledore''s Army?" she asked.


    "We did." "They did."


    "Then did he agree?" asked Luna.


    "He did." "I did."


    "That''s nice."


    "It is." "You bet it is."


    While Ivy and Quinn were answering Luna''s questions, Hermione was staring at the book in Quinn''s hand. "What is the book about?" she asked.


    Quinn nced at the book in hand for a moment. "It''s a book about Hogwarts'' Architect, Stigweard Gragg. From what I heard from hounding Madam Pince, she says that this book might be written by the man, the myth, the legend himself."


    "And why are you looking for it? Also, why didn''t you get the book yourself?"


    "I''m just curious about the man who designed the castle, and I''m already at the limit at what I can lend out of the library, so Luna got the book for me on her ount."


    "Stigweard Gragg, was it? He must be quite a person for you to be interested in him."


    "The man who designed hundreds of passages inside this huge castle is bound to be really interesting, isn''t he?" he stared at the walls above, "Even though Hogwarts wasn''t like this at the time it was created, he must''ve thought that someday his creation would turn out like this. I''m trying to peek into the mind of Stigweard Gragg, attempting to see why he chose to do things as he did; what motivated the man to conceive his creations."


    He looked down on him and smiled, "It''s a little. . . project of mine that I have taken up this year. . . I think it will be. . . inspiring."


    "Inspiration is important," said Luna.


    "I think your gand is pretty inspiring, Luna," said Quinn.


    "It''s an arrangement and colorbination that attracts Jauffins. They are supposed to bring luck and make everything go your way. I''m haveid a trap for the Crumpled-Horn Snorcack near the greenhouses and am hoping that one would settle down in thefy trap."


    "The Crumpled-Horn Snorcack doesn''t exist," said Hermione.


    Luna turned to Hermione and red at her heatedly.


    "It does exist," said Luna.


    "It doesn''t. There''s no proof of it," said Hermione, still not willing to indulge in Luna''s ''fantasies.''


    "It does exist. The proof is just yet to be discovered," said Luna in a confident return. "I''m going to find it and show everyone once and for all that Crumpled-Horn Snorcack exists." Then the blonde turned to the red door and disappeared into the workshop but not before mming the heavy, heavy ironden door shut.


    Quinn looked away from the red door and pumped his brow once at the girls.


    "Luna is. . . aplete nonconformist; shecks self-consciousness and is not afraid to show who she truly was. The only way to truly convince her of something is to make Luna experience it. From the fundamental experience to the mostplex things, Luna will only believe in things she has experienced firsthand. . . She believes that the Crumpled-Horn Snorcack exists, and the only way to convince her that it doesn''t is for her to herself look for it fail, or for her to find it and show others that she was right."


    "What if she never finds and yet never gives up?" asked Hermione.


    "Then she will keep looking and keep believing," said Quinn smiling, "it might be a little tacky, but it''s a great mind for learning anything. She applies everything she learns just so that she confirm that the words written in the books and those spoken by me hold the truth."


    "Isn''t that sort of. . . unhealthy," said Ivy.


    "Usually, that would hold much truth. But not with Luna. She is intelligent and smart ¡ª she is critically aware of where is the line," said Quinn in unbreakable confidence. His time with Luna had taught him that she was far from what one feels when imagining crazy or ''Loony.''


    "I still can''t rte to how she thinks," said Hermione, not convinced.


    Quinn got up, prompting the two girls to get up too, "Well, I''m sure you two woulde to realize each other''s perspective with all the time you would be spending with each other in the new study group. . . now,dies, I apologize that we can''t talk any longer, but I have some work to do. . ."


    "Ah, I see," said Ivy, "then please do send us the names."


    "Uh-huh, you''ll have them in your hands'' first thing in the morning."


    As the two were leaving, Quinn spoke the final words, "I''m looking forward to this study group."


    "Us too," said Ivy smiling before raising her and waving it, "Well then, bye."


    Quinn confusedly raised his hand as well and slowly waved back, "Bye?"


    . . .


    Outside, Ivy felt her face heat up, and the gaze of Hermione in her back didn''t help.


    "Bye?" said Hermione.


    ". . . It just slipped out."


    . . .


    Inside, Quinn lowered his hand, the smile gradually drained, and he turned back, walking to his table.


    "Now, let''s get into the messed up mind of the freak Stigweard Gragg," a vein popped on his head, "if this doesn''t work, I''m going to dig his tomb and raid his grave."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Believe it or not, I have a grave robber kit on ready.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I''m back! Let''s get the ball rolling again.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 210 - Educational Decree Twenty-Four

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    On the Monday morning after the meeting at Hog''s Head, Eddie and Marcus headed downstairs from their dormitory together, discussing the correct order of jam and cream on a scone, and not until they were halfway across the sunlitmon room did they notice the addition to the room that had already attracted the attention of a small group of people.


    Arge sign had been affixed to the Ravenw notice board, sorge that it covered everything else on there ¡ª the lists of secondhand spellbooks for sale, the regr reminders of school rules from Argus Filch, the list of new arrivals in the Ravenw library, the Quidditch team training schedule, the offers to barter certain Chocte Frog cards for others, the Weasleys'' new advertisement for product testers, the dates of the Hogsmeade weekends, and the lost-and-found notices. The new sign was printed inrge ck letters, and there was a highly official-looking seal at the bottom beside a neat and curly signature.


    .


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. 24


    ----------- By Order Of -----------


    The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts


    All Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.


    An Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is at this moment defined as a regr meeting of three or more students.


    Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).


    No Student Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.


    Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.


    The above is in ordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty- four.


    Signed:


    Dolores Jane Umbridge


    High Inquisitor


    ----------- Ministry of Magic -----------


    .


    Eddie and Marcus read the notice over the heads of some anxious-looking second years.


    "Does this mean they''re going to shut down the Gobstones Club?" one of them asked his friend.


    "I reckon you''ll be okay with Gobstones," said Eddie, ruffling a second-year''s hair, "I don''t suppose Quinn will be happy with this, though, is he?" asked Eddie to Marcus as the second-years scurried away.


    Marcus was reading the notice through again. His mind turning with the new injection of information. There were a few implications from this notice.


    "No, he will not be happy with this; that much is obvious," said Marcus. "This isn''t a coincidence. She knows. . . somehow she found out."


    "Someone bbed?" Eddie guessed and threw a nce around themon room, "I can''t see anyone with an infestation of e. . . and let''s face it, we don''t know how many of the people who turned up we can trust. . . . Any of them could have run off and told Umbridge . . ."


    Eddie, Quinn, and Luna were already made aware of the jinx ced on them when they signed the parchment; of course, it was a courtesy from their best friend. But he didn''t remove it for them ¡ª they hadmitted to the study group, they were going to be treated like everyone else.


    "Or someone could''ve been listening in that pub. . . we didn''t really get a good look at any of their faces," said Marcus, suggesting another theory.


    "My money is on arse-face, Zacharias Smith," said Eddie scoffing, punching his fist into his palm, "man, I''m going to pop his the jinxed e-face all at once," he shivered, "oh, I can already feel goosebumps." He was convinced that Zacharias Smith was the one who leaked the information.


    "I wonder if Quinn has seen this yet?" Marcus said, ncing around.


    "It doesn''t matter; he will know soon enough."


    "You''re pretty chill," said Marcus, looking over to Eddie, "I thought you would be more pissed at this."


    "Eh, why? We were probably going to do the study group no matter what the situation; this is but a blip in our endeavor."


    "You realize she''s including Quidditch in this. An Organization, Society, Team. . . team as in Quidditch team."


    Eddie''s mouth slowly opened as his eyes read upon the notice once more, and as Marcus had said, it was written right there.


    "Motherfuc¡ª"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The clicking of a wall clock ticked away in the silent AID office as the owner sat behind his office table, reading the ancient tome written on the life of Stigweard Gragg and, in turn, making his way through the enormous amount of garbage written about the Architect.


    "No, I don''t want to know about his neighbor''s wife''s rtionship with his other neighbor. . . maybe some other day, not now," mumbled Quinn with a sigh but picked his pen and made notes ¡ª one never knew where a code might be hidden. "Surely not in the color of his favorite loincloth. . . Ugh, why would someone add this to a biography!"


    But he had no choice to read through this book as the room of the now dubbed Architect''s vault didn''t provide him much information.


    "At least, in the Icy vault, I knew what I had to work towards to seed," he said, grumbling while flipping a page and marking some notes.


    The Icy vault had a mechanism, and just like Architect''s vault, he had no idea how both mechanisms worked (he only got to know the working of the Icy vault mechanism after he entered the inner vault room.) But in Icy vault, Quinn had a direction on how to solve the problem ¡ª here, he only had a problem (to push the pedestal down) and no way to solve it.


    "The pedestal better not be a decoy for the real deal to be hiding somewhere else," he said before again flipping to the next page to start a new chapter in the book.


    "The Magical Adventures of Stigweard Gragg. . . hmm, this might be interesting," he said, but his reading was interrupted when he ''sensed'' someone outside and looked up. A few secondster, the door opened, and ''pink'' entered the room with Argus Filch holding the door for her.


    "You can leave, Argus," said the woman in her sickening voice, and the hunched caretaker left with a bow and a nasty cackle.


    He watched as the toad-like woman gazed at his office with hands sped together in the front and a sickeningly-sweet smile on her face as if she was watching an infant''s yroom.


    Quinn nced down at the open pages in front of him, and a sigh escaped from him.


    "Afternoon, Madam Umbridge," said Quinn as he gently closed the book and put it away in a drawer with his notes. "To what do we owe the pleasure for you to visit my humble abode."


    Umbridge continued to look around his eyes and move from one wall to the ss wall. She raised her hand and touched the ss. . . her fingers curled up into a w, and her manicured, sharp pink nails dragged down on the surface, but they failed to do damage because of the series of treatments that the ss had gone through.


    The woman looked dissatisfied and raised her hand to look at her nails then back at the ss.


    "Good afternoon, Mr. West," said Umbridge finally, "I have heard about this club of yours a lot," she reached into her purse and took out a ck card, "AID services. . . you have been running this club for quite a few years, and I have heard nothing but promising words about it."


    "Thank you," said Quinn nonchntly.


    "But did you not see Educational Decree Number Twenty- four?" she said, moving towards his table step-by-step, "all Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded."


    "I did see that, but don''t you think it was a bit too aggressive ¡ª to shut down every long-standing club, formal or informal?"


    "Of course not, my dear," the smile on her face widened, "it''s all to improve academics of Hogwarts students ¡ª it''s for their own good. I''m simply trying to guide the children to grow into functioning part of the society as model citizens."


    "But you ever closed the educational clubs ¡ª transfiguration, charms, astronomy, and the other ones. Those clubs were a ce for students to share, increase, and consolidate their knowledge."


    "Nonsense, the ministry-approved taught in the ssroom is more than enough," sweetness rolled off from Umbridge''s tongue as her tone became one used with little children, "and if the children do think that an organization is indeed beneficial to them, a provision is given for reinstation ¡ª they would just need to tell me the benefits."


    Quinn picked a parchment on his table and read from it, "Seventeen applications were submitted to you today, and you rejected every single one of them bar one ¡ª that one exception being the Slytherin Quidditch Team. . . and out of the sixteen rejections, one of them was Professor Sprouts'' outdoor club for extra herbology exploration for the interested ones. . . your provision doesn''t seem to make sense, Madam Umbridge."


    "The Slytherin Quidditch Team members all have outstanding grades ¡ª there wasn''t a need to disband them because of their excellent academic performance," Umbridge had reached the table, and as she spoke, she tried to take a look at the parchment in Quinn''s hand, but he had held it vertical enough for her not being able to see a single word.


    Quinnughed as he had heard the best joke of the year. "And Ravenw Quidditch Team doesn''t?" he said, "it took you," ¡ª a look at the parchment ¡ª "a total of two minutes for you to dismiss the team captain Roger Davies and reject the application. . . . Do you, a Hogwarts graduate, really think that a group of Ravenw students would have poor grades, surely not."


    Umbridge fixedly stared at the parchment in Quinn''s hand.


    "Mr. West, what''s that parch¡ª"


    Quinn cut her off at once and apathetically stared while directly asking what seemed to be a question with an obvious answer.


    "Why are you here, Madam Umbridge?" he asked.


    "That''s Professor Umbridge to you, Mr. West."


    "First teach me something, then I will think about it. I''m more willing to address the author of the reference as my Professor than you."


    Umbridge''s smile twitched a bit, "Detention check for that cheek, Mr. West."


    "With pleasure," said Quinn with a shrug, "Give me a time and ce, and I will be there."


    "Good, at least you''re notpletely without manners," said Umbridge with a smug smile. "Now, I want to you two close this little yhouse," she sighed, "what were the Professors thinking giving a studentplete control over a ssroom and allowing him to run this ridiculous charade. There''s a reason why Prefects, Headboy, and Headgirls are selected ¡ª they''ll help their fellow students and not this ridiculousness from you."


    Quinn raised a finger and pointed at the Prefect pin on his robe''spel, "I''m a Prefect if you haven''t noticed."


    "I''m aware, Mr. West," Umbridge said in a chiding tone, "but you have been wasting your time on this before you were a Prefect ¡ª I, in good standing, can''t allow for this to continue any longer. You''ll return the room key to the caretaker first thing in the morning."


    Quinn shook his head to that.


    "You can''t order me to that," he said and took a roll of parchment from a drawer, "I was granted the permission to use this room and turn it into AID''s office from Professor Flitwick. You don''t have the authority to shut me down."


    Umbridge giggled without opening her mouth, which Quinn thought was quite disturbing.


    "You don''t have the choice, Mr. West," she smiled, "Education Decree Twenty-four grants me, the High Inquisitor, to dismiss any Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs."


    Quinn softlyughed a few chuckles before his face immediately lost all joy in an instant. "You don''t have that authority, Madam Umbridge."


    Umbridge made a half-confused face mixed. "Did you not hear me, Mr. West? Education Decree Twenty-four¡ª"


    "Allows the High Inquisitor to disband Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs," Quinn raised his chin and smiled deeply, "But an Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is at this moment defined as a regr meeting of, ¡ª Quinn raised three fingers, ¡ª "three or more students. . . . and AID," ¡ª his three fingers turned to two, ¡ª "is a two-person venture," Quinn''s smile turned lop-sided, "We don''t qualify as an Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club. . . so as I said ¡ª you don''t have the authority."


    Umbridge''s smile turned stiff. The pink-d woman stilled in her chair as she watched Quinn''s smile drop once again into total apathy as he continued to stare at her as if waiting for her to leave.


    "I''m the High Inquisitor," she said.


    "And your power is over the Professors and from the Education Decrees implemented from the Ministry," said Quinn straightforwardly, "you can''t shut AID down because. . . you ¡ª don''t ¡ª have ¡ª the ¡ª authority."


    "You will obey me!" Umbridge''s breathing started to quicken as her voice rose shriller and louder.


    "You can''t make me."


    Umbridge''s vision started to turn red as she began to shake with fury.


    "I''m the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. YOU WILL OBEY ME!" she was yelling by the end of her sentence.


    Quinn once again shook his head in disagreement. "You''re on sabbatical. You don''t have that authority. Even if you did, you still wouldn''t have any power over me. I''m not a criminal or in trouble with thew, after all."


    "Detention! Detention! Detention for the entire month!" yelled Umbridge, her voice turning harshly high.


    "Get an Education Decree, and then we will talk about shutting me down," said Quinnughing casually before getting up, "Come on, Madam Umbridge. Let''s go and get this over with."


    "What?" said Umbridge acidly.


    "I was going to your detention punishment," Quinn pointed his fake wand up, and the MLEs dimmed, "but now, I''m going to have them annulled."


    "You can''t do that," the she-toad scoffed.


    "But, I can," Quinn walked to the door and held it open, e on, let''s see who''s correct, you or me," he grinned, "or do you think I''m in the right here and your detention was out of malice."


    "No! Of course not," said Umbridge harrumphing, "let''s go and see this farce over. I want to see what nonsense you''re talking about."


    "After you," said Quinn, gesturing her to exit first, "I don''t feel safe and am worried you''ll hex me in the back. Not that I would be able to defend myself ¡ª you haven''t taught me anything that would allow me to do so."


    . . .


    In a ssroom in the Charms wing of Hogwarts, fifth-year lions and serpents listened to Filius Flitwick, a Master of Charms, and the Charms Professor at Hogwarts as he guided them through the theory behind the Growth Charm ¡ª a charm that allowed the user to increase the size of an object.


    "Children, please take note as to not confuse the incantation of the Growth Charm for that of the Color Changing Charm ¡ª I have seen many students make this particr mistake in their OWLs and lose marks in practicals where losing marks isn''t warranted one bit," said Flitwick from his spot behind the teacher''s podium, standing on a stack of erged books, "and please, I say this time and time again, please don''t hesitate about asking me questions and solving any doubts you might have."


    There was a loud knock on the door, and before anyone could even turn to look, a shrill voice pierced everyone''s year.


    "Filius! I would like to talk to you. Would you please step out!"


    Every pair of eyes turned to the door to see Umbridge standing at the threshold, arms crossed with foot tapping against the floor, looking absolutely livid.


    "Dolores. . . I''m in the middle of a ss," said Flitwick sighing, "you can meet me in the office when I''m free. I would like you to leave now; I want to continue teaching."


    "This is important!" said Umbridge heatedly.


    "I''m sure it can wait," but Flitwick didn''t share the sentiment.


    Gryffindors and Slytherin watched as Umbridge''s face grew red, and just when everyone was about to think that she was about to blow up, another voice from outside the ssroom spoke up.


    "Let me try," everyone watched as Quinn West came into view, "Professor, may I have a moment of your time. It will only take a minute," he then turned to the ss and bowed his head politely, "Hello, everyone, I hope I''m not disturbing your close. Sorry, but I will need the Professor for just a bit."


    Faced with the same request once again but from another person who also turned out to be his favorite student, Flitwick jumped down from the stack of books.


    "Of course, Quinn," said the half-goblin in his squeaky voice. He turned to his ss, "I will be back in a moment; pleaseplete your notes; we will start casting the charm when I return."


    As Flitwick, Umbridge, and Quinn went out; inside the ssroom, Ron turned to Harry and asked, "What do you think that was about?"


    "I have no idea," said the bespectacled Potter.


    "Umbridge didn''t look happy, that''s for sure," said Hermione, but then a thought shed into her mind, "Quinn didn''t tell Umbridge about DA, did he?"


    "What rubbish are you talking about. Of course, he didn''t," said Ivy in instant denial. "But, I''m curious what they are talking about," she stood up, "I will go listen what''s it about."


    "Ivy! Wait, don''t go!" but Hermione''s efforts went unheeded as Ivy sneaked to beside the door, listening to what was going on.


    Outside, Flitwick looked up at Quinn and asked, "Now, what''s this about?" The half-goblin acted as if he couldn''t see Umbridge fuming.


    "I''m here to contest an unjust detention," he nudged his chin to Umbridge.


    "He lies!" hissed Umbridge, "he refuses to call me Professor even after my countless times asking. My detention is just, and he will follow it!"


    "Quinn, is she telling the truth?" asked Flitwick, ignoring the menace to society.


    "I did no such thing, Professor Flitwick," said Quinn innocently, "you be the witness of my character, Professor. Have in all my years at Hogwarts ever failed to give respect to the faculty? I have always given respect where it''s due," ¡ª Quinn faced Umbridge with a hurt expression ¡ª "Professor Umbridge, I know that you''re angry, but I couldn''t just stand still and watch the Educational Decree''s integrity be damaged by someone using abusing them. . . . even if that someone is as prestigious as you, the High Inquisitor."


    Flitwick''s pointed ears twitched at Quinn''s words. "Quinn, what do you mean by Education Decree being abused."


    "Don''t listen to him!" said Umbridge shrieking, "he''s lying!"


    "Professor Umbridge came into my office saying to shut down AID immediately because it went against Educational Decree Twenty-four, but then I politely pointed out that AID didn''te under the specified definition of Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs. . . but then. . ."


    When Quinn trailed off, Flitwick stepped closer and urged.


    "Don''t be afraid, Quinn. I will not let injustice fall upon you," said the Ravenw head of the house.


    Quinn ''diffidently'' nced at Umbridge before continuing, "S-She threatened me with her Senior Undersecretary position. I could only bring her here ¡ª I''m sorry if I brought you trouble, Professor. . . . I know she''s the High Inquisitor."


    "You don''t need to worry about me, Quinn," said Flitwick, standing taller, "you don''t need to worry about me," he frowned towards Umbridge. "Quinn, I believe you. I officially annul your detention; you''re free to go."


    "You can''t do that!" yelled Umbridge.


    "I can, and I''m doing it," said Flitwick in a no-nonsense tone, "this detention wasn''t given in your ss ¡ª Any detention assigned outside of a ss can be reviewed by Head of House, and I with that authority annul this detention."


    "You believe him instead of ME?!"


    "Yes, I do. . . I believe my top student of six years who I nominated as a Prefect instead of. . . well, you," Flitwick shrugged, then turned to Quinn, "You can go, Quinn. I will take care of her."


    Quinn nodded appreciatively, and as he walked by Umbridge, he sneakily gave her a smirk that only served to infuriate her more.


    But before he left, Quinn nonchntly sneaked into the Charms ssroom and stood real close to not one but two eavesdroppers.


    "You know, it''s not good to listen in on conversations," he smiled, "Ivy, Daphne. . ."


    Ivy''s eyes widened in surprise, and she hastily turned to see Daphne standing right behind her.


    "When! . . how long have you been here?!" said Ivy shocked at Daphne''s stealth skills and her failed perception check.


    "From the very start," said Daphne rolling her eyes before turning back to Quinn, "Are you alright? It sounded very serious."


    "Meh, it''s fine," said Quinn off-handedly, "she was trying to throw her weight around; nothing I can''t handle."


    "Are you sure that was a good move; she will try to make things difficult for you," said Ivy sounding worried.


    "Eh, once again nothing I can''t handle. . . hmm, but you''re right ¡ª I might just nip the bud before she bes extra annoying," said Quinn, seeing the point before looking at both the two girls.


    "So, Daphne. Will you be attending the little study group?" he asked.


    "Shh!" said Ivy; Umbridge was right outside. "Also, how did you know I asked her?"


    "Of course, I know what''s going," said Quinn, acting cool and staring deeply into Ivy''s eye, "I always know what''s going on."


    "Astoria must''ve told him," said Daphne shattering the cool moment. She turned to Ivy and spoke, "Astoria, Tracey, and I will be attending."


    "Okay, then you''ll have to add your name to the list," said Ivy.


    "Ahem, well, I will take a leave before Professor Flitwickes along," said Quinn pping his hand, "I need to go back, my break is going to be over soon, and I need to get my book bag from my office. . . I will see you two around."


    "Bye-bye," said Ivy while waving her hand and immediately regretted it.


    ". . . Bye," said Quinn, once again feeling a little confused.


    After Quinn left, Ivy turned to Daphne and found the blonde looking at her strangely. She could only avert her eyes and walk away ¡ª after all, she was aware of how Daphne felt about Quinn.


    That day, the news of the incident spread far and wide in Hogwarts.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Naw, biatch.


    Dolores Umbridge - Pink-toad - She was found shrieking at anything and everything in her path.


    Filius Flitwick - Head of House - You ain''t touching my fledglings.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - ( . . . )


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 211 - Putting DA Into RoR

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Angelina sat in a corner of the Gryffindormon room, sulking gloomily as she tried to merge into the cushions of her chair ¡ª her year wasn''t going as she had nned; having just received the reigns of the Gryffindor quidditch team as the captain, Angelina was looking forward to building a cup-winning team, but then Umbridge and her Education Decrees had ruined her chance of her doing that by taking away the thing she was looking most forward this year.


    Furthermore, it was painful to tell her teammates the same and watch their crestfallen expressions, which she was sure that her face matched. Alicia, George, and Fred, along with herself, had taken the decision quite deeply because this was going to be theirst year at Hogwarts and thus theirst chance to y together ¡ª something they hadn''t done since their fifth year.


    ''If not for the tournamentst year, we wouldn''t have gotten the chance to yst year,'' she thought and couldn''t imagine how it would feel to not y quidditch for two straight years.


    She heaved a deep sigh, one of many that day.


    "You really are down in the dumps." Angelina raised her head and saw Harry standing in front of her, smiling consolingly at her.


    "This year sucks," she spat with force but then deted, "it was supposed to be the best year ¡ª and not. . . this, whatever this is."


    "Cheer up, you know. Nothing is going to happen by sulking here in the corner," said Harry quietly, when she told him, "because we''ve found somewhere to have our first Defense meeting. Tonight, eight o''clock, the seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie and Alicia?"


    She was slightly taken aback but promised to tell the others; Harry smiled and was about to leave when he turned back towards her and spoke.


    "Listen. . . this might not help, but there''s no harm in trying," he said slowly. "Quinn ising to the meeting today ¡ª maybe you can talk to him about this. . . Quinn just might be able to help," ¡ª Harry chuckled ¡ª "he did make a joke out of Umbridge, so there might be something he might be able to do. Why don''t you give it a try."


    A light appeared in Angelina''s eyes. Yes, Harry was right, she thought. Quinn was able to protect AID from Umbridge''s ugly clutches; he just might be able to help him.


    "If I bring along Diggory and Carmichael along with me, he might do something," she said with a renewed vigour, "yes, he has been thementator for so long and even organized the tournamentst year ¡ª he surely will be able to us." she stood up from her seat and hugged Harry, "Thank you, Harry. I''ll go tell Alicia and Katie. We''ll be ready for today."


    "O-Oh," said Harry, a bit taken aback at the bombastic restoration of energy, "Best of Luck. I also can''t wait to go back to practice and y for the cup."


    After Angelina left, Harry turned around to find Hermione watching him.


    "What?" he said.


    "Well, are you sure we can trust Dobby''s n. . . he''s not the most reliable of people, you know," she said.


    "This room isn''t just some mad idea of Dobby''s. He even brought a house-elf friend of his, and he vouched for the room''s existence."


    "Hmm, oh well, that''s all right then," said Hermione briskly and chose not to raise any more objections.


    Together with Ron and Ivy, divided into two teams, they had spent most of the day seeking out those people who had signed their names to the list in the Hog''s Head and telling them where to meet that evening. By the end of dinner, he was confident that the news had been passed to everyone who had turned up in the Hog''s Head.


    At half-past seven, Harry, Ivy, Ron, and Hermione left the Gryffindormon room, Harry clutching a particr piece of aged parchment in his hand. Fifth years were allowed to be out in the corridors until nine o''clock, but all three of them kept looking around nervously as they made their way up to the seventh floor.


    "Hold it," said Harry warningly, unfolding the piece of parchment at the top of thest staircase, tapping it with his wand, and muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."


    A map of Hogwarts appeared upon the nk surface of the parchment. Tiny ck moving dots,belled with names, showed where various people were.


    "Filch is on the second floor," said Harry, holding the map close to his eyes and scanning it closely, "and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth."


    "And Umbridge?" said Hermione anxiously.


    "In her office," said Harry, pointing. "Okay, let''s go."


    They hurried along the corridor to the ce Dobby had described to Harry, a stretch of nk wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy''s foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.


    "Okay," said Harry quietly, while a moth-eaten troll paused in his relentless clubbing of the would-be ballet teacher to watch. "Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need."


    They did so, turning sharply at the window just beyond the nk stretch of wall, then at the man-size vase on its other side. Ron had screwed up his eyes in concentration, Hermione was whispering something under her breath, Ivy simply closed her eyes, Harry''s fists were clenched as he stared ahead of him.


    ''We need somewhere to learn to fight. . . .'' he thought. ''Just give us a ce to practice . . . somewhere they can''t find us . . .''


    "Harry," said Hermione sharply as they wheeled around after their third walk past.


    A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. Ron was staring at it, looking slightly wary. Harry reached out, seized the brass handle, pulled open the door, and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.


    The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairs, there wererge silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and arge, cracked Foe-ss that Harry was sure had seen the previous year, in the fake Moody''s ssroom.


    "These will be good when we''re practicing Stunning," said Ron enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot.


    "And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the hefty leather-bound tomes. "A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions . . . The Dark Arts Outsmarted . . . Self-Defensive Spellwork . . . wow . . ." She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of books had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing was right. "Harry, this is wonderful; there''s everything we need here!"


    And without further ado, she slid Jinxes for the Jinxed from its shelf, sank onto the nearest cushion, and began to read.


    There was a gentle knock on the door. Harry looked around; Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean had arrived.


    "Whoa," said Ginny, staring around, impressed. "What is this ce?" Harry began to exin, but before he had finished, more people had arrived, and he had to start all over again. By the time eight o''clock arrived, every cushion was upied.


    Except for one person.


    "Belby," called Ivy, "where is Quinn?"


    Marcus took out a pocket watch he had gotten as a gift; the time was one minute to eight, and the second hand was ten clicks from striking twelve on the clock dial.


    "He will be here at eight," said Marcus, looked at the door, "three. . . two. . . one¡ª"


    The door opened on point, with thest person remaining stepped inside.


    "Good evening, people," said Quinn with a smile as he looked over the gathered crowd. "It''s nice to see all of you gathered here ¡ª the unity that I''m seeing between the four houses fills my heart with pride, joy, and warmth. . ." ¡ª he spread his arms wide ¡ª "so, to all of you guys, I say. . . get out of here, at once."


    There was a spell of silence that descended over the room. It took a while for everyone to register Quinn''s words and triggered a cluster of whispers among each other.


    "Did you take a strange, untested potion again?" asked Eddie. "I told you to test out on the second-year twirps before taking it on your own."


    "I didn''t take anything," said Quinn, "but I seriously need you guys to get out so that I can do my job, which is to teach you guys properly" ¡ª he pped his hands ¡ª "now, get out,e on, hurry."


    Luna was the first to stand up and walk out of the Room of Requirements without question; she was followed by Marcus and Eddie along with the Ravenw crowd; the next to leave was all the Slytherin students who hade here because of Quinn''s rmendation. Seeing that half of the people had left, Hufflepuff also got up and left with Cedric in the lead, who followed after Cho.


    "Come one, guys. I want to start quickly," said Quinn urging the Gryffindor to follow.


    Fred and George shrugged and left the Room of Requirements and the rest of the quidditch team (sans Harry and the newly recruited Ron). Ginny followed after her brothers, and soon everyone left, leaving the Golden Squad remaining in the room with Quinn.


    "What are you doing?" asked Ron.


    "Trying to get this group started," said Quinn in reply, "we will get started the minute this room empties out."


    Ivy matched eyes with Quinn for a moment before she sighed and nodded to the other three. Finally, everyone in the room, including Quinn.


    "Now, we can finally start," said Quinn to the crowd behind him as the door to the Room of Requirements disappeared. "You guys choosing this room was the greatest decision you made in your school life. . ." ¡ª The Golden Squad watched with wide eyes as Quinn marched back and forth. ¡ª "but, you, the newbies, don''t understand the real abilities of the Room of Requirements."


    He knows about the room, they thought.


    An ornate door with webs andworks of lines crossing in intricate patterns had appeared in the wall. Quinn touched the center of the handleless door, and the entire door disappeared as melting into the air, leaving a gaping arched doorway in the wall.


    If the room previously was spacious, then this room was even more so. It was lit with MLEs (purposely dropped in the Room of Lost Things by Quinn). The library was much smaller than the previous one and only held the necessary bare-minimum books on their shelves. . . but that was it; there was nothing else inside.


    The gathered crowd looked around with doubt, wondering if Quinn knew what he was doing.


    "Are you sure know how this works?" asked Tracey.


    "Of course, I know," said Quinn with a chuckle, "I have been using the Room of Requirement ever since my first year."


    The Golden Squad''s jaw dropped at the shocking revtion. They more or less understood the essence of the Room of Requirments ¡ª and to think that Quinn had been using this room for five years, this being his sixth, was mind-blowing.


    "And you, you fucking mingebag, never thought of telling us about this," said Eddie with his arms crossed.


    "A man needs his space, you know," said Quinn in defense with a smile, "this is my secret treehouse as to speak," he then sighed, "not anymore though; all of you guys now are aware of its existence," ¡ª which Quinn didn''t mind as Project: Babel was over, and because. . .


    "A piece of warning though," said Quinn with his tone dipping deeper, "no one will use this room except me ¡ª I will be the one who will call for the Room of Requirements to provide our needs and no one else."


    "Why?" asked Dean Thomas, frowning.


    "So that this magical room doesn''t turn into a broom closet for people to snog and shag," Quinn'' bluntness made many blush, "I don''t want any of you willy-nillying to this part of the floor whenever you desire ¡ª if anyonees here out of the meeting timings, they will be penalized and don''t try to be sneaky about it ¡ª I will know when someonees here."


    "But why do you get to be the one to be in charge of this?" said Zacharias Smith haughtily.


    Quinn inly smiled and raised his arms, "Because I know more about Room of Requirements than any living person on this."


    Quinn then raised his arms wide.


    It was instantaneous. Starting from the color of the floor to the shape of the walls and the size of the room, everything shifted as if everything before was simply an illusion lifted to reveal the thing.


    ". . . The Great Hall," said Cedric at the ''new'' room they stood in.


    Cedric''s words made everyone''s eyes sh in recognition; the room was indeed like the Great Hall ¡ª an empty Great Hall with only the shape and size resembling strikingly to where everyone ate their meals; there were no house long-tables, no paintings and hanging candles, no faculty''s high table, and nothing.


    "I have been using it for so long that I know how to operate the Room of Requirements."


    Quinn pped once and instantly, and simultaneously, two humanoid target dummies appeared on either side of him. He raised his hand straight up ¡ª everyone looked up ¡ª and when Quinn snapped his fingers, a dummy came out of the ceiling.


    "I can control everything in this room," said Quinn. The temperature dropped a few degrees at his words, but everyone felt heat in the room the next moment. "I can do anything I imagine; of course, the room must be able to provide my request ¡ª but with the time I have spent here, I know what the room is capable of and what''s out of its ability."


    The group watched as dummy after dummy started popping in the room ¡ª no matter what direction they turned, where they looked, there was a dummy there waiting for them.


    From the corner of her vision, Daphne noticed something and looked down to see. . . herself ¡ª the floor was polished enough for her to see her own reflection. The next second, she felt her feet sink into grey sand before everything went back to normal.


    "So, what''s the agenda for today?" said Quinn beaming after he had demonstrated his authority and established himself as the manager of the Room of Requirements ¡ª if no one was going to use it besides the meetings, then he would have it for the remaining time ¡ª just as usual.


    Hermione raised her hand immediately.


    "I think we ought to elect a leader," she said.


    Quinn shrugged, "Sure, we can do that. How do you want to do this?"


    "By putting it to a vote. It makes it formal, and it gives them authority. So ¡ª everyone who you think ought to be our leader?"


    The group looked at specific people ¡ª Cedric, Harry, Quinn, Hermione. . . but there was no one in the majority.


    "I vote for Ivy," said Quinn, raising his hand high. "Who''s with me?"


    Ivy stirred in shock surprise, acutely bing aware of everyone''s gaze.


    "I have no problem with that," agreed Eddie, shrugging, "I vote for the good Potter." Marcus nodded to show his agreement on the matter, with Luna raising both her hands in support.


    Then everybody their hands up ¡ª a lot of them had been approached by Ivy(and Hermione), and others knew of her, so they had no reason to deny her the leader role.


    "Er ¡ª right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning. "And ¡ª what, Hermione?"


    "The name. I think that before starting, we should decide on that before we start," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don''t you think?"


    Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully. "Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.


    "I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn''t tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."


    "The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The fits with DA for short, and nobody will know what we''re talking about?"


    There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring at this.


    "All in favor of the DA?" said Ivy, taking her role as the leader, "That''s a majority ¡ª motion passed!"


    She pinned the piece of paper with all of their names on it on the wall and was about to write the name when ise Zabaini from Slytherin spoke up in interjection.


    "Wait," he said, "how about we don''t write the name down," ¡ª he gazed at everyone who were looking back at him ¡ª "this is a secret group, and while it would best to have no name to keep things most secretive ¡ª but for unity and team building, we chose the name ¡ª however for a secret to be strong, there must not be a paper trail. . . so I suggest that we don''t write it down ¡ª DA will only be kept in our thoughts and nothing else."


    "As expected from a Slytherin and the son of the infamous ck Widow," said Quinn with a smile, making ise squirm about his mother being mentioned. "I am in total andplete agreement with Zabini ¡ª let''s not write anything that happens here down ¡ª everything that happens stays in our heads."


    Ivy, being the leader, thought for a moment before nodding. "Rule Number #1: No one except Quinn will ess this room; he will be the one to request for DA. Rule Number #2: Nothing that happens here must ever be written down ¡ª not in your diaries or letters home. . . . We will make rules as we move along," she finished.


    She turned to Quinn and ordered, "We should start. Please begin."


    Quinn smiled and turned towards the group.


    "Let''s start some magic, shall we?"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Room of Requirements is my asset. I will hold the key to it.


    Ivy Potter - Leader - . . . Alright, so I''m the leader now. . . okay, so first rules.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I have been thinking about the next chapter for a very long time.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 212 - DA Files: First-Day Duels

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Now that a leader was selected in Ivy, and after ise Zabini''s suggestion of not putting anything in the meetings in writing, the jinxed list of names was ced up on the wall, everyone was on the same page, ready and excited to start.


    "Right," said Quinn, "before we start, how about we see where every one of us stand when ites to," he did air quotes, "dueling or just casting magic in general," ¡ª he smiled broadly ¡ª "to check that out, we are going to have some battles."


    There was once again a murmur of activity among the group ¡ª some were excited about the prospect of dueling, while the others were a bit nervous about dueling in front of so many people.


    "So, who is going to volunteer toe up to the front," said Quinn, and a wide circle of color red appeared on the floor with him in the center. "There''s nothing to be shy about here; this will help you know where you were on the very first day, and when you look at your performance at the end of the year, you all will see how much you have progressed."


    Quinn looked around the Room of Requirement and saw that no one was stepping up.


    "Come on, people; don''t make me call someone up. I want some active, willing participation," he looked around the group that stood around him in a circle.


    "Alright, if no one is going toe up," said Quinn, "then I will choose. . . Tracey Davis and Padma Patil. . .e on you two, get inside the circle and show us what you got."


    The Ravenw cheered as Padma stepped out of the bronze and blue group, took a spot in the circle with her wand out by her side, and raised her chin up a smidge in confidence. On the opposite side, Tracey smiled beamingly and threw her outer robe off(which Daphne had to catch)as she advanced into the circle with a hop in her step.


    "Now,dies," said Quinn smiling, "you can choose any spell you desire to defeat your opponent ¡ª but keep in mind that I don''t want fatal injuries; a few scratches and bruises are permissible, but nothing that can''t be treated on the spot. . . now, I will stop and let you two y. . . you may begin when the red below your feet turn green."


    He stepped outside the circle, and the two girls stepped forward, facing each other with their wands pointed at each other in attention. Quinn nced at the two girls, and with a thought, the red circle turned green.


    The first one to move was the nimbler Padma, who flourished her wand and whipped a Disarming charm ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS" ¡ª the scarlet spell zapped at Tracey. . . but Padma had misaimed as the spell light missed Tracey''s arm and went over her shoulder, only able to push aside some hair.


    Tracey stiffened as Padma frowned at her spell missing. Then Tracey saw Padma raise her wand again, so she finally let her held breath out and moved her wand as well.


    "STUPEY," chanted Padma, but just at the end of the wand movement, ¡ª "CARPE RETRACTUM" ¡ª Padma''s wand hand was caught in a reddish-yellow cord wrapping around her wrist.


    Tracey cast one of the spells that she was mostfortable with and yanked. Padma felt her hand tugged forward, and with her aim disturbed, her Stunning spell zapped into the floor. Seeing that she had messed her opponent''s bnce, Tracey swung her hammer when the iron was hot ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS" ¡ª Padma''s wand slipped out her hand and dropped right beside her feet.


    "Yes!" eximed Tracey raising both her hands up, "I won!"


    Eddie immediately started pping loudly, earning him a very pretty smile from Tracey ¡ª it made the boy very happy.


    "Okay, that was decent for a starting point," said Quinn stepping back into the circle as it turned red, ¡ª "Padma, you need to improve your aim; you had excellent speed and job well done on gaining that initiative, but your aim ruined what could have been a one spell victory." He turned to Tracey, "Tracey, while your start was poor, your use of Seize-and-Pull charm was excellent; you made Padma lose bnce, which allowed you to get that Disarming charm in for the finish ¡ª but your Disarming charm wasn''t impressive, Padma''s wand should have shot out of her hand, far away, not fall beside her feet."


    Quinn turned to everyone, "If you''re going to use the Disarming charm, then you''ll have to perfect it to the point that either you can force the target''s wand out to a substantial distance, or you can direct it right into YOUR hands."


    Alicia Spi of Gryffindor raised her hand.


    "That spell. . . Seize-and-Pull. Will we be learning that?" she asked.


    "Yes, we will be going over Seize-and-Pull. It''s a versatile spell you can use in a variety of ways, and it''s one of my favorite spells," he said, "Alright, who''s next? Who wants to duel to assert magical dominance?"


    Two hands went up in perfect unison.


    " "Us." "


    A smile made its way to Quinn''s face. He turned to the speakers.


    "Weasley twins. . . will this be the day that everyone knows who''s the better twins, the better half, the superior menace?"


    "That was a never question," said Fred, smiling, "everyone knows I''m the better one."


    "And that''s exactly why I''m the better one," said George, smirking, "if you believe that everyone thinks that you''re the better one ¡ª then you must be dumber than I imagined."


    "Shut up, Gred." "Sod off, Forge."


    Quinn rubbed his hands together as the Weasley twins entered the circle with confidence and swagger in their bodies. They took out their wands, and like many previous times, Quinn noticed that their wands were nothing alike ¡ª they didn''t have twin cores as both wands were brought second-hand.


    While it wasn''t amon urrence, neither was it rare, but there were times that magicals grew out of their wands, their preferences changed, and their magic no longer reacted to their wands as it used to before. Other times, the wand cores expired and lost the magical nature that allowed them to conduct magic.


    When it was the former, many people chose to sell their old wands to wandmakers in return for a discount on their new wands. The wandmakers would then refurbish the old wands and sell them at a lower market price to people who couldn''t afford new ones.


    This was the case with Fred and George.


    ''Pity, it would''ve made an interesting case study for twin cores in the hands of identical twins,'' thought Quinn.


    "Alright, wands at ready!" announced Quinn with an uumph in his voice.


    Fred and George raised their wands with grins on their faces. They stared at each other while their peripherals watched the circle below their feet. The moment red turned green, their magic thrummed into activity.


    "INCARCEREOUS," yelled Fred, and braided ropes with weights at ends shot towards George.


    George boisterousughed and swiped his wand ¡ª "DIFFINDO!" ¡ª the ropes were cut right from the middle, and the weights pulled the cut ropes to either side.


    "That''s not how you cast Incarcerous, brother mine!"ughed George, "this is how you do it!" ¡ª "INCARCEREOUS!"


    Unlike Fred''s ropes, George produced a steel chain with just a minor alteration in the wand movement. Fred''s eyes widened, but so did his grin; his magic surged through his wand ¡ª "FERRUM ROTA!"


    A ripple of steel bubbled out from a point in front of Fred to form a disc.


    ng. . . sparks flew as steel met steel. The shield cracked on the impact, but it did its work as the steel chain lost its momentum, dropped to the ground, and both conjurations vanished the second they hit the floor.


    " "EXPELLIARMUS!" "


    Scarlet ripped from both brothers as a battle of attrition ensued. Both brothers exerted force as red versus red pushed each other for a few seconds.


    "You''re good, brother mine," said Fred smiling when the spell stopped.


    "You''re not bad," said George,ughing.


    "Then, let''s get this over with ¡ª" "¡ª one spell is all we needed."


    " "STUPEFY!" "


    Two red spells burst out of the wands and zoomed through the air. In real life, things were never so perfect; the spells didn''t meet in the middle and passed each other, missing each other by mere inches and hitting their targets squarely in their chests.


    Fred and George stiffened for a moment before their kneed buckled, body swayed, and their bodies crumbled onto the ground simultaneously.


    Quinn stepped into the circle, and it turned red. He stared at the unconscious twins for a while before turning to the crowd.


    "Who can cast Reviving spell or Rennervate?" he asked.


    A lot of hands went up.


    "Good," said Quinn as he gazed through the crowd, "okay, Goldstein and Astoria, please step forward and give pointers to Maisy Reynolds and Dennis Creevey, who will then revive the brothers."


    As the four people stepped out nervously and started tomunicate with each other, Quinn addressed the group.


    "As you saw there in the end," he said, pointing to the twins, "not every time will the spells meet each other ¡ª no, most of the times, the spells won''t meet each other ¡ª it takes aim or luck to get spells to meet each other, so don''t rely on canceling spells each other or on entering a contest of force because they won''t go as you might think ¡ª there''s a reason why defensive spells exits and of course, we will be learning themter."


    Theodore Nott from Slytherin raised his hand.


    "Shield charm, Protego. . . when this spell exists, why is there a need for other shield charms like. . ." he nced at the unconscious twins, wondering who was who, ". . . one of the twins used. Is there an advantage?''


    "Excellent question," said Quinn appreciatively, "Protego is a versatile spell with its variations, and it can be used to block a variety of attacks, but in its basic form, Protego is a defensive shield that works better for spells and charms, whichck the material aspect to them ¡ª as in the spells which don''t conjure something. . . like, Stunning charm doesn''t conjure something physical, but the Bluebell-Fire spell conjures a blue fire. . . if those two spells were shot at a Protego shield, the Bluebell-Fire would have a greater chance at breaching the shield than the Stunning spell''s spell light. . . and that''s why there exist a myriad of defensive shield spells: to defend against various offensive spells."


    As Quinn answered the question, Dennis Creevey and Maisy Reynolds had fumbled through various Reviving spells and were able to wake the Weasley twins up.


    "That was an entertaining showdown, twins," said Quinn, "but let''s keep the talking to a minimum. There won''t be much of that in the field, and if your opponent starts talking, then that means they won''t be chanting, so get in a good hit while they are busy yapping their mouths."


    " "Aye-aye, captain." "


    Quinn turned to the four people who he had called out and spoke to the entire group.


    "This is how we are going to do things here," he said, "those who know how to do something will teach those who don''t. In that way, both sides will profit in the way that the teachers will consolidate their knowledge, and they will find their own faults, and the students will learn a new spell. . . so get ready to teach because everyone will be doing a lot of it."


    "Good, then let''s bring in the next pair," said Quinn, "who''s up? Come on, get in here quickly. . . I want to cover as many people as I can today. Everyone here needs to know who they are going to learn from so they know who to approach."


    It was Eddie who strutted into the circle with confidence(which looked like arrogance to many). And seeing that Eddie had stepped, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the one who had just fought the Dark Lord a few months back, all but hastily hopped into the circle.


    Harry was excited. It was no secret that he and Eddie didn''t get along ¡ª both of them were at each other''s throats whenever they met. They both yed Quidditch, but because they yed different positions, they couldn''t directly, and neither came out on top based on their performance.


    Outside of Quidditch, whenever they met, Eddie would trash talk, and Harry couldn''t really beat him with words(the little shit was just too good)


    and no matter what Harry did, Eddie seemed unppable. But when it came to magic, this was Harry''s chance to shine and one-up Eddie. He was sure that he could soundly defeat Eddie ''fucking'' Carmichael and finally wipe that arrogant look off his face.


    "Oh-ho," said Eddie, smirking, "Potter, you seem to be in a hurry to get your arse whooped by yours truly. How about I make things easier for you ¡ª just stand still there, and I will hit you with a stunner and send you packing. You know, let''s get the ball moving and let others show what they got."


    "I''m going to beat you so bad today that you''ll be crying for years. . . years," said Harry in scorn.


    "We will see about that," Eddie reached into his robes and took out a matt pitch-ck wand made from ckthorn having silver engravings going from the wand tip to the handle where a small shiny ck pearl sat; powering the wand as a core was unicorn''s mane hair.


    ''His wand is needlessly cool,'' thought Quinn,


    On the other hand, Harry took out his holly and phoenix feather wand, which had a handle that still resembled the raw bark of a branch. It wasn''t as cool, but the history behind the wand made it special enough.


    "Alright, you two," said Quinn, "get yourselves ready. . . I repeat that any lethal usage of magic is not permissible, and the moment I see any of you two stepping over that line, I promise a world of pain," he stepped outside the circle, "now. . . let''s see what you got."


    The first one to move when the circle turned green was Harry as he rapidly waved his wand ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS" ¡ª the scarlet spell streaked through the air towards Eddie, who maneuvered his wand ¡ª "PROTEGO" ¡ª the invisible shield rippled in silver as the scarlet collided and fizzle against it.


    Before Eddie could remove his shield and go on offense, Harry had already moved ¡ª "LIGNUM VIRGA" ¡ª five wooden rods manifested in front of him, started spinning along their length, and shot towards Eddie with speed.


    Eddie''s eyes widened, and he immediately jumped sideways just in time to avoid the wooden rods ripping the shield into oblivion. Eddie rolled on the floor, and the moment he stood up ¡ª "IMPENDIMENTA" ¡ª a turquoise jet passed through just under his ear.


    "Stay still, Carmichael," said Harryughing, "I will make it quick; let''s get the ball moving and see what others got." ¡ª "STUPEY" ¡ª he ripped another spell towards Eddie.


    "PROTEGO" ¡ª Eddie created a shield, but it was sloppy, and the stunner from Harry was physically able to push him back the shield and him with it a few steps back.


    "Argh!" Eddie grunted in frustration. Since the duel had started, he had been targeted by four spells, and in turn, he had only cast two shield spells. It was starting to make him irritated.


    "I can hit hard as well, Potter!" he shouted ¡ª "DEPULSO" ¡ª a yellow jet of the Banishing charm escaped the ck wand.


    Harry smirked and twirled his wand ¡ª "PROTEGO. . . DUO" ¡ª the invisible shield rippled in front of him, and with the change in the chant and wand movement, the variant Shield charm became stronger.


    But Harry''s eyes widened when he felt Eddie''s Depulso collide against his shield.


    Then everyone saw Harry all but fly away. The yellow jet of magic pushed the shield like a berserk bull; first, his feet skidded. . . then, he was being forced to step back repeatedly as the yellow spell still drilling against his shield. . . and before Harry knew it, he was off the ground and thrown back a couple feet.


    Harry blinked and wondered how he was staring at the ceiling. He raised his neck and saw Eddie smirking down at him from a distance.


    "Come on, Potter; feeling sleepy?" said Eddie with a shit-eating grin on his face.


    Harry got up and loosened his tie. "That was a fluke," he said, "it''s not going to happen again. . . so you can celebrate now because you''re not going to do it anymore."


    "Don''t delude yourself, Potter," said Eddieughing, "I have decided that you''re going to be looking up at the ceiling time and time again until you give up."


    Both raised their hands, their magic thrummed, and wands vibrated as the magic flowed.


    "INCENDIO DUO" "AQUA ERECTO"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - . . . Should I start a betting pool. . . no, but. . . yeah, no.


    Tracey Davis - Slytherin - Throwing robes in style.


    Padma Patil - Ravenw - The aim is to work on aim.


    Fred Weasley - Forge/Gred - second-hand wand. . .


    George Weasley - Gred/Forge - . . . first-rate magic.


    Eddie Carmichael - Boy-Who-Cusses - "Get fucked!"


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - "I''m going to hit you. . . hard."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 213 - DA Files: First-Day Duels Continue

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Every DA member watched in stunned silence at the duel happening in front of them. Except for three people in the Room of Requirements, none were expecting the duel to be like the one happening in front of them. In fact, their expectations were the exact opposite.


    "LACARNUM INFLAMARI" ¡ª the wild smile on one Eddie Carmichael''s face while casting spells was one every viin would approve.


    Harry, who saw the fireball wildly spiraling towards him, frowned and gritted his teeth ¡ª "PROTEGO DUO" ¡ª the fireball met the invisible shield and violently rippled in response; it held its defensive integrity, but Harry could feel the heat from mes despite being behind the magical barrier.


    "Come on, Potter," called Eddieughing, "don''t tell me this all you got!" ¡ª "DEFODIO" ¡ª the stone floor near Eddie''s feet gouged out and bundled up into a sizable ball which he then flung towards like a heavy shotput.


    Seeing the chunk of stone hurling towards him, Harry raised his wands with a frown ¡ª "DEPRIMO" ¡ª the leaf green spell flew into the stone ball, and green lightning arcs covered the stone before it exploded into pieces.


    Harry exhaled heavily and stared at the dust cloud in front of him. This wasn''t how he was expecting things to go, not in the slightest. All the upper hand he had in the start was gone, and now he was struggling against every spell from Eddie.


    ''How in the hell is this happening?'' he thought.


    On the sidelines, Ivy watched her brother struggling against Eddie Carmichael; she also thought this should''ve gone the opposite direction, but that didn''t seem to be the case.


    "Are you surprised?"


    She turned towards the speaker, and Marcus Bebly was the one who had spoken. She nodded ¡ª why wouldn''t she? It wasn''t like Eddie Carmichael was famous for being a great caster.


    "Well, to me, this is actually to be expected," said Marcus, chuckling, "Your brother is good, there''s no doubt in that, but when youpete in magic with someone with an overwhelming difference in skill and power, one tends to adjust and improve ordingly."


    "What do you mean?" asked Ivy.


    "Eddie is ultrapetitive. . . it can be his best and worst quality; it depends on the situation," said Marcus. "Imagine what would happen if you for five years, on a regr basis, you challenged someone so much better at the magic that it isn''t even funny. . . and despite never winning a single time in five years over thousands of challenges, you never give up and continue to challenge the much better opponent," ¡ª Marcus pointed his chin at Eddie ¡ª, "that''s what Eddie has been doing with Quinn. . . he challenges Quinn at least three times a week on anything magic and always losses, but he has never given up. . . not once."


    "Eddie wants to win, he loves to win, he craves victory. . . but Quinn hasn''t given him a single nce of triumph. . . but because of Eddie''s particr disposition, he works hard after every single defeat so that he could win the next one. . . in doing that, he eventually improved so much that the progress was something to behold."


    ". . . Even so, Carmichael''s spells are hitting too heavily. . . they are almost unnaturally powerful," said Ivy in inquiry.


    "One of the side-effects if a good portion of the challenges are duels against Quinn West," Marcus deeply sighed, thinking back to destruction and hazard caused in empty, unused ssrooms as the aftermath of duels. "If you want to even have a chance to prate Quinn''s defensive spells, you offensive spells better pack that extra punch and then go over that and have most power beyond that. . . because Quinn is just too good at magic ¡ª there have been times when he had let Eddie exhaust himself without against a simple Protego without moving an inch in retaliation. . . Eddie''s magic or Eddie himself adapted to his ''daily'' situation, and his spells got heavier and more impactful through the years ¡ª what you''re seeing now is pure hard work on improving offensive spells."


    "Come on, Potter. Put your back into your shields! It''s like I''m throwing my spells at sheets of paper ¡ª TOTAL OVERKILL!" they heard Eddie shoutout whileughing semi-maniacally.


    Ivy turned to Eddie, who cleared his throat in second-hand embarrassment, "That''s one of his worse qualities."


    Harry red at Eddie, and magic flowed through holly wand ¡ª "ARGENTUM GLADIO" ¡ª a single silver rapier rippled into existence, exerting a threatening vibe and turned in the air above Harry''s head to point at Eddie.


    "That!" uttered Ivy in shock at Harry''s spell. That wasn''t a spell to be used against a fellow student. That was a spell taught to Harry by their father and was to be only used in emergencies.


    "Now, that''s more like it," grinned Eddie; his magic thrummed in excitement and thrill.


    Harry shed his wand vertically down, and the sword streaked with a silver trail, flying towards Eddie to cut him. Eddie''s grin widened to this limit ¡ª "BOMBARDA. . . MAXIMA!"


    A glowing white with streaks of magenta emitted from Eddie''s ckthorn wand, carrying with it Eddie''s heavy-hitting magical deposition.


    "No, stop! Don''t!" yelled Ivy, stepping forward, but her exmations were of no use as the spells were already dispatched.


    ". . . Didn''t I explicitly state that lethality wasn''t allowed," was followed by a heavy sigh.


    A yellowyer appeared right in the middle of Harry and Eddie, in the path of the silver sword and Explosion charm, and simultaneously took the brunt of both spells. The silver sword tried to pierce its way to Eddie but only ended up cracking after trying to breach the shield. The Explosion charm exploded against the shield but couldn''t even put a fissure on the barrier.


    When the chaos settled, Eddie and Harry nced at the still-present yellow barrieryer and then at the caster.


    "You know, I didn''t expect someone to break the lethality rule so early in this group''s existence, on the very first day, but it seemed I was wrong," said Quinn sighing, and swiped his fake wand to disable his casted magic. "But I should''ve expected this from both of you ¡ª one with a mouth that loves to rile people up and the other who get easily riled up."


    He turned to Eddie, "Bombarda Maxima, really? That would have taken a chunk off him if it hit. How do you think that would have panned out if I had to take him to Madam Pomfrey with parts missing from his body," Eddie looked a bit embarrassed and turned his face away. ¡ª "And you," he turned to Harry, "that silver sword had some form of curse attached to it. I don''t know if you are trained in the counter-course for that spell. Even if you do know, were you really going tounch that against him?"


    "Both of you''re IDIOTS!" said Quinn bluntly before turning to the entire group. "Listen up! Everyone! We don''t have the leeway to get seriously injured in here and go to the hospital wing to get fixed ¡ª I, personally, can fix pretty much every fix you guys right here. . . . But! If things take a serious turn, and even if I can heal you back to health, it''ll take time, and we can''t hide in here for a chill two or three days without the Professors looking for us. . . So I will repeat this! Do not aim lethal spells at anyone in here ¡ª you just need to say the word, and practice dummies can be provided. . . be responsible and think carefully before you decide to cast."


    Luna raised her hand in salute and spoke loudly, "Yes, sir!"


    "At ease, soldier," said Quinn in reply and took the chance to break the tension and return the atmosphere to normal. "Alright, Eddie and Harry, take care that this doesn''t happen," he said. "Now, who''s the next one ¡ª"


    "I will go," said Ivy, stepping forward.


    Quinn smiled with a smooth nod and gestured her to step into the red circle as the part that Eddie gouged out fixed itself in real-time.


    "And, who wants to take on the Potter Princess," asked Quinn.


    It was once again Ivy who spoke up.


    "I want to duel her," she said and pointed her red ebony wand with a core made from braided unicorn tail hairs.


    Everyone looked in the direction she pointed and saw Daphne Greengrass standing at the end. The Ice Queen, as people had started to call her, stared back at Ivy for a moment before raising her chin slightly as she stepped forward. Daphne wordlessly stepped into the circle, cing herself opposite Ivy.


    "We haven''tpeted in this, have we?" said Ivy to Daphne.


    "No, we haven''t," said Daphne as she took out her willow wand with a braided unicorn''s tail hair as cores.


    "Another thing we can cross today," said Ivy. She briefly nced at Quinn before speaking back to Daphne, "I''m going to win this one."


    Daphne noticed Ivy''s quick nce towards Quinn, and her brows furrowed slightly. Daphne herself looked at Quinn; she couldn''t lose in front of Quinn, so. . .


    "I wonder where that baseless confidence of yourses from," said Daphne. "Have you ever won against me ever?"


    "Are you still stuck in the time when we were children because that''s just sad. We are no longer children, Daphne. . . If¡ª"


    "Ladies," said Quinn interjecting, "if you want topete, I''m all for it, but this is a magic club and not a debate, so less chit-chat and more magic, please. Let''s get the duel moving."


    The girls stared at each other for a moment before both took their positions at ready.


    "Good," spoke Quinn and retreated out of the red circle.


    One second passed, then two, and the red turned green on the third, signaling both participants that the duel had begun.


    "PETRUM INDICIBUS" ¡ª Ivy''s wand shone in an earthen glow, and out of the glowing wand came a volley of fist-sized rocks, rolling in the air towards Daphne.


    Daphne swiped her wand in a circle ¡ª "IGNIS OFFII" ¡ª multitudes of crackling fire orbs lit up brightly and whistled towards the rock pellets sting them on impacts, nullifying Ivy''s attack.


    "EXPELLIARMUS," chanted Daphne, and the scarlet jet passed right above Ivy, who ducked to dodge it.


    Ivy didn''t get up immediately and moved to immobilize Daphne ¡ª "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS" ¡ª the whitish-purple spell zoomed very close to the ground towards Daphne.


    Daphne once again didn''t move from her spot ¡ª "PROTEGO" ¡ª and effortlessly blocked Ivy''s spell. She then immediately raised her wand up ¡ª "STUPEFY" ¡ª she aimed to finish the duel in one go.


    Ivy rolled sideways and let the spell narrowly miss her.


    Quinn''s eyes shined as he watched Ivy and then at Harry. The twins had been trained in an important aspect of dueling.


    "AVIS! AVIS! AVIS!" ¡ª chanted Ivy repeatedly, and a flock of small blue birds filled the space and rapidly pped their wings to fly towards Daphne with their sharp talons and beaks.


    "That''s a NEWT level spell," said Marcus on the sideline, sounding impressed; he also could do it despite being in the sixth year, but casting it three times in rapid session would be difficult for him.


    "She practices magic more than anyone in Gryffindor," said Ron, "even more than Hermoine ¡ª which is bonkers."


    The mass of blue startled Daphne a bit and skipped a beat and would have been in trouble if there would have been any more dy in her response ¡ª "CONFUNDO!" ¡ª and a pink vapor began spreading out from her wand.


    Quinn nodded with his lower lip jutting out at her choice. The Confundus charm was a charm that caused confusion in a person or bewitched an object. It wasn''t a choice he would have made, but he could see how it would have worked ¡ª if performed correctly, which couldn''t be said in this case.


    The pink vapor did its job in distracting two waves of conjured birds away from her, but she wasn''t able to affect thest one; they swopped in and cut her arms and legs, tearing away at her robes and clothes.


    "PROTEGO" ¡ª chanted Daphne loudly and covered herself in a shield to protect herself from the aggressive birds.


    Ivy grinned ¡ª "OBICE CONFRACTUS" ¡ª and shot a generic shield breaking charm which did its job splendidly and broke the shield, but by now, Daphne''s Confudus charm had done its job on the third wave, but Ivy was ready for that aND shot another spell ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS" ¡ª and with Daphne''s wand flying high into the air, the duel was over and. . .


    "I win," said Ivy grinning.


    Quinn stepped into the circle, and it turned red. Hezily waved his fake wand, and the conjured bird fizzled out into nothing. Then he walked to Daphne and watched the girl who had her head bowed down.


    "Are you alright," he asked.


    Daphne didn''t look up but nodded, but from the part of her face that Quinn could see, he saw her face scrunched up in pain from all the cuts she had suffered.


    "Let me see the cuts," said Quinn, sighing. He pulled up one of her arms and pulled the cut parts of her clothes away to reveal the wounds, "there''s nothing to be ashamed of or be embarrassed about here, you know." He waved his fake wand, and light blue lights covered her wounds slowly but surely, knitting the skin-deep cuts together. "What you need to do is learn from what went off here and learn from it to never make the same mistake."


    Daphne continued to keep her head down as Quinn continued to heal her wounds.


    "If it''s any constion, Ivy''s father is a Senior Auror; she simply picked up a thing or two from him which allowed her victory here," said Quinn before pausing a moment, "I liked your use of Confudus charm on the Avis-conjured birds, it was inspiring. If you perfect that spell, you would be able to send the birds back to their caster. . . turning their own spell against them, that''s inspiring."


    Daphne finally looked up at him.


    "Really," she asked, "do you really think so?"


    "Uh-huh, how about this? We will go through the spell together, and I will even show you what I would have in your position."


    Daphne nodded, "I would like that."


    When everyone was talking about the duel in the audience circle, Tracey leaned towards Eddie and spoke, "They look good together, don''t they?"


    "Yes, they do," said Eddie, nodding.


    Tracey looked at Eddie, and after a slight pause, she asked, "Do you think. . . Quinn likes her?" She was Daphne''s best friend, and who better to ask this question than to Quinn''s best friend.


    Eddie stared at Quinn and Daphne standing close to each other as Quinn healed Daphne''s wound. As Tracey had said, those two did look good together, and ever since the Yule Ballst year, the two groups ¡ª (Quinn, Marcus, Eddie, and Luna) & (Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria) ¡ª had started to hang out with each other frequently.


    In that time, Eddie had observed the girl named Daphne Greengrass and hade to know a lot about her. And in his mind, he could imagine a number of girls with Quinn, but if he was to set someone up with Quinn, it would definitely be Daphne Greengrass.


    Furthermore. . .


    "He hasn''t said it to me directly, but I do think Quinn likes her," he said.


    Tracey''s eyes sparkled, "Really?!"


    Eddie nodded, "He''sfortable around her. He doesn''t control his smile around her and looks like he enjoys herpany. It helps that she can actually hold a conversation with him without making bedroom eyes at him. And I haven''t seen him this close to a girl that isn''t Luna and well Astoria, but she sticks to him like glue."


    "What about Fleur Dcour?"


    "Nah, that was just him being. . . well, that was just a small stint," said Eddie; he wanted to say horny, but that wasn''t fitting. "It''s whatever Quinn has been saying; it was nothing."


    That ticked another cross off the question list, and the answer was a good one.


    "That''s good, that''s really good," said Tracey and then looked at Eddie. He had earned a reward, and so had she. "You wanna go on a date with me next Hogsmeade weekend?"


    Eddie slowly turned to the girl beside him and profoundly nodded. There was no way in hell he would refuse this; there was not a single reason he could think for refusal.


    "Good," said Tracey smiling, "wear something nice."


    Eddie once again wordlessly nodded.


    But what they didn''t know was that someone was paying attention to their conversation. Hermione Granger had listened to the entire conversation and what she heard wasn''t for HER best friend.


    ''Quinn likes Greengrass,'' she thought, ''Oh, Ivy. . .''


    The girl in question was standing in the red circle staring at Quinn and Daphne standing in front of her. Just a few moments ago, she was happy at defeating Daphne, but now all that happiness had evaporated. All she felt was envy.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Duel, duel, duel!


    Eddie Carmichael - Heavy-Hitter - I''ve got a date, again!


    Harry Potter - Unsatisfied - Wants a rematch.


    Daphne Greengrass - Target of envy - Lost the duel.


    Ivy Potter - Envious - Won the duel.


    Tracey Davis - Best friend - Her day is going very well.


    Hermione Granger - Best friend - Eavesdropper.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 214 - Round Two? Undefeated

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Finally," said Quinn with a gleeful smile on his face, "finally on thest chapter. . . just a few more pages and I would be finished."


    He sat behind his office desk with Stigweard Gragg''s biography in front of him. With no other clue on how to proceed with the pedestal in the Architect''s vault, Quinn had chosen to focus on the only lead he had ¡ª the biography and had taken upon himself tob through every paragraph, sentence, phrase, and word written to find some hint, any hint on how to proceed inside the vault.


    And how he was on thest chapter after an arduous process of analyzing every page, chapter, and section of the book to see if there was something hidden in words ¡ª he even went as far as to check the book for the magic to see if it was hiding something, but no, there was nothing weaved into the book other than preservation charms and traces of shelf-life elongating potions that the pages had been soaked into.


    In the dozens and dozens of chapters Quinn had read, he hadn''t found a single clue or mention regarding the vault. Yet Quinn was happy; in no way did he think that this book was going to help him ¡ª he was simply happy that he would be able to cross this book out of usible helping resources and proceed to the next step-of-action ¡ª finding Architect''s tomb and go grave-digging to find the clue.


    "I better find a zombie so that I can bash his head in to release some irritation," he smiled while humming a tune. Finally, with one hand on the book and the other hand holding a pen over a sheet of paper, he began reading thest chapter.


    But even before his fountain pen''s nip could touch the paper and stain it with its glossy ck ink, Quinn sighed as he sensed someone out of his office. He closed the book, capped the pen, and put aside his research material just in time to hear the bell chime.


    He got up to greet his client/guests.


    "Wee to AID, how may we help you today. . . . Quidditch!"


    Angelina Johnson, Roger Davies, and Cedric Diggory, who had entered the office, stopped at the sudden exmation.


    "What?" asked Roger Davies.


    "You guys are here for Quidditch," said Quinn, then nodded, satisfied with his guess.


    ". . . Yes, how did you know?" asked Cedric.


    "Three Quidditch captains stepping into my office at the same time, the bnce of probabilities dictate as such," said Quinn as he sat down back on his chair and gestured for them to take a seat as well.


    "So, what seems to be the problem," asked Quinn; of course, he could guess what they want to talk about.


    "The problem," sighed Roger.


    "It''s Umbitch," hissed Angelina acidly.


    "Who else could it be?" said Cedric putting on a wry smile.


    "Of course, of course, the usual, huh; the High Inquisitor sucking the fun out of Hogwarts," said Quinn chuckling.


    "Yes," Roger rubbed his forehead, "she has allowed the Slytherin team to exist, and they have been practically practicing every free slot they can get at the field. . . which because of Umbridge''s ban on us is any time they want, as long as they want. . ."


    "We''re sure that we will be able to get the teams reinstated eventually," said Angelina, "but it might be toote by then. . . we would becking practice, and the Slytherin team would have too much practice," she stared deeply at Quinn, "we need to get this ban lifted as soon as possible."


    "I have tried a lot from my side," said the Headboy, "but no matter what I do, Umbridge isn''t budging ¡ª every time I try, she cites academics and grades as the reason for refusal."


    "Hmm. . ." Quinn went silent for a few seconds, and the three captains waited with bated breath ¡ª "Can you get the support of the House Heads?" he asked.


    "Is that even a question?" said Roger.


    "Ever since Umbitch stepped into Hogwarts," continued Cedric.


    "She is willing to rebel," added Angelina.


    Quinn chuckled as he nodded, "Alright, that is great for you guys. . . Now, all I want you guys to do is gather signatures from a majority of people from all three houses. . . If you do that, then I''m willing to guarantee that I will have all three teams un-banned the very next day you get me the signatures."


    "You don''t really believe that showing signatures from us ''lowly'' students will move the ''High Inquisitor,'' do you?" said Angeline, sceptical about Quinn''s promise and methods.


    "Of course not," said Quinnughing at the absurdity of the thought, "but the thing is, negotiation isn''t a science; it''s a strategic conflict, it''s persuasion, and persuasion is an art ¡ª negotiation means getting the best of your opponent, and it''s unwise to take anything personally during," he chuckled, "and with Umbridge''s big personality, I''m not sure if she''s capable of it. . . even if she''s, I don''t think she would be able to be objective when I''m sitting in front of her."


    "She doesn''t like you very much, does she," said Cedric.


    "No, she doesn''t," smiled Quinn, "from what I''ve heard from the Ministry; she is in the works to somehow update Educational Decree Twenty-Four, which is blocking you guys to change the definition of Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs from three student bodies down to two student bodies. . . but that isn''t going to work, is it? Even she can''t stop two people from talking and doing an activity together."


    Quinn was a sixth-year this year, and this was AID''s fifth year of operation; in all that time, he had handed out plenty of favors, helped a ton of students, and made many ''friends'' ¡ª students who had graduated from Hogwarts and were now working in all parts of society ¡ª several of Quinn''s ''friends'' had joined the Ministry as their careers as such Quinn had contacts in Ministry who could provide him with information.


    "Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Angelina, still a little doubtful.


    "It''s going to work," said Quinn rxed, "you just need to get me those signatures."


    "We can do that," said Cedric, "I will work with the willing Prefects to streamline this ¡ª I''m guessing. . . it will take a couple of days for the stack of signatures to be in your hands."


    "Excellent," said Quinn smiling, "you guys can rx now and start working on building your teams ¡ª I will have the Quidditch season started in no time."


    After thanking him, the three captains left, and of course, Quinn asked them to help him out in return in the future. When he had started AID, Quinn had only aimed to increase his influence inside Hogwarts and hadn''t thought of the future after that, but after the first ''batch'' of his debtees left Hogwarts, he realized that hiswork had now expanded up from the closed-world of Hogwarts to the big, open, real world.


    "Now, let''s continue," he took out the Architect''s biography and his pen and paper.


    Time passed in silence with only the clock''s ticking and turning of pages audible in the room. After a while, Quinn finally capped his pen, neatly stacked his notes, and then raised them up high in the air, as high as his hand could reach up.


    And then. . . the sh-burned into nothingness, not even ashes remained.


    "I hate this guy," he said, "I absolutely hate this guy."


    The Architect''s biography ¡ª which Quinn was now sure was an Autobiography ¡ª was open on his book and on the secondst page of the book, in tiny font, written on thest line of that page was. . .


    ¡¸Magic of Earth shall let the Mast sink and reveal the Secret.¡¹


    It was utterly unrted to the contents on the page, and if someone didn''t know the context, they wouldn''t understand the line ¡ª but Quinn was different, he knew the context, and he knew it well.


    Quinn groaned. He had spent a lot of time analyzing the Autobiography ¡ª more time he had spent on some magic books ¡ª but all his hard work was for naught as it turned out that he only needed to read one single line.


    "Nasty bastard wasting all my time," he grumbled heatedly. And the biography wasn''t even interesting; Stigweard Gragg might have been a great Architect, but he couldn''t write for shit.


    "Alright, calm down, calm down," sighed Quinn, "he''s dead, dead for centuries. . . don''t let the dead guy rile you up. . . I''m the best, he sucks, I''m the best, he sucks. . . . that''s right."


    He finally calmed down.


    "Damn, Earth magic, huh," but then he grinned, "oh boy, it''s time to buy new books! Such a treat!"


    He got up and exited the office, heading towards his dormitory. He needed to see what he had and what more he needed.


    "I love the Architect!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    A few days passed, and as promised, Quinn had signatures from seventy-five percent of the school. A big majority of Slytherin refused to sign because it had nothing to do with them, and they knew that the more time the other three teams remained disbanded, the greater chances would have at winning.


    Of course, as expected, students from the three houses refused to sign, fearing retaliation from Umbridge.


    "We thought there would be more," said Cedric as he, along with Angelina and Roger, walked with Quinn as they walked to the Headmaster''s office.


    "This is more than enough," said Quinn, flipping through the sheets they had given him this morning, updating the information in his hands of who signed and who didn''t. He did notice a few names he was expecting to see in the list but were missing.


    "It''s true that a number more than eight percent would''ve looked better," Quinn smiled, "but that is if we tell her about the number."


    "What do you mean?" asked Roger.


    "We don''t have to put a number to the signees," Quinn waved the stack of parchment, "instead of telling her a quantity, if we used the physical thickness of this stack and the lines after lines of signature to smack Umbridge in the face, then the voice it would make be resoundingly loud."


    He turned to the three and smiled, "While holding the truth is definitely essential, it''s more important to know how to say that truth. . . even the greatest ideas are worthless if you can''t present them to garner interest. . .munication is the key to sess. . . If you want to be sessful in life, out of one-hundred, you only need twenty points inpetence and other in eighty in people skills."


    The best-case example for this was Gilderoy Lockhart. He might not have done all of the deeds written in his books, but he knew how to weave a storyline, knew how to present it, was aware of precisely what people wanted and thus knew how to provide it.


    The group reached the gargoyle that protected the door that protected Headmaster''s office. Cedric stepped forward and spoke the password.


    "Turkish Delight."


    The gargoyle rotated on its axis, and its massive wings that blocked the entryway retreated into its back to clear the way for them to enter. They entered the office, and as nned, present inside was Albus Dumbledore sitting behind his desk, to the right of his desk sat the three House Heads (Flitwick, McGonagall, Sprout) to the left of the desk sat Umbridge with a small purse on herp, and in the corner of the room stood Snape like an edge lord. Leaving the front of Dumbledore''s desk clear for Quinn, Cedric, Angelina, and Roger to stand.


    The three captains looked at Quinn to lead, who was looking around the office.


    "Headmaster," started Quinn, "I can now safely say that except the gargoyle guarding the door, I have the better office," he smiled, "I would suggest that you make some changes if you wish to stay in thepetition."


    Dumbledore, sitting behind his desk, smiled through his long white beard.


    "I haven''t seen your office, Mr. West," said Dumbledore, "but if it''s as fascinating as you say, then I''m fine with conceding defeat. Somethings need to be passed on to the younger generation."


    Quinn smiled deeply but didn''t extend an invitation to the Headmaster. He was about to continue with some chit-chat, but there was an interruption in the form of "hem, hem" that made everyone look at the pink-loving mass of personified evil sitting in the chair.


    "Now that you all of you are finally here," said Umbridge with a humph, "let''s get this farce over with. . . what do you want to talk about? If it''s nothing important, I suggest that you stop at this instance; my duties as THE High Inquisitors keep me extremely busy ¡ª this school has many faults that need to be fixed."


    ''Why does her hubris surprise me?'' though Quinn and many others had the same unspoken thought in their minds.


    "We are here to talk about reinstating the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenw Quidditch teams," continued Quinn, "I think it''s high time that the Quidditch season starts, but for that to happen, we need the four teams to be ready for the games."


    Dumbledore nodded and was about to speak up, but Umbridge interrupted him.


    "That''s unfortunate, but the poor performance by the students and the utterck of discipline doesn''t allow leisure for all of you until I see some improvement," she said smugly.


    "Well, I don''t think the students share the same thought," said Quinn and took out the stack of signatures, "the entire school demands that Quidditch is returned to Hogwarts."


    "Of course, you all would say that. You delinquent children can''t see your faults and what I''m doing is for your good," said Umbridge instantly and then put her hand out. "Give those to me, and I will think about it when to reinstate the teams. . . You all should learn from the Slytherin house; they are excellent children and thus have their Quidditch team."


    Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall didn''t like the tone and content of Umbridge''s words, but they didn''t say anything as it was within her power to ban the Quidditch team. So they settled on ring at her openly.


    Quinn smiled, stepped forward, ced the signature stack on Dumbledore''s table, and then stepped back, leaving Umbridge''s raised empty. The pink woman didn''t look happy at all as she put her hand back down.


    Quinn knew that this would happen, and the signatures were just a piece to set up the foundation and scene of his argument.


    "It''s not just the students who are unsatisfied with Quidditch season being dyed. There are the Quidditch businesses in the Hogsmeade who get orders for gear every year and depend on our school for some revenue," said Quinn and once again ignored Umbridge as he handed in the letter of support from mentioned business to Dumbledore.


    Quinn had written to the broom and gear maintenance shops in Hogsmeade that students went for maintenance work to show how themunity was supporting the students.


    "If we stop Quidditch, then our rtionship with Hogsmeade might degrade, and we can''t have that. Both parties depend a lot on each other. and the vige residents look after us and help with the safety of the young ones during Hogsmeade weekends."


    There were murmurs of approval from the three House Heads and a nod with a hidden smile behind his beard.


    "And because we don''t need to protect ourselves," said Quinn, staring at Umbridge as she was the one who preached this, "in case something like Novellus ionites incident happens again in Hogsmeade, we need the assistance of vige residents for protection."


    Umbridge''s expression darkened at Quinn''s words.


    "The terrorist group has been dismantled by Auror''s office," said Umbridge. "They won''t being to Hogsmeade anymore."


    "Hmm," he looked at Cedric and asked in a wondering tone, "how many people died during the attack. . . wait, I remember, yes. . . three people died."


    The room was silent, and everyone looked at Umbridge, who looked like someone had fed her shit. The Novellus ionite incident was a taint on the Ministry''s reputation andck of response that led to the deaths ¡ª they had to essentially rely on the Invisible Vignte because if he wasn''t there, the deaths count would''ve been much higher.


    Quinn then took out another series of letters from his pockets.


    "These are the letter from various eateries and watering holes. Last year, I had radio equipment installed to transmit the gamementary over a magical radiofrequency," Quinn smiled widely. "It seems that many of those restaurants and pubs would like to continue to get Hogwarts Quidditch games broadcasted and have shown their support by offering donation funds to set up Hogwart''s own broadcasting system so that they can continue to get gamementary that their customers liked so much."


    The team captains and even the House Heads looked surprised that Quinn had gotten these letters. They all loved it! This was perfect reasoning for continuing Quidditch.


    Umbridge looked red with embarrassment and anger and was about to say that they were a school, a ce of education, and not some entertainment center for filthy eateries and watering holes, but then she saw Quinn take out another letter.


    "This is the letter ofmendation from the Head of Magical Sports," said Quinn, pulling out a letter from Ludo Bagman(who had sent the letter back in two hours after getting Quinn''s demands). "He believes that Hogwarts without Quidditch isn''t Hogwarts at all. He urges that Quidditch shouldn''t be stopped and that Quidditch teams should be exempt from Education Decree Twenty-Four to keep the tradition with such rich history to continue existing."


    Baam, a letter from someone in Ministry itself supporting a decision in opposition to Ummbridge''s (the Ministry representative) decision. Now, even Snape looked impressed in his corner.


    Umbridge wanted nothing more than to blow up and scream bloody murder at how she was the Senior Undersecretary to the Ministry, and her decision was final, but then her words died in her throat before she could even open her mouth as Quinn took yet another thin stack letter.


    "These are the letters from the eight of the twelve members of the Hogwarts Board of Governors," said Quinn, "they have all supported that Quidditch should return to Hogwarts and that the game helps promote unity between students and is essential for rxation from the studies. They have individually written their rmendations with their seals and signatures and demand that this problem be solved immediately."


    While Education Decree Twenty-Three gave the High Inquisitor substantial power and even exempted her from answering to the Board''s authority so they couldn''t touch Umbridge, but they still held plenty of power, and while they had penned the letters as ''rmendation'' it was clear that they were demanding Quidditch teams to reinstated.


    Quinn had sent out letters making them aware of the situation under the AID letterhead, and because of thest year''s tournament, that name now held some weight in the Board members'' eyes and his name that he had put along with his name at the end of every one of the letters helped. Eight people that Quinn was sure weren''t in cahoots with Umbridge received the letters, and as he expected, they replied with these glorious letters.


    He once again ignored Umbridge and handed the letters to Dumbledore. He was done ¡ª he had started with pulling out the tickling feather in the form of student signatures; then a p in the face in the form of Hogsmeade letters; the restaurant and pub letters were Stunning spell; a Cruciatus curse with the Ludo Bagman''s glowing letter; and finally, cast a Killing curse with Board members'' rmendation/demands.


    "Now, Madam High Inquisitor," said Quinn as he took yet another stack of letters, "the Board members have asked me for your decisions because if you''re notfortable with continuing Quidditch, they are thinking to directly approach the Minister to see if he can do something about this problem. . . so, should I send them in, or would you be taking their ''rmendations'' into considerations?"


    Everyone watched the very still Umbridge sitting in her chair. Fudge had issued Education Decree Twenty-Four to thwart any ''rebel groups'' that he feared Dumbledore was building. If people started to goin to Fudge that she had been using the Decree to shut something like Quidditch, he wouldn''t be happy, and if the news went out and the ''uncontrolled'' reporters caught the whiff of what she did, it would give Dumbledore the chance to creep back some control.


    ". . . Seeing so much support for Quidditch warms my heart," said Umbridge with a thin smile and extra sweet smile, "I will ept the Boards'' rmendation and reinstate the three Quidditch teams. . . effective immediately." She raised her hand to ask for the letters that Quinn was going to send to Board members, but Quinn pocketed them with a smile.


    Umbridge''s face couldn''t be any more darker than it was now. She immediately excused herself as she was ''busy.'' When she exited, the three captains and their House Heads outright celebrated loudly as Dumbledore smiled and Snape frowned at the noise.


    That day, Quinn received word of thanks, gifts from every Quidditch team member from all three houses, and many kisses on checks from many girl members. Eddie said that even he was very tempted to kiss Quinn, but both decided that it was enough to hug it out.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - You. Have. Been. Served!!!


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - That was entertaining; nicely done.


    Dolores Umbridge - Pink & Red - Didn''t even have time to pull up the Suprised Pikachu face.


    Three Captains - Captains yet again - ''In your face, Umbitch!!!'' they thought.


    Three House Heads - Happy - Spread the entire thing to the rest of the faculty and had a celebration party.


    Severus Snape - Fourth House Head - Noisy. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 215 - Secrets In The Walls, DA Reps

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The gray room in the Architect''s vault with the dull ambiance was now lit with shining MLE throwing their luminescent glow to brighten up every corner of the ce. In the lit-up room, Quinn sat beside the pedestal with his hands on the pedestal.


    After getting the inly visible(fantastically hidden) clue from Stigweard Gragg''s autobiography, Quinn had decided to act on the hint and arrived at the vault the first chance he got. Now, as he sat in the room with magic seeping into the pedestal through his hands, Quinn could feel the existence of something other than solid stone.


    "There''s nothing in there," he muttered in a low voice, but it reverberated in the room. He had been sitting in his current position for many minutes, but there was nothing in the pedestal stone.


    He was using the same principle used by him in his aquatic sonar skill but with Earth magic to sense around the floor using earthen vibrations.


    When it came to elemental magic, Quinn was a master at Water, Wind, Ice magic which he learned from his various escapades, but that didn''t mean that he was clueless about the other elements ¡ª it was a dream of every boy to control elements like a god, and Quinn was no different in that regard ¡ª he had knowledge for and skill in other elements like Fire, Lightning, and Earth, albeit at a lower level than Water, Wind, and Ice.


    He sighed heavily and retreated his hands from the pedestal. He propped his upper body with his arms acting as a support with his palms against the floor.


    Earlier today, when he had entered the vault, Quinn was excited about finally making some progress and hopefully finding the answer to the pedestal-archway problem, and just maybe applying the solution today itself to move onwards, but from the looks of it, none of that was going to happen.


    "Maybe I just need to hone my Earth magic. . . maybe there''s something here, but my magic can''t detect it," his Earth magic was indeed weaker than his other specialties.


    Given that there was nothing for him to do, Quinn decided to just practice his Earth magic right here between some very natural, earthen rock. His magic once again started to seep out of his palms, this time into the floor. It was only a couple of seconds before Quinn snapped out of his thoughts and sat up straight. He looked towards the floor and once again ced his palms to spread his magic inside, and there was it; he hadn''t imagined it.


    "Oh my, there''s really something in there," he muttered and closed his eyes. "Can''t tell what it is," he said with his brows furrowed, "it''s all so fuzzy."


    Quinn could feel a couple of inches of stoneyers that acted as the floor, but beneath that, there were plenty of hollow spots of various shapes and sizes dotting his range.


    "Well, I can''t break the floor now," he sighed. He didn''t know what was inside, so it was too risky to split the floor as he had originally nned if the autobiography hadn''t given him anything to see what was stopping the pedestal from sinking into the floor.


    "Hmm. . . I guess I need to improve my skill to clear the fuzziness of what''s inside. . . but, how far does this go?" Quinn crawled on his knees and plodded around the pedestal, and as he expected, the hollow spots were all around the pedestal.


    "I should mark the area till these hollow spots extend," he said and reached into his pocket before summoning a red piece of chalk; it was made from the special material to be used in runes, but he didn''t have anything else, so he had to make do with an overqualified stick of chalk.


    Quinn started to crawl outwards, and every ten inches, he would stop with the chalk ready to mark a circle, but no matter how many ten inches he repeated, the fuzzy hollow spots didn''t stop appearing. Soon, he was at the edge of the floor where it met with the walls.


    "Don''t tell me. . ."


    He immediately stood up on his feet and put his hands on the wall, and it was as he expected. The hollow spots extended into the walls as well. To make sure, Quinn walked around the room, his hands gliding on every surface he could touch(he even climbed up to the roof), and the result was the same.


    As he stood beside the pedestal with his eyes surveying every corner of the room.


    "Except this thing," he patted the pedestal, "there are hollow spots inside every single thing. . . pretty sure that Architect didn''t skimp on costs by using cheap material. . . there''s something in there. . . the question is what?"


    Quinn rubbed the teal ring on his hand, and his thoughts went to the way he had found it ¡ª there was a pattern to the Architect''s method, and if the second clue was infuriating, Quinn had an inkling that the second clue in the autobiography was just one of the ces that the Architect might have dropped that line (pure conjecture.)


    "The hollow spots must have something to do with the pedestal. . . they key is Earth magic. . . I wonder what I would find. . . "Quinn exhaled before climbing the pedestal to sit on it. A book came out from his pockets, and his research on Earth magic began. . . if nothing, he was going to get increased Eath magic skills out of this.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Ivy Potter(The leader of DA), Hermione Granger(The Gryffindor representative), Daphne Greengrass(The Slytherin representative), Marcus Belby(The Ravenw representative), Susan Bones(The Hufflepuff representative) all sat in a modified AID office ¡ª a round table had been ced in the middle of the office around which all the members sat ¡ª while Luna Lovegood(the AID representative) sat behind Quinn''s desk with her wand out poking around a rhombicuboctahedron made from various materials (woods, ss, steel, aluminum, rubber, etc. . .)


    These people had gathered here to discuss matters about DA, and Quinn had been generous enough to lend him his office to hold the meeting while he was out. Of course, Luna was there to keep an eye on them.


    "We have to work something out because if this keeps happening, we won''t be able to fix another DA meet," said Ivy with the Marauder''s Map open on herp to keep an eye on Umbridge, Filch, or anyone who seems to lurk around outside the AID office.


    It had been two weeks since DA was formed, and they had two meets, and things had been going smoothly in those two weeks, but now they were finding it almost impossible to fix a regr night of the week for DA meetings, as they had to amodate three separate Quidditch teams'' practice (there were no Slytherin Quidditch team members in DA), which were often rearranged depending on the weather conditions.


    "It would be better if we don''t try to keep a fixed night for the practices," said Marcus, after considering the Quidditch situation, "It would be better for us to keep the timings of our meetings unpredictable and flexible, seeing that it suits our needs better. . . and if anyone was watching us, it would be hard to make out a pattern."


    "I concur," said Daphne shortly.


    "That''s fine and all, but we would still need to work off the Quidditch schedule because that''s when the Quidditch yers are free," Susan Bones said while looking, "and only if there are anyst-minute changes ¡ª which seeing the recent weather are going to be plenty ¡ª that we are going to change our schedule."


    "Then we will need a method ofmunication tomunicate the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case they needed to change it at short notice because it would look so suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often," said Hermione, adding her two knuts.


    The five people collectively sighed. The Quidditch reinstation had hit them hard ¡ª from early morning to thest moment before the curfew started, the Quidditch pitch had been aggressively upied as the three teams started their team training campster than usual ¡ª Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenw teams worked overtime to procure the little field time they could get after Snape would assign a big chunk to Slytherin even after their regr protests.


    "Any idea on how to bring about this secretive exchange of information?" asked Ivy as the moderator to keep the conversation moving.


    "I have an idea," said Hermoine, "I was thinking of using the Protean charm¡ª"


    Hermione stopped as Luna suddenly got up from her barstool, making a noise and all but ran into the ce behind the red door as it shut closed behind her, startling them with her abruptness.


    "Uhm, I know this might be out of context," said Susan curiously, "but what''s behind that red door. . . "


    Ivy and Hermione exchanged quick nces remembering the time they had thought of the question and the oue of their curiousness. Ivy did know what was inside, even though she was looking in the dark with a Lumos lit at her wand tip.


    "It''s Quinn''s workshop," said Marcus without looking up from the current standing schedules.


    "Have you been in there?" asked Susan, more curiously.


    "Hmm? Yes, a couple of times," answered Marcus.


    " " " "You have(?/?!)" " " " asked all four girls in unison.


    Marcus looked up, startled at the sudden barrage of questions at him. "Y-Yes, I have. . . like I said, it''s a workshop ¡ª with everything you would find in a standard workshop. . . though he does have pretty strange stuff there. . ." there was a look in his eyes that showed that he couldn''t forget things even if he wanted to forget.


    The red door opened up again and came out Luna with a sheet of paper in her hand as she approached the table. She ced the paper smack dab in the middle of the table.


    "As part of the spell-enchanting initiativeunched in 1994, AID provides a mass order service where you, for a small fee, can ce objects in bulk quantity to be charmed with spells of your choice," said Luna as if remembering something she had read from a manual. "And lucky for you, as it so happens, our extensive list of spells do include the Protean charm in them," she pointed at the list of spells, and there it was ¡ª Protean charm.


    Luna then raised her sleeve to show her ck wrist bracelet with a silver tag on it. She raised her wand and tapped it for the words ¡ª [Hello.] ¡ª to appear on them.


    They all watched as the words disappeared and a ¡ª [Hey, what is it?] ¡ª appeared on the silver.


    Luna tapped her wand once again ¡ª [Making a sale.]


    The five people raised their brows at that.


    [. . . Isn''t the DA meet going on?] ¡ª came the reply.


    Luna nodded even though the conversation wasn''t face-to-face ¡ª [I''m selling the Protean charm 2 them. . .] [. . . this is a demonstration.]


    [Ah. . . let me guess. They''re thinking of. . .] ¡ª the disappeared and new words appeared ¡ª [. . . ways 2municate 4 meeting times.]


    The five representatives blinked, but they weren''t surprised.


    Another message came back ¡ª [Well, if U can, close the deal, C Uter.]


    Luna pulled her back, and the conversation was over. "We offer cheap rates and have express delivery times. We can craft the object to be charmed in ordance with the designs you submit, or you can provide us with the objects, and we can charm them in any Protean configuration you desire," she said, finally finishing her pitch, and waited for the response.


    Daphne was the one to speak for the group. "Thank you for that demonstration, Luna. We will let you know our decision after some discussion," she said.


    Luna nodded and then skipped back to Quinn''s desk, back to whatever she was doing before going to pitch mode.


    "So, as I was saying," started Hermione, "we can use Protean charm to enchant a non-descript object tomunicate the date and times of the meetings. . . as for enchanting the object," she looked at Luna, casting magic at the multi-sided object, "I guess we can outsource to AID."


    "What''re we going to charm?" asked Susan about the non-descript object that Hermione talked about.


    "We can discuss that out, and one of us can tell it to Quinn," said Marcus.


    " "I will/can do it." " ¡ª came two offers.


    Ivy and Daphne looked at the other. For a second, they looked at each other with confusion, then varying emotions, and then their eyes shed a sharp glint at each other.


    But then something caught Ivy''s eye, and she looked down at Marauder''s Map.


    "Filch ising this way," she said while getting, "we need to leave."


    This was the deal for using the AID office for the meeting. They had to leave before anyone could see them together, giving Umbridge the leverage to shut down AID. It didn''t matter if it was one minute after the meeting; if they saw someone lurking around, they would have to leave.


    Everyone got up and followed Ivy out of the office as Luna waved them goodbye. Ivy led them through one of the secret passages mentioned in the map, and soon they were on an entirely different floor away from the AID office.


    "We will discuss thister," said Daphne, "get your ideas ready for the next time we can meet."


    They nodded and were about to disperse into their respective directions when Hermione spoke up,


    "Marcus," she called, "can I talk to you for a moment. . . I want to talk about Ravenw Quidditch schedules." She also turned to Ivy and said, "You go ahead, I will meet you in themon room."


    Ivy shrugged and walked away, as did Susan and Daphne, leaving behind Hermione and Marcus.


    "What is it?" asked Marcus, "I already gave you the booking schedule for this week."


    "I don''t want to talk about Quidditch," said Hermione quickly, "I want to talk about Quinn."


    Marcus became a bit suspicious. "What do you mean?" he asked.


    Hermione took a deep breath and directly came to the point,pletely cutting out the beat-around-the-bush phase. "Does Quinn like Greengrass?" she asked.


    It took Marcus a few seconds to make sense of the words that entered his ears. "Why. . . do you ask that?" he asked in reply.


    "I want to know," she said shortly.


    "Do you. . . like him?" asked Marcus, thinking that''s why she was asking.


    "No! I like someone else," said Hermione trying to squash that line of conversation, "I''m asking for a friend of mine. . . she likes Quinn."


    Marcus didn''tpletely buy that reason. . . it was cliche. "Okay. . . but where did you find hear that Quinn likes Daphne," he asked.


    "Carmichael," she answered.


    "Eddie said that?"


    "Yes, does Quinn like Greengrass, or not?"


    "I can''t be sure because Quinn doesn''t really talk about who he likes or not."


    "So, Carmichael was lying?" said Hermione hopefully.


    "I wouldn''t say Eddie was lying; as I said, Quinn hasn''t ever brought up who he likes, so all we can do is guess who he likes," said Marcus chuckling and sighing at the same time. "We have actually talked about this a lot and observed Quinn when he''s around girls, and in doing so, there have only been a few who he''s free around, and one of them is Daphne ¡ª she''s the one he''s mostfortable around. . . so, Eddie must''ve pushed that as Quinn liking Daphne, and we never know, it might be true. . . but Quinn is a private bloke, so only he knows."


    "So, Quinn has never said that he likes Daphne?" asked Hermione.


    Marcus shook his head.


    ''That was good. This was really good,'' thought Hermione.


    If it was someone else, then the words of friends might have counted as something, but this was Quinn West they were talking about; one could never be sure about the things said about him if it didn''te from his own mouth (even then things could still be a bit iffy.)


    If Quinn didn''t say that he liked Daphne Greengrass. Then there was still hope for her friend.


    But at the same time, things weren''t all well. If Tracey Davis asking Eddie Carmichael about who Quinn liked wasn''t a sign, then today, Daphne and Ivy shooting daggers at each other was the proof.


    ''Daphne Greengrass also likes Quinn,'' thought Hemione, ''and time of the essence.''


    "Thank you, Marcus," she smiled, "that helped a lot; also, let''s keep this between us. My friend doesn''t want anyone to know that she likes Quinn just yet. . . you know what is it like, us girls can be mean. . . okay, see youter."


    Then she all but bolted, leaving Marcus behind, confused.


    "Girls are mean? They are confusing as well."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I''m BZY, C U 2morow.


    Luna Lovegood - Employee - I pitched, I''m done; back to work.


    Ivy Potter - DA Leader - Likes Quinn.


    Daphne Greengrass - Slytherin representative - Likes Quinn.


    Susan Bones - Hufflepuff representative - Doesn''t like Quinn.


    Marcus Belby - Ravenw representative - Likes Quinn, but not that way.


    Hermoine Granger - Gryffindor representative - Doing best friend duties.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I''m L8, C U 2morow. . . maybe, tomorrow mid-terms start yet again. Man, three trimester an year has too many examinations.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 216 - Fooking Records!

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    As the first Quidditch match of the season, Slytherin versus Ravenw, drew nearer, the excitement in the castle grew as well ¡ª The fact that the Quidditch Cup had not been held for so long added considerably the interest and excitement surrounding the forting game ¡ª after all, while Quinn''s Quidditch tournament was new and exciting with ten brand new teams, there was nothing more invigorating and blood boiling than a long stand House rivalry.


    The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were taking a lively interest in the oue, for they, of course, would be ying both teams over theing year; and the Heads of House of thepeting teams, though they attempted to disguise it under a decent pretense of sportsmanship, were determined to see their side''s victory.


    Many had soon realized how much Flitwick cared about beating Slytherin when he abstained from giving the Ravenw Quidditch team members homework in the week leading up to the match.


    "I think you''ve got enough to be getting on with at the moment," he had said squeakily. Nobody could quite believe their ears until she looked directly at Eddie and Cho and said grimly, "I''ve grown sick of seeing the Quidditch Cup in Minerva''s study, and neither do I want to see it in Severus'' dingy dungeon office nor in Pomona''s nt-infested study. So, use the extra time to practice, won''t you?"


    Snape was no less obviously partisan: He had booked the Quidditch pitch for Slytherin practice so often that the Ravenw had difficulty getting on it to y. He was also turning a deaf ear to the many reports of Slytherin attempts to hex Ravenw yers in the corridors. When Hailey Chambers, Chaser, turned up in the hospital wing with her eyebrows growing so thick and fast that they obscured her vision and obstructed her mouth, Snape insisted that she must have attempted a Hair-Thickening Charm on herself and refused to listen to the fourteen eyewitnesses who insisted that they had seen the Slytherin Keeper, Miles Bletchley, hit her from behind with a jinx while she worked in the library. But he was quick to give detention to Eddie when he had ¡ª Depulso''d ¡ªMiles Bletchley into the wall from behind, smashing the Slytherin Keeper''s nose badly.


    Despite being penalized with detention, Eddie felt optimistic about Ravenw''s chances; no way in hell were they going to lose to snakes. Admittedly theck of practice time did hurt the in-synergy between the three Chasers and two Beaters. On the other hand, they also had spikes of greatness with point-perfect pass routes by Chasers and interceptions by the Beaters: During one memorable practice, the Chaser trio had passed the balls twenty-five times in one y to absolutely confuse the Beaters on who to go after to get the ball; on that day, they weren''t able to intercept a single pass as the Quaffle moved a bit too quickly for them to pick it.


    In one of the open group discussions, Cho had said that Eddie looked much better with the Quaffle than he didst year ¡ª which was to say something given that he was by far the best Chaser in the previous year''s tournament ¡ª that there was a focus in his eyes that scared even the Ravenw Beaters, even though they weren''t going to y him in a match.


    Even Slytherin''s tactics of trying to rile Eddie up were failing spectacrly. How were they supposed to rile a guy up who would rile them up every time he opened his mouth, and after the Miles Bletchley incident, no one in Slytherin dared to curse Eddie in freat of brutal retaliation.


    October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain, and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces. The skies and the ceiling of the Great Hall turned a pale, pearly gray, the mountains around Hogwarts became snowcapped, and the temperature in the castle dropped so far that many students wore their thick protective dragon skin gloves in the corridors between lessons.


    The morning of the match dawned bright and cold. When Quinn woke up, he looked around at Eddie''s bed and saw him sitting bolt upright, his legs crossed with his hands resting on his knees as he stared fixedly into space.


    "You all right?" asked Quinn.


    Eddie nodded but did not speak. The two didn''t exchange a single word that day during their morning workout session ¡ª Eddie knew what to do on a game day morning, and Quinn didn''t want to disturb whatever was going on.


    The Great Hall was filling up fast when they arrived ¡ª the talk louder and the mood more exuberant than usual. The Ravenw and Slytherin House table being next to each other, when Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus, walked through the space between the table, the Slytherin Quidditch members spoke up,


    "Hey, Eddie-boy, I heard Warrington''s sworn to knock you off your broom."


    Eddie turned to theughing Slytherinds and shrugged, "Warrington''s aim''s so pathetic I''d be more worried if he was aiming for the person next to me," he retorted calmly, which made Quinn and Marcus guffaw and wiped the smirks of the Slytherin''s face.


    "Get yourself a bed booked in Hospital Wing, Carmichael," said Warrington, Beater. "Who knows, you might just crash into the pitch likest year. . ."


    "Well, then I''ll go out like a tough son of a wand, and not like a whiny little bitch like you who cries out for mum every time someone does as much as touch you," scoffed Eddie.


    Warrington''s face darkened, and he stood up from his chair. He was taller than so Eddie had to look up at him when he walked closer.


    "You wanna fight, big boy?" said Eddie.


    "Don''t push your luck, Carmichael," said Warrington, threatening.


    Eddie lightly chuckled and stepped very close to Warrington, "How about you pinch yourself, you might be dreaming about beating me up; it''d do you good to wake up and apologize to me, big bitch."


    Behind Eddie, Quinn leaned towards Marcus and whispered, "He seems unusually calm today."


    Marcus nodded, "He indeed seems quieter today."


    After the heated stand-off was broken off, they sat down to have their breakfast.


    "How''re you feeling?" Marcus asked Eddie, who was pilling up food onto his te, stocking himself up for the game. "Are you nervous?"


    "Some nervousness is good; it keeps you on your toes," said Quinn chiming in.


    "Hello," said the vague, dreamy, and, more importantly, familiar voice from behind him. Eddie looked up: Luna stood there behind and close to him. Many people were staring at her and a few openlyughing and pointing; she had managed to procure a hat shaped like arger-than-life-sized eagle''s head, which was perched precariously on her head.


    "Ah, so this was what you were making, huh," said Quinn in understanding. He had seen her, in passing, huddled up in the corner of the workshop, making something.


    "I''m supporting Ravenw," said Luna, pointing unnecessarily at her hat. "Look what it does . . ."


    She reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth wide and gave an incredibly realistic eagle''s peal that made everyone in the vicinity jump.


    "It''s good, isn''t it?" said Luna happily. "I wanted to have it chewing up a serpent to represent Slytherin, you know, but there wasn''t time. Anyway . . . good luck, Eddie!"


    Then she drifted away.


    "Luna! What about breakfast?" called Quinn, but the blonde with the eagle hat was already in her own world.


    They had not quite recovered from Luna''s hat before Roger came hurrying toward them, apanied by Cho and Hailey, whose eyebrows had mercifully been returned to normal by Madam Pomfrey.


    "When you''re ready," said Roger, "we''re going to go straight down to the pitch, check out conditions, and change."


    "I''m ready, I woke up ready, I came to Hogwarts ready, I drank my mum''s milk ready, I was born ready," said Eddie. As he got up, Quinn got up, looing his arm around Marcus'' neck.


    "I bet that Eddie is going to massacre anyone and everyone in his way," he said.


    "I thought you weren''t allowed to bet," said Marcus pumping a brow up.


    "That wasst year," said Quinn, silently shooting a list pinching hex into Warrington''s butt, who immediately yelped while jumping. "With Umbridge here, I can''t open up a gambling den; she would m it shut and take away AID for that. . . but that doesn''t mean we," he shook Marcus a little, "can''t have a friendly, off-the-books, teeny-tiny bet."


    "But I too want to bet on Eddie kicking everybody''s arse today."


    "Ah, but we can''t bet on the same side," Quinn looked around the Great Hall, "maybe we can find the Harry Potter and scam some money out of him ¡ª no way he''s going to bet in Eddie''s favor."


    The mention of Potter made Marcus remember something and someone.


    "Hey, Quinn," he asked.


    "Hmm?"


    "There''s a girl that likes you."


    Quinn turned his head towards Marcus with a ''where-did-thate-from'' expression. There was also the point that Quinn did time-to-time get confessed to (the number would have been higher if the girls could get a hold of Quinn more.) So Marcus and Eddie never brought ''a girl liking him'' into their conversation as he had rejected every confession.


    "Well, it came from Hermione'' ever-so-serious'' Granger. . . thought that I should bring it up," said Marcus.


    "Hermione''s friend. . . did she say who specifically it was?"


    "Nuh-uh, she didn''t. . . I think she''s the one who likes you."


    "Na," said Quinn waving that chain of thought off, "Hermione likes Harry. . . that much is clearly obvious fromst year''s Yule Ball. . . well, whatever, we''ll see whenever this ''friend'' of her arrives, if she does that is."


    "You aren''t curious at all?"


    ". . . No."


    Marcus stared at Quinn as his best friend stayed silent, refusing toment. "You''re thinking who she is, aren''t you?"


    "Am not," said Quinn a bit too quickly.


    "Yeah, right."


    That conversation died the second they stepped outside the Entrance Hall, down the steps, and out into the icy air.


    The frosty grass crunched under their feet as they hurried down the slopingwns toward the stadium. There was no wind at all, and the sky was a uniform pearly white, which meant that visibility would be good without the drawback of direct sunlight in the eyes. That could mean that the Seekers would be able to spot the snitch easier, the Keepers would have a clear view of the Quaffle, the Chasers would have a clearer view of the iing Bludgers, and the Beaters would have a clear view of who set the Beaters on. Overall, the weather had set up the scene for the game to be an excellent one.


    Quinn sat down on thementator''s chair and dragged his palms over the armrest with a smile as he exhaled deeply. He could hear hundreds of footsteps mounting the banked benches of the spectators'' stands now. Some people were singing, though Quinn could not make out the words.


    "It''s good to be back," said Quinn before turning back to the Professors. "Good Afternoon, all of you. . . looking sharp for the opening day game."


    The Professors, however, were dressed as they did every day, except for Flitwick and McGonagall, who both had worn robes with House shades, showing their silent support.


    "Ready for another season ofmentary, Mr. West?" asked Sprout smiling a homely smile.


    "The weather is excellent; thepany is excellent; I''m feeling chipper; I can safely say that this season is going to be a great one," said Quinn with a beaming smile as he roamed his eyes over the Professors, including one pink person, who had a fake, stic smile stered over her face.


    "Alright, let''s get started," said Quinn as he grabbed the microphone and pumped magic into it, "GOOOOD MOOOORNING, HOGWARTS!!! I wee all of you to yet another season of Quidditch Cup, brought to you by the Four Houses of Hogwarts. Let''s beat the cold by making some noise; give some yells to heat the stadium up."


    There was a positively enthusiastic response akin to an army going out to war, causing a beaming stic on his face.


    "Okay, people! That! Was! Nice!" spoke Quinn into the microphone and then looked at from a list in his hands. "I''ve only just found out the final lineup for Slytherin. Last year''s Beaters, Derrick and Bole, have left now, but it looks as though Montague''s reced them with. . . ah, two blokes called Crabbe and Goyle ¡ª I''d say an interesting choice from Slytherin.


    "From the Ravenw side, there is only one change from the team two years ago because of the team being youngest of all four at that time. . . Eddie Carmichael, the Best Chaser from thest year''s Quidditch Tournament, will be officially donning the Ravenw colors for the first time in his debut game."


    There was a fanatic cheer from the Ravenw stands at Eddie being mentioned. He hadn''t officially yed a game, but he was already the star yer.


    "Now, let''s bring the two teams in. Feast your eyes on the serpents and the eagles! Wee the predators ofnd and air!"


    Both teams came out of their tunnels, already mounted their brooms, in a single file and into the dazzling sky. They circled the stands once as the roaring sounds greeted them with a mixture of cheers and whistles.


    On the middle of the pitch, both teams gathered, still in two single files. And as the game hadn''t started, it was time for the resident Ravenw foul-mouth to shine.


    "So, snakes," said Eddie inly as if bored, "I''m really interested in the oue of this year''s Quidditch Cup," he raised his arm to observe his gloved hand, "interested in who''s going to finish in the second ce. I wish you the best of luck so that you can at least finish on the podium." He looked up at them with a smirk oozing with smugness and confidence.


    The Ravenw members smiled as the Slytherin''s face''s dropped.


    "Your arrogance astounds me, Carmichael," said Bole from Slytherin.


    Eddie jutted out his lower lip and shook his head as he spoke, "I''m not arrogant; I''m just that good. It ain''t braggin'' if you can back it up. . . That can''t be said for you, unfortunately."


    Bole was about to say something, but Madam Hooch approached the teams, and before she could say anything, Eddie spoke up.


    "Madam Hooch, can you please make it a rule this year that the other teams aren''t allowed to cover me with just one person? They must bring at least two people if they want to defend against me because that one unfortunate bloke who would cover me on his own would suffer the most embarrassing moments of their life. . . at least if there were two, they could share the me for the rest of their lives."


    Madam Hooch sighed and turned to the two captains.


    "Captains shake hands," ordered the umpire, Madam Hooch, as Roger and Montague reached each other. Eddie could tell that Montague was trying to crush Angelina''s fingers, though he did not wince. "Mount your brooms . . ."


    Madam Hooch ced her whistle in her mouth and blew.


    The balls were released, and the fourteen yers shot in various directions; out of the corner of his eye, Eddie could see the Quaffle going up in slow motion. It was done in an instant; his broom changed direction, and he zoomed up toward the blue ball.


    Derrick, a Slytherin Chaser, grinned wildly as he reached out his hands towards the flying Quaffle ¡ª he was going to score the first goal of the season.


    ''Yes!'' he thought as his fingertips were barely an inch away from the Quaffle, but then his eye caught a set of fingers in their sight, then aplete hand. . . half an arm till the elbow. . . entire arm with a shoulder. . . and soon Derrick''s sight was covered by Eddie Carmichael grabbing the Quaffle.


    But it was just for an instant as Eddie disappeared from his sight.


    "Huh?" uttered Derrick, and he looked to his left, but there was no sign of Eddie, "where¡ª"


    His voice died down in his throat as the cheers of the crowd drowned him out, and thementary sounded out.


    "GOAL!! The first goal of the season is scored, and it''s by none other than EDDIE CARMICHEAL!!!"


    "Haaa?!" yelled Derrick and turned towards the Slytherin''s goal, and his eyes widened as a sh passed by him ¡ª it was Eddie Carmichael. He flew past him without giving Derrick a single nce ¡ª the game was, and gone with it was Eddie''s trash talk.


    That day. . .


    "And it''s Carmichael, Carmichael with the Quaffle, what a yer that man is, I''ve been seeing him y for years, all I can say that he whines too much. . . Oh! HE SCORES!"


    That day. . .


    ". . . and he''s ducked Warrington, he''s passed Montague, Carmichael''s ¡ª ouch ¡ª been hit from behind by a Bludger from Crabbe. . . . Montague catches the Quaffle, Montague heading back up the pitch and ¡ª nice Bludger there from Howard Bo, that''s a Bludger to the head for Montague, he drops the Quaffle, caught by Roger Davies, Roger Davies of Ravenw reverse passes to Carmichael, and he''s away ¡ª ah! what speed, what maneuverability with the broom ¡ª ah, HE SCORES once again."


    That day. . .


    The chants of "Sieve, Sieve, Sieve, Sieve" from Ravenw covered the stadium as Slytherin''s Keeper''s ability was all but absent in front of Eddie.


    That day. . .


    All it took was two hours ¡ª in two hours, Ravenw had a 100 point lead on Slytherin with a score of 210-60, with Eddie scoring 120 points on his own.


    That day. . .


    "We''re seeing history, my friends," said Quinn, genuinely hyped as he stood near the same railing that he had broken, "120 points, 12 goals, 7 assists, and in a rare feat by a Chaser, 6 steals. . . Eddie Carmichael has broken the previous long-standing Chaser record for joint stat line in a single Hogwarts game. . . by 40 points, 4 goals, 1 assist, and 3 steals."


    A minute after Quinn''s announcement, the worst thing for Slytherin happened as Cho Chang caught the snitch, putting an end to the game with the final score of 360-60. . . a 300 point crushing, crippling defeat.


    At the end of the game, Eddie took out his wand from his robes and flew to the center of the pitch, and cast a ¡ª "SONOROUS."


    "Listen up all of your, be it Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor. I, Eddie Carmichael, dere this in front of all of you ¡ª We. Are. Going. To. Win. Every. Single. Game. This year, we will win the Quidditch Cup with an undefeated season. . . so, get ready to swallow defeat and pray to whoever you believe in that your teamse out of this because. . ."


    He filled his lungs with air.


    "WE''RE HERE NOT TO TAKE PART. WE''RE HERE TO TAKE OVER!"


    Then a maniacalugh filled the stadium.


    "You guys are so screwed, hahahaha!"


    The amount of garbage that was thrown from the stands also broke the previous records.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Nuh-uh, I ain''t thinking. . .


    Eddie Carmichael - Record-breaking Chaser - Records? I break records for pass time.


    Marcus Belby - Best friend - Did you think I won''t tell?


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Eddie really is one of my fav. characters. | Day-1 of 4 over. Subject 2 of 7 are done. The weather report is Janky Schedule for the rest of mid-terms. Let''s keep the hustle alive.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 217 - DA Files: Styles And Imagination

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    "Looks like everyone is here. . . Wee back, all of you," said Quinn as he closed the Room of Requirements to anyone outside. He removed his outer robe and hung it on a coat rack that appeared beside him. "I hope all of you''re feeling well and are ready for another day of fantastical and mystic magical learning."


    He walked to the center of the Room of Requirements as the DA members gathered around him in a circle.


    "Last time, we finallypleted the duels, and I and hopefully you, now know where your fellow peersy on the skilldder," he said while rotating so he could look at everyone. "A key advantage of making you guys duel each other is that it showed which spell you think you know the best because usually in duels, people chose their best magic. . ." Quinn raised a finger with a short pause, ". . . or to be more specific, they chose the magic they think they''re the best at ¡ª of course, that''s not the cause, is it."


    He turned to Tracey and raised her hands towards her.


    "Tracey Davis here chose the Disarming spell to strip Padma''s wand, and she thought it was her best or obvious option to end the duel but was it the correct decision ¡ª don''t get me wrong, it worked ¡ª but her Disarming charm wasn''t effective in a real-world scenario where the duel doesn''t end at Disarming the opponent. . . Any thoughts on why I say that?"


    From the circle, Harry raised his hand and spoke when Quinn nodded.


    "The duel doesn''t end until when you have entirely made sure that your opponent can''t cast a spell," said the son of an Auror.


    Quinn acknowledged and nodded approvingly. "Exactly, stripping your opponent off their wands doesn''t mark the end of the duel." He pointed at Padma Patil, "When she was disarmed by Tracey, Padma still had her wand right beside her feet, which means Padma still had all the chance to rearm herself, continue the duel, and maybe even turn the table on Tracey.


    "So, what we learn from Tracey and Padma''s duel is that when engaging in a duel, front with your best spells, and by that, I mean the spells that you''re a hundred percent can cast at a higher level of quality. . . if you''re casting the Disarming spell, then make sure it whips the wand out of range. . . if you fancy the Stunner, then ensure that it knocks the person out. . . if the Full-Body Bind is what tickles your wand, then it better restrict your target like a death hold."


    A third-year Gryffindor raised his hand hesitantly and asked, "What if we don''t have spells like that," his voice quietened a level, "spells that we''re good at."


    There was a lot of eye shifting in the crowd as a lot of younger ones and even some older ones had the same question in mind but weren''t as brave as the third-year Gryffindor to bring it up.


    "That''s why we are here," said Quinn smiling brightly to put everyone at ease. "The objective of us gathering here is to learn how to cast spells practically; you will learn defense and attacks spells, and even study various charms. . . I sincerely hope that by the end of our time together, all of you have a set of spells you''refortable with."


    Daphne raised her hand in question: "What are your preferred magics?"


    Crippling-ice, drowning-water, raging-wind, perception-bending illusions, mind-magic, flesh-severing spells, a spell that disabled body parts. . .


    "I like the Stunner," said Quinn smiling. "It knocks the target out ¡ª no muss, no fuss."


    Another question was raised, this time it was Hermione: "What about Harry and Carmichael''s duel; both used various spells. From what I have heard, the number of spells they used was extensive even for experienced duelers."


    Quinn nced at the boys in question and recalled the duel they had. There were indeed a lot of unique spells exchanged between the two.


    He raised his arm and pointed at Harry, "Harry Potter is the son of a Senior Auror, and from what I know, he has to learn a thing or two from his father. It''s not unusual for someone in Harry''s position to learn a variety of spells, which he showcased in his duel."


    Then he pointed at Eddie and continued, "Eddie is my best friend, and from that, I know how he learned magic. The way he duels is to cast a series of non-repeating spells, with every single cast packing a punch on its own. This way, the target can''t getfortable, and Eddie will exploit that difort tond in a hit."


    Quinn and Eddie''s difference in casting ability and strength of spells was akin to a great chasm. Eddie couldn''tpare in that aspect; as such, he, a long time ago shifted to the tactic of variety and speed ¡ª he would never repeat a spell two times in a row and cast in the hopes of sneaking one in and from time to time he had indeed surprised Quinn and hade very close to get a hit, solidifying Eddie''s belief, leading him to a path on which he learned and practiced a variety of spells ¡ª something that, Eddie as a Ravenw, had no qualms in doing.


    "But!" said Quinn stressing. "You''re not to copy both of these guys. The style they use is suitable for them because they," he turned to Harry and stared at them for a moment, "not they. . . Harry hasn''t got the hang of the high-variety dueling style. If he reduced his choice of spells, he would''ve beaten Eddie."


    "Hey!" said Eddie throwing his hands up.


    "If you yapped less and cast more, you''d have won," said Quinn shrugging ¡ª "As I was saying, high-variety casting onlyes after you''refortable with a great number of spells and cast them under pressure. If you''re not skillful with various spells, you will mess up when it really matters."


    "What do you use?" came a question.


    "I keep my spell-choice limited and only use a selected amount of spells ording to the situation," answered Quinn.


    Quinn met the requirement for high-variety dueling, but a lot of his spell arsenal was tied up in various situations:


    Ice was extensively used by Invisible Vignte,


    Water was tied up by his stint at the Great Lake,


    A lot of the spells that he wasfortable using in duels were ''dark'' in nature,


    Illusion magic was free, but he hadn''t developed a way that would fit in with his current dueling style,


    Mind magic was one of his foremost fortes, but the fact that he was Legilimens was a tightly kept secret,


    Body magic was definitely on the table,


    Wind magic was still in development, but it was definitely at a stage where ''Quinn West'' could use it. But it was his decision to keep it as ast resort,


    Any of the above magics could be used by ''Quinn West,'' but he refrained from using them because they might attract attention and connect back to him.


    Quinn snapped out his thoughts when another question was raised to him.


    "Then is ¡ª limited-variety, can we say that ¡ª worse than high-variety?" said ise Zabini.


    "Not at all," said Quinn after a pause to collect himself, "if you choose your spells wisely and master them, understand their use case, and delve into variations, you''ll have the confidence that they will work for you no matter what the situation. . . High-variety style can be challenging to use with practical effectiveness; that''s why it''s only seen used by Aurors and Hit Wizards who are trained in various spells tobat every situation theye across."


    He once again pointed at Eddie.


    "Look at him, he might practice high-variety, but his spells arergely offensive spells with a severe shortage of defense spells. If he wasn''t so overbearing and quick with his offensive spells, he would''ve miserably failed at dueling," Eddie puffed his chest in pride, but Quinn cut him down the following sentence, "but if someone more skilled ¡ª not powerful ¡ª than him got the initiative, Eddie would be screwed sooner than he could get a cuss out of that mouth of his."


    "Hey!" said Eddie once again, throwing his hands up.


    "The point being is that it''s better to concentrate on what is part of the Hogwarts curriculum," said Quinn, "but you have to go beyond the level and master the variations and capture the essence because that''s the only way you''ll actually seed at limited-variety style."


    Quinn pped his hands once.


    "Let''s stop the chit-chat and get at the good stuff. You guys are going to divide into pairs and then use spells against each other. It''s the best way to learn, and it''s really fun one-up your partner," Quinn pointed at Eddie with his thumb. "Ask Eddie; he partners up with me when he wants to learn a spell. Ask him how fun and effective it is."


    When everyone turned to Eddie, they saw him make a disgusted face as if someone had just stuffed a scoop of poop into his mouth and tied it shut. One-on-ones were effective, but they weren''t fun when you were against Quinn because he wouldnd every hit, and it would soon get frustrating; it was only because of Eddie being Eddie that he was able to hang on without rage quitting.


    "We will start with something straightforward, something at a very basic," said Quinn after everyone had divided themselves into pairs. "The Disarming charm will be the first spell that DA will learn, and the first step of it is to learn to learn how to get disarmed."


    There was a pause in the excited pairs on officially learning settled down for a moment.


    "You mean learn how to disarm," said Ivy.


    Quinn shook his head, "No, it''s to learn how to get disarmed."


    The murmurs rose. Discussing. What did Quinn mean by learning how to get disarmed; was there a correct way to get. . . disarmed?


    "The best way to learn a spell is to experience it," stated Quinn. "Of course, there are spells like Reductor spell which you can''t experience and spells like Stunners which are harmful after a couple consecutive hits, but spells like the Disarming spells can be experienced. So what I want you to do is concentrate on how your hand feels when someone disarms you. . . I want a person from the pair to disarm the other person five times in a row before switching the other way round. . . Remember, concentrate on the feeling of getting disarmed."


    The feeling of confusion and doubt grew inside the Room of Requirements as the pair members stared at each other, but. . .


    "EXPELLIARMUS."


    Everyone looked in the direction of the chant and saw Daphne Greengrass picking up her wand and holding it straight up for Tracey Davis to cast again ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS" ¡ª the wand flew up once again and fell into the air. Both girls were experienced with Quinn''s methods as he had made them understand what it meant to ''pull'' while he taught them the Seize-and-Pull spell.


    Then another Disarming chant came from another direction, and everyone saw Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby staring up towards the ceiling. Marcus raised his hands up and caught his wand that dropped into his hand from very high up.


    "Can''t you go easy?" said Marcus, "I fear that the wand might poke my eye out."


    "Hmmm," Eddie made the sound before ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS" ¡ª and Marcus'' wand went flying into the air, really high.


    Another two Disarming spell chant was heard, and they turned to see Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, and Ivy Potter & Hermione Granger cast the Disarming spells. Three out of four had gone through the same ordeal justst year ¡ª they were just thankful they were starting light.


    "Stop staring and start casting!" Everyone turned to see Quinn sitting on the ground, legs crossed, with a big block of dark-gray stone in his hand. "I want everyone to at least get sick about getting disarmed; that''s the aim~."


    The room was suddenly full of shouts of "EXPELLIARMUS!": Wands flew in all directions, missed spells hit books on shelves, and sent them flying into the air. Quinn would look up from his rock time-to-time to nce around and thought he had been right to suggest that they practice the


    basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not seeding in disarming their opponents at all but merely causing them to jump back a few paces or wince as the feeble spell whooshed over them.


    ''I guess it will take some time,'' thought Quinn before going back to his rock.


    Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown casted Disarming charms on each other, with frustration building in both girls.


    "Ugh, how long do I have to do this ¡ª EXPELLIARMUS!" said Lavender.


    Parvati picked up her wand with a fed-up expression and aimed it at Lavender as it was her chance to disarm Lavender. Her hand was feeling chaffed at her wand repeatedly being stripped out of her grasp. She winced a little as the wand in her grasp hurt and kept the tens of disarming fresh in her wand.


    ''Aah, aah, disarming, disarming, disarming, it''s so frustrating!'' she thought, and the feeling of a wand being disarmed grew stronger with her anger ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS!"


    A scarlet zap escaped her wand struck Lavendar''s hand; the wand flew high into the air, and Parvati blinked in surprise as the wand spun in the air and dropped into her raised hand.


    "Huh?" Parvati stared at Lavander''s wand in her hand with surprise. In herst turn, she was barely able to push Lavender''s wand out to a distance outside her reach; getting into her own hand wasn''t even in her sights.


    "Oh, you did it. Nicely done."


    Parvati turned to see Quinn standing at a distance from her.


    "By any chance, were you thinking about getting disarmed while casting?" he asked.


    "Y-Yes," said Parvati, still surprised to have cast the spell so well.


    "Now, how about carrying that same feeling but this time channel them towards Lavender specifically," said Quinn in advice.


    Parvati nodded hurriedly, and after returning the wand to Lavender, she once again cast ¡ª "EXPELLIARMUS" ¡ª and this time, she followed Quinn''s advice. Once again, Lavender''s wand was in Parvati''s hand.


    "It was easier this time," said Parvati fascinated.


    "That''s to be expected," said Quinn with a smile, "that''s how magic is cast ¡ª magic within, focused through your wand, shaped by our intents and imagination, made possible with the knowledge and the chant.


    "Now, can you exin what you felt and did to Lavender?" asked Quinn.


    Parvati nodded and immediately got to sharing her newly gained ability with Lavender as if she had just heard a new hot piece of gossip that was just too good not to be shared.


    That day, from Parvati and Lavender, a chain of exnations and demonstrations spread into the entire Room of Requirements as, one by one, people started to understand how intent, imagination, and knowledge worked together to form and shape magic.


    "Till the next time I want you guys to practice the spell on anything you can disarm; it can be clothes from hangers, lids from bottles, rings from fingers, anything you can find, BUT!" he raised his voice, "it shouldn''t be outside the four walls of your dorm room. If Umbridge gets a whiff of you trying spells out in the hallways, she will take advantage of the no magic in hallway rule and push you into harsher detentions than needed."


    And with that, the DA meeting was dismissed.


    After ensuring everyone was out of the Room of Requirements, the Prefects in DA, with knowledge of patrol routes, led their respective houses back to theirmon rooms. Hufflepuff and Slytherin took amon route to the Dungeons, while Ravenw and Gryffindor took another route to descend a couple of floors to go to theirmon rooms.


    When they were on the fifth floor, Ivy watched as the Ravenw group turned towards theirmon house, but she noticed that Quinn was missing.


    "Huh, but I just saw him with them on the seventh floor. . ." She turned to Hermione and asked, "Does Quinn have patrol duty today?"


    "No, he isn''t on duty for two more days," said Hermione.


    ''Then where did he go?'' wondered Ivy as they descended down to the fourth floor, and she looked up the Grand Staircase. He could''ve gotten down only one floor between the seventh and fifth floor, and that was the sixth floor.


    ''But what''s he doing on the sixth floor,'' she wondered.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Get sick of it to get good at it.


    Eddie Carmichael - Ravenw - Hey!


    Parvati Patil - Gryffindor - So, like, it was so, like. . .


    Ivy Potter - Leader of DA - Noticed the vanishing act.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 218 - The Vault Is A Vault

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*


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    Magic was a supernatural force that changed aspects of the world at fundamental levels while allowing the possessors to perform feats outside the norm ¡ª feats like sensing whaty inside the deep, dense stones.


    Quinn sat on the pedestal as an exceptional amount of magic flowed out of his body into the stone all around him; every knock and cranny of the vault room washed in his magic, filled to the brim, not a single grain of stone was left untouched by Quinn''s magic.


    ''Uh-huh,'' thought Quinn as he channeled Earth magic, ''I''m close. . . I''m really close; it just needs a little bit adjustment. . .''


    Icy vault required his Ice magic to be excellent in both pure strength and fineser control and skill. The Aquatic vault had the same arrangement with the solution to each trial being a mix of strength and skill, albeit each trial gave more weight to one than the other.


    But now, as Quinn sat in the Architect''s vault, he realized that this room only required pure skill for Earth magic without a requirement for power. Anyone with a decent amount of magic could train fine-train their Earth magic to seed in this room, and currently, Quinn was close to making a breakthrough in his Earth magic skill. What he was trying to aplish was to spread his magic into the stone and turn it into a sixth sense that would provide him a ''view'' of the entire room.


    ''The fuzziness is because Ick control over my Earth magic.''


    Quinn''s magic in the stone shifted at hismand ¡ª the density of his magic thickened in some ces while in some areas, the magic thinned.


    ''Remember, it''s not about the quantity of magic. The vault doesn''t require floods of magic. Stigweard Gragg was an architect; he was the Architect. . . a profession that requires precision, calction, and sureness to bring their creations to life.''


    The design and nature of his magic changed. The days of him studying the type of this particr stone were ingrained in his mind, one of the most immersed memory books that he possessed in his mindscape.


    ''Imagine being present in every particle of stone. . . put yourself in the Architect''s shoes. . . remember how to cast magic ¡ª focus your intent, apply the knowledge you have learned, and turn imagination into reality. . . and. . . bring about the blueprint, an architect''s blueprint.''


    Then it happened.


    Quinn inhaled noisily as his magic clicked into ce. The fuzziness that he experienced lifted in all but an instant, and everything became clear as if he was looking at the insides of the stone walls, floor, and ceilings in a brightly lit environment.


    He opened his eyes and whispered, "Illusion. . ." and the next moment, the self-illusion he cast on himself tranted his Earth sense into vision ¡ª granting him something akin to x-ray vision.


    ''Illusion magic is convenient like that,'' thought Quinn.


    That was thest errant thought in Quinn''s mind as the awe of the sight in front of him overtook his mind.


    "Stigweard Gragg. . . for the love of magic, he really was an architect through and through, wasn''t he."


    On the day, he had found that there were hollow spots inside the walls, floors, and ceiling; Quinn matched it with the solution to opening the archway but not in his slight imagination did he imagine that the fuzzy hollow would be something like this.


    Every inch of the room, except the solid pedestal, was covered in gears of hundred sizes, shafts of different lengths and thicknesses, levers of different configurations, mechanical switches that locked into various ces, rotating axils with screw-ends, osciting half-wheels, deadbolts jammed into cam slots at dozens of sites, locking everything into ce.


    ''The entire vault is god damned lock,'' thought Quinn as he couldn''t voice it in words.


    Just below the pedestal were nine thick tes of stone, each connected to an intricate mechanism that, when solved, would separate the tes from the middle, pulling them apart, allowing the pedestal to sink a level with every solution.


    "What a masterpiece," he muttered, "what ingenuity, what creativeness, what must his mind be like for him to create something like this."


    Every vault before this had been ''magical'' in nature, but the Architect''s vault was purely mechanical, without a trace of magic except the fortification of stone and fail-safes in case someone tried to brute their way through the vault. Just the thought of someone turning the entire room into one huge lock mechanism.


    ". . . I don''t know this level of lock-picking."


    Believe it or not, he had ordered various locks to pick while doing extra research on Unlocking charms (he followed the same method he taught in DA), but this was another level ¡ª this was the level used inplicated safes and. . . vaults.


    Quinn jumped down from the pedestal and put his hands to his sides.


    "I suppose I need to learn how to pick safes now," he said while sighing but with a big smile on his face.


    This was going to be different; he could feel it, and it made him excited all over again. He was going to learn something new, and that made his body fill up with giddiness.


    "This is going to be grand."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The Golden Squad exited Hagrid''s house after having a good long chat with the recently home half-Giant.


    "He was in bad shape," said Hermione sighing.


    Ron snorted in response, "Bad is saying it lightly. I''m pretty sure he had his ribs broken." Broken ribs weren''t a severe injury in the magical world, but it was terrible anywhere if the injury was left unintended for days or yet more than a month, as in this case.


    Hagrid''s hair was matted with congealed blood, and his left eye had been reduced to a puffy slit amid a mass of purple-and-ck bruises. There were many cuts on his face and hands, some of them still bleeding, and he was moving gingerly, which made Ron suspect broken ribs. It was evident that he had only just got home; a thick ck traveling cloaky over the back of a chair, and a haversackrge enough to carry several small children leaned against the wall inside the door. They saw Hagrid himself, twice the size of a normal man and three times as broad, limped over to the fire and cing a copper kettle over it.


    "We should inform Madam Pomfrey about him and tell her to heal him before Umbitch gets to him," said Ivy deciding the best course of action.


    The other three nodded. Umbridge had been overbearing these days; it was like she was out looking for even the smallest things to blow them out of proportion.


    "But to think that Voldemort has been going after Giants," said Harry, "I wondered why someone like that bastard was so quiet, but it seems he was trying to get the Giants to his side."


    "Never knew that the Ministry was on a lookout for Portkeys," said Hermione. It took a month to get to the ce where Giants lived, and because anyone associated with Dumbledore was being monitored, Hagrid couldn''t take a Portkey to the location and had to physically travel there.


    Hagrid had told them that when he, along with Maxime Olympe, had reached thergest tribe of Giants on this side of Europe ¡ª a total of eighty Giants.


    There were hundreds of tribes of Giants dotting the entire world map, but because they lived in small groups, it wasn''t feasible for Voldemort to send delegations to each tribe as giving gifts to every small tribe was too costly and required too much effort; that''s why this eighty Giant tribe was the only attainable option and thus was the one where Dumbledore sent Hagrid and Maxime to.


    Hagrid and Maxime presented the Giant chief, Karkus, with gifts to garner his and the tribe''s support ¡ª Giants loved magic, but because they couldn''t perform it, so they liked to collect magical items; Dumbledore had sent a branch of Evesting fire to help them to keep warm in the winter and cook food. Other gifts included a goblin-made helmet for the chief of a battle-hungry race and a great roll of old dragon hide.


    Unfortunately for the Order of Pheonix delegation, just when Karkus had finally sat down with them Hagrid and Maxime to listen to them, tragedy struck ¡ª Giants weren''t meant to live in tribes with more than a dozen members, and it seemed like an outsider bearing gifts had offset turmoil in therge tribe as the very next night, there was great inner-fight in which a dozen Giants died along with Karkus, the chief.


    Giants were a violent race and had no qualms about killing their fellow members over food, best sleeping spots near warm fires, women, and that''s why Giant tribes weren''trger than a dozen Giants each as that was the highest number a deep mountain or forest could adequately provide for without inciting in-fighting.


    The next day, a new chief was elected, Golgomath.


    The new chief, it seemed, was on a power roll and wanted to assert dominance to consolidate his position as the head, as the moment Hagrid presented them with their final gift (a great roll of dragon skin), Hagrid and Maxime were captured and hung upside down. They only escaped because of Maxime Olympe whipping out her wand and injuring their captures before making a break for it.


    That was the end of Hagrid''s and Maxime''s talk with the tribe, as Giants hated the wizardkind. The humans had been hunting Giants for a very long time and were one of the reasons why Giants had gone through a great thinning in poption worldwide. The moment Maxime had used wanded magic, any chances ofmunication were closed.


    And as Hagrid and Maxime hid in caves to heal themselves before heading out, they chanced upon the newly arrived Death Eater delegation. And they had sent a familiar face, Mair, which was why Golgomath didn''t hang them up on sight; the rest was handled by a series of gifts to appease and impress the new chief.


    "In the end, Voldemort got the Giants'' support," said Hermoine worriedly.


    The four fell into silence as their minds turned in each''s imagination of the repercussions of Giants falling into Voldemort''s hands. Giants were hard to kill or even subdue.


    "Hey, isn''t that West there?" said Ron, breaking the silence as he pointed a short distance away from Hagrid''s house.


    Harry, Ivy, and Hermione turned to where Ron was pointing, and they saw Quinn leisurely walk out of the Forbidden Forest trees while stretching his hands over his head.


    "Isn''t he cold?" said Harrymenting on Quinn''s attire; he only had a shirt and pair of pants on him, and they were already in peak snowing season.


    Ivy raised her hand high and reached out to Quinn loudly, who stopped in his tracks and turned towards them. They say him raise his hand and wave back.


    "How''re you four doing today," said Quinn as both parties met halfway. His eyes went to where they previously stood and saw the smoke churning out of the hut''s chimney, "Looks like Hagrid''s back at Hogwarts. I suppose now that I''m here, I''ll say hello to him."


    "He has just returned," said Harry hiding a jump in his voice, "and is tired from his travels. . . we should probably leave him alone to settle back and rest; Hagrid did say that he wanted to get in a good nap in his own."


    Hagrid''s Giant adventure was a secret mission given to him by Dumbledore. It was wise if the news didn''t spread, given Umbridge''s close proximity to Dumbledore and Hagrid. Harry feared that if Quinn saw an injured Hagrid, the word would spread because they couldn''t keep him quiet without telling him the reason behind the injuries.


    "Is that so; then I''ll just greet him when I see him in the Great Hall," said Quinn shrugging.


    "Why aren''t you wearing more clothes. It''s freezing out here," said Harry changing the topic.


    Quinn looked at his attire, and it was indeed not weather-appropriate, but on the other hand, he wasn''t feeling cold right now, so he once again shrugged,


    "I''m feeling fine now, but you''re right. . . my clothes do seem out of ce," he took out a wand and conjured a robe around his body, "do you guys feelfortable now?"


    The Golden Squad were confused, but they nodded.


    "What were you doing on in the Forbidden Forest?" asked Ivy curiously.


    Quinn tapped his pant pockets and smiled, "I was collecting a herb or two for making potions. Forbidden Forest is a great ce to pick out some great herbs, and you know what the best part is; it''s one hundred percent free."


    The Golden Squad stared at the West heir, who was making a proud impression at saving money on potion ingredients.


    ''They seem to be buying it,'' thought Quinn observing the Golden Squad. He couldn''t tell them that he was stalking the magical wolf tribe that lived in the Forbidden Forest, watching them, their civilization, and their culture.


    The clothes on his body were actually his transformed Noir-Suit, and he had, without any reason, turned them from a dark-forest camo to casual shirt and pants.


    Last year, he had made ns to observe the tribe, and this year, he was executing them. His motive was to study the wolves and see if they held a clue to cure Lycanthropy in werewolves. They were the descendants of two Lycanthropy mating under the full moon in their werewolf forms. It was a good possibility that their unique birth could help solve Lycanthropy.


    These wolves essentially had their human forms eliminated by birth, sure their intelligence came from the human side of their parents, but there were plenty of non-humanoid species with human-level intelligence. If these beings could have their human physical traits removed, why couldn''t Lycanthrope be cured of their wolf aspects?


    "So, did you guys inform Hagrid about Umbridge?" Quinn asked as they walked towards the castle as Quinnzily waved his fake wand back and forth, shoveling snow out of their way.


    "We did," said Harry, "Hagrid said that he has some interesting stuff nned for the year. . . I just hope Umbridge would find it interesting as well."


    "I doubt it," said Ron scoffing with raging disdain. "She seemed chummy with that Grubbly-nkdy; she''ll try to make Hagrid''s life difficult."


    It was no secret that Ronald Weasley disliked the new Care for Magical Creatures'' Professor. That dislike increased when Grubbly-nk''s inspection went surprisingly smoothly, with Umbridge being the least amount annoying she could be. Credit to Grubbly-nk for being a good Professor and staying entirely out of politics.


    "Speaking of. . ." Hermione jutted her chin forward, and the group looked up to see Umbridge standing in the Entrance Hall with a clipboard in her hand, scribbling things while looking around the Entrance Hall.


    "What''s she doing?" muttered Harry suspiciously.


    "Some sort of inspections to find out. . . probably to undermine Dumbledore''s upkeep ability of the school," Ivy garnered a guess as the group consciously turned into a different direction.


    "But isn''t she chummy with Filch?" asked Ron.


    "This is Umbridge we are talking about; she won''t hesitate a single second in betraying Filch; that woman is lower than a fleabag," said Harry with a nasty humph.


    Filch, as few knew, was a Squib and thus couldn''t use magic. Even though house-elves were excellent in upkeep, if Umbridge could find something directly rted to Fudge, she could connect it back to Dumbledore and get him a demerit ¡ª a severe problem in these dire times. While Filch was in charge of cleaning, Dumbledore was in charge of Filch, and with Dumbledore''s inability to retain a DADA Professor, it would seem like Dumbledore wasn''t adequate in his role as the Headmaster.


    "Ah, children, what might you be doing here, dears?"


    The five stopped in their tracks, and four of them released groans and whines. They turned towards the High Inquisitor walking towards them with her stumpy legs, looking funny to Quinn, but he held back the smile, chuckle,ugh, and guffaw.


    "What can we do for you, ma''am?" asked Quinn pleasantly, refusing to say the word Professor but still getting by just below the line.


    Umbridge looked at Quinn up and down, and a sweet smile stretched over her human-like face. A shine of vigor shone in her eyes like a child finding her favorite candy.


    "May I ask why aren''t you in your school robes, Mr. West," said Umbridge.


    "You may not," said Quinn shortly.


    ". . . You don''t have your uniform on nor your outer robe."


    "And there''s nothing wrong with that."


    "You''re a student of Hogwarts, Mr. West," said Umbridge stressing her point.


    "That I am," said Quinn smiling, "I''m even a sixth-year Prefect."


    "That will be a detention, Mr. West," said Umbridge, smiling widely, giddy.


    "As I said, I''m a Prefect, I know the rules," said Quinn smiling in return, "After sses for the day ends, students are no longer required to wear their uniforms. . . for reference, it''s Policy Sec 1, use 1.5, Page 8."


    He had memorized the rules years ago in case he was caught in some trouble and needed to weasel his way out. Umbridge reeled back in dissatisfaction. She, of course, hadn''t bothered to read Hogwarts student rules and regtions.


    "I''m the High Inquisitor¡ª"


    "And as I said before, you don''t have the authority over the things you''re trying to enforce. . . I expected more from the High Inquisitor," said Quinn non-chntaly before sping his hands in front, "Now, we''d leave you to the important work you''re doing and leave as to not waste your time."


    Quinn immediately walked away without waiting for a reply. The Golden Squad followed after a beat. They had heard that Quinn had shut down Umbridge, but this was the first time seeing him in action.


    "That was a little weak," said Quinn in retrospection, "I could''ve gotten in a jab or two more; I will make sure to remember that for the next time."


    The Golden Squad had no words for him except a strange sense of admiration and reverence.


    Back in the Entrance Hall, Umbridge fumed in silence. She was getting angrier by the second. Her interactions weren''t going well, and she was always on the losing front.


    "Just because he''s from a powerful family doesn''t mean he can get away with this," said Umbridge, gritting her teeth. "He''s just a kid. . . a naive, disciplinable rude brat," a glint appeared in her eyes, "he wants authority, then I will give him authority."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Bringing past projects to fruition.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Mid-terms over!!!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 219 - Petty Ban, Temper, Locked

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. TWENTY-FIVE


    ----------- By Order Of -----------


    The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts


    Broomsticks may not be flown on unless during AUTHORISED Quidditch practice.


    The above is in ordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty- Five.


    Signed:


    Dolores Jane Umbridge


    High Inquisitor


    ----------- Ministry of Magic -----------


    .


    "What does this woman. . . toady-bitch(!) think she''s doing?!" eximed Eddie along with the rest of the Ravenw Quidditch team, standing in the Ravenwmon room with their housemates also reading the notice posted on the Ravenw house bulletin board.


    The one line on the Decree-notice spoke many things.


    First was obvious in the face interpretation that brooms were banned outside of Quidditch practices, which meant that anyone outside of Quidditch yers wasn''t allowed to fly a broom. Not being on the Quidditch team didn''t mean that people didn''t enjoy flying brooms; in fact, arge majority of Hogwarts had their personal brooms and flew them regrly with their friends ying casual-versions of Quidditch or even flew solo to spend some time alone in the sky. And many people who wanted to be on Quidditch teams practiced on their own time to get better so they could pass the try-outs.


    The second interpretation was to the Quidditch teams. As the sentence stated, brooms were only allowed during Authorized Practices, which meant that teams could only fly their brooms when practicing in the stadium and not anywhere else. This was a tremendous detrimental as teams practiced as much if not more outside the stadium than inside the stadium. The stadium and the pitch were shared between four teams, and none thought that their time during Authorized Practice was enough. There were even some Quidditch team members (picture Eddie Carmichael) who practiced alone out of team practice.


    "The bitch and Snape are clearly in bed together," said Eddie scathingly.


    The Slytherin Quidditch team had by far the most Authorized Practice time because of Snape abusing his power and assigning them the Slytherin Quidditch team the pitch.


    "Eww. . ." said Cho making a disgusted face. "Don''t say that; I just imagined what it would be like." That triggered many people''s imaginations, and they too made disgusted expressions and groans while ring at Eddie.


    That''s when Quinn came down the dormitory stairs into themon room to see the crowd gathered around in front of the bulletin board.


    "What is it? What happened?" asked Quinn as he walked to the front with his eyes on his pocket watch to see if he was runningte.


    "Umbitch did something stupid again," said Terry Boot, not holding back the hatred in his voice.


    Quinn finally looked up and saw the Decree-notice on the bulletin board. The realization dawned on him.


    "Ah, Umbridge''s being petty," he said, "we got Quidditch back before she would''vecked ¡ª she prematurely lost one of the leverages to power ¡ª so she does this, huh. . . but I would''ve to say, that''s a good petty-jab she got in ¡ª Quidditch still goes on, but she restricted broom-time, and because Ministry isn''t happy about the Hogwarts'' academic performance, we can''tin about," he smiled, "a move well yed."


    "Why in Morgana''s saggy tits are you smiling," said Eddie, frustrated, "this isn''t good, not good at all; you do understand that, right?"


    Quinn shrugged his shoulders, "There''s nothing we can do about this, you know? She, as the High Inquisitor, does have that authority. . . If you do want this to be fair ¡ª fairer ¡ª then find a way to convince Professor Flitwick, McGonagall, and Sprout to do something about Snape''s scheduling tyranny ¡ª that''s the only way you''ll get your deserved practice time."


    Quinn was obviously Pro-Umbridge-opposition, but he couldn''t hold their hands on every problem they encountered. He neither had time nor motivation for moving against Umbridge on every little move she made. He was only going to move against significant actions that were a bit too much.


    "I would suggest that you grab Marcus and have him n something involving Potter, Diggory, the other captains, and Eddie if you can keep your mouth clean to lobby the Professors to stop Snape from abusing his authority," said Quinn and then look around, "where is Marcus?"


    "He went down to Great Hall with Luna to eat," said Eddie.


    "Get him good things to eat. . . you know, butter him up to provide him some incentive; that''ll get him moving," said Quinn, patting Eddie on his shoulder before leaving themon room leaving the gathered Ravenw crowd behind.


    Eddie turned to the said crowd and spoke, all of them looking back at him. "Well, you heard what he said. . . now, dish out some money; we''ll need a lot of food."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    December arrived, and it was yet another dull and inane Defense Against the Dark Arts lecture with "Professor" Umbridge "teaching" to the best of her ability, trying to impart "crucial" knowledge to the future of the British Isle''s magicalmunity by silently sitting and ordering her students to read an impractical book with pointless "ethical" jargon.


    Umbridge looked up from her teacup filled with tea poured from a pink bottle-gourd-shaped sk; she smiled pleasantly at the silent ss with only the sound of pages turning and notes being scribbled from her ss of fifth-year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.


    "Memorize well, children," she said with a thin smile curling up, "I''ll be taking a surprise test next week of all the things I have taught you till now."


    " "Yes, Professor Umbridge," " said the students in unison like a group trained in synchronicity.


    Harry Potter sat at the backbench of the ssroom (a popr seat in Umbridge''s sses), as far away from the pink menace as it was physically possible(the fat cow never got up from her chair), ring at Umbridge with intense hate in his eyes. He was feeling very much resentful towards Umbridge, greater than he had ever felt towards the woman. This year, he enjoyed only two things at Hogwarts ¡ª DA and Quidditch ¡ª the woman, had sucked out all that made Hogwarts and left it feeling like a prison.


    If someone beat him half to death, Harry would give partial credit to Umbridge for the inception of DA. The other thing being Quidditch ¡ª Umbridge had tried her best to take that away, and even though they were able to wrestle it back, she had imposed the petty Educational Decree Number Twenty- Five and threw a Bombarda into what seemed to be turning out to be a good season.


    His temper had been on an all-time high at the start of the year and had subsided for a while was now back in full force, nay it was stronger than before.


    And so he raised his hand.


    Umbridge caught the raised hand and spoke with her "honey" dripping voice, "Yes, dear. What is it?"


    "Are we going to be tested in our casting ability in this test," asked Harry inly, hiding all his true behind a facade.


    In the middle of the ssroom, Hermione and Ivy were looking back towards the back seat at Harry with baffled expressions, wondering what Harry, who had not said a word in Umbridge''s sses for three months, had raised his hand now.


    Hermione hurriedly grabbed Ivy''s sleeve and tugged it hard.


    "Cast. . . cast a Cheering charm or something, hurry, quick, do it, do it, do it now before he does something stupid," she said.


    But it was toote.


    Umbridge''s smile got wider as she said in reply, "No dear, as I''ve been saying, there''s no need for all of you to be casting spells and charms, so why would you need to be tested in your ability¡ª"


    "Peter Pettigrew," said Harry.


    The quiet ssroom somehow became more quieter than it was before as the entire ss of thirty held their breath.


    "What?" asked Umbridge.


    "Peter Pettigrew, a trusted Death Eater of Voldemort," everyone in the room showed varied reactions, "that man escaped his prison and is now on the run. . . the Ministry tried to find him, but they were unsessful. . . what if Peter Pettigrew came after me, how would you expect me to defend myself if I can''t cast spells?"


    All eyes turned to Umbridge, who stood up and leaned toward them, her stubby-fingered hands syed on her desk.


    "Why would hee after you¡ª"


    "Because he originally came after me. That day Voldemort killed my grandparents; they were after me," then he paused, "and I am the Boy-Who-Lived, the one defeated Voldemort¡ª"


    "Don''t say that name!" said Umbridge, hissing.


    Harry stood up. Everyone was staring at him; Seamus looked half-scared, half-fascinated.


    "Harry mate, no!" Ron whispered in a warning voice, tugging at his sleeve, but Harry jerked his arm out of her reach.


    "Voldemort is dead, ording to the Ministry. What if Peter Pettigrew, a deranged Death Eater, who had been in the presence of dementors, decides to take revenge ande after me, the Boy-Who-Lived, who killed his master Voldemort, tried to kill me," said Harry with force.


    "The Ministry will take care of¡ª"


    "Ministry hasn''t been able to take ''care'' of him for two years now; how am I supposed to feel safe after such a long time of ineptitude. How would I feel safe when a high-ranking Ministry employee such as yourself shivers at the name of a supposedly dead man."


    "Detention, Mr. Potter!" said Umbridge; she was so furious that her entire face had turned red. "Tomorrow evening. Five o''clock. My office. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means,e and see me outside ss hours. If someone is rming you with fibs about escaped Dark Wizard, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading."


    Professor Umbridge sat down behind her desk again, and so did Harry; both were fuming in their chairs, red down to their necks. But after a while, Umbridge''s face went nk. Then she said, in her softest, most sweetly girlish voice, "Come here, Mr. Potter, dear."


    Harry kicked his chair aside, strode around Ron and up to the teacher''s desk. He could feel the rest of the ss holding its breath. He felt so angry he did not care what happened next.


    Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill into a bottle of ink, and started scribbling, hunched over so that Harry could not see what she was writing. Nobody spoke. After a minute or so, she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand; it sealed itself seamlessly so that he could not open it.


    "Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear," said Professor Umbridge, holding out the note to him.


    He took it from her without saying a word and left the room, not even looking back at Ron and Hermione, and mming the ssroom door shut behind him. He walked very fast along the corridor, the note to McGonagall clutched tight in his hand. When he reached her office, he rapped the door more aggressively than politely.


    The door flew open, and McGonagall emerged from her office, looking grim and slightly harassed.


    "What on earth was that rapping, Potter?" she snapped. "Why aren''t you in ss?"


    "I''ve been sent to see you."


    "Sent? What do you mean, sent?"


    He held out the note from Umbridge. McGonagall took it from him, frowning, slit it open with a tap of her wand, stretched it out, and began to read. Her eyes zoomed from side to side behind their square spectacles as she read what Umbridge had written, and with each line, they became narrower.


    "Come in here, Potter."


    He followed her inside her study. The door closed automatically behind him.


    "Well?" said Professor McGonagall, rounding on him. "Is this true?"


    "Is what true?" Harry asked, rather more aggressively than he had intended. "Professor?" he added in an attempt to sound more polite.


    "Is it true that you shouted at Professor Umbridge?"


    "Yes."


    "You called the Ministry inept."


    "Yes."


    "You told her that Peter Pettigrew mighte to kill you."


    "Yes."


    McGonagall sat down behind her desk, frowning at Harry. Then she said, "Have a biscuit, Potter."


    "Have ¡ª what?"


    Have a biscuit," she repeated impatiently, indicating a tartan tin of cookies lying on top of one of the piles of papers on her desk. "And sit down."


    There had been a previous asion when Harry, expecting to be caned by McGonagall, had instead been appointed by her to the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He sank into a chair opposite her and helped himself to a Ginger Newt, feeling just as confused and wrong-footed as he had done on that asion.


    Professor McGonagall set down Professor Umbridge''s note and looked very seriously at Harry.


    "You had been very good, Potter. You had been good for more time than I thought you''d be," she said with a sigh, "I won''t lie by saying that I didn''t see this daying."


    Harry swallowed his mouthful of Ginger Newt and stared at her. Her tone of voice was not at all what he was used to; it was not brisk, crisp, and stern; it was low and somehow much more human than usual.


    "What do you ¡ª ?"


    "Potter, use yourmon sense," snapped McGonagall, with an


    abrupt return to her usual manner. "You know where shees from; you


    must know to whom she is reporting."


    The bell rang for the end of the lesson. Overhead and all-around came the elephantine sounds of hundreds of students on the move.


    "It says here she''s given you detention every evening this week, starting


    tomorrow," Professor McGonagall said, looking down at Umbridge''s note


    again."


    "Every evening this week!" Harry repeated, horrified. "But, Professor, couldn''t you ¡ª ?"


    "No, I couldn''t," said Professor McGonagall tly.


    "But ¡ª"


    "She is your teacher and has every right to give you detention. This happened inside her ssroom, so I can''t even cancel it. You will go to her room at five o''clock tomorrow for the first one. Just remember: Tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge."


    "But I was telling the truth!" said Harry, outraged. "Wormtail coulde after me; he was there that night, you know it, Professor Dumbledore knows it¡ª"


    "For heaven''s sake, Potter!" said Professor McGonagall, straightening her sses angrily (she had winced horribly when he had used Voldemort''s name). "Do you really think this is about truth or lies? It''s about keeping your head down and your temper under control!"


    She stood up, nostrils wide and mouth very thin, and he stood too.


    "Have another biscuit," she said irritably, thrusting the tin at him.


    "No, thanks," said Harry coldly.


    "Don''t be ridiculous," she snapped.


    He took one.


    Thanks," he said grudgingly.


    "Didn''t you listen to Dolores Umbridge''s speech at the start-of-term feast,


    Potter?"


    "Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah. . . she said. . . progress will be prohibited or. . . well, it meant that . . . that the Ministry of Magic is trying to interfere at Hogwarts."


    Professor McGonagall eyed him for a moment, then sniffed, walked around her desk, and held open the door for him.


    "Well, I''m d you at least listened," she said, pointing him out of her office.


    Harry got up with the biscuit in hand and headed towards the door.


    "Oh, and Potter."


    He turned back to McGonagall, "Yes?"


    "She also you banned from Quidditch."


    "WHAT?!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn sat in the Architect''s vault, near a part of the wall. Above his hands floated a small replication of a portion of lock mechanism inside the vault''s walls.


    It turned out that when one could see the lock mechanism from the inside with every single piece visible, it got so much easier to figure out how things worked and moving which parts would get the mechanism to open up. In this case, Quinn could see everything as such; he had no problem replicating a miniature version of the lock mechanism inside into one of the models in his hands.


    He then practiced on miniature hundreds of times to find the correctbination of moves he needed to make the first stone disc below the pedestal split and move to allow the pedestal to fall one level.


    "Rinse and repeat for the remaining discs, and this will be over in a zilch," said Quinn with a smirk on his face andugh in his voice, "Architect must not have thought that someone would go this deep into earth sensation, hehehe, I''m indeed one good challenger. . . Now, let''s do this."


    Quinn looked down at the miniature, and immediately, multiple parts started to move at once. Shafts moved, gears spun, links locked together, others snapped open, deadbolts snapped out of ces ¡ª every piece served a purpose, and Quinn knew every single one of them.


    "Click, ck, and another tick, tack," Quinn smiled as he did some fancy jazz hands, and with every small solve, two pullies with stone-linked chains pulled on the two sides of the miniature disc and pulled them apart.


    "Vo~! That''s how it''s done!"


    He twirled on the spot to celebrate and did the running man before transmuting the miniature back into a block of stone(he had theyout and dimensions memorized by heart) and threw the stone block into his pockets.


    "Now, let me show you how it''s done."


    He ced his hands on the wall, exhaled deeply. His breath touched the wall as he closed his eyes and extended his magic into the stone. There was the usual fuzziness, but as Quinn adjusted his magic, his senses became clearer and clearer until he had the ''look'' of precisely the same thing as the miniature.


    "Time for some magic."


    With the phrase, the magic began its charm. The grand pieces started to shift. The map in his mind shifted at the same time the actual gears inside the walls. The room vibrated, shook, trembled as the heavy stone pieces moved under the effects of Quinn''s magic.


    After a long series of shifts, turns, twists, pulls, pushes, and a wide range of motions, Quinn opened his eyes and moved away from the wall. He looked down the floor as a tremor moved from the wall inwards to the pedestal until everything stopped, and with a huge boom, the pedestal sunk in one level. Quinn immediately looked to another part of the wall and saw an archway portion retreat inside a few inches, setting of dust as more tremors settled inside the room.


    "That''s too many tremors, damn it," said Quinn after everything was over.


    He smiled as he ran towards the newly revealed archway, but before he could even take a few steps, the teal ring on his hand abruptly glowed, making him stop in his track.


    "What, what?"


    Before he could form another thought, a stronger teal glowed from his back. Quinn''s breath skipped a beat as he realized where the light wasing from. He immediately turned to see the murky-teal entrance to the vault shrinking on its self, and within mere seconds, the teal had vanished, leaving behind the same simple wall just like those everywhere in the vault.


    "Oh, you''ve got to be kidding me!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Not cool. Locked rooms are not cool!


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - The inheritor of the Potter temper.


    Dolores Umbridge - Hem, Hem - Educational Decree, Detention, Ban. . .


    Eddie Carmichael - Potty mouth - That day, he whispered tales of toads and snakes in many ears.


    Marcus Belby - Food lover - What, what is this?! Why''re you giving me all of this food?!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 220 - Race Against Time

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Oh, you''ve got to be kidding me!"


    Quinn walked towards the entry/exit wall to the vault ¡ª the teal portal, which was ever-present no matter what he did inside the vault, had shrunk down on itself like someone had pulled the water plug in a sink, and all the glowing teal-colored water got sucked in till there was no more, leaving behind the gray-colored darb, rough wall.


    "No, no, no, this isn''t good," Quinn''s palm went over to his forehead, "this isn''t good at all. . . what''s the time?"


    He fetched his pocket watch out of his pocket and nced at the watch face and hands that showed the time half past midnight.


    "Three o''clock, how much is that. . . fifteen. . . fourteen and a half. . . I''ve got fourteen and half hours," said Quinn after calction as he started paced around the vault.


    Today was a Tuesday(day changed to Wednesday at midnight), and because sixth-year Ravenws didn''t have Astronomy lessons at midnight today, Quinn was able to start his nightly vault escapades well before midnight. There was a reason why Quinn preferred to do his vault work in the night as no one woulde looking if he went upied for hours. This was also the reason why Quinn had to carefully manage his time during both his expeditions of both the Aquatic Vault and Underground Vault, as he preferred to go in the Great Lake and Forbidden Forest in the evenings while there was still light.


    "Umbridge''s ss is at three," he muttered quietly, "I have to get out of here and go back before that."


    Quinn''s ss timetable tomorrow had him attending Arithmancy, Charms, Ancient Runes, History of Magic, and Defense Against The Dark Arts ¡ª in that order. Fortunately for him, there was no Potions ss and


    Defense Against The Dark Arts was hisst lesson at three o''clock. He was a Prefect and an outstanding student; as such, he could skip one ss in every subject, and no Professor would mind except Potions with Snape and Defense Against The Dark Arts with Umbridge as neither of the two gave rats ass who Quinn was and what his track record was. He would get detentions from both if he missed ss without valid justification ¡ª which he didn''t have in this case.


    Quinn was a hundred percent fine with scrubbing potion cauldrons in detentions with Snape, but no way in hell was he going to offer himself up to Umbridge, so she could waste his time for hours on end every day for months (the vindictive woman would definitely go that far.) So he needed to get out of the vault in time to get to Umbridge''s ss to retain his freedom.


    Even if he ate one of the Weasley twins'' purposely sickness-inducing products as an excuse, everything would be for naught if he couldn''t get to Madam Pomfrey, who was needed to sign off on sick notes for which he needed to get out of this vault.


    "Luna, I''ve to contact Luna," Quinn reached into his pocket and took out a leather bracelet with a silver te ¡ª the same kind that Luna wore on her wrist all the time and was connected to this one through the Protean charm.


    [I''m bzy. Not attend ss. Tell E&M 2 say not well, sleep in dorm.] ¡ª he wrote on the silver and then made it so that it stayed till Luna replied back in the morning.


    "Hopefully, that will do the job," Quinn said, putting back the bracelet into his pocket. "Trust the Bro Code. . . Trust the Bro Code. . ."


    He turned back towards the inside the vault and took in the room. The now shorter pedestal column and the visible archway inside the wall. His magic surged out from his core, flowed out from his legs, and rippled into every corner of the vault. Illusion magicid its charm over his own eyes, and now he could see the entireyout of the hidden lock mechanism in yellow.


    "Let''s get started," he said somberly ¡ª time was of the essence.


    Quinn nced towards the right, and a part of the lock mechanism lost its yellow color and dulled into a muddy and barely visible brown ¡ª it was the part of the mechanism responsible for the first disc.


    "Eight more to go. . ." Quinn took out the block of rock used for miniature, and with a wave of magic, it turned into yet another series of intricately connected pieces of the mechanism.


    He sat down on the ground with his feet crossed and stared at the miniature floating in his hands. "Disc two, Combination #194, Simtion start."


    The moment the sentence left his mouth, the miniature stone gears started to move rapidly for the first ten seconds, but after that, with each passing second, the movement got slower, more deliberate, more careful, and seemed to demand more Quinn''s mind real estate than before.


    ck. . . the sound of stone colliding with stone stopped all the movements in the miniature.


    "Combination #194 failed," said Quinn without a hint of frustration; he had already gone through this enough times.


    The stone miniature turned to dust which floated around his hand for a second before it rushed back to solid ¡ª it was reset into the initial position before Quinn had moved it around.


    "Disc two, Combination #195," he said once again and the trial-and-error with the knowledge of hundred ny-four failures behind.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    "Disc two, Combination #238," said Quinn, and for a whole fifteen seconds, the mechanism moved at high speed before once again slowing down and finally getting stuck at a point equating to failure.


    But this time, Quinn didn''t immediately start with the followingbination in mind and closed his eyes to think about the two-hundred thirty-eight failures. Everybination he had spun shed in his mind as his eyes raced behind his eyes. He didn''t open his eyes, but the miniature turned to dust and reset back to state-zero, and started to parts spun slowly, irregrly, some even rolling back a couple steps back before going a different way, and after three full minutes, the chains connected to the two sides of disc were pulled, and the disc was pulled apart into two clean hemispheres.


    "Disc Two, Combination #239, sess," said Quinn before mming his fist into the ground sending a flooding surge of magic into stone.


    The room once again began shaking with tremors as the real-life pieces of mechanisms began moving under themands of Quinn''s magic ¡ª eventually, after a minute of tremors, the pedestal sank in a level deeper, and the archway shifted deeper inside the wall.


    Quinn got up and ran to the archway site, and as he expected, a slight gap in the floor had revealed itself; it was just big enough for Quinn to shoot light inside and find it was.


    "A staircase," he muttered as he looked at what seemed to be the first step of a staircase that went down. ''"If I keep solving the mechanism, the archway will continue to shift inside. . . I need to solve this; the key to the exit must be down the stairs." He extended his sense into the stair, and it was just a solid block of stone, but there was a magical interference that restricted his sense from going past the first step.


    He turned away from the hidden stairs and looked at the portion of the mechanism responsible for the second disc te, and his illusion turned it to the murky brown for his eyes.


    "On to the third disc," sighed Quinn as he looked at the miniature that was already in the third form, "this is going to take a while. . . "


    Quinn had already solved the first portion beforeing into the vault today and had good progress with the second portion that allowed him topletely solve it in around thirty-five minutes, but the third was a brand new territory; he had to start from scratch.


    "No time to waste."


    He sat down and got back to work.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The sun slowly rose from the horizon, gently shedding its light over everything and anything that stood below it; the birds chirped at the advent of the morning, and even the nts seemed to bloom up in the presence of glorious sun that provided them with life.


    In Quinn, Marcus, and Eddie''s dorm room, a ray of sunlight sifted through a crack in the curtains and slowly crept over Eddie''s bed, gradually making its way towards his closed eyes as he sprawled on his bed in slumber. Soon, the lone ray of sunlight did its solemn duty to hit the eyes of everyone who dared to have their curtains open even by mistake.


    Eddie''s brow furrowed as the light disturbed his lidded eyes, so he shifted in bed just to face directly towards the curtain allowing the light''s job to get easier. The furrow deepened by the second until Eddie was full-on frowning, and his eyes couldn''t take it anymore, so they set off the internal rm of difort and sent the signal.


    He sat upon his bed with a rushed jerk as the mumble ¡ª "Burn the toad!" ¡ª escaped his mouth. For a whole minute, Eddie''s entire upper body leaned forward as he sat on the bed before he groggily moved his feet off the bed and got up like a stringless puppet. He stumbled his way into the bathroom with a change of clothes clutched messily in his left hand and his right ruffling his messy bed hair into more of a mess.


    After the sound of a flush, running tap water, and ruffling of clothes, Eddie Carmichael exited the bathroom with exercise clothes, open eyes, clean teeth, and a washed face. He threw his bedtime clothes into a hamper, wore his shoes, and was grabbing his wand from his bedside when he noticed,


    "Where did Quinn go?"


    Eddie looked at the clock that hung in their room to see if he waste, but that wasn''t the case.


    "He must be down at themon room," said Eddie guessing, and after making sure everything was ready, he climbed down the dorm stairs and entered out into themon room. "I''m ready, let''s go. . ."


    But Quinn wasn''t in themon room either.


    Thinking that Quinn must''ve left early, Eddie exited themon room and jogged down to their usual spot, but even after waiting ten minutes, Quinn didn''te. Eddie ran their usual route with a frown on his face to see if he could find Quinn somewhere along the route, but the result was the same ¡ª Quinn wasn''t to be found.


    "Where did he go?"


    . . .


    Around the same time, Quinn was sitting in Architect''s room holding one of the pirs as the room shook as if it was being hit by a severe magnitude earthquake. When it finally stopped, Quinn got up and walked a couple steps to reach the archway, and the archway had moved almost a foot.


    He silently stared at the slowly revealing staircase as the illusion he cast on himself one again turned a part of the mechanism to murky brown.


    ''Now, I''ve to find which part of the remaining is for the fourth disc te and then figure out how to open it,'' he thought, not choosing to speak at all and then walked to the middle of the room so that he could get a good look of every part of the room.


    [6: 30 AM]


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Hey, do you know where Quinn is?" asked Eddie to Marcus as thetter walked out of the bathroom, ready to go to the Great Hall for breakfast.


    "Hmm, no, I don''t. Why?" asked Marcus.


    "He wasn''t there when I woke up today, and neither was he down in the grounds," said Eddie as he fixed his hair in the mirror.


    "Did you go to the office?"


    "Yeah, but it was locked."


    "Room of Requirement?"


    "No, I didn''t go there."


    "Well, he''ll turn up," said Marcus, shrugging, "let''s go; breakfast is about to start."


    Both boys walked down to themon and saw Luna sitting in an armchair with a pencil and parchment in her hand, scribbling on it.


    "Let''s go, Luna," said Marcus.


    Luna looked up from her parchment and handed her leather and silver bracelet to Marcus.


    "Isn''t this. . ." said Marcus recognizing the bracelet. He looked at the silver and read, "I''m busy. Will not attend sses. Tell Eddie and Marcus to say that I''m not feeling well and sleeping. . ."


    "Where did he got busy this early in the morning," said Eddie.


    "I don''t know," said Marus, "but well, he''s asking us to tell the Professors that he won''t be attending; we''ll do that. . ."


    "Even to Umbitch?" asked Eddie.


    "Never said we have to say it first if she forgets that Quinn is absent. . ."


    "Yeah, not going to happen, that. . . No way Umbitch forgets Quinn."


    "He must''ve something in mind," said Marcus, figuring that Quinn must''ve some rule in the code of conduct that allowed him to get away from Umbridge without punishment.


    "Let''s hope that''s true. . . we can''t have him doing detentions."


    If they only knew the truth.


    . . .


    "Ha-hah-hah-aha, I-I s-solved it-t!"ughed Quinn as he watched the pedestal sink deeper as the room shook harder than ever.


    It took some time to iste what part belonged to the fourth disc, but he figured that it would be easier to solve when he found the portion as Quinn had three portions under his belt, and he had begun to see patterns that the Architect liked to use. Stigweard Gragg might have nned this intricate lock, but he was still human, and human loved patterns. Quinn even went as far as to iste the fifth and sixth portions so that he could leave the solving instead of identification forter.


    But it turned out that the mechanism portion for the fourth was twice asrge as the previous three, marking theplexity of the fourth portion higher than the first three. In the end, Quinn was still able to charge ahead and really apply himself to solve the fourth.


    "Now, onto the fifth!"


    He was about to change the color of the fourth portion, but Quinn noticed something strange in the cement of the mechanism portions.


    ". . . The fourth and fifth. . . are connected. . . together. . ." said Quinn, his voice trailer longer and slower as thoughts clicked in his mind together.


    The fourth and fifth had now fused together to be the part of the new, bigger, moreplex mechanism portion ¡ª it was four times as big as any of the first three ones.


    ". . ."


    [8:00 AM]


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Quinn West. . ." said Septima Vector calling out for her Arithmancy sses'' role call and was about to automatically put a tick in front of the attendance parchment when her hand stopped as she didn''t hear a response.


    Septima Vector looked up from the attendance with bewilderment. It was for the first time in four years that she hadn''t heard a call back when she had said that name.


    "Quinn West?" she said again, looking around the ss, but Septima couldn''t find the face she was looking for; what she did find was Marcus Belbly''s raised hand as he sat beside Eddie Carmichael.


    While Quinn took every ss besides Muggle Studies and Divination. Eddie left behind Muggle Studies, Divination, and Astronomy as part of his NEWT level curriculum. On the other hand, Marcus left out Divination and Astronomy from his (both had Outstanding in their Potions OWLs to pass Snape''s ridiculous NEWT standards.) Though they were contemting if they should drop Care with Hagrid back and Wilhelmina Grubbly-nk out as the substitute Professor.


    "Yes, Mr. Belby?" asked Septima Vector, expecting an answer about Quinn''s whereabout given themon knowledge about the Ravenw trio of best friends.


    "Quinn isn''t feeling well today, so he''s resting in the dorm, Professor," said Marcus.


    "Oh my, is he alright?" asked Septima.


    "Yes, Professor. He just needs a little rest, that''s all," said Marcus.


    "I see, then I hope he''ll feel well soon," said Septima, and even though Quinn was absent from the ss, she ticked him present to not let the perfect attendance get broken.


    . . .


    "Disc 5, Combination #58 failed!" said Quinn, grunting with frustration.


    "Disc 5, Combination #59. Simtion start," he said as he looked at the ticking pocket watch sitting on the ground in front of him.


    [9:10 AM]


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "What did you say?!" squeaked Flitwick as he almost fell off his stack of books. "Can you please repeat that?"


    "Quinn ain''ting. He''s not feeling well," said Eddie, repeating his words.


    "I should go see him," said Flitwick, worried about his star student. It was the first time since Quinn dunked himself in a freezing potion cauldron that Quinn West had even missed a ss.


    "Please don''t do that, Professor," said Eddie keeping his voice in as Marcus shook his head repeatedly by his side in support. "Quinn is sleeping; going to our room would wake him up from sleep; he''s a very light sleeper, even someone entering the room would wake him up, so let''s leave him be."


    "I see. . ." said Flitwick as he ticked Quinn as present on his attendance sheet, "I''ll drop by before curfew to see if he''s awake and find how he is feeling."


    . . .


    "Take that, you dumb Architect, I did it! It only took me two hours! Just two hours!" yelled Quinn celebrating what seemed to be a needlesslyplex lock mechanism.


    But then he turned to the walls, and his smile dropped as he watched the newly converted fourth and fifth mechanism potion merge with the sixth to create a humongously annoying mechanism series.


    He silently screamed as he raised his hand to replicate the new sixth portion into a miniature.


    [10:10 AM]


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    By lunchtime, everyone knew that Quinn was sick and resting, and somehow it had turned into this big thing that everyone had talked about at least once. And somehow, it had turned a colossal snowball that Quinn West was fighting for his life against some dark curse.


    "How do you think he''s doing?" asked Astoria, worried.


    "Astoria, the rumors are exaggerated. Given that he''s in his dorm room and not with Madam Pomfrey, I''m sure he''ll be fine," said Daphnefortingly, but she was a little bit concerned for Quinn''s health. A little part of her mind was thinking if she could get into the Ravenw dorms without anyone knowing.


    "I''m back."


    The Greengrass sisters turned to see Tracey sit down beside them.


    "What did Eddie say?" asked Astoria.


    "It''s nothing serious, he says," said Tracey, "he said that Quinn is just tired and needs to rest to get rid of the fatigue. . . so he isn''t cursed by a dark curse," she said, eyeing Astoria teasingly.


    "It could''ve happened! You don''t know!" said Astoria definitely.


    "Wait till I tell Quinn," said Tracey, grinning, "I''m sure he''ll be very interested in this entire thing."


    "That is true," said Daphne softly, smiling. She could imagine him talking about the mystery of the Hogwarts Rumor Mill.


    . . .


    Quinn stared at the partially revealed staircase under the archway. He had just solved the sixth portion, and the archway was pushed deeper inside.


    "This is big enough," he muttered, "uh-huh, big enough for a Raven. . ."


    He immediately transformed into his animagus form and walked on his two talons into the staircase and then fly-jumped down the stairs just toe across a dead-end.


    "Of course, no shortcut here," said Quinn after getting out, "I guess I would need to use that to solve portions 7 to 9."


    He sat down and closed his eyes and brought up his lumency to the limit. The efficiency aspect allowed Quinn to think faster and even do multitasking at an absurd level, but that was only for simple tasks and a certain level of casting. He hadn''t tried to efficiency aspect for anything thisplicated and didn''t know if it would work or he would just ending up getting confused.


    "But, it''s now or never. . ."


    [1:10 AM]


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Umbridge was feeling very happy today. She had just heard that Quinn West was sick and wasn''t attending sses today. ording to the rules, if the student was to miss a ss, they needed to have a clear reason for being absent.


    She had asked around and had found that Quinn West hadn''t been to the hospital wing today, meaning that even if he was sick, he didn''t have the sick note from Poppy Pomfrey, and she could give him detention for missing ss without proper reason.


    ''Finally, I can teach him about manners,'' Umbridge thought as she walked towards her ssroom.


    Her eyes shined, and her smile sweetened when she saw Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Bebly walk into the ssroom without Quinn.


    ''Today is going to be a good day,'' she thought as she reached the threshold of the ssroom. Umbridge stopped and raised her wrist with her watch to look at the time. She was about to turn her wrist when she heard the voice.


    "Good afternoon, ma''am. What a lovely day we are having."


    Her smile froze as she looked up just to see Quinn West walk past into the ssroom without giving her a single look.


    [2:10 AM]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I did it, biatches!


    FictionOnlyReader - Author -


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 221 - Respectfully Suggesting

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Where were you?" asked Eddie in a rushed whisper as soon as Quinn sat down beside him in the Defense Against The Dart Art ssroom. "I spent half an hour in the morning running around in the grounds looking for you."


    "I got busyst night and didn''t return to the dorm," said Quinn back in a whisper. Quinn grabbed his shoulder and stretched his neck, "Ugh, my neck hurts. . . all-nighters are seriously not my scene," he grimaced a bit, "should''ve conjured a chair or something."


    "What were you doing exactly?" asked Marcus.


    Quinn sighed tiredly, "Solving a puzzle. . . a massive troublesome puzzle with a clock on it."


    Umbridge, who had finally calmed herself down from broken expectations and fantastical dreams, entered the ssroom, and the ss went mum-silent as she preferred in her ssroom. Eddie and Marcus also left Quinn alone, took out their books, and started reading the book without Umbridge''s prompt.


    Quinn, also for once, took out his book and began pretending to read it. He needed some quiet and peace to nurse his throbbing head ¡ª it was killing him. He used thought eleration to cut down on time to solve the needlessly long mechanism for thest three mechanisms.


    ''That damned Stigweard Gragg! The sheer nerve to lock me inside there,'' thought Quinn while cursing the Architect, but he stopped and squeezed his eyes shut because his head hurt harder.


    While he was able to barely get out on time, and the thought eleration gambit had worked, it wasn''t aplete sess.


    . . .


    - [Back inside to Architect''s Vault] -


    Quinn stared at the seventh portion of the mechanism, then shifted his eyes to the eighth portion before moving to thest and final ninth portion.


    ''Bastard!'' he cursed, ''how does this even ssify as a lock mechanism?!''


    In traditional vault locks, one needed to work a dial(or a multiple) as the interface to the entire hidden mechanism. But here in the Architect''s Vault, there was no such single interface that Quinn could work off ¡ª every portion of the mechanism needed to be worked on from multitudes of angles and every different than the previous one ¡ª theplexity rose beyond traditional locks just with that.


    ''And now, you''re asking me to solve three portions at the same time?''


    In front of him, he could see three final portions of the mechanism, and the ''catch'' was there clear to see. Three portions were connected to each other, and they weren''t connected like the previous three (4th, 5th, and 6th.)


    ''. . . A part of seventh, then shift to the ninth to unlock the part of eight, which then will unlock the next part of the seventh. . . what kind of requirement is that?''


    Quinn realized that he would need at least three hours to get past this if he got working the very second, but he didn''t have that time. Quinn only had an hour to figure this out and hope that after solving all nine portions, the teal portal back to Hogwarts would reappear so he could make it in time for Umbridge''s ss.


    ''Alright, then it''s time to bring out the big guns.''


    He closed his eyes, and his magic began gently flowing into his brain and mindscape. The efficiency aspect of lumency was the part of Quinn''s lumency that he worked on every day without fail. But there was a catch in the form that he devoted that daily time to increase the immersion on his everyday memories(in the form of memory books) to increase his retention.


    The part of the efficiency aspect he needed today was thought eleration and parallel thought processing. Quinn was good at thought eleration as he used it passively in addition to some ssic techniques to extract knowledge from books. But when it came to parallel thought processing, Quinn didn''t train this part as much as he did other things ¡ª he could control around control pens in the upper tens and make them write simultaneously, use it in some moreplex than normal spell casting, but this was a much moreplex task than any of them.


    Quinn wasn''t sure if this would work.


    If he split his mind to think parallelly on multiple parts of the interconnected mechanism, then if one of those thoughts ended up going wrong, every thought process would suffer because of the wrong input. That problem then would snowball into a big mess in no time as he would have to roll back to the error that he didn''t know because, in Quinn''s mind, every process was going correctly.


    ''Then there''s the stress this will put on me,'' he thought while pursing his lips.


    He hadn''t used parallel thought processing on a task with this level ofplexity. As such, there was going to be a considerable amount of stress on his mind with a clock on how long he could keep it without injuring himself.


    "Okay, let''s do this and hope the Architects isn''t happy in the afterlife," and then Quinn got to work.


    . . .


    Quinn breathed deeply once and settled his back into the backrest of the chair, something he wouldn''t be seen doing even if he wasn''t dead tired. Thest three discs that stopped the pedestal from going inside came out unlocking simultaneously, and the pedestal went entirely into the floor, with the toping down just to the floor level.


    The archwaypletely sunk deep into the wall, revealing aplete set of stairs with an empty(unguarded) doorway leading to somewhere Quinn didn''t bother to check because the second the pedestal went entirely into the ground, the teal portal reappeared, and he rushed out without giving it a single second of thought.


    Quinn rose out of his thoughts and looked up when he heard Umbridge speak up his name.


    "Mr. West, I heard you''ve not been feeling today; how''re you feeling today?" asked Umbridge sounding extremely pleasant.


    Quinn purposely smiled a bit weakly as he responded, "I was feeling a bit faint in the morning, Professor, but I felt well enough, so I came to attend your ss ¡ª it''s one of my favorite sses after all. . ."


    Umbridge''s smile cramped for a split-second, but she recovered it quick enough before anyone could notice it and smiled widely than before.


    "That''s good to hear, dear. Health is paramount and should alwayse first," she said. "If you''re not feeling that your NEWT sses are too stressful, how about giving that silly little club of your a rest and focus that time in resting. . .''


    Everyone in the ssroom ducked their heads a little. If there was one thing clear in everyone''s mind about Quinn West, then it was that he would drop sses in his curriculum before he would stop AID. At this point, AID and Quinn West were synonymous.


    "Thank you for your. . . concern. . . Professor, but I think I''ll be just fine with what I''m doing now. . . but I do have something in mind," said Quinn, smiling.


    "Would you like to share it with the ss, Mr. West?" asked Umbridge.


    "Of course. If the Ministry doesn''t think we would have the need to cast spells because we are perfectly safe without them, then how about we exclude Defense Against The Dark Arts from the Hogwarts curriculum altogether," said Quinn, sending murmurs through the room.


    "I know why you''re here, Professor," he said.


    Umbridge narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean, Mr. West?"


    "I mean you''re here because Hogwarts couldn''t find an adequate teacher for the Defense Against The Dark Arts post, so the Ministry sent you here, said Quin, "but beforeing here, you were the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister¡ª"


    "I am still the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister," said Umbridge cutting.


    "¡ª as I was saying, your position in the Ministry seems to be very important, so if we do away with the Defense Against The Dark Arts subject, you would be free from Hogwarts and return to your much important position back at Ministry, where I''m sure you''re needed more than you''re needed here."


    There was pin-drop silence in the room as everyone forgot to breathe as they waited for Umbridge''s answer.


    "Mr. West, Defense Against The Dark Arts has been a part of Hogwarts since its inception by the founders. . ." She saw Quinn raise his hand up, "Yes, Mr. West?"


    "Some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and ountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited," said Quinn, reciting verbatim from his memory.


    "Professor, didn''t you say this during your first address to the student body. . . isn''t this the perfect example of what must be abandoned and pruned?" he asked.


    Umbridge went silent, and her smile too dimmed a level. It was indeed what she had said after the Sorting Ceremony. How was she supposed to reply to Quinn ¡ª that she wasn''t here to teach but to keep an eye on Dumbledore, and if this position was done away with, she wouldn''t have a reason to be here. High Inquisitor would turn into an auditing role, and she would have to return to the Ministry after giving her rmendation.


    ". . . I will give it a thought, Mr. West," said Umbridge quietly.


    "Please do so," said Quinn smiling.


    No one in the ss raised a peep with regards to the topic because, in their heads, no Defense Against The Dark was much better than having it but with Umbridge. And the majority in the school were just worried about their OWL and NEWT; if you took away a subject from the grading, then there was no reason for them to study as they simply weren''t interested.


    After that conversation, no one spoke a single word in the ss. It was only after the ss did people started to chatter.


    "What was that all about?" asked Eddie.


    Quinn yawned before answered, "She gave me a suggestion about AID; I simply returned the favor by suggesting something about her job." He stretched his arms up and spoke, "I''m going to visit the Professors to show my face and apologize for missing the sses, then head to the kitchen to grab something to eat. After that, I''m retiring for the day and go to sleep."


    "It''s only three," said Marcus.


    "I don''t care; I want to be in bed by five and then sleep at least twelve hours. . . I deserve it."


    He had broken through the first room of the Architect''s Vault.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    That day after Quinn went to sleep in his bed, away from the worries of the world, Harry Potter bade his friend goodbye and set off for Umbridge''s office on the third floor.


    When he knocked on the door, she said, "Come in," in a sugary voice.


    He entered cautiously, looking around.


    He had known this office under three of its previous upants. In the days when Gilderoy Lockhart had lived here, it had been stered in beaming portraits of its owner. When Lupin had upied it, one would likely meet some fascinating Dark creature in a cage or tank if you came to call. In the impostor Moody''s days, it had been packed with various instruments and artifacts to detect concealment.


    Now, however, it looked totally unrecognizable. The surfaces had all been draped incy covers and cloths. There were several vases full of dried flowers, each residing on its own doily, and on one of the walls was a collection of ornamental tes, each decorated with a sizeable Technicolored kitten wearing a different bow around its neck. These were so foul that Harry stared at them, transfixed until Umbridge spoke again.


    "Good evening, Mr. Potter."


    Harry started and looked around. At first, he had not noticed her because she was wearing a flowered set of robes that blended only too well with the tablecloth on the desk behind her.


    "Evening," he said stiffly, keeping down the anger about the Quidditch ban that arose from seeing Umbridge.


    "Well, sit down," she said, pointing toward a small table draped ince beside which she had drawn up a straight-backed chair. A piece of nk parchmenty on the table, apparently waiting for Harry.


    "Er," said Harry, without moving. "Professor Umbridge? Er ¡ª before we start, I-I wanted to ask you a . . . a favor."


    Her bulging eyes narrowed. "Oh yes?"


    "Well, I''m. . . I''m on the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Harry had to try once, "I was wondering if you''d lift the ban after my detention is over."


    He knew long before he reached the end of his sentence that it was no good.


    "Oh no," said Umbridge, smiling so widely that she looked as though she had just swallowed a particrly juicy fly. "Oh no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one''s convenience. No, you wille here at five o''clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as nned. I think it is rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you."


    Harry felt the blood surge to his head and heard a thumping noise in his ears. So he told evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, did he? She was watching him with her head slightly to one side, still smiling widely, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking and was waiting to see whether he would start shouting again. With a massive effort, Harry looked away from her, dropped his schoolbag beside the straight-backed chair, and sat down.


    Umbridge watched him with her head slightly to one side, still smiling widely, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking and was waiting to see whether he would start shouting again. She hoped Harry would shout again so she could deal a harsher punishment on him. . . she herself was feeling quite angry today because of a spoiled rich brat and needed to relieve her stress; after all, stress wasn''t good for health, and health was paramount.


    "There," said Umbridge sweetly, "we''re getting better at controlling our temper already, aren''t we? Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me, Mr. Potter. No, not with your quill," she added, as Harry bent down t open his bag.


    "You''re going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are." She handed him a long, thin ck quill with an unusually sharp point.


    "I want you to write, ''I must respect my betters,''" she told him softly.


    "How many times?" Harry asked with a creditable imitation of politeness.


    "Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in," said Umbridge sweetly. "Off you go." She moved over to her desk, sat down, and bent over a stack of parchment that looked like essays for marking. Harry raised the sharp ck quill and then realized what was missing.


    "You haven''t given me any ink," he said.


    "Oh, you won''t need ink," said Umbridge with the merest suggestion of augh in her voice.


    Harry ced the point of the quill on the paper and wrote: I must respect my betters. He let out a gasp of pain. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of Harry''s right hand, cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel.


    Yet even as he stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the ce where it had been slightly redder than before but rtively smooth.


    Harry looked around at Umbridge. She was watching him, her wide, toadlike mouth stretched in a smile.


    "Yes?"


    "Nothing," said Harry quietly.


    He looked back at the parchment, ced the quill upon it once more, wrote I must respect my betters, and felt the searing pain on the back of his hand for a second time; once again the words had been cut into his skin, once again they healed over secondster.


    And on it went. Again and again, Harry wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon realized was not ink but his own blood. And again and again, the words were cut into the back of his hand, healed, and then reappeared the next time he set quill to parchment.


    Darkness fell outside Umbridge''s window. Harry did not ask when he would be allowed to stop. He did not even check his watch. He knew she was watching him for signs of weakness, and he was not going to show any, not even if he had to sit here all night, cutting open his own hand with this quill. . . .


    "Come here," said Umbridge, after what seemed hours.


    He stood up. His hand was stinging painfully. When he looked down at it, he saw that the cut had healed, and his skin was a rosy red color.


    "Hand," asked Umbridge.


    Harry extended his hand.


    Umbridge took it in her own. Harry repressed a shudder as she touched him with her thick, stubby fingers on which she wore a number of ugly old rings. She would''ve made Harry write more and really etch the words on his hand, but this was going to be the limit with his mother here in Hogwarts and James Potter being an Auror and a member of Wizengamot.


    "Hmm, this will do. . . please return tomorrow, and we will do something fun again," said Umbridge smiling.


    Harry left her office without a word. The school was quite deserted; it was surely past midnight. He walked slowly up the corridor then, when he had turned the corner and was sure that she would not hear him, broke into a run.


    His hand wasn''t injured, but he could still remember the pain and could even imagine as if his hand was cut right now. He remembered the look of joy she had on her face every time he winced.


    He absolutely hated it.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Status: Sleep mode.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Writes - Stubborn.


    Dolores Umbridge - Umbitch - Feeling good after stress relief.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Let''s see how many of you''re able to find it. . . (^v^)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 222 - A Spy In Pink

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    After half a day of sleep to recover from the high-stress and high-performance all-nighter, Quinn felt refreshed and free from the nagging irritation that one felt when one wanted to sleep but couldn''t.


    He sat behind his desk, back straight once again, the patent smile returned to his face, staring at the Boy-Who-Lived who sat in front of him, looking mightily confused.


    "Why did you call me here?" he asked.


    "I heard you went to Umbridge''s detention yesterday," said Quinn and watched as Harry tensed up, "what did she make you do?"


    ". . . Nothing much, just some lines," said Harry, not revealing how those lines were written.


    "Come on, Potter. . . you reek of blood," said Quinn bluntly, causing Harry to sit stiffen up more and showed a look of bewilderment.


    "What?" said Harry.


    Quinn simply sighed. He couldn''t see any scarring on Harry''s hands, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t see the usage of Blood Quill on him. To him, a practitioner of Blood magic, there was a strange linger of blood in the air around Harry.


    "She made you do something out-of-ordinary, didn''t she?" Quinn couldn''t outright tell him he knew about the Blood Quill because without the knowledge he had, nothing pointed out to the usage of one; even he wasn''t that good. "Come on, be amb and tell me what did she do to you."


    Harry remained silent but continued to stare at Quinn, observing him and figuring out what Quinn was after. Quinn didn''t say anything for a while, staring back, letting Harry take a good look.


    "You don''t trust Dumbledore, do you Harry," said Quinn abruptly, startling the Boy-Who-Lived, "and neither do you trust the Professors. Am I right?" There was still no response from Harry, but Quinn could see that his words had hit home.


    Even though Harry hadn''t gone through as tough of a time as that in the original timeline, he still had to face some harsh times while in Hogwarts. He had suffered through the same whispers and istion during the Heir of Slytherin debacle. The nder cycle during the Tri-wizard tournament wasn''t as severe as that in the original, but it was still turned Harry into a pariah for a good part of the year. Finally, this year, plenty of students weren''t happy with what Dumbledore was doing because of what Harry had said and were swept by the Ministry''s smear campaign on both.


    But the crux of the matter was that this Harry Potter wasn''t as forgiving as the original one. He wasn''t brought up in the Dursley household but in one with good parenting. The amount of disrespect Harry had faced in his years at Hogwarts had affected his outlook on various things more than he showed.


    "You don''t want to go to your mother because you fear that she might lose her job if she goes against Umbridge," said Quinn, "and your father isn''t an option because of the stress he might be feeling by working in the heart of Ministry in the Auror''s Office with smear campaign going on in full force. . . Am I right?" he asked.


    Harry finally relented and nodded in agreement. There was a part of him that was simply being stubborn for the sake of sticking it to Umbridge, but the other part of him felt trapped because he thought that there were no options for him.


    "She made me use some sort of quill that drew blood by making cuts on my hand," said Harry with a sigh and shared his experience of what it felt like write lines with the quill Umbridge provided. He spoke while gently rubbing the phantom cuts on the front of his hand.


    "What you used is known as a Blood Quill," Quinn was more than happy to provide the knowledge, "well, at least a form of Blood Quill. . ."


    "What do you mean by a form Blood Quill?" asked Harry.


    "They''re rarely used, so you might not know, but Blood Quills are used to sign documents with the blood of a signee as the binding agent," blood after all was the part of the human body, tied closest to magic, "people are averse in signing magical documents much less magical documents that ask for blood as the binding agents. . . literally, no one wants to sign those ¡ª but you see, Blood Quills don''t cause wounds like the one you used. They simply feel like a needle drawing blood, even that wound is instantly healed, and standard Blood Quill draws blood only once because not much is needed to sign your name ¡ª I''m assuming that was a custom-made torture device. . . and something very dark and very, very illegal."


    A Blood Quill wasn''t a traditional torture device as it required the target to willingly subject themselves to the pain by continuing to write.


    ''She must''ve made it herself,'' thought Quinn.


    "All of this doesn''t matter," said Harry, "I can''t go to anyone with this."


    "But you can go to literally anyone with this," said Quinn, "sure if you go now, it won''t do much; there''s no conclusive proof that Umbridge used a modified Blood Quill on you ¡ª your hand isn''t injured, and I only noticed because of the lingering magic, which is already pretty much faded; even if it was strong, nothing is tying it to Umbridge because first, you wrote the line using the quill on your own ord, and second, it''s from a magical item and not from Umbridge''s wand."


    "In the end, it''s useless."


    "Or you can lend me some of your time and effort to build a case against Umbridge that would, without doubt, nail her on the head so bad she wouldn''t be able to hold her head high in the Ministry much less stay at Hogwarts," said Quinn.


    Harry was skeptical at the proposition. He couldn''t think of a way in which Umbridge would get punished. Without the presence of any proof, it would be his word against Umbridge''s, and currently, the value of his word was at an all-time low. Even if his father and Sirius rallied in the Wizengamot, the strength of the Light faction was flying low because of the defamation that Dumbledore was facing.


    ". . . What do you have in mind?" Harry asked nevertheless.


    Quinn smiled, opened a drawer, and took out a small vial with pale green liquid inside. He ced it on the table right in front of Harry.


    "If you take this before you go to detention, you won''t feel pain while the Blood Quill cuts into your hand. Day after day of bloodletting is also not good for health, so if you take this, it''ll also increase your body''s rate of blood replenishment," said Quinn.


    "So you want me to keep attending detention? That''s your solution," said Harry, not seeing how that would help.


    Quinn nodded and reached into the same drawer to pull out a small square box that could fit in the palm of the hand but big enough that one couldn''t hide it by closing their fist around it.


    "What''s that?" asked Harry.


    "That''s one of mytest inventions. It''s the smallest video recorder. . . a spycam to be precise," said Quinn, sounding all hype of a sudden, "it has a shrunken down film roll inside on which we can record a video, and I have made it in such a way that it can record for hours upon hours of footage, which we then can expand down to full size and y on any projector."


    The truth was that Quinn had already found a way to record videos on things other than film rolls which was the only way to record video which wasn''t electronic. But he had to create a recorder that used photograph film rolls because if he introduced something new, there was a possibility that it would be kicked out as evidence.


    "All I need you to do is to sneakily drop this in her room, and I''ll take care of it after it. This will record her office when she''s in her office, whenever you''re in there for your detention, and whenever anyone is there for their detentions. . . inside the walls of her office, where she feels safe and thinks no one is watching ¡ª we will be watching. Her every misdeed will be for us to see. . . So, are you willing to do this?" Quinn added at the end.


    "Will this work?" asked Harry.


    "Absolutely. . . if we can provide the Auror''s Office with proof against Umbridge, they would literally put it as the top priority and direct all their avable resources to her case.


    "A court is a ce ofw, sure it''s full of deception and maniption, but in the end, if there''s one thing that can ensure justice is proof and evidence. If one can provide enough proof, and present it decently, then the guilty party will get what''sing for them. . . Umbridge, with Fudge''s support, will be a tough cookie to crack, but if we present overwhelming proof and put Amelia Bones as the prosecutor, then she will be deep trouble."


    "Alright, let''s do it then," said Harry, "I''ll give you footage of two weeks of writing lines."


    "Perfect," said Quinn smiling, "let''s catch a toad."


    The two shook hands, and the deal was set.


    After Harry left, Quinn looked at the table, which was missing both the tiny video recorder and the potion vial; Harry had taken both of them.


    There was no need to include Harry in the n. Quinn could''ve installed the camera by himself, and even now, he would be breaking into Umbridge''s office with Recon to change the film reels. But he wanted Harry''s detention to go well in Umbridge''s eyes. She would definitely whip out the Blood Quill on everyone if she thought she could get away with torturing the Boy-Who-Lived. And that''s what he wanted, for Umbridge to be rxed and use the Blood Quill on every student she gave detention to; this way, he would have the overwhelming evidence he was looking for.


    ''Dolores Umbridge. . . I would take her out of the Ministry all together. It''s time for her to retire,'' he thought with a smile.


    "But to think he didn''t think of collecting himself," Quinn said, wondering about Harry''sck of action, "but maybe that makes sense; his father is an Auror after all,"


    Aurors were essentially a mix of police detectives and armed forces of a magicalmunity. They faced deaths, murders, homicides of magical and non-magical people caused by magical means regrly, and it wasn''t strange that many Aurors chose not to share their work with their family members, especially not with children.


    And with the way the British schooling system was set up, the children from the tender age of eleven only got to stay at home for at most three months spread throughout the year because of the boarding school policy at Hogwarts. Any sensible parent who worked as an Auror or Hit Wizard wouldn''t share some hard facts with their children when they were younger than eleven because, after that, they were barely home long enough except during the summer break.


    So it wasn''t strange that James Potter didn''t get enough time with his children to get past spending quality time with his children during their summer breaks and teach him some tips and tricks.


    "Let''s get to work," Quinn got up and headed into his workshop; there were many preparations to be made for this thing to go smoothly.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    At five o''clock that evening, Harry knocked on Umbridge''s office door for what he sincerely hoped would be the final time, was told to enter, and did so. The nk parchmenty ready for him on thece-covered table, the pointed ck quill beside it.


    "You know what to do, Mr. Potter," said Umbridge, smiling sweetly over at him.


    Harry picked up the quill and nced around the office; it was as repulsive as yesterday. He couldn''t wrap his head around how someone could like a decor like this. If he just shifted his chair an inch or so to the right . . . On the pretext of shifting himself closer to the table, he managed it. Now his left hand was just at the edge of the table, and if he let it dangle, it would be as far as Umbridge he could possibly be in his current seating position.


    I must respect my betters, Harry wrote. The cut in the back of his right hand opened and began to bleed afresh.


    I must respect my betters. The cut dug deeper, but unlike yesterday it didn''t hurt at all.


    I must respect my betters. Blood trickled down his wrist.


    He chanced another nce at Umbridge. Harry looked up whenever he thought he could risk it when he could hear the scratching of Umbridge''s quill or the opening of a desk drawer.


    I must respect my betters.


    I must respect my betters.


    The parchment was now shining with drops of blood from the back of his hand, which seemed to be the right time to nt the bug, as Quinn had put it. He pretended to pull out a handkerchief to wipe some of the stray blood, and in doing, so pulled the spycam out of his pocket and let it fall onto the ground.


    As the cube fell to the ground, it sprouted eight spider-leg-like protrusions, which itnded on. Harry watched with wide eyes as the cube spycam''s lens suddenly turned towards Harry before redirecting its lens all around the room.


    Harry suddenly heard Umbridge''s voice and hurriedly turned his gaze towards the parchment.


    "Mr. Potter, is there a reason why you stopped?" she asked.


    "No, Professor," he said and started to write again: I must respect my betters. He did give one quick nce towards the floor, but spycam had disappeared to be seen nowhere.


    Inside the AID office, Quinn''s sighed deeply as he sat beside his desk, looking into a rectangle screen set up inndscape mode sitting on the desk.


    "What the hell is that idiot doing," said Quinn, "he almost ended the sting operation before it started."


    The cubical body of the spycam held things other than the film recorder. The lens of the spycam doubled as a transmitter that would send live footage to the screen sitting on Quinn''s desk ¡ª it was based on the two-way mirror that Sirius ck and James Potter used tomunicate with each other when they were in Hogwarts so they could talk each other while serving different detentions. The lens could send videos(not recordable) so that Quinn could control the spycam through the spider-legs.


    Then there was an audio transmitter based on Quinn''s own magical wireless eavesdropping earbuds. The difference was that Quinn was better at runes thanst year and the space inside the spycam was a bit bigger than the transmitter he used in the original, so the transmission range was much wider than before.


    "Now, let''s nt it into a non-descriptive corner."


    Back in Umbridge''s office, the spycam got to the edge of the floor, and the lens pointed upwards towards the target. It stared at the pink wall for a second before a change appeared on the spycam, and the ck cube turned invisible and began its climb up the wall towards an edge of the wall before nting right on the said edge.


    Quinn from the AID office turned the lens towards Umbridge''s desk with Harry and Umbridge in the frame. The next second, the small film roll inside the spycam started to turn as the lens let the light in, which then got concentrated into the tiny space,nding on the individual reels of the film as it spun on the two rollers recording the video at a low twenty-four frames per second for an extended recording length.


    "Alright, that''s done," smiled Quinn. "Now, High Inquisitor Umbridge, I wonder what sort of things would you show me. I''m truly looking forward to the dirt I''m going to detect," he chuckled, "I wonder if this is how Rita Skeeter feels when she''s going her work. So exciting!"


    The bug had been nted.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - My name starts with ''Q'', so I''m perfect as the Quartermaster.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Bugs - Acting to feel pain is more challenging than he thought.


    Dolores Umbridge - Umbitch - The amount of sugar she likes in her tea is being recorded.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 223 - DA Files: Family’s Black Sheep

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    December arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avnche of homework for the students of Hogwarts. The new normal for the Room of Requirements was the DA members practicing their spells in the DA meetings, with Quinn in the lead as he wandered around the summoned room, taking note of the progress while providing guidance to anyone who seemed to be having a tough time and to those who were just a tweak or two away from pushing their casting to the next level.


    "Listen well, people. Today''s going to be thest session before Christmas, so please ask about any problems or doubts you have regarding any spells we have covered in our meets ¡ª it can be the Disarming spell we learned at the very beginning or the Severing charm we learned today. I will front any doubt right now, so you don''t go home feeling unsure about what we have learned."


    It was already nearing Christmas, and Hogwarts would enter a winter break of roughly a week while DA would be suspended to rest for two weeks. The progress had beening along pretty well, and the ones who weren''t proficient in a given spell were improving, while those who were good at them were moving onto spell variations to solidify their repertoire.


    A hand was raised from the crowd.


    "I''ve been meaning to ask, but why''s he a part of DA?" said the person pointing to another person from the group.


    The hand was pointing to Theodore Nott, fifth-year Slytherin. Theodore Nott was a dirty blonde with amber eyes with ssic pureblood aristocratic features. From Quinn''s interactions with Theodore Nott as an AID client and Legilimency screenings, he had observed him be a taciturn guy who was keenly observant of his surroundings. Of course, not many got past the obvious to know the guy.


    "His father is a Death Eater; shouldn''t he be thest person to be here?" said the person who had raised his hand. "We never know if he''s working with Umbridge. I suggest that we get rid of him before he betrays us to Umbridge." There was a scathing cut in his voice as if he was talking about the worst scum of the earth.


    Quinn pursed his lips as if holding himself from screaming. "You know, I was asking more of a magic question, but alright, let''s take care of this," he looked at the rest of the listening group, "who else has this same problem?"


    No one raised their hands, but Quinn noticed a few shifts in eyes and shuffle of feet. He didn''t call out any of those people.


    "Alright then, Harry Potter and Theodore Notte forward," he said, "Ivy, you approached the Slytherin students and invited them, so you take this up and tell them why Nott is here."


    The three fifth-years old stepped out from the group to the front as Quinn stepped back to the side with his arms crossed.


    Ivy took a look at both her brother and Nott before turning to the group.


    "Like every Slytherin student here, Theodore Nott was invited based on Quinn''s rmendation. We ourselves did some checking on him, and he, for the most part, came out clean," no one was perfect, "when we ensured that Nott would keep the secret, we approached him to see if he was interested and the answer as you can see it is obvious."


    She turned to Harry and asked, "Do you have any problems with Nott being part of DA?"


    "Not really," said Harry, "we never had any bad blood between us, so I had nothing against him joining DA. . . and well, I did ask him the question straight up."


    Ivy, once again, turned to Nott, "What was the question, and what did you answer?"


    "What do I think about You-Know-Who?" said Nott, "My answer. . . I am not my father."


    It had surprised him when Harry Potter had suddenly, out of nowhere, for the first time since both hade to Hogwarts had spoken to him, but the question, on the other hand, didn''t surprise him.


    "Taking that answer with Quinn''s rmendation, we thought that was enough to induct him into DA. . . What do you think about Umbitch?" Ivy added the question to not at the end.


    "She is annoying. . . to say the least," said Nott shortly to the point.


    "Well, there you go, he and I are of the same mind," said Harry, "if I don''t have a problem with him, then I don''t think anyone should."


    Ivy turned to the person who had initially raised the question, "If you''re still unsatisfied with our selection criteria, then we''re sorry because we don''t have anything better than this, and Nott hasn''t done anything for us to dismiss him out from the group.


    "Also, I don''t want to see house discrimination in here. The sole reason for the creation of this group is to learn magic with no other agenda. There''s no Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenw, Hufflepuff, only Hogwarts when youe into his room. So if I hear any reports of daft petty arguments based on house differences, there''ll be recuperations, and I will give out punishments."


    As this was going on, Quinn silently stepped beside Marcus and whispered, "Why did he suddenly call Nott out after so many sses?"


    "Apparently, Nott and that guy were pitched against each other quite a few numbers of times during mock-duels and paired as practice partners. . . And well, it''s, to say the least, but that guys and Nott aren''t on the same level," said Marcus, whispering back.


    "Ah, so this was out of frustration, huh," said Quinn, "hmm, alright, I''ll put in more effort for the pairings, hmm, that''ll take some thinking to do ¡ª well, I''ll put Eddie against Harry; that''ll be really fun."


    "They will try to tear each other apart," said Marcus.


    "Hmm, that''s a genuine possibility," but then Quinn waving it off, "Nah, it''ll be fine, they''ll be fine. . . what''s the worst they could do, a couple of broken bones ¡ª I can fix that in a jiffy."


    "There''s going to be a lot of blood," said Marcus sighing.


    "Oh, absolutely. That''s without a doubt," said Quinn smiling.


    After the DA meeting ended and everyone was leaving for theirmon room, Quinn was stopped by Theodore Nott.


    "Quinn, can we talk?" he said.


    "Sure, what do you want to talk about?" said Quinn, and both the boys stayed in the Room of Requirements after everyone left.


    "Thank you for standing up for me," said Nott.


    "Uhm, I don''t know if you were paying attention or not, but I stood by the side and let the three of you do the talking."


    "Yes, I know that. I''m talking about your rmendation that allowed me to be a part of DA," said Nott, "when I was invited, I was visited by both the Potter twins, and I don''t think they liked me for DA, and neither did they try to hide the fact they didn''t like me. If it wasn''t for your rmendation, I wouldn''t have been considered for being a part of DA."


    "Well, you''re wee," said Quinn, and usually the talk would end here, but Quinn noticed the tension on Nott''s face. He sighed silently, and two chairs manifested in the room.


    "Sit down," he said when Nott looked at him in confusion, "Now the niceties are out of the way ¡ª you thanked me, and I epted, let''se to the point. Tell me what do you actually want to talk about?"


    Nott followed Quinn''s instruction and sat down on thefy chair but didn''t start speaking immediately. Quinn watched as Nott seemed to struggle and looked he was building up the courage to speak up.


    "The Dark Lord is back," said Nott after the silence.


    "Yes, I realize that," said Quinn, "his return, if it''s true or a hoax, is all people can talk about these days."


    "No, I''m telling you that he''s back. My father. . . he told me that the Dark Lord is alive. . . and in the summer he went out to gatherings in his Death Eaters, he even talked about the Dark Lord to some guests. . . who were all Death Eaters."


    Quinn observed Nott, and the guy had his hands clutched with; there was a bead of sweat dripping from his forehead.


    "You seem to be stressed," said Quinn, "do you fear that your father will induct you into Death Eaters when the timees?"


    "I don''t fear it. I know it will happen!" said Nott raising his voice, "he''ll present me to the Dark Lord even if it means to cast Imperious on his own son! That man hadn''t talked about You-Know-Who at home beforest year, but now he can''t stop talking about him. . . I ¡ª I. . ." by the end, he was all but wheezing.


    "You wish to escape the fate of being forcibly drafted as a Junior Death Eater," said Quinn.


    Theodore Nott nodded deeply.


    "Can you help me?" asked Nott, "I''ll do anything if you help me, please. . ."


    Quinn stayed silent for a moment before speaking up.


    "I can''t make your father disappear," well he could, but that wasn''t the point, "neither can I change him from a devout vor of the Dark Lord to a saint with the Father of the Year award. . . but I can provide you with freedom, to be specific financial freedom."


    "What do you mean?"


    "You''re a fifth-year, and I''m pretty sure your father won''t have you marked at least before you''re of age, which will be before your seventh year. Hell, I bet, if things go well, you''ll not get marked until you have graduated from Hogwarts because your father won''t want the risk of his son marked and then sending him to study under Dumbledore."


    That made sense to Theodore Nott, and he had never thought he would be marked with the Dark Mark before he graduated.


    "So, you''re probably safe till you exit Hogwarts," said Quinn. "Your grades here at Hogwarts are decent, and you look fairlypetent with magic. . . so what I can offer you is a job."


    "A job?" asked Nott confused.


    "Yes, a simple, honest-to-magic job," said Quinn, "a job that''ll earn you money and allow you to start a life of your own. I can even reallocate you far away from here so that your father can''t just whisk you away back to continue the family legacy.


    "The choice here is yours. If you''re willing to leave the life offort you have been living till now, change your lifestyle, which will probably degrade a lot because you won''t have your father paying for everything, and you''ll need to pay for yourself. Hell, you''ve two years, if you work hard, you can improve your skills, both hard and soft, and that will get you a better starting job which in turn will pay you more."


    This wasn''t even Quinn doing him a favor. His father had set up the recruitment drives every year at Beauxbatons, and that cooperation between his family business and the school continued to this day. Even if Lia never went to Beauxbatons, the West family still would''ve picked up students from the school. Quinn could do the same and set up something simr in Hogwarts ¡ª picking up talent when they were young and nurturing them to be a part of thepanymunity was good for any business.


    He didn''t even need to immediately set up something concrete. If Quinn simply offered the jobs to people like he did to Nott, he could probably pick up a good majority of the best people from Hogwarts, except those who had something particr in mind like Weasley twins who wanted to open shop or those who had the dream to get a job in the Ministry or those who wanted to be Aurors or a particr niche.


    "Are you sure you can do that?" asked Nott.


    "Providing you with an opportunity is simple enough," said Quinn shrugging, "if you''re able to convert it into something good is all up to you."


    "So, I just need to work hard?" asked Nott.


    "Yeah, find out what you''re passionate about; see if there''s a demand for it; if it''s something you can make money doing; how to get good at it. Thene to me to tell me, and I will set you up with a job. If it''s something you can''t do without further training, then we can sign a contract where we can provide you with training in exchange for you working a number of yours for us. . . education or, more specifically, gaining useful skills can open many doors for you, Nott. You just need to look for them."


    Then Quinn got up, prompting Nott to do the same.


    "Feel free toe to me if you''ve anything you want to talk about, and I will sort you out. You don''t have to worry, Nott. You''re future isn''t set in stone; your future still remains firm in your grasp for you to shape it in any way you like."


    "Y-Yes," said Nott, his voice cracking with emotion. It felt a rock had been lifted off his chest. "I''ll work hard."


    Quinn nodded with a smile and then saw Nott off. He watched in thought as the Slytherin walked away.


    ''The child of an inner circle Death Eater,'' thought Quinn, ''an important asset if used correctly.''


    Quinn was willing to provide Theodore Nott with an escape. But there was rarely free lunch in the world ¡ª the thing was to see if the future would allow Theodore to gain a free lunch, or he would have to pay something in return after all.


    ''Only time will tell,'' thought Quinn, ''I wish the fates are on your side, Nott.''


    Quinn looked out of the corridor towards the pale half-moon shining in the night sky and wondered what was the key yer responsible for Theodore''s worries was doing right now.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In a room lit with burning candles and the zing firece, the Dark Lord, the one with multiple lives, the one who sought immortality, the one who had instilled so much terror in the minds of people in this country that people didn''t dare utter his name and addressed him as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named behind his back. Those loyal to him bowed their heads and kissed the edge of robes to show the subservience. The resurrected Dark Lord Voldemort sat in a chair, staring at the fire in the firece.


    His thoughts were interrupted when there was a knock on the room''s door.


    "Enter," he said.


    The door creaked open, and Lucius Malfoy entered the room, his head bowed.


    "My Master," said Malfoy Sr.


    "I hope you bring good news, Lucius," said Voldemort, not removing his eyes from the fire.


    ". . . I apologize, Master, but the news is not good," said Lucius Malfoy.


    "What went wrong?"


    "Broderick Bode sessfully entered the Prophecy hall without any problem, but when he picked it up. . . the defensive around it was triggered, and he suffered from mental damage. . . he seems to think that he''s a teapot."


    "So, even an Unspeakable can''t touch the prophecy," said Voldemort in a low pondering voice.


    Broderick Bode was an Unspeakable working in the British Ministry of Magic''s Department of Mysteries. Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort''s spies at the Ministry, ced Bode under the Imperius curse to force him to attempt the same theft.


    "He seemed to be strangely resistant to the Imperius curse," said Lucius pointing his observations, "I suppose it could have been because Bode, being an Unspeakable, knew what would happen if he tried to remove one of the Prophecies and tried to resist."


    "How''s the news of his condition being taken at the Ministry?"


    "They believe that Bode had simply been injured in a workce ident, he was taken to St Mungo''s for treatment, but it seems his injuries seem to irreparable, and as such, he was moved to the Spell Damage ward. From what I have heard, he''satose most of the time, and those times he was awake, he was mumbling and staring at the ceiling."


    "Hmm. . . leave him there, but keep an eye on him to see if he gets better," said Voldemort, "he resisted the Imperius curse, there might be a chance that he might have identified you. . . if he gets his mental facilities back, it might turn problematic for you, Lucius. . . the word of an Unspeakables hold a weight that even you can''t shrug off."


    "Your concerns are wasted on me, Master," said Lucius, bowing, "I''ll put some people to keep an eye on Bode."


    "Hmm. . ." was all Voldemort said in reply, and because he hadn''t dismissed Lucius, Malfoy Sr. could only stand in his spot waiting for the next order.


    Voldemort hadn''t removed his eyes from the firece once, and he continued to observe the mes as they licked the wood for food. Voldemort knew that only those rted to the Prophecy could retrieve it, but he had hoped that an Unspeakable would be able to get it for him, but that n had failed.


    The next option was Harry Potter, the Brat-Who-Got-Lucky, but Potter''s lumency shields were good enough that Voldemort couldn''t send him anything through their mysterious connections.


    ''If only I could get my hand on Potter, I would rip his shields apart one shred at a time.'' It displeased Voldemort that he wasn''t able to get into Harry''s mind.


    The next person was Dumbledore, but that wasn''t an option. The old man avoided the Prophecy like the gue. So, the only remaining person was himself, but he had been avoiding that, but now with no choices, things had to change.


    "Lucius."


    "Yes, Master."


    "Get things ready; it''s time to get our old friends back."


    Lucius knew what Voldemort was talking about, and he wasn''t really thrilled about it. "Master. . . would that be wise?" he said carefully.


    "You should be happy about it, Lucius," said Voldemort with a rare chuckle in his voice, "your wife would be happy to have her sister back."


    Lucius could only stiffly nod his agreement even though it was thest thing he wanted.


    "I will make preparations," he said.


    "Good."


    It was time to bring home his most loyal followers, those who wouldn''t hesitate a bit to give their lives for him.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Slowly collecting assets.


    Theodore Nott - Slytherin - Now looking towards a new hope.


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - Time to bring his favorites back.


    Lucius Malfoy - Death Eater - Needs to prepare for a jailbreak.


    Broderick Bode - Unspeakable - I''m a teapot; would you like some tea?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 224 - Second Room, Winter Break

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The day before the Christmas break, close to eleven in the cover of night, Quinn stepped into the Architect''s vault and into the first room of the vault. It was as he had seen it for the first time he had entered the vault.


    "Solving this every time Ie in here is annoying," Quinn voiced to himself as he descended the few steps to the pedestal in the middle of the room.


    Quinn had found out that every time he stepped out of the vault, the pedestal would rise up again and lock the archway staircase back into the wall.


    He stood by the pedestal as he flooded everything stone in the vault with his magic, and soon after, the entire room began shaking as Quinn began solving the mechanism inside the walls. The nine portions that made up the mechanism could be divided into three parts ¡ª [1,2,3], [4,5,6], [7,8,9].


    The first three were individual locks with no dependence on other portions from their group. The second three were connected in sessions where every solved portion was added to the next portion. Thest three were interconnected and were mutually exclusive to each other and needed to be solved simultaneously.


    And as Quinn stood by the pedestal, he solved all three sets simultaneously to be quicker, and now that he knew the correctbinations, he was able to use parallel thought processing at a manageable level without a migraine in his future. The pedestal started to fall one by one in quick sessions, and as he walked towards the revealing archway, thest three portions clicked together, the pedestal went into the ground.


    He stared down the dark staircase with the end nowhere in sight. Two orbs of light manifested around him as he stepped down the first step, and they flew steps ahead of him and stopped to hover at the sides of the staircase. Another two orbs of light shimmered into existence and flew farther than the previous two orbs and ced them beside the walls. Just like that, two new orbs of light would appear, fly deeper into the staircase, and line the walls to light up the entire staircase.


    Soon he arrived at the end of the staircase and stepped out of the tunnel into an expansive room. Quinn stared around the strange room as he stepped forward deeper into the room; it was an empty chamber; just like the first room with the pedestal, this room didn''t have any decoration and seemed purely functional in nature.


    He stopped one-fifth of the way into the room and stopped just at the edge of where the floor ended and stared down the deep and dark chasm right in the middle of the room. The first time he had entered the room, the chasm had reminded Quinn of an abyss. He looked up from the ravine and stared at the other side to see the continuation of the floor and the opposite of the room. Three-fifths of the room was the chasm, with one-fifth of the floor of the room''s length on each side.


    Quinn''s initial thought had been that the Architect wanted him to cross over the chasm and get to the other side, which he easily did with a broom, but the result was disappointing ¡ª there was nothing there ¡ª the room only had the one door. . . but that was just code for the existence of a hidden exit.


    "Where''s it hidden this time," said Quinn, once again looking for clues, which he had already done thest time he was here.


    The room was definitely created by the Architect. There was no surface in the room that wasn''t smooth and straight ¡ª the ravine in the middle of the room was perfectly rectangr with no irregrities. The walls, the floors, the ceiling were marked with gridlines.


    There was only one ce remaining in the room that he hadn''t looked in. He once again looked down into the dark ravine, and dozens upon dozens of orbs of light appeared above the ravine before dropping down into the chasm, lighting it up in the bright white light.


    "Let''s go," said Quinn and stepped forward and down into the chasm. His robes fluttered up as he fell down around thirty feet andnded with a smooth, bright blue Arresto Momentum.


    Hended on a t surface and looked around the lit-up bottom of the chasm with observing eyes, and just like above, the surfaces were covered in grids, but there was one thing that seemed out-of-ce ¡ª arge white cubeid in the middle of the floor. It stood out from its grey surroundings.


    Quinn approached the cube cautiously and walked around it a couple rounds to observe it thoroughly. From just taking a look, there wasn''t anything of exception other than that the cube was sitting perfectly on a square in the grid on the floor.


    "Alright, let''s see what''s the deal with this," he said and stepped near the cube, but when the tips of his fingers touched the cube, it suddenly trembled.


    "Whoa," Quinn immediately stepped back from the cube, "I just touched it."


    The tremblested only for a few seconds before the cube stilled. It was only after that the changes started to appear.


    First, a line appeared that separated the cube into two halves ¡ª upper and lower.


    Then another line further divided the upper-half into two other halves ¡ª left and right.


    Next, tworge circles appeared on both the right and left halves, and then two perfect cylinders with smaller radiuses rose from the circles; they rose for a foot before stopping.


    The second the cylinders settled at their peak height, another circle appeared in the middle of the upper half of the cube such that the line which divided the cube into left and right passed right through the center of the circle.


    The portion of the line inside the circle disappeared, and another cylinder rose; this time, the entire circle rose instead of a smaller part. Quinn watched as the cylinder rose for half a foot before he saw the end of the cylinder as it rose up into the air and then flew to the straight right above one of the raised cylinder tforms.


    The floating cylinder stilled for a movement before it started to vibrate and wiggle ¡ª the cylinder turned into a pile of grainy dust before reforming into a perfect solid cube, which then gently set down on the cylinder tform.


    ''That''s. . .'' thought Quinn, but before he could even finish it, a sound broke his line of thought.


    Quinn looked to his side to see a cube in the wall grid slide out with the sound of stone grinding against stone and suddenly changing to white from its original grey.


    "That''s transmutation," said Quinn looking back and forth between the wall cube and the apparatus that rose from the center cube.


    "So. . . what do I need to do here?" Quinn said to himself. There were generally no written instructions for him, and he needed to figure out the next from the circumstantial clues present in front of him.


    He touched the small cube on the cylinder and flooded it with his magic; it was made from a dense stone with an incredibly smooth surface. Then he moved to the bigger wall cube and did the same things; this one was made from the same material.


    "Okay, let''s try this," said Quinn with a scrunched-up expression on his face. Quinn pushed out more magic into the stone, and this time, instead of scanning, he used transmutation and pulled his hand back for a block of white stone toe out detached from the bigger block.


    Quinn heavily sighed in relief, "Oh, thank magic, this wasn''t covered with defensive spells." He had tried transmutations in the first room, and it was safe to say that Quinn wasn''t a fan of explosions going off in front of his face.


    "Hmm, same material. . . transmutation from the vault''s side. . . my own transmutation also worked perfectly," Quinn contemted for a good few minutes before he went back to apparatus-cube.


    He put down the block he had taken out from the wall cube aside and focused his attention on the cube sitting on the cylinder tform. He reached into his pockets, took out a tape measure, and began measuring the sides of the cube, and after a couple of measurements, he picked up the block from the wall cube and cast transmutation on it.


    The block vibrated and turned into an unstable state before solidifying into a cube shape. As the block was heavier than the cube on the tform, the resulting cube wasrger than it. So, Quinn began shaving it down with transmutation until he had a replica of the tform cube in his hand.


    "Now, let''s see if my guess is correct."


    Quinn gently ced the replica on the second cylindrical tform, and it was instant that the apparatus cube began vibrating. The vibrations persisted for a couple of seconds before the replica cube rose and along with it the material that Quinn had shaved off. Everything went back into the wall cube and transmuted back to its initial stage.


    The wall cube then slid back into the wall, and when it was again part of the grid, it turned back from white to grey. But it wasn''t over yet because the cube next to it in the grid slid out and turned white.


    Quinn looked back at the apparatus cube and saw that the cube on the tform had also changed into a cuboid.


    "Ah, so that''s how it''s going to be, huh," said Quinn.


    He understood what he needed to do. Every time a cube came out of the wall, he needed to take some out of it and use transmutation to make a replica of the object on the first cylinder tform and ce said replica on the second cylinder tform ¡ª if it matched the material he took out would go back in, and the next wall cube woulde out, the shape to replicate would change, and the process would repeat.


    "Well, that''s good and all. . . but," Quinn looked around the chasm and then at the roof above, he imagined the entire room, "isn''t this too much?"


    Of a rough calction off his head, there were at least around a couple hundred cubes in the grids around the room.


    "This is going to be another freaking long thing. . ." said Quinn, his voice showing his displeasure ¡ª he didn''t like grunt work at all.


    He didn''t know that the Architect had something else in his mind when he created this room.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I''m home!" said Quinn up as he entered the West manor through the front gate after apparating from the King''s Crossing.


    It was the third week of December, and Hogwarts students were allowed to go back for a ten-day Winter/Christmas/New-Years break, and as he did every year, Quinn always went home to spend time with his family during the holiday season. Quinn had never gone home during the two-week Easter/Fall break in April because that was usually the time he was fully locked in with the vault progressions, but he never missed Winter break.


    He walked the familiar halls with a smile on his face and arrived at the lounge, but there was no one there. Today he hade home alone because he had asked his family not toe to pick him up at King''s Crossing.


    "Polly!" he called loudly, and in the time he set down on his briefcase down, the West family house-elf popped in the room.


    "Little Master is home," said Polly pping as she jumped excitedly as soon as she arrived.


    "I''m home, Polly," said Quinn smiling back, very happy to see Polly even though she was the one family member who he could see with a single call.


    "Where''s everyone?" he asked.


    "Big Master and Mister Elli are away. Little Mistress is to arrive in the evening. Missy Rosey is in the back gardens," said Polly.


    "How long have they been gone," asked Quinn as George and Elliot could be out in the day and back by evening, or they could be away for a couple days for a business trip.


    "Big Master and Mister Ellie went away two days ago," said Polly as she summoned some refreshments, "they be returning on Boxing Day."


    "So, it will only be me, Lia, and Ms. Rosey this Christmas, huh," said Quinn, "maybe I''ll invite Luna home if she''s free. . ."


    After Polly and Quinn caught up, Quinn went to the back gardens to meet Ms. Rosey and tell her that he had returned(he had stopped Polly from doing so.)


    When Quinn found her, Ms. Rosey looked as she always did ¡ª dressed in prim properly in one of the ssic Victorian-era-styled robes that she liked so much with her hair tied into a bun covered in a ck. She wore reds and browns ¡ª all her clothes were of the warm color palette.


    He just stared at her for a couple of moments as she took care of her own personal section of the garden.


    "Ms. Rosey, I''m home," he finally called out.


    She turned around at once and stared at Quinn for a moment before speaking. "You stopped Polly from telling me."


    "That I did," he said, smiling as he hopped his way to her.


    Ms. Rosey looked Quinn over for a while before she nodded with satisfaction. He looked alright.


    "Wee back home," she said, "how was your first term?"


    "It was horrible," said Quinn pulling a pitful face, "Dolores Umbridge is a horrible woman sucking all the fun out of Hogwarts. She tried to shutdown AID, but I showed who''s the bigger bully in Hogwarts."


    "Bigger bully. . . why would you use that term to describe yourself?" said Ms. Rosey sighing.


    "Bad guys, when done right, are way cooler than the good guy."


    Ms. Rosey shook her head; sometimes, she couldn''t understand Quinn. Maybe it was because of the generation gap, she thought to herself.


    "What else did you do?" she asked, wondering if Quinn took on something new for this year like he didst year.


    "Hmm. . . I''ve been tutoring some people."


    "Your friends? What were their names again?" Ms. Rosey asked and then answered on her own, "Luna Lovegood, Eddie Carmichael, Marcus Bebly."


    "Yeah, them," said Quinn, "and a couple more people." Around forty more.


    "You should bring them home," said Ms. Rosey, "I would like to meet them, and I''m sure so would your grandfather ¡ª If I''m right, only Lia has met them."


    "How about I invite them over for Christmas? Nothing big, just a small party. How about that?"


    "Not for Christmas," Ms. Rosey refused outright, "Your grandfather and Elliot won''t be home, I''m not even sure if Lia will be home for Christmas. . . and you have work to do on Christmas."


    "What do you mean?"


    "You will be attending the Ministry Yuletide Ball in your grandfather''s ce."


    Quinn''s reaction was immediate.


    "Can I not do that?" he said, pleading, "make Lia do it, please. You know I don''t like attending those events. They''re bothersome, annoying, and boring."


    "As I said, Lia might be busy, and your grandfather asked this because you have been skipping events like these for a couple of years. It is essential to show your face in public once in a while to build some connections."


    "But I''ve connections," said Quinn in rebuttal, "I''ve more than enough ¡ª no, I have an absurd number of connections in Hogwarts and all in the right ces. There''s no need for me to go to the Ball to make more."


    "Be that as it may, you will go to the Ball. You will be going as your grandfather''s representative. Your sister has done it plenty of times; it''s time you do your share."


    "But¡ª"


    "Not liking it is not an excuse I will be epting. End of discussion," said Ms. Rosey, "now what would you like to eat. I will have Polly prepare for you. . . I can ask her to make sausage rolls if you would like; I know they are your favorites."


    "That change of subject isn''t fair," said Quinn, all but pouting, "but yes, I''d like some sausage rolls, please, and I would like a Shirley Ginger to go with it. Furthermore, I demand steak for dinner with four scoops of ice creams in the dessert."


    "We can do that," said Ms. Rosey, "but you''ll only get three scoops, and that''s only for today."


    "This is oppression."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I don''t like this. I demand more!


    Ms. Rosey - Caretaker - No.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I haven''t eaten ice cream in such a long time. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 225 - Christmas Ball Once Again

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Lia West sat on a sofa in West manor''s lounge, legs crossed, with a smile on her face. She stared ahead with amusement evident on her face.


    "Why do you dislike functions and balls so much?" she asked, chuckling.


    In front of her sat her baby brother, all dressed up in a suit, ready to go to the ball, but his mood wasn''t what one would expect from a person ready to a party. Crossed arms, grumpy face, and an overall displeased bodynguage weren''t the telltale signs of looking forward to an evening enjoyment.


    "Why would I enjoy working on Christmas?" said Quinn huffing, "and it''s not even the work that I enjoy ¡ª a ball with me trying to avoid those bootlicking people trying to get handsy like we are close, isn''t how I ever imagine how my Christmas would go."


    "It''s not that bad, you know?" said Lia smiling.


    "Weren''t you the one whoined about getting hit on by old fatties?"


    "That I did, and that''s exactly why you should go. Why should I have all the fun."


    "Again, this isn''t my definition of fun," said Quinn, "ugh, it''s toote to pick up Eddie; he has a very good ''don''t-you-daree-near-me'' face. . . I would just stand beside him, and he will do the scarecrow work for me."


    "I''ll just spread a spray of a mild Confudus around myself, confuse people into leaving me alone," said Quinn, "hmm. . . that actually isn''t that bad of an idea, maybe I''ll just do that."


    "Don''t do that," said Lia, sighing, "properly show you face to the people that matter, and if you want to leave after that, you''re free to do so, but no magic shenanigans at the ball."


    "Alright, I''ll try. . . but no guarantees," said Quinn, "if anyone gets extra annoying, I''ming home; I might even go for a movie."


    "In a suit?" asked Lia.


    "A little illusion magic won''t hurt anyone. You know what, I''ll go see a movie like this, fully decked out in this ssy thread."


    "Don''t talk like you''re definitely going to see a movie today," said Lia.


    The clock struck six and thirty, and Quinn got up to leave. He and Lia walked to the floo-firece room.


    "I could apparate there," said Quinn, "I know a ce three minutes away from there. I could walk the rest way."


    "How would you deal when someone tries to escort you after the party, and you don''t have anything prepared for you. It would be better if you take the floo, or you could''ve listened to Ms. Rosey when she tried to book you a carriage," said Lia.


    Quinn sighed. He hadn''t been the most cooperative when it came to the Christmas Ball. He wanted to keep things as simple as possible without fanfare, which meant no winged-horse pulled carriages.


    "It''s Windford Hall," said Lia.


    "Yes," said Quinn, "alright, I''ll see you around ten."


    "Have fun," said Lia in a sing-a-song voice.


    "Yeah, yeah," said Quinn casting a spell on himself to keep the floo-dust off him. "Windford Hall," Quinn threw the floo-powder in and disappeared in the gulf of green.


    Lia waited for the fire to disappear before turning back. It was time to get drunk with Ms. Rosey and Polly ¡ª a girl''s night was the theme of Christmas.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn came out of the green fire onto a polished marble floor on which he could see his reflections between the patterns. He looked around and saw that the wall behind him had five fireces, all burning in weak green fires only to re up when someone traveled out from the floowork.


    Quinn looked to the right side of the hall; he spotted the entrance to the building and could see carriages pulling outside with guests. On the left of the hall, he could see a smaller entry, and based on the peopleing in and out, Quinn assumed it was a hallway that probably led to the restroom area.


    To his front of him was the grand entrance to the shiny, all sparkly ballroom, the ce he needed to spend around four hours mingling with people.


    ''People can sometimes be dull,'' he thought.


    A wave of magic swept over him, and his clothes and appearance were fixed to look the best. He proceeded inside and saw a small line starting from the top of a staircase that led down to the main hall area.


    "Mister and Missus Ogden of Ogden''s Old Firewhisky!"


    Quinn realized what was happening. The man in front of the line was the Master of Ceremonies, and he was announcing the arrival to the ball.


    To Quinn, this was an open invitation for people toe and talk to him, so he reached into his coat (his extended pockets) and took out a big handful of galleons, and conjured a royal-velvet pouch/purse around them, and tied the top with a simrly conjured string.


    When he reached the front of the line, the Master of Ceremonies extended his hands and asked, "The Invitation, please."


    Quinn ced the invitation letter in the hand of the man who opened it to check the authenticity. He nodded as it was the genuine article and was about to announce the name ¡ª Quinn''s name as it was written on the invite ¡ª but Quinn cleared his throat to catch the Master of Ceremonies'' attention.


    "Yes?" asked the announcer.


    Quinn ced the pouch/purse in the hands of the man and smiled, "An appreciative gesture for your hard work and something for your silence."


    The Master of Ceremonies felt the weight of the pouch in his palm and saw the glint of gold peaking from inside. He bowed his head with a small smile.


    "I wish you''d have a Merry Yuletide, Master West," said the man in a low voice as he gestured for Quinn to proceed down the stairs.


    "And you as well," said Quinn before he stepped down with a smile on his face. At least one thing well, and he felt it was a good start to the evening.


    At the end of the stairs, Quinn picked up a goblet with a random drink from the waiter''s tray and gently started to sway as he looked around the ballroom to take in the vibe ¡ª luxurious, grandiose, extravagant.


    Quinn headed straight to a corner of the room and looked down into his ss. The red liquid under Quinn''s sway and a bit of magic had turned into a tornado inside the goblet.


    "I picked wine, huh," said Quinn in a mutter, "they should be careful what they serve to who. . . well, whatever."


    He snapped his fingers, and the red wine vanished into a fizzle of bubbles, leaving behind a wine-free goblet in his hands. He reached into his pockets with his hand and took out a silver hip sk with a grin on his face.


    He had been to plenty of these parties, and while there was always a great selection of alcoholic drinks, they only served butterbeer in the name of non-alcoholic beverages, which Quinn didn''t like to drink (too sweet), so this time around, he had brought from home.


    "Alright, let''s get the good stuff out," he opened the sk and started to pour into the goblet.


    "What''re you doing?"


    Quinn immediately turned the sk and goblet still in hand to see Daphne Greengrass standing behind him dressed in a stunning red dress that did dy his words a bit as his eyes roamed a bit.


    "You look stunning," said Quinn bluntly.


    "Thank you," said Daphne in reply, "you look good in that."


    Quinn looked at his midnight blue checkered suit and nodded. "Suits suit me, it seems," he said.


    "I didn''t hear your name called out," she said, "or your surname, in fact."


    "Oh, I came alone today; rest our bloody busy on Christmas; no work-life bnce if you ask me," said Quinn getting a look from Daphne, which he ignored, "as for the absence of announcement, the Master of Ceremonies didn''t seem to like me very much, so he refused to announce my name."


    Daphne refused to believe that even for a second. The Master of Ceremonies didn''t make announcements on the basis of his likes or dislikes. Her best guess was that Quinn asked his name not to be announced.


    "You didn''t ask my question," she said and looked at his hands, "what''re you doing?"


    "Ah, this huh," said Quinn smiling and extended the goblet to Daphne, "would you like some Pineapple Cobbler? It''s fresh and cold. . . which means it''s very, very good."


    Quinn thought she would refuse, but Daphne took the goblet for him, leaving him surprised and out of a ss.


    "Thank you," she said.


    "You''re wee," said Quinn, shrugging as he conjured a cup for himself and poured himself a drink, "ah, that hits the spot," he said after taking a sip.


    "Where''s Astoria? Did shee?" asked Quinn.


    "No, she went to another party at her friend''s house," said Daphne.


    "Lucky duck," said Quinn, "I should''ve thrown a party myself. That would''ve been a pretty good excuse."


    "You really don''t like parties," said Daphne.


    "Nope," he said after taking a sip, "but now that you''re here, I can enjoy this travesty," he looked around the ballroom, "why do they have to make things so tacky. . . whoever organized and did the interior design has some strange taste."


    "I thought you would like this," said Daphne, "given how shy you be when you organize big events. Especially afterst year. . . you really did go all out from the moment Durmstrang and Beauxbatons stepped into Hogwarts."


    The FOUR(houses, founders, mascots) demonstration; the seven rings in the first task; and the magical projection in the second and third round; the scale of the Quidditch Tournament. Everything that Quinn had organizedst year were the biggest event in Hogwarts'' recent history.


    "My dear Daphne, there''s a difference between tacky and what I did. I might be a fan of the ir, but I do things with a certain ss. My events don''t go overboard with all the glitter and gaudiness ¡ª everything in moderation is the key."


    It was then that Quinn noticed someone behind Daphne and raised his hand.


    "Zabini!" he called.


    ise Zabini, who was walking by, turned at the sound of his name being called out and saw Quinn West and Daphne Greengrass standing by a corner with Quinn motioning him toe to them.


    "Ah, another one to keep mepany," said Quinn smiling, "I was dreading this for no reason; I should''ve known that you guys wereing."


    "Hello," said ise.


    "Good evening," replied Daphne.


    "Ah, look at me forgetting something so important," said Quinn, "Merry Christmas, and I hope you''re having a great Yuletide, both of you," he was feeling chipper now.


    The trio wished each other Christmas and Yuletide greetings.


    "Zabini, you want something to drink?" asked Quinn. "I have Pineapple Cobbler, Citrus Fuzz, Shirley Ginger, Lavender Lemonade, Rose Fizz, Lemongrass Jasmine Iced Tea, Virgin Paloma," he said, taking out a handful of shrunken down hip sks, "damn, I brought too many. . . all of them hold more volume than the regr sk. . .so, you guys would have to help me finish these."


    ". . . I guess I''ll have the Citrus Fizz," said ise, and before he knew it, there he had a goblet full of fizzy golden in his hand.


    "Hey, West, I was wondering if I could ask you something?" asked ise.


    "Sure, what do you want to know?"


    "Listen, I heard that thing you talked about with Theo. . . Theodore Nott. I was wondering it was open to others."


    "Ah, so he told you about that, huh. Well, I suppose it''s natural. . . you both are friends," said Quinn, and he didn''t mind.


    Daphne looked at both boys in confusion. She didn''t understand the topic of the talk.


    "What are you talking about?" she asked.


    "I offered Theodore Nott a job opportunity after Hogwarts. The job he gets depends on his interests, how well he does in Hogwarts, and the skill he builds in the next two years," said Quinn before turning back to ise.


    "Sure, it''s open to you as well. You get the same deal as I gave to Nott; do well in the next two years, and you''ll have a better starting point. Want to learn more? We can provide you with further training ¡ª it''s all up to you want to do; of course, there will be some caveats, but they wille with rewards as well."


    In the amount of time Quinn had spent with George, Elliot, and Lia, he had learned a few things aboutpany culture ¡ª if an organization could provide the best job environment, the people working in that environment would like to stick because it was good for them and then that would benefit the organization. And Quinn was all for getting the cream of the crop from Hogwarts and making them part of the West business.


    It could be said that Hogwarts was in possession of a golden goose in the form of Quinn West. Every student that had some connection to Quinn could get a golden opportunity from just asking, and if they did well, their immediate future would be secure with further possibilities in theter future.


    "Really, you''re not joking, are you?" asked ise.


    "I have no reason to joke, Zabini. If you do good, it would be better for me," said Quinn, "but I do have a question that I''d like to ask."


    "Sure, whatever you would like to ask."


    "Is the reason you''re asking me about this because of your mother?"


    Irene Zabini was a witch and the mother of ise Zabini. She was famously beautiful and married seven wizards who each died in mysterious circumstances, leaving her with arge amount of gold from each. It was unknown if she was the reason behind her deaths or if they truly were a string of unfortunate deaths, but it was a mystery talked much in many circles.


    To some level, even Quinn was curious if the woman was a killer or just really unfortunate, and he was also curious if ise was her son or stepson and who was the father. He, of course, couldn''t ask either the mother or son about the birth status of ise. Quinn was even skeptical that if ise himself knew of his origins.


    "Yes. . . I would like to get some distance between mother and me till I can figure things out," said ise.


    If others were curious about the seven deaths, then there was none who wanted to know more about the truth than ise. He was at an age that he had got curious about the question, and currently, ise''s mind was in turmoil about if the answer he would get be the one he was fearing.


    Moreover, ise never knew when his mother would get herself a brand new husband. He wanted to get out his mother''s roof as soon as possible, and getting a well-paying job that could support his independence was essential to him.


    "I see. . . I can''t say I know to be in your position; I can only imagine," said Quinn, "well, you cane to me when you''re ready, and you know where to find me if you have any other problems."


    "Thank you, that means a lot, West," said ise sighing in relief. Even though he still had more than two years before he could actually take the next step, this promise was represented a great deal to ise.


    "Work hard, ise. Only you can direct how your life goes," said Quinn, raising his goblet, which ise followed.


    "Uhm, you two should change the topic immediately," said Daphne suddenly, "ise, your mother is walking towards us."


    ise straightened up and immediately looked back to see that his mother was indeed walking towards them with a ss of champagne in her hand.


    "Oh my, well, I can definitely see why she''s so popr," said Quinn.


    ise turned to give a Quinn incredulous look.


    "Sorry, really," said Quinn, zipping his lips.


    Irene Zabini was a blonde bombshell, a seductress-type beauty that gathered a lot of eyes around her. Even now, as she was walking here in her ck velvet floor-length gown, many men were enamored by her, following her with their eyes.


    "ise. . . so this is there you were dear. I have been looking for you everywhere," said Irene Zabini


    ''Oh my god, even her voice is. . .'' thought Quinn. It was so smooth, velvety. . . sexy was the word that popped into the mind when hearing Irene Zabini''s voice.


    "Yes, mum," said ise.


    "Why don''t you introduce your friends to me."


    "Ah," ise turned and did the introductions, "this is Daphne Greengrass and Quinn West. . . and this my mother," he added at the end.


    "Greengrass. . . so, you''re Sophie and Jacob''s daughter," said Irene looking at Daphne before turning to Quinn, her every move as erotically charged. "Quinn West, you say. . . aren''t a handsome one. . ."


    ". . . Thank you, ma''am. You too are gorgeous," said Quinn.


    He was feeling conflicted about whether he should use lumency or not. It was very confusing.


    "Oh please, dear; don''t call me ma''am. It makes it sound like I''m old. . . you can call me Irene~."


    ''Oh my god!'' Quinn screamed in his head as he nodded with a smile on the outside.


    "Good, did your grandfathere today?" asked Irene, brushing a hand through her hair, "I should go say hello. . ."


    ". . . Unfortunately, my grandfather was busy today, so I came alone," said Quinn with a polite smile, but he was screaming inside.


    "What a pity. . . I would have loved to talk to him."


    Daphne looked between Quinn and Irene, and she didn''t like what was happening, so she did what seemed logical. She grabbed Quinn''s arms pulled him.


    "Quinn, let''s go dance. I like this song very much," she said.


    "Eh, huh, sure," said Quinn letting him get pulled along.


    Irene watched as the pair walked away, and a smile appeared on her face.


    "Oh my, so innocent~," she said with her hand on her cheek.


    She then turned to ise and asked, "Would you also like to dance, ise. You can always dance with me."


    "Thank you, mother, but I would like to pass," said ise.


    "Are you embarrassed?" said Irene looping her arms around ise, "My son grew up before I knew it."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Oh my god!


    Daphne Greengrass - Feeling threatened - I want to dance.


    ise Zabini - Another promised one - Mother. . . please everyone''s looking.


    Irene Zabini - Married seven times - Don''t care about them,e one, let''s dance.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Mid-terms starts tomorrow. . . sigh. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 226 - Christmas Ball: Part-Duo

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Daphne led Quinn to the dance floor as he finished the contents of his goblet and sneakily dropped it down behind him for the conjured goblet to vanish before it hit the ground. As they reached a good starting point, Daphne relinquished the lead back to Quinn for the actual dance.


    "Well, doesn''t this bring back memories," said Quinn as he held her hand with one and ced the other on her back, "this is just like that Ministry Ball all those years ago ¡ª it was also during Christmas."


    Daphne nodded as she got into position. "You wanted to dance because it was a waste to learn dancing and not dance."


    "I said that, didn''t I?" said Quinn smiling widely. "Come to think of it, you''re always there when I get to dance in public. . . that Ministry Ball, the Yule Ballst year, and now. . . I always end up dancing up with you. Hmm, I wonder I should dance more ¡ª three times in thest few years seems low."


    As Quinn spoke, Daphne stared at Quinn. How could he say things like that without understanding what they did to her? How was she supposed to respond to hearing that she was there every time he danced?


    "Ah, I have been meaning to ask, how''s your progress with healing going on? Taking up healing requires a ton of work, so I wonder if you''re set for your OWLs ¡ª I know a paper doesn''t decide your future, but if you want to get into a good healing program and learn from a good master, you''d need good grades on both your OWLs and NEWTs."


    Quinn wasn''t looking at Daphne as they danced and was keeping an eye around to make sure they didn''t bump into someone, but when he didn''t get a response, he looked down at Daphne and saw her crystal blues staring up at him.


    "Daphne?"


    The girl seemed to snap out of a trance and almost seemed floundered in Quinn''s arms as she realized what she had been doing.


    "Sorry, what did you say? I missed it," Daphne said a bit too quickly and then reprimanded herself internally for losingposure.


    Quinn tilted his head in confusion but repeated himself again.


    "They have been going well," she said as she got her rhythm back, "I''ve been readings the basic concepts of healing magic on my own time. It''s not asplicated as I thought it would be. True, there are multitudes of things to cover, so many different types to master, but no matter what Ie across, there seems to be a reason for them to be the way they are, and I only need to understand for them to make sense to me."


    Daphne wanted to be a healer so that she could heal Astoria of her blood curse one day, and no doubt that was her primary motivation, but as she actually picked up the basics of healing, the subject and magic seemed to suit her ¡ª everything she tried to learn seemed to make sense to her, and things clicked her mind ¡ª it felt different from the understanding that she gained for the Hogwarts curriculum ¡ª healing magic seemed to call out to her. She didn''t know if it was because she wanted it so much or just had a sense of healing magic, but everything healing seemed to interest her so much.


    "Sounds like you''re having fun," said Quinn; the way her shined right now said it all.


    "Do you also feel like that?" asked Daphne.


    Quinn''s reply didn''te for a couple of seconds. "It''s the time for me," he said.


    "Time? What do you mean?"


    "Somewhere along the line, I don''t know when. . . I don''t think it was a singr point. . . but somewhere, some time, I began losing time. . . or to be more exact, the time seemed to pass quickly when I studied magic. . . I don''t know if I''m exining it correctly, but I get lost when I''m with magic. . . it''s like I just got started a minute ago, but then suddenly, it had been an hour or two. . . . That''s what it feels like for me.


    "It doesn''te every day, but it doese every so often, and I only realize that it came after the fact, but when ites, I feel good, terrific," said Quinn.


    People concentrated when they were doing a task; they would focus on what they wanted to do. But for Quinn and magic, he didn''t need to concentrate ¡ª magical learning would pull out the concentration for him, and it was damn beautiful to Quinn.


    "Ah, I''m sorry if I trailed a bit too much," said Quinn, matching eyes with Daphne.


    "No, that was fascinating. I would like to hear more," said Daphne. I would like to know more about you, she thought.


    . . .


    Outside the dance floor, Jacob Greengrass and Sophie Greengrass watched their daughter slow dance with a boy as they seemed to talk andugh while holding with each other.


    "Look at those two," said Sophie smiling with her eyes, "I feel like it was just yesterday when we first saw them dance together. . . they were but children then, look at them both now, all grown up."


    Jacob Greengrass stared at her daughter. "Hmm. . ."


    "Don''t they look good with each other? Astoria also seems to think that; I remember hearing her teasing Daphne about Quinn."


    In the arms of a boy. "Hmm. . ."


    "I think Daphne likes Quinn," said Sophie, her eyes sparkling.


    They weren''t children anymore. "Hmm. . ."


    "I think they suit each other. I wonder if I should talk to Daphne to see if she does like Quinn."


    Wasn''t this around the same age he had started dating Sophie? "Hmm. . ."


    "She might need her mother''s help." Thoughts began building in Sophie''s head.


    His dear eldest daughter falling into the clutches of a boy. "Hmm. . ."


    "A boy like Quinn must have a lot of girls who like him," Sophie thought about when she was young and the time before she and Jacob had started dating. Her husband was very popr among the girls; she had to be assertive to show her interest.


    ''Boys,'' thought Jacob, were filthy runts with their top floors filled with dirty thoughts. "Hmm. . ."


    "That girl is shy when ites to things like these. She needs to be more outgoing if she wants to get what she wants."


    His daughter ''going out'' with those filthy creatures. . . "Hmm. . ."


    "We would have to support Daphne, don''t we, dear?"


    Yes, we would need to support. . . "Wait, what have you been saying. . . Daphne is too young to be things like that; it''s time for her to focus on her future," said Jacob, his mind catching up with his wife''s words, "now''s not the time to support but to help Daphne understand that she has her entire life in front for things like silly crushes ¡ª right now, it''s time for personal development. . . yes, that''s it," Jacob finished feeling satisfied with his line of thought.


    "Oh dear, you''re being silly," said Sophie, looping her arm around Jacob''s, "she has her entire life to worry about studies and stuff. . . but this time won''te back," she leaned near her husband, "it''s time for her to experience this time and leave those worries for ater date."


    Jacob grumbled. He wanted to argue, but there was no use doing it. He could oppose this, but Sophie would support it, and he wasn''t a fool; he could see his daughter held some interest in Quinn West, and in this situation, Daphne would follow after Sophie''s advice, sidelining him.


    . . .


    "That was fun," said Quinn handing Daphne another goblet after the dance.


    "It indeed was," said Daphne, a small smile gracing her lips.


    "Zabini, did you enjoy your dance with your mother," said Quinn with a teasing smile.


    ise sighed. His mother had dragged him to dance despite his opposition and resistance.


    "ise."


    The Slytherin turned to see his best friend Theodore Nott walking towards them.


    "Theo," said ise in greeting, "you''rete."


    "My father is alwayste to these," said Theodore pointing around the ballroom. He then turned to Quinn and Daphne, "Daphne, West, good to see you both here as well."


    Quinn raised his goblet while Daphne nodded.


    "Zabini here just asked me the same deal I offered you," said Quinn.


    Theodore turned to ise, who nodded.


    "He epted," said ise.


    "I did, but don''t go spouting out this to everyone," said Quinn, "if you think someone will definitely need what I offered you, thene to me first, and I''ll decide if I want to bring them into the loop. I don''t want to be swarmed by requests like today from Zabini."


    "We''ll keep that in mind," said Theodore. This was too important for him to mess it up.


    "Good, now chill. It''s Christmas, have some fun," said Quinn before looking around the ballroom with a sigh, "now, if you three Slytherin will excuse me," he sighed more, "I''ll have to show my face to some people and engage in small talk. . . I swear I''ll have to do something that''ll give me a lifetime pass from this."


    When Quinn left, Theodore turned to Daphne and ise and asked. "What did he mean by that?"


    "He doesn''t like parties," said Daphne.


    "And, he came alone, so I guess he needs to chat with some people," ise guessed.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Cornelius Fudge walked around the ballroom, smiling and nodding to people as he passed them by. He was looking around to see who was talking to who, trying to get they of thend and if some new connections were forming that he needed to know about.


    ''Hmm, everything''s looking good,'' thought Fudge.


    But then he saw a group of people gathered around in a group with great chatter happening in there. It made him curious, what was happening and what were they talking about. Fudge walked towards the group and heard someone speaking to the group.


    "It''s all about adding value to your business. . . matching what yourpetitor is doing isn''t good enough ¡ª giving the public what they have seen before isn''t good enough, it''s redundant to show them the same thing they can get another ce. . . you have to give them something extra, something that would catch their eye enough to sway them away from yourpetitor."


    Fudge moved closer towards the group, and because he was the Minister, he didn''t need to muscle his way to the front of the crowd as people gave him the way.


    "So, to attract customers to your business, you need something new. . . but that doesn''t mean you need to release new products every season to generate that new wave of revenue. Let me tell you something: only around five to ten percent of products every year are truly original; the rest of the new things you might see in the market are little improvements to existing products. . ."


    Fudge finally made his way to the front to see the backside of a person dressed in a blue checkered suit talking to the entire group, who all were looking immersed and were hanging to his every word.


    "So, remember to be greedy. . . not about money. That''s actually secondary. You need to be greedy about progress and not stop in a spot and think that you can rx now that you''re ahead of the pack. If it takes effort to get ahead, then it''ll take more effort to stay ahead. You all need to add value to your products, to your process, to your employees, anything you do better will help you better your business, and if you''re better, your customers will line your coffers with their pockets very much happily."


    Fudge watched as the person turned toward his direction and saw a familiar face.


    It was Quinn West.


    ''Wests are at the Ball?!'' thought Fudge surprised and taken aback. It was a critical time for him ¡ª he needed all the time he could get ¡ª and here he was standing, staring Quinn West in the face having no prior information about his presence.


    He looked around to find George West, but there was no sign of the man with the most gravity of anyone invited.


    "Ah, Minister didn''t see you there," said Quinn, "I wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you''re having an auspicious Yuletide."


    "Thank you, Quinn," said Fudge, "I wish the same to you and hope your good health."


    "That''s kind of you, Minister," said Quinn smiling.


    Seeing that the Minister had upied Quinn, the crowd dispersed with only a few hanging around, but at a distance.


    "What were you doing there, Quinn?" asked Fudge.


    "So you heard that," Quinn sounded shy, "that was just the little ol'' me trying to see if I could share something that I learned from hanging around family shops. . . though I don''t think I have something of use to offer in this regard."


    Fudge recalled how everyone was listening to Quinn''s words and shook his head.


    "It looked like everyone was deeply interested," said Fudge.


    Quinn simply smiled.


    "Quinn, I didn''t know you were here. I must''ve missed the announcements," said Fudge, and even if he did, some of his people should''ve informed him ¡ª someone was getting fired today, "I would like to greet your grandfather, if you''d guide me towards him."


    "My grandfather isn''t here today, Minister," said Quinn happily, "he got upied with something and has been busy for a few days, so he couldn''t attend today, and I came in his ce because I was free."


    "Ah, is that so," Fudge tried his best not to sound disappointed.


    "Yes, but if you''d like me to pass along a message, I''d be happy to do so," said Quinn courteously; of course, if it was some bullcrap, his grandfather wouldn''t hear a word of it.


    "No, it''s fine. I''ll talk to him myself."


    "Alright."


    "How''s Hogwarts going? I''m hearing good thing now that Dolores is at the castle."


    "Madam Umbridge?" said Quinn and then just smiled, refusing toment.


    Fudge looking for all things positivity from his initiatives, took that as a glowing rmendation.


    "Minister, if you see Madam Umbridge, tell her that I wish her a Merry Christmas and that the remaining of her Yuletide goes well," said Quinn before taking his leave.


    After a while, Umbridge, who was also present at the Ball, came strutting towards Fudge.


    "Cornelius, so this is where you were. Lucius Malfoy wants to talk to you," she said.


    "Oh, Dolores, I''ll be there in a minute," said Fudge, "also, I just met Quinn West."


    ". . . What?"


    "Yes, he said to wish you a Merry Christmas. What a sweet and intelligent boy he is. Please make sure that you take care of him at Hogwarts. I''m sure Quinn personally will do great things in the future; you should''ve listened to his words; they were insightful," Fudge then went onto pile praises for Quinn onto Umbridge as she stood there turning to stone with every word that came out of Fudge.


    After Fudge left to talk to Lucius Malfoy, Umbridge remained rooted in her spot. She wasn''t expecting to hear praises of Quinn from Fudge''s mouth. She wasn''t expecting to hear anything about Quinn ¡ª the winter break was supposed to be the time free from the mention of the boy''s name.


    But now this happened. Umbridge could read between the lines. Fudge wanted to maintain a positive rtionship with Quinn. But that was thest thing she wanted.


    ''I must reveal his true face to Cornelius,'' she thought.


    Umbridge felt someone looking at her and turned to look up towards the second floor to see a figure leaning towards the railings.


    It was Quinn West.


    When their eyes met, Quinn raised the goblet in his hand towards her with a smile on her face before pushing himself away from the railings and walking away while still looking at Umbridge, to whom that smile looked one of mocking.


    Her breathing heaved as anger started to build inside her. Her eyes remained affixed at the ce where Quinn stood as her eyes turned red with fury.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Creating jobs, Dancing, Dishing advice, Raising sses ¡ª overall madd.


    Daphne Greengrass - Daughter - Is now gathering courage.


    Sophie Greengrass - Mother - Guiding her daughter is her duty and pleasure.


    Jacob Greengrass - Father - "Hmm. . . what?!"


    Dolores Umbridge - Furious - Oh so, furious.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 227 - Decree Wave, Spinning The Web

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "What the fuck is this?!"


    In the grand Entrance Hall of Hogwarts, an enormous crowd of students gathered around the bulletin board. There was turmoil bubbling in the crowd ¡ª spreading, wing, restricting them, making them feel bound and controlled(not in control).


    The board was filled with a myriad of new notices that everyone noticed first thing in the morning of the day after the students returned to Hogwarts after the Winter/Christmas/New-Year break. Every single of the new notices followed the same temte, and it was damn clear who was behind them.


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. TWENTY-SIX


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. TWENTY-NINE


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. THIRTY


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. THIRTY-SEVEN


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. FORTY


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. FORTY-SIX


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. FORTY-SEVEN


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. FORTY-EIGHT


    "What in Merlin''s hairy balls was that woman on when doing. . . this!" Eddie threw up his hands towards the bulletin board, not able toprehend the sight in front of him.


    "Forbade boys and girls from being within six inches of each other ¡ª that''s I guess for Diggory and Cho because Diggory hasn''t been cooperating," said Marcus, reading the new Educational Decrees, ". . . . prohibited joke products made by Fred and George Weasley ¡ª for their candy that makes it look you''re sick. . . . banned items that were not of educational value ¡ª I''m guessing she''s trying to ban Quinn''s AID card because she''s not able to shut it down. . . . boys to keep their hands outside their cloaks ¡ª that''s just stupid. . . . proper dress and decorum ¡ª was there a real need to turn proper dressing into Decree? She had the power to enforce this even without turning it into a Decree."


    "The proper dress and decorum decree makes sure that we don''t try to alter our uniforms to get around the hands out of the cloaks decree. . . she''s trying to be smart," said Quinn.


    ''Hmm, that thing at the party really irked her, huh,'' thought Quinn, and he wasn''t feeling happy about it ¡ª the AID cards from the very first generation were built with a feature that showed if the office was open or not because Quinn''s timings for consultation were never consistent and because Luna popped in and out whenever she felt like, there was not a single definite schedule where you coulde to AID to get help ¡ª one needed to look at a card to see if the office was open for a consult.


    ''I would need to send out a school-wide warning to hide the cards in cirction to protect them from being prohibited.'' Quinn sighed because he didn''t know how many cards would survive this ban before he did something about it.


    Quinn also realized that now with this, he would either need to start sitting in his office for definite hours every day or start an appointment system to predetermine who will get to see him.


    ''She finally did something to annoy me,'' thought Quinn, his lips pursed, ''I guess I''ll have to do something to make her life more difficult. It''s only fair.''


    Quinn felt a hand on his shoulder and turned his head to see Cedric Diggory standing behind him.


    "What''re we going to do with this?" asked Cedric, "this is already going way overboard." Cedric wasn''t as stressed about the NEWTs as his other seventh-year peers and had a solid handle on things to perform well. What he truly wanted from this year was to enjoy Hogwarts before graduating, and this was dumping a bucket of ice-cold water on it.


    "I won''t say not to worry about this, lover boy. This is an apparent attack on student freedom in Hogwarts, and I would definitely need to think somethings to get a workaround for her rising dictatorship, but I''m sure we can ovee this. . . spread the word in your trusted Prefects, we''ll need the help from the Prefectwork."


    Dolores Umbridge had power inside Hogwarts that was unquestionable, and that wasn''t a point of debate, but that power wasn''t absolute ¡ª she could be challenged; it was just the question of how to challenge that authority.


    "Well, we''d need to get creative."


    Creative until the time came where the bug had spun enough web to trap a toad in its trap.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    There was a time in the history of Hogwarts when the school required multiple Professors for the same subject because of the number of students attending. The times when the young poption was too high for a single teacher to handle and effectively teach, and every subject used to be headed by a Head of Department who would take on apprentices doing their apprenticeships under the Head of Department who were Masters.


    The apprentices would teach the younger kids in the lower grades, while the Masters would teach the higher grades consisting of older kids. But that practice had left Hogwarts with the rise of other magical schools around the world (Hogwarts being one of the oldest schools of magic), and the parents not needing to send their children to foreign to learn magic.


    When that practice died, the apprenticeship in Hogwarts also closed down because now a single Professor needed to teach all seven grades on their own and couldn''t take responsibility for guiding an apprentice.


    In recent history, during the Second Wizarding War of Britain and in extension the continent of Europe, the birth rate of the magical poption of the British Isles and Irnd slowed down in the wartime, and as such, for around ten to twelve years, the number of children born in the magical households dipped to a low in a very long time. It was interesting to note that the first-generation magicals (muggleborns) poption didn''t change and the ratio of first-generation magical children to those born in magical households was at an all-time high.


    The effect of that dipped birth rate was showing now as for thest decade, the number of children Hogwarts was at a lower end of the scale, with the castle operating at its lowest capacity ever since the First Wizarding War.


    Though that trend was now bing a blip as for thest couple of years, the number of Hogwarts inductees was again at a rise to a healthy amount as it was before the war.


    "I haven''t done this before, and I''d have to say, it seems like a much bigger responsibility than I thought it''d be when you told me about it before," said Quinn looking up from a stack of parchment.


    Filius Flitwick smiled in his high chair that he used to keep himself at the table level and stopped grading the assignments given to the students for the Winter break to look up at Quinn, who was helping him grade assignments.


    They say in Flitwick''s personal office. Hogwarts had a dedicated staffroom where most of the Professors could be found in the school hours mingling together during their off periods, but after evening, they would retreat into the personal offices to do duties like grading assignments and papers in peace and quiet.


    "Grading assignments is a consummate part of a Ravenw Prefect''s duties even since I took over the position of Head of House," Flitwick said with his toothy smile. "It starts right from fifth-year; I make them grade a portion of first and second-year students'' assignments while the sixth-year Prefects such as yourself grade a part of third and fourth-year assignments. The seventh-year Prefects don''t have grading as a primary duty because they''re busy with their NEWT preparations, but they do take over the fifth-year Prefects from time to time because of the OWL year.


    "You didn''t get to do thisst year because you were too busy with the Quidditch Tournament, so I never assigned you this task."


    Quinn read the essay assignment on the Banishing charm from a fourth-year Hufflepuff, and after thinking a lot and going back and forth, he gave up and asked.


    "This is tough. . . I don''t know if I should grade these based on how they did rtive to each other or if I should grade them absolutely on the amount of understanding on the topic," said Quinn because rtive grading and absolute grading had their merits and demerits and choosing one could change the way grades came out at the end.


    "Don''t apply rtive grading," said Flitwick, not raising his eyes from the papers as his quill wrote remarks, "rate them on their understanding they have on the topic and remember ¡ª they''re fourth years and not sixth-years like you, they''ll naturally know less than your grade. . . it might not be the correct analogy, but go easier on them."


    Quinn nodded and looked down at the parchment. Judging from the structure, how penmanship transformed from the start to the end, and the overall content, it was definitely thest day of the vacation effort. So after thinking it through, giving it much thought, and going back and forth, he wrote A for eptable on the top of the parchment and on a grading table for Flitwick''s reference and records.


    "How was your break?" asked Flitwick.


    "It was uneventful," said Quinn, "I didn''t do much other than roaming outside for half a day and hang out around the house for the rest of the day. . . nothing special, I suppose."


    Ever since Quinn hade to Hogwarts, every time he went back home, be it in the winter or in the summer, he would spend a lot of time outside the house, roaming around the country, which was made easier with floo-travel andter apparition. Being "stuck" at Hogwarts for the most part of the year really tingled Quinn''s exploratory tick, so he would just go around looking for anything new he could find.


    "And how about your return? What do you think?"


    "Uhm, eh, they''re a bit annoying, but we will see how it turns out," said Quinn, then looked up, "how about you? I heard that she ended her inspections before the break. . . how do you think you''re going to fare when the results are out?"


    "That. . . I wouldn''t know, and I try not to think about it," said the half-goblin, "I did my job to my best, and my work speaks for itself. There''s nothing for me to worry about," Flitwick looked up with an almost bored expression, "I''ve held this position for decades. There have been many attempts from parents who don''t like the idea of a half-breed goblin teaching their children; this isn''t the first I have had the threat of getting fired from Hogwarts, and I''m sure it won''t be thest time either, but just like every other time, this will pass like a silly little breeze," said Flitwick with utter confidence.


    Quinn nodded in admiration.


    And Flitwick didn''t need to be worried about his job.


    The Progress Report of Magical Didactics was a document used to evaluate Hogwarts teachers. It was passed by the Department of Magical Education. Some basic biographical and magical information that the document required included name, age, star sign, address, magic rune, expiration number, agility, magical technique, uracy, wand control, among others. Based on answering some questions (like Do you consider yourself a risk-taker? Give an example), the teacher would be graded Appalling, Bad, Fair, Good or Excellent.


    But the truth was Umbridge used it ostensibly as a means of evaluating Hogwarts teachers. In actuality, however, Umbridge targeted any teacher close to Albus Dumbledore that she felt she had a reasonable chance of dismissing without raising suspicions.


    There was a great chance that Umbridge might target Flitwick because of her tant hate for half-breeds, but the thing was that Flitwick had exceptional credentials ¡ª Master of Charms, A long time Champion in various Duelling Circuits, and an excellent, memorable Professor who provided outstanding guidance to essentially everyone who had graduated out of Hogwarts in thest few decades.


    If Umbridge touched Flitwick, she''d be attracting eyes from all over. The same thing went for McGonagall and Sprout, and well, Snape, who was like a guardian angel to all who strutted under the banner of Slytherin. To be direct, there was no way to kick out the Head of Houses without the four making grievous errors, which they hadn''t, especially after Umbridge was on everyone''s tail.


    "Well, if she annoys you, tell me," said Quinn, "I''ll add it to the list of things that need to be retaliated upon. Maybe, it''ll turn into a great spectacle."


    "I will keep that in my mind," said Flitwick before sighing, "I just hope that everyone wille out this safe and sound."


    But both knew that the chances of that happening were meagre. Umbridge was on the warpath from the moment she stepped into Hogwarts. She was going to get someone, and there were a few good candidates for her to whack; the question was how many of them would go.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Eldon Pembroke, fourth-year Hufflepuff, dawdled his way, feeling the lowest of low ¡ª this afternoon, he was given detention in the Defense Against The Dark Arts because he got frustrated and raised a question and maybe got into a "heated" debate with Umbridge, whichnded him into the mess.


    "Ugh, what I''m going to do?" he groaned. How was he going to spend hours on end alone with Umbridge for an entire week continuously.


    He arrived at the Hufflepuffmon room entrance and sighed for the umpteenth time today. He couldn''t even open his mouth to utter the password and enter themon room.


    "Hey, Pembroke."


    Eldon turned left where the voice came from and saw Quinn West standing at the end of the hallway, which surprised him because he thought the voice came from somewhere nearby. Eldon walked towards him when Quinn beckoned him.


    "Hello," said Eldon, his confusion, which mixed in with his misery, sounded downright pathetic.


    "So, I heard you have a detention with Umbridge."


    "Yes."


    "You''re not feeling great about it, are you?"


    "No."


    Quinn stared at Eldon for a good moment before patting his shoulders heavily. "Wait here for a bit; I''ll be back in a bit. Don''t go anywhere."


    Eldon watched as Quinn walked away. He didn''t have anything to do, so he stayed still, and even if he did, Eldon had no energy to do anything.


    After a couple of minutes, Quinn returned but in his hand were two piping hot bacon sandwiches. He handed one to Eldon and took a bite from another one.


    "Eat it. You''ll feel better," said Quinn.


    Eldon looked at his sandwich for a while before looking up and saying, "What do you want?"


    "The detention with Umbridge," said Quinn, "it''s not going to be pretty."


    "I know that. Who doesn''t know that." Detention with Umbridge made it automatically fated to be awful.


    "Well, I can make it much more bearable. I can make the next week, which is supposed to be hellish to feel like normal detention," said Quinn.


    Eldon perked up hearing that. It was the greatest proposition he had heard in his entire life, and that was when he was offered the Albus Dumbledore''s Chocte Frog Card in return for some Exploding Snaps, which was a ridiculously good deal.


    "What is it?" asked Eldon.


    Quinn took out two potion vails from his robes and handed them to Eldon. "Take these two before you go in Umbridge''s office, and you''ll be set for the day. . . I can give you one of these every day till your detention ends."


    "What are these?"


    "The less you know, the better, kid."


    One was the same potion he had given to Harry before he went for his detentions but with some modification ¡ª Harry knew the pain of using the Blood Quill, but Eldon didn''t, and even if Quinn gave him one day to experience the pain, there was no telling how good was Eldon''s acting were ¡ª so he made it so Eldon would feel extreme irritation when using the Blood Quill, that would make his difort believable.


    The other one was the antidote to the Veritaserum that Umbridge might give to get some ckmail material out. There was no reason for the second one, but it was precautionary. There was no telling what was brewing in Umbridge''s twisted mind.


    Eldon took the vials and stared at them for a good while before looking up at Quinn. "Will they really work? Are you absolutely sure?"


    "One hundred percent. But there''s a condition for this."


    "What is it?" Eldon was willing to follow if it would make his life easier.


    "You can''t tell anyone about this. Not a single soul can know that I give you this. If you tell anyone, you''ll not be feeling good about it," said Quinn. Hermione Granger wasn''t the only one who could weave in special little traps into things.


    "Deal!" said Eldon almost instantly.


    "Good, now scurry away and remember the deal," said Quinn and watched Eldon walk to the Hufflepuff entrance with a renewed vigor.


    "That''s one more," Quinn muttered as Eldon disappeared from his sights.


    The more Umbridge dished out detentions, the more people Quinn would get to give the potions, and more detentions meant that the web that the bug spun for him would be more lethal.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I realize that the difference between Arachne and Bugs.


    Filius Flitwick - Head of House - Yeah, I''m not getting fired.


    Eldon Pembroke - Hufflepuff - The bacon sandwich was surprisingly good.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 228 - Lonely Fortress On The Island

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The Northern sea, a sea of the Antic Ocean separating the British Isles from the continental maind. It connected the Isles to Nethends and Belgium, Denmark to Norway, touched the shores of Germany, and even made its way to the lush country of Sweden.


    In the sea, on a small ind surrounded from all sides with blue, a small, scrappy, splintered wooden boat swayed lightly on the shores with a flimsy braided rope of husk tying it to the simple pier.


    The sea was too cid for a sanguine moon that hung above. The birds that flew hastily could feel that the cidity was a sign and rushed to take shelter. There was a storm a-brewing.


    The boat began to roll from side to side, and the temperature dipped all of a sudden. Dark clouds obscured the moon. They churned grimly in the night sky, as ck as a witch''s Sabbath. The mercurial moon flushed with the silver from the thunderhead, casting the shivers of moonlight with a ghostly glow. Underneath the sky and the moon, the rain moved towards the small ind and the boat like a Dementor''s wraithy veil of despair. A wind blew and winnowed, rippling the surface of the corpse calm sea.


    The boat heaved and tossed in the rising, swelling waves. The sea was calling it, but the rope didn''t allow, hanging taut ¡ª it was as if it knew if the boat left, it would nevere back.


    The rain-shroud passed by, spitting the harsh tears on the great mirror that reflected the sky. The rain whipped down like crystal nails, and streaky lightning emzoned the sky. The sea tides rose, the boat jerked and soaked in the northern winds, speeding the impending dome. Thecerating rain stung the rope, the strands snapped one by one ¡ª even the unity that made the rope strong couldn''t stop nature''s wrath roaring edict.


    It snapped. It snapped, and the boat heeded the call of Poseidon. It bobbed like a cork upon the capacious sea. The timber nks buckled and bulged, then screaked and shuddered, but the boat righted herself once more like a brave hero against the bravery.


    But the bem of the sea wasn''t kind nor fair.


    The boat rose with the swell, inclining upwards to its destruction. It was propelled up onto the lip and hovered there, a fly-speck on the cobwebbed lines of the wave. Time seemed suspended. The whirlpool gaped under him with dire-white jaws. It roiled and spun, inviting craft in. Then the boat plummeted down into its milky depths, swallowed whole in a final, terrible squeak of timber.


    It was then ck-shrouded figures began descending from above, surrounded in ck sooty smoke of hell. It was as if the pandemonic sky had spit them out. The haze cleared and appeared from within were ck-hooded figures with snake-like eye slits covering their faces. All held brooms in their gloved hands as they looked above as the clouds overhead funnelled together and from the middle descended a dense trail of haze cker than the pits of Tartarus.


    The hazended on the ind between the hooded and masked figures, but unlike them, this one wasn''t holding a broom ¡ª all he wore was a simple loose grey robe over the skeletal frame.


    "This cold," said the robed figure, "the touch of despair, a hint of sorrow, and the infinite empty void. . . it can''t be found anywhere but in their breeding grounds."


    "Avery," said the man with snake-like features. The thunder still struck, and the winds continued to roar, but his voice was as clear on a cloudless day. The rain still poured, trying to drown everything, but not a single drop hit the man.


    One of the hooded figures stepped forward and bowed his head.


    "Bring the jailers to greet me," said the man, his voice deep, "take Yaxley, Crabbe, and Goyle with you."


    "Yes, master," said Avery and nodded at the three hoods that stepped out. The four went out to a small outhouse on a raised cliff at the edge of the ind.


    Flew shes, and sometimeter, the four men returned with four others bound in chains behind them. The rain mixed with the beach sand coated them as they were dragged on the ground while they tried to struggle. They were dumped right between the encirclement of the hooded individuals.


    "Gentlemen," said the master.


    The four bound men, Hit Wizards in charge of keeping an eye on the fortress built on the ind, looked up from the ground as the rain hit their faces. For a moment, they were confused about what they were looking at ¡ª a man with increasingly waxy, reptilian, and bone-white skin.


    One of the "jailers" remembered something that he had read in the papers. It was an interview with Albus Dumbledore, and in it, the interviewer had asked Dumbledore to describe the Dark Lord ¡ª more than a decade and no pictures of the Dark Lord, so who better to ask but the man who led the opposition to the Tyranny ¡ª in that interview, Dumbledore went onto describe the Dark Lord''s appearance (the one he had seen in Harry''s memories.)


    "T-The Da-Dark Lord!!" said the Hit Wizard in horrid exmation.


    "You''re correct, Hit Wizard," said Voldemort, "it is indeed I, the Dark Lord . . . Voldemort."


    A chill went down the four jailers'' spines as their hearts started to thump inside their chests; suddenly, the early February rain wasn''t cold; the heat of fear filled their bodies. The realization of the fact what Dumbledore was speaking for months was indeed true came crashing down on him.


    "I have some very important things to do at your ce of work, gentlemen," said Voldemort, "unfortunately for all of you, your presence is a hindrance. As such, all of you will have to go."


    The thin and long fingers took out the thing that felt the mostfortable in Voldemort''s hands and held it with the gentlest of the touch, a picture of serenity. On the contrary, the four Hit Wizards in charge were thrashing on the ground at the sight of the Dark Lord brandishing a wand.


    Thest thing the Hit Wizards heard was the whisper ¡ª "Avada Kedavra" ¡ª and thest memories of their lives were tainted and overwhelmed by the bright sh of AK-green.


    Not a moment after the four deaths, Edward Nott stepped forward and spoke, "We will start, my lord," and took out his own wand. But Voldemort raised his hands and stopped his Death Eaters as all of them took out their wands to charge the fortress.


    "I''ll take care of this myself," said Voldemort, "my most loyal of servants," all Death Eaters lowered their eyes, "deserve for me to be freed by my own hand ¡ª they have kept the integrity of my name alive in these hallowed halls for more than a decade ¡ª they have earned to be rewarded, to be honored, to feel the first touch of unfettered air and know in an instant that it was me. . . . Not to mention, if you all go inside, you will only be hindrances ¡ª the real jailors will consume all intruders without a second of dy."


    The Death Eaters shivered. Every single of them knew the despairing touch of a Dementor felt. Barty Crouch Sr., during his campaign to put every Death Eater behind bars, had made Dementors escort them while they were under arrest. The now-dead man was vindictive to the limit in his golden days and had made sure that their brief time in the chains with the Auror Office was as unpleasant as he could possibly make it.


    Voldemort stared straight ahead at the triangr monolithic tower. It was made from ck stone covering every inch of the building. He had only once visited this ind and that too for a very short period. During his reign, when no one dared to even speak his name, his servants roamed freely and without consequence. There was no need for him to ever step on this ind. So he took a moment and gazed at the world''s most horrid wizarding prison ¡ª the fortress of Azkaban.


    The ind in the North Sea on which the wizard prison was built had never appeared on any map, wizard or Muggle. Its first known resident, Ekrizdis, practiced the worst kinds of Dark magic and constructed a fortress on the ind, luring Muggle sailors there to torture and murder them. After his death, the various concealment charms ced on the isle faded, and the Ministry of Magic became aware of the mysterious site''s existence. Those who entered the deserted fortress to investigate discovered, among other horrors, an infestation of Dementors.


    The wizarding authorities of the time considered destroying the fortress, but, fearing reprisal by the dark entities or the ind itself, decided against such action, and the Ministry allowed the sizeable colony to remain; the ind was thus left unmolested and unchecked for many years, decades until the International Statute of Secrecy was established.


    Due to the impracticality of using small, local prisons, which could result in bangs, smells, and light shows if inmates escaped, ns for a single, purpose-built wizarding prison on some remote Hebridean ind were made at the passing of the International Statute of Secrecy. However, when Damocles Rowle was elected Minister for Magic in 1718, he insisted on using Azkaban instead, seeing the Dementors as a potential asset: putting them to work as guards would save expense, time, and lives. This n was eventually put into motion and, despite protests, Azkaban was made the magical prison of Britain, and Rowle''s decision was a major sess as Azkaban showed a zero breakout rate for centuries.


    During his term, Minister Eldritch Diggory visited Azkaban and was horrified at the inhumane levels of despair and insanity that the Dementors induced in the prisoners. He formed amittee to find alternative solutions or mitigating measures, the least of which was to remove the Dementors; even this, however, met opposition from those who feared a maind invasion if the Dementors were deprived of their food source. Diggory died of Dragon Pox while in office, and thus the campaign to find an alternative to Azkaban''s Dementors stalled.


    Reversing his predecessor''s position, when Minister Hesphaestus Gore took office, the prison was renovated and reinforced ¡ª shedding its fortress-like appearance and turning it into the triangr monolith and had remained the same way. . . till today.


    Voldemort raised his wand towards the tower. Three energy orbs of blood-red muddled with ck manifested and flew out to ce themselves in a triangr position one meter apart from each other. The red light from the orbs cast a glow on Voldemort''s indifferent face.


    The orbs began violently vibrating, and the Death Eaters all took a step back. Three beams of crushing power, one from each, came crashing into each other at the mid-point of the triangle, and the shaking reached a peak before the spell went still ¡ª like the calm before the storm ¡ª the very next second, a concentrated beam discharged out from the mid-point towards the fortress.


    For a second, nothing happened. Then came a zapping sound ¡ª Voldemort''s spell had crossed the sound barrier. After a streak of red electric bolts covered the surface of the tower. There was another couple of seconds pause before the exterior of the monolithic building started to crack. With every passing second, the cracks grew, and rubble began falling ¡ª big and small ¡ª but it kept falling.


    A flurry of screeches followed after as hooded wraiths in hundreds began flying out the tower and more began descended down from the chaotic clouds. The Death Eater brigade clutched their wands in nervousness as the screeching tattered robes formed a dark dome surrounding the ind. Only Voldemort seemed unconcerned.


    Hezily flicked his wand, and fans of yellowish-brown mes began flying out in waves over waves, crashing out into the dome of Dementors. Louder screeches filled the sky ¡ª but now they were of pain and fear.


    Patronus spell was the mainstream spell of choice to handle Dementors, and if used correctly, it did amazingly well. But a Patronus was a gentle option. There were spells on the dark spectrum that could be used against the Dementors ¡ª the wraiths were amortal and couldn''t be killed, but that didn''t mean that they couldn''t be made to feel pain and fear.


    After half a minute, Voldemort stopped and lowered his wand hand. A small smile appeared on his face as he saw a single Dementor fly out from the tower and float in front of him. It screeched harshly.


    "Submit to me, and I will let you feed," said Voldemort. "You will be able to feed more than you and your kind have ever done on this ind. This is a prison, and if you submit, I will free you from it. Refuse and I will plunge you into the pits of agony beyond imagination."


    The Dementor hovered in his ce for a good while before bowing its hooded head. As it did that, the Dementors dome crumbled and the wraiths flew away.


    "Now,e to out. . . it''s time to return home," said Voldemort gazing at the tower in shambles. Another smile appeared on his face as he saw a familiar figure step out into the open.


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    One day she was at the top of the world, serving her beloved master from the bottom of her heart, seeding chaos and destruction, spreading the fire of her master''s terror. Those were the best days of her life ¡ª she had found the purpose of her and was living the dream every single second of her life. But then, one day, everything came crashing down as her beloved lord, the one who she would do anything, disappeared. He had gone to take care of something on his own, but he never returned. The whispers that he was dead reached her ears, but she knew that it wasn''t true. She knew that he was out there, needing her help.


    However, before she could go out to her help her master, she was captured by the filthy Aurors, and before she knew it, she was in Azkaban ¡ª the worst day of her life ¡ª not because of the Dementors, they weren''t a problem ¡ª it was the day she was barred away from helping her master.


    The next decade she spent in her prison wasn''t bad. The Dementors were a bit pesky, but they were cute trying to push her into gloom ¡ª it seemed that they didn''t know who she was ¡ª she was Despair; their attempts meant nothing to her. They tried to suck out her happiness, but all it did was bring out her memories with her beloved master, but they weren''t able to suck them out ¡ª she didn''t allow it ¡ª it wasn''t allowed.


    Then one day, the only mark on her body that had faded away over time began darkening and returned to how she remembered it was during happy times.


    Her master, her lord, her everything had returned.


    From that day forward, she waited in eagerness for the day her master woulde to get her.


    And then one cold day (like every day), the Dementors were bothering her (like every day), but then they suddenly went as the tower began shaking ¡ª it had never shaken like it did today. In the blink of an eye, the roof and wall of her home (her cell) crumbled away, leaving her to see the sight of the sky for the first time ever in thirteen years. Even when they had changed her cell, they had blinded her for the time she was outside.


    She finally had an image in her eyes to match the sound of waves she heard every day from her cell. She slowly stepped out towards the edge and just took in everything.


    Then she heard the voice she had been waiting to hear. It was just a whisper, but it was everything.


    "Time to return home, Betrix."


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    "My lord."


    Voldemort turned away from talking to Betrix Lestrange and turned to Peter Pettigrew, who called out to him.


    "Speak, Wormtail."


    "The thing I talked about to you before," said Peter, "about talking someone else with us."


    They were here to take the imprisoned Death Eaters, but Peter wanted to take someone else with them.


    "So, where is this boy you want to take with us?" Voldemort asked. He didn''t care what happened to the other prisoners. They could die for all he could care or make it to the maind and do anything they wanted, which happening was low with the ind being surrounded by the Northern sea, and the Dementor-treated prisoners couldn''t bring out magic even if they did try to attempt apparition without wands.


    "Bring him here," said Peter.


    Two Death Eaters dragged a sickly-looking man, holding him up with his arms around their shoulders as the man couldn''t stand on his own.


    Voldemort wasn''t impressed. All his imprisoned Death Eaters were able to stand and walk, albeit weakly, after more than a decade in Azkaban. This one didn''t look he had been in prison for even half of that.


    "What is your name, boy, speak," said Voldemort impatiently.


    The man feebly raised his head to look at Voldemort and gazed at the Dark Lord with his dead eyes. He opened his mouth, and a raspy voice escaped his chipped lips.


    "Rivers Lock."


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    Voldemort - Dark Lord - "Looking into my eyes, Rivers Lock."


    Betrix Lestrange - Free atst - Dementors are cute.


    Peter Pettigrew - Rmender - Always thinking, always nning.


    Rivers Lock - Novellus ionites(defunct) - Ex-Leader.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Oh yeah, I liked this chapter a lot.


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 229 - The Second Break-In

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Quinn stared at the spread newspaper on the table in front of him, looking at the eleven ck-and-white photographs that filled the whole of the front page, ten showing men''s faces and the eleventh, a women''s. Some of the people in the photographs were silently jeering; others were tapping their fingers on the frame of their pictures, looking insolent. The one face familiar to Quinn stared ahead without an expression. Each picture was captioned with a name and the crime for which the person had been sent to Azkaban.


    Antonin Dolohov, read the legend beneath a wizard with a long, pale, twisted face who was sneering up at Harry, convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett.


    Augustus Rookwood, said the caption beneath a pockmarked man with greasy hair who was leaning against the edge of his picture, looking bored, convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic Secrets to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.


    Quinn''s attention, although were drawn to the sole woman and one man.


    The woman''s face had leapt out at him the moment he had seen the page. She had long, dark hair that looked unkempt and straggly in the picture, though he had seen it sleek, thick, and shining. She red up at him through heavily lidded eyes, an arrogant, disdainful smile ying around her thin mouth. Somehow, she retained vestiges of fabulous good looks, but something ¡ª perhaps Azkaban ¡ª had taken most of her beauty.


    Betrix Lestrange, convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.


    The man, on the other hand, seemed indifferent and wasn''t even looking into the camera while the mugshot was being clicked. His dead eyes seemed to look into the distance.


    Rivers Lock, spoke the legend beneath the pale dead-eyed young man, convicted of abduction of Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, breaking-and-entering at Hogwarts, and endangering lives of Hogwarts students.


    Quinn sighed as his eyes went up towards the headline over the pictures he hadn''t read because of the photographs.


    MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN MINISTRY FEARS PETTIGREW IS "RALLYING POINT" FOR OLD DEATH EATERS


    "This shit is bonkers," said Eddie. "Eleven Death Eaters out of Azkaban. . . and Peter Pettigrew, the man''s at the peak of his poprity."


    "Read the article," said Marcus, "Fudgemented on it."


    The Ministry of Magic announcedtest night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban.


    Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that eleven high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals.


    "We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Peter Pettigrew escaped," said Fudgest night. "Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrted. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Pettigrew, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally ced to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals, who include He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named''s right-hand witch, Betrix Lestrange, have rallied around Pettigrew as their leader. We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals and beg the magicalmunity to remain alert and cautious. On no ount should any of these individuals be approached."


    "Bullshit," said Eddie scoffing, plete and utter bullshit."


    "What other options does he have?" said Marcus critically. "He can hardly say, ''Sorry everyone, Dumbledore warned me this might happen, the Azkaban guards have joined You-Know-Who, and now his worst supporters have broken out too.'' I mean, he''s spent a good six months telling everyone you and Dumbledore are liars, hasn''t he?"


    Marcus ripped open the newspaper and began to read the report inside while Quinn looked around the Great Hall. His fellow students were not looking scared or at least discussing the terrible piece of news on the front page, but very few of them took the newspaper every day like he and Marcus. There they all were, talking about homework and Quidditch and who knew what other stuff, and outside these walls ten more Death Eaters along with a neo-Death Eater (Novellus ionite) had swollen the Dark Lord''s ranks. . .


    He nced up at the staff table. It was a different story here: Dumbledore and McGonagall were deep in conversation, both looking extremely grave. Sprout had the Prophet propped against a bottle of ketchup and was reading the front page with such concentration that she was not noticing the gentle drip of egg yolk falling into herp from her stationary spoon. Flitwick had stood up on his chair (atop his chair) and was hunched over the newspaper, his face at point-nk range. Meanwhile, at the far end of the table, Umbridge was tucking into a bowl of porridge. For once, her pouchy toad''s eyes were not sweeping the Great Hall looking for misbehaving students. She scowled as she gulped down her food, and every now and then, she shot a malevolent nce up the table to where Dumbledore and McGonagall were talking so intently.


    "Oh my ¡ª" said Marcus wonderingly, still staring at the newspaper.


    "What?" said Quinn.


    He folded back page-ten of the newspaper and handed it back to Quinn and Eddie.


    - - - - -


    TRAGIC DEMISE OF MINISTRY OF MAGIC WORKER


    St. Mungo''s Hospital promised a full inquiryst night after Ministry of Magic worker Broderick Bode, 78, was discovered dead in his bed, strangled by a potted nt. Healers called to the scene were unable to revive Mr. Bode, who had been injured in a workce ident some weeks prior to his death.


    Healer Miriam Strout, who was in charge of Mr. Bode''s ward at the time of the incident, has been suspended on full pay and was unavable forment yesterday, but a spokeswizard for the hospital said in a statement, "St. Mungo''s profoundly regrets the death of Mr. Bode, whose health was improving steadily prior to this tragic ident.


    "We have strict guidelines on the decorations permitted on our wards, but it appears that Healer Strout, busy over the Christmas period, overlooked the dangers of the nt on Mr. Bode''s bedside table. As his speech and mobility improved, Healer Strout encouraged Mr. Bode to look after the nt himself, unaware that it was not an innocent Flitterbloom, but a cutting of Devil''s Snare, which, when touched by the convalescent Mr. Bode, throttled him instantly.


    "St. Mungo''s is as yet unable to ount for the presence of the nt on the ward and asks any witch or wizard with information toe forward."


    - - - - -


    "Bode. . ." said Quinn.


    "You know him?" asked Eddie.


    "Bode. It rings a bell. . . ah, yeah, I remember, Broderick Bode, the man was an Unspeakable, worked in the Department of Mysteries," said Quinn nodding as his memory provided, "I met him in passing at a party with grandfather ¡ª he seemed like a jolly man. . . a pity."


    "A Flitterbloom turning out to be a Devil''s Snare. . . that sounds oddly suspicious," said Eddie, "you said he''s an Unspeakable? Maybe someone wanted to kill him?"


    No one knew that Eddie was indeed right, and Broderick Bode''s death was indeed an attempt to seal his lips with the strangle of death.


    The newspaper was set in between Quinn and Eddie as both read it, but suddenly a blonde head of Luna Lovegood dipped in between them.


    "Broderick Bode. . ." said Luna, her eyes sparkling; she picked up the newspaper and read it with unblinking eyes.


    Eddie and Quinn looked at one another, then to Luna, who straightened up, closed the paper, and started to walk away.


    "To send a letter to daddy," she said. "Broderick Bode, Flitterbloom, and Devil''s Snare. . ." Luna was already in her own world, switching from fourth-year Ravenw to Quibbler columnist.


    "Let''s hope she doesn''t trip and fall on her face," said Eddie, following Luna with his eyes.


    Quinn guffawed shortly, recalling when he, Eddie, and Marcus had seen Luna trip out and nt her face right into the mud because she wasn''t paying attention to where she was going. Luna''s only reaction was that it had been a while since she tasted dirt and how it tasted different from when she was a child.


    "So, Marcus, how do you think this''s going to turn out?" asked Quinn as he dabbed the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief, curious about Marcus'' thought on the matter.


    Marcus stared at the newspaper for a good moment. "Well, Dumbledore''s reputation is about to take a good ride on a broom ¡ª up and up. With this, it would be difficult for the Ministry to keep their stance that You-Know-Who isn''t alive ¡ª the public support would start to tilt towards Dumbledore''s side," he nced up at the staff table, "Ministry would yet again try to suppress the news, but I don''t think it would work as well this time around."


    Quinn nodded. The breakout was the breakpoint that was always lingering in the background. Before this point, Fudge couldn''t be med for his refusal to believe that Voldemort had returned ¡ª there was no other evidence other than Harry Potter saying that he had seen Voldemort. But now, the breakout was indeed enough reason for Fudge to at least sit down with Dumbledore and sort the matter out.


    ''But the swamp of politics won''t let Fudge go, and neither does Fudge want to exit what he thinks is the key to power,'' thought Quinn sighing; people were emotional (he wasn''t any exception), but the sight of emotions muddling minds was never a good sight.


    "The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting ones," said Quinn.


    The next couple of weeks, there was only one topic of conversation in the corridors now: the ten escaped Death Eaters, whose story had finally filtered through the school from those few people who read the newspapers. Rumors were flying that some of the convicts had been spotted in Hogsmeade, that they were supposed to be hiding out in the Shrieking Shack, and that they were going to break into Hogwarts, just like the eleventh escapee Rivers Lock had done.


    Those who came from Wizarding families had grown up hearing the names of these Death Eaters spoken with almost as much fear as Voldemort''s; the crimes they hadmitted during the days of Voldemort''s reign of terror were legendary. There were rtives of their victims among the Hogwarts students, who now found themselves the unwilling objects of a gruesome sort of reflected fame as they walked the corridors.


    Susan Bones eclipsed Harry Potter in poprity because she had an uncle, aunt, and cousins who had all died at the hands of one of the ten. And that her aunt, guardian, and only living family member, Amelia Bones, was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement ¡ª many hounded her wanting to know what the DMLE was doing to catch the escaped convicts.


    The sudden pressure increase on the poor Hufflepuff was so much that Quinn had decided to pair her with Harry in a DA meeting to alleviate some stress. The girl had said miserably that she now had a good idea what it felt like to be Harry.


    "And I don''t know how you stand it; it''s horrible," she said bluntly, putting a bit too much power into her Banishing charm that Harry had to actually put in some effort to defend himself.


    It was true that Harry was the subject of much renewed muttering and pointing in the corridors these days, yet he thought he detected a slight difference in the tone of the whisperers'' voices. They sounded curious rather than hostile now, and once or twice he was sure he overheard snatches of conversation that suggested that the speakers were not satisfied with the Prophet''s version of how and why ten Death Eaters had managed to break out of Azkaban fortress. In their confusion and fear, these doubters now seemed to be turning to the only other exnation avable to them, the one that Harry and Dumbledore had been expounding since the previous year.


    It was not only the students'' mood that had changed. It was now quitemon toe across two or three teachers conversing in low, urgent whispers in the corridors, breaking off their conversations the moment they saw students approaching.


    "They obviously can''t talk freely in the staffroom anymore," said Quinn nonchntly, as he, Eddie, and Marcus passed McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout huddled together outside the Charms ssroom one day. "Not with Umbridge there."


    "Reckon they know anything new?" said Eddie, gazing back over his


    shoulder at the three teachers.


    "If they do, we''re not going to hear about it, are we?" said Harry angrily. "Not after Decree . . . What number are we on now?"


    For new signs had appeared on the house notice boards the morning after


    news of the Azkaban breakout:


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. FORTY-NINE


    ----------- By Order Of -----------


    The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts


    Teachers are hereby banned from giving students any information that is not strictly rted to the subjects they are paid to teach.


    The above is in ordance with Educational Decree Number Forty-Nine.


    Signed:


    Dolores Jane Umbridge


    High Inquisitor


    ----------- Ministry of Magic -----------


    Thistest decree had been the subject of a great number of jokes among the students. Lee Jordan had pointed out to Umbridge that by the terms of the new rule, she was not allowed to tell Fred and George off for ying Exploding Snap in the back of the ss.


    "Exploding Snap''s got nothing to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor! That''s not information rting to your subject!"


    When Quinn next saw Lee, the back of his hand was bleeding rather severely, but the Gryffindor was smiling widely as he shook two empty potion vials ¡ª a standard care package that every Umbridge detention attendee got from Quinn.


    Many had thought that the breakout from Azkaban might have humbled Umbridge a little, that she might have been abashed at the catastrophe that had urred right under her beloved Fudge''s nose. It seemed, however, to have only intensified her furious desire to bring every aspect of life at Hogwarts under her personal control.


    She seemed determined at the very least to achieve a sacking before long ¡ª Quinn had listened on her as she toad-huffed in her office.


    Every single Divination and Care of Magical Creatures lesson was now conducted in the presence of Umbridge and her clipboard.


    She lurked by the fire in the heavily perfumed tower room, interrupting Trwney''s increasingly hysterical talks with difficult questions about Ornithomancy and Heptomology, insisting that she predict students'' answers before they gave them and demanding that she demonstrate her skill at the crystal ball, the tea leaves, and the runestones in turn.


    Umbridge even dared spend more time in Hagrid''s creature farms than any other student in Hogwarts. She braved staying close to even the stinkiest of Hagrid''s beast just so that she could maximize the harassment she could punch into Hagrid, and it seemed to work because Hagrid was oddly distracted and jumpy in lessons, losing the thread of what he was saying while talking to the ss, answering questions wrongly and ncing anxiously at Umbridge all the time ¡ª seemingly lost his nerves.


    The third one to be targeted by Umbridge''s constant hounding was Lily Potter, but Umbridge didn''t disturb Lily as she did Trwney and Hagrid ¡ª she just sat in the back of the ss and stared at Lily without saying a single word, but there was something brewing and everyone who attended the Muggle Studies ss knew that Umbridge was nning something.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    It was the end of another DA meeting, and Quinn exited the Room of Requirements, closing it behind him as his duty of the room manager. He stared at the crowd of people slowly drifting away. It waste at night, and after another session with drillmaster Quinn, everyone simply wanted to copse on their beds and go to sleep.


    "Good work, everyone. I look forward to meeting you all in the next session. Please make sure to revise and keep the magic alive," said Quinn, his voice reaching into everyone''s ears without leaking into the surrounding.


    "Come on, let''s go," said Eddie as he cracked his neck.


    "I''ve work to do," said Quinn as they walked towards the Grand Staircase.


    "work-work, or work-work?" asked Luna.


    "work-work," said Quinn.


    "Return before it''s toote," said Marcus.


    "Yes, mum."


    On the sixth floor, Quinn separated from the group and silently made his way to the entrance of the Architect''s Vault. He took out the teal ring from his pocket and slipped it on. The teal ringlet appeared on the wall, and Quinn touched the teal gem in the center of the ringlet, opening the swerving teal portal through which he effortlessly slipped in like he had done so many times.


    As soon as he entered the first room, Quinn sighed, staring at the erect pedestal ¡ª it was always up whenever he entered. It was fun a couple of times, but after that, he was sick of it.


    He conjured a floating silver disc and sat on it, his legs crossed. He was sick of all the shaking that happened while he solved the mechanism was utterly annoying.


    Quinn raised a hand and ced it on one of the pirs that held up the roof. He was about to channel some magic to kick start the process when he heard a loud gasp of surprise. Quinn froze on his silver disc and slowly turned towards the source of the human gasp, which he knew didn''te out of him.


    Quinn saw a head of red hair. She was looking at the swirling teal portal so he could only see her back, but there was no doubt in his mind about the person''s identity.


    She turned towards him with an utterly surprised expression, and Quinn''s closed his eyes, mentally preparing himself for what was about toe.


    ". . . Quinn, what is this room?" she asked.


    Quinn took a deep breath and opened his eyes to her standing before him.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Trying to keep his inner-Eddie froming out.


    Intruder - Surprised - There are a couple of options.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Well, this is how it went. Wait for the next chapter, people, before trying to break my head. Remember, patience''s the key.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 230 - Giving A Private Tour

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    For the most part, Quinn associated the vaults with quiet ¡ª except for a case or two, he had gotten used to spending hours after hours doing his work in utter silence. He had befortable in it. But after a very long time, Quinn felt that the silence was entirely ufortable ¡ª right now, he felt that the Architect''s Vault''s first room was more silent than Tehom''s Delight.


    "Quinn?" she said again.


    He stared at her nkly. His brain ran at full speed, threatening to overheat, but at the same time, it was drawing nks regarding the situation in front of him. At the same time, a small portion at the back of his head was screaming a screeching emergency signal right at him.


    Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate! Obliviate!


    But he knew that wasn''t going to be an option ¡ª not for him.


    Quinn stepped down from the silver disc, and his legs were very unhappy that they were being used. His entire body felt unhappy. For four years, he had kept this all to himself, but all that came crashing with just one person stepping through a wall.


    ''What the hell was the Architect thinking? Why doesn''t she need a ring?'' he thought. The shock and surprise of seeing her here gave way to anger about his carelessness ¡ª a detection ward at the start of the corridor outside was all it would''ve taken.


    "Ivy," there was a good pause before he continued, "I''ll be honest with you, but this reminds me of the time you broke into my office."


    Ivy Potter, the repeat intruder, stilled in surprise, remembering the aftermath of the break-in.


    "Don''t worry," said Quinn, seeing the expression on Ivy''s face, "this and that are two different situations. . . though I can''t say I''m not feeling angry," he looked around the vault, "this isn''t my property, though I''m the current challenger."


    Ivy lowered her eyes. She had followed Quinn, her curiosity getting the best of her. With hindsight, she could''ve just asked Quinn about it at ater time, but thinking about that now was worthless.


    Quinn sat down on the steps leading to the pedestal and patted the spot next to him. Ivy gingerly followed and sat beside him. Quinn didn''t speak for a good time while Ivy sat beside him, feeling a tiny bit awkward.


    He was angry and wanted to shout at Ivy about intruding on his privacy. But the shock of the vault''s existence being found made him trigger his lumency out of panic.


    In his first year, Recon was birthed in Hogwarts and became possibly the most significant breach of personal privacy that ever existed in the history of Hogwarts. Every morning Quinn had ever visited the Great Hall for breakfast, he had used Legilimency to spy on people. On multiple asions, Quinn had used audio transmitting chips to listen in on conversations. Just this year, he had nted a recording device in a person''s room (even though it was Umbridge) and broke into her office repeatedly using Recon to change the tapes.


    ''Damn lumency, dulling my hypocrisy!'' he thought.


    "I suppose you were curious?" said Quinn after calming himself down.


    Ivy nodded her head.


    "When did you find out about this?" he asked.


    "Before Christmas. You suddenly disappeared between the seventh and fifth floor, and then almost every week, you vanished after the DA meetings ended," Ivy fiddled with her finger.


    "Before Christmas?! For that long? Damn. . . no wonder you were so curious," said Quinn, "But, I''d say, Ivy, don''t just barge into ces you have no idea about with a care in the world ¡ª you might seriously get injured ¡ª Hogwarts, as you know, isn''t as safe as it''s said out to be."


    Ivy once again nodded; she had her own share of experience with dangerous rooms ¡ª the Philosopher''s Stone chambers, the Chamber of Secrets (though she was petrified), and an office upied by a protective owner. Two of three times, she had actively entered the dangerous rooms on her own ord.


    "What''s this ce?" she asked, seeing that Quinn wasn''t exceedingly angry or at least wasn''t showing it.


    Quinn turned to Ivy and stared at her.


    "W-What?" said Ivy, feeling conscious because of Quinn''s intense gaze.


    "You will have to promise not to tell anyone about it. If I am to tell you about this, you will have to promise me not to share this with anyone ¡ª not a single soul can know about the existence of this room. If you can''t give me that, I will suggest that you exit this room and pretend that it never existed."


    There was the option of kicking Ivy out without telling her anything. But curiosity killed the cat, and Ivy Potter was one curious cat.


    "I promise you I won''t tell anyone," said Ivy.


    "Alright then, don''t make me regret this," said Quinn before starting. "This is a special room, of course, as you have found through the situation, it''s hidden from the general public of Hogwarts ¡ª the Professors, the students, the house-elve, no one knows about them. . . about the Cursed Vaults."


    "Cursed Vaults?"


    "Uh-huh, Cursed Vaults, forgotten through the annals of time, only know to a select few," Quinn sported a smile, feeling proud about being this part of history. "This vault that we are standing in is made by Stigweard Gragg."


    "The Architect?" said Ivy, recalling the name instantly, "you were reading his biography ¡ª Luna brought it for you."


    "You have a good memory. Yes, I did read that. I read it because of this vault ¡ª the Architect''s Vault."


    "How did you find this ce?" asked Ivy, looking at the in room; the only thing that stood out to her was the teal portal behind her and the pedestal in front.


    "The Hufflepuff ghost, Friar, is the one who told me about it," said Quinn, "he dropped me off at a starting point for me to make my way to this room," Quinn showed Ivy his ring, "I found this ring ¡ª it''s the Architect''s ring ¡ª it led me to this room, and from October, I have beening here to this ce. . ."


    "But why? I mean, what is in here for you?" asked Ivy, looking around.


    "I don''t know," said Quinn, "I don''t know what awaits me, but I do think it will be worth the time. This was constructed by Stigweard Gragg, and he put in some effort to hide it, so I''m guessing there must be something worthwhile."


    Quinn got up from the step he was sitting on. Took out his fake wand to conjure the same silver disc he had conjured before, but this time it was big enough for two people. He turned to Ivy and extended his hand towards her.


    "Come on," he said.


    Ivy got up, held Quinn''s hand as he pulled her up on the silver disc.


    "What are you going to do?" she asked.


    "I''m going to quench your curiosity," said Quinn. He turned to the pir beside and put the wand tip on the stone to inject the magic to get the process started.


    "What do you mea¡ª"


    The entire room started to shake like an earthquake was passing by. Quinn, of course, wasn''t surprised, but the same couldn''t be said for Ivy as she "eeked" when the room started trembling, setting off some dust from the ceiling, and even though she was off the ground and couldn''t feel the quakes, the noise was enough to scare her and grabbed the nearest support she could ¡ª which happened to Quinn.


    "Woah," eximed Quinn as he reflexively wrapped his free arm around Ivy as she grabbed onto him.


    "What is happening?!" yelled Ivy loudly, her grip tightening, "Is the room going to copse?! Are we going to die?!"


    "What? No, of course not."


    But Ivy seemed not to listen as she clutched into a death hold and showed no signs of leaving him. All Quinn could do was leave her be and continue solving the mechanism.


    After the shaking stopped, the pedestalpletely sunk in, and the archway staircase revealed that Quinn breathed out a sigh and looked at Ivy. She didn''t seem cognizant of the fact that the shaking had stopped and was still holding on to him.


    She''s cute, a thought passed through Quinn''s mind as he gazed at her.


    "Ivy. . . Ivy, it''s over," he said.


    Prompted by her name being called, Ivy finally opened her eyes and cautiously/doubtfully looked around, and everything had indeed stopped shaking. Then realized her position, and her heart skipped a beat as she forced down the red froming up on her face. Her finger loosened the hold on Quinn''s shirt, but she didn''t step away from him. . . or to be more urate, she couldn''t.


    "Uhm. . . you hand," she said.


    "My hand?" Quinn looked at his left arm, and to his surprise, his left arm was wrapped around Ivy''s waist. "Oh! I''m sorry." Quinn immediately removed his hand from Ivy, and she took a small step away from him.


    Quinn lowered the silver disc to the ground, and both stepped off.


    Wanting to quickly move on, Quinn directed Ivy''s attention to the changes in the room. "Well, what do you think?" he said.


    Ivy took her eyes off the ground and too pushed the thoughts about the closeness to Quinn away for ater time and gazed around the room.


    "That thing in the middle is gone," she said and then pointed at the revealed staircase. "That wasn''t there before! What''s in there?" She sounded like an excited child.


    "How about we go and check it out."


    Both of them reached the staircase, and with a wave of Quinn''s fake wand, the entire staircase lit up.


    "Isn''t this cool?" said Quinn.


    "How did this appear?" asked Ivy. "Why did the room shake?"


    "It would be better if I show you," said Quinn, "I''ll be casting a little magic on you, alright?"


    When he got the permission, Quinn cast illusion magic on Ivy and showed her what he could see through his Earth sense.


    "W-Wow!" Ivy could suddenly see the entire mechanism that was inside the vault walls. "This is. . . wow ¡ª what magic you''re using?"


    "I''m using illusion magic. The entire vault room is a safe that needs to be solved to reveal this hidden doorway. All the shaking was the parts being moved around," said Quinn in exnation and then went into a bit of detail.


    "Now, how about we go to the next room," said Quinn.


    Maybe it was because Quinn finally had someone to share the vaults with that he was feeling more loose-lipped than usual and told Ivy about the bits and pieces of knowledge that he learned while learning Earth magic and things about the Architect he had read.


    In the second room of the Architect''s vault, Quinn once again sent out hundreds of light orbs into the air and to every corner to light up the enormous space.


    "Wee to what I like to call ¡ª Cuboidal Creation," said Quinn. He had also named the first room the "Hidden Lock."


    "Cuboidal Creation?" asked Ivy.


    "Yes,e on, let me show you what this room is all about."


    Quinn led Ivy to the edge, looking down at the chasm.


    "There are two ways we can do this," said Quinn, "we can go down slow on a silver-disc like before, or we can go down the fun way."


    "The fun way," said Ivy immediately.


    Quinn looked at Ivy approvingly. "Excellent, that''s spirited. Life''s all about having fun. I like your style, Ivy Potter. . . so don''t me me."


    "me you, why? ¡ª Aaaaah!!!" Quinn grabbed Ivy by her hands and pulled her along as he stepped off the edge and down.


    Both fell down, with Ivy screaming while her mind out while Quinn grinned as he watched her while falling. Near the end, Quinn used Arresto Momentum on himself and Ivy tond them neatly on the ground. Ivy''s knees, though, weren''t in agreement. She copsed on the floor, heaving because of the shock.


    The redhead red up at Quinn, "That wasn''t fun! You could''ve given me a warning or. . . or ¡ª ugh!" She stood up and hit Quinn on his shoulder as hard as she could.


    "Sorry, sorry!" Quinnughed.


    After Ivy calmed down, she looked at theparison apparatus in the middle of the chasm and a cube sticking out of the floor (he had already cleared out the wall cubes). Unlike the first room, the things in the second room didn''t reset every time he exited.


    "The objective of this room is to create replicas of the shape that the room asks for," said Quinn, "you see the cube sticking out of the wall, I need to take material out of it and. . . that strange shape on the small stand, yeah that one, I need to make an exact replica down to the smallest millimeter."


    "Can I try?" asked Ivy.


    "Sure, let''s see. . ." Quinn looked around for a material cube with an easy-to-mold material. He pulled two lumps out of one of the cubes and shaped one into a simple cube before cing both the cube and the lump on the ground.


    "Shape the lump into the cube," said Quinn while sitting next to the cube and the lump.


    Ivy sat down on the ground and took out her wand. She observed the objects in front of her with intent, intelligence shing in her eyes.


    While Transmutation wasn''t exclusively taught in Hogwarts, magic disciplines often intersected ¡ª Transfiguration had plenty of simrities with Transmutation, so the task to shape the lump of rock into a shape shouldn''t be difficult for Ivy.


    Quinn silently sighed. The replication task was easy enough, and anyone with decent skill could do it, but it wouldn''t be a vault without a twist thrown in.


    ''The material cubes are getting tougher,'' he thought.


    Every cube in the room was made from a different stone. Every sessive cube had something different from the previous one, and after going through dozens after dozens of cubes, the materials were bing stranger, more difficult to mold, trickier to manipte ¡ª Quinn had even started to suspect there was an alchemist behind the creation of these cubes.


    Not only that, the shapes were getting tricker. There were multiple angles, oddly shaped faces, edges that suddenly flowed into curves.


    ''Thetest one even had pockets of air inside. Internals are no longer going to bepletely solid, aren''t they?'' If Quinn''s prediction were toe true, then the task''s difficulty would rocket up abruptly and keep on rising as the internal structure continued to change.


    ''Let''s see who''s better, eh, Architect,'' thought Quinn, hispetitive side raising its head against a dead man.


    "I''m done."


    Quinn left his thoughts behind. Sitting in front of him were two cubes.


    "Hmm. . . let''s see how you did." Quinn picked up the cubes and inserted his magic into the cubes ¡ª he could see what Ivy had done; it was methodical and both practically and theoretically sound.


    "Ivy Potter. . . you know how to apply yourself. . . this is perfect," said Quinn, "there''s not a single ounce of Transfiguration in here, nothing temporary, this cube is entirely in a stable state. . . well done."


    Quinn smiled heartedly. The fact that she could eliminate Transfiguration outpletely in a task that she was just given was proof of sound conceptual knowledge.


    "So, can I help you here?" This was her chance to spend more time with Quinn. Hermione had told her about what Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Bebly thought about Quinn, and she knew Daphne liked Quinn ¡ª so if she was able to spend time with Quinn, here in a ce that seemed to be a tightly held secret, it would allow her to be closer to Quinn.


    "No." The answer was prompt, concise, and straightforward. "The reason I told you about this is that I wanted to satisfy your curiosity and make you leave ¡ª the Cursed Vaults are close to my hearts; they''re special to me, and I don''t want that to change ¡ª allowing you would change that. . .So I''m sorry, but you can''t be here."


    Ivy pursed her lips and sighed. At least, she tried.


    "But how about this?" said Quinn; he was feeling generous. "If it''s possible, then I''ll bring you to the end of the Architect''s Vault. I''m willing to share the end with you, and let me tell you, the end''s the best."


    The two gazed at each other.


    "Alright, I''ll take that. But you better show it to me," said Ivy with an appreciative smile.


    Soon after that, Quinn led Ivy out of the vault and decided to leave for the night. It waste at night, and Ivy didn''t have the Marauder''s Map with her, so Quinn escorted her to the Gryffindor Tower.


    "You said Cursed Vaults. Do you mean that there are more than one?"


    "Yes, there are four more ¡ª five in total."


    "Wait, don''t tell me that all thete nights that you do are because of these vaults? What are the other vaults? Are they made by the Founders?"


    They finally reached the hallway just outside the Fat Lady''s portrait.


    "That''s a tale for another time, Ivy," said Quinnughing, "maybe some other day, I''ll tell you about them ¡ª maybe after Iplete all of them. . . all five of them," his tone turning a tinge serious at the end.


    "Deal!" said Ivy, half-dapping(pping) Quinn''s hand and then ran towards the Fat Lady''s portrait without awaiting Quinn''s reply.


    ". . . that wasn''t a deal," said Quinn, having been left alone to stare at his hand.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Huh, sharing actually felt good.


    Ivy Potter - Shot her shot - I got a deal; it''s final, no takebacks.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Thinking about the future.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 231 - DA Files: The Force Of Emotions

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Good evening, everyone. Please gather around so we can get started," said Quinn, addressing the DA crowd gathered in the Room of Requirements.


    It had been a few months since DA had begun its sessions, and the learning activities were now in full swings ¡ª every attending member had assimted the sessions and their "homework/self-study" into their regr routines leading to a peak learning environment ¡ª it helped that Quinn had created apetitive environment to motivate learning (through one-up-ing the others.)


    "What''re we going to learn today? Revealers? Wards, or maybe something that hinders the opponent ¡ª like the Anti-Disapparition Jinx." The usually disciplined Hermione Granger sounded like a child hopped on sugar left to y in an amusement park.


    Quinn smiled, "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Hermione."


    Hermione blushed a bit out of embarrassment.


    "But today, we''re going to examine something that would allow you to defend yourself. Defensive spells. That''s what we''re going to tackle today. The art of protecting yourself ¡ª it may be when you are off-bnce; when your opponent attacked first trying to the initiative, at times you can''t dodge, or whenever in the myriads of possibilities that you might need to stop an iing attack.


    "Duels are short ordeals. When a spell hits, it gets tricky to recuperate using your own magic quickly enough, and that too in the heat of battle. So the objective of defensive spells is to protect yourself at all times and note in contact with spells or any harmful object."


    A decent bone-breaking spell could fracture a vital bone like the femur(in the thigh) or fib and tibia (in the lower leg) enough to hinder mobility leading to a vulnerable position until they could be mended back ¡ª that duration of injury could be converted into defeat(or death) by an opportunistic opponent.


    "We''ll be starting with the standard Shield charm, Protego." He shed his fake wand, and an invisible barrier rippled in the air. "A versatile spell that can be used in a multitude of situations ¡ª everywhere from a spell to physical objects ¡ª this will be a first in the series of defensive spells."


    Quinnzily waved his fake wand, and the names of DA members appeared in the air, every name paired with another ¡ª after the Theodore Nott incident, Quinn had taken up to himself to form pairs that would facilitate learning at a higher pace.


    "One will cast the Shield charm, and the other will cast a Disarming spell. Then both will switch sides. After you think that you''refortable blocking a Disarming spell, change spells and switch it up to introduce some diversity of experience."


    As everyone shuffled to their pair, a single nervous hand went up from the group.


    "Uhm, sorry. . . I''m not paired with anyone."


    Quinn nodded, "I know Neville. You will be practicing with me today."


    Everyone halted their actions in surprise and turned their heads to look at the pair. Generally, Quinn would go around the room giving out pointers or sit in a corner doing his things, but not once had Quinn paired with anyone during a DA session.


    Neville gripped his wand tightly in both hands near his chest: "M-Me?"


    "Yes, Neville, you. Nowe one, let''s not waste time and get started," said Quinn. "Also, before every get''s started! Please, gather around; I have one extra piece of advice I want to share," he said to the crowd.


    The DA members formed a circle around Quinn and Neville, who faced each other, wands ready.


    "I''m going to share a personal tip with all of you. It has served me well when I cast defensive magic," said Quinn. "Neville, would you give me your best Reductor, please," he smiled.


    Neville gulped. "Reductor. . . but you said that we aren''t allowed to use lethal spells against each other," his voice trailed at the end.


    "There''s no reason to be nervous, Neville. In fact, good job bringing up the rule," said Quinn. "But, I need a Reductor for me to demonstrate the Protego. I assure you, it''ll not hurt me. You can believe me, Neville."


    Neville licked his lips. He wasn''t sure about it. Neville wasn''t feelingfortable pointing his wand at a friend while arming it with a lethal spell.


    He touched his forearm where the Gryffindormon room password was written in magical ink; for years, Quinn had been helping him with the passwords; every week, he would go to the AID office, and Quinn would update the ink.


    But then he saw the confident smile on Quinn''s face. There was no doubt that Quinn was better at magic than him. He clenched his jaw and nodded after a deep breath.


    "I''ll do it," he said.


    Quinn beamed. He raised his wand, and a Protego shield rippled into existence. "Let out everything you got, Neville."


    Neville slowly raised his wand and carefully aimed his wand at Quinn. He nced behind Quinn, and it was of assurance that everyone had their wands out. If he messed up, they would be ready to defend themselves.


    Please, don''t mess up, Neville thought ¡ª "Reducto!" ¡ª A blue spell-light thrummed out his wand and zapped towards Quinn, who didn''t even flinch in the face of a that could blow apart his body.


    The blue zap banged against Quinn''s Protego, and the entire barrier rippled into sight. Neville held his breath as a bead of sweat trickled down his temple. Contrary to his worries, despite the wild rippling, the barrier remained intact and ousted his Reducto, standing strong even after the blue spell-light fizzled out of existence.


    "Now, that wasn''t bad, was it?" said Quinn smiling.


    Neville hurriedly nodded. He felt his racing heart calm down.


    "That''s what a good Protego spell can do," Quinn spoke to the crowd. "Now, time for the tip I used to face Neville''s Reductor," everyone perked up their ears, "I used the emotion of determination to power up my Protego."


    Many confused expressions and head-tilts emerged in the crowd.


    "Do you remember how I told you that emotion is an essential part of magic, and how any spell''s quality can be benefited by applying an emotion or a mix of them ¡ª the question is to identify the emotion that would help, figure out an experience or memory to evoke that emotion, and finally properly channel it in your magic."


    Quinn had preached the importance of emotion a lot, though most people here didn''tprehend the role of emotion in spells. He turned to the one person in the room who he knew understood and had applied sentiment to their magic.


    "Harry, tell me what you think when casting a Patronus charm?" he asked.


    Harry wasn''t expecting to be called out all of a sudden. Admittedly, he had only been paying half attention to what Quinn was saying ¡ª his Protego was spell was excellent, he thought.


    "Er, I think of happy memories."


    ". . . I was expecting more detail, but okay," said Quinn, "the secret behind Patronus charm is the feeling of happiness ¡ª the happier the memory, the better the charm would work ¡ª we will learn more about this when we tackle the spell inter sessions. For the Shield charm and the majority of defensive spells, you need to think of memories that would evoke emotions like determination, perseverance, stubbornness, defiance!


    "For example, if you have a memory of you were stubborn about aplishing something and saw through your objective to the end. Maybe your parents, rtives, friends said that you wouldn''t be able to do something, but you proved them wrong and stuck it to their faces," that one raised a lot of heads, "memories like these will help you cast a stronger shield that would stand firm against even the strongest of spells.


    "Think about such memories. Dive deep to find them, and your defensive spells would be able to withstand more beating,st longer, and even be easier to cast," Quinn finished passionately.


    He dismissed everyone and was about to start up with Neville when he heard.


    "What do you use?"


    Quinn and many others turned to the speaker, seeing that it was Daphne who had raised the question.


    "What do you mean?" asked Quinn.


    "What do emotion or memory do you use?"


    Quinn cleared his throat and sighed deeply before taking up the question. "A couple of years back, I encountered a problem; I think it was the greatest problem of my life at that time and maybe to this day," losing his magic was the worst time of his life, and the summer break he spent regaining it was his greatest show of struggle from him, "I spent an entire summer break trying to solve that problem ¡ª be it either day or night, I was constantly working on it," he gazed at Daphne, "I imagined that while facing Neville''s Reducto."


    Everyone felt the seriousness in Quinn''s voice. For many of them, it was the first time they had seen him like this. Different from his familiar jolly self. Those close to Quinn were curious about what he was talking about.


    "Though I don''t use those emotions anymore," said Quinn nonchntly as everyone was turning away.


    Everyone halted. They once again turned towards Quinn.


    "Then what do you use?" asked Daphne again. If he didn''t use that memory, why did he answer the question with it, and why did he give them the advice if he himself did not use it.


    "Ah, don''t get me wrong," said Quinn, noticing everyone''s expression, "there was a time I used emotions like determination and stubbornness; there''s nothing wrong with them; I just don''t use them anymore, that''s it."


    ". . . you didn''t answer the question."


    "Don''t worry about it," he didn''t want to say.


    "Out with it!" Eddie shouted from the crowd.


    "I will tell, but don''t try to copy me." Quinn looked at everyone and said, "I use fear as my emotion of choice while casting defensive magic."


    "Fear?" asked Daphne.


    Quinn nodded. "Fear is a natural, powerful, and primitive human emotion. Fear alerts us to the presence of danger or the threat of harm. It''s what teaches us what''s dangerous and what''s not. A baby who touches a candle me and gets burned will never touch it again because they know it''ll hurt and form a fear of that action.


    "Why do we block or dodge spells? It''s because we know that they will cause harm to us, so we avoid it. Spells like a Pinching hex might not inspire fear, but I have developed my mind to think what it would feel like if a hundred Pinching hex attacked me at the same. I''m able to think what it would feel like what a spell hitting me would feel like when it''s dialled up to eleven. I taste the fear and will do anything to avoid it ¡ª my magic while feeling fear would go above and beyond when I''m in danger."


    It was a revtion while Quinn was using the summer break when he lost magic to charge his defensive magic. He had noticed that there was another emotion attached to those memories ¡ª it being fear ¡ª and Quinn was subconsciously drawing from the emotion of fear, and it was giving a substantial boost. Previously, determination was the primary, and fear was the subconscious secondary emotion. After the realization stuck, Quinn switched it up ¡ª fear became the primary emotion, and because it was a "dark" emotion, Quinn used determination as the secondary and the emotion that kept fear in check. The result of the experiment was a major boost to power for his defensive spells.


    And that was precisely the reason why he didn''t want to share this with everyone.


    "Don''t use fear!" said Quinn, warning. "Fear, while powerful, can cause an internal copse at difficult situations when pressure is at peak. Magic and emotion are vtile and tricky to manipte, so I repeat that none of you attempt to use fear as the force behind your magic. The emotions I mentioned before have their own specialties and are much more stable than fear. Moreover, after a certain level, channelling fear doesn''t feel pleasant; the aftermath more often than not ends up pushing you feeling all worked up."


    It had taken a while for even Quinn to not let the fear dominate him in the aftereffect.


    Quinn warned a couple more times before starting with Neville. They followed the same defense-offense system as others, with Quinn shooting Disarming charms just strong enough to challenge Neville but not enough to overwhelm.


    "So, Neville, you have been doing good for the past few weeks," said Quinn after Neville blocked a shot, "you have had the best improvement than anyone else," Neville flushed red a little, on inside he was feeling like his delight would fly him out of the room, that is until Quinn said, "that is ever since Betrix Lestrange escaped Azkaban."


    Neville froze up. The fresh shield he had brought up copsed of the shock and daze.


    Neville looked around to see if anyone had heard. "W-What?"


    "You don''t have to worry about anyone listening in. I have cast a silencing ward around us for this conversation," spoke Quinn. "I noticed the name Longbottom while reading upon Betrix Lestrange, and after a search in the archives, I found that Frank and Alice Longbottom were your parents."


    "I don''t want to talk about it," said Neville in a surprisingly determined voice and cast Shield charm, which was immediately met by a Disarming spell from Quinn.


    "I don''t want to talk about your parents, Neville," said Quinn, "the reason I bring this up is that it''s rted to your sudden boost in magical improvement."


    Neville stared at Quinn skeptically. He searched for something on Quinn''s face.


    "When we started DA, I noticed that your wand wasn''tpatible with you," said Quinn, "thepatibility factor was terrible, and when I asked around, I found out that you always had trouble with magic," Neville looked ufortable, "it''s not your wand, is it, Neville?"


    Quinn already knew the backstory, but he needed to weave it up to proceed with the conversation.


    Neville stared down at the wand in his hands. "It''s my father''s."


    "Hmm, I figured. That wand''s the reason why you struggled with magic, Neville."


    "W-What do you mean?" said Neville; it was the first time he was hearing this.


    "The wand chooses the wizard, Neville. You can''t just pick up any wand and make it work. A magical and his magical focus needs to be sync for the magical to be able to bring out its magic to the fullest."


    The truth of the matter was that in a person''s life, they went to get themselves a wand at the age of eleven. Quinn wasn''t sure about others, but if one went to Ollivanders, they would be told about the "the wand chooses the wizard," saying. . . but that was it. Once in their lives, people heard that saying, maybe twice if they went in for another wand in their lives.


    No usual person would be expected to remember a single event in their lives that happened when they were at the tender age of eleven. By the time people grew up, they would forget about the saying from the strange wand shop owner. Moreover, it was a severe vition ofmon ce manners to ask for people''s wands.


    So while everyone brought their children new wands because it was expected to do, not everyone knew why new ones were brought except for wanting their children to have new ones.


    That''s why it wasn''t strange that Augusta Longbottom, Neville''s grandmother, the olddy, would remember the reason behind buying wands;bining that with the sentiment, had Frank Longbottom''s wand end up in Neville''s hands.


    "Your father''s wand wasn''tpatible with you, and for four and half years, your magic didn''t channel properly. That''s the reason why you have been struggling with magic ever sinceing to Hogwarts."


    Neville remained rooted to his spot. He had thought he was terrible at magic for his entire life because something was wrong with him. Not only him, but everybody else felt the same. His grand-uncle had to drop him off from the top of the stairs just to bring out his magic. But here he was hearing Quinn West saying that it wasn''t his fault, but his wand''s.


    "B-But, y-you just said that I was doing good."


    "Wands areplex magical artifacts. Just as wands can fall out of sync with their users, they can also form bonds with those they previously rejected," said Quinn. He pointed at Frank/Neville''s wand, "that wand, from what I can tell is made from Ashwood, and Ash wands are known to cleave to their one true master and ought not to be passed on or to be gifted from the original owner, because they will lose power and skill. The wand rejected you previously is now epting you and is finally conducting your magic perfectly."


    "Why now?"


    "Tell me, how did you feel about the breakout, or to be exact, how did you feel about Betrix Lestrange''s escape?"


    The mention of the name made Neville''s blood boil. That vile woman had turned his mother and father into what they were today. He had spent his entire life seeingplete family; people his age spending time with his family, and all he had were parents driven to madness. It always made him wonder what it would be like.


    "I hate that vermin," said Neville acidly. He wanted nothing more but to take revenge against Betrix Lestrange for ruining his life.


    "You have gained a goal, Neville, and with ite has a resolution. The wands liked it and had offered you its support."


    Neville clenched at the Ash wand with the unicorn core. The wand was the constant reminder of what a failure he was. It reminded him of his grandmother''s disappointment and how he had let his parents down. It felt him conflicted ¡ª the wand was the reason for his struggles, but now it supported him because he wanted to kill her parent''s assant.


    "Let''s continue," said Neville. He didn''t want to continue this topic.


    Quinn obliged and shot a Disarming spell on Neville''s Shield charm. The shield was substantially stronger than before ¡ª focus and deep determination were being amply channeled through the spell.


    ''Take advantage of it, Neville,'' thought Quinn, ''the wand will be the best conductor for you, and when the dayes that Betrix Lestrange dies and your goal aplished, that wand will fall out of sync with you.''


    The correct thing to do would be to urge Neville to buy himself a new wand. But right now, the wand in Neville''s hands was a constant reminder that it wasn''t his fault. It reminded him of the wrongful humiliation he suffered. Those emotions would keep Neville in focus and keep him motivated to keep improving to prove everything wrong.


    Determination, perseverance, and defiance were powerful emotions after all.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Good. . . good. . . let the hate flow through you.


    Neville Longbottom - To everyone - "I find yourck of faith disturbing."


    Neville Longbottom''s wand - Ashwood and unicorn - What is thy bidding, my master.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 232 - Date Time, Surprise Visit

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Architect''s vault second room, Cuboidal Creation, had exceeded Quinn''s expectations of the amount he thought it would take to go through all the material cubes. Before he knew it was already, February had walked to the end of its second week, bringing with it wetter and warmer weather. Quinn''s gut told him that he was already behind schedule despite not knowing the vault''s contents.


    Quinn gazed at his Friday pocket watch; it was already half past six in the evening. He had justpleted all his work and delivered on his scheduledmitments so that he could free up the weekend and spend time in the Arhictect''s vault for two days and grind thest leg of the second room and proceed to the next stage of the vault.


    He snapped the cover close on the watch. "Another half-hour, then I close up."


    With nothing to do, Quinn decided to do some work on AID''s ounting. Making a profit was never Quinn''s motive when he had set up, but in the few years of operations, AID had been able to very narrow margin (almost negligible) of profit from serving the needful students of Hogwarts with their problems. Quinn would''ve seen more gains if not for his ''favor exchange policy, but that policy had given returns other than mary ones. The other reason behind AID just only breakeven most months was the operating expenses required to run AID. In particr, the coin that was needed to keep the AID workshop fully equipped with herbs, other potion ingredients, rune supplies, among the various other things that Quinn and Luna (mostly the former) went through regrly.


    It was because of Quinn''s meticulous ounting skills and financial sense that he hadn''t needed to borrow from his personal funds. asions such as paying Ludo Bagman''s debt to goblins were a few exceptions when Quinn had used his own funds.


    ''At this rate, February''s going to end up in red,'' noted Quinn. But he wasn''t worried; AID would make for all its losses from March onwards with the AID-notes series ¡ª they were bestsellers since the first release years.


    Time ticked away, and after another time check, only ten minutes remained to seven, so Quinn got up to pack things up for the day, but just as he was about to enter the workshop to do the end of the day Scouring spell, the detection ward outside his door triggered a bell in his mind.


    Three people. Quinn stared at the front door with his hand at the handle of the red workshop door. He waited, waited, and waited ¡ª for two minutes, the people outside didn''t enter the office.


    Quinn shrugged. If they didn''t want toe in, then he wasn''t going to wait. However, the second he pushed the workshop door open, the door chime rang like a mosquito buzzing near the ear. Quinn heaved a sigh and turned to be surprised by the sight of Daphne standing at the threshold; behind her, Tracey pumped her brows with a grin in greeting when their eyes met, with Astoria standing on her tip-toes, trying to peek over Daphne''s shoulder.


    "Hey, you three¡ª"


    Daphne closed the door leaving Tracey and Astoria outside. The brief gaze Daphne shared with them before closing the door told that the other two had no intention to apany Daphne inside.


    "Why did they stay outside? Aren''t theying in?"


    Daphne took a deep breath, then turned away from the towards Quinn. "I''ve something talk about. . . alone."


    "What is it?" said Quinn, swiftly moving back to his barstool. It must be something serious, he thought.


    Daphne gracefully sat herself down on the chair opposite Quinn. She straightened the pleats on her skirt. The Slytherin hadn''t matched eyes with Quinn once since entering the room.


    She mustered the courage and spoke up. "The outing to Hogsmeade is on Sunday."


    Quinn nodded. The second Hogsmeade weekend was scheduled to fall on this Sunday. He wasn''t going this time ¡ª this weekend, he was to spend his time alone with a room full of burdensome stones.


    "I was wondering if you would visit the vige with me."


    "Is there something wrong, Daphne?" said Quinn; it was so unlike her to be fidgeting with her hands while speaking. "Is there something bothering you? Please don''t be hesitant and share what seems to be the trouble. Is there a problem? Is that why you''re asking me to apany you to the vige?"


    Daphne finally looked up towards Quinn. He was usually sharp as a tack, so why couldn''t he understand something so simple. Would she need to be blunt as Tracey had asked her to be?


    "Daphne?"


    "I am asking if you would go on a date with me this Sunday on Fourteenth of February," she said as direct as her heart would allow ¡ª mother magic, she did it!


    Quinn froze up in his chair. His mind seemed to kick up like a sputtering motor. Hogsmeade weekend. Outing. Fourteenth of February. . . a date on Valentine''s Day.


    "O-Oh." The moment that slipped out of his mouth, Quinn''s mental status took a tight mental p from itself.


    Daphne didn''t take that surprised slip as discouragement and recognized for it was. She decided to push forward. "Would you?" she asked.


    But Quinn wasn''t one to be pushed into an answer. He rxed his tensed hands on the table and joined his hands, intercrossing his fingers. Daphne also seemed to be riding the wave of her mustered courage and hadn''t removed her eye from Quinn.


    Both stared at each other for a few seconds to realize that it was a bit bashful to stare into each other''s eyes after the exchange they just had and turned away from the other''s gaze at the same time.


    The ticking of the wall clock behind Quinn filled the room, stewing in a spell of awkward silence. Daphne''s question had pushed the ball was in Quinn''s hand; he was to break this silence.


    He looked at her, and a flurry of thoughts shed through his head. It was as if someone had opened every memory book in his mind with even the slightest mention of the girl sitting opposite him.


    He had known her for several years. From the very first day on the Hogwarts Express, she had been so quiet and cold that day. He recalled the day he had seen her smile for the first time, recalled the asional giggle he had stolen from her. Her worried expression shining in the moonlight when she grilled him about Astoria''s cure. The many conversations he had with her. The times he had danced with her. The many hours he had spent with her discussing and teaching her magic. His thoughts went back to thest year and how she had looked in the ck dressing-gown on the Yuletide ball; she catching his eye as she danced with the Bulgarian meathead, and one different decision would have him escorting her.


    It seemed that his weekend ns needed to be changed.


    "I''ll be delighted," his soft voice made her blue eyes look at him, "to visit the vige with you this Sunday," he smiled softly, "it''s a date."


    Daphne stared with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. She hade here hoping the worst ¡ª that Quinn would reject her and maybe ruin her friendship with him, but afterst year, Daphne had to try ¡ª she couldn''t give up because of her fear without giving it a chance.


    Now Daphne was d that she asked. She had wanted something, and she got it.


    She nodded as if Quinn''s answer was expected. "I''ll meet you in the Entrance hall on Sunday."


    "I''ll be waiting for it patiently," Quinn smiled.


    . . .


    Outside, Tracey and Astoria waited for Daphne toe out, hopefully with good news. Both were feeling a worry for Daphne ¡ª Tracey tapped her foot against the floor as she kept her eye trained on the office door, while Astoria couldn''t stay still and was pacing the corridor.


    "What if he refuses?" said Astoria,ing to a screeching halt in front of Tracey. "What if he already has a date? We didn''t know until veryte that he was going with Dcourst year. What if he''s going with someone else, and we don''t know about it; what would happen then?"


    "I asked Eddie," said Tracey, "he said that Quinn hadn''t said anything."


    "Didn''t he also not knowst year? It could be the same this year."


    Tracey had no answers to that. Even though she had asked Eddie if Quinn had ns, she had stressed that he was not to poke or chance an answer out of Quinn ¡ª Eddie Carmichael wasn''t the subtlest of people.


    "Let''s just trust Daphne. She''lle out with good news, I know it."


    Astoria bit her thumbnail and resumed her nervous pacing. All this talking had just amped her worries more ¡ª she didn''t want her sister to be heartbroken ¡ª neither did she want to pin the me on Quinn if it did happen.


    The door jingled open, and out came Daphne, looking the same she did every day. Tracey and Astoria all but rushed towards her but pressed the breaks when they saw Quinn step out as well.


    "Right, well, that''s settled then," Quinn said, and Daphne nodded. He turned to Tracey and Astoria and waved once before gently closing the door, leaving the three girls behind.


    Tracey and Astoria stared at Daphne, who began walking wordlessly, not giving them an answer.


    "Dear sister, why are you just walking away? Please use that mouth of yours to speak something; it''s not for decoration!"


    "Daph? Daphne? Greengrass! You answer me, what happened in there? Did you chicken and not tell him; don''t you dare tell me that is what happened."


    Daphne stopped and twirled on the balls of her feet, her hair, robes, and skirt lifting just a bit. Tracey and Astoria halted ¡ª Daphne Greengrass never twirled.


    The two girls got their answer in the form of the brightest smile capable of melting from the Ice Queen.


    . . .


    Eddie was gazing at his bed with furrowed brows when he heard climbing steps. He could tell from the sound that it was Quinn.


    "Quinn, help your mate out, will ya?" he said without looking back.


    As he expected, it was indeed Quinn: "With what?''


    Eddie lifted the two jumpers from his bed and turned towards Quinn, who was cing his book bag at his study table. "Which one should I wear on Sunday? I have a Valentine''s day date with Tracey, we are going to the vige. This one, on the right, or the one on the left. I like them both, they are my favorites, but I can''t seem to decide between one ¡ª what do you think?"


    Quinn looked at the two options: The one on the right was ck with a white-cor. The left one was also ck ¡ª instead of a white cor, it had a white stripe on the side pockets. He looked at Eddie; he had changed into his casuals after Quidditch practice; lo and behold, he was covered in all ck from head to toe.


    "The white and yellow one you got on your birthday, the one that your mum sent."


    Eddie''s shoulders slumped. He looked at the jumpers in his hands ¡ª what was wrong with them? He looked excellent in both of them.


    "What are you and Marcus going to do on Sunday?" said Eddie as he stuffed the jumpers into his cupboard. "I won''t be with you guys," he added smugly.


    "I have a date. I don''t know what Marcus will be doing."


    "Is that so¡ª"


    The white-and-yellow jumper slipped out of Eddie''s hands. He turned towards Quinn ¡ª ''No fucking way,'' he muttered his breath.


    "Say that again," said Eddie, "what do you have on Sunday?"


    "I have a date," Quinn leaned back against the study table. Rxed. His hands rested on the tabletop at his sides.


    Eddie closed the distance between them briskly and gripped Quinn''s arm. "With who?" his gaze incredulous.


    "Daphne"


    "Greengrass?"


    "I don''t think there''s another one."


    "You asked?"


    "No, she did."


    "You epted?"


    "Yes, thus the date."


    "On Valentine''s day."


    "Yes."


    Another series of steps climbing sounded as Marcus entered the room with a small huff. He shuffled to his study table and hung his book bag on a hook attached to the table''s side.


    "This week was a bit hectic, don''t you think?" said Marcus. "Too many submissions; we even got a new set of assignments. I really want a rxed weekend. What''s wrong with you?" He asked looking at Eddie, looking strangely serene.


    "On Sunday, many will cry, and then they will mourn," said Eddie, prophesizing.


    "Don''t exaggerate," said Quinn.


    "I''m confused. What are we talking about?" asked Marcus. He sat down on his bed.


    "He''s got a date."


    "What?!" Marcus all but flew off his bed. "Who? When? Why?" he asked.


    "Daphne. Valentine''s day. She asked he epted."


    Marcus gripped the hair on the top of his head and smacked his lips. "A calm weekend, yeah right, that''s not going to happen."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Seeing that a chunk of Quinn''s time was to be subverted to spend time on a date, Quinn entered the Architect''s vault early in the morning, before breakfast was served. He packed three meals and other supplies for the entire day so that he wouldn''t need to emerge until he was satisfied with his work done, and if he was required, Luna was there as the point of contact. He had even made sure that those with detention with Umbridge had their doses of potions packed in unbreakable vials and just to be needlessly sure he had changed the tapes in her office.


    It just turned out that when Quinn was in the flow of things, cut from the outside world, some guests decided to visit Hogwarts on an impromptu visit.


    Dumbledore sat in his office, working on various school-rted tasks that needed to be taken care of. He sighed as he picked up another report; there were so many of them. He had been too busy with outside matters ¡ª work had piled up in his absence.


    He lightly raised his hand, and a lemon drop from a nearby ss ornated dish rose up and flew between his index finger and thumb. Dumbledore popped the lemon drop into his mouth as his aged eyes read from behind his half-moon sses.


    "As expected, nothing beats a lemon drop," smiled Dumbledore from behind his long beard.


    "Someone''s at your door."


    Dumbledore nced at the portrait of a past headmistress before gazing at the entrance to his office. They wouldn''t speak if it was someone from within the school, so it was someone from outside.


    To enter the headmaster''s office, one had to speak the password to the stone gargoyle that would remove its wings from the way. After that, a wall behind the gargoyle would split open to reveal a stone staircase that led to a door with a griffin knocker that would finally open to his office.


    He could hear the gritting stone noise of the wall splitting and the faint steps from the staircase. Dumbledore expected a knock on his door (which was there for his privacy), but contrary to his expectations, the door flew open.


    The guests were people he wasn''t expecting today.


    "Professor Umbridge," Dumbledore looked at herpanion, "Cornelius, to what do I owe this pleasure?"


    Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, dressed in his parent green suit with a bowler hat on top, entered the Hogwart''s headmaster''s office with his eyes narrowed, squinting, and frowning as he gazed around the office furtively.


    Thest one to enter the office were two Aurors ¡ª both part of the Minister''s detail. They stationed themselves on either side of the door like guards.


    "Dumbledore," said Fudge, his lips pressing into a white sh. "How have you been?"


    Dumbledore sat behind his desk, his expression serene, the tips of his long fingers together. "I have been well, Cornelius." He watched Fudge pace his office. "What seems to be the matter, Cornelius. You seem to be stressed."


    "You know exactly why!" said Fudge pointedly.


    "I am not sure, I understand."


    Fudge mmed his hands on Dumbledore''s desk. "I''m talking about the mass breakout in Azkaban! You''re using it to spread lies about the Dark Lord''s return! I want you to stop it immediately!"


    "I assure you, Cornelius, but I haven''t said a word of lie."


    "Stop pretending, Dumbledore!" said Fudge, his pasty white skin turning red. "I know you''re behind all the articles! I want them to stop, so make them stop!"


    Ever since the Azkaban breakout, the public''s view had changed. It would''ve been fine if the Ministry would''ve provided a legitimate theory behind the escape, but their official statement was full of holes, and the public could see those holes as clear as the sun in the clear noon sky. So, they turned to the next reasonable exnation, which was Dumbledore and Harry''s version of the story.


    The Ministry had suffered a massive dip in approval ratings, and in direct-corrtion, it showed in Wizengamot. The support he had from independent seats, parts of Grey faction, estranged parts of Light faction, all who had been supporting him, suddenly went crawling back to their holes. All he had left was his own personal supporters and the Dark faction, but that wasn''t enough.


    "My apologies if you are facing difficulties, Cornelius, but I haven''t been partaking in any of these activities that you''re talking about," said Dumbledore, inclining his head.


    The portraits of old headmasters and mistresses were not shamming sleep today. All of them were watching what was happening below, severe and alert. But Dumbledore''s behaviour made many light-hearted ones chuckle.


    "Dumbledore, I''m warning you to make your Light faction step down," said Fudge, "or you are going to regret it," Fudge leaned over Dumbledore''s desk, "you have already lost so many positions, who knows, you might just lose the position of Headmaster. I do have an able recement lined up and a draft for a fresh Educational Decree."


    Umbridge giggled behind her hand. Standing tall behind Fudge. She knew who Fudge was talking about. Even the Aurors at the door chuckled.


    "So, what''s it going to be Dumbledore," said Fudge. He was sure that this threat would work; after all, he would''ve taken it if it was him.


    But who was going to tell Fudge that not everyone thought like him.


    Dumbledore sighed. He finally had some free time after a busy past few months. He wanted to stay in Hogwarts and spend some time among the children. But, now he had to face this. There was a limit to every man, and he was very close to his.


    Suddenly, the temperature in the room started to rise. The cold February office began to heat up like a tropical summer. Fudge, Umbridge looked around the office, confused about what was happening.


    "Cornelius, why are we doing this," said Dumbledore getting up. "When did you get this childish?"


    The room''s temperature kicked up another notch. The office suddenly became smoldering hot.


    "D-Dumbledore, what''re you doing?" Fudge spluttered. "Aurors! Arrest this man!"


    When no answer came from the Aurors, Fudge turned back. "What are you ¡ª"


    There was no one behind him. Not the Aurors and not Umbridge. Instead, he saw three pairs of socks, two ck, one pink, lying on the ground. He turned back to the front, and his heart almost leaped out of his throat when he saw Dumbledore standing close to him, peering down at him.


    At that moment, Fudge finally realized who he was facing. This wasn''t the entric, mild-mannered Headmaster. No, he was facing the man who defeated Gellert Grindlewald. The man only man who the Dark Lord feared.


    "D-Dumbledore."


    "Cornelius, even I have a limit to my patience. Youing here isn''t doing it any good."


    "I-I''m the Mi-Minister¡ª"


    "Do you have anything else remaining you wanted to tell me other than that you want me to stop the articles?"


    "N-No."


    Dumbledore waved his hand, and three pairs of socks came flying into his hands.


    "Then, I think it''s time for you to leave," said Dumbledore as he slipped socks into Fudge''s front coat pocket. "You know your way out, Cornelius. I won''t be seeing you out."


    That day, the Minister of Magic could be seen running through the halls of Hogwarts with sweat dripping all over his body.


    That day, Umbridge and the two Aurors woke up to find themselves lying on the ground just outside Hogwarts'' boundary, with no idea how they got there. One second they were in Dumbledore''s office, but the next, they were outside Hogwarts with the Fudge heaving while crouching on the ground.


    Not a peep about the incident was heard from Fudge or from his faction.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - It seems I have a date.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Take your socks, and get out.


    Cornelius Fudge - Minister of Magic - Came in and then went out.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I''m a monster


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 233 - The Date: First Half

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    On the morning of the Sunday, a big herd of Hogwarts dressed particrly carefully. They arrived at the great hall that smelled of delicious house-elf-cooked food like it did every morning, but today, there was something different in the air.


    "Looove''s in the air," said Marcus sitting opposite to his two best friends, a grin splitting his face.


    Quinn looked up from his newspaper. "Is that teasing that I detect? That''s rare for you."


    "Look at you both, dressed so sharply," Marcus nced at Quinn. "Even you''re dressed sharply for your standards."


    Eddie was dressed in his white-and-yellow jumped and ck pants. While Quinn put on a green sweater over a white shirt and tie above grey checkered pants.


    "That''s obvious. I have a date to hit out of the park. I need to dress the part," said Eddie, his chin high and arms crossed.


    "It''s a gentleman''s duty to be dressed appropriately when he''s escorting ady," Quinn repeated the wise words from a certain butler back home. "What are you going to do today? Any ns for your lonesome today?"


    Marcus took out an envelope from his robes. "I''m going to a party."


    "A party? Today? I don''t recall there being a party today," said Eddie.


    "That''s because you''re not invited," Marcus lightly waved the invitation in his hand.


    "What''s the party about?" asked Quinn. Even he didn''t know about this party, and he usually got an invite to everything.


    "It''s a tea party, but instead of tea, they''re going to serve hot chocte."


    Eddie and Quinn looked at each other andmunicated with a couple of discreet wiggles and eye movements.


    "The host. . . it''s Luna, isn''t it?" said Eddie.


    Marcus nodded.


    "Who else ising?"


    "Me, Luna, Astoria," said Marcus, and Quinn nodded, foreseeing the answer, "and Madam Pomfrey."


    Eddie did a spit take, and a forkful of broli slipped down on Quinn''s te as he stared incredulously.


    "I thought it''d be safe if we had a faculty member nearby in case Umbridge decided to vulture around," said Marcus, "so after some discussion, we decided to hold it in the back part of the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey," he looked Quinn, "I exploited your rtion with her to be allowed to set up the hot chocte party in THE hospital wing, so thank you for that."


    "You didn''t ask me for permission."


    Marcus waved Quinn''s query off. "Don''t sweat the small stuff."


    Ever since DA had begun its operation, Marcus had taken it upon himself to maintain the group''s secrecy. In every DA representative meet, Marcus stressed that the members needed to be very strict regarding the mention of DA outside the Room of Requirements. It was no secret that he didn''t like Umbridge and what she represented, so he did everything he could to make sure DA remained a secret only known to the members and no one else. His efforts had been paying dividends as DA had remained a secret; there wasn''t even a whisper of a rumor about a secret group operating in Hogwarts.


    "Eddie."


    The voice brought a smile to Eddie''s face. He got up and hopped onto his feet under the gaze of his two grinning friends.


    "Ready to have fun," he asked.


    Tracey Davis nodded. "I am. I hope you have a fun day nned."


    "I have the first part of the day nned out," said Eddie, "I hope you have your own half nned out. I have great expectations."


    For their date today, Tracey and Eddie had divided the day into two halves. The first half was taken by Eddie, while Tracey took thetter half.


    "Mine is going to be better than yours," said Tracey.


    Eddie chuckled, "If you believe that, then you don''t know me. I''m reallypetitive," he jutted his chin towards Quinn and Marcus, "ask them, they will tell you."


    Quinn and Marcus nodded.


    "Then I must tell you that I am called the Slytherin''s queen of fun," said Tracey.


    Eddie opened his mouth but was hit by a grape. He looked at Quinn, "What?" he asked.


    "Quit while things are going good," said Quinn, "no need to put an ax to your foot."


    "Quinn, you should also get going. Daphne''s waiting for you," said Tracey.


    "Oh my, she''s already there," Quinn put down his utensils. A bluish-green glow scoured his hands clean, "well then, can''t make her wait, can we."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Daphne Greengrass stood a little to the side of the oak front doors, looking pretty with her long flowing hair, attracting a lot of eyes from the people gathered in the entrance hall, waiting to be allowed to exit the castle to go Hogsmeade. Daphne was one of the most beautiful girls in the school; even with the reputation that had gained her the moniker of Ice Queen, she was one of the most sought after girls in Hogwarts ¡ª having to face many confessions and offers to go out on dates ¡ª the rejections, cold as ice as the rejectees had known to describe, were a part of why she had gained the moniker. It fit. Daphne, the nt, her namesake, were entirely poisonous, especially the colorful berries they produced.


    Many Hogwarts students preferred to stay in their school uniforms throughout the day despite the rules allowing casual clothing after sses. So today, Daphne Greengrass dressed in casual clothing further enhanced the blonde''s attractiveness.


    Daphne was minding her business, internally all agog about today, when arge gang of Slytherin girls passed them, including Pansy Parkinson.


    "Greengrass," screeched Pansy to a chorus of snide giggles. "Alone today, I see. Where is Davis? Usually, she buzzes around you like a fly. Oh, I remember; isn''t she going out today with that blockhead Carmichael. I thought she would develop a sense of refined taste in yourpany, but it seems I was wrong," she snickered at the end.


    "You wouldn''t know refined if it was staring you in your face, Parkinson," said Daphne in a calm, leveled voice. "Why don''t you and your cackle stand a distance away from me. I don''t want to catch anything."


    Pansy turned up her nose in scorn. She was always like this, treating others as if they were people were beneath her. She snorted and turned away, searching if Draco had arrived.


    "Sorry to keep you waiting."


    "I haven''t been waiting for long."


    "You look absolutely stunning today."


    "Thank you. I like your sweater; green suits you."


    "Ah, before I forget. I got a gift for you. Just a little something I thought you''d like."


    "You didn''t have to. . ."


    The conversation behind tugged on Pansy''s ears. For one, she was curious who it was, curious about the pair, who were clearly about to go out on a date on Valentine''s day. But the second, more pressing reason that pushed her brows to her hairline was that her ears identified the second voice as that of Daphne.


    Pansy turned, and the sight made her fly open wide as her breath caught. The voice she recognized was indeed Daphne, but it was the other person that lit the burning sensation in the chest or stomach.


    Why was it always her? Why did everyone choose her, even though she was always so obnoxious and arrogant. Was it because of her looks? Did the vixen''s charm ensnare even the one who almost every girl in Hogwarts sought after?


    "I was recently working with crystalline solids when I came across a mix that reminded me of your eyes," said Quinn West, with a smile capable of making hearts flutter. In his hands was a blue lotus made entirely from an electric blue crystal radiating a glimmering shimmer.


    "It''s gorgeous," said Daphne, her eyes entranced by the things of beauty in her hands.


    "I''m d you liked it. How about you try giving it a tap from your wand."


    Daphne nced up, her electric blues searching for an exnation while her hand went to her wand.


    "Take the flower in your left hand and give it a tap."


    Daphne did so, and the moment her wand tip touched the crystal flower, it broke into dozens of tiny cherry-blossom-shaped petals, all tricking down Daphne''s fingers, through her palm and the back of her hand, arriving at her wrist, where the united back to form a crystal wrist ring band, gracing her wrist with a mesmerizing electrifying blue.


    "Do you like it?"


    Daphne wordlessly nodded. In that moment, Daphne thought this was the most exquisite piece of jewellery she had seen ¡ª even more enchanting than the pieces in her mother''s collection that Daphne had wanted for herself.


    "That''s great!" said Quinn, sighing a relieved breath. "I was worried it might be too shy for your tastes."


    "Tch, show-off little shit making others life difficult." Quinn turned to see that it was Eddie who had muttered the words under his breath.


    Quinn beamed, "Thank you for your generouspliments."


    Eddie''s face contorted as if he had sucked on a lime. "Oh, you smug bugger jac¡ª"


    "I am back," the sudden arrival of Tracy halted Eddie''s mouth as he greeted her with a smile.


    "It''s nothing. I was just asking Quinn if he could make me one of those," said Eddie pointing at Daphne''s wrist, "I thought it would look good on you."


    Tracey''s eyes turned to eggs as she beelined to Daphne and joined her in admiring the ring band.


    "Daphne, it looks fabulous on you," she said. "Quinn gave it to you?"


    "Yes."


    "I am envious."


    "So am I," muttered Eddie, shooting re beams at Quinn, who wiggled his brows ¡ª I''m pure awesome, they seem to say.


    "Okay,dies, it''s time for us to leave," said Quinn, "I just saw Filch limp, so we should probably line up, stay ahead of the crowd."


    It was not only Pansy Parkinson who had witnessed the scene. Many eyes had chanced upon the fascinating crystal lotus, its receiver, and the one who had gifted it.


    All it took was one domino tile to be tipped over for theplex domino sequence known as the Hogwarts rumor mill to grapevine a piece of gossip. It started from the queue of people being signed out by Filch talking about it, spreading to friends who hade to embarrass the new couples going on their dates, expanding to everyone in the great hall one door away, and it was only time when everyone would know about the blue lotus made from crystal ¡ª


    That was if it was called the Hogwarts fact mill; s, the Hogwarts rumor mill was a different creature. Just in a few exchanges along the great grapevine, the blue crystal lotus had turned into a blue sapphire lotus, and another few links after, the news was that Quinn West had gifted Daphne a rare blue diamond lotus.


    Unbeknownst to them, Hogwarts had crafted a love saga with Daphne and Quinn as the central characters. They were busy getting started with their date.


    Quinn smiled as he stepped out of the castle, and the fresh air reached him, finding it somehow easier to walk even with all the students crowding the path. It was a fresh, breezy sort of day, perfect to go down to the vige and have fun.


    "So, Daphne," he said, "what do you want to do first? I was thinking that we should start with some Hogsmeade shopping. Buy things we need. What do you think?"


    "That would be fine with me."


    "Excellent, then where should we go first?"


    "We can shrink most things, so the order won''t matter. Do you have one of those pockets of yours? Yes, good, then we won''t need to have anything delivered. I think we should start with Ceridwen''s Cauldrons. . ."


    The subject of how to start the day carried them all the way down the drive and out through the gates. Quinn was again reminded how easy it was to talk to Daphne, no more difficult, in fact, than talking to Eddie and Marcus. He didn''t need to check his words or lead her in conversations; it was delightful.


    They wandered toward Dervish and Banges. Arge poster had been stuck up in the window, and a few Hogsmeaders were looking at it. They moved aside when Quinn and Daphne approached, and Harry found himself staring once more at the ten colored pictures of the escaped Death Eaters. The poster ("By Order of the Ministry of Magic") offered a thousand-Galleon reward to any witch or wizard with information rting to the recapture of any of the convicts pictured.


    "It''s funny, isn''t it," said Daphne in a low voice, also gazing up at the pictures of the Death Eaters. "Remember when that Peter Pettigrew escaped, and there were dementors all over Hogsmeade looking for him? And now ten Death Eaters are on the loose, and there aren''t dementors anywhere . . ."


    "Yes, it''s indeed strange," said Quinn. "It seems they are indeed out of the Ministry''s control," he said in a whisper.


    Only a very select few in the Ministry and the DMLE were aware that the dementors were no longer under the control of the Ministry. Others outside the Ministry knew the truth of the situation, but none wanted this news to get out ¡ª no one in the right mind wanted to leak the news and incite mass panic. The official party line for everybody was that the Aurors Office had deployed to their full capability to catch the escapees.


    The ten escaped Death Eaters and the other escapee were staring out of every shop window Quinn and Daphne passed. It started to rain, but fortunately, they had arrived at Scrivenshaft Quill Shop.


    "Let''s go inside," said Quinn, pulling Daphne inside the shop.


    Daphne briefly nced up the shop sign, recalling the Ministry Christmas Ball when she was the first year ¡ª Quinn had introduced his family as the owner of Scrivenshaft Quill Shop, which had confused her for a long time, and onlyter did she find out the truthter from her mother and then some from her father.


    Quinn walked into the lively stationary supply shop sh printing solution shop. The shop had changed much through the year, the most changeing afterst year with Quinn''s Lunar developer putting color into literally everything. Before Lunar developer, Scrivenshaft wasn''t as colorful as it is now. Right now, every corner of the shop was flushed with color.


    "There''s no one at the front desk," said Daphne.


    Quinn turned his eyes away from the shop and pointed at the bell. "Ring it, Ben wille out."


    Daphne pressed the button, and the ring chimed clear and loud around the shop. Quinn and Daphne nced up at the ceiling, hearing hurried steps rush on the second floor, travel down the stairs, and the back busted open, and a baby-faced young man slid into the room.


    "W-Wee to Scrivenshaft. How. . . What can I do for you today?" said the man before in one breath, and only after did he lookup. "Mr. W-West, you are here! D-Did you say that you would be visiting," the man seemed to have a nervous breakdown.


    Quinn smiled. "Good morning, Ben. Please, calm down, take a deep breath, and rx."


    Ben Sapworthy, the current manager of Scrivenshaft, the sessor to Gary, who had moved up to the position of Head of Silver Moon Printing MagiTech. (Chapter 152)


    "Y. . . Yes."


    After Ben calmed down, he weed them again and asked how he could help them.


    "We are here to get some school supplies," said Quinn, then turning to hispanion. "This is my friend Daphne Greengrass and Daphne, this is Ben Sapworthy; he''s the one who prints the AID notes and cards. He also designed a good amountst year for the Quidditch Tournament."


    Daphne Greengrass gracefully curtsied that Ben returned clumsily.


    "Daphne, if you have any stationery and printing needs, you can write to Ben, and he will help you out,'' Quinn turned to Ben. "If she writes to you, please make a priority and apply the ''me'' discount."


    "Yes, of course. Daphne Greengrass. Understood."


    After the short rain ended, they exited the shop, leaving behind Ben to rx.


    "He was. . . fidgety," said Daphne.


    Quinn nodded, "He will need to work on that aspect."


    "It might not be my ce to ask, but may I ask why?"


    "Why is he in charge? Ben Sapworthy might be a nervous wreck, but the reason he''s in charge is because of his art and design skills. He can draw and design like it''s no one else''s business. His skill as an artist speaks for itself. The reason he''s there is so that he can do his work in peace away from the rush and bustle of the Alley-named market."


    They walked across Hogsmeade, and while walking, shopping, and talking, they somehow made their way to a side road in front of a small tea shop. It was a cramped, steamy little ce where everything seemed to have been decorated with frills or bows.


    "Do you want to go in?" he asked.


    The sign above the shop said ¡ª


    ¡¸Madam Puddifoot''s Tea Shop¡¹


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Added crystal jewellery making into his resume.


    Daphne Greengrass - Ice Queen - Has broken many weights.


    Ben Sapworthy - Scrivenshaft - Magical Artist.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - The trailer to The Secrets of Dumbledore is going toe out on Monday. Hyped! Going to miss Depp. But excited for Mikkelsen


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 234 - The Date: Second Half

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    ¡¸Madam Puddifoot''s Tea Shop¡¹


    Daphne observed the little tea shop ncing at the number of golden cherubs that hovered over the shop sign. "Is this what people would say. . . cute?" she asked.


    "Yes, that''s what people would say." Quinn peered inside, and it was the same scene inside with cupids, pink, frills, and bows. A pit settled on the bottom of his stomach; he had been rushed in his proposition to go inside ¡ª this shop unpleasantly reminded him a lot of Umbridge''s office ¡ª he would know, he had, after all, watched hours of footage.


    Daphne scrutinized the group of little chubby cherubs sprinkling pink confetti over the guests. "I would rather not if that''s fine with you," she said.


    "I am of the same mind," he said, spotting Roger Davis, the Ravenw Quidditch captain holding hands with a blonde, kissing over a sugar bowl. "I don''t think today is the right day to enter the shop, maybe some other day."


    "I think Three Broomsticks would be better," said Daphne, "I''m feeling a little parched."


    Quinn nodded, "That would indeed be better."


    The pair turned away from Madam Puddifoot''s Tea Shop and headed to Madam Rosmerta''s Three Broomstick Inn. The pub, as always, was flush with activity. It seemed that even Three Broomsticks couldn''t get away from the spirit of Valentine''s; Quinn could spot sshes of pink, red, and white around the establishment, though the tasteful utilization made Quinnfortable.


    "Let''s find a ce to sit," he said. Luckily they were able to find a rtively quiet table in the seating area. "What will you have today?" he asked.


    "A butterbeer will do," said Daphne.


    Quinn came back with a ss mug of butterbeer, one tankard (Eddie''s gift) full of hot chocte peppermint, and a bowl of chips (crisps) for the table.


    "That rain can put a hamper on such lovely weather," said Quinn. "A pity that it rained, especially how sunny the day had started as."


    "February can do that to you," said Daphne, pushing a stray stand behind her ear as not to stain her hair with butterbeer. "Thankfully, it was only a light spray. A heavy pour would have been truly unfortunate."


    "I saw that you brought some herbs from Dogweed and Deathcap. From the assortments you purchased, I would guess burn salves?"


    "Yes. The schedule that you provided us," by ''us'' Daphne meant the DA representative, "you have Incendio next on the list, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to try my hand on burn heals. If the brewing goes well, we would have the salves ready in case someone got burned."


    A typical teenager wouldn''t talk casually about supplying burn salves for many dozens of students out of her own pocket, but people sometimes forgot that Daphne was heir to the Greengrass fortune and had no shortage of coin. The boy sitting opposite to Daphne was simrly from an exuberant background, but unlike Daphne, who preferred to keep things simple, Quinn had an air of posh attached to him ¡ª everything from the subtle ambiance of the AID office to the way he dressed, screamed a subtle ss.


    "What do you think Tracey and Eddie are doing right now?" asked Daphne.


    "Let''s see if Eddie''s on schedule," Quinn took a look at his pocket watch. "Tracey doesn''t fly much, so Eddie borrowed my broom so both of them could go flying today. There''s an added thrill because of the flying ban, sticking it to Umbridge."


    "I hope they stay away from the castle," said Daphne, ncing outside through a window, "I wouldn''t want them to get into trouble."


    "Marcus grilled Eddie. They will be flying someway up north, away from the castle," said Quinn. "Speaking of Marcus, did you hear about the tea party he''s having with Luna and Astoria."


    "You missed Madam Pomfrey," Daphne sighed, "I don''t know how they were able to convince her to let them have inside the hospital wing. Marcus and Luna might be quiet, but my sister is anything but. I fear that Madam Pomfrey might kick them out."


    "Luna knows a one-way silencing ward, so it''ll be fine if they made some noise. Madam Pomfrey might not look like it, but she enjoys a good tea time." Quinn was the authority on the matter. To this day, from time to time, he took a pic basket to the hospital wing and set up a table to kick back and rx.


    As the two talked and conversed, enjoying each other''spany, a part of their minds were thinking thating to Three Broomsticks might have been a poor decision. Both would have preferred a quieter setting with not so many people around them.


    Daphne calmly sipped on her butterbeer, but she could notice the number of eyes on them. She simply smiled, nodded, and tittered along with Quinn, ignoring whatever was happening around her. Quinn was thinking along the same lines, thinking if it would''ve been better if they had just remained in Scrivenshaft, or if Madam Puddifoot''s would somehow be a better choice.


    The double door to the inn pushed open, for a cold gust of winter wind further hilled by the downpour to enter the building, stroking the nearby upants like death''s touch, sending shivers down spines and goosebumps up the arms. The door closed behind four Gryffindors, the ones known to many as the Golden Squad.


    "It''s bloody crowded today," said Ron, shrugging his robe off his shoulders.


    "It''s Valentine''s day," said Hermione matter of factly, as if it answered everything. She could spot couples dotting the pub, some sitting shoulder to shoulder, then there were those still new in their endeavors with some distance between them.


    "Let''s see if we can find a table," said Harry, scoping the ce, "I see one; it''s perfect for four."


    "I''ll get the drinks. What does everyone want to drink?" said Ivy and took the orders. She separated from the group and went to the bar while the other three headed to their table.


    "Just when I thought the weather would warm up, the rain pulled in right down," said Ron, his mouth pinched, "it''s cold out there in the air; it isn''t like the Quidditch gear is particrly warm, my fingers feel like they would fall."


    Harry heaved a sigh, averting his eyes as his posture sagged. His detention period with Umbridge had long ended, but vile women had refused to let his Quidditch ban lift. It had been so long he had taken his broom to the air, he had forgotten what it felt like to have the winds sweep his hair back, fluttering his robes. He even missed the chill prickling his skin when he sped through the air.


    "It''s okay, mate," said Ron, patting his best friend on the shoulder, "we will win the cup for you." The season had been looking good for Gryffindor; they were only in second above Hufflepuff and only below Ravenw. The chances to make it to the finals were excellent.


    Harry nodded outwardly with a thankful smile, but inside, those words didn''t do much good. Harry wanted to y, he wanted to be on the field, wanted to chase down the snitch and be the reason the team won. He was happy for Ginny getting the seeker position, but he really wished that he was in her ce.


    ''I really hope he makes a move quickly,'' thought Harry. He really wanted to get back on the broom.


    "Aye, isn''t that West, there," said Ron.


    Bubbles of surprise popped in Harry''s mind ¡ª he was just thinking of Quinn ¡ª was the man really the devil. He goggled his eyes around the pub to see if Ron had spotted someone else.


    "And that''s Greengrass with him," said Hermione.


    Harry followed her eyes and captured the Slytherin and Ravenw sitting together ¡ª to his surprise, Daphne Greengrass wasughing, albeit softly ¡ª a rare sight despite knowing the girl since they were little loitering children.


    "That''s rare, seeing those two alone together," Hermione said ¡ª usually, they would be apanied by their respective friends.


    "Reckon they''re on a date?" said Ron. The Hogwarts rumor mill hadn''t read the Golden Squad yet.


    Hermione''s eyes narrowed her eyes. It was unusual, but there was a chance that Ron was correct this time, she thought. But before she could ept the guess, she needed to know if it was true. Hermione scanned the room and found the perfect people to ask, sitting right behind her.


    "Lavender," she called to the rubenesque one of the Gryffindor duet who worshipped the paper on which Witch Weekly was printed.


    Lavender Brown turned back, and so did her exotic partner of Lavender, Parvati Patil.


    " "Hello, Hermione~," " they said in a sing-a-song duet.


    "Yes, hello," Hermione subtly jutted to the subject of her query. "Those two. What''s the deal there? Did theye alone, or are they with others?"


    "You don''t know?" Lavender said and then giggled along with Parvati. "They''re here on a date~," she stretched it long, "everyone knows it."


    "I was there, you know," Paravati dreamily sighed, "Quinn arrived in the entrance hall and started with gifting Daphne the most beautiful sapphire flower that, with a touch from Daphne, turned into a stunning wrist ring band," Parvati nced over Hermione''s head and suddenly said, "Oh hey, Ivy."


    Hermione jerked her head back and felt a quiver in her stomach. She turned to see standing behind her was her best friend with a tray in hand.


    Ivy wasn''t looking at Hermione; her eyes were solely focused on the pair sitting a distance from them. She watched the twough and giggle; the boy she liked was clearly leaning forward ¡ª she could tell that he was enjoying herself. On the other side, she could see the rxed shoulder of Daphne Greengrass ¡ª for her(Daphne), it was a big deal.


    "Ivy," said Hermione with a pained gaze.


    Ivy set down the tray on the table, her movements deliberately slow. With her hands free, they went up to her chest, grabbing a fistful of her cardigan and shirt. Her eyes were still checked on to that table. Ivy took an uneven step back, her head finally tearing away, but now her head hung low. She spun away and hastily rushed out, leaving behind a lingering grimace. Hermione hurriedly got up from the table and chased after Ivy, nigh close to stumbling as she pushed out of the door to the inn.


    "What was that?" said Ron.


    "I. . . I don''t know," Harry stared at the inn door as if waiting for Hermione and Ivy to return any moment. When the door didn''t open, he turned to Quinn and Daphne''s table. She hadn''t told him anything, he thought, not liking that he didn''t know something about his twins. But, what if? Harry gazed at Quinn, wondering ¡ª what if. . .


    Outside, Hermione came to a heaving halt. She panted with her curly hair hanging down as she gripped her knees. Hermoine pulled her gaze from the spot of brown peeking through the snow and looked at Ivy.


    Ivy was gazing up at the sky, her hands clenched into fists, arms stiffly stuck to the sides, rigid like steel rods. "I thought this mighte someday," she said, "I was preparing for it, you know. And I just got something great, something even she didn''t know about, though it would pull him closer." ¡ª but she was toote! Daphne had clenched the chance before her.


    No, she wasn''tte. It was only the first day. She thought, as for the wrist ring band that she had clearly seen sitting on Daphne''s wrist. Quinn had a tendency to give gifts ¡ª he had made Fleur a ne, and look how that turned. Yes, everything wasn''t over yet. She had her trump card, and there were plenty of chances to apply.


    But then her knees went weak. She ended up on the ground, with her legs folded backward. Despite the speech of the grandees in her thoughts, seeing Quinn enjoying himself no a date with someone else did her squeeze on her heart, raising a burn up her body.


    "It''s nothing," she said, "I just need to try harder. It''s only one. . ." For now, she wanted to go back to Hogwarts and crawl into her bed.


    . . .


    After spending some time talking, Quinn and Daphne exited the Three Broomsticks. They continued on their Hogsmeade crawl, with Daphne buying supplies for months in preparation for her OWLs and Quinn tagged along with her, keeping her entertained. By the time Daphne had checked everything in her head checklist, I was alreadyte, so both decided to return to the castle.


    "It turned out to be a shopping date," said Quinn.


    Daphne nodded. "That it did."


    Going around the vige withpany (friends) was nothing new for both Daphne and Quinn, they did this every time they came down to Hogsmeade. It could be said, that the date was uneventful, even a bit boring, but both were fine with it. They were worried in their hearts that it might go the wrong way, but boring meant that nothing went wrong. For them boring was good.


    "Then, how would you rate me and today?" asked Quinn as they walked at a sedate pace on the Hogsmeade tiled roads, "what was that you liked?"


    "Hmm, that''s to be something to be thought more," said Daphne coyly.


    She wasn''t expecting for the day to turn into a shopping date. Her thoughts were that they would go straight to Three Broomsticks and spend time there and nothing more, but roaming around with Quinn, listening to his stories was surely the highlight for her.


    As they moved closer to the castle, the distance between the two also became closer. From standing a couple feet apart from each other, they slowly inched closer to each other, soon they were walking with shoulder nigh from touching. The distance was important to both; neither allowed just anyone to enter their personal space, and were only open to their close friends. Right now, there was no sense of difort.


    Between the two, no one knew who it was, but it started with the side of their hands touching ¡ª they immediately pulled away. But then their hands came close again, and this time, their pinkie fingers intertwined, and soon they were holding hands.


    Neither knew who it was, it may have been Quinn, or it might be Daphne, or may be both, but their hands touched each other. Both pulled away immediately. They looked at each other, searching each other''s eyes.


    They removed their eyes and looked to the front, but they had smiles on their faces. Their hands met each other again, this time they didn''t pull away ¡ª both gingerly intertwined their pinkie with the others before Quinn took the lead and took Daphne''s entire hand into his.


    They had held each other''s hand before while dancing, but this felt different, this felt different.


    Quinn beamed brightly as Daphne to his side looked dazzling with a brush of ethereal red on her cheeks. No words were exchanged as after a day of talking, the pair decided to opt-in for silence, enjoying the moment and making a memory.


    "Quinn!"


    "Daphne!"


    Their hands slipped out of each other''s soft grasps as they turned to the familiar voices to see Eddie and Tracey walk their way, joining them at the end of the day.


    Tracey and Eddie eagerly exchanged what they did today, making them impromptu judges for their two-part date. While they did that, Quinn and Daphne listened to them with one ear and let it from the other as they got themselves busy stealing small nces from each other.


    The date hade to an end.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - Maybe keeping it simple isn''t bad.


    Daphne Greengrass - Ice Queen - ''His grip is firm,'' she thought.


    Ivy Potter - Needs some time alone - Want to go burrow into her bed.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 235 - Second Wave, First Firing

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Sheets of parchment hung pinned to the wall.


    Eddie frowned, ncing up at the matt brown bulletin board as people gathered around him (well, he was part of the crowd), whispered in buzzing discussion about the words printed on the sheets of parchment ¡ª titled in angry red and with content body punched out in bold ck ¡ª that hung high above their head, as if looking down on them as plebians that needed to follow the words like royal or even divine orders.


    "This again?" he said. "What got her knickers in a wad again? I thought we were doing fine." He would have preferred more displeased, but after experiencing it so many, he had been dulled to it ¡ª desensitized was the term his best friend (the smart one) would use.


    The bulletin board that Eddie stared up at was covered with newly-minted Educational Decrees fresh out of the printers, printed on tan parchment. On every decree, Dolores Umbridge''s name was bolded out; in some ways making the name more important than the contents, and Eddie didn''t know if it was just him, but her signature seemed angrier, rougher, brasher than the older ones as if Umbridge had penned them with the nip digging into the parchments.


    This was the second Umbridge had decreed a wave of orders. The first time she had done this was a day to remember; the bulletin board had needed to be changed to a bigger one because of the sheer amount of Educational Decrees that were decreed to be posted permanently (ordered in another Educational Decree) had left no space for other notices.


    Even the new one was already looking like it would need to be reced. After all, Umbridge decreed a couple of them every week, sprinkling them like they were diary entries. It was an aptparison as people had begun specting Umbridge''s mood by the numbers of decrees she issued in a week.


    "She must be really pissed for a second dump of this shit," Eddie snorted. "What do you think? Has she finally gone bonkers?"


    Marcus, standing by Eddie''s side, didn''t reply. His eye perused across the board, carefully browsing every word, thinking what changes would this wave bring to Hogwarts and his along with his friend''s life. He wanted to be the first to know if there were going to be any big shifts in Hogwarts, would there be any significant threats to DA that would require adjustments to counter.


    "Number fifty. . . bans from Hogwarts all literature written by non-wizards or half-breeds


    Number fifty-two. . requires students to consent to allow their owl post to be checked for illegal contraband.


    Number fifty-five. . . requires anyints about Hogwarts or its staff to be made in writing to the High Inquisitor.


    Number fifty-six. . . confines pets tomon rooms and dormitories and owls to the owlery.


    Number sixty. . . imposes restrictions on the usage of the school library andmon rooms


    Number sixty-three. . . encourages students to be forting regarding suspicious or ouwed activities from their professors and peers.


    Number sixty-four. . . allows the establishment of the Inquisitorial Squad. . . what is the Inquisitorial Squad?


    Number sixty-seven. . . gives the High Inquisitor the power to confiscate any unauthorized book from students.


    And, number sixty-eight. . . forbids the use of red howlers inside Hogwarts. . . that''s for the Weasley twins, I guess, "Marcus sighed after reading through the decrees. Some of them weren''t going to hinder him anyway, but there were some outright annoying to him as a Ravenw ¡ª banning books by half-breeds and non-wizards was poppycock and highly insulting to the name of an institution of learning.


    Marcus was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a muffledmotioning from what he thought might being from outside the entrance hall.


    "What''s that?" said Marcus.


    "I don''t know, but let''s go take a look, shall we?" Eddie said, looking at the oak door.


    The crowd gathered at the bulletin board began moving towards the door, attracted to themotion.


    The screams were indeeding from the entrance hall; they grew louder as Eddie and Marcus ran toward the stone steps leading up from the dungeons. When he reached the steps leading outside, they found the front of the oak gats packed. Students hade flooding out of the Great Hall, where dinner was still in progress, to see what was going on. Others had crammed themselves around whatever seemed to have caused themotion. Eddie pushed forward through a knot of tall Slytherins, Marcus following after him. They saw that the onlookers had formed a great ring, some of them looking shocked, others even frightened. McGonagall was directly opposite them on the other side of the hall; she looked as though what she was watching made her feel faintly sick.


    Trwney was standing in the middle of the entrance hall with her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other, looking utterly mad. Her hair was sticking up on end, her sses were lopsided so that one eye was magnified more than the other; her innumerable shawls and scarves were trailing haphazardly from her shoulders, giving the impression that she was falling apart at the seams. Tworge trunksy on the floor beside her, one of them upside down; it looked very much as though it had been thrown down the stairs after her. Trwney was staring, apparently terrified, at something that Marcus and Eddie could not see from their position but that seemed to be standing at the foot of her.


    "No!" she shrieked. "NO! This cannot be happening. . . . It cannot . . . I refuse to ept it!"


    Just when Eddie and Marcus reached the front, they heard a high girlish voice, sounding callously amused, and instantly they knew who Trwney was afraid of.


    "You didn''t realize this wasing?" said the voice which could only belong to Umbridge. "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow''s weather, you must surely have realized that your pitiful performance during my inspections, andck of any improvement, would make it inevitable you would be sacked?"


    "You c-can''t!" howled Trwney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can''t sack me! I''ve b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my h-home!"


    "It was your home," said Umbridge, and Marcus was revolted to see the enjoyment stretching her toadlike face as she watched Trwney sink, sobbing uncontrobly, onto one of her trunks, "until an hour ago, when the Minister of Magic countersigned the order for your dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us."


    But she stood and watched, with an expression of gloating enjoyment, as Professor Trwney shuddered and moaned, rocking backward and forward on her trunk in paroxysms of grief. Marcus heard a sob to his left and looked around. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were both crying silently, their arms around each other. Then he heard footsteps. McGonagall had broken away from the spectators, marched straight up to Trwney, and was patting her firmly on the back while withdrawing arge handkerchief from within her robes.


    "There, there, Sybill . . . Calm down. . . . Blow your nose on this. . . . It''s not as bad as you think, now. . . . You are not going to have to leave Hogwarts . . ."


    "Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" said Umbridge in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forward. "And your authority for that statement is . . . ?"


    "Mine," said a deep voice.


    The crowd around the oak door parted, students scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore appeared in the entrance. What he had been doing out in the grounds, Marcus could not imagine, but there was something impressive about the sight of him framed in the doorway against an oddly misty night.


    "That''s really fucking cool, init," said Eddie with a toothy grin on his face, "I want to do that, definitely."


    Leaving the doors wide behind him, he strode forward through the circle of onlookers toward the ce where Trwney sat, tearstained and trembling, upon her trunk, McGonagall alongside her.


    "Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" said Umbridge with a singrly unpleasant littleugh, her eyes acidly red at Dumbledore. "I''m afraid you do not understand the position. I have here" ¡ª she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robes ¡ª "an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister of Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, ce upon probation, and sack any teacher she ¡ª that is to say, I ¡ª feel is not performing up to the standard required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trwney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her."


    To the great surprise of many, Dumbledore continued to smile. He looked down at Professor Trwney, who was still sobbing and choking on her trunk, and said, "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor, you have every right to dismiss my teachers. However, you do not have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid," he went on, with a courteous little bow, "that the power to do that still resides with the headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trwney continues to live at Hogwarts."


    At this, Trwney gave a wild littleugh in which a hup was barely hidden.


    "No ¡ª no, I''ll g-go, Dumbledore! I sh-shall l-leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortune elsewhere ¡ª"


    "No," said Dumbledore sharply. "It is my wish that you remain, Sybill." He turned to Professor McGonagall.


    "Might I ask you to escort Sybill back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?"


    "Of course," said McGonagall. "Up you get, Sybill . . ."


    Sprout came hurrying forward out of the crowd and grabbed Trwney''s other arm. Together they guided her past Umbridge and up the marble stairs. Flitwick went scurrying after them, his wand held out before him; he squeaked, "Lotor trunks!" and Trwney''s luggage rose into the air and proceeded up the staircase after her, Flitwick bringing up the rear.


    "Awesome," said Eddie, pping lightly, "they are like a team with Dumbledore as the captain! I also want to do that! Marcus, you can be Sprout. We will give Flitwick to Luna. Quinn can be McGonagall. I, of course, will be Dumbledore."


    Umbridge stood stock-still, staring at Dumbledore, who continued to smile benignly.


    "And what," she said in a whisper that nevertheless carried all around, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"


    "Oh, that won''t be a problem; we have ample space," said Dumbledore pleasantly, pointing to the grand castle behind him. "Also, Dolores?" he said in a voice tinged deeper. "It seems that you are forgetting the authority of the headmaster ¡ª MY authority ¡ª don''t forget, that while you might be the High Inquisitor, but I am the headmaster. This is my school. I am in charge of the Professors. In charge of the house-elves. In charge of the students. Do not forget that," in the end, Dumbledore was standing tall and his background, the students of Hogwarts were all staring at Umbridge with the ancient castle lit up in the night sky.


    Eddie''s eyes sparkling with a starry light: "Complete son of the wand this man is!"


    Umbridge''s tight smile twitched. She sped her hand at her front. "Well, then, you would be happy to meet the new Divination teacher."


    "That won''t be necessary," said Dumbledore, smiling merrily as if thinking of joyous, "This time around, I didn''t fail to find a new teacher," pointing out the reason why Umbridge was here, "you see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."


    "You''ve found ¡ª ?" said Umbridge shrilly. "You''ve found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Twenty-two ¡ª"


    "¡ª the Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if ¡ª and only if ¡ª the headmaster is unable to find one," said Dumbledore. "And I am happy to say that on this asion, I have seeded. May I introduce you?"


    "Ooh! he''s on a roll!" said Eddie feeling the vibe.


    Dumbledore pointed behind Umbridge, and for the first time, everyone noticed that the area was covered in a drifting white mist.


    Everyone heard hooves.


    There was a shocked murmur around the crowd, and those nearest to the mist hastily moved backward, some of them tripping over in their haste to clear a path for the neer.


    Through the mist came a face that could be seen in the Forbidden Forest: white-blond hair and astonishingly blue eyes, the head and torso of a man joined to the palomino body of a horse.


    Dumbledore smiled happily to a thunderstruck Umbridge. "I think you''ll find him suitable," he said.


    From a hallway window on the first floor, looking down at the area outside the front oak door, a pair of stone-grey eyes watched everything unfolding away from everyone.


    He had just exited the vault for the day, and seeing that it was still time for the feast, he was going down to the great hall to get some food. On his way, though, he saw a crowd moving out of the castle, so he went to see what it was all about toe across a familiar scene.


    "Shit," said Quinn, his voice filling the hallway, "I forgot about the centaur."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "I bet you wish you had Divination, now, don''t you, Quinn," asked Eddie, smirking.


    It was evening time a couple days after the sacking of Trwney, and Eddie was doing some regr maintenance on his broom and carefully moving his hand as not to make any mistakes ¡ª in the air, his broom was his greatest asset after himself.


    "Not really," said Quinn indifferently, who was reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a fiction book for a change. It was a treat; the second room was almost over, only a couple material blocks remained. "I''ve never really liked horses."


    He turned a page, reading the beautifully written words.


    "He''s not a horse; he''s a centaur!" said a Ravenw girl, sounding shocked. They were in themon room.


    "A gorgeous centaur . . ." sighed another girl, a fifth-year.


    "Either way, he''s still got four legs," said Quinn coolly. In no way was he discriminatory against centaurs, but Firenze was a problem ¡ª he was the onest year when Quinn was exploring the Forbidden Forest who figured out that there was a child under the Noir transformative suit.


    That was the problem.


    If Firenze could figure out that, who knew if he could figure out his identity. Quinn didn''t have much expertise in Divination and the predictive arts. He didn''t have the gift of sight, and as such, Quinn didn''t see any use in learning about that subject because it wasn''t any use to him. Moreover, Quinn had absolutely zero ideas about the Centaur Culture''s Divination. He had no idea what level of predictive powers they had their hands in.


    ''I''m going to stay away from the divinating horseman. As long as Firenze is concerned, Quinn West doesn''t exist,'' thought Quinn.


    "When do you think she''s going to can Hagrid?" asked Eddie.


    "Soon, very soon. I am surprised that she didn''t can him with Trwney."


    "That bitch probably wanted to stroke her sadistic desires by kicking them out one at a time."


    "That sounds like her."


    "What do you think about the Inquisitor Squad?"


    "What about them?"


    "I mean, most of them are glorified Umbridge''s dogs. All from Slytherin."


    "I won''t put it that way, but you''re correct."


    "You worried about them?"


    "No, I am not. I am a Prefect; they can''t order me around."


    "What about the cluster?" said Eddie. As per the extended rules, DA wasn''t to be mentioned outside, and words like group, organization, society, club weren''t to be used. That''s why members started to use words like cluster, bunch, pack when mentioning DA.


    "Marcus and other leads will take care of it. They have been doing a great job keeping all of it under wraps," said Quinn, lightly pinching the top corner of his book''s page to turn it over.


    However, the next second, his eyes stopped on the first sentence of the page. Eddie''s words had started a chain of thought in the coils of his brain. He sighed and nced at the page number on the bottom before closing the book ¡ª he didn''t need bookmarks ¡ª and set it between his leg and the armrest of his armrest.


    He stared into the air. While the DA representatives were indeed doing a good job, there was one problem threatening the anonymity of DA, which hadn''t their minds. ''It''s a perspective problem,'' he thought. The possibility of external factors influencing the DA members not entering their minds wasn''t strange. None of them were thinking outside the walls of Hogwarts that kept the ugly andplex real-world out.


    ''I guess I would need to talk to the original sneak,'' thought Quinn. After all, she was still in DA and, from his memories of DA session, observing the members, she was as dissatisfied about being involved as she was in the original.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Has decided to subtract horse from his life.


    Eddie Carmichael - Taking notes - That was legit cool. Old man has style.


    Marcus Belby - Is still an introvert - Working to keep secrets the way they are.


    DA - We are not a group - We don''t exist.


    Dolores Umbridge - High Inquisitor - Horrified at the new teacher.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - I hired before you fired.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Please rmend published novels that you think are beautifully written, as in the style of writing ¡ª wordsmithing. I''m trying to improve my writing style.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 236 - Ensuring Secrecy The Old Way

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Please remember everyone, beware of the Inquisitor Squad," said Marcus. It was the end of another night of DA sessions with everyone ready to return to their dorms. "Especially, Gryffindors. . . The Inquisitor Squad''s detention record is mostly made up of your house ¡ª if you encounter one, please steer clear, and if you do get a session with Umbridge, please remember to report it to one of the representatives."


    The humiliation during the Minister''s visit at the hands of Dumbledore wasn''t met with silence but with an Education Decree wave in which a decree constituted the creation of the Inquisitor Squad, responsible for maintaining discipline and order in Hogwarts. Justified by the spike of detention rate in the school, which in truth was because of Umbridge handing out detentions like hotcakes to anyone she could find. She had created the problem and now had brought in a solution to counter it ¡ª but in reality, all it was a ruse to increase Umbridge''s authority in Hogwarts.


    "To the Slytherins, please keep us informed if you hear anything the Inquisitor Squad might be nning," Marcus said, stressing on the topic. "And to Eddie, please avoid picking fights with the Inquisitor Squad. It''s the one-way ticket to getting banned from Quidditch, and I''m not sure you''d be excited about that."


    "I never pick fights!" came the reply, dissatisfied and defiant. "They are the ones who are being bloody cretins."


    "That''s not my problem. Whatever you do, don''t end up in detention," Marcus said and thought if there was something else left to address. "That''s it from my side. If there''s nothing else, we can close this session and end for the night."


    "I actually have something to say." Eyes turned to Quinn, who stood in the inner part of the Room of Requirements, away from the door. "I would like a few people to stay behind. I have something to converse with them." Quinn glimpsed around the confused DA crowd all looking at. "Marietta Edgbe, Luca Caruso, Irfan Mushtaq, and Graham Romsey, please stay behind while everyone else leaves. I would appreciate the privacy," he smiled towards everyone. "That would be all. I wish everyone else a good night."


    Suddenly, all eyes moved to the four people asked to stay behind. The same question sprouted in everyone''s minds ¡ª What did Quinn want with the four?


    Ivy Potter, the elected leader of DA, stepped forward and posed the question in everyone''s mind. "What is this about?" she asked.


    Quinn turned to the girl who had stepped out from the crowd. "I just have something to say to these four."


    "Is this personal or about DA?"


    "It is."


    "Then I''d like to be kept in the loop. I''d be staying behind."


    Quinn noticed the way she had worded her sentence. "That''s fine with me. You can stay behind," he said.


    "What about the other representatives? Do they need to be here?"


    "Their presence isn''t needed. You canmunicate the happenings to themter." Quinn subtly nced at Daphne, the Slytherin representative, and blinked his eyes ¡ª I''ll tell youter, they said. He didn''t miss the smile in her eyes, something that one could only notice after spending much time with Daphne Greengrass.


    Marietta Edgbe, sixth-year Ravenw, one of the four asked to stay behind, raised her voice. She had a pinched expression and arms folded across her chest. "Can we do whatever this is sometimeter? It''s gettingte, and I have assignments to get through. How about we take this up the next time we assemble? It''d be more convenient for everyone. I''m sure everyone feels this way," she turned around to look at the other three, seeking support.


    "A little time spent talking won''t hurt your assignments, Edgbe. And I''m sure someone as smart as you have her assignments ready to submit before time," said Quinn, smiling politely, not genuinely.


    Marietta watched Quinn furtively as he picked a lint of his robes. He wasn''t interested in whatever she had to say. She nced at the other three, but they turned their eyes from hers.


    Cowards! she thought.


    Soon after, the DA poption left, leaving only six people in the vast and now exceedingly empty Room of Requirements. The atmosphere in the room was ambiguous ¡ª Marietta Edgbe was tapping her foot against the floor, her jaw clenched; Luca Caruso, Irfan Mushtaq, and Graham Romsey were tingling their fingers and toes; Ivy has a pensive expression, repeatedly ncing towards Quinn, it wasn''t long she had seen him sitting together with Daphne.


    "Now," Quinn spoke with his hands behind his back, "the reason I have asked you four here is to address an issue that has be prominent due to recent events involving the Educational Decrees, the Inquisitor Squad, and the overall Dolores Umbridge situation with her gaining more power in Hogwarts."


    Quinn noted the slight shuffle in the four people as they shifted their weight at his words.


    "One of the important principles or to say rules of DA is that," he made a short pause, "we don''t exist; we are as real as the points given to Gryffindor by Snape," there was no response from anyone ¡ª it had been repeated so many times that everyone was way past being sick of it. "The reason why this rule was introduced is to ensure everyone''s safety and freedom from Umbridge''s pesky little thumb. Our efforts have been going splendidly well, with not a peep of DA to be heard from the mouth of an outsider.


    Keeping our anonymity has been of utmost importance, especially know when Umbridge is trying to find something ¡ª anything ¡ª wrong in Hogwarts so that she could usurp control. . . I''m sure none of us desires that. Which is the reason it''s high time that we strengthen our efforts to keep operating."


    Ivy frowned in confusion. They already had this discussion among the DA representatives, deployed new measures, and made sure to freshen the gravity of the situation in everyone''s mind.


    "Why are you saying this right now?" she asked, ncing at the four. A thought shed in her mind. She turned to face the four, her eyes squinted as her tone became confrontational. "Did these four do something. . . did they spoke about DA to someone outside?"


    "No! I didn''t say anything!" said Graham Romsey, stepping forward in a hurry.


    "Neither did I," said Luca Caruso; he was a bit calmer, though his pace gave his nervousness away.


    Irfan Mushtaq shook his head and shrugged. "Me neither."


    All Marietta did was narrow her at Quinn.


    "I am well aware that none of you have said anything about DA to anyone," said Quinn.


    Ivy was stumped. If that wasn''t the case, why did he ask these people to stay behind? She tilted her head in confusion. "Then why are we here?" she asked with furrowed brows.


    "Caruso, Romsey, Mushtaq, and Edgbe," said Quinn, "all have parents who work in the Ministry." His words set a tension in the mentioned four. "Normally, that won''t be the problem," he turned to Ivy, "your father works in the Ministry as well, but unlike you," he pointed at the four, "their parents work in a position below Umbridge''s ¡ª positions over which Umbridge have a lot of power, where she can exert a significant amount of pressure."


    A deafening silence fell over the room; the matter was out in the open, and silence that presided over spoke volumes. The four with parents were at some point had be aware of the risk they were putting their parents in by joining a group like DA.


    "I fear that because of that reason, you mighte under pressure to secure your parent''s job at the Ministry by maybe. . . selling out DA to Umbridge," said Quinn. He raised his hand to stop the iing rebuttals. "I''m not saying that you''ll be doing so. There''s no sense in using of something that hasn''t happened yet. But that doesn''t rule out the event happening. So, right now, I would like to present to all of you a proposition."


    "Quinn, wait," said Ivy, "maybe we should talk about this first ¡ª"


    "What proposition?" said Marietta Edgbe, cutting off Ivy.


    "I will allow all four of you to exit DA right here, right now," said Quinn immediately.


    "Quinn!" Ivy eximed. This was spiralling out of control. Decisions like this were to be made with the agreement of the group.


    Quinn continued to stare at the four. "There''s a condition," he said. He couldn''t just let them go without keeping leverage on his side for insurance. "Your names will remain on the original signing document. It will be proof of your involvement in DA, effectively tying you up with DA. You will not be allowed to mention anything about DA. If you decide to give us away, we will drag you down with us. Plus, you won''t like what is to happen if you decide to betray the group."


    Ivy withheld a gasp at Quinn''s words. The knowledge about the original signing document being a jinxed parchment was a secret only known to her and Hermione ¡ª it was thest fail-safe to identify the traitor, the sneak.


    "So, how about it? The conditions of the deal are clear. Any takers?"


    "I will take it," said Marietta Edgbe, straightforwardly. She never wanted to take part in DA. Because of Cho, her best friend''s constant instance and nagging, she decided to join DA and participate in this farce. Her dissatisfaction only grew with every session, where she was forced to leave the safety of her dorm and risk getting caught.


    "Excellent, you''re free to go," said Quinn and turned to the other three. "What about you guys? Do you want to take my offer up?"


    The three pondered on their decisions silently for a few minutes, and only some contemtion did they decide that they would stay with DA.


    "I''m staying," said Irfan Mushtaq, as chill as a sloth resting on a tress. "My mum''s not a big fan of Umbridge. Plus, she''s alwaysining about how bad her job is, so she won''t mind if she gets canned and my dad makes good money, so no problems there."


    Quinn chuckled. "Your mum sounds like a fun person." He turned to Marietta. "Well, Edgbe, it seems our time together as fellow DA members have toe to an end."


    Marietta scoffed with her chin held high. "Good, getting out of this farce is the best thing that could have happened to me." She noticed the expressions of slight disgust and anger others were giving her, "Don''t look at me like that. What do you think is going to happen? That learning all this will make you top duelers, oh please, don''t kid yourself; this is just all of you ying around, pretending that you''re doing something great. Defense Against The Dark Arts is just a subject that, it''s not if you don''t learn it, your life will end. You know what, she might be not pleasant, but Umbridge makes some good points. There''s a reason why we have Aurors; they will protect us. We don''t need to learn all these spells and charms." She looked at Ivy, "Just because her brother says that You-Know-Who''s back doesn''t mean that he''s really back, and I have always thought that Dumbledore was a whacky in the head ¡ª no wonder he believed Potter''s words so quickly. So, I suggest you all drop the asinine fantasy of defeating the You-Know-Who ande back to reality; he''s not back and will never be back. I bet you this: In some days, we will get the news that the Aurors have arrested the escaped prisoners, they will be shipped back to Azkaban where they belong, and everything will go back to normal."


    Quinn, Ivy, along with the other three, watched in struck silence as she rambled on like a lotive train, piping out word after word as the train did smoke. Even her unusually high-pitched voice sounded like a ring train whistle going non-stop.


    When Marietta finally became silent, Quinn stepped forward and raised his hand for a handshake with her. "It was a short time, but I thank you for supporting DA, even as unwilling as it was."


    Marietta sped Quinn''s hand and said, "I thought more of you, Quinn. I thought you would be more realistic and not engage in this sort of farce. But to my surprise, you were here, and not only that, but you also brought in your friends, and more than that, you also brought a whole group of Slytherin into this."


    Quinn stared at Marietta, who seemed to exercise the gift of speech to the limit with a thin-lipped smile. "It seems I haven''t stood up to your expectations for me."


    Marietta let go of Quinn''s hand. "I hope you''d continue to keep DA a secret. While I don''t like this, I do care about Cho. It would be sad if she got into trouble. Especially with how good things are going with Cedric. Sometimes I can''t understand how did she bag someone like him. Boys can be so superficial, just looking for looks."


    Just when they thought that there might be one good bone in Marietta''s body, she took it in her hand and cracked it over, making it as crooked as every other.


    "Thank you, Marietta," said Quinn and gestured towards the door.


    Marietta puffed up her chest and walked towards the door with her chin held high. But she had taken a few steps when she felt a jolt hitting her back, sending prickling creeping through her body like a hundred-legged centipede crawling on her skin. She could feel her body, her muscles turn stiff like stone, and before she could even look down, Marietta felt her neck rigid, leaving her looking at a spot a few feet away from her.


    She tried to speak something, but her voice had seemed to betray her as not a peep came out of her throat. She pushed harder, tried to yell, screech, and shout, but the result was the same silence, setting a tinge of panic in her, but she couldn''t even show it with her entire body that seemed to have goneatose.


    But then she heard. "I''m sorry, Marietta, but we aren''t over with." She listened to the sound of footsteps moving near her until the figure dressed in Ravenw robes stood in front of her, and because she couldn''t move her neck or her eyes, she could only stare at the legs and boots. But she knew who it was.


    "As much as I trust you, DA simply can''t risk its existence get out," she heard the voice of Quinn speak slow and t. "We''re going to add just a little something to you to ensure that you will have help if and when someday you decide to make the mistake of betraying the people you love so much."


    A hand entered her sight, and it was holding a wand. She watched with her breathing turning heavier by the second as the wand touched her throat, and she could feel the cold touch of would against her skin and the tip pushing against herrynx.


    The cold wand turned warm as a stream entered her body through her neck. It felt like she had gulped down a warm drink quickly, lining her insides with a warm and fuzzy feeling, but she wasn''t feelingfortable; this was sending deeply unsettling shivers down her entire body.


    "If you ever decide to betray DA in any form. Speak about it, write about it, walk here to reveal the location, point out members to reveal their involvement or any other way you can think of ¡ª remember what I told you about, Intent is an integral part of magic ¡ª your eyes will stop seeing the light, your voice will betray you, your skin will steal away your touch, and you''ll again turn into stone.


    Beware, Mariette; you won''t want to turn deaf, mute, and blind because the curse will make that state stay there for a while before you get you to return to normal. If you get misguided again and try to go on the wrong path again, the curse will return to y with you, and this time it will stay for longer. The more times you try, the more you''ll be able to enjoy and appreciate life and experience it with your sense of taste and smell."


    Marietta wanted to scream, struggle, free herself of her stone-like state, and hit Quinn with everything she had, but she was helpless as a fish out of her water. Hearing Quinn''s word settled a deep sense of pitting despair; it clenched like a hand gripping down on her beating heart.


    As this was happening, Ivy watched and heard what had happened. In experiencing so, she was reminded who Quinn West was. She recalled the man who had entombed her into a wall because she impersonated his friend. Ivy was reminded of the man who had bound her and Hermione in his office and threatened to ruin her and her brother''s life. This was the same person who had implicated her and Hermione deeper by tricking them intoing along with them back in time.


    It reminded her that it might have been because she had be friends with Quinn that he decided not to do something like what he had done to Marietta, or exactly like what he had done to Marietta when she found his secret Cursed Vault.


    After that, Quinn sent away a heaving and scared silly Marietta and nervous other three, but not before instilling a good sense of motivation in the minds of Caruso, Romsey, Mushtaq to keep quiet about what had happened her to themselves, leaving only Ivy and him in the room.


    "Hey, sorry about that," said Quinn. "I didn''t mean to ignore you back there, but I had to do it now with only them and you present. It would have not gotten the approval if we had put it to a vote. I had to move quickly and decisively for this to be effective."


    "Will she really suffer all that?"


    "Hmm, partially," said Quinn, making Ivy look at him with confusion. "She would feel what I said a couple of times. But I''m not capable enough to freeze her entire body and take three out of five senses time after time for eternity. After a few times, the curse will start to wane and eventually fade away. I can, of course, cast it again. But I''m sure the fear would keep her away from viting the rules."


    Ivy once again stared at him, and her heart told her to say it, speak, tell him outright. She had observed him with ''her'' today, but both didn''t seem much different from what they usually were, which meant it wasn''t stillte, and she could get in.


    Ivy stared at Quinn, but the more she stared at him, the more her thoughts went to the events of Valentine''s day. She broke eye contact and hurriedly spoke. "Yes, I know. I mean, I understand why you did it. I myself would''ve shot you down if you had put it to vote."


    Quinn chuckled with a refreshing smile. "I know. I wouldn''t want it any other way."


    She once again looked at her, and her heart told her to say it, speak, tell him outright. She had observed him with ''her'' today, but both didn''t seem much different from what they usually were, which meant it wasn''t stillte, and she could get in.


    Yes, she should do it. She was going to do it. Now, right now.


    Ivy opened her mouth. "It''s okay. I don''t me you. We should go back; it''s gettingte. Everyone must be wondering what are we doing."


    She couldn''t say it.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Sin-Quinn was still at its base, still him.


    Ivy Potter - Conflicted - The word of heart stopped by the fear of mind.


    Marietta Edgbe - Cursed - Pretended nothing happened when she went back and went to sleep without saying a word.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I tried something new. I don''t know if it will show up, but if it does. what do you think?


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 237 - Third Room: Piping Pressure

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The sound of heavy stone dragging across a stone floor echoed in the vast room. It was the gritty sound one could hear when a stone pestle was ground against the grainy surface of the mortar, just louder.


    Quinn stared at the material cube; it had juste out of the wall, turning white to show that it was this one''s turn to be worked upon. He turned back away from the material cube, and on the opposite end of the room stood the entrance with the chasm sitting halfway across. He had finally reached the end of the challenging period of unending tribtions of repeated transmutation.


    "With this," said Quinn, "I will be free."


    He closed his eyes and unwrapped the memory of the object to be replicated that sat on the apparatus cube in the chasm. Ever since the objects had shown to have internal ws, Quinn had ditched measuring through scaling equipment and turned to Earth sense to scan every inch of the object and save the information in his mind to be used during replication.


    Quinn ced his hand on the material cube, and his closed eyes squeezed tighter with brows furrowing when he felt the coarse texture against his fingers and palm. Coarse material, in his experience, wasn''t good when it came to replication ¡ª it was too grainy and had too many air pockets that needed to be worked around and eliminated to get a perfect replica.


    ''Definitely a product of alchemy,'' thought Quinn as his magic trickled into the stone. The stone required exuberant amounts of magic to be turned from the stable to the flux state through which the magic of transmutation worked. There were naturally urring rocks with simr properties, but the way the stone was structured screamed artificial to Quinn.


    He pulled his hand back and came out, stuck to the inside of his hand was a viscous y-like gtinous blob ¡ª it was the transformative state that made the transformation of a substance possible. The viscous blob jiggled atop Quinn''s hand as he walked towards the chasm. His every step was filled with a sense of anticipation ¡ª one more transformation, and this would be done, he thought. He held the blob in between both his hands as he jumped down and stepped down on the floor with a slow grace.


    Quinn stood near the apparatus cube and stared at the blob in hand. He injected magic, and it shivered with minute spikes waving on the white surface. He felt vtile material fluctuating in his hands with a tenacity that fought against his magic, defying his will to change, trying to w to its original state, resisting the change that was being imposed on it, but in the face of the force asrge as the ocean to the rowboat that blob was, it couldn''t resist the unconquerable wizardry.


    Quinn pulled back his hands apart, leaving the blob to float in the air between the facing palms, trembling and spiking as it ttened into surfaces, curved into arches, and polished into the reflective surfaces while others donned matt qualities. He further concentrated, and tiny air pockets bubbled up inside the in-progress replica ¡ª they were irregr globs, defined squares, pointy polyhedrons, among many other things dotting the innards of the now ready to bepared replica.


    "Everything has an ending," he said and ced the object that screamed randomness on the cylinder tform with dull ck of stone. He gulped as his eyes moved back and forth between the target of replication and his replica. Did he miss anything? Was there a pesky pocket air pocket inside that passed by his senses? Or was there something entirely different with thest material cube?


    The answer was none of them.


    Quinn felt a tremble pass beneath his feet. His ears picked up rumble, and his eyes went up towards the ceiling, and a crinkle of dust entered his mouth, causing him to spit out a conjured mouthful of water to clear out the dust.


    "Yuck¡ª"


    Before the sshes of water off the floor could even settle down, the entire room began shaking violently.


    "Oh, for magic''s sake," Quinn stumbled backward,nding squarely on the floor, "not this again. Couldn''t he have done things differently?!"


    The material cubes began shifting out of the walls beside him and trading position right in front of his eyes. A cube just to his side rose above and flew into the sky like an elevator going straight up. A tremble stronger than before struck Quinn, and he found being raised into the air, the cube on which he had fallen had dislodged from the ground and was rising up.


    After the initial surprise passed, Quinn watched with an incredulous stare or dazed look as dozens of cubes were floating in the air. A cacophony of flying cubes unravelled in front of his eyes, spiking his heartbeat up as cubes crossed by, missing each other by inches, even centimetres from serious collisions.


    When things stopped moving and the shaking settled, Quinn finally got himself up and took in the changes that had unfolded in front of him. He was standing on an above-the-ground bridge constructed from a string of cubes going from one end of the room to the other end. Quinn stepped to the edge of the cube and stared down to find the chasm had vanished; in its ce was a t floor, one much deeper than the previous floor. He turned his head to the left and saw the room''s entrance at the bridge''s end. When he turned right, he found another new thing that interested him the most. It was another doorway opening in the way, one that hadn''t been there before.


    "The exit. . ."


    The sound of his footsteps echoed through the empty room as he walked towards the new doorway. He stopped right in front of the dark doorway and stared deep into the dark tunnel with no end in sight, not knowing where the tunnel led to.


    An orb of light swirled upon his palm as he raised his hand forward and faced it towards the tunnel. He curled his finger, sans the index, and touched the orb for it to gently float into the tunnel, with Quinn watching behind it sedately, his eyes darting everywhere the orb shed its light.


    The tunnel finally opened into a room smaller than the second room but bigger than the first one, but like both before, it followed the same theme of drab and dull grey.


    Quinn furrowed his brows as his eyes roamed across the room. It was too simple ¡ª the first had the center pedestal standing out, and the second had the chasm as an identifying piece, but this was a in cubic room with no exceptional details. The only point of focus stood directly opposite to him in the form of a door. It was an actual door with a door pane and a handle, though just like everything, it was also entirely made from stone.


    There was something wrong here, thought Quinn. He could feel it in his veins. The Architect''s a bastard, said a silent voice in the back of his head.


    He flicked his hand like throwing a ball up for a glowing-red Empyrean ball appearing spiral in the air before falling into his hand. Quinn narrowed his eyes and threw it like a skipping stone on ake, and because of the property imbed into the Empyrean, the ball mimicked a skipping stone and skipped across to the other side of the room.


    Nothing happened; the room remained as it was before. Would Quinn give up? No. Quinn started to throw objects made from Empyrean all over the room ¡ª at the floor, to the walls, over to the ceiling above. Once again, nothing happened.


    Quinn put his hands to the side of his mouth and shouted. "I am going to dig your tomb and robe your grave!" His voice reverberated off the walls, but nothing came in return ¡ª no reply filled with vitriol, threatening spells, and/or copsing walls.


    "It seems he is indeed dead. d to have that cleared. Cool, now to the difficult part." He looked down on the floor and carefully put his leg a step forward. Nothing happened, so he moved his back leg forward, and yet again, nothing happened.


    "Well, two rooms, and he hasn''t thrown me into freezing ice, personality-altering curses, water shenanigans, or carnivorous nts," said Quinn. Maybe the Architect wasn''t Hitler, he thought.


    Screw it, he thought and started to walk normally. And on his third step, a pizza box-sized square in the floor sunk beneath his leg. Quinn looked down, and the first thought that entered his mind was ¡ª Pressure te. Did it not trigger because the Empyrean ball wasn''t heavy enough? Did it work like andmine? he thought.


    Within the span of a single blink, something shot at him from the sunken te. It collided against an invisible shield spell before it could head Quinn in the head. As the object lost its rising momentum and fell back, Quinn raised his hand and caught it out of the air.


    Being careful about not shifting his weight on the pressure te, Quinn observed the object in hand. It was like around the size of his fingers with the thickness of a pencil, perfectly cylinders with two t sides on both ends. He tore his eye away from the ammunition for a second and looked at the floor, and as he expected, there was a circr hole in the floor, and if he was thinking right, the circr hole was the top part of a cylinder.


    Quinn fiddled with the cylinder for a moment before pocketing it. He looked at the spot one step ahead and nted his back leg onto it, triggering yet another pressure te while his other leg let off some weight of the previous pressure te, making it rise.


    This time, two cylinders were pelleted towards him. They mmed against the shield barrier and then floated down into his hands. Quinn pinched one of them between his index finger and thumb and brought it above to his face, and squinted at it. It was roughly the same thing as from the first tile. So did the other one.


    He looked down at his feet and saw the two holes. He nced at one of the cylinders and watched as it fell from his hand andnded on the floor. As it bounced off, the cylinder turned into a blob. Quinn''s eyes narrowed. It was transmutation, he thought as the blob contacted the floor and disappeared; it was more like sunk into the stone floor, and in the same instant, a hole filled up.


    Quinn licked his lips and stared at the sole remaining cylinder in his hand, cocked his arms, and threw it as far as he could. He kept his eye on the square tile beneath his feet, but his ears were peeled open. The second he heard the sound of the cylinder hitting the floor was the second he saw the second hole fill up.


    But then the next second, two cylinders shot up at him again, and Quinn had to jerk his head back to miss them by a breadth of a hair. "Shit! It''s on a loop!" he eximed, and his eyes widened as he heard two tters.


    His mind connected the newly acquired pieces of knowledge and pulled up a shield, and it had barely materialized when another two cylinders came colliding. Quinn watched the shield ripple mere inches away from his face and wondered about the possible double headshot he came close from suffering. The realization made him spring into action. The two cylinders in free fall suddenly came to an abrupt stop and flew spiralling into Quinn''s hands, one in each hand, courtesy of summoning spell.


    "Okay, okay," Quinn muttered choppily as he clenched his hands tightly around the cylinders. He shuffled his foot aside, just enough to create space for his other leg which he rested on the sunken tile. Both of his feet were now on the same tile.


    "Don''t panic," said Quinn to himself, "calm down and think. The solution, yes, it''s easy." Quinn waved his hand, and a silver tform appeared in front of him, hovering off the ground. "If I''m not on the ground, I won''t trigger a pressure te. Yes, keep it simple," said Quinn and hopped onto the silver tform. He turned back and grinned to see no sunken tiles meaning no shooting projectilesing for his head.


    "Ye-ah," Quinn smirked, "stupid oldie trying to be smart. Didn''t think of this one, eh, did you. Hmph, the Aquatic vault creator is better than you; at least he had the sense to disable brooms. Oh, wait, brooms weren''t a thing for a primitive oldie like you, eh, Gragg¡ª"


    The smirk drained from Quinn''s voice as he heard a familiar voice echo in the room. It was a sound he had so many times in the second room ¡ª the sound of when a material cube slid in and out of the wall, the gritting sound of stone against stone. His eyes honed onto the source, and he looked up towards the ceiling to see a square, the same size as the two pressure te tiles he had stepped on, sunk up into the ceiling.


    Something else ising, he thought.


    Thud!


    Quinn had just enough time to turn and pull up a shield to see a baseball bat sized cylinder impact on his shield, sending waves of ripple flying across the surface. The hit was nowhere near powerful enough to dent his shield, but it was powerful enough to crack his bones if it hit.


    The thought brought up fear in his mind. Fear was good, he thought as lumency began taking help, it would help.


    The third room couldn''t hear Quinn''s thought, and neither did it care for his thought because as Quinn''s eyes followed the baseball bat cylinder falling, another tile sunk up in the ceiling.


    Quinn heard it and knew another one wasing.


    Thud!


    Another baseball bat crashed into the shield dome that Quinn had pulled up. Quinn''s eye twitched. This second one was stronger than the first one.


    Thud!


    "What!" Quinn turned to see ripples and just caught a nce of the baseball bat sinking into the ground. Quinn''s eyes widened as he recognized what had happened. The force of this baseball bat was lighter, which meant it was from the first ceiling tile. The conclusion: auto loop.


    Thud!


    Second ceiling tile, thought Quinn, judging from the impact.


    He looked up and saw two sunken tiles, and then with his eyes on the ceiling, a third square tile sunk in.


    Thud! Thud!


    ''Third tile. Two projectiles. Stronger than second tile projectile,'' thought Quinn as two from third ceiling tile hit him and then immediately twobined from the first two ceiling tiles also made impacts, sending ripples that collided with other ripples, making more ripples on the shield''s surface.


    ''Roughly two seconds,'' he thought, ''there''s a two-second gap before a new tiles sink in. Every tile remains sunk, meaning that the attacks will stack up with time.'' His mind processed the facts he had, and another hypothesis was formed: ''The longer I stay off the ground, the more ceiling tiles would get activated.''


    The ceiling tiles had begun sinking when he had stepped off the ground.


    ''So, if I step down, the ceiling tiles would deactivate,'' he thought and then looked up. ''That''s three seconds. Time for the fourth one.''


    He looked up, and indeed a fourth ceiling tile sunk up.


    ''I should step down. It would be easier to stay in one spot on the groun¡ª''


    Bang!


    It came out of a sudden. Quinn, who had been standing firm on the silver tform, was sent flying. As he flew, his body almost parallel to the floor, Quinn''s eyes caught, for a brief second, through the rippling still entirely intact shield, what had hit him ¡ª the projectile was no longer baseball bat sized, but what he in the situation judged as Luna sized. The size and speed had enough momentum to send Quinn together with his shield ¡ª it was like a football being kicked ¡ª the ball wouldn''t rupture, but it would go flying.


    With whateverposure he could muster while being forcibly flung, Quinn cast Arresto Momentum to slow himself down. A blue light covered Quinn''s entire body as he visibly slowed down and gyro-ed upright at the exact moment he contacted ground on his feet.


    Quinn released a held breath. "That was sudden ¡ª."


    His words died down in his throat, and he snapped his gaze down ¡ª he was standing on a sunken tile. The internal rms red, and the emergency message sted to his body, but before it could act, spikes came out of the ground.


    A painful howl pierced the room.


    Quinn heaved and grunted in pain as his eyes trembled in and out of focus with the sight of stone spikes prating into his leg. From his ankle to his thigh, every part of his leg was pierced. Quinn grimaced as a spike scraped his bone.


    He gritted his teeth and let the pain flow freely. It was helping his consciousness.


    ''Okay, don''t take the s-spikes out,'' Quinn thought. He had to keep the wounds closed. But he couldn''t remain here stuck with the spikes; he needed to free himself.


    ''Remember the second floor tile,'' he thought. He had the facts clear in his mind. His hand trembled as he made a shaky swing, and the tip of the spikes was lopped off the body of the spike a with smooth slice of transmutation.


    ''O-Okay,'' Quinn breathed out shakily, and his half-lidded eyes moved up to the room''s entrance. He had been thrown quite a distance away from the entrance.


    Quinn closed his eyes, and he could hear his breathing.


    He opened his eyes, and steel shone in the stone greys.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - A thought passed in his mind: This is the norm.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - This is Conflict.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 238 - The Stoney Struggle

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The sound of hisbored breath was all he could hear.


    Quinn watched as the bodies of the spikes with splotches and trails of blood retreated back into the floor, leaving behind the tips lodged in his body, stabbing his legs. A pained moan escaped him as the stone sliced around in his open wound. It was clear to him in his lumency-churning mind that he needed to do something about the lodged into his mind before he could do anything else.


    ''I have time,'' he thought. His eyes went to the second floor tile a distance away from him. ''It shot two projectiles at me,'' the finger-sized pencil projectiles that he still had in his pocket. And just like every other tile in the room, it was on a loop.


    But that was it.


    ''It''s on a loop that starts after both projectiles are replenished. It didn''t work with only one. For the projectiles to be reshot, both projectiles needed to be sunk inside the floor.''


    In his initial experiment, Quinn had dropped the projectiles into the floor one-by-one, and the fact that the tile didn''t shoot after the first Quinn dropped drew his attention.


    ''All parts of the tile need to go back inside for it to loop,'' he had observed, ''even if a single piece stays outside, the tile won''t enter the next reiteration.''


    Quinn stared at his shaking legs. There was more than a single piece outside the tile. And that''s why he had time. As long as he didn''t trigger another tile and kept the current tile from resetting, Quinn had all the time in the world.


    ''At least I hope so,'' he thought, staring around the room. Remaining cautious in case there was a penalty for staying still for too long.


    The next order of business, as Quinn stared at, it was regaining his mobility. ''Okay, okay, okay, let''s go on about it one at a time.'' Quinn waved his hand over a piece lodged in his thigh to shrink so that he could smoothly dislodge it, but nothing happened.


    Quinn wet his lips and breathed out deeply. ''It''s okay, don''t get angry, just check it,'' he thought to himself. He closed his eyes, and magic flowed into every stone lodged into his body.


    ''Achemically modified substance.'' Quinn groaned. Like the second room, it seemed that this one was also constructed from stone altered to resist magical change. He couldn''t shrink it.


    His entire face scrunched up, even taking deep breathes wasn''t working, and Quinn could feel acid bubble up inside him. Maybe because he had a face and name for the person behind all of this, Quinn felt his emotions spike more than any other vault. He hadn''t felt like this since he had almost frozen to death in the Icy vault.


    Quinn exhaled once and closed his eyes. His tensed-up face eased, and he got back to the task at hand. Fortunately, Quinn had slogged and ved diligently in the second room and remembereding across the same substance. So while he couldn''t shrink it, he could transmute it into another shape.


    The spike-edge stuck in the middle of his thigh began to wiggle from the center as if someone had melted a block of metal and turned it into liquid. That just without all the incinerating molten heat. Slowly, the stone turned into sludge and began oozing out of his wound, trailing down his leg, taking a route around the other injuries. After a few seconds, the stone had left, leaving an open wound, but that wasn''t a problem for a pursuer of healing magic with deep knowledge of blood magic. A green glow covered the wound, and the blood stopped leaking out and instead was diverted into other intact capiries.


    After several minutes, green glows dotted Quinn''s leg. His legs trembled, but with a little help of body magic, he remained standing. Quinn stared at a triangr cone covered with dried-up blood. He breathed on it for the red to evaporate in a hazy mist, after which he pocketed to not ever meet the spikes any time soon.


    "Okay, that''s that," he said as he stood straight, his face twitching in grimace as he did so. He pushed more juice into body magic, and his expression loosened.


    Quinn stared at the room''s entrance, and the roamed his gaze everywhere in between. He had no clue of what sort of traps waited for his path. Quinn nced up and weighed his choices ¡ª the room was big enough that even if he mounted his hoverboard and made a run for it, he wouldn''t reach in time ¡ª ''Twelve or thirteen seconds. . . . eight seconds was that. What would be two more levels be like?'' he thought.


    A cinder block of tungsten weighing the same weight as him suddenly dropped from the sky at a distance, sending booming shocks across the room. Quinn kept his eyes peeled on the cinder block but, no projectiles came shooting, no spikes pierced, or any other torturous carriers of death made any appearances.


    "The sick bastard built it for living targets," Quinn spat when he saw that the floor beneath the heavy tungsten cinder block was as t as they came. Quinn sighed. The option of using a decoy so he could make a run for it was out as a viable strategy.


    "Alright," he said, taking out a shrunk-down hoverboard, "let''s try out my chances." He dropped it on the ground, put one leg on the board, and the very next second used his other leg to push off forward while pumping magic to start the lift off the ground.


    One.


    Quinn stared at the ceiling as the board sped straight towards the hoverboard.


    Two.


    Here ites, he thought. A ceiling tile depressed into the ceiling, but his body went stiff when it wasn''t the same tile that had depressed thest time. Quinn jerked his head down as his eyes darted around frantically and what the room presented to him was a barrage of fist-sized cones. Dozens of cones covered Quinn''s vision as they collided with his shield, sending ripples all across.


    A bitter grin surfaced on his face. His assumption had been incorrect.


    "Architect¡ª"


    The words never graced the world, but the sound of another tile depressing did. Instinctually Quinn looked down and saw the still hovering, and it was only a beatter he registered what had happened and immediately cut magic, thusnding on the ground.


    The punishment for his error was a rotating discing for his legs. Fortunately for Quinn, all he needed to do was jump as it went below him, but he was again punished with the reminder that he wasn''t in perfect health.


    Quinn let out an agonizing yell as hended on his feet.


    But s, he couldn''t stop to rest orment as even though he was discounted from eh ceiling trap, he was once again on the ground. His eyes once again got busy, looking for the next source of distress. However, it wasn''t his eyes but his ears that alerted him of the danger this time.


    He looked up, and there was the danger in the form of a square column of whose length he couldn''t judge falling right over his head. Quinn raised both hands, and magic soared into the air, wrapping around the stone column. A tremendous weight settled on his magic, and in that moment, Quinn felt like the Greek Titan As with the weight of the sky on his back in the eternal journey to keep it copsing on the ground to prevent the union of Uranus and Gaia.


    Quinn had lost the will to voice his thoughts. Today was supposed to be a good day for him, with himpleting the second room and scouting the third room, which he did, but then everything went south.


    He shook his head of the stray thoughts to get back on track. He stared at a step in front of him. There''s no telling what it would trigger, and he didn''t have the courage to try flyover once again today ¡ª that would be for another day for future-Quinn, who he hoped would return with a renewed vigor and motivation ¡ª right now, he just wanted to get home.


    No use of contemting this, he thought and took a swift first step to the next tile and moved ahead with minimal movement, leaving the overhead column fall. He would have loved to see the column disappear into the floor, but s, he didn''t have the time.


    Thud!


    Without skipping a beat, an object banged against his shield. Quinn furrowed his brow, switched off his shield, and reached out his hand, and grabbed the thing. Sat in his open palm was a small cube with razor-sharp edges. He felt underwhelmed. He thought it would be yet another pain-inducing ordeal, but it was a nugget. Quinn looked ahead at his path, and there was roughly ten more steps worth of distance left.


    ". . . Alright then, let''s see if it works," he said and took a step forward while pocketing the cube. Once again, another object was shot at him, again he caught it, and once more, it was a cube. The only difference was that it was shot slightly slower; the force wasn''t as great as before.


    "A pattern?" he asked.


    He pocketed another cube and took another step. This time the cube came from just a few feet away from the ground. It was yet again a level slower than before.


    "A pattern," he concluded.


    Another pocketing and stepter, Quinn was holding three spheres, smaller than the cube. Another step got him two spheres. A third consecutive step got him a solitary sphere.


    ''I''m not in danger,'' he thought, daring not to say it aloud, afraid of jinxing it. He didn''t jinx it as after five more steps, Quinn stood with three pyramids and four cylinders atop his palm.


    Quinn turned back and looked at the room, his gaze weightless. "I''m out," he said.


    What felt like days for a weary traveler in a harsh desert were finally over.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Eddie climbed the stairs, skipping steps along the way, and entered his dorm with a cloud in his step. He walked to his study desk, humming a peppy tune, and shrugged his shoulder to drop his book bag near the desk. He threw his outer robe onto his bed and was shuffling towards the bathroom when he stopped as he came across Quinnying full starfish on his bed.


    "When did you get here?" he asked.


    There was a silence before a subdued voice said, "An hour."


    "Tough day?"


    Quinn grunted in affirmation and then asked, "You sound happy. What happened?"


    "Hagrid got canned. The bitch did it in front of fifth-year Gryffindors and Slytherins."


    "You happy about that?"


    "Hmm? Oh, no, why I''d be happy with Umbitch getting her way. I''m happy because tomorrow Gryffindor and Hufflepuff y to see who''s going to y us for the cup."


    "Ah, that," his voice trailed.


    Eddie walked to Quinn''s bed and plopped himself on it. He heard Quinn groan and saw him turn over to face side down on the bed.


    "I''m not going tomorrow. Ask Luna," said Quinn, his voice muffled against the bed.


    "What''s up with you?"


    After another spell of silence, Quinn spoke again. "Curse for me, please."


    "Huh? What the hell are you talking about?"


    "Just spout some profanities. I''m too tired. Curse in my proxy."


    "Why?" Eddie asked, and again there was no reply, so he shrugged and started to showcase his exceptional talent in the creative artistry of obscenities.


    During what Quinn and Eddie felt was a beautiful string of words, Marcus entered the room and was stumbled mid-stride when the terror of words entered his ears. He watched with incredulous regard as one of his best friends spoke a number of vulgarities ridiculous even for him while he could also see his other best friend lying prone with his face smushed into the bed, raising a limp thumbs up.


    "What in the name of everything good are you two doing?" he said.


    Eddie stopped and waved his hand. "Did you hear? Hagrid got canned."


    Marcus thought he heard a muffle that vaguely sounded like "Got canned" from Quinn.


    ''Yes, I heard that," Marcus said, walking towards them. "Umbridge dropped by the Muggle Studies ssroom." And he had juste back from said ss.


    Quinn slowly turned his head sideways out of bed. "What happened?" he asked, his eyes half-closed.


    Marcus sighed. "She gave Professor Potter an ultimatum. Umbridge said that if Professor Potter continued to teach outside of the formal Ministry-approved curriculum, then she''d be let go. To remain at Hogwarts, she''d have to teach the decades-old books that the Ministry deems as thetest Muggle culture." He could still picture the expressionless features of Lily''s face as Umbridge ''sweetly'' exined the rules and how that brave appearance had crumbled into a worrisome after.


    "That''s sad," said Quinn before closing his eyes.


    "What''s up with him?" Marcus asked Eddie.


    Eddie shrugged. "I don''t know. He''s tired, I guess. I found him like this."


    "I''ve got a feeling Umbridge has only just started being horrible," said Marcus darkly.


    "I wouldn''t say that," said Eddie, draping a sheet over Quinn, "she''s already plenty horrible. She banned Potter from Quidditch. I don''t like the bloke, but I won''t wish that for even my worst enemies if you know what I mean. However, the bitch got much more horrid bile in her body, so I won''t let it past her to pull off something more repulsive."


    "You mark my words; she will do something worse. She got her revenge on Dumbledore for appointing a new teacher without consulting her," said Marcus. "Especially another part-human. You saw the look on her face when she saw Firenze . . . she shot back by canning Hagrid and the thing with Professor Potter."


    "Bah!" said Eddie. "As long as she leaves Quidditch alone. She can do no worse, and after what Quinn did at the start of the year, she won''t be touching it."


    "Is Quidditch the only thing in your head?"


    "Of course not. I''m a Raven, my fat friend. I have multitudes of thoughts in my mind. Didn''t you hear me back then spitting out those lines? That wasn''t Quidditch."


    Marcus sighed as he switched off the MLEs in the room on his way out of the dorm.


    "I''m not fat."


    Eddie wrapped his arm over Marcus'' shoulders as they stepped down the stair. "You will make the best pillow." And then put his hand on Marcus'' belly and made it jiggle repeatedly.


    "Oh yeah, that''s the good stuff. Let me do it more."


    "Stop it!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    - (Omake: Worries of collector) -


    .


    Turning back the sands of time to the point in history when the First Educational Decree Wave descended onto the publics of Hogwarts.


    Ivy Potter dragged her feet above the stairs to her dorm room after a long day of sses and assignments. She entered her room with the thoughts of skipping dinner and going directly to bed, but the drawer of those thoughts was shut closed when she saw Hermione pace up and down in the room.


    "What happened?" she asked, dropping the book bag on her desk and lifting a ton of her shoulders. "Why are you pacing around like a trapped ostrich?"


    "Did you see the notice board?" said Hermione, still trying to burn foot tracks on the rug.


    "Everyone in school saw the notice board, Hermione."


    "Educational Decree No. Forty."


    "What about it?"


    "It says that all items that are not of educational value are banned from Hogwarts!" Hermione said, panicked. "What should I do?!"


    "Hermione. . . I don''t think you have items that are not of educational value. You don''t even own a Chocte-Frog card."


    "But I own this!"


    Ivy looked at the thing Hemione pped onto her hand. "This is an AID card. What about it?"


    "AID cards aren''t educational items. Knowing Umbridge, she''ll definitely get rid of them," said Hermione, her hand on her forehead. "Turn the card around and read what it says."


    Ivy turned the card, and to her surprise, a short prose sat on the back instead of a sign that showed if the office was open or close. "The recently passed Educational Decree No. Forty have banned non-educational items. AID cards fall under that category. To protect yourself from possible detentions, it''s advised to hide or dispose of the AID cards on your person at your convenience and desire. AID Consultations will not be responsible for any possible harm that maye upon you because of the possession of our non-educational products. May you have a good day. . . so it says" Ivy looked up and shrugged. "It''s pretty clear to me. Burn the cards and be done with it."


    "No."


    "Hermione, Umbridge will ¡ª"


    "No!"


    Ivy stared at her adamant friend, who had finally picked a stationary spot where she stood with her arms crossed.


    "I can''t let my precious collection turn into worthless dead ash pile. They''re beautifully crafted works of magics that should be preserved, admired, and studied rather than burned!" Ivy stepped back at the cat''s hissing shriek that Hermione''s voice sounded like by the end.


    "Th. . .Then what do you want to do?"


    "We have to get the collection to safety." Hermione''s eyes turned fiery as she dered, "Hogwarts is no longer safe." Immediately after, she headed towards the door.


    "Where are you going?"


    "To secure the safety of my collection."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Hermione and Ivy¡ª " "¡ªWhat can we do for you two today?"


    Ivy nced between the Weasley twins and Hermione, trying to figure why Hermione hade to the two people she usually would absolutely not go to for help.


    "I need your help to smuggle something out of Hogwarts. Can you do it?"


    The Weasley twins'' brows disappeared into their hairlines. They turned to each other, and their faces made expressions as colors on a rainbow.


    "Did I hear it correctly, brother mine?"


    "I think you did, brother, or we might be dreaming."


    Both brothers reached forward and pinched the other.


    " "Ouch! It''s not a dream!" "


    They turned back to Hermione and shifted in their chairs to sit straighter.


    "What do you want to be smuggled out?" asked Fred.


    "An item of the great importance of me," said Hermione severely. "I''m willing to pay any price for its safe exit and transport to my home."


    George leaned forward. "Any price, you say? Like what?"


    "I''m willing to turn my eyes away from your activities for an entire month," said the strictest Prefect in Hogwarts.


    " "Three months!" " It became clear to the twins that if Hermione Granger was willing to go such limits, then the item must really be of great importance. So they decided to milk it.


    Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Two months," she said, raising two fingers.


    " "Deal!" "


    Ivy sighed. She couldn''t see sense in whatever was going on here. But maybe it was because she was too tired, she thought.


    The next day, two figures exited Hogwarts through uncharted routes and delivered three identical packages to a private owl mailing service. Later that day, three non-descript native brown barn owls took flight, with one of them going to Hampstead Garden Suburbs, northwest London.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Now in sleep mode to recuperate.


    Eddie Carmichael - Master of finer arts - Spitting fire.


    Marcus Belby - Has a gut - Worried for Professor Potter.


    Hermione Granger - Collector - My precious!


    Ivy Potter - Confused Friend - Tagging along an operation she doesn''t understand.


    Weasley Twins - Fred & George | Gred & Forge - Smuggles or goods.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 239 - Aid In Distress

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    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The timeless ticks of the spread-eagle-silhouette novelty wall clock put together by an entric Ravenw for the ce she worked and learned, desiring to powder the room with her ir to make it her own in small ways.


    "The water at theke was quite foamy today," she said, breaking the soft silence with her dreamy voice. "I fear Yorwel season hase early this year."


    The nip of Quinn''s pen came to a scribbling stop against an order letter to be sent to his ironmonger for a new batch of metals. He searched, but it was the first time he had heard that. He wondered if he should ask about what a Yorwel was?


    "Why''re Yorwels foaming up theke?" he asked.


    "When they breed, you see," she said, a faraway look in her eyes. "The male emits a ¡ª"


    "Ah, I remember now, yes, Yorwels," he amended quickly. That look in her eyes was the harrowing signal that he might be pulled into a rabbit hole that would whisk them both him and her to the deepest dusty corners of the library, scouring untouched bookshelves on what would more likely than not turn into a wild goose chase.


    The room yet again lulled into a working reticence as Quinn returned to penning his letter while she on the other side to her flipbook of a bizarre concoction of color eating up the pages. Neither had anything to say nor felt the need to fill out that mundane silence.


    And if not for the disorder that came knocking on their door, the silence would have flowed to the end of their today.


    Before Quinn could even respond to the knocking, the bell chime rang, and in came Umbridge, strutting. Quinn raised his brows on the ount that she even bothered to knock. His gaze went behind Umbridge, where Filch stood hunched on the threshold showing his crooked teeth.


    "Madam Umbridge," he said in greeting, not bothering to stand. "What in the grand scheme of things led for you to make your way here to this humble dwelling of service and assistance?"


    Umbridge squished her brows together, and her strut copsed.


    Quinn smiled patiently, "What I mean is how can I help with you today?"


    Umbridge smiled sweetly but Quinn knew he had been sessful when he saw the throbbing vein on her forehead.


    "Mr. West," Umbridge said, "to answer your question, I''m here today to present you with a gift from the Ministry."


    "A gift?" he asked. McGonagall would forsake Quidditch before he would get a gift from Dolores Umbridge.


    "Yes, a gift to help ¡ª to assist as you put it ¡ª with your journey as a student of Hogwarts."


    He wondered why she was beating around the bush, trying to be clever as he could judge. It wasn''t a sessful attempt, he thought. "What that might be?" he asked.


    With a smile glistening with joy from the bottom of her heart, Umbridge took out a rolled-up parchment from her punchy pink purse and handed it to him. "A gift to help you, who has been helping others, to show that there''s someone who you can count upon when in need of help."


    Quinn held back from rolling his eyes as he unravelled the cord tie. He already had those people in his life, and Dolores Umbridge wasn''t them, would never be. But the understanding dawned on him the moment his eyes fell upon the printed contents of the parchment.


    Umbridge beamed sadistically at the sight of emotion voiding from Quinn''s face, knowing that she had finally got him.


    "I had that," Umbridge said, referring to the parchment in Quinn''s hand, "made a few weeks ago; it took some time to arrive, but it came through today, so here I am to give you the good news personally."


    Quinn continued to stare at the parchment in his hand. He knew that it woulde. Knowing her, he was sure it woulde, but seeing it in his hands was a feeling different than what he had envisioned and prepared for.


    "Quinn?"


    He tore his eyes away from the parchment and looked up. "It''s okay, Luna," he shook his headfortingly, seeing the worried look on her face. He handed her the parchment; this concerned her as much as it did for him.


    Luna received the parchment and immediately looked at it. Her dreamy, idyllic eyes regained a sharp focus the moment she read the contents.


    .


    EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. SEVENTY-SEVEN.


    ----------- By Order Of -----------


    The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts


    All extracurricr activities are subject to review by the High Inquisitor.


    Signed:


    Dolores Jane Umbridge


    High Inquisitor


    ----------- Ministry of Magic -----------


    .


    It was just a single line, a straightforward sentence, but one that left no doubt about its power.


    "Luna, can you please give us some room? I will join you shortly."


    Luna looked up at Quinn, her brows drawing together, grabbing a fistful of her cardigan and shirt. Quinn smiled assuredly; it was all he could do right now in the current moment.


    She silently got up, a different silence from her usual zoned-out silence. Luna turned and red at Umbridge, who didn''t even spare her a nce. Sheckadaisically walked to the door, where Filch smiled crookedly at her ¡ª to the caretaker, every student was a hateful little runt, no difference. Luna waited for him to get aside, but when he didn''t, she roughly shoved him aside with as much force her petite body could muster ¡ª to her praise, Filch did p around his arms to regain his disturbed bnce.


    "It seems you finally achieved what you failed back then," he said, crossing his hands over his desk. "I assume that you already put AID through the review process, and it was concluded that it failed the review."


    Umbridge let out a toe-curling giggle, "As expected of the top student of Hogwarts. And that''s exactly why AID failed the review ¡ª because of you." Quinn gave her a nk stare, which she took in strides. "We can''t have the top student divert their attention and potentially ruin their studies. Especially when you''re taking NEWT level courses and at an important junction of your life ¡ª didn''t I say it before? I''m here to help you."


    "Yes, you did," said Quinn and stood up. "I guess it''s time to close up."


    "Yes, it is," she said with the mirth and gloat shing on her ruddyplexion. "Argus hase prepared, so all you need to do is hand him the key," at the door, Filch picked up nks of wood, a hammer, and a box of clinking nails from outside of the room, "you can return to retrieve your personal articlester."


    "I had imagined this, but never thought I would do it," Quinn took out his fake wand and swung it once. Like a squid spurting ink in water, an inky ck diffused in every corner of the room ¡ª the deep brown table turned to ash ck, the ss wall took on an obsidian tint, vibrant paintings turned to ck tes, healthy green nts turned to healthy dark nts ¡ª in seconds, every square inch of the room was colored ck.


    It was the color of death, a shademon at funerals, which Quinn thought fit the situation.


    Quinn draped his robe cloak over his arm and looked at a Umbridge with her eyes darting all around the darkroom. "Shall we go?" he asked. Now that this had happened, he had some work to do and wanted to get it quick.


    He didn''t wait for a response and began walking towards the door when he felt a hand grip on his bicep, making him stop. He looked at the obvious suspect and asked: "Yes?"


    "Before we go. I would like to see what''s inside."


    Quinn followed Umbridge''s gaze and saw that she was looking at the ck workshop door. He looked down at the shorter woman, and a few seconds passed in silence.


    "No."


    Umbridge jerked her back at Quinn, her grip tightening around Quinn''s arm. "My apologies, but I might have listened incorrectly. Did you just refuse?"


    "Yes," Quinn nodded, "you''re not going inside."


    "I hope you understand what is happening here, Mr. West, but AID is disbanded. I demand ¡ª"


    He ripped his hand out of her grasp. "I refuse."


    Umbridge''s hand slowly rose up to her chest as her eyes turned cold and hard. "I order you to open that door right at this moment."


    "As I said before and now will repeat ¡ª I refuse," said Quinn tly.


    A deafening silence enveloped the room, and mixing with the ck surroundings, it descended into a room one would instinctually avoid.


    Umbridge turned her chin up at Quinn, and her lips curled up into a stic smile, "Detention for you, Mr. West, and this time you aren''t getting away."


    "Be that as it may be, you''re not getting through that door," said Quinn ¡ª got her!


    Umbridge held her wide from her body, and with her chest thrust out, she walked to the workshop door. She took out her wand and was about to cast an unlocking charm when she saw that there wasn''t a lock on the door, just a door handle. She grabbed it and tried to open the door but neither push nor pull conceded her entry.


    She turned to Quinn and was about to ask when she saw Quinn''s nk stare, and her words died in her mouth. She cleared her throat and stood taller, "We''ll just have toe hereter and employ a forceful method to enter. I am looking forward to finding what you attempt to hide. I hope it''s not something illegal."


    She was met with silence.


    "Well then," Umbridge turned her wrist to look at her watch, "it''s already time," she looked up at Quinn, "we''ll be starting your month-long detention today and right now."


    Quinn shrugged half-heartedly. If she wanted to give him what he needed, he wasn''t going to stop her.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The west corner of the fifth-floor of Hogwarts was traveled to by students when they wanted to visit the AID office and otherwise remained a part of the castle devoid of people because of no active ssroom in the vicinity. This was the reason why Quinn was so ted when Flitwick had assigned him the ssroom for the office because he knew if AID was sessful, then a part of the castle would bendmarked and defined by AID.


    So it surprised Umbridge and even Quinn that not even halfway through the west corner, to see an entire crowd of Hogwarts students clogging the entire hallway ¡ª there were uniforms entuated with blue and bronze, those with red and gold, numerous with yellow and ck, and even green and silver.


    There were ghosts that flew in the air. Even the chaos-agent Peeves the poltergeist was in attendance ¡ª uncharacteristically silent under the dead gaze of the Bloody Baron.


    Quinn''s eyes caught the group of professors standing at the head of the crowd, and in that group, he saw his head of the house, Filius Flitwick, clutching a familiar parchment in his hands. He immediately understood the reason behind this crowd by seeing Luna (nked by Eddie and Marcus) standing beside the professors.


    It brought a broad smile to his face, which he made no effort to hide ¡ª they needed to know that everything was fine, especially those who he taught in secret at least once a week. He did his best tomunicate that all was well.


    "What is this?" said Umbridge, stepping forward. "Why has this crowd gathered here?"


    The big man himself, with his colorful robes and long white beard, stepped forward out from the crowd, "We heard that you disbanded AID. Is it true?" said Dumbledore, asking for the group.


    "Yes," said Umbridge, still confused why the entire school was gathered here, "I have decided that AID takes too much of Mr. West''s time, thus a risk to his academics."


    "Is that so," said Dumbledore ncing at Quinn, who stared back at him, the smile still present on his face. He looked back at Umbridge and spoke, "For four years, this being the fifth, Mr. West has operated AID to great sess without ever letting his academics slip. In fact as you as his professor must know that he''s the brightest of his age. " He pointed at the mob behind him, "This crowd here has gathered here because Mr. West with his work at AID has touched everyone in some form or another ¡ª they have received help at his door, no matter how old they are, no matter what houses they belong to ¡ª they have never been turned away. For the students, can you also reconsider your decision and reinstate AID?"


    Umbridge breathed a resigned sigh, "I''m moved by this show of unity by the school, but at the same time, I feel pity because the support you have gathered is focused on the wrong person."


    The entire crowd muttered in confused discussion at her words. What did she mean by focusing on the wrong person?


    Flitwick stamped forward, and his lips curled into thin lines, showing teeth, "What are you trying to say by that Dolores?" his voice screech.


    "I''m simply trying to state that when I asked Mr. West to show me what is behind a closed door in his ''office,'' he refused toply with orders of both a professor and High Inquisitor, even after I gave him repeated chances to revert his stance, but s, it was to no change." She nced behind and stared Quinn down, "He must be hiding something that he''s afraid of showing me because he realizes that it''s wrong and hical ¡ª and that''s why I had to make the difficult decision of giving him detention, which pained me a lot because Mr. West indeed is the brightest of the ones I have taught. That is why I hope that the disbandment of AID would set him on the right path. It''s for his own good, or so I think as his professor, concerned for his future."


    Quinn continued to smile without a change in expression, and everyone saw. It made many wonder if Quinn was indeed hiding something behind that ss wall of his. No one knew (sans a select few) what resided behind it, and his apparent refusal to reveal was indeed a sign of guilt.


    "Mr. West," said Flitwick, "let''s go right now and see what''s behind the wall. It''s okay. I won''t let anyone take advantage of you so please be fearless and let''s make it clear that you have nothing to hide."


    Quinn matched eyes with his head of the house. "Thank you, Professor, but I apologize; I''m not willing to share what''s in my workshop."


    "Mr. West. . ."


    But Quinn shook his head. He had already decided. No matter what happened here, he wasn''t going to change his position and keep on course.


    Dumbledore said, "Mr. West, are you sure about this?"


    "Yes, headmaster, I am sure," said Quinn.


    Dumbledore sighed, "I see. . . then there''s nothing we can do." There was nothing he could do here without Quinn''s cooperation ¡ª but there was something he couldn''t do. He turned to Umbridge. "Professor Umbridge, I wish you luck in your disciplinary actions and hope whatever you find is harmless. . . personal items that Mr. West isn''tfortable sharing. We would be waiting with bated breaths to see whatever youe up with."


    Umbridge stiffened, body and all, only momentarily. She regainedposure but couldn''t stop her smile from twitching. She hadn''t missed the message; Dumbledore''s intentions were was as clear as his half-moon spectacles ¡ª by asking her to inform him, Dumbledore had dered that she wasn''t going to get any assistance from anyone else (other than Filch) ¡ª it wasn''t a problem for her, a good sting curse would get the work done, but it was highly humiliating.


    "I shall keep you informed, headmaster," she said, her nostrils ring. "Now, I ask that everyone give us space. It''s time Mr. West serves his detention."


    The crowd parted like Moses dividing the sea, giving a passage for Umbridge and Quinn to pass.


    As Quinn passed, hemunicated to some people ¡ª he smiled calmly at people he knew; winked to Eddie, Marcus, and Luna; nodded to the Golden Squad, and as he passed by the tail of the crowd, he matched eyes with a distraught Daphne, to her, he mouthed, ''I will be fine,'' to assure her that all was well.


    Umbridge and Quinn were almost out of earshot of the crowd when a loud shout came from somewhere in the ocean of ck-robed students.


    "Fucking bitch!"


    Umbridge''s steps faltered in shock, but she acted she didn''t hear and continued to walk, and it would have saved her face if not for the fact she couldn''t hear snickeringing from just behind her. She consoled her that in a few minutes, she was going to get her revenge.


    "We have arrived," Umbridge said, fighting to keep the itch out of her voice. She opened the door to her office and stared at Quinn.


    He once again half-heartedly shrugged and walked into the pink and cat exhibit.


    Umbridge entered behind him, her eyes shining with a twisted light as she closed the door behind her.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Smile & Nod.


    Dolores Umbridge - Umbitch - Got him finally.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I hope I wrote this properly


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 240 - The Time Of Quinn & Quill

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Umbridge''s office was as Quinn had seen uncountable times through a screen, every surface draped withcy clothes and frilly covers. It had the same overwhelming scent of peony flowers that he had to cover his nose away from while on his few visits to the office. The wall that seemed to be Umbridge''s foul shrine to kitten decorated tes still made him ufortable.


    "Please sit down, Mr. West."


    Quinn removed his eyes from dead flowers in the vases and casually made his way to the straight-backed chair prepared for him. He sat down and set his hands on the small table draped in freshce; he caressed the pattern of the frills with his digits ¡ª trying to feel the history of numerous cutting wounds and trickling blood, wondering if she cleaned the covers or reced them every time.


    Umbridge scampered around the room, preparing the supplies for the detention, getting the giggles while doing it.


    "There you go," she ced a stack of parchment on the table and, with trembling hands, gentlyid a ck quill on top, "we''re now ready to start on your disciplinary rehabilitation. From today, we''re going to work together and put in the effort to instill in you the qualities of a fine young wizard. Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me. You have the quill and parchment; please start without dy."


    She leaned forward, her face above his head, as she whispered in the softest of voices, "I want you to write, ''I will obey Professor Umbridge.''" Quinn felt her hand brush from his shoulder to shoulder as she passed by towards her own chair across his small table, behind her own full-sized desk.


    Hezily shrugged at her intent gaze, barely holding the sparkle within. He picked up the ck quill and asked, "Ink, please" ¡ª he had to pretend to be a first-timer.


    "It''s a special pen, dear," she giggled with a closed mouth, "you won''t be needing ink."


    "How convenient. . ."


    Quinn ced the nip on the parchment, almost tearing the page with its unnatural sharpness, and wrote the first line: I will obey Professor Umbridge.


    Umbridge''s cheekbones rose at the sight of the red words being inked on the parchment. She leaned forward to get a good look above scalpel cuts that appeared on the back of Quinn''s hand. But she felt a strange sense of discordance at the sight she had enjoyed so many times. Umbridge tried to pinpoint on hit; for a few seconds, it evaded her like a mice evading a cat on its trail, but when the cat finally caught up, the reason became apparent.


    He hasn''t stopped writing, she thought. Not a single student he had handed the blood quill had even continued to write after the first cut; they had all stopped writing to inspect the sudden injury.


    She looked up and abruptly came face to face with dull, bottomless, even dead eyes staring down at her, and even as she was trapped in the stare, Umbridge could hear the pen''s nip scribbling against the parchment. She slowly leaned away, but Quinn''s gaze remained ¡ª directly looking at her without as much as a twitch on his face.


    The wound on the back of his hands healed.


    I will obey Professor Umbridge.


    I will obey Professor Umbridge.


    The cuts appeared on Quinn''s hand again, but he paid them no attention and continued to look at Umbridge as if he was amid doodling stray scribbles and not bloodletters.


    "Mr. West. . ."


    "Yes, Professor?"


    "Why''re you looking at me?"


    Quinn tilted his head, "No particr reason. In this room, I find you of the most interest."


    ". . . I would suggest that you pay attention to your punishment and do it diligently. This isn''t for you to find interesting, but to look back on your actions and find and think on your faults."


    "I''m taking this seriously," he said and raised the first page of parchment. "See? I have alreadypleted a page, and I assure you that I''m diligently retrospecting my actions. Looking at you helps me keep the incident fresh in my mind."


    I will obey Professor Umbridge.


    "Look down at your parchment, Mr. West."


    "I''m sorry if I''m making you ufortable." However, he didn''t look down and wrote: I will obey Professor Umbridge.


    And on it went. Again and again Quinn wrote the words on the parchment, and again and again his hand got cut, healed, and then cut again ¡ª rinse and repeat. But in all those long hours, Quinn never looked away from Umbridge even for a second; he continued to singlemindedly stare at her. Somewhere in that time, Umbridge couldn''t take Quinn''s anymore and looked away. She pretended that Quinn didn''t exist and started to grade assignments as if it was any regr after-school today.


    When darkness fell outside Umbridge''s window, she finally broke the silence. "That will be all for today. We will continue tomorrow."


    Quinn put down the blood quill on the considerably thinner stack of nk parchment. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and gently wiped the blood trails, dry and fresh ¡ª leaving behind a tender yet intact skin. And he did it without looking away from Umbridge.


    After that, Quinn stood up and left without saying a word in reply. He walked in the deserted corridors; the sound of his footstep could be heard as he walked by with only the asional portrait briefly opening their eyes to throw a drowsy nce at him before returning to their shut-eye again.


    He felt a slight tug on his trousers, but Quinn showed no reaction to it. He felt the tug crawl up his leg, then on his shirt, up at his shoulder, and finally, Quinn raised his hand up to see a pink cube with spider legs crawl around his arm''s length, making its way to his palm. It did a swivel on his palm, like a cat would do in its resting ce, before retreating its spider-legs and making his palm its new home.


    "Good job, little fellow," he smiled. "I think a Potter and a West with a long string of young children would be enough, don''t you think?"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    What followed the next day were looks of pity. Wherever Quinn went, he was met by sympathetic head tilts and nods, words offort, and all sorts of constion gifts.


    "This is freaking hrious!" Eddie cackled at Quinn, who held an assortment of choctes from Zonkos, given to him by a pair of Hufflepuff girls. "Hey, hey, Quinn, listen. . . are you sad that your toy box got taken because you were naughty. Do you want sweets to cheer you up? You have a lot of them waiting for you on your table back in our room!"


    Quinn openly stared down, rapidly blinking at the box of choctes. He was at a loss for words. What sort of brazen gall was this? Had the brains of Hogwarts students melted due tock of intellectual challenge? They gave him chocte. Him! Quinn West, The MC, The Master of Choctes.


    He turned his eyes away from the chocte box to Eddie, who was hunched over with a hand on a wall, wheezing his guts out.


    "Oh shut up!" Quinn said and got in response a raised-finger, asking for a minute, in which Eddie proceeded tough louder, after which he walked over while wiping a tear.


    "I haven''tughed this much in such a long time," he said and patted Quinn''s shoulder, "thank you, mate, that made my week."


    "Give it a rest. It''s not that funny."


    "So you do believe it''s a little funny."


    Quinn clicked his tongue. Today wasn''t his day.


    "Ah, hey. Quinn, there you are." Quinn turned back to see Tracey and Daphne walking towards them. It was Tracey who had called to him.


    "Not you too," said Quinn, "please, no!"


    "Huh, what do you mean?" Tracey asked, touching hands touching her face.


    And that apparently broke the dam as Eddie started tough with his arms holding his sides. In annoyance, Quinn shot a silencing charm at Eddie, which, while stopping the sound ofughter, didn''t stop Eddie Carmichael, who started pping to express the hrity he was feeling.


    "What''s wrong with him?" asked Daphne.


    "Who knows," said Quinn, crossing his arms, "maybe somebody slipped him aughter potion as a prank. You guys were looking for me?" he asked at the end.


    "Yes," said Tracey, "well, it''s not us but Marcus. He sent us to find you and ask if you''d be attending today''s party," by which she meant DA meeting, "with your detention with Umbridge and all."


    Quinn scratched the back of his and sighed, "I can''t be sure. She kept me till midnight yesterday. Knowing her, she''d do the same again. But please don''t let me be the reason for the party''s cancetion. You guys enjoy it; I''ll see if I can join you." He turned to Daphne, "In my absence, I''ll ask that you be the room manager for today."


    Daphne nodded, taking the responsibility in stride.


    Tracey looked at Quinn and Daphne. She wasn''t sure if these two noticed, but they were staring at each other. So Tracey did what a good friend would do and grabbed the stillughing Eddie by the front of her cor. "I almost forgot!" she said. "I have something to do. Eddie, would youe with me? I need your help. You will, thanks!" She pulled him along, leaving her best friend and best male friend alone.


    Daphne broke the silence between them. She asked, "How are you doing? AID has been dear and close to your heart."


    "It''s a strange feeling knowing that today I won''t go to my office," he said, turning progressively pensive, "turn on the lights, cast a scouring charm before casting the spell to turn all AID cards'' indicator to show that the office was open, in case someone still have some lying around. That I wouldn''t sit in my workshop and do something or give Luna something to do when shees drifting in. Or that I won''t listen to people who woulde in with their problem. . ."


    Daphne stepped closer to Quinn and grasped his hand. Quinn nced down at her hand andced his finger through hers, a small smile working its way to his face.


    "Enough about me," Quinn said as they started to slowly walk in their corridors, "let''s talk about you. Now that I have some free time, would you like me to tutor you? OWLs are nearing, and if you''d like, we can get together at the library every day ¡ª just the two of us."


    If the proposition was a beautiful and ornate tiara, then thest part was the crowning jewel on it. Daphne had no reason to think, much less refuse.


    "Excellent," Quinn felt that ss was no longer half-empty but half-full with something important, "starting tomorrow, we''ll meet every day at the library. Now, tell me, what''s the deal with Astoria? This morning she handed me a letter, strangely it only had a cyan solid circle on it, nothing else, not a single letter, just that circle in the middle."


    Daphne softly chuckled behind her hand, "She thought you''d be feeling down and didn''t want you to dwell on things, so she made that letter to confuse you ¡ª she thought you''d try to find it was and distract yourself."


    "Oh my, when did she get so smart? I thought she had somehow picked up Luna''s habits. But I guess I do need to thank her for it. Do you think she''d like sweets and choctes? I actually have an excess and would like to give some out."


    They wandered around aimlessly through the corridors of Hogwarts, their hands still intertwined.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    That day passed in a haze of Quinn spending time in his dorm room, doing what he did in his workshop, just in his room. Quinn''s second detention started the same way the first one did, except that after two hours, Umbridge couldn''t handle Quinn''s dull and dim eyes boring dead into her every ticking second away as he wrote sheet after sheet with his blood.


    "That''s enough for today," she said, ncing at him sideways while keeping her head still, "you can leave. I hope you''d continue to reflect on your actions."


    Quinn wordlessly nodded, took out his handkerchief, and slowly and deliberately wiped the blood off the back of his hand, still staring at Umbridge, who leaned away from him. Only after Quinn was done did he stand up from his chair, slowly and noisily tucked it into the small table, and then he walked out, closing the door behind him.


    Umbridge sagged in her chair, dabbing her forehead with her pink handkerchief, but then the door opened up, and she froze to see Quinn standing still at the threshold.


    "Ye. . . Yes, Mr. West?"


    "Do I still have to return tomorrow?"


    There was a clogging spell of silence with both staring eat each other ¡ª one had a mechanic look while the other was looking back as if she had no choice and could only grip her robe behind the cover of her desk.


    ". . . Yes," she said finally, her forehead wrinkling. She then raised her chin, "you''d be returning here for the rest of the month."


    "Understood," and then the door was shut closed.


    Outside the room, Quinn was walking away with a lightness in his step. His attempt at making Umbridge ufortable was a sess. Other than him, every person who had spent detention with Umbridge had given more or less the same reaction, and those reactions had fuelled the fiendish mes of her sadism. But Quinn had flipped the script and had taken away everything that would allow Umbridge to experience euphoria ¡ª he didn''t show any expression of difort, never stopped because it was painful (irritation for those who took Quinn''s potions,) and the constant staring was the essory that tied the entire attire.


    He took out his pocket watch, and it was already around the time the DA meeting was supposed to end. But the group would still be there, he thought and confirmed it by Recon; and thus, he headed to the seventh floor.


    Quinn reached the troll painting, and as per the instructions he had given Daphne, he whispered the meetings password to the in wall for a stone-grey door to grow out in it from the floor below. He pushed forward, and in one step, he went from a deserted-silence to a charged-jabber, though he did cause a stunned dipping-blip only for the gathering raising the bar up again.


    "Aww~," said Astoria, gliding towards him, "you came here to pick us up? That''s so nice of you. You can sit down and wait; we''re just about done."


    Quinn raised his hands and grasped Astoria''s cheek, pushing and pulling them around without a care.


    "Whatchu ''re chu doin''? Shtovp!" She raised her hands to free her tortured cheeks but was immediately boxed out by Quinn, who continued to make Astoria''s head dance.


    "Where did the sweet, bubbly girl who I met all those years back go?" he asked, letting go now that he had his fill.


    Astoria all but apparated away from him, cupping her face on both sides as she did. "She died with her cheeks!" she spat, tears pooling in her eyes. "Daphne, he''s bullying me!" Astoria yelled.


    "Tattler," said Quinn, jabbing.


    "Stop it, you two," said Daphne, shaking her head. She turned to Quinn and spoke, "Astoria''s right. We are almost done. You shouldn''t havee in today."


    Quinn shook his head, "It''s okay. I''m here actually here for something else." He looked at the group towards a girl with strawberry-blonde hair, "Susan, would you please stay behind. I''d like to talk to you something with you."


    Every pair of eyes in the room simultaneously turned to Susan Bones, who suddenly felt that there were roots shooting down from the soles of her feet, digging into the floor. Everyone, including Susan, had the same thought. Thest time Quinn had asked someone to stay back, one of those people had stoppeding to DA.


    After the meeting ended, and Quinn sent everyone away, including Ivy, who he had to assure that this wasn''t rted to DA, he faced Susan Bones in the empty room.


    "Uhm, may I know what''s this about?" she asked.


    Quinn calmingly smiled and rxed his bodynguage as he replied, "You don''t have to be nervous, Susan. You''re not in trouble. So please rx."


    Susan perked up as the light in her eyes did aplete change, "Oh, then why. . ."


    "Actually, I need your help."


    "My help? Sure, what can I do for you?" There was barely anyone in DA who wouldn''t help out THE Quinn West; most would be proactive if a situation like this came along.


    Quinn reached into his robes and took out an envelope along with a matchbox-sized box wrapped in brown paper and what looked like a tiny ring. "I would like if you''d send these to your aunt," he said.


    "Auntie Amelia?" she asked, tilting her head.


    "Yes, Amelia Bones," said Quinn, "or to be clear, I want you to send this to Amelia Bones, Head of DMLE."


    The curtain of confusion lifted from Susan''s eyes almost instantly at Quinn''sst few words. She now knew what Quinn was actually doing.


    "Quinn, any letter to the Head of DMLE must go through proper channels," Susan said as if reading from a script.


    "I''m aware of that," he said, "but if I do that, it will take weeks for my things to reach her desk. But, if you were to send it, it''d reach her desk would reach her desk noter than tomorrow afternoon. This is of importance and needs to reach her as soon as possible."


    Susan bit her lip, contemting what to do. It had been ingrained in her to avoid precisely this sort of thing. She was not to be a channel to get to the Head of DMLE, and that personal and professional lives were different and needed to be kept that way.


    "Just this time," she said, "I''ll do it just this time, but you have to promise not to let anyone else know about this," because if others knew that she had done it, then it''d open a potential dam of requests in the future.


    Quinn smiled and put his hands on his chest, "I assure you that this will stay between us, and if someone asks, you can say that I wanted to talk about Cedric''s farewell party that I''m nning."


    The next day, before breakfast, Susan went to the Owlery to ready her owl, Sacrum, for flight. She secured the matchbox-sized box and an envelope with her name on it to Sacrum''s feet.


    She took out the petite ring just big enough for an infant''s finger and pulled it for it to snap open from a point. "Put it around the feet," she muttered as she clipped the ring around Sacrum''s feet and gasped when she saw the long-eared owl slowly starting to vanish.


    Susan hurriedly took Sacrum to the balcony of Owlery and whispered into his ear, "Go to auntie, Sarcrum. Fly swiftly," and by the time she let the owl fly, it had vanished from sight, turning the silent flying owl to bepletely invisible.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Can pull dead stares when he wants.


    Dolores Umbridge - High Inquisitor - Met a different breed of student.


    Susan Bones - DMLE Head''s only living rtive - Sacrum''s hooman.


    Daphne Greengrass - RoR Manager (Temp) - Got herself a personal tutor.


    Eddie Carmichael - Wheezing and coughing - Hahahahahahahahahaha!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 241 - Bones, DMLE, Difference

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE), thergest department at the Minister of Magic, and after the Minister''s Office, it was without an argument, the single-most-important of the various departments, the only department that could get in the debate was the secretive Department of Mysteries (DOM) ¡ª as aside from DOM, every other department was answerable to DMLE.


    DMLE held the vital responsibility of functioning as abination of police and justice facilities ¡ª the scope of duties was so vast that DMLE was divided into a vast array of divisions and further sub-divisions. They housed the elusive Auror''s Office, the militant Hit Wizard Division, the hectic Improper Use of Magic Office, the clerical division of Wizengamot Administration Services, the connecting bridge in Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, and so many others that held their personal territories of responsibilities.


    And sitting on top of all that power was the Head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement ¡ª Amelia Susan Bones, the Head of the House of Bones, and the second most influential person in the Ministry of Magic after the Minister himself.


    She sat in her office, the prestigious office passed down from one DMLE Head to the next, and a symbol of power in the Ministry ¡ª the one who sat in this office exerted influence to every corner of the Ministry and even to the non-magical world. Amelia, the current holder of the office, was an unusual case as Head of DMLE were usually either Aurors, Hit Wizards or Judges in the Council of Magical Law ¡ª Amelia Bones was none of that ¡ª she had started her Ministry career in the Wizengamot Administration Services as a clerk at the lowest rung of thedder and had made her way up to the top of the chain, bing an outlier in the history of Heads of DMLE.


    It was ten in the morning, and Amelia caught up with the events that happened after she went home yesterday through the reports submitted by every facet of her dominion.


    Amelia closed thest report of her engaging morning and nced up at the wall clock to see that she still had a quarter of an hour before she needed to leave for the daily meeting with the Division Heads under her. She didn''t have anything else nned into her docket, so she decided to go early to the conference room and maybe stop in a ce or two for spot checks.


    But as she stood up, her secretary entered the office through therge heavy double doors with a brown-wrapped box held in both hands.


    "This came from Susan." The secretary ced the box on her table, and there was an envelope sitting atop the box, and Amelia recognized her niece''s penmanship.


    The ns to leave early for spot checks flew out of Amelia''s mind as her hands went straight for the letter ¡ª her dear niece was the only remaining family she had left after the war and was the person she cared for the most. So any letter that came from Susan instantly became a priority for her as this was the only mode ofmunication Amelia had with Susan.


    I should raise a motion in Wizengamot to allow MagiFax in Hogwarts, Amelia thought as she opened up the envelope.


    To her surprise, a smaller envelope slipped out along a letter. Amelia unfolded the letter at it was indeed from Susan, but the penmanship on the smaller letter addressed to her wasn''t her niece''s.


    Madam Amelia Bones,


    Head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement.


    Amelia''s lips thinned into a line as she narrowed her eyes at the way the unknown writer had addressed.


    Did Susan get coerced into sending this? Were Amelia first displeased thoughts as she didn''t want people to bother her niece because of her job, but as she read Susan''s letter, the contents caught her attention.


    "Quinn. . . West?" She looked at the letter and the box. ording to Susan, they were from George West''s grandson, and the boy stressed that they were of utmost importance and to be opened immediately.


    Amelia opened the letter first, curious to see what Quinn West had to say ¡ª her first thought was that it was beautifully written, but her eyes widened, and her mouth ckened as she read the words ¡ª the first thought had long be an afterthought by the end of the letter.


    Is this a joke? Her thoughts scrambling to understand. Her hand hastily went for the apanying box. She undid the wrapping paper and uncovered a dark mahogany wooden box with no marking on the outside, not even atch or hinge. She lifted the lid and gasped when she saw a dozen of what she recognized as shrunken-down film reel cases.


    ". . . It''s not a joke? It''s real?" She picked up one of the cases, popped them open, and sat inside full-reels. And if the letter was to be trusted, they were proof of the mentioned allegations.


    She read the letter a couple of times over just to be sure. The contents of the letter didn''t change.


    The double doors once again opened, and the secretary peeked inside. "Boss, it''s time for the meeting. Boss?"


    Amelia didn''t speak for a while, but when she finally did, she said, "Cancel the meeting ¡ª and get me Head Auror Scrimgeour, Captain Auror Robards, and Senior Auror Potter ¡ª no, not him, get me Senior Auror ck instead."


    ''If this is true,'' Amelia thought, ''then this is going to be big,'' she nced at the letter, her eyes fixed on Quinn West at the top of the page.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    After a hefty practical lesson of Herbology, gardening in the greenhouses, Quinn walked into the entrance hall, ready to have a good lunch.


    I wonder if there will be bacon pie, Quinn thought, his stomach mere clicks away from growling like a crocodile.


    "West." Quinn turned at the mention of his name, his thoughts about stuffing his mouth broken by the sight of Draco Malfoy standing in the middle of the hall.


    "Malfoy," said Quinn, changing his direction to walk towards Draco, "how''s the Junior Inquisitor life suiting you? First the Prefect and then this, you have been doing well this year."


    Draco stared at Quinn, and contrary to his expectations, Quinn didn''t seem to be down or miserable ¡ª he was smiling like a refreshed man.


    "Umbridge is going to break down the door in your office today."


    Quinn quirked his brow, tilted his head just a smudge, and stared at Draco.


    Draco''s squished his brows together, "What? Why''re you looking at me?"


    "I''m surprised with you, Malfoy? Very, very, very surprised."


    "Why?"


    "Why would you tell me about Umbridge''s n?" Quinn looked around and shook his head, "You don''t have your usual friends galore with you, so it''s not to gloat, and you don''t have the mocking smear on your face that you usually have when picking a fight with the golden boy ¡ª so it interests me much for why would you tell me this?"


    Draco pursed his lips and stared at Quinn, a muddle of thoughts shing through his mind. "You could stop it," he said, "a word from your grandfather and Fudge himself woulde down to reprimand Professor Umbridge. You could''ve put her into ce the first time she tried to close down AID and give you detention, but you didn''t ¡ª it''s been two days since she closed down AID and gave you detention, but there hasn''t been a peep from you." Draco intently watched Quinn, who was still smiling, "Why? I want to know why?"


    Draco couldn''tprehend why Quinn, who was constantly on loggerheads with Umbridge, would continue to let the woman try time after time to make it difficult for him. If it was him, he would''ve written to his father a long time ago. After all, unlike Hogwarts Professors, who were backed by Dumbledore, who the parents couldn''t pressure into getting Professors into trouble ¡ª Umbridge answered to Fudge, who could easily be pressured by people like their families.


    "I''m sixteen this year," said Quinn.


    "What?" said Draco, his tone uncertain.


    "I''m sixteen this year," repeated Quinn, "next year, I turn seventeen and will be of age, and the year after that, I will have graduated from Hogwarts with what is considered to be the minimum required to be a functioning adult."


    Quinn flicked his hand, and an AID card appeared between his fingers. "I decided to open AID during my first year, sent the request during the summer before my second, and by the time Christmas of that year arrived, AID had been officially established and ready to serve the students of Hogwarts.


    Do you know that most of the things in the office that you see today are built by me ¡ª I didn''t buy a good 70 to 80 percent stuff and instead crafted the tables and chairs I crafted from wood, the ss wall I tempered from stray shards, the nts I grew from seed, the knick-knacks I use for decor, I made them in my spare time."


    Quinn paused in thought before shrugging, "Behind the ss wall," Draco''s eyes widened, "there''s an honest-to-magic workshop where I brew potions, inscribe runes, design my creations, and charm items ¡ª even in that room, I have handcrafted half of the stuff, the other half is professional tools like cauldrons, vials, rune tools, among many, and even some of those things, I have modified to my preferences and needs.


    "I didn''t go to my family and say that I wanted to make something like AID and told them to make things happen. I''m sure if my grandfather tried, I would have a letter from the Board of Governors that I could''ve used to get started ¡ª but I didn''t because I wanted to do things on my own. Whatever AID is today is because I worked hard for it to be so."


    Quinn sighed. He didn''t intend to speak so long, "Don''t get me wrong, I''ve relied plenty on my family''s name ¡ª there are things in my workshop that a typical middle-ss family wouldn''t even imagine buying for their children. The Quidditch tournament wouldn''t have been so big if my name wasn''t West, and Wests weren''t what we are today.


    "The point I''m trying to make is that I considered myself to be a self-made man. I want to be something because it was me who made it possible and not my family name," he put his hands behind his back, "but because of the golden spoon I was born, others wouldn''t see me that way if I don''t go over and beyond."


    Quinn came into this world not knowing the reason, but he got something he never thought existed. The day he first used magic and smashed the ball into a wall which bounced back into his face, knocking him into his beg ¡ª that day, Quinn had decided that he wanted to be great; he wanted to aplish something with this new life of his ¡ª he was given a gift, and he was going to use it to the limit.


    "I am neither an underdog," said Quinn, and Draco scoffed, bringing a smile to Quinn''s face, "nor I have the rags-to-riches tag on me. I''m theplete opposite ¡ª I''m the star-favorite, and if I want, I can be swimming in a goblin vault of galleons the very next day. Thetter I was born into and can''t do anything about, don''t want to do anything about because frankly having ton load of coin is great ¡ª but the star-favorite, I worked that on myself."


    Quinn stared deeply at Draco, "Umbridge is nothing but a blip in my journey, someone not worthy to even be mentioned in the footnotes of my memoir. If I can''t handle someone like her, then there''s no way I will be able to aplish things I have nned for myself. Going to my family just because I don''t like a person is the weakest, most pathetic thing in my book," Draco flinched, recalling the many times he had sent letters back home because of the same reason, hoping that his father would do something.


    "I''m here to carve a path of my own," Quinn raised his hand with only one finger pointing up, "someday I WILL be big enough that Quinn won''t be known because of West ¡ª but West will be known because of Quinn." He pointed at Draco, "So Draco Malfoy, the Heir of Malfoy, do you just want to be that, or you want to be something more, something that will be just Draco."


    Draco felt a tingle crawling over his skin, a heavy feeling in his stomach. Moreover his heartbeat raced. His father, even his mother, would always tell him to be better ¡ª to be better than the mudbloods, to be better than the blood traitors, to be better than the Greengrasses and Notts, to be better the other Slytherins, to be better than someone like Diggory, and most importantly, be better than Potter ¡ª but never in their conversation had they said to be better than Quinn West, never had they brought the person standing in front of him intoparison.


    Was this why? Draco thought. Because they weren''t even thinking on the same level, much less doing things? They both were in the same position ¡ª both were of the same age and had influential families with more money than they could spend ¡ª yet here was he feeling proud about bing a part of the Inquisitor Squad, while Quinn didn''t even put Umbridge in his eyes.


    How could there be such a big difference?


    His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Quinn speak while looking over his shoulder. "Oh, it looks like it''s about to start," said Quinn.


    "Um, what?" Draco turned to see what Quinn was looking at and did a double-take when he saw Amelia Bones, Head of DMLE, with a group of Aurors of whom Sirius ck was a part of, being led by a confused-looking Pomona Sprout.


    The group walked straight into the great hall.


    "Come on, let''s go take a look," said Quinn, "I hope it''ll be fun."


    Draco, still trying to make sense of things, could do nothing but follow along.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    If not for the fact that she was here on important DMLE business, Amelia would''ve loved to take a leisurely stroll around Hogwarts, visiting the castle after such a long time. She would''ve loved to talk to her old Head of House but had to pull on her professional face and ask her to lead them into the great hall. There she would''ve again loved to sit and talk to her niece, but here she was walking towards the staff table.


    "Amelia. . . what brings you here?" asked Dumbledore, getting up from his headmaster''s chair as the great hall whispered around them.


    She observed the old man; he didn''t seem to be surprised at all. It didn''t surprise her; this was his school, and ¡ª she nced at ck ¡ª there were people in her own team who could''ve informed him.


    "Dumbledore," she said, the sound of saying it without Professor, still sometimes felt strange in her mouth, "we''re here for official DMLE business. I hope you''d cooperate with us."


    "Of course, whatever you want," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling.


    Amelia nodded and then turned to Scrimgeour. She, after all, wasn''t an Auror. But it wasn''t bad; she had Head Auror Scrimgeour at her beck-and-call.


    Scrimgeour nodded and stepped forward to do his duty. He turned to look at Dumbledore''s immediate right and took out his wand.


    "Dolores Umbridge, for in suspicion of owning a highly illegal dark item, twenty-nine counts of child endangerment, and twenty-nine counts of child abuse, you''re hereby under my authority as the Head Auror ced under arrest. I ask you to surrender your wand willingly, or we will be forced to strip it away from you. Then stand up, with your hands visible, ande around the table to be cuffed."


    The great hall exploded. There was so much noise that people with sensitive years had to cover them to stop the pain. Students and Professors alike stood up from their ces and chattered away about what the hell was happening.


    But cutting through the noise like nails against ckboards was Umbridge''s shrieking shrill voice as she stood up, turning all sorts of red. "What! How dare you! I will have your head for this! Do you know who you''re talking to? I''m the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, just wait till Cornelius hears about this; you''ll be packing by the end of this day ¡ª"


    "Dolores," Amelia interjected, her face t, "don''t threaten my subordinate. You have no power over him," Umbridge froze. "Nowe over peacefully, or I will have you stunned, bound, and wand-stripped in front of the entire Hogwarts," said Amelia, "so what it will be? I have no problem either way."


    "Listen here, Bones ¡ª"


    "Do it," said Amelia cutting off Umbridge.


    A red-hot stunner hit Umbridge at Auror-force, knocking the pink toad into her chair, which because of her weight, tipped and tumbled back, falling onto the ground with Umbridge still on it.


    Amelia looked unbothered, "There''s that. Let''s get her cuffed and bound. Don''t wake her up; she''ll just scream bloody murder."


    Sirius grinned and saluted, "Yes, boss."


    Amelia turned to Dumbledore, "I apologize for themotion. My men and I will clear out as soon as possible. But before we do, can you show us to her office? We need to collect evidence."


    "Of course, anything for the Aurors," said Dumbledore, serenely smiling under his beard.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Draco watched with his face bulging eyes as everything took ce so suddenly. One minute he was talking to Quinn; the next watched as Umbridge got a stunner shot to her face.


    "Nicely done, don''t you think?"


    Draco turned to Quinn, who stood with his arms crossed, a smile on his face.


    "Looks like Umbridge won''t be breaking into my workshop after all."


    "You. . . You, don''t tell me you did this?" Draco asked, stammering.


    Quinn looked at him and smiled, "She might just be a blip, but she overstepped her insignificant blip bounds, so she had to go." Quinn patted Draco on the shoulder, "This is what just Quinn can do. There was never a need to get West involved. Let''s get closer. I want to see if I can get a picture; it''ll sell amazingly, I think."


    Draco watched with head spinning with too many thoughts as Quinn strutted into the great hall.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Booyakasha!


    Amelia Bones - Head of DMLE - Yeah-yeah, let''s get it moving.


    Draco Malfoy - Shocked - What the hell?!


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Sure, whatever you want.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - That middle scene kind-off stretched.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 242 - Tough Temptation Turmoil

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    A small kindling of green mes burned on a dark stone floor.


    Strangely there was no wood feeding the fire, nor was there any sort of propent spilled on the floor that could be lit to burn a fire with a dim green.


    All of a sudden, the green fire roared, its me reaching above and beyond, turning the dim kindling bloomed into a voluminous ze of illuminating green. Out of the wisps came the figure of Quinn, the tongue of green licking his body as he walked out of the firece. He looked back as the zing fire soothed back to a calm kindling, but the next second, anger overtook the mes, and this time, it was the tall figure of Albus Dumbledore in all his bearded glory that walked out.


    Dumbledore took out the death stick from his pocket as he asked, "I suppose you have been here before, Mr. West." He waved the wand, and all the soot and dust cleared from his clothes, beard, and sses.


    "On the contrary, headmaster. I haven''t been here before."


    "That''s surprising to hear. May I?" Dumbledore asked, gesturing at his wand. Quinn nodded, and with a twirl from Dumbledore, Quinn was rid of all the floo-soot.


    "It''s surprising to me as well, but this is indeed my first time here," said Quinn taking in the new surroundings.


    They stood at one end of a very long and splendid hall with a highly polished, dark wood floor. The peacock-blue ceiling was iid with gleaming golden symbols that were continually moving and changing like some enormous heavenly notice board. The walls on each side were paneled in shiny dark wood and had many gilded fireces set into them. Every few seconds a man or woman would emerge from one of the left-hand fireces with a soft whoosh; on the right-hand side, short queues of people were forming before each firece, waiting to depart.


    Halfway down the hall was a fountain. A group of golden statues,rger than life-size, stood in the middle of a circr pool. The tallest of them all was a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful human woman, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf. Thest three were all looking adoringly up at the man and woman (both dressed in robes). Glittering jets of water were flying from the ends of the two wands, the point of the centaur''s arrow, the tip of the goblin''s hat, and each of the house-elf''s ears, so that the tinkling hiss of falling water was added to the pops and cracks of Apparators and the tter of footsteps as hundreds of witches and wizards, most of whom were wearing glum, early-morning looks, strode toward a set of golden gates at the far end of the hall.


    "Let me guide you then," said Dumbledore.


    They joined the throng, wending their way between the Ministry workers, some of whom were carrying tottering piles of parchment, others battered briefcases; still others reading the Daily Prophet as they walked. As they passed the fountain, Quinn saw silver Sickles and bronze Knuts glinting up at him from the bottom of the pool. A small, smudged sign beside it read:


    All proceeds from the Fountain of Magical Brethren will be given to St. Mungo''s Hospital for Magical Mdies and Injuries.


    Quinn retrieved a gold galleon and flicked it into the fountain. The coin arched in the air before sshing into the water, after which it slowly sunk down, soon joining its lower-valued brethren waiting to be collected for their eventual noble purpose.


    Dumbledore led him out of the stream of Ministry employees heading for the golden gates, toward a desk on the left, over which hung a sign saying SECURITY. A poorly shaven man in peacock-blue robes sat behind the desk, reading his Daily Prophet.


    Quinn and Dumbledore stood before the desk for the man to notice them, but he was too engrossed in whatever he was reading in the newspaper.


    Quinn looked at Dumbledore and then gestured with his chin back towards the stream of people going in and out of the golden gates; Dumbledore chuckled but shook his head. Dumbledore reached his hand and ringed the table-bell, which seeded in getting the man''s attention.


    He looked up from his newspaper to see them standing there, and his eye bulged out so much that Quinn worried that they might pop out.


    "D-Dumbledore!" The man hastily stood up, knocking his chair to the ground.


    "We are here to attend a hearing," said Dumbledore. "Albus Dumbledore, escorting and Quinn West, a prosecutor witness."


    "Y-Yes," said the security guard and tapped his wand on the top of a metal box on a table behind him for the box to shoot two silver badges out of its metal chute. The guard handed them the badges and asked them to put them on.


    Quinn looked at his badge: Quinn West, Criminal Trial Witness. He pinned it on thepel of his suit. Dumbledore did the same, pinning his badge on his less-than-usual colorful robes.


    "Please step over here," said the security guard.


    Dumbledore walked closer to him, and the wizard held up a long golden rod, thin and flexible as a short whip, and passed it up and down Dumbledore''s front and back.


    "Wand please," said the guard at Dumbledore, gulping at having to ask THE Albus Dumbledore for his wand. If it was before this year, the guard wouldn''t have even dreamt of asking the Chief Warlock Dumbledore for his wand, but today Dumbledore was a mere visitor with no part in Ministry, and visitors were required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk.


    Quinn watched as Dumbledore handed over the death stick to the random guard, who put it onto a strange brass instrument, which looked something like a set of scales with only one dish. It began to vibrate. A narrow strip of parchment came speeding out of a slit in the base. The guard tore this off and read the writing upon it.


    "Fifteen inches, elder wood, threstal tail-hair core ¡ª er, age in use. . . unknown."


    Dumbledore simply smiled and asked for his wand back. The guard hastily ced the death stick onto Dumbledore''s palm and then turned to Quinn to put Dumbledore''s wand''s nerve-racking check behind him.


    Quinn took a silent breath as his hand pushed aside his suit-jacked aside to reveal a wand shoulder-holster with his real wand hanging by his side at the mid-point of his torso.


    While this was indeed Quinn''s first time at the Ministry of Magic, he wasn''t clueless about the check-in procedure for visitors. If he wasing here alone, Quinn simply would have brought his fake wand along and confuded the guard to get past the registration, but that wasn''t an option with Dumbledore looking over his shoulder. So after years of confinement in his briefcase, Quinn undid theyers of wards and seals ced outside and inside the storage of his wand to retrieve it for this asion.


    He gripped the wand and the charmed holster loosened around the wand''s length, allowing Quinn to pull it out.


    It was instantaneous.


    The prickling feeling of his wand being just under his arm was tempting enough for Quinn, but to have his fingers wrapped around it was another level of torture that Quinn was not a fan of.


    lumency didn''t help. By no fault of his own, his magic being reached out to the call whispered by the wand was almost seductive. Quinn could practically taste the power, see the realm of possibilities that would open up for him, and once again was reminded of why he stayed away ¡ª his will wasn''t strong enough to keep him from sumbing to the tantalizing enticements.


    He breathed a silent, shuddering breath as the wand left his hand.


    "Fourteen inches, acacia wood, phoenix-feather core, been in use for five years. That correct?"


    "Yes," said Quinn, barely able to raise his wand above a whisper, his eyes stuck to the wand.


    "I keep this," said the guard, impaling the slip of parchment on a small brass spike. "You get this back," he added, thrusting the wand at Quinn.


    "Thank you," Quinn stiffly nodded and put the wand back in the holster with great difficulty.


    "Thank you," said Dumbledore, he looked at the employee name tag, "Eric."


    Off they were again into the stream of people passing through the golden doors. Jostled slightly by the crowd, Quinn followed Dumbledore through the gates into the smaller hall beyond, where at least twenty lifts (elevators) stood behind wrought golden grilles. Dumbledore and Quinn stood behind wrought golden grills.


    With a great jangling and ttering, a lift descended in front of them; the golden grille slid back, and both moved inside it with the rest of the crowd. Quinn found himself jammed against the back wall of the lift. The grilles slid shut with a crash, and the lift (elevator) ascended slowly, chains rattling all the while, while a cool female voice rang out on every floor they stopped.


    After several levels of stops, only Quinn and Dumbledore remained in the lift. When the door once again opened, the lift (elevator) voice spoke again,


    "Level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services."


    "This is us, Mr. West," said Dumbledore, and both stepped out into a corridor lined with doors.


    Dumbledore led him through a couple of corridors before stopping in front of a heavy oak door. He turned to Quinn and said, "This is the waiting room arranged for you. Make yourselffortable in there as I go and inform the Auror Office of your arrival. When it''s time, I''lle to fetch you."


    Quinn nodded and turned to the door as Dumbledore walked away. He looked down on his clothes ¡ª with a look, his suit straightened, the tie-clip momentarily loosened for the tie to adjust itself ¡ª but the very moment he did it, Quinn winced, using magic with his real wand so close to him, literally below his arm, wasn''t a good idea.


    He pushed open the door and entered the room to see a man sitting on a side of arge U-shaped sofa (couch) set, reading a magazine that he must have picked up from the stack present on the table square low-table present in the center-well of the sofa set.


    The man looked up from his magazine and stared at Quinn with his stone-grey eyes, "So you have arrived, good morning."


    Quinn closed the door behind and nodded, "Dumbledore dropped me off." He walked to the sofa set and sat himself down beside the man.


    "How have you been," said Quinn, "grandfather."


    George West submitted the magazine back to the stack. "I am well, thank you. But imagine my shock when I get a letter from my grandson that he has been named a witness in a criminal case and not any witness, but a prosecutor''s primary witness." He turned to face Quinn, "At least thest time you got in trouble outside Hogwarts, but this time you managed to get somehow get into this while staying firmly inside Hogwarts."


    "It''s not my fault," said Quinn, defiantly, "she closed my business. I had to do something."


    "From what I''ve heard, you gave them months'' worth of tapes." George West had his word to get information on confidential evidence.


    "She tried it once before, so I had to prepare something in case she tried again. The detention footage was just an opportunity to nail her when she tried to do something stupid."


    "This blood quill. . . that the woman used ¡ª she used it on you, was it painful?"


    Quinn nudged George''s shoulder with his own and smiled, "Of course not, I never felt any pain from them. I had prepared for the possibility months before."


    George searched Quinn''s face for the truth before turning away.


    "Your sister wasn''t happy with when she heard about this; she wanted to Portkey here and make sure that the Umbridge woman doesn''t see daylight ever again."


    Quinn chuckled. "I got pages with expletive words sprinkled in almost every paragraph. She really blew up like an exploding snap. Thank the business, she''s not here, and I return to Hogwarts in a couple of hours. I''ll talk to her when the dust settles."


    ". . . You cane to me anytime, you know that, right?" George said, silentlymenting on Quinn''s choices.


    "That wasn''t ever a question in my mind," said Quinn, "why won''t Ie to my own family when I''m out of my depth."


    George nodded. "Anything else you''d like to tell me?" he asked.


    "Hmm. . . well, I have been, how should I say this, well. . . courting, as someone of your age would say ¡ª I have been courting Daphne Greengrass. In short, I''m dating Daphne Greengrass."


    "Oh," said George, "Oh, is that so. . . well, I hope everything''s going jolly, I suppose ¡ª dating as they say these days."


    "Yes, everything''s going well."


    ". . ."


    ". . ."


    The grandfather-grandson duo had breached this subject a couple of times before, but now that had indeed happened, neither knew how to continue.


    The waiting room door opened, and a man dressed impably in a ck two-piece suit, white shirt, and ck tie came inside.


    "Mr. West, the trial''s about to start," said the man before looking at Quinn and nodding.


    Quinn stared at the man for a moment before recognition struck him. "You''re Lucas Norgaard," said Quinn, "from Limax Group."


    The now-identified Lucas, along with Aksel Thorn and Neil Agard, was one of the three founding members of the Limax Group, the West-owned private security group, or to put it simply, a magical-mercenary group.


    "I''m surprised you remember me," said Lucas, "we only met for less than an hour when you visited Denmark."


    Quinn stood up and shook Lucas'' hand. "I have an excellent memory. I suppose you''re here as grandfather''s bodyguard?"


    "Indeed, I''ve taken on Mr. West''s detail as the point of his personal security." It was tradition for the three founders to spend some time with George every year ¡ª so every year, one of them would spend a month in George''s personal security detail. It not only helped them keep a solid connection with George, but they were able to meet other people and get new clients and contracts ¡ª George West, after all, sat around with many high-profile individuals.


    "Then, I''ll see you after the trial, Quinn," George said as he got up, "and remember that you don''t have to answer any question you don''t like; keep your calm, and you''ll be fine. I''ll be watching, so no need to be nervous."


    After that, Quinn was left alone in the waiting room.


    A silence descended over the room.


    He waited for half a minute before he hastily stood up, all but ripped his suit-jacket off him, and removed the shoulder-wand-holster of his body. He picked up his suit-jacket, removed an expanded pocket that he stuck to the inside of his suit-jacket this morning, and stuffed the wand holster inside the pocket.


    Only after doing that did Quinn take a breath of relief as he slowly paced up and down the room. After he felt the worked-up energy calm down, Quinn sat opposite his suit-jacket, his elbows resting on his knees as his entire body slouched forward, his eyes focused on the ground, away from the suit-jacket.


    Leaving him alone in a room with his real wand was a bad idea; no one knew it better than himself. He wasn''t used to this; he never was. The reaction that a magical focus perfectly attuned to himself brought out of him was the reason Quinn had locked his real wand away.


    After years of not experiencing the feeling, Quinn was reminded of how it felt. His memories didn''t do the real thing justice, and it wasn''t even close.


    The problematic part was that Quinn didn''t know what to do about it.


    Getting rid of it wasn''t an option, Quinn thought, not with what was brewing on the horizon.


    The door once again opened.


    "Mr. West, it''s time. The barrister has started to present the evidence. . . . Mr. West, are you alright?" said Dumbledore, seeing Quinn with his head down, his suit-jacket thrown messily on the sofa.


    Quinn didn''t answer. He got up and walked to the other side of the sofa, picked up the suit-jacket, put it on, and smoothed out the creases.


    Dumbledore watched as Quinn turned towards him with his eyes closed before taking a deep breath and opening his eyes. The usual smile appeared on Quinn''s face as he said,


    "Let''s go, headmaster. It''s time to bury a toad."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Opportunity may knock once, but temptation leans on the doorbell.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Also a witness for the trial.


    George West - Grandfather - Short cameo. May make one next time as well.


    Lucas Norgaard - Limax Group - I made a brief appearance in Chapter 125.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Hmm, this chapter sort of jumped at me, and I couldn''t ignore it.


    .


    Also, please don''t confuse this with Sin-Quinn. He doesn''t fear that if he picks up, he will go haywire and start shooting spells without care. No. Quinn fears that if he picks up the wand, he will get the taste of the good stuff, and won''t be able to put it down ever again.


    Is he right in his fear? Maybe, or maybe not. He might be right and his wandless progress take a hit if he picks up the crutch, or maybe it''s all a thing in his head, and nothing will actually happen.


    Only time will tell.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 243 - Trial Of Dolores Umbridge: Part-1

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The courtroom was dimly lit.


    There were no windows, merely torches in the brackets, lighting the room in an ominous glow. Empty benches rose along the walls of the room, but ahead were many shadowy figures in the highest benches of all. They had been talking in low voices, but as the heavy door swung open and Dolores Umbridge entered the courtroom with two Aurors nking her, the room fell into silence.


    A callous male voice rang across the courtroom.


    "The used, Dolores Umbridge, has arrived."


    "Cornelius!" Umbridge broke forward towards a section of the benches, looking up at the Fudge, who currently had aplicated expression on his face. "You have to stop this, Cornelius. These imbeciles have got it wrong ¡ª"


    The thick unchained manacles around Umbridge''s wrists forcefully drew her hands towards her back, where little sps locked together to restrain Umbridge''s hands together. The escorting Aurors grabbed Umbridge by the shoulders and dragged her into the chair in the middle of the room while Umbridge cried indignantly. Metal chains rose from the feet of the stone chair and wrapped her arms to the armrests.


    "The used will maintain decorum, or she will be found in contempt of the court."


    Umbridge, however, didn''t seem to be listening. She desperately wanted to speak with Fudge; he hadn''t visited at all since she had been arrested. "Cornelius! Please tell them that I did no wrong! I was simply following the Ministry''s will ¡ª"


    "Silence!"


    The Aurors took the thunderous shout as orders and muted Umbridge with strong silencing spells. Umbridge continued to shout, but all she could do was move her mouth and emote through her red face.


    The fifty people in the courtroom, wearing plum-colored robes with an borately worked silver W on the left-hand side of the chest and all staring down their noses at Umbridge, some with very austere expressions, others look of clear disgust, while there were looked on with rosy faces and bemused smiles.


    Behind Umbridge, where she couldn''t see, sat the audience to the trial, those who were part of the Court of Wizengamot ¡ª the Trial of Dolores Umbridge, while wildly popr, wasn''t open to the public or media, the Ministry had locked down the trial because of the sensitive nature ¡ª only those with certain standing could attend, people like George West.


    In the middle of the front row of the Wizengamot benches, behind a podium, sat Lawrence Owler, an old judge, who had long retired from politics but had been called to take the temporary position of Chief Warlock ¡ª Fudge, who had upied the position after Dumbledore, had to vacate because of the used being someone from his party.


    Owler stared down at Umbridge, his brows furled; she had disobeyed his order of maintaining decorum. "Very well," he said. "The used being silenced ¡ª forcefully ¡ª let us begin."


    "Criminal Hearing of the fifteenth of March," said Owler in a ringing voice, and the Court Scribe sitting bottom row began taking notes at once, "into the offensemitted by Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic. . . in sabbatical and working as the Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts, along with the Ministerial position of High Inquisitor.


    "Today, I, Lawrence Owler, will be the judge presiding over this case. The Prosecution Barrister and Defense Barrister will present their cases along with the evidence to support their im." He looked at the people sitting by his sides, "Members of the Wizengamot Jury, it''s for you to decide if the presented evidence you''re going to hear today proves the defendant''s guilt. I also inform them that it''s their job to consider the evidence and not thew. I''m the judge; I''ll be in charge of ensuring that the trial proceedswfully and, if needed, will guide you all on the finer points of the court''sw." Owler turned to the front and finished, "We may now begin."


    In the well of the courtroom, two tables sat on either side and a few paces back from the Umbridge''s chair.


    From the left rose a man dressed in ck barrister robes. "Sirius ck, Auror''s Office, from Prosecution."


    From the right table rose another man also simrly dressed. "Jones Spindlewheel ¡ª Spindlewell & Rubis, for Defense."


    Owler nodded and then looked at Umbridge. "Ms. Umbridge, I''m going to read you your charges, and after I do so, you''d be allowed to speak again, but if you again disrespect the court, I''ll send you to Azkaban for your offense here even if you''re found not-guilty on your charges. If you understand, please nod once."


    Umbridge nodded, but her eyes were ring daggers at Owler.


    ". . . Very well, the Scribe may note that Ms. Umbridge has given her affirmation," said Owler and then read her the charges. "You''re used of possessing an illegal dark magic item ¡ª twenty-nine counts of child endangerment ¡ª and twenty-nine counts of child abuse. Please tell the court if you''re aware of these charges with a simple yes or no."


    The Aurors pulled of the silencing charm, freeing Umbridge to speak with a tone slicing with acid, ''Yes, I''m aware!"


    Owler didn''t care for the tone and ndly continued, "As this is a Wizengamot Court, the court of the highest order, there''s no need to pass it along the upper chain. We will be moving along; I ask the Prosecution to start with the opening statement."


    Sirius ck stood up and began, "Your Worship and the members of Jury, as the charges indicate, we the Prosecution from the Auror''s Office have arrested Dolores Umbridge because of her heinous crimes that you must know about from the indictment of the charges provided to you. Dolores Umbridge, on the thirteenth of March, was arrested from the Hogwarts'' great hall because the Aurors Office had found out that she had been torturing the dear and bright young children, abusing her power as both a Professor and the High Inquisitor ¡ª she, who''s supposed to ensure that our children are safe was instead harming them."


    The Jury murmured as they peered down below at Umbridge, who looked like she wanted to bite someone''s head off.


    "To get a clearer picture of what happened on the day of the arrest, I''d like to call upon our first witness to the stand," said Sirius and turned to the usher. "If you''d call in Head of DMLE, Madam Amelia Susan Bones."


    After a moment, Amelia Bones, a stern woman wearing a monocle and a suit, came into the courtroom and took the stand.


    "Madam Bones," started Sirius, after Amelia took the oath of truth, "if you''d describe on how the Aurors Office came to arrest Dolores Umbridge and press charges against her."


    "On the morning of the thirteenth, I received a package that contained dozens of film reels and a letter drawing my attention to what was on the film reels. ording to the letter, Dolores Umbridge had been torturing students in the name of detention, and that many students had fallen prey to her malicious activities, and that she needed to be stopped."


    "I see; what did you do after reading this letter?"


    "I called upon Head Auror Scrimgeour, Captain Auror Robard, and you ¡ª Senior Auror ck into my office because of the graveness of the situation."


    "What did you and your team do after?"


    "We watched the reels using a projector in a conference room."


    "What did the reels show?"


    "The reels confirmed the letter''s contents," Amelia raised her hand to touch her monocle. "The reels showed Dolores Umbridge handing the children in detention a quill and telling them to write lines. When the children wrote using the quill, the upper part of their hands was cut open, and the quill used the children''s blood as ink." Amelia looked at Umbridge, "She made those pitful children write for hours, cutting their hands for hours, drawing their blood for hours, and they didn''t have any means to refuse, leaving them scared and scarred."


    Sirius turned to the Owler and said, "Your Worship, the Prosecution would like to y the mentioned reels for the Jury."


    "Permission granted."


    A projector was set up and loaded with the first reel in the series provided to the Aurors Office. The projector projected the footage, not on a screen but in the air, as a hologram.


    The Jury and the audience gasped when the reel showed Harry Potter writing with a quill as it cut open his hand and drew blood. Everyone watched with wide-eyed horror at Umbridge''s gleeful smile, and she spoke to Harry, which was all audible because the footage was recorded on a sound-film that not only stored video but also audio.


    "Member of the Jury, as you can see, this is the reason why the Auror Office decided to Prosecute Ms. Umbridge," said Sirius, pleased with himself for choosing Harry''s detention footage. "She did this to twenty-eight other children, who went through the same torture, and every child did it not for a day but for a week, some even going as far to write with the pen for two weeks."


    He turned to Amelia and smiled, "Thank you, Madam Bones. I''m done with my questioning, but please remain stated, my friend from the Defense would like to ask you some questions."


    Spindlewheel stood up from his chair and faced Amelia. "Madam Bones, may I ask you to tell the Jury how you got these tapes?"


    "I was sent them by a Hogwarts student named Susan Bones."


    "Susan Bones is your niece, correct?"


    "Yes, she''s my niece."


    "How did she procure these reels?" Spindlewheel asked and then turned to the Jury, "We have already received permission from Ms. Susan Bones that her aunt Amelia Bones is to state her ount. We have a written statement to match it. My friend, Sirius ck doesn''t have anyints about this."


    Sirius got up and nodded, "I confirm that the Prosecution doesn''t have any objections to this."


    "Susan received these tapes from another student and, seeing that I''m the Head of DMLE, was asked by him to deliver them to me," said Amelia as a proxy.


    "Do your niece always send you crucial evidence for cases?"


    Sirus immediately stood up. "Objection! Your Worship, this line of questioning isn''t relevant to the case," he said heatedly.


    Owler nodded, "Sustained. Mr. Spindlewheel, please keep the line of questioning to the point and relevant to this case."


    "My apologies, Your Worship," said Spindlewheel and turned back to Amelia. "Madam Bones, when did you decide to go arrest Ms. Umbridge? You and your team go out crusading to Hogwarts the second you saw the reels, didn''t you?"


    "False," said Amelia, inly, "before any action from the Aurors Office, the reels were sent to be analyzed to verify their authenticity and that they weren''t some fabrication to falsely use Ms. Umbridge of a crime she might not havemitted."


    "And what did the forensic analyst say about the tapes?"


    Amelia shook her head, "That''s not my ce to say and would be hearsay to give the forensic analyst''s ount. I can, however, tell you the results of the report submitted to me."


    Spindlewheel narrowed his eyes while Amelia looked up at him, confidence shining behind her monocle. She wasn''t going to fall into his trap. A witness was only allowed to present their side of the ount, and saying others'' ounts was hearsay and, if done repeatedly, could be a blow to the witness'' credibility as it became unclear if they were telling their or someone else''s ount.


    "I see," said Spindlewheel, "then what did you do after ¡ª"


    Owler cut off Spindlewheel and spoke to Amelia, "For the better understanding of the Jury, would you please state the results of the forensic report."


    "Yes, Your Worship," said Amelia and then turned to the Jury she''d be otherwise a part of, "the result proved conclusively that the footage recorded on the reels was one hundred percent authentic without any signs of magical alterations or fabrication."


    "Thank you," said Owler, jotting down his personal notes, "please continue."


    Spindlewheel silently sighed; he didn''t want the Jury to directly hear that the tapes were genuine articles. But there was no use of dwelling on such things; he had to move along.


    "Madam Bones, it surprises me that you personally went out to arrest Ms. Umbridge. I didn''t know that Head of DMLE had started to take part in arrests," he asked.


    "The case was serious enough that I decided to go along for this particr one, said Amelia, but her voice softened as she continued, "I also wanted to make sure that my niece was alright. . . she hadn''t written if she had been part of those detentions, and I couldn''t watch hours worth of footage. . . the aunt part of me couldn''t sit still, I had to see my daughter." (yes, she said daughter)


    Spindlewheel narrowed eyes, nced at Jury, and spotted some nods and approving whispers. He looked back at Amelia, and there was a smile in her eyes. Damn it!


    "Thank you, Madam Bones," he said, "that''d be all from my side as well." She needed to go before the Jury began to tilt towards the Prosecution.


    Amelia got up, bowed to Owler and the Jury before leaving.


    Sirius got up from his chair, poker-faced, but inside, he was doing backflips. "Your Worship, next we''d like to call upon Captain Auror Gawain Robards to the stand to tell his ount of the arrest."


    Captain Auror Gawain Robards, a stern, square-jawed man with a gait of confidence and discipline, took the stand, bowing to Owler and Jury, sworn to say the truth, before turning to Sirius.


    "Captain, would you please tell us about your investigation of Ms. Umbridge''s office at Hogwarts?"


    "Yes, we went to the scene of the tapes right after we detained Dolores Umbridge; we were primarily looking for the quill seen in the footage. After some searching, we not only found the quill but also many more, all used, bloodstains still present."


    Another round of gasps and chattering fired up in the courtroom as all looked Umbridge, who had fixed her sight straight ahead, looking into the distance.


    "What did you do with them?" asked Sirius, after Owler silenced the rowdy crowd.


    "We bagged-tagged them¡ª"


    Robards was cut-off by Owler, "Captain Robards, please don''t use we in your testimony, give only your own ount, and please refrain from using jargons."


    Robards nodded with a set jaw. It had been a while since he had to speak in court; his days as the lead-Auror on cases were past him; these days, he mostly did supervising duties.


    "Captain, who do you mean by when you say we?" asked Sirius; it was an excellent Prosecutors job to ease the witnesses'' time in the court.


    "That would be myself, you ¡ª Senior Auror ck, and Junior Aurors Shinkers and Reed ¡ª us four went into Dolores Umbridge''s office to secure evidence forter analysis."


    "I see, as the lead-Auror on this case, you''re aware of the blood reports on the quills you found?"


    "Yes, I do."


    "Mind telling what these reports stated."


    "After we saw the footage and identified the students, my team took blood samples from all of them and sent them to theb to bepared. The result was that theb found a match for all thirteen bloodstains we were able to retrieve from the twenty-nine blood samples we collected."


    "Excellent work, Captain. Now I have onest question, would you please tell us how these quills work?"


    "Of course. These quills work on the same principle as contract-signing quills, which for rification, take a small amount of blood from the user to use as ink before healing the small pin wound made to extract blood. Dolores Umbridge''s blood quills, as we havee to call them, require a student to write for hours, so it keeps on sucking blood, and it''s charmed to cause deep cuts in the shape of the words that the students wrote."


    By now, none of the Jury members were looking at Umbridge with pleased eyes ¡ª not even those with the Dark faction. If she hadid her hands on the Boy-Who-Lived, she would''ve not hesitated toy them on their own children.


    Spindlewheel got up, feeling a bit worried about the direction of the trial.


    "Captain Robards, did you find anything else in Ms. Umbridge''s office other than these quills?"


    "We discovered a suspicious amount of ash in the office''s firece. When we analyzed them, we found that they were from parchment. We think they''re from the parchments that the students wrote on."


    "But you have no proof to confirm that im."


    ". . . No, we don''t."


    Spindlewheel turned to Owler and said, "That''ll be all from our side, Your Worship."


    Sirius ck rose again and spoke, "For the next witness, the Prosecution would like to call to the stand, Albus Dumbledore."


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    Quinn West - MC - Not here, but definitely in the next chapter.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - You guys were right; it would take another chapter. Also, I suck at righting court scenes. Do you guys have any rmendation fics that do court cases well? I don''t remember reading any. I sort of just "roughly" emting the real deal, fingers crossed.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 244 - Trial Of Dolores Umbridge: Part-2

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The moment Sirius asked for Albus Dumbledore to be called, the courtroom buzzed in murmurs ¡ª be it the Wizengamot Jury or the audience members, everyone had something to say, and all ears to listen what others had to say. Dumbledore hadn''t been seen in the Ministry ever sincest year, and to see the ex-Chief Warlock step into the courtroom was a momentous moment.


    The Usher exited through the door, leaving a sliver of a crack open. Not a single person in the courtroom didn''t have their eyes anywhere but the door. Half a minuteter, the Usher entered back into the courtroom and stood by the door side, holding it open ¡ª and then from the outside, entered Albus Dumbledore, walking in with a smile on his face, like he had never left. His twinkling eyes shone in the dim room, taking in everybody that sat in the room.


    He silently walked over to the stand, bowed to Owler and the Jury before facing Sirius.


    "Please state your name and upation for the record," asked Sirius.


    "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, I serve as the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft." If it was before, then the list would''ve extended to Supreme Mugwump of International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of Wizengamot, but today, he was just the headmaster.


    "Mr. Dumbledore, can you tell us how did Dolores Umbridgee to be teaching at Hogwarts?"


    Dumbledore nced at Umbridge, seeing the eyes that wished to shoot a green jet of magic that''d put an end to him. "Dolores took the position at Hogwarts as the Defense Against The Dark Arts because I was unsessful in procuring a recement for stor Moody, who vacated the position after the end of the previous term. She was appointed by the Ministry through an Educational Decree issued during the fifties, which stated that if Hogwarts isn''t able to fill a teaching position, then the Ministry would provide a suitable recement."


    "So, is she?" asked Sirius. "Is Dolores Umbridge a suitable recement?"


    "Objection!" said Spindlewheel, standing up. "Your Worship, that question doesn''t have anything to do with the current matter in hand. The Prosecution is trying to attack and nder my client''s character."


    "Overruled," said Owler, not even looking up from his table as he wrote his notes, "the charges on the used are of child endangerment and abuse, which she supposedly performed while in her tenure in Hogwarts. Her ability to guide students is critical in this matter. Headmaster Dumbledore, you may answer that question."


    Spindlewheel sat down, his face ugly scrunched up. He had done some digging with his friends who had children in Hogwarts; not a single of their children had anything positive to say about Umbridge, much less sing praises.


    "I truly wish I could say otherwise," said Dumbledore sounding sympathetic, "but Dolores isn''t fit to hold a teaching position."


    "Would you mind borating?"


    "She eliminated the practical portion from Defense Against The Dark Arts, which renders the subject moot as its core aim is to teach students to defend themselves, and learning theory without practical lessons is not the way to approach the subject. Even if somehow, students were able to learn the subject, which I repeat isn''t possible, Dolores reced the curriculum with asinine material that is a ck spot in the name of education."


    "Objection!" Spindlewheel got up once more and spoke to Owler, "Your Worship, the decision to change the curriculum and eliminate the practical portion of the subject was a Ministerial decision, and my client was only following the orders of the Ministry. Mr. Dumbledore is trying to put unjust me on my client, and because of that reason, I suggest that Mr. Dumbledore be disqualified as a witness."


    Spindlewheel was Umbridge''s barrister, not the Ministry. His aim for this trial was to get Umbridge out of trouble, or at least make it so that she came out rtively unscathed ¡ª if he had to bury the Ministry in the process, he would do it.


    Fudge''s bloated face went red in his seat; he could feel the stares on him.


    It wasn''t entirely his decision! Fudge thought. It was Umbridge who had suggested that to him, but he couldn''t say any of that as it was his signature that went on the orders. He looked up at Umbridge, but she refused to make eye contact with him.


    Owler tapped his digits on his table, thinking about Spindlewheel''s appeal. After thinkings for a few moments, he told his decision, "Albus Dumbledore''s statement about the used''s teaching abilities is not going to be included in this trial, but the court isn''t going to disqualify him as a witness. The Prosecution may continue with Albus Dumbledore."


    Sirius pinched his lips together for a brief moment. He wanted the responsibility of education degradation in Hogwarts and had thought that Spindlewheel would let it pass, thinking that he might have some contact with Fudge, but it seemed that Spindlewheel was firmly on Umbridge''s side.


    ''No matter,'' thought Sirius, it might be a small bump in the short-term, but in the future, they could nail Fudge because of the me now falling upon him.


    "Headmaster Dumbledore, did Dolores Umbridge evere to talk to you about protesting the change in curriculum?" asked Sirius.


    "No, she didn''t."


    Sirius nced at the Jury but didn''t expand on it. Sometimes, it was better to let things sit and let people make up things in their minds.


    "As the Headmaster, what can you tell us about Dolores Umbridge''s influence at Hogwarts in her position as the High Inquisitor?"


    Dumbledore paused in thought before answering, "Dolores, in her position as High Inquisitor, issued more than sixty Educational Decrees over the span of months, and using those, she had created an environment in which it was problematic to defy her. If a student wanted toin about a Professor, they needed to go to Dolores, meaning that if some had to register aint against the Professor of DADA to the High Inquisitor, they wouldn''t because they are the same person. Every single Educational Decree ever issued restricted students in one way or another; not one did give students more freedom or benefit from what they had before Dolores stepped into Hogwarts.


    I would also like to say that if it wasn''t Dolores fault for ruining DADA, then it was one hundred percent her fault that I got multiple requests from my students about dropping Muggle Studies as one of their subjects because Dolores restricted Professor Lily Potter from teaching anything outside of Ministery approved material, and I would like to point out that she used Professor Potter ¡ª a muggleborn ¡ª of teaching make-belief things about our muggle counterparts.


    She also tantly disrespected Professor Filius Flitwick ¡ª a half-goblin ¡ª when she banned books by half-breeds. Professor Filius Flitwick is a master of charms and has published many academic books which enhanced the value of the Hogwarts library ¡ª and by introducing that Decree, she made him feel not wee in what has been his home for decades."


    Dumbledore''s voice had turned passionate when he had started to talk about his Professors. Sirius, who listened to Dumbledore speak, smiled ¡ª if there had been any damage to Dumbledore''s credibility because of his previous statement being thrown out, then he now surely had recovered it.


    "Thank you, Headmaster Dumbledore," said Sirius and turned to Spindlewheel. "Defense can cross-examine the witness."


    Spindlewheel stood up from his chair and spoke with his eyes on some papersid on his table. "Mr. Dumbledore, I don''t have much to ask you, but I do want to talk to you about a particr incident," he raised his head to look at Dumbledore, "would you please tell the Jury about the incident in which you assaulted Ms. Umbridge by transfiguring her into a sock?"


    A silence zoned down into the courtroom as everyone looked between Dumbledore and Umbridge. Dumbledore had turned Umbridge into a sock? They didn''t know about this, which boggled everyone''s mind because it was Umbridge, and the woman would have chewed him to the bone by now. But here they sat, listening to this for the first time.


    "What would you like me to tell about it?" asked Dumbledore, his speech unhurried and stance open.


    "Why did you turn Ms. Umbridge, along the two Aurors who were apanying the Minister, into socks?"


    Fudge closed his eyes, cursing his past self who thought it would be advantageous to be a part of Wizengamot Jury today. Now he had to sit here under the eyes of his peers, without being able to leave. After today, one thing was for sure: people would look at him, the Minister, differently.


    Amelia, on the other hand, was already looking forward to going back to her office and ordering the two Aurors who had been assigned to the Fudge, and asking them why she wasn''t informed about this, then further ask them if they would be liked to be booted from the Auror Corps.


    "The Minister threatened to have me arrested because I asked him to leave. He ordered his Aurors to arrest me, and I felt threatened because of my wand not being near me," said Dumbledore with ack of urgency.


    ". . . You didn''t have your wand? But you transfigured three people into a sock ¡ª two of them were Aurors."


    "Yes, I did, with wandless magic," said Dumbledore as if natural.


    "And despite that, you felt threatened?" Spindlewheel asked, his tone uncertain.


    "Why yes. Any wizard would feel vulnerable without their wand. I''m no different. Now that I look at it, I feel that my actions were hasty. If I had talked through it, no magic would''vee into use."


    "So you agree that it was your fault?"


    "Partially, yes."


    "Rest of the fault lies in the hand of the Minister, Cornelius Fudge, who threatened you."


    "Yes."


    "And Ms. Umbridge, who was a bystander and hadn''t threatened you, was a victim of your magic."


    "Yes, that seems to be the case."


    "But in reality, you attacked her because she threatened your position as the Headmaster."


    "No, that wasn''t my intention."


    "But, you didn''t apologize to her afterward when you realized your fault."


    "No, I didn''t. . ."


    Spindlewheel turned to the Owler and the Jury, "The Defense has nothing more to ask of Albus Dumbledore."


    Sirius stared at Spindlewheel, his lips pressed into a white line. He was good, Sirius thought. In one line of questioning, despite Dumbledore''s calm external, Spindlewheel had sessfully dented Dumbledore''s credibility as a character witness. But it was fine, looking at the bigger picture outside of the courtroom, they ¡ª The Light Faction ¡ª could nail Fudge for implementing the now-in-question Educational Decrees.


    Sirius got up from his chair and spoke to Owler, "Your Worship, the next witness is who we ¡ª Prosecution and Defense ¡ª have deemed to be the student representative of the twenty-nine affected students."


    Spindlewheel nodded, "The Defense confirms the Prosecution''s statement."


    "I would like to call Quinn West to the stand," said Sirius.


    When the Jury and the audience heard about the student representative, some thought it would be a random student, while others remembered that it''d be Harry Potter from the projected footage, but they didn''t expect to hear the name "West"e out of the barrister''s mouth.


    The Usher led Dumbledore out, and when he returned, he came back with a teenager dressed in a dark grey three-piece suit. It wasn''t anything particr, but no one doubted that this was a West ¡ª maybe it was the way he dressed, or how he walked, or perhaps it was just the way he looked around the courtroom like it wasn''t a stage too big for him.


    Quinn calmly took the stand, bowed to the Jury, then to Owler, and nodded to Sirius and Spindlewheel before matching eyes with Umbridge, to whom he sent a small smile ¡ª not one of mockery, but a straightforward one with no reflective intention than smiling.


    After Quinn was sworn in and asked to state his name for the record, Owler was the one to address Quinn.


    "Mr. Quinn West, on behalf of the court, I''d like to thank you for stepping forward as the representative of the students affected," said Owler with aforting smile.


    Quinn wordlessly bowed with a smile. If it was putting away Umbridge, he would rise from his grave if needed.


    Sirius stood up and began the Prosecutors'' side of questioning. "Mr. West, you''re one of the twenty-nine students who were assigned detention with Dolores Umbridge, correct?"


    "Yes," said Quinn, "to my knowledge, I''m number twenty-nine."


    The projector was fired up again, and the holographic footage showed Quinn sitting across from Umbridge, writing with the blood quill in hand.


    "If you''d tell to the Jury what did Dolores Umbridge made you write? What did she make you cut into your hand line after line, for hours at length, and for many days."


    Quinn turned to the Jury and spoke in a clear voice: "I must obey Professor Umbridge."


    Many members of the Jury gasped. All of them immediately looked at Umbridge, who looked ahead as before, but this time around, her eyes were focused, and chin raised high. It was clear what she thought of the matter.


    "Mr. West, please tell the Jury why did Dolores Umbridge assign you the detention under her?"


    "I refused to open a locked door for her."


    Sirius turned to the Jury. "Mr. West is an exemry student who''s always top of his ss, a Prefect for his house, respected by his peers and well-liked by his Professors. This makes him a model student, but that''s not all ¡ª Mr. West here started a club with the aim to help Hogwarts students. He calls it AID ¡ª which is the abbreviation of Aid In Distress. He has been helping students through AID since his second year, much before he was awarded the position of the Prefect, which tells us much about Mr. West.


    But, this year, AID faced jeopardy when Dolores Umbridge threatened to close the beloved club right at the start of the year ¡ª and she did it by threatening Mr. West through an Educational Decree which didn''t have the authority to close down AID ¡ª she tried to abuse her authority¡ª"


    "Objection!" spoke Spindlewheel. "Your Worship, the Prosecution is specting Ms. Umbridge''s intention and in doing so are ndering her!"


    "Sustained," said Owler, "Prosecution will refrain from making suchments."


    "Mr apologies, your honor," said Sirius unperturbed, "but I speak the truth because Dolores Umbridge tried to shut AID down again, and this time she brought forth an Educational Decree just so she could bar the doors of AID from ever helping another student again." He turned to Quinn and asked, "Mr. West, can you tell everyone what Dolores Umbridge said to you when she came into the office?"


    "Professor Umbridge," said Quinn, "came into my office with Argus Filch, the caretaker, while I was talking with my friend Luna Lovegood. She handed me an Educational Decree which stated all extra-curricr activities are now subject to review by the High Inquisitor," he looked at Umbridge, "when I asked her about AID''s review, and in reply, I got the answer that AID was already reviewed and had failed; as such, it was being closed immediately."


    "Thank you, Mr. West," said Sirius and turned to Jury to continue for Quinn. "The Auror Office took statements of Hogwarts Professors, and not once had Dolores Umbridge talked with them about AID. We asked Dolores Umbridge herself who did she consult on the matter ¡ª her answer was a simple: No one. She took the decision on her own, without ever consulting anyone, which means that she had private motive to shut down AID."


    "Objection!" said Spindlewheel. "Your Worship, the Prosecution is spouting rubbish!"


    "On the contrary, Your Worship," Sirius turned to Quinn. "Mr. West, can you tell me what happened after the first time she tried to shut down AID."


    "She gave me detention for disobeying her."


    "And what did you do?"


    "I thought it was unjust and went to my Head of House, Professor Filius Flitwick, to have it annulled."


    "What were the results?"


    "He annulled it right on the spot."


    "There you have it, members of the Jury. Dolores Umbridge clearly felt humiliated because her power trip was halted and decided to take revenge by turning her malicious eyes towards Mr. Quinn West and AID."


    Umbridge gritted her teeth in her chair. She wanted to shout and scream, but she knew that if she said anything, she would be found in contempt, and the nobody-Owler would punish her ¡ª he had the ability to dismiss the Jury and take matters into his own hands if she wasn''t cooperating.


    Sirius once again turned to Quinn. It was time to drive this witness'' image in the eyes of the Jury to the top floor of the Ministry.


    "Members of the Jury, if you may recall, when we question Madam Amelia Bones, she said that she received the reels from a student of Hogwarts. You''d be delighted to know that it was Mr. Quinn West who bravely decided to step forward against injustice and take action by revealing to us the true and vile nature of Dolores Umbridge."


    As Sirius had expected, everyone in the court except a few like Owler, Sirius, Spindlewheel, Umbridge and Amelia, and a few others who already knew of the fact started to look at Quinn in an even positive right. On the other hand, Umbridge wanted nothing more than to slit Quinn''s throat and watch his blood drain.


    "That''d be all from the Prosecution''s side," said Sirius and sat back down.


    Spindlewheel stood up, it was his chance, and it was hisst chance. There were no significant witnesses after this, only some minor character witnesses which he had prepared to paint his client in a slightly good light. Spindlewheel was no fool; he knew when he had seen the tapes that he wasn''t going to win this one.


    "Mr. West," he said, it was time to put in whatever dents he could put in to reduce the sentence, "please tell us when did all of this started?"


    Quinn stared at thewyer and spoke the prepared scenario, the one based on truth and mixed with just a dash of falsity. "It all started when I noticed Harry Potter acting strange, holding his hand, and taking nces at Professor Umbridge while in the great hall. I knew something was wrong, so I asked him as a friend, and he told me what had happened.


    Then and there, I decided that this couldn''t be allowed to continue; as such, I came with the idea of recording Professor Umbridge''s detention to prove that she was doing something illegal."


    Spindlewheel nodded and turned to the projector, which was still projecting but had halted on a still image. "Members of the Jury, if you''d notice the position of the footage, you''d notice that it''s pointing down, meaning that the camera was somewhere up above, near the ceiling," he turned to Quinn. "Mr. West, please tell us how you recorded the reels you submitted."


    "I nted a small camera in Professor Umbridge''s room, near the ceiling, which recorded all the footage I submitted."


    "To be clear, you secretly recorded Ms. Umbridge."


    "Yes, I did."


    "You realize that what you did was highly illegal."


    "I''m well aware of the illegality of secretly recording someone."


    "And despite that, you still did it."


    "Yes."


    "Why didn''t you go to any of your Professors with this? What guided you to take matters into your own hands?"


    "Through the use of Educational Decrees, Professor Umbridge had made it so that it''d difficult to move against her," said Quinn; he wasn''t present in the courtroom, and as such went on to repeat what Dumbledore had said about Educational Decrees, just this time, he talked about Educational Decrees restricting teachers instead of students.


    "I wasn''t confident if the Professors would be helpful in this case. And even I did reach out to them or the Aurors Office, they''d have their hands tied because of theck of evidence that Professor Umbridge did the crimes. If one would see the footage at length, they''d notice that Professor Umbridge never went as far enough to leave permanent marks on our hands. She''d stop just before the blood quill would leave a mark."


    "So you didn''t trust your Professors or the Aurors to their jobs? Or any adult that they would be able to help you?" asked Spindlewheel, attempting to paint a picture of a child ying vignte.


    "I trust my Professors, the illustrious Aurors," said Quinn with a confident smile, "but this is a court ofw, and without evidence, every adult here has their hands tied. I simply did what a good citizen would do, even if it meant doing something illegal."


    "I see. . . Ms. Umbridge asked Mr. West to open a door in his office, which he refused to do so. Mr. West, please tell everyone why did you refuse to do so?"


    Quinn nced at Umbridge for a second beforeing back. "I was angry at AID being closed. She had tried to close it before and had failed, but this time she seeded."


    "What''s behind that door, Mr. West?"


    "Personal things."


    "So, it''s fine if you install a camera inside her office, but it''s not good if she asks you to show her what''s behind a door because it''s personal stuff. Can you see the double standards here, Mr. West?"


    "Yes, I can see it," said Quinn. Spindlewheel narrowed his eyes at theck of fluster or panic that he tried to incite. "But unlike her, I don''t torture people in my office. My office is named AID; I provide help, aplete opposite to what she did to all of us."


    Spindlewheel immediately moved on to the next question, not willing to let the Jury ponder on Quinn''s words; his attempts to make the kid panic and crack under pressure were for naught.


    "Mr. West, in the dozen or so quills that were found in Ms. Umbridge''s office, we couldn''t find a match for your blood even though you were thest person to use those quills? Why is that?"


    Quinn shrugged, "I wouldn''t know."


    He, of course, knew. Quinn had known that there were many blood quills, but because he didn''t want to leave his blood behind in Umbridge''s hands, he cleaned the blood quills before leaving. As for the blood-written parchments, Umbridge burned those in her firece. Even the blood sample he had given to the Aurors had been stealthily swapped with a sample extensively treated so that it couldn''t be used against him.


    "I see. . ." said Spindlewheel, not continuing that line of questioning. It was better to let the suspense remain and let the Jury think suspiciously of Quinn. "You waited for months as your friends and ssmates continued to serve these detentions. It was only when it was your turn that you decided to turn the reels to the Auror department. Why is that, Mr. West? It seems you only care about yourselves." asked Spindlewheel.


    Quinn lightly shook his head, "Me serving detention had nothing to do with the timing of me sending tapes. Actually, I was going toplete my detention before sending them in, but then I saw something, and it changed my mind."


    His face turned grave, and his shoulders slumped sadly, "I mentioned my friend Luna Lovegood being there when Professor Umbridge came to shut down AID. I sent Luna out so that she won''t have to see it shut down; she is as much a part of AID as I am. But it turned out that she told everyone what was happening because when Professor Umbridge and I exited the office to go her office for detention, the entire school was waiting for us in the way."


    Quinn looked at the Jury directly, "I saw my friends, ssmates, juniors, seniors, and even the Professor ¡ª and all of them were looking at us with sadness and sorrow ¡ª there I realized they weren''t sad for me getting detention, Professor Umbridge gave that to the best of us.


    They were sad that AID had shut.


    At that moment, it hit me that ¡ª ah, I was sessful, that I had created something that really helped people, and now that it was gone, they hade to see if it was true, and seeing me walking with Professor Umbridge told them that it was indeed true and that she had taken away the one thing that she had failed to take away before.


    In the instant I saw those faces, I realized that I couldn''t wait any longer, that I had to send the reels out before Professor Umbridge broke Hogwarts morale, and that''s why you only see me one time in the tapes."


    And that sealed it. Spindlewheel knew it, Sirius knew it, hell, even Owler knew it. That little speech had done its job in turning the Jury''s support firmly away from Umbridge and into the Prosecution''sp.


    "That''d be all from Defense," Spindlewheel sighed. He knew it was over, but his job wasn''t done.


    Moving forward, Spindlewheel brought forth his character witnesses, but they didn''t do much work as Quinn''s passionate speech had rendered them moot, not to mention Sirius went the extra mile and tried to discredit every character witness that was called on.


    After that, when all the witnesses and evidence had been presented, both sides presented their closing statements and rested their cases.


    "Now, the members of the Jury would cast their vote," said Owler, looking to both his sides. "Those in favor of clearing the used of all charges?" he asked in his booming voice. There were hands in the air, many of them. . . but much less than half.


    "And those in favor of conviction?" Owler looked at the overwhelming majority of the hands going up. "Very well. . . Dolores Umbridge, by the Law of Wizengamot, you have been found GUILTY on all your charges and will be facing just punishment!"


    But Umbridge didn''t hear any of that. Her entire being was busy staring at Fudge, who refused to meet her eyes.


    Why? She wondered. Why did her beloved Cornelius, who she had supported all along, had raised his hand when the judge asked for those in favor of conviction?


    "Cornelius, why?!" she screeched in agony. "I only did as you asked me to! You asked me to make Dumbledore and Potter brats'' lives miserable, and I did so! So why do you betray me now?! CORNELIUS!! ANSWER ME!!!" She lunged forward, but the chains kept her bound to the chair, yet the madwoman tried to spring forward, again and again, looking like her world had copsed.


    Fudge, who had just betrayed his closest confidant by raising his hand in favor of conviction so that he could look like a just leader, tucked his chin down in shame, not daring to look at anyone. He hastily got up and out of the courtroom as fast as his legs could make him walk.


    Quinn watched all of this while standing on a side with a smile on his face.


    The Trial of Umbridge hade to an end.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Prime witness. Secured victory for Prosecution with rousing mini-speech.


    Jones Spindlewheel - Defense - Skilledwyer, but his client was doomed.


    Sirius ck - Prosecutor - Well, that was easy enough.


    Lawrence Owler - Judge - Came for one case, now back to enjoying his retirement.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmasters - Actions have consequences.


    Dolores Umbridge - Guilty - Mental breakdown.


    Cornelius Fudge - Minister - Betrayer.


    Wizengamot Jury - Wizengamot seat holders - Dark, Light, Grey ¡ª all factions and their members. You can imagine who was sitting there ¡ª Potter, Greengrass, Malfoy. . . I didn''t mention them bcos I didn''t want to stretch this.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Umbridge is Guilty. Her actual punishment (which Owler decides) will be mentioned in the aftermath in the next chapter. The next chapter will be reactions of sorts


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 245 - Factional Aftermath, Reopen

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    " "Cheers!" "


    Diamond mugs sshing with golden liquid topped off with white frothy foam clinked against each other in the pub buzzing with a Quidditch game sounding out from a radio with speakers cabling to every corner of the establishment, but louder than that were people boisterous withughter, bursting with loud conversation while they sipped on simpler drinks like tapped beers and straight whiskeys or blew smoke from their flimsy rolls or chewed-on pipes.


    "You did great out there," said James Potter, raising his ss to his best friend, "putting up with Spindlewheel ¡ª that man tried to put Dumbledore into the bind."


    "Aye, I don''t like that slimy snake, always saving those shits from Azkaban, but he sure did well with Umbridge as his client," Sirius ck took a swig of his beverage. Today had been a good day for him ¡ª he had put Umbridge behind bars, got to see her crumble, and then got praised by literally everyone he came across.


    "I think Owler went easy on Umbridge," said James, popping a fritter into his mouth, "thirty years is less for a repugnant woman like her ¡ª she should''ve gone behind bars for at least forty years, especially know when the jailors have changed to actual people."


    The ind fortress had been rebuilt and now was under the direct jurisdiction of the newest divisional addition to DMLE ¡ª Division of Azkaban Warden Administration.


    "It''s over; Owler gave her what he thought she deserved," said Sirius, "unlike us, he doesn''t know what a bitch she truly is. Him ordering her thirty was the best we could get without pulling out everything else she might have done. Boss wanted this to be done quickly; there''s no point thinking about it now."


    "Well," said James, stretching the well out, "we can, if you''d like, go digging around for her other misdemeanor ¡ª now that she''s not going to be around, I''m sure many would be much more motivated toe forward. If we put it together right and are able to get her further convicted, we could make her serve the new sentence consecutively."


    Sirius peered at James with his mug raised to his lips. James noticed the look and asked, "What?"


    "Did you write to him yet?"


    James, who was about to drink, slowly put his mug down and sighed, "I did. He. . . he didn''t write much back, what he did write was all deflection. I wrote to him back again, and then again, all I got was anything but why he didn''t tell us anything."


    "What did he say to Lily? She talked to him, right?"


    "She did. Harry did talk to her. . . somewhat ¡ª said that it wasn''t anything to worry about, that it was all part of the n, and they couldn''t tell anyone because it could''ve ruined it. But Lily told me that he was clearly avoiding the talk and ran out right after she breached the topic."


    "Don''t worry about it, mate. He''s just at that age. You know how it was ¡ª kids want to feel like adults, friends start taking a front row, parents get annoying, and all that jazz. He''lle around."


    "Easy for you to say," James chugged his mug down. "You''re the fun uncle who he doesn''t have to worry about nagging him. I''m the one who needs to discipline him when he does something stupid with you."


    Siriusughed, "There''s got to be some upside to being a godfather. I''m having all the fun I can before you die in a ditch, and I take your ce."


    "You had too much to drink."


    Sirius leaned back into his chair of their corner table. "But boy, that West kid really pulled something off, didn''t he? Umbridge was nigh-untouchable under Fudge, one kid and a camera, she''s shipped off to Azkaban."


    "He kept staring back at her."


    Sirius looked at his friend, who was staring up at the ceiling. "What do you mean?" he asked; he blinked a couple times to keep focus.


    "In the reels. . . Quinn, he kept staring at her the entire time. You didn''t watch the part, but the kid kept staring at Umbridge while writing the lines in his blood. It scared her, I could tell, hell, I was a bit nervous. That kid wrote the most of all, never stopped for a second, probably lost as much blood that the others lost in two days. You''re right; that kid''s something else. He never looked at the camera once the entire time he was in the room. Harry did look though, a couple times, amateur move."


    James removed his eyes from the ceiling, brought them down to Sirus, and was surprised to see him leaning over the table, arms crossed with his head resting on them.


    "Told you, didn''t I? You had a lot to drink," said James, smiling. He slowly got up while shifting his body back and forth, trying to find the bnce. "Oh boy," James shook his head, trying to see if it would help shake some booze off, it didn''t, so he sat back down, "I wonder if Remus went to bed."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In an immacte room with appealing victorian decor,fortable sofas and chairs to lounge on, and a stocked bar with liquors of choice ¡ª everything from butterbeer to gin was avable for drinking, waiting to be poured. A soft melody, calm and elegant, sounded in the background, filling the room''s ambiance just as the painting set in grand frames did on the walls.


    Three men sat around a table with alcohol and tters with assortments of cheese and bread between them. They were Jacob Greengrass, Lodewicus Fawley, and Aashir Shafiq ¡ª the three heads of their respective families and members of the Grey Coalition or, as it was poprly known, The Grey Faction.


    "Umbridge is out of the picture," said Shafiq; the ice clinked as he ced it on the coaster on the table, "without her, Fudge is going to be trouble."


    Dolores Umbridge, for all her faults, was Fudge''s strongest asset. She was the hammer and chain that held Fudge''s office together with vicious ruthlessness; without her, Fudge would''ve been split between his patrons a long time ago. Umbridge was why Fudge was able to spread his control into the various departments, which were usually divided into pockets of the powerful noble families.


    "Fudge abandoned her right after the trial," said Fawley. "Do you think he knew about what she was doing in Hogwarts?"


    "If we were to believe what Umbridge said at the end, Fudge knew what was happening," said Shafiq. All of them were present in the courtroom as part of the Wizengamot Jury.


    "It doesn''t matter if he knew or not," said Jacob Greengrass. He tapped at the newspaper sitting in the center of the table. It was a rush evening issue of the Daily Prophet with the Dolores Umbridge Trial stamped out on the front page, the courtesy of the exclusive story-breaking journalist, the best in the business, Rita Skeeter.


    "Fudge denied any knowledge of the happening, and Umbridge was made the scapegoat," he said. "The real question is what''s going to happen now. The elections are next year, and it doesn''t look like Fudge is going to have another term."


    "Which isn''t good for us," sighed Shafiq.


    The other two nodded. Fudge''s era had been good for them; when the leader was so receptive to external incentives, it made everyone down the power chain also simrly "open-minded" and "open-pocketed."


    "If Fudge goes out, then it''s Amelia Bones who''s going to go up next," said Fawley and sighed. "There''s literally no one to stand against her. If she doesn''t make any grievous errors, then she''s practically a shoo-in for the job."


    And all knew that Amelia Bones wasn''t one to make potential career-ending mistakes.


    "The Head of DMLE moving to Minister," said Jacob, and the other two nodded, knowing what kind of change that would bring. Amelia Bones had been brought up in DMLE ¡ª she hadn''t worked in any other department other than the one responsible for justice and order.


    "We have to move quickly before she gets elected and brings her DMLE vor to the entire Ministry," said Fawley.


    "Should we support Fudge a bit to make sure he doesn''t end up getting ousted by a vote of no confidence?" asked Shafiq while he poured himself another pour of whiskey.


    Jacob immediately rejected the course of action. "No, that wouldn''t be wise. George West wants Fudge out of the Ministry after his term permanently. If we provide Fudge with support, he might end up staying in the Ministry afterward, and that might displease George."


    "George West showing interest in politics, that''s rare," said Fawley, cutting himself a cheese.


    "His grandson was part of the trial," said Jacob. "George West doesn''t like himself or his family be part of the politics or be in the public spotlight. He isn''t happy that his grandson was pushed into making decisions that put him into the public limelight."


    The more powerful and influential a family got, the more they started to retreat out from the public eye. The Wests hadn''t been in the public eye for a very long time, and George West was adamant about continuing that status.


    Jacob raised his ss to his partners, "To a bright future and a new era."


    Fawley and Shafiq raised their sses and said: " "To a new era." "


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Lord Voldemort, The Dark Lord, sat in his room in a building situated in an unknown location. His bony fingers held the exclusive evening issue of Daily Prophets, reading through the pages that only covered a single story.


    "It seems my curse is still at work," said Voldemort, his lipless mouth curling up into a thin smile.


    "Master. . ."


    Voldemort turned to his long-haired, silver-tongued follower, "Speak Lucius, what is on your mind?"


    "What should we do about Cornelius?" asked Lucius. He has been part of the Wizengamot Jury, but his support couldn''t keep Umbridge from being burned on the stake.


    Voldemort rapped his digits on the armrest of his chair as he stared into the mes burning in the firece. "Keep him in the chair. As long as you can keep Cornelius Fudge in power, do it. Don''t let him fall off before the end of his term."


    "What about when his term ends?"


    "Amelia Bones, was it? The next-in-line," asked Voldemort, and Lucius nodded. "Bones. . . Bones. . . Bones. . ah, yes, I remember, The House of Bones. . . if I remember correctly, only two were left alive."


    "Yes, master. Amelia Bones and his niece, Susan Bones. The niece is the same age as my son."


    "Head of DMLE, is she? We can''t have her taking power in the Ministry. It''d be a nuisance when wee to power. Tell me, Lucius, would Amelia Bones be open to some persuasion?"


    "I don''t think so, master. Amelia Bones is as hard as onees."


    "I see, what a pity. Then she needs to go."


    "Then. . ."


    "Not now, Lucius, not now. Is there any progress on getting the Prophecy, Lucius?" Voldemort asked at the end.


    "Unfortunately, master, we haven''t been able to retrieve it. Rockwood tried to apply his knowledge, but nothing much came out of it."


    Augustus Rockwood, one of the ten Death Eaters who had recently been broken out of Azkaban, was an Unspeakable during the war, but because of Igor Karkaroff blowing the whistle on him, he had been sent to Azkaban by Barty Crouch Sr.


    "So even Rockwood wasn''t able to get through," Voldemort looked down on hisp as his beloved Nagini slithered into hisp. His hand went to her, feeling her sturdy scales; they gave him the sense of safety.


    "It seems we would need to do something different," Voldemort turned his face to the other side and spoke to his other follower in the room. "Wormtail, how''s your little friend doing? Is he feeling any better now?"


    Peter Pettigrew, who stood in a darker corner of the room, spoke, "He''s feeling better, master. Dementors don''t suit him, it seems. It''s taking him a bit longer to recover. He''s not the sturdiest of individuals."


    "Get his health back up, Wormtail. It''s time for him to pay for his freedom."


    "What do you wish from him, master?" asked Peter.


    "It''s time for the leader of Novellus ionites to return," said Voldemort, his dull eyes reflecting the mes of the firece. "There''s a need for a demonstration, a spectacr demonstration."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Alright, people! It''s a momentous day," Eddie said, facing a crowd made up of forty DA members and people who had been part of Umbridge''s twenty-nine. "We have gathered here to celebrate Umbitch''s death, the fall of her tyranny, and the revival of what she took away from us."


    "She isn''t dead," said Marcus from the crowd.


    "Bah! Semantics!" Eddie waved him off; Marcus shook his head with a smile. "Yesterday, Umbridge got her judgment, and we got out justice. Now it''s time to return everything respectable to Hogwarts by reverting the damage, and today, we start with her worst decision." He raised his arm, pointing towards the head of the crowd, "I ask Quinn West, the Toad Hunter, to step forward. Rest, give him a round of apuse!"


    Amidst the wave of pping, shouts, and calls of his name, Quinn walked out from the crowd and stood by Eddie, who wrapped an arm around his shoulder.


    "This man has time and time again stood against Umbridge, being the beacon of hope in the tough times, and in the end, he''s the one who put her away for good, and today, we are going to reward him by," he stepped aside and raised both his hands to point at a door barred with wood nks, "reopening AID and returning our beloved help club¡ª"


    "Consultation service," said Quinn.


    "¡ª help club! When AID closed, it was a sad moment for everyone, and today we open it back and return joy to Hogwarts," Eddie slipped his hand behind his back, underneath his outer robe, and to everyone''s surprise and shock, took out a big worn down ck crowbar.


    He pushed it into Quinn''s hands, who instinctively grabbed it. Quinn looked at the crowbar with his brows raised, then up at Eddie. "Where did you get this? And. . . why?" he asked, his hands not knowing what to do with the tool.


    Eddie shrugged, "Swiped it from Filch''s room. Don''t worry, I''m just borrowing. I''ll return it," he gave him a thumbs-up with azy smile. "Now, take that and get your office back."


    Quinn felt the weight of the crowbar in both his hands as he spun it along its length. He looked at the nks nailed to the door frame, raised the crowbar above his shoulder, and droved the sharp edge into the wood with the crowd erupting in cheers. Quinn then unceremoniously took out his fake wand, and with one wave, all nks came ripping out from the door frame, nails and all.


    Quinn nodded with his lower lip jutting out. He turned to the crowd looking at him with wide eyes, leaning away, their raised hands in protection as their eyes darted between the nks on the floor and him.


    "You didn''t think I would take out all of them one by one, did you?" he asked. He tossed the crowbar to Eddie, who fumbled to catch it.


    "There''s something known as a warning!" said Ivy, her hand clutching Hermione''s arm.


    Quinn grinned as he turned back to the door, took out the spare key ¡ª the original stillid with Filich, but it didn''t matter as Quinn was going to change the lock. He opened the door with people peeking over his shoulder and gasped as the room came into view.


    "W-What happened to your office?" asked Tracey, her hand touching her throat as she looked at the ck that epassed the entire office.


    "Hmm? Oh! Ah, the funeral ¡ª I mean, it was just something I did," said Quinn and raised his wand, and color started to return to the room like a breath of life.


    Quinn stepped into the office, taking ce after the longest he had been away from it during a school year. He turned towards the crowd and looked at the other person who was feeling as joyous as he was right now. He stepped to a side, leaving space at the door, and she glided right beside him, instantly recognizing what he meant.


    "It seems we are back in business," he said, wrapping his arms around her shoulder.


    Luna nodded, "I left my favorite scarf in the workshop. I can get it back now." She immediately ran inside the office, heading to get her scarf back.


    Quinn chuckled and turned towards the crowd, sped his hands in the front, and smiled, "Now that we are open again, I announce a special discount for the reopening. So, who''s up for buying some notes," he wiggled his brows, "fifth-years? You didn''t forget about the OWLs, right?"


    The groans across the board were more melodious to his ears than the jingle of coin that followed immediately after.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "I couldn''t have done it alone."


    James Potter - Father - Confused concerning his teenage son.


    Sirius ck - Godfather - Zzz. . .


    Jacob Greengrass - Grey Faction Bigshot - Flowing with the tides.


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - Has a n in mind.


    Lucius Malfoy - Death Eater - Time to cut Cornelius'' allowance.


    Peter Pettigrew - Death Eater - In-charge of his inductee.


    Eddie Carmichael - Just borrowing - Hold "my" crowbar.


    Luna Lovegood - AID employee - Her scarf got dusty.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 246 - Quidditch Cup Finals

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn walked into the Hogwarts library, the singlergest "room" in Hogwarts solely dedicated to books. He passed by the long front desk, manned by the eagle-eyed Madam Pince, who peered into the soul of everyone who entered her dominion, trying to instill the fear of horrible demise if any of her dear children were harmed.


    He strode through the sturdy bookshelves packed with thick tomes ¡ª dictionaries, encyclopedias, and historical texts ¡ª that lined the walls, marched across the floors in rows, forming a maze of sorts for the Hogwarts student to navigate to the reading areas.


    The sound of his footsteps against the marble floor could be heard as well as the sound of someone as much as clearing their throat a few bookshelves away. He entered the reading area, the most "noisy" part of Hogwarts, with the students coborating in hushed tones while others scribbled over their parchment hunched over some book that they had picked out for their assignments.


    Quinn looked around, searching for the person he hade to meet. It didn''t take more than a few seconds ¡ª she sat in the same ce they upied every day since the start of their meetings.


    "Good evening, Daphne. How''re you today?" Quinn said, carefully pulling out the chair to not make any noise.


    "Good evening," she said, looking up from her cache of AID notes.


    "Only eight weeks remain to your OWLs," he said, "how do you feel about that? Ready to knock it out of the park?"


    Daphne nodded.


    "Excellent, what do you want to cover today?" asked Quinn, settling himself in the chair as he peeked over to what she had opened in the AID notes.


    "Arithmancy: The Law of Quadruple Pairings."


    "Ah, no wonder. That one''s a bit tricky, but I do have a trick that''ll help you get a grasp of things. You actually don''t need to. . ."


    In the library, with a ward around them stifling all outgoing sound, Quinn tutored Daphne while clearing any doubts she footed. It wasn''t difficult for Quinn to teach someone smart like Daphne, who had basics down; as such, time passed quickly, with Quinn enjoying going over some topics he himself hadn''t touched in some time.


    "I guess that''s it for today," said Quinn. He pushed the parchment with a solved example towards Daphne. "Your Arithmancy just needs practice. Solve some more problems, and that''ll get the concepts clear."


    Daphne nodded whileparing what she had done with Quinn''s work.


    Quinn tilted his head. There was something different about Daphne today, he thought. His eyes slightly narrowed, wondering what it was, trying to pinpoint why it seemed so distant today.


    "Daphne," he called.


    "Yes?"


    "Please, look at me."


    The quill in Daphne''s hand stilled. She nced up from her work and looked at Quinn as he asked. "Yes?" she asked.


    "Is there something wrong?" he asked. "Why does it seem that you''re avoiding eye contact with me, and you haven''t spoken much today."


    "It''s nothing like that. You must be imagining things."


    Quinn stared at Daphne, but the girl went back to taking notes. There was once again a silence between them. Quinn took ount of the three-quarter of the hour they had spent together; Daphne hadn''t spoken to him other than asking questions. Something was clearly bothering her.


    "Daphne," he said again.


    "How''re things going at AID?" Daphne asked but didn''t look away from her work. "I heard you sold a lot of notes after the reopening. You''re again going to get busy. . ."


    Quinn opened his mouth only to close it. There was clearly something bothering her, but he couldn''t tell what it was. He tried to think if he missed something ¡ª her birthday, no, that had already passed; had he promised something, not that he could remember.


    A silence settled between them as Quinn gazed at Daphne while she never looked up at him. Then it struck Quinn, and he knew he shouldn''t, but it did turn his frown upside down.


    "Daphne. . . I''m still going to teach you, you know," he said, leaning towards her with his cheek resting on his palm. "This isn''t going to end just because AID reopened."


    Daphne''s quill stopped, and she finally looked up from her work. "You don''t have to do tha ¡ª."


    "We''re going to continue this," said Quinn, cutting her off and intertwining his fingers with hers. "This might have started because AID got closed, but that doesn''t, in any way, mean that it has to stop now that AID reopened."


    Daphne grasped Quinn''s hand back.


    "You''re cute worry about silly things," said Quinn, grinning. "If you don''t like something, you can always-always tell it to me."


    Daphne nodded, "It''s just that, I enjoy our time a lot and. . . but you get busy so. . ."


    "I do too, so very much, and if I want to spend time with you, then I''ll take out time to do so ¡ª no excuses."


    In the quiet library, two people grew closer than they were before.


    - (Scene Break) -


    With the OWLs, NEWTs, and the rest of the end-of-term examinations right on the horizon, it was time to pack up the extra-curricr and co-curricr activities for the year and go into study mode. In Hogwarts, there was no bigger out-of-curriculum as Quidditch, and today, was the day for its biggest game of the year.


    "YEAH, HEHEHE-AH!! Hogwarts! Are! You! Ready! For the biggest game of the season?!"


    Quinn''s voice riding on the loudspeaker pitched to every corner of the packed stadium ¡ª Hogwart students wearing their team colors, carrying rain gears in case of a downpour, holding their bottles, mugs, and sses of butterbeer while screaming and chanting through their freshly painted faces. Pennants and gs flew throughout the stands as the Hogwarts crowd sat shoulder-by-shoulder, showing camaraderie among even the most estranged housemates ¡ª half-naked boys could be seen dotting the crowd with their bellies painted with numbers and letters, offering the most excitement many had shown through the entire year, while some threw food at anyone who wasn''t in their camp.


    "Yeeessss! Oh boy, now I''m regretting skipping thest game," Quinn grinned into the microphone. "The game hasn''t even started yet, but I can already tell that it''s going to be a great one! And putting a little sparkle into this game, I''m happy to announce that for this season''s finale ¡ª Ravenw versus Gryffindor, I''ll be joined by a guest announcer. Give it up for the one-and-only, Head Boy, Captain of the Hufflepuff''s, Champion of Hogwarts ¡ª CEDRIC DIGGORY!!!"


    A crackle coughed in the stadium as Cedric amped up the second microphone. "Thank you for that introduction, Quinn. It''s an honor to be a part of this game, but I would like to start with correcting you on something ¡ª I''m no longer the Captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team, I stepped down from that position after ourst game."


    Cedric''s voice caused the Hufflepuff crowd to burst into apuse, whistles, shouts, and cheers for the best yer and Captain they had in years.


    "Ever so noble, aren''t you, Mr. Diggory. Well, nevertheless, your contribution to Hufflepuff Quidditch and Hogwarts Quidditch as a whole can''t be ignored," Quinn flipped over a sheet on his littlementator''s table. "You''re Hufflepuff''s all-time top-scoring Seeker with most the most snitches caught in the least games yed. Your Hogwarts career spans over five years ¡ª six if we includest year''s Quidditch Tournament, and you were made Captain when you were in your fourth year and have held onto the posting till this year ¡ª in that time, you led Hufflepuff to their highest win-to-loss percentage in a century ¡ª an impressive resume no matter how you look at it."


    "You tter me. I couldn''t have done it all alone. I have my team members having my back on the pitch and the entire house supporting me to thank for. They have been with me every step of the way."


    "My magic, you''re humble. Have you thought of joining politics? I predict you''ll do great there. Ah, it seems we have to cut this conversation here as Ravenw and Gryffindor have entered the field," he added at the end, seeing the entry signal.


    Both teams flew out of their corners, emerging out of blue and red fogs, as they flew low, nearer to the ground, just below where the stands started, circling around the pitch in formation, giving the people a nce at the two teamspeting for the Cup and the position of the best team.


    "Today''s game is quite exciting even without the final tag attached to it," said Quinn. "First of all, we have to talk about the Weasley twins."


    "Yes, we have to," said Cedric. "Today can''t be talked about without mentioning those two. It''s theirst game today, after all."


    "Yes, the Weasley twins, Cedric, I apologize for the analogy I''m about to use, but if you''re a historical figure in Hufflepuff Quidditch, then the Weasley twins are going down as historical figures in the annals of Hogwarts Quidditch."


    "I forgive you," said Cedric, chuckling.


    "Fred and George Weasley are all-time great Beaters in Hogwarts history. They''re the best duo in a very long time, a couple of centuries, to say the least. I have some data, but that doesn''t do both of them justice; they have been consistently phenomenal in their six years of their ying. They have been terrifically effective against Chasers squads no matter what the year, no matter what house. It has been a pleasure watching them y, and I regretfully say that after today, Gryffindor is going to lose an asset that had been their backbone for years, going back to the Oliver Wood era."


    "I agree wholeheartedly with you, Quinn. But, as we are talking aboutst games, it''s thest game for Angelica Johnson and Alicia Spi as well. After today, Gryffindor will not only lose the Weasley menace, they''ll also lose two-thirds of the Gryffindor Vixens, leaving only Katie Bell as an experienced Chaser."


    Quinn nodded deeply. He wasn''t a huge Quidditch buff, but when you had been doingmentary for years, it was inevitable that he had be knowledgeable about the sport. "After today, Gryffindor is going to lose their long-standing continuity and will need to rebuild. I just hope they''ll be able toe together strong as ever the next year."


    "And, we can''t ignore his return to the Quidditch field," said Cedric, and the crowd knew exactly who he was talking about.


    Quinn smiled, "On the orders of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the season-long ban on Harry Potter, the Gryffindor Seeker, has officially been lifted for the final game of the season. He''ll be recing Ginny Weasley, who had been seeking for Gryffindor in Potter''s absence."


    Harry Potter flew in the front of the Gryffindor Team, one of his hands gripping his Firebolt, while the other waved to the crowd as both teams stood in the center of the pitch.


    "But today, they''re going to be facing Ravenw," said Cedric, a bitter smile on his face.


    "Yes," Quinn chuckled, "with four Gryffindor yers retiring today, I fear that it might turn out to be the feel-good ending they''re aiming for."


    "No, not with how he''s ying," said Cedric, "it''ll take a titanic effort for them to ovee this Ravenw Team."


    On the field, the two teams faced each other, waiting for Hooch as she performed a pre-game check on the game balls.


    "So, Johnson," said Eddie, making Angelilook at him, "you decided to put Potter on the field, huh. Are you sure that''s a smart decision?"


    "Oye, Carmichael, don''t spout nonsense," Ron said, limbering up shoulders and neck.


    "Hey, I''m just asking," Eddie said, raising both his hands, looking at Harry, "I mean, Potter hasn''t been on a broom this year, he might be rusty, and you know, the Weaslette had been ying well, so was it really a good move to bring in someone who hasn''t yed in a while when the Cup is at stake?"


    "Keep yourself to your team, Carmichael," said Potter, "or who knows, you might not get to touch the quaffle, and I''ll have the snitch in my hand."


    "Alright, if you say so," said Eddie, rocking back-and-forth on the heel of his feet, "you know you''re right, I need to keep myself to my team," he wrapped an arm around Roger Davis'' shoulder, "it''s Captain''sst game, so the least I could do is to send him off with the Cup. That seems to be the most fitting farewell." He looked at Angelina, Alicia, Fred, and George, "We can let you guys touch the Cup for a while if you guys want."


    "Oh, Carmichael," said Fred, and George continued, "we are looking forward to jamming a Bludger in your face today."


    Eddie threw his head back andughed, "All the power to you, guys. You guys triedst time, and see where that got you, let me tell you ¡ª a crushing defeat."


    He nced at Hooch walking toward them and turned to Ron, "Oye, Weasley, the not-funny one, yeah you. I''ll being for you today, hard, so try to touch the quaffle, okay? I''m warning you because I don''t want to see you crying after the game."


    Back in thementator''s booth, Quinn watched as Hooch raised the quaffle. "Alright, rowdy people, Madam Hooch has raised the quaffle; the game is about to start; let''s see who gets the initiative and spearheads the game," his voice boomed through the stadium.


    On the pitch, Harry tensed on his broom, angling it perfectly before the start of the match. He tuned out Quinn and waited to see the quaffle fly up into the air.


    The second the official tossed the quaffle, he moved his Firebolt as quickly as it could rev up. He banked left and flew spinning between the two Ravenw center chasers before they could make a y for the quaffle. Both dispersed, attempting to not get part of a collision when the free-quaffle was up for grabs.


    Cho attempted to follow Harry but wound up blocked by her own Chasers.


    The result was the quaffle fell unimed. At least until Alicia cut under it. She reached out to the falling quaffle, but before she could reach it, a blue blur scooped up it before her.


    "What a diversion by Potter!" Cedric''s excited voice boomed in the stadium. "Spi''s speed was impressive; for a second, I thought she would go uncontested ¡ª but Carmichael struck again; no one''s better than him the first grab! There he goes, gaining altitude ¡ª and what''s this he scores on the low side ¡ª Ron Weasley misses it by a foot! Score! That''s a quick 10-0 to Ravenw!"


    Eddie pulled up on his broom,ing to a halt before he went behind the goal hoops, and turned back to go back to his side, and on his way, he winked to Harry, who hade near to Gryffindor hoops.


    "That was indeed great diversion, Potter," he said, "but it''s going to take a lot more than that to keep me away from MY quaffle."


    Harry wrinkled his nose as his brows furrowed. That diversion was nned and practiced so that they could get their hands on the quaffle first and start with the tide on their sides. It was proven from the previous year''s games, and this year, every time Eddie got the first grab on the quaffle, Ravenw would almost always lead, and it became difficult to wrestle that lead away.


    It seemed today was no different, and Ravenw gained a strong lead.


    Eddie shifted the gears on his broom, cutting very close to Angelina, causing her to drop the quaffle. It was quickly picked up by Eddie, who tossed it to the other Chaser, who fed Roger Davies for an easy goal. Eddie''s eyes nced up to the scoreboard quickly. 120-40 was a promising start. But it meant he still had to be on high alert.


    As much as he liked Cho as his teammate, she wasn''t doing much more than following Potter around. And he wasn''t sure if she could keep up Potter from out-flying her.


    ''Well, I just need to score more,'' he thought and got back to work.


    The game continued, and both teams began piling up points ¡ª Ravenw much more than Gryffindor. Soon, the game reached its climax.


    It wasn''t long before the golden ball was spotted, flutteringzily down by the ground. It couldn''t have been more than a few feet from the grass. Harry spun his broom around and angled himself into a corkscrewing dive until he had the line he wanted. Cho immediately followed after him.


    "And Potter dives again!" Quinn announced for everyone in attendance to hear. "Is it a feint? I think it''s not! Oh, there he goes rushing. Chang follows, oh, she gains upon him! Potter''s back in the lead. . ."


    It was then Cedric spoke up into his microphone, "Carmichael has the quaffle. Everybody! The score''s 350-200! If Carmichael scores before now, Ravenw will win the game no matter if Potter gets the snitch or not, but if he doesn''t, the game will go to a shoot-out! Will he able to. . ."


    Everything went silent for Eddie as he flew towards the goal hoops. The crowd''s voice disappeared, thementators became non-existent, there was only him and the goal hoops with only faceless silhouettes in his way.


    ''It felt good,'' he thought as he dipped below a raging Bluder, rammed his arm into someone''s chest to shake them off of him.


    This was the time Eddie felt inplete control. Despite the rushing wind assaulting his ears, he could listen to his heartbeat and even to the sound of his breathing. The pressure of the game on the line brought something out of him that nothing else did.


    ''Ah, I hope this never ends.'' He cocked his hand up his shoulder and threw the ball towards the uppermost of the three hoops. The quaffle left his hand, his fingers putting his special spin on it. He watched as faceless silhouette dived towards the quaffle, but the quaffle suddenly rose and slipped the blocking hand, dinged into the hoop''s ring, and fell past the circle.


    The silhouette turned back into Ron Weasley and sounds returned.


    "GOAL!" he heard Quinn speak, and immediately a second after, he heard Cedric speak, "Potter''s got the snitch! But it''s toote; Carmichael scored! 360-350 for Ravenw! Ravenws are the new champions!!!"


    Eddie''s chest rose up and down as he stared at the scoreboard. He looked at his team celebrating in the middle of the field. But he didn''t join them; instead, he flew towards the teachers'' booth wherementators sat.


    Quinn spoke as soon as he arrived, "Eddie! You won! Boy, you''re a champion now! You did ¡ª"


    Eddie ced his legs on the railings, the broom still under him, and pulled Quinn by his shoulder, cutting him off mid-sentence.


    "Listen!" Eddie said, his heart beating hard in his rib cage. "Listen," he said again, "I. . . I''m going to do this!"


    "What? What do you mean," said Quinn, still leaning over the table as Eddie didn''t let him go.


    "I. . . have decided. . . Quidditch, I''m going to do Quidditch," said Eddie.


    Quinn blinked a bit as the realization struck him, "You mean after Hogwarts," he grinned, "you''re going pro after Hogwarts?"


    "Yeah, I will be a pro, yeah."


    Quinn''s smile bloomed. Before Quidditch, Eddie switched things every week. It was only Quidditch that he stuck on.


    "Alright, go do it!" said Quinn. "You go be a pro! Someday, I''ll buy a team and have you y for me."


    Eddie nodded, but it seemed he wasn''t listening to it. He let Quinn go and flew away, but again, he didn''t go to his team; instead, he flew toward the stands.


    Hended in the crowd of green as the crowd parted to give him space. His eyes only had for a brte that sat in front of him.


    "Eddie?" said Tracey Davis, standing up from her ce, but before she could say anything, Eddie pulled her close and. . .


    "Holy shit! He kissed her!" Quinn''s surprised voice spread in the stadium.


    Tracey, wide-eyed with surprise, was pulled into her first kiss, but then realization struck her about what was happening, and her arms coiled around Eddie''s neck as she leaned into the kiss.


    Sitting beside her, Daphne watched with her brows raised higher than ever as her best friend kissed Eddie Carmichael in broad public with so many watching. She wasn''t sure if she could do that in front of so many people.


    Eddie and Tracey''s lips stopped their dalliance as they stopped to breathe; their foreheads rested against each other.


    "I wanted to do that for a while now," said Eddie, putting his arms around her waist, pulling her closer.


    Trace smiled, "No one was stopping you. . ."


    "I''m going to need more."


    "We can go now."


    "Okay."


    The cheers spiked up, but the two couldn''t hear anything.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - He did it! Oh my god, he did it!


    Eddie Carmichael - Future-pro - Kissing = Good.


    Tracey Davis - Delightfully surprised - Already thinking about which broom closets are the best because. . . Kissing = Good.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Sniff. . . my boy is all grown up!


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 247 - Professor Of DADA

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    "What''s the use of sitting here when nothing''s going to happen," said Eddie, his arms crossed with a frown marring his face. "I could be dueling you in the grounds outside than sitting here wasting my time."


    Quinn flipped a page on his book; his facial features softened, his features rxed. "If you want to, we can y io-Tug-of-War to pass the time," he said.


    "No, I''m not feeling like io-Tug-of-War right now."


    "You just don''t want to lose."


    "Nuh-uh!"


    Marcus sitting between Eddie and Quinn, ced his palm on his open book in his hand and looked straight up. "If we are called here, then there must be a new Professor who will teach us today." He turned to Eddie, "it would look good if you do a revision on the theory ¡ª no, I''m not talking about Umbridge theory ¡ª be ready in case someone doese to teach us so that we don''t embarrass ourselves. It''ll do us no good to me Umbridge now, so try to brush up on the topics."


    Today was the first day after Umbridge''s arrest, and first thing in the morning, they had been called to the Defense Against The Dark Arts for a supposed ss.


    "Do you know about something," asked Eddie, taking out an actual Defense Against Dark Arts book from his bookbag. "Did the Professors tell the Prefects something about who''sing for the ss?"


    Quinn shook his head. There was no notification to the Prefects about what was going to happen in today''s ss.


    "Do you think stor Moody is going toe in?" asked Marcus. "Or maybe an Auror woulde to teach us? That''d be exciting. . . do you think they''ll answer my questions about the Azkaban Eleven?"


    Quinn chuckled, "Why''re you already assuming that it''s going to be an Auror?"


    "What if it''s a Hit Wizard?" Eddie asked. In his mind, Hit Wizards, who were exclusivelybatants with much more firepower, were much more interesting than Aurors, who were a mix ofbatants and investigators.


    "Who do you think it''s going to be?" Marcus asked Quinn.


    "I can''t say," said Quinn, "maybe, Professor Lupin would return till the end of the year."


    "Or-Or, maybe-maybe," said Eddie, raising his finger, "we''re looking at it the wrong way, and it''s not something one from outside ¡ª I bet it''ll be Snape. Didn''t he want to teach Defense Against The Dark Arts? I''m sure he wants to get his stinky hands on the job."


    And so it happened that Eddie was indeed correct, or at least partially true, as his words were immediately followed by an amused chuckle from near the ssroom''s door.


    "Professor Snape did ask to be put in charge of the Defense Against The Dark Arts, but with the OWLs and NEWTs so close, it wasn''t a wise decision to give a teacher the duty of two subjects."


    Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus turned their heads towards the back of the room, and there stood Dumbledore smiling by the door, his hands behind his back, peering at them through his half-moon sses that sat near the edge of the bridge of his nose.


    "And because I found myself free, I decided to take on teaching," Dumbledore smiled widely as more and more students started to turn to look at him ¡ª immediately straightening up at the sight of the Headmaster standing by their door.


    Dumbledore walked through the front of the ss. He took out his wand and, with a flick, the green board on wheels pulled out from the corner to the front of the ss. A stick of pinkish-red chalk rose from the board''s ledge and wrote Albus Dumbledore on the board.


    He faced the ss and was about to address the students but stopped to look at the windows in the ssroom. Another wave and the numerous mirrors and lenses hanging around the room, fixed on ends of mechanical arms, adjusted themselves ¡ª with every adjustment, the stream of lighting from the windows would get directed by the mirrors and lenses to light up the ssroom better than it had been ever before. No Defense Against The Dark Arts had been in the position long enough for them to get proficient at the lighting system.


    "Good morning, dear children," Dumbledore''s beard rose at the edge of his mouth. He didn''t get a good morning back because of the stiff-surprise in the room. "From today till the end of this year, I''ll be taking Defense Against The Dark Arts for all years ¡ª first to seventh ¡ª as your Professor. Unfortunately, you won''t be able to find me in the Professor''s staffroom like the others, but I''m willing to stay behind after every ss to answer your questions. Yes, Mr. Belby, please ask your question."


    Marcus lowered his hand and asked, "Sir, aren''t you a Transfiguration teacher?"


    "That''s correct, but before I was the Head of Transfiguration and a Professor of Transfiguration ¡ª I was a Professor of Defense Against The Dark Arts ¡ª in fact, it was my first full-time job. So please be assured, I''m qualified to teach you the subject."


    . . . That wasn''t ever a doubt, though the entire ss. The greatest magical in the country as a long-time educator was a dream that even the uninterested of students would pay attention to.


    Quinn reced his book into his bookbag, took out a notebook and pen to pay attention. No way was he going to do other homework or work on his lumency when Dumbledore was teaching a ss.


    "Now I understand that it''s toote for us to follow a formal curriculum and get all of you caught up with what a sixth-year student would usually learn," students looked at each other worried ¡ª even if they had performed well enough in their OWLs to attend a NEWT level DADA ss, if they didn''t score well in their sixth-year, they would be removed from the seventh-year part of the NEWT-level course, "so we aren''t going to follow a formal curriculum; instead, our sses will be a series of interactive sessions about Defense Against The Dark Arts, that I think will be beneficial for all of you. Please don''t worry, the end-of-year examinations will be adjusted ordingly, and I''ll personally set your papers and practicals based on what we discuss in our sessions together."


    That alleviated tension from the shoulders of students worried about the end-of-year examinations.


    "Yes, Mr. Hopkins," Dumbledore said to Carl Hopkins, Gryffindor, who raised his hand.


    "Professor, what would we do about next year? The NEWTs cover everything we were supposed to learn this year and will learn the next year. We haven''t learned anything from Umbridge, and that would affect our NEWT scores."


    "I''m already in talks with Madam Professor Griselda Marchbanks ¡ª the Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority that runs OWL, NEWT, and WOMBAT. She sympathizes with the egregious errors made this year and has already put into the process to change the criteria for OWLs and NEWTs. Of course, next year, your batch will require to learn an extra amount to at least cover topics required to contribute to the seventh year curriculum."


    "That seems fair," said Eddie aloud for everyone to hear.


    Knowing smiles surfaced on a few faces in the ssroom ¡ª the faces of DA members. They couldn''t care less if the end-of-year examination were the same as usual, and having that confidence felt good, so much so that their hidden smiles edged to smug.


    "Now, I''d like to open this ss with a question on which we would build for today," said Dumbledore; he raised his wand, and the stick of chalk rose with it writing as Dumbledore spoke: "What do you all think is important for magic to work to its fullest?"


    The answers came immediately.


    "Knowledge," said Katie Bell, a DA member.


    "Intent," followed Cho Chang, another DA member.


    "Emotion," finishes Marcus, yet another DA member.


    Dumbledore''s hand moving up to stroke his beard, stopped midway, and a smile surfaced as the rapid answers sunk it. ". . . That is correct," he said, "those three ¡ª Knowledge, Intent, and Emotion ¡ª those were the answers I was looking for. Fifteen points to Gryffindor and thirty to Ravenw. Then can you also tell me why they are important?"


    "Knowledge about what you want your magic to aplish is required as information and understanding gives the magic a solid structure that is essential for a witch to cast magic effectively," said Katie, expanding on her point. "Without knowledge, magic''s too unpredictable and quirky to cast consistently."


    Cho immediately followed after Katie, "Intent is basically having a clear image of what you want your magic to be. If you''re casting a disarming charm and have a clear image of a wand flying off the hand, then the magic will work much better than when you don''t have an image in mind and are hoping that chant and wand movement would do the work for you. The clearer your intentions, the more the magic will work as you want it to work."


    Dumbledore opted out from speaking and turned to Marcus, who started talking when Dumbeldore looked at him. "Emotions are the power behind magic; channeling emotions into magic will provide magic with an extra punch, with a peppy efficiency, and with an ease that just doesn''te otherwise. To provide an example, shield charm, Protego, works a lot better when you''re thinking of a memory that invokes determination or perseverance or defiance," said Marcus.


    Dumbledore''s eyes all but gleamed with delight. "Twenty-five points to Gryffindor and fifty to Ravenw," he said before asking. "Mr. Carmichael, can you tell me when knowledge isn''t necessary to cast magic."


    Everyone''s head turned to Eddie, who sat leaning into the seating bench, one of his hands resting on the bench''s back and behind Marcus''s back.


    "For a majority of magic, asking forplete knowledge about every step of the magic is terribly improbable and not at all feasible. To take an example, if one wants to transfigure a desk into a pig, then it''s too much to ask for the knowledge of the pig''s anatomy ¡ª but the fact remains that we have been already taught this magic, and many of us can perform it.


    Now to directly answer your question, while having a base knowledge is critical, it''s not necessary to know all of it ¡ª the magic will take of what you don''t know. Of course, the more knowledge and understanding one has, the easier it gets for them to cast. But the point remains that one doesn''t need to know everything to sessfully cast a piece of magic."


    "Fifteen points to Ravenw," said Dumbledore, smiling eye to eye. "Children, if you keep answering like this, I fear that Ravenw and Gryffindor will have substantial leads by the time we end today." He turned to Quinn and posed him a question, "Mr. West, tell me the demerits of emotions."


    "Emotions are the powerhouses pumping the extra life into magic, but that extra something can very easily get out of control if the emotions aren''t kept in a check. Even without magic, emotions have the tendency to heavily influence people, and when you put them into the ying pen with magic, while they''re able to create something spectacr, they can just as cause chaos and derail both the spell and cause major harm to the caster.


    For example, using the feeling of glee or happiness to cast magic like. . . a cheering charm will render amazing results, but if you don''t keep these emotions in check, then they''ll cause substantial difficulties.


    Happiness and glee might seem harmless emotions, but if one lets them affect you while casting magic, they will desensitize the caster from feeling sadness and sorrow, and no matter what the situation, they''ll keep feeling happy. Soon, excessive optimism will kick in, and the decision-making abilities will suffer. They''ll get easily pleased and easily persuaded, which would bump up the chances of getting taken advantage of by getting scammed. Thus, it''s important to keep any and all emotion, WHILE CASTING MAGIC, in check."


    "Excellent! Take twenty points for the answer," Dumbledore said, and the death stick shot mini-fireworks from its tip. "This. . . all of this was all I wanted to cover today and in the next session, and it seems that some of you have a marvelous handle on the understanding of these topics. It saves me from giving an introduction, which I''m deeply impressed for, so now, let''s dive into these three factors and learn in detail how you can use and manage these aids to the best of your advantage."


    Dumbledore then started to speak about knowledge, intent, and emotion. And for the entire ss, Quinn couldn''t find a stretch of minutes where he could put his pen down as he feared he would miss jotting an exciting new interpretation or insight on the topics that Quinn thought he had already had a good handle.


    ''Ah, this is it. Now, I remember how this felt,'' thought Quinn as he made a note in his notebook. Thest time he had felt like this was when learning lumency with n. Every word rted to mind magic that ever came out of n''s mouth was so insightful, so effectively phrased, and so utterly wise that Quinn had many a time found himselfing of trances.


    Right now, he was touching on a feeling almost identical to that. Dumbledore was really good, thought Quinn. He didn''t want to disrespect the other Professors, but they had nothing on Dumbledore, just with one ss from the headmaster.


    At the end of the ss, Dumbledore stood by the door, bidding the students goodbyes as they exited to make space for the next ss toe.


    As Quinn walked by Dumbledore, he nodded, "Professor Dumbledore."


    "Mr. West, great job today," greeted Dumbledore smiling, but then his eye widened as his eyes followed after Quinn, who had already walked away with the crowd.


    The smile on Dumbledore turned deeper as his entire face portrayed the emotion he was feeling. He couldn''t help but chuckle and thenugh some.


    After all, Quinn West had just called him Professor for the first time.


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    Quinn West - MC - Taught a lot and learned a lot.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster Dumbledore - Professor Dumbledore.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Short chapter. Next chapter, we move to the vault. I mightplete in one, but I think it''ll take two toplete the entire task, reward, and surprise.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 248 - Stigweard Gragg’s Legacy

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    [


    A/N: Hello, everybody. As a number of you might know, Philippines was recently hit by a devastating Typhoon ¡ª Typhoon Ria, locally known as Odette. It has racked up a sickening death count that has long past climbed up to triple-digits. But what I didn''t know was that Ria was the 15th Typhoon that hit Philippines this year.


    Millions of people are affected, hundreds of thousands people were made to evacuate their homes, essentially uprooting their lives.


    So, I urge those who have the means, please donate to the relief funds to help those in dire need of any help.


    One of the relief funds you can donate to: [ new-donate (dot) ayfoundation (dot) org]


    ]


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    Quinn stretched his body ¡ª touching his toes with the opposite hands, arching his spine back, twisting his waist, and all the works. He looked at his feet, the toes right at the edge of the line that separated between the room from the safe solid floor and the vast field of cubes dividing the floor that might as well be calledndmines.


    He bent forward and rubbed his legs below his knees to scratch the phantom itch in the ces his legs were piercedst time he was in the third room of the Architect''s Vault.


    Quinn cracked his neck and took a step onto the first cubical tile, and unlike thest time, nothing happened. The tip of his lips curled up ever so slightly. He looked down and saw the small hole in the tile ¡ª he had pocketed the cylinder shot at him thest time.


    "If the material isn''t reinserted," he said, smirking, "then it''s not going to reset." He took another step forward with his eyes on the next tile, which now had two holes as he had yet again pocketed the two cylindrical projectilesst time around.


    It was the next step Quinn was worried about. He looked to the opposite side of the room, and he was standing right in front of the exit door. A straight pathid in between them ¡ª it was the shortest path he could take to get to the door.


    It''s the most obvious path, thought Quinn. Anyone with a sound mind would want to take the shortest path in a trapden area. There was no point in taking another route, hoping to face an easy path because the traps became increasingly difficult as he would move away from the entry door and walk towards the exit door. It had been proved by the amalgamation of his previous experience ¡ª he had faced tiny cylinder projectiles as he had tried to go deeper into the room and had been shot with small circr pellets when he had hobbled back ¡ª both of those tiles were just near the entry door.


    But this was the Architect who had designed this ce, and it might be just him, but Quinn didn''t trust the creator a bit. Maybe it was because he had a name and a face to rant on that Quinn was channeling everything wrong onto Stigweard Gragg.


    "Alright," said Quinn, wiggling his body to get loose, "just like nned. Need to be quick and strong."


    He took another step and stepped onto the next tile, and immediately, like a bolt of lightning descending from the heavens to strike the earth, a baton-sized rod shot from the ceiling. Quinn had only a split second to look up before the rod was near him.


    A red screen ballooned up in front of his eyes, and Quinn watched as the screen stretched towards him as the rod tried to tear through. Quinn raised his hands, and the red flexible tarp-like screen faded for the stone-rod fell into his hands.


    Quinn injected his magic into the rod and nodded, "I knew it. I knew it; he had a reason for that mindlessbor. Thank god it had meaning."


    He recognized the stone in his hand. It was the same type as one of the hundreds of material cubes he slogged through.


    "Ugh, this is going to be difficult," Quinn ruffled his hair. He held the tip of the rod with one hand while the other held onto the shaft. After a few seconds, Quinn pulled on the tip, and it came breaking off from the rest of the rod.


    He dropped the rest of the shaft onto the ground and watched as the rod turned into a blob and sunk into the ground. Quinn looked up, and as per the rules of the room, nothing was shot at him.


    A sigh escaped him as he pocketed the tip he separated using transmutation. The specially made stone ¡ª a product of alchemy ¡ª wasplicated to transmute because of theplex physical structure, and it was okay with objects of smaller size, but when an entire column was falling over his head or an enormous mass of stone suddenlyunching towards him out of nowhere, it would get difficult to maybe cut a portion off.


    "Nothing I can handle," said Quinn, clearing his throat.


    He stepped forward and depressed a tile, triggering a trap. This time the rods didn''te from the sky but from the floor. Four rods emerged from four tiles a distance from him like somethinging out of the water and drilled towards him.


    Quinn raised a hand and a cutting whistle like a screech as his magic cut down on the momentum. He raised his hand, and a rod floated towards him while the other three fell to the ground. Once again, he transmuted a chunk off before letting the rest sink into the ground.


    Quinn took another step without hesitation, and maybe he should''ve had some hesitation. The second the tile depressed, and abruptly Quinn found himself sinking into the ground ¡ª into liquid.


    "Shi¡ª"


    Quinn pped around, but a six-tile area around him had turned into liquid stone, and he couldn''t find a ce to hold. He tried to float, but it was like quicksand as he sunk, but unlike quicksand, the sinking didn''t stop after he had disced his weight. He raised his hand above, futilely trying to grab onto something, but s, there was nothing, and soon, his wrist, hand, and then fingers disappeared into the floor.


    The liquid stopped sloshing around, and from the outer boundary of the liquid pool, the stone started to solidify, and the cube pattern began to reappear.


    But before the liquid couldpletely turn back to normal flooring, an air bubble rose to the top, soon a gurgle of them followed, and the entire liquid stone started to stir. Then breaking out from the viscous stone-turned-liquid came, a top of a sphere made from spinning air, sending out sshes of liquid.


    The sphere of air rose from the liquid; the air spun so fast that it turned solid, and not a drop of liquid entered the sphere. Inside the sphere floated Quinn, his face set into stone, his lips pressed into a line, only his eyes glowed a deep shade of purple.


    He looked down and jabbed a hand towards the liquid, and a blob of liquid stone floated out from the pool. Quinn looked ahead, and the air sphere flew forward outside the boundary of the liquid pool on the next tile (skipping six tiles that had turned to liquid.)


    The sphere disappeared, putting him down on the floor, and the moment the tile depressed, the liquid turned solid and set off the next trap.


    Two hands rose from the tile below, and ten cold fingers wrapped Quinn''s ankles. Immediately multiple chains with hands at the end shot towards his hands once again gripped their stoney fingers around his wrist, forearms, elbows, and upper arms.


    Purple eyes turned towards the ceiling to see a depressed ceiling tile while feeling the grips around his arms and legs turn firmer by the second and the arm chains pulling his arms apart ¡ª they weren''t going to stop until his body was into parts or his arms were separate from his body.


    Two giant, waist-level, circr des appeared from the ground as two adjacent pathways revealed themselves, crossing below Quinn''s feet for the circr des with jagged saw teeth to pass through his body. The des started to spin rapidly and began to move towards him from his sides.


    Quinn now had his arms spread wide, with joints about to enter a pain stage. He nkly stared at the iing circr des. He tugged his right arm, and chains snapped before they could even groan, he looked to his other hand and once again jerked, and his arms were.


    He didn''t move from his spot ¡ª the path of the des ¡ª and instead stared at the liquid blob that he had pulled from the liquid poll. A blob stilled, and ayer of ice covered it before the liquid was entirely encapsted in ice.


    After Quinn pocketed it, he started to pull off the hands clutching his body ¡ª all of them tried to sp his hands, but Quinn threw all but one away that he pocketed.


    Quinn looked down, and the hands gripping his ankles turned into goo. The des were a foot away from him when Quinn stepped ahead to the next tile. The next tile suddenly rose in the form of a cuboidal column, but before anything happened, it exploded into bits with a yellow light covering the st.


    Quinn watched the point-nk explosion behind his shield, and when the dust settled, a vortex of wind flew above the stump of the sted pir with chunks of debris trapped inside the vortex. He beckoned the vortex, and it dropped a handful of stone into his hand, which again froze into a block of ice that once again into his expanded pockets.


    Quinn stepped over the crude stump onto the next tile.


    A 3x3 cube tile area with Quinn standing in the middle disappeared and revealed a pitfall of around twenty feet with a bed of stone spikes waiting for someone to fall in give them the drink of blood they desired. Quinn nced down; purple glowed in his eyes, and the entire twenty-feet pit became a twenty-feet long column of ice.


    He stepped over to the next tile, and the entire room started to shake ¡ª hard enough to register high on the Richter Scale. Quinn''s eye narrowed as his bnce began to stagger,ing close to step on another tile or even fall on multiples of them at a time. A pulse of magic pumped into his body, and his physical attributes rose up on the charts, and he stood his ground, but even that wasn''t enough as the room started to shake more and more, so Quinn did the logical thing and stepped forward.


    The tile depressed a couple inches as they did, but the very next second, a column sprung up, pushing his lead leg handling his weight up and back. The earthquake and the sudden change of standing tform threw Quinn off bnce.


    Quinn''s mouth twitched as his expression turned sour. A pir of ice rose above the tile that jerked up and threw him off bnce. He threw his arms forward, and two cords of empyrean snapped out of his palms, and the hardened tips at the end of the cords dug into the ice pir. Quinn grabbed the cord tightly and came to a jerking stop, leaning at a dangerous angle with the floor with his feet firmly nted on the earthquake tile.


    He pulled himself up amidst all the shaking. The ice pir melted away, and Quinn carefully jumped over the rising tile onto the next one so that he could stop the room from shaking. Quinn became vignt the second the shaking stopped and began looking around.


    Quinn frowned. Nothing happened.


    He looked at his feet and blinked ¡ª the tile hadn''t depressed ¡ª there wasn''t a tile beneath his feet at all. He looked up, and the door was a few feet ahead of him. The realization struck him. Quinn turned back and saw the tiled area behind him. It was done; he had passed the trap zone.


    The purple from his eyes faded away to stone grey, and the heavy heaving began. The primal emotion of fear, anger, and urgency that bubble up to survive the stone quicksand waned away.


    "Holy magic," Quinn said between breathes, "I freaking flew! I can fly!" He ignored his pumping heart and throbbing head and immersed himself in the memory of his first unaided flight.


    He leaned against the exit tunnel wall and slipped down to the ground.


    "Come on, me. You. . . you know better."


    Time after time, he had reminded himself that bnce between emotions, but in the heat of the moment, those thoughts of bnce were pushed to the back seat. As he had sunk into the liquid stone ¡ª everything went ck, and he couldn''t even take in a breath ¡ª there was nothing but survival mode taking over.


    "I''m tired," he voiced as his state went back to normal, and he stood back up. He teetered towards the dim light on the other side of the tunnel, his walk unhurried and weary, all the while bending his knees and keeping his head down to avoid banging his head to the top of the tunnel ¡ª the people of that time were much shorter.


    Quinn exited the tunnel, and immediately he knew that the vault had ended.


    The previous three rooms had been rough, undecorated, purely functional, but in front of him was anything but. His feet stood on an ornate polished marble floor with intricate designs and patterns, showing off the geometrical art form.


    The walls themselves into sculptures of the Ancient Roman era ¡ª people dressed in togas, naked people, babies, sex. . . centaurs, goblins, warriors with swords on horses, magicals working with cauldrons, architectural backgrounds reminiscent of that era. It had all the underlying characteristics ¡ª sculpting immortality, shining a light on divinity and magic, and propaganda reflecting in every individual piece.


    The ceiling was a dome and the most bright thing in the room ¡ª the only colorful thing in the Architect''s Vault. Murals on every single inch of the roof painted in stunning vibrancy ¡ª remarkable considering a millennium had passed since they were painted.


    But what caught Quinn''s attention was the enormous bronze statue of Stigweard Gragg standing on a shallow pedestal, standing tall in the middle of the room.


    Quinn walked to the statue and noticed two things on the pedestal base that stood out to him. Written in Latin were the Architect''s name and short prose on him about who he was and what he had aplished in his life.


    ". . . You who have shown aptitude are worthy to receive my legacy," Quinn finished with thest line aloud.


    He looked up, and a wry smile marred his face. Just with one line, he could tell how Architect was looking at him right now. It said aptitude instead of skill ¡ª it screamed, ''Whatever you went through was not an impressive feat, ''twas just a measure of the basic requirement to receive my much greater legacy.''


    It screamed hubris. It screamed, ''I''m better than you.''


    "Oh, get off your high horse," Quinn spat. "I''m taller than you."


    The second thing on the pedestal was a familiar etched square, strikingly simr to the trap tiles he had just walked through. A sigh escaped him seeing the tile ¡ª he was feeling mentally fatigued, and if this was going to be sprung a final boss, he wanted no part of it.


    He stared up and wondered aloud, "If I press this and you turn into a robot, then I''m going to st your head off. . ."


    Quinn pressed the square with his palm, and it indeed depressed an inch. He hurriedly looked up, but the statue didn''t move; instead, the sculptures along the walls came to life and started to move. Quinn amped up his magic in preparation for a blitz, but the sculptures simply cleared up a portion of the wall, revealing a tunnel.


    Quinn sighed. He was sick of tunnels leading to different rooms. /With no other options, he walked through the tunnel, and when he exited, it was pitch ck.


    Quinn raised one of his hands to release a bubble beam of light orbs while his other hand rubbed both of his eyes, hoping that it would alleviate some fatigue. When he opened his eyes, all the tiredness went away like someone had pped him without notice.


    Spread in front of him were mountains!-mountains! of GOLD. Wherever his eyes went, he was greeted with shining gold, reflecting golden light onto his entire body. He squatted down and picked up a gold coin ¡ª it was a galleon, that much was clear from the GRINGOTTS written on the coin, but the design on the minted coin was much different from the current version.


    There were statues, jewellery, ornate frames gilded in gold, a treasure chest with more gold, and precious stones and gems. If there was something that could be molded from gold, then it could be found in the mountains.


    "Finally," he said, "finally," he repeated, "a Vault is actually a vault." Time after time, he got into vaults, and at the ends, there would be something, but there was never a treasure ¡ª he had long be desensitized to the word vault.


    "My dream can finallye true," Quinn said and ran into the mountain of gold and started. . . swimming. His dreams of swimming in a pool of gold had been blown up, and now was he was swimming in a mountain of gold.


    "I am rich!" he shouted. "I don''t have to work another day of my life! Wastrel life, here Ie!" It was truly an amount that Quinn wouldn''t need to work in a day in his life, and he would still have enough. It was an amount sizeable enough for even a West.


    After getting his fill of sliding down on the mountains, Quinn started to wander around in the sizeable room and came upon a row of bookshelves with old tomes preserved with magic. He took out a book and cracked open the spine.


    His eyes read across the Latin writing; soon, he had sat down on a golden chair in the gold flooded vault, reading through the pages.


    "Genius! Genius!" Quinn shouted, his voice echoing in the vault. It had taken a single book for Quinn tobel Stigweard Gragg a genius. "Transmutation and transfiguration properties of so many metal and non-metal, even alchemic-materials. . . this is a treasure!"


    He couldn''t put it into words, but having extensive notes on how different materials reacted with magic was an asset whose value in some circles would be greater than the mountain of gold sitting behind him, and Quinn would dly be part of those circles.


    Quinn had encyclopaedias of simr information; it had been a thousand years after all ¡ª but none of the books were as extensive and as depthful as the one in his hands.


    "Stigweard Gragg isn''t an architect," Quinn shook his head, no that was underying the man''s work. "Stigweard Gragg is a Master of magic!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Now, very-very rich. . . seriously rich. A sizeable amount richer than before, even with the numerous royalties pilling up in a bank vault in Basel, Switzend.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I wanted to do this for such a long time. A vault that''s actually a vault.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 249 - DA Files: Closing Page

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stared at the talking crowd of DA members with a hint of a smile. He saw themughing and chatting with each other; the group''s vibe had be merrier ever since Umbridge''s leave from Hogwarts.


    Dumbledore''s entry as the new Defense Against Dark Arts had pumped a new life into the students, and DA members who had been ahead of the curve because of their secretly nightly adventures were reveling in the knowledge they knew and could apply before Dumbledore would introduce it. Moreover, there was no need for them to have Marcus breathing down their necks, whispering stringent secrecy rules in their ears.


    He sighed. Yes, there was no need to maintain secrecy. With Umbridge gone, DA could now go from its situational secret society status to simply an unofficial student club.


    He felt it was the right time. Quinn took out his pocket watch ¡ª there was about half an hour before the group would usually disperse for the night. He chuckled; indeed, it was time.


    "Everyone," Quinn said, snapping his pocket watch close, "if I can have your attention for a moment, I''d like to discuss something important with all of you."


    His words, as they usually did, grabbed everyone''s attention.


    "I have an announcement to make," he said. "Today will be myst day here at DA," there were audible gasps in the crowd. "The past few months were memorable and definitely one of the highlights of this year and even my time at Hogwarts till now, and I''d like to thank you for the amazing time," he turned his eye over the entire group gathering around him, "but after today, I''ll no longer be attending these meets. That''s all I had to say, once again, thank you. . ."


    The moment his mouth closed, the discordant chorus of questions attacked his ears, causing him to close his eyes for a moment as he raised his hand.


    "One moment at a time, please," he opened his eyes and pointed at Marcus.


    Marcus took the cue and spoke up, "Why?! Is there a problem? Because we can talk about it and fix it; tell us, we will fix it now."


    "Oh boy," said Quinn, a chuckle in voice, "there isn''t any problem with DA; the system that we have built here is exemry, but I don''t think there''s a need for DA anymore, and that''s why I think it''s time for at least me to exit."


    There were a lot of frowns and upward nting brows, but the previous raucous of noise was absent. They understood what he was talking about.


    "You see it, right? Now that Umbridge''s gone, we don''t have to sneak around at nights like thieves just so that we can learn some magic. Yet week after week, we meet just at night, and meeting after meeting, we trim minutes on time before curfew to get back to our dorms. It just doesn''t make sense anymore for us to behave this way."


    Ivy said, "Do you. . . not like this anymore?"


    "Nothing like that. It couldn''t be farther than that; I enjoy my time here and think all of you''re amazing individuals, but I think that the time has arrived for me to exit this group," Quinn tucked his hands behind his back. "Moreover, all of you don''t need me anymore. I have already taught you the three basic principles ¡ª Knowledge, Intent, and Emotion ¡ª and all of you have gained much practice of using these over the months; all you need to do is follow what you''ve been doing and keep learning what you want."


    DA members learned what everyone was learning, which was fine, for it was the necessity of the time, but now that the standard academia was back on track, it was time for individuals to focus their extra time on things they wanted to learn.


    "If all of you desire, you can continue to learn as a group. In no way, I''m saying that DA needs to disband; no, that would be wasting an amazing resource," he said. "For instance, if someone wants to learn certain magic, then they can ask around in the DAmunity if someone can help them learn the spell, which we have been doing ¡ª or if someone would like to learn it along with them so that you canpare your experiences and gain additional gains from the other''s mistake."


    His words didn''t seem to lessen the unease the group was feeling. They had befortable in their current environment, and Quinn had just pulled the safety nket, leaving them out in the cold.


    "Yes, Hermione," said Quinn, looking at the raised hand, "please go ahead."


    Quinn had said that he was leaving DA, so it made her wonder, "If we ask you to teach us something, will you?"


    "If I''m free, of course, I''d be more than happy to help out with magic. I would like to make something ¡ª let me rephrase something I said earlier ¡ª I''m not leaving DA; I''m simply stepping down as an active member. Of course, that''s only if you''d ept a passive DA member."


    "We ept," Ivy said instantly, "you will always be a DA member." And many others nodded and murmured in acknowledgment. The Golden Squad were the founding member of DA, the house representatives were leaders, and Quinn, the teacher, was the group''s backbone ¡ª DA couldn''t be mentioned without a mention of Quinn in every chapter of the DA annals.


    Quinn nodded politely with an upturned face. "That''s delightful to hear," he said. "Well, there''s still some time before we end for today. Is there something someone would like to ask, doubts you want to clear ¡ª or we can sit down and talk if that''s what you''d like?"


    "I want to duel you!"


    All eyes turned to the assertive voice, and there stood Harry Potter in the challenger''s spot. Everyone turned their eyes back to Quinn, straining their ears and shushing others to be quiet. In all DA sessions, Quinn had only once practiced with Neville, but other than that, he hadn''t actively used magic other than demonstration, much less duel.


    "What brought this on?" asked Quinn.


    Harry crossed his arms over his chest as he said, "I know I learned a lot, but I want to see if I actually improved."


    Quinn squinted, his eyes lit with an inner twinkle as he tilted his head, contemting how to respond. He nodded, "Alright, that''s as good as any measure of improvement. Let''s have it ¡ª the duel."


    The group formed a wide circle as a stage with wands out in everyone''s hands for protection as they had been taught ¡ª if you were near any sort of spell activity, it wasmon sense to have your wand out.


    "Alright, Harry Potter. How do you want to do this?" Quinn took out his fake wand and held it with hands behind his back.


    "Standard rules," Hary said, pulling his sleeves up, "the one who gets disarmed or stunned first wins."


    "Are you sure? We can make it the best of three if you want."


    Harry''s eyes narrowed. He stuck his chin up and shook his head. "No, one or nothing will do."


    "You said it," Quinn looked to the crowd and called, "Astoria, if you''d tose a coin or something to start us off."


    Astoria beamed and shuffled to the center of the stage between Harry, who held his wand in front of him, while on the opposite side, Quinn still had his behind his back.


    "Ready?" she asked and held out a silver sickle in her and her wand in another, which raised my brows. She looked at both of them, and then with a flourish of her wand, the coin flew up.


    Astoria ran back to the crowd as Harry and Quinn stared at each other ¡ª one was smiling while the other severely gazed. A second passed, then two. . . and the staring contest passed ten clicks. . .


    Quinn and Harry turned to look up and squinted their eyes to see the glimpse of a floating sickle. They turned to Astoria, who was swaying in mischief and raised their hands. Astoria stuck out her tongue, and with a wave of her wand, the sickle stopped hovering and dropped.


    The coin passed through Harry and Quinn''s sight, rotating as it passed by and towards the floor. Harry gripped his wand and stretched his ears, and then the tinge of the coin hitting the floor came. Harry lunged forward with his forefoot and waved a stunner to zap towards Quinn.


    Quinn released his wand hand''s wrist from his other hand, and with a shove of his shoulder and the flick of the wrist, a shield blocked the stunner. He didn''t stop, and with his wand hand rising up with the momentum, he worked his wrist to shoot a blue pellet-sized orb ¡ª not towards Harry but towards the floor.


    The silver sickle that had dropped from a ridiculous height had just reached the peak of its bounce, rotating on two different axes, was suddenly hit by the blue, glowing magic pellet on the (current) lower face and shot up because of the physical push form the spell.


    Likeunching a throwing knife, Quinn cocked his hand above his shoulder and flung his wand arm forward, and shot a yellow pellet towards the coin. The yellow light pellet enveloped the rotating coin, whichunched it towards Harry at a blinding speed.


    The coin was met by a shield cast by Harry in the two spell worths of time and stood confident behind them. He raised his wand to cast his next spell, but his hand halted when he saw another yellow pellet crash from Quinn crash into the coin.


    He dropped his eye to the coin, and they bulged when he saw a rapidly spinning coin pushing against his shield, distorting it inwards as if trying to tear through it. He jumped when another yellow pellet enveloped the coin in yet another burst of yellow light, and his shield bulged deeper inside and rippled at three-sixty rpm (ripples per minute.)


    Then without further warning, like a water balloon popping, Harry''s shield tore, and the glowing coin stuck him square in the chest.


    "Ugh," Harry groaned as his hand went to his chest, feeling the dull pain ¡ª did the coin crack a rib?


    "Come on, Potter," said Quinn, unhurriedly walking across the stage, "I know my magic is interesting, but don''t stand there admiring it during a duel."


    Quinn looked to his left, raised his free hand, and curled his finger back and forth in the beckoning finger sign. On the receiving end, Eddie cracked his neck before stepping onto the stage.


    "You should know better," said Eddie, twirling his wand. "Why waste time with Potter when you know that I''m the only one who''s able to take you out."


    "Oh really?" Quinn smirked. "And when was thest time you supposedly took me out?"


    "Oh, you know. . . right now!" An electric arc zapped out of the tip of Eddie''s wand ¡ª him aiming to take Quinn out with the support of the fabled element of surprise.


    Quinn chuckled as hezily waved, and the electric arc fizzled out of all its crackling juice.


    "Come on, Carmichael, that was weak. Where did that punch go? Or does it onlye it with repeated loosing?"


    Eddie showed no reaction other than peering eyes ¡ª "BOMBARDA!" ¡ª he chanted suddenly and sent the yellowish-orange explosion spell barreling towards Quinn, who pulled up a specific spell more suitable for non-physical attacks that took the heavy brunt of Eddie''s cannon st.


    He turned to Harry, who was no longer clutching his chest and was now following them with their eyes.


    "What are you doing, Harry?" Quinn swiped to create a spinning air burst that crumbled Eddie''s conjured rock spikes.


    Harry looked at Quinn with confusion shing in his eyes: "What?"


    "You asked for standard rules, remember? You''re neither knocked out nor disarmed, so why are ¡ª" Quinn shot a stunner towards Harry, which he blocked startled "¡ª you standing there like a statue and not dueling."


    "But¡ª"


    Eddie cut him off and shouted, "Less chatter, Potter, if all you''re going to do is daydream in between a duel, then the at least you can do is to buzz in his ear like a housefly." He finished with a fully charged reductor towards Quinn''s feet, who had to receive it into a shield for the onlooker''s safety.


    Harry gritted his teeth, gouged a chunk of the floor below his wand tip, set it aze in white fire, and hurled it towards Quinn.


    Quinn blocked a disarm from Eddie ¡ª "Now that''s more like it." ¡ª turned to Harry''s fiery ball of rock and redirected it towards Eddie ¡ª "Thanks for the help," he said.


    Eddie, who had already had another reductor on his tongue, bit it down and cast a shield, and even then was pushed back a couple steps due to the brute force of the rock, not to mention the white fire came near melting his shield.


    "Hermione!" The girl jolted at Quinn''s call. "Get in here!"


    "W-What?"


    "These two are useless. Come on and show that you''re the one who most improved."


    Hermione turned unsure eyes to both Harry and Eddie and saw them unleashing magic after magic towards Quinn, trying their best to take his head off ¡ª This was useless? she thought.


    She stepped out from the crowd and immediately felt her heart jump out of her throat when a disarming spell came galloping towards her. She eeked, but her hand moved instinctively and blocked the spell.


    "Good, now get to work," she heard Quinn speak before he pulled up a giant block of the floor as a shield before turning it into wolves that went howling towards Eddie.


    The DA crowd watched as three people dueled against a solo Quinn, who continuously switched between attack, defense, and the asional parry. It was a showcase of skill ¡ª people with knowing eyes could tell that Quinn was pushing the three while keeping them in the running; there were many opportunities, but Quinn would always turn away and target another.


    "Nott, step in!"


    Everyone gasped as Quinn called for another. Everyone looked at Nott, who froze for a second before stepping out from behind a couple people into the ring and began taking part in the five-person y of flying spells.


    "Hannah, it''s time. Come on."


    Hannah Abbott fidgeted onto her way into the ring, and her output wasn''t what Quinn was expecting whenpared to what he had seen in practice, so not half a minuteter, he called again.


    "Luna, let''s see if you actually listen to me."


    Luna shrugged, glided into the ring, and started to aim all of her spells towards. . . Quinn''s legs ¡ª making him sweat a little as six people that Quinn was trying to give a chance to disarm or knock him while not trying to disarm or knock them out ¡ª Luna strictly aiming for his legs (which he did teach her. . . technically) was a bit worrying.


    But it was only worrying a bit. "Diggory," he said, "do you want to see if you can win with all this help?"


    And so joined the Headboy and began the seven verses one dance. Quinn, the masterful conductor, lead the seven unknowing instrumentalists in a masterful orchestra. It was a beautiful show of skillful magic ¡ª matching attacks with specific defenses, timing attacks with just enough power to keep them out of offense while he took care of the others, and ying with some showboating with some parrying.


    "Alright, time to end this," Quinn said after dueling with the seven people.


    He turned to Hannah and shot a disarming spell, timing it perfectly to hit her just when she pulled down her shield. Quinn turned to parry a glowing red stunner from Eddie, but this time instead of sending it up, he sent it towards Nott, who felt the brunt of some heavy magic and dropped like a sack of potatoes. His next option was Eddie himself, who he decided takeout with a heavier stunner than Eddie''s own and sent him flying back onto the ground.


    Now remained Luna, Cedric, Harry, and Hermione.


    Quinn turned to Harry and blew out a little puff of air towards Harry, who suddenly felt like he was standing in a storm. Harry''s hands went up against the wind, and he never saw the stunnering. Quinn turned to Hermione and shot his first depulso of the day ¡ª at her feet ¡ª which knocked off her feet with only her arms saving her face from kissing the floor ¡ª she too never saw the disarming spelling.


    "Diggory, sorry, but you''re next," said Quinn grinning, "Luna''s my best friend, so she can''t go before everyone else."


    "Eddie went before," said Cedric ¡ª "BOMBARDA MAXIMA!"


    Quinn pulled a shield against that, and Luna''s full-body bind.


    "He''s used to it," said Quinn and ripped a spell that emted punches and assaulted Cedric''s joints, making him fall with a grunt and then deflected another one of Luna''s full-body bind to finish him.


    In the ring, Quinn and Luna remained. They both watched each other. Luna shrugged and put her wand into her robe, and walked and stood beside Marcus.


    "Well, forfeit is always a legit option," said Quinn, shrugging.


    p! p! p!


    Quinn turned and saw Tracey pping and then Daphne; soon after, everyone was pping. Quinn did an exaggerated bow and then faced a lot of questions asking him to teach them that ¡ª especially young ones like Dennis Creevey.


    When the session came to an end, and everyone was moving out, Quinn wrapped around Astoria''s shoulder.


    "What?" she asked, snuggling in a bit.


    Quinn took out the sickle she had tossed and ced it in her hand, "Sorry about the sickle, it sort of bent."


    Astoria stared at the coin, and it was indeed bent into a crumpled piece of metal. "I would like to be paid back," she said.


    A light shined in Quinn''s eyes, and he nodded. He wrapped his bigger hand, wrapping Astoria''s smaller hand with the bent sicklepletely, and blew on it.


    "What''s that supposed to do?" she asked.


    Quinn winked at her as he removed his hand. "I have paid my debt," he smiled, removed his hand from her shoulder, and walked ahead to join her sister.


    Astoria tilted her head in confusion before looking at her hand. She opened her palm, and her mouth opened up like a gaping fish ¡ª there was a gold galleon sitting there with no signs of the useless sickle.


    "How did you do that?! Also, do you want me to toss more sickles? Because I will do it if this is what I get!"


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - Goodbye, DA.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - No chapter tomorrow, as it is New Years, and I''d be spending the day sleeping for the entire day. And I''ll jump on the new year countdown, so I''m not on earth when the year changes. I urge that all of you do the same.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 250 - The End-Of-Year Examinations

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The winters began to wane, with the warm days rising and the young year turning older by the months, entering the spring of its time. On another splendid day, the Ravenw Trio sat under a pre-bloom beech tree on the edge of theke, where they sat under the warm sun to study for the iing end-of-the-year examinations, where they stood less chance of being disturbed by others wanting to gain help from Quinn.


    The castle grounds were gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted; the cloudless sky smiled at itself in the smoothly sparklingke, the satin-greenwns asionally rippled in a gentle breeze. They spread their books out in the shade of the tree and sat down while Quinn talked Eddie and Marcus through concepts that they wanted rification on.


    "Ugh," Eddie tossed his notes down before leaning back onto the grass, "I don''t suppose Hogwarts is going to hit by a meteoroid, and the examinations get cancelled."


    Quinn chuckled as he solved a problem for Marcus, "I can safely guess that''s not going to be the case, and why are youining," he passed the notebook to Marcus, "you scored pretty good on my mock test ¡ª that just means you''re going to do better than that on the real ones."


    Eddie waved his tucked-up legs left and right impatiently. He didn''t want the exams to cancel just to arrive sooner so that he could ze through them. It was stressful for him (and any Ravenw) to spend time in the tense Ravenw dorms where everyone had developed an irritating habit of interrogating people about their study habits.


    ''Just flipping study and stop annoying me!'' he had thought.


    "You should write more," Marcus said, turning a page of Advanced Transfiguration Pt. 1 and peering at a series of diagrams showing an owl turning into a pair of opera sses. "If your dad doesn''t think your scores are enough, he might not allow you to go to the summer camp ¡ª so try to improve your writing speed, you wouldn''t want to lose marks because you couldn''t write an answer you knew."


    Eddie groaned as he pulled his torso up back from the ground. He ced a hardback book on hisp, mmed a parchment on it, and sent his quill running. If he didn''t score good (for a Ravenw), his Pops wasn''t going to let him attend a Quidditch camp that he had been invited to in theing summer.


    With the end-of-the-year examination just on the horizon, their teachers were no longer setting them homework; lessons were devoted to reviewing those topics their teachers thought most likely toe up in the exams.


    "Griselda Marchbanks is going to be making rounds this time," Quinn said, quoting information from his contacts in the Head of Magical Education Department. "She''s ancient ¡ª she took my grandfather''s NEWTs, and I believe that she was there for Dumbledore''s testing as well."


    "Now that''s one old witch," said Eddie.


    "I heard that she''s really strict," said Marcus, "apparently if you try to waddle your way through a question in the practicals, she gives a straight zero ¡ª either you know it or you don''t."


    "Nothing to do with us," Edie shrugged, making a wireframe of the steps required to brew a skin re-growth potion, "she''s not going to be taking ours ¡ª poor fifth and seventh-year chumps," he cackled.


    Marcus looked up from his notes to Quinn. "You''re going to be busy for a while now. You volunteered what? For the entire two-week OWL process."


    Quinn nodded, "I don''t have much going, so it''s fine." The vault was over, and it wasn''t like he needed to study for exams, so when Flitwick asked him to volunteer, he agreed and was now in charge of directing the OWL students to their practicals.


    The weeks leading to the OWLs were like a volcano threatening to burst with people trying to cram more stuff in their minds, trying to find resources on the prevailing ck market for miraculous remedies to keep up at night, concentration, rote abilities, and the myriads that the con artists (mostly Ravenws) were trying to sell to the rest of the school.


    When the time finally arrived, the examination season was spread across two weeks like it usually was every year, with the theory exams in the morning and practicals in the afternoons.


    Because of his responsibilities, Quinn gave his practicals earlier in the morning, before he sat for his theoretical papers with the rest of his peers and ssmates so that he could be free for the two-week OWL process.


    Quinn stood in a corridor with a clipboard in hand ¡ª there were four panels of examiners in four different rooms who would first take up would take up OWL aspirants just after lunch while the NEWT students would go before dinner.


    For the first day of the exams, the fifth-year students were scheduled for Charms on the first Monday morning. The OWL students were sorted randomly into four ssrooms working as waiting areas ¡ª a waiting ssroom per panel.


    "Alright," Quinn tapped a pen on the sheets on the clipboard, "everything seems to be in order. . . and we''re good to go."


    He walked to the other end of the corridor, pushed open the first examiner''s panel door, and came across an amusing conversation.


    "Little Albus. . ." Quinn''s ears perked up ¡ª Little Albus? Not something he or anyone in this school would expect to hear in a million ears. The woman to call the 100+-year-old headmaster with the ''little'' prefix was Griselda Marchbanks, the Head of Magical Education Department and an ancient woman of over 200 years of age ¡ª it made sense that she would call Albus Dumbledore as Little Albus.


    She was a tiny, stooped woman with a face so lined it looked as though it had been draped in cobwebs, but she spoke louder than most loud people did despite a slight tremble in her aged voice.


    ". . . I thought Cornelius would not stop before kicking you out of Hogwarts; he was never smart ¡ª I remember talking to him during his NEWTs; all he did was bber on and on without doing what I asked him. You should thank your stars that Dolores went ahead and threw her brain into the garbage ¡ª not that it would help, it was pitifully tiny to begin with, it would not have helped her even if she used it.


    Good thing they sent her of to Azkaban ¡ª good riddance!"


    The woman didn''t mince her words.


    "Let the past be the past," said Dumbledore, his tone the usual, not at all reflecting the fact that the Minister was about to be voted out of his position and a prominent Ministry executive was shipped to Azkaban in a massive scandal. "It''s time for the younger generation to take the stage ¡ª us old fellows can only look from the side and see them bask in the glory and be happy in the fact that we might have something to do with it."


    Old Marchbanks turned up her nose and huffed, "Who are you calling old? Your joints must have turned rusty, but I am still quite spry."


    "Of course," Dumbledore could only smile.


    Quinn cleared his throat, making his presence known to the other two. "Madam Marchbanks, if you''re ready, everything from our side is ready, and we can start sending the students in."


    "Who are you?" said Marchbanks, loudly.


    "My name''s Quinn West."


    "Mr. West, here is a sixth-year Prefect," said Dumbledore, "he has volunteered today to be a liaison for the students and the examiners."


    Quinn stepped into the empty ssroom and walked to Marchbanks'' table. "I''ll be sending in the students when you''re ready," he took a sheet from the clipboard andid it on the table, and with a tap of his fake wand, the single sheet turned into a stack.


    "The top page is the list of students you''ll be seeing today," he pushed the sheet aside, revealing a marking schematics with Abbot, Hannah written in the names'' field. "You are to fill your gradings and remarks on these¡ª"


    "Yes, yes, I know, I know, I have done it a countless number of times," Marchbanks waved impatiently. She narrowed her eyes at Quinn, her wrinkles deepening. "West. . . West. . . West. . . Hmm, Quinn West! Yes, I remember you fromst year! Your scores were excellent; I had a pleasure reading your papers ¡ª a pity I couldn''t be here to take your practicals."


    "Thank you, Madam Marchbanks," said Quinn, giving a short, polite bow.


    "Well then, I won''t take up any more of your time; you have a long day ahead of you," Dumbledore said.


    "Can you not sit beside me while I go through this? We could catch up," asked Marchbanks.


    "While I''d love to do that, I don''t think the students would want to have their headmaster in the room as they give their practicals," said Dumbledore.


    "You are no fun," Marchbanks said before pulling up the list.


    "Please take care of Madam Marchbanks," Dumbledore said to Quinn, who nodded.


    "Alright, send in the cavalry," said Marchbanks, pulling out a sk from her purse and setting it next to a cup and saucer before pouring herself a steaming serving of tea.


    "Yes, first is Hannah Abbot," said Quinn, took out another sheet from his clipboard, and set it in front of her.


    Marchbanks put down her cup before it reached her lips and picked up the sheet. "What is this?" she asked. The sheet had three names on it ¡ª Hannab Abbot, Susan Bones, and Terry Boot ¡ª and under every name was a list of charms.


    "The charms under the names are what the student is good at."


    Marchbanks squinted her eyes at the sheet. "But these charms aren''t from the fifth-year curriculum."


    "No they aren''t. If a student performs the fifth-year charms well and you''d like to test them for bonus points, you can refer to that list. The students which I''ll be providing you are the ones who told me about their out-of-curriculum specialties."


    The students who Quinn listed were basically DA members that Quinn as a fellow member, was trying to get them better grades. He was confident that if Marchbanks took his offering, all DA members would gain bonus points because he had seen them cast the spells.


    "Oh my, I see. . . certainly, if these children are able to perform their curriculum taught spells, then I will give them chances for bonus points."


    "That''s great. I''m sure they would be thrilled."


    "Do you have these lists for other subjects too?"


    "Yes, I do; I can provide you with the three casting subjects ¡ª Charms, Transfiguration, and DADA."


    "Then I''ll like to receive those as well."


    "You got it."


    Quinn then walked to the rest of the panel rooms and repeated the same conversation with the sweetest old people he had met ¡ª they weren''t as old as Marchbanks, but they did match Dumbledore in age and were joyous about receiving the spell list.


    After ensuring that the panelists were all ready, he walked into the waiting rooms, started calling students, and so began the practical portion of OWLs.


    "Alright, let''s see, who''s next," Quinn said to himself after he entered the room. "Goldstein, Goyle, Granger, and Greengrass," he read before calling out, "Anthony Goldstein, Gregory Goyle, Hermione Granger, and Daphne Greengrass."


    The four people stepped out from their respective groups and walked out of the room, their gait stiff and robotic. They looked at him like baby ducks, like they didn''t know what to do.


    "All of you realize that OWLs are the same as the rest of your examinations; the only difference is that the examiner is external," said Quinn as they walked to their respective panels.


    "Are they strict? What are they asking? Do they have our theory papers? Are they, by chance, already graded? What are their moods like?" Hermione spouted questions like a lotive train did smoke.


    Quinn chuckled and stealthily cast calming magic. "It''s fine; they are cozy and pleasant, so don''t worry about their moods. Perform well, and they will give you a chance for bonus points."


    He watched as all four gradually calmed down a level, his magic doing its work, though there was still some definite stiffness in their bodies.


    One by one, he led them to different panel rooms ¡ª Anthony Goldstein went first, then Gregory Goyle, and then Hermione Granger.


    "Will she be fine?" Daphne asked, looking at Hermione entering the room. She was rapid spouting chants under her breath.


    "I think she''ll be fine ¡ª she got a hundred and twelve percent on a test," said Quinn. He looked down at Daphne, and it seemed that his magic couldn''t ovee the pre-exam jitters, so he turned to the only alternative he could think of.


    Daphne felt a hand slip into hers, and it had its intended effects.


    "You''ll be fine," said Quinn, "we went over everything that could evere up in that room. You have a fantastic theory base and extensive practical experience from DA. You''ll breeze through it with flying colors."


    "You think so?" she asked, leaning a bit.


    "Absolutely."


    They reached outside Marchbanks'' door, and Quinn turned to face Daphne.


    "What are the three attributes of focus?" he asked.


    "Knowledge, Intent, and Emotion."


    "You have all of it, and that''s all you will ever need. Now go in and knock the olddy''s dentures out."


    Daphne smiled and giggled behind her hand. She nodded, straightened herself up, and knocked on the door before opening it.


    "Daphne Greengrass?" Marchbanks'' voice came from inside. "Are you Sophie''s daughter? You are, aren''t you? Yes, I can see it. Come in,e in, tell me, how is your mother doing these days? I have not seen her in a while. Do you want a biscuit?"


    The end of the year had begun.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Perfect Prefect.


    Daphne Greengrass - Nervous - Did well in her practicals.


    Griselda Marchbanks - Magical Education Department - Oh, Albus! Look at you, gotten so old.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - 2022 is here, peeps. Let''s make the most of it. Post your new-year resolutions here.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 251 - The Event On The Horizon

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The evening moon rose in the blue sky, ushering in the time of night, tugging the cover off from over the arrays of stars, revealing all the constetions that peered down on the mortals of the world. But in a clearing by the woods, away from the excitement of the city ¡ª bright shing lightbulbs strobing all around like a disco ball in an eighties nightclub, ushering a different sort of zest and zeal.


    A gigantic multi-colored sign lined with bulky tinted lightbulbs hung on two beams under which people walked past from a put-up stall with bored attendants talking to each other while stamping tickets to a cityside carnival.


    People with families, friends, or their lovers on dates entered the beat-down grounds, asionally housing the visiting carnivals and concerts. The music climbed louder, recorded clownughter cackled through speakers, and the melodies of children''s joy as some ran around with carnival food in hand while others rode on the chugging motor powering the rides.


    Outside the raucous circus establishment, near a growth of trees that cast ghastly shadows under the weightless moonlight, space itself twisted and turned like being sucked through a tube before the one by one, the fabric of space spat out people dressed in ck robes with air popping loudly, but only to be drowned out by the loud circus music.


    In a few seconds, twenty people stood blending in the shadows, all looking at the inviting put-together fairgrounds of wood and metal with life thrumming with vigor.


    "I can almost taste it," said the woman with thick, shining dark hair, long eyshes, and heavily hooded eyes, "the joy, the delight, ah, it''s almost palpitating," she stuck out tongue as if wanting to taste the emotions.


    Betrix Lestrange''spanions turned their eyes hidden beneath their masked faces to the woman, many wondering how the woman could descend further into madness; she had been twisted as writhing horrors behind her once great beauty ¡ª but that was Azkaban for you, it never failed to leave its taint on its guests, and Betrix had stayed long enough to call it her home.


    She cackled, her body shivered, and her shoulder involuntary twitched as she turned to a robed matchstick figure standing in the middle of the groups, a hood covering the bowed head that sat upon a slouched back.


    "Rivers!" Betrix called as she hopped to him like a schoolgirl. "So what do you have nned today? Tell meee~! I. Am. So. Looking. To. Having. Some. Fun. Tonight!"


    Rivers looked at the crazy woman swaying her waist in front of him as her curls bounced from shoulder to shoulder. How had ite to this? How was he roped into this?


    .


    - (Scene Break: shback) -


    .


    Rivers had heard tales about Azkaban and its notorious jailers, but never could he have realized that hallowed eyes and depressed voices couldn''t even scratch the surface of the realities of the most harrowing prison on livingnds.


    Being imprisoned in a shoddy excuse of a room ¡ª something that even by the most losest of the standards couldn''t be called a jail room. Floors and walls seeping with moisture from the surrounding sea kept the cell ufortably wet all around the year; the days and days he had spent trapped not being able to find a dry spot to rest with the crazy screams, crying, and the woman''sughter ringing in his ears had driven him longing for the simple bed back home ¡ª he would even beg for the cold wood floor, or anything as long as it was dry.


    Then there was the chilling abrasive airing from the barred window that scraped the skin, leaving it cold and raw. He and the prisoners were given an old matty nket with a thick weave that did a poor job of keeping anyone warm ¡ª but that was a negligible problem when the only cover he had gotten wet like everything else.


    The food was always cold mush that had left his teeth without exercise for years, and the water was limited, hastily thrown down their gullet by the Aurors who were always in a hurry to get out of the Dementor''s sight that always stared at them from under their robes as if the Aurors were fresh, juicy prey.


    No one talked in Azkaban. There was plenty of screaming, crying (and the woman''sughter) but never any talking.


    Rivers hadn''t minded it when he had newly arrived, but as the days passed by and the Dementors gathered around in his cell for a mint meal every day for weeks, he hoped someone would tell him that there was a way to escape the daily nightmare, but no one spoke a word ¡ª even after he called and cried for someone, anyone ¡ª no one spoke ¡ª not even an "It''s no use," that he had read in the books.


    Rivers had soone to realize that in Azkaban, there was no hiding from the Dementors. As long one stayed in the fortress, they were nothing more than feeding beds for the hooded monstrosities.


    As long as they stayed.


    He couldn''t lie if he hadn''t thought of breaking out, but those mentations were squashed by his own hard logic. He wasn''t a magical savant; neither he possessed a crew of minions for a breakout, nor could he assemble one ¡ª the people had long lost hope; hecked leverage that would make the Aurors for him.


    In short, there was no way out for him.


    ''Without help,'' Rivers thought bitterly, ''I can''t get out of here.''


    Then the walls of hell broke open, and his face was hit by cold rain and windy gusts after years. He was so thirsty that he stuck out his tongue and let the raindrops hit his tongue ¡ª it felt heavenly.


    It must be a dream, he had thought. But then he realized why the damned woman had beenughing for so long.


    Before his mental faculties could catch up, he was dragged out of his cell. They, whoever they were, didn''t technically drag him out; they didn''t even touch him ¡ª magic lifted him off from the ground, and he was flown through what he inferred as corridors, he had only vaguely seen them only once when he was brought in, but at that time, he was taken by the sight of the doomed prisoners without light in their eyes.


    Soon he was out of the fortress, just like that. He was out of the prison; he had spun his brain into hopelessness by thinking on how to escape ¡ª but here he was, seeing the moon without the rusted ck iron bars in his way.


    ''It''s raining,'' he thought, but the shower wasn''t falling on him ¡ª it was perfect.


    "Rivers Lock."


    For a second, there was no reaction from Rivers; it had after all been so long that he had been called by his name ¡ª he was always Prisoner ¡ª no guard had called him by his name, he doubted they even knew about it.


    "Rivers Lock."


    Rivers finally weakly lifted his thin neck up and fronted his gaunt face to the caller. In the weak light of the pouring and thundering rain, Rivers couldn''t see the face; all he could see was a short and thin man dressed in heavy robes.


    "It''s nice to finally meet you after so long," said the man, "though I wished it would''ve been in better circumstances," Rivers could feel the man''s eyes looking all over him, "hmm, your condition doesn''t seem to be great," and he said it like it was surprising


    How dare this man say that and have the nerve to be surprised, he thought. Rivers was sure this man was some sort of pampered imbecile who hadn''t tasted a day of hardship.


    Rivers growled at the man, but all that came out was a frail groan from his unused voice box, and his neck couldn''t keep his head up, and it fell back down.


    The man chuckled humourlessly, "It seems you have some vigor left in you. Good, that''s good. Well, that aside, we are here to break out some friends, and I thought it would be appropriate if we took you with us, because without some help, there''s no getting off this ind without dying in the sea," there was a chuckle, "and it was sort of my fault that you ended up here."


    Rivers painfully cranked his neck up: "What?"


    "Hmm? You don''t recognize me?" the man crouched down and pulled off his hood to reveal a thin but healthy face.


    Rivers'' nk eyes stared at the face; it took a few seconds for his muddled mind to pull up a memory. It was one of a half-torn, stained, wanted poster he had seen stuck on a pub wall, and on it was a chubby man, who sweated as his mugshot was captured.


    The man in front of him was nothing like that, but his brain still brought up the memory, and even in his current state, Rivers trusted his mind, and another blink and look at the man''s face, his pupils shrunk in recognition.


    "You-you. . . are. . . P-Pettigrew. . . Peter Pettigrew!"


    Peter tly smiled, "d you recognized me. We have only conversed once through my sole letter to you, but that one time has led us to meet here again."


    "You!" Rivers hoarse voice raged. "You are the reason I-I. . ." he fumed, anger fueling his weak body.


    "That would be incorrect," said Peter, "I simply provided you information; it was your decision to act on it. ming me won''t take away from your foolish choices. But let''s put that behind us, cherish the present, and look forward to a bright present."


    Peter''s voice was so miserably t that all his word sounded unmotivated and thus totally false. Rivers was left without words ¡ª there wasn''t anything he could say; he was a man with a broken body, while Peter Pettigrew was a man who had seemingly just broken Azkaban.


    "Now, I would like to meet my Master," said Peter. "I''m sure you had heard of him. . . he goes by the name. . ."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    And that''s how Rivers Lock ended up banking up with the Death Eaters. He went from the leader of Novellus ionites to a lower-middle circle member of the Dark Lord''s Death Eaters.


    For the first time in his life, he had been bound, his freedom chained. He was below the upper and inner circle members, any of them could order him around, and he couldn''t refuse ¡ª not if he wanted to face the wrath of some individuals who wouldn''t think for a second before either torturing or straight out killing him.


    Then there was the Dark Lord, who would talk to him for hours about his work with Novellus ionites. Rivers hoped to smooth talk to the Dark Lord, hoping to get into the good graces, but that went nowhere. The Dark Lord would call him to ask questions, and if he tried to deviate to build some rtionship, the Dark Lord would put the conversation right on track.


    It didn''t help that the man was a Master Legilemens, and there was nothing he could hide. Rivers wouldn''t even know that his mind was being read without his knowledge, but he did doubt that such was the case.


    Finally, there was Peter Pettigrew, his handler in the Death Eater organization. He served the Dark Lord under Peter and was essentially Peter''s subordinate.


    Subordinate, Rivers had scoffed in his mind. Rivers'' was sure that in Peter''s mind, he was just a tool for Peter to use. His life was in Peter''s hands, and it was all but aw because Dark Lord had decreed it.


    He had no way of running.


    Rivers was brought out his thoughts by a snapping of fingers in front of his face.


    "Rivers? Mr. Lock?" called Betrix, and Rivers looked nkly at her.


    "There are reports," he started, "that there is a pair of Aurors present there in that carnival today," Dark Lord''s Death Eaters had a reach that his Novellus ionites could only dream of, "both of them are muggleborns, and from what it seems, are on a date."


    Betrix giggled, twirling her wand in locks of her hair, "Oh my~! Maybe we will y with one while the other watches."


    Rivers ignored the mad woman''s ramblings and continued with his ns, "Our motive today is to gain the pair''s attention," he looked around the other Death Eaters. "All Azkaban ten members are here and will be entering the carnival without any disguises."


    He was also part of the escapees, but he wasn''t of importance and wasn''t publicized as the escapees, which he was d about.


    "All of you will enter the carnival and make it look like that you''re meeting in a muggle carnival, away from the wizardkind''s eyes, but you''re going to purposefully make yourself seen by the Aurors, so they will contact their friends back at the DMLE, and ¡ª"


    "Have a party!" said Betrix, and there was a light on the top of her wand, thrumming with magic as wanting to rip free.


    "We are not to use magic unless it''s not necessary," said Rivers, "we need to keep the arriving Aurors here as long as we can, so please situate yourself near the muggles, so the Aurors won''t use magic as well." He turned to the remaining Death Eaters, "All of you''ll wait for my signal before doing what you were ordered to do and put the n into motion. Be careful because we are going to be working with the ce brimming with Aurors, one mist¡ª"


    "You don''t need to tell us that, kid," said Augustus Rookwood, ex-Unspeakable, and one of the Azkaban Ten. "You just make sure that your ends happen smoothly."


    ". . . I see," said Rivers, "well then, I have nothing more to say. It''s time to start."


    The twenty Death Eaters trained their eyes on the carnival, nning to set off the biggest event of the year and a starting point for a chain of events toe.


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    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I have no idea why, but I have gotten slow. I''m writing really slow, and the chapter content is going through a change I''m not liking. This is the second short chapter in a row. I''ll try to figure it out by the new year. I''m not going to stop posting, so don''t worry about it.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 252 - Plan Unfolds

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Aurors Edward Moss and Isobel Dean were both rtively recent additions to the Aurors Office. Both made themselves known as all-rounders at their times in Hogwarts ¡ª one of the basic requirements of being inducted into the Auror training programs. Both passed said training programs with flying colors earning them their bronze shields, officially making them part of the DMLE as Junior Aurors.


    s, while Trainee Aurors thought their lives were rough with training that went from early morning to thete evening didn''t know they were nothing more than flowers soaking sunlight in afortable greenhouse shielded away from the harsh cold of the real outside world.


    Passing in the same batch as each other meant Edward and Isobel joined the force at the same time, but that also meant that they entered the ve life of being a Junior Auror at the same time. Junior Aurors were worked to their bones ¡ª interrogative skills, deduction, dueling, stealth, potions and poisons, and more paperwork ¡ª everything they learned as Trainee Aurors was tested and tempered to the real-life standards. There was a saying in the Aurors Office ¡ª a rookie Auror wasn''t really an Auror until they were broken down and rebuilt back together by Office.


    It wasn''t strange that Edward and Isobel, who went through the process at the same time, formed a strong bond of camaraderie forged through the fires of rookie hell. Moreover, DMLE putting forward the stringiest qualifications and requirements meant that only half a handful of people were ever made Junior Aurors every year. In Edward and Isobel''s batch, only four made it out of training.


    The long hours, workloads that even a mule would whine about meant that Edward and Isobel spent most of their days together for weeks and months at end, and after over a year, they began growing closer, and one thing led to another, and here they were visiting a traveling circus group for a date.


    "It''s too loud," said Isobel, pulling off a clump from the cloud of pink cotton candy. "Maybe we should''ve gone somewhere a bit quieter."


    Edward nodded while sipping a soda from a bottle. "Is it strange that I miss the cubical? Because I really miss the cubical a lot."


    "It''s not strange, not at all. It''s cozy and warm."


    "So cozy."


    "We can always bounce and go somewhere else. I think I remember a good restaurant that we can go to. It''ll be in the range that I can apparate with you side-apparating."


    "Hmm. . . okay, but I think we should see the show first ¡ª we did buy the tickets."


    Isobel nodded, looking at the stub ticket in her hands. It felt strange to actually use the money on something. Junior Aurors made really good money, much more than their peers in other fields were making, but they worked so much that, believe it or not, Junior Aurors didn''t spend much in the first year of their career because of the sheer amount of work they did which led to no downtime ¡ª zero work-life bnce ¡ª no time to continue with hobbies ¡ª no money spent.


    They had finally spent some coin; it would be a waste to let it go to waste.


    Isobel looked head at thergest striped tent in the middle of the entire carnival ¡ª every path to the main tent was lined with concession booths and lines of multi-colored triangle gs hanging from the overhead grid.


    She looked at the menagerie tent in the row of stands. "Edward, we should go to pet¡ª" Isobel winced, feeling the sharp pain in her arm. She looked to her side and saw Edwards mping her arm. "What are you ¡ª"


    "I have Rabastan Lestrange in my sight," Edwards said with an unnatural stillness, "and he''s with Rodolphus Lestrange. Don''t look!"


    Isobel freed her arm from Edward''s grasp, looped it into his, and leaned into him. "Where are they?" she asked.


    "They''re standing in between two stands, dressed in simple pants and shirts. . . I can''t seem to see any other Death Eaters," said Edward, observing through his peripherals.


    "I see more," said Isobel.


    Edward stiffened for a brief second before speaking with his bottle near his lips, "Who did you spot?"


    "Antonin Dolohov at my two and further along the same line, I see Milkes Mulciber," she gulped, "that''s four out of the Azkaban Ten."


    ". . . and if these four are here, there''s a good chance that other six are also around somewhere."


    "We need to call for backup."


    "You have your shield?" asked Edward.


    Isobel nodded, her hand going inside her satchel purse, feeling for the badge, and next to it sat her wand. "I sent for backup," she said, feeling her badge heat up.


    "What should we do?" Edwards asked. "Also, let''s walk; it''s eye-catching for us to stand here in the middle of the street."


    "We should keep an eye on them without engaging," said Isobel. "If all ten of the escapees are here, then they must be meeting here ¡ª you saw how they were dressed, none of them had a robe on, they are clearly not making their presence known."


    ". . . what if they''re not here for a meeting. . . what if they''re here to raid the carnival." Edward felt Isobel''s eyes bore into him. "I mean, look around," they were surrounded by muggles and a distance away from the city, "isn''t a ce like this their preferred hunting ground?"


    Isobel bit her lip, her other hand resting on her satchel tightened. "All we can do right now is to wait. . . and hope the backup arrives fast."


    They didn''t notice that another Death Eater was standing just behind them, listening to their conversation with a carton of popcorn in hand.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    James Potter sat in his office, working through a week''s worths of paperwork due the next day. Moreover, today he was a Thursday, and he didn''t want to work through the Friday evening after-hours to get the work done, so he had brought in the nkets and sheets to grind the night away.


    "I need to do this work daily!" said James, groaning and stretching his arms above his head as he leaned into his chair. After staring at the wall above for half a minute, he got back to dipping his quill into the inkpot and got back to the papers.


    *Beep*


    The Senior Auror jerked straight in his chair. His hand went to his wand, which summoned his Senior Auror badge to him, and it was hot to touch. James'' eyes narrowed as he saw the badge number which had reached out to him and the message coded in Auror''s in-house cipher taught to every Auror.


    "1553? That''s Dean''s number," James stood up from his chair; if he had read the code urately, then it was no time for paperwork, and off he went.


    The Junior Aurors sitting in their cubicles looked up to watch as one of the most decorated Senior Aurors ran through the bullpen, thinking is it was time for another prank. They didn''t know that a majority of them were going to be vacating their cubicles in a while.


    As James ran through the corridors, he met Senior Auror Proudfoot, who simrly came running through a different part of the Aurors Office.


    "Did you get it too?" asked James as both men fell into a power walk; he could still feel the badge go through the cycles of heating up and down ¡ª Isobel was repeatedly sending the message.


    Proudfoot nodded. Every Junior Auror in the Auror''s Office was assigned a Senior Auror mentor(boss), but at the same time, they were assigned to another Senior Auror as per department protocol.


    "Moss. . . Edward Moss is there with Dean," said Proudfoot. "They''re at a date if I heard the grapevine correctly."


    The two men arrived at Captain Auror Gawain Robards'' office, who was their immediate superior. James knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for an answer. Inside sat Robarts, and Captain Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt, who they weren''t expecting to be there.


    Robards looked away from Shacklebolt, who he had been talking to, and looked at his subordinates with a frown. "What do you two think you''re doing entering my office like this?" He looked at Proudfoot, "I expect this from Potter, but you ¡ª you should know better."


    "Sir, we got an emergency message from Junior Auror Isobel Dean," Proudfoot spoke, getting to the point. "She''s at a muggle carnival with Junior Auror Edward Moss and reported that they have spotted four out of the ten Azkaban Death Eater escapees."


    Robards'' jaw set, and Shacklebolt''s gasped. Robards'' gaze sharpened as he asked, "Which ones have the identified?"


    "The Lestrange brothers, Dolohov, and Mulciber," said James.


    "Is it positive?"


    "Yes, both of them are a hundred percent sure. They''re currently watching them from a distance without engaging."


    "Good decision," Robards got up from his chair and looked at Shacklebolt, "Go mobilize your unit. I''ll go to Scrimgeour and talk to him about gaining ess to Hit Wizards."


    Shacklebolt nodded and set out to gather his Senior and Junior Auror.


    Robards turned to James and Proudfoot and started, "Start briefing your Juniors and spread the word to the other Seniors to do the same and meet me with the status as soon as possible."


    In a minute, the news reached the Head Auror Scrimgeour, and in the next ten minutes, Amelia Bones'' home was floo-ed to call the already gone home Head of DMLE back


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Dean."


    Isobel heard a rustle behind her and took out her wand in response, but the sound of the voice did put her to ease as she turned to see her superior, James Potter, standing behind her along with Captain Auror Robards and a couple more Junior Aurors from the same sub-unit as her.


    "Sir, you''re here," she said, sounding relieved.


    "What''s the situation?" James asked, looking around the woods where Isobel stood. "In your initial message, you said they were in the carnival; why did you call use behind it?" The carnival stood a distance away from them, the music just audible.


    "Sir, the Death Eaters, eventually moved out of the carnival and arrived here," she pointed a couple paces, and in the dim of the night, Edwards could be seen crouching behind a bush, looking into a clearing, "Edwards is keeping a lookout on them ¡ª it seems that our guesses were right and the escaped Death Eaters have indeed gathered here for a meeting."


    "All ten?" asked Robards.


    "No, sir, ever since ourstmunication, two more joined ¡ª Travers and Barilier."


    "Good job, Auror Dean," said Robards, "your and Moss'' response was excellent in this situation. Now, please fall back, and have a rest while we apprehend the Death Eaters."


    With Robards'' words, people dressed in Auror robes stepped out from behind the trees ¡ª as if emerging straight from the shadows. Isobel''s eyes widened at the density of Aurors gathered for one operation ¡ª she noted around a number just shy of four dozen ¡ª one Captain Auror, a handful Senior Aurors, and the numerous Junior Auros, all gathered dressed in their Auror overcoats, looking ready for battles.


    Sirius ck stepped out from the group and reported to Robards, "Sir, we are ready on our end, but it would take time for Hit Wizards to arrive here on the scene," unlike Isobel and Edwards, who knew of the ce and could apparate, others had to take the broom to arrive, "should we wait or. . ."


    "No use waiting for the Hit Wizards for six people," Robards replied sturdily, "we will move strongly and swiftly." He paused in thought, "order for the anti-apparition wards to be drawn up. If the Hit Wizards don''t arrive by then, we will proceed on our own."


    Sirius took the order and took the batch of Juniors with the warding duties to cast an anti-apparition ward around the area.


    "Any idea what they''re talking about?" James asked Edwards, who was relieved from his watch duty.


    "No, sir, I wasn''t able to hear what they''re talking about, but they do seem to be in a heated discussion."


    "Does it look like they''re waiting for the others?"


    "It doesn''t look like it, sir, but without actually listening to them, we can''t be sure."


    James nodded, but a thought stuck in his mind. Why were these Death Eaters meeting there? He knew Voldemort was back, so why would they meet here, far away from any wizarding location, especially this particr group of people who would despise any ce that wasn''t touched with magic in some way.


    It didn''t make sense to him.


    "S-Sir."


    Everyone turned to see a Junior Auror with his wand out toward the sky, with a frown on his face.


    "What is it?" asked Sirius, who was coordinating the warding


    "W-We can''t cast the ward."


    "What do you mean, you can''t cast the ward?"


    "The ward isn''t pulling up, sir. Something is blocking it."


    Robards and James looked at Sirius, who pulled out his wand to check the problem, but everyone got the answer before he could even cast the spell.


    "Oh, dear little cousin~."


    Those who knew the voice couldn''t forget it even if it had been more than a decade since thest time they had heard it. The voice was unmistakably from that woman ¡ª the pitch, the tone, rhythm, texture, everything was the same as all those years ago.


    Sirius looked down towards the ce where the six Death Eaters were, and suddenly, there were now ten people standing ¡ª all of the Azkaban Ten, and in front of the group stood Betrix Lestrange in all her crazy glory.


    "Look at you all grown up~, big Auror ck, hehe~," she said.


    Everyone saw Betrix raise her wand, and so did Voldemort''s other nine best duellers, trained by the Dark Lord himself.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    In the Ministry Atrium with the Fountain of Magical Brethren, the air twisted and turned, ck haze spread, and from within, stepped out ¡ª tall, thin, and ck-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, slit-pupiled eyes ¡ª Dark Lord Voldemort.


    He nced around the empty Atrium. The golden gates that were passed through by hundreds of people were now open, with everybody having gone home. Even the security booth was empty because no visitors were allowed at night.


    He cracked his neck and smoothly moved towards the golden gate, knowing the path that led to the Prophecy Hall, but the moment he turned to face the golden gates, he came to a stop.


    Albus Dumbledore was dressed in white and grey robes, a long white beard and hair, and blue eyes peeking from behind the golden framed half-moon sses and were standing in front of the golden gates.


    "Hello, Tom," said Dumbledore, "do you know that Ministry is closed off to visitors, so it''s not proper for you to be here. How about you turn away and leave."


    Or so he said, but Voldemort watched the old man take out his wand.


    "Dumbledore. . . how did you know?"


    "I never expected this from you, Tom," said Dumbledore, and Voldemort narrowed his eyes at how Dumbledore said his muggle name. "I never expected for you to use stealth and distraction as part of your arsenal. From what I remember, you were always a fan of the irs. . . maybe, you have changed after so many years ¡ª it has been more than a decade after all. How has all that time treated you?" Dumbledore smiled, "Was it pleasant?"


    Voldemort gritted his teeth; the old man was mocking him, just like he had always done as if he was lower than him.


    "You made a mistake, Dumbledore," he said as his wand slid out from his sleeves, "you shouldn''t havee here; now you''re going to die here with no one to see it."


    Dumbledore tilted his head, "You''re mistaken, Tom. Today, you won''t be leaving from here. It was foolish for you toe over for the prophecy, and now I''m going to make you regret it."


    The air itself started to tremble as magic thrummed from the two magical powerhouses ¡ª the two most powerful men in the country.


    "Time to go to the next great adventure, Dumbledore," said Voldemort as his magic flowed into his wand, concentrating as green light sparked up at the wand tip.


    "It must''ve been tough, all those years; it''s time for you to rest," Dumbledore smiled as he drowned the death stick with his magic.


    The decade''s biggest duel was about to start.


    The two supernovas of magic had finally met.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Question: "What do you think would be my favorite manga/anime?"


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Okay, this felt a little better; by the end, I felt that things were going back into sync. Let''s see how the next chapter goes.


    Dumbledore - 2nd Coming of Merlin - It''s time.


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - to DUEL!


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 253 - The Clash Of Supernovas

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Voldemort raised his wand and sent a jet of green light at Dumbledore, who turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak; next second, he had reappeared behind Voldemort and waved his wand toward the Fountain of Magical Brethren for the golden statue of the wizard in the fountain to sprung alive, leaping from its plinth, andnded on the floor with a crash between Dumbledore and Voldemort.


    The wizard statue nted a knee on the floor, cocking his arm, and brought down a golden fist atop Voldemort, who spread his arms like an orchestra conductor, and the iing punch changed directions, crashing a few feet away. But neither Dumbledore nor his animated statue was done as the other palm came sweeping from the side.


    Voldemort jutted his wandless arm toward the palm. A barrier appeared in between Voldemort and the golden palm and brought the mighty statue''s arm to stop.


    Voldemort''s lipless mouth pulled back and bared his teeth towards Dumbledore and swung his wand; the wizard statue''s arm turned to liquid, and the bulky golden globs sped towards Dumbledore, who flicked his wand, and the globs turned into cold tar blocks, falling down on the ground.


    Dumbledore made the next move, and the rest of the statues in Fountain of Magical Brethren came to life ¡ª witch, woman, man, half-elf, goblins, centaur all jumped down from their pirs stampeded towards Voldemort.


    "ENOUGH!" said Voldemort, and with his yell, the statues crumbled down into pieces, and the force of the spell was felt across the Atrium. "You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" he growled. "Stop ying games, or are you above such brutality, is that it?!"


    "We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, continuing to walk toward Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world, as though nothing had happened to interrupt his stroll up the hall. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit ¡ª"


    "There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" snarled Voldemort.


    Dumbledore sighed, "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness ¡ª"


    Another jet of green light flew towards Dumbledore, but a silver shield blocked it, and Dumbledore continued to talk, "Tom, whatever happens, today, you won''t be getting your hands on that prophecy."


    "You can''t stop me, Dumbledore," said Voldemort, his dull ck eyes turned a glowing scarlet red, he looked at the fallen statues and spoke, "you''ve lost your touch, I can tell. . . how long has it been since you used magic to the fullest? How long has it been since you actually dove into the arts?"


    Dumbledore didn''t reply, causing a smile to appear on Voldemort''s face.


    "You have growncent, Dumbledore. I, on the other hand, spent thirteen years. . . living," there was steel in his as he spoke of his time as a spirit, "I might have been away, but I spent all those years. . . thinking, gaining from what I was given, what I was left with ¡ª I never wasted a moment ¡ª but you, on the other hand, yed headmaster with kids."


    Dumbledore didn''t look bothered. What Voldemort said might have been true; he indeed hadn''t exerted him for a long time, there was never a need for him to do so, and he wasn''t bothered by it.


    "That doesn''t change anything, as long as we''re here," Dumbledore pointed at Atrium, and his eye blue eyes started to glow with a silver light, "it doesn''t matter whatever you or I did for thest ten years."


    Voldemort had no retort. As long as both of them were in a closed space, it restricted what both of them could do. If they truly fought, as Voldemort wished for, the Ministry headquarters and the Whitehall above with various Muggle government bureaus and ministries would turn to rubble and dust in minutes.


    Dumbledore smiled at Voldemort''s response or theck of it. It might be true that he lost out to the man in front of him in raw power, but that in no way meant that they were weak; in a restricted ce like this, they were all but equal.


    ''Even if we weren''t, I wouldn''t lose,'' thought Dumbledore with pride tainting his thoughts. There was a reason why he was granted the title of Grand Sorcerer. He had a hundred years of experience behind him.


    Dumbledore drew back his wand and waved it as though brandishing a whip. A long thin me flew from the tip; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, who conjured a shield, but the fiery whip burned brighter and longer, enveloping the shield dome as well. He pulled on the fire whip, and it tightened around Voldemort''s shield, strangling it as the dome contracted like a balloon when squeezed.


    It seemed Dumbledore had gained the upper hand for a moment, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold upon Voldemort at once and turned, hissing furiously, to face Dumbledore.


    Voldemort vanished, and the snake grew into a Basilisk, rearing its head at the colossal height of twenty feet. The fire apparition roared and hissed fire out. Dumbledore''s eyes widened when the mes turned a violet shade ¡ª a curse was weaved into the fire.


    ''But where''s ¡ª''


    Dumbledore''s pulse skipped a beat as he felt a palpitation of magic behind him. Without turning back, Dumbledore pulled a translucent blue shield that instantly multiplied into threeyers of barriers. The next instant, he felt a force attack from his back.


    A grunt escaped him. Dumbledore turned and saw an orangish-yellow me with a terrible curse that he was well familiar with ¡ª Fiendfyre.


    "Tom, has your brain degraded with your appearance? Do you have any idea what you''re doing?" he said to Voldemort, who stood on the empty Fountain of Magical Brethren''s pedestal.


    Voldemort didn''t reply, he didn''t need to, and he knew that Dumbledore wasn''t looking for one. Fiendfyre might be a demanding spell to control and contain when cast, but under his experienced and masterful lead, it was as easy to manage as a Lumos.


    "You won''t be leaving here alive, Dumbledore," said the Dark Lord.


    Dumbledore furrowed his brows as the Fiendfyre pushed against him.


    ''Where are they?'' he thought. ''Why haven''t they arrived yet?''


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Near the carnival grounds, the Aurors and Death Eaters were exchanging spells in the woods. Four dozen Aurors were being matched with ten Death Eaters on the front and five others who were hidden in the woods, pushing the Aurors back with stealthy covers for the main fighting force.


    "Potter~! How''s your little boy doing?! My master has been dying to meet him, though if they meet, he''s going to die!" Betrix Lestrange called gleefully as she side-stepped one spell, blocked two others, and shot a Cruciatus back, and felt her smile touch her ears from the scream.


    James conjured dozens of steel swords and shot them towards the Death Eaters, but the des vanished without a trace before they reached.


    "Shit!" a vein popped on James'' temple, his eyes peering past Betrix and looking at Augustus Rookwood standing in the middle of the Death Eater encirclement.


    The ex-Unspeakable was being the main reason four dozen Aurors were having problems with fifteen Death Eaters. Rookwood stood defended by the rest and was solely responsible for dispelling any dangerous spells that were pushed towards them, which he was unusually good at.


    "How''s he doing that?!" asked James.


    "It''s rted to his research field," Sirius said, having studied Augustus Rookwood.


    Unspeakables, at their core, were researchers who peered into the mysteries of magic, working to push wizardkind''s knowledge of magic to newer heights. Some studied emotions like love and hatred, while others studied the fabled field of time, and then there were those who dove into the concept of death itself.


    "Rookwood''s research of choice was on how to dismantle the internal magic in spells. From what little the Unspeakables gave me when Rookwood was still active, he was able to dismantle a wide range of transfigurations and many of themon use offensive spells," said Sirius, giving his best friend a grim look.


    James wrinkled his nose as he animated a squadron of golems and sent them barreling towards the Death Eaters. But inside, his thoughts were filled with what Rookwood could do in a duel. Almost everybody usedmon use spells while dueling with creating their own ir by adding unusual spells.


    James gulped. Just by disablingmon spells, Rockwood gained an edge on every person with a wand; Aurors were no exception.


    "Get aside," said Shacklebolt and swung his wand in an elliptical motion; the sky above the clearing started to darken.


    Rookwood looked up and saw a sh of light on the surface clouds. His eyes narrowed before widening to the limit.


    "Rabastan, Rodolphus!" he said. "Iing from the sky. Cover it!" This wasn''t something he would be able to dispel.


    The Lestrange brothers looked up at the sky and, without questions, raised barrier above the group just in time for a white sh followed by a loud crack.


    "Bloody¡ª"


    "Ugh!"


    The Lestrange brothers groaned as the giant lightning bolt assaulted their joint shields.


    James and Sirius looked at Shacklebolt, who raised his wand again, and another bolt assaulted the Death Eaters. He stepped back from the frontline and breathed a sigh.


    "Don''t look at me and barrage them while they''re off bnce!" he yelled at the people who stared at him.


    The Captain Aurors'' words were immediately heeded, and the Auror forces started to concentrate their spells on the Lestrange brothers, and it worked as Rodolphus Lestrange got hit by a spell and screamed in pain.


    "Brother!" Rabastan said in between shooting spells; he turned briefly to look at his prone brother. "Get out of here, now!"


    Rodolphus lifted his sleeve, all but tearing it to reveal his dark mark; with great difficulty, he pressed his wand against the skull, and with a flurry of shing light, he was gone.


    "Oh, no!" said Betrix, pouting as she pounded the ground. "ytime is over. It''s too soon! I want to y more! Well, there will always be the next time," she then smiled, "but before we go, we will leave you with a gift."


    Betrix pointed to the distance with a sparkling grin on her face.


    None of the Seniors or Captains took their eyes off the battle, but Edwards did and saw a sight even though a first for him, horrified him to the core because of what it meant.


    "Sirs!"


    Shacklebolt, who was on downtime, turned and even his breath caught up.


    Above the carnival, in the sky, floated a green skull with a snake slithering out of its mouth, curling around the skull ¡ª it was eerie, it was chilling, and it was ¡ª the Dark Lord''s mark.


    A wall of earth raised around the Death Eaters, and before the Aurors could break it down, the Death Eaters were gone, Portkeying away as they had nned.


    "Go! Go! To the circus!" said Shacklebolt, running towards the carnival before apparating to cover the distance.


    His and every Aurors'' hearts beat in their ribcages.


    Morsmordre''s appearance in muggle areas was always apanied by blood.


    They only hoped they could make it in time.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Voldemort pumped more magic into the Fiendfyre, and instantly, one of three barriers shattered.


    Dumbledore turned away from Voldemort to face the violet fire vertebrate. It was still a threat even if it wasn''t as dangerous as the Fiendfyre.


    As the saying went, fight curse with curse.


    Dumbledore brought his hand close, and a jet of water fountained out, rising in his waves, and in seconds, he had conjured enough water to fill multiple Olympic-sized swimming pools. The rising water then shimmered in dull light, turning cloudy ¡ª it had been cursed.


    The water formed a phoenix figure and shed against Voldemort''s fire Basilisk.


    The two elemental giants battled for dominance.


    Dumbledore turned back to Voldemort the moment the second barrier broke, but as Dumbledore pushed more magic into his shield, Fienfyre disappeared like kindling on a windy day.


    And before Dumbledore could react, a jet of green light flew at Dumbledore from Voldemort''s wand at speed so quick that it didn''t take a single second to cover the distance.


    A burst of fire bloomed in front of Dumbledore, and from it appeared Fawkes, the phoenix. The bird opened its beak wide and


    swallowed the jet of the green light whole. He burst into me and fell small, wrinkled, and flightless to the floor.


    At the same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one, long, fluid movement ¡ª the water phoenix, which had been fighting the fire basilisk, grew angrier and sunk its talons into the fire, peaked the snake, and enveloped the fire monster within its wings ¡ª snuffing it out. Then it twisted its body in the air and flew towards Voldemort, covering him in a cocoon of molten ss.


    For a few seconds, Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass.


    Dumbledore watched as Voldemort struggled inside the water ball. His eyes went to the chick-phoenix rolled on the floor in a pile of ash, helpless in the dangerous situation, and seeing that sight made a rare anger bubble inside him.


    Water des formed inside the entrapment and ruthlessly zipped towards the center. He didn''t want to kill Voldemort because he needed to know the locations and numbers of Horcruxes, but it didn''t prevent him from taking away the limbs; they weren''t necessary.


    The water sphere burst open, and Voldemort hovered in the air, making Dumbledore gasp. It was unaided flight, something thought to be impossible before.


    "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU, DUMBLEDORE!"


    Voldemort''s legs and abdomen were bleeding, but everything was still in one piece; the rage in the scarlet eyes was something to be feared.


    "Avada Kedav¡ª"


    He didn''tplete the spell as the falling water from the water sphere turned into ice spheres and shot towards Voldemort under Dumbledore''smand.


    And it was that time when the Atrium doors burst open, and a few high-ranking with their Auror guards arrived ¡ª people like Cornelius Fudge, Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour, and the Hit Wizard Chief among the few others.


    Voldemort looked at Dumbledore, ignoring the insignificant others; his eyes were dripping with hatred as his body dripped blood. He wanted to blow the entire street above, but logic didn''t allow him.


    He gave his wand a swing, sending statue pieces flying towards Dumbledore, and took the chance to escape by vanishing from the venue.


    "He was there!" shouted a scarlet-robed man with a ponytail, who was pointing at a pile of golden rubble on the other side of the hall. "I saw him, Mr. Fudge, I swear, it was You-Know-Who, he just Disapparated!"


    "I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too!" said Fudge, gibbering, who was wearing pajamas under his pinstriped cloak and was gasping as though he had just run miles. "Merlin''s beard ¡ª here ¡ª here! ¡ª in the Ministry of Magic! ¡ª great heavens above ¡ª it doesn''t seem possible ¡ª my word ¡ª how can this be?"


    "Dumbledore!" gasped Fudge, apparently beside himself with amazement. "You ¡ª here ¡ª I ¡ª I ¡ª"


    "Stop, Cornelius," Dumbledore raised a tired hand up, "I don''t wish to talk or answer any questions. But a few minutes ago, you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling you the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing the wrong men for twelve months, and it is time you listened to sense!"


    "I ¡ª don''t ¡ª well ¡ª" blustered Fudge, looking around as though hoping somebody was going to tell him what to do.


    "I''m going home," said Dumbledore bluntly before turning to Amelia. "I''ll be talking to you soon, Amelia."


    He picked up Fawkes and walked to where the golden wizard''s heady on the floor. He pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Portus." The head glowed blue and trembled noisily against the wooden floor for a few seconds, then became still once more.


    "Now see here, Dumbledore!" said Fudge. "You haven''t got authorization for that Portkey! You can''t do things like that right in front of the Minister of Magic, you ¡ª you ¡ª"


    His voice faltered as Dumbledore surveyed him magisterially over his half-moon spectacles.


    "Goodbye, Cornelius," said Dumbledore before activating portkey activated, and he was whisked away.


    Leaving behind the destroyed Atrium from the unseen duel, which also became the venue for some bloody and unfortunate news.


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    FictionOnlyReader(Past) - Author - Meh, didn''t feel the heat this time as well.


    FictionOnlyReader(Present) - Author - The abovement is from the time I wrote this chapter, and at that time, I wasn''t feeling good about my writing (thest few chapters were written in that period). It continues to the end of this volume. Which is the next chapter.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 254 - The Second Private Tour

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURN


    In a brief statement Friday night, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned to this country and is active once more.


    "It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord ¡ª well, you know who I mean ¡ª is alive and among us again," said Fudge, looking tired and flustered as he addressed reporters. "It is with almost equal regret that we report the mass revolt of the dementors of Azkaban, who have shown themselves averse to continuing in the Ministry''s employ. We believe that the dementors are currently taking direction from Lord ¡ª Thingy.


    "We urge the magical poption to remain vignt. The Ministry is currently publishing guides to elementary home and personal defense that will be delivered free to all Wizarding homes within theing month."


    The Minister''s statement was met with dismay and rm from the Wizardingmunity, which as recently asst Wednesday was receiving Ministry assurances that there was "no truth whatsoever in these persistent rumors that You-Know-Who is operating amongst us once more."


    Details of the events that led to the Ministry turnaround are still hazy, though it is believed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named gained entry to the Ministry of Magic itself on Thursday evening, during a time when a select band of his follower (known as Death Eater) wreaked havoc at a muggle gathering, thus keeping the DMLE forces away from the Ministry of Magic.


    Death Eaters raided a muggle carnival circus, and in a horrid turn of events, ten muggles were spelled dead while dozens were left mortally injured. It took arge portion of Auror forces to contain the scene while the Ministry Oblivators and St. Mungo''s healers remedied the situation.


    ording to our sources, Minister Fudge will soon meet with the muggle Prime Minister (leader) to inform him of the grave situation.


    Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reinstated member of the International Confederation of Wizards, and reinstated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, was unavable formentst night. He has insisted for a year that You-Know-Who was not dead, as was widely hoped and believed, but recruiting followers once more for a fresh attempt to seize power. Meanwhile, the Boy-Who-Lived ¡ª


    Quinn closed his copy of Sunday Prophet onto the Ravenw house table and sighed as it slid across the tabletop. As the newspaper title suggested, it was Sunday, and it had been a couple days since the Ministry received the Dark Lord as its guest and had a short y date with Dumbledore.


    The same topic had be the mainstay in the newspapers and magazines since the Friday issue and was the only topic everyone seemed to talk about.


    ''Which is to be expected,'' he thought.


    Even Luna had cornered Harry in the corridor and had all but dragged him into taking an interview for Quibbler. It was a bit surprising for Quinn when she asked him to vacate the office so she could take the interview, which Harry wasn''t opposed to providing.


    "If there''s going to be something about me out in the papers, it might as well be something I have actually said," had said the Boy-Who-Lived.


    Quinn nced at an indexing column on the front page,


    ''Exclusive Interview with Harry Potter, page nine. . .''


    Xenophilius Lovegood, after publishing the interview in the Quibbler, had sold it to every newspaper publishing house who contacted him. And it sold well enough to fund the expedition trip to Sweden the father-daughter pair had nned for the summer break.


    Quinn nced up at the staff high-table at Dumbledore, who looked as merry as ever; not a hint on him that he had just fought Voldemort. He wondered what it was like, but s, he wasn''t there, and neither did he want to be if it wasn''t strictly necessary.


    ''I wonder if the Prophecy is still at the Ministry or if he took it with him,'' he thought, ''or if Dumbledore broke it front of him. . . does Voldemort know?''


    In the originals, Voldemort had given up the pursuit of the Prophecy after it broke, but if that wasn''t the case, then Voldemort would still be motivated to seek the Prophecy.


    s, Quinn sighed; he didn''t know the current status of the Prophecy situation, and it was most frustrating for him. The most he could do was go to the Ministry and see for himself if the Prophecy orb still sat on the Hall of Prophecy''s shelf.


    There was only one thing that was confirmed,


    The Second War had finally begun.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The castle seemed very quiet, even for a Sunday. Everybody was clearly out in the sunny grounds, enjoying the end of their exams and the prospect of thest few days of term unhampered by studying or homework. Quinn walked slowly along the deserted corridor, peering out of windows as he went. He could see people messing around in the air over the Quidditch pitch and a couple of students swimming in theke, apanied by the Kraken.


    The hot sun hit him with a st as he walked across thewns. He, too, had nothing to do at the end of the year ¡ª neither did he want to do anything; it was his annual downtime.


    Students lying around on the grass sunbathing, talking, reading the Sunday Prophet, and eating sweets looked up at him as he passed. Some called out to him or waved, thanking him for the notes, again an annual thing. Quinn nodded and smiled back as he passed by to find himself to find an empty patch of green.


    Heid down on the grass face up to enjoy the delightful heat. He closed his eyes to rx but squinted them open to see the sun ring down at him. He raised his hand, waved to the side, and the rays of sun shifted around him, changing paths, dimming its re just for him.


    Quinn ced his hands behind his back, crossed his legs, one top of another, and again closed his eyes with a smile, listening to the ruffle of the grass from the gentle breeze.


    Time passed, and just as Quinn was about to slip into a nap, he heard the crunching of grassing closer to him step-by-step. His closed eyes felt a shadow over them; he cracked them open a bit,zily looking at the cause of the shade to see red hair shining like ruby as the light bounced off them.


    "Hmm," he vocalized.


    "You seem rxed."


    "Hmm," was said with the barest of a nod.


    "It''s rare to see you out here, don''t have anything to do today?"


    Quinn shook his head lightly.


    "It does seem to be a good day to nothing."


    "Hmm."


    ". . . Okay, that got old very quickly. Speak."


    Quinn opened his mouth open and sighed, "You know when you don''t open your mouth, and the lips get sealed ¡ª they stuck to each other. Yeah, I just lost that."


    "So, what''re you doing?" asked Ivy, sitting beside him.


    "As you said, I''m doing nothing," he closed his again. "How about you? What are you doing here?"


    "Fred and George are passing their ''pranking wisdom,''" she did the air quotes, "to Harry and Ron while Hermione''s is spending all her time in the library before we have to leave."


    "Ah, I see," Quinn smiled, "today''s the farewell party."


    Every year, after the end-of-the-year examination, the seventh year would be treated with a send-off ¡ª two farewell parties, one in the great hall (which was being prepared as they spoke) where the seventh-years would enjoy one final celebration with the professors, and another one, the unofficial farewell party that happened in all fourmon rooms with the seventh-years partying with their juniors.


    "Excited for the party?" she asked.


    Quinn sighed, "I don''t like parties."


    Ivy hummed an, "Is that so," before asking, "So did youplete that Cursed Vault ¡ª the Architect''s Vault."


    "Yes, I did," said Quinn, a delightful groove in his voice. Even after weeks, Quinn, from time to time, went down inside his briefcase and stared at his treasure horde full of gold and jewels to bask in the golden sheen.


    Ivy''s green shined as she perked up in her spot. "Really? Then, it''s time to fulfill your promise," she smiled widely.


    "Promise? Ah, you mean that. . ." He recalled that Ivy had somehow (technically)taken a promise out of him when she found him in the Architect''s Vault.


    "Yes, that. Let''s go," Ivy sounded excited. She had been inside the secret area only once, but that time had caught her curiosity and interestpletely.


    Quinn thought about it. He could argue that he only promised to ''tell'' Ivy about the vaults; there was never a mention of actually taking her into the vault.


    "Alright," he got up from the ground, "let''s go."


    Both of them walked to the Architect''s Vault with the Ivy in charge of guiding them to the location without being spotted with the help of the Marauder''s Map (Quinn''s request/demand.)


    "It''s beautiful," said Ivy, watching Quinn put the ring against the wall, which glowed up in a special shade of glowing teal.


    "Come in," said Quinn; he had long gotten used to seeing the sight.


    After solving the first room from atop a silver disc, the staircase revealed itself, and the duo went down to the second room.


    "W-What happened here?!" Ivy gasped at the sight of the altered second room.


    Quinn stepped onto the bridge that connected the entry to the exit. "Ah, this wasn''t here before, was it? I solved all the material blocks, and the room changed ¡ª it was an amazing sight, a bit scary because I was in here what happened."


    Ivy hesitantly stepped onto the railing-less bridge and walked straight down the middle of blocks, keeping close to Quinn as she peered to the side, trying to avoid looking down, but her eyes seemed to like the idea of staring down the frightening height.


    "I have gotten really good at transmutation," said Quinn, "if you were ever need something made, like a statue or something,e to me, and I''ll craft a masterpiece. You can sell it a decade or twoter at an exorbitant price."


    They reached the third room, and Ivy walked into Quinn, who suddenly stopped in his path.


    "Oww," she rubbed her nose, ring up at Quinn through teary eyes, "why did you stop?"


    "Alright, listen to me carefully," Quinn said somberly. He pointed at the trapped room while staring unblinkingly at Ivy. "We''re going to travel in a straight path, and you''re only going to step where I walk, don''t deviate from where I''m walking because if you do, something will try to take off parts of your body. And watch your step; the floor sinks."


    "O-Oh, okay." Severe Quinn was scary Quinn.


    Quinn walked the straight part, stepping on tiles he knew wouldn''t shoot projectiles at him. Why? Because he had taken out chunks from the attacks so that they wouldn''t loop.


    Ivy stepped on her first tile and almost lost her bnce when the tile sunk beneath and had to grab onto Quinn''s shoulder to stabilize herself.


    "Sorry about that. What''s this room about?" she asked, looking around, following Quinn, who walked slowly to be extra safe.


    "The entire floor is one giant trap minefield. When the floor tile sinks, a trap triggers, and something dangerous attacks you. I found a way to disable them, so as long as you follow me, I''ll only step on the disabled tiles.


    The majority of this floor is still active," said Quinn, making Ivy gulp silently. She had seen him duel, and if Quinn was cautious about something, she needed to be careful about it.


    After a careful tread, both finally made it to the final room, and Quinn finally let up and smiled, "Well, here we are at the end. What do you think?"


    Ivy didn''t reply as she took the site in front of her with a stunned expression. Her eyes jumped from the gold statue in the center of the room to sculptures lining the walls to the paintings above on the dome ceiling.


    Quinn didn''t interrupt her. The room was indeed a sight to behold. He had missed its charm the first time around because of the mental fatigue, but he hade to appreciate the artistry in his subsequent visits.


    And that''s why he brought her here.


    "I thought it would be a waste if only I got to see this," he said, "I don''t know if the Architect did all this or if hemissioned artists, but I think that every individual piece here is a work of art. I don''t want to take anything out of here, so I think it''s nice that someone else sees it before the next challenger, who I don''t know when they''lle along."


    ''If they doe along, they''re going to be so disappointed. At least they would get to see this,'' thought Quinn. "Come on, let me show you the reward," he said and walked to the statue''s base to push the tile square down.


    Ivy watched in another wave of surprise as the sculptures came to life and began vacating a ce in the wall to reveal the hidden room''s entrance.


    "There''s nothing in here?" said Ivy, standing in the empty room. "Where''s the reward?"


    "I already took it," said Quinn, grinning. "It was a big treasure chest full of gold and jewels." Which was true in the sense that he indeed took treasure chests, but it was like equating a bucket of water to ake.


    "Here, take a look at this," he reached into his pocket and took out a gold coin he kept as a memento.


    "Wow, you really got gold," she said, looking at the strange galleon in her hand.


    "Yes, wow," Quinn nodded, "along with a few books that the Architect wrote back in his day."


    "Hermione would hound you if she knows that you got a book from a thousand years in the past. I''m sure she''lle to your home if she knew where you lived."


    "I know, so don''t tell her."


    "I won''t, but let me have a look at them."


    ". . . Alright."


    Ivy tried to give the coin back, but Quinn shook his head. "You can keep that. It''s a cool historical artifact, and well, even though it was minuscule, but you were a significant part of my vault experience. It really shocked me when you stumbled in, so yeah, keep the coin as a remembrance."


    Ivy looked at the coin, then at Quinn, and silently nodded when the realization stuck where they actually were and what the situation was. She clenched her hands; maybe this was a good ce.


    ''Only I know this ce.''


    After spending some time in the final room and Quinn promising to share the pictures he had taken of the paintings and sculptures, both headed out. Ivy stopped beside the teal portal entrance when they reached the first room.


    "Quinn."


    "Yeah?" Quinn said, turning with a smile on his face. As he expected, it was more fun to tell someone alive about the vaults than to Friar.


    This was thest chance for her, she thought. After this, she would have to wait for an entire summer break to try again, and she wasn''t in a ce where they could meet throughout the break, but a certain Slytherin was in such a position. If she stopped


    "Ivy?"


    She looked up, unsessfully tried to calm her beating heart, stepped forward.


    Actions were louder than words, and nothing would be louder than this right now.


    Quinn watched as Ivy stepped to him, stood on her toes, and before he could make sense of what was going on, her lips were on his, and for a moment, his brain shut down; when it came back online, his first thought was that her lips were soft, pillowy against his, and he could feel the gentle tickle of her breath beneath his nose.


    Ivy''s heart soured when she didn''t feel Quinn kiss her back, and even though she had expected it, she still felt the sinking feeling, but the next moment, her eyes fluttered open when she felt him reciprocate, s it only for a brief magical moment as Quinn pulled himself back jerkily.


    "What. . . what was that?" he asked while taking a deep breath as he stepped away from Ivy.


    Ivy pursed her lips and clenched her fists as she spoke, "It was what it was."


    "No, no, no, no, that''s not an answer. I know what it was, but. . . why?" Quinn asked with an incredulous look on his face.


    "I like you."


    ". . . What?"


    "I like you," she repeated; thest few seconds had given her newfound courage.


    "I''m with Daphne."


    Ivy shrugged.


    Quinn opened and closed his mouth a couple times before finally speaking, "What did you think would happen? What were expecting to aplish by doing. . . this."


    "I don''t know," she said, staring him square into the eyes, "only that I had to do something before I regretted not doing anything."


    Quinn stared at her speechless, and after a spell of silence, he stepped aside.


    Ivy understood what he wanted and walked towards the teal exit, but before she turned and spoke, "I''m serious about how I feel, and I''m not about to give up so easily, so remember that." After saying that, she exited the vault leaving him alone, stunned.


    Quinn pursed his lips, and he could still feel the kiss. He closed his eyes and scrunched his nose, and internally berated himself for losing control of the brief moment.


    ''Why did I kiss her?'' It was something he shouldn''t have done, not when he was going out with Daphne. ''She can''t know this happened,'' he looked around the dull room and decided that this incident was going to stay buried in this vault.


    "Nothing happened," he said, assuring himself, "yes, nothing happened."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - His day went through a 180-degree change.


    Ivy Potter - Bold & Brave - ''I did it,'' she thought.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - That was messed up, right?! I can''t believe that happened!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 255 - Aegis

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    [Start of a new volume ¡ª Volume 8: Hogwarts Year 7.


    Likest volume, we''re starting right with the summer break. This summer break is going to be eventful. That''s to say the least.]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Chirp~ Chirp~ Chirp~


    Quinn opened his eyes with the chirpings of birds flying into his ears. Heid on his side, staying still, watching the rm clock tick its way to 6 O''clock. He raised his hand above the clock, and the moment, the second and minute-hand ticked to twelve, the clock rang, but even before the firstplete ring, his magic silenced the rm.


    Quinn pushed himself up, sat on his knees, and slid off his bed with the same thought he had every morning after waking up ¡ª why did he set up an rm if he woke up before it?


    He walked to the window and stared out thewns of the West manor glistening in their usual well-maintained lush green. Today was his first day back home after the school year ended, thus the first time he had slept in his home bed.


    ''My dorm bed is better,'' he thought. ''I should have brought it with me. . . I wonder if the elves would have tried to take it back. . . maybe I''ll try it next year.''


    After changing into his workout clothes, Quinn went down to the property andpleted his morning exercise routine, all the while wondering if he should pop by Eddie''s house because it was sort of lonely doing his morning routine without him, but decided it against and finalized to send him a letter with only one sentence ¡ª Exercise Bros For Life. <3


    He continued with his morning by taking a shower to wash away the sweat he had worked up and finally went down to the dining room to break the nighttime fast.


    "Good morning," he said as he pulled out a chair to sit at the table.


    George returned the greeting without looking up from his newspaper while Elliot took a moment to look up from his newspaper, greeting him with a bright smile. Ms. Rosey too greeted him while handing Quinn his own stack of preferred newspapers and magazines.


    A ss of milk flew into the dining room, sitting itself on the table in front of Quinn while serving utensils ced more food on his te than the other three. He picked up the ss and smiled a "Thank you, Polly" after tasting the honey in the milk.


    "Lia didn''te?" Quinn asked as he dug into his food. "She''s in the country, isn''t she?"


    "She is. She''ll be here in the evening," said Ms. Rosey, mixing honey in her tea.


    Quinn hummed while tasting the eggs and the pepper sprinkled on them just for him. He wondered what he should do for today; it was his first day back home, sozing around at the manor and spending time with Ms. Rosey was the option on the forefront, but then there was the other option of going to the non-magical world and see what was new. He weighed the options in his mind and decided that it would be better to stay at home for the first few days before venturing outside.


    "Grandfather, how''s Aegis doing?"


    Aegis, or theplete name Aegis Warding Solutions, was the newly formed subsidiary of the West business. It was formedst year with Quinn''s book of home/building protection wards as its value proposition. Thest time Quinn had heard of Aegis, it hadn''t been doing so well ¡ª struggling against the market dominator Goblin Nation''s wards which had been the sole option for centuries. While Quinn had confidence in his wards, he understood Goblin Nation''s grip on the warding industry and that Aegis had a good chance of failing like its predecessors.


    "We are losing money," said George, bluntly.


    Which didn''t bring any surprise to Quinn''s face. With the market scenario, it would take a while for Aegis to even break even, much less turn up a profit, and Quinn knew that what he was interested in was if there had been any positive indication about thepany''s future.


    "There has been a weak yet steady stream of customers. Those who can''t afford goblin-made wards, attracted by our heavy discounts, they make the majority of our customer base." In the first year, Aegis had shed its service prices to beyond the bone and were losing money on every warding, but that was the only way to gain a foothold in the market. "Then there are those who have decided to supplement their pre-existing wards with ours ¡ª but those are few in far between, primarily warding enthusiasts checking out the new product."


    "Anyone I might recognize?" asked Quinn.


    "Indeed, there''s one. Amelia Bones added our wards to her home when she was upgrading the protection at home ¡ª a smart move considering now that she''s almost the Minister."


    Fudge had been voted out of his office as such, elections for the next Minister were close, and Amelia Bones was going to win without a shred of doubt ¡ª the elections were but a formality.


    "Is that so," muttered Quinn. That was good news, terrific even. Someone like the Head of DMLE / soon-to-be Minister using theirpany''s service was all the endorsement needed to get into the high-end market. "What about the thing I suggested before? Targetting parents of first-generation magicals," he asked.


    "It''s has been half a sess. Some people loved having wards around their houses, while others turned our people away the moment they heard what they were selling ¡ª mmed their doors."


    Quinn nodded with pursed lips. Not all first-generation magicals got along with their magical children; many grew distant from their families because of the different world they lived in. Not being able to rte and talk aboutmon topics put cracks in rtionships, and the non-magical parents med magic for it.


    "I hope at least the parents with younger children are taking well," he asked.


    "They are indeed. They show interest, then it takes a lot of exining on our part to make them understand what the wards do and how they work," said George. "But, thanks to your scripts, manuals, and pamphlets, the process is much easier."


    "Salesmen?" asked Quinn.


    "For the non-magical side, all first-generation magicals."


    "Excellent."


    Of course, warding in non-magical societies came with its own set of limitations. To gain approval from the Ministries around the globe, where Aegis had beenunched in the previous year, thepany had to key in the country-wide detection wards that enabled the working of the trace ced on the focuses used by underaged children. Thus, for safety reasons (International Statute of Magical Secrecy), first-generation children still couldn''t use magic in their homes.


    When the conversation ended, Elliot chimed in and asked, "Young master, what do you n on doing this summer? Will you travel again this year?"


    "Hmm. . . I do have ns some ns out of the country, but it''ll be most a day or twos of work before I return home," said Quinn. "Other than that, I''m nning to stay at home."


    "Where do you n to visit?"


    "Switzend. I''m nning to take a trip to Basel, Switzend."


    George looked up from his paper with a questioning glint in his eyes. "Basel. . . may I ask the reason for the visit?"


    Quinn nced at the three adults and decided that this was as good a time as any. "If all three of you''re free now, I''d like to show all of you something." He looked at George, "It''s the reason for my visit to Switzend."


    The three adults looked at each other before nodding.


    "Polly," Quinn called, and the West family house-elf popped into the room, standing beside Quinn''s chair, looking up at him with her big, vivid eyes. "Would you please bring my briefcase down from my room; it''s on the floor in my closet. Thank you."


    Poppy popped away to return half a minuteter with Quinn''s trusty briefcase floating above her hand.


    Quinn thanked Polly and ced the briefcase on the floor. With a wave of his hand, the briefcase expanded to arge-sized trunk, big enough to take up one-third of a single-person bed. Therge briefcase opened up, and instead of standard insides with regr objects, the briefcase had stairs descending inside.


    "Whenever all of you''re ready," said Quinn, and the rest of them weren''t ready ¡ª only after everyone had their breakfast did the four people step into Quinn''s luggage.


    "Now that I think of it. It''s my first time stepping in here," Elliot said, following behind Quinn. "Same for me as well," said Ms. Rosey, stepping down with one hand on the railing. "This is my first time as well," added Georgepleting the trio of first-time visitors.


    Quinn, along with the group, walked through a series of corridors with rooms lining them. It would have been fine if it was only that, as it was what George, Elliot, and Ms. Rosey expected, but there were things that stood out to them.


    Along the way, they came upon a few abnormal doors.


    They saw a door with runes etched on every inch of the door panel and the frame. When passing by another door, they all felt a chilling cold assault their bodies. Another door on their path lightly rattled in its hinge constantly. They passed by another door, and unlike others which were brown, this one was an unnatural scarlet red color. Then there were two-door facing each other, both open wide, but they couldn''t see anything inside other than pitch-ck darkness.


    When asked about the bizarre doors, Quinn answered with, "Ongoing experiments."


    "We are here," Quinn said, standing in front of a regr door. He flicked up the light switch on the outside, opened the door, and motioned them to enter inside.


    George, Elliot, and Ms. Rosey entered the door, and their eyes narrowed at the contents inside. Laying in front of them were room height mounds of gold coins, treasure chests, statues, open sacks of precious jewels and gems, and various things all made from gold ¡ª only, everything in the room was shrunk down, and that too aggressively.


    George picked up a coin from the mound, and it was only asrge as a tiny thumbtack. He stared at the shrunken down coin and then at the mounds ¡ª his mind did some rough calctions, and the result made him suck in a sharp breath.


    He turned to his grandson with blown up eyes, "Quinn. . . where did you get all this gold? This. . . this is a lot of gold," he looked at the sacks of jewels, and once again, his mind added value.


    It took them an extra beat, but Elliot and Ms. Rosey also came to stilling stop at the sheer enormous amount of wealth in gold and jewels. For any one of them, it was the first time seeing this much wealth in a ce that was outside one of their numerous bank vaults.


    "I went on an adventure inside Hogwarts," said Quinn, smiling. "The end of that adventure as a giant hall full of gold treasures, all for me to im."


    George narrowed his eyes at his grandson, "Do you mean one of those vaults that you told us about?"


    Quinn nodded. He had told George about the vaults in the aftermath of the Sin vault and the other members in subsequent times. And while they were aware of the vaults'' existence, they weren''t privy to the contents of the vaults ¡ª the challenges, the rewards, the dangers he faced, and his injuries.


    "So this is why you want to go to Basel," said Ms. Rosey.


    Quinn nodded, "There''s no use for all of this gold toy here gathering dust. It''d be better to put all this wealth into my vaults there, and reap an interest and funnel it into investments. I''d also like to start making some investment of my own."


    George instantly looked interested, "What do you have in mind?"


    "I have some targets in the magicalmunity, but mostly, I''d be investing in the non-magical world. For that, I''d need some help ¡ª if you could connect me with someone who could handle the investments in the non-magical world, that''d be helpful."


    George sighed. He hoped that Quinn would make investments in the magical world as that was more up his alley. But he nodded, "I''ll arrange someone that''d be able to take you through the investments."


    Quinn smiled. He had a lot of money, and his wealth only grew with each passing day, but Quinn knew that to stay wealthy, it took effort and nning, and he had to remain wealthy so that he could spend theing years of life researching magic. Even if he would never go hungry, with no clothes on his body, or without a roof over his head because of his body, but to pursue research, he would need capital, and these investments were going to fund those researches ¡ª no matter how extensive they became.


    After they exited the briefcase, George asked, "What about the brothers you told me about? What was their name? Weasley twins, correct? What are their ns?"


    "They just graduated, grandfather. It''d take them some time to set up their joke shop. Though their ns and preparations are solid enough that they''d be getting up and running soon."


    "Do you think they will be profitable?"


    Quinn nodded, "I''m a hundred percent sure that they''d be profitable. After all, I not only nned their business but also helped them with their product. Combine that with theirpetence, no chance their business is going to fail."


    George ced his hand on Quinn''s shoulder, looked him in the eye, and spoke while looking satisfied, "I am proud of you, son."


    "Thank you?"


    "So, I''m going to trust you and invest the same amount of the family money in the same areas that you do."


    "Eh, really? I''m nning to invest a lot of money, though."


    "No worries, I have a lot of it."


    ". . ."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - His "West" ising up.


    George West - Grandfather - Flexing at the end.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 256 - Flight & Gringotts

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    A gentle breeze blew in a moond with rolling hills with low-growing vegetation with clouds flying low in the sky above, drifting carelessly with the wind that rustled the scrubby bushes and the carpet of purple and red flowers of heathers in bloom. In the depth of thosends, away from the grazing animals and the herding shepherds, stood Quinn alone without a sound other than the asional song of a bird perched on a stunted tree.


    This spot had be a routine visiting spot for him in the two weeks Quinn had been visiting the location for the purposes of being alone, away from all peering eyes.


    "Let''s give this one more try," he said, looking down at the floor. A soft breath of wind blew down, and the grass around Quinn''s feet bent away from him. Quinn clenched his feet, and the wind beneath his feet grew stronger. The grass strands were now parallel to the ground theyid their roots in. "Alright, time to puff it up!"


    With a burst of magic, the forces of winds, bearing the power of thrust, took Quinn''s feet off the grass. He stood still, his back ramrod straight with his feet joined together like a soldier standing at attention.


    Quinn kept his chin straight, but his eyes stared down below at the ground, slowly moving away from him. He remembered the first few days when even the initial task of taking his feet off the ground was a toilsome task that he failed for a countless number of times (countless for others, he exactly knew how many times he failed.)


    "Okay, this is going good," he muttered, and that''s when everything stopped being good. Quinn had mastered the part of lifting up from the ground, but what he hadn''t got the manoeuvrability down, he couldn''t turn or, in fact, move in any direction other than up. For the nth time, he tried to move, but immediately, the winds went out of control, and his ascending body was thrown into a frenzy.


    He sighed ¡ª he had screamed in shock a lot in the past two weeks ¡ª but now, he couldn''t be bothered with it. A blue light covered his body, cutting his momentum, and guided his body gently onto the ground.


    With his body t against the ground, Quinn stared above at the blue sky, his lips pressed into a white line. Ever since in the Architect''s Vault''s third room, where he had achieved flight in the state of rage, Quinn knew that he could achieve it again, and this time without anger fueling his magic.


    He sat up straight and thought back to thest two weeks of continuous failure of achieving flight through wind magic.


    ording to Quinn''s own personal ssification, there were two ways to perform a task through magic. The first one was what he called the direct method, while the other one he termed the indirect method. To take an example, cutting an object through a severing charm was the direct method, while cutting via wind de was the indirect method.


    The same went for flight. Quinn''s method of flight was the indirect method through wind magic.


    ''I wonder if Voldemort''s method is the direct method or if he''s also an indirect method,'' he thought. The direct method to flight would be a spell/magic solely crafted for flight, and while Quinn knew from the lore that Voldemort had achieved flight, he didn''t know if it was true flight.


    "Whatever, not that he will tell me if I ask him," Quinn sat up from the ground, "or, maybe he will if I ask nicely and well. . . join him," he chuckled, "yeah right. . ." Quinn shook his head and got up, stretched his arms, and once got to practice.


    The winds contorted under his influence, again picking up power to do his bidding. His body rose in the air like it did every time, and like every time, his control was thrown asunder.


    "What am I missing?" he sighed, and just for a change, instead of using Arresto Momentum, he conjured a bubble around himself with his body locked in the center, always staring up. The bubble bounced off the ground, springing across the moors freely, without a course of direction in mind. "Don''t tell me it''s something so clich¨¦ as that, would it?"


    Quinn popped the bubble andnded on his feet.


    "No harm in trying," he said. "Now, how did it go? The wind is free, the wind is boundless, the wind is without restraint. Yeah, let''s see if the jargon works."


    Quinn loosened the muscles in his body, changing his stiff posture to the one he was most rxed. The winds blew, and Quinn furrowed his brows. Keeping his body loose felt conflicting from what he was doing. He stopped the ascent and kept his body hovering only a foot above the ground.


    Thomas Edison had once said, ''I have not failed. I''ve just found ten thousand ways that won''t work.'' And the man''s words did connect with Quinn ¡ª he was no stranger to failure; he probably failed more than any individual on a daily basis. But every failure gave Quinn some insight into what he was doing wrong.


    He thought back to what was shared in his myriads of failed attempts.


    ''How do I look at flying?'' he thought. ''It wasn''t like a bird, no that was a different principle. nes'' flight principle doesn''t work either. Jetpack? Well, yes, I have been using thrust to gain altitude, but I have been doing more than a simple jetpack.''


    Jetpack''s flight method was the closest to his application, but a real-life jetpack was nowhere versatile enough to match its fictional counterparts, and he wanted that versatility.


    ''Is there a method to achieve that versatility? Hmm. . .''


    An idea struck him. It was an inspiration. A strange inspiration ¡ª an inspiration from a wrong time, a time he never thought he would draw inspiration from.


    The memory of his body leaping from the Astronomy Tower surfaced in his mind. He remembered the sight of Friar''s panicked face and what he felt at that moment. There was dormant thought of trusting his magic, but there was another one, standing in the shadow of the first thought.


    ''Surrender myself to my magic.'' At that moment, it was just Quinn and his magic, and in some ways, he had surrendered the control he kept so tight.


    "Let''s try it," he thought with his intentions evident in his clear eyes.


    Quinn loosened his bodypletely, and instead of using his muscles to control his body, he used wind. His face, which had tucked down because removing strength in his neck, rose up with winds ¡ª like a marite puppet, the winds controlled his body.


    In Quinn''s terminology, he was currently using the indirect method to control his body. Using his muscles was the direct method while using the wind was the indirect method.


    "This is ufortable," he said, "but we can work on that." But it was working; he could feel that he would be able to fly freely if he tried right now.


    "Let''s fly," a smile appeared, and the winds took charge.


    With a few grass strands below his being uprooted, Quinn flew ¡ª not only did he ascend up, but he began turning in directions. He turned parallel to the ground, and with a thought, heunched himself forward like a flying superhero.


    "Woohoo!" he yelled as he twisted and turned in the sky; it was exhrating and exciting; it was like flying in his animagus form, but a bit different ¡ª in his animagus form, flying hade naturally after a while without much effort, but this took an effort to keep flying.


    "Yeah, this is ufortable," said Quinn, hovering in the air. His movements were choppy, and if he turned too quickly, his body would abruptly bend, and it hurt. "Need to find a method to correct it. How did I do it in the vault?"


    He closed his eyes, thought back to the vault, and began a simple three-step thinking process ¡ª Observe, Reflect, and Make. He thought back to what he did instinctively during his rage; he had already done this before, but now, he hoped to get additional insight with a breakthrough.


    In his memory, he felt the wind against his skin. It was simr to what he was doing now, but it was different. ''It''s heavier,'' he thought and reflected upon his observation, ''it''s like I was discing the wind inside the sphere.''


    In anger, he had formed a sphere of high-velocity spinning wind, but that wasn''t feasible in his standard form. That sphere took too much magic and concentration to keep operational and was more of a result of Quinn''s desire to be safe, with the wind sphere''s primary feature being protection and the flight being a by-product.


    His mind then took him to the Great Lake, specifically how he used water magic for swimming. He would cover himself in a teardrop of calm water and manipte/push the surrounding water to move. Quinn wondered if he could apply that same method here in flight.


    "Okay, this is enough for today," said Quinn before turning his sights to the horizon. Now it was time to test it.


    He turned himself avable invisible and went off. He flew above a distance above the tree, eighty feet above the ground, looking at the scenery as it zoomed past him ¡ª the hills, cows, buffalos, sheep, their shepherds, rock mounds, among other things suitable in the moor. Quinn entered the countryside with houses and smallmunities and flew over people living their lives, leaving behind only a gust of wind on the ground.


    As Quinn increased his speed, he started to feel the wind resistance. He couldn''t keep his eyes open, and when he tried, they immediately dried up, while the wind hitting his skin started to sting. Quinn decided to apply his swimming method and created a pocket of air around him to solve the problem, which cut the harsh winds with speed from hitting him.


    He grinned; with the problem solved, he sped up, flying faster than any helicopter and even faster than some fast-flying birds.


    That day, there were gossips around some ces that people heard pitched yelling noises from the sky, zooming past them, but when they looked up, there was nothing there. Soon, the gossips from ces distant from each other reached each other, and they realized that it wasn''t their ears ringing.


    It was picked up by a morning show on the cablework and was categorized with a UFO teacher / extra-terrestrial sighting.


    Quinn had achieved flight.


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    It was a day before Quinn would leave for his two-day trip to Switzend, and he had something to do before leaving for the trip.


    He looked at the snowy white building that towered over the other little shops in the Diagon Alley. He stood in front of the burnished bronze doors with a pair of goblins wearing uniforms of scarlet and gold. As he climbed the steps and entered Gringotts, the bank guards bowed in curtsey that he returned.


    He walked past the second set of silver doors, not giving the Gringotts warning any attention. He wasn''t here to steal anything, so there wasn''t necessary to pay head.


    Another pair of goblins bowed him through the silver doors. He entered the vast marble halls, and about a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling inrge ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyesses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these.


    He walked to a free teller and stood in front of the counter, waiting for the bank goblin to speak to him.


    "Speak," said the teller goblin after ten seconds of wait, looking at him with his beady and calctive eyes.


    "Good morning," Quinn said with a smile, "I''m here because I want to sell something of value today, and I''m hoping that Gringotts would be able to offer me a good deal of coin for it."


    The goblin teller, Riphook, looked at the human before him. To their kind, it was difficult to make out humans from other humans if not for some standout feature or if they were someone famous. To Riphook, who was trained in identifying humans because of their jobs, he determined that the human in front of him was a human child. Riphook narrowed his eyes; he was skeptical if this Quinn would have anything of as Quinn stated of value.


    "What do you want to sell?" asked Riphook, in a no-nonsense voice.


    Quinn smiled and took out a purple palm-sized velvet box from his pockets and ced it on the goblin''s counter. Quinn gestured for the goblin to go ahead and take a look at the box. The goblin picked up the box, but when he opened the box, it wasn''t a ring as he expected; instead, there was a gold coin sitting on the velvet cushion.


    "This. . . " uttered Riphook, looking at the coin in his hand.


    Every Gringotts coin ever minted the bank, was enchanted with a special magic for identification purposes. That spell was only cast by goblins ¡ª goblins who worked in the minting part of Gringotts, and humans had no knowledge about the spell, just that Gringotts was able to which coins were real. So when Riphook looked at the coin in his hand, which sported a design he didn''t recognize, he thought it was a fake, but that chain of thought was squashed when he felt the goblin magic cast on the coin.


    Riphook looked up from the coin and asked, "What is this?"


    Quinn smiled, "I''m here to sell a Gringotts galleon from a thousand years past."


    Riphook sucked in a breath. A thousand-year-old coin! Gringotts held old coin designs in their archives, but he wasn''t sure if they had a thousand-year-old galleon in their collection. He looked down at the coin again, and now he looking at an important piece of goblin history ¡ª something that should belong with the goblins and not in the hands of a human.


    He had to buy this, no matter what the cost. But this was outside his authority, and the coin in question was too important.


    "If your im is true, then Gringotts might think about buying this galleon," said Riphook, ying it cool. "For that, I''ll have to call in a goblin schr who specializes in old coins and would be able to verify your im," he stood up from his chair, "so if you don''t mind, will you apany me to a waiting room where we will further discuss this mind."


    "I don''t mind."


    "Wonderful," Riphook smiled a toothy grin, "please follow me; I''ll lead you to the room." He could have called someone else to escort Quinn, but this was too big of a deal, and he couldn''t risk losing recognition of bringing in such a valuable item back to the goblin nation; as such, Riphook decided to stick with Quinn for the whole deal.


    "Lead the way," said Quinn smiling. "Though I do have another request."


    "Yes, don''t be shy, please do tell."


    "While waiting, if I could discuss matters with my vault manager, that''d be great."


    "That can be arranged. Tell me your manager''s name, and I''ll need the key to your vault."


    "My vault manager''s name is Bloodpike." Quinn handed Riphook his key, and the goblin nodded shortly after.


    "Everything seems to be in order. I''ll have Bloodpike meet you as soon as possible." The goblin looked up at Quinn as they walked through the many gates, "My apologies, I haven''t gotten your name yet; how shameful for me."


    "My name is West. . . Quinn West."


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - Flying & Selling.


    Riphook - Looking for a promotion - This will definitely lead to my promotion.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - It''s not a meaningless cliff; I have more Gringotts nned. Look forward to tomorrow.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 257 - Selling To The Goblins

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Riphook stilled in shock as he turned to stare at his newly identified seller. The story of Wests was infamous in Gringotts. How over the years, little by little, the Wests had pulled out their money from their vaults and transferred it into another one overseas. In the history of the British Isles, where their bank had been the singr option with no alternatives, an ount like Wests pulling all of their money out had never happened ¡ª the only times an ount left Gringotts was when they didn''t have enough money to maintain their ount and pay for Gringotts services, such was never the case for Wests, it was as far as that.


    It was a ck spot in their history. They were the human''s entire banking industry, and even if the human''s never allowed them wands, they couldn''t take the banking away from goblins ¡ª it irked the humans much, but there was nothing they could do about it ¡ª irond contracts had been inked more than a millennium ago, and even without that, the humans couldn''t deny their excellent services.


    ". . . West, you say."


    "Yes, Quinn West."


    "I see. Let''s proceed to the meeting room."


    Riphook looked at the exit he was going to take before he knew who Quinn was ¡ª it led to a lower-grade meeting room, that room was, of course, out of the question now, even if Gringotts saw minimal business from Wests, they couldn''t treat them like any other random that person that walked in the bank.


    Moreover, this was an opportunity. Riphook nced at Quinn from the corner of his eyes. Walking beside him was a younger member of the West family, and young meant future ¡ª if he could somehow form a good rtion with this child, that could see Gringotts get more business from Wests in the future, and as a bonus, he would get recognition and praise for making it happen.


    ''Time to hammer the gold into galleons,'' he thought and chose another exit, this one leading to one of Gringotts fancier meeting rooms that they used to entertain their high-profile clientele.


    "If you''d wait in here, I''d be back in a bit with our appraiser and Bloodpike," Riphook opened the door to the meeting room.


    Quinn smiled at the goblin as Riphook closed the door behind him. He turned back, and instead of the typical meeting room, the room was more of a lounge setting. There was a gilded chandelier illuminating the room with a fully-stocked bar, beautiful paintings on the walls, luxurious furniture ¡ª the entire room glimmered with posh in its every corner.


    He sat down on a veryfortable sofa and looked at the room. "They sure are going all out," he said with a chuckle in his voice, "and here I thought they would be upset with me. Well, I am bringing them a part of their history and culture."


    Quinn took out the velvet coin case with the old galleon. Instead of melting down the old, outdated galleon into a gold brick that would sit in a bank vault, selling it to the goblins for its historical value was much more beneficial.


    As he set down the case on the low-table in front of him, the door to the meeting lounge opened.


    Quinn looked up at the door and asked with a slightly tilted head, "Who might you be?" The girl, no the young woman, standing by the door wasn''t the goblin he was expecting.


    "Good morning," the woman stepped forward with a cultivated grace, "my name is Thalice."


    "Hello, Thalice. My name is Quinn. It''s nice to meet you, but I''m confused as to why you are here."


    Thalice smiled, revealing her perfect pearly white behind her rosy lips, "Teller Riphook told me toe here to keep youpany while he goes fetch your vault manager."


    "How nice of him."


    Thalice smiled before pointing at the bar in the room. "Would you like to drink something? The bar is stocked with all kinds of beverages, even some goblin drinks if you''d like to try them. I rmend that you do give them a try ¡ª they''re a different taste from what we have in our pubs and shelves."


    Quinn shook his head with a polite smile, "Thank you for the offer, but I''m not feeling to drink something right now, maybe some other time."


    Thalice nodded understandingly, walked over to the sofa set, and sat right next to Quinn, bringing over a pleasant scent of tastefully sprayed perfume with notes of citrus over a woody vani along with a floral tone that he couldn''t make out.


    "So Quinn, tell me about yourself."


    "Hmm, something about myself. . . I like magic. Would you like to see some?"


    "I would love to, but it wouldn''t be wise to draw your wand in the goblin grounds. It goes against both Gringotts'' rules and the treaty terms," said the Gringotts employee, her meticulously maintained brows furrowing.


    "It''s alright," said Quinn, mischief shing in his eyes, "I don''t need my wand to perform this magic; I don''t even need to cast a spell. It''s a special sort of magic,pletely safe and not in vition of any treaty agreements."


    ". . . If you say so," said Thalia, giving Quinn a silent look, doubtful if such magic existed.


    Quinn reached into his pockets and took out a pattern-engraved silver card case gifted to him by Marcus. "All I need are a deck of ying cards," Quinn grinned, swiping the case open to reveal a deck with crimson-and-gold backs.


    Thalice watched as the cards moved under the skillful movements of Quinn''s digits. "Wow~," she said with fascination, pping lightly.


    "Alright, I''m going to spring the cards from one hand to the other," he pressed the cards slightly, and they shot to his other hand. "I want you to stop me at a point in the middle ¡ª any point you desire ¡ª and I''ll stop for you to pick the top card, understood?"


    Thalice nodded.


    "Excellent, tell me to stop," he started the spring flourish.


    "Stop!"


    Quinn stopped and presented the split deck in his lower hand, "Good, now take the card, don''t show it to me, but memorize it ¡ª suit and all. Done? Perfect, now ce it back. Yeah, just like that." He shuffled the cards a bit before hiding the deck between his palms. "Now, do you think I know what your card is ¡ª know that I''m not using any magic, and this deck is as standard as it gets."


    "No, you wouldn''t know what my card is," she said, looking at Quinn with an amused smile.


    "Wouldn''t be impressed if I pick out a card from the deck and it turns out to be the one you chose?"


    "Very."


    "And that''s what I''m going to do," he removed the deck from his palm and began looking through it, and somewhere in the middle, a smile appeared on his face, and he discreetly pushed a card up with his pinky, making it stand out from the other cards, and pulled out a gasp from his audience.


    "I''m assuming this your card."


    "Yes! This is my card!" Thalice grabbed Quinn''s hand along with the deck, pulling them close to her. "How did you do that?! You must''ve used some magic; there''s no other way," she looked up from the cards and leaned closer, "how did you do it?"


    Quinn softly smiled, "A magician never reveals his secret, miss. It''s against our sacred code."


    "Aww, can you tell me, please~? I won''t tell anyone else, I promise."


    "My apologies, but I can''t. But, how about I interest you in another one?"


    Thalice let go of Quinn''s hand, "Yes, please," her eyes shining like an excited child.


    "Alright, I will again ask of you to choose a card from the deck." Quinn spread the cards in a fan with the cards facing Thalice for her to choose, who picked a card and looked at it before putting the card back as per Quinn''s instructions.


    "Now, I''m going to spread and shuffle them all over the table, just to make sure that I wasn''t cheating in any way." Quinnid the deck over the table and thoroughly shuffled with his palms. "How about just to be more thorough, you also give it a good shuffle?"


    Thalice leaned ahead, her silver ne dangling from her exposed neck and slightly low-cut top.


    "Good, now, pay attention to my hands to ensure that I''m not using any trickery." She nodded, and her eyes remained trained on Quinn''s hand that hovered the mat of cards.


    Quinn suddenly ced a finger on a card, "I feel it; this is your card. I''m sure of it." He lightly flicked the card''s edge to flip it over and reveal an ace of diamonds.


    "No, that isn''t my card!" Thalice bounced in her spot, pping her hands. "Haha, you''re wrong ¡ª" Her voice died when she looked up from the cards to Quinn and saw a queen of hearts loosely hanging off an edge from Quinn''s lips.


    "Really," he grinned, "a pity that I was wrong. Maybe, I''m not worthy of the beautiful craft of magic."


    "How. . . when. . . that''s not possible," said Thalice.


    "It''s magic, my dear; everything''s possible," said Quinn, mysteriously before continuing, "You have beautiful eyes, Thalice."


    Thalice found herself staring into the pair of stone-grey eyes, and even though they were an umon color, there was something else in there that she couldn''t look away.


    The door to the lounge opened, and whatever it was broke as Thalice realized she was staring unknowingly. She turned to the door and saw three goblins ¡ª the third goblin made her eyes widen. She looked back at Quinn, who opened his card case for the cards to stack themselves neatly in a deck before packing themselves into the case.


    "Mr. West," said one of the goblins, dressed in clothes better than Riphook, "my name is Bloodpike; I''m your vault manager."


    "Nice to meet you, Bloodpike," said Quinn. "I can''t believe that in the six years my vault has been here, this is the first time we have met."


    "Indeed, your transactions mostlye from order cheques," said Bloodpike, "I have only seen your signatures over hundreds of cheque leaves, but no you."


    "Well, betterte than never," said Quinn.


    As Quinn was talking with Bloodpike, Riphook wasmunicating wordlessly with Thalice. He looked at her and silently asked a question, but Thalice shook her head with a silent sigh, making Riphook frown.


    "Mr. West," said Riphook, "let me introduce to you the appraiser, Bogrod." The appraiser nodded but didn''t say anything.


    Quinn nodded back, but he had noticed Thalice''s change in expression. He nced at Riphook, and he had to say that the teller was trying hard for this. Quinn had seen the peculiarities in the human Gringotts employee ¡ª she was too flirtatious, the subtle touches, how she had sat right beside him when everywhere else was wide empty. And when he had peeked into Thalice''s mind, he knew that his guesses were correct ¡ª she was hired by Gringotts to flirt with clients to make them more impressionable and agreeable during the deals. Every act of her was to put the advantage to Gringotts'' side ¡ª even when she suggested a drink, she was trying to get him tipsy using the extremely high-alcohol content in the goblin drinks. But all Thalice got from her probing was that Quinn liked magic.


    The three goblins sat opposite Quinn, with Thalice leaving the room. Quinn gave the coin case to Bogrod, who took out a loupe (special magnifying ss) and started to observe the coin with his other hand constantly fiddling with the coin.


    The ancient goblin spoke in an old voice, "This is a genuine galleon. . . the spell is old, different from what we use today, but the magic is surely goblin brand and from Gringotts." He looked up at Quinn and nodded, "this coin is indeed a thousand-year-old."


    "That''s great," said Quinn.


    "How much do you want for this, child?" asked Bogrod.


    "Fifty thousand galleons," said Quinn.


    Bogrod shook his head, "Too much. Gringotts can give you thirty-thousand at most."


    "I''lle down to forty-five, but not any lower; how about it?"


    Bogrod refused his counter price, "I can move up to thirty-two, but not a knut more."


    Quinn went silent and stared at Bogrod. He was dressed in simple clothing, but they were clearly better than even Bloodpike''s. The other two goblins hadn''t spoken a word as Bogrod negotiated on his own. He was clearly someone very important and in a higher position in Gringotts.


    "I won''t go below forty," said Quinn, "if I don''t get my price here, I can always put the coin to auction, and I''m sure some goblins in the goblin nation would be very happy to take it off my hand."


    Bogrod''s sharp eyes stared at Quinn. ''Wests,'' he thought. Gringotts was one of the biggest banks in the magical world, with many countries where they had a monopoly over the banking sector just like they had in the British Isles, which was their home base ¡ª the first Gringotts to ever exist. So it was a disgrace on their reputation when that very branch had lost the biggest client they had and that too without them knowing.


    "Okay," he said, "I agree on forty thousand galleons." He wanted to refuse and tell the child that he could try his luck in the auctions, but this was about their history, and the coin should righteously belong with Gringotts and not in some individual''s showcase.


    "Good," smiled Quinn, reached into his pockets, and took out two more coin cases, "would you like to buy a sickle and knut? I have them right here."


    The three goblins froze in their seats, staring at the two coin cases as Quinn opened them and showed an ancient sickle and knut sitting in the boxes.


    "I want forty more for each ¡ª a total of eighty thousand. No negotiation, take it or leave it," said Quinn. While the Architect''s vault was all gold and jewels, there were quite a few sickles and knuts lying around.


    ". . . We will take it," said Bogrod, sighing.


    "Excellent, hundred and twenty thousand galleons, not bad for a day, not bad at all. It was good doing business with Gringotts," said Quinn.


    "Thank you for returning this to us," said Bogrod. He wasn''t bothered by the money that had exchanged hands ¡ª for Gringotts, it was that much of a big deal, but getting the coins was a significant event.


    "It was my pleasure. I know the importance of historical artifacts, so I''m d that these coins have made it back their way to goblin nation."


    Bogrod nodded, took the coins in his hands, and silently began observing them. It was the indication that his job was done here.


    From there, Bloodpike took over, "The galleons will be deposited to your vaults, Mr. West ¡ª"


    "Ah, please don''t do that," said Quinn, "I will be taking the galleons with me, and now that you have brought it up, I would like to talk about the reason for the meeting with you.


    "My vault will be transitioning to be solely under my name."


    When his vault had been set up before his first year at Hogwarts, the vault was a joint ount between Quinn and Ms. Rosey (because she handled that portion of finances), and she would deposit a set amount every month in Quinn''s ount as part of his allowance.


    But after getting the Architect''s wealth, Quinn had decided to stop taking an allowance from his family. Another step to his independence. He had an argument with his grandfather about his decision ¡ª Quinn didn''t want the money while George wanted to continue the allowance.


    Quinn argued the case that he had his royalties and his newly gained wealth; as such, he didn''t need an allowance. While George remained adamant that Quinn was still in school and it was his(George''s) responsibility to support him till the day Quinn was ready, which ording to George, was at least not before Quinn''s apprenticeship with n D. Baddeley, and if Quinn was thinking right, George would continue to keep him on an allowance if he took more apprenticeships after the first one ¡ª which Quinn had given thought to.


    After an hour of back-and-forth, the grandson-grandfather came to a mutual decision.


    Quinn wouldn''t get a monthly allowance, just like Lia, who had also stopped taking an allowance when she graduated and got a job ¡ª but Quinn, like his sister, was going to gain a trust fund in his name, which would be regrly added with funds and those regrly added funds would grow through investments handled by a team of West-employed fund managers.


    These trust funds were for the two siblings. So if one day they required emergency money, they could look there and take it out without needing to ask anyone, including George. Which, in essence, was still an allowance, but with extra steps. George West, much like his grandchildren, was prideful and stubborn.


    "The monthly deposits will be stopping from the month of September. Furthermore, I''m going to impose a twenty thousand galleon limit on the vault, and every time the money in the vault exceeds, I''d like to be informed," said Quinn before taking out an envelope. "These are my instructions that I want to be applied on my vault when it changes ownership on the first of September."


    Bloodpike took the envelope and pocketed it. He was going to look at itter. He was a vault manager who handled high-level ounts; this ount was nowhere near his usual level, but because it was a West ount, it had been assigned to him, and he had taken it. He wondered if this ount would ever do something for him, but looking from Quinn''s spoken instructions, he was nning to restrict his wealth in Gringotts ¡ª just like his family.


    "Understood," he said, "I''ll make these changes ordingly."


    "Thank you," said Quinn and looked at Bogrod. There was another reason he hade here today, and initially, he was going to discuss the other matter with Bloodpike, but seeing that Bogrod was of a much higher authority, he was going to deal with him.


    "Mr. Bogrod," said Quinn, "I have another matter I would like to discuss with you."


    Bogrod looked up from the coins. "Yes? What is it?" he asked, feeling happy about his gains today.


    "I want to talk to you about this," Quinn handed the goblin a slip of paper, "it''s only for your eyes."


    Bogrod took the slip and unfolded the slip, and there was a single word on it. "Leave us alone," said the old goblin, in a deeper voice for a goblin.


    Riphook and Bloodpike stared at Bogrod, stupefied at the sudden order, but followed it nevertheless, leaving him with Quinn.


    "What would prompt you to bring this up?" asked Bogrod, his voice somber. He turned the slip and showed Quinn the word he had written.


    Horcrux


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Gold, Silver, Bronze. . . I have them all.


    Riphook - Goblin Teller - Looking for an opportunity to rise up thedder.


    Bloodpike - Goblin Vault Manager - High-profile banker.


    Bogrod - Goblin Higher-Up - About to converse with "Quinn."


    Thalice - Gringotts Employee - Got too mesmerized by magic to properly do her job.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - This finally felt like a "me" chapter after such a long time. This was very satisfying to write.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 258 - Arriving At Switzerland

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "What would prompt you to bring this up?"


    Quinn stared at the old goblin, who looked at him with beady eyes, a guarded posture, and the paper slip clinched tightly in his long nails.


    "So you''re aware of the Horcrux," said Quinn. "That''s a good indication."


    "No, it is not. Even the mention of this vile magic is an omen of misfortune and giving an invitation to ill-fate," said Bogrod, barring his teeth.


    "Oh,e on, it''s not that bad."


    Bogrod crushed the slip in his hand and pounded the fist on the table, "It is not ''not that bad,'' boy. For you to talk about the vile magic like it is nothing serious can only mean that you don''t know about it!"


    "I do know about it, Mr. Bogrod," said Quinn, intertwining his finger over his thighs. "Horcrux. . . the magic through which a magical severs a part of their soul through the act of cold-blooded murder and hide that part of the soul in an object outside the body, thus tethering the main soul to the ne of living even if the mortal coil is destroyed, thus achieving immortality or at least a type of immortality." Bogrod looked at Quinn with stunned eyes. "So, Mr. Bogrod, I do know what a Horcrux is and why it''s considered to be one of the vilest of magic in existence."


    Bogrod didn''t move an inch of his muscle, his gaze intently observing the human child in front of him. What he had thought would be a glorious day of bringing a historical part of their culture was now turning into something else. He was sure that after years when he looked back to this day, this talk woulde to his mind before the memory of obtaining a thousand-year-old piece of their legacy.


    ". . . I ask again, boy. Why have you brought this up?"


    "Goblins, the race on this Earth that holds paramount knowledge on curses and curse-breaking. Even if your race has solidified their ce as those with gold, when in need of curse-breaking, anyone with an iota of knowledge and sense would turn to goblins."


    If it was another time, Bogrod would puff his chest and turn his nose up.


    "A Horcrux at its core is an enchanted object," Quinn continued but omitted the part that a Horcrux could be a living being as well, "meaning that with sufficient knowledge, it could be broken, so I ask of you, goblin, does your kind have a way to break a Horcrux?"


    Rowena Ravenw''s Diadem and Helga Hufflepuff''s Cup ¡ª two priceless artifacts created by the Hogwarts Founders, and while their creator didn''t interest Quinn, he was thoroughly interested in the fact that both the artifacts were rumoured to have magical properties ¡ª he didn''t know the nature of those magical properties, and wished to know. s, they were both tainted by Voldemort''s soul, and before Quinn could even desire to study them, he needed to remove the soul fragments without destroying them.


    And that''s why here he was asking a goblin he was meeting for the first time about a topic that attracted the feeling of wariness and unease. But it couldn''t be helped; he had tried to find a method on his own ¡ª scoured both the Hogwarts Library and Room of Requirements, but nowhere could he find a method that didn''t involve the destruction of the soul''s vessel.


    Bogrod didn''t answer immediately, instead observed Quinn, searching where this question wasing from ¡ª why did the human child want to know about the obscure magic, where had he learned of its existence, did he wish to create a Horcr¡ª


    "I do not wish to create a Horcrux, goblin," said Quinn, startling Bogrod. "Don''t look surprised; it''s written all over your face. Moreover, I respect the sanctity of my soul to split it and keep it outside of my body." Just the thought of splitting his soul brought disgust up Quinn''s throat ¡ª it was the only thing he had brought with him to this world, the sole possession that truly belonged to him.


    "How do I believe you?" asked Bogrod.


    "There''s no need to believe me," said Quinn. "If I was wished to create a Horcrux, then I wouldn''t have asked you, a high-ranking goblin, while sitting on goblin soil, inside Gringotts, with multiple people aware of our meeting. No. I would''ve found a goblin who knew about Horcrux, met him in secret, and after gaining the information, killed him to ensure my secret forever remained a secret.


    Now, Mr. Bogrod, tell me, does the goblin kind knows a method to destroy a Horcrux?"


    Bogrod and Quinn stared at each other at a length before the former sighed, "No, we don''t have a method to destroy a Horcrux. We have tried to look for a method, but we were never able to find how to rid an object of the soul. The godforsaken magic uses the ethereal soul to protect earthly objects."


    Quinn showed no change in expression, but internally he sighed with disappointment. "I see," he said, "it''s unfortunate then; I hoped that I could''ve learned something new today, but it seems that won''t be the case."


    Bogrod stared at Quinn with disbelief. This was why he asked for Horcrux, just so that he could learn something new? If he wanted to learn something new, then look for well-known, respectable magic; why Horcrux.


    Quinn stood up from his ce as he had nothing more to discuss or aplish today. "Thank you for answering my question, Mr, Bogrod. For your time and hospitality, I would like to extend my thanks towards you," he reached into his suit breast pocket and took out three more coin cases.


    Bogrod inhaled sharply at the sight of the coin cases.


    "This is my gift to you." Quinn set down the three cases on the table and opened them to reveal an old galleon, sickle, and knut. "It''s up to you what you wish to do with these ¡ª you can turn them to Gringotts, or you can keep them for yourself. If you decide to turn them to Gringotts, justify it was as a sign of goodwill from a West, and if you decide to treat yourself, I will never speak of these coins ever again."


    Bogrod looked away from the coins up towards Quinn. He knew what that meant; whatever was discussed between the two was not to be disclosed. The gift of coins was just something to ensure that silence.


    "It was a pleasure meeting you, Bogrod," said Quinn, smiling. "I hope that when another opportunity like this strikes our door, we will again be able to do some business."


    After all, there was something else that he wanted from the goblins; it just wasn''t the right time to get it, but when the correct dide, he woulde back and get it.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "Have you packed your clothes?"


    "Yes, I have properly packed my clothes, and didn''t you have Polly double-check? What''s the use of asking me?"


    Ms. Rosey narrowed her eyes, "No matter if someone checked or not, in the end, it''s your responsibility to check your work."


    "Yes, ma''am," said Quinn.


    "Hmm. . . do you have the gold secured?"


    Quinn lifted his briefcase, "All of it in here."


    "What about the gold for your use?"


    "I have plenty in my pockets."


    She nodded, satisfied. Her Quinn had grown up now, so this much was enough.


    Elliot entered the hallway with the main door to the West Mansion. "It seems you''re ready," he said and raised a smallpel pin. "I have the portkey ready."


    Quinn nodded before turning to Ms. Rosey and hugging her. "I''ll be back in a couple days. Hold down the fort for me." Ms. Rosey snorted as she hugged Quinn back.


    "Good stuff," said Quinn, ending the hug. He turned to Elliot, "Let''s go."


    The two exited the mansion and began their walk towards the estate gates.


    "This brings back memories," said Quinn. "Whenever I leave the country, you always walk me out."


    Elliot chuckled, "That seems to be the case. I hope that will remain the case."


    "Sounds like a good tradition to me."


    "So, anything special you wish to do in Switzend?"


    Quinn shook his head, "No, I wish to return to as soon as my work done is there. I''m in the middle of a project, and leaving on vacation with the project in progress doesn''t fit right with me."


    "A project?"


    "Yes, I''m working on this year''s QWASPP. I''m almost finished, but there are a few kinks that I straighten and a few runes to fix ¡ª it''s on a crucial stage, so I''ll be returning toplete it."


    "Oh my, may I know what is the product this time?"


    "Nope~," Quinn smiled and wagged his finger. "It''s a surprise. You''ll know when I show it on the day of the reveal."


    "A little hint?"


    "Hmm. . . what I''m going to present already exists; I''m just putting my twist on it. I have been slowly working on it for a few years; it was just thest year that the project picked up the pace."


    They reached the wrought gates, Quinn waved his hand, and the iron gates groaned open.


    "This is it," said Elliot and stepped closer to Quinn to pin thepel pin on Quinn''s suit. "You''ll be received by one of our employees in charge of our vaults and money in Switzend."


    "He must be a high-ranking person in the business," said Quinn, thinking of a Chief Financial Officer.


    "She," said Elliot, "the person you''ll be meeting is a woman."


    "Ah, is that so. My apologies for assuming their gender. What''s their name?"


    "Helena Berenberg," said Elliot.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The rainbow colors drained, and the world returned to normality as the Portkey dropped Quinn in its intended position. He looked around his surroundings and saw himself in a room with grey, bricked walls, not having seen a single coat of paint in their lives. His eyes quirked seeing MLEs lighting the closed room, making him happy ¡ª his invention had truly be international.


    The sound of clearing of a throat caught his attention, and he turned to see a woman with dark brown hair dressed in posh embroidered wizarding with a brooch on her chest. She looked to be about in her mid-forties, which meant she was at least eighty years old, but that was the best guess Quinn could make. Beside her were two men, looking to be a bit younger than her, and simrly to her, were dressed in posh robes.


    "Hello," Quinn walked towards them and asked the woman in the middle, "are you Helena Berenberg?"


    The woman nodded, "I''m indeed Helena Berenberg, and you''re Quinn West."


    "That I am," said Quinn, grabbing Helena''s offered hand and kissing it.


    "Wee to Switzend," she said before pointing at her two associates, "there are my second-inmands here ¡ª Gossler and Seyler."


    Quinn nodded to both the men and shook their hands.


    "Where are we?" Quinn asked, looking at the room. "Why was the Portkey nned to arrive at this ce?"


    Helena smiled, "This is actually one of the basement rooms our headquarters designated to be an arriving point for Portkeys. As for the reason for its darb appearance is to make the sheer difference more impactful."


    "What do you mean?" he asked, tilting his head.


    "It''d be better if you see it," said Helena, motioning to the room''s exit with a set of stairs going up.


    And so they went up, and after going through a hallway, they entered the main building, and Quinn understood what Helena was talking about. Quinn had seen many buildings with stunning interior aesthetics, but the West Headquarters in Switzend was easily one of the most captivating buildings he had seen.


    High ceiling supported by columns that led up to crowned ceilings with golden designs beautifying every corner of the ceiling and even the walls which were lined with statues and sculptures, luxurious grand chandeliers stocked with MLEs lighting up the beautiful lobby. Beneath his feet was a beautifully patterned marble flooring, and the entire lobby wasvishly furnished.


    But his eyes attracted to the thing of water in the middle of the room ¡ª if it could even be called that. It was arge shimmering sphere of water, as clear as a diamond, floating over a pond built into the floor and inside that water sphere, swam glowing fishes.


    Quinn squinted his eyes at the water sphere; he noticed something peculiar with it. He moved closer to it and saw that the fishes weren''t actually fishes, but just glowing colored water charmed to take the shape of fishes. He watched as a red fish and a blue fish to each other ¡ª they met each other and turned into one bigger purple fish. The fishes on the rainbow spectrum would merge and split to turn into colorful fishes.


    "Wow," he said before turning to Helena, "you all really are finance people, aren''t you?"


    His words elicited a peal ofughter from Helena, Gossler, and Seyler. Basel, Switzend, was where arge portion of West wealth that was was spread around the globe ¡ª it had been a big stash which had been turned bigger when George transferred the Britain capital to Switzend, giving it a substantial increase, which led to the construction of this headquarters that handled and managed a considerable amount of wealth. It was a monument solely built to showcase West''s wealth.


    Helena''s eyes caught someone, and she called the person, "Alexia, pleasee here."


    Quinn turned to see a tall blonde young woman with hazel eyes dressed in a pleated blouse-jacket over a white shirt above a long skirt, and topping the outfit was a shoulder cape.


    Helena put a hand on Alexia''s shoulder as she introduced her, "This is Alexia Piaget, and she''ll be there for your every need during your stay here."


    Alexia gave a short bow and smiled pleasantly, "Please feel free to tell me anything you want, and I''ll arrange it for you."


    Quinn nodded but kept staring at Alexia. "Have we met somewhere," he asked, "because I''m sure I have seen you somewhere, but I can''t put my finger on it."


    "No, we haven''t met," said Alexia, but there was a smile on her face, "but there''s a chance that you might have seen me. I''ll give you a hint ¡ª Beauxbatons."


    Quinn''s mind raced and immediately went to the Beauxbatons delegation that came to Hogwarts for the Tri-wizard tournament, but no, Alexia Piaget wasn''t there. But then Quinn recalled that Alexia had said they hadn''t met, and it clicked for Quinn as a memory surfaced in his mind.


    "I remember now," he said, "I have seen you in one of Lia''s photobooks, yes-yes, you studied in Beauxbatons with my sister, didn''t you?"


    "Yes, your sister and I are friends," said Alexia. "She talked a lot about you know. Our friend groups feel like we know you, or you when you were a child."


    Quinn groaned, "What did she say?" His sister had dotted excessively when he was little, and while that was nice and all, he could guess what she said to her friends.


    "Well, to start with, there were a lot of stories."


    Quinn groaned more. Like not liking the photos from your past, Quinn, too, didn''t enjoy discussing his childhood. Looking back at it now, him acting like a child was cringing to him now.


    "There were a lot of cute photos on her nightstand, which would change every time she woulde back from home," Alexia said, enjoying herself, and even Helena and the other two were having fun.


    "That damn sister of mine," said Quinn, feeling deep embarrassment. He looked at Alexia, "I hope you''re a good friend of Lia and wouldn''t mind divulging her school-days stories. I''m going to need a lot of ammunition if I''m to make her feel as I''m doing right now."


    Alexia''s smile grew broader, "We would need a lot more time if you want to listen to all of them."


    "Ms. Paiget, I''m looking towards our time together."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Embarrassed of his dark past.


    Bogrod - Goblin Higher-up - Chose to turn in the coins to leverage for an increase in status.


    Alexia Paiget - Lia''s friend - The West siblings are interesting.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I hate the "Goblins Being The Answer To Everything" trope!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 259 - Monolith (Post This First)

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


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    .


    Quinn stared at the building in front of him.


    It was a building that he thought waspletely opposite to Gringotts. The goblin bank was made from white stone showing its ancient majesty, while the building in front of him was a soul-sucking ck without a fleck of dust marring its polished exterior. If Gringotts exterior design reflected the architecture of the time it had been built, then the building in front of him was just a stocky ck box. Gringotts had bronze gates, the building in front of him had ss doors.


    The only thing both hade in was that their names were written in gold.


    ¡¸Monolith¡¹


    "Monolith, huh," he said, "the symbol of terror and reassurance at the same time."


    Helena standing by his side, nodded, "It''s the bank''s policy ¡ª don''t steal from us, and we will keep your money safe and secured."


    "Gringotts, back home, is the roughly the same ¡ª though they are much more explicit about their threats, carved right on the front door." Quinn liked the Gringotts'' prose very much, but he also liked Monolith''s subtle forewarning. It had his seal of approval. "Tell me more about Monolith."


    "Well, it''s a ssic private bank," said Helena as she, Quinn, and Alexia, walked to the ss doors and the two guards dressed in blue-and-silver opened the door for them. "They serve affluent clients with an abundance of wealth, like your family ¡ª provide them with facilities like basic banking services, brokerage, limited tax advisory, concierge-type services, discretionary asset management, and the vast array of wealth management.


    "They are infamous for their secrecy promises. Once money goes into Monolith, it''s difficult for an outsider to get information about who holds what and how much; they promise that your financials are going to be kept under a tight seal, of course, they won''t help you break thew ¡ª bend around thew, sure ¡ª but not breaking thew. And because they only service high-asset clients, who have rock solid financial stability, it ensures that Monolith won''t go bankrupt, thus making it extremely safe for them to hold your assets."


    "That''s reassuring," said Quinn as he looked around the bank.


    The first thing his eyes went to were the little stone gremlins perched on the walls and ceiling around the huge room. He watched as one of the gremlins'' eyes followed him like a security camera, making him wonder what they would do if he was an intruder. s, he didn''t have the liberty to test out to pull out a ck ski mask and shotgun.


    The lobby only had one greeting table, and the lobby somehow didn''t look deste despite theck of any other furniture. Behind the long white patterned marble table sat three women in the prime of their beauty, dressed in identical attire.


    They walked to the middle woman, who looked up from her work and stood when she saw them approaching. "Madam Berenberg," she said with a slight bow, "we have been expecting; I hope you''re having a pleasant day."


    "I have been fine, thank you, and I hope you''re the same."


    The woman who worked at Monolith as a front desk concierge nodded to Alexia before turning to Quinn, who she found was staring at her intently with a raised eyebrow.


    "Is there something, Mr. West?" she asked.


    Quinn looked away from her and towards the other two concierges who were engrossed in their work before looking at the woman again. "You three are identical," he asked, "triplets?"


    The woman smiled softly with her painted-pink lips. "Yes, Mr. West, we are triplets." The other two of the trio looked up and nodded with identical smiles. Quinn had seen twins ¡ª Potter Twins, Patil Twins, Weasley Twins, and the Carrow Twins; thetter two pairs were the ssic identical twins who matched with their twins, but even they weren''t a match for the triplets before him, he couldn''t tell one apart from another.


    ". . . You know my name?" asked Quinn.


    "Yes, we were informed that you''ll be visiting today."


    Quinn looked at herpel badge and saw a name tag that said ¡ª Amaryl. He nced at her sisters and learned their names ¡ª Cheryl and Daffodil.


    "I have an appointment with Gair," said Helena.


    "Mr. Gair is ready for you," said Amaryl. "I''ll guide you to him; please follow me."


    They walked into the inner part of the bank through an entrance in the inner wall of the lobby and entered a room with a dozen doorways. They stepped into the doorway with the number four in roman numerals etched above.


    "I have heard that the number four is known as the West gate as through their one can go to the part of the bank that handles the West fortune," said Alexia, whispering into Quinn''s ears. The West fortune stored Monolith was big enough for the bank to assign an entire section for its care.


    They walked through a few corridors, passing by many doorsing across a few people who would nod to Helena ¡ª she seemed to be extremely famous in the Switzend finance industry. After the corridors exited, the interior changed into a ssic renaissance design, much different from the rest of the bank.


    They soon reached a pair of dark wood doors. A pale woman sat outside the door, to a side behind a desk. She wore thin-rimmed circr ss with messy brown curls flowing down her shoulders.


    Quinn''s gaze lingered on the woman as he noticed something strange with her. ''She''scking blood,'' he noted. He had long be adept with blood magic that, along with his expertise in healing magic, that he could intuitively tell a thing or two about blood at a nce, and this woman''s appearance told him that she was at a loss of blood, though he couldn''t tell the reason without casting magic.


    "Ixquic," said Amaryl to the woman, who looked up at her with a semi-dazed that regained focus at seeing Amaryl. "We are here for Mr. Gair''s appointment with Master Quinn West and Madam Helena Berenberg."


    "He''s waiting for you," said Ixquic, her voice held a whisper-like quality. She got up from her chair, slowly walked to the door, lightly rapped her knuckles before opening the door a crack and looking inside. "Madam Berenberg is here."


    A deep voice sounded from inside, "Send them in."


    Ixquic pushed one pane of the double doors open with her entire body. "Please go in," she gestured them in.


    Helena and Quinn entered the simrly styled office, leaving Alexia outside. A wall covered with bookshelves, artwork framed on the others; a sitting area around a table in one part of the room; wooden cabs fitted with sses. And the most eye-catching part of the room were animal heads mounted on the upper walls ¡ª lion, tiger, wolf, elk, among other non-magical animals but then there were the magical species, and that collection was impressive from every angle ¡ª an Egyptian sphinx, a Peruvian Vipertooth dragon, a South Ameican Firedrake, a white-feathered Griffin, and the list went on.


    Sitting in the centre of the office was a man in his prime, dressed in a simple ck shirt and white pants, leaning into his chair behind a simple-yet-ornate four-legged desk.


    "Helena," greeted the man in his deep voice without standing up, "you look beautiful as ever. How about we go to dinner tonight? I know avish ce where we can enjoy some great wine and food."


    "I''m ttered, Gair, but I would like to politely refuse. I am, as you know, married."


    "What has that got to do with anything?" said Gair apathetically, causing Helena to sigh; she had long gone used to it. Next, Gair turned his half-lidded eyes to Quinn, "So you''re George''s grandson. . . hmm, I can see the resemnce, though I think like your sister more."


    Quinn stared at the man intently, "So, you''re the reason why thedy outside seems to be hypovolemic." The moment he had set his eyes on the man, he knew exactly why the secretary, Ixquic, outside had ack of blood volume in her body


    "Aren''t you an observant one," said Gair, his red-eyes smiling. He raised his hand that rested on the armrest of his chair and rested his sickly-pale face (much paler than Ixquic) on his palm. "What gave me away?" he said with a voice swimming in amusement.


    "You''re clearly a Vampire," said Quinn.


    "That I am," said Gair while gesturing for them to sit down.


    Quinn nced at Helena, but she didn''t seem to be surprised, meaning she knew about the man''s face, and well, why wouldn''t she? This man, Gair, wasn''t really hiding his race.


    Quinn sat down opposite Gair, who still had aid-back smile, "Second point ¡ª" Gair slightly raised his brows, "¡ª thedy outside, her name ¡ª Ixquic. . . Mayan origin. . . and its meaning ¡ª Blood Woman," he matched eyes with Gair who was now smiling, "I just hope I''m wrong about Ms. Ixquic''s history and the origins of her name."


    "Oh? Do tell," asked Gair, curious.


    "You''re a vampire, and I guessing an old one?"


    "Hmm, old, yes, I suppose you can say that. Let''s say that I started working for your family when your grandfather''s grandfather was a young man."


    Quinn''s eyes narrowed. That was older than he had first thought. "If you''re that old, and she''s named Ixquic, I just hope that it''s not her real name, or at least the first one, and you gave it to her."


    "I did give that name to her," then Gair smiled, "when she was born."


    Quinn''s lips thinned. His thoughts were correct. "She was raised to be your blood bag," said Quinn; half-statement and half-question.


    "Mhmn. Though you don''t need to worry about her, she''s doing it on her own ord and is gettingpensated handsomely."


    "Is she the only one?"


    "Right now, yes."


    Which meant there were others before.


    "Well, if this is her choice, then I suppose it''s none of my business," Quinn said before formally introducing himself, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Gair. I''m Quinn West."


    "Ah, I haven''t introduced myself, haven''t I? My name is Idris Gair, and as you guessed, I''m a Vampire, and I work as the Head ount Manager for the West ount in Monolith, and am also part-owner of Monolith. You''re an interesting one, Quinn West."


    Quinn shrugged. "So, Mr. Gair, how did youe to work for my family?" he asked.


    "No need to call me Mr. Gair. Just Gair or Idris will do," said Gair, curiously observing Quinn. "As for yourtter question ¡ª Monolith is a bank which allows various races to work for them ¡ª I started at the lowest, but by the time your grandfather''s father took over, I was already working in the current position and have been working in the same position."


    Helen chimed in and provided a fact, "Gair''s a rare manager in Monolith, unlike the others, who work on multiple ounts, Gair only manages one section, and only focus on the West funds."


    "Your family has more than enough money, which is too much for meplete," said Gair. "I can''t diversify even if I wanted to do because of the amount of work I go through with just your money stored here at the bank. I have no interest in taking any more ounts.


    "So, I heard that you''re here to deposit arge amount of money?" asked Gair.


    Quinn nodded, "I havee into more gold, and I''d like to add it to my vault here."


    "We can do that," said Gair, "My team and I are the ones who manage your personal ount here. I have to say, it''s one of the fastest-growing personal ounts I have seen in the recent time.


    "Your vault is already ready; we just need to load it with some money, and we''d be ready to go fully operational. So how much are you nning to put in?"


    "A lot of it," Quinn smiled.


    "Well," Gair stood up, e on, let''s go make a deposit."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Blood magic is one of his expertise.


    Idris Gair - Vampire - Very old; flirty;id-back; has raised his own blood bank.


    Ixquic - Blood bank (blood woman) - Probably earns more than any secretary.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    All the chapters would still be posted here, but you can support me with a donation and get chapters earlier than usual as a bonus.


    Link in the Bio/Profile

 Chapter 260 - Classes Of Elite (Post This Second)

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    [


    A/N


    [1]: Yeah, the brackets in the Title are personal notes for a mistake in Draft listing. I''m keeping it. *thumbs up*.


    [2]: So. . . yesterday, A Magical Journey was removed from Ao3 (Archive Of Our Own,) another fanfiction site I parallelly post the fic. Most probably it''s because of the ******* promotion, which is much milder than it''s here on Webnovel. My mood got soured because of that yesterday, so I took a leave because I could no longer write for the day. . . and that''s it, continue to read.


    ]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn, Helena, Alexia walked with Gair and Ixquic as they traversed theplicated maze that was Monolith.


    "Fun fact about the bank," said Gair, "its first location was in a mountain, as literally in a mountain. Ixquic, tell them about it."


    Ixquic, who walked along with Helena and Alexia, who were behind Quinn and Gair, spoke about the history of the bank, "The founder, two dwarves ¡ª Bromrag and Dhummak, they craved the mountain to create the bank''s first headquarters, and because the entire ce was a single structure made from rock-cutting, they named it Monolith."


    Gair half-chuckled, "Technically, it was something in dwarven, but I, for my life, can''t pronounce it, and so couldn''t most of our clients, so they changed it to Monolith."


    "What happened to the ce in the mountains?" asked Quinn.


    "Landslide," said Gair


    "Damn, must be rocky."


    Gairughed, "Yes, it must have been rocky, good one."


    "So dwarves founded Monolith, huh. Then how did you be a part-owner?" asked Quinn.


    "Well, I have been part of the bank for a long time, obviously one of its best people, and after working so long here and ying the right moves, the stars aligned, and they rewarded with me a minor ownership," said Gair before sighing. "Though I don''t like the extra work they piled upon me. I swear they only gave me the swig of the blood so they could dump work on me."


    Which told Quinn nothing, but from his impression of the Vampire, he probably would have derailed a person or two''s career (probably much more) to get to his position.


    "Office politics," said Quinn, "must be tough."


    "You have no idea, kid."


    Quinn noticed that the corridors were nting downwards slightly for a while now. He was sure they had long left the surface and were underground. Soon, the walls turned into dungeon-ish with rough rock walls, only the floor remained smooth and t. Soon, they reached an elevator with a shutter-type door and walls and floors, which had tiny holes through which one could see.


    A stocky-dwarf with fizzled hair and pointy beard sat outside, slumped into a chair with feet hanging forward. When he saw the group approach, he stood up.


    "Arsek, how''re you doing today?" asked Gair in German.


    "Master Gair, rare to see you in the mines," said the newly-identified Arsek replied in German but with a bulkish ent.


    "You know how it is; it''s good down to the mines and sniff all that gold behind the doors," said Gair before taking out a key. "I would like to use the elevator."


    Arsek eyed the key and then the group ¡ª mainly Quinn, Helena, and Alexia, who weren''t part of Monolith. "As you ask, Master Gair." Arsek pulled the shutter open, inviting the group inside.


    Inside, Arsek took out a ring hoop with dozens of keys and deftly detached a key from it. In front of him, beside the door, where yet again tens of keyholes without any indicators marking them. Arsek took the key and inserted it in one of the unmarked keyholes before looking at Gair, who inserted his key into the sole keyhole on his side of the door. With a nod to each other, they turned the keys, and an earthen yellow trail of magic cruised through the elevator''s body.


    The elevator began moving down with a tiny tremor before stopping and speeding right horizontally and then in several different directions on both vertical and horizontal axes.


    "Arsek, tell our guests here a little something about the elevator."


    The dwarf looked at the three non-Monolithites and puffed his chest as he spoke, "The elevator''s special. To wake the baby," he caressed the wall, "you need two key ¡ª employee man one, and other from elevator man like me. Without two, the elevator not moving."


    He pointed at the unmarked keyholes. "Employee man key go into one hole, but elevator man needs to choose right key and right hole to start the elevator," he said with pride before growing somber. "Only elevator maker knows how elevator move, and no one else, so only right key in right hole take people to the right ce."


    After a while, the elevator opened, and the group exited the elevator with Arsek sitting on another chair ced outside the elevator.


    "Don''t think less of dwarves," said Gair. "They''re highly intelligent, master of magical engineering and construction. But most of them prefer to stay with their own kind, and for that reason, they aren''t well-versed in humannguages. If you heard them in dwarven, you''d realize how smart they are."


    Quinn nodded in understanding, realizing why Arsek spoke in German. Basel was in the German-speaking part of Switzend, after all.


    "I never thought less of them," said Quinn, recalling an experience from his travels with his grandfather. "I remember talking to a dwarf who was proficient in English, and he was one of the most well-spoken and smart people I had encountered."


    "It''s good that you understand," said Gair; the Vampire had developed a soft spot of the dwarven-kind in a bank that had arge dwarf poption. "We have arrived at your new vault."


    Ixquic stepped forward, took out her wand, and with a cast, the door split into numerous cubes that crawled to the sides, leaving a passage open to the vault. A gust of wind came rushing from behind, entering the vault, leaving them with a cold shiver.


    "Shall we," said Gair and stepped inside.


    "I''ll be waiting here; please call for me if you desire my assistance," said Helena.


    Quinn nodded and entered the vault behind Gair. He felt a magic scan him as he stepped through the threshold.


    "All yours," said Gair, pointing at the empty vault.


    Quinn observed the space, "Hmm, this is going to be barely enough. Oh, well, I''m sure you guys will figure it out." He set down this briefcase on the floor; the briefcase expanded to arger size when Quinn flipped the top open. He looked at Gair, "May I draw my wand?"


    "Be my guest."


    Quinn drew his fake wand and said, "Stand back." He made a light swing before stepping back himself.


    When nothing after a few breaths of time, Gair said, "Is there something¡ª"


    With a threatening rumble that shook the briefcase, a geyser of glimmering gold coins came bursting out, spraying in whatever direction Quinn pointed his fake-wand to.


    "Hmm, this reminds me of where I piss in the toilet bowl," said Gair.


    "Vampire can urinate?"


    "Of course, we can. I, at my base, still have human-like physiology."


    "Is it true that Vampires can heal by drinking blood?"


    Gair nced at Quinn for a brief second before returning to the gold shower. "Yes, we can. Every Vampire has the ability, but not all can do it."


    "What do you mean?"


    "We feed on blood to sate the thirst for it. But the damned thirst never really subsides, so Vampires who can''t control the thirst just end up drinking the blood without using it for healing. It''smon in young ones who don''t have the experience, but there are a few old ones who give in to the thirst and never control it ¡ª well, those guys are usually put down because of their drinking sprees."


    "Have you ever gone on one?"


    Gairughed in reply ¡ª a fakeugh that had been used so much that it had turned real.


    "How much did you bring?" asked Gair, looking at the five gold mountains that reached the ceiling, with a sixth one in progress.


    "I''m pretty sure we sent the exact amount, didn''t you get it?"


    "I leave that sort of stuff to my people. I pay them for a reason."


    "This room''s just big enough; when I''m done, there''ll be barely enough to walk around."


    "How did you get this much money, kid? When I was your age, I would lose my mind if someone gave me a couple of galleons?"


    "I took it from a man who didn''t need it anymore."


    "Seriously?"


    "Don''t worry, he''s dead. . . and short, he''s short."


    ". . ."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Outside the vault, Helena and Alexia peered inside at the gold coins spraying out with a sculptureing out once in a while.


    "That''s a lot of money," Alexia said with fingers touching her parted lips, "and all of that is Quinn''s, and his alone?"


    "That seems to be the case," said Helena with surprise on her face. She knew about another ount in Monolith that gained royalty amounts from various West products.


    "Wow, that''s a lot for someone Quinn''s age," said Alexia, wondering what it would be like to have that much money.


    "Yet that''s not even the tip of the iceberg that is West''s wealth," said Helena.


    Alexia nodded. She usually worked in the finance department and knew the amount of money processed through the thousands of transactions every day.


    Helena shook her head when she saw Alexia''s nod. "No, even the amount we handle here is the true extent of the West''s wealth. It''s just one part of it ¡ª a big part of their European business, but not the true view of wealth.


    Do you know there exists a ss even among the uber-rich?"


    "Eh," Alexia uttered in confusion, "a ss. . . in those people, I don''t understand."


    "Even I didn''t understand it before I reached a certain point in my career," said Helena. "But there are three sses of uber-rich ¡ª the lower ss, the middle ss, and the upper ss."


    Alexia furrowed her brows. "I. . . I don''t understand. Aren''t people or families with that much money. . . just rich?"


    "They are rich, with more money they would need in their lifetimes, there isn''t any doubt in that, but that doesn''t mean that all of them are equal," said Helena. "The lower ss are the people who have their wealth tied into one business; for example, if all of West wealth was tied into MagiFax, then they''d be of the lower ss of uber-rich."


    "Why is that lower ss? Isn''t MagiFax huge? My mother said that it changed how things happened in herpany."


    "Yes, MagiFax is revolutionary, but that makes West wealth limited to MagiFax. If, for some reason, MagiFax became obsolete because something better came along, or if the MagiFax services deteriorated, then the worth of the business would crash, and that would reduce the wealth of thepany."


    While Alexia couldn''t see MagiFax failing, she nodded at the hypothetical situation. "Then how do you resolve that?" she asked.


    "You be a middle ss of uber-rich," said Helena as if it was the most natural thing in the world.


    ". . . Madam Berenberg."


    "Don''t look at me like that; let me exin, and it will make sense," said Helena chuckling. "Middle ss of uber-rich is when you don''t put all your eggs in one basket. When a person''s wealth doesn''te from one source, but from many different sources."


    "Oh! I understand!" said Alexia, her voice causing Helena to lean away a bit. "West family is middle ss, aren''t they? They have so many businesses, so even if one of them fails, the rest of the business would still bring in the money, so they don''t have to worry about losing all their wealth as it is distributed."


    Alexia recalled MagiFax, MLE, Lunar Developer, which were just thetest, and there were so many more industries that West had been operating in for decades.


    "Right on the bell, you''re correct," said Helena. "The middle-ss uber-rich don''t have to worry as their wealth is so widely distributed that even if they lose many of their business, they would be secured. The middle-ss uber-rich have seemingly unlimited amounts of cash; they can have huge political influence if they choose to exercise their power, and their wealth continues to umte no matter how hard they try to give it away."


    Helena was sure that when it came to pure business, no one had a better positioning than Wests as they were not only diversified through industries, they were diversified through countries, which provided them ayer of diversification that was quite unparalleled in the magicalmunities.


    "But you''re wrong in one thing, Alexia," said Helena. "Wests aren''t a middle ss; they are of the upper ss of uber-rich."


    By now, Ixquic had scooted near the twodies to listen to the interesting talk.


    "The upper ss are the true old money elite that has been wealthy for generations. They are royals or nobility or from a lineage of wealth that extends back to recorded history. They don''t ownpanies; they own countries. They are Saudi royals, or Russian oligarchs, or European nobility, or American old money. These people don''t use banks like Monolith or hire people like us who manage their wealth for them. Why? Because their wealth is much harder to quantify. You can work out business value quite easily, and there you have it, the worth of a lower ss or upper ss.


    "But upper ss don''t hold wealth like this," Helena chuckled. "Imagine having a nation''s national treasury as their bank bnce. They directly own state enterprises that aren''t open for the general public to buy. They might own the verynd the country was built on. Need some money to spend? Write a letter to the country''s treasury department, and the nation will personally be your walking wallet.


    "These families'' wealth is also highly stable because they are so well-diversified, and the only way to make them broke is to bring down an entire country. As for political influence? They either pull the strings from the shadows or are directly head of the state."


    Alexia seemed blown away. "But why haven''t I heard of such people?"


    "Because they try their hardest to stay hidden. People like these are backward or poor countries, and it wouldn''t look good if you are spending money when your country is struggling with poverty," exined Helena. "But have you head of Abates of Italy?"


    "Lia''s mother''s family?" said Alexia.


    "Yes, they''re a family that has been there before Italy was established. They might not have power in the muggle part of the country, but when ites to the magical part, there''s nothing bigger than Abate in the country. They, like the Wests, run a few businesses, and even these businesses might be on a decline; that''s just a front that the family runs to do something. Even if all those businesses went down, it wouldn''t affect Abates one it."


    "Then. . . the West?" asked Ixquic, speaking for the first time.


    Helena looked at the silent girl, "It was around the same time your boss started to work with the Wests when the then family''s head started to invest in poorer countries. Under his rule, Wests essentially brought out magical parts of those countries and rose from your standard middle-ss to upper-ss.


    "His next-generation solidified the position. George West, who came after the solidification, chose to focus on actual business as those countries could be left alone to grow and only required guidance once in a while. His son, Adam West, ventured into the muggle world, but that halted because of his untimely death. Lia West, the next in line, seems to focus on the magical world because of the recent influx of new innovative products.


    "Though her younger brother," Helena pointed to Quinn inside the vault, "Quinn West seems to have asked for someone who''d help him invest his newly gained wealth into the muggle world. It seems that Wests are going to gain anotheryer of diversification with this new generation."


    The three, who all worked for Wests, looked at the West inside, still spewing gold, witnessing a part of the lineage bigger than they seemed and only truly known to those with elite status or those in the right ces.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - You love gold? I have mountains of it.


    Idris Gair - Part-owner of Monolith - Oh boy, that mountain looks like it''s about to fall. . . on me.


    Helena Berenberg - Search her surname - Phew, that was a lot speaking.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - So yeah, there are sses of billionaires (I couldn''t use billionaires, so I used uber-rich.)


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 261 - Meeting The Broker

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn tapped his finger at the beautiful mahogany table. He was sat in a conference room inside the Switzend West Headquarters. He nced up at the clock in front of him that showed five minutes to eleven ¡ª ten minutes remaining to hisst meeting in Switzend before he went back home.


    "They should be here by now," said Quinn.


    Helena looked up from her everyday paperwork, she might have been keeping Quinnpany, but that didn''t mean she wanted to take her regr duties back home with her. "He will be here. . . it''s just that the person has a reputation for being on time, and I mean, really on time, he won''t be here a minute before its time to arrive," she said.


    "Is that so," said Quinn and then closed his eyes to spend some time in his mind.


    The next time Quinn opened his eyes was at the sound of the door opening and a loud voice that came from the said door. "I am here, lovely people, so let''s make some gorgeous gold for everybody."


    Quinn looked at the loud man. Hair set with wax, a finely groomed beard, a natural tan skin, a tailored grey checkered suit on his body, and an expensive watch on his wrist.


    The man strolled into the room, pulled up a chair, and dropped himself down on it. He leaned back and spread his legs wide, and stared at Quinn, who sat in front of him. "So, you''re Quinn West, huh. Man, you''re young, and with so much money. . . those born with silver spoons have it so good and easy."


    "It would be better if you don''t¡ª" Helena tried to say something, but Quinn raised a hand.


    "You are?" Quinn asked.


    "Eh? You don''t know me?" asked the man, blinking in surprise.


    "Of course not. Should I know you?" Though he noticed the American ent


    The man''s broad smile somehow stretched wider. "I like you. . . I like you. . . I like you." The man leaned forward towards the table, set his elbows on it as his fingers tapped a quick beat. "My name is Jerome Walker, but I''m more poprly known as the Broker. . . It is a pleasure to meet you," he smiled.


    "Well then, Mr. Walker, I heard that you can help me invest my money in the non-magical world."


    "That I can," the man raised his hands and wiggled his fingers. "I am the Broker, the man who trades between the wizarding and the no-maj world. Anything you desire from the no-maj world, I''ll get my hands on it ¡ª no matter what the item, the Broker will find it for you."


    "And how did you get into this fascinating business, Mr. Walker?" asked Quinn.


    The Broker leaned back into his chair and drummed his fingertips against each other. "I was born to a wizard father and a no-maj mother, or at least that''s what I was told, but who can tell in America."


    Quinn raised a brow at that. He knew about thews in America where first-generation magicals were taken away from their family because of the witch hunt history of the country and raised by the Ministry until they hadpleted their education; the same went for orphans. But this was Quinn''s first time seeing someone like that.


    "I wasn''t that good with magic," the Broker said with a satisfied smile, "the worst at it really, neither was I good at Quidditch and because of my background, I couldn''t make it into the Ministry ¡ª it''s tough to seed without some backing there. So, after I graduated, I struggled for a while, jumping from job to job, before I decided that there wasn''t much of a future in the wizarding world, so I decided to try my hand at the no-maj world, and well, all sort of stuff happened, and here I am. The man who everyone wants to be, but not all can be."


    "It must''ve been tough," said Quinn, "venturing into the non-magical world after living your entire life in the magical one."


    "Na, it wasn''t that difficult," Broker waved it off, "people are people ¡ª they''re the same everywhere. It took a year at most before I was a person brought up in the no-maj world, and I have to admit, it was much more fun than the wizarding world."


    "Well, that side of the world has its own charm," said Quinn before deciding to get to the point. "I am looking to invest a little of my wealth into the non-magical world, and from the word around, the Broker''s the best there is."


    "You have heard correct. I''m the best in the business. I was the only one when I started; there have been many who have tried to walk the path I took, but they can''t beat the original, and that''s why they call me THE Broker.


    So tell me, what do you want to acquire, and I''ll get it for you."


    The Broker looked up at the kid in front of him. What could a boy his age want ¡ª a car, maybe aputer, or a game console, or whatever a bratty teen these days wanted.


    "I wantpanies."


    The Broker''s hand stroking his beard stilled over his chin as he tilted his head. What did the kid say? Companies? Maybe he heard it wrong. "Sorry I didn''t get that. Could you repeat what you said?"


    "I want to buypanies."


    Broker slowly leaned forward. "Companies. . . as in?"


    "Well, I have some in mind that I want to buy. Most of them have already gone public, so we''re going to have to buy stocks, or if you approach the owners, who are looking to liquefy a part of their share, I don''t mind buying from them directly. There are two that hasn''t gone public, but one of them would soon, so I want to buy a lot during the IPO."


    Broker opened his mouth before closing it and repeated the process a couple of times before he finally uttered some words. "You want to buypanies? You want to buy stock? As in the stock market? You. . . you actually know what stocks are."


    "Of course, I know what stocks are," said Quinn, furrowing his brows. "You can do it, right? Or do I need to find someone else?"


    That pulled the Broker back into the game. "Of course, I can get it. That''s not even a question. I can get anything; a few stocks isn''t going to be difficult. A few calls in the correct ces, and you can buy all the stock you want."


    "That''s good to hear," said Quinn, pulling a folder from his pockets and sliding it towards the Broker. "These are thepanies I have chosen and the amount I want to be invested. As this my first investment, I''m going for the long haul, and it would be a very long while before I even think of liquifying them."


    "Oh ho, a client who knows what they want, huh. My favorite sort of client," he pulled the folder to him. "Let''s see what you have in mind."


    He opened the folder and started reading. "Oracle, Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Apple. . ."


    Quinn nodded. He didn''t know much about the stock market, but what he did have was the memories of his previous life. However, even in his previous life, Quinn wasn''t much involved in the business world or even investment. It didn''t help that the detailed memories of his previous life faded with every year ¡ª those memories weren''t essible through his mindscape, and thus Quinn had to write a lot of his memories so he didn''t lose them.


    However, he didn''t live under a rock; he knew what was really big and what would do really well in the future.


    "Yeah, so thesepanies, as you might see, are techpanies," said Quinn. "I have full confidence that thesepanies will do very well in the future. There''s Amazon, which I heard is going to go public very soon, so we''re going to buy a lot during the IPO. Also, I would like you to keep an eye on Google."


    Quinn was also looking forward to the dot bubble crisis happening to invest more and solidify his position in the tech industry.


    "And, if you flip it over, you would see that I have chosen a few morepanies that aren''t techpanies because I want to diversify a bit," said Quinn. "Monster Beverage Corporation ¡ª a beveragepany, Jack Henry & Associates ¡ª which is again a tech-based but in the financial sector, there''s Cerner ¡ª also tech-based, but it''s involved in healthcare, so I have listed it separately like I did the previous one.


    I have listed Best Buy, Ross Stores, which are both retail stores that I think are going to do well. Kansas City Southern is a railroadpany that I researched a bit and was ast-minute entry. UnitedHealth Group because the health industry is not going anywhere but up, so it''s a no-brainer. Next, I would like to invest in Berkshire Hathaway.


    Finally, I want to cap it off with Nike because basketball is really huge right now, so I want to leverage that and ride that wave. And that''s that. . . so what do you think; would you be able to do it?"


    The Broker had his eyes trained on the sheets. He had heard what Quinn had said, but most of it wasn''t registered as his attention was upied by the numbers printed on the paper.


    ''. . . What are these outrageous amounts?!'' He nced up at Quinn briefly. ''Why does he have to buy so much? Did he put in an extra zero or something?''


    It wasn''t like he hadn''t traded in this amount ¡ª there were people who wanted him to buy antiques or artworks, and those things were ridiculously priced. But this was going to be in a little different ballpark, and he was going to put in some serious work to not let these investments in very prominentpanies make big waves and attract unwanted attention. He would need to invest these amounts slowly over an extended period of time to hide them from the prying eyes.


    "Alright," said the Broker, "I will set up¡ª"


    "Actually, I wanted to invest more," said Quinn, crossing his arms.


    "Huh, what?"


    "I had to cut my investment in half because grandfather said that he wanted to match my investments, and I thought raising the amount more than that might make a serious change in the market, which I don''t want."


    "Match the amount. . ."


    Helena jumped into the conversation. "Yes, we would need a replication of what you''re going to do for Quinn, but this would be tied to a fund which is connected to George West, and this goes without saying, but we would expect absolute secrecy from your part about this matter."


    ". . .Double the amount," said the Broker, looking at the sheets while doing the calction. That changed everything; now, he was going to need to call in some serious favors and grease hands to keep it under the radar. "I will make this happen, but this is going to cost you extra. This is going to take a lot of work to pull and a lot of my time."


    "Not a problem," said Quinn; he gestured to Helena. "Please contact Mrs. Berenberg here, and she''ll pay for your services. Just remember to see that these requests are separate from each other, and thus, you need to bill them differently."


    "Whatever floats your boat," said the Broker before fully leaning into his chair, feeling mentally exhausted after the short meet. "Why couldn''t you have just asked for a car or a yacht or a ne. I could have the keys in your hands before the month ended. This. . . This is going to take at least a year, most probably more than that."


    Quinn shrugged. He currently had no need for a yacht or ne ¡ª he preferred to fly and swim on his own, or even a car with apparition under his belt.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - ''Dot bubble. . . Facebook. . . 2008''s financial crisis. . . Bitcoin release. . . hehehehe.''


    Jerome Walker - The Broker - A man between two worlds.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Well, the long-standing request of investing in the muggle world has beenpleted. Also, I''m not a financial geek, so I just chose the American stock market, which is why The Broker is an American. And all of the stocks came from ''best performing stock in the 30 year period,'' and the obvious tech stocks. Also, let''s not get into the butterfly effect. This was just my attempt at showing muggle investment.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 262 - An Inspired QWASPP

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    George and Lia walked in the corridors of West Manor.


    "I''m a bit worried about him," said George.


    "Why? What did he do now?" asked Lia, the twenty-seven-year-old, who looked to be in her early twenties.


    "He''s barely at home these days. He goes out in the morning to the gym of his; I''m already gone by the time he returns for breakfast. Then Rosey tells me that he goes out again soon after that only to return in time for supper."


    "Does he say where he goes?"


    "He names ces, towns, cities, seaside ports; he has named almost every portion of the country. But that isn''t much to go with."


    "I''m sure he''s just going to the Greengrass'' ce," Lia grinned, looping her arm with her grandfather.


    George hummed.


    "So, any idea what he''s going to show us today?" she asked.


    George shook his head. "Just that it''s not something new. Or that what''s he told Elliot."


    "Then I hope it''s something we already sell," sighed the person in charge of every subsidiary built for her brother''s inventions. "Opening a newpany every year''s bothersome work, not to mention looking for the correct people to lead thosepanies. There are so many people with their top bunks empty."


    "You can always pass one of them to Elliot."


    "No, that won''t be necessary," said Lia in firm refusal. She was trying to build a reputation in the West businesses that didn''t have anything to do with her family name. She was secure enough to delegate responsibility to her subordinates, but passing on thepanies assigned to her, which involved her baby brother''s inventions, wasn''t something she was going to do anytime soon. "Uncle Elliot oversees more than twice numberpanies than I do. He already makes it like I''m wet behind the ear; I don''t want to make further fun of myself.


    "Good," said George, satisfied, "if you epted, I would''ve been disappointed." He didn''t oversee any of thepanies, but when he was working under his own father, he oversaw thrice as manypanies as Lia and expected her to reach that level someday.


    "Oh, we''re here." Lia removed her arm from George''s as the door to the room where they were going to spend the uing time came into view. "Let''s see what he for us today."


    Lia opened the door with George peering from above her head. They stared at a door standing in the middle of the room, and from behind the door, Quinn''s face peaked out with a white sketch marker clenched between his teeth.


    Quinn opened his mouth to speak, letting the maker fall, but it began to float up immediately after being let go. "Excellent time, both of you. I just finished putting thest touches on the product today; please gather around so that we can start this year''s QWASPP."


    "Now, what this might be?" asked Lia, moving around the cerulean blue door standing in its frame.


    "It''s a door," said Quinn, puffing his chest as he crossed his arms.


    George brushed his hand against the door pane. "This is. . . not a good wood, neither is the craftsmanship. What is this made from?"


    "Common Oak," said Quinn. "As for the craftsmanship, it''s made like that purposefully."


    "What does it do?" asked Lia excitedly as she wrapped an arm around Quinn''s shoulder.


    "Well, you might actually recognize it without me telling you," Quinn took out a skeletal key hanging from a thin chain from his pocket, and the moment George saw the gold glint of the metal, his eyes widened.


    "Is that an Abate key?" George asked, taking the key into his hand.


    "No," said Quinn chuckling, "while I would love to have a key that could ess the Abatework, I don''t have it." He smiled at the key, "Though, this key in your hand does work something like Abates."


    Lia looked at the door, "You mean. . ."


    "Grandfather, would you like to do the honors," said Quinn.


    George nodded. He took the key to the door and used it to open the door with a click. He grabbed the doorknob above the keyhole and twisted it for the door to open to a back alley street.


    "It''s really like the Abatework," said George as he stepped out into the deserted street with Quinn and Lia following after him.


    "Ah, so we are in North Yorkshire," said Quinn looking around.


    Lia frowned, "Why do you say it like that?" Even George noticed how Quinn worded his sentence.


    "Well, this is a QWASPP, so I''m going for something that we can sell," said Quinn. "Britain already has the floowork, and while walking through a door would be much better jumping into a firece, I don''t think if we can take floo out of Britain. . . well, maybe we can, but that''s not what I made this for."


    "Then what?" asked Lia.


    Quinn looked at George. "Grandfather, do you know what a Vanishing Cab is?"


    George''s eyes widen with realization. He looked at the door, then at the deste street, then back at Quinn, who smiled.


    "It''s the best time to sell something like this," said Quinn.


    "Uhm, what are we talking about here?" asked Lia.


    "Vanishing Cabs ¡ª are a pair of cabs connected to each through the means of spatial magic that allow an object or person to enter one cab and exit through the other. They have been a popr household item to have during wars ¡ª they were especially favored here in Britain during thest war to escape using them when the Dark Lord and Death Eaters stuck."


    "That doesn''t make sense," said Lia, recalling one of her readings on the war, "didn''t Death Eaters attacked people in their homes," she looked at the door, "if they had these. . . then why?"


    ". . . Because Vanishing Cabs weren''tmonce," said George with somber tenor. "It requires considerable skill to craft a pair of working Vanishing Cabs; not anyone can make those; as such, only a select few were able to get their hands on them."


    Quinn added, "Moreover, Vanishing Cabs weren''t popr items outside wartime. They were much moremon during Grindlewald''s conquest that spanned more than two decades, but after in the time of peace, the market fell, and the craftsman stopped making them, and with time, they became rare, and so did the people who could build them.


    "When the Dark Lord struck, there were only a few people who could build them, and even those could only produce at a limited rate, forget about training others. So only those with the gold and connections could get one built, and the rest were left without one. Peace was achieved again, but the Vanishing Cab went away with it as it did before.


    ". . . But as we know, the Dark Lord''s recently ended his vacation and is back in the office, so. . ."


    "It''s the best time to sell," said Lia, repeating Quinn''s words.


    "Yes," said Quinn, grabbing the doorknob of the door, "this takes inspiration from the Abatework that it is indeed awork of doors. For thest week, I went around the country and built a limitedwork.


    "How this work is that when a person opens a door, it connects to a random door on thework, which as you might have noticed," Quinn pointed around him, "are in deserted ces, all covered by anti-non-magical wards, which eliminates the Vanishing Cab''s weakness ¡ª that is, if you find the cab outside the house, opens you up to an ambush, but with random doors, you don''t have that problem."


    "What if someone finds all the doors in thework?" asked Lia.


    "Doesn''t matter," said Quinn, "if we add enough doors, it doesn''t matter if you find them all if you don''t have enough man to cover every one of them." He raised the key, "It wouldn''t take a key to exit the house, just a secret password ¡ª but if you want to go back home ¡ª it will take the key held by the people who would be pre-connected to it and would require another secret password."


    "You said something about the door being crafted the way it was?" asked George.


    "Ah yes, that was for a showcase that any door could be on thework. It could be anything, anywhere, and one wouldn''t know unless they used the door. Simrly, it could be any door in the house ¡ª a bathroom door, bedroom door, or even a door to the basement ¡ª it could also be a secret door hidden in any random wall."


    The West exited the back alley and back to their house, closing the door behind them, after which Quinn showcased the randomized feature of the door, opening the door to a couple more ces around the country that Quinn had visited via apparition and found the deserted ces by flying while being invisible.


    "I have a question," asked Lia, "how does this interact with the wards. What is stopping a person from using these doors to bypass the wards and arrive inside a house?"


    "Good question," Quinn said, appreciating the question. "These doors can be tied into the wards. You can set the doors so that no one cane into the house using one of the outside doors ¡ª so only outgoing would be avable. In fact, it''s the rmended setting. If you get out of your house during danger, then don''t return to the house for a while, and go somewhere else."


    "The idea is good," said George, walking around the door. He stopped and opened the door, and without a key, it was just a normal door. "If we can construct a wide enoughwork, we would be able to turn it into something that would be very attractive to everyone."


    "Yeah, about that. . . there is one teeny problem with this," said Quinn.


    "What is it?" asked Lia, snapping out of her thoughts that went to how to set up a business around the doorwork.


    "Only I''m able to build these doors," said Quinn.


    The magic behind the connected doors came from four sources ¡ª spatial magic books, the Vanishing Cab technology, the Abatework, and finally, from the entrance tunnel of the Aquatic Vault.


    He had started with studying spatial magic to solve the entrance tunnel in the Great Lake guarded by the Kraken, which would somehow switch going down to up. And after years of irregr research, Quinn was able to figure out how the entrance worked. During the progress of that research, Quinn came across the Abatework, and after dealing with Dolion, Quinn had spent a portion of his remaining time in Italy studying the Abate doors while he was alone with Aksel Thorn. The Vanishing Cab technology was easy to get his hands by paying for the manuals, and while he never went to the Vanishing Cab in Hogwarts, he knew everything about them.


    The problem was that Quinn''s approach was sophisticated because Quinn valued stability and the range of the door, which made it very difficult for a person to learn how to do it. It would require a magical with considerable skill to learn the method created by the sources, which is even individually challenging to learn, and to train someone in his technique would require money and a lot of time.


    "I can make ten a day," said Quinn. He could make more, but only ten in the time he was willing to set aside for the venture. "Which isn''t bad as in little more than three months, we can have a thousand doors across the country, which I think are more than enough for the initial stage.


    "After that, we can take orders from the customers, and I can continue to make ten a day that would be installed inside the customer''s home. If we started early, by the same time next year, we would have covered a lot of people all around Britain."


    George stayed silent for a while before saying, "The fact that you have presented to us, it means that you require something from us, or you would''ve done it on your own."


    Quinn nodded.


    "What do you require from us?" asked Lia.


    "I don''t want this to be connected to the Wests or even me and want the manufacturer to be a mystery, and for that to happen, I would require the family''s help." Quinn didn''t want to involve his family in the war, but it would prevent multiple people from bing victims of the uing raids if this was implemented.


    George held his hands behind his back, staring at the door for a good while. ". . . It is easy enough to do," he said, "I can make it so that West wouldn''t be connected to your doors. Even if someone tried to dig out the truth, they would only find themselves in abyrinth. However, I have a condition."


    "Please say so. If it''s something I can do, I''ll do it," said Quinn.


    George turned to his grandson and spoke in his serious-business voice. "You''re to give me a promise that I can call inter."


    Quinn tilted his head. That''s it? He was absolutely fine with that. "I ept your condition," he said.


    "Then the deal is made," George said. "You make these doors, and I personally will make sure that a secret operation is ready for you to spread this product."


    In the future, a mysterious group would start to sell their escape services. The secretive group and theirwork of doors would infamously be known by amon name ¡ª The Labyrinth.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I''m always working on the old projects.


    George West - Grandfather - Now has a promise from his grandson.


    Lia West - Elder Sister - Handles all of the businesses that sell Quinn''s products.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - The reason why Quinn epted was that it was asked by his grandfather. He doesn''t mistrust George at all. Quinn would have rejected if some asked him; he would have put it down if they asked him of a promise, essentially a nk cheque.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 263 - Diagon Alley Outing

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was a fine Sunday morning.


    Quinn sat on the breakfast table with a Quibbler issue in one hand that detailed the ''research trip'' that the Lovegood family had taken to the lovely country of Sweden and a ss of apple juice in the other.


    "Oh, this is a fun one," said Quinn, reading a column by Luna. "Did you know that more than half of Sweden is covered in forest, which equates to around the same size area-wise to the entirety of Britain? That''s a lot of forest."


    There was a light popping sound inches over the table, and a stack of letters fell onto an empty spot (courtesy of Polly.) Elliot, who sat closest to the pile, reached over and picked it up. He looked at the name on every envelope and passed them onto their intended recipients seated around the table.


    "Oh, it''s a letter from Hogwarts," said Elliot, looking at thest letter from Elliot.


    Quinn, Ms. Rosey, and George all looked away from their reading material up at Elliot, who held arge square envelope. "It must be your results," said George for a sharp interest to appear in Ms. Rosey''s eyes.


    Elliot passed the letter above to the table to Quinn.


    "Hmm? There''s something hard inside here," said Quinn, as he pressed the letter with his fingers. He made a swiping line with a finger, and the top crease of the letter tore away as if cut open with a letter-opener. Quinn titled the envelope for a badge to fall into his other palm.


    "Oh, it''s a Headboy badge," said Quinn, holding the circr badge by the edges.


    "Congrattions, young master," Elliot said with a proud smile. Ms. Rosey and George''s congrattions followed.


    "Thank you. You know what this means, right?" Quinn showed them the badge. "Any guesses? No? Okay, I''ll tell you. This means I''m going to get my own suite with my own bedroom. . . ah, I''m going to get my own bedroom. . ."


    "What happened?" asked George as Quinn trailed off.


    "I will have to move out of the dorm," said Quinn, "which means I won''t be living with Eddie and Marcus. . . ugh, now I''m not sure if I want to move out." He slept in the same room with his best friend for the majority of the year ¡ª in the six years Eddie, Marcus, and he had been roommates, Quinn hade to his room at home to be less ''his room'' than their dorm room in Hogwarts.


    "You can tell them that you won''t be needing the Headboy suite," said George, a former resident of said suite.


    "Hmm? No, no, I still want the Headboy suite, but I also want to have a spot in the dorm ¡ª I fear that if I exit the dorm, they''ll assign another roommate to Eddie and Marcus." Quinn held his chin in thought before shrugging, "I''ll write a letter and see what happens.


    "Now, let''s see how I did this year." He pulled out the parchment inside and unfolded it.


    -


    Hogwarts End-Of-Term Results Sixth Year


    .


    - Pass Grades -


    OUTSTANDING (O)


    EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS (E)


    ACCEPTABLE (A)


    - Fail Grades -


    POOR (P)


    DREADFUL (D)


    TROLL (T)


    .


    Quinn West has achieved:


    Arithmancy ¡ª O*


    Astronomy ¡ª O*


    Ancient Runes ¡ª O*


    Care of Magical Creatures ¡ª O*


    Charms ¡ª O*


    Defense Against the Dark Arts ¡ª O*


    Herbology ¡ª O*


    History of Magic ¡ª O*


    Potions ¡ª O*


    Transfiguration ¡ª O*


    * - Highest Score In The Year.


    -


    Quinn read thest line on the parchment before once again over his grades. He nodded in satisfaction. "Another year with all big-Os with stars on top," he said, announcing his grades to his family.


    Ms. Rosey all but snatched the result parchment when Quinn handed it over and looked squinted her eyes to look if he had left smudges on the parchments ¡ª dirty spots would need to be fixed before she added it to Quinn''s academic folder of report cards.


    "Are you going to change any of your sses this year?" asked George. "You said that you have been wondering about dropping Care. . . and that for a couple years now."


    "True. I have been on the fence for that a couple years now, but there''s only one year left, so I''ll just take the ss, and with Rebeus Hagrid teaching Care, something interesting is sure to pop here and there." Quinn stood up from his chair. "Now, if you''d excuse me, I have an appointment that I have to attend. Ms. Rosey, I won''t return until evening, so no need to prepare lunch for me."


    "Where are you going?" asked Ms. Rosey.


    "I was invited to see how my very first investment turned out," said Quinn smiling.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stepped out of a dark corner of Diagon Alley that he had just apparated into and stepped into the main street. He looked up and sighed at how the sunny morning had turned overcast in the span of mere minutes. If there was one thing he didn''t enjoy about his home was how much it rained.


    He looked away from the murky clouds and took in the market area.


    Diagon Alley had changed. The colorful, glittering window disys of spellbooks, potion ingredients, and cauldrons were lost to view, hidden behind therge Ministry of Magic posters that had been pasted over them. Most of these somber purple posters carried blown-up versions of the security advice on the Ministry pamphlets that had been sent out over the summer, but others bore moving ck-and-white photographs of Death Eaters known to be on the loose. Betrix Lestrange was sneering from the front of the nearest apothecary. A few windows were boarded up, including those of Florean Fortescue''s Ice Cream Parlor, which Quinn had heard had been dragged off by Death Eaters, making him wonder what Death Eaters wanted from the ice cream vendor.


    On the other hand, several shabby-looking stalls had sprung up along the street. The nearest one, which had been erected outside Flourish and Blotts, under a striped, stained awning, had a cardboard sign pinned to its front:


    AMULETS: Effective Against Werewolves, Dementors, and Inferi.


    A seedy-looking little wizard was rattling armfuls of silver symbols on chains at passersby.


    "One for you,d?" he called at Quinn as he passed by, leering at him up and down.


    Quinn raised his hand and revealed a sneakily transfigured copy of the seedy amulet vendors'' product sitting in his palm. He pointed further down the street. "There''s ady there selling the same stuff, but much cheaper than here. You might want to fix your prices, sh them in half, mister, and maybe then someone will buy something."


    Of course, everything he said wasplete hippogriff shit ¡ª Quinn either wanted the man to look at the supposedpetition and leave his stall alone, which Quinn was sure (from a little wide-area Legelimency) would be upturned by the simrly seedy neighborhood stalls. Even if the man didn''t leave his cart, there was a chance he would take his word and sh his price by half and make a lesser profit from his fraudulent deals.


    Quinn didn''t wait to see what the seedy man did. He was satisfied that he had been able to nt a seed of doubt in the man''s mind.


    He passed by another shop and stopped to gaze at the closed Ollivander''s. There were no signs of struggle, which was a positive sign. ''I hope he took my advice,'' he thought, thinking about the wandmaker, who loved his job a bit too much.


    "Well, I''ll find about it when the school starts," he sighed. A fleeting can on a couple of first years would reveal the status of the wandmaker.


    He moved along the street, looking at the increasing number of wanted and warning posters on every single shop until he came across a fork in the road.


    "Whoa- hohoho," said Quinn, stopping in his tracks.


    Set against the dull, poster-muffled shop fronts around them, the shop''s windows in front of his eyes hit the eye like a firework disy. Casual passersby were looking back over their shoulders at the windows, and a few rather stunned-looking people had actuallye to a halt, transfixed. The left-hand window was dazzlingly full of an assortment of goods that revolved, popped, shed, bounced, and shrieked; Quinn''s eyes began to water just looking at it. The right-hand window was covered with a gigantic poster, purple like those of the Ministry, but emzoned with shing yellow letters:


    WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT YOU-KNOW-WHO?


    YOU SHOULD BE WORRYING ABOUT U-NO-POO ¡ª


    THE CONSTIPATION SENSATION THAT''S GRIPPING THE NATION!


    Quinn burst into a chortle. "Oh boy, these two are going to be murdered in their beds," he said with a smile as he walked towards the shop, which he had broughtst year so that he could rent it to the Weasley''s.


    He entered the shop, and it was packed with customers; Quinn could not get near the shelves. He stared around, looking up at the boxes piled to the ceiling: Here were the Skiving Snackboxes that the twins had perfected duringst year; Quinn noticed that the Nosebleed Nougatwas most popr, with only one battered box left on the shelf ¡ª he had worked on those with the twins. There were bins full of trick wands, the cheapest merely turning into rubber chickens or pairs of briefs when waved, the most expensive beating the unwary user around the head and neck, and boxes of quills, which came in Self-Inking, Spell-Checking, and Smart-Answer varieties.


    Quinn sped his hands behind his back and stepped forwards. The crowed unknowingly parted, making a path straight to the front counter, where a gaggle of delighted ten-year-olds was watching a tiny little wooden man slowly ascending the steps to an actual set of gallows, both perched on a box that read: REUSABLE HANGMAN ¡ª SPELL IT OR HE''LL SWING!


    He looked above the kids, and arge disy near the counter caught his eyes. He read the information on the back of a box bearing a highly colored picture of a handsome youth and a swooning girl standing on the deck of a pirate ship.


    "Daydream Potion. . . one swig and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic, thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable (side effects include vacant expression and minor drooling). Not for sale to under-sixteens.


    "Oh my, isn''t this a crafty little one," he reached into the disy and picked out a clear vial with the pinkish-purple liquid inside. He effortlessly undid the anti-theft charm on the vial, uncorked it, and tipped a tablespoon''s worth onto his tongue. "Hmm. . . ah, so that''s what they used, huh. That''s nice."


    He smiled when he heard the voice of one of the brothers.


    "No, kid, we don''t have a telescope that tells you the answer, but we have one that would punch you in the eye if you use it." A smiling Fred stood in front of him, wearing a set of magenta robes that shed magnificently with his ming hair.


    "Now, wouldn''t you look at that, Mr. Big-shot business owner," said Quinn.


    Fred turned Quinn, and his eyes widened to see Quinn. "Quinn, you''re here! When did you arrive?" he asked as he pushed his way to the counter.


    "Just now," said Quinn and tossed the Daydream vial to Fred. "Switch the rugweed with possumhaw, and that would fix the drooling. Also, get a better anti-theft spell, this one''s embarrassingly easy to break."


    Fred blinked at the potion vial in his palm before looking at Quinn. "Come one, leave something for others, would you," he sighed before perking back up. "Come on, let me take you to George, and show you the thing we wrote to you about."


    Quinn followed Fred toward the shop''s back, where he saw a stand of card and rope tricks.


    "Oh, are these non-magical tricks?" asked Quinn, picking up a deck of cards. "Let me guess, this one''s a marked deck?"


    "Muggle magic tricks!" said Fred happily, pointing them out. "For freaks like Dad, you know, who love Muggle stuff ¡ª and well, people like you. It''s not a big earner, but we do fairly steady business; they''re great novelties."


    "Hey. . . I''m not a freak," said Quinn, "I''m just your average card geek."


    Suddenly, a curtain was pushed to the side, and George peaked out. "Oh, Quinn, you''re here. Wee-wee." he shook Quinn''s hand. "Come in,e in. Let me show you the real money maker."


    They went into a darker, less crowded room. The packaging on the products lining these shelves was more subdued.


    "We''ve just developed this more serious line," said Fred. "Funny how it happened . . ."


    "You wouldn''t believe how many people, even people who work at the Ministry, can''t do a decent Shield Charm," said George. Of course, they didn''t have someone like you teaching them."


    "That''s right. . . . Well, we thought Shield Hats were a bit of augh, you know, challenge your mate to jinx you while wearing it and watch his face when the jinx just bounces off. But the Ministry bought five hundred for all its support staff! And we''re still getting massive orders!"


    "So we''ve expanded into a range of Shield Cloaks, Shield Gloves . . ."


    ". . . I mean, they wouldn''t help much against the Unforgivable Curses, but for minor hexes or jinxes . . ."


    "And then we thought we''d get into the whole area of Defense Against the Dark Arts because it''s such a money-spinner," continued George enthusiastically. "This is cool. Look, Instant Darkness Powder, we''re importing it from Peru. Handy if you want to make a quick escape."


    "And our Decoy Detonators are just walking off the shelves, look," said Fred, pointing at several weird-looking ck horn-type objects that were indeed attempting to scurry out of sight. "You just drop one surreptitiously, and it''ll run off and make a nice loud noise out of sight, giving you a diversion if you need one."


    "Handy," said Quinn, satisfied with their business sense.


    "Here," said Fred, catching a couple and throwing them to Fred.


    "At this rate, you''re going to be defense contracts first and joke shopter," said Quinn, pocketing the items.


    "No," smiled George as he dusted a Shield Glove, "these were fun to make, but as expected, the stuff that''s outside was a hundred times more fun to make."


    Fred nodded, "The joke items might not make as much money as these things, but they''re what we opened this shop for."


    Quinn raised his hands, "Hey, I''m the silent W in the triple W coalition. You guys do whatever you want, and if you want some help, and I''m here to provide that." He looked at Instant Darkness Powder and Decoy Detonators, "You know, we can sort ofbine those two ¡ª sort of ¡ª well turn them into a shbang."


    "shbang?"


    "Uh-huh, instead of darkness, you use a strong and sudden burst of light that would momentarily blind a target which would beunched in session with a loud burst of sound, disrupting the hearing ¡ª causing pain, buzzing, and maybe even an inner-ear imbnce."


    A young witch with short blonde hair poked her head around the curtain;


    Quinn saw that she, too, was wearing magenta staff robes. "Uhm, there''s ¡ª"


    She stopped when the curtain was pushed aside, and a couple more heads poked inside.


    "There you are," said Ron Weasley, "I have been looking all over for you ¡ª it''s blimey crowded outside." The redhead, younger Weasley, then noticed that his brother hadpany, "What are you doing here?"


    "To be fair," said Fred and George finished, "this is his building."


    "Hello, Ronald," said Quinn turned to the spectacled boy beside him, "Harry," the curly-haired girl peeking over Ron''s shoulder, "Hermione," then he saw the freckled Weaslette pushing her to the front, "Ginny," and finally his eye went to the girl with red hair and green eyes, ". . . Ivy."


    "There''s a customer out here looking for a joke cauldron, Mr. Weasley and


    Mr. Weasley," said the store employee.


    "Right you are, Verity, I''ming," said George promptly. "Quinn, you


    help yourself to anything you want, all right? No charge." He turned to his younger brother, "You''re going to pay double, Ron."


    "Why?!"


    Fred followed after his brother and patted Ron''s shoulder as the twin went out, "We''re a business, dear young brother. If we''re going to make a profit, we would need to charge more ¡ª and who else to charge but family." He turned to the girls, "Ladies, would you like to see our WonderWitch product line ¡ª they''re very potent and very popr."


    Ron followed after George to find if the family markup was a joke or serious; Harry tagged along with him. Hermione and Ginny followed after Fred to see the WonderWitch products; however. . .


    "I''ll be there in a bit," said Ivy.


    Hermione looked between Quinn and Ivy. She nodded before leaving the two behind.


    "Quinn," said Ivy.


    "Ivy," Quinn greeted her back again.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Headboi! Building Owner! Investor! Silent W!


    Fred & George - Entrepreneurs - Mr. Weasley & Mr. Weasley.


    Ms. Rosey - Scrapbooker - Has all of Quinn''s reports card preserved.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Next chapter, we''re going to see something very exciting. . . and no, it''s not going to do anything a certain redhead. It''s time for the return.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 264 - Return Of Noir

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    "Quinn."


    "Ivy."


    A silence fell in the room with only the two in it. This was the first time the two talked or even met after theirst contact in the Architect''s vault.


    "I got my results today," said Quinn, leaning against a disy case in the middle of the room. "Did you get your OWL results?"


    Ivy nodded, "We got them in the morning."


    "How did you do?"


    "Nine Outstandings and two Exceeds Expectations."


    "Wow! Congrattions on finally bing a NEWT student. That''s one more OWL than I got," said Quinn. "Where did you get double-E subjects?"


    "History of Magic and Arithmancy," Ivy said with a sigh.


    "Ah, now that I remember, you''re better at practical than theory, aren''t you," said Quinn, causing Ivy to look at him with a glimmer in her eyes, "well, those nine fat-Os are going to pull up the Arithmany double-E, and History of Magic isn''t really considered if you aren''t going in a historical research subject. Even then, no one''s going toin seeing at double-E. Except for Professor Snape ¡ª he doesn''t take anything less than Outstanding for his NEWT ss."


    "What about you? How did you do in your OWLsst year?" she asked.


    "I got ten Outstandings. Unlike you, I only took ten subjects ¡ª no Muggle Studies and Divination for me."


    "Hermione got eleven Os."


    "Oh my, now that''s an achievement worth bragging. If she only stuck with Divination, she would have got the entire dozen."


    "How did she do?" asked Ivy.


    Quinn''s eye twitched. Here he avoided going to a certain topic area, and she just pulled the conversation dangerously close to it.


    ". . . I haven''t met Daphne today," he said.


    A half-smile of satisfaction appeared on Ivy''s face. Quinn knew about her grades than Daphne''s ¡ª now that was a small victory that she liked very much.


    Quinn saw the smile and could practically read her mind off the expression. Did this girl have no tact or subtlety? He internally sighed ¡ª this was Ivy Potter; she did things head-on.


    He decided to change the subject, "I heard your father was there at the carnival attack, how''s he? I hope he didn''t face any unfortunate mishaps."


    "He''s fine, thank you for asking. Thankfully, he didn''t get injured," said Ivy, her voice losing its power as her gaze flitted around the room, looking anywhere but at him.


    "I see. I''m d that he''s fine," said Quinn, berating himself for breaching an ufortable topic. "How''s the summer going for you? Having fun after OWLs?"


    Ivy sighed, "With Voldemort back. . . mum''s a little worried about letting us go out ¡ª you know, Boy-Who-Lived and whatnot."


    "True-true, so hold up at home, huh. How''re your parents about wands at home?"


    "Not allowed," Ivy said with her lips pinched together.


    "Now, that''s truly unfortunate," said Quinn. "I would''ve gone mad if I was not allowed magic while isted in my home."


    After that, both moved out of the backroom when they heard Lily call out from Ivy. They entered the front area of the store, which was still bustling with people (mostly children moving around to browse the stunning variety of products.)


    "Yes, mum?" said Ivy.


    "Ivy, there you are," said Lily, heaving a sigh of relief. "Where were you? I was looking for you!"


    "I was in the backroom. You could''ve asked Harry; he would''ve told you."


    "I couldn''t reach your brother; it was too crowdy and loud, so I couldn''t even call out to him," said Lily before her eye caught Quinn standing behind her daughter. "Quinn, what a surprise, how''re you dear? Congrattions on the ten crowned Outstandings; Professor Flitwick was beside himself when he bragged about the results to us."


    "Thank you, professor," said Quinn with a polite smile.


    "You got ten crowns?!" said Ivy with her mouth ck ¡ª she had only got one crown for Transfiguration.


    "He''s been getting crowns on all his subjects for the past six years, dear," Lily revealed, smiling at her daughter''s expression. "Another congrattions is in order," she continued turning back to Quinn.


    There was more?! Ivy''s eyebrows all but trying to disappear into her hairline.


    "It wasn''t actually a question, but congrattions for bing the Headboy," said Lily smiling. "It was a unanimous decision; all Professor voted for you ¡ª well, Mr. Firenze abstained from voting as he didn''t feel like he knew any of the Prefects well enough to vote."


    Ivy''s surprise melted away ¡ª it really wasn''t a question. But she did give an impressed nod to Quinn for the unanimous decision.


    "Thank you, professor. I''m honored with the trust that all of the faculty has shown towards me and will ensure to stand up to the standards," said Quinn with a short bow.


    "Now-now, no need to be so formal," said Lily.


    "Ivy!" The three turned to see Hermione walking towards them with an older couple following behind her. Hermione raised a small pink pot to show it to Ivy, "Look, what I found. Guaranteed ten-second pimple vanisher ¡ª Fred says that it works on everything from boils to ckheads."


    Ivy nodded, gently took the pot from Hermione''s hand before saying, "Quinn got ten crowned Os."


    It took a moment for the brain of the smartest witch of her ss to catch up, but when it did, her jaw dropped, "T-Ten c-crowns!"


    "Dear me, that''s a lot. Hermione got three crowns," said the woman behind Hermione. She had mid-length curly brown hair and big bright brown eyes.


    Seeing that Hermoine was busy gaping at Quinn, Lily decided to do the introductions. "Quinn, this is Dr. Mary Granger and Dr. Richard Granger. Hermione''s parents." She then turned to the Granger parents, "This is Quinn, a seventh-year at Hogwarts, the school Headboy, and the top student of his ss."


    "Good afternoon, Dr. and Dr. Granger. Hermione has told me about you," said Quinn.


    "May I ask what she said?" asked Richard.


    "That you''re a Dental Surgeon while Dr. Mary is an Orthodontist," said Quinn.


    "So you''re also a muggleborn, Quinn. Where do you live?" asked Mary.


    "No, ma''am; Ie from a household with a long history of magic," said Quinn. "I would be what you call a pureblood."


    "Then. . ."


    Quinn smiled, "The non-magical is part of the world, and I wish to take whatever this world has to offer me."


    Mary and Richard exchanged looks. It was the first time they had seen a Pureblood who actually knew what a dentist meant, much less terms like Dental Surgeon and Orthodontist being thrown out like they were the norm. Their only other experience were the Potters, Weasleys, and, unfortunately, the Malfoys ¡ª two out of the three had no idea what the non-magical world was actually like.


    "That reminds me," said Quinn, taking out two cards from his pocket, handing them to the Granger parents. "I don''t know if you have been approached, but my family runs a modest warding business," the Potter mother-daughter quirked their brows at the word modesting out Quinn''s mouth, "we offer a service to ward non-magical households and deliver a wide range of options that you can choose from."


    Richard looked down and the card and did a double-take when he saw a phone number listed on the card. ". . . Your family business use telephones?" he asked in disbelief.


    "Yes, we do. You can call that number to have apany representativee to your house and exin to you about our services, and you can also use the same number for customer services. You can also MagiFax or owl your requests, but we prefer MagiFax and calling."


    Mary and Richard stared at Quinn, who seemed an oddity to them.


    "May I also get a card," said Mama Potter, looking extremely interested in the warding service.


    Quinn was more than happy to provide one, but as his hand went back after handing the card, a shrill sound went off in his head. He sucked a shuddered breath as his hand slowly dropped below.


    "Quinn?" Ivy said when she saw Quinn''s smile drop.


    Quinn immediately pulled himself together and faced everyone. "It was lovely to meet all of you today, and I would love to continue to talk, but I have to, unfortunately, leave now."


    Without waiting for a response, Quinn pushed his way through the crowd out of the store, disregarding Ivy''s calls from inside the store. He ran through the Diagon Alley, ignoring the seedy amulet seller, who shouted at him and entered the same dark corner to which he had apparated into.


    He detached his special pockets from his clothes, and immediately after, all of his clothes came undone from their seams, falling down to the floor. Quinn kicked his shoes off and pulled his socks off, leaving him only in his underwear. He stuffed all of his removed clothing into the special pocket and took out a white triangle patch made from stiff cloth, the size of his fist.


    He pped it on his chest, and a blue ripple went through the white patch as it expanded and stretched until Quinn''s body was covered in spandex. Another blue surge and the spandex transformed into cargo trousers and a hooded military-style jacket over a skin-tight full-sleeved shirt that covered his head, hiding all of his hair, with ckpression pants under the cargo pants.


    Quinn stretched his fingers, setting the tactical gloves, and tapped his tactical boots'' toe against the ground. He pped his special pockets on the wall, which ate the pockets under Quinn''smand.


    He tapped the triangle patch, and a front mask covered his face.


    Another tap and the white attire turned to ck.


    Noir Transformative Gear v2 was operational.


    Invisible Vignte had returned.


    And with a pop, he was gone.


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    Aegis Warding Solutions, the West subsidiary that handled the warding business. The wards used in Aegis'' products came from aprehensive tome, an amalgamation of runes from multiple different runguages. There wasn''t a single warder hired by Aegis who had beenpletely able to figure out the wards that they inscribed.


    Which was why they didn''t know that every time theyid a warding scheme over a building, they left behind a backdoor. A backdoor that only one person knew existed. The person who created the Aegis warding system.


    So when the wards over Ossuary, the home of the Bones family, were activated into defense activity, the backdoor with a certain rune code was triggered, sending an alert.


    Quinn apparated on the grass and faced a mansion with a forest in the background. His eyes behind the mask frowned at the flickering dome over Ossuary ¡ª he could tell that the wards weren''t broken through finding a weak point and exploiting it. . . no, the wards were brutally ripped apart with an aggressive force.


    He only knew two people in the country capable of doing this, and Quinn knew which one of them was responsible for this.


    . . .


    Betrix Lestrange twirled her wand as she swayed to a hum she sang as she felt the wind caressing her face. She stared at the demolished door of the building through which her master had entered alone.


    He had said: ''No one was allowed to enter as he dealt with Amelia Bones.''


    His other servants (all lower than her, everyone was lower than her) all thought their master was going to execute the about to be elected-Minister.


    But she knew that her beloved master would try to persuade Amelia Bones to join him and pledge her allegiance. She couldn''t understand the reason behind her master''s decision ¡ª maybe it was because she was a pureblood ¡ª whatever the reason, she knew that her master was always right.


    "Lady Lestrange, should we go inside?"


    Betrix didn''t look back to face the Death Eater she didn''t even know the name of. "No need. Master is invincible," her voice turned cold, "and master''s orders are absolute; you''re not even allowed to think about disobeying them."


    "Y-Yes."


    Betrix hummed in approval at the fear in the voice. Not even his servants were allowed to not fear her master.


    She frowned when she felt the anti-apparition around they had set to not allow Bones escape flicker. "Hey, what are you guys doing? The ward is bing shaky ¡ª can''t you guys even do one simple job right?"


    She had asked her master to bring along people like Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Augustus, who werepetent and entirely loyal to him like her, but he refused, saying that he alone was enough and the nameless servants would be enough to cast the ward.


    Betrix frowned when the ward began flickering more than before, and there was still no answer. She finally turned to face them ¡ª a Cruciatus or two were in order; maybe those would be enough to wake them up.


    "You¡ª"


    The acidic words died in her mouth as she saw the five Death Eater standing in the ces they had been before, but. . . all of them were encased in ice.


    "What¡ª"


    Her words again died in her mouth as she felt something behind. Before her face could even show the change in expression, her magic reached her wand, and a shield manifested behind her.


    However, the very next second, she felt the shield break and felt a jolt. She looked down and saw a glowing red swording out of her midriff. Betrix slowly turned her head and saw a ck mask and pitch-ck eyes staring at her from behind the mask.


    She heard the figure in ck click his tongue.


    Betrix again channeled magic into her wand, but before she could even do half a cast, her wand was stripped out of her hand, and almost simultaneously, another red sh hit her, and the world started to go ck. Thest thing she saw was the ck figure running inside the house, leaving behind a strong gust of wind that almost knocked her back.


    ". . . Master. . ."


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    Amelia Bones and Voldemort stared at each other.


    The Dark Lord stood in the middle of the room while the Head of DMLE sat on the floor slumped against a wall.


    "Amelia Bones. . . join me," said Voldemort. "You are pure of blood, so join the glorious cause, and you shall not only live past today, you''ll gain endless glory as the Minister of Magic under my regime."


    "I refuse," said Amelia instantly. "You killed my brother!"


    "Edgar Bones, yes, I remember getting the news of his death," said Voldemort nonchntly, "and his wife died along with, didn''t she? Leaving behind a young child. Only if they bowed to me, they would have lived to see their child grow," he looked around, "where''s that child?"


    Amelia didn''t answer and continued to re. However, inside, she thanked the fates that Susan had gone to visit her friend Hannah.


    "Do you not care about her?" asked Voldemort. "If you leave, she would truly be orphaned."


    "She''ll understand," Amelia spat.


    Voldemort looked outside the window and felt the copsing ward. "It looks like the Aurors are here." He looked back at Amelia, "It''s a pity, if you agreed, we would''ve made this world a better ce. But, you have made your choice. . . so today, I''ll kill you and dump your body in front of your Aurors, let them see your lifeless body and despair before I wipe them out.


    "Be grateful that you died by my noble hands."


    He raised his bone wand towards Amelia, who decided to re at Voldemort to not give him the satisfaction of breaking her spirit.


    "Avada Ke¡ª"


    The wall to their left exploded into pieces, lifting up a cloud of dust and debris.


    Voldemort looked to his side and thought it was an Auror, and then he felt arge amount of magic being coagted ¡ª a sign of being cast. Two dozen ice spears came whistling towards him. Voldemortzily raised a shield ¡ª these ice spears weren''t even a threat. But to his surprise, the ice spears poofed into ck clouds before they even hit the shield and covered his vision with an opaque haze.


    He raised his magic to wipe away the haze but felt something cold. A corrosive spell solely cast to melt his body until nothing left assaulted his shield ¡ª this one was a bit of a threat. For a second, Voldemort was surprised that an Auror would cast such a ''vile'' and ''dark'' spell ¡ª he wouldn''t have batted an eye if an Auror cast a killing curse at him to save their head, but this was something different ¡ª something that was cast to make him suffer.


    He was interested to see who this Auror was. He flicked his wand, and the dark curse fizzled away. With a look, Voldemort vanished the haze.


    And there stood the Auror. . . or he was expecting to see. Instead, he saw a man dressed in ck kneeling by Amelia Bone''s side.


    Their eyes met for a split second before the man in ck and Amelia Bones were both gone with a negligible pop.


    Voldemort stayed still for a second. He walked to the window and saw what had happened to his Death Eaters. He saw Betrix bleeding out on the grass, but the others drew his attention.


    "So that was the Invisible Vignte. . . interesting."


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    Quinn West - MC - Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - ns need to be changed.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I know you guys would''ve wanted a more direct confrontation, but this was more fitting. Also, like most times, the next chapter is going to exnations, talks, and reactions. So look forward for a few things that were missed cos of the action.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 265 - Return Of Noir, Pt. 2

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The fabric of space twisted in ck and red before it spewed out Quinn and Amelia Bones onto a moond. Amelia copsed onto the ground while Quinn got up from his kneel and looked around.


    ''Shit!'' he cursed inside. In the hurry of getting Amelia away from the Dark Lord, Quinn had apparated to the first ce that came to his mind, which was the moonds where he practices flying that he had been visiting for a while now. ''I''ll have to find a new ce now.''


    He turned to his rescuee, whoid prone on the low-growing vegetation. Amelia''s eyes met him, and the Head of DMLE dragged her body away from him.


    "Amelia Bones," said Quinn, his voice distorted, "where is your niece? Speak!" He had to go back for Susan, and if he knew which room she was in, it would streamline his entry and exit, decreasing the chances of contact and conflict with assants.


    "She. . . She isn''t home," Amelia said, wincing.


    Quinn stopped his shoulders from sagging in relief and kept his posture constant. The thumps of hearts ringing in his ears began slowing down, and he felt the highe down.


    "You. . . Y-You are the Invisible Vignte," she said, her mind running the scenes from a minute before. The ice spears, masked figure, the distorted voice ¡ª all separately weren''t identifying features, but all put together pointed to one individual.


    "Are you injured?" asked Quinn instead.


    "What were you doing at my home?"


    Quinn peered at her, and he couldn''t see a wand on her person. Obviously, Voldemort must have disarmed her. "Do you have a way to contact the Auror''s Office or the Ministry?"


    "Who are you?"


    Quinn held back the sigh. She wasn''t answering his question. "Who am I is no importance to you, now, answer my questions."


    "I''m the Head of DMLE; it is my business more than anybody," said Amelia, her voice returning to her. "The department has a bounty on your capture or identity."


    "I do not care for silly bounties. I am not someone the Ministry needs be waste their time to capture; there are much graver problems to be solved."


    "Why have you donned the mask then?" she asked. "Why do you change your voice?"


    A moment of silence seeded Amelia''s question.


    Quinn trained his gaze at her. "I wear my mask to hide who I am underneath. I wish for no one to know the person beneath the disguise ¡ª to remain nameless and faceless. There is nothing to look beneath the mask Amelia Bones, do not waste your breath on trying to find out."


    "I don''t know the motivations behind your decisions or your action. However, you can''t continue to do this; the more you do it, the more people would notice and inevitably try to emte you by putting on masks and cloaks and going out on the streets."


    Which was neitherwful nor safe and Quinn knew that which was why he didn''t go out every night and acted as a neighbourhood vignte.


    Quinn sighed and apparated away, leaving Amelia stunned. She looked around seemingly endless not-so-green grasnds, and the sky above also didn''t seem to be kind today as grey overcast the blue. She didn''t even know where she was, much less how to get home or to the Ministry.


    Amelia winced as she tried to sit up straight and ced a hand on her side. Bearing through the pain, she tried to stand up while thinking about how to get into contact when a pop interrupted her thought.


    "Oof!"


    Amelia watched as a young man dressed in the typical style of clothing that was preferred and developed in the Auror Office and worn by the majority of the Auror force.


    "Wh-What?!" sputtered the young man as he pushed himself back away from his abductor. He had been patrolling his beat as usual when he heard an apparition pop behind him, and before he could stop his feet, his body froze up, and the next thing he knew, he was thrown down onto the ground.


    He took out his wand to defend himself while taking in his surroundings when he noticed the other person sitting on the grass a few steps away from him.


    "Madam Bones!" he shouted in surprise before noticing the dirt, grime, and blood on her. "You''re injured!" The young Auror immediately stopped backing up and leaped in front of her,ing in between Amelia and Quinn with his wand pointing threateningly at thetter. "Madam Bones, what''s your status?! Do you need assistance? Is he the one who injured you?"


    The young Auror had positioned himself in a way that his non-wand was hidden from Quinn''s vision. He reached into his overcoat pocket, and with his wand in hand, he focused his magic and sent out alerts of the highest level he had the authority to with Auror cipher saying AMELIA BONES DANGER again and again.


    "You have called for other Aurors, good," said Quinn.


    "I have, so it would be wise for you to surrender yourself right here and now, and maybe we will be able to discuss some leniency," said the young Auror.


    Quinn looked over the young Auror''s shoulder towards Amelia. "Amelia Bones, you should strengthen your security detail. You are about to be the Minister, and there are many people who are not happy with it ¡ª displeased enough to murder you to prevent you from taking the chair. You survived today, but the next time might not be as fortunate as today. Take my advice, and I hope you will be able to live long enough to make the country so that I do not have to don the mask ever again.


    "Dark times are ahead, Amelia Bones, and this country will need someone like you taking the helm and steering it through it."


    Quinn raised his hand and shot a disarming spell towards the young Auror, who pulled up a shield, but the magic tore through it and sent the wand flying into Quinn''s hand, who threw it a distance away.


    He didn''t want to be spelled while apparating.


    By the time Voldemort had met his eye, Quinn was already mid-apparition; thus, there was no need to pull up a shield for safety, much less stupidly attack the Dark Lord. But this Auror was cautious against him, and Quinn was sure the Auror would try to keep him or a part of his body here.


    He wasted no more time and apparated away from the ce.


    The young Auror pushed the ground beneath him and sprinted to his wand. He re-armed himself before running back to Amelia. "Madam Bones, allow me to perform some healing magic; please tell me where you are injured ¡ª do you think you''re fit enough to side-apparate?"


    "I''m fine, son. What is your name and designation, Auror?"


    "Junior Auror Philligen at your service, madam!" said Philligen as he began administering first aid treatment.


    "Thank you, Auror Philligen. Have you sent for support?"


    "Yes, they''ll be arriving soon enough."


    The Auror badges could be turned into tracking beacons in time of emergency. Right now, there was probably a toon of Aurors flying towards them.


    "Madam Bones, who was that?"


    "The Invisible Vignte."


    Philligen sucked in a breath. He was in Auror School as a Trainee when the Invisible Vignte had struck at the Quidditch World Cup Finals, and they had discussed it in a ss. The images they had been shown of the case were the first gruesome ones for his entire batch.


    "That son of a¡ª"


    He stopped talking when dots suddenly appeared in the sky, flying in a formation he recognized. "The backup is here, Madam." He raised his wand shot a re in the sky.


    The dots turned into people on brooms, who soonnded on the ground. Eleven Aurors came running towards them, and in the lead was Sirius ck.


    "Boss! What happened to you today?!" said Sirius. "We got the call from Philligen here and immediately sent someone to check the house, just to find it ravaged. What the hell is going on?!"


    "You-Know-Who came knocking," Amelia said, standing up after with tolerable pain.


    "WHAT?! Voldemort?!"


    Amelia nodded, "He wanted me to either join or die. I was about to die when the Invisible Vignte suddenly barged and pulled me out here. Junior Auror Philligen was brought here so that he could alert the Office. He''s disapparated away before you guys could arrive."


    "Were you able to find out who he was?" asked Sirius.


    Amelia shook her head, "No, but we need to raise the bounty on his capture ¡ª double it, no triple it. And we need to set up a team to find him. I want to know he is; if he''s a ''he'' or not; where I can find him ¡ª I want his search bumped up the priority status."


    Sirus blinked in surprise at the sudden order and the intensity. "Why now? Did something happen?"


    "He knew," said Amelia. "There wasn''t a single word of chatter about the attack or even a peep anywhere that the Death Eaters were about to do something, and we have been looking actively looking for them since the carnival," he eyes turned sharp, "but he knew that You-Know-Who was going to attack me, and he came barging in.


    "He was there at Hogsmeade, then at the World Cup, and now this ¡ª once I could take it as luck, twice maybe a coincidence, but three times? No, this was no coincidence. That man clearly has a way to know how and when the Death Eaters are going to move, so we need to locate him to find it out."


    "Boss. . . if we go by your theory, wouldn''t he have also known about the Azkaban breakout, the carnival, or the Ministry?" asked Sirius.


    "You have a point, but think about it ¡ª even if he has a way to find out the information, he''s but one man ¡ª he might be limited in his approach, and we can learn his method, with our resources, we might truly be able to exploit it to its full extent."


    "But what if there''s nothing to be exploited?" asked Sirius. He wasn''t the fan of the idea of mitigating resources to find the Invisible Vignte just because of a theory that might not even be true.


    "I read the report on the Invisible Vignte that you wrote after the World Cup," said Amelia. "In it, you wrote that it was a strong possibility that the Invisible Vignte was someone who had lost family in the war, who is out for revenge. . . and you how those type of people can be. . . they are desperate, motivated, focused. . . and in this case, the man seems to be putting his all into it."


    Sirius pursed his lips; he had indeed written that. "Boss. . . while I don''t like the idea, but I see the point you''re making. Make the call, and I''ll brief the new team on my analysis of the Invisible Vignte."


    "Thank you, ck. Now, get me to St. Mungos. . . I want to be fixed up before my niece sees me."


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    Quinn popped up in the alley where he had buried his ''Quinn'' belongings. He stamped on the ground in frustration. He waved his hand and charmed the dark corner alley''s entrance to not to be disturbed. He pped his chest, and the mask faded away.


    He had missed a crucial opportunity today.


    He put his hand on the wall, and the bricks spat out his pockets.


    Taking care of the Death Eaters was simple enough ¡ª ice and sound, and all were entombed in ice without a peep. Betrix Lestrange, however, would have been a bit difficult to take care of without making a ruckus. He probably would have needed to fight her for a good while if he hadn''t ambushed her.


    He didn''t have that liberty.


    Time was of the essence, and Amelia Bones'' life was at stake.


    So he sneaked behind her back and used to Emperyean to create a sword for stabbing. . . and so he pushed the de into her back ¡ª aiming for the heart. However, Betrix sprang up a shield in thest moment, which deflected the de enough that it ended up in her abdomen.


    She survived. He wanted to give it another go; however, between her and Amelia Bones, he chose thetter.


    He did thest button on his shirt and sighed. For the first time in his life, he had felt that it was okay to be the judge of someone''s life ¡ª that someone was, of course, Betrix Lestrange.


    He had failed. And except for the anger from his failure, he didn''t feel much of anything.


    Quinn looked down at the Noir patch. It had gained another level of notoriety and this time straight in the eyes of Voldemort. It was nerve-racking, to say the least, facing Voldemort ¡ª he would have been more confident if he was alone, but with Amelia Bones nearby, he wasn''t confident enough for a direct confrontation, thus again, he took the stealthier option.


    "I guess it fits the image." He went by the name Invisible Vignte, after all.


    "I''ll have to be careful," he muttered to himself. . . and he thought it was time to put in action the next stage of his n.


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    Quinn West - MC - Damn it, I ended up sealing another magic.


    Amelia Bones - Head of DMLE - Now, how do I exin to a teen that our house is gone. . .


    Sirius ck - Senior Auror - I guess I have to put together a presentation now. . .


    Philligen - Junior Auror - Told his batch that he saw the Invisible Vignte up and close.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 266 - Brandishing The Shovel

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sat in the lounge with a book in hand. He raised the ss of cold and smooth banana milkshake, put the straw to his lips, and took a refreshing sip. The printed words formed chains of understandings and thoughts in his mind as he read through paragraphs and flipped through the pages.


    He looked at the ss in his hand. He nced back to the book for a second before going back to the ss. He sped a touch harder, and the milkshake began to shake with tiny droplets bouncing on the surface. Quinn nced back to the book and observed a diagram. His eyes returned to the ss, and the entire ss began thrumming against the inside of his palm with the straw jumping from rim to rim.


    "So, something like that, huh." Quinn removed his hand from the ss and left it floating in the air. He rested his open palm on the armrest of the sofa, magic flowed, and the couch started to tremble in its legs. He could feel the vibrations spread through his body. "Okay, this is sort of neat."


    He closed his hand, and a two-tine tuning fork manifested in his grip. He pushed magic through the conjured tuning fork, and the tines began shivering and producing a shrill melodious sound. Quinn ramped up the magic, and the tine''s oscitions increased in intensity, creating a high-pitched sound.


    Pang!


    The tuning fork cracked and disappeared in his grip.


    "Ah, it broke," he sighed. "Vibrations are neat."


    He grabbed the floating ss to sip sweet goodness and ced the closed book on hisp. ¡¸Osction Theory of Harmonic Magic¡¹it said. It was one of histest endeavors ¡ª the fabled vibration magic. It could make cutting sharper, break objects, among various other uses.


    Quinn hade to notice the presence of vibration in various magics he was using ¡ª the water sonar and earth sense both at some point were indirect applications of magic, even the Viking book of winds had a portion of sharp winds that essentially used vibrations at the core for cutting, the severing spell itself was pure vibrational motion splitting the target. The sound itself was vibrations ¡ª the silencing wards dulled the vibration till there was no sound left, the voice modtion while he was dressed in Noir transformative suit was a modification in vibration, he could even make the air molecules vibrate to emte speech that didn''te from his voice box.


    And ording to the book, vibrations had a whole rabbit hole worth of connections with magic, which Quinn was interested in exploring.


    He sucked in thest bit of his milkshake and lifted up the straw with his mouth. A little breath down the straw, and the long tube split in the middle.


    "What are you doing, Quinn. You''re going to make a mess."


    Quinn watched as George walked into the lounge. "Nuh-uh, I won''t," he said, and the straw joined back together. It floated out of his mouth and dropped into the ss on the table.


    Quinn watched as George sat in front of him. However, there was something different about him. George looked. . . restless, and thest time Quinn had seen his grandfather look restless was when he had lost his magic.


    "Grandfather, is something wrong?" asked Quinn. George took a deep breath as he looked at Quinn. He didn''t reply immediately, which set up a worry inside Quinn. "Grandfather?"


    ". . . Lia¡ª"


    "What happened to Lia?" asked Quinn, getting to his feet. A million thoughts passed through his mind ¡ª which started out with what might have happened to Lia, but soon the thought that someone had found his identity and had targeted Lia dominated his mind.


    "She. . . She is bringing home her. . . boyfriend," said George, gravely ¡ª as serious as he had ever been.


    "I''m going to ki ¡ª huh. . . what?" said Quinn, the energy he had built up drained right away. "Boyfriend? Did you say, boyfriend?"


    "Yes, boyfriend."


    "Ah, that''s nothing to be ¡ª," Quinn started off relieved that his worst thoughts didn''te true, but then his mind caught up with George''s words. "Oh. . . oh. . oh. . . OH!"


    Quinn sat down, and the grandson and grandfather pair sat in silence for a while.


    "I didn''t know she had a boyfriend," said Quinn breaking the silence.


    George sighed, "You know how she is about her rtionships. She only tells when she thinks the rtionship is going somewhere, and her standards for that are quite high."


    "Quite," said Quinn, sighing. His sister was very personal about her love life, even with them ¡ª her family, and he didn''t mind ¡ª however, this was different. "Lia hasn''t brought any of her boyfriends home. . . this will be the first time."


    "Yes," George said, gazing at the table in front of him, "and that can only mean one thing."


    "She must be really serious about this guy," said Quinn, simrly staring at the table in thought.


    Polly popped into the room to take away the empty milkshake ss. The ss flew into her hand, and she was about to leave but stopped when she saw her Big master and Little master staring at the table in silence and with the same expression on their faces.


    "Do you know who this guy is? What does his background report say?" asked Quinn. The first step to fighting(winning) a war was to know the enemy.


    George shook his head, "After your sister found that I did it with that Jason fellow, she got angry and didn''t talk to me for months. . . I never kept tabs after that."


    Quinn clicked his tongue. So they were going to go blind. ''No, you can''t think like that. Lia''s going to bring the punk here at the home ground; we have the advantage.''


    "When is she bringing him?" he asked.


    "Tomorrow for brunch," said George.


    "That isn''t much time," Quinn stood up, "but let hime. . . I will see what Lia sees in this. . . what''s his name?"


    "Abraham. . . Abraham Astier."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The floo firece roared green, and out of the mes came Lia walking out into the West mansion''s floo firece room. She was excited for today. It was the first time she was bringing her boyfriend home, after all. There was a sh of green behind, and Lia turned with a small to see herpanion walk out of the fire.


    He walked out on the floor and immediately stumbled as a step. Lia knowing there could be a chance of this happening, reached out her hands and stabilized him before he could fall.


    "You really are bad with the floo," said Lia, smiling.


    Abraham nodded a thank you to Lia as he regained his bnce. He pushed up his thin-framed wayfarer sses and helplessly smiled, "The floo doesn''t agree with me, unfortunately."


    Lia looped an arm around her boyfriend''s arm and tangled her fingers with his. "There''s a trick to it, you know. If you''d just let me teach it to you, you won''t have to fall every time."


    "Believe me when I say this, but I have tried every trick and tip in the book, but nothing has ever worked for me. The gods of floo have never favored me ¡ª they seem to hate me even."


    "Aww, that''s impossible. How could anyone hate someone as cute as you?" said Lia, pressing a kiss onto Abraham''s cheek, just at the edge of his lips.


    "We are at your family home!" Abraham said in a rushed whisper as he looked at the door, fearing someone would walk in the very moment.


    "So, what?" said Lia with a mischievous grin on her face; she leaned closer to Abraham and whispered into his ear, "You know we could stay here for the night; we could stay in my childhood bedroom and. . ."


    "Lia!" Abraham said, feeling scandalous. "You know how anxious I am, please can we not do this. If this is your way of helping, it''s not helping."


    "There''s nothing to worry about. My family''s going to love, I''m sure of it."


    "Didn''t you say that your grandfather is a strict man? What if he doesn''t like me or approve of us?"


    "Yes, he''s a strict man, but that doesn''t mean he isn''t going to like you. He''s a stickler for manners and likes things to be done in a proper way, but other than that, he''s just anyone else. If you stay true to yourself, he won''t have any problem with you or us."


    Abraham peered at his girlfriend through his sses as Lia reached out to fix his tie, which had shifted in the floo. His eyes widened. "You. . . You''re scared too, aren''t you?!"


    "No, of course, not," she said. However, her hand freezing for a second gave it away.


    "Oh my god, you''re scared!" Abraham said, now feeling more anxious than before.


    "Of course, I''m nervous!" said Lia. "This is a big deal for me. This is the first time I have brought someone to see them."


    "What. . . I-I am the first one?" A feeling of giddy happiness bloomed in his heart, and he smiled when Lia silently nodded. "Well, if you say that we''re going to fine, then we''re going to be fine."


    Lia looked up at Abraham and saw the giddy smile on her face. His smile gave her confidence, even though it wasn''t a dependable smile, but it was one she liked.


    "Of course, we would be fine. I said so already, didn''t I?" said Lia with a bright smile which then turned into a teasing one. "But, I am still feeling a bit nervous, so. . ." She tiptoed and leaned forward.


    Abraham''s eyes widened as he peeked at the door, but sighed and leaned in, but before their lips could meet. . .


    "Little mistress."


    The pair broke off at the instant and looked at the room''s door to see big-elf eyes peeking from the corner of the door.


    "Polly," said Lia clearing her through, "would you inform everyone that we have arrived."


    The house-elf nodded and popped away.


    "Uhm, is there something else that I need to keep in mind?" asked Abraham as they walked to the lounge. "I should be careful of my etiquettes, and Ms. Rosey would be fine. Elliot, you said, won''t be here today, but if he''s, I should remain polite and ask him for some advice about my herb garden. Then there''s your brother ¡ª he might tease us and that I should talk to him about magic."


    Lia nodded, proud of him for remembering. "Out of everyone today, I hope you''d be able to make friends with Quinn," she said. "My baby brother doesn''t let people close to him easily, so if he likes you, it would be a great deal to me." Abraham grasped her hand, and Lia smiled, "But you know, he might be the one you might be able to impress the easiest."


    "Why do you say that?"


    "Well, I''m his beloved sister, so, naturally, he''d like to know more about my boyfriend, so he will actively seek you out, which he doesn''t usually do with new people. Plus, he''s also dating someone, and that''s the point of importance."


    "What does your brother dating someone have to do with him liking me?"


    "The rtionship is very new, and more importantly, it''s his first rtionship," a calctive glimmer shone in Lia''s eyes. "You can exploit that and profit by giving him advice about how to progress in his rtionship. He''d listen to you who had much more experience than him carefully, and when his rtionship, he''ll remember that you helped him and give you credit. Vo, you''ll be best mates in no time."


    He stared at her, wondering why she was talking as if this was a business strategy. "But what if his rtionship fails? At your brother''s age, rtionships change faster than you can brew a polyjuice potion."


    "I''ll have you know that my brother is very-very charming. The reason I''m so confident this is going to work is even if you give him mediocre advice, he''ll just end up making it work, and you''ll be reaping the benefits of his work. Also, didn''t I say that my brother doesn''t let people close to him easily. The fact that he started dating means something in his world, and I know that girlfriend of his; she''s like my baby brother in that aspect.


    "Finally, Quinn has my looks, so you know, he''s the full package. Girls will brew Amortentia just to have a tryst with him," said Lia with overflowing pride.


    The couple finally reached the lounge.


    "How do I look?" asked Abraham.


    Lia observed him from up and down before nodding, "You look perfect. Now, don''t be nervous; you''ll be amazing."


    Abraham took a deep breath, faced the lounge door, looked at Lia, and nodded. When they entered the room, there was only one person in the room, sitting on a sofa, facing away from them.


    "Quinn," called Lia as they moved forward, and Abraham braced himself. "Look who I have with me¡ª"


    Lia stopped speaking, and Abraham froze in his spot when they had walked near Quinn and had the entire him in their view.


    "You''re an idiot," said Lia, her hand going up to her face.


    "Now, why would you say something so hurtful," asked Quinn; he was the furthest from an idiot, so it was pretty hurtful to him.


    He walked to Abraham with a smile on his face and raised his right hand for a handshake while his left hand raised a shovel over his shoulder.


    "So you''re Abraham. My name is Quinn, and well, I''m looking forward to knowing more about you," said Quinn with a bright, friendly smile.


    Abraham shook hands with Quinn, but his eyes were fixed on the shovel, noticing the shiny edges of the spade de that looked dangerously sharp. ". . . I-It''s a pleasure to meet you, Quinn. Lia has told me a lot about him."


    "I hope all good things," said Quinn, noticing the man''s French ent. "I can''t say the same about you, though. Lia hasn''t talked about you at all. Before tomorrow, I didn''t even know you existed."


    Abraham, of course, already knew that. Lia had exined to him how she shared her love life with her family. He, however, wasn''t expecting it to be brought up and thus was at a loss on how to respond.


    "I-I see," he said.


    "Quinn. . ." said Lia, her words burning with anger.


    "Alright, alright, I''ll stop," Quinn wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He removed the shovel from his shoulder and dropped it, but the shovel disappeared before it hit the ground. "I was just ying around, you know, breaking the ice with a little bit ofedy."


    "That thing you said to him wasn''t funny," Lia said, still looking angry.


    Quinn pursed his lips. "I''m sorry. I was purposefully hurtful. But you know, I don''t like this. He''s going to take my big sister away from me. How am I supposed to feel about that?" he said with the world''s most pitful puppy-dog eyes.


    And they were super effective. Lia West, one of the most protective sisters on the, melted away at those words and the look. She immediately hugged Quinn and spoke cating words offort and love. "What are you talking about? Who said I''m going anywhere. I''ll always be here for my baby brother. I love you, Quinn, and nothing''s going to change that."


    "So if Ie to your house to go out for a fun evening to the non-magical world, you''lle with me?" asked Quinn, channeling the younger brother energy.


    "Why would I ever refuse that? You cane to me any time, even if I''m in another country, and youe to me there, we''ll go do whatever you want."


    "Promise?"


    "Promise."


    "Okay, I''m d," said Quinn and hugged Lia, swaying a bit as he started at Abraham, who only had one thought that when he saw the smug smile that Quinn shed him.


    ''Did she mean cunning instead of charming?''


    Quinn and Lia ended the hug, with thetter feeling emotional about her brother''s worries. Her brother didn''t usually open up like this, so the moment now felt special to her, even causing her to tear up a bit.


    Quinn walked to Abraham and quite uncharacteristically hugged the man, and Lia might have noticed it, but she was busy with her flowing emotions.


    "Listen, mate, I don''t have anything against you. I don''t even know you. But you''re the first guy Lia has brought home, which is really special for her. So if you hurt her in any way, I won''t need to make you regret it as Lia will do on her own, but I wille after you and make you wish you hadmitted genocide instead of hurting my sister."


    "I will never hurt Lia."


    Quinn firmly patted Abraham on the back before ending the threatening hurt, but he frowned when he saw Abraham smiling.


    "Why are you smiling?"


    Being threatened by Quinn felt like validation to Abraham ¡ª that Lia''s family had epted the existence of their rtionship and so had to threaten him. And when he told Quinn about it, the younger brother quirked an eye and said, "You''re a little weird, aren''t you?"


    "Where are the others?" asked Lia after having a moment by herself.


    "Today was a sunny day, so they''re sitting outside in the garden," said Quinn. He observed the nervous couple as they went to meet the elders and chuckled, "You don''t have to be anxious; you already passed the most challenging part of the day.


    Now, leave it to me. I, with my heart of pure gold, shall help you lovebirds as the world''s best cupid. I''ll have the award of the best couple in your hands by the end of the day."


    Lia brightly smiled withplete confidence in her brother while Abraham nced at the sibling pair in worry.


    Was this going to be alright?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Shovel is one of the most lethal weapons invented.


    Lia West - Big Sister - Is wrapped around her baby brother''s finger.


    Abraham Astier - Mr. Boyfriend, French - The reserved one in the rtionship.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Lia & Quinn''s Picture (sort of). See parament.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 267 - Meeting Mr. Boyfriend

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn came running out into the gardens.


    "Hide the shovel!" he said hastily.


    George and Ms. Rosey, who both were sitting on outdoor furniture under the warm sun, looked up at Quinn, who nced back behind him in a hurry.


    "She got angry, didn''t she?" said Ms. Rosey, vanishing the shovel that sat beside George with a wave of her wand. "I told you she won''t like it."


    "I was being cute! How was I supposed to know she wouldn''t like that? Okay-okay, they''re here. Act normal, act normal," said Quinn. However, he was the only one who needed to heed his words.


    Lia and Abraham walked into the garden with Lia staring at Quinn with narrowed eyes. Quinn t-out ignored the pointed look and decided to move things along.


    "Grandfather, Ms. Rosey, let me introduce Abraham Astier," he said. "Abraham, this is our grandfather, George West, the Head of the family, and the lovelydy here''s Ms. Rosey, the one actually in charge here."


    Abraham stiffly stepped forward and introduced himself, "Hello, I''m Abraham Astier; it''s a pleasure to finally meet you. Lia has told me so much about both of you."


    George ced his teacup down and stood up. He walked to Abraham and faced the slightly shorter man. "Abraham Astier. . . I have been wanting to meet you ever since Lia told me about you. I look forward to knowing much about you today," George said as he shook hands with Abraham.


    Abraham nodded before remembering what Lia had asked him to do and moved towards Ms. Rosey, who had stood up. He gently grasped her offered hand and kissed it in Ms. Rosey''s preferred form of greeting. He felt breath return to him with Ms. Rosey nodded before silently sitting back down, which ording to Lia, was a sign that he had passed the greeting phase.


    He sighed in relief and turned back with a smile to see Lia and Quinn arguing in not-so-quiet whispers about how it should have been they who did the introduction.


    "Children," said George, e sit."


    The West siblings stopped arguing and took their seats. George sat in front of the couple while Quinn took his seat beside Ms. Rosey, seated on the double-seater to the side.


    "So Abraham, your ent, it''s French, isn''t it?" asked George.


    Abraham received the cup of tea from Ms. Rosey. "Yes, I''m was born and raised in France," he said; his ent, while not heavy, had a French vor to it.


    "I thought so too," Quinn said, sipping on a caramel milkshake. "You said born and raised ¡ª does that mean you studied at Beauxbatons as well?"


    "Yes, I did."


    "How old are you again?"


    "I''m twenty-six this year."


    "So you were a year junior to Lia, huh. Did you two know each other back then?"


    "I knew him by face and name, but that was it," said Lia. And as for Abraham, "I knew of Lia ¡ª well, everyone knew of Lia in the school, she was insanely famous. But we were never acquaintances, much less friends."


    "Then how did you two meet and get together?" asked Quinn, interested.


    "I met Abraham when I was in France. . . Lyon, wasn''t it? I was having dinner when I spotted him in the same restaurant and asked him to join me, and we things started from there," said Lia smiling sweetly.


    "So, you live in Lyon in Abraham?" asked George.


    "No, I was working in Lyon back then," said Abraha. "I''m from Bordeaux."


    "Oh, what''s your profession then?" Quinn asked while adding the findings into the new Abraham titled memory book.


    Abraham straightened, and a glimmer emerged in his eye. "I''m a chef, trained in French cuisine."


    Quinn, the self-proimed foody, leaned forward, "Tell me more."


    "Well, I have been interested in cooking since I was very young. My mere(mother) is a fantastic cook, and I used to help her out in the kitchen when I was but a child. Then when I was, I would like to say fourteen, I took a summer job as a kitchen porter at a restaurant that used ingredients that didn''t go well with magic ¡ª I was hired to peel, cut, and do the prep work on them by hand.


    "I must have done a good job back then because the Legumier(vegetable chef) told me that I could return the next year and they would pay me more," there was a nostalgic smile on Abraham as he recollected the memories. "I did return the following summer because the money they promised was good, but after the first day, the same chef asked me if I would like to learn from her. I had nothing better to do, so I agreed. I would learn in the morning when the restaurant wasn''t open and would work in the evening before the dinner service.


    "The summer ended, but the apprenticeship didn''t. My teacher told me that I could return the next year. At that time, I wasn''t sure if I wanted so I told her I would think about it. But then I started to cook in the dorms when I was hungryte at night. . . then my roommates started to ask me to cook, and before I knew it, I was being paid to cook for my dorm floor."


    Abraham shrugged with a lop-sided smile, "It felt good. . . so I decided to go back the next summer, and the summer after that. By the time I graduated, I had decided that I was going to be a chef. I went to the same restaurant and took a formal apprenticeship under the Chef De Cuisine. I learned and worked there for two years before moving on.


    "Then I went around the country, working under different chefs and learning everything they had to offer. . . and when I turned twenty-four, I was made the head chef of a new restaurant from a patron who hade to like my cooking."


    "Wow, I want to do something like that!" said Quinn.


    "You want to be a chef?" asked Abraham. "Y-You cane work for me if you want."


    "Huh, no-no, I don''t want to be a chef," Quinn waved his hand. "I want to go around the world and learn magic," he crossed his arms with a faraway look, "yeah that would be the dream. . . learning the different cultures to make something of my own." Books were an excellent source of knowledge, but there were other things ¡ª little intricacies and nuggets of wisdom, which could only be found where the magic was being actively used by amunity.


    ''Ah, that''s right,'' thought Abraham, ''Lia said that Quinn loved magic.''


    "Where is this restaurant of yours?" asked Quinn. "I would like to visit."


    "Ah, I actually left that job," said Abraham, scratching the back of his head.


    "Eh, then?"


    Before Abraham could answer, Lia took the initiative. "Abraham starts his own restaurant the next month," she said proudly.


    "Oh, a chef and a restaurateur, now that''s more like it. So where''s the new restaurant? I will visit there," said Quinn.


    "It''s in Manhattan, New York," said Abraham, surprising everybody.


    "You got a permit to open a magical shop in Manhattan?" asked George. His eyes went to his granddaughter with a question in them. Lia matched his eyes but didn''t deny it.


    Manhattan was the magical hub of the United States. Woolworth Building ¡ª a building in Manhattan, housed the Headquarters of Magical Congress of the United States of America (MCOUSA), and because of the secretive and controlling nature of the Magical Congress, not anyone could just up open a magical business in the area. If it was a century or two in the past, it would have required a thorough vetting process to get a permit, and even then, a single mistake would result in the termination of the permit and the closing of the business. But today, the area was so high-profile and full of important people that it required connections in high ces to do anything in Manhattan.


    The fact that Abraham was allowed to open the shop in such a high-profile area and Lia not denying it could mean only one thing. She was the one who pulled the strings.


    Lia heard a sound in her ear that came out of everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "Do you own the restaurant building in Manhattan? Blink once for yes."


    She recognized the voice and turned to see that Quinn was talking with Abraham about the logistics required to run a restaurant, but she knew it was him.


    Lia blinked once.


    The voice spoke again, with Quinn still talking with Abraham. "Sell the building to me."


    Lia frowned and mouthed, ''Why?''


    "Because it''s clear that you helped your boyfriend with his restaurant, and from the looks of it, grandfather isn''t happy about it. He is probably, no scratch that ¡ª he IS thinking less of Abraham right now. If I know grandfather, he''s is thinking that Abraham manipted you into helping him.


    "So if you sell the building to me, then that would cate his displeasure as that would take the control out of your hand and into mine. It would separate business from personal, which I''m sure would help when you exin your decision to himter. It''s quite elementary, don''t you think? How about it?"


    Lia pursed her lips in thought for a while before reluctantly nodding.


    "Now that''s what are we talking about," said the voice projected with the help of sound and vibration magic. "Also, I''m not paying a single knut above the market price."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Lia closed the door behind her and sighed when the stopper clicked into ce.


    "So, how did it go?"


    She looked up and saw Quinn leaning against the wall in front of their grandfather''s study.


    "He was upset," Lia said, "as you said he would be."


    "Well, that was to be expected," said Quinn as the sibling pair walked away from the study. "You know, he''s being protective, right? In our position, the biggest doubt while in a rtionship is if our partner is with us because of our money. Someone as young as Abraham opening a restaurant screams him taking advantage of you."


    "But, I did it on my own," she said. "Abraham doesn''t know I own the building; I used one of ourwyers for lease negotiations. He even went to the permit office and applied for the license and doesn''t know that I pushed it along the line to get approved."


    Quinn patted Lia''s back infort. "What''s done can''t be changed, so we need to move along and remedy the situation. Did you tell grandfather about me buying the building?"


    "Yes, I did. Thank you for that suggestion. It helped," said Lia. She peered at Quinn and noticed her brother''s rxed features. "You don''t seem to be upset about my choices ¡ª even Ms. Rosey was a bit disappointed."


    Quinn nced at his sister before shrugging. "You care for him; I can see that much. And he''s at a crucial point of his career, so I can see why you helped him out.


    "To be honest, I was tempted to use Legilimency to see what his intentions were," Quinn said, and Lia''s eyes narrowed dangerously, "but I didn''t do it. . . I believe in your choice of partner. Even if you made a mistake in judging a person''s character, I know you won''t let anyone bully or manipte even if you have feelings for them."


    And for Quinn, between him and Lia ¡ª she was the more dependable one.


    Lia stopped and suddenly pulled Quinn into a hug. "When did my baby brother grow up so much? Don''t grow up and stay my cute baby brother, please. She buried her face into his shoulder, "You even grew taller than me before I knew it," her hug tightened, "thank you, Quinn."


    Quinn hugged her back. "It''s okay, don''t mention it; you''re my dear sister, after all," he said. Quinn knew how much Lia cared for him. Ever since he hade into this world, she had sent him a letter twice every week while she was away, and that had continued throughout the years to this day, and he knew how busy Lia had been during the years when she had just started working, but not once had the letter stopped.


    "But you know the problem isn''t over, right?" said Quinn.


    "What do you mean?" she said, not letting Quinn go from her hug.


    "You''ll have to tell Abraham that you were behind the setup of his restaurant, or he will find one day, and that won''t be good for your rtionship," he said.


    ''Hypocrite.'' "Tell him the very next chance you get." ''Hypocrite.'' "Come clean and be honest with him." ''Hypocrite.''


    "But, what if he gets angry. . ."


    "You''d have to take that risk, Lia. Even though I have only the guy for a few hours, I say that he will understand."


    Lia stayed silent for a good while before nodding into Quinn''s shoulder.


    "Okay, now, let''s go get some ice cream," said Quinn, ending the hug.


    "That''s a great idea," said Lia giggling, "the best one you had today; much better than the shovel."


    "Don''t disrespect the shovel. It holds power you can''t even fathom," said Quinn, snorting. "Should we go get Abraham? Where is he staying."


    "He''s probably already sleeping. He said that today was stressful for him. He''s staying at a hotel."


    "He could have stayed the night here; why did you set him up in a hotel."


    "I said the same thing to him, and Ms. Rosey had even set up a room for us in advance, but he refused."


    "Us? As in you two in the same room? Eww. . ."


    "Oh, grow up, will you?"


    "Decide on one thing, woman. Do you want me to grow up or not?"


    The day ended with the West siblings chattering away.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I''m not paying for the ice cream.


    Lia West - Elder sister - A girl in love.


    George West - Grandfather - Protective granddaddy.


    Ms. Rosey - Kept an eye on Abraham - Her thought ¡ª "A lot of work is needed. . ."


    Abraham Astier - Chef, Restaurateur - Thinks he did pretty well.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 268 - The Next In Line

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stepped out of the firece with green mes parting to let him through. He patted his clothes once, and all dust spots from the floo vanished.


    "Quinny hase."


    He nced down at the familiar voice, and there stood a house-elf with big glistening brown eyes and floppy ears with a small bronze earring on the helix of each ear.


    "I hope I didn''t keep everyone waiting," said Quinn.


    "Quinny always on time," said Gretsy, the house-elf of the Greengrass household. "Mistress Daphy waiting for you in the lounge. Let me take you."


    "Thank you, Gretsy," said Quinn to the cleanly dressed house-elf dressed in a cottage-white toga. A practice that the Greengrass family had adopted from seeing Polly dressed in her uniform-togas. They had even called Polly to hammer down the view into Gretsy, who refused to wear anything other than her makeshift clothing made from pillow covers which had be ragged after years of repeated cleaning.


    As they walked through the halls of the Greengrass mansion, Quinn asked, "Is Astoria home?"


    "Mistress Tori is home. Doing homework."


    "Could you please tell her toe and meet me when she''s done?"


    "I will tell."


    Gretsy dropped Quinn off at the lounge. Quinn entered the room, and as promised, Daphne sat on a sofa with her feet folded to her side. She held a book in her hands that Quinn recognized ¡ª it was a healing manual focused on lungs. Advanced material that wasn''t in the Hogwarts curriculum and only taught during healing apprenticeships.


    She must have heard him walk in as she closed her book and set it down onto the small side table before looking up at him. "You''re finally here," she said, "I got tired waiting."


    "I''m on time, mdy," said Quinn as he sat down beside her. "So, how''re you doing today?"


    Daphne scooted near him and leaned against Quinn as she replied, "There''s nothing much to do at home, so I just end up reading books these days," she sighed, "even Tracey is out traveling with her parents. . . I''m bored."


    "What about the garden you were tending to? Did you already do that?"


    "No, I haven''t started that. . . it''s too hot outside."


    "Then, do you want me to help you?" Quinn took out a lightly tinted circr vial. "I even brought a potion[alchemic] that will help the growth of the nts that you told me about."


    Daphne took the vial off Quinn''s palm and eyed the sloshing liquid, which she squinted her eyes to make out its green color behind the tint. "I guess we can do that, but let''s wait for a while," she said and rested her head on Quinn''s shoulder.


    "Whenever you want, I''m free all day today," said Quinn, ncing down at Daphne, looking at her blue eyes and golden hair. "Are your parents home today, or is it just you and Astoria?"


    "Just me and Astoria," said Daphne. She looked up at him and noticed that he was looking at her. She gazed back at him and saw that his gaze was shifting to a particr part of her face.


    She lifted her head to give him permission and closed her eyes as Quinn dipped his inclined face towards her. She thought his lips were warm and soft as she parted her lips in response to his ticklish licks letting his tongue slip inside.


    When they parted, Daphne was left feeling warm and fuzzy and in a fleeting daze.


    "Milk and Honey; you had tea recently," he said,menting.


    "Mhm," she voiced softly. She felt Quinn''s finger on her chin as it lifted her face up for another round, and her heart was more than happy to oblige.


    "Oops!" The two parted with haste at the unexpected sound and looked at the door where Astoria stood with a hand on her mouth and mischief in her eyes. "It looks like I have disturbed you two. I''m sorry for intruding upon your. . . dalliance."


    Daphne reddened at her sister''s snicker and amusement-filled eyes and red at her with irritation. "What do you want?" she asked.


    "I want nothing, sister mine," said Astoria, still giggling. "It''s your boyfriend that wanted me to meet him and called for me."


    Daphne looked up at Quinn, a question in her icy blue eyes. She and Quinn only met twice a week in the summer break, and she didn''t appreciate it when that time was interrupted.


    Quinn nodded, "I did ask Gretsy to tell Astoria that I wanted to meet her."


    "And why''s that?"


    "I have something of importance to ask of her. . . Astoria, if you would," inviting the younger Greengrass to sit with them.


    "So, what do you want to talk about?" asked Astoria.


    "Well, as you know, the nexting year will be myst at Hogwarts," Quinn said, "and there are some matters that need to be taken care of before I leave."


    Quinn reached into his pocket and ced a ck and gold card on the table between him and Astoria.


    Astoria reached over and picked up the card, and familiarity shed in her eyes. "Why''re you giving me the AID card?" she asked.


    "I have an offer for you. It''s up to you if you choose to ept it ¡ª though I would like it if you would," said Quinn and then pointed at the card in Astoria''s hand. "Astoria. . . would you look to be the proprietor of AID after me?"


    Astoria gasped as she froze in her spot, her widened eyes dipping down to the card in her hand. Even Daphne sat up straight beside Quinn and stared at him with a questioning look of surprise in her eyes.


    ". . . What do you mean?" asked Astoria.


    Quinn rested his hands in hisp. "AID is something I built in my second year, and it has been five years since that fateful day. It has grown from something that used to handle little problems into something that organized the biggest Hogwarts Quidditch tournament ever held." There was a proud glimmer in Quinn''s eyes as he spoke about AID. "And now that I am soon to leave Hogwarts, I don''t wish for AID to leave with me. So I''vee to a decision to pass on AID to another. . . and that another is you, Astoria."


    "M-Me?" asked Astoria, her breath hitching.


    "Yes, you," said Quinn. "After thinking about who could seed me to continue AID ¡ª you were the candidate that I deem the best."


    "What about Luna? Isn''t she part of AID? Shouldn''t she be the one to seed you?"


    "True, Luna is part of AID, and she always will be as much part of AID as I am. But she''s not fit to seed AID as the main proprietor. She''s more like a stray cat that woulde when her heart desires," said Quinn with a shake of his head and a chuckle. "Do you know, when I invited her to join AID, she asked me to pay her in cookies ¡ª ah, that was an interesting day indeed.


    "I''m sure if I go ask Luna to seed AID, she would agree, but if I tell her that she doesn''t have to and I have another option in mind, she''d decline and tell me to choose them ¡ª she will only ept when there''s no other option."


    When it came to skill, Quinn knew Luna, who he had taught for years to be better suited for the task than Astoria, which was an important factor considering that a lot of AID''s requests were magic requests from students who weren''t able to cast the required spells themselves, or simply didn''t want to take on the hassle of doing so.


    "Okay, that sort of does make sense," said Astoria as she had be friends with the entric Ravenw through Quinn. However, the question still remained. "But why me?" she asked.


    "Well, as you must realize, that the proprietor of AID is a unique position in Hogwarts. I personally started it, which makes it a student venture, and as such, it isn''t controlled by the faculty ¡ª save for the fact that the permission to use the ssroom that is being used as the officeys in the hands of Professor Flitwick, but I''m sure as long as AID keeps true to its purpose, which is to help the students, he won''t take away the permission.


    "But I digress. Coming back to the position of the proprietor. . . Astoria, people don''t realize it, but the proprietor of AID holds more power than any other student position in Hogwarts, more than the Prefects or even the Headboy and Headgirl ¡ª and I''m both a Prefect and Headboy, so take my word for it."


    "How do you mean?" asked Astoria, confused. She looked at her sister, but even Daphne was clueless as her.


    A satisfied smile surfaced on Quinn''s face as he pulled back his shoulders and raised his chin high. "Do you know why I started AID?" he asked.


    "To help the students," said Astoria, repeating the official AID motto.


    "Actually, that''s incorrect. Sure, helping people is an integral part of AID and the main reason for its sess. But the reason for AID''s inception was to solely benefit me," said Quinn, pointing both thumbs towards him.


    Astoria quirked her brow. "How does AID help you?" she asked, but then the thought shed behind her eyes. "Ah, you mean the money, don''t you? You charge the students for their services, which goes into your pocket! You mean that, right?"


    "No-no-no, that''s not it," Quinnughed as he waved his hand. "AID barely breaks even every year. For five years, I haven''t pocketed a single knut out of AID ¡ª but I have funneled revenue into the workshop, so maybe I have attained mary gains from it. . . but no, money wasn''t the reason I started AID."


    "Then what''s the reason?" That was her only guess.


    "The reason AID was started was to gain favors, or as I like to lovingly call them debts," said Quinn.


    "Favors? Debts. . .?" said Astoria, tilting her head.


    "A question to you and even you, Daphne. . . why do you think for five years, I have been offering massive discounts on the AID subject notes? It would''ve been logical to give them on the very first year, maybe even the second, but not every year.


    "Would either of you care to venture a guess?" he asked.


    Both sisters dipped their chins in thought before looking at each other to see that the other didn''t have an idea.


    "We have no idea," said Daphne, who had never actually availed the offered discount and had paid. She frowned, wondering why she refused it in the first ce.


    "Hmm. . . maybe, you two of you aren''t the right audience for this question," said Quinn, recalling his rtionship with the two sisters. "Astoria hasn''t evere to buy my notes, which I presume is because you use Daphne''s. . ."


    Astoria nodded. She used the notes that Daphne had kept and not thrown away.


    ". . . and I stopped offering Daphne the discount after the first time because she was a friend," said Quinn.


    ". . . You stopped offering me the discount because I was your friend?" voiced Daphne, feeling confused about her words.


    Quinn nodded, "I''m not sure if you remember, but the only time I offered you the discount, I spoke the conditions I offer to everyone ¡ª I will provide you with a discount and help you out, and you can, in turn, help me out when I need itter. In simple terms, I scratch your back and you scratch mine. But if we look at it from a different angle, everyone who availed the discount owes me a favor.


    "Not only that, I offer the same conditions while taking any request thates through my doors."


    Quinn crossed his legs, rested his interlinked hands on his knee, raised his chin, and smirked, "95% of the people who have ever stepped through the doors owe me a favor ¡ª be it first years or seventh, quidditch jocks or top scoring nerds, the delinquents or the Prefects, purebloods, half-bloods, or the muggleborns ¡ª the likes of Potters, Bones, Longbottom, Nott ¡ª all - owe - me - debts."


    It was slow, but the realization started to set in Astoria and Daphne''s minds. They knew the power of favors ¡ª their father had demonstrated it a countless number of times. It was why the children of many lower-grade members of the Grey faction and even the Dark and Light faction would treat them, the daughters of the leader of the Grey faction, with respect and politeness ¡ª all of them wanted favors from their father.


    "But it doesn''t end there," said Quinn chuckling, "do you know the best part about it? Most of them don''t even see it as debts they unwilling owe me. . . because I''m helping them, they are grateful, and will very willingly and happily return the ''help'' ¡ª of course, there are sometimes they don''t like it when I ask them of difficult tasks, but they oblige nevertheless."


    Daphne stared at her boyfriend, watching him tell Astoria about his various exploits. This was a new side of him that she hadn''t seen before. Sure he had always been yful and mischievous, but this side was different ¡ª him talking about how he had control over the Hogwarts students. . . she wanted to hear more about it.


    "In short, AID was created because I wanted to build myself awork of connections and debts that I could call upon any time ¡ª no matter which house, social circle, or socialdder ¡ª I have contacts that I can use. And as it stands, that initiative has seen extraordinary sess," Quinn said, finishing.


    ". . . Again. . . why me?" Astoria was impressed, but she still wanted to know the answer to her question.


    "Ah, look at me, getting so distracted, my apologies," said Quinn. "My vision of the proprietor of AID is someone who has excellentmunication skills and understands the power thates with the position." He raised his hand and bluntly pointed at Astoria, "You are the person who checks both the boxes.


    "Your pureblood background makes other purebloodsfortable. However, you are outgoing, well-liked with a positive reputation, good looking, smart, have ample emotional quotient ¡ª all these things allow you to be approached by the half-bloods and muggleborns. And you, a Greengrass, realize exactly how to exploit the asset named AID."


    Quinn didn''t pretend that things like appearance didn''t matter. A person with good looks would have a better impression on people, which was essential for AID. It was all about people and how they perceived things, especially teens.


    "You really think I will be able to take over AID?" asked Astoria. AID was a big deal in Hogwarts; everyone knew about it, and the reason it was such was because of Quinn West ¡ª he had a reputation for having a solution to every problem imaginable. Quinn West was nigh untouchable in Hogwarts ¡ª the top of the pyramid. . . and Astoria wasn''t sure if she could stand up to that standard.


    "Astoria, one thing you should know about me is that I am very sentimental about the things I get attached to," said Quinn, staring straight at Astoria. "If I thought you, or anyone else, wasn''t suitable for the job, I would have shut down AID rather than passing it onto an unworthy person.


    "I''m offering this job to you because I think you''re suitable."


    That felt good to hear, Astoria thought; however, she still had doubts, which Quinn answered without her needing to voice them.


    "And it''s not like I''ll be throwing you into the middle of everything without help. If you chose to ept, I''d teach you the ins and outs of AID before passing it on to you. You''d work beside me for a while before Ipletely retire," said Quinn, offering training. "And you''ll have Luna with you, who you can rely on until you get the hang of things.


    "You can take time to decide and tell me¡ª"


    "I''ll do it!" Astoria said immediately.


    Quinn paused and stared at Astoria before asking, "Are you sure? I suggest that you take some time to decide. It''s not a smallmitment."


    "No need," said Astoria, looking at the AID card with bright eyes, "I want to do this."


    Quinn nced at Daphne, who shrugged helplessly; her sister was always the impulsive type.


    "Alright then, wee to AID, Astoria Greengrass," said Quinn with a smile.


    Astoria beamed a bright grin before getting up suddenly. She cleared her throat, "Thank you, Quinn, for this opportunity, and I promise I''ll not let you down. Now I''ll take my leave, and" she smiled teasingly, "leave you both to whatever you were doing."


    "Astoria!" Daphne shouted in irritation as her sister giggled and ran out of the room.


    Daphne spat a sigh before looking at Quinn, who was staring at her with a different kind of smile. She felt red climb her cheeks as Quinn pulled her close.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - My Hogwarts Legacy will continue.


    Daphne Greengrass - Girlfriend - Found a new side of Quinn and is interested.


    Astoria Greengrass - Teasing Sister - AID''s Sessor.


    Gretsy - Greengrass House-elf - Has three sets of togas.


    FictionOnlyReader - It''s 8:30 am here, and I haven''t slept, crazy! - The reason why I even bothered to write about Astoria in the first ce.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 269 - The First Hunt

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The array of contorted lights and scenery shed past Quinn''s eyes.


    His feetnded on the solid ground after apparating through the fabric of space. He stretched his extremities, relieving himself of the usual feeling of being stuffed through a narrow tube.


    Quinn raised his face hidden behind the Noir mask to nce upon the majesty of the zing summer sun. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the new light.


    He stood in a countryne bordered by high, tangled hedgerows, beneath a summer sky as bright and blue as a forget-me-not. Some ten feet in front of him walked a little girl with pigtails, skipping down the dusty road with a thing of flowers in hand. The girl passed by Quinn, seemingly oblivious to his masked and hooded presence under the anti-muggle charm covering him.


    Quinn walked forward with deft steps on the path he had surveyed multiple times before during the initial scouting of his target destination. He stopped and stared at the wooden signpost that stuck out of the brambles on the left-hand side of the road. The wooden sign had two arms. The one pointing in the direction the little girl had walked toward read: GREAT HANGLETON, 5 MILES. The other arm, which pointed to the front, said, LITTLE HANGLETON, 1 MILE.


    He walked the short path with grass on either side with nothing to see but the hedgerows, the vast blue sky overhead, and his own light footsteps. Then thene curved to the left and fell away, sloping steeply down a hillside so that he had a sudden unexpected view of a whole valleyid out in front of him. Quinn could see a vige, undoubtedly Little Hangleton, nestled between two steep hills, its church and graveyard clearly visible. Across the valley, set on the opposite hillside, was a once handsome manor house surrounded by a wide expanse of eerier weed-coveredwn.


    Quinn looked down the downward sloping hill with a steep angle and considered if he should trot down but decided against it. He stepped forward, and the winds came sweeping in beneath Quinn''s feet, lifting him a foot above the ground as he glided down the slope.


    If he continued down to the base, he would have reached Little Hangleton; however, the vige wasn''t his final destination. He rounded right on a curve and entered upon a narrow dirt track bordered by higher and wilder hedgerows than those he had left behind. The path was crooked, rocky, and potholed, sloping downhill like thest one, and at the end of it was a patch of dark trees a little below him. The track soon opened up at the copse, and Quinn cut the gliding winds and came to a halt on the ground.


    Despite the cloudless sky, the old trees ahead cast deep, dark, cool shadows, and despite having scouted the area before, it took a few seconds before he could discern the building half-hidden amongst the tangle of trunks.


    It was a strange location to choose for a house, or else an odd decision to leave the trees growing nearby, blocking all light and the view of the valley below. It was clear from the moss growing on the walls and the broken-off tiles on the roof, which left the rafters exposed, that the ce was inhabited. Nettles grew all around it, their tips reaching the windows, which were tiny and thick with grime.


    ''So this is it,'' Quinn stared at the old cottage, ''The Gaunt Shack.''


    The ancestral home of the Gaunt family, located in the woods just outside the vige of Little Hangleton. It was a shabby little shack that once housed Marvolo Gaunt, his wife, their son Morfin, and daughter Merope. The father and the son being the other two Parseltongue residing in Britain other than Voldemort and Harry Potter.


    Quinn walked to the decrepit door of the cottage and stared at the rotten door, which had bent out of its frame and only stood ajar because of its odd position. He waved a hand, and the door separated from its joint and flew to the side as Quinn stepped inside.


    The house seemed to contain three tiny rooms. Two doors led off the main room, which served as kitchen and living roombined. A broken and filthy armchair sat beside a choked and dusty firece. The ceiling was thick with cobwebs, the floor beneath his boots coated in grime. The only light came from broken and boarded windows that received the sunlight filtering from the trees outside.


    The floorboards under his feet creaked as he walked around the house, looking around. He stood in the middle of the cottage, and a light blue aura spread out from him in a dome shape, phasing through the broken furniture, pirs, walls, doors to cover the entire house. He got no response from the scan, so he tried it again. A red dome scanned the Gaunt Shack, then a green one, followed by a variety of detection charms looking for magical enchantments.


    *Ping*


    The voice came from the bedroom where a bed split down the middley broken on the floor. Quinn waved his hand, and the bed shrunk down to a matchbox, leaving the part of the room empty. He stared at the floorboards that were as patchy and grimy as any other piece of the floor in the cottage, but there was something magical in them.


    The wooden boards creaked as rusted nails holding down them popped out, and the nks held down by the age-old glue came out apart easily. There was a patch of the earth beneath them, but Quinn wasn''t fooled; he dug the mud out with magic and finallyid his eyes upon the motive of himing here.


    A golden box sat there buried in the foundation of the house.


    Quinn bent his forearm up, and the box rose up. It was heavy. Quinn suspected it was genuine gold. If it was, then it would be fitting the nature of its owner and creator. Quinn blew on it, and the mud and dust were stripped away, bringing out the gleaming and inviting sheen of the gold box.


    The box was set down on the floor, and Quinn kneeled beside it. His eyes and magic observing the enchantments keeping the box locked. He had to admit, they were powerful, despite the very long period ofck of care.


    "Now, let''s break them up."


    Quinn''s magic began its work and worked to dismantle the enchantments that made the box into a ck box capable of surviving being sted in the sky and dropping down the high altitude down to the ground in freefall.


    "Magic from various cultures,"mented Quinn, his eyes looking at the box aplicated and excited eyes. The amalgamation of different cultures of magic worked together to create something that even Quinn found tricky to solve, and yet it was the proof of concept that he wanted to aplish.


    *Click*


    The box unlocked after an hour of effort.


    Quinn took a deep breath and raised his gloved finger to lift up the lid, and sucked in a cold breath at the solitary ring that sat inside.


    It was a gold ring etched with detailed designs and looked as if it had been just polished, gleaming like the rays of the sun itself.


    Marvolo Gaunt''s Ring.


    On the top of the ring, fixed underneath the four gold fangs, was a ck gemstone. Quinn''s eyes remained fixed on the gemstone, on the design that was inscribed onto it ¡ª a line with a circle drawn from the top enclosed inside a triangle.


    The signature of the Deathly Hallows.


    And, the gemstone. . .


    "Resurrection Stone," said Quinn sighing a cold breath in the mid-summer.


    ------- [A/N: Read Carefully] --------


    He thought it was beautiful, enchanting, and something that would look great on his finger, where it belonged.


    *Thud*


    "Hmph," he smirked. His mental shields had effortlessly thwarted the mental curse.


    Quinn looked down at his hand and saw the Gaunt Ring in his right with his left hand''s fingers outstretched, obviously so that he could put on the ring. A cold sweat trickled down his temple beneath his mask, and his nap felt cold.


    He had just nearly put the cursed ring on.


    The ring. Gaunt''s Ring. A terrible curse was cast upon it. A curse that would wither away the one who would put it on, leading to a swift and quick death to get them away from the ring. However, there was one more, another curse that made the ring more deadly than it was ¡ª it enticed those who gazed upon it to slip it on so that it could lead them to their death.


    "Won''t you look at that, the mighty Quinn West trembling in front of a measly magical ring?"


    Quinn looked up from the ring and saw himself. . . ''him''. . . squatting in front of Quinn, matching eye levels. ''He'' looked exactly the same as Quinn; the only difference was that ''he'' was dressed in a suit while Quinn was dressed in the Noir transformative suit.


    "It has been a while, hasn''t it," ''Quinn'' said, smirking. "Thest time we met was in Lupin''s ss, and the Boggart took the form of yours truly," he said, touching up his tie with a confident smirk. [Ch. 79]


    Quinn''s eyes went to the ''Quinn''s'' hand and saw a wand ¡ª Acacia wood, fourteen inches, rigid.


    "Oh, you notice this beaut," said ''Quinn,'' holding the wand in both hands. "Of course, you''d notice it; it''s the wand that chose you and the one you have been betraying for the past six years. I don''t know what your problem is, but I quite like it," ''he'' smirked, "I''m power incarnate with it in my hand."


    Quinn stared at ''him,'' "Why would you, my worst fear, be here to convince me to put on the ring? I would never do a thing you say."


    ''He''ughed loudly. It was wild, rambunctious, and louder than Quinn had everughed in his life.


    "Me, your fear?" ''he'' said betweenughs. "Man, you can crack a joke or two from time to time." ''Quinn'' leaned forward, put his face close to Quinn, and stared at him with ''his'' glowing purple eyes. "I''m not your fear, Quinn. I am you. I''m you when your worthless Ego is eliminated, and the golden Id is given time to shine. I''m your Greed, Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, Wrath, and Lust.


    "Speaking of Lust, you bagged Daphne; good job there. She''s a total hottie. But why are you wasting time by just tasting her. . . when you can eat her up. . . I can imagine it, she''ll taste heavenly," ''Sin-Quinn'' cackled, "just ask her, she''ll agree. . . you have noticed it, right? She never disagrees with you, always supportive like a good pureblood wife. . . such a good girl.


    "I''m sure she won''t refuse if you bring in the spicy redhead into the mix," said ''Sin-Quinn,'' licking his lips. "A m¨¦nage-a-trio. . . just thinking about sends a shiver down my spine."


    "Shut up!"


    ''Sin-Quinn'' grinned and raised his hands in surrender. ''He'' looked down at the ring and spoke, "But you have to agree with me when I say that they deserve some closure, don''t they?"


    "What the hell are you talking about?" asked Quinn.


    "Come on, you know what I''m talking about, silly, I am you, after all," said ''Sin-Quinn,'' cing a hand on his cheek and looked at Quinn as if he was a child. "Grandfather lost his young son before time; he was so young. And Lia lost both her parents at the tender of ten, leaving her to care for her younger brother of one. Don''t you think they deserve to meet Adam and Aria West onest time to get some closure in their eyes. . . after they both only have each other in the name of family.


    ". . . After all, we took their precious grandson and brother away from them," ''he'' said.


    Quinn looked at his alter-ego, but instead of red rage, there was a look of stunned surprise on his face.


    "Why do you make such a face?" he asked, looking at the guilty look on ''Sin-Quinn''s face.''


    ''Sin-Quinn'' looked down at the ring with a twisted wry smile, ". . . Why are you being silly again? Didn''t I tell you? I am you. I''m the essence of your deepest and truest feelings. . . just like the worthless you, even I feel guilty about taking the child''s life and taking over."


    "Quinn died from falling from his window," Quinn bit back heatedly, clenching his empty trembling hand.


    "Not ording to our memory, he didn''t," said ''Sin-Quinn.'' "The bout of idental magic made him bounce off the ground, and then we took over." ''Sin-Quinn'' sighed again and shook ''his'' head, "It doesn''t matter what happened, you know," ''he'' stared at Quinn, "as long as you believe that you killed Quinn, logic has no ce in this argument."


    Quinn had no rebuke to that. It made sense. . . Sin-Quinn was his everything multiplied and let out without a moral filter. Humans were inherently illogical beings, who ran on their emotions rather than logic, and if he believed certain things, then that was it.


    "So, how about it, buddy?" said ''Sin-Quinn,'' putting ''his'' hand on Quinn''s shoulder. "How about we put on the ring and let our beloved family meet their loved ones. . . maybe we can even try calling for the real Quinn and find the truth ¡ª if we didn''t cannibalize his soul, then he would appear, and that would grant us some peace, don''t you think."


    "Y-Yes. . . Yes, we should do that," said Quinn. "Lia, grandfather, Uncle Elliot, and Ms. Rosey would be ha-a-ppy. . . w-we can call the Real-Quinn. . . ah, I-I-I can even call grandmother and-and let grandfather meet her. He would be so happy!"


    ''Sin-Quinn'' nodded with a smile, a patent Quinn controlled-smile.


    Quinn patted his chest once, and the mask disappeared ¡ª leaving behind an unamused expression on Quinn''s face as he stuck out his tongue.


    "Did you thought I would say that YOU FUCKING THIRD-GRADE FAKE OF A REPLICA?" Quinn said, rendering ''Sin-Quinn'' stunned. "Come on, man, what kind of shitty curse is that? Hey Dark Lord, is this the best you can do with a soul attack? Hey, are you listening?"


    "W-What?" asked ''Sin-Quinn.''


    Quinn stood up from his kneel and took out a spherical ss container with a cloudy tint. "Are you really supposed to me? I was convinced that the soul attack got everything until you started to spout the bullshit about using the Resurrection Stone. Because I would never suggest no matter how delirious I was.


    "Why would I willingly take on a life-ending curse which will kill me when I have a sure-fire method to destroy the curse?" said Quinn taking out a small vial with the same cloudy tint. "If I wanted to use the Resurrection Stone after I destroyed the retched object it''s attached to."


    He poured the deep-purple-almost ck liquid from the vial into the sphere container.


    "W-What are you doing?" asked ''Sin-Quinn'' looking between Quinn''s face and his hands. "What''s that?"


    "You don''t know?" asked Quinn. "The curse must really depend upon the mental aspect that I blocked. And here I thought that the soul-splitting maniac would have better knowledge of the soul. But I''ll give you the credit where it''s deserved ¡ª you sure got a lot of memories that were connected deeply to my emotions despite the mental failure."


    Quinn swivelled the liquid in the sphere container. "This my fake-me is Basilisk Venom," he smirked at ''Sin-Quinn,'' whose eyes widened to the limit. "You guessed right, it''s from the same Basilisk that you found in the Chamber of Secrets when you were in school ¡ª Tom Marvolo Riddle."


    ''Sin-Quinn''s'' face darkened at the mention of the name.


    "You might not know because it wasn''t in the book, but Basilisk Venom can destroy a. . . Horcrux," said Quinn, continuously enjoying the ugly expression on ''his'' face. "I actually told the same thing to the Diary you ¡ª man, you have the best expressions ¡ª but both the Basilisk and Horcrux were created by Herpo The Foul. Quite ironic, don''t you think? The man who created a magic of immortality also created the things that could destroy it."


    A horrified expression and stark-white expression of fear appeared on ''Sin


    Quinn''s'' face as ''he'' raised ''his'' hand to reach out to Quinn, but ''his'' hands passed through Quinn.


    Quinn held the ring between his index finger and thumb, showed it to ''Sin-Quinn,'' grinned, and dropped the ring inside the sphere. "Bloop~!"


    "No!!!" yelled ''Sin-Quinn.''


    A violent sizzling sounded inside the ss sphere, with a ck haze filling the inside of the sphere.


    Quinn looked up at his likeliness started to melt and burn while letting out painful screams in his own voice. ''Sin-Quinn,'' about to perish, looked at Quinn, who spoke some parting words.


    "I wish I could say that you got close to enticing me, but I would be lying. . . sorry, Horcrux, but my wand is more tempting than you."


    As Quinn''s words ended, so did the life of Voldemort''s Gaunt Ring Horcrux.


    "Oh, shit!" Quinn hurriedly straightened his hands as the activated Basilisk Venom, which just had a violent reaction with the Horcrux, ate through the specially-made ss (Quinn''s invention) which could hold Basilisk Venom for a couple of months.


    Quinn goggled at the bubbling Basilisk Venom that ate through the wood and seeped into the ground below. His eyes went back to the sphere as he removed his hand from it and let it float. He transfigured a hole back open and let the ckened ring fly out of it.


    A blob of water covered it, and it sizzled immediately because of the residual venom, which spent itself by eating away at the water, leaving the ring safe for Quinn to grab.


    Quinn grabbed the ring with his gloved hands. He grabbed the ring-hoop with one and pulled out the gemstone with his other.


    He stared at the gemstone, which, unlike the charred ring, looked untouched ¡ª the Basilisk Venom hadn''t harmed it. . .


    "Resurrection Stone. . . maybe because it''s a soul artifact, the Horcrux couldn''t attach itself to the stone and only stayed on the ring," said Quinn, but it was only spection from his side.


    ". . . Soul Artifact."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - The First Kill Of The Hunt


    ''Sin-Quinn'' - Defense Mechanism Manifestation - Soul-based attack of Horcrux.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Re-Read if it''s not clear. And I will leave it up to you to think about where the truth of the ''Sin-Quinn'' ended and where the lies began. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 270 - Meeting At Cirkus

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Cirkus, a long-running restaurant in Vertic Alley of the magical market district of London, was a restaurant with nine levels divided into three segments ¡ª the underground segment with three levels catered to the shady members of the society who didn''t wish to be seen and demanded privacy, the base segment with aboveground three levels that served any and everyone who wanted to drink and dine at the established, and finally, the upper segment with the top three levels that hosted the wealthy and influential with an assortment of services.


    Michael was a front desk host situated on the first floor of the upper segment. He had been working at Cirkus for fifteen years. He had started as a server on the base segment and had worked his way to his current position, and wanted to continue on his rise through the ranks to one day be a floor manager, preferably in the upper segment.


    The elevator in front of Michael''s desk, which only served the upper segment, dinged. Michael looked up from his work and got up to serve the guest as the elevator door opened. To his surprise, there was only one person along with the elevator operator. However, the single person wasn''t the reason for his surprise, but the person''s appearance.


    The person ced a sack of coin onto the operator''s hands and stepped out of the elevator. The boy, who Michael thought couldn''t be any older than eighteen or neen stepped walked to the front desk.


    "Good morning," said the boy, "I would like to use one of your private rooms."


    Michael''s fifteen experience wasn''t for naught. He had picked up the tricks of his craft from years of observing the people who came to Cirkus. He had caught the rxed demeanor of the boy. The boy in front of him might have looked young, but Michal looked past that and observed the blue suit with red checker grids ¡ª it looked simple enough, but his trained eyes could see the quality of the fabric and the craftsmanship of the stitching.


    The boy was definitely some who could afford to be at the upper segment of Cirkus.


    "Of course, sir," said Michael. "We offer an array of private rooms, which one would you like to use today¡ª" He hadn''t seen the boy here before, so he went through the entire selection.


    "I don''t require anything extensive, just somewhere mypanions and I can sit, have a discussion and enjoy our meal in privacy," said the boy looked down at the list on the table.


    "It''ll be arranged, sir. How many guests would be joining you?"


    "Two people."


    Michael rang a bell behind his counter and summoned a bellman. He handed a key to the bellman and said, "Escort our guest to room 1-07."


    "Ah, I just remembered. . . I would like a room on the top-most floor," said the boy.


    Michael and the bellman stared at the boy, and Michael started to have doubts if the boy truly knew about Cirkus. "Dear sir, the third floor is exclusively reserved for our most esteemed guests. I regret to tell you this but only with that special ess can use the top-most floor''s"


    "You mean this one?" When Michael stopped talking, the boy took out a solid silver card with the ssic Cirkus tower etched in the middle with a border all etched in gold.


    ". . . Yes, that exact one," said Michael, receiving the very exclusive and very rare membership card, and it was real. "Ahem, my apologies," he handed the card back, "please follow the bellman, and he will show you to your room.


    But before that, sir, I would like to know your and your guest''s names so that we could escort them to your room when they arrive."


    "My name is Quinn West, and my guests will be Nott and Zabini," the boy with stone grey eyes looked at Michael as he said, "I can expect privacy from Cirkus about our meeting, correct?"


    ". . . Of course, sir, please be rest assured," said Michael. In one sentence, he had received some big names. West and Nott ¡ª both of those names were esteemed patrons who had ess to the top floor while the infamous Madam Zabini was a regr guest.


    After a while, the elevator once again dinged open, and two people stepped out.


    "Good morning; how can Cirkus serve you today," said Michael looking at the two teenagers.


    "We are meeting someone today," said the blonde teen.


    "Mr. West has been waiting for you, Mr. Nott," said Michael recognizing Theodore Nott Jr from earlier visits and turning to bow to the other teen. "It has been a while since you have graced our doors, Mr. Zabini.


    ise Zabini held back a sigh. His mother had dragged him here more than enough times. He had suffered through numerous kitty parties full of his mother''s social circle without someone of his age to talk to. Because of those gatherings, Cirkus had indeed be a circus where he was the main attraction for thedies to bother.


    "Mr. West is waiting for you on the third floor," said Michael as the bellman arrived.


    The two Slytherins looked at each other simultaneously. Neither of them had been to the third floor before, even Theodore, whose father was one of the exclusive patrons.


    They took the elevator again and reached the third floor. It waspletely different from the first floor, which was already posh enough, but the third floor was above and beyond. It was also deafeningly silent as they walked through the marble floor that reflected as well as any mirror, passing by a few identical heavy, elegant doors ¡ª all private rooms, specially created for a very exclusive clientele, who Cirkus would provide with anything he would request.


    They reached another identical door, and the bellman pressed a bell before speaking, "Dear guest, yourpanions have arrived."


    "Come in," came a voice that was distorted because of the room''s magic to protect privacy. The bellman opened the door, bowed to Theodore and ise, and left right after entering.


    "Nott, Zabini," said Quinn looking at the two Slytherin, "how nice to meet both of you after such a long time ¡ª please sit down."


    The two sat down nervously, looking at Quinn, who raised a cup to take a sip. Both of them had discussed with each other before calling a meeting with Quinn, who had called them both to Cirkus. The times had changed ever since Voldemort had shown himself in the Ministry, and their parents had begun moving in response to the event. They had Quinn''s promise of help and were worried that things were moving faster than they had expected, and thus this meeting was called.


    "Both of you look anxious," said Quinn. He looked at ise, "I get why he looks like he has been losing sleep, but what about you? Your mother doesn''t move in the circles with the Dark Lord and his cosy party. . . what, cosy? Ah, it means dressing up in costumes."


    ise rubbed his forehead and leaned back into the sofa. "Ever since the news of You-Know-Who''s return, she has caught a worry. She has been thinking about moving to Italy, and I can tell because she told me that she missed Italy and then spent hours telling me great things about the country. Then, after a few days, she tried to sneak in a talk about the school there.


    . . . And the worst part, mother has been recently seeing a man from Italy. At this rate, she''s going to pull me out of Hogwarts and take me with her."


    ise didn''t want to leave Hogwarts. He had spent thest five years in the school and its dorms, living there for most of the year. All of his friends were there, with who he had spent more time than his own mother since joining. Just the thought of leaving Hogwarts to go to another school set a weight in the pit of his stomach.


    "Oh, that''s indeed a cause of worry," said Quinn before leaning forward and looking at ise with serious eyes. "Just one question though. . . the man she has been seeing, by any chance, is he surnamed Abate?"


    ise blinked in confusion at the sudden question. "No, his surname is something else. Why do you ask?"


    "Nothing serious, just a personal curiosity." Quinn pulled back and waved the question off. The Abates would have been a bite bigger than to be chewed, even for the famed temptress.


    "She''s not going to pull you out this year, right?" asked Quinn.


    "No, but at this rate, she might just do it the next year," said ise shaking his head with a sigh.


    "Then, you don''t actually have a problem," said Quinn shrugging. "You''ll be ''of age'' the next year, an adult magical, and will have the legal authority to attend any school you want. . . and if you don''t have the money, you can always take a loan for me ¡ª I''ll lend you the school fees and then some for living costs. If you want something other than that, you can show me how it''s important, and I''ll dispense more money. The only downside is that you''ll have to pay more when you finally start working."


    Quinn gazed at ise, who seemed to sink into thought about his proposal. Even if there was a simple situation to separate from his mother, the decision was tough: from one day living his normal life to the next where he had to depend on someone who wasn''t his family. Quinn wouldn''t me ise if he decided to follow his mother''s wishes.


    "What about you?" Quinn turned to Nott. "What has your father been doing these days? Having fun alone at home with his family, I hope."


    "Only if," said Theodore spitting out a heavy sigh. "He has been meeting with the Dark Lord more and more these days. I secretly listen to my parents when they talk about father''s Death Eater meetings."


    "So you''re worried that Nott Snr going to take you to the Dark Lord so that he can brand you as a junior Death Eater?" asked Quinn. "A legitimate worry."


    "It has already started," said Theodore with a worn-down look. "One day, I heard that father has been going to ceremonies. . . ceremonies to add new people into Death Eaters, and there have been these ceremonies every week." He covered his face with his hands. "And I don''t know why but father suddenly had the idea to have me branded with Dark Mark as soon as possible. I was lucky that mother forbade it that father had to back away. . . but I know it won''t be like this the next year ¡ª he will try again when I turn ''of age,'' and I''m not sure if mother will be able to stop him at that time.


    I might be a Death Eater while I''m studying at Hogwarts."


    Quinn probably knew why Nott Snr had the sudden thought of turning his minor son into a Death Eater. He had gotten intimidated by his peer, who went by the name Malfoy; seeing the other Death Eater offering his son to be a Death Eater prompted Nott Snr to possibly offer Jnr to do the same.


    Quinn silently sighed as that brought up one of the pieces of information he was missing. He hadn''t seen the shadow of anyone named Malfoy in the entire summer break; as such, he had no idea if Draco was branded with the Dark Mark. He hadn''t dared to go near the Malfoy mansion in fear of being spotted by the Dark Lord or his Death Eater, especially after the Amelia Bones incident.


    "Zabini doesn''t want to leave Hogwarts, but it seems like you leaving Hogwarts might be the only option," said Quinn softy.


    Theodore''s face reappeared from behind his hands as he stared at Quinn incredulously. "What do you mean?" he asked, but the fear of knowing what exactly Quinn meant built up in his chest.


    "Next year, if you go home, your father will try to make you a Death Eater, and if you refuse, I''m not sure if you will survive." Both Theodore and ise felt cold shivers go down the spine. "I do not know your father, but either he will kill you himself for being a ''blood traitor,'' and if he doesn''t do that, the Dark Lord will do it himself.


    Let''s say your father doesn''t kill you; he might just drag you to the Dark Lord and brand you. If you choose to stay. . . I''m sorry to say this, but Nott, your chances are looking bleak."


    Theodore went deathly pale. His fears had been spoken in words. He was either going to die or be a Death Eater. A drowning and chocking thought dominated his mind, ''I''m trapped¡ª''


    "But if you go away," said Quinn, "if you disappear, you can escape death and the fate of bing a Death Eater." Quinn stared deeply at Nott. "I can do that for you. I can make you disappear like a star in the bright morning sky."


    Theodore took a slow, lengthy breath as he leaned back into his seat. He knew what Quinn''s offer entailed. It meant that he would have to uproot his life and move to another ce. And if he took thest war in mind, he might have to move away for a decade, or maybe even more if the Dark Lord wasn''t brought down.


    "Is there no other way?" asked Theodore.


    He wasn''t excited about the possible relocation. He didn''t want to leave his life. Was he so helpless that to escape and change his entire life was the only option?


    "There''s an option that doesn''t require you to leave," said Quinn, and it instantly poured stars of hope into Theodore''s eyes as he looked at Quinn intently.


    "You can defect," said Quinn.


    ". . . What?" asked Theodore.


    "You can reach out to the Minister, or the Grey faction, or the Light faction and tell them that your father is looking to make you a Death Eater and ask them to rescue from that," said Quinn, proposing the alternative idea. "The Ministry won''t move if you can''t provide them with proof, but next year when you turn ''of age,'' you''ll have great chances of getting their protection. As for the Grey and Light faction, they won''t help you out in public, but they''ll support you from the shadows ¡ª you, like Zabini, can choose to go to Hogwarts, and when you''re out of Hogwarts in the summer break, the three groups might help you out."


    Theodore''s status as a Death Eater''s son, who wants to be rescued, was a great political hook that all the political factions would love to exploit. It would not only look good, but Theodore was a potential source of information ¡ª something he himself didn''t know about.


    "Th-That. . . I-I don''t. . ." said Theodore, hesitating.


    "It''s a suggestion, Nott," Quinn said, looking at the troubled boy. "You''re, unfortunately, not in a favorable situation ¡ª both of my suggestions have their merits and demerits, it''s up to you what you want to take ¡ª or you don''t take either ande up with a solution of your own."


    "I don''t have anything of my own," said Theodore; it was why he was here talking about his problems.


    "But you are desperate, and believe me, desperation is a strong motivator. So don''t give up hope yet. Think about it, and if you aren''t sessful ¡ª my option is open, and the second one is worth giving a try."


    Quinn treated the two stressed Slytherin to a hearty meal before leaving Cirkus. He turned to face the two outside the restaurant.


    "Think about what you want to do, but don''t let it dominate your lives," he said. "Both of you have my help as a safety, so while you can''t ignore the problem, there''s no need to treat it like the world''s end.


    Now, gentlemen, I''ll take my leave. Reach home safely."


    Quinn took out his fake wand, and after azy wave goodbye, the space twisted, and with a pop, he was gone.


    "Oh, that''s right," said ise. "He turned seventeen, didn''t he? He''s ''of age''. . . lucky."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Dumbledore apparated onto a path with long, wild hedgerows on both sides. He nced around with his wand out to see if someone required a quick memory charm; fortunately, there was no one in the vicinity. He walked down the crooked, rocky, and potholed path, sloping downhill with a nervous rhythm in his step.


    He reached the shabby shack hidden amongst the tangle of trunks. It was the Gaunt Shack in Little Hangleton. The ce Dumbledore knew as the hiding ce of Tom Marvolo Riddle or as he was better known as Lord Voldemort''s vile immortality providing Horcrux.


    The ce that he had found out through Bob Ogden''s memories of when he had arrived at the ce to meet the residents Marvolo Gaunt and his children, Morfin and Merope, for Ministry business about Morfin Gaunt breaking the wizarding secrecyws by torturing the muggles down in the vige.


    He arrived at the crooked door of the shack and was about to detach the stuck door when he stopped to observe the door ¡ª he wondered why the door looked different than what he had seen from away in his previous visit. He dove into his memories, and contrary to his observation, the door looked the same as the one in his memories. Just to be sure, he cast detection spells on the door, and there wasn''t any magic cast on the doors, so he detached the door and walked inside the shack.


    Again, there was something off in the shack. Dumbledore hadn''t been inside the shack, but something felt off to him ¡ª maybe it was something about how the cobwebs looked or how the grime below his feet felt, but he couldn''t put his finger on it.


    He set off detection charms through the shack and detected magical enchantments, just like his previous scouting attempts, and yet again, his intuition was proven wrong.


    "Maybe it''s something Tom added to turn people away," Dumbledore muttered to himself.


    His detection charms told him to head towards the bedroom where he saw the broken bed, and this time, he ignored the strange feeling and shrunk the bed to ess the floor underneath.


    He frowned. There was something wrong with the floorboards. But this time, he chalked it up to the presence of the source of magical enchantments underneath. He pulled them out, dug the ground, and uncovered the golden box.


    There it was, the container of a Horcrux. It was going to be the second Horcrux that he was going toe across; the first one, the Diary, sat in his office with a big hole stabbed through it.


    He lifted the box with magic, and to his utter surprise, the lid of the golden box rattled. . . it rattled.


    ''No, that can''t be,'' thought Dumbledore, ''Tom wouldn''t be so careless.''


    A spark of unease was lit inside him as he set the golden box down, performed detection charms to ensure there was no trap ¡ª there wasn''t, and now even that didn''t bode well in Dumbledore''s heart. He opened the door, and everything suddenly made sense.


    A charred, burnt, damaged ck ring sat inside the box along with a slip of parchment stuck on the inside of the lid.


    It read in printed ck letters:


    "Here lie the remains of Dark Lord Voldemort''s destroyed Horcrux."


    Everything suddenly made sense. Why everything since the door felt strange ¡ª while he couldn''t tell the origin of difort, but his mind could instinctively detect those that he consciously couldn''t.


    Someone had gotten here before him and had destroyed the Horcrux. Someone else had the knowledge about Voldemort''s Horcrux other than him.


    The question that screamed in the silence was: Who? Who was the individual who knew about Voldemort''s secret to immortality?


    Dumbledore kneeled on the floor and took the ring into his hand. The damaged ring still held value. He had seen it in the Morfin Gaunt''s memories of his meeting with a young Tom Riddle. In those memories, there was a ck gemstone stone studded on the ring ¡ª and it had the mark of the Deathly Hallows. He stared at his wand ¡ª the Elder Wand, one of the three Death Hallows, and thest one being in the hands of the Potter children, the Invisibility Cloak.


    Dumbledore frowned at the cracked and broken charred gemstone on the top of the ring. He squinted his eyes, and he could see the mark of Deathly Hallows with a crack splitting the mark.


    "Was I wrong?" Dumbledore muttered. "Was the ring a counterfeit?"


    It wasn''t a reaching thought as Morfin Gaunt didn''t have a job, and he might have sold the ring and reced it with a fake for sustenance. But that meant that Dumbledore had no idea where the third Deathly Hallow was.


    Dumbledore threw the thought behind his mind and focused on the Horcrux problem. He could tell that the parchment wasn''t old, at least not old as the war; he was sure that the parchment wasn''t older than a couple years.


    Which meant someone had destroyed the Horcrux in a span of a couple of years from the current day.


    Dumbledore frowned. It bothered him that there was an unknown element out there with Horcruxes.


    Dumbledore didn''t like it.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - ''Of Age.'' Used an old parchment.


    ise Zabini - Anxious Slytherin #1 - Wants to stay and might get to.


    Theodore Nott - Anxious Slytherin #2 - Wants to stay but might not get to.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - ?Ah. . . I should just¡ª?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 271 - The Last Train

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn apparated on to the King''s Cross Station, tform Nine-and-Three-Quarters like he usually did on the First of September every year. But unlike every year, when his entry didn''t go unnoticed. Instead, two grim-faced, bearded men in dark suits stared at stood at a distance of a few steps, staring at him without speaking.


    Quinn quirked a brow at the two men. "Aurors. . . ? No, you guys are Hit Wizards," he said.


    "That''s a nice eye you got, kid," said the Hit Wizard with the more glorious beard. "How did you know that we are Hit Wizards and not Aurors?"


    Hit Wizards and Aurors worked closely under the DMLE, and because of the nature of their duties, both sub-departments worked closely, and thus the cultures of both were quite simr ¡ª dressing sense and the general vibe.


    "I can tell," said Quinn smiling at the two, "you guys feel sharper if that makes sense. Plus, you guys have a more disciplined bearing than Aurors."


    The two Hit Wizards puffed their chests in pride. Most people held Aurors in higher regard than Hit Wizards because of their presence in themunity but only Hit Wizards knew that while it was tougher to be an Auror than a Hit Wizard, it was more challenging to stay on the force as a Hit Wizard as they were required to maintain a level of dueling and magic skill to be considered effective. That strict regime had rendered Hit Wizards much more disciplined than their Auror counterparts.


    "You apparated here," said the Hit Wizard with a less glorious beard, but still glorious enough, "do you have a license?"


    Quinn took out his Apparition License, which also worked as his age proof, and presented it to the Hit Wizard, who waved a wand at it before nodding. "It''s legitimate," he said, handing the card back, "you''re good to go. Have fun at school, and stay safe."


    "Thank you for your hard work, both of you. I hope to see you around," said Quinn, waving them goodbye.


    After Quinn left, the Hit Wizard with the more glorious beard asked his less-glorious beardedpanion, "What did he mean by ''see you around?'' "


    "Hmm? Probably he meant by seeing us at patrolling Hogsmeade."


    "Ah, that makes sense."


    Quinn walked through the crowd of students and their protective parents, trying to ensure that their children made it onto the Hogwarts Express. The Death Eater threat was fresh in the minds of the public.


    Quinn took out his Headboy batch, ced it on thepel of his maroon suit that he wore over a ck shirt and tie, and held his briefcase over his shoulder. He looked behind to watch the King''s Cross on First of September for thest time.


    Quinn walked through the train with excited students crowding the corridors.


    "Oh ho, Headboy!" said one person, patting Quinn on the shoulder. "I knew they would make you the Headboy; congrattions, mate!"


    "Thank you," said Quinn with a polite smile and then repeated the entire thing to the troupe of students that made that stopped him to wish congrattions. "Thank you."


    Quinn reached the expanded Prefect''spartment and entered to see a lot of Prefects had already arrived, and half of them were dressed in their Hogwarts robes. Even without looking at their faces, Quinn could tell that they were new fifth-year Prefects.


    "Good morning, my dear Prefects," said Quinn as he closed the door behind him while noticing how all eyes went to his badge. "I''m really looking forward to working with all of you this year, so let''s make it a fun one." Quinn took a spot in thepartment after the congrattions and took out his pocket watch to check the time, "Hmm, there''s still some time before the departure. We are going to start the first meeting when the train leaves the station, but until then, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask."


    Every year, it was a tradition in the Prefects circle of Hogwarts that the Headboy and Headgirl would give an addressal of sorts to the rest of the Prefects to set the tone for the next year, what to expect, and give a chance for the new Prefects to introduce themselves.


    An eager hand went up immediately.


    "Yes, Ms. Harper," asked Quinn, pulling out his mental profile to the brte fifth-year Slytherin. Ambitious, studious, well-spoken,st checked she was dating a fellow Slytherin, and most importantly, she hadn''t used AID services in her four years at Hogwarts.


    "You know of me?" said Harper in surprise before she ced her question. "Doesn''t matter. Are you aware if Professor Dumbledore is going to continue teaching this year?"


    "Excellent question," said Quinn smiling. "From what I have been made aware of, Professor Dumbledore is going back to his full-time Headmaster duties and thus, unfortunately, will not be resuming his teaching duties."


    And unfortunate it was as Harper and the rest of the Prefects looked disappointed at the news ¡ª Dumbledore was an excellent teacher after all.


    "So, who''s the new professor?" Harper asked.


    Quinn had at start doubted if there was going to be a new professor in Hogwarts because Dumbledore had picked up teaching, but after his correspondence with his Hogwarts insider, the ever-lovely Matron Poppy Pomfrey, Quinn had found that Dumbledore had stepped down, and ording to Poppy, the faculty had been made aware of the new professor, which meant Quinn knew of the new professor, though he already knew who it was going to be.


    "The new professor is going to be¡ª"


    The door to thepartment opened, and stood at the threshold were sixth-year Gryffindor Prefects.


    "Good morning, Harry, Hermione," said Quinn to the two pair the Golden Squad. "How are both of you doing this lovely day."


    "Hello, Quinn," said Hermione entering thepartment with her trunk, which suddenly floated above to the overhead luggage rack and with Harry''s luggage, who hurriedly closed the door, separating him from the people(mostly first years) stared shamelessly; some kids even pressed their faces against the windows of theirpartments to get a look at him. Harry''s fame had seen a spike during the summer break after the Ministry incident. And it didn''t look like he enjoyed the sensation of standing in a very bright spotlight as he darkened the windows of thepartment''s door.


    "Working hard, eh, Harry," said Quinn grinning, making the Boy-Who-Lived groan.


    "Congrattions, Quinn," said Hermione, noticing the Headboy batch, "but I guess it isn''t much of a surprise."


    "Thank you, Hermione. I, too, won''t be surprised if you are named the Headgirl the next year," said Quinn.


    "Oh, you jest!" Hermione waved it off with embarrassment, though it was clear from her expression that she liked it. "Ah, Quinn. . . thank you for the Aegis card, Quinn, my parents really appreciated it, especially after the person came home to exin everything in detail," she said.


    Quinn had given the Granger parents a contact card to Aegis to ward their house when he had met them during his visit to the Weasley Wizard Wheezes.


    "Did they choose to ward the house?" asked Quinn.


    "They did," said Hermione, and Quinn could see that she was both d and relieved of her parents'' decision. "And thank god the person was a muggleborn; it was one the reasons they went ahead with the wards."


    "It''s the same for all living in the non-magical society," said Quinn with a grin and thumbs up. "Making peoplefortable is the first part of making a sessful sale."


    "Speaking of," Harry chimed in, "where did you disappear to that day? Ivy said that you disappeared in a hurry."


    "I remembered something I had forgotten, and well, it had to be taken care of urgently," said Quinn, putting on an embarrassed smile. He couldn''t tell them that the reason he had run out of the shop was that the illegal bug in Amelia Bones'' house had alerted him of an invasion, which turned out to be headed by the Dark Lord by himself.


    "Ah, you took care of the thing that you remembered?"


    "Yes, it was tough, and I barely got in time, but I got it done." He had to freeze multiple Death Eaters, stab Betrix Lestrange, and rescue Amelia with Voldemort staring at him. And after that, he finished with aparatively lighter serving of abducting an Auror and then disarming him in front of the then Head of DMLE.


    Quinn was brought out of his thought by Harper. "Um. . . Quinn, about the new professor," she asked.


    "Ah, my apologies, Ms. Harper," Quinn said, genuinely sorry for forgetting about the previous conversation. "Yes, the new professor¡ª"


    Thepartment''s door opened again, and this it was the pair of sixth-year Slytherin Prefects who hade to the Prefect''spartment.


    "It has been a while, Malfoy, Parkinson," said Quinn, greeting the neers with the same smile he had given to Harry and Hermione. "Would you like help with your luggage?"


    Draco and Pansy looked at Quinn, at his badge, then back up to his face. "No, thank you," said Draco, pulling out his wand to levitate their trunks to the racks.


    A heavy tension descended in thepartment as only two spots remained to sit. One of them was near the windows while the other was in the middle ¡ª the former was away from Harry, while thetter was right in front of him. The question was, where would Draco sit?


    Draco walked to the spot in the middle of the room, sat down, and stared at Potter with a smirk on his face. As one would expect, Harry didn''t appreciate that look and a snarl appeared on his face.


    "Is there something funny, Malfoy?" asked Harry heatedly.


    Everyone in thepartment became silent, all listening to what was about to happen between the two. Even Quinn stayed quiet to see what was going to happen.


    Malfoy scoffed derisively, "I just wonder how long you''re going to live, Potter. Now that the Dark Lord is back. . . I don''t think you''re going to make it to the next year," he leaned forward and whispered with a nasty grin on his face, "he''sing for you, Potter."


    Harryughed once beforeunching himself at Draco, grabbing his cor and mming him into the wall behind. Draco replied with a kick to the stomach. Harry stumbled back, but it wasn''t enough to stop him as heunched at Draco again and, this time,nded a punch squarely on Draco''s face.


    It was at this moment that thepartment full of Prefects sprung into action and pulled the two enemies apart while both tried to reach each other.


    "He''s going toe after everyone you love, Pottah!"


    "Fuck you, Malfoy!"


    "Enough!" said Quinn; he had seen enough to see where the situation stood, and with a wave of his fake wand, steel chains appeared out of the walls behind Harry and Draco and wrapped around them like vices of hell and pulled the two boys back, mming into the wall.


    The rest of the people backed away when Quinn stood up and walked to the two bound ones. "Listen, I don''t really care what both of you think about each other, and I''m also fine with your regr Gryffindor-Slytherin fights, but if I see this thinge up and be the reason behind why two of your friend groups fight, I''ll personally be responsible for your detentions, and believe me," he looked at both of them with stale eyes, "you won''t like me after those detentions.


    Do you understand?"


    The two didn''t reply but did look away and bowed their heads. Quinn stared at them for a moment before the chains disappeared.


    He turned to Harry and said, "I don''t want you inciting people against the children of used Death Eaters. If I see you doing that, I would be very disappointed in you. You''d be turning into the same thing that has been guing you for years." He turned to Draco and said, "If I see provocativements like the one now, then I will be seeing your actions as they are now, Malfoy. If they create problems in Hogwarts, I''ll bury you and your friends and make your life very difficult in Hogwarts."


    Quinn stared at Draco, who looked up to see a stone look in Quinn''s eyes, and till the moment Quinn removed his eyes, Draco wasn''t able to look away.


    Draco watched as Quinn, and maybe it was his imagination, but Draco saw a look of disappointment shing in Quinn''s eyes. Subconsciously his hands went to his forearm for a brief moment before he realized what he was doing and removed it instantly.


    "Now, Ms. Harper, where were we? Ah, yes, the new professor," said Quinn, facing the new Slytherin professor. "So, the new professor¡ª"


    Thepartment door once again opened yet another time.


    "This is ridiculous!" said Harper, an irritated expression on her face.


    A breathless third-year girl stepped inside, and she looked to be shaking in her boots with all Prefects, Headboy, and Headgirl looking at her.


    "I''m supposed to deliver these to Quinn West, Harry P-Potter, and Draco Malfoy," she said, faltering as her eyes met Harry''s, and she turned scarlet. She was holding out three scrolls of parchment tied with violet ribbon. Quinn, Harry, and Draco took the scroll addressed to each of them, and the girl stumbled back out of thepartment.


    "What is it?" Hermione asked as Harry unrolled his.


    "An invitation," said Harry.


    Quinn read his invitation with indifferent eyes.


    .


    -----------


    Mr. West,


    I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch inpartment C.


    Sincerely,


    Professor H.E.F. Slughorn.


    -----------


    .


    He looked up at Harper and chuckled, "Ms. Harper, it seems you can finally get the answer to your question."


    "What do you mean? Who is it from?" she asked, tilting her head.


    Quinn turned the slip and showed it to Harper and everyone.


    "Professor Horace Eugeneus Slughorn," he said, "our new professor."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - My disappointment is immeasurable, but my day isn''t ruined.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - Puncher.


    Draco Malfoy - Malfoy Heir - Kicker.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 272 - Slug Club

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    After the Headboy and Headgirl addressal, Quinn assigned the Prefects with their patrolling time slots and adjourned the meeting after taking questions from the new prefects.


    "Are you twoing?" Quinn asked Draco and Harry.


    Harry and Draco stood up silently, which Quinn took as their agreement. He opened the door to thepartment and smiled at the lunch trolleydy who was just starting from the very front of the train where the Prefect''spartment was located.


    "Would you like something off the cart, dear?" asked the trollydy with her dimpled smile.


    Quinn peered at the snack cart filled with all sorts of sweets ¡ª Bertie Bott''s Every vor Beans, Drooble''s Best Blowing Gum, Chocte Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, among many assortments of sweets. Quinn wondered if he should buy something with his pockets filled with an ample amount of chocte. Then he saw something on the cart that put a smile on his face.


    "One Weasley''s Candy In a Can," he said, forking a sickle in return for the assortments of candies that caused different joke-like effects upon eating them.


    He thanked the cartdy and stepped aside from the door so that she could reach all the other people inside the Prefect''spartment. He looked at Draco and Harry and asked as he pocketed the can, "Do you guys want to buy something? It''s my treat."


    Draco turned his nose up while Harry politely shook his head.


    "Chocte?" Quinn took out chocte balls, which yet again were refused by both. "Suit yourselves, now let''s go see what Slughorn has to eat; I''m starving."


    And thus began the long walk topartment C. The corridors, which were packed with people on the lookout for the lunch trolley, were impossible to negotiate, even for a Headboy and two Prefects ¡ª all of them well known personally. Every now and then, students would hurtle out of theirpartments to get a better look at Harry and congratte Quinn.


    "Hi, Quinn," said Cho Chang as she stood at the threshold of herpartment. "Congrattions for getting the shiniest badge in Hogwarts."


    "Hello to you as well, Chang. It indeed is shiny," said Quinn chuckling. "So, I saw Diggory at the station; I suppose he was here to see you away," he smirked, "it seems you two are going strong, eh. Tell me, did your parentse to send you off, or it was just Mr. Loving Boyfriend."


    Cho blushed to her neck at Quinn''s teasing words.


    "Oh ho, so it was just Diggory, eh. I see, I see," said Quinn grinning. His eyes then went inside thepartment and saw Marietta Edgbe sitting in her seat, stiff. She turned her face away the moment Quinn looked at her.


    "Edgbe," said Quinn, smiling, "I hope you''re doing well."


    Marietta cranked her head towards Quinn with a cramped smile and nodded. She didn''t speak. Quinn''s smile turned wider, and he could see Marietta twitch. Marietta had been low-key after Quinn had threatened her to keep quiet about DA, but she turned frightened after Umbgridge had been sacked and Quinn was in the center of the entire incident.


    "Let''s catch upter, Chang," said Quinn when he noticed that his twopanions were getting restless waiting for him.


    Quinn, along with Harry and Draco, pushed on. When they reachedpartment C, they saw at once that they were not Slughorn''s only invitees, although judging by the enthusiasm of Slughorn''s wee, Harry Potter was the most warmly anticipated.


    "Harry Potter, m''boy!" said Slughorn, jumping up at the sight of Harry Potter entering hispartment. Slughorn seemed so excited that his great velvet-covered belly seemed to fill all the remaining space in thepartment. His shiny bald head and great silvery mustache gleamed as brightly in the sunlight as the golden buttons on his waistcoat. "Good to see you, good to see you! And you must be Draco Malfoy! I saw you a long time ago when you were a wee bit child. You remind me a lot of your father."


    He turned his eyes around behind Draco and Harry and stretched his fat neck to peek outside. "My boys, I was told that Quinn West was along with you, but I do not see him. Did he not receive my invitation?"


    Draco and Harry finally, after their brawl, looked at each other, wondering who should take the lead. It was Harry who decided to speak to therge professor.


    "He''s here, sir," Harry said and pointed behind into thepartment.


    Slughorn turned, and he saw the crowd of invitees chatting among themselves. But then Slughorn''s eyes caught a ck-haired person decked in a maroon suit standing out from the rest of the group. He was standing over the appetizers table, looking at the options with his fingers tweaking before they went for the te and picked up a sausage roll with a toothpick in it.


    "Quinn West," Slughorn walked towards Quinn, who looked up from the appetizers with the sausage rolls on his lips.


    Slughorn stared at Quinn, his mind going through the thoughts about Quinn. He knew of the Wests ¡ª he knew that they were significant, seclusive, and more importantly, ridiculously wealthy ¡ª though it puzzled him why they weren''t well known. He had onlye to know about the family when he saw Millicent Bagnold, the then Minister, and an impressive cohort of high-ranking Ministry employees walking with someone ¡ª and when Slughorn had asked about who the person was, he had received the name, George West. Slughorn decided to use his ''Slug Club'' connections to find more about George West, and to his surprise, it took him contacting Lucius Malfoy to find more about George West. Even then, Lucius had been reluctant to talk about George West or the Wests in general, and all he had got was that they were extremely wealthy.


    But Slughorn knew that there was much more to it. He tried to find out more on his own, looked for other West; however, except for the one time he had seen George West, Slughorn never met another West, or even heard of them. . . that was untilst year when he saw the name Quinn West in the corner of a newspaper. So when Dumbledore came to him with Harry Potter in tow, Slughorn already had an additional incentive to return to Hogwarts as a professor.


    "Ah, Professor Slughorn," Quinn said with a light smile. "It''s a pleasure to meet you, and I thank you for the lunch invitation. Putting that aside, I, as the Headboy of the student body, would like to wee you back to The Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry."


    Slughornughed wholeheartedly as he wildly shook Quinn''s hand. "I can see why they chose you as the Headboy. You do seem to suit the role. I have heard a lot about you, West ¡ª top of your year, with praises on the lips of every professor I have talked to. I look forward to teaching you this year."


    "And I''m sure the students, especially the Slytherins, would be excited to learn from someone who was once their Head of House. For I, for one, can''t wait to attend your lessons."


    Slughorn once againughed joyously and pped Quinn on his shoulder repeatedly.


    When Slughorn was done making small talk with Quinn, he turned to the other guest, and it was then thepartment''s door opened, and three people entered. Quinn''s breath was taken away when he saw the people at the door. Suddenly for Quinn, there was no one but them and himself. He vanished the toothpick in his hand and moved towards them with vivid emotion in his eyes.


    They looked like they were going to speak something, but Quinn enveloped them in a warm, loving hug, wanting to convey the multitude of emotions through this one gesture. Quinn even felt himself tear a little as he hugged tighter.


    "The fuck''s wrong with you?" said Eddie, staring at Quinn with a weirded-out look. He tried to push Quinn away, but the Muay Thai and Boy magic practitioners didn''t budge.


    Marcus, the gentle one of the Ravenw Trio, epted the hug and hugged back, subconsciously patting Quinn''s back. "Not that we don''t appreciate the hug, Quinn, but may we know why the sudden hug?"


    Quinn took a deep breath before ending the hug and looked at his two best friends with joyous eyes. "For six long years, I have ridden this train on First of September, and today makes it the seventh, and myst. For the past five years, I have tried to find both of you on this train, but some cursed power, something vile, has stopped our union," he ced his hands on their shoulder, "but today, today it seems the curse has been broken, and our friendship has triumphed over the hardships and finally have brought us together."


    "Mate," said Eddie, "that''s nice and all, but look around, will ya?"


    Quinn turned toe face to face with his gorgeous but also frowning girlfriend. "Daphne," said Quinn, walking close to her, "even though it has only been a few days, I have missed you."


    Daphne continued to furrow her brows as she looked at her smiling boyfriend. She had wanted to meet Quinn as soon as she boarded the train but knew that he would be busy with the prefect business. She waited patiently with Tracey in apartment they had upied for their group. Then came Marcus, soon followed by Luna, and they all started to share their summer stories. But that was until Eddie arrived, and unlike her and Quinn, Tracey and Eddie weren''t so reserved when it came to public disy of affection.


    Daphne(and Marcus) couldn''t sit awkwardly as the couple, who had not met in close to a month, went at each other, trying to make up for the missed time. The unabashed couple didn''t even notice that Luna was staring at them with her curious eyes.


    The invitation from Horace Slughorn came just at the right time as Daphne wasn''t sure she could take it anymore. Marcus, Eddie, and her had been invited. She had heard of Slughorn from her father, who had told her about the ''Slug Club.'' Even though she wasn''t interested in joining the ''Slug Club,'' she knew Quinn would be there, so she thought epting the invitation wouldn''t be so bad.


    When she finally arrived, as she expected, Quinn was there, but he walked past her and hugged Marcus and Eddie while speaking strange words about curses, friendship, and hardships.


    Daphne sighed. She knew of his asional penchant for theatrics. And she couldn''t be mad at him for long. "I would appreciate if you wouldn''t ignore me next time," she said, looking up at him.


    "How could I ever ignore you," said Quinn. He leaned forward and whispered as he lightly kissed her cheek, "You''re the most breathtaking one in every room."


    Daphne''s cheeks flushed and pushed Quinn away, though her hands held no power. "Not in front of everyone!"


    Quinn grinned, enjoying seeing the blushing Daphne. It was a rare sight that he had only found after the two had started dating. He wanted to see more.


    "Ahem."


    Quinn and Daphne turned to see Ivy Potter standing waiting to pass by. They moved away, giving her space to pass by between them. But Ivy didn''t move and said, "You left so abruptly thest time, didn''t even say a proper goodbye."


    Daphne''s eyes narrowed. She looked sharply at Quinn for an answer.


    "I met her during my visit at the Weasley''s store," said Quinn, keeping his exterior normal, even though inside he was groaning, for he knew why Ivy was doing it. "There, I had to leave suddenly because of some business that hade up."


    "I see," said Daphne, and her expression went back to her usual ''Daphne-esque'' expression, even though she was bothered that Quinn had met with Ivy and she didn''t know about it.


    At a call from Slughorn, everyone sat down around the table. Quinn kept his eyes to his left, where Daphne sat beside him, trying to ignore his right where Ivy sat.


    "Now, do you know everyone?" Slughorn asked Harry, whom the professor had made sit beside him. "ise Zabini is in your year, of course ¡ª"


    ise and Harry exchanged a nod to each other. It was the most a Gryffindor and Slytherin would give each other, and those two had reached the level after working with each other in DA for months.


    "This is Cormac McLaggen; perhaps you''vee across each other ¡ª? No?"


    McLaggen, arge, wiry-haired youth, raised a hand, and Harry and Neville nodded back at him.


    "¡ª and this is Marcus Belby, I don''t know whether ¡ª? Oh, you do? Excellent!"


    Even if a group of people in DA might not have talked to each other, there was not a single DA member who didn''t have a talk with Marcus about secrecy and rules outside the Room Of Requirements.


    "¡ª and you must know Carmichael. You two have been ying against each other at the battlefield of Quidditch ¡ª!"


    Eddie and Harry just bluntly stared at each other. All both were willing to do was acknowledge each other existence as human-shaped living organisms.


    "¡ª and here we have West. But I''m sure as a Prefect, you must know the Headboy!" Slughorn finished.


    Quinn nodded politely to Harry, and there was yet again a wave of congrattions for Quinn bing the Headboy.


    "Well now, this is most pleasant," said Slughorn cozily. "A chance to get to know you all a little better. Here, take a napkin. I''ve packed my own lunch; the trolley, as I remember it, is heavy on licorice wands, and a poor old man''s digestive system isn''t quite up to such things. . . . Pheasant, Belby?


    Marcus tarted and epted what looked like half a cold pheasant.


    "I was just telling young Marcus here that I had the pleasure of teaching his Uncle Damocles," Slughorn told everyone, now passing around a basket of rolls. "Outstanding wizard, outstanding, and his Order of Merlin most well-deserved. Do you see much of your uncle, Marcus?"


    Marcus waited till he had transferred some of the pheasant onto his te before answering. "Not . . . not much of him, no."


    "Well, of course, I daresay he''s busy," said Slughorn, looking questioningly at Belby. "I doubt he invented the Wolfsbane Potion without considerable hard work!"


    "I''m sure he did his share of hard work," said Marcus cing a bread roll onto his te. "I haven''t seen my uncle in years. My dad and uncle don''t get along that much."


    ". . . I see," said Slughorn with a smile drained of its previous warmth.


    "Now, you, Cormac," said Slughorn, "I happen to know you see a lot of your Uncle Tiberius because he has a rather splendid picture of the two of you hunting nogtails in, I think, Norfolk?"


    "Oh, yeah, that was fun, that was," said McLaggen. "We went with Bertie Higgs and Rufus Scrimgeour ¡ª this was before he became the Head of DMLE, obviously ¡ª"


    "Ah, you know Bertie and Rufus too?" beamed Slughorn, now offering


    around a small tray of pies. "Speaking of that," he turned to Susan Bones, "Dear, how''s your aunt doing? I heard about the attack on her house. She must have been devastated ¡ª how the times have be, the Minster''s house been attacked, this would''ve never happened before."


    He meandered off into a long-winded reminiscence about the wide array of topics about things that made Slughorn seem important and well connected, which in truth, he was, but the bragging was getting a bit too much for everyone. The afternoon wore on with more anecdotes about illustrious wizards Slughorn had taught, all of whom had been delighted to join what the ''Slug Club.''


    The Slug Club was an out-of-hours dining and social club made up of Horace Slughorn''s most well-liked and sometimes famous students at Hogwarts. Along the course of the school year, Slughorn would hold various club get-togethers, often dinners with fine food. Slughorn would lead the conversation in order to get to know the members better and encourage them to associate with one another. For the grander parties, he would invite famous former members to impress. Slughorn''s aim was to cultivate talent and give his favorites a nudge toward fame and fortune, hoping to reap the benefits of his connection to them once they became the "high fliers" he expected them to be.


    Finally, the train emerged from yet another long misty stretch into a red sunset, and Slughorn looked around, blinking in the twilight.


    "Good gracious, it''s getting dark already! I didn''t notice that they''d lit themps! You''d better go and change into your robes, all of you. McLaggen, you must drop by and borrow that book on nogtails. Harry, ise ¡ª any time you''re passing. The same goes for you, Ivy," he said, shing a smile, "I have many stories about your mother that I think you''d be interested in. Eddie, you as well, have to sit with me sometime; I''ll tell you about Gwenog Jones, she was my student, and I think you might know her from the Holyhead Harpies." He turned to Quinn, "Quinn, let''s have some tea when you drop by during Headboy duties. Daphne, dear, did you know I was sort of a matchmaker for your parents. . . ."


    "I''m d that''s over," muttered Marcus after they exitedpartment C. "Strange man, isn''t he?"


    "I''m not going back if he invites me the next time," said Quinn, bluntly.


    "Why? I thought it was fun," said Eddie, stretching his arms above his head. "Though it was a bit long. . . hmm, I wonder how''s Tracey faring with Luna."


    "The Slug Club can be a good ce, no doubt," said Quinn to Eddie, "but for everyone here, it doesn''t do much good. . . maybe for Marcus, but he was rejected."


    "What do you mean? Why was Marcus rejected?" Eddie said, frowning.


    "The Slug Club is about creating connections," started Quinn. "Slughorn has constructed a long history of inviting influential students into his club and has created awork of now influential people in high ces. What he does is allow students to use those connections ¡ª and gives those students a chance at having first-rate careers ahead of them.


    Helping others be famous gained Slughorn his influence, such as being able to rmend the next junior member of the Goblin Liaison Office, and various benefits, such as free tickets to any Holyhead Harpies match or a box of his favorite exotic fruit."


    "Daphne and I have connections that exceed Slughorn''s. The same goes for Malfoy. Potters have their unique position, their father is an exalted Auror and a member of Wizengamot, so they also won''t gain much from Slughorn. Zabini and McLaggen will definitely benefit from Slughorn, so it''s good for them." He put his arm around Eddie''s shoulder, "You are the most popr amateur prospect in all of British Isles, so as long as you don''t screw up, you pretty much don''t need Slughorn''s help ¡ª he might have been able to provide you with a good agent, but with your poprity, good ones would flock around you, begging you to join them"


    Eddie puffed his chest. He knew he was pure awesome, but hearing it did feel good.


    Now, Marcus. . . if he knew his paradigm-changing uncle better, Slughorn would have flocked around him as much as did everyone else, but because Marcus didn''t, he didn''t talk to him after he revealed his family status," said Quinn. "Slughorn isn''t interested in students who won''t give him returns ¡ª he doesn''t think Marcus has anything to offer, so he just cut him. . . that''s how Slug Club works."


    Marcus bowed his head. Did that mean he didn''t have any personal value?


    "Slughorn is a fool to not consider Marcus," said Quinn, making Marcus raise his head. "Ask anyone in DA, and they will tell you who''s the real boss." He looked at Marcus, "And I take it back, you don''t need Slughorn ¡ª you have connections much greater than his."


    Marcus said, "What? Quinn, I don''t know my uncle¡ª"


    "Who''s talking about uncle," said Quinn and then pointed at himself. "You have me as your connection. You literally can''t have a better connection than me. Whatever Slughorn can provide, I can do better."


    Marcus looked at Quinn, who was now mimicking Eddie in his ''I am pure awesome'' expression.


    Marcus smiled. Quinn was right. He did have better connections than Slughorn, much, much better.


    "Next time we go to Hogsmeade. It''s my treat," said Marcus.


    " "Seriously?! Nice!" " said Quinn and Eddie.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I''m better.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Damn, that was long, now I''m sleepy. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 273 - The Last Opening Feast

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Great Hall, with its four long House tables and its staff table set at the top of the room, was decorated as usual with floating candles that made the tes below glitter and glow. The students of Hogwarts filled the room with their voices and words, bringing the life and energy back into the castle that it had been devoid of for the past two months.


    At the staff table, the professors sat looking over the students with smiles on their faces. Dumbledore got to his feet with his twinkly eyes and bearded smile. He raised his hand, and The talk andughter echoing around the Hall died away almost instantly.


    "The very best of evenings to you!" he said, smiling broadly, his arms opened wide as though to embrace the whole room. "Now . . . to our new students, wee, to our old students, wee back! Another year full of magical education awaits you. . ."


    The sorted first years stared at their new Headmaster with attentive ears, as if every word from Dumbledore was the truth of magic. Their pre-sorting ceremony jitters had vanished, and now decked in their house colors, they took everything from the color of the charmed ceiling to the scratched scribbles on the tabled with curious eyes.


    "And Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to say that there is a nket ban on any joke items bought at the shop called Weasleys'' Wizard Wheezes."


    Quinn took out his Weasley''s Candy In A Can, passed the candies to his fellow Ravenws, and shared a smile with those who understood the jokes while winking at the first-year Ravenws who gazed upon with eyes as the Headboy vited the rules in front of them.


    "Those wishing to y for their House Quidditch teams should give their


    names to their Heads of House as usual."


    Dumbledore''s words made the Ravenws interested in ying Quidditch for the house turned to Eddie, who they knew was the new captain as Flitwick had personallye by to congratte him on getting the position and had handed Eddie the captain pin.


    "We are pleased to wee a new member of staff this year. Professor Slughorn" ¡ª Slughorn stood up, his bald head gleaming in the candlelight, his big waistcoated belly casting the table below into shadow ¡ª "is a former colleague of mine who has agreed to resume his old post of Potions master."


    "Potions?"


    "Potions?"


    The word echoed all over the Hall as people wondered whether they had heard right.


    "Professor Snape, meanwhile," said Dumbledore, raising his voice so that it carried over all the muttering, "will be taking over the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."


    "I knew it!" said Eddie pumped his fist, and loud enough that many eyes were attracted to him. He did not care; he was staring at Quinn and Marcus. "I saidst year that the bat will get his greasy hands on the DADA post. Ha! I was right!"


    Snape, who was sitting on Dumbledore''s right, did not stand up at the mention of his name; he merely raised a hand inzy acknowledgment of the apuse from the Slytherin table, yet those who looked closely were sure that they detected a look of triumph on his ever scowling face.


    "Wanna bet that he would be gone by the end of the year?" Eddie grinned at Marcus, who sat in front of him.


    "Only if you bet him to stay, and I get to choose that he leaves," said Marcus. "Everyone knows the job''s jinxed. No one''ssted more than a year."


    Eddie clicked his tongue. He didn''t want to take on a bet in which he couldn''t win.


    Dumbledore cleared his throat. Eddie and Marcus weren''t the only ones who had been talking; the whole Hall had erupted in a buzz of conversation at the news that Snape had finally achieved his heart''s desire. Seemingly oblivious to the sensational nature of the news he had just imparted, Dumbledore said nothing more about staff appointments but waited a few seconds to ensure that the silence was absolute before continuing.


    "Now, as everybody in this Hall knows, Lord Voldemort and his followers are once more atrge and gaining in strength."


    The silence seemed to tauten and strain as Dumbledore spoke. At the Slytherin table, Malfoy was not looking at Dumbledore but making his fork hover in mid-air with his wand, as though he found the Headmaster''s words unworthy of his attention.


    "I cannot emphasize strongly enough how dangerous the present situation is and how much care each of us at Hogwarts must take to ensure that we remain safe. The castle''s magical fortifications have been strengthened over the summer, we are protected in new and more powerful ways, but we must still guard scrupulously against carelessness on the part of any student or member of staff. I urge you, therefore, to abide by any security restrictions that your teachers might impose upon you, however irksome you might find them.


    In particr, the rule that you are not to be out of bed after hours," Dumbledore paused for a second and pointedly stared at Quinn, sitting at the Ravenw, who didn''t meet the Headmaster''s eyes. "I implore all of you, should you notice anything strange or suspicious within or outside the castle, to report it to a member of staff immediately. I trust you to conduct yourselves, always, with the utmost regard for your own and others'' safety."


    Dumbledore''s blue eyes swept over the students before he smiled once more. "But now, your beds await, as warm andfortable as you could possibly wish, and I know that your top priority is to be well-rested for your lessons tomorrow. Let us therefore say good night. Pip pip!"


    With the usual deafening scraping noise, the benches were moved back, and the hundreds of students began to file out of the Great Hall toward their dormitories. Quinn instructed his fifth-year Ravenw prefects to fulfill their prefect''s duty of shepherding the first years and then joined Eddie, Marcus, and Luna.


    "So, no morete-night visits, eh, Headboy West?" said Eddie grinning with one hand around Quinn''s shoulder. "Or would the legend of the living ghost who wanders Hogwarts halls continue for another year?"


    "No, I won''t be wandering the halls after curfews. I''m the Headboy now; it doesn''t suit the position. Want some?" said Quinn took out the Weasley''s Candy In A Can.


    "And it was fine when you were only a Prefect?" asked Marcus.


    "Why look at the past when the future is so bright," said Quinn. "Also, hypothetically speaking, even if I do go out after the curfew, no one would ever know. . ."


    "We sleep in the same room, doofus," said Eddie.


    Quinn raised his hand, and hanging off his middle finger was a ring hoop with a solitary key in it. "Gentlemen, feast your eyes on the key to the infamous Headboy''s Suite. The private living quarters, only avable to the one who hold the title of Headboy, which is the great me." He patted Marcus and Eddie''s shoulder, "Sorry boys, but the era of us three hase to an end."


    Marcus and Eddie stared at the key in Quinn''s hand with equal parts shock and surprise. They had not considered that with Quinn''s Headboy position came the part where he had to move out of the Ravenw dorms.


    "Damn it. . . I should have aimed for Headboy as well," said Eddie, snatching the key from Quinn. "Are you sure there''s only room for one? I mean, how much space do two people take. I am not one to brag, but I don''t take much space, so how about it?"


    "Hey, don''t leave me out," said Marcus. "I too want to live in my own Suite."


    Quinn smiled as his shoulders rxed. Three of them had been roommates for six years. Their dorm room was a ce filled with memories for all three of them. It represented a lot in all three of their lives. In the past six years, they had spent more time in that dorm room than they had spent at their own houses. To hear that there was going to be some change to that dorm room was a significant change. He was sure that Marcus and Eddie were bothered by him moving out, but seeing them making jokes did put him at ease.


    "I''m still going to meet you in the morning for the workout," Quinn said to Eddie and then turned to Marcus, "and I''m going to be there at breakfast. I''m still going to attend sses with you. Hell, I probably will spend time in themon room. It just won''t be there at night. . ."


    "Shut it! I don''t want to talk about it," said Eddie.


    "And, you know, I''m going to be free after Christmas. . . Don''t tell this to anyone yet, but I won''t be doing AID after Christmas."


    " "What?!" "


    Now that blew both of their minds. AID was synonymous with Quinn. AID was part of Quinn, and it also went the other way around. Just the thought of Quinn not doing AID in that office seemed strange and unnatural.


    "So, you''re going to close AID?" asked Marcus.


    Quinn shook his head, "No, AID isn''t closing. I''m going to pass it onto another person ¡ª my sessor."


    "Who?"


    "That''s a secret. Everyone will know when I announce it, which is going to be soon ¡ª most probably the day after tomorrow."


    "Is it Luna?"


    "No, it''s not Luna. . ."


    "Does she know who it is?" asked Marcus, but then narrowed his eyes at Quinn. ". . . You haven''t told her yet, have you?"


    Quinn shook his head. He hadn''t gotten the chance to talk about it with Luna. He was going to talk to her tomorrow. He just hoped that she would take it as he thought she would take.


    "Damn, that''s one start to a year," muttered Eddie. "Snape''s left behind Potion to teach DADA. You''re moving out of the dorms. And now AID is going to be run without you. . . by someone else," he made a face as if he ate something strange, "it just doesn''t feel right."


    "Any other surprises you want to share with us?" asked Marcus, his thoughts the same as Eddie.


    "Hmm. . . not yet, I don''t think so," said Quinn, putting on a mysterious smile.


    "Oh, don''t do that!" Marcus groaned. "That smile just makes me curious!"


    "What can I say fes, I''m a mysterious fellow," said Quinn.


    "What else is there?" asked Eddie. "You''re going to stop being amentator?"


    "Oh, not all. Why would I do that?! Who''s going to praise you if I leave. In Ravenw, only Luna is interested in being thementator, and you know her; she would talk about everything but Quidditch. So, if I leave, someone from the other three houses will take over, and believe me, those guys don''t like you."


    The amount of dislike that Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff felt for Eddie was unprecedented. Harry Potter had been sneaking snitches under the other teams'' noses for five years, and in Quidditch circles, the Seeker wasn''t liked at all(except Gryffindor) ¡ª they would boo at him when Harry woulde out. But Harry had nothing on Eddie. It has taken just one season of Hogwarts Quidditch Cup for Eddie to be the viin of Hogwarts Quidditch.


    Eddie smiled an evil smirk, "Let theme. . . their petty jealousy will be music to my ears as I tear havoc through their defenses."


    "Do you want me to push that image?" asked Quinn. "Because I think I can turn the dislike to hate. . ."


    "Oh ho?" Eddie put his hands on his chin. "That. . . doesn''t sound bad. . ."


    Marcus stared at his two best friends as they put their heads together to formte how to make Eddie more hated. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only sane one between them.


    Quinn might have been moving out, but it seemed nothing was going to change for the three amigos.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn entered the Headboy Suite for the first time after doing his Headboy duties of the day. It was guarded by a portrait of the first Headboy of Hogwarts, and behind it was a locked door which Quinn had the key of.


    He roamed his new quarters and took they of thend. The Suite was bigger than his dorm room ¡ª however, unlike the dorm room, he was going to live alone here. There was a dedicated living room area, a spacious bedroom, a walk-in closet, there was an in-floor bathtub in the bathroom, and all the space any student would need.


    After breaking in the bathtub, Quinn sat on his new bed in his nightclothes.


    He slipped his hand into his shirt and pulled out a thin silver chain around his neck. Hanging from that chain was a pendant piece in the shape of a triangle with a circle inside which had a line going through it ¡ª the Deathly Hallow symbol.


    Quinn wrapped his fist around the pendant piece, and when he opened it, the ck Ressurection Stone sat in his palm. It was the thing from the legends and the urban story tale that could summon souls of the dead back to the mortal ne.


    "Now, let''s see what you can teach me about the Soul," said Quinn with a deep, thriving curiosity and desire to learn hiding behind his eyes.


    It was time to take the first step towardspleting the Trinity.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Magic is always at the forefront.


    Eddie Carmichael - Seventh Year - Viin image suits him more.


    Marcus Belby - Seventh Year - The sane one.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Tomorrow, we see what Quinn does every year after returning to Hogwarts.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 274 - Start Of The Transition

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The second of September, the second day back at school for Hogwarts students, and the first day they would attend sses. It was an exciting day for everyone, but for Quinn, it was earmarked in his calendars for him to set up the AID office for business after the day sses.


    Quinn stood in front of the ss wall that partitioned the ssroom into the office space and workshop. He picked up a canvas frame with a still painting fit inside it, held it against the wall, and the frame stuck to it as if it was glued to it. With that final painting, the office was done being set up.


    "Now, I only need to take care of the workshop, and I''ll be done for the day," he said with a smile.


    He looked at the rectangr door in the ss wall ¡ª he hadn''t installed the special reinforced door yet. "I would need to teach Astoria to use that," he said to himself as he picked up his briefcase off the floor, which held the entire inventory for the workshop.


    Quinn was about to walk into the workshop area when the door chime rang, and he looked over to see Luna enter the office with an assortment of flowers in her hands.


    "Done with your sses?" asked Quinn.


    "There''s only Astronomy at midnight." Luna walked to one of the wall side cabs with an empty flower pot. She took out a tiny sk that she had made herself and poured water stored in its expanded canteen into the pot ¡ª conjured water through spells would eventually vanish and thus wasn''t suitable for drinking or flowers.


    Quinn gazed at Luna setting the flowers into the pot, then at the empty workshop, and then at his briefcase. He pursed his lips before deciding that it was the right thing to get it done as soon as possible. He set the briefcase inside the workshop by the door and walked back into the office.


    "Luna," said Quinn as he sat down on his barstool. When the blonde looked at him, he motioned her to sit down in front of the table. "I would like to talk to you about something."


    Luna took out her wand and waved it over the flowers. The flowers bloomed into vibrancy as the color of the petals gained a beautiful contrast, and the leaves looked as if they had been collecting dew overnight. Only after she was satisfied with her work on the flowers did she take a seat opposite Quinn.


    "Luna, as you know, this will be myst year at Hogwarts," said Quinn.


    She nodded, "Quinn''s a big boy now."


    Quinn chuckled, "Yes, that''s one way to phrase it. Well, because it''s myst year at Hogwarts, it entered my mind that I need to address some things before I graduate," he tried to keep his expression bright, "and one of the things that needed to be discussed was AID. . . .


    Luna. . . I''ll be leaving AID after Christmas."


    Luna''s hands that had started to braid a few strands of her hair into braids froze in their work. She stared at Quinn, her eyes that usually held a dreamy gaze, now looked at Quinn with a stunned attention.


    "Christmas, but that''s. . ." ¡ª so close. Hogwarts school year startedte in the year, leaving only a few months to Christmas ¡ª three to be precise. The sudden revtion brought Luna out of her thoughts filled with whimsy, and now she was paying a hundred percent of her attention to Quinn. "Can''t you stay till the end; why do we have to leave so early?"


    "I think it''s the right time," Quinn said, keeping his expression and toneforting, "I finish my time at AID before Christmas, go home for break, and then return after the new year to enjoy the rest of my year.


    Also, Luna, there''s no we in this. . . I''m leaving AID, and in no way means that AID will be closing."


    "Why does that matter. . . you''ll be gone," said Luna, with a rare frown on her face.


    The grumpy tone with the clear notes of anger made Quinn scrunch his face ever so slightly. He was afraid that she wouldn''t like his decision at all. It was no secret that Luna didn''t have many friends outside of Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus; her time in AID was just so that she could spend time with Quinn, even a lot of it was spent in silence. Quinn leaving AID meant that she would lose that time.


    "You won''t be at AID alone, you know," said Quinn, trying to get to the good part as soon as possible, "Astoria will be taking my ce."


    That caught her attention. Luna thought she would be managing AID alone. But ording to Quinn, Astoria was taking ''his'' ce, which meant. . .


    "Astoria bes the proprietor and not me?" she asked.


    The few friends that Luna had outside the Ravenw circle came from the DA group. But even before that, Luna had been well acquainted with Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria as Quinn and Co. hung out with the Slytherin girls. Astoria found Luna interesting and, being the extrovert she was, tried to make friends with entric Ravenw. Luna was a bit cautious at first, but the persistent ball of sunshine didn''t stop until she was friends with Luna.


    "Yes, you don''t have to do all the boring work," said Quinn chuckling, reading between the words. "You''ll have to do more work than now because Astoria''s new and well. . . she''s not me."


    Luna went silent and started to stare at the table with a thoughtful gaze. Quinn stared at his long-time partner with an expecting gaze.


    "Okay, you can go after Christmas," said Luna. "It''s your loss; I''ll have fun with Astoria."


    Quinn grinned. It would indeed be his loss.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Astoria stood waiting on the fifth floor, just outside the Grand Staircase. She leaned against the wall, looking at her shoes that slowly inched forward as she let her weight skid her foot forward at a snail''s pace.


    "I''m here. Sorry for the wait."


    She looked up to see Quinn walking out of the Grand Staircase.


    "What''s this?" said Quinn, and Astoria spotted the teasing smirk on his face. "Are you nervous?"


    Astoria pushed herself off the wall and bumped he shoulder into Quinn for his teasing. She was indeed nervous. They were about to go meet Flitwick to inform him that AID was changing ownership, and more importantly, ask his permission to move forward.


    "What if he doesn''t like me?" asked Astoria. "He might want AID to remain in the Ravenw house."


    Quinnughed at that. "Oh, dear. That''s not how things work between AID and Professor Flitwick. True, we need his permission as AID is his responsibility, and yes, he''s the Head of Ravenw House, but AID is not a Ravenw legacy. I have never portrayed it to be a Ravenw exclusive, and Professor Flitwick has never seen it such.


    He knows what AID means to me and what I put in to make it work. AID is my legacy, and I get to choose who seeds me. And I have decided that it would be a student-run operation with the faculty having no power over it. AID will never turn into something like the Prefect group ¡ª controlled by the faculty."


    They started to walk together to Flitwick''s office ¡ª not the faculty room, but the Head of Ravenw House office.


    "How did you even get Professor Flitwick to agree to this?" asked Astoria. "If it was Professor Snape, he would have never agreed to start anything remotely like AID ¡ªor maybe he would, it would depend on who was asking."


    "Honestly, I didn''t do anything special," said Quinn, shrugging. "I sent a letter listing out what I wanted to aplish with AID and how I was going to aplish it. My only demands were that I required a ssroom to operate and nothing else ¡ª and in this humungous castle, Professor Flitwick didn''t have any reservations to lend a room to his best student."


    After that, Quinn''s track record and poprity had carried AID into bing a mainstay in Hogwarts. He hadn''t fielded a singleint from Flitwick since the inception of AID (the insistent ones from Umbridge didn''t count.)


    They finally reached Flitwick''s office, guarded by a man with a bent nose dressed in a funny set of robes. When they called to him, the man looked up from his perpetually unfinished stone statue and pointed his chisel at them.


    "What do thee want?"


    "We are here to see Professor Flitwick," said Quinn, "he''s expecting us."


    The chisel-bearing man squinted his eye at Quinn''s Headboy badge before disappearing from his portrait. When he returned, the door opened, and the two of them went inside.


    "Mr. West, I wasn''t expecting you today," said Flitwick behind his desk, but then he saw Astoria beside him. "Ms. Greengrass, you''re here as well. I hope it''s not because of some trouble ¡ª it''s too early in the year for that." He motioned them to sit as his hand flourished his wand to conjure two chairs. "So, what brings you here today?" he asked.


    Quinn and Astoria exchanged a nce before Quinn started, "Professor, I have decided to retire from AID, and Ms. Greengrass here is going to seed me as my sessor."


    Flitwick squeaked at the sudden news. He leaned stood on his chair and leaned forward onto the table. "Mr. West. . . this is such big news. I mean, when, how," he nced at Astoria. "I would like to get some details."


    "Astoria starts next week and will work under me to learn till Christmas, which is when I retire," said Quinn. "The reason why we are here is that you''re the one who gave me the permission to start AID ¡ª and because I''m leaving, the ountability falls onto Astoria''s head, so we want to know if you''d be alright endorsing her moving forward."


    The rtionship of trust that Quinn and Flitwick had built was strong, and that was the reason that Flitwick hadn''t interfered with or even supervised AID in any form for all five years. But that wasn''t the case between him and Astoria. Quinn wanted to know if the status quo would remain the same ¡ª he didn''t want any faculty interference with AID.


    Flitwick looked at both Quinn and Astoria for a long hard moment. The two students remained stayed still under the watching gaze of the half-goblins. "Mr. West, do you think Ms. Greengrass will be suitable in charge of AID. Can I trust her to maintain the same integrity and standards that you have built, and I havee to expect?" asked Flitwick.


    It wasn''t Quinn who answered the question.


    "Sir, I personally assure that AID will remain at the reputation it has built," said Astoria. "Even without Quinn, I''m confident that I will be able to operate AID at an elevated level ¡ª that room won''t turn into anything apart from what it was given for. AID''s motive is to help Hogwarts students, and it will stay that. The students will continue toe to the office because I''ll be effective in solving their problems.


    I''m a Slytherin, Professor Flitwick, and ambition is one of our traits. Forget about maintaining the reputation; I''ll raise it to something greater."


    Quinn, who sat beside her, smiled. He made no moves of his own and let Astoria take charge.


    Flitwick stared at Astoria, and this time didn''t give a nce to Quinn. His goblin-eyes remained fixed on her face as if trying to look past her confident words to find a hidden falsity. It was only when Astoria didn''t falter under his gaze that Flitwick, who had been standing on his chair, sat back down.


    "If that''s the case, I have no reservations towards the changing of ownership, as you have put it. When the new year arrives, Ms. Greengrass will be in charge of AID."


    Astoria''s expression set in her most dignified and confident evaporated into one of bubbly joy. She turned to Quinn, and he gave her an approving nod on her performance.


    Astoria Greengrass was set to take over AID.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The next day, during breakfast, the Hogwarts gathered in the Great Hall to start their day with a hearty meal before proceeding to a new day of sses. Among the sound of ttering cutleries and talking students, Flitwick turned to McGonagall, who nodded.


    The Charms Professor stood up on his chair and put his wand on his throat. "Ahem, if everyone would give me your attention for a minute," Flitwick''s voice traveled throughout the Great Hall, making all students and ghosts look towards the staff table.


    Flitwick peered over the entire Hogwarts student body before speaking, "There''s an exciting announcement to be made, which I''m sure all of you wouldn''t want to miss, so please listen with your ears peeled. The Headboy will be taking it forward from here."


    All eyes went to Quinn, who climbed the steps to the staff table to gain a little altitude. He faced everyone and could feel the hundreds of pairs of eyes on him. He tapped his throat with his fake wand and began his announcement.


    "Before I start, I would like to make it clear that this announcement isn''t made in my position as the Headboy, but in my position as the proprietor of AID."


    As Quinn said that people got more interested. Those who had been in Hogwarts for a few years hadn''t seen Quinn speak to make this sort of announcement ¡ª this was new, and they were interested in what Quinn had to say, expecting to hear about some big event that Quinn would set up this year.


    "As you all know, this is myst year at Hogwarts," said Quinn, "and I''ll be leaving at the end of this year, so the question arises what will happen to AID when I leave. It has been decided that AID won''t be closing after I leave. Instead, I''ll be passing it onto another person, who will be the second proprietor of AID."


    A lot of eyes went to Luna and found her sporting arge headpiece that resembled a patch of long grass.


    Quinn looked at everyone. It was time ¡ª this was an AID announcement, and it would be iplete without some theatrics. "If you''d all lift up your tes, you''ll find something very interesting stuck to the bottom."


    Instantly, everyone looked at their tes; it looked normal to them. They lifted them to see what Quinn was talking about. Those who had food on their tes slipped their hands underneath the te to feel around for the surprise, while others flipped theirs over.


    It was an AID card, the words AID were written on it, but it was a card different from the usual cards they had all be ustomed to seeing. Gone was the ck background, reced by a deep, luxurious shade of magenta velvet and written on it with striking silver words, the sessor''s name.


    Somewhere on the Gryffindor table, a certain girl with bushy-brown hair screamed behind her fist as she took out her wand to conjure a box and a pair of gloves that she put on to carefully transfer the card into the box.


    "I present you," all heard Quinn''s voice again, and they were surprised to see the person whose name was on the card standing beside Quinn, "Astoria Greengrass of AID."


    Astoria raised her wand above her head, and the many House Banners hung in the Great Hall all turned to velvet color with the letters A - I - D written in silver words.


    "I hope all of you would visit," said Astoria with aposed smile, "we have answers to all your problems. . ."


    Quinn turned to the staff table and the professors while sporting a grin. He pointed at Astoria before giving her a thumbs up and mouthed the words:


    ''She''s good!''


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - His Hogwarts Legacy. . . . ?


    Astoria Greengrass - The Next Proprietor of AID - She''s going to fit right in.


    Luna Lovegood - AID First-Gen Member - Master headpiece crafter.


    Filius Flitwick - Faculty-Liason - Will see generations of proprietors of AIDs.


    ??? - Collector - Panting at the stunning new design.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 275 - Moving Towards The Future

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The ceiling of the Great Hall was serenely blue and streaked with frail, wispy clouds, just like the squares of sky visible through the high mullioned windows. While they tucked into their meat pies and eggs and bacon, Quinn, Marcus, and Eddie conversed about the AID announcement that had just happened.


    "So, Astoria got a detention," said Eddie while looking at a book of Quidditch schemes and ys, "and that too with Snape."


    "As much as I loved Astoria''s little stunt," said Quinn, swallowing his bite of the fried egg. "She should have done her preparation and got the permission to change the banners. I mean, Astoria should have known that she would get detention ¡ª the Weasley twins got one every time they did a prank in the Great Hall."


    Quinn had to bring Astoria to at least a level that she would be able to operate AID without a hitch, and doing it in three months was a challenge. Like a baby wouldn''t touch a burning me a second time, Quinn had to make sure that Astoria would learn her lessons after a single mistake ¡ª and the best way to do that was to make her experience the punishments/consequences. He was well aware that Astoria would get in trouble with her banner stunt, but he didn''t tell her so that moving forwards, she would do her due diligence and always cover every addressable point that could give her problems.


    "How did you do the card trick?" asked Marcus, digging into his rashes of bacon. "There was a card beneath every te; I''m sure you didn''t transfigure cards beneath every time someone sat down at the tables."


    "That was quite easy, actually," said Quinn. "I passed the cards to the house-elves down in the kitchen and asked them to attach the cards to the bottoms of every te they sent to the Great Hall." As there was no fixed seating on the House long tables, the house-elves would send a te in front of every student, no matter where they sat.


    After they had eaten, they remained in their ces, awaiting Professor McGonagall''s descent from the staff table. The distribution of ss schedules for NEWT sses was moreplicated than the ones from year first to fifth, for Professor McGonagall needed first to confirm that everybody in the sixth year had achieved the necessary OWL grades to continue with their chosen NEWTS, while the seventh years were required to prove that they at least had an eptable (the lowest pass grade) in their chosen NEWT subjects to continue studying them this year.


    "Mr. West," said McGonagall, "please ask the Prefects to guide the students into lines so that I can confirm their eligibility ¡ª seventh yearse first and then the sixth."


    "Of course, professor."


    Eddie and Marcus were immediately cleared to continue with their chosen subjects, as neither has scored below an ''Exceed Expectations (EE)'' in any of their subjects. McGonagall didn''t even flip to Quinn''s report card to check if he cleared his subjects. There were barely any Ravenw seventh-year students that didn''t pass in their subjects. Even in the sixth year, Ravenws got the subjects they wanted ¡ª though everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses.


    Next came Gryffindors, and the first one in the sixth-year students was Neville Longbottom, who took a little longer to sort out; his round face was anxious as McGonagall looked down his application then consulted his OWL results.


    "Herbology, fine," she said. "Professor Sprout will be delighted to see you back with an ''Outstanding'' OWL. And you qualify for Defense Against the Dark Arts with ''Outstanding.'' But the problem is Transfiguration. I''m sorry, Longbottom, but an ''eptable'' really isn''t good enough to continue to the NEWT level. I just don''t think you''d be able to cope with the coursework."


    Even after a year''s worth of DA, Neville''s motivation and a new wand resonance could only take him so far. Neville had to catch up with multiple years of practice that he missed because of a nonpatible wand. And while he had done an impressive job, he could only do so much. Moreover, DA was primarily focused on Defense Against Dark Arts, and Neville''s motivation led him to focus more on those, leaving Transfiguration, a subject Neville disliked to be left on the back seat.


    Neville hung his head. McGonagall peered at him through her triangr spectacles. "Why do you want to continue with Transfiguration, anyway? I''ve never had the impression that you particrly enjoyed it," she asked.


    Neville looked miserable and muttered something about "my grandmother wants."


    "You have to grow a backbone, young man. It''s your life, not hers. If you don''t step up, then she will never let go. Please have confidence in yourself, Mr. Longbottom, you''re a fine individual, and you have to understand that there''s no need topare yourself with your father."


    Neville turned very pink and blinked confusedly; McGonagall had never paid him apliment before.


    "I''m sorry, Longbottom, but I cannot let you into my NEWT ss. I see that you have an ''Exceeds Expectations'' in Charms; however ¡ª why not try for a NEWT in Charms?"


    "My grandmother thinks Charms is a soft option," said Neville in a low mumble.


    "Hmph," snorted Professor McGonagall. "Should I send Professor Flitwick, the dueling champion, to your house, and maybe they will have a pleasant talk about Charms being a weak subject.


    Take Charms, Mr. Longbottom, and I shall drop Augusta a line reminding her that just because she failed her Charms OWL, the subject is not necessarily worthless." She smiled slightly at the look of delighted incredulity on Neville''s face; McGonagall tapped a nk schedule with the tip of her wand and handed it, now carrying details of his new sses, to Neville.


    Quinn winked and gave thumbs up to Neville, who passed by him with a positive glimmer in his eyes. Slowly but surely, Neville Longbottom was gaining the confidence he never had.


    McGonagall turned next to Parvati Patil, whose first question was whether Firenze, the handsome centaur, was still teaching Divination.


    "He and Professor Trwney are dividing sses between them this year," said McGonagall, a hint of disapproval in her voice; it wasmon knowledge that she despised the subject of Divination. "The sixth year is being taken by Professor Trwney."


    Quinn made a wildly displeased hearing that the centaur was staying as Parvati walked away looking crestfallen.


    The next ones in the line were the Golden Trio. The first in line was Hermione, who, like Quinn, didn''t need to have her scores checked as McGonagall remembered her grades.


    "So, Potter, Potter, Double Potter . . ." said Professor McGonagall, consulting her notes as she turned to Harry and Ivy, who stood behind her brother. "Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Transfiguration, Potions . . . all fine. I must say, I was pleased with your Transfiguration mark, Mr. Potter, very pleased. Are you going to go down the same path as your father and be an Auror?"


    Harry nodded. If it was a couple years back, he would have spoken about bing a professional Quidditch yer, but right now, he was serious about bing an Auror and helping his father, who had been facing dangerous situations with rising Death Eater activity.


    "As for, Ms. Potter, are you still on your path to bing a Curse Breaker?" asked McGonagall, passing Ivy her schedule after confirming her scores. "Your Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Charms scores were high even in the ''Outstanding'' category ¡ª you will do well in the curse and ward space."


    Now that was something Quinn didn''t know about Ivy. Curse Breaker. . . it was a generalization for the people who wanted to work withplex wards and spells. They studied runguages to understand wards and inscribe runes to build their own wards. They even learned how to deconstruct spells, reverse engineer them, create new spells as not all spells were general knowledge ¡ª and say to undo a curse or spell, one needed the counter-curse, which could be gained through vigorous research on the casted curse or spell. And it was one of the most sought-after magical jobs in the magical society and thus one of the few jobs with stringent requirements with high scores in Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Charms, Transfiguration, Astronomy, and a strong base in Magic History and Theory.


    "Yes, Professor, I haven''t changed my decision," said Ivy. Even though it was one of the more dangerous jobs, she wanted to pursue it. She turned to Quinn, who stood by McGonagall''s side and asked, "What about you, Quinn? What do you want to do after Hogwarts?"


    Eyes turned to the Headboy. There were several DA members within earshot, and all looked back to their time in the Room of Requirements to remember if Quinn had ever talked about what he wanted to do.


    "I n to travel the world after Hogwarts," said Quinn. He already had a job as an inventor, which paid him well enough for a lifetime in royalties. He wasn''t looking for a conventional job. "I have an apprenticeship lined up that I will undergo when I''m ready, but apart from that, I don''t have any short-term ns on what I want to be."


    "Travelling the world to gain a wider outlook is an excellent n," said McGonagall, ncing back at Quinn. "You see ces different from home and learn to appreciate all the wonderful and beautiful that the world has to offer."


    Quinn nodded with a smile. He was here, after all, to see what this world had to offer him.


    Ivy twirled a strand of her hair as she muttered to herself, "Traveling the world, mhm, that sounds nice. . ."


    Ron was the next in line, and he cleared the five core subjects ¡ª Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against The Dark, Potions, and Herbology. Maybe it was because Hermione, but Ron had barely passed the requirements; however, the Weasley hadn''t taken any other subjects than the five, nothing more.


    Next came the Slytherins. The first in line was Draco. He stood in front of McGonagall with an uninterested gaze. He didn''t care about school, grades, subject ¡ª not after he had gained a very special branding on his forearm. He wasn''t even nning to return to Hogwarts for hisst year ¡ª as he saw it. . . Hogwarts didn''t matter.


    "Mr. Malfoy, you qualify to sit in NEWT sses for all the subjects you gained OWLs in," said McGonagall. He had nine ''Outstandings'' and one ''Exceed Expectations.'' ''"Will you be attending all your sses?"


    Draco nced at the empty schedule and was about to ask that his subjects were cut down to the core five, but his eyes caught Quinn standing behind McGonagall. Quinn was staring at him with fixed eyes. Draco couldn''t tell the meaning behind the gaze, but it made him conscious. He looked away, unable to face the gaze that felt like it was judging him, looking down at him. . . disappointed with him.


    Draco clenched his fist tight and looked at the still empty schedule. He looked at McGonagall and spoke, "Knock out Astronomy, Care, and History. . . I. . . am taking the rest."


    "Off you go," said McGonagall, handing Draco his filled schedule.


    As he turned away, Draco nced at Quinn, who was no longer looking at him, and then at his schedule withplicated eyes.


    "Next is. . . Daphne Greengrass," Quinn said as he watched Daphne walk out of the Slytherin line and step in front of McGonagall.


    "Ms. Greengrass, hmm, your year only have a handful of students who''re aiming for Healers. . . and I don''t know how many will make graduate with enough requirements for healers," said McGonagall with a sigh as she looked up at Daphne. "I hope you haven''t changed your mind about it."


    "My goal to be a Healer is set, professor. I''m not going to change it ever," said Daphne. She nced at Quinn. He was the reason why she could study and learn without the looming pressure of hurrying things. Without Quinn, Astoria''s illness would continue to bubble inside her body.


    "Good, good," McGonagall said, sighing in relief. It was one of her responsibilities to make sure that students who were aiming for high-requirement careers didn''t get scared away from them.


    She had been having problems with Aurors for a very long time ¡ª since Snape had started teaching. Aurors only selected the very best, and they, on their end, weren''t having any problems as those who scored well in Snape''s tough ss were elites, but McGonagall had a problem as the number of applicants had been declining over the years.


    She turned to Quinn. "Mr. West, you have been learning from Poppy; why don''t you try being a Healer." She nced at Daphne and said knowingly, "You can give Ms. Greengrass some much-neededpany."


    Daphne had a faint shading of red on her cheeks. She didn''t believe that the ''serious as a warden'' McGonagall would imply what she was implying. It also made her aware that the professor knew her and Quinn''s rtionship.


    "I won''t lie, professor, that''s an attractive prospective," said Quinn, gazing at Daphne, "and maybe if the flow takes it, I''ll go with what you suggest."


    There were a few ''oohs-and-aahs'' from the girls in earshot, which made Quinn smile and made Daphne''s blush grow deeper.


    "Now, Ms. Davis," McGonagall said to the smiling brte, the sunshine of Slytherin, "you have chosen to go into your family''s Herbology and Apothocery business," she looked at Tracey''s grades, "and you have chosen the appropriate subjects for that. . . though you have chosen to eliminate Care of Magical Creatures. . . won''t that be detrimental?"


    "It''s okay, my father''s going to teach me about Care on his own," said Tracey politely. She, like so many, didn''t want to say that they didn''t want to attend because Hagrid was going to teach the subject, and after taking the subject for a couple of years of attending the ss, they knew it was going to be crazy. . . and not in a good way.


    After everyone was done and everyone had left, McGonagall stood up from her chair and faced Quinn. "Mr. West, will you be joining your family business in the future?" she asked.


    "Hmm? No, I won''t be involved in my family business actively. That''s not for me, professor. I''m more interested in magic," said Quinn.


    ". . . and that''s why you want to travel?"


    "Yes, I''m going to learn magic all around the world," then Quinn paused before continuing, "and then I''m going to solve problems. . . yeah, I''m going to use magic to solve problems."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Maybe that''s it.


    Draco Malfoy - Sixth-Year Slytherin - ''Why did I do that. . . ?''


    Ivy Potter - Sixth-Year Gryffindor - Aiming to go into magical research.


    Daphne Greengrass - Sixth-Year Slytherin - ''Studying Healing with Quinn. . .''


    Harry Potter - Sixth-Year Gryffindor - Following into his Father''s footsteps.


    Tracey Davis - Sixth-Year Slytherin - Family Business, here Ie.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 276 - First Of Two Subjects

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    In Hogwarts, the people attending a specific lesson were decided upon the number of people attending the subject. For core subjects like ¡ª Charms, Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Defense Against The Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creature, (and, History of Magic, Astronomy,) where a lot of students attended, the sses were divided into groups of two Hogwarts Houses. But, for the subjects like Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Divination, which weren''t chosen by every student, those sses were merged into one ss where all House students would learn together. This model was adjusted on the NEWT level (sixth and seventh-year students.) NEWT students had the absolute choice of only taking the subjects they needed or liked. If a subject had many students attending, they would be divided into two batches, but if that''s not the case, there was only one batch.


    Even in the NEWT years, Defense Against The Dark Arts still had enough people attending for two batches. It was a subject popr enough that even the prospect of Snape didn''t put a dent into the number of students.


    The seventh-year Ravenw and Gryffindor waited outside the ssroom in a queue, waiting for it to open so that they could enter. The ssroom door opened as they chattered away, and Snape stepped into the corridor, his sallow face framed as ever by two curtains of greasy back hair. Silence fell over the queue immediately.


    "Inside," he said.


    The ssroom had changed from thest year. Snape had imposed his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier than usual, as curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candlelight. New pictures adorned the walls, many of them showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly injuries or strangely contorted body parts. Nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the shadowy, gruesome pictures.


    "I have not asked you to take out your books," said Snape, closing the door and moving to face the ss from behind his desk; a majority of Ravenws hastily dropped their copy of Confronting the Faceless back into her bag and stowed the entire bags away. "I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention."


    His ck eyes roved over their upturned faces.


    "You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe. Six if we add the Headmaster."


    "Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion, I am surprised, so many of you scraped an OWL in this subject. I am further surprised that so many of you were able to get a grade above ''eptable'' in your sixth year, which was much more advanced than your OWL course.


    This year is your final, and believe me when I say that this will be the toughest of them all. If you got to the seventh year by scrapping together an ''eptable,'' then be ready for a rude awakening."


    Snape set off around the edge of the room, speaking now in a lower voice; the ss craned their necks to keep him in view.


    "The Dark Arts," said Snape, "are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible."


    Quinn stared at Snape. There were those who despised the Dark Arts, then there were those who respected the category of magic as a dangerous enemy. But Quinn was sure that when Snape spoke of it, the man had a loving caress in his voice.


    "Your defenses," said Snape, a little louder, "must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures" ¡ª he indicated a few of them as he swept past ¡ª "give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse" ¡ª he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony ¡ª "feel the Dementor''s Kiss" ¡ª a wizard lying huddled and nk-eyed, slumped against a wall ¡ª "or provoke the aggression of the Inferius" ¡ª a bloody mass upon the ground.


    "Has an Inferius been seen, then?" asked a Gryffindor in a high-pitched voice. "Is it definite, is he using them?"


    "The Dark Lord has used Inferi in the past," said Snape, "which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. Now . . ."


    He set off again around the other side of the ssroom toward his desk, and again, they watched him as he walked, his dark robes billowing behind him.


    ". . . you are, I believe,plete novices in the use of nonverbal spells. What is the advantage of a nonverbal spell?"


    A few hands went up. Snape took his time looking around at everybody, giving time forte entries; he even nced at Quinn, who hadn''t raised his hand, before saying curtly, "Mr. Kotler, please tell."


    "Your adversary has no warning about what kind of magic you''re about to perform, which gives you a split-second advantage."


    "A Ravenw answer. . . copied almost word for word from The Standard Book of Spells," said Snape dismissively (some Gryffindors sniggered), "but correct in essentials. Yes, those who progress to using magic without shouting incantations gain an element of surprise in their spell-casting. Not all wizards can do this, of course; it is a question of concentration and mind power which some" ¡ª his gaze lingered maliciously upon the Gryffindors who had sniggered ¡ª ck."


    The Gryffindors went deadly silent as the Ravenws straightened in vindication, only to be brought down by Snape the very next second.


    "Bookish knowledge will not work one bit without practical experience," said Snape with a grave eye.


    "You will now divide," Snape went on, "into pairs. One partner will attempt to jinx the other without speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal silence. Carry on."


    Although Snape did not know it, Quinn had taught at least one-third of the ss (everyone who had been a member of the D.A.) how to perform a Shield Charm the previous year. However, except for a couple, none of them had ever cast the charm without speaking. A reasonable amount of cheating ensued; many people were merely whispering the incantation instead of saying it aloud. Snape among them as they practiced, looking just as much like an overgrown bat as ever, lingering to watch a pair perform the task and see them fail as they couldn''t cheat under his dull gaze.


    He arrived at Eddie and Quinn''s pair as the two exchanged spells in total silence. Eddie Carmichael, the eternal challenger, had scoured the books for dueling advantage against Quinn, and he had earlier in his string of losses had found about nonverbal casting, so the task was nothing unusual for him, second nature even. He sent a potent hex at Quinn, who repelled it down to the ground.


    Snape observed closer and saw how Eddie would slightly change the aim of the hex every time, but Quinn would repel it down to the same spot on the floor. He gazed at the two Ravenws who had made a game of his task, and while their feat would have earned them twenty points each for Ravenw from any reasonable Professor, but which Snape ignored and walked away.


    A couple steps away, Snape turned towards and whipped out his wand so fast that Eddie and Quinn reacted instinctively; two Shield Charms manifested just in time to stop two Banishing Charms. Eddie skidded on his feet while Quinn''s front foot stepped back to be his back foot.


    By the time the whole ss turned and looked, the exchange was over, and Snape had put his wand back into his robes. Snape walked away to stalk another pair.


    ". . . Oh,e on, that was at least worth five Snape points," said Eddie, throwing up his hands.


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    - (Scene Break) -


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    Unlike the Defense Against The Dark Arts, only a dozen people had been able to take up Potions in the sixth year ¡ª four Slytherins, two Hufflepuffs, two Gryffindor, and four Ravenws, out of which two of them were Quinn and Marcus (Eddie had chosen to forgo Potions as it held no importance to his future goals.) The low number was conventional as Potions had the highest jump after the fifth year and had the steepest learning curve. Moreover, the baby poption had taken a hit during the war and only boomed after Voldemort''s defeat, so the ss size had been small for a decade. And Snape acting like a guard, had just served to drive the numbers lower.


    The dozen people stood out on the dungeon floor of Hogwarts, waiting for the ss to start. The dungeon door opened, and Slughorn''s belly preceded him out of the door. As they filed into the room, his great walrus mustache curved above his beaming mouth, and he greeted Quinn with particr enthusiasm.


    The dungeon was, most unusually, already full of vapors and odd smells. The students sniffed interestedly as they passedrge, bubbling cauldrons.


    Quinn leaned near Marcus and whispered, "My workshop has an amazing ward system that would eliminate all spells at a singlemand of mine."


    Marcus nced at him and put on a ''that''s cool'' face while inwardly finding cute how Quinn has proudparing his workshop to a Potions ssroom.


    The four Slytherins took a workstation together, as did the four Ravenws, leaving the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor to share one together.


    Now then, now then, now then," said Slughorn, whose massive outline was quivering through the many shimmering vapors. "Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don''t forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making. . . ."


    "Now then," said Slughorn, returning to the front of the ss and inting his already bulging chest so that the buttons on his waistcoat threatened to burst off, "I''ve prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of things you ought to be able to do afterpleting your NEWTs. You ought to have heard of them, even if you haven''t made them yet. Does anyone tell me what this one is?"


    He indicated the cauldron nearest the Slytherin table. Others raised them slightly in their seats and saw what looked like in water boiling away inside it.


    Quinn looked around, and there were no hands raised, which meant he was clear to answer the question ¡ª he only answered when no one had the answer. He raised his hand; Slughorn pointed at him.


    "It''s Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth," said Quinn, having brewed and used the potion on certain natural Legilimens.


    "Very good, very good!" said Slughorn happily. "It is Veritaserum - a Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for this entire ss to hear. Now, the use of this potion is controlled by stringent Ministry guidelines, so don''t go brewing it on your own for your personal use ¡ª if someone finds out, you go straight to Azkaban."


    "Now," he continued, pointing at the cauldron nearest the Ravenw table, "this one here is pretty well known. . . . Featured in a few Ministry leafletstely too . . . Who can tell me which is this one?"


    Once again, Quinn looked around and saw that no one had recognized the slow-bubbling, mudlike substance in the second cauldron, so he raised his hand ¡ª this sort of thing happened a lot when the ss studied a new topic, and that was when Quinn did his portion of ss participation.


    "It''s the Polyjuice Potion."


    "Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here . . ." Slughorn pointed at the third andst cauldron that bubbled with a lime-green potion, glowing in fluorescent light. It looked ominous, almost eerie, yet there was a strange vigor as if the potion wanted to burst out of the cauldron like a raging flood.


    "Essence of Insanity," said Quinn, his eyes reflecting the green.


    "It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask," said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, "but I assume you know what it does?"


    "A dose from the potion can cause the drinker to act irrationally for a month ¡ª they might act like insane people. . . or their inhibitions lower to the point where they don''t hold back any desires," Quinn then whispered in a voice not audible to anyone but him, plete annihtion of the ego, leaving id in charge."


    "Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive glowing shade of green?"


    "And the steam rising in characteristic puffs," said Quinn inly.


    "Fabulous, Quinn! Take thirty well-earned points for Ravenw," said Slughorn genially. "As expected from the best in the year!"


    "And now," said Slughorn, "it is time for us to start work. Today we are going to work with. . . ."


    "Quinn, is something wrong?" asked Marcus, looking at Quinn, who seemed subdued after answering the questions.


    "It''s nothing. . . I just don''t like Essence of Insanity," said Quinn. "I have read about what can do to a person, and well, let''s just say they aren''t pleasant." He couldn''t say that the potion reminded him of a hell he had personally experienced.


    Slughorn''s assignment was the Exstimulo Potion, which was a magic restoring potion after the core was depleted. It was an emergency potion that left severe side effects if taken repeatedly or in a wrong dose, but it would make a person feel like they were drowning with magic when used correctly.


    Everyone started to brew the potions. There was a scraping as everyone drew their cauldrons toward them and some loud clunks as people began adding weights to their scales, but nobody spoke. The concentration within the room was almost tangible. Those here were serious about studying potions.


    Everyone kept ncing around at what the rest of the ss was doing; this was both an advantage and a disadvantage of Potions, that it was hard to keep your work private. But Quinn kept to himself, brewing his potion at his own pace, without paying attention to what the others were doing.


    Within minutes, the whole ce was full of bluish steam. Everyone was either was attending to their cauldrons or had their heads buried in their books.


    Slughorn nced at everyone, satisfied with this batch of students. Even though they were rough around the edges, he could see the potential and drive. His eyes went to Quinn, and he noticed something different from others. While everyone was fussing over their potions, Quinn was cleaning his workstation while keeping an eye on his potion ¡ª it was a simple sign of a disciplined and practiced potioneer.


    "And time''s. . . up!" called Slughorn. "Stop stirring, please!"


    Slughorn moved slowly among the tables, peering into cauldrons. He made noment but asionally gave the potions a stir or a sniff. Atst, he reached the table where the Ravenws were sitting. He gave an approving nod to Marcus'' brew. Then he Quinn''s, and a look of incredulous delight spread over his face.


    "The clear best!" he cried to the dungeon. "Excellent, excellent, Quinn! Good lord, now that''s one potent brew, Quinn! That will make a person feeling like a traveler in a desert see the paradise."


    Quinn bowed with a polite smile. Unlike Harry Potter, he didn''t need a ''Half-Blood Prince''s Potion Book'' ¡ª he was the damn book. And the ''Half-Blood Prince,'' that person didn''t have anything on him.


    In a brew-off, he would crush ''Half-Blood Prince,'' who was suffering from Eighth-Grade Syndrome.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - I am simply superior.


    Severus Snape - Half-Bood Snape - Somehow feels like his honor has been challenged.


    Horace Slughorn - Potions Professor - Only had one Felix Felicis and chose to go with a ss(sixth-year) with more(quantity) of influential children.


    Eddie Carmichael - Aiming to be Pro-Athlete - Pretty good with a wand.


    Marcus Belby - One of the Potion 12 - Knows Quinn pretty well.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - "Sukinako Ga Megane Wo Wasureta," suggested manga - Warning: Diabetes Inducing, keep Insulin nearby.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 277 - The Unusual Morning

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Switching up from the Ravenw dormitories to the Headboy Suite was definitely a step up.


    Every morning Quinn would open his eyes on a King-sized bed that he got to use all by himself, which was great even though he still used the same amount of space as he did on his dorm''s small-double bed. He was on the fourth floor, meaning that he needed to climb one less flight of stairs to get to his room; however, that also meant that now his office and room were no longer on the same floor and that the Room of Requirement was a floor higher than before. He didn''t need to vacate the bathroom in a set amount of time for his roommates'' use, though after bathing in a shared bathroom for years had made Quinn ufortable to take any more time than he was used to. In his new living quarters, he had all the space he needed. . . which didn''t matter as Quinn had his briefcase. The Headboy Suite provided a personal space for Quinn''s use alone where he could rx without worrying about Luna and Astoriaing into the AID Office, Eddie and Marcusing into the dorm room, a DA member trying to illegally ess the Room of Requirement, or the ever-present concern of someone messing up with his briefcase while he was inside. . . but that also meant that Quinn couldn''t walk down to the Great Hall for breakfast with his friends (the Slytherin Headgirl wasn''t much of a talker.)


    . . . Switching up from the Ravenw dormitories to the Headboy Suite was somewhat of a step up ¡ª maybe.


    Like every day, Quinn walked out of the Headboy Suite and gave a good morning to the First Headboy of Hogwarts'' portrait. He jogged across the halls in his workout clothes as he enjoyed the morning air. On the Grand Staircase, he yed the game of predicting the directions and destinations of every moving staircase that he could get his eyes on. The Entrance Hall outside the Great Hall was empty like every early morning, with only a couple of ghosts that would exchange morning greetings with Quinn every day.


    Like clockwork, Quinn''s stride lengthened, and his legs started to gain speed as he exited the castle into the grounds outside. The sprint would continue until he reached a specific greensward on the castle grounds. Quinn looked around and saw that his partner hadn''t arrived yet, so he started to warm up on his own while thinking about whether he could cause an isted artificial earthquake using vibrations and how that would hold uppared to Earth magic.


    "Mornin''."


    Quinn was doing slow push-ups on his knuckles when he heard Eddie''s voice from the back. He turned his head and caught half of Eddie on his peripherals.


    "Good morning," said Quinn. He got up and dusted his hands off the grass as he turned; however, his hands stopped mid-dusting when hepletely faced Eddie.


    "Tracey?" he said, bewildered.


    Standing in front of him was Tracey Davis. . . dressed in non-magical workout clothes. Quinn squinted his eyes at the clothes; he recognized them.


    "These clothes. . ." They were one of the many sets that he gifted Eddie.


    "Eddie asked me to wear them. . . he said that you said they''re made for exercising," Tracey asked as she turned around. "Do I look strange in them? I feel a little strange wearing them."


    Quinn turned his eyes to Eddie, looking at Tracey from the side. He turned his eyes to Quinn and said, "A little resizing charm and they look they were custom made to fit her." And the way Eddie was looking at Tracey showed that he was pleased about his work.


    "So. . . Tracey, what made you wake up so early in the morning just toe down here?" asked Quinn.


    "Eddie was telling me about his day, and he said that both of you train here every day," said the girlfriend as she hugged her boyfriend''s arm. "I wanted to see what both of you exactly do every morning."


    "Ah. . . I see," said Quinn, eyeing his best mate. "Well, we basically just train. Eddie works on his physicals so he can fly on the broom better."


    "Flying a broom takes physical training? Isn''t it just sitting and controlling the broom?" asked Tracey tilting her head.


    "Oh no-no, there''s much more to the art ofpetitive flying than just sitting on a broom," said Quinn, feeling his trainer sidee up. "Quidditch yers are some of the fittest athletes in the world and adhere to unique physical and mental preparation strategies. There is a lot of misconception regarding a Quidditch yer''s physical exertion, so I don''t me you for knowing; after all, they are just sitting on a broom and letting magic do the rest, but believe me, there''s a lot more.


    To provide some context, a Quidditch yer''s equipment weighs a lot ¡ª they''re padded all over their bodies to protect themselves against the hits from a Bludger, and because of rules, the weight can''t be reduced through magic. Unlike when someone casually flies a broom, Quidditch yers regrly rise up to speeds during games that get difficult to follow with the naked eye and require Omniocrs to enjoy the game. All the twists, turns, air maneuvers, and sudden breaking puts an immense force on the riders. Tobat this, yers require the highest degree of robustness, stability, and lower body strength. At the professional level, the games can get intense enough that it''s not strange for yers to lose a couple pounds through the game, which can be dangerous for health if not trained for."


    Quidditch, evenpared to the non-magical sports, was up there on the physical training requirements scale. It involved intense Endurance training to enable through games run on a system with no time limit on the y. The sport demanded Strength training ¡ª lower body training, upper body training, posture and stability training, and the strengthening of the neck to take the brunt of the force felt during flying, and because. . . .


    "And you''re no stranger to the physicality of the sport. Bludgers are always crashing into the yers. yers are crashing into yers, there are intentional head-on collisions. . . crashes into the pitch below or the stands around the stadium aremon sights," Quinn touched the back of his neck as he turned his neck. "Which is why every Quidditch yer needs to be on the top of their physical training game to y effectively.


    You remember Victor Krum, right?"


    Tracey''s brow furrowed for a split second before her eyes showed the light of recognition, "The Durmstrang Champion, Victor Krum?"


    "Yes, him. He''s a Quidditch yer, and more importantly, he ys as a Seeker." Quinn could see the confusion in Tracey''s eyes. "Seekers need to be agile and light to fly faster than other position yers as the Snitch moves at high speeds with sharp angles. Now, the archetypical Seeker physique would be Harry Potter''s physique ¡ª lean and lightweight. But Victor Krum? That guy had big muscles. At the pro-levels, even the so-called lightweight Seeker needs to train their body to even stand a chance to y."


    There had been cases of Quidditch yers fracturing their necks and spines from high-speed collisions. So every yer on every team made sure to train themselves to not get injured. Even if injuries could be healed without lingering damage, no club wanted a yer who would get injured mid-game and be out for the rest of the game, and maybe even the next game. It was apetitive sport, and yers worked for their livelihood.


    Tracey turned to Eddie with a watery gaze and clung to him.


    "It''s not as bad as he makes it sounds," said Eddie, in a cating manner. "I have been training regrly a few years now. I don''t even feel the hits from other guys these days; they''re like light bumps to me, and even that''s on a bad day."


    Eddie gave Quinn a ring side-eye. Quinn shrugged with his brows. She was the one who asked. . . well, not really, but what he was to do, it came out.


    It took a while to calm down Tracey''s worries before they could start their workout. And while Quinn went on his workout as usual, Eddie yed around with Tracey, acting like a trainer to the new girl at the gym.


    "Why did you bring her here?" Quinn asked Eddie as they watched Tracey lying on the ground, covering her eyes, starfish mode, with her chest heaving up and down.


    "Didn''t she say? She wanted to see what we did in the mornings," said Eddie, sipping from his water bottle.


    "If she asks, you refuse," said Quinn, snatching the bottle. "That''s obvious."


    Eddie ced his hands on his sides, "And why would I do that? I got to see my girlfriend first things in the morning, in workout clothes ¡ª which I must say, she looks stunning in, and she''s so cute when trying to do exercises she isn''t used to."


    There was another expression on Eddie''s face that made Quinn''s face scrunch up ever so slightly. He knew his friend enjoyed getting all handsy with Tracey while trying to ''teach'' her.


    "What if she decides toe every day?" asked Quinn. "I don''t know if you noticed or not, but you essentially rxed all the time today. If Traceyes every day, you won''t be doing anything in the morning. And I don''t think you have time this year to regrly cover-upter in the day ¡ª you have to prepare for NEWTS, you''re the Captain, so you have to prepare the lead the practices, formte the ybook, then there are tryoutsing and that responsibility also falls upon you.


    This year is crucial for you, Eddie. Scouts will being to every game you y in, and if your performance suffers this year, your stock price will fall. If you end up signing with a lower club, you''ll be stuck with them for the duration of your contract ¡ª and that''s going to dy your career position.


    You know how the leagues work."


    Just like English Football (ser), the Quidditch professional scene was also divided into different leagues. Major Quidditch ying country had a league that had divisions and worked on the parity and relegation system, which meant that the winner of a lower division would be promoted to a higher division while the loser of a higher division would be demoted down to a lower division. Only the clubs in the highest division were allowed to y for the Championship Cup.


    Then there were inter-league tournaments that featured national champions (and runner-ups for some countries) to y in an International League Tournament.


    Eddie''s current stock as a prospect was sky-high because of Quinn''s Quidditch Tournament and his performance in thest year''s Hogwarts Cup. If Eddie wanted to sign with a professional club, he would''ve started ying while in school like Victor Krum, but it was the Carmichael family''s decision that Eddie wouldn''t start ying before graduation, and even the negotiations for signing would only start after his graduations.


    If Eddie was selected by a club in the highest division of the English League, then even if he didn''t y right away, he would get training and resources to improve himself and begin his professional journey at a higher starting point. If he started in a struggling club, Eddie would need to y out his contract with the struggling club as Ennd was one of the countries where yer transfer/trade wasn''t popr.


    "This year for you is probably more important for you than any other student in Hogwarts," finished Quinn with serious insistence in his words. One of the most important things on his docket for this year was to make sure that Eddie didn''t ck in his training ¡ª the Ravenw Chaser and now Captain, was already outying his Hogwarts peersst year and seemed to be in a different league.


    It was Human tendency to ck whencent, and Quinn feared that Eddie would decrease his training with his currentpetition. And Quinn was going to make sure that those fears didn''t be a reality.


    As unfortunate as it seemed, Tracey''s presence in the morning training sessions was highly detrimental to Eddie.


    "You worry too much," said Eddie sighing. "She''s not going toe here every day."


    "Are you sure?" asked Quinn, feeling hopeful. He preferred noting between the couple. "Davis family technically are a farming family. They are one of thergest agriculturalndowners in the country for their Herbology business. From what Daphne has told me, Tracey''s used to waking up early in the morning, a typical farm girl ¡ª she might not mind getting up early in the morning anding to the grounds with us."


    "I am sure she won''te. I mean, look at her," Eddie pointed at Tracey, who was still panting on the grass. "She''s got really poor stamina; no way she would be willing to go through this every day without some serious motivation."


    It wasn''t that Tracey had zero stamina. No student in Hogwarts had zero stamina; they, on a regr, walked through long hallways and climbed long and confusing staircases. It was just that Quinn had skewed Eddie''s perception of what was considered a light workout, and poor Tracey was the victim.


    Quinn gazed at Tracey, who didn''t look like she would get up anytime soon.


    ". . ."


    ". . ."


    "Maybe, you''re right. . ."


    "I''m right."


    Eddie wrapped an arm over Quinn''s shoulder. "Thank you, Quinn, for worrying so much. It means a lot that you care so much. . . I probably wouldn''t be here in my current position if you didn''t pull me out of my bed in the morning all those years ago." He chuckled, "I probably would''ve already left Quidditch and would have been looking for another way to get a girlfriend."


    Quinn chuckled. He sometimes forgot about Eddie''s primary motivation.


    "Everything turned out well, didn''t it? You did get a girlfriend."


    "Uh-huh, a beautiful one at that."


    "Not more beautiful than mine."


    "No way, mine''s much more pretty."


    "Keep dreaming, buddy. You''re convincing no one."


    Quinn then softly touched Eddie''s chest with his fist and said, "And you know the most important reason I''m doing this, right?"


    "Most important reason? What''s that?" asked Eddie, confused.


    Quinn raised both his hand in front of his left peck and made a heart shape with them. "Exercise Bros For Life. I won''t let a hussy break our beautiful bond."


    This time it was Eddie''s turn to scrunch up his face.


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    Quinn West - MC - Exercise Bros For Life <3.


    Eddie Carmichael - Top Prospect - Living the dream high school jock life.


    Tracey Davis - Heir to arge Herbology agro-business - "Eddie, carry me to themon room. . . I can''t mov. . .e. . ."


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - This chapter was purely Quinn''s perspective. I didn''t write a single Eddie and Tracey thought. Third-person semi-limited.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 278 - The Failed Assault

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The residents of the small township, Rosensten, were peaceful people. Themunity only held two dozen families, and it was a ce where everyone knew everyone. If there was a fight in a household, and the heated discussions leaked out the four walls of their home, then the entire vige would know every word exchanged the next day. All would meet in the township Church on Sunday mornings, and then the people would file into the sole pub after the sermons with the Church priest along with them. It was that sort of ce. Simple people living simple lives.


    However, that didn''t mean that Rosensten was a dull and uninteresting ce. To the eyes who could see beyond the veils that hid the things outside the norm, there were plenty of things of interest in Rosensten.


    For one, there were arge number of empty houses in the town. That itself wouldn''t be strange ¡ª Rosensten was far from the city; thus, it wasn''t a ce that one would consider prime real estate. No. The thing that seemed strange was that all the houses looked ready to move in from the outside ¡ª the bushes always seemed to be in shape, thewns freshly mowed, and not a single sign of abandon on the properties.


    The residents assumed that the owners, whoever they were, had hired someone to maintain the properties ¡ª though it was strange that no one from the township was hired. . . maybe someone from outside came into doing the maintenance ¡ª they sure hadn''t seen them.


    The vige goon, Bobby Burton, had once bragged in the pub that he would go inside one of the houses and spend the night as a dare between his good friends, who all believed that the house was haunted. The entire friend group saw Bobby jump the walls that fenced the house boundary and run inside with a shlight beaming light over his grinning face.


    The next day.


    "Wha'' are you talkin'' about?" Bobby put down his pint ss to look at his friends. "I went into no house yesterday."


    "What are spiffin'', Bobby boy," said one of his friends. "We all saw you climb the walls and run into the house." He looked at the others, who nodded. "See? We even saw you open. . . . open ¡ª wait. . . ."


    Bobby nced at his friends and burst intoughs. "If you clowns were trying to stitch me up, then at least have your n straight. I went into the house? Yeah, right!" he finished with a scoff.


    The friends exchanged dark looks.


    "We saw him, right?" asked one of them.


    "I did. . . I think," said another, frowning. He ruffled his hair, "Maybe we had too much to drink. . ."


    ". . . or maybe the house is really haunted," said a third one; he gulped with a fearful look. It didn''t look like Bobby was lying, and if he was indeed telling the truth, there was only one possible exnation.


    The house was haunted, as they had joked about.


    As Bobby and his friends talked, another person was sitting beside him with a fedora over his head and an overcoat on his body. He raised his wand, and a beer mug behind the counter flew up towards the tap in the wall. The tap twisted, and golden beer came sloshing out, falling into the mug with white foam topping it off. The filled mug flew over the bartender''s head andnded in front of the man.


    The man took a gulp of his self-served beer with his ear listening on the boys'' conversation. They had stopped talking about foolish Bobby and his more foolish attempt to squat in the ''empty'' house and had moved over to haunted houses.


    He took another gulp before picking up his wand from the bar counter and waving it towards the group of boys. One by one, their eyes went dull, nk, and far-looking, and they stopped talking. The man observed them for half a minute before lowering his wand, and the moment he did, the boys started talking again; however, now they were talking about the butcher''s daughter.


    The man stood up from his barstool as he took a big gulp to finish the beer and mmed the mug on the counter with a throaty sigh of satisfaction.


    The bartender picked up his rag and started wiping the counter when he found an empty beer mug sitting in front of him. ''Did I pour this one?'' he wondered as he picked up the mug, but he couldn''t remember pouring one.


    He chuckled. Maybe it was the ghost from the haunted house the useless boys'' group talked about.


    The fedora-d man walked through the vige, gazing at the calm vige. He liked ces like these. They were much easier to work in; he rarely faced any problems like he did in the big cities. Plus, it was so much more easier to work alone rather than in groups.


    He walked into the same house Bobby had trespassed yesterday. There was a tingling feeling as he stepped past the property gates. He knocked on the double doors with a bull-shaped door-knocker.


    The door opened, and a woman dressed in wizarding robes appeared from within.


    "Mrs. Westen," said the man, cing his removed fedora on his chest, "the matter has been cleared up. The muggle boy and his friends won''t be talking or even thinking about your house anymore."


    The town of Rosensten was a mixed vige that housed both muggle and wizarding-kind.


    There were two types of mixed-viges. The first type were the ones where the wizarding families lived among their muggle counterparts withoutpletely hiding and pretended to be part of the muggle society ¡ª usually upied by families of muggleborns or halfbloods.


    Then there were mixed-viges like Rosensten, where the wizarding families preferred to live inplete obscurity. The houses that were believed by the muggles to be empty were homes to the wizarding families who lived under the guise of wards and charms that kept them hidden from those who weren''t supposed to know. They traveled through the floo and at most went out to their gardens which too were obscured.


    "Thank you, Mr. Whyte," said Mrs. Westen, bowing to the Ministry Obliviator. "Would you like toe in for some tea, Mr. Whyte? My husband and I would be delighted to host you."


    "I appreciate the offer, Mrs. Westen, but I''d like to decline," said Whyte, putting his fedora back. "Please don''t hesitate to contact the Oblivator Department if someone else decides to barge into your house."


    Whyte tipped his hat to thedy and walked out of the house. There was no rule barring him from having some tea, and Mrs. Westen was beautiful enough for him to thoroughly enjoy her presence, even if her husband was present. However, her husband, Randolph Westen, was the problem ¡ª he couldn''t offend the Head of the Floo Network Authority. . . so it was wise for Whyte to stay clear of the big man.


    Whyte withdrew his wand, and the three Ds of Apparition surfaced in his mind.


    "What do we have here. . . An Obliviator? What a coincidence."


    Whyte turned towards the deep voice and saw a group of men dressed in ck robes over identical dark uniforms. He found the uniform familiar, but before his mind could find why, it directed his attention to the man''s face. Whyte''s heart started to bang in his chest cavity as his throat went dry, and his eyes started to shake ever so slightly.


    "A-Augustus Rookwood!"


    There were few Ministry employees who didn''t recognize the ex-Unspeakable and the now on-the-run Death Eater. All Ministry employees had been given repeated seminars on alerting the Aurors Office the moment they spotted any of the known Death Eaters ¡ª every Ministry Employee had Death Eater faces memorized by heart.


    "Ah, so you know me, that makes it easier," said Rookwood with a cid smile. "We are here to pay Randolph Westen a visit. Seeing that you''re here with anti-muggle charms covering your body," the ex-Unspeakable''s knowledgable eyes roamed Whyte''s body, "would you be so kind as to lead us to the Westen household."


    Whyte gripped his wand tighter in his hand. His head throbbed as his face started to feel hot ¡ª what was he supposed to do here? He couldn''t escape; there were half a dozen Death Eaters in front of him. He couldn''t call for Aurors, and he was alone. . . . His thoughts ended there as he felt a jolt on his body, and everything went dark.


    Rookwood eyes followed the copsing body before looking up at the source of the Stunning Charm. The man was matchstick think, pale as a vampire and eyes dead like those of a fish.


    "Why are you wasting time with an Oblivator?" asked Rivers Lock in his t voice as he lowered his wand. "I know Westen''s home and, so do you."


    Rookwood shrugged, took out his wand, and pointed it at the fallen man. "Avada Kedavra" ¡ª a green zap shed out of his wand. Rookwood pocketed his wand and turned to the Death Eaters behind him. "Bring him along; we will dump him at the Westen''s."


    There was nigh a change in the group''s expression as a Death Eater from the group levitated the soul-less body and brought it along as they moved towards their destination.


    When they reached the destination, Rookwood frowned at the house. His gaze looked into the air around the entire property. He turned to Rivers. "Didn''t you say that the Westen''s didn''t have a protection ward?" he asked, his eyes expecting an answer.


    "They don''t," said Rivers. "I had sent people a couple days back when no one was at home for scouting ¡ª the report clearly said no wards."


    Rookwood raised his wand, and a cloud of soft blue dust shimmered out of the ex-Unspeakable''s wand. The blue dust which was flowing freely in the wind suddenly came to stop mid-air and rested against an invisible wall.


    "Then answer me, what is this?" Rookwood pointed his wand at the blue dust illuminating an invisible wall. "Why is there a ward around the property?"


    Rivers gazed at Rookwoods magic silently before answering, "The wards might have set up in the time between the scouting report and today."


    "Thank you for stating the obvious," said Rookwood in his gruff voice. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes for a moment before speaking, "Very well. . . I will disarm the wards and then continue as usual."


    "Will you be able to do it without alerting the Westens?" asked Rivers inly.


    "Unlike you, who was a lowly clerk, I was an Unspeakable," said Rookwood and narrowed his eyes when Rivers showed no response. "I have studied Goblin wards; I''ll be able to disarm them without notifying the insiders."


    Rookwood began chanting magic, and his wand sent out soft spotting orbs of light drifted towards the wards, but the moment they touched the wards, they turned into a vile yellow color.


    ". . . What?"


    Something unexpected to Rookwood happened as the invisible ward turned an angry red, and a dome appeared over the Westen''s property.


    "What did you do, Rookwood?" asked Rivers as he caught a shift of a window curtain from the first floor of the house. They had been seen.


    Rookwood''s eyes remained fixed on the red ward as he studied the flow of the magic and the sudden unexpected change that had urred.


    "These wards. . . they aren''t goblin wards I know of," said Rookwood.


    "We are aborting the mission," said Rivers.


    Rookwood removed his eyes from the ward; his gaze bore holes into Rivers as he warned, "That''s not for you to decide, Rivers. You''re stepping your bound¡ª"


    Pops sounded around the Death Eaters, and when they turned away from the home to look, they were greeted by the sight of a team of Aurors surrounding them.


    "Drop your wands!" said the Auror in the lead. "Death Eater, I repeat, drop your wand!"


    Rookwood brandished his wand towards the Aurors and was about tounch magic when he heard a sound. He turned to see the vanishing visage of Rivers Lock as he touched a ring on his hand. Just before disappearing, Rivers nced at Rookwood with his dead eyes as if not a bit bothered by his actions.


    A growl escaped Rookwood''s throat. The inner-circle Death Eaters were all provided with a Portkey that keyed to a safe location in case they needed to escape in time of peril. Even though their Master had been hindered by Dumbledore in at the Ministry, the Carnival mission had been sessful ¡ª pleased by Rivers'' performance, their Master had provided him with a Portkey, which Rivers had just used.


    Rookwood''s eyes went to his raised wand hand and at the ring identical to Rivers on his thumb. He eyed the Death Eaters before him and then closed in Aurors. Rivers was right in his decision, he thought and pointed his wand at thend between him and the Death Eaters and let out an exploding spell which sent out flying bodies and earthen rubble towards the Auror, who weren''t expecting the sudden change.


    Rookwood touched the ring on his hand and muttered, "Walpurgisnacht."


    By the time dust settled and Aurors dealt with the flung Death Eaters, they found that the Azkaban escapees Rivers Lock and Augustus Rookwood had disappeared.


    . . . . .


    The day the Dark Lord Voldemort had attacked Ossuary, the house to the Bones family, to kill the now Minister Amelia Susan Bones, thepany Aegis Warding Solutions, whose wards the Dark Lord had brutally ripped apart, reached out to the DMLE.


    Aegis put together a proposal for coboration between Aegis and DMLE. They proposed that if an Aegis ward over property was triggered and the owners didn''t cast a simple spell in case of a false rm, then Aurors would arrive at the scene. Amelia Bones, who was still the Head of DMLE at that time, approved the testing of the coboration as herstmand before her promotion to the Minister''s chair.


    To test if the system worked, certain members of the Ministry''s upper hierarchy were approached, and among those, a number willingly volunteered to have Aegis wards around their homes.


    Randolph Westen, the Head of Floo Network Authority, just so happened to be one of those volunteering test candidates.


    When asked by Amelia Bones, who came up with the idea, which she thought was brilliant. The Aegis representative answered that it came from a person higher up in the organization, someone who had a part in creating the Aegis warding scheme.


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    Quinn West - MC - It''s obvious, isn''t it? Goblins won''t work with the Ministry, but Aegis surely can. . . so here you have it.


    Rivers Lock - Death Eater - My life takes priority.


    Augustus Rookwood - Ex-Unspeakable - A new type of goblin ward?


    Whyte - Obliviator(Dead) - Was keyed in the wards when he first called.


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - Hmm? Why would I study a ward during an assassination when I can rip it apart.


    Westens - Wizarding Family - Chose not to have their wards target muggles. Muggles aren''t capable of hurting those who have magic.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I hope you got why the Death Eater targeted Randolph Westen.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 279 - Returning To S—

    <h4>Chapter 279 - Returning To S¡ª</h4>


    The calm surface of the Great Lake was a sight to behold. When entirely still, it would reflect the mountains thatndlocked it, and from the other side, it would reflect the glorious Hogwarts castle. The Great Lake was an integral part of Hogwarts. So much so that the Great Lake was legally a part of Hogwarts, and long ago, it was named as an aquatic-life habitat, housing multiple species living in their unique bnce.


    There weren''t many things that would disturb the mirror known as the Great Lake. But there was a being living inside the waters that would asionally turn the mirror back into ake. The being was a significant reason why the Great Lake was termed an aquatic-life habitat.


    A tiny bubble surfaced on the surface of theke, sending ripples when it popped, which, whenpared to the size of theke, were minuscule. However, the very next moment, a shadow appeared beneath the surface of theke ¡ª the dark shadow grew until it couldn''t anymore and, arge squid-like tentacle broke through the surface and rose towards the sky, the tip wiggled in the air for a moment before the moments became sharp and the tentacle dove back into the water like an arrow shot from a bow.


    Inside theke, Quinn raised a hand over his hand, and the water bubbled violently. The tentacle above speared towards him, but Quinn''s eyes followed the eight others swishing in the water. As the iing tentacle got into range, the bubbling water burst into an aquatic explosion and sent it flying like a limp noodle.


    He grinned. His eyes smiled as he gazed into the yellow orbs without sclera of his opponent. They seemed to say, ''Come on, you can do better.''


    In response, half a dozen more tentacles broke out of thekebed and joined the eight of their kind. The Kraken''s eyes shone with an excited vigor as it swished its appendages, sending dense waves of underwater waves towards Quinn.


    Quinn swiped his hand into an arc, and the iing wave fizzled out into bubbles, but those bubbles were parted and crushed as another wave followed, this one bigger and faster than before. Quinn raised his hand towards the waves, and once again, it fizzled away, but the next second he felt a jolt as another waved came crashing. . . then another, again, and again, and again. . . multiple underwater waves assaulted with all their aquatic brawn.


    ''I just had to have such thoughts!'' thought Quinn, clicking his tongue as the water around him started to thrum. The gill ps on his neck and chest spread open to let out carbon-dioxide rich air bubbles.


    The waves had started to pile up at a point between Quinn and Kraken, and with every swish of Kraken''s tentacles, the bnce began to shift as the violent water inches towards Quinn. But then thin water streaks like those left behind by bullets when shot underwater manifested around the pile-up point.


    The Kraken stopped its swishing movements, its eye observing the streaks with caution as they appeared everywhere ¡ª left, right, above, behind ¡ª hundreds of the tiny streaks appeared, all pointing towards the pile-up.


    And then it happened.


    As if the water streaks were ropes attached to the water ¡ª hundreds of directing pulling force all pulled at the water in the pile-up, and even the great water waves couldn''t stick together, and a grand ripple surged in all directions, violently bubbling the water in its wake.


    The Kraken''s yellow eyes squinted at the bubbled mess, trying to look past at his tiny human opponent, though there was no need as the tiny human came shooting out the bubbles.


    Quinn''s entire vision filled with the Kraken and its looming tentacles. However, instead of cowering under the terrifying visage, Quinn grinned, and his hands which were pulled back, seeming to hold a massive weight, snapped forward.


    Kraken''s tentacles about to zoom in upon Quinn froze. Its eyes rose up to look ahead and found a ginormous wall of water rushing forward. The Kraken looked down and saw through his special eyes the special aura surrounding the tiny human ¡ª the aura only possessed by those loved by the water. The Kraken''s entire set of tentacles rose from thekebed to face the water ¡ª it was the might Kraken after all.


    A bulge of water rose on theke''s surface and rushed to the shore at a zing speed. The bulge disappeared at the shore, and Quinn dressed only in swimming trunks broke through the surface to step out on thend, water shedding around him. He breathed out of his mouth, and a plume of white escaped his mouth in the chilly air of mid-November.


    A chilly dip and an intense physical and magical workout was just the thing he needed to kickstart his evening. While his thrice a week Muay Thai practice sessions inside the Room of Requirements got him ample exercise, theycked the blood pumping and exhration factor of fighting against the Kraken, the event he reserved for only a couple times a year.


    He shook his arms, and every drop of water on his body shot towards the ground ¡ª no need for a towel. Quinn turned back to where his clothes were, only to pause in the spot as he stared in front of him. He had an audience.


    "Golden Squad," Quinn said to the Potter twins, Hermione, and Ron sitting under a tree near the shore. "What are you all doing outside in this much cold ¡ª go inside the castle, or you''ll catch a cold ¡ª if that happens, you''ll have to listen to Madam Pomfrey''s lecture."


    Quinn walked to the earthen dome a few steps from him and bent down to touch it for the earth to crumble to reveal a sling bag. The dirt on the bag jumped away from the fabric as Quinn picked it up to take out his clothes.


    "We should be saying that to you, mate," said Ron, looking between the chilly waters and Quinn. "What are you doing going swimming in this weather?"


    The two girls in the group eyed Quinn, who was only dressed in swimming trunks, leaving the rest of his body at full disy for their eyes to gaze(feast) upon. They knew that Quinn worked out in the mornings before breakfast, and a couple years ago, they had chanced upon Quinn and Eddie during said workouts. But at that age, they didn''t think of much of it ¡ª but now, at the sweet age of sixteen(and seventeen), both girls'' eyes could tell that all those years of early mornings had paid dividends. They tried to pull their eyes away but were helpless that their eyes didn''t respond to their wishes.


    Quinn shrugged as he retrieved his fake wand and conjured a changing curtain to change out of his swimming shorts in some privacy. From inside, he spoke, "I like the cold water; it feels good against the skin ¡ª refreshing if I may say."


    Ivy and Hermione looked away from the changing curtain, but they could still hear the rustling of clothes. And while Hermione kept her gaze away, Ivy peeked at the curtain and felt disappointed at the opacity of the thinyer between them.


    The conjured curtain vanished to reveal Quinn dressed in his Hogwarts robes with the Headboy pin shining on hispel. "So, brings you here today?" Quinn asked, looking at the ce ¡ª maybe it was time to change his shoreside spot to avoid encounters like this.


    He turned to face the group and raised his brow at the varying expressions on the faces. Ivy was staring at him intently with a strange glint in her eyes. Hermoine had her face turned with redness on her cheeks which he thought was a winter blush. Harry''s eyes were going between him and Hermione, with a displeased expression. And he could tell that Ron was eyeing his Headboy batch.


    "We wanted to get out of the castle," said Hermione, finally looking at Quinn, "no one is out here these days, and well, a warming charm does the trick against the cold."


    In the cold, the only time Hogwarts students went outside was to visit the Herbology greenhouses, or when it was snowing and people were in the mood of ying with snow ¡ª other than that, the only ones who regrly went out were Quidditch yers for practice, flying in the biting cold.


    "Ah, now that I remember," Quinn looked at Ivy, "didn''t you get a vial of Luck Potion ¡ª Felix Felicis, from Professor Slughorn. Congrattions, that potion is a headache and a half to brew, plus a couple ingredients can get difficult to procure."


    Daphne had been mighty miffed when Slughorn had chosen Ivy''s potion to be the best out of her, Hermione, and Ivy.


    "It was to be expected," said Harry, "she''s brewing potions with mum since she was little. She would even get angry if mum brewed something without her," said the twin brother snickering.


    "I didn''t get angry!" said the twin sister snappily.


    "So you say, but didn''t you refuse to eat dinner once because mum started brewing the potion without telling you."


    "Shut up!"


    Quinn watched the twins bickering with a smile, and after enjoying the two siblings airing their embarrassingundry in retaliation, Quinn spoke, "Half-blood prince."


    The four looked at Quinn, and he studied their faces. . . they should no sign of recognition.


    "What? Half-blood prince, what is that?" asked Hermione.


    Quinn sighed a white cloud. The cold white mist didn''t dissipate like usual; instead, it grew bigger in size, and the color deepened. The suspended cloud expanded, contracted, spun, and in a couple of seconds, it had taken the shape of a bird ¡ª a raven. The cloud bird pped its wings and flew into the sky under the gaze of five sets of eyes.


    "How did you do that?" asked Hermione, her words quick and brimming with curiosity.


    "Drop by the office, and I''ll tell you," said Quinn chuckling. He took out his pocket watch and flicked it open, "Now, lovely people, if you''d excuse me, I''d take my leave ¡ª I have my sessor to train."


    Quinn walked away from the Golden Squad; however, he only had taken a few steps when he recalled the time in the Great Hall when he had stood beside McGonagall as she checked the student''s results and assigned timetables. He turned and looked at the redhead puffing out white breaths and pointing her wand at them. He recalled her career goal and sighed.


    Quinn opened his mouth and mouthed out some words before turning away and walking away. Not waiting to see Ivy turn to him look at him with a startled and surprised look.


    ". . . Look for Half-blood Price''s book in the Potion ssroom''s cupboard?" Ivy repeated the words whispered into her ears.


    - (Scene Break) -


    The night''s moon hung shining in the sky.


    In the empty Hogwarts halls, Quinn walked unseen by all, under the guise of invisibility. He arrived at the head of a certain corridor of the sixth-floor of Hogwarts and took a deep breath before walking into the corridor. His steps silenced with magic didn''t make noise, but if they did, they would be as heavy as hammers banging onto anvils.


    Quinn stopped in front of a magical portrait of a man with a neat beard and mustache dressed in nightclothes, sleeping in his frame.


    Quinn stared at the sleeping man for a few seconds before speaking up, "Wake up." The man in the portrait didn''t open his eyes, so Quinn said again, this time with magic in his voice, "Vindictus Viridian. . . wake up!"


    Vindictus Viridian, Potioneer, Author, and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the early eighteenth century. The man who wrote the book that transcended generations ¡ª Curses and Counter-Curses: Bewitch Your Friend and Befuddle Your Enemies With Revenges.


    The man in the portrait finally opened his eyes and looked at Quinn standing in front of him. "What do you want?" he asked, grumbling.


    "Adversus Timorem," said Quinn, speaking the password to the portrait.


    "Come back tomorrow," said Portrait-Vindictus and was about to close his eyes when Quinn spoke up again, his voice this time firmer, "Adversus Timorem."


    "Why do you kids are so annoying!" said Portrait-Vindictus as the portrait swung open on its hinges.


    Quinn ignored the man and stepped inside the room, but his steps came to a halt just after stepping through the threshold. He stared at the rows and columns of shelves from one end to another. The shelves were filled with ck binders with standard gold letters in gold on the binder spines.


    Room of Rewards.


    He hadn''t stepped into this room since his third year and had avoided walking anywhere near the corridor leading to it for the years since then. Things hadn''t gone well thest time he had entered the room after all.


    He slowly walked in a straight line and reached the center of the room. He looked down at his feet, and there it was. . . a shield seal of Hogwarts ¡ª H in the middle with a Lion, Badger, Eagle, and Snake with school''s motto on a wreath.


    Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titindus


    He knelt on the floor and touched the seal with his hand. Quinn didn''t do anything and simply stared at the seal for a moment. Thoughts passed through his mind, the memories shing by.


    Quinn shook his head ¡ª no, he had decided to face it; he was ready for it. Quinn''s other hand went to his neck and pulled out the chain with the Hallows pendant piece hanging from it. He had prepared for it.


    "Aperio." Latin for open, reveal, uncover, and in this case. . . unseal.


    A slight rumble shook the floor beneath Quinn''s feet as the letters on the seal turned into a familiar cipher of the past. When the rumbling stopped. . . . the seal had disappeared, leaving behind a hole in the floor.


    It was a dark hole.


    It was the path to the Sin vault.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West - MC - ". . . let''s do it, shall we?"


    Ivy Potter - Winner of Felix Felicis - . . . Half-Blood Price?


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Want it or not. . . are you guys ready?

 Chapter 280 - ?Ah. . . I Should—?

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Under The Seal, The Antechamber Of Sin Would Be Revealed.


    Quinn stared down the pitch dark opening. . . the entrance to the Sin Vault, the greatest tragedy of the life was under the room called the Room of Rewards. He didn''t know if it was ironic or not ¡ª his magic reserves had received a boost but at what cost. . . he had lived under the influence of a curse for months and lost control of everything for what were the excruciatingly hard months of his life.


    He ced his hands on the floor and let his feet dangle in the narrow tunnel. He wasn''t one to be scared of the dark, especially not after Tohem''s Delight ¡ª but something about this particr darkness settled a weight in the base of his heart.


    "Fortune favors the bold. . . . I should have asked the Felix Felicis from Ivy."


    Quinn pushed himself off the floor and let himself drop into the tunnel. He breathed out, and a gust of wind flew in an updraft pushing Quinn''s already flying hair straight up. There was a second and half of the wind-resisted fall before the tunnel opened up to the antechamber, and Quinn came to a hovering stop in mid-air.


    The dim light from the Room of Rewards shone upon him, casting a halo of light around where he flew while the rest of the antechamber remained drowned in darkness. The snap of fingers reverberated in the room as two dozen white sparks lit up in the room, bright like magnesium set on fire before turning into orbs of soft lights illuminating the room.


    Like the seven sins, the antechamber had seven shapes making it heptagonal in form with polished smooth walls, floor, and ceiling, lending it an out-of-the-ordinary feel, eliciting a frown of deep difort from him. It was bare as thest time he had seen without any visual clue of the horrors that it held.


    Quinn gently flew to one of the walls, and as he did thest time, he touched one of the walls with both of his hands and closed his hands while his magic flooded into the walls, floor, and ceiling.


    His brows furrowed, and his facial muscles twitched, and a snarl tugged on the corner of his mouth. Even after five years, he couldn''t sense iota magic in the antechamber. He, who had undone Dark Lord''s Voldemort protections charms that guarded his precious as life Horcrux, couldn''t sense any magic even when he knew there was a magic hidden in here waiting to reveal its predatory nature.


    He mmed his rage-fueled body magic-infused fist on the wall, and not a single speck of dust got disced. It only further angered as he knew it was because of magic. . . . which he once again couldn''t detect.


    Quinn turned back to look at the center of the antechamber. He stared at the slick floor and knew the moment he stepped on it, the pandemonium would start, whatever it was ¡ª he didn''t even know what it was, for he had been rendered unconscious before knowing what had happened.


    He was grossly unaware of what had happened, with no way to find out without triggering the events again.


    The chain around his neck and the pendant piece against his chest felt cold. The cold felt reassuring when the rest of his body burned in slight heat. Winds blew Quinn to the center of the room with his eyes fixed on the floor below. The more he waited and dawdled in his thought, the more he felt he was not reading.


    "I''m ready," the words flowed out of his mouth. "I''m going to win this time."


    The supply to wind magic was cut, and Quinn''s feet to the ground. His senses turned up to eleven as his magic flowed to every inch of the room, flooding the Hogwarts ssroom-sized room into a magically charged environment.


    His magical bid paid off as Quinn felt a foreign magic manifest into the room, and it instantly zoned in on him. Quinn flexed his magical muscles and turned his magic tobat the attack that came barreling towards him from all the sides. The continuous assault of magic was like a beast trying to sink its ws into him ¡ª they were the heaviest hands of magic he had feltunched upon himself. And they didn''t seem to stop.


    "What?"


    Quinn, who was staring ahead, suddenly stiffened as the smooth walls in front of him took on a liquid sheen and rippled before runes emerged on it. He hastily turned to look at the other walls, andplex runes had overtaken the previously glossy walls.


    He squinted his eyes at the runes on the walls, and his heart dropped just at the first few observation that caught his eyes. In a nce, he had caught seven interconnectedyers of runes, pointing to theplexity of the magic. . . but that was just the first strike of the hammer as Quinn noticed upward of seven different runguages shing in multicolored light.


    The Aegis wards were Quinn''s mostplex runic invention, and he only used three different runguages as he couldn''t achieve harmony and synchronicity for more than that. Thest hammer strike. . . out of the various symbols, alphabets, and hieroglyphics, he could only recognize three sets ¡ª two types of Futhark and an ancient strain of proto-hieroglyphical Egyptian, thetter he only had seen rough records of and knew the trantions were lost with time. He couldn''t even tell whichnguages the other runes stemmed from.


    The magical imbnce and chaos snuffed out Quinn''s light orbs, and the room was dominated by seven different lights ¡ª Violet, Green, Orange, Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Red.


    ''What''s going to happen?'' Quinn''s eyes bounced from rune to rune, glowing brighter and brighter as he fought off the other magic in the room.


    A sudden yet eerie silence fell upon the antechamber as the other magic vanished without a trace, and in its ce, a heavy, viscous, suffocating weight started to leak out from the runes.


    Quinn''s heart palpitated out of rhythm as his base instincts, the core of his being, shouted at him to run! Body magic jolted throughout his body as wind magic ran rampant as he shot towards the only exit/entrance.


    However, only a magic-aided wide step after the magics from the rune struck. Beams of seven different colors shot towards their intended target atser speeds, screaming as the room grew brighter.


    "Gah!"


    The beams hit Quinn, and he stumbled onto the ground, kneeling. He could feel the shearing hot and cold magic break through his skin and drill its ways through being.


    "No!"


    Quinn''s squeezed shut eyes snapped open and defiant purple red, not willing to submit. His magic roared and the reserves built through the years that had long past the level of obscene for a human to hold were put to work. Quinn knew that he didn''t have the magical focus or experience to fully utilize his reserves, and he doubted that he would be able to reach the levels desired any time soon; it would take at least a few couple more decades to reach a point where he would haveplete control of his magic.


    He didn''t like pumping eleven units of magic into a spell that could only correctly utilize ten units of magic. If he wanted to utilize eleven units of magic, he would find another magic that could do so. But there was no spell that could utilize the hundred of thousands of units of magic inside Quinn. . . so he had no choice but to push magic past the efficient limit.


    Quinn''s entire body glowed in seven different colors as brighter streaks covered his body. The magics from the beams had long broken through the physical barrier of the body and had reached the residence of the ethereal soul.


    The bright soul floated in a pure white ce, but suddenly streaks of seven different colors invaded the pristine whiteness and raced towards the bright soul in the center. The streaks bared their sharp spear-like edge and stabbed towards the soul.


    However the soul wasn''t helpless. It was one of the rare souls who had dared to wander into the realm of soul magic ¡ª a magic part of the trinity.


    A shield appeared around the soul that the streaks stabbed into. Screeches pierced throughout the pristine white space. They tried to drill a hole into the shield, but it stood solid like an unshakable mountain.


    The streaks switched their gears in a split-second, and the streaks stopped drilling instead, seven-colored veins sprouted on the surface of the shield and stuck to it like a parasite. Immediately after, the entire pure white space was covered into blotches and streaks of seven different colors.


    However, the soul was safe.


    Quinn heaved with both his knees on the floor. The beams had stopped. His mouth was chalk dry, and he gulped, which felt like he was swallowing a ball of bile. His shirt was thoroughly drenched, and his head felt like it was on fire. His heart was beating so fast that it hurt, and his fingers shook like a starved addict.


    "Ugh. . . . shit, shit, shit. . . . ! I''m in control. I''m in control. I''m in control!"


    He could feel it, the curse; he could feel it. It was ¡ª inside of him. If for one second he stopped the very rudimentary shield around his soul that was keeping the curse on the bay.


    ?I should just let the curse take over. . . it felt so good thest time.?


    Quinn''s eyes widened when he heard his voice,zy and uncaring, echo inside his mind. He could tell what it was. He had thought about the Sin curse for long through the year, so he knew that this was his Sloth speaking.


    ?It would only do good. . . it''ll feel good and the power boost it would give would be so nice!?


    Quinn shook his head at the thoughts of Greed.


    ?I recovered from the focus loss once, I can do it once again, I know the form. . . I am me, after all.?


    Pride reared its ugly violet head.


    ?Whatever, I am hungry! I used too much magic; I should go to the kitchen!?


    He felt his body growl under Gluttony.


    ?Ugh, this is such a pain! I should take Daphne to Room of Requirements. . . yeah.?


    He clenched his hands to keep the tremor under control. He looked around the antechamber to see if there was something. . . anything.


    ?I mean, who made this?! Why can''t I detect any magic! Maybe I will get the answer if I let the curse take over!?


    He could feel the Envy rise up his throat.


    ?Why won''t the voices in my head shut up! Thest time was so less annoying!!!?


    He bit the inside of his mouth and taut his neck to calm his Wrath.


    Quinn got up from the floor, stretched his back straight, and felt the dull ache that spread through his body. He took slow steps towards the tunnel. He turned his tired eyes towards the ceiling and peered through the hole.


    He didn''t want to move. He just wanted to go to sleep on the spot and just. . . get away for a while. Everything was going to start all over again, and this time he was ''conscious'' instead of being blissfully unaware of the grave situation he was in.


    This time, he wasn''t going to enjoy the cloud nine feeling for months.


    ?Only if I struggle against the curse. . . .?


    Quinn nkly stared at the dim lighting from the tunnel.


    "This. . . This is going to be a problem."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - ?Ah. . . this is such a pain.?


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Na, peeps. It wasn''t going to be so easy. Also, check out Chapter 53 if you desire a recap.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 281 - BFF

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The winters spread its cold nket over the country.


    While Hogwarts students preferred to stay indoors to beat the cold, there was one day they couldn''t miss going out on. . . that day was the Saturday of a Hogsmeade weekend. No matter if it snowed, rained, or hailed, the teenagers of Hogwarts would descend into the all-magical vige of Hogsmeade.


    Marcus stepped off the Grand Staircase, running, and slowed down to power walk to get the huff in his breath in control. He arrived at the Entrance Hall next to the Great Hall and was greeted with a windchilling through the open gats that broke goosebumps under his thick, warm, padded clothes. He looked around the hall, sorting through the flux out people entering the Entrance Hall from the Great Hall and others exiting the castle through the gates.


    He found who he was looking for a distance away from the gates standing at a corner, staring at the walls.


    "Sorry, sorry, I''mte," said Marcus, rubbing his arms with his hands.


    Quinn nced away from the wall and quirked a brow. He waved his hand, and Marcus felt a warmth spread through his body, loosening his tense body.


    "Everyone needs to get into the habit of using Warmth Charms liberally," said Quinn. "Is it fun to shiver in the cold?"


    Marcus removed the glove off his hand and touched Quinn''s cheek with the back of his hand. "You''re colder than me!" he said, pulling his hand back.


    "I''m used to the cold, my insted friend," said Quinn, pulling his overcoat wide open.


    ?Like hell I would need something as weak as a Warmth Charm.?


    "What are you looking at?" Marcus asked, putting the glove back on and turning his eyes to the wall covered with framed portraits. "Talking to a portrait, huh, find anyone interesting?"


    "I was just looking at something interesting that I found a couple years back," said Quinn. He pointed at the portrait hanging just above their heads. "It''s the only non-magical portrait in Hogwarts."


    Marcus craned his neck at an angle and looked at the portrait in question. It was the photo-realistic painting of a man in histe years with a flowing white beard, long white hair, dressed in a dark maroon-burgundy gown-styled robe, and sat atop on his head was a round cap that had a ck veil flowing from the top and flowing down to shoulders and the to the entire body, at least what was visible in the portrait.


    "Isn''t he just. . . Headmaster Dumbledore?" said Marcus.


    Quinnughed, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, they both have the long white beard and hair looking going. But no, that''s not Dumbledore. This fine gentleman is Myrddin Wyllt."


    "Who?"


    "Merlin."


    Marcus'' eyes blew open at Quinn''s words, and he said, "Merlin, wow!"


    Merlin was a legendary British wizard who lived during the Middle Ages. It was during his lifetime that magic had entered its golden age, and he had spearheaded the rise and growth of human magic. He was part of the legendary King Author''s Court, and without doubt, the most famous wizard of all time. He only had one peer at his age ¡ª the Dark Lady Morgana, King Author''s half-sister, but even she couldn''t gain the upper hand on him.


    "Uh-huh, did you know," said Quinn, "that before Merlin was the famous sorcerer of King''s Court, he was a student right here at Hogwarts."


    "Seriously? I didn''t know that," said Marcus.


    "He was one of the first Slytherins, studied right from Szar Slytherin himself," said Quinn. "It''s said that his wand was made from English Oak, though it can''t be proven as Merlin''s grave was never found. However, the theory could be credible as Merlin was good at Charms."


    "Why do you think he didn''t make a magical portrait?" asked Marcus.


    Quinn shrugged, "Who knows what went through the mind of someone like Merlin. Maybe he did paint himself a magical portrait, but he didn''t put one in Hogwarts ¡ª maybe it''s out there somewhere in the ancient remains of Camelot, still intact, waiting to be activated, or maybe activated. It could be even in some rich person''s collection, who knows. . . if it exists, the possibilities are endless."


    Marcus nced at his best mate and saw the intent look on Quinn''s face as he gazed at Merlin''s portrait. He nudged Quinn with his shoulder, "I look forward to the day when I hear someone use Quinn''s beard in ce of Merlin''s beard."


    A smile appeared on Quinn''s face. "Now, that''s a thought, isn''t it," he said. "Though I don''t know if I will grow a beard, I don''t think I''m the beard type of guy, you know."


    ?Merlin, huh. . . now that''s an appropriate stepping stone for someone like me.?


    Quinn exhaled before his lips pressed into a thin white line. He shook his head, put on a smile, and threw his arm over Marcus'' shoulder. "Come one, let''s get going. Time waits for no man, except those who have mastered the mysterious magic of time, which we''re not."


    "If you''re not going to grow a beard, then what do you think people would refer to?" asked Marcus as they walked towards the gates.


    "Hmm. . . Quinn''s glorious suits because I would be only seen in suits!" Quinn nodded with satisfaction. "Now, that''s a nice thing for everyone to say."


    "Glorious suits, you say. . . isn''t that a little long? I don''t think that''s going to work," said Marcus.


    "Do you know what Eddie would say?" asked Quinn, grinning.


    Marcus sighed with a smile, "Saggy balls or something like that. . ."


    "Right on the money," Quinn grinned.


    "So that would make it. . . . Quinn''s sag¡ª"


    "Don''tplete that sentence!"


    The two friends made their way through the snow-covered paths and roads to Hogsmeade vige, with Quinn working as a snow sweeper while doing the scenery a favor by making snow and ice sculptures along the way ¡ª snowmen, swans, goblins, house-elves, dwarves, you name it, and Quinn had created it.


    "Do you know there''s a world ice sculpturepetition, I wonder if I could win thepetition and be the youngest champion or something," said Quinn, fondling his chin. "I think a scaled-down model of Hogwarts would do the trick, don''t you think?"


    Quinn turned to Marcus when he got no reply and saw Marcus staring at the ground ahead as they walked, seemingly lost in thought.


    "Marcus?" called Quinn and poked him.


    Marcus jolted and hastily looked at Quinn. "Would you repeat that? I didn''t catch that.


    Quinn studied his friend and saw that Marcus had once again wandered off to his own world. "You''re worried, aren''t you?" he asked.


    Marcus shrugged as he kicked some snow to the side. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and raised his shoulders to push the coat cors to cover more of his face.


    "There''s no need to be worried," said Quinn, "you''ll be fine, I taught you everything I knew that would help you, and I seriously don''t think you''re going to need anything else ¡ª just be yourself, and you''ll be just fine."


    "What if I end up making a fool of myself?" asked Marcus. "I''m not like Eddie, who''s just phenomenal at Quidditch. Even Luna is really passionate about bing a Magizoologist. Daphne is set on bing a Healer. Tracey knows she wants to return to her family business. Astoria is doing AID. And there''s no need to talk about you."


    ''And here I thought he had gotten over it,'' thought Quinn. It had been a while since he had seen Marcus doubt himself. Marcus had cruised through with high confidence built by highpetence and working on an objective the entirest year. While everyone had gone through magical growth in their time with DA, Marcus had gone through additional character growth.


    "Oh, Marcus, you know you have got it all wrong," Quinn said, waving his hand once for meters of the path in front of them to clear, making some of the people who walked in front of them jump. "Half of the people in the group mentioned are brats from rich families," he pointed at himself, "look at me, I''m aplete brat ¡ª a loveable one, but still a brat. . . .


    Daphne didn''t arrive at her decision to be a healer because it interested her; no, she''s bing a healer because of another reason. Sure she finds the subject matter interesting, but her motivation is not loving the field of healing. Tracey doesn''t have a bottom-of-the-heart ''passion'' towards her family business; she''s doing it because it''s the best option for her. AID is a short-term thing for Astoria ¡ª that girl has no idea what she wants to do in the future; she might bounce around from thing to thing after Hogwarts without a worry because of her parents. If I wasn''t a magic maniac, I would have simply followed Tracey''s example and went into my family business, and who knows, things might have not worked out, and I might have ended up bing a wastrel.


    My point is that half of us don''t have the same worry as you because we aren''t thinking about the problem. In a way, you''re better than all of us because you''re actually giving it serious thought. You want to know what you want to be in the future ¡ª not because of some fear, or because it''s easy, or because. . . it''s all you have."


    Quinn cocked his hand and pped Marcus tight on the back, sending thetter stumbling a few steps.


    "W-What was that?!" Marcus asked with wide eyes and a hand on his back.


    "In the name of my saggy balls''," said Quinn confidently, "Marcus, you''re seventeen, get over it; you have the rest of your life in front of you to figure it out ¡ª right now, just do whatever feels like fun, and the thing will find you before you find it."


    Marcus blinked. The p on his back sizzled, but it wasn''t bad. He straightened his back and took a deep breath of the cold air.


    "You better hire me if I don''t end up failing to get a job," said Marcus.


    "Deal! But be ready because I''m going to dump all the annoying on you while I chill in the back," said Quinn, grinning. But he knew it wasn''t going toe to that. His friend had much less trust in himself than he should have.


    Both of them reached the one shop in Hogsmeade that Quinn knew well. The door chime rang when Quinn entered the door. The ce smelt like ink, paint, and paper.


    "Bob," Quinn said to the man sitting behind the counter, looking as if life had been sucked out of him.


    The Manager of Scrivenshaft''s Quill Shop looked up. For a moment, Bob''s blurry eyes stared at Quinn before they sharpened in half-panic and half-hurry, and he stood up straight.


    "Q-Quinn, you''re here," said Bob, looking as if he was about to cry.


    Quinn chuckled as he walked to the counter, "You were asked for the shop''s books, weren''t you? And then questioned on them?"


    Bob nodded pitifully.


    "It''s okay, you''ll be fine," said Quinn, patting Bob''s back.


    ?Ugh. . . grow a spine, will you?! Pathetic!?


    "Now, you sit back and rx," said Quinn, "leave it to me." He turned to Marcus, who was fixing his clothes. "Let''s go."


    Quinn and Marcus climbed to the store''s second floor and arrived at a single corridor in front of the furthest door.


    "Ready?" asked Quinn.


    Marcus nodded.


    Quinn opened the door, and a smile appeared as he watched the man in front of him flipping through ount books.


    George looked up from the table, and a hint of a smile made its way to his face. "You''re here," he said, and then his eyes went behind Quinn. "You must be Marcus Belby."


    Marcus stiffly nodded. "Yes, sir, it''s finally nice to meet you. Quinn has told me a lot about you."


    "And he simrly had told me about you and the boy named Eddie Carmichael," said George. He nced at Quinn, "Is the Luna girl here? I would like to meet her as well."


    "Maybe some other day," said Quinn, "today, it''s just Marcus."


    "I see, that''s fine. I would like to know more about you, Marcus," said George and gestured to the chair opposite to him.


    Quinn ced his hand on Marcus'' shoulder and whispered to him, "Alright, now it''s all up to you. I have buttered you up in his eyes, so answer anything he asked, and ask him all the questions you want. You can keep him here as long as you want, so ask him what HE can give YOU." Then he gently pushed him forward.


    "You''re not staying?!" Marcus asked in a rushed whisper.


    "No way, mate. It''s Hogsmeade weekend, and I have a girlfriend," said Quinn, winking as he walked backward and closed the door behind him, leaving Marcus and George behind.


    Marcus turned to George and found the older gentleman who looked much like Quinn starting at him. He walked to the table and sat down on the chair.


    "So, Marcus," said George, "Quinn says you''d like to work for our family."


    Marcus clenched his hands in nervousness, but then Quinn''s words shed through his brain, and he loosened his grip. He stayed silent for a moment before sitting straight up and looking George in the eye.


    "No, sir, that''s not the case."


    George''s hand, which was flipping through the ount book, stopped. He studied Marcus for a moment and then closed the book and pushed it to the side.


    "Is that so? And why''s that, Marcus."


    Outside Scrivenshaft, Quinn looked up towards the second floor. Marcus didn''t know what he wanted to do, which meant he wasn''t averse to trying things out . . . so he set up a meeting with a man, who owned a lot of things in a lot of areas. And Quinn knew that while Marcus didn''t see it, he knew that Marcus had an aptitude for leading.


    "I wonder if Marcus would end up bing to Lia what Uncle Elliot is to grandfather," Quinn muttered, revealing how much of a high opinion he had of Marcus topare him to Elliot, who he thought was the best man he had ever met. ". . . . I would like to keep Marcus to myself. . . I wonder how this would turn out."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Alright, both of my friends are set.


    Marcus Belby - Traits of Leader - Talked with George for 4 hours, more than anyone outside family had done in years.


    George West - Grandfather - Overqualified Interviewer*.


    Bob - Manager of Scrivenshaft - Drained, but it''s the manager''s fate.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 282 - The Necklace’s Curse

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    After dropping Marcus at Scrivenshaft, Quinn continued on with his day at Hogsmeade.


    The walk outside in the Hogsmeade streets wasn''t enjoyable, with the cold winds leaving the exposed parts of the skin raw and numb, and though it didn''t bother Quinn, he could see scarves covering half of the people''s faces. The streets were full of students bent double against the bitter wind, and the shops and stores were boarded up with many more students escaping the weather.


    Quinn took out his pocket watch and studied its clicking hands; there was still time until he and Daphne were to meet. He looked around, wondering what he should do before finallying to the decision to visit Honydukes to ce a bulk order of choco-balls, the franchise product of the ''brand'' Chocte West. He had gone through the initial batch he had brought from home quite quickly ¡ª no one told him that being a well-liked Headboy who would give out choctes after reprimanding people would be so hefty on the pocket.


    ''I feel like the little gluttons are messing with me just to get chocte; maybe it''s my fault. . . is my giving out chocte after making a mistake reinforcing that sort of behavior. . . no ¡ª that can''t be it, right?'' Quinn thought about the first to third years as he walked out of Honeydukes after waiting in a long line of people buying some stuff to justify staying inside the story.


    The High street outside was not very busy; nobody was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations. Though he did see a group of Gryffindors walking a distance from him ¡ª the Golden group in the back with Katie Bell and her friend Leanne in the front, seeing them made a memory surface in his mind.


    Quinn''s jaw set in ce as he followed after them. He didn''t know if it would be the same as in his memories, but if it was, then he couldn''t ignore it. As they were making their way to their destination through the frozen slush, which seemed to be Hogwarts, his eyes were fixed on the Katie-Leanne pair, and his apprehension only seemed to grow when he saw them bicker with each other.


    "It''s nothing to do with you, Leanne!" he heard Katie say.


    The Golden squad walked behind Katie and Leanne, listening to their voices carried by the wind to them as they increasingly became shriller and louder. They rounded a corner in thene, sleetinging thick and fast, blurring Harry''s sses. Just as he raised a gloved hand to wipe them, Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back, and the package fell to the ground.


    Katie hurriedly crouched down to pick up the package, and at once, Katie rose into the air, suspendedically by the ankle, but gracefully, as though she was about to fly. Yet there was something wrong, something eerie. . . . Her hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed, and her face was quite empty of expression.


    Harry, Ivy, Hermione, Ron, and Leanne had all halted in their tracks, watching. Harry had finally done cleaning up his sses, and just as he had got a clear view of the situation, he felt a grip on his shoulder and was pushed to the side and saw Quinn walk past him.


    "Quinn?" Harry heard Ivy say; there was a fear in her voice.


    They saw Quinn raise both his arms and jutted them forward forcefully, and as if in response, Leanne was pushed back, away from the floating Katie and fallen package. He then raised his arm above and jerked it back for the still rising Katie to be pulled back to the ground.


    A terrible scream from Katie pierced the cold street, and her eyes flew open with only whites visible. . . whatever she was feeling was clearly causing her terrible anguish.


    She had just started writhing and flopping on the floor when reels of ropes broke out the snow beneath and mped down on Katie ¡ª her arms, legs, torso, even her head, all were bound down to the ground, forcefully stopping the girl from shaking.


    "W-What are you doing?" asked Leanne, her hands clutched at her chest as she saw Quinn straddle her best friend.


    Quinn didn''t respond and ced his hand on Katie''s forehead. His jaw was set together as he felt a terrible curse coursing through Katie''s body.


    ?This is aughable design.?


    For once, Quinn agreed with his Sin-voice in his mind, which, if it had been another situation, would have scared him as it was never good when his regr thoughts and Sin-thoughts ovepped. But right now wasn''t the time to think about himself.


    His magic flew into Katie, and within seconds, Katie''s scream subdued to groans and her violent shaking loosened in his twitching. After a few more seconds, when Quinn got up, Katie''s terrible responses had gone like they had never existed, and the only thing that remained was that she was unconscious.


    "Wha'' happened to her?" asked Ron, walking towards Katie, and his eyes dipping down to the silver ne with glittering green opal jewels peeking out of the package.


    Quinn raised his hand, and Ron was sent skidding and tumbling back to the rest of the Golden squad. He turned to the ne, and it was pushed back into the package, and the package was secured tightly. Only then did Quinn summon the package and pocketed it.


    He turned to Hermione and spoke, "Go to the Three Broomsticks, ask Madam Rosmerta to tune her floo to Madam Pomfrey that I''m bringing in an injured student, then call Professor McGonagall and inform her toe to the Hospital Wing."


    The Gryffindor Prefect nodded and hurried off to the popr pub.


    Ivy stepped forward, "Quinn, listen, I¡ª"


    "I will listen to youter, Ivy; right now I have to get Katie to Madam Pomfrey," said Quinn.


    "I wille with you," said Harry, the other Prefect.


    Quinn opened his arms up, and Katie flew up into them. "Sure, let''s get going," he said and walked to Harry. "Hand on my shoulder."


    "Ah, okay" Harry looked at Quinn''s shoulder and saw some snow. He raised his hand to brush it off, but the second his hand touched the shoulder, both boys, along with Katie, were gone with a pop.


    They appeared right outside the Hogwarts gates that opened towards Hogsmeade, and apanied by the sound of feet hitting the snow was Harry''s startled screams.


    "Could you not shout so loudly," Quinn said to Harry, "it''s only apparition."


    "Tell me before you do that!" Harry wasn''t having it; he ced his hand over his mouth. "Oh, crap. . . I feel like I''ll puke. . ."


    "You take your time; I will go on," said Quinn.


    He lowered his hand, but Katie remained afloat and straightened out; her unconscious body floated beside him as he looked at the castle.


    "Ugh, this wouldn''t have happened if you gave me a second to prepare myself," Harry took in a deep breath. "I wille with you."


    "Then make sure to keep up," Quinn streamed a bit of body magic and began his sprint journey to the Hospital Wing that he covered without breaking a sweat, though that couldn''t be said about Harry.


    "You-you. . . how do you. . . run so fast. . . for so long," Harry heaved on his knees and thenid down on Hospital Wing''s floor.


    "Madam Pomfrey!" Quinn called.


    The matron came hurrying out from inside her office, where her floo was located and pointed at one of the empty beds when she saw Quinn.


    "I just got Ms. Granger''s floo-message," she said. "Potter,y on a bed if you want to sleep. I don''t want to treat you if you got a cold from lying on the cold floor."


    ?Damn, I was slower! Ugh, slowpoke Potter screwed me over!?


    Quinn bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grimacing. These petty thoughts whispered into his mind were the most annoying thing about the Sin-curse; they were frequent and ticked him off massively.


    "She says Ms. Bell suddenly started to scream and writhe on the floor, but she didn''t know what caused it. Did someone cast a spell? Do you know?"


    Quinnid Katie on the empty bed and stepped back to give the matron space to operate. "It was a cursed item that Bell was carrying. She touched it just before she was levitated by her ankle and started to scream and writhe. I have secured the item in question."


    Pomfrey nced up at Quinn and her gaze swept over him.


    "I am fine, Madam Pomfrey. I didn''t touch the item directly," said Quinn. "As for the curse, it''s a terrible yet simple one; I undid it before it did some long-term damage. She''ll be back to top shape in around one week." Then he told her about his discoveries which she took into consideration while treating Katie. "Also, she was Imperiused, so please take note of that."


    Poppy''s wand halted for a moment before she continued her treatment in silence.


    McGonagall came rushing into the Hospital Wing but came to a startled stop when she saw Harry on the floor. Her eyes popped out, and her breathing hitched before she took a closer look.


    "Mr. Potter, please get up from the floor. It''s middle of the day and no time to sleep," she said and stepped over him to get inside the Hospital Wing.


    "What happened to Katie Bell?!" asked McGonagall.


    "The girl''s been hit by a curse from a cursed item and under the effects of Imperius," said Poppy as she reced her wand in her holster. A wide-eyed McGonagall gasped in horror as she nced at the sleeping Katie. Poppy continued, "Fortunately, Quinn was there to handle the situation and undid the curse before it could causesting damage. She''ll wake up in a few hours and will be back taking hits from a Bludger on the field in a week."


    McGonagall nced at Quinn, who had taken a seat on a barstool beside the bed.


    "Excellent job, Mr. West," said McGonagall. "Where''s the cursed item?"


    Quinn took out the brown paper package tied up with twine. "There''s a ne inside. Don''t let it touch your skin; it''s how the curse is transferred."


    McGonagall took out a thick woolen glove and ced it over her right before taking the package. "I''ll have Severus take a look at it. . . . Where did Ms. Bell get the ne?"


    "You will have to ask Leanne Paige about it. She was there with Bell when it happened and before it," said Quinn, getting up from his chair.


    "I will," said McGonagall before sighing. "Albus would be shocked when he returns on Monday."


    Quinn raised an eyebrow at that. "The Headmaster not in the castle?"


    "No, he''s been out since yesterday morning."


    Quinn hummed nonsensically. He caught sight of the Headmaster only twice over the past few weeks. He rarely appeared at meals anymore. And now McGonagall had said that Dumbledore was out overnight.


    ''He must be out there looking,'' he thought as his hand went his chest, feeling for the pendant piece beneath his clothes.


    After leaving the Hospital Wing, Quinn made his way to the AID office. There was no use to go back to Hogsmeade now, and spending some time in the workshop would do him good.


    When he reached the Grand Staircase to change the floors, Quinn caught the sight of Draco Malfoy on a moving staircase as he stood on another one.


    ?Oh, it''s the Junior Death Eater!?


    Quinn''s eyes went to see if there was someone else on the Grand Staircase. There were only him and Draco in the Grand Stairwell.


    ?There''s no one here. . . one shot and no one will know.?


    His fingers resting on the railings of the staircase twitched. But then Quinn sucked in a sharp breath and looked away from Draco.


    ''Control, Quinn, control. . . ''


    There were petty whispers, but then there were whispers that would, at times that would, momentarily make him take physical action. They came far in-between, and Quinn had only experienced them a couple of times.


    ''I have to find a way to make this go away, quick,'' Quinn thought as his hand went to feeling the pendant piece the second time in the day.


    He arrived at the office and was thinking of cooling his mind when he saw the redhead he knew well standing outside his office.


    Ivy noticed when he came to a stop and pushed herself off the wall to face.


    "Can we talk?"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - The voices in his minde in different vors.


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Tired - Damn. . . I workout enough, right?


    Ivy Potter - Awaiting to talk - What does she want to talk about you?


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Hmm . . . throw your suggestions at me. I''m going through a thinking phase right now, so be my think tank [this was written during the public release and NOT the ******* release.]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 283 - Laying Subtle Claim

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Can we talk?"


    Quinn gazed at Ivy with his peripheral vision on the wall behind which the AID office was. His destination had changed a few feet from workshop to office space.


    ?Let''s read her mind and get it over with.?


    Said his voice dripping with lethargy.


    ?Alone in an office, maybe behind a locked door? Me likey!?


    Said another version of his voice, this one hoarse and throaty.


    Quinn shivered at the second whisper; he had sounded like the former plenty of times, but thetter one he had never sounded like, yet it sounded so much like him.


    ". . . Sure, let''s go in and have a talk," he said, pushing past the thought.


    Ivy nodded.


    Quinn unlocked the door and entered the office, which hadn''t changed much since Astoria had be part of AID. He felt she was restricting herself by not making changes till he was there even though he had invited her to make changes to the office to make it feel like her space and not his and Luna''s.


    "So, what do you want to talk about?" asked Quinn after they sat down.


    He looked at Ivy, who was shifting in her chair, clutching the bottom edge of her school sweater, and looked like she was making herself smaller. She looked more ufortable than he had ever seen her.


    "Um. . . about Katie and her curse!" Ivy said, her voice much hurried and louder than usual, but she immediately hushed down to just above a whisper. "I didn''t curse her. . . ."


    Quinn quirked her brow. ''Where did thate from?'' he thought.


    "Who said anything about you cursing her?" he asked, confused from the bottom of his mind.


    "The Halfblood Prince book. . . it-it was there," she said, her voice gloomy and downtrodden.


    Quinn''s mind went into his memories of the book. Snape''s copy of Advanced Potions had been there for years, collecting dust, and he had only once picked it up to nce through it ¡ª his current version of potion recipes was better than teenager Snape''s. However, that book was much more than just an improved potions recipe book; it held much more than that in the form of Snape''s personal collection of self-made spells.


    And that was when it clicked in his mind.


    "Ah. . . . was there a spell like there in the book?" he asked.


    Ivy nodded, her head down. "It''s. . . Levicorpus ¡ª it lifts people from their ankle" ¡ª Katie had been lifted up in the air by her ankle ¡ª "B-BUT, I didn''t cause the levitation and the screaming, that wasn''t me, I promise!"


    She threaded her fingers into her hair, grabbed her head, and hunched down.


    The spell became clear in his mind with its use case. It was a spell made by Severus Snape with the motive of making fun of someone (humiliating someone.) Though Quinn could clearly remember from his canon memories that the spell had ended up against Snape. . . and that too by his worse nemesis, James Potter.


    "Seeing your reaction, I assume you weren''t looking at anywhere but at Katie, were you?" Quinn sighed, feeling for the nervous wreck of a girl. "Bell''s unfortunate situation, fortunately, wasn''t caused by you."


    His words seemed to be an elixir to Ivy as she at once looked up at Quinn with a bright, hopeful light in her eyes, and her paleplexion regained some of its previous rosiness.


    "R-Really?"


    Quinn nodded. "You might have missed it in the rush and suddenness of the situation, but Bell was cursed because of a cursed item she was forced to carry because of the Imperius she was under. Leanne Paige, her friend, was skeptical of the package''s nature and how Bell was acting and tried to pry it off her, and in the struggle, the packaging came undone, and Bell ended up touching it, which transferred the curse onto her. . . and you know the rest."


    Ivy copsed into her chair, and the tension seemed to leave her body like a deted balloon.


    "I''m happy that you''re responsible and conscious about what you have in the book ¡ª benefits and dangers," he said, though he saw the embarrassed expression Ivy gave in response, which told him that she had done things that were not so responsible.


    "Thank god," she said with a slow smile. "When I suddenly saw you push past us, I thought you would think that I cursed Katie. . . I am so d. . . ."


    Quinn thinned his lips. He couldn''t lie that someone caring for his opinion of them didn''t feel good, but especially not with the voice in his head.


    ?mm-mM-MM! Now, that just made my day! She should definitely get a reward~!?


    He flexed the muscles all over his body and kept them flexed to restraint himself from getting up from his spot. His body demanded him to lose control so that he could take over control.


    "I hope you''re enjoying the Halfblood Prince''s copy. It''s a great book on Potions," said Quinn, modting his voice to sound as normal as he could.


    "It''s a great book, alright. Even mum''s notes didn''t have as much detail as crammed into the margins and between the lines of the book. The corrections and additions he has added to the recipes are fascinating, to say the least," Ivy said, her hands expressing her assignments. "Every potion that I make using the modified recipeses out perfect," she said, putting the P in the perfect and throwing an ''OK'' sign.


    ?Not better than mine, it''s not.?


    "Did you also use Halfblood Prince''s bookst year?" she asked.


    "I did not. I knew of the copy''s existence from a couple years back; I prefer my own methods," Quinn said, feeling the Pride bubble up.


    "Do you. . . do you know the Halfblood Prince''s identity?" she asked, leaning forward and whispering as if hoping to be let in on a well-hidden secret.


    Quinnughed with his hand on his chest. "No, I don''t¡ª."


    The door to the office opened up, and Ivy turned when Quinn stopped speaking. . . andughing.


    There stood by the door, Daphne looking at them. After spending so much time with her, Quinn had learned to detect emotion from Daphne''s not-so-expressive face, and right now, they were screaming displeasure. Daphne''s gaze sharpened like knives when she saw Quinn sitting with. . . Ivy Potter.


    She silently closed the door behind her and walked towards them, passing by Ivy without looking at her, and came to a stop beside Quinn, who had to stop himself from flinching when on his shoulder.


    "Ivy," Daphne said in her ''public'' voice, "what brings you to AID at this time? I remember seeing you exiting the castle to go down to Hogsmeade. . . yet, you are here."


    Ivy removed her eyes from Quinn''s shoulder and Daphne''s hand. She looked up at Daphne and met her cold-blue eyes with her vivid-viridian ones. "Aren''t you asking too much, Daphne? I might have been talking something private before you barged in so rudely."


    "I doubt that you had anything ''private'' to talk with Quinn. Especially not with how the two wereughing. . . do share with me what''s so fun; I would also love to have augh on this cold day," Daphne said, and Quinn became hyper-conscious of her nails that he could feel somehow feel throughyers of clothing.


    "Furthermore," Daphne retrieved an AID card (Quinn-version[ck-and-gold]) from her robes, "the card isn''t showing that Quinn is in for a consult, so I doubt this is anything formal, and he''s very particr about these sorts of things."


    "He might have forgotten switching it on," Ivy countered.


    "Not likely; he never forgets this. Moreover, Quinn, right about now, should be on Hogsmeade with me." Daphne turned to Quinn to ask, "So Quinn, why are you here and not in the vige?"


    Quinn looked up at Daphne and touched her hand as he spoke, "Katie Bell got assaulted by a curse from a cursed item. I was fortunately there to stop the curse and had to bring her to the Hospital Wing. She was Imperiused, the poor girl." He made an apologetic expression, "After the incident, I wasn''t in the mood to have a day out in Hogsmeade. . . sorry about that."


    Daphne grabbed Quinn''s hand and side-eyed Ivy. "It''s okay; I heard about the incident; Weasley was spouting it in the pub. After an Imperius and a cursed item, I too wouldn''t have been in the mood."


    "I''ll make it up to you somehow," said Quinn. "I promise."


    Daphne nodded with a small smile, then turned to Ivy and spoke, "While our date stands cancelled, I would still like to spend some time with my boyfriend, so if you''d excuse us, Ivy, we would like to be alone."


    The two girls stared at each other for a few moments before Ivy stood up from her chair and turned to Quinn. "I shall leave you two alone then. . . see you around, Quinn. Thank you for taking action so quickly; we would have been at a loss at what to do if you didn''t arrive." And with onest nce to Daphne, Ivy exited the office, leaving Daphne and Quinn behind.


    Daphne followed Ivy with her eyes until she left before looking at Quinn, and he could tell that she was still unhappy. "You could''ve at least sent a message to me; you very well know that I still carry my DA coin at all times," she said.


    Quinn could only nod. The DA members still carried the coins with them, and he held one of the few master coins, which could be used to send messages to all subordinate coins or target a single one.


    "I am sorry, I was preupied with my thoughts about the events," said Quinn, studying Daphne''s expressions and responses. He thought she would be much angrier at him¡ª he had ditched on their date before it had even started and was foundughing it up with Ivy, with who she didn''t have a cordial rtionship with.


    Daphne sighed, "And so you came to the office."


    Quinn nodded, but then a smile appeared on his face.


    "Why are you smiling?" she asked.


    "You knew that I would be at the office," said Quinn, feeling a bit giddy. "You know me well."


    A red blush crawled up on Daphne''s cheeks, and she looked away from him to avoid his gaze.


    "H-How did the things with Marcus go?" she asked.


    Quinn grinned at her attempt to change the subject. "Yeah, I dropped him off with grandfather. They''re probably talking now at Scrivenshaft.


    Ah, before I forgot, I have something that I wanted to give to you."


    He got up and walked into the workshop. When he came back, he had a light-tan leather-bound book with him. "Here you go," he said, handing the book to Daphne.


    Daphne gazed at the book and read the title¡ª


    ¡¸West''s Take On Modern Potions¡¹


    "This. . " she looked up at Quinn.


    "Well, you were really pouty when Ivy beat you to the Felix Felicis." Quinn tapped his finger on the book, "It took me a while topile my research on OWL and NEWT level potions¡ª believe me, there was a lot of stuff, in a lot of ces. . . I really need to better organize my stuff¡ª


    Yeah, so Ipiled recipes for the standard OWL and NEWT recipes but also went beyond to add what I think should be taught in school along with what''s taught around the globe¡ª every country has something unique they do.


    This guide will help you crack Slughorn''s lessons over their head with absolutely nopetition."


    Quinn felt that he had to do it because he was partially responsible, given that he was the one who led Ivy to the Halfblood Prince''s Advanced Potions copy.


    Daphne stared at the book for a couple seconds before she grabbed Quinn''s cor and walked into the workshop while pulling Quinn with her, who was both pleasantly surprised and a little worried with the voice in his mind speaking louder than ever.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - About to have some fun.


    Daphne Greengrass - Girlfriend - Ultimately happy with her boyfriend.


    Ivy Potter - Holder of Halfblood Prince''s Book - Used a spell in the book, which set a loud rm-like sound that woke up the entire Gryffindor dorm.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I don''t do well with drafts. Can''t seem to write when I have a chapter in stack.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 284 - Council Of Ghosts

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The advent of December shifted the weather from the damp chill that dominated the Hogwarts grounds to a more dry frost that nketed the Hignds of Scond. Madam Pomfrey spent her days busy brewing Pepper-up Potion and feeding them to the staff and students with cold, leaving them smoking at ears for several hours afterward. Ron Weasley, who had kicked his nket off the previous night, was seen with steam pouring from under his vivid hair, giving the impression that his whole head was on fire.


    Snowkes every size imaginable descended upon the grounds, visible from the castle windows for days on end; theke''s surface froze, only to be cracked by the Kraken, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid''s pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Eddie''s enthusiasm, as the Ravenw Quidditch Captain, however, was not avnched by the snow, which was why the Ravenw was regrly found flying in low visibility and running through with snow swallowing their ankles.


    "Yeah, that must suck," Quinn cackled as he watched the Ravenw Quidditch Team firsthand, witnessing an elevated practice program not seen in Hogwarts since the glory day of Gryffindor Taskmaster Oliver Wood.


    He turned away and continued along the deserted corridor when he came across somebody who looked as though they didn''t have a shred of worry in their life. . . death. . . unlife. Fat Friar, the ghost of Hufflepuff Tower, was staring nkly out of a window with listless eyes with his translucent ghostly body hanging eerily still in the air.


    "Hello, Friar," said Quinn.


    "Oh, Quinn, hello, hello," said Friar, his body gaining some sense of motion, resuming him from the state of unnatural pause. He wore a in, darb religious cleric robe with a braided rope going around his waist; he had a wooden mug with two steel bands. Quinn could see right through him to the overcast sky and persistent snowfall outside.


    "You look lost in thought, Friar," said Quinn. "The weather is indeed one of intro- and retrospection."


    "The weather is truly one that unearths out the memories," said Friar, raising his mug to take a sip of a ghostly drink. "It also colors them in its mncholy."


    In spite of his airy tone, there was a look of great bitterness on his face.


    "The month of December does only turn jolly in the week of Christmas," said Quinn, staring intently at Friar.


    The bright soul, hiding behind the shield gued with pulsing veins in the color-tainted white space, thrummed with magic, turning brighter and gaining a shade of golden color. And Quinn''s eyes, the window to his soul reflected that golden sheen as he observed the ghost in front of him.


    It was different, he thought. Theparison between a genuine soul ¡ª his own soul ¡ª and a ghost was quite different. The ghost''s spirit felt faded, iplete, shallow, worn down, and. . . chained. While he couldn''t see it, there was a crystal clear sense of Friar''s ethereal spirit being anchored down to the mortal ne ¡ª and for once, Quinn could feel emotion from the ghost¡ª


    Quinn''s eyes widened as his pupils narrowed, his entire body felt a chill different from the winter or the Icy Vault as the previously nowhere to be seen emotion mixed with ghostly magic ¡ª influencing it, amplifying it, supporting Friar''s existence. There was sorrow, regret, unwillingness, self-hatred, dullness, weariness. . . all hitting him in waves more powerful than even ¡ª he hadn''t felt emotion this strong. . . ever. Not a single person from whom Quinn had felt emotion from had ever emanated emotion potent than Friar was doing now.


    He hadn''t even felt emotion this strong while casting his gigantic and potent Patronus or while standing in the Room of Requirement with dozens of people channeling emotion to release dozens of Patronus. But here it was, a single entity with more emotional density and quantity than ever experienced.


    A sound in his ears brought Quinn''s attention away from Friar. He nced down at his chest when he could hear the thumping beat of his own heart. He gulped and immediately cut the magic to his soul, and instantly, the overwhelming wave of negative emotions vanished, lifting the ustrophobic weight of his body. He became conscious of the cold sweat sticking his inner vest to his back.


    ''That was. . . .'' Quinn didn''t have a word for his first time looking at a ghost''s spirit using soul magic.


    But at the same time, it made sense. Ghosts weren''t genuine souls but imprints of souls possessing magic. Impressions of people who had refused to peacefully pass away because of unfinished business", whether in the form of fear, guilt, regrets or overt attachment to the material ne, refusing to move on to the next stage. . . continuously not wanting to pass away while sometimeter, constantly regretting their decision to return to the mortal ne, to never be able to end their existence.


    Friar, a ghost close to a thousand years in age, had spent every second of that harrowing time among the living, seeing them enjoy their lives in the daytime while spending time along during nights without being able to sleep for a single second.


    ''umted emotions developed over a millennium,'' thought Quinn with his imagination not able to capture what must Friar feel at his worst days if it was so horrifying looking from the outside.


    "I do look forward to Christmas," said Friar, smiling brightly, showing his ghostly teeth. ". . . Quinn? Are you alright? You look pale."


    Quinn took a deep breath and let out a shaky one before speaking. "I am alright, Friar, thank you for asking. . .


    It''s good that I met you here; I need to have a word with you."


    "Oh, what can I do for you?" asked Friar, floating down to Quinn''s eye level.


    "I think it''s time to call the Council of Ghosts for a meeting," said Quinn, a serious glint in his eyes. "We need to talk about the Cursed Vaults."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The Council of Ghosts was the group of ghosts who led the ghost poption in Hogwarts. They were the ones who decided who would haunt what part of the castle, what were themon areas. . . even ghosts demanded some privacy. They were the ones who dealt punishment if a ghost misbehaved, organized deathday parties, among other ghostly organizational duties.


    The members of the elite group of Hogwarts ghosts were¡ª


    "Why are we called here? If it is nothing of importance, I would like to return to the Ravenw Tower," said the beautiful woman with waist-length hair, dressed in a floor-length cloak, carrying herself with pride with a haughty expression ¡ª Helena Ravenw, the ghost of the Ravenw Tower


    "Oh, don''t be like that, Helena," said the upbeat man with a charming smile. He wore a dashing, plumed hat on his long curly hair and a tunic with a ruff, which concealed the fact that his neck was almostpletely severed ¡ª Sir Nichs de Mimsy-Porpington, the ghost of the Gryffindor Tower.


    ". . ." The ghost, paler than the others, didn''t say anything, staying silent, looking at the table between them with a dark gaze. He had wide, staring, ck eyes and a gaunt face. He dressed in robes covered in silver bloodstains and carried chains in a final act of penitence ¡ª Bloody Baron, the murderer of Helena Ravenw, and the ghost of the Slytherin Dungeons.


    "The meeting is of importance," said thest member of the Council of Ghosts, the ghost with a soft smile, bowl-cut hair, and mild nature ¡ª Fat Friar, the ghost of the Hufflepuff Dungeons. He pointed at Quinn, the only living person around the round table. "Quinn has something of great importance to talk about."


    Helena nced at Quinn before looking without speaking. She, however, didn''t leave.


    Friar smiled, turned to Quinn, and gestured for him to start.


    Quinn nodded. "I would like to thank the Council of Ghosts, all four of you, to gather here on my request. I have called for this meeting so that we can discuss the Cursed Vaults."


    The Council of Ghosts was also in charge of deciding the Challenger, the one allowed to challenge the dangerous Cursed Vaults. For centuries they had sent challengers to the vault ¡ª not one was able to make it past the first one, the Icy Vault¡ª


    Not until Quinn arrived. Not only did he make it past the first one, but he also made it to thest one and walked out with various tantalizing rewards. He had sated their curiosity of the mysterious vaults where they couldn''t traverse. Quinn West had crushed every past Challengers'' performance by such overwhelming margins that others had lost the right to hold the title.


    "First, I would like to ask if all of you would be selecting Challengers after me?" asked Quinna and further exined when he saw their confused expression. "I have told you all about the Cursed Vaults, everything you would like to know, which was your motive behind sending people into the vaults ¡ª so I would like to know if you''d continue to issue the Cursed Vaults challenges?"


    The ghosts exchanged looks with each other. In their long ''dead'' lives, they had learned to space out the interesting discussions. As such, they hadn''t breached the topic of Cursed Vaults yet.


    "Why does it matter to you?" asked Bloody Baron, his voice the deepest Quinn had ever heard.


    "I have no opposition to continuing the Cursed Vault challenges, there''s a lot to learn in there, but if you''re going to continue, I think it''s my responsibility to ensure the safety of the future generations of Challengers," said Quinn.


    The dangers involved in the Cursed Vaults were immense. Something Quinn thought would be too much for a student, even if they were as talented as Dumbledore and Voldemort while in school, so it was imperative that some measures be put in ce to protect them and at least save their lives.


    "And how are you going to do that?" asked Helena, skepticism in her voice. "Challengerse with decades in between them. How are you going to secure their safety?"


    "For one, we can alter the order of the Cursed Vaults," said Quinn. "I have experienced every vault, so I first hand know that the order in which I cleared the vaults didn''t have an incremental increase in difficulty. Not even close. And I understand why it was so¡ª none of you actually the actual contents of the vaults, so even your most responsible judgment wasn''t enough. But now we know the contents of the vaults. . . so we can change the order to make it more bnced."


    Quinn had felt more than once the mismatch between the Cursed Vaults. He had faced problems with all of them, but some of the problems were much graver than others.


    "What''s the order you suggest?" asked Nearly Headless Nick. "Do you have one in mind? We will keep that order in mind the next time we choose the Challenger."


    "I have one in mind, and I hope you''d go with this one," Quinn said. "I would like the Architect''s Vault, the current fifth vault, to be the first vault. It''s the one with the least amount of danger ¡ª only one part of the vault presents a life-threatening danger, which can be prevented with simple observation, nning, and a moderate amount of power."


    Only the tile grid with projectiles presented a danger. The Ring Finding, Vault Lock room, and the Material Cube rooms were pure-skill-based.


    "The only other problem with the Architect''s Vault is that you can be locked into the vault with no exit in the first room, but I think anyone with a decent amount of skill ¡ª who can solve the first set of mechanisms would be able toplete the rest with patience and time," finished Quinn.


    "The next one?" asked Friar.


    "The second would be the Aquatic Vault," Quinn said without missing a beat. "I would like the Aquatic Vault to be a point at which the Challenger would give up and return to their normal lives. And the Kraken would ensure that ¡ª it''s powerful, cares about the students, but at the same time won''t let someone get into the vault without a fight."


    He, himself, only had ''semi-tricked'' the Kraken to get into the Aquatic Vault. He wasn''t the Kraken''s match, at least the first time around, and he counted the Kraken''s size and strength to dissuade anyone from any further attempt.


    "Moreover, the teleportation system in the Aquatic Vault ensures safety, which is why I set it on number two. I was conflicted between the Aquatic Vault and the Architect''s Vault order, but decided that the Architect''s Vault should be put first because of the educational value of its first two rooms."


    The ghosts might not be considering the Challenger''s progress, but Quinn cared about it. If a Challenger was to ept, then Quinn wanted them to at least gain practice of Earth magic and Transmutation before they decide to quit.


    "We will keep that mind," said Frair. "What do you suggest be the third in order."


    "The Underground Vault. . . I want that to be the third and the Icy Vault to be the fourth in line," said Quinn before nodding ¡ª he was happy with his choice.


    "Wouldn''t the vault with the ice be less dangerous than in the Forbidden Forest?" asked Helena frowning.


    "In a way, yes," Quinn nodded, agreeing with Helena. "But, the Forbidden Forest holds a certain image in Hogwarts students'' hearts. The true stories of people disappearing into the forest without returning ever are well known. . . so I''m hoping that the Challenger won''t go inside.


    Furthermore, the Centaurs will know intruders in their territory, and they will also try to stop the Challenger from continuing forward, which, in a way, makes it much safer for the Challenger."


    The Darkness of the Forbidden Forest was house to species capable of tearing apart humans without even trying. If it was just a single species, then it wouldn''t be a problem, but all of them together, one after another, would make the task exponentially tricky ¡ª especially if the Challenger wasn''t capable of hiding like Quinn.


    "The reason I have put the Icy Vault on fourth is because of the protection magic," Quinn scratched his shoulder with a sigh. "Let''s say someone found a way to keep themselves sufficiently warm in the Icy Vault, but that doesn''t mean they wouldpletely escape the cold¡ª even know, after so many years, I would feel a cool chill while in there.


    My problem is that in that cold, the mental capability would deteriorate. . . if that does happen, which I think will happen, as things rarely go perfectly. When that happens, the control of magic could go astray, and then. . . it would take seconds for a person to die from the sheer cold that leaks out of the defensive containment mechanism that guards the Absolute Zero."


    His memory of almost dying inside the Icy Vault was quite fresh. If it wasn''t his idental magic protecting him, he would have been long dead in his second year.


    "That leaves what you call the Sin Vault as thest one," said Nearly Headless Nick. "The one that made you lose your magic."


    The information about Quinn''s struggles was shared between the Council of Ghosts.


    "Yes, the Sin Vault is to be ced at thest," Quinn''s stern voice surprised the ghosts. "I would say that you remove it from the challenges, but if you don''t, then make sure to tell them that it''s hazardous, and if they get into the vault, they would be dead, and they won''t even know it."


    ?I HATE THE SIN VAULT!!!?


    "I will make this clear, so there is no confusion. I don''t want people going in there. I wish it never existed, I abhor it, and it''s the vilest that ever exited!"


    Quinn mmed his fist on the table, and it shook, sending an echo throughout the empty dungeon room. For a few moments, only Quinn''sbored breathing was audible in the room, with the ghosts watching him in stunned silence.


    ". . . My apologies. I let my emotions get the best of me," said Quinn, clenching his fists and enabling his lumency to dull his emotions a bit, which was another problem to do when the emotions came from the soul side of things.


    "Are you alright, Quinn?" asked Friar.


    "Yes, sorry for worrying," said Quinn and decided to change the topic.


    "I would also like to talk about something else. . ." He smiled, "I would like to . . . ."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Let''s switch things up.


    Fat Friar - Hufflepuff - Jolly Ambivert


    Helena Ravenw - Ravenw - Haughty Introvert.


    Sir Nichs de Mimsy-Porpington - Gryffindor - Upbeat Extrovert.


    Bloody Baron - Slytherin - No.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - This won''t be continuing in the next chapter. So about the things. . . you know if you know. I would break itter on.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 285 - End Of An Era

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The sounds drums peaked through the crowd''s cheers.


    "Morning, people," said Quinn breathing a cold cloud on the mic in front of him. "It''s exciting today, isn''t it? It''s thest game before Christmas, and who better to watch on this asion than the bitter rivals, Gryffindor and Slytherin¡ª two houses thirsty for others'' blood, willing to gut stomach, break bones, and slit throats to quench that thirst."


    "Mr. West! Mind yournguage, please. . . !"


    The reds-and-golds in the Hogwarts Quidditch Stadium roared to show their support while the opposing green-and-silvers booed in response to their rivals. The energy in the stands seemed to heat the cold stadium up.


    "Apologies, professor," said Quinn, smiling. "But it''s true that this game is going to be a heated one¡ª the Gryffindor versus Slytherin are always a spectacle and have given Hogwarts a lot of their memorable games. So tomemorate this game and bring some vor to thementary side of things, I will be joined by a special guest in thementary box.


    Would you say hello to the spectators and introduce yourself," Quinn looked at his side and asked.


    "How''s it going, people?" the guest''s voice momentarily sent the crowd in silence as their eyes turned to squint at thementary booth through their omnioculors, where after their eyes widened behind the lenses.


    "You probably recognize me as the Captain of the Ravenw Quidditch Team, defending champions, and the future champions of this season ¡ª for those who have been living under a rock, the name''s Eddie Carmichael, position Chaser¡ª the best there is. . . outside the field, I''m an overall outstanding bloke, so yeah. . . happy to be here."


    There was a short bout ofughter from the blue-and-bronze before the other three drowned them out with a massive chorus of boos.


    "Mr. Carmichael, please restrain from riling up the crowd," said McGonagall.


    Eddie turned to face the Deputy Headmistress. "Can I not do that. . . I will go easy on Gryffindor if you just look the away and maybe pretend not to hear me. . . how about it?" he pumped his brows with a charming smile.


    McGonagall''s face through a journey. "T-That. . . go easy you say¡ª No! Mr. Carmichale, d-don''t try topromise the integrity of the sport! Now, don''t deliberately try to provoke the crowd, or I will be forced to kick you out!!" She turned to Quinn, "Mr. West, please keep your friend under control!"


    "I make no promises, ma''am," Quinnughed. "The world of sports is a passionate one. Things can go off the rails in the heat of the moment¡ª I apologize in advance for those moments."


    "Me too. I apologize if I drop the bitter truth more than a couple times during the game," said Eddie.


    McGonagall stared at the twomentators anxiously. She looked like she regretted giving Quinn permission to bring on Eddie as the guestmentator.


    "Now then, let''s get started," said Quinn and looked up at the blue sky with thin clouds carelessly floating. "Conditions are ideal for a fantastic game. Though that can''t be said about the Slytherin team, they aren''t looking good going into the game.


    Slytherin Chaser Vaisey ¡ª he took a Bludger in the head yesterday during their practice, and he''s too sore to y. . ."


    "Uuuh, that''s bad; he''s Slytherin''s best scorer," said Eddie, rubbing the back of his head. "I once took a Bludger to the back of my head¡ª nasty business, I wasn''t able to walk straight for a while even after getting healed by Madam Pomfrey."


    "Even Slytherin Chaser Draco Malfoy feeling sick, and thus won''t be ying," Quinn rapped his finger on the table. "Well, it seems Slytherin would be ying with two substitutes. . ."


    "That''s great for Gryffindor, innit," Eddie announced, "they''re ying Hachet in Malfoy''s ce, and I have seen him y¡ª he''s an idiot, to put it mildly."


    "Mr. Carmichael!"


    Quinn smiled back vaguely.


    "Well, the Gryffindor doesn''t look that good," Eddie continued. "This year''s team is really wet behind their year. The backbone of the team graduatedst year, leaving behind big shoes to fill¡ª Demelza and Fey. . . was it those two¡ª the new Chasers, they don''t look that durable¡ª I fear they will snap from one hit from the Bludger."


    The teams walked onto the pitch to tumultuous roars and boos. One end of the stadium was solid red and gold; the other, a sea of green and silver. Many Hufflepuffs and Ravenws had taken sides too: Amidst all the yelling and pping, the roar of Luna''s famous lion-topped headpiece could be heard.


    "Ah, the Captains are shaking hands," said Quinn, returning back to Quidditch. "Hmm. . . the new Slytherin Captain, Urquhart, what do you think of him, Eddie?"


    "He''s one crafty bastard," Eddie said and faced a shout from behind and boos from the front, "he''s also built like a fat cow; you can''t just tip him over¡ª I tried to crash into himst year, you know to push him away, but the freaking mass of meat wouldn''t budge¡ª good thing he''s slow on the broom."


    The whistle sounded, and the yers kicked off hard from the frozen ground andunched into the air.


    "Well, there they go, and I think we''re all surprised to see the team that Potter''s put together this year. Many thought, given Weasley''s shit performance as Keeperst year, that he might be off the team, but of course, a close personal friendship with the Captain does help. . . ."


    These words were greeted with jeers and apuse from the Slytherin end of the pitch. Even Harry, for a moment, stopped seeking for the Snitch and craned on his broom to give the middle finger to thementator''s podium.


    Eddie grabbed the mic and spoke loudly. "Potter, are you giving the finger to your mother? That''s terrible manners; you''re making your mum ashamed. Ouch! Professor McGonagall¡ª did you just hit me with a pinching hex. . .! AAAah, OkAy, OKAY! I will tone it down!!!"


    Quinn nced behind towards the Professor''s section and saw Lily Potter massaging her forehead.


    "Oh, and herees Slytherin''s first attempt on goal, it''s Connot streaking down the pitch and ¡ª"


    Quinn turned back towards Quidditch; at this rate, Eddie was going to take his job.


    "¡ª Weasley saves it, well, he''s bound to get lucky sometimes, I suppose. . . ."


    With half an hour of the game gone, Gryffindor led sixty points to zero, Ron made some truly spectacr saves, and Ginny scored four of Gryffindor''s six goals. Their performance was great enough for Eddie to get off their back.


    "So, how do you think the two newer Weasley doing?" asked Quinn.


    Eddie crossed his arms, his eyes following Ginny, studying her moves. "They are effective. . . not as efficient as the Weasley twins, but they''re doing well. . . for now."


    "Do you now feel that this Gryffindor is one that will give Ravenw challenge for the Quidditch Cup this season? They look pretty good to me," Quinn said, gaining him loud support of the Gryffindor side.


    "Pfft! Yeah, right, don''t joke with me, mate," Eddie snorted. "The Weasley girl is better suited as a Seeker; her speed would only do her so good as a Chaser, she would go flying in a Chaser-tussle. As for Weasley, even if he managed to turn himself in a wall from the sieve he was, I would just need to punch new holes into that wall to score."


    It seemed as though Gryffindor could do no wrong. Again and again they scored, and again and again, at the other end of the pitch, Ron saved goals with apparent ease. He was actually smiling now, and when the crowd greeted a particrly good save with a rousing chorus of cheers.


    "And, I think Hatch of Slytherin has seen the Snitch," said Quinn through his mic. "Yes, Slytherin has spotted the Snitch, and. . . Potter is now on Hatch''s tail. . . it''s confirmed the Snitch has been spotted.


    This could be it, people. If Hatch gets the Snitch, he would erase his team''s terrible performance and win the game in a swoop, and if he let Potter get, Gryffindor would secure a dominating win, utterly embarrassing Slytherin in doing so."


    Harry gained on Hatch, who purposely collided with Harry when he noticed Hooch''s turned back (focused on other parts of the game), nearly knocking the Gryffindor Seeker off. The reds in the crowd shouted in anger, but by the time Hooch looked, Hatch had already sped off.


    "It seems Slytherin is going to win a great upset!" said Quinn.


    Harry elerated, and at the same time, gained altitude. He arched his shoulder and bent his back forward to achieve maximum speed. Hachet, who was still flying ahead with a substantial lead, was struggling with his hand outstretched, his fingers time and time again missing the agile Snitch.


    "Potter''s catching up!" he heard Eddie''s voice in between the fluttering winds. He turned to look back, and that was his mistake as Harry zoomed past him in his momentary distraction from the Snitch.


    "Potter''s got it! The Sunuvabitch''s got the Snitch! Gryffindor has their victory!!! The game''s over!!!"


    As the crowd realized what had happened, a great shout went up that almost drowned the sound of the whistle that signaled the end of the game.


    - (Scene Break) -


    A day after the Quidditch game was thest day of the first term at Hogwarts and the start of the winter break. Students were looking forward to returning to their family for Christmas and New Years, while some would remain in the castle and spend their year-end with other students.


    Quinn sat in his office, looking at his desk¡ª it was empty without a single trinket on it. He would clear out his desk. . . his entire office and workshop whenever he went back home for the winter break as he was going to do tomorrow, but today, this time, it was different.


    It was hisst day at AID.


    The door opened, the chime rang, and Astoria came walking into the office.


    "You called?" she asked, raising the ck leather band with a silver chip on it¡ª the standard-issuemunicator for AID members.


    Quinn gestured to the seat on the other side of the table, opposite to him.


    "Today''s thest day here," said Quinn with a small smile. "After today, when you return to Hogwarts after the break, you''ll be in charge. I won''t be stepping inside this room if not for needing AID''s consult."


    As per the agreement and arrangement, Quinn was going to officially retire today.


    "You can still use the workshop, you know," Astoria said. "You''re the one who uses it the most among the three of us."


    Quinn shook his head. He knew if he was inside the workshop, he would end up taking over the office again when someone came in for a consult. And if that happened, AID wouldn''t truly be Astoria''s. It was better for him to cut the connection clean with a single sh.


    "It''s fine. . . I have my own personal workshop where I can work in," said Quinn. He had a fully functioning workshop in his briefcase used to work on some of the more. . . sensitive projects.


    "Nevertheless, it goes without saying, you can return any time," said Astoria. "Now, you said that you wanted to talk about something important; what is it?"


    Quinn opened the drawer and took out arge yellow envelope, and from the looks of the intion of the envelope, there was a stack of papers inside. He pushed the envelope towards Astoria.


    "What''s this?" she asked.


    "That''s the document of a new vault I have opened up in Gringotts," said Quinn. "A vault to be used by AID."


    "Eh, why do we need a vault?" Astoria was confused. "We have the safe in the workshop floor, and that''s more than enough¡ª why would we need a vault in Gringotts?"


    "Yes, that safe is more than enough for our use," Quinn chuckled, remembering how excited he was building that safe. "But this is a different matter. . .


    Running AID is financially tricky, Astoria. You know we don''t make much, and for most of the months we are in red, only to break even before the exam season. . . looking at that, I have decided to open a support fund for AID."


    "A support fund?"


    "Yes, a fund that would be essible by the proprietor of AID, which is currently you, with gold in there to be used for AID activities¡ª you can use them for consults, replenish the workshop supplies and expansion, for promotion activities, or any other AID rted venture you start. . . and more importantly, you can use it to fund your personal projects," said Quinn. "I would replenish it every month with a set amount and ask no questions on how you decide to spend it. I trust that you would use the gold responsibly."


    ". . . But why? You managed fine enough; I can do the same," Astoria pushed the envelope back towards Quinn, frowning. "I don''t need this."


    "I understand that," said Quinn, pushing the envelope forward again, "and I''m not saying that you''re not capable; it''s just an incentive that I have decided to add for the proprietor of AID. If you don''t want to use the fund, then I am fine with it. . . every month, the vault would be replenished to have a set amount."


    Astoria didn''t look satisfied but nodded after a sigh.


    "I''ll think about it," she said.


    "Sure, please do think about it," said Quinn and stood up to finally leave. "Now, I will take my leave."


    Astoria stood up and nodded.


    Quinn walked to the coat hanger by the door and pulled his robe off. He turned to look at his office as he put on his robe¡ª the desk he made on his own, the paintings he bought from the non-magical world, the nts he had mutated in his Herbology experiments, the ss wall, the bookshelf with some of the essential books, and the trinkets around the office which he had collected over the years.


    "Alright, good luck, Astoria; I hope you''d change AID so that it would be yours," he said. "Don''t worry about keeping things the same because of me and give it your own vor."


    Astoria nodded.


    Quinn smiled and walked out of the door.


    Outside in the corridor, he closed the door behind him and breathed a sigh. It was over. A chapter of his life was done¡ª a chapter he thought was very significant.


    "Hmm?"


    He turned and saw Luna leaning against a wall. She looked up, walked over to him, and stared at him.


    "What is it?" he asked.


    "I want to eat ice cream," she said, "walk with me to the kitchen."


    Quinn blinked in surprise before a smile appeared on his face.


    "Sure, let''s go," he said, "I''m also in the mood of ice cream. . . I wonder what vors do they have right now."


    "I want to eat Eggnog vor ice cream," she said. "Which one do you want?"


    Quinn put an arm around Luna as they start walking. "Hmm. . . I am in the mood for Vani, Chocte, and Butterscotch. . . I am going to take a big scoop of all three."


    "Three! That. . . that''s so many! Your tummy would hurt!" Luna gasped.


    "It''s okay; I''m a big boy now. I can handle it," Quinnughed.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - "Us old guys must step aside for the young''uns to take over."


    Luna Lovegood - AID member - A very cwute and lobely friend.


    Eddie Carmichael - Guest Commentator - Zero stage fear.


    Astoria Greengrass - AID Proprietor - Start of a New Era.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 286 - Gifts Galore

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Snow was swirling against the icy windows once more, and Quinn had made himselffortable in the West manor''s lounge, his feet folded up on the sofa with a cup of piping hot chocte topped with roasted marshmallows on the top.


    ''Twas going to be a White Christmas.


    A book floated in front of him, and when Quinn''s eyes would reach the right page''s end, the page would flip by the time, and he would continue on his handless reading experience.


    "Are you done with your gifts?" asked Ms. Rosey, sitting in front of him with an embroidery hoop with a handkerchief that she was needling a design upon. "I hope you have already owled them to everyone."


    "I sent them all the Christmas presents this morning," said Quinn. He nced at the clock on the wall, "Most of them probably would have reached their recipients by now."


    He himself had received multiple presents from his friends; some had either sent their presents through owl, while others had handed them theirs personally as owls were in high demand during the Christmas season, and the possibility of dyed delivery was high and not unusual. Quinn had sent all of his through owl as he had ess to a premium eagle mailing service, much faster than the owl bird.


    "What did you get for everyone?" asked Ms. Rosey.


    "Let''s see. . . I made Marcus a day nner¡ª to-do lists, alerts, rms, timers, and so much more in one diary-styled notebook; moreover, it''s reusable, so at the end of the year, he can wipe everything with one wave, and it would update itself to the next year''s temte. . . one of my finest works, if I was to say myself."


    "This Marcus, he''s the one who met with Georgiest month," asked Ms. Rosey.


    "Yes, one and the same. Why? Did grandfather say something?" he asked.


    "He and Elliot were discussing about that friend of yours a couple weeks back," Ms. Rosey threaded an elegant silver thread through a carmine handkerchief.


    Quinn put his feet down on the ground and leaned forward. "What did they talk about?" he asked. Marcus was going to work for the Wests; the question was where he was going to work.


    "I do not know," she shook her head and gently pierced the cloth.


    Quinn narrowed his eyes and stared at his caretaker. ". . . You know what they talked about. . . you were probably a part of the conversation. You just don''t want to tell me, don''t you?"


    Ms. Rosey inly nodded, "Yes, your grandfather has made a decision, but he needs more time to think about it before setting it in stone. He will tell you when he feels the time is correct; until then, you''re not to ask."


    Quinn leaned back and sipped his hot chocte with a hidden pout. They could just give him the straight answer; it wasn''t like he was going to leak it to Marcus, whatever the thing was.


    "What about your other friends?" she asked.


    "For Eddie, I created a charmed Quidditch pitch miniature equipped with miniature flying Quidditch yers, all of the customizable in strength, speed, endurance, catching, hitting, manoeuvrability aspects, so he could do rough y formation, visualization, and testing to see if they work or not. . . again, one of my finest handcrafted items."


    Since they had started the year, he had often seen Eddie buried in Quidditch tactics, nning and plotting a ybook for the Ravenw. Quinn hoped that giving Eddie something for rough simtion would help his decision-making process.


    "For Luna, I created a subsurface detector which detects if there''s something buried underground¡ª it detects everything from scrap metal to wooden chests waiting to be unearthed. She can go exploring and dig when something pops up on the detector. . . I can only wonder what sorts of things she would find," said Quinn, satisfied with the tant rip-off of the metal detector, only his was miles better as it didn''t have the restriction of only finding metal.


    "What about the Greengrass'' eldest daughter? What did you get for her?" asked Ms. Rosey.


    "You know you can call her by her name," said Quinn sighing.


    "I will do so when I get to know her and decide if she''s worthy," said Ms. Rosey with a raised chin.


    Quinn sighed. Ms. Rosey''s first reaction when he told her that he was dating Daphne was of indifference, which he thought, at that point, was expected of Ms. Rosey, but over time, he noticed she would probe him on how his rtionship was going with Daphne, which was also when he noticed she refused to say her name, always referring as Greengrass'' eldest daughter.


    She wasn''t like Lia''s boyfriend, Abraham. But it turned out that Lia had been whispering information about Abraham into Ms. Rosey''s ear even before she told George about Abraham, so when she finally revealed Abraham to the family, Ms. Rosey had already known much about the man.


    ''Why didn''t I think of that,'' he had thought when he had asked Lia for advice, and she had revealed the secret to him. Out of everybody, he wanted Ms. Rosey to like Daphne the most.


    There was the option of letting Daphne spend some time with Ms. Rosey, but he wasn''t ready to bring his girlfriend home just yet, as to say.


    Quinn sighed before moving on from his thoughts, "For Daphne, I grew diamonds in my workshop¡ª"


    "You grew a diamond?" Ms. Rosey asked, her hands stopping her embroidery. "People can grow diamonds?"


    "Oh yeah, diamonds can be grown¡ª you just follow the same natural process of carbon condensation under heat and pressure, but you just speed up the process by a lot, and vo, you have a man-made diamond."


    Ms. Rosey blinked, and Quinn wasn''t surprised at the reaction. He was sure that at least in the northern part of the continent, no magical other than him was artificially growing diamonds. He wasn''t sure about the rest of the world; there might be someone somewhere who was growing diamonds¡ª the non-magicals, of course, had been doing it for a couple decades.


    "Diamonds, yeah, made a batch of them from scratch, different sizes; then charmed them to be able to change color atmand. Then I prepared several pairs of earrings from gold, white gold, rose gold, tinum, silver, titanium even¡ª all of them capable of shifting into several shapes.


    Together with the diamonds, they turn into a set of customizable earrings with several designs and diamond cements, and. . . and. . . and. . . ."


    "What happened?" asked Ms. Rosey.


    Quinn looked up at her in panic. "I-I. . . did I overdo it?! I mean, I have given her crystal jewellery before, but I diamond and all that other stuff. . . argh!! What was I thinking?!"


    "It''s okay, you didn''t go overboard; I''m sure she will love it," said Ms. Rosey.


    "Really?" he asked with hope.


    "Of course, any girl would be happy to get a present from you," said Ms. Rosey and then humphed. "If that girl doesn''t appreciate, she doesn''t have good eyes."


    ". . . You''re the wrong person to ask this question, aren''t you," Quinn sat back on the sofa with a thump.


    "I hope you sent something for Abraham," said Ms. Rosey.


    "I did," said Quinn. "I don''t know what to get him, so I had no idea what to make him, so I just ordered a top-of-the-line whetstone set. I hope that will be enough. I would get him something Quinn-made next time."


    "That''s more than enough," Ms. Rosey gave her seal of approval. "For Lia?"


    "For Lia, I made a wristwatch, but because I know she''s mostly in offices with a lot of time spent sitting around, I added additional features into the watch. . . . The watch can monitor her heart rate, keep a record of how many steps she took in a day, how much of sleep she got, track her mood, measure stress levels, and all sort of fitness-rted features," said Quinn, once again quite happy with his fitbit rip-off.


    He was going to leave it to Lia if she wanted to release the product to the public. It wasn''t that difficult to make with magic, so anyone with rudimentary medical knowledge and charms skill could make it.


    "As for Uncle Elliot, I brewed him a wide set of alchemic potions that he could use in his personal greenhouse to change the soil into practically every type he could think of and grow any nt he ever wanted to grow but couldn''t because of environment restriction," Elliot was an avid home-gardener who would grow all sort of things¡ª fruits, vegetable, potion herbs, as a hobby. He was impressed with Quinn''s application of alchemy in Herbology, so Quinn decided to gift him alchemic potions.


    "I also shared his personal WMF-id with Madam Pomfrey," said Quinn, "But that''s more of a gift for her than him."


    "What?"


    "For grandfather, I made him a very ssy ice cube maker. Capable of making ice cubes of various shapes and sizes¡ª cubes, spheres, diamonds, thin cylinders, and many more. Moreover, there''s an option of making clear ice without a blur of cloudiness. He will be able to enjoy his drinks with his choice of ice," said Quinn, knowing how much of a drinks guy his grandfather was. "Also, everything''s instant, so yeah, quite bleeding edge, top-of-the-line, state-of-art system. Plus, there''s a secret ice-shaving option in there hidden which he would have to explore the appliance to find."


    "Hmm. . . good, you did well," Ms. Rosey nodded, satisfied with Quinn''s Christmas gifts.


    "You don''t want to know what I got for you?" he asked.


    "I will know when I open mine tomorrow morning. I don''t want to know right now," she said.


    Quinn shrugged. Her gift was a chair that could change itself ording to the user''s needs with several features like temperature control, a massage feature, cushion control, memory foam, among many other things, to provide maximumfort, aiming to get their person addicted to sitting. . .


    "What don''t you want to know?"


    Quinn and Ms. Rosey looked up to see George walk into the room with a letter in his hand.


    "We were talking about Christmas presents," said Quinn. "What did you get me this year?"


    "You will know tomorrow," George sat down on a single-seater. "Now, I want to talk to you about something," he raised the letter, "this is an invitation for a New Years gathering¡ª"


    "I don''t want to go," said Quinn.


    "¡ª from Sirius ck. . ."


    Quinn focused on George, "ck?"


    "Yes, Sirius ck is hosting a gathering on New Year¡ª ording to the letter with the invitation, it''s not a big party, only a few people."


    "Where is it?" Quinn asked nonchntly.


    "At his house, Number Twelve, Grimmauld ce," said George, reading ht address off the invitation, "thus the small gathering."


    Quinn went silent. Number Twelve, Grimmauld ce, he knew of the address, and not once in thest few years had he forgotten about it, meaning that building never went under the cover of Fidelius Charm, telling that the ce wasn''t the headquarters of the Order of Pheonix.


    But that wasn''t what he was interested in. . .


    "Do you want me to go?" Quinn asked.


    "Yes, I want you to go," said George. "It will be a gathering of Light Faction, and meetings like those are difficult to get in¡ª all faction gatherings are exclusive, and seeing that we received an invitation means that they are trying to gain our favor."


    "Are you going to involve yourself with them?" Quinn asked, leaning forward. It was thest thing he wanted.


    "No. Is that even a question," George scoffed. "I want you to go there to see what they have they have cooking there. Identify who is attending. If we are invited, some others outside the faction must be as well. So go there and see what''s going on within the faction."


    Quinn tapped on the armrest for a while before nodding.


    "Okay, I will attend," he said with his hand going to his chest.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I make my own presents.


    Ms. Rosey - Caretaker - Always be fussing.


    George West - Grandfather - Go be a spy, son.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - It''s subtle.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 287 - New Years At Black

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn flew in thete-evening winter sky with a bed of clouds listlessly floating above him.


    He kept his eyes on the streets below, teeming with non-magicals, all oblivious of the fact that there was someone flying over their head.


    He narrowed his eyes and suddenly took a nose-dive towards the ground. He was headed towards therge collection of lights he had seen in his aerial journey yet, a huge, sprawling, crisscrossing mass, glittering in lines and grids, interspersed with patches of deep cks. Lower and lower, he flew until Quinn could make out individual headlights and streemps, chimneys, and television aerials.


    A few secondster, he hadnded.


    His feet touched down on the patch of unkempt grass in the middle of a small square. Looking around, he found the grimy fronts of the surrounding houses were not weing; some of them had broken windows, glimmering dully in the light from the streemps, paint was peeling from many of the doors, and heaps of rubbishy outside several sets of front steps.


    The ce checked all the boxes for a locality to ce a magical home without attracting too much attention.


    Quinn looked around and spotted a sign with a range of house numbers with an arrow below them. He turned and walked towards where the arrowmanded him to go. A muffled pounding of a stereo came from an upper window in the nearest house. A pungent smell of rotting rubbish came from the pile of bulging bin-bags just inside the broken gate.


    He stopped and looked at the houses again. He looked to the left and saw number eleven; he looked to the right and saw number thirteen; to his front was number twelve.


    Quinn walked up the worn stone steps, staring at the door in front of him. Its ck paint was shabby and scratched. The door had no keyhole or letterbox. The bronze door knocker was in the form of a roaring lion. He raised his hand and knocked on the door using the knocker and felt a faint wave of magic behind the door.


    Taking a step away from the door, Quinn ced his hands behind his back in wait. Momentster, he heard many loud, metallic clicks and what sounded like the tter of a chain.


    The door swung open.


    "? Who¡ª"


    Quinn faintly smiled at the man behind the door. He had shoulder-length, glossy ck hair framing his aristocratic face and a pair of ck eyes with a roguish charm.


    "Good evening, Auror ck," said Quinn. "I hope I''m notte."


    Sirius opened the door fully and revealed the brightly lit hallway with beautiful interiors, mirroring the owner''s personality.


    "Quinn! So you came from the Wests, excellent-excellent, we needed some youthful energy here with so many hags and old farts," Siriusughed as he ced his hand on Quinn''s shoulder and pulled him into the house. "Though I have to say I wasn''t expecting anyone toe through the main door. . . I mean, I haven''t used the door for so long I fear that I noticed some rust on the hinges. How did youe? Did you take a car or a carriage?"


    Quinn removed his coat and followed the sign next to what looked like a door to a closet: Throw Your Coats Inside! He threw his coat in, and instead of falling on the floor, it flew into the room, disappearing in the racks of other coats, robes, and jackets.


    "I flew," said Quinn in answer.


    "Oh, a broom. Not my choice in this cold, but young''uns have a different vigor," Sirius led him inside Number Twelve, Grimmauld ce.


    The house was filled with festive energy as Quinn could hear the voices andughter of guests from further inside. The Ebony floor beneath was sturdy and luxurious, and the bright MLEs were casting their white glow with a tinge of yellow on the vibrant wallpapers and moving paintings of various scenic captures, all speaking a thousand words and then some with their magic.


    The inside of Number Twelve, Grimmauld ce, was wildly different from the outside. It was a narrow building from the outside, but inside, it was a wide and spacious ce of the size of arge bungalow.


    "Now that you''re here, enjoy yourself, have fun, and hopefully, this will be an evening to remember," said Sirius as they reached the end of the hall. "Now, let''s go in and get a drink in your hand."


    They entered through the door and stepped into another much wider lounging hall with a thriving party of people sitting, standing, moving. There were trays with Hors-d''?uvres floating through the lounging hall, continuously feeding the people.


    Sirius picked up a shot ss from a passing-by tray and handed it to Quinn, who shook his head. "I don''t drink."


    "What, really,e on, kid, you''re off-age now. Indulge in some of the more fun aspects of life," Sirius down the ss of the blue liquid, and his hair rose with electric sparks. "Yeah, now that hits," he said and shook his head; the currents crackled for a few seconds before Sirius'' hair were back on his shoulders, obeying thews of gravity.


    "There''s an open bar straight and left," said Sirius, pointing. "You can get the drinks of your choice from there. For now, let''s have you introduced to the party."


    "That won''t be necessary," said Quinn. He looked at Sirius, who was shing a part surprised part confused expression. "I don''t do parties, so it would be better for me to mingle around at my own pace.


    I would prefer that."


    If Sirius announced that Quinn was here, those who knew about the Wests would surround and hound him, and that would take up his entire evening, ruining thest day of the year.


    "Well, if you prefer it like that," Sirius shrugged. "If you need something,e looking for me, and I will sort you out."


    Quinn politely nodded and waited until Sirius walked away to put a shroud of magic on himself. It was subtle magic that would keep attention away from him¡ª it wasn''t as strong as to make him invisible from others'' attention, but enough that if someone wasn''t gazing their eyes around, they would ze over Quinn as if he was part of the background. It was a must-have in Quinn''s magical arsenal for gatherings and parties.


    He walked around the hall, taking in the people present at the gathering. Quinn had to say his grandfather was right; the party was Light Faction fest. He could spot people from the higher end of the Faction like Sirius ck and his best mate James Potter to the middle-end like Arthur and Molly Weasley to the lower-end like Hestia Jones and Sturgis Podmore. Quinn took the opportunity topile a list of people in the Light Faction, and thus a tentative list of people in Order of Pheonix¡ª the members of the Dumbledore''s Order, no matter what their standing in the Faction, held special standing as Order members.


    His secondary motive foring here was toplete George''s task of seeing if there were faction-less people or from the Grey Faction (or a rare Dark Faction) who were invited to the party. And while Quinn held no interest in knowing those things, his grandfather could use that information. Those people were the variables that George wanted to know as their addition would strengthen the Light Faction''s position.


    "Quinn. . . I didn''t know you wereing."


    Quinn turned towards the voice and saw Remus Lupin, the Werewolf, standing with a beer ss in his hand. He lookedfortable in his skin and clothing, just like thest time he had seen him.


    "Ah, Mr. Lupin, I was expecting to see you here today," he said. "It has been a while; how have you been doing for the past years? How has your health been?"


    Remus smiled softly, "Fortunately, I have been healthy with only a single hup a month. The medicine has been a miracle for my life," he said, deliberately keeping the words out of his speech to not make his condition obvious.


    "That''s good," Quinn said. "Still working with wood?"


    Remus nodded, "Work has been treating me well."


    Quinn nodded. Remus'' work needed to be good for him to cover Wolfbane''s expenses. The revolutionary symptom reliever was an expensive potion and had to be taken in multiple times to work; the umted costs weren''t something that an unemployed person with no source of ie could sustain. Which was why, in the canon timelines, Remus has agreed to join the Hogwarts faculty because Dumbledore had promised him Wolfbane potion during his tenure. The poor Remus, who would suffer every month from the Lycanthropy, had jumped on the offer.


    "You have been busy as well," said Remus. "Headboy, top of your ss, and thest time I heard that AID of yours was still working.


    Not to mention, you really did something incrediblest year, that thing with Umbridge; Sirius couldn''t stop talking about it for weeks."


    Quinn chuckled; thest year had indeed been hectic. Remus didn''t mention it, but he also had to teach dozens of students every week as part of DA.


    "I have decided to take it easy this year," he said, chuckling. "I am not doing anything grand this year; moreover, I have retired from AID. . . right now, I just want to enjoy myst without any worry."


    ?Let''s kick back, ept the curse, and rx~. I had so much fun when the curse was in full effect. Top of the world. Floating on the clouds. All-powerful. The best version of myself. . . . Ah, I want to feel that again~.?


    Quinn chose to put on a rxed smile.


    "Don''t say that to others at Hogwarts, okay? They throw their book at you," said Remus.


    "Eh, why?" Quinn asked.


    "If they heard that someone was nning to take it easy during their NEWT year, especially a Ravenw, they would throw their books at you in frustration," Remusughed loudly.


    "I. . . can see that," Quinn chuckled.


    After talking to Remus for a while, they parted, and Quinn once again returned to his partial anonymity.


    Quinn was looking at the people in the crowd, making notes, when he noticed something on the edge of the hall. His eyes widened for a split second before they went to normal. While keeping an eye on the crowd, he slowly inched towards the tiny shadow in the corner and followed after it through a hall''s exit.


    When he stepped into the hallway, he was greeted by tennis-ball-sized eyes.


    "Why you stare at me?" said the ''creature'' in his squeaky, hostile, and slight crazed voice.


    It waspletely naked except for the filthy rag tied like a loincloth around its middle. It looked ancient. Its skin seemed to be several times too big for it, and though it was bald like all house-elves, there was a quantity of white hair growing out of itsrge, batlike ears. Its eyes were a bloodshot and watery gray, and its fleshy nose wasrge and rather snoutlike.


    The elf stared at Quinn, slowly shuffling on his feet with his hand hanging limply, hunchbacked, muttering under its breath, all the while in a hoarse, deep voice like a bullfrog''s,


    ". . . Smells like a drain and a criminal to boot, but she''s no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my Mistress''s house, oh my poor Mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they''ve let in her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves, poor old Kreacher, what can he do . . ."


    "Are you Kreacher?" Quinn asked.


    The house-elf froze in his tracks, stopped muttering, and then again stared at Quinn intently.


    "Who is asking?" said the house-elf.


    Quinn elegantly ced on his chest and introduced himself, "I am Quinn from the House of West, the son of Adam West, and grandson of George West."


    Kreacher''s big eyes narrowed, and the house-elf looked like it was concentrating. "West. . . . Wests are pure of blood. You. . . are you pure of blood?"


    "I am. I, my parents, their parents, all of them are purest of blood," said Quinn.


    The house-elf studied Quinn with a good hard eye. He then bowed, his long floppy nose touching the floor. "Kreacher did not recognize the esteemed Young Master West. Kreacher punishes himself for his mistake."


    "It''s okay, house-elf," Quinn said, pulling his best Malfoy. "Now that you have identified my blood, I ask for your help."


    "Kreacher''s Mistress has taught Kreacher to serve the pure wizards. Kreacher shall serve Young Master West," said the ck house-elf.


    Quinn smiled regally.


    It was time to take care of the primary objective of his visit to Number Twelve, Grimmauld ce.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I who despise parties shall persevere.


    Sirius ck - Host - Having fun is paramount! Drink!


    Remus Lupin - Werewolf - Financially stable and intelligent.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - *Wink* *Wink* Cliff''s winking at you.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 288 - The Second Hunt

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Kreacher''s Mistress has taught Kreacher to serve the pure wizards. Kreacher shall serve Young Master West."


    Kreacher''s words brought a smile to Quinn''s face. His bid had paid off. He didn''t know if using his pureblood status would make Kreacher help him, but it was worth a try¡ª a try that he was able to convert into an opportunity.


    "Kreacher, I heard you were an important confidant to the ck heir Regulus ck," said Quinn, choosing and cing words carefully.


    Kreacher''s old eyes shined a renewed vigor as he creakily nodded his head, his eyes slowly flopping with every nod. "Young Master Regulus was the true heir. Not like the fake Master. . . blood traitor. . . meddling with mudbloods and other blood traitors."


    Quinn noticed how, unlike other house-elves in his position, Kreacher made no attempt to punish for bad-mouthing his Master. The rtionship was truly broken beyond repair. Quinn sighed. Kreacher was a product of his upbringing and environment¡ª raised in a blood supremacist household to look down on anyone not pureblood.


    "I might not have met Regulus ck, but I have heard much about him, especially from the Professors at Hogwarts¡ª they say he was a bright, talented young man," said Quinn, his eyes curved into smiles with his words mixed with admiration.


    "Young Master Regulus was a man of different caliber," Kreacher spoke with more enthusiasm than he had expressed in years. "He was a pureblood among purebloods¡ª a true Wizard truly deserving of magick."


    "A pity he passed away before his time," said Quinn. "He could''ve be a fine Head of Noble House ck."


    "Yes, yes, yes," said Kreacher, his matchstick body trembling with every word. "He wouldn''t have dragged the pure ck through the mud."


    "I agree, that''s why when I met Sirius ck for the first time, I looked into cks and found about Regulus ck; there I found that he was a follower of the Dark Lord, am I right?" Quinn asked.


    Kreacher''s eyes took on a faraway gaze. Quinn waited for Kreacher to return to the present, but it seems that the house-elf''s old age had been affecting him as even after waiting, Kreacher didn''t return from his memory zone out.


    "Kreacher?"


    ". . . Yes," said Kreacher.


    Quinn didn''t know if Kreacher was answering his previous question or responding to his call, but it didn''t matter; it was time to move into the main act.


    "Kreacher. . . I know how Regulus really died," he said. "He didn''t die as everyone thought he died."


    The official story was that Regulus died by Voldemort''s hands, or at least by his order. That Regulus had gotten far into the organization, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. However, one couldn''t just walk in and hand in their resignation to Voldemort¡ª once marked, a person was Death Eater for life with only one option of escape. . . death.


    Kreacher''s body trembled at his words. Quinn''s pupils narrowed a fraction, his hands behind his back clenched as he felt a re of magic from the house-elf.


    "I do not know what you''re talking about," said Kreacher, clutching the front of his pillowcase rag. "Young Master West must not believe in such absurd rumors. . ."


    "I understand why you would want to hide the truth, but there''s no need when I know it. . . . I know that Regulus died because of stealing from the Dark Lord," said Quinn, revealing about the truth only known to Kreacher. "He died in that cave, where the Dark Lord ced his treasure for safekeeping."


    Kreacher looked up at Quinn with shocked eyes. Apanying the shock was a muddling craze in the background.


    ''Good, good,'' thought Quinn noticing Kreacher''s current state. It would be much easier for him to control the house-elf with just the right words if he was slightly unstable.


    "H-H-How. . . ?!"


    "The question of how is not of importance, Kreacher," he said to Kreacher. "What''s important is if that thing that was taken from the cave was destroyed or not. I hope it was disposed of Kreacher; tell me that your Master''s sacrifice was not in vain. That the Dark Lord''s treasure that he so carefully wanted to be hidden has perished."


    However, Quinn knew that ''it'' still existed. He wanted to know if it was still in this home.


    Kreacher suddenly crouched down on the floor, curled into a ball, ced his wet face between his knees, and began to rock backward and forward. When he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct in the silent, echoing kitchen.


    "Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress''s heart with hiswless ways. But Master Regulus had proper pride; he knew what was due to the name of ck and the dignity of his pureblood. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns . . . and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve . . .


    And one day, a year after he had joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said . . . he said . . ."


    The old elf rocked faster than ever.


    ". . . he said that the Dark Lord required an elf. And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do . . . and then to ce home."


    Kreacher rocked still faster, his breathing in sobs.


    "So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave, there was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great ckke . . .


    . . . There was a boat . . .


    . . . There was a b-basin full of potion on the ind . . .


    The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it. . . ."


    The elf quaked from head to foot.


    Kreacher drank, and as he drank, he saw terrible things . . . . Kreacher''s insides burned . . . Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress ck, but the Dark Lord onlyughed . . . He made Kreacher drink all the potion . . . He dropped a locket into the empty basin. . . . He filled it with more potion.


    And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the ind. . . ."


    ''The locket,'' thought Quinn.


    "Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the ind''s edge, and he drank from the ckke . . . and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface. . . ." Then Kreacher''s voice turned momentarily hopeful, "Master Regulus told Kreacher toe back. . ."


    ''Voldemort''s folly,'' Quinn scoffed. The Dark Lord didn''t take the supposedly lower house-elf species into consideration, allowing them to Apparate out of the cave.


    "Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," croaked Kreacher. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then . . . it was a little whileter . . . Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell . . . and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord. . . ."


    And so they had set off. Kreacher knew how to open the concealed entrance to the underground cavern, knew how to raise the tiny boat; this time it was Regulus who sailed with him to the ind with its basin of poison. . . .


    Kreacher shook his head and wept. Quinn sighed: he knew what happened next.


    "M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," said Kreacher, tears pouring down either side of his snoutlike nose. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets. . . ."


    Kreacher''s sobs came in great rasps now; Quinn had to concentrate hard to understand him.


    "And he ordered ¡ª Kreacher to leave ¡ª without him. And he told Kreacher ¡ª to go home ¡ª and never to tell my Mistress ¡ª what he had done ¡ª but to destroy ¡ª the first locket. And he drank ¡ª all the potion ¡ª and Kreacher swapped the lockets ¡ª and watched . . . as Master Regulus . . . was dragged beneath the water . . . and . . ."


    The elfy on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening around his snout, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Quinn had never seen anything so pitiful.


    "So you brought the locket home," he said, his tone not changing from before. "And you tried to destroy it?"


    "Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work. . . . So many powerful spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open. . . . Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, he tried again. Kreacher failed to obey orders. Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And his Mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared, and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave. . . ."


    He, however, wasn''t family, Quinn thought, as he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor.


    "Kreacher," Quinn said, his voiceced with heavy magic, "please get up and act like a house-elf of Noble House."


    Kreacher huped himself into silence. Then he pushed himself into a sitting position again, rubbing his knuckles into his eyes like a small child.


    "Now, I''m going to ask you this, Kreacher," said Quinn. He stared into the house-elf''s eyes, "I need you to get me that locket; it''s of importance that I obtain that locket. . . . for I can make your Master''s dying wishe true . . ."


    Kreacher matched eyes with Quinn, unblinking, frozen.


    ". . . I can destroy the locket for you, Kreacher," said Quinn. "It''s imperative, and whilepleting that, I can finish the work Regulus started and ensure that he didn''t die in vain . . . Do you think you can do that for me?"


    "You. . . you. . . can really destroy the Dark Lord''s locket?" Kreacher asked.


    "Absolutely," Quinn nodded, exerting confidence through his voice and magic. "I shall destroy them without fail."


    Kreacher nodded and got to his feet. He popped away. When he returned, he had a locket in his hands.


    "Here, here, have it," Kreacher said, all but throwing the locket at Quinn.


    Quinn caught the locket, not thinking Kreacher''s behavior as strange. The locket had been nothing but trouble for the house-elf; it was a painful reminder of his failure.


    He looked at the serpentine S, iid with glittering, green stones. It felt heavy in his hands, the metal feeling cold against his touch. It was Szar Slytherin''s Locket. It was a Horcrux.


    "Thank you, Kreacher," said Quinn with aforting smile. "I willplete what Regulus ck set out to do."


    Kreacher bowed heavily, and Quinn could see tears dropping on the floor below Kreacher''s head.


    Quinn sighed and could only nod with aposed smile when Kreacher raised his head. He raised his hand and pointed it at Kreacher, or rather at the house-elf''s head, "Now¡ª"


    But before he could proceed, his ears picked up the sound of the door creaking open.


    "Quinn, what are you doing here?"


    Quinn''s lip thinned into a white line. This was Number Twelve, Grimmauld ce, the home of Sirius ck, a part of the Light Faction, so it was obvious that Sirius'' favorite family would be here.


    He looked at Kreacher and mouthed the words, ''Go,'' as the locket flew into his suit''s inner breast pocket. Kreacher peeked behind Quinn, scowled, and then popped away with a loud bang.


    He turned and greeted,


    "Harry, Happy New Year."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Got another one.


    Kreacher - House-elf - Has some difficult times.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Who thought it was going to be Ivy?


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 289 - Last Day Of The Year

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    "Quinn, what are you doing here?"


    ". . . Harry, Happy New Year."


    There was a loud crack before Harry saw Quinn turn with a smile on his face. "Was that an Apparition crack I heard?" he asked, peeking behind Quinn. "Was that Kreacher you were talking to?"


    "Indeed, that was Kreacher; I was having a little chat with him," Quinn stared into Harry''s green eyes before his smile widened.


    The Boy-Who-Lived''s mental shields were quite decent. It was no wonder he was able to block his connection with Voldemort established through the Horcrux. They weren''t strong enough to keep him out, but enough to keep the Dark Lord, who was operating through a connection that he had no knowledge of about its true nature.


    "Was he being nasty with you?" Harry frowned. "If he was, don''t worry about it; he''s like that with everyone. I haven''t been able to talk properly to him ever since I was a child . . . . He''s always calling me blood traitor and mum the m-word," he spat.


    "I did get that from the little chat," said Quinn, "but Harry, I am a pureblood; Kreacher was perfectly civil with me."


    "Why are you even here?" Harry looked at the hallway. "The Party''s out there."


    Quinn shrugged, "I saw him standing at the corner of the main hall and got curious¡ª I don''t enjoy parties, and he seems like a good conversation.


    Come on, let''s go out."


    Quinn and Harry exited through the hallway door into the hall and greeted the chorus of the party.


    "So what did Kreacher tell you?" asked Harry.


    "Blood status, pure supremacy, blood traitor, the glory of cks," said Quinn, walking towards the bar in the hall. He ordered himself a drink and then turned to Harry, "Nothing special, you know, though it was interesting to see a house-elf who showed visible contempt towards their Master¡ª ck and Kreacher must not really get along."


    "No, they don''t," Harry scoffed. "Kreacher wasn''t kind to Sirius when he was young, and Sirius isn''t a fan of Kreacher . . .


    Quinn was well aware of the history of the ck.


    ". . . So who did youe here with today?" asked Harry.


    "I came alone," said Quinn, getting his drink from the bartender. "None of them wanted to get out home at New Year; preferred toze around while leaving the work to the poor old me."


    "You sound like you don''t want to be here," asked Harry, picking himself a ss of butterbeer.


    Quinnughed. "Far from that, my dear Boy-Who-Lived. I''m ecstatic about being here, always wanted to see the ck Family''s residence," he looked around the hall, "and have to say, he has done a great in the upkeep."


    "Actually, mum''s the one who a lot of this," said Harry, puffing his chest. "It wasn''t like this before, or at least they say so¡ª it was grim and dark, they say ¡ª Sirius didn''t like it and wanted to do aplete overhaul," he chuckled, "wanting to build his ultimate Bachelor Pad. Sirius wanted to hire someone to do that, but then mum volunteered to do it . . .


    . . . cks were a Dark Family, you know, so they had a lot of dangerous stuff things lying around in the house¡ª items, books, and who knows what¡ª and mum thought it would be better if she would take care of that stuff, instead of someone whose job was to interior design and not handling Dark magical items. They could get seriously injured or worse. After she was done, mum decided to try her hand at designing, and well, you can see the result."


    Quinn nodded. The interior was tasteful, and he could see designs here and there, which he thought looked familiar to Hogwarts¡ª Lily had spent a lot of her time at the castle.


    "So . . . what happened to all the books?" he asked.


    Harry quirked his brow at Quinn with his butterbeer bottle at his mouth. "Why?" Harry asked.


    "You know . . ."


    ". . . You sound like Ivy."


    "Oh, how?" Quinn asked, curious.


    "Ivy asked the same thing¡ª" said Harry.


    "I asked what?"


    Both boys turned to the voice and saw Ivy standing there gazing at them. She was dressed in a stunning red dress with a little te of food in her hands.


    "Oh, this and that," said Harry. "Talking about Sirius'' Bachelor Pad."


    "Boys," said Ivy, somehow imitating the ''rolling eyes'' with her tone. "So Quinn, I didn''t know you wereing here today," she nced away to where Sirius was standing with a re, "but d to see you here¡ª I know you don''t like parties."


    ?Mmnm~ Mnmm~ Mmm~.?


    ". . . That I don''t," said Quinn, looking at the people in the party. He didn''t know ny percent of people here, and even those he knew, he could only bear to talk to a few of them. "So New Year, huh. Any special things both of you want to do this year?"


    Quinn looked at both of them and noticed the slight change of expressions on both of their faces, more on Harry''s face than Ivy''s. He wondered what they were thinking¡ª he could guess . . . he knew what they were thinking.


    Before the winter break, Quinn had noticed that Harry''s interaction had finally gone way beyond what it was already was. The Headmaster had finally started to reveal things to Harry, and he could tell from Harry''s behavior (which Quinn had been observing) that this version of Harry Potter was feeling the pressure.


    ''The malleable martyr isn''t here after all,'' he thought.


    The upbringing was different. This Harry Potter was able to think about himself, and while Quinn didn''t know what exactly he was thinking, from the rolling waves of emotions, he could feel the muddle of contradicting emotions whenever Quinn peeked into Harry''s mind.


    Duty. Pressure. Reluctance. Willingness. Fear. Courage.


    ''It''s quite ironic, isn''t it,'' Quinn thought to himself.


    He had felt the same emotions from Draco Malfoy this year.


    Quinn nced at the girl twins. He had tried not to peek at her emotions whenever he was near her this year. He had tried, and the feelings that he had felt weren''t something he wanted to witness. They just bought out memories that pinged guilt inside of him.


    And that was just before he had been gued with the Sin curse.


    After that, it didn''t matter if he peeked or not; anytime he was near her, his own voice would tempt him in whispers. The voices rose to strengthen to the levels of Greed and Pride¡ª the two voices that bothered him the most.


    Greed and Pride.


    Both of those voices were strong because they aligned with his untainted thought the most.


    He felt greed for knowledge frequently, and with Greed in the back of his mind, every time he would as much as pick up a book, it would rear its ugly head and constantly whisper.


    ?Learning is easy, but attaining more magic is difficult. . . if I let the curse take over, I would not only gain a singr focus towards knowledge . . . I mean,e on, I have picked up . . . distractions. . . . But I would also gain so much POWER!?


    It was just like thest time. Quinn knew what it felt like, making it more challenging to avoid.


    Then came Pride.


    He didn''t know why, but every time he saw anyone doing anything remotely interesting, a twisted sense of Pride woulde up, and he would startparing himself to them.


    He hated that feeling so much.


    ?Look at all these people. Trying so hard to impress people, yet their contributions amount to nothing. Ah, the kids, they don''t know the magnanimity of the outside world. Ha! Trying to impress the teachers. Kids do stupid shit and think it''s cool . . . so pitiful!?


    It wasn''t like him, yet it felt so . . . natural.


    "Quinn?"


    Quinn broke out of his thoughts and looked at the Potter twins.


    "My apologies . . . I was thinking about what I wanted to do this year," Quinn said.


    "And?" asked Ivy.


    "Well, there''s still something I have to do at Hogwarts before I leave once and for all," said Quinn, thinking of a couple things he had going¡ª one of them was literally ticking in the back of his mind.


    "Then I need to finally choose what I''m going to right after Hogwarts because there are a few things I can do, and believe me, I have no idea which one to choose," he continued.


    There was an apprenticeship with n, but that would mean that he would be tied up until his ''Master'' was satisfied with his progress, which Quinn was sure would happen with the way the old man was.


    Then there was the option of notmitting himself to a formal apprenticeship and pursuing whatever he wanted on his own, which itself was a problem as then he would have to choose what he wanted to concentrate on¡ª doing tons of things at the same time wasn''t going to work at a higher level¡ª a couple of things, sure, he could handle it, but not everything like he was doing right now. He would have to stick to a couple fields for a year or two before and progress before switching.


    "Well, whatever I do," said Quinn, shrugging, "I am going to drag Eddie and Marcus along with me to a grand trip for a month! It will be crazy, yeah."


    Lia had done so after her Beauxbatons day¡ª took a trip with her friends. Quinn wanted to do the same with his.


    "Where will you go?" asked Harry.


    "No clue," said Quinn. "I''m guessing that I would put a bunch of destination names in a bowl, make someone pick one, and then get a portkey there. The best part? We don''t know the ce until we get there . . . I mean, just imagine the thrill of dropping into one ce without knowing if we would even know thenguage¡ª it would be so fun!"


    "That," Harry started, "sounds terrible."


    "Really?" Ivy looked at her brother in surprise, making him look at her surprise. "I mean, a trip without nning. While I wouldn''t want to do it every time, doing it once sounds exciting."


    Quinn pointed at Ivy, "Harry, I know you have listened to it from Eddie a lot, but I have to say, Girl Potter is the Better Potter."


    "I mean, was that ever a point of doubt?" Ivy said, crossing her arms.


    "Oh, shut it," said Harry.


    Quinn leaned back on the bar counter and raised his ss to take a sip as he watched the twins bicker with each other.


    ''For thest day of the year, this is half decent,'' he thought.


    And it would have been perfect if not for the voice in the back of his mind.


    Soon after, Quinn thought he had spent enough time at the party, so he went to Sirius and said his goodbyes to the host and left with much time remaining to midnight.


    Outside the steps of Number Twelve, Grimmauld ce, he reached into his suit coat pulled out the chain with the Horcrux hanging on it. He stared at it for long in silence with unblinking half-lidded eyes.


    ''I''m tired,'' he thought.


    There was another thing he wanted to do this year . . . and that was to finish this so that he could move on.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - They''re getting longer.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Sorry about this one, but I couldn''t think of another way to meet the word limit.


    .


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    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 290 - An Offer To Help

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Under the dictatorship of Madam Irma Pince, silence reigned supreme in the Hogwarts library.


    In one of those silent corners, three seventh-year Ravenws sat together on a table with books, parchment, paper, ink, quills, and fountain pen on the table.


    Eddie''s quill scribbled on the parchment rapidly, transferring the words from his brain to the parchment. At the end of a sentence, he ced a period and pressed the nip hard into the parchment; he watched as the point of ink grew into a blot before taking the nip off and pumping his left hand beside himself.


    He breathed out as he stared at the lengthy roll of parchment unrolled on the table with the other end flowing off the other end. He looked around before withdrawing his wand. The tip of the ckthorn wand was ced on the parchment, and the next second, the parchment roll split into multiple page-sized sections. He summoned the pages to himself, straightened them out with another swish, marked them with page numbers, and bound them from the top breadth-side to make a flippable thin assignment notebook.


    He looked at the assignment, nodded in satisfaction, and flicked it on the table. He leaned(half-slumped) into the chair and gazed at his friends. Marcus was busying himself with an assignment¡ª Eddie squinted and saw numbers and recognized Arithmancy forms. He turned to his other friend, and his brows quirked up when he saw empty hands, twiddling thumbs, and a closed book sitting inches away from the hands.


    Eddie observed Quinn and watched as his eyes followed people walking past their table, the flickering mes of the candles, and for some reason, a lot of squinting at the spines of the books on the shelves at a distance opposite Quinn. Eddie nced down at Quinn''s hands, and the fingers had joined the thumbs in their nervous activity.


    Eddie raised his wand and spun out a magic. That got Quinn''s attention, and his eyes shifted from the books to Eddie with a question in his eyes.


    "I''m done with my assignment," said Eddie.


    "Oh, well done," said Quinn.


    Eddie once again looked at Quinn''s hand, and now they were t, palm-side down on the table with the fingers silently drumming against the wood.


    "I''m done," Eddie said again, "so I will listen to you¡ª what''s bothering you?"


    "What do you mean?" Quinn furrowed his brows, wondering where did thate from. "There''s nothing bothering me."


    "I don''t buy it," said Eddie, pointing at Quinn''s hands. "You don''t y with your hands if not for doing the muggle magic tricks, and I can see no cards, coins, or any other weird shit¡ª ergo, something''s bothering you. Clearly, something''s bothering you. So, be a dear and tell big daddy what''s wrong."


    "Like I said, nothing''s bothering me," said Quinn, waving Eddie off. "I am just rxing . . . it''s one of the things I want to do more this year, you know, a new years resolution . . . I am starting strong."


    "He doesn''t know what to do," said Marcus without looking up from his parchment. "Usually this time, he''s in his office, doing stuff, but now that''s out of his routine, this guy doesn''t know what to do at this part of the day."


    Quinn turned to Marcus. "What are you, my psychiatrist?"


    "What''s a psychiatrist?" asked Marcus. He scrunched his nose as he stared at his parchment, "Ah crap, I wrote down psychiatrist."


    Quinn sighed. His exit from AID was turning out to be more difficult than he thought. He had no idea what to do during the 1-2 hours of the evening as they were usually scheduled for AID, and the sudden absence had thrown a temporary hole in his day, and it was a bit restless for him.


    "Then what do you do at this time when you''re at home," said Eddie, "just do that while you get used to it."


    "By this time, I''m either sitting with Ms. Rosey or down at the muggle world wandering around; can''t do any of those here," said Quinn. He could sneak out of Hogwarts and then apparate home, but that would get him a scolding.


    "Wanna go y Quidditch?" asked Eddie. "I can put you with the little ones, and you can mess with them. Or you can go round the castle and dish out detentions . . . yeah I would do that if I was you."


    "Maybe I should go around the castle," said Quinn making Marcus finally look up from his assignment.


    "You''re going to give out detentions?" Marcus asked.


    "Huh? No, not that," said Quinn, getting up from his chair. "A little walk would be good for me to clear my mind."


    January, the peak of winter, was cold, making the hallways lonely. Quinn walked through the hallways, wondering what he should do¡ª there were apparent options like reading about magic, practicing magic in RoR, workout in RoR.


    Then there was the most obvious option of working out a solution for the Sin curse trying to infect his soul. He could feel the pendant''s metal against his skin¡ª ever since fashioning it, he had yet to remove it from his around his neck. But he was already putting a big chunk of his time into solving the curse and thought putting in more would be more detrimental.


    ?Why not just let it slip? Maybe theck of ego will reveal something. I did aplish a whole lot thest time around¡ª ah, all of this such a bother, *sigh* . . . . Even though there''s such an easy way to end it.?


    Quinn groaned, with Sloth drawling in his mind.


    He had raised his hands to cover his face and rubbed his eyes when Quinn felt someone crash into his body, followed by a thump. Before he could open his eyes, he heard an "Oof!" and the sound of someone falling to the floor.


    "Hey, you worthless piece¡ª"


    Quinn opened his eyes and saw Draco on the floor, looking up at him. The Slytherin''s expression went from hot anger to a screeching silence.


    "Malfoy," Quinn said in greeting.


    Draco hurriedly got up from the floor his floor and dusted his clothes without looking at Quinn. Immediately after, he turned and started walking the other way.


    "Malfoy," called Quinn, "are you going to ignore my greeting, especially when you walked into me so rudely."


    ?Little shit! He fucking dares to ignore ME! I should curse him off his magic; that would teach him. I want to see how he would react when I turn him into a non-magical he despises. I can see the headline¡ª Malfoy Heir, SQUIB?!?


    Draco stopped, and Quinn could see his fists clenching before facing him.


    ". . . Sorry about that, I wasn''t looking where I was walking," said Draco, his face twitching. "I again apologize, but I am in a hurry . . . I will see you around."


    At once, Draco turned away and took steps faster than before.


    "Malfoy," Quinn called out again, "did I say you could leave."


    Draco came to a halt and turned to him with an irritated face. Quinn noticed that his face was paler than usual, and there were even faint bags beneath his eyes.


    "What do you want?" he asked, seemingly trying to keep his voice in check.


    "Take a walk with me," said Quinn.


    Draco''s frown deepened as he looked at Quinn, "Huh, why? Didn''t I say I was busy¡ª."


    "Because I am saying so," said Quinn, cutting off Draco. "You will give mepany, Malfoy; now be sensible, and do as I am asking you."


    Draco was about to shout in protest, but his jaw set when he saw Quinn''s expression. He couldn''t see a smile on his face or even a rxed expression¡ª the expression screamed that Quinn wasn''t going to take no for an answer.


    It wasn''t a request . . . . It was an order.


    Draco stared at Quinn, who had already turned and started walking. He gritted his teeth and followed after, falling in step with him.


    The two walked in the hallways among the portraits, who were stilling off their holiday spirit. Draco kept his head down to hide his expression and walked with Quinn in silence. He waited for Quinn to start the conversation. He waited, but Quinn stayed silent.


    "What do you want¡ª" Draco asked, his speech fast and irritated.


    "You don''t look good, Malfoy," said Quinn, again cutting Draco off. "You have done a decent job of hiding it, but I can see it," he looked at Draco, "you''re not getting much sleep. . . .


    . . . . or maybe you''re not able to sleep."


    Draco''s eyes widened as he stopped himself from breathing faster.


    "I-I have been busy," he said. "Assignments and all . . . . All Professors, out nowhere, are suddenly assigning them¡ª telling us that we''re NEWT students now. I have been staying upte toplete them, that''s all."


    "I see," Quinn hummed.


    Draco suddenly felt his mouth dry up, and he could feel a sweat trickle down his temple. His hand closed is on his side, and his finger twitched, slowly going inside his robe to his side where his holster sat.


    But when Draco looked at Quinn, he saw Quinn staring at him. He immediately pulled his hand away.


    "So, Malfoy, how are things going at home?" asked Quinn. "Your father must be happy with the Dark Lord back, up and running."


    "My father was Imperiused; he was cleared by Wizengamot," said Draco the very next second.


    "I never said anything about your father being a Death Eater, though," said Quinn with a smile when he saw Draco jolt. He had been hasty in his answer. "Even without that, I''m sure he''s happy that the Dark Lord is back¡ª I''m sure the Dark Lord is going to pick up where he left."


    "I wouldn''t know about that," Draco reached to his cor and loosened his tie slightly as his eyes darted around the hallway.


    "It sounds like you don''t keep in touch with what''s going on with the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters," asked Quinn.


    "No, I don''t," said Draco. "I have on opinion on Dark Lord''s return."


    "Oh, really?" said Quinn. "From what I saw and heard in the Prefectspartment back at the start of the new session, you sounded mighty happy with the Dark Lording back¡ªughing about how the Dark Lord''s going to kill Potter."


    "Tha-that . . ."


    "It sure sounded like you were in support of the Dark Lord, Malfoy," said Quinn, pressing. "Am I right, Malfoy?"


    ". . . N-No, as I said, I don''t care about the Dark Lord."


    "Well, you should¡ª it''s sort of a big deal. A megalomaniac mass murder with devoted followers who will follow his everymand is out in the open, so I think you should be somewhat concerned . . . what if hees after your family?"


    Quinn stopped walking when he saw that Draco was no longer beside him and turned to see him standing a few steps away, his head down.


    Quinn clenched his hands tight. He closed his eyes for a moment before walking to Draco. He took out a royal blue card with gold lettering.


    "Here have this," he said to Draco, handing him the card when he looked up.


    ". . . What is this?" Draco asked weakly.


    The card wasn''t an AID card that Quinn handed out to everyone.


    "This is my personal card, Malfoy. It has my personal WMF-id on it," said Quinn, staring at Draco. "If you ever need my help, reach out to me."


    He patted Draco''s shoulder and ignored the flinch.


    "Now, I''m sure you were busy before I asked for this walk, so I will let you return to whatever you were doing."


    Draco looked at Quinn for a second before immediately turning away to walk away with the card in hand.


    "Malfoy," Quinn called out.


    Draco once again came to a halting stop. He choppily turned to face Quinn.


    "I can help you so much, Malfoy," said Quinn, "so, whatever you do, don''t screw it up too much."


    There were no words exchanged, and the two men parted for their own ways.


    Quinn turned the corner, raised his hand, and mmed it sideways hard into the wall.


    "Shit!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - That was close. That was close. That was close.


    Eddie Carmichael - Seventh-Year - In another world, he''s the Headboy with the highest detention rate in the history of Hogwarts.


    Marcus Belby - Seventh-Year - Multi-tasking is bad.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Can you guess the reason why Quinn is so angry.


    Oh yeah, MID-TERMS!!!


    Also, CHAPTER 300 is now up on Patr¨¦on!!!


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 291 - The Tale Of The Three Brothers

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Quinn opened his eyes and stared at the painting of a deer nibbling on lush green grass with stretches of greennd in the backdrop.


    The deer seemed to notice his gaze; it looked up at it with its doe eyes, staring at him as he gazed at it. The deer dipped its head again to nibble at the grass with its eyes still at Quinn, who cracked his neck; that seemed to scare the deer as it ran away deeper into the painting, eventually taking a turn and disappearing into the frame.


    Quinn chuckled. The painting was one of his creations: the only magical painting he had ced in his personal dwellings (dorm, AID office, bedroom at the West manor, and the Headboy Suite.) He had made it one Sunday as a way to spend his afternoon, and ever since fateful day years ago, the "nibbling dear" would run away when he would make any movements.


    He took a deep breath and looked down. He was sitting down on his bed, had no shirt on, and could feel the dampness on his skin. He stared at his hands, resting on his crossed legs¡ª and there sat the Ressurection Stone floating in the space between two hands.


    The only root of the Stone''s origins was found in the fable of "The Tale of the Three Brothers."


    . . . . .


    There were once three brothers who were traveling along with a lonely, the winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water.


    They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure . . . . ''twas Death itself.


    And Death spoke them¡ª


    He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratte the three brothers upon their magic and said that each had earned a prize for being clever enough to evade him.


    So the oldest brother, who was abative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother.


    And so was born the Death Stick, the Elder Wand, the strongest wand known to humanity.


    Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead.


    So came into existence the Soul Conduit, the Resurrection Stone, an artifact capable of channeling souls back to the mortal ne.


    And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death. So he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that ce without being followed by Death.


    And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility.


    Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way, and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death''s gifts.


    In due course, the brothers separated, each for his own destination.


    The first brother traveled on for a week or more, and reaching a distant vige, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally, with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and of how it made him invincible.


    That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as hey, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother''s throat.


    And so Death took the first brother for his own.


    Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry, before her untimely death, appeared at once before him.


    Yet she was sad and cold, separated from him as by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her.


    And so Death took the second brother for his own.


    But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he could never find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend and went with him dly, and, equals, they departed this life.


    . . . . .


    Quinn had the wording memorized by heart.


    He believed the fable to be what it was¡ª a fairytale for children, crafted to be told to children to make them sleep at night, "scaring" them to be up at night.


    But . . . where there was smoke, there was a fire.


    If the fable was the smoke, then the existence of the three Death Hallows was the fire¡ª a zing hot fire. The existence of the Elder Wand, Ressurection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility gave the fable a very real origin.


    Moreover, the Peverell Brothers were real and had legacies living through the ages to this very day.


    Antioch Peverell, the eldest of the three Peverell brothers, the owner of the Elder Wand, had died and had left no children to seed him. But his brothers, Cadmus, the second brother, and Ignotus, the third brother, did leave children behind, who had children of their own, so on and so on . . .


    Cadmus Peverell, the owner of the Ressurection Stone, left behind his legacy in the form of Gaunts. The Gaunts, through their daughter, Merope Gaunt, brought to life Tom Marvallo Riddle, poprly known as Dark Lord Voldemort.


    Ignotus Peverell, the owner of the Cloak of Invisibility, left behind his legacy in the form of the long-living family of Potters with thetest installment in the form of the twins, Harry and Ivy Potter.


    As such, Quinn hade to believe that the three Deathly Hallows were creations of the three exceptionally magically talented Peverell brothers. He believed that Antioch was a wandmaker, crafting the world''s most potent wand-type magical focus.


    Ignotus, he(Quinn) believed, was the least talented of the brotherly bunch and created which, in Quinn''s eye, was a spectacr piece of magic. It was challenging to craft artifacts thatsted one or two decades, much less centuries, and in the case of Cloak of Invisibility, more than a millennium¡ª which was even more impressive as Cloaks of Invisibilities were always working their magic of invisibility making the wear and tear much worse than artifacts, who didn''t see continuous use.


    And finally, there was Cadmus, who Quinn believed was the most magically inclined. The man had worked with soul magic and had created an artifact that could call upon the souls of the dead.


    But . . .


    The Resurrection Stone was strange.


    Cadmus had taken his life, driven into insanity. Quinn didn''t know the exact reason behind the insanity¡ª it could be because of a mental imbnce from having his wife so close to him, yet out of his reach, suffering by being in the mortal world . . . or it could''ve been that Cadmus was drawn insane from the use of the Ressurection Stone that aplished something not natural . . . maybe there was a price for summoning the soul of dead.


    For why Cadmus, who loved his wife, would keep her in the mortal world even though he could see her suffering.


    Quinn didn''t know if this had actually happened or if it was just part of the fable . . . but he couldn''t take the risk, especially not with the Sin curse''s grip around his Soul. So he had withheld from summoning a soul and only had studied the magic that had been cast on it, feeling it through his Soul¡ª understanding its intricacies, figuring out the fundamentals behind what made the Ressurection Stone it was.


    "Man, this is tough," he said.


    The Ressurection Stone was aplex artifact. From the time he had obtained it to when he had arrived at Hogwarts, he hadn''t been able to sense any openings that would tell him how it was made¡ª only that thing he could feel was that a bit of magic and some imagination of the dead person would summon the soul. It was only after hours on end, day after day of strenuous work with the Stone, that he was finally able to sense something of use.


    His reaction? "Souls are interesting things." And yet it was so intricate that every step he made needed to be taken with precaution. Every time he implemented something he learned, he had to question his decision to the point of paranoia.


    His soul had gotten stronger than before, it wasn''t much, but he could feel that his connection to magic had improved. It felt more smidge reactive to his wishes.


    However, to this day, he had no idea how to get rid of the curse . . . but that didn''t mean he had no progress.


    ?Of course, I am the bes¡ª . . . . . .?


    Quinn smiled.


    He had found a way to snuff the voice out.


    After the Draco Malfoy incident, he had started to put his time into the Ressurection Stone and figuring out soul magic¡ª which had frighteningly low magic books¡ª he could only get his hands on TWO! And he had tons of books on every subject. The two books he had weren''t that useful and were full of vague stuff, spiritual bullshit, and religious jargon, trying to get him to adopt their ways.


    The only option he had left was to pioneer his way into soul magic, and the Ressurection Stone was a valuable yet potentially risky asset.


    Quinn cupped his hands, and the cold Ressurection Stone fell into his hands. He took the Deathly Hallow pendant piece in one hand and touched the Stone to the pendant for it to disappear.


    He got up from his bed, and the sheen of sweat over his body vanished like a puddle of water under the summer sun. Soul magic, for some reason, was tough on the body¡ª he felt tired.


    "Well, Uglymort turned progressively ugly when he messed with his soul," he chuckled.


    ?He must know a lot about soul magic. I wonder if I let the curs¡ª . . . . . .?


    Quinn pulled a ck shirt from the hanger and buttoned himself up.


    "I''m hungry. . . yeah, yeah, I know, hungry, Gluttony. . . shush!" Quinn snapped his finger, and the voices quieted down. He looked at the clock, it was almost dinnertime soon, so there was no need to go poaching in the Kitchen.


    "I wonder what Marcus has in his stash," he muttered and was about to leave when something caught his eyes.


    ". . . Is that a man?" he moved to the "nibbling deer" portrait, and his doubtful surprise turned into a smile when he carefully observed the painting. "Oh my, got bored with the grass, huh."


    It wasn''t a man, but the deer standing on its hind legs with his forelegs on the trunk of a small tree reaching for a low-hanging lush red apple, trying to crunch on its with its exposed bite.


    "You got it,e on, get the apple," said Quinn in anticipation. "It''s quite tasty, so don''t give up."


    The deer jumped and sessfully snatched the apple.


    "YES! Well, done!" Quinn pped once, ecstatic. "Now, enjoy the fruit of yourbor and indulge in something of the next level."


    He watched with a grin as the deer hungrily chomped down the apple in two bites.


    "Oh boy! Now, I''m getting hungrier," he turned, picked up his outer robe, and walked out of the room.


    The deer''s eyes turned to gaze "outside" the frame before it looked away and went prancing across the paintednds.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - Looking forward to some chomping himself.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Let''s show the Sin curse, mrwhosetheboss(lol), shall we?


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 292 - A Calm Talk

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Quinn came out of a hallway and patted his robes for clouds of dust to puff up around him. He sighed as he waved his hand over himself, and immediately all the dust vanished, leaving his clothes cleaner.


    He looked to left and right. As he had seen in Recon, the hallways were empty. Quinn began his walk towards the Headboy Suite; he seriously wanted to hop under a shower. Heavy-duty work, even with magic, was tiring to do when one kept at it for a long time.


    He stepped onto one of the secret internal passages built within the castle''s walls and stepped out onto the fourth floor. There were dozens of them throughout the castle and regrly used by Quinn to traverse through the castle.


    "Ah, Mr. West," said a voice behind Quinn''s back, "fancy seeing you here."


    ?Ah . . . my hot shower¡ª . . . . . .?


    Quinn cracked his neck and turned to face the Headmaster sporting his glorious white beard and long flowing beard, his crystal blue eyes peering at him through the half-moon sses that hung of the bridge of his long nose.


    ". . . Professor Dumbledore," said Quinn as Dumbledore walked his way to him, "this is the fourth floor, and I live in the Headboy Suite . . . so I should be the one to say¡ª fancy seeing you here."


    "I have been known to take a walk or two clear my mind, Mr. West," Dumbledore joined Quinn as they slowly began walking in the hallways. "And, I''m sure you of all would understand that the hallways of Hogwarts work wonders when one wants to clear their minds."


    Quinnughed, "I''m not sure what you mean, Professor."


    "Oh, I''m sure you can confess to it now that you''re the Headboy in the final year," chuckled Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling in a yful light. "I''m sure you have your own big enough share ofte-night, after curfew, strolls."


    "Who knows, Professor, maybe I did, or maybe I didn''t, " Quinn shrugged with a smile. "And if I did, you know what they say¡ª A secret is strongest when only known to one person."


    "Who says that?"


    "Hmm? I, for one, think it''s a fantastic saying, so at least one person says it," Quinn pointed at himself.


    "That means you have secrets . . . do you, Mr. West?" asked Dumbledore.


    "Who doesn''t have secrets, Headmaster?" said Quinn. "Everyone has a little or two secrets, sitting here and there."


    He heard no reply from Dumbledore, and for a second, the conversation died down into silence. Both of them had secrets of their own, a more than fair share of secrets.


    "So, you''re out here on a walk to clear your mind," Quinn said to Dumbledore. "Tell me, Professor, what are you trying to clear your head off."


    It was a casual question asked in a casual tone to continue the casual conversation between the Headmaster and Headboy as they walked. However, the intention behind it was anything but casual, and while the conversation proceeded casually, what lingered between the lines was anything but casual.


    "The current times have been tough," Dumbledore hummed. "The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters have been quite active with their . . . work."


    "Ah, you mean the break-in, assaults, and building decimations," Quinn said with a lit light bulb expression.


    There had been many all sorts of criminal activities around the country, magical and non-magical kind both. However, the curious thing was that all of those various activities followed the same Modus operandi as a particr Dark Lord-following group of loyal blood supremacists¡ª but all of themcked one important defining part. . . . theycked the Dark Mark from the spell Morsmordre.


    The Death Eaters, in the war, were regrly known to release the Morsmordre Dark Mark into the air above their victim''s site¡ª burning buildings, murders, ravaged businesses, beaten opposers . . . whatever heinous crime the Death Eaters did, they would leave behind the Dark Mark.


    But this time around, there was nothing of that.


    Dumbledore nced at Quinn; his expression didn''t have surprise on it, "You believe the things that have been happening are Death Eater''s fault?"


    The media was divided into two. One side believed that what was happening was indeed Death Eaters'' doing. But the other side believed that those ming it on Death Eaters were trying to sow the seeds of chaos in the minds of the people.


    "Of course, it''s quite clear, isn''t it?" Quinn said. "While the absence of the Dark Marks is there, but everything else is Death Eater-esque. Yes, they have done a good job of hiding their operations, and yes, I believe this is an attempt to throw the public into chaos. But the ones causing chaos aren''t the ones ming the idents and events on the Death Eaters. It''s the Death Eaters themselves who are actively aiming to throw people into turmoil.


    It''s quite clear that Death Eaters are manipting the media to nt doubt in the minds of people, make them think if the Dark Lord is back or not . . ."


    Yes, even though the Dark Lord had shown himself in the Ministry, the only ones who had seen him were Dumbledore and select Ministry Employees. The number of people who had seen the Dark Lord was worryingly low, and it didn''t help that Fudge''s effort to deny the return had done damage, which again did more damage when he in hisst days as the Minister went around saying¡ª "Yes, You-Know-Who is back."


    ". . . the people don''t know who to believe," continued Quinn. "The Ministry which had been adamant about refusing the Dark Lord''s return . . . now, the same Ministry was actively propagating that his return is indeed true. . . .


    And from what I have read, in the war, the Dark Lord went out on the raids and assaults, with hisckeys, quite a few times . . . but now he''s nowhere to be seen¡ª so the people who had gone through the war, those who fear him, dread his actions, are now confused, wondering why the all-powerful Dark Lord would hide himself?"


    The Dark Lord''s action had been quite clever in Quinn''s eyes. After his murder attempt at Amelia Bones, he had grounded himself, shielded away from every peering eye. The Death Eaters, which had acted semi-openly before, were now working entirely in stealth¡ª they left behind no marks that would the me at them, and barely any witnesses were found.


    This course of action only further confused the public. For why, the Dark Lord, who had been so close to killing the soon-to-be Minister, then Head of DMLE, would suddenly go into hiding. The Dark Lord had shown his might and had reached the throat of the person who had ess to all the Aurors and Hit Wizards¡ª so then why all of this sneaking behind.


    It wasn''t the Dark Lord''s "style."


    The "public" were all the people.


    The "public" were the Aurors, street-side stall owners, solicitors, sried workers, Ministry employees, construction workers, the rich and the poor, the young and the old . . . everyone had doubts in their minds.


    Was the Dark Lord alive, or was he dead?


    Who was telling the truth, and who was threading a web of lies?


    What were the facts, and what was hogwash?


    The Dark Lord hadunched a perfect scheme.


    "There isn''t any photo evidence of Death Eaters," said Quinn before he chuckled.


    That made Dumbledore tilt his head. "What is it?" he asked.


    "The failed assault on the Floor Authority Head Westen''s home," said Quinn. "That n was brilliantly nned, even if it did fail.''


    "Ah," Dumbledore didn''t need to ask; he instantly understood exactly why Quinn had said do, "you mean because of the trials."


    "Yes, the trials," said Quinn, snapping his fingers. "Augustus Rookwood and Rivers Lock fled from the scene, escaping the Aurors. But they left behind theirpanions," he looked at Dumbledore, "all of them dressed in Death Eater attire¡ª s . . ."


    Dumbledore sighed, "s . . . they were all previous Novellus ionite members."


    "Yes, they were Novellus ionite members, young people¡ª who didn''t have the Dark Mark on their forearms . . . and Rivers Lock was there." Quinn smiled deeply, "The narrative that came out of it, I wasn''t expecting. A lot of people ended up believing that the escaped Death Eaters from the Azkaban breakout assimted and led the Novellus ionites¡ª they took in the new blood and infused it into the time-ravaged Death Eater organization.


    And that they did it alone . . . that it was the escapees who were trying to use the dead Dark Lord''s image to build themselves."


    Dumbledore breathed a weary sigh. "The Dark Lord has many affluent people under hismand¡ª those who have their reaches in high ces of society. They are pulling their strings from the shadows¡ª setting people''s minds into disarray . . .


    . . . But not all is bad," Dumbledore smiled beneath his beard as well his eyes at Quinn. "Your family''s Aegis warding business is spreading through homes and businesses as if fiendfyre¡ª especially homes of muggleborn. I have heard from Ms. Granger that a lot of muggleborns have been employing your services . . . and that it has thwarted a number of attacks, saved more lives."


    "Fiendfyre, Professor, really?" chuckled Quinn. "That''s not a positive connotation, now is it? But I like it¡ª fiendfyre does sound apt."


    Aegis had been going quite well. It''s cheaper than goblin''s ward prices had attracted people, and the customer service had converted them into paying customers. The non-magical customers loved because the representatives understood them and didn''te from a society so cut-off from them. While the magical customers had started buying their services because of the coboration with DMLE.


    "However, I''m impressed by another business that I have been hearing about recently," said Dumbledore. "I don''t know if you have heard of it, but it''s known as. . . The Labyrinth."


    Quinn didn''t show any unusual reaction to the name. He kept himself calm and looked up at Dumbledore. "I have indeed heard about it, sir. Quite fascinating, I must say. Passages that would help one escape to a random ce in the country¡ª far away from their assaulters."


    "Yes, it''s fascinating. It''s clearly a take on the Vanishing Cabs of old, and the " Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "However, I''m curious on who is behind Labyrinth . . . their way of operation is intriguing. They send letters to people''s doors and through your family''s MagiFax. I have read a version of those letters¡ª they simply state their services, to the point and bluntly. And when you pay, they send you the door . . . which opens up to a deserted ce somewhere in the country."


    ". . .That made the people spread the news through word of mouth," Quinn continued from Dumbledore. "Soon, the letters changed, and people could order for other people . . . and then it doesn''t matter if you have the letter or not, people pay and get their door."


    There wasn''t a single person associated with Labyrinth. No one knew where the letters came from or who dropped off the doors. Only instructions on how to install and customize the door in their homes. When it was done, the doors worked, and people had a way to escape.


    "Who do you think is behind Labyrinth, Mr. West," asked Dumbledore.


    "I don''t know, Professor," said Quinn as they reached the Headboy''s Suite. "Whoever it is clearly doesn''t want to be known¡ª I don''t know if that''s a good thing or not, but currently, from what I have seen the Labyrinth do, I can only say that they''re doing one heck of a job.


    Now, Professor, I would like to take my leave. I enjoyed this little talk of ours," he said.


    "Of course, Mr. West," said Dumbledore and gestured for Quinn to enter his room. "I too enjoyed this talk of ours," he beamed, "it did clear my mind of something."


    ''Do you mean the Horcruxes?'' thought Quinn.


    ?Because I''m way ahead of you on that.?


    ''Oh boy, that synced in so smooth,'' Quinn shivered a little internally.


    "d I could be helpful," smiled Quinn.


    The two yers on the field parted without revealing their intentions to each other.


    .


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    Quinn West - MC - I mean . . . I know I''m amazing.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Busy with a hunt of his own . . . it''s not going that well.


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 293 - The Room Of Hidden Things

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


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    His talk with Dumbledore made Quinn feel a sense of urgency.


    The Dark Lord was spreading his web of lies and deception through the countries, and it made Quinn think that it would be wise to "secure" another "piece" of the Dark Lord.


    He finished dinner, hung out with his friends, returned to his room, and after loading his pockets with the necessary equipment, he threw himself out of the Headboy Suite''s portrait door and walked to the seventh-floor under the careful guise of an invisibility spell.


    His feet came to a halt beside the tapestry of dancing trolls, closed his eyes, and began to walk.


    ''I need a room full of hidden things . . . . I need a room full of hidden things . . . . I need a room full of hidden things . . . .''


    Three times he walked up and down in front of the stretch of the nk wall. When he opened his eyes, there it was atst: the door to the Room of Requirement¡ª though these doos were different from the usual ones. Quinn wrenched the heavy doors, walked himself inside, and shut the doors behind him shut, leaving the nk wall to stare at the silent hallway.


    He sighed. It had been a while since he had arrived in the room; he had onlye into this room a handful number of times¡ª mostly for salvaging broken / out-of-order things and using them inside his office and workshop after refurbishing or transforming them, and even then, he could not help but be overawed by what he was looking at.


    He was standing in a room the size of arge cathedral, whose high windows were sending shafts of light down upon what looked like a city with towering walls, built of what Quinn knew were objects hidden by generations of Hogwarts inhabitants. There were alleyways and roads bordered by teetering piles of broken and damaged furniture, stowed away, perhaps, to hide the evidence of mishandled magic, or else hidden by castle- proud house-elves. There were thousands and thousands of books, no doubt banned, graffitied, or stolen. There were winged catapults and Fanged Frisbees, some still with enough life in them to hover halfheartedly over the mountains of other forbidden items; there were chipped bottles of congealed potions, hats, jewels, cloaks; there were what looked like dragon eggshells, corked bottles whose contents still shimmered evilly, several rusting swords, and a heavy, bloodstained ax.


    Quinn calmly walked forward into one of the many alleyways between all this hidden treasure. He turned right past an enormous stuffed troll, ran on a short way, and came to a stop at the broken Vanishing Cab . . . . and he could see that it was being worked at¡ª the signs of repair were evident.


    He stared at the Vanishing Cab for a few moments before he stepped near it while removing the glove off his hand . . . .


    After a minute, Quinn had the glove back on his hand. He took a left at the broken Vanishing Cab and started his search inside the Room of Hidden Things.


    The room, as he knew and experienced, was spelled with an Anti-io spell. If one wanted to find things in the Room of Hidden Things, they have to do it the old-fashioned way, by traversing the mounds of abandoned stuff and hoping to have the eye catch the sight of the item or items in question.


    He paused beside arge cupboard that seemed to have had acid thrown at its blistered surface. He opened one of the cupboard''s creaking doors: It had already been used as a hiding ce for something in a cage that had long since died; its skeleton had five legs. It intrigued him for a while before he shut it close and let the bones rest in their resting ce.


    He walked again for a while before he found himself in a ce with alleyways on all four sides and the mounds looking quite simr to each other.


    "How embarrassing . . . I got lost," he said to himself, turning his body to look in all directions.


    Deeper and deeper into thebyrinth he went, looking for objects he recognized from his previous trips into the room. The room was quiet enough for him to hear his own breathing and his footsteps echoing through the towering piles of junk, of bottles, hats, crates, chairs, books, weapons, broomsticks, bats . . . .


    Quinn joined his hands behind his back, and soon, the heel of his shoes left the ground, followed by the balls of his feet and then his toes. A gentle yet powerful gust of wind raised him into the air as he raised to the ceiling above the mounds, overlooking the garbage "skyline."


    "Now, that''s more like it," he smiled and continued his traversal search; just instead of foot, he was now on air.


    "Damn, isn''t this tougher?" he muttered, shuffling through the stuff on the top of the mound. Previously he was just digging through the lower pile, but now being in the air, he had ended up increasing the area of search by an entire dimension.


    He paused for a moment, hovering in the air, gazing around at all the clutter . . . . Would he be able to find it amidst all this junk? Was finding it based on luck? Or was there a way to find it using something else?


    "Wait a minute . . . I can try to use my soul to find it," Quinn folded his feet high in the air, he assumed a lotus position. "Now, let''s see if this bargain pays off."


    Beneath the shield pulsing with multi-colored veins, sometimes sizzling, the shimmering gold Soul thrummed, expanded, and contracted. Upon Quinn''smand, a bright light burst out from the Soul and reached every corner of the previous pristine white space marred with muddled seven-colored blotches.


    Outside, Quinn closed his eyes and felt his senses expand like a ripple in the water. He couldn''t feel a single thing even though his senses seemed to grow¡ª everything was dense and dull, seemingly melding into the floor and into each other. But then suddenly, in the dull world, a bright light appeared.


    ''Found it!''


    Quinn stared at the bright light, but it wasn''t a pleasant brightness. It was muddled in its light, emanating a "scent" of death¡ª it waspletely opposite to his own Soul. Suddenly, the corrupt light jumped and attacked Quinn''s expanded senses, and in real-time, Quinn could see the corruption trying to infect his Soul through the expanded senses achieved through the Soul.


    He immediately cut off his senses and the Soul in the soul space.


    "Well, it''s a Horcrux, after all," Quinn said after opening his eyes.


    He flew down to the floor andnded in front of a mound that looked exactly like the dozens of others of its kind. Sticking out the pile was a bust. Seizing the chipped bust of an ugly old warlock from on top of a nearby crate, he stood it on top of a wooden crate.


    Quinn took a deep breath, "There is it . . . damn, I knew it would be like that," a wrinkle and scrunched up nose marred his face.


    On the chipped bust perched a dusty old wig and a tarnished tiara on the statue''s head, making it look more distinctive.


    The tiara, or to be more precisely, it was a diadem . . . it was Rowena Ravenw''s Diadem. The Founder''s Artifact was chosen by the Dark Lord to make it the vessel for his soul fragment.


    "The soul fragment tarnished it," Quinn raised his hand with a painful frown but stopped himself from touching it.


    The shines of the blue sapphire jewels seemed to be dull and seemed like they had been burned at the base; the shimmer of precious tinum that was charmed not to rust looked was muddled with ck rust.


    "Ah, why couldn''t he take care of the artifacts better or maybe choose something else." He sighed, "Well, it doesn''t matter, does it?"


    Quinn produced a cuboidal container purely made from cloudy panes of ss. He raised his hand, and the Ravenw''s Diadem gently dislodged from the bust, taking the wig with it. Quinn blew on it, and the dust wig fell off, and the Diadem was gently ced into the box.


    ?Wearing it for a minute won''t hurt, right? Let''s try it¡ª . . . . . .?


    Quinn immediately ced the ss lid on the box, and the edges melded with other edges, sealing the ss box shut.


    "Oh, boy, that was close," Quinn breathed a sigh.


    He didn''t know what curse did the Dark Lord had ced on the Diadem, but whatever it was, Quinn was sure, it would make him wear it, and who knew if it was anything like the Diary, it would take over him, or maybe it would melt his brain, or who knows what kind of horrifying things.


    And currently, even with him being able to snuff out the Sin-voices, Quinn wasn''tpletely free of their control. Every time his own thoughts would flow in the same line as the Sin-voice, those moments would allow the voices toe out louder and longer than before.


    "Well, that thest I can get my hands on without trouble," Quinn ruffled his hair, his eyes fixed on the floating box. "But, I guess, now that this is over, I can focus on myself."


    His progress with the Soul and the Sin curse had dwindled down to a halt, and he hadn''t made any progress on how to actually expel the curse from his body.


    "I guess I have no other choice . . . . I will need to go home this Easter."


    Hogwarts students saw three breaks in one year. After the school year ended, the students would see a summer break of two months, the longest break of the year. Then when people returned to school, the next vacation was during the Christmas season andsted till after the New Year. And then the third break was the Easter break of two weeks, and the dates differed every year.


    He never returned home on Easter.


    But there was nothing more he was able to do in Hogwarts. He needed external stimulus to kick his brain cells into action and made some progress.


    "I would need to make some calls," said Quinn. He looked at the box with Diadem and sighed, "I need to take care of this before that," he knocked on the ss, e on, buddy, let''s get you settled in."


    The third hunt hade to an end.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Time passed, and the Easter break arrived. Quinn was back at home. He knocked on the door and waited for the response.


    "Come in," the voice came, and Quinn entered the study room.


    "Grandfather."


    George looked up from his book. "Yes, Quinn?" he asked.


    Quinn sat down in front of him and started without dy, "I''m going to the U of the S of the A in a couple days."


    "Why do you want to go to America, child?" asked George, flipping a page.


    "I have some work that I want to take care of in New York," said Quinn.


    "What work?" George asked, quirking a brow.


    "There''s this bookstore there with a book that I really want."


    "We can have it delivered to our home; there''s no need to travel."


    "I know that, grandfather, but I came home this time, so I could go there," reasoned Quinn. "The book''s a great deal . . . and I want to do some sightseeing."


    George looked up and stared at Quinn intently, "Is that all the reason?"


    "Well~," Quinn chuckled and shrugged, "I guess I am going to see how my investment in New York is turning out. I mean, I have to make sure that my tenant is capable of paying rent."


    ''Twas the time to go to the USA.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Yeah. . . . really need that book.


    George West - Grandfather - Hmm . . . that''s a valid reason.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - It''s going to pick up a pace a bit. The chapters have been a bit too chill and nd these days.


    The Discord Link in the synopsis has been updated.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the bio!

 Chapter 294 - The US Of A

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    The United States of America . . . thend of opportunity to the non-magical world, where any dream coulde true, and everyone seems to be pursuing the "American Dream." But in the magical world, it had a different, peculiar reputation of being controlling and buried in strict mandates that exercised excessive control over its magical residents and those who visited the country. The country''s magical culture was shaped through its history that included the horrifying Salem''s Witch Trials and nationwide hunt for magical kind,beling them as against nature and dangerous, not to be allowed to exist, and executing them through the cruel method of burning them on stakes. [1]


    The magical congress had strict rules regarding magicals entering the country through non-magical means. They had methods of detection on every airport, waterway, and major roadway border for magical detection. And would be interviewed without fail. On the magical side of travel, Portkeys to enter the country were heavily monitored and required a secure process to procure. If found that one had entered the country through an unauthorized Portkey, the person would be charged within the country and put in prison, and Magical America''s stance on negotiations on such cases was infamous for being unyielding.


    "Business or pleasure?"


    Quinn looked at the man sitting in front of him. The man was a MACUSA official, one employed in the Tourism(?) department, supposedly responsible for interviewing those who arrived in the country through a Portkey. This was a first for Quinn¡ª in his recent travels, though the influence of Wests, he had obtained Porkteys directly at his destinations without going through ''customs.'' Even when he had traveled to America during the world tour with George, he had never sat in an interview because of his young age.


    Quinn stared at the man, wondering if his grandfather wanted him to experience this because he for sure knew that with the West''s influence, he could dance into the country naked, and no one would question his intentions. Well, at least, he was in a private room and not in a queue.


    "Both," he replied to the official.


    The official looked up from the documents and furrowed his brows. "Both?"


    "Both."


    "Would you care to exin?"


    "Well, I have business to take care of," asked Quinn. "But I am also looking forward to seeing some popr public spaces. I would like to have numerous New York slices; I have heard a lot about pizza here. Do you have any suggestions for me? Where should I go to get the best pizza; give me the keys to the motherload, if you know what I mean."


    "I do not," said the official inly.


    Quinn shrugged. So much for the hospitality.


    "How long are you here in the country?" asked the official.


    "Less than two weeks."


    "Please give me a specific date. What day does your Portkey return back home?"


    Quinn took out a palm-sized square tile from his pocket and ced it on the table between them. "I was provided with a custom Portkey that I can use anytime I like to return home. The reason I say I''m here for two weeks is that that''s the maximum duration I''m personally nning to stay in the country . . . but if I were to answer with respect the Portkey, I can stay here in the country as long as I want."


    Such was the power of Wests.


    "What?" The official picked the Portkey tile off the table and pointed his wand at it while looking at Quinn and suspicion. His expression changed to shock as the spell gave back the result.


    ". . . I-It''s really a custom Portkey."


    "Yes, as I told you earlier," Quinn took his return Portkey back from the official.


    It would be a while before I can apparate inter-continent,'' he thought. Cross-country apparition was easy for Quinn, and he could even skip to neighboring countries with no problem, but cross-continent and inter-continent travel of humungous distance was still impossible for him.


    ?It''s possible if I let the curse¡ª . . . . . .?


    ". . . Where would you be staying?"


    "I have a ce in Manhattan. That would be my ce of residence for my stay here." And by that, Quinn meant there was a West-owned property that was going to use.


    The official stayed silent as he picked up his quill and wrote on Quinn''s form. When he was done, he put down his quill, pushed his chair back, and pressed a button on a golden appliance sitting on a shelf behind him.


    He turned to Quinn and raised his hand towards. "Your wand, please. We need to register it in our records."


    Quinn thought for a moment, wondered about his choices before he spoke, "I don''t use a wand."


    ". . . . Wait, what?"


    "I do not use a wand," said Quinn. He pointed at the pot of ink on the table, and the ck liquid rose out and levitated in mid-air.


    The American official started at the floating ink before turning to Quinn for a while. "You''re British, correct? Do you use another form of focus? We also need to record other foci."


    "No, I don''t use any form of magical focus," said Quinn.


    The official''s eyes remained fixed on Quinn for a while before he sighed and looked at the form as his hand went to his temple, his fingers rubbing it.


    There was a minute of silence in the room as the official contemted, and Quinn sat in front of him with a smile.


    "Are you sure you don''t have a wand?" asked the official. "That if we check your belongings, we won''t find a wand or other form of foci."


    "No, you won''t be finding anything in luggage," said Quinn. They wouldn''t find "anything" in his briefcase. It was, after all, charmed to hide the expanded space, and over the years, Quinn had added his own additions to it, making it extra-secure.


    ". . . Alright, but if we find that you''re lying and you''re caught with a focus, then you''d be immediately arrested and tried in the court ofw here in the country."


    "I''m fine with that," said Quinn.


    The official nodded, ced his hand on the hefty stamp on the table, and brought it down on the form with ka-ching, leaving behind a green approved mark on the paper.


    "Wee to the United States of America."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    New York, the city that never slept, the Big Apple, was a fascinating city. For Quinn, who spent most of his year in a big castle with not enough people to upy it, the most populous city in the entire of America, was too much of people. Standing in Times Square, he felt like he was standing still in the sea of people even though he was walking. The buildings were so tall that he had to crane his neck up to look at the top, and everything was shiny, throwing their billboard lights on him.


    Quinn, who was now of age, didn''t require a chaperon to apany him on his trips aboard; as such, for the first time on his solo trip, he was alone. George had tried to stick to someone with him for protection, but Quinn had bluntly refused.


    "Man, there sure are many tourists here," Quinn chuckled as he saw myriads of visually notable people who clearly looked like visiting tourists with their fanny packs and backpacks¡ª traveling in hoards with their travel guides, pointing their lenses at the sights.


    Quinn raised his camera, pointed his camera at the Tim Square sight, and clicked a picture from an angle that was pro-approved as there were a bunch of people with professional gear standing around him, doing their own photography.


    "Hey, what''s that camera," one of the professional photographers.


    Quinn looked at the non-magical person and the Nikon camera in their hands and then looked at the camera in his hand. It was around the same size, simrly ck in color, and the design did follow the current temte of SLR cameras.


    But there was one ring issue with the camera.


    "This is from apany called QuinnTech," said Quinn with a shameless smile.


    The man stared at the camera, "Man, that''s one good looking screen . . . your camera doesn''t look like a digital camera."


    Yes, the SLR camerascked screens on their backsides. There were viewfinders through which you could look at your framing, but no screens. A screen in a camera hit the consumer market in the mid-90s in the form of a digital camera, but even then, those screens were just for framing shots andcked eyeballing exposure or the entire live image package. But Quinn''s camera, which worked on magic, had a screen with ster image quality, showing the frame that the dynamic lens in front was catching.


    "Oh yeah, it''s a great screen . . . it shows a live image, meaning the image on the screen is exactly what wille out when printing. I can even mess with the aperture, shutter, ISO . . . and all the works right from here and see the results on the big screen. Though this model still needs work on stability, though," he said. The dynamic lens utilized transmutation to change lens type, making it a one-lense camera.


    "C-Can I see it for a minute," the man had a hungry look in his eyes, "just for a little while, man."


    "Yeah, about that . . . how about no," Quinn moved his camera holding hand away.


    "Come on, man, just for a minute."


    "Nope," said Quinn and waved a snapped his fingers. The man''s eyes blurred for a moment before he backed up and walked off to what he was doing before spotting Quinn''s camera.


    ''Using magic in public . . . in the middle of the Times Square! Man, if MACUSA is going to throw me in prison if the caught me,'' Quinn chuckled.


    After being happy with his photo collection and sightseeing around Midtown Manhattan, Quinn went around asking New York residents about their favorite pizza ces, and his ent and clean and ssy appearance worked wonders as he was able to find many good rmendations, which hepiled and went to the most rmended one.


    "I wonder if it''s different in Brooklyn," Quinn patted his belly with a toothpick in his mouth. He spat it out, and the pick turned to wood dust before it hit the ground.


    He looked at the nondescript multi-storied building in Upper Manhattan, and from the outside, it didn''t look much except a lot of cked-out windows¡ª though Quinn noticed that it appropriately matched the buildings in the surrounding. Its front door was closed with a ck inner shutter from the inside, and it didn''t look like the building was upied. Quinn looked at the side of the building and saw an alleyway. The alleyway was deserted and surprisingly clean. However, more importantly, he felt the presence of a ward as he stepped inside.


    "So, that''s the entrance."


    There was a side double-doored entrance opening up to the alleyway, though it was chained up with a chunky lock with charmsid every from chain links to door hinges to the lock itself. It made it clear that the upants didn''t want people entering from the doors to the building.


    "Whatever," Quinn waved his hand, and the lock snapped open with the chains slipping down to the floor. The door opened, and Quinn stepped inside. The door immediately closed, and the lock and chain were back up again with the charms recast, just much stronger.


    The building was abandoned. . . or it seemed like it. Not a single soul could be seen in the hallways; however, they were spotless with a spot of dust, and because of the blocked windows, the lights were on. And Quinn could tell that the light panels fitted in the ceilings were MLEs in disguise and that, like every other magical building, this one didn''t have any electricity running through it.


    The building, as Quinn was informed about, was a residential building, and because of its location in a non-magical dense area, the building indeed had actual two-bedroom apartments. However, there wasn''t a single non-magical soul in the building, and none of the apartments were upied by anyone.


    In actuality, the building wasn''t a residential building but amercial building for the magical poption of New York. Besides, every apartment''s door was a magical door hidden with charms, and those were the actual "rooms" of the building, and behind those doors was a business owned by several people who leased the space from the building owner.


    Quinn arrived at the ninth floor of the building, and he could see a set of apartment doors and aplementary set of hidden doors. Those two sets of doors had something inmon, which was that all of them were locked¡ª apartment buildings locked with simple locks, while the hidden doors were locked with strong magical charms.


    Every single hidden door was locked, just like the front door of the building. Which Quinn thought was very American because, in Britain, the magical buildings had "anti-muggle" charms on the front, which did a more than enough job of keeping the non-magical outside, but the front doors were rarely magical shut close with strong magic.


    Quinn finally reached a hidden door and waved his hand for it to click open, instantly disabling the locking magic on it. He pushed it open and stepped inside. Immediately, he had left the darb hallway and entered a ce with a very high-end vibe to it. From the royal red walls and the lush carpet beneath his feet, he could tell that some good work was done in the space.


    "He has done a good job," said Quinn, looking around.


    Walking deeper into the space and exiting the entrance hall to find himself in a small dining area, with tables and chairs stacked to the side, and as he was looking at the painting on the walls, he heard footsteps, and before he could turn to face them, he heard.


    "Don''t move. Who are you? How did you enter? What¡ª"


    The voice halted when Quinn fully turned. He smiled and greeted the man who owned the restaurant.


    "Hello, Abraham," said Quinn to the shocked man. "Surprise!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - I''m here, America!!!


    Official - Customs - For some reason, the red denied stamp calls for him.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Ignorant about cameras, Customs, and pizza.


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    [1]: This is my fictional vision of magical America. I have NOT built it from my views of "real" America, and even those views are ignorant at best, as my only ess to America is through popr media. I know jack shit. Same goes for all the other countries I have ever written.. I won''t even say I know my own country well enough to be an authority.

 Chapter 295 - Restaurant Astier

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    "Don''t move. Who are you? How did you enter? What¡ª"


    "Hello, Abraham . . . . Surprise!"


    Quinn and Abraham stared at each other as they stood in Abraham''s restaurant. Abraham''s jaw was slightly ajar as his hand raised, froze with a wand pointed at Quinn.


    "Quinn. . . Quinn, what are you doing here?" Abraham asked, seemingly trying to figure out what was happening here. "H-How did you get here? The Floo''s not lit yet, and you can''t apparate in here."


    Quinn raised his hand to the front and gently lowered it. On Abraham''s end, he felt his wand hand being pushed down.


    "Let''s get that wand not pointing, shall we," said Quinn. "As for answering your question, I didn''te through the Floo, nor did I apparate here," he pointed at the corridor that he had used to enter the dining area, "I came through the front door like a normal person¡ª you know, opened it and walked inside¡ª don''t worry though, I locked it after me.


    So, how are you, Abraham?" he asked.


    "No, no, no," Abraham raised his other hand up, showing Quinn his open palm, "you have to answer me why you''re here first."


    "Hmm, isn''t that obvious? I came here to meet you."


    "To New York? From Herefordshire?!"


    "It''s not that far, you know. It''s just over the pond, as they say, and I didn''t even take a boat, popped up using a Portkey and took Floo to a node in New York, then wandered my way here to the building. Even had a fair share of pizza on my way."


    Abraham stared at Quinn, his face still showing disbelief.


    Quinn realized what the man was thinking. It was, after all, very creepy and crazy to pop up at someone''s workce without notifying them, especially when that space was closed off from outside entry.


    ''Whatever, I own the ce,'' he thought, ignoring that it wasn''t okay, even for thendlord to enter a tenant''s ce without their permission.


    "I assume Lia doesn''t know you''reing here," asked Abraham, sighing.


    "Nope~, I didn''t tell her," Quinn exchanged MagiFax with Lia every week, and she was clueless about his visit to America and that Quinn was visiting Abraham. "If I told her that I wasing here, she would''ve tried to stop me, or told you I wasing, or be here in person to breath down my neck. . . I''m taller than her, though."


    "That does sound like her." Abraham once again breathed a long sigh. "Then may I ask why you''re actually here?"


    "I''m in New York for some work," said Quinn, pulling a table and two chairs from the corner with a wave of his hand. "As for why I''m here specifically, I wanted to see how my lessee was doing¡ª need to know if you''ll be able to make rent this month."


    "Wait, what? Lessee, what do you mean?" Abraham asked Quinn, who sat down by the table.


    "I own the ce, Abraham; you signed a lease to use this space, making me yourndlord."


    "What?! I didn''t know that!" Abraham, who had sat down on his chair, immediately stood back up, pushing his chair back.


    Quinn nced at the falling chair, and it stopped falling and stood straight up. "Of course, you wouldn''t know. I wasn''t the owner when you leased this ce; I only recently acquired it as part of one of my few investments here in America."


    "Did you . . . did you buy it because I have my restaurant here?" Abraham asked.


    "Partially, yes. It was one of the reasons behind why I bought this ce," he had bought it from Lia after all. "The other reason is the prime real-estate this space is. Upper Manhattan, especially a magical building, is just a great investment. I''m impressed that you''re doing well enough to pay rent for this ce¡ª it''s really, really high."


    Abraham sank back down on the chair, his shoulders slumping.


    "Don''t feel down; nothing''s going to change," said Quinn, chuckling. "I don''t have the time or motivation to directly take care of rent and other things here. You''ll be interacting with whomever you have been interacting with, and things will remain the same."


    ". . . I don''t know what to say," Abraham sighed. "I don''t know how I should feel about you owning the space for my restaurant."


    "Restaurant? No, no, my dear Abraham," Quinn raised his finger and waved it around, "I own this entire building."


    Lia had only owned Abraham''s building, and she had only sold that to Quinn. But after that, Quinn had gone out of his way to buy the entire building from all the individual owners to obtain the ownership of the entire building.


    "The entire building?!" Abraham all but yelled. "Oh my god . . . so much rent."


    Quinnughed. Eighty percent of the lots in the building were upied, and Quinn was receiving rent from them every month, and he was sure that iing times, the management agency handling the building would have it running at its full capacity.


    "So when do you open?" Quinn asked.


    "Dinner service starts at five," said Abraham.


    Quinn looked at the time, and it was three. He looked around the restaurant, and it looked deserted. "You have employees, right? Where are they?"


    "They''re out for lunch. I think they''re about to return."


    "You don''t have a staff meal?"


    "We don''t do staff lunch usually. My staff likes to go out after prep work and before the dinner service starts. They''re about to return."


    Quinn looked around the restaurant, and Abraham noticed the gaze.


    "Do you have any questions?" he asked.


    "Yeah, how many people do you serve here?" Quinn asked. "I ask this because I''m presuming this is the dining area."


    The dining area, as far as restaurants were concerned, was small¡ª from what Quinn could tell, it was barely big enough to fit two to three tables. Quinn had been quite a few of them, magical and non-magical, low-end to high-end, street food to fine dining.


    "We serve fifteen reservations daily," Abraham nced around his workce. "Each party can be anywhere from a single patron to a party of ten, and we will prepare ordingly."


    Quinn nodded, recalling going to numerous restaurants with the model Abraham used. They were high-end and exclusive, aiming to provide the best experience with a very personal touch to the guests. And from what Quinn could put together with the rent and the number of people Abraham served, he could tell that the restaurant was high-end with a niche clientele.


    Abraham pointed around the small room, "This is just one of the fifteen rooms in the restaurant. Our guests require privacy, and luckily America is famous for its spatial magic services, so we stretched the space as widely as possible and divided it into these fifteen rooms along with our other requirements."


    Quinn nced at the wall behind Abraham and sent out a pulse of magic. ''Ah, it''s indeed stretched out with spatial magic,'' he thought, sensing the magic all around the room.


    He knew that America was known for its spatial magic. Lia hadmissioned the briefcase that she had gifted him from an American craftsman. That briefcase had be home to what could be arguably said to be his entire life.


    "You must see a lot of politicians as patrons," said Quinn.


    "Having a ce in New York, especially in Manhattan, does make the guests who run in political circles."


    Manhattan was the home to the headquarters of The Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA,) making it the hub for magical American politicians and bigshots who were rted to bureaucracy and politics.


    "What do you guys serve?"


    "French cuisine as that I was what I was trained in," Abraham said with pride. "We, however, don''t provide a menu¡ª we provide a set menu that changes regrly as we experiment and learn with our craft. Guests, however, can tell us in advance what they want to eat, and we will prepare it for them. We keep records of all our guests. For example, if you eat here, then we will keep a record of what you ate, and the next time you visit us, we can customize your menu¡ª if you want to eat something from a previous visit, we can provide that, or if you desire to eat something new, we can make sure none of the dishes you ate thest time repeat.


    We also take feedback from our guests to learn their tastes and preferences to provide a personal experience. The more you visit, the better we would know you, and thus get a better experience than thest time."


    Quinn stared at Abraham with slightly raised brows, impressed with what he heard. He knew that selling an "experience" was a good business model, and in his view, Abraham''s restaurant was implementing an innovative version of that.


    "Wow," he uttered, pping soundlessly. "When Lia introduced you as a restaurateur, she wasn''t lifting you up, was she . . . you said that you worked in a ce much different from this one¡ª you must''ve thought a lot about this."


    Abraham nodded. "I left a great job that I was veryfortable with to start my own restaurant, so I had to be sure that I was going to do something that would be sessful. I thought about it for an entire year before spelling the charm," he then smiled, "Lia helped me a lot when I was thinking on how to do things."


    "Ah, I can feel the love," Quinn said with exaggeration. He then paused and leaned forward to ask seriously. "Lia''s not going toe here today, is she?"


    "Lia? No, we aren''t set to meet for a couple more days."


    Lia, with her responsibilities, was a busy person, and with her job that took her all over the globe, she couldn''t stay in a single country like an average person. Abraham, in his job as the head chef and owner, too was a busy individual¡ª it took a lot of research and experimentation to run a ce like he wanted to run, and to keep guests happy, he had to be constantly doing something new which took time to do with the level of service that was promised.


    As such, from Quinn knew, his sister and her boyfriend didn''t have a rtionship that looked like the ones that many others their age had.


    "When do you two spend time together, if you don''t mind me asking," asked Quinn.


    "It''s difficult for a non-resident toe in American with a Portkey," started Abraham and shook his head with a wry smile. "But apparently, it''s not a big deal for your sister; she said she can Portkey here every day without any problem, so we did contemte that but decided against it.


    I start my dayte and work tillte, whereas Lia starts her days early and works till evening, so our times don''t match for us to meet every day. Moreover, I''m busy at weekends, so we decided to spend time together on Wednesdays and Thursdays¡ª shees here, and I leave the kitchen to my second inmand and partner on those two days¡ª I''m lucky to have a great staff."


    ''Well, as long as they''re happy with their rtionship,'' thought Quinn and then asked, "Do you have a room here in the restaurant where I can rest for a while?"


    "Yeah," Abraham looked towards a corridor leading out of the dining, "we have a room in the back . . . but are you sure that you don''t want to go rest wherever you''re staying."


    "I''ll go there after I return from my outing during thete night. Right now, I would like if I could just jump up from here because if I go there, I would need to meet up with a bunch of people waiting for me and sit down with them for a while," Quinn sighed.


    His living arrangements here were handled by the people employed by Wests, which meant even though this was a personal trip, there were people who knew Quinn was visiting. That meant there were going to be West Executives who would like to meet the grandson of George West and do some bootlicking and get acquainted. So if he went at night, he wouldn''t have to deal with those people until tomorrow, or . . . never in his trip if he went out early and returnedte.


    "I have no problem with that," Abraham said, "you can rest in the backroom; I will ask my staff to stay away from the room."


    "Thank you, that''d be much appreciated."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "That ends today''s briefing," said Abraham looking at his staff. "I hope everyone''s clear with their tasks and today''s profile."


    " " "Yes, chef!" " " replied the staff of ''Restaurant Astier.''


    Abraham closed his notes for the day and smiled as his employees, but then noticed that suddenly their eyes strayed to the side, looking behind him. He turned and saw Quinn standing at the kitchen door, dressed in a suit that was different from the casual jacket he wore before.


    "Quinn?" he called. "Is it time for you to go out?"


    Quinn shook his head before waving towards the staff with a charming smile. He stepped forward, retrieved an envelope from his pocket, and handed it to Abraham, who looked at the familiar envelope with wide eyes.


    ". . . You have a reservation for today," Abraham said, raising the reservation invitation letter that Restaurant Astier sent to its guests.


    "Yes, I''m booked under the name Balbh East," Quinn pointed at the letter card and then grinned, "Surprise~!"


    Abraham''s eyes went down to the letter card and then up to Quinn, and as he did that, he couldn''t help but think how simr Quinn was to Lia in some aspects, and more importantly, he made a note not to spend an evening with both of the West siblings together.


    ". . . I will show you to your seat," said Abraham.


    They exited and followed along a corridor with fifteen doors in it. They stopped in front of door number four, and Abraham opened it up for Quinn to step inside. The dining room was decor-rich, yet it was simple. Quinn could see a lot of things like a magical gramophone and walls with paint that moved seemed to move slowly to change patterns over time. In the middle of the room sat an ornate table with two chairs.


    "Room four, from what I remember, has a reservation for two guests" Abraham frowned as he read the reservation letter card, then looked up at Quinn. "Someone else will be eating with you?"


    Quinn looked away from the room and nodded, "Yes, I''m meeting with someone here." He took out his pocket watch to check the time, "They like to be on time, so I guess they''re about to arrive."


    As soon as Quinn said that, a hemispherical ss globe on a wall, which had been empty, suddenly lit up with a re of green mes rushing under the ss.


    "What is that?" Quinn asked.


    "It seems you were right about them being on time," said Abraham. "Your guest has arrived at the Floo in the reception room."


    Quinn nced down on his clothes, and they straightened up. He held his hand behind his back and positioned himself so he was looking away from the door. Soon he heard a jolly yet old voice.


    "Thank you, littledy," said the voice.


    "Good evening, sir," Abraham greeted the smiling old man with eyes that seemed to shine with an eye-catching light. "I''m Abraham Astier, the Head Chef of Restaurant Astier. I''ll be preparing your courses this evening."


    "Hoho, I''m looking forward to it, Abraham. I don''t usuallye to establishments like these."


    "Please look forward to an enjoyable time, sir," said Abraham. "Please enter, sir; yourpanion has already arrived."


    "Oh?" the old voice chuckled . . . sounds of footsteps . . . "Quinn . . . oh my, haven''t you grown tall."


    Quinn, who was acting as if he didn''t know about the arrival, turned to gaze upon the old man with a smile,


    "And you have grown older, Mr. n."


    n D. Baddeley''s already wide smile stretched wider, entuating his smile wrinkles on the side of his eyes.


    "That happens with time, my dear child."


    The master and student had reunited.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - MASTER - Hello, little ones. It has been a long-long while.


    Quinn West - Balbh East - I don''t approve of this disrespect! Why was I bumped down the list?! Move me up this instant!


    Abraham Astier - Restaurant Astier - Wonder who''s the old man.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Who better than the GOAT himself.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 296 - Reunited In America

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Abraham wondered why, that for some reason, Quinn West looked more simr to n D. Baddeley than he looked to his sister or grandfather. He looked between the young and the old and tried to see why was it so.


    Then it dawned on him.


    ''Their smiles are the same,'' thought Abraham, watching the two unfettered smiles.


    "Here, I thought you forgot the poor old me," said n as he sat down in front of Quinn.


    "How could I?" Quinn chuckled. "I''m not going to forget you, at least until the day when I''m able to break into that disgusting lockbox of a mind. When your defenses are in shambles, then you have my permission to die. So before that, don''t kick the can, alright."


    "That might be a problem, my dear student," nughed with his eyes closing.


    "Oh, why may I ask?"


    "You''ll be dead before you or anyone else is able to peak into the beautiful masterpiece what is unanimously considered to be the best mind in the world."


    Quinnughed, "Don''t count on that, old man. I''m going to do that apprenticeship under you, learn everything you have to teach, learn about your mind inside-out, and before you know it, I would be looking at your most embarrassing of memories."


    "You''re wee to try, but you''re naive to think that I won''t study your mind as you study mine¡ª and unlike you, I''m spectacr at what I do. You will be attacking my mind without having a clue that I have been sitting in the core of your mind, seeing your moves before you know you''re making them."


    The master and student, both prideful about their abilities, neither willing to concede that they would be on the losing end. One was the premier mind specialist¡ª the best of all time, as the man liked to dere about himself. While the other one was a rising star¡ª the fastest-growing magical in the world, the strongest and most knowledgeable someone ever was when they were at his age.


    "It''s delightful meeting you after so long, Quinn," said n earnestly.


    "I feel the same, Mr. n . . . though I have to say before you finally agreed to get a MagiFaxst year, it was tough to get the hang of you¡ª if you only listened to me and let me set up a WMF-id for you."


    "I have already said this to you but, at that time, I didn''t see any use for it. Even now, I don''t use it as much as a lot of people I know do. Though I have to say, it is a very intriguing and useful implementation of magic¡ª I have many a conversation with many magic researchers about how it works and the implications that MagiFax has in the world.


    Your family did a good job creating MagiFax," said n.


    Quinn smiled. He had created MagiFax in his earlier Hogwarts days, a couple years after he and n had parted. Then thest time both had met, n had restricted (quite in a bit in n''s skewed standards) and didn''t enter the part of Quinn''s mind that he didn''t want to be seen. Though Quinn was expecting that n would know about MagiFax''s origins, seeing that he didn''t was surprising.


    ''Oh, I''m thinking about it now; maybe he knows now,'' Quinn thought, staring at n, who noticed his gaze and chuckled. Quinn tilted his head and asked, "What''s funny?"


    "Oh nothing," n chuckled more. "You were testing if I was reading your mind, weren''t you."


    "Are you?"


    "No, I''m not. I will take residence in your mind when youe apprentice under me," said n, picking up his ss of seltzer. "Though I could be lying, and I''m already in your mind, which, for you, would mean that I''m still absolutely superior and you''re still another lifetime or two behind before you finally catch up to me if that''s even possible."


    "How can you say that? You don''t know what I have going on in my mind. I might have created something that even you would have a difficult time entering," Quinn crossed his arms.


    "Should we try it then?" asked n.


    ". . . No."


    Their meal soon started, and because of a multi-course meal, Quinn cast a sound spell of his own creation that would make him and nmunicate even with the servers going in and out of the room. The spell ensured that n''s words addressed to Quinn would only be audible to Quinn and vice-versa; the server would only hear their voice if n and Quinn said words addressing the server.


    "Your skills with casting magic without a focus must have improved since thest time we met," said n when Quinn cast the sound magic. Thest time n and Quinn had parted, Quinn had just finished rebuilding his natural focus ability back from scratch.


    "It has gotten better. I mean, I''m still in the growth period, so even if I don''t do anything, it would still improve," said Quinn followed by a sigh. "This is thest year of my growth period¡ª after this, my progress would considerably."


    "You are the only person who doesn''t deserve to say that with a sigh," n said, looking at his student incredulously. "I reckon you have more magic than any human on the, Quinn. People don''t spend their teenage years exhausting their magic every day¡ª they go out and y with their friends have fun with their lives. I don''t believe that there are many people who followed a milder version of what you did, much less the intensity you follow.


    And even those who did spend magic daily, most of them didn''t do it voluntarily . . . a child doing what their parents force them to do doesn''t make for fantastic motivation after all," said n,ying a napkin on hisp.


    "Still, you know . . . I end up feeling like I could''ve done else I could''ve done to supplement my growth¡ª that there was a method other than magical exhaustion every day that could''ve yielded more results," said Quinn, wiping the silver soup spoon with a napkin cloth.


    "You''re overthinking this matter," n waved his hand in dismissal. "Sure, there are potions you can take and rituals one can undergo, but you know how they can turn out. If you don''t know exactly what you''re trying to do, messing with your natural physique can end up doing more harm than good, especially in the long run."


    Quinn conceded the point. Rituals were high-risk magic without knowledge, which Quinn didn''t have, at least not yet. Potions were temporary and were a viable option to supplement their growth, but the returns weren''t worth it with what was put in. Finally, there was the option of body magic¡ª what he did currently was a temporary boost, but as one dove deeper into body magic, permanent, and more importantly, stable augmentations were possible.


    But those weren''t in the near future, at least not for another nine years to a decade.


    "So, tell me, what have you been for the past few years?" asked n. "You''re young, you must''ve gotten a girlfriend or two by now¡ª what about the girls I saw in your memories¡ª what was their names . . . Daphne, Tracey, Luna, Hermione, Ivy¡ª or was there was someone else that came along? Come on, tell me~."


    Quinn suddenly mmed his palm lightly on the table. "You dare ask me that after sending me that sort of gift on birthday?!"


    "What are you talking about? I think it was a great gift!"


    "You gave me a book on Kamasutra, for crying out loud!" Quinn said loud;y, recalling the morning of his birthdayst year when he found a package from n in the lounge. He was excited when he saw that the package was clearly in the shape of a book¡ª thinking that maybe it was a new version of n''s books, but when Quinn opened it in the lounge, with George, Lia, Ms. Rosey, and Elliot, all sitting nearby, he found the book titled ¡ª Kamasutra ¡ª he had never mended anything faster than he did the ripped up wrapping paper.


    "Yeah, and that''s what makes it such a great gift," n said proudly. "And it was the real deal, you know, it''s one the good versions that I got straight from India with all the right spells and magic to elevate the experience . . . you didn''t throw it away, did you? Did you?!"


    Quinn picked up some of the soup in his spoon but couldn''t bring it to his mouth under the intense gaze of n. "Alright! Alright! I still have it; I didn''t throw it away. It''s somewhere in my library."


    "Did you read it?"


    "No."


    "So you did read it, nice!" n pped happily.


    Quinn groaned. He had read the book . . . professional curiosity¡ª ''It was a type of body magic, after all. . . yeah.''


    "Did you read about the chapter on first times," said n, enthusiastically, "because if you use the magic, they can make it painless¡ª"


    "Alright, stop with that already!"


    nughed at the sight of Quinn groaning.


    "It was surprising that you caught when I was in America," said n, spooning some of the soup in front of him. "I''m here for another week before going back home to New Zend for a year. If you called me after another week or so, you could''ve been able to see my house by the beach at Piha.


    But I guess it can''t be helped; from what I can recall, this is the time when your school goes into Easter break."


    Quinn didn''tment on n''s perfect memory.


    "I will see your home when I apprentice under you," he said.


    n looked up from his code and said, "It seems you have made your mind about apprentice under me."


    "Yeah, I think starting it off with mind magic under you is going to be a good starting point. I n to learn from you and devote a majority of my time to what you''re going to teach me. I won''t be stopping my other pursuits¡ª however, I will be going back to the basics and fundamentals, understanding them at a much deeper level, so that when I leave you and start with others, I would have a base of knowledge acting as a springboard for me to start on."


    Quinn had been juggling numerous things for the past couple of years that it had got hectic for him, and it was bing difficult for him to juggle all those things as theplexity of things started to ramp up. So he decided that he would be going back to the gold ol'' basics while following whatever n wanted him to do.


    "Are you sure?" asked n. "Your apprenticeship under me might go on for five years or even longer."


    "That''s a long time, Mr. n," said Quinn, chuckling. "I specte, I would be out after year three . . . and even if it does take five years, I''m fine with it, I''m in no hurry¡ª I have a lot of time on my hands."


    "I see . . . so, what do you want to talk to me about," asked n. "I''m quite certain that you didn''t call me all of a sudden to catch up, did you?


    So tell me, what is today''s agenda?"


    Quinn let the soup spoon sit in the bowl and gazed up at n, who sat up a straighter, seeing the expression on Quinn''s face.


    "Do you remember what I told you about the curse that took away my natural ability to focus magic?" Quinn asked.


    Yes, of course, obviously," said n, "you called it the Sin curse."


    "Yes . . . the Sin curse . . . ."


    n gazed at Quinn, waiting for him to continue, but Quinn looked up at him with pursed lips . . . and then shrugged. n''s eyes widened as it dawned on him.


    "You . . . you caught it again?!" n leaned forward and spoke with shock in his voice.


    "Well, technically¡ª"


    "Quinn."


    Quinn sighed and then nodded, "Yes, I got it again," his face scrunched up, "and Mr. n, you have got to help me out."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - Master - I have excellent choice in gifts.


    Quinn West - MC - Second again?! You got to be kidding me!


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - When the students is ready, the master appears.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 297 - Introducing The Fable

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "!! What were you thinking. . . ?!"


    Quinn pursed his lips and held back the groan. n wasn''t the scolding type and preferred to mock instead to get his point across, so seeing him raise his voice made Quinn squirmy. He didn''t dare meet eyes with n, choosing to maintain eye contact and instead focus on n''s hands.


    "Why in the name of basic sanity would you go back there," n chastised. "Did you forget what you went through thest time¡ª you lost control over your magic! If you did somehow forget, if you hadn''t been able to regain the focus back, we would''ve to seal your magic so that it wouldn''t kill you! Sealing your magic, Quinn! Do you know what that entails? It''s not natural¡ª your body would reject the procedure done to seal the magic, and in the history of sealing magic, every single case, without exception, had seenplications with health for the rest of their lives, and that''s when the procedure is sessful¡ª the abominable procedure has a high mortality rate and someone like you with so much magic might just have died because of it!"


    Quinn chose not to reply to that; more like he couldn''t respond to that.


    Described as a "dark" and "parasitic" force, an Obscurus was created when the wizard child in question consciously attempted to repress their magical abilities or were forced to do so through physical or psychological abuse. This energy could manifest itself as a separate entity erupting in violent, destructive fury. ¡ª The point to notice about Obscurus was the repression of magic. The medical procedure n talked about held a simr danger to the mysterious Obscurus as in undergoing the procedure meant unnaturally repressing ¡ª or sealing ¡ª magic, which while didn''t result in the patient bing Obscurus, did hold otherplications like a life long degradation of health and a high chance of death while undergoing the procedure.


    All those years ago, if Quinn hadn''t regained his magic, he would have to go under the procedure to give himself a living chance against his own constantly rampaging magic. The magic sealing procedure was one of the primary motivations for him to regain his focus as soon as possible¡ª the desperation pushing him harder and harder to achieve more in lesser time.


    "I thought I would be able to handle it this time around," said Quinn, massaging his temple. Obviously, it hadn''t gone as he wished it would''ve been¡ª things rarely went his way when it came to the Cursed Vaults.


    "And do tell what made you think that you would be able to handle a curse with a design that targets the Soul," n said in a rare no-nonsense tone.


    Quinn looked at n. He slipped his hand into the breast pocket of his coat, where he usually fixed his expanded pockets and took a hardback book.


    "What is this?" n asked as he looked at the book that Quinn had handed him. "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," he gazed at the cover art painted in shades and hues of green and ck, "what is this. . . a fairy tail collection? What does a children''s fiction have to do with any of this."


    "Read the work titled, The Tale of Three Brothers," said Quinn. It wasn''t surprising that n didn''t know of the book¡ª it was a British special while n was a New Zender.


    n furrowed his brows and peered at Quinn, asking for a direct answer, but Quinn pointed at the book. n nced down and opened the book with scepticism. He flipped through the pages, looking for the story; he found and started reading the semi-poetic words written between illustrations depicting the story; the art moved ¡ª the robes of three brothers fluttered in the wind while Death''s robe remained still like death itself.


    By the time n was done, the course on the table had changed. Gone was the soup, reced by a tantalizing appetizer¡ª only neither were particrly in the mood of enjoying it.


    "I read it," said n, closing the book, "now what; I still don''t see how any of this rted to your current situation."


    Quinn snapped his fingers, and the wisp of me appeared on the top of his index fingertip. "As you can see, I am still able to use magic, and I''m not using lumency to hold it back," said Quinn. "The situation isn''t as dire as it was thest time."


    n blinked. It seemed that he had missed that Quinn could still use his magic and, from the looks of it, without any difficulty.


    "What do you think of the three artifacts in the tale, the Deathly Hallows," he asked.


    "What do I think of them? I think nothing of them¡ª they''re fictional. Where are you going with this;e to the point."


    Quinn stared at n for a while before he raised a finger on the hand that rested palm t on the table. The tinum chain around Quinn''s neck wiggled out from within his cor and levitated out with the pendant piece acting as the flying anchor. Quinn grabbed the pendant piece, and when he opened his fist, a ck stone set on his palm.


    "See this and tell me if it reminds you of something," said Quinn as he removed his palm beneath the Stone, leaving it suspended in the air. He touched it with his finger and slowly drifted to n.


    n observed the ck gemstone as it came to a stop in front of him. It slowly gyrated, showing its different polyhedral sides.


    "Hmm?"


    As the Stone gyrated, n caught the sight of something, and he squinted his eyes, waiting for it to return to the front, and when it did, his eyes went wide.


    "Th-This . . . This!"


    n immediately waved his bracelet styled magical focusden hand, sending the pages flipping over till the book was opened to thest page of the Tales of Three Brother story and saw the sign made up from a triangle, circle, and a line . . . .


    "Is this real?"


    Quinn nodded. "That''s the Ressurection Stone mentioned in the story¡ª the real deal."


    n stared at the stone, his face painted in shock. He reached out to the Stone and sped the stone between his fingers. He raised it above to his eyes and peered at it.


    "This Stone can summon soul?"


    "It can," said Quinn, "but don''t try to use it."


    n frowned and looked up at Quinn. "Why?"


    "It''s calling a dead soul back into the world of the living; that''s unnatural. I don''t know if there''s a cost to the summoning of a dead soul. Cadmus, in the story, was driven mad."


    "Then how do you know if it works?"


    "Try channelling some magic into it; you''ll get the feel of it, and know that just with one more step, a soul of your choice will descend into the mortal world."


    n looked at the Stone, and the magic flowed into his bracelet focus and then into the Stone. "Ah . . . yes, it seems you''re right . . . I can feel it, onemand, and I''ll have soul here in this room."


    Quinn snapped his finger, and the stone wiggled out of n''s hand and zoomed back into Quinn''s. "Yeah, and that is why I dared to go back and give the Sin Vault another try. I studied the Stone for a while before I went diving back into the Vault . . . . s," Quinn sighed, "it didn''t work as I expected it to."


    n nodded, but Quinn could see from his face that n was thinking about something else.


    "What?" he asked.


    "Where did you get this?" n asked.


    "Ah, about that . . . let''s just say I stole . . . borrowed it from a man, who didn''t need it¡ª did him a favor by taking it out his hand . . . yeah, totally," said Quinn.


    "What about the other two Deathly Hallows, was it? The Wand and the Cloak. Do you know where they are; I mean, if you were able to find the Stone, then . . ."


    "The other two Hallows are in possession of other people," said Quinn. "You know Albus Dumbledore?"


    "Dumbledore? Your Headmaster, correct? Hmm, ah, I remember him¡ª he was mel''s apprentice, wasn''t he? I think I met him once when I was helping mel''s with some of his memory problems¡ª The Alchemist and wife''s minds were fascinating ones; both of them had been alive for so long that their minds were all cluttered¡ª it is good that they called me in, or they might have had problems in the seventies.


    Ah, that was a good time¡ª not only did I get to study two unique minds being held up by the Elixir of Life, I also got a consume a dose of the infamous Elixir."


    "Wait, seriously! You drank the Elixir of Life?!"


    "I did," n said proudly. "Felt really young for a month¡ª hadn''t felt like that in a century."


    "Wow, so lucky!"


    "I sure was," n nodded. "So what about Dumbledore?"


    "Ah yes, Dumbledore¡ª he has the Elder Wand, the Death Stick."


    "Oh? Another Deathly Hallow so close to you, now that''s lucky."


    Quinn chuckled, "The Cloak of Invisibility resides in the hands of the Potter family¡ª they''re the descendants of Ignotus Peverell¡ª it''s a Potter family heirloom." Just like Dumbledore, Quinn knew that n would know the Potter from his memories.


    "Oh my, all three so near to each other," said n with surprise, "it must be fate."


    Quinn made a scrunched-up face.


    "What? Why is your face doing that?" asked n.


    "I don''t like that word," said Quinn.


    "What word?"


    "Fate," Quinn spat. "Come on, let''s get back to the matter at hand."


    "Ah, yes, the curse . . . . so you decided to give the Sin Vault another try because you had the Resurrection Stone with you, which is clearly a Soul artifact, giving you an insight into the soul," n then stared deeply at Quinn, "which also means that you have started Soul magic . . . . You have used magic on your soul."


    Quinn nodded, understanding the severity of n''s gaze. Soul magic was one of the most dangerous, if not THE most dangerous magic to its user. One mistake was all it took for one to bring ruin to the user''s Soul and . . . soul magic was a mythical level practice on Earth¡ª meaning there weren''t many who dwelled into soul magic, which made it difficult to cure any damage to the Soul. Quinn was lucky that the Sin curse hadn''t done any damage to his Soul in the original cursing and had only manipted it while keeping pristine.


    After all, as far as Quinn and n could tell, the Sin Vault was an experiment to push the limits of magic in humans through soul maniption.


    "Be careful, Quinn," said n. "Soul magic is perilous. Any mistake, and you''ll be in deep trouble. It took me a long time to even start contemting about diving into soul magic. I was already much-much older than you when I started¡ª you . . . I don''t even think you should be going into soul magic so young."


    Quinn shrugged. He had started and was already deep because of Sin Vault and curse. Also . . . the Ressurection Stone in his grasp was too much of a temptation for him let go.


    "You seem to be able to use magic without any problems," said n. "Which means that there must be something different this time around¡ª your work with soul magic must''ve done some good."


    "Yes . . . something is very different. Last time, all you were able to work with was the aftermath¡ª the curse was already out of me before you examined me," Quinn chuckled as he pointed at himself. "This time around . . . I brought the actual curse along with me."


    n''s eyes widened as he looked at Quinn''s chest, his eyes turning gold.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - Master - I have met some interesting people in my life.


    Quinn West - MC - " . . . . . "


    FictionOnlyReader - MC - Now we see what n tells Quinn.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 298 - Before The Answer

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ". . . this time, I brought the curse along with me."


    n''s eye took over a golden hue as he channelled soul magic and gazed deeply at Quinn. The first thing that entered n''s mind as he looked at Quinn''s soulscape and his Soul was that Quinn had indeed made some impressive progress¡ª it wasn''t ground-breaking, and n had seen this level of achievement by many those he knew dabbled in soul magic¡ª but all of them were closer to his age than they were to Quinn''s.


    n frowned. ''What is this?''


    Quinn had no cover that allowed him to hide his soulscape and Soul, allowing n to peer right in¡ª not many had them as the number of people practicing soul magic were few in between; as such, time and energy devoted to the dangerous soul magic were much better utilized in other useful things such as strengthening the Soul''s connection to magic enabling better natural focus and thus better magical control with a magical focus (wand.)


    But, even without a cover over the soulscape, n couldn''t peer into Quinn''s Soul. He could feel it and knew a Soul was present in front of him but couldn''t see it.


    ''Is that because of the Sin curse?''


    ''That'' was the opacity that hindered his sight. The entire soulscape was covered with shades of ck¡ª there were blotches of pitch ck, while there were others spreads of lighter cks that were letting out some light.


    "Why can''t I look into your soulscape?" he asked. "There''s a lot ck blocking my view."


    "The curse is acting as a parasite, and even though I have stopped it from reaching the stage it had done thest time, the curse still has its hooks sunk in me," said Quinn before asking. "And what do you mean by ck¡ª isn''t it seven-colored?"


    "Seven colored? No, all I can see are shades of ck . . . hmm, now that I see it . . . yeah, there''s seven shades of ck."


    Quinn tilted his head. He dove into his soulscape, and the pristine was entirely stained with seven colors¡ª it was one of the reasons Quinn had decided to ask for n''s help¡ª even though he had stopped the mind-whispers, the progression of the curse had continued to take over his soulscape with only his Soul being safe because of his shield.


    "Show it to me," said Quinn.


    "Come in, then," said n, smiling.


    Quinn looked into n''s eyes which went back to their normal blue color and reached out with his Legilimency. He found himself standing within the dense white fog the next second, limiting his visibility down to a few feet. He waited for the haze to clear, but seconds passed, and the fog didn''t let up.


    "Alright, very fun, haha; Quinn can''t see anything," he said, e on, get this out of my face."


    He heard a peal ofughter booming from everywhere as the haze cleared and came into his vision was a ginormous blood-red sphere of liquid with surface rippling every other second, colliding with other ripples and making other sub-ripples.


    Quinn sucked in a breath. It had been years since thest time he had seen this sight. n''s lumency defense, built on another system of defense¡ª one more advanced than Quinn could even imagine; Quinn was sure that n was so beyond everyone that if he turned back to see where the second stood, he wouldn''t be able to see them.


    A dual natural lumens and Legilimens, who worked hard to perfect his craft, was an absolutely terrifying being. Quinn had no idea how the blood-red sphere worked or how to even avoid the fog¡ª he could spend his life wandering in the mind fog and get nowhere.


    He watched as a point in the red liquid bubbled before a letter envelope came out, flying to him. Like Quinn used memory-books to store his memories, n used memory envelopes to form his storage; ording to n, his mother used to send him a letter every week when he was away from home at school and was a big part of n''s formative years¡ª and when he formally started learning lumency, he used those letters as the model.


    Quinn grabbed the envelope and turned it bottom side up. He slipped his finger inside the lip, flicked it open, and that''s when n''s memory of peering at Quinn''s soulscape flooded into his mind.


    Once again, he was made to realize how brilliant n was at mind magic. He hadnded in the memory inside n''s perspective. Quinn looked around and even turned back to see what was behind¡ª usually, it would be a blurry mess of colors, but n, who had developed a perfect memory, knew precisely what was behind him as he had seen it when he entered the room andposited that image in the current memory, whichcked that information.


    ''I can also do it,'' thought Quinn, and it was true; it wasn''t that difficult when you had ample immersion in the memory ¡ª ''but I can''t do it in seconds like him.'' Compositing memories like that was an easy yet time-consuming process and could anywhere from a few minutes to several hours or even multiple days.


    He stood up from n''s chair and walked to memory-Quinn.


    "So this is what you''re talking about, huh," muttered Quinn, looking at the ck covering his soulscape. "Well, it looks real colorful from the inside."


    Instantly, he was yanked out the memory and thrown out n''s mindscape as the haze again popted the nk ck space.


    "Alright, now my turn," said n. "I''m going enter your soulscape and take a good look at the problem . . . not going to lie, but I''m excited to see what exactly is happening inside of you. I wonder if I would be able to learn something¡ª it has been a while I have made some delicious progress on soul magic."


    Quinn couldn''t even rebuke; after all, if he was in n''s shoes, he would have the same reaction.


    "How are you going to enter my soulscape?" asked Quinn. "I presume entering on your own would not be ideal."


    "Yes, can''t be doing that, so you''re going to take me inside on your own vition," said n.


    Quinn shrugged. It was dangerous to let an external soul near one''s own as it was one of the most significant vulnerabilities of a being. But here, it wasn''t even a question for Quinn.


    "Alright, let''s get started. I want to get this out of me."


    But before they did that, n and Quinnpleted and enjoyed their meal. They knew that it was going to take some time for n to observe and take in the situation, then analyze it before he could give a conclusion, and that couldn''t be done while a server wasing and going between courses.


    After they were done, they asked Abraham if they could use the room. Abraham had no problems with it as he served fifteen parties and had fifteen rooms¡ª a party could stay as long as they wanted, given that they left before the restaurant closed.


    Quinn and n locked the room and told Abraham that no one was to disturb them and got to work.


    "Give me your hand," said n setting his hand forward on the table.


    Quinn grabbed n''s hands, and after an intimation, Quinn felt n''s magic flow, and he too closed his eyes to allow the entry to guide n into the soulscape. It was a strange feeling¡ª he could feel fear from the bottom of his heart, screaming at him to throw n out, but ignored the basic instinct, which was overwhelming when the very essence of his being was in question.


    ". . . You look, but please hurry," said Quinn.


    n nodded; he knew how Quinn must be feeling right now. He immediately got to work and started to work quickly.


    "It really is colorful," said n, ''looking'' around Quinn''s soulscape. The colors had entirely covered the white of the soulscape. He then turned his vision to the soul in the center, and he couldn''t see it with a thick, bubbling, thumping cacoon which looked like it had veins all over it.


    "That doesn''t look good," n said.


    Quinn remained silent, keeping his instincts down.


    n continued to watch the soulscape. He observed the blotches on the walls of the soulscape and the cocoon built upon Quinn''s shield that was protecting his Soul.


    "What does it feel like right now?" asked n. "There must be some effect on you with your soulscape like this; I refuse to believe that you aren''t feeling anything."


    "There are voices in my head," said Quinn quickly. "They are my own voices, each tainted with a certain sin¡ª they pop up when I''m feeling strongly about something, or even when there''s a potential that I could be tempted to fall for the curse and other times that I don''t know why they pop up."


    "Show me those memoriester. I hope you have aption ready for me to look at."


    "Yes."


    It wasn''t even a question. It was one of the first things Quinn had started upon when he thought of going to n.


    After a while, n was satisfied with his observations and got out of the soulscape. Quinn slumped into his chair and breathed a long sigh with a sheen of sweat on his skin.


    "Show me the memories," n said, ignoring Quinn''s appearance.


    Quinn grunted.


    n took that as an invitation and instantly entered Quinn''s mind.


    "Oh? What''s this?" n said, his voice rising in interest. "You have made some exciting additions to your defenses, child. What is this thing I am feeling emitting from defenses? It feels dangerous~."


    Every point on the hexagon grid was emitting something n couldn''t see, but he could clearly feel them with his god-tier Legilimency skills. They were everywhere and were being produced by Quinn''s defenses constantly.


    "It''s an invisible matter, a creation of mine," said Quinn, his tone t.


    "What does it do?"


    "It will degrade Leglimency probes and mental attacks as they try to break through," said n. "They are being emitted by theyers of defenses, and because there''s an stic-typeyer stretched over every hexagon, the probes slow down and keep getting radiated with the matter, continuing to degrade. If a probe somehow gets past the shields and enters the mindscape, they would be greeted by a concentrated version of the same matter woven into the very essence of my mindscape¡ª probes will be snuffed before they get to my mind-structures.


    And you aren''t supposed to know that they are there¡ª they''re supposed to bepletely invisible."


    "Now that''s sneaky," smiled n. "If they don''t know it is there, they won''t act against it."


    "Yes, that was the motive behind it."


    The ce in front of n rippled, and a memory book manifested. It was theption for when the voices spoke to him. The book had every single whisper, hundreds of them, all recorded.


    n grabbed the book, and the memories flowed. He instantly frowned, not because of the voices, but because the first memory wasn''t about the voices, but a ce he recognized from Quinn''s memories that he had shown to his years ago.


    "The Sin Vault?"


    "Yes," said Quinn. "I was awake this time around . . . see if something in the room helps you."


    n resumed the memory and watched with intense concentration. He saw how the Vault tried to knock Quinn out, how he resisted, how the runes appeared on the wall, and how they shot beams, which n was sure wereden with curses. After he was done with Vault memory, he moved on to the Sin voices.


    "You have grown," said n with a smirk as he watched the memories. "Oh ho ho ho~."


    Quinn furrowed his brows, confused.


    "I''m done," said n, retreating out of Quinn''s mind.


    "And?" asked Quinn, hopefully.


    n shook his head, and Quinn felt his heart drop.


    "I can''t help you."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - Mind Master - Sorry.


    Quinn West - MC - "I . . . ."


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I wonder . . . what lies in the future.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 299 - Truth Of The Matter

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I can''t help you."


    Silence dominated the room, but Quinn''s devastated expression spoke volumes to n, who sat opposite him with an expression of regret mixed with pity.


    Quinn ced his elbows on the desk and clutched his head between his hands; his eyes scrunched closed tight¡ª his deep breaths audible in the room. He hade to America to meet n because he had run out of options to try out and couldn''t find a road to progress¡ª his hope was his master, who Quinn knew had dabbled into soul magic . . . yet here he was, hearing the words he didn''t want to hear.


    ?If he can''t help me . . . then I have no choice but to let the curse take over¡ª maybe this time I''ll let it run longer, extract more benefits . . . more magic, more power, more magic, more power, more magic, more power, magic, power, magic, power, magic, power, magic, power . . . . DO IT!!!?


    "What are you thinking right now?" asked n.


    From within his hands, Quinn spoke in a scratchy voice, ". . . . That I don''t know what to do . . . that I don''t want to think about anything right now . . . that I . . . ."


    Quinn''s voice faded with a sigh, his head still buried between his hands.


    "Quite the standard reaction," said n, "and while I''ll like to give you some time¡ª I know you''d prefer to hear what I want to say as soon as possible."


    "What?" Quinn asked, shifting his head in his hands, giving n a look from his half-lidded eyes.


    "Even though I said I can''t help you, that doesn''t mean I haven''t found some things that''d be useful to you. I have found some interesting things about the Sin curse¡ª would you like to know?"


    Quinn''s eyes widened as he sat up straight and intently stared at n with reinvigorated light.


    n smiled.


    "Now that I have gotten you interested, there are a few things I noticed from your memories and your soulscape," said n.


    "What sort of things?"


    "Well, let''s get the disappointing stuff out of the way¡ª I have zero clue about the runes that struck you in the Sin Vault. I''m not an expert in rune, after all¡ª you probably are already much more knowledgeable about the subject than I am."


    "So . . . both of usbined have no clue about the source of the curse."


    n looked surprised as he raised his brows, "You too don''t have any idea about the runes? That''s surprising!"


    "Believe me, I tried to find how those runes work¡ª studied a lot on the individual runguages that the rune clusters were constructed with, tried to find simr patterns in historic records and tomes . . . but there was nothing¡ª not a single line of text I could find that would help me in the slightest."


    "That is too bad; it could have helped us much."


    "Yes, it could have," said Quinn with a frustrated tone; the amount of time he had spent in studying for the Vault''s runes hadn''t paid out one bit.


    "That was the disappointing news. Now, let''s move onto the next part," n said, folding his hand on the table. "Even with you, bring the curse along with you . . . allowing me to enter your soulscape . . . and let me look through your memories¡ª I''m not able to understand how the curse works or how it has taken a grip on you . . . ." n sighed as he continued, "You overestimate my capabilities, child."


    "What do you mean?" asked Quinn.


    "While I''ve dabbled in soul magic, it is nowhere near the level of my mind magic," said n with a half-wry smile. "I''m a dual natural with lumency and Legilimency, and that''s a big reason behind me reaching where I''m today with mind magic . . . but that level of progress doesn''t convert into soul magic. Not only is soul magic much more touchy it is also quite vtile. I had to move very carefully, which tranted into a safe yet low return.


    I had told you about this one when west met, but I picked up soul magic so that I could diversify and spend some time away from mind magic, to give myself a break¡ª and well, while I''m at a respectable level, it seems that the curse is not something my level can decipher and decode . . .pletely."


    "Completely, you say," said Quinn, "that means there''s something you did find."


    "I did," said n sounding happy. "I think I was able to find a way for you to get rid of the curse . . . ."


    "WHAT?! You did?! Tell me!"


    "Now-now, calm down your hippogriffs," said n motioning Quinn to calm down. "Yes, I might have found a way . . . but you might not like."


    "Eh, why wouldn''t I like a way to get rid of this damned curse?"


    "Because it is not exactly pleasant," n sighed.


    "Tell me," Quinn asked impatiently, leaning forwards, his hands joined together in a tight grip.


    ". . . Quinn, you need to pull down the shield around your soul . . . and let the curse in."


    Quinn blinked once, then twice, and thrice. "Did you . . . did you somehow got the curse while inside my soulspace," he put his hands forward on the table, e on, let me take a look¡ª it will be bad if both of us got the curse. If you really did catch the curse, then I''ll have to teach you how to suppress the voices until we figure out how to get rid of the curse."


    "There''s nothing wrong. I haven''t caught the curse," said n, "but you indeed need to let the curse in."


    "But, why?!"


    "Think about it, thest time around, what was the thing that triggered the expulsion of the curse from your soul?"


    Quinn jerked back in his chair as the memory came up to the surface. He pursed his lips and bit the inside of his cheeks. ". . . I was going to punish . . . attack some students for bullying my friend."


    "Yes, that is true, but that''s not what I''m talking about."


    "Then what . . . ?" Quinn furrowed his brows before they rose up. "You mean . . . ."


    "Yes."


    "I used . . . my wand, and that was the catalyst which made me snap out it," said Quinn. "But what does that has to do here?"


    "From what I was able to judge from your memoriesst time around, in which you included a level your emotion¡ª that was a great thing you did¡ª I found out that you attempted to perform an action you hated so much, something that you would never want to do that your soul snapped back at the curse and expunged the curse¡ª and. . ."


    "And you want me to do the same this time around," said Quinn, understanding dawning upon him.


    "Yes," said n, "you need to find something that you wouldn''t want to do at any cost and well do it. And right now, what''s thest things you want to do?"


    ". . . I don''t want to let the curse take over my soul," Quinn forced the words out with incredible difficulty. "But . . . ! What if it takes over and I am not able to escape it?! Wouldn''t that be worse!"


    ". . . Quinn, have you noticed the state of your soulscape? It had started with a few blotches on the soulscape''s walls and thin veins on your shield, but now they have grown to the white walls covered thoroughly, and the shield has be the base to a thick cocoon.


    Even if you don''t voluntarily let the curse get a chance at your soul, it will continue to grow stronger, and eventually, it will break through."


    Quinn had no reply. There were multiple reasons he had decided to be not at Hogwarts during Easter for the first time since he had started school. He had noticed that the curse was progressing to spread across his soulscape, and him snuffing the Sin voices was just treating the symptoms while ignoring the root problem.


    "I won''t tell you to do it immediately," said n. "You have to do it when you''re ready. I won''t be able to help you because you know how it feels to have an external soul inside your soulscape. What I can do for you is stay with you here before you have to go back home and help you prepare.


    We probably won''t make any progress on your soul magic, but I can share my experience with you, and that might raise your chances to seed."


    After a pause, Quinn said, "Let''s say that I let the curse in by disabling the shield, and my soul struggles back with the curse. Then what should I do afterward? I don''t want to leave the chances of my souling out on top to luck."


    Yes, his soul was stronger than before, but so was the curse, which had been growing inside his soulscape. He had no way to measure the chances of his sess.


    "If I fail, then I don''t know how long I would be out," said Quinn. "I don''t know how long it will take for me to do something that would expunge the curse¡ª not to mention, I would be under the influence in the period between¡ª which believe me, I don''t want to be in."


    "It''s a risk that you''ll have to take," said n. "It''s clear that the curse is growing faster than you''re growing your soul magic, so you can only hold it back for only so long."


    "I know, I know," Quinn grumbled, scratching his hair.


    n stared at Quinn for a while before he said bluntly, "You messed up."


    Quinn looked at n, startled.


    "You made a mistake going inside the Sin Vault the second time. You did it because of asinine pride and an inted ego¡ª you had the Resurrection Stone, and if you continued to work with it without going to the Sin Vault, your soul magic would''ve slowly built it up¡ª but you got greedy and decided to go in there looking for a treasure. You had no way of knowing if you''d be able to dodge the curse, yet you still went in there.


    I know this isn''t what you want to hear, but it is the truth. So make up your mind, make a n, and follow it until you have the curse out. That''s all there is to it."


    Quinn leaned into his chair and stared at the ceiling. It was as n said¡ª pride and greed were his weaknesses. He had be greedy that with only one year remaining at Hogwarts, he only had one year to clear the Sin vault. And his pride didn''t allow him to be defeated by a mere vault; he had conquered all others in a single year; why should the Sin Vault be any different.


    Resurrection Stone was just the justification that he needed for allowing himself into the vault.


    He removed his eyes from the ceiling and looked at n.


    "Alright . . . I''ll let the curse in¡ª but I''ll do it on my own time. For now, I request that you help me."


    The option of letting in the curse in America was not a choice. If he fell to the curse in America, he wouldn''t be able to go back to Hogwarts, and that wasn''t an option as he had some important work to do¡ª that if he missed, he would never get the chance to do again.


    "Well then, it is decided," n smiled widely. "We''re staying America . . . Now, let''se to the more important thing."


    "What is it?" asked Quinn, there was something more important?


    "The owner of this ce is your sister''s boyfriend, right? Do you think he will let use here every day?"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - Master - I''m not giving this spot up.


    Quinn West - MC - "I can''t give up . . . I have to regain the top spot."


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - But . . . is n right? Am I bluffing, or is there''s something else?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 300 - This Is Sparta!!!

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "This is it?" n asked, looking at a couple of books sitting on the table in front of them. "This is all you have got in the name of soul magic?"


    Quinn nodded. He looked down at his hands resting on hisp. For the first time in a decade, Quinn felt embarrassed because of books. Ever since he had gone on the world tour, he never had a shortage of books¡ª he would say the word, and George would have all the books from their destination in front of him the next day. Even after Quinn started attending Hogwarts, he would regrly get pamphlets from all over the world listing the new books and research journals that would give him papers on thetest advancement in magic. And then he had added a lot of lost magic into his collection from the Room of Requirement ¡ª thus dubbing his library as Babel.


    But if there was something his vast collection, that he felt the most pride about, was books and tomes on soul magic¡ª it was ridiculously hard to get anything rted to soul magic, and only those who have an "in" in the exclusive circles would be able to get something¡ª and unfortunately, Quinn wasn''t in those circles.


    "Yes, this is all I got."


    "This is quite dismal," said n, not munching his words. "I mean, one of them is justpletely useless; it''s spiritual mumbo-jumbo." He looked up at Quinn, "You must''ve had it rough, child¡ª you had no help, didn''t you?"


    They were in Quinn''s temporary residence in New York, owned by the Wests. It was a gorgeous penthouse suite too big for the five people living in the ce¡ª Quinn, n (who Quinn had invited to live with him), and the three staff members to take care of Quinn''s needs while he was in New York.


    "Do you have some books?" asked Quinn.


    "I do," said n, making Quinn''s heart soar, "but they''re back at home¡ª unlike you, I don''t make it a habit of carrying my entire library with me."


    Quinn deted in his chair. He had the Babel copier he had used in the Room of Requirements in his briefcase. If n had the books with him, Quinn would''ve created permanent copies for himself.


    "Don''t make that face. I''ll send copies of the books I have when I get home."


    "Then what should we do?" asked Quinn, smiling¡ª delighted by the promise.


    "How about we do an activity," n put down his teacup.


    "What activity?"


    "A little activity involving souls. But before we start, can you extend your senses through your soul? Because without that, we won''t be able to do this activity."


    "Ah, I can do that, sure," said Quinn¡ª that''s how he had found the Ravenw''s Diadem in the piles of trash.


    "Excellent, excellent. I was expecting that I''d have to teach it to you, but as expected, you''re prepared. Now, pay attention with your soulsense, okay? I''m not going to tell what I''m doing, but you tell me what you can feel."


    Quinn closed his eyes and tried to spread out his soul sense. It wasn''t an easy process, and he couldn''t trigger the state on the fly. Soul didn''t want to exit the vessel called the body¡ª it was the housing that kept the Soul safe, away from harm. His brows mashed together as the soulsense flickered, copsing inches outside his body, but then Quinn got the correct feel, and it spread like a swift ripple.


    He could feel everything in the penthouse. In the distance, he could feel three souls belonging to the staff, moving around. But he frowned because the three faraway souls shouldn''t have registered first when a stronger soul was sitting feet away from him. His senses zoned in on n''s position . . . and his soul was there, but . . . it wasn''t pinging like three had done.


    "Why is your soul like that? Why is it dimmed and blurred?"


    "If we can hide your mindscape away, then why can''t we do the same with soul," said n. "I haven''t reached a level where I canpletely hide my soul, or even seen someone who has reached that level¡ª but theoretically, it is possible to hide a soulpletely. But that''s not the point here; I''m sure you''ll be able to do it someday if you don''t mess up.


    What we will be doing for our time together is you trying to alleviate the dimness and remove the blurring."


    Quinn, who had his eyes closed and focused on the soulsense, nodded. n was right in front of him, and it wasn''t like he waspletely invisible¡ª he would have the soul and bright and sparkly by the time he had to return home.


    "But why are we doing this?" he asked.


    "One of the most difficult to do in soul magic is to raise a Soul''s strength," answered n, "and in the short time we have, doing that is not possible. If we could do that, then it would''ve been remarkable for you to resist the curse when the timees. So we move to a different aspect of the Soul, which is sensitivity¡ª if you''re more sensitive, you''re able to feel more, able to feel earlier, and even be more sensitive to magic thus increasing your natural focus ability.


    If you''re able to see through my shroud, then that''d mean that your sensitivity has increased, and that would be essential for you to react faster and better to the curse''s assault, increasing your chances of triumph."


    Quinn nodded. Anything to hedge the odds in his favor.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "All work, no y makes Quinn a dull boy," said n with rumbustiousughter.


    "Don''t rece my name into the saying. I''m anything but dull," said the not-so-dull boy.


    "You say that, but you got frustrated when you weren''t able to make any progress."


    "I did not make NO progress! I made SOME progress."


    It has been a couple of days since they had been doing the sensitivity exercise, but soul magic, as both of them knew, was a tricky maiden. Quinn''s soulsenses still showed n''s Soul just as blurry and dim, albeit just slight improvements.


    Quinn looked at n with a side-eye. Quinn didn''t know if it was because they had met after such a long time or because he was older now, but n had been teasing him a lot¡ª much more than before when he was a child or when he was sick.


    "So, where are we going today?" asked n.


    Quinn threw the Floo powder into the firece, making the mes roar green.


    "We are going to a special store today. Even if I didn''te to meet you because of the curse, I would have definitelye to America to visit this store."


    "Special, how?"


    "You know about my briefcase, right?"


    "Yes, it''s expanded."


    While n hadn''t been inside, Quinn had told him all about it. Especially how big and spacious it was. And even n had been surprised by the size that Quinn had described.


    "We are going to visit the store which made it."


    Quinn waved his hand, and a handful of Floo powder went into the fire, making it roar. He stepped in with a smile and spoke loudly.


    "The Clinker''s Room."


    When Quinn stepped out from the other side, he found himself in a small room, small enough that it would only take two of his wingspans to measure one wall to the other. Quinn saw the room glow in green light with the fire roaring, so he stepped aside to allow n to step through.


    "Oh my, this is the ce you wanted to visit?" n said, looking around. "Doesn''t look like much of a store."


    Quinn ignored n and looked around the room excitedly. In the small empty room, three things drew his attention¡ª the firece behind him, the silver door in front of him, and the thin podium in the dead center of the room.


    "Come here," Quinn beckoned n to the podium.


    "What is this?" asked n, looking at the podium with mild interest.


    Quinn pointed at the indigo button in the middle of the podium''s top and said, "Press it!"


    "What does it do?"


    "Something interesting!"


    "Say no more."


    n pped his palm on the button, and instantly the walls, floors, and ceiling of the room disappeared into nothingness.


    "W-What?" n stuttered a little as he looked around, flustered at the sudden change. Especially when he looked down and saw the absence of the floor¡ª just like the walls and ceilings, leaving only the firece, podium, and the podium visible. They were high above in the air, looking down at the New York skyscrapers and buildings with roads dotted with people and cars, all looking like ants from their height.


    "Oooh~, it''s just as Lia said," Quinn walked to a wall and touched it, and he could feel that there was something there.


    "What is this ce?" asked n, also touching another wall, grabbing it as he looked down a few hundred feet with apprehension.


    "This is¡ª" Quinn paused when he saw something and pointed at it excitedly, "Maybe this will help you figure it out."


    n turned and immediately saw a flock of birds flying towards them. He raised his hand with the bracelet, and immediately a shield appeared around him.


    But then something unexpected happened . . . . The birds that were flying towards them like they never existed.


    "Look!"


    Before surprise could even register on n''s face, he followed Quinn''s voice and saw him pointing outside the room. n''s eyes widened as he saw the same flock of birds flying away as if they had never met a room in their path.


    "What happened?" n asked, surprise finally catching up. "Why didn''t they collide with the room?"


    "America is famous for their spatial magic," said Quinn and raised his briefcase that he had been holding. "My briefcase, as I said before, is American-made," he pointed around the room, "and this room is an application of spatial magic, and that''s why we are hanging so high in the sky.


    This room," said Quinn excitedly, "is fixed in a certain point in rtive space. Now, this is just my assumption, but the creator has fixed the room rtive to the buildings below¡ª which means, as the Earth rotates and revolves, this room will move along the buildings, thus staying fixed above this part of New York¡ª or maybe the creator fixed it with rtion to the Earth itself . . . hmm, that would be so interesting."


    n stared at Quinn, looking like Quinn''s rapid and excited babble had flowed over his head. "What happens if we fall?"


    "We can''t fall," said Quinn. He pointed at the spot where the walls were. "The walls of the room didn''t turn invisible; they havepletely disappeared¡ª they''re not here," he stomped on the floor, "what we are standing currently is solidified space¡ª and until the spells don''t release the space to its natural state, we won''t fall.


    And as to answer your initial question as for why the birds didn''t collide with us," Quinn pointed around the room, "this ce is a dot-sized point in space expanded to its current size¡ª as long as the birds or anything doesn''t run into the tiny point, they can go ahead unhindered."


    "And what if they do run into this point?"


    "Then it would feel like they have collided into something solid, most possibly getting injured¡ª the faster theye in, the more damage they would suffer."


    "Is that dangerous? One of those flying non-magi things collide into this room? That''d be terrible, especially with MACUSAws."


    "I have the same question," said Quinn, "but there''s something there stopping that because Lia told me about this ce years ago, and given that it is still here, there must be some magic that prevents any collision.


    As for what magic, I''ll get it from the creator."


    Quinn pointed at the door in the room.


    "To the Clinker''s Shop!"


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - Master - I have the hand of a "higher entity" upon me.


    Quinn West - MC - ". . . I need to find a way to get to the top. What can I do here, hmm. . . ."


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Higher Entity.


    Also yeah, I don''t think I will be able to make the March-End deadline I was nning for myself. My attempts to achieve have failed. Though I justpleted writing the sickest arc of this volume on the tform-that-must-not-be-named.


    But don''t worry, whatever happens, I won''t be pissing away the ending. I shall give AMJ a (hopefully) good end. Then the Epilogue Volume with Prime-Quinn.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 301 - The Clinkers Shop

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn grabbed the doorknob in the invisible room, and as usual, whenever he found something new, he channeled his magic into it to see if he could figure out how it was made. Quinn knew the door led to the shop they were going to visit, and thus he knew that it was going to be a door like the Abate system and his own Labyrinth maze.


    The second he channeled magic, he knew . . . he knew that this door was better than the Abate doors and even his own Labyrinth door¡ª much, much better.


    ''Damn, that''s why I need to visit so many ces,'' he thought.


    The culture was an important part of magic like it was for many other things. If a sport was extremely popr in a country, they''d have a strong culture for that sport and churn out more quality yers. Simrly, countries had certain magic imbibed into their cultures¡ª America . . . was a spatial magic powerhouse.


    If Quinn wanted to be the best of the best, he would need to learn from ces where the best resided.


    "What happened?" asked n. "Is it locked; does it require a key?"


    Quinn shook his head, "There''s so much to do with so little time . . ."


    He twisted the knob and felt the magic move and transform, doing its work, and by the time he pushed the door open, Quinn felt a spatial link form to a ce other than they were now.


    Quinn and n stepped into an old shop with wood everywhere. The walls were covered with wood, his boots cked with the wood beneath his feet, and even the nted roof was made with wood with wood beams forming a grid as structural support, and even the decor was fully wood.


    "I thought a store dealing in spatial magic would be more spacious and not wood,"mented Quinn.


    He was expecting a wide-wide space that seemed empty, made from concrete inorganic in nature rather than wood, which was once an alive thing¡ª instead, he was greeted with a small room crammed with a lot of decors.


    "That''s a stereotype, boy."


    Quinn and n turned towards the deep voice and saw a chocte-skinned man dressed in tan pants and a checkered shirt under a leather apron. The lean andnky man had brown short rough hair and had protective goggles over his head. He looked at n and Quinn with his brown eyes with big dark circles under and lightly smiled with his sunken cheeks.


    "Is it a stereotype if it is true?" asked Quinn. "I mean, from what I have seen from some other ces, if you can blow a space wide open and it is your business doing that, then don''t you have to do it."


    "It is true when your job is to expand a ce into a much wider space, you should use it in your own space," said the man. "But, spatial magic is all about efficiency and performance. Why widen a space to a size that you won''t even use?"


    "That does make sense," nodded Quinn. "You must be the owner. My name is Quinn West," he pointed at n, "this is n D. Baddeley. We informed that we would being today."


    "Yes, I remember that," said the owner after a beat. He shook hands with n, who was closer to him. "My name is Lado Diggs, and I''m the owner-proprietor of the Clinker''s Shop.


    How did you like the Clinker''s Room?" Lado looked at the door.


    "It was quite fascinating," said Quinn.


    "I don''t see the use of it," said n.


    Lado chuckled as he spoke to n, "Yes, there''s no indeed no use for it. I created that around two decades ago when I was learning how to expand a point space into something bigger¡ª after I was done, I decided not to remove it and turned it into a special entrance to my store."


    Lado held his chin, "Though I might have to work on the room. It has be severely outdated¡ª especially that door, it needs some serious upgrades."


    ''That needs upgrades!'' thought Quinn.


    ?He must know a lot. I wonder if I can have that knowledge, I just need to peek¡ª . . . . . .?


    "About that room," started n. "I''m interested to know how you managed something from colliding into for, as you said, two decades."


    "Ah, there are spatial redirectors¡ª I won''t go into details of what those are¡ª but they ensure that nothing stays in the path of the room, and even though I say the room, it is only one dot," said Lado. He turned to Quinn and asked, "Boy, what brings you here to my shop today?"


    Quinn lifted his briefcase and ced it on a nearby table.


    Lado quirked his brow and slowly walked to the table, his eyes fixed on the briefcase. He raised his hand to touch it without warning, and Quinn had to hurriedly disable his personal "nasty" anti-theft ced on the case.


    "This is my creation, isn''t it," said Lado.


    "It is. How did you know? Did you recognize the magic you cast?"


    "Hmm? Oh no, nothing like that. This leather design and tone¡ª it is totally my style, so I knew this is mine."


    Quinn faltered at the answer, so it was the aesthetic that gave it away. He heard n chuckle in the background.


    "Is there something wrong with this child?" asked Lado, stroking the briefcase.


    "Not at all. It has been running perfectly without any spatial fissures or even irregrities. But I thought that I was in the neighborhood it would be nice to bring it to you for some maintenance."


    "You did good," said Lado appreciatively. "How long has this child been with you?"


    "Six years."


    "It is in excellent condition for its age. My worksst around fourteen to sixteen years depending on the usage, so this one still has a long time to go, but seeing that you have done such a great job taking care of this¡ª I''ll re-strengthen the spells so they wouldst another fourteen to seventeen years, making up for the passed time."


    "Oh, that''d be nice."


    "If you want, I can upgrade it with a few more features for a small fee," said Lado after waving his wand over the case. "But you''d have to empty out all the contents for the upgrade. I can provide space to store your luggage. Space is the one thing I have in abundance."


    "No, that won''t be required, though I do appreciate the offer," said Quinn without giving it a thought. There were a lot of "sensitive" things in there that even if Lado provided him external storage, he would never bring those things out.


    They waited for ten minutes as Lado went in the back and worked on Quinn''s briefcase. When he came back, Quinn could feel the magic had been invigorated.


    "Here you go."


    "Thank you. How much should I pay you for the repairs?"


    "It''s fine. I looked up the purchase of this child, and boy did you pay a lot of money for it," said Ladoughing.


    "I wouldn''t know. My sister brought this for me as a gift for starting school."


    "So it was a gift. No wonder. When you said that you got six years back, I was wondering why would such a young boy would need so much space. I think your sister went overboard."


    Quinnughed good-heartedly. Lia, when she had bought the briefcase, had indeed gone overboard. Even with Quinn''s collection of books collected on the world tour, the space in the briefcase was grossly oversized. Even now, all those yearster, Quinn still hadn''t utilized the entirety of the space.


    "Lado, what is this thing right here?"


    Quinn and Lado turned towards and saw n standing behind a counter, looking at a square cab with a single slider hanging on the wall.


    "It''s rude to touch stuff without permission," said Quinn.


    "It is alright," said Lado. "Mr. Baddeley, was it? Mind picking up the coaster on the counter behind you and cing it inside the cab."


    n turned and saw a cardboard coaster on the counter. He picked it up, turned, and ced the coaster inside the empty cab before sliding the door close.


    "Now, please push the button on the side."


    n followed the instructions and pressed the green button on the side of the cab. There was a ringing sound from the cab.


    "Now open it."


    n opened, and there was nothing inside the cab. "Where did it go?"


    "For that, you''d have to follow me," said Lado.


    n and Quinn looked at each other before shrugging; they didn''t have anything better to do. They followed after Lado, and he led them through a door, down a set of stairs, and through a long corridor that couldn''t fit in Lado''s shop¡ª but it was a shop that offered spatial service, so it wasn''t surprising.


    "Ah, here we are," said Lado opening another door to an industrial warehouse-sized area . . . made from concrete.


    "See? I told you . . .rge space and concrete¡ª typical," Quinn whispered to n.


    Lado led them to a wall, and an identical cab hung on it. He opened it up and retrieved an object from it.


    "Oh, that''s the coaster from the counter," said n.


    "Yes, this is a simple application of spatial magic," said Lado. "When something is put inside the cab and button is pushed, it is transferred down here. It is convenient this way¡ª you saw how long we had to walk to get here, and it is not efficient for the employee staffing the front desk toe down with objects to repair every time."


    Lado noticed Quinn looking around and asked, "This is my workshop; I work here on my projects¡ª would you like to see some of the things I''m working on?"


    "Would that be alright?" asked Quinn.


    "Of course. I would be delighted. There are several interesting things here if I say so myself."


    Lado led them to an area in the warehouse. They stopped just outside a square spot marked by the tape on the floor.


    "Okay, this one is interesting," said Lado and turned to Quinn. "Would you step inside for a moment, and I''ll let you experience something fascinating."


    Quinn shrugged and stepped inside the square.


    "Okay, I''m going to start now," said Ludo and waved his wand when Quinn nodded.


    Immediately, Quinn felt like he had been hit by a body-bind spell and couldn''t move a single muscle on his body except for his neck, and even that was partially restricted.


    ". . . What ¡ª is ¡ª this," said Quinn with a little difficulty and saw n staring at Lado with a straight stare.


    The very next second, Lado waved his wand again, and Quinn was released out of his bind.


    "My apologies for startling you," said Lado. "What you experienced was the solidification of space. I solidified the space around you inside the square, making it so you couldn''t move at all."


    Quinn nced at n, who shook his head¡ª Lado was clear.


    "So. . . it was like the walls in the Clinker''s Room," said Quinn.


    "Exactly, but this time I froze space around a person, which is moreplicated as I had to map out your body and avoid that region."


    "Freezing space. . . wouldn''t that mean, even if I wanted to escape using apparition, I wouldn''t be able to do so?"


    "You''re quite right!" Lado pped. "Apparitions or even Portkey won''t work as long as you''re inside the space."


    Quinn narrowed his eyes as he looked at the tape. ''Apparitions and Portkeys, he says,'' thought Quinn.


    "Now, let''s move on to the next one," said Lado and walked to a long path, once again marked with tape on the floor. "This one is even more interesting. Now, Mr. Baddeley, would you mind walking from one end of the path to the other."


    "I won''t be frozen into ce, would I?" asked n walking to the edge of the tape. "I don''t think that''d be good for my old bones."


    "Oh no, nothing like that. This one is interesting in another way," said Lado.


    n looked at the path, and it was the path that was several meters (or feet). He stepped inside and took two steps, and felt vibration travel through his body, and before he knew it, he was staring at the tape on the other end of the path.


    From outside, Quinn''s eyes widened as he saw n''s figure blur for a split second before he was on the other side of the path.


    "What was that?" Quinn asked Lado.


    "The two ends of the path, both marked by the tape, are connected with spatial magic. What I have done is create a link¡ª folded space between the two points so that it would only take two steps rather than the several it would usually take."


    Quinn pped his hands with and ''ooh!'' But then he saw n walk back, and unlike thest time, he walked normally without skipping through space.


    Lado noticed Quinn''s expression and spoke while scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, this is still a work in progress. For some reason, it only works one way."


    "That was interesting as you said," n spoke.


    Next, they went to another tapped-off square, but this time, it had a door in the middle of it.


    "Now, this is one of the most interesting things down here," said Lado.


    He stepped inside and opened it to reveal a pitch-ck space. They couldn''t see any light inside; even the light from the warehouse looked like it was being sucked inside, and that too didn''t illuminate the ckness even with a single lumen.


    "This is my favorite of them all," said Lado. "This is a pocket dimension of my creation."


    "What . . . ?" Quinn''s eyes widened. "Did you just say pocket dimension?"


    "Yes, a pocket dimension."


    "What''s a pocket dimension?" asked n.


    "A pocket dimension is a space . . . a dimension which is not part of our own dimension," exined Quinn. "Unlike the usual spatial practice, where you expand an already existing space in our dimension, a pocket dimension doesn''t exist and is entirely separate with no rtion to ours. They are difficult to create and not that well researched as the usual practice is enough for spatial needs."


    "That is impressive of you, Quinn!" said Lado. "You seem to know a lot about spatial magic."


    "A thing or two," said Quinn.


    "Would you like to step inside?" offered Lado.


    "I can? I would love to."


    "Then go on right ahead."


    Quinn stepped inside the square and then walked into the dark pocket dimension. "It is cold in here," he said.


    "Yes, I do not know why that is, though."


    Quinn reached out inside and met a blockage. It was like a wall, and after feeling around, there were walls and ceilings all around him.


    "Yeah, about those. The dimension that I created is infinite in its size, or at least it seems so because I explored, I couldn''t find an end, and the deeper you go, the more unstable the spatial properties be¡ª so just for security, I have sealed off the region for security reasons."


    "Is the pocket dimension stable as an entity?" asked Quinn because from what he knew . . . .


    "No," Lado breathed a long and depressing sigh, "at somewhat of fixed intervals, the entire space inside crumbles. The things I ce inside are crushed and disappear into nothingness. The walled region I have created is as stable as our own dimension, and I use it as an indication because just before the spatial properties destabilize and everything turns to chaos, this walled space develops light fissures giving me warnings."


    "Ah . . . so it''s not usable in a practical sense," said Quinn.


    ". . . No," said Lado, downtrodden, but then he perked up. "But one day, I would make it work. That''d be glorious."


    "It indeed would be . . ." said Quinn, his eyes fixed on the pocket dimension.


    Lado continued to show them his various projects for the evening until it gotte, and they had to leave.


    ". . . Well, that was something," said n, as they stepped back into the penthouse suite, "though a lot of those things were wildly unstable¡ª I don''t think a lot of things can be used at all in any sense."


    "Yes," said Quinn, "but if he seeds in stabilizing his invention, he will be famous overnight."


    "So, what do you want to do tomorrow," asked n.


    "I want to go to a good bookstore and get loads of spatial books."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - Master - The throne is mine.


    Quinn West - MC - "If I return back home, maybe I will get back on top. . ."


    Lado Diggs - Spatial master - Clinker''s Shop is used to create funds for his projects in his warehouse.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 302 - Returning Home, Turmoil On Horizon

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "How are you feeling?" asked n.


    Quinn looked over thete evening New York skyline, glowing up with lights on the buildings that rose up like peeks, and the roads flowed with cars, their headlights making them look like flowing rivers.


    "Not at a level I would like¡ª butfortable enough, I guess," said Quinn.


    It was Quinn''sst day in America and thus also hisst day with n. It had been just over ten days with n, and every day, they would sit together and, under n''s guidance, work on the sensitivity activity to help Quinn''s soulsense. In the ten days, Quinn hadn''t made the same amount of progress he had done in mind magic all those years ago¡ª but that was expected by both because of the nature of soul magic¡ª he had improved, able to clear some of n''s shroud on his soul, but not to the level where he would be able to see n''s soul as clear as any other.


    "Any idea when you''re going to drop your shield?" asked Quinn.


    "Soon, I''m going to do it soon," said Quinn. "Early July, after I graduate, that''s when I will deal with this."


    "That''s . . . a couple months from now. Are you sure you don''t want to do it earlier? I''m not sure if you''d be able to hold on that long."


    "Holding on till July won''t be a problem. I can judge the progression and my own control over the curse. I just don''t want to do it while I''m in Hogwarts¡ª it would create massive difficulties if I lose control there."


    "And it would be different when you''re outside? Won''t that be a much wider environment than Hogwarts?"


    "Me staying on Hogwarts doesn''t restrict me," said Quinn with a sigh. "I can leave the castle any time of any day without anyone knowing about it¡ª but I''m not sure the ''other'' me would want to leave Hogwarts while I''m there.


    I''ll make arrangements for when I''m graduated to limit possible damages¡ª not that there are going to be any, I''m going to beat it squarely into the dirt."


    "I know you said that it would take you around a year after graduation to start the apprenticeship, but if you want, you cane in July, and I can overlook you while you go crazy," offered n.


    Quinn smirked, "Are you sure? I am pretty strong. You might not be able to handle me¡ª your old bones might not be up to it."


    nughed as if he had heard a hrious joke. "While I might not be much ofbatant, Quinn¡ª I''m a very dangerous individual if left alone in a room with, which is why there are a lot of people, including your grandfather, who doesn''t prefer to be in the same room with me alone if it is possible."


    If Quinn and n had just met and didn''t have a history together, Quinn would''ve felt a cold shiver go down his spine, but with their rtionship, he knew that n wasn''t going to do anything particrly unsavory to him.


    "By the end of my school year, if I feel that I''m not able to handle it alone and need a level of assistance that only someone of your level can provide, I''d take a Portkey, and you''ll have a troublesome guest for an unforeseeable future."


    "Troublesome guests are my favorite kind," n grinned. "In fact, if it does happen, I''m looking forward to spending some quality with ''other'' you because from the memories I have seen, it would be fascinating and fun to rile you up to fan your wrath and challenge your pride every hour of the day, and then see you grit your teeth in frustration because of utter helplessness."


    "Even if it is the ''other'' me, I pity him."


    "On a serious note, Quinn . . . you cane to me anytime without hesitation. It would be better for you and those around you to not let the cursed version of you see the light. Especially since you are much stronger than you were before, and it doesn''t look like the unbridled would be touchy with magic."


    "You make it sound like I''m the worst without my morals . . . but yes, I wille running to you if needed."


    Quinn took out two metallic cards from his jacket pocket and handed them with the golden-yellow gleam to n, keeping the card with the blue-gleam with himself.


    "You ordered me a Portkey?" asked n, taking the standard object used by the American authorities for enchanting Portkeys.


    "I dyed your travel back home by so much time, and you helped me so much, it seemed the least I could do," said Quinn. "I''ll also be leaving today. I have gotten multiple letters from home, especially from my sister asking me why I dropped in at her boyfriend''s workce without warning¡ª to be clear, I''m the owner of the ce."


    He had been lucky that it was Abraham''s chance to go to Lia instead of hering to America that he had avoided meeting her.


    "Write to me regarding your progress; I shall do my best to use that MagiFax thingy of yours to keep in touch."


    "Be careful; you''re turning old talking like that."


    "Child, you don''t know how bright the youthful mes of vigor burn inside me. Even at this age, I can run circles around you."


    "Make up your mind if you have old bones or youth mes of vigor."


    Quinn''s time in America hade to an end.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    "You extended your stay," said George, flipping through some documents with Quinn sitting in front of him. "And you had n D. Baddeley stay with you for the time you were there."


    "That is correct," said Quinn, looking around George''s home office.


    "Am I to believe that you just happened to meet him in Manhattan while you were visiting, or was he aware that you''d be visiting?" asked George, and Quinn could feel his silent stare.


    "He knew I was in the area," said Quinn; there was no need to hide things . . . at least to a certain limit. "I told him that I''d be joining him after Hogwarts, and well, we ended up talking, and I got interested in a few things which led to us spending time discussing magic at length."


    "You told him that you''d be epting the apprenticeship? So you have made your mind."


    "Yes, mind magic would be beneficial to my future magical endeavors, so it is good if I increase my proficiency in it before I take on my other interests."


    "What else did you end up doing in America," asked George.


    "Hmm? Nothing much, I went around sight-seeing, definitely did something that would''ve gotten me in trouble with the American ministry," said Quinn, grinning. "Even had some maintenance done on my trusty briefcase from the original store¡ª saw some very fascinating spatial magic, which led me to buy a shelve-tons of books on the subject."


    Georgeughed, "That does sound like you."


    "I even met the Broker for a little while," said Quinn. The Broker was American, and because of the nature of his job, he resided in New York when he wasn''t traveling. "He''s resourceful, to say the least¡ª he has ties with a financial firm owned by a group of squibs, who are managing my investments."


    Unlike Quinn''s non-magical investments, which Quinn had decided to use the leave to the Broker to handle, George had decided to use the chance to use his investments (that be bought alongside Quinn) to open up a West-owned non-magical focused financial branch to increase their reach in the non-magical world.


    "Did you have him buy something else?" asked George


    "I had him show me a couple of properties around New York, mostly near the suburbs."


    "And, did you buy any?" asked George.


    "I did," said Quinn. "I ended up buying a big warehouse with a wide basement."


    "A warehouse? Any particr reason for that?"


    "Let''s just say that I got inspired by someone else who had an exciting warehouse."


    There was a knock on the door before Elliot inside. He smiled at Quinn and greeted him before turning to George.


    "It''s time for us to leave," said Elliot.


    George closed the documents and put them into his own briefcase before standing up.


    "I''ll catch up with youter, Quinn," said George. "How about tomorrow at dinner?"


    "I will keep my schedule open," said Quinn with a smile as he waved them goodbye.


    Quinn sighed after George and Elliot left. He had failed to inform them about his condition.


    ''Grandfather seemed to be suspicious about my meeting with Mr. n.''


    Thest time he met with n was because of a huge problem. So Quinn didn''t me George for going in that direction. ''Luckily, I can use my magic and walk around without forcing myself to keep a straight face.''


    While in his time in America, n had stressed the point of getting help ¡ª he had sneaked in the topic so many times, and Quinn knew n was ''telling'' him to share his condition with his family.


    ''If I tell them now, grandfather will definitely try to pull me out,'' he thought. And right now wasn''t the time he could risk that. ''I''ll tell them after Graduation.''


    "Why''s everyone at Hogwarts," sighed Quinn as he entered his room after wandering around the manor, not knowing what to do. It seems he was the only one in his friend circle who hade home during Easter.


    He waved his hand, and after a few seconds, a book came zooming out,nding in Quinn''s hand with a smack. He folded his legs while standing in the middle of the room and sat in the air while reading a newly acquired book on spatial magic.


    After reading a while, he spread his palm open and focused his magic. The space above his hand flickered, and faint static sounds sounded as distortions became prominent. Quinn furrowed his brows, and his magic reacted to hismands, and after a long while, the space became stable with a slight coloration¡ª as if the light was being refracted.


    Quinn raised his other hand, and a small marble conjured between his fingers. He dropped the deep red marble on his palm, and his twinkled when it didn''t hit his palm and seemed to just float above it¡ª on the discolored solidified spatial ne that he had built.


    But then the ne vanished like it was never there, and the marble fell into the palm.


    Quinn sighed, "This is nowhere the level of the Lado . . . yet."


    Having a look inside Lado''s workshop had opened his mind to spatial magic. Before, he had only thought of it in travel applications¡ª Apparition, Portkeys, and Doorways, and storage in terms of expanding rooms and other storage options.


    But after the warehouse, his horizon had been broadened.


    Spatial magic was much more than transportation and storage.


    ''If I put in some time, I can create and elevate wards and spells,'' his mind started going through as he started tapping his fingers on his thigh.


    ''Speaking of spatial magic . . . I wonder how Malfoy''s doing?'' Quinn looked at the sky through the window and muttered to himself, "I hope he''s doing his job properly."


    After all, without Draco Malfoy, an important opportunity would not be possible.


    "I wonder how they would feel when theye into Hogwarts . . . ."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    n D. Baddeley - Master - Little ones, I shall see youter. Until then, keep your minds safe.


    Quinn West - MC - ". . . Just bear it once more; things would return to the norm from now on."


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - NOW, the next mini-arc, is going to be the MAIN HIGHLIGHT of this year¡ª it''s going to start on 305 after a transition. So stay tuned because it is not part of canon, and it''s my original creation (though it is inspired, or should I say, my take on it.) It got positive(I think) response from the first readers.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 303 - The Weight Of Feelings

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Hey, you''re back!"


    Quinn dapped Eddie''s raised hand as he sat on the ce between Eddie and Luna that was obviously saved for him on the Ravenw table in the Great Hall.


    Just like the opening day feast, there was a feast after the Christmas and Easter break, sans the sorting ceremony. The students that had gone home would join their schoolmates at the time of the dinner feast.


    "So, how was your time at home?" asked Marcus, who sat in front of them.


    "It was interesting, to say the least," said Quinn, casting a spell on his golden cutlery. "So, anything special happened while I was out?"


    "Special, let''s see . . . Malfoy and Potter got into a serious duel¡ª both did enough damage to each other to spend a couple of nights in the hospital wing and more to the ce around them to get a long-long detention," said Marcus.


    "Serves them right!" Eddieughed.


    "Oh?" said Quinn, ncing ahead at the Slytherin table to see Draco, who was picking at his food, when he looked back at the Gryffindor table where Harry was talking among his group.


    "Any idea why they fought?"


    "Why they fought? Why do those two usually fight? Probably for some stupid-ass shit," said Eddie.


    ''Did Harry catch a whiff of what Malfoy''s doing?'' Quinn wondered.


    The circumstances had been different, making the series of events different from the canon. From what Quinn was able to piece together, Harry hadn''t run into Draco on his "trip" to Diagon Alley, thus had no idea what he was nning, making it so that Harry never spied on Draco during the train ride, who unlike thest time was invited to Slug club as Malfoy Sr. was never sent to Azkaban. As the first tile never fell, the domino was never triggered, making the two antitheses never cross each other this year.


    But both of them were truly each other''s opposite, so Quinn didn''t put past them to eventuallye crashing into each other, back to biting each other''s necks.


    ''I hope Harry doesn''t mess this up; there''s a lot of riding on it,'' thought Quinn. If someone else heard his thoughts, most would probably argue his line of reasoning. Quinn threw the thought behind his head¡ª the big end was near, and the chances of Harry stopping Dracon were low . . . and if he did get a bit too close, he would do something about it.


    "Other than that, there was a Slug club meeting," said Eddie.


    "Oh? How did it go?" asked Quinn.


    "It was troublesome. It seems Slughorn had invited a bunch of executives from professional clubs to the party, and they made my life miserable," sighed Eddie. "All of them were up to sucking up to me, and while usually, I am not averse to that, it got annoying when I couldn''t spend with Tracey . . .


    Eddie nced at Quin.


    . . . Speaking of, you have got to meet Daphne¡ª Tracey told me that she has been cranky ever since you left."


    "Really?" Quinn nced at the Slytherin table, and unexpectedly, his eyes met with Daphne, who it seems was staring at him.


    Both of them blinked in surprise. Daphne half-raised her hand and gave Quinn a wave, which Quinn returned with a wave of his own. While in America, Quinn had exchanged letters with Daphne, but they hadn''t been as frequent as he and presumably as Daphne would''ve liked.


    Quinn built-up magic in his vocal box and spoke, and with sound magic, the words traveled across the hall, reaching only the intended ears. Daphne''s eyes widened from across the hall, and Quinn saw her nod.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The dinner feast soon ended, and students returned to their dorms to prepare for the third term starting tomorrow with the curfew and quite descending upon the Hogwarts castle. And after curfew, only a few roamed out in the ghostly halls of Hogwarts, and of them, no one was as consistent as Quinn.


    He stepped onto the Astronomy Tower and looked up at the full moon, shining brightly in the sky, outshining the stars around it. He closed his eyes at the cool breeze touching his skin. Quinn walked to the edge of the tower roof and looked down to the ground. He recalled the first night of his third year, just after getting rid of the sin curse. He hade to meet Friar, to intimate him that the Sin Vault was behind him (if only he knew that wouldn''t be the truth).


    ''I had gotten rid of it, but it had left residual trauma,'' he smiled bitterly, recalling his "leap of faith" off the roof to regain the trust in the thing that was the closest to him¡ª his most precious gift, his magic. At that time, he didn''t know how to fly and only worked with Arresto Momentum¡ª and to ovee his trauma, he had jumped off from a height that would have him dead if not for magic.


    ''That day was a wild one.''


    Quinn chuckled at the memory of Friar''s fear-stricken face.


    "Now, here I''m again with the curse inside my again," sighed Quinn. "I wonder if it would leave something behind this time as well¡ª I for sure hope not."


    As he was pondering his thoughts, Quinn heard a voice that he was expecting.


    "Quinn?"


    He turned back and saw Daphne with a wand in her hand as she gradually became visible from what seemed like an invisibility spell. Daphne''s eyes moved from Quinn and the edge of the roof.


    "Hey," he said with a smile, stepping away from the edge. "How have you been."


    "I have been fine, thank you. What about you? How was your trip?" said Daphne, simply.


    Quinn walked towards her, and before saying a word, he slipped his arms around her waist and brought her close.


    "For one, I missed you a lot," he said.


    Daphne didn''t look up at him, her palms on his chest, "It didn''t seem so. You barely wrote to me."


    Quinn could only awkwardly chuckle. n had been a vedriver with the exercise session, and it seemed he had liked Quinn''s version of sightseeing as he would drag him out daily to be shown something new. Between both of those, he would grow tired.


    "I''m sorry," said Quinn. "While I wish to push all the me to my master, but it was indeed my fault to not write more. I apologize for not writing more."


    Daphne finally looked up and stared at him with her blue eyes. She sighed, "I, too, am at fault for not being active on my part. I should have written more without waiting for you to reply."


    Quinn grinned and dipped his head to Daphne and smiled into the kiss as he watched her eyes widen before she participated in the kiss.


    "Well, was that enough to be forgiven," asked Quinn.


    He felt her nod into his chest shyly.


    "So, how have things been for you?" asked Quinn. "Have the Potion sses been fun for you? I hope that mypendium has been of some help."


    Daphne''s brows furrowed as she narrowed her eyes.


    "From the looks of it, they have not been going as smoothly?" asked Quinn.


    "No," Daphne said with an edge to her words. "Your gift has been of tremendous help to me¡ª my potions knowledge and brewing skills have improved so much that I still doubt that they were brewed by my hand.


    But the potions sses, on the other hand, they haven''t been going so well . . ."


    "And why''s that?" he asked, knowing the answer.


    "I thought, with your book, I would be able to pull away from the rest of the ss; however, that doesn''t seem to be true," said Daphne. "Somehow, Potter has be equally good¡ª no, I''m still better¡ª but in the eyes of Professor Slughorn, we both seem to be on the same level.


    I happened to take a peek at her workstation, and there I noticed that she had an old Potions volume that had been assigned to use. I suspect that that book is the reason behind her sudden increase in brewing skill and knowledge."


    "Ah, yes," said Quinn, "I know of that particr book."


    "You do?" asked Daphne, surprised.


    "Yes, I am well aware of that old book in Ivy''s possession," after all, he had been the one to point it out to her. "That book was previously owned by what seems like a student with exceptional talent in potions¡ª he goes by the moniker of Half-Blood Prince. He has written, in the margins, modifications of potion recipes. That book has been in the cupboards of the potions ssroom for ages."


    "Just like yours?"


    "Well, I won''t say that," said Quinn. "While both of us have improved upon the potion recipes¡ª the Half-Blood Prince has chosen to make improvements to the already present framework provided by the existing recipes in the books¡ª whereas I have taken much more of an involved route of not getting restricted by the existing prevalent framework by diving further into the potions recipes and more importantly, ingredients and preparations.


    I''m sure you have noticed that my recipes can be wildly different from the ones in the coursebook."


    "Then . . . Ivy''s sudden progress has been because of this Half-Blood Prince''s book?"


    "It''d be safe to say that."


    Daphne breathed a sigh of great relief. "At first, I thought that Ivy had be without any external help and that I was able only able to keep up because of your help . . . but I''m d that''s not the case."


    A soft smile bloomed on his face. The Daphne he knew wasn''t one to share her vulnerable side much on her own until prompted to do so, and usually, he would have to observe her and prod her with questions to know what she was thinking. But, seeing her own share on her own was heart-warming to him, and the trust she had in him was touching.


    ?On the other hand, you¡ª . . . . . .?


    "Hey, Daphne," said Quinn.


    "Yes," asked Daphne. She had her eyes closed and was leaning into Quinn.


    "There''s something I want to talk to you about."


    Maybe it was something in Quinn''s voice that Daphne looked up, "Is everything alright?"


    "Ah, yes, but there''s something I would like to tell you."


    "Yes?"


    "It''s something I would like you to know. It''s of importance. But I would ask you to wait till July."


    Daphne stayed silent for a moment, gazing up at him, and Quinn could tell that she was, as usual, searching for the answer.


    ". . . I am willing to wait," Daphne said. "You said it is of importance, correct?"


    Quinn nodded.


    "Then I will wait," she said. But then Daphne''s hands clenched the front of his clothes. "I-I . . . You''re not going to break up with me after you graduate, are you?"


    Quinn''s eyes widened, and more so when he felt shaking slightly within his arms.


    "No!" he said, quickly, "what would prompt that¡ª"


    But then Quinn realized why Daphne had arrived at the line of thinking. Theing of July would see him graduate from Hogwarts, while Daphne would still have a year left to study, and in that time, their rtionship would turn into a long-distance one.


    ". . . Daphne, I''m not thinking of breaking up with you. I would be with you as long as you have me," said Quinn.


    But at the same time, he thought, ''Yes, as long as you would have me . . .''


    And he wasn''t sure if Daphne would want to be with him after he was done revealing what he had done.


    "That is a relief," smiled Daphne and tip-toed to kiss Quinn softly.


    While all Quinn could think was how selfish he was. For a year, he had decided to hide it and take it to the grave. But, the weight of her feelings demanded him to reciprocate. He could tell her right here and right now, but he wasn''t sure what would happen to him with the curse inside if she left him.


    Magic, after all, was tied deeply to emotion. . . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Sometimes, I don''t like myself.


    Daphne Greengrass - Loving Girlfriend - Willing to wait.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Well, [some of]you asked for it. I wonder how she would react.


    Also, BRANDON SANDERSON. . . , Hot damn, Five!(four) secret books, and the Kickstarter for the project has blown up to the second most sessful in the sites'' history in just ONE DAY. As the time of writing this, the pledge of M has been met and has reached M!!! with 29 more days to go. It would indeed be An Year of Sanderson.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 304 - G****s ****t

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "You arete, challenger."


    After curfew, in the cover of night, Quinn turned a corner in the Hogwarts hallways and was immediately greeted by a deep-deep voice.


    Quinn looked up and saw the Bloody Baron, decked in the restrictive chains wrapped around his body. The ghost was apanied by the other three house ghosts, making the council of ghosts all present.


    "Good evening, my ghostly friends," said Quinn. "I apologize for keeping you waiting, but my duties had seen me busy organizing paperwork with the deputy headmistress."


    "Ease it up, my friend," said Nearly-Headless Nick,ughing boisterously, "we are used to waiting; what are a few more minutes?"


    Bloody Baron didn''t grace the Gryffindor ghost with a reply, maintaining his somber self as he turned away, looking down at Quinn with his ghostly eyes.


    "Quinn," Friar floated forward, "for you to have called us here today, does it mean that you''re ready?"


    "You''re right to have those expectations, Friar," smiled Quinn. "I have indeedpleted what I was set out to do. I think it will be a great addition to Hogwarts."


    Helena Ravenw, the ghost of the Ravenw Tower and the once daughter of Rowena Ravenw, swifted forward in the air. She gazed at Quinn with curiosity in her eyes, an emotion unusual in the taciturn and unspeaking Grey Lady.


    ". . . Have you kept your promises, little eagle," she said in a voice much quieter than her threepanions, yet it was the clearest.


    "I have indeed, mydy. My creations, my legacy, will be a new jewel in the Cursed Vaults crown."


    "Then what are we waiting for," said Nearly-Headless Nick, "let''s go see what Quinn has built here."


    Quinn nodded. He turned to the left, and apanied by the four ghosts, he walked into a short corridor on the sixth floor with no ssrooms or even a single door, much less a broom closet. It was as if the hallway was built for apparently no reason and had no apparent use¡ª but that was only to those who couldn''t see the truth behind the hallway.


    "Scattered all over Hogwarts, short corridors like these are present on all floors¡ª all of them leading nowhere but dead ends," said Quinn. "ording to my research, they were built by the Architect for when the castle was needed to equipped with more rooms in case the student studying in Hogwarts increased."


    "I presume you found this information from the Architect''s Vault," asked the Grey Lady.


    "That''d be correct. There were a few documents rted to Hogwarts in the Architect''s Vault. One of those documents mentioned these hallways. And they were indeed built for the reasons I said before, but of course, the Architect had been sneaky and had built a secret into these hallways.


    Just as he had built the Chamber of Secrets for Szar Slytherin, Architect had built¡ª"


    "What?! The Architect had built the Chamber of Secrets?!" Friar said in shocked exmation.


    The other three ghosts looked equally shocked. They exchanged nces before looking at Quinn, who continued to walk towards the hallway''s dead end.


    "My dear ghosts, one thing that when Hogwarts was built, the Architect knew all secrets¡ª the short man was an overbearing man who wouldn''t let the founders touch Hogwarts without his permission. So everything from the Room of Requirements to the Chamber of Secrets, he knew of everything and was actively involved in their creation," said Quinn.


    "I was even able to find out that except the Underground Vault and the Aquatic Vault¡ª the Architect had mentioned the spaces in which all the vaults were eventually built?"


    "The Architect knew about the Cursed Vaults?" asked Nearly-Headless Nick.


    "No-no, he wasn''t involved in any vault other than his own. It is just that all the vaults were made in the hidden, secret ces that the Architect had built during the castle''s construction."


    "Then there must be something simr about these hallways," asked Friar.


    "Ah yes, the secret built into these hallways are rooms simr to where the other vaults are built. Empty spaces that are hidden from the main from the castle," said Quinn.


    They arrived at the end of the hallways and stared at the ck wall in front of them.


    "Just like the other vault creators, I too have used on one of the hidden rooms inside Hogwarts," Quinn grinned, "to make my own vault."


    He reached out to the wall with his hand and touched the wall for it to immediately thrum. The bricks shifted in their ces, going up and down, forming ripples that spread across the walls. The spaces between the walls glowed with a purple light as the bricks started to move aside, leaving a gaping hole with a purple portal inside.


    "This is just like the portal entrance to the Architect''s Vault," said Friar.


    Quinn stuck his arm inside, sending gentle ripples in the portal.


    "You will soon realize that my vault is an amalgamation of the magic I know until now," said Quinn. "One of the magics that I have dabbled in is spatial magic, and I decided that the entrance to my vault would also utilize spatial magic."


    "Is there a specific reason behind using spatial magic on the door?" asked the Grey Lady. "ording to you, the ce behind is an empty pocket¡ª what''s the need for a spatial entrance?"


    "The reason is simple. The actual vault is not ced in the empty pocket behind the wall; instead, it is ced in a different empty pocket, somewhere else in the castle¡ª making it so that if someone decided to break into the vault by brute force, all they would find is an empty space.


    Only those with proper skill would be able to enter the vault."


    "The proper way?"


    "I drew inspiration from the Icy Vault and used a rune puzzle to reveal the portal. I have found that the Architect''s method of using a tangible object is deeply wed. If someone is to take the ring away with them, the next challenger would never be able to enter the Architect''s Vault."


    Bloody Baron stared at the wall and portal as he asked, "What is the difficulty level on this . . . rune puzzle?"


    "Much easier than the one guarding the Icy Vault," Quinn nced at the Bloody Baron, "all ording to the motive behind creating this vault."


    Bloody Baron nodded.


    "Now, let''s enter the vault. I will show you what I have prepared," said Quinn and stepped into the vault with the ghosts following behind him.


    - (Scene Break) -


    "After I went through the Cursed Vault journey, five years with five vaults showed me various things and taught me things that have made what I am today," said Quinn.


    He, along with the council of ghosts, stood in a room shaped like a pentagram. The entire room was painted white with artificial lights crystal, simr to those in the Aquatic Vault, studded on the roof and edges. The white was so pure that the lights from the crystals reflected all over the room, lighting it up in a glow just below ufortable blinding.


    "However, every year, every vault, every time I ventured into the vaults, my life was put at risk in one way or another," said Quinn. "Last year, afterpleting the Architect''s Vault, I fell into the thoughts about the future challengers.


    I am not one to brag, but if the challenger is someone other than me, they will die a painful death in every one of them."


    The ghosts didn''t have anything toment on. They had been giving out the Cursed Vault challenges for centuries, and there had been a few who had died and plenty who hade closer to death. And that was only the first vault.


    "So I decided that I would create a vault that makes things safer, or at least keep children away from danger."


    As Quinn spoke, the ghosts looked around the white room. Their eyes were attracted to the pentagonal walls of the vault. Every wall held a door within them; each had a unique design and a roman numerical written over them.


    [ I II III IV V ]


    "Even though I said this is my legacy, I don''t consider myself to be qualified to leave behind a vault of the same nature as the other ones," said Quinn.


    He turned to the door with the numeral [ I ] above the gate. It was the inest of the five gates; its design had no decorations or attractive features¡ª only a gate that looked like it was made from dull grey concrete.


    "The Architect''s Vault was the creation of the Architect. Even though the vault was the easiest to go through, and if a motivated student with a hint of talent for magic devotes themselves to solving the vault, they would be able to go through it without any problems. It''s not much of a vault and doesn''t match with the majesty of the others, but the creator behind it speaks for its legacy. Without the Architect, Hogwarts would never exist. And while I do not enjoy saying this and would never ever again repeat this . . . I have not yet matched the Architect in his achievement. He had created something that has persisted over a thousand years, and I have not done that."


    Quinn turned to the door on the next wall with the numeral [ II ] over it. The gate was made from a beautiful sea-green jade-like material, letting out a beautiful glow. He smiled as the scent of the water tickled his nose.


    "I don''t know which great person created the Aquatic Vault, but whoever it was, they have my utmost respect. If just by spending time in the vault''s final area, I was able to gain so much knowledge about water and its rtion to life, then I have no idea what that personage must know about the mysteries of water. I have no idea if it was the motive, but every stage of the vault showed me an important aspect of water. I have nothing to offer of that level¡ª making me disqualified to leave behind a legacy like that."


    The wall beside had the numeral [ III ] over the gates made from stone. Both doors on the gates were etched with various magical creatures¡ª centaurs, trolls, acromants, wolves, among many others. Moreover, a soft green light leaked through the slight spaces on the edges of the gates.


    "The runic tform inside the Underground Vault was an application that I have never seen before, only second to what I have seen in the Sin Vault. Even now, there are plenty of rune logics in that runic cluster that I have not been able to understand. Moreover, the creator hadbined runes, rituals, and human transfiguration together¡ª three fields that areplex and potentially hazardous. They achieved a needlessly, almost not-worth-it procedure of achieving an animagus form through a runic application. Do you know what that is? They revolutionized an entire field of magic. Now that''s a legacy to be proud of. I attained some noticeable achievements, but none of them are as prominent as this personage when ites to the betterment of magic."


    The gate with the numeral [ IV ] was unique even among the five gates. It looked it had been crafted from pure ice, and a cold fog flowed out from the gates, granting it an ethereal appeal. Quinn walked to the gate and touched the ice. His shoulder rxed when he felt cold enter his body.


    "It won''t be an understatement to say that the Icy Vault and Absolute Zero is one my longest active project¡ª the only thing that canpare to it is mental magic. I have tried for years to take out Absolute Zero from its cage so that I could take it with myself so that I could continue to study it after I leave Hogwarts . . . but, even after years of trying, I haven''t been able to create a method to transport Absolute Zero. The person who gave birth to Absolute Zero was a master of Alchemy, reaching legendary status, and he had enough runic knowledge to contain a substance that could wipe out Hogwarts. Out of all the vaults, this person might be the most talented one and one who has achieved the most¡ª it is safe without saying, I haven''t reached that level yet."


    Finally, Quinn''s eyes turned to thest gate with the numeral [ V ] over it. And unlike the previous four gates, he had no warmth in his eyes¡ª only cold steel shing in the stone grey. The gate was pitch ck, so ck that it looked like it was sucking in light, and even the ghosts who usually couldn''t interact with the physical world were feeling a slight danger from it.


    "I have made this clear plenty of times, but I do NOT want anyone to enter the Sin Vault. It is an abomination that shouldn''t exist in a school of students. If I was capable, I would''ve destroyed the damn thing; unfortunately, I am not able to do so and believe me, I have tried. I implore all of you that if someone, somehow, is able to reach the Sin Vault, I beg that you don''t let them go through it. Congratte them, pat them on their back, and send them on their way while singing their praise."


    Quinn sighed, "If it doese to that, then let them go through their gates, and if they''re still excited after experiencing what''s behind the doors, then let them go through the Sin Vault to risk not just themselves but also those around them."


    ". . . What exactly is behind these doors?" asked Nearly-Headless Nick.


    "They''re like tutorials," said Quinn. "Just as we discussed when I met you guys regarding the vault order, I wanted to make the future challengers'' job easier, so if they go through what behind those gates. The aim is two-fold¡ª prepare them for the real deal and give them a taste of what''s toe so that they can decide if they want to go through it.


    It''s an asset and warning."


    He looked at the four ghosts and smiled, "Would you like to see what''s inside?"


    Their eyes widened. The fundamental aim of revealing Cursed Vaults to students had been to sate the ghost''s curiosity. But even with Quinn revealing everything to them, they couldn''t go in the vaults to see what was in there. But as Quinn had said, these gates were tutorials, and with the creator with them, they might be able to see what it was.


    "We would love to," said Friar with a bright smile on his face.


    Quinn waved his hand, and the [ I ] numerical glowed in a golden light as the gate beneath it opened up.


    "Well then,dy and gentlemen, how about we take a grand tour."


    It would be decades before someone would step into the GUIDE''S VAULT.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Even the gates have spatial magic on them, making my vault just a node center.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I might reveal the contents of these tutorial gates in the epilogue volume. Tomorrow, we shall start the announced arc. Also, the I have started the final arc of this volume on you-know-where.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 305 - Damon

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stepped out of the Guide''s Vault and stretched his hands over his head. Even though the vault wasplete and ready to be used, there were still a few things that Quinn thought could be smoothened out. It was crucial that the vaults remained functioning for years toe because he didn''t know when he would return to Hogwarts in the future, and that is if he ever returned; as such, ensuring that none of his casted magic would fizzle out for quite some time.


    ''Well, with time, Hogwarts would assimte the vault into its ecosystem,'' thought Quinn.


    Hogwarts was a magical marvel, standing for a thousand years. It housed magicals in growth period with their magic in flux. The castle had long been mutated with that magic, and after thousand years, the castle had be an anomaly. Quinn was sure that after a couple decades, the castle would take in what he had created, and after that, the charms, spells, and runes would be maintained by the castle itself.


    "I wonder how the magic would change," Quinn muttered to himself, interested in how Hogwarts would affect his magic. "Maybe a visit to Hogwarts, a couple decades from now, is warranted."


    Quinn slipped his hands into his pocket and retrieved his trusty piece of reinforced off-white cloth, magically converted into the Hogwarts-exclusive artifact known as RECON, the massively upgraded version of the Marauder''s Map. It was the state-of-art solution to all Hogwarts-rted stalking and the key to almost all doors in Hogwarts castle.


    He activated the map and watched as the ink bloomed on the threads, taking various colors that formed a wee screen before turning to the floor map of the sixth floor, which he was on with him illuminated in a blue dot, marking him as a student.


    Quinn''s travel patterns in Hogwarts changed before and after curfew times. Before curfews, he would usually walk in the hallways and take the stairs on the Grand staircase to go between floors, only using the Hogwarts internal passageways when no one was around. But when the curfew hour struck on the clocks, he would forget the Grand staircase and exclusively travel using the internal passageways built within the walls.


    He nced at the floating map, and a blue directional line mapped itself on the sixth-floor floor map, and Quinn could see alternates and if there was someone present the routes. The line plotted on the map was from Quinn''s current position and went to a passageway connecting the sixth and fifth floors and opening near the AID office. The passageway was one he used frequently and was near to another passageway that opened outside the Headboy suite corridor on the fourth floor.


    Quinn followed the line and arrived at a wall tapestry¡ª magical and moving¡ª of a tree with birds flying around it. The wall, opposite to the tapestry, however, was Quinn''s destination. He knocked on the wall twice before kicking it once for the bricks to move away, revealing a narrow staircase going down.


    Before stepping inside the passageway, Quinn nced at the map and spoke, "Fifth floor." The ink on Recon sunk into the threads, disappearing for a split-second, before it rushed back out and depicted the floor map of the fifth floor. The map under Quinn''s non-verbalmands zoomed in on the fifth-floor exit of the passage to see if there was somewhere there that he needed to avoid.


    Quinn gave it a cursory nce, finding that the coast was clear. But when he was about to look away, a blue dot popped on the edge of the map¡ª right outside the AID office door.


    "Hmm?"


    For a moment, he thought it was a Prefect doing their curfew patrols because of the blue dot as neither Astoria nor Luna used the office after curfew. But then his eyes fell upon the name over the blue dot, and Quinn''s body froze like ice as if someone had struck him with a body bind.


    His eyes nked out for a good few seconds before they regained intelligent thought, and the shock of what he was seeing started to register and settle in.


    ¡¸??%?$???*?# . . . .¡¹


    For the first time since its inception, Recon had failed to recognize someone''s name. The map was connected to Hogwarts through piggybacking the runes part in Hogwarts, and not once had Hogwarts failed to recognize someone''s name, even if they weren''t once a student.


    But the gibberish on the map was only a minuscule reason for Quinn''s shock. There was another thing that had set his heart beating like a steam engine running at full throttle.


    Names, as they appeared on Recon, were made from two words¡ª First names and Last names. The gibberish that was below Quinn''s eye was the first name, but Quinn''s eyes were transfixed on thest name . . . that was not gibberish . . .


    . . . and something he was well familiar with.


    ¡¸. . . West¡¹


    "I-It must''ve malfunctioned," said Quinn and grabbed the map in his hand, and let the magic flow into it. The map shut down before restarting again to show the sixth floor again.


    "Fifth floor."


    The map shifted to the fifth floor.


    ". . . ."


    Quinn sucked in a breath.


    There it was, the blue dot with gibberish and West, once again, on the map.


    But now, the dot was inside the AID office.


    "W-What is this?"


    A hundred thoughts ran through his head, trying to find a reason behind the strange, bizarre phenomenon in front of him.


    "It must be a bug, yes, am''s Razor¡ª the simplest reason is the current reason," said Quinn. ". . . I just need to go down there to confirm it; yeah, that''d work."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stood on the corner of the hallway, the AID office in front of his eyes. Recon was still floating beside him, and the blue dot was moving inside the office and had moved to the workshop. . . as to his eyes, the dot was moving eerily like a human.


    A thought grew and dug its w in his mind, making Quinn stand on the corner, his eyes fixed on Recon, following the blue dot, waiting for the dot toe out of the office.


    His breathing quickened when the blue dor moved towards the workshop door and came into the office. Quinn gulped when the dot arrived at the office door, and his being stilled when he heard the sound of a door opening.


    Slowly, Quinn turned his neck up, removing his eyes from the map to the office door.


    A figure stepped out from the office, dressed in ck overalls¡ª the style of clothing was not something that Quinn could put his finger on, yet it seemed oddly familiar to him.


    The hallway was dark, situated in the inner region of the castle, with no open windows insight, and the fire torches had been extinguished after the curfew hour. Quinn focused magic into his eyes and, just as he had done in the Darkness of the Forbidden Forest, modified them to take in more light in night as many the animals who could see in the dark.


    With the adjusted eyes, Quinn could finally see the figure''s appearance.


    It was a man, and from its looks, the man was young¡ª young enough that Quinn could tell that it was a teen and not someone who had reached the age where their aging slowed down to match the lifespan of a magical human.


    ''. . . It was not a malfunction?''


    Quinn took a brief nce at Recon and then at the figure, who was walking away. His eyes turned determined. Quinn pocketed Recon and stepped out into the hallway.


    ''Whoever it is. I have to find out what is going on here.''


    Deciding that, Quinn took action.


    "Hello," he said and saw the unknown man jolt and turn towards him with a jerk.


    The unknown man''s eyes widened as he saw Quinn and took a step back, seemingly in surprise.


    ". . . Yes?"


    "It''s already after curfew, you know," said Quinn, keeping a calm smile on his face. "You''re not allowed to roam around after hours. Which house are you in?"


    ". . . S-Slytherin," said the unknown man.


    Quinn''s eyes narrowed. He remembered every student in Hogwarts by name and face, much less Slytherin, and he had profiles stored in his mindscape. And one thing was for sure, he sure didn''t know who this person was in front of him.


    However . . . . ording to Recon, the man in front of him was a student of Hogwarts, indicated by the blue dot, which only showed up when for Hogwarts students.


    "Slytherin, you say," said Quinn. "I''m sorry, but it seems my memory is failing me, and I can''t seem to recognize you¡ª would you mind telling me your name."


    The man stayed silent for a moment before the answer came,


    "My name is Damon."


    "I see. Damon is it. What are you doing here on the fifth floor instead of the dungeon?" Quinn asked.


    "N-Nothing, I was just here to see if I could find Professor . . . Flitchnick."


    "You mean, Professor Flitwick?" asked Quinn, keeping his voice constant.


    "Yes! Professor Flitwick!" said the unknown man.


    Quinn hummed silently. It wasn''t thatte after curfew, and he knew that around this time, the professors were usually in their personal offices, wrapping up their work for the day. The Head of Ravenw''s office, which Flitwick used as his office, was on the fifth floor.


    ''Recon shows him as a student, and he seems to know things about Hogwarts. . . . but that doesn''t exin it,'' thought Quinn.


    "Sorry to say this, Damon, but I find it a little hard to believe that you''re out to meet Professor Flitwick. I mean, you understand, right?"


    "Sorry, I will go back to the dorms immediately!"


    "Damon" turned and started to walk away with haste.


    But Quinn couldn''t let the man leave.


    Quinn snapped his finger, and magic gushed out of him, spreading out in every direction. Magical barries, glowing with yellow light, suddenly appeared on both ends of the AID hallway, blocking the unknown person''s path and trapping him with Quinn.


    The figure stopped in his tracks just before the yellow barriers appeared, his head turning up to look at the barrier.


    He turned slowly back as Quinn spoke.


    "I didn''t say you could leave, did I, Damon," said Quinn, staring dead at the man. "I lied to just now."


    "What?"


    "My memory doesn''t fail me ever, and I''m quite sure I have never seen you in Hogwarts, ever . . . so I will ask this only once¡ª Who are you?"


    Damon stared at Quinn for a moment before immediately turning towards the yellow barrier. He raised his arm, and an emerald spell shot out of his hand, hitting the yellow barrier, putting a deep crack into it.


    Quinn blinked his eyes in surprise. ''He didn''t use a wand, but that power.''


    Quinnmanded his magic, and before Damon could shoot another spell, which would''ve broken the barrier, the yellow barrier repaired itself and the color deepened by several shades.


    "That was surprising," said Quinn. "That barrier should''ve stopped any Hogwarts student, but you managed to put a crack on it. It seems you aren''t a normal student, are you."


    Damon turned to Quinn, his brows furrowed. "Listen . . . just let me go, would you? It will be good for both of us."


    "Sorry, but that isn''t going to happen," said Quinn. "You''re not going anywhere until I have answers to all my questions, which you''re going to answer¡ª willing or unwillingly."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Now, let''s have a nice talk, shall we?


    Damon - ??? - Just let me go.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I don''t know if it is obvious or not.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 306 - Quinn Vs Damon

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Let''s start with a simple question," said Quinn. "What is your name?"


    Damon stared at Quinn and his hands as he(Quinn) put on ck leather gloves. Damon''s brows furrowed as his bodynguage turned defensive.


    Quinn looked up, stretching the gloves to adjust the fit. "Hmm? Not answering, or was my question not clear enough? Is Damon your real name, or just something you made up from the top of your head?


    Silence? Well, we do have the entire night," said Quinn, seeing that Damon wasn''t answering his questions. "But, I do not appreciate this silence, so let me put another question on the table."


    His voice turned deeper as he asked, "Why is yourst name West?"


    The effect was immediate. Damon''s facial expression turned into one of shock, with wide eyes and eyebrows shooting up to his hairline after his body stiffened immediately.


    "Oh?" a smirk appeared on Quinn''s face. "It seems I was not wrong."


    Recon seemed to be working correctly.


    It wouldn''t have mattered if there was another West in Hogwarts, but as Quinn knew, there wasn''t any other West in Hogwarts; there wasn''t even another West family in the British Isles as it was a rarete family name for a magical family and the West family had only been producing one heir per generation for many generations¡ª Lia and Quinn being an outlier case in the family.


    ". . . How did you know?" asked Damon.


    "I wasn''t sure, but thank you for confirming," said Quinn, making Damon flinch.


    "Now, if I assume you are indeed named Damon, making you Damon West, the question arises if you''re the same West as my family and I. Which given the bnce of probability, I am sure you''re the same West as I am," said Quinn. "Which leads me to ask, what''s your origin, Damon?"


    There was another response of silence to Quinn''s question. Damon didn''t open his mouth, which was pressed into a line, and only stared at Quinn with a nk face.


    ''lumency,'' Quinn noticed theck of emotion. ''I wonder how long that wouldst.''


    "Come on, don''t be shy¡ª"


    Damon raised his hands, and two rings, one on each ring finger, glowed with sharp burning yellow re. He jutted his hands forward, and zaps of orange magic flew towards Quinn.


    A magical bluish-white shield appeared in front of Quinn and met the brunt of Damon''s spells. Slice. Quinn blinked in surprise as a tear appeared on his shield when the jet of magic started to split his magic.


    ''What is this magic?'' thought Quinn. He hadn''t seen this kind of severing spell if he could even call it that. It wasn''t strong or heavily loaded with magic, but it was still cutting through a shield cast with much stronger spells in mind.


    Quinn raised his hand, and a thrumming orb of bright magic manifested over his palm. He aimed it towards the iing spell and let the orb shoot out a thick beam of magic that swallowed Damon''s spell along with his own shields, then proceeded to barrel towards Damon with a ferocious charge.


    Damon''s rings again glowed. Quinn''s spell suddenly came to a screeching halt halfway, exploding into what seemed to be an invisible barrier, until the magic in Quinn''s attack was extinguished.


    Quinn lowered his hands and stared at Damon. "Hey, are those ring-type magical foci? I have seen those a few times, but I haven''t seen anyone use two at the same time. And what was the spell you used to bisect my shields; I haven''t seen anything like that in my studies. You''re bing more and more fascinating every second, Damon. I must know what''s the deal with you."


    Damon''s face twitched as his eyes narrowed. He shifted his body to face the side and ced one of his hands on the yellow barrier that blocked his path. The rings glowed again, and the barrier started to tremble and shriek violently.


    "Uh-uh, I''m not letting you go so easily," said Quinn. He spread his palm for a glowing-red colored chain made from Empyrean with a weight on end to sprout out from the middle of the palm and rattled towards Damon.


    To Quinn''s surprise, the ring-user released a bullet made from a familiar red magical malleable material and shot down the weight to another side.


    ''He used Empyrean,'' thought Quinn. ''But the color was darker than mine. Was his spell a different version from mine?''


    Damon, who wasn''t privy to Quinn''s thoughts, stepped up for the offense. Dozens of des made from the darker Empyrean appeared manifested around Damon. Quinn''s eyes widened when he saw what looked like red zaps of electric arcs dancing around every de.


    ''He has reached the level of adding elemental properties to Empyrean,'' thought Quinn, his eyes moving between Damon and his magical constructs in surprise.


    Empyrean was a magical material, capable of assuming a range of physical properties¡ª only limited by the caster''s skill and knowledge. However, achieving a wide range of those physical properties was a tricky task while using Empyrean. Empyrean could assume solid, liquid, and gaseous states. It could be flexible, rigid, semi-solids, or any form of simr properties. However, that was only one level. Above that level, additional properties like adding electric charge, making Emyrean burn, or an ice attribute that could freeze objects at contact, among other simr properties.


    The red arcs around the des were clearly a lightning attribute added to Empyrean.


    "Alright, so that''s how we are going to do it, huh," said Quinn to Damon. "Time for the kiddy gloves toe off."


    Damon didn''t reply, and the dozens of Empyrean des shot towards Quinn with lightning dancing around them.


    Suddenly, the temperature in the hallway between the two yellow barriers dropped, and the des ripping towards Quinn slowed down as if the energy had been sucked out of them, and before long, they came to a freezing halt in the air.


    Quinn and Damon''s breathing turned to white mist.


    Damon''s rings glowed brighter, and the Empyrean des started to chirp with lightning arcs and vibrating as he pushed in more magic to make them move. However, his eyes grew wider as he saw that not only did the des not move, a deposit of ice started to build on the des.


    ". . . Ice," muttered Damon. "That''s . . . ."


    Quinn''s raised his arm and clenched his fist for Damon''s Empyrean des to shatter into red and cold shards.


    This time, Quinn didn''t speak to Damon. He let the magic flow through his body, reaching his every muscle, and shot towards Damon like a cheetah.


    "Fast!" Damon eximed. His magic thrummed, and the marble tiling beneath, between Quinn and him, broke away, and the floor started to shake and split, aiming to throw Quinn off bnce.


    Quinn didn''t blink, flinch, or slow down. He kicked the floor and took a body magic-powered leap above; Quinn didn''t stop and immediately cast wind magic to push him up and ahead. He thrust his hands forward, and wind des flew out from his body and sheered towards Damon.


    Damon, though surprised, didn''t lose the focus of the fight and immediately countered with wind magic that surprised Quinn as his wind attacks were canceled out. Damon didn''t stop, and the broken tiles transfigured into metal chakras and shot up towards the mid-flight Quinn.


    Quinn didn''t give the metal chakras a nce and directly simul-cast two magics. The metal discsing towards groaned and crumbled into balls while a war hammer with a long handle made from Empyrean manifested in his hands cocked above his head, ready to be brought down directly on Damon.


    Damon''s pupils dted. He raised his hands above his head, and the twin rings glowed brightly as a shield manifested above his head.


    Bang! The war hammer cracked down on Damon''s shield. The shield flickered, its glow dimming as Quinn''s hammer did damage to its integrity.


    Quinn didn''t stop for the shield blocking him away from Damon to disappear andnded on the ground. Two spells charged up in his palm and shot them towards Damon the very second the shield copsed.


    ''This will hurt,'' thought Quinn as he jumped back a few steps.


    The next moment, a deep purple shield appeared in front of Damon, again blocking Quinn''s attack from reaching Damon. Quinn didn''t skip a beat and let the spells fizzle out; instead, he cast another magic, many times more potent than the previous attack. He again let the magic assault into the purple shield, and an explosion boomed on impact.


    When the magic settled, Damon stood behind the shield, staring at Quinn.


    "It''s not going to work," said Damon with aplicated in his eyes.


    Quinn, wide-eyed, stared at the unfazed shield. There wasn''t even a single speck of damage on it. Without a single word, Quinn charged his magic and cast a more powerful explosive offense magic onto the shield, sending more louder and brighter explosions, only contained by the yellow barriers that Quinn had cast.


    "Don''t waste your energy," said Damon, looking down his neckline at the soft glow underneath his clothes. "The shield is not going to break."


    Quinn didn''t stop and started the barrage of sessively stronger magic at the shield until he couldn''t cast a stronger magic that wouldn''t Hogwarts structural integrity.


    He stared at the shield and Damon for a while before sitting down on the floor. "You must be powerful for you to be able to cast a shield that I can''t even put a scratch on," he said.


    "It''s a magical item," said Damon as he watched Quinn cast magic on the floor, restoring it to the pre-fight stage.


    "So, who are you," asked Quinn. "Are you grandfather''s secret child that he kept hidden from the family? Or are you myte father''s illegitimate child that he had with a woman other than my mother?"


    Damon didn''t reply, though there was something in his eyes that Quinn couldn''t put a finger upon.


    "You can tell me, I don''t really mind if there''s another West out there," said Quinn. "Moreover, if you are family, I would like to know more about you¡ª and seeing that you were in the AID office, it seems you know about me, so it is only fair that you share something about yourself."


    "I . . . I, listen¡ª" Damon sighed. He went silent for a moment and stared at Quinn through the purple shield. After a few moments of silence, he reached into his clothes and grabbed the neck chain, and a ring glowter, the purple shield was gone.


    "Listen, I am not saying this for just avoiding answering, but I can''t really tell you¡ª"


    Damon''s eyes widened when he saw a smile on Quinn''s face. The next moment, ice rose from the floor, and before he could blink, he was covered in a block of ice till the neck. His eye jumped down, trying to look at his hands, but he could only feel it as the rings on his hands were twisted out from his fingers and taken away from him.


    Quinn stood up from the floor and walked towards the frozen Damon and stretched his hand as the rings encased in pockets of water flew out of ice andnded into his hands.


    "Give those back!"


    Quinn picked up the ring and raised it to his eye line to observe it.


    "You shouldn''t trust your opponent so easily," said Quinn. "I mean, even if you''re a West, I don''t know you, so yeah . . . it is your fault."


    Damon growled as he red at Quinn with anger, betrayal shing in his eyes.


    "I will check them outter," Quinn pocketed the rings and looked at Damon. "For now, I would like to get my answers; from the looks of it, you aren''t going to get them from your mouth, so we are going to use the magical route."


    He stepped closer to Damon and spoke, "If you would look into my eyes and rx, everything will be over before you know it."


    Damon''s eyes widened, realizing what would happen, and he couldn''t close them as magic held them open. "No, wait! Stop!"


    "Oh my, I couldn''t see it in this light, but you have heterochromia. That''s neat¡ª well, at least one of them is stone-grey."


    "Stop! Please, you don''t want to do this!"


    Quinn reached out with Legilimency into Damon''s mind with a calm smile. The smile froze and died down as Damon tried to struggle out of the freezing bind.


    He couldn''t feel a mind where a mind should be. His Legilemency couldn''t find the presence of a mind inside Damon. It was something that had never happened¡ª everyone had a mind, no matter if they were unprotected as a newborn baby or as protected as n D. Baddeley''s.


    "Damon . . . where is your mind?"


    Quinn frowned when he didn''t hear anything from Damon, not even sounds of him struggling. He focused out and on his face to see that Damon''s wide eyes were staring behind him.


    "Where are you looking at?"


    He turned and suddenly came across a man dressed in a suit standing behind him, staring at him with eyes that he had only seen on two other people.


    Before he could speak or make a move, his entire body froze. Every muscle in his body betrayed him and refused to obey hismand.


    "I would like to have my son released."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Yeah, I don''t care about fairness.


    Damon - West??? - Naive? Or is there a reason?


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Well? How about that!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 307 - Meeting Of Wests

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I would like to have my son released."


    Quinn, with his eyes blown wide open, stared at the man; it was all he could do when his body was under the influence of binding magic, something that, no matter how much Quinn resisted with no amounts of magic or spells, didn''t budge one bit.


    The man looked to be in histe twenties, which in magical human lifespan meant the man was at least inching towards sixty. But that fact only lingered in the back of Quinn''s chain of thoughts as his mind was dominated by the man''s stone-grey eyes and jet ck hair. He had only seen those features on three people ¡ª himself, George, and Lia.


    "Are you Adam West?" Quinn asked. He had seen photographs of hister father, and he could definitely see simrities.


    The man nced at him before turning back to Damon. The ice that bound Damon poofed into a white mist that was blown away with a gust of wind, all under themand of the man with stone-grey eyes.


    "D-Dad," said Damon with his head bowed, not daring to look at his father.


    "Damon," said the man, "you are a massive imbecile."


    Damon flinched at the choice of words, and his head lowered even further, his eyes not fixed on his feet.


    "I won''t usually say this to you, but when you ignore basicmon sense and mess with something that you''re not aware of or even remotely knowledgable about, I have no choice but to wonder if my image of you as a bright young man needs to be re-evaluated," said Damon''s father. "I''m actively contemting if I should punish you here and now, and the only reason I am of two minds about it is that this is not the time and ce to do so . . . .


    Damon cowered in the face of the cutting words from his father as the man spoke in a grave, no-nonsense tone without a speck of humor or light-heartedness in them. Damon could only imagine what expression was there on his father''s face, only that it wasn''t going to be the one he usually sported¡ª and that frightened him enough to not look at him while he was talking.


    ". . . . So before we return home and we have a serious discussion about your actions today and the chain of dire consequences that it could''ve set forth¡ª I suggest that you take the time and think long and hard about what you have done today because even if I was, hypothetically, not to reprimand you, which believe me I''m definitely going to do¡ª your mother would have no such mercy."


    Damon quivered as his father finished speaking and could no longer look more pitiful.


    Damon''s father''s eyes went to his son''s clenched hands. "Where are your rings, Damon?"


    ". . . He took them," said Damon in a feeble voice.


    The man turned his eyes to Quinn, who felt his pockets open up, and soon two metallic rings flew out and into the man''s hands. He raised one ring to his eye level and observed them before repeating the process with the other one.


    After he was done, the father turned to his son and showed him the magical rings. "I''m keeping them with me until we return home, and I will let your mother decide when you''ll get them back."


    "You can''t do that; that''s not fair!"


    "You''re in no position to say or tell me what is fair and what is not."


    His father''s stern voice made Damon back down to only show his frustration through gritted teeth, zing eyes, and clenched fists.


    Quinn, who had been listening to the father and son conversation, finally took the chance to speak up when the conversation fell into a strained lull. "Hey, I''m not one to interfere in family time, but can you unbind me? It is getting ufortable here."


    The man stared at Quinn for a while before he slightly bent his elbow up and flicked his wrist up.


    "Woah!" Quinn eximed when his feet left the floor, and he was raised into the air, without even given a choice to awkwardly il around with his body bound tight. "Hey, let me down! I can walk and am willing to cooperate."


    The man ignored Quinn and nced at Damon, "Follow me," before turning away to walk with Damon following on foot with Quinn gliding in the air.


    Damon snickered as he walked past Quinn to just behind his father, making Quinn re at him.


    "Hey, hey, you''re not allowed in there," said Quinn when he realized where the man was leading them.


    The man once again ignored Quinn and opened the door of the AID office with a look, and walked inside. After taking a step in, the man stopped and looked around the office for a good while in silence¡ª his eye moved from the office desk in the front to the ss wall on the side and moved over all the decor and knick-knacks that adorned the room.


    "Damon, go and wait in the workshop while I clean this mess up," said the man and waved his hand for the workshop door''s locking mechanism to click open.


    Damon stared at his father and Quinn for a second before slipping into the workshop, leaving Quinn and his father alone.


    The man snapped his finger, and Quinn dropped down on the floor with his bindings alsoing off.


    Quinn got control of himself just in time to remain standing, albeit with a slight stumble. If it was another situation, Quinn would''ve resorted to magic to fight or flight, but in the current situation, where the man had fully incapacitated him without breaking a sweat¡ª the better strategy here was to see what the man wanted.


    ''He hasn''t harmed me till now . . . .''


    The man walked to the chair behind the office table. He stopped and stared at thefy chair with cushions and actual back support that Astoria had brought in to rece Quinn''s barebones barstool. As the man stared at the chair, it warped and creaked to turn into a barstool for the man to take a seat.


    "Sit down," said the man, motioning with his hand for a customer chair to ce it opposite to him.


    Quinn sat down in the customer seat, something he felt a bit ufortable doing. In his tenure, he had been on the opposite side of the table where the unknown was sitting.


    "Sorry for all this mess," said the man, "I didn''t believe my son would make such a mess out of things."


    Quinn observed the man for a moment. His tone seemed to be genuinely apologetic even though his facials weren''t reflecting the said tone. He shrugged, "Other than breaking and entering, your son didn''t do much damage, though, in these times, those petty crimes can be serious, especially in Hogwarts."


    "Ah yes, breaking into Hogwarts is supposedly a big deal."


    "Yes, that is what everyone says," Quinn chuckled, recalling the fact there had been notable break-ins into the castle.


    "And to think Death Eaters would invade the castle soon," said the man.


    "Yeah . . . . . . what?" Quinn''s eyes got locked onto the man, who sat nonchntly as if he hadn''t said anything of importance. "What did you say?"


    "Hmm? I said Death Eater in Hogwarts."


    ". . . How do you know that? Do you have an in with the Death Eater?" asked Quinn, emotion draining from his face. "Wait a minute, you still haven''t told me who you are. Are you grandfather''s illegitimate child or something?"


    The man chuckled, "It''s quite amusing to me that you can''t recognize me. Sure it has been ages, but I don''t think I have changed in looks that much."


    Quinn frowned. He couldn''tprehend what the man was talking about. "What do you mean¡ª . . . . ."


    The realization was sudden, heavy, and cut through the confusion like a sharp de.


    Quinn leaned forward in his chair and spoke in a sombre voice, "Prove it."


    "Proof, huh. Well, how about you let the voice in your head take over; I am interested in talking to that version."


    "Don''t even joke about it!" Quinn red, his magic ring as things rattled in the office. "And that''s not enough proof¡ª that secret is not strong enough," after all, the strongest secret was one where only a single person knew about it. "If you''re who you say you''re, then you know what qualifies as proof."


    "Well, how about that fact that you moonlight as a brutal invisible vignte."


    "Don''t skirt around it!"


    "I don''t like to bring that up. It''s not part of my life anymore. Unlike you, I have moved on," the older man sighed and massaged his temple.


    Quinn showed no reaction and kept his gaze trained on


    "But if you do insist, then I shall bring it up once," said the man. He looked at Quinn and spoke softly, "This world is supposedly one from a piece of fiction, and you''re an outsider. We overtook at age four, and well, I think that''s enough.


    Happy now?"


    "Not one bit," said Quinn snapping back immediately. This time he was the one to rub his temple, but unlike his rxedpanion, he was feeling a headacheing up. "I can believe I would be meeting my older self. How am I supposed to react to this?"


    "How about with a greeting," said future-Quinn with a rxed grin. "Hello, Quinn. I am Quinn."


    "You!" Quinn stared at the man incredulously. "How can you be so nonchnt about this?!"


    "What do you mean?"


    "What do you mean, ''What do you mean?'' You are NOT supposed to be here!!!"


    "You don''t think I know that," said future-Quinn. "Why do you think I''m here? To have a leisure trip? No. I''m here to clean the mess up."


    "You speak like this is not your problem," scoffed Quinn. "You''re the main reason behind this whole problem."


    "Excuse me? I haven''t done anything wrong here."


    "Yeah, right," Quinn scoffed again. He pointed at the closed workshop door. "There''s no way that guy capable of creating a device like time-turner that could allow the user to travel back decades¡ª much less, cast temporal magic with simr effects."


    "Hey. That''s my son you''re talking about," said future-Quinn. "My son is the most talented of his age. If I was topare, Damon is on the same level as Dumbledore and Riddle when they were his age."


    "Good for him. But that doesn''t change the fact that when even I haven''t made a fraction of progress, that would be required for this TYPE and LEVEL of time travel. If I can''t do it, forget about Dumbledore, the Dark Lord, or even Grindelwald¡ª and so I doubt Damon would be able to aplish that.


    And honestly, the only other way I see this is happening is that YOU were careless and YOU messed up, making this all YOUR fault."


    "I don''t like the tone you''re taking, kid," said future-Quinn. "You might want to reign that in."


    "I am just pointing fault where it lies, old man," said Quinn. "Has your skin thinned with old age? What a tragedy; I hope I don''t turn up like you."


    "Was I always this annoying?" said future-Quinn. "Nope, don''t think so. You''ve got that annoying quality of being irritating."


    The present and future (past and present) stared at each other with upturned noses, looking down on each other.


    "Alright, enough of this," said Quinn, "I hope you have a way to fix this mess because both you and I know how things can turn out when temporalws are messed with."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC(Present) - I hope I don''t turn like him.


    Quinn West - MC(Future) - Man, this kid sure is annoying.


    Damon West - Future West - Has his ear on the wall, trying to listen.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis

 Chapter 308 - Conversation Between Two

    [


    A/N:


    The world of online novels (fanfiction and originals) has one "issue" that I havee to notice. Unlike traditionally published works, where you read on one book at a time, and the entire story is already written, online novels are usually "ongoing," and people are reading multiple works at any given time¡ª such is the world of online novels, filled with so much content. But a problem arises that readers (including myself) are sometimes not able to keep all the facts retained in their minds. And from thest chapter''sments, I have noticed that is the case for MY version of time travel¡ª it is a bit different.


    So to refresh that part of the story, you can read the [ Ivy-Hermione-Quinn-Time-Travel ] mini-arc. I will link those chapters below. However, I will also try to put those facts in this chapter as part of the conversation.


    **Start ofst time travel mini-arc**: CHAPTER 104: Summons, Repayment, Negotiation


    **But if you want to get to the good stuff**: CHAPTER 106: Dementor Horde, Time Magic, Free Will


    ]


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Let''s start from the beginning," said Quinn, tapping his finger on his armrest. "You and Damon have time-traveled past the five hours safety limit. So please, tell me you know what you were doing before you made a time-traveling apparatus that doesn''t implement that limit as a restriction."


    Time travel was dangerous, and traveling back extended periods could cause catastrophic disasters. The Unspeakable Departement of the British Ministry of Magic had experimented with time travel by sending one of their own back in time by several centuries. The experiment, while a hazardous failure, had taught the Unspeakables a lot about time travel¡ª the woman sent back in time when pulled back to the present, rapidly aged the time she had been sent back (centuries), and died as her lifespan ran out¡ª not only that, but the woman''s interactions with the past had caused massive changes in the timeline. The experiment had resulted in people getting killed, othersing to life, and several others being erased from existence, a phenomenon known as unbirths. [canon]


    "You have jumped back quite a few decades in the past," said Quinn to future-Quinn, "and from your behavior, you''re not worried about the consequences, so I am assuming you have found to time travel without triggering those nasty side effects."


    "Temporal magic or chronomancy are vast fields, my young and naive self; I can''t im to have mastered time, so all I can say is that it is a work-in-progress," future-Quinn shrugged. "And don''t give me that look; you¡ª well us¡ª have time-traveled without knowing zilch about temporal magic."


    "Your lumency must''ve degraded," said Quinn, his mood worsening, "I followed a strict set of rules and restrictions when I traveled¡ª kept my footprint minimal, only traveled within the permitted limit, and more importantly, I made sure NOT to meet myself!


    This case, on the other hand, has a person who hasn''t been born yet travel to the time before their birth; you both have traveled way beyond the stable limit, and I don''t need to say this, but we are meeting face-to-face."


    "Way to go stating the obvious," said the future-Quinn, "yes, I know all of those facts¡ªand obviously, if I''m not freaking out, then I have taken care of those factors."


    Quinn was about to say something, but future-Quinn raised his hand and continued to speak.


    "You don''t have to be worried about the closed-loop nature of time travel . . ."


    A closed-loop was a temporal proposition in which, by means of time travel, a sequence of events is among the causes of another event, which is, in turn, among the causes of the first-mentioned event. In simple words, when a future event is the cause of a past event, which in turn is the cause of the future event. Time travel achieved through Time-Turners was the closed-loop type of time travel.


    ". . . You don''t have to worry that because I time-traveled back in time, you in the future will go through this very exact situation and travel back in time," finished future-Quinn. "That''s not going to happen to you."


    The closed-loop time travel couldn''t change past as what was going to happen was always going to happen with the time travel a part of those events. Once a Quinn West triggered closed-loop time travel, every Quinn moving on would walk down the same path. During the Dementor horde by thekeside, Quinn was always going to be saved by a future version of Quinn¡ª that version of events was always set in stone¡ª such was the closed-loop theory of time travel.


    "S-So, you''re saying that this time travel is NOT in ordance with the closed-loop theory," said Quinn. "You really found a way to do that?"


    "Of course, I did; who do you think you''re talking to," said future-Quinn.


    "How did you do that?"


    "It would go over your little head, so there''s no use of me exining the logic behind it all."


    Quinn''s face twitched, and an angry vein throbbed on his temple. "Doesn''t change the fact that you screwed up big time," he jabbed back.


    "Yeah, that''s getting old;e up with something new," said future-Quinn.


    "It is clear that your son isn''t capable of casting temporal magic strong enough to travel this back in time, so I''m assuming he used a device that you created."


    "That is correct," sighed future-Quinn.


    "So do tell me, how did he get his hands on something so dangerous," asked Quinn. He had all the dangerous stuff secured under lock-&-key-&-magic inside his briefcase. It boggled his mind that a future version of himself would be so careless.


    "I know what you''re thinking," said future-Quinn, eyeing Quinn. He sighed, "He got into my workshop at home and swiped it when I wasn''t looking."


    "That''s in stupid," said Quinn bluntly, "why didn''t you have wards around your workshop."


    "Because, unlike you, my workshop isn''t in Hogwarts. It is in my house where I don''t need to worry about people breaking in, and believe me, my house is a nightmare for people who want to intrude upon my family and my privacy. And it is not like it waspletely unguarded; it has more ''top-of-the-line'' protection publicly avable in my time," which meant that future-Quinn had tech he hadn''t released to the world.


    "What good did that do when a teenager is able to beat it. Why wasn''t it activated?"


    Future-Quinn once again sighed, "I disable when I''m working in there because I don''t like the magical interference from the wards and spells while I''m working on some very delicate and sophisticated projects. And Damon sneaked in during an emergency when I had no time to enable the protection."


    "What emergency?"


    "My daughter tripped and fell."


    ". . . What?"


    "My daughter fell in the gardens and scraped her knee. I had a micro-drone with an audio-video setup following her around, so when she started crying, I had to dash to her side. I didn''t return to my workshop untilter that evening, and because I wasn''t working on the ''Time-Turner,'' I didn''t notice it had gone missing."


    "I-I see," said Quinn; he couldn''t wrap his mind around the image. "How did Damon even know you were working on something like that?"


    "Because of my track record of working on project that . . . technically . . . could be seen as dangerous, I have to tell what I''m currently working on¡ª usually, he''s at school, but he was at home when I talked about it."


    Quinn didn''t know if he should take this as a valid excuse or not, so he decided to move on.


    "How did you know that Damon had traveled back?" asked Quinn. "I mean, you got here pretty quickly. . . ."


    "When you reach a level at temporal magic as I am, you learn how to feel when there are changes in the time streams around you¡ª I can feel the distortions as long as they''re within a few dozen kilometres. And Damon was in only in his room, so the distortions when he jumped sounded like resounding bells."


    "I see, so you have multiple of your versions of your Time-Turners?"


    "No. I have multiple prototypes, but I only had one working, which is the one Damon picked up. I came here using temporal magic," he sighed, "which I''m still not used or experienced in¡ª thank god, I acted quickly when the time distortions were still fresh, or else I would''ve not been able to track him down."


    "That''s a bit too much luck I''mfortable with."


    "I agree."


    "So what now?" asked Quinn. "You have been saying that you have to fix things, and as this is not a closed-loop, I''m not even sure what kind of problems needs to be addressed."


    "There are some that I need to address that you don''t need to know."


    Quinn clicked his tongue before he gazed at his future self. He had to say, he liked what he was seeing. He looked sharp and well-built, and even though he hadn''t told much about himself, it looked like things had been going well for him.


    "So. . . how''s life?" asked Quinn.


    Future-Quinn gazed at Quinn for a bit before a smile appeared on his face. "It is good," he said. "Life after . . . canon . . . have been much more than what you''re living now. The world has much more to offer than what Hogwarts has, and there are so many interesting people out there to meet and learn from."


    "People like Mr. n?"


    "Yes, people like n. Ah, now that I remember, you''re going to apprentice under him after Hogwarts."


    "Yes, that is the n. So. . . did you break into his mind?" asked Quinn.


    The expression on future-Quinn''s face told it all. He looked like the topic repulsed him, and talking about it was thest thing he wanted to talk about.


    "You weren''t able to break in?"


    ". . . I was able to break into his mind, sure . . . but I was toote," said future-Quinn. "He was already old when I started apprentice under him, and by the time I was able to gain enough skill, he was already on the decline¡ª I wasn''t able topete against him at his best."


    "So, Mr. n is . . . ."


    Future-Quinn nodded, "It has been a while."


    A silence descended between the two.


    "Come on, let''s move on," said future-Quinn, waving his hand. He looked around the AID office. "It has been a while I have been here¡ª thest time I was in the office, it looked nothing like this."


    "When were you here?"


    "Hmm. . . it has been a decade, give or take. Damon''s the current proprietor, and I haven''t what he has done with the ce," said future-Quinn.


    "Really? Did he get it on his own, or did you pull some strings? I hope he didn''t get AID because he''s your son."


    "He got it on his own. The active AID proprietors only know about me and the other older proprietors when they graduate from Hogwarts, so Damon''s predecessor didn''t know that I was the one who created AID. Until a few months back, even Damon also didn''t know that I was the one who created AID."


    "What? You didn''t tell him?"


    "I won''t lie by saying that I didn''t have expectations from Damon to get AID. So I refrained from telling him about it so it would bepletely fair and made sure that neither Luna nor Astoria told him anything. It was going to be revealed to him after he graduated in the annual AID proprietors meet, but Astoria couldn''t keep her mouth shut, and well, here we are."


    "Luna and Astoria, huh. How are they doing? Is the blood curse still there?"


    "Astoria was cured a while back before she hit thirty. As for Luna, she''s a magizoologist as we thought; I visit her once a month, wherever she''s exploring. Both are sessful in their respective field and, as far as I can tell, happy with their lives."


    "What about Eddie and Marcus? You''re still friends with them, right?"


    A big smile bloomed on future-Quinn''s face. "They''re still my best friends. Thank magic for that. Both are doing tremendously. Eddie ys for a Quidditch team owned by yours truly. Marcus did end up working for the family business, and as we expected, he works closely with Lia."


    "Oh, Lia? How''s she doing? Has she be the most powerful woman in the world."


    "She has!" future-Quinnughed, thoroughly amused. "I said the same thing to her when she took the chair as the head of the business. She was quite happy with that when I told it to her."


    Future-Quinn took out a strange pocket watch from his pocket and flipped it open to look at a glowing and shimmering watch-face.


    "Time''s up, kid. We have to leave now. I have to fix this problem and don''t have much time." Future-Quinn sighed, "Why did Damon have to do this today? My evening was booked with my lovely niece, and now, I don''t know if I''ll be able to make it."


    Future-Quinn got up from his barstool, but before he could even stand up straight, Quinn spoke up.


    "Hey, listen. . . ."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC(Present) - Heard some interesting things.


    Quinn West - MC(Future) - Has experienced many exciting things.


    Damon West - Future West - Can''t hear anything because of a silencing ward.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Hold your thoughts about the conversation. It''s not over yet. The next chapter is going to be the end of this mini-arc, I think.


    Edit: No, the next chapter is not the end of the arc.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 309 - It Had To Be This Way

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Hey, listen . . . ."


    Future-Quinn turned away from the red workshop door to face Quinn and gazed at his younger self for a moment and a half before he ended up sighing. Future-Quinn stepped back behind the office desk and re-seated himself on the transfigured barstool.


    "Here I thought you were skirting around the topic because you understood the situation and my predicament," a wry smile curled upon his lips. "Even though I know what you''re about to ask me, go ahead and say it."


    Quinn smiled bitterly. He didn''t want to bring this up¡ª as future-Quinn had said, the circumstance didn''t make it easier for him(future-Quinn) to answer the questions.


    "Can you help me with the curse," he asked.


    "Ah yes, the curse; it has been a long-long while since I''ve heard or thought about that," future-Quinn breathed out, his eyes taking over a faraway look. "I know you won''t believe me because I wouldn''t believe me, but the best thing you can do here is to help yourself¡ª there''s no running away from the curse. We both know better than anyone else that dealing with the Sin curse is thest thing we want to do . . . ever. But the reality of the situation is that the day you dove back into the Sin Vault, you made this fight a solitary one, at least in this stage of the battle."


    "You really can''t help me? Is the curse bad enough that even YOU can''t help me? I''m confident that by your age, I would be much better than Soul magic than Mr. n is right now."


    "I left n in the dust in Soul magic ages ago, kid," said future-Quinn, scoffing. "And yes, I''ve enough skill that I can make the Sin curse go away from your life, but I can''t do it right now¡ª it''d take some time for me to work with you to get it out of your soulscape¡ª it''s stuck in there like a parasite, growing its hold upon you.


    But as it is clear here, I can''t stay here for the time required."


    Quinn leaned into his chair and massaged his temple. It wasn''t like he didn''t expect his future self able to make his problems go away.


    "Give me something that will help me; anything would do."


    Future-Quinn stared at Quinn for a silent moment, making Quinn feel ufortable, and just when Quinn was going to dismiss the question, future-Quinn spoke, "I have three things that I can tell you¡ª


    First, take care of the curse as soon as possible; there''s no plus point in dying it, and it won''t give you any added value. Second is the most important one, so listen carefully¡ª YOU are YOU; don''t forget that, no matter if you''re under the curse''s influence or not, Quinn West will remain Quinn West . . ."


    Quinn furrowed his brows. He could understand the logic behind the first point, but the second''s wording was particrly vague.


    ". . . and finally, this might sound absolutely dreadful, but when you get rid of the curse . . . go back to the Sin Vault."


    ". . . What?" The single word was enough to show Quinn''s reaction, and the bizarreness he was feeling was creeping up his tone.


    "Yes, you''re not hearing me wrong," said future-Quinn. "You need to go inside again; you''ll regret if you don''t go inside¡ª the more you dy solving the curse, the more you would dy your descend into the vault, and when you find what I''m talking about, you''llment your decision."


    Quinn''s gentle furrow hard turned into an angry frown twitching between his brows. He was confused and honestly regretting asking his future self because if before, he was hesitant and touchy about his uing bout with the curse, but now it felt like his future self had taken a syringe and injected pure chaos directly into his mind.


    ". . . I-I''ll think about it," said Quinn, trying to move on. His hand went through his hair and sighed with a grumble, "Why did you have to say that . . . to make it up, now it is all I will be able to think about."


    A wry smile appeared on future-Quinn''s face. "Don''t worry about it . . . It won''t bother you for long."


    "You say that, but I don''t even know how it will turn out when I pull down my shield."


    "It wille intuitively. When you''re in the thick of it, you''ll know what to do," said future-Quinn, and Quinn noticed that his future self once again had a look as when he(Quinn) had broached the Sin curse topic. "Even though I can''t reveal it to you, I can hope that you understand that you''ll be fine."


    Both Quinn''s matched eyes squarely, and a broad smile rose on future-Quinn''s face, and he spoke a few words in a firm yetforting tone that made Quinn''s eyes widen.


    "Everything is going to be fine."


    ". . . H-Hey, are you using some magic?" asked Quinn as he felt himself calm down.


    "No, I''m not using any magic, I promise," said future-Quinn. "It''s pure charisma if I do say myself."


    "Stop using magic."


    "Told you, I''m not using any."


    The red workshop door opened, making both Quinn-s turn in unison, making Damon still at the door as the unison between his father and . . . the younger version of his father freaked him out a little.


    "Good timing," said future-Quinn, standing up, "we''re about to leave."


    Damon breathed a sigh in relief and fully stepped outpletely. His eyes automatically went to Quinn, who was staring at him.


    "What?" asked Damon.


    "Why did youe here?" asked Quinn. "You had a device that could''ve taken you anywhere in time, but you decided toe to this date; it makes me curious about your reasoning."


    Damon felt two pairs of eyes on him, and he averted his eyes from both. He rubbed the back of his neck and heaved a big sigh as he revealed with closed eyes.


    "Dad doesn''t have many friends¡ª"


    "Hey!"


    "¡ª but those he''s friends with, he''s very close to¡ª Uncle Marcus and Eddie and of course Auntie Luna, and a few more that I think dad actually considers to be his close friends . . ."


    Quinn nced at future-Quinn. Hogwarts was a contained world, but the real world was anything but. It made sense to Quinn that his future self would keep a small friend circle, knowing how many people would want to get close to him for their own selfish desires and see him as a way to aplish those desires.


    ". . . and every one of them is always telling me stories about dad¡ª even the ghosts are all praises about him, and I guess I wanted to see it for myself," said Damon; however, both Quinns could feel that there were plenty of things left unsaid.


    Quinn thought maybe Damon had beenpared with him and his guess seemed correct from the looks of it.


    "I actually didn''t want toe to this time," said Damon.


    "What?" future-Quinn frowned. "What do you mean?"


    "I wanted to go sometime in the future, but I made a mistake in the input and ended up at this date."


    Unnoticed by anyone, future-Quinn''s eyes narrowed a fraction for a brief moment before they went to normal.


    Quinn intelligently didn''t broach the topic that seemed to bring an awkward tone in the room and turned to his future self to directly ask, "I tried to enter his mind earlier; why was I unable to find even a single spec of an actual mind inside his body?"


    "Hmm? Ah yes, that was because of runic magic that I''m still tinkering with. He has a chain around his neck with a runic cluster inscribed inside a pendant piece¡ª as long as he doesn''t remove it, his mind would remain hidden to a Legilemns. However, because I am still tinkering with it, if you kept at it, you''d have been able to find the mind." Future-Quinn turned to Damon and said in a half-warning tone, "You better not ck off on your lumency. That pendant isn''t an ultimate defense, and it would never be."


    "I am not cking off," said Damon, rolling his eyes.


    "Oh good," said Quinn, "I thought lumency had taken a major leap, and I was being outssed by him¡ª no offense, Damon."


    "If you say so¡ª err . . ." Damon looked between both Quinns, wondering how to address the younger version of his father.


    "We''re about to leave, so you don''t have to worry about what to call him," said future-Quinn.


    Quinn shrugged. He was fine as long as he wasn''t called dad or father or anything on those lines.


    "What about the ring foci?" asked Quinn. "Have thews regarding wands changed in the country because they don''t allow other foci in Hogwarts."


    Damon shook his head, "Thews are the same. I started with a wand and still have one. The rings, I got them six months ago," he looked at future-Quinn.


    "I was messing with ring foci and by pure luck was able to craft a pair of rings that act as one focus," said future-Quinn when his younger self looked at him. "I had people try them out to check thepatibility, and Damon was the one who matched the rings the best."


    "You''re working on magical foci; why?" asked Quinn. "Do you use them?"


    "Of course not!" future-Quinn sounded deeply offended. "I don''t have to use them to work with them¡ª though, it does make things a lot harder to work on."


    "Also, why would you make them glow. That was a dead give in the low light."


    "I didn''t add the glow," future-Quinn pointed at Damon, "that was he trying to look cool."


    Quinn shook his head at Damon, "Not cool, mate."


    Damon once again rolled his eyes. What do they know about being cool?


    Quinn nced at his future self and transferred his voice directly to him, barring Damon from hearing the conversation, "He has heterochromia," he said, "and I know you were trying to keep some things hidden, but that pretty much gives it out."


    Quinn nced at Damon''s eyes, and the two colors were striking to each other. One was darker by its nature, while the other sparkled to the point that it was the first thing anyone would notice about Damon.


    "Does it surprise you?" future-Quinn''s voice came directly to Quinn''s ears.


    "I don''t know how to feel about it. My thoughts are nowhere marriage, much less having children, and from what I know, you have at least two children," sounded Quinn. "I don''t want to think about right now."


    "You don''t have to. There are much more important things to focus on right now."


    Quinn nodded; however, his eyes remained fixed on Damon and his eyes.


    "Alright, let''s get going," future-Quinn pped once. "Come on, children, say your goodbyes like good boys."


    "Is he always like this?" asked Quinn to Damon.


    "Unfortunately," nodded Damon.


    "Kids . . . no matter what the age, are the same, they don''t appreciate the good stuff," future-Quinn shook his head. He turned to Quinn, "You take care of yourself. It''s about to get hectic, so take care and watch your back at all times. Also, take care of grandfather, Lia, Uncle Elliot, and Ms. Rosey," he sighed, "you already know what to do, so just be careful, okay."


    Quinn nodded in appreciation.


    "Now, it''s time for us to leave," said future-Quinn and looked around the office, "and I don''t think we should do it here¡ª it''s too crowded here, and things can get chaotic."


    "We can do it in the corridor. I''ll be on the lookout while you guys leave," said Quinn.


    "Lead the way, young one."


    Quinn walked to the office door and was about to open the door when he noticed that he couldn''t hear any notice. He turned to face the two time travelers, "What happened¡ª," only to see future-Quinn, raising a hand towards him.


    "Wh¡ª"


    That was all he could get out before his vision rapidly turned back and found himself slowly falling down before he knew no more.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC(Present) - Learned a lot today.


    Quinn West - MC(Future) - "Watch your back . . . ."


    Damon West - Future West - User of the first Quinn-made magical focus.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Notice the irony?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 310 - The Second Coming Of Balbh

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Damon''s eyes followed his father''s past self''s falling body after being hit by his father''s spell and flinched when the thump sounded in the room. He turned to his father, his eyes threatening to bulge out.


    "What was that about?" he asked.


    Future-Quinn raised his younger self''s body and floated him into the seat Quinn had just vacated. Ropes sprung out from the wooden chair and wrapped around Quinn''s arms, legs, and torso, securing him upright to the chair.


    "Are you going to Obliviate him?"


    Future-Quinn gazed at unconscious Quinn, all the fun and smiles gone from his face, and all that remained was a look of rumination. Damon observed his father''s face, and he couldn''t remember thest time he had seen him look like that¡ª sure, there were many times he had seen his father contemtive while working, but this was the first time it was like this.


    "Using here revealed a lot about the future he shouldn''t know, and I myself revealed a lot about the future to him," future-Quinn broke the silence. "Time travel isplicated, especially what we''re doing. For us to return home safely, I couldn''t allow him to retain memories of what he had retained here. It would''ve been all dandy for him, but we would''ve a lot of problems back home."


    Future-Quinn turned away from Quinn to a painting on the wall. He raised his hand for the sticking charm toe undone and the painting to float in front of him.


    "Um, what are you doing?" asked Damon with an uncertain tone.


    With a snap of his fingers, future-Quinn disassembled the frame and moved them away in the air, leaving behind the artwork floating in front of him.


    "The moment we entered the office, he knew there was a possibility that his memory might be tampered with, so he took measures against it," said future-Quinn, half-chuckling.


    Damon stepped closer to his father, and his eyes widened when he saw the canvas flip. Written in tiny ck letters were lines upon lines of words, stretching from one corner of the canvas to the other, spanning across the length. He stepped ever closer and leaned forward to take a better look and recognized the context of the sentences through keywords.


    "H-He wrote everything down?!" Damon said, sputtering, his eyes swarming between the canvas, his father, and the unconscious teenager.


    "Of course, why wouldn''t he?" said future-Quinn, matter-of-factly. "When you meet someone from the future, it is beneficial that you somehow write it down . . . . I know him¡ª he wouldn''t have written anything in open view, so he wrote it down on the back of the painting.


    There isn''t any disadvantage for him because there isn''t going to be any damage to his timeline, but because we decided to share the knowledge of the future, we have invited danger to our own timeline¡ª and if we left him like this, our world would''ve changed quite a lot."


    "But, but, if he knew there was a chance that his memory would be exchanged, then how would he remember that he has everything written down behind the painting?"


    Future-Quinn swept his hand over the back of the canvas, and the words disappeared, leaving behind the clean canvas as it was before. Then he turned the canvas to the front to show the painting.


    "This was painted by your Aunt Luna. Half of the artwork in this room was made by Luna." Future-Quinn pointed at the dismantled frame floating in the air. "However, this frame is special as she''d rece the painting in it every few months to keep the office¡ª as she used to say¡ª peppy. He knew that when Luna would remove the painting, she would notice the writing on the back that she clearly didn''t write. He even made sure that Luna woulde to him with the painting by telling her in the first line."


    Damon''s jaw ckened as he looked at Quinn. They were the same age; how could he think all of this while all the crazy was happening.


    "But, he''s prideful in his skill with magic," said future-Quinn, scoffing with what sounded like self-deprecation. "He didn''t think I would be able to sense him use magic. What a fool. How did he think that ¡ª I ¡ª wouldn''t be able to sense ¡ª him ¡ª use magic."


    The frame on the painting came back together, and the assembled artwork was once again sent to the wall, fixed with a sticking charm. As if it had never been removed.


    "I have a question," said Damon¡ª there was something that bothered him. "If you were going to erase his memories, why would you spend the time to tell him so much?"


    "The Time-Turner you have is nowhere near perfect, and you were a bigger fool to use it without knowing anything about it," a stern voice reprimanded Damon. "The device leaves the streams of time in disarray, and the steams connecting here to our home is distorted and traveling through that is dangerous and unstable¡ª one could even get lost in the stream of time, never to exit the steams to any single point in time.


    It didn''t help that in a hurry, I worsened the distortion just so that I could catch up to you."


    Damon''s head flinched back, and his posture copsed. Future-Quinn noticed the change in his son and pped him on the back.


    "Don''t worry your foolish head about it; I would''ve reached you one way or another."


    Damon nodded with his head down before he recalled his initial question. "But if you were looking to pass the time, you could''ve obliviated him right off the bat. That would''ve eliminated the risk of him not writing things down."


    There was a pause.


    ". . . It might not look like it, but he''s going through a difficult time right now," said future-Quinn, gazing at his unconscious self. "He''s struggling with himself and a lot of things around him. He has a n for everything till Hogwarts because he knew what was going to happen, but after that, it''s a nk te, he doesn''t know what lies beyond it¡ª and that scares him a lot . . . and I thought that talking to him would maybe alleviate some of his worries about the future¡ª it''s quite a frightening time for him . . . ."


    Damon gazed at his father and then at Quinn. He lowered his chin to his chest. He had not only added to Quinn when he was having a tough time but also had dug up memories of those times in his father.


    ". . . But with his memories erased, won''t it all be useless," Damon asked.


    "Let me tell you a story, Damon," said future-Quinn, making Damon look up in surprise.


    "Once, there were two people¡ª Balbh and Dolion. Dolion was Balbh''s maternal uncle, but they weren''t close to each other as Balbh wasn''t close to his mother''s family, and thus he hadn''t met Dolion until quite a while when Dolion''s family invited Balbh to their home. Dolion''s family truly wanted to meet Balbh and get to know him better¡ª however, not all was good in the story. While Dolion''s family had pleasant intentions, Dolion himself didn''t follow the same motive. He had other ns for Balbh. Dolion wanted to manipte Balbh for his own benefit."


    He turned to Damon and asked, "How do you think Dolion nned to aplish that?"


    Damon thought for a moment before he shook his head. "There are a lot of ways to aplish it; however, with just what you have given me, I don''t think I can give you a single choice."


    "Good child," Future-Quinn chuckled. "Yes, there can be many ways one can aplish maniption . . . However, Dolion had in his hands a method that was essentially a sure way to manipte to no end. One thing I haven''t told you about dear Dolion is that he was a natural Legilimens."


    "A natural Legelimens!" Damon gasped. "He was aiming to use mind magic to manipte Balbh?"


    "Indeed. But don''t be surprised just yet. Dolion, with his natural talent, had aplished something that even the more skilled Legelimens with a wealth of experience found tremendously difficult to achieve¡ª he had found a way to exertplete control over a person . . . he had created a mind magic that would turn the target into a puppet, something worse than the Imperius Curse, with no hope of ever recovering."


    Damon gulped. "Did this Dolion use that spell on Balbh?"


    "Yes, he did. Dolion got close to Balbh to drop his guard and gain his confidence. When he thought he was close enough, Dolion drugged Balbh so that he could cast the spell without any problems . . .


    But Dolion, like many in his position, was blinded by arrogance, drunk on his power, he had underestimated Balbh."


    Damon listened intently.


    "Balbh, while not a natural, was a Leglimens. A skilled one at that. He was always suspicious of Dolion, and so even with Dolion trying to be closer to him, Balbh never put his guard down and just pretended to be friendly. So when Dolion finally made his move, Balbh was ready¡ª he took care of the drug he was fed and turned the tables on Dolion.


    Not only that, he trumped Dolion in his own game¡ª Legilimency."


    "But, wasn''t Dolion a natural Legilimens? Then how . . ."


    "True," nodded future-Quinn, "Dolion had immense potential; he could''ve been great and could''ve garnered people''s admiration just like my own mind magic master, who was a dual natural Legilimens and lumency. But, unlike my master and Balbh, he wasn''t hardworking and simply depended on his talent and put in no work to improve his craft.


    That allowed Balbh to be triumphant. And this is where things got interesting."


    "Interesting, how?" asked Damon.


    "You see, Balbh decided that he was going to exact some revenge and deal down some punishment on his own. So, Balbh decided to erase Dolion''s memories of not only their interactions, but he also went further down the line and began cleaning out experiences that made up some aspects of Dolion''s personality.


    Now, if Balbh had left it there, Dolion''s mind would''ve filled the gaps on his own with suitable memories that would''ve beenpatible with Dolion. But Balbh didn''t stop there. He interjected into that process and started dropping suggestions on every nk spot¡ª suggestions that went against Dolion''s original experiences. He had learned of Dolion''s likes and dislikes during their time together, so he knew what to nt that''d make . . . Dolion less Dolion.


    When Balbh was done, he had nted enough suggestions that with time, Dolion would change away from his original personality. Of course, the results weren''t as perfect as Balbh had expected, but he had indeed ''modified'' the Dolion into something different¡ª in a way, it was simr to what Dolion had wanted to do him."


    Future-Quinn turned to Quinn and spoke, "I''m going to do the same to him¡ª."


    "What?!" Damon all but shouted out of shock. "!! But that¡ª!"


    "Listen, first. I swear kids these days are in such a hurry," future-Quinn sighed. "I''m not going to change his personality. What I am going to do is to follow the same procedure that Balbh implemented and go into his memories and nt suggestions that''d create a certain effect I am aiming for."


    "What kind of effect?"


    "He''d interpret them as gut feelings, hunches, intuition. There are a few things he needs to sort out, so I''m going to try to guide him into directions and choices that''d be beneficial to him," said future-Quinn before sighing. "I''m crossing the one line I know I shouldn''t cross, but it is for his own good." He chuckled, "If he ever found what I did to him, which he isn''t going to, he''d be mighty pissed at me¡ª he might even make it his mission to hunt us down just so that he could fight me."


    "How are you so sure that he''d never find out," asked Damon. "Also, didn''t you say that in Balbh and Dolion''s case, the result wasn''t as Balbh had expected."


    "Dolion never found out because his skill overshadowed by Balbh. Even if Dolion got better, it''d been toote as his mind would''ve assimted those suggestions as its own creations. And the reason why the result wasn''t exactly the same as Balbh had desired was that the skill difference wasn''t big enough, and Balbh himself wasn''t skilled enough," said future-Quinn.


    He looked at his son and raised his chin, and spoke with confidence flooding out from his tongue. "I don''t overshadow him in skill," he pointed at Quinn, "I dwarf him in skill. Not only will he never find out, but my magic will also bloom into the exact result that I want. After all, I have forty years on Balbh when he cast the magic on Dolion."


    "Now, step aside and observe as I show you something spectacr," said future-Quinn as magic obeyed hismand.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn stepped out of the Guide''s Vault and stretched his hands over his head. Even though the vault wasplete and ready to be used, there were still a few things that he thought could be smoothened out. It was crucial that the vaults remained functioning for years toe because he didn''t know when he would return to Hogwarts in the future, and that is if he ever returned; as such, ensuring that none of his casted magic would fizzle out for quite some time.


    ''Well, with time, Hogwarts would assimte the vault into its ecosystem,'' he thought.


    "I wonder how the magic would change," Quinn muttered to himself, interested in how Hogwarts would affect his magic. "Maybe a visit to Hogwarts, a couple decades from now, is warranted."


    Quinn slipped his hands into his pocket and retrieved his trusty piece of reinforced off-white cloth, magically converted into the Hogwarts-exclusive artifact known as RECON, the massively upgraded version of the Marauder''s Map. It was the state-of-art solution to all Hogwarts-rted stalking and the key to almost all doors in Hogwarts castle.


    "Let''s see. . . the path is clear. The train is going to leave for slumber town in . . . right about now," Quinn sighed with a smile; for some reason, he felt like there was a spring in his step, and all the tension and stress umted because of the Sin curse had been drained clean of him.


    He checked his soulspace, "Well, it''s still there . . . ."


    There was a long silence as Quinn stared at his soulscape and the infestation of the Sin curse.


    ". . . I should take care of this as soon as possible," he muttered to himself¡ª something told him that the faster he got rid of it, the better it''d be.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC(Present) - Suffered an unknown betrayal.


    Quinn West - MC(Future) - Hope we never meet again.


    Damon West - Future West - Dreading what''s waiting for him back home.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Took inspiration from The Second Coming of Gluttony''s FIRST chapter. I have yet to read beyond that.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 311 - Convergence

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Potter, you should know that I''ve retired," said Quinn, flipping a page on his book¡ª charmed to be perceived as an advance charms potions book. "If you need help, you know where to find Astoria Greengrass."


    Harry halted in his steps; he stared at Quinn awkwardly for a moment before walking to the seat in front of Quinn. He looked around the silent Hogwarts library before retrieving his holly wand and muttering, "Muffliato," ¡ª for an invisible dome to spread out from the wand tip around the table and then some distance.


    Quinn''s eyes twitched as he felt the magic envelop him. He closed his disguised soul magic book and gently ced it on the book before folding his fingers together to look up at Harry.


    "You''re putting me in a difficult situation," he said. "If Astoria hears that I''m intruding on her business when I clearly dered my retirement, she''d think that I''m trying to undermine her."


    "I won''t tell anyone," said Harry, "and I really need some advice."


    Quinn tapped his index finger on the tabletop while staring down the boy-who-lived, who squirmed under his gaze. He wondered if hearing to Harry would benefit him more than Astoria''s possible ire, and the answer was obvious: it was worth it¡ª and his gut told him that he should listen to him.


    "Alright, if you insist, let''s hear it," he said, snapping his finger to dispel the annoying(inferior) silencing spell to rece it with his efficient(superior) sound spell. "Much better, now feel free to pour your heart on the table; I shall hear you out."


    Harry looked around the table with softly squished brows and suddenly burst into a loud shout when he saw two people walk nearby them, but his voice didn''t seem to reach them.


    "It seems the spell is working."


    "Of course, it''s working; I''m the one who cast it. Now, is disrespecting me the reason you disturbed my precious reading time, or do you have something of actual substance to talk about."


    "Sorry, but I had to make sure no one was listening."


    "Then approach me somewhere that isn''t a public ce."


    "Normally, I would do so; however, with AID being out of the question, there isn''t a single time or ce where I can pin you except for, of course, the great hall, but that''s more a hundred times more eye-catching than here," said Harry and gave Quinn an usatory look. "I''m not an idiot, you know."


    "So it''d seem," said Quinn with a smile. "You''ve got a point, young Potter; go ahead, tell me what ails you."


    Harry once more scoured the area with a cautionary gaze before leaning over the table. "Listen, Malfoy has been doing something suspicious. He''s been sneaking around the castle, and I fear he''s nning something dangerous. . . .


    Quinn listened to Harry impassive on his face, but his mind sharpened. After all, he had thought of this scenario.


    ". . . more importantly, I have found that he has been using the Room of Requirement, but I can''t seem to find what'' room'' he has been requesting during his visits."


    Quinn''s tapping finger froze in mid-air. He, of course, knew that; he had even seen Malfoy''s thing-of-interest. But for the sake of appearances, he had to put on a surprised front.


    "Are you sure?" he asked.


    Harry nodded, "I have put Dobby on his tail¡ª"


    "Who''s this Dobby you talk about?"


    "Ah, err, he''s a house-elf, who previously worked for Malfoys, but now is under Hogwart''s employment¡ª so, I asked him to follow Malfoy, and with their terrible history, he was more than happy to do so."


    "I see now, a house-elf," Quinn nodded. "Hmm. . . what more evidence do you have for your assumption."


    "?? Huh, you need more evidence. Why? He''s using the Room of Requirements?!"


    "And so did we, and were we doing something harmful," Quinn paused, "well, from a certain point-of-view, we were disobeying the authority. Take me, I''ve been ''allegedly'' using the Room of Requirement for years, and I''ve not been doing something wrong¡ª err, wait, I did use the room during the curfew. . . whatever, you get my point¡ª Malfoy using the Room of Requirements isn''t necessarily something bad."


    Harry jerked back and stared at Quinn with stunned eyes full of shock. "Are you serious. . . ? This is Malfoy we''re talking about."


    Quinn shrugged, "While his reputation doesn''t help Malfoy in this case, we can''t automatically judge him guilty¡ª especially when the usation ising from someone like you, who isn''t particrly a neutral party." He sighed when he saw Harry''s unchanging astonishment expressions. "Let''s say that Malfoy is indeed doing something malicious; what do you want me to do here?"


    "We obviously need to find what he''s doing and then put a stop to it!"


    "And how do you purpose we do that? As you said, we don''t know what he requests from the Room of Requirement or even what time he enters the Room of Requirement, and I don''t think we can use your friend Dobby to find it as Hogwarts house-elves are quite busy."


    "That''s why I came to you," said Harry, immediately and leaning forward enthusiastically. "We can you use the box that you used in Umbridge''s office and ce it in front of the Room of Requirement''s entrance, over the troll''s tapestry to know what time he visits and how long he stays."


    Quinn stopped his hand from jolting. He didn''t think his spy-spider? would be brought up in this conversation. But this was Harry Potter, the one who had nted it in Umbridge''s office. Moreover, it madeplete sense, and even without a single second of thought, anyone could see that it was the near-perfect solution for this problem.


    ''Damn you, Potter, now this is a vexing conundrum. What should I do here. . . .''


    He didn''t, by any chance, want Harry to interfere with Malfoy''s ''mission.'' There was too much riding upon this, and he just couldn''t risk any opposing factor to derail what he had been patiently waiting for.


    ". . . That''s an excellent idea, Harry," said Quinn, "that indeed solves the problem, at least partially¡ª we still wouldn''t know what he''s requesting."


    "I know, but isn''t something better than nothing. I also think that the video will be able to provide us much more than just the time and duration."


    Quinn nodded, even if quite reluctantly. "I''ll prepare the recorder and install it in ce. I suggest that we wait for at least a week or even two catch if there''s a pattern in Malfoy''s visits." That''d be enough time for Malfoy toplete his initial task, and by then, it''d be toote for anyone to do anything to stop it.


    Harry nodded in agreement, even if there was a furrow between his brows. Quinn smiled. Unlike him, who knew that Malfoy''s ns were toe into fruition this year itself, Harry had no idea that what he worried about was already near itspletion.


    ''Unlike the original, he was monthste in finding out about Malfoy''s strange behavior,'' he thought.


    "Malfoy''s not looking well these days, all pale, and it looks like he has even lost some weight," said Harry, "which could mean that whatever he''s doing is not going well. It''s good that he''s struggling."


    "That may be the case," said Quinn in agreement. But on the inside, he shook his head, ''The worry, however, is what toe next. . . ah, familial pressure can be tough; I''m lucky in that regard.''


    "How''re you doing these days, Harry," asked Quinn, now that the Malfoy topic was over. "I heard you''ve been visiting the headmaster''s office quite a lot this year¡ª even I, the headboy, hasn''t visited the headmaster''s office once this year."


    Harry blinked and his mouth open and closed, clearly flustered from the sudden change in topic. He was about to splutter an answer when Quinnughed and saved him from uttering a feeble excuse.


    "I guess, having a close rtionship with the headmaster since birth and the favoritism thates with it doese with some caveats," said Quinn, painting Harry''s visit to Dumbledore as bothersome¡ª after all, what student would enjoy spending time with a professor/headmaster instead of their friends.


    "Y-Yeah, it can be a bother," said Harry with an awkward chuckle.


    Quinn smiled, "Tell me if you need a break, I''ll give you a detention and assign it under myself and won''t allow the headmaster to get you out of it. . . . Ah, abusing authority does feel good," he finished with a blissful smile.


    "O-Oh, thank you, I guess?" Harry sweatdropped, confused about how detentions could be something positive.


    "You are much wee," said Quinn and reached out to his disguised book to continue reading, expecting Harry to take a guess and leave him alone.


    But it seems that he was expecting too much from the golden boy as he spoke, "Ah, I also want to thank you for telling Ivy about the potions book. She has been quite attached to it, and I have to say, it''s quite helpful, even though she doesn''t allow anyone to touch it¡ª the spell I used before also came from it."


    Quinn, whose initial reaction was one of annoyance of being disturbed, changed to one of surprise. "She told you that I pointed the book to her?"


    "Yeah, though she only told it to me when I asked what happened to the book that she had brought in advancest year." He then sighed, "Though I also me you for all the problems that we have faced because of her casting spells from that book¡ª being an idental target gets really old, really fast.


    But don''t let it slip that you were the reason Ivy has the book to Hermione because she disapproves and abhors the existence of that book."


    "I''ll keep that in mind," said Quinn, his voice fleeting a bit before it sharpened again, and he said, "Now, buzz off, Potter, you have already taken too much of my time."


    "Yes, sorry about that," said Harry, standing up. "Please take care of the thing we talked about earlier."


    Quinn nodded without looking up from his book; however, his mind was no longer on the book but wandering into various ces.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Time slowly passed, and the year entered into the final leg of the school year, and with it, the chain of events had already started to rattle, and the events that had been running divergently started to approach the point of convergence.


    .


    .


    .


    In the Room of Requirements, the Room of Lost Things, Draco Malfoy stood in front of a cab. He lowered his wand with a sheen of sweat over his gaunt, pale face with sunken cheeks under eyes with light dark circles of exhaustion.


    ". . . . It is done," he muttered weakly, his armsying limply at his side. "It is done; it''s finally done." Power returned to his voice as he became aware of his achievement.


    "Y-Yes, now I-I can¡ª"


    But he froze when he realized what was about to happen and suddenly he felt his stomach turn. He turned away from the cab, and a retching voice echoed in the expansive room as Draco emptied his stomach all over the floor.


    "No one can help me," Draco stared at his vomit pathetically. "I can''t do it. . . . I can''t. . . . It won''t work . . . and unless I do it soon . . . he says he''ll kill me. . . ."


    However. . . he didn''t have a choice. He never had a choice.


    .


    .


    .


    "Well, Harry, I promised that you coulde with me," said Dumbledore.


    "You''ve found one? You''ve found a Horcrux," asked Harry, gulping.


    "I believe so."


    For several moments, Harry could not speak.


    "It is natural to be afraid," said Dumbledore.


    "I''m not scared!" said Harry at once, and it was perfectly true; fear was one emotion he was not feeling at all. "Which Horcrux is it? Where is it?"


    "I am not sure which it is ¡ª though I think we can rule out the snake ¡ª but I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast many miles from here, a cave I have been trying to locate for a very long time: the cave in which Tom Riddle once terrorized two children from his orphanage on their annual trip; you remember?"


    "Yes," said Harry. "How is it protected?"


    "I do not know; I have suspicions that may be entirely wrong."


    Dumbledore hesitated, then said, "Harry, I promised you that you coulde with me, and I stand by that promise, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly dangerous."


    "I''ming," said Harry, almost before Dumbledore had finished speaking.


    "Very well, then: Listen." Dumbledore drew himself up to his full height. "I take you with me on one condition: that you obey anymand I might give you at once and without question."


    "Of course."


    "Be sure to understand me, Harry. I mean that you must follow even such orders as ''run,'' ''hide,'' or ''go back.'' Do I have your word?"


    "I ¡ª yes, of course."


    "If I tell you to hide, you will do so?" "Yes."


    "If I tell you to flee, you will obey?" "Yes."


    "If I tell you to leave me and save yourself, you will do as I tell you?" "I ¡ª"


    "Harry?" They looked at each other for a moment. "Yes, sir."


    "Very good. Then I wish you to go and fetch your Invisibility Cloak and


    meet me in the entrance hall in five minutes."


    "I have it with me, sir."


    Dumbledore paused to stare at Harry before nodding. "Very well, wait here, and we shall go to the entrance hall together for departure."


    Harry clenched his fists, a fire of determination burning in his emerald eyes.


    .


    .


    .


    Quinnid down his bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling his heartbeat at an elerated pace, blood coursing through his veins. He could feel it; his body and mind were screaming at him that he had reached a limit¡ª he couldn''t hold the curse back anymore.


    ?Yes, the time hase¡ª . . . . . fo me to¡ª . . . ept the curse.?


    He closed his eyes dove deep into his soulscape, and he couldn''t tell that this space was once a pristine white. The colors on the walls had covered the white and had started to bubble over; the seven colors, which had been separate, were now mixing together to give rise to a tar-like ck. In the middle of the space, his soul''s warm glow had been encased in a cocoon resembling alien eggs with pulsing veins in cheap alien movies.


    His n to wait till the end of the school year was no longer possible. Moreover, the situation had been gnawing on him¡ª telling him that it wasing¡ª it seemed his body and mind knew better than him.


    And today, he could no longer hold it in.


    It was time to oppose the curse by letting it in and fighting it to the point of overwhelming it and kicking it out of his body.


    "I hope I act sane," he muttered, chuckling at his use of the word ''act.''


    His face turned stern. He gathered his magic, and the soul shield, which had been up for months, started to crumble on hismand, and the veins started to move immediately, aiming at the bright soul which had been dangled in front of them like a golden fruit, but the couldn''t reach it till now.


    As the shield crumbled and Quinn let the curse in, he didn''t notice that his soul had been shining brightly, not looking weak in any shape or form, capable of holding on for a while longer¡ª maybe until after Hogwarts.


    He didn''t notice because he himself had betrayed him, turning him against himself for his own sake, even if he himself didn''t ask for his help.


    The veins burst open and ck liquid spewed forth, tainting the untouched soul, turning the gold hue into a darker shade. . . slowly moving towards a ck mass. . . .


    After an unknown amount of time, Quinn opened his eyes, his eyes still the same.


    He sat upon his bed and stared at his own hands, flexing his fingers.


    And then. . . . a toothy grin cracked his face.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - ". . . . Heh."


    Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - About to face something he already holds.


    Draco Malfoy - Death Eater - I have to do it. . . . I must do it.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 312 - The Second Rise

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    .


    "I am really going to enjoy this. . . ." ~ Bully Maguire.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    His bare feet touched the cold marbled floor as he pushed himself off the bed to stand straight up. A blissful groan escaped him as he stretched his body like a lithe cat. He looked around the darkroom and walked to a single ray of light running into the room through a crack in the curtains; walking to the covered window, he grabbed the two drawn curtains and threw them to the side, making the hoops they were hanging from rattle as the sun''s glorious rays flooded the room, painting it in its golden light, but not before illuminating the broad, free smile on Quinn''s face as he greeted the morning of a new day.


    Quinn turned back into his room, treating the birds'' chirps as the melodious melody of nature, serenading him as he started his day. He grabbed the bottom hem of his night-shirt and removed it over his head before chucking it behind him over his shoulder in a no-look throw to the clothes bin for the elves to clean, pants and the underwear beneath soon followed. Quinn, buck naked as on the day he was born, walked through the room towards the bathroom as curtains along the suite rattled open and MLEs lit up to match the room to what he was feeling inside¡ª bright!


    Inside the bathroom, he snapped his finger, and the showerhead spouted hot water over him as he stood under it with his palms on the wall and his head bowed down.


    He cracked a grinned.


    It was time to start a new day.


    After the shower, Quinn dressed up in his morning workout clothes and walked to the door, his eyes ncing briefly towards his bedroom, where he could see his bed calling for him; s, while as tempestuous was the allure of a ''second-sleep,'' it would have to wait until the night time.


    He reached the suite entrance and arched his brow when he saw runes painted on the door and spilling out onto the walls around it. He took a step forward, and the ck runes red up into angry orangish-red with sparks bursting out. Quinn looked down and saw that he had stepped on a rune, eliciting a chuckle from him as he stepped back.


    "What should I do. . . ?" After contemting a couple of seconds, Quinn shrugged, and his eyes turned purple. "Let''s knock ''em down."


    He raised his foot and stomped on the same rune he stepped on. The runes red up again, and as they did, Quinn pumped in a torrent of magic into the runes. The light from the runes glowed brighter, a purple light coursing through every individual rune. They trembled but calmed down the next instant, making Quinn''s eyes narrow¡ª the runes were sturdier than he thought¡ª ''well that''s to be expected, they''re my work. . . ''


    The air between Quinn and the door began to fizzle like the air above the zing me. The magic in the runes started to tremble, magic overloading them as Quinn pushed more magic into them.


    Fwoosh! Quinn grinned when one of the runes burst into mes. His overloading approach was working, and so he decided to push forward by flooding more of his magic into his runes.


    Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! One by one, the runes burst into mes, and before long, chains of runes started to burst-snap together until all runes were fizzled into non-being.


    "Alright, that''s done," Quinn said, looking at the wall with ck char marks on the door and walls. ". . . That''d take some repair work. . . well, not my problem; the house-elves will take care of it."


    He walked to the door without any runes opposing him.


    Quinn opened the door to the day that was waiting for him.


    .


    - (Scene Break)-


    .


    Eddie jumped down from the grand staircase''s stairs, skipping thest few steps tond on the floor, and broke into a sprint on the ground floor of the Hogwarts castle. He made his way through the hallways before skidding with squeaks rubbing from his shoes into the empty entrance hall, ncing at the still closed great hall as he ran past it, towards the castle entrance. He vaulted from the top of the entrance to skip the short steps. With his feet on t ground, Eddie once again broke into a run with his destination set at his daily green fields.


    "Sorry, sorry," he huffed out as he came to a stop with hands gripping at his sides, "I thought I saw a knick on my broom that I hadn''t seen before, and that turned into a full broom inspection."


    Eddie looked at Quinn, who had his back to him and was doing pull-ups on a pull-up bar-stand conjured in the middle of a grass field.


    "No worries, it is good that you''re here," said Quinn. He released his grip on the bar andnded on his feet heavily before turning to Eddie with a smile. "Good morning; it''s quite a pleasant day today."


    Eddie stared at Quinn for a moment. "You seem chirpy today; something happened?"


    "You can say that, my friend. When I woke up today, I felt like a weight had been lifted off me."


    "That''s nice, I guess," Eddie shrugged and started his workout while Quinn got back to what he was doing.


    For Eddie, he started his day with a run around a track that ran thatid around a wide part of the Hogwarts ground and was mindlessly running, his body doing everything on its own as he stared ahead, half in thought. But when he was on thest leg on his run, a sound reached his ear, and he looked back to widen his eyes.


    Quinn was running towards him. But that wasn''t the reason for his surprise.


    "What are you doing?" he asked, looking at Quinn, who had his upper body void of clothing¡ª in the years he had been working out with Quinn, not once had his friend ever removed his shirt like this¡ª if his clothes got sweaty, he would snap his fingers and the sweat would vanish. "What''s with the no shirt; don''t feel like wearing clothes today?"


    "It was feeling restrictive today, so I decided to try how it feels like."


    "And?"


    "It feels great! I might just do this every day from now on."


    "Seriously? Well, whatever," Eddie shrugged, still running. "So why are you here? You prefer to run at the end."


    "I thought I would try something different today," Quinn looked at Eddie and pumped his brows with a grin. "Now that we''re here, what you say, should we do a race? The one who loses will have to buy something from Hogsmeade. I want to eat the meat pies from Three Broomsticks. How about it?"


    "Is that even a question? Yeah, let''s do it," said Eddie with a wild grin of his own¡ª he wasn''t one to say no to a challenge.


    "Alright!" said Quinn. "We start from here and finish at our regr spot."


    Eddie nodded and looked ahead, ready to sprint at a moment''s notice.


    "Here we go. . . three. . . two. . . one. . . . Go!"


    Eddie leaned forward and pushed the ground as hard as possible, bursting forward. He knew his route better than anyone else; the remaining distance was enough that he could speed all the way.


    As he was running, he could still see Quinn''s swinging arms and legs on the edge of his vision. But as they ran, more and more of Quinn started to enter his vision.


    "Come on, Eddie boy, are you even trying?"


    "Haha, of course, I''m running just enough that you won''t be left in the dust."


    "Dust, eh, let''s see about that," said Quinn.


    They reached the final corner, after which there was only a straight path to the finishing point. Eddie decided to make an all-out sprint before the corner to get a headstart, but just as he was about to put the metal to the pedal, Quinn pushed to just beside him.


    "Taste dust," said Quinn.


    Before Eddie could reply, Quinn pushed ahead as if he had been jogging and was finally raising his speed to sprint. But then Eddie''s eyes almost popped out, and his jaw ckened when Quinn started to pull away more and more distance.


    "H-How. . . ."


    Quinn, however, was already past earshot, zooming to the finishing point, body magic pumping through his muscles. He felt his body turn into one perfect machine as magic worked under his will, moving as hemanded it.


    It felt good.


    . . . .


    Eddie panted on the ground, staring at the blue sky above him, with the annoying sun on edge, rising up as the hours moved to noon. Suddenly, Quinn appeared in his vision, looking down at him with a goofy grin.


    "That meat pies'' mine now," said Quinn, "hohoho."


    "You fucking cheated!" Eddie spat.


    "Nuh-uh," Quinn wiggled his finger, "we never said that magic wasn''t allowed."


    "Ooh, fuck off," Eddie raised his tired hand to swat Quinn''s face but couldn''t reach.


    "Hey, it is your fault that you didn''t think who you''re facing," Quinn crossed his arms and said sagely. "Always study your opponent."


    "Yeah, no, how about you fuck off!"


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    What once had been pristine, untouched, had now turned into a tar-like, ce full of darkness. The golden soul that sat in the middle shimmering softly was now a mass of muddled ck, giving out an ominous magenta-purple hue.


    In that space, Quinn opened his eyes. He didn''t know why he was here¡ª maybe it was because this time his soul was stronger than before that he was able to be present with all of his reasoning.


    However, what was the use? Such thoughts swirled in his mind. He had been here ever since the curse took over his soul, and for hours he had tried to do so find any clue that would allow him to regain control; unfortunately, there was not a single thing he could do.


    He didn''t have his magic here. . . . and without magic, Quinn West was useless. Without magic, he was iplete.


    "Tch, tch, tch," a voice echoed in Quinn''s ears, "so this was what holding us back. . . ."


    Quinn turned his head and saw that in the dark space where he could barely see the infected soul stood a person illuminated in violet light, looking down at with a sneer on his face and harsh, piercing eyes. The figure was another Quinn.


    ". . . but I can''t say that I expected anything more. We have so much potential, more than anyone who ever existed, infinite, capable of transcending what''s possible¡ª it is good that you were dethroned from control. At least now we''ll rise to what we are truly capable of."


    Quinn looked at Violet-Quinn wordlessly.


    "What, no words?"


    Quinn kept staring at Violet-Quinn not a single moment from him, but inside, the cogs of his thoughts that hade to a halt had started to turn. Before, he hadn''t had a single clue how to escape his current situation, but now the situation had changed, the entity in front of him was clearly a result of the Sin curse, and there was a chance that he could use him to get out of his situation¡ª especially when he heard the words that had been said.


    ''¡ªdethroned from control.''


    If he had been ''dethroned,'' which meant he could regain the throne.


    "Why are you staring at me like that?" Violet-Quinn scoffed. "Amazed by my glorious presence?"


    Quinn finally opened his mouth, "You''re pathetic."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - A violet ray of hope.


    Eddie Carmichael - Sore loser - Now, that was justplete bullshit.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Hmm. . . if I''m going to do this properly, it would be at least this week. Edit: Lol, that changed quite quickly.


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    [


    A/ N:


    [1]


    I have a question for those who don''t like the Sin Arcs.


    If you guys were to do a personality change storyline or a plot where MC''s personality was being manipted, how would you do it? I''m not asking this for any form of retaliation or not willing to ept that someone didn''t like my writing¡ª I know that I can''t please everyone, everyone has their likes/dislikes, and that my readers not enjoying what I write is also my fault.


    Here, I truly want to know that if it was to be done, what''d be the best/preferred way. Thank you.


    .


    [2]


    Second point, about AMJ ending soon. It won''t be ending in March because now I have realized that with the current point in the story and what I want to write, I would most probably write into April. Now, the reason why I''m ending it at canon is that I don''t know what to write after this¡ª if I had a storyline that interested me, I would have definitely continued AMJ, but because Ick the idea and outlooks, I can''t write.


    And I have also found that very soon, I''d be getting ''bored'' of writing AMJ. There will be a point where I won''t be creatively attracted to or invested in AMJ, and I want to end before that point arrives. I don''t want to get to the point where I''m bored of the story; yet, I am still writing it because it''s doing well and there''s demand. That would plummet my performance, and I would start my walk towards burnout. I have experienced burnout(for different reasons) and have no ns for experiencing it ever again.


    If there are more questions, please ask, and I shall answer them to the best of my ability.


    .


    [3]


    We hit 1 Million words a couple days back! So. . . . YEAH~!!!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 313 - Superbia

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "You''re pathetic."


    The silence that had filled the soulscape returned again with Quinn''s words. Both Quinns stared at each other¡ª one impassive, other rigid with fury growing on his face.


    "What did you just say?"


    "Is there something wrong with your hearing; sheesh, I''m not old enough to have hearing problems."


    "You-you. . . !" the light around Violet-Quinn started to re dangerously. He clenched his fist tight enough that they trembled with deep anger.


    "I was dethroned, you say," Quinn didn''t let up and continued his assault. "And you were put on the top? Really? I mean, you look like a splendid guy, but your behavior, on the other hand. . ."


    "What about it?" asked Violet-Quinn with an edge.


    ". . . just a bit immature," Quinn shrugged.


    The expression that came on Violet-Quinn''s face was one that Quinn was sure that he had never made. He looked like he was about to burst into mes of fury, and violet hue was fluctuating wildly¡ª Quinn had been hurt, but never like this.


    "Immature. . . I?" said Violet-Quinn, his voiceced with a warning. "Take that back."


    "Why would I?" Quinn didn''t wait for a second to throw his reply. "Just this morning, you raced against Eddie, and you know that Eddie naturally runs faster than us, which showed when he was ahead of us during most of the run, but then what you do?" Quinn continued mockingly, "You used body magic to gain an edge, and if it was just that, I could''ve excused it as a necessary action to stop Eddie''s annoying victory celebration and him holding it over us for eternity¡ª but you went on throttling to the full, crossed the body''s limit and, . . . left him in the dust."


    Quinn moved close to his violet counterpart and whispered, "That was the pettiest, most immature thing I have ever seen, and it cripplingly cringing and embarrassing that it was ME who did it. It was absolutely disgusting."


    He leaned away and watched as a shadow appeared over the eyes of the apparition of the Sin curse. Everything from Violet-Quinn''s tone, words, to the colored glow, Quinn had made an educated guess about what the figure in front of him represented.


    "So what," said Violet-Quinn, raising his head with a smirk. "I can do whatever I want, and if my actions seem juvenile is more of ''you'' fault than a ''me'' fault. I don''t see where it is my fault."


    The violent osciting flickering of glow stopped, and Violet-Quinn stared down at Quinn with a raised chin and looked ghastly like a certain pureblood family, who consider themselves superior to others.


    "That answer is what I''d expect from someone like you," said Quinn, sighing. "You''re after all my pride, my hubris, my vanity."


    It wasn''t instant, but a few clicks of clock''s worth of time before a grin split Violet-Quinn''s face, and he startedughing¡ª it was a peal of bellyughter than Quinn himself had only let out on rare asions of celebration and achievement, but from Violet-Quinn''s mouth it sounded heavy and overbearing.


    "I am NOT yours in any form, Quinn," said Violet-Quinn, sneering at the name. "I am superior to you, I surpass you in every form, I am simply better¡ª you''re beneath me, making me somethingrger than your worthless. . . self. . . . why do you look at me like that."


    Violet-Quinn stoppedughing and boasting when he saw the expression of pity on Quinn''s face, his smile turning into a frown at the unexpected expression.


    "I feel sorry for you."


    ". . . What?"


    "You''re clearly a result of my pride being amplified due to the Sin curse," said Quinn shaking his head. "When you think of the word pride, does it strike you as positive or negative? Pride is an emotion that can be both nurturing or poisonous. It''s okay to feel proud when you aplish something great: It''s good to ''take pride in our work.'' People like it when someone tells us, ''I''m proud of you.'' All of these expressionsmunicate a positive kind of pride: dignity, respect, and honor, traits that we all can embrace. Feeling proud tastes delicious?¡ª?it inspires positive behavior. Being proud, however, is a different thing?¡ª?it can make onee across as arrogant and self-centered.


    Aristotle described pride as the ''crown of the virtues.'' For the Greek philosopher, pride implied greatness. He considered a proud person as someone who is and thinks to be worthy of great things. And I agreed with his thoughts¡ª I have done great things as such it was natural for me to hold pride.


    To think we are worthy of great things when we are not. . . is vanity. Whereas to think of oneself worthy of less than we are worthy of. . . is cowardice. But because I felt I was truly great, and thus neither vain nor cowardly."


    Quinn looked sorry as he continued, "But I had thought about this a lot, and if I look at it, I haven''t done anything of exception, have I?"


    Violet-Quinn''s eyes widened as the final words left Quinn''s mouth.


    "What have I done in my time here in this world that is truly something of my own? Have I aplished something genuinely great?" said Quinn in askance. "This body wasn''t mine but belonged to the child; I should be grateful to him and his parents for it and the magic that it came with. Speaking of magic. I pride myself on possessing more magic than anyone I have ever met, but anyone in my position, having adult-like consciousness since age four, knowing the future ahead, could''ve aplished what I have¡ª it''s nothing special, andparing myself to others, who didn''t have my circumstances is clearly something I should be proud about. Even my wandless capabilities result from my circumstances of starting to learn magic at an extremely early age.


    My knowledge? Is it something I should boast? No, the only reason I had ess to so much wisdom in the first ce was that grandfather indulged my requests and used the fortune that HE had to provide me with whatever I wanted; I should be grateful to him for where I stand today. After all, without him, I would be nowhere near I''m today. Even the more esoteric knowledge I havees from the Room of Requirement. I have been standing on the shoulders of giants, who had genuinely contributed to furthering the world of magic.


    My Inventions? I should be proud of them; after all, I made them from scratch, and didn''t they push a revolutionary change in how magicals live. But did I really? Yes, I made them, but not once in all my years have I used something in my inventions that truly were my own. Everything was already invented, and I just put them together using the inspiration that I knew from my memories or what I saw somewhere else. If someone had my vision, anyone of enoughpetence would be able to create what I did. So do I take pride in my work? Yes. Should I be proud? No. Was I proud? Unfortunately, yes.


    The Cursed Vaults? Something I had devoted a lot of my life to. Yes, I have far beyond what anyone before had, and that''s a matter of pride. But did I ever you stop to think who was mypetition¡ª children of my age, who didn''t have the time I had for preparing their magic, who probably didn''t have the resources I had, and nor the maturity to work on magic as I did. If someone of my level gave the Cursed Vaults, who knows what would''ve been the result¡ª there''s a chance they would be better than me.


    My initiative to deal with the Horcrux is honorable, and when I began dealing with the soul anchors, I didn''t think of it as something to be proud of; I was doing something any decent would do¡ª given that I know I''m not really a decent person. But recently, my thoughts had turned to something of doing everyone in this country a favor by getting rid of the Dark Lord''s life saves. Yeah. . . something I never thought I would end up feeling, but it seems my self-arrogance was something that I had yed down for myself."


    Quinn''s smile and eyes were dripping with pity as he stared at Violet-Quinn. "I don''t know when, but my authentic pride¡ª the feeling of confidence andpetence about who I was¡ª turned into hubristic pride, letting egocentrism and arrogance take over. Thetter encourages aggressive behavior; the first, affiliation.


    And the already worsening situation turned into a toxic one when I let the Sin curse which gave birth to you. It is my fault that you hade to existence, that if I had introspected, maybe you would''ve not been born. . . so, from the bottom of my heart, I apologize. Forgive me."


    Violet-Quinn stared at Quinn, his eyes blown wide. With every wording out of Quinn''s mouth, Violet-Quinn got more and more somber and silent, more and more shadows appearing on his face, the glow around his body flickered, jumped, receded haphazardously without any pattern. But when, at the end, Quinn apologized, his demeanor changed to one of life-changing shock as if he had been struck by lightning.


    ". . . What nonsense you''re talking about," said Violet-Quinn. "I don''t have to care about any of that gibberish because I''m better than everyone else."


    "No, you''re not," Quinn said shortly. "They''re many who are better than us."


    "I am! Who has more magic than me!"


    "That''s only because of me working hard on it."


    "If it wasn''t for the curse, you wouldn''t have the amount of magic."


    "True, but that''s doesn''t have anything to do with you. You''re a byproduct of the curse, not the curse itself."


    "Shut up! I destroyed the runes you set up in the morning with ease."


    "That''s because the memory of me setting them up remains in my head and the magical focus I have built from my hard work."


    "Shut up! Shut up! I can achieve more than you, much more than you! I''m not a coward who worries about small things that don''t matter."


    Quinn sighed, "Everything you do matters. The smallest action can turn into consequences of the highest effects. Ignoring them because you think they''re beneath you is poor outlook."


    "I. AM. BETTER. THAN. YOU."


    "That is true," said Quinn, and Violet-Quinn''s rage faltered as his momentum came to a halt. "Your outlook on life and how you do deal with things would indeed be better in various situations; you''d be able to make decisions quicker, charge ahead without getting stuck in thinking, and because you''re still me and have that twisted pride, you wouldn''t allow yourself stop growing to remain better than everyone else," he smiled, "you''re indeed better than me."


    He stepped closer and ced a hand on Violet-Quinn''s shoulder. "I understand; I truly do."


    ". . . You''re a hypocrite," said Violet-Quinn, his voice now weak. "You only care about all of this shit when you have your ass on the line."


    "I know. . . I have to work on it."


    Violet-Quinn stared at Quinn as his body started to turn into a violet solid, slowly breaking into pieces that dissipated into nothingness. For his final words, he said,


    "I hope Greed ruins you and you rot in hell."


    Quinn lowered his hand and gazed at where the twisted personification of his pride stood. He had to treat it as a real entity because, at some level, it was just that.


    "Ah, that sucked," he sighed, looking up. Just saying all of those things wouldn''t have worked, Quinn realized that and knew that if he didn''t mean what he said, the pride-personification would''ve realized it, and the effect would''ve been theplete opposite. But confronting himself and all of that wasn''t pleasant.


    After wallowing in his thoughts, Quinn looked at the infected soul, and if it wasn''t his imagination, the ominous glow had dulled. He nced around, but there was no sight of another personification nor any indication of arrival time.


    He floated to the infected soul and sat down beside it.


    One was done; six more were to go.


    The silence returned to the dark soulscape.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - At least I canugh at myself.


    Violet-Quinn - Pride - I hate you.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Had to research a lot on what''s the deal with Pride. Let''s hope there''s enough research material on other Sins.


    NOT ALL SIN CHAPTERS ARE GOING TO BE LIKE THIS. They''re going to be weaved into the plot that''s going on outside.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 314 - Acedia & Arrival

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    At the tail end of June, a rare cool afternoon greeted the hignds of Scond, with Hogwarts weing a softer sun and gentle breeze to its grounds and hallways, and enjoying that pleasant weather was Quinn,ying on the grass outside the castle, looking up at the floating clouds, thinking how appealing the fluffy white listlessness was looking to him.


    He sighed in contentment. Ever since he had let the curse in, he felt that he had attained the listlessness of the clouds. All the stress had vanished, his body felt light, his magic springy, and even the short nap he had just woken up from was heavenly enough that he wanted to return to sleep and not wake up until it was strictly necessary.


    "Don''t worry, don''t hurry," he muttered and closed his eyes to get back to his nap.


    ?You should be worried and most definitely have a sense of hurry.?


    Quinn frowned at the voice in his head. He opened his eyes, and instead of the blue dotted sky, he found himself staring at a wall of ck murkiness with hints of multi-colored tints. He raised his hand, and his brows nted at the blue hue that was spreading out from his body. He grunted as he lifted himself up from the cold ground to sit down, his back slumped.


    "There''s a lot on the line, and sitting there doing nothing is just not the correct thing to do, no matter how I look at it," a voice sounded out.


    Blue-Quinn looked to the side and saw a figure identical to him without the blue glow sitting beside a floating mass of ck that gave out a hollow light. He stared at his ''parent'' and said, "Even if I don''t do anything, it''s not like it''s going to affect me negatively."


    "Come on now, we both know that''s not true," said Quinn. He had his fingers intertwined and was tapping his thumbs against each other, and in the room, the dull taps sounded like clicks of a clock. "I have been preparing for this for a year. . . not that was when things were pushed into an active gear¡ª I have been preparing for this for several years. We can''t have that all to waste, now can we."


    Blue-Quinn stared at Quinn for a moment before his head slumped down along with his shoulders before heid back down and rolled over to his side, and propped his head on the palm of his folded arm. His half-lidded eyes gazed at Quinn, who was looking back at him.


    "All that work you did was unnecessary¡ª"


    "I won''t say that."


    Blue-Quinn sighed, "Don''t interrupt, please. It breaks the flow, and that''s annoying and troublesome to start again. Just let me finish speaking; I don''t speak much anyway."


    "Sorry about that, go ahead, please. I shall listen with patience."


    "Thank you," said Blue-Quinn. "Now, I agree taking care of Horcruxes does help, even though it was so much work. . . so much work," he trailed, "but your ns for theing break-in just sounds unnecessary and you could. . . I could do without it, yeah, not going to do that," he finished with azy smile.


    "You really are slothful; even with the amplification, I never thought my sloth would reach this level,"mented Quinn, his thumbs still tapping against each other. "Do you know, when I was researching the sins, I didn''t do much on sloth. In fact, sloth might be something I never even considered a serious sin, even though it was potentially the reason I never went into the vault a second time during the first tenure of the curse. But it did make me ask the question, ''What does it mean tomit the sin of sloth?''


    First, I thought it was physicalziness. Whileziness is undoubtedly an element of sloth, there''s more to this sin than justziness. After some thinking, I narrowed it down to four factors¡ª carelessness, unwillingness to act, half-hearted effort, and bing easily discouraged by any possible difficulty. So let''s ask some questions," said Quinn.


    "Am I careless? All of us need rest, but has my rest turned into negligence? Have I begun to not care and not give my best effort in whatever life circumstancees my way? Not really; I haven''t been careless, at least, not because of sloth.


    Am I unwilling to act? Ha! Have I begun to procrastinate? Ha! I''m not the grasshopper who doesn''t prepare for winters; I''m the might ant. If I was unwilling to act, Amelia Bones would''ve been buried in her family cemetery and the Ministry on its way into the Dark Lord''s hands. While I think things thoroughly, I never procrastinate. As I have done nothing of those, I have yet tomit that sin.


    Do I do everything with a half-hearted effort? Ever since I havee to this world, I have made sure to make the most out of it, and doing things half-heartedly is wasting time and against my priorities. I do too many things simultaneously, and doing those half-heartedly would end up in failure across all boards, and I just can''t allow that.


    Am I discouraged in the face of every difficulty? I have risked my life in five different Cursed Vaults; they have been difficult, time-consuming, dominated my life more than I like to admit¡ª I could''ve been doing much safer things all that time, but I went ahead with the Curse Vaults because of the perceived potential, difficulties can go drown itself."


    Quinn got onto his feet and skipped to Blue-Quinn, and squatted down to bring his face close to Blue-Quinn''s. "And you know all about it, don''t you."


    ". . . What?"


    "You know, I wasn''t sure how to approach you at the start, but then you talked about my ns, which was what I would''ve expected. . . but then you made a mistake¡ª you only talked about it," said Quinn, in an aggressive whisper. "Sloth doesn''t have the strongest hold on me, I know it, you know it, and you just should it by not even once mentioning magic. . ."


    Blue-Quinn stayed silent. However, the bored andzed look was nowhere to be seen.


    ". . . If you were truly a sloth with concrete control, then you''d mentioned my magic. How that I have grown beyond my age and how it would be fine if I take a rest, probably for a decade or two and nothing would change¡ª but you didn''t, and that made me realize," a savage grin split his face, "you represent sloth, but you''re still an amplified personification of MY sloth. . . and if there isn''t much to begin with even with amplification, it won''t rise to an assertive level. You can feel also feel it, too, don''t you? You don''t mind the physicalziness, but I''m sure you''re doing the usual thing¡ª even though I can''t feel the magic in my body, I bet you have been spending it like usual. Come on, tell me I''m wrong."


    ". . . Tch," Blue-Quinn clicked his tongue. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I did what I was asked. . . ."


    Quinn stood up with a smug smirk before his eyes turned grave. "I epted pride because I was guilty ofmitting the sin. But I won''t ept a sin that I haven''tmitted¡ª SO," he cocked his foot back and let it rip forward, driving a kick straight into Blue-Quinn''s stomach, "GET OUT OF MY SOULSCAPE!"


    Blue-Quinn couldn''t get in a word(not like he looked like he wanted to say anything) as his body turned into luminescent blue solid, dispersed into pieces on the kick''s impact just like the personification of pride had done before.


    "Alright, that''s two," Quinn muttered, turning his eye to his soul. The soul which had been the darkest shade of ck had now lightened. "Good, it''s working¡ª I just need to keep this going."


    From the two sins, he could tell that this time around, a single sin would be in charge, dominating the ''created'' personality while the other sins would hang out in the minority. Pride had taken the driver seat first, with the Sloth going second(which he did think was strange¡ª he would''ve expected Sloth to gost).


    "I wonder what''s going to be the next."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Night descended upon Hogwarts, the dinner feast was done, and the day had entered into the curfew period with students in their dorms. Dark clouds hovered over Hogwarts with streaks of lights shing in the darkness, announcing the possibility of a downpour.


    However, not all students were in their rooms; one Draco Malfoy was out of the dungeons, far away on the top, the seventh floor. He sat on a chair inside the Room of Requirements that he had fixed from its broken state. He had skipped the dinner feast and had been in the Room of Lost Things for a couple hours, jittery with worries, roaming back and forth in front of the repaired Vanishing Cab until his legs demanded rest, making him sit, and since then, he had been staring at the Vanishing Cab.


    Even though his prancing had been quelled, his worries still bubbled in his gut, threatening toe pouring out, only being held back by his foot tapping on the floor.


    ''A-Are they noting?'' Draco thought, leaning away from the backrest. ''Should I go to the other side to see what the dy is? Or is the mission canceled?'' his thoughts filled with hope.


    Draco decided against leaving Hogwarts and leaned back into his chair again. However, now his agitation had been ignited, and he needed an outlet. He looked around, and he was covered with junk of all sorts. But then he felt something on his side, and his hand went into his robes to take out his wand.


    He stared at his wand. Today. . . he would have to use it against something he had no idea how to even approach, much less defeat. How was he supposed to raise his wand against the great Albus Dumbledore, the defeater of the Dark Lord of a previous era?


    How was he supposed to kill Albus Dumbledore?


    ''You have to do it, or else he will kill everyone,'' a voice spoke in his mind. ''He won''t spare your father nor your mother,'' the image of the snake-like man made Draco shiver. ''If you fail, everything''s over.''


    Suddenly, Draco''s breathing became short, and he found himself short of breath. He grabbed his chest as his lungs heaved, and the world was turning for Draco¡ª he couldn''t do anything but try to get air into his lungs and watch as his mind started to shake and shiver. When everything came to a lul, his ears were ringing, and his inner clothes were drenched in sweat.


    Draco felt like bursting into tears.


    He didn''t want to do this.


    He couldn''t do this.


    He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard creaking of wood and immediately sat straight, looking at the Vanishing Cab with wide eyes. He stood up when he saw the door swing open, and there stood a man inside.


    "Ah, dear Draco, you look ready," said the man dressed in Death Eater garb. "It''s good that you''re ready¡ª you have a lot to aplish today; you''re going to be the star of this spectacr night."


    Corban Yaxley smiled as he greeted the young Malfoy. He stepped out of the cab and closed it behind him before stepping aside.


    The cab vibrated, and once again, the door opened for another man to step out. "That didn''t feel like much," said Amycus Carrow, he too, dressed in Death Eater robes.


    Then came Alecto Carrow, Thorfinn Rowle, along with Gellert Gibbon. All three inner circle Death Eater.


    The Vanishing Cab shivered one final time, and the door opened again, but this time, the man that stepped seemed to look like he was crouching inside the cab and had to duck to not bang his head.


    "Whoever made this should be gutted," said therge, vicious-looking man with matted grey hair and whiskers. He had pointed teeth and long yellowish nails, adding to his bestial appearance. He wore Death Eater robes that looked like they were ufortably tight. His hairy arms were exposed, and they weren''t branded by the Death Mark.


    The man was the most violent werewolf in the country.


    Fenrir Greyback.


    The infiltration squad was ready, and it was time to bring Hogwarts to its knees and announce the return of the Dark Lord to the world.


    Draco Malfoy looked at the adults around him, and his grip around his wand tightened. . . so they wouldn''t notice the tremble that wouldn''t stop.


    In the Headboy Suite three floors below, Quinn opened his eyes, and a savage grin crept onto his face as magic red inside his body intensely.


    It was time. . . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Arrogant I might be,zy I am not.


    Draco Malfoy - Junior Death Eater - Mission Impossible.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Did you notice the switcheroo at the start? Heh, they have been doing it to him since the start; it''s only fair he got to do it to them.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 315 - Wrath & Confrontation

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "So this is Hogwarts," said Fenrir Greyback, his small, dead eyes gazing around the hallways. "Hmm, looks different than what I had imagined it to be," he continued with a raspy chuckle, "I wonder how many would be reborn today with a changed fate¡ª ah, just thinking about it gives me a thrill."


    The Death Eater, all graduates of Hogwarts, turned their eyes to the werewolf with disgust.


    "We''re not here to y, Greyback," said Alecto Carrow, frowning. "We have an important responsibility today. The lord will be displeased if we failed, so keep your. . . antics in control today, or who knows what will happen if we were to return with a failure on our hands."


    Fenrir twisted his towards Alecto and dully stared at him for a silent moment. He gruffed snort in response before turning to Draco. "So, young Malfoy, where can we find your dead, I''m sorry, dear headmaster. I can''t wait to meet the old bat and get a good taste; I''m sure it''d make all of this worth it."


    "H-He should be in his quarters or in his office," said Draco.


    "It''d be not wise to corner him in his room," Thorfinn Rowle scratched his chin, "from what I''m aware of, the headmaster has gargoyles guarding his quarters and office¡ª even if we act quickly, he''d know we''reing, and I refuse to believe Dumbledore doesn''t have some hidden measures in ce, all-in-all making our attempts to surprise him this way moot.


    However," Thorfinn continued, "we can surprise him via an ambush. The question is how to get him out in the open."


    The Death Eaters all began to think about how to get Dumbledore out in the open, so they could get a drop on him. It was then that Draco spoke up, "We canunch morsmordre just over the Astronomy tower to lure Dumbledore out¡ª if he sees the Dark Mark over Hogwarts, he wille running out."


    "That is a great idea, Draco!" Amycus Carrow eximed. "If my memory serves me right, the stairs to the tower are in such a way that we can pick out any pesky ones that try to interfere."


    "To make sure that Dumbeldore is alone, I suggest that some of us go to the professor''s quarters and stand guard there to hinder them," said Corban Yaxley.


    There were nods and ayes from the other.


    "Bah! Whatever," said Fenrir. "Just get Dumbledore to me," he nced at Draco, "if he fails, I''d love to get Dumbledore''s blood on my hands."


    Draco held back a hitch in his throat.


    "Are you ready, Draco? You''re going to turn famous overnight."


    Draco nodded with difficulty yet tried to seem brave.


    "The Draco, if you''d lead Fenrir to the Astronomy Tower," said Thorfinn. He nced at Gibbon and Yaxley, "you guys go apany them and guard the base of the tower in case someone tries to get upstairs. I will go with the Carrows to the professor''s quarters and block those whoe out from there.


    When the deed is done, cast another morsmordre high in the sky, and we will know to retreat."


    . . . . .


    The discussions were over, and the Death Eater groups made their way to the grand staircase. All of them, bar Draco and Fenrir, had put on their masks and had pulled up their hoods to hide their identities¡ª they were prominent figures in public with their identities free of the Death Eater tag still useful in some ways.


    "What is this?" said Fenrir, stopping, his nose twitching as he red to the front.


    Fenrir''s gruff voice with cautiousness made the Death Eaters stop in their tracks and look where the werewolf looked. They furrowed their brows when they couldn''t see anything, but just when they were about to question Fenrir, something entered their vision.


    The segment of the hallway in front of them was drowned in darkness. The segment had no windows, and the torches on the walls were extinguished. Just next to the dark segment was arge window covered with y grills letting in the pale moonlight, creating a crisp line of shadow and light. In that crisp line, a soft mist came spilling out from the shadows as if making a nket on the floor''s surface.


    "Well?!" Fenrir questioned. "Is this normal?"


    "No, I haven''t seen this before," said Draco with a tight shake of his head.


    Just in a couple of seconds, the mist that seemed endless flowed out in waves and reached the Death Eaters. It covered the entire floor, rising to just above their ankles.


    "It doesn''t seem dangerous," said Thorfinn, as his testing spell didn''t give any negative response. "But what is this¡ª"


    Out of nowhere, the sound of footsteps sounded in the empty hallways. The Death Eaters all withdrew their wand as the footsteps closed in. A part of the mist was disturbed when a foot covered in overall ck stepped out as if it had been the part of the shadow, only to break out just this moment. The foot was followed by the entire figure draped in ck from head to toe.


    Draco stared at the unknown figure with doubt. ''Who is this,'' he wondered and nced at his group to see that all of them had assumed a duel-ready stance with their wands positioned to cast spells at a moment''s notice.


    ". . . You, you''re," Yaxley muttered, but his voice echoed in the night. He nced at hispanions, and his eyes behind mask seemed to ask the question, ''Is the figure in front of them who he thinks he is?''


    "Death Eaters, you daree to Hogwarts," a voice that didn''t seem human to any ear sounded from the figure that wore a in ck mask. "The castle is no ce to people like you," he turned to Draco, who was fumbling out his wand, "and you have a student with you. . . is that how you got in here?"


    The voice and words only worked to put the Death Eaters more on guard, especially Draco, who felt the gaze burrow into him.


    "You''re the one who they call the invisible vignte," said Yaxley, "but what are you doing in Hogwarts. . . ?"


    Quinn, who was dressed in his Noir gear, turned his eyes to Yaxley. He felt his heart pick up the beat as he spoke, "Where ever scum of the earth like you go, I shall follow to make sure follow to ensure that your mechanisms are shattered into crumbles, and just punishment is dolled for your crimes."


    Thorfinn turned to hispanions and immediately ordered, "There''s no need to converse with this fellow. We will get rid of him and continue with our mission."


    The Death Eaters nodded, and Friar, who had been silently looking at Quinn, stepped forwards with a yellow toothy grin.


    "So you''re the one who sneaked away Bones from under the lord''s nose," he said, cackling. "Lestrange said she wanted to twist her dagger in your gut, but it seems she won''t get the chance¡ª or who knows, maybe the crazy witch would be happy mutting your cold corpse."


    Quinn''s gaze focused on Fenrir, and his heartbeat was now rising on the stairs to an elevated beat. "Fenrir Greyback. . . you pride yourself as the ''progenitor'' of the werewolves in this country. Does inflicting the curse that much joy to you that you target innocent children?"


    At Quinn''s words, Fenrir burst intoughter that travelled to every corner of the long hallway and to its neighbours. "Progenitor, I like the sound of that. Whoever you are, I thank you for this; I''m going to use it as my moniker. . .yes, Progenitor¡ª it has a nice sound to it," he gazed at Quinn and grinned, "today you can die in peace knowing that you''ve pleased me."


    Quinn could hear his heartbeat in his ears over the sound of his breath against his mask. His fingers under his gloves twitched, and his muscles turned taut with excitement.


    "Me, dead?" he said, trying his best to keep his words from cracking. "All of you," he addressed the Death Eaters, "made the mistake of entering Hogwarts today uninvited. . . so don''t think you''ll be leaving here."


    Two spell-lights manifested over his hands. The magenta bubbling with ck thrummed ominously as Quinn pointed his palms towards the Death Eaters. "Only way you''ll be leaving the castle today is dead." Quinn released the spells towards the Death Eater with a smile of madness behind his mask.


    The moment the spells had manifested over Quinn''s hands, Alecto Carrow had stepped forward and pulled Fenrir back. He began casting andpleted his shields just before the spells came zooming towards him. The magic, instead of colliding with the shields, exploded into a burst of magenta mes, spreading everywhere like a wildfire, scorching the walls and floor.


    The Death Eaters reacted to fire, and all pulled their shields and counter-charms to subdue the spells. The stubborn me raged, licking the magic shields, corroding them with acidic sizzles. And even though the Death Eaters all conjured their shield, one of them was a beat slow and paid consequences.


    "AAAAAHHH!" Gellert Gibbon screamed as the cursed fire came in contact with his shoulders and ate away his clothes, then at his skin, burning it like an acid ssh. It was only until another member pulled him under the shield did Gellert escape the mes, but his injuries remained, stinging and burning.


    "HAHA, take that!" Quinn yelled, his voice drowned by the res of the fire. He didn''t mind and pushed more and more magic into the cursed mes.


    ?I can''t believe the day hase where I would see such gross poor use of a magic of my own design, and never in my wildest dreams I thought it would be me.?


    Quinn''sughter died as a frown marred his face. He ignored shook his head, deciding to ignore the voice.


    ?Why would you use the wide-exploding configuration here? It makes zero sense.?


    Ignore it, he thought. It had done sloth no good to respond, and it wouldn''t do him no good.


    ?Haah. . . this is so foolish and embarrassing. Mindlessly forcing more and more magic into a spell that isn''t designed to take this level of input. That''s the problem with guys like you. They don''t appreciate the intricacies of magic.?


    He couldn''t take it anymore, and a part of his concentration dove into the soulscape, where the voice originated. Inside there, he opened his eyes and found that his body was glowing red.


    Standing in front of Red-Quinn was original Quinn with a smile on his face.


    "Oh my, a guest," he said. "How exciting!"


    "What do you want?!" said Red-Quinn with a growl in his tone.


    "I''m just here to talk, buddy," Quinn softly smiled.


    "If you hadn''t noticed, I''m sort of busy, and you''re disturbing me," there was grit in his voice.


    Outside, Quinn''s cursed fire spell was snuffed; however, the Death Eaters were still un-cocked. He raised his hand, and the temperature dropped for several degrees as ice boulders manifested in the air. He lowered his hand, and the huge boulders went catapulting towards the Death Eaters to crush them.


    "But, I was bored~," said Quinn, also keeping an outside. "If you hadn''t noticed, there isn''t much to do here in this dump."


    "Drop the bullshit, ande to the point," said Red-Quinn.


    Quinn wiggled his brows for a moment before he shrugged. "If you keep fighting like this, you''re not going to win¡ª and while it would be difficult for you to lose with my capabilities, the Death Eater squad would trap you long enough to do the job."


    Red-Quinn didn''t bother to put his thoughts into words; instead, he choseughter as the medium.


    Quinn stared at the twisted personification of his wrath and shook his head. He knew this wasn''t going to work, at least not the way he was trying to do things. And Red-Quinn seemed to think so as well as he vanished from the soulscape.


    "Well, I can always y the devil on the shoulder," Quinn muttered.


    And Quinn''s warning soon came to be true as the battle continued to progress.


    Alecto Carrow swiped her wand, and a colossal ice spear diverted from its flight path and crashed into the wall, piercing into the bricks. She didn''t stop and shot a zap of killing green towards the sole assant, but a tile broke away from the floor and exploded at impact. Alecto nced at her brother, who was currently raising exploding spells at a thick floating barrier of ice that seemed to be perpetually recovering.


    "Amycus," she called, "this isn''t getting anywhere. We''re wasting our time. We need to get out of here."


    "I would love to," Amycus countered an exploding ice shard, "but this guy isn''t letting us go!" He raised the wand at an angle and shot a projectile to bypass, but a snappy-fast spell came zapping out from Quinn''s side and exploded to counter Amycus''s magic. "How can he cast so much magic!"


    They were six people, seven included Draco, and while one of them was injured, their opponent was striking their attacks down with defenses and counters while dealing his own damage.


    They were getting nowhere.


    "We need to get Draco and one more person past him to do the job," said Alecto. The group knew that the longer the fightsted, the more the chance of getting noticed, especially with the ghosts roamed in Hogwarts. She turned to the rest of the group. "Who wants to go with Draco?"


    "I''ll do it," came a reply from Cabron Yaxley.


    "What?!" Fenrir immediately interjected. "I''m the one who''s to pass here!"


    Thorfinn, who was listening, inserted himself into the conversation. "No, Fenrir, we need you here. You''re the only one who can brute force here to him, especially if we want to get two out of here; we would need to create an opening that only you can make here," he said, keeping the disgust down and hidden.


    The werewolf countered a spell before staring at Thorfinn, who matched his gaze.


    "Alright, I will do it just this once," said Fenrir. "And by saying that only I can do it, means I''m allowed to let go and let it out."


    "Yes, I''m expecting that to work."


    Fenrir''s teeth seemed to be sharper from before as he grinned. "You know it was getting difficult for me to keep it down; I''m not used to being human on a full-moon night."


    The Death Eaters exchanged nces with each other and stepped back as they knew what was toe.


    Unlike the other werewolves, Fenrir Greyback epted his Lycan side, embraced it, loved it¡ª and after hundreds of nights letting his other side run free, not once resisting it, had allowed him some control over the other side. And for today, he had a single dose of his most hated potion, which would allow just enough control that he could stay in his human form for several hours after the full moon.


    The already tight Death Eater robes started to stretch further as the sound of cracking and creaking sounded from Fenrir''s body, and unlike others in his situation, which would be screaming in the sheer pain, Fenrir wasughing in pleasure. There was a terrible snarling noise. Fenrir''s head was lengthening. So was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into wed paws.


    The transformed werewolf threw his head up and growled before he looked at the Death Eater, and they clutched their wands tighter. But the werewolf didn''t jump towards them, and in some way, they even thought that the werewolf was smiling.


    Werewolf-Fenrir leaned forward with his feral eyes ring at the blurry figure in front of him, hiding behind barriers of ice. He roared and then went charging towards the enemy.


    Some of the ice on the barrier melted away, and a spell came hurling towards Fenrir. He made no attempt to dodge the spell and let it hit his body and then proceeded to shrug it off like a child''s punch. The charge continued, and Fenrir exploited the hole in the ice barrier to rip the barrier apart and jump into melee range.


    Quinn watched with wide eyes beneath his mask as the werewolf brought along a foul smell and, more importantly, the vicious ws and sharp teeth. Instantly, all the focus on the other magic was abandoned for a fast load of body magic inside his own body. He raised his foot and gave Fenrir a charged front kick, but unexpectedly, the werewolf staggered a couple steps.


    The werewolf looked at Quinn with what seemed surprise in his feral eyes, mirroring the same emotion in Quinn''s eyes. But Quinn''s shock turned into annoyance almost instantly.


    ?Werewolves have high resistance to many magic and have elevated physiques. Letting them close like you did is the worst thing you could''ve done. But you already knew that, yet you got cocky, opting for destructive rather than efficient and useful magic.?


    Quinn furrowed as he shot another spell on Fenrir, who tried to get close to him. In the corner of his eyes, he saw Draco hiding behind another Death Eater trying to sneak past him. He cast a spell to stop them just to abandon it when Fenrir came charging again, making Quinn focus on the werewolf.


    ?Ah, Wrath, I don''t get angry easily or frequently. When I do get angry, I blow up¡ª controlled fury isn''t my thing. I remember how unloaded on the Icy Vault when it almost killed me. You who were born from within me would obviously gain my stats. . . . heh, you''re not capable of making rational decisions, are you??


    Quinn(Red) frowned, and his hands clenched hard, stretching the leather of his gloves.


    ?If you keep this up, a professor or Dumbledore wille here, and the deadlock would end up making it so that we wouldn''t be able to escape, and that would inevitably result in the secret identity getting exposed. . . and we don''t want that, do we.?


    If it had been Pride, he wouldn''t have minded getting his identity exposed; even Sloth would''ve been quitezy and made a mistake leading to exposure. But Wrath didn''t have those limitations/motivations. He wanted the identity to stay secret, so he could continue to wreak havoc in the future.


    ?Come on, give me control, and I will take care of this situation. . . .?


    The voice sounded like a devil''s offer and the result. . . ?


    Quinn raised his hand and shot a spell at Fenrir, who again didn''t dodge it, but he came to a halt this time.


    Fenrir looked down and saw his werewolf arm turning back to his human arm. He looked up at Quinn with one human and one werewolf eye, shock tainting both just before pain hit him.


    "Now, Death Eaters," said Quinn, a smile hidden from his listeners, "let''s move on with the events of this night."


    It was good to have control back, thought Quinn, as his magic flowed under his control.


    .


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    .


    Quinn West - MC - Corporeal bodies are the best.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Hmm. . . out of all the Sins I have written, including thoseing in the future. I think Wrath is the one I am most unsatisfied with.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 316 - Regaining Control

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn cracked his neck and flexed every movable muscle in his body. It hadn''t been long since he had lost control of his own body, but finally, being in his own skin felt phenomenal.


    He breathed a sigh offort and turned his gaze to the werewolf in front of him while watching in his peripherals as Yaxley and Draco ran past him to continue their mission of the night. They eyed him all the while, and he could feel both their eyes and wands pointed at him even when they weren''t in his eyesight. He, however, didn''t make any moves to stop or even hinder them.


    They could get the ball moving while he finished the job here.


    He turned his attention back to Fenrir and saw that he was back in his werewolf form. "I have to give it to you, Fenrir Greyback. You''re a special werewolf¡ª that spell would''ve reversed any other werewolf to their human form for at least a couple of minutes with searing pain¡ª but you. . . you barely even sucked in an extra breath, and you''re already back in full form. Truly impressive."


    "What did you do?" Fenrir asked. He didn''t wait for a response and jumped at Quinn with his ws bared.


    Quinn waved his hand, and a blinding yellow jet of magic hit Fenrir square in the chest, sending him back, tumbling, and skidding along the floor.


    "Homorphus charm," said Quinn''s Noir voice. "An incredibly inefficient spell that temporarily reverts a fully transformed werewolf into their human forms."


    Fenrir roared in pain while yelping in between as his body wriggled on the floor as the thick mat of fur/hair receded back into his body and muscles deted back to their pre-transformation form.


    "Didn''t I mention it hurts horribly," Quinnmented.


    When he looked away from Fenrir at the Death Eaters, who watched the scene in shock. He wasn''t expecting them to stop and stare between a fight, but he could only partially me them. The Homorphus charm, as he had mentioned, wasn''t a great spell¡ª not only did it cause tremendous pain to the target, it also wasn''t effective enough to be a practically-viable spell¡ª the spell would fail seven out of ten times, a shocking percentage when facing a werewolf who could transmit the lycanthropy curse. Only when someone with enough skill and power like Quinn used the spell would it work, and even then, the Homorphus charm working against ''THE'' Fenrir Greyback must''ve been shocking to the Death Eaters.


    Quinn, of course, wasn''t shocked as his opponent. Orbs of dirty-yellow magic manifested around him, turned into spell-lights, and zapped towards the Death Eaters. Shields were pulled immediately in panic, which only seemed to grow when the spell ate away at their protection. Quinn didn''t stop and summoned winds to shoot des at the defending Death Eaters.


    He then returned to Fenrir Greyback and stepped on the man''s chest as Empyrean shot out of the floor, bounding Fenrir''s arms, legs, torso, and neck as he tried to struggle against the bounds while the werewolf form started to return.


    "I was looking forward to today," said Quinn, as he began charging magic into a Homorphus charm. "I was disappointed that Betrix Lestrange didn''t show up, but seeing you in the line-up made the entire ordeal worth it."


    Fenrir''s eyes shook as he watched the yellow spell turn brighter. He growled and tried to push himself up, just to be pushed down by Quinn''s body magic-assisted leg and punished by the Empyrean bounds.


    "Fuck you!" he snarled.


    "Oh no, thank you," said Quinn and let the rampaging magic into Fenrir''s body.


    Fenrir let out an ear-ringing roar as the magic reversed the transformation by force. The painful yelling was so harsh that Quinn cast a sound-blocking barrier to keep it contained; however, the Death Eaters were kept within the confines of the sound barrier so that they could be part of Fenrir''s experience.


    The exchange of spells halted when the screams pierced the area. The Death Eaters stopped still as their hearts beat faster as they watched the blurred figures behind the ice barrier. The screams continued for more than half a minute before turning into yelping and finally passing into silence.


    Quinn removed his feet from Fenrir''s chest. The once imposing man nowid on the floor prone, unconscious, and bloody. The werewolf transformation was tough on the human body, and while Fenrir''s unique circumstances had allowed him to switch painlessly, even he couldn''t handle the reverse without feeling the changes forced on his body while the lycanthropy curse resisted stopping the reversal. Two opposing forces in his body had ripped it apart, leading to severe damage and bodily harm.


    ''That''s that,'' Quinn walked past Fenrir and dispelled the ice barrier that had served him well while he took care of the most troublesome of the bunch.


    "Now,dy and gentlemen," he said as he stepped into view. "I have taken care of your attack dog¡ª he yelped bravely and did try to bite, so be proud of him," the humor vanished, "and now it is time for all of you to follow after him."


    There were no quips or jabs from the Death Eaters'' side as they chose to respond with spells.


    Multiple shields, results of multiple different spells, sprung in front of Quinn as he stood calm in his spot as the Death Eaters spell came just to be stopped; even the asional killing curse by the floors tiles that Quinn had floating around to keep him safe.


    Quinn raised his hands, and appendages of red Empyrean radiated into existence out from his body, raising above his body into the air to a height that the Death Eaters could see them glowing in a threatening light. They would remember that moment as thest time of rtive peace.


    .


    .


    .


    Quinn stood in the middle of unconscious Death Eaters as dark soot and haze emanated from his body, covering the bodies of the Death Eaters, who had their cracked masksying beside their bodies.


    Tetani Nervum worked to cripple their nerves in their arms to take away their ability to use a wand and, in turn, cast magic.


    Quinn sighed when the magic wasplete, and the Death Eaters sealed from using magic until he released their arms by restoring their arms. He wished that more people hade to Hogwarts so that he could do more damage.


    ''At least they''re were named Death Eaters,'' he thought, looking at the faces, recognizing from the Ministry parties and old newspaper articles on Wizengamot hearings.


    Quinn lifted all of their bodies and pushed them against the walls. The surface of the walls turned into liquid and the Death Eaters sunk inside, leaving only their hands(above the wrist) and feet(below the ankle) to dangle outside as Quinn solidified the wall, trapping and showcasing them at the same time along with their wands.


    He wasn''t worried about them not being found. Harry Potter knew that Malfoy was doing something in the Room of Requirement, and even if others didn''t know until now, they would know after today, and someone would be led here to see his artwork.


    Quinn finished his work, and at that moment, he saw a green hue reflected on the wall. He turned to see through the grated windows and saw a green skull in the night sky with a snake slithering out of its mouth.


    ''Perfect timing.''


    He walked to the grate and narrowed his eyes as two additional spellsunched out of the Astronomy Tower. They headed in different directions¡ª Headmaster''s Office and Headmaster''s Quarters.


    Quinn couldn''t tell the nature of the spells, but if he was to guess, the magic was to make sure that Dumbledore saw the huge skull-and-snake, or at least that he saw it first.


    "I should also get there," Quinn muttered and turned towards the destroyed ce of broken marbles, ice pierced into the bricks, scorched walls, and various other spell damage from deflections and misfire. "I should fix this up before going¡ª"


    Quinn''s eyes widened as a bout of dizziness hit him, sending him staggering. He tried to look straight ahead, but the world didn''t seem to cooperate with him and spun around like a gyroscope, and no matter how much he tried, he couldn''t focus on a singr point. He took a single step ahead and stepped on the side of his ankle, and fell to the ground. His hands went forward to stop him from kissing the ground. But then his ear started to ring, and even a single moment made him feel like emptying his gut.


    As he was sweating, a voice inside his head spoke,


    ?Where are you going without care? Did you forget that you''re still going through an internal crisis??


    Quinn grunted and sent healing magic around his body to iste the cause and erase it so that he could regain some semnce of bnce. Given the circumstances, he deployed mind and body magic, but even casting magic was hindered because of the physical experience he was going through.


    ?Yeah. . . none of that going to work when we have your Soul under our control. It''s such a fascinating thing¡ª Soul, that is. It has a tremendous connection with magic, but at the same time, it''s such a vulnerable spot to those who know to work it.?


    "What are you¡ª"


    ?ytime''s over; it''s time to return to your room;e on, you''re grounded.?


    Quinn felt as if senses had been given a shock as for a second, all was kicked up to eleven, but the next second, everything dulled until he couldn''t see, hear, or feel anything. Then everything came back in a blink of an eye¡ª literally, he blinked, and he was able to take stable input through his senses again.


    And they showed him a dark and dingy space instead of the Hogwarts corridor.


    "Now, what was all that about?"


    Quinn sighed when he heard the voice, but not from his mouth. He turned and saw another one of himself, this one glowing green. The Green-Quinn had a smirk on his face as if enjoying the situation.


    "As much as I dislike it, I have to give it to you, the way you got rid of Wrath was impressive," said Green-Quinn, slow pping. "To think you''d trick the blockhead into willingly relinquishing his control. That idiot gave up the control and ended up getting erased out of existence, but I guess we can only expect that much from someone who has nothing but red steam up in the top shelf."


    Quinn sat on the floor, his face slumped down, chin meeting the chest. He had thought that he would have control for at least another hour, if not more. There was always a time gap between every sin personification appearance¡ª they would enjoy the control of the body for a while before heading inside to meet him, and Quinn hoped that if he was in control, he could at least have some more time before the control was wrestled away.


    He was naive in his assumption. They, of course, wouldn''t allow him to remain inmand¡ª he wouldn''t do it if he was in their shoes.


    Green-Quinn skipped to Quinn on light steps and squatted down in front of him. He tilted his head to take a look at Quinn''s bowed face. "Hey, hey, what happened to you? Why so sad? The worse is yet toe."


    That got to Quinn. He looked up at Green-Quinn''s smug face with wide eyes.


    "Now, I like that face," said Green-Quinn.


    ". . . I beg you, please don''t derail the n."


    Green-Quinn wiggled his finger with a smile. "Can''t do, big guy. I don''t like the n, and I''ll do as I feel because I''m in charge. Too bad for you, though."


    Quinn''s eyes turned sharp into a re. "I''m warning you, don''t mess it up. If you even think about messing it up, I''ll make your short pathetic life miserable before snuffing it out like your ''brothers.'' Don''t test me, or I''ll make you envy those who came before you."


    The personification of envy stared down at Quinn, his face devoid of emotion before a tight smile cleaving his face.


    "We will see about that."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Why do good things have to end so quickly.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Today, I booked the tickets to my first flight. Excited.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 317 - Invidia

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    ?You dumb idiot, do you think that going against my n would somehow make you feel superior? Is that it? You jealous piece of shit, do you think that screwing me over would finally give you validation about your fake existence.?


    Quinn(Envy) chuckled with the voice in his head and walked towards the Astronomy Tower while keeping an eye on the destination through the windows in the way that would show him the view of the Dark Mark.


    ?Pathetic. Ugh, I never thought that something so pathetic would rise from me. I was fine with the Sins that came before you, but you''re the worst, most disgusting part of me amplified.?


    Quinn injected the magic and activated Recon with the voice password. Under hismand, the map came to life and interfaced what Hogwarts fed to it.


    ?What, no words? You were spouting all that nonsense just before, what happened. . . oh, wait a minute, do you not know to speak because it''s your first time having a body? How piti¡ª.?


    Quinn smirked when the voice went silent as if the plug on a spinning record yer had been pulled, making ite to a screeching halt. He nced at Recon and began listing out names:


    "Albus Dumbledore. . . . Minerva McGonagall. . . . Filius Flitwick. . . . Pomona Sprout. . . . Severus Snape. . . . Lily Potter. . . . Septima Vector. . . ."


    He was still on time. The professors were all in their rooms, and from the looks of it, they weren''t shuffling around, which meant that they hadn''t woken up yet, except for Snape, who was already on his way to the Astronomy tower. Dumbledore was also out of his room, moving towards the Astronomy Tower.


    ''Did he not send the message to them?'' Quinn thought, scoffing. ''Overconfident old fool¡ª.''


    ?You dare use my own magic against me.?


    Quinn''s steps halted, squeaking against the marble, with Recon momentarily staggering in the air.


    ?If you don''t remember, let me rem¡ª . . . . remind you, I was the one who found how to block all your voices, so of course, I know how to get around it.?


    His hand tightened into a fist. He clicked his tongue and started walking again.


    ?Do you think not talking to me will help you keep control? Come on, don''t fool yourself. You will have to confront me, just as I was forced to confront you. You hurried over to meet, so don''t go avoiding me now.?


    Quinn tapped his feet on the floor and cracked his knuckles as the voice continued to re in his head, berating him, insulting him in every word and sentence. The voice was so loud and constant that it upied his mind and grew to the point that it got difficult to even keep a line of thought.


    He stomped his foot on the floor with a snarl on his face. He descended into the soulscape and found himself in the dull space. Green-Quinn''s pupils narrowed when he saw that the walls were no longerpletely ck, and parts of the walls were now getting diffused into four colors.


    When he turned his eyes to the center of the room, his apprehension grew when he saw that the ck Soul now had a golden glow.


    "Where. . . ?" Green-Quinn frowned when he couldn''t see Quinn by the Soul''s side.


    It was then a voice whispered into his ear, "Like what you see? I guess someone upgraded my jail cell."


    Green-Quinn jumped away and turned started to see Quinn, who had just been standing behind him. "What do you want?" Green-Quin asked.


    "You know what I want," said Quinn, walking towards the Soul, "the correct question here is how to go on about what I want."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Today''s an important day for us¡ª yes, us¡ª and I can''t allow your petty behavior to ruin it, so I''ll give you two choices. One is that you follow my n and don''t intervene; in return, I give you some time to y around before the time inevitablyes that you vanish," Quinn continued despite the sneer from his green counterpart. "The second option is that you relinquish control over to me, and we bid goodbye here on amicable terms."


    ". . . What kind of fool do you think I am," Green-Quinn spat, "there''s no plus for me in either of those options¡ª if I''m going to disappear¡ª"


    "Not if, when."


    "¡ª Shut up! As I was saying, if I''m going to disappear, which I''m not, I would make rather make your life difficult than before I leave."


    "What is your problem with Dumbledore?" Quinn asked suddenly.


    "Err. . . what?" Green-Quinn blinked in surprise, losing the snide remark he was about to throw out.


    "You''re my personification of envy; that much is clear from your behavior. So the next question that rises up here is where you stem from. Pride stemmed from the arrogant view that I was better than others; Sloth was a poor amplification physicalziness; Wrath came from the characteristics of my anger. . . . so where do youe from."


    Green-Quinn''s eyes turned somber, and his mouth stayed silent.


    "Envy is the sin of jealousy over the benefits and achievements of others. It''s interesting because I thought my pride would be enough to stifle out envy because of its origin, but here you''re, standing in front of me. . . so it makes me wonder where did youe from? There are only a few people I have ever felt genuine envy towards.


    There''s Mr. n for his sheer natural talent for mind magic; I could only imagine what that''d feel like, but after getting so much of his help, yeah, I only have respect for him now. Architect is a short petty man, but what about the other Cursed Vault creators¡ª I''ve thought for hours on hours on how the Icy Vault''s creator managed to create and store Absolute Zero, or how the Aquatic Vault''s creator managed to record those memories in the water along with the healing factor, but that sort of. . . eh, they''re dead, so there''s no need to envy them.


    Who remains? Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. . . I''m not envious of his name, that''s for sure. But I remember feeling part-appreciation part-envy about the influence that he has built over the people of this country, or that he was trained by THE Alchemist Nichs mel himself, or the knowledge he must''ve crammed in that head of his, or how he can move around freely, whereas I have to carefully step about¡ª yes, it was because I made it so¡ª but still, there have been times I have been seen him as a target of my envy. . . . tell me, do you hate Dumbledore that much?"


    Quinn stared at Green-Quinn, measuring his expressions. The personification of envy had been aggressively hostile towards, much more than the ones before him, and given the current situation, it wasn''t optimal to have such a hindrance.


    "I''m not envious of Dumbledore," said Green-Quinn, his sharp eyes ring at Quinn. He raised his hand and pointed at Quinn, "All of this is because of you!"


    "Me?" Quinn asked in confusion and surprise.


    "Us Sins are based on you, birthed from your personality qualities, and because of the curse, those qualities were amplified and twisted, making us inherently wed entities. Even if we are able to seal you away, we will not be able to live full lives. Pride wouldn''t have been able to show vulnerability or be humble; Sloth would''ve at some point stopped growing; Wrath''s life would''ve derailed at some point, sooner rather thanter," Green-Quinn red as if trying to burn holes into Quinn.


    "And I''d never be able to happy in the happiness of my loved ones¡ª my wed existence would never be able to see others doing good, and I would have no way to fix it. . . do you think that''s an enjoyable way to live? I hate you because you''re the reason I''m like this. If you just had left the Sin Vault alone, I would''ve never been created and would''ve never had to experience the sheer bleakness that''s ahead of me.


    But you know what? I will stay true to my nature. If I can''t have a good time, I will not allow you to have one either. As long as I''m here, I will make your life miserab¡ª"


    Green-Quinn''s eyes widened as his words died in his throat. He looked down and saw a golden de striking out from his abdomen. He shakily turned back his head and saw that the de hade out of the Soul, and he could see the flimsy de crumble away as the darkness of the Sin curse immediately re-covered the golden part that had been able to break free.


    "I am sorry," said Quinn, all the previous hostility gone. "Yes, it was my fault that you were born, and if only I stayed away, none of this would''ve happened. I realize that stabbing you in the back isn''t the best way to deal with you, and I could''ve done much better, but I''m sorry, the current situation has me on a time crunch, and this is the only way I could think off."


    Green-Quinn saw the area around ''wound'' turn into a fluorescent green with small petal-sized chunks flying away as the green spread. He looked up at Quinn and tightly shook his head withplex emotions, mostly anger and rage.


    "Fuck you, I hope Greedpletely takes over, and you never see the light of the day." With that, he disappeared like those before him.


    Quinn stared at the spot where Green-Quinn had stood for a moment before he looked up at his Soul.


    ''How did I do that?'' he thought about the sudden de.


    He had been training his Soul ever since he hadid his hand on the Resurrection Stone. He was able to conjure a shield around his Soul, which had protected him from getting instantly being controlled by the curse, and that was before he had shortly trained under n, which had allowed him to better utilize what power he had built. And if he could conjure a shield, he could also conjure a sword.


    But soul offense was different from soul defense as one could mostly only practically use it if the attack could be transmitted out to the targets, who were usually not in the soulscape, and Quinn hadn''t grown his Soul to the point where he could transmit outside. . . so he hadn''t gone into offense.


    He hadn''t learned how to conjure a sword, even if it could only stay within the soulscape.


    He had just done it, and it had unnaturally natural.


    Quinn shook his head and decided to move on. There was work to do. He closed his eyes and invoked the magic he had his control on. After getting rid of Pride, Sloth, and Wrath, he regained some control over his magic, which had again increased now that Envy was also defeated, and was sure it would continue to grow as he continued to beat the remaining Sins.


    He breathed out, and when he opened his eyes, he was back in control of his body.


    ''I should have some time,'' Quinn thought. He had gotten rid of more than half of the seven, which did give him more control, or at least he thought/felt so.


    He nced at Astronomy Tower before looking at Recon, and he could already see that Dumbledore and Snape were closing in on the Astronomy Tower, and the other professors were also shuffling in their rooms. He was also sure that the Aurors were already notified by someone in Hogsmeade, and one of the professors, most probably McGonagall, would let them in on their arrival.


    "I need to hurry," he said and started to run through the hallways.


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    Quinn West - MC - Four of seven.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I am happy with my version of Envy. It could''ve worked with Wrath as well, but I think I liked it on Envy.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the bio!

 Chapter 318 - The Astronomy Tower

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Quinn covered ground in the hallways, jumping between Hogwarts'' internal secret pathways. He kept an eye on the Recon, and with every passing second, he could see activity from several different people in the castle.


    He jumped out of a secret pathway and sprinted to a T-corner nearest to him like an arrow shot from a bow. He skidded to a halt, and one full-motion, the magic flowed from his core to the world outside. The air cooled down, and ice crystal crackled, freezing in the air, starting from the middle and from the edges near the wall. Quinn exerted his magic, and in mere seconds, a thick ice barrier had blocked one hallway on the T-corner.


    Quinn backed up and ran away from the ice barrier with his eyes on Recon as his legs did the walking for him. He watched as Recon showed him the position of two people on the floor above¡ª Aurora Sinistra and Septima Vector. ording to his estimates, both the professors would take the route he had just blocked to get to the Astronomy Tower. They would either try to take another course, a longer route, or try to destroy the barrier¡ª whatever way they chose, it would buy him time.


    He popped out at another path, and just like before, he shot a charged shot of ice magic, and it expanded into another thick wall, blocking one more path. . . . then another, one more, two more, three more, until a half a dozen different paths were ice-blocked.


    Quinn again looked at Recon and browsed through the zoomed-out paths to find the one name he was looking for and found it moving towards the Astronomy Tower just like every other person that was out and awake at the moment.


    He nced to his right and saw a straight path, one turn around the corner, and the spiralling stairs to the Astronomy Tower would be clear sight. However, there was a Death Eater in his clear sight right now; his eyes were looking towards the stairs, and he hadn''t seemed to notice Quinn.


    Quinn pointed his palm towards the Death Eater, and one magic shotter, the Death Eater was lying on the ground.


    He turned to his left and set his eyes on the short dark path. Hurried steps knocked on the marble floor, reverberating in the empty night, and with every footstep, the sound became louder until he saw billowing dark robes enter his sight.


    ". . . You."


    "Severus Snape," said Quinn, looking at his potions professor.


    Severus Snape stopped to a halt when he saw someone he wasn''t expecting to see today.


    "Who are you?" he asked, taking out his wand.


    Quinn didn''t reply verbally; instead, he raised his hand and shot a bone-breaking curse at Snape.


    Snape conjured a silver shield and met the magic. He staggered a step when the curse pushed him back and made the shield groan and dent to almost the breaking point.


    "You''ll not be passing here today, Severus Snape," said Quinn, his magic ring again.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


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    By the light of the Dark Mark hovering in the sky, Dumbledore climbed the spiralling stairs that led to the top of the tower was opened, something that he was sure Argus Filch diligently closed every night. There was no sign of a struggle, of a fight to the death, of a body; however, Dumbledore could feel the tenseness around him.


    He stepped out to the roof, and his eyes immediately up at the green skull with its serpent''s tongue glinting evilly above them. Dumbledore readied his wand as he walked near to the ramparts on the edges of the roof.


    "Expelliarmus!"


    Dumbledore didn''t look back, and the red spell stopped before hitting him and fizzled away. He turned around; standing against the ramparts, very white in the face, Dumbledore still showed no sign of panic or distress. He merely looked across at his failed-disarmer and said, "Good evening, Draco."


    Malfoy stepped forward, ncing around quickly to check that he and Dumbledore were alone.


    "Expelliarmus!" Draco yelled again, and a red jet again zipped at Dumbledore, but once again, it fizzled away before reaching him.


    "A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"


    "No," said Draco, his eyes turning to the green Dark Mark. "I''ve got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."


    Draco kept a brave face, not showing any sign that Death Eaters weren''t the only ones in the school tonight.


    "Well, well," said Dumbledore, as though Malfoy was showing him an ambitious homework project. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"


    "Yeah," said Malfoy, who was panting. "Right under your nose, and you never realized!


    "Ingenious," said Dumbledore. "Yet . . . forgive me . . . where are they now? You seem unsupported."


    "They''re making sure that we are left undisturbed. To ensure that yourckeys don''t interfere with what''s going to happen here today."


    "Hmm, I must say that you''re confident if nothing more," Dumbledore smiled. "Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy."


    There was silence. And in front of him, Draco Malfoy did nothing but stare at Albus Dumbledore, who, incredibly, smiled.


    "Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."


    "How do you know?" said Malfoy at once. But he seemed to realize how childish the words had sounded and flushed under the greenish light. "You don''t know what I''m capable of," said Malfoy more forcefully. "You don''t know what I''ve done!"


    "Oh yes, I do," said Dumbledore mildly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and the thing with poisoned chocte that ended up circting in Gryffindor. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts. . . . So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it."


    "It has been in it!" said Malfoy vehemently. "I''ve been working on it all year, and tonight ¡ª"


    Somewhere in the castle''s depths below, Draco heard explosions; his shoulders stiffened and nced over his shoulder.


    "Somebody is putting up a good fight," said Dumbledore conversationally. "But you were saying . . . yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school, which, I admit, I thought impossible. . . . How did you do it?"


    But Malfoy said nothing: He was still listening to whatever was happening below and seemed paralyzed.


    "Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," said Dumbledore. "What if your backup isn''t able to hold back the professors, and I''m sure that soon the Aurors and my Order of Phoenix would be here soon."


    Malfoy merely stared at him.


    "I see," said Dumbledore kindly when Malfoy neither moved nor spoke. "You are afraid to act until they join you."


    "I''m not afraid!" snarled Malfoy, though he still made no move to hurt Dumbledore. "It''s you who should be scared!"


    "But why? I don''t think you will kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as


    easy as the innocent believe, and I don''t think even if you wanted, you could kill me. . . . So tell me, while we wait for your friends . . . how did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how to do it."


    Malfoy looked as though he was fighting down the urge to shout or to vomit. He gulped and took several deep breaths, ring at Dumbledore, his wand pointing directly at thetter''s heart. Then, as though he could not help himself, he said, "I had to mend that broken Vanishing Cab that no one''s used for years."


    "Aaaah." Dumbledore''s sigh was half a groan. He closed his eyes for a moment. "That was clever, and if there''s a Vanishing Cab, there must always be a pair of them."


    "In Borgin and Burkes," said Malfoy, "and they make a kind of passage between them. I was the only one who realized what it meant¡ª even Borgin didn''t know¡ª I was the one who realized there could be a way into Hogwarts through the cabs if I fixed the broken one."


    "Very good," murmured Dumbledore. "So the Death Eaters were able to pass from Borgin and Burkes into the school to help you. . . . A clever n, a very clever n . . . and, as you say, right under my nose."


    "Yeah," said Malfoy, who bizarrely seemed to draw courage andfort from Dumbledore''s praise. "Yeah, it was!"


    "Now, I understand, yes I do," Dumbledore nodded with a soft smile. "There is little time, one way or another, so let us discuss your options, Draco."


    There was a bang and shouts from below, louder than ever; it sounded as though people were fighting on the actual spiral staircase that led to where Dumbledore and Malfoy stood.


    "My options!" said Malfoy loudly. "I''ll kill you¡ª"


    "My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it already without entertaining me with the conversation. And let''s look at this intelligently here, Draco; you weren''t able to disarm me, and even if you did, I would''ve been more than enough for you even without my wand."


    "I haven''t got any options!" said Malfoy, and he was suddenly white as Dumbledore. "I''ve got to do it! He''ll kill me! He''ll kill my whole family!"


    "Draco, I had doubts about you, and I do appreciate the difficulty of your situation," sighed Dumbledore. "Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized that I suspected you."


    Malfoy winced at the sound of the name.


    "I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you," continued Dumbledore. "But now, atst, we can speak inly to each other. . . . No harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are fortunate that your unintentional victims survived. . . . I can help you, Draco."


    "No, you can''t," said Malfoy, his wand hand shaking very badly indeed. "Nobody can. He told me to do it, or he''ll kill me. I''ve got no choice."


    "Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you morepletely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. . . . We can even try to save your father, but it would depend if he wants toe. . . . Come over to the right side, Draco . . . you are not a killer. . . ."


    Malfoy stared at Dumbledore. His mouth was open, his wand hand still trembling.


    "You''ll save my mother?" he asked, his voice cracking.


    "Yes, Draco, she will be safe. I give you my word."


    Draco slowly lowered his hand until he let his arm limp down; his wand slipped from his fingers¡ª it clicked on the floor, and now no one was there to stop it. . . .''


    "Very good, Draco, very good," said Dumbledore, smiling.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    The hallway around Quinn and Snapey broken, consumed in destruction.


    Quinn sighed as he stepped towards a Snape who was on his knees with Empyrean chains grabbing onto his arms and legs, pulling him to the ground. Quinn looked down on him as he struggled to look up with a cut above one of his eyes.


    "You have to let me go," said Snape, panting.


    Quinn shook his head. "I''m sorry, but I can''t allow you to interfere."


    "You don''t understand, I have to. . ."


    "No, I do understand, and that''s why you can''t go," said Quinn, his eyescking their usual shine.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    A/N:


    [


    I have thought about this.


    Yes, Deathly Hallows depends on this event. But I also know that the situation is different from the canon right now. And going the same way didn''t make sense, at least to me.


    Some of you guys might have seen me writing that I''m a writer who writes chapter by chapter without much nning or outlining. Yes, that''s true, but this was one of those events that I had thought about quite early in the life of this fic. Moreover, it got set in stone when I made Quinn get the Resurrection Stone.


    Well, the Death Hallows'' events are now out of contention. There would be a few that would pop up, but I''d be writing my own story for the most part. This is something I''m ufortable with as you might have noticed that I like to stick close to the plot, but if I don''t try, then I wouldn''t ever know and learn.


    So. . . I know some of you(or most of you) were expecting the opposite of this, but this will be the direction of the story.


    Looking forward to how this turns out.


    ]


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - The second Sin Arc is finally written andplete¡ª Chapter 328. I am think I''m done with personality change arcs for a while. I do have another idea for a personality change, maybe I will do it in another work.


    Also, Hogwarts Legacy: State of y, is out. The game''s looking dope-dope-dope. Unfortunately, I won''t be able to y it. I don''t have the consoles, and myptop won''t be able to run it.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 319 - The Unbreakable Vow

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    [


    A/N:


    SKIP THIS CHAPTER IF YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT THE DETAILS OF THE UNBREAKABLE VOW.


    ]


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "So, what can I do for you?" Snape asked, settling himself in the armchair opposite the two formerly ck sisters. He poured out three sses of bloodred wine and handed two of them to the sisters. Narcissa murmured a word of thanks while Betrix said nothing but continued to glower at Snape. This did not seem to dipose him; on the contrary, he looked rather amused.


    "The Dark Lord," he said, raising his ss and draining it.


    The sisters copied him. Snape refilled their sses. As Narcissa took her second drink, she said in a rush, "Severus, I''m sorry toe here like this, but I had to see you. I think you are the only one who can help me. Severus, I know I ought not to be here; I have been told to say nothing to


    anyone, but ¡ª."


    "Then you ought to hold your tongue!" snarled Betrix. "Particrly in the presentpany!"


    "''Presentpany?" repeated Snape sardonically. "And what am I to understand by that, Betrix?"


    "That I don''t trust you, Snape, as you very well know!"


    Snape set his ss down upon the table and sat back again, his hands upon the arms of his chair, smiling into Betrix''s glowering face.


    "Narcissa, I think we ought to hear what Betrix is bursting to say; it will save tedious interruptions. Well, continue, Betrix," said Snape. "Why is it that you do not trust me?"


    "A hundred reasons!" she said loudly, striding out from behind the sofa to m her ss upon the table. "Where to start! Where were you when the Dark Lord fell? Why did you never make any attempt to find him when he vanished? What have you been doing all these years that you''ve lived in Dumbledore''s pocket? Why did you stop the Dark Lord from procuring the Sorcerer''s Stone? Why did you not return at once when the Dark Lord was reborn? And why, Snape, is Harry Potter still alive when you have had him at your mercy for five years?"


    She paused, her chest rising and falling rapidly, the color high in her cheeks. Behind her, Narcissa sat motionless, her face hidden in her hands.


    Snape smiled. "Before I answer you ¡ª oh yes, Betrix, I am going to answer! You can carry my words back to the others who whisper behind my back and carry false tales of my treachery to the Dark Lord! Before I answer you, I say, let me ask a question in turn. Do you really think that the Dark Lord has not asked me each and every one of those questions? And do you really think that, had I not been able to give satisfactory answers, I would be sitting here talking to you?"


    She hesitated. "I know he believes you, but . . ."


    "You think he is mistaken? Or that I have somehow hoodwinked him? Fooled the Dark Lord, the greatest wizard, the highly aplished Legilimens who no mind can hide from?"


    Betrix said nothing but looked, for the first time, a little difited. Snape did not press the point. He picked up his drink again, sipped it, and continued, "You ask where I was when the Dark Lord fell. I was where he had ordered me to be, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, because he wished me to spy upon Albus Dumbledore.


    You know, I presume, that it was on the Dark Lord''s orders that I took up the post?"


    She nodded almost imperceptibly and then opened her mouth, but Snape forestalled her.


    "You ask why I did not attempt to find him when he vanished. For the same reason that Avery, Yaxley, the Carrows, Greyback, Lucius" ¡ª he inclined his head slightly to Narcissa ¡ª "and many others did not attempt to find him. I believed him finished. I am not proud of it, I was wrong, but there it is. . . . If he had not forgiven we who lost faith at that time, he would have very few followers left."


    "He''d have me!" said Betrix passionately. "I, who spent many years in Azkaban for him!"


    "Yes, indeed, most admirable," said Snape in a bored voice. "Of course, you weren''t a lot of use to him in prison, but the gesture was undoubtedly fine ¡ª"


    "Gesture!" she shrieked; in her fury, she looked slightly mad. "While I endured the dementors, you remained at Hogwarts,fortably ying Dumbledore''s pet!"


    "Not quite," said Snape calmly. "He wouldn''t give me the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, you know. Seemed to think it might, ah, bring about a rpse . . . tempt me into my old ways."


    "This was your sacrifice for the Dark Lord, not to teach your favorite subject?" she jeered. "Why did you stay there all that time, Snape? Still spying on Dumbledore for a master you believed dead?"


    "Hardly," said Snape, "although the Dark Lord is pleased that I never deserted my post: I had sixteen years of information on Dumbledore to give him when he returned, a rather more useful wee-back present than endless reminiscences of how unpleasant Azkaban is. . . ."


    "But you stayed ¡ª"


    "Yes, Betrix, I stayed," said Snape, betraying a hint of impatience for the first time. "I had afortable job that I preferred to a stint in Azkaban. They were rounding up the Death Eaters, you know. Dumbledore''s protection kept me out of jail; it was most convenient, and I used it. I repeat: The Dark Lord does notin that I stayed, so I do not see why you do."


    "I think you next wanted to know," he pressed on, a little more loudly, for Betrix showed every sign of interrupting, "why I stood between the Dark Lord and the Sorcerer''s Stone. That is easily answered. He did not know whether he could trust me. He thought, like you, that I had turned from faithful Death Eater to Dumbledore''s stooge. He was in a pitiable condition, frail, sharing the body of a mediocre wizard. He did not dare reveal himself to a former ally if that ally might turn him over to Dumbledore or the Ministry. I deeply regret that he did not trust me. He would have returned to power three years sooner. As it was, I saw only greedy and unworthy Quirrell attempting to steal the stone and, I admit, I did all I could to thwart him."


    Betrix''s mouth twisted as though she had taken an unpleasant dose of


    medicine. "But you didn''t return when he came back¡ª."


    "Enough!" said Narcissa, in a low and deadly voice, looking up at her sister.


    Betrix still looked unhappy. Taking advantage of her silence, Snape turned to her sister. "Now . . . you came to ask me for help, Narcissa?"


    Narcissa looked up at him, her face marred with despair. "Yes, Severus. I ¡ª I think you are the only one who can help me; I have nowhere else to turn. Lucius does not want to listen. . . ." She closed her eyes, and tworge tears seeped from beneath her eyelids. "Severus," she whispered, tears sliding down her pale cheeks. "My son . . . my only son . . ."


    "Draco should be proud," said Betrix indifferently. "The Dark Lord is granting him great honor."


    Narcissa began to cry in earnest, gazing beseechingly all the while at Snape. "Why, Severus? Why my son? It is too dangerous! This is vengeance for Lucius''s mistake; I know it!"


    Snape said nothing. He looked away from the sight of her tears as though they were indecent, but he could not pretend not to hear her. "That''s why he''s chosen Draco, isn''t it?" she persisted. "To punish Lucius?"


    "If Draco seeds," said Snape, still looking away from her, "he will be honored above all others."


    "But he won''t seed!" sobbed Narcissa. "How can he, when the Dark Lord himself ¡ª ?" Betrix gasped; Narcissa seemed to lose her nerve. "I only meant . . . that nobody has yet seeded. . . . Severus . . . please. . . . I beg you. . . . You are the Dark Lord''s favorite, his most trusted advisor. . . . Will you speak to him, persuade him ¡ª ?"


    "The Dark Lord will not be persuaded, and I am not stupid enough to attempt it," said Snape tly. "Yes, the Dark Lord is angry, Narcissa, very angry indeed."


    Narcissa seemed to lose what little self-restraint she still possessed. Standing up, she staggered to Snape and seized the front of his robes; she gasped, "You could do it. You could do it instead of Draco, Severus. You would seed, of course, you would, and he would reward you beyond all of us¡ª."


    Snape caught hold of her wrists and removed her clutching hands. "The Dark Lord would want me to stay at Hogwarts, fulfilling my useful role as a spy, no matter if Draco seeds or not. However, it might be possible. . . for me to help Draco."


    She sat up, her face paper-white. "Severus ¡ª oh, Severus ¡ª you would help him? Would you look after him, see hees to no harm?"


    "I can try."


    "If you are there to protect him . . . Severus, will you swear it? Will you make the Unbreakable Vow?


    "The Unbreakable Vow?" Snape''s expression was nk, unreadable.


    Betrix, however, let out a cackle of triumphantughter. "Oh, he''ll try, I''m sure. . . . The usual empty words, the usual slithering out of action . . . oh, on the Dark Lord''s orders, of course!" She shuffled to Snape, her face close to Snape with wide eyes. "Come on, Severus, if you mean it, vow it."


    "Snape did not look at Betrix. His ck eyes were fixed upon Narcissa''s tear-filled blue ones as she continued to clutch his hand.


    "Certainly, Narcissa, I shall make the Unbreakable Vow," he said quietly. "Perhaps your sister will consent to be our Bonder."


    Betrix''s mouth fell open.


    "You will need your wand, Betrix," said Snape coldly.


    She drew it, still looking astonished. She stepped forward and ced the tip of her wand on their linked hands.


    Narcissa spoke. "Will you, Severus, watch over my son, Draco, as he attempts to fulfill the Dark Lord''s wishes?"


    "I will."


    A thin tongue of brilliant me issued from the wand and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.


    "And will you, to the best of your ability, protect him from harm?"


    "I will."


    A second tongue of me shot from the wand and interlinked with the first, making a delicate, glowing chain.


    "And, should it prove necessary . . . if it seems Draco will fail . . ." whispered Narcissa (Snape''s hand twitched within hers, but he did not draw away), "will you carry out the deed that the Dark Lord has ordered Draco to perform?"


    There was a moment''s silence. Betrix watched her wand upon their sped hands, her eyes wide.


    "I will."


    A third tongue of me twisted with the others and bound itself thickly around their sped hands, like a rope, like a fiery snake.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Severus Snape - Death Eater - Man bound by a promise


    Narcissa Malfoy - Desperate Mother - Anything for her son.


    Betrix Lestrange - Devout Follower - Provoked and Provoked.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Dark and brooding.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 320 - The Broken Vow

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "So you vowed an Unbreakable Vow," Dumbledore spoke from behind his desk in the Headmaster''s Office, his finger tracing the rim of the tainted ss bowl filled with sherbert lemons. "That wasn''t very smart of you, was it now, Severus."


    "The Dark Lord would''ve intended me to do it in the end, I think. But he is determined that Draco should try first. This is merely punishment for Lucius'' failures; I am not aware of what that failure is, however. Slow torture for Draco''s parents, while they watch him fail and pay the price," said Snape. His eyes were on his arms¡ª one of them marked by the Dark Mark while other freshly inscribed by the Unbreakable Vow, leaving behind a reminder of what waited for him if he were to break the vow.


    "You were sadly cornered into taking the vow," Dumbledore sighed, pushing the bowl away. "Who would have thought that the proud Narcissa Malfoy woulde begging at your doorsteps. . . and that with her sister."


    Narcissa''s sister. The corner of Snape''s eyes wrinkled as his nose twitched. "If I had refused Narcissa''s request, Lestrange would have gone babbling her crazy mouth into Dark Lord''s ears." Any chance he had to escape being bound was sealed the moment Betrix Lestrange had stepped into his home.


    Dumbledore stroked his beard. His eyes watching Snape, who had his usually scowling eyes staring dazedly at the table; a rare sight from the vignt and sharp potions master.


    "What do you n to do now?"


    "I do not know," said Snape. "Do you have a way to undo an Unbreakable Vow?"


    Dumbledore shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don''t." He sighed, "Even the wording she used doesn''t show me a way you can escape the bindings, especially with intent and all."


    There was silence. Neither men spoke, nor there was any chatter from the empty headmaster/headmistress portraits, all having scurried away on the orders of Dumbledore.


    "Do you intend to follow through with the vow, Severus?"


    Snape''s dark eyes went up at Dumbledore, and he scoffed, "Are you asking me to spare you to spare you with me costing my life, Dumbledore?"


    Dumbledore shrugged, his expression unchanging¡ª calm, looking at Snape with his usual sparkling gaze behind his half-moon sses.


    Snape''s eyes narrowed into half a re. "You don''t believe I will be able to seed if I am to try."


    "One can never be too careful, Severus. This might be arrogant of me, but I do not believe that you will be able to kill me if I do not desire for you to seed. . . and I have no desire to die."


    "So, I am to die, then?"


    Dumbledore kept his silence on the question, but he did speak, "How does Draco n to carry out this mission of his? Did Narcissa share something she might have heard from her son?"


    Snape''s fist clenched on hisp; however, that was the only indication he showed with his body and face remaining calm and unperturbed. "No, the poor woman was fear-stricken that after the vow was sealed, she couldn''t even stand still on her, and it was better for her to return home. . . and I haven''t had the chance to meet Draco."


    "Lord Voldemort foresees a moment in the near future when he will not need a spy at Hogwarts?" asked Dumbledore.


    "He believes the school will soon be in his grasp, yes."


    "I see. Now then. Your first priority will be to discover what Draco is up to. A frightened teenage boy is a danger to others as well as to himself. Offer him help and guidance, he ought to ept, he likes you ¡ª"


    "¡ª much less since his father has lost favour. Draco mes me; he thinks I have usurped Lucius'' position," Snape shook his head.


    "All the same, try. I am concerned less for myself than for idental victims of whatever schemes might ur to the boy. Ultimately, of course, we need to save him from Lord Voldemort''s wrath."


    Snape raised his eyebrows, and his tone was sardonic as he asked, "Are you intending to let him kill you?"


    "Of course not, but I can try to sway him to the correct side. If we can ensure that we can at least save his mother, I am sure the boy would walk to our side."


    "From the way Lestrange talked, Draco seemed excited about the prospect of being deemed worthy of such grand responsibility," said Snape.


    Dumbledore shook his head, "He might think so, but as the time passes and he tries to scheme about killing me, the weight of the situation and actions would dawn upon him. Draco would be cognizant of what he was asked to do¡ª all I need to do is to persuade him in the moment of pressure and weakness. We have time toy the groundwork to ensure that he turns."


    ". . . You have everything nned, don''t you," said Snape, sneering.


    Dumbledore eyed Snape. There was a long silence, broken only by an odd clicking noise. Fawkes, the phoenix, was gnawing a bit of cuttlebone.


    "When it happens, I want you to be there, Severus," said Dumbledore.


    Snape frowned, "What? Why do you need me there?"


    "If I fail to convince Draco, then the responsibility will fall upon you. You must give it a try¡ª he would be much more willing to listen to you, who is a well-known, trusted Death Eater, and suddenly knowing that you''re on the other side would give him hope."


    His tone was light, but his blue eyes pierced Snape. Atst, Snape gave another curt nod before standing up and announcing his leave. He turned away and walked towards the exit when Dumbledore once again spoke up.


    "Thank you, Severus. . . and I am sorry for cing this burden on you."


    Snape slowed to a stop. In that moment of stillness, no words were exchanged. Snape''s robes billowed, and he was off again.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Snape struggled in the air against the glowing red bindings wrapped tightly around his body, barely giving him the space to breathe freely. His struggles came to a stop when he was thrown onto the ground.


    He used his legs to push himself back as he dragged himself away from his capture, who was staring down at him. He soon felt the wall of the room he had been brought with him with his back. His eyes moved between the ck-d captor and the closed door.


    "You should rx," Quinn said, seeing the disturbed Snape, "it is toote for you to be thinking about returning back to the Astronomy Tower."


    Snape''s eyes turned to him, and he shouted his demand, "Release me this instant. You have no idea that what you''re interfering with."


    "I do understand what I am involving myself in," said Quinn. "I don''t know that you and Dumbledore have nned, but whatever it may be, I can''t have you killing him today¡ª Malfoy will not cast the spell, and Dumbledore will live past today."


    Snape''s eyes turned into eggs, and his body went ck for a moment. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly before he finally asked, "Who are you? How did you. . . ."


    There was no moment from Quinn, but Snape could feel the gaze trained on him. Then the ck-gloved slowly raised up to the ck mask, there was a double-click, and then the hand lowered again, taking the mask with it.


    Snape''s eyes already wide eyes widened yet again as he a tremor shot up through his body. "Q-Quinn West!?" he all but yelled. "W-W. . . What?!''


    Quinn stared down at his mask. It was a risk, he knew that, nevertheless. . . .


    "Good evening, professor. I apologize for the injuries I caused during our duel, but I had to ensure that you were disarmed and disabled for me to take you away." Quinn noticed the confusion on Snape''s face that had deepened as he had spoken. "For the context of the situation, I am who the havee to call the Invisible Vignte. . ."


    Snape''s breath caught, tell-tale signs that the realization had dawned on him.


    ". . . Today, Draco Malfoy allowed six Death Eaters entry to Hogwarts, and I made sure they were put to rest before they couldplete their reason for visit," said Quinn. "Right about now, Draco Malfoy is alone with the headmaster. . . and from what I know about those two, what I can see happening is Dumbledore sessfully persuading Draco, bringing today to an end."


    Snape felt his head swirl. He felt a throbbing ovee as he tried to think of what he had just seen and heard.


    "You swore an Unbreakable Vow with Lady Malfoy."


    "!! How did you?!"


    Quinn shook his head with a smile, "That is not of importance, professor. What is of significance is that I can''t allow you to go up there to kill the headmaster¡ª"


    Snape looked as if he wanted to say something, but Quinn continued.


    "¡ª I do not wish to know if my assumption is right or not. As long as the Dark Lord walks this Earth, the headmaster won''t let himself die in vain. But I don''t know about you¡ª you might want to live past today bypleting your vow. Unfortunately, that isn''t the oue that will lead to the least damage, so I have taken it upon myself to ensure that you broke your vow."


    Snape stared at his student of seven years. Quinn had his head bowed and didn''t dare meet eyes with him.


    ". . . You wish to kill me?" asked Snape, the tense energy in his body slowly draining.


    Quinn shook his head, his chin still tucked. "There are a few minutes to midnight, and for all intents of the magic, if you fail to kill Dumbledore today, you will have failed to uphold the vow. . . and the penalty of failure will bring your life to an end. . . ."


    His voice trailed; what came next was unsaid.


    But Snape had no problems putting the unsaid into words. He spoke with a tired voice, "If I don''t die at midnight, you will kill me yourself."


    Quinn gave a short nod.


    "What if I told you that I was never going to kill the headmaster," asked Snape.


    Quinn shook his head. "I have no way to verify your im, professor. I can look inside your mind, but it takes time and preparation to be entirely sure when the target is someone of your skill. I have neither of those. Soon this ce would be crawling with Aurors and Order of Phoenix members, and when they find the Death Eaters or notice that you''re missing, they wille looking¡ª I can''t be here in this attire when that happens.


    And when ites to life and death, people''s thoughts can change in a blink of a second."


    Snape stared at the ceiling above, myriads of thoughts roaming in his mind. "Have you prepared yourself? Taking a life changes people, assuming I''m going to be the first one."


    "I. . . I think I am," said Quinn breathily. "There is a heavy pit in my stomach that I want gone, but with each passing moment, it only grows heavier. I don''t know if this will change me. . . but this is something I have chosen for myself."


    "Of all people who I thought who would kill me, I never thought it would be you, West," said Snape, "but I guess I did think that the Invisible Vignte mighte for me."


    Quinn finally raised his head and gazed at Snape. The potions master looked resigned.


    He asked Snape if he could ask him a question.


    Snape nodded.


    "Why did you never make peace with Lily Potter. I heard she tried to put the past behind," asked Quinn.


    "I couldn''t," said Snape. "You already know so much, so you must know that I''m a double-spy for both sides. If I grew closer to her, I would lose that position. . . and it was too precious for me to let it go. . . . It was for her own good."


    Quinn bowed his head. He felt a buzz in his pocket. It was time, and he told Snape about it.


    "I see; I prefer a quick, painless death if you could provide me with that," said Snape. "The killing curse would be best for that."


    Quinn took out a pocket watch and clenched it tight in his hand. He watched as the minute and hour smoothly met at the top of the watch face, and a soft ping sounded when midnight arrived. Quinn didn''t move and kept his eye on the watch as the minute hand did another round.


    "Didn''t you want to not to be seen," said Snape.


    Quinn didn''t respond and waited for another minute before he closed. He snapped the pocket watch close with a deep, deep sigh.


    "Make it quick," said Snape and shifted in his spot to getfortable.


    Quinn slowly raised his palm to face Snape and could feel his heart threatening to beat itself to death.


    "It was a pleasure learning under you, sir," said Quinn.


    "Don''t lie to a man about to die," said Snape before he closed his eyes.


    Hisst words were followed by a green light that flushed every corner of the room.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - May he have a great adventure.


    Severus Snape - A ruined man - Deathes us for all in the end.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Alive.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Just made a promise/deal IRL that woulde to fruition in 6 years. It''s a big(biggest) deal for me and I wanted to document it here. It''s literally going to be a turning point in my life.


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 Chapter 321 - The Half Blood Prince

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    The p door to the Astronomy Tower''s roof sted open, and a crowd of people came bursting onto the top. A mix of Aurors and Hogwarts professors, allpetent in their own rights, exploded onto the scene with wands whipped out, fully expecting to get involved in a fight. . . . but the reality of the situation was the opposite.


    "Albus!" McGonagall huffed in her night robes with a sleep cap on her head.


    On the roof stood in the middle were Albus Dumbledore kneeling on the floor with Draco Malfoyying t on the ground, his chest moving up and down.


    Albus Dumbledore kneeled in the middle with Draco Malfoyying t on the ground. The young Malfoy''s chest heaved up and down; he had his eyes covered with his arm, and those straining who could hear above their own breathing could hear him mumbling something repeatedly.


    "Everything is alright, good people," said Dumbledore with a smile. "Draco here is just having a little bit of difficulty breathing; I''m sure he will be fine in a moment."


    Draco''s hand weakly shot up and grabbed Dumbledore''s robe. "My mother," his eyes bore daggers into the older man.


    "Emmeline, if you would," said Dumbledore to ady in the crowd, "about the thing we talked."


    Emmeline Vance, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, nodded and turned to other members who cleared out with her. They had the mission to one Narcissa Malfoy to rescue.


    "Poppy, can you escort him to the hospital wing? I think he might also need a dreamless sleep potion for hisfort today," Dumbledore said as he stood up. The Medi-witch scurried to Draco''s side; within moments, he was on a stretched and being levitated out of the rooftop with an Auror escort.


    "Albus, something terrible has happened," McGonagall spoke the moment she saw a chance, "the Death Eaters! They¡ª."


    "Draco tells me he had managed to sneak in some Death Eaters into Hogwarts, yes, I''m aware of it." Dumbledore nced at the Aurors and professors here present and frowned. The number of people present in front of him was strange. "Are all the Death Eaters already captured? I did hear some sounds of fighting earlier. . . ."


    The people looked at each other awkwardly, making Dumbledore confused.


    "Is something wrong?"


    "Albus. . . the Death Eaters were already captured before we could reach them," said McGonagall. "We tried to look for them but couldn''t find a trace of a single person with a Death Eater ensemble on their body or a Darm Mark on their arm. . . the only reason we could even found them was that a ghost discovered them on the seventh floor."


    "What happened?" he asked, confused.


    One of the Aurors in the crowd spat, "The invisible vignte happened."


    "What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked with eyes narrowed.


    "On our way here, we came across obstructions. Seemingly every hallway that led to here was blocked by blocks of ice; some were even blocked twice or thrice." McGonagall sighed and shared a nce with others. "And the hallway just outside. . . that was blocked by a block of ice that was at least a couple meters thick, it took a joint effort to melt, cut, sheer through it to get here. We even found another Death Eater on the stair''s base."


    "How did he get in?" Dumbledore asked, his voice taking a serious note.


    McGonagall shook her head. She(or they) had no idea. Nothing pointed where the masked crusader came from or how did he leave. . . or when he left.


    Dumbledore''s mind swirled in thoughts. The invisible vignte was an unknown factor he was not expecting to rise up for today. He looked up at the Aurors present on the scene and said, "Aurors, if you could please keep this incident silent until morning, I would also talk to Amelia about this."


    The lead Auror stood in attention and nodded. Dumbledore shed his patent smile but didn''t wait for chit-chat. He gave a look to his deputy and walked away with his professors in tow.


    "What is it? Is something wrong? I can tell something''s wrong," McGonagall''s wrong.


    "Find where Severus is," Dumbledore said with urgency. "No, wait," he paused and turned to Lily, "please get me the twins and ask them to bring the map with them."


    The words on Lily''s tongue about her children died when she heard about her map. She nodded, "I will get the map. I know how to use it," and she went off rushing.


    "Is there something you want to tell us, Albus?"


    Dumbledore turned to face his professors and started with a sigh, "Severus took a vow, an Unbreakable Vow. . . ."


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    Dumbledore, the Head of the Houses, Lily Potter, and two Aurors, James Potter and Sirius ck, stood in front of one of the many ssrooms of Hogwarts.


    "He''s in there," said Lily with deep sadness in her eyes.


    "The door is open," Sirius pointed out. He exchanged nces with James, who nodded. The two Senior Aurors took out their wands, one spellter, and they were inside the room.


    The room was empty. . . except for one thing.


    Severus Snape sat against the wall, his head bowed down, dressed in his ck robes as if it was just another day, and he was ready to face it with all his dark, sneering, meanness. Yet the same man who was always at attention, his vulture gaze always ring at any potential prey, with a poison vial on his tongue. . . the same man had his head bowed, back hunched, his long oily hair falling in the front of his face, nothing that would reflect what the man actually was.


    Everyone in the room knew that Severus Snape had promised an Unbreakable Vow. He had made a deal in the heat of the situation, knowing well that there was a chance¡ª no, it was almost inevitable ¡ª that he wasn''t going to be able to uphold the promises that his life depended upon.


    Albus Dumbledore was going to live, which meant that Severus Snape wasn''t going to.


    Everyone knew that.


    And that''s what happened, Severus Snape was dead.


    Yet, for some reason, Severus Snape had a beautiful spread of sparkling white lily flowers with lovely yellow stamens that only served to entuate their beauty, spread over him as if serenading the man.


    "Was he. . . here?" Sirius put the thoughts in everyone''s minds into words. "Did the invisible vignte do this?"


    James Potter stared at the flower spread and the man he had never liked. The man he loathed for putting his family in danger by whispering the prophecy into Voldemort''s ears. The reason for his parents'' death. He always thought he would feel joyous the day Snape would die, but that wasn''t the case; there were no such emotions. He wasn''t sad about the man''s death, yet he wasn''t happy about it. He turned to his wife and found her also staring, but he could see the sadness in her eyes, unlike him.


    Lily watched her estranged childhood friend. The first person she ever knew from the world she had ended up adopting, the one who had told her so much about it when she was just a naive girl with stars in her eyes, prepared for what was toe. She hated Snape for the danger he had put her children into¡ª if it was just her, she could''ve thought differently, but not when it came to her children. Yet the same person was her friend. She couldn''t stop the feelings from her formative years rising, the ones from before everything astray, and she had lost her best friend, and he had lost her. She stared at the lilies, and her feelings furtherplicated¡ª she knew that while Snape had ryed the prophecy to Voldemort, he had also pleaded with Dumbledore for her safety. . . and she didn''t know how to feel about that.


    "Oh, Severus," Dumbledore walked to Snape with slow steps.


    He had been Headmaster of Hogwarts for long decades. He had seen children enter his school and leave as adults. Snape held a special ce in Dumbledore''s heart as a student. When students graduated, he would seldom see them, only at events or in passing by. But Snape had entered his sanctuary when he was eleven, and apart from the two turbulent years of war right after graduation, Snape had always been in Dumbledore''s sight, first as a student, next as a peer.


    He hade to trust the man. He hade to see that the troubled man with all his various faults had walked the road of redemption, not allowing himself the life''s jor so that he could repent for the mistakes he had made. Dumbledore stared at Snape, a rare moment of dullness in his blue eyes. He had again failed another of his students. Dumbledore wondered if he could have done things differently, if he had done better, maybe Snape would''ve been alive. . . maybe even happy.


    "I''m sorry, Severus," he muttered, a teardrop entering his beard, "I am sorry."


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    The portrait door to the Headboy Suite opened, and Quinn stepped inside his room with heavy steps. Every step felt like he was walking in wet mud, pulling him down and bing heavier with each step.


    The lights in the room turned up when he entered momentarily before turning down at a silentmand from Quinn, plunging into cold darkness¡ª something he felt he needed right now.


    Darkness could hide him, he thought.


    Quinn raised his hand to his chest. He looked at his hand, and he could still feel as if the green glow was still shing from his palm. After staring at the palm of his hand, he tapped the chest, and Noir that covered reverted back into the base state. It shrunk down into a triangr te and fell onto the ground.


    He stared at it. The thoughts of picking it up passed his mind. It wouldn''t take any physical movement from him. Just a singlemand and the Noir te could be in his hand or in his briefcase.


    Quinn didn''t pick it up, leaving it on the floor. Instead, he walked to his bed and let himself fall into it. Heid on his stomach with his face to the side, staring at the single spot in the room illuminated by the moonlight stretching from the gap in the curtain.


    He had taken a human life.


    He had killed.


    Did he feel guilt? No.


    Was he going to give some excuse for justification? No.


    Was he utterly unbothered by it? No.


    He felt numb, as if his heart and mind had been stunted. There was no sadness, no horror, nor regret about taking life, nothing at all. It felt like lumency had been turned up, and his emotions had been disconnected, yet he could tell that mind magic wasn''t the reason behind his state.


    As he nkly stared at the moonlit spot in the room, his eyesight started to darken. He was tired. But sleep wasn''t the thing that was taking over him. He was losing control. His time for in control of his own body hade to an end.


    As the darkness took over him, Quinn decided to close his eyes and go to sleep. He was tired, and right now, he couldn''t feel anything.


    ?Sleep, I will take care of it from here on. It''s okay, I will take over for you.?


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    Quinn West - MC - Numb ~ Linkin Park.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Quinn couldn''t break an Unbreakable Vow, at least not right now. I hadn''tid the suitable groundwork for it, and introducing it out of nowhere would leave a bitter taste in my mouth. I mean, I have made some sketchy writing choices, but introducing something without groundwork is not one of them.


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 322 - Farewell

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The castle was abuzz early in the morning. Students poured into the Great Hall, but unlike the usual morning lethargy, people walked in groups, talking among themselves in whispers and peeling their ears on what others were talking about.


    "Was your room lockedst night?" Eddie asked. He moved around restlessly, looking around the hall.


    Quinn nodded his head, "I woke up when I heard the noise. I tried to see what was going on but couldn''t open my door."


    "Neither could we, the door refused to budge. Though I did get to see the Dark Mark in the sky. Barton''s window had a clear view of it. It was mad creepy¡ª I mean, ugh, the snakeing out of the skull''s mouth, looking at it made me feel like a snake would slither out of my mouth. . . disgusting."


    "I couldn''t see it," said Quinn. "I have a greatke-side view, but not of the Astronomy Tower. . . a pity, really. I wanted to break the door but felt bad for the portrait outside; it would''ve been wrecked if I tried something."


    He had managed to iste the ruckus of his fight with Fenrir Greyback on the seventh floor, but his fight with Snape had been anything but silent. The Defense Against The Dark Arts professor had thrown more dark curses and spells than all other Death Eatersbined. Quinn had to be on alert to make sure none of those nasty spells nicked him, so the thought of creating a sound barrier had not been the priority. Moreover, people breaking his ice barrier had also made noise.


    "Did they tell you anything about what happenedst night?" Marcus asked Quinn.


    Quinn shook his head, "I went to the faculty office with rrise" ¡ª Headgirl ¡ª "and the other seventh year Prefects, but the professors sent us away¡ª told us they''d inform us after breakfast with everyone else." He jutted his chin towards the hall entrance where two Prefects stood, sending people going out back into the hall. "We were also ordered to not let anyone leave the Great Hall."


    "Someone died," said Eddie, suddenly.


    Quinn froze for a moment before he rxed his shoulder.


    Eddie continued, "I mean Death Eaters only cast it when they kill someone, right?"


    "Who do you think died?" asked Marcus. "I asked around, all the dorms were closed just like ours, so it must be a faculty member."


    "When you went to the office, was there someone missing?" Eddie asked Quinn.


    "I. . . there were a couple of them missing," said Quinn. He clenched his fist under the table. "But not all the professorse to the office first thing in the morning, so. . . ."


    "No use thinking about it; the professors are here," said Marcus.


    Quinn turned his eyes towards the ''back entrance'' of the Great Hall. It was a small regr-sized door near the faculty table. The entrance was used by some professors who preferred not to take the main entrance for their respective reasons. But today, all the professors (including Hagrid, who crouched to save his head) entered the Great Hall from the back entrance.


    The Great Hall lulled into whispers which were somehow louder than them talking usually. Their eyes followed the stream of professors as they walked to the faculty table and took their seats.


    Marcus had been watching the professors as they sat down just like everybody else was doing, but then his eyes widened as he noticed something off about what he was seeing.


    "O-One. . . one of them is missing," he said.


    Eddie''s brows were squished together, but they rose up when he saw what Marcus was seeing. There was indeed only one professor missing from the bunch.


    Marcus'' shocking revtion reached the ears of his neighbors and then set the trigger on what seemed like aplex, far-spreading domino chain that reached every corner of the Great Hall. In the time the professors took their seats, the whispers had blown up into full-blown heated discussions.


    Quinn didn''t say anything; instead, he watched the wall behind the faculty table. The Great Hall was usually decorated with four house colors. Today, however, there were ck drapes on the wall behind the teachers'' table. Quinn knew instantly that they were there as a mark of respect to Snape.


    Dumbledore ended Quinn''s musings by standing up at the staff table. The Great Hall, which was boisterous in discussions, became very quiet.


    "All of you," said Dumbledore, looking around at them all, "must have heard or even seen that there was a Dark Mark over Hogwarts yesterday."


    He paused, and his eyes fell upon the Slytherin table. Theirs had been the most subdued table before he had gotten to his feet, and theirs was the saddest and palest faces after they had realized what had happened.


    "There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight," said Dumbledore, "but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here," he pointed to an empty chair on the faculty table, "enjoying our feast with us. . . . I''m sorry to inform all of you thatst night. . . Professor Severus Snape passed away."


    The quiet that Dumbledore hadmanded shattered and blusterous sound rushed into the Great Hall as if trying to fill a void left behind a vacuum. Stunned and frightened, every face in the hall was turned toward Dumbledore now.


    On the Slytherin table, people could be seen hugging each other, crying with bowed heads, and trying tofort each other. Severus Snape might have been hated by most Hogwarts, but to Slytherin, he was everything a house could want from their head¡ª he supported them, always took their sides, taught them how to behave like Slytherins, and was synonymous support symbol to all those who wore green.


    Quinn turned to his back. Daphne, Astoria, and Tracey sat directly behind him. Astoria was leaning into Daphne as her sister hugged her from the side while Tracey sat to their side with her head buried in her hands, hunched over the table.


    He wanted to gofort them but held himself back. Right now, it felt like he would be an outsider going into something he didn''t understand and wasn''t a part of.


    ''I will console herter,'' he thought while watching Daphne. And as the thought passed his mind, Quinn paused for a moment and waited for something he was expecting. . . . but nothing happened.


    "Yesterday," Dumbledore started again, "a group of Death Eaters broke into Hogwarts to cause harm and sow disaster. They appeared to havee to get rid of me" ¡ª there were gasps ¡ª "and the fact that I''m standing in front of you safe and sound, it is clear that they failed and were captured. . . however, in that defeat, they took away the life of Professor Snape, who bravely faced them, but tragically sacrificed for the safety of the school. . . ."


    Quinn knew this was going toe. The truth of the matter couldn''te to light. If the fact that Snape swore an Unbreakable Vow to kill Dumbledore even became public knowledge, it would be a disaster and ruin Snape''s reputation beyond all repair. That wasn''t something the Order of Phoenix could do¡ª even if not well-liked, Snape was still a member.


    ". . . his sacrifice would never be forgotten, so I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your sses to Severus Snape."


    They did it, all of them; the benches scraped as everyone in the hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed, in one loud, low, rumbling voice, "Severus Snape."


    Quinn nced back at the Slytherin table. His eyes searched for Draco, but the young Malfoy was nowhere to be found. It seemed that the Order had already hidden Draco hidden. Hogwarts was no longer safe for Draco¡ª if Draco could be a Junior Death Eater, then others could be as well, and they might not have any qualms about taking a life, especially if their target was a ''betrayer.''


    "Severus was not the friendliest of person, but those who knew him were aware of his qualities that made him a great individual," Dumbledore continued. "He was a good and loyal friend, even better confidant, a hard worker, he valuedmitment and dedication above anything else. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not."


    Dumbledore looked sad. His line of sight would always be forward, full of confidence, but today his eyes were lowered as he spoke to the students. Seeing their headmaster like this was a first for all. A sense of sadness for the most disliked person in Hogwarts spread through the hall.


    "Everyone in this hall," said Dumbledore, and his eyes lingered on the Slytherin students, "will be weed back here at any time, should they wish toe. Once again, I say to you all¡ª in the light of Lord Voldemort''s return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort''s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences in background and culture are nothing if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.


    It is my belief ¡ª and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken ¡ª that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. Yesterday, an exemry man was taken from our midst.


    Remember Severus Snape. Remember, if the time shoulde when you have to choose between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a man who was good, loyal, and brave because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Severus Snape."


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    Quinn waved his hand over a sheet of paper. It wriggled over his palm and folded itself into a bird. The paper bird pped its wings and flew away into the sky, heading into the building. On the other hand, he walked out of the castle to sit in the grass and get away from all the Snape talk that was happening no matter where ever he went.


    He wanted a moment of silence and peace.


    He looked around to find afortable spot with some shade. He didn''t have to look for long as there was one right in front of him. . . but the perfect spot was upied.


    A smile appeared on his face. He wanted some alone time, but he guessed that somepany wouldn''t hurt.


    "Fancy seeing you here," said Quinn.


    Ivy Potter, who had been sitting under the shade of the tree with her back against the trunk. She opened her eyes and came across the smiling face of Quinn West. She blinked in surprise and sat up straighter.


    "What?" he asked.


    ". . . No, it''s nothing," she shook her head. "What is it?"


    "May I join you?"


    ". . . Sure."


    Quinn smiled wider and sat down under the shade, but unlike Ivy, heid down in the shade.


    Ivy continued to stare at Quinn, making him ask: "Is something wrong?"


    "There''s something different about you, today. . . ?" she said.


    Quinn chuckled. He took a deep breath and put his hands behind his head. "I guess there''s something different. The annoyance had been silent."


    Indeed, there had been nothing but silence.


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    Quinn West - MC - Drinking in the silence.


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - A simple white lie.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Alright, that was enough of a break; we''re getting back on track.


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 323 - Luxuria

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Ivy stared at Quinn. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed. A gentle wind made its way beneath the tree''s canopy and ruffled their hair, adding to the coolness to the shade, shielding them from the sun''s heat.


    "You are staring," said Quinn, cracking an eye open to look at her.


    "It''s just surprising," she said, "when was thest time you took the initiative to talk to me on your own ord. . . usually, I''m the one who to start up our conversations."


    "You''re making me sound bad," he chuckled.


    "I''m not lying, though."


    "No, you''re not."


    "Then what changed today?"


    Quinn shrugged, "I wish I had a special reason. I came here to have some quiet away from the chatter. Saw you and decided to have some quiet time with you."


    "Not that I''mining; believe me, I''m not. Shouldn''t you be with Greengrass right now?"


    "Right now, the Slytherins are holed up in their dorms, so, yeah," said Quinn and then turned on his side to face Ivy. "So, how''s Gryffindor taking the news?"


    Ivy shrugged. "Ron tried to make fun of the situation, but no oneughed and then got pelted when he got annoying. . . . It got really quiet in themon room, never expected that to happen for Snape."


    "How do you feel about it? He must''ve made your life pretty miserable in his sses."


    "You know I thought that too," said Ivy, pulling some grass. "Dad and Sirius scared Harry and me about Snape when we were about to start our first year. How he didn''t like Gryffindor and that he hated. . . hated the Potters. And all of that was true¡ª he doesn''t like Gryffindor and hates Potters. . . . But strangely, he never targetted me. He mostly ignored me for the most part. I have no idea why."


    Quinn gazed at Ivy. He could guess why. The resemnce between mother and daughter was much stronger than between daughter and father.


    "I feel sad that he died," Ivy continued, "even though he was miserable to literally everyone else who wasn''t Slytherin. . . and you, I guess. How do you feel about his death?"


    ". . . I don''t know actually. I feel mostly numb."


    "What''s with that?"


    Quinn sat up and dragged himself to sit against the tree beside Ivy.


    "Enough of that; let''s talk about something else," he said.


    ?Why are you doing this??


    Quinn internally smiled as he heard the voicecking strength.


    ''You know why I''m doing this.''


    ?If you want to be like this, go find Daphne; why are you targetting her.?


    ''Come on, don''t be like this. Isn''t this more thrilling?''


    ?No, it is not. Here I thought, you''d be a little more bothered with what happened yesterday.?


    ''. . . You think I am not!'' Quinn yelled inside while continuing to talk to Ivy with a smile. ''I have to put up a normal front while you hide inside wallowing in the dark. I''m warning you, don''t take that course with me.''


    ?Just leave her alone. I''ll stay quiet. I''m not really in the mood to fight with you anyway. Just go jack-off in the room.?


    ''Yeah, about that. . . not going to happen. We want her, don''t we?''


    ?What. . . ??


    ''Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,'' he quoted. ''The West family name already granted us with enough social and financial power, and that was already too much. But know, we''re getting stronger and more skilled with magic. . . with time, we would reach a level where our personal power would allow us to roam around pretty much unfettered. And yeah, I don''t really want to get drunk on power, you know.''


    ?What, wait, I-I. . . don''t understand. . . .?


    ''It seems you have some sort of confusion about the Sins. I am not Pride who wants his ego stroked every other second; I don''t want people around me to be yes-men. I am not Envy who would think that anyone who disagrees with me is just jealous. Or even Wrath, who would absolutely blow up if someone is a tad bit annoying.


    I am you. . . just a lot more interested in the gentler sex.''


    His eyes glimmered as heughed along with Ivy.


    ''So before I go down that road, I need some sort of anchor.''


    ?. . . And you think this anchor is. . . Ivy Potter??


    ''Now, you''re just trying to act dumb. For someone like us, getting people who will honestly say the truth is hard¡ª we got lucky with our friends, but how long do you think that''ll continue? Even among those good people, Daphne, our girlfriend, the person who''s supposed to be closest to us, is the subservient type, and we love that about her; she''s always so supportive, but we need someone who''s going to challenge us to act as the anchor I talked about.


    And out of all the people, no one else but Ivy has questioned our actions so consistently. Keeping her close will be beneficial to us in the long run. . . and well, even you can''t deny that she''s quite lovely.''


    ?You''re going to ruin my rtionship with Daphne.?


    ''Ah, don''t worry about that; you already rolled the ball on that one.''


    Quinn turned his eyes towards the castle with a smile. Daphne walked towards them. Her pace hurried as she saw Quinn and Ivy sitting close together under the tree.


    "Quinn, what are you doing here, with. . . her?" Daphne said, eyeing Ivy with a vignt eye. She raised the creased-up sheet of paper in her hand, "You sent for me toe here."


    "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about something," said Quinn.


    ?What the hell are you nning??


    ''I''m helping you, of course,'' he said, ''didn''t you want to Daphne the dirty little truth? I''m going to do you a favor and do the job instead of you.''


    ?Stop! I will do it on my own! Don''t mess with my life, you shitty fake!?


    Quinn closed his eyes and took a deep breath to settle the sudden bout of headache.


    ''That''s why I didn''t want toe so down the line,'' Quinn said to the one trapped inside the soulscape. ''If you''re to me someone, then me Greed; he''s the one who wanted this done. . . . I really don''t want to do this, you know, I really don''t, but I need to or he will. . . .''


    Quinn stood up and dusted himself. He took a few steps forward till he was standing equidistance from both girls. He nced at both of them once before turning to Daphne.


    "You remember that I wanted to tell you something and asked you to wait for sometime before I could tell you," said Quinn. "It''s a secret that I have been hiding for a long time. . . "


    ?Stop!?


    The moment Ivy heard those words, her eyes widened. She hastily got just as Quinn dropped a bomb.


    ?Shut up!?


    "I kissed Ivyst year," said Quinn even with the splitting headache.


    ?. . . I''m going to gut you and believe me, I''m going to enjoy it.?


    ''Bloodthirsty much? Did killing Snape awaken something inside you?''


    ". . . What?" Daphne uttered with a stunted expression.


    "Last year, we were alone. One thing led to another, and we ended up kissing," said Quinn. He noticed that the voice had gone silent once again. He bowed his head and continued, "I am sorry for hiding it from you and not telling you for so long."


    A score of emotions went through Daphne''s emotions, surfing everywhere from sadness to betrayal, finally settling on anger with emotion draining from her face.


    "Who started it?" she asked, her voice cold. It reminded Quinn of before Daphne had warmed up to him, just much worse.


    "Doesn''t matter," she turned her cold gaze to Quinn, "I wille to youter." Daphne turned to Ivy, "You knew that he was taken, everyone knew that we were together, so don''t try to deny that. . . and you still did this."


    Her wand came out. Ivy, too, took her wand out in response.


    Quinn seeing that, stepped in front of Daphne and ced a hand on her wand arm to gently direct it down. "Daphne, please calm down; there''s no need to point¡ª"


    Daphne pushed him away and red at him. Her eyes were glistening as she pointed her wand at him. "Give me one reason I shouldn''t curse you here and now."


    Quinn once again stepped close to her and again lowered her raised wand arm. This time, she didn''t resist and even let him take her wand away. She raised her other hand and punched him in the shoulder repeatedly.


    "Why. . . why would you do that?" she said between her punches. "I trusted you."


    "I am sorry, I made a mistake," said Quinn with a genuine apology in his tone. "Please forgive me; I am really sorry."


    Quinn brought her closer as she kept on hitting him and hugged her. As he tightly hugged her, a strange smile appeared on his face. But then, the smile froze, and Quinn''s expression turned from confidence to panic and horror.


    His eyes dimmed for a split second before they went normal. Tranquility appeared on his face as he stroked Daphne''s back and whispered his apologies into her ear with magic weaved into his voice, manipted his body temperature, trying anything and everything that would best calm Daphne.


    . . . .


    Inside the soulscape, Quinn sat slumped beside the Soul. Yesterday, he had taken a life for the first time. Life of a person who didn''t deserve to die. Today, one of the bedrocks of his life had been shaken. He hadn''t been there to do it himself or even able to stop it.


    ''You didn''t want to stop it,'' a corner of this thought whispered the treacherous words to him. ''You were d that you didn''t need to do it on your own.''


    Quinn grabbed his head and hugged it to his knees.


    He was so out of it that he didn''t notice that suddenly the ckness that gued his Soul was gone, and it was back to its golden state with only a few muddled ck spots. The spotty walls that had improved after Envy had been removed opened up, and only varying shades of yellow remained.


    "You know, I don''t think the situation is as bad as you think."


    Quinn tried not to respond. He kept his eyes closed and his head down. But he couldn''t restrain his anger at the ridiculous words spoken.


    "You fuc¡ª."


    He raised his head up and all but growled at the personification of his sin in front of him, only for his words to die in his throat when he saw the figure in front of him.


    "Hello, it''s finally nice to meet you. My name is Quinn West, but you might better know me as. . . . Greed."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - At a new low.


    Daphne Greengrass - Girlfriend(?) - Betrayed and hurt.


    Ivy Potter - Anchor(?) - Caught in between.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - So. . . I don''t know how it turns when a partner confesses to cheating. I have been in two rtions in my life, and both of those ended without cheating involved, and none of my close friends have gone through the same. I have seen the situation on TV, but I don''t know how Daphne, who is in her first rtionship, would''ve reacted, so I went what seemed right to me.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 324 - Desire Taking Control

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Hello, it''s finally nice to meet you. My name is Quinn West, but you might better know me as. . . . Greed."


    Quinn stared at the copy of himself glowing in a yellow hue. He couldn''t take his eyes off the person in front of him. The other personifications, when they appeared in front of him, were all dressed in a simple ck shirt and ck pants. But not the one in front of him. Greed. . . wore [Quinn''s] favorite suit, looking how Quinn would want himself to look.


    "I know I look good, bute on, you''re making me shy," said Greed with a smile.


    Quinn''s eyes darkened. He slowly got up and faced the figure in front of him. "Where is Lust?" he asked. "Bring him out. I have a couple words for him."


    "Ah, that won''t be possible, unfortunately. Lust is, let''s just say. . . busy."


    "I don''t care what or where he is. Switch out with him. . . . I just want to talk to him."


    Greedughed, "We both know that''s not true; he really did mess things out there."


    Quinn gritted his teeth, and the soulscape trembled for a moment. Greed turned his eyes around the space, a in expression shing over his face for a split second before he went back to smiling.


    "Don''t you act like you had nothing to do with it," Quinn said, clenching his fists. "I heard what he said¡ª that he didn''t want to do, that you made him do it." An aura of magic started to leak out of Quinn as he red at Greed. "So. . . tell me what you have to say for yourself."


    "Of course, Lust didn''t want to do it," said Greed, matter-of-factly. "Why would that ball of lechery want to tell Daphne. If not for me, he would''ve taken decision making the situation much-much problematic than now."


    Greed''s attitude was started to get on Quinn''s nerves. His life had taken a turn for the worst in the past couple of days, and this was, without doubt, the worst part of even that time.


    "I did tell him to talk to Daphne," Greed continued, "but how would''ve I known that he would do in front of Ivy. Everything was going great¡ª he headed to a quiet ce, called her there¡ª but then he got distracted by Ivy. If not for all his blood going through his lower body, he would''ve diverted the situation or postponed it, but that idiot didn''t. . . what a mess."


    "Why would you ask him to do that in the first ce?!"


    "Isn''t it obvious?" Greed smiled. "Because I love Daphne."


    Quinn froze. For a second, all his anger and steam fizzled out, to be reced with a stunned vacuum. The words didn''te to his mind, much less his tongue, and all he could for a moment was stare.


    ". . . You don''t love Daphne. I love her. The only reason you only feel that way¡ª if you''re not lying, that is¡ª is because you were born with me as the base."


    Greed shrugged, seemingly not bothered by Quinn''s jab. "And I can''t do anything about. I was born as I was. The only thing I can do is to take what I have and work with it, and well, if there isn''t something Ick¡ª I will just take. . . get it," he said with a pleasant smile. "I was born with the love for Daphne¡ª all of us were born with that. I couldn''t sit and see her being kept in the dark while you and the others fought with each other. I asked Lust if he could do me a solid, and he being the good bloke he was, agreed with me."


    "? Was. . . the good bloke he ''was'' ?"


    Greed''s eyes slowly opened as he went, "oops~," as if he had been caught doing something naughty.


    "You know how I said that Lust was busy. . . yeah, about that, he isn''t busy¡ª he just doesn''t exist anymore." A wide, elongated thin-lipped smile stretched on Greed''s face that looked the same as Quinn''s.


    "H-He doesn''t exist anymore?"


    "Yup, I gave him one simple job; he couldn''t even do that properly," Greed shook his head with a sigh. "So, after I ate Gluttony, I decided that I don''t really need Lust, so I popped him in as well. Quite exquisite both of them."


    Quinn felt a blockage in his throat. He tried to speak but felt like someone hadid inside that stopped the words froming out. He stared at Greed with an incredulous gaze.


    "You ate Gluttony?"


    "Ironic, isn''t it? I ate the glutton. Well, while I say I ate both of them, it was more like absorbing all of their essences, but who cares about the semantics."


    Quinn felt a headachee over him. He asked Greed how it was possible.


    "Oh, it''s possible, alright," said Greed, "I won''t go into detail about ourposition¡ª I mean, why would I? But it''s not just me; any of us could''ve done that. No one did it because it would''ve been a problem as any attempt to subsume another would''ve brought about retaliation from the others, and that would''ve turned out badly for the perpetrator.


    How was I able to do it, you ask? Quite easily, actually. With only three of us remaining, the threat had decreased significantly. Neither Lust nor Glutton was strong enough to oppose me even if they teamed up¡ª I''m a strong boy, after all. I saw the need to buff myself up a little, so I did what I saw as necessary."


    "What you say as necessary. For what?"


    "To take over, what else would it be. The initial aim of ever Sin was to take over the body and be the driver. . . the only driver. That, of course, wouldn''t have been possible with seven of us, so we decided to take turns being in charge. Pride went first; I guess that was to be expected. We expected that you''d retaliate" ¡ª his nose scrunched up ¡ª "but the strength of your retaliation was something we underestimated. When you started to pick them off, we got worried, especially Envy. . . phew, you straight up stabbed him.


    But then you off-ed Snape, and things started to look good for the final three¡ª and very-very good for me."


    Greed straightened out his suit jacket and continued, "Now, I would love to talk to you more¡ª well, not really¡ª but I have to go handle the situation outside while I can still get something out of it." There was an excited grin on his face as he said that.


    "You are not going anywhere," said Quinn with a grave voice. "You all ruined my life; I''m going to fix it up before you wreck it beyond repair."


    Half a dozen golden des crackled into the soulscape, all of their razor-edged tips pointed at Greed. They vibrated, creating a terrible sound that seemed like it wanted to rip the fabric of reality itself.


    Greed stared at those des with calm eyes. He looked down towards Quinn, titled his head, and smiled. Quinn''s eyes narrowed. He waved his hand down, and the des whistled towards Greed, who didn''t move¡ª he apparently didn''t need to move as the des suddenly shattered before they could even sniff the air around Greed.


    The two matched eyes. Greed shook his head and turned away.


    Quinn raised his hand again. A dozen des again appeared in the space and whistled towards their target again. Greed paused, and the moment he stopped, the des shattered like ss.


    "I''m going to forgive that," said Greed. He turned his head sideways,zily looking at Quinn. "However, punishment is in order. . . no one gets in my way of getting what I want."


    Golden chains burst from the formless ground of the soulscape. Before Quinn could even react, the chains looped around his arms and legs. He was ruthlessly yanked down to the floor¡ª forced to kiss the floor.


    "Be a good boy, and I will make your stay short stay in here asfortable as I can," Greed''s voice echoed in Quinn''s ears as he struggled to get up just to make the chains coil around tighter, tensing him closer to the ground.


    Quinn thrashed around before he started losing strength and could only down on the ground helplessly. He tried to focus his attention outside in the real world, but his nerves almost popped when he couldn''t peer outside like he usually could.


    Greed had blocked him out.


    And just when Quinn thought he was truly alone ever since losing control, he heard.


    "I was not expecting this."


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    ". . . Hey," said Quinn softly to the girl in his arms, who had stopped struggling maybe because she couldn''t escape or perhaps she had just gotten tired. He slowly let her go, hoping that she wouldn''t run away.


    Daphne didn''t run away. She stood there without moving, her head resting against his chest.


    "Would you give me a chance, please," he said.


    Daphne''s response didn''te for a while. Quinn waited for it patiently, his ears picking up the crunching of grass behind him.


    "What do you want to speak?" Daphne said softly.


    "Give me a chance to exin, and I promise to not give any excuses."


    Daphne''s head left Quinn''s chest. She looked up at him with her blue, which had turned red on the corners. She stepped away from him but showed no indication that she wanted to go away.


    Quinn took that as a positive and stepped aside so that he could face both Ivy and Daphne.


    Ivy nervously looked at Daphne and Quinn; there was a smudge of envy in her eyes at the sight of Quinn paying so much care and attention to Daphne. She had seen it many times throughout the year; had wondered what it felt like. She had tried to move past her feelings without much sess.


    "Why did you kiss her?" Daphne opened up the conversation without beating around the bust.


    Quinn nced to the side briefly.


    Daphne picked on that slight movement. She turned to Ivy with narrowed eyes, "You kissed him first, didn''t you," her tone made Ivy''s eyes crinkle a little. "When did this happen?" she asked.


    "The very end of thest year," said Quinn. He sighed, "She found one of my secrets earlier in the year, a promise was made, and we found ourselves alone. . . she surprised me with a kiss. . . and I ended up kissing her back."


    "A secret?" Daphne''s gaze turned graver.


    Quinn nodded. "There are ces in Hogwarts that only I know of. I have been exploring them for years." He looked at Ivy, "She by chance found me entering one and followed after me. I ended up sending her away, but not without promising to give her a tour when I was done. It was during the tour when it happened."


    Daphne immediately asked more about the ''secret.'' Quinn ended up sharing with both the girls about the Cursed Vaults¡ª leaving out the particrs.


    Daphne nced at Ivy, giving her a slight re. The fact that Ivy knew something about Quinn that she herself didn''t know clearly didn''t sit well with her.


    "Why did you kiss her back?" Daphne asked, her stern eyes turned softer and vulnerable as she asked, "Do you. . . are you. . . " The rest she couldn''t speak.


    Quinn nodded after a pause.


    Daphne closed her eyes while Ivy''s green sparkled like emeralds.


    "Do you even like me anymore?" asked Daphne, her fist clenched tight.


    "Yes, I do!" said Quinn with a bit more power, "I beg you, please don''t doubt that."


    While Daphne didn''t look any better, Ivy''s enthusiasm did dim slightly.


    "Leave us," Daphne said¡ª no ordered Quinn. "I want to talk to her alone. I have to see whose fault this was."


    Quinn contemted if he should interject, but seeing Daphne, he refrained and silently nodded before turning to walk away.


    "Do not use magic in any way to listen on us," Daphne sounded out, her voice warning and threatening at the same time. "Remove what you just cast."


    Quinn halted in his steps. He snapped his fingers to remove the spell that Daphne had clearly found out by guessing. Even with the current circumstances, if there was one thing not to be doubted, it was¡ª Daphne Greengrass knew Quinn West.


    Quinn walked away to a distance out of earshot. He closed his eyes and waited, hoping the result would be what he was expecting.


    If not, then he would just need to get it another way.


    No one was going to stop him from getting what he wanted.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Greed is. . . good.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 325 - The Dead Prince

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "I was not expecting this."


    Quinn cranked his neck up. To his utter surprise, his eyes caught the sight of dragonhide boots. He shifted his body, bearing the stress of the chains tightening, to look up even further to up to find himself looking upon a person dressed in ck.


    His eyes turned into frisbees, for even in his wildest of dreams had he expected Severus Snape, the person he had just killed, would manifest in front of him in his own soulscape. It wasn''t a dream, but it could''ve been very well a nightmare.


    ". . . Did Greed make you somehow?" Quinn couldn''t remove his eyes from the face of the man that looked so real. "You wouldn''t tell me even if you were," he sighed in self-deprecating. "You''re here to haunt me, aren''t you. . . go ahead; you deserve that much."


    Quinn stared at the "ghost''s" face¡ª a thin man with sallow skin and arge, hooked nose, straight thinned lips, and dark, prating eyes that resembled tunnels, all framed by shoulder-length hair. Even the flowing ck robes were so hauntingly simr to the real deal.


    Snape looked down at Quinn in stoic silence until he finally spoke, "I expected more from the man who defeated me in a duel, especially more from by whose hands I ended up dying."


    Quinn lowered his head and pressed the side of his face on the floor, looking away from Snape. He couldn''t give two squats about what Snape thought about him¡ª but the question was valid¡ª he right now wasn''t even close to his usual self, much less his best self.


    "It''s strange, but I have been ''watching,''" said Snape, "and I have to say I was quite surprised you were going through this ordeal of yours. However, I thought with your actions as the invisible vignte, your conviction would''ve been stronger. It''s disappointing to see that someone like that has fallen to this level."


    Quinn didn''t move or even twitch. Heid on the floors with chains around him.


    "But I suppose you see what you expect to see. I thought you were different from all other dunderheads, but you''re just like every one of those idiots."


    Quinn snapped his head up and was ruthlessly yanked down by the chains. He forced his head up with the links digging into his neck. "I just went through Pride and Wrath the other day. . . I''m not free from feeling those emotions. . . so I suggest that you don''t go down this route. Tell Greed that this joke of his is not amusing. Tell him that I will stay quiet, so there''s no need to continue this distasteful joke."


    "Oh? And what would you do about it? I''m not going to stop myself from calling what I see¡ª what I see is just pathetic."


    Quinn felt his anger rise up. He would''ve taken the indictments about killing Snape lying down because they were true; he would''ve apologized to the man''s ghost. But to hear that he hadn''t tried to fight against the Sins was an insult that he couldn''t take.


    "What do you know? You became a ve to an egotistical megalomaniac snake and bent your knee in begging to an old maniptive bastard."


    "I, you foolish child, have deceived one of the greatest wizards of all time, making myself one of his trusted generals while being in his service of an aplished Legilimence with a head of secrets that could''ve gotten me killed. I had be significant enough that Albus Dumbledore, the walking image of all good, risked his reputation to give me¡ª a Death Eater, who has spilled blood of innocents¡ª shelter in a school full of children.


    Until my death, I was well and good and made the best of my situation. And what have you done? Struggle against something that doesn''t even exist."


    "I could do both of that, and I could do them now," spat Quinn.


    "As if. You can''t even deal with yourself and escape from a simple mess that you have idiotically created for yourself. You won''tst a single day in my situation. You would be painfully ughtered by the Dark Lord, and Dumbledore would lead you by the nose until you couldn''t tell if your actions were truly yours or something he nned for you."


    It was as if the lid over a pot of boiling water popped because of the rising steam. The soulscape shook as Quinn pushed himself off the ground. The chains that bound him snapped by the links, shattering into pieces in the vain effort of trying to hold the owner of the soulscape down.


    "Listen here, you overgrown bat," said Quinn, pushing his face near Snape''s. "I don''t want to hear all of this shit from someone who couldn''t stop pining for a girl who was nice to the miserable little boy. Yeah, it was romantic and honorable for a while, bute on, it has been more than a decade."


    Snape''s expression didn''t change; instead, he stepped back and gave Quinn a look over. "Here, I thought you enjoyed the floor a bit too much."


    "What¡ª." Quinn paused mid-outburst. There were no chains around him, nor was he pressed against the floor. His feet were on the floor, standing him up. "How. . . ." he looked up at Snape, who was looking back at him with unimpressed eyes.


    "Look around yourself," said Snape simply.


    Quinn looked. It took him a beat, but he realized what Snape implied. The soulscape hade a long way from the initial ckened state¡ª the white was still tainted with a thick yellow, but the vibe that Quinn could feel was much better. He turned back towards the Soul, and his eyes widened when he saw that it had regained much of its beautiful golden color, and except for some muddiness, it looked as if it hadn''t been touched by the sin curse.


    "It seems that my death was enough for you to miss that you had recovered much of your soulscape," Snape sounded. "You should get a better handle yourself if you''re going to continue with your other secret job. You were struck just at the right times that you weren''t aware of the control you actually had."


    Quinn turned to Snape with wide eyes. "You''re not Greed''s working, are you? You''re the real deal¡ª the real Severus Snape."


    "That seems to be the case."


    "But. . . how?"


    Snape shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don''t know. I remember being executed by the killing curse, but after that, I have no inkling of how I can talk to you here," he said, "but I somehow know it was because of the killing curse and something in your possession."


    Quinn furrowed his brows in thought. ''The killing curse and something in my possession,'' he thought.


    A memory of reading entered his mind. In the Little Hangleton graveyard, Voldemort dueled Harry Potter after his revival. Their magic met, and the ''ghosts'' of the people murdered by Voldemort emanated out from the sh of the spells. Quinn turned to Snape and wondered if this was the same phenomenon. He had, after all, forcefully expunged Snape''s soul using the killing curse.


    ''But what about something in my possession?'' Quinn wondered. The answer came to him like a bolt of blue lightning. His hand went to his chest, and while it wasn''t there, he knew what it was.


    The Ressurection Stone. It was his only possession that could that was rted soul.


    "I. . . think I know why you''re here," said Quinn, rubbing his forehead, "but I can''t be sure."


    "Doesn''t matter," said Snape, "I couldn''t be bothered by something I have no control over. The subject of true importance is that I have to get you out of this mess."


    Quinn continued to stare at Snape with aplicated and incredulous gaze.


    "Greed has used some clever tricks to have you stuck here. But I think I can help you get out of here and get rid of Greed while doing it."


    ". . . How do you know all of this?"


    Snape paused, "I do not have any memories after my death. One moment I was seeing the green of the killing curse, the next, I was here. However, I somehow am aware of what has happened with a few people¡ª and for some reason, you''re one of those people¡ª I suppose I kept a check on my killer in the afterlife I can''t remember. And it seems there is no secret to the dead."


    There weren''t many things Quinn couldn''t understand, but this was one of those things he couldn''t wrap his mind around.


    "Now, let''s not waste any more time; you have to follow my lead so that¡ª"


    "You can help me?" Quinn frowned. It didn''t make sense.


    ". . . I''m dead, Mr. West. I can''t directly do anything. It''s against the naturalw, and I don''t fancy breaking them, even if I could. All I can provide you is an advantage that you can leverage into defeating Greed."


    Quinn nodded. He could use some help. He couldn''t see defeating Greed without help.


    "But I will need something in return," said Snape.


    "What?" asked Quinn with a surprise. He hadn''t expected this. "I''m not going to hand my body over to you if that''s what you want."


    "I have no desire for your body, you fool," said Snape, sneering. "I need a promise from you."


    "I''m not swearing an Unbreakable Vow with the dead."


    Snape was not amused. He stared at Quinn with a look that thoroughly looked down on him. "Just your word would do. . . . I hope you''re not going to deny me¡ª the man who you killed¡ª a simple promise."


    ". . . If it is something I can do, I will give you the promise for it," Quinn sighed, "I don''t even know if you''re real or not; you could just be a figment of my imagination."


    "There is a war on the horizon," said Snape, "the Dark Lord is not going to hide any longer, especially after failing to kill Dumbledore. Wars are never pretty, and no one is spared from some consequences. I want you to promise that you will protect some people for me. . . two people. . . Lily Potter and Ivy Potter."


    Quinn''s eyes widened. He said, "You are already dead. . . even now?"


    Snape''s eyes softened, and he uttered a single word, full of regality, "Always."


    Quinn''s jaw couldn''t drop any faster. He didn''t even know how he had walked himself into this.


    "I will try to ensure their safety," he said after recovering.


    Snape''s eyes narrowed, but Quinn didn''t budge. Snape scoffed but nodded.


    "So, how are you going to help me?"


    Snape started, "Greed, as you call him, has blocked you out from what''s happening outside. . . ."


    Quinn tried to look outside, but he was still blocked. Thinking about what was happening brought him the anxiety momentarily forgotten because of the shock ofing across the dead man. Just the thought of Greed interacting with Daphne and Ivy made him want to throw up.


    ". . . . but in doing that, he has also blocked his internal vision," continued Snape. "He can look inside anytime he wants, but that would allow him to do the same. He hasn''t done that, and I don''t think he''s going to do¡ª after all, his entire aim of springing what going outside was to weaken you."


    Quinn didn''t respond. Greed had said that he was doing it because of Daphne¡ª and that could be a reason, but it wasn''t the sole reason. As Snape had said, Quinn knew that the timing was to send him into a rut¡ª and despite having that realization, Greed''s actions had the intended effect.


    "You''re going to use this vision block. . . and when hees back, you''re going to strike."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Still in deep doubt if what he is seeing is real or not.


    Severus Snape - Dead - I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 326 - Then There Were Two

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn watched from the far side at the two girls who seemed to be in deep discussion. . . at least he hoped it was a discussion and not an exchange of scathing words.


    He focused on their lips, s, they were neither facing him, nor it would''ve helped as hecked the skill to read lips. Quinn''s magic twitched under his impulsivemands, ready tounch a number of nifty spells ranging from enhancing his ears to picking up distant voices or sound magic to snatch their conversation and carry it over to his side.


    He contemted, but he rested his magic after a moment of thought. It was difficult going against his own ''wed'' nature. . . but unlike his ''brothers,'' he was capable of restraining himself with some effort¡ª all thanks to the contribution of his two very generous brothers.


    His thoughts took a walk to distract himself from the honestly nerve-racking conversation before him and wandered to wondering what was happening inside the soulscape. The ''original'' was bound there with the help of magic. . . .


    ''Ah, magic. . . it''s so wonderful,'' Quinn breathed a sigh of contentment. The range of magic under his fingertip was absolutely exhrating and ecstatic. It couldn''t, in a thousand years,pare to what he had when he was nothing but a voice in the back of the head.


    . . . . Back to the ''original.'' He had bound him up as a punishment for trying to the unsightly assault. He had been nothing but kind to the original. The additional penalty was blocking the original''s view outside.


    Quinn''s brow furrowed. The original was as resourceful as a handyman''s tool kit with a cockroach''s persistence. The original didn''t have the assortment of magic usually avable to him in the soulscape. . . an advantage for the Sins. . . despite that, he had been able to get his voice project out of the soulscape while they were in control¡ª it had been the downfall of two of his brother: Wrath and Envy.


    But that much wasn''t enough to surpass expectations. What actually surprised him was the control over soul magic that seemingly came out of nowhere. The stab in Envy''s back was sudden enough to send a tremor in the remaining Sins¡ª causing him to go ahead with his n of subsuming Lust and Gluttony. A wise decision as the original''s ess to magic jumped when he subsumed his brothers. He wasn''t as strong as three Sins, but enough that he could keep the original down.


    ''Maybe I should try telling him that Daphne broke up with me,'' he thought. Contemting how the pros and cons of the situation¡ª on the one hand, it would definitely be a substantial hit on the original''s mental state, putting a hamper on his abilities, but on the other hand, he will have to block the view every time Daphne was as much as mentioned in a conversation. . . too much blocking would only serve to raise the original''s suspicion.


    He clicked his tongue. If he could get rid of the original this instant, he would''ve deceived him about Daphne to strike when the target was at its weakest. But he had no method to get rid of the original¡ª he was a prisoner that couldn''t be executed¡ª beat up, sure, but not executed.


    The risk wasn''t worth the unguaranteed returns, he decided. He would leverage another situation when one came in the future.


    He was brought out of his thoughts when he saw Daphne walking towards him. He straightened up. Her every step was more nervewracking than facing the angry original''s barrage of soul-shearing des.


    "What do you like about her?" The question came even before Daphne''s feet stopped on the ground.


    He gazed at Daphne, a sh passing through his eyes. He studied her, mulling his answer for the best effect.


    "I need someone who questions me and can keep me in check," he said. "The dynamic between Ivy and I is such that she doesn''t take my words as right as many do. She will question me until she''s satisfied. Call me out if something doesn''t make sense. I need that."


    "And you''re saying that I can''t provide that?"


    "Our rtionship dynamic is different. In my heart, you represent a pir of support¡ª who I know will back me with whatever I do. Something I also so dearly need. But I also think that more often than not, you will support whatever choice I make. . . and those times when you do are enough for me to be worried. She''s the anchor I need to ensure that I don''t end up going down a path with no returns."


    Daphne red at him, her face bing colder by the second. "Is that it? You need her because she is of some use to you? Then she can be a confidant, why does she need. . . ." her tempo rose until Daphne breathed to calm herself down and stared at Quinn.


    "I''m attracted to her, and she is to me," he said, maintaining firm eye contact. "Will you befortable with her close to me?"


    Daphne closed her eyes: scrunched up in a frown. She took a deep breath before opening her eyes.


    p!


    She pped him tightly with a wide swing. Quinn made no efforts to stop dodge it, taking it as intended. He didn''t lower his head and stared at her with his intentions clear for her to see.


    Daphne turned away and walked back to Ivy, who was looking at them from a distance. Her eyes widened when she saw and ''heard'' the p.


    Quinn raised his hand and caressed his cheek. It stung. But he felt good about it. It was always better when Daphne showed more heated emotion than withdrew into her icy shell.


    He got back to watching the two girls. It was a risky move on his part. He could lose both¡ª Daphne could dump him; Ivy might not like his choice and approach and finally decide that she wasn''t interested. The original would''ve never gone through this, not in a million years. This desire had stemmed from the original, but something that was fated to stay dormant until forgotten.


    But he was different. If Quinn West wanted something, no one was going to deny him.


    Quinn waited for what felt like close to three-quarters of an hour. It looked like the discussion had been reached its conclusion because Daphne and Ivy walked to him.


    He studied their face. Daphne looked like she had a lot to say while Ivy''s lips were stopping themselves from curling up.


    He knew that instant that his bid had been sessful.


    "I''m in a mood where that face of yours irritates me." Daphne''s words made him restrain his expression. She continued, "I should dump you here and now, but I just. . . can''t" ¡ª Daphne''s face was a strange mix of sharpness and vulnerability ¡ª "I do not if this is even something I should entertain. . . but I''m going to give this a chance," she looked into his eyes, "so please don''t make me regret this. . . please."


    Quinn stepped close to her in an instant and grabbed her hand. "You will never regret this, I promise," he said sincerely; his greed had obviously hurt her.


    "I love you," he said.


    Daphne stared up at him with her blue eyes full of emotion. For a moment, when Daphne''s reply didn''te, he felt his heart drop, but it was only a moment as she raised her hand and softly stroked the same cheek she had pped.


    "I love you too," she said but then followed with. "I need some time."


    Quinn''s grip on her hand tightened. He didn''t like the sound of that.


    "It''s not like that," she said with weakness in her eyes. "I am tired, with what happened yesterday and now. . . I''m going back to the dorms and. . . talk to Tracey about what happened here. You can expect her toe blowing steaming with her wand."


    He gazed at Daphne. He raised her hand in his hand and kissed it. "I am very lucky, aren''t I?"


    "Yes, you are," she said. Daphne tipped-toed and kissed him on his cheek and then whispered into his ear, "If you leave me for her, I will do everything in my power to make you regret it." She moved away and gave him a good long look before walking away towards the castle.


    He gazed at her all the way until she was no longer visible. Only after that did he turn to Ivy, who was staring at him with aplicated gaze.


    "While I''m grateful," he spoke, "may I know why you agreed. . . I was expecting you to curse me for even bringing it up."


    "It happened so suddenly that I didn''t get the time to think that," said Ivy.


    "If you need more time, you can take it. Making a decision in a hurry to regret itter will not do any of us good."


    Ivy shook her head, "I have decided to give this try. . . . It''s strange, you know. At first, I never thought I could ever look at you with anything other than dislike, but here we are; I''m in a rtionship with you who already has a girlfriend¡ª and it''s Daphne, no less. Never thought my first rtionship would be like this."


    ". . . I sprung this on you without warning. Are you sure¡ª"


    "Yes, I''m sure," she cut him off. "I don''t know if this will be a sess or if this is a good idea to start with¡ª I don''t know why I agreed; there''s no reason expressible for it¡ª it is just what is." She shrugged, "If I feel like this is not working, I will walk away as if it was any other rtionship."


    "I said this before; I will say it again. You''re not going to regret it."


    "I really hope so," Ivy said with a blooming smile.


    He stepped forward. Ivy''s eyes widened as her bodynguage turned shy. She didn''t move away. He drew her toward him with his eyes; she inclined her face toward his, and heid his mouth on hers, which was like a freshly split-open fig. For a long time, he kissed Ivy and conveyed his feelings to her about how he thought of her decision to be a wise one.


    "O-Ok, ay. . ." Ivy pulled back, her palm on his chest, slightly out of breath. She had her head dipped away from Quinn.


    "Can we dub this our first kiss rather than thest one?" he asked, smirking, wondering if absorbing Lust had some pleasant side effects.


    Ivy nodded absentmindedly before she realized what she had affirmed, and the blush turned to a burning red.


    After a while, the time to part hade.


    "Can I also expect Hermione toe after with some nasty surprises?" he asked. "Maybe even Harry?"


    "No. . . I''m going to keep this under wrap for now," Ivy continued when she saw his expression. "I''m not hiding this because I''m not sure of this. . . it''s just that I don''t want to listen to Hermoine harp. . . and I don''t want this to go to Harry, dad, and especially mum just yet. Probably after we have spent more time together. . . are you fine with that?"


    "You''re making apromise here. I''m going to follow whatever you want."


    After working out a few details, Quinn bid Ivy goodbye. She went to the castle, leaving Quinn still on the grounds. He waited a while before finally opening the block over the soulscape.


    "Hey, so I have some good news," he said. "I was able to¡ª"


    He stopped when he saw the original standing with no chains on his body, staring at him with a dull expression.


    "How¡ª" He felt a tap on his shoulder and on extinct, he turned, and the sheer shock wasn''t the word enough to describe his feelings as he saw Severus Snape standing behind him.


    "You''re in my way to attaining my needs, and I can be very greedy."


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - I have attained my greatest achievement.


    Daphne Greengrass - Girlfriend-A - Is pouring her heart out to her best friend.


    Ivy Potter - Girlfriend-B - Got questioned why she was so in such a joyous mood.


    Severus Snape - Dead - Boo!


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - LALALALALA!!! I can''t hear you! I can''t hear you.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 327 - Avaritia

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Greed staggered back a step when he saw Snape''s visage with his face painted with shock.


    Snape stared at the man in front of him. "You do indeed look identical," he said, his eyes peering at Greed, "I think you two can give those unsufferable Weasley twins a run for their money. . . . It''s good that I can differentiate the two of you because of this yellowish aura around you¡ª I do not like to deceived. . . ."


    Greed showed no movement and continued to stare at Snape with a shock on his face. The personification looked as if someone had sucked all the blood out of his body, leaving him pale and ghastly.


    Snape took a step forward, and Greed took a step back. He seemed to snap out of his shock as he hastily turned towards Quinn.


    "How did you do th¡ª"


    His eyes widened as his pupils shrunk. Greed watched as Quinn stood close to him with his hand holding a long golden de held his both hands firmly. The de was thrust forward. The soul-de going through Greed''s body made for a sickening scene, even if itcked the bloody gruesomeness.


    Greed turned topletely face Quinn as he staggered back, his eyes going to the tip of the solid golden blooding out of his body. His face crumpled in concentration¡ª the golden de broke into soft beads of firefly lights.


    Quinn had no intention of letting Greed take his time. He stepped forward with rays of light bending into the shape of a golden knife grasped in his raised hand. His face twisted in aggression as, with a primal grunt, he stabbed Greed in his chest. With a shlick, the knife was pulled out and then sheered again into Greed''s body.


    Once more, twice, thrice, and then again. . . . With each brutal knife thrust, Quinn grunted with hate, channeling it into every stab.


    Greed somehow managed to raise his leg and kick Quinn back. It was weak, and Quinn only went back a couple steps. Greed jarringly made some distance between them and made a pdash half-turn towards the other person to guard himself against another backstab. But Snape had no move from his ce, watching cidly as the violence unfolded.


    Quinn watched Greed. Unlike Envy, who had gone down with one strike, Greed remained standing, albeit shakily. It seems absorbing other Sins had granted Greed increased durability, he thought.


    "H-How. . . ?"


    "A mix of using the Killing Curse and Resurrection Stone. . . it seems that Killing Curse left behind a residue of sorts that the Stone caught that. Though I have no idea why he decided to appear to appear now."


    Greed turned his face filled with pain to Snape.


    Snape said, "I too don''t have the answer to that question."


    Quinn approached Greed, who hurriedly waved his hand, sending a projectile to whistle towards Quinn. The projectile was thwarted by Quinn with the barest of efforts.


    "You deceived me," said Quinn inching towards Greed, "made me feel like a helpless prisoner with no power in my own soulscape. . . you chained me down and forced me to the ground. . . from the very start, it was you who was pulling the strings from the shadows."


    The soulscape shook with Quinn''s steps as if he was a giant, stomping through the space. Greed looked mortified.


    ". . . Then you screwed with my rtionship with Daphne," Quinn fumed. "Out of all the things you guys pulled, I loath this the most, and I hate you the most for it."


    Quinn raised his hand, and Greed stumbled to the ground, falling. He looked up at Quinn with fear and unwillingness in his eyes.


    "I hate that you caught me in the middle of. . ." Quinn shortly nced at Snape, ". . . all of this¡ª if I wasn''t like that, I would''ve crushed like this before you had the chance to even think about getting out."


    Greed''s wounds started to glow in a solid yellow. It looked he could feel the changes in his body. He red at Quinn. "I couldn''t give two shits about your situation. I wanted more, and I saw the opportunity to take it for me¡ª what''s wrong with that?"


    "You wanted to take what belonged to ME! That''s what''s wrong!"


    "I. AM. YOU!"


    Quinn and Greed red at each other. Snape watched them from the side silently.


    "Did you already forget Envy''s words?" Greed continued with spite. "We were born from your mistake. We didn''t ask to be here! But we were. So, what''s wrong with turning a subpar situation into a great one while enacting revenge against the one who caused all of it, huh?!"


    Quinn''s face soured at Greed''s jabs.


    "I didn''t ask to be the manifestation of greed! But unlike Envy, I have no problem embracing who I am," Greedshed. "You know. . . I don''t hate you" ¡ª Quinn furrowed his brows ¡ª "you are just someone who was in my way, just like the others were. . . ."


    Quinn felt a chill in his heart. There was apathy in Greed''s eyes in which he saw himself reflected.


    Was something other than greed had been amplified. . . or was this the reflection of him. Somewhere in the depth of his being was he so cold that he could disregard everything just to achieve his goals. Quinn couldn''t help but wonder.


    "You will never be free from me," said Greed as if cursing him. "It''s too ingrained in you. . . it will remain with you. . . raise its head at just the right moment. . . and for all that''s magic, I wish that even with what I did today, you fall for your greed."


    Quinn frowned, confused with what Greed meant.


    Greed savagely smirked as he raised his hand, and a blinding half-de twisted over his palm. It rang like a tuning fork as he sent it singing towards Quinn''s face.


    Quinn stood in the de''s path unflinchingly. The murderous de turned into sand in the wind from the tip and disappeared as if never existed.


    Greed startedughing menacingly. His voice filled the soulscape.


    Quinn couldn''t tell if he was acting or had the eminent death had turned Greed mad. The knife in Quinn''s hand shimmered; it looked as if it was sucking in the light and threw it just brighter. The small de had turned into a full-length sword.


    "Anyst words?"


    "Giving the viin somest word? I thought you knew better."


    "I do know better. You are so pitiful that I don''t mind if you try something at thest moment."


    Greed threw his head back with angryughter.


    Shing!


    Quinn waved his sword, and theughter came to an abrupt end.


    "You wasted yourst words," said Quinn, staring at Greed as his eyes went dull and the face twisted in corrupt emotion gradually settled in peace.


    The final personification of Sin, the strongest one, turned into yellow orbs of light. From away, the yellow orbs could be mistaken as golden like the untainted Soul in the middle of pristine white soulscape.


    His eyes didn''t move away from where Greed had sat. Killing Greed, while good for him, had left him with some questions about himself.


    He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.


    The Sin Curse had been purged from his body.


    He opened his eyes and felt the wind on his face and the smell of the forest behind him. The rays of light filtering through the tree''s canopy were warm. The feeling of him being in his own skin never felt better.


    Quinn braced himself and let out a shout from the bottom of his stomach as his magic sang. The grass grew faster, winds picked up, the rays of light bent, and the ce seemed to be filled with something unseen.


    He was free.


    Quinn reached out into his clothes, snatched the pendant-piece from the chain, and revealed the Resurrection Stone in his palm. The mystical stone glowed in a soft ck glow.


    He could feel that Resurrection Stone had been fed magic.


    ''My magic. . .''


    Several conjectures passed through his mind. The one hended on was idental magic working to save his¡ª its master''s¡ª life once again, just as it had done all those years ago during the Icy Vault.


    He nced up. Snape had appeared in front of him, outside the soulscape¡ª which was a relief¡ª he didn''t want anyone or anything in his soulscape, near his Soul, ever again. Snape looked like in the real world with the rays of sun passing through his grey translucent body.


    "Thank you," said Quinn. What Snape had done wasn''t big, but it had the intended, profound effect of delivering the shock, which made an opening that Quinn could exploit. He knew without it, he wouldn''t have been able to injure Greed, and an uninjured Greed was capable enough to fend him off, even if he did try something.


    ''If I tried something.''


    Quinn wasn''t sure if he had worked up the intent to try to rise up against Greed. It was the abrupt appearance that had shocked him out of his wallowing misery.


    "I killed you," said Quinn, his eyes full of respect for the dead man, "and you still helped me. . . . If I was on your ce, I wouldn''t have been able to do it. . ."


    But Snape as Snape. He sneered, "I didn''t do it for. If it wasn''t that you were of use, I would''ve fought to the end if someone tried to drag me out here."


    The words seemed strange to Quinn, but he moved past them. He smiled wryly. "Professor, I swear I will keep my promise." He rubbed his head. He finally had full ess to his mindscape, and Greed''s actionsy before him in full view. ''Aaa-urgh, that greedy bastard!'' He could even feel the emotions of satisfaction oozing from the memories.


    Snape nodded. He turned to the castle, his eyes flickering with emotion.


    "Would you like to go visit?" asked Quinn. "The funeral is set for at sunset. You would be able to see¡ª"


    "No, it''s alright. . . I don''t want to," said Snape. "Even if it is not possible, I fear I will turn into an actual ghost if I go. . . . I just want you to keep your promise."


    "I will."


    The dead and the living both watched the magical castle of Hogwarts, which had countless memories tied to her for both of them. . . for everyone who had ever stepped enjoyed her shelter.


    "Mr. West," said Snape, not looking away from the castle.


    "Yes, sir?"


    "You were the best student I ever had."


    Quinn''s eyes widened as he turned to Snape, but the man was gone to his surprise. He hurriedly looked down at the Resurrection Stone¡ª itid dormant in his palm.


    He looked up at the castle and at the clouds dotting the sky.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Lily Potter looked at the dark overcast clouds hiding the red hue cast of the sunset.


    All lessons were suspended, all examinations were cancelled. A good handful of students were hurried away from Hogwarts by their parents¡ª the Patil twins were gone before breakfast, and Zacharias Smith was escorted from the castle by his haughty-looking father. Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand, refused point-nk to apany his mother home; they had a shouting match in the entrance hall that was resolved when Dumbledore had stepped in to have a conversation with the mother.


    Lily looked around the subdued Great Hall. Everybody was wearing their dress robes, and despite the teenagers filling it to their full capacity, the hall was quiet. She looked to her side, and beside Dumbledore''s throne, a single, simple chair sat empty.


    She looked to the Slytherin table. The entire Slytherin house looked less polished to her,cking the usual pristine sharpness that the student exuded in unity. Crabbe and Goyle were muttering together. Hulking boys though they were, they looked oddly lonely without the tall, pale figure of Draco Malfoy between them, bossing them around. She wondered how the boy was doing right now? Narcissa Malfoy had been delivered to her son as Dumbledore had promised. She heard from her husband that Lucius Malfoy had refused toe along when they gave him a choice.


    Her thoughts were interrupted when Dumbledore rose to his feet, and the little hum in the hall died away at once.


    "It is nearly time," he said. "Please follow your Heads of Houses out into the grounds."


    The students filed out from behind their benches in near silence. She saw Slughorn at the head of the Slytherin column, wearing long, emerald green robes embroidered with silver. She had never seen Sprout, the Herbology Professor, looking so clean; there was not a single patch on her hat, and when they reached the entrance hall, they found Madam Pince standing beside Filch, both dressed for the asion.


    The entourage arrived at thekeside, to a ce where hundreds of chairs had been set out in rows. An aisle ran down the centre of them: There was a marble table standing at the front, all chairs facing it.


    Lily roamed her eye over the crowd. There were not many people from outside Hogwarts. The seats were mostly covered by the students. The castle ghosts were there too, barely visible in the bright sunlight, discernible only when they moved, shimmering insubstantially on the gleaming air.


    She could see members of the Order of the Phoenix, but they were only a handful, with the majority missing. A delegation of Ministry officials, including the Minister of Magic herself, walked past her towards the front rows. She next recognized Rita Skeeter, who, she was infuriated to see, had a notebook clutched in her red-taloned hand, writing away with her eyes peering at the centaur Firenze, who was standing like a sentinel near the water''s edge. Standing at the outsides of the chair arrangement was a guard of Aurors, which included her husband, James Potter.


    There was no one present who Severus could call family, she thought.


    The staff was seated atst. Lily sat on the left side of the aisle, in the second row behind the Head of Houses and the Minister. Dumbledore''s chair was empty.


    There was a hushed whisper from the back. When she turned, Lily saw Dumbledore was walking slowly up the aisle between the chairs, and floating beside him, wrapped in emerald velvet spangled with silver serpents, was what Lily knew to be Severus'' body. A dull pain rose in her throat at this sight. Dumbledore ced the body carefully upon the table.


    Dumbledore then began speaking words, but she couldn''t hear them. Her eyes were fixed on the emerald shroud.


    Dumbledore finished his speech and took his seat in the front. Lily waited for somebody else to get to their feet; she hoped someone would get to their feet; she expected speeches from the Minister, but nobody moved.


    Then she felt something on her face. Lily raised her hand to her cheek, and when she saw her fingers, they were wet. She felt something on her other hand on herp. The back of her palm was wet. Lily looked up, and the clouds were darker than ever.


    It must have not taken more than a few seconds for the cover of clouds to start pouring the heaviest shower of the season. While everyone pulled out their umbres or conjured them, Lily''s eyes went to the table in the front in frantic worry.


    But the headmaster had taken care of it. The rain seemed to bend around Severus'' body with not a single drop touching his body. Lily slumped in her chair, the worry draining for her muscles. When she looked around, people had started to get up, probably returning to the castle to take shelter from the rain.


    Among the standing people, a figure caught her eyes. Dressed in a suit, covered in ck from head to toe. He stood on the right side of the aisle, in the front row reserved for the Prefects.


    Lily recognized the Head Boy even with the rain impeding her vision. He had his hand gloved in ck raised straight above. Then a bright white light bloomed in his palm. She didn''t know why but her eyes moved above to the sky and there she saw it.


    A red spot appeared in between the ck and grey. The clouds started to move in a spiral, with the red circle growing bigger and bigger with each passing moment. Those who had gotten up to leave stopped and looked up at the swirling clouds.


    Umbres all over were slowly put down with every pair of eyes present on thekeside fixed to the sky just like hers.


    The red hue of the sunset sky shone above Hogwarts.


    The dark clouds were still present on the periphery, but it was as if something was stopping them from entering Hogwarts, protecting it.


    Lily looked back down to the front row of the right side. He had resumed his seat and sat patiently with his eyes to the front table.


    She gazed at the empty spot in front of the table. The memory of the boy who had called her a witch when they had first met surfaced in her mind.


    Lily got up and moved to the front.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Severus Snape - Slytherin - The Half-Blood Prince - Potions Master - Master of The Dark Arts - Death Eater - Order of Phoenix - Head of House Slytherin.


    Quinn West - MC - I won''t name my child Severus.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Everybody Wants To Rule The World ~ Lorde Version.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 328 - The Last Visit

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The school year was cut short.


    After the events transpired at Hogwarts, the school administration was bombarded with letters from concerned parents who wished to have their children back home to safety. The sheer amount of letters, along with parents who had directly descended on Hogwarts to take their children, had forced Hogwarts hand to end the school year before time.


    The examinations were canceled for everyone except the fifth and seventh years. OWLs and NEWTs were postponed by one week, and it was decided that the two essential tests would be conducted within a Ministry-approved venue.


    Quinn rose early on thest day at the school. He was already packed; the Hogwarts Express would leave one hour after breakfast. But before he left the school for thest time, he had to do something important. He canceled his morning workout with Eddie, and instead of going to the grounds like every morning, he headed to the sixth floor.


    Quinn stared at the narrow corridor in front of him; it looked no different than any other of its types scattered around Hogwarts. He could clearly see the end of the corridor where a wall stood ending the path. He nced behind him for a fleeting moment before taking firm steps towards the portrait hung on the dead-end wall. There wasn''t a single soul anywhere near the ce¡ª just him and the portrait.


    He looked up at the posh man with a goatee sitting on his ornate chair with a rod-straight posture, elegantly reading the book in hand from behind his small-lensed sses that hung on the tip of the nose with a long bridge.


    Quinn stayed silent, waiting for the portrait to look at him, which he knew wasn''t going to happen from the dozens he had visited the ce, but he waited. . . he wanted to. The result was as expected, the painted man continued to read his book, and Quinn watched him do it with only the sound of the asional flip of the page sounding in the lonesome corridor.


    "Headmaster Viridian," Quinn finally broke the silence.


    The man didn''t respond immediately; instead, he raised a finger towards Quinn and kept it raised as he continued to read the book. It was a minuteter that the portrait of Vindictus Viridian ced a thin bookmark between the pages and closed the book upon it. He lowered his finger and, for the first time, focused his eyes anywhere other than the book.


    "Yes," he said simply.


    Quinn blinked in surprise. That was different, he thought. He requested entry into the Room of Rewards.


    "Password?" asked the portrait.


    Quinn''s surprise grew. That was yet again wildly different from what he was expecting. ". . . No condescending jab, or asking me to return?" he asked.


    "That was only warranted when you, time after time, osted me and disturbed me when I was preparing to slumber or was already asleep. This is early morning¡ª the appropriate time to gain entry in the room."


    It was that simple for some basic politeness?


    ". . . Finalis Visita," Quinn said the password picked up from Recon.


    Viridian nodded and opened his book again as the portrait swung open to allow Quinn entry and let out cold, dry air from within.


    Quinn exhaled a puff and stepped inside the Room of Rewards. The room hadn''t changed a single dust grain since thest time he had entered. The grid of standing double-sided bookshelves upied the space with their ck binders full of records on every Hogwarts student that ever studied in its ssrooms.


    He picked the middle aisle and made his way to the room center, where the Hogwarts crest decorated the floor and hid the secret beneath the floor. . . hid the demons beneath the road. Quinn kneeled before the crest, channeled his magic, and uttered the magic words. The different parts of the crest jumped in their ce, with a white glow leaking from within. The crest vanished and left behind a gaping hole.


    ''Why am I here? Why am I doing this?''


    Such thoughts passed through his mind as he dropped him into the gaping tunnel. As he descended, his thoughts were doubting his actions, but his body was fearless¡ª so fearless that he didn''t create an elevated tform for him to stand upon andnded directly upon the bare floor of the vault. He immediately crushed the magic from the floor that tried to knock him out.


    The Sin Vault wasted no time to open business. The heptagonal walls glowed up in their seven-colored glory. Quinn''s furrowed brows eased a fraction when he felt the magic from the runes fill the room. It felt familiar, he could recognize it, and it wasn''t the absolute unknown it was as earlier in the year. He raised his magic as the runes reached saturation. The seven-colored beams burst out of the runes, but instead of infiltrating Quinn''s soulscape without any hindrance, it halted like water before a dam at the boundary of the soulscape.


    Quinn had no sense of achievement as he thwarted the waves of soul-based magic. All he could wonder as he operated his magic was ¡ª ''Was Greed right? Is my greed too much for me to control?'' ¡ª he hade down into the Sin Vault without even thinking about it; his first instinct had led him into the ce that had derailed his life two out of two times. Was his greed for some semnce of reward so strong that he had yet again ignored a sense of safety, even after all the lessons he had experienced.


    The magic from the runes ran out, and the beams dribbled out until the room was again in darkness with Quinn in the middle. His body eased up as he looked around the room. He wished he knew if there wasn''t any other "offensive" surprise, but he didn''t; however, something told him that everything that could worry him was over.


    There was a quake in the room, making Quinn twitch. The wall directly behind him broke into rectangr brick blocks and turned inwards until there was a path opened up to him. Quinn slowly exhaled all his previous tension to make room for a new batch that arrived with the appearance of the new door.


    He took out a miniature stone tablet from his pocket, erged it to full-size, and leaned it against one of the walls with ample magic to ensure it would not topple over. On the stone tablet were concise instructions on finding him if someone did reach here and screwed themselves over.


    He cracked his knuckles just to break the heavy silence in the antechamber. Then followed with the sound of his footsteps. His heartbeat in his chest red in his ears as he stepped across the threshold and wisely sent his magic forward for scouting, which reported back with zilch in response. But Quinn knew better to believe that his skill with magic would be reliable in the Sin Vault. He kept his eyes forward and his ear listening with his skin tingling in attention.


    After deliberate and careful walking, Quinn reached the end, where a humble room awaited him. There was nothing in the square room but a single portrait.


    Quinn recognized the portrait. It was unique in Hogwarts. It was the only non-magical portrait inside Hogwarts, proudly disyed in the Entrance Hall outside the Great Hall. Yet, here it was. . . present inside the Sin Vault.


    The man in the portrait, with his long white beard and long flowing hair, opened his sparkling blue eyes with specks of green. The man blinked a couple before his eyes turned to the front, focusing on Quinn.


    "Oh. . . Quinn West," the man''s first word delivered a punch to Quinn. "It seems you have finally made it to my humble abode."


    ". . . Merlin."


    The Grand Sorcerer of the King Arthur''s Court, the founder of the Order of Merlin, an organization that promoted non-magical rights, and the greatest magic user in the Western world and one of the greats that the world had ever seen. The person that had permeated himself through the generations and immortalized himself in the minds of every single person who ever heard of his legend so much that he had be part of the magical vernacr.


    Quinn gulped. "You were behind the Sin Vault?" he asked. Why?


    "Sin Vault?" Merlin repeated. "Ah, the seven sins. . . yes-yes, I''m the creator of this magic."


    Quinn asked the question that gued his mind: "Why. . . ?" Why would the greatest of all time create something so horrifying?


    "Why? Hmm, let''s say. . . because of Morgana."


    "Morgana. . . Morgan Le Fay?" Morgan le Fay, moremonly known as Morgana, was a medieval dark art practioner famous for being the enemy of Merlin and the half-sister of King Arthur.


    "Yes, Morgana," sighed Merlin. "In one of our tussles, she disyed a surprising skill in soul magic, which worried me because I wascking in that area of magic, and by now, you must know how tricky soul magic can get. I couldn''t risk falling behind, so I started to dabble in soul magic. s, I was naive in those days¡ª Morgana was using wizards and muggle alike in her experiments to learn more about soul magic, and I, by my lonesome, couldn''t keep up her progress. . . so I made this ce and cast my magic in it."


    "You wanted to use children?!" Quinn exploded. He and n hade to this very conclusion the first time Quinn had suffered from the Sin curse. But having that theory confirmed was infuriating.


    "I did," said Merlin, nigh a regret on his face. "Where else better but at a castle full of young children with their bubbling and growing magic? Hogwarts was the best ce I could think of to experiment to catch up with Morgana."


    Quinn''s magic red out of control. Itshed on the walls of the room, but they remained unharmed even under the unrelenting angry assault. Even Merlin''s portrait remained unscathed.


    "Do you have any idea what I went through?" Quinn''s voice distorted like a demon. "You egotistical piece of shit! Give me one reason I shouldn''t make it my life''s goal to erase every trace of your legacy from the world. I will find a way to destroy all physical traces and erase the entire''s memory if that''s what it takes."


    "That''s a bold im, boy. I''ve be quite famous after my death," said Merlin. "As for if I know what you went through¡ª I do¡ª I was watching you all the time, after all."


    Quinn''s furious momentum pressed a break, while still angry, his magic abated.


    "I have eyes all over. As long it is in this castle, I can travel to any portrait in every castle, even the deer painting in your room. Anywhere you went, I was followed, observing you. So, I know exactly what you went through, and I did construct the magic, so piecing together whatever I missed was easy enough."


    He was being watched? Quinn''s heart quivered.


    "Also, don''t worry, all of those who went through some version of the magic I cast here left rtively unscathed. . . okay, you caught me, a couple of them did sufferter, but I didpensate their families. Ah, don''t worry, no one entered here after my death; you''re the first one."


    "That doesn''t change anything, you crazy bag!"


    Merlin then went on to tell the tale of the Sin Vault. How he used to visit Hogwarts once a year to teach for a week, and by then, the Sin Vault would''ve lured in some students. When Merlin arrived for his one week, the curse''s progression would reach a level where Merlin could study the student to gain some insight and then fix the affected students before he left. It continued for two decades, with a couple of students getting caught every year. Over the years, the Sin Vault changed as Merlin learned more and more and became what it was today. He told Quinn that every person would be affected in a different way and what Quinn went through was unique to him, something Merlin was proud of because he could gain new insight from every subject.


    ". . . . When Morgana died, I stopped experimenting with Hogwarts students, but I didn''t want what I created to extinguish, so I put a puzzle in ce and put in a portrait here so that if someone stumbled in here, I could know what happened, even if it was after my death," said Merlin before asking, "Do you mind telling me how I died? Even after so much time here, I could not find how I died."


    Portraits were copies of the person, but they only held memories until the person hadst refreshed the portrait. So not having the remembrance of death was a trait of a magical portrait.


    "ording to what I have read, you fell in love with a girl, taught her all your magic, and then were done in by her," said Quinn.


    Merlin''s eyes seemed to shine with realization. A sad look passed his face before it went to the normal, smiling one. "So, what are you going to do now?" he asked. "I don''t think you can destroy me. . . at least, not now, not for a good while."


    Quinn didn''t even have to think about his answer, "If I can''t destroy you, then I will take you with me and keep you isted until I am able to do so." He fixed the portrait with a baleful re. Merlin didn''t look one bit regretful for his actions; he had yed with innocent students'' lives. And he had made his life miserable.


    "Or, you don''t do that, and maybe I will teach you a thing or two when I feel like it," said Merlin with a smile. "You will find that I can be very knowledgeable about a wide variety of magicks."


    Quinn''s expression turned. He stared at Merlin, unblinking. After an unknown amount of time, he walked to the portrait, removed it from the wall, and walked out of the wall with the portrait in hand.


    Greed was right. Maybe he could never get rid of him.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Finally over.


    Merlin - Portrait - Sometimes, sacrifices are needed.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Well, I did drop ONE clue about Merlin. The reason why I chose Merlin was that I think that anyone that great must have some skeletons in his closet. Also, I don''t know if I am going to show Merlin that much¡ª he will maybe work in the background with Quinn, but do let me know. . . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 329 - Ground Rules

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Hogwarts Express chugged along the tracks, making its way through the lush and overreaching countryside. The school was over, and the student poption was on the red train, going back to their home.


    "The farewell party went straight down the gutter," Eddie grumbled, leaning on his train berth, his leg resting on the front corner of the opposite berth.


    Marcus picked his head out of his pork pie and fixed Eddie with a disappointed gaze. "Don''t be like that. Professor Snape died protecting the school from Death Eaters. We weren''t going to have a farewell party either way."


    "You think I don''t know that. It just took a lot of time for me to get that big crate of firewhisky," Eddie huffed with crossed arms. "I had to divvy it all out and didn''t get a party in return."


    "You cane to my house," said Quinn. He was lying beside Marcus with his feet crossed and a book floating over his head. "I will get you good and drunk¡ª grandfather would be more than delighted to start a young man like yourself on his journey alcohol. Though I doubt you''d be getting firewhisky from him."


    "Why?"


    "Let''s just say he has. . . taste. In turn, you will be getting a lot of hand-crafted beverages along with an evening full of responsible drinking habits."


    ". . . Yeah, that sounds drab. But hey, I won''t say no to some expensive stuff. Send me a date and time; I''ll be there."


    "You say that, but I guarantee that you will be copying him by the end of the day."


    Quinn tried to imagine what fun it would be to see Eddie and George together and that too drinking. He could imagine it going in so many interesting ways. Moreover, he would even get a bonus interaction between Ms. Rosey and Eddie¡ª that could very well be more entertaining than Eddie and George.


    "You don''t anything to with the Prefects?" Marcus asked Quinn. "I thought the bunch of you would be doing something like a posh lunch to mark the end."


    Quinn waved his hand. "Nope, not one bit interested in that. Plus, no one was in the mood for it. It didn''t help that quarter of the Prefects went home directly with their parents, so we just dropped the idea of doing something as a farewell."


    It wasn''t just them. The entire seventh-year was bummed as theirst days in Hogwarts had taken such a tragic turn. The only positive that hade out of the mess was the postponed exams¡ª though someined about wanting to get it over with as soon as possible.


    Eddie loudly pped his thighs as he stood. "Well boys, I will see you. . . I don''t know when."


    "Going to see Tracey?" asked Quinn.


    "Yeah."


    Quinn grabbed the book and got up as well.


    "You¡ª Daphne?"


    ". . . Yes."


    Eddie turned to Marcus and opened his mouth just to close it. He furrowed his brow before quirking one up. "You know. . . we never talked about you, have we? You never told us if you liked someone or who you liked. . . and somehow we never hound. . . asked you about." Eddie turned to Quinn, "That''s surprising, innit, mate?"


    Quinn stepped beside Eddie and faced Marcus. "It is surprising indeed. Seven years together, and never did you tell us what''s your type, much less who you fancy. I think it is high time your best mates know about this sort of stuff."


    Both sat down in front of Marcus in unison, leaning forward over their crossed arms.


    "No, no, no, don''t sit," said Marcus, gesturing them to stand up. "I fancied no one, there that''s the answer, happy, now off yo go¡ª you don''t want to keep thedies waiting."


    "I don''t buy that crap," Eddie shot down the answer. "I don''t believe you never got interested. You must have a crush or two."


    "Was it someone in DA?" asked Quinn. "Was it Susan Bones? She''s pretty, and you two got along."


    "Now that you say that, they did get along splendidly."


    "Then there were all those meetings."


    "He can''t be med for taking a fancy."


    "Maybe she did as well."


    "You dog! The Minister''s daughter, eh, mate. Now that''s ballsy!"


    "Never knew you to be so ambitious, Marcus. You know there''s still time. It might bete, but you can at leastmunicate your feelings. You might regret itter if you keep those feelings hidden."


    "Go jump her bones!"


    Marcus'' jaw had long ckened. "No" ¡ª he shook his head ¡ª "No" ¡ª again ¡ª "No" ¡ª and then again ¡ª "none of that. . . how did. . . from where. . . you two. . . . Out!"


    "Come on, who better to tell but us," said Quinn.


    "Out!"


    "Look at him all shy," said Eddie.


    "Sod off!"


    There was a knock on the door, but before they could even turn their heads, the door slid and shuddered open. Tracey Davis stood at the door with her eyes narrowed at her boyfriend. "I have been waiting for a while, and here you are,ughing it off."


    Eddie stood up and all but flew to Tracey''s side. He kissed her cheek and took her hand into his. "We got busy trying to make Marcus'' love life sessful. Turns out that he likes Susan Bones."


    "You do?!" asked Tracey, surprise recing irritation.


    "No, I don''t! Don''t listen to them!"


    "So he says," said Quinnughing.


    Tracey''s eyes turned to Quinn, and her eyes narrowed yet again. She fixed him with a re.


    Eddie noticed Tracey''s change. He looked between his girlfriend and best mate and asked, "What-what? Did something happen? Something happened. What happened?"


    "He cheated," said Tracey, making Quinn''s heart skip a beat, "me out of money in a bet using a trick."


    "So it wasn''t just me. He cheated in a race against me; used some bloody magic to rush off like a horse."


    "Is that so," she hummed, "sounds like him."


    Quinn thinned his lips bitterly. Daphne had told Tracey as she said she would. As one would expect, Tracey wasn''t happy with what she had heard and hade for Quinn with her wand in hand. The incident (fortunately unseen) was Tracey bombarding Quinn with her most offense-heavy curses, with Quinn blocking them while hearing her hurling the non-magical type curses from her mouth. After she had tired herself out, Tracey switched to yelling at him for forcing Daphne into a horrible rtionship.


    When he tried to give an exnation ¡ª which was difficult as Quinn didn''t have a solid exnation for the situation Lust and Greed had dropped him in ¡ª and that might have shown as Tracey had huffed and sneered and walked away mid-exnation.


    "It''s lovely to see you as well, Tracey," said Quinn earnestly. Tracey was one of his close friends, someone he had gotten along with from the get-go, and this was the first time they had turmoil between them.


    She raised her hand and threw something at him. It glinted golden as Quinn caught it out of the air.


    "Let''s go," she pulled Eddie along while giving Quinn onest ring side-eye.


    Quinn looked at his palm, and there sat a golden galleon.


    When the door was slid close, Marcus spoke up, "Wow, she''s in a bad mood. How much did you take from her. . . it must be a lot if she''s still paying it now."


    Quinn could only heavily sigh in response.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn rubbed the galleon with his thumb. He nced down at the face of the coin, peering near the circumference, where a string of words swam as if on a long stripe disy showing stock prices. The fake galleon was used in DA tomunicate the meeting details, and every member had retained the coins with them formunication.


    He had one as well, but he didn''t keep it in person.


    He nced up at thepartment he was asked to visit,municated by the coin. He furrowed his brow and stepped back from the curtained-off ss-windowed wooden door to take in the full picture.


    There was a focus-averting charmid on the whole front of thepartment. The charm worked the same as the "Muggle-Repent" charm, but for magicals¡ª it wasn''t a widely used spell as it would fail if someone was actively looking for the thing that the spell had been cast on.


    The spellwork in front of him, as Quinn judged, was skillful with decent power behind it. He nced around the train corridor¡ª there was no one present but him¡ª and had noticed how half of thepartments in the section were empty because of theck of students that had boarded the train today. It was a suitable ce to ward off apartment with such spell, away from the frequent pair of eyes that would pass by.


    He knocked on the door but didn''t enter. A secondter, the curtain parted a sliver, and green eyes peered from within. The door opened, and he was pulled in by a dainty hand.


    Quinn found himself in the room with two girls he was well familiar with. He peered at Daphne and Ivy as they stared back at him, making him nervous. It felt like a long time, but it was just yesterday that he had entered into a rtionship with both of them.


    It wasn''t nearly enough time for him to gather his thoughts.


    "Hello," he said. Then proceeded to scream at himself for the slight off-tone. He pretended to clear his throat and said again, "Hello," this time normally.


    Both greeted him back. Ivy greeted him with a smile and a wandering eye (which he thought was because of yesterday) while Daphne greeted him as if nothing had happened.


    "So, how are you two doing? Any change of thoughts since yesterday," he said jokingly.


    The joke didn''t hit. Quinn knew it as it wasing out of his mouth.


    Daphne''s eyes sharpened, threatening to turn into a re any second. Ivy, on the other hand, looked a bit hurt. Quinn immediately realized what had gone wrong.


    "Wait-wait, I can practically see your thoughts," he said hurriedly. "I am not regretting this and have no intention of going back on what was decided yesterday." He could only me things on Greed so much, and it was time to take responsibility.


    "Then don''t say things that make us think like that," said Daphne, snappily, but much less than yesterday.


    Ivy nodded.


    "I apologize; I wasn''t thinking," he said. "But I can sense that both of you have some thoughts since yesterday."


    "We have," said Ivy. "I think it would be better if we have some well-defined rules between us to ensure that this," she pointed to everyone, "doesn''t copse."


    "Agreed," nodded Quinn.


    "We have talked between us two what we expect from you. We will tell you those. And because it goes two ways, we want to hear what you wish from us."


    That was good, Quinn thought. He could definitely work with some guidelines. He hadn''t even heard their expectations, but he was already feeling good about it.


    "First, and maybe the most important part rule," started Daphne. She pointed at herself and Ivy, "We aren''t involved with each other. We are involved with you and you alone. As it stands now, we aren''t interested in pursuing anything with the other¡ª so don''t expect us to do so or ask us to do. Ivy and I will work on our rtionship¡ª but it won''t go farther than friendship¡ª not romantically, and definitely not. . . ."


    "Sexually," supplied Ivy and followed with a very blunt. "So no threesomes if you somehow had that in mind."


    Daphne nodded conservatively.


    "Wouldn''t think of it," Quinn agreed with them without missing a beat.


    "Next rule," Daphne continued. "We are fine with spending time together," she flushed a bit, "even living together when ites to that" ¡ª Quinn held back his surprise of Daphne talking about living together; they hadn''t talked about a living situation, this being the first time¡ª "we are willing to share some trips and outings, but there must be some single dates, and during those personal one-on-one times, there must not be ANY mention of the other.


    I personally want that you don''t take Ivy to ces that I deem special between the two of us¡ª for example, the small handicraft muggle market that we visited before this year."


    Quinn''s eyes shined in recognition. It was his first time taking Daphne to the non-magical world, and instead of overwhelming her with all the glitz and mor, he took her to a quaint street-side handicraft bazaar.


    "I want the same," said Ivy; there was apetitive light in her eyes. "So, you can''t take her to the Architect''s Vault." Her shoulders slumped, and she mumbled, "We don''t have any ce else, and you''re already not returning. . . ."


    Quinn was quick to rescue and promised her about building ces with time. He did get a look towards Daphne, but she was as serene as night.


    "Now, this is thest thing we could think," continued Daphne. "It''s about what and how much to share. I am open to hearing about what you did with Ivy if you''re looking to share that. I might ask you about it, or you might want to share it on your own¡ª in either case, I will leave it up to you how much you want to share and how much Ivy would be fine with me knowing."


    "I don''t want to hear anything you do with Daphne," said Ivy. "As long it is not something we three did together, I only want to listen to the bare minimum. If it is not something I must know, then please don''t let me know about it."


    Quinn again agreed. And not it was time for him to share his side of the expectations. "I only have one," he said. "I want an appropriate amount of alone time where I don''t spend time with either of you. Daphne already knows it, but I need¡ª demand¡ª an amount of alone time alone, which borders just at the limit of what''s permissible in a normal rtionship. But that''s not going to work if I''m going to spend time with both of you¡ª so while I will be cutting down on my alone time, I still want a fair share of it.


    So, I request that you respect my time alone."


    His ask was taken in immediately.


    They then continued to talk and agreed that a calendar was needed to mark the ns from all three sides. The discussion ended with defining what was to be shared outside¡ª all three were in unison that (with the exception of Tracey) they weren''t going to make the rtionship public, with Daphne and Quinn still a normal couple in the eyes of the public.


    .


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    - ( Volume 8: Year Seven) - HAS ENDED -


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West - MC - Let me write that down.


    Daphne Greengrass - In part of a V-rtionship - Wants to move in with Quinn. . . when she graduates Hogwarts.


    Ivy Potter - In part of a V-rtionship - Wants to catch up with Daphne in terms of her rtionship with Quinn.


    Tracey Davis - Angry friend(?) - Furious well-wisher.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - I forgot about Luna. Let''s just say she was hanging out with Astoria.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 330 Price Of Failure

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Dobby wrapped his fingers around Voldemort¡¯s girthy. . . .


    .


    .


    .


    .


    A man appeared out of nowhere on a moonlitne.  For a second, he stood still, his eyes roaming around the area; he stowed his wand beneath his cloak and strolled down thene bordered on the left by wild, low-growing prickly shrubs, on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge.


    The man¡¯s long cloak around his ankle as he turned right into a wide driveway that led off thene.  The high hedge curved with them, running off into the distance beyond the pair of impressive wrought-iron gates barring the man¡¯s way.  His steps didn¡¯t break: in silence, he raised his hand in a kind of salute and passed straight through, as though the dark metal were smoke.


    The yew hedges muffled the sound of the man¡¯s footsteps.  There was a rustle somewhere to their right: he drew his wand again, pointing it towards the source, but it proved to be nothing more than a pure-white peacock, strutting majestically along the top of the hedge.


    The man thrust his wand back into his cloak, breathing out a breath as he shook his head at the presence of the peacock.


    A handsome manor house grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinting in the diamond-paned downstairs windows.  Somewhere in the dark garden beyond the hedge, a fountain was ying.  Gravel crackled beneath his feet as he sped toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though nobody had visibly opened it.


    The hallway wasrge, dimly lit, and sumptuously decorated, with a magnificent carpet covering most of the stone floor.  The eyes of the pale-faced portraits on the walls followed the man as he strode past.  He halted at a heavy wooden door leading into the next room, hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, then turned the bronze handle.


    The drawing-room was full of silent people, sitting at a long and ornate table.  The room¡¯s usual furniture had been pushed carelessly up against the walls.  Illumination came from a roaring fire beneath a handsome marble mantelpiece surmounted by a gilded mirror.  The man lingered for a moment on the threshold.


    As his eyes grew ustomed to theck of light, he was drawn upward to the strangest feature of the scene: a person sitting near the head of the table with his arm outstretched on the table with a Dark Mark eerily glowing in a dark sludge green¡ª the arm trembled constantly along with the rest of the person whom the arm belonged to.  None of the people seated were looking at the trembling person.


    ¡°Lock,¡± said a high, clear voice from the head of the table.  ¡°You are very nearlyte.¡±


    The speaker was seated directly in front of the firece so that it was difficult, at first, for the new arrivals to make out more than his silhouette.  As Rivers Lock drew nearer, however, the figure¡¯s face shone through the gloom, hairless, snakelike, with slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes whose pupils were vertical.  He was so pale that he seemed to emit a pearly glow.


    ¡°Beside Dolohov,¡± said Voldemort, pointing to a ce near the middle of the table¡¯s length.


    Rivers took his allotted space.  Most of the eyes around the table


    followed him, and it was the second he took the seat that Voldemort spoke.


    ¡°So?¡±


    ¡°My Lord, all of our captured troops are being moved to Azkaban from St Mungos tomorrow, at nightfall.¡±


    The interest around the table sharpened palpably: Some stiffened, others fidgetted, all gazing at Rivers and Voldemort.


    ¡°Tomorrow. . . nightfall,¡± repeated Voldemort.  His red eyes fastened upon


    River¡¯s dead-ck ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze.  Rivers, however, looked cidly back into Voldemort¡¯s face, not daring to move it away; after a moment or two, Voldemort¡¯s lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.


    ¡°Good.  And this source of informationes¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ª from my Novellus ionite source in Rufus Scrimgeour¡¯s camp,¡± said Rivers.


    ¡°Bartemius,¡± called Voldemort to the pale young man with straw-colored hair and freckles, sitting closer to Voldemort in the upper half of the long table.  ¡°You will take some our own and free the unjustly captives from the Auror entourage¡ª I expect that you won¡¯t fail me. . .¡±  His red eyes nced at the tinum-blonde-haired man who still trembled without stopping as the Dark Mark continued to glow.


    Rivers¡¯ eyes turned from Voldemort to Bartemius ¡°Barty¡± Crouch Junior.  Rivers knew the man to be Voldemort¡¯s most rabid follower¡ª his devotion only matched if not surpassed by the crazy witch Betrix Lestrange.  Barty had been sent to Azkaban after his untimely reveal at Hogwarts and had been busted out by Voldemort at the same time as Rivers had been.  Rivers could recall the moans and grunts of Barty that went for nearly a year before finally going silent as the Dementors had feasted on the new, fresh meal.


    ¡°Yes, My Lord,¡± Barty bowed his chair.  ¡°I will shoot the Aurors from the ground, straight into their unmarked burial grounds, and bring your servants back home.¡±


    ¡°See that you do.¡±


    As Barty smiled deeply in delight, Rivers turned back to Voldemort.  ¡°My Lord, I have heard another piece of information, something that DMLE and even the Minister¡¯s camp buried away from reaching the papers.¡±


    Rivers waited, but Voldemort did not speak, so he went on, ¡°The papers wrote events of the night as the Dumbledore, his band of professors, and the Aurors,¡± from Order of Phoenix, ¡°responding quickly to the infiltration and containing our team¡ª with only Severus Snape being the sole casualty¡ª¡±


    ¡°Get to the point, Rivers,¡± said Voldemort with a tinge of irritation in his eyes before he went back to the trembling man.  River¡¯s following words made Voldemort look back at him.


    ¡°Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Professors, or the Aurors, it was none of among them that put a stopper to our ns,¡± he paused, ¡°it was the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    If there weren¡¯t any pair of eyes on Rivers before, now he had warranted the attention of the entire room.


    ¡°I met another contact¡ª from St Mungos¡ª they told me that the team was being treated in an isted ward with Aurors guarding it around the clock, which is not unusual, but only a small portion of the staff knows what¡¯s happening inside that ward¡ª all the records are sealed.  My contact is one of the people who attend to them.  I was told that the Death Eaters in the ward had their arms disabled with the same magic that was used on the day of the Quidditch Finals. . . .¡±


    A discussion broke out in the room.  The Invisible Vignte being the reason for their efforts to get rid of Dumbledore, didn¡¯t fare with the Death Eaters leaders present in the room.


    Voldemort held up arge white hand, and the talks subsided at once, all eyes returning to him.  He stayed with his eyes staring nting down and one boney thumb tracing a circle on the table.


    ¡°Does the Invisible Vignte have any connection with Dumbledore and his Order of Phoenix?¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem so,¡± said Rivers.  ¡°There isn¡¯t a single indication that the Invisible Vignte is someone from the Order of Phoenix or that he¡¯s someone from outside who works with them.  His scarce and unannounced appearance makes it hard for anyone to get a trace of his identity.¡±


    ¡°Anyone else?¡±


    ¡°DMLE and the Ministry also don¡¯t know about his identity,¡± said Nott Sr in contribution.  ¡°Auror Dawlish is a part of the task force created by Amelia Bones in herst days as the Head of DMLE with the aim to find the Invisible Vignte.  The efforts to find any clue, but their efforts have turned no fruit, even with the Minister assigning additional resource in hopes of finding him.¡±


    The yellow me of the firece behind Voldemort turned blue, roaring up in size and fury.  The Death Eaters held their breath, not willing to attract even a fleeting moment of attention to themselves.


    ¡°My Lord,¡± all eyes turn to Peter Pettigrew, who sat well into the upper half of the table.  ¡°If it is true, then I suggest that we don¡¯t attack the Auror transport to free the failures.  Their identities are ruined, and now they can¡¯t even wield magic, making them as useless as a squib, if not less.¡±


    Rivers didn¡¯t know if Peter Pettigrew had balls of steel or he was just in stupid.  When he nced around, he knew he wasn¡¯t the only one with those thoughts; all had their heads dipped or averted.  Everyone in the room knew that Voldemort had broken out those affected during the Quidditch Finals from Azkaban.  Not because they were his Death Eaters, but because Voldemort wanted to find a cure or counter-curse to the Invisible Vignte¡¯s magic.  But till this date, Voldemort hadn¡¯t made any progress with half of those people dead or as good as dead because of the experimentation.


    Pettigrew continued, ¡°I¡¯m sure Dumbledore and the Ministry are rearing to go on a tour; if we stay away and let the transfer to Azkaban as they nned, and nudge the papers in the right direction, we would be able to derail their efforts.¡±


    While Rivers had no intention to speak his thoughts, he couldn¡¯t help but agree with Pettigrew¡¯s reasoning.  There was no benefit in rescuing people who had no use.


    Rivers sighed internally.  He could feel the re from Barty.  It wasn¡¯t his idea to pour water over his ¡®big¡¯ moment.


    ¡°No. . .  the rescue will still happen,¡± said Voldemort, making some in the room think that he won¡¯t abandon them if they ever got into trouble.  But then Voldemort said, ¡°I want to see how the Invisible Vignte¡¯s curse reacted with Greyback¡¯s Lycanthropy.  I don¡¯t care what happens to the others; I want Greyback in the basement the morning of the day after.¡±


    And that made River¡¯s worst dreame true.  Among the things that Rivers wanted to avoid,ing across Invisible Vignte was thest thing he wanted to happen.  He would not only lose his magic and have one or two of his limbs removed but also would be hunted by the Dark Lord with the terrible fate of turning into ab rat (it was only time when Voldemort ran out the people to kill.)


    Thepany around the table watched Voldemort apprehensively, each of them, by their expression, having the same thought as Rivers.  Voldemort, however, seemed to be speaking more to himself than to any of them.


    ¡°I have been careless and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the bestid ns.  But I know better now.  I understand those things that I did not understand before.  I must take the matters into my own hand.  There have been too many mistakes where Harry Potter is concerned.  Some of them have been my own.  That Potter and even Dumbledore lives is due more to my errors than to his triumphs.¡±


    At these words, seemingly in response to them, a sudden wail sounded, a terrible, drawn-out cry of misery and pain.  Many of those at the table looked to Voldemort, startled, for the sound had issued from the man who had been trembling. . . the man who owned the house they sat in.


    ¡°Lucius,¡± said Voldemort, with no change in his quiet, thoughtful tone, ¡°first, you made the egregious error in my absence, and now your family has betrayed the cause by running away with the Dumbledore¡¯s bird club.  Am I right to punish you for their wrongs, Lucius?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes, m-my Lord,¡± gasped the man who would die rather than be seen in anything less than perfect in appearance, but the same man had seemingly lost all of his dignity and polish.


    ¡°Dumbledore is alive, and thatplicates the matter more than before,¡± continued Voldemort; he watched his wand twirling in his fingers.  ¡°I thought with Dumbledore gone, I would be able to get my hands on Garrick Ollivander, but that doesn¡¯t seem to happen anytime soon. . . I still don¡¯t know why my magic doesn¡¯t work against Potter¡ª though I do think that it is because of my wand.


    For that reason, I shall need to borrow a wand from one of you.¡±


    The faces around him disyed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.  Asking a wizard to hand over their wand?  From all the things one could ask for, it was one of thest things one should ask for from a wizard.


    ¡°No volunteers?¡± said Voldemort.  ¡°Let¡¯s see. . . Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore.¡±


    Lucius Malfoy looked up.  His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed.  When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.


    ¡°M-M-My Lord-d?¡±


    ¡°Your wand, Lucius.  I require your wand.¡±


    ¡°I-I. . . . ¡°


    ¡°It was because of your son that Yaxley, Carrows, and the others lost their arms to the Invisible Vignte. . . so it is only natural that the father must pay for his son¡¯s sins.¡±


    Voldemort waved his wand, and like a guillotine during the french renaissance dropping on heads, a wide silver de dropped on Lucius¡¯ marked hand, cutting clean through the bone and the Dark Mark.


    Everyone in the room averted their eyes as the scream pierced through the room.


    Even Pettigrew drew in a breath and felt a phantom pain prick through his silver hand.


    ¡°There,¡± said Voldemort, ¡°you won¡¯t be needing your wand anymore.  Now give me your wand as I asked you to do.¡±


    Malfoy, who had grabbed his hand with his other hand, painfully removed it, put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°E-Elm!¡±


    ¡°And the core?¡±


    ¡°Dr-rag¡ª Har. . . ring. . . .¡±


    ¡°Dragon Heartstring, good,¡± said Voldemort.  He drew out his own wand andpared the lengths.  Finally, he waved Lucius¡¯ wand and waved it at Lucius¡¯ stump, and a fire erupted around the wound, searing the flesh and cauterizing it shut.


    ¡°There, Lucius, a thank you for lending me your wand.  Are you grateful?¡±


    ¡°Y-Y. . .Yes, mY LoRd!¡± said Lucius through tears.


    ¡°As you should be, Lucius, as you should be. . . it very well could have been green rather than silver.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C A kind andpassionate lord.


    Rivers Lock ¨C Death Eater ¨C Has assumed somewhat of a Spymaster position.


    Peter Pettigrew ¨C Wormtail ¨C Didn¡¯t get a hand buddy,


    Lucius Malfoy ¨C Death Eater ¨C And what did that get him?


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C It might bete, but that was my contribution to April 1.


    .


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 331 Invitation

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    .


    The elevator bell rang as the door opened.


    Quinn stepped out into the inner corner of the Ministry central Atrium, ground floor.  He stretched his legs on the very tip of his toes.  The Ministry, like usual, was full of peopleing in and out, going about their busy day among a crowd of simrly busy people.


    He nced back to see the elevator door close.  He had just finished giving thest of his three-day NEWT period, conducted right in the heart of the Ministry¡ª in the Department of Magical Education¡¯s office space redesigned to be an exam center.


    He took out a piece of parchment from his pocket.  It was the admit card to be shown to the security guard for visiting the Ministry for the three-day examination period.  Quinn stared at the printed parchment.  With this, he was finally over with his Hogwarts education.  The seven-year leg of his life was over¡ª the castle, AID, the Cursed Vaults, the Room of Requirements, AID, the ssrooms, the grounds. . . everything hade to a full stop, period.  The only thing that had remained was to receive his NEWT certificate and his graduate degree.


    ¡°Ah. . . Quinn, is that you?¡±


    As he was putting the rolled-up parchment back into his pocket, Quinn heard the voice calling to him.  He turned towards the source and saw James Potter, in the typical Auror clothing¡ª a suit sans the apanying overcoat/topcoat because it was the prime of summer.


    ¡°. . . Auror Potter,¡± said Quinn in greeting.


    ¡°You know,¡± James pursed his lips and eyes, ¡°I can count on one hand the people who call me Auror Potter or Auror James outside of the formal setting.  I appreciate you using the proper title and all, but you can call me Mr. Potter or Mr. James if you¡¯d like.¡±


    ¡°It has be a habit,¡± said Quinn with a polite smile, ¡°I will keep it in mind moving forward.¡±


    James smiled.  ¡°So, what brings you to the Ministry today?¡±


    ¡°I just got finished with my NEWTs, actually.  Thest one.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right!  I remember hearing that they were conducting the OWLs and NEWTs in the Ministry.  I saw the Education Department guys running around¡ª those guys are only used to taking care of WOMBAT in the Ministry.¡±


    Quinn nodded.  The theory examiners/proctors were really prickly and nervous around the Hogwarts students; they were clearly not used to handling school students.


    ¡°Harry was bouncing on his feet when he got the official letter that his exams had been canceled.  Even Ivy was relieved about having to give exams¡ª I think Hermione psyched her out about the exams,¡±ughed James.


    He smiled and looked Quinn up and down, ¡°So, done with Hogwarts, that¡¯s a big deal.  I heard from Lily that you got made Head Boy, which means Dumbledore is going to sign that rmendation for you, and believe me, that really opened the doors¡ª it did to the Auror Office for me.


    What are your ns for the future, son?¡±


    Quinn held back a groan.  He wasn¡¯t sure James would want to even think about the word ¡ª ¡®son¡¯ ¡ª while anywhere near him if he knew that he was dating his daughter.  Especially if he heard the exact of the rtionship.


    ¡°I have an apprenticeship lined up, starting next year.¡±  As Quinn said that, a dong banged up in his head.  ¡®Ah, shit!  I need to write to Mr. n. . . well, he can wait a couple days; he¡¯s on a beach anyway.¡¯


    ¡°Oh, in what?  Charms, Transfiguration, Defense, or maybe Potions.¡±


    ¡°Mind magic.¡±


    James was visibly surprised by Quinn¡¯s choice of further study.  ¡°You want to be a mind-healer?¡±


    ¡°No, nothing like that,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I live at the top of a massive conglomerate and thus a very valuable asset for anyone who would want to get their hand on my family wealth.  It is imperative that my mind is well-protected for the sake of not only my family but also a sizeable poption of the world.¡±


    James finally showed an expression of understanding, but then Quinn knew what the initial surprise was all about.


    Mind magic, or at least, lumency, was an extremely valuable skill for anyone wanting to protect that mind, and it was perfectly justifiable to learn that skill, even excel in it, and admirable to be progressively better at it.  But the other side of mind magic, which didn¡¯t delve into the protecting part, came with an attached stigma.  People were naturally averse to the individual they knew could read their minds.


    ¡°But even without that, I would love to learn more about mind magic,¡± said Quinn with an apologetic smile.  ¡°Getting to know my way around the inside and out of the mind is the first step to better know myself, don¡¯t you think.¡±


    Despite the attached stigma, Quinn didn¡¯t have any qualms about letting people know about his intentions to learn mind magic.  Even if it was the father of his girlfriend. . . especially if it was the father of this girlfriend.


    There was a silence between the two, so Quinn decided to change the topic.  ¡°I heard about the attack on the prison transport.  Last I heard, the investigation was still ongoing.  Has there been any new leads on that front?¡±


    James shook his head with pursed lips.  ¡°I can not divulge any information; the investigation is still ongoing.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t need any facts.  The Senior Auror¡¯s expression gave the not so unfavorable truth of the situation.  It seemed the night raid had been a little too sessful.


    ¡°Did the Dark Lord at least make an appearance?¡±


    This time he did get an answer in the form of apact shake of the head.  Quinn had many more questions to ask, but it seemed that if he asked anything else, it would only serve to dull the Auror¡¯s mood.


    ¡°You know. . . I think you¡¯d be a great fit in the Aurors Office,¡± said James suddenly, his eyes shining as he stared at Quinn.  ¡°You said you¡¯re going to your apprenticeship next year, right?  How about you gave being an Auror until then,¡± he stepped closer, ¡°I am sure you¡¯ll find it right up your alley, I will even make myself your mentor¡ª don¡¯t underestimate being under a Senior Auror like myself; ites with its ample perks¡ª how about it!¡±


    Quinn took a step back.  The sudden burst of excitement was a little too sudden.  He was even sure that he heard a mutter about this being enough for a promotion.


    ¡°Err. . . ¡°


    Before Quinn could say a single word in reply, a growling voice spoke from behind him.


    ¡°What is this Potter!  The Auror Office hasn¡¯t fallen enough that it needs to act like a girl peacock spreading its plume for mating.¡±


    Quinn turned back and was found himself staring at an electric blue artificial magic eye on a scar-riddled face staring at him.  He stared at the man well-named as ster ¡°Mad-Eye¡± Moody.  The man had one good eye, grizzly scars, and a chunk of his nose missing.  The veteran Auror even had his other trademark, the wooden leg that looked like a vicious animal¡¯s w.


    ¡°It¡¯s actually the male who has the plume, not the peahen. . . or the girl-peacock.¡±


    Quinn turned his eye to the young woman beside stor Moody.  She had a pale heart-shaped face and dark twinkling eyes with short, spiky pink bubblegum hair, which, as Moody spoke, turned into waist-length violet locks with red ents.


    ¡°Bah!  Peacock-Peahen!  Whatever,¡± said Moody grumpily.  ¡°The Auror Office should be the aim, the top of the mountain peak¡ª not some roadside wench that you could pick up for a night and forget about the next.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re making it sound like I¡¯m a prostitute,¡± said James.


    ¡°You might as well be.¡±


    Quinn listened to the two talking with one ear, but his attention was focused on Moody¡¯spanion.


    ¡°What?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m Quinn West,¡± he said.  ¡°You¡¯re Nymphadora Tonks.¡±


    Tonks narrowed her eyes, her red ent growing darker.  ¡°I go by Tonks, only Tonks.  You know my name, so you must know. . .¡±


    ¡°Well, you aren¡¯t particrly hiding it.¡±


    When Quinn was in his first year, Tonks was in her seventh.  At that time, they were in two different worlds, so he never had any interaction with Tonks¡ª the most were walking by her in passing.


    ¡°So what?  You want me to someone?¡±


    Quinn shrugged, ¡°Not really.  I was just wondering if you do it some other way than I do it.¡±  His hair which was jet ck to its roots, suddenly became more voluminous and took on a royal shade of blue.


    Tonk¡¯s eyes widened, and the two bickering Aurors went silent.  All three pairs of eyes turned to Quinn as he spoke to Tonks.


    ¡°Natural talents like yourself are fascinating to me,¡± Quinn matched Tonk¡¯s hair color and even her slightly brightening skin tone as he spoke.  ¡°Is the process the same?  Or are the abilities granted by nature itself somehow better than the ones created by us. . . . if I could somehow find about how that instinctual magic of yours work, I would be able to elevate my abilities.¡±


    ¡°A-Are you a Metamorphmagus?¡±


    ¡°Not at all.  It¡¯s just that copying what you do is not as hard as you think.  Though I have to say, unlike you, I can¡¯t do it instinctually without thinking.¡±


    Moody¡¯s wooden leg clicked against the Ministry floor as he limped towards Quinn.  His magical eye swirled at Quinn, taking him from top to bottom.


    ¡°Lad, are you lying about not being like thess,¡± asked Moody.


    ¡°Why would there be a need for me to lie,¡± said Quinn, the color draining from his hair as they returned to their original jet ck.  ¡°It serves me no good to hide something like this.¡±


    Moody hummed.  He peered at Quinn as if trying to see through his secrets.  He then backed away, but his eyes were still focused on Quinn.


    ¡°Well,¡± Quinn pped, ¡°as much as I would like to talk to you, very interesting people, believe me, I would like to have some long conversations with all of you, but I have to leave for today¡ª maybe some other time.¡±


    He nodded to James and then to Moody and Tonks before walking away.


    ¡°I take it back, Potter,¡± said Moody.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°If you can get thatd into the force, you can be a girl-peacock¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ªjust peacock.¡±


    ¡°¡ª I will whore myself out to the boy if I can get him to join the force.¡±


    Tonks and James looked surprised; they looked towards Quinn¡¯s shrinking back.


    ¡°That¡¯s surprisinging from you, Moody,¡± said James.


    ¡°Thatd never once took out his wand,¡± said Moody, ¡°and yet, he was able to do whatever Tonks could do¡ª or at least a part of it.  If he could do that without a wand, then just think what he could do with one. . . if what I am thinking is true, then we could be looking at a future Dumbledore¡ª¡±


    James sucked in a breath, and Tonks gasped.


    ¡°¡ª or maybe another Dark Lord.¡±


    ¡°Moody,¡± James frowned, ¡°isn¡¯t that too much?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a pureblood, correct?¡±


    ¡°So are both us, what does¡ª¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s young and impressionable,¡± Moody cut him off, ¡°and unlike you, he wasn¡¯t part of a faction.  He¡¯s a West, above from factions¡ª but not detached from them¡ª he could be pulled down into one. . . it¡¯s the question of which. . . . or maybe into something else.¡±


    Both of Moody¡¯s eyes stared at James, but there were no more words spoken.  He turned to Tonks and grunted, ¡°Come on,ss.  We are going to the pits.¡±


    ¡°Not the pits!¡±


    James said a hasty goodbye to Moody and Tonks and ran to the Ministry entrance, and was lucky to catch up just at the entrance.


    ¡°Quinn!¡±


    Quinn turned and saw James running towards him.  ¡°Yes?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Would you like to visit for dinner?¡±


    ¡°. . . What?¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Topmodity


    James Potter ¨C Senior Auror ¨C An invitation could be a start.


    ster ¡°Mad-Eye¡± Moody ¨C Captain Auror ¨C Semi-retired from active duty.  Mentor to a special asset.


    Nymphadora Tonks ¨C Junior Auror ¨C Metamorphmagus.


    .


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 Chapter 332 The Second Dinner

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    The space twisted and distorted like an old hag¡¯s wrinkles.  There was a pop, and Quinn appeared behind a tree near the township gate of the littlemunity of Godric Hollow.


    He nced around for the presence of a non-magical residence of the hybrid township.  Seeing that there was no one in sight, he stepped out of the tree¡¯s shade and walked towards the gate under the guise of an invisibility charm¡ª it would be a bother to run into a non-magical resident and be part of a conversation that would go nowhere, ultimately ending in a confundus or obliviation charm.


    The little township was the same as before, with the town church sandwiched between the town square and cemetery and half of the houses hidden from the sight of the unknowing residents who continued to live their lives in a town that looked to be nothing out of the ordinary.


    But today, Quinn could see something out of the ordinary.  He swept his eye on the paved street he was on.  Quinn could make out several individuals that shouldn¡¯t be there usually.  Some were hidden under an invisibility spell, and while Quinn couldn¡¯t tell who exactly they were, he could clearly pinpoint their positions.  Then there were few physically hidden instead of magical invisibility, though these people did have Muggle-Repelling Charms cast over them.


    Quinn made a mental of his surroundings with the people he spotted, and they seemed to be strategically ced around his destination.


    Quinn reached his destination, the Potter House.  He eyed the cozy house(much more spacious on the inside) from a few paces outside the property.  He could feel a strong ward on the property¡ª he could feel his warding, a type of Aegis, on the property¡ª and seeing that the Potter House was protected by his ward was a relief to Quinn.  He thought for a second if he should check if there was a Goblin ward (which he personally rmended to be set alongside Aegis) but decided against it in case he alerted the owners of ¡®tampering.¡¯


    Before stepping through the ward boundary, he softly patted the front of his sleeveless vest, and all of his clothes straightened out.  He walked to the door and knocked on the door from the attached door knocker.


    The wait between the knocking and the door opening wasn¡¯t anything lengthy, but to Quinn, it felt excruciatingly long and startlingly short, all at the same time.  It reminded him of the time he had visited Daphne¡¯s house for the first time after they had started dating¡ª he had been cornered by Sophie Greengrass (whom he was told won¡¯t be present during his visit.)


    ¡®No. . . I am prepared this time,¡¯ he thought and straightened himself.  ¡®And they don¡¯t know that I¡¯m dating their daughter.¡¯


    There was a faint sound of footsteps before the door swung open for Harry Potter to appear in view.


    ¡°Right on time, or. . .¡± Harry nced back at a clock hung just beside the door, ¡°oh, you¡¯re five minutes early. . . no wonder mum suddenly went mad.¡±


    ¡°Should I return after a while?  You can pretend it was the milkman or something.¡±


    ¡°Or we can just wait here and talk until someonees out looking for us.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine as well.¡±


    ¡°Did you really expect anyone to buy the thing about the milkman?¡±


    ¡°Hey, I was being polite.  It¡¯s the sentiment that matters.¡±


    ¡°What kind of milkmanes in the evening?¡±


    ¡°The imaginary kind, of course.¡±


    ¡°We get our milk in the morning through the owl.¡±


    ¡°A mishap in delivery then.  It happens, you know.¡±


    ¡°We got milk today.¡±


    ¡°An extra package for being such loyal patrons.  A little customer appreciation can go a long way.  Brand loyalty and all that jazz.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t have milk to show.¡±


    ¡°You were thirsty and drank it.¡±


    ¡°An entire bottle?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a growing boy; you can guzzle down a bottle.  It might even go to your height.¡±


    ¡°Hey!  Me being shorter than you doesn¡¯t mean I am short.  You are just really tall.¡±


    ¡°Never said anything about you being short.  That was all you, mate.¡±


    ¡°You just don¡¯t want to admit that your suggestion was silly.¡±


    ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡±


    As Quinn and Harry spoke to each other at the door, a voice from inside the Potter House interrupted them.


    ¡°What are you two doing goofing at the door?  Come in and shut the door before the mosquitose in.¡±


    Harry turned, and Quinn leaned to the side to get a look at Hermione Granger peeking out from a room.


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re here as well,¡± said Quinn


    ¡°I am staying over,¡± said Hermione.  ¡°Ron is here as well.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nice,¡± said Quinn.  Before he entered the house, he turned to the outside and waved over to the hidden people with a smile, who had clearly moved from their initial ces when he had revealed himself on the doorstep of the Potter House.


    ¡°Who are you waving to?¡± asked Harry.


    ¡°To the milkman, of course.¡±


    ¡°. . . That¡¯s still going on?!¡±


    Quinn followed after Harry and Hermione into the Potter House.  They led him into what he remembered to be the lounge, where he found the other two of the golden squad waiting for him.


    ¡°Good evening, you two,¡± he said, smiling.


    Ron nodded in greeting.  While Ivy responded with a ¡°Good evening,¡± apanied with a bright smile.


    Quinn continued to smile, keeping his brow from quirking.  Had she forgotten the conversation they had?


    When James had asked Quinn toe to dinner, he had immediatelymunicated with Ivy about it through MagiFax.  But the problem was that after the Hogwarts attack and the looming threat of Voldemort, the Potter children weren¡¯t allowed out of their houses without adult supervision.  This meant that Ivy and Quinn couldn¡¯t meet face-to-face, and they could get caught if they kept using MagiFax.


    It was Ivy who remedied the problem before Quinn even brought it up.  It turned out that she was thinking about how tomunicate better with Quinn.  She learned how to make the two-way mirrors James and Sirius used in their Hogwarts days.  She charmed two hand mirrors¡ª something she could do easily without getting pinged by the underage magic usage trace on her wand as she was inside a magical home and a heavily warded one at that.  To keep the mirrors a secret, Ivy forwent owl-ing the mirror to Quinn and instead sneakily dropped the mirror in a marked corner of Godric Hollow, from where it was picked up by Polly, who transported it to Quinn, with only three people knowing of the twin mirrors existence.


    ¡°Your father asked me toe to your home for dinner,¡± said Quinn, surprised to have a two-way mirror in his possession just after the day he got the invitation to the Potter House.  He hadn¡¯t even told Ivy about it, that¡¯s until now.


    ¡°What?!¡± Ivy eximed and instantly sat up in her bed.  ¡°How?  When did this happen?¡±


    ¡°Yesterday,¡± said Quinn, ruffling the back of his head.


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°I epted.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Ivy sounded surprised and lost at words simultaneously.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± said Quinn.  He could¡¯ve politely refused the offer, but if he had done that, he would¡¯ve not been able to meet Ivy for the summer.  Sure, even if Ivy didn¡¯t take the initiative to send the two-way mirrors, he would¡¯ve made something simr¡ª but meeting face to face was something he wanted to do, even if it was just once.


    ¡°So, we need to talk about how to act in front of your family,¡± he said, ¡°that¡¯s if you want to keep it hidden.¡±


    Ivy nodded.  She wasn¡¯t ready yet; they had just started going out.


    ¡°I say that we act normal, just like thest time I visited; I think that¡¯d be fine.¡±


    ¡°You mean, youing unexpectedly and I pulling my hair wondering if you¡¯d do something horrible.¡±


    ¡°. . . You and I have really different memories of that day.  It was jolly fun for me.¡±


    ¡°Well, it wasn¡¯t for me.  But I do agree about acting as if we are friends.¡±


    ¡°I concur.¡±


    ¡°Then, it¡¯s decided.¡±


    That was how Quinn remembered the conversation between them went.  But that smile on Ivy¡¯s face was definitely not something that would be ssified as normal¡ª she could smile, but that was a little too bright. . .  and if he was being honest, he didn¡¯t mind it.


    Harry and Hemione took a seat on a triple-seater.  Ron was slumped on a single-seater with his feet on a footrest.  He turned to the other single-seater in the room, but his eyes caught Ivy, who was lightly tapping the empty space beside her on the double-seater where she sat.


    Quinn stared at her for a moment before taking the seat where she asked him to.


    ¡°Where¡¯s Ms. Potter; I would like to greet her,¡± he said.


    ¡°Mum!¡± called Harry, ¡°Quinn¡¯s here.¡±  He turned to Quinn, ¡°She¡¯ll be here.¡±


    ¡°Auror. . . Mr. Potter?¡±


    ¡°In the kitchen with mum, probably.¡±


    Quinn nodded.  He watched as he saw Hermione and Harry get their feet up the sofa and snuggle with each other.


    ¡°I did hear about you two getting together,¡± he said.  ¡°It looks like it was true.¡±  He had been upied with his internal problems and keeping up with who was going out with who wasn¡¯t on the top of his priority list.


    Quinn nced at Ron and found him looking at the couple from the corner of his eye.  He reached out with a feather-soft Legilimency probe, and the feeling of green jealousy echoed through the probe.  It seemed that the resident Weasley wasn¡¯t psyched about his best friends getting together.


    ¡°How¡¯s life after Hogwarts?¡± asked Harry.


    Quinn retrieved his magic and turned to answer.  ¡°I don¡¯t know.  I have been at home, doing nothing special, to be honest.  It just feels like any other summer break.  I guess I will know when I don¡¯t board the Hogwarts Express on the First of September.


    What about you guys?  Any ideas for your final year?¡±


    ¡°We will be aiming for the Quidditch Cup,¡± said Ron confidently.


    Harry nodded, ¡°Gryffindor is going to win, no doubt about it.¡±


    A smile appeared on Quinn as he dipped his head to hide it.


    ¡°What?¡± asked Ron.


    Quinn shook his head, the smile still on his face.


    ¡°It¡¯s about Quidditch, so he most probably remembered something that Carmichael said,¡± Ivy supplied as she peered at Quinn.


    Both Ron and Harry leaned forward.  Harry immediately asked, ¡°What did he say?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, he said nothing, but he did do something that I did personally find hrious.¡±


    Ron and Harry exchanged nces before turning to Quinn with a question in their eyes.


    ¡°The day Ravenw won the Quidditch Cup, Eddie sort of marked it. . . .¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°. . . he sort of engraved his name on the Quidditch Cup. . . well, to be precise, he wrote: Eddie Carmichael¡ª The Real Champion,¡± said Quinn and every pair of eyes in the room widened, ¡°and I mean really engraved it. . . he made sure you can¡¯t undo the engraving.¡±


    ¡°We have to get a new Quidditch Cup,¡± said Harry immediately while Ron had his jaw hanging.


    ¡°You know it better than me that the Quidditch Cup is a tradition; it has a long legacy behind it. . . I don¡¯t think McGonagall would rece it, even with Eddie¡¯s name on it,¡± said Quinn with a grin on his face.  ¡°He told me that he¡¯d regret missing the expression on your face when you saw it¡ª I guess I ruined your surprise, but at least now, I can tell Eddie my first-hand experience about it.¡±


    A chime bell sound tingled inside the house.  It sounded like some sort of indicator as Quinn could feel that the sound was weaved with a hint of magic.


    Quinn turned to Ivy, ¡°That was. . . ?¡±


    ¡°Someone came through the floo,¡± she said.


    There were heavy footsteps in the corridor beside the lounge.  The sound grew closer until the source entered the room in the form of Sirius ck.  The Senior Auror directly focused in on Quinn and sighed,


    ¡°You really gave everyone a scare, kid.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I am confused. . . just a bit.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Potter Princess ¨C Had fun creating the two-way mirrors.


    Harry Potter ¨C Boy-Who-Lived ¨C Likes to banter at the door.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 333 The Second Dinner, Part Two

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°You really gave everyone a scare, kid,¡± said Sirius ck as he dusted the floo-dust from his jacket.


    ¡°How do you mean?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Don¡¯t act coy, kid,¡± Sirius chuckled carelessly, but the curve of his smile was modest, and there was a glint of seriousness in his grey eyes.  ¡°You know what I am talking about.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think a simple wave of the hand would be something to freak about.¡±


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be if the recipient was expecting one, but they weren¡¯t, were they.¡±


    ¡°In my defense, they weren¡¯t well-hidden.¡±


    ¡°So you say, but they got a scare when you suddenly appeared.¡±


    The Golden Squad looked between Quinn and Sirius, confused by the ongoing conversation, and interjected by asking to be cued into the conversation.  But before either Quinn or Sirius could exin, James and Lily Potter entered the lounge.


    ¡°You wereing today, Sirius?¡± said Lily in surprise.  ¡°What should I do?  I don¡¯t think we have enough food for another person.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, dear; we have some dog chow.  I¡¯m sure Padfoot would be satisfied with that,¡± said James, smirking.


    ¡°Haha, dog food, haha,¡± Sirius said to James.  ¡°Couldn¡¯te up with something remotely funny, could you.¡±


    ¡°I found it ample funny,¡± said James.


    ¡°It was hrious, Sirius,¡± Harry chimed, sharing identical smirks with his father.


    ¡°I knew I should¡¯ve gotten myself a little me,¡± Sirius grumbled, ¡°at least I shouldn¡¯t have been double-tagged like this.¡±


    Lily sighed at Sirius, James, and Harry¡¯s antics before asking, ¡°You should¡¯ve let us know that you wereing, I would¡¯ve prepared ordingly. . . . Let me see if I can make something with leftovers.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright; you don¡¯t have to do that,¡± said Sirius.  ¡°I¡¯m not staying for dinner; I wasn¡¯t evening today.¡±


    ¡°Did something at the office?¡± asked James.


    Sirus shook his head.  He nudged his chin to Quinn, ¡°Your little guest surprised the people outside.  If you hadn¡¯t told them you were having a guest and the fact that Harry talked to him on the doorstep, things could¡¯ve gone poorly.¡±


    James and Lily turned to Quinn, who just shrugged.


    ¡°How did they miss him?¡± James asked; gone was the chipper tone reced by a serious tinge.


    Sirius turned to Quinn and asked, ¡°You want to take this, or should I.¡±


    ¡°I was under an invisibility spell,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I mean, I wasn¡¯t going to be walking through a hybrid vige like this without some sort of guise to keep the non-magicals away.  It would¡¯ve been troublesome if an overly friendly chap decided to strike up a conversation.¡±


    ¡°Justified,¡± James turned to Sirius.  ¡°They should¡¯ve detected him.¡±


    ¡°I know; I¡¯ll n some upgrades and make sure this doesn¡¯t happen again. . . . But I am surprised that you were able to detect them at all,¡± Sirius said to Quinn.


    ¡°Not all of them were that obvious,¡± Quinn crossed his hands.  ¡°I guess a couple of them hadn¡¯t taken shadows and distortion into consideration while casting.  My eye caught the slight unnaturalness, and then I started to look for more, making things more. . . transparent to me.  But I guess if I wasn¡¯t looking for them, it would be fine if the weak links were strengthened.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s the problem; thoseing under guise will be looking for those weak links,¡± said Lily with furrow between her brows.  ¡°Sirius, please ensure that this doesn¡¯t happen again.  James, you as well.¡±


    Quinn nced at Sirius.  It seemed that he was in charge of the protection of Potter House.


    He felt a tug on his arm.  He turned and found Ivy close enough that he could make out the vibrancy and pattern in her emerald eyes.  ¡®Ah, I am really conscious of her,¡¯ such thought passed his mind.


    ¡°What is happening,¡± she asked.


    ¡°I found people outside of your house, hidden under Invisibility Spells and Muggle-Repelling Charms, and I spotted them.  It seems that they are keeping an eye on your house for protection.¡±  He turned to James and Sirius, ¡°Are they Aurors?¡±


    ¡°Sorry kid, can¡¯t tell,¡± said Sirius, winking.


    ¡®So, Aurors who are part of the Order of Phoenix,¡¯ thought Quinn.


    ¡°There are people outside our house?!¡± Ivy eximed in surprise, along with the rest of the Golden Squad.  It seemed they weren¡¯t aware that they had been under surveince.


    ¡°It does make sense,¡± said Hermione, ¡°to have people keeping a lookout, that is.¡±


    Quinn agreed.  Unlike the general public, those connected to the Order of Phoenix were well aware(and in eptance) of Voldemort¡¯s return.  It was only natural to have people stationed outside the Potter House.  Quinn could even guess that if given a chance to examine the Aegis wards, they would be the top-of-the-line and connected to the DMLE¡¯s emergency response service.  He looked around, also wondering if there was a Labyrinth door hidden somewhere in the lounge¡ª he was sure that the Potters had one.


    The situation, however, did make Quinn wonder if the Potters had lost confidence in the Fidelius Charm.  Having betrayed by someone who they considered to be their closest confidant was an emotional hit that most people won¡¯t want to go against ever again¡ª so Quinn didn¡¯t put it against the Potters to be averse against the use of the ward that had promised them safety, but had resulted in the loss of dear family.


    ¡®Or maybe there¡¯s another safe house under the Fidelius, ready at a moment¡¯s notice,¡¯ Quinn looked at the three adults, wondering if they knew the location of the hypothetical location.


    Quinn silently waited as the adults revealed the security arrangements around the Potter House (the talk was short and only a rough overview, given that Quinn was present in the room.)


    ¡°Alright, enough about this; we have a guest with us today.¡± Lily put an end to the topic.


    ¡°Then I will be off,¡± said Sirius.  ¡°See you tomorrow, mate¡ª¡±


    ¡°No, now that you¡¯re here, stay for dinner,¡± said Lily.  ¡°I will sort something out.¡±  She turned to Quinn, ¡°Look at me, dear.  You have been here for a while, and we haven¡¯t even offered you anything to drink,¡± she gave a sharp nce to her children.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Mrs. Potter.  The invitation to the dinner today gives me another chance to try your fabulous cooking.  I haven¡¯t forgotten the taste from thest time I was here,¡± said Quinn politely.


    His words had their intended effect of instantly raising his affinity points of likeability with Lily.  Thest time he had done this was just because of fun, but this time the stakes were high, and he needed the Potter parents to fall in love with him.


    ¡®I need to be the son they never had,¡¯ thought Quinn as he stood up and took out a matchbox-sized box.  He expanded it to its full size and presented it to Lily.  ¡°This is just a little thank you gift for inviting me to dinner today.  It¡¯s set of cured meats and cheeses, and there¡¯s a bottle of wine from my grandfather inside.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t miss the nces that James and Sirius shared when he mentioned his grandfather.


    ¡°Oh my, you didn¡¯t have to bring us anything,¡± said Lily, epting the box.


    Quinn continued to smile politely.  His gift game was strong.


    ¡°That solves the dinner problem,¡± said Sirius grinning with a thumbs up to Quinn.


    ¡°Sirius, I already set up some beans on the stove for you,¡± said Lily as she sent Quinn¡¯s gift somewhere inside the house.  ¡°I thought you¡¯d be fine with beans on toast.¡±


    ¡°. . . You have been standing here for the entire while I have been here.¡±


    ¡°Magic, silly.  Come on now, we don¡¯t waste food in our house.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t want to eat beans on toast.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not a child anymore, Sirius.  Don¡¯t act like one.¡±


    The little banter between Lily and Sirius seemed to push the slight heaviness because of the protection situation behind and bring in a light and bright suitable for when guests were visiting.


    As they moved to the dining hall, Ivy subtly bumped into his shoulder.  She was smiling when he nced at her, obviously happy with Quinn¡¯s performance.  And what could Quinn say¡ª sometimes, he lived to impress.


    The dinner table was set up with a beautiful spread of appetizing food.  There were three chairs each on the lengths of the table and one each on the heads of the table.  Quinn could feel that the table had been expanded and that four of the eight chairs were conjured¡ª copies of a single chair(of the four real ones) made from the Geminio charm.  Quinn took a corner chair along one of the lengths, and again, to his surprise, Ivy took the chair beside him(on the table¡¯s length).  He was perfectly fine with Ivy sitting beside him but wasn¡¯t the n to not seem suspicious?  He thought she would sit beside Hermione, who had taken a chair on the opposite with Harry sitting beside her.


    In the end, Quinn, Ivy, and Sirius sat along the table¡¯s length.  Lily took a chair on the table¡¯s head just beside Quinn, with James sitting directly in front of Quinn.  Harry and Hemione sat beside James.  Finally, Ron took the other table head.


    ¡°The food looks amazing, Mrs. Potter,¡± said Quinn in unrestricted praise.


    James, who sat opposite to him, sneakily rolled his eyes.  It seemed that it was going to be a repeat of thest year.


    ¡°You know, I was amazed when James told me that Mad-Eye wanted you to join the force,¡± said Sirius at the table.  ¡°Moody doesn¡¯t believe in soliciting people for the Auror Office¡ª he believes that the least requirement for an Auror aspirant is for them to apply on their own without any persuasion.  So I couldn¡¯t believe it when I heard about it.¡±


    ¡°Mad-Eye said what?!¡± Harry eximed as his food fell from his fork.


    ¡°Believe it or not, but ¡®that¡¯ Moody evenpared Quinn here with Dumbledore,¡± said James adding to the conversation.


    That made eyes go wide around the table.  Comparision to Albus Dumbledore was a high praise, but that praise was elevated to another level when it came from someone like stor Moody.


    ¡°I am sure he was jesting,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°Moody doesn¡¯t jest, kid,¡±ughed Sirius as if hearing an amusing joke.  ¡°But really, why don¡¯t you give the Auror training program a try?  It has some great perks, and I think you¡¯ll have great fun there.  They even pay you just for being in training.¡±


    Quinn snorted internally.  He knew that the Auror training was a notoriously tough program.  Long hours, no work-life flexibility, and standards that made even the most talented of the bunch find themselves running around trying to keep up with the program.  It was akin to a young doctor starting their residency, working enough hours that they earned a very low hourly rate even with their hefty sries.  Quinn wasn¡¯t interested, so he was going to join something that would make something that would dominate his life.


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s it, you¡¯re making him ufortable,¡± Lily turned to Quinn.  ¡°If I remember correctly, Professor Flitwick told me that you¡¯re nning to go into magic research.  But, I¡¯m confused about what field you¡¯re aiming for.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m keeping my options open,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I actually want to pursue everything from Transfiguration to Herbology.  I will need varying knowledge if I want to pursue some advanced magics like Alchemy.¡±


    ¡°Just like Dumbledore,¡±mented Sirius.


    Lily didn¡¯t pay him attention.  ¡°That¡¯s admirable, Quinn.  Even Ivy is aiming to go into magic research¡ª she¡¯s starting with Warding magic, which will take her to aim to gain mastery in both Charms and Runes,¡± she said with pride in her eyes as she looked at Ivy.


    ¡°I know,¡± said Quinn turned to Ivy, ¡°I was there when Ivy was talking to Professor McGonagall about her NEWT subjects.  Aiming for Warding instead of taking Charms and Runes individually showsmitment which I immensely respect.¡±


    Ivy seemed to be conscious of the sudden attention, or maybe it was because of Quinn that she bowed her head in embarrassment, but as Quinn was beside her, he could see a smile blooming on her face.


    Below the table, suddenly, he felt Ivy¡¯s hand intertwining with his own.  Quinn held himself from reacting.  He knew that Ivy Potter was bold, but now it was confirmed.


    ¡°Oh, look at you, all matching, that¡¯s cute,¡± said Sirius with his brows wiggling at Quinn with a grin on his face.


    Quinn knew what Sirius implied.  Only if he knew. . . .


    It was then that Ron joined the conversation.  It seemed as he understood Sirius was implying as he spoke,


    ¡°Quinn is going out with Daphne Greengrass.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C A security scare.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Girlfriend ¨C Bold and bolder.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Moved to another city for internship.  COVID-test¡¯s nose swab felt. . .  weird.  Wrote a chapter while on the job.  Writing through out the day is a new experience.  Looking forward to the next 2 months.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 334 Provoking Ire

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Oh?  Greengrass, you say. . . hmm, Greengrass¡ª Sophie Greengrass!¡±  Sirius leaned forward to get a grinning look at Quinn.  ¡°It¡¯s Sophie¡¯s daughter.  It¡¯s her, isn¡¯t she?  It is!  Oooh, if she¡¯s as pretty as her mother, then you got a catch there, kid.¡±


    He leaned back into his chair and folded his arms, his eyes taking a faraway look.  ¡°I still remember¡ª I tried to pursue her when we were in Hogwarts.  A Gryffindor and Slytherin¡ª the forbidden love, right up my alley¡ª


    ¡°¡ª she was a Ravenw,¡± said Lily


    He sighed dramatically, making most eyes roll, ¡°but she never gave me¡ª Sirius ck¡ª the time of the day, it was heart breaking.  I even remember bothering Lily¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ªconstantly.¡±


    ¡°¡ªabout getting a good word because they were bench mates in Arithmancy ss, good friends, but she refused to even look at me when I brought up the topic.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t like you very much back then.  You and James were total gits in those days,¡± said Lily bluntly.


    ¡°Ah, Lily dear, you know just the words to cheer a man up,¡± smiled Sirius.


    On the other hand, James Potter looked to be entirely invested in counting the individual peas on his te.  The Golden Squad, especially the twins, listened and chuckled along with the story.  All the while, Ivy didn¡¯t let go of Quinn¡¯s hand under the table, even while she talked on the table.


    ¡°Quinn and Daphne dating each other was a big event in Hogwarts,¡± said Lily, and it sounded weird to all Hogwarts students(including Quinn) when she said:  ¡°It even reached McGonagall¡¯s ears.  I can say on good authority that her ears would perk whenever we talked about it in the faculty office,¡± she giggled.  ¡°I heard from Pomona that McGonagall has always been interested in her liked student¡¯s rtionship¡ª she¡¯s quite the consumer of gossip.¡±


    Ignoring the looks from the others, Quinn turned to the Potter couple, ¡°I heard that Mrs. Potter was Professor McGonagall¡¯s favorite, and I¡¯m sure she was partial to Mr. Potter with him being the Quidditch captain¡ª it seems like she must¡¯ve been on the lookout on your rtionship.  I heard it was quite dramatic with Mr. Potter chasing Mrs. Potter for years.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that?¡± asked James.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just say that Professors really like me,¡± he smiled.  ¡°I have an excellent rapport with a certain Scottish witch, and unexpectedly, she tends to get chatty if you find her when she has a drink in her hand.¡±


    James looked more interested in his te than ever, as if he had found gold in his pudding.  While Lily looked like she would turn the same color as her hair¡ª having heard that her once professor and now colleague was talking to her students about her quite dramatic rtionship.


    Sirius threw his head back with roaringughter.  ¡°Oh, that was fantastic!¡±  He turned to Ivy, ¡°Bad luck, eh, Ivy.  I remember thest time I met Quinn, I did try to get you together; s, I, the cherub of love, have failed.¡±


    ¡°I am fine, thank you,¡± said Ivy.


    And Quinn could tell she was fine.  She had been doing all kinds of things with her hand to his hand.  Quinn was having doubts if she was really trying to hide the rtionship¡ª they were sitting beside a load of people who didn¡¯t know about their rtionship, and if they didn¡¯t know it before, they knew now that he was going out with Daphne.  If they got found, he could only imagine what the rest of the evening would look like.


    ¡°They have actuallye a long way, both of them,¡± said Hermione.  ¡°They didn¡¯t get along at all when they first met.  It went on for a couple years where they¡ª especially Ivy¡ª weren¡¯t on the best of terms.¡±


    ¡°Really?  I couldn¡¯t tell.¡±  Lily looked at Quinn and Ivy.


    ¡°We kept a distance,¡± said Quinn while wondering what was going below the table, ¡®Oh my magic!  It¡¯s like she¡¯s making up for that.¡¯


    ¡°He was a jerk,¡± said Ivy, smiling.


    ¡°You started it,¡± Quinn replied.  ¡°Those were fun times.¡±


    ¡°They were.¡±


    Ron spoke with food stuffed in his mouth, ¡°¡®ow¡¯z zat fhun?¡±


    Quinn nced at Ron and simply smiled.  He contemted whether he should do something to the Weasley, who really really really bad table manners, but decided against it.


    ¡®I am kind, aren¡¯t I?  I need to be praised; yes, I need to be showered in them.¡¯  He didn¡¯t want to create any drama in Ivy¡¯s home when he was so cordially invited for dinner¡ª and he was trying to make a good impression here.


    The conversation continued at the dinner table until they moved back to the lounge, where they started to talk about the real-world circumstances in the country.  Quinn was fine with some topics, such as economics and finance, while the other, like politics of the Wizengamot faction, weren¡¯t things he liked to talk about¡ª but many things were connected and normal within conversations.


    He could tell that James was subtly keeping the topics of conversation closely tied to the Light Faction.  He didn¡¯t try to stray away from that and listened carefully to what James, Sirius, and Lily spoke, trying to piece together the internal situation of the Light Faction and even the Order of Phoenix, though they didn¡¯t really give out any vital information only some tidbits that he used to specte.


    He even had an inkling that James and Sirius, especially James, were trying to hint around him siding towards the Light Faction.  Quinn had expected that¡ª he had graduated Hogwarts, stepping into the real world¡ª it was just that he had expected the Grey Faction, even the Dark Faction, to approach him first rather than the Light Faction.


    He, of course, restrained to giving any form ofmitment to them.  He preferred to be faction-less, and if he was to be sided with a faction, he would wait until the very end to make his decision.


    After some while, the Potters offered him a drink, but Quinn refused the offer.  Right now, any thought of inebriation or any form of drugs made Quinn want to puke out his insides.  It was total revulsion.


    He took that as a chance to retire for the evening.


    ¡°Already?¡± asked Ivy.  ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to stay for a little longer?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s gettingte,¡± said Quinn when he saw that no one was looking at the strangely except Hermione, but that was to be expected.


    When he was about to leave, Quinn asked to go to the bathroom.  Ivy led him there and took the moment of privacy¡ª a moment where she knew that they wouldn¡¯t be seen by the others in the house, and if someone came, she would be alerted about it.  But Quinn didn¡¯t know about that, so when she pulled him into a snog session, his eyes went wide, and he didn¡¯t know what to do with his hands untilter when he responded back.


    ¡°You have been really confusing today,¡± said Quinn between a kiss.  ¡°Didn¡¯t we decide not to do something risky?¡±


    ¡°Risky?¡±


    ¡°Like¡ª this.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t like it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not not nice.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s exciting.¡±


    ¡°. . . I can¡¯t deny that.¡±


    Ivy kept him until it was about to get suspicious, and it was the right moment to let go as Harry sprung up just momentster.  ¡°Hey, are you two okay?¡± he said and came upon Ivy standing outside and the door to the bathroom opening with Quinning out with a handkerchief in hand.


    ¡°Is something wrong?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s nothing,¡± said Harry.


    Quinn and Ivy exchanged nces when Harry turned.  Ivy winked at him, making Quinn think that this wasn¡¯t good for his heart.


    Quinn bade farewell to the Potter family along with Sirius, Hermione, and Ron, who say them out to the door.  He refused to use the floo, instead of choosing to apparate home(personal choice).  He stepped outside the Potter House ward boundary, he waved again to the guards outside, still hidden¡ª they were hidden better since early evening, but not enough.  Quinn smiled when he felt them shift a little to his wave; some hid themselves better while others exposed themselves.


    He chuckled and walked out of Gordic Hollow.  It was the township rules that apparition wasn¡¯t allowed within the town borders if it wasn¡¯t inside the house wards.  And because Quinn wasn¡¯t part of the Potters, he wasn¡¯t keyed into the house wards, and this couldn¡¯t apparate from within the Potter House.


    He stepped outside Godric Hollows.  The sky had already gone dark, and the moon was glowing brightly with stars clearly visible.  The night sky was one of the perks of having the house in the countryside; it was always clear, with the celestial bodies visible.


    Quinn stared up at the sky for a while, contemting if he should fly his way home.  But decided that it would be better to apparate andy on the roof to admire the stars in still-calm.


    As he was about to apparate, he felt a flow of magic trigger around him.  It was sudden and flowed all around him like a great river, forming a dome.


    It took Quinn a surprised-beat, but then his magic flowed outwards, as aggressively as he could pump it.  His eyes turned grave as he felt the fluctuation of spatial magic¡ª the space around him was being solidified.


    It was an anti-apparition ward.


    Quinn straightened up and looked around when he heard the crunching of grass and the turn of stone gravel.  Suddenly, figures came out from the dark, all dressed in ck robes and silver masks¡ª surrounding him.


    ¡°Death Eaters,¡± said Quinn as he counted a dozen of them.  ¡°Oh,e on, I just had a really nice evening; let¡¯s not ruin it.¡±


    ¡°Surrender,¡± said one of the masked Death Eaters.


    Quinn turned to the speaker and smirked, ¡°Not a single one of you has their masks down.  You don¡¯t want someone to know that you¡¯re attacking Quinn West.  That¡¯s not a confident outlook, gentlemen.¡±  Behind the smirk, Quinn analyzed the situation.  He could now feel istion wards, blocking sound, and any form of disturbance from going out¡ª they were trying to keep this under wraps¡ª different from the usual Death Eater modus operandi.


    ¡°Surrender,¡± the speaker said again and raised his wand with other Death Eaters.


    Quinn didn¡¯t grace them with an answer.  He cracked his neck and unbuttoned the buttons on his vest.  ¡°I ate a bit too much,¡± he said, ¡°you guys came at the right time; now, I can exercise it off a little.¡±


    He didn¡¯t waste a beat, turned to the sole speaker, and let out a gnarly shearing spell.  The Death Eater wasn¡¯t expecting the attack.  There was no wand in Quinn¡¯s hand after all.  A shield was pulled up, but the half-baked shield was sheared through like a hot knife against butter.  Quinn didn¡¯t stop and charged another powerful spell towards the same Death Eater.  There was solid contact, and he went flying back like a cannonball, smashing into a tree.


    The other Death Eaters responded and let a blinding array of spells, all different colors with varying effects.  Quinn¡¯s magic dumped into the ground, and the earth around him rose up like spikes, forming a rough dome.


    The magic ripped the earthen dome apart, but no spell made it through.


    Quinn¡¯s mind zapped with activity.  He triggered his spells, and the flying chunks of the earth all transfigured into pure steel.  The lumps of stell froze in-air and warped into spears.


    The Death Eaters all pulled up their protective spells to guard.


    Quinn was expecting that and weed it.  He now had a moment to assess the situation.  It was the first time since he had been aggressively attacked by multiple opponents.  He was experienced with facing multiple opponents, but that was when he had prepared for it, when they weren¡¯t expecting him.


    This time they had prepared for him.


    And they had prepared indeed.


    As Quinn was concentrating on the eleven Death Eaters, a spell came from within the woods just outside Godric Hollows.  Quinn noticed the spell, but just in time.  He turned, and out of instinct, ice crystalized between him and the spell.


    The ice seemed to have not entirely crystallized as the silver spell melted through the ice and struck Quinn.


    It was like a jolt of electric current coursing through his body.  Quinn felt himself lose control of his body and fell down onto his knees, and for a moment, there wasn¡¯t anything he could do to stop his fall.


    A fear bubbled inside him, gripping his heart.  He didn¡¯t like it.  Losing control of his body.  He wasn¡¯t going to go through that ever again.  An obscene amount of magic burst out inside Quinn¡¯s body.  The effects of the spells were purged.


    Quinn got up on his feet, and he only had a few words for the Death Eaters.


    ¡°You guys are lucky.  So lucky that I don¡¯t have my mask and gear.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I loathe being not in control.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Let¡¯s start the next mini-arc.  2-3 chapters at max.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 335 Carnage

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Thete evening, early night sky framed the background of a tense situation.  The spell discharged left residue, leaving behind their remnants magically in the form of a tingle in the air and the physical destruction with the carved ground and splintered barks.


    The Death Eaters thwarted the threatening but easily avoidable steel spears.  The wands were raised again with magic coursing through them.  They were many while their target was one.  Losing one of their own while not optimal wasn¡¯t something to be worried about.  Getting the job done was the priority¡ª the faster they got it done, the faster they would get the fallen to safety.


    But then the sole opponent spoke, ¡°I¡¯m going to make it so you can¡¯t use those Portkeys to get out of here.  You tried to trap with this ward. . . so don¡¯t think I¡¯ll let you go without a good sleepover.¡±


    The statement ruffled some feathers.  The first thoughts were of surprise of the Portkey knowledge¡ª while not a secret, it was still notmon knowledge.  But then came the offense¡ª a ¡®child¡¯ who was still wet behind the ears trying to threaten them?  Did he not know his position.  They knew their target, Quinn West.  Every one of the Death Eaters knew about him¡ª what he represented, and thus why it was imperative to be sessful.


    But then a scream pierced through the tenseness, and a body came flying out from the trees, passing over their heads and dragging the rubble as the body came to a stop at Quinn¡¯s feet.


    While the eyes were staring set in the middle at the spectacle, one of them turned to where the body came from and saw a glint of what looked like a ginormous tree branch, colored grey with a few green figs, retreating into the darkness.


    Quinn raised his foot and stamped it on the Death Eater¡¯s head, pressing the face into the gravel; there was a painful groan that he ignored.  He pointed his palm at the body and forced a spell into the Death Eater¡¯s back while staring at the bunch in front of him.


    There was a scream much more horrible, terrible than the one before.  It sent shivers down the listeners¡¯ bodies.  They couldn¡¯t even see the injury clearly yet; nheless, they could tell that it was severe, to say the least.  The spine was at least cracked and mangled, with further damage to the back.


    ¡°You all are fortunate that I have to think about my reputation,¡± said Quinn pointing at the Death Eaters as he pressed the head further into the ground.  ¡°I can¡¯t cast Dark Curses on all of you, and neither can I kill you guys, but I will ensure that the healers have a horrendous time healing each and every one of you¡ª that will have to do for now.¡±


    ¡°Shut up, brat,¡± said one of the Death Eaters in a gruff voice.


    Quinn nced to the Death Eater, and an explosive spell leaned on the legal boundaries of a non-Dark spell manifested between them.  The cast speed surprised the Death Eaters¡ª the gruff one pulled up a shield while others went for the attack¡ª the best moment to attack was the just moment after the opposition had just cast their magic.


    The exact time the explosion spell was released, the ground jumped between Quinn and the Death Eaters, serving hismands.  There was an exchange; the ground exploded into dust in the face of magic.  Quinn cast another level of protection, this time magic shields, which stopped the spells that passed through.  On the other hand, the explosion spell saw no stoppage from the defensive shield and rammed into the panicked Death Eater¡¯s raised hands, it broke bones, and some magic slipped through the sides of the arms into the face obliterating the mask and shredding the facial muscles.


    ¡°Spells are slower than guns, they say,¡± Quinn¡¯s voice suddenly echoed from everywhere around the Death Eaters, startling them as they looked around, ¡°and it is true¡ª guns are frighteningly quick, and the spells aren¡¯t up to that speed yet, no one has tried to increase travel speed. . . yet¡ª but it doesn¡¯t mean that magic is slower.  Let me show you a skill that top Hit Wizards take pride in.¡±


    The dust cleared, and they found that Quinn had vanished from their encirclement, only leaving behind the unconscious Death Eater on the ground.  They immediately went on alert towards their surrounding, but then the same ce in the middle showed a ripple, and light ripped towards a Death Eater¡ª it was a split moment between the appearance and impact¡ª and then the Death Eater went flying, crashing into the tree, rattling it to its roots.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to pick out every single one of you,¡± repeated Quinn¡¯s voice.


    The Death Eaters immediatelyunched their spells to the middle, but they passed through¡ª there was no one there.


    Suddenly Quinn materialized just in front of a Death Eater, who froze in shock at the sudden appearance.  The Death Eater felt his entire body gripped by something¡ª it felt like a Body-Bind, but worse as the magic ¡®binds¡¯ began strangling, breathing soon became difficult, with each breath bing a gasp.


    Quinn had his back to the other Death Eaters, and they took the chance.  Spells were shot, and multiple lights covered their paths and made an impact with. . . . the Death Eater¡ª Quinn had vanished from the front.  The magic was too much, and the Death Eater copsed into a heap on the group to reveal Quinn, who now stood behind the copsed Death Eater.


    He walked to the side, and with each step, a part of his body disappeared until he was no longer visible.


    Something started to bubble up inside the Death Eaters.  Three of theirs have been taken down(one because of friendly fire), and now they couldn¡¯t even keep track of their target.


    Another sudden spell suddenly appeared.  It sunk into the ground beside a Death Eater¡¯s feet, changing the solid ground into a quagmire.  The Death Eater lost bnce and fell on his back, slowly sinking into the sludge.  It wasn¡¯t over as the muddy appendages rose from the sinking ground and pulled the Death Eater inside.  He struggled, fought against the sludge, shot stray spells but found that the sludge started to solidify against his body.  Then a horror jolted through his body when he found that the ground began to press his body tighter and tighter until his lungs stopped working and darkness overtook him.


    Only the masked face of the Death Eater remained over the ground, which was now back to normal.


    There wasn¡¯t a beat missed as the next attack against the Death Eater arrived.  And it was the biggest and most devastating one yet.


    Winds started to pick, making the Death Eaters look around vigntly.  Within moments, the area was filled with fierce gusts moving in unpredictable directions.  The Death Eaters found it challenging to stand still, much less try to find Quinn.


    ¡°AAAAAAAAAAHH!¡±


    Everyone turned just in time to see four people drop to the ground, and even in the dark, the carved backs of the four victims could be seen shredded with blood staining the skin, clothes, and everything it came into contact with.


    One of the Death Eaters started to back up; his heart was trying to beat out of its natural rhythm.  He raised his wand up, moving it constantly to cover any direction the attack coulde, trying not to stumble because of the wind.


    He felt a hand on his shoulder and felt a shiver creep up his body before he could turn.  He looked down and saw a long silver de slowlye out of his abdomen.  The eyes started to shake as he continued to watch¡ª the tip of the de turned into liquid and climbed up the edge until there wasn¡¯t a de left and the silver was sticking close to his body.


    Then he heard, ¡°I have plugged up the wound from both sides, the blood will stay inside where it belongs. . . thank me for itter.¡±  There were two shoulder taps before everything went ck.


    That was it.


    One of the Death Eaters pulled up his sleeve, exposing the Dark Mark.  He was going to Portkey out of there.  He touched the mark with his wand, and it started to turn red¡ª the Portkey was activated.


    Nothing happened.


    ¡°W-W-What?¡±


    ¡°I told you¡¯re not going anywhere today.¡±


    The Death Eater felt something hit him on the head with something blunt and heavy.  The pain was momentary before he went to the ground and knew nothing more.


    . . . . .


    Quinn looked around.  There weren¡¯t many left Death Eaters left.


    He nced up to where he had stealthily set up an anti-Potkey ward hidden in the shadow of the Death Eater¡¯s wards.  He cast an assortment of illusion spells on himself and disappeared to prey on the remaining Death Eaters.  He was going to keep picking them apart.


    There were magic he couldn¡¯t use in his ¡®Quinn West¡¯ persona.  Everything that he used as his ¡®Invisible Vigntee¡¯ persona was out of use for ¡®Quinn West¡¯¡ª if revealed, there were plenty of ways they could reach others, and then someone was bound to connect the points.  Then there was Dark Magic which he couldn¡¯t be seen using for the sake of his reputation.  He won¡¯t be charged for using such spells in the current situation, but people would keep in mind that he used Dark Magic.


    He called up more magic and sent a massive gash of fire towards a Death Eater, sting him in the face with mes as ifing out from a high-fueled methrower.  After causing some burns, Quinn vanished the bones from a leg and left the Death Eater on the ground, unable to move.


    He turned to the opposite side and saw a Death Eater trying to run.  He stamped his foot on the dirt, and a long linked chain came snatching up the ground.  A huge mp on the other end grabbed the Death Eater¡¯s foot, tripping the runner.  Quinn pulled the chain with magic and dragged the Death Eater near him, where he buried him inside the ground and suffocated to end another one.


    He threw a super-powered Reducto into another Death Eater¡¯s face and crushed just enough bones that would keep the man alive.


    That continued until only one was left.


    Quinn faced thest Death Eater, who had his trembling wand pointed at him.


    ¡°Y-You monster.¡±


    ¡°This is all your fault,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°If you just hadn¡¯t done this, none of it would¡¯ve happened.¡±  He stepped forward.


    ¡°S-Stay away!¡±


    Quinn ignored the futile and useless words and closed the distance.


    The Death Eater raised his wand and cursed, ¡°Avada Kedavra!¡±


    Quinn halted, and a rough chunk of ground rose up¡ª something material was the only way to block an Avada Kedavra.  The green zap exploded the ground, leaving behind a plume of dust.


    Quinn grinned, ¡°Thank you.  You just gave me some great justification.¡±


    ¡°W-What?¡±


    ¡°I can now rough you up a little.¡±


    He raised his hand and sent eery bolts of lightning towards the Death Eater, which he wasn¡¯t able to dodge, rendering him prone to the ground.  Quinn walked to the limp body and straddled it.


    ¡°I did this once before to someone,¡± said Quinn as he raised his fists and charged them with body magic, ¡°and I suppose he didn¡¯t like it all, so I¡¯m assuming you won¡¯t be liking it as well.  And this time, my hands aren¡¯t going to get all mangled.¡±


    Quinn raised his fist and then dropped them on the Death Eater¡¯s face and then started the pummeling.


    ¡®Nothing could beat the physical exertion of pounding someone down to a pulp with his bare hands,¡¯ thought Quinn as he continued to beat the man bloody¡ª the thoughts of the spell that had hit him earlier in the fight upied his mind, fueling him with anger.


    He didn¡¯t notice that the man had gone unconscious.


    But fortunately. . .


    ¡°Quinn!¡±


    . . . someone was there to stop him.


    Quinn¡¯s hands froze mid-punch.  He turned his head, a re still in his eyes, to look upon a crowd of people looking at him.


    Among them, at the head of the crowd, was Ivy, who was looking at him in worry.


    Looking at him surrounded with carnage and battered bodies.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Releasing frustration at its finest.


    Death Eater ¨C F*ck-ed ¨C Status: All done.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Goodnight.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the BIO!

 Chapter 336 Auror Office

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Quinn!¡±


    Hearing his name called out brought him out of the bout of anger.  His hand stopped in the air as he momentarily nced at the broken face before his attention went to the source, itching to get back.


    He turned his head back and saw the Potter family, Sirius, Hermione, Ron, and an assortment of people who he assumed were the guards.  His anger subsided at the sight of the people¡ª the reasoning started to flow back in with the trickle of adrenaline retreating back from his bloodstream.  He nced back at the Death Eater and the bloodied face.


    This was enough, he thought, and that he wouldn¡¯t be able to do anymore anyway.


    Quinn got up from the Death Eater¡¯s torso and turned to the Potters.  He took a deep breath before dropping his shoulder and stepping away from the Death Eater.


    ¡°They started it,¡± said Quinn.  He rubbed his hand, and a water bubble covered them that slowly took a red hue.  He shook his hands, and the stained water sshed away on the ground.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± asked Ivy, worry quivering in her voice.


    Quinn nodded.  There was a scrap or two from the flying debris that nicked his clothes and some skin, but other than that, he wasn¡¯t touched by any magic.


    Ivy seemed to want toe near him, but Quinn sent a very short and concise burst of sound magic saying, ¡°No,¡± which made her halt with an unbridled unwillingness.  Quinn nced at the others and was relieved that no one felt his burst of magic to Ivy¡ª especially with the Aurors standing a step away from Ivy.


    ¡°What happened?¡± asked Sirius stepping into the ¡®warzone,¡¯ his eyes wandering over the numerous unconscious bodies.  The corner of his eyes wrinkled when he saw the Death Eater with the gashes on his back.


    ¡°They were looking to abduct me,¡± said Quinn, ncing around the area to see if there was something that needed to be hidden.  ¡°I wasn¡¯t able to apparate away because of an anti-apparition ward covering the area,¡± it was gone now.


    ¡°ssic Death Eater work,¡± spat Sirius.


    ¡°I thought they had isted this ce, what alerted everyone about the. .  . tussle?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Something must¡¯ve broken the ward because they,¡± Sirius pointed to the guards, ¡°saw shing lights and a pir of fire, and here we are.¡±


    ¡®Did I somehow end up damaging the ward,¡¯ thought Quinn.  He didn¡¯t want to damage the istion ward set up by the Death Eaters; it allowed him to operate without worrying about things ending too quickly, ¡®or maybe it was because they weren¡¯t able to keep it up properly,¡¯ and looking around thetter seemed to be true.


    ¡°So. . . what¡¯s next?¡± asked Quinn, not in the mood to talk to anyone.


    ¡°. . . You will need toe with us to the Auror¡¯s Office,¡± said James, looking around before turning to Quinn.  ¡°We will need to your ount of what happened here.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t you see what happened here,¡± said Quinn, spreading his arms in annoyance.


    ¡°Still, you¡¯d need toe down to the office.¡±


    Quinn sighed, ¡°Very well.  Let¡¯s be off then.¡±  He turned to the group and said with a bow, ¡°I apologize that all of you had to see such unsightly sight; it ruined a pleasantly enjoyable evening.  I will make it up to you the next time we meet,¡± thatst one bit was intended for Ivy, who apparently understood and gave a slight nod.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn sat in an interrogation room inside the Aurors Office.  He wasn¡¯t being interrogated, but it seemed that Aurors would lead anyone who they wanted to talk to an interrogation room.  Quinn didn¡¯t mind that he was seated here instead of maybe in an Auror¡¯s office or the bullpen.  The privacy of the small room while the Aurors outside ran around processing the incident was much appreciated.


    He loosened the tie from under his cor and ced it on the table in front of him.


    ¡®I have been exposed,¡¯ thought Quinn.


    Quinn West was to be a talented individual interested in magic.  He was supposed to be ahead of his peers, an overachiever in both academics and otherwise. . . a winner in life.  He had a great background¡ª a part of high society, all the riches he desired as part of an illustrious family, an excellent social standing from his time in Hogwarts, great friends who shone in their own ways, a flourishing love life¡ª everything in his life was supposed to be. . . perfect.


    But that carefully put together image strayed away from perfect when such an individual was found pummeling a group of Death Eaters in the ground, guaranteeing every one of them a lengthy extended trip to the hospital.


    ¡®I might not be able to hide this one,¡¯ he thought.


    Thest time something like this had happened was during Harry Potter¡¯s abduction attempt from Hogwarts.  He had stopped the abductors, and because of the limited visibility, he could escape the public¡¯s eye.  But this time, there had been Order of Phoenix members and Aurors in the mix, and a good number of them¡ª it wasn¡¯t possible to close that many people¡¯s mouths, and it was bound to spread out.  Dulling the spread, however, was another matter altogether.  He had plenty of resources to keep it from spreading to themon folk, but those in the right ces would hear about it.


    ¡®Unlike thest time, I¡¯m sitting in the Aurors Office,¡¯ Quinn sighed.  ¡®Grandfather will need to grease some hands to keep my name out of the official report.¡¯


    The problem was that the scale of the situations was different.  Last time, it could be chalked up to carelessness from the Novellus ionites¡¯ member that he got done in by a child.  This time, it was thirteen Death Eaters against one youngster just out of Hogwarts¡ª that couldn¡¯t be packed up as luck.  So when people heard what he had done, brows would rise, and the mind-gears would start to turn, clicking the obvious chains of thoughts.


    Quinn clicked his tongue.  Damned Death Eaters!


    The door creaked open, and Quinn looked back to see James Potter and another man walk into the interrogation room.


    ¡°Good evening, Mr. West.  My name is Gawain Robards; I¡¯m the Head Auror,¡± said the man as he and James took seats in front of him.  ¡°I have been informed that you had an unfortunate encounter with a group of Death Eaters.  I would like to ask if you¡¯re feeling alright.¡±


    Quinn observed the man.  With Amelia Bones bing the Minister, the previous Head Auror, Rufus Scrimgeour, was promoted to the Head of DMLE with Gawain Robards, a Captain Auror announced to Head Auror position.


    ¡°Other than being irritated about my evening being ruined, I¡¯m doing just fine, thank you, Auror Robards.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good, good.  I have been briefed about the situation by Aurors Potter and ck, but I would like to hear what happened.  There are a lot of things that took ce before Auror Potter arrived at the scene.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing much to say.  The Death Eaters were ready in an ambush to abduct me.  I know that because they asked me to surrender.  I tried to escape using apparition,¡± and a Portkey, but that was left unsaid, ¡°but they had set up a ward which rendered that option unfeasible.  From there on, I had no choice but to retaliate in self-defense.¡±


    ¡°Even if you say self-defense. . . you seriously injured thirteen people.  Many of them would be under the care of medi-healers for a very long time.¡±


    ¡°I was against multiple opponents.  I had to thin the herd and ensure when I dropped someone. . . they stayed down.¡±


    ¡°You broke three backs.¡±


    ¡°I might have poorly controlled my output under panic.¡±


    ¡°Panic?  You were found on top of a Death Eater, caving his face with your fists.¡±


    ¡°He used the killing curse, you can check his wand. . . I was angry, and things might have gone a bit out of control.¡±


    Gawain and James exchanged looks.  Quinn knew that they couldn¡¯t do anything to him.  In the first ce, the Auror Office, or DMLE as a whole, wouldn¡¯t want to press charges against him¡ª the ¡®victims¡¯ were Death Eaters, and as long as there was a Dark Mark on their arm, they saw no love from thew enforcement.  The ones who could be pressing charges were the family members of the Death Eaters involved, and even then, Quinn was sure, he would walk out scot-free with zero consequences.


    There were a few more rounds of questioning, with Quinn asked to write down his experience for records.


    ¡°If you¡¯d like to call your family,¡± said Robards.


    ¡°I have already done that,¡± said Quinn.


    Gawain and James were surprised.  James said, ¡°You already informed your grandfather?¡±


    ¡°Hmm?  My grandfather isn¡¯t in the country,¡± neither were Elliot and Lia, ¡°someone else would being from my family.¡±


    ¡°How?¡± asked James.  ¡°Did Sirius send someone to take your message to your family?¡±


    Quinn put his hand into his pocket and ced a pocket watch on the table.  He clicked a t button on the side, and a small square te came ejecting from the side.  He touched the top with his finger, and the te started to expand; parts began to appear out of nowhere until the te had grown to the size of a small notepad.


    ¡°What is this?¡± asked Gawain.


    ¡°That¡¯s a MagiFax,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Well, a version of it.¡±


    ¡°What?!  A MagiFax!¡±


    The MagiFax models in the market were all stationary.  Even the smallest version was only made to fit on a work desk.  The size that Quinn had just produced was unimaginable.


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a concept model and isn¡¯t going to be avable to the public for a good while,¡± said Quinn, reducing the portable MagiFax back into its chip size and clicking it back into his pocket watch.  ¡°You don¡¯t have to look surprised.  My family makes MagiFax; I volunteer once in a while to test things that are in development.¡±


    The door suddenly opened, and an Auror pocked her head inside.  ¡°Sires, some woman by the name of Rosey is waiting outside with a poshwyer.  They¡¯re here to pick him up.¡± she pointed to Quinn.


    Quinn looked at the two before him and asked, ¡°Am I free to go, Aurors?¡±


    ¡°. . . Ah?  Ah, yes,¡± said Gawain.


    Quinn stood up and picked up his tie from the table.  ¡°Thank you.  I hope you¡¯ll be bringing those Death Eaters to justice.  I¡¯m willing to provide any help the Auror Office needs, so if you require me, please contact mywyer, who I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be meeting now.¡±


    ¡°Certainly.  We will give this our top priority.¡±


    ¡°Fantastic,¡± Quinn smiled and walked to the door, but then he turned and faced the two Aurors who had stood up.  ¡°Just one more thing I would like to say.¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°I would be very upset if the Death Eaters, for some reason, didn¡¯t make their way to Azkaban. . .¡±


    Gawain and James frowned.  They didn¡¯t appreciate the Auror Office¡¯stest point of failure.


    ¡°. . . and it would also make my grandfather not very happy.  And believe me, making me unhappy is nothingpared to making my grandfather upset¡ª he doesn¡¯t like to be disappointed.¡±


    From their expressions, Gawain and James understood what Quinn was implying.


    Quinn gave them a final nod before leaving the two Aurors alone with his words in their thought.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Thinking if ¡°he¡± should take care of the Death Eaters while they¡¯re being transported to Azkaban.


    Gawain Robards ¨C Head Auror ¨C Is about to get a lot of pressure from his higher-ups.


    James Potter ¨C Senior Auror ¨C Has been put as the Auror-in-charge on the case record.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Next time, Golden Squad¡¯s and Auror¡¯s reaction.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 337 Changes To Come

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    James and Sirius exited Rufus Scrimgeour, the Head of DMLE¡¯s office, closing the door behind on the meeting with the Head Auror and a couple of Captain Aurors.  They walked in silence through the ebony marbled halls.


    ¡°Well. . .  they made Scrimgeoure down,¡± said Sirius, looking at his watch, which showed a time much after the working hours.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± James pursed his lips.  ¡°He didn¡¯t look about it.  I don¡¯t think I had ever seen hime down thiste, even when he was the Head Auror.¡±


    Sirius shook his head with a sigh.  ¡°I don¡¯t think his mood is going to get better tomorrow when he meets the Bones, and then I reckon George West going toe down to make his presence known. . . ugh¡ª it¡¯s going to be horrible until we put the bloody fools to trial and throw them inside Azkaban and chuck the keys into the ocean.¡±


    ¡°And all of that would only be the start.  I don¡¯t think George West will take an attack against his grandson sitting down.  He¡¯s going to retaliate in some way. . . I just don¡¯t know how he will enact his revenge.¡±


    ¡°I think some people are going to lose their jobs.  Remember what Dumbledore said?  Voldemort is going to want his people inside the Ministry in important positions¡± ¡ª Head of Houses of Wizengamot were just a side of influence, the Departement Heads represented the other side¡ª the actual changes happened on that level ¡ª ¡°and if George West starts to pull strings, the blood supremacists who are suspected to be connected to Voldemort may have a difficult time.  But, I don¡¯t think Scrimgeour and Bones are going to let him interfere with the Ministry and DMLE. . . .¡±


    ¡°Or, I think he¡¯s going to attack businesses.  It¡¯s his forte, after all,¡± James recalled how his father used to do business with George West.  ¡°He might want to pull out the funding for Voldemort¡¯s operations.  I just hope things don¡¯t get difficult for themon folk because of the fighting.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s one naive thought.  There will always be some coteral damage; it¡¯s usually themon folk who face the brunt of it.¡±


    ¡°Remember when I told you about Moody telling me about bringing Quinn to our side.  The reason I invited Quinn to dinner.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡±


    ¡°Do you think this would end up being the tipping point for that?  But instead ofing this way, the Wests will join themselves in some form with the Grey Faction.  George West does business with Jacob Greengrass, and Quinn dates his daughter. . . I fear that our chances took a hit today.¡±


    James sighed.  Things had derailed before he could even try.


    ¡°Well, we got one thing cleared,¡± said Sirius.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°That kid can use magic without a wand,¡± the tone of Sirius¡¯ voice was a mix between weighty seriousness and respect.  ¡°You know what that means, don¡¯t you?  The fact that we are just finding this out, and even Dumbledore doesn¡¯t know about it, means that the kid has been hiding it for who knows how long.¡±


    ¡°. . . Moody said that we could be looking at the next Dumbledore,¡± said James, ¡°but I don¡¯t know if Dumbledore could do that at Quinn¡¯s age, I definitely couldn¡¯t, I still can¡¯t. . . . Maybe Moody was right. . . .¡±


    ¡°How do you think Dumbledore will think of that?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.  Who knows what Dumbledore is thinking.  We will only know when he tell us.¡±


    Sirius groaned, ¡°I guess now we have to attend an Order of Phoenix meeting.¡±


    ¡°Dumbledore will want to know what happened, so yes.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t it wait till the morning?¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t be free from tomorrow,¡± said James before sighing.  ¡°I¡¯ll also face Dumbledore about moving, he has been hounding about it quite a while. . . .¡±


    ¡°Do you n to move?¡±


    ¡°After today, Lily would want to move somewhere safer.¡±


    ¡°What about you?  What do you think?¡±


    ¡°. . . Maybe, I¡¯ll have to talk about it with Lily and the children.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    In the Potter House, the Golden Squad sat in the room Harry¡¯s room.  Harry sat by his study chair, Ron sat on another chair, with Hemione and Ivy sharing the bed.  After making sure they weren¡¯t missing anything, the four teens had just left the small gathering downstairs (after making sure they weren¡¯t missing anything) and hade to the room to have a quiet ce to talk.


    ¡°Did you see all the. . . people,¡± started Ron, his body hunched forward, ¡°they were just sprawled over the ground everywhere.  Did he really do all of that?¡±


    The other three pursed their lips.  They could recall the scene of carnage that had happened outside Gordic Hollow.  Uprooted trees, barks with chunks missing, the carved ground, scorched soil, the smell of burning in the air, the slight tingle on their skin as they arrived there. . . and all the bodies that look they had been thrown haphazardly.


    ¡°. . . He was on top of the person when we got there,¡± said Hermione.  She recalled Quinn¡¯s back as his fists repeatedly cocked up before going down. . . on the bloody and broken face that she only saw afterward.  It didn¡¯t look there was someone else down there other than Quinn and the Death Eaters.


    ¡°Dad told me when I was getting kidnapped,¡± started Harry, ¡°and when they came upon him, he was on top. . . ¡®changing the face¡¯ of the person.¡±


    ¡°He has big arms,¡± said Ron, ¡°they¡¯re smaller than Charlie, but they¡¯re up there.¡±  The Dragonologist Weasley had developed a burlier physique than his leaner brother due to his demanding work with difficult dragons in the pits of Romania.


    ¡°I mean, I knew he was strong with magic, but today. . . that was, I wasn¡¯t expecting that,¡± Hermione trailed off.  They had looked at it first hand and had heard what was being talked about downstairs¡ª the amount of damage that Quinn had done and what was done to him. . . it was astonishing.


    ¡°Do you think he used Dark Magic?¡± asked Ron, raising some eyebrows in the room.


    ¡°What rubbish are you talking about?¡± Ivy immediately rebuked Ron with a frown.


    ¡°They were saying that Dark Magic was used in the fight,¡± Ron pushed back.


    ¡°Of course, there would be Dark Magic!  There were Death Eaters fighting, for god¡¯s sake!¡±


    ¡°Alright, don¡¯t fight,¡± Harry broke the fight before it could escte.  ¡°But it dide to surprise that Quinn could do that.  There were thirteen Death Eaters and just one of them, and the fact he looked fine when we saw him¡ª it was rather shocking to me. . . and the others.¡±


    Ivy slumped back against the wall that was beside the bed and sighed.  She was trapped.  She wasn¡¯t allowed to go out of Godric Hollows without someone apanying her, and now, after this, she was sure things would be stricter even though it wasn¡¯t them that was targeted.  She nced at the door¡ª just outside, on the other side, was her room, and inside there was the two-way mirror that she shared with Quinn.  She wanted to leave here and try contacting Quinn but knew she wouldn¡¯t get the chance now, probably not untilte at night.


    She would only be talking to him tomorrow, she thought.  And that too only through a mirror.


    ¡°Are you not surprised?¡± Harry asked Ivy.


    Ivy turned azy eye to her brother, ¡°I am, but at the same time, I¡¯m not.  He always looked so calm during DA, and he¡¯s always doing some strange and fascinating things, so I guess, while I didn¡¯t think about it, it was always at the back of my head.¡±


    ¡°What kind of strange and fascinating things?¡±


    ¡°This and that.  I don¡¯t know.  He¡¯s always doing something; some of them are bound to be interesting.  ¡°


    Harry stared at Ivy, but she didn¡¯t seem in the mood to talk, much less answer, so she let it go.  Quinn was always doing something, he thought too.  He has seen a couple of those interesting things as well.


    ¡°What¡¯s going to happen now?¡± asked Ron.


    ¡°The Death Eaters will be put to a trial,¡± said Hermione, ¡°and because they got caught in the act, with ample proof, they¡¯re going to be put in Azkaban.  Because they¡¯re Death Eaters, and I assume they are going to be marked as one, that¡¯s going to open an investigation on their lives, their work, their families¡ª the Ministry under Amelia Bones is aggressive against Death Eaters.  It¡¯s just the start. . . this is going to be big.¡±


    That was something that didn¡¯t need to be stated.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Voldemort tapped his boney finger on the mahogany table.  He looked at his ¡®generals,¡¯ his inner circle, those he expected to handle his organization.  But right now, none of them could match eyes with him.


    ¡°I will ask again,¡± he said, ¡°when I said I wanted Quinn West to be brought, what didn¡¯t you fine wizards and witches didn¡¯t understand.¡±  He watched them cower, turning their beady little eyes, looking to pass the me.  ¡°All of you are of noblest of backgrounds, the purest of magical blood, the rulers of this country¡ª so did you not understand what the West name means?  Was I expected to exin to all of you fine people what failure would mean in this situation?  Do you not understand now that we don¡¯t have Quinn West in our grasp?  We don¡¯t have the opportunity to put George West under our palms.¡±


    The room started to shake as Voldemort¡¯s blood-red pupils deepened, emitting an ominous glow as he stared at the people around the table.  He hissed in his serpentine tongue, and a deeper hiss was returned, one that reverberated in the room, making people jolt.  He nced at the opposite of the table as his beloved familiar slithered on the table with her strong green-scaled body, representing his proud Slytherin heritage.  One nce at his Nagini was enough to set fears in the heart of even his own Death Eaters.  She was a part of himself and had a piece of himself.


    ¡°M-My Lord,¡± said a short, stout man while sweating bullet, ¡°we didn¡¯t think the child would be able¡ª¡±


    ¡°To take on twelve people?¡± he cut the man off.  ¡°Yes, that would be a correct assumption, but did you not think the West child could have bodyguards with him?  What then?  Do you think that twelve people, of whom I never trained a single one, would be able to bring him here?¡±


    He had seen a great future when he heard that the West child would be visiting the Potter House.  It was an opportunity.  If Quinn West had shown his face outside, they would make a move and abducted the child right under Potter¡¯s nose, not only bringing George West under his control but also turning the Wests against the Potters and Dumbledore by making George West resentful and me them for the abductions of his grandson.


    ¡°We are well aware that Amelia Bones, the blood traitor, has been a persistent bug against our advance in the Ministry.  I wanted this to be a change to that situation.  We could¡¯ve established a foothold and then grabbed control in one fell swoop, but now, George West is going to look in our way.


    Why did none of you esteem wizards add yourselves to the n?  Were you afraid of what would happen if George West found out,¡± he sneered as they couldn¡¯t answer.


    Voldemort stroked Nagini¡¯s head, making her hiss in pleasure.  He wondered if he should let her feast on one of them to set another example.  But decided against it, now was not the time.


    ¡°Break out the people who were arrested.  I don¡¯t care when you do it, but I don¡¯t want them to reach Azkaban.  Embarrass the Ministry, the Minister, the DMLE, everyone involved¡ª I don¡¯t want George West to be chummy with Bones¡ª put a fault in that rtionship before it could grow.¡±


    ¡°But wouldn¡¯t that offend George West more than he¡¯s now?¡±


    ¡°We offended him enough when we tried and failed to abduct his grandson; doing this won¡¯t make any difference,¡± said Voldemort.  He looked at his Death Eaters before announcing, ¡°I will be leaving the country for a few days.  I need to remedy this embarrassing situation that you have put us in.  I expect you not to make the situation any worse in my absence.  If I hear that there had been some unnecessaryplications when I return, be prepared to face some punishment.¡±


    Nagini hissed in pleasure, her long body curling wider on the table, almost touching the people who jerked back.


    Voldemort waved his hand, and all left with haste as there was a gue they had to run away from.  He fell into thought while stroking Nagini¡¯s head.  The situation with Wests was a roadblock that needed to be cleared as soon as possible, or else it would stop his conquest of Magical Britain and the subsequent ns of expanding his rule.


    It was time to call in some ¡®favors¡¯ and meet some old ¡®friends¡¯ to see how they were doing.


    ¡°Quinn West, huh.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Ivy Potter ¨C Stuck at home ¨C Thinking if there are ways to meet Quinn.


    James Potter ¨C Senior Auror ¨C Maybe it¡¯s time to move. . . .


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Time to go travel.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 338 Things At Home

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn breathed in as he pulled up on an ab-crunch and emptied his lungs out as he went down.  He felt the sweat on his bare upper body as he continued to work his body under the summer sun.  As he went down, the sun¡¯s heat would dissipate, and a cool wind would pick up as he would pull himself up.  The magic synced with his breathing, flowing inside and outside his body.  He pushed more magic into his body, contracting his muscles to make things a little difficult for him.  His brows furrowed as things did get a little more challenging for him.


    He was focused on his body when his ears picked up the crunching of grass moving closer.  He pulled up and turned his head back to face the familiar footsteps.


    ¡°You got back quickly,¡± he said.  ¡°I was expecting to see you in the evening.¡±


    George looked down on his grandson, his eyes moving around Quinn¡¯s body.


    ¡°I¡¯m not injured, not even a knick on the skin,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°I will believe when I see no injuries,¡± said George, and Quinn got up with a kip-up and turned around to show George that he was indeed alright.


    ¡°Tell me everything that happened; start from the top and leave not a single detail from what happened yesterday evening.¡±


    Quinn did precisely that.  He started from the top about his arrival at Godric Hollows, the presence of guards in front of the Potter House, some chatter about the dinner, and then the climax in the form of his confrontation with the Death Eaters.  He finished the ount with his little time in the Auror Office.


    ¡°That¡¯s about it.  After that. . . I was home, had a lovely sleep, and here we are. . . .¡±


    Quinn waved his hand, and a patio table with two chairs conjured between them.


    ¡°I am assigning you a bodyguard,¡± said George as soon as he sat down.


    ¡°I refuse.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have a choice.  After yesterday, it¡¯s clear that if you¡¯re going to roam around outside, you¡¯ll need a bodyguard,¡± said George, and before Quinn could get a word in edgewise, George continued.  ¡°It¡¯s better if you take some time off from here, and a good way to do that is to leave here and go to New Zend¡ª I want you to start your apprenticeship with n Baddeley now instead of next year.¡±


    Quinn stayed silent for George to finish before starting, ¡°Wow, okay, I heard what you said.  I¡¯m not going to do that.  Instead, I¡¯m going to stay here, have a good break, n a trip with my friends, and have a jolly time.  I will also repeat, I do not want a bodyguard.  Don¡¯t try to stick someone with me, don¡¯t even think about it¡ª I¡¯m not going to appreciate it.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to appreciate it.¡±


    ¡°I will not be getting a bloody bodyguard.¡±


    The grandson and grandfather stared at each other from across the table.  None said anything to each other, just stared at each other.  They only started again when Polly popped up and served tea.


    ¡°Are you fine?¡± George asked.


    Quinn answered with a ss of lemonade in hand, ¡°I¡¯m doing just fine.  You don¡¯t need to worry like that.¡±


    George took a sip from his teacup and sighed, ¡°You and Death Eaters mentioned in the same sentence is not good for my health.  It was fortunate that Elliot was with me, or else I would¡¯ve been leaving a lot of things unattended.¡±


    ¡°I will write to him to tell him that I¡¯m okay.  He must be worried sick there all on his own.¡±


    ¡°Lia would being in the evening; I got her message.¡±


    ¡°Should I write to her?  If I remember correctly, today and tomorrow are her free days with Abraham, and you know how those two work.  It¡¯ll be better if I write to her before she gets that Portkey.¡±


    He raised his hand towards his room to summon the portable MagiFax, but was stopped by George.


    ¡°You can do thatter.  So. . . thirteen Death Eaters. . . that¡¯s impressive.¡±


    ¡°Some might say that,¡± said Quinn, smiling into his ss.


    ¡°You never told me about this¡ª that you had reached such levels.  Even some Aurors and Hit Wizards pass their careers without achieving such.¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t a big deal,¡± Quinn crossed his legs and said nonchntly.  ¡°They were weak, not used to groupbat; hell, they were untrained, normals, they probably didn¡¯t even use magic daily.  So even though they were a dozen, they weren¡¯t much of a threat if even greater in number.  And well, they underestimated the difficulty of the mission they were given¡ª their failure was imminent.¡±


    ¡°Untrained or not, they were thirteen, and you were one.  Fighting that many people anding out victorious¡ªing out victorious uninjured, that is a big deal.¡±


    ¡°Fighting multiple opponents without magic, yes, that¡¯s extraordinary, but I had magic.  When magic is involved, normal rules don¡¯t apply.¡±


    ¡°But they had magic as well, son.¡±


    ¡°Having magic doesn¡¯t give them the same weapon as I.  The way we understand magic ispletely different.  Even if we term it as magic, it¡¯s somethingpletely different.¡±


    ¡°I could see that from the condition they were transported in to St. Mungos.  I heard they horrified many eyes.¡±


    ¡°I might have overdone it in the heat of the moment.  It was astonishing when it happened; I was never expecting them to greet me with such vigor.¡±


    ¡°You seem to have progressed much in magic.¡±


    ¡°I have been working on it for years.  It would be strange and disappointing if I didn¡¯t make progress.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but you have made too much progress; I¡¯m impressed. . . .¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°I just wonder how much you have progressed.¡±


    ¡°To be exact, you¡¯re asking me if I have progressed in the disreputable parts of magic.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s exactly what I am asking.¡±


    ¡°In some ways, I have made more progress in those parts than in the mainstream. . . . things can get boring, and those things just seem so much interesting.¡±


    ¡°And dangerous.¡±


    ¡°You let me worry about that.¡±


    ¡°A parent always worries about their child.  I still think you¡¯re too young to be dabbling in those things.¡±


    Quinn raised his ss again.  There wasn¡¯t anything he could say to dissuade George¡¯s worries.  The most they could do was ignore each other and pretend that the cause of uneasiness didn¡¯t exist.


    ¡°What are you nning to do now?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°I do not like getting involved in wars,¡± said George, taking a somber tone.  ¡°Wars¡ª skirmishes¡ª happen every day in this world, be it wizarding or muggle.  There are plenty of countries, unrecognized states where we do business, where people are at war with each other for resources.  I have tried to stay clean of war, knowing well that it would make us humongous profits and secure my family¡¯s future even better if we partook even a little.


    Those are third-world countries; I don¡¯t care much about them.  This is my country, my birthce, where I grew up¡ª a ce that I dearly love.  And I still don¡¯t want to get involved, but. . .¡±


    George looked more somber than Quinn ever looked at him, and he saw a look of anger in his eyes, something so rare that it took him a step even with his lumency to remember seeing it.


    ¡°. . . they encroached upon my family, something I love much more dearly than anything else.  I have to ¡ª wish to ¡ª want to ¡ª respond to what the Dark Lord dared to do because if I don¡¯t, they will think I¡¯m weak, that I fear him like everyone else does¡ª I can¡¯t let that happen.  I already moved away once during thest war.  I will do so again if it happens again¡ª but I will not stay silent this time.¡±


    ¡°You are nning to take an active part in the war?¡± asked Quinn in surprise.


    ¡°War hasn¡¯t started yet, son.  We¡¯re still in the preparatory stages,¡± George said while shaking his head.  ¡°Even if it had begun, I have no intention of picking a side on the chessboard or bing a side.  However, what I can do is ensure the white side of the board has the advantage.  I will take my revenge and hedge the bets in favor of the side I want to win.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like taking a side.¡±


    ¡°Not if we stay away,¡± George maintained hard-eye contact with Quinn, ¡°and we stay away.¡±


    ¡°We stay away, huh.¡±


    George nodded.


    ¡°Tell me more about the dinner.  Did something interesting happen?  I see no reason why the Potters would invite you,¡± asked George.


    ¡°The ¡®objective¡¯ of the dinner,¡± said Quinn with air quotes, ¡°was to thank me for the Umbridge situation¡ª it was overdue, as James Potter said.  It was an excellent thank you dinner, but the real reason was to bring me to the Light Faction, or at least the Order of Phoenix.  He was dropping hints all the way through the time I was there¡ª except that everything was nice.¡±


    ¡°And?¡± asked George.


    ¡°What?¡± counter-asked Quinn.


    ¡°Are you going to join Dumbledore¡¯s Order of Phoenix?¡±


    ¡°Now, why would I do that?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re looking to recruit you.  You obviously got attacked by Death Eaters with the intention to exploit you to get to me, which means they have no intention to solicit you into joining their illustrious ranks.  The abduction attempt and their ns for you obviously didn¡¯t please you, and knowing you¡ª you may have formed a grudge against them¡ª joining an outfit thatbats Death Eater must look like an attractive destination to you right about now.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s. . . I mean. . . I wasn¡¯t thinking about that,¡± said Quinn.


    George just stared at him, which seemed to have to be looking through him.


    ¡°I will repeat it, Quinn,¡± he said.  ¡°We are staying away.  That ¡®we¡¯ means you, me, Lia, Elliot, Rosey, and everyone who works for me.  I will say it again and will say it as much as the time is needed from me, so if you need to hear it again, let me know.¡±


    Quinn pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes just a smidge.  ¡°Why do you think I don¡¯t n to stay away,¡± he asked.


    ¡°I am not saying that you don¡¯t, but just in case you wanted me to say it, I will say it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s just me, but it sounds really passive-aggressive.¡±


    George shrugged.


    ¡°I understand,¡± sighed Quinn.  ¡°We stay away.¡±


    He was going to stay away, but the other him could have as much as free reign he wanted¡ª or at least all the freedom he could afford.


    Quinn put down his empty ss and stood up from his chair.  ¡°I will hop into the shower to freshen up and see you at breakfast.¡±  He got a nod in response.


    He walked away, but he heard George call out to him just as he was a few steps away.


    ¡°Yes?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Remember when I helped you with Labyrinth?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it has worked out very well till now.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it has been going well.  But I¡¯m talking about the promise you gave me.¡±


    That made Quinn¡¯s smile pause.  He stared at George for a bit before saying, ¡°Yes, I do remember the promise. . . . Have you thought about what you want?¡±


    ¡°No, not yet.  I was just saying.¡±


    ¡°. . . I see.¡±


    ¡°Good, you may leave.¡±


    And Quinn did just that with a lot of thoughts in his mind.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C That was. . . . strange.


    George West ¨C Grandfather ¨C I have spoken.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Woah. . . that was tense.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the BIO!

 Chapter 339 Sharing A Secret

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn closed the door to his room, and thetch snapped into the frame.


    He walked into the walk-in closet attached to his room, and the chair from under the study table followed after him.  It ced itself in front of the full-body length mirror, where Quinn sat himself down.  He took out a circr hand mirror and yed with it in his palm.


    He looked between the hand mirror and the full-body one.  The hand mirror glowed, turning solid yellow¡ª then the full-body mirror glowed in the same hue before both dimmed down to normal.  Quinn put the hand mirror back and patiently stared at the full-body mirror.


    A sheen passed over the huge mirror ss and stopped reflecting Quinn¡¯s image; instead, it showed Ivy from the chest up.  Ivy¡¯s face bloomed as the two-way mirrors connected, her eyes intently staring at him.


    ¡°Are you alone?¡± he asked with a whisper.


    Ivy nodded.  ¡°Why¡¯re you sitting so far away,¡± she said, ¡°can you even see me from there?¡±


    Quinn softly smiled and pinched out his index and thumb, manipting the charms in the two-way mirror to change its transmission.  ¡°Am I visible now?¡± he asked.  [A/N: Lol.  Online Meeting.]


    ¡°Much better,¡± Ivy stared at Quinn.  ¡°How are you?  Were you injured?  Did you go to St. Mungos to get checked?  What did they say?  How¡ª¡±


    ¡°Slow the train,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I¡¯m fine; there were no injuries. . . yes, I went to St. Mungos despite that¡ª Ms. Rosey took me forcefully. . . don¡¯t worry about it.¡±  He wondered how many times he had repeated the same things to Ms. Rosey and Polly, who seemed incapable of taking his word for it.  ¡°How about you?  Yesterday must¡¯ve been a scare for everyone at the Potter House.¡±


    ¡°Mum couldn¡¯t stop pacing.  She wouldn¡¯t like the mere thought of Death Eaters near our house, and yesterday it actually happened¡ª even if they weren¡¯ting for Harry, it was enough to set her worries off.  You passing past the guards unseen didn¡¯t help it.  She¡¯s in the library now, reading upon protective charms and wards,¡± sighed Ivy.


    ¡°Sorry about that. . . . But she¡¯s right.  The Death Eaters dared toe this near your house must show that they¡¯re not apprehensive enough about being near the ¡®enemy¡¯ area¡ª where they knew the possibility of guards being present is the highest.  That¡¯s not something you want to see from an enemy who wants nothing more than to kill you.  It¡¯s not exaggerating to say that it might be the time to move houses to somewhere more secure.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to.¡±


    ¡°Ivy. . . I know it is tough to leave your childhood home, but for the safety of your fam¡ª¡±


    ¡°I know that,¡± she cut him off.  The unwillingness was brimming in her voice, ¡°It¡¯s just if we move from here, we would be moving to somewhere with much more. . . rules and restrictions.  I¡¯m sure I wouldn¡¯t even get to go out in the yard.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t deny that, but it doesn¡¯t matter, does it?  You¡¯ll be off to Hogwarts before you know it, and there you won¡¯t have those rules even with your mother at Hogwarts with you.¡±


    Ivy sighed, ¡°I know, but Hogwarts still isn¡¯t for a while.  I¡¯d be bored to death before that.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be turning seventeen soon; you¡¯ll have full ess to your wand after that.  Have some fun with magic¡ª pick up a project, create something interesting.  I do it every year.  It¡¯s really fun,¡± and brought in a lot of money.  ¡°Didn¡¯t you have fun creating these mirrors?  Do something simr to that, and time will pass before you know it¡ª and you have Hermione with you, both of you can work together and makeup something amazing.  Tell her she might even get some extra points from the Professors; she¡¯ll jump at it.¡±


    Ivy almost tumbled back over her bed,ughing.


    ¡°Hey, do you have any way we could meet again?¡± she said.  ¡°I won¡¯t get to meet you for a long time at this rate.  Forget about during the summer; I might not get to meet you during Hogwarts¡ª mum might not allow me to go down to Hogsmeade.¡±


    ¡°You can always sneak out¡ª you have the map and the cloak.  Tell me when you want to meet, I¡¯ll be there, and we can spend some together.  It¡¯s pretty easy if you can sessfully sneak out.  We can even go out if we have enough time¡ª without freaking people out, that is.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. . . I think that¡¯d be something I could do.  Okay, let¡¯s see how this turns out.¡±


    ¡°Looking forward to it.¡±


    ¡°Hey, listen¡ª¡±


    Quinn couldn¡¯t see anything except Ivy.  She looked up, away from the mirror, and then he heard Hermione¡¯s voice from the other side.


    ¡°Hey, Ivy, do you have. . . what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Nothing at all.  Are you looking for something?¡±


    The image in the mirror was covered as Ivy shoved it under somewhere, and the voices got muffled because of it, but Quinn could still make out some of the conversation.


    ¡°Was that. . . -way mirror.  It. . . wasn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Oh my god!¡±


    ¡°Wait!¡±


    Quinn moved quickly and cut the call immediately in case the mirror was seen; his face woulde up, and that¡¯d be not optimal, to say the least.  He weaved his magic and set up a disturbance in the spell connecting the two-way mirrors so that even if someone tried to connect from the other side, it would seem like the magic were faulty.


    ¡°Not a calm day,¡± Quinn chuckled, wondering how Ivy would be handling things with Hermione.


    He got up and turned to the array of clothes behind him.


    ¡°What should I wear.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn sat on the green field, his eyes looking at the cloudless blue sky.  His magic moved inside him into the ground beneath, slowly (so slowly) getting expended from his body.  The grass around him moved like they were being swayed by the winds even though there was no wind around him.


    He focused on a patch of grass that looked no different from its kin around it and sent up more magic to it.  The grass grew longer, wilder, lusher, and denser, and the progress could be seen through the naked eye.  The grass wilted, turned yellow, withered away before new strands grew, richer than before, and the process repeated until Quinn heard footsteps and turned back.


    ¡°Hey,¡± he said with a smile.


    Daphne looked down at him.  She was dressed in a summer skirt with a ck top thatplemented her usual elegance with its gracefulness.


    ¡°The fact that you called me here must mean you heard what happened yesterday,¡± said Quinn getting up and dusting himself.  It was expected that Jacob Greengrass would hear about the suddente-night activity in the Ministry.  He had gotten a MagiFax from Daphne early in the morning, wanting him toe near the non-magical vige down the hill from the Greengrass residence.


    She didn¡¯t speak and continued to watch him with the same gaze he had gotten from all his family since yesterday, so he repeated the answer before the question came¡ª ¡°I¡¯m alright.  The Death Eaters, though, I can¡¯t say the same for them.  I heard that they got some nasty injuries.¡±


    Daphne stepped forward and hugged without saying a word.  Quinn wasn¡¯t surprised by her reaction and embraced her gently into his chest with his chin over her head.  He stayed silent as he felt her stronger than usual hold over him.


    ¡°Calm now?¡±


    Daphne nodded into his chest but didn¡¯t let go.


    ¡°I hope this thing didn¡¯t cause you too much worry.¡±


    ¡°I got worried sick when father told me.  Death Eaters!  Thirteen!¡±


    Seeing that Daphne was getting anxious the more she spoke, he stopped her and got back to calm her down.  When she calmed down, Daphne separated from him.


    ¡°Tell me everything,¡± she said.


    Quinn went through the events, but unlike what he told George, he toned the things down for Daphne and only gave her the rough details of what happened.  He saw her eyes narrow when he glossed over the details a couple of times, but he got by.


    ¡°. . . and that¡¯s about it.¡±


    ¡°Your grandfather must not be happy,¡± she said.  ¡°Father thinks he¡¯s going to retaliate in one way or another.¡±


    ¡°Your father is absolutely right,¡± he sighed and told her the conversation he had earlier in the day.  ¡°He was already in a meeting with some when I was leaving toe here.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s going to participate in the war?¡± she asked with worry.


    Quinn shook his head.  ¡°He¡¯s not¡ª wants us to stay away.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a wise decision.¡±  It looked like Daphne was in full agreement.


    Quinn didn¡¯tment on that situation.


    After some conversation, the two roamed around the area hand in hand, with Daphne telling Quinn all her favorite ces.  It seemed that Daphne loved to just walk to ces from her home and see if she could find new ces.


    As Daphne was sharing all these things with him, Quinn decided that he wanted to do the same.


    ¡°Would you like to know something about me that I haven¡¯t told anyone,¡± he asked, not knowing why he was asking.


    ¡°Yes,¡± was the instant reply.


    ¡°It might be a little heavy.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Okay, then.  Only my family knows about this, but I am a. . . Legilimens.¡±


    They stopped in the middle of a dirt road with Daphne¡¯s wide eyes staring at him.


    ¡°Surprised?  Horrified?  Repulsed?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Surprised. . . yes.  Scared. . . more than a bit.  But the other two?  No.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear.¡±


    ¡°Since when?¡±


    ¡°Before Hogwarts, actually.  I told you about my apprenticeship¡ª it¡¯s with my mind magic master¡ª he taught me lumency, and because I had the potential for it, I also learned Legilimency.  I have been using it ever since then.¡±


    ¡°Even in Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°Mostly in Hogwarts¡ª every day during breakfast for seven years.  When I had just joined, I used to listen to everyone¡¯s surface thoughts to see what was going on,¡± he paused as he stared at her, ¡°even you were included in those times because Icked control, and when you didn¡¯t have your barriers primed, I would hear your surface thoughts.¡±  He felt her hand clutch, his hand firmer¡ª he could feel her worry, but he continued, ¡°There was a time when I liberally used Legilimency whenever I could get away with it. . . somewhere along the line, I grew. . . or just realized what I was doing, so I implemented rules upon myself.


    Never to use any form of Legilimency on my friends.  If someone seemed safe the first time, I wouldn¡¯t use Legilimency to hear their thoughts. . . .  I continued the breakfast ritual, but limited it down to emotions and excluded friends.¡±


    He then stopped and let Daphne decide what she thought of it.  Her reaction?  She resumed walking and pulled him along.


    ¡°Have you ever looked into my memories?¡± she asked.


    Quinn shook his head, ¡°I haven¡¯t, not with our friends.  I rarely dove into memories during Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°And outside Hogwarts?¡±


    ¡°Well, I need a way to practice, so when during the summers, whenever I would go to the non-magical world, I would take some time and sit down in a crowded ce like train stations and feel memories, listen to thoughts, and even dive into memories.  I justified it to myself by thinking that I would never meet those people ever again. . . and it worked because I never felt I was viting my values.¡±


    There was another spell of silence before Daphne spoke and asked, ¡°Did you feel my emotions before asking me out to ensure that I. . . .¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Quinn said before she could finish, ¡°I had done a good job with my self-imposed restrictions.  I¡¯m not going to lie that I wasn¡¯t tempted to check, but they were just fleeting thoughts that I paid no regard to.¡±


    ¡°. . . I see,¡± said Daphne before asking.  ¡°Would you like to check now?  If I love you.¡±


    Quinn softly shook his head.  He didn¡¯t need that.


    ¡°Would you like to know if I love you?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯d be great if my girlfriend loved me.¡±


    Daphne stopped and faced him.  ¡°I have a much better way than reading minds to let you know if I love you.¡±


    ¡°Oh, what is it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s straightforward,¡± she said, tipped toe as she pulled him down.


    Quinn found himself kissing her.  It was soft and slow but at the same time burning.  His head was filled with thoughts of how she was right¡ª it was straightforward and effective.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C A secret is strongest when known only to one. . . but sometimes, secrets are better when they¡¯re weaker.


    Daphne Greengrass ¨C Loves to find unknown ces ¨C Saw a different side.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Wants to get out of her house ¨C In a bit of trouble.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 340 The Azkaban Transport

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Granian breed of winged horses neighed under the dark night sky.


    ¡°Calm down, boy,¡± said the carriage driver patting down the horse out of the six horses attached to the front of a long barred cage atop wheels.


    The gruff middle-aged man with the scruffy beard smoothed out the horse¡¯s coat as he nced at the group of fellow Aurors standing at a distance, conversing.  One of them, who Graham recognized as Hartley, broke away from the group and walked towards him.


    ¡°Is everything ready, Graham?¡± asked Hartley.


    ¡°Aye, the boys are ready to fly, anxious actually,¡± said Graham, the Auror assigned as the carriage driver.


    ¡°Good, good, today¡¯s an important day.¡±  Hartley turned his eyes up to the cloudless sky.  ¡°The weather¡¯s with us today.  It doesn¡¯t look like it will rain or thunder.¡±


    ¡°Nor will it thunder,¡± Graham added.  ¡°It¡¯s terrible time flying when the horses get agitated by the thunder.  Rain won¡¯t be hindering me eye today as well¡ª it looks to be turning into an easy haul today.¡±


    Hartley pursed his lips, making Graham ask if something was wrong.


    ¡°You know how it is,¡± said Hartley, ¡°we¡¯ll be hauling Death Eaters to Azkaban today.  Last time this happened, the patrol was ambushed in the way, and the prisoners freed away by the filthy Death Eaters.  Three good people in the guarding patrol are still stuck in St. Mungos¡¯ spell damage recovery ward.¡±


    ¡°You reckon it will happen again?¡±


    ¡°Who knows?  Last time, the prisoners were pretty big names¡ª Greyback, Carrow Twins, Yaxley.  This time, they aren¡¯t that big of names, so maybe the Death Eaters won¡¯t bother. . . can¡¯t imagine them being the chummiest of the bunch.¡±


    ¡°We have to be careful,¡± sighed Graham as he continued stroking the well-maintained coat.  ¡°It looks like we¡¯ll be traveling a lot of people today,¡± he pointed at the group of ten additional Aurors that had arrived with the prisoners.


    ¡°Orders from above.  The Death Eaters seemed to have tangled with someone mighty important and pissed them off.  Scrimgeour had been taking rounds of the office to check progress¡ª even Lady Minister came down once.  No one wants this to go down in mes. . . let¡¯s just hope it goes smoothly without any crazy.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t we all want that. . .¡±


    Thirteen Death Eaters, all cuffed behind their backs with arm cuffs, were levitated to the open cage and unceremoniously dumped inside with no regard.  The cage door was shut on them as they shuffled inside.  The magical looks snapped into ces with a buzz of magic sealing them shut.  A wave of cracking blue magic passed between the bars on all four sides, forming a pale coating before it vanished¡ª there but unseen to the eye.


    Graham and Hartley greeted their superior in charge as Sirius and James came to overlook the transfer process.


    ¡°Should we knock them out?¡± asked Sirius, lightly kicking the side of the cage, springing up the pale blue protection.  ¡°It¡¯ll be much less trouble for us if they don¡¯t fuss.¡±  He looked down at the Death Eaters, ¡°Don¡¯t fuss, okay.  Any strangeness. . . be ready for a world of misery.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be a problem if they get too roughed up during the transport,¡± James said with crossed arms.  ¡°Let¡¯s nail them down to the floor with sticking charms and leave it at that.¡±


    Sirius smirked, ¡°Yeah, on a second thought, it¡¯d be a pity if they don¡¯t experience the pleasant winds of the night during their ride. . . after all, when¡¯s the next time they¡¯ll get to experience such luxuries.¡±


    ¡°Will you being with us today, sirs,¡± asked Graham.


    ¡°Yes, can¡¯t have this going wrong.  Other than us, you¡¯ll be joined by one more Senior and one Captain.  If Death Eaters doe to save their pals, they¡¯ll being along with us.¡±


    ¡°That much for a transport!¡± Hartley asked in brow-raising surprise.  ¡°At this rate, the Death Eater will turn back when they see who they¡¯ll be going against.¡±


    The fourughed beside the miserable Death Eaters stuffed into cages as if they were animals.  It would take someone a good amount of effort to look for someone inside the Auror Office sympathetic with Death Eaters.


    ¡°Alright, enough joking around; it¡¯s time to focus on the job.¡±


    The four Aurors turned to see Captain Auror Kingsley arrive.  He called for everyone to gather around and started the final brief.


    ¡°This is your standard transport to Azkaban operation, but because our prisoners are Death Eaters, there¡¯s a danger that other Death Eaters would try to free them as they have done before.  We will be divided into four teams.  Singh¡¯s team will remain with the prisoners and take them to Azkaban.  Potter and ck will take their team and protect the carriage if the Death Eater tries to be stupid and interfere with the transport.  I will take my team and act as support wherever needed.  Don¡¯t ck off or let your guard down.  Now, let¡¯s do the job and get home.¡±


    The Auror patrol took flights on their brooms and surrounded the prisoner cage pulled by winged horses reigned in by Graham.  While Graham had cast a nifty spell that reduced the wind resistance on his body, the prisoners had no such luxury and were whipped by the fast winds.


    Graham had his eye in front when he noticed something on the edge of his field of sight.  And out of nowhere, out of nothing, at least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle.  He narrowed his eyes behind his flight googles before they went wide.  He whipped his wand out and ced it on his throat.


    ¡°DEATH EATERS INCOMING!¡±


    His voice fought against the wind and reached the ears of all members of the Auror patrol.  The trained Aurors took their formations at once and formed a dome around the prisoner carriage.  But just as they set themselves into the formations, several spells came whistling against the wind and exploded in the front.  The chaos was instant as the Auros spearheading at the front were blown away along with their brooms.


    In an instant, the night sky was turned into a battlefield of magic, with bright spells lighting up the darkness.  Brooms flew at neck-breaking speeds, with the riders weaving out of the spells¡¯ way and defending against others.


    Graham looked around, his grip tightening on the reigns.  He raised his wand to cast spells defending the horses, trying to keep them safe because the carriage would crash below into the fields without them.  He also kept on the team in charge of defending the carriage, watching to spot the weakside and supplementing it.


    He swallowed at the chaos around him.  There was nomunication from anyone, and that worried him.  That¡¯s why he didn¡¯t like transports to Azkaban¡ª the fortress, surrounded by vast waters, with no ind anywhere near it, was covered in wards that disallowed apparitions and Portkey travels, which couldn¡¯t be pulled down even for a second because of the security risk, and there were no Floo Network because of the risk of getting watched¡ª the only way to arrive at the prison was by flying. . . which could lead to problems like the one they faced now.


    A spell suddenly came from a side that Graham thought was the strong side protected by the defensive team.  He turned hastily towards the spell with his wand.  He wasn¡¯t going to make it!  Suddenly another spell came from just beside his head and expanded into a shield spell, thwarting the Death Eater¡¯s spell.  Graham jolted in surprise and turned back¡ª that shield spell wasn¡¯t a standard one used by Aurors.  His breath hitched when he saw another spell, this time from a weak side,ing towards him. . . time seemed to have slowed down for Graham, and at that moment, he could only watch as the spell inched towards him.  But then again, out of nowhere, another shield spell came over his head and protected him against the second Death Eaters that should¡¯ve blown him out from the air.


    The world returned to speed, and the sounds returned to his ears.  Graham¡¯s heart thumped like a train as his eyes swarmed around with his wand at ready.  But while Graham¡¯s mind was thinking about protection and survival, another part was dominated by the two spells that had saved his life twice¡ª they weren¡¯t standard Auror shield spells, and while not all used those spells, he couldn¡¯t remember anyone using that specific one.


    Thump!


    Graham jumped in his seat because of a sudden downward jerk from behind.  He turned his head up and back towards the carriage cage, and his pupils shrunk from shock.  Standing on the top of the carriage, dressed in all ck and the mask well known to everyone in DMLE.


    ¡°Invisible Vignte!¡± but Graham¡¯s voice was drowned away by the winds.


    The shocking appearance was sudden as the Invisible Vignte vanished in front of Graham¡¯s eyes.  Instantly, Graham tried to locate Invisible Vignte. . . and found him immediately. . . in the form of horrid screams that reached his ears against the flow of the winds.  Graham looked back into the prisoner cage through the bars to find he couldn¡¯t see anything than soot and haze that filled the cage, leaking out, blowing back with the winds.


    Graham broke out of his shock and put the wand to his throat to inform the entire patrol, ¡°INVISIBLE VIGILANTE!  INVISIBLE VIGILANTE!  HE IS HEAR!  HE HAS RELEASED A SPELL INTO THE CAGE THAT I THINK IS THE ONE WE SUSPECTED HE USED BEFORE!  HE IS INVISIBLE!  I REPEAT, THE INVISIBLE VIGILANTE IS HERE!¡±


    There was no response for one second. . . two. . . three. . . four ticks before Graham heard a voice that he identified as Kingsley.  ¡°Noted.  Remain focused on the prisoner¡¯s protection; we will take care of tracking him down. . . . Don¡¯t interfere with the prisoners inside the cage.¡±


    Thest part of the message made Graham suck in a breath.  He clutched the reigns tighter and ignored the screamsing from behind him.


    The Aurors didn¡¯t need to put much effort into finding the Invisible Vignte.  The sky was lit up with white shes near some Death Eaters, sending him falling out of the sky into the fields below.  Then two long glowing red chains appeared out from a singr point and sprinted towards two Death Eaters and grabbed onto their brooms.  As if chained to a wall, the brooms were yanked from below the Death Eaters and sent them to an obvious fate of free fall. . . if they survived their fall was currently unknown.


    One of the Aurors shot a spell from where the magical red chains originated, and a shield manifested into defense.  There was a distorted ripple in the shape of a human as the shield disappeared.  The distortion vanished almost instantaneously, hiding the Invisible Vignte.


    ¡°I have a lock on him,¡± heard Graham and everyone in the Auror patrol.  It was Sirius ck who had spoken.  ¡°I can roughly locate him; do you want me to pursue him?¡±


    There was a pause in the response from Kingsley that came into everyone¡¯s ears, but it surprised a lot of people when it arrived.  ¡°You are not to attack the vignte until the threat of Death Eater ambush is taken care of or until I give the order.  If he attacks any of us, you are free to shoot him down.


    After that, ck, Potter, and I will hunt down the vignte with the rest of you continuing onto Azkaban under Singh¡¯smand.¡±  Kingsley finished with, ¡°I want him alive.¡±


    Sirius¡¯ affirmation ensued, with James following after.


    Graham epted the orders from Captain Auror in charge.  He didn¡¯t know how to feel about it but didn¡¯t get the time to ponder about it because of the attacks.  Graham took a look back in the cage and saw that the soot and haze had cleared.  He watched as the Death Eatersy slumped on the floor, not moving.  He panicked, wondering if they were dead for a second, but then he strained his ears to hear some painful moaning that he almost missed.


    Graham knew that the Death Eaters had lost their hands if his guess was correct.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Invisible Vignte ¨C Unannounced Participation ¨C Operating as per M.O.


    Graham ¨C Junior Auror ¨C On a ride to remember.


    Kingsley Shacklebolt ¨C Captain Auror ¨C Controversial decision?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 341 Storm & Pursuit

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The sounds of whipping wind pped in his ears.


    Quinn, in his Noir gear, flew above the fighting Aurors and Death Eaters, keeping his eye on the spell crossfire from behind his mask that had been magically modified to not hinder his vision in any way, especially his peripherals.


    He nced at the prison cage.  Tetani Nervum¡¯s soot and haze had subsided as the magic had run its course, taking away not only their hands but also their legs as one final revenge.  If it was any other prisoner transport, even if they were Death Eaters, he wouldn¡¯t have bothereding here, but it had be personal because the prisoners were the thirteen Death Eaters who had attacked him.  He had kept an ear open for it, keeping tabs through his grandfather, and when he heard that it was going down today, he had put on his gear and was out of home with an excuse of going to the non-magical world, that he frequented enough to not seem suspicious.


    ¡®They¡¯re talking,¡¯ he thought.  It was faint and well-executed, but he could sense the flow of magic going back and forth between every Auror.  He observed the flow and arrived at the conclusion that it was sound magic with it being used tomunicate over the wind.


    He turned his focus on the Death Eaters¡ª unlike their opponents, there was nomunication¡ª or at least none that he could pick up, but that wasn¡¯t highly probable.


    ¡®Good for me.  They¡¯ll go down more easily.¡¯


    He was done with his primary objective of disabling his thirteen assants.  He wondered if he should exit and leave the Death Eater rescue team to the Aurors, but after some pondering, Quinn decided to stay a little longer to ensure that there were no casualties on the Auror side.  There were already on the lesser side, and losing anymore would be a loss of quality magic users capable andpetent in dueling.


    Quinn controlled the finds andunched towards a Death Eaters like a cannonball.  He gyro-ed his legs forward and mercilessly kicked the Death Eater from his broom.  He ignored the falling scream and grabbed onto the broom, bombarded it with his magic, setting the entire shaft on fire.  Looking around, he picked a nearby Death Eater and sent the burning broom towards them.


    The Death Eater, startled at the sight of a burning broom streaking towards him, steered his own broom away, and with his attention consumed by the broom, he was hit by a spell from an Auror. . . just as Quinn had intended things to turn out.


    Quinn nced down, and he could see the rural being left away and the urban building closer¡ª he could tell that within a few, they would be squarely into a city withrge non-magical poptions under them, making anymotion in the sky a potential spectacle to those down below. . . something that was a severe security hazard.


    He took in the aerial battlefield.  Even with the fight going for a while, the Death Eaters still outnumbered the Aurors.  He needed to trim the numbers enough that the Death Eaters lost confidence and retreated from the rescue operation.


    ¡®I guess it¡¯s time to blow some away.¡¯


    His focus deepened.  The magic began pouring out of his magic core.  The deep reserves, which rarely saw such substantial expenditure from magic, started to hum as if they were excited about what was to follow.  He increased his altitude and rose up above the battlefield, looking down at everyone with his burning purple eyes.


    Suddenly, everyone in the air sawrge currents of wind whip up around them.  They picked up speed, sucking in some of the clouds below them.  The swirling winds grew more potent, forming a tornado around them, with Death Eaters and Aurors alike suddenly finding themselves in an eye of a literal storm¡ª but this eye of the storm wasn¡¯t calm at all¡ª everyone found themselves clutching their brooms tighter and were forced to adjust their speeds to not running into the swirling wind walls that progressively grew stronger.  But then everyone found their danger rms rang up a storm when the tornado started to shrink upon them, but at the same time, the swirling winds only seemed to run faster.


    Quinn turned his glowing purple eyes towards the Death Eaters in the sky andmanded his magic and thus decreed the winds to do his bidding.  The winds turned into almost solid pirs and shot at angles towards the Death Eaters.


    One of the wind pirs sneaked up a Death Eater from behind and knocked the ¡®wind¡¯ out of him, and he found himself leaning towards the tornado walls.  If it was just that, it would¡¯ve been manageable, but then the winds that made up the pir surrounded the Death Eaters and forcefully pulled him towards the tornado.  The Death Eater¡¯s scream got locked inside the winds, but everyone saw the violent outburst of spells shot in panic. . . that was until the man met the tornado. . . and all struggle halted.


    And with that halt began the chaos that descended the Death Eaters into what seemed to be a waking nightmare.  The fierce symphonies of winds sung under Quinn as the conductor, extending their screaming talons that pulled the masked followers of the Death Eater into its violent embrace.


    The magic was one from the Nordic Books of Winds that Quinn had picked up in Denmark.  Quinn had learned a variety of wind magics from the said book¡ª usually concentrating on control-type magic, but the book had an abundance of destructive magics with the sole aim of decimating their targets.


    Quinn breathed out, and his eyes returned to their usual color.  The tornado dissipated just in time for the flight to reach the port town.  He nced towards the direction they hade from, where he had left behind a trail of Death Eaters¡ª he didn¡¯t know how many of them survived their fall. . . after all, he didn¡¯t know how many were able to hold on to their wands while being pulled apart by the winds.


    The thought only stayed in his mind for a moment.  Quinn nced towards the prisoner carriage and saw that the winged horses were still flying strong.  The Aurors had moved closer to the carriage to keep themselves away from getting sucked into the tornado.


    He had taken revenge, cleared away the obstacle for the Aurors, used a magic he wouldn¡¯t get a chance to use usually, and had felt great all the way through¡ª now it was time to go home and maybe have a nice meal at a non-magical restaurant on the way.  He turned himself invisible and flew away in the opposite direction from the sea.


    But it had only been maybe half a minute of flying when he felt something and turned back.  His eyes widened when he saw three people on brooms flying in his direction. . . and it was obvious that they were following after him.


    ¡®What?¡¯  He recognized the three¡ª James Potter, Sirius ck, and Kingsley Shacklebolt in the front.


    Quinn pulsed his magic and elerated faster to force the three Aurors to give up their pursuit.  Contrary to his expectation, the three had no problem keeping up with his speed and even a lot of the distance and were now just on his tail.  He frowned and turned forward.  He thought of the maximum speed of the fastest broom and upped his eleration to push his speed past that maximum limit.


    But then a spell whizzed past Quinn, missing him by inches.  His pupils contracted, and his speed faltered because of the sudden surprise.  It took mere seconds for Quinn to shake the shock, but that was already toote.  Quinn clicked his tongue and twisted himself to face the three Aurors while still flying away from them.  He turned his head a smidge and let another spell go past him.


    A spell came from Sirius, immediately followed by James, and the link continued by Shacklebolt.  It was like archers alternating themselves to shoot a continuous barrage of arrows¡ª there wasn¡¯t a single skipped beat, forming a chain of seamless spells.


    Quinn grunted with furrowed brows.  They could see him¡ª but Quinn knew of that possibility¡ª invisibility spells didn¡¯t work well while moving, especially when moving at his current speed.


    He couldn¡¯t run away from this.  He could leave them in dust in terms of flight speed, but that was a problem as flying was something that took a lot of his focus, and there was a high enough risk of him getting hit by a spell.  And because of the same reason, he couldn¡¯t apparate out.


    The only operation was a confrontation.


    Or. . .


    Quinn nced down and saw a small town beneath him.  It took a split second to make his decision.  He cut his forward eleration, simultaneously creating a partial vacuum beneath him that sucked him down at a revved rate.  It must have been surprising because there was a noticeable pause in the spell barrage before they continued.


    Quinn sped up his descent, and soon he was on the tarmac road in a fortunately deserted street, and he hit it running¡ª Quinn didn¡¯t wait for a second and dashed out of the main road into a gap between the buildings.


    ¡®Shit!¡¯ he cursed as the other side of the narrow alleyway was another wide street.


    As he came to a skidding stop on the concrete of a manhole cover just as a spell sted the tiles off the paved ground.  Quinn looked up and saw Sirius on the other side of the alleyway, flying.


    ¡°Surrender,¡± came a voice directly above him where James came into sight.


    A yellowish dome suddenly covered the area around them, and Quinn could see Shacklebolt casting the dome.


    He was cornered.


    ¡°We don¡¯t want this to get messy,¡± said Sirius.  ¡°It¡¯d be better for all if youe with us peacefully.  If you resist, it will get ugly quick, and after what happened before, we don¡¯t want that, do we.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t respond, instead kept an eye on all three Aurors and began trickling his magic, slow enough that even the trained Auror couldn¡¯t detect the flow of magic.  It was better for him to get them by surprise, especially in the current situation.


    ¡°Invisible Vignte,¡± Shacklebolt spoke from above, ¡°I am Captain Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt.  The Auror Office and the DMLE have issued an arrest order for you. . . you might think that your actions are doing good for society, but the truth of the matter is that they have been against thew¡ª which is there for a reason.  Your tant disregard of thew is dangerous not only for you but also for those who might take inspiration from you and go down a path that will harm them¡ª unlike you, not all are well-versed in the magical arts.


    So it is imperative that you stop your actions ande with us.  If youe with us now, I can guarantee that the prosecution will be lenient on your case¡ª even the Minister would support leniency.¡±


    ¡°It is a great deal that not many if any get,¡± said James from above.  ¡°We want you to work with us against the Death Eaters¡ª if you are of help, we can work a deal for you.  Isn¡¯t that what you want?  The demise of the Death Eaters¡ª just imagine the DMLE working towards your goal with resources much greater than yours.¡±


    Quinn listened to them and stood straighter and spoke in the distorted voice of the Invisible Vignte,


    ¡°No.¡±


    The Aurors seemed disappointed; they exchanged nces before looking down at Quinn.


    ¡°Then we will have to take you by force,¡± said James.


    Quinn replied, ¡°Goodbye.¡±


    He tapped his foot on the manhole cover below him.  The magic that Quinn had been tricking in secret had corroded the concrete, so when Quinn tapped it, the concrete broke, and the cover sunk down into the sewers, taking Quinn with it.


    The Aurors faces exploded with shock and surprise.  They recovered swiftly. . . but it wasn¡¯t fast enough as a ¡ª POP! ¡ª greeted their ears.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C Invisible Vignte ¨C Cornered. . . but not trapped.


    James, Sirius, Shackelbot ¨C Three Auror-teers ¨C  Bakana!


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Dhoom 2¡ª if someone gets the reference.


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the BIO!

 Chapter 342 Visible Vigilante

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn pulled the Noir gear off of him in one of the many alleyways that he had ended up memorizing in cases he needed an empty ce. . . for situations like the current one.


    ¡°That was close.¡±


    He hadn¡¯t expected the Aurors to spot him and chase him down while they were on the Death Eater transport assignment.  So it surprised him to see two Senior Aurors and a Captain Auror on his pursuit.


    ¡°I need to figure out a better invisibility spell. . . these ones aren¡¯t clearly working under high speeds.¡±


    He had thought that the night of the sky would work for him to cover up for the limitations of the spell, but his assumption was faulty¡ª at least, the Aurors were able to spot him.  It didn¡¯t help when an Auror was actively looking for him.


    ¡°Damn, Aurors.  Why couldn¡¯t they just do their job?  Why do they need to follow me¡ª this is all Amelia Bones¡¯ fault¡ª why did she have to set up a task force.¡±


    It was clear from Shackelbolt¡¯s words that the Aurors Office wanted the information they thought he had.  They were even willing to strike a deal.


    ¡®Though I can¡¯t think Rufus Scrimgeour would be willing to strike a deal with a vignte out of his control.¡¯  The new Head of DMLE didn¡¯t seem to be a negotiating person.  Which meant that Amelia Bones must¡¯ve really rallied for the task force, thought Quinn.


    He stepped out of the alleyway into a partially busy street and began wandering around without a destination in mind.  He didn¡¯t want to return home just yet with his filled with thoughts swirling with Aurors, Death Eaters, and Invisible Vignte.  So he decided to have a walk to clear up his head.


    His thoughts soon wandered to the chase.  Quinn wondered if his choice to drop into the town was correct, or should he have continued flying and tried something else.


    ¡®It was luck that the alleyway had a manhole cover, or things would¡¯ve gotten real ugly fast.¡¯


    The escape through the manhole cover was a way for him to leave the conflict without violence.  It was clear to Quinn that if he hadn¡¯t found the manhole cover and escaped using the sewers¡ª a fight would¡¯ve ensued, and because of his choice, the location would¡¯ve been a town instead somewhere detached from the general poption.  There would¡¯ve been property damage and even a possibility of a non-magical getting implicated and injured.


    Quinn didn¡¯t want that to happen.  He was confident that even with three trained Aurors, who probably had more technical and practical experience than him, he would¡¯vee out victorious.  He wasfortable in the Invisible Vignte¡¯s fighting style and magical usage¡ª it wasn¡¯t an overreach to say that he was more familiar with it than he was with ¡®Quinn West¡¯s¡¯ fighting style.


    But Quinn preferred to avoid violence and destruction.  He wasn¡¯t very keen to leave a magical footprint in such a way that would harmful attention to the magical world and take work to cover and fix it up.  And Quinn¡¯s fight with the three Aurors would¡¯ve done substantial damage to the town.


    ¡®If that happened, the lenient Auror¡¯s department could turn their stance.¡¯  Which was something Quinn didn¡¯t want as it not only made him a prime enemy for the Death Eaters but also a target of capture for the Auror¡ª who would remove the ¡®handle with care¡¯ sticker from the box he was.


    ¡°Who knew that being a vignte, an ouw, would have to worry about so many things.  This job is tougher than I thought it would be.¡±


    But, Quinn was sure that now that the Invisible Vignte would be appearing more and more from now on.


    ¡°I wonder. . . how would this shape things up.¡±


    For now, he had other work to do.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°He escaped?¡± said Amelia Bones to four Aurors sitting in the conference room with her.  She looked down at the report and expanded, ¡°Escaped through. . . the sewers.¡±


    She looked at Rufus Scrimgeour, Kingsley Shackelbolt, James Potter, and Sirus ck.


    ¡°How did he manage to escape a Captain Auror and two Senior Auror when they had managed to trap him in an alleyway?¡±


    The Aurors remained silent, with Scrimageour looking at his subordinates, looking for answers.


    ¡°He got lucky, ma¡¯am,¡± started Sirius, ¡°if he hadn¡¯t found that exit, we would¡¯ve him a room with us¡ª making him spill all of his secrets.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like an excuse, Auror ck.  I do not like excuses, you know that, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Minister.¡±


    Amelia sighed.  They hade this close to the Invisible Vignte, but he had again slipped away.  She picked up the report and nced through it when she found a line that jumped out off the page.


    ¡°He can fly?¡± she looked up at three Aurors who were part of the confrontation.  ¡°What does this mean?  He wasn¡¯t using a broom?¡±


    ¡°He wasn¡¯t on a broom; we can say that with certainty,¡± James nodded.  ¡°There were many observations that led us to believe that the Invisible Vignte can fly without the use of a broom.  First, Junior Auror Graham reported that he found the Invisible Vignte standing atop the prisoner cage, visible¡ª there was no broom in his possession.¡±


    Sirius picked up from there, ¡°When I spotted him initially, I kept an eye on him, and from the distortions in the magic, I could tell that he wasn¡¯t on a broom.  It got progressively clearer when we were chasing him that he wasn¡¯t using one.  Then he waspletely exposed when he dropped his disillusionment, and there was no broom anywhere near him.¡±


    ¡°Unaided flight?!¡±


    Amelia knew surprise when she felt it.  A wizard who could fly without a broom?  That was something she didn¡¯t think she would listen to today.  It was a long established fact that unaided flight wasn¡¯t something possible ever in the history of magic.


    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t unaided flight,¡± said Shacklebolt.  ¡°Yes, he didn¡¯t use a broom, but the magic he used wasn¡¯t true flight magic.  We can confidently say that the Invisible Vignte is a master in using wind magic.  He used wind magic to get rid of the Death Eater¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ª How many of the Death Eaters were we able to find?¡± asked Amelia.  The report didn¡¯t mention what had happened or what was the progress of the Death Eaters that had initiated the attack.


    ¡°We are trying to find them. . . it is difficult to find them when they were whipped out by a wind tornado,¡± said Sirius.  ¡°If they made it alive, it would be toote to find them, but if they didn¡¯t, we will either get to them first, or there will be news in the muggle newspaper.¡±


    Amelia massaged her index finger on her temple.


    ¡°This will be a problem,¡± she said to Scrimgeour¡ª but her tone was more of asking.


    Scrimgeour nodded his cold lion-like eyes looking indifferent, ¡°If we find a dead Death Eater,¡± and from the look of it, he didn¡¯t mind finding one, ¡°it would open a case¡ª or multiple¡ª of murder against the Invisible Vignte.  If that happens, the current policy would need to go an overhaul.¡±


    ¡°I know, of course, I know,¡± she sighed.  Amelia wanted to say that she hoped there would be no dead bodies but couldn¡¯t say it because that would show an unfavorable amount of favor for someone whose every appearance was associated with breakingws.


    ¡°What should be our stance on this?¡± asked Kingsley.  ¡°The incident is going to be leaked to the public sooner orter¡ª we can put a gag order on it and stop it for a while, but if it gets out after a wait¡ª the impact is going to berger than before, and we will have to answer why we hid the matter in the first ce.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t do that.  Tell your teams not to talk about it, but don¡¯t mention that it¡¯s official.  There will be no official memo on the matter,¡± Scrimgeour fiddled with the ring on his finger.  ¡°For now, what we can do is to put the information as sensitive as part of an ongoing investigation.¡±


    ¡°That seems to be the best course of action,¡± Amelia agreed.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Rivers Lock sat down in the Malfoy lounge with a drink in his hand, picked from the Malfoy cers.  He let down his shoulders as he rxed and raised his ss to take a sip, but before the rim could reach his lips, a voice sounded.


    ¡°What did you find?¡±


    Rivers hand paused and nced towards the source and saw Peter Pettigrew sitting on a chair in the corner, covered in darkness.


    ¡°I can switch on the lights if you want,¡± asked Rivers.


    ¡°You went fact-finding, did you not?¡± said Pettigrew.  ¡°Does the DMLE have anything on the Invisible Vigte?¡±


    Rivers lifted his ss again and took a sip, savoring it before he finally answered, ¡°They know nothing other than that he can fly.¡±


    ¡°We also know that.  What else?¡±


    ¡°It seems that some of Auror chased after the Invisible Vignte; they had some sort of confrontation¡ª the details on that are tight¡ª but the clear thing is that they couldn¡¯t capture him.  He gave Potter, ck, and Shacklebolt the slip.¡±


    Pettigrew showed no emotion, but there was a light in his eyes.


    ¡°How many of them have returned?¡± asked Rivers.


    ¡°Half of them.¡±


    ¡°What do you think about the other half?¡±


    Peter shrugged, ¡°They¡¯re either dead, or they deserted in fear of retaliation from the Lord.  The news of Lucius¡¯ punishment had an. . . effect¡ª¡±


    Rivers took it from there, ¡°If Lucius Malfoy can¡¯t escape the punishment, then what about them. . . . They might have thought running would be a chance to break away.¡±


    ¡°Fools,¡± scoffed Pettigrew.  ¡°By running away, they have brought upon death upon them.  When the Lord returns, he will hunt them down.¡±


    ¡°Or they could be dead.¡±


    ¡°They could be.¡±


    Rivers took a sip and let the silence swirl.  ¡°When¡¯s the Lord going to return?¡±


    ¡°That. . . only he knows.¡±


    ¡°What is he doing.¡±


    Pettigrew stared at Rivers with a t smile, ¡°You could¡¯ve asked these questions to him rather than trying to get information from me.¡±


    ¡°Nothing like that,¡± said Rivers with a simr smile.  ¡°I missed the timing to ask the questions, and you¡¯re his trusted. . . so you¡¯d know.  Am I wrong?¡±


    ¡°Who knows. . . who knows,¡± said Pettigrew, his smile growing more stic.


    ¡°About the Invisible Vignte. . .¡± Rivers knew that he wasn¡¯t going to get more answers from Pettigrew, so he switched the topic.  ¡°Who is he?  I have been trying to find his identity, but no one seems to even know the color of his hair.¡±


    ¡°. . . He¡¯s a mystery,¡± said Pettigrew.  ¡°The fact that he dared to face the Dark Lord means that he is either confident in his magic to get alive, or he¡¯s an idiot.  I¡¯m betting on the former.¡±


    ¡°How do you think the Lord¡¯s going to react to this?¡±


    ¡°He has been neutral about the Invisible Vignte. . . which I find uncharacteristic for him.  He has been a hindrance one too many times. . . I do not know why I haven¡¯t seen a single shred of anger or even annoyance.  I do not know what he¡¯s thinking.¡±


    Rivers sipped his drink.  Unlike Pettigrew, he had seen something in the Dark Lord¡¯s eyes.


    Curiosity.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I wonder a lot


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 343 Two Tracks Merging

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn walked down the stairs of his briefcase.  Ever since Hogwarts, it had be a ce where he spent substantial time.  After all, the entirety of his research had shifted from the AID workshop and the Room of Requirement to the corridor of rooms present inside the expanded confines of the briefcase.


    He stopped in front of a royal blue door with a pearl white owl with intelligent human-like eyes.  The owl seemed angry and stared at Quinn with a piercing re.  Thinking of the inspiration behind the door art made a blissful smile bloom on Quinn¡¯s face.  He opened the door and stepped into the pitch dark room with the open door as the only source of light.


    It shined a light on the world on the sole object in the room.


    ¡°Wake up,¡± he said.


    The white-bearded man in the magical portrait roused from his sleep and cracked open his eyes, narrowing them to adjust to the light.  When he looked at Quinn, the nk face turned into one of great anger, so much so that the man¡¯s pale skin flushed red.


    ¡°You!¡± thundered Merlin, as if wanting to break out of the photo frame.  ¡°Who do you think you are?!  I am Merlin, the Grand Sorcerer of the King Author¡¯s Court!  The premiere Enchanter of the freends.  How dare you imprison me in here?  Release me at once or face the wrath of magic and nature¡¯s smite!¡±


    Quinn¡¯s chuckled.


    ¡°What is so amusing,¡± Merlin¡¯s voice seemed filled with poison.


    ¡°Oh, nothing much,¡± Quinn pped his hands for the MLEs in the room lit up.  ¡°This makes me cognizant of the fact that the development of magic didn¡¯t end with your death.  The fact that there¡¯s so much more magic that you don¡¯t know, but I do¡ª that brings me so much tion.¡±


    Portrait magic had much progress after Merlin¡¯s death.  While he could travel to every portrait in Hogwarts, but if his image was taken out of Hogwarts, Merlin wasn¡¯t able to return to the castle.  On the other hand, Phineas ck, a Hogwarts headmaster, could travel between his portrait in the headmaster¡¯s office and the one in the Grimmauld Pce.


    When Quinn found that interesting fact, he exploited it to exact some revenge.


    ¡°How was it?  Feeling panic, anxiety, and fear after so much time¡ª all those emotions that must¡¯ve be foreign to you after so much time.  You had wide ess in Hogwarts¡ª the means to go anywhere, and everywhere you wanted. . . . But here you are, having all that taken away¡ª locked in a room by a person who has a grudge against you, hates you even. . . not knowing if you¡¯d ever see anything other than the ckness of the dark.


    How does it feel?  I hope it was jolly fun.¡±


    Quinn knew he was getting revenge against a portrait¡ª an image of Merlin¡ª and not the real man, but it sated his need for the sweet payback.


    Merlin gritted his teeth.  The ancient wizard¡¯s blue eyes seemed to be burning cold me.  He took a deep breath and retreated to a stoic appearance.


    Quinn didn¡¯t mind that and conjured a chair in front of the floating portrait.


    ¡°I have some questions to ask,¡± said Quinn nonchntly, as if he couldn¡¯t see the anger.


    ¡°Why would I answer you?!¡±


    ¡°Do you want to spend the rest of eternity in darkness?  If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯m happy to give you some privacy.¡±


    Merlin seemed that he didn¡¯t want anything more than to cast Killing Curse from his eyes.


    Seeing that Merlin didn¡¯t have anything to speak, Quinn continued, ¡°What can you tell me about spatial magic.¡±


    ¡°Spatial magic,¡± Merlin¡¯s re softened only a smidge.  ¡°What do you want to know?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m currently dwelling more into the intricacies of spatial magic.  I thought, who better start than the Grand Sorcerer of the King Author¡¯s Court!  The premiere Enchanter of the freends.  So how about it, Mr. Big Shot, what can your old wise magically created head teach the young naive me¡ª I see thy guidance.¡±


    ¡°. . . I spent time researching the secrets of spatial magic.  While I can¡¯t demonstrate them, I can guide you to the correct course¡ª help you not stray from the wrong paths.¡±


    ¡°That would be great,¡± smiled Quinn, folding his legs and taking out a small notebook and pen.


    ¡°What would I get?¡± Merlin spoke the second Quinn stopped.


    Quinn quirked a brow, ¡°Do you want to spend another indefinite amount of time locked here in this room?¡±


    ¡°I want to be given some freedom.  I want you to give me ess to a ce with many portraits and charm them so I can pass through them.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in no condition to negotiate, portrait.¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m no ordinary portrait, am I, Mr. Quinn West,¡± said Merlin with his eyes full of confidence.  ¡°I have a horde of knowledge inside me that you can¡¯t extract. . . only I can give them to if I wish to do so.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know that.  I have a way to turn you into something that would answer every question of mine.¡±


    ¡°Oh, but you don¡¯t.  You wouldn¡¯t be here talking to me if you had a way to do that.  I won¡¯t pretend to know you inside out, but I have observed enough to know that if you had a way, you would have already used it.  I would ¡°


    Quinn sighed and closed the notebook with the pen as a bookmark.  ¡°Why couldn¡¯t you be more gullible. . . . I¡¯ll give you ess to one more frame¡ª ask any more than that, and I¡¯ll leave you here.  How about it.¡±


    Merlin nodded, seemingly satisfied.


    ¡°Good, then let¡¯s continue,¡± said Quinn while thinking, ¡®I guess the portrait isn¡¯t the same as the real thing¡ª he didn¡¯t make me specify the ce.


    ¡°What do you want to learn?¡±


    ¡°Tell me about the Taboo curse. . .¡±


    Then the lecture began.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn was at the breakfast table eating his breakfast while reading the newspaper when George came into the room fully dressed and looking ready to leave.


    ¡°You¡¯re going somewhere?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Germany,¡± said George tersely.


    ¡°Oh, a nice business deal?¡±


    ¡°No, a problem.¡±


    Quinn quirked his brow but didn¡¯t look up from the papers.  ¡°What happened?  Someone made a mistake?¡±


    ¡°No.  But half our partner alliances in Germany suddenly pulled out doing business with us. . . all together yesterday morning.¡±


    That made Quinn¡¯s both brows shoot up.  ¡°What?  Half!  What happened?¡±


    ¡°The Dark Lord happened.¡±


    ¡°. . . The Dark Lord?¡± Quinn dropped everything and solely concentrated on the conversation.


    ¡°He went to Germany and swayed the pureblood supremacist to drop business with us; those he wasn¡¯t able to get, he threatened,¡± George didn¡¯t sound happy.


    Quinn knew that there were not many things that would make his grandfather angry¡ª and business going bad was a thing that always made him furious.


    ¡°Why would the Dark Lord suddenly attack our business?¡±


    ¡°To get me off his back, of course.  Do you know how much work and effort it is going to rebuild our business?  I can¡¯t bring back our partners; I can¡¯t trust them.  Finding new ones that could match them would take a great amount of vetting and due diligence, and even then, it is going to be a while before we reach the same revenue benchmarks.


    I knew I shouldn¡¯t have gone the alliance route and built our own.  Why did I expectpetence and honor from those bigoted morons?¡±


    ¡°So the Dark Lord thought you¡¯d be hurting his operations here, so decided to disrupt your in another country to upy your time. . . . What are you going to do?¡±


    ¡°I am going to take care of Germany, of course.  I¡¯m not going that mad man ruin my business anymore; he has already done enough of that.  When I¡¯m done in Germany, I will pull his operation here Death Eater by Death Eater.¡±


    ¡°. . . Or, I take over the retaliation against the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters.¡±


    George turned his stern eye to Quinn, his eyes narrowing.  ¡°Didn¡¯t I say we were going to stay away.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll stay away.  I¡¯m just going to follow what you¡¯d do and not the bone-breaking you think I¡¯m going for.  I will handle matters. . . peacefully¡ª Mahatama Gandhi¡ª non-violence.  All that stuff that you love.  How about it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡ª¡±


    ¡°I am an adult, grandfather.  I have plenty of experience using favors, I¡¯m charming, and well, I know Legilimency, and as long it is for a just cause, I¡¯m willing to offer my services as Legilimens.  And what cause more just than to bring trouble to the Dark Lord.  So what you say, shall we show the Dark Lord the might of the Wests.¡±


    If George¡¯s face was any indication, he wasn¡¯t impressed.  ¡°. . . I do not like it,¡± he said.


    ¡°But you know I¡¯ll be good at it.¡±


    There was a long silence in which Quinn and George stared at each other, smiling other severe, until George sighed, ¡°You can do it.¡±


    ¡°Thank you!¡±


    ¡°But. . .¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s always a but,¡± Quinn sighed.


    ¡°You¡¯ll do things the way I say you do.  Meaning that you¡¯ll go to the people I send you to do what I want you to do.  I¡¯ll leave it to you how you want to aplish my given tasks, but other than that, you¡¯ll have no additional input.  Agreed?¡±


    ¡°So, I¡¯m going to your execution man.¡±


    ¡°. . . I wouldn¡¯t put it in those words, but yes.¡±


    ¡°Alright. . . I agree.  Your wish will be mymand.¡±


    ¡°Mymands will be yourmands.¡±


    ¡°Oh,e on, we had a good thing going on.¡±


    George shook his head.  He picked up the cup of juice that Polly had packed him and left without saying another word.


    ¡°Well, that was great.  Now both of me can get involved.¡±


    Quinn West in meetings, behind the doors, cracking down on influential people¡¯s authority.  Invisible Vignte in the field, behind the mask, breaking down on Death Eater¡¯s bones.


    ¡°Here, I thought with AID over, I would be free. . . . Wait a minute, what am I, Batman?!  No. . . I¡¯m better¡ª Bruce Wayne was a bum.  Quinn West¡¯s a total badass.  Yeah, I¡¯m better. . .¡±


    Polly popped up in the room and asked, ¡°Would Little Master like some sweet cereal?¡±


    ¡°Yes, please.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Two lives on the same track. . . a good thing or bad.


    Merlin ¨C Portrait ¨C Teaching for his freedom.


    George West ¨C Grandfather ¨C Or Godfather.


    FictinOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Sorry for the shorter chapter.  This chapter just ended this way, and it seems it¡¯ll take me some time to adjust to my new living situation.  [Written On April 5, 2022.]


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 344 Converging Paths?

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Elliot entered the gardens of the West property, stretching his shoulder to relieve some stiffness.  It had been longer than usual since he had got to spend some time at home, away from all the strains of work.  All the problems in Germany had sapped all of Elliot¡¯s energy and were taxing enough that he wished he could take a vacation.


    He was about to move to the corner where he had nted herbs on his own when he chanced upon Quinnying on the ground, spread eagle.


    ¡°Is something bothering you,¡± asked Elliot.


    Quinn groaned and kept groaning until he said, ¡°I am old.¡±


    ¡°. . . You just turned eighteen, young master.  You¡¯re in no way or form old.¡±


    ¡°. . . My magic stopped growing yesterday,¡± said Quinn, his eyes staring at the sky.


    ¡°Your magic?¡±


    ¡°The flux period, I exited it yesterday,¡± sighed Quinn.


    The flux period of growth.  When a magical human turned eleven, they¡¯d enter a state of magical flux where their magic would grow even if they didn¡¯t use any¡ª magic being a muscle would grow with use, and during the flux period, magic would grow at an incredible rate if regrly utilized.  Quinn had been using as much magic as he could every day ever since he could remember¡ª it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration that he hadrger magic reserves than anyone his age.  Quinn was even sure that he hadrger reserves than Dumbledore and Voldemort.


    However, the flux stage as it was appropriately named. . . a stage.  It had toe to an end.  It was observed that the flux stage would pass when a magical would pass at the end of the seventeenth year and around the eighteen birthday.


    Quinn, who had just recently turned eighteen, had passed the age limit, and today, his magical core had finally matured to an adult¡¯s.  The magic inside him was still capable of growth, albeit at a very slow rate.


    He had thought his flux stage would continue for another four years because of his transmigration status, but it seemed that he was too optimistic in his thinking.


    ¡°This sucks!¡±  There was a feeling of stagnation inside his body.  If his magic had been free before, as if he was walking through the air, now it seemed like it had been forced to walk inside a vat of viscous liquid that pulled on his every movement to move forward.


    Elliotid down beside Quinn and faced up, also looking at the sky.  ¡°Doesn¡¯t it signify that you¡¯re ready?¡± he said.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Now that your magic core has matured, doesn¡¯t that signify that you¡¯re ready for a magical journey, your magical journey?  That you¡¯re done with preparation and have all the tools you¡¯ll need to progress, and now you can fully give it all.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been giving it all since a long ago,¡± said Quinn before sighing.  ¡°I understand what you¡¯re saying, but it is hard to ept that the same amount of effort won¡¯t be paying the same level of dividends.  ¡°


    ¡°So you won¡¯t be doing it anymore?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel like it,¡± said Quinn.  He could somewhat understand why Voldemort had gone down the path of artificial modifications¡ª and he had just been off of the growth just for one day.


    ¡°Then don¡¯t,¡± said Elliot.  ¡°It must¡¯ve been tiring to expend all of your magic every day.  It won¡¯t be bad for you to take a break from it.¡±


    Quinn reached into his pocket and showed Elliot a golf-sized ball of shiny metal that reflected in many colors.  ¡°This is lead. . . I have had this ball since I started Hogwarts.  Lead is a metal that¡¯s difficult to manipte and meld through magic¡ª it takes a lot of magic and requires a decent amount of focus to perform operations without exploding the metal.  Since I got it, I have been doing it, and this ball has seen at least sixteen hours of contact with magic every day. . . . I just can believe that I¡¯ll be stopping.


    How¡¯re you doing?  You look tired,¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°The mess in Germany isn¡¯t sorting out as we expected it would.  The fact remains that they¡¯re foreign and we indigenous, is creating unnecessary friction.  The partnership break is creating much more problems for us than for them.  It¡¯ll take some more time to sort the problems out so that problems.


    ¡°How¡¯s grandfather doing?¡±


    ¡°Busy.  I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to stop until he thinks he¡¯s done, which might take a while,¡± saying that Elliot got up before saying his finishing words, ¡°Don¡¯t let the tension pile up in your heart.  No matter what choice you take¡ª it should be the one thates from your heart.¡±


    Quinn watched Elliot till he was gone before looking back at the sky.  He floated the lead ball up so he could see it and wondered if he should continue with the exercise that, whenpared to before, now seemed pointless.


    The lead ball distorted into a liquid consistency that thrummed with spikes.  It broke down into smaller pellets that then ttened into rings that began rotating in front of his face.


    ¡°. . . I¡¯m a sucker of magic.¡±


    The lead continued to change shapes as Quinn stared at it from below, wondering if there was someone he could go to.  Merlin couldn¡¯t help him on this¡ª the flux period wasn¡¯t discovered in his time, and Merlin himself hadn¡¯t done personal research on the subject.  Quinn had written to n, and even though he knew about it, he had never tried to push his magic after his flux period, and even during it, n had been like any typical teen when it came to increasing his magic reserves.


    Quinn suddenly sat up with a sparkling look in his eyes.  A golden idea had struck him.  It was genius, he thought.


    ¡°I know!  I should go ask Grindelwald!¡±


    It was time to take a trip.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Voldemort sat in a room with a poshness that oozed out from every corner of the room.  There was a ss of wine in his hand that he rose up to his lipless mouth.


    ¡°You have been doing a fine job against George West,¡± said Voldemort, pleased.  ¡°He¡¯s been so busy that he doesn¡¯t have the time to raise an eyes towards Britain.¡±


    ¡°Dark Lord. . . we¡¯re already struggling with George West,¡± said one of the German pureblood.  ¡°At this rate, he will steal our business rather than us his.¡±


    ¡°Pulling out of the partnership has plunged us into the risk of future losses that seem inevitable,¡± sighed another pureblood.  ¡°This doesn¡¯t seem to be looking to be a good deal.¡±


    A sudden chill descended into the room.  There were a dozen or so people in the room, and every single one of them looked at the one who had spoken, their eyes practically screaming that he needed to stop.


    ¡°Handschuh. . . do you like your money more than your life?¡± asked Voldemort.  ¡°George West will take your money but won¡¯t kill you.  I, on the other day, can take away your life and your money after that. . . which one do you think is better.¡±


    Handschuh felt his feet go cold.  ¡°N-No, my apologies, My Lord.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. . .¡±


    Handschuh wasn¡¯t over yet; he gathered up his courage and spoke, ¡°M-My Lord, if-f I may.¡±


    Voldemortzily waved his hand, so Handschuh continued, ¡°I was a bar when I heard a name. . . .¡±


    ¡°What name might that be?¡±


    ¡°. . . Gregorovitch.¡±


    The wine in Voldemort¡¯s hand trembled.  He turned to Handschuh with his eyes being a mix of excitement and danger, ¡°I hope you¡¯re not jesting, Handschuh, are you?¡±


    ¡°N-No, M-My Lord.  I heard it clearly.  They were talking about Gregorovitch. . . and you were looking for him. . . .¡±


    ¡°Tell me more about it, Handschuh, and I will forgive your previous unsightliness.¡±


    ¡°T-Thank you, M-My Lord. . .¡±


    .


    .


    .


    .


    Voldemort glided along a twilit street.  The buildings on either side of him had high, timbered gables; they looked like gingerbread houses.  He approached one of them, then saw the whiteness of his own long-fingered hand against the door.  He knocked.  He felt a mounting excitement. . . .


    The door opened: Aughing woman stood there.  Her face fell as she looked into Voldemort¡¯s face: humor gone, terror recing it.


    ¡°Gregorovitch?¡± said a high, cold voice.


    She shook her head: She was trying to close the door.  A white hand held it steady, preventing her from shutting him out.


    ¡°I want Gregorovitch.¡±


    She cried, shaking her head.  ¡°He doesn¡¯t live here!  He doesn¡¯t live here!  I don¡¯t know him!¡±


    Abandoning the attempt to close the door, she began to back away down the dark hall, and Voldemort followed, gliding toward her, and his long-fingered hand had drawn his wand.


    ¡°Where is he?¡±


    ¡°He moved!  I don¡¯t know, please, I don¡¯t know!¡±


    He raised the wand.  She screamed.  Two young children came running into the hall.  She tried to shield them with her arms.  His wand tip glowed green¡ª


    ¡°No!¡± A man burst into the room


    Voldemort lowered his wand as the green grow subsided, and a smile grew on his face, ¡°It¡¯s good to see you, Gregorovitch.¡±


    .


    .


    .


    .


    ¡°Give it to me, Gregorovitch,¡± Voldemort¡¯s voice was high, clear, and cold, his wand held in front of him by a long-fingered white hand.


    He had just found out why his wand didn¡¯t work against Harry Potter¡¯s and found another piece of exciting information.  If his wand didn¡¯t work, then he needed to get another¡ª and if he was going to a new one, which better but the best wand ever made.


    Gregorovitch, at whom he was pointing, was suspended upside down in midair, though no ropes were holding him; he swung there, invisibly and eerily bound, his limbs wrapped about him, his terrified face ruddy due to the blood that had rushed to his head.  He had pure-white hair and a thick, bushy beard: a trussed-up Father Christmas.


    ¡°I have it not.  I have it no more!  It was, many years ago, stolen from me!¡±  The hanging man¡¯s pupils were wide, dted with fear, and they seemed to swell, bigger and bigger.


    ¡°Do not lie to Lord Voldemort, Gregorovitch.  Who was the thief, Gregorovitch?!¡±


    ¡°I do not know, I never knew, a young man¡ª no¡ª please¡ª PLEASE!¡±


    ¡°Onest chance, wandmaker!¡±


    Gregorovitch¡¯s eyes widened in horror as a memory surfaced in his mind: Gregorovitch burst into the room at the end of the passage, and hisntern illuminated what looked like a workshop; wood shavings and gold gleamed in the swinging pool of light, and there on the window ledge sat perched, like a giant bird, a young man with golden hair.  In the split second that thentern¡¯s light illuminated him, Gregorovitch saw the delight upon his handsome face, then the intruder shot a Stunning Spell from his wand and jumped neatly backward out of the window with a crow ofughter.


    Voldemort¡¯s wand glowed in green again, and Gregorovitch¡¯s mouth screamed wide open:


    ¡°GRINDELWALD!¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Airtrip!  Airtrip!  Airtrip!


    Elliot Dalton ¨C ¡°Sebastian¡± ¨C Time to have a kickback.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C ¡°Oh. . . ?¡±


    Mykew Gregorovitch ¨C Wandmaker ¨C On a new adventure.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 345 Nurmengard

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Austria?  Why¡¯re you going there?¡± Lia said, decanting a bottle of wine.  She raised the decanter and asked, ¡°You want some?¡±


    ¡°No, thank you,¡± Quinn attached his pockets to the inner lining of his thin coat pocket.  ¡°As for Austria¡ª I want to go mountain air-scaling¡ª¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s mountain air-scaling?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you know, it¡¯s like climbing a mountain, but without actually climbing it.  I¡¯m going to scale the Austrian Alps by flying and hovering over the surface until I reach the top.  When I get to the top, I¡¯m going to jump from the top with a gliding suit that I stitched on my own. . . . Exciting activities and great weather are going to sum up to what I think will be a really great weekend.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that does sound exciting!  Maybe I should alsoe.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you have work?¡±


    Lia sighed and poured her Bordeaux ss with aerated, unlocked wine and filled it a little too much over the one serving limit.


    ¡°Yes, I do. . .¡± she sighed.  ¡°Go to your stupid mountain air-scaling thing alone. . . . Argh, it sounds so much fun!¡±


    Quinn calmly smiled.  Saying half-truths mixed with half-lies was the best way to tell a lie.  While he was going to Austria Alps and was going to scale a mountain¡ª but in no way he was going to do it for a fun activity.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll see you on Monday,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°Bring me something cool from Australia.¡±


    ¡°Austria.¡±


    ¡°. . . I¡¯m drunk. . . already?¡±


    Quinn chuckled and exited the West manor with a pocket full of travel gear.  Today was the day he was going to visit the imprable prison created by the most sessful Dark Lord of the century, more sessful than the current generation of the European Dark Lords: the Dark Lord of deceit, the one owner of the Death Stick¡ª Gellert Grindelwald.


    It had been a while since he had felt such a burst of excitement inside in heart.  The pure exhration of unknown adventure with untapped potential.  He snapped his fingers with a grin, and the gates to the West Manor melted away in the middle and remolded themselves back into shape as he passed through them.


    ¡°This is going to be marvelous.¡±


    He snapped again, which became the precursor to the loud pop that whisked Quinn away.


    . . .


    The Austrian Alps have the highest peaks of the entirety of the greater Eastern Alps, extending from the foot of the Bergamasque Alps at Lake Como and the Bernina Range in the Graubunden canton of eastern Switzend along the Liechtenstein shore of the Rhine in the west as far as to the lower promontories east of the Mur River including the Hochwechsel in Austrian Styria.  The valleys of the rivers Inn, Salzach, and Enns mark their northern boundary, the Drau river their southern border.


    They had great weather around the summers.  It was neither hot nor cold, just the right temperature with the ciated terrain letting a cool breeze throughout the mountain.


    Quinn perused the map in his hands and turned his eyes up to look at the Petzeck of the Schober Group of the Alps, standing at the height of 3,283 meters and the prominent location of the Nurmengard Prison.  Quinn closed the map, stretched his legs, and jumped against the ground to push himself into the air.  Winds surrounded him, and he flew at jet speed, shoveling the snow dust to the sides from the air pressure.  He air-scaled the mountain and covered the ground faster than any or thing.


    When he reached the location marked on the map, he rose up straight into the air and rose until he could see the t hilltop part of therger peaks.  It was an assuming hilltop to others, but Quinn could feel the tremendous magic activity that was practically oozing out in every direction.  Magic flowed into his eyes that shined in purple, and his breath was taken away as the Nurmengard Prison came into view.


    Nurmengard was a stone fortress at the edge, overlooking a deep ravine where falling didn¡¯t have any other result other than death.  It had a square-edged tower with a cone-shaped top, possibly a watchtower.  There was a building connected to the tower that was slim with windows.  It did not look impressive any right, and from the outside simply looked like any other rugged and unimpressive building.


    But Quinn could tell the truth.  Even from his ce, he could tell the actual impressiveness.


    He flew down andnded on the boundary of the wards and spells with the sole intent to keep unwanted, uninvited people out¡ª and Quinn was precisely that, an unwanted visitor.  He scaled a wall and stood on the top of it as he stretched his hand forward, and ayer of magic as it passed over his hand.


    ¡°One. . . Two. . . Three. . .¡±


    As counting uttered past his lips, Quinn studied how the ward interacted with his arm.  Every single detail that he could observe was taken in and processed to form conjectures and conclusions.


    ¡°. . . Six. . . Seven¡ª¡±


    He pulled his hand back.  Seven seconds was the limit unauthorized personnel could remain on the prison grounds without alerting the guards.  . . . It made Quinn frown deeply.  The ward was weak¡ª pathetically weak for the reputation that Nurmengard held.


    ¡°I can break these. . . like this,¡± Quinn snapped his finger, and a red spot appeared before him, illuminating the previously hidden ward.  Quinn stepped forward and passed through the ward boundary into the ¡°official¡± prison space.


    Quinn slowly moved through the grounds, taking each step carefully.  Who knew what crazy Grindelwald had nned into the prison.  Suddenly, behind a wall, Quinn stopped on the spot when he saw a guard dressed in stark white appear from the corner.  Quinn remained still under the guise of invisibility, watching the guardzily and carelessly stroll through the grounds.  Quinn narrowed his eyes, raised his arm, and shot a spell into the back of the guard knocking him out.


    After a thorough mental search, Quinn found the answers he was looking for.  The grounds were harmless enough if the correct paths were followed; the real dangerid inside the prison. . . especially for those who were spell-marked as prisoners.


    Quinn followed everything the guard did to traverse the prison, knocked out the equally careless guards in his path, and eventually reached the topmost floor and, thus, the topmost cell while feeling that something was very wrong.  Before he stepped in front of the cell, he put on his Noir gear and mask.


    The cell was a standard cell with bars in the front, and behind those doors was a man.  He had no hair, his teeth were rotten, his fingernails had turned yellow, and the man looked like a sack of skin hanging over a skeletal frame.  His piercing blue eyes, sunken into the depths of his skull, were the only feature that time had not faded.


    ¡°Hmm?¡± a hoarse voice came from behind bars¡ª as if they hadn¡¯t spoken for ages.  ¡°Who might you be?¡±


    ¡°. . . I am Noir,¡± said Quinn.  Even though he had been termed as the Invisible Vignte, he wasn¡¯t the one who came up with said moniker.


    ¡°Noir. . . I see,¡± the man got up from his cot, almost falling over as he did so.  The man looked like he would keel over by the gentlest of winds.  He came to beside the bar but didn¡¯t touch it.  ¡°And, Noir, why have youe to Nurmengard. . . this ce isn¡¯t much of a sightseeing location.


    Oh, forgive me.  How rude of me not to introduce myself.  My name¡¯s Gellert Grindelwald. . . but you must know that already; after all, I¡¯m the only one who lives in the castle.¡±


    Gellert Grindelwald had designed a prison so formidable and terrible ¨C both from the inside and the outside ¨C that the International Confederation of Wizards had deemed it too cruel to use onmon prisoners.  Only the leaders of his Dark Army had ever been imprisoned here.  His army, more than any others, knew just how much effort their master had put into the spells guarding these walls. . . all of those leaders had long past away.


    ¡°. . . Why¡¯re the enchantments outside so weak?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Oh?  They¡¯re weak,¡± said Grindelwald, and Quinn quirked his brow behind his mask when he heard the voice getting smoother and less hoarse.  ¡°ICW and Dumbledore. . . Do you know Dumbledore?¡±


    ¡°Yes.


    ¡°Good.  ICW and Dumbledore made changes to my masterpiece, soiling my creation.  Dumbledore did a decent job,¡± Grindelwald looked at the bars in front of him, ¡°he added his own enchantments to this cell. . . I haven¡¯t had the chance to witness those; he hid them quite thoroughly.  I wonder what they do.


    It wasn¡¯t necessary, though.  Mine are enough to keep even me. . . at least me of now inside.


    The ICW¡ª those guys infuriate me,¡± there was a heated passion heat in his voice, ¡°I always assumed they made mistakes. . . I haven¡¯t been outside of this cage ever since I got in, so I never knew,¡± he smiled with his rotted teeth, ¡°thank you for telling me.  Those nitwits couldn¡¯tprehend my genius and soiled the perfection that I had created. . .¡±


    Indeed Grindelwald¡¯s mind, one of the greatest in the history of the century, had continually upgraded and improved upon his prison over the entire course of his campaign.  Gellert knew of every enchantment he ced on Nurmengard, and he knew there was no way around them.  When the ICW first sent their team of enchanters to increase the security of his cell, they thought they found several ws in his containment spells, as Grindelwald knew they would.  They tried to correct the ws, only to spend theirst moments alive wondering why their necks were bleeding.  In the years that would follow, no less than five guards were killed as they attempted to fool around with the prison¡¯s enchantments.  Thest death led to the virtual abandoning of the upper levels of the prison; house-elves were left to deliver food and remove any waste from the few surviving prisoners.


    ¡°It was a surprise to hear footsteps on the cold floor.  It has been ages since I heard human footsteps¡ª I thought I had forgotten them,¡± Quinn tapped the side of his head, ¡°but it seems they were still there.¡±


    Quinn had no doubt in the statement.  Grindelwald¡¯s eyes gave it all away.  Unlike every other part of his being, the eyes shined like gems¡ª they were intelligent, deep, focused, and a reminder of the man that had once been.


    ¡°I apologize if I seem talkative, but I haven¡¯t had a guest in so long.  Just your presence in front of me is the most interesting thing that happened to me in decades.  Why don¡¯t you speak some more?  I would like to hear your voice. . . your real voice, and not the altered one. . . would you please offer this old man this small wish.¡±


    There was a silence for a minute before Quinn opened his mouth in a normal voice, ¡°Hello, Gellert Grindelwald¡ª¡±


    ¡°Your real voice,¡± Grindelwald cut him off at once, his eyes taking what seemed was clear to be anger.  ¡°I may be old and frail¡ª but don¡¯t disrespect me by thinking that I do not understand magic¡ª I can still feel the fluctuations magic this close to me. . . so do not jest with me.¡±


    ¡°. . . My apologies,¡± said Quinn, this time in his real voice.


    ¡°No worries, no worries.  May I ask why I have the pleasure of your visit?¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Feeling a mix of emotions.


    Gellert Grindelwald ¨C Ex-Dark Lord ¨C This is. . . interesting.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Was he tired yesterday.  2(out of 8) weeks done @ internship.  3rd week is on. . . . The work is. . . eh, okay.  Am learning a lot though, so can¡¯tin a lot.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 346 Two Met, One Left

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°. . . May I ask why I have the pleasure of your visit?¡±


    Quinn stared at Gellert Grindelwald.  He was different from what Quinn had imagined what a former Dark Lord would be like.


    Grindelwald seemed almost desperate, but at the same time, Quinn believed he understood where that desperation came from¡ª human was a social being and needed some amount of human interaction¡ª Grindelwald, from what Quinn could glean, had been deprived of that human connection for decades.


    ¡®It is surprising that he has even retained his sanity. . . some of his sanity,¡¯ thought Quinn.  He found himself staring into Grindelwald¡¯s eyes¡ª those bright blue eyes¡ª they were a clear tell-tale sign of the terrifying lumency that had kept Grindelwald from descending intoplete madness.


    ¡°Well?¡±


    ¡°. . . I would like to know about the flux period. . . specifically about how to increase magic after it ends.¡±


    Grindelwald leaned away from the bars and hummed as a pensive expression appeared on his face.


    Quinn¡¯s eyes shined.  Maybe Grindelwald knew something¡ª the Dark Lord had performed feats of magic that required a respectable reserve of magic.


    ¡°Flux period. . . there are multitudes of ways to boost magic after the sweet period parts.  Would you like to know?¡±


    Quinn nodded.


    Grindelwald smiled, but when he spoke, the words that came out weren¡¯t that Quinn was expecting, ¡°I will require something in return,¡± a clever smile appeared in Grindelwald¡¯s eyes.


    Quinn froze up for a second.


    His eyes became cautious.  ¡°What do you want?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Show me your face.¡±


    ¡°I refuse.¡±


    ¡°Then we don¡¯t have an agreement, Mr. Noir.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re trapped in here, without any means to escape¡ª what value does knowing my face bring to you?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re my sole visitor in decades, Mr. Noir.  As you said, I have no means to escape here and don¡¯t know when the next visitor wille, if they ever will.  So, if I¡¯m going to help you, I demand that I know the face of someone who might as very well be thest person I ever see.¡±


    ¡°. . . You¡¯re so desperate.¡±


    ¡°Be that as may, you have my offer.  ept it, and I¡¯ll share my knowledge, refuse it, and we may have a lovely chat where I¡¯ll withhold the information you may or may not need.¡±


    Quinn pursed his lips.  He should¡¯ve known that getting information out of Grindelwald wasn¡¯t going to be so straightforward.  As much as Quinn knew, if Voldemort reveled in violence, Grindelwald thrived with information.  Various streams of thoughts passed through his mind until he decided that it was ¡®safe¡¯ to show Grindelwald his face.


    ¡®He hasn¡¯t met anyone for years and isn¡¯t going anywhere,¡¯ he thought.


    ¡°I¡¯llply,¡± said Quinn, ¡°I¡¯ll show you my face.¡±


    Grindelwald¡¯s face once again came close to the bars, just a finger¡¯s breadth away.


    Quinn raised his gloved hand to his mask, and with a click, the mask came off.  He lowered his hand and showed his face to Grindelwald.


    ¡°Now remove the magic over your face. . . I have to say, you must be really confident in your magic to try that for a second time,¡±


    Quinn held back a groan.  He was confident in his magic and thought that he¡¯d be able to get past the somewhat magically-talented frail old man if he made some adjustments.  He sighed and pulled down the illusion over his face.


    ¡°I knew it!¡± Grindelwald pped happily.


    ¡°. . . What?¡±


    ¡°I knew you were young,¡± said Grindelwald, his eyes shining as bright as stars, and the old man¡¯s entire being looked younger, more energized.  ¡°The question about flux age was clearly indicative of your age, especially when you came to Numengard with such a question.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s heart chilled.  In his curiosity(and greed), all other thoughts, even ones about his privacy, hadn¡¯t evene up.  It was okay now that Grindelwald knew of his face, but that didn¡¯t change the thought of a ¡®what-if¡¯ guing his mind?


    ¡°But I couldn¡¯t have guessed that you were so young.  I had thought you of being 20 years ago. . . or older.  It is fascinating that somehow you were able to able to break into Numengauard. . . you must be amazing at magic.¡±


    ¡°Tell me how to continue the growth of magic after the flux period,¡± said Quinn, cutting the chatter.


    ¡°Oh my, look at you¡ª so much hurry,¡± chuckled Grindelwald.  ¡°Well, to answer your question. . . there¡¯s no organic method to keep up that level of growth¡±¡ª Quinn¡¯s pupils shrunk¡ª ¡°but what you can do is perform some rituals that¡¯ll be able to stimte your already matured core¡ª and make it balloon up in size. . .¡±


    Grindelwald went on to exin in great detail the use of rituals and magical modifications to increase the size of the magic core, and with each other method, Quinn¡¯s eyes darkened.  Every method was viler than before, and while they seemed legit answers to Quinn¡¯s question, most of them sounded like something that someone like Voldemort would use¡ª or maybe had already used.  He didn¡¯t utter a single syble until Grindelwald was done speaking, and even after that, he kept quiet.


    He had revealed his secret identity to a maniptive Dark Lord in vain.


    ¡°. . . and that¡¯s about what I know,¡± said Grindelwald.  ¡°Would you like to know something else?  In return, I¡¯d like to know your name.¡±


    ¡°No, thank you,¡± said Quinn and put his mask back on.  He wasn¡¯t going to give any information more of his personal information to the man.


    Grindelwald¡¯s smile remained the same, ¡°Then how about we chat.  That wouldn¡¯t cost you much.¡±


    ¡°No, thank you,¡± said Quinn promptly.


    Grindelwald¡¯s smile dimmed.  He sighed and straightened his back as much as he could.  ¡°I expected more from when someone coulde to meet me, but I suppose not all can go as per expectation. . . but how about you stay here for a little while. . .¡±


    Quinn had turned away when his pupil¡¯s shrunk.  He felt as if chains had slithered over his body, individual links clenching over his body as if trying to suffocate him.  Quinn couldn¡¯t even move away from his spot.  He cranked his neck back and red at Grindelwald.


    ¡°Let me go.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Let.  Me.  Go.  Grindelwald.¡±


    ¡°You should stay here, and we can have a civil conversation.¡±


    Quinn gritted his teeth, burst his magic out, and felt the chain loosen, but the chains immediately snatched back onto his body, clenching again.  He tried again.  Once again, Quinn felt the magic wash over him, and yet again, his magic failed to break the spell around him.


    ¡°What are you doing, old man?¡± Quinn demanded, his magicshing out.  ¡°I¡¯m warning you, let me go, or don¡¯t me me for a bacsh!¡±


    ¡°Are you quite done?¡± Grindelwald asked.  ¡°My desire to keep you here far surpasses your desire to take it.  Therefore, you¡¯re extremely unlikely to be able to overpower me for it.¡±  Grindelwaldughed for the first time in years.  ¡°Regardless of my body¡¯s appearance, my magic remains quite strong.  You¡¯re deluded if you think you can overpower me with such brute force magic.¡±


    Grindelwald raised his hand, and Quinn was pulled near the cell, inches away from the bars.  For the first time sinceing here, Quinn had the sudden awareness of just who this prisoner used to be¡ª and still was¡ª it hit him faster than the old dark lord¡¯s hideous breath.  ¡°Don¡¯t be like this, Noir.  Am I asking something outrageous?  All I want to have is a talk.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have a choice.¡±


    ¡°I always have a choice!¡±


    Quinn¡¯s magic red again, and his eyes turned purple, making Grindelwald jerk back.  Quinn¡¯s magic started to balloon outwards, making Grindelwald¡¯s binding push outwards.


    ¡°I can¡¯t overpower you with brute magic?  Your magic is the same?  I am delusional?¡± Quinn scoffed with a grunt.  ¡°You¡¯re the one who¡¯s delusional to think that your magic is the same.  Magic is mind, body, and soul¡ª your mind has cracked, your body has deteriorated to this pathetess¡± ¡ª Quinn¡¯s eyes switched to golden for a split second, and this time Grindelwald¡¯s eyes were blown wide¡ª ¡°your soul, while still intact, is already withered.


    You are already a thing of the past, you skeleton.  Don¡¯t push it.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s magic screamed and bit back.  With all his strength, Quinn pushed Grindelwald away, sending the old man tumbling backward and falling into the stone floor.


    Ignoring the pain in his back from the fall, Grindelwald pushed himself as far back into the cell as he could.


    ¡°Don¡¯t try to hide that smile of yours.  I¡¯m not going to attack the cell¡ª I expect it to behead me or some other gorey thing.¡±


    Grindelwald cackled, ¡°Oh well, it was a try¡ª¡±  Grindelwald¡¯s pupils dted as he turned towards the small barred window in his cell, and all of a sudden, the old man had gone eerily silent.


    ¡°. . . The snake¡¯sing.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    Grindelwald turned to Quinn, ¡°The snake¡¯sing here, Quinn.¡±


    ¡°How did you?!¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. . . while our talk has not ended well, I still appreciate the small conversation we did have.  If you leave here now, you¡¯ll escape his presence.¡±


    ¡°Who are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°The Dark Lord, thetest one.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s brows went above.  Voldemort wasing here?  Right now?!


    ¡°I¡¯m leaving,¡± said Quinn immediately.  He turned to walk away.  He had heard about Grindelwald having seer blood inside him.


    ¡°. . . Thank you for the talk, Quinn.  I¡¯m d that you were thest one.¡±


    Quinn paused his step.  Had Grindelwald foreseen his death?  He turned to face Grindelwald and seeing that the old Dark Lord spoke once again.


    ¡°If you could. . . tell Albus¡ª I¡¯m sorry for Ariana.¡±


    ¡°. . . Did you really?¡±


    ¡°So you know that.  I don¡¯t know if I killed Ariana.  I don¡¯t care who killed the girl.  If it helps, I don¡¯t mind bearing another death.  It doesn¡¯t change much for me.  I guess I owe Albus that much.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t give any affirmation as he turned away from Grindelwald with the rotten tooth smile thest image he had.  Quinn had no sympathy for Grindelwald¡ª he was still a Dark Lord responsible for countless lives lost¡ª and as far as Quinn was concerned, the request was just a ploy for sympathy to move Quinn enough that he would get Grindelwald out of the prisoner cage to escape death.


    He walked down the stairs and sprinted through the ground floor¡ª he needed to exit the prison grounds to apparate away from him.  But as he reached the main gate, Quinn came to a skidding stop.  There was a slight tremor coursing through the castle.  It seemed Voldemort had arrived.  It seems ICW had done enough corruption to Grindelwald¡¯s spellcraft to allow Voldemort to exploit a weakness in the n.


    Then he recalled Grindelwald telling him about Dumbledore casting spells on Grindelwald¡¯s prison cage.  And just when that line of thought ended, the entirety of Numengard shook as if it was breaking down.


    ¡°Did he trap him inside?¡± thought Quinn.  He shook his head, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter¡ª¡±


    ¡°NOOOOO!!!!¡±


    Quinn¡¯s soul shivered when he heard a baleful scream.


    ¡°That was Voldemort. . . . Grindelwald did do something.¡±


    The prison castle began shaking, and cracks appeared in the walls.  Quinn took that as a signal to leave and bolted out of the building and flew outside the prison grounds just as the castle¡¯s top blew up.  Quinn kept an eye on the building from afar.  A few seconds passed in silence until there was an explosion, and the faraway figure of Voldemort came flying out at a turtle¡¯s pace before apparating away.


    ¡°He¡¯s injured,¡± Quinn muttered.  ¡°The old man must¡¯ve used his magic to escape and set up a trap for Voldemort.¡±


    Quinn nced at the prison.  There were guards inside that he had knocked out.  He sighed and headed inside to bring them to safety and dig a Dark Lord¡¯s grave.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Met one Dark Lord, missed another one.


    Gellert Grindelwald ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Ploy or apologetic?


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Wrote a chapter between Voldemort and Grindelwald.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 347 Für das Gr??ere Wohl

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Grindelwald watched as Quinn disappeared down the stairs.  He sighed.  The n to invoke sympathy had failed.


    ¡°I wonder who he really is,¡± he muttered.  His seer blood was far from perfect¡ª it was already a surprise that he was able to get a name.  But having known the name and face, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder more about the person named Quinn West.  ¡°Oh well, maybe I¡¯ll get to meet him afterward,¡± he sighed while ncing towards the small window.


    His prison started to shake.  The brick shook off old dust, his feet felt tremors, and the debris rained on his old nest head.  Grindelwald walked to the edge of his cell¡ª his knees were tired from standing¡ª and sat down on his thin, wet cot, and got to staring at the small window, the only source of natural light that ever graced his body, but also from where the cold mountain winds came which tortured his joints night after night.


    The window suddenly darkened, and a ck mist came pouring into his cell, spreading to the ceiling.  The mist stuck to the top, bubbling and freezing simultaneously.  Grindelwald watched it calmly with his blue eyes, studying with curiosity.  The mist sank to the floor with a waterfall and coagted into a humanoid figure, giving shape to a lean and tall man with slit-like red eyes, a t nose, a bald head, ghostly white skin wearing a loose ck robe on his body.


    ¡°Grindelwald,¡± spoke the unnatural man.


    Grindelwald smiled with a bare grin, ¡°Voldemort.  I knew you¡¯d being.¡±


    Fifty-three years after his defeat, Grindelwald found himself not alone in his prison cell; the prison had been infiltrated by the newest iteration Dark Lord.  He found it strange having someone this close while not being separated by bars.  He wanted to get up and touch Voldemort; he couldn¡¯t do it with Quinn knowing that if he tried, the prison of his own creation would retaliate.  Grindelwald internally sighed.  It wasn¡¯t like he could peacefully touch Voldemort without getting cursed with some horrid magic that his body couldn¡¯t bear, as it was now.


    ¡°Look at you, so frail and. . . weak,¡± said Voldemort with a mocking sneer.  ¡°Defeated by your enemy, jailed inside your prison created to hold your enemies.  What an insult¡ª a stain on your aplishments.¡±


    ¡°And you were killed by a little babe.  I will let you decide which is more of a stain on aplishments,¡± smiled Grindelwald.


    The sneer fell from Voldemort¡¯s face, his red pupils darkening as if a shot of blood had been injected into them.  ¡°I will kill that little babe, but you,¡± he looked Grindelwald up and down, ¡°can¡¯t even stand against Dumbledore.  But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll take care of the old fool for you¡ª so in return, you tell me where the Elder Wand is.¡±


    Grindelwald¡¯s eyes threatened to widen, but he pulled on the reigns known as lumency to keep his expression to the carefree¡ª ¡°mad¡±¡ª smile.


    ¡°The Elder Wand. . . ah, the Elder Wand. . . of course, the Elder Wand,¡± Grindelwald¡¯s smiled as if listening to something amusing.  ¡°No wonder you came to the humble abode.  You can¡¯t defeat Albus with your own power, so you want the help of a wand that¡¯ll push you over him. . . how frail. . . and weak.¡±


    Voldemort¡¯s mouth pursed into a thin white line.  ¡°Tell me where it is, Grindelwald.¡±


    Grindelwaldughed again as if hearing a joke.


    Voldemort¡¯s nd expression twisted into a frown.  He raised his wand, clutched in his bony finger, and chanted¡ª ¡°Crucio.¡±  An invisible stream of magic red out of the wand and hit the skinny body of Grindelwald.


    A scream pierced the prison cell¡¯s walls, and it continued till Grindelwald¡¯s weak throat from not speaking much for decades screamed soar.


    ¡°Now. . . tell me where is the Elder Wand, Grindelwald,¡± said Voldemort, his expression confident.


    Grindelwaldid prone on his cot, coughing with his body shaking.  He used his skinny arms to push himself to sit up, leaning against the wall.  Grindelwald stared at Voldemort, his chest going up and down. . . until when the ex-Dark Lord started tough again.


    Voldemort¡¯s eyes narrowed angrily.  His mouth twitched.  He cast the Cruciatus curse again.  The pain again tortured Grindelwald¡¯s body, cutting hisughter off and recing it with screams.


    ¡°Answer the question,¡± said Voldemort, stopping the magic.


    Grindelwald took a while to sit up and raised his head to again look at Voldemort with a mocking smile and spoke with a frail voice, ¡°You know. . . I¡¯ve been here for decades. . . but it doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯ve beenpletely cut-off from the outside world. . . . The idiots who thought they could improve upon my work ended up creating mistakes that I could exploit. . . . The guards talk downstairs, and I listen.  They told me about your penchant for torture. . . but do you think torturing me would work on ME?¡±  Grindelwald looked at Voldemort as if he was bored, ¡°I am Gellert Grindelwald.  Do you think your usual¡ª crude¡ª methods will work on me?¡±


    Voldemort stared down at Grindelwald, his expression not showing what he was feeling.  ¡°Then let¡¯s try some other methods. . . . Legilemency!¡±


    Grindelwald and Voldemort met eyes, and a connection was established immediately.  Grindelwald felt a metal probe thump against his shield and his eye sharpened in focus.  It had been a lifetime since he had felt a mental attack¡ª thest time had been after his capture with various Aurors trying to extract information out of him; they, of course, had failed.


    ¡°Is that the best you can do?¡± asked Grindelwald, scoffing.  ¡°If so, I care for the wizarding going downhill in their capabilities.¡±


    Voldemort frowned.


    Grindelwald felt the force of the mental attack increase, but he shook his head, ¡°I have been alone for a long time, Voldemort.  I have a lot of time on my hand, and mental practices have beenmon for me. . . and you should know that lumency is much easier to improve than Legilimency.  Even without that,  I have been practicing the mental arts for longer than you have been alive, boy.  Don¡¯t think I¡¯ll just roll over and let you in.¡±


    Grindelwald winced; the pressure on his mind just went up.  While he had said what he said, his condition hadn¡¯t been good for the past fifty years.  What Quinn had been correct; his magical trifecta wasn¡¯t operating at the level it should be¡ª he could keep it up for a good while, but not long enough.


    Voldemort raised his wand and againunched a vile curse that struck Grindelwald¡¯s body, who felt that his body had been plunged into freezing cold water.  His skin turned progressively paler, visible in real-time with chattering teeth.  Grindelwald¡¯s body shriveled up into itself and dropped onto his cot once again.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see if you can still keep things hidden,¡± said Voldemort.


    Grindelwald felt as if a hippogriff had crashed into his mind.  He gritted his teeth and turned to Voldemort before breaking intoughter, weakened by the cold, but he keptughing.


    Voldemort fumed in anger and curses after curses fell on Grindelwald¡¯s prone body, while Grindelwald kept onughing at Voldemort, who failed to break into Grindelwald¡¯s mind.


    ¡°I-I-I have be-e-en. . . never ever been defeated, except by Dumbledore¡¯s hand,¡± said Grindelwald, his teeth chattering.  ¡°O-One time is enough. . . a-and if there¡¯s going to be another, it is not going to be someone l-like you,¡± heughed.


    Voldemort¡¯s fury exploded, but he was about tounch a curse when he stopped.  He looked down at Grindelwald¡ª and his frown turned into surprise, which gave way to a smile.


    ¡°Only defeated only once, you say,¡± he said.  ¡°Doesn¡¯t the Elder Wand change masters on defeat. . . . If you were only defeated by Dumbledore, then that means,¡± his eyes widened, and anger started to bubble in them.


    If Grindelwald wasughing before at Voldemort¡¯s failure, now he wasughing at Voldemort¡¯s realization.  ¡°Oh, you realize it now, don¡¯t you.  The one who you hate the most has the thing you want so dearly.  How does it feel now?  I feel it is fate.¡±  He started to shake withughter.


    Grindelwald didn¡¯t care if Voldemort knew or not.  He had already spent his prime here and was left behind by the world.  He only cared that he didn¡¯t get beaten by a disgrace like Voldemort.


    ¡°You have killed so many wizards and witches,¡± said Grindelwald.  ¡°So much magical blood spilled.  So many lives that could¡¯ve birthed more magic dead.  You started the war, wanting to prove that the wizarding kind was superior to muggles. . . but all you did was to make them weaker by killing so many. . . . You¡¯re a disgrace to the wizarding kind, an enemy to magic. . . I hope you get killed by the hands of the Boy-Who-Lived,¡± Grindelwald raised his hand to point at his eyes, ¡°I have seer blood in me, so let me give you a prophecy¡ª you¡¯re going to be killed, Voldemort,¡± heughed, ¡°you¡¯re going to get killed.¡±


    Voldemort raised his wand to Grindelwald, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about any of that, Gellert.  If you kill me, you¡¯re going to regret it.¡±


    ¡°A pathetic excuse for a pathetic man,¡± said Voldemort and yelled¡ª ¡°AVADA KEDAVRA!¡±


    Grindelwald smirked as green filled his vision and uttered hisst words, ¡°Ready to regret.¡±


    As the killing curse hit Grindelwald¡¯s body, an orange streak expunged from his body and raced towards Voldemort.  The Dark Lord didn¡¯t miss a beat to defend himself, even while in surprise.  While his defense worked, a portion of the spell passed through his defense and seemingly got absorbed into his body.


    Voldemort¡¯s eyes bulged.  He clutched above his heart and staggered.  His nose slits started to bleed as his body began quaking.


    ¡°NOOOOO!!!!!¡±


    He waved his wand, and a yellow glow covered his body before it got absorbed.  He weakly looked to the ceiling and raised his wand, and the entire cell came apart, brick-by-brick.  His feet left the prison cell ground and flew away. . . not giving Grindelwald¡¯s dead body another look.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn walked into the previously securest cell of Numengard prison castle and started at the blown-off ceiling.


    He sighed at the destruction.


    Voldemort was strong, he thought.  Grindelwald had created the prison, believing it to be perfect, but Voldemort was able to stroll in and exit without retaliation.


    ¡°Well, the prison did injure him in some way.¡±


    He waved his hand, and all the debris rose.¡ª he couldn¡¯t vanish it as every single piece was imbibed with magic¡ª so he could only put it away to the side.  When the debris cleared, thereid the crushed body of Grindelwald.


    Quinn stared at the lifeless body, and another sigh exited his body.  While he didn¡¯t agree with what Grindelwald stood for, he still held a level of respect for the man¡¯s ¡°level¡± of aplishments.  Grindelwald had aplished so much. . . more than many couldn¡¯t achieve in multiple lifetimes.


    ¡°I wonder what happened for you to smile like that,¡± Quinn muttered as he stared at the smile on Grindelwald¡¯s face.  ¡°You know. . . I¡¯d loved to learn about people, how they think and behave from you.¡±


    He, of course, got no other response.


    Quinn waved his hand, and Grindelwald gently rose from the floor.


    When ICW response team would arriveter. . .  they¡¯d found a grave that¡¯d be immediately dug out.  But that grave had a tombstone with words etched into:


    [ F¨¹r das Gr??ere Wohl ]


    Here Rests The Greatest Dark Lord To Ever Reign.


    Gellert Grindelwald.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Doesn¡¯t know that it was Grindelwald not Numengard.


    Gellert Grindelwald ¨C Dark Lord ¨C ¡°The disapproval of cowards is praise to the brave.¡±


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C He was warned, but didn¡¯t heed.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the BIO!

 Chapter 348 Visit To The Ministry

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    In the Ministry¡¯s main atrium, two guards chattered at the security check counter.


    ¡°You came early.  Everything at home alright, Jeffery?¡± said Pierce, a ministry guard, sitting behind the security counter with a puzzle book in his hand as he leaned on the back of his chair, making it stand on its two hind legs with forelegs dangling in the air.


    ¡°Everything¡¯s alright,¡± said Jeffery, rubbing his forehead, ¡°couldn¡¯t sleepst night, and then it was already morning. . .¡±


    ¡°Because of the baby?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Jeffery sighed, ¡°he kept crying for the entire night.  Just when I thought he slept and I could also sleep, he would walk up and raise up a storm.¡±


    ¡°Your house isn¡¯t the only ce where someone raised a storm.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean.¡±


    Pierce picked up a newspaper from the counter and slid it through the hole in the ss panel separating them.  Jeffery picked up the newspaper¡ª the front headline was literally stered all over the page, and reading it made Jeffery¡¯s sleepiness fly away as if he had been injected with a potion that he took during his NEWT days to stay awake for various nights.


    ¡°Numengard fell?!¡±


    ¡°Shhh!¡± Pierce leaned forward.  ¡°Not so loud!¡±


    ¡°What loud?  It¡¯s on the front page!¡±


    ¡°I know that; I¡¯m not stupid.  But I got ordered that we¡¯re not to talk about this during work.  So keep it down, and we can talk.¡±


    Jeffery leaned forward on the counter and spoke in a low voice, ¡°What about Grindelwald?  Did he escape?  Was it someone who worked with him in war?  What if¡ª.¡±


    ¡°No, the Dark Lord Grindelwald is dead.  ording to that, someone dug him a grave and buried him in it.  They dug the body out to confirm it.¡±


    ¡°They dug a dead man¡¯s body out?!¡±


    Pierce shrugged, ¡°The only way to be sure if a Dark Lord is dead or not.¡±


    ¡°Is there something about Dumbledore written in there?  He must be happy that his nemesis is finally dead after so much time.  It must feel good that now he only has to worry about one Dark Lord returning.¡±


    ¡°They couldn¡¯t get him for ament.  But I guess you¡¯re right,¡± Pierce chuckled.


    ¡°I thought I needed a coffee.  I don¡¯t think I need one anymore.¡±


    ¡°Go get some.  No one wants you drooling all over the counter.  I¡¯ll wait.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    But as Jeffery was about to turn away to get some coffee, a voice called out to them.  ¡°Good morning, gentlemen.  I would like to check in if any of you¡¯d like to help me do that.¡±


    Jeffery and Pierce turned to see a young man dressed in a maroon suit over a ck shirt.


    ¡°Name and reason for the visit?¡± asked Pierce.


    ¡°Quinn West.  I am here to visit the Department of Magical idents and Catastrophes,¡± said Quinn.


    Pierce noted it down before asking, ¡°Do you have an appointment?¡±


    ¡°No, and I don¡¯t need it.¡±


    Pierce turned and procured a badge from the machine and handed it to Quinn through the hole in the ss before asking, ¡°Your wand?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t use one,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°Squib?¡± Pierce raised a brow.


    Quinn ced his palm t on the ss panel, and ayer of crackling ice began spreading on both sides of the ss.  He smiled and answered, ¡°Would that have made a difference?¡±


    Pierce seemed miffed but shook his head.  ¡°Would you be willing to submit to a search to see if you¡¯re hiding a wand?¡±


    Quinn nodded and calmly went through the search, resulting in Pierce not finding a wand, or to be precise, he ended up finding nothing but a few coins.  Quinn¡¯s person was free of any personal belongings other than some money.


    ¡°. . . You¡¯re clear.¡±


    Quinn thanked both the guards and walked past them.


    ¡°Just money and no wand,¡± said Jeffery.  ¡°That bloke was weird.¡±


    ¡°Not just money¡ª most of it was galleon, and you saw how he was dressed¡ª he must be a brat from a rich family,¡± said Pierce picking up his puzzle book again.  ¡°People like them don¡¯t have a worry about problems that we suffer.  If he needed something, he would buy a new one.  Rich people have it easy.¡±


    Jeffery looked at Quinn¡¯s back before a yawn came over him.  ¡°I need a coffee.¡±


    On the other hand, Quinn walked to his destination with a sigh.  ¡°I should¡¯ve taken grandfather on his offer.¡±  There was a special(VIP) entrance to the Ministry without any security checks for affluent people.  George and the others in the family all used that entrance¡ª all except Quinn because he didn¡¯t usuallye to the Ministry, and today he wanted to keep his presence invisible.


    After taking an elevator ride, Quinn reached his destination.  He walked out of the elevator and walked straight to the greeting desk to greet an elderlydy sitting behind the desk.


    ¡°Good morning, lovelydy,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯d like to meet Stephen Spreck.¡±


    ¡°Do you have an appointment,¡± the elderly receptionist asked.


    ¡°No, but I¡¯m sure he¡¯d like to meet to meet me if you tell him that Quinn West is here to visit.¡±


    The elderlydy quirked her brow and looked up at Quinn for the first time.  She narrowed her eyes at him in a half-threatening way.


    ¡°. . . Sit.  I¡¯ll inform him,¡± said the elderlydy.


    Quinn smiled charmingly and rapped his fingers on the high-quality desk.  He took in the space around him with peopleing in and out.  Quinn enhanced his ears to listen to conversations and watched every person that walked by¡ª the way they walked, what they talked about, what they wore, among other things that he could perceive.  He eavesdropped on their emotions and surface thoughts.


    He smiled and nodded to everyone who matched eyes with him.


    ¡°Follow me,¡± said the receptionist.


    Quinn turned to the elderly receptionist and nodded with a smile.  He followed her through a few corridors until they reached a small section with only a few offices and another smaller receptionist desk at the end with a young and pretty receptionistdy.


    ¡°Karoline, if you could lead him to Mr. Spreck,¡± said the old receptionist.


    Karoline, as she had been identified, put down her nail file and looked up for her eyes to widen as she took a look at Quinn.


    Quinn smiled charmingly and extended his hand for a handshake.  ¡°Good morning, Karoline.  My name is Quinn West.  It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡±


    Karoline immediately grabbed Quinn¡¯s hand for a shake, and her other went to twirl her blonde locks as she stared into Quinn¡¯s eyes, finding herself not being able to look away.


    The old receptionist cleared her throat, ending Karoline and Quinn¡¯s handshake.


    ¡°Lead him in,¡± she said before walking away.


    Karoline led him through the door beside her desk to the office of her boss Stephen Spreck who stood up from his desk and came walking with a pudgy belly to greet Quinn with an oily smile.


    ¡°Mr. West, what an honor of someone from your family toe to visit me,¡± said Spreck.


    Quinn smiled and shook hands with Spreck, who used both his hand.


    ¡°Karoline, if you¡¯d get us some refreshments,¡± said Spreck.


    Karoline gave Quinn onest very flirtatious look before leaving.


    ¡°Departement Head Spreck,¡± said Quinn after he and Spreck sat down, ¡°I have always been interested in the work of the Invisibility Task Force here at the Department of Magical idents and Catastrophes.  The muggle and the wizarding world need to remain apart from each other, and the task force is an essential part of it¡ª keeping all the magical creatures and incidents hidden from sight must be a hard job.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s hard, but it¡¯s our job, so we can¡¯tin,¡± said Spreck, twirling his miniature mustache.


    ¡°I see, so it¡¯s hard as I expected. . . so that¡¯s why during thest two Death Eater Azkaban transports, there were two breaches of the protocol where major magical incidents came into the muggle view,¡± said Quinn with his eyes smiling.


    ¡°. . . Pardon?¡±


    ¡°I understand that keeping invisibility across the entire state is a tough job, and having a mishap or two during one¡¯s tenure is understandable, but having two of them¡ª of such magnitude that Aurors on reserve duty had to be called in to cover all bases¡ª so close to each other. . . what can I say, it raises some question.¡±


    ¡°What are you trying to say?¡± Spreck¡¯s face turned red.


    ¡°I am trying to say nothing, Mr. Spreck, but people have been asking questions about the happenings¡ª you must know how important the Law of Secrecy is¡ª and if idents like these keep happening, who knows when we might find ourselves revealed to the muggles.¡±


    ¡°And who might these people be?¡± asked Spreck, looking like a red balloon about to burst.


    ¡°Well, my grandfather is one of them.¡±


    That made Spreck dete to a normal fat human being.


    ¡°Mr. Spreck, I did some fact-finding about you before I came here and was surprised to find that out of the entire Ministry, the Invisibility Task Force is the one department with the least diversity in its ranks.  You not only have the least number of first-gen magicals¡ª ah, pardon my habit¡ª that¡¯s muggleborn for you. . . but you also are rutting in the bottom when ites to halfbloods. . . all you have our purebloods.¡±


    Spreck seemed to realize that Quinn had been insulting him.  He stood up with his belly jiggling, bursting in anger, and shouted at Quinn.  ¡°So what!  This is my department; I¡¯ll do anything I like!  Who are you to tell me how to¡ª¡±


    Quinn tapped his armrest with his finger, and Spreck found himself being pushed down by a strong force into his chair.


    ¡°Sit down, Mr. Spreck, and put on a smile.¡±


    ¡°W-What?!¡±


    ¡°Smile,¡± said Quinn with a smile.


    The office door opened, and Karoline walked in with a te of refreshments.


    ¡°Thank you, Karoline,¡± said Quinn with a smile, ignoring her tant attempt to touch his hand as she handed him his ss of juice.  He gave Spreck a look, and the man seemed to understand as he cooperated by acting normal.


    After Karoline left, Quinn continued, ¡°Resign, Mr. Spreck.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Resign¡ª as in relinquishing your position as the Head of The Invisibility Task Force.  Your time here hase to an end, and consider this as a generous warning and a chance to exit with dignity.¡±


    ¡°What is that supposed to mean?  I¡¯m not going to resign!¡±


    ¡°Then be prepared because we¡¯re going to drag your name through the mud until your superior is forced to fire you,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°Huh?  Wh¡ª¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t want everyone to hear about your misteress, do you?¡±


    Spreck sputtered as if his tongue was repeatedly being pulled.  By the time he could put his words together, Quinn spoke again.


    ¡°Karoline is a gorgeous woman; you¡¯re a man in power; just think about what it¡¯d look like.  Moreover, we have very good people who can make it look like you forced her into this. . . and if we can assure that, I¡¯m sure dear Karoline would be happy to y the part.¡±


    ¡°I-I¡ª¡±


    ¡°Yes, you, Mr. Spreck.  We are giving you a chance.  If you walk away peacefully and hand over your seat to a candidate of our choice, we can assure you that you¡¯ll face no retaliation. . . and Mr. Spreck, when I say resignation, I actually mean retirement. . . I don¡¯t want you to be involved in any bureaucracy or politics¡ª I want you to leave the Ministry, go live in that summer house of yours away from your Death Eater friends, who I know were behind the two incidents you let get out of hand.


    And believe, under this administration, you don¡¯t want to bebeled as an aplice to the Death Eater and the Dark Lord.  Lady Minister and Scrimgeour will eat a small fry like you for breakfast and ship what remains to Azkaban.¡±


    Spreck couldn¡¯t speak.  He could only stare at Quinn with his mouth open.  The man had sweated so much that the color of his shirt was soaking.


    Quinn drained his ss of his juice and stood up.


    ¡°You have three days to decide, Mr. Spreck.  I¡¯ll return in three days to get your response.  If you say yes, you announce the retirement by the end of the week, and then the clock will start on two weeks under which you¡¯ll leave the Ministry for good.  If you say no, we will start our campaign against you, and don¡¯t bother trying to fight it because we have everything ready for deployment at any given moment.¡±


    Quinn walked to the office door, and before he opened it, he turned and said, ¡°Think about your family, Mr. Spreck.  If you go peacefully, they won¡¯t be disgraced, and you¡¯ll still have plenty of means to earn a handsome living, but if you fight. . . you know how ugly things can get.¡±


    He smiled, ¡°It was lovely meeting you, Mr. Spreck.  I¡¯ll see you soon.  Let¡¯s go for lunch at that time.¡±


    Quinn opened the door and left, leaving behind a man with as much sweat on his clothes and thoughts of turmoil in his mind.


    ,


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I am optimistic that this one will break.


    Stephen Spreck ¨C Head of The Invisibility Task Force ¨C Has a summer house that¡¯ll be seeing some use.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Can you guess where I took the names from today.  Except for Karoline, that was random.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 349 Weeding Out

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Did you hear?¡±


    ¡°No, what?¡±


    ¡°Spreck from the Invisibility Task Force announced his retirement yesterday.¡±


    ¡°So?¡±


    ¡°That itself wouldn¡¯t have been surprising, but he appointed a half-blood as his recement.¡±


    ¡°What?!  That Spreck appointed a half-blood?¡±


    ¡°I reacted the same way when I heard it first, but it¡¯s the truth.¡±


    Quinn smiled as he listened to the conversation between two Ministry employees sitting beside him in the Ministry cafeteria during lunchtime.


    Yesterday, Quinn had visited Stephen Spreck after a three-day period as he had promised, and Spreck had all but begged Quinn not to ruin his reputation and that he¡¯d immediately retire.  Quinn had generously kept his part of the deal and had called off the disgrace campaign along with giving Spreck a candidate of his(his grandfather¡¯s) choice to be his sessor.


    Quinn cleaned up his fruit bowl and finished up his ss of water.  He burnt the tiny receipt into ashes and let it fall and flow down to the ground.


    ¡°We have a dustbin here, and more importantly, the Ministry¡¯s not the ce to burn things carelessly¡ª it can be a massive fire hazard, Mr. West.¡±


    Quinn paused.  He could see that the crowd in the cafeteria had stopped talking to each other and were now whispering among each other as they looked at him. . . or they were looking behind him.  He turned back, and his eyebrows raised by a half to find himself standing face-to-face with Amelia Bones with an entourage of Aurors behind her.


    ¡°Madam Minister, what an unexpected surprise.¡±


    ¡°Is it a surprise, Mr. West?¡± asked Amelia.  ¡°You have been visiting my Ministry every day for the past few days; it wouldn¡¯t be strange to run into me, the Minister.¡±


    ¡®I should¡¯ve juste through the VIP section,¡¯ thought Quinn as he said, ¡°What can I do for you, Minister Bones?¡±


    ¡°Should we talk over some food, Mr. West,¡± asked Amelia, but before Quinn could tell her that he had already eaten, she started to walk with the Aurors following behind her.


    Quinn shrugged and followed after them.  They led him to a door beside the cafeteria, which opened up to a muchrger area.  The decor was dignified, higher quality, more polished, and much quieter.  Unlike the main area, which was amunal setting, this one, which he could tell was a VIP section, was designed to have a private sitting arrangement with every party sitting a respectable distance from each other.  They reached another door, and the couple of Aurors that hade inside stopped there with Amelia and Quinn walking inside an even emptier and private room where Amelia sat down on an empty leather chair while Quinn took the chair opposite her, brought in by a waiter.


    ¡°This is a fancy space,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Do you always have your meals here?¡±


    ¡°Only when I do not have it in my office,¡± Amelia said, receiving a cup of tea from the waiter.


    Quinn refused all and any food from the waiter before saying, ¡°You didn¡¯t answer my question.  Why this invitation?¡±


    ¡°I wonder why your sudden interest in the Ministry, Mr. West.  As far as I know, you have been in Whitehall a handful of times before this week, but now, you¡¯ve been here every day.  It makes me wonder.¡±


    Quinn shrugged, ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting that some so busy as you were keeping tabs on the little me, Minister.¡±


    ¡°Keeping tabs on various things is what keeps me busy, Mr. West.¡±


    ¡°Sounds awfully drab.¡±


    ¡°Things are rarely glorious in reality.¡±


    ¡°I think that¡¯s deep.¡±


    Amelia ced her cup down and spoke, ¡°You¡¯ve visited various departments in the past few days¡ª the Invisibilty Task Force, Beast Division, International Magical Office of Law, Ministry of Magic Public Information Services. . . may I ask why you have been visiting all of these departments.¡±


    ¡°Their work interests me.  They have such fascinating duties and domains, making me wonder how exactly the inner workings mesh with each other¡ª I simply wish to sate my curiosity.¡±


    ¡°. . . Mr. West, you do realize that all departments in the Ministry handle official work¡ª.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about me disturbing their work.  I wouldn¡¯t hold it against them if I was turned away because I was disturbing their busy work and would respectfully oblige to their request.  Fortunately, all of my visits have bore fruit, and I have gotten to learn a lot about all the departments.¡±


    ¡°. . . Are you looking to join one of these departments?¡¯


    ¡°No.  As I said, just sating my curiosity.¡±


    Quinn kept smiling in the face of Amelia¡¯s questioning.


    ¡°How¡¯s your grandfather.  I haven¡¯t met him since our meeting about our. . . incident.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay.  You can say it as it is.  The abduction attempt by the Death Eaters.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°My grandfather¡¯s not in the country at the moment.  He has been busy cleaning up the mess the Dark Lord made in Germany, so he hasn¡¯t had the time to visit the Ministry.  But please don¡¯t worry; he has assured me that he has been keeping tabs on the situation.¡±


    ¡°. . . That¡¯s good to hear,¡± but she didn¡¯t sound like it.


    ¡°It¡¯s good that the Death Eaters reached Azkaban.  Things would¡¯ve beplicated if another batch of Death Eater prisoners were freed before they reached Azkaban.¡±


    ¡°It would¡¯ve indeed made thingsplicated,¡± she sighed, ¡°but the situation is alreadyplicated even without it. . . . You must¡¯ve heard about it. . .¡±


    ¡°The Invisible Vignte, correct?¡±


    Amelia nodded.  ¡°The Invisible Vignte and the Death Eaters who came to free the prisoners.¡±


    ¡°It is good that there were no casualties on the Auror side.¡±


    ¡°But there were deaths on the Death Eaters.  A total of three Death Eaters dead,¡± Amelia sighed.


    Quinn held his expression.  Three Death Eaters had died during the Azkaban transport because of his wind tornado sucking the people in and throwing them out¡ª it turned out that they had not been able to keep hold of their wands.  The news had spread like wildfire through the country, splitting the people into two parts¡ª those who defended the Invisible Vignte and those who condemned him.  The result had been DMLE changing its stance against the Invisible Vignte, turning the internal passive stance to an aggressive curse on sight.


    Quinn didn¡¯t know how this would affect him.  Since then, he hadn¡¯t been out as the Invisible Vignte on the English soil.


    As for how he felt having the lives of another three people on his hands?  He felt disconnected from the entire situation.


    ¡°Better Death Eaters than Aurors,¡± he said.


    ¡°Are you in support of the Invisible Vignte¡¯s action?¡± asked Amelia, touching up her monocle.


    ¡°I firmly believe that thew that protects the people shouldn¡¯t be broken.  Breakingws that help maintain peace and harmony is a punishable offense,¡± said Quinn with an earnest expression.


    ¡°I¡¯m d to hear that,¡± said Amelia.


    Quinn changed the topic, ¡°Minister, you look tired.  Is there something weighing on your mind?¡±


    ¡°The situation around Numengard has brought in an entire bag of problems,¡± she sighed.


    ¡°But the prison isn¡¯t on our soil, and Grindelwald wasn¡¯t a citizen of our country.  He was under the charge of ICW for the past five decades¡ª why is this any of our problems,¡± said Quinn with furrowed brows.  He was genuinely curious about it.


    ¡°It¡¯s because of Dumbledore.  He was the one who caught Grindelwald, so the ICW decided to rope us into it because DMLE was actively involved during those times.¡±


    ¡°Dumbledore agreed?  That¡¯s surprising,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°Surprising; why?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been half a century since the war, that¡¯s a long time, and Dumbledore¡¯s pretty involved with the current Dark Lord, so it surprises me that he would go along with ICW.  Have you met with him?¡±


    Amelia shook her head, ¡°Not yet.  And then, I had to authorize some of our Aurors to the ICW taskforce, which is going to find the two parties responsible for the Numengard¡¯s destruction.¡±


    ¡°Two parties?¡±


    ¡°Two parties.  The prison was scoured by experts, and they were able to conclude that there were two different parties there.  The way the magic was used was too distinct¡ª the two groups that were involved were trained to use magic differently from each other, and that was clear from the evidence left.¡±


    ¡®Two groups?¡¯ thought Quinn, but then realized that the level of damage to a sturdy magically-enforced ce Numengard was too much for people to think that it was only two people and not two groups.


    ¡°Hmm, curious,¡± said Quinn.  He filed it in his mind to check what sort of experts Amelia was talking about and if he needed to prepare himself for things that might point back to him, but he wasn¡¯t much worried about it¡ª he had done enough due diligence to keep himself from connections.


    ¡°You¡¯re very curious, Mr. West.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the only way to learn.  You have to have the curiosity if you want to experience all sorts of new things.¡±


    ¡°I also have something I¡¯m curious about.¡±


    ¡°Oh, what is it.¡±


    ¡°Stephen Sperk resigned today.¡±


    ¡°I heard that, yes,¡± said Quinn, keeping himself rxed.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you meet him yesterday and three days before.¡±


    ¡°I did.  Mr. Spreck was the first one I visited.  He was so sweet.¡±


    ¡°Did he say something about his sudden retirement?  I am surprised why he would make a decision so suddenly.  I had worked with him a lot during my days in DMLE.¡±


    ¡°When I visited him first, he didn¡¯t look like he wanted to retire to me.¡±


    ¡°Is that so, a pity.  I guess I¡¯ll need to have a talk with Stephen.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯d be best to ask the person himself,¡± said Quinn before patting his knees.  ¡°Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me, Minister.  I¡¯ll take my leave.  I still have some work to do.¡±


    ¡°Please, don¡¯t let me hold you back,¡± said Amelia and saw Quinn get up, button the front button of his coat, and exit the VVIP room to enter the room.  From where she was sitting, she saw Quinn walk up to another man, who looked surprised to see Quinn.  While she couldn¡¯t hear what they talked about, she saw the man hurriedly get up and walk away with Quinn.


    She nced at the Auror standing at the door and silently beckoned her.


    ¡°Did you find something?¡± asked Amelia.


    ¡°Yes, as you asked, I looked into the people Quinn West met in the past few days, and it was as you expected.  They have been on the list of people we suspect connected to the Death Eaters.¡±


    ¡°Do we suspect them to be marked?¡±


    ¡°No, ma¡¯am.  None of the people he met are suspected Death Eater, just associates of Death Eater.¡±


    ¡°. . . Stephen resigned today.¡±


    ¡°Ma¡¯am.¡±


    ¡°In theing month, a lot of department heads are going to resign, and others will rece them.  Then there will be those who stick on and raise amotion,¡± Amelia sighed and massaged her shoulder.  ¡°Another bloody mess that we will need to keep an eye on.¡±


    ¡°Your orders, ma¡¯am.¡±


    ¡°. . . Get me everything we have on the people Quinn West has met and will be meeting.  Do the same with those who are recing the Departement Heads; I need to know everything we have on them.¡±


    Amelia sighed, ¡°Wests have begun digging their fingers in the Ministry.¡¯


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Meeting people about to retire, left and right.


    Amelia Bones ¨C Minister ¨C The busiest she had been since taking her chair.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C What should I write tomorrow?


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 350 Sneaking On

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Ivy boarded the red Hogwarts express with an excited expression.


    Today was the first day out since she had been out of her house.  She had spent the entire summer vacation trapped inside her house with no ess to the outside.  But today was the first of September, and there wasn¡¯t an active Hogwarts student that wasn¡¯t at the Kings Crossing Station.


    ¡°There are a lot of people,¡± said Hermione, looking around the tform.  ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting these many people toe.¡±


    Ivy looked around, and while Hermione said there were a lot of people, there wasn¡¯t that much of a difference from the previous years.  However, afterst year¡¯s break-in, neither of them was expecting the turnout to be the same.  Thest time they had seen, the parents were pulling their children away with derations of never letting them return.  But here they were, seeing those very people standing on the tforms.


    ¡°They must be pressured by the attacks,¡± muttered Ivy.


    ¡°The attack outside your house might¡¯ve been what made all consider Hogwarts safer than their own homes,¡± Hermione narrowed her eyes towards her best friend.


    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look.  We have already gone through this, and I do not want to talk about it,¡± said Ivy dismissively.


    ¡°All you have done is avoid answering my questions.¡±


    ¡°I will answer all your questions if you stop being so judgemental.¡±


    ¡°How can I not be doubtful if you don¡¯t answer my questions.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not do this.  Or this will end up going forever.¡±


    Hermione sighed.  She fixed her Headgirl badge before boarding the train behind Ivy.  They made their way to apartment where Hermione unloaded her luggage and went away to the Prefectpartment, leaving Ivy alone in thepartment.  Harry and Ron had gone to meet their friends after such a long time, leaving their shrunk luggage with Ivy.


    Soon, the train jerked into motion and began moving.  Ivy crossed her legs and turned her gaze outside as the scenery gradually left the urban behind, weing the vast expanse of the naturalndscape.  Her eyes remained glued on the scene. . . for the past two months, her only window to the outside had been the two-way mirror that she shared with Quinn, who carried it with him while outside, visiting ces.  She still remembered the view from the mirror when Quinn had floated it above the buildings to get an overhead shot, which then had turned into a tour through the narrow streets and even close-ups of many people engaged in their daily activities who couldn¡¯t see the presumably invisible mirror floating near them.


    But even despite that, nothing beat watching with her own eyes, knowing that it was just a ss pane away.  As she was nkly watching out, something entered her vision, piquing her attention.


    She squinted to focus, ¡°Is that a bird?¡±


    It was indeed a bird.  As the small dot flew close, the shape of broad wings became clear.  With each p, the ck bird woulde closer to the train until it was flying just beside it, moving in the same direction.


    ¡°A crow,¡± Ivy muttered.  It was the biggest of its kind she had seen.  She was also surprised the bird was able to keep up the train that chugged forward at full speed, making her guess that it was a magical species of the crow family.  ¡°I don¡¯t remember studying about this particr one,¡± Ivy tried to recall the identity but failed.  ¡°Maybe Hermione will know.¡±


    The crow pped its wing in rapid session and left Ivy¡¯s window behind, speeding ahead.  Just when Ivy was about to return her focus from the bird, the crow did a surprising and unexpected happen¡ª the bird pivoted back and faced the opposite.  Ivy¡¯s confusion soon turned into surprise as first, the crow flew towards her suddenly, the ss pane too vanished as it never suggested.  Ivy raised her hands to protect herself, but the next second,  she felt the fluttering winds stop.


    She peaked out from behind her eyes to see the ck crow staring at her from the opposite seat.  She hurriedly nced at the ss pane, but it was intact and present.  Ivy looked back at the crow¡ª she gulped¡ª the bird wasrger than when she had seen it before.  And as the bird was nearby, she could finally see that crow¡¯s ck feathers had a purple shine that¡¯d only turn visible at specific angles when the light would ssh on them.


    ¡°How did you get in?¡± she asked, tilting her head, slightly scared because of the size.


    The crow¡¯s response was something she didn¡¯t expect.  The crow twisted and turned, and suddenly, Quinn was sitting in front of her.


    ¡°That was exciting, not going to lie,¡± said Quinn, fixing his cuffs underneath his suit.  He waved his hand, and thepartment door locked up.


    ¡°Quinn!¡±  Ivy stood up and hugged him.  He hugged her back and pulled her into a snog session that both sides craved.  ¡°How did you?  You¡¯re an animagus?!¡±


    ¡°I have been a couple for a few years, a long but interesting story.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me.  I want to be an animagus as well.¡±


    ¡°It didn¡¯te up naturally.  As for bing an animagus, it¡¯s quite the lengthy to be an animagus¡ª but if you want to, we can work on it. . . ah, we should¡¯ve done it during the summer break. . . ah, but then you wouldn¡¯t have been able toplete it while locked inside.  But whatever, we can think of something while you¡¯re in Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°My dad¡¯s an animagus.  Sirius as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±  Quinn, of course, knew that.  ¡°That¡¯s neat.  What form does he take?¡±


    ¡°Stag.  You¡¯re a crow.¡±


    ¡°Technically, a raven.  But yeah.¡±


    ¡°What do you think I¡¯ll be?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s mostly the same as Patronus, so there are chances that you¡¯ll be a blue jay.¡±


    ¡°Ah. . . blue jay is small.¡±


    ¡°Believe me, smaller size for a bird form is better.  You might not be able to fly in stronger winds, but in an ideal environment, smaller birds are great.  I have been in many great flights in my animagus forms.¡±


    Ivy felt envious of the prospect of a new experience.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡± she asked.  ¡°I thought we agreed to meet outside of Hogwarts after I reach the castle.¡±


    ¡°I missed you, so I came.  The ns we had decided earlier are still on.¡±


    ¡°Does Daphne know you¡¯re here?¡±


    ¡°Nope, I came only for you.¡±


    ¡°Aww, how sweet.¡±  Ivy was still straddled upon Quinn and gave him a reward.  ¡°Hermione would blow up if she walked in upon us.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s still not happy?¡±


    ¡°No, she is not.  But her pestering has gone down at least.¡±


    Quinn sighed, ¡°I¡¯m not popr with best friends.  Both Tracey and Hermione aren¡¯t thrilled about our rtionship.¡±


    ¡°It bothers you that much?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it does,¡± said Quinn, surprising Ivy.  ¡°They¡¯re the only two who know about our rtionship, and both of them aren¡¯t supportive¡ª it makes me wonder if anyone else would be.¡±


    Ivy didn¡¯t have an answer to it.  She, too, wasn¡¯t worried about the same.


    ¡°Let¡¯s forget about it,¡± Quinn smiled, ¡°while it does bother me, it¡¯s not to a level where I¡¯ll lose any sleep.¡±


    ¡°Mnmm,¡± Ivy nodded.


    ¡°I heard there are professors and even Aurors onboard today,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°They really want this to go well.¡±


    ¡°I heard¡±¡ª heard from an Order of Phoenix¡ª ¡°that Dumbledore wants Hogwarts to be seen as a safe ce, and the Hogwarts Express getting safely to Hogsmeade is important for that.  If any Death Eaters came, which they¡¯re expecting them toe, the professors and Aurors are going to retaliate in defense.¡±


    ¡°I hope everything¡¯s peaceful.¡±


    ¡°Are you going to help if theye?¡±


    Quinn shook his head.  ¡°I¡¯ll defend as long as I can stay anonymous.  If I reveal myself, my grandfather is going to get angry, and I don¡¯t want to anger him right now.  He¡¯s prickly these days,¡± said Quinn, pausing before continuing.  ¡°Please don¡¯t go out and try to actively fight them.  I support self-defense, but don¡¯t pick a fight with them¡ª leave that to the Aurors.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes,¡± Ivy sighed, ¡°I have heard that so many times in thest couple of days¡ª mum¡¯s been harping on and on about it.  If they¡¯re so worried about it, why can¡¯t they just let use directly through Hogsmeade.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a show of confidence.  Hogwarts and even the Ministry can¡¯t have people thinking that they¡¯re scared of the Death Eaters by stopping a long-time tradition.  It¡¯s risky because of the young children involved, but I see where they¡¯reing from.¡±


    Ivy hummed, ¡°They want to keep up the traditions, but they moved Ollivander out of the shop.¡±


    That caught Quinn¡¯s attention as he asked, ¡°I am curious, what¡¯s going on with the wand situation?¡±


    ¡°The first years don¡¯t have their wands yet.  Mum said that Ollivander and his shop are going to be present at Hogwarts, and the first years are going to get their wands in the school itself.¡±


    ¡°. . . I see this bing the norm.¡±


    ¡°I think so too.  Someone in the Ministry will think that it¡¯s safer for the children to have their wands when they enter Hogwarts, and then somehow it¡¯ll be part of the sorting ceremony.¡±


    ¡°You know. . . that actually sounds cool, but I wouldn¡¯t want it to happen.  Parents need to get used to their kids having a wand¡ª and the time before Hogwarts where kids can¡¯t do much with them is the perfect time for that purpose.¡±


    ¡°Tell that to Hermione¡¯s parents,¡± Ivy giggled.  ¡°They told me that Hermione almost broke everything in her room.¡±


    ¡°What about you?  I¡¯m sure you weren¡¯t any less.¡±


    ¡°Please,¡± Ivy rolled her eyes, ¡°I had mum with me¡ª she would allow me my wand one hour in the morning and one in the evening.¡±  She narrowed her eyes, ¡°You got to do magic without care, didn¡¯t you, you spoiled brat.¡±


    ¡°Spoiled brat?¡± Quinn quirked his brow yfully.  ¡°I was anything but spoiled.  I will have you know I did my chores andpleted my tasks before I could do use magic,¡± he said proudly, puffing up his chest.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a good boy,¡± said Ivy, her voice a bit husky.


    ¡°I am,¡± Quinn nodded deeply.


    ¡°Then let me give you a reward,¡± she said and leaned forward.


    But before they could get into another snogging session, a loud explosion disturbed them.  Both of them looked outside the window, and they saw ck trails flying through the sky¡ª looking closely, they saw people inside, flying on brooms.


    ¡°They came,¡± he sighed.


    ¡°They did,¡± Ivy got up from Quinn.  ¡°What are you going to do?¡±


    Quinn stood up and stared out of the window.  He saw a flying Death Eater shoot a spell towards the train, but it was deflected by a shield spell, thus crashing into the ground, exploding the mud and grass that did hit the train.


    ¡°. . . I¡¯m going to go to the roof in case a spell slips past the Aurors and professors.  I¡¯m sure the train has its own enchantments, but prevention is better than cure.¡±


    Quinn turned away from the window and pulled Ivy into another kiss before saying, ¡°I¡¯ll see you in a couple of days.  We will go out then.¡±


    ¡°Be safe,¡± she said.


    ¡°I will.  Have your wand at ready¡ª in the immortal words of Mad-Eye Moody¡ª¡±


    ¡°Constant Vignce,¡± Ivy sighed again.  She had heard that phrase so much during the summer that her ears bled.


    Quinnughed.


    He snapped his fingers and turned invisible.  Next, the window again vanished from its frame before it returned again, and Ivy could tell that Quinn wasn¡¯t in the room.


    At that moment, the door rattled.  Ivy unlocked it and let in Hermione, Harry, and Ron inside.


    ¡°Did you see it?¡± asked Harry.


    ¡°I did.¡±


    ¡°What should we do?¡±


    Ivy took out her wand.  ¡°We stay ready and wait.  If theye inside, we teach them a lesson.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I hitch-hicked to get a ride with my girlfriend.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Potter Twin ¨C Likes exciting situations.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Corporate sucks!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 351 Interrogation

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n.coInterrogationm/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn pulled himself atop the Hogwarts Express.  The ck roof was windy, fluttering Quinn¡¯s clothes and hair back and making his bnce difficult.  He snapped his fingers, and the winds neutralized their assault on him.


    The Death Eaters that flew above the train, like annoying mosquitos buzzing.  Spells came down from the sky at the train, but shield spells would shoot up and intercept the attacks.


    Quinn watched as a rope shot up on the side of the next coach, and an Auror climbed up on the roof just as himself.  Quinn stilled himself and focused more on his invisibility¡ª he didn¡¯t want to get found out like he did during the Azkaban transport¡ª unlike that time, he wasn¡¯t masked.  Simrly, several Aurors climbed up on the roofs, and the exchange immediately became more heated as the Aurors began to attack while protecting the train.


    Quinn stayed put on his spot.  He wasn¡¯t going to make a move if the train wasn¡¯t in explicit danger. . . and from the looks of it, the Aurors were doing a good job protecting the train.


    ¡®Should I shoot some of them down?¡¯ he still wondered, looking between the Death Eaters and the Aurors.  After a thought, he decided not to do anything, but just as he was about to close down the query, his eyes caught an unmasked Death Eater flying among the masked ones.


    An unmasked Death Eaters. . . those among the Dark Lord¡¯s rank, who didn¡¯t mind their identities revealed while doing their Death Eater duties¡ª they were those been broken out of Azkaban, who knew that showing their faces would make no difference, thus hiding them provided no value.


    ¡°Bartemius Crouch Junior,¡± Quinn muttered as his eyes followed the one guilty of patricide.  ¡®I can¡¯t let this chance get away, can I?¡¯


    Bartemius ¡®Barty¡¯ Crouch Junior was an inner circle Death Eater, a fanatic one at that.  It was no secret that he worshipped the dirt that Voldemort had walked on and thus wasn¡¯t scared to follow every word uttered by his master¡ª and he did have a reputation for being crazy in the head with a passion for destruction and chaos.


    Quinn nced at the Aurors before raising his hand with his palm following the flying Barty Crouch.  Quinn waited for him to lower his altitude, and the moment Quinn thought that the range was close enough for absolute hit uracy, he let the spell fly.  It whistled through the wind and struck Barty in the back.


    Barty¡¯s broom immediately dipped, and the rider leaned to the slide and slipped off.  For a second, Quinn watched the man free fall through the floor; he thought if he should just let the man fall¡ª the height of the fall wasn¡¯t enough for absolute death, there was an equal chance of life and death¡ª and for a moment, he was fine with taking the chance and let luck decide Barty¡¯s fate. . . . But the, at the veryst moment, Quinn apparated from the roof and appeared right under Barty¡¯s free fall.


    He raised his magic up and cut off the body¡¯s momentum.  He caught Barty and immediately apparated off from the scene.


    . . .


    Quinn appeared in a forest and dumped the unconscious body on the ground before sighing.


    He knew that Aurors would question among themselves who shot the Death Eater down, and when they would conclude that it was none among them, they¡¯d go to the professors, who would again refuse, and then it¡¯d go to students.  If, by chance, Barty had died, Aurors would need tounch a mandatory investigation involving everyone second year onwards, and he didn¡¯t want that to happen¡ª adults questioning young children, who would obviously be anxious about the questioning¡ª and that didn¡¯t sit well with Quinn.


    He didn¡¯t want the young children to go through such experiences.  Even if none of them would be charged, he didn¡¯t want them to take the stress that would naturally pop up even if they knew they were safe.  Moreover, who knew how Voldemort would respond.  Maybe the mad man would use it as an opportunity to attack every first-generation magical¡¯s family for revenge, so Quinn whisked Barty away to ensure that no student would be involved.


    ¡°Now, what should I do with him?¡±


    He stared down at Barty Crouch with narrowed eyes.  First, he stripped Barty naked; even the underwear wasn¡¯t spared, but because he didn¡¯t want to have a wiener in his vision, he conjured underwear over Barty.  Next, he cast a space-locking ward around them to disable apparition and portkeys.  While he had taken away all the clothes and belongings, there was no telling if Barty had something inside his body that could be used as a portkey.


    Then there was a stretch of stillness.  Bartyy unconscious as Quinn stared down at him. . . . Quinn took out a triangr ck patch from his pocket.  He tapped it, and the ck Noir mask came out with a pair of leather gloves.  He put the mask and gloves on, leaving the rest of the outfit inside the Noir patch.  His hair changed colors, and even their style altered.


    ¡°Wake up.¡±


    Quinn removed the spell he had cast and then dumped ice-cold water on him.  Barty sucked in a cold breath along with the ice water and turned to his side, coughing his lungs out.


    ¡°H-uh?  W-What?¡± Barty muttered under confusion.


    ¡°Bartemius Crouch Junior,¡± said Quinn, gaining Barty¡¯s attention.


    ¡°You!¡±  Barty recognized Quinn¡¯s Invisible Vignte immediately.


    ¡°You have failed the magicalmunity, Death Eaters,¡± said Quinn, his voice distorted.  You have killed, maimed, harmed countless innocent lives, and have done so without a single shred of regret inside you¡ª it is time for you to be judged.¡±


    ¡°You filthy¡ª¡±


    Quinn swiped his hand in the air, and Barty was struck with an invisible p.


    ¡°HOW DARE¡ª¡±


    Quinn swiped his hand again, and another tight p attacked Barty¡¯s face.


    ¡°sToP¡ª¡±


    Another p knocked Barty down as he tried to get up.


    Barty stared at Quinn with vignt eyes.  He opened his mouth but then promptly closed it when he saw Quinn raise his hand.


    ¡°You will speak when I allow you to speak,¡± said Quinn.


    Barty reached around seemingly for his wand.  His eyes widened as he realized that his wand wasn¡¯t near him.  He looked down and saw that he was only wearing underwear that wasn¡¯t his.


    ¡°I will have you answer some of my questions,¡± said Quinn, deciding to exploit the chance that he had unexpectedly created.  ¡°How is the Dark Lord doing?  I heard that he is not feeling these days.¡±


    Barty¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°How did you?!¡±


    ¡°When ites to filth like you, I know things.  Answer my question.¡±


    Barty spat in response.  ¡°You can go to hell, you blood traitor. . . no, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re a foul mudblood.¡±


    Quinn calmly raised his hand, and a spark of lightning zapped Barty, sending him into screaming pain.  ¡°Don¡¯t answer my questions¡ª be ready for some punishment.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you!  AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!¡±


    ¡°How is the Dark Lord¡¯s health,¡± Quinn asked again.


    Barty refused to answer and was again struck with magic that sent him rolling in pain.  Barty continued refusing to answer, and Quinn continued to dole out punishment in painful proportions.


    Bartyid on the ground, panting, writhing in pain.  His body twitched and spasmed with tremors.  Seeing that, Quinn spoke, ¡°It looks we need to raise the stakes.  Continue to not answer my questions¡ª and I¡¯ll take your magic away.¡±


    That made Barty twitch from something other than the pain.  He looked up at Quinn, wariness and fear in his eyes.  His eyes studied Quinn¡ª studied the Invisible Vignte, who was known to have taken magic away from various Death Eaters.


    ¡°I see you have made your decision,¡± Quinn spoke when Barty kept his silence.  ¡°Then you know what you have to pay.¡±


    A dark haze suddenly puffed out Quinn¡¯s hand, startling Barty.  The Death Eaters pushed himself back on the ground, away from Quinn.  However, it was futile as Quinn raised his hand, and a copious amount of hazy smoke flew out of his palm and pooled onto the earthy ground.  The magic moved like it had a mind on its own, chasing Barty, and when it reached his body, it rose and covered him up.  Sticking to him.


    ¡°Stop!¡± yelled Barty


    Quinn clenched his fist.  The haze grew darker with soot puffing up around Barty, covering him in an almost opaque smoke.  When the screams began, Quinn ignored them and continued to operate his magic, guiding the magic to the intended areas on Barty¡¯s body.


    Quinn waved his hand and blew Tentani Nervum¡¯s haze away.  He stared at the pathetic-looking Barty and offered, ¡°Answer my questions, and I¡¯ll return you your magic.¡±


    ¡°. . . F-Fuck Y-Y-Youuuu. . .¡±


    Quinn sighed.  He wondered why he wasted so much time going through his method.  He wanted to see if he could pry one of the Dark Lord¡¯s fanatic followers¡¯ mouths open.  ¡°I do not want to go inside that disgusting mind of yours, but you leave me no other option. . . we will do this the hard way,¡±


    Emperyean ropes shot out from the ground.  They wrapped around Barty and pulled him firmly to the ground, keeping him still even with him thrashing around.


    Quinn kneeled down beside Barty and ced his palm over his forehead.  ¡°This will hurt, do try to endure.¡±


    Barty¡¯s eyes turned to the back of his head, leaving only the whites.  Again, a scream pierced the forest as Quinn¡¯s Legilimency tore through Barty¡¯s mind, scouring through the Death Eater¡¯s memories.  Experienced them one by one¡ª numerous meetings, small operations that had gone under the details, shady dealings, and the various others rted to Death Eaters.


    ¡°Ah, please excuse me for a moment,¡± said Quinn.  He got up and turned away from Barty while casting an opaque ck ward that blocked out Barty from witnessing anything outside.


    He took out the vibrating two-way mirror from his pocket and was about to answer it when he looked around his entirely forest surroundings.  He waved his hand, and the scene around him shimmered into a scene of his room with a slight change¡ª the wall behind him was a nondescript wall in case he needed to change locations.


    ¡°Hey,¡± he said, answering the call.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Ivy peered through the mirror, looking at Quinn and his surrounding.  ¡°Where are you?¡±


    ¡°In my room.  It¡¯s going through a repaint,¡± said Quinn, thinking he¡¯d need to repaint his room now.  ¡°I hope the Death Eaters didn¡¯t return,¡± he said, gambling on the fact that their leader(Barty) disappearing must¡¯ve made them leave.


    ¡°No, they left.  It was very sudden.¡±


    ¡°One of the Death Eaters got shot down and disappeared; I think that scared them off,¡± said Quinn, knowing that said Death Eater was behind him.


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know that,¡± she said.  ¡°You should¡¯vee in.¡±


    ¡°I thought of doing so but thought that after the attack, your friends woulde looking for you¡ª and thought it¡¯d better to leave.¡±


    ¡°They haven¡¯te yet¡ª¡± Ivy turned when there was a knock on Ivy¡¯s door.  ¡°They¡¯re here.  I will talk to youter.  Love you.¡±


    ¡°Love you too,¡± said Quinn, waving her goodbye before putting the mirror away.  He put on his mask and turned back, and the ck dome crumbled away with Barty still on the ground, writhing.


    ¡°Sorry about the wait; let¡¯s continue.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Wanted to see if he could interrogate(extract information) without Legilimency.


    Bartemius Crouch Junior ¨C Death Eater ¨C Pain and whiteness.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis

 Chapter 352 He Strikes Again?

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    A single candlestick glowed in the darkroom.


    The door creaked open, and Peter Pettigrew stepped inside, closing the door behind him.  He stared at the sole figure illuminated by the candle and internally sighed.  Since when had he be the messenger?  In charge of rying the news to the Dark Lord, risking his well-being every time Voldemort was in a bad mood or had terrible news.


    Pettigrew didn¡¯t break the silence and stood beside the door, waiting.


    After a couple of minutes, Voldemort spoke, ¡°Speak, Wormtail.¡±


    ¡°Barty is missing, My Lord,¡± said Pettigrew bluntly.  ¡°He was shot down during the Hogwarts Express attack.  ording to his team, he fell off his broom and disappeared before they knew it.  The same goes for the Aurors; there hasn¡¯t been any information about Barty¡¯s arrest.¡±


    There was no response from Voldemort, and Pettigrew, too, stayed silent until Voldemort finally spoke,


    ¡°Who shot Barty down?¡±


    ¡°It is not known, My Lord.  Barty¡¯s team said that the spell came from the roof.  The roof was only upied by Aurors. . . so we think that one of the Aurors shot Barty down. . . but¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ª but then where did Barty go?¡±pleted Voldemort.


    ¡°Yes.  None of the Aurors left the train.  The question of Barty¡¯s disappearance still remains.  If you could use the Dark Mark to contact him. . . .¡±


    The Dark Mark.  An honor bestowed upon the Death Eaters by Voldemort, signifying their value in the eyes of the Dark Lord.  The mark had various use, and one of them was that Voldemort could issue a summons to his marked Death Eaters.  It was up to them if they wanted to answer those summons, but only a few dared to refuse the Dark Lord¡¯s summons.


    ¡°Hmm. . . . Give me your arm, Wormtail.¡±


    Pettigrew walked to the Voldemort¡¯s chair, and being this close, he could finally see the Dark Lord¡¯s visage.  Voldemort was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, with a pungent smell wafting from the medicinal pastes applied underneath the wrappings.  When Pettigrew presented his marked arm, Voldemort raised his trembling arm slowly.


    Pettigrew kept his face and body still under his control.  He knew that the ruthless Dark Lord was having a moment of calmness, a rarity since he had returned from Numengard in the Austrian Alps.  Whatever happened there had left Voldemort severely injured, so injured that even now, after several days, the injuries had persisted.


    Voldemort touched the Dark Mark, which was lighter from its usual darkness.  Pettigrew clenched his jaw as a burning pain shot up his arm.  The mark¡¯s color bubbled and darkened, the cks turning cker and the red tuning bloodier. . . until the mark returned to normal.


    ¡°. . . Bartemius is trapped or dead,¡± said Voldemort.


    ¡®Or he defected,¡¯ thought Pettigrew, but his thoughts remained unsaid.  While he understood Barty¡¯s personality and devotion, he didn¡¯t believe in absolute trust¡ª he believed that even someone as messed up as Betrix would turn if someday the Dark Lord turned to the light side. . . a hypothetical that he could never see happening.


    ¡°. . . Bartemius is still in the country,¡± Voldemort said, his voice t.


    Pettigrew quirked his brow.  ¡®So it was true that he could track the marked Death Eaters down. . . or at least could tell the general position,¡¯ he thought.  Thest time he had suspected of this was when the Dark Lord had hunted down Igor Karkaroff. . . and they had been able to find the traitorous man surprisingly easily.


    ¡°Can you tell if he¡¯s dead?¡± asked Wormtail.


    ¡°It takes time for the body to dpose and break down.  The mark will remain true for some time after death. . . that is if Bartemius is dead. . . . What do you think happened to him?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know enough to form a conjecture,¡± said Pettigrew.


    ¡°Take a guess, Wormtail.¡±


    Pettigrew thought for a bit.  ¡°I believe that the Aurors, or at least a group of Aurors, are operating independently. . . or covertly under orders.  My guess is that they abducted Barty so they could interrogate him to get information about us.  He cannot use his mark to escape, nor can he use the extra portkey issued to him¡ª Aurors have him trapped.¡±


    ¡°But they could do the same if they simply arrested him.¡±


    ¡°They could, but if it¡¯s not on the official records, they could use Legilimency to force the information out of his mind without having to face the very severews prohibiting the use of the mind arts in interrogations.¡±


    ¡°Ah, thosews, the fact that those particr ones exist slipped from my mind,¡± said Voldemort.


    ¡°It could be that, but would Rufus Scrimgeour permit this?¡± asked Pettigrew.  ¡°He seems to be a stickler for rules; would he break thew?¡±


    ¡°You misunderstand him, Wormtail,¡± said Voldemort.  ¡°Rufus Scrimgeour is what you call a lion.  He isn¡¯t like Amelia Bones, who would die before getting caught breaking thew.  And he would is anything but Cornelius Fudge. . . People like Scrimgeour will go to lengths to aplish what he wants to achieve¡ª I would not put it past him to resort to such methods.¡±


    Pettigrew made a mental note of that.  He was sure that he was going to have to deal with Rufus Scrimgeour in some time.  It was better to have a hand on the pulse of the important people.


    ¡°Then what is yourmand on this, My Lord,¡± asked Pettigrew.


    ¡°. . . I will tell you the part of the country Bartenius is in.  Search for him.  If he is alive, I want to see him tell me what happened.  If he is dead, get me his corpse.  He needs to be rewarded for his service and devotion.¡±


    Pettigrew bowed.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn stood up from the ground.  He removed his gloves as he stared down at Barty Crouch¡¯s body.


    ¡°You know, I do not like using Legilimency this way,¡± said Quinn, narrowing his eyes at spasming caused as a side-effect of brute-force Legilimency.  ¡°I prefer the gentler, more elegant approach, the one that doesn¡¯t leave a trace¡ª it is one the things my master insists is a sign of a true master Legilimens¡ª to leave as if you never came.¡±  Quinn¡¯s face twitched in disgust, ¡°But, what have you done. . . every decision you have made has affected innocents, spilled so much blood, destroyed lives, families. . . . I could not stop myself from being forceful.¡±


    Despite being under his father¡¯s Imperius for more than a decade, Barty Crouch had done so many vile deeds before his incarceration that even those among the Death Eaters would find their stomachs turn.  Barty had gotten back on track with his activities right after his freedom¡ª it was as if the man had been starved of his appetite for blood, fear, and agony¡ª and like a hungry maniac, Barty had done everything to abate his unending cravings.


    ¡°I wish to purge my brain from what I have seen. . . but at least I got some precious information from it,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Some very useful information. . . the Dark Lord is injured.¡±


    Barty¡¯s body twitched, different from his spasming.


    ¡°If I had to mention your one positive quality, it would be loyalty, but unfortunately, it is not to the correct party,¡± said Quinn.


    Barty¡¯s spasms had calmed down.  His eyes regained partial focus as he red at Quinn.  ¡°M-M-y Lor-d-d is goi. . . to kill you!¡± he spat.


    ¡°I would not put it past him, but how would he know that I was the one who brought you here.¡±


    ¡°H-He will kno-ow.¡±


    Quinn narrowed his eyes.  He had scoured Barty¡¯s memory, and he couldn¡¯t recall anything that would implicate him.  But then he realized that it was Barty¡¯s fanatic worship talking.


    ¡°Then so be it,¡± Quinn shrugged.  ¡°But do you think the Dark Lord wille with his injuries?  What do you think?  I do not think he will.¡±


    ¡°He w-will!¡±


    ¡°If that helps you feel good in your heart,¡± Quinn said but at the same time thought, ¡®I need stop now. . . too much of Quinn West is leaking out,¡¯ he looked down on his suit, ¡®I me these clothes.¡¯


    ¡°You have run your usefulness, Bartemius Crouch Junior,¡± Quinn put on his leather gloves back.  ¡°But unfortunately for you, now I have to end this.¡±  Quinn raised his hand, and a green glow covered his hand.  ¡°You are going to be the second one I am going to send away directly¡ª you are going to stay in my mind forever.  And believe me, I do not like the thought of that¡ª but I am not going to stop.¡±


    ¡°M-My Lord will¡ª¡±


    Quinn unleashed the killing curse on Barty, cutting the guy¡¯s thread of life.


    ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t feel guilty. . . I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s a good thing or not. . . but I like it.¡±


    He stared down at Barty¡¯s dead body and sighed, ¡°Let¡¯s dig you a grave.  Most deserve one; you do too.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    ,


    Pettigrew stared at the grave in the middle of a forest.  It looked freshly dug, even had a simple headstone with the dead man¡¯s name.  He looked around.  The ce did not look somewhere Aurors would operate¡ª he thought it would be more of a secure, underground bunker.


    ¡°Did you find anything?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Nothing out of the ordinary,¡± said a member of the search party.


    ¡°. . . It doesn¡¯t look like this was Aurors doing.¡±


    Pettigrew turned to his left and saw Rivers Lock peering down at the headstone with indifferent eyes.


    ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t.  Who do you think it was then?¡±


    Rivers shook his head.  ¡°I don¡¯t know enough to specte.¡±


    ¡°Take a guess,¡± said Pettigrew.


    River¡¯s eyes studied Barty¡¯s grave.  Pettigrew could tell that the devious mind behind those dead eyes was turning in thought.


    ¡°Invisible Vignte,¡± said Rivers.  ¡°A ridiculous name.¡±


    Pettigrew blinked in surprise, ¡°Why do you say that?¡±


    ¡°This doesn¡¯t look like Aurors¡¯ work.  The Order of Phoenix won¡¯t do this, or at least not like this.  The third, but the most probable option is him¡ª he somehow knows what we are going to do and wholeheartedly opposes us.  He killed three of ours before and must¡¯ve decided to take out a more prominent one this time.¡±


    ¡°There is no evidence that it was the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    Rivers shrugged, ¡°It is just a guess.¡±


    Pettigrew wanted to dispute, but the more the thought stayed in his mind, the more it started to feel like it fit.  There were others who would have loved to take revenge against Barty, but as far as he knew, there wasn¡¯t anyone who had the capability to do it or the means to know that Barty was going to be present at the train attack.


    ¡°What should tell him,¡± asked Rivers.


    Pettigrew shook his head, ¡°We don¡¯t offer conjectures to the Lord.  He is resting, maybe when he is feeling well.¡±


    Rivers stayed silent, and Peter took that as his ascent.  He turned to the other Death Eaters around him and ordered,


    ¡°Let¡¯s dig the body up if there is one remaining.¡±


    After all. . . the Invisible Vignte wasn¡¯t famous for being kind and peaceful with those he came across.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C  His clothes help him separate his two personas.


    Barty Crouch Junior ¨C Death Eater ¨C His headstone only had his name written on it.


    Peter Pettigrew ¨C Death Eater ¨C The messenger.


    Rivers Lock ¨C Death Eater ¨C Just specting.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Injured by another Dark Lord.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 353 The Paper Slip

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°We need to find a new ce to meet,¡± Sirius sighed as he closed the door to the lounge behind him.  ¡°You guys can¡¯t convene here every time the Death Eaters do,¡± he said to the Order of Phoenix members sitting on his well-curated furniture.  ¡°What would you all have done if I had ady at home with me?¡±


    ¡°We would¡¯ve asked her to leave,¡± said Hestia Jones, ¡°well, you would have.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh, if you think that, it would¡¯ve been awkward for you when I would¡¯ve shut the door in your face,¡± Sirius took a seat, dressed in his nightclothes with a ss filled with a golden liquid.  ¡°I¡¯m not cracking a joke.  If I have ady with me, I¡¯m going to turn you all away,¡± but then he winked at Hestia, ¡°but if you want to keep mepany, you¡¯re always wee at 12 Grimmauld ce, Hestia.¡±


    Hestia snorted, not gracing Sirius with a response.


    ¡°Enough mindless chatter,¡± Moody¡¯s gruff voice with a knock of his walking stick.  He turned to his left and said, ¡°Get on with it, Albus.  We don¡¯t have all the time of the day.¡±


    All eyes turned to Dumbledore, who was sitting at the ¡®head¡¯ of the group.  The man was dressed, as always, in his entrically bright-colored clothes.  In the group of regr clothers, he stuck out like a peacock in a sea of peahens.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure all of you are aware of why we have gathered here,¡± said Dumbledore, his voice disjointed from the reason behind the meeting.  ¡°Today, the Death Eaters targeted the Hogwarts Express and the students. . . as we expected they would.¡±  There was a wave of nods and murmur among the group, ¡°Fortunately, both us and the Aurors Office expected them to do so and nned safeguards against them.¡±


    The Hogwarts Express always had a professor or two onboard during the trips, but today, the train harbored five professors, all expecting Death Eaters to attack.


    ¡°I disliked the idea to run the Hogwarts Express this year, but neither the Ministry nor the Board of Governors wanted the centuries-long practice to break,¡± sighed Dumbledore.  ¡°I hope they¡¯d be more receptive to my suggestions after today.  However, the reason I called all of you is not because of the attack itself, but the unforeseen thing that happened during the attack. . . Bartemius Crouch Junior unexpectedly disappeared after being hit by a spell.¡±


    ¡°Who cares what happened to father-killer?¡± spat Elphias Doge(coin).


    ¡°I care, Elphias.  I care,¡± said Dumbledore.  He gave a look to Elphias, which had a smile, but his eyes were nothing but somber.  ¡°Bartemius¡¯ disappearance is an anomaly in a situation that is easy to understand.  I¡¯m trying to understand how did he disappear, where did he go to, and who or what made him disappear.¡±


    He swept his eyes to his group as if expecting them to offer something, but none spoke.


    ¡°Then let us start with the Aurors Office,¡± Dumbledore turned to James and Kingsley.  ¡°Was the Aurors Office behind the disappearance?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said James, exchanging a nce with Kingsley, ¡°as far as the DMLE is considered, we haven¡¯t participated in the disappearance.¡±


    Kingsley chimed in, ¡°I have confirmed with the Hit Wizards.  They, too, weren¡¯t involved.  I can say that this wasn¡¯t orchestrated by the Ministry¡ª¡±


    Moody cut Kingsley off, ¡°Don¡¯te to that conclusion yet, Shacklebolt.  You might have done so, but that doesn¡¯t mean the Departement of Mysteries wasn¡¯t involved.  Those sneaky bastards behind their locked doors might have taken Crouch¡¯s kid to. . . study the Dark Mark for one.¡±


    Everyone¡¯s eyes widened, and some sort of realization dawned on them.


    The Departement of Mysteries, a section of the Ministry of Magic that carried out confidential research.  Most of its operations were carried out in total secrecy.  Few wizards within the Ministry actually knew what was located within this department.  Various mysteries of the world were studied there.  Wizards who worked in the Department of Mysteries were known as Unspeakables because of the confidential nature of their work.  Due to the highly ssified nature of this department, it was granted a great deal of independence, being the only one within the entire Ministry that did not need to answer to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.  Even the Minister for Magic had very little authority over the department¡¯s operations, as the fifteenth Minister¡¯s attempt to shut down the branch was ignored by the Unspeakables.


    ¡°Did they take Death Eaters during the war?¡± came as a question from Nymphadora Tonks.


    Moody grunted, his artificial eye rolling in its socket.  ¡°Maybe they did, maybe they didn¡¯t.  Some of the Death Eaters had gone missing during Barty Crouch. . . Senior¡¯s hunt¡ª most assumed that they ran away, but who knows. . . they might just have been abducted by the Unspeakables for experimentation.  Last time, little Barty had his daddy, so they couldn¡¯t pick him up, but this time he was alone and ripe for picking. . . .  What do you say, Albus?¡±


    Dumbledore shook his head.  ¡°There¡¯s no use in discussing what they did during the war.  We have no way to prove it. . . . By saying that, I¡¯m not subtracting the possibility of the Department of Mysteries being involved today.  If they did. . . we might not see Bartemius for a very long time, if anytime.  I do not think the Unspeakables were involved; it¡¯s not like them to act so publicly¡ª secrecy is their bread-and-butter.¡±


    But the question of who took Barty Crouch away still remained.  It remained in everyone¡¯s mind.


    ¡°How did he get taken away?¡± asked Tonks.


    ¡°Apparition, I reckon,¡± said Lily.  ¡°The train is loud enough to hide the sound.¡±


    No one raised any opposition to that conjecture.


    ¡°No one saw anything,¡± James turned to Lily.  ¡°Did the students say something unusual on the train?  Because whoever took Barty away was either on the train or following it.¡±


    Lily shook her head, ¡°None of them reported anything unusual.  It can be assumed the perpetrator wasn¡¯t on the train.¡±


    Tonks, who listened to everything, kicked her feet forward and stretched back.  ¡°Death Eaters, an unknown suspect, and an open mystery¡ª I say it is the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    ¡°Possible, but just a spection,¡± said James, and the group parked the choice and moved on.


    ¡°Someone who had his loved ones killed by Crouch?¡±


    ¡°Too broad, but it¡¯s an angle we are working on,¡± said Sirius, his ss clinking with ice.  ¡°The case is assigned to the newest batch of rookies; they¡¯ll be looking into the missing Crouch.¡±


    ¡°Robards didn¡¯t assign it a higher priority?¡± asked Dumbledore, peering from the top of his sses.


    Sirius shook his head.  ¡°He doesn¡¯t want to waste precious resources looking for a missing Death Eater.  It is busywork for our rookies to learn things.  And no, he won¡¯t change the status even I ask him to¡ª I also don¡¯t want the priority status to change.¡±


    Dumbledore shook his head.


    ¡°What if it was the Death Eaters themselves!¡± Tonks said as if she had a revtion.  She yelped the next moment as Moody hit her with a stinging spell.


    ¡°Think before you speak,ss!¡± he rebuked.


    ¡°I was thinking!¡±


    ¡°Think better then.¡±


    The conversation derailed then.  The group began bouncing off ideas and theories about Barty¡¯s disappearance.  Conspiracies were born.  Imaginary plots were weaved.  But in the end, the group wasn¡¯t able toe to a conclusion about Barty¡¯s disappearance.


    . . .


    ¡°Albus.¡±


    Dumbledore turned back and saw Moody standing behind him.  Everyone was talking in the lounge while he had stepped away to have some quiet thinking time while admiring the old ck-heritage paintings that Sirius had still kept.


    ¡°How are you feeling, Albus?¡±


    ¡°Where did thate from suddenly?¡± Dumbledore asked with a confused smile.  ¡°What would be wrong with me?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m talking about Grindelwald,¡± said Moody bluntly.  The man was never one to mince his words.


    ¡°. . . So?¡±


    ¡°Avoid it or not, Albus, but that man¡ª Dark Lord or not¡ª was a big part of your life.  You¡¯re clearly not feeling well.¡±


    ¡°And why do you say that?¡±


    ¡°You ended up joining the ICW investigation without a single word of objection.  They approached, and you gave them what they wanted, knowing well that the investigation is more of a publicity stint rather than an actual attempt to find the truth.  They don¡¯t want to find out how a Dark Lord who has been locked away for half a century died.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, stor, but I¡¯m fine.  As for the ICW investigation.  Even if it¡¯s only half an investigation, I want to be a part of it.  Grindelwald¡¯s death was sudden and without a hint of prior warning from any sources of any Ministerial agency across the globe.  So if there¡¯s someone searching for an answer, I would like to be kept in the loop.¡±


    Moody wanted to say something, but he was stopped by Dumbledore.


    ¡°End of discussion, stor.¡±


    But as Dumbledore was about to step away, Moody put his walking cane in Dumbledore¡¯s way.  Dumbledore looked at the cane and then at Moody, ¡°I have some work to do, ster.  Now is not the time.¡±


    ¡°I hope you know that we need to focus on the current Dark Lord.  Chasing an old one isn¡¯t on the top of the list right now.¡±


    ¡°I know that better than anyone.¡±


    Moody pulled his cane back, ¡°I hope you do,¡± he grunted before stalking away.


    Dumbledore watched Moody for a bit before he shook his head.  He turned away and eyed Sirius, who was bothering Hestia Jones.  Dumbledore called out to him.


    ¡°How may I help you, Dumbledore,¡± asked Sirius.


    ¡°I have something I¡¯d like to show you,¡± Dumbledore took out a half-slip of parchment and handed it to Sirius.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Sirius asked just before his eyes began reading the words.


    [


    To the Dark Lord,


    I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.  I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.  I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more.


    R.A.B.


    ]


    ¡°This R.A.B. is he. . .¡±


    ¡°Regulus Arcturus ck,¡± Sirius uttered.  ¡°My brother. . . he often signed his name like that.¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s eyes shed.  He was right.  It was Regulus ck who had written the letter.


    ¡°Where did you find this?¡± asked Sirius.


    ¡°Regulus had reced something Voldemort had valued,¡± Dumbledore couldn¡¯t bring himself to change the letter, but he wasn¡¯t going to be the one who gave out essential information.  ¡°He deceived Voldemort and reced it with a fake.  I think that something must be here, where he lived. . . . I was wondering if you had his belongings.¡±


    It was a reach that Sirius would keep his brother¡¯s belongings after such a long time period, but he had to try, just in case he did.


    ¡°I-I have some of his stuff.  It is all in his r-room,¡± said Sirius, his eyes glued to the paper.


    Dumbledore didn¡¯t say anything.  He let Sirius process things.  Finding that the Death Eater brother, who was the image of everything Sirius stood for, had betrayed Voldemort.


    ¡°I know this is hard, Sirius.  But do know that your brother was a brave who saw the truth of the situation and did his best to remedy the situation.  Be proud of him,¡± said Dumbledore.


    He could wait for a few days longer to search Regulus¡¯ belongings.  Maybe then he would be able to get his hands on another one of Voldemort¡¯s Horcruxes.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Sirius ck ¨C Proud Owner of a Bachelor Pad ¨C Feels like his life foundation has been shaken.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Order of the Phoenix ¨C Making his way, piece-by-piece.


    stor Moody ¨C Madeye ¨C Perceptive as hell.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


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    The link is in the synopsis!

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    -*-*-*-*-*-.


    .


    Quinn sat in his favorite cafe with a book in his hand.  He neither drank coffee nor tea, but he did like eating cakes, and while Polly and Ms. Rosey made perfectly delicious cakes, this cafe baked delicacies so addicting that Quinn had suspected them of adding drugs as an ingredient.  He had gone as far as to check there was anything suspicious¡ª but other than some great quality ingredients, he had failed to find any other strange things.


    The fork cut a piece of his lemon yogurt cake and floated itself to Quinn¡¯s mouth as he continued to read his book.  He let out a teenie bit of food moan as the lemony goodness exploded in his mouth.


    ¡°This is so good!¡±  He turned to the shop counter and threw a hearty thumbs-up to the employee behind the counter, who thumbs-upped back with a smile.


    He returned to his book with forkfuls of cake gently ced into his mouth.    But then suddenly, a man came and sat in front of him, at his table.


    Quinn didn¡¯t look up from his book as he said, ¡°There¡¯s an empty table there; if you don¡¯t mind can you vacate my table.  That¡¯d be much appreciated.¡±  Another forkful of cakended on his tongue.


    ¡°I actually meant to sit with you, Mr. Quinn West,¡± said the man.  ¡°I¡¯ve heard a lot about you and wondered if we could have a little chat.¡±


    Quinn finally looked up at the uninvited man and chanced upon the clean shaved man dressed in a brown suit with a darker tie and a Panama hat, looking at him with sparkling eyes that stood out as the only defining feature of the man.


    ¡°And who might you be?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Apologies for that.  How rude of me to not introduce myself.  My name is Croaker.  I¡¯m pleased to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Croaker. . . and?¡± asked Quinn, but he already had an inkling. . . now he already, for a fact, knew who this man was.


    ¡°Just Croaker for now.¡±


    ¡°Well then, Mr. ¡®Just-Croaker-for-now,¡¯ if you want to have a chat with me, please schedule a meeting with me through my secretary.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have a secretary. . . do you?¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t have one.¡±


    ¡°Then there¡¯s no way for me to schedule a meeting.¡±


    ¡°Exactly.  Finally, you get it; I thought you were simply slow on the uptake.  While I would like to return by saying that it was a pleasure to meet you, it would be a lie if I said so.  Now, if you¡¯ll please leave me alone to my cake.¡±


    Quinn returned to his book, but Croaker didn¡¯t move from his chair; instead, the man called for the waitress and ordered himself the same thing that Quinn was having.


    ¡°Good choice,¡± said Quinn, ¡°but what¡¯re you doing?  If you want to enjoy your cake, do so at another table.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯d just listen to me, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d be interested in what I have to say.¡±


    ¡°Not interested.¡±


    ¡°Would you lose anything if you listen?¡±


    ¡°Yes.  My incredibly precious time.¡±


    ¡°I have a job offer for you, Mr. Quinn West.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for the offer, but I¡¯m not interested in entering the working society yet.¡±


    ¡°Have you heard of the Departement of Mysteries?¡±


    Quinn clicked his tongue and put down his book on the table.  ¡°You had to say it, didn¡¯t you, Saul Croaker.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you know me?¡± asked Croaker, briefly surprised.


    ¡°Of course, I do know you, Professor Saul Croaker.  You¡¯re a premier researcher in the study of time.  Have aw named after you,¡± Quinn said to Croaker, who kept smiling.  ¡°Professor Saul Croaker¡¯sw.  It states that five hours was the longest someone could travel back in time without the possibility of serious harm to the traveler or time itself.


    I have varying thoughts on the matter, but your research was a fascinating read.¡±


    ¡°Why, thank you.  But what about your varying thoughts.  Where do you disagree with my theory?¡± asked Croaker.


    ¡°There¡¯s no mathematical logic behind my thinking, but I believe that a person doesn¡¯t need five hours to send time and the future events into disarray.  One rash decision made under rash emotion or an action taken in the heat of the moment,¡± he snapped his fingers, ¡°that is all it takes to plunge everything into chaos.¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, the human factor,¡± Croaker nodded.  ¡°I used a base assumption for my research.  Actually, I¡¯m currently trying to study how the spectrum of human behavior and actions affects the stream of time.¡±


    ¡°Interesting.¡±


    ¡°It is, isn¡¯t,¡± smiled Croaker.  ¡°Are you interested in the research of time, Quinn?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯m not.¡±


    ¡°Then would you like to join the Department of Mysteries?¡±


    ¡°No, thank you.¡±


    ¡°. . . Quinn, you realized what this offer represents.  A very few people ever get a look from our department, much less an offer to join.¡±


    Croaker reached into his coat and took out a ck leather folder/binder.  Quinn¡¯s eyes lingered on Croaker¡¯s coat, which shouldn¡¯t be able to hold arge folder.  It made Quinn think that Croaker(or even most Unspeakables) had pockets simr to him.  Then his eyes went to the ck leather folder¡ª it was something he recognized fairly well.


    ¡°A Hogwarts record folder,¡± said Quinn.  Room of Rewards, the entryway to the Sin vault, held records of every student that ever studied at Hogwarts¡ª everything from report cards, achievements, professor¡¯s rmendations, behavioral ounts, among other various things.  Quinn had seen his own ck folder, and he was pleased to read what was written there.


    ¡°I have to ask who gave you this?¡± Quinn pointed at the folder.  ¡°Who¡¯s the one inside Hogwarts who has the in with the Departments of Myster. . .¡±¡ª he paused mid-sentence¡ª ¡°. . . it is Professor McGonagall.  She¡¯s the one who rmends students and provides you with ck leather folders.¡±


    Minerva McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts.  Except for the magical privileges that Hogwarts bestowed upon the Headmaster, she was in control and had ess to pretty much everything in Hogwarts.  She would be the most likely person to provide the information to the Unspeakables.  Moreover, it was McGonagall who provided Hermione with the Time-Turner, something strictly controlled by the Department of Mysteries¡ª that one incident was all Quinn needed to form his conjecture.


    ¡°Man, who knew McGonagall would be the,¡± he made air quotes, ¡°recruiter inside Hogwarts¡ª who knew the upright Scottish witch would be the one.¡±


    Quinn watched Croaker, who sat with no change in expressions, which confirmed that he had been correct.  Everything from Croaker¡¯s face to his bodynguage was perfect¡ª too perfect¡ª which itself became a fault.


    ¡°I don¡¯t me her.  For a clock to function properly, all the cogs must be ced in their appropriate ces.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about,¡± Croaker denied Quinn¡¯s conjecture at once.¡±We don¡¯t usually recruit straight out of Hogwarts.  Children whoe out of school are still too immature and inexperienced to be part of our operation but,¡± he opened the ck folder, ¡°you-you. . . I have never seen this from someone just out of Hogwarts.  When I first saw it, I thought it was a joke, but after confirming twice and vetting it thrice, I couldn¡¯t see it as a joke.  Prefect. . . Headboy. . . Organized a multi-school Quidditch League. . . Hosted the Tri-wizard Tournament. . . Perfect grades. . . and there¡¯s Aid In Distress¡ª or AID¡ª thest one was is a shining star on your record.  You have done so much in seven years, Quinn.  And the thing that binds everything together¡ª your aptitude for magic.¡±


    Croaker stared at Quinn and continued after a pause, ¡°After seeing all of this, I, on behalf of the Department of Mysteries, extend an offer to you to join us as an. . . Unspeakable.¡±


    Quinn breathed out, leaning into his chair.  Unspeakable.  He knew what power that designation held.  It was a department with autonomy within the Ministry¡ª so much so that even a Ministry of Magic couldn¡¯t shut down.  It was the ce where mysteries of magic were studied, with the envelope being pushed forward.


    With all that, Quinn responded, ¡°I appreciate the offer, but I¡¯ll have to refuse.¡±


    ¡°. . . Quinn, we¡¯re a very exclusive organization and wouldn¡¯t extend this offer again.  If you chose to refuse this offer now, it¡¯d be gone like sand in the wind. . . it won¡¯t return.  Do know what you¡¯re missing is something you¡¯d regret missing.  We are at the bleeding edge of magic.  We have direct sight to the truth.


    So, I¡¯ll extend this offer for the second andst time.  Join the Department of Mysteries.¡±


    There was a silence between them.  Both sat in the outside area of a cafe with people walking by them, unknowing about the conversation that was happening just a few paces away.  That an Unspeakable and a member of the wealthiest family in the country were sharing a table beside them.


    ¡°I still refuse,¡± said Quinn.


    Croaker sighed as he closed the folder and put it back.  ¡°May I know why did you refuse?¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t lie by saying that if I had epted your offer, I would¡¯ve gotten ess to resources which would be tedious for me to procure. . . a culture of research and innovation. . . but all of that would¡¯vee with its restriction¡ª I would¡¯ve lost the freedom that I have right now.¡±  Quinn stopped Croaker from interjecting, ¡°Whatever you say, it is still a ministerial department with a budget¡ª and I¡¯m sure the Department of Mysteries have their own deliverables that they need to meet to maintain that budget because I¡¯m sure the bureaucrats and politicians would¡¯ve chewed down the flow of money with how your department operates.


    I don¡¯t want to spend the next decade as a grunt who is stuck with handling those mandatory tasks.  I want to learn whatever I want¡ª travel whenever and wherever I want¡ª pursue whatever interest I want to overtake¡ª and if I join you, it will take me a long-long time, maybe never even, to reach that level.¡±


    ¡°. . . And you¡¯re saying that you¡¯ll be better of on your own.¡±


    A smile stretched on Quinn¡¯s face that could only be described as self-confident.  ¡°I¡¯m a West, Mr. Croaker.  I have no shortage of funds.¡±  He pointed at the ck folder, ¡°What you have in that file is not all of me.  It¡¯s just one side of me.  Yes, I spent seven years in Hogwarts, but that doesn¡¯t mean that Hogwarts was all I did in that time.  I¡¯m going to travel and meet people at the very top of their fields¡ª learn from them and improve.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s expression turned to a half-smiling- half-serious.  ¡°I¡¯m going to recreate the golden age of magic in this era¡ª my era.¡±  He then smirked, ¡°And about this being thest offer, I don¡¯t think so.  You¡¯ll approach me again.  Even if you don¡¯t, I¡¯m sure your department and I will be coborating on some projects.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s some arrogant thinking.  The golden age?  That¡¯s some big talk.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s only arrogance if I¡¯m wrong.  As for the big talk?  I only aim for the best.¡±


    Quinn stood up.  He had finished his cake, and the discussion had alsoe to an end.  ¡°Mr. Croaker, please have anything you want.  I have a tab here; ask them to put everything on there.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nice of you.¡±


    Quinn smiled and was about to leave when a thought struck him and spoke to Croaker.  ¡°If you¡¯re looking for new blood.  I¡¯d suggest that you target Ivy Potter. . . I¡¯m sure you know who she is.  Ask Professor McGonagall for her file, I¡¯m sure she¡¯d be a valuable asset to your organization.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, but you don¡¯t need to consider yourself with.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just pointing you to a good rmendation.  You don¡¯t want to have another Augustus Rockwood situation.¡±


    Croaker¡¯s eyes turned sharp as he looked at Quinn, who chuckled, ¡°Oh, that hit a nerve.  I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t wait for a response and walked away with Croaker watching him from his chair.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I shall not be part of the secret organization.


    Saul Croaker ¨C Unspeakable ¨C Has studied time magic.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I have been wanting to write something like this for a long time.  Maybe, Croaker will returnter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


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    There was a knock on the door.


    Ivy turned her eyes away from the mouse she was practicing transfiguration.  She pulled out Marauder¡¯s Map and checked who was outside.  The map confirmed that the people outside were the people she was expecting.


    She raised her wand to the door, and the lock clicked open.


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    The door swung open, and three people dressed in green trims entered the empty room.  One girl and two boys¡ª Daphne Greengrass with ise Zabini and Theodore Nott in tow.


    Ivy¡¯s eyes narrowed a fraction at therge rectangle of cloth floating above Daphne¡¯s hands.  It was apparently known as Recon, a magical map with the functions of the Marauder¡¯s Map¡ª but better. . . or as Quinn had said.  She didn¡¯t know something like this existed until it showed up in Daphne¡¯s hands.  She found out from both(Quinn and Daphne) that Quinn had created the map early in his Hogwarts years to sneak around.  It made sense why Quinn had never been caught outside despite it being an open secret that he broke curfew religiously.


    ¡°Daphne, Zabini, Nott,¡± Ivy greeted the three Slytherins.  ¡°Let¡¯s get started right away,¡± she looked at her wristwatch, ¡°he¡¯s going to connect anytime now.¡±


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Daphne walked to Ivy¡¯s table.


    ¡°Trying out Transfiguration from William¡¯spendium.¡±


    ¡°Which one was that?¡±


    ¡°The one Professor McGonagall suggested as extra-extra reading.¡±


    ¡°How is it?  Anything new?¡±


    ¡°New, no.  I¡¯m reading this because Quinn had referenced some concepts from here in the one he gave us.  I¡¯m just exploring those references¡ª thenguage is terrible. . . just as Quinn said it would be.  What are you reading these days?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m alternating between Herbology and Arithmancy. . . . Yes, I know they¡¯re far from each other, but that helps me to put a break when I need one.¡±


    ¡°I heard Luna¡¯s already on the second volumes,¡± said Ivy.


    Daphne pursed her lips, ¡°She has an unfair advantage of being with Quinn before us.  Moreover, Quinn taught her personally for such a long time.  It¡¯s not surprising that she¡¯s ahead of us.¡±


    Ivy nodded before turning to the two boys who were looking at them.  ¡°Any idea why he wants to talk with you today?¡± she asked.


    Zabini said, ¡°We don¡¯t know.  He sent a letter asking to talk to us; other than that, he didn¡¯t say much.¡±  Not nodded the same.  Zabini looked around the room before asking, ¡°How will this happen?  Is he going toe here?¡±


    Ivy stood up and walked to the wall where somethingrge stood covered in a blue curtain.  She grabbed the fabric and pulled on it to reveal a body-sized mirror.


    ¡°This is how he¡¯s going to talk to you.¡±  As Ivy said that, the sound of chimes rang in the room.  ¡°Right on time,¡± she said and retrieved a big hand mirror.


    Daphne¡¯s eyes followed the mirror as Ivy went and tapped it against the frame of therger.  The mirror shone with a short burst of light, followed by the reflection disappearing away, and what took its ce was the image of Quinn sitting on a chair.


    ¡°Good evening, everyone,¡± Quinn smiled.  ¡°I hope everyone here¡¯s doing well and had a great day till now.¡±  His eyes turned to where the boys stood and greeted them, ¡°Zabini, Nott, I hope both of you didn¡¯t have any priormitments that you had to miss to meet with me today.¡±


    The Slytherin boys shook their heads.


    ¡°Good.  Now, that was enough pleasantries.  I¡¯m sure both of you¡¯re busy, and we can alwayse back to them afterward if we have time.  I wille straight to the reason why I asked to meet you like this. . . . I¡¯m curious as to why didn¡¯t you contact me, and seeing that both of you¡¯re in Hogwarts makes me further curious about what happened.¡±


    Zabini and Nott exchanged looks and then nced at Ivy and Daphne.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay; they can stay and listen.  I trust them, so can you.¡±


    ¡°It was all because of Malfoy,¡± Nott took the lead.


    ¡°Malfoy. . . Draco?¡±


    ¡°Both father and son.  It seems that Draco was given a task that he failed.  . . and the punishment for it was given to his father,¡± said Nott.  ¡°My father, who was eager to induct me into the ranks of the marked Death Eaters, suddenly changed his mind.  It seemed that dear father didn¡¯t want a mistake from me to affect him, so he canceled his ns to make me a Death Eater,¡± Nott snorted, ¡°he even went as far as to dress it up as conceding to mum¡¯s request¡ª what a farce!¡±


    Quinn looked intrigued.  ¡°Is that so.  What happened to Lucius Malfoy?  What sort of punishment did the Dark Lord bestow upon him.¡±


    ¡°Father said that he lost an arm and his wand.¡±


    ¡°An arm and a wand,¡± said Quinn with surprise¡ª but unlike Ivy, Daphne, and even Zabini¡ª Quinn seemed less shocked by the revtion.  ¡°The Dark Lord must be furious to take away Lucius¡¯ wand.¡±


    ¡°I overheard him talking about avoiding meeting with the Dark Lord for some time. . . it was the worst¡ª he stayed home longer.¡±


    Quinn hummed.  He turned to Zabini and asked, ¡°What about you, Zabini?  How were you able to stay at Hogwarts.  What¡¯s the reason behind why your mother didn¡¯t whisk you away from the country.¡±


    Zabini sighed heavily.  He didn¡¯t look like he wanted to talk about it and even nced at the others in the room, slight unwillingness in his voice.


    He sighed again, ¡°She has found herself. . . a fiance.¡±  Eyebrows in the room and in the mirror were raised.  ¡°She has moved out of the country for the moment¡ª she wanted to take me with her, but the school isn¡¯t as good, and well, she had a talk with Dumbledore,¡± everyone could see him turn into a tomato, ¡°and he assured that I¡¯ll be safe as long as I¡¯m in the castle.  I still can¡¯t believe that I¡¯m still here.¡±


    ¡°Everyone thinks the same, Zabini, everyone,¡± said Quinn sighing.  ¡°Which one would this be?¡±


    ¡°Eight, ninth, I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope this one hangs on to his life force.¡±


    Zabini snorted as if hearing a joke.  The track record of the past husbands didn¡¯t help Lady Zabini¡¯s case¡ª it made people how could she continue to trap more and more people even after such a public record of things not turning out in favor of her partner.


    ¡°Did Dumbledoree to your house, or did your mother approach him?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°I¡¯m not aware of what happened there.  Just that one day, my mother decided that she wanted me to continue going to Hogwarts.  I, of course, didn¡¯t object one bit. . . rest is history that I¡¯m not interested in.  Does it matter if it was Dumbledore or mother who started the conversation?¡±


    ¡°It was just a personal curiosity,¡± said Quinn with a smile.  ¡°I¡¯m not going to lie by saying that I¡¯m not disappointed that we weren¡¯t able to form a partnership, Zabini, Nott, but I¡¯m happy that you¡¯re able to attend Hogwarts for youst year¡ª it wouldn¡¯t have been a pleasant experience having uprooted for your school of six years with just one more going.


    But. . . if you ever need my help, please feel free to contact me.  As you know, I¡¯m always ready to provide to aid those in need of it.¡±


    The conversation that Quinn had called Zabini and Nott for had ended.  After he had caught up with them, both exited, leaving only Ivy and Daphne in the room.


    ¡°They gave us strange looks,¡± said Ivy, looking at the door.


    ¡°That is to be expected,¡± Daphne took a seat.  ¡°It¡¯d seem odd to anyone why you have a way to contact Quinn like this when I¡¯m his girlfriend,¡± she gave a pointing look to Quinn.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay.  Zabini and Nott are tight-lipped guys.  They won¡¯t say anything,¡± Quinn seemed carefree.  ¡°If they do give you some trouble, go visit Astoria¡ª they both owe AID a favor or two. . . . So, how¡¯re you two doing?  How¡¯s the feeling of being a seventh year?¡±


    ¡°Same as before.¡± ¡°Everything¡¯s about NEWTs.¡± ¡°The first years are tiny.¡± ¡°¡±


    ¡°Figured,¡± Quinn smiled.  ¡°So. . . I have another question.  Who¡¯s the new Defense Against The Dark Arts professor?  I¡¯m assuming that Professor Slughorn is still teaching potions.¡±


    ¡°He is,¡± said Daphne.  ¡°As for the new professor. . . it¡¯s one of the Weasley brothers¡ª William Weasley.¡±


    ¡°Bill Weasley,¡± added Ivy.


    ¡°The one who works in Gringotts?¡± Quinn quirked his brow and asked Ivy.  ¡°How did the goblins let him off work to attend Hogwarts.  Did he leave his job?¡±


    ¡°He said he¡¯s still working with Gringotts and is with Hogwarts for the year.  As for how is it possible, I questioned that myself but haven¡¯t asked him yet.  Maybe Ron will know.¡±


    ¡°I doubt it,¡± Daphne said with a snort.


    Ivy turned a sharp eye to Daphne.  ¡°He¡¯s not stupid, you know.  He¡¯s just a little slow to understand his understanding.  He makes it up with his other qualities.¡±


    ¡°Those are?¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s stop before this derails into a fight,¡± said Quinn, stopping the discussion.  ¡°I was in that school for seven years, and now both of you¡¯re in your seventh¡ª and in all those years, all of us have seen different teachers every year.  It makes me wonder if there¡¯s really a curse on the position and if William Weasley, the cursebreaker from Gringotts, is there to purge said curse.


    Or. . . he¡¯s there to be another person for Hogwarts security,¡± Quinn tapped the armrest of his chair.  ¡°If we¡¯re to assume that it was the Headmaster who contacted Mrs. Zabini, then it isn¡¯t a stretch to again assume that he¡¯s taking steps to fortify the security.¡±


    ¡°It could be any of those,¡± said Daphne.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s thetter,¡± Ivy gave her opinion.


    Quinn quirked his brow, ¡°You think, or. . .¡±  Ivy fixed him with a re that made him end the sentence before it could.  ¡°. . . okay, I¡¯ll not ask.¡±  Both Quinn and Ivy had made an agreement that Quinn wasn¡¯t to ask questions involving Order of the Phoenix.  The agreement was ced to ensure no awkward conversation would ensue between them.


    ¡°I, too, think that it¡¯s thetter,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I think Dumbledore is trying to rebuild Hogwarts¡¯ image of being safe, which has been damaged in the previous year¡ª Harry¡¯s almost abduction, Crouch impersonating stor Moody, Umbridge, the Death Eaters. . . there have been one too many incidents. . . . huh, I¡¯ve been part of the first three. . . . I punched Harry¡¯s abductor¡¯s face in, he ended up in jail¡ª I stunned Crouch, and then kicked him a couple time, he ended up in jail¡ª I filmed Umbridge, capturing her misdeed, she ended up in jail. . . . I had nothing to do with the Death Eaters thought.¡±


    ¡°Sending people to jail must be your thing,¡± Ivy smirked.


    ¡°That¡¯s not my thing,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°My thing is magic, resourcefulness, intelligent and yful charm.¡±


    ¡°Of course, it is,¡± said Daphne.


    ¡°. . . I feel you¡¯re making fun of me.¡±


    ¡°Rubbish,¡± Daphne smiled before asking, ¡°How¡¯s your grandfather doing?¡±


    ¡°The load has begun to decrease.  The rebuilding in Germany has finally entered a stage where he doesn¡¯t feel warranted to be overlooking every single aspect of the operation.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think he ever needed to do that.  I¡¯m sure he has people to handle something like this.¡±


    ¡°He has, but it turns out that Germany was his personal project when he wasing up, and I guess he feels sentimental enough to get involved.  I¡¯m going to try to keep him at home.¡±


    ¡°. . . So you¡¯re going to jail him in his own house,¡± said Ivy.


    Quinn and Daphne looked at Ivy and said in unison,


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t funny.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I have sent a lot more people to jail. . . indirectly.  Also, I was involved in all four incidents.  FOMO not getting me, bro!


    Ivy Potter ¨C Holder of the two-way mirror ¨C Has sat in OotP meetings.


    Daphne Greengrass ¨C Holder of Recon ¨C Has a pulse on what¡¯s happening through her father.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 356 Recalling Past Events

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Dumbledore stared at the gold and green locket sitting on his table.  A beautiful ruby snake was iid on the top cover, with its serpentine body forming a red ¡®S¡¯ over the surface.


    He picked it up, and his fingers fiddled with it distractedly.  He knew it was fake¡ª a ¡®letter of UNauthetication¡¯ came with it to prove that it was a replica.  Dumbledore wasn¡¯t happy to find a replica when he went had set out to find the original¡ª he had bled for it, drank poison for it, fought Inferi while suffering from a cursed poison for it, and then had to face a disgruntled student out to kill him, had toe to a hard realization that he had lost a close friend and a closer confidant. . . and the aftermath that followed was something he would¡¯ve like to deal with a clear and not tired mind.


    And the worst part of it, it was only after everything that he had only found that the locket was a fake.


    All of his effort for naught. . . bar one single thing.  One thing that he had been able to get out of the entire debacle.  He had found a clue to the real Horcrux. . . Voldemort¡¯s Horcrux.


    RAB.  Regulus Arcturus ck.  Scion to the prestigious House of ck.  Voldemort¡¯s loyal Death Eater. . . or it had seemed so as Regulus ck had betrayed Voldemort and had switched the locket when he had realized what it actually was.


    Meaning, while the Horcrux was still there, it was out of Voldemort¡¯s reach, and he had no idea that the piece of his soul wasn¡¯t the ce he had left, under the protection of the various protective and lethal magic.


    It gave him a chance.  As the situation stood now, neither party knew the location, but that was more of a disadvantage to Voldemort as the Horcrux user didn¡¯t know if his soul container was still active¡ª if he would still depend on it for keeping himself alive.  And if he could find it before Voldemort, it would be a strain on Voldemort¡¯s heart.


    Fortunately for him, he had a clue, while Voldemort didn¡¯t.  Unfortunately, Dumbledore had followed the clue that came in the form of a letter of powerful spite but wasn¡¯t able to find any lockets in ces where one could find Regulus ck would go. . . sadly, the looking had turned out to be a dead-end as every ce he went, he got opposite to what she epted.


    ¡°Where did you hide it, Regulus?¡± Dumbledore muttered.  He had to try to put himself in Regs¡¯ mind but hadn¡¯t gotten much from it.


    The problem with Regulus ck was that there weren¡¯t left who knew the man.  His own brother, Sirius, didn¡¯t know much about him because of the differences in childhood.  Those who knew Regulus, and were still alive, wouldn¡¯t talk to Dumbledore.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t getting anywhere,¡± he sighed and pushed the locket away.  He popped his favorite lemon pop into his mouth, feeling the pleasant sourness that let the made way for sweetness.


    He leaned into his chair with thoughts about Horcruxes pouring into his mind.  Seven.  The number which held power with magic and something Dumbledore suspected Voldemort to aim for his Horcruxes.


    ¡®He¡¯s going to aim for six pieces. . . with the seventh being himself,¡¯ he thought.  ¡®But. . . he doesn¡¯t know that the number he¡¯s going to have seven Horcruxes.¡¯


    He got up and walked to a portrait and pulled for the frame to open up like a door on its hinges.  Dumbledore tapped his wand against the wall, and a portion vanished as if it was never there, leaving behind a square cavity in it.  He stared at the ck diary¡ª half-melted, half-burnt, with a stabbing hole in the middle.  He picked it up and brought it to his table.


    Tom Riddle¡¯s Diary, what Dumbledore considered to be the first Horcrux.  It was the only. . . one of the two Horcruxes he had within his grasp, and as far as he knew, the only Horcrux that he knew to be destroyed.


    He sank into his mindscape and went back to the memory of the Potter Twins and Hermione Granger telling him about the Chamber of Secret incident.  He recalled them telling him about the Basilisk and how a young Tom Riddle had appeared by using the diary as the medium.  But as he recalled the memory, a frown appeared between his brow.  He remembered how Harry recalled that the diary had been stabbed with the Basilisk fang when he woke up.


    ¡°Epsy!¡±  A house-elf popped up in the office and stared at Dumbledore with her doe eyes.  He wrote something on a parchment slip and gave it to Epsy.  ¡°Please give this to Professor McGonagall and tell her to bring them now.¡±


    Epsy popped away with the slip and left Dumbledore staring at the burnt diary with a hole in the middle.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°Why did you want to see us, Headmaster?¡± asked Ivy as she took a seat in the Headmaster¡¯s Office.  She had been ying cards with some of the fifth years when McGonagall came in to tell them that Dumbledore wanted her, Harry, Hermione, and Ron in his office.  Harry and Hermione hadn¡¯t been pleased to have their snogging session interrupted.  On the way, they picked up her mother.


    Dumbledore retrieved a diary that was well familiar to her and ced it on the table.  ¡°About this,¡± he said.


    Ivy stared at Tom Riddle¡¯s diary. . . or Voldemort¡¯s diary.  Her pupil shrunk when she recalled the memories of that day inside the Chamber of Secrets.


    ¡°What about it?¡± asked Harry with an edge in his voice.


    ¡°Harry, you told me when you woke up, you found this diary stabbed with the Basilisk fang. . . and it wasn¡¯t you who stabbed the diary,¡± said Dumbledore.  ¡°I was wondering if you could think back to that day and try to see if there was something else that you might¡¯ve missed.¡±  He turned to Ivy and Hermione, ¡°You two as well.  Please try to recall if you remember something from that day before you got petrified.¡±


    Ivy nodded and tried to remember that day, starting from the morning, but she couldn¡¯t find anything odd other than the horrifying yellow eyes.  Then her mind wandered to what Harry had told her happened in the Chamber of Secrets.


    Her body tensed.


    It wasn¡¯t what Harry had told her that tensed her, but what she had done to find the truth.  Ivy closed her eyes and pretended to use lumency as if she was going through her memories.  She didn¡¯t want to match eyes with Dumbledore, and neither did she want to open her mouth¡ª it was better if she kept her mouth shut.


    ¡°I. . . I think I know who stabbed the diary,¡± came a voice from beside her.


    Ivy¡¯s eyes flew open in shock.  She turned to Hermione, who had just spoken.  Ivy bit the inside of her cheek¡ª it had slipped her mind that Hermione was there with her when she had asked.


    Hermione nced at Ivy, who couldn¡¯t give her a look to stop.  Any attempt to stop Hermione would be caught by Dumbledore, and over that, her mother was in the same room.


    ¡°That year, Ivy and I were trying to find the identity of the Slytherin¡¯s monster, but we weren¡¯t able to find the identity. . . so we decided to seek some help. . . .¡±


    ¡°Help?¡± said Lily, confused.  Not only her but all others than Hermione and Ivy looked confused.


    ¡°We went to AID to see if we could find an answer there.¡±


    Dumbledore leaned forward, ¡°AID. . . you mean Quinn West?¡±


    Hemione nodded, ¡°We asked Quinn if he knew about the Slytherin¡¯s monster, and he knew who the monster was.¡±


    ¡°He knew!¡± McGonagall eximed.


    ¡°He pointed out the facts surrounding all the petrifications that had happened throughout the year, and the only magical beast he could equate all of them to was the Basilisk.  He pointed us to a book in the library and sent us away. . .¡±


    Ivy began praying that Hermione would stop, that she wouldn¡¯t continue, but it seemed that luck wasn¡¯t with Ivy today.


    ¡°. . . but before we could leave, Ivy asked another question,¡± Hermione nced at Ivy as she continued.  ¡°She asked Quinn if he knew where the opening to the Chamber of Secrets was?¡±


    Lily gasped, ¡°He knew?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he knew.  Or at least, at that time, we thought he had a guess where it was.  He told us the entrance was in the Moaning Myrtle¡¯svatory. . . but as you know, we both never made it there.  Because of Quinn, we weren¡¯t dead and only petrified¡ª he had pointed out the presence of reflective surface near every petrification victim.¡±


    Both of them had been caught by the Basilisk¡¯s re through their mirrors, turning their body to stone. . . the next thing they remembered was waking up in the Hospital room with aching and sore bodies.


    ¡°But how does that make Mr. West the one who stabbed the diary?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    ¡°We asked him if he was the one who did it.¡±


    ¡°He admitted it?¡± asked Dumbledore with surprise.


    Hermione shook her head, ¡°No, he denied it outright.  But he had let it slip in his wording that he had been inside the Chamber of Secrets.¡±  Hermione then exined how when Quinn had asked them what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, he had used the wording ¡®down¡¯ as if he knew the chamber was somewhere beneath.  ¡°And in his own wording, Quinn had said that he never saw the opening, only that he knew it existed there.¡±


    ¡°Ms. Granger.  Just this. . . just the wording isn¡¯t enough to say that Mr. West was the one inside the Chamber of Secrets,¡± said Dumbledore, but his tone and eyes were one of thought and contemtion.  ¡°But it does make him one of the most likely suspects. . . . If we could only have someone who could have witnessed what had happened.¡±


    ¡°Fawkes!¡± suddenly Harry yelled.  ¡°Fawkes was there.  We should ask him if Fawkes was there.¡±


    The Pheonix had been the main reason why the Basilisk was in with such less effort.  The immortal bird has plucked the deadly eyes of the Basilisk, ridding him of its most lethal weapon.


    ¡°Unfortunately for us, Harry, we can¡¯t ask Fawkes,¡± said Dumbledore.


    ¡°Eh, why?!¡±


    ¡°I havemunicated with Fawkes about it, and from what I gathered, he didn¡¯t know what had happened because of the sudden burning day, which reverted him back to his chick form.¡±


    Harry¡¯s shoulder slumped.  ¡°Then we don¡¯t have anyone who could answer our question.¡±


    Ivy internally sighed with relief.  She was petrified, Harry was knocked out, the Basilisk was dead, Teen-Voldemort was purged, Hermoine wasn¡¯t inside, Ron was far away from the actual chamber. . . making no one who could confirm if Quinn was inside.  Even she herself couldn¡¯t as she hadn¡¯t had that conversation with Quinn yet.


    But then. . .


    ¡°Ahem, perhaps I could help you all with this problem.¡±


    All eyes, even the ones on the Headmaster/misteress¡¯ portraits, turned to the speaker.


    Ivy blinked in surprise as she looked at the speaker.  At first, she was confused, but then Harry¡¯s recollection of events started to ring inside her head.  She realized what she and everyone had missed.


    Two people, one Phoenix, one Basilisk, and one ghost.


    That¡¯s who everyone thought was inside the Chamber of Secrets that day. . . but all were wrong.


    There had been another.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Hmm, strange. . .tely, it feels like I¡¯m not getting appropriate screentime.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Wants to keep secrets ¨C Stunned.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C As stunned as the one above him.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C You guys can either think/find out who¡¯s the unknown speaker at the end¡ª it¡¯s not going to be challenging to find it all my fanfiction, the books, or the movies.  Or you can shut your brain down and wait for the next chapter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 357 Everyone Lies

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stared at the letter in his hand with furrowed brows.


    The paper used was high-grade stationery; even the ink used seemed to be of a specific shade of blue that he hadn¡¯t seen yet.  But most importantly, the letter hade with a sh of fire while he was shopping for potion herbs¡ª  a severe fire hazard.  Seeing a Phoenix arrive from the fire with the letter clutched in its beak while it stared at him with its molten red eyes, which he was sure were studying him, was thest thing he was expecting to happen.


    ¡°You¡¯re cordially invited to visit Hogwarts for an important discussion regarding the security of Hogwarts. . . should I call mywyer. . . do I even have awyer?¡±


    But jokes aside, Quinn wondered what this was about.  The letter was signed by the Dumbledore himself¡ª the fourth time he had seen this signature¡ª the first time had been on his OWL certificate, then on his NEWT certificate, and then on his graduate degree.  But this was the first time he had Dumbledore write personally to him.


    ¡°What does he want?¡±  Quinn stared at the letter, thinking if he should go.  The letter mentioned Hogwarts¡¯ security; what could that be about?  Did Dumbledore want to consult him about all the hidden passageways in and out of Hogwarts?  Quinn was under no delusion that Dumbledore had stopped thinking that he wasn¡¯t going out of the castle because he had been caught out of the castle.  Or maybe this was just a ploy to bring him to Hogwarts, and the real reason was something entirely else, like wanting to convince him into joining the Order of Phoenix.


    Quinn had no fear about going to Hogwarts.  There was no benefit for Dumbledore to harm him, and the Headmaster wasn¡¯t going to pull a stupid abduction attempt.  The only thing that he felt unsure about was the motive of the meeting.


    As Quinn was thinking about it, a chime rang in his room.  He raised his hand, and the two-way mirror flew into his hands.  He epted the connection and smiled as his girlfriend came into the frame.


    ¡°Hey, how are. . . what happened?¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn apparated outside the Hogwarts boundary.  He rolled his shoulders and pulled on the hems of his tan suit jacket.  He gazed up at the castle; after graduating, he had only been in the vicinity a couple of times, primarily visiting Scrivenshaft for the design of his new personal cards¡ª after working with the shop that understood his tastes and preferences for so many years, he wasn¡¯t going to change his printing service and stationery provider.


    He stepped through the castle ground boundary and took a sharp breath when he felt the magic wash over him.  It felt different.  Hogwarts didn¡¯t consider him a student anymore; now, he was but an outside visitor.  Quinn stopped and felt around the wards¡ª they had changed¡ª the ward scheme was more coherent and cohesive now than on hisst day at Hogwarts.


    ¡®Is it because of Bill Weasley. . . or did Dumbledore decide to sort the clutter?¡¯


    The ward scheme around Hogwarts was a curious case study in the field of warding.  Every time Hogwarts changed Headmasters, the new one would add their own wards to the warding scheme, which was good from an updation point of view, but the problem with Hogwarts was that none of the Headmasters ever coordinated with their predecessor.  Every time a new Headmaster took their seat, they would simply dump new wards on the Hogwarts ward stone, and because the site was the marvel of magic, Hogwarts castle, the wards would be epted without any problems on thepatibility and load side of things.  No matter how many wards were thrown on the castle, it would supply them with ample power.  And because Hogwarts could amodate, no one bothered to sort the mess.


    It was natural that as the number of wards increased, the overall integrity of the defense would increase as well.  But at the same time, there were too many redundant wards.  Quinn himself had once found four anti-apparition wards oveyed upon each other in the same ce.  While that made it nigh-impossible to apparate inside Hogwarts, it also created friction between individual wards. . . which in theory could be exploited.


    Exploited by someone knowledgeable as Voldemort.


    But now, Quinn could feel that the wards were much more sorted.  ¡®This still needs work, but it is a start,¡¯ he thought.  It wasn¡¯t possible to solve centuries¡¯ worth of mess in such a short time.


    He walked on the path that connected Hogsmeade and the Entrance Hall¡¯s gate.  The course was the same as always, and it felt like he hadn¡¯t ever left.  As he arrived near the castle, he saw the gate open a crack, and two professors walked out.


    ¡°Professor Flitwick and McGonagall,¡± Quinn smiled.  ¡°How nice of you to receive me, but you didn¡¯t have to do this¡ª I believe I know my way around the castle.¡±


    ¡°If we didn¡¯te, Mr. West, the castle wouldn¡¯t have allowed you entry.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s smile widened in response.


    McGonagall sighed, and Flitwick chuckled at his expression.


    ¡°You were our Headboyst year, Mr. West,¡± said McGonagall.


    ¡°And I have to thank you for that honor.¡±


    Flitwick againughed with McGonagall sighing the second time in under a minute.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Mr. West; the Headmaster is waiting for you,¡± said McGonagall, a strange peering expression on her face.


    Quinn¡¯s smile withdrew a fraction as he nodded.  He turned to Flitwick and asked, ¡°Will you also be joining us, Professor Flitwick?¡±


    ¡°No, I won¡¯t be.  I came to tell you thate to my office after you¡¯re done with your meeting.  Let¡¯s sit down and catch up over some tea,¡± said Flitwick.


    ¡°Of course, of course, I¡¯ll be there, so open that secret jar of jam.  Today, I¡¯ll bethering my scones with that sweet goodness,¡± said Quinn grinning.


    ¡°I should¡¯ve never revealed it to you.¡±


    ¡°Toote to regret, professor,¡± Quinnughed.


    Flitwick left, and Quinn followed McGonagall through the hallways, passing by students who would look curiously at Quinn, who would wave back at the one he recognized.  Everyone recognized him beside the new first years, so he had pass-by one-line conversations with multiple people.


    But as they approached the Headmaster¡¯s Office, the people thinned out.  It was then that Quinn initiated a conversation with McGonagall.


    ¡°Something interesting happened recently, Professor.  Would you like to know?¡±


    McGonagall quirked her thin brow before humming positively.


    ¡°I had an interesting talk with a gentleman named Saul Croaker.¡±


    McGonagall¡¯s impable gait and stride faltered as she heard the name.


    Quinn continued, ¡°He was friendly enough, which I would say half-surprised me, but then, I had an elitist image of Unspeakables¡ª but Croaker seemed like a pleasant fellow.¡±  He eyed McGonagall with a fun and mischief in his eyes, ¡°Never expected you to have a connection with the Department of Mysteries, Professor.  By any chance did they approach for the position of an Unspeakable?¡±


    McGonagall came to a slow stop, making Quinn stop as well and turn back to look at her.


    ¡°He told you,¡± she asked.


    ¡°Of course not.  He would never do that.  He neither confirmed nor denied¡ª essentially, refused toment.  Had a perfectly calm expression and everything.  I was sure it was you, and now you confirmed it.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t tell anyone.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to tell anyone.  It does me no good to displease the Unspeakables by taking away their Hogwarts recruiter.  Why ruin a perfectly good secret, a useful secret.¡±


    ¡°Then don¡¯t bring it up. . . we have reached the office.¡±


    Quinn turned to the front to look at the gargoyle-guarded gates.  McGonagall walked to the stone gargoyles, and they stepped away when she uttered the password.  Quinn fixed his clothes onest time before entering the Headmaster¡¯s Office.


    The office hadn¡¯t changed much since Quinn hadst visited years ago.  It was still a disorganized clutter, a neat mess, but still a mess¡ª that could only make sense to one who had made the clutter.


    ¡°Mr. West, you¡¯re finally here,¡± said Dumbledore, sitting behind his desk with a subtle smile on his face.


    Quinn didn¡¯t greet the Headmaster immediately, instead looked at the other people who were present in the room.  First, there were the people who belonged at Hogwarts¡ª McGonagall, who hade with him; Lily Potter, who sat alongside her twins and Hermione Granger.  But then some didn¡¯t belong at Hogwarts¡ª stor ¡®Mad-Eye¡¯ Moody and James Potter.


    ¡°Hmm. . . I know the letter said this was about Hogwarts security; I wasn¡¯t expecting Aurors to be present,¡± Quinn stepped towards Dumbledore¡¯s table.  ¡°You don¡¯t usually like outsiders interfering with Hogwarts matters.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to see you again as well, Mr. West,¡± smiled Dumbledore.  ¡°As for stor and James¡ª they have myplete trust.¡±


    Quinn unbuttoned the front button of his suit as afy chair materialized behind him.  He sat down, made himselffortable, and said, ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t. . . no offense, gentlemen. . . and I don¡¯t feelfortable with them being here when I don¡¯t know what this meeting is about.¡±


    ¡°This meeting is about why you have lied to everyone, boy,¡± said Moody.


    Quinn didn¡¯t reply to Moody; he didn¡¯t even look at the battered man.


    Dumbledore spoke, ¡°It as stor says.  This meeting is because of your lie.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve lied a lot, Headmaster.  You¡¯ll have to be more specific about which one we are talking about.¡±


    ¡°You admit to lying?¡± Moody spoke up again.


    But Quinn remained silent.


    ¡°. . . Are you not going to answer stor¡¯s questions, Mr. West?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    ¡°This is not a formal investigation.  I don¡¯t have to answer any of the questions I don¡¯t want to.¡±


    Dumbledore exchanged nces with stor, who didn¡¯t look happy but calmed down at Dumbledore¡¯s quiet nudging.  ¡°We are here to talk about the Chamber of Secrets, Mr. West.  It¡¯se to our attention that you know about Chamber of Secrets, about the Slytherin¡¯s monster. . . and more importantly, you went inside the Chamber of Secrets.¡±


    ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°You just said that you lie.¡±


    ¡°So what?¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Even if I lie, I¡¯m not going to ept when I lie.  As for this situation,¡± he turned to Hermione, ¡°I didn¡¯t go inside the Chamber of Secrets.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t refuse to know about the Chamber of Secrets or about the Slytherin¡¯s monster.¡±


    ¡°I know about them now.  The Basilisk was pretty much known to everyone who was paying attention.¡±


    ¡°. . . We have proof that you were inside, Mr. West,¡± said Dumbledore, cutting all the chatter.


    ¡°Oh, and what proof that might be?¡± asked Quinn, but he already knew the proof, and it stung that he had missed it.


    It was as if everyone had rehearsed for this moment.  All eyes in the room turned to one of the shelves upon which a hat.  It was battered and ancient; it was patched, frayed, and extremely dirty.  In order to speak and sing, a tear along the brim opened like a mouth.


    As if it could feel all the eyes, the hat spoke up,


    ¡°Ah, Quinn West. . . I remember your sorting.  It was truly what is known as a hat stall. . . in the end, you went where you wanted to go.  But I think you would have done better in Slytherin.¡±


    Quinn stared at the Sorting hat, his expression turning from clueless to a nk face.  He opened his mouth and said to the hat, ¡°A true Slytherin would never join Slytherin and dere themselves to be cunning and ambitious. . . wouldn¡¯t it be better for others to bear the eyes while the one outside roamed free without the attached stigma?¡±


    He turned towards Dumbledore.


    ¡°Alright, I admit, I was there.  What¡¯s next?¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C It¡¯s tedious to pretend not to know when you know.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C Recognized the attempt to derail the conversation.


    stor Moody ¨C Mad-Eye ¨C Ignored.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to go read CHAPTER 63: Into The Chamber Of Secrets.  Read it carefully to truly understand what happened down there.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 358 Back-And-Forth

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Alright, I admit, I was there.  What¡¯s next?¡±


    Quinn heavily leaned into his chair and crossed his legs with his hands firmly resting on the armrest.  If not for his clothes, it¡¯d look like he was in his home, gettingfortable for a night of rxation in front of a firece.


    ¡°Why did you hide it?¡± asked James.


    Quinn looked at James, contemting if he should put him in the answerable bucket or dump him with Moody and ignore the Auror.  After a second of thought, he decided to answer the man,


    ¡°I hid it because I thought no one knew about it.¡±  He gazed at the Sorting hat, which again had gone to looking like a dpidated hat.  ¡°But it seems I was wrong. . . . I feel ashamed I forgot about the hat which brought in the Gryffindor¡¯s sword used to stab and end the Basilisk. . . . I was particrly distracted that day,¡± that day he was just at the edge of the first bout of Sin curse taking over.


    He remembered how he had met with Lockhart shortly after, and the greedy, pompous bastard had triggered his emotions enough to let the Sin curse take over.  Soon after, he had almost tortured two girls, and things hade this close to going down terribly wrong.


    Every pair of eyes¡ª even the one with the artificial eye¡ª stared at Quinn.  Their eyes were full of shocked curiosity and various other varying emotions.


    ¡°. . . Why did you stab the diary with the Basilisk fang, Mr. West?  How did you know that the spirit was attached to the diary?¡±


    Quinn shrugged, ¡°I observed, listened, and applied my brain to deduce that the suspicious leather diaryying on the ground of the previously deserted Chamber of Secrets would probably have something to do with spirit spouting maniacal ambitions would be connected.¡±


    He stared directly at Dumbledore as he said those words.  Not for a second did he break away from eye contact with the blue eyes.


    When Quinn got a call from Ivy about the situation, he had scoured the memory of the day with a fine-toothedb.  He had increased the immersion on the memory book to the max¡ª and could live in the memory as if he was experiencing it firsthand.  He noticed all the little things he had not thought about in-depth¡ª the actions he had taken, the magic he had cast, and, more importantly, the words he had spoken.


    ording to Ivy, the Sorting hat provided them a gist of the situation and his(Quinn) involvement, but the hat hadn¡¯t provided the specifics; at least, not to everyone in the room. . . but the same couldn¡¯t be said about Dumbledore.  The hat had been in Dumbledore¡¯spany ever since; who knew how much in detail the hat might have retold the incident.


    ¡®Expect and prepare for the worst,¡¯ Quinn thought.  ¡®And it¡¯s not like it matters, does it.¡¯


    ¡°The Sorting hat tells me that you took away the Basilisk¡¯s fangs and its venom.  May I know what you did with them, Mr. West?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    Quinn could feel the eyes on him.  Basilisk fang and venom¡ª two pricelessmodities that couldn¡¯t be procured by usual means, only avable through highly illegal means in exotic ck markets, but here he was in possession of invaluable materials.


    ¡°It¡¯s ironic,¡± said Quinn instead of answering the question, ¡°a man produced a feat of magic, created to protect his life at all costs, but then he created a second one, something amazing, fascinating. . . he had created a new life¡ª but that new life somehow threatened his own¡ª I¡¯m not sure if the man knew. . . but I do. . . I have seen it in action after all.¡±


    Quinn turned his eye to the Sword of Gryffindor encased inside a ss showcase, enhancing the aesthetic of the office by disying the glory of Gryffindor.  It was goblin-made metal which had been dipped inside the Basilisk venom and magically took on the properties, henceforth bing a more valuable asset.


    ¡°Ironic isn¡¯t it, Headmaster,¡± said Quinn.


    He had spent seven years walking around on eggshells because Dumbledore had substantial authority over and it didn¡¯t seem wise to be at loggerheads with the person who ran the ce where he had to spend seven years of his life.  But now, he had graduated, and he was out of Dumbledore¡¯s umbre, free to do things he couldn¡¯t do before. . . and it felt great to act out so boldly.


    Dumbledore showed no reaction.  He stared at Quinn in silence while others seemed confused about what Quinn was talking about.


    Quinn enjoyed seeing Dumbledore so restrained.  It was clear that he hadn¡¯t told anyone about the existence of Horcruxes.  He was still trying to keep the cards so close to his chest.


    ¡°. . . Everyone, please give Mr. West and me some time alone; it¡¯d be much be appreciated,¡± said Dumbledore.


    Before anyone from Dumbledore¡¯s said could even raise a single word of objection, Quinn spoke up,


    ¡°It¡¯s okay; they can stay.  I¡¯m not going to say that I¡¯d want to hide.¡±


    ¡°So you wouldn¡¯t be saying things to you want to hide,¡± Dumbledore sighed before saying.  ¡°Nevertheless, I would prefer if we could have a talk privately.¡±


    ¡°I would like for everyone to stay.¡±


    ¡°Mr. West¡ª¡±


    ¡°I insist, Headmaster,¡± Quinn said t-out.


    If he was asked to choose a side between Voldemort and Dumbledore¡ª not the Light and Dark side, but who he would follow between the two leaders¡ª he would go with Voldemort.  From what Quinn perceived, the violent megalomaniac seemed easier to work with than the smiling maniptor.  At least with Voldemort, he would know when the man was angry and happy, but with Dumbledore, Quinn wasn¡¯t sure what the man was thinking at any point.  That wasn¡¯t to say that Voldemort didn¡¯t use maniption¡ª the Dark Lord had fooled a society of high-ss pureblood supremacists into following him, and one young Tom Riddle was particrly charming and persuasive¡ª but to Quinn, that couldn¡¯t bepared with Dumbledore who had built a reputation in an entire country¡¯s heart¡¯s, which only seemed to grow stronger after every adversary and obstacle.


    Quinn looked to the people around the country.  Especially to the parents of the Boy-Who-Lived.  Lily and James Potter had no idea what Dumbledore was hiding from them.  Quinn had tried to put himself in their positions and had imagined what it would feel like if something so big would be hidden from him. . . that imagination didn¡¯t feel pleasant at all.


    So he decided.  If nothing else, he was going to break Dumbledore¡¯s grasp on information that the Potter family and even those who fought for Dumbledore deserved to know.


    ¡°I was shocked when I realized what the Dark Lord had done,¡± said Quinn spinning a small narrative for himself.  ¡°No, shocked wouldn¡¯t be the right word. . . I was repulsed when I found out.  To soil the sanctity of something so pure.  A dirty stain on the name of magic.  It was fortunate that I did what I did, or who knows what would¡¯ve happened.  It wasn¡¯t after some years that I realized what I had destroyed that say when I stabbed the diary.  I felt ted¡ª I had destroyed the Dark Lord¡¯s twisted safeguard. . . but then¡±¡ª Quinn stared at Dumbledore with a face without warmth¡ª ¡°after several years, when I had progressed further in my studies of magic. . . I found myself staring at another one of those twisted things, and never in my life I expected it to see in such a form.¡±


    Quinn kept his eye on the Dumbledore, but he could that Dumbledore knew precisely what he was talking about.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± asked Lily.


    ¡°Dumbledore will tell you afterward,¡± said Quinn, not looking at her.  ¡°If he doesn¡¯te to me and I will tell you. . . you know what, even if he does tell,e to me, in case he forgets to tell you something.  I¡¯ll fill those gaps in.¡±


    ¡°. . . Mr. West, why you¡¯re doing this?¡±


    ¡°Because I want the Dark Lord gone, and unfortunately, you¡¯re the best chance anyone has of doing that,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°And if you keep things as I¡¯m assuming you are, so hidden, it wille back to bite you and everyone in the ass.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a reason why I have kept things as they are, Mr. West.¡±


    ¡°Headmaster, believe me when I say that I¡¯m an avid believer of the following: A secret is the strongest when only one person knows about it¡ª but this is not one of those things¡ª this is not something you have the right to keep to yourself.¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s eyebrows crinkled, ¡°You say such things, then why haven¡¯t you told them.  After all, it seems you¡¯ve known about it for a considerable amount of time.¡±


    Quinnughed inside; Dumbledore was cunning.  He had flipped the question away from him towards Quinn.  And it wasn¡¯t like it was unsightly¡ª Quinn has indeed kept it hidden. . . but Quinn wasn¡¯t born yesterday.


    ¡°Tell me, Headmaster.  How long would it take you to destroy the entirety of London?¡± asked Quinn abruptly.


    ¡°. . . Pardon?¡± Dumbledore seemed stumped.


    ¡°What kind of question is this, boy!¡± Moody grunted.


    ¡°In 1927, the recently dead Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald unleashed a terrible towards the city of Paris after a rally. . . and ording to those present there, the spell held enough power to raze the entire capital city to the ground. . . so my question is to the man who defeated Gellert Grindelwald¡ª How long would it take you to destroy London?¡±


    Dumbledore remained silent, his eyes studying Quinn and his intention.


    Quinn turned to Hermione and asked her the same question.


    ¡°Err. . . I-I couldn¡¯t,¡± Hermione fumbled.  ¡°He couldn¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°Oh no, he could definitely; there¡¯s no doubt about it,¡± Quinn shook his head.


    He turned to James and yet again asked him the same question.  The Auror didn¡¯t fumble like Hermione and actually looked like he thought it through before answering: ¡°A month?¡±


    Gasps sounded across the room.  A month.  One month to destroy an entire city.  A shocking value when put into the context they talked about.


    However. . .


    ¡°Wrong, that isn¡¯t close to the real value,¡± he turned to Dumbledore.  ¡°Come one, Headmaster.  Hazard a guess; there¡¯s no harm in it.¡±


    After some silent deliberation, Dumbledore sighed and gave his answer, ¡°Less than a week.¡±


    It was as if someone had dropped a silencing spell on everyone in the room as all went silent with surprise and shock overflowing on their faces.  Even Moody¡¯s both eyes stared at Dumbledore with rare utter shock.


    ¡°London is 6.6 percentrger than Paris.  Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore stand on the same level of destructive power,¡± said Quinn with a bitter smile.


    But it wasn¡¯t over yet.


    ¡°You know the best part?¡± continued Quinn.  ¡°All it would take for him,¡± he pointed at Dumbledore, ¡°is three meals a day, a good night of sleep after every day of destruction and great health. . . that¡¯s all it would take to bring a great city to the ground.¡±


    Unknowingly, Quinn had started tapping his foot on the floor as he stared at Dumbledore.  It wasn¡¯t a face of triumph or even satisfaction.  It was a bitter face of unwillingness through and through.


    ¡°How am I supposed to oppose that?¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I love derailing conversations.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Any tips to increase focus and concentration.  And those who are currently working corporate jobs, I want to write more while in the office so I don¡¯t have to stayte in the night, any tips regarding that will be appreciated.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 359 Leaving The Rest To Dumbledore

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°How am I supposed to oppose that?¡± said Quinn, looking at everyone.  ¡°I can¡¯t decimate Paris in a day with a single spell or bring London to its knees in a week. . . thetter one, I think, is Dumbledore still understating his destructive capabilities¡ª or maybe you¡¯ve genuinely gotten weaker with your age¡ª I don¡¯t know.  But the fact remains that people like the Headmaster and Grindelwald have enough power to disregard the norms and rules. . .¡±  He paused, and it seemed like someone had sucked all sound from the room.  ¡°. . . and the same goes for the Dark Lord,¡± what had started as a conscious effort had now before a habit.  ¡°The thing I care the most for in this world is my family and friends.  Grindelwald is dead, and Headmaster isn¡¯t going to attack my loved ones¡ª at least, I hope not¡ª but that can¡¯t be said for the Dark Lord.¡±


    Quinn straight out rudely pointed at Dumbledore.  ¡°People like him and the Dark Lord can stroll into our homes, rip the ward apart, and do whatever they like without care¡ª¡±


    ¡°I would never do such things, Mr. West,¡± said Dumbledore, his eyes earnest.


    ¡°¡ª it doesn¡¯t matter if you would or not, but the Dark Lord definitely would.  He wille to my house, threaten my family, and if we are not careful, we will be lying dead on the floor: maybe battered beyond recognition or simply perhaps granted a peaceful death by a shot of the Killing Curse.  Even if somehow are able to escape death, I¡¯m sure we¡¯re going to end up as puppets.¡±


    ¡°Do you think your family will face such a fate?¡± asked James, sounding doubtful.  The West family was the strongest in the country; they could surely hire security.


    Quinn shook his head.  ¡°The normal person doesn¡¯t understand what an Auror, or more importantly, what a Hit Wizard is truly capable of.¡±  He jutted his chin to James and Moody.  ¡°These two are essentially living weapons.  They¡¯re trained with magic that was solely created to take down people.  An Auror can wreak havoc that would seem horrifying to normal folk. . . but even then, someone like James Potter has this tant misunderstanding.¡±


    He turned to Dumbledore and asked, ¡°Tell them, Headmaster.  Would you be concerned about facing a coordinated team of Aurors?  A team of highly coordinated Aurors,unching an operation to take you down, for which they had prepared.  Be honest.  None of your diplomatic, evasive answers.¡±


    Dumbledore pursed his lips, making his beard cover his lips.  He didn¡¯t vocalize his thoughts and simply gave a shake of his head as a response.  Making some people in the room blink in surprise.


    ¡°What that meant was that if he desired, Headmaster could wipe a couple of Auror teams without breaking a sweat,¡± Quinn said bluntly, which Dumbledore wasn¡¯t willing to put into words.


    Moody and James didn¡¯t look they agreed; maybe it was their pride, or they genuinely believed that they could take Dumbledore out.


    ¡°As for what I believe?  Is that even a question?  The people who have reached the two Dark Lords and Dumbledore levels of magic can be counted on your fingers.  And when you take into factor that Headmaster was born in the eighties and the Dark Lord in the nies. . . puts the rarity of such people into context,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Even among those people, not all are battle oriented. . . . My teacher, n D. Baddeley; pit him against the Headmaster and Dark Lord together in a battle of the minds, he¡¯d rip their minds into shreds as if he was tearing bread at the dinner table, then turn these powerful men into doing his bidding¡ª but if you put him in a duel against them, he¡¯d be destroyed.


    How many of those rare individuals do you think wille to risk facing someone as ruthless as the Dark Lord.  Without fail, all of them are aplished in their lives; they won¡¯te to defend my family for money¡ª they will have plenty of it.  Why would they protect my family for something they already have and can earn more by doing much simpler and safer work.  All my family can do is make preparations to dy the Dark Lord reaching them so they could escape. . . . Why else do you think did my grandfather flee the country during the war?


    So yes, to answer that question, I do love my family,¡± said Quinn sarcastically.  ¡°But now this is out, my family is at risk if it reaches the ears of the Dark Lord,¡± he stared at everyone in the office.  ¡°I would be very displeased if this somehow got out. . . I prefer not to have a conversation with my grandfather that we need to leave the country because I put my nose where it doesn¡¯t belong.¡±


    That was a conversation that woulde inevitably, but he preferred it to be aste as possible.  After all, he knew exactly what his grandfather would ask him the moment he broke the conversation.  He was explicitly told to stay away, and it wouldn¡¯t matter to George that it was much before they had the ¡®stay away¡¯ conversation.  He¡¯d move in and use the chips he held over Quinn.


    Quinn was done.  He leanedfortably into his chair and looked ahead with a nd expression as if waiting for them to say something or end this meeting.  He was done with speaking and answering questions.  The way the conversation had went, he had done enough damage that the moment he stepped out, the people would jump Dumbledore with their questions.


    ¡°Nevertheless, you could¡¯ve said something,¡± spoke Dumbledore.


    ¡°So could have you,¡± Quinn shrugged, ¡°to all these people and so many more.¡±


    It seemed that everyone had be fed up with Quinn and Dumbledore¡¯s conversation where they couldn¡¯t understand what they were talking about.


    ¡°Would one you tell us what the hell are you talking about?!¡± Harry put everyone¡¯s thoughts into loud words.


    Quinn got up from his chair and buttoned up his suit.  ¡°I¡¯ll leave that to the Headmaster.  I¡¯m done here for today.  As for Hogwarts security, for which I was called here, there¡¯s no reason to be concerned about mepromising it¡ª the most I will be doing is visiting Hogsmeade.¡±


    He faced McGonagall, ¡°I¡¯ll be sitting down with Professor Flitwick as he asked me to, but I¡¯ll be visiting the AID office before that.  I hope that¡¯s not a problem.¡±


    McGonagall had no opposition.  She was too interested in what Dumbledore was going to tell them.  She allowed Quinn to visit AID.  He immediately exited the tense ce that was the Headmaster¡¯s Office.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn knocked on the door of the Arithmancy ssroom.


    The knock made everyone in the ssroom turn towards the door.


    ¡°Mr. West!¡± Septima Vector, the Arithmancy professor, eximed.  ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°Good afternoon, Professor,¡± smiled Quinn.  ¡°Looks like you¡¯re still stringing beautiful magic with numbers.  I was visiting Hogwarts on some business with the Headmaster.  As for your ssroom, I¡¯m here to ask if I could borrow one of your students.¡±


    Vector¡¯s smile seemed to indicate that she knew precisely who Quinn was talking about.  ¡°Of course, you can¡ª¡±


    Before she could evenplete the sentence, a blonde bullet walked past her with the elegance of a floating cloud and arrived beside Quinn, grabbing onto his arm.


    ¡°¡ª take her,¡± Vector chuckled and shook her head.  ¡°Please return her before her next ss.¡±


    ¡°Will do,¡± Quinn turned to the girl beside him and smiled, ¡°Shall we?¡±


    Luna Lovegood nodded with her eyes staring at Quinn.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me you wereing,¡± she said.


    ¡°It was ast-minute thing, and I thought I¡¯d give you a surprise.  How¡¯s sixth-year treating you?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the same as fifth-year, which was same as fourth-year, same as third-year. . .¡±


    ¡°Really?  I thought with me gone, Hogwarts would be less fun.  I was the life of the party after all.¡±


    Luna tilted her head cutely and muttered: ¡°Party?¡±


    Quinn chuckled before asking in a softer tone, ¡°Has anyone tried to act stupid with you?  Tell me, and I¡¯ll whip up something in the workshop you can throw at them to make the rest of their years absolutely miserable.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay.  I can do it on my own.¡±


    ¡°Yes, you can,¡± Quinn grinned and side hugged the shorter girl.  ¡°How¡¯s AID going?  Is Astoria handling the office well?  Any clients she had to turn away for any reason?¡±


    ¡°Wepleted the request of every person who came in.  Everyone¡¯s happy. . . and have their names added into the debt ledger.¡±


    ¡°Good, good, that¡¯s the most important part.  Any projects that you two are doing?¡±


    ¡°Un, we¡¯re in the middle of updating your first-year notes.¡±


    ¡°My notes?  Are you adding something?¡±


    ¡°Not like that.  We¡¯re trying to rearrange how the information is presented.  As Astoria said: we¡¯re making it more digestible.  We even did the research for it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, what did you do?¡±


    ¡°Last year, we took one chapter from every notebook of every subject from the first year and made different mockups, each with a different design.  We showed them to a lot of different first-year and second=year people for feedback.  By the end of the year, we had decided upon the final version of the design.


    Then through the summer break, we slowly worked through all the chapters in all the notebooks for the first year.  We¡¯re going to review the design onest time, and by the end of the week, we¡¯re going to send the new designs to Scrinvenshaft for printing.¡±


    ¡°Are you going to expand to the other years?¡± asked Quinn.  He hadn¡¯t taught Astoria, so he didn¡¯t know if the younger Greengrass could handle the educational content from higher years, but he knew Luna, and she could gulp everything taught in the Hogwarts ssroom like a thirsty traveler in the desert.


    ¡°If this is a sess, we¡¯re going to repeat the process for the second and third-year notes andplete the process in the next year.  If the updated notes fail, we¡¯re going to put the project on long-term development to see what went wrong.¡±


    Quinn was impressed.  He had told both of them that they needed to do something other than solving the clents¡¯ problems isn¡¯t going to get work out as that got boring quickly, and doing personal projects was the best way to utilize AID¡ª which was also what he had done.


    ¡°We are trying to do something.¡±


    Quinn asked what it was.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to start a monthly newspaper.  Everything from what happened in Hogwarts to what is happening outside, from magic to history.  Everything is going to be in one ce.  It¡¯s going to be both new and familiar.  Plus, we have decided to involve the AID cards.  We haven¡¯t decided where we¡¯re going to use them.¡±


    ¡°Maybe you could use them to ess the paper.¡±


    ¡°Nuh-uh, that¡¯s too easy.  That idea was rejected was the one we rejected first.¡±


    ¡°Ouch, that hurt.  Well, whatever you do, send me one of those newspapers if it is built to be taken out of Hogwarts.¡±


    Quinn smiled as Luna¡¯s eyes shined.  He had dropped a little hint, and as he had expected, Luna had taken inspiration from it.


    ¡°Where are we going?¡± asked Luna.


    ¡°To bust Astoria out of her ss, wherever that is,¡± Quinn sighed.  ¡°Why do these halls feels so foreign without Recon.  How am I going to find where she is?¡±


    ¡°You can ask me,¡± she said.  ¡°I know.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re smart.¡±


    ¡°I know.  You¡¯re smart too.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C From focused to random.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C Trapped in his office with questions.


    Luna Lovegood ¨C Best Friend ¨C Still the same, but also smarter.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Three works done.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 360 Tough Conversation

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Scrivenshaft¡¯s Quill Shop.  Providing meeting rooms for the West family and associated since 1991.  And today as well, the shop was hosting another meeting.


    However, today, if the tense atmosphere inside the room on the first floor above the store was believed, the meeting didn¡¯t look to be a happy one.  Two people sat in the room, opposite each other, staring at each other from across the table.


    ¡°You knew,¡± said Ivy, her voice dripping with hurt and usation.


    Quinn pursed his lips into a thin white line.  He couldn¡¯t even look Ivy in the eye even though he knew this conversation wasing the moment he had decided to ept Dumbledore¡¯s invitation.  His knowledge wasn¡¯t aplete boon; it could also be a curse.  As it was right at the moment.


    ¡°You knew what was inside Harry¡¯s scar,¡± she said; her cheeks were flushed as she spoke with emotion.  ¡°You knew. . . but you didn¡¯t say anything.  You¡ª!  Why didn¡¯t you say anything!¡±


    ¡°I. . . I couldn¡¯t say.  I had to be sure about if it¡ª¡±


    ¡°Horcrux.¡±


    ¡°. . . yes, a Horcrux.  I had to be sure that there was a Horcrux in his scar. . . and with magic so ancient, there isn¡¯t much about them out there.  Even though I had suspicions, I couldn¡¯t grab your brother to confirm, and even that wouldn¡¯t have made any difference. . . .¡±


    Two days ago, he had the meeting with Dumbledore, and today, after total silence from Ivy, he had received a short MagiFax wanting to meet him.  It was clear that Dumbledore had fessed up everything he knew to at least the Potter family.  The well-kept secret about Harry¡¯s scar storing a Horcrux had finally been open to people other than Dumbledore.  And Ivy, who had listened to Quinn and Dumbledore¡¯s conversation, had realized that it was not only Dumbledore who had kept a secret.


    ¡°You seem pretty sure when you were talking with Dumbledore,¡± she spat.


    Quinn reacted to Ivy speaking Dumbledore¡¯s name instead of his title.  Ivy, like him, preferred to use the faculty¡¯s correct title¡ª except for Snape¡ª she would call everyone with the Professor attached to their name¡ª both in front of them and behind their back.  Seeing her use Dumbledore¡¯s name showed that Ivy and maybe even the Potter weren¡¯t happy with Dumbledore.


    ¡°. . . I was putting a firm front.  I had to speak as if I was sure.  Dumbledore¡¯s response confirmed that I was unfortunately right,¡± he didn¡¯t want to lie¡ª but for his past knowledge, he would continue to spin a web of lies until the day he died.  Another curse that he had to keep with himself.


    ¡°So you¡¯re saying you did nothing wrong?¡±


    ¡°Not at all.  I am as bad as Dumbledore, if not worse.  I used him of hiding things, but didn¡¯t I do the same.  ¡°


    ¡°You don¡¯t feel regret about it, do you. . .¡±


    Quinn shook his head without a single moment of thought.  His rtionship with Ivy was one of blunt truth¡ª she had clearly told him she¡¯d prefer hard honesty rather thanforting lies.  And he tried to follow that as much as he could.


    ¡°Did you also know about the other thing?¡± she asked.


    ¡°The other thing?¡± he asked.  ¡°What other thing?¡±


    Ivy narrowed her eyes, searching his expression.  ¡°Can¡¯t tell you,¡± she said bluntly.


    ¡°Fair enough.¡±  Quinn thought about what it might be and realized that it was probably about the Prophecy.  It made him think if maybe Dumbledore had beenpletely transparent about it.


    ¡°I¡¯m tired,¡± she sighed, slumping in her chair.  She covered her eyes with her arm.  ¡°Harry has a piece of Voldemort stuck to him.  Dumbledore doesn¡¯t know how to remove it, and without it, Voldemort isn¡¯t going to¡ª.¡±


    She stopped mid-sentence and started to breathe heavily as if she was about to break down.


    Quinn got up, walked to Ivy, and hugged her from behind.  ¡°Everything will be fine.  Harry will be fine.  It¡¯s magic; we are going to find a way to get that piece of the Dark Lord¡¯s soul out of his scar.¡±


    ¡°We?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been looking into Horcruxes.  Ever since I realized what they were, I¡¯ve been diving deep into the magic, soul magic, trying to see how it works. . . it¡¯sing along, I¡¯m making progress with the magic¡±¡ª he saw expectations rising in her eyes¡ª ¡°stop-stop-stop. . . don¡¯t look at me like that.  Don¡¯t keep any expectations; there¡¯s no telling how things will turn out.¡±


    ¡°I-I. . . yeah,¡± she sighed.  ¡°I just feel useless.¡±


    ¡°You probably are the least useless person in the current situation.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate that, but I can¡¯t do anything useful right now.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s your misconception.  Harry has spent his entire life being looked at differently by everyone because of his Boy-Who-Lived situation.  His only sce has been the people close to him.  But now, those same people have been told something quite unnerving.  It¡¯s inevitable that people will look at him differently, and maybe for the first time, he will feel foreign among those he¡¯s supposed to feel safe.  And if you, his twin sister, who has been with him since he was born, act differently, who else can he expect to feel normal with?  You need to treat him as if nothing is different.


    Also, nothing is other, actually.  It¡¯s not like the Horcrux popped up when Dumbledore spoke about it; the soul was always there; it¡¯s just now you know about it.  You need to be normal with him.  That¡¯s what Harry needs the most.¡±


    Mentality was going to be crucial for Harry.  There was a connection between Harry and Voldemort, and if Harry began feeling distressed, the Dark Lord would be able to sense it, and he wasn¡¯t going to let such an open opportunity pass by.  Even if Harry was militant with his lumency, his mental status would still be affected, and a slight weakness was all the Dark Lord needed.  This was why it was important that Harry felt asfortable as one could be after knowing that they had their nemesis¡¯ soul stuck to their forehead.


    It was crucial that Harry Potter wasn¡¯t harmed.  The Boy-Who-Lived was a beacon of hope in the hearts of the people.  There was already a turmoil that Dark Lord was already back, and if something happened to that figurehead of hope, things would turn ugly and depressing really quickly.


    ¡°He needs you and his friends the most,¡± said Quinnfortingly.


    Ivy sighed and leaned back into Quinn.  ¡°I¡¯m still furious at you for not telling me about Harry.¡±


    ¡°Would that have brought anything other than worry?  Having no knowledge is better than half-knowledge, which brings nothing but problems.  I won¡¯t lie to you by saying that I was thinking about you when I decided to hide it, but the fact stands that it would¡¯ve changed much.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to believe that,¡± said Ivy bluntly.  ¡°I¡¯m sure we would¡¯ve some progress.  If you had told us, we could¡¯ve brought it up with Dumbledore sooner, and with more people looking into it, we could¡¯ve at least found¡ª¡± Ivy held her tongue¡ª ¡°never mind. . . if you had told us earlier, some progress would definitely have been made.¡±


    ¡°Same thing as before?¡± asked Quinn, questioning what Ivy had clearly held back.


    ¡°Can¡¯t.  Mum, Dad, and Dumbledore made everyone promise to not divulge anything that Dumbledore told us,¡± she said.


    Quinn sighed, ¡°A promise is a promise.  Feel no pressure from my side,¡± he knew it was most probably about the multiple Horcrux problem¡ª if he didn¡¯t have the inside knowledge, he would¡¯ve at least tried to press or scope for an answer.


    ¡°And here I was thinking my seventh year would be carefree.¡±


    Quinn chuckled.


    ¡°It¡¯s not aughing matter.¡±


    ¡°I know, I know, but I don¡¯t associate Hogwarts with carefree,¡± he said.  Right from his second year, Quinn had never been carefree inside Hogwarts.  Every year had been a race against time with strict deadlines and deliverable pressures.  The Vaults kept him busy that he had to meticulously n his days and the hours within them.


    ¡°I feel like I have gottenzier since I have left Hogwarts.  I need some external pressure,¡± said Quinn, switching the topic of conversation.  He sat back down, cing his cheek on his knuckles.  ¡°I didn¡¯t even release a project this summer. . . after so many years, it was an utter disappointment.¡±


    ¡°Project?  What do you mean?¡±


    Quinn tapped his fingers on the table for a bit before starting, ¡°Time to reveal a secret about myself. . .¡±


    Ivy leaned forward, her eyes showing expectations.


    ¡°. . . Starting from MagiFax to Aegis, a number of West productsunched in the past few years are my brainchildren.  I created them, perfected them, still develop them to this day, and of course, I own them,¡± said Quinn.  While the products/services he had released were only a small portion of the entire West business, they had been without a doubt the most profitable¡ª they had grown so quick that every new subsidiary created had gone from loss generating to profit rackingpanies.


    ¡°You made MagiFax?!¡± Ivy gasped.  ¡°But if that. . . how old were you?!¡±


    ¡°Hmm?  I was eleven when I was developing it; I pitched it when I was almost twelve; I was thirteen when the product was released to the mainstream,¡± Quinn shrugged.  ¡°MagiFax was my first pitch ever.  Coincidently, it is the product over which I have the least control: I¡¯m only involved in its development. . . . Maybe I will go take a look at the development offices.¡±


    Ivy, on the other hand, still had her eyes widened.  She opened her mouth a couple times before finally uttering, ¡°Y-You were eleven when you created MagiFax. . . how. . . I-I mean. . . how?¡±


    ¡°The first model wasn¡¯t that hard to create,¡± he still remembered how MagiFax hadn¡¯t used a single new piece of innovation in its creation.  ¡°I just needed the spark of inspiration, which I, fortunately, had gotten from the non-magical world.  Believe me, when I say this, the non-magical world is a huge source of inspiration; they¡¯re muchrger than our world, and with so many people, it is almost inevitable they would end up thinking different and more things than us.¡±


    ¡°You created MagiFax at eleven. . .¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re still on that?¡± Quinn smiled.  ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be that surprising.  Mozartposed his first piece when he was five, you know.  It¡¯s no different from that if you think about it.  I think mine is a little less impressive; five years old are really dumb.¡±


    ¡°Aegis is from you as well,¡± Ivy was gaping.


    ¡°. . . I have lost you, haven¡¯t I?¡±


    Aegis itself had be a big deal in a short amount of time.  The product had beenunched at an opportunistic moment.  Anytime news about Death Eaters would pop up in the media, the sales for the cheaper, alternative option to the Goblin wardings would jump up like crazy.  Aegis was spreading so fast that Quinn¡¯s personal worth inted like a balloon.


    ¡®I wonder how would she react if I told her I was behind Labyrinth,¡¯ thought Quinn.


    Like Aegis, Labyrinth also grew at an elerated rate, and while it didn¡¯t sell as much as the wards, the doorwork had been growing at a rate higher than the predictions.  Quinn, himself, had created so many Labyrinth doors that some parts of the country had begun looking as if they were the Abatework in Italy.


    But he could feel that chaos was about to break into the country.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Hard conversations are my specialty if I must say so myself.


    Ivy Potter ¨C A muddle of emotions ¨C In the Heart Of The Situation.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I think I¡¯m going to break the war soon.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 361 Explosive Greetings

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was sudden.


    The day had started as normal with the morning rush of people going on with their lives.  Adults rushed to their work, and children made noise on their way to school with many shops and stores already up and running for the day.


    *Boom!*


    A whip-like shock wave jolted everything in its path, followed by the sound of the st.  There was a burst of fire, followed by a plume of smoke rising up in the sky from an old, dpidated building that looked as if it had been abandoned for ages.


    Eyes turned to the building with people halting in their ways to look at the ident that seemed to turn more horrible by the second.  The fires grew higher and hotter, and the building began to crumble brick by brick.  The sound of harsh but familiar sounds of sirens followed after.  The firetrucks had arrived to extinguish the fire before it spread to the neighboring buildings.


    ¡°It¡¯s not going down!¡± yelled a firefighter from behind his face shield.  ¡°We need more people and trucks down here!¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re on their way!¡± barked back another firefighter.  The burly man turned towards the building when he thought he heard cars backfiring.  ¡°Did you hear that?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°The pops.¡±


    ¡°No¡ª!  Look!  The fire¡¯s going down!¡±


    The fire that didn¡¯t seem to want to go down suddenly looked like it couldn¡¯t wait to be extinguished as if it was working on unpaid overtime and wanted to leave work as soon as possible.  In mere minutes, the fire died down, leaving behind a badly burnt building.  The firefighters entered the building to sift through the debris to find the cause behind the fire and what they found horrified many of the brave men inside.


    Slumped against a wall sat a burnt to the crisp body.  The body had sustained so much burnt damage that, except for the humanoid shape, one couldn¡¯t tell that the figure was once a person.


    ¡°Squatter or an arson for murder?¡±


    ¡°. . . That would be revealed through the post-mortem, but if this is a murder¡ª.¡±  The firefighters¡¯ eyes blurred and out of focus.  Everyone in the room stared nkly, unmoving.


    Two Aurors people suddenly became visible in the room.  They exchanged looks briefly and immediately got to work.  One of them carefullyid the burnt body into a body bag that stiffened after a wand wave.  The other Auror waved his wand on the wall that the body was leaning against, and the part had remained rtively unharmed because of the body acting as the cover burned to match the rest of the surroundings.  The Aurors then wiped the memories of the firefighters and modified them so that they won¡¯t remember seeing the body.


    ¡°I am done,¡± an Auror said.


    The other Auror looked around the burnt room, then at the body, before nodding.  ¡°Everything¡¯s here is done as well.  Let¡¯s leave.¡±


    Both turned invisible at the exact moment, and after a pping sound, the firefighters awakened as if a paused video had been resumed with the two men going around the room, sifting through debris to find clues behind the fire.


    .


    -(Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°So, what is the decision?¡± asked Shacklebolt as he entered the cold morgue below the Auror¡¯s Office.  ¡°Who is our dear fellow, and how did he die?¡±


    A medi-healer with sunken cheeks turned away from the bunt body and turned toward Kingsley and the two more Aurors who came with him.


    Kingsley, who had met more than his share of medi-healer who worked in the morgue, furrowed his brows.  Most of them were pale and looked as if they hadn¡¯t seen a single ray of light and seemed as if they were made from bs of stones¡ª but this one somehow seemed like a dead body hade to life.


    ¡°You won¡¯t like this,¡± said the mortician.  ¡°I was fixing the body to answer the first question. . . but ended up finding out the second one as well.¡±


    He stepped aside and motioned for the Aurors to step closer.


    Kingsley looked down at the body, which was lying on its back.  He sucked in a cold breath when he realized what he was looking at.  Etched on the man¡¯s back which had been fixed, was arge Dark Mark in the darkest of the blood reds.


    ¡°Oscar Willow¡¯s the name,¡± said the mortician.


    ¡°Willow!¡± Kingsley gasped.  ¡°Wasn¡¯t he a part of the Improper Use of Magic Office?  I heard he was up anding in the Ministry.¡±


    One of the Aurors behind Kingsley spoke, ¡°He was about to be the next head of his department.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that?¡± asked Shacklebolt.


    ¡°My wife works there.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, I forgot about that.¡±


    The mortician cleared his throat to gain the Auror¡¯s straying attention.  ¡°Before he was burnt to death, the victim had gone through various physical and magical injuries.¡±


    ¡°Burnt to death?¡± asked Kingsley.  ¡°He was alive when he was burnt?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the cause of death was immtion.¡±


    ¡°Poor man.  Those bloody Death Eaters,¡± Kingsley sighed.  ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Nothing for now.  I¡¯ll have to do some more investigation to find additional clues.  But there¡¯s something¡ª¡±


    The mortician couldn¡¯tplete his sentence.  The Dark Mark on the corpse¡¯s back began to glow in an ominous red, and a red liquid that looked like blood began to leak out of the corpse onto the cold b.


    ¡°What is this?¡± Kingsley¡¯s eyes darted around the body with his hand on his wand.


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know,¡± said the mortician.


    Suddenly, a hiss sounded out from the body with the blood pooling around the body tform, and with the rate at which it dripped, it looked like it would flood the morgue.


    ¡°Evacuate and seal the morgue,¡± Kingsley issued an order.


    Looking at the scene, noneined.  They backed away and had just turned to run away when the Dark Mark flooded the morgue with a blood red light. . . and then with a st.


    *Boom!*


    An explosion burst in the heart of the Ministry.  Moreover, it was below the Auror¡¯s Office, the ce with security only next to the Department of Mysteries.  The entire Auror¡¯s Office block walls were thickened and reinforced for protection, but even the explosion ripped through those thick walls and spread through the basement like water out of a dam.


    The structural walls were cracked, and the tremors that originated in the base traveled up to the central Ministry building and even up to the above-ground non-magical Whitehall buildings.


    When the dust settled, the basement was decimated with destruction everywhere, and in the middle of that chaos, a glowing orb of blue became visible.


    Shacklebolt dropped the shield and immediately whipped his head around while calling out, ¡°Rory!  Brynn!  Tegan!¡±  He jerkily stepped around, almost stumbling to the ripped-up ground.  In the moment¡¯s action, he had pulled up a shield, but in that rush, he hadn¡¯t had the time to cover the others.


    ¡®Rory and Brynn would be alright¡ª but Tegan. . .¡¯


    But then Kingsley¡¯s foot caught in something, and he fell forward onto the ground.


    ¡°Wha¡ª!¡±


    Kingsley felt his stomache up.  He had tripped on a body. . . and when he saw the torn and muddy Auror robes, he knew who it was¡ª at least one of the two who it was.  Then it hit him that he hadn¡¯t heard anyone call out to him or even a single groan of pain.  He crawled to the body and shortly waved his wand, only for the spell to give no response¡ª there was no life in it.


    Kingsley shot up and waved his wand in a flurry.  All the rubble in his view rose and was strongly pushed towards the walls, leaving behind a navigatable space.  But it also made him what he was hoping not to see.  Just a few steps away, thereid two bodies.  Kingsley¡¯s breathing grewbored when he saw that there weren¡¯t two bodies. . . he could only see one and a half bodies¡ª the half body being the lower part.


    ¡°No, no, no, no. . .¡±


    He began muttering as he rushed to theplete body, which he could identify as the mortician from the clothes.  He tested for life, but again, it came out as negative.


    Kingsley copsed on the floor with his ears ringing and eyes swarming, but it was only for a second as instinct took over, making him stand up.  His Auror ways etched into the bonesmanded his body as he moved towards where the exit was when.


    The steel gate that had be mangled and twisted was knocked open before Kingsley could get to it.  Aurors came running in and almost invaded like an army.


    ¡°Shacklebolt!¡± Robards shouted when he saw his haggard subordinate and friend.


    ¡°Rory and Brynn,¡± came out of Kingsley¡¯s mouth.  ¡°Brynn¡¯s body wasn¡¯t even¡ª.¡±  Shacklebolt¡¯s body slumped against Robards as he muttered withbored breath.


    Robards supported Kingsley, and while the man didn¡¯t seem like he wanted to ask, the question came out of his mouth, ¡°What happened here, Kingsley.¡±


    ¡°Dead body from arson had a Dark Mark on the back.  It was some sort of explosion.  Took out everything. . . everything. . .¡±  Kingsley¡¯s eyes widened as he stood straight and stared at Robards.  ¡°. . . Basement.  What happened outside of the morgue?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t know yet,¡± Robards pursed his lips.  ¡°But it doesn¡¯t look good.  The st spread out of the morgue¡ªing down here, the picture was simr. . . the possibility of casualties isrge.¡±


    Kingsley closed his eyes shut to hide his pain.


    ¡°It was a trap,¡± he said with anguish.  ¡°The Death Eaters set a trap.  They. . .¡± he couldn¡¯t speak up as the effects of blocking the st had sucked a lot of magic out of him in a very short time.


    ¡°I understand; no need to speak anymore; rest up,¡± said Robards.  The Head Auror carefully shited Kingsley¡¯s to other Aurors who led him out.


    He turned, and naturally, with Kingsley¡¯s clean-up, he saw the three bodies lying on the ground.  Robard closed his pain-filled eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, there was hard steel reflecting them.


    ¡°Singh!¡± hemanded, and a Senior Auror stepped up.  ¡°I want every part of the bobby trapped body gathered and bagged up. . . .  Then I need the mortician¡¯s, Rory¡¯s, Brynn¡¯s bodies handled carefully with the utmost respect.¡±  He turned to another Senior Auror, ¡°Give me a statistic of the casualties, injured, and damages¡ª I need to be updated regrly.¡±  Another order came up to another Senior Auror, ¡°Get the Juniors ready.  We¡¯re going to patch the damage by ourselves without any external help.  I want everything cleaned and repaired as soon as possible.¡±


    Finally, he turned to the team presents and dered,


    ¡°I don¡¯t care what Scrimgeour says.  I don¡¯t care if Boneses down against us.  From today, this moment onwards, the Auror¡¯s Office is at war with the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters.  They took two of our people today.  I¡¯m going to drag every single one of those fucking degenerates out in the open and have them answer with blood.¡±


    The Aurors present were stunned for a moment when they heard the always-stern, by-the-book Head Auror Gawain Robards speak so vehemently with such burning anger.  But when they saw the bodies, something inside them screamed out in the agreement.


    They clenched their fist and stared at Robards with matching emotions.


    It was final. . . the Auror¡¯s Office was at war.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Kingsley Shacklebolt ¨C Captain Auror ¨C Bed rest for a week.


    Gawain Robards ¨C Head Auror ¨C I¡¯m going to make them pay.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 362 Gather Info, Part Beetle

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn closed the newspaper with a severe expression on his face.


    Explosion in the heart of the Ministry.  An attack on the Auror Office, a ce that most terrorists wouldn¡¯t even dream about attacking, but here it was in the paper¡ª the Death Eaters had blown up the bomb inside Ministry.


    ¡°How they did do it?¡±


    The article didn¡¯t speak much about what exactly had happened inside the Ministry.  The entire front page, which was covered in the st incident, was filled with ¡®expert¡¯ spections of what could¡¯ve happened inside the Ministry building.  His eyes wandered to the article¡¯s byline, where Rita Skeeter was written in the ce of the journalist¡¯s name.  That shocked him more¡ª the water beetle, who wrote really concise articles(even though they were mostly bogus), had written such a vague story¡ª which meant that the Aurors had locked the premises and information so tightly that the master in the business couldn¡¯t get a peep out.


    ¡°What happened inside,¡± Quinn started to tap on the armrest.  The Auror Office was strict in their information flow to the media and public, but this level of lockdown on such a public incident was unprecedented in Quinn¡¯s experience in this country.


    But one thing was clear.  The fragile calmness that had been at the risk of exploding had finally blown up.  The Death Eaters had attacked something that shouldn¡¯t have been targetted¡ª if it was the canon timeline with weak leadership, Quinn wouldn¡¯t have batted an eye, but the current administration was what Quinn considered formidable.


    Gawain Robards was a strict man who ruled the Auror Office with respect and strong ethics.  The man was from a magical household without any affluential influence in the family; he had gone through the standard Auror pipeline from the academy to every level of the Auror hierarchy with utter hardworking excellence.  When the leadership was as militant as Robards, it was bound to bleed down to the grassroots of the department.  It was inevitable that Aurors Office would pivot towards a culture that would benefit from Robards¡¯ influence.


    Then there was the man who ran the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Rufus Scrimgeour was a veteran in both the field and politics¡ª the lion-like man understood how the internals of his department worked and knew how to y the external politics to get his way.  Quinn hadn¡¯t personally witnessed how Bartemius Crouch Senior ran DMLE, but from what he had heard, it seemed the ex-DMLE head¡¯s work was simr to how Rufus Scrimgeour handled business.


    Then there was Minister Amelia Bones.  Inparison to someone like Rufus Scrimgeour, she seemed tame, but that was when someone from the outside looked at it.  Amelia Bones had started her career as an entry-level clerk in the Ministry in DMLE and had risen up to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement without being either an Auror or a Hit Wizard¡ª but had somehow managed to keep all the ambitious ones like Rufus Scrimgeour under her heel for a long and sessful career before ascending to her current position.


    All three of the most influential people in the Ministry originated from DMLE, and that origin base of theirs had been attacked.  In no way were these bigwigs going to twiddle their thumbs and do nothing at such disrespectful discretion against them.


    They were going to retaliate.


    And Quinn needed to be on top of those things to ensure he knew things as they happened to get the most out of them.  He had to know what had happened inside and what was the vibe inside DMLE to understand how to map his next moves.


    He got up from his chair and shouted that he wasn¡¯t going to have lunch before leaving West Manor to get some answers.


    . . .


    Rita Skeeter had just entered her go-to diner/cafe for lunch when she heard a voice call out to her.


    ¡°Ms. Skeeter.¡±


    Skeeter paused in her heels.  Took a shallow breath, put on her best smile, and turned towards the source, thinking it was a fan who wanted her autograph, but inside she was already cursing the person who she hadn¡¯t even seen yet¡ª the reason she chose to eat this ce was that she could eat in peace without getting noticed by pesky dung flies.


    But when the ¡®dung fly¡¯ entered her vision, her stic smile froze on her face.  Sitting in front of her was one of the people she disliked most in her life.


    ¡°. . . Quinn West,¡± she all but whispered.


    Quinn raised his ss of rose soda sherbet towards Skeeter with a smile, and even though he didn¡¯t ask her to join, she walked to Quinn¡¯s table and sat down opposite him.


    Quinn waited till the waitress took Skeeter¡¯s order before snapping his finger and isting every single vibration of sound from going outside.


    ¡°What a coincidence, Ms. Skeeter,¡± smiled Quinn.  ¡°Who knew I would end up running into you at the quaint little cafe I decided to try out today.  It was as if we were supposed to meet today.¡±


    Skeeter fake-polite-chuckled, ¡°I never thought you¡¯d believe in such things, Quinn.¡±


    ¡°What can I say?  They can be fun at times,¡± said Quinn.  He sipped his refreshing drink before asking, ¡°I have to say, I was surprised reading your article today, Ms. Skeeter.  It¡¯s much different from what you usually write.¡±


    ¡°. . . You read my articles, Quinn?  I was under the assumption that you weren¡¯t interested in such things.¡±


    ¡°Rubbish.  Why wouldn¡¯t I be interested in the news?  It¡¯s critical to be aware of what¡¯s happening in the world, and Daily Prophet¡¯s good writers and editors do an excellent job of telling a side of the story, Quinnughed.  ¡°Speaking of, I am genuinely interested in the piece you published today, and I have a few questions about it.¡±


    Skeeter¡¯s smile faltered for a split moment beforeing back full force.  She ¡®ho-ho-ho¡¯ughed with her hand covering her lips.  ¡°I¡¯m d you liked my work, but unfortunately, because of the sensitivity of the situation, I can¡¯t talk about it outside of work¡ª moreover, everything I know is already in the article, there¡¯s no need for you to talk to me.¡±


    ¡°Surely you must be jesting, Ms. Skeeter.  The written word is my favorite, and I don¡¯t believe that you don¡¯t have something other than what was written on it.  Come one, Ms. Skeeter. .  . there must be something in there that you couldn¡¯t fit inside the packaged article that you posted, the other things that were left on the nning board¡ª tell me things you couldn¡¯t put out for everyone to read.¡±


    Skeeter narrowed her eyes a fraction as she stared at Quinn.  She knew this wasing.  There was no way this was a coincidence¡ª she would retire and put her pen down for good if someone could prove it wasn¡¯t nned¡ª that she ended up meeting Quinn during lunch.  His asking about the article so bluntly made everything clear behind the question of why Quinn had interjected her here today.


    Additionally, she noticed how Quinn hadn¡¯t said a single word ofpliment in the form of a ¡®please.¡¯  He wanted her to answer the questions, and from what Skeeter knew, he wasn¡¯t the type to take a refusal especially with their particr past.


    ¡°. . . It all started with a fire in the muggle world,¡± she said.  ¡°There must¡¯ve been some news about there being magic involved because the Aurors were sent out to the scene.  They must¡¯ve brought something back from the arson because something exploded down there, and I suspect it was something that they had brought in.¡±


    Quinn leaned forward.  ¡°It wasn¡¯t an infiltration?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem like it.  The Auror Office would¡¯ve said something if there had been an arrest.  They would¡¯ve tried to push the faulty security measures to another department.  But the entire DMLE has been abnormally quieter as if everything knows something others don¡¯t¡ª and no one wants to open their mouth.¡±


    Quinn leaned back, and his thoughts began churning.  The Death Eaters had sneaked a bomb into the building, right under everyone¡¯s nose, sneaked in an object.  If it wasn¡¯t a Death Eater suicide bomber, then how did it happen?


    ¡°Who might know this, Ms. Skeeter,¡± he asked.


    ¡°Someone high enough in the hierarchy, but none of those people I tried to talk to would even meet me. . .¡±


    ¡°. . . and you couldn¡¯t use your usual methods, why?.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re persistent,¡± Skeeter spat.  ¡°The entire department doesn¡¯t look like they have the key to the fountain of youth.¡±


    ¡°. . . I see,¡± Quinn hummed before asking, ¡°What¡¯s about the Minister¡¯s reaction on this, anything on that front?¡±


    Skeeter shook her head.


    Quinn sighed and settled down.  The information was truly short.  Even Skeeter only knew so little. . . . But he had found something new, and it was time to take that small lead and try to find more.


    Quinn got up from his chair and spoke, ¡°That¡¯d be all for now, Ms. Skeeter.  It was intriguing to talk to you about this, but now I must leave.¡±  He unceremoniously got up with no words of warning¡ª Skeeter knew what would happen if she tried to use their meeting to spin another story.  And was about to step away when he stopped and faced Skeeter.  ¡°I¡¯ll be keeping in touch, Ms. Skeeter.  Who knows when someone might find some interesting facts. . . and who better but you to write about them.¡±


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    Sirius ck exited a floo and stepped onto the Vertic Alley.  It was already evening, and his workday was over, and with the st, everything had been a heavy rush of things stampeding over him¡ª and that beating made him want to have a drink, so after a hectic day, he ventured towards his favorite bar in the country.


    He walked in the empty street without fear.  It looked like the perfect ce to get mugged, but Sirius walked confidently without care¡ª would some petty mugger dare to even breathe in front of him.


    As he was thinking about his day and all the heaviness that was floating above the office, a distorted voice called,


    ¡°Sirius ck.¡±


    He looked back, and if yesterday had been a surprise, this was another version of it.  It was not because of the distorted voice¡ª sure, it yed a bit part¡ª but what shocked every other thought from his mind was the figure covering him from head to toe, staring at him with deep violet eyes.


    It was the Invisible Vignte


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Information is very important.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Sorry for the slightly shorter chapter, but this seemed like the perfect spot.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the Bio!

 Chapter 363 Peace, Not For Long

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Sirius stood staring at the figure donned in ck for a moment.  His wand was already in his hand by instinct, ready for action, but it took him a beat to register what was in front of him.


    ¡°. . . Are you mad?¡±  Sirius pointed his glowing wand towards Quinn.  ¡°Or are you looking to surrender?  If it is thetter, then I¡¯ll dly take you in right here, right now.  What do you say, want toe in?  We¡¯re renovating right now, so it¡¯ll be a little rough, but I assure you, I¡¯ll put you in the best one we have.¡±


    Quinn would¡¯ve good-heartedlyughed if he wasn¡¯t under his mask.  But Noir wouldn¡¯tugh in any situation, so he went straight to the point, ¡°About the attack in the Ministry, what is the Auror Office¡¯s stand on it?  How will you and your people handle the Death Eaters now?¡±


    Sirius scoffed, taking one step closer to Quinn.  ¡°What are you, a journalist?  Why would I tell you a single thing to a criminal like you?¡±


    ¡°I want to know the Ministry¡¯s stance on- criminals- like Death Eaters.  Is the Auror Office going to stay still like cowards after the Death Eaters came into your house and bombed it?  If so, I will lose all the respect I have for your upation.¡±


    ¡°. . .  Cowards?¡± Sirius¡¯ voice went as cold as a grave.  ¡°You¡¯re calling us cowards when you¡¯re then one who hides behind that mask?  How dare you say that you fucking nobody.  Unlike the rest of my peers back in the office, I respected you for rescuing Amelia from Voldemort¡ª but to think I was giving respect to someone who doesn¡¯t respect it.¡±


    Quinn narrowed his eye behind his mask.


    ¡°I could not care less what you think of me, Sirius ck,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Get to the point.  What is the Auror¡¯s stance on the Death Eaters?  If you do not want to tell me, then say so, and I will leave.¡±


    ¡°Do you think I¡¯ll let you walk away just like this?¡± Sirius, his wand taking on an angry glow.


    Quinn didn¡¯t believe words were an appropriate response.  So he turned to what he considered an appropriate response and red up his market.  The doors and windows of solitary street rattled, and even the dust on the ground floated to rise up.


    ¡°I am not a pushover,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I did not want this conversation to go this way.  But if you want to go down this path, I will very willingly follow through with it.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t want to go this way?  What did you expect would happen between an Auror and a wanted murderer?¡± said Sirius.


    ¡°A cultured conversation.¡±


    ¡°Cultured conversation with a bloke who has taken body parts out of people?  Yeah, right!  Have some self-consciousness.¡±


    Quinn could tell this conversation was going nowhere.  He wanted to get some information, but it didn¡¯t look like Sirius was going to give it to him willingly.  He could take it out of the Senior Auror¡¯s mind against his consent, but that was something he was looking to avoid because of how messy it could get and be a rolling snowball.  Right now, he was more willing to take a risk on a Junior Auror, who might or might not have the crucial information he was looking for.


    ¡°This was a waste of time,¡± said Quinn and started to back away while keeping an eye on Sirius.


    A wise decision as Sirius immediately shot a spell towards Quinn, who blocked it with a shield and returned with a magic-heavy spell.  Sirius moved to block it with his shield and was sent back flying as the spell made contact with a shield.


    ¡°Oof!¡±


    A blue glow appeared around Sirius, and all the momentum was killed, bringing him to a halt.  The Senior Aurornded on the ground skillfully as if he had practiced a hundred times.  But as Sirius regained his footing, another spell appeared in his peripheral.  He raised his wand, and a hasty shield spell blocked the attack, but Sirius was sent flying once again.  The same blue glow of Arresto Momentum cut Sirius¡¯ momentum and brought him to a halt, with Sirius physically maneuvering himself tond on the ground.


    *Pop!*


    Sirius looked up just to see the sole of a ckbat boot smash into his shoulder and m him to the ground, rattling his entire body.


    ¡°Gah!¡±


    Even in this situation, Sirius¡¯ mind worked with perfect calmness and awareness of his situation.  He channeled his magic through his wand, a dome manifested above him.  Crack!  But the next second, the dome was broken by a heavy blunt attack.  Then Sirius saw the ck solee down, and this time instead ofnding on his shoulder, it squarely pressed into his chest and rammed into the ground.


    ¡°Think about it before calling me a good-for-nothing, Sirius ck,¡± said Quinn.  He extended his gloved hand, and Sirius¡¯ wand went flying to the side of the street, in a shady corner, making it difficult to be seen.  ¡°I do not wish harm upon those who do not deserve it.  You do not deserve to face the harm I inflict upon the deserve.  I still respect the Aurors, and the country can not lose any more Auros, so I¡¯m going to leave you, so make sure you lie here like a good boy.¡±


    Quinn passed a light vibration spell through Sirius¡¯ body which did not hurt him, but it didn¡¯t hurt but did heavily disorient him.  When Sirius recovered from the spell that shook every part of his body, Quinn turned away and was already turning the corner of the street.


    ¡°War.¡±


    Quinn stopped and turned towards Sirius.


    ¡°The Aurors are at war with the Death Eaters.¡±


    ¡®War.  Now that is something,¡¯ thought Quinn.  He didn¡¯t know what war meant in the context of the Aurors; they could be simply starting an arrest hunt for the Death Eaters, or maybe it was more along the lines of avenging their fallen ones.  But whatever it was, Quinn knew that this was the advent of what was called in the canon as the Second Wizarding War.


    ¡°Take care of yourself, Sirius ck,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Wars do nothing but damage to everything involved.  Stay alive; the world needs more people like you in it.¡±


    After throwing some pleasant words, he turned the corner and apparated out, leaving behind a rtively unharmed Sirius ck.


    . . .


    Quinn dropped the Noir patch on his bed and plopped down beside it t on his back.


    ¡°War, he says,¡± muttered Quinn.


    He was expecting some big news today, and what he heard was right up the alley he was expecting.  And it did bring him some nervousness and a little bit of anxiety.  As he had said to Sirius, wars brought good to no one involved.  There was destruction, loss of life, and distress on the entire spectrum of emotions.


    ¡°War,¡± Quinn muttered again.


    It was already here.  Quinn knew that it woulde sooner orter, but now that it was here, it seemed that there wasn¡¯t enough time to prepare.  There had been things he had been preparing for a very long time, and they still weren¡¯tplete.


    ¡®Especially, the main part on which everything depends upon.¡¯  His hand went to the chain around his neck where the Ressurection Stoney.  He hadn¡¯t had enough time to work on it and desperately wished he had gotten his hands on it sooner.


    But there was no useining.  All he could do was move his ns faster and hope that they had progressed enough to work.


    Quinn stood up from his bed.  Picked up the Noir patch and walked down the stairs of his suitcase.


    If he wanted to make his ns move faster, he needed to put in the work to make that happen.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    The door opened, and Sirius entered the room as silently as possible.


    ¡°You¡¯rete, Auror ck.¡±


    Sirius looked a bit embarrassed as he looked at the table of important people sitting at the same table¡ª the Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones. . .  Head of DMLE, Rufus Scrimgeour. . . Head Auror, Gawain Robards. . . Head Hit Wizard, Cillian Parry, among many other important personnel from the DMLE.


    And Sirius waste to that meeting.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Sirius said to Scrimgeour.  ¡°I encountered two drunken parties fighting each other in the street about Quidditch, creating problems for everyone.  There was no Junior in the area, so I had to take care of it.¡±


    He sat down in a seat near the walls of the room.


    ¡°Wee to the meeting,¡± James Potter whispered as he leaned toward Sirius.


    ¡°Don¡¯t start,¡± Sirius sighed.


    ¡°Did you really find people on the street?¡±


    ¡°No, I met the Invisible Vignte,¡± said Sirius.  ¡°He beat me to the ground.  I gotte because of that.¡±


    James tried to hold back hisugh, but it leaked out, gathering eyes from everywhere in the room.


    ¡°Is there something you find funny, Auror Potter?¡± asked Amelia.


    ¡°No, nothing Minister,¡± James said hurriedly with a serious face.  After he was sure no one was looking at him, he whispered to Sirius, ¡°Seriously, what happened?¡±


    ¡°I met the Invisible Vigte.¡±


    ¡°Did you meet a girl and lose track of time.¡±


    ¡°I met the Invisible Vigte.  He asked me what had happened.  We got into a fight.  He barely beat me to the ground, barely.  We agreed that I could¡¯ve won if he didn¡¯t get a drop of me and then parted ways like civil gentlemen.¡±


    James wanted to scoff, but it died in his throat when he looked at Sirius.  The smile drained from his face, and he grabbed Sirius¡¯ arm, ¡°Did you really?  How did that happen?  What happened?!¡±


    Sirius nodded.


    ¡°You are fine, right?¡± asked James.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine,¡± sighed Sirius.  There was a silence before he said, ¡°He was strong.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°He was strong.  I made sure to charge up my shield plenty, but I was still blown away.  And you know what?  He blew me away twice at that.  I couldn¡¯t adapt the second time as well.  It was like there was a gulf of power that I couldn¡¯t cover.¡±


    ¡°What did you say to him?¡±


    ¡°Nothing much, but then he didn¡¯t kill me. . . so I just said that we were going at war.¡±


    ¡°You did what?!  That¡¯s not supposed to go out!  What happens if Scrimgeour and Bones shut down Robards proposal?¡±


    ¡°Like that¡¯s going to stop him.¡±


    ¡°I know it won¡¯t, and that¡¯s why we have to keep it under wraps.  You shouldn¡¯t have told him even if this goes through.¡±


    The two stopped talking when Amelia got up along with the other bigwigs.


    ¡°I have listened to what DMLE Head Scrimgeour and Head Auror Robards had to say. . . and given the circumstances, I havee to a decision,¡± Amelia looked around the room and spoke after a pause,


    ¡°We are going at war with the Death Eaters.  This is going to be a covet operation, so whatever we discuss here moving forward is not to be talked about outside.¡±


    Sirius looked at James, ¡°Well, there you have it.  It¡¯s not as bad as before, is it?¡±


    James opened and closed his mouth before shutting it and looked ahead, his expression covered in shock.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Just a few days, I was talking about gettingzy. . .


    Sirius ck ¨C Senior Auror ¨C I did nothing wrong, per se.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I¡¯m back.  Not a fracture, but serious ligament damage(tore ¡¯em up pretty badly.) 5 days of bed-rest.  After that, if the swelling and pain have improved, I canmute carefully with a support splint without worsening the injury.  Then with care and DIY physiotherapy for 1-2 months, I will be able to regain full mobility.  Not going home, at least not as of now; let¡¯s see how I¡¯m doing on Monday.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 364 Ten Galleon Bet

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If there was one thing that brought joy to the magicalmunity of the British Isles, it would be the magical sport of Quidditch.  If someone went out looking, they would find a Quidditch fan before they exited their home street.  The singr sport had grown the level of religion in the lives of people who loved to y, talk, and watch the sport with more passion than any other thing in their lives.


    The sport was almost like a drug.  People couldn¡¯t get enough of high-speed flying, high chances of collisions, and the guaranteed promise of thrill and excitement.  International matches with national teams were events that the people were extremely attached to and felt a lot about¡ª but they weren¡¯t enough; people wanted more Quidditch.


    To remedy that almost insatiable demand, regional Quidditch leagues were started¡ª not only giving the people a chance to enjoy more Quidditch but also allowing more yers a chance to y and make a living out of it.  And such a pressing need was met, it was bound to make money, and when things made money, people who owned them wanted to make money.  So, the business of regional leagues and sports teams grew to the point that they became household names.


    People would gather up in the stadium every game to support their teams and have an evening of Quidditch fun full of screaming, shouting, booze, and stadium food.  Even in Hogwarts, people would follow the game throughmentary on the magical radio¡ª every game night, people would gather in themon room to tune in and have a jollymunal time.


    And today, Quinn hade to one such game.  He sat down at his chair in the VIP box situated inside the stadium¡¯s prime location with his big ss of iced tea.  He was at the optimal height and could see the action without straining his neck.


    Unlike most people in this country, Quinn wasn¡¯t a big fan of the game.  He had only been to a couple games in his life, and while the energy of the people in the stadium was enjoyable and a unique experience when using Legilimency on the people, the game itself didn¡¯t excite Quinn.


    But today was a special asion.


    Today, at The British and Irish Quidditch League, Puddlemore United vs. Appleby Arrows¡ª Eddie Carmichael was making his professional debut as part of the Puddlemore United, flying since 1163, the oldest club in the existence of English Quidditch.


    Quinn couldn¡¯t keep the smile off his face.  Eddie wasn¡¯t supposed to debut today.  A young athlete like Eddie, who didn¡¯t have any prior professional experience, wouldn¡¯t y in the top league; instead, they build up experience in a secondary league ying in a junior team owned by the club; when he showed results, he would be called up to y on the big scene.


    But Eddie was Eddie.  Quinn didn¡¯t know what he did, but Eddie had somehow convinced the management to let him y in a game.  In a sport where a team only had seven yers, it was a considerable risk to rece one regr out with a fresh-out-of-school rookie.  But Eddie had done it.


    ¡°Puddlemore must be really desperate to have a kid y.  They¡¯ve been falling the past years today; they¡¯re going to be wiped out by the fucking Arrows,¡± said someone sitting beside Quinn in the VIP booth.


    Puddlemore United had been a sessful franchise for centuries; even now, it was standing at number two in the season rankings.  Unfortunately, the team failed to show results where it mattered the most.  The club had entered a long championship drought that didn¡¯t look like it wanted to end.  The oldest team had already dropped down to number three on the rankings of the most championships won by a club.  Because the team was still strong and sessful, the loyal long-time fans supported it wholeheartedly, but it had seen a slight dip in attracting a younger, newer fresh blood who supported the team.


    Quinn stared at the old man and raised his index finger, lying t against the armrest, and silently and sneakily cast a spell.  The old man would feel thirsty no matter how much he drank for the next twenty-four hours.


    A loud horn marked the entrance of the yers.  Quinn got up and leaned against the railings to see as Puddlemore United came flying out, dressed in navy blues emzoned with two crossed golden bulrushes.  His smile turned toothy when he spotted Eddie, flying behind everyone else but was applying what he had learned to create a positive first impression.


    Or the version of the positive first impression that Eddie believed in. . . as just after the first whistle of the game, he showed another team¡¯s Chaser in an attempt to get to the Quaffle.


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s the image he wants,¡¯ smiled Quinn.


    Quinn felt someone take a seat beside him.  He looked away from the game to nce at the man briefly.  For a second, his mind didn¡¯t pick up who he was looking at, and he turned back to the game, but then it hit, and he turned to look at the man properly.


    The man seemed to notice Quinn¡¯s gaze and look at him.


    ¡°Good evening,¡± said the man and then introduced himself.  ¡°Rufus Scrimgeour, Auror, and an Arrows fan.  I think they¡¯re going to beat Puddlemore today.¡±


    Quinn shook Scrimgeour¡¯s hand as he replied, ¡°Quinn West, Puddlemore fan.  It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Scrimgeour.  I disagree with you; I think Puddlemore will run Arrows down.¡±


    ¡°. . . Oh?  Why is that?¡±


    ¡°Because my friend is ying in the game, and he¡¯s very talented.¡±


    ¡°Your friend?¡±


    ¡°Eddie Carmichael.¡±


    ¡°The young Chaser making his debut?  You think a rookie will be good enough to meaningfully contribute to the game?¡±


    ¡°A rookie. . . maybe not.  But Eddie is the perfect mixture of talent and hard work.  He¡¯s special.  Give him a couple years, and he would be outscoring every other team in the league and beyond.  And today¡¯s going to mark the start of it.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. . . even if your friend stays in the secondary league for a couple years, he will still need a couple more toe up to speed with the top talent, and if he is what you say he is, it will be a couple more years before he gets to the summit.¡±


    ¡°Secondary league?¡± Quinn smirked.  ¡°There¡¯s no way Eddie will go down to a secondary league,¡± he pointed at the field, ¡°he is having the taste of what the top professional scene is, and after that taste, he will refuse to have anything inferior.  This chance he created for himself, he will grab on to it and never let go.¡±


    Above the field, Eddie flew with the ball and threw it past the goalkeeper¡¯s fingertips into the goal hoops, marking Eddie¡¯s first professional goal.


    ¡°So, Mr. West,¡± Scrimgeour continued the conversation, but on a different note.  ¡°How are you doing these days?  Have you been fine after your abduction event?¡±


    Quinn sipped on his iced tea through the straw before speaking, ¡°Thank you for asking, Mr. Scrimgeour; I¡¯m thankfully fine,¡± there was no use hiding that he didn¡¯t know who Scrimgeour was, ¡°I have to thank you for bringing my abductors to justice.  Your department did a very swift job handling my case.¡±


    ¡°We strive to handle every case with care and urgency. . . I heard your grandfather is busy these days.  How is he doing these days?¡±


    ¡°And I heard that you guys are going to war with the Death Eaters.  Why don¡¯t you tell me how¡¯s the going on?¡±


    Scrimgeour slowly turned to Quinn and gave him a slow stern observing look.  ¡°How did you know that?¡±


    ¡°People at my status are privy to some privileges, Mr. Scrimgeour.  But I have to say, I¡¯m loving the direction all of you¡¯re going.  It brings me great confidence in the ability of DMLE to protect us.¡±


    Scrimgeour dropped the look and sighed, ¡°It¡¯s notplete yet.¡±


    ¡°You mean the lethal sanctions?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the lethal sanctions.¡±


    The Minister of Magic and DMLE couldn¡¯t just sanction lethal actions against a specific group of people.  Such measures had to go through Wizengamot for approval.  Thest time lethal sanctions were ordered, it was on Death Eaters during the previous wars, spearheaded by Barty Crouch Senior.


    ¡°Do you think you can replicate what Barty Crouch Senior achieved?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Right now, I wish nothing more than that to happen.¡±


    ¡°You will need support for that.  The Dark Faction will oppose you.  A portion of the Light Faction will oppose you.  The Grey Faction may or may not support you.  If you want this to happen in the current politicalndscape, you¡¯ll need a lot of support.¡±


    ¡°Are you implying something?¡±


    The crowd screamed in cheers, and the two Seekers chased after the snitch.  Quinn and Scrimgeour watched the game for a bit before returning to the conversation.


    ¡°I might be.  I can help you gain the support you need.¡±


    ¡°I suppose you can.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can.  I can give ess to my grandfather, and something tells me that he will be interested in listening to what you have to say.¡±


    ¡°Will George West really support our action?¡±


    ¡°That depends on you.  If you can keep your point in front of him clearly and convincingly, there¡¯s no reason he won¡¯t support you. . . but don¡¯t expect anything other than political support.  If you try overreach for stuff, he will shut you down, so be careful what you ask for.¡±


    ¡°I will keep that in mind.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m d that you understand,¡± said Quinn with his eyes on the game.  ¡°Things will turn much worse from here on out, won¡¯t it.¡±


    ¡°It will. . . who knows, this might be thest Quidditch game we get to see in person.¡±


    Quinn sighed, ¡°Eddie will be pissed if that happens.¡±


    ¡°. . . That¡¯s what you take from that?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I take from it.  Now, Mr. Scrimgeour, I would love to talk to you, but I would like to watch the game.  It¡¯s the reason I came here.  No small talk from me.¡±


    ¡°I would also like that.¡±


    ¡°Puddlemore is going to win.¡±


    ¡°I bet Arrows are going to win.¡±


    ¡°Ten galleons.¡±


    ¡°Just ten?¡± asked the Head of DMLE with the very lucrative pay package.  ¡°I was thinking more like a hundred.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not the money that makes the betting fun.  Money will make a difference if the amount makes a difference for us.  It¡¯s the bragging rights and the satisfaction of living that makes it fun.  If you want to bet money, how about we bet a half a year of your sry¡ª that¡¯d be appropriate.¡±


    ¡°Bragging rights and satisfaction it will be.¡±


    ¡°And ten galleons.¡±


    It was Puddlemore who won at the end of the game by the capture of the snitch. . . and by the points scored by the Chasers, including Eddie, who put on impressive numbers for a rookie.  After a week, it was announced that Eddie won¡¯t be going to the secondary league and would be ced as a reserve for the Puddlemore United to be brought off the bench in theter parts of the game.


    Quinn won his ten galleons and the bragging rights of beating the Head of DMLE in a bet.  Though Scrimgeour was the one who left with the most gained that day.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C One of the sweetest ten galleons I ever got.


    Rufus Scrimgeour ¨C Head of DMLE ¨C Already preparing for the meeting.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C [Written on May 07, 2022] I¡¯m sorry for the typos that have been happening in the past few chapters.  It¡¯s just that I get sleepy after dinner, but I can¡¯t afford to sleep because I have to write¡ª so I end up dozing off while writing, and that¡¯s when the typos happen.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 365 Wizengamot Shock

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Like many magical household buildings owned by old pureblood families, the Crouch House was situated in the countryside, away from the nearest non-magical viges: built on privately owned vastnds by those families, keeping them away from what they deemed unwanted.


    Voldemort stared outside at the property¡¯s front yard from one of the windows, which had twin gardens on the sides of a paved footpath that stretched from the manor¡¯s doors and the estate¡¯s gate.  When he had arrived at the estate, the gardens were lush with vibrant flowers and rich grass spread, well-maintained thanks to the house-elf whose name he couldn¡¯t bother to ask, but now, the same garden had wilted away after the caretaker¡¯s death.


    The door behind him creaked open, but he didn¡¯t look away from the window.  ¡°Is everything ready, Augustus?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Yes, My Lord,¡± said Augustus Rockwood.  ¡°The preparations are done; the teams are ready to move at your order.¡±


    Voldemort hummed.  ¡°Have you prepared well for today, Rockwood?  Your role is going to be very important today.  You might end up meeting old friends.¡±


    ¡°Please be assured.  My old friends won¡¯t be creating a problem today.  Most of them don¡¯t know how to wield a wand in a duel.  The ones who do know, I¡¯m ready to handle them.¡±


    Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries, to be put crudely, were researchers who spent most of their time inbs, hunched over their research.  While the Unspeakables were making substantial discoveries in magic, many of them weren¡¯t proficient in dueling.  However, there was a section of Unspeakables that researched dueling arts, and those Unspeakables were one of the real dangers inside the Ministry.  After all, Augustus Rockwood was one of the Unspeakables who studied the dueling domain focused on weaponizing magic.


    ¡°Did you know I was asked to join the Department of Mysteries when I was young?¡±  said Voldemort.  Rockwood wasn¡¯t surprised, given he knew how Unspeakables recruited, but he was highly intrigued by the image of the Dark Lord being asked to join the Unspeakables or even possibly working in the gallows of the Department of Mysteries.  Voldemort continued, ¡°I refused them that day.  I wanted to travel and learn magic instead of being stuck in a cubicle doing mundane tasks so that my supposed superiors could focus on their research, or worse, waste their and, especially my time, doing nothing.¡±


    Rookwood knew what Voldemort was talking about.  He had done his share of grunt work before being able to focus on his choice of research.  And he couldn¡¯t even imagine Voldemort doing the same grunt work.


    ¡°When does the Wizengamot session start?¡± asked Voldemort.


    ¡°In about an hour, My Lord,¡± replied Rockwood.


    ¡°The bill for the usage of lethal action against my Death Eaters,¡± said Voldemort, quoting the topic of the Wizengamot discussion.  ¡°I still remember you telling how many problems it had caused our tropes thest time around.  I should¡¯ve killed Bartemius Senior before he caused those pesky problems.  I made the mistake of not doing sost time.  But this time. . . this time let us make them aware of what they are about to face.¡±


    ¡°If I may speak something, My Lord.¡±


    Voldemort hummed, which Rockwood took as a signal to continue.


    ¡°If we proceed with this, then wouldn¡¯t that sway the vote in favor of the implementation of lethal action. . . that would create problems, especially with Robards and Scrimgeour leading the current DMLE.  Even Bones has her origin in the DMLE; she would be more perceptible to suggestions against us.¡±


    ¡°How do you think the vote would go if we don¡¯t proceed today?¡± asked Voldemort.


    ¡°ording to what Rivers have gathered, the bill is going to pass today,¡± Rockwood said.  Rivers Lock, the resident Spymaster, had felt around the Ministry using hiswork of Novellus ionites and had concluded that today was going to be passed.  ¡°. . . He also said there are rumors of George West endorsing the bill.¡±


    ¡°Then you should realize that whatever we do today isn¡¯t going to make a difference.  And if there isn¡¯t going to be any difference, why not make the best out of the situation,¡± Voldemort turned to Rockwood and continued, ¡°Gather everyone; I¡¯ll address them before we leave.  If everyone else wants war, let us give them one.¡±


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    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


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    ¡°If everyone could take their seats, we can get started with this meeting,¡± said Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.


    He roamed his eye over the circr room, looking at those who had inherited their family seats, those who had been elected, and those who had received them as part of their Ministerial designations.  He looked at those people divided into the three major factions¡ª Dark, Light, and Grey¡ª and one minor faction of the Minister¡¯s circle.


    Dumbledore¡¯s eyes stayed with the Minister¡¯s circle.  It wasn¡¯tmon in the Wizengamot and the British Isles political scene that the Ministers had their own faction.  Almost every time, the Minister was backed by one or two major factions, representing part of the nation¡¯s popce.  Thest Minister, Cornelius Fudge, was first supported by the Light faction in his first term and the Dark Faction in his second.  But Amelia Bones was an outlier in the way that she didn¡¯t belong to any of the factions¡ª she had support from parts of both Light and Grey factions but didn¡¯t exclusively support either.  Her true influence came from her work and tenure in the DMLE.  She had been sopetent and done such good work during a period when DMLE was having trouble finding applicants who passed the Auror and Hit Wizard standards, keeping the reputations of her department so clean and sessful that her approval ratings had been off the roof with the popce even without the explicit support of any political factions.


    ¡°Ahem,¡± Dumbledore cleared her throat, ¡°members of Wizengamot, today we have gathered here to discuss a bill proposed by Minister Bones in conjunction with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.  I¡¯m sure all the concerned individuals already have a copy of the draft and have had the time to go through them to gain an understanding of what it entails.  Now, I would give the floor to Head of DMLE Rufus Scrimgeour to ce the bill in front of the Wizengamot.¡±


    Amidst the buzzing chatter, footsteps echoed as Scrimgeour walked to the room¡¯s well.  All eyes followed the man who looked poised; one look at the man, one could tell that this was what an Auror was supposed to be.  Scrimgeour walked to the table in the center and ced some documents in the middle, and the man took his time to set up as if the other didn¡¯t exist.


    ¡°Members of Wizengamot,¡± he started, ¡°today we have gathered here to discuss a solution to the problem that ails our country and every person that lives within it,¡± he turned to the Dark faction as he said thest part.  ¡°It¡¯s not a secret that the Dark Lord,¡± he said, and the people straightened up, ¡°and his Death Eaters have risen again.  They have gotten back to their terrorizing ways of the war days.  In the past few months, DMLE has apprehended many Death Eaters, who have been sentenced to Azkaban, but not a single time have the Death Eaters not tried to rescue theirpatriots¡ª going as far as to attack Auror guards escorting the prisoners.  There have been many more incidents in which the DMLE suspects were caused by the Death Eaters.  And, just recently, the Death Eaters directly attacked the Ministry itself by sending an explosive to the Ministry that everyone knows caused much damage.  In that one incident, they not only threatened everyone¡¯s lives in the headquarters and so many important documents but also risked breaking the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, which would¡¯ve not only endangered the lives of wizardkind in our country but worldwide.¡±


    When the poption of one country found out about the magical poption, then it was just a matter of time before the other countries would find out about it.  It would spread like a pandemic, and the lives of so many people would be risked without them anything.  It would bring judgment upon the magicals of the British Isles, and in those times of turmoil, no one would be willing to help them.


    ¡°So, on behalf of the Minister¡¯s Office and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I propose that lethal action be allowed against the Death Eaters.  Like thest war, I propose that the Unforgiveables be allowed to be used against the Death Eaters, and if in a situation of concern, Aurors and Hit Wizards be allowed to execute the Death Eaters.¡±


    There was a heaviness in the air.  A lot of chatter rose up within the room, making people.


    Dumbledore raised his wand to the air and shot harmless explosions, making people quiet up.  ¡°If anyone wants to question Department Head Scrimgeour, please raise your hand,¡± he said.


    It seemed that a lot of people had questions as hands were raised from all the questions.


    There was a reason why Dumbledore had stuck to the Chief Warlock position for such a long time without letting anyone have the chance to rece him.  Chief Warlock was responsible for facilitating any discussion that happened in Wizengamot, and it waspletely up to Dumbledore who he chose to give a chance to speak and in what order.  For a big part, he got to decide how the discussion could go.


    Right now, if he allowed someone from the Dark Faction first, the tone of the conversation would turn to one of an offensive questioning, trying to undermine the bill with the aim of scrapping the entire thing.  But at the same time, if he handed it to the Grey Faction, Dumbledore was sure they would engage in a conversation supporting the bill, as discord at this scale was terrible for business.


    And if he was to give a chance to the Light Faction. . . . Dumbledore nced towards where the Light Faction sat withplicated looks in his eyes.  Ever since he had revealed the truth about Harry¡¯s situation, he had lost the trust of some influential members of the faction, and with it, a lot of people who didn¡¯t know the truth but were followers of said influential people.  He wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if he gave a chance by the Light Faction.


    As he contemted who to give a chance, a sudden tremor went through the room.  It was so violent that many people shifted off their seats, and entire rows of chairs moved by several inches.  Even Dumbledore had to grab onto his chair to not fall off because of the violent shaking.


    Dumbledore even heard someone, presumably, an Auror, shout, ¡°Again?!¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s eyes went straight to the Dark Faction members, and he started to scour the people looking for people who were acting strange.  He noticed people who were acting strangely calm in this current situation, especially when there had been a simr incident very recently.


    He clutched his wand and let the magic flow as the Legilimency mind magic shot through like an arrow from a taut bow, piercing through the embarrassingly weak defense of the people who acted strangely.  Dumbledore started to rife through their memories, and that¡¯s when he found the reason behind the sudden shock.


    He immediately stood up in shock and at once rushed towards the door out of the Wizengamot room.  Before he exited, he spoke in amanding voice,


    ¡°With me.¡±


    And even those who were at odds with Dumbledore knew he was serious and not to doubt his orders.


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    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Me not here.  It¡¯s been happening a lot.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Chief Warlock ¨C Likes to be in influential positions.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C We are starting soon.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 366 The Advent of War

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Dumbledore rushed out of Wizengamot amidst people calling for him¡ª some angry, others concerned, but he ignored those voices and hurried towards where he could hear explosions and shouting.


    What he had seen inside the minds was mere a glimpse.  Just a little conversation between people talking about the gossip they had heard from their peers in the Death Eater circle,  But it was enough to send rms ring in his mind, and as the explosions got louder, the heavy feeling in the bottom of his heart started to be heavier by the second.


    He could hear the footsteps of multiple people behind him.  Among those, James Potter rushed to his side.  ¡°Dumbledore!  What is happening?!¡± said the man he had been having a difficult time with.


    ¡°Death Eaters are attacking the ministry,¡± said Dumbledore somberly.


    ¡°They¡¯re doing what?!¡± came another voice that Dumbledore identified as Sirius ck.  ¡°Why would they do that?!¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious,¡± James scoffed.  ¡°Because of today¡¯s bill.¡±


    Dumbledore turned to nce back for a moment to nce at the number of people who had followed him out of Wizengamot.  Many from the Light Faction, most of them from the Order of Phoenix, had followed him.  And hearing the short exchange between them made his thoughts turn momentarilyplicated.  A substantial part of the Light Faction supported today¡¯s bill and wanted lethal action against the Death Eater.  He himself didn¡¯t oppose such actions knowing it was the necessity of the war, but he also knew that many were awaiting these sanctions with zealous eyes.  That worried him.  He could foresee a near future where Aurors and Hit Wizard would actively start searching for encounters with Death Eaters to ¡®put them down,¡¯ and it was inevitable that some people would get injured and, worse, lose their lives in such pursuits.  He was hesitant to let the bill pass in its current stage, whichcked some crucial, much-needed restrictions.


    He could see the Robards and Scrimgeour tagging along at the back with an ensemble of Aurors following them.  That itself worried him.  If before, he could influence some restrictions, after this, there would be no chance he could make any suggestions that would protect unnecessary blood from being spilled.  Good blood from being spilled.


    ¡°Dumbledore.¡±  He turned back and saw Scrimgeour had made his way to the front.  ¡°If you would be so kind as to share something with this lowly Head of DMLE, I would be eternally grateful to your greater personage.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to be like that, Scrimgeour,¡± said Dumbledore.  ¡°As you might¡¯ve already expected, Death Eaters have attacked the Ministry.¡±


    ¡°Like before?¡±


    Dumbledore shook his head.  ¡°No, not like before.  They havee in person this time.¡±  While he couldn¡¯t see it, Dumbledore knew that Scrimgeour was ring daggers at him¡ª he wasn¡¯t supposed to know anything about the Death Eater bomb incident.


    ¡°I hope you¡¯ve already alerted all the Aurors and the Hit Wizards.¡±


    ¡°I have called for backup,¡± said Scrimgeour, but Dumbledore heard Scrimgeour speak something to an Auror beside him, who moved away from the group, ¡°. . . is the situation really that severe?¡± finished Scrimgeour.


    ¡°It is.  They¡¯re in the main atrium with innocent people in danger.  They might. . . definitely must have taken hostages, so it is imperative that we proceed with caution.¡±


    ¡°We will.  I¡¯ll have a team of Aurors trained in hostage situations ready to be deployed.  They¡¯ll ensure that the hostages make it out safe without giving the Death Eaters a chance to move a finger¡ª¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯ll handle it.  Your people cane in after me.¡±


    Scrimgeour¡¯s eyes turned cold.  ¡°Dumbledore, don¡¯t overstep your bounds¡ª¡±


    ¡°If it was any other situation, I would¡¯ve not suggested something like this, but this is the best course of action in this situation.¡±


    ¡°And why is that?¡±


    ¡°Because Voldemort himself out there.¡±


    Everyone who was following Dumbledore froze up as if every single one of them had been hit with a Body Bind Spell.  All faltered to a pause and fell multiple steps behind Dumbledore, who didn¡¯t give them a look back.


    ¡°Some of you were there during thest war and know the danger of such situations where life and death are separated by a very fine line¡ª a single mistake and everything coulde to an end¡ª but let me warn you. . . Voldemort had never shown his true powers in thest war, so whatever imaginations you have in your mind about his power, throw them out. . . and be ready for anything you think is possible with magic and then go beyond that.¡±


    He didn¡¯t want to ce a fear inside their hearts, but it was necessary they knew what they were going against.  It was better if they were cautious(even cowardly) than reckless.


    ¡°Let me handle Voldemort, but keep an eye open for stray attacks,¡± warned Dumbledore as they reached the atrium.  ¡°Now,dies and gentlemen, arm for your wands and prepare your magic.  It¡¯s time to show that justice always prevails.¡±


    Dumbledore stepped into the atrium with the Elder Wandyingfortably in his hand as if he was a part of his arm.  He sucked in a short breath and felt thick foreign magic wash over him as if he had been dunked into a deep pool with viscous water.  Dumbledore knew what exactly it was.  He had been feeling it over ever since he hade into throwing distance of the source.


    He looked towards the said source and found the familiar figure standing in ck flowing robes.  The pale skin, serpentine features, and red eyes were just like thest time he had seen them in the very atrium they stood.


    Their eyes met, and two waves of magic erupted, one from each, and crashed into each other, sending tingles down the people¡¯s spines as their bodies sensed the dense presence of magic.


    Dumbledore wasted no time and scoured the Ministry atrium.  As he had expected, there were plenty of hostages within the Death Eater¡¯s grasp.  Dumbledore, however, was expecting and had thus prepared.  Arge group of people were on the ground, huddled in groups with terror in their eyes.  They had  Death Eaters standing around with wands pointed over their heads.  He could see men, women, children, and even the elderly in the crowd of frightened people.


    Dumbledore raised his wand like an orchestra conductor and released a wide wave of magic that reached every single corner of the atrium.  The magic spread fast and affected tens of Death Eaters, making them feel a shiver immediately followed by an intense heat that tortured every cell of their bodies.


    ¡°Now!¡± Dumbledore shouted an order to the people behind him, who had also seemingly frozen-stunned for a second by the showcase of power from Dumbledore.  The Aurors and Order of Phoenix members moved under Dumbledore¡¯smand andunched an attack on thegging Death Eaters.


    ¡°y nice, Dumbledore.¡±  The inherently cold voice echoed in the atrium.  ¡°Why would you ignore me to y with others when I¡¯m here?¡±  Voldemort waved his wand, and the Death Eaters felt the harsh magic drain from their bodies.  With nothing holding them back, they started their counter-attack on the Aurors they outnumbered.


    Dumbledore didn¡¯t speak to Voldemort and again weaved magic.  The Elder wand¡¯s tip glowed golden as multiple threads of magic flew out towards the groups of people and poured over protective domes to shield them away from bing a victim of crossfire between the Death Eaters and the Aurors.


    Protecting more than a hundred people on his own quickly and effectively was only achievable by another person than Dumbledore, and that person was present in the room and didn¡¯t have a single intention to ever raise his wand for the cause of good help.


    Voldemort raised his wand towards the hostages nearest to him and shot a charged dark spell towards them with no mercy and did it without a hint of emotion on his face as if this was a norm in life: without a single shred of remorse on his face.


    Dumbledore made his move and pumped a burst of magic into the dome that Voldemort targeted.


    ¡°Fool,¡± Voldemort scoffed as he suddenly raised his wand towards Dumbledore and chanted: ¡°Avada Kedavra!¡±  The eerie green zap bolted toward Dumbledore with the only intention of taking away a life.


    Dumbledore immediately dropped the other magic; instead, he raised a block of marble from the floor and protected himself against the sure-kill Killing curs.


    Voldemort didn¡¯t seem bothered as he lowered his wand and again pointed it at another group of people.  Dumbledore again charged the protective dome, and again Voldemort shot a spell when he saw that, and this time, Dumbledore was only able to react at thest second.


    ¡°These people here are your weakness, Dumbledore,¡± Voldemortughed.  ¡°And because they¡¯re your weakness, they¡¯re my strength.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be so overconfident, Tom,¡± Dumbledore bit back.  ¡°Because from thest time we met, you were forced to leave in a not soon good condition.  So be rest assured, it won¡¯t be changing from thest time.¡±


    Voldemortughed coldly, and his voice reached everywhere, even above the loud exchange of spells.  ¡°Is that so. . . then let¡¯s test if that¡¯s true.¡±


    A dozen muddy dark spheres manifested over in the air, all strategically ced above the hostage groups.


    Dumbledore¡¯s eyes shrunk when he felt the power behind Voldemort¡¯s magic.  That was enough to pierce his shield and kill everyone in the vicinity, including Voldemort¡¯s own Death Eaters.  Dumbledore immediately poured his magic into the protective domes as Voldemort dropped the spheres with a cruel smile on his face.


    Dumbledore¡¯s entire focus shifted to protection.  He could still survive this, but it was clear that if he didn¡¯t protect the hostage, there would be no blood spige as everything would¡¯ve vaporized.


    *Boom!*


    There was a loud explosion.


    Everyone stopped and turned as the spheres vanished into nothingness.  Their eyes were staring at Voldemort, who had his head bowed.  The spheres didn¡¯t cause the explosion, but whatever did cause it had left behind a trail of smoke from Voldemort¡¯s defense.


    Voldemort slowly turned his head towards his assant and saw a familiar figure standing in total ck from head to toe and had two threatening spells hovering in his eyes.


    The Invisible Vignte had arrived at the scene.


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    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Sorry for the shorter chapter, but this was what I could think of for today.  I left office at 10:30 PM today, so am really tired and now going to go nighty-night.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 367 Lead Up Travel

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    ¡°I will be going to America for a few days,¡± said Quinn as he sat opposite George in thetter¡¯s study.


    ¡°Why?¡± asked George, not looking up a letter he was reading.


    ¡°I need to meet the Broker regarding my investment.  He has been sending me regr reports, and I think it is time that I have a sit down with him to figure out my next moves.¡±


    ¡°Why America?  Call him to Basel.  It would be much easier for you for everyone to keep Helena Berenberg a part of the meeting.¡±


    ¡°I will be meeting Broker¡¯s team this time.  He¡¯s in charge of a lot of my money, so it is only natural that I get to know the people who¡¯re handling it.  And taking his entire team from America to Switzend is going to cost a lot of money in Portkey that neither he nor I are willing to pay.  It is better that I go to their offices.¡±


    George hummed.  ¡°When are you going?¡± he asked.


    ¡°As soon as my travel arrangements are made.¡±


    ¡°Have you talked to Elliot?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to today.¡±


    ¡°How long are you going to stay?¡±


    ¡°Three days.¡±


    George nodded and opened another letter.  Quinn took theck of opposition as a sign of affirmation.  So he got up and walked outside, leaving George to his work.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn exited the fabric of space and left behind the strobing rainbow lights tond on his feet, feeling a tad bit dizzy that cleared up almost instantly.  He looked around and found himself in a posh, well-decorated room with high-ss interiors.


    ¡°Wee, Mr. West,¡± he heard a melodious voice.  Quinn turned to face a gorgeous blonde standing by the room¡¯s door.  ¡°Wee to the United States of America,¡± she said.


    . . .


    On the first day of his stay in America, Quinn immediately went to Abraham¡¯s restaurant and had lunch with Lia, who was in the country.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡± asked Lia.


    ¡°For work,¡± said Quinn, eating a strange seafood dish.  ¡°I have to take care of my non-magical investments.  Meet the Broker and his team.¡±  He pointed at the roof, ¡°I also need to catch up with the building manager about the state of the building, the tenants, and their leases.  Then there¡¯s the warehouse that I boughtst time I was here¡ª I need to visit there to take measurements so that I can start nning the development I had in mind.¡±


    ¡°Oh my, you¡¯re busy,¡± said Lia, enjoying her meal.  ¡°Let¡¯s go out somewhere today before you get all busy with your work.¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯re here to spend time with Abraham.  I¡¯m sure you have your own ns; I don¡¯t want to ruin them.  Moreover, the meeting with the building manager is today, so I have to attend that.  I don¡¯t know how long I will spend with Broker and his team tomorrow, so I¡¯m going to go visit the warehouse today itself.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯re here for three days, correct?  What are you going to do on thest day?¡±


    ¡°Enjoy myself in the country of dreams, of course.¡±


    . . .


    On the second day of his stay in America, Quinn woke up early and got ready to visit the Broker in his office.


    ¡°Quinn!¡±


    He turned to see the loud man.  Hair set with wax, a finely groomed beard, a natural tan skin tone, a tailored blue suit on his body, and an expensive watch on his wrist.  The man strolled inside the meeting/conference room and gave Quinn a hearty hug.


    ¡°Wee to my office,¡± smiled the Broker, Jerome Walker.  ¡°My team and I have been eagerly waiting for you to arrive.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to this meeting as well,¡± Quinn smiled simrly.


    The Broker led Quinn through his office, which seemed like an office of a startup.  The ce didn¡¯t give a formal vibe with how it was designed.  There was a turf area in the middle of the office with real grass, and Quinn noticed the pic nkets on the green grass.  There was even a set of wide swings with mani work folders sitting on them.


    ¡°We are a small team, but I handpicked every one of them carefully.  Every single one of them is skilled andpetent in what they do and are half the reason behind my sess,¡± said the Broker.  ¡°You¡¯ll like them.¡±


    ¡°I hope so,¡± Quinn chuckled.  ¡°Who knows, maybe I will poach a couple of them from you.¡±


    The Brokerughed, ¡°You can surely try.  But I pay them very handsomely for they make me money.  The more they make me, the more they get paid.  It¡¯s a continuous cycle.  They were delighted when I got you as our client.¡±


    ¡°If they learned from you, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll understand what I can bring them.¡±


    The Brokerughed again, seemingly not worried.  ¡°We will see about that,¡± he said as they arrived at the meeting room.


    He took the handle in his hand and smiled at Quinn, ¡°For now, let¡¯s make everyone some money.¡±


    . . .


    On the night of the second day of his stay, Quinn packed his suitcase and made his way to a small hill on the city¡¯s edge.


    He looked around the woods and noticed the absence of any sort of magic in the surroundings.  Be it back home or in the States, the cities always had some kind of magical that epassed the entire city.  The magical had functions like facilitating the Trace used to detect underage magic¡ª and in America, the magical city-wide had another function of detecting Portkeys.


    Which was a problem for Quinn.


    He pulled out a tiny steel pyramid from his pocket and felt the weight in his hand.  The palm-sized pyramid exuded a gentle wave of magic that tugged on the spatial threads in the surroundings.


    It was a Portkey.  A very personal and very illegal Portkey.


    ¡°Would¡¯ve loved to try out intercontinental apparition,¡± Quinn muttered as he picked up his suitcase from the ground.


    Ever since thest year, when he had picked up spatial magic, his prowess with apparition had jumped up exponentially.  He could apparate cross-country without a hitch, and even cross-continental was possible at benchmarked distances.  But Quinn hadn¡¯t tested intercontinental apparition yet¡ª but he was confident that he could do it if he tried.


    But right now wasn¡¯t the time to test that out.


    He needed to have all his bodily organs intact for what was toe.


    ¡°Maybe on the return trip.¡±


    Quinn clenched the steel pyramid and triggered the magic that whisked him away across the ocean to the small ind nation where he came from.


    . . .


    On the early morning of the third day of his supposed stay, Quinn stepped out of his suitcase dressed in all ck of the Noir suit from head to toe.  He stretched his arms, looking at the sunlight as it filtered through the leaves of the forest canopy.  He had woken up from a very pleasant sleep.  His mind, body, and soul were in tip-top shape, something he could be needing a lot today.


    He took out his pocket watch and checked the time.  It was time to go.


    He patted the chest portion and the Noir suit, and it turned into a suit made from a lower-quality material that usually Quinn wouldn¡¯t touch, much less put on, but for today he had to put it on.


    Because while Quinn wouldn¡¯t put it, John wore exactly that kind of suit.


    Quinn¡¯s muscles all over his body began to twitch and spasm as the bones, muscle structure, the properties of his skin all began to change, and soon, Quinn was gone, and in his ce stood someone named John. .  . only John.


    . . .


    John stood in the line to enter the Ministry atrium.  He slowly moved up the queue and finally arrived at the front of the queue.  He faced a dotted speaker on the wall with a slot beneath it.


    A female monotone greeted him, ¡°Name and purpose of visit.¡±


    ¡°John.  Inquiry with the Floo Department regarding faulty floo firece.¡±


    There was a static silence for a moment before the voice responded, ¡°Mr. John visiting the Floo Department.¡±  There were multiple clicking noises before a badge fell into the lip of the slot beneath the speaker.


    John picked up the ¡®VISITOR¡¯ badge, put it on hispel, and finally moved inside the Ministry atrium, where he once again had to go through the security desk, who checked his badge and asked for his wand.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a wand,¡± said John.  ¡°Didn¡¯t bring it today.  Forgot it.¡±


    ¡°Forgot it?¡± the security guard narrowed his eyes.  ¡°Step aside; we would like to check.¡±


    John shrugged and submitted to a pat-down and a magical search that came out to be: no wand.


    ¡°You can go,¡± said the security guard.


    John finally stepped into the main atrium, but instead of going to the Floo Department where he was supposed to go, he moved towards the part of the atrium that led to the Wizengamot but didn¡¯t leave the atrium.  He grabbed a corner, and slowly magic turned him invisible to the naked eye.


    John closed his eyes and began the waiting game of patience.


    After waiting for a good amount of time, John opened his eyes when he felt a swarm of magic that flooded the atrium.  The foreign magic flowed, and John could tell what wasing, so he braced himself.


    *Boom!*


    It was as if an earthquake had struck the country and the Ministry atrium was the epicenter; if he hadn¡¯t braced himself, he would be lying on the ground with his legs trembling like a newborn calf¡¯s.


    John looked to the source of everything sudden that had happened in thest few seconds and saw the Dark Lord standing in his full glory as his Death Eaters filed in from behind him with their wands shooting stunning spells at the people as they shouted everyone to get on the ground.


    One of the Death Eaters shot a Killing Curse in the air, which had a great effect as people dropped to their knees and evenid t stomach-side down on the marble flooring.


    John hid behind a pir that blocked him from Voldemort¡¯s eyes.  While still invisible, he slowly moved around Voldemort while keeping a vignt eye on the Dark Lord.  It would be a problem if he got find out now.


    ¡°Don¡¯t make any sudden moves,¡± said one of the Death Eaters as John reached halfway through, but he was too slow because of the fear of being spotted by Voldemort.


    But then help arrived.


    Dumbledore and Aurors barged into the scene, with Dumbledore engaging Voldemort in battle.


    John patted his chest, and the cheap sit transformed into the Noir suit with the mask in his that he slipped on his face.


    With that, John was gone, and Quinn was noting out; all that was left was Noir.


    When spheres of magical doom came down on the victims with Dumbledore trying to stop Voldemort¡ª that was when Quinn decided that it was the best opportunity.


    He charged a strong magic, most vile, and the most damaging spell and shot it towards Voldemort¡¯s back.  Just when Quinn thought that the spell would hit, a shield sprung up and blocked his magic.


    Quinn stared at Voldemort¡¯s back and the protective shield sizzling because of his ¡®backstabbing¡¯ spell.


    ¡®That didn¡¯t work very well, now did it?¡¯ he thought.  The look that Voldemort gave him was not something anyone would be happy about.  He had been face-to-face with the Dark Lord before, but this was the first time he had seen him so cold and furious¡ª and all of that was directed at him.


    ¡®Oh boy. . .¡¯


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Quinn, Noir, John. . .


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C That was what happened for this moment to happen.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 368 Cursed Fire

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Having the Dark Lord coldly stare him down after two days of painstaking alibi construction in the States, which involved breaking multiple American Portkeyws and appearing in front of Aurors inside the Ministry who were out to get him for murder charges, wasn¡¯t great.  It was like the return of all his returns was underwhelming, to say the least.


    ¡°You. . . you have been an annoyance for some time now,¡± Voldemort¡¯s voice seemed colder than his(Quinn¡¯s) ice magic.  ¡°Stay within your limits¡ª no. . . you have done enough; it¡¯s time for you to go.¡±


    Quinn shifted his feet and sent body magic to every part of his body, ready to move at a moment¡¯s notice.  He could feel a pressure emanating from Voldemort that was quite nervewracking¡ª not once in his life had he faced an opponent of this caliber, even his previous encounter with Voldemort couldn¡¯t be counted because of the suddenness of the situation.


    Voldemort didn¡¯t raise his wand; he didn¡¯t need to as the wand was a focus, and when appropriately skilled, there was no need to point and shoot.


    Quinn heard a crackle.  He looked up to find himself staring as a yellow lightning bolt manifested.  His eyes blew up behind his mask.  The magical lightning jolted down towards Quinn¡¯s head as he raised a shield to block it.


    ¡°Gah!¡±


    The shield blocked most of the bolt, but some of the lightning ripped through the magical cover and struck Quinn.  He felt as if thousands of electric snakes coursed through every muscle fabric in his body.  Everything spasmed out of control.  He felt his body heat up several degrees in the short span of seconds.  Quinn¡¯s breathing hitched as his magic retaliated and purged the foreign magic invading his body.  His breathing returned to normal when all of Voldemort¡¯s magic was purged.


    ¡®Shit!¡¯ Quinn cursed inside.  The curse was dark magic.  If he had let it stay inside his body longer, it would¡¯ve done damage that¡¯d have taken years of treatment from highest-grade doctors to fix.  Even now, he could feel pain throughout his body.  ¡®That was just one spell!¡¯


    Quinn turned invisible immediately and started to move slowly.  But then he saw Voldemort¡¯s eyes following him and his heart skipped a beat.


    A dark mass of magic bubbled in front of Voldemort and zapped towards Quinn with a shrill whistling sound.  Quinn raised another shield many times stronger than thest time, and it worked. . . partially.  The ck mass collided with the shield spell and bounced off it into the ground, exploding the floor like a full grenade.  Quinn felt an intense explosion of heat as the ck mass ballooned from a tennis ball to a gym ball in a blink of an eye.  It stopped expanding just before it could touch Quinn¡¯s shield and shrunk rapidly.  The ck mass was the only thing in Quinn¡¯s eyes as he saw it turn into an angry red explosion¡ª that sent out a force strong enough to shift his organs and doing it while he was behind a shield.


    He was sent back flying from the force.  Quinn fought through the disorienting impact and cast Arresto Momentum to cut all of his momenta and smoothly twisted to help himnd on the ground battle-ready.  As his feet touched the ground, he raised his eyes once again locked onto Voldemort. . . and there was a green spell of death zipping towards him.


    He felt his entire body do one thing.  It was instinct.  The instinct to move.  The instinct to live.


    *Crackle.*  Another small explosion burst out.  A white plume of smoke/fog spread into the surroundings until it cleared up, leaving behind Quinn with a broke piece of the shield made from a huge block of ice.


    The room¡¯s temperature dropped as a thin sheen of frosty ice grew on every surface of the room.  The high roof of the atrium developed stgmite-like protrusion.  Quinn stared at Voldemort with his eyes glowing in purple.  His finger twitched, and a couple hundred ice spears manifested in the air.  Another twitch and the clear ice gained a green tinge as Quinn applied a curse on every spike.  The final twitch and the spikes shot toward Voldemort with the sole aim of piercing through his body.


    Voldemortzily swept his arm across, and all ice spears slowed down.  But before they couldpletely stop, Voldemort¡¯s eyes widened as he hastily moved his wand-wrist and conjured a shield behind himself.  A huge spray of fire assaulted Voldemort at his back, and the intensity of the mes only seemed to grow stronger.


    ¡°Dumbledore!¡±  Voldemort barked, feeling the heat on his back, and the tongues of fire just separated them.  He was about to turn towards Dumbledore when he noticed Quinn wasn¡¯t there anymore.  He immediately sent out probes, and Voldemort looked around to spot Quinn.  Voldemort looked up and saw dozens of glowing red rods with electric current dancing around them.


    The moment the rods dropped, Voldermot conjured a protective cover above and turned towards Dumbledore.  He pulled down the shield that held back the fire, plunged a sudden and continuous supply of his magic into the mes, and started to fight back.


    The rods dropped over his head and tortured the cover over Voldemort¡¯s head.  It shook and rippled wildly, but not a single rod passed through.  Just when Voldemort thought he could concentrate on Dumbledore¡¯s mes, his eye shrunk as Quinn became visible in his peripheral vision.


    Quinn raised his leg and front-kicked the Dark Lord¡¯s side with an intense quantity of body magic.  Quinn followed up by sending out Empyrean chains with des weaved with curses on end after Voldemort, but the Dark Lord¡¯s magic thwarted and crushed the chains before they could reach him.  But it wasn¡¯t over as Dumbledore shot what seemed like an absurdly charged, modified Reducto¡ª even though it wasn¡¯t directed towards Quinn, he felt enough danger that he jumped away from Voldemort.


    Voldemort again blocked, but his shield was ripped as if it was paper.  But Voldemort wasn¡¯t just the Dark Lord in name as he countered Dumbledore¡¯s offensive spell with an offensive spell of his own.  The explosion was so impactful that it sent waves across the atrium.


    Quinn observed from the side, thinking of his next move, when a spell suddenly came from his side.  He looked towards it with furrowed brows as it fizzled away because of his magic.  He looked up and saw a Death Eater with his wand raised towards him.  Quinn raised his hand, and the Death Eater¡¯s leg bones cracked, making him fall in pain.


    He returned back to Voldemort.  Two fiery orbs of eerie mustard-colored fire sparked above his palms.  He pointed them at Voldemort, who battled against Dumbledore.  Quinn¡¯s eyes shed purple as hot rows of me scorched towards Voldemort¡¯s back.


    The Dark Lord facing fire from both sides, flicked his wrist of the hand holding his wand, and bought on. . . terror.


    Maybe Voldemort had heard of the saying ¡®fire-with-fire¡¯ because, in response, he let out a frightening fire¡ª it looked cold and ghastly, but it was anything but¡ª it was so hot that the marble on the floor melted away into a blob of molten stone.


    Quinn¡¯s concentration on assaulting Voldemort snapped.  He took several steps back away from the fire because he recognized what the fire precisely was.  It was not a normal fire; the mes seemed like they were alive, sentient, intent upon killing everything in their path; the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: ming serpents, chimeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again.


    ¡®Fiendfyre!  Why the fucking hell would he do that?!  We¡¯re indoors!  Indoors!¡¯


    Fiendfyre was one of the magics that Quinn had tread lightly around.  There wasn¡¯t really a ce he could safely practice it without risking the quasi-sentient fire from getting out of control and leaking out to cause a hazard.  He only knew one ce that could hold the fire from getting out: The Room of Requirements.  The room wasn¡¯t really on the seventh floor despite the location of its entrance; it was connected to the seventh floor through spatial magic¡ª and just amand of disconnecting the entrance made the room a ce perfect for practicing Fiendfyre¡ª bar the fact the caster could die if things got out of control.


    And Quinn had at times taken advantage of the fact and practiced Feindfyre.  The prevailing supposition around Fiendyre was that seemingly wild mes could only be hoped to be tamed by the most skilled of practitioners, and not every caster could actually control the spell.  But in his experimentation with Fiendfyre, he had found out how the fire could be controlled.


    The answer was Legilimency.  The mind arts were how Fiendfyre could be bent to one¡¯s will.


    Quinn, even with his Legilimency skills, could only control the mes shabbily¡ª but. . .


    ¡®I can make some of them touch Voldemort. . . gently.¡¯


    Quinn gently reached out to the mes; he had to be careful as they could backfire and burn his mindscape.  He extended his mind to a wisp of mind, and immediately a connection was made as if the me was eager for the link.


    ¡®Ah, I forget this took magic.¡¯  Fiendfyre was incredibly magic extensive, and even with the slightest of the links, it sucked magic like a sponge.  ¡®Let¡¯s see if you like the taste of your own medicine.¡¯


    Quinn roughly targeted the area near Voldemort and caused an explosion, hoping that would hurt Voldemort as that amount of control was all he was capable of.


    The fire snake near Voldemort exploded.  Voldemort flicked his wand, and the exploding snake returned to its serpentine form as if time had been reversed.  Quinn could see Voldemort turn cautious as the quantity of Feindfyre immediately lessened.


    ¡®Shit!¡¯ Quinn cursed internally as he dodged a Fiendfyre dragon¡¯s breath.  Thankfully, Voldemort seemed to focus on Dumbledore and was only sending stray fire wisps toward Quinn¡ª maybe it was because Voldemort gave Dumbledore priority, or perhaps it was because he could only maintain one target.  Whatever it was, it gave Quinn some room to operate.  ¡®Okay, one more time. . . . If I can just get him a little, it would weaken him for long, maybe then. . . .¡¯


    Quinn¡¯s eyes turned purple.  An absurd amount of magic was fed to the mes.  Quinn focused on the fire, and everything other than the mes stopped existing for him.  He connected with the Fiendfyre, and he could feel an overwhelming pressure descend on his mind.  It was like he was hung upside down, and all the blood was rushing to his head.  He could around the entire body of the fire, but it was so violent that Quinn was scared that any wrong move he made could burn through his mind like a dry pile of leaves waiting to be burned in a forest.


    ¡®This is going to work,¡¯ he thought and chose an area of the fire.


    But as Quinn was about to trigger an explosion near Voldemort, he felt something to his side.  He distractedly looked to the side just to have a spell hit him.  Quinn felt the magic course through his body and an overwhelming force that blew his body up from the floor into the nearest pir.


    When Quinn slid down the pir and had left behind a crack in the marble because of the force.  For a moment, he couldn¡¯t see anything but a swarming mess, and all he could hear was a ringing noise.


    When his vision and hearing finally cleared up, he saw the source of the spell staring right at him as he thwarted the onught of Fiendfyre.


    ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡±


    A voice clearly delivered through magic echoed in his ear.  He recognized the voice well.  He had heard it for seven years.


    Dumbledore had attacked him.


    .


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    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C My back hurts!


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I was in the office till 11AM yesterday, so I didn¡¯t have any time to write.


    .


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 369 Eye For An Eye

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡±  Dumbledore¡¯s voice echoed in Quinn¡¯s ear.


    Quinn pulled up a shield that blocked a Fiendfyre wolf.  The me apparition tried to w and bite through the shield, causing burningcerations with every attack.  Quinn¡¯s brows wrinkled at the sheer weakness of his shield¡ª Fiendfyre was as tricky as it could get.  He grunted in his dull pain as he stood up.  He red at the fire and sent out a burst of Legilimency to the wolf¡ª and made it blow up away from him and kept it there.  Any me that came near him would wither away into middling heat.


    Quinn turned towards Dumbledore, who faced much more fire than him, and spoke to him in his Noir voice, sending it directly to his ear, which was difficult as Fiendfyre burned through magic itself.  ¡°Is this the right time to try taking me in, Albus Dumbledore?  There is clearly a greater evil present, someone all are trying to get rid of.  So why in the name of magic would you attack ME!¡±


    Dumbledore swung the Elder wand, and with the one swing, half of Voldemort¡¯s Fiendfyre extinguished as if the horrifying fire never existed.  A ring white light shone on Dumbledore¡¯s wand as he swung his wand once more tounch a blinding jet of light that cut through Fiendfyre and toward Voldemort.


    ¡°Keep those thoughts of yours to yourself,¡± Dumbledore¡¯s voice echoed again as he continued tounch spell after spell toward Voldemort.  ¡°I do not care about apprehending you, and I can¡¯t Voldemort catch here without risking the lives of risk of everyone in this room¡ª the lives that you just put at risk and came close to killing everyone.¡±


    ¡°What nonsense are talk¡ª¡±


    ¡°Do you know where you are?¡± Dumbledore interjected.  ¡°Look around and tell me where we are.¡±


    ¡®The damned Socratic questioning!  Why is he doing that now?!¡¯  In the years Quinn had spent near Dumbledore, while he hadn¡¯t interacted much with the headmaster, he had seen enough to understand Dumbledore¡¯s educational method¡ª the Socratic questioning: the technique that focused on discovering answers by asking questions from his students.  Whenever Dumbledore wanted to teach something, he would never offer an answer to the problem directly; instead posed a question that would lead the person to the answer in the form of a realization¡ª which would stick in a person¡¯s mind.


    It infuriated Quinn that Dumbeldore stuck to his practices in the current situation.  He was of the mind to ignore Dumbledore but decided to go with it.


    ¡®What the hell is he talking¡ª¡¯


    Quinn froze for a second as he came to the realization that Dumbledore wanted him to arrive at.  He had forgotten where he was in the heat of the moment and under the pressure of facing Voldemort.  But the sight of shivering people crouching,ying down, and huddled together under golden protective domes kicked him down to the truth of the harsh reality.  If Fiendfyre was dangerous enough for him that he needed to be on a constant lookout, then for the helpless people who didn¡¯t have anywhere near sufficient means to protect themselves, the current situation was nothing less than hell.


    Maybe Quinn¡¯s bodynguage had given it away, but Dumbledore spoke on cue.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know about you, but I am not here to defeat Voldemort; right now, all I want is to get him out of here so the people don¡¯t lose their lives.  If you n to make difficulties, then I severely suggest that you leave, or I will make you treat you the same as Voldemort.¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s magic soared, and the roam somehow turned hotter, but the Fiendfyre seemed to retreat towards Voldemort as if the invisible heat was consuming the Fiendfyre as a fuel.


    Quinn gritted his teeth.  Voldemort wasn¡¯t directing as much harm toward his way, and Dumbledore treated him as if he was nothing but a nuisance.


    He didn¡¯t like that at all.


    Everyone with enough skill and prowess felt it.  A disgustingly monstrous amount of magic flooded into the room, and for a moment, the chaos of Dumbledore versus Voldemort, along with the side scene of Aurors versus Death Eaters, settled into an unstable calm.


    The water in the fountain situated in the middle of the atrium rippled.  The gravity around the fountain seemed to flip as the water rose like a reverse fountain.  The fountain seemed to have an endless amount of water because soon, the water bubble in the air was big enough to drench and soak everyone in the atrium.


    Dumbledore stared at the floating water with confused eyes.


    Quinn¡¯s eyes turned purple as the water started to glow in shimmering silver light.  He thrust his hand, and the water turned into a pre-historic dinosaur-bird that pped its wings, making it drizzle before charging into the bush of Fiendfyre.


    A sharp hissing sound echoed in the atrium as the dinosaur and the multitudes of fire creatues went at it against each other, trying to destroy each other.  And finally, after such a long period, Voldemort¡¯s Fiendfyre looked like it was going to struggle.


    Quinn looked away from the water versus fire spectacle and directly focused on what to do next.  A lot of water had rained down on the floor, and there was a lot of it on the floor.  He took a step forward, and the puddles of water on the floor rose up and froze into ice spikes.  Hundreds of ice spikes formed near the ground and shot up towards Voldemort at frightening speeds.


    Voldemort, who was trying to fight back the spelled water with Fiendfyre, at once dropped the spell when he sensed the ice spikesing to skewer him.  He swept his wand, and the ice spikes all, at once, changed their trajectory just enough to miss him altogether.


    Quinn wasn¡¯t disheartened.  He had much bigger ammunition to exploit.  All the water in the air that was contending with the Fiendfrye was now free, so Quinn put it to work.  Under themand of his magic, all the water turned into a fine mist invisible to the naked eye.


    And to many, it would¡¯ve seemed like a move to clear up the battlefield for ease of movement, but to those who could sense magic, it was apletely different feeling.  Some could feel a tingle on their skin; to others, it felt as if they had been dunked inside a pot of stick hot honey.  Whatever they felt, they could tell that it was something big as the sheer amount of magic that was present inside the atrium was unprecedented to most people.


    Voldemort and Dumbledore both stared at Quinn, who stood absolutely still, not giving away a single clue what he was going to do next.  Never let them guess your move.  But when he made his move, everyone in the atrium knew it as there was a massive shift and thrum in Quinn¡¯s magic.


    Shing!  Voldemort¡¯s eyes widened when he saw an ice spear appear right in front of his chest.  The sole ice spear melted off before it could reach Voldemort, but Quinn wasn¡¯t disappointed.


    ¡®That was one. . . but what¡¯re you going to do with the rest of them.¡¯


    Quinn snapped his fingers, and ten ice spears chilled the air in Voldemort¡¯s immediate vicinity.  They came from everywhere and targetted every part of his body, from his feet to his neck and head.  Again, the Dark Lord didn¡¯t have a problem dissolving every single one of them.


    But all that did was to make Quinn remember the Architect¡¯s Vault.  It only got worse.


    Voldemort felt a little chilly on his bald head.  He looked up to find himself staring at a colossal ice pir hovering up his head.  Then it dropped down on his head.  He raised his wand andunched an explosive spell straight into the base.  The ice exploded brutually, but just when it did, the ice puffed into a mist and turned invisible.


    Quinn smirked.  The Icy Vault¡¯s snowke was incredibly annoying at times.


    ¡®Now, let¡¯s get real.¡¯


    Suddenly, Voldemort found himself facing hundreds of ice spearsunched at him.  He destroyed them, but those he targetted would disappear at thest movement, and more ice weapons like rods, chakrams, and cannonballs would appear.  It was an endless barrage of weaponry.  It was as if he facing an army instead of one Quinn.


    ¡°Annoying!¡± Voldemort spelled a wave of heat that burst out, melting all the ice, and as it disappeared into mist, he pointed his wand at Quinn, and it glowed green.  He wanted to get rid of the problem at its root.


    Quinn adapted and responded by collecting the water vapor suspended in the air to form a shield around him to get some protection from the clearly obvious Killing curse.


    As Voldemort was about to shoot to kill, his eyes shrunk, and he had dropped the Killing curse and reced it with a shielding screen for the most horrifying seen explosionunched by Dumbledore.


    ¡°Injure him,¡± Dumbledore¡¯s voice echoed in Quinn¡¯s ears.  ¡°I will hold him back and cover for you.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t need a second prompt as he began his assault of ice and water and started to mix in spells and charms learned to injure Voldemort.


    Quinn began to walk toward Voldemort, and horrifying attacks were made against him today.  His heat bounced up in his chest as he approached Voldemort as the Dark Lord struggled with a two-prong attack¡ª with Dumbledore pressuring Voldemort in an intense duel while Quinn continued to pressure with his ice weapon barrage.


    A small Empyream knife appeared in Quinn¡¯s hand.  He held it by its de, took aim, chose an opening, and finally threw it.


    ¡°AAAH!¡±


    Voldemort screamed in pain as he clutched his face.  As one would expect from someone titled Dark Lord, Voldemort didn¡¯t falterpletely and, despite the seemingly intense pain, he still continued to barely hold back both Dumbledore and Quinn.


    Quinn wildly smiled behind his mask.


    In the fifth year, during the third task of the Tri-Wizard tournament, he had lost an eye.  Voldemort had clearly done something to get rid of his artificial eye drone and had manipted his creation to target his real eye.


    And today. . . he had taken revenge.  Voldemort¡¯s hand covered the left side of his face with blood streaming down.  The pleasure from that sight was incredible.  Moreover, the Empyrean knife had a curse weaved into it, which was going to create problems when healing.  But he got sober soon as Voldemort red daggers at him and immediately shot multiple Killing curses at him.


    Quinn immediately brought on the ice from the floating mist and blocked every one of them.  But he could feel the force of anger behind every cast.


    Just as Quinn¡¯s magic had flooded the atrium before, Voldemort¡¯s magic rampaged out, tainted with fury.  It made both Quinn and Dumbledore cautious as it was an indication that Voldemort was about to cast something big.


    But then the Ministry building shook once again like it had been doing so many times in the past some time.  But unlike the other ones, this one seemed special as Voldemort¡¯s magic retreated and the Dark Lord disappeared with his Death Eaters following suit.


    Quinn was shocked but pulled himself together quick as he knew that soon all the attention would be upon him.  He turned invisible, and as he was about to leave, he looked at Dumbledore, who was staring back at him¡ª but the headmaster didn¡¯t make any moves as Quinn went away from the Ministry.


    .


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    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C REVENGE!


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C Magic, more magic, more magic.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Is definitely nning something.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Oh my god, this took too much time.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 370 Exhausted

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Ah, shit!  Damn those monsters!¡±


    Quinn stumbled into his hotel room.  He dropped the ¡®John¡¯ disguise as the door shut behind him.  He groaned his way to the bed; his body hurt inside and out: Voldemort¡¯s cursed lightning made his insides feel all types of wrong while Dumbledore¡¯s exploding push into the pir had rattled his bones; moreover, his back was killing.


    ¡°The old liar was aiming to kill me!¡± Quinn groaned as he dropped onto his bed.  ¡°I was using body magic for magic¡¯s sake!¡±  Now as he thought about Quinn was sure that Dumbledore was trying to injure him to the point he couldn¡¯t move.  ¡°Not caring about me, my ass.  He was trying to have at least onewbreaker today.¡±


    Quinn grunted as he got up and dragged his feet into the hotel suite¡¯s bathroom.  He stripped down naked and sat himself down in the tub.  With one flick, the water tap began to pour into the empty tub.  He closed his eyes and felt the water level rising, and as it did, Quinn gently injected magic into every drop.  Soon everything below his neck was submerged in shimmering water.


    It wasn¡¯t as good as the calm water in thest room of the Aquatic vault, but it did help soothe the pain from the beating he had taken.  He had gone into the Aquatic vault a fair number of times to fasten the recovery from injuries suffered during experimentation that he couldn¡¯t show Madam Pomfrey or when he was feeling particrly fatigued and needed a ce to rx.  Enjoying the room¡¯s healing properties had made Quinn (of course) want to replicate it outside the Aquatic vault.  Marking it as one of the long-time projects he had going on.  He hadn¡¯t been able to make a strong healing room like the Aquatic vault, but he knew enough to create a diluted portable version in any body of water he wanted.


    As the aching dulled, Quinn thought back to what had happened in the Ministry.  All in all, he thought everything had gone well today.  Voldemort and his Death Eater had arrived at the Ministry; they had taken innocent people hostage¡ª but no one had gotten killed despite the more than ample use of Fiendfyre.  And most importantly, he had stabbed Voldemort in the eyes.


    ¡°Should¡¯ve thrown it harder; it would¡¯ve been better if I had gotten his brain along with his eye,¡± Quinn spat in frustration, but he was nevertheless ted about taking Voldemort¡¯s eye.  He just hoped that the curse weaved into the Empyrean throwing knife had enough time to spread.


    Quinn closed his eyes and slipped underneath the waterpletely.  Inside the water, he shut off his mind, pulled down his lumency, and simply let the thoughts that came naturally. . . and right now, nothing came to his mind, and he was fine with the emptiness.


    He opened his eyes and got himself out of the water with a ssh.  He exited the bathroom, dried himself, and went to change into a lower-grade suit.  After packing up, he checked out of his room, walked out of the hotel and into a narrow alley while in the disguise of the John persona.  Standing in that deste alley, Quinn stared down at the floor with drooping eyes.  He sighed deeply, took out a palm-sized metallic cube, triggered the Portkey charmed into it, and whisked himself across the ocean back to America, with his old n of trying inter-continent apparition discarded.


    . . .


    Quinn walked to the study table inside his West-owned suite in America.  There sat a small wooden case resting on the table.  He waved his hand over it, and the locks on the box glowed blue as the interlockedtches snapped open.


    A small wooden, beautifully engraved card rested inside the box with the wording specifying the details of the Potkey home.  Quinn picked up his suitcase and grabbed the card before triggering the Portkey weaved in to exit the States and thus end the three-day farce that he had woven for something that hadsted than ten minutes.


    . . .


    ¡°How was the trip?¡±


    Quinn sat down on the sofa in the West manor¡¯s lounge, where George who sat in front of him and asked him a question in greeting.


    ¡°It went well,¡± said Quinn at a sedated pace.  ¡°Went to the Broker, met Lia, talked about the building repairs with the building manager, and even went to the far countryside away from literally everything to look at a piece ofnd that I¡¯ll be buying soon.¡±


    Quinn looked at George.  The extensive alibi nning he had done by going to America, somewhere far away from the British Isles, was done in part to keep his identity as the Invisible Vignte hidden from the prying eyes who were looking for the ouw.  But, as far as he knew, no one was actually looking for him as a suspect for the Invisible Vignte.  Thus, him going to America and taking the risk of getting caught using illegal Portkey to avoid getting seen as the Invisible Vignte was massively overdoing it.


    The only reason he had done something so extreme was the man sitting in front of him.  George was the reason why Quinn had to go to such lengths.  He couldn¡¯t use his usual excuse of going to the non-magical world and get away with it without gaining suspicion.  To ensure that his grandfather, who was already suspicious about him trying to go after Death Eaters, didn¡¯t get suspicious, Quinn needed to go the extra mile or the extra thousands that he actually went.


    It was tiring.


    He had done so many things in the first two days.


    He had gone to meet with the Broker to talk about his investments while having Voldemort upying his brain¡ª he had paid half attention to the people there¡ª who knew if he had paid more attention, he could¡¯ve formed more substantial connections with the team and the Broker himself.  Not only that, because a majority of his wealth was invested in the non-magical world, Broker had deserved and earned his full attention, but Quinn had not given him so.  By doing so, he had put his future at risk, as the money he was making now was going to be used to fund his research in the future.


    He had spent time with Lia, whom he met so scarcely these days, but again, there was a part of his mind thinking what would happen if Voldemort decided to attack a day earlier.  What if he was attacking the Ministry right as he talked to Lia.  For Quinn, who set his personal life apart from his professional and secret life, it was a massive vition to be distracted while talking to Lia.


    He had to meet the management staff who ran the building, and while he acted polite enough, it would¡¯ve been better if he hadmunicated with them better.  He had bought a building a costly building in a prime real estate location.  While the purchase was emotional, who knew how many years Abraham would keep his restaurant in the building, he needed to get a return on his money.  The only way to get returns on that building was the rent he got, and if the building manager didn¡¯t work well with tenants, he would be losing money.


    For the past one week, his time had gone living with Voldemort in the back and forefront of his head.


    ¡°Did you hear about what happened at the Ministry?¡± asked George.


    Quinn pursed his lips, ¡°I heard about it.  The Dark Lord and his minions have been getting boldtely.  First the st in the Aurors Office and now this. . . I fear this is a resurgence of the war; what do you think?¡±  He hadn¡¯t experienced the war firsthand, but he could imagine that infiltration of the central governing body¡¯s headquarters couldn¡¯t be anything but a deration of war.


    ¡°It was already a war when they sted the Aurors Office.  The bill supposed to be voted upon today was the deration of war,¡± said George.  ¡°If Bones doesn¡¯t dere war on You-Know-Who, then I and everyone would lose faith in the Ministry.  Wizengamot will convene again soon for the bill, and it will be passed this time.¡±


    ¡°. . . Those who will vote against will be voting themselves supporters of the Dark Lord. . . . I can see it, a full vote in favor of the bill.¡±


    ¡°Or, people shedding their facades and publicly dering themselves as supporters.¡±


    ¡°Why would they do that?¡± asked Quinn.  ¡°It serves them better to hold on to their positions.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is better, but You-Know-Who might just not care.  Last time, he wanted to usurp the Ministry and exert total control over it.  If he¡¯s going to do that, then the ones in Wizengamot and influential positions right now won¡¯t matter. . . . But dering themselves as Death Eaters or their supporters will be a sufficient proof of loyalty in the eyes of the Dark Lord.¡±


    Quinn further slumped into the chair as he hummed in agreement.


    ¡°. . . You seem tired,¡± asked George.  ¡°Did something happen?¡±


    Quinn shook his head and put on a ¡®fake¡¯ smirking smile.  ¡°I haven¡¯t slept for the past three days.  Went out experiencing the nightlife all night long.  Let me tell you, drunk American college students say a lot of interesting stuff if you ignore all the stupid gibberish.  It is different from the interesting stuff that drunk Oxford and Cambridge guys, though the stupid gibberish is the same.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t aplete lie.  He had gone out at night with n thest time he was in America.  The mind magic master¡¯s idea of fun was running some tests on drunk people, and Quinn, who tagged along, heard a lot of strange things.


    ¡°When did you go out at night here?¡±


    ¡°. . . You don¡¯t need to do that.¡±  Quinn stood up, ¡°I wish to sleep now.  I bought some gifts for you; I will have Polly send them over.  There¡¯s some cool non-magical stuff in there; try to figure it out until I wake up.¡±


    As Quinn turned away, George called out, ¡°Are you sure you are alright?¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t stop as he replied, ¡°I¡¯m fine.  Just dead tired.  There were these two old dudes who went hard, and I ended up following them because they were exciting.¡±


    The two old dudes¡ª one who tried to kill him while the other tried to break his bones so the Aurors could apprehend him.


    ¡°I can¡¯t imagine anyone your age who will spend time will do that.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. . . others my age would get destroyed by those two old dudes,¡± said Quinn as he exited the lounge with ast whisper: ¡°Damned monsters!¡±


    Quinn walked to his room and changed his clothes to go to sleep.


    But as he was about to go to sleep, Quinn felt something, and he looked around with furrowed brows.  ¡®Was that a magical fluctuation?¡¯ he wondered, but it was just his usual room.  He looked towards his walk-in closet, where his suitcase was stored, and wondered if something had happened there.


    After heaving an exasperated sigh, he went inside the suitcase to check if any of his experiments were the source of the fluctuation, but after a search, there was nothing odd.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t been this tired in such a long time,¡± sighed Quinn as he dropped onto his bed, filling the whole thing as something he imagined.


    When Quinn slept that day, he didn¡¯t wake up until the following day.  He slept like a log, finally relieved as he didn¡¯t have to worry about a terrorist attack on the Ministry.


    But the next morning, he would wake up to something strange, and it would be only a little while after that that he would realize that the weird feeling wasn¡¯t his tired-imagination at all.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Listen. . . I¡¯m not equipped with a foreshadowing detector.  I¡¯m looking for that upgrade, but it is like really tough toe by.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C My productivity dips on Saturdays when I know I can stay up all night because it¡¯s Sunday tomorrow.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 371 The No-No Word

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn groggily opened his eyes to a glowing orb of light on his side table.  It was a magical light orb that produced artificial sunlight that slowly warmed up and turned brighter as the time clicked forward.


    He sat up like a broken marite doll and weakly snapped his finger to shut down the artificial light orb that was created as experimentation with light magic despite him having a gleaming window with a clear view of the sun.


    Turning to the side table again, Quinn picked up his trusty ball of lead that had been with him for nearly a decade and slipped it inside his pocket.  There were a few things that had stuck with him through his magical journey¡ª his fake wand, his suitcase, Recon¡ª he still carried his fake wand, but he had now begun showcasing his true skills; his suitcase was his trusty as ever; however, Recon, his ¡®first¡¯ creation had already been passed onto Daphne. . . but even among those things, the lead ball was, without doubt, the object credited most for his growth in magic.


    The golf-sized ball would stay with him from the moment he got off the bed and stay with him until he returned to bed at night.  The ball was made of lead with strategically added impurities that made it resistant to change with magic.  The impurities added to the lead made it such that arger quantity of magic would be required to sessfully perform magic on the impure lead than on pure lead.  Quinn had spent more than a decade exhausting his magic every night he was healthy to increase his magical reserves.  But there was no quiet way to expend his huge magic reserves every day, and that¡¯s where the lead ball came with Quinn operating magic on it, using it to chip away at the reserves.


    Quinn walked to his bathroom, and on his way, his magic reached to the lead ball, turning it into a mercury-like consistency.  It had be a habit when his groggy senses would start to clear up as his magic touched the lead ball.


    And this morning, when Quinn¡¯s senses, both physical and magical, began clearing up, they brought to him a feeling that wasn¡¯t present yesterday.


    Quinn stopped with his hand on the bathroom doorknob.  He stared at his hand and then around the room¡ª there was something strange in the air, but he couldn¡¯t put his finger on it.


    He went into the bathroom. . . but when he came out, his demeanor had changed.  The moment the door opened, a restless Quinn entered the room with his swarming all around.


    ¡°What the hell!¡± he eximed to no one.  ¡°What the hell!¡±


    Quinn rubbed his arms, riddled with goosebumps that refused to go down.  It was as if something was covering every inch of his body, and no matter what he did, it refused toe off.


    He couldn¡¯t tell what it was, but it was seriously wrong, whatever it was.


    ¡°Okay, okay, calm down, think about this,¡± Quinn vocalized his thoughts to calm down the restlessness he was feeling.  ¡°I think I felt thisst night. . . meaning that. . . this thing has been here for at least six hours.  But what it¡ª¡±


    Quinn stilled.  He stayed perfectly still as if someone had pressed the pause button on him.  He raised his arm up, and the space around his hand twisted.  Quinn observed the distortion with eyes full of solemn intent.


    ¡°Oh shit!  Oh shit!  Oh shit, he did it!¡±


    Quinn stopped using spatial magic to run the test and began pacing around the room with his hands in his hair.  His eyes darted to his room¡¯s door, but the moment after, he calmed down.


    No one in the family called Voldemort by his name.


    Quinn used ¡®Dark Lord,¡¯ George and Elliot used ¡®You-Know-Who,¡¯ Ms. Rosie used ¡®He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,¡¯ and Polly, like him, used ¡®Dark Lord.¡¯


    ¡°They activated the damned Taboo,¡± sighed Quinn, and the inside of his throat seemed scratchy.


    The Taboo was a powerful jinx which designated a word as a key to revealing the speaker¡¯s location.  The magic had been used in the First Wizarding War to target those who dared to say Voldemort¡¯s name, and from that day, the practice of using ¡®You-Know-Who,¡¯ ¡®He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,¡¯ and the ¡®Dark Lord¡¯ instead of ¡®Voldemort¡¯ was born.  The name had been used as a Taboo and then used to target those who spoke of it until it instilled enough fear that no one dared to speak the ¡®taboo.¡¯


    After the war, when the Taboo spell was pulled down, Albus Dumbledore encouraged people to use the proper name Voldemort to not fear the name.  But it made little impact as themunity continued to use the alternatives.  Soon, the youngest generation began calling the Dark Lord by the alternates without knowing why they did so.


    And now. . . the seconding of the same magic had returned.


    ¡°Alright, time to follow the protocols for the situation,¡± Quinn got up and entered the walk-in closet beforeing out to head for the door, ¡°I should¡¯ve breakfast first. . .¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn stood in the middle of a forest with his Noir gear on and kicked some fallen leaves near his ck boots.  He looked around to ensure that he was alone. . . something he had taken into consideration while picking up the ce.


    He ced his suitcase on the floor.  He snapped his fingers and the suitcase opened with stairs going down, but instead of Quinn going down, something came up.


    ¡°It happened?¡± asked portrait Merlin from his frame as he looked around the forest.


    ¡°It happened,¡± sighed Quinn.


    ¡°You did say it would happen.¡±


    ¡°I know it would happen; that¡¯s why I talked about it with you.¡±  Quinn knew that the Taboo magic would be making a return.  But he didn¡¯t know how it would return as that piece of knowledge wasn¡¯t in the source material in his head.  So instead of making ns to stop it, he decided to make the best of it.


    ¡°So, how did it happen?¡± asked Merlin.


    Quinn shook his head, ¡°I can not say for sure, but I think I know how it happened.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°You told me for the Taboo magic to work, it needs a power source to operate.  I mean, for magic of this magnitude and scale to work, it must be drawing on a ward stone¡ª¡±


    ¡°Or this Dark Lord of yours powered it through his own magic.  I have heard about him in the past two decades, and from what you have told me, he is powerful enough to power the curse himself¡ª what makes you think he used a magic source?¡±


    ¡°I would¡¯ve thought the same, but the timing of it is what makes me think he used a magical power source.¡±


    ¡°Timing?¡±


    ¡°Yes, timing.  You see, yesterday, I sort of. . . why am I being humble. . . I definitely stabbed the Dark Lord in the eye.¡±


    ¡°You did?  Congrattions!  How was it?¡±


    ¡°Thank you.  It was fine.  Created a knife, threw it well, andnded it right in the eye.¡±


    ¡°Oh, stop it.  There¡¯s no need to be so humble.¡±


    ¡°. . . Okay.  I mean, it was quite fantastic.  I was battered and beaten, but you know me¡ª what separates good from the best is performing under pressure, and I perform best when I¡¯m under pressure.  The curse I weaved was some of my best work, and I¡¯m not much of a thrower, by that knife-throw was legendary.¡±


    ¡°Good, good, I wish I could¡¯ve seen it.¡±


    ¡°If today goes well, I can show my recollection of the event on a light projection.¡±


    ¡°Then I certainly hope it does.  But back to the original question.¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, about that.  Because I stabbed the Dark Lord in the eye, I doubt he used the time he could¡¯ve spent healing on the Taboo magic.  And because the curse came alive yesterday, I¡¯m sure it definitely wasn¡¯t the Dark Lord and a power source.¡±


    ¡°I see.  What are you going to do exactly here?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to try out a test.  It¡¯s early, and I might invite some nasty people, which I¡¯m not sure if I want or not, but whatever be the case, this seems to be a time as good as any.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to trigger the Taboo magic,¡± Merlin quirked his brow.


    ¡°Well, I spent a good amount of time researching it; not triggering it would be a pity. . . . The reason I called you here is for a question.¡±


    ¡°What question?¡±


    ¡°Can you charm the Taboo magic to trigger differently based on the term that is spoken?¡±


    ¡°A skillful enough wizard can do so.¡±


    Quinn hummed.  ¡°Then it is better if I go with the mainstream version.  Going personal might offend the big guy enough.¡±  Quinn was sure that speaking Tom Morvallo Riddle instead of Voldemort won¡¯t bring the Dark Lord here because of the injury, but he was sure it would alert him if someone couldmunicate back to their Headquarters was something Quinn didn¡¯t want.


    ¡°Alright, that was all I wanted to ask,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I¡¯ll meet youter.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t I stay?¡± asked Merlin with his best puppy-dog eye impression.


    ¡°Nope, I don¡¯t know how things will turn.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t listen to Merlin¡¯s counter and directly sent the portrait into the suitcase.  He knew how it was going to turn out, but why risk something that could possibly be traced back to him¡ª though he didn¡¯t see how that would happen. . . but again, why take the risk.


    Quinn put on his mask, and the forest went quiet.  The leaves stopped shaking, and the winds came to a halting still.  He once again gave the surroundings a look to confirm that he was alone.


    He took in a deep breath before a distorted voice emanated from behind the mask,


    ¡°Voldemort.¡±


    There was a thrum around him, and while it was barely visible to the eye, Quinn could feel the spatial distortions around him.


    ¡°This is the first one!  The first one!  I can¡¯t believe we got a fool so quickly!¡± came a rasping voice through the trees.  ¡°How dare you speak the Dark Lord¡¯s name.  We know you¡¯re in there!  You¡¯ve got half a dozen wands pointing at you, and we don¡¯t care who we curse!¡±


    He heard footsteps in the fallen leaves, and then they stopped.


    Quinn turned towards them and counted the rag-tag group of people; not one with a mask. . . bar one.  Quinn tilted his head at the seven people that had heeded his call¡ª six people who were definitely not Death Eaters but only mere associates¡ª while here was only one of them who was garbed in proper Death Eater attire.


    ¡°I-Invisible Vignte!¡± eximed one of the Death Eater associates.


    ¡°. . . This is what I get,¡± said Quinn, looking the over.  ¡°Six ruffians and one Death Eater¡ª and the Death Eater I get only has one arm.  I do not even get out of bed for less than a dozen ¡®whole¡¯ Death Eaters.¡±


    It seemed that his appearance and voice had their effect on the ¡®Snatchers¡¯ began to back up.


    ¡°Now that all of you are here, please do not think of leaving,¡± said Quinn.


    They didn¡¯t seem to stay as every single one of them triggered apparition, but Quinn smirked and snapped his finger, and the spatial ward trapped every single one of them¡ª sending them all straight to the ground.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get started.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I shall break the Taboo!


    Merlin ¨C Portrait ¨C Aww, shucks!  I want to see as well.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 372 Inside Man

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn brushed the yellow grass off his jacket and leather gloves.


    The five Snatchers and the one Death Eatery on the forest ground.  The five Snatchers had their arms tied up while their leg bones turned to a liquid jelly as they shivered in the aftershock of the magic.  The sole Death Eaters, however,id unharmed other than the ¡®light¡¯ bruising that Death Eaters usually suffered when they came across Quinn in his Invisible Vignte persona.


    ¡°I knew there was a chance that viting the Taboo this early would attract someone higher up thedder, but never knew it would be someone so high up thedder.¡±


    Lucius Malfoy stared up at Quinn with one of his eyes beaten ck-and-blue.  The man who was once proud as a peacock shivered on the dirty ground with his hand raised in a desperate appeal to make Quinn stop.


    ¡°Why would someone like you, Lucius Malfoy, be part of a field group. . . apanying these nobodies,¡± he nced at the ruffians.  ¡°I always assumed you were the indoors type, sitting behind your fancy desk, pulling the strings¡ª but here you are,¡± his eyes went to Malfoy¡¯s empty sleeve, ¡°and you don¡¯t have an arm. . . how did that happen?¡±


    He already knew Lucius Malfoy didn¡¯t have an arm.  He had seen the thing happen in Barty Crouch Junior¡¯s memories¡ª one of the deranged man¡¯s most prominent recent memories, making pieces of information he had seen on the Death Eaters.  s, like Quinn, the Invisible Vignte wanted to keep the fact he was a Legilimency secret.


    ¡°P-Please, s-spare me,¡± said Lucius, his tone knitted with begging, ¡°I-I will give you a-anything.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s pupil narrowed as he gave Lucius a staredown.  ¡°There is nothing precious than your life, Lucius Malfoy, and I would love nothing more than to reap that precious life of yours and rid the Dark Lord of one of his precious assets.¡±


    Instead of begging more, Luciusid t down on the floor; it was as if all the life and struggle to survive had left him because of Quinn¡¯s few words.  He let out a weak scoff.  ¡°Then off with it.  I¡¯m no asset to the Dark Lord,¡± he raised his empty sleeve.  ¡°Killing me won¡¯t make any difference, so do it and do it quickly.¡±


    Quinn narrowed his eyes and readily reached out to Lucius¡¯ mind with Legilimency, and he didn¡¯t have to go deep to run into a rush of emotions of longing, regret, eptance, and a myriad of very depressing emotions that even made Quinn¡¯s mood drop.  He went a little deeper and found the reason behind all theplicated emotions.


    ¡°. . . I heard that your son abandoned the glorious cause you and your wife left you.  That must hurt,¡± Quinn quipped where it hurt.  ¡°How did it feel to have your family betray everything you stood for?¡±


    Lucius didn¡¯t vocalize his answer, but Quinn didn¡¯t need vocalization as he was inside Lucius¡¯ mind.  The emotions and inner thoughts told him the presence of great initial anger followed by regret and doubt, which preceded a great sense of belief-shattering turmoil with pain and a resurgence of pain, hatred, and abhorrence.


    ¡°Is that how you lost your arm?  Punishment for your Malfoy family¡¯s betrayal.  I guess it was in the Malfoy blood to bite the hand of the one who fed you when the usefulness ends.¡±


    Lucius red up, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare!  My family is not traitors!  I have always supported the just and right cause of the Dark Lord¡ª¡±


    ¡°One person does not equate to the entire family,¡± Quinn interrupted.  ¡°Oh, wait, you are the only one remaining, so it is the entire family.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s mocking invigorated Lucius by setting a fire of anger inside him.  Quinn internally smiled; he had heated up the iron, and now it was time to strike it with his strongest hammer.


    ¡°Just kill me!¡± Lucius wailed.


    ¡°Would you like to meet your family, Lucius?¡± asked Quinn, not paying attention to the angry appeal.  ¡°I can make that happen.¡±


    Lucius sprung up to his knees like a man who had found water in a desert and crawled towards Quinn with his hands tied behind his back.


    ¡°Y-Y-You can do that?¡±


    ¡°I know where they are, so it is not a stretch to say that I can make it happen.¡±


    ¡°Please, p-please, my family¡ª family, I want to meet my family.  L-Let me meet them.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s eyes shined behind his mask.  He pushed Lucius away with his leg, making the bruised man fall to the ground.  ¡°I can arrange a meeting with your family, but for that to happen, I will need something in return¡ª because taking away your life is still a luxury that I would love to indulge in.¡±


    A shine of hope returned to Lucius¡¯s eyes as he rapidly nodded.  ¡°I will do anything¡ª anything¡ª my family¡ª just my family.¡±


    Quinn nodded.  Coming to the forest to trigger the Taboo, he hadn¡¯t nned for the current situation.  He had never thought that he would chance upon a Lucius Malfoy who was angry with Voldemort and his Death Eaters¡ª a man that no longer cared about trying to assert absolute dominance of pureblood over everyone else¡ª a father and husband who longed and cared for his family¡¯s wellbeing.


    It was a little too easy to turn Lucius, and in any other circumstance, he would doubt the effectiveness of his words, but in this case, he had confirmed that Lucius Malfoy was going to dance to any tune Quinn decided to y.


    Could he deliver on his promise?


    Could he let Lucius meet Draco and Narcissa Malfoy?


    He could do it. . . after all, he knew precisely where the both Malfoys were living in peace with fear always buzzing with worry.  It wasn¡¯t that difficult when you knew where you were looking at.


    ¡°You are going to work in the Death Eater organization as my spy.  As you said, even if you have fallen out of favor, the information you have ess to is still useful to me¡ª so anything major that happens with the Death Eaters, I want to hear about it.  Go it?¡±


    ¡°I-I understand.¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± said Quinn, but he noticed that Lucius wanted to say something, so he asked him to speak up.


    ¡°What will happen if the Dark Lord knows about it?¡± asked Lucius.


    Quinn¡¯s lips rose up slightly behind his mask.  ¡°If the Dark Lord knows about this. . . you die, Lucius Malfoy¡ª you die.¡±


    Lucius froze like a block of ice.  The already pale man looked like he had been converted to a vampire.  No matter what anyone said, the thought of death scared all men, and it seemed that Lucius Malfoy, who had been the dealer of death, was now feeling the fear of being on the side of the wand.


    ¡°You¡¯re the one to lose the most, Lucius, but at the same time, the one to gain the most.  If you chose to refuse, I could kill you know, and everything would be over, but if youply with this little deal of mine, you can meet your family and take the chance against Voldemort.  A piece of advice, Lucius Malfoy, believe it or not, the Dark Lord will be much more lenient to his Death Eaters than I am to them.¡±


    There was a turn of silence as Quinn stared at Lucius, who stared down at the ground.


    ¡°. . . If you can guarantee that I can meet my family. . .¡±


    ¡°You will be able to meet your family.  But don¡¯t be mistaken; you won¡¯t be able to live them¡ª it¡¯ll be a meeting for the amount of time I decide. . . and in case they refuse to meet you, it¡¯ll be your bad luck.¡±


    Thest line seemed to strike Lucius like a sledgehammer.  It was evident that the man hadn¡¯t thought of the possibility of his son and wife refusing to meet him.


    ¡°So, I ask you again and for thest time.  Make your decision because your life will depend on it, and make it now.¡±


    Quinn had said his piece.  Make the most of the situation.  He had gotten Lucius Malfoy, so he was going to make a man who was once the second-inmand into a spy that would feed him all the stuff he ever needed.


    ¡®He has no confidence.¡¯  He had studied people and their minds for such a long time that he knew what confidence looked like.  He had seen Lucius Malfoy at his best, and now he had seen the same man at his current worse.


    Quinn had seen the potential. . . ¡®Now, I just need to bring it back.¡¯  If Lucius Malfoy had be an asset for Voldemort, why couldn¡¯t he be one for him?


    Lucius looked up towards Quinn, and with a strong tone that had beencking before, he spoke, ¡°I will do it.  I will be your spy.¡±


    ¡°. . . Well then, Lucius Malfoy.  Look forward to meeting your family because, after that, we have a lot of work to do.


    Quinn turned to the Snatchers and finished, ¡°Now, let¡¯s change some memories and call it a day.¡±


    It was time to start picking the big snake¡¯s scales out.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Having insider information.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C A shorter chapter.  Couldn¡¯t write more on this scene of the story.  Thisst leg of the story will fluctuate like crazy, so hang on tight and keep reading.  Internship fatigue has also started to get to me, it has been forcing my schedule to be irregr.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 373 Im The One Who Knocks

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


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    .


    Quinn apparated on the edge of what looked like a normal residential street located in the suburbs outside London in the southeast part of Ennd.


    It was one of those areas with identical houses for streets and blocks built by a single construction firm.  Except for the cars in the driveways, the gardens, and asional houses painted in different colors, the houses looked as if they had been copy-and-pasted from the same mold.


    It was as Quinn had imagined: an image of normalcy¡ª but at the same time, it surprised him that this was the ce the Order of Phoenix had chosen such a ce.


    ¡°I guess it is fitting,¡± muttered Quinn.


    Quinn snapped his fingers, and his appearance shimmered and twisted until his face had been reced by someone else.  Gone were his ck hair had been reced with brown hair perfectly parted seventy-thirty along, and his stone-grey had been dyed to a hazel color.  His height increased by a few inches, and his entire body lost muscle tone until he seemed on the verge of beingnky.  He rolled his shoulders, and his emerald green three-piece suit morphed into a sryman¡¯s brown work suit with a thick tie.


    The new face put on a smile and clenched his fist around a conjured work suitcase.  He walked to a house with a trimmed garden with a bed of weather-appropriate lush flowers¡ª everything in the garden was just good enough that it won¡¯t ariseints from the neighbors but not good enough that they woulde looking for tips.


    As he stepped on the empty drive, he felt a tingle travel down his back.  He took in a shallow but sharp breath as the magic in the ward scanned him.  In a fraction of a second, he devised the motive behind the scan¡ª it was looking if he possessed magic.  He smiled and countered the ward with countermagic, which made it seem that he didn¡¯t possess a drop of magic in his veins.


    ¡®Even if they didn¡¯t want Goblin wards in here, they should¡¯ve at least put up Aegis.  Well good, less work for me,¡± he thought, noticing that the warding around the house wasn¡¯t from either of the top two best in the business.  ¡®I don¡¯t know if I should feel appreciated or insulted at them trying to copy Aegis¡¯ quick response alert.¡¯  The ward was clearly going to alert people, and they would arrive here to surround him as soon as possible


    He kept his eye on the door front door and didn¡¯t look at the invisible guard sitting on the yard chair as he stunned him unconscious.


    ¡®Idiot sleeping on the job in the middle of the day.¡¯


    He knocked on the door and enhanced his hearing, focusing it on hearing what was going on inside the house; he heard two sets of footsteps moving, with one of them moving towards the door.


    ¡°Yes?¡±  The door creaked open, and Draco Malfoy peaked out from inside with suspicion and caution clear in his eyes.


    ¡°Good morning, dear sir.  My name is John, and it must be a lucky day because I¡¯m here with a revolution¡ª¡±


    ¡°Sorry, not interested.¡±


    Draco cut him short and began the door closed shut the door, but Quinn put his shoe in between to stop it from closing.


    ¡°What¡¯re you doing?¡± Draco eximed.


    ¡°Sir, respectfully speaking, you are missing a great opportunity right now.¡±  Quinn grabbed the door and forcefully pulled it open as he stepped inside.


    ¡°What do you think you are doing?!¡± yelled Draco.


    ¡°Nothing, sir; this is for your own good.¡± Quinn closed the door behind him, and thetches clicked into their ces.


    Hearing all themotion, the second resident, Narcissa Malfoy, came out running.  She had a worried look on her face and a wand in her as if she was expecting something wrong.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± she yelled, pointing her wand at the unwanted guest.


    ¡°John¡¯s¡± smile dimmed.  He raised his hand, and the brown suitcase turned into a ck mask that he put on his face.  The Malfoy¡¯s watched as the hazel eyes and brown hair both turned ck.  As their minds tried to understand what was happening, ¡®he¡¯ gave them a push to make it crystal clear.  ¡®He¡¯ patted his suit, and the brown work-suit turned into an outfit that covered head to toe in ck.


    ¡°Y-You,¡± Draco stepped back as realization dawned on him.


    ¡°Good day, Malfoys,¡± said Quinn in his distorted Noir voice.  ¡°I have heard a lot about both of you; it¡¯s nice to meet you in person.¡±


    Narcissa pulled Draco behind her and raised her wand to Quinn.  ¡°Why are you here?  If it is about the Dark Lord and Death Eaters, we are no longer part of that world.  Please leave us alone.¡±


    Quinn raised both his hands up, showing that he had no wand, and then flicked his finger slightly, sending Narcissa¡¯s wand flying to the ceiling.  Quinn lowered his hand and put his right palm side up to have the wand glide to it.


    ¡°Now that we have the dangerous out of the way, we can have a civilized talk,¡± Quinn slipped Narcissa¡¯s wand into his pocket.  ¡°As for you not being part of the world. . . I¡¯m sorry, Madam Malfoy, as long as you have thatst name, you¡¯ll always be part of that world.¡±  He looked to Draco, ¡°Especially with what your son did recently.  That is why both of you are here, am I wrong?¡±


    He stepped forward and walked into the house.  Behind him, the mother and son tried to open the door to escape, but the door wouldn¡¯t budge.  Inside, Quinn looked at the decor that was clearly non-magical, but there had been changes made to make it feel like home to a magical person with the extensive use of transfiguration¡ª which told Quinn that the neighbors weren¡¯t visiting and that the residents were feeling out of ce butfortable enough. . . or pretending to befortable enough to make changes to the house.


    Quinn sat down on the sofa and crossed his feet to make himselffortable.  Boom!  Quinn raised his brow and curled his finger in the beckoning gesture.  There were two screams as Draco and Narcissa came flying into the lounge, forced to sit down on the sofa in front of him.


    ¡°Even though this is not your home, it is not nice to destroy your ce of living.¡±  Quinn disarmed Draco and confiscated his wand as well.  ¡°Now that we are seated let¡¯s discuss what I came here to talk about.¡±


    ¡°Please leave us alone,¡± Narcissa pleaded.  ¡°We were brought here by the Order of Phoenix.  You know who they are¡ª Dumbledore¡¯s group!  They wouldn¡¯t bring us here if we were with the Dark Lord.¡±


    As Narcissa tried to get Quinn(Invisible Vignte) to leave, he observed the silent Draco, who sat by her side.  Quinn noticed how Draco sat close to his mother, leaning forward toward Quinn, trying to put Narcissa behind him as she had done at the door, trying to shield her from the vignte with the reputation of ripping up bodies.


    Quinn gathered magic in his voice box and exuded it, weaved it in his words.  ¡°I would like it very much if both of you could calm down.  As long as you cooperate with me here, I have no desire to hurt both of you.  So if we can have a calm discussion without raising our voices.¡±


    ¡°What do you want?¡± asked Draco testily.


    ¡°I am here on the behalf¡ª¡±


    ¡°Can you remove that from voice,¡± said Draco, even as Narcissa tightly clutched his arm, ¡°it is hard to understand.¡±


    Quinn tilted his head as he silently stared at Draco for a second before opening his mouth and the voice that came out of it made the blood drain from the Malfoy¡¯s face.


    ¡°Would you prefer if I sounded like this?¡±  Voldemort¡¯s voice wasn¡¯t something both of them had pleasant memories of.  ¡°I guessed not.¡±  His voice returned to as it was before, ¡°Now, as I was saying, I¡¯m here to talk.  I¡¯m here to talk to you regarding Lucius Malfoy¡ª¡±


    ¡°What about him?¡± this time, it was Narcissa who interrupted.


    ¡°He would like to meet both of you.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Draco narrowed his eyes.  ¡°You are working with Death Eaters now?¡±


    ¡°No, but I am looking to form a working rtionship with him.  But for that to happen, he has put up a condition that he wants to meet you.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t want to meet him!¡± Draco said without a thought.


    Quinn turned to Narcissa, indicating that he was waiting for her response.


    ¡°. . . What are you going to do with Lucius?¡± she asked.  ¡°From what I have heard, you don¡¯t spare Death Eaters when you get a hand on them.  Because of you, one of my friend¡¯s husband is still in St. Mungos to this day.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sorry at all.  Your husband was going to end up the same as your friend¡¯s husband, but when the man is Lucius Malfoy, even I have to give it a second thought.  As for what I¡¯m going to do with him?  He¡¯s to be my inside informant.¡±


    ¡°And he wants to meet us to do it?¡±


    ¡°From what it seems, he hasn¡¯t been enjoying the home without both of you there.  He misses you two; wants to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah?  He should¡¯ve thought of that before he recruited his son into being a Death Eater,¡± spat Draco, his breathingbored.


    Narcissa put her hand on Draco¡¯s shoulder.  She asked Quinn, ¡°What if this turns out to be a ploy to drag us to the Dark Lord for our betrayal.  He will turn our lives into hells if he gets his hand on us.¡±


    ¡°As I said, I have no desire to harm you,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°If the meeting is to be a ploy, then I¡¯ll kill everyone who¡¯s there to capture you and leave the curse that I have ced in Lucius¡¯ body to run its course and make his life, as you put it, a living hell until he dies and goes to hell.¡±


    Quinn had decided to strike a deal with Lucius because he knew that the silver-tongued Malfoy wouldn¡¯t truly cooperate if he forced the man to work for him.  The only way to have a working rtionship was if Lucius Malfoy worked with him willingly.  But that didn¡¯t mean that Quinn trusted Lucius, and thus, he had put in a curse that would eventually kill Lucius if Quinn didn¡¯t remove it.  Plus, if Lucius Malfoy wasn¡¯t going to work with him, what was the use of him living.


    ¡°At said meeting, I¡¯ll be present to ensure your safety,¡± he finished.


    The Malfoy pair looked confused and stunned at the masked individual sitting in front of them.  They probably thought that their image of the Invisible Vignte didn¡¯t match what they were seeing now.


    ¡°Why are you telling all of this?¡± asked Narcissa.


    ¡°Because it does me no harm.  If you ept, I shall take you to meet Lucius.  If you refuse, I shall erase your memory and the memory of the guard outside,¡± Malfoys looked aghast, but Quinn continued, ¡°If you ept, just to get me out of the house right now and inform the Order of Phoenixter so that they can change your location¡ª it doesn¡¯t matter to me as you have nothing on me that can put me in a disadvantageous situation¡ª but I can always find you againter. . . it was a bit difficult to find both this time, but it won¡¯t be so much the next time around.¡±


    ¡°We saw your face,¡± said Draco.


    ¡°Do you really think that was my real face?¡± Quinn said without the chuckle he would¡¯ve usually put in.  ¡°There is a reason why I have been able to evade the authorities and the Dark Lord¡¯s Death Eaters.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t difficult to find them at all.  They had a Labyrinth door installed in this house, and he had a tendency to go through the purchase details of every door along with the backdoor magic he ced in the doors that told him the location of where the doors had been installed.


    And now, he didn¡¯t even need that to find them.


    Quinn crossed his legs, ¡°Take your time and make a decision.  The right decision on your part can be a big blow to the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters.¡±


    It took them long to arrive at a decision, but it did put a smile on Quinn¡¯s face behind his mask.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Well. . . I guess the ¡°John¡± person is tied up with Invisible Vignte.  Damn!  I particrly liked that one!


    Narcissa Malfoy ¨C Mother ¨C Frightened at what the man in front of her is capable of.


    Draco Malfoy ¨C Son ¨C Does not want to appreciate having his residence invaded.


    ,


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 374 Bringing The Family Together

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    Quinn, in his ¡®John¡¯ persona, pressed his hand over the same guard¡¯s forehead he had knocked out a few days back during his first visit to the Malfoy safehouse.


    ¡°Preparing him for the time we will be outside.  You said they check up on you twice a day?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Once in the morning and once before going to bed.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why. . . . Can¡¯t keep him unconscious for long.  If someonees to relieve him of his duties and finds him knocked out, it will raise suspicion.  And because they don¡¯t check on you, nothing will raise the rms until we return.¡±


    ¡°Why do you care if it raises the rm?¡± asked Draco.


    Quinn nced at the younger man and wondered where all the intelligence he had shown just thest year had gone; all that nning in Hogwarts, and now he asked questions like this.


    Did Quinn answer those questions?  No.  He was the Invisible Vignte.


    ¡°It is done.  He will awake in a couple of minutes,¡± Quinn removed his hand when the guard stirred.  He walked to the Malfoy pair and extended a hand each to them.  ¡°Give me your hands.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± asked Draco.


    ¡°The wards around this property are monitoring your presence.  The moment you step out of the boundary, Order of Pheonix members will be apparating here with their wands zing.  I¡¯m going to make it so that when you step out, no such thing will happen.¡±


    The mother and son exchanged looks,municating with each other through their eyes.


    ¡°Hurry up.  I would have delivered you to the Dark Lord or killed youst time I was here.  I do not want Lucius Malfoy to flee in doubt because you two got mete.¡±


    Though annoyed, both Malfoys hesitantly gave their hands to Quinn.  They felt a soft current course through their body, causing them to jump and shiver.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel any different,¡± said Draco.


    Quinn left their hands and walked out of the boundary.  He turned to them and asked them to cross the boundary.


    ¡°What if your magic doesn¡¯t work,¡± asked Narcissa.


    ¡°I know you are worried.  What if my magic does not work and the Order of Pheonix arrives here, and seeing that you tried to go out for an outing, they might rescind their offer of protection.  Am I right?¡± he asked, and Narcissa¡¯s silence was the affirmation.  ¡°This is your risk to take.  You have half a minute to decide if you are in or out.  A secondte, I will listen to anyst words you have for Lucius and be off.¡±


    They didn¡¯t need any more motivation as they readily stepped outside the boundary while holding their breath.  Their worried eyes darted around the house and the street.  Theck of apparating people put them to ease with their shoulders sagging in relief.


    Quinn extended his hands again and said, ¡°We are leaving.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t want to check for an ambush?¡±


    Quinn rolled his eyes.  How many questions were they going to ask?  He stepped forward, grabbed their shoulders amidst protest, and forcefully apparated them away along with himself, leaving behind the guard who groggily cracked his eyes before snapping straight up and pretending to be active as if he had never gone to sleep.


    . . .


    Quinn apparated into the forest and dropped thedy and the brat on the ground, leaving them rolling in the leaves.  And just when he was about to get some peace and quiet with the family reunion.


    ¡°Stop!  Whoever you are, stop!¡±


    Quinn held back a groan.  ¡®Just a little more,¡¯ he thought as he turned to face a cautious Lucius Malfoy.  He gathered magic in his voice, ¡°It is me, Malfoy.  Put that wand down before I break it. . . . You wouldn¡¯t care, would you?  It is not yours anyway.¡±


    The look on Lucius¡¯ face was small happiness for Quinn, but before the man could say something, Quinn moved on¡ª he patted his chest, and he was back in his Noir gear, and with a mask, he was Invisible Vignte.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Have the family reunion.  But beware¡ª make any wrong moves, and you won¡¯t be leaving here the same way you came here. . . that is if you will be leaving at all.¡±


    Quinn snapped his fingers, and a ward was erected around the Malfoy family and him.  He leaned against a tree and observed from the side as Lucius Malfoy all but leaped his way to his estranged family, who showed no such simr enthusiasm.  They remained jaded as Lucius awkwardly yet passionately put forward his ount full of apologies and regret.  There was a lot of back and forth, shouting and yelling at both sides, usations and me were thrown, and old skeletons were dug out.  Quinn stayed away from the family, standing still to make himself invisible¡ª but his ears remained sharp and recorded every word that came out from a Malfoy mouth.


    As the family dispute continued, the tired son broke away from the argument and unknowingly stumbled toward Quinn.


    ¡°. . . What are you looking to aplish doing this?¡± asked Draco, ring at Quinn, who quietly ignored him.  ¡°Hey!  Listen to me!  I¡¯m talking to you!¡±


    ¡°I can hear you,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I¡¯m just ignoring you.  I have no interest in talking to you, Draco Malfoy.¡±


    ¡°You are interfering with my family; you have to talk to me.¡±


    ¡°No one asked you to be here.¡±


    ¡°You came to us¡ª¡±


    ¡°You and your mother are not a package deal.  You could¡¯ve note if you didn¡¯t want to.¡±


    ¡°And let mothere here alone with someone like you!¡±


    ¡°You underestimate the woman named Narcissa Malfoy.  That woman is much stronger than you are.¡±  A woman who could lie to Voldemort to his face in a situation where if her lie failed, it could mean instant death to her and her family had to have nerves of steel.  ¡°If she was in your ce in the n to kill Dumbledore, the old white beard would be dead right now.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re putting her in danger,¡± spat Draco, his voice full of spite.


    Quinn opened his eyes and gave a Draco azy stare, ¡°How long do you think Dumbledore can keep you hidden?¡±


    ¡°. . . What?¡±


    ¡°How long do you think before the Dark Lord finds your little hideout.  Who except Dumbledore will put their lives on the line for the Malfoys when the Dark Lord is actually in front of them, and they¡¯re the only thing that stands between him and you?¡± Quinn pushed himself off the trunk and stepped towards Draco.  ¡°One day, you¡¯ll be in that little prison of yours, sharing a meal with your mother¡ª maybe it will be the only good thing about your stifling days. . . or maybe you¡¯ll be sleeping peacefully in your bed. . . and that¡¯s when he willing tearing own the roof of that non-magical house you don¡¯t like¡ª if you¡¯re lucky, he will kill you in one shot with a Killing curse. . . but if you¡¯re not lucky, he will torture her in front of you, and her dead face will be thest living memory you will have.


    I¡¯m trying to prevent that from happening, you naive moron.  I want to rid the world of a Dark Lord, and your father working for me is going to make that easier.¡±


    Quinn backed away to enjoy the startled look on Draco¡¯s face.  He wished he could¡¯ve forced the image of his words into Draco¡¯s mind using Legilimency to get a more satisfying reaction, but that was just his sadistic speaking out of ce.


    ¡°So go stand by mommy and daddy as they sort things out.  This is not a ce for children to interfere.  Now bugger off.¡±  With that, Quinn closed his hand but kept his sense keen in case Draco tried to do something stupid with his wand.


    ¡°I¡¯m not an idiot,¡± said Draco, his toneced with faint defiance.


    ¡°I never said that you were.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to.  The way you spoke to me said it all. . . .  and you did call me a naive moron.¡±


    Quinn leaned against the tree.  If he wasn¡¯t under the mask, he would¡¯ve pulled on the empathy card, sympathized with everything Draco was going on, built a rapport, offered some advice, and cemented an image of friendliness in Draco¡¯s mind to gain his confidence.  Even under his current persona, the cold vignte could¡¯ve gotten close to Draco and formed a connection, but right now, the Malfoy son was of no real use; right now, he couldn¡¯t even see the worth of building ties with Draco in case he got helpful in the future.


    ¡®Well, at least I personally have some positive ties with Draco.¡¯


    ¡°Listen well, Draco Malfoy,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°This country is going through a war right now.  The sooner it ends, the better it will be for everyone.  The truth is that by trying to kill Dumbledore, you are to partly me for this war. . .¡±


    A guilty look emerged on Draco¡¯s face.  Quinn took a not of it and continued,


    ¡°. . . I myself am also to me, and so is everyone who is in a situation of power.  My sole aim is to take the head of the Dark Lord and bring everything to an end.  I am ying my part.  You are to y your part as well.¡±


    ¡°My part?¡±


    ¡°Everyone has a part to y.  You might have already yed it out or might have something in the future, but that only time will time.¡±  Quinn thought about what would Draco¡¯s part be, and all he could think of was that when the war passed, the Malfoys would still hold plenty of wealth and even influence that could be put to good use.


    ¡°You think you can kill You-Know-Who?¡± asked Draco.


    ¡°I believe so I can.  Just a few moons back, I took his eye.¡±  A highlight of his career as the Invisible Vignte, if he was to say himself.  ¡°I had done this mask with that intention, and I will remove it when my motive is achieved.¡±


    Quinn closed his eye and ended the conversation.  He didn¡¯t want to speak to Draco anymore, who himself didn¡¯t continue.


    . . .


    After a while, the Malfoy family conversations ended, and Lucius and Narcissa stepped to Quinn.


    ¡°I agree to work with you,¡± said Lucius.


    ¡°A good decision,¡± said Quinn solemnly.


    ¡°I will provide you with the information on the Dark Lord, but other than that, I don¡¯t think I can provide you with much.¡±


    ¡°Information is gold, Malfoy.  While I have no need of your wand, I do think you¡¯ll be able to provide you me with plenty of things,¡± said Quinn, staring at Lucius with gears turning behind his eyes.  There were a couple of more things he wanted Lucius to do, which would he thought would prove to be the correct choice.


    ¡°. . . Just keep my family out of it.¡±


    Quinn nodded.  He nced at the mother-son and spected if he could make them do something from their safehouse of theirs.  They could do something, but that was a thought for another day.


    ¡°Well then, Lucius Malfoy, let¡¯s bring down the Dark Lord.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I am a family reunioner.


    Draco Malfoy ¨C Naive ¨C Moron.


    Lucius Malfoy ¨C Asset ¨C The inside man for the third party in the war.


    Narcissa Malfoy ¨C Strong ¨C Might be the strongest in family in many ways.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 375 Talk About Taboo

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°I don¡¯t like this.¡±  Amelia Bones mmed a thick mani folder on the long conference table.  ¡°We had more than a dozen reported cases just this week.  Reported cases!  We don¡¯t even know how many went unreported!¡±  She fixed a look on the people sitting around the table that clearly told them she was greatly displeased.  ¡°We have had an explosion in the Aurors Office.  Then the Dark Lord dared to barge into the Ministry, took hostages, put lives at risk. . . and it took two outsiders to repel him away¡ª and one of them is a wanted criminal.  Does anyone of you realize how that looks to the public?  That the Ministry can¡¯t do anything without Albus Dumbledore¡¯s help.  An absolute disgrace!¡±


    Some of the biggest names in the Ministry¡ª Head of DMLE Rufus Scrimgeour, Head Auror Gawain Robards, Head Hit Wizard Ciin Parry, Retired Captain Auror and Defense Consultant stor Moody, among many others¡ª listened to the Minister in silence.


    She picked up the newspaper and opened it to read the article, ¡°Every Ministry employee ranging from office heads to the Minister of Magic herself have a bounty on their heads that can be collected in the seedy world of Knockturn Alley, dotted with connections to the Death Eaters.¡±


    Amelia pushed the newspaper away as she dumped herself in the head chair, and with her fingers massaging her temple, she asked, ¡°What is the situation with these Snatchers?¡±


    Robards leaned towards the table and patted a folder in front of him twice but didn¡¯t open it.  ¡°We have caught seven of them this month. . . . Another seven resisted arrest, and unfortunately, they lost their lives.¡±


    The neww regarding lethal action against Death Eaters included a section that allowed an extension against groups like the Snatchers.


    ¡°What are the ones in custody saying?¡± she asked.n


    ¡°Nothing. .  those dimwits know nothing.  They¡¯re just trying to earn gold


    by rounding up Muggle-borns and ¡®blood traitors.¡¯  It is a hassle to clean up after them and their mess¡ª some of them made a ruckus right in the middle of a muggle public square¡ª at least the marked Death Eaters are careful about where they let the magic out.  How are we supposed to handle the root of the problem if we are busy chasing after the fools?¡±


    ¡°That is your job to figure out,¡± Amelia sighed.  She turned to Scrimgeour and spoke, ¡°You¡¯reing with me to the Muggle Prime Minister¡¯s office.  The Auror in charge of his protection has been sending memos after memos saying he wants to meet.  It¡¯s on this Friday evening.¡±


    Even the ever-serious Rufus Scrimgeour had a twitch when he heard the words ¡®Friday evening¡¯ in the work context.


    ¡°Understood,¡± said Scrimgeour.  He nced towards the door once before turning to Amelia.  ¡°I still don¡¯t think it is good to get outsiders involved.  DMLE is more than capable of handling this situation on our own.¡±


    ¡°Whether you like it or not, he and his group are a substantial effort against the Dark Lord.  In this situation, it is better to coordinate with them for information.¡±  Amelia turned to Moody,  ¡°Isn¡¯t that right, stor.¡±


    Moody grunted, which to those who know him was a grunt of affirmation.


    ¡°But, Amelia, you just talked about how you didn¡¯t like Dumbledore¡¯s involvement in the Dark Lord incident,¡± said Scrimgeour.


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t like it,¡± said Amelia bluntly, ¡°but that doesn¡¯t mean I didn¡¯t appreciate it.  If he wasn¡¯t there that day, many innocent lives could¡¯ve been lost.  And this time, I¡¯m inviting Dumbledore and his Order of Phoenix upfront and¡ª¡± she narrowed her eyes ¡°¡ª you can¡¯t talk about outsider involvement after your meeting with George West.¡±


    ¡°We need potions and their ingredients at a cheaper rate,¡± defended Scrimgeour.  ¡°West can deliver us with that; we can even get Greengrass to sell us at a discount through West.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m notining.¡±


    Scrimgeour sighed and rested hisint.  He looked at his wristwatch and frowned, ¡°He iste.  This is an important meeting.  If he expects us to work together, then he must be on time¡ª¡±


    The meeting hall¡¯s door opened, and Albus Dumbledore, dressed in his starry-patterned robes, entered the room with a smile beneath his beard and a shine in his eyes as if he was delighted to see everyone in the room.


    ¡°My apologies, everyone.  I was caught up gazing at a bird I thought I had never seen before.  Turns out someone had colored a Magpie in some fascinating shades.  I suspect they came from the mind and hands of a brilliant child.¡±  Dumbledore sat down on an empty chair right between Rufus Scrimgeour and Ciin Parry, smiling at both heads as if it was a Hogwarts reunion.


    ¡°If I missed something, I would request if someone could catch me up quickly,¡± said the Headmaster of Hogwarts.


    ¡°You missed nothing,¡± said Amelia and moved forward without wasting any time.  ¡°I want an update on the Taboo curse.  How could the Dark Lord cast such magic in the country?  I thought we had taken away the means he had used to cast the Taboo curse thest time.¡±


    All eyes turned to the person sitting on the other head of the table, who hadn¡¯t spoken a single word since his arrival.


    Saul Croaker, an Unspeakable from the Department of Mysterious, tapped his fingers on the table for a moment before speaking up, ¡°On the day Voldemort¡ª¡±


    ¡°Are you mad?!  Why are you taking his name?!¡± cried Parry.


    Croaker sighed, ¡°Do you think the Snatchers wille barging into the Ministry?¡±


    ¡°He will know someone spoke his name inside the Ministry.  Speaking his name carelessly might be your downfall, Unspeakable,¡± scoffed Parry.


    ¡°I can say Voldemort,¡± Croaker said, and people in the room frowned, ¡°as many times I want, wherever I want, and the Taboo won¡¯t get triggered.¡±


    ¡°Unspeakables have a way to evade the Taboo?¡± asked Amelia.


    Croaker nodded.


    ¡°. . . But it is not something that anyone can use,¡± Amelia threw a guess.


    Croaker nodded again, causing Amelia to sigh, ¡°Continue.¡±


    ¡°On the day Voldemort and his Death Eater came barging in, there was another party that secretly entered the Ministry, taking advantage of themotion, and made their way to Level-9 to get something that enabled the Dark Lord to cast a Taboo over thends of the country.¡±


    ¡°What is this something?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    ¡°That is confidential information, not to be shared outside of the Department of Mysteries,¡± Croaker spoke the words as if he had rehearsed them until his throat was raw.


    ¡°I, with my authority, as the Minister of Magic, order you to disclose that information, Unspeakable Croaker,¡± Amelia spoke with her tone daring him to defy it.


    Croaker shrugged, ¡°You¡¯re privy to that information, Madam Minister¡ª but,¡± he pointed to the rest of the people in the room, ¡°they can¡¯t know about it.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°ording to Section 44-DOM of the unnamed code drafted in the unspecified year by unknown parties, the Minister of Magic has ess to a certain level of ssified information in the Department of Mysteries, but they¡¯re not allowed to discuss those facts with anyone outside the Department of Mysteries.¡±


    ¡°That is bullshit,¡± the crudenguage didn¡¯t make a single eye twitch.


    ¡°There¡¯s a sub-section in thew wherewith an internal vote inside the Department of Mysteries can lead the ssified status to be revoked, or select people can be given temporary clearance status to the information. . . but other than that, the Department of Mysteries holds the rights to the information produced by us,¡± Croaker answered with a straight face.  ¡°As for this specific piece of information, there¡¯s no need to go through the procedure¡ª it¡¯s not something that would make a difference if more people knew it.¡±


    ¡°. . . I¡¯m shocked how your Department isn¡¯t overrun with corruption,¡± Scrimgeour said with derision.


    ¡°We have our ways to keep everyone in check,¡± said Croaker, smiling mysteriously.  ¡°And who knows, we might be teeming with corruption. . . . Whatever, the works been going on well, so noints.¡±


    The way he said that was so potentially serious with such a light tone made people stare at him for a good second.


    ¡°I am assuming it was Augustus Rockwood who led that other party?¡± Dumbledore continued the conversation along.


    ¡°Yes, Augustus Rockwood, an Ex-Unspeakable,¡± Croaker said that term as if he had tasted something bitter.  He looked to Amelia, ¡°You know. . . we don¡¯t have that. . . Ex-Unspeakable.  We have retired Unspeakables, and they don¡¯t have to be oldies who don¡¯t work another day in their lives; we have plenty of young guys who leave us to pursue other interests. . . but not a single Ex-Unspekable¡ª that is, until Augustus Rockwood came along and the Ministry had to make everything a media spectacle.  We couldn¡¯t deal with Rockwood as we usually do with others in his position.


    If this time around, we find another Death Eater Unspeakable¡ª we did a thorough check this time, but still, if we do¡ª please make sure that we get to deal with them this time.  If we dealt with him back then, we wouldn¡¯t have this situation today.¡±


    ¡°We will see to that.  Let¡¯s get back to where we were before.¡±


    ¡°In the case of Ministry headquarters beingpromised, like it came close bing, the protocol for the Department of Mysteries is to pack up everything important and leave the premises.  Even down at the ninth, people were in a hurry packing their respective inventory¡ª and what was used in the Taboo magic is really specific and not useful for a lot of other magic¡ª so it was down the list of priority packing. . . . It was somewhere in there that Rockwood and his group came in, took the stuff they needed, stunned the poor boy in charge of the area before leaving.¡±


    ¡°Stunned. . . not killed?¡± asked Robards


    ¡°Rockwood knew better than to kill an Unspeakable.  He might have been one of our more battle-oriented members, but he knows that he wasn¡¯t the only one and the trouble it would bring him if he did kill in his old workspace.¡±


    The smile on Croaker¡¯s face was simple, but at the same time, itcked the humor it was trying to portray.


    ¡°Can you stop the Taboo?¡± asked Parry.


    ¡°We can.  Destroy the anchor to which the magic is tied or kill the caster.  But I doubt we can either do that easily.¡±


    Dumbledore said, ¡°In thest war, Unspeakables were working on another method that would forcefully eradicate the magic.  Are you working on something simr this time?¡±


    ¡°. . . You know too much, Dumbledore.  We need to do something about that.¡±  Croaker stared at Dumbledore in silence for a moment before speaking, ¡°Yes, we are working on something.  But because the approach to casting the magic is different than thest time, we are working up from the ground up.¡±


    ¡°So, you don¡¯t know until when it will be ready?¡±mented Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye.


    ¡°No, we don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Voldemort will¡ª¡±


    ¡°Unspeakables can speak his name, Dumbledore; that doesn¡¯t extend to you,¡± said Croaker.


    ¡°I understand it doesn¡¯t extend to me.  But who said I can¡¯t cast something simr on my own.¡±


    Croaker¡¯s eyes observed Dumbledore.  ¡°You have found a way to dodge the Taboo magic?¡±


    ¡°Of course, it was easy enough to figure it out thest time around Voldemort cast it.¡±


    Dumbledore smiled and then Croaker smiled.  The two smiled at each other like the best of a friend until the door swung open, and a Hit Wizard came barging with abored breath and hurry in his eyes.


    ¡°What is the meaning of this, Rust?¡± asked Parry.


    ¡°S-Sir, a group of Snatchers tied together were suddenly dropped at our backdoor entry. . . and t-their hands sir¡ª their hands are crippled sir.¡±


    As soon as everyone in the room heard about crippled hands, they got up as all brains pointed in the same direction.


    ¡°It¡¯s the Invisible Vignte, sir!¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Amelia Bones ¨C Minister of Magic ¨C This job better gets easier.


    Gawain Robards ¨C Head Auror ¨C The lethalityw is excellent, but they need to reduce the paperwork. . . or at least streamline it.


    Rufus Scrimgeour ¨C Head of DMLE ¨C I want a wartime budget.


    Saul Croaker ¨C Unspeakable ¨C Noments.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 376 Taboo Hunting

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    For the past week, the smell of leaves and forest had be a mainstay in Quinn¡¯s life.


    ¡°I should¡¯ve chosen a beach or something,¡± said Quinn looking around the trees.  ¡°Green is overrated anyway,¡± but then he remembered his girlfriend and shelved that thought in the recycle bin.


    He canvased the surrounding area for a bit before tapping his chest for the casual clothing to change into the Noir gear, but it was in a forest camouge shade rather than the usual ck.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do it,¡± Quinn did some stretches, including some vocal warmups.  He waved his hand in front of his face for a mask to appear, and then the distorted voice said in a smiling tone,


    ¡°Voldemort.¡±


    There was a rustle in the leaves as Quinn pulled on his gloves and clenched his fists at the sound of someughter.  He turned as the footsteps halted abruptly, and when he saw the group of people with wands out, their smiles drained as they recognized him.


    ¡°Snatchers. . . you have done well to heed my call,¡± he said, ¡°but it is regretful that you did so as this will not be pleasant.¡±


    The Snatchers didn¡¯t try to raise their wands to him; not a single spell was fired; instead, they immediately tried to apparate away¡ª with the entire area twisting in spatial movement.  But the next moment, the spatial fabric of the area froze up, and all the Snatchers were thrown to the ground.


    ¡°Please do not be in a rush to leave; you will be leaving, but not now.¡±  He had ns for them.  The Snatchers pushed themselves away from him, crawling on the ground with their shaking wands pointed at Quinn as he sedately walked towards them.


    ¡°S-Stay away-away, you monster!¡±


    ¡°Please-Please, let us leave.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, sorry, I¡¯ll never do it a-again.  I am sorry.¡±


    Quinn stared down at the begging and hobbling Snatchers and said, ¡°Toote, let us get started. . . all of us have a long day ahead of us.¡±  He raised his hands, and smoke leaked out of his palms.  ¡°Time to say farewell to the gift that you never appreciated.¡±


    After he was done, Quinn bound up the guys with real ropes boosted with Empyrean jacket covering every individual as a precaution.  He dove into their minds and did a cursory read on their activity on what they had done in their time as Snatchers.


    ¡°I-I have a wife at home,¡± eeked out one of the Snatchers.


    ¡°You should have thought that before you joined hands with the Death Eater and raised your wands in the name of the Dark Lord,¡± said Quinn, eying the binds onest time.


    He turned and apparated away, leaving behind a groaning and begging mess.


    . . .


    In another part of the forest, Quinn greeted another group of Snatchers and watched their excitement and joy drain from their bodies, only to be reced with a growing sense of despair and panic.


    ¡°Wee, Snatchers.  Today is a glorious day in your lives, for you¡¯re finally going to be part of something great and meaningful,¡± he said.  He raised his arms, and smoke rushed out from beneath the bed of leaves around their feet.  ¡°Say your goodbyes; you¡¯re going to experience what it feels to be like the Muggles you all hunted. . . for sport.¡±


    Again, after he was done taking away the nerve activity in their hands, Quinn bound them up and again apparated to yet another part of the same forest.


    . . .


    ¡°Speak to me, Snatchers, how much price do your Death Eater lords have put on my head,¡± asked Quinn to the group of prone Snatchers as the haze of soot of Tetani Nervum inched towards them.


    He had already done this a few times, and repeating the same operation so many times while listening to the same please of begging had gone boring and irritating.


    ¡°W-W-What?¡±


    ¡°Snatchers are rewarded in gold for their captures.  The Minister has a bounty, Dumbledore has a bounty, even the Boy-Who-Lived has gotten a bounty. . . . So I wonder, how much gold does the Dark Lord deem my life to be of?¡±


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t. . . don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°. . . Is that so,¡± Quinn looked at all the Snatchers.  A thought formed in his mind.  He asked, ¡°Does anyone know the bounty on my head?  The one who answers will get a reward.


    A reward that every one of you will want,¡± as he spoke, the hazy smoke stopped just before the Snatchers¡¯ feet.  ¡°Speak to me, Snatchers; who wants the reward. . . . But be cautious. . . tell a lie, and I shall take your legs as well.¡±


    In any normal situation, someone would attempt to lie in the desperation situation, but this was out of the norm¡ª none in the country hadn¡¯t heard of his work with Death Eaters.  But it also meant that the Snatchers were scared to even speak a single word, until. . . .


    ¡°I-I know.¡±


    Quinn turned to the Snatcher at the very back.  He instinctively put on a friendly face behind his mask and asked him to tell.


    ¡°T-The reward is y-your weight in gold.¡±


    ¡°. . . My weight in gold?¡± Quinn jerked back in surprise.  The reason he had asked the question was only partly due to boredom and because his cursory nces had only given him the bounty of people the Snatchers had bothered to look up¡ª Muggle-borns, blood traitors, Ministry officials, famous personalities. . . but no one he had met had bothered to look him up.  He hadn¡¯t checked this group yet.


    ¡°My weight in gold,¡± he made quick calctions in his head, ¡°that will be more than you will get for either the Minister of Magic or Dumbledore.  You had a chance to reap enough reward to havested all of you and several of your uing generations. . . . But that is a far-off hypothetical.¡±


    He got up from the wood log and said, ¡°You have done well, Snatcher.  I will keep my promise and give you your reward,¡± as he said that, the Snatcher¡¯s fearful face gave way to hope. . . which twisted in a showcase of betrayal as Quinn stunned him unconscious.


    Quinn turned to the other Snatchers and said, ¡°The reward was mercy.  This magic,¡± the smoke of Tentani Nervum inched forward, ¡°is quite painful; at least, now he isn¡¯t going to go through it awake. . . . but for you, poor folk, get ready to familiarize yourself with pain. . .¡±


    ¡°N-No!¡±


    ¡°Please!  Please!¡±


    ¡°God, help us!¡±


    Quinn shook his head, ¡°God won¡¯t being today. . . only pain.¡±


    He turned to gather rope as the haze overtook the Snatchers to finish the work that had been dyed due to boredom.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Amelia Bones, surrounded by full protection of Hit Wizards, looked at the group of battered men who looked as if they had been dangled at the edges of hell just to be pulled back just before hell-fire got to them from behind a window.


    ¡°What is he muttering about?¡± she asked Scrimgeour.


    The Head of DMLE leaned in to say, ¡°They¡¯re repeating to stop it over and over again. . . . Some victims of his magic are known to show such behaviors.¡±


    ¡°Because of the pain?¡±


    ¡°That and the feeling of not being able to feel their arms and legs can be quite overwhelming.¡±


    Amelia cleared her throat before asking, ¡°Are we sure this is him?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is him.  Everything from the abnormal magic traces that don¡¯t match with wands and the magic itself resembles the previous samples we got from his confirmed victims.  It is, without a doubt, him.¡±


    ¡°Why is he doing this?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡ª¡±


    The door behind them swung open and mmed into the wall, with a young Auror entering with a huff in his breath.  He gulped and straightened when he felt the eyes of his superior¡¯s superior¡¯s many times superior on him.


    ¡°What is it?¡± asked Scrimgeour.


    ¡°S-Sir, more groups of Snatchers have appeared,¡± he said in a rushed panic.


    ¡°What?!¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re at two of our sub-department back gates, two of the Hit Wizards¡¯, general supply gates¡ª they are popping up using Portkeys in key locations in front of people¡¯s eyes.¡±


    ¡°Get them out of there!¡±


    ¡°We did, sir. . . all of them are being filed into the jails. . . but sir, I¡¯m afraid we have already exceeded capacity.¡±


    ¡°How many of them are there?¡±


    ¡°F-Fifty and counting, sir.¡±


    Amelia and Scrimgeour exchanged shocked nces.  Scrimgeour furrowed his brow as a thought struck him, and he turned to the Junior Auror, ¡°All of them are cursed?  Their hands. . .¡±


    The Junior Auror nodded.


    Another person entered the room, but unlike the Junior Auror, she entered silently and moved to the corner of the room where Saul Croaker stood in the shadows.  She leaned to his ear and whispered something under everyone¡¯s eyes and then stood to the side.


    Croaker spoke, ¡°One of the Snatcher groups has been delivered to one of our entrances. . . it was our main entrance,¡± he sighed, ¡°now we will have to change it.¡±


    ¡°. . . You don¡¯t seem worried,¡± Amelia said.  ¡°The Invisible Vignte found something about the Department of Mysteries. . . does that not bother you.¡±


    ¡°It bothers me,¡± Croaker nodded, ¡°but there¡¯s nothing I can do about what has already happened¡ª we just will have to reaffirm our security. . . . Now, I would like to take my leave,¡± he said with the young female walked with him.


    ¡°I will have someone pick up the Snatchers,¡± said Scrimgeour.


    ¡°That won¡¯t be needed,¡± Croaker smiled.  ¡°Those Snatchers are known under our jurisdiction.  Don¡¯t worry; we will pass them along to you after we are done with them.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not eptable.  You can¡¯t hold them for questioning.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we can.  As per Section-44AO-DOM of the unspeakable code¡ª¡±


    ¡°Rubbish!¡±


    Amelia saw that the two men were about to go down, so she barked the order to stand down.  ¡°Behave like grown men.  The Unspeakables will have their time with the Snatchers¡ª¡±


    ¡°But, there¡¯s no need for them to do so,¡± Scrimgeour protested.  ¡°We can interrogate them and pass along the information.  It will be better if a single team interrogates every one of them.¡±


    ¡°The Department of Mysteries has our own methods of interrogation¡ª¡±


    Scrimgeour snorted at that.


    Amelia sighed, ¡°The Department of Mysteries will get their time, but the second that passes, they will return the Snatchers back to the Aurors Office.¡±


    As she was about to leave, another Auror came running in.


    ¡°What now?¡± this time, Amelia herself eximed.  ¡°There are more?!¡±


    ¡°Err, yes, ma¡¯am,¡± said the second Junior Auror, ¡°but that isn¡¯t why I¡¯m here.¡±  He turned to Scrimgeour, ¡°Sir, there¡¯s another group, but there¡¯s another group, but this time it isn¡¯t Snatchers. . . this time it is Death Eater.¡±


    Scrimgeour¡¯s eyes sharpened.  ¡°We are going now,¡± he said.


    ¡°But sir, there is more,¡± the Junior Auror gulped.  ¡°The Invisible Vignte himself dropped of them. . . he left behind a message.¡±


    Amelia gasped.  Scrimgeour turned more severe than anyone thought possible.  Saul Croaker, who was about to leave, stopped and looked entirely interested in the conversation.


    ¡°What are we waiting for?¡± said Croaker.  ¡°Let¡¯s see what the man of the day has to say.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I sometimes partake in hunting.


    Saul Croaker ¨C Unspeakable ¨C Section-44AO-DOM of the unspeakable code. . . is pretty legit.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 377 Pink Chalk Glows

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Is that the message?¡±


    Two Aurors with a faintyer of magic surrounding their body carefully approached the group of tied-up people dressed in Death Eater regalia.  Those who had seen the previously delivered groups of Snatchers noticed how the Death Eaters had been handled with much less care than the Snatchers¡ª the heavy bruising all over their faces, which made it difficult to identify even a single one made it clear that no love was spared for this particr group of people.


    Rufus Scrimgeour narrowed his eyes at the big white envelope stained with mud stuck to the chest of one of the Death Eaters.  He spoke to Amelia, ¡°It has your name on it. . . do you perhaps know what it might be about?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.  How would I?  I have only been face-to-face with the man for mere minutes.¡±


    ¡°Anything he said in those minutes?¡±


    ¡°You already know what he said in those minutes.  You saw the memories first hand.¡±


    ¡°And I can¡¯t thank you enough for sharing them with us.¡±


    Amelia hummed as she watched the Aurors dislodge the envelope after careful checking and consideration about the dangers it might contain.  The Aurors hovered the envelope, each standing at a distance from it.  The p was gently unsealed, with the rest of the glued creases and foldsing undone to form a straight tform for the envelope¡¯s content to sit upon.


    ¡°. . . What is that?¡± asked Amelia.


    ¡°It is not a letter, to say the least,¡± said Scrimgeour in reply, but even the seasoned Auror was confused by what he was seeing.


    On the disassembled envelopeid a palm-sized ck puck that shined like a polished marble gleaming in the moonlight.  The Auror handling the envelope and puck stepped closer and waved his wand over it, but just as the magic touched the puck, it vibrated, causing everyone to take a step back.  The next second, the puck gained a life of its own and jumped off the paper onto the ground.


    Amelia immediately felt one rough hand each on her shoulder.  She jumped in surprise and hurriedly nced to her side to see her Auror guard detail standing firm and alert.


    ¡°Madam Minister, the moment we deem the situation to be dangerous, we will be apparating away along with you.  Please don¡¯t resist.  The apparition location will be a safe house in a discreet location maintained by the DMLE for such situations,¡± said one of the Aurors.


    Amelia nodded, recalling the week before she had taken chair as the Minister of Magic, where she had been briefed about all of the security details, and her time as the Head of DMLE, where she had signed over the Minister¡¯s protection many a time.


    ¡°I understand; do whatever you must,¡± she said.


    The ck puck thrummed violently before going still silent.  The puck¡¯s top glowed, and a shimmering image of a man holographed over the puck.  The dark silhouette¡¯s image broke and flickered before the transparent shape of light stabilized, and the dark shadow lightened to reveal the silhouette¡¯s identity.


    ¡°Greetings,¡± said the holographic image of the Invisible Vignte.  ¡°If you¡¯re seeing this means the carrier had delivered the message and the envelope was opened.  I hope that the recipients are those in the Ministry.  This recorded message is taking responsibility for the use of my magic against the Snatchers and Death Eaters. . .¡±


    It confused many about why the Invisible Vignte would suddenly own up to his crimes.  However, to those in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, it was not unusual for terrorists to im credit for their misdeeds and acts of terror.  But this was unusual to even them. . .


    ¡°. . . However, the reason real reason for sending this message is to urge the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to exploit the opportunity in front of you. . . The Taboo cast by the Dark Lord Voldemort¡ª¡±


    Everyone around them gasped, expecting the recording to get interrupted any moment.


    ¡°¡ª while a curse can also be a boon if utilized so. . . . The Snatchers and Death Eaters who came joyously to my calls of the Taboo were baited to arrive at the fate of losing their magic and paying for the sins they havemitted.  Turn the curse into a boon¡ª summon the Snatchers, and once in a while, you will get a Death Eater.¡±  The hologram looked around as if he was actually seeing them.  ¡°I will keep summoning them, take away their magic and leave them at your doorsteps.  I say that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement weed them out until the Snatchers and Death Eaters no longer dare to answer the calls¡ª until Voldemort himself pulls his own magic down.


    War is upon this country, and it can not be fought with one side. . . if you do not be the other side, then I will. . . . That is all.¡±


    The puck¡¯s light flickered, and the holograph was extinguished, leaving behind the circr disk the message from the Invisible Vignte.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Back in the same meeting room, the people in the previous meeting sat again to discuss. . . but this time, they had a ck puck sitting in the center of the table.


    ¡°More than fifty Snatchers and six marked Death Eaters just to send a message,¡± Amelia sighed.


    Scrimgeour sneered as he spoke, ¡°He¡¯s just an attention seeker, setting a bad example.  I expected the bad example, but I thought he would be more discreet,¡± he said while looking at Saul Croaker.


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± asked Croaker.


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t act clueless,¡± Scrimgeour scoffed.  ¡°He is clearly one of your Unspeakables. . . who knows if he is retired or is still working under your nose.¡±


    ¡°Are you mad?  What proof do you have?¡±


    ¡°The vignte called the Dark Lord by his name; clearly he didn¡¯t summon any Snatchers or Death Eaters. . . and he had been clearly summoning then left and right today,¡± barked Scrimgeour.


    It was then that Dumbledore spoke up to diffuse the situation.  ¡°I won¡¯t refuse Scrimgeour¡¯s theory about the possibility of the Invisible Vignte being an Unspeakable,¡± he looked to Croaker, ¡°but speaking Voldemort¡¯s name isn¡¯t something only Unspeakables can do.¡±


    Croaker¡¯s pupil shrunk as he studied Dumbledore before turning to Scrimgeour.  ¡°The Invisible Vignte is not part of my department.  We have checked for that possibility multiple times.¡±


    ¡°Or so you say.  Who knows what goes down in that department of yours.  Maybe lying through your teeth is part of that unnamed code of yours,¡± Scrimgeour spoke in a biting tone.


    Dumbledore stood up from his chair, hands raised, ¡°Both of you¡¯re wasting your time fighting.  Let us all calm down and get on the same page because we will not get anywhere with all this fighting.¡±  He waited for Croaker and Scrimgeour to calm down before continuing, ¡°Now, let us converse like civilized individuals.  What did we learn from that message?¡±


    ¡°He apparently wants us to attack Death Eaters and Snatcher,¡± Amelia sighed.


    ¡°I see no problems with it,¡± said Scrimgeour.  ¡°I have been suggesting that since the day the Taboo went up around the country.¡±


    ¡°It is crude, but I see no faults with that n of action.  I don¡¯t care for the Snatchers, but every Death Eater can be a valuable source of information,¡± Croaker said and then eyed Scrimgeour.  ¡°I know you don¡¯t have the permission to get inside,¡± he tapped his temple, ¡°but if you hand them to me and don¡¯t ask questions, I can get you valuable information.¡±


    ¡°Unspeakable Croaker!  That is out ofw even for the Department of Mysteries!¡± Amelia warned.


    ¡°It is war, Madam Minister,¡± Croaker shrugged.  ¡°We need to employ some extreme measures in drastic situations.¡±


    ¡°And create such a dangerous precedent for your department.  No,¡± Amelia shook her head.  ¡°The mind is out of interrogation boundaries for reasons.  It is a right that every wizard and witch have and can¡¯t be breached in any circumstances.¡±


    Croaker sighed.  He looked like he wanted to speak more but chose to stay silent and simply observe.


    ¡°What else?¡± asked Amelia.


    Dumbledore replied, ¡°He is going to continue this up.  The Taboo will continue to summon Snatchers and Death Eaters.  If he continues this, there wille a time when groups of Death Eaters will answer the calls.  I¡¯m sure he will be fine; he will even wee it¡ª but the people who make mistakes of calling Voldemort¡¯s name will suffer¡ª Snatchers might be greedy for rewards, but Death Eaters wouldn¡¯t care.¡±


    ¡°We need to up the efforts to highlight the Taboo¡¯s danger,¡± Amelia said with a serious note.  ¡°If he will continue doing this, then I don¡¯t see why we should not.  Prepare for the Aurors to replicate his work¡ª and keep it clean.¡±


    There were connotations in those words made so that it was up to Scrimgeour to interpret what he meant by keeping it clean.  It was Amelia¡¯s way of saying that the responsibility would lie solely on Scrimgeour¡¯s head if things went wrong.


    ¡°Understood, Madam Minister,¡± Scrimgeour was happy with that.


    As the parties conversed, Dumbledore twitched his finger, and the puck silently slid across the table to him.  He held it in his palm and stared with a train of thoughts running through his eyes.  Water magic wasn¡¯t that umon; it might be just a coincidence, thought Dumbledore.


    ¡°Is there something wrong with the puck, Dumbledore?¡± asked Amelia.


    Dumbledore shook his head.  ¡°I am just observing it.  Please continue; I will let you know if I find something.¡±


    He silently reached into the oversized sleeves of his robes and pulled out a small vial of reddish-pink chalk.  Dumbledore could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he gently and sneakily directed his magic into both the chalk vial and puck.  He clutched the vial in his grasp, hiding it within with only the upper part barely visible and only to Dumbledore himself.


    He slowly inched his hands closer until his came hand came to a halt.


    Dumbledore stared down at his clenched hand, and there, from the top, a reddish glow leaked out.


    ¡®Oh no, oh no,¡¯ he thought, ¡®what have you done. . .¡¯


    ¡°Dumbledore?¡± asked Moody.


    Albus Dumbledore looked up at his long-time friend, and for a moment, the man who seemingly had answers to every question was speechless.


    ¡°Dumbledore?¡± Moody called again.


    ¡°. . . Yes, stor?¡±


    ¡°Is everything alright?¡±


    ¡°Everything is alright.  I was just wondering about his identity,¡± the best way to lie was to tell the truth.


    ¡°Oh?  Do you think it is an Unspeakable?¡±


    ¡°No. . . I don¡¯t think it is an Unspeakable.  But he is talented.¡±


    Moody grunted in agreement, ¡°He stabbed the Dark Lord in his eye, so I will give it to thed.¡±


    ¡°. . . Yes,¡± Dumbledore threw out a distracted reply.


    After a moment, he slid the puck back to the table¡¯s center and pocketed the small vial of chalk.


    ¡°Did you find something of interest, Dumbledore?¡± asked Croaker curiously.  ¡°Maybe something that could lead us to the real Invisible Vignte.¡±


    Dumbledore put on a regretful smile and shook his head, ¡°Nothing I can find right now.¡±


    After that, Dumbledore leaned back into his chair, and for the rest of the meeting, he nodded and responded with half-baked answers.  It had been a while since he had found something that had greatly upied his mind.


    Thest time he had felt this was when he had found Harry Potter was a Horcrux.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Invisible Vignte ¨C Quinn West ¨C That took a couple of takes to record. . . .


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C Like a thunderbolt.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 378 Finally Visible

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stood inside Flourish and Blotts¡¯ inner corner, where all the ¡®boring¡¯ books sat away from the popr products that made the store money.  But to Quinn, the newest batch of research journals was why he liked to visit bookstores regrly.  As long as he could apparate to it, he wanted to go on his own¡ª be it books or materials¡ª where he couldn¡¯t, he had people scouring for thetest.


    It was a peaceful time as he slowly flipped through the research paper titles and abstracts.  It was the middle of a Tuesday with everyone working their jobs in their ce of work.  There weren¡¯t Hogwarts students plugging up the bookstore as they would before the start of the year.  So Quinn could calmly browse the catalog without any unnecessary and unneeded disruption.


    ¡°Mr. West. . .¡±


    The edge of the paper slipped from Quinn¡¯s hand as he turned his head towards the person who had called his name.  He turned back to his book and groaned as he slowly closed the journal and returned it to the shelf.


    ¡°This is ridiculous,¡± he said.  ¡°It¡¯s like every time I go out, one of you peoplees finding me when I¡¯m looking to rx.¡±  He looked around, ¡°Is there someone following me around?  I¡¯m not a media celebrity, you know¡ª I¡¯m not supposed to be recognized in public, neither am I supposed to be followed around. . .¡±


    After he had graduated, he had run into Saul Croaker, Unspeakable from the Department of Mysteries, and Rufus Scrimgeour, the Head of DMLE.  He had even met with Amelia Bones, the Minister of Magic, but that was because of his own actions.  And now he was meeting Albus Dumbledore, the Head of the Order of Phoenix.


    He turned to his ex-Headmaster to ask, ¡°So, what gives, Professor?  Should I travel in stealth now?  If people want to meet me, they can always set up appointments with my secretary.¡±


    ¡°You have a secretary?¡±


    ¡°No, I do not.¡±


    ¡°Then. . .¡±


    ¡°Exactly.  You get it,¡± Quinn said with a straight face before sighing.  ¡°What is it that I can do for you today, Professor.¡±


    ¡°It would be better if we talk in private.¡±


    Quinn observed Dumbledore with a critical eye, tantly not hiding his doubt regarding this private invitation.  Dumbledore didn¡¯t reveal his intention, silently insisting that it was a matter not to be discussed in public.  After a few seconds of staredown, Quinn shrugged and decided to tag along with Dumbledore, who led him to a small tea shop on the secondary street of Vertic Alley.


    When they entered, Dumbledore nodded to the man on the counter.  Quinn stopped at the counter, shook the man¡¯s hand and asked for his name, and created the man¡¯s profile in his mind, adding the ¡®possible Order of Phoenix¡¯ tag to it.


    They sat down on the innermost table in the corner of the petite shop.  After receiving what they had ordered, the two men finally got to talking.


    ¡°Can we talk now, Professor?¡± asked Quinn, sipping on his lemonade.


    Dumbledore raised his hand and slowly swiped it in the air for a cover of magic to envelop them.  Quinn narrowed his eyes at the magic to find it to be a privacy ward, a strong one at that.


    He looked back at Dumbledore with a quirked brow, ¡°Alright, you have colored me curious.  What warrants so much cloak-and-dagger?¡±


    Dumbledore reached into his robes and ced a small vial that could befortably held between the index finger and thumb on the middle of the table.


    ¡°What is that?¡± asked Quinn, eyeing the reddish-pink substance inside.  He was about to crack a joke when he noticed the serious look in Dumbledore¡¯s usually smiling eyes.  ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°This is theposite used as the catalyst in the ward that surrounded the Goblet of Fire in the Great Hall,¡± the moment the words exited Dumbledore¡¯s words, Quinn¡¯s lumency kicked in as he manually controlled, but he kicked himself in the head as for a split second all emotion drained from his face.  ¡°You remember this, correct.  We talked about it that year when I was trying to find the caster. . . . I wasn¡¯t able to find them back then. . . but I finally found them now. . .¡±


    Quinn silently stared at Dumbledore.  He had be excessively cautious for a moment, but as he thought about it, he calmed down.  The Tri-wizard tournament was a long time ago, and it wasn¡¯t like he had done anything wrong¡ª if protecting his friends was wrong, then he was fine paying for that vition.


    ¡°Oh?  Who is it?  Are they still in Hogwarts?  That¡¯d be mighty impressive if they are.¡±


    Dumbledore stared deep into Quinn¡¯s eyes as he continued, ¡°I was in the meeting with the Minister of Magic; we were discussing the Invisible Vignte¡¯stest. . .¡±


    Quinn¡¯s heart skipped a beat.


    ¡°. . . and he had sent the Ministry a message in the form of light and illusion magic spelled into a small ck stout cylindrical object. . . and imagine my surprise that when I by chance tried topare the magical signatures on that and this,¡± he pointed to the vial, ¡°they were a near-perfect match. . . .  Invisible Vignte was the person I had been looking for all these years.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    Dumbledore leaned forward, and the shop went eerily quiet; it was as if the ambient noise had been sucked up, leaving a sound vacuum.  ¡°Don¡¯t pretend to be clueless.  I had long confirmed that this chalk dust was yours; there was no reason for me to bring it up¡ª but I tested the two things for some remote intuition that I wasn¡¯t thinking would be true. . . and to my surprise, they matched.


    I had found the Invisible Vignte¡¯s hidden identity. . . it was you all along.  You, Quinn West, was. . . are the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    Quinn studied Dumbledore¡¯s face for a moment before he straightened up, and all fabricated emotion drained from his face.  The old Headmaster had made up his mind, and no matter what Quinn said wasn¡¯t going to change his mind, so why bother pretending.


    ¡°Magical signatures can¡¯t be used in the court ofw because of the unreliability issues associated with the method,¡± said Quinn in a in voice.  Magical signatures were actively used by DMLE to narrow the list of suspects and focus their efforts in the right direction, but the findings couldn¡¯t be used in front of a judge. . . and a Wizengamot jury.


    ¡°Remember who you¡¯re talking to, Mr. West,¡± Dumbledore¡¯s steady tone had gained a terse quality.  ¡°I do not make mistakes.  Especially when ites to this.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t prove it was me, Professor.  No one can.¡±


    Dumbledore leaned back into his chair, looking at Quinn with still unbelievable eyes.  ¡°How could I not see this before.  There were a few signs here and there.  The advanced water magic that year at the Great Lake and the Invisible Vignte¡¯s penchant to use Ice magic and the aggressive use of water magic in the Ministry against Voldemort. . . they could have beenpared. . . and you disyed proficiency in water magic during the second task.¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s words left a bitter taste in Quinn¡¯s mouth.  In the intense situation of facing Voldemort, he had unleashed his water magic capabilities in public under the guise of the Invisible Vignte.


    I knew that day at the Great Lake woulde to bite me in the back, thought Quinn.


    Dumbledore, oblivious to Quinn¡¯s thoughts, pointed to his hands.  ¡°No one has ever seen the Invisible Vignte use a wand.  The DMLE and even I thought that he was using some other form of focus, but it turned out he was not using one at all¡ª you showed shes of wandless magic in Hogwarts, especially near the end. . . and after Hogwarts, I had heard you had rested your wand, I thought you were growing splendidly as you became older and gained more experience¡ª never did I thought that you were holding back since who knows when.¡±


    The Headmaster of Hogwarts, the one who had defeated one Dark Lord and had been a thorn in the second one¡¯s, seemed tired as he stared at Quinn incredulously.  ¡°The Novellus ionites¡¯ attack at Hogsmeade in 1993, that¡¯s where you made your public appearance. . . . you were fourteen years old that year. . . a fourteen year old who thrashed grown adults into walls and stabbed them with ice spikes.  Was that your first endeavor, or did you start before that with some incident that the DMLE hasn¡¯t credited to you?¡±


    While Dumbledore tried to wrap his head around the fact that the Invisible Vignte could have started as a fourteen-year-old kid behind a mask, Quinn was thinking with his mind running at hyper speeds; what was he going to do now¡ª one of the most influential men in the country was convinced that he was the Invisible Vignte.


    ¡°What is this, Professor?¡± Quinn shook his head.  ¡°Why are you trying to match to unrted people?  How could I be the Invisible Vignte?  I wasn¡¯t even in the country during the Dark Lord¡¯s attack on the Ministry.  I was out in America when all of that happened.  There is ample proof in government records, and there were people who saw me there in case you¡¯re thinking of going to the DMLE with this ridiculous theory of yours.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, I¡¯m not going to the Aurors with this,¡± Dumbledore shook his head.  ¡°You¡¯re very fortunate to be born in the family you were born in, Mr. West.  You have ess to things people can only dream of.  You are right; I don¡¯t have any way to legally prove that you¡¯re the Invisible Vignte.  Even if I could, your grandfather would prevent you from facing any charges. . .¡±


    There was something Quinn could finally agree with.  If push came to shove and his identity was finally revealed, his grandfather would ensure that he wasn¡¯t put into Azkaban for his actions.  The Ministry might actively pursue him for his crimes, but he would never be tried if George West had some say in it¡ª and George West usually had a say in everything.


    ¡°. . . And because of that, I feel no guilt to use this information for my own purposes.¡±


    ¡°. . . What?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to go to your grandfather and tell him all about this.  I will tell him my findings. . . my theory. . . and I¡¯ll show him your reaction today to convince him that you¡¯re the Invisible Vignte. . .¡±


    ¡°Wait¡ª¡±


    ¡°. . . I¡¯m going to then put forward a proposition.  He provides me all the support I need for the war against Voldemort in exchange for my keeping quiet about the truth.¡±


    ¡°Listen here¡ª¡±


    ¡°George will understand the severity of the situation.  He will know what this information can doing from my mouth.  He will, on his own, recall how the current leadership of DMLE feels about the Invisible Vignte and the Ministry¡¯s changed stance on the wanted criminal.  And to make sure that his grandson¡¯s life isn¡¯t tainted by such a dark spot, he will cooperate with me and provide¡ª¡±


    ¡°Dumbledore!¡± Quinn roared as he smashed the side of his fist on the petite table.


    The small tea shop shook as if an earthquake was coursing the bricks of the building.  The short shopkeeper on the counter stood up with his wand out, but Dumbledore waved him down to ensure everything was fine.


    ¡°Don¡¯t push it, Dumbledore,¡± Quinn glowered.  ¡°If there¡¯s one thing I don¡¯t like, that¡¯s someone trying to take advantage of those close to me.¡±


    Dumbledore stood up calmly from his chair and looked down at Quinn, ¡°You¡¯ve been blessed with prosperity many couldn¡¯t even dream to imagine, so I say it is time to pay up.¡±  His face turned bitter as he continued, ¡°You¡¯re a killer, Mr. West.  So young but with blood on your hands.  You shouldn¡¯t have gone through that¡ª and for that, I profusely apologize.  But I need your grandfather¡¯s help to prevent that from ever happening, and this is the quickest way to aplish that.¡±


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t give me that,¡± scoffed Quinn.  ¡°You have blood plenty on your hands, Dumbledore.  Don¡¯t try to dress all of that in a pretty package and try to guilt-trip me along with all the emotional pointers you just threw.¡±


    Dumbledore showed a bitter smile.  He nodded deeply, ¡°I know, Mr. West.  I am well aware of that,¡± he looked down at his hands with a brief haunted look in his eyes.


    He didn¡¯t say a single more word and turned away to leave.


    ¡°What if I tell him myself?¡± said Quinn immediately.


    Dumbledore stopped, turned his head, and shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s not going to make a difference. . . . I apologize for doing this.  I would¡¯ve never done this if it wasn¡¯t for the current circumstance. . . . It is all for the Greater Good.¡±


    Quinn wanted to say so much hearing that, but Dumbledore continued to walk away, and the words died in his mouth as other thoughts took more forceful priority.


    He stared at where Dumbledore had ced the chalk vial that he had taken away.


    He had to make ns.


    And he had to make them quick.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Oh, shut up!


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Defeator of Dark Lord ¨C It is for the Greater Good.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Again, a reminder.  Read Chapter 155: ¡°As I Thought¡± if you¡¯re confused and need a short recall.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 379 Making Preparations

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn paced in his room with heavy worry echoing in his every step.  It felt like his knees were injected with lead, and his saliva had been reced with something much more viscous.  His body felt hot, something his body tended to do when his brain ran under extreme pressure and in ufortable situations.


    Dumbledore knew his identity as the Invisible Vignte.


    ¡®Shit!  Shit!  SHIT!¡¯  It was a huge problem.  The moment his grandfather came to know that he had been hunting down terrorists under a mask, all his freedom would be taken away from him.  George ¡®Head Of The Family¡¯ West would do everything in his power to restrict Quinn¡¯s movement¡ª it didn¡¯t matter Quinn was already of age adult, George was going to do everything he could to make sure Quinn didn¡¯t have breathing room.


    ¡°Aaah!  Why did I lose my control. . .¡±


    The meeting with Dumbledore was a trap that he had walked in on willingly without a single shred of persuasion.  If Dumbledore had gone directly to George, while it would¡¯ve left Quinn blindsided, he could¡¯ve talked his way out of it, and even if George didn¡¯t believe him and ced people around him, he could¡¯ve given them the beat.  But Dumbledore had sacrificed that advantage to gain another one¡ª in exchange for informing Quinn that he was going to George, he had gained Quinn¡¯s reaction.


    And he had given precisely the reaction Dumbledore wanted.


    He had pulled up lumency and had failed to fabricate emotion on his face for discreet purposes.  That single fault had made it look like Quinn was hiding¡ª he was either the Invisible Vignte or knew who the Invisibilty Vignte was.  Thetter had been struck off the board because Dumbledore could prove that Quinn was the Invisible Vignte¡ª when it came to magic, Dumbledore was an authority whom many people believed. . . and George West was among those people.


    There were enough cascadingyers of things against Quinn that even if he lied, George wouldn¡¯t believe him outright.  ¡®Trust, but not blindly,¡¯ was one of George West¡¯s favorite mottos, and when he was in doubt, he would do his own digging, and things were bound to seem suspicious with the timing of things, and George didn¡¯t need proof admissible byw to form his conclusions.


    Even before all that, Quinn couldn¡¯t lie to his grandfather.  In case he lied and George believed it, and thenter it came out that he was indeed the Invisible Vignte all along. . . that would shatter the trust between grandfather and grandson with cracks and damage spreading to his other rtionship as well.


    Could he stop the meeting between Dumbledore and George?  He could not; stopping Dumbledore physically(magically) wasn¡¯t going to work, and he couldn¡¯t imagine any other way he could stop either one of them.  Dumbledore wanted the benefits that the West resources could provide him, and George would want to meet Dumbledore so he could keep the news from going out.


    Fighting Dumbledore?  It could either end badly or make enough ruckus to attract unwanted eyes.  The chances of safe victory were not high enough for him to take the path that could backfire on him.


    The question that remained was if he should be the one to break the news to George or if he should let Dumbledore do it.  George was out of the country for a couple of days, which meant that Dumbledore wouldn¡¯t find George until then. . .


    ¡®I can¡¯t be sure.¡¯


    . . . Dumbledore could go abroad just to have the talk faster.  It made sense as George would be out of his fort¡¯ ce and would be more perceptible to Dumbledore¡¯s demands.


    Quinn sighed.  The reason he was even thinking of letting Dumbledore break the news was that it maye to that.  He needed some essential time to make some moves because whatever was going to happen, things were going to go downhill for him in various ways, and he had to make the preparation needed to face whatever was toe.


    Quinn sat himself on the edge of the bed. . . his eyes heavy with thought and contemtion.  The sun in the sky traveled its course as the shadows in the room slowly shifted.  It was after an hour since he had gone still and silent that Quinn stood up from his bed, walked to his walk-in closet, and after a while, he came out dressed for going out with his suitcase in hand.


    ¡°Polly!¡±


    The West house-elf popped into the room.  Her big eyes went to Quinn¡¯s suitcase and then to his clothes before she looked at his face.  There were no questions from her, but Quinn knew what she wanted to ask.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to a friend¡¯s ce for a bit,¡± said Quinn, spinning another lie to tell his family.  ¡°I wille back in a few days, but if someone in the family asks. . . I¡¯m at Marcus Belby¡¯s house.  Ms. Rosey already has his address and his MagiFax details.  When they return home, please inform them that it was ast-minute decision.¡±


    No one was home, making it the perfect point to leave.


    Quinn bid farewell to the clueless Polly, who didn¡¯t know what was going on inside.  It could be that this was one of the final times for a while she would be able to go to Quinn with a single thought.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn stared at the building in front of him.  It was a building entirely opposite to Gringotts; the thought entered his mind just like it had entered thest time he had seen the building.  A soul-sucking ck without a fleck of dust marring a surface so polished that one could see its reflection.


    He walked to the ss doors of the establishment with his eyes ncing at the name written in gold overhead.


    ¡¸Monolith¡¹


    The symbol of terror and reassurance.  The bank¡¯s policy ¡ª don¡¯t steal from us, and we will keep your money safe, secured, and growing.  Monolith was a ssic private bank that catered to affluent clients with an abundance of wealth like West¡ª and provide them with facilities like essential banking services, brokerage, limited tax advisory, concierge-type services, discretionary asset management, and the vast array of wealth management.  They were infamous stating for their secrecy promises.  Once money goes into Monolith, it¡¯s difficult for an outsider to get information about who holds what and how much; they promise that your financials are going to be kept under a tight seal; of course, they won¡¯t help you break thew ¡ª bend around thew, sure ¡ª but not breaking thew.  And because they only service high-asset clients, who have rock-solid financial stability, it ensures that Monolith won¡¯t go bankrupt, thus making it extremely safe for them to hold people¡¯s assets.


    He had made a Portkey of the location he had already seen and triggered it to travel to Basel, Switzend, where the bank that managed his magical money had been securely stored.


    The lobby only had one greeting table, and the lobby somehow didn¡¯t look deste despite theck of any other furniture.  Behind the long white patterned marble table sat three women in the prime of their beauty, dressed in identical attire.  As he approached them, the middle woman looked up from her work¡ª there was a brief daze in her eyes before rity descended in her eyes.


    ¡°Wee, Mr. West,¡± she slightly bowed, ¡°we weren¡¯t expecting you today; nevertheless, we at Monolith and ecstatic that you are here visiting.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Amaryl,¡± Quinn greeted the front desk concierge and nced at her identical sisters¡ª Cheryl and Daffodil.  This much hadn¡¯t changed ever since hisst visit to the bank.


    ¡°What brings you here today, Mr. West,¡± Amaryl asked politely.


    ¡°I would like to meet Gair.¡±


    ¡°. . . Mr. Gair might not be able to meet you today, Mr. West,¡± she sounded troubled.  ¡°He only meets clients through appointments so that his day is nned out.  He might not be willing to meet you right now.¡±


    ¡°Tell him it is urgent,¡± said Quinn simply.


    Amaryl turned to her workstation, and her hands moved behind the thick table.  Quinn couldn¡¯t tell what she was doing, but he could sense some magic being operated.  In the meantime, Quinn turned to the little stone gremlins perched on the walls and ceiling around the huge room.  He watched as one of the gremlins¡¯ eyes followed him like a security camera.  He stared at the stone gremlins intently and kept his eyes on one of the stone gremlins.


    After a minute, Amaryl turned to Quinn with a beautiful smile, ¡°Mr. Gair will meet you, Mr. West.  He is getting free within the next hour and has asked that you wait in his personal guest lounge that he uses to entertain his guests.¡±


    They walked into the inner part of the bank through an entrance in the inner wall of the lobby and entered a room with a dozen doorways.  They stepped into the doorway with the number four in roman numerals etched above.  Number four was known as the West gate as through there one can go to the part of the bank that handles the West fortune.  They walked through a few corridors, passing by many doors anding across a few people who would make pleasantries with Amaryl, who didn¡¯t seem particrly about most of them.


    After they exited the corridors, the interior changed into a ssic renaissance design, much different from the rest of the bank.  They soon reached a pair of dark wood doors.  A pale woman sat outside the door, to a side behind a desk.  She wore thin-rimmed circr ss with messy brown curls flowing down her shoulders.


    Quinn readily greeted the woman, ¡°Ixquic, it has been a while. . . I hope you¡¯re doing well.¡±


    Ixquic stared at Quinn with her half-dazed eyes.  For a moment, they simply stared before Ixquic¡¯s eyes regained focus.  She got up and took over from Amaryl and led him to an ornate lounge to wait.


    ¡°How are you, Ixquic?  How is the life of a living blood bag,¡± asked Quinn calmly.


    ¡°It has been fruitious.¡±


    ¡°How is your health.  I hope noplications on that front.¡±


    ¡°My health has been fine, thank you.  My body has adapted itself to it.¡±


    Quinn asked a couple more questions, but the answers were all curt bare-minimum words, so after a while, he stopped asking and closed his eyes in waiting, going through his memories.  Around an hourter, he was roused up from his memory traversal and said that Gair was ready to meet him.


    Ixquic pushed one pane of the double doors open with her entire body.  ¡°Please go in,¡± she gestured to him.  Quinn entered the styled office, with Ixquic not going in with him.   A wall covered with bookshelves, artwork framed on the others; a sitting area around a table in one part of the room; wooden cabs fitted with sses.  And the most eye-catching part of the room were animal heads mounted on the upper walls ¡ª lion, tiger, wolf, elk, among other non-magical animals but then there were the magical species, and that collection was impressive from every angle ¡ª an Egyptian sphinx, a Peruvian Vipertooth dragon, a South Ameican Firedrake, a white-feathered Griffin, and the list went on.


    Sitting in the center of the office was a man in his prime, dressed in a simple white shirt and ck pants, leaning into his chair behind a simple-yet-ornate four-legged desk.


    ¡°Quinn West,¡± said the ancient vampire in his deep voice.  ¡°Why are you here without any prior intimation?¡±


    The blood-red eyes stared at Quinn as if trying to peer through all of his secrets.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I need to literally run now.


    Idris Gair ¨C Vampire ¨C Very old; flirty;id-back; has raised his own blood bank.


    Ixquic ¨C Blood bank (Blood Woman) ¨C I don¡¯t speak much.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 380 Funds From The Vampire

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn and Gair sat in front of each other in thetter¡¯s office.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like to meet people without appointments, Quinn West.  If you didn¡¯t know it before, know it now,¡± said Gair.  The ancient vampire was as Quinn remembered himst time; he still seemedzy and looked like he was on the verge of sleeping, but there was a flicker of annoyance in the red eyes.  ¡°Even if it is your grandfather, I would take offense if he came here unannounced.¡±


    Gair sighed, and if there was a ce where a sigh would seem natural, it was on him.  ¡°But now that you are here tell me what you¡¯re here for.  I can¡¯t send someone so far away from away.¡±


    Quinn was in no mood to exchange quips with Gair, so he got straight to the point.  ¡°I need to withdraw some funds from my ount here.  I hope you kept some of my wealth in liquid reserve.¡±


    ¡°Excluding your emergency fund, I have kept one percent of the gold you initially allocated to me.¡±


    ¡°. . . One percent!¡± Quinn furrowed his brow.  That was lower than he thought.


    ¡°ording to thest report I read, the coinage was still at five percent,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°You haven¡¯t been keeping up with the reports,¡± Gair quirked his eye.


    Quinn¡¯s wealth was invested in a wide portfolio; all of it was handled by three firms¡ª The Broker, who managed his non-magical investments. . . the West¡¯s Basel Office, which dealt with arge portion of the entire West family¡¯s wealth. . . and the Monolith bank which provided the Wests with its financial services.


    Quinn had divided his wealth among the three firms to not put all his eggs into one basket; moreover, every one of them had a different skillset and ideology towards investment, which would give Quinn gains(or losses) in diverse areas.  Out of all three, he had only asked Monolith and Gair to hold cash reserves, with the other two keeping the entire reserves bound up in investments.  He got audited reports on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis on the health of his wealth¡ª but unfortunately, to no fault of anyone else, Quinn had not gotten the time to read the recent reports.


    ¡°I admit, I have not been keeping up with them,¡± Quinn sighed.  Five percent of a third of his wealth would¡¯ve barely gotten him through what he was nning, but one percent wasn¡¯t something he was not at allfortable with.  ¡°Isn¡¯t one percent quite less?¡± he asked.


    Gair sighed, ¡°Including the trust fund made for you by your grandfather, one percent of what I had was more than enough even for the exorbitant expenses you have. . . You know, I have heard of many youngds who spend left and right without care, but even among them, you¡¯re near the top.¡±


    Quinn pursed his lips.  He spent a lot of money every month on research and development.  Magic was a free resource that only took regr meals and good sleep every day to regenerate¡ª but progressing in magic wasn¡¯t cheap; at his level, it took a lot of resources to get to the next level.


    ¡°I want that one percent and the emergency fund,¡± Quinn asked Gair; still inside, he felt that the funds weren¡¯t going to be enough.


    The situation was still contained, so he could go to the Basel Office and ask them to liquidate some funds, but that would take time which he didn¡¯t have, and the moment situation broke out, the doors to the Basel Office would be closed to him.


    ¡®I will have to with this for now,¡¯ thought Quinn.  It meant that he had to go to The Broker at some point to liquidate his portfolio there¡ª unlike the Basel Office, the Broker was his personal contact.


    ¡°Why do you want so much cash?¡±  Gair took out a sheet of paper and a pot of ink.  ¡°Are you nning to buy something big?¡±


    Instead of answering the question, Quinn posed one of his own to Gair.  ¡°Are you employed by my grandfather solely. . . or am I also paying you?¡±


    Gair unscrewed the ink bottle and curled his finger up for red ink to float out of the bottle.  Quinn blinked at the ink that flowed to the paper and started to form words.  Vampires were magical creatures, but they weren¡¯t supposed to use them like this.


    Then it hit Quinn.


    ¡°You use blood in ink,¡± he said, surprise clear on his face.  He used blood magic to confirm his theory.


    ¡°I do,¡± said Gair nonchntly as the blood printed words on the paper like a printer


    ¡°. . . Is it Ixquic¡¯s?¡±


    ¡°Human blood is not suitable for inks.  This is a blend of inks from different beasts and creatures¡ª had it custom made by a good friend of mine, Ri.¡±


    ¡°Another vampire?¡±


    ¡°Of course, only a vampire can know blood so well; I haven¡¯t seen an ink so good¡ª with or without magic,¡± Gair swiped his hand, and the paper sheet slid to the slide, but then a new sheet of paper slid in front of him.  Quinn¡¯s jaw loosened.  He had thought that the first sheet moved because of the blood ink, but it seemed that even the sheets even themselves had blood in them.


    Quinn looked around the room, wondering what else in the room was infused with blood or blood magic.


    ¡°I am employed by the West family business, your grandfather, your sister, and you,¡± answered Gair without looking up.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°The answer to your previous question.  I treat business and people as separate entities¡ª I handle the business ounts, but I also handle the personal ounts of George, Lia, Elliot, and Rosey¡ª¡±


    ¡°Elliot and Ms. Rosey as well?  They qualify as clients for Monolith?¡±  The bank only took customers who could meet their standards of wealth.


    ¡°Elliot Dalton and Rosey Vivian are both extremely rich.  Years working with your grandfather have its gains.  Both of them are prolific investors and have invested in variouspanies; they might not earn as much as you do, but their portfolio is nothing to sneeze at.  Especially, Elliot Dalton¡ª a majority of his businessespliment some arm of the West business, so when that subsidiary grew, Elliot¡¯s business would grow as well.¡±


    That surprised Quinn.  But now was not the time to expand on the situation.


    ¡°Would you share my information with my grandfather?¡±


    ¡°Why would I do that?¡± asked Gair, still writing up papers.  ¡°I don¡¯t have the habit of discussing client information with others.¡±


    ¡°Even if it is George West,¡± Quinn used the full name.


    ¡°Even if it is, George West.¡±


    ¡®¡±He can make problems for you.¡±


    ¡°I am well aware. . . he¡¯s a big enough client that if he asks, the board will kick me out. . . even though I have a share in the bank. . . why are you asking?¡±


    ¡°He wille looking for me in a few days.¡±


    ¡°Why?  Are you running away from home?¡±  When Quinn didn¡¯t speak, Gair looked up.  ¡°Seriously. . . you¡¯re too old to run away from home; aren¡¯t you an adult now, holy blood, why would you do that?¡±


    ¡°Some stuff, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Quinn waved it off.  ¡°Grandfather wille looking, and when he does, don¡¯t say anything to him.  He will ask for the records of every single purchase I made through my ount here, but I don¡¯t want you to give him anything.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    ¡°This will cause problems for you.¡±


    Gair closed the inkpot and leaned back into his chair, looking like he was sitting on a rocking chair by a firece.  ¡°I have been doing this job for who knows how long and have made some great money doing it¡ª more than I can spend in this century even with all I spend,¡± the pale man seemed apathetic as he spoke every word.  ¡°The only reason I do this job is that I¡¯m good at it.  It doesn¡¯t matter to me if George gets me fired.  I¡¯m a partner in the bank; even if they do kick me out, the money will keeping in.


    I will go find something fun. . . though I will be disappointed in George¡ª and honestly, I do not think he will have me fired¡ª a man should have integrity and me protecting my client shows it,¡± Gair shrugged.  ¡°Runaway all you want, Quinn West; I shall keep my tongue to myself¡ª your secrets will stay safe with me.¡±


    Gair rang a bell, and Ixquic came in.  He handed her the papers, and she took them away.


    Quinn studied Gair.  He thanked the man but inside, all he could think was what it would be that old.  The vampire was the oldest man Quinn had ever met, and it made him curious to think how life changed after one had done one single job longer than most people lived.


    ¡®Maybe Mr. n would know; he must¡¯ve lived someone who lived that long,¡¯ a stray thought passed his mind that made him smile bitter¡ª having thoughts about magic in such situations showed him something about priorities.


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Gair.¡±


    Now that he had the money, he had other preparations to make.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn had returned home the next day and was walking past the lounge to his room when he heard his name called out.  He turned and entered the lounge to find George sitting alone, nursing a drink in his hand.  The room was dimly lit by a table-sidemp and the gentle moonlighting through the windows.


    ¡°It iste, grandfather.  You shouldn¡¯t be drinking sote in the night,¡± said  Quinn sitting down in front of him.  It was strange for him to see George drink anywhere outside his cer¡ª that ce specially built for enjoying a drink. . . built for George West to enjoy a drink in peace


    ¡°I heard you were at Marcus¡¯ home,¡± said George.  ¡°How¡¯s thed doing?  He¡¯s going to start his training the next week.¡±


    ¡°He told me,¡± said Quinn; he had known that for a while now.  ¡°I¡¯m still nning that trip with him.  It needs to happen before I go for my apprenticeship and Eddie starts his career in earnest, so I want him to have a good chunk of time off.¡±


    ¡°Have a talk with Elliot,¡± said George.


    ¡°I will.  I will.¡±  Quinn studied George, and his grandfather seemed to be distracted and looked like he had a little too much to drink.  ¡°Are you alright, grandfather?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, my child,¡± said George, taking another sip from his ss.


    Quinn stood up and walked to George to take the ss.  ¡°You should stop drinking.  It¡¯s alreadyte; go to sleep.¡±


    George stood up and looked like he was going to stagger, so Quinn gave him support, but he raised his hand to say he was fine.  George patted Quinn on his shoulder before walking away.


    Quinn cleaned up the room before walking out himself to find Ms. Rosey standing at the door.


    ¡°Do you know why he was like that?¡± he asked.


    ¡°. . . It is the day he lost her. . . your grandmother¡¯s death anniversary.  You were in Hogwarts this time of the year, so you wouldn¡¯t know,¡± said Ms. Rosey.  She raised her hand to Quinn¡¯s cheek and gently caressed it.  ¡°He has lost too much already, my dear.  You and Lia are all he has left.  Treat him well. . .¡±


    Quinn nodded.


    She smiled and walked away into the darkness.


    ¡°. . . I¡¯m sorry,¡± he muttered alone.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Time to get that gold.


    Idris Gair ¨C Vampire ¨C Yeah. . . I have blood in a lot of my things.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Next couple of chapters are going to be around the current topic.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 381 Leaving The Nest

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The heavy rain over the countryside had locked the people inside their houses on what should¡¯ve been a lovely Sunday morning.  The same went for the people living inside the West manor in Herefordshire, with the downpour showing no sign of stopping any time soon.


    Even in the rain, the day seemed its own kind of perfect, with the wind a little cooler than usual, a gentle rain breeze that wafted through the house without bringing a humid quality in.


    But for Quinn, it was less than perfect. . . it was as far as it could be from perfect.  He ced his suitcase by the door, and when his fingers left the still pristine leather, the suitcase went invisible.  He faced the door to the home office and took a breath as he smoothened the suit he had put on.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do it.¡±


    Quinn knocked on the door, and the sounds of his heartbeat overshadowed the sound of the knocking.  He uncurled his hand and found it to be a little sweaty¡ª he couldn¡¯t remember thest time his hands were sweaty, and he had an excellent memory.


    He stepped inside when the call to enter came from inside.  Despite maintaining the AID office and another office inside his suitcase for years, he envied what his grandfather had built in his home office¡ª every inch of the room sang pure English ss with not a single thing out of ce.  Quinn remembered how much time he had spent in the office in the pre-Hogwarts days, thinking he would have something like this of his own.


    As he was admiring the office, George walked in from another part of the office with two sheets of paper that he wasparing.  ¡°What is it, child?  Give me a moment to sort this out, and then we shall talk,¡± he asked and nced up for a moment.  ¡°Is that a new suit?  I haven¡¯t seen that one; did Taylor stitch that one for you?¡±


    Quinn looked down at his sky blue suit.  ¡°. . . No, it is not from him.  I. . . I made this on one on my own.¡±


    ¡°Oh, did you.  It looks great on you, dear.  I would say that you have a talent for stitching.  Sit down.¡±


    Quinn sat down and stared at the man who sat on top, arguably the biggest empire on the magical side of the world.  He was sure that if one day he walked down the street to ask random people the question: Albus Dumbledore or George West, who would you like to be?  He would be lucky to find someone who had remotely heard of the name George West. . . but Quinn was sure if they knew the two options well, most would choose to be his grandfather.  It took something else to be chosen over Albus Dumbledore in the British Isles.


    ¡°. . . talk about. . . . Quinn?  Quinn!¡±


    Quinn snapped out of his thoughts when he saw George staring at him, calling his name.  ¡°Yes. . . my apologies, I was away for a moment,¡± he said.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m alright.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure.¡±


    ¡°Alright.  What do you want to talk about?¡±


    Quinn took a silent breath.  He opened his mouth and found that he was at a loss for words.  This was difficult, he thought.  He had prepared the words he was going to speak, but despite his lumency, he couldn¡¯t find them.  It was like Karna¡¯s curse in Mahabharata¡ª to forget all his knowledge at the moment he needed it the most. . . which had ultimately led to the hero¡¯s death.


    ¡°I ran into Dumbledore a few days back,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°Oh, where was that?¡± he asked without stopping his work.  ¡°What did you two talk about?  I hope he didn¡¯t try to get you to include in some of his ns.  He will be spinning some maniptions if he wants you involved; stay clear away from him.¡±


    Every time the topic of Dumbledore came between them, it got clear that there was love spared between George and him.  Even the mention of Dumbledore sprung the usually taciturn man into a stretch about not trusting Dumbledore.


    ¡°. . . That is right about what happened,¡± said Quinn, making George stop and look up at him.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°He wants to get me involved in one of his maniptions.  He wants you to get involved in a web of his maniptions.¡±  Quinn chuckled with pursed lips, ¡°Dumbledore was quite straightforward about it, didn¡¯t hide the fact that he was going to use both of us.¡±


    George reached for his wand, and with a swing, everything on his desk was tidied up and pushed aside or into its ce, leaving behind an empty space between them.  Quinn had his full attention.


    ¡°What did he want?  Tell me what he said word for word; don¡¯t leave a single thing out.¡±


    Quinn shook his head with a semi-bowed head.  That wasn¡¯t how he wanted the conversation to go.  Dumbledore wasn¡¯t going to be the focus of this conversation. . . this was between him and his grandfather.


    ¡°He knows a weakness of mine,¡± said Quinn with a bitter smile.  ¡°He¡¯s nning to exploit it to get to you.  But don¡¯t worry, I have¡ª¡±


    ¡°What weakness,¡± George cut him short.


    ¡°First, let me finish¡ª¡±


    ¡°What weakness?¡±


    Quinn and George stared at each other, thetter¡¯s gaze much fiercer than the former.


    For a moment, Quinn¡¯s hand trembled.  A gush of panicked thoughts passed through his mind.  They were alone in the room, which was covered with sound-dampening charms that Quinn had personally cast.  Anything that happened in there wasn¡¯t going to get out.  This was his chance to turn back what had been said and pretend the conversation hadn¡¯t started yet.  Maybe there was some way else he could approach this where he didn¡¯t have to involve his grandfather.  He could take Dumbledore; who knew, perhaps he could fight the master of the Elder wand ande out victorious. . . .


    Quinn closed his eyes and leaned into the chair.


    Who was he kidding?  Taking on Dumbledore wasn¡¯t the answer.  Lying to his grandfather once again wasn¡¯t the answer.


    ¡®I know the answer. . . there¡¯s no running from it.¡¯


    Quinn ced his hand over the table, hovering inches above the surface.  He breathed out as a ck substance effused out of his hand onto the table; it hardened to form a familiar ck mask. . . familiar to him at least.


    ¡°What is this?¡± asked George, frowning.  ¡°How is this rted to your weakness, Quinn.  You are well aware that I do not like to beat around the bush or anything that isn¡¯t direct to the point, so get to the point.¡±


    The ¡®Invisible¡¯ in Invisible Vignte still held true.  Except for those in the Aurors and the Hit Wizard, no one knew what the Invisible Vignte¡¯s attire looked like.  Even after the Ministry appearance, when his appearance coted from the hostages in the Ministry Atrium was published in the papers, it wasn¡¯t urate due to the fear-addled brains of the people who gave the descriptions.


    ¡°This is my mask,¡± Quinn tapped the conjured mask made from a special magical polymer that Quinn had blended on his own. . . and that was just the opening act of what he was about to reveal.


    Under George¡¯s confused gaze, Quinn tapped his ¡®self-made¡¯ suit on the chest, and the light blue fabric turned into a thicker weave of ck in a pulsating wave that traveled through his entire body.  Gone was the stylish suit, reced by the all-practicalbative outfit.


    ¡°This is my gear,¡± said Quinn, clenching and releasing his hand.  ¡°I call it the Noir adaptive gear. . . version seventeen.¡±  He picked up the mask and gently ced it on his face.  There was radio silence before the usual distorted voice came from behind the mask, ¡°I¡¯m the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    An elevated heartbeat was always part of the deal when he put on the Noir gear.  Be it due to the exertion of hunting Death Eaters outside a Quidditch stadium, facing the most dangerous Werewolf in the country, saving Amelia Bones from the Dark Lord, or facing Fiendfyre cast the Dark Lord.  But today, the heartbeat was louder and faster than ever; it felt like it would beat itself out before he could even speak a single word.


    ¡°. . . What?  No, no,¡± George shook his head, ¡°you are not. . . you can¡¯t be the Invisible Vignte. . .¡±


    ¡°Grandfather¡ª¡±


    George mmed his fist onto the table.  An immediate tension filled the room.  He was fuming; Quinn hadn¡¯t seen fuming from George.  ¡°Remove that,¡± he said.


    Quinnplied.  The mask melted into fumes, but the Noir gear stayed in the ckbative form.  George needed to see who his grandson really was¡ª he had seen the good side, and now it was time to have the nasty side shining in his face.


    ¡°. . . The Invisible Vignte is used of murder,¡± said George, as if he couldn¡¯t get the words out.


    ¡°I am wanted for murder,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°You¡¯re not making this easier,¡± said George, his voice on the edge of growling.  ¡°How did this happen, Quinn?  Didn¡¯t I tell you that we are staying away?¡±


    ¡°I started long before that grandfather.¡±


    ¡°Then you should¡¯ve stopped when I told you to stop!¡± George leaned forward with his hands clenched over the table.  ¡°Do you think this is a game or one of those experiments of yours?  This is real life, Quinn!¡±  He pressed a finger into his temple, ¡°You. . . You faced the Dark Lord in the Ministry.  What were you thinking, child?  You could¡¯ve gotten yourself killed.¡±


    ¡°Instead, I costed him an eye.¡±


    ¡®That doesn¡¯t¡ª¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t the first time, anyway.¡±


    ¡°. . . What do you mean?¡± asked George, confused.


    ¡°I was the one who rescued Amelia Bones when her house was attacked by the Dark Lord,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I know what I am doing, grandfather.  I know you¡¯re worried, but what is done is already done¡ª dwelling on it won¡¯t change, so let¡¯s move forward.¡±


    ¡°Move forward?  No, no, this isn¡¯t¡ª¡±


    Quinn waved his hand, ¡°Dumbledore knows I¡¯m the Invisible Vignte, and he has proof connecting that I¡¯m indeed him.¡±  George looked like he was about to burst again, but Quinn pressed forward.  ¡°He wants your resources in the war.  He will hold whatever he has over your head into bing a vault with an unlimited amount of coin.  He will make you publicly oppose Voldemort and ensure that the most resourceful man in the country is working for him.¡±


    ¡°Then I will give him whatever he wants,¡± said George immediately, with no hesitation.


    Quinn shook his head and kept his smile to himself.  ¡°No, that¡¯s the worst thing you can do, grandfather.  If he had leverage on you, it wouldn¡¯t ever stop.  First, it will be war, then it will be politics, and whatever he wants. . . . we don¡¯t want to give Dumbledore any leverage.¡±


    ¡°Then we leave the country,¡± said George with finality.  ¡°He can do whatever he wants, but if we leave, it won¡¯t matter to us.  We can cut ties with the country and never return.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s called running, grandfather, and I¡¯m no runner.¡±


    ¡°Then what do you want me to do!¡± George raised his voice.  ¡°I do not want my grandson to be arrested by the Aurors!¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t be arrested,¡± said Quinn calmly,  ¡°What Dumbledore has won¡¯t work in the court ofw, but if he presented it to the Aurors Office, they would start looking into me¡ª and with only one person as a suspect, they will develop a tunnel vision towards me, especially with not finding any leads in such a long time.  Rufus Scrimgeour doesn¡¯t like the Invisible Vignte, grandfather.  If he sets a target, he will do anything to ensure I¡¯m punished¡ª¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be worried about Scrimgeour,¡± said George.  ¡°He¡¯s looking to sign a deal with me, and if I put that over him, he will stay quiet¡ª choosing to ignore a lesser evil in favor of a greater one.  He will make sure that everything is scrubbed, never to be brought up again.¡±


    Quinn smiled gently, but it wasn¡¯t a relieved smile.  ¡°No, grandfather.  Giving Dumbledore leverage is not good, but giving Scrimgeour isn¡¯t any better.  He was big aspirations; wants to be the Minister of Magic and wants to stay in that position for long.  He will use you every step of the way, grandfather.  I don¡¯t want that.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind helping if it keeps you out of trouble.  You know that, child.¡±


    ¡°I know; of course, I know. . . but I don¡¯t n on stopping, grandfather.¡±


    George shook his head.  ¡°You promised,¡± he stood up and walked around the table, ¡°you promised you would do anything for me.  I want you to stop.  I want you to leave the country and leave everything to me.  Grandfather will sort all of it, child; please listen to me.¡±


    Quinn felt pain spike up inside him.  It pained him to see his grandfather like this.  However, this was bigger than both of them.  ¡°I can¡¯t leave it,¡± he said and stood up.  ¡°I have to finish what I started.¡±


    George grabbed Quinn¡¯s wrist.  He said, ¡°I can¡¯t lose you; I have lost too much. . . I can¡¯t lose anymore.¡±


    Quinn took George¡¯s hand into his own, ¡°You won¡¯t be losing me, grandfather.¡±  He kissed the hand, ¡°Don¡¯t give anything to Dumbledore when you meet him, don¡¯t let him pull you into the public.  I will handle him, but I didn¡¯t want you to know all of this from anyone else.


    And even if I am not, you still have to follow the rule¡ª stay away, grandfather.¡±


    He took out a small ck puck and ced it on the table, ¡°Tap it with your wand¡ª only your wand will work¡ª and it will give you everything you need in case Dumbledorees to you.  Don¡¯t let him exploit the Wests.¡±


    He pulled his hand out of George¡¯s grip and turned away, but George grabbed his hand again and said, ¡°Where are you going?  No!  You¡¯re staying here!¡±


    Quinn shook his head.  ¡°I will see you soon, grandfather.  Please call Lia home and tell her, and everyone else, everything,¡± he didn¡¯t want George to go through this alone.  He ced his hand on George¡¯s cheek, and before the man could speak another syble, he was knocked by Quinn¡¯s magic.  He transfigured the chairs into afy bed-cot andid George on it.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± he took in George¡¯s face.  ¡°Everything will be over soon.¡±


    Quinn stood up, and without taking another look, he walked out of the office.  He feared that he wouldn¡¯t be able to leave if he looked back.  He changed hisbative outfit to the sky blue suit and picked up his suitcase.


    It was time to leave home.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Truth is bitter.


    George West ¨C Grandfather ¨C Sad to say, but this will affect his health.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I don¡¯t like this chapter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 382 Im Not A Good Person

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Yellow turned green.


    Dumbledore left behind the roar of the fire and stepped into the noise of chatter happening around the bar floor of Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade.  He looked around the most popr inn in the vige, which remained festivous round the year regardless of the season or time.


    He stepped away from the firece and was immediately greeted by the sweet smell of butterbeer that lingered in the air, among other things that made the bar smell like a bar.  He made his way to the bar with the asional nod of the head apanied with a smile to those who greeted him along the way.


    ¡°Dumbledore!¡± greeted the inn¡¯s hostess, Madam Rosmerta, from behind the bar.  ¡°You should¡¯ve told me you wereing down; I would¡¯ve booked a room for you.  Give me two minutes; I¡¯ll have one readied for you right away.¡±


    ¡°No, it is fine, Rosmerta.  I¡¯m meeting someone today.¡±  He looked around the bar, searching, ¡°Do you know where I can find Quinn West?¡±


    ¡°Ah, so you¡¯re the one he¡¯s meeting,¡± said Rosmerta, smiling.  ¡°Quinn said he was meeting someone.  He¡¯s such a kind and charming young man, I offered him a room, but he declined,¡± she sighed.  ¡°Are you meeting him to offer him a job, Dumbledore?  If so, you should ask him if he wants to shift to a room.¡±


    Rosmerta pointed out a table in the seating area.  Dumbledore followed her direction and found himself staring at a table right in the middle of the room, surrounded by other tables from all four directions.  There he saw Quinn sitting with a te of fries and a drink in front of him as the young man had his eyes reading a book in hand, unbothered by all the racket around him.


    ¡°Quinn,¡± said Dumbledore as he approached the table.


    Quinn looked up at Dumbledore, then his eyes moved around the bar, seemingly checking if Dumbledore had broughtpany.  He closed his book and made it disappear inside his coat-jacket.


    Quinn asked Dumbledore to sit down.


    ¡°What is this meeting all about, Quinn,¡± asked Dumbledore.  ¡°If it is what it is I think about, then it would be better for us to shift to a private setting; Rosmerta has offered to clear a private room. . . if that is not alright with you, we can go to my office.¡±


    ¡°Here is just fine.¡±


    Dumbledore pursed his lips behind his beard and looked around the bar before sitting opposite Quinn, who at that moment snapped his fingers for a thick nket of magic to cover them.


    Dumbledore observed the spell with a critical eye, but as he was doing so, he heard Quinn, ¡°I hope you didn¡¯t want to order something.¡±


    ¡°A private room is better than a privacy spell,¡± and he could sense something mixed in, ¡°and a confusion element to keep people away.¡±


    ¡°If you say so,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Moving on, I called you here for a point, so let¡¯s get to the point. . . . You¡¯re not going to exploit my grandfather for anything.  We are going to forget about the previous conversation and pretend that you never know that I was the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    Dumbledore sighed, ¡°This is why you called me here?  Quinn, I¡¯m the Headmaster of Hogwarts, among other various duties which keep me busy.  I do not have time to take part in needless conversations.¡±  He stood up and turned to walk, but as just as he was about to exit the boundary of the magic. . .


    ¡°I guess you don¡¯t want to know about the Dark Lord¡¯s Horcrux.¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s foot froze halfway outside the boundary.  He slowly turned back to Quinn, who picked up his ss and sipped on his straw while maintaining eye contact with Dumbledore.


    ¡°. . . What?¡± asked Dumbledore, but he didn¡¯t take a seat just yet.


    ¡°You heard me; if you walk away right now, you won¡¯t get to know what I have to say about the Dark Lord¡¯s Horcrux,¡± said Quinn as if he didn¡¯t care.


    Dumbledore looked around the room.


    ¡°You¡¯re insulting my magic by looking around, Dumbledore,¡± said Quinn, his voice distorting akin to the Invisible Vignte.


    Dumbledore wrinkled his brows and took his seat.  Talking about the Invisible Vignte and especially about Voldemort¡¯s Horcrux in such a densely popted setting wasn¡¯t something he appreciated.  ¡°There are no more of those, Quinn; the one you destroyed was the only one.  And I¡¯m working hard to remedy Harry¡¯s unfortunate situation.¡±


    Quinn shrugged, ¡°Then why did you sit down?  Do you take everyone other than yourselves for a fool, Dumbledore?  Is it not enough to threaten my family, but you also undermine me by such a poor excuse of a bluff.¡±


    ¡°. . . You are angry.¡±


    ¡°Excellent guess.  Do you want me to give you some sour candy for it?¡± said Quinn, almost snarling.  Dumbledore stared as Quinn¡¯s eyes burned a violent purple.  ¡°I had to tell my grandfather that I¡¯m a cold-blooded killer.  How do you think that affects a rtionship?  Because I don¡¯t know; I had to leave my home before getting to experience it!¡±  He mmed his fist on the table.  ¡°Now, my family will know the ugly truth about myself that I have for obvious reasons though I would take to the grave. . . and if that was not enough, I have the great Albus Dumbledore trying to reveal it to the entire damned world!  So yes. . . I am furious.¡±


    Quinn backed away with his eyes fading back to their original ck.  He picked up his ss; it developed ayer of white condensation as the carbonated drink cooled down inside before Quinn took a big sip from it.


    Dumbledore stayed silent.  It was clear that today Quinn wasn¡¯t going to be happy with him speaking anything that he didn¡¯t want him to speak, so why agonize the young man by speaking the words that could be done without.


    ¡°Here¡¯s the deal,¡± Quinn cleaned the corner of his mouth with a napkin.  ¡°I hold one of the Dark Lord¡¯s Horcrux, and if you don¡¯t agree to my demands, I will hide it, and you or anyone will never see the sight of it.  So if you want to keep an undying maniac hanging around, then you can go ahead and walk away and b your mouth to anyone you want to.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you,¡± said Dumbledore.  ¡°How do I know you¡¯re not lying about possessing one.  I don¡¯t think you have one, and this is just a desperate attempt disguised as a one-sided negotiation.¡±


    ¡°Between the two of us, who do you think is more of an authority on Horcruxes,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Let me clear that up,¡± he pointed towards Dumbledore, ¡°you have destroyed zero Horcruxes,¡± he pointed at himself, ¡°I have destroyed two of them.¡±


    ¡°Two of them?¡± Dumbledore wrinkled his brow.


    ¡°You already know about my work with the Diary, but did you know about the Marvolo Gaunt¡¯s Ring in the Gaunt Shack in Little Hangleton.¡±


    ¡°That. . . that was you?¡±


    ¡°Of course, it was me.  Who do you think is the authority to destroy immortality-granting soul containers between the two of us,¡± Quinn scoffed condescendingly.  ¡°I¡¯m not a one-trick pony who just destroyed the Diary by chance.  I dug deep and went down the rabbit hole, and found a second one, destroyed it. . . and then found a third one, so Dumbledore, tell me do you believe me now?¡±


    That was a surprise.  Dumbledore didn¡¯t think that Quinn was the one who destroyed the Ring he found in the Gaunt Shack.  When he had called Quinn to talk about the Diary, he hadn¡¯t expected him to know about the Horcruxes, and after he had let out the secret to the Potter family,  he hadn¡¯t anticipated that Quinn was still hiding another secret.  After spending years not knowing who destroyed the Ring, the discovery of Regulus ck, and the fake Slytherin¡¯s Socket, he assumed that it was the younger ck brother who had gotten to the Locket as well. . . though inside, Dumbledore always knew that his theory had holes because of the discrepancies between the notes.  He simply didn¡¯t care about who destroyed the Horcrux, just that they were destroyed.


    Looking at Quinn¡¯s mocking face, Dumbledore only had one question.  ¡°Why haven¡¯t you destroyed it yet?¡±  With the small sample to draw from, Quinn had destroyed two of his two Horcrux finds; it was a statistics-driven assumption for him to assume that the third find would have the same fate.  ¡°You¡¯re saying that you will hide the third one away. . . but what if you have already destroyed it. . . what if you don¡¯t have anything in your hand.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s response was a small curl of his lips that stretched into a smile that opened up to a wide grin.  ¡°Do you want to risk that, Dumbledore?¡± asked Quinn, his voice backed by magic.  ¡°I may have already destroyed the Horcrux, I may not have destroyed it. . . or I may not even have it¡ª but do you have the liberty of testingdy luck; can you know for certain that my threats are bogus¡ª because if you¡¯re by chance wrong, and in future have this one chance where you can kill the Dark Lord, and you miraculously seed.¡± Quinn chuckled, ¡°All that for him to return.  And maybe by then, you¡¯re dead; who among your cohort do you think will kill the Dark Lord. . . who Dumbledore has enough magical prowess other than you.  Even if you¡¯re alive, Dumbledore, you¡¯re not growing younger, and with every passing year, your magic grows weaker, but the Dark Lord stays as powerful as he is¡ª¡± he pointed near Dumbledore¡¯s waist ¡°¡ª and as powerful as that wand is. . . isn¡¯t all-powerful, so think about it. . . do you want to take the risk?¡±


    The privacy spell dulled the iing voice, but right now, it was as if the magic had sucked all the voice, leaving behind a vacuum between Dumbledore and Quinn.


    ¡°. . . Why are you doing this?¡± Dumbledore asked, his voiceced with disappointment.  ¡°You have done some misdeeds, but I don¡¯t believe you to be a bad soul, Quinn.  So why would you do something so important that it concerns the people of not only this country but many others as well?  I don¡¯t believe you want to see people die.  Do you know how I see you?  I remember the young man passionate about magic; someone who wanted to pursue the depths of magic. . . Yes, I understand all of this is because of me pressurize you for the support I need to battle Voldemort, but for you to threaten so many lives to oppose this. . . why?¡±


    Quinn turned his eye away from Dumbledore and fixed them towards a window that let in warm rays of sunlight that illuminated the specks of dust in their glow.  ¡°If there¡¯s something that can sway me away from magic, then it is the people I¡¯m close to.  For them, I¡¯m willing to deviate from my goals.  From all of those people, my family is the closet, and you threatened them. . . . I¡¯m not a person with a just moral campus, Dumbledore.  I¡¯m willing to risk the lives of thousands, even millions, for my loved ones. . . . Will I be able to sleep at night with it. . . No, I think it will change me forever.  But now with my family, I shall make it right.


    I am a terrible person and a hypocrite at that, so don¡¯t put me in that category, Dumbledore.  When I put my mind to a thing, I end up working towards it until Iplete.¡±


    Quinn stayed silent and continued to stare at the window.  It was clear that he was going to say another word without listening to the speaker.


    ¡°I agree; I shall not threaten your grandfather to go public,¡± said Dumbledore,  ¡°How¡¯re you going enforce it?


    ¡°Easy, you will sign a magical contract.¡±


    Dumbledore pursed his lips, but after a lengthy back-and-forth he came to an agreement; he agreed as long as he was given a chance to read and question Quinn on it along with the legal counsel.


    Quinn chuckled, ¡°Very well, I shall guide, and you can take a thorough look before finally submitting it.¡±


    ¡°. . . What is the Horcrux¡¯s identity?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    ¡°It is the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup, of course.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I have other ns.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C Not how he saw the meeting going.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C No, Quinn hasn¡¯t gotten that one yet


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 383 Living Independently

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was early in the morning.


    Quinn ced his dirty breakfast dishes into the sink.  The cleaning utensils rose as the water spouted from the tap, and soap bubbled up in the sink.  He shook his hands, and a scouring scrubbed his hands clean as he moved towards the condo¡¯s front door in Central London.  The suitcase


    flew into his grip as he walked out to greet the new day.


    ¡°Good morning, John!¡±


    As Quinn locked the door to his rental house, he heard a chirpy shrill voice.  He looked to the left to see a plump, homely woman with a big red smile walking towards with the energy of a hundred suns.  Even though he was wide awake, he found this neighbor of his to be too bright.


    ¡°Mrs. Carrott,¡± he put on a smile, ¡°a good morning to you as well.  I hope you¡¯re doing well today.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m chipper if nothing else.  Off to work, dear?¡± she beamed.  When Quinn nodded, she asked, ¡°Have you given it a thought, dear?  Ang is a sweet church-going girl and very beautiful.  I¡¯m sure you both will like each other.  Should I set up a meeting?¡±


    Quinn sighed inside.  He was John.  A twenty-something living alone in London, with parents in Liverpool.  He had designed the looks of the current version of ¡®John¡¯ to be such that people wouldn¡¯t give him a second look¡ª not attractive, but also unattractive enough to catch the eye.  He was the image of mediocrity¡ª just like he preferred.  However, for some reason, Mrs. Carrott, his new neighbor, an idle housewife with nothing upying her free time, fancied herself to be something of a matchmaker, and despite Quinn¡¯s current average features, she found him to be a target of her matchmaking.


    All of it was because of the details he had put in his background.  A college graduate working a corporate job in finance that he had given himself as it was easiest for him to pretend.  That background seemed to be a big plus point in her eyes.  Moreover, even with his current background, he wasn¡¯t able to leave behind his style of clothes¡ª which were high-grade suits. . . and that ended up giving Mrs. Carrott the idea that he made good money. . . which while true, wasn¡¯t supposed to be a part of his disguise.


    ¡°I would¡¯ve to pass, Mrs. Carrott.  I¡¯m currently not looking to be in a rtionship,¡± even though he was out, living under disguise, it didn¡¯t mean that he was untethered from his two very thriving rtionships.  ¡°Right now, I¡¯m trying to keep myself focused on my job. . . it would be unfair to Ang.¡±


    Quinn thought he had made his point, but it turned out he was wrong.  Mrs. Carrott waved her hand in dismissal, ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t need to overthink this.  Meet her once, and if you still think it will be a problem, this olddy will give it a rest.¡±


    Quinn ticked his neck.  He had been listening to this spiel for a few days now¡ª the first thing when he left home and thest thing before he returned back¡ª it was in small doses, but the irritation had pilled up.


    ¡°Mrs. Carrott. . . you¡¯re not a nice person.¡±


    ¡°. . . Pardon?¡±


    ¡°You barely know me. . . nowhere enough that you should be trying to set up your cousin¡¯s daughter with a stranger who you nothing of substance about.¡±


    Mrs. Carrott was stunned with the surprised eye, but the more she heard, the more offended she got.  She burst open like a cap on a shaken-up soda.  ¡°Listen here, young man¡ª¡±


    Quinn raised his hand, and the woman sent zip silent.  ¡°I didn¡¯t want to use magic, as it undermines my disguise and acting skills, but I think this will be the best for both of us.¡±  He gently nudged her broad wrinkled forehead, and her eyes turned white, ¡°Let¡¯s make it so that you lose interest in your new neighbor,¡± he nted some key suggestions, ¡°and I will do you by not showing you my face for a while to let the suggestions set.¡±


    Quinn turned Mrs. Carrott around and pushed her towards her home with the final suggestion of going to sleep to cement his suggestions in her mind.


    After he was done with the annoying neighbor problem, Quinn exited the condo building situated in a safer middle-ss area.  He looked around the silent residential block.  For the first time in his life, he was living on his own in a ce of his own¡ª it was unlike Hogwarts, where he had roommates and was aided by a staff of house-elves under the eye of school professors¡ª here, he had total freedom from everyone other than his house owner who he had to pay rent.


    But he had to say, he wasn¡¯t expecting his first freedom living situation toe this way.  Running away from home, hiding from all the parties that could be looking for him.  He had thought this time woulde after he hadpleted his apprenticeship with n because the old mind master had said that if Quinn wanted to learn, then he had to stay with him.


    He looked up at the sky with sparse clouds.  Living out of his suitcase in an empty studio apartment was yet another thing that his actions forced him to do.


    ¡°Time to go to work, I guess,¡± he cleared his throat before apparating out of the empty street.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    It was a Hogsmeade weekend, and the students of Hogwarts were pouring down to the all-magical vige. . . was what it would be like in any other year, but this year Dark Lord Voldemort had shown his face enough times that the much-anticipated outings were canceled, disappointing and frustrating many youths who looked forward to it.


    Hogwarts had been advertised as the safest ce in the country, and the trip needed to go to maintain that image.


    But not all could be kept inside like caged birds.  They needed their free space, especially when they received an enticing call from the outside world.


    One such person was Daphne Greengrass, who had received a message on her secret MagiFax-ID, which including her only two people knew existed.  The blonde Slytherin followed the path that Recon had pointed out to her, taking steps echoing in anticipation and impatience as he exited a secret passageway leading outside the castle.


    And there he was, standing in front of the passageway. . . looking the same as he did thest time she had seen him.  ¡°Quinn!¡± Daphne eximed as she ran to him and leaped into his arm.


    Quinn hugged Daphne back and clutched her close.  He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the moment for what it was.  Long-distance rtionships where they couldn¡¯t meet, with letters and the asional face-to-face chat was the only point of contact, were tough.


    ¡°I missed you,¡± he whispered as he pulled her into a deep kiss.


    ¡°I missed you too,¡± she replied with a smile, but after a while, as Quinn didn¡¯t let go, Daphne asked if something was wrong, ¡°Quinn, is something wrong?¡±


    ¡°. . . I missed you,¡± he said again.  He finally pulled back and let her go but kept her eyes on the girl of his dreams.


    ¡°What is it?¡± she asked, worry sshing in her eyes.


    For a moment, the cat got Quinn¡¯s tongue.  His mind was at war with his heart about if he should reveal the secret to her.  He had already told his family; it was only normal that he told his girlfriend that they might go after her if someone came after him.


    ¡°I have to tell you something,¡± he said and then willingly opened the vault to his secret.  ¡°I am the Invisible Vignte. . .¡±


    The amount of time stern-faced Daphne¡¯s expression jumped may have been a personal record as she went through an entire range of emotions.  By the end of it, she was on edge as the story that Quinn had told her only went up and up.  He made sure to keep the information about the Horcrux out of the story as that wasn¡¯t a secret for him to share.


    ¡°You. . . you faced the Dark Lord twice!¡± her dainty fingers clutching his clothes until they turned white.  ¡°You could¡¯ve died!  I-I could¡¯ve lost you.  You were thirteen years old?!  You-You-You¡ª¡±


    ¡°I have killed people,¡± said Quinn with his head down.  ¡°And I know if you wanted to not associate with me, that. . . would be fine with me.  It would be better for you to not associate with me as it may bring you uninvited trouble.¡± Quinn continued under Daphne¡¯s eye, who single-mindedly stared at him.  ¡°But don¡¯t worry, I will continue to treat Astoria.  I¡¯ve improved since we started, meaning if I wanted, I can switch it to one every two months while maintaining the safety standard; I think that¡¯ll be better for everyone. . . Daphne?  Daphne?¡±


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know how to feel about it,¡± she said, and Quinn pulled away at those words, but Daphne pulled him back close, ¡°but I know that I don¡¯t want to leave or have you leaving me. . . so don¡¯t talk about this nonsense.¡±


    The words brought warmth to Quinn¡¯s heart.  He was frightened that the blood on his hands would drive away.  But here he was with his girlfriend, who had shown a reaction much more favorable than he could¡¯ve ever imagined.  He could see her hesitation and turmoil in her eyes, but he couldn¡¯t see fear while she stood close to him without¡ª there was no revulsion about what he had told her.


    It felt great.  Ever since he left the house, his grandfather¡¯s reaction when he told him the truth dominated his mind; the fact that he had used magic against him bothered him like a splinter in the sole of his feet.  Telling Daphne and seeing her reaction felt like he was in the healing room of the Aquatic vault but much-much better.


    ¡°Saying that, I don¡¯t like that you¡¯re going around who knows where hunting Death Eaters.  It is dangerous, and I would rather you stop and let your grandfather take care of the mess with Dumbledore.¡±  Daphne sighed as she looked up at him, ¡°But you¡¯re not going to stop, are you?¡±


    Quinn shook his head.  He had gone far too long to just hang the coat and return home.


    ¡°Just. . . Just try to be safe, okay?  I-I wouldn¡¯t know what to do if you suddenly went missing.¡±  She clutched his arms tightly, ¡°You have to talk to me every day. . .¡±  She reached into her pocket and took out a pair of mirrors that looked awfully familiar to the ones that he and Ivy shared¡ª but on a closer look, it was of a different design.  ¡°I made ones on my own; I want you to talk to me every day; I won¡¯t take no for an answer.¡±


    Quinn received the mirror and stared at the reflective surface.  He could tell it was supposed to have the same function, but the magic used to create that functionality was different from Ivy¡¯s mirror.


    ¡°. . . Thank you, this means a lot,¡± he said.


    ¡°Have you told her?¡± she asked.


    Quinn shook his head as he looked up at the castle.  ¡°Not yet.  I have yet to meet or talk to her. . . it is going to be another challenge in its own way.¡±


    ¡°Do you want me to put in a word?¡±


    ¡°No. . . it is fine.  I will do it on my own.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Time for truth.


    Daphne Greengrass ¨C Comforting ¨C Has learned to get things out of Quinn when needed.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 384 The Price Paid

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°No. . . it is fine.  I will do it on my own.¡±


    . . .


    That conversation started in a way that he wasn¡¯t expecting.


    ¡°You did the right thing,¡± Ivy said, and there was a sense of pride in her words.  ¡°Those disgusting Death Eaters deserved their fate.  You don¡¯t need to me yourself for anything¡ª who knows what would¡¯ve happened if they were left alive, they would¡¯ve gone after some Muggle-born or muggle.  They might¡¯ve even harmed the Aurors there.  You did well.¡±


    Quinn stared at the girl.  Like the different magic used in two pairs of two-way mirrors, both girls had their unique reactions.  Daphne had been ufortable with his confession, and he knew that it would take some effort from his side to bring things back to normal, stronger than before.  But Ivy didn¡¯t show any revulsion to his actions¡ª it was definitely because of his victims, but the fact remained that she was ignoring that he was a killer.


    ¡°. . . You¡¯re fine with me being the Invisible Vignte?¡±


    ¡°Of course not!¡± she said, smacking his shoulder.  It seemed he had thought too soon.  ¡°It is dangerous!  The Death Eaters are trying to kill you.  The Aurors and even the Hit Wizards are allowed to use substantial force against you.  I¡¯m afraid the next time you pop up in front of any one of those people, they¡¯ll try to take your head off.  Do you think anyone¡¯s girlfriend would like that?¡±


    ¡°It is fine; as long as they don¡¯t get me in my sleep¡ª or poison me¡ª they won¡¯t get to me,¡± said Quinn and got another smack from Ivy.


    ¡°Don¡¯t joke about that,¡± she fixed him with a mock re.  Ivy sighed, ¡°I can¡¯t believe Dumbledore tried to ckmail you,¡± she looked revulsed.  ¡°Just wait till I tell mum and dad¡ª I could only imagine what the next Order meeting would be like.¡±


    ¡°No-no, don¡¯t do that.  I don¡¯t want this to go out more than it needs to.  No offense to the Order of Phoenix; they stand for something important, but I don¡¯t trust the people I have never met, and there are so many Aurors in the secret group. . . that could only go one way.¡±


    Ivy pursed her lips in dissatisfaction before agreeing to keep quiet.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me how you made Dumbledore stop from going to your grandfather?¡± she asked.


    There it was.  This was why he had gone to Daphne before Ivy.  It was this part of the talk that he wanted to avoid more than he wanted to avoiding out to his family as the Invisible Vignte.


    ¡°About that. . . because he ckmailed me, I held something he would care about hostage over his head,¡± said Quinn, his voice softer than usual.


    For a moment, he didn¡¯t know what to do with his hand and what expression to make as Ivy listened to him attentively.  A part of his mind was telling him to make another excuse and hope that it¡¯d hold for a lifetime, but he knew that wouldn¡¯t work.


    ¡°I told him that if he didn¡¯t stop, I was going to hide one of the Dark Lord¡¯s Horcrux,¡± the moment he said, Ivy¡¯s expression turned.  The green eyes widened as her face twisted in red anger like her hair; her narrow shoulders trembled, and blood receded from her hand as she clutched a fest.  ¡°Ivy, listen, I¡¯m sorry, I should¡¯ve¡ª¡±


    He reached out to hold her only to get a tight slip in return.


    ¡°Y-You!¡± she breathed heavily.  ¡°I was expecting you to have secrets, you bastard!  I knew that it would take time for you to open up to me; that you¡¯d share them a little-by-little over time, and I didn¡¯t mind for it to happen this way. . . I was ready for it to slow because I knew it was going to be rewarding.¡±  She roughly pushed him, ¡°But you do this!¡± she yelled.  ¡°You know how important this is to me!  To Harry; to my family!  You knew this, didn¡¯t you?!¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes, but Ivy¡ª.¡±


    ¡°Then WHY?!  Why did you hide this?!¡±  She weakly staggered a step away from him, ¡°Is this what it¡¯s going to be like, Quinn. . . being in a rtionship with you?  Finding these secrets of yours that keep hurting me?¡±


    ¡°No, of course not.  I had to¡ª¡±


    Ivy shook her head distraughtly.  ¡°You had a Horcrux with you, Quinn!  My brother¡¯s life depends on one of those.  You knew that, of course!  I wouldn¡¯t know about it otherwise.  Why in the world would you hide it?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know if I could trust anyone with that knowledge.  It was too dangerous.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re talking like Dumbledore,¡± she scoffed.


    ¡°I am not!¡± Quinn protested.  ¡°Unlike Dumbledore, I have worked alone from the start.  Even after I was revealed to be in knowledge of the Horcrux, I wasn¡¯t keen on working together with that old maniptive bastard.  I couldn¡¯t tell you about the others because that would¡¯ve meant you telling your family, who would¡¯ve undoubtedly told it to Dumbledore¡ª and then the maniptive Headmaster would¡¯ve tried to spin some scheme that I didn¡¯t want any part of.


    And if you don¡¯t remember, Quinn West wasn¡¯t associated with the Invisible Vignte back then.¡±


    There was tension between the two.  It was dawning on him that Ivy was going to take much more effort than Daphne. . . that is, if this rtionship was salvageable after today.


    ¡°Why haven¡¯t you destroyed the Horcrux yet?¡± she asked.  ¡°If you have it, you should¡¯ve destroyed it.¡±


    ¡°I have my reasons,¡± he said.


    ¡°And what might they be?¡±


    ¡®That I don¡¯t have the bloody Horcrux, that it is locked in a vault inside Gringotts, that¡¯s why?¡¯ he thought.  But it wasn¡¯t something he could say.  ¡°I can¡¯t tell you that,¡± he said.  ¡°If I tell it to you, there¡¯s a good chance that Dumbledore would know about it.¡±


    ¡°What, you think I will tattle to Dumbledore?¡± Ivy sounded offended.


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think that,¡± Quinn sighed.  He pointed to his temple, ¡°But I don¡¯t trust Dumbledore with your mind.  I¡¯m half sure that he knows of our rtionship¡ª that man has an eye for people and human nature¡ª and if I told you the specifics, I wouldn¡¯t put it past him to not try to pull that information out of your head. . . so no, I can¡¯t tell you.¡±


    He knew that it wasn¡¯t a good look and not in any way a solution to the problem.  But he hoped that Ivy¡¯s logical mind would see his reasoning. . .


    ¡°I don¡¯t care, tell me,¡± she said.


    ¡°Ivy. . .¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m your girlfriend, and my brother is a living Horcrux.  I don¡¯t care about Dumbledore or the game of schemes he¡¯s ying; I want to know,¡± she said.


    ¡°It will put my family at risk,¡± Quinn argued.


    ¡°I only wish to know why haven¡¯t you destroyed it yet.  Can¡¯t you even tell that much?¡± she said, stepping closer to Quinn.  ¡°You¡¯re not the only one who cares about their family.¡±


    Quinn gritted his teeth.  He turned away from Ivy; his hand went to his hair as he paced a few steps.  He turned back to her with a look that said he wasn¡¯t pleased about what he was about to do, but with a sigh of resignation, he stepped closer to Ivy and pulled out a chain from around his neck with a triangr locket hanging from it.


    ¡°For an answer, I will only show you this,¡± Quinn grabbed the locket in his fist, and when he opened it up, there was a ck carved gemstoneid upon it.  ¡°Look at this design. . . yes, the triangle one. . . this is why I haven¡¯t destroyed the Horcrux.¡±


    ¡°What is this?¡± she asked as Quinn ced the ck stone on her palm.


    ¡°I want to rid the world of the Dark Lord.  Horcrux makes him unkible, and so to make him mortal, we destroy them¡ª that much we already know.  But after that, we still need a way to kill him and someone as powerful as the Dark Lord.  Yes, we have Dumbledore; despite that, it is in our best interest to weaken him.  I¡¯m trying to find a way we can aplish that.¡±


    ¡°And this will help you do that?¡±


    Quinn curled his finger, and the ck gemstone rose from Ivy¡¯s palm.  ¡°I think it will. . . I hope it will,¡±  he said, grabbing the stone.


    ¡°What exactly is it?¡± she asked, her eyes on Quinn¡¯s chest where the locket sat.


    ¡°That is for you to find,¡± he said, confusing Ivy.  ¡°If you can find what it is, you will find the answer to what I¡¯m trying to do.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t you tell me directly?!¡± she eximed, confused.


    Quinn stepped close to Ivy and put a gentle hand on her cheek.  She seemed to freeze as if she wanted to pull back but hesitated to do so.  ¡°I can¡¯t give you the entire truth because I fear that when you find the meaning, you will go out looking for trouble.  So I give you this tiny sliver hoping that it will keep you busy until I have figured out what I wanted,¡± he said.


    ¡°. . . Is this all really necessary?¡± Ivy asked.  ¡°You don¡¯t want me to go in danger while you intend to go out there doing who knows what.¡±


    Quinn weakly chuckled, ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you a long time ago before we were even friends. . . I¡¯m a hypocrite of the highest grade, Ivy.  You knew what you were getting into,¡± he paused, ¡°do you regret it?¡±


    ¡°The feeling I have is not regret, but I don¡¯t know what is. . . . Want to take a look inside and tell me what they actually are?¡± she asked, leaning in closer.  Quinn couldn¡¯t tell if she was tempting or daring him.


    He pushed her away, ¡°I don¡¯t use Legilimency on people close to me.  You know that, Ivy.¡±


    Ivy pulled away and began stepping back towards the passageway where she hade from.  ¡°That¡¯s the problem, Quinn.  Right now, I can¡¯t tell if you¡¯re speaking the truth or lying because of something you can¡¯t tell me.¡±


    ¡°Ivy, please. . .¡±


    Ivy shook her head, and without saying a single word, she disappeared from his sight, leaving behind Quinn standing alone with clouds thundering above in the sky.


    He clenched his fist hard enough to draw blood.  It had been only a few days since Dumbledore had first approached him, and so much had changed¡ª he had lost his home, the trust of his family, and had damaged his rtionship with the two people he loved from the bottom of his heart¡ª and now, in this moment, he couldn¡¯t even tell if they could be repaired.


    Was all of this his fault?  Having the knowledge of a possible future had made him get involved when there was no need for him to do so.  Or was it the fault of the Dark Lord who was the root of all problems, who would not stop until he got the rule he wanted?


    ¡®This is all Voldemort¡¯s fault,¡¯ he thought.  Quinn repeated it again inside his head to assure himself of his views, strengthening the feeling of hate and anger inside him.


    However, despite all of that, he couldn¡¯t stop hating himself.


    He felt something slide down the side of his face.  He looked up as drizzle began falling from the overcast sky full of dark clouds.  In moments, the heavens cried down on him, and he stood there taking what it gave.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C ¡°. . .¡±


    Ivy Potter ¨C Confronting ¨C Has full intention of exploring what Quinn has given her.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Well. . . shit.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 385 Another Hunt

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn exited a dusty alleyway into a busy street of London.  He joined the people and passed by everything from book shops and music stores to hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but none of them were his destination today.


    He kept walking until he stopped to peer through the crowd of people going through their lives to the tiny, grubby-looking pub on the other side of the road.  If not for him looking for it, he wouldn¡¯t have noticed it was there.  The people hurrying by didn¡¯t nce at it.  Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn¡¯t see the building with the sign, Leaky Cauldron, at all.


    For a famous ce, it was very dark and shabby.  A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny sses of sherry.  One of them was smoking a long pipe.  A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut.  No one paid him any mind as he entered and walked by.  Quinn tipped his hat to Tom, the bartender, as he led himself through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.


    Quinn looked over his shoulder to ensure he was alone before knocking three bricks with his knuckle.


    The brick he had touched quivered ¡ª it wriggled ¡ª in the middle, a small hole appeared ¡ª it grew wider and wider ¡ª a secondter, they were facing an archwayrge enough even for the tallest of individuals, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.  He stepped through it and nced over his shoulder to ensure that it had shrunk instantly into the solid wall.


    He walked through the semi-crowded street of Diagon Alley, ncing at the various shops doing business.  He even passed by Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, his first investment in Diagon Alley, to arrive at the snowy white building that towered over the other little shops.  Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a goblin.


    Quinn snapped his fingers, and a burst of magic coursed out in a dome.  Everyone around him, including the vignt goblin guard¡¯s eyes, went hazy, and they didn¡¯t notice how the gangly,nky middle-aged man with brown hair and hazel eyes turned into a fit young man with ink-ck hair and stone-gray eyes.


    He walked up the steps and walked by the goblin, who wasn¡¯t even half his height, and was thereafter greeted by the second pair of doors, silver this time, with the infamous engravings:


    [


    Enter, stranger, but take heed


    Of what awaits the sin of greed,


    For those who take, but do not earn,


    Must pay most dearly in their turn.


    So if you seek beneath our floors


    A treasure that was never yours,


    Thief, you have been warned, beware


    Of finding more than treasure there.


    ]


    ¡°Well, not today,¡± he muttered quietly.


    A pair of goblins bowed him through the silver doors, and they were in a vast marble hall.  About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling inrge ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyesses.  There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, yet more goblins showed people in and out of these.  No matter what time, money always flowed through hands.  He made his way to the counter.


    ¡°Morning,¡± said Quinn to the free gobin.  ¡°I¡¯vee here to meet Bogrod for some urgent business.¡±


    ¡°Whom did you say?¡± asked the goblin teller, his nted eyes narrowing.


    ¡°Bogrod.¡±


    ¡°Director Bogrod?¡± asked the teller.


    Quinn thought of the Bogrod he had met thest time, and from how the old goblin had been treated, he could definitely be a director, so he said yes.  The teller, however, seemed skeptical; he asked, ¡°Do you have an appointment?¡±


    ¡°No, I do not.  But, I assure you, he would like to meet me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but the director won¡¯t meet a hu¡ª anyone without an appointment.¡±


    Quinn pursed his lips.  He didn¡¯t think he would be able to directly get to Bogrod.  ¡®Time to aim for somewhere low,¡¯ he thought.  ¡°Then can I meet Teller Riphook?¡± he said.


    ¡°Floor manager Riphook?¡±


    ¡°Floor manager Riphook it is,¡± he smiled.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir, I don¡¯t¡ª¡± the teller stopped as his eyes trailed behind.  Quinn followed the teller¡¯s eyes.  While most people wouldn¡¯t be able to distinguish between goblins, Quinn could clearly tell apart every single one.  He immediately left the station, ignoring the teller¡¯s calls behind him.


    ¡°Riphook,¡± called Quinn to the goblin, which he and the teller had spotted.  The goblin with a swarthy, clever face, and a pointed beard, turned to his name being called.  For a moment, the better-dressed goblin stared at Quinn as if trying to identify who the human was, but when it clicked, he eximed.


    ¡°Mr. West?!¡±


    ¡°Good, you recognized me,¡± smiled Quinn.  He looked Riphook up and down, ¡°It might bete, but congrattions on the promotion.¡±  He had a strong intuition that the deal he had stuck all those years back was the reason for it.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± said Riphook, surprise still lingering on his face.


    ¡°It¡¯s good that I found you, Riphook.  I have some work that I need to take care of.¡±


    The goblin teller that Quinn had talked to came running on his long-yet-short feet.  He said between huffs, ¡°I tried to stop him, sir, but the wizard¡ª¡±  Riphook raised his hand and motioned the teller to go away.  The teller looked to confirm before bowing and moving back to his station.  ¡°What can I do for you today, Mr. West?¡± asked Riphook.


    ¡°I would like to meet Bogrod,¡± Quinn got straight to the point.  ¡°I have a very attractive proposition for him.  Know, I know that it is difficult for a person to meet, Director Bogrod, but if you could set up a meeting,¡± he smiled, ¡°I would surely put in a good word. . .¡±


    The goblin¡¯s face twitched with emotions.  He gulped, ¡°I will see what I can do.  For now, let¡¯s go to one of our lounges.¡±


    Quinn smiled, ¡°That¡¯d be perfect.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    It took half an hour after Riphook left Quinn alone in a posh lounge for him to get the meeting he wanted.


    ¡°Mr. West,¡± walked in the old goblin with the wrinkliest skin he had seen on a goblin.  ¡°We haven¡¯t met since the time we made the exchange. . .¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, the time I sold you a thousand-year-old set of ancient Gringotts-minted coins. . . which I have to say was a bargain because those coins are a worth lot more as a set,¡± smiled Quinn.  ¡°Then I generously gifted you another set of coins which you then leveraged to get your current position.  I heard it is a big deal.¡±  He got straight to business.


    ¡°Which I remember was in exchange for the information about the cursed magic that you for some reason wanted to know more about, ¡°Bogrod¡¯s cane clicked against the marble floor as he sat down in front of him.  ¡°Bloodpike, your ount manager, told me that you have an attractive proposition for me.  Why don¡¯t we hear about it?¡±


    ¡°Good, let¡¯s get into it,¡± Quinn put his hand into his suit and retrieved a long rectangle box of one and a half feet in length.  ¡°Today, I have brought you something of great importance to the goblin nation,¡± he snapped open the locks, opened the lock, and smiled when he saw Bogrod lean forward, putting his weight on his cane.  ¡°I checked the age, and you¡¯ll be delighted to know that this is a hundred years old than the coins.¡±


    The way Bogrod sharply inhaled was like music to Quinn¡¯s ears.  He turned the box to face Bogrod and said, ¡°I present to you. . . a goblin-crafted knight¡¯s dagger.¡±


    Bogrod¡¯s eyes glittered with gold from the gold iid into the grip.  Quinn didn¡¯t have much practical experience with traditional cksmithing, but when he had handled the knife, it was one of the better and more bnced knives he had held in his life.  Bogrod picked up the dagger with his bony fingers and pulled the de out of its sheath.


    ¡°The fuller is sturdy, the edges so sharp and smooth, and the central ridge flows right into the sold point,¡± Bogrod¡¯s hand felt every part of the knife and even got up to swing the de a couple times.  ¡°This is a masterpiece from the Ragnok Era.  The craftsmanship with the metal is fabulous,¡± he flicked the edge, and it produced a voice like a tuning fork.  Quinn could feel magic in the sound magic.  Bogrod sheathed the dagger, reced it in the box, and said, ¡°The dagger is the property of goblin; you must return it immediately.¡±


    ¡°We both know that goblin and the human sense of ownership aren¡¯t the same,¡± said Quinn, crossing his legs and resting his hands on his knees.  To a goblin, the rightful and true master of any object was the maker, not the purchaser.  All goblin-made objects were, in goblin eyes, rightfully theirs.  When bought, it was considered to be rented by the one who paid the price.  They had, however, great difficulty with the idea of goblin-made objects passing from human to human.  For the goblins kind, the objects ought to have been returned to the goblins once the original purchaser died.  They consider the ¡°habit¡± of keeping goblin-made objects, passing them down to the family without further payment, little more than theft.  Bogrod saw the dagger as the property of goblin because of the age of said dagger.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to just hand the dagger back to the goblin nation, and I¡¯m sure that you¡¯ll give me an exuberant amount of money in exchange for the money in exchange for it,¡± said Quinn, making Bogrod¡¯s vein twitch and nostril flutter.  ¡°But if you remember, this is supposed to be an attractive deal, so if you want to listen, I have a deal I think you¡¯ll like.¡±


    Quinn knew that Bogrod would feel as if a hundred ants were crawling over him if he asked for money in exchange for the dagger because in goblin-sensibility, the dagger wasn¡¯t his property, and even the possession of it was theft against the goblin nation.  Offering an alternate deal was his way of making Bogrod not feel like he was interacting with a thief, or at least with a dishonest human.  That, along with Quinn¡¯s previous generosity, was enough for Bogrod to listen without feeling massively offended.


    ¡°Speak,¡± said the goblin, his eyes on the dagger.


    ¡°I have reliable information that one of your vaults is being misused.  One of your esteemed clients has exposed the revered vaults of Gringotts to a terrible magic ¡ª something so evil that it would horrify the Gringotts goblins to their core,¡± said Quinn, but his words confused Bogrod as much as he was concerned.


    ¡°What magic and vault?¡±


    ¡°I can tell you all.  In return, I want the object on which the magic was cast intact.  I will take it away from Gringotts, and no goblin shall ever again have to see its sight or feel its presence.¡±


    ¡°No, that is against the rules,¡± Bogrod thumped his cane on the ground, ¡°Gringotts can¡¯t give a vault¡¯s contents to another person without the owner¡¯s consent.  If a cursed item in a vault vites Gringottsw, then we will destroy it and exact fines and penalties for the vition.¡±  A gleam in Bogrod¡¯s eyes said that Gringotts would extort the fines no matter what.


    Quinn knew all of that; he had read every Gringotts contract he could get his hands on, and while he wasn¡¯t an expert atw, he had read enough and explored enough tangents to know that Gringotts wasn¡¯t going to let him barge into a vault and take thing willy-nilly even if it was in great vition.


    ¡°I understand, and that¡¯s why I offer this dagger to Gringotts. . . or to you Bogrod. . . to make an exception.  Gringotts can pretend that they expunged the dark object from their premise. . . just instead of destroying it, you give it to me,¡± Quinn slightly pushed the box towards Bogrod with a smile.  ¡°I¡¯m sure it will help some things up. . . but if you can¡¯t, we can always call off the deal,¡± he gently pushed the lid, and with a finger twitch, the two locks snapped into their ces.  ¡°So, what do you say, Director Bogrod?¡±


    Bogrod stared at the knife with hunger in his eyes that even the hardened negotiator couldn¡¯t hide.  The goblin-made knife was that much of a temptation.


    ¡°. . . What is the terrible magic you talk about?¡± asked Bogrod.


    ¡°Oh, you know, we talked about it before.¡±


    ¡°We talked about it before?  When did we¡ª¡±  Bogrod¡¯s eyes almost popped out of their socket as he sought a wild confirmation in Quinn, who smiled with a shrug.  Bogrod spoke the next word as if he tasting every syble on his tongue,


    ¡°A Horcrux?¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I grease some palms with metal.


    Bogrod ¨C Director ¨C A possible opportunity of a lifetime, presents itself to him; will he take it, or. . . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 386 Fifth Capture

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°A Horcrux?¡±  Bogrod¡¯s expression went through a journey from a journey from shocking-surprise to stern anger and finally ended on a negotiating poker face.  ¡°There¡¯s a Horcrux in a Gringotts vault?  Mr. West, do you understand¡ª¡±  His pupils shrunk as his eyes widened; the goblin snarled and punched down his cane, sending a wave of magic out.  ¡°You knew!  You knew there was a Horcrux in our vaults!  That¡¯s why you asked.  You were discerning Gringotts¡¯ attitude towards Horcrux!  You cretin wizard!¡±


    Quinn took no offense at the harsh words.  He lightly shrugged with a serene face and ran a hand through his hair ruffled by Bogrod¡¯s magic.  ¡°If that¡¯s how you want to put it, I won¡¯t deny it.  But do you think it matters now?  The fact remains that there may or may not be a soul container in a vault somewhere down underground.¡±


    ¡°May or may not?¡±


    ¡°It depends on how would you like to proceed,¡± said Quinn.  Decline him cooperation, Gringotts could forget the Horcrux.  ¡°Gringotts can try to find the Horcrux on their own by searching every single vault, or you can barter my help and get the job done. . . which I¡¯m bringing along with an incentive none could decline,¡± he pointed at the dagger box.  ¡°What do you say?  How about we ink this deal in, and by the end of the day, both parties will be on their ways happy.¡±


    The goblin made no sign of encouragement, but continued to frown at


    Quinn as though he had never seen anything like him.


    ¡°I need to think about it.  Give me a week¡ª¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Quinn shut that line of thought down, ¡°this needs to happen now.  You need to make your decision right here, and we need to end the entire operation by the end of the day.  I don¡¯t want this to get covered by red tape full of pointless discussions about Gringottsw and the cooperation between goblin and human¡ª it will only serve to make thingsplicated and slow.  Director Bogrod,¡± he emphasized the title, ¡°make the call¡ª do you want to do it now or never.¡±


    Bogrod growled threateningly at Quinn, who sat still and unperturbed.  The way he had put it wasn¡¯t pretty, but it was the truth; if he let Bogrod sleep on the matter, the chances of this seeding would plummet faster than a brick in the sky.  He needed to green-light the deal before Bogrod stepped out of the room.


    ¡°If there was a wizard of whom I would believe that they did not seek


    personal gain,¡± said Bogrod finally, ¡°you would be thest person I think of, Quinn West.  It is people like you who have kept the right to carry the wand away from goblins and refuse to share the secrets of wandlore with other magical beings; they deny us the possibility of extending our powers!¡±


    Quinn raised both his hand and showed his palm.  ¡°I don¡¯t use wands, so I couldn¡¯t care less who gets to use a wand.  And it¡¯s not like your kind is any better¡ª goblins won¡¯t share any of their magic either; you won¡¯t tell us how to make swords and armor the way you do.  Believe me, I have tried to find something that could stand up, but goblins know how to work metal in a way I could kill for.¡±  He had consoled himself by reminding himself of the fact that he founded Aegis and created the entire product by himself, which was now giving goblin-made wards apetition.


    Quinn shrugged.


    Bogrod gave a nastyugh.  ¡°It is against our code to speak of the secrets of Gringotts.  We are the guardians of fabulous treasures.  We have a duty to the objects ced in our care, which were, so often, wrought by our fingers.¡±  The goblin stroked the cane, and his ck eyes roved over Quinn.  ¡°I will help you.  I shall lead you to the vault, and you shall take away the Horcrux; in return, I get the goblin-made dagger.¡±


    ¡°Excellent, a quick and simple deal, just the way I like it,¡± Quinn smiled, but his smile drained from his face.  ¡°But beware goblin, try to cross me in any way, and the aftermath will not be desirable. . .¡±


    His eyes turned purple, and an eruption of magic saturated the air in the room, and then it began overflowing, creating a suffocating atmosphere in the room.  Bogrod started to breathe heavily as he stared at Quinn.  He looked around the door as though expecting something.


    ¡°Don¡¯t expect the guards,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°They will onlye in if the wards are triggered,¡± he shook his head, making Bogrod¡¯s eye tremble.  The next second, the suffocating magic disappeared like it never existed, leaving behind a refreshing gust of wind, cooling down the room.


    ¡°I simply wish for a day on betrayals, but if I¡¯m faced with a situation where I feel threatened, I shall try my hardest to damage Gringotts reputation of being the safest ce in the country,¡± he delivered ttery amongst the threat by sidelining Hogwarts from thepetition.  ¡°Don¡¯t be greedy, Bogrod.  Take whatever is being offered and be satisfied.¡±


    Quinn uncrossed his legs before folding them the other way.  He put on a polite smile, ¡°Please tell me when you¡¯re ready.  I can start anytime.¡±


    . . .


    Bogrod led Quinn to the front hall with all the tellers.  As they walked behind the long row of counters, the old goblins spoke, ¡°I need to know the vault in question, so I can ask for the key for it.¡±


    Quinn gave Bogrod a studying nce before casually saying, ¡°Betrix Lestrange.¡±  Bogrod¡¯s face twisted exactly the way Quinn was expecting.  Bogrod stopped in his steps with the cane skidding a mark on the white marble; he looked at Quinn as though he was seeing a vampire allergic to blood.


    No words were exchanged, and Bogrod resumed walking, but he had taken mere a couple of steps when he again came to a halt.  Bogrod whipped his head towards Quinn and sputtered in disbelief, ¡°A-Are you saying that it is. . . his?!¡±  Even the goblins feared Voldemort not speaking his name while being inside Gringotts.


    ¡°It might or might not be,¡± said Quinn


    Bogrod made a grunt before continuing onto an office behind the counters.  He knocked on the door with a door sign that said: Riphook, Floor Manager.  Before they entered, Quinn stopped Bogrod and whispered, ¡°Let¡¯s keep the conversation in English exclusively, shall we?¡±


    Bogrod red at Quinn before opening the door.  Riphook hastily stood up from his chair.  ¡°Sir, you didn¡¯t have toe down here; you could¡¯ve called sent for me; I would¡¯vee to you.¡±


    ¡°Riphook, I¡¯m going to ask you to do something for me; I hope you can keep it a secret.  Can you do that for me, Riphook?¡± asked Bogrod, getting straight to the point.


    ¡°Of course, sir.  You have my tongue,¡± said Riphook, with a warrior¡¯s look.


    ¡°Good man,¡± Bogrod said proudly.  ¡°I want the nkers to the Betrix Lestrange¡¯s vault¡ª¡± Riphook furrowed his brow in confusion, but as he looked between Bogrod and Quinn, a shock painted his face, but as he was about to express his thoughts, Bogrod cut him off ¡°¡ª No questions asked, Riphook.  This matter is of utmost importance and concerns greatly to Gringotts. . . the nker to Betrix Lestrange¡¯s vault.¡±


    Riphook looked conflicted, but under the orders of his superior, so far above the chain, he couldn¡¯t refuse and retrieved a leather bag that seemed to be full of jangling metal, which he handed to Bogrod.


    ¡°Thank you, Riphook.  You will have the nkers within an hour,¡± said Bogrod.


    ¡°Do you know how to work the vaults?¡± asked Quinn after they left Riphook¡¯s office.


    ¡°I started as the teller, Mr. West.  I have made my career onedder climb at a time.¡±


    The keys nking, they hurried toward one of the many doors leading off the hall.  Bogrod whistled to summon a little cart that came trundling along the tracks toward them out of the darkness, which they climbed into.  With a jerk, the cart moved off, gathering speed, hen the cart began twisting and turning through thebyrinthine passages, sloping downward all the time.  Quinn could not hear anything over the rattling of the cart on the tracks: His hair flew behind him as they swerved between stctites, flying ever deeper into the earth.  He had never been down in the underground tunnels¡ª his vault only had galleons, and most of the time, he paid and ordered money by check.


    He leaned near Bogrod and yelled against the wind, but the goblin didn¡¯t hear.  He facepalmed and quoted the iconic line that Ron Weasley had once said to Hermoine Granger to himself¡ª and then used magic to send his voice to Bogrod.  ¡°This is pretty exciting,¡± he said.  ¡°Can we go faster?¡±  He got no response from Bogrod.


    They were deeper than Quinn had ever been underground; they took a hairpin bend at speed and saw ahead of them, with seconds to spare, a waterfall pounding over the track.  Quinn snapped his fingers to keep the water away, but unexpectedly, the water didn¡¯t obey and soaked him.


    Then he heard Bogrod¡¯s voice in his ear, ¡°The Thief¡¯s Downfall!  It washes away all enchantment, all magical concealment!  We entered the section that hosts Lestrange, ck, Malfoy, Nott, among many other pureblood families¡¯ vaults ¡ª the waterfall is a requirement.¡±  His voice sounded as though he was trying to convince Quinn that he couldn¡¯t break into the vaults without his help


    Quinn sighed and snapped his fingers again; this time, the water disappeared.  He was of two minds to pull off a heist involving not vaults with human wealth but goblin wealth.


    They turned a corner and saw the thing for which Quinn had been


    prepared, but it still made all of it seem insignificant.  A gigantic dragon was tethered to the ground in front of them, barring ess to four or five of the deepest vaults in the ce.  The beast¡¯s scales had turned pale and ky during its long incarceration under the ground; its eyes were milkily pink; both rear legs bore heavy cuffs from which chains led to enormous pegs driven deep into the rocky floor.  Its great spiked wings, folded close to its body, would have filled the chamber if it spread them, and when it turned its ugly head toward them, it roared with a noise that made the rock tremble, opened its mouth, and spat a jet of fire that sent them running back up the passageway.


    Bogrod took out the leather bag.  They advanced around the corner again, shaking the nkers, and the noise echoed off the rocky walls, grossly magnified so that the inside of Quinn¡¯s skull seemed to vibrate with the din.  The dragon let out another hoarse roar, then retreated.  Quinn could see it trembling, and as they drew nearer, he saw the scars made by vicious shes across its face and guessed that it had been taught to fear hot swords when it heard the sound of the nkers.


    They were going even deeper now and gathering speed.  The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners.  They went rattling over an underground ravine and came to a stop in front of a vault without a keyhole.


    ¡°Stand back,¡± said Bogrod.  He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers, and it simply melted away to reveal a cavelike opening crammed from floor to ceiling with golden coins and goblets, silver armor, the skins of strange creatures ¡ª some with long spines, others with drooping wings ¡ª potions in jeweled sks, and a skull still wearing a crown.


    ¡°Does anyone have ess to the vaults?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m the Director of Vaults; I have ess to all vaults. . . Now enter and search fast!¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t step inside.  He motioned for Bogrod to go in first.  ¡°I¡¯m not going there alone. . . in case you trap me in there alone to die.  Go on, Bogrod.¡±


    ¡°You have no trust,¡± Bogrod sneered.


    ¡°Of course not; our rtionship is purely transactional,¡± smiled Quinn.


    Both of them stepped inside, and Quinn started searching for the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup.  He sent out various light orbs into the air and lit up the entire vault.  He didn¡¯t have to search for long; Betrix had ced the Cup at a height like a prized possession.  He tapped his feet, and the winds rose him up to the height of the shelf at which the Cup sat.  Quinn stared at the little golden Cup that sparkled in a three-way spotlight: the cup that had belonged to Helga Hufflepuff, which had passed into the possession of Hepzibah Smith, from whom it had been stolen by Tom Riddle.


    He directed his magic towards the Cup and eradicated the Gemino and grante cursesid on it externally.  After confirming that it was safe to touch, he retrieved a ss box made from a unique material that could withstand Basilisk venom for some time.  Usually, the Basilisk venom needs to be made inert to be stored or kept in preserved Basilisk venom sack.  He conjured a pair of tongs, picked up the Cup, and carefully ced it inside the box before sealing it inside forter.


    ¡°That makes it five,¡± he muttered to himself with a smile.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I should get a skull. . .


    Bogrod ¨C Director of Vaults ¨C I don¡¯t believe I¡¯m doing this.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Going to college campus tomorrow.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis.

 Chapter 387 Another Hunt?

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Y-You can fly?¡±


    Quinn secured the Horcrux into one of his pockets and turned to face the shocked Bogrod who had just seen him float up to the Horcrux.  Flight wasn¡¯t something explored in the magical world, and despite the¡¯s rich history, no supernatural species without the innate ability to fly had managed to take flight.  As far as he knew, Voldemort was the only one who had managed to discover the magic of true, unaided flight.  Even his wind magic wasn¡¯t considered true flight.


    He wondered how he should respond to Bogrod.  Flight was something he had ended up locking in for the Invisible Vignte persona, and Quinn West person wasn¡¯t supposed to have.  But after a moment of thought, he came to arrive at the thought that the Invisible Vignte¡¯s flying capabilities weren¡¯t ever made public.  If DMLE was to share that information with anyone, Gringotts and goblins would be way down the list.


    ¡°Possibility of extending our powers. . . that¡¯s what you said to me before, wasn¡¯t it,¡± he spoke to the stunned goblin.  ¡°I wouldn¡¯t deny that magical foci created by the human race have allowed us to gain a certain level of dominance on the. . . but it is not an end of all solution.  There¡¯s magic coursing inside every one of us, and with all that power, it opens the door to infinite possibility.  It is only the question of who grabs the opportunity and makes the most of it.¡±  He patted Bogrod¡¯s shoulder as he walked out of the vault.  ¡°Your kind simply needs to find and aid the goblins capable and willing to chase after the infinite possibility¡ª that¡¯s how you extend power, not by being bitter about another race¡¯s fruit ofbor.¡±


    Quinn couldn¡¯t deny that even though he didn¡¯t like how his life was now, securing the fifth Horcrux and giving the rousing speech to Bogrod had put him in a jolly mood.  The only way this day could be better was if Voldemort somehow surrendered his life.


    Just as they came into the vaults, Quinn and Bogrod exited the deep underground¡ª quietly and without any problem.  No one except three souls knew what had happened.


    ¡°Give Riphook a promotion,¡± said Quinn.  He wasn¡¯t going to reveal what had happened today, and neither was Bogrod, as long as he didn¡¯t want to face the full wrath of his kind.  ¡°A promotion with increased authority and a pay bump will be enough incentive for him not to speak of today¡¯s another person.  I think that¡¯ll be best for everyone, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Bogrod nodded, but his eyes were intently staring at Quinn.  There was a mix of anticipation and threat in the ck eyes, which differed from humans.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to look at me like this,¡± smiled Quinn.  He took out the box storing the ancient dagger and handed it to the eager goblin.  ¡°I won¡¯t go back on our bargain.  Today went as it was supposed to go¡ª simple and without a fuss¡ª and I have no intention toplicate and muddle it.¡±  But Bogrod was no longer listening; his entire being was taking in the ancient glory of his ancestors.  The sight made Quinn chuckle.


    After ensuring everything was in ce, and no one had noticed something wrong, Quinn bade Bogrod farewell.  He changed his back to the John persona appearance in the lounge and stepped out of Gringotts as a happy middle-aged man.  However, by the time he had reached Leaky Cauldron, all the joy was gone, reced by suspicion and vignce.


    He was being followed.


    He was sure of it.  In the short walk from the bank to the inn, he had a prickling intuition that someone was watching him.  To confirm he had a tail, he stopped to get a bite to eat and stealthily scoured the area to find there were at least three people who were keeping note of him.  One of them even came to dine at the outdoor restaurant he was eating at; surely to keep a closer check.


    ¡®Who the hell are they?¡¯ he thought.  He had sent out a Legilimency probe out to the nearest person, but the man had a strong enough lumency that there was a possibility of alerting him.


    Quinn slowly ate his meal with his mind racing to figure out who these people were.  As he finished thest bite, he had decided to find out who these people were, why they were following him, and everything else they could give him.


    ¡®They¡¯re following me, so be it.¡¯  He exited the restaurant and took the Leaky Cauldron exit to enter the non-magical London.  He made sure to travel slowly and made it easier for them to follow after him.  A map of London materialized in his mind.  He knew theyout of major cities because of the Labyrinth project¡ª the cement of doors had taken up an extensive amount of research¡ª and a put of that research was to find areas with the least amount of non-magical activity.


    Incidentally, one such candidate location was near Leaky Cauldron.


    Quinn led the tail to a park that didn¡¯t see many visitors because of the bad state it was in.  The only people that could be found there were hobos and people wanting a ce to get high or drunk.  He walked deep into the park, circled the area once before sitting on a bench with a book in hand. . . and waited for the ying field to set itself.


    Slowly he dissipated magic into the air around and spread it out.  He sucked in a sharp breath as he gained what felt like another sense¡ª it was a great experience, but not something he was used to.  His magic in the air sent back the rough location of the people around him. . .


    ¡®Twenty¡ª¡¯ the number shocked him ¡®¡ª twenty people!  What are they ovepensating for?¡¯  But it didn¡¯t matter; he could take all of them¡ª and the more there were, the more information he could get out.  ¡®Time to get the party started. . . I have been feeling irritated; this will hit just the spot.¡¯


    He snapped his fingers, and the mini ward stone tied to a spatial locking ward that he carried around because of his work with the Snatchers came to life.  He stood up, and he could feel the disturbance in the air as the twenty people felt the ward around them.


    ¡°People hiding around me, let¡¯s not be rude; why not you all show yourself, and we can talk like civilized people,¡± said Quinn.  ¡®John¡¯s¡¯nky frame straightened up like a ramrod with his hands behind his back.  ¡°We are all alone; no one wille here because of the wards¡ª I¡¯m sure this is what all of us want, correct?  Come out¡ª now.¡±


    Quinn roamed his eyes at the scene with ancient trees dotting the park with dry foliage covering the ground and paved paths in their fall colors.  If not for the garbage that was thrown without care, it was almost picturesque.  After a moment, he heard the rustle of leaves as people dressed in tan-brown attires stepped from behind trees while others dropped their invisibility spells.  Soon, he had a dozen men and women surrounding him, with eight still hidden, but Quinn didn¡¯t call them out and let them think that he didn¡¯t know.


    ¡°What can I do for you all finely dressed people?¡± asked Quinn with confidence, but his eyes darted around with unhidden distrust.  He had to put up a vignt act to give them confidence.


    ¡°Quinn.¡±


    Hearing his name made Quinn purse his lips into a thin white line.  He looked down at the ground near his shoes for a moment in silence before he released his magic, and the ¡®John¡¯ disguise melted away, leaving Quinn in his original appearance.


    He turned back toward the person who called his name.  ¡°Are you from Gringotts?  I told Bogrod I didn¡¯t want this to be messy¡ª¡±  He didn¡¯t need to continue for him to get the answer as it was staring him in the eye.


    ¡°. . . Aksel Thorne,¡± he said with unhidden surprise.  Aksel Thorne, the co-founder of Limax Group, a ¡°Private Security¡± firm sponsored by Quinn¡¯s father, Adam West, andter by George West after Adam¡¯s death.  The man in front of him had been with Quinn in Denmark and Italy, both times acting as his guide and bodyguard.  ¡°If you¡¯re here, then that must mean he sent you. . .¡±


    ¡°Your grandfather wants you home, Quinn,¡± said Aksel, therge, athletic, and militant man.  ¡°He and everyone in your family has been worried sick about whereabouts.  You need to return home so that everyone rest can easy.¡±


    ¡°And he sent you to get me home,¡± Quinn looked around, ¡°and you brought along all of this. . .¡±


    ¡°Pleasee with us; we don¡¯t want this to get ugly.  We are in a no-maj area, and if this gets out of hand, we will get in trouble with the authorities.  I¡¯m sure, like us, you don¡¯t want to break the secrecyws,¡± said Aksel, keeping his voice and bodynguage as non-threatening as he could.


    ¡°Yeah, kid, give this tomfoolery up ande back with us,¡± came a voice from behind.  Quinn turned and again faced some he recognized.


    ¡°Mr. Neil. . . you¡¯re here as well,¡± said Quinn.  The man who looked like a delinquent was another Limax co-founder.  He had only met Neil once in Denmark.  Quinn decided to pay attention to the faces of the people and was surprised that the third founder was present as well.  ¡°Even Mr. Lucas came . . all three of you¡¯re here.¡±  Lucas, the taciturn of the three, waved his hand.


    ¡°Your grandfather made all three of us personallye here for you,¡± said Neil, as if the entire interaction was a big bother.  ¡°Thest time we got three got together for a mission was. . . I can¡¯t even remember when that was, that¡¯s how long it has been.  That¡¯s why let¡¯s end this so we can get back to our lives.  I left vacation toe here, kid.  Don¡¯t make this more of a hassle than it already has been.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t reply to Neil; instead, he turned to Aksel and asked, ¡°You brought both of them together without you¡ª¡± he noticed something in Aksel¡¯s expression ¡°¡ª you didn¡¯t bring them. . . you were made to bring them. . . . What did grandfather told you, Mr. Aksel?¡±


    ¡°That you have run away from home for some reason and need to return home,¡± said Aksel concisely.


    ¡°How did you even find me?¡±


    ¡°You might be nifty with magic, Quinn.  But we have been doing this as a job for decades.  It took a little effort, but it wasn¡¯t that difficult.¡±


    ¡°Did he tell you why I ran away?¡±


    ¡°We asked, but he refused to divulge.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s eyes shined.  This meant they didn¡¯t know his alternate identity.  His grandfather had kept Limax in the dark and held back a lot of information that could¡¯ve helped them.  A smile broke out on Quinn¡¯s face¡ª by keeping it hidden, his grandfather had given him an advantage.


    He turned his smile into a chuckle and pointed at all the people surrounding him.  ¡°All three founders along with so many people just to catch me?  Don¡¯t you think this is going overboard?  I have just finished schooling.¡±


    It was Neil who answered, ¡°Your grandfather thinks you¡¯re dangerous because you took out a dozen Death Eaters.  I saw the files on them¡ª they were amateurs; I could¡¯ve done that.¡±


    ¡®This is good,¡¯ thought Quinn.  ¡®This doesn¡¯t need to get messy.¡¯


    Quinn loosened his arms and shook his hand a little.  He breathed in and out before saying,


    ¡°Sorry, but if anything, I¡¯m not easy.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C No!  I¡¯m the only one who hunts!  The other way around doesn¡¯t work!


    Aksel Thorn ¨C Limax ¨C Let¡¯s go home, okay?


    Neil ¨C Limax ¨C Come on, man!  I¡¯m missingdies on the beach!


    Lucas ¨C Limax ¨C *Wave.*


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 388 Lets Dance

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn prepared his magic as he thought about the situation he was in.


    Aksel Thorn¡¯s talk about the risk of breaking the secrecyws was real.  Even though the park wasn¡¯t a popr poption spot, it was still in London, the most popted city in the country.  Anymotion that leaked out would reach the massive non-magical poption, further alerting the authorities.  That snowball would roll down the slope to reach the ears of DMLE for a team of Aurors, Hit Wizards, and Obliviators to arrive at the scene to contain the mess.  Which Quinn was sure neither he nor Limax wanted to happen¡ª it was an element that¡¯d get both of them in trouble they wouldn¡¯t even want to touch with a long stick.


    The fight hadn¡¯t even started, but Quinn was already regretting his choice.  This wasn¡¯t his previous brawls as the Invisible Vignte, where he could create as muchmotion as he wanted¡ª he had to be careful to not attract attention. . . which meant that he had a paper ceiling above his head that was very easy to tear.  It was better for him to be in a spacious ce, away from curious eyes, where he could let his magic work freely.  The current location was tilted in favor of the Limax group.


    ¡®It¡¯s okay; not all is bad,¡¯ Quinn thought, ¡®I have the element of surprise. . .  and I¡¯m a West.¡¯


    Without warning, Quinn broke into a sprint and ran towards the tree nearest to him, ducking just in time to have half a dozen spells miss him.  He hid behind a tree and again regretted one of his decision to set up a spatial-locking ward; it would¡¯ve been better to escape rather than fight them head-on.  By the time that thought ended, half of the tree trunk had been turned into splinters about to break apart.


    ¡®Time to move.¡¯  He triggered body magic and rushed out, threw a zig-zag in his path, and ran towards the nearest person with a shield that took the brunt of three stunners and multiple anti-shield spells, which surprised Quinn¡ª Limax was looking to really take him out quickly.  His shield held up, and he continued to charge the nearest man.  Quinn shot a disarming spell at the man¡ª but surprisingly, the man countered it and shot a point-nk stunner in Quinn¡¯s face.


    Red exploded in front of Quinn¡¯s eyes.  The Limax member in front of Quinn smiled with victory, but the next second, the red spell shrunk down into a point between Quinn¡¯s hand.  Quinn raised his foot, front kicked the man a few steps back, and then returned the stunner back into the man¡¯s face, knocking him out cold.  Before the man could even fall, Quinn used Empyrean ropes to pull him up and then used the body as a meat shield that took five stunners in the chest.


    ¡°Friendly fire?!¡± Quinn yelled as a taunt from behind the man¡¯s body.  ¡°I thought a mercenary group would be better than this.¡±


    Limax members¡¯ eyes followed as Quinn dropped the man to the ground, and when they looked up, Quinn was gone.


    ¡°He¡¯s still here; find him!¡± yelled Aksel to the team.  Four members cast magic, and the entire area was flushed with a wave of blue.  Aksel kept his eye peeled as he swept the area to find a momentary blur running towards a tree.  ¡°He¡¯s running East!  Niel, the tree to your left!¡±


    Neil turned to the tree with a savage smile.  His wand vibrated with screaming magic that was unleashed towards the general area with a Latin incantation.


    ¡°Niel, don¡¯t¡ª !¡±  Aksel¡¯s attempt to stop was drowned by the loud crack of the tree being uprooted and then split in the middle, followed by being sted into a grenade of splinters.  ¡°Neil!  What the hell are you doing?!  We need him in one piece!¡±  He hastily turned to Lucas, ¡°The sound?¡±  Lucas nodded, and Aksel sighed in relief.


    ¡°He¡¯ll be fine; the kid is good with magic,¡± Neil waved it off.  The dust settled with the falling leaves and what left was the remnants of the once brutally murdered tree. . . but no sign of Quinn.  ¡°Is his Disilluisionment somehow still on?¡± said Neil as he cast a spell to check.  His expression changed faster than a Snitch on its wings; he yelled out, ¡°He¡¯s not here!  I didn¡¯t get him!¡±


    All Limax members armed themselves with spells on the tip of their tongues.  A silence passed through the fall leaves beneath them as twenty veteran mercenaries scoured their surroundings.  A crunching of leaves sounded out, and everyone turned to watch as a Limax member fell to the ground.  Immediately, all tensed their nerves. . . they were two out.


    ¡°I want a reveal,¡±manded Aksel.  On his order, bursts of the counter-illusion spell were sent out; however, unlike thest time, there was not even a blip of distorting movement on the ground.


    ¡°AaaaAhH!¡±


    Everyone turned to see one of the Limax member¡¯s legs disappear into the red-yellow canopy of the tree.  Aksel held his hand up in a fist to stop everyone from bombarding the tree.  Lucas swung his wand, and every single leaf on the target tree fell. . . and along with it came tumbling the unconscious body.  Everyone stared at the fall except Aksel, Neil, and Lucas, who flushed the tree with a gust of freezing winds that froze icicles on the naked tree top.  There was no one there.


    ¡°Be attentive¡ª¡±


    A muffled groan was followed by a thump in the dry leaves.  Eyes widened as they pointed their wands to their fallenrade, who had been standing right in the middle of the formation.  There wasn¡¯t need for an order for the surrounding people to riddle the area with a torrent of spells. . . s, the magic just passed through.


    ¡°Where is the brat?¡± asked Neil heatedly.  Unexpectedly, the answer arrived immediately.


    ¡°I¡¯m here, don¡¯t worry. . . ¡±  The Limax team got startled as Quinn¡¯s voice sounded from seemingly everywhere.  They looked around to no avail.  The voice continued, ¡°Let¡¯s end this, Mr. Aksel.  I can¡¯t return home, and I¡¯m sure all of you have more important things to do¡ª¡± Aksel gave a nce to Lucas, who nodded and stealthily began casting magic ¡°¡ª let¡¯s make a smallmotion here; a contained explosion will do, and then all of us leave¡ª you can go back to grandfather and tell him that you found me, but because of the explosion, you lost sight of me and had to leave before non-magical eyes got here. . . after that spend a couple of days looking for until you dere that I can¡¯t be found. . . put some rookies on the busywork of trying to find me while the experienced squad can leave for more important work.  How about that?  Seems like a sound n.¡±


    Lucas nodded to Aksel and got a nod back.  ¡°We can¡¯t do that, Quinn.  It would undermine us in the eyes of your grandfather.  We have a reputation to uphold.  I have many people working under me who have mouths to feed; I can¡¯t have the firm¡¯s image be tarnished.  So, pleasee out.¡±


    Aksel gave the signal.  A spell escaped Lucas¡¯ wand and hit its target.  The vacant spot suddenly had a wide-eyed Quinn facing multiple wands; he immediately raised his hands in surrender.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not make this more difficult than it has already been, Quinn,¡± said Aksel, taking out a pair of thick cuffs from his vest.  ¡°I would rather have put these on instead of taking half a dozen stunners in the chest.  Please believe me, taking any more than five takes a month and a half ofplete bed rest and some nasty medicines to recover from.¡±


    Quinn wrinkled his nose, his raised hands clenched into fists as he struggled with the decision.  He locked eyes with Aksel and softly shook his head.  A split-secondter, there was a spell in Quinn¡¯s hand, but before he could cast it, he was hit by multiple stunners.


    Aksel sighed at Quinn¡¯s prone body on the ground.  ¡°Wands at ready.¡±  He stepped towards and crouched near Quinn¡¯s body, but when he raised his hand to touch Quinn, it passed through it as if Quinn was a ghost.  Aksel¡¯s eyes widened as he stood up and turned to freeze.


    At the very back of the group, Quinn was gazing at him.  He stood behind one of the Limax members with one of his hands just beneath her nose, holding a vial of yellow potion that entered her body through the nose in the form of fumes, while his other hand was on her temple casting some magic.


    Quinn let her go, stepped back, and vanished into thin air as if melding into the surroundings, all the while still staring at Aksel.


    ¡°Lira?¡± Aksel called to his subordinate, who had her head bowed.  The woman named Lira raised her to reveal zed-over, hazy eyes.  She raised her wand up as the rest of the Limax team turned towards her.  Aksel took in the scene for a moment before he yelled, ¡°On guard¡ª¡±


    Lira, with all her power and skill as a veteran mercenary, cast magic on her teammates, who weren¡¯t expecting to be shot at by one of their own.  In the mere ten seconds that she had before she was spelled down, Lira took out four of her teammates.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± spat Neil, whose spell knocked Lira out.  ¡°That¡¯s it, kid!  Come out, and I¡¯ll only break a few of your bones!¡±


    As if responding to his words, four red spells manifested in the air¡ª right in the center of where the Limax members were standing.  The four spell-lights zapped away and struck four people in their chest, sending them flying a couple feet.  The initial spells hadn¡¯t even hit their target when four more appeared andunched themselves at yet another four Limax members.


    Aksel, Neil, and Lucas, who hadn¡¯t been targeted, all immediately let out some severe spell-power to the origin of magic.  A bright shield was immediately erected in response to their spell, but the Limax-founder¡¯s magic tore, ate, and shattered the shield to strike the caster.


    Quinn immediately became visible, pping his sleeve, which was on fire.  ¡°Shit, shit, shit, I liked this suit,¡± he said in a tone not suitable to the situation.  He looked up at them and spoke, ¡°Well, it¡¯s only four of us up now.  Me and the original gang¡ª reminds me of the afternoon in Denmark when we first met.¡±


    ¡°What did you to her?¡± asked Aksel with a tone void of any previous softness.


    ¡°Organized chaos,¡± said Quinn, smiling proudly.  ¡°Potion of madnessbined with some suggestions nted in the front of her mind.  I pointed to a direction, and her honed instincts did the rest. . . don¡¯t worry, neither Ms. Lira nor I used any lethal spells; everyone will be up and running within a week of rest.¡±  He again raised his hands, ¡°You don¡¯t have to look at me like that.  You¡¯re here to arrest me against my will; I had to retaliate. . . Listen, I¡¯m sorry that you had to be involved in this family dispute, and if it¡¯s any constion, I think you¡¯re on the right side¡ª it¡¯s just not the time for the wrong side to be defeated.¡±  Quinn pointed at the knocked-out bodies and continued, ¡°Isn¡¯t this enough?  This would be enough for grandfather to get off your back.  Believe me, if you tell this exactly as it was¡ª he¡¯d thank you and tell you to rest.¡±


    Aksel shook his head and continued to do so for a moment.  ¡°We are taking you home today; there¡¯s no other way to it.¡±  Lucas stared a Quinn with a face that could be confused with a statue, while Neil looked like he wanted to kill and drink Quinn¡¯s blood.


    Quinn rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck,


    ¡°Let¡¯s dance then.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I like to tango.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C NBA Final Game-5.  27-16 for GSW.  End of Q1.  I bet for GSW.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 389 COLD

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°You don¡¯t want to fight me, Mr. Aksel,¡± said Quinn, in one final attempt to diffuse the situation.  ¡°Three of you can still call this off; take your injuredpanions for some much-needed treatment, and I¡¯ll make sure you cannot find me again.¡±  He kept an eye on three mercenaries who slowly walked around, forming a boundary that seemed to be some sort of formation.


    The three had apparently decided on an answer as a shing spell zapped from Lucas¡¯ wand.  The magic made the invisible shield around Quinn light up in an electric blue.  The shield¡¯s blue tinted Quinn¡¯s vision the same.


    ¡®Hmm?¡¯ Quinn furrowed as he sensed something, but before he could even pinpoint the cause, a spell corroded his shield, causing Quinn¡¯s breathing to re as he felt a sledgehammer like force m into him.  As he flew back through the air, his thoughts fell into ce.  His eyes nced at Aksel¡ª the man had shot a blue-colored spell using the shield¡¯s tint as a camouge.


    Quinn was still surprised when he hit the ground, but the rib-rattling impact that red the pain snapped him out of it.  His magic flowed into the ground beneath him, and the earth rose up to form a dome that was again immediately sted into smithereens from the force of the spells.  Quinn squeezed his eyes closed and hissed as some dirt from the explosion entered his eyes.


    ¡®I need to stop using earth as a cover,¡¯ he eximed while cleaning his eyes using magic.  Just like before, he sensed some magic and hastily pulled up twoyers of protective shield that came in use immediately as spells torpedoed into it, trying to drill through to reach him.  The spells were one of the most powerful he had ever faced. . . but even thebined force was weaker than one of Voldemort¡¯s Fiendfyre whisps.


    He got into a one-knee kneel and steadied himself.  He recognized that the current situation was more dangerous than the time he was pursued by the three Aurors.  The veteran mercenaries in front of him were much more trained and experienced in the art ofbative magic.


    ¡®They have years of experience over me.¡¯  He acknowledged the fact, but it didn¡¯t mean that he had nothing.  ¡®I have magic on my side.¡¯  Listening to hismand, Quinn¡¯s magic rushed forward to do his bidding.  Quinn¡¯s shield disappeared, leaving an open passage for the Limax¡¯s spells¡ª but they could even inch forward, a wave of power rippled out, ripping the magic apart.  There was so much energy in the spherical wave that Limax three pulled up shields to not be blown away.


    By the time the magic had passed, and the leaves had settled, Quinn was not to be found in his spot.  ¡°On guard,¡± said Aksel, his eyes darting across the ce.  ¡°He¡¯s still here. . . I can feel it.¡±


    <¡°Is that the so-called seasoned veteran¡¯s intuition?¡±>  Quinn¡¯s voice echoed in their ears as it had done a few minutes prior.  <¡°If it is, spot-on; I¡¯m still here.  Though the real question is¡ª¡±>


    ¡°¡ªwhere am¡ª. . . .¡±


    Neil¡¯s wand twitched, and he abruptly-yet-preparedly turned to his right to stab Quinn with a conjured silver dagger that passed through his body as if he wasn¡¯t there and subsequently turned into mist.


    <¡°Oh, that was quick. . . your sense of magic fluctuations is good, Mr. Neil.  You turned before I could surprise you with the whisper¡±>  Quinn¡¯s voice again echoed.  <¡°Let me share a fun fact about me. . .¡±>


    A sudden wind cutter whistled towards Lucas, who flicked his wand to counter it.  The sharpness of the wind was taken away, but he couldn¡¯t stop arge gust of wind blowing in his face, pushing back his hair and cheeks.


    <¡°. . . I¡¯m not experienced in face-to-face fighting. . .¡±>


    A huge metal ore conjured over Neil¡¯s head that he immediately suspended in the air, but before he could cancel the conjuration, the ore turned molten, and Neil had to spring up a shield for protection.  The molten ore dripped and sizzled down the shield until it suddenly cooled down into solid within a second.  Neil canceled his shield only to be left surrounded by a strange metal ring.


    <¡°. . .it¡¯s not my forte.  As bad as it sounds. . .¡±>


    Two earthen hands sprung out of the ground and grabbed onto Aksel¡¯s feet, who in retaliation turned five feet of thend around into a crater, ttening the appendages into dust.


    <¡°. . .attacking from the shadows is more in my forte.¡±>


    The Limax three founders took in sharp breaths as they felt an obscene amount of magic flooding the vicinity.  It was as if someone had opened the flood gates.  Their instincts screamed at them to be vignt; they immediately stabbed their wands into the earth to meld the earth into domes around theirpanions before taking an active stance.  There was a gust of wind here and a crunch of leaves there. . . but what bothered them was the unnatural silence that apanied the overwhelming magic that prickled their skin; it was as if something was dampening the travel of sound through the air.


    Then it started.


    From all around the area, spells started to barrage over the Limax three.  Magic with a real kick came from everywhere; even the sky wasn¡¯t spared as magic rained down upon them.  The Limax three immediately got to work conjuring shields, countering the magic, and lending a hand to others, working like a well-oiled machine.  If it was a movie, they¡¯d be makingments like¡ª ¡®It has been a while,¡¯ ¡®You¡¯re getting rusty,¡¯ ¡®Do you remember Baghdad¡¯. . . but it wasn¡¯t a movie, and no unnecessary words were exchanged between the three as they defended against the magic.


    ¡°Aksel,¡± spoke Lucas, ¡°north, two.¡±


    Aksel didn¡¯t even think to confirm and turned to shoot a packed Bombarda towards the exact direction Lucas pointed to.  The spell grew in size and burst near a tree, exploding and taking a bite out of the trunk.  A figure darted out from within the smoke and dust, and Aksel shot two quick spells towards it, while Lucas didn¡¯t even look in that direction and aimed one explosive spell in the opposite direction.


    ¡°Spotted, eleven!¡± Lucas informed as his magic made contact with an invisible figure.


    Quinn, the said invisible figure, dismissed his shield and shot three quick bone bruising spells towards the Limax three.  He followed with an illusion that looked like a smoke bomb while himself slipping up into the sky.  Quinn raced to think of his next attack when he noticed the state of the area. . . there was too much destruction, and he could even see white smoke that had started to rise up. . . even with all parties holding back, it was only a matter of time when people would notice.  He looked down and bit down on his lower lip in thought.


    He watched as Lucas pointed toward him in the sky for Neil and Aksel to shoot at him.  ¡®Was it worth the risk?¡¯ He wondered as he dodged and started to move around to not let them pinpoint his location.  ¡®I wouldn¡¯t know if I don¡¯t try,¡¯ he decided and dropped down in the middle of the three.


    ¡°Are you giving up?¡± asked Aksel rhetorically as he shot a spell towards Quinn.


    Quinn didn¡¯t reply.  He swept his hand, and magic spread out.  A ring of neon-red mes started to burn on the ground around Quinn.  The Limax stepped back, not letting the mes touch them¡ª leaving only Quinn inside the circle.


    The mes were made from Empyrean.  The most versatile magic in Quinn¡¯s magic arsenal.


    ¡°1927, Lestrange Mausoleum,¡± announced Quinn, confusing the others, ¡°Gellert Grindelwald used Protego Diabolica to test the loyalty of his followers and kill a number of his enemies, most of whom were Aurors trying to arrest him.  He asked them to step through the circle¡ª those who were loyal all passed through without harm, and those who weren¡¯t, perished¡ª it was all very much poetic, step into the circle to prove if you were part of the Dark Lord¡¯s circle. . . but I digress.  I can¡¯t case Protego Diabolica here for it would attract too much attention and destroy the park. . . and I myself don¡¯t have the confidence to contain the spell, I have only practiced it once, almost crisped myself to death. . .¡±


    The red mes burned brighter; they grew as if someone had injected extra fuel into them.  The mes tilted outwards as though the wisps trying to like the Limax three, who were worriedly ncing at theirpanions.  But if they looked closer, they would¡¯ve noticed how the red-fire wasn¡¯t burning anything.


    ¡°. . . But that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t take inspiration,¡± continued Quinn.  ¡°I cast this magic as a tribute to him. . . to his magical prowess, to his shrewdness, his charm, and everything that made him great. . . terrible, but great.¡±


    Empyrean was a magic of magical constructs that could take any property as long as the caster had the power and knowledge to make it happen.  Until now, Quinn had used it as weapon and tforms. . . but today, he was going to try out the real potential.  He breathed in cold air into his lungs, and the red mes rose up to seven feet.


    Aksel readied his wand to cast magic and was shuffling through the spells in his repertoire when he felt. . . cold.  He looked down at the base of his feet and saw ayer of ice wafer spreading out towards him.  He looked to Lucas and Neil and saw them stepping back, noticing the ice on the ground.  The air chilled, and the Limax three felt the cold prate their clothes.


    Aksel¡¯s eyes widened when a wisp of me sprung towards him.  He swiped his wand to extinguish the fire. . . it didn¡¯t work; the fire, which was supposed to fizzle into sparks, continued forward and engulfed Aksel¡¯s arms.  He watched in panic, expecting to feel the heat, but found his arm going numb and his face being bombarded with a cold gust.  His pupils shrunk when he realized what was going and without hesitation, he cut off his jacket sleeve and cut off his glove.  He jumped back away from the mes, all the while trying to bend his arm only to fail to even feel anything below his shoulder.


    ¡°Get rid of the affected clothes, quickly!¡± he yelled.  Neil and Lucas followed the advice and got rid of anything that had the mes, which emitted a chilling cold instead of heat.  ¡°Don¡¯t treat it like normal fire¡ª it is some sort of cursed fire.  It¡¯s cold¡ª¡±


    The cold mes grew like a wildfire, and within moments, the entire area was burning with the fire.  All Aksel could see was red.  He breathed out cold mist with his eyes trembling at the enormous amounts of magic that hade to upy the space.  It dominated all his senses.  In his decades of experience in all sorts of ces on the, he had never felt so much magicmanded by a single person.  Then he had a glimpse as the fire parted for a moment, and he came face-to-face with purple eyes glowing. . . and unlike the red mes, the eyes burned hot.


    And that was thest memory. . .  purple eyes and the overwhelming feeling of cold with everything in his vision turning ck.  He went down not being able to even think properly. . . and hearing the faint voice,


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. . . everything¡¯s going to be okay.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C This won¡¯t kill you, but it ain¡¯t gonna tickle either.


    Aksel Thorne ¨C Limax ¨C Too much magic!


    Lucas ¨C Limax ¨C Master tracker.


    Neil ¨C Limax ¨C C-Cold. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 390 Another Assault

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    In the embrace of nature in the country, a solitary ttened dirt road led to the iron-wrought gates of the West Manor.


    The peace and quiet on the road were abruptly broken by twentyrge ck boxes suddenly appearing in the air and dropping to the ground with dull thumps. Twenty boxes in a grid of five by four. There was a pop, and Quinn appeared in between the boxes and the gates. He had changed out of his charred, torn, and dusty suit into a simple andfortable white shirt and ck pants.


    The second he arrived, his eyes were glued to the house standing in the distance. He looked at his childhood and only home through the iron gates, wondering how easy it would be to open them and simply walk inside to reunite his family¡ª facing the collective anger of Ms. Rosey, Lia, and his grandfather didn¡¯t seem so bad at the moment. . . and he couldn¡¯t even imagine an angry Elliot¡ª but he knew it would be more horrible than he could imagine.


    Unfortunately, fighting temptation when it was at the door was never his strong point. He quickly turned away from the West Manor, but then he came to gaze upon the fall forest trees; they brought along the thoughts of the trees in the London park¡ª they weren¡¯t pretty. He had said that he wasn¡¯t proficient in Protego Diabolica, but he wasn¡¯t much better using his ACE mes¡ª Absolute.Cold.Emperyean mes. As the name suggested, the magic was a mix of Emperyean and ice magic that tried to mimic Absolute Zero as much as Quinn could make it. Mimicking Absolute Zero, which was a legendary alchemic material, took a tremendous amounts of magic; it didn¡¯t help that Quinn hadn¡¯t only discovered the tip of the iceberg of Absolute Zero¡ª the difficulty of magic was off the charts for the current Quinn. . . and trying to control the mes around Aksel, Neil, and Lucas made him lose control over some wisps that ended up expanding into a wall of fire that ended up freezing an entire section of the park. It made Quinn wonder if he had unconsciously ended up taking Fienfyre as the inspiration for the me-like properties.


    There was no a frozen park could be sold to the non-magical popce any other way than a supernatural urrence. . . or a government conspiracy, both he couldn¡¯t afford¡ª so he set up a fire that engulfed everything that had been damaged and left no evidence behind of what had happened.


    He sighed. The firefighters were going to have a hard time exining the reason behind the problem.


    Quinn knelt beside a box and tapped it. The box hissed as the lid rose up to reveal Aksel Thorne¡¯s body submerged in a liquid that glowed with only the front of his face out of the water infused in his magic, mimicking the healing in the Aquatic water. The boxes were designed to keep the bodies in stable condition and provide some first-aid before they got to proper care.


    ¡°Sorry about this,¡± said Quinn, ncing at the Aksel¡¯s neck with a wrinkled nose. The injury was a dull grey from the cold; it was ck when he had put Aksel into the box. ¡°Don¡¯t worry; it is not cursed, so after they cut it out, it¡¯s not going to grow nice and strong.¡±


    Quinn kept the lid open on Aksel to make sure people knew what was inside the boxes, stood up, and again turned to the West Manor. A ball of yellow light wobbled over his palm. He squinted at the air around the West Manor and threw the yellow ball over the bricked boundaries. The ball of magic didn¡¯t make it over; instead, it hit the invisible ward over the house and turned it into a shade of yellow. Every single ray of light that was going to pass through the ward was going to be colored yellow like a yellow light bulb. He raised his hand and then shot up a red re that was going to look as much red as it was. The ward around the West Manor was an advanced version of Aegis half a decade ahead of the current version on the market; he could manipte it to a certain degree from the outside.


    He took a nce at the box before taking himself up to the air. The lenses in his eyes transfigured to far-seeing, and he could see the front door open up with George walking out with the rest of the family in tow. He gazed at them until he was sure they had spotted the boxes and then some before flying away slowly.


    ¡®Ah. . . this sucks,¡¯ he thought as he flew. The day had gone from a hundred to a negative hundred. He had started this day thinking it would be different than carefully and meticulously choosing spots to summon Snatchers and Death Eaters by triggering the Taboo, which was getting difficult by the day because he if didn¡¯t choose the correct location, the Snatchers had stopped heeding the Taboo summons. The smooth acquisition of the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup was something he wasn¡¯t expecting to happen as n-A never worked, and he didn¡¯t like his n-B and he was sure Gringotts wouldn¡¯t like it either.


    However, the day couldn¡¯t exit while still ahead. He had to fight with people who he liked enough and had injured enough to feel regret, and it didn¡¯t get any better than they were trying to hold back so as not to injure him. He had to burn down a park, causing problems for so many strangers. Then he had to deliver the entire Limax team in coffin-like boxes to his family, who he preferred seeing because it made things that much worse. He hadn¡¯t met with his friends in a while and instead was spending time with total strangers making meaningless talk just to not feelpletely lonely. On top of that, he was going through a rocky rtionship with his girlfriends, and he couldn¡¯t even talk to them properly face-to-face to clear the air.


    ¡®Everything sucks,¡¯ he thought and then wondered if it was the Horcrux affecting his mood, making him say out loud, ¡°Everything sucks. . . it sucks so much.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    The robes, ck as death, fluttered near the ground but never touched it as Voldemort walked on a vige road with tall trees covering the sides. The deathly pale bald-headed Dark Lord, who seemed to be floating instead of walking, didn¡¯t suit the picturesque scene. However, there was no one around to object, and Voldemort couldn¡¯t care less.


    Today was the first time after the Ministry fiasco he had stepped outside. The fresh air on his face felt good enough that it infuriated him immensely just thinking about that day. Voldemort¡¯s hand crept up to his face, and he touched just below his now healed eye with his bony fingers. Just a few days back, he didn¡¯t have anything in his eye socket with its previous resident needing to be evicted to curb the spread of the curse that gued his stabbed eye.


    He remembered the day as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. He was dueling Dumbledore in the Ministry Atrium, enjoying the thrill of magic while battling the frustrating urge to keep his magic at bay so as not to cause anymotion that would arouse suspicion in the Muggles above and risk breaking the Secrecy Laws. Unlike Grindelwald, he didn¡¯t consider it time for the Wizarding world to reveal itself to the rest of the world. . . the day woulde when the superior kind would rule with him at the throne. . . but that day was not now. As he kept his magic in check, Dumbledore did the same, trying topete against him.


    Dumbledore. . . Voldemort sneered at the thought of the old hindrance. The seconding of Merlin, the sheeple liked to call Dumbledore¡ª what fools they were. The entire country was filled with foolish people whose brains would sell for top gold as they were brand new from not using them to think at all. But he knew. . . he was superior, and soon the entire Wizarding would know. The only reason Dumbledore couldpete was because of the wand in his hand.


    The wand. The Elder wand. Voldemort hated to think that the greatest wand made in the history of magic was in Dumbledore¡¯s hands, but at the same time, he would love the feel of power that the wand would provide him. The greatest wand for the greatest wizard seemed fitting, and the Elder wand demanded someone like him instead of an old coot like Dumbledore.


    ¡®I would have that wand with me,¡¯ thought Voldemort as he arrived at the end of the tree-lined street.


    He turned the corner and entered the small township of Rosensten, hosting two dozen families who lived their peaceful lives in their lovely town. Then there was the magical part of the town that sat within the same ground, just hidden underneath the veil that kept it hidden from the Muggle part. And today, he hade to visit that part of the town.


    Voldemort walked through the town under the eyes of Muggles, unhidden with his presence. The eyes fell on him, then followed him. . . and then they dropped to the ground like lifeless dolls who had their strings cut. He didn¡¯t give the Muggles a single nce; they were not worth it¡ª what they were worth were getting diseases in their family history pop up in them sometime in their lifetime. The was teeming with Muggles as if they were cockroaches; some of them dying from injuries wasn¡¯t going to change anything. Anyone that crossed paths with Voldemort watched him for a few seconds before dropping down to wherever they stood.


    The trail of unconscious bodies continued until Voldemort arrived in front of the house of Randolf Westen, the Head of Floo Network Authority. He gazed at the home kept properly maintained for a moment before flicking his finger. A silverish sheen of magic shimmered in the air, outlining an invisible dome covering the property.


    ¡°Aegis. . . it has improved,¡± he noted. Thest time he had faced Aegis was at Amelia Bones¡¯ home when he had given her a ¡®friendly¡¯ visit and had ripped apart the Aegis ward over that house. But now, as he looked at the ward, which felt strikingly familiar to the one over the Bones¡¯ home, yet it was different, and as he observed, he could see clear improvements¡ª and he was happy about it. A human warding scheme that had stood against goblin warding and now had improved in such a short time meant that wizards were superior to goblins, who should know their ce.


    But that was it.


    Voldemort brandished his wand as if handling a conductor¡¯s baton and stepped to the front gate of the Westen property. He flicked it with a twitch of his digits, and the magic sang to themand. The ward over around the door turned a ghastly green, shifting into a cold blue, and finally settling into an acidic yellow that slowly crumbled away. Voldemort put his wand back and sauntered into the Westen property.


    Like any normal person, who was visiting someone, Voldemort knocked on the door and then waited. The door opened for ady to show her beautiful face that twisted with horror as she recognized who he was.


    ¡°Good day, Lady Westen. . . I wonder if your husband is at home.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I hate my life.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I reworked this.  Thest version was let¡¯s just say. . . bad.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 391 A Successful Assault

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    When the clock stuck fifteen past five, the floo of the Westen house fluttered in green, and Randolph Westen arrived home.  He frowned at the sight of the lights in the floo-room turned off.


    He called, ¡°Charlotte!  I¡¯m home, dear.¡±  Randolph hung his coat at the coat-hang and walked to the living room while loosening his tie, turning on the lights on his way.  He called for his wide again but didn¡¯t get any reply.


    ¡°Is she not home?¡± he muttered as he entered the living room to be again greeted with darkness.  He walked to the light switch of the MLEs and flipped them to light up the room, but when he turned back, his heart all but stopped.


    ¡°Randolph Westen, wee home.  I¡¯ve been waiting for you.¡±


    Randolph¡¯s eyes trembled as his body turned to stell.  There sat Voldemort in front of him in his favorite chair, staring up at him, looking like a simple house guest.


    ¡°D-Dear. . .¡±  His eyes turned to the side and saw his wife sitting like a trembling cat in the rain, looking as if she was scared out of her mind.  Her face was a mess with mascara that had dripped down her face with red puffed-up eyes.  She turned her head, pointing to the side with tears trickling down her eyes.


    Randolph followed, and sitting in another chair was his daughter with her eyes closed with her head leaning to the side, resting on the curved edge of the chair.  His throat closed up, and his stomach churned violently as his mind flew in directions that brought upon thoughts that almost made him pass out.


    ¡°A-Annie, Annie!¡± he yelled.


    ¡°Nothing has happened to your daughter, Randolph,¡± spoke Voldemort, making the father turn to him, ¡°she¡¯s simply unconscious.¡±  Voldemort snapped his finger, and the little girl stirred as if waking from a nap.  She sat up straight and rubbed her eyes before looking upon Randolph; a bright smile surfaced on her face, showing her front tooth missing that had fallen off a few days back.


    ¡°Daddy!¡± she eximed in glee and was about to get off the chair when her eyes turned back, and she slumped in her chair.


    ¡°Annie!¡±


    ¡°Take a seat,¡± said Voldemort.  A chair creaked behind Randolph, who sat down, but his eyes were fixed on his daughter.  ¡°You have a charming house here and a delightful family.  Your wife has been a lovely host to me in your absence. . .¡±


    Mrs. Westen continued to tremble, not daring to raise her eyes from the floor.  To Randolph, his wife seemed like she had aged a decade and looked as though she hadn¡¯t slept for a week.


    ¡°. . . I desire something from you, Randolph Westen, and you will give it to me,¡± continued Voldemort.  ¡°I want ess to the floowork.  My Death Eaters should be able to lock down any floo they want, any time they want.  If there are some un-intelligent folk out there who haven¡¯t secured their floo-s on iing, I want my Death Eaters to be able to get into their house without any problem. . . . I want the floowork of this country to be under my control.¡±


    ¡°I-I can¡¯t do that.¡±


    ¡°You can and you will.  It¡¯s elementary.  You get contacted someone from my side, and you give them whatever they want, whenever they want. . . don¡¯t make theme down to your house because they wouldn¡¯t minding here anytime.¡±


    ¡°P-Please, I-I cannot. . . I would¡ª¡±


    Voldemort raised his hand, and the look in his eyes made Randolph stop into a croak.  ¡°I do not like to repeat myself.  When I say I want something, it happens.  That¡¯s not going to change today.  You have the means to give me that and. . . you. . . are not going to refuse me.  But I see the dilemma here, so let me offer you a clear reason for you to do my bidding, something you can¡¯t refuse.¡±


    Voldemort lifted his wrist; little Annie¡¯s right arm rose up, and like a spot of ink dropped in the water, dying the clear in its color, a Dark Mark appeared on her fair, thin arm.  Randolph gasped, and his wife broke down into sobs.  The snakeing out of the skull¡¯s mouth looked all the more horrifying on the girl¡¯s arm, who didn¡¯t even have her permanent set of teeth.


    ¡°You don¡¯t give the control over the floo-system, and I can make your daughter suffer all the way to death with a single through.¡±  Voldemort raised his finger, and Annie¡¯s thin brows crumpled, and her petite body shivered slightly as her face paled.  Annie stirred and weakly opened her eyes, and just likest time, she called ¡ª ¡°Daddy¡± ¡ª however, this time, it was a weak mummer that could barely exit her mouth.  Voldemort rested the finger back on the armrest, and Annie closed her eyes again; the red returned to her skin, she stopped shivering, and her face looked as peaceful as if nothing had ever changed.  ¡°Kneel down, kiss my robe, and little Annie will grow to be a fine woman with a happy future and life in front of her. . . all because of her daddy.¡±


    Randolph pressed his palms into his knees.  He looked to his daughter, then to his wife, who was repeatedly nodding and pleading.  That was it for Randolph; that was all he needed.  ¡°I¡¯ll do it.  I will give you the floowork,¡± he said.


    ¡°Kneel down and kiss my robe.¡±


    ¡°W-What?¡±


    Voldemort raised his chin.


    Randolph stood up from his chair and walked to Voldemort with shaky steps.  He dropped down to his knees at Voldemort¡¯s feet; with trembling hands, he picked up the hem of Voldemort¡¯s robe and kissed it with his eyes squeezed shut in disgust.


    ¡°Good,¡± Voldemort stood up and walked towards the exit.


    ¡°Why not just Imperio me?¡± said Randolph, still on his knees.


    Voldemort paused at the living room door.  ¡°The time for Imperius Curse passed thest time we visited.¡±  He turned to Randolph, ¡°Besides, Imperius makes people work as ordered.  You, Mr. Randoplh, will do much more,¡± he nced at Annie, and she stirred, ¡°well beyond what I have asked for.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break ) ¨C


    .


    In an inner corner of the Ministry headquarter, somewhere highly restricted, so much so other than a few select Ministry personnel, no other Ministry employee was allowed inside.  It was an area reserved when the Ministry wanted to do things quietly away from prying eyes. . . and for the cases where people of interest demanded the privacy they deserved.


    ¡°Is today really supposed to be such a big deal?¡± Kinsley said to Robards as they stood in the pearly white corridors, much different than the ck interior present in most of the Ministry.


    ¡°It is,¡± said Robards, pointing to Scrimgeour standing ahead of them, chatting with the Secretary of the Ministry of Magic, the highest-ranking member in the Minister¡¯s cab, ¡°if today goes well, it is going to be massive for the department.¡±


    ¡°For the Ministry, you mean.¡±


    ¡°Yes, for the Ministry as well.¡±


    They straightened up when the floo at the end of the hall turned green.  The most exclusive floo after Minister¡¯s own had been connected on the other end.


    ¡°At attention, people, the party¡¯s about to arrive,¡± announced Scrimgeour.


    The green fire exploded like an upward shooting fire thrower going up into the empty roof of the chimney.  A group of people stepped into the Ministry from the curtain of fire.


    Scrimgeour stepped forward and greeted with a smile, ¡°Mr. West, it is a pleasure to see you again.¡±


    George West was the reason why the Head of DMLE, the Head Auror, and the Secretary of Ministery of Magic all had arrived collectively for greetings.  They were some of the people who wouldn¡¯te greet people like this individually, much less together.  But George West was the big fish that warranted this treatment.  It was the Minister of Magic¡¯s dignity that held Amelia Bones wanted to maintain the reason behind she was not here¡ª Cornelius Fudge would¡¯ve been here faster than the fastest runners in the country.


    George West nodded to Scrimgeour before turning his eyes to the people present in the hall.  There were a couple people apanying him.


    As Scrimgeour talked with George, Robards leaned near Kingsley and pointed out the well-dressed smiling man standing beside George, conversing with the Secretary, ¡°That¡¯s Elliot Dalton, THE right-hand man to George West.  Most people have to go through him before even getting the chance of getting a single alphabet to George West, much less seeing him.¡±


    ¡°I have never seen Madam Secretary smile like that.¡±


    ¡°Neither have I.  Moving on, you know Bach,¡± Robards sneered.  Kinglsey nodded with simr emotion and recognized arguably the best attorney-atw in the country, Orrin Bach.  The oldwyer had built a career so strong that he was the only one in the country able to bill whatever he wanted from his clients.  None in the entire DMLE liked the man and his firm.


    ¡°As for the other, I don¡¯t know who that is. . .¡± said Robards, looking at the middle-aged man in a fedora who stood a step back from everyone with a small smile on his face.


    Robards and Kinglsey had their eyes stuck to the man.  They couldn¡¯t pull them away, no matter how they tried.  Even Scrimgeour shifted his eye to the man from time to time.  There was something about the man which screamed dangerous to the Aurors¡ª the way he stood, the way his handsid- rxed yet ready, even the way his eyes moved said that the man was experienced.


    ¡°That guy is trouble,¡± said Robards, eying the guy with a critical eye.


    ¡°He¡¯s the bodyguard, isn¡¯t he?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s got training.  I can tell he¡¯s got professional training and then something more. . . I wonder how much is he getting paid?¡±


    Robards quirked his brow.  ¡°Are you looking to switch to private?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m for the long haul,¡± smiled Kingsley.


    ¡°Aiming for my position?¡± asked Robards.  Kingsley shook his head.  ¡°Head of DMLE?¡±  Kingsley again shook his head.  Now Robards was surprised.  ¡°The Minister of Magic?¡±  Kingsley nodded with a smile.  ¡°Oh my, you got big aspirations, my friend, and I hope you achieve them.¡±


    They stopped talking when Scrimgeour began to lead George down the hall.  It was time for the biggest meeting of the year. . . and possibly of the entire current administration.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C I use spells other than the Unforgivables.


    Randolph Westen ¨C Head of Floo-Network Authority ¨C I should¡¯ve retired the first time around.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C WARRIOR DUBS!!!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 392 Various Offerings

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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    When the West party and the Ministry escort reached the designated meeting room, they were greeted by Amelia Bones.  The Minister rose from the ck chesterfield sofa in greeting.  ¡°How are you doing today, Mr. West?¡± she smiled.


    ¡°Not well,¡± George said bluntly as he directly sat on the sofa opposite without exchanging the customary polite greeting.  ¡°I do not like what is happening in this country, my country.  A madman is running freely in the country, blowing up Auror¡¯s Office, barging into Ministry and taking hostages. . . and who knows what he¡¯s doing now.¡±  He peered at Amelia, who was still standing, ¡°And when I ask anyone or read the paper, all I hear and see is that your government is a strong one, or at least is supposed to be.¡±


    Amelia sighed deeply and sat back in her spot, and Scrimgeour sat by her side, with Elliot taking a seat beside George.  Orrin Bach ced himself on one breadth of the table alone while Robards and Secretary sat opposite him.  The bodyguard walked straight to the bar in the room while Kingsley stood next to the wall near everyone.


    ¡°We are trying to keep him down,¡± said Amelia; gone was the polite smile, and back was the woman who had reigned over the DMLE, ¡°but with the current situation, it has been getting difficult to properly deal with with the Dark Lord and his minions.¡±


    ¡°And what are these problems?¡±


    ¡°How can I truly focus on the threat when I¡¯m shackled down by internal problems.¡±


    ¡°What, the blood supremacist?  Minister, you¡¯re making me doubt if you¡¯re trulymitted to dealing with the threat as quickly as possible.  You can¡¯t use them as an excuse when you have been handling them just fine during your time in DMLE.¡±


    ¡°My ranks were clean when I was the Head of DMLE.  All I get to deal with now is a building full of people who wouldn¡¯t move a finger if it¡¯s not doing them some personal good,¡± the Minister¡¯s one grey hair looked whiter than ever.


    ¡°Give them a boot; you¡¯re their boss.¡±


    ¡°If it could be that easy, politics gets in the way.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t that difficult,¡± George said unperturbed.


    The Ministry officials all showed some form of reaction to the words.  It wasn¡¯t a secret to them that George had dug his ws into the Ministry.  But the way he had done so made them twitch¡ª the speed at which the reach of his influence had grown was astounding, to say the least.  George West had never been directly involved with the Ministry; there were always systems in ce that would facilitate him when required¡ª but never directly.  It was as if West always knew that something like would happen and had cast the when needed.  And all of it had been done out of spite and just because he could do it.


    ¡°The Dark Faction have been clogging up Wizengamot for months.  Whenever I try to bring something of real consequence up, they just make a f-¡± Amelia held her tongue, ¡°mess of things.  The other factions try to intervene, but eventually, everything turns into a pissing contest between men.¡±


    ¡°Why do you need Wizengamot¡¯s approval for anything?  You¡¯re the Minister of Magic with a background in DMLE of whom I suppose you have the support,¡± George pointed to Scrimgeour.  ¡°What is the problem; because I can¡¯t see any.¡±


    ¡°Resources are the problem, Mr. West.  DMLE doesn¡¯t have enough resources to deal with the current situation.  Even with the lethalityw in ce, the force can¡¯t make a difference if they don¡¯t have the means for it.¡±


    ¡°DMLE¡¯s budget hasn¡¯t dipped since you assumed the big office.  The Aurors Office and the Hit Wizard Bureau never had a shortage of funds during your time.  You lobbied the budget to be highest after war times.¡±


    ¡°After the war times, that¡¯s the crux. . . the wartime budgets were much higher than anything I sawing in.  We are at war, Mr. West¡ª houses are being broken into, families are being threatened, and  justst week, I had cases of six Muggleborn deaths done with Death Eater work all over it¡ª DMLE can¡¯t fight this without a war chest.¡±  Amelia sighed as she gazed at George, ¡°But you already know this, or else you wouldn¡¯t have arranged this meeting. . .¡±


    ¡°That is true,¡± said George, ¡°and I¡¯m here to help, so how can I help?¡±


    ¡°I need your help in clearing up the Wizengamot clog so that I can redirect the budget to DMLE.  The Grey Faction needs to participate in the hearings more proactively; what they¡¯re doing is not supportive enough. . . . I also know that you have ties to some in the Dark Faction; the Ministry would appreciate it if you could have them soften up.¡±


    If George had been any other rich man, Amelia would¡¯ve never bothered to meet him like this¡ª she would¡¯ve lobbied him differently.  But the Wests were entrenched in the country more deeply than most people could imagine.  A request like this would usually require her to reach out to various people who would reach out to various other people¡ª but there sat a single person who could handle all that for her and could do it much smoother, quicker, and discreetly than she could with all the eyes upon her right now.


    George turned to Scrimgeour and posed a question, ¡°Can you assure me that you can show some results with an influx of resources?¡±


    ¡°I assure you we can,¡± said Scrimgeour, steely certainty in his tone.  ¡°My people have been working hard with what they have; they will work harder if they get the right means for their job.¡±


    George peered at Amelia, Scrimgeour, and Robards.  He nodded, ¡°I will help you clear up the mess at Wizengamot; start preparing for the motions you want to present, and I guarantee they will be properly discussed.¡±  Everyone from the Ministry smiled as they exchanged looks of happiness.


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. West; this would truly be of great help,¡± Amelia said.


    ¡°And I can provide you with my contacts,¡± said George, making everybody look at him.  ¡°I¡¯m willing to provide you with my contacts, ess to my trade routes, better prices on purchases. . . additionally, I can provide external funds¡ª my gold¡ª to the efforts in the war.¡±


    Orrin Bach, thewyer, took out a sheet of paper from his briefcase and slid it over to Amelia.  He smiled, ¡°There¡¯s the number Mr. West is willing to provide to war efforts.¡±


    Amelia picked up the sheet and started to read what was a short description of what George was willing to provide, and as she reached the end of the page, her eyes widened at the string of digits printed on the bottom right corner.  She looked up at George as she passed the page to Scrimgeour.  ¡°Are you sure?  This is a sizeable amount,¡± she said.


    ¡°That¡¯s something to say,¡± Scrimgeour breathed out.


    ¡°I can get the talks going in Wizengamot,¡± started George, ¡°but do you think with the current divide, you¡¯ll be able to gather the amount you need?  This isn¡¯t likest war, Madam Minister.  Before the Dark Lord, the purebloods supremacists got what they wanted by exerting control from the shadows; they believed themselves superior to the others, but they talked about it behind doors.  During his reign, they were enabled to disy their views in the open and now could silence those who didn¡¯t think the same way¡ª purebloods who didn¡¯t agree became blood traitors and either got killed or outcasted. . . Muggleborns who previously were at least weed into our world suddenly felt it to be cold, harsh, and unweing.  After his fall, the purebloods who had tasted power couldn¡¯t go back to the days of pulling strings from behind the curtain; they had tasted what it felt like to be in open power, and with a weak administration, they took the chance and cemented their position despite being in a disadvantageous situation.  Some were pushed as scapegoats, while others got free by paying petty fines and using the Imperious excuse.  Over thest ten years, the pureblood influence has risen instead of getting weaker¡ª the Boy-Who-Lived might have been a Symbol of Hope, but the Dark Lord was a Mark of Fear that persisted even after his supposed death.  Yes, some purebloods tried to fight for equality, but it didn¡¯t change the fact that all enjoyed the benefits.¡±


    Amelia knew that better than anyone.  No matter what Faction, they all had used the opportunity to position themselves in prominent positions.  It was why they had so few Muggleborns in prominent positions of power, and the entire Ministry¡¯s upper hierarchy was upied with purebloods, the vacuum in the middle had been taken up by Halfbloods, leaving the scraps to the Muggleborns.


    ¡°You might not get what you¡¯re expecting,¡± finished George.


    ¡°. . . Even then, I can¡¯t ept this.  If this was a donation to DMLE¡¯s support fund, I could¡¯ve imagined it going through¡ª but you¡¯re offering it as war support; I have no way of epting this.  I can still ept the other help, but not the direct gold.¡±


    ¡°Oh, but you can,¡± said Bach with hiswyer smile.  He pulled out a thick stack of paper and ced it on the table.  He ced his on the stack and said confidently, ¡°This here details how the DMLE can ept the gold within the confines of thew. . . barely, but still within thew¡ª and you get to use it for war purposes.¡±


    ¡°Take it now,¡± said George calmly, ¡°or forget about it.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t ept this now.  I have to get this checked,¡± Amelia pointed to the stack.


    ¡°You can get it all checked; we will forget about it if you find any illegality.  But you have to decide now if you want it or not.¡±


    Amelia stared at the stack, then at Scrimgeour, the Secretary, and Robards.  Scrimgeour slightly nodded while the other two didn¡¯t send any negative signals.  Amelia took out her handkerchief and started cleaning the monocle she wasn¡¯t wearing; she looked up at George and nodded.  ¡°I ept.  As long as there are no problems concerning the legality, I will appreciate the help,¡± she said.


    ¡°Excellent choice.¡±  George got up with everyone following him.  ¡°I hope I won¡¯te to regret today, Minister.  I¡¯m expecting some returns from this.¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t regret this, Mr. West; you won¡¯t.¡±


    . . .


    This time around, Amelia apanied George to see him off.  After today, if she could get the entire Ministry, she would get them together to see George off.


    ¡°Who¡¯s the bodyguard,¡± asked Amelia, ncing at the fedora-d man walking ahead of everyone.  ¡°Is he from the Limax?¡±


    ¡°You know about Limax?¡± asked George, quirking his brow.


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen their name plenty of time on documents when you bring them into the country.¡±


    ¡°I see.  No, he is not from Limax; they are busy with other. . .mitments.  Laro is an independent contractor and a friend.¡±


    ¡°Scrimgeour was giving him looks; Robards as well.¡±


    ¡°He is good, that¡¯s why.¡±


    As they reached the end of the hall, nearing the floo, it burnt up green, and a figure stepped out, making everyone stop when they recognized the man.  George¡¯s brows furrowed together when he saw the man, and Elliot was no different with his smile slipping away.


    ¡°Good day. . . everyone,¡± said Dumbledore as he fixed the hat on his head.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    George West ¨C GrandMC ¨C Returns. . . those I will get.


    Amelia Bones ¨C Minister ¨C She doesn¡¯t know it yet.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


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    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°Good day. . . everyone,¡± said Dumbledore, his eyes gazing at everyone, stopping on George and the fedora-wearing bodyguard more than anyone else.


    A sense of surprise came from both parties.  Dumbledore¨D to see George West meeting the Minister of Magic and the Head of DMLE.  From Amelia and her party, they preferred someone from the outside¨D especially Dumbledore¨D to know about this arrangement before it was inked and the resources were flowing.  They were sure that Dumbledore wasn¡¯t going to get the meeting details, but they preferred if he had no idea at all.


    ¡°Amelia, George. . . I¡¯m surprised to see you two together; what brought this along, if I may ask?¡± asked Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling.


    ¡°Mr. West and I were discussing a Ministry contract.¡±


    ¡°And we discussed a donation from me to the Ministry for the war efforts against the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters,¡± said Geoge out of nowhere.


    Amelia, Scrimgeour, Robards, and others from the Ministry turned to George with a shock that they hid after a split moment with all the politician¡¯s skills they possessed.  ¡°Mr. West, we shouldn¡¯t talk about this with outsiders,¡± said Scrimgeour.


    ¡°Yes, we should not,¡± said Geoge, staring at Dumbledore.  ¡°But this is Dumbledore, the one who the Dark Lord fears and the one who defeated Grindelwald.  I¡¯m sure he would be d to know the Ministry would be getting the aid that would allow it to resume its proper working without getting into a lengthy yet needless political conflict.  These are urgent times that need urgent actions. . . don¡¯t you think so too, Dumbledore?¡±


    ¡°. . . Yes, I think so too,¡± said Dumbledore.


    ¡°I was sure you would,¡± George said.  ¡°The Order of Phoenix was of great help thest time around, and even though they weren¡¯t a legitimate authority. . . a vignte outfit. . . and had no ce doing somethings they did, those brave people stepped up in the time of need for the right thing, for the just thing¨D what do you think of their contribution in theirst war, Minister Bones?¡±


    ¡°Of course, I am grateful for their bravery and courage to stand for their country against evil,¡± said the Minister, keeping a positive yet diplomatic stance on the matter


    ¡°I, too,mend their valor,¡± said George smiling.  ¡°My contribution today is in the simr vein, help my country in the time of need¨D it¡¯s just that my gold is much more valuable than my wand.  I¡¯m simply trying to help. . . like others have done before me.¡±


    Dumbledore smiled positively as ever, shing the infectious charm, and nodded along; however, the man of words with something to speak on anything and everything said nothing and seemed like he was humbly not epting the praise.  How could he. . . all his ear could hear was the subtext lingering and hidden in George¡¯s words.


    ¡°And the Ministry appreciates your generous contribution, Mr. West,¡± said Scrimgeour.


    ¡°I¡¯m just doing my civic duty,¡± George said with a slight head nod.  He turned to Dumbledore and addressed the man for the second time, ¡°Dumbledore, if I remember correctly, you wanted to meet me regarding something.  I have time now; we can talk now.  I¡¯m sure the Ministry has a lounge that we can borrow for a while.  The one in which we just sat down, perhaps.¡±


    ¡°Of course, take all the time you need,¡± said Amelia.


    George gazed at Dumbledore, his stone-grey eyes studying him as he stood under everyone¡¯s attention.


    ¡°It is fine; we can meet at ater date at leisure; I also have official urgent Hogwarts that I need to take care of right now before the offices close,¡± Dumbledore said in a good-hearted tone.  ¡°From the gist of it, the discussion you just had with Amelia was a significant one and enough for today¨D let¡¯s leave some other work for another day.¡±


    George twisted the ring on his finger.  ¡°I don¡¯t like to leave work for tomorrow; I¡¯m a busy man, and I prefer to finish as quickly as possible so that I can return home. . . where my family awaits me.  I¡¯m sure any office will be more than happy to amodate Albus Dumbledore even if he¡¯s a littlete. . .¡±


    ¡°Oh no, I can¡¯t keep people at work more than what¡¯s warranted; I don¡¯t want them cursing me in their minds as they do my work,¡± Dumbledore chuckled.


    George looked to Elliot, who leaned in to listen to some whispers.  Elliot nodded, took out his wand as George approached Dumbledore, and cast a privacy spell around them.  He turned to the Ministry people and smiled, ¡°So, I hear the executive lounge in the DMLE serves some great truffle.¡±


    Amelia nced at the two men under the privacy dome, wondering what they were talking about.  If she knew, she would want to scrub the information out of her mind because it would mean saying goodbye to the opportunity that had presented itself today. . . and she didn¡¯t want to get that slip away even if she had to pay the priceter.


    ¡°What are you trying to do, Dumbledore?¡± said George, all the etiquette slipping away.  ¡°I have been waiting for you to approach for long, but I haven¡¯t even seen a glimpse of your shadow.  Is this some y of yours to make me sweat?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand. . .¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t handle me, Dumbledore.  If you want to deal with me, then do it directly, don¡¯t go ckmailing my grandson. . . but maybe getting to my grandson is all you¡¯re capable of.¡±  George red at Dumbledore before breathing out deeply.  He set his shirt sleeves under his suit sleeves before saying, ¡°No matter.  I would make sure my grandson gets out scot-free even without you.¡±


    ¡°Was that what today with Amelia was about?¡±


    ¡°Do you think I need to do this to get my way?  I don¡¯t.  This country owes me more than enough already.  I¡¯m doing this so the megalomaniac is erased from the face of the Earth, and I can have my grandson back home.  He has idiotically left home because of that threat of yours and refuses to return home,¡± George sighed, ¡°the sooner this ends, the sooner I can have my grandson in front of me. . . . If anything to happens to my grandson, then pray to everything divine because I will make the lives of you and everyone you¡¯re involved a living hell.  I don¡¯t care if the Order of Phoenix is made up of Aurors and Hit Wizard and think their fellow colleagues won¡¯t prosecute them because of some brotherhood code¨D I will be the Kingmaker in this country and put whoever can get me what I want on the Minister chair.  Don¡¯t force my hand by going public with what you know, Dumbledore, because if you do, I will take away the one thing you love so much.¡±


    ¡°And what that might be?¡±


    ¡°Many might not like you up there, but I don¡¯t mind you in the castle, Dumbledore¨D so don¡¯t make me change that, for I can make that happen.  I know you love the Headmaster chair more than anything in this world, so consider yourself warned¨D cross me, and you¡¯ll never see the inside of the castle as Headmaster or Professor or anything.¡±


    For decades, Dumbledore had been up in the test polls for Minister of Magic during elections, but for decades, the candidate who could essentially hold the chair in perpetuity had refused to run in the election.  It could¡¯ve meant that Dumbledore wasn¡¯t interested in politics, but he was an active member of the Light Faction and the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot.  After that, the most likely reason one could consider that was that he hadn¡¯t run for Minister of Magic because that would mean giving up his seat as the Headmaster of Hogwarts.


    ¡°I can see where he got that bite of his,¡± muttered Dumbledore, staring at George.


    ¡°What?¡± asked George.


    ¡°Nothing.  I noticed that you didn¡¯t pull out of our Hogwarts deal.  I notice your people are still there in the vige.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t for one second think that¡¯s because of you,¡± said George.  ¡°I have other reasons for my people in Hogsmeade.¡±


    ¡°Is that reason called the Daphne Greengrass?  You¡¯ve people stalking the ce in case Quinnes to meet her.¡±


    George fixed Dumbledore a stoney look.  It was true; he was hoping that Quinn would visit Daphne or he would visit Astoria Greengrass for treatment.  The previous n had been capturing him. . . but after the incident with Limax, George considered talking and persuasion the first choice before using force.


    The conversation was over.  George was done as he stepped out of the dome and towards the firece with hispanions following him.


    ¡°What was that about?¡± asked Kingsley to Dumbledore.


    Dumbledore¡¯s eyes followed George until he was gone, and the fire settled down in the firece.  ¡°That was when you get hasty and don¡¯t consider all the cards dealt,¡± said Dumbledore.  He looked to the Ministrypany and muttered, ¡°I suppose this is the best I can get out of this situation.  What did George offer?¡±


    ¡°It makes me think if I had a wish, I would wish to be reborn as a West.  We could really do something with what we¡¯re getting.¡±


    Dumbledore sighed.  He wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about it.  Even though George had said he didn¡¯t need to do this, it was clear that he was the reason it happened.  And while he directly didn¡¯t get what he wanted, the DMLE got a war chest.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn sat on a bench inside Bristol Temple Meads railway station.  Hundreds of people walked past him every minute while he sat there with a newspaper in his hand, doing the crossword.  ¡°You¡¯re here,¡± he said.


    Lucius Malfoy, sitting behind him on the joined bench, turned his head towards Quinn and asked, ¡°Do we have to do this here?¡± he asked, looking disgusted at his clothes.  ¡°We could¡¯ve met anywhere, in a forest¨D why here?¡±


    ¡°Because no Death Eater woulde looking in a non-magical railway station,¡± said Quinn, though the real reason was that he wanted to hold a secret meeting in a busy railway station.  ¡°You got something for me?¡±


    ¡°Something big ising up soon.  We haven¡¯t done something this big since thest war.¡±


    ¡°Oh, a big attack, tell me more.¡±


    ¡°Not a big attack¨D big attacks.  We are going to attack Ministry Officials who have been creating problems. . .¡±


    ¡°A series of assassinations; that¡¯s bold.¡±


    ¡°Not a series of assassinations. . . they¡¯re going to be done on the same day,¡± said Lucius, and Quinn¡¯s brows rose.  ¡°The aim is to create as much chaos as possible in the Ministry.¡±


    ¡°How is this going to happen?¡±


    ¡°. . . I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°What?  You¡¯re Lucius Malfoy; how can you not know?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the problem; no one knows the entire operation except the operation lead,¡± said Lucius.  ¡°We are assigned the targets, and two weeks from Thursday, we will go after them.  I was able to get the names, but not how or when they are going to happen during the day.  The different teams are not allowed to discuss their ns.¡±


    ¡°Why is this happening?¡±


    ¡°Because of Rivers Lock, you know him,¡± said Lucius, and he was right; Quinn knew him.  ¡°He made it so that no one other team knows.  Novellus ionites operated that way apparently.¡±


    Quinn closed his crossword and pursed his lips.


    This was going to be a problem.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Okay, let¡¯s think about it; I can always clone myself. . . that¡¯s easy enough. . . yeah, super easy.


    George West ¨C GrandMC ¨C I¡¯m embedded in this country.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C I should¡¯ve just asked.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Do you guys know how to insect-proof a room?  The monsoon season is approaching in my college city, and I¡¯m not from a ce where we get a lot of insects during the rain.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 394 Finding Her

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be doing this,¡± Hermione gazed around the streets of Hogsmeade, looking at every person, window, and rooftop with suspicion and worry.  ¡°This is too dangerous, and we can get in trouble.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be spoilsport,¡± said Ron with a bag of Mangey¡¯s mouth-firecrackers in his hand.  He popped some in and kept his mouth open for miniature firecrackers to burst out.  ¡°We aren¡¯t going to get in trouble if we don¡¯t get caught; it¡¯s as easy as that.¡±


    Hermione removed her worried eye from the surroundings and red at Ron.  ¡°I¡¯m not worried about getting caught by the professors, that is¡ª¡±  She stopped with a surprised eek when an arm snaked around her waist.  She turned her eyes to find Harry looking at her with aical-surprised look.


    Harry fake-gasped, ¡°Hermione Granger, not worrying about getting caught by professors?  Who are you, and what did you do to my girlfriend?¡± he smirked.


    Hermione rolled her eyes, ¡°This is not a joke!  What if¡ª¡± she looked around before dipping her head to whisper ¡°¡ª a Death Eater sees you and tries to kidnap you. . . What if they call others and others get hurt!¡±  The more she spoke, the more panicky she got.  ¡°I really feel we should return to the castle now; it¡¯s not worth the risk.¡±


    She was stopped when another arm went around and above her shoulder from the other side.  ¡°Cool down; you¡¯re worrying too much,¡± said Ivy Potter with a smile that Hermione had only started to see return recently.  ¡°No one will know it is us because how can they?  We don¡¯t look anything like us.¡±


    Hermione pressed her lips into a white line.  It was true; they didn¡¯t look anything like their original appearance.  Harry and Ivy were barred from visiting the vige during Hogsmeade weekend because of security concerns and all the things that could go wrong if they were outside Hogwarts without protection.  So when the n to sneak out to Hogwarts was made, she had, of course, denied it immediately.  But then Ivy had suggested the solution of changing their appearances to some random magazine models they had looked up in an old issue of Witches Weekly so that no one would know who they actually were.  They even made sure not to wear their Hogwarts robes in case someone got suspicious because of their house trims.


    ¡°But what if someone realizes that it is magic,¡± Hermione rebuked.  They didn¡¯t have hair for a Polyjuice, so she and Ivy had to work off the magazine clippings and create a replication through Transfiguration.


    ¡°Our magic is good enough so that no one would know if they didn¡¯t know what exactly to look for.  I adore how worried you¡¯re getting for us, but shake it away¡ª who knows, this might be ourst Hogsmeade weekend,¡± said Ivy.


    ¡°Hey!¡± Harry chipped in, ¡°Let me tell you, this is in no way thest time we are doing this.  I¡¯m here till June, and I will be in Hogsmeade every time the weekend opens up.¡±


    Hermione tried to resist one more time, ¡°But still. . .¡±


    ¡°How about we go look at some stationary,¡± said Ivy, ¡°that should calm you right down, and it will take your mind off this when you see all the new inventory they have.¡±


    Hermione rolled her eyes and softly shoved Ivy away, making her giggle.  Maybe Ivy was right; perhaps she was overthinking it¡ª her magic was good, it would hold up.  ¡°Should we go to Scrivenshaft then?¡± she asked¡ª the thought of new inventory did make her feel a rush of excitement.


    ¡°Not Scrivenshaft,¡± Ivy¡¯s smile ran away faster than a squirrel.


    Hermione knocked herself internally, and she could feel Harry¡¯s arm tighten around her waist, telling her that it was indeed andmine that she should¡¯ve sidestepped.  She knew that Ivy had a fight with Quinn, and her mood hadn¡¯t been good ever since then¡ª her temper had only improved around the time they had begun nning for today.


    ¡°Tomes & Quills is better; we should go there,¡± said Ivy, pulling her towards the street that led to the store.


    But then they heard a voice that made theme to a skidding stop.  ¡°I would like to object to that statement,¡± said the familiar voice.  They turned to see him standing in the middle of the street, smiling at them pleasantly.


    ¡°Scrivenshaft is the best stationery and printing solutions store there is in Hogsmeade. . . nay the country. . . nay the world,¡± said Quinn.  He was dressed in a suit made up of a grey zer and tan pants; he seemed absolutely spotless in how he dressed¡ª not how one would expect someone who had run away from home.


    He slightly narrowed his eyes and examined them over.  ¡°Let me take a guess,¡± one by one, Quinn looked at them, ¡°HG, Ron, Boy twin. . . Girl twin.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t know¡ª¡± Hermoine said, trying to defend, but that went down the drain immediately.


    ¡°How did you know?!¡± eximed Ron, his jaw-dropping, letting the firecrackers whistle out.


    ¡°Idiot!¡± ¡°Ron!¡± ¡°Moron.¡±


    Quinn smiled, ¡°Thank you for confirming, Ronald.  As for how I knew?  I know every Hogwarts student who was therest year.  You clearly aren¡¯t new first years, and I don¡¯t know any now-seventh year who looks like you four. . . it was an easy guess.¡±


    ¡°How did you know we¡¯ll be in the vige today?¡± asked Harry, his tone full of distrust.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t.¡±  Quinn looked to Ivy, ¡°Can we talk. . . somewhere private?¡±


    Harry stepped forward, but Ivy pulled him back.  She whispered something into his ear; Harry looked like he wanted to protest, but a look from Ivy, he clicked his tongue and turned away.


    ¡°You go ahead; I¡¯ll find,¡± said Ivy.


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± asked Hermione.  ¡°You don¡¯t have to. . .¡±


    Ivy didn¡¯t reply and followed Quinn as they entered an alley and disappeared into another street.


    ¡°Should we go after them?¡± asked Ron.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to hurt her,¡± said Hermione, though she was tempted to go after them.  She turned to Harry to see what he thought, but he just passed by her wordlessly, heading towards where Ivy and Quinn had left.


    ¡°Harry, wait!¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°What do you want?¡± Ivy asked scathingly.


    ¡°I want to talk.¡±


    Ivy stopped in the middle of the street and stood there with crossed arms.  ¡°Well, I don¡¯t want to,¡± she said testily.


    Quinn stopped and rolled his eyes for a moment before turning to Ivy.  ¡°Yes, you do, or else you wouldn¡¯t have followed me here.  Now let¡¯s go,¡± he took her arm and pulled her along.  Ivy tried to resist, but Quinn tugged her along anyway.


    ¡°Let me go!¡± she protested.


    Quinn looked around to survey the surroundings.  He entered the door nearest to him and pulled Ivy in.  It was a shop full of odd trinkets with an odd scent permeating from the floor¡¯s wood.  There was a long counter that stretched from one side of the shop to another, and an old man sat behind it, wiping a ss bowl with a washcloth.


    ¡°Ernie, is the back room free?¡± Quinn asked as Ivy studied the shop with suspicion.


    ¡°It is,¡± said the old man with a shaky voice.


    ¡°Thank you, Ernie.¡±


    They walked to the store¡¯s back room, which was filled with boxes.  Quinn walked to a wall, and like they didn¡¯t exist, they passed through the boxes.


    ¡°What¡ª the wall,¡± yelled Ivy.


    But they passed through the wall.  It was an illusion that opened up to a narrow tunnel with a single MLE on the top, walls that barely had any paint or ster on them, revealing the red bricks that had turned a dirty brown with time.  At the other end of the tunnel sat a red door at the end.  Inside the room, on the other hand, was nothing like the tunnel.  The room was furnished to the inch with decor that made it seem like it was a luxury hotel.


    ¡°What is this ce?¡± asked Ivy, stunned at the ce.


    ¡°Hogsmeade is a vige, and like any other vige, it has ces that only local knows.  Locals and those who know what to look for.  This ce is a spot where people can hold meetings with privacy.¡±  He turned to Ivy and said, ¡°So, let¡¯s have that meeting.¡±


    ¡°What is there to talk about?  You said it all thest time, or maybe you didn¡¯t¡ª who knows what you¡¯re hiding.¡±


    Quinn sat down on afy leather chair and motioned Ivy to the chair in front of him.  ¡°For one, I don¡¯t n to hold the Horcrux hostage.  I never did.  I want Voldemort dead as much as anyone does,¡± he said.  ¡°It was merely a timed threat against Dumbledore.  I have my security now.¡±


    ¡°What if you didn¡¯t have the security?¡± Ivy asked, not taking the seat.  ¡°What then?  Keep the Horcrux; maybe join Voldemort while you¡¯re at it.¡±


    Quin¡¯s brow furrowed for a moment, and his smile weakened the same.  He sighed and lightly shrugged, ¡°In that case. . . then I would¡¯ve walked into the Aurors Office and revealed the Invisible Vignte¡¯s identity in front of the entire Auror force.  That way, my grandfather wouldn¡¯t have needed to deal with Dumbledore.  It would¡¯ve probably jeopardized my future in this country. . . grandfather would¡¯ve tried to undo that and most probably seeded, but I wouldn¡¯t be walking around as freely as I¡¯m right now¡ª I¡¯m already fending off grandfather¡¯s attempt to bring me; I don¡¯t want the Ministry behind me as well.¡±


    ¡°Like that would¡¯ve mattered; they haven¡¯t been able to catch you until now.¡±


    ¡°No, they haven¡¯t, but they could do much better with my face.  Not only would I have Aurors looking for me with a renewed vigor¡ª people hate rich folks¡ª but I also would have the non-magical authorities after me. . . I don¡¯t like that many eyes on me.¡±  He was sure that in this scenario, his grandfather would¡¯ve used the Ministry and, in turn, non-magical intelligence agencies as extra man-force.  ¡°It was crucial for me that Dumbledore stayed quiet.  Moreover, I don¡¯t appreciate my family getting threatened.¡±


    ¡°So, you¡¯re saying you did nothing wrong?¡±


    ¡°I did you wrong and your family.  And I deeply apologize for it.  It was wrong for me to keep what I knew, what I did, hidden.  I know my justifying my actions won¡¯t be helpful here, but I had reasons to do so.  I¡¯m aware I sound like Dumbledore right now,¡± said Quinn.  He pointed to the chair, ¡°Would you please take a seat, or would you prefer for me to stand up.¡±


    Ivy eyed the chair, then Quinn, before conceding her stubbornness to keep standing to take the chair opposite Quinn.


    ¡°I missed you,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I tried to reach out to you, sent you letters, but you never replied.  You even stopped picking up my calls on the mirrors.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t read them,¡± said Ivy, a little less angry than before.


    Quinn looked down at his hands in hisp.  There was a silence in the room.  As the silence persisted, Ivy¡¯s anger started to slip, reced with a worry at Quinn¡¯s demeanor.  The only time she had seen him quiet was when he was working with magic, but other than that, he always had a way of striking up conversations¡ª the silence now was unnerving for her.


    ¡°Quinn?¡±


    He raised his head, and even though there was a smile on his face, it sent all the wrong signals to her.  If she had been worried at Quinn¡¯s silence before, she was genuinely concerned now.


    ¡°I. . .¡±


    .


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    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I know ces, and I know people.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Much Anger ¨C Quinn?


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I just wrote the first chapterst conflict of AMJ.  AMJ has sessfully entered thest leg of its journey.  It¡¯s expected to end Early or Mid July (I can say it with confidence this time).  It¡¯ll followed by the Epilogue Volume, which will end by thest days of July.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 395 The Occasional Thought...

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Though there was a smile on Quinn¡¯s face, his face was sending all the opposite signals to Ivy.  All of a sudden, she could notice the slight droopiness, theck of the lustre in his eyes that made him seem intelligent at times and mischievous at others, she could even light bags under his eyes.  It was as if a filter had been lifted over her eyes, and as she put aside her anger for a moment, she could see more and more.


    ¡°I. . . I am tired,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I have known about the Horcruxes for a very-very long time, and I don¡¯t know how Dumbledore does it, but it is a great deal of pressure for me knowing that there exists a madman who can¡¯t be killed without getting rid of immortality granting vessels.  At first, I was all up for it¡ª things seemed so simple back then¡ª find and destroy the Horcruxes, kill the Dark Lord, and be the unknown hero by the end of it all¡ª and it started great. . . . I had a bucket load of Basilisk Venom ready to torture the soul fragments till they die, and one already down the sack, then I got another one and burnt the ring to a crisp. . . But things are never so simple, are they.¡±


    Quinn heaved a heavy sigh.  He nced over his shoulder at the alcohol trolley near the wall with any choice of liquor he could ask for.  ¡°Do you mind if I drink?¡± he asked.


    ¡°You don¡¯t drink.¡±


    ¡°I know, but I really feel like it could help,¡± he sighed.  The look from Ivy looked like she wanted to say something but was holding back made him chuckle weakly.  ¡°You don¡¯t have to say it; I¡¯m not going to drink; it was just a thought.¡±  Both of them knew that Quinn didn¡¯t want to partake in anything that would leave him inebriated.


    ¡°You see, the first time I saw your brother, I always knew that that scar wasn¡¯t normal¡ª I thought it was a dark curse injury that your family wasn¡¯t able to get fixed, but when I came to know about the Horcruxes, I began to suspect things, and when I looked closer my suspicions were true¡ª the infamous lightning bolt of a scar was indeed a Horcrux.  I don¡¯t know how that could be possible because Horcrux takes borate magic to create. . . but then there hasn¡¯t been a maniac who split his soul more than once.¡±  Ivy watched as even the talk of magic that would always make Quinn¡¯s face glow up failed to bring any joy to his face.  ¡°It may sound bad, but back then, I didn¡¯t care for your brother¡¯s well-being much; I would¡¯ve preferred to help him, but the bottom line was that Harry Potter was simply. . . a Horcrux.¡±


    Ivy¡¯s face wasn¡¯t a pretty sight.  There was hurt and rm painted all over her face; she even hugged herself, a very out-of-ce sight for someone like Ivy Potter.  Quinn watched her, and the look of betrayal didn¡¯t make him feel any good.  But it was true, from the very moment he had begun actively thinking about the whole Horcrux ordeal, he had found Harry to be an allowed sacrifice for the good of many.  Yes, Harry had survived in the canon, but magic could be as unpredictable as methodical; who knew what would happen this time around.


    ¡°But then something happened which changed all of it,¡± he said with a bittersweet smile.  ¡°I became friends with you.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t be friends with people easily, you know that.  It was a miracle that we became friends, much less get together in an unorthodox rtionship.  If I had told a past version of me before things went up for us, he would¡¯ve scoffed andughed at me while patting me for better luck next time on the prank,¡± chuckled Quinn with a tired smile, but a real one nevertheless.


    ¡°Okay, well, thank you for tolerating me,¡± Ivy snapped in return.


    ¡°But with hindsight, I think you and me were bound to at least have a good rapport with each other even if we didn¡¯t get together like we are now.  Don¡¯t you think so?  I like people who appreciate magic.  You had a personality that I could along with.  And well, you being pretty didn¡¯t hurt, but I¡¯m sure you have heard that plenty of times.¡±


    ¡°Are you seriously flirting with me right now?¡± asked Ivy, bbergasted¡ª he had been down in the dumps just a moment earlier.


    ¡°Who other than I you would I flirt with?¡± said Quinn bluntly, and the frankly straightforward look made her feel conscious of what he meant.  ¡°Even before we started dating, you were close enough to me that I couldn¡¯t perceive Harry as just a Horcrux.  I couldn¡¯t look at him as a liability; he was now an asset to be protected.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s when things became difficult,¡± she said in a half-statement, half-questioning tone.


    ¡°The realization kicked inter, but yes, that¡¯s when the easy-go-lucky attitude exited my body, and slowly life started to get real,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Things were tough during the Tri-wizard tournament and our time in the DA.  I started to sit down with Harry more frequently than ever, and most of the time, I was acutely aware that there was a Horcrux near me, and he was your brother.¡±  Quinn paused, and for a few seconds, he rubbed the armrest of the chair in silence, staring at his hand.  ¡°I began looking into sure-fire ways I could subtract Harry out of the equation¡ª or at least subtract the Horcrux in Harry¡¯s scar from him¡ª and the more I looked, the more questions began to pop up, more problems surfaced, and the answers weren¡¯t flowing in at the same rate.  As time passed, I began to put increasingly more time into the Horcrux research.  Soon both my social and personal time was being dominated by Horcruxes. . . andst year wasn¡¯t good for me. . .¡±


    Quinn shook his head.  It wasn¡¯t good at all.  The entire year, his mental state was like a ss full of water up to the brim, threatening to spill over with a single drop or gentlest of gust, and Snape¡¯s death was the thing that broke the dam¡ª for a couple of days, he had shut downpletely, letting the Sins take over for a time longer than he would¡¯ve permitted if he was sane.  But at the same time, right now, some part of his mind interpreted them as thest moment of true peace where he was free from any sort of conflict¡ª even if that state came because of giving up on everything.


    ¡°You know, somewhere down the line, I began to realize what was truly at stake; that if the Horcrux weren¡¯t taken care of, the Dark Lord would¡¯ve threatened millions of lives, if not more,¡± said Quinn with a harrowed look.  ¡°Do you know, destroying the Horcrux is not the hardest part of the problem?  The hardest part is killing Voldemort,¡± he said, and Ivy reacted, but he motioned her down.  ¡°There are many who have aplished much in magic, revolutionary achievements that will go down in history, but there are only a handful of people who have reached levels ofbative power that Dumbledore and the damned snake bastard have achieved¡ª they can level down cities on their own, wipe out armies, magic or non-magical.  They¡¯re almost impossible to kill; if onees looking for you, it is advised to escape rather than attempt confrontation.  I said this about Dumbledore before; the same goes for Voldemort; killing them is nigh impossible when they can decimate everything and anything around them.¡±


    If there was one thing he couldn¡¯t agree with in the canon timeline was the fight between Voldemort and Harry.  Voldemort could¡¯ve killed everyone in the Great Hall with a flick of his wand without breaking a sweat.  His agreeing to duel Harry was Voldemort saying that it was enough of ying around and he was taking over to finish everything on his own.  Quinn had gone dueled Harry, and he had faced Voldemort; both of them weren¡¯t even on the same.


    He looked at the red door of the room; it was the only ¡®striking¡¯ thing that stood out from the rest of the interior of the room.  He simply stared at it.  Ivy noticed it and asked,


    ¡°. . . What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°A couple of times in thest years, but mainly in the past few months, I¡¯m visited by this one thought, it is same every time.  It alwayses in the evening. . . always. . . just before dinner time,¡± said Quinn, and his eyes were locked onto the door with Ivy trying to figure out if she was missing something.  ¡°The thought always starts with imagining what my life would be if the Dark Lord and Horcrux never existed.  It goes the same for me every time¡ª¡± he smiled ¡°¡ªI would be somewhere in Europe or Asia with Eddie and Marcus on our trip,¡± which he knew, despite his many attempts to convince himself otherwise, wasn¡¯t going to happen, ¡°having the best time before Eddie starts traveling with his Quidditch team, Marcus with studying under Uncle Elliot, and me going to stay with Mr. n for the apprenticeship. . . I imagine me visiting you and Daphne during Hogsmeade weekends or whenever we miss each other¡ª I have gotten pretty good with my apparition, and I can create Portkeys, so it wouldn¡¯t be a problem to pop by whenever I want. . . I imagine enjoying the world and doing the craziest of things with my best friends while I also take little time to explore some magic here and there, you know, without it distracting from the purposes of the trip. . . I imagine myself not knowing anything about Horcruxes, anything about how to cripple people, with much less knowledge of how to break people down, and without knowing what it feels like to take a life and live with it¡ª thatst part always feels stic because I can¡¯t escape from it¡ª it is called living with it, after all, can¡¯t just imagine it not existing . . .¡±


    While Quinn¡¯s tone was positive and his words full of warmth, Ivy noticed how his demeanor grew weaker by the sentence.  The person she knew to be strong no matter what seemed to shrink into his chair.  She got up from her chair and almost leaped to his side; Ivy knelt in front of him, taking his hand into hers.


    ¡°. . . And then I¡¯m back. . . In a room inside my suitcase, or under the mask hunting Snatchers, or in a shitty corner who knows where talking to people I didn¡¯t know, almost always under a fake face because I know my grandfather will find me.  Always I console myself that the best part of the day, dinner, a hot and delicious meal, is ahead of me,¡± Quinn was now staring into Ivy¡¯s eyes as he spoke every word, which now contained a faint hint of a quiver in them.  ¡°I walk out in the open from where I am and always stare at the sky, and the same thing passes through my mind.  As I look at the evening sky, I always feel tempted to just give up,¡± Ivy¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°give up on the life as a runaway, stop being a Death Eater hunting masked Vignte¡ª hand over the Horcrux and my research to Dumbledore, and leave everything behind.  A part of my mind speaks to me, says that this was never my duty, that I don¡¯t have to deal with Voldemort¡ª I should leave it to Dumbledore and the Ministry, that they would take care of it. . . and I should live my life, having fun without all the unnecessary stress.¡±


    The bitterest of smiles crept over his face as he pointed at the red door, ¡°I had the same feeling right now. . . that this, what is happening between us too difficult, and I should just leave because I don¡¯t think I can fix it anymore.¡±  He grasped Ivy¡¯s hand and leaned forward, ¡°I don¡¯t want to feel like this, but I can¡¯t help it. . .¡±


    Ivy stood up, sat down on hisp, wrapped her arm around him, and hugged him tightly while whispering words into his ears.  She felt him clutch at her clothes.  Ivy couldn¡¯t see Quinn¡¯s face as it was dipped away from her, but she could tell what was happening from the wetness she could feel on her clothes.


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    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I don¡¯t want to write anything for this chapter here.


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 Chapter 396 Cut Short

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    ¡°Hey,¡± Ivy whispered softly, ¡°how¡¯re you feeling now?¡±  She held Quinn in her arms, sitting in hisp.  The heavy breathing had settled down, and Quinn was not clutching her as tightly as he was before.


    Quinn leaned away from Ivy but didn¡¯t let her go.  His face looked like a mess with tear stains, but the heaviness had lifted away, and now he seemed much more like himself than before.  ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine now, thank you. . . . I apologize for my unsightly behavior,¡± he said.  ¡°I don¡¯t know why that suddenly came over me. . .¡±


    ¡°No. . . no need to apologize,¡± Ivy said.  She felt that Quinn breaking down had done good.  She feared that if Quinn had continued to hold it in without an outlet, it would¡¯ve snowballed into much bigger concerns down the line.


    ¡°It was guilt,¡± he suddenly said.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Why I didn¡¯t tell you about the Horcruxes,¡± he said with a tired voice.  ¡°I knew if I told you about the Horcruxes, I would¡¯ve needed to tell you about Harry.  If it was before, I wouldn¡¯t have pressured Dumbledore into revealing Harry¡¯s identity and simply let Dumbledore do whatever he was doing¡ª the reason why I revealed it was because of guilt of hiding a lot more, much more.  Somewhere in my mind, I felt that if your family learned about Harry, it would ease my conscience somehow. . . it didn¡¯t.  I felt great when I left the Headmaster¡¯s Office, but by the time I was out o the castle, I was back in the pangs of anxiety.  When Dumbledore threatened to reveal my secret, and I had to tell you myself before he could, I felt like hurling my stomach out at the thought of things going to the worst-case scenario.¡±


    ¡°The worst-case scenario?¡±


    ¡°You breaking up with me, of course,¡± Quinn said tiredly.  ¡°I jeopardized a lot doing this; I¡¯m already at odds with my family, my social life has reduced to nothing, and if you left me, it would be all for nothing.¡±


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be for nothing. . . You-Know-Who will be vanquished.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t know that for sure.  As I told you before, killing him is the hardest part of the problem.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be like that.  If the other side is You-Know-Who, then we have Dumbledore.  The Headmaster can stand against him. . . and Dumbledore has the Elder wand, the most powerful wand in existence, which gives him a clear advantage.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s brows raised as a surprise passed over his expressions; he sat up straighter in the chair.  ¡°You found about the wand?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I found about the Deathly Hallows.¡±  It was thest time they had met that he had given her some cryptic information about what he was doing.  Fueled by the anger, she had dug into it on her own, and after much researching, she wasn¡¯t able to find a single reference of the symbol anywhere in the Hogwarts library.  Just when she had started to think that Hogwarts was a dead-end, she stumbled upon it from an unlikely source.  ¡°I had almost given up when Luna happened. . .¡±


    ¡°Luna?¡±


    ¡°I was in the library when she found me and saw the Deathly Hallow symbol I had drawn.  She knew what it was.  The Tale of the Three Brothers by Beedle the Bard. . . it turns out that her father had shown the symbol to her while telling her the story.  The three Deathly Hallows¡ª the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. . . do you really think they were crafted by Death?¡±


    ¡°No, even with the existence of magic, I don¡¯t believews of nature having living personifications.  I think they were made by the three brothers, who I don¡¯t know if you know. . .¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re my ancestors.  I found Ignotus Peverell in the Potter family,¡± she sighed.  ¡°I can¡¯t believe my Invisibility Cloak is the Invisibility Cloak from the story. . . I still can¡¯t believe it.¡±


    ¡°The signs of it being something special have always been present.  That cloak has been passed down in the Potter family for generations and before without ever needing any work on the strengthening of the charms. . . it¡¯s clear that the cloak is special.¡±


    Ivy had to agree to the point.  She guessed no one ever paid any attention to the fact because the cloak had been in the family for so long that its existence had be normalized.  ¡°I can¡¯t believe you have the Ressurection Stone,¡± she said.  ¡°Does. . . Does it really work, you know, can it summon the dead?¡±


    Quinn nodded.


    ¡°Have you used it?¡±


    ¡°For summoning souls¡ª no.  I have been using it for other purposes.¡±


    ¡°And what are they?  You didn¡¯t tell mest time.  I found about the Hallows now; can you tell me now?¡±  Ivy found herself the target of scrutiny in Quinn¡¯s eyes the moment the question left her.  The stone-grey eyes studied her for a moment.


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to figure out how to get the Horcrux out of Harry¡¯s head.  Even though a fragment, a Horcrux is still a soul, and because the Resurrection Stone is a soul artifact, I believe it can be the key to free Harry from the Horcrux.¡±  He sighed, ¡°It¡¯s not going well.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t push yourself,¡± Ivy caressed Quinn¡¯s face, which was paler than usual.


    Quinn gently grasped  Ivy¡¯s hand and leaned into it.  ¡°I didn¡¯t have any hope today, you know.  I had been avoiding you since thest meeting because I thought if we meet, you will dump me. . .¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous.¡±


    ¡°Not gonna lie, I¡¯m judging you a little bit,¡± he said and got a light smack in return.  Quinn stared at her as he softly said, ¡°You¡¯re too good for me, you know. . .¡±


    Ivy sensed his eyes going to her lips, and even she found herself doing the same.  They moved at the same time, and in a moment, they were kissing.  It was stronger than what she was expecting, but at the same time, she was surprised at her own reaction¡ª since thest time they had met, she hadn¡¯t once imagined it going like this once.


    She felt his hand go under her sweater.  She raised her arms up, and Quinn removed it, and yet she felt herself getting hotter.  She reciprocated and got rid of his suit jacket; one by one, the clothes began toe off, but before they could move ahead from making out, there was a loud m.


    Ivy jumped and turned to the noise, feeling a mix of shock and irritation.  But all of that drained away when she realized where the sound came from.  The loud m was from the door of the room swinging to m into the wall, but that wasn¡¯t what had shocked her¡ª it was who had mmed the door open.  It was her twin brother in his natural appearance (without the disguise they had put on) along with Hermione and Ron, who were still in disguise.  She watched as they, for a split-second, their eyes widened, but before she could even blink, three red spells shot toward them faster than an arrow from behind her, making their eyes turn upwards, and they crumpled down where they stood.


    Ivy turned back to Quinn, who shrugged.  ¡°I¡¯m testy these days,¡± he said.  ¡°They¡¯re lucky you were here, or else they would¡¯ve been hit with something much worse than a stunner.¡±


    ¡°Wake them up, please,¡± she said, contacting up from hisp before adding,  ¡°let me get dressed first.¡±


    As she got dressed, Quinn dressed himself, all the while grumbled about locking the door¡ª much faster than her, using magic¡ª and then levitated Harry, Ron, and Hermione and dumped them into the chairs in the room.  She gave him a nod, and Quinn snapped his fingers.  The unconscious three snapped open their eyes and immediately jumped up from their chair.  Beside her, Quinn waved his hand, and all of them were knocked back into their chairs.  She gave him a look.


    ¡°Ivy!¡±  ¡°Are you alright?!¡±  ¡°Wha¡ª¡±


    ¡°Calm down,¡± she said.  ¡°What are you three think you¡¯re doing?!  Didn¡¯t I tell you to go, and I¡¯ll catch up to you.¡±


    ¡°You mean you¡¯ll catch up after shagging him!¡± Harry shouted scathingly.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like the sound of that,¡±mented Quinn, leaning against the wall just beside the door.  ¡°Makes me sound dirty.¡±


    ¡°I can do whatever I want,¡± Ivy said, arms crossed.  ¡°You barging in here was extremely rude.  You shouldn¡¯t have done that.¡±  It didn¡¯t feel great to have her twin brother barge upon her when she and her boyfriend were in a state of undress, not to mention her best friend and a boy who she saw as a brother.


    ¡°I¡¯m also curious, how did you get in here?  Ernie should¡¯ve stopped you,¡± Quinn asked Harry, but then he narrowed his eyes.  ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you showed him your face, and he let you.¡±  Hermione and Ron¡¯s expressions answered for Harry.  Quinn sighed, ¡°He¡¯s getting old; I¡¯ll have to have a talk with his son.¡±


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have removed your disguise,¡± said Ivy.  ¡°There¡¯s a reason why we used them; what if someone saw you.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not turn this about me,¡± said Harry.  He pointed to Quinn with his whole hand and spoke, ¡°Just a while back, you were telling me how much you hated him¡ª and now you¡¯re doing this!  What the hell?!¡±


    Ivy resisted the urge to look at Quinn.  She had said some nasty words before today in anger and frustration, mostly in front of Hermione, but there were times she had sprung out in front of Harry and Ron.  ¡°What do you want, Harry?¡± she asked.  ¡°You barged in here; now what?¡±


    ¡°Are you serious?  I was worried about you!  I didn¡¯t know what will he do to you!?¡±


    ¡°Oh. . . and here I remember a time when you were willing to have your flesh cut by Umbridge on my word,¡± said Quinn, pumping his brows.  ¡°Where did all that trust go?¡±


    Harry ignored Quinn and continued to speak to Ivy.  ¡°You know, he¡¯s dating Greengrass, right?!  What the hell are you doing?¡±


    Ivy could feel Quinn¡¯s eyes boring into her from behind.  She had told Harry about Quinn being the Invisible Vignte and about the other Horcrux that he had destroyed, along with other things Quinn had told her, but she had left her rtionship with him out of the things she had told Harry.  In the room, only Hermione knew about their dating.


    ¡®Well, not anymore,¡¯ she thought.  ¡°We are dating,¡± she said.


    ¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡±  Harry and Ron shouted in unison.


    ¡°Happily,¡± said Quinn.  Ivy gave him a re asking him to stop.  He wasn¡¯t being helpful here.


    ¡°When did he break up with Daphne?¡± asked Harry, still reeling from the shock.  ¡°When did you two start. . . when did all this happen?!¡±


    ¡°He didn¡¯t break up with Daphne,¡± Ivy sighed as she saw Harry and Ron¡¯s expressions cycle through a very wide range.  ¡°He¡¯s dating me, and he¡¯s dating Daphne.  As for when. . . same day as Professor Snape¡¯s funeral.¡±


    There was utter silence in the room.  Ron was staring at Quinn, shocked with a hint of administration in his eyes.  Harry, on the other hand, was moving his eyes between Ivy and Quinn¡ª he opened his mouth to speak but couldn¡¯t get any words out¡ª for a moment, he resembled Ron by quite a bit.


    Ivy gave Hermione and ¡®telepathically¡¯ had a conversation with her best friend.  She pleaded with Hermione to take over, and after some back and forth, Hermione agreed.


    ¡°Alright, boys, let¡¯s get out of here,¡± said Hermione.  ¡°Let¡¯s go back to the castle, and I¡¯ll tell you all about it.¡±


    ¡°You knew?!¡± Harry eximed for the n-th time.


    ¡°Yes, I knew, of course, I knew.  I¡¯m her best friend.  Now, let¡¯s go,¡± said Hermione, and amidst protest, she dragged them both out, closing the door behind, leaving Quinn and Ivy alone.


    ¡°I think I should leave,¡± said Ivy, after a moment of silence.  ¡°Harry would irritate Hermione if I don¡¯t get there soon.¡±


    Quinn nodded.  ¡°I should also leave. . . can¡¯t be seen out and then stay for long. . . the news will get to grandfather.¡±  He took Ivy¡¯s coat from the hanger and helped it on her.


    ¡°Quinn. . . ¡±  Ivy turned to face Quinn and found him close enough to feel his breath.  His hand went up to her cheek as he kissed her.  It was deep, and Ivy savoured it because she knew that it was going to be thest one for a while.


    The kiss ended, and Quinn began to back away towards the door.  ¡°I don¡¯t know when any of this will end, but I¡¯m going to well damn make sure that when things settle, they tip on my side.¡±  There was a steel in his eyes that, to Ivy, was a little scary and reminded her that she was looking at the Invisible Vignte, but at the same time, that same looked so reliable that all she could do was nod.  ¡°Be safe, Ivy, be safe,¡± said Quinn before disappearing.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I¡¯m going to take a long shower.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Rollercoaster ¨C Okay, I don¡¯t have to have this talk, but let¡¯s have it.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Hostel Mess food ain¡¯t that great. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 397 Gathering Intel

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    One Canada Square, the fifty-story tall high-rise skyscraper with its iconic pyramid-shaped top, stood tall in the middle of Canary Wharf, London, glittering in the London night skyline.


    On a vacated floor in the forties that once served as an office, Quinn overlooked the active civilization that ran along in its fast-paced city life with no time to stop in fear of falling behind.  He sat on a leather chair with a ss of steaming slow-cooked salted caramel hot chocte in his hand.  His eyes followed the traffic of cars on the road and the group of office workers that shuffled out of their respective office buildings to return home¡ª he extended his Legilimency senses but shook his head to himself when his range grossly fell short in reaching even five floors below much less people on the ground.


    As Quinn wondered how to extend his reach, he heard the door creak open, and a chorus of footsteps entered the room with a chatter that echoed on the empty floor.


    ¡°Wee, gentlemen,¡± said Quinn; his eyes remained on a solitary man who looked to be a delivery man entering the nearby officeplex.  ¡®Maybe I should also order in today,¡¯ he wondered.


    ¡°Did we have to meet here?¡± asked a gruff voice as the footsteps came to a stop.


    ¡°Do you have a problem with the location?  No one knows that we are meeting here.  It¡¯s empty, isted enough, and with guards who can be turned away with a snap of our fingers.  Isn¡¯t it a perfect meet-up ce?¡±  Quinn swiveled in his chair toe face-to-face with nine grown men, all dressed up in clothing perfect for blending in the non-magical part of the country.  ¡°It was either this or inside a dark forest somewhere.  I¡¯m sure all of you fine people prefer this to a forest at night.¡±


    He snapped his finger, and ninefy leather recliners appeared in a broad U-shape around Quinn¡¯s own chair.  He motioned them to sit down, which they did, taking a seat each, with the man who had spoken before sitting in front of him.  The man was dressed in leather and seemed to have more hairing out of his head, beard, chest, and arms than a brown bear¡¯s.


    ¡°So, what do you have for me, Mason?¡± asked Quinn.


    The nine men were hired by Quinn to follow people.  They were a for-hire group that worked in the field of intelligence.  After epting a brief, they executed and got as much information as they could and presented it to the client.  It was a secret society of people that Quinn had found in his years of exploring the country during summer breaks, and things had taken a spike when he had run away¡ª his time had been spent in darker, seeder, hidden gaps where people of many skills resided.


    ¡°We did what you asked for,¡± said Mason, rubbing his forehead.  ¡°Tailing and documenting the daily schedules of nine high-ranking Ministry employees. . . ¡°


    ¡°Any problems?¡±


    ¡°No. . . no problems.  It¡¯s just that this was a big job.¡±


    ¡°Which I paid for.  You already have your sixty percent as you quoted.  Give me the information today, you receive another twenty percent, and when my job is done next week. . . and you keep me updated till that day.¡±  He had paid a good chunk of change¡ª golden change¡ª to finance the job.


    ¡°Yes, I know that.¡±


    Quinn snapped his fingers and pped his hand.  ¡°Then, let¡¯s get started,¡± he said.  ¡°Let¡¯s get started with. . . Head of Office of Misinformation.  What is Mrs. Wambsgans doing these days?¡±


    All eyes turned to the person third from the right, and Quinn followed them to face the lean coat-hanger of a man who seemed as though he hadn¡¯t eaten in days.


    ¡°Err, yes. . . Fiona Wambsgans is a woman who doesn¡¯t know how to have fun.  She gets up every morning at six, tends her gardens for half an hour, freshens up, and is out of her house by quarter past seven.  She takes her office by quarter to eight and is at work till five in the evening.  She is home by quarter to six and then doesn¡¯t leave until the next morning, where the cycle continues.¡±


    ¡°She travels how?  Apparation or floo?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Floo directly to her office and the back.¡±


    ¡°If that is so, then how do you ount for the gap in time in the morning and evening.  She leaves at seven-fifteen and assumes her office thirty minutester; what happens in those thirtyter?  In the evening, there¡¯s a forty-five-minute gap between office and home; what¡¯s there?¡±


    The man took out a little tan notepad from his long jacket and flipped through the pages.  ¡°There¡¯s a night shift in the Office of Misinformation that she directly meets for what has happened since she had left¡ª that covers the time in the morning.  As for in the evening. . . she goes to this little cafe where she has tea, the same order every day, and then goes home from there.¡±


    ¡®And there it is,¡¯ Quinn tapped the leather with his right index finger.  He asked, ¡°Any other irregrities in her behavior?  Anything at all?  Does she have a friend group that she visits¡ª or maybe even an asional dinner with guests¡ª or if she meets with someone at the cafe. . . anything of that sort?¡±


    ¡°In the time I¡¯ve been following her, she has had dinner with others twice.  Both of them happened in one of those high-end Ministry restaurants.  She doesn¡¯t meet people outside of working hours.¡±


    ¡°A bit strange for a high-ranking Ministry official, but if that¡¯s what her behavior says, then she¡¯s unique,¡± said Quinn.  He had already guessed where she was going to get attacked; it didn¡¯t matter if she was outside now.  ¡°Alright, moving on, what¡¯s the deal with the International Magical Trading Standards Body¡¯s chief.  Who was on that?¡±


    The one who spoke next among the nine men was the most average-looking man Quinn had ever seen.  This was a man whom one could look at and then forget the next second.  It was quite frightening.


    ¡°Colton Hirsch is, I would like to say, ispletely opposite of Wambsgans.  He¡¯s in the office for four to five hours, but other than that, he¡¯s always out meeting someone at salons, bars, restaurants, private clubs¡ª I can confirm with absolute confidence that the man is a functioning alcoholic.  In the days, I have tailed him, there hasn¡¯t been a day since he hasn¡¯t been drunk.¡±


    Quinn pursed his lips.  This was different from the previous one with various variable factors, which didn¡¯t bode well for him.  ¡°What are his go-to ces?¡± he asked.


    The man took out a sheet and passed it on to Quinn.  There was a list with various establishments¡¯ names on it.  ¡°There¡¯s no set pattern of how he chooses where he goes, but he makes sure that he doesn¡¯t repeat one ce in a week.¡±


    ¡°What about reservations?¡±


    ¡°He visits the ces so much and spends so much gold that they give him a room, table, appointment whenever hees.¡±


    ¡°In other words, he¡¯s a regr,¡± Quinn sighed.  ¡°Can you get me his schedule for the next week?  His secretary must have a schedule on which we can get our hands?¡±


    Mr. Average nced at Mason, who spoke after a few seconds of silence.  ¡°We can get that for you; it might take a couple of days.¡±


    ¡°Not more than three,¡± said Quinn.  If he could get the schedule, he could try to find the weakest point in the day.  He didn¡¯t have the time to keep a constant eye on the target because of the work burden on the day, meaning that he needed to ensure that he had the exact time and location so he could prepare.


    ¡°Let¡¯s continue; who would like to go next?¡± asked Quinn.


    One by one, the men continued to feed Quinn with information on the targets he had specified, which he got from Lucius Malfoy.  There were some which he found easy, while there were others which he found to be increasingly harder than the previous.  He posed questions, in return, got answers¡ª for those which he didn¡¯t get one, he asked the team to get the answers.


    Quinn stood up, and his drinking ss and chair disappeared into thin air.  ¡°Today was a great day, gentlemen.  I¡¯m quite satisfied with your work, and if you get me what I asked of you today, I¡¯ll be ted as well,¡± smiled Quinn.  ¡°Now, let¡¯s get to the part everyone has been waiting for.¡±  Quinn took out a small briefcase from his bag and put it on the floor.  He opened it and continued, ¡°This is the twenty-percent cut that I promised you; anyone of you gentlemen can go inside and confirm an amount.¡±


    Mason nodded to one of hispanions, who went inside, and after a minute, the man came out.  ¡°It¡¯s the correct amount.¡±


    ¡°Great,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me, I have to leave.¡±  Saying that, Quinn headed toward one of the floor¡¯s exits.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± came Mason¡¯s voice.


    Quinn turned and looked at Mason in surprise.  ¡°I¡¯ll be honest, Mason, I wasn¡¯t expecting you to ask me that.  I¡¯m your client, not a target.  Or did someone hire you to investigate me?¡±


    ¡°I prefer to know who I¡¯m doing business with,¡± said the spy.  ¡°But we haven¡¯t been able to find out who you are, not a single fact. . . it¡¯s like you¡¯re a ghost.  In usual circumstances, we wouldn¡¯t even take a job without a proper background check¡ª¡±


    ¡°But you did because of the money,¡± smiled Quinn.  It wasn¡¯t strange they hadn¡¯t found anything on him.  ¡°You don¡¯t need to know who I am, Mason.  You can treat me as a ghost if that¡¯s what you¡¯d prefer.¡±


    Mason sighed.  He took out a smoking pipe and twisted a bronze ring on it that lit a fire inside.  He took a puff before saying, ¡°I would¡¯ve preferred what I was getting into, John.  I have been hearing chatter about the very people you asked us to investigate.  I don¡¯t know what this is all about. . . yet, but I¡¯d like to. . . know.¡±


    Quinnughed, ¡°Don¡¯t we all.  But be careful; knowing can be a curse.¡±  He turned away and walked off, humming a tune that seemed a little sad.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C John ¨C I need to prepare; it¡¯s going to be a busy week


    Mason ¨C Intelligence Seller ¨C Can feel it on his skin. . . something big ising.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 398 Always Prep-ing

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The seaside breeze tickled Quinn¡¯s nose as he looked at the blue North Sea that stretched to the horizon.  He stood at a hill near the seaside, overlooking an unexplored part of the shore with beautiful white sand receiving the gentle white tides.


    Quinn shifted his feet and unsettled the seaside pebbles near his feet.  He raised his hand, palm down towards the ground, and said: ¡°Up!¡±¡ª A couple of dry, rounded stones rose up, gently smacking into his palm.  He looked to the sea and raised his other hand, and in response, puddles of water rose up from the sea and floated at his feet-level in a straight line.  He cocked his arm to the side and swung it like a whipunching the shallow pebble towards the first puddle¡ª it skipped off the water pool, and then continued to skip along in the line,nding precisely where the puddles were.


    He smirked and extended the line of puddles.  He tossed the stone up high, and while it was in the air, he injected body magic through his body.  The stone came back down, touched his palm, and with another whip-like swing, heaved it across the line of floating water puddlesunching water out on every hit.


    Quinn nodded his head with satisfaction at his effort.  He stamped his foot, and a pebble shot up into his hand, ready to be hurled across(and above) the sea¡ª but his senses picked up something, and he dropped the stone along with the water.  He waved his hand in front of his face to ensure his disguise and then turned to see Lucius Malfoy struggling his way up the small hill.


    ¡°Updates?¡± asked Quinn.


    Lucius Malfoy stepped to the top of the t hill and respired heavily while trying to hide the fact that the climb had left him out of breath.  The proud man stood straight and looked toward Quinn as if nothing was wrong, and Quinn waited in silence.


    ¡°No changes have been made to the ns,¡± said Lucius finally.  ¡°The attacks are to go down tomorrow¡ª¡± he cleared his throat ¡°¡ªmy own target will be attacked near the noon, at the Cerible Square, whereafter he will be taken into custody¡ª¡±


    ¡°Until all attacks have beenpleted,¡± Quinn nodded.  As the days had passed, Rivers Lock had distributed more and more parts of the n to the teams, and one of the additions was that the target-victims were to be hidden until the end of the day or thest attack, whichever came first.


    ¡°Are you ready?¡± asked Lucius.


    ¡°Ready?¡± Quinn quirked a brow.  ¡°No, I¡¯m not.¡±


    ¡°What. . . then¡ª¡±


    ¡°Being ready means that you believe you¡¯ve prepared for an event, which means that there¡¯s nothing more to be done.  I never believe that there¡¯s always more to be done¡ª to ensure the sess of the n to a greater degree, even if it¡¯s only by a fraction.  I have certainly met the minimum requirements to secure sess¡ª but as Helmuth van Moltke the Elder said: No n ever survives contact with the enemy¡ª and I¡¯ve learned that I like my ns surviving even if by a thread.¡±


    While the words were pretty, they held the concrete truth inside of them.  He was a major disadvantage of being only one person and going against eleven groups of people who had nned out their offenses.  And even with his preparations, most of it wasn¡¯t his own¡ª the research for nine out of eleven targets had been outsourced, one he had taken directly from Lucius, and the remaining one he had done on his own.  Moreover, the influence of Rivers Lock had organized the ns in such a way that he had no way to get the exact details of the ns¡ª and his counter-strategy was a gamble, even though backed by research.  He didn¡¯t even fully trust Lucius¡¯ information and had to get into the double-spy¡¯s head stealthily to confirm the genuinity of his words.


    ¡°What about me,¡± spoke Lucius.  ¡°I-I don¡¯t want to get into trouble with the Dark Lord.¡±


    ¡°. . . Has thest meeting been done?  Is the Dark Lord or Rivers Lock or anyone else going to address regarding tomorrow?¡± asked Quinn, looking over the setting sun at the horizon.  The sea was stunningly blue, with the sky above painted in a tint of red, with streaks of white clouds that were half-shadowed by the light from the sun.


    ¡°Everything¡¯s done, today we rest, and tomorrow we go for the job.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Quinn turned to Lucius and said, ¡°then you¡¯re going to be just fine.¡±  He raised his arm and pointed his index finger between Lucius¡¯ brows¡ª it was just close enough that Lucius had to squint to zone-in on the finger.  His squinting eyes nked out with pupils dting; the shoulders slumped, and the entire loosened.


    ¡°If there¡¯s no memory of it, then there¡¯s nothing to be worried about,¡± muttered Quinn as he stepped closer and let his fingertip touch Lucius¡¯ forehead.  ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will return your memories when I think it is safe.  Yes, you won¡¯t be getting any more family visits for a while¡ª but don¡¯t worry, I will leave thefort behind.¡±


    There were two types of Obliviations: one type was topletely erase the memory, expunge itpletely without leaving any trace of it¡ª but then there was the other kind, it would cut the connection of the memories to therger, leaving them inessible, turning them into forgotten memories.  Quinn had learned both types of Obliviations from n¡¯s texts¡ª he had wiped Dolion¡¯s memoriespletely, which was the first type of Obliviation¡ª while what he was doing with Lucius was simply snipping the strings to the memories that could be retiedter.  As for ¡®leavingfort behind,¡¯ ¡ª he was going to work around the emotions and leave the sentiments Lucius felt during his short reunions with his family.  Not only would it make Lucius¡¯s Obliviation proceed much more smoothly, but it also wouldn¡¯t risk his work tomorrow.  As for the risk, Quinn knew how Legilimens operated.  He knew how Legilimens scoured through memories, and he knew if not explicitly looking for it, no Legilimens would look for Obliviated memories.  And someone like Voldemort, who brute-forced most of the time, would never look, especially when his target willingly submitted for most of the time.


    Quinn removed his head, and Lucius dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.  Lucius¡¯ body rose up into the air, straight as a nk.  Quinn put his hand on his shoulder, and without an eruption of noise, the beachside was left void of human life.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°You called for me, my Lord,¡± said Rivers Lock, standing just outside the room¡¯s threshold by the door.  He looked at the brightly lit room with a shred of surprise¡ª whenever he had met with the Dark Lord, he had done it in a dimly lit room with a couple of candles or a fire burning in a firece.  Having a room adequately lit, even a little bit overlit, was a surprise if nothing else.


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    Rivers stepped in and observed the Dark Lord sitting behind a table with a book in his hand, flipping through the pages as he leaned into his chair leisurely.  And there it was again, once again a surprise.  River knew that the Dark Lord was a learned man¡ª no one bes a magical juggernaut without studying¡ª but in the years he had been near the Dark Lord, he had never seen him with a book in hand.


    ¡°Sit down.¡±


    Riversplied and sat down.  When Voldemort didn¡¯t look up from his book, Rivers took the chance to observe the room; it was different from thest time he had been there.  The empty room had been filled with bookshelves with tomes in every row; a grand table, and a throne-like chair behind it.  There were velvet curtains over the windows, and there were some interesting things on the walls¡ª an animated world map, a tapestry giving out an intimidating feel, a seemingly normal circle mirror, and a pelt of some beast hanging on the wall.


    ¡°Is everything prepared?¡±


    Rivers turned to Voldemort and replied, ¡°The teams have been prepared and instructed.  I have sat down with all the leaders, listened to their ns, and suggested some improvements¡ª it¡¯s up to them if they wish to implement my suggestions.  All in all, the teams are ready to perform tomorrow.¡±  He had listened to their ns, and even though he would¡¯ve done things differently, done things better¡ª but making ns wasn¡¯t part of his duty.  Though, the ns were decent enough for them to seed.  ¡°By tomorrow night, the Ministry would know what has happened to them, and by the following morning, the people of this country will realize who they¡¯re facing,¡± he said.


    Voldemort hummed and continued to read the ancient tome with frayed page edges.  ¡°Who do you think has the highest chance of failing?¡±


    ¡°Nott,¡± said Rivers without skipping a beat; he didn¡¯t even need to think about an answer.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Too brash, too hot-headed.  The Southern Lord is too self-confident in himself, the people he has chosen for his team, and his n.  I have sat with everyone on various stages, and I had to directly question the man on specific parts of his ns to make him see the egregious faults in them,¡± Rivers said nonchntly, but his eyes were deader than usual.  ¡°He doesn¡¯t know the importance of feedback; I had to force it down his throat to make his n. . . eptable.¡±


    ¡°What if he fails?¡±


    ¡°I. . . have a man in his team. . . apetent man, in case things go awry.  He will deviate from Nott¡¯s n and do what seems fit for the situation.¡±


    ¡°And what if the situation is too public?  Your n requires secrecy.¡±


    ¡°If it seems that the n is going south, I¡¯ve prepared a backup team just in case.¡±


    ¡°To go to such great lengths, you must really not trust Nott.¡±


    ¡°Sess is the only desired result,¡± said Rivers.  Trust Nott?  If there was a person in the world he trusted, it would never be Nott.  If not for the orders and Nott¡¯s standing in the Death Eater circles, he would¡¯ve not even let the man sniff the air around this operation.


    Voldemort hummed again.  He closed his book and let go of it for the book to float into an empty slot in the bookshelf.  For the first time, he looked up at Rivers, and there was a sense of critical observation in the red eyes.  ¡°What do you think will happen if tomorrow seeds,¡± he asked.


    ¡°Chaos.  Aurors will be med, Ministry will receive pressure, and a great unrest will spread.  We can assert control in the situation.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we can. . . but I do not want to assert control, Lock,¡± said Voldemort, in a tone that, even though it seemed t, was nothing but.  ¡°I wish to rule,¡± the voice was full of self-confidence, something much different than Nott¡¯s¡ª it was an insult to evenpare.  ¡°For that reason, this is just the start¡ª the days of hiding areing to an end.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean, my Lord?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s time to take over.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Busy day ahead.


    Lucius Malfoy ¨C Double-Cross ¨C Found himself waking up in a private booth at a private club¡ª thinks he¡¯s getting old to fall asleep in the evening.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C I wish to dominate.


    Rivers Lock ¨C Strategist ¨C Sure. . . whatever you say.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 399 Cicada <- Mantis <- Oriole

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stretched on the roof in his Noir gear configured into a grey urban camouge setting.  It had been a second since he had put on the suit¡ª the Taboo curse had run out of steam with no Snatchers responding to the calls¡ª he had done a month where he had slept in two very short shifts and had gone out after anyone who had responded to his Taboo calls and swept the floor with them hard.  Since that month, the Taboo activity had been cut to near zero, excluding some exceptions.


    After ticking out thest crack in his back, the mask appeared over his face, and he moved towards the center of the roof to the edge.  He turned invisible, stepped on the ledge, and looked down at a window of a calligraphy store, behind which an elderly friend sat trying out new stationery.  Quinn turned his head around the street and scoured the general crowd, and there he saw it¡ª people acting weird while trying to blend in naturally.


    ¡®Use magic, you morons,¡¯ he thought, looking at the fools who were not using a single shred of magic.


    Head of Beast Division, Steven Jeffery¡ª the man in charge of sub-departments like Centaur Liaison Office, Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, Dragon Research and Restraint Bureau, Troll Patrol. . . and the Security Council of Werewolf Caution.  It was clear why he was a target today; eliminating the man in charge of so many important sub-department would cause so many security problems that the DMLE would receive a ton of tension.


    ¡®A perfect start to the day. . .¡¯


    Quinn stretched his gloves over his hand and stepped back down.  He turned to the side, ran, jumped over to the next roof, and crossed the distance before dropping into the alley below.  He cut his fall with magic and silently walked behind the Death Eater, standing in the shadow of the wall, smoking a pipe¡ª he was doing the best job, so Quinn decided to take him out first.


    Quinn tapped the wall, and the bricks shifted behind the man, creating a void in which he fell.  Quinn snapped his finger, and the sound of the horrified man¡¯s scream was snuffed out.  When the bricks closed, all that was left behind were the Death Eater¡¯s hands, and the fingers moved around, trembled, and even desperately flexed in search of freedom.  Quinn extended his hands and intertwined his fingers with the Death Eater¡¯s, along with various tiny holes for breathing purposes.


    ¡°Sorry, but this is going to be traumatic,¡± he muttered.  Tetani Nervum coursed through the Death Eater¡¯s arms and crippled them to the core.  He then released the Death Eater from the wall imprisonment and dropped him down to the ground.  He crouched down and entered the man¡¯s head to get some concrete information about the n.


    ¡®Got it.¡¯  Quinn got up and cast an anti-attention shroud over the Death Eater.  He walked out in the street while being invisible; he spread his arms wide, and invisible magic started raining down on the Death Eaters.  Their eyes dulled and hazed for a moment before they returned to normal.


    He dipped into an alley again, and a momentter, he was out in his John disguise.  He wasted no time and entered the calligraphy shop¡ª behind him, not a single Death Eater twitched even a muscle.


    ¡°Wee, sir,¡± greeted the female employee with a smile.  ¡°How may we serve you today?¡±


    Quinn smiled, ¡°I¡¯m here to pick up a guest.¡±  Even though she was still putting up a professional smile, he could see the confusion in her eyes.  He didn¡¯t wait for her response and pped once; a wave of magic surged out of him, and it was like someone had pushed pause on a video; no one moved or reacted and remained utterly still¡ª except Quinn.


    He walked to Steven Jeffrey.  There Ministry top-brass had his eyes concentrated on his writing with the quill¡¯s tip touching the paper that was soaking up the ink, creating a widening ink blot.  Quinn snapped his finger, and the quill slipped out from Steven¡¯s hand into the ink pot.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get you out of here,¡± Quinn tapped the man on his bald spot, and Steven went limp.


    Quinn walked out of the shop with Steven in tow, floating beside him under an invisibility spell.  He looked behind and pped again for the store to resume its activity again¡ª the female employee who had greeted him nked out for a second before turning to another customer.  Quinn gazed at the Death Eaters, who had their eyes trained on the shop window and hadn¡¯t moved at all; even though Steven Jefferey was no longer there, they didn¡¯t react.  Such was the power of illusion magic.  They saw an illusion of Steven Jeffery doing what he was doing before.


    ¡®Two minutes,¡¯ noted Quinn.  ording to the scouting, Steven left the calligraphy store at the same time every Friday.  He dumped Steven Jeffery on a bench on the street and then walked towards the Death Eaters.


    Two minutester, out of a team of six Death Eaters, five had their hands crippled, and Quinn was staring down at the unconscious sixth man.  ¡°You¡¯re one lucky guy, Goyle,¡± Quinn shook his head.  Every team leader had to report back on specific points of the day tomunicate that everything was going ording to the n.  ¡°Get ready to have a good day. . .¡±  He ced his hand on Goyle¡¯s head and began fabricating.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Rivers Lock apparated into a forest with nothing else but trees.  A ce away from everything, somewhere he had explicitly chosen to hold meetings.  If he had chosen the meeting point in the headquarters or a ce with a roof, some of the team leaders would¡¯ve been bound to bezy, thinking their job was done.  In a ce like this, they would rather go back and wait with their people.


    He turned to notice a bulkyrge-framed man sitting on a luxurious chair¡ª clearly conjured¡ª under a tree¡¯s canopy shade.


    Rivers walked in front of the chair and asked: ¡°How did it go, Goyle?¡±


    Vincent Goyle, who had beenbing his long beard with a beardb, looked up at Rivers with unhidden displeasure and snorted, ¡°What do you expect?¡±


    Rivers stared at Goyle without a word.  Goyle stared back that soon turned into a re, but Rivers continued to stare down at the man.  He knew many Death Eaters didn¡¯t like him,beling him as a ¡®fake¡¯ Death Eater because of his past as a Novellus ionites.  It hadn¡¯t been a problem when he had been under Pettigrew¡¯s ¡®mentorship,¡¯ but they had turned on him when the Dark Lord had begun giving him attention.  Miserable people ying their pathetic politics.  At least people like Rookwood and Pettigrew made the experience bearable.


    When Goyle saw that Rivers didn¡¯t budge, he grumbled, ¡°It¡¯s done.  Jeffery is on the allocated area.¡±


    ¡°Dead?¡±


    ¡°Dead.¡±


    Rivers nodded, ¡°Good, now return,¡± and turned away to leave.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be proud of this,¡± called Goyle, scoffing.  ¡°You¡¯re nothing but a bug.¡±


    Rivers didn¡¯t reply.  It wasn¡¯t needed.  Goyle was a simpleton whose brain operated like an ape.  He apparated out, not giving another look to Goyle.


    . . .


    When Rivers left, Goyle stood up and also left by way of apparation, all the while grumbling about pathetic lowlives.  He left the forest and arrived at a small cabin situated in a grasnd with a gentle breeze wafting the green pastures.


    ¡°I¡¯ve returned,¡± said Goyle upon entering the wooden cabin.  ¡°Any problems while I was gone? . . . No?  Good. . . Where¡¯s the body?  In the back.¡±  Goyle walked to the back room and looked inside the back room, and gazed at the table in the center of the room.  He nodded before walking back into the front.  ¡°Anyone by chance brought something to drink?¡± he asked.  He got no response in return.  He sighed, ¡°No matter, we shall drink our hearts out when today ends, and celebrate in the name of our glorious Lord.¡±


    He cheered, sat down on the padded rocking chair, swung back and forth. . . and seemingly talked to people who were not there,ughing all alone in the small cabin.  There was no one in the little house, not even a dead body in the back room that Goyle had just seemingly checked.


    All alone.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn looked up at the hole in the ceiling, watching the light snow falling down.  He followed a little ke as it fluttered past his face, weightlessly made its way down to the floor, and gentlynded on a Death Eater¡¯s check.  The cloudy white snowke dyed red from the blood that bled out of a shallow cut.


    Fourteen Death Eatersid around him in all sorts of horrendous positions and shared the fact that they all were riddled with injuries.  Quinn sighed; things had gone awry so quickly.  He looked at the cause of it, and he couldn¡¯t say that he wasn¡¯t surprised.


    Nott Senior.  Father of Theodore Nott.  The man that had once tried to make his underaged son into a Death Eater.  Quinn had thought that the man would be more shrewd if he had once tried to leverage his son, but it turned out that he was just another idiot.


    ¡°To be not trusted by your own side, what a pitiful sight,¡± he sighed.


    The day had started great; he had begun with Goyle¡¯s team and had made it through half of the teams before lunch without a hint of trouble.  But then he met Nott¡¯s team and faced the first unexpected situation, and none of it was his fault.  Nott¡¯s target was Colton Hirsch, the high-functioning alcoholic.


    The operation had started well, with Quinn identifying every single one of the Death Eaters in record time.  They were just sitting around in the biggest bar in town, watching Hirsch without even pretending to hide.  Unlike with Goyle, he couldn¡¯t repeat what he did in the calligraphy store with so many people drinking in the bar, so he decided to target Hirsch instead.


    When the drunkard decided to go piss, Quinn followed him with the n of shooting Hirsch with a stunner inside a stall, tapping him up in there under an invisibility spell and then taking his ce.  But it turns out that Nott had the same n as half of his team followed them inside the washroom.


    Wands were drawn, and in the tight quarters, Quinn had taken quick action and used hostile force against the Death Eaters, breaking bones and knocking consciousness.  s, they had squealed like pigs, and some of the noise leaked out before Quinn could silence it, causing the rest of the Death Eaters toe inside.  He had knocked them out instantly, but then something shocking happened.  A hole blew up in the ceiling, and spells rained inside.  Taking them out was simple, and Quinn had done so, but the gaping hole in the roof could¡¯ve created a problem.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope no one was scouting,¡± Quinn muttered.


    He snapped his fingers, and the debris flew back to the ceiling, sealing the gap up; in a couple of seconds, the roof was whole again.  He walked to Nott and targeted the feeble mind of the fool.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Let¡¯s see, shall we?


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C 1 down, 1 to go.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 400 400!!!

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


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    .


    Quinn observed the Death Eaters standing outside a local Quidditch stadium.


    The target was yet again a department head, and the reason she was visiting a stadium was to see a game that her son was ying in as part of a local team in a second-tier league.  Quinn gazed around to see if he could discover someone hidden, but none was in sight.  He sent out the gentle winds to do his scouting, but they also returned empty-handed.  The Death Eaters he could see were the only ones present.


    ¡®Which means that the situation with Nott hasn¡¯t created a problem,¡¯ thought Quinn.  After the fight at the bar was over, Quinn had read every Death Eaters¡¯ mind present in the washroom, and he had found that the two teams didn¡¯t have anymunication with the Rivers Lock, which meant that he could spin the narrative any he wanted.  He had edited the memories in the mind of Nott and Rivers¡¯ spy in Nott¡¯s team to make it so that they would remember their operation as a sess¡ª while the backup-cleanup crew was expunged of their memories of ever getting a distress call from the spy and were made to believe that Nott¡¯s team had done the job correctly.


    It was a three-way insurance.  Rivers would meet Nott and get a positive response; he could call upon the spy and get the same answer; the backup crew¡¯s leader would convey the same result.


    Quinn let the winds under his feet go and allowed himself to freefall from the sky.  The winds fluttered for a moment before Arresto Momentum cut his fall, and he was beside the Death Eaters.  He flicked his wrist, and the Death Eaters fell down like bowling pins.


    ¡°One more, and I¡¯ll be done for the day,¡± he sighed, ¡°but before that.¡±  He looked at the target walk out of the stadium¡¯s VIP gate and flicked his wrist again, and she fell down on the ground, face first.  Quinn wrinkled his nose.  ¡°Sorry about that,¡± he muttered.  He was going to need to fix that before he could let her go.  He couldn¡¯t let any of the targets continue on with their days because the Death Eaters had ns with their corpses.


    ¡®Better than in my care than theirs,¡¯ Quinn shrugged as he got to the standard memory alteration.


    . . .


    The sun was near setting, with the sunset red almost out of sight and about to be reced by the evening blue.  Only one Death Eater team was left, and Quinn had saved the easiest one for thest.


    He turned his head from the changing sky when he heard the pops of apparation.  Thest Death Eater team had arrived.  He stepped out from the shade of the tree and came upon a huddle with thest leader, Lucius Malfoy, addressing his team.  Quinn sighed when he saw the long sleeve that hid Lucius¡¯ right missing hand.  That hand could be healed back to new in a week tops; the cut wasn¡¯t caused by dark magic and only needed the material and the jolt from magic to regrow¡ª but Lucius hadn¡¯t grown it back because it was fear rather than magic holding him back.


    ¡®I hope he doesn¡¯t get punished,¡¯ he thought as he raised his hand for several stunners to fly out of his hand.  The entire team dropped to the ground, and it made Quinn realize how easy it was some time to simply take out people from the shadows.


    He sat down the Death Eaters and cast Tetani Nervum onto everyone except Lucius as he still had a job to do.  As the soot and haze covered the Death Eater, he heard footstepsing to a skidding stop.  Quinn turned and saw a middle-aged in track pants.  It was the target; he had his house right around the corner, and around the same time every day, he would go for a run around his home.  Quinn shrugged, and a stunner caught the man in the chest, and he flew a couple steps back before falling down to the ground.


    ¡°Well, time for chaos.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°Lucius Malfoy just reported back,¡± said Rivers to the Voldemort, who was again reading in his room.  ¡°Thest Ministry head has been captured and killed.  They¡¯re ready to be presented.¡±


    ¡°Good, give them the signal to proceed.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll move at six.¡±


    Voldemort¡¯s hand, which was writing on parchment, stopped.  He leaned back on his chair and stared at Rivers for a moment before saying, ¡°I would like to see.¡±


    ¡°My Lord?¡±


    ¡°I would like to see one of the disys.¡±


    Rivers thought for a moment before shrugging internally; he didn¡¯t mind the Dark Lord tagging along.  The Dark Lord was the one who ordered the operation, Rivers had no say in refusing him, so he asked, ¡°Which one would you like to go visit?¡±


    ¡°Lucius.  Perhaps I was too hard for him.  I shall witness his work and graciously bestow the permission to have his hand healed back.  It¡¯ll be excellent to re-affirm the fickle Mafloy into out of our ranks.  I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be ted,¡± said the Dark Lord.  ¡°Where is Malfoy?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s in charge of Diagon Alley.¡±


    ¡°You must like him to give him Diagon Alley.¡±


    ¡°He was the most logical and calm of all.  It was a rational choice to give Diagon Alley to Malfoy,¡± Rivers said before posing a question.  ¡°Your room has changed quite a lot, My Lord.  May I enquire the reason for the sudden change.¡±


    Voldemort raised his right arm for a wand crept out of his sleeve and slid into his hand.  Rivers stilled as he cautiously gazed at Voldemort while hiding all his emotions; he didn¡¯t dare to reach for his wand.  Voldemort gazed at the wand as he spoke, ¡°Magic is power, Rivers.  If you master magic, you can master pure power.  Mastering magic, however, requires knowledge¡ª the more knowledge I gain, the more magic I¡¯ll master, and more power I¡¯ll acquire.¡±  Voldemort looked up at Rivers.  ¡°I can sense that you disagree.¡±


    ¡°No, My Lord.  You are correct.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re simply saying that to agree with me,¡± Voldemort called him out.  ¡°Both of us have been leaders of organizations.  I of Death Eaters and you lead the Novellus ionites¡ª but the truth of the matter is that the only reason you gained followers was that you used my name. . .¡±


    Rivers kept his face steady, but his fist clenched behind the table.


    ¡°. . . and why do you think that is?¡± continued Voldemort.  ¡°Even when the world thought I had perished, they responded to my name¡ª why?  Because Imanded that much power.  So much so that even after my death, people didn¡¯t dare to say my name and taught their children to not utter it.¡±  He pointed his wand at the book and raised it up, ¡°This is the source of all of it, Rivers.  Magic and knowledge.  You are witty and wise, but youck the might of magic. . . and that¡¯s the difference between you and me.¡±  Voldemort stood up, ¡°Come now, as we witness the start of my rise.¡±


    Rivers silently stood up and followed after Voldemort.  As he looked at Voldemort¡¯s back, Rivers clenched his jaw as he failed to think of a way to get rid of Voldemort. . . and that made him feel what he had been just told.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    In the winter, even with a thick coat of snow coating the roads, roofs, and the nook and crannies of the Diagon Alley streets, the Diagon Alley was abuzz with people shopping in the shops that the marketce had to offer.  The shops sparkled with their lights under the night sky, shining their glows on the paved paths.


    ¡°Ugh, the cold¡¯s hurting my back,¡± Sirius ck pressed the sides of his fists into his lower back.


    ¡°What happened to your back?¡± asked James, looking around the street, observing everything that entered his eyes.  Today was the monthly random check of the area under their jurisdiction, which they did to check if the rookie Aurors were doing a good job at their patrol duties.  James was in charge of Diagon Alley and had ced his most promising subordinates on Diagon Alley, so he wasn¡¯t expecting any problems, but it was better safe than sorry.


    Sirius groaned, ¡°I didn¡¯t sleep well yesterday.¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°I was with this girl I met yesterday, someone I picked up at the bar,¡± said Sirius twisting his waist in an attempt to gain some relief.  ¡°We were having fun, as we ended up at her ce¡ª¡±


    ¡°Okay, okay, so you slept at her ce, and the bed didn¡¯t suit you; is that it?¡± James said with a sigh.


    ¡°I did sleep at her ce, but not on her bed. . . things were pretty wild, and I woke up on the floor with her draped on me,¡± Sirius smirked and then gleefully said, ¡°It was a good night.¡±


    James shook his head.  ¡°When are you going to settle¡ª¡±


    ¡°Oh, here we go.¡±


    ¡°¡ª find a good girl, start a family¡ª¡±


    ¡°Can we not do this again.¡±


    But before the banter could continue, they heard screams and shouting of men and women that cut through the joyous theme of the streets.  Sirius and James turned back and saw a crowd of people gathering around a spot.  They exchanged looks, and their faces assumed an Auror-on-duty expression as they ran towards the crowd.


    ¡°Move aside, move aside!¡± Sirius pushed people aside as he and James made their way to the front of the crowd.  ¡°Aurors!  Move back, move back!¡±


    When they reached the front, two Senior Aurors gasped when they saw the scene that had gathered so many people.  Seven people, on their knees, forming a circle with their heads bowed down to the ground; their arms hung wide on wood beams.  One sleeve each of the seven men were torn, revealing their arms¡ª and showing the tattoo made up of a skull and a snake¡ª the Dark Mark.


    ¡°Death Eaters,¡± whispered James.


    ¡°Who did this?¡± said Sirius.


    ¡°I can guess, and I¡¯m pretty sure it will check out their arms for magic, but he has never been so public with his showings.¡±


    ¡°No, not in public like this.¡±


    ¡°What did they do?  Or is he nning something?¡±


    ¡°How would I know. . . let¡¯s get the people away from the scene.¡±


    James and Sirius were about to call out to people when they heard someone call out to them by name.  They turned to see a Junior Aurors pushing her way to the front.


    ¡°Sir. . . sir,¡± she huffed to catch her breath.  ¡°Sir, twelve Ministry departments are missing!  None of them¡ª¡±  The female Auror stopped when she saw the seven Death Eaters.  ¡°W-What happened here?¡±


    ¡°Continue the report,¡± ordered James.


    ¡°Err, yes, sir,¡± she said with her eyes still on the Death Eater kneeling circle.  ¡°Just now, we got a report¡ª¡±


    ¡°Sirs!¡± another voice called after them.  Three Aurors turned to see another Junior Auror pushing his way to the front.  ¡°Head Auror is calling you back to the Office, sirs.  We got multiple reports of Death Eaters sightings¡ª¡± his eyes went to the Death Eaters¡ª ¡°exactly like this!  Oh my god, who is doing this?!¡±


    Sirius and James looked at each other.  ¡°He¡¯s involved,¡± said Sirius.  James nodded, ¡°Oh yeah, no doubt about it. . . let¡¯s go¡ª¡±


    ¡°Sirs!¡±


    ¡°Again?!¡± Sirius eximed when another Junior Auror came running through the crowd.  ¡°What is this?  Why isn¡¯t just one of you rying messages.¡±


    ¡°Sirs!¡± eximed the third Junior Auror, standing in line with the other two.  He looked at the female Junior Auror before continuing, ¡°The department heads have been returned in a group outside one of the Office gates!¡±


    James was speechless, but Sirius had one final thing to say, ¡°Today is a Friday, man. . . why can¡¯t they choose a better time?¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    On the roof of a building in Diagon Alley, Voldemort and Rivers watched themotion.


    ¡°Lucius reported that the operation was a sess,¡± frowned Rivers.  He looked at the Dark Lord, who hadn¡¯t said a single word since they had arrived.


    ¡°Do you see the Aurors there?¡±


    Rivers moved his eyes, and to his surprise, he saw James Potter and Sirius standing in the front of the crowd.


    ¡°I heard what they¡¯re talking about,¡± said Voldemort.  ¡°One of them said that all the department heads just showed up at the Aurors Office¡ª and they,¡± he pointed at the Death Eaters, ¡°met the Invisible Vignte, I can sense his magic inside their arms. . . so I will ask this once, Rivers Lock¡ª when did you start colluding with the Invisible Vignte?¡±


    ¡°. . . What?  I¡¯m not colluding with the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    Voldemort turned to Rivers, and he backed away, feeling the eyes of the ruthless man on him.


    ¡°You were the one who knew the entire n, Rivers.  You¡¯re the only one that could¡¯ve told him about it.¡±


    ¡°. . . I didn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Speak the truth.¡±


    ¡°I did not collude with the Invisible Vignte.  I haven¡¯t even seen him in person.¡±


    ¡°You leave me no choice,¡± Voldemort raised his hand, and Rivers felt like someone had buried everything below his neck into the ground¡ª he couldn¡¯t even move his toes.  ¡°If you won¡¯t tell the truth, I¡¯ll look inside myself.¡±


    Rivers felt like his heart would leap out of his throat, and Voldemort moved closer to him, and when the pain arrived, he couldn¡¯t even scream out.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Chaos. . . just the other way around.


    Rivers Lock ¨C Death Eater ¨C Nooooo!!!!!!


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C I¡¯m feeling displeased.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 401 I Did It!

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    James Potter looked outside the ss pane, looking at multiple teams of Junior Aurors working at their desk like it was the busiest part of the day.  He saw food deliveriese in through the door every few minutes for the people who should¡¯ve already left for home and passed their duties to the night shift but couldn¡¯t because of what had happened today.  He could see many who were dressed like they were about to go out for a night of fun but now had to work in the office, and that too in their party wear.


    He turned away from the busy and noisy scenery and turned to face a calmer but much heavy sight inside the meeting room.


    ¡°. . . we have sent all of them back with security posted around their residences,¡± finished Kingsley with a sigh.  He stood in front of a near hundred photos posted on a board as he exined the situation and updates to the people in the room.


    ¡°We have eighty-five Death Eaters in our custody,¡± Rufus Scrimgeour sighed, looking at the board, which was mostly popted by Death Eater photos.  ¡°How many of them do you think can we keep?¡± he asked.


    James pursed his lips.  Usually, detaining eight-five Death Eaters would¡¯ve been a cause of celebration around the country, but right now, it was stressing everyone in the DMLE.  The eighty-five Death Eaters weren¡¯t caught by them; they were delivered by the Invisible Vignte, an ouw for whom the DMLE had issued an arrest mandate.  There was no evidence of any wrongdoing against these people.  Yes, they had Dark Marks on their arms, and yes, the missing department heads were returned around the same time¡ª something unquestionably nned out by the Invisible Vignte¡ª but that was in no way any form of evidence.  While the two events were obviously connected, in the eyes of thew, they were two independent events that had happened simultaneously.  Even having a Dark Mark wasn¡¯t a criminal offense as the Dark Mark could be forced upon anyone against their will.


    They could prosecute, but it was not enough to convict.


    Robards Gawain, Head Auror, replied, ¡°We haven¡¯t been able to question any of them.  All of them are in an off-site holding facility being tended by medi-healers as we speak.¡±  Having experience with the Invisible Vignte¡¯s victims had taught them that whatever he did to them was taxing¡ª they would be knocked for hours, and even after that, they¡¯d be in bad shape because of the dark magic coursing through their bodies.  It took treatment to get them to a talking state.  ¡°Even after that, if we can somehow make them confess, we can¡¯t simply use that without evidence.¡±


    ¡°Evidence. . . what did we get from the scene of crimes?¡± asked Scrimgeour.


    The scenes of crimes were thest ce the department heads remembered themselves at.  They had sent teams to the sites to get some evidence of the crime, so they could have something concrete and tangible.


    ¡°Nothing great.  We couldn¡¯t even find a single eyewitness on the scenes who could tell us anything.  If we¡¯re to ignore the Death Eaters and the victims¡¯ words, it¡¯s like nothing happened at all,¡± Gawain sighed.


    Sitting on the table with his feet up, Sirius grumbled, ¡°The man went through all the trouble to get us the Death Eaters; why couldn¡¯t he have left some evidence behind?  It¡¯s like he doesn¡¯t care if we don¡¯t go home.¡±


    ¡°I would prefer if you can keep your jokes to yourself right now, Sirius,¡± said Scrimgeour.  ¡°We can¡¯t detain them; we don¡¯t have enough.  So this is what we¡¯re going to do, keep an eye on the eighty-five people, and the moment they get well-enough to speak, go and question them, get as much information as possible from them.  There were those smart enough not to speak, push them, but don¡¯t go overboard¡ª we will be calling everyone in as part of a formal interrogation in the abduction case for a thorough grilling¡ª and those who are still difficult, we will again call them in for another round of questioning in the investigation against the Invisible Vignte.  I want to look as aggressive as we can on this case, make every one of those eighty-five bastards feel that they¡¯re living under our eye every moment of their day. . . pressure them enough, and they¡¯ll make a mistake.¡±


    James liked it.  He could feel how the people in the meeting room felt the same, and he was sure he would get the same reaction when told outside.  The case wasn¡¯t looking like a promising one in an orthodox way, but it presented great opportunities.  ¡°We can map the entire organization out,¡± he said.  ¡°I¡¯m sure a few out of eighty-five will squeak and spill everything out for us.  We could know the hierarchy, what they¡¯re nning. . . and even the locations of Azkaban escapees like Lestranges and Rookwood,¡± the more he spoke, the more excited he felt.  ¡°Maybe we will be able to get some evidence. . . andunch an investigation¡ª cripple the Death Eaters.¡±


    It was the chance to go after the most affluent in the Death Eater organization whom they hadn¡¯t been able to touch after the mass trials at the end of the first war.  And this time, no one was going to buy the Imperius ¡®bullshit¡¯ defense anymore.


    ¡°There¡¯s a possibility I like very much,¡± said Scrimgeour.  He looked to Gawain and spoke, ¡°Form a task force for the case and add this as one of their agendas.¡±


    Gawain nodded.


    Sirius looked outside at the Junior Aurors working away, ¡°We¡¯re not going home today, are we?¡±


    Scrimgeour stood up and buttoned the front of his suit.  ¡°You¡¯re not; I, though, am leaving for the night.  I wish you a productive night, and I¡¯ll see you tomorrow morning sharp, gentlemen,¡±  Saying that the Head of DMLE walked out of the meeting room for his home.


    Gawain turned to his Captain and Senior Aurors and addressed them, ¡°Let¡¯s get working.  I want all of this processed before we leave today.  And I want an update before lunch.  Now¡ª¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re also leaving, too?¡± asked Sirius.


    ¡°Yes, ck, I¡¯m leaving.¡±


    ¡°I also want to leave.¡±


    ¡°Be the Head Auror, and then you¡¯re free to leave anytime you wish.¡±


    ¡°. . . That sounds like a chore.  Do you have something quick?¡±


    Gawain shook his head and put on his hat before leaving the room, but before he did, he called James to follow him.


    ¡°Yes, sir?¡± asked James.


    ¡°I would like you to be in charge of this task force.  This can be a big step for your career, one step closer to your way to Captain.  It¡¯s safe to assume you¡¯re going to take it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir, of course.  I would love to lead this task force.¡±


    ¡°Good, you¡¯re free to choose your deputy.  Don¡¯t forget to take rmendations for the members from the other Seniors and Captains.¡±  Gawain stopped and turned to James, ¡°This is big, James.  This can be a big step forward, but if you aren¡¯t able to produce expected results, it can bring a lot of pressure on your head¡ª all eyes will be on this.  I¡¯m sure right about now, the papers are editing tomorrow¡¯s editions, and the day after that, your name will be up there, stered on the front page.¡±  He patted James¡¯ shoulder and wished him good luck before leaving.


    When James returned, Sirius asked, ¡°What did he say?¡±


    ¡°He put me in charge of the task force.¡±


    ¡°Congrattion, James!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to be my deputy.¡±


    ¡°No, James!¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn put down his foldable patio chair on a roof of a building in the non-magical part of the city and sat down with all the magical newspapers he could get his hands on.  He had already nced at the front headlines on all, so he knew what the main breaking news was going to be, making him eager to see what had actually happened.


    ¡°Oh. . . ah. . . really. . . that¡¯s- interesting, okay.¡±


    As usual, some of the media houses had really put their spin on the events and had spun some creative narratives¡ª some were interesting, even amusing, but some were quite absurd.  One even said that the Invisible Vignte was a Dark Lord trying to hunt down Voldemort to take his ce as the biggest and only Dark Lord in the country.


    ¡°At least they found everyone,¡± he read an article listing the magically moving list eighty-five people handed in.


    Eighty-five people, Quinn¡¯s heart beat a bit as he savored the number.  It was a number that he felt pride about.  In the months during his Snatcher-hunting, he had only been able to get his hands on Death Eaters less than half of that number, but now he had a made a dent so big that things feel real.


    He leaned into his chair, thinking about how different things were now from the cannon timeline.  What should¡¯ve been a country with a Ministry run by political puppets with fear-mongering against Muggleborns who were forced to hide in the dread of being caught and put into harsh camps, and a Dumbledore-less Hogwarts being run by Death Eaters as professors¡ª that world was now had a strong Ministry and the Hogwarts serving as a haven for parents to send their children under the protection of Dumbledore.


    ¡®The Death Eaters can be opposed,¡¯ thought Quinn as a positive.  There was no need for students and civilians to raise their wands against the Dark Lord¡¯s forces.  Even if Voldemort had a horde of Dementors, tribes of Vampires, an army of Trolls, percussion of Giants, and packs of Werewolves¡ª there was enough defending power to not let things fall into the hands of brave yet ordinary people.


    Quinn thought about how things had changed so much, and three points in history stood out to him.


    First was something that he had nothing to do with, and that was the Potters not dying on the fateful day the Boy-Who-Lived was ¡®born¡¯¡ª the Potter family image had been strong, and that had propelled the birth of a stronger political faction that was supposed to be in shambles after so many lives lost in the war¡ª a stronger Light Faction had created a proper three-way bnce which originally supposed to be lopsided in favor of the Dark Faction.


    The second point in history was when he had whisked away Amelia Bones away from her breached house just before Voldemort could kill her and thus saved the strongest and frankly the only option as the Minister candidate to take the chair in times against a vicious and ruthless Dark Lord (no offense against Rufus Scrimgeour).  He saw Amelia Bones bing the Minister as a turning point¡ª without her, the core of the defense didn¡¯t exist.


    The third was when he dropped the Gaunt¡¯s Ring into the container of Basilisk Venom vapors.  The moment the Horcrux had shrieked and fumed was the moment the fate of the country had been changed.  Dumbledore never found the cursed ring; he never put it on and never sealed his fate.  And Quinn couldn¡¯t think of a reason where a healthy Dumbledore would sacrifice his life before putting Voldemort into the ground.


    ¡®I did that,¡¯ he dered to himself.  He was the reason why things were as they were.  ¡®I.  Did.  That.¡¯  Quinn looked up at the sky¡ª he was continuing to do so until the Snake came out of his nest to face the Phoenix, and when that happened. . . he was going to be there to sign off on his doom.


    ¡®I will do it.¡¯


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Till then, let¡¯s keep bagging ¡¯em.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Daj Boze


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 402 Another Christmas

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    It was December, and the Christmas week was bringing joy to the people in the country.  Every shop was decorated with strings of Christmas lights and decoration ornaments, dripping every corner in the joy of the season.  Another year was about to end, and the celebration for the new, hopefully, year better had begun in full swing.


    Quinn, wrapped in warmyers, walked among the streets of London, gazing at the stores and the people¡ª everything seemed to be dyed in delight.  His eyes fell upon a youthful family of three: parents and their young child¡ª the father had his hands upied with the shopping they had done while the mother bent down to pick up their child, who herself was holding a tiny stic bag in her hands as if helping her parents in carrying the weight.  His eyes followed them as they passed him by, and he winked at the child who followed him with her bright, curious, child-like big eyes.


    Seeing the family shopping made him sigh.  It wasn¡¯t like his family ever shopped together.  He couldn¡¯t remember all of them had gone shopping together except for maybe a couple times, and that was for novelty goods.  But the family¡¯s happy vibes made him recall how this time of the year went for him.  He would start a month ago and began nning the gifts that he would send his family and friends, and during the days leading to Christmas, he would handcraft the presents for his personal touch on them to show that he cared.  Every Christmas morning, his friends would find a gift at their house while he would watch his family¡¯s reaction to what he got them.


    But it wasn¡¯t going to happen this year.


    He wasn¡¯t going to be at home this time.  Just like every year, he had sent everyone gifts to not let those who didn¡¯t know to feel something was wrong, and for those who knew what he was doing, they wouldn¡¯t worry.  Christmas gifts were one of the very fewmunication he had with anyone in his life so that no one could find him¡ª and he had gone through various steps to keep himself hidden while sending the gifts.


    ¡®Ah. . . I want to meet people,¡¯ he sighed.


    It was as if the universe itself was reading his thought because as he was staring into a tailer boutique with thee gorgeous suit jackets worn by half-mannequins behind a pane of ss, he heard a startled voice.


    ¡°Quinn?!¡±


    His eyes widened a fraction as he urgently turned his head to face the voice and, to his surprise, again came upon a different family of three.  However, this time it was a family of three he knew and they him.  Standing before him were two brte women with part-curly and part-wavy standing alongside a tall, bespectacled man.


    ¡°. . . Hermione,¡± he slowly uttered in surprise.  His eyes immediately darted around the block to scout if someone was apanying her, but the alert instinct was quickly sedated when logic dictated that no Auror, even in the Order of Phoenix, knew about his other identity.  Quinn went back to looking at the three, and he could see what gic features had been passed to Hermione by her respective parents.


    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± asked Hermione, and Quinn could see her right arm taut a bit; she was thinking about her wand.  It made him sigh inside. . . he felt saying that he only targetted the bad guys wasn¡¯t going help here.


    ¡°Hello, Hermione. . . Merry Christmas,¡± he said with a smile.  Albeit a little surprised, Hermione returned the greeting, sounding normal.  He turned to the parents, Mary and Richard, and greeted them the same: ¡°Merry Christmas, Dr. and Dr. Granger.  I hope you two have been well.¡±


    ¡°My apologies, but I don¡¯t seem to recall meeting you,¡± said Richard, looking confused behind his sses.


    ¡°He¡¯s Hermione¡¯s friend, dear.  From Hogwarts,¡± supplied Mary.  ¡°We met him when we visited the Weasley twins¡¯ shop.  How can you forget him; the ward around our house, Aegis, it¡¯s Quinn¡¯s family business.¡± She looked to Quinn, ¡°Merry Christmas to you as well, Quinn.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes!¡± a sh of understanding shone over Richard¡¯s face.  ¡°I remember you now.  You had to leave in a hurry.  I would like to thank you for the ward, son.  The entire process was straightforward, and the people who came were extremely polite.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m happy that you¡¯re satisfied with our services,¡± smiled Quinn.  ¡°We did our best to create respectable wards around the house without the magic interfering with the electric appliance in the building.  Speaking of magic, Hermione had been off age for a while now; she must¡¯ve shown you her magic¡ª how did you like it?¡±


    Mary beamed as she responded, ¡°It was out of our expectations!  Professor McGonagall had shown us a couple of spells when she visited us with Hermione¡¯s letter, and we saw magic here and there during our trips to Diagon Alley¡ª but seeing Hermione perform magic. . . it was extraordinary!¡±  Richards seemed to agree wholeheartedly, while Hermione seemed a mix of pride and embarrassment.


    ¡°Mum,¡± she said, stretching the word to express her desire to stop this conversation.


    ¡°So what brings you to this part of the city,¡± asked Richards after chuckling at his daughter.


    ¡°I. . . was window shopping,¡± said Quinn.  He could feel Hermione¡¯s curiosity peak on her face when her father posed the question and narrow in suspicion when he answered.  But his answer wasn¡¯t a lie.  He had been wandering around the city to get some fresh air and take a break. . . and looking at merchandise through the windows while doing that.  ¡°What about you three?  If I remember correctly, you reside in Hampstead Gardens, that¡¯s a distance from the city.¡±


    Quinn ignored Hermione¡¯s eyes widening.


    ¡°There¡¯s this bakery down the street which makes just the best Christmas dessert you¡¯ll ever have.  We take a lot home with us every year,¡± said Mary.


    ¡°Oh, maybe I should try it too,¡± smiled Quinn.  He would never say no to good food.


    It was then that Hermione barged in.  She said, ¡°Of course, you should try it,¡± she turned to her parents.  ¡°You two go ahead; we¡¯ll catch up with you.¡±


    The Granger parents left, smiling as they told to hurry along as they were going to have lunch at the bakery.  The moment they left, Hermione¡¯s smile left her face, and she opened questioned,


    ¡°Why are you really here?¡±


    ¡°As I told your parents, I am truly window shopping.  Our meeting was a genuine coincidence.  If you¡¯re worried about me following you and your parents, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± he smiled, ¡°I¡¯m the type to visit houses¡ª not much for intercepting people on the street. . . if you know what I mean.¡±  His words, while spoken with a pleasant smile, brought caution and fear to Hermione¡¯s face.  He sighed, ¡°No need to look at me like that.  I won¡¯t even think about hurting you and your parents.  I¡¯m not a maniac, you know; still the bloke you know in Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t help but feel fearful of the man who caught and crippled eight-five Death Eaters in a single day.  And those words don¡¯t help if you think otherwise.¡±


    ¡°By that logic, you should fear Dumbledore much more than me.¡±


    ¡°How did you do it?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Catch so many Death Eaters in a single day.¡±


    ¡°It was not a day. . . That day was just the execution.  It took weeks of preparation, research, scouting, and sitting down and talking to more people than I have done in years to obtain the information I needed.  It was many sleepless nights and days at stretch spent in busy work.  In a way, it was no different from preparing for an exam, just with footwork added,¡± shrugged Quinn.  There was no point in telling her exactly how he took every step of his n.  Underselling, as he just did, was best for Hermione, who would argue with him if he oversold it, and if he stuck to the cold facts, she would then again ask questions to work out a narrative in her mind.  ¡°How has Hogwarts been treating you?¡± he asked.  ¡°It must be exciting to have William Weasley, an actual Curse Break, teach the ss.  An actual, productive DADA ss for a change, I reckon.¡±


    ¡°It feels more like a proper call than it even did.  Thest time I remember feeling like this was Lupin¡¯s ss.  Even Headmaster¡¯s sses, as delightful as they were, were not regr sses.  Bill has taught us well, and we have learned the same amount in practice as we did in DA.  It¡¯s now the ss that everyone looks forward to.¡±


    ¡°It looks he¡¯s trying to put more practical usage in your head. . .¡±  He said, and she understood the connotation.


    ¡°What if he is; there¡¯s nothing wrong with knowing more spells.¡±


    ¡°No, there isn¡¯t.  But it also means that you need toe straight with your parent and tell them what has been happening in the Wizarding world.¡±


    ¡°. . . What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°They are obviously oblivious to what¡¯s been happening, or I¡¯m sure you wouldn¡¯t have been spending time with them so jovially,¡± if she had told them, it would¡¯ve been a Christmas spent with the Potter for Hermione.  ¡°You can¡¯t be there for them all the time; they need to be aware so that they can protect themselves.¡±


    ¡°How would that help?  It would only serve to give them a cause of stress that has nothing to do with them.  The Wizarding World is not theirs; it¡¯s mine and yours.¡±


    ¡°Be that be true, but they¡¯re connected to it through you.  Do you have a Labyrinth door at your home, at their practices?  Because even if the wards can stop them for a while, even if they¡¯re able to avail the Hit Wizard protection service¡ª which is unlikely because of the politics of it all¡ª and those things are external.  They need to be in charge of their own safety; they should be able to run to Labyrinth doors and disappear somewhere safe away from the chaos they have nothing to do with. . . .  A war ising along, Hermione, you need to tell them about it¡ª you¡¯ve to tell them now before you leave¡ª before you miss the chance and might end up regretting it.¡±


    He had long ago given the same talk to Eddie, Marcus, Luna, Daphne, Tracey¡ª that they should secure their families and even themselves by taking simple steps.  He had convinced them to convince their families to strengthen their wards, install Labyrinth doors, and then he had visited their houses and utilized the backdoors in Aegis wards to mark them¡ª for when something wrong happened, he would know and be there.


    ¡°Do you think this is fun?¡± he asked.


    ¡°. . . What?¡± Hermione blinked in confusion.


    ¡°Away from my family, my friends, those who love me. . . having to put my life on pause to be someone else entirely.  I¡¯m not doing this for fun¡ª it¡¯s more painful than anything.  I¡¯m not doing this for glory¡ª the mask is there to hide me.  I shall be the shield, the dagger, the poison, for them. . .¡±  Quinn shook his head; his thoughts were going to a ce he had sworn not to let them swerve to.  ¡°I know you don¡¯t like me, Hermione.  But put that opinion aside and take this advice of mine, for war is almost upon us¡ª¡± and he had a big part in it being so.


    He took out a Panama hat and ced it on his head.  ¡°Tell your parents I apologize for not being able to join them for lunch.  Wish them New Year¡¯s wishes from me, and the same goes for you.¡±  He passed her by but had only taken two steps when he heard her say,


    ¡°Is. . . Is the war really close?¡±


    Quinn turned and nodded, ¡°I just crippled eighty-five Death Eaters and crushed an important n that would¡¯ve been their opening y.  The power-hungry maniac won¡¯t take this slight sitting; he will do something much bigger, much horrifying¡ª it might be tomorrow, next week, the following month. . . but it is definitelying. . . . Merry Christmas, Hermoine, and I hope you have a Happy New Year.¡±


    Quinn turned away, and with his hands behind his back, he walked away, leaving behind the young man staring and thinking.  She hadn¡¯t gone through the adversities she was supposed to; she was still mature, but she was very much her own age¡ª and it was because of him.


    ¡®In that case, I will protect everyone.¡¯


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I have a dubious moral system at best.


    Hermione Granger ¨C The Golden Girl ¨C In another time, she was why any and all of it was possible.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Alright, it¡¯s about to go down.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 403 Plan To Attack

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Heads of some of the most prestigious families in the country sat around a long table carved from a beautiful white jade marble, polished to reflect their tense faces that were taut in nervousness.  None dared to look at the head of the table where their silent leader sat¡ª Voldemort hadn¡¯t said a single word since they had gathered in the room, but no one ventured the risk of opening their mouth to say anything about it.  Why would they?  Everyone in the room knew the reason behind the silent fury.


    ¡°We lost eighty-five men,¡± Voldemort finally spoke, his tone not any different from usual.  ¡°What was supposed to temporarily cripple twelve important departments so that we could gain control over them turned into a slight against our name¡ªmy name¡ª and has cost me eight-five able-bodied men.  What was supposed to be one step forward has made us take one step back.  How did this happen?¡± he asked.


    ¡°My Lord, we should get our men back from the hands of the Aurors!  Storm Azkaban and free ourrades!¡± said one of the Death Eaters, looking to score points; s, his attempt was doused in oil and then set on fire.


    ¡°Silence,¡± Voldemort¡¯s voice was graver than a cemetery.  The Death Eater cowered in his seat, immediately developing a sheen of sweat over his face.  Voldemort continued, ¡°I talked¡±¡ª a shiver passed through the presentpany¡ª ¡°with all the team leaders and with Rivers to identify who let our ns slip to the Invisible Vignte. . . but none of them knew about it or could remember interacting with him, which means either someone in my court is the Invisible Vignte, or they have a way to know our every move.  If anyone wants toe forward to say something, now is the moment.¡±


    The members sweated.  They noticed how the twelve team leaders were not present in the room, and neither was Rivers.  Their mind raced to think where were they, how were they. . . if they were alive¡ª the thoughts went through everyone¡¯s minds and locked their eyes on the table in front of them, not even putting Voldemort in their peripheral vision.


    ¡°So be it,¡± Voldemort¡¯s voice reverberated in the room.  ¡°From now on, every mistake that happens in my court will directly go through me; anyone who makes a mistake will have to face me.  I will be the judge, jury, and executioner. . . death will not be the worse punishment.  I have said so here today.¡±  He stood up from his table, and everyone straightened up.  ¡°This was a shameful loss, and I despise losing.  I have had it enough.  Setting up ns just to see them crumble down and fail¡ª I shouldn¡¯t have to pay for the mistakes you make, clean up after your mess.  From now on, there will be none of it.  It¡¯s time that the masses remember why they feared me.¡±


    Voldemort took a couple steps and arrived at the chair beside the head of the table.  ¡°How are the preparations going, Wormtail?¡± he asked.  ¡°I hope my best Death Eaters don¡¯t have disappointment for me. . .¡±


    Pettigrew felt the cold bony hand on his shoulder.  If it was anyone in the room in his ce, they would¡¯ve been unable to suppress the shiver and fear.  But Peter Pettigrew was the once pathetic and weak man who had survived the horror known as Azkaban, which had broken men much stronger than him.  The miserable rat that had gone inside hade out with sharp fangs coated with poison.  He raised his head with a stale stone-like countenance and spoke up to the entire room, his voice steady and loud enough to reach every corner without magic.


    ¡°Rookwood is gathering Vampire tribes as we speak; the Elders have agreed to our cause in exchange for the promises of hunting grounds.  Those who haven¡¯t. . . Rookwood has instigated seeds of greed in the mind of young Vampires; even if we aren¡¯t and the tribes don¡¯t change their mind, the hungry young will switch tribes and join us.¡±h


    ¡°Good, situate them in the forests in the west hignds.  There are plenty of viges nearby they can feast upon.  What about the Giants?¡±


    ¡°Dolohov has gained the approval of the chiefs.  They like our offerings. . . and have agreed toe out of dwellings.  Six chiefs and their hordes have already begun moving through the country.¡±


    ¡°No, that won¡¯t do.  The Giants need to travel through Portkeys; traveling throughnds will attract the Ministry¡¯s attention.  We can¡¯t have them knowing what is happening.  Make them take Portkeys to the mountains.¡±


    ¡°The Giants refuse to take Portkeys.  Three of the six chiefs didn¡¯t trust human magic, and listening to them made the other three follow.  They will only travel throughnds. . . and in doing so cause a natural disaster like havoc.  I fear there is no way to hide the Giants leaving their homes to travel across the country.  However, I say we can use this.  Use the Giants and the attention they will gain as a decoy to hide the other movements.¡±


    It was a good idea.  A decoy as impactful as Giants would everything else.  They would be like the sun hiding the stars in the morning.  The positive of casting shadows on a plethora of ns outweighed the negative of announcing a hand.


    ¡°No¡±¡ª however, Voldemort didn¡¯t like it¡ª ¡°the Giants will do what I want them to do,¡± there was an air of noprise around him, ¡°if Dolohov can¡¯t make it happen, then I will do it myself.  Send him a message; I will meet the chiefs.¡±


    ¡°. . . As you wish, my Lord,¡± Pettigrew bowed his head.


    ¡°What of the werewolves,¡± asked Voldemort.


    ¡°The Lestranges are rounding up the Werewolves.  The packs are scattered around the country because of their territorial nature.  They have beg¡ª¡±


    ¡°Is it just the Lestranges?¡±


    ¡°Jugson and Mair are with them to ensure that the discussions don¡¯t break down if Betrix gets. . . emotional.¡±


    Voldemort hummed.


    Pettigrew continued, ¡°The packs around the country have begun to move.  Fortunately, they know better than to reveal their presence.  The packs have agreed to not infect others and y with the Muggles as long as they are continued to be supplied with the free wolfsbane.  Our efforts with the Werewolf Capture Unit,¡± which were supposed to give results when their Head was killed and reced with a paid-off individual, ¡°are now being used to turn a blind eye to any problems that might ur during the move.¡±


    ¡°Trolls?¡± Voldemort immediately moved on, which meant he was satisfied with what he had listened to.


    ¡°With Mulciber Junior working on it.  The Troll specialists we targeted have been sessfully ced under Imperio.  They¡¯re working on leading the Trolls through the forests, and with the food we¡¯ll give them, they¡¯ll do our bidding.¡±  Mulciber Junior was the Imperius Curse specialist inside the Death Eater organization and had controlled more people during thest reign than everyone elsebined.  Rookwood had once said that the Unspeakables would¡¯ve rolled on their bellies to get Mulciber Junior into their ranks for his uncanny skill with the mind-controlling skill.


    ¡°When the Trolls are stationed, I¡¯ll visit them. . . the specialists might have led them to our site, but they still need to know who they¡¯re fighting for.¡±


    ¡°As you wish.¡±


    ¡°Have the Dementors been behaving well?¡±


    ¡°. . . Some are hunting at Muggle prison grounds,¡± Pettigrew said, and for once, he had a strange expression.  ¡°We had to disperse them into groups, so it doesn¡¯t get obvious. . . and in every group, some Dementors always hunt at prisons near them.¡±


    ¡°Ah, is that so,¡± Voldemort nodded in understanding.  ¡°Do not worry, let them hunt at prisons.  The Dementors have been researched to seek familiar hunting grounds, favoring that familiarity over even the quality of their prey.  They have been guarding Azkaban; it¡¯s not strange for them to be attracted to Muggle prisons.  If the Dementors act strangely, I need to within the hour.¡±¡ª Pettigrew nodded¡ª ¡°What about the Death Eaters?¡± he asked.  ¡°How fast can we get everyone ready?¡±


    ¡°A month,¡± said Pettigrew after thinking of a number.  He didn¡¯t care for the looks he was getting from others at the table.


    ¡°Twenty days,¡± dered the Dark Lord.


    Pettigrew looked to the others and shrugged.  It wasn¡¯t like it mattered to him; he didn¡¯t have anything to take care of; his mother was dead due to stress from all the hate she got because of his actions. . . .  As for his revenge, it coincided with the Dark Lord and Death Eaters.


    ¡°My Lord,¡± spoke Pettigrew, ¡°may I ask what the ns for these preparations are.  I¡¯m sure it¡¯s on everyone¡¯s mind.¡±  No one voiced the same opinion, but it could be seen in their eyes that they were wondering the same thing.


    Voldemort walked around the table, his hand grazing shoulders and backs.  There was silence until Voldemort rounded around the table and returned to his seat.  He stood behind his chair and addressed his Death Eaters, ¡°The opposition. . . has been tougher than we expected.  The Ministry Aurors have been slowly but surely picking apart our allies ever since Amelia Bones has taken office.  Wizengamot hasn¡¯t been our friend with Dumbledore leading that faction of his, and the Grey faction hasn¡¯t swayed to our side because of their greed.¡±  A rare frown appeared over his face, ¡°Ever since we failed to abduct George West¡¯s grandson, the West has increased his business with the Grey faction and is using that to exert control through them to oppose anything we put out in Wizengamot. . . . and recently the Wests have poured gold into DMLE coffers to oppose us.¡±


    Even though Voldemort had diverted George¡¯s attention through his stint in Germany, it had only worked for so long.  The Wests had not only opposed them politically, but he had also been hostile towards the business owned and operated by the Dark faction members, creating bankrolling problems for the Death Eater operations.


    ¡°As long as George West stands strong, taking the Ministry will be a long and arduous process,¡± he said.


    ¡°What if you pay George West a visit, my Lord.  Maybe we can go around and burn his business to the ground,¡± said one of the Death Eaters viciously with a harsh smirk¡ª but a look from Voldemort made the smirk drain away into palpable nervousness.


    ¡°I won¡¯t see George West¡¯s face if he doesn¡¯t want me to,¡± said Voldemort; it would require effort and time to get near George West, time which he didn¡¯t have.  ¡°And destroying his business will only anger him¡ª and that man willunch an actualbative war against us if we target his work; I will be untouchable no matter what he does, but all of you will undoubtedly die if he wishes for it.  I would rather ruin this country to have him give up on it than anger him more than he already is.  Don¡¯t open your face if you don¡¯t have anything useful to say.¡±


    ¡°M-My apologies, my Lord,¡± the man sputtered pathetically.


    ¡°If we can¡¯t take the Ministry, then we will go for the next institution that defines this country¡ª Hogwarts.¡±  There were gasps around the table.  Voldemort continued, ¡°I¡¯m tired of Dumbledore standing in my way, and I think it is time for him to leave along with that bird club of his.  When I get rid of Dumbledore, I¡¯ll get to kill the Boy-Who-Lived to tell the blood traitors, the mudbloods, and anyone who dares oppose that it is time. . . time for despair.¡±


    There was a mixed reaction in the group.  On the outside, they showedplete and total appreciation for the Dark Lord¡¯s target, but inside, some of them were doubtful if they would be able to siege Hogwarts.  It didn¡¯t have the reputation of being the most secure ce in the country for no reason.


    ¡°And. . . we need to take care of the pesky little bug that has been buzzing around and ruining our ns,¡± said Voldemort with a cruel light in his eyes.


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    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Fear.  Despair.  Dread.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Any good new movies.  Nothing too dark.


    .


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 404 Visitors To The Village

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    The peaceful magical vige of Hogsmeade was one of the most sought real estate in the country because of its unique ¡°all-wizard¡± vige status.  There were many settlements in the country with only magical poption residing in them, but most of them had a non-magical nearby and thus had to exercise caution in how they conducted their lives because of thews imposed by the Ministry.  Then there were magical viges with no non-magical in the vicinity¡ª but none ever reached the level of activity or even size as Hogsmeade.


    What Hogsmeade had working for it was the fact that it was located nearby Hogwarts.  The records were unclear which came first¡ª the school or the vige, but there was no doubt that both were built around the same time.  As the poprity of Hogwarts grew with parents sending their children to the castle for studies, Hogsmeade¡¯s status also grew.  To protect the young future of the magical society, vastnds around Hogwarts were charmed to keep non-magical away, thus granting Hogsmeade the same environment.  In the current day market, a small apartment in Hogsmeade could be exchanged for an excellent bungalow mansion in some of the posh areas around the nation.  But was there something special happening in the vige?  No.  Hogsmeade was like any other typical town with homes, shops, and people living their everyday lives.  Even the businesses in Hogsmeade weren¡¯t high-grade, catering to the super-elite as one would expect from a ce with such high property prices.  How could they?  They were standing beside Hogwarts, which housed students who couldn¡¯t afford that sort of money.  It was a literal university town.


    The only reason why Hogsmeade was so highly coveted was because of prestige.  Having a property overlooking Hogsmeade was a luxury only a few had the honor to.  All of Hogsmeade had been bought up when it was cheap, hundreds of years ago, and there were only asional sales which led to ownership rights passing over.


    However, in recent times, Hogsmeade had seen some bad times.  It was in 1612; during that time, the goblin rebellion had broken nearby, and the vige had served as headquarters for the human side.  Then Hogsmeade had seen a stretch of peace and safety¡ª until the First Wizarding War, where not even Hogsmeade could escape Voldemort¡¯s reign of terror and had often seen Death Eaters and Auror skirmishes.  Things settled down when the Dark Lord was vanquished, and it was more than a decade after that Hogsmeade had againe under attack, this time by the hands of Novellus ionites, who had killed residents, only to be rescued by the infamous Invisible Vignte.


    That was five years ago.


    Today, Hogsmeade was at peace.  As the morning greeted the vige with its first ray of sunshine, the people of Hogsmeade rose up and started their days.  Charmed shovels could be seen shoveling snow off the building fronts and onto the sides.  Bakeries and eateries began preparing for the day before they opened up the shop.  Soon, people from outside the vige arrived in the vige for work as the residents also left for their jobs.


    ¡°It¡¯s awfully crowded today,¡± said Russ, a resident.  He looked around the crowded pub and could see more unfamiliar faces than familiar ones.


    ¡°I met Balter on the way; he said he and the missus couldn¡¯t get a seat at Larry¡¯s¡ª everything¡¯s upied,¡± replied Julian.  ¡°Is there some sorta festival today or somethin¡¯?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±  Russ walked to an outsider in the pub who wasughing with his buddies at a table and asked, ¡°Hey, mate.  Is there a festival today?  I live here, and oh boy, I¡¯m seeing an awful lot of new faces today.¡±


    The man turned to Russ and spoke with a jovial smile.  ¡°Something like that, mate.  Today¡¯s a day to be happy about.  Everyone here is celebrating!¡±


    ¡°I can see that,¡± Julian half-chuckled as he gazed at the sole bartender moving his hand and wand quickly to serve.  ¡°Never thought this ce would be as busy as Three Broomsticks. . . oh lord, I can¡¯t even imagine how Three Broomsticks looks like now.¡±


    ¡°I know!¡± the manughed.  He patted Russ on his shoulder and spoke, ¡°You ain¡¯t getting anywhere today, mate.  How about you take a bottle two home and tuck yourself in after a good buzz.  That¡¯s all you¡¯re going to get today.¡±


    Russ frowned and shrugged the man¡¯s hand off his shoulder.  He looked down at the man who was still smiling, but now that seemed a tinge sinister.


    ¡°Knock it off,¡± one of the man¡¯s friends at the table intervened.  He gave the man before turning to Russ.  ¡°Sorry about that.  He didn¡¯t mean; he gets like this when he gets drunk.  How about we buy you a round.  Anything you like at the bar, please take it as an apology from us.¡±


    ¡°Forget it,¡± Russ scoffed.  He red at the man who raised his beer mug to him with a smile.  Russ leaned his weight forward and clenched his fist but saw the people around the table shift.  He clicked his tongue, turned away, and walked out with furious steps.


    ¡°We apologies again,¡± came a voice from behind, but Russ ignored it.


    ¡°People have no manners these days,¡± Julius spoke outside the pub.


    ¡°Urgh!  I want to sock that bastard¡¯s teeth in,¡± Russ spat and kicked the snow on the ground.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be like that.  Let¡¯s go to me home; I¡¯ve some great Ember Scotch we can have.  That¡¯ll get the heat out yer head.¡±


    The promise of scotch made Russ agree nicely with a dash of grumbling that Julian listened to while nodding with a smile.  Russ took a look back at the pub and couldn¡¯t but question himself why he was feeling a heaviness at the bottom of his heart.


    . . .


    Inside the bar, the ¡®friend¡¯ gave a cold re to the man who had picked up a fight.  ¡°What was that?  Didn¡¯t I clearly give you instructions not to stand out, which means not doing this shit,¡± he said acidly.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°You should be.  If you screw it up, I¡¯ll have your head before mine gets lopped off.¡±  The scolded man clenched his fists below the table and nodded.  ¡°Cut off your drinks; I need all of you sharp and ready.  I don¡¯t want to hear that you bought an alcohol-expunge potion with you.¡±


    Others at the table gave side looks to the man.  Not only had he ruined the mood of the table, but he had also ruined their ¡®celebratory¡¯ drinking.


    As the clock wound down, the residents left for their homes, but unlike usual, where there will be only a few a person or two, the bar was still full of people chatting, drinking, and eating.  The bartender looked at everyone from behind his counter and nced at his sole employee, who was also surprised at the number of people still remaining.


    The bartender announced, ¡°Last call, gentlemen, it¡¯s already after midnight.  Get yourst drinks, and then it¡¯s time to leave.  We¡¯re closing down for the night.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be like that, mate; the night has just started,¡± shouted someone.


    ¡°No,¡± the bartender spoke sternly, ¡°it¡¯s thest call; after that, everyone¡¯s getting the fuck out. . . .¡±  He trailed off as he noticed how the bar had gone silent, and not a single voice outside his own could be heard.  Suddenly, he noticed the dozen-upon-dozen pairs of eyes were on him¡ª all the people in his pub were all looking at him without exception.  ¡°W-What is this?¡±  He took out his wand and pointed it at everyone.  ¡°Get out at once, or it won¡¯t be pretty. . .¡±  He was looking at one side of the bar, so he didn¡¯t notice when two red zaps of spell light hit him and his employee.


    The ¡®friend¡¯ from the table got up and cracked his neck as he walked to a spot from where he could see everyone in the bar and everyone could see him.  He took out his wand and tapped it on his face for his muscles to wriggle and twitch furiously.  The hair color changed from ck to blonde, and the body shape turned leaner and gained a couple inches.


    Instead of the average bloke, Augustus Rookwood was standing in front of the people.  ¡°¡±I¡¯m happy to see that I can count everyone that was supposed to be here is here,¡± he said.  ¡°But now that everyone has had their share of drinks and had fun for the day, it is time for everyone to get to work and start what we came here for.¡±  He pointed his wand at the unconscious two and chanted¡ª ¡°Imperio¡±¡ª then he shifted the wand a little and repeated the same.  ¡°What are all of you waiting for?  Let¡¯s start.¡±


    The chairs in the bar scraped against the wooden floor as people stood up.  They immediately began moving as a trained unit¡ª two men dragged the two unconscious men into the back; some went upstairs while most men exited the pub from the front and back.  Outside, the Death Eaters began pouring out from different buildings and moved across the vige, and soon they positioned themselves all across the vige in what seemed a strategic position.  They were on rooftops, on street corners, in front of different buildings, and even inside some buildings.  It waste at night, and not many residents were roaming outside; those out on the streets were immediately shot down with stunners and harsh ones to those who tried to resist.  All of it happened with zeromotion.


    Augustus Rookwood looked up at Hogwarts castle with his hands behind his back.  The castle was dark throughout; the lights turned off everywhere to discourage students from roaming around after curfew.  He observed the castle for ten minutes, but not a single light was turned on inside.


    ¡°Sir, everyone is in position.¡±


    Rookwood nodded to the man, who was now dressed in Death Eater attire.  Rookwood pulled up his right sleeve to reveal the inky Dark Mark; he tapped it with his wand, and it was as though the tattoo was pulling blood as it turned a blood red.  There was a pop, and Rookwood and his subordinate both bowed their head.


    Voldemort gazed up at the Hogwarts castle with his red eyes.  ¡°Is everything ready?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Yes, my Lord.  In and outside the vige and around the castle as well. . .¡±


    ¡°Give the order to Westen to cut the Floo.¡±


    Rookwood raised his head and walked away to the nearest building that the Death Eaters had upied and announced, ¡°Get me the MagiFax.¡±  Immediately a MagiFax was rolled up to him.  He took a sheet from his coat, ced it on the scanner, and dialed the WMF-id to send the instructions.  ¡°Where¡¯s the Floo in this building,¡± he asked.  He was guided upstairs and found a simple firece with a normal fire burning inside it.  He pointed his wand at the fire, and it turned a deep green.


    Then he waited.  Soon, a minute passed, then two, and when the third minute passed, one of the subordinates spoke, ¡°Should we go check on him?¡±


    Rookwood raised his hand and pointed at the firece.  The green me began to flicker as though it was struggling against a gust of wind.  The green color started to fade until it was a ghost-green, and then in a split second, the fire abruptly turned orange.


    Rookwood walked out of the building and back to Voldemort.  ¡°The Floo is down, my Lord.  We can begin.¡±


    Voldemort raised his wand, and with a long wand movement, white domes became visible over the buildings, but then they turned murky like milk.  The wards were disabled by the Dark Lord himself.


    Rookwood raised his wand.  He breathed out and waved his wand with a spell on his breath; the wand tip glowed amber, and starting from the wall nearest to him, every piece of built structure turned into a metallic red.  Every brick, paint coating, tile, marble, and building material changed color.


    His eyes went to a pair of men standing in front of a house.  One of them pointed his wand at the door, and a spellter, the door was blown up inside.  They rushed inside, and within a minute, spell lights glowed out from the cracks in the curtains.  And he knew that it was happening all across Hogsmeade.


    Rookwood¡¯s attention was taken away when a silver light shot above his head into the air.  He turned back and saw magic being shot out of Voldemort¡¯s wand.  A chain of silver magic shots followed, and a silver dome began to form in the sky, spilling towards an area so vast that it covered everything around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.


    Up in the castle, a light came on.


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    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C I¡¯m tired of waiting.


    Augustus Rookwood ¨C Ex-Unspeakable ¨C Going to add taking over a vige to my resume.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Okay. . . things are now definitely moving.


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    The link is in the Bio!

 Chapter 405 Trapped & Isolated

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    Dumbledore opened his eyes to darkness.


    Heid still for a split second; for that brief moment, his mind was at peace and quiet¡ª but as the next beat clicked in, a dam broke loose.  He felt an ocean of magic flood his ¡®sixth¡¯ magical sense, sending his mind buzzing with thoughts.  The amount of magic was something he hadn¡¯t felt in ages. . . not since he had dueled against Grindelwald.  His heart thumped in his chest as he knew that there could be only one who could cause so magic that his own magic tingled, sounding its difort, demanding for this threatening presence to be stopped.


    Dumbledore got up from his bed and walked to the window and the curtains parted to show him the source of the terrible magic he was feeling.  In the sky, a giant silver translucent cover of magic spilled outwards, forming a dorm that arched over Hogsmeade. . . and Hogwarts itself.  Pulsating steaks of silver magic rose up to the sky leaving behind a soft ghost-ish trail that began at the Hogsmeade.


    Dumbledore¡¯s eyes sharpened.  He raised his hand; his outer robe fluttered to him, and his wand flew in his arm.  He turned and yelled, ¡°Gibby!¡±  A Hogwarts house-elf appeared in the room; shey on the floor and slowly got up, rubbing her sleepy eyes.  ¡°Wake up the professors¡ª all of them.  Tell Minerva to raise Hogwarts defenses.  It¡¯s an emergency; tell them to have their wands ready.¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s stern, out-of-ce tone zapped Gibby¡¯s sleep in an instant.  She could barely utter an acknowledgment before Dumbledore vanished away from his room¡ª no one could Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts, but being Dumbledore had its exceptions.


    The moment Dumbledore appeared outside on the Hogwarts ground, he briskly made his way to the gate that opened to Hogsmeade, and the moment he appeared next to the bricks, the grip on his wand tightened.  Voldemort stood a few paces away, holding his wand up, shooting magic into the sky, building the dome that was growing at an rming rate.  Dumbledore saw Augustus Rookwood looking towards Hogsmeade, where he saw the shes of magic lighting up the houses and streets mixed in with the asional shout and scout that were extinguished before they could even get their anguish out.


    When Dumbledore looked away, his shocked eyes away from Hogsmeade to Voldemort, the Dark Lord¡¯s eyes also moved to Dumbledore.  The two opposites met eyes, and for a moment, the time seemed to slow down as the two juggernauts took in the presence and attention of the other.


    ¡°Dumbledore,¡± Voldemort started.  Rookwood turned at the sound and trained his wand at Dumbledore.  ¡°I expected you to arrive much earlier.  Is the corrosion of time finally catching up with you?  Needed the old man¡¯s sleep?  I think I can see new wrinkles by your eyes.¡±


    ¡°What are you doing, Tom?¡± Dumbledore raised his wand.


    He got a smirk in return.  Voldemort bent his elbow as if pulling on something taut before thrusting his wand arm up with force.  Magic saturated the environment as Voldemort¡¯s wand tip matched the brilliance of a star; the repeating bursts of magic going up in the sky akin to skyshot fireworks were reced by a thick tractor beam forming a pir to the sky.  The growth in the sky raced, making the previous speed look like a snail¡¯s crawl.  The silverish canopy that formed over shed a silverish light on the ground, recing the moonlight on a new moon night.


    Voldemort kept his eyes on Dumbledore and pointed his wand at the old Headmaster.  ¡°This is the start of the end, Dumbledore,¡± he said and cast a yellow spell that gleamed of death.  Dumbledore¡¯s body tensed as he casted his shield and aimed it outside the Hogwarts boundary.  Voldemort¡¯s dark curse was stopped from entering Hogwarts.  Dumbledore narrowed his eyes as he watched the dark magic eat away at his shield, turning his magic into an ugly sludge dripping down and sizzling on the ground.


    Dumbledore stepped closer to the threshold and touched his wand to a brick in the boundary wall.  The space between the bricks glowed blue and magic shot up from the wall, and magical glowing blue ethereal bricks began forming a cover over Hogwarts with Voldemort¡¯s dome hanging a height over it.


    ¡°The boy¡¯s time hase to an end, Dumbledore,¡± said Voldemort, ¡°might as well hand him over¡ª and while at it, I think it will be best for everyone that you surrender your life to me after I¡¯m done with him.¡±  He raised his wand again, and a bright red pulse burst out.  The red light struck the silver dome, and a ring of red travelled out on the dome¡¯s silver.  ¡°No one is leaving until I get what I want, and all of this over and buried into the ground.¡±


    As if coordinated, multiple bursts of pulsating magic rocketed towards the sky from areas around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.  They met Voldemort¡¯s dome and became a part of it.  The silver glowed brighter than ever, and the dome¡¯s growth and construction hastened as it bled downwards faster.


    ¡°No one is leaving. . . and neither is anyoneing in now,¡± Voldemort gave Dumbledore an eerie smile that made his already menacing face more threatening.


    ¡°Tom, you. . .¡± Dumbledore¡¯s words hitched in his throat.  His eyes switched between the magic in the sky, Voldemort and Hogsmeade.


    ¡°Dumbledore!¡± called a squeaky voice.  Flitwick came running on his little feet, and the rest of the faculty staff followed behind at a distance back.  Flitwick¡¯s feet came to a skidding stop before he intended to stop; he gasped when he looked at the sight outside Hogwarts.  The rest of the professor¡¯s reactions were identical.  ¡°Dumbledore. . . the Dark Lord, the magic in the sky, the Death Eaters. . . what is happening?!¡± the half-goblin asked in a stunned tone.


    ¡°. . . Has Minerva begun priming the defenses?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    ¡°S-She has.¡±


    Dumbledore turned to his peers and employees and announced, ¡°Voldemort and the Death Eaters have surrounded the castle. . . we are now trapped inside,¡± he sighed at the gaps.  ¡°But they won¡¯t be able toe inside as long as the Hogwarts defense stands.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t be for long,¡± everyone looked at Voldemort.  The Dark Lord stepped forward and walked to just in front of Dumbledore and the Hogwarts faculty¡ª they were separated by the magic dome, but despite that, they could see the other party very clearly.  Voldemort stared at Dumbledore as he spoke, ¡°How are you doing today, Lily Potter?¡±


    Lily standing among the faculty group dressed in her night clothes, stared at Voldemort with a fearful expression.


    ¡°How¡¯s your son?¡± he continued.  ¡°He must have grown since thest time I saw him.  Seventh year. . . a wizard of age¡ª from a boy to a young man. . . I have beente, haven¡¯t I?  Let him stay alive for too long.  But now that I¡¯m here, I shall remedy that.¡±


    ¡°You-You stay away from my children.¡±


    Voldemort finally looked at her, and the red eyes shone menacingly.  Dumbledore stepped in between both of them, breaking the eye contact between the two.


    ¡°You can¡¯t keep defending them, Dumbledore.  There will be a time when you and your magic slips. . . and on that day, I¡¯ll be waiting. . . waiting for you to make a mistake and open the door to the school to me so that I could teach the children important life lesson. . . to kneel in the presence of greatness such as myself.¡±


    The silver dome shed in a brilliant, burning magnesium white light before dimming to the point where it was no longer avable.  ¡°That does it; it¡¯s just the both of us now,¡± said Voldemort.


    Dumbledore pursed his lips as again, for the umpteenth time, before turning away from and facing his faculty.  He looked to the Bill Weasley and said, ¡°Can you keep an eye on them, William?  You do not have to worry; the shield will keep you safe as long as you stay behind them.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the youngest of the Hogwarts professors.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± smiled Dumbledore reassuringly.  ¡°Pomona, please keep Willianpany.¡±  The Herbology Head of Hufflepuff readily agreed and stationed herself near the blue shield ward with her wand ready.


    The rest of the Hogwarts group left and moved to the castle.  There were no words exchanged on the way¡ª even though all had questions, the moment Dumbledore had turned, his smile had disappeared, making them hold their tongues.  When they entered, they were greeted by a startled McGonagall.


    ¡°Albus, what is happening?!  Why¡ª¡±


    ¡°Voldemort and the Death Eaters are at our doors, Minerva,¡± said Dumbledore.  ¡°They have taken over Hogsmeade, taken the people hostage.  Voldemort has cast barrier magic around the castle and the vige¡ª and from his words, it has created istion¡ª no one¡¯s going toe in or go out.  We can consider Ministry help out of the question for the moment¡ª not until they or we figure out how to get rid of it.¡±  Dumbledore stopped in the middle of the Entrance Hall and remained silent with his eyes closed.  He asked, ¡°How much food do we have?¡±


    ¡°For a week or so. . . we can stretch it to ten days,¡± said McGonagall.


    Dumbledore opened his eyes.  ¡°I do not like that number.  We need more food. . . But before that, we need to alert the Aurors.¡±


    ¡°The Floo is down.¡±


    ¡°Of course they are,¡± he sighed.  ¡°I doubt owls will work either.  House-elves?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Gibby can¡¯t go out; we are truly trapped,¡± she said.  ¡°What about Fawkes?¡±


    ¡°We can try, though I doubt it will work.  He¡¯s not going to be happy being cooped in the castle.¡±


    Lily entered the conversation and suggested, ¡°How about we use MagiFax?  I know of an emergency line for family members in the Aurors Office.  They¡¯ll respond immediately.¡±


    ¡°Please do so,¡± said Dumbledore, and Lily ran away.


    ¡°What should we do about the children?¡± asked Flitwick.


    Dumbledore followed Lily with his eyes until she was out of sight.  ¡°Lock the doors and windows.  Not a single child should venture out of the castle walls until we let them know about the situation.  We will need help.  The older students will have to take care of the younger ones.  I will need a talk with the Prefects; the Head of House will talk to everyone fifth-year above. . . And I repeat, no one goes out.¡±


    ¡°The Dark Lord,¡± asked Slughorn, still wearing his sleeping cap on his head, ¡°what does he want?¡±


    ¡°For me to be dead. . . along with Harry Potter,¡± Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at the Slytherin Head of House.  ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it, Horace.  Giving Potter won¡¯t solve any of this.¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t thinking about it,¡± said Slughorn, his eyes shifting to the professors.  ¡°Then what should we do?¡±


    ¡°Voldemort will try to breach our defenses.  I do not know long it would hold him back,¡± at their level, there was no telling, ¡°so we either need to break their enclosure, or we need to prepare to defend against them in case they break through.¡±


    ¡°D-Defend, how many Death Eaters are there?¡±


    Dumbledore shook his head.  ¡°I do not know, I only saw Augustus Rookwood, but I¡¯m sure he has brought all of his lieutenants along with him,¡± some terrible names passed through his and everyone¡¯s minds.  ¡°Along with those people, there are many more, many-many more¡ª we will be severely outnumbered.¡±  He looked his worried employees in the eye, ¡°But do not despair just yet.  They might have the higher number, but we this castle.  A stronghold to help us defend and protect.¡±  Dumbledore¡¯s eyes steeled in resolve.  He had children to protect, and he would do anything to aplish that goal.


    In the shadow of the night, Hogwarts had turned into a battlefield.  However, the following morning that had a lot to offer of its own.


    .


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    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Children make great bargaining chips.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C I was having a pleasant dream. . . only to wake up to a nightmare.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C How was this one?


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    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 406 Sounding The Sirens

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


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    .


    Somewhere in the Auror Office, a Junior Auror fiddled with the dry quill in his hand.


    Nights at the Auror Office were usually hectic with drunk idiots going around shooting magic in front of Muggles.  But not for Andreson.  He was appointed his shift in the back offices, alone in a cabin behind a desk, surrounded by shelves and cabs full of paperwork.  He heaved a long sigh of boredom, nkly staring at his table with nothing to do.


    His duty was to man an emergency line open only to family members of Aurors, Hit Wizards, Obliviators, and other at-risk professions inside the DMLE.  It was an essential job as being a part of DMLE came with an added risk of making enemies who would sometimes target family members, and thus the department as a whole needed to be on-point, ready to jump to their help and resolve the threat as soon as possible before it could do any damage.  However, manning the emergency line was the most boring part of the process¡ª he didn¡¯t get to go out on the field and was stuck behind a desk where the only choice of excitement was when an emergency message would be called and he would get to issue a red alert¡ª s, those moments were far in between.


    It being a night shift didn¡¯t help.  The temptation to set his head down on the table and close his eyes to take a small nap was strong¡ª but something punishable by the internal rules of the office.


    *Ting!*


    Andreson¡¯s body froze as though hit by a body bind.  He removed his eyes from the quill in his hand and looked up to the MagiFax sitting in the corner of the room.  The machine was used for making copies of documents rather than for its primary purpose, so when he heard it make a sound, Andreson couldn¡¯t believe his ears.  He stared at it, waiting for proof that it wasn¡¯t his imagination birthed by boredom but what he thought it was.


    *Ting!*


    There it was.  Andreson¡¯s eyes widened as he stood up from his chair, sending it falling to the ground.  He didn¡¯t care.  The Junior Auror of the night shift ran to the machine and all but ripped the paper out of the tray.  His eyes bulged out as he read the words and straightened up.  He took backward steps towards the door¡ª and bolted out of the room, leaving the door swinging.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am!¡± he yelled and barged into his manager¡¯s office.


    Stephanie Izard, Senior Auror, looked up and red at him.  ¡°Do I need to teach you discipline, Anderson?  I would dly send you back to the academy to be graded.  If you score anything less than an A-grade, don¡¯t even think ofing back.¡±


    Anderson ignored the severe words that promised permission and continued spouting, ¡°Ma¡¯am, something just came from the family emergency line!¡±


    Izard sat straighter.  She asked, ¡°Who is it?¡±


    ¡°Lily Potter!¡±


    ¡°Potter?  Isn¡¯t she at¡ª¡±


    ¡°Death Eaters have taken the entire vige of Hogsmeade hostage!  They have cast a ward over both Hogsmeade and Hogwarts and are nning to break into the Hogwarts!¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± Izard stood up from her chair.


    ¡°He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is there, ma¡¯am.  Sh-She, the rest of the Hogwarts professors, and Dumbledore saw him with their own eyes!¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!¡±


    ¡°And they have disabled the Floo system as well!  Ma¡¯am, it¡¯s an entire mess, and-and¡ª¡± he thrust the letter into Izard¡¯s hand ¡°¡ª please read it on your own.¡±


    Izard nkly stared at the paper in her hand.  The moment the page left his hand, Andreson paced around the room.


    ¡°Call everyone,¡± said Izard.


    ¡°Everyone. . . who?¡±


    ¡°Call Robards, all the Captains, the Seniors¡ª call the Hit Wizards¡ª call Scrimgeour, call Bones¡ª call. . . everyone.¡± she looked at Andreson.  ¡°This needs all hands on board.¡±


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± Andreson turned to leave the office and follow themands, but when he opened the door, he was met with a figure standing in front of the door.  He gasped, ¡°Senior Auror Potter!¡±


    James entered the office and spoke straight to Izard, ¡°Have you called everyone?¡±


    Izard raised the page in her hand.  ¡°Got your wife¡¯s alert just now; Andreson was about to go¡ª don¡¯t stare at Andreson go¡ª I presume she contacted you first?¡± she asked James.


    James nodded.


    ¡°Who did you call?¡± she asked.


    ¡°No one.  I knew you would be doing it,¡± James sighed and pulled a seat in front of the table to sit down, but the moment his behind touched the cushion, he stood up and began pacing the room.


    ¡°How¡¯re you feeling?¡± asked Izard, studying James.


    ¡°How do you think I¡¯m feeling?¡± snapped James.  ¡°My wife and children are trapped inside with a monster who wants nothing more than to kill them.  How do you think that makes me feel, huh?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re safe,¡± she assured, not minding the harsh words, ¡°they have Dumbledore with them, and the Hogwarts defenses stand strong between You-Know-Who and everyone inside.¡±  James¡¯ face remained sour; the words didn¡¯t help.  ¡°What we need to think right now is how to help the people trapped in Hogsmeade¡ª because they neither have the Hogwarts defenses separating them from You-Know-Who.¡±


    James groaned.  He stopped, and his face contorted as he clenched his fists.  There was a few seconds of struggle on his face before all of it was released with a deep breath.  ¡°You are right,¡± he said calmly, albeit with a frown.  ¡°Hogsmeade needs are help.  There¡¯s no telling what that evil maniac will do with those poor people.  What should be our first n of action?¡±


    ¡°Scouting,¡± said Izard as both of them sat down.  ¡°We need to get eyes on the situation.  Send a reconnaissance to get they of thend from the outside while we establish contact with Hogwarts to get a view from the inside.¡±


    ¡°Lily and I use a charmed pair of mirrors which can show one mirror what the other mirrorface is seeing.  I¡¯m sure someone can hop on a broom with the mirror, and we can get a birds-eye look of the situation.  Even just simplemunication can be more fluid using them.¡±


    ¡°Excellent, that¡¯s great.  What¡¯s next. . . they jammed the Floos; we need to find who did it and get them working again.¡±


    ¡°Randolph Westen,¡± James spoke after a beat, ¡°the Head of the Floor Authority.  Let¡¯s call him in¡ª we will need his help to figure out this situation.  And we need to gather the people who are in there right now.¡±


    Izard immediately got up and walked out to return after a couple of minutes.  ¡°I have sent a team; they¡¯ll keep anyone from leaving. . . . Let¡¯s talk about the ward¡ª You-Know-Who¡¯s ward¡ª as long as that¡¯s up, we can¡¯t do anything.  If we can get the Floos running, we can get inside without breaking the ward.¡±


    ¡°If¡ª is the word.  I doubt the Dark Lord didn¡¯t think of the literal dozens of Floo in the vige.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t try.  We will dig through the ground by hand if that¡¯s what it takes to get inside.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m thest person you need to tell that,¡± James said with a sharp glint in his eyes.  ¡°I will do anything to get to my family. . . anything.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. . . that doesn¡¯t raise any rms in my mind,¡± Izardmented.  James gave her a look, but she raised a brow in response, telling him that she meant every word she said.


    The door opened up, and Andreson peaked inside the office.  ¡°Head Auror has arrived with some of the Captains.  He¡¯s asking for both of you to join him.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°We have lost an entire vige¡ª Hogsmeade, the only all-wizard vige¡ª to Death Eaters,¡± Robards spoke to the people in front of his entire team of Captain, Senior Aurors, and Hit Wizard upper hierarchy.  They were sitting in the biggest Auditorium in the DMLE with Robards up on the stage.  ¡°They have taken an entire vige of people hostage,¡± he repeated.  ¡°Do you know what that means?  They can do whatever the heck they want.¡±


    There was not a single positive face in the entire Auditorium.  Everyone understood what the term hostage meant and what an entire vige full of them represented.


    ¡°We are royally fucked here,¡± he spat.  He rubbed his face and pointed up, ¡°Scrimgeour and Bones are up in her office, thinking of how to handle this from a media reputation standpoint¡ª and believe me, if we don¡¯t do something about this, whatever they do will be for nothing.  The people wille out on the streets, sparking rallies and riots, demanding answers for why we haven¡¯t made this problem go away.  This thing can go derail the entire country.  We have hundreds of children trapped inside that castle¡ª people will have our heads on fucking spikes if something happens to them.  SHIT!  Those inbred ingrates, I want to wring their necks.¡±


    It was a shock to everyone.  They had never heard Robards swear in public or even in private conversations, much less this kind of outburst.  To see him spouting swear in every other sentence was surreal and so out of character that it deepened the severity of the situation in their minds.


    ¡°Where are we right now?¡± he asked.


    Izard rose up from her chair.  She exined how the Floo was disabled in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts.  ¡°I have detained the Floo Network Authority employees for the time being and have sent a team to the Head¡¯s house. . . . We have contact inside Hogwarts; we need a setup a reconnaissance team and send them to the ground zero.  I propose the team bebatively advanced with Hit Wizards involved, so in case we find Death Eaters outside, we can sessfully capture them for information.¡±


    ¡°Kingsley,¡± called Robards to the ck Captain Auror, ¡°prepare a team with Hit Wizards,¡± he looked to the Head of Hit Wizards, who nodded and appointed someone from his own ranks.  ¡°Izard, get involved in this¡ª great work on the Floo Network Authority.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±  Izard returned resolutely before leaving the room along with Kingsley and two Hit Wizards.


    ¡°Sir, I would like to volunteer,¡± James got up and announced in front of the entire crowd.


    ¡°Sit down,¡± Robards gestured to James.


    ¡°But, sir¡ª¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t say it again, Potter; sit down,¡± the way he spoke and looked at James made it clear that it was an order from Head Auror to a Senior Auror.


    James dumped into his chair; his face wasn¡¯t a pretty sight to behold.  Sirius sitting beside him patted his shoulder.


    Robards continued, ¡°I want the locations of every person on our Death Eater and affiliate list,¡± which was an internal DMLE list of known Death Eaters, possible Death Eaters, suspected Death Eaters, and people associated with Death Eaters.  ¡°If you can¡¯t find them or have any solid information about their whereabouts, I¡¯ll get you a warrant in their names.  You have my authorization to bump their status to confirmed Death Eaters and treat them as so¡ª any sign of resistance, you know what to do.¡±


    ¡°I need people working on the ward,¡± continued Robards.  ¡°Carrott¡ª I need you to make three teams for it¡ª get any expert you can get your hands on; if they refuse to participate, drag them here.  I want to know everything there¡¯s to know about that damned ward.¡±


    ¡°Should I involve Unspeakables?¡± asked Captain Auror Carrott.  The Department of Mysteries was the premier research organization in the country, working on things beyond bleeding edge and state-of-the-art.


    Robards thought for a second before saying, ¡°I will talk with Scrimgeour and Bones.¡±  He gave Carrott a look, ¡°Get results,¡± which meant that he didn¡¯t want the Unspeakables involved.


    ¡°Understood,¡± Carrott gathered a couple of Senior Aurors as he left.


    ¡°Potter,¡± called Robards, and James shot up from his chair, ¡°I want you to be in charge of themunication¡ª¡±


    The Auditorium door swung open, causing everyone¡¯s eyes to go to it.


    ¡°Junoir Auror Andreson,¡± Robards identified the sudden and abrupt intruder.  ¡°This isn¡¯t a ce you¡¯re permitted to enter.  This sort of behavior can get you suspended.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir, I know, sir,¡± Andreson gulped, ¡°but we have a problem you and everyone here need to know about.¡±


    ¡°What problem?¡± Robards¡¯ forehead creased.


    ¡°I-It¡¯s the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Robards Gawain ¨C Head Auror ¨C If only I could. . . I could¡¯ve rained the vige with Killing Curses.


    James Potter ¨C Senior Auror ¨C All his chain of thoughts, no matter what, only lead to one ce.


    Stephanie Izard ¨C Senior Auror ¨C Part of the first team to go down to ground zero.


    Andreson ¨C Junior Auror ¨C I like the boring office with paperwork better.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Oooh, yeah!  Let¡¯s get the final arc rolling.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 407 Another One?

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°I-It¡¯s the Invisible Vignte!¡±


    The entire Auditorium hushed into silence with all eyes on Andreson, hanging on his every word.  The Invisible Vignte, the person who had dumped eighty-five Death Eaters at their door¡ª and had been the reason for the biggest task force formed in a decade.  Moreover, that name popping up now made everyone think about the timing and what it could mean.


    ¡°What did he do now?¡± asked Robards seriously.  It was a time of turmoil for the country, they didn¡¯t want a costumed ouw adding to the problem.


    ¡°He has. . . He has taken a resort in the south hostage,¡± the moment the word left Andreson¡¯s mouth, the silence broke like ss against a hammer; there was such uproar that Robards¡¯ voice to quiet them failed to reach once, and he had to shoot a firework to the ceiling to silence them.


    ¡°Hostage. . . the Invisible Vignte has taken a resort hostage?¡± Robards repeated Andreson¡¯s words.  ¡°What the hell is happening today?!¡±


    Sirius said, ¡°Maybe all wanted criminals are celebrating National Hostage Day and taking hostages of their own.¡±


    ¡°Not today, ck,¡± warned Robards in a nonsense tone.  He turned to Andreson, ¡°Who all are in the resort?  I refuse to believe that he just randomly took over a resort.  Do we have a list?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Andreson pulled out a sheet.  ¡°A list of guests came along with the report, which alerted us about the incident.¡±


    Robardsid his eyes on the list.  It wasn¡¯t a long list with less than fifty people on it.  He read every single one of those names¡ª his eyes lingered on some¡ª before handing the list to James and posed the question¡± ¡°Do you see it?¡±


    James received it, and for a moment, his eyes reflected confusion, but as he made his way through it, his eyes widened and reflected an understanding.  ¡°The surnames. . . they¡¯re rted to Death Eaters?¡±  There were surnames in the guest list that matched the [Death Eaters and Affiliates] list that DMLE maintained internally.


    It was clear what the list wanted to portray¡ª what the Invisible Vignte wanted to tell them¡ª that he had taken family members of Death Eaters hostage.


    ¡°Do you know what this means?¡±


    ¡°. . . That he knew Death Eaters were going to take over Hogsmeade today,¡± James gripped so hard that the page crinkled and crunched under his fist.  ¡°He knew this was going to happen, and he didn¡¯t think to tell us. . . how does this help, huh?  That bastard!  The Dark Lord won¡¯t care; he will continue on anyway!  That arrogant son of a bitch!¡±


    ¡°. . . Or that he got to know about it today and decided to take the family members hostage in hopes to the counteract the situation.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t seriously believe that,¡± James said with some heat.


    ¡°It¡¯s one of the possibilities, but yes, I don¡¯t think it makes much sense,¡± Robards replied.  ¡°And seeing that you didn¡¯t think of that possibility worries me. . . ck, you¡¯re in charge of this¡ª take a team and try to sort this situation out; keep me updated.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t do this,¡± James interjected, ¡°the Invisible Vignte is my task force¡¯s duty.  I decide how this is handled.¡±


    Robards returned bluntly, ¡°Not with that state of mind, you don¡¯t.  I fear you¡¯ll ignore the safety of the hostages because they¡¯re rted to Death Eaters and chose to barge inside for a confrontation.¡±  He turned to Sirius, ¡°ck, go; it¡¯s an order.¡±


    Sirius gazed at James for a second before leaving the room.


    ¡°Do you want to work on the Invisible Vignte, or do you want to be involved with Hogsmeade,¡± asked Robards.


    ¡°. . . Hogsmeade,¡± said James tly, but there was irritation on his face.


    ¡°Then listen to what I¡¯m saying,¡± spat Robards.  ¡°You¡¯ll be in charge of themunication team¡ª you¡¯ll coordinate our teams on the ground and the people inside Hogwarts from here¡ª¡±


    ¡°From here!  No.  Send me to Hogsmeade; I¡¯ll be better there.¡±


    ¡°You will stay here as long as I say so,¡± Robards dered.  His demeanor exuded seriousness and severity¡ª this was the Head Auror everyone knew.  ¡°You have allowed your family¡¯s safety to cloud your judgment.  I can¡¯t trust you down at the field, for the time you will stay and help from here.¡±


    ¡°Robards. . . please, don¡¯t¡ª¡±


    ¡°If you want this to change, then show me something¡ª something that will tell me that it¡¯s okay to trust you to make the right decision and not put hundreds of civilian lives at risk along with your friends and co-workers who work with you.¡±  When Robards said that, James looked stunned and even hurt, but Robards didn¡¯t take his words back.  ¡°I don¡¯t take any pleasure in keeping you away from your family, but until I know you can handle yourself as the Senior Auror you are, I¡¯m having you stay put.  The second I see it, I will give you the order, and you can leave that very moment.¡±


    Robards turned away and returned to address the others, rapidly assigning them duties.  James stood there with his fist clenched, puncturing holes into the sheet in his hand.  He took a deep breath, and after a few seconds, he was off, out of the Auditorium.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Sirius blinked his eyes when the rainbow shimmers of the Portkey travel left for the scenery to return to normal.  He looked behind his team and saw them having a simr reaction to shake off the travel.  They stood in front of the resort in Scond.  Palm trees littered the area with an orange-tiled building in front of them.


    ¡°Listen up,¡± he spoke to his team.  ¡°The person we might encounter is highly dangerous, and even though he has a history of only targeting Death Eaters¡ª don¡¯t think he won¡¯t target you.  I have met him once, and he thrashed me to the ground,¡± he had told his team about his encounter with the Invisible Vignte, ¡°so keep your guard up, but don¡¯t engage aggressively before I say to do so.  And never face him alone¡ª this man stood his ground against the Dark Lord.  Get ready, check your gear; we will start soon.¡±


    After everyone was ready, Sirius raised his hand and opened up his palm, and at hismand, his team split into pairs of two and dispersed to do some scouting, with one pair taking to the sky on brooms.  Sirius himself walked to the front of the entrance with his wand in his hand that loosely hung by his side.  He raised his brow, nced down at the sandy path by his foot, and shifted his foot a little before stepping back.


    He raised his wand and held it in a reverse grip, and as if stabbing, he pushed the wand forward.  The seemingly empty space buzzed and crackled when the wand hit the invisible ward.  The yellow magic began to spread out, and in a few moments, the entire resortplex was nketed by a yellow ward.


    ¡°Hostages and wards. . . must be a trend or something,¡± he muttered.


    Sirius put his hands behind his back and waited.  As he was expecting, it took less than a minute for a ck-d masked figure to appear at the entrance.  Sirius raised his hand and greeted the Invisible Vignte, ¡°Long time no see,¡± he smiled, ¡°how have you been doing; I¡¯m doing great.  On the other hand, you look like you need a bit more sun¡ª how about you shed that mask and get a little tan going.  We rarely get this good sunshine; why not take advantage of it.  What you say?¡±


    There was not a single sound from the other side.  The eyes behind the mask simply stared at Sirius.


    ¡°Alright, alright, I get it.  I thought we were friends, but I now see how it is.  I¡¯m just saying, I¡¯m a great friend to have,¡± Sirius shook his head with a sigh.  ¡°So, what do you want?  I mean, if you wanted something, you could¡¯ve sent us crippled Death Eaters as payment; we could¡¯ve definitely worked out some sort of transactional deal.¡±


    Sirius watched as one of the most wanted criminals took a sheet of paper from his pocket and levitated it to him¡ª just behind the ward with his wand.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see,¡± Sirius leaned forward and squinted his eyes to read, ¡°can¡¯t you remove the ward, it¡¯s difficult to read. . . no. . . I see, no matter¡ª for you, I¡¯ll manage. . . .  I see names being highlighted; I know they¡¯re from Death Eater families.¡±


    ¡°I demand the Death Eaters with the same surnames in return for the hostages.  The family member and one other person for one Death Eaters.  When I get everyone, I shall let everyone go.¡±


    ¡°Whoa, whoa, whoa. . . wait a minute here,¡± Sirius raised his hands.  ¡°You want us to get you Death Eaters and not the other way around.  I don¡¯t know if we can do that; you know, we¡¯re not in the delivery business.¡±


    Again there was no verbal response, but this time Sirius got something that was much more impactful in return.  He turned his head back and saw that his team had returned, and when he looked back, Sirius saw a man wrapped up in ropes fly from within the resort.  The person was mercilessly dumped beside the Invisible Vignte.


    ¡°Bartol Lee,¡± said the distorted voice.


    The now-named Barnaby Lee thrashed on the ground the moment heid his eyes on Sirius and tried to roll, worm, and push himself towards the team of Aurors, but a kick from the big ck boot made him cower on the ground with pathetic cries leaking out of his stuffed mouth.


    ¡°Son of the Lee couple, I want both of them in return for him.¡±


    ¡°Listen¡ª¡±


    ¡°Avada Kedavra¡±


    Sirius felt his body freeze as the green sh died, and all movement and sound stopped from the tied-up Barnaby Lee.  His team showed a simr reaction, but their instincts propelled their hands to raise their wands for protection.


    ¡°. . . What did you do?¡± Sirius pointed his wand straight to the ck face.  ¡°Do you know what you just did?¡±


    ¡°I suppose I won¡¯t get the Lee couple now, but if you want, you can always get me them.  I have helped you in the past, after all,¡± the distorted voice seemed more sinister than ever.  ¡°Get me the Death Eaters, Auror.  I hope this,¡± he kicked Barnaby Lee¡¯s body, ¡°is enough to showcase how much I want my demands fulfilled.¡±


    The masked killer turned away and walked into the resort.  Sirius¡¯ wand trembled as he kept it trained at the back; the spell that had just been used was on his tongue, ready to be unleashed.  His eyes moved to Barnaby Lee¡¯s body, and the dead young man¡¯s nk eyes stared back at him.  When he looked up, the Invisible Vignte had disappeared¡ª and had left the body lying in front of the entrance. . . just outside of his reach.


    ¡°. . . Sir,¡± called one of the Junior Aurors.


    Sirius didn¡¯t remove his eyes from the dead.  ¡°Call the rest of the team,¡± he had left half of his team with another Senior Auror to be part of the Hogsmeade operation, ¡°I want every single one of them here as soon as possible.  Get me wardbreakers.  Get me a team of Hit Wizards.  I want to take that bastard¡¯s hand and shove it up his arse¡ª take it out and push it down his throat.  Why did the Dementors have to leave?¡±


    He turned to his team, ¡°Cast to kill.  I don¡¯t care if you don¡¯t try to capture him¡ª if he breathes in front of you, drop him dead.¡±


    . . .


    Somewhere in the country, a loud ringing sound broke a sleep.


    .


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    .


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Sometimes my decisions backfire on me.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 408 Promise & Peace

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    *Beep!**Ting!*  *Beep!**Ting!*  *Beep!**Ting!*


    Quinn opened his groggily and stared at the drawn curtains that were glowing orange from the sunlight trying to shimmer inside.  There was no joy in his eyes as he listened to the noise turning louder with every beep.  Today was supposed to be a rare rest day for him where he had told his internal clock that it was okay to sleep in and not fire up the engines early in the morning for the day toe.  He had made sure to shut off his rms just for today¡ª but here he was, listening to two noises that broke his sleep.


    He raised his hand from his elbow and pulled in with his magic.  From a table across the room, two mirrors flowed to his bed.  Heid down on his back and stared at the floating mirrors alternating between showing his reflection and glimmering silver.


    ¡°Good morning,¡± with a small smile.  The two mirrors showed his girlfriend one on each.  The previous irritation turned into a pleasant feeling filling him from the inside out¡ª it was a great start to see them first thing in the morning.  The mirrors had been life savers for his long-distance rtionship, especially with their current circumstances.  Ivy had gifted him the message, and he had made a pair for Daphne so that they couldmunicate likewise.


    ¡°Quinn, it¡¯s important.¡±  ¡°We have a problem.¡±


    ¡°Is that Ivy?¡±  ¡°Did I hear Daphne?¡±


    Quinn said, ¡°Yes, both of you called at the same time.  Let¡¯s go one at a time: Daphne, if you would.¡±  He pinched his fingers out, and the two mirrors expanded in size so that he could get a better look at them.


    Daphne¡¯s background was what Quinn recognized to be her room.  He recognized the shades of lc along with gold and white in the original green room.  ¡°Death Eaters have taken over Hogsmeade, and the Dark Lord has cast a ward that has trapped everyone inside Hogwarts and Hogsmeade,¡± she said in one breath.


    Ivy continued from a ce that didn¡¯t look like her dorm room, ¡°The Aurors have been informed, and the DMLE has already deployed forces to the area outside the ward.¡±


    ¡°. . . What?¡± Quinn jerked up and sat up on his bed.  He looked incredulously at Ivy and Daphne.  ¡°I. . . What¡ª When did this happen?  How are you?  Is everything alright?  Ivy, where are you?¡±


    ¡°Calm down; nothing has happened yet,¡± said Ivy.  ¡°I¡¯m in the Room of Requirements. . . needed a little space.¡±


    What followed was Quinn getting a download from the girls.  They told how they had been woken up and asked to gather in the Great Hall, where Dumbledore addressed the situation they were in, and how Ivyter was pulled aside by Lily and got to talk to James and was able to get some additional facts from the Auror Office¡¯s side.


    ¡°Father and mum already know,¡± Daphne said, and now after having been given the shocking news, he could see the traces of worry and anxiousness on her face.


    Quinn bit the inside of his cheek¡ª he waste.


    ¡°What about the Hogwarts defenses?¡± he asked.  ¡°Has the Dark Lord tried to breach them?¡±


    ¡°I. . . I don¡¯t know,¡± Daphne said.  Ivy shook her head as well.


    ¡°What about Hogsmeade?  How many were able to get out before the Death Eaters got to them?¡± Quinn asked Ivy, knowing there were a bunch of Labyrinth doors inside the vige.


    ¡°The Aurors don¡¯t know how many Death Eaters are exactly inside Hogsmeade, but there were enough that only a few¡ª who had wards around their homes¡ª could escape,¡± Ivy bit her lips.


    Quinn clicked his tongue.  People were idiots.  Even though he had put in the efforts tounch Aegis, his family had marketed the service and streamlined the process to install the ward, but people were ignorant enough to not put them up around their homes.  The people with wards had plenty of time to get out of their beds, walk to the Labyrinth door in their house, and leave without looking back.


    ¡°Have the Aurors established any contact with the Death Eaters?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Nothing yet,¡± said Ivy.


    Quinn closed his eyes for a moment before turning to Daphne, ¡°Can you please go stay with Luna for a while. . . take your mirror with you.¡±


    Daphne nodded.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± said Quinn with aforting smile.  ¡°I¡¯ll be there in a bit.  Don¡¯t worry, everything will be alright.¡±


    Quinn bid goodbye to them and closed the mirrors.  Theforting smile he had held up until the end drained away.  He hopped off his bed, went into the bathroom, and stood under the shower for ten minutes as magic cleaned him.


    It was time, he thought.  Voldemort was outside Hogwarts and had created a situation that couldn¡¯t be taken any other way than a straight-out deration of war in the form of a terrorist attack.  This was going to be it.  Everything he had been doing for years was for this thing.


    He looked down at the chain dangling from his neck with the Deathly Hallows piece.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn apparated out to the countryside, painted in green.  He looked around and saw the stamped-out path between the grass.  He was surrounded by trees and flowers that grew in patches; there wasn¡¯t a single sign of urbanization in sight in the quaint vige known as Ottery St. Catchpole.  The vige had both muggle and magicalmunities, thetter being quietly established after the Statute of Secrecy in the 17th century.


    He looked up as the wind whipped his air back.  On the top of a small hill stood a strange-looking house that rose vertically against the sky, a great ck cylinder shaped like the rook chess piece of the ck color.  Aptly named the Rook.  He walked up the hill and saw the hand-painted signs that hadn¡¯t changed since thest time he had been here.


    ¡¸THE QUIBBLER.  EDITOR: X. LOVEGOOD¡¹


    ¡¸PICK YOUR OWN MISTLETOE¡¹


    ¡¸KEEP OFF THE DIRIGIBLE PLUMS¡¹


    The picket fence creaked as he opened it.  The zigzagging path leading to the front door was overgrown with a variety of odd nts, including a bush covered in the orange radish-like fruit.  His eyes lingered on a  Snargaluff and gave the wizened stump a wide berth.  There were two aged crab apple trees without many leaves bent because of the wind, though they were still heavy with berry-sized red fruits and bushy crowns of white-beaded mistletoe.  The trees stood as sentinels on one side of the front door.  A little owl with a slightly ttened, hawklike head peered down at them from one of the branches.


    He rapped three times on the thick ck door, which was studded with iron nails and bore a knocker shaped like an eagle.  Barely ten seconds passed, then the door was flung open, and there stood Xenophilius Lovegood, barefoot and wearing what appeared to be a stained nightshirt.  His long white candyfloss hair was dirty and unkempt.


    ¡°What?  What is it?  Who are you?  What do you want?¡± he cried in a high-pitched, querulous voice, but then his mouth fell open in a perfect,ical O.  ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you, Quinn.  How are you, son?  You have gotten fatter since west met.¡±


    ¡°Hello, Mr. Lovegood,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°Would it be okay if I came in?  There¡¯s something I would like to tell you.¡±


    ¡°Of course, of course,e in,e in.¡±


    Quinn stepped in and again found himself in the most peculiar kitchen he had ever been in.  The room was perfectly circr so that it felt like being inside a giant pepper pot.  Everything was curved to fit the walls¡ª the stove, the sink, and the cupboards ¡ª and all of it had been painted with flowers, insects, and birds in bright primary colors.  Quinn recognized Luna¡¯s style: The effect, in such an enclosed space, was slightly overwhelming¡ª he had seen simr irs in the AID office.  In the middle of the floor, a wrought-iron spiral staircase led to the upper levels.  There was a great deal of ttering and banginging from overhead.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go up,¡± said Xenophilius.


    The room above seemed to be abination of a living room and workce and, as such, was even more cluttered than the kitchen.  Though much smaller and entirely round, the room somewhat resembled the Room of Requirement on the unforgettable asion that it had transformed itself into a giganticbyrinthprised of centuries of hidden objects.  There were piles upon piles of books and papers on every surface.  Delicately made models of creatures Quinn recognized Luna telling him about, all pping wings or snapping jaws, hung from the ceiling.


    Luna was not there: The thing that was making such a racket was a wooden object covered in magically turning cogs and wheels.  It looked like the bizarre offspring of a workbench and a set of old shelves that Quinn knew was an old-fashioned printing press churning out Quibblers.


    ¡°Excuse me,¡± said Xenophilius, and he strode over to the machine, seized a grubby tablecloth from beneath an immense number of books and papers, which all tumbled onto the floor, and threw it over the press, somewhat muffling the loud bangs and tters.  He then faced Quinn.


    ¡°Why have youe here?¡±


    Quinn waved his hand, and a chair appeared in the middle of the room.  ¡°Please sit down,¡± he said.


    Xenophilius shrugged, sat down on the chair, shifted in, and gotfortable.  ¡°This is a nice chair, would you get me a real one?  Or you can leave this one here ande back when this one disappears. . . so tomorrow?¡±


    ¡°More like half a year. . . but I will get you a good chair, Mr. Lovegood¡ª right now, I have something to talk to you about.¡±


    ¡°I am listening.¡±


    ¡°Sir. . . Death Eaters has taken over Hogsmeade,¡± Quinn paused and let the words sink in.  Xenophilius¡¯ flighty eyes returned back to earth as he stared at Quinn.  ¡°The Dark Lord lead the invasion and has taken the entire vige as his hostage.  Then he proceeded to cast a ward over the vige. . . the castle. . . and the area around¡ª all have been locked off to the outside.  The Dark Lord ns to break the Hogwarts defenses and kill the Boy-Who-Lived.  The defenses stand strong, and Dumbledore is inside¡ª¡±


    ¡°Luna. . .¡±  Xenophilius looked ghastly and aged decades; all the quirky joy had vanished.  ¡°My Luna. . .¡±


    Quinn saw the man in front of him spiraling, so he injected magic into his voice and said, ¡°Luna is safe, Mr. Lovegood.  DMLE has upied their area. . . Hogwarts is the safest ce in the country. . . Dumbledore will die before he lets the Dark Lord touch the kids¡ª he holds the Elder wand, sir, the Elder wand.¡±


    The magic seeped into Xenophilius, and his eyes remained fixed on Quinn.  The panic and despair were absent as the old father hung onto Quinn¡¯s words.


    ¡°The Elder wand. . . the Deathly Hallow?¡± muttered Xenophilius.


    ¡°Yes sir, the Deathly Hallow.  Albus Dumbledore and the Elder wand. . . that¡¯s something even the Dark Lord will struggle against.  Luna will be safe.¡±  Quinn took out the mirror from his pocket and injected magic into it.  The mirror surface shimmed a couple times before Daphne¡¯s face became visible.


    Quinn spoke with magic, so it wasn¡¯t heard by Xenophilius: ¡°Luna,¡± he said.  Daphne nodded, and the image in the mirror changed to Luna¡¯s.  For a moment, he just stared at her¡ª it had been a long time since he had seen her. . .


    ¡°Mr. Lovegood, look who it is,¡± Quinn said and handed the mirror to Xenophilius.


    ¡°Daddy?¡± came Luna from the mirror.


    ¡°Luna?  Luna!¡±  Xenophilius brightened up at the sight of her daughter inside the mirror.  ¡°Oh, my dear sweetheart. . .¡±


    Quinn exited the room and walked downstairs, giving the father and daughter some space.  He sat down in the kitchen and stared outside the window at the sky.  He took in the silence.  It was probably going to be thest peaceful moment he was going to have until everything in a while¡ª he savored it.


    Time passed.  Not once did he go up to check on Xenophilius.  Eventually, he heard footstepsing down the stairs.  Quinn turned to see Xenophilius looking much more relieved than before, but there was still a worry in the line on his face.


    ¡°How is she?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°Grand, she says. . . she looked well.¡±  Xenophilius ced the mirror on the table in front of Quinn, ¡°She told me to return it to you. . . thank you.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be.  Anything for Luna.¡±  Quinn stood up.  ¡°I will now leave, sir. . . . Sir, I promise, I will bring Luna back home safely.  So please rest assured.¡±  He walked to the door and was about to leave when he heard.


    ¡°You will bring her home safely. . . how?  The Dark Lord¡ª¡±


    ¡°The Dark Lord won¡¯t harm her,¡± Quinn didn¡¯t look back.  He paused, and when he spoke again, a guttural, distorted voice said:  ¡°I will kill him before he so much as he breathes in the same area as her.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Oh boy, finally screen time.


    Xenophilius Lovegood ¨C Father ¨C entric, entric, entric.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C If you notice in the previous chapter, the Invisible Vignte uses a wand.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 409 How To Get In?

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Inside a house in Hogsmeade, three men sat in the dark back room around a round table in utter silence.  All three men had their wands in their hands, ready to exercise their gift of magic at a moment¡¯s notice.


    There was a creaking noise, and all three men tightened their grips on their wands as they silently stood up and stepped into different corners of the room, disappearing into the shadows.  Footsteps closed in towards the room until a man entered the room.  The moment he stepped in, the three men stepped out of the shadows and sat themselves back on their tables.


    ¡°How was it?¡± asked the short man named Bernard.  A man quick on his feet and quicker with his wand.


    Thomas, who had just arrived from outside, loosened a strap on his dragonhide armor.  He sighed, ¡°It¡¯s bad. . . they are everywhere.  Stations on every corner. . . organized patrol in groups of three. . . sentries on rooftops. . . these guys are not joking around.¡±  He looked at hispanions and asked, ¡°What should we do?¡±


    Samuel, the bulkiest of all, leaned back on his chair, making it creak.  ¡°Greengrass girl is inside the castle.  We obviously can¡¯t get in there. . . and from the looks of it, we can¡¯t walk out of this mess,¡± he said.


    Then, Anthony, the final member, suggested, ¡°How about we go to the Dark Lord and offer our services¡ª enroll if it is needed.  I mean, right now, we don¡¯t have a problem with food and water¡ª but as the time passes, we will run into that problem. . . . It¡¯s a good suggestion, what do you all think?¡±


    ¡°Food and water?¡± Bernard quirked his brow.  ¡°We are four people in a vige full of empty houses.  We can horde enough food that willst us a while.  Why are you thinking about food and water now?¡±


    ¡°We need to think about those things.  We don¡¯t know long we will be here.¡±


    ¡°You think we will be here for a while?¡± voiced Thomas.  ¡°I saw Aurors flying over the ward.  I think it¡¯s only a while before they breach the ward, and we apparate right out of this shit show.¡±


    Anthony scoffed, ¡°You saw it, right?  The Dark Lord cast the ward.  The Aurors ain¡¯t goinge in here no way soon.  We will be trapped here for a while.  If we don¡¯t go now, he might not take it kindly. . . and I don¡¯t need to say about his reputation.¡±


    ¡°Or he kills us anyway,¡± said Samuel.  ¡°We can find a Labyrinth and get the hell out.  Someone in this town is bound to have one.¡±


    ¡°Uhmm,¡± Bernard shook his head, ¡°that¡¯s not as easy as it sounds.  People hide their Labyrinth doors in their houses, and everyone puts their own sort of locking mechanism on them¡ª even if we find them, we don¡¯t know if we could unlock them.  With every house we go to, the risk of us getting caught increases.  I don¡¯t like it; too much risk.¡±


    ¡°So, what you guys say we do?¡±


    ¡°Well, for one, when we get out of here, we don¡¯t take any more business from George West.  The Dark Lord is not part of any services we offer.  This was supposed to be a simple watch and sit,¡± scoffed Thomas.  ¡°I am going for a vacation after this, so you three are on your own.¡±


    ¡°I say we should sit and wait it out,¡± said Bernard.  ¡°Horde some food and water tost us a while and just stay out of sight.  All agree?¡±


    ¡°Disagreed.¡±


    All set of eyes widened, and all four in the team whipped their heads to the voice.  Standing by the door was a skeletally thin figure with waxy and reptilian features, bone-white skin, and blood-shot sclera with dark scarlet eyes with cat-like slits for pupils.  He had a chalk-white face that resembled a skull, snake-like slits for nostrils, andrge hands with unnaturally long fingers like spider¡¯s legs.


    The four mercenaries immediately moved their wands towards the intruder, whom they recognized at once even without ever seeing him.


    ¡°No,¡± said Voldemort.  One word and a bare twitch of his wand from him caused all four to rise up into the air from the chairs.  Their wands left their hands as they went to their throats as their mouth foamed.  ¡°I will generously impart you a never-ending vacation.¡±


    Their eyes trembled in world-ending, mind-shattering, heart-thrashing panic.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn looked at the silver dome withrge veins spreading in all directions across the surface.  He looked down at saw the Hogsmeade vige from the sky.  He had to apparate to an area along the railway track on which the Hogsmeade Express ran because Voldemort had warded an area so huge that he couldn¡¯t remember an image of the ce to apparate, so he had to apparate to a ce where he had seen during seven years of travel and then fly from there to outside Hogsmeade.


    That¡¯s a big ward, Quinn thought.  He could feel a magical pressure emanating from the silver ward.  He roamed his eyes to the ground and spotted an area with dense trees, and lowered himself to the ground in the middle of the trees.  He didn¡¯t want anyone to see him, and while he had flown around, he had seen an Auror base on the ground and multiple Aurors on brooms in the sky.  The trees were the best ce to take cover.


    He pushed aside a bush and stepped near the ward boundary.  His brows wrinkled when he saw the trees and nts that had been dissected and carved up where the ward had touched them as if it as aser de.


    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s see what we can do here,¡± Quinn muttered as he dismissed his mask.  He raised his hands near the glowing silver, and his skin beneath his gloves tingled from being so close to a magic that his body could tell was dangerous.  The magic gently flowed out of his fingertips and quietly caressed the surface.  His magic interacted with the ward and sent him back inputs that his brain tranted into information.


    After a while, Quinn groaned and backed off.  The ward was. . . tough.  It was exceptionally well made, and he could tell it was exotic magic with roots he could barely recognize.  ¡°Why couldn¡¯t he just be some dumb brute,¡± he sighed.


    The ward was strong.  From the initial look, there were no clear points to exploit.  He could probably find things to exploit if he gave it time, continuous effort with a worry-less concentration. . . things that he didn¡¯t have.  He didn¡¯t have time because Voldemort was simrly working to break the Hogwarts defenses, and he had to make sure to keep a part of his mind alert to keep hidden.


    He had to find a different way to get inside.


    Try to get in with Aurors?  No, they themselves might take too much time to get in if they ever did.


    What else?


    There was only one option he could think of.


    Labyrinth.


    They were Labyrinth doors inside Hogsmeade, which he could target.  But there came a problem with it.  The Labyrinth system was made in a way that, when opened a door was opened, it would open to a random exit point ced around the country.  However, the doors couldn¡¯t be opened the other way around.  The doors could only be opened one way¡ª even Quinn himself couldn¡¯t go to one of the exit points and open the door to get into someone¡¯s house.  Labyrinth doors were supposed to be extremely safe¡ª and if Quinn added a key to open the doors from the outside, he would be giving a keyhole to the world¡ª which someone eventually be able to make a key for.


    But there was one thing he could do.  He had made every door and exit point by hand personally and thus knew every one of them had a unique signature that only he could make out because of his situation as the creator.  And while he couldn¡¯t open the doors from outside, he could connect a door to a specific exit point for a single turn.  And because he knew which door went to which home, he could pinpoint a door and connect it to his preferred choice of exit.


    But the problem started after that.  Even if he could connect the doors, there was no way for him to open the door from inside.  So he needed someone from inside to open the door, which meant he needed to make contact with someone from inside.


    He looked at the ward, and the chances of that happening were low.  Not to mention, even if he met someone, there was no telling if he could convince them¡ª there was a ward that stopped magic from going through. . . but there were always exceptions. . . no magic was perfect.


    There was something he could do.


    He sighed, ¡°It would¡¯ve been so much easier if I just installed a Labyrinth inside Hogwarts,¡± he had not done so and was regretting it dearly.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°Give me a report, Shacklebolt.¡±


    Kingsley turned back and saw Robards walking to him.  He turned back to the ward-covered Hogsmeade and jutted his chin to the silver barrier that stopped him from going inside.  ¡°The experts we got are already working on how to breach the ward,¡± he said.


    ¡°How is that going?¡±


    ¡°. . . It¡¯s a tough ward, sir.  I talked to them after they had worked on it for a couple of hours; they weren¡¯t optimistic about a quick entry¡ª it¡¯s not looking good.¡±


    ¡°How fast can they enter?¡±


    ¡°Days. . . a week if nothing goes wrong, and things always go wrong.  I think it might take two or even three weeks. . . that is if we don¡¯t call in someone better?¡±


    ¡°Do I have to call in Unspeakables?¡±


    ¡°Or you can call someone from outside the country.¡±


    ¡°That. . . can work, but that¡¯ll take time.  You can¡¯t just find people who will be willing toe work on a ward cast by the Dark Lord,¡± Robards sighed.  Any person who came here had their lives in danger¡ª it was possibly one of the most dangerous situations currently in the world.  ¡°Unspeakables will be better in this situation,¡± he sighed.  ¡°I will contact them¡ª I¡¯m sure they¡¯re waiting right for it toe. . . or maybe they are already here, hiding somewhere, already working on the ward.¡±


    ¡°I would like that,¡± said Kinglsey.  ¡°How¡¯s the Invisible Vignte situation going?¡±


    ¡°. . . He killed a kid.¡±


    Kinglsey turned to Robards with a shocked expression.  ¡°What,¡± he uttered.  ¡°What?¡± he said again.


    ¡°Not really a kid¡ª twenty years old. . . but that¡¯s still a kid.  He has taken the kids of Death Eaters hostage and demands their parents in exchange.  Both of Barnaby Lee¡¯s parents are Death Eaters.  He made an example out of him¡ª kill the boy before ck could utter a word.  All the kids he has, all of their parents, are in there.¡±


    ¡°The Dark Lord won¡¯t budge from that.¡±


    ¡°I know.  I always suspected he was a madman.  It will take a day for ck to get in there and take him out.¡±


    ¡°Does he need back-up?¡±


    ¡°Hit Wizards will be backing him up when they enter.  They want to get the credit for taking down the Invisible Vignte. . . they¡¯re sending a lot of themselves down there to take him down.¡±


    ¡°Should we also¡ª¡± Kingsley stopped.  ¡°Sir. . .¡±


    Robards followed Kingsley¡¯s line of sight and his back straightened, and his entire body tensed from head to toe.  His hand went straight to his wand and pulled it out, and so did every person the moment they saw the Dark Lord walking towards them.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I need to get in there.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Today is Quinn¡¯s birthday.   Wish him well.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 410 Demands & Reunion

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The Aurors shrunk in their dragonhide armors as they saw the matchstick thin figure dressed in a simple robe walk towards them.  There was a seemingly imprable ward between them which, while kept them outside, also kept what was inside froming out.  There were tens of them, but the sight of the man sent chills down their veins.  In his presence, Augustus Rookwood, who walked along with him, seemed almost insignificant despite being an ex-Unspeakable and a notorious wanted criminal.


    He stopped a few steps away from the ward boundary and leisurely watched a literal army of Aurors, and Hit Wizards assembled as though there wasn¡¯t even a shred of fear and caution in his mind.


    ¡°Gawain Robards,¡± called Voldemort.


    All eyes turned to the Head Auror.  Robards took a moment to gather himself before stepping forward, passing by Kingsley Shackleboth, who had his wand ready to cast.


    ¡°Dark Lord,¡± said Robards.  ¡°I would suggest that you stop this farce and free Hogsmeade.  They are innocent people who haven¡¯t done anything to warrant this.  Release them and surrender yourself alongside your Death Eater subordinates.¡±  While Robards¡¯ voice and tone seemed as concrete as usual, his Aurors could tell there was a difference and knew the reason behind it.


    ¡°Oh?¡± voiced Voldemort, sounding amused.  ¡°Gawain Robards¡ª Head Auror, quite an aplishment.  I remember you. . . you were a Senior Auror during myst reign.  You were there, in the middle of it, part of the pointless conflict against me.¡±


    Robards clenched his fist.  He had experienced what Voldemort and his Death Eater in power felt and looked like.  He had been part of the resistance against the vicious Dark Lord.  Hearing his and his peers, friends¡¯ efforts being called pointless boiled his blood.


    Voldemort¡¯s voice went t and hard as he continued, ¡°You were there in the middle of it all. . . so you should know about it.  When have I never needed justifications to do as I wish. . . . I¡¯m the rightful ruler, owner of this country, I can do whatever I want with it.¡±


    ¡°You!¡± Robards had no words in his shock.


    Voldemort looked to Rookwood standing a step behind.  The ex-Unspeakable stepped to the front, and for the first time, the Aurors noticed that he had something with him.  The pressure from standing face to the Dark Lord had limited their observation.  The bag with Rookwood floated beside, and when he pointed his wand to the ground, the ck load dropped in front of them.  Rookwood twitched his wand, and the seams of the ck cloth came apart, revealing the bag¡¯s contents.


    It took a moment, but a wave of gasps rushed the Aurors.  Inside the bag was a man in bad shape, he looked like he had been beaten badly, but that wasn¡¯t what shocked the Aurors so much.


    ¡°Trent,¡± Kingsley muttered.


    Trent Wilgams was a career Junior Auror who had no possibility to rise to Senior Auror because of his work ethic, ability, and leadership skills, which never rose to warrant him a chance at promotion.  He had been positioned at Hogsmeade, and the vige was his area of responsibility, along with a couple of younger Junior Aurors working him as their leader.


    ¡°He was found passed out at a pub, drunk out of his mind,¡± said Voldemort, looking at the roughed-up man with disinterested eyes.  ¡°Couldn¡¯t even put up a fight in his state, couldn¡¯t even open the sp on his holster¡ª such an embarrassment. . .¡±


    Robards gritted his teeth in anger but held his tongue.  He needed a little more time to think of words.  There was an Auror in the terrorist¡¯s grasp; he couldn¡¯t carelessly say something that would put Trent¡¯s life at risk.


    ¡°I have demands,¡± dered Voldemort.


    ¡°. . . Demands?¡±


    ¡°I want the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Ministry as a whole to not interfere with what is happening here.  If my demands are met, I shall let every one of the Hogsmeade residents, along with Hogwarts students and professors¡ª bar Harry Potter and Dumbledore¡ª leave here alive when I¡¯m done.  Of course, I can¡¯t promise the safety or mortality of the people if they oppose me.  However, as long as they stay out of my way, I shall generously let them live to tell my tale.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡ª¡±


    ¡°If my demands are ignored or not agreed with, and the Ministry attempts to breach my ward, I will send every man, woman, and child I can set my eyes on into the embrace of death.  I will raze the vige and the castle to the ground and destroy the history along with the people.  After I¡¯m done with them, there won¡¯t be a Hogsmeade of Hogwarts.  So think carefully before you do anything.  If I see any attempts to breach my ward, I will take it as a refusal to meet my demands.¡±


    Robards had nothing to say at the moment; he couldn¡¯t refuse, nor could he agree; he needed to think about it before making any decision, so he decided to change the subject.  ¡°The Invisible Vignte has taken the children of your Death Eaters hostage,¡± he said.  ¡°He is asking for their parents in return for the children.  I ask for those parents to surrender for their children¡¯s safety.  If theye into our custody, we can negotiate with the Invisible Vignte to let the children go without handing them to the Invisible Vignte.¡±  While he was in no mood to negotiate, there were still innocent people in that resort who still needed to be delivered safety¡ª and this was how the best of both worlds.


    Voldemort stared at Robards for a few seconds before turning away along with Rookwood raised Trent up with magic, making many Aurors shag their shoulders¡ª but then Voldemort turned back.  ¡°It seems I haven¡¯t made myself clear.¡±  He pointed his wand at Trent, and the wand tip glowed green.


    Seeing that, Robards yelled with his wand going up, ¡°NO!¡±


    But it was all for naught, the green jet hit Trent¡¯s body, and everyone present knew what had taken ce.


    ¡°As I said before, the Ministry doesn¡¯t interfere,¡± said Voldemort before again turning back to walk away with Rookwood following him.  ¡°Just remember what you will be forcing upon the innocent people if you try to get inside.¡±


    ¡°You monster!¡±  A young Junior Auror yelled forth and raised his wand to Voldemort ¡ª ¡°Avada Kedavra!!!¡± ¡ª A green jet coursed out and zapped towards Voldemort; it passed through the ward because there was no known magic known to stop the Killing Curse.  Voldemort didn¡¯t even look back as an earthen wall rose up behind him and Rookwood.  The green curse met the wall, and the magic was no more.


    The dirt wall then crumbled, and Voldemort turned to look at the Auror.  ¡°Aurors casting the Unforgivables doesn¡¯t seem right. . . let me show you how it is done,¡± he raised his wand and chanted: ¡°Avada Kedavra¡± ¡ªthere was a green sh much faster than the Junior Auror, and it hit that Junior Auror in the chest, and the young man was dead.  ¡°There you go, two dead Aurors. . . what a waste.¡±


    Voldemort looked at the Auror crowd before turning again; this time, no Auror stopped him as he walked away.


    There was a long spell of silence as the Aurors stared at the dead body of Trent that had been left there.


    ¡°I get it now,¡± said Robards.  Kingsley looked at him.  ¡°I get why he was so angry. . . seeing that,¡± he pointed at the dead body, ¡°and knowing you can¡¯t reach it, and it will stay there. . . is infuriating.¡±  He looked up at the sky, which had already reached the morning glow.  ¡°All of them are the same. . . doing whatever they want. . . not caring about anything. . . ignoring thew. . . causing harm, costing lives. . . all the fucking same. . .¡±


    There was a moment in which Robards closed his eyes and didn¡¯t speak another word, ¡°I¡¯m calling the Unspeakables.  They will find me a way inside and will do it quietly.¡±  He turned to Kingsley and ordered, ¡°I want Dumbledore in Hogsmeade when we find a way inside.  I don¡¯t care what you, James, and Sirius need to do¡ª pull in every Order of Phoenix favor you all have to, get yourselves in his debt¡ª but I need Dumbledore out facing the Dark Lord while we clean up the Death Eaters. . . . Do you understand, Captain?¡±


    ¡°. . . Yes, sir.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Voldemort had threatened the Aurors to not interfere and warned them that if he saw them tampering with this ward, he would start dropping bodies.  And he had meant every word of it.  So, Death Eaters were sent to patrol the boundary from the inside to make sure the Aurors were keeping their promises.


    One such patrolman was named Gerald, and scouting one of the many sections of the ward boundary was part of his duty.  He bit on a slice of bread that he had got from a pub.  Coming here had been a stressful process, and he had skipped two meals to calm his nerves.  He hummed a tune to fill the empty space to fill it with something¡ª and he was walking along checking the boundary when he heard.


    ¡°Daddy.¡±


    Gerald stopped as if something had clutched his feet and legs.  His body began trembling before he even turned toward the voice because he was afraid of what it was going to be.  His heart beat as he turned, his throat cracked, and his eyes blurred as he saw a boy who couldn¡¯t be any older than five standing outside the ward.


    ¡°Daddy!¡± squealed the boy happily.


    Gerald took steps towards the ward boundary and dropped to his knees on the wet grass and mud.  ¡°Troy,¡± he croaked.  ¡°My boy. . . my baby boy,¡± he cried as tears began pouring out of his eyes.


    ¡°Daddy!¡± Troy giggled.  ¡°I want to y!¡±


    Gerald inched closer to the wand boundary and was about to touch the silver glow when he stopped as its threat entered his mind.  He then saw Troy moving ahead with his pudgy legs.  Gerald yelled, ¡°Troy, stop!  Don¡¯te here!¡±  He couldn¡¯t lose Troy after he had lost him once.  He had just gotten his baby boy back, and he wasn¡¯t going to let Troy leave him again.


    ¡°I want Daddy,¡± said Troy and took another step forward.


    ¡°Okay, okay, okay,¡± Gerald repeated.  ¡°Daddy knows another way; daddy wille to get you, so don¡¯te here and go to the tree behind you.  Daddy wille to you.¡±  Troy went back as he asked him to do.  But Gerald had other problems; he didn¡¯t know how to get out of here¡ª they couldn¡¯t get out; there were orders, and if he broke them, it meant death.


    ¡®You can use Labyrinth door,¡¯ a voice whispered in his mind¡ª his own voice.  ¡®Take a Labyrinth door, step outside, and get to Troy?¡¯


    ¡®The Labyrinth doors still work?¡¯


    ¡®Yes, they do.¡¯


    ¡®I-I need to find a Labyrinth door.¡¯  He looked and saw Troy ying with his favorite toy Quidditch yer action figures.  Troy looked at him and smiled as he waved.  Gerald waved back.


    ¡®House-03, Street-12, Second floor. . . Mayer¡¯s house.  Find it.¡¯


    Gerald got up and dusted his pants, ¡°Troy, stay there; daddy¡¯sing to you,¡± he said.


    ¡°Okay!¡±


    Gerald turned, sprinted towards the Hogsmeade, and didn¡¯t take a look back.  If he did, he would notice Troy staring at him with unblinking eyes, and even if he turned back, he wouldn¡¯t have caught the two stone-grey eyes gazing at him from the shadows.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Eyes cameo.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C I have made myself clear.


    Gerald ¨C Death Eater ¨C Running faster than he had ever run.


    Gawain Robards ¨C Head Auror ¨C Sometimes ck and white are better than grey.


    Kingsley Shacklebolt ¨C Captain Auror ¨C I¡¯m worried. . . but I don¡¯t have any better idea.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 411 A Chaotic Choice

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Lunchtime at Hogwarts was drastically different from the usual vibrant gathering of people.  The people were still there, but the vibrancy and the sheer energy of young students had been snatched, leaving behind a dull grey ambiance in the room.


    Ivy looked around the Great Hall, and she could see more people who were toying and stabbing at their food instead of actually eating and enjoying the meal.  Even Ron by her side hadn¡¯t piled up his te with food and was swirling a breadstick in his bowl of soup which had a long cold.  Not ever at the Slytherin table could she see the children of ¡®Death Eaters¡¯ ncing around nervously¡ª clearly scared of retaliation from hundreds of wands, med for the current situation, no wonder why some looked much worse than everyone else in the Great Hall.


    She sighed as she failed to spot even a single happy face and was sure the tables would¡¯ve been much emptier if Dumbledore hadn¡¯t dered attendance at Great Hall during meal times to be mandatory.  Many older students wished to oppose and resist the decision and hade close to it, but one look at Dumbledore¡¯s face told them that the Headmaster wasn¡¯t in any mood for discussion.


    ¡°All of you should eat something,¡± she lightly said to her friends.


    Hermione looked at Ivy and then at her te.  Ivy followed her eyes and nced down at her te to find that her serving of pasta had turned into a gooey clump from not being touched.  She looked up at Hermione and saw her looking up at the ceiling.


    For the first time since she had entered the Great Hall for the first time during her first year, the ceiling that had been charmed to reflect the sky above had been turned off.  She thought that she and everyone here were among the rare group of people in the entire Hogwarts history that had actually seen the actual Great Hall ceiling without the charms. . . and it was pretty standard, just like as anyone would expect a ceiling to be. . . there was no secret hidden in it, as many had theorized over the years.


    ¡°The Aurors. . . ¡±  Ivy turned her attention to Dean Thomas, who was sitting close by with Ginny by his side.  The dark-skinned boy spoke quietly, ¡°. . . they will be able to break the ward and rescue us. . . right?¡±  He was looking at the table, and the jovial look usually in his eyes was nowhere to be seen.


    ¡°Of course, they will,¡± spoke Harry with confidence.  ¡°Entire Ministry is working on rescuing us and beating Voldemort,¡± people gasped, but Harry didn¡¯t look abashed at all.  They were inside Hogwarts, and if Voldemort couldn¡¯te inside, no Snatcher could even dream of it.


    ¡°How do you know that?¡±  The people who had been attracted by the conversation and listening all turned towards Seamus Finnegan, who posed the question with a dark look on his face.  ¡°This is You-Know-Who we are talking about.  Even if they were able to break the ward, how would they go against him?  He isn¡¯t even alone; he has his Death Eaters with him.¡±


    ¡°They have Aurors and Hit Wizards together. . . he can¡¯t be that strong, can he?¡± asked Dean, worried.


    ¡°Me dad doesn¡¯t think so, he said¡ª¡±


    ¡°We have Professor Dumbledore,¡± Harry budged in and cut Seamus off.  Everyone around him at the Gryffindor table and even those Hufflepuff tables were now looking over.  ¡°Voldemort. . . stop flinching. . . Voldemort fears Professor Dumbledore, which means he can¡¯t defeat him.  Dumbledore will never allow Voldemort to win.¡±


    ¡°Then why hasn¡¯t he done anything,¡± questioned Seamus; he looked at the Headmaster, who was at the head table talking to McGonagall.  ¡°If he can defeat him, why hasn¡¯t he done so already?¡±


    Hermione supplied the response to his question.  ¡°Because of Hogsmeade.  They have taken the people of Hogsmeade hostage,¡± she nced at the head table.  ¡°He must be waiting for the Aurors to be in a position where he doesn¡¯t have to worry about their safety and can focus on facing him.¡±


    As if he was listening, Dumbledore turned to them.  Everyone froze and looked away and started eating their food.  Ivy nced back at Dumbledore, but he was already back talking to McGonagall.


    ¡°So,¡± Hermione finished her exnation, ¡°the moment the Aurors rescue Hogsmeade hostages, Dumbledore will duel. . . Voldemort.¡±


    Ivy thought so as well.  But she had another thought that stemmed from a conversation she had with Quinn where he had said: ¡°Voldemort and Dumbledore are much more powerful than anyone thinks they are.  If they truly fought, they would wipe out viges without even trying¡ª they¡¯re monsters who can¡¯t express their magic to the fullest because of the consequences. . .¡±


    That had spurred the thought that the reason why Dumbledore hadn¡¯t stepped out to face Voldemort was that if things got severe and the two ¡®magical monsters¡¯ let their magic out, Hogsmeade wouldn¡¯t look as it stood now, and the lives and safety of anyone in the vicinity couldn¡¯t be guaranteed.


    But even knowing that, Ivy couldn¡¯t help but desire to witness their fight.


    She picked up her fork and decided that even though she wasn¡¯t in the mood to eat, she should at least finish what she was put on her te.  Her fork was about to stab the pasta clump when she heard something that shook her mind.


    ¡°Habitants of Hogwarts. . .¡±


    Even though she had never heard it, she knew precisely who the voice belonged.  It boomed around the castle, touching every wall and corner of the grand magical castle.  None in Hogwarts didn¡¯t listen to the voice, and it echoed in their chests, thrumming inside their body.


    At the head table, Dumbledore stood up with stoney emotions etched on his face as he looked somewhere far away into the distance, his gaze passing through the walls towards the source of the voice.


    ¡°. . . listen to me, to Lord Voldemort,¡± continued the voice, and everyone in the Great Hall shivered as amotion erupted¡ª but the voice continued as clear as crystal with a hint of eerie chill mixed in: ¡°Today, I arrive at the doorstep of the ce that my ancestor Szar Slytherin helped build.  Today, I arrive here to take the first step to take what is rightfully mine.  This country has devolved into something of a mockery with those unworthy of the gift being allowed to grow.  I wish to return this country to its lost glory¡ª return it to the country that had once birthed Merlin himself. . .¡±


    It was as if Hogwarts itself hung onto Voldemort¡¯s every word.  Nothing and no one made a single sound, fearing they would miss what he was saying.


    ¡°. . . but before I do that, I need to aplish something first.  Understand that I hold no desire to hurt any of you¡ª the children of Hogwarts are the future of this great country, and I wouldn¡¯t even dream of harming them. . .¡±  Despite how impossible it sounded, the words caused hope to sprout in many people¡¯s minds.  ¡°. . . But beware if you stand in my way, will be struck down without mercy no matter whoever they are,¡± and that sent a shiver and fear to the depth of many¡¯s souls.


    ¡°I call to you in this way, for I can use your service.  I offer all of you to gain my favor if you can aplish one simple task. . . . Turnover Har¡ª¡±


    Dumbledore got up and swung his wand in a grand gesture, and immediately the voice was extinguished, letting the silence rece it.  Everyone turned to Dumbledore, but he had his eyes trained ahead.  For a moment, silence became too loud. . . and then a screaming voice louder than before returned, and if it was not audible before, it was now.


    ¡°HAND HARRY POTTER AND HIS FAMILY OVER, AND I GIVE MY WORD THAT EVERYONE, AND I SAY EVERYONE, OTHER THAN DUMBLEDORE, WILL LIV¡ª.¡±  Again Dumbledore worked his magic, and Voldemort¡¯s voice was quelled again.


    This time no one looked at Dumbledore.  Instead, Ivy felt hundreds of pairs of eyes on her, and it made her want to shrink into herself until she could disappear.  She wished so much that she could pull out the Cloak of Invisibility and simply vanish out of the Great Hall to escape the eyes staring holes into her.  Ivy looked at Harry and was surprised to see that he was sitting there calmly without a hint of nervousness or unease on his face.


    She had always known that even though Harry was somewhat ufortable with mass attention that came because of his identity as the Boy-Who-Lived, he had long be used to it.  But now, as she saw her brother sitting there unbothered while she was feeling a burning sensation from the stares, she understood how her brother¡¯s life had been.


    Dumbledore announced, ¡°Harry, Ivy, to the ante-chamber, please¡ª immediately.¡±


    Harry stood up, and Ivy hastily followed after him,pletely following his lead because she didn¡¯t know what to do and think.


    ¡°Harry,¡± she said.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Ivy.  We¡¯re fine; you don¡¯t need to worry about what he said.¡±


    ¡°But¡ª¡±


    ¡°Dumbledore won¡¯t give us out even if everyone in the castle wants us out.  And I¡¯m sure more people will refuse to agree with Voldemort¡¯s demand than agree with him. . . no one will believe that maniac¡¯s words.  He would kill every Muggleborn the moment he steps inside the castle, so don¡¯t worry¡ª we don¡¯t have to talk to anyone who isn¡¯t close to us.¡±


    ¡°I. . .¡±  Ivy couldn¡¯t voice her thought or even properly formte them.  But even then, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a deep sense of worry about what had just taken ce.


    As they entered the ante-chamber, she saw Lily already in there.  ¡°Mum,¡± she called as Lily hugged her.


    Lilybed Ivy¡¯s hair and gently said, ¡°It¡¯s okay; no one is going to do anything that monster said.¡±  She also took Harry into her motherly hug.  ¡°Dumbledore and the other professors are going to make everything clear, so don¡¯t worry about it; throw it out of your minds, rx, and don¡¯t let it affect you. . .¡±


    Ivy hugged Lily back, but she couldn¡¯t ignore the bad feeling in her mind.  She wished Quinn would be here, and she would feel safe enough to make the bad feeling go away.  She wished that she could leave and be alone to talk to him.


    . . .


    Quinn, the person in question, was nowhere near Hogwarts and was in another part of the country, staring at the door in an alley in front of him with an intent look.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Presence only.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Worried ¨C I don¡¯t feel great right now.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C I have given a choice. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 412 Getting In

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn stood in a deserted alleyway dressed with not a soul in sight.  There was a criterion to ce Labyrinth exit points, and locations less visited by the non-magical people were high pointer¡ª to be unseen exiting a Labyrinth exit point was paramount, and thus, every exit came with an area ward that sent non-magical eyes wandering in other directions.  Moreover, there was amittee ce that would regrly review the locations to adapt to the ever-changing non-magical world.


    He stared at the wall covered with posters in front of him.  The entire neighborhood had once been a booming residential area until it had been abandoned and was yet to be re-developed, making it perfect as an exit point.


    ¡®I wonder if this was the wrong way to get in,¡¯ he thought with a strand of worry.  He hadn¡¯t been in the house he had sent Gerald to and only knew that address contained a Labyrinth door.  He didn¡¯t know theyout, where the door was ced, or how it was hidden¡ª the n¡¯s sess was heavily based on Gerald¡¯s ability to locate and discover the door.


    Gerald. . . .  He hadn¡¯t been chosen because of a reason; Quinn had simply chosen him because he was the first one he had found wandering around the ward boundary.


    While the ward boundary stopped various magic, it didn¡¯t prevent mind magic from going through.  And mind magic was one of Quinn¡¯s most dangerous weapons, and the moment heid his eyes on Gerald, his mind was already in Quinn¡¯s hands.  He shoved everything aside and targetted Gerald¡¯s most joyous and tragic memories, and to his surprise, he found something that hit both of those categories.


    Trent¡ª Gerald¡¯ste son.  Little Trent had died at the tender age of five from a magical illness that had spurred quick and hard.  The child¡¯s immune system and magic weren¡¯t able to sustain him until magical medicine could work its charm. . . and Trent had departed to his next great adventure.


    The moment Quinn had found that button, he clicked it hard.  He had weaved together his best work of mind and illusion magic to show Gerald a magical image of Trent that acted in the same way Trent had done in the memories with slight actions that would push the already emotional and distraught Gerald over the edge so that the mind magic could dominate the mind and Quinn could puppet him in any way he desired.


    ¡®Should I go back to check?¡¯ he wondered.  There was a real chance that Gerald could panic ande back to check on Trent to see if his son was still there.


    The wall in front shook, and a glowing outline appeared on the wall in the shape of a door.  Quinn pushed himself off the opposite wall and walked towards the glow as the part of the wall changed into a stark red door with golden trim.  Just like the Labyrinth doors could be hidden, the exit points could also be hidden and didn¡¯t have to be visible all the time.


    The door was thrown open and Gerald burst out looking panicked.  He turned his eyes over Quinn, and for a split moment, his eyes didn¡¯t even linger, but then he double-taked hard.


    ¡°I-Invisible Vignte!¡±  Gerald¡¯s body froze up from his feet, a paralysis traveling up his body.  His eyes trembled as Quinn walked toward him.  ¡°No!  Don¡¯te near me!  Stay away!¡±


    Quinn raised his hand towards Gerald, but before he could even touch him, the spiraling Death Eater fainted.  ¡°Oh. . . well,¡± Quinn touched Gerald¡¯s forehead and made sure that the man stayed in his current state.  He then jammed the door to make it stay open so that he would have a way to enter and exit Hogsmeade at will without needing Gerald¡¯s help anymore.


    He gave Gerald one final look before entering the house and saw what Gerald had done to find the door.  The man had turned the house upside down, not a single thing in the room was in the correct ce, and Quinn crushed broken ss pieces the moment he stepped inside the house.


    ¡°People can be so brutal and. . . uncivilized,¡± he sighed.  Quinn moved across the house and found a window.  He peered out and scowled at the empty streets of Hogsmeade, and that too at morning¡ª something you could only see on a big Quidditch game day, but today the reason was deeply sinister.


    He had gotten in Hogsmeade, but the question now was what to do now that he was here.  He couldn¡¯t charge in and start cutting down Death Eaters left and right; he couldn¡¯t even go hunting in shadows¡ª not when there were innocent people in constant danger of a wipeout.  Go after Voldemort?  Now was not the time; there were things to do be taken before taking a stand against Voldemort.


    ¡®I should scout the vige to get a better feel for the situation,¡¯ thought Quinn.  As it stood currently, Voldemort was a secondary concern; the primary priority was the people taken as hostages¡ª their safety was needed to be assured before anything.  ¡®Not only are they too big of a number to be sacrificed,¡¯ Quinn couldn¡¯t lie and say he hadn¡¯t thought of coteral damage; s, an entire vige was a bit toorge to be sacrificed and¡ª ¡®Dumbledore won¡¯t fight without restraint if he knew that there was a chance to wipe out more than a hundred people. . .¡¯


    That¡¯s why he needed to clear the vige of innocents. . . well, not him¡ª he had people who would do that for him.


    He had other motives in mind. . . .


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Hermione silently opened the door and hurriedly sneaked in before closing the door behind her.  She breathed a sigh of relief and pulled down the Cloak of Invisibility from her body.  Hermione looked at the room she had seen merely a couple of times in her seven years at Hogwarts.  It was ayout much like her own Head Girl¡¯s Suite but bigger than the new residency that she had taken over this year.


    ¡°Hermione, is that you?¡± came a voice from inside.


    ¡°Yes, Professor Potter,¡± replied Hermione as she walked to the voice and reached Lily, who was standing inside the kitchen of the Professors¡¯ Quarters that had been assigned to her when she took her position in Hogwarts.  ¡°Where are Ivy and the boys?¡± she asked.


    ¡°They¡¯re inside,¡± Lily sighed and presented Hermione with a tray of refreshments.  ¡°Make them eat something, will you, dear.  It¡¯s no use worrying about the things they¡¯re spinning their heads around.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I will see to it,¡± Hermione took the tray carefully.


    Lily smiled, ¡°How lucky is my Harry to have you.¡±  Hermione tinted red and looked away in embarrassment.  ¡°I¡¯m going out to a Professors meeting; make yourselffortable,¡± said Lily, flicking her wand that set the kitchen utensils and cleaners into motion.


    Hermione saw Lily off before heading into the living room and found her best friends sitting silently as if someone had passed away.  ¡°I brought food,¡± she opened up.  ¡°You three should eat something; you had nothing at lunch.¡±  She ced the tray on the center table and sat beside Ivy, but none reached out for food, not even Ron.  ¡°Why are you three like this?  Harry, you¡¯re not going to be given to Voldemort!  Why are you needlessly thinking about that?¡±


    ¡°What else is there to think about?¡± Harry replied; there was a hint of furrow between his brows.  ¡°I know Dumbledore won¡¯t send me out even know matter what anyone says, and with him here, neither can I be forced out. . . but what if it¡¯s the only way?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Hermione uttered with hurt in her voice.  Ivy and Ron looked shocked, the former much more than thetter.


    ¡°There are so many trapped in Hogsmeade, and we have more here at Hogwarts. . . what if me going to Voldemort puts so many lives safely out of danger. . one in exchange for many seems logical, doesn¡¯t it,¡± Harry said bitterly.  ¡°When the safety is ensured, Dumbledore can defeat Voldemort and¡ª¡±


    ¡°Are you listening to yourself?!¡± Hermione stood up with clenched fists and stared with.  ¡°Voldemort won¡¯t die with the Horcruxes still around!¡±


    ¡°I know that, but Dumbledore kills Voldemort now; it will give everyone some time,¡± Harry rebuked, looking Hermione straight in the eye and ignoring the increasingly darkening expressions.  ¡°The Diary and the Ring. . . two of the Horcruxes are already destroyed.  If we take one that Quinn has, that¡¯ll make three. . . and if with me, it¡¯ll make four. . .¡±


    There was a horrid silence in the room, but one look at three other than Harry would reveal that they had much to yell, and if not for the shock of the situation, they would¡¯ve torn the roof off.


    ¡°. . . That¡¯s already more than half.  In the time it takes Voldemort to recover, the rest of the Horcruxes could be found, and with his fall, the Deah Eaters could truly be rounded up and put into Azkaban. . . not before we send them to Quinn to have them fixed.¡±


    ¡°Shut up,¡± Hermione red at Harry.


    ¡°I agree with her,¡± Ivy said.  ¡°You need to stop speaking right now.  The more you speak, the worse you make things.  You know what, shut down your brain and just stare at a wall or something, you idiot.¡±


    ¡°Mate, thinking like that isn¡¯t going to help anyone,¡± said Ron.  ¡°Even if you ask to be sent out, no one¡¯s going to let you.  I¡¯ll be the first to stun your arse and lock you in the dungeons. . . so why even think of the pointless.¡±


    Harry looked up at Hermione, who looked more hurt than he had ever seen her.  When Harry didn¡¯t say anything, Hermione stomped out of the room.


    ¡°Go after her, you idiot,¡± said Ron.


    Harry stood up and walked out to follow his girlfriend out of the room.


    Ivy looked at Ron and asked, ¡°Hermione was wrong; you don¡¯t have the emotional intelligence of a teaspoon, Ron.¡±


    Ron shifted to face Ivy, and instead of saying something she would expect him to say, he asked, ¡°What is Quinn doing now?¡±


    ¡°Err. . . what?¡±


    ¡°Even I won¡¯t believe it if you told me that you haven¡¯t talked to him.  What is the Invisible Vignte doing now?¡±


    Ivy studied Ron for a good long moment before asking, ¡°Why are you asking?¡±


    ¡°Because it concerns my best friend.  I don¡¯t know if he has told anyone where the Horcrux he has is.  From what I¡¯ve read about him in the papers and heard from you, he¡¯s surely trying to get involved.  And if he¡¯sing here, he might get caught and die.  So, I want to know where the Horcrux is, so we can destroy. . . I will do it if that¡¯s what¡¯s needed¡±¡ª Ron squinted his eyes¡ª ¡°You didn¡¯t think of that, did you,¡± he sighed.


    Ivy¡¯s face had turned the moment Ron mentioned the possibility of Quinn dying.  ¡°I-I. . .¡± she couldn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°I know it¡¯s not an easy conversation, but ask him where it is.  If he has put it somewhere, ask him how to get to it.  If he¡¯s keeping it with him, tell him to hide it somewhere and ask him.  Even if you don¡¯t think it¡¯s not going to happen. . . right now, right here, anything can happen,¡± Ron got up and walked out of the room, leaving Ivy alone in the room.


    She looked toward the door and gingerly pulled out the shrunken two-way mirror.  She tapped it with her wand, and it began to sh. . . but the connection was never epted by the other side.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Much things to do; no time to do them in.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Tough Position ¨C W-Why isn¡¯t he picking up.


    Harry Potter ¨C Horcrux ¨C I have to die one way or another. . .


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C The thing with Gerald and Trent, I took from Rick & Morty¡ª the car battery episode where Summer is protected by the car.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 413 Getting In Again

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The mirror in Quinn¡¯s pocket shed and vibrated, but his hands didn¡¯t go to it, despite knowing where and whom the call wasing from.  His eyes were stuck on the surreal sight in front of him.


    On a street junction, three wooden pirs stood erected, and tied up from them were three bodies with their heads bowed and arms nailed on horizontal wooden nks.  They had been stripped of their clothes, leaving them with no dignity even in death.  There were dried blood stains on the ground, seemingly having dripped down from their bodies.  Quinn stepped out from the shadows and moved closer and saw the discolored skin color which had turned a grotesque ck. . . he knew what that was a sign of. . . someone had overloaded their bodies with Crucio for an excessive amount of time.  If they were alive, their skin would¡¯ve recovered with time, but in death, it would stay this way until their bodies dposed, returning to earth.


    He didn¡¯t know who these men were or why they ended up like this, but he was sure they didn¡¯t deserve this fate and ending.  Quinn clenched his fist and looked with self-disgust because he knew he couldn¡¯t get the dead bodies down from the pirs as doing so would alert the Death Eaters of an outside presence.


    ¡®Toote, huh,¡¯  Quinn squeezed his shut for a moment before disappearing into the wind.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°Albus, we have to do something,¡± McGonagall impatiently entered the Headmaster¡¯s Office and began pacing around under Dumbledore¡¯s eyes.  ¡°The older students are gathering in the Great Hall, and I fear they will demand that the Potter family be given to the Dark Lord.  We must stop it at once!  We already have enough problems outside; I¡¯m not equipped to handle them arising inside.¡±


    The younger students weren¡¯t old enough topletelyprehend the situation and believed Dumbledore¡¯s words of everything being alright.  But the senior students had the capability to think for themselves, and at that age, it was an instinct to question and sometimes oppose the decision.  Right now, those instincts were rearing their heads.


    ¡°If they ask for it,¡± said Dumbledore, ¡°I will face them, listen to their reasoning, talk to them¡ª but I¡¯m not going to shut them down without giving them a chance to speak their minds.¡±


    ¡°What if they don¡¯t listen?¡±


    ¡°They will. . . they have to.  What reason do they have other than Voldemort¡¯s word, which frankly saying isn¡¯t much.  They haven¡¯t lived through wars, faced Dark Lords, or know what goes in their twisted minds¡ª they haven¡¯t seen the dark side, the real side of things. . . and as long as they¡¯re in my care, it¡¯s my duty to protect them from it.¡±


    Dumbledore stood up from his chair and headed to the window.  He stared out at the scenery with his hands behind his back; he could barely make out Hogsmeade in the distance because of the ward distorting the view.  ¡°Minerva. . . I would like to take care of Hogwarts in case something happens to me.  I have already named you my sessor. . . take care of the children,¡± he said.


    McGonagall froze in her tracks and jerkily turned to Dumbledore.  ¡°Albus, what are you. . .¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve already passed a hundred a decade ago¡ª¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean anything,¡± interjected McGonagall; she didn¡¯t want this conversation to continue.  ¡°You¡¯re not old, Albus, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re trying to imply¡ª you¡¯re not a Muggle.¡±  The magical kind had longer lifespans; for them, a hundred years wasn¡¯t the sunset of life.


    ¡°. . . No, I¡¯m not old; this isn¡¯t about that,¡± Dumbledore still didn¡¯t turn towards her.  ¡°Frankly speaking, I was in my prime when I fought Grindelwald.  I was young, passionate, and had the hunger suitable for that time¡ª I was even learning under Nichs back then.  When the war ended and the peace arrived, I let my hair down and returned to teaching at Hogwarts. . . my efforts at magic took a step back.  When I became the Headmaster, my duties increased, same with my other titles. . . another step back for magic.  By the time Tom Riddle rose as Voldemort, I hadn¡¯t been as active with magic as I was when I fought Grindelwald. . . . I had becent.  When Voldemort started to show as a threat, I dusted the cobwebs over my magic¡ª even those efforts constantly shed with my role at Wizengamot. . . but I trusted them to be enough,¡± Dumbledore took out the Elder wand to gaze at it.  ¡°When Voldemort was vanquished, I thought I would double-down my efforts; however, leading the Light faction was a burden too time-consuming¡ª and I had to figure out a way to defeat Voldemort once and for all. . .¡±


    He turned to McGonagall and surprised her with a bitter smile.  ¡°I fear I¡¯m not strong enough toe out alive from a life-and-death duel with Voldemort.  He has always been hungry for power.  The time he had spent suffering after Harry vanquished him has only strengthened that desire.  He has utilized unspeakable dark rituals to bolster his power, learned the vilest of magic¡ª he is mighty. . .¡±


    Thest words were already said before, and McGonagall could tell that Dumbledore chose not to tell them.


    ¡°You have to be alive,¡± said McGonagall.  ¡°There can¡¯t be any other oue.  Hogwarts needs you, the children need you. . . Hogwarts won¡¯t be the same without you.  You need to stay alive to see a time where you can retreat away from everything and just be the Headmaster and actually get to teach.¡±


    The light returned to Dumbledore¡¯s eyes as he chuckled.  ¡°Maybe you are right.  I would love to teach again.¡±


    ¡°You looked like you enjoyed it when you did it that year.¡±


    ¡°Working with young children, introducing them to new things is the finest experience I have had in my life,¡± Dumbledore smiled as he sighed.  ¡°I hope I will get to experience it again. . . I really hope so.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°Sir, we are ready to move in.¡±


    Sirius strapped his standard-issue Auror dragonhide heavy vest as he turned to his subordinate.  ¡°Good, tell everyone to strap up and take their position; we move in three.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± the Junior Auror saluted before running away.


    Sirius turned towards and walked towards a group dressed differently.  All were dressed in matching tanbat gear, which, different from the Auror issue, was made from a select breed of dragons with a lighter and more magic-resistant hide.  Everyst one seemed in tip-top shape with a bodynguage that spoke of their training.


    ¡°Warlunt,¡± called Sirius.


    Warlunt, his Hit Wizard counterpart, turned, and for a moment, Sirius thought how if Warlunt wasn¡¯t married, he would¡¯ve been the perfect wingman.  He was handsome in the rugged way that manydies dug, andbined with his job as Hit Wizard, the man was a chick ma.


    ¡°Ready?¡± said Warlunt.


    ¡°The wardbreakers are ready to break the ward atmand,¡± said Sirius, returning his focus to the job.  ¡°Are you going to lead the vanguard or rearguard?¡±  There were three ground teams and one air unit.  Out of the three ground teams, two were made up of Hit Wizards, and they were going to assume the role of the vanguard, and the second Hit Wizard team went from the backside of the resort.  Sirius was going to lead the rearguard team of Aurors from the front.  The second team of Aurors was going to take the sky on brooms and were going to proceed to enter from the sky and attack from above if needed.


    ¡°I¡¯m leading the charge,¡± said Warlunt, as if it was obvious.


    ¡°Good man,¡± praised Sirius with respect before speaking with a severe tone.  ¡°Be careful; the target is a heavy-handed butcher.  He will not hesitate to cut off limbs or st off pieces of bodies.  It¡¯s a rarity we get his victims in stable condition.  Don¡¯t hold back; I have already told my men to cast to kill.  I don¡¯t mind capturing him alive, but even for a moment, you find yourself in a shred of doubt that things could go awry, kill the bastard. . . . If you¡¯re hesitant to do so, go look at the kid¡¯s dead body at the entrance.¡±


    Warlunt shook his head.  ¡°I don¡¯t mind it.  If you want him dead, I will deliver him to you dead.¡±


    ¡°Not if I get to him first.¡±


    ¡°We will see about that, little man,¡± the towering Hit Wizard smirked.  Sirius clicked his tongue and shoved Warlunt, whoughed in return.


    After the five minutes passed, Sirus faced everyone who had been assembled for the current mission.  Aurors, Hit Wizards, Medi-Healers for emergencies, external consultant wardbreakers. . . everyone was looking at him.  ¡°I don¡¯t have much to say, and neither am I interested in saying much, so I¡¯ll keep it short,¡± he said.  ¡°Our peers stationed outside Hogwarts with Death Eaters and the Dark Lord holding the entire vige hostages while our children are only separated by a ward.  While here we are, facing a man whom I respected before he killed a child¡ª now he¡¯s a worthless bastard that needs to go.  I would rather be at Hogsmeade than here, making sure that the people I work with and care for are safer with me there, protecting their backs, and ensuring the children are not harmed.¡±


    Sirus got a murmur of agreement.  He continued, ¡°And make no mistakes, I¡¯m going to be there.  For that to happen, we need to sort out this mess.  So, let¡¯s get in there, save the people, and put the bastard into his ce.  I don¡¯t want a single injury because I want all bodies at Hogsmeade after this.  This is a detour to the main event, and you should treat this as a warm-up. . . . That¡¯s it, everyone gets into positions.¡±


    There was a wave of cheer for everyone to psych themselves up.  Everyone had already been instructed on how to proceed and had been familiarized with theyout of the building.


    The wardbreakers positioned themselves on either side of the door, behind the walls, so they couldn¡¯t be attacked while dismantling the ward.  Warlunt and his team took the frontal position with Sirius¡¯ team behind.  The air team rose up on their brooms, and the third ground team moved the backside to enter from there.


    ¡°Wardsing down in ten,¡± announced one of the wardbreakers, and the countdown began.  The ward started to flicker, and within ten seconds, the ward broke down.  Sirius shot a detection spell, and the moment it cleared up, a Hit Wizard moved in and pulled the dead body out.


    ¡°Move in,¡± Warlunt ordered, and everyone on the scene proceeded as instructed.  Warlunt crossed the tunnel but dipped back in just in time to escape a green Killing Curse passing him by.  ¡°He¡¯s on the left.  Cover for me.¡±


    The Hit Wizard behind Warlunt charmed outside the tunnel, and it rose to create a wall.  Warlunt moved behind the wall, and the moment he felt an impact on the wall, he ducked out and was about to shoot a spell but immediately entered into protection again.


    ¡°What is it?¡± asked Sirius.


    ¡°That was not the Invisible Vignte,¡± said Warlunt, frowning.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°A resort staff shot a Killing Curse at me.¡±


    ¡°What?!  Why?¡±


    ¡°How would I know¡ª¡± Warlunt¡¯s eyes widened, and he groaned hard before saying, ¡°they¡¯re under Imperius.  God damn it!  That fucker put the staff under Imperius!  We aren¡¯t facing a single person anymore!¡±


    ¡°You mean,¡± Sirus wrinkled his nose.


    ¡°Yeah. . . lethal force is now out of use.¡±


    Things had just gotten a lot moreplicated.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Gotta be sneaky.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Headmaster ¨C I would love to teach and learn again.


    Sirius ck ¨C Senior Auror ¨C The day keeps getting worse.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 414 Vigilantes

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The break-in team at the resort stood in the front entrance tunnel.  The Hit Wizards stepped back when a spell grazed the earthen wall and blew a small chunk out of it, sending dust into the tunnel.


    ¡°This is so troublesome,¡± sighed Warlunt.  ¡°I didn¡¯t understand it before, but now I understand why this guy has gotten so much onto your nerve.  How should we proceed with this.¡±


    Sirius stared at the spells that passed by, and they were indeed aplication that he hadn¡¯t thought he would see here.  He had read about the materials prepared about the Invisible Vignte in detail¡ª everything from the choice of victims, the frequency and timing of appearance, his magic, his attire, to what little interaction people had with him.  Not once in that profile did Invisible Vignte work with others, especially not controlling people to do his bidding.  But now, they could potentially be facing an entire resort of people, all ordered to attack them.


    ¡°How much of a problem is this for you,¡± he asked.


    Warlunt nonchntly shrugged, with his team showing simr expressions.  ¡°They¡¯re civilians. . . not really an inconvenience.  Yes, we will have to be a little careful about who we shoot at, but we are going to be in any danger.  The only problem that may arise is that while we are being careful with our spell, the possibility of Invisibility Vignte jumping in, and we might not nail him with the first spell.¡±  He looked to his team provocatively and smirked, ¡°I won¡¯t be making that mistake, though. . . don¡¯t know about you guys.¡±


    ¡°We will clear it all out before you even get to see any actions,¡± scoffed one of the Hit Wizards.


    Sirius pped his hands and got everyone¡¯s attention.  He didn¡¯t want this to turn into a muscle-brainedpetition.  ¡°Whatever you do, I don¡¯t want any hostage casualties.  A little scuffing is fine, but nothing that wille bitting us in the back in tomorrow¡¯s newspaper.¡±  He turned to one of his Juniors, ¡°Have you informed the other teams?¡±  He got a nod in return.  ¡°Good, then let¡¯s move in.¡±


    Warlunt stepped behind the earthen wall that had been taking damage for a minute now but still hadn¡¯t crumbled due to the difference in skill between an untrained civilian and a masterful Hit Wizard.  He took one breath before stepping out of the wall and calmly registered the attacker as a resort employee.  He blocked a spell before drilling a red hot stunner into the Imperiused person.


    His team moved past him and stationed themselves on both sides of a hallway entrance.  Warlunt walked into the hallway with his subordinates, ready to give cover; he stopped at the head of the hallway and spotted four people¡ª two guests and employees each¡ª and with a single flick, a wave of magic radiated out, and the four people settled for the floor as their beds.


    ¡°Clear,¡± he stated.  ¡°Split out, be in pairs.  Marcon with me.¡±


    The Aurors and Hit Wizards spit up and start covering ground around the scenic and high-end resort.  Very quickly, the Imperiused people began dropping by the coordinated and quick effort of trained professionals, and everything was going very well with excellent efficiency until the teams found the Invisible Vignte.


    Warlunt silently unlocked the door to theundry room of the resort.  He gave the signal to his pair, and both of them shuffled into the damp room with clothes being washed with magic.


    ¡°No one¡¯s here,¡± said the Junior Hit Wizard with Warlunt as he cast a revealing spell in the room.


    Warlunt pointed to a narrow sheet metal door in the room¡¯s back wall.  The Junior pointed his wand at the door and was about to unlock it when the door burst open, and a ck-d masked figure burst out with a wand ring. . . only to be hit by two Killing Curse in the chest.


    ¡°Well. . . that¡¯s that,¡± Warlunt disarmed the dead body and cast binding spells just to be extra sure after two Killing Curses.  The Invisible Vignte was said to be unpredictable, and he had enough magic to spare.


    ¡°Let¡¯s unmask him; I want to see how he looks,¡± said the Junior.


    ¡°Go for it,¡± Warlunt also wanted to see.


    The Junior walked to the body and flipped it on its back.  He gave Warlunt one nce before snatching the mask off.  ¡°. . . What?¡± he sputtered in shock.  ¡°A woman?¡±  Behind the mask wasn¡¯t a man as they expected; instead, they found themselves staring at a young woman with freckles that stared at them with half-open dead amber eyes.  ¡°Sir, I-I thought the Invisible Vignte was supposed to be a man.¡±


    ¡°I thought so myself; everyone did,¡± Warlunt frowned with his arms crossed.  ¡°But it seems it was a woman all along.  With that voice modtion, clothes that covered the entire body, the pronoun usage, and the behavior. . . everything directed towards it being a man rather than a woman.¡±  He sighed, ¡°Let¡¯s bag her up and take her to the front; we can dere this Op over and head to Hogsmeade.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± Junior took out a ck patch and let it go; by the time it reached the ground, the patch had turned into a full-size body bag.


    They navigated their way out by following the same path they had taken, pulling along all the unconscious people they had stunned.  When they got near to the front, they heard amotion.  ¡°It looks like everyone has returned,¡± Warlunt smirked.  ¡°Let¡¯s go rub it in ck¡¯s face.¡±


    However, when they reached the resort entrance, they were stunned to see half a dozen more standard-issue body bags ced in a line.  Warlunt¡¯s heart skipped a beat; his eyes shifted all around the ce, counting the Aurors and Hit Wizard that had entered the resort. . . and no one was missing.


    ¡°ck,¡± called Warlunt, with a bad bubbling inside him, ¡°what is this?  I don¡¯t see anyone missing.¡±


    Sirius rubbed his face with his hand.  ¡°You got a body bag with you, which means you took out the Invisible Vignte, didn¡¯t you?¡± he sighed.


    ¡°Yeah, surprisingly, it was a woman.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that isn¡¯t the Invisible Vignte,¡± Sirus pointed at Warlunt¡¯s body bag and then the six others, ¡°and neither are these guys.¡±


    ¡°. . . What?¡±


    ¡°We woke one of the resort employees and asked him to identify the people we shot down,¡± Sirius pinched between his brows.  ¡°We ended up killing resort employees and guests.¡±


    The air was knocked out of Warlunt¡¯s lungs.  He turned to the body bag behind him, which he carried the young woman¡¯s body.  ¡°Y-You mean. . .¡±


    ¡°We think that the real Invisible Vignte escaped right after we saw him and left behind the Imperiused people¡ª some of them were dressed in the Invisible Vignte¡¯s outfit,¡± Sirius groaned and seemed sick by the time he finished.


    Warlunt himself had paled when he realized that he had killed an innocent person.  He turned when he heard a despairing voice.  ¡°. . . W-What I have done?¡±  The Junior Auror with him was staring at the body bag with a horrified look on his face.  ¡®Ah, that¡¯s going to be a long time with a mind-healer,¡¯ he thought.  ¡®Same for me,¡¯ and the thought of how awful it would be.


    ¡°We have to report this,¡± said Sirius.  ¡°Scrimgeour is not going to like this at all.¡±


    ¡°He won¡¯t. . . but his dislike for the Invisible Vignte is stronger.  I think we can get by and still get to be part of the Hogsmeade Op.  With that scale, they will have to call us no matter how this turned out.¡±


    ¡°But do you think it is wise to let these men participate at Hogsmeade,¡± Sirius turned to look at the man; many of them had dark expressions on their faces.  ¡°All of them are physically fit, plenty of magic in their tanks. . . but their mental state, I¡¯m worried about,¡± Sirius¡¯ own face was paler than usual.  ¡°I don¡¯t know if it will be wise to send them to Hogsmeade.  After all, it won¡¯t be as easy as this; there will be real Death Eaters¡ª if they¡¯re not careful, they will be wiped out.¡±


    Warlunt scrunched up his nose in displeasure.  Sirius had a point; as much as he wanted his trusted men beside him on the field, he couldn¡¯t put them at risk.  ¡°They won¡¯t like to be excluded from the Hogsmeade Op. . . so how about we put them in themand center. . . this way, they would be safe and won¡¯t feel like they¡¯re being excluded,¡± he suggested.


    ¡°. . . That seems to be the best option.¡±


    Warlunt and Sirius looked at their team members, who were proceeding with their work but at such a sluggish pace that, if not for the current circumstance, they would¡¯ve been chewed out thrice over.


    ¡°I hate the Invisible Vigte,¡± said Sirius.


    ¡°If I see the real one, I¡¯ll use Cruciatus instead of the Killing Curse,¡± responded Warlunt with an edge.  He sighed, ¡°Let¡¯s go for a drink when all this is over¡ª with the teams, all of us.¡±


    Sirius hummed in agreement before asking, ¡°Why do you think he did this?  Even if we me him, we still need to figure out the reasoning behind this?  This doesn¡¯t match with his profile.  Why aggravate us?  Why use us?¡±  The Invisible Vignte never had a problem with doing the job himself, but today, he had done something so out of character.


    ¡°Maybe he didn¡¯t want to dirty his hands with children¡¯s blood and used us to do the job.  As for the one he killed, that kid wasn¡¯t a saint even if he didn¡¯t have a record.¡±


    ¡°Then why put employees in his attire?  They weren¡¯t rted to Death Eaters, we checked.  Why put innocent people to death.  I just can¡¯t make sense of the situation.¡±


    ¡°To be honest with you,¡± Warlunt pursed his lips into a line, ¡°I don¡¯t care right now.  I want to go to Hogsmeade and take care of that first.  I¡¯ll volunteer my time to hunt his arse down.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m already on the task force,¡± said Sirius, ¡°leading it, currently.¡±


    The rest of the affair was quiet as the body bags were secured and sent to the morgue while the unconscious people were woken up and sent to St. Mungos to recover from exposure to Imperius Curse.  They sealed off the resort after a thorough check, and the scenery was vacated, leaving behind a couple of Junior Aurors who had never entered the scene.


    In the distant sky, they didn¡¯t notice a ck-d masked figure on a broom that observed them for the entire time they were there.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn frowned as he looked down at the town center.  There was a building that could fit all the people inside, and right now, the town hall was being used as the hostage holding center.  He could see it from the roof upon which he was that it was heavily guarded by Death Eaters.  It wouldn¡¯t have been a problem if that was it, but he knew from sneaking into the mind of one of the Death Eaters just out of guard rotation that the Dark Lord was inside with the hostages.


    He bit his lip.  He couldn¡¯t do anything about it for that reason.  He decided not to take any action, leaving it to the people whose job it was to rescue people.  Instead, he began looking for his first genuine target of the day.


    ¡°Serpensortia,¡± he whispered for a pit of snakes to emit out of his hand.  He stared at snakes of different shapes and sizes, and after a moment, they slithered away.


    The bait had been set.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Screentime, please.


    Sirius ck ¨C Senior Auror ¨C Not having a good time.


    Warlunt ¨C Senior Hit Wizard ¨C Push it aside and move on.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Mid-terms next week, time to grind.  See you guys in a bit.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 415 They. . . Have A Deal

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty much it, I guess,¡± Quinn muttered silently.  He held a small ck puck in one hand as the other hand¡¯s fingers weaved magic into the small magical machine that he had created on the spot from an emergency supply of things in his pockets.  He kept an eye on the streets below him, nothing everything from the cover of the shadows.


    The surveince waspleted.


    He pressed the puck¡¯s top for patterns to appear on the ck surface, shimmering in an esoteric light before dissipating in the afternoon light.  The small puck was now functional.  Quinn didn¡¯t put it away immediately; instead, he covered the puck in both palms and flushed it with an intense burst of magic.


    A white smoke escaped from between his hands.  ¡®No way, I¡¯m going to leave my magical signature behind a second time,¡¯ he thought as he pocketed the nowplete puck.


    It was time to leave Hogsmeade for a while to prepare for the next phase of the day.  He stood up from the crouching position and was about to walk when he felt a buzzing from one of his breast pockets.  He took out a pocket mirror, and it was the one Ivy had made for him.  He gazed around, scouring the street for eyes before slipping into a shop nearest to him.


    ¡°Hey, is something wrong?¡± Quinn asked a worried Ivy.


    ¡°Why haven¡¯t you been picking up?!¡± Ivy all but screeched at him.  Quinn could feel the panic and anxiety in her voice; it was like an overflowing dam.  ¡°I have been trying to reach you for-for¡ª forever!  I thought Voldemort got you, that you were. . . that you,¡± she huped, ¡°d-died. . .  Why haven¡¯t you been picking up my calls, you idiot?!¡±


    ¡°Ivy, listen to me. . . I want you to take deep breaths,¡± he said.  ¡°Calm yourself down.  Short bursts of lumency to just vain off all that fright. . . and deep breaths. . . yes, like that, very good.¡±  Quinn pulled a chair inside the shop, and even though it wasn¡¯t the time and ce, he sat down to listen.  ¡°Unfortunately, it is as you thought; I¡¯m inside Hogsmeade right now¡ª¡±


    ¡°Get out of there!¡±


    ¡°¡ª Fortunately, I¡¯ve excellent stealth skills and am extremely well hidden,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°And please don¡¯t worry, I am about to leave Hogsmeade¡ª I already did what I came here to do; now it¡¯s time to let the authorities do their job,¡± he smiled.


    ¡°You promise?¡± she asked him with an urge that was asking for him to agree.


    ¡°I promise,¡± he smiled.  ¡°So, why were you trying to reach me?  Did something happen?¡±


    Ivy slumped into the sofa she was sitting on, and her beautiful green eyes darkened.  ¡°We were eating lunch when Voldemort¡¯s voice filled the Great Hall.  He said that he will let everyone else go as long as he gets me, mom, and Harry,¡± Ivy¡¯s breath quickened as she got up and began pacing around, sending the mirror out of focus.


    Quinn sat up straight the moment he heard the words.  ¡°No one in their right minds will believe that, would they?¡±  But as the words left his mouth, he knew what pressure and danger could do to the human mind and its decision-making capabilities.


    ¡°Everyone¡¯s whispering,¡± Ivy was barely in the frame, with the image shifting all around the room.  ¡°Hermione went out sneaking under the cloak, and she heard everyone talking about it everywhere¡ª no one was outright saying it, but they were all pointing to it.  But now, sixth and seventh years are filling the Great Hall, and I think they will ask Dumbledore. . . to-to,¡± she took deep breaths; she sat down, and Quinn could finally properly see her again.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay; nothing of what you think is going to happen,¡± he tried to calm her down.  ¡°Dumbledore¡¯s not going to let anyone harm you guys.  I know right now is difficult, but please don¡¯t let your thoughts go in that direction.  I¡¯m going to go meet the Aurors and give them what I¡¯ve found¡ª they will contact Dumbledore, and with thebined effort, this will get sorted by tomorrow.  Everything¡¯s going to turn up, believe me.¡±


    Ivy wiped the tears that trickled down her face and rubbed her eyes as she nodded.  She stared at Quinn through the mirror, and her face took on a rigid expression as if bracing herself.


    ¡°What is it?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I need you to tell me where is the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup.¡±


    Quinn blinked in confusion before his brows furrowed, and he asked, frowning.  ¡°What brought this on, if I may ask?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the Invisible Vignte; you¡¯re always in danger.  Even now, you¡¯re inside Hogsmeade all alone with the Death Eaters and Voldemort.  And you¡¯re the only one who knows where the Horcrux is.  I need to know where it is in case something. . .¡±


    ¡°In case something happens to me,¡± Quinn nodded.


    ¡°Quinn, I¡¯m sorry¡ª¡±


    ¡°No, no, you have a point.  Me being the only one to know the location is a problem,¡± it was a legitimate point he hadn¡¯t thought of yet; even his Will that was automatically supposed to go via MagiFax to multiple sources upon his death didn¡¯t mention the Horcrux¡¯s location.  ¡°I have the Horcrux on my person¡ª it always is¡ª but don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll drop it in a secure location as soon as I leave here.  It¡¯ll be here. . .¡±  He told Ivy the location of one of his secret stashes that held an emergency inventory in case he required supplies.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Ivy rested her forehead on her palm and kept repeating the same.


    After the call ended, Quinn didn¡¯t immediately leave the shop.  He sat in the darkness of the shop and stared outside at the bright street.  The n was supposed to be to get out of Hogsmeade, drop off the intel to the Aurors, and then wait for the fighting to begin to jump back in and end all of it once and for all.


    But with what he just heard, ns had to be changed.


    ¡°This is hard,¡± he spat.


    He pocketed Ivy¡¯s mirror and took out Daphne¡¯s mirror instead.  He held the mirror for a minute, contemting if he should proceed with it because if he did it, the price might be a little too much for him.


    He closed his eyes and injected magic into the mirror.  It shed in silver light, and with each sh, Quinn thought if he should cut the transmission and forget about it.


    ¡°Quinn?¡± Daphne picked up the call.


    He silently took a breath before saying, ¡°I want you to do something for me.¡±


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    ¡°I heard you want the Potters.¡±


    Voldemort, who had been thinking and working on breaking the Hogwarts defenses, opened his eyes when he heard the voice whispered into his ear.  He didn¡¯t even look around the room and exited the room he was in because he could feel the traces of maged in the sound.  The speaker wasn¡¯t in his room.


    ¡°How about we make a deal, you and I,¡± repeated the voice.


    Voldemort walked through the town hall, ignoring his Death Eaters and the pathetic whimpers of the hostages.  His eyes narrowed to the wall, and he raised his hand for a small spider to fly from the wall into his palm.  He raised his palm closer to his face, and upon a closer look, the spider wasn¡¯t a normal one.  ¡®A puppet?¡¯ he thought, looking at the spider made from various materials like metal, wood, and rubber.  He channeled magic into the spider and came across the enchantmentsid into it.


    ¡°I can get you Boy-Who-Lived,¡± Voldemort heard again.  ¡°But just him, not the mother and daughter.¡±


    Voldemort didn¡¯t respond.  He observed the magic in the puppet spider, which was the source of the sound he was hearing.  He looked around the town hall and noticed six more spiders in therge hall.  The sound and magic were being bounced off between the seven spiders, with the voice transmission switching between the seven spiders quickly.


    ¡®Why?¡¯ Voldemort contemted.  ¡®Why suchplexity?¡¯


    He dug deeper into the magic and sensed that the seven spiders were getting the signals from outside.  He moved outside with one of the spiders in hand and, with his magic, noticed that the signal was againing from multiple sources, all around the vige, and again was being bounced around the vige.


    ¡®Ah. . . it is so that I won¡¯t find where the voice ising from.¡¯  Voldemort¡¯s feet left the ground, and he rose up into the sky and flew up high enough to look at the entire vige.  ¡®I can¡¯t tell where it ising from,¡¯ his guess was correct¡ª the sender was trying to hide from him.  He could find it, but it would take time. . .


    Voldemort ced the puppet spider on his shoulder and spoke, ¡°I am listening. . .¡±


    The reply came after a couple seconds.  ¡°I can get you the Boy-Who-Lived, but only him.  In turn, you let go of the hostages¡ª half now and half after the job is done.¡±


    ¡°Why would I believe anything you say?  What if this is just a ploy to trick me into letting go of half of my leverage?  Why should I trust someone I don¡¯t know,¡± Voldemort looked around the message, actively trying to locate the speaker.  ¡°Someone who can¡¯t even show the basic etiquette by standing before me while talking.¡±


    ¡°You can believe me because I can get you face to face with Harry Potter with Dumbledore interfering it.¡±


    ¡°That seems unlikely.¡±  He could¡¯ve done it by now if it was possible.


    ¡°I can turn that unlikely to very likely.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Voldemort tried to stretch the conversation to see if he could even locate the general area, ¡°and who do you think you are to think that you can steal Harry Potter from under Dumbledore¡¯s eyes.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m the Invisible Vignte.¡±


    Voldemort stopped searching and fixed his gaze on a distance, concentrating more on his hearing than his sight.  The Invisible Vignte. . . if someone asked him who had been his worst obstacle since his recent return, then he would undoubtedly point to the Invisible Vignte¡ª the unknown man had foiled several of his n that would¡¯ve been crucial in taking over the country.


    ¡°Why would you, of all people, help me?¡± asked Voldemort.


    ¡°I despise you and everything rted to you.  If I could, I would¡¯ve already killed you.  Right now, you have all of Hogsmeade with you¡ª and if I can deliver one for the safety of many, it¡¯s only logical.  I provide you with Harry Potter, and you let go of the hostages. . . as straightforward as it can get.¡±


    Voldemort didn¡¯t reply instantly.  He let the offer rest in his head, tumbling in his thought and reasoning, his mind measuring the words on the bncing scale of pros and cons, trying to see if this offer was enticing enough to let go of his leverages.


    ¡°Agreed,¡± said the Dark Lord.  The prophecy had been about him and Harry Potter and foretold the danger to his life.  He had already lost his body and was forced to roam the ne for a long, painful time.  He wasn¡¯t going to have a repeat of it¡ª he preferred to have the threat of prophecy removed from his head.  ¡°I shall let half go now and half when I have Harry Potter in my grasp.  But beware, Invisible Vignte, cross me, and the lives of these people will be on your bloodstained hands.¡±  If he was betrayed, the ground would be irrigated with the blood of its residents.


    ¡°Let half of them go,¡± came the voice.  ¡°I will contact you when I¡¯m ready to make the exchange¡ª I¡¯ll tell you the ce.¡±


    Voldemort wanted to issue a deadline, but before he could say anything, the puppet spider jumped off his shoulder and went free-falling down to the ground.  It was clear that the negotiations were over.  If it was any other time, he would¡¯ve not epted such insolence and smite the other party¡ª but the price was tantalizing this time.  This could be the first step he had beencking, the first step to his eternal glory.


    He flew down the town hall, and the moment he stepped across the door, he was approached by Rookwood, and before the ex-Unspeakable could get in a word, Voldemort spoke,


    ¡°Separate the woman and children from the men, and let the men go.¡±


    ¡°Go?¡±


    ¡°Yes, let them go.  I¡¯ll open the ward.¡±


    He snapped his finger, and the puppet spiders in the town hall sparked into fumes.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C Invisible Vignte ¨C I mean, I have to continue it. . .


    Ivy Potter ¨C On a roller coaster ¨C Unfortunately, she won¡¯t find the Horcrux there.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Time to kill the prophecy with green


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 416 Providing Information

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


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    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Inside themand centre on ground zero outside Hogsmeade, the higher-ups of DMLE gathered around a table with a holographic three-dimensional representation of Hogsmeade floating in the centre.


    ¡°What is the progress on the Unspeakable side?¡± asked Scrimgeour, who had arrived just for this meeting.


    ¡°Some progress has been made on the ward,¡± answered Kingsley.  ¡°I¡¯ve been told that they can get us inside by tomorrow or the day after that, but that¡¯s about it. . . there hasn¡¯t been any progress on disabling the Floo or the spatialponent of the ward.  Even if the Unspeakables get us inside, the ward will stand with all its other functionality. . .¡±


    Scrimgeour¡¯s face twisted before he said, ¡°Which means there¡¯s no way to evacuate the people inside Hogwarts,¡± he clicked his tongue.  He looked to Robards, ¡°Put pressure on the Unspeakables; I wanted us in there yesterday.  Have we been able to an estimate of Death Eaters are inside?¡±


    Kingsley answered the question, ¡°From the sky scouting squad, we have spotted a number somewhere between two hundred fifty to three hundred Death Eaters.¡±


    ¡°. . . That¡¯s more than I thought,¡± Scrimgeour scowled.  ¡°Even with all the clean-up we¡ª and he,¡± there was venom in  his voice, ¡°caught so many of them?¡±  If the estimate was correct, every Auror and Hit Wizard would have to face at least two Death Eaters. . . which wasn¡¯t bad, given the training that they had, but he still didn¡¯t great about the numbers.


    ¡°The intelligence thinks that the Novellus ionites who were punished a few years ago have been recruited into Death Eaters.  They have been supplied with wands,¡± which the charged Novellus ionites were banned from wielding.  Kingsley provided before asking Scrimgeour, ¡°What of the Invisible Vignte crew, sir?  Will they be joining us?  We could use the men.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Sirius and Warlunt will be joining you, but the Juniors won¡¯t be,¡± Scrimgeour didn¡¯t trust the Juniors who had ended up identally killing innocents to hold themselves in stressful situations, and he had refused the request to switch them out with the Juniors who were operating in the headquarters.  Thus¡ª ¡°You will only be getting those two.  I¡¯ve started to send out calls to the retired members for reserve forces.¡±


    A Junior Auror pushed aside the tent p and skidded into the tent, pushing aside the gravel on the ground.  Her words died in her throat when she saw some very prominent pairs of eyes on her, but then she seemed to recall why she had barged into themand room so rudely.  ¡°R-Reporting, sirs!  Arge number of men are heading towards us from inside Hogsmeade!¡± she eximed.


    Everyone inside the tent stood up.  ¡°Death Eaters?¡± asked Robards.


    ¡°No sir,¡± said the Junior Auror; she sounded confused, ¡°the men are Hogsmeade residents!  A few Death Eaters are apanying them.¡±


    Robards turned to Kingsley and ordered, ¡°Gather everyone; I want us to be ready for any scenario.¡±  He turned to Scrimgeour, ¡°Leave immediately.¡±


    ¡°I want to see what is this,¡± said Scrimgeour.


    ¡°You are leaving right now.  Don¡¯t argue with me, sir.  We will call you forbat if we need you.  I can¡¯t take the risk of the Head of DMLE dying on my watch.  Now, go!¡±  The Aurors moved out, leaving Scrimgeour inside alone.


    Outside, the Aurors and DMLE stood outside the ward, ready for the worst.  Slowly, people trickled into the empty streets inside the ward as arge group of men made their way to the ward boundary.


    ¡°Stop!¡± announced Kingsley with his wand on his throat.


    The Hogsmeade men didn¡¯t stop, nor did the Death Eaters apanying them.  The men heard Kingsley, and many of them started to panic and cry; some even tried to stop, but some light magic from the Death Eaters forced them to continue onwards.  It was as though shepherds guiding the sheep.


    ¡°State your purpose!¡± Kingsley spoke again.


    In response, a shot of magic shot from deep within the vige flew over the buildings and followed the course of a projectile, forming a wide arch in the sky until it flew into the ward, turning the silver barrier into gold.<sub></sub>


    The Aurors and Hit Wizards all braced their wands in caution.


    One of the Death Eaters grabbed an old man by the arm in the front and dragged him to the front.  ¡°Stop!  No!  Please take me!¡± shouted a younger man who looked to be the old man¡¯s son.  The Death Eater ignored the cries and bought the whimpering old man near the boundary before shoving him through.  Everyone stopped their breathing in expectation of something horrible to happen¡ª but nothing as such happened¡ª the old man simply passed through the golden barrier and fell down onto the ground because of the push.


    Kingsley rushed forward and knelt beside the old man.  He helped him up and asked, ¡°Are you alright, sir.¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes,¡± the old man managed between his erratic breathing.


    ¡°Send everyone through,¡± ordered the Death Eater in the lead, and the rest of the Death Eaters began pushing the hostages forward.  And after seeing the old man cross the barrier without harm, there was much less resistance; some men rushed through it and cried with joy when they passed through unharmed.


    When every single one of the men passed through safely, Kingsley called out to the Death Eaters.  ¡°What is this?¡± he asked.  The Death Eaters walked away without replying to Kingsley, even when he called out after them repeatedly.


    Kingsley saw one of his Juniors approach the group of men.  ¡°Back off!¡± he yelled.  ¡°No one is going to go near them,¡± he pointed his wand at the Hogsmeade men, causing them to cover and huddle together.  ¡°Check them thoroughly to see if there¡¯s something wrong with them?¡±  He addressed the scared people, ¡°This is for your own safety.  If the Dark Lord has done something to you, we will get treat it for you.  Please be rest assured; we don¡¯t have any intention to harm you.¡±


    He looked at Kingsley and gestured for him to follow.  Both returned to the tent and found that Scrimgeour was still inside.  ¡°Sir, I explicitly asked you to return to Whitehall; why are you still here?¡± Robards said with a disapproving frown.


    ¡°I can protect myself, Robards.  Don¡¯t forget that even though I¡¯m the Head of DMLE, I¡¯m still enlisted as an active duty Auror.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter¡ª¡±


    ¡°Why did the Death Eaters let the hostages go?¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t say,¡± sighed Robards.  ¡°We are checking if they have bobby-trapped them in some way.¡±


    ¡°This is something out of character.  We need to find out why they let them go?¡± Scrimgeour frowned.


    ¡°You do not have to worry about it.¡±  The three Aurors stilled for a split second when they heard the distorted voice they all hade across at some point and were well familiar with.  When the split-second of stillness, their trained instincts took over, and they whipped their wands toward the source.  Sitting on a chair on the corner was Invisible Vignte dressed in his usual garb with his feet crossed and his hands resting on his knees.  ¡°You should focus on how to get into Hogsmeade.¡±


    ¡°Avada Kedavra¡± ¡ª there was no hesitation in Scrimgeour¡¯s chant or actions as he unleashed a Killing Curse.


    The green jet of magic struck the Invisible Vignte right in the mask, but instead of getting absorbed in the body, it passed through the mask, leaving behind a hole.  ¡°You are lucky I am here to talk,¡± said the masked figure.  It was as if the body was made from the mist, and the form had been disturbed by the spell.  The mist recollected itself to fix the hole in the face, returning the figure to whole.  ¡°I have a way to get all of you inside Hogsmeade and can provide you with credible intel about the Death Eater positioning.¡±


    ¡°Why would I believe you?¡± Scrimgeour spat.  None of the Aurors lowered their wards.  ¡°You just made Aurors kill innocent people.  You deserve to have your soul sucked up by Dementors.  If I could only find one to do it.¡±


    . . . . .


    Quinn sitting on a rock a distance from the Auror¡¯s tent, blinked his eyes in confusion.  Him making Aurors kill innocents. . . what was that about?  ¡°My apologies, but I feel like I am missing something,¡± he said, and his illusion in the tent repeated.  ¡°I have not made Aurors kill innocents.  Why would I waste my time doing such things?¡±


    ¡°You made my men kill seven people at the Wipply Resort,¡± Robards scowled.


    ¡°I have not heard of any Wipply Resort,¡± frowned Quinn.  Wipply Resorts. . . seven innocents. . . Aurors. . . from those pieces of information, many scenarios were built in his mind until he arrived at the one that made the most sense to him.  ¡°Are you sure it was not a Death Eater pretending to be me?  I have no interest in killing innocents.¡±


    ¡°What if they were children of Death Eaters?¡±


    ¡°Innocent until proven guilty.  When did these supposed killings happen?¡±


    ¡°Today,¡± supplied Robards.


    ¡°That does not make sense.  Why would I waste my time with children when Voldemort has taken over Hogsmeade and is nning a siege on Hogwarts?¡±


    ¡°To take Death Eaters¡¯ children hostage and¡ª¡±


    ¡°Again, that does not make sense.  Do you think the Dark Lord would stop because of children?  He would put his own men under Imperious if they were even a minor inconvenience.¡±


    ¡°I still believe you did it,¡± Scrimgeour said testily.


    ¡°Does not matter what you believe, ¡°Illusion-Quinn rose up from his chair, and the Aurors reaffirmed their aim.  ¡°What matters now is whether you want to get inside Hogwarts or not.¡±  He pointed at the table where two pucks sat.  ¡°One of those has a detailed description of Death Eaters¡¯ routines and patrols, everything you will need to form a n of attack.  The other one is the location of an open Labyrinth exit point which is connected to a door inside Hogsmeade. . .¡±


    From where he was looking, the first part surprised the three Aurors, but the second part boggled their minds.  They were so shocked that Quinn was sure if he was there in the tent, he would¡¯ve taken all three of them with a single spell.


    ¡°. . . Upto you if you want to take this information and do something good, or if you want to ignore it and continue to risk the lives of the women and children¡± ¡ª what Voldemort had done by only releasing the men had irked him very much ¡ª ¡°If I do not do see you all in there, I wille after every single one of you and cripple your entire bodies.  You have been warned.¡±


    Illusion-Quinn vanished from the tent, and above in the tent roof, an artificial eye peeking through a hole flew away.  He would¡¯ve loved to continue to observe the Aurors, but he had to move and continue to the next part of the process, and leaving the eye exposed without him nearby would risk his identity getting out.


    . . . . .


    ¡°. . . Sir, what should we do?¡± Kingsley, the lowest ranking member in the tent, broke the silence.


    Scrimgeour and Robards stared at the two ck pucks on the table.


    ¡°Have the information he gave us confirmed,¡± Scrimgeour ordered.  ¡°If it is true. . . ¡± he looked at Robards ¡°. . . proceed to infiltrate Hogsmeade.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Keep it moving.


    Kingsley Shacklebolt ¨C Captain Auror ¨C Is thinking of writing a book after everything is over.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Next few chapters will be challenging.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 417 Entering The Castle

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn¡¯s feet touched the road.  He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark shop fronts, and the outline of ck mountains beyond the vige, and the curve in the road ahead that led off toward Hogwarts.  He didn¡¯t take that curve and instead took the opposite path and moved to the periphery of the town, stopping in front of a dark and gloomy building in the mostly upbeat town.


    He swiped his hand, and there was a grinding of bolts behind the door.  The dark door opened on the narrow street, and he stepped through after scanning the street once.


    He saw, by the stuttering light of a single candle, the grubby, sawdust-strewn bar of the Hog¡¯s Head Inn.  He walked behind the counter and through a second doorway, which led to a rickety wooden staircase that he climbed after looking everywhere else.  The stairs opened onto a sitting room with a threadbare carpet and a small firece, above which hung a singlerge oil painting of a blonde girl who gazed out at the room with a kind of vacant sweetness.


    The barman-owner of Hog¡¯s Head wasn¡¯t here anymore.  Aberforth Dumbledore had done a great job of distancing himself from the Dumbledore name¡ª he had been let out with other men without Voldemort holding him back to keep leverage against big brother Albus.  It was fortunate.  He didn¡¯t want Aberforth to be Albus¡¯ weakness.


    Quinn¡¯s eyes traveled to the painting of the girl over the mantelpiece.  It was the only picture in the room.  There was no photograph of Albus Dumbledore nor of anyone else.  It was the sister.  Youngest of the three Dumbledore siblings, Ariana Dumbledore.  Attacked at the tender age of six, set upon by three Muggle boys.  They¡¯d seen her doing magic, spying through the back garden hedge: She was a kid; she couldn¡¯t control it; no magical child can at that age¡ª except if they were like Quinn, who sought out magic and actively tried to get back it.


    What the boys saw scared them. . . They forced their way through the hedge, and when she couldn¡¯t show them the trick, they got a bit carried away trying to stop the little freak from doing it.  What the children did, destroyed her: she was never the same again.  She wouldn¡¯t use magic, but she couldn¡¯t get rid of it; it turned inward and drove her mad, it exploded out of her when she couldn¡¯t control it, and at times she was strange and dangerous.  But mostly, she was sweet and scared and harmless.<sub>.</sub>


    Quinn remembered how Ariana and her story were described.  Everything could be summed up with a single word: Obscurial.  An Obscurus was the manifestation of the repressed energy of a young magical child¡ª known as an Obscurial.  Described as a ¡°dark¡± and ¡°parasitic¡± force, an Obscurus was created when the wizard child in question consciously attempted to repress their magical abilities or were forced to do so through physical or psychological abuse.  This energy could manifest itself as a separate entity that could erupt in violent, destructive fury.


    Ariana had once lost control over her magic and ended up killing her mother in an Obscurial rage.  Then the poor little girl died in a three-way battle between her brothers and Grindelwald.


    ¡°Will you let me in, please,¡± he said to the girl in the portrait.  The girl, however, didn¡¯t move. . . simply staring at him with curious eyes.  He tried again, ¡°I want to get into Hogwarts; may I pass?¡±  He had tested every secret pathway he knew could lead into Hogwarts, but the all-out defense had blocked everything.  The path in Hog¡¯s Head was the only one he knew could work.


    Portrait-Ariana again didn¡¯t move.  She continued to gaze at him like a curious child, as if he was an oddity that she had encountered for the first time.  He looked down, and while his clothes were out of the ordinary, at least he wasn¡¯t wearing his mask in his presence.  He was sure she wouldn¡¯t have looked at him if he had used his Invisible Vignte¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Me asking won¡¯t work, now would it,¡± he sighed.  Quinn unsped the p on one of his pockets and summoned one of the objects inside into his palm.  It was a palm-sized framed portrait.  He expanded it back to its original size and hung it beside Ariana¡¯s portrait as she looked on with an inquisitive gaze.  Inparison to the simpler frame of Ariana¡¯s portrait, the one that Quinn had hung was mboyant, gilded with gold with intricate design.


    ¡°Hey, wake up; I have a job for you,¡± Quinn knocked on the pitch-ck portrait, and the pitch-ck painting turned into the image of Merlin sitting inside avish room, dressed infy robes.  The portrait had changed quite a lot since Quinn had met Merlin, and every time he went to see the portrait, it would change a little bit.  Magical portraits weren¡¯t supposed to change like this, but the master of magic had enchanted his post-mortem portrait to be special like him.


    ¡°Oh, now that¡¯s a surprise,¡± Merlin¡¯s eyes shone with interest.  It happened every time Quinn interacted with him.  The portrait didn¡¯t handle boredom well and always seemed to be wanting to do something.  ¡°What does the great child prodigy wants from this old fe?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t start now,¡± sighed Quinn.  He lifted his hand again to cast magic, and Merlin turned his head to look to the left towards Ariana¡¯s portrait.  Quinn had just connected both portraits, allowing Merlin to exit his and go into her.  It was easy with the enchantments ced by the real Merlin on his portrait.


    ¡°Who is the girl?¡±


    ¡°Ariana Dumbledore.¡±


    ¡°Dumbledore?  Is she rted to the Headmaster?¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°Younger sister.¡±


    ¡°What do you want with his younger sister¡¯s portrait?¡±


    ¡°Her portrait is special, you can sense, correct?¡±


    ¡°Yes. . . yes, I can sense it,¡± Merlin got up from his desk and made his way to the edge of his frame and disappeared.  Quinn moved his eyes to Ariana¡¯s, and Merlin appeared into her¡¯s from the edge.  The littledy took a step back, acting cautiously for the first time.  ¡°What¡¯s special about this one?  There¡¯s something. . .¡±


    ¡°Her portrait is an entrance to Hogwarts.  She isn¡¯t opening the path to me.  I don¡¯t want to be. . . rough, so can you convince her to open it up.¡±


    Merlin joined his hands, touching palms, and kept his eyes on Ariana.  When he separated them, there was a charming, cute bluejay sitting on his palm.  The bird seemed to do the trick as Ariana forgot her caution and hoped her way to Merlin, who handed her the bird.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you use one of the other entries?¡± said Merlin, watching Ariana with a kind smile.


    ¡°Voldemort has taken over Hogsmeade.  Dumbledore activated the Hogwarts defense, and that locked up every path I knew.  She¡¯s the only one who can let me in, so please. . . and quickly.¡±


    Merlin looked at Quinn, Ariana slipping out of his attention as soon as the words left Quinn¡¯s mouth.  ¡°Tell me more about this,¡± said Merlin, moving closer to Quinn.


    ¡°Can¡¯t we do itter, when I have the time?  If you can¡¯t tell, I¡¯m swamped.¡±


    Merlin continued to look at Quinn.  Quinn sighed and took a minute to exin the situation to Merlin and then took three more to answer his answer.  ¡°Now, can you get her to open the way?¡± said Quinn.


    Merlin smiled and faced Ariana.  He began whispering to the girl, and she looked at Quinn a couple of times.  Quinn couldn¡¯t tell what they were talking about, so he just smiled and waved.


    After a couple minutes, Ariana nodded, smiled, and walked away, not as people in portraits usually did, out of the sides of their frames, but along what seemed to be a long tunnel painted behind her.  They watched her slight figure retreating until finally, she was swallowed by the darkness.


    ¡°Can I roam inside the castle?¡± Merlin asked as they waited.


    ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t mind.  But I¡¯ll be removing your portrait from here, in case, Voldemort wipes out the vige.  I will be back to get you when all this is over; until then, you¡¯ll be inside Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°Fine by me.¡±


    A tiny white dot had reappeared at the end of the painted tunnel, and now Ariana was walking back toward them, growing bigger and bigger as she came.  But there was somebody else with her now, someone taller than she was, holding her hand, looking confused.  Her hair was the blonde he loved, and her blue eyes were an electric blue that he had looked into countless times.  Larger andrger the two figures grew until only their heads and shoulders filled the portrait.  Then the whole thing swung forward on the wall like a little door, and the entrance to a real tunnel was revealed.  And out of it, dressed impably even in the current situation, mbered Daphne Greengrass, who leaped down the mantelpiece, and hugged Quinn the moment she reached him.


    Merlin had popped back into his frame and whistled.  Quinn gave him a re, and the old wizard silently chuckled before disappearing.


    ¡°Hey, how are you?¡± Quinn returned his attention to Daphne.  ¡°I hope they¡¯re not giving Slytherin a hard time.¡±


    Daphne shook her head in his embrace.  ¡°I don¡¯t know; I haven¡¯t gone out that much.  Tracey and I stayed with Astoria and Luna in the AID office.¡±  AID office¡¯s security had been improved by Quinn before he left¡ª it had been fine when he was in Hogwarts because he was the security system, but with him leaving, he had turned into a safer ce in case Astoria and Luna ever needed it.  It was only second to the Room of Requirement and maybe the Headmaster¡¯s Office.


    ¡°Thank you for taking care of Luna,¡± he said.


    ¡°Astoria would¡¯ve done anyway.  She and Luna have be best friends.¡±


    The hug ended, and Quinn gazed down at his girlfriend.  ¡°I messed up,¡± he sighed.  ¡°I should¡¯ve done this much before and taken all of you out, away from this, to home.  But I. . .¡± he sighed again.  He had started a ticking clock when he had approached Voldemort and the Aurors.  He had made an error¡ª with his mind upied by Voldemort, he had forgotten that he could let them exit through a Labyrinth door.


    ¡°Then why do you want to enter Hogwarts?¡± asked Daphne, her brows furrowed in confusion.


    Quinn internally sighed when he heard noint in Daphne¡¯s voice.  He would¡¯ve preferred if she had been angry with him and showed some heated emotion.  Even though he knew it wasn¡¯t the case, herck of anger sometimes made it seem like she had been used to him disappointing her.


    ¡°I have some business with Dumbledore,¡± said Quinn, feeling bitter inside as he said the words to keep her in the dark.  ¡°With how the current situation is, I think it¡¯s high time I talk to him and see what he is thinking.¡±


    Quinn got up into the tunnel and held out his hand to Daphne, and helped her to climb up onto the mantelpiece.  There were smooth stone steps on the other side: It looked as though the passageway had been there for years.  Brassmps hung from the walls, and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as they walked, their shadows rippled, fanlike, across the wall.


    ¡°I assume Ivy told you about Voldemort¡¯s offer,¡± said Daphne as they moved across the tunnel.


    Quinn¡¯s fingers twitched.  He showed no external sign otherwise.  ¡°She did.  It¡¯s an impossible offer.  Dumbledore isn¡¯t going to give the Potters to him.¡±


    They turned a corner, and there ahead of them was the end of the passage.  Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana¡¯s portrait.  Daphne pushed it open and climbed through, and Quinn followed her to find himself in a room that resembled Daphne¡¯s bedroom in her house.  Seeing that made Quinn feel worse because it was clearly a sign that she was seekingfort and safety.


    ¡°How about you stay here and call the others as well,¡± Quinn suggested.  Room of Requirement was the safest ce in Hogwarts, and he knew just what to ask to make it the safest.


    Daphne shook her head.  ¡°It¡¯s better if I stay inside the office.  It¡¯ll be better if we stay in a ce where we can be found.¡±  She took a neatly folded cloth from her robes and ced it in Quinn¡¯s palm.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need it,¡± Quinn tried to give it back.


    ¡°No, use it,¡± she said.  ¡°You can¡¯t be seen in Hogwarts.  It¡¯s better to be safe than sorry,¡± and pushed it back into Quinn¡¯s hands.  She tiptoed to kiss him before saying, ¡°Close the Room before you leave.¡±


    Quinn watched as she exited the Room of Requirements.  He then looked at Recon in his hand.  Did he need it?  Yes¡ª it made his job much easier.  Was he going to ask it from Daphne if she hadn¡¯t given it on her own?  No, he would rather that she keep it.


    He felt like shit.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Knows that it¡¯s only the start.


    Merlin ¨C Portrait ¨C Wow, Hogwarts sure has be depressing.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C  I suck at pacing. I really need to work on it. . . sigh.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 418 Securing Asset

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Harryy in the room alone, staring at the ceiling with a vacant gaze.  There was no energy in his body; he didn¡¯t want to speak, move, or even blink.  Staring at the wall with his mind shut felt the best when he knew there was a group of people, his ssmates, even some of his friends, who wanted to give him to Voldemort so that they would be left alone.  In a position like this, stopping his thoughts was the best relief he could muster.


    He sighed.  It had taken some heated and harsh words from him to his mum and friends to leave him alone.  It had taken an unttering tone for them to give him some space.  By right about now, he usually would be feeling terrible about it, but right now, his mind couldn¡¯t be bothered to go in that direction.


    Harry closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would take over him.  s, the moment he closed his eyes, the empty suite got too loud¡ª the ticking of clocks, dripping of water from the tap, the gentle ring of the chime from the other room¡ª it felt like Sonorus had been cast on everything.  He squeezed his eyes as he smushed a pillow over his ears, and that actually worked as the sounds quietened. . . until he heard a knock on the door.


    He ignored it.  Knocking meant that they didn¡¯t have ess to get inside the room¡ª and thus, they didn¡¯t have ess to him.  But then the knocking changed.  The simple raps on the door turned faster and louder until whoever it was ying a rhythmic beat on the door.


    Even he couldn¡¯t ignore that.  Harry, half-furious, half-bewildered, got up from the bed and made his way to the suite door.  ¡°What the hell do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± he pushed the door open forcefully, but contrary to his expectation of the door hitting the rude person, the door swung wide open on its hinges.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°You weren¡¯t opening the door.¡±


    . . . . .


    Quinn smiled as he responded to the nonplussed Harry and watched as the anger flushed away at his sight.  He had used Recon to find Harry in Hogwarts, and to his luck, the Boy-Who-Lived was alone in Lily Potter¡¯s Professor¡¯s Suite.  Thanks to Recon, he had the password to the portrait guarding the room, and he nned to take Hermione¡¯s form to fool the portrait in case it decided to go alert Dumbledore about his entry.


    But, even before he could arrive in front of the portrait, he sensed an additional wardid parallel to the door.  It wasn¡¯t part of the originalyout and was ced externally afterward.


    ¡°Hello, Harry,¡± Quinn shed a smile.  ¡°I know it¡¯s difficult right now, given what¡¯s happening, but I hope you¡¯re doing well.¡±


    ¡°You. . . what are you doing here?¡± asked Harry, still reeling from the shock of seeing him.


    ¡°I came here to visit you, of course. . .  won¡¯t you invite me in?¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°How did you even get inside Hogwarts?¡± suspicion and caution surfaced on Harry¡¯s features.


    ¡°I will answer all your questions, but let¡¯s sit down before we talk.  I¡¯ve been busy ever since the morning and haven¡¯t had the chance to properly sit down and rest,¡± Quinn said as casually as possible.  ¡°May I?¡± he asked.  He needed the permission.


    Harry eyed Quinn, looking at him with a searching look, but after a moment, Harry stepped aside.<sub></sub>


    Quinn smiled and crossed the threshold without hesitation.  The additional ward was to alert the caster about an unauthorized entry into the room.  Anyone who wasn¡¯t keyed into the ward couldn¡¯t enter without triggering it.  However, there was an easy way to remedy it, and it was to get invited in or obtain permission to enter.  And because Intent was a great part of magic, Harry stepping aside was all the permission he needed.


    He stepped inside, and the portrait door closed behind him.  He had jinxed into being confused so that he could converse with Harry without worrying about giving himself away to the caster, which he presumed was Dumbledore.


    Quinn followed Harry into the living room with a homely aesthetic and sat down on opposite chairs.  He unbuttoned the button of his suit as he sat down.  Transforming his Noir gear frombat mode to a suit was so to make Harry feelfortable.


    ¡°Now answer me, how did you get inside Hogwarts?¡± asked Harry.


    ¡°Not offering me anything to drink. . . No?¡± Harry scowled the more Quinn spoke, so he stopped.  ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter.  As to answer your questions, I have my ways.  If you¡¯re worried about Death Eaters using it, don¡¯t be; they don¡¯t even know it exists,¡± Aberforth Dumbledore was already out of Hogsmeade and under DMLE care.  ¡°Let¡¯s talk about you, Harry.  I came here to see how you are doing.  I heard what Voldemort demanded¡ª how are you taking it?  I hope you¡¯re not letting it affect your health.¡±


    ¡°How do you think I¡¯m talking it?!¡± said Harry scathingly.


    ¡°Not well from what I can see,¡± said Quinn, unbothered.  That was the reaction he was expecting from someone in Harry¡¯s situation.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m the Invisible Vignte, Harry.  I must be present when the Death Eaters are trying to do something.  I was outside Hogsmeade as soon as I got to know about what had happened and have been trying to get inside and elevate this mess ever since.¡±  Quinn peered out of the window in the room.  ¡°It¡¯s terrible out there.  Hogsmeade is crawling with Death Eaters; DMLE cannot get in; Innocent people are scared for their lives.  I haven¡¯t checked what the rest of the country is doing, but I guess it¡¯s in chaos.  I don¡¯t even want to think about how the country is reacting to the news¡ª the economy will suffer for a while after this.¡±  He put on a smile, ¡°Ivy had to call me and ask where I kept the Horcrux so you guys could destroy it in case, you know, I died.¡±


    Harry¡¯s change in expression told Quinn that he hadn¡¯t been told about this fact.  ¡°S-She asked you that?¡±


    ¡°She had to, didn¡¯t have much choice, did she.  Can¡¯t have the maniac running around forever.¡±


    Hearing that from Quinn made Harry go silent.  The irritation and anger that had been present before have taken a back seat.  That was why Quinn had brought it up; he needed Harry to be in a particr state for the conversation to follow.


    ¡°One good thing happened, though,¡± Quinn continued.  ¡°Half of the hostages were released into DMLE custody just before I sneaked into Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°. . . What?¡±  Harry seemed deeply surprised by the shocking news.  ¡°Why would Voldemort let hostages go?  He¡¯s nning something.  He must¡¯ve done something to the hostages,¡± he got up.  ¡°We should warn DMLE about it¡ª¡±


    ¡°Voldemort released the hostages because of me,¡± said Quinn.  Harry, who had already taken steps towards the door, came to a halt.  He turned toward him and still seemed to process what was just spoken.  Quinn continued, ¡°He and I struck a deal, and releasing the hostages was him upholding his part of the deal.¡±


    ¡°You did what?¡± Harry¡¯s voice began to rise.  ¡°You struck a deal with HIM?!  How can you, of all the people, think that dealing with him is eptable?!  He¡¯s going to go back on whatever. . . he has promised. . . .¡±  Harry trailed off as he stared at Quinn.  ¡°What. .  What did you promise him?¡±


    Quinn looked back at Harry silently.  The silence seemed to give Harry the answer.


    ¡°Me?¡± he uttered.  ¡°You promised me?¡±  There was no anger in his voice; instead, there was a strange sense of something that Quinn couldn¡¯t pinpoint.  There was a shock, confusion, fear, hate. . . but everything was shadowed by a convoluted sense of resignation.


    ¡°If I get him to you, he will let the Hogsmeade residents go,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°I¡¯m counting on him to leave after that to spread the news across the country to anyone who would listen.  I can imagine what would happen after that, but at least today will end.  We can. . .¡± Quinn stopped when he saw that Harry was no longer listening.


    He got up from his chair, and his suit changed into Noir gear¡¯sbat mode.  ¡°The deal had been struck; Voldemort has already delivered half of what he has promised.  So if I go back on his deal now, he will kill the rest of the hostages,¡± he said.  ¡°I don¡¯t want this to be more difficult than it already is.¡±


    Quinn sensed the sense of resignation get stronger in Harry as he said, ¡°I can¡¯t say goodbyes, or even see them, can I. . .¡±


    ¡°Do you want to say goodbyes?¡±  That would just make things difficult.


    Harry smiled bitterly, and the hate red up a little, peeking through the resignation.  ¡°How do you think Ivy will react when she finds out that her precious boyfriend,¡± there was venom in his voice, ¡°sent her brother. . . her twin to death.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t show the emotion that Harry was expecting.  But he also didn¡¯t show the opposite reaction to firing back at Harry.  ¡°I¡¯m the biggest mistake she¡¯s made in her life.  I don¡¯t understand why she hasn¡¯t left me already.  I¡¯m too much of a trouble to be in a rtionship.  After this, I¡¯m going to lose her trust, and well, that¡¯s going to be the end of everything. . . . Does that answer your question?¡±


    He turned away from Harry for a moment because his lumency didn¡¯t seem to be working, no matter how much he tried to mp down it.  ¡°Come one, take your wand with you; we are leaving right now,¡± he said.


    ¡°You¡¯re making me walk to my death; the least you could do is to knock me out and not make me suffer in thest moments of my life.¡±


    Quinn nodded, ¡°Yeah. . . Yeah, you¡¯re right,¡± he nodded again.  Quinn turned to Harry, raised his arm, and knocked Harry out cold as he wished for.  He looked down at Harry and sighed.  Harry¡¯s attitude wasn¡¯t going to be optimal for what was about toe.  If ns were going ording to n, he needed Harry to be a little more. . . resistant.


    ¡°Well, not if I have something to say about it,¡± he muttered and levitated the unconscious boy off the ground.  ¡°Not if I have something to say about it.¡±  And he had a lot to say about it.


    Sneaking out of Hogwarts was as easy as getting in.  He got to the seventh floor without being seen, courtesy of Recon.  The Room of Requirement was set up to keep a path open for him because he had to return to Hogwarts.


    As he walked through the tunnel, he had his eyes on Recon.  His steps faltered and eventually slowed down to a crawl when he saw the group of Ivy, Hermione, and Ron move towards the room.  He steeled himself and increased his walking pace.  By the time he reached Hog¡¯s Head, his feet felt like lead, and as much as he tried, he couldn¡¯t keep his eyes off Recon.


    In real-time, he watched as the three entered the suite.  Ivy and Ron settled in the living room, but Hermione made her way deep into the suite. . . and what followed was what he expected.  He stepped into the old inn as he watched the three dots run around.


    He closed his eyes, and with them, Recon.  ¡®Don¡¯t do this now,¡¯ he told himself.  ¡®You have to do this to end all of this.  For freedom. . .¡¯  He resolved himself and walked to the front door


    And that¡¯s why it hurt when he felt the mirror in his pocket buzz.


    It hurt worse when he knew he couldn¡¯t pick up.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C The fall down the hole doesn¡¯t seem to end.


    Harry Potter ¨C Boy-Who-Lived ¨C Darkness before darkness.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 419 Delivery, Door, Death

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    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Voldemort stood on the town hall¡¯s roof alone and gazed at Hogwarts.  The Hogwarts defense ward obstructed his vision from seeing Hogwarts in all its glory, but despite that, he could see it clearly as if there was no ward between them.  After all, the castle was the ce he considered his home.  And it was going to be his symbol of power, his throne, when he took over the country and everything else after that.


    His eyes narrowed a fraction as a white scar slowly burned like the magnesium me on the yellow ward.  He was close to breaking the outer ward; the moment it was down, he and his Death Eaters would gain ess to Hogwarts.  He was sure there would be more defenses¡ª old bat Dumbledore won¡¯t just put a singleyer¡ª but as long as he gained entry, everything could be taken care of much more smoothly.


    He looked down on the roof he was standing on and thought about the people inside.  If he was given what he was promised, they would live to see the next day¡ª but if he got through the Hogwarts ward first, they would be on their way to eternal sleep.


    ¡®Pitful things, going to die tonight,¡¯ he had supreme confidence in his skill after all.


    Voldemort¡¯s face crinkled in displeasure when a foreign object entered his perception.  He turned his eyes to look at the tiny puppet spider that crawled atop the roof from the edge.  Ever since thest one had jumped off his shoulder, none of these pesky things had approached him¡ª this could only mean that the Invisible Vignte had been faster.


    Then as he expected, the distorted voice sounded in his eyes, ¡°I have what you need; let the women and children go.¡±


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t the deal, Vignte.  You were the one who set the conditions of our exchange¡ª half of the hostages before you deliver Harry Potter and the rest after I have him.  I upheld my part of the deal and released half, now give me Harry Potter, and I shall reciprocate in equal.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t trust that you¡¯ll continue to withhold the deal.  I need you to release the rest of the hostages for me to deliver Harry Potter to you.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t trust you too.  How do I know that you have Harry Potter?  I, without a shred of doubt in my mind, believe you don¡¯t have the boy with you.  I should just kill every person in my custody right this moment.  It would take a word from me to make it happen.¡±<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°I have proof that I have Harry Potter with me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s something that can be replicated,¡± Voldemort moved towards the puppet spider.  ¡°Discussions are over; now it¡¯s time for you to know the consequences of crossing me.¡±


    He was about to crush the spider under his feet when he heard the Invisible Vignte voice again, ¡°Three Broomsticks.¡±  Voldemort was expecting more, but nothing else came through.  Then the spider burst into a small firecracker.


    ¡°Three Broomsticks, it is. . .¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    The entrance to Three Broomsticks burst open with the heavy wooden gate flying into the inn.  Before the smoke could even settle, Death Eaters invaded in, barging in with their wands pointed and ready to cast.  They ran through the inn and cleared every corner to check for any upants.


    ¡°It¡¯s clear, my Lord,¡± said one of the Death Eaters.


    Voldemort entered the building and looked around the pub part of the inn that he hadn¡¯t visited since the time Dumbledore had refused him the position of Defense Against Dark Arts Professor.  It had changed a lot since then.


    ¡°A waste of time; I should¡¯ve killed the hostages already,¡± he said.  Voldemort turned away and was about to leave when one of his Death Eaters called for him.


    ¡°My Lord, there¡¯s something here.¡±


    In between an inner part of the seating section, all the tables and chairs had been pushed to the side, creating a wide empty circle.  In the middle of that circle floated a wand shimmering in an ethereal red and gold color.


    Voldemort could tell that the glow was purely for aesthetic reasons, but it seemed to be working as the moment heid his eyes on the wand, he could tell what it actually was.  He stepped into the circle and wrapped his fingers around the wand¡¯s length.<sub></sub>


    !~Woom~!


    Voldemort closed his eyes.  It wasn¡¯t any different from any other wand he had held, excluding his own.  He didn¡¯t even have its allegiance, but despite that, he could instantly feel the connection between him and the wand.  The Phoenix feather inside the wand felt so familiar that for a second, even his magic thought that the wand was his.  But it wasn¡¯t his wand.  Oh no, it was not.


    ¡°Release the hostages,¡± the distorted voice whispered in his ear.


    Voldemort stared at the wand in his hand.  There was no way to replicate this feeling.  Even if the Phoenix gave more feathers now, they wouldn¡¯t be the same.


    ¡°Augustus,¡± he called.


    ¡°Yes, my Lord,¡± responded one of his most cunning, trusted, and without a doubt most skilled retainers.


    ¡°Release the rest of the hostages.¡±


    ¡°My Lord?  I think we shouldn¡¯t give away our¡ª¡±


    ¡°Release the hostages, Augustus.  I won¡¯t repeat myself.¡±


    ¡°. . . If that¡¯s what you wish.¡±  Rookwood exited Three Broomsticks toplete Voldemort¡¯s order.


    Voldemort clenched his fist around the wand until it snapped into half.  He opened his hand and let the pieces fall, but they incinerated into ash mid-fall, and the ashes flew into the air before any could reach the floor.


    That took care of one problem.  With its twin gone, his wand won¡¯t betray him now.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    On a rooftop somewhere in the country, arge group of Aurors stood on the roof of arge warehouse.


    ¡°He wasn¡¯t lying,¡± Kingsley said, looking to the small storeroom in the room.  ¡°There¡¯s a Labyrinth exit, alright.¡±  The door was bright red and was opened.  Looking through it, they could see the inside of a house.


    Robards pursed his lips and frowned deeply.  They now had a way into Hogsmeade through which they could send their forces in, directly bypassing the ward cast by the Dark Lord¡ª but this great boon was provided by a criminal who had used Unforgivables and had made Aurors kill innocent people and had himself killed a child in front of an Auror.


    On the one hand, Robards thought this was just Invisible Vignte could be using them for his own means.  He had been a vigorous opposer of Death Eaters and the Dark Lord and might be using the Aurors to trim the number of Death Eaters down without making a move himself.  But if he flipped the coin, a part of his mind said that maybe the man who had killed at the resort and someone¡ª most probably Death Eaters¡ª was trying to frame him.  But without proof, he didn¡¯t know what to think.  And with the current situation, he had no time to ponder about it.


    ¡°Ready the teams,¡± said Robards.  ¡°We will be going inside.  We need to get the remaining hostages out safely and take down the Death Eaters.¡±  He turned to one of themunication members on the roof, ¡°Ask Senior Auror Potter to tell Dumbledore to enter Hogsmeade¡ª we need his help to handle the Dark Lord.  God, I hope he kills that psychotic maniac.¡±


    ¡°The teams are ready; we just need to ry the assignment to them and let them n for it,¡± said Kingsley.  ¡°We are ready to deploy after that.¡±


    ¡°Wait for Dumbledore to respond.  We will coordinate the infiltration with him.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m returning to Whitehall; you¡¯re in charge, Kingsley¡ª¡±


    There was a loud pop on the rooftop immediately followed by a loud voice.  ¡°Sir, the rest of the hostages have been released!¡± yelled the Junior Auror that had just arrived.


    ¡°What, again?!¡±


    ording to the report, all of the hostages in Hogsmeade had been released.  Everyone was ounted for, and except the three people who had been killed and hanged, everyone else was present and out of danger.  No one else had been harmed inside, and they hadn¡¯t been cursed by some hidden dark spell.  The Unspeakables were observing the hostages in case the Aurors had missed somethingid outside their knowledge.


    ¡°What should we do now, sir?¡± asked Kingsley.


    ¡°Nothing changes,¡± Robards replied.  ¡°We still coordinate with Dumbledore¡ª but now, there¡¯s no need for it to be a covet operation.  We go in strong and wipe them out as swiftly as possible.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Harry snapped his eyes open and found himself staring at the sky, peeking through the canopy of the trees around him.  He sat straight up and groaned, for his chest hurt with a dull ache.  ¡®Why did he hit me so hurt,¡¯ Harry thought as he rubbed the part of his chest where he had been struck with the stunning spells.


    He looked around and wondered where he was.  The sun was about to set, and the sky had already taken over the blue tint of the evening.  He got up and dusted off his clothes.  Just standing there felt ufortable; everything was quiet, too quiet¡ª there was no wind, so the ambiance was missing the rustle of leaves.  Even him shifting on his feet only produced a dull sound.


    Where was Quinn?  He tried to locate his abductor, but the ck-d Vignte was nowhere to be seen.  Why would he leave him here?  Such thoughts passed through his mind.  Then¡ª Maybe I can go. . . a hopeful thought popped in part of his mind, which then became increasingly louder and sounded usible and possible.


    But then he heard a rustle, and he abruptly turned with his heart leaping in his throat.  The rustle was from a bush being pushed aside, and one look dried the hope and optimism in the Well of his heart.


    ¡°Harry Potter. . .¡±  Voldemort entered the clearing, dressed in the dark robes that seemed to be his only clothes as he had been wearing the same when they had met at the graveyard.  He had his hands folded over his wand in front of him.  ¡°You¡¯re here. . . I thought I wouldn¡¯t find you here. . . but here you are. . . finally,¡± he said in his high, clear voice, his eyes on the leaping mes.


    Voldemort stepped forward, and Harry took two steps back.  His nerves jumped when he heard more and more rustling.  Two figures emerged from behind a nearby tree: Their wands red, and Harry saw Betrix and Dolohov peering into him with grins on their faces.  More followed after them, and soon, he was surrounded by masked and hooded Death Eaters forming a loose perimeter around the clearing.


    Every eye was fixed upon him.  Nobody spoke.  Harry, whose heart was now throwing itself against his ribs as though determined to escape the body he was about to cast aside.


    ¡°It seems. . . I wasn¡¯t mistaken,¡± Voldemort stepped forward.


    At that moment, he felt that nobody mattered but Voldemort.  It was just the two of them.  And theck of his wand near his chest made his stomach feel queasy.


    ¡°Harry Potter,¡± he said very softly.  His voice might have been part of the spitting fire.  ¡°The Boy-Who-Lived.¡±


    None of the Death Eaters moved.  They were waiting: Everything was waiting.


    Voldemort had raised his wand.  His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded.  Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted it to happen now, quickly, while he could still stand, before he lost control, before he betrayed fear¡ª


    He saw the mouth move and a sh of green light, and everything was gone.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C Invisible Vignte ¨C Deal is done.


    Harry Potter ¨C Boy-Who-Lived ¨C Green seeing green.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C It¡¯s done.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Health problems really ruin ns.  Be healthy everyone, do take care of your health.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 420 Limbo

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    ¡°My Lord . . . my Lord . . .¡±


    It was Betrix, and she spoke as if to a lover.  Quinn watched the scene from above using the artificial eye.  Voldemort stood in the middle a few steps from Harry¡¯s body, with the Death Eaters standing on the edge of the clearing.  Quinn¡¯s vision solely concentrated on the body thaty prone on the ground.  His heart beat so vehemently that he feared the sound of it would give his position out to Voldemort.


    It was done, he thought.  The most problematic Horcrux of all¡ª the most problematic Horcrux that was ever created¡ª was taken care of.  Harry Potter, the idental Horcrux of Dark Lord Voldemort, was taken care of, and that too by the hands of the creator and owner himself.  The irony provided Quinn a moment of delight and a sense of hope that the next part of the problem¡ª the one on which HIS personal life depended, would also go as smoothly as things had been.


    He clutched his hand around the cold ck stone in one hand as he raised the other to touch the target.  His magic responded to his summons, following his heartfelt desire, obeying his Will, and flowed in two different directions through his arms into his hands.  A broken breath escaped him as he felt the Resurrection Stonee alive in his palm, the masterfully crafted artifact, the only object he had seen that could interact with the mystical entity called soul.


    ¡®You better have not given up,¡¯ he thought, ¡®because I have not.¡¯  He gagged as an otherworldly difort clutched his body.  The Resurrection Stone was contacting his soul, something that wasn¡¯t to be touched by anything or anyone but himself.  It felt like someone was clutching his heart in their palm.  Push on, Quinn told himself, pushing his magic forth through his other hand to touch the other soul that was still tethered to the body, but only bearly.  The magic made contact, and his vision flooded with a stark white light, and at the same time, he lost his connection with the artificial eye looking over at the scene of a teenager¡¯s murder.


    It was overwhelming.  His eyes saw nothing but blinding white. . . no sound reached his ear, not even from inside of his head. . . he couldn¡¯t inhale or exhale. . . he felt nothing yet everything at the same time.  The moment when the overwhelming nothingness passed, Quinn found himself screaming his throat out.<sub>.</sub>


    He stopped immediately.  His legs suddenly gave up, and he stumbled backward until his back met a wall.  Quinn looked around, his eyes swarming at the sudden change of scenery, and saw that he was standing in some sort of a tunnel.  The moment that realization set, loud cheers entered his ears, and he looked to his left to see a bright exit from where the loud noise of people, horns, and drums came from.


    He knew the ce.  The entrance tunnel in the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium opened up to the field.  It was from where the teams entered the field with all the fanfare.  He had been there a few times to recognize¡ª yet it was different. . . . He stood in a bright mist, though it was not like mist he had ever experienced before.  His surroundings were not hidden by cloudy vapor; rather, the cloudy vapor had not yet formed into the surroundings.  The floor on which he stood seemed to be white, neither warm nor cold, but simply there, a t, nk something on which to be.


    Quinn knew he was in the right ce.  It wasn¡¯t King¡¯s Crossing, but it was just as it had been portrayed in the original¡ª


    ¡°Quinn. . . is that you?¡± called a voice.  Quinn looked away from the well-maintained ground outside and turned back to see Harry Potter standing a couple foot from him.  Harry looked around the ce as confused as he was moments before, taking everything that the surroundings gave him so that he could make sense of it.


    ¡°The tunnel?  Where is this, Quinn?  Why does the tunnel look like this?  Was it you who was screaming just now?¡±  Harry looked down at himself and gasped when he found that he was naked.  His hands had just gone to his crotch when a robe appeared in front of him.  He took them and pulled them on.  ¡°What is happening?¡± Harry asked Quinn, looking bewildered.  ¡°Is this the Room of Requirement?  What are those noises; can you hear them?¡±


    Quinn, too, heard the noises.  Odd thumping and whimpering noisesing from somewhere close by in the mist.  Harry turned slowly on the spot, and his surroundings seemed to invent themselves before his eyes.  The other side of the tunnel formed into the way to the dressing room¡ª however, unlike the bright exit, the path to the dressing room was dark, yet at the same time, it was aforting dark with an aura of peace emanating from it.


    ¡°W-What is that?¡± Harry¡¯s voice brought Quinn out of staring at the darkness.  He had spotted the thing that was making the noises.  It had the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, yed-looking, and ity shuddering on the side of the tunnel where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath.


    Harry looked to be afraid of it.  Small and fragile and wounded though it was, it was clear he did not want to approach it.  Nevertheless, he drew slowly nearer, ready to jump back at any moment.  Soon he stood near enough to touch it, yet his hand didn¡¯t move any forward.


    ¡°You should probably not touch it,¡± said Quinn when he saw the self-deprecating expression on Harry¡¯s face.  Harry backed off, but his eyes remained on the ugly baby-like creature.


    ¡°What happened?¡± asked Harry.  ¡°Where is this ce?  I. . . I should be dead.  I¡¯m. . . dead?¡±


    ¡°Straight to the main course, huh,¡± Quinn smiled.  ¡°That is the question, isn¡¯t it?  If you want my opinion, I would say I think not.¡±<sub></sub>


    They looked at each other, Quinn still smiling.


    ¡°Not?¡± repeated Harry.


    ¡°Definitely not.¡±


    ¡°But . . .¡± Harry raised his hand instinctively toward the lightning scar.  It did not seem to be there.  ¡°But I should have died¡ª I didn¡¯t defend myself!  I meant to let him kill me!¡±


    ¡°Thank you for that.  It would¡¯ve been a problem if he used something other than the Killing curse.  You know why, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I let him kill me, didn¡¯t I?¡±


    ¡°You did.  Go on.¡±


    ¡°So the part of his soul that was in me. . .¡±


    Quinn nodded.


    ¡°. . . has it gone?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, definitely.  He fired that Killing curse and burned the Horcrux right off.  Pretty great for all parties concerned. . . excluding Voldemort, of course¡ª it¡¯s pretty bad for him.  And your soul is intact,plete, and in great health.¡±


    ¡°But then. . . but if Voldemort used the Killing curse and nobody died for me this time¡ª how can I be alive?¡±


    ¡°Oh, he took your blood and doomed himself.  He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it.  Your blood¡¯s in his veins, Harry.  Your grandmother¡¯s protection inside both of you.  He tethered you to life while he lives.¡±


    ¡°I live . . . while he lives?  But I thought . . . I thought it was the other way round!  I thought we both had to die?  Or is it the same thing?¡± Harry had clearly been made aware of the prophecy.


    Quinn then began to exin the entire spiel about Harry¡¯s grandmother¡¯s protection, the idental Horcrux that was Harry, their double connection, and everything that had made it possible for Harry not to die at the hands of Voldemort.


    ¡°You knew all that?¡± asked Harry.


    ¡°Uh-huh, you can say that.  I researched the matter extensively, and my instincts always pointed to the fact that you¡¯ll be alright,¡± Quinn looked him up and down.  ¡°Well, it turns out I was right.  It feels good to be right.¡±


    ¡°What is this ce?¡± asked Harry.


    ¡°This ce. . . is the Limbo,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°It¡¯s the ce between life and death.  You¡¯re not dead, but the Killing curse is still a magic that causes the soul to be ejected from the body¡ª your soul¡¯s tie to your body has been loosened¡ª bringing it here.¡±


    ¡°If this is the ce between life and death, how are you here?¡±


    At that moment, Quinn felt the Resurrection Stone materialize in his hand.  He raised his hand and showed Harry the darkest ck in the misty white ce.  ¡°The Resurrection Stone, one of the great Deathly Hallows,¡± said Quinn.  ¡°It allowed my soul toe here,¡± he sighed.


    ¡°You mean the story about the three brothers and Death.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a story based in reality.  Your Cloak of Invisibility, Dumbledore¡¯s Elder Wand, and my Resurrection Stone.  All of them are masterfully crafted artifacts, second to none.¡± Quinn smiled, ¡°Let¡¯s go back home, Harry.  Everyone must be sick waiting for you.¡±


    And that¡¯s when the problem arrived.  Harry didn¡¯t look excited at the prospect of returning.  ¡°What if. . . what if I didn¡¯t want to return?¡± he said.


    ¡°Why would you want that?¡±


    ¡°Even if it¡¯s gone from inside me, it won¡¯t matter to Voldemort.  He¡¯s going to continue toe after me.  I don¡¯t want to live in fear of an unkible monstering for me.  I don¡¯t want to be scared of that every second of my life.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s not unkible.  You and I both know how he can be defeated.  With the Horcrux in you gone, we are one step closer to killing him for good.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.  Dumbledore says there are seven Horcruxes.  We have destroyed the Diary and Ring¡ª three if you include me.  You have another one, but that still leaves three more that we don¡¯t know anything about.  I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll survive until then¡ª so why dy the inevitable.¡±  Harry looked at both sides of the tunnel.  ¡°I can feel that if I go out,¡± he pointed to the exit, I¡¯ll return, but if I go back,¡± he pointed towards the dressing room, ¡°all of this will be over for good.¡±


    Quinn had feared that.  He had sensed from how easily Harry hade with him that it might be a problem to bring him back from the Limbo, that Harry might not choose to return home.  In the fight to defeat Voldemort, Harry¡¯s return wasn¡¯t essential¡ª but for Quinn, Harry¡¯s return meant everything; if he lost him, everything Quinn worked for would go to waste.


    ¡°And what about everyone who loves you, who cares about you.  What about them?¡± asked Quinn.  ¡°You¡¯re just going to abandon them?  What about your parents and Ivy, who care for you?  What about Hermione; If you thought you were never going to escape Voldemort, why did you continue going out with her¡ª you should¡¯ve broken up with her.¡±  If Quinn could have forced him to be alive, he could¡¯ve done it¡ª he had been researching for it, but he hadn¡¯t had enough time to figure it out.  If he couldn¡¯t force him, he was going to go the other way.  ¡°Like it or not, you¡¯re the Boy-Who-Lived.  If you die, Voldemort¡¯s going to win at everything people all around the country are working hard to not let him.¡±


    ¡°So, I¡¯m never going to be free?  I will always be Boy-Who-Lived.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to be free when Voldemort¡¯s dead.  If there¡¯s no Dark Lord, there will not be a Boy-Who-Lived.¡±


    ¡°Wee full circle again.  Voldemort won¡¯t die, and I¡¯ll always be trapped,¡± Harry sighed and began to walk backward towards the dressing room.  ¡°Say my goodbye to everyone. . . and I¡¯m sorry for what this will do to you and Ivy. . . . Please take care of everyone.¡±


    Quinn pursed his lips.  He would lie if he understood where Harry wasing from.  His situation was much too different from anything he had experienced.  He didn¡¯t know what was going on in Harry¡¯s head¡ª but it was clear that the boy had no hope.


    So he was going to give him some.


    ¡°Voldemort can die today.  I can kill him today.¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I can. . . it depends.  Also, guess where I am now.


    Harry Potter ¨C Boy-Who-Lived ¨C I¡¯m really tired. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 421 High Speed Chase

    <h2>421 High Speed Chase</h2>


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    "Voldemort can die today. I can kill him today." The words couldn''t have made Harry stop any quicker. Quinn straightened himself as Harry turned to look at him. This was it, the final chance to make Harry turn back to life.


    "What did you say?" Harry asked, skeptical.


    "You heard me; Voldemort can die today."


    A glint of heat shed behind Harry''s eyes as he took firm steps toward Quinn. "I don''t know what you''re trying to do," he stabbed a finger into Quinn''s chest, "but if this is one of your deceptions, then this is not the time and ce for those things, Quinn."


    "I''m not lying," Quinn swatted Harry''s finger away. "We can put an end to Voldemort today. I want to get rid of him today, bury him in the ground, or better burn the disgusting thing that he calls his body into ash and let them scatter in the sky."


    "Oh, is that so? Please enlighten me on how are you nning to do that, Mr. Invisible Vignte."


    ''A secret is strongest when only one knows about it,'' the thought shed in Quinn''s mind. The moment it was shared, he was going to create a link that could be exploited. . . But, desperate times called for desperate measures. He had to y a risky hand to win. "I know the identity of another one of Voldemort''s Horcruxes. It''s his snake familiar, Nagini¡ª it''s always around him, slithering. . . if we can dispose of her, we can kill Voldemort today. And I know for a fact that the snake is in Hogsmeade," he had read Gerald''s mind, and Nagini was with Voldemort had entered Hogsmeade.


    "Okay, you got one more, so what?" Harry retorted, but Quinn could sense something in his voice, it was weak, but it was there when it wasn''t there before¡ª it was a traitorous glimmer of hope. "What about the remaining two? What are you¡ª"


    There came the time to strike the hammer. "They''re already taken care of," it was short, quick, and spoken with no chance of being misconstrued.


    "You¡ª !!!" Harry''s outburst died before it could even close his mouth after that one word.


    "We just need the snake," Quinn repeated to reaffirm his point. "I can get it today, and then with Dumbledore''s help, we can put an end to the biggest evil that stands in the way of peace."


    "When did you¡ª"


    Quinn again cut Harry off, and maybe they were astral projections in the form of their soul, Quinn''s emotion leaked without him wanting to. "When you were uselessly wallowing in your emotions, thinking someone wille and kiss everything well¡ª I was working hard so that I could put an end to the maniac; I was sacrificing everything good in my life so that everyone else could live a better future! That''s when!"


    Quinn breathed deeply andbed his fingers through his hair as he cooled down. "The point is that you can be free today if youe back to life. Without you, Voldemort will douse the mes of determination in everyone''s mind who fights against him for the just cause." He red at Harry, "I''ll still kill him, even if you don''te¡ª the only difference is that you would''ve wasted away a chance at a life that you always wanted. . . . What is your choice, Harry Potter?"


    Harry nced at the raw-looking thing that trembled on the side of the tunnel. The ugly creature and Harry stared at each other for a silent minute.


    "I don''t know what my sister sees in you."


    Quinn grinned at the look in Harry''s eyes.


    .


    - (Scene Break) -


    .


    Quinn gasped and then coughed as dirt entered his mouth. "Argh!"¡ª every muscle of his body spasmed, and he ended up on his knees. It hurt badly, and Quinn attributed it to his out-of-body experienced. It hurt enough that he didn''t want to do it ever again. The pain, however, went away as quickly as it came, only leaving a dull ache behind.


    Quinn fought through the difort and focused on his magic. He reached out to his artificial eye, and as he expected, it was mid-fall. . . the time flowed differently in Limbo and the real world. He exerted his control back and focused on the forest clearing.


    Harry stilly facedown on the ground. Quinn could sense the slight moments in his body from where he stood and hoped Voldemort didn''t notice. He needed the Dark Lord to drop his guard to make his move.


    ''Stay still!'' prayed Quinn.


    "That will do," said Voldemort''s voice. It seemed that Voldemort had fallen briefly unconscious for a moment just as Harry had been hit with the Killing curse¡ª the eradication of Horcrux might be the cause, thought Quinn. Voldemort returned to his feet: Various Death Eaters were hurrying away from him, returning to the crowd lining the clearing. Betrix alone remained behind, kneeling beside Voldemort.


    "My Lord, let me¡ª"


    "I do not require assistance," said Voldemort coldly, and Betrix withdrew a helpful hand. "The boy . . . Is he dead?"


    There wasplete silence in the clearing. Nobody approached Harry, but Quinn could tell their concentrated gaze; it seemed to press him harder into the ground, and he was terrified a finger or an eyelid might twitch.


    "You," said Voldemort, and there was a bang and a small grunt of pain. "Examine him. Tell me whether he is dead."


    Quinn''s heart soared when he saw the person chosen to check. Maybe it was fate; whatever it was, he was delighted with it.


    "Lucius," Quinn sent a faint whisper through his magic, "tell him that he is dead." He was d that he returned the memories to his spy¡ª but only after Voldemort had thoroughly ''interrogated'' Lucius. Their rtionship hadn''t been the most pleasant since then, but Quinn could bet that Lucius hated Voldemort more than he did him.


    Lucius'' hand froze at the sound of Quinn''s voice, but the double-spy braced himself quickly. He touched Harry''s face, pulled back an eyelid, crept beneath his shirt, down to his chest, and felt his heart.


    The moment was excruciating for everyone.


    "He is dead!" Lucius called out to the watchers.


    ''Yes!''¡ª cheered Quinn.


    And now they shouted, now they yelled in triumph and stamped their feet, and through his artificial eye, Quinn saw bursts of red and silver light shoot into the air in celebration.


    "You see?" screeched Voldemort over the tumult. "Harry Potter is dead by my hand, and no man can threaten me now! Watch this! Cruc¡ª"


    This was it, the moment Quinn had been waiting for. Voldemort was ted, his guard was down, he was mid-spell, there was no better moment than this.


    ''Let''s do this. . .''


    Boom! Crack! Creak! The ground in the clearing exploded as crevices appeared on the ground, spreading out instantly. Everyone within reach stumbled without fail¡ª even Voldemort was shot off-bnce.


    And that''s when Quinn appeared. The ground split, and Quinn jumped out in a dust Noir gear. He had been hiding underground because that was the only ce he thought Voldemort won''t check, and his guess had been correct.


    There were no snarky words, no time to even think. Quinn looked at Harry, and rings made from Empyrean manifested around Harry''s body¡ª they appeared around his wrists, forearm, upper arm, neck, chest, torso, head, thigs, calves, and ankles¡ª enough that Quinn hadplete control over Harry''s body.


    ''Go time.''


    Quinn pumped as much magic as he could muster andunched a storm of air out. The trees around the clearing leaned out, and someone even got uprooted a little as Quinnunched in the air with Harry in tow behind him.


    Every gust of wind that Quinn could possibly control, hemanded to fly as fast as he could because he couldn''t apparate inside Hogsmeade because of the ward. He took to the sky andunched himself towards Hogwarts with every ounce of his strength.


    Then he yelled so that no one could possibly miss it.


    "DUMBLEDORE!!! OPEN UP THE WARD; I HAVE POTTER WITH ME!!!"


    And then he sprinted over the vige, heading towards the castle. Of course, he never expected the short flight from the edge of Hogsmeade to Hogwarts to be easy and without interruption.


    Quinn felt a scorching heat behind him. His heart jacked up, and he immediately steered to the side just in time to miss arge jet stream of horrendous Fiendfyre mes that gashed the sky itself. He didn''t have to look behind to know who it was; his ears did the job for him.


    "Give me that body!"


    Quinn closed his left, and the artificial eye on the back of his mask opened up as the literal eye in the back of his head. He saw the furious Voldemort flying behind him¡ª Quinn couldn''t have hated Voldemort''s ability to fly more than this moment. He pumped more magic into his wind magic and immediately changed his directions, threw in a few zig-zags, and ensured that he didn''t even smell the scent of the Fiendfyre mes.


    "HURRY UP!!!"


    "I will have that body and your flesh!"


    Quinn froze ice bolts the size of trolls and shot them towards Voldemort. There was a little surprise inside them because the moment he was out of reach, the ice exploded, turning them into giant ice grenades that rained shrapnels of death everywhere. Voldemort swept his wand and conjured a shield that turned every ice piece into a soft vapor.


    ''Shit!'' cursed Quinn¡ª but then he saw Voldemort appearing from the parting white mist. ''Mist!'' Quinn eximed.


    Quinn snapped his fingers, and rings upon rings of ck smoke sted and bloomed out from him as the epicenter. In a moment, the entire vige of Hogsmeade was surrounded by a ck thicker than squid ink.


    The next moment, he was by the Hogwarts ward.


    "I! Am! Here!" Quinn pounded on the ward with magic. His throat dried up when his artificial eye showed him the ck smoke splitting, creating a smoke-less path with him on one end and Voldemort on the other end. "COME ON! OPEN THE FUCK UP!"


    As if everything divine answered his call as Dumbledore apparated in front on the other side of the ward; he was flying on a broom because they were above ground. The old Headmaster''s blue eyes shed, and a small portion of the golden Hogwarts ward turned red.


    Quinn never loved Dumbledore more than he loved him now. He immediately flew towards the red part of the ward¡ª Ting! Ting! Ting! ¡ª Bells rang in Quinn''s mind. The snakes that he had sent out to search for Nagini had found the only living Horcrux. . . So many thoughts passed through his mind that, for the first time in so long, his mind was packed with no room for any other thought.


    "Shit! Shit! SHIT!" Quinn grabbed Harry and shoved him through the ward into Dumbledore''s arm. "Close the ward, but don''t go anywhere; I will be right back. I have a snake to kill. . . ." He stared at Dumbledore, and for hisst words, Quinn whispered, "The thing that caused his scar is gone. . ."


    Dumbledore''s eyes widened as expected, but Quinn had no time to appreciate it. He turned to face Voldemort as the ward closed behind him. He opened both his eyes and graced the full menacing presence of Dark Lord Voldemort.


    "Give me the boy''s body," Voldemort said coldly.


    "That wasn''t part of the deal," said Quinn.


    "I am going to kill you then."


    Quinn''s eyes turned purple behind his mask. "I don''t have a liability with me anymore, so I don''t think so."


    It was time for the most dangerous fight of his life.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West - MC - Let''s have a go at it. . . bitch!


    Harry Potter - Liability - WHAT THE HELL!!!!


    Voldemort - Dark Lord - How dare you defy ME?!


    Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Is also overwhelmed.


    FictionOnlyReader - Author - Huh. . . I just realized the story is about to end. . .


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 422 Snake, Curse, Dagger

    Chapter 422 Snake, Curse, Dagger


    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn¡¯s magic flowed in his veins with the beating of his heart. His interests were ring sirens about the danger he was in. The ward felt like a wall behind his back, and even though he was off the ground with all other directions open for him to traverse, it felt like he was backed up in the corner.


    ¡°You could¡¯ve left the body as it was and still be alive by the end of the day,¡± Voldemort looked down at him as he hovered over him, ¡°but you had to interfere foolishly. . . now you have made this thest day of your pathetic life.¡±


    ¡°I can say the same for you,¡± countered Quinn. ¡°Today, because of all of this, could be yourst day on the mortal ne. . . an appropriate end to a life that ended up being bookended with failure.¡±


    Voldemort snorted derisively, ¡°You don¡¯t have Dumbledore to upy me this time, pest.¡± He looked past Quinn toward Dumbledore, who had already flown back into the castle. ¡°I will end your life as you regret ever thinking ofparing magic with me.¡±


    Voldemort raised his wand that had just ¡®killed¡¯ Harry Potter. Quinn sucked in a cold breath as magic rose. It wasn¡¯t the sheer quantity that jittered; it was the speed and smoothness of response that made Quinn bring his magic to the literal tip of his fingers.


    There was a bare twitch from Voldemort¡¯s wand ¡ª ¡°Avada Kedavra!¡± ¡ª before the killing green ripped towards Quinn. As expected of the Dark Lord, he wasn¡¯t ying around as the travel speed of the spell made literally everyone Quinn had ever faced look like they were casting in slow motion. Quinn¡¯s response wasn¡¯t any slower as a bear head made from ice appeared in front of him and gobbled up the Killing curse.-.


    Quinn flexed his fingers, and his magicplied in the form of rings of winds around him, grinding against each other, creating a sharp edge with every rotation. The bear head couldn¡¯t even melt into water for dozens of chakra-shaped discs to fly towards him. Every single one of them could match industrial-grade saws in terms of human shredding power¡ª but all Voldemort had to do was wave his wand like an orchestra conductor for the winds to distort and turn into orbs of battering gales that he sent back to Quinn.


    The wind orbs crashed into an array of hexagonal force fields that shook back and forth as the energy dissipated through the edges in the form of thrumming waves.


    ¡°Trivial resistance,¡± scoffed Voldemort and shed his wand for dark energy to materialize¡ª it looked like the ckish-silver energy had formed a gash in the fabric of space with the way it looked like a knife sh against a taut cloth. Arrows made from the same ckish silver shot out from the gash towards Quinn.


    Quinn brought his hands together, and the various individual hexagons came together to form onerge hexagon that took in beating from Voldemort¡¯s arrows. Both duelists stared at each other as the hexagonal shield turned a brighter red with every hit.


    When the arrows stopped, Quinn spoke, ¡°You can have that back¡± ¡ª a zing red tractor beam screeched towards Voldemort, who crossed his wand to conjure a shield of his own, but the counter made from Voldemort¡¯s own energy was strong enough to push back Voldemort a couple feet and make him furrow his hairless brows. He tweaked his wand, and the shield stopped being pushed back and took in the red force like a mountain. When the attack was over, Voldemort de-spelled his smoking shied, but when he gazed at Quinn, he was nowhere to be seen.


    ¡°Running already?¡± Voldemort said, magic amplifying his voice. The ink-ck smoke still covered the entirety of Hogsmeade other than the line that Voldemort had cleared. ¡°You can only dy the inevitable this way; you might as well give up now!¡± He turned to look at Hogwarts for a moment. ¡°I should end this before hees back. . .¡±


    . . . . .


    Quinn had already ducked into Hogsmeade after returning Voldemort¡¯s magic to him in another form. He had to get away from Voldemort because of the ringing in his head. The various snake scouts he had sent to find Nagini had begun to converge on the giant serpent, making the ringing louder and louder.


    He needed to hurry and kill Nagini before Voldemort could find him. It was going to be tight, but he was confident he could pull it off. He flew just above the buildings so that he wouldn¡¯t collide with something because the ck smoke impaired his vision all the same. He stuck to an altitude and closed in on the location where the snakes were calling him.


    ¡®This is it,¡¯ he stopped but didn¡¯t get down to the ground. He pursed his lips and thought for a moment before raising his hand and shooting a dozen wind orbs in different directions around the vige. And that started the clock¡ª Voldemort would detect the wind magic parting smoke as they were big enough magics and head towards them, so he sent a dozen decoys to buy time. The moment the wind orbs reached where he wanted, he stuck one hand down, created another wand, and snapped his finger for the thirteen wind orbs to expand and push the ck smoke away.


    ¡°Now. . . where are you?¡± he narrowed his eyes and began looking for the exact location in the general he knew Nagini was. Spotting a giant serpent couldn¡¯t be so hard. He gently spread his magic into the air, and as it wafted over, he gained another sense that worked as a radar.


    He lowered his altitude and slowly moved above the streets, trying to sense Nagini, keeping his ears peeled for a slither. That¡¯s when he heard a deep hiss and turned his body to see the snake he was looking for jumping from the edge of the video with her two fangs barred, showing the red of her mouth towards him. Quinn raised his arm, and Nagini dug her massive fangs into him.


    ¡°Not so fast.¡± A wave of magic burst forth and whipped Nagini back. Quinn frowned; his sleeve disappeared to reveal his arm, and he looked at two pin holes in his arm. He put his hand over the holes and pulled it up for dark blood to release from the bite marks. ¡°I¡¯m going to feel thister,¡± he clicked his tongue.


    He dipped into his pocket and pulled out a curved dagger. Nagini, who had been sted into a wall, collected herself and began to flee in a hurry, which surprised him because he was expecting the giant snake toe at him again. He raised his hand, and an Emperyean chain with a cuff manifested out of his palm and mped around Nagini¡¯s neck.


    ¡°Got you,¡± he grinned. Quinn got down to the ground and pumped magic into the chain, and Empyrean expanded to pin half of Nagini¡¯s body to the ground. He touched the t of the dagger de with his finger, and runes glowed on the steel. The dagger was specially made just for killing Nagini; there was a hollow part in the center of the pipe filled with Basilisk venom, and the runes would pull it out towards the surface and inject it out when he stabbed the snake.


    ¡°That¡¯s another one down,¡± he muttered as he walked towards the snake that was a few feet away from him.


    Boom!


    Quinn snatched his head up and saw all the ck smoke disappear at once to reveal Voldemort flying towards him at full speed.


    ¡®Shit! He¡¯s early!¡¯


    He had a choice to make. He could prepare himself for the attack that was about toe and be safe no matter what it could be¡ª or he could kill Nagini and take a chance with Voldemort¡¯s attack, taking a risk with his safety. Many scenarios passed through his mind in a split-second until he made a firm resolution and a n to go along with it.


    He pulled the dagger into his sleeve and faced his now empty palm towards Nagini.


    ¡°Found you, pest!¡± announced Voldemort as he arrived flying.


    Then Quinn chanted ¡ª ¡°Avada Kedava!¡± ¡ª and the green struck Nagini¡¯s head, and the giant snake Horcrux passed away without even managing to get ast hiss or twitch. Quinn looked up at Voldemort and raised his arm, ¡°Your snake bit me¡ª it had iting,¡± he scoffed, ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    Voldemort¡¯s mouth was open in a scream of fury that could be heard across the Hogsmeade. ¡°I WILL KILL YOU!¡± he raged in hatred.


    ¡°No longer pest, eh,¡± Quinn prepared his magic. The shock of seeing his Horcrux being killed gave Quinn enough time to prepare his magic. In thest second, he decided to switch from dagger to Killing curse because he didn¡¯t want Voldemort to be suspicious of why he was stabbing Nagini instead of using a spell.


    Voldemort pointed his wand at Quinn and cast a dark curse with a chant full of fury. The horrendous spell burnt the air itself as it raged towards Quinn, filling the area with a foul burning smell. Quinn pulled up a shield, and it took mere two seconds for Voldemort to break it; Quinn quickly pulled two more shields¡ª the first one was shattered again, but the third one stopped the curse, although it crumbled the very next second.


    Quinn stretched his arms wide and sent two spells into the buildings on either side. The next moment, the buildings blew up into pieces, but the dismantled material didn¡¯t fly apart hazardously; the materials slowed down as they blew out¡ª and then every piece turned a neon maroon and then rushed towards Voldemort. Every single piece had been turned into an explosive, and the moment they got near Voldemort, they exploded in full bloom.


    Quinn took the chance and immediately took to the air. He made a mad fly dash toward Hogwarts, and to his luck, he saw Dumbledore flying on his broom behind the Hogwarts ward. And bless the old Headmaster, as he opened up a part of the ward so that he could enter.


    Quinn headed straight towards the red spot in the golden ward.


    But then there was a loud pop, and Voldemort apparated between him and Dumbledore. The Dark Lord floated with an ominous presence pouring out of him.


    Everything slowed down for Quinn as he tried to change direction. For that moment, everything seemed clear as a diamond, and it was like the world was being with one of the slow-motion cameras.


    Voldemort cast a dark curse, and Quinn saw a dirty mustard yellow curse flow toward him. With his flying speed and no previous thought of pushing the breaks, he moved towards the curse as it moved towards him.


    Crack!


    Voldemort¡¯s spell hit him. Then came the pain. His entire body burned as if someone had thrown a tub of acid over him.


    The curse, however, didn¡¯t stop Quinn¡¯s flight forward. He continued to fly towards Voldemort. Quinn had experienced regr pains during the summer when he had lost his magic, so as Voldemort¡¯s magic tormented his body, his mind remained clear. The desperation for survival kicked in, and the response appeared in his mind.


    The dagger that he had slipped into his sleeve appeared back in his hand, and with all his momentum, he rammed the venomous de into Voldemort¡¯s chest.


    ¡°Aargh!¡± Voldemort screamed.


    Both of them collided and were sent in different directions.


    Quinn had his eyes on the red spot in the gold ward and Dumbledore behind it. He grunted and pushed his magic so he could fly into safety behind the ward¡ª the pain spiked, and he faltered. But then, a rope around his waist, and he was pulled into Hogwarts.


    He cked out but then woke up immediately when he hit the ground. The shock overrode the pain, and Quinn saw Voldemort on the ground outside the ward and yelled, ¡°How do you like that?! You snake fuck!!!¡± He then coughed up blood.


    ¡°Quinn. . . .¡±


    Quinn instinctively turned towards his name being called and saw Dumbledore, along with the other Hogwarts professors standing behind him. Quinn was about to reply with¡ª ¡°What?¡± ¡ª when he realized Dumbledore had called him.


    ¡°Dumbledore! How dare you?!¡± he yelled furiously.


    Dumbledore looked unapologetic; instead, there was a look of worry on his face.


    ¡°Quinn¡ª¡±


    ¡°Shut up!¡±


    ¡°¡ª your mask. . .¡±


    Quinn froze up. His heart began to beat harder and harder. He reached up to his face, and what he felt was not the hard mask he was expecting; instead, his fingers felt the supple texture of the skin.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C UNMASKED


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Status: Unknown¡ª though, furious as hell.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Now that was a happening chapter.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis

 Chapter 423 Injuries

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    The moment he felt the texture of his skin instead of a hard mask, Quinn¡¯s eyes wide in astonishment went to the Hogwarts professors who hade out along with Dumbledore.  The entire faculty core hadn¡¯te outside¡ª obviously, they had left some with the students.


    But that was good, thought Quinn¡ª less number of people who needed to be subjected to Obliviation.  He raised his hands towards them, but then Dumbledore stepped between him and the professors.


    ¡°Get out of the way,¡± said Quinn, his voice hoarse.


    ¡°I can not allow you to do that, Quinn,¡± said Dumbledore.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need your permission!¡±


    ¡°You are hurt, Quinn, you are not thinking correctly. . . I know you feel distressed now, but we should take care of those injuries first,¡± Dumbledore raised his empty hand; at the same time, he had his wand ready in his other.  ¡°It¡¯s a dark curse; if we don¡¯t treat it immediately, it will cause long-term, or worse, permanent damage.¡±


    Quinn gritted his teeth, and his breathing red in anger for a moment before he put his hand down.  He looked down at his left shoulder and saw that the Noir suit over his shoulder and chest had disintegrated away, and the skin underneath had already turned an ugly blue; he scowled when he saw the slight wrinkling in a spot, and even though Quinn didn¡¯t know the nature of the spell, he could guess that it was eating away his body.<sub>-.</sub>


    He spat in anger.  Dumbledore was correct; he needed to treat the injury before it became a problem he couldn¡¯t get rid of easily.  But as he was about to cooperate, everyone jolted at the deep voice from outside the ward.


    ¡°Who could¡¯ve imagined¡±¡ª Quinn turned as his body pained and saw Voldemort getting up from the ground on his knees¡ª ¡°that the Invisible Vignte would be you. . . . ¡± Voldemort straightened his back, and if not for the scowl that marred his face and the dagger sticking out of his chest, no one could tell that he had just been stabbed.  ¡°Quinn West, grandson of George West. . . scion of high society getting his hands dirty as an ouw. . . how unexpected,¡± there was no mirth in Voldemort¡¯s voice, only a deadly cold.


    The Dark Lord reached to his chest and yanked out the protruding dagger with a grunt.  The de on the dagger was thicker than the norm as it was intended for prating scales much sturdier than human skin, not to mention that it was apanied by Basilisk venom.  So it was mind-boggling seeing him not trembling on his feet, coughing up blood, or at least foaming out of his mouth.


    Voldemort raised the dagger and waved his wand over it for the de; it glowed blue.  ¡°What is this?¡± he had seen the Basilisk venom being pushed out of the micro pores in the metal.  ¡°. . . Is it some sort of poison? Against me?¡± he chuckled, but then his eyes turned serious as he raised the de closer to his eyes.  ¡°Basilisk. . . Basilisk venom?  You, how did you get¡ª¡±


    ¡°From the Chamber of Secrets,¡± Quinn spat out the blood in his mouth.  ¡°I took it off the corpse of your pet snake.  How did you like the irony?¡±


    Voldemort seemed surprised, but that only surfaced on his face; his words told another story.  ¡°If it was another person, they would have already sealed their fate, but as you said. . . my pet snake.¡±  He sneered, ¡°This body of my mine is immune to poisons. . . and that includes Basilisk venom.¡±


    ¡°Lie!¡± yelled Quinn.  ¡°I can see it on your face; you¡¯re sweating fountains.  You might be immune to poisons, but no one just bes immune to Basilisk venom.  It isn¡¯t even a traditional ven¡ª Avada Kedavra!¡±  Quinn, mid-sentence, raised his hand and hurled a Killing curse toward Voldemort.


    A silver shield burst forth in front of Voldemort and absorbed the Killing curse.  ¡°Invisible Vignte being impatient doesn¡¯t seem fit with your image. . . however, now that I know you¡¯re but a child, it doesn¡¯t seem as out of the picture.¡±


    Quinn was furious.  Having used anger to provide him thest boost through the pain so he could stab Voldemort was now running rampant inside his body as boiling rage.  The bnce of emotions had been breached.


    He turned to Dumbledore, ¡°What are you doing¡ª AaAAarghh!!!¡±  A sh of pain burst forth in the area he had been hit and infected by Voldemort¡¯s dark curse.  He fell to his knees, keeling over on the ground, hissing and groaning in agony.


    ¡°Quinn!¡± Dumbledore knelt beside him.


    ¡°The more you use magic,¡± said Voldemort viciously, ¡°the more the curse will eat away at you.  Harry Potter is dead, Invisible Vignte will soon be dead, now it¡¯s your time Dumbledore.  The moment I break this ward, I will end you.  Soon, it is time for you to go on the next great adventure.¡±  Voldemort smiled evilly before he apparated away.<sub></sub>


    Before Dumbledore could do anything, Quinn grabbed his wrist with surprising strength.  There was anger crackling in his eyes.  ¡°Kill him right now!  I have all of the remaining!  We can finish him today!  Kill him!¡±


    No matter what Voldemort said, Quinn didn¡¯t buy his im of being Basilisk venom.  The legendary serpent was not an ordinary snake; the venom was as special as the eyes.  Voldemort was a weak point, and with Dumbledore wielding the Elder wand, it was possible that Voldemort could be killed without greaterplications.


    ¡°I will get rid of the remaining ones. . . while you duel him. . . and when you finally kill him. . . he¡¯ll be dead for good,¡± Quinn spoke betweenbored breaths.  ¡°Come on. . . this is. . . a great. . . chance.¡±


    First, Dumbledore¡¯s eyes widened; Quinn felt hope and satisfaction as he knew he had tempted the man enough to take action on the information he had just dropped.  But then, Dumbledore shook his head.


    ¡°No!¡± Quinn pushed the words out of his mouth, ¡°Please, go. . .¡±


    ¡°We need to treat you.  It is already looking bad,¡± said Dumbledore studied the wound, and the flesh seemed to have gotten much worse.  ¡°It¡¯s still on the outside; we can¡¯t let it reach your heart or even lungs.¡±


    ¡°I will be fine. . . Go!¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t take the risk¡ª¡±


    The anger made Quinn¡¯s speech clear up as he smoldered, ¡°You were willing to sacrifice Harry.  What happened to¡ª For the Greater Good, huh?!¡±  Another sh of piercing pain assaulted Quinn¡¯s body.


    ¡°That was because I thought I had no choice regarding Harry,¡± Dumbledore said solemnly as he conjured a stretcher beside him.  ¡°Moreover, you, Quinn, are too much to be sacrificed.  A brilliant young man like yourself is not something I¡¯m willing to exchange against Voldemort¡¯s death.¡±


    Quinn wanted to speak, but couldn¡¯t get a word out; every single one of his muscles felt like they had been pulled taut.  In the moment, he even forgot what he would say or yell in response.  So hey there ring at Dumbledore as he was put on the stretcher and carried away.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Voldemort apparated inside the Hogsmeade town hall, Death Eater¡¯s base of operation.  He staggered to the room that he had taken over as his own and slumped down on his chair.  He scowled in disgust when he felt his robe stick to his skin when he sat down.  He grabbed it, threw it away, and observed the stab wound in his chest¡ª the de had missed his heart.


    He tightened his grip on his wand; it was slipping from his cold and mmy hand.  He touched the wandpoint near the wound and chanted under his breath for the wound to glow in a sparkling blue color like a crack leaking light in a dark room.  ¡°Argh!¡± he groaned as the wound wriggled, dark blood poured out, and then discolored shreds of flesh floated out.


    Even though he had imed it, the truth was, as Quinn West had said, he wasn¡¯t immune to Basilisk venom.  He had never experimented on Basilisk venom immunity¡ª he never thought that he, a Parseltongue, the Heir of Slytherin, would ever need to be worried about being poisoned with snake venom.  The only reason he wasn¡¯t on his way to death right now was that his body was a superior product of magic and rituals¡ª he could simply make modifications to his body and get rid of the venom; simrly, he could evenpletely recover from dark curses.


    The door flung open with a loud, anxious voice full of desperation.  ¡°My Lord!¡± cried Betrix as she rushed towards him.


    ¡°Stay away, Betrix,¡± he ordered, not hiding the annoyance in his voice.  ¡°Keep quiet and don¡¯t breath loudly.¡±  He nced at ex-Unspeakable, who stood near the door, studying him with a critical eye.  ¡°Rookwood. . . I need your help in healing.  You can approach.¡±


    Rookwood walked near him and conjured a chair to sit on.  After a few diagnostic spells, Rookwood spoke, ¡°We should retreat for today, My Lord.  Harry Potter is already dead; we can call this operation a sess¡ª¡±


    ¡°We are not returning!¡±


    ¡°Your injuries are worrying.¡±


    ¡°It seems you didn¡¯t hear me correctly, Rookwood,¡± he red at Rookwood.  ¡°I didn¡¯t say that I need you to heal me; I said I need your help.  I will heal myself, and you will be simple support.  When I¡¯m done, I¡¯m going to go break the ward and kill Dumbledore!  Now, I do as I say.¡±


    ¡°Yes, My Lord,¡± said Rookwood, bowing his head.


    They were about to start when he heard rushed footstepsing towards the room.  The next second, Dolohov appeared at the door with his usual stern expression on his face, but Voldemort could see the tension in his eyes.


    ¡°What is it?¡± he asked.


    ¡°My Lord, one of the scouts, sent in a report,¡± said Dolohov in his deep voice.  ¡°Aurors have somehow infiltrated our ward.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!¡± screeched Betrix.  ¡°How dare they?!  I will cut them down!¡±


    ¡°Be quiet, Betrix,¡± Voldemort could feel a headacheing up.  Aurors infiltrating was a problem.  If he was not injured, he could¡¯ve handled them without a problem with Death Eaters, but he couldn¡¯t dy the healing¡ª Basilisk venom wasn¡¯t something that even he couldn¡¯t ignore.


    ¡°How did they get in?¡± he asked.


    ¡°We weren¡¯t able to identify that,¡± said Dolohov.  ¡°The scout spotted them sneaking around a corridor in the east part of the vige.  Near Zonkos, I believe.¡±


    The ward stood strong, and if it breached, he would know, thought Voldemort.  Which meant that they came another way.  ¡®But where?¡¯ As Voldemort formted alternatives, a jolt of pain broke his immersion, and he cursed the Invisible Vignte¡ª


    ¡°Invisible Vignte,¡± he uttered.  How did he get in?  The most logical answer appeared in his mind the next moment.  ¡°Labyrinth. . . he must¡¯ve informed them of a door that he must¡¯ve left,¡± he gritted his teeth.  Damn Wests!  They were being a thorn in his side.


    Voldemort conjured a fresh set of robes over his body, and he already could feel it getting drenched.  He suppressed a groan as he got up.


    ¡°We can take care of them.  You should stay put, My Lord,¡± said Rookwood, standing up as well.


    ¡°I¡¯m bringing down the ward,¡± said Voldemort, and that was enough for all three Death Eaters in the room to understand what he meant.  ¡°Ready everyone; tell them to prepare themselves.  Betrix, follow me out.¡±


    He staggered outside the town hall and stared up at the ward he had set up.  He raised his wand up and, with a grunt, shot a single shot of magic up in the sky.  The silver spell left behind a shimmering trail as it climbed itself towards the sky, and when it reached the ward boundary, the spell got absorbed into it, and then slowly, the ward began to shrink.  The boundary over Hogsmeade turned translucent and rapidly shrunk until the ward was only covering the Hogwarts territory.  Dumbledore would start emptying the damn castle out if he left Hogwarts unchecked.


    ¡°Arm,¡± he ordered.


    Betrix rolled up her sleeve and presented her arm marked with the Dark Mark to him.  He grabbed it and pressed his wand over the tattoo.  She hissed, but he kept pushing magic in.  Dark clouds began to gather in the sky, with thunder crackling across the valley.


    He felt the spatial fabric wrinkle and ripple until everything scrunched up before stretched out to taut and then went back to normal.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see how the Aurors feel now,¡± he said as he stared at the Giants looming over the buildings.  He smiled through the pain when he heard the howls echo around the vige and could sense the bloodsuckers duck in and out of shadows.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Anger running rampant.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Venom!


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C If it was someone else, they would¡¯ve done as Rookwood suggested.  But I feel like Voldemort would push forward; that¡¯s why I didn¡¯t make him retreat.  The other scenario was Quinn provoking Voldemort by telling him that Harry was still alive so that he wouldn¡¯t leave, but I decided against it.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 424 [Untitled]

    Chapter 424 [Untitled]


    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe it!¡± Harry flinched when he felt the cold balm touch his chest and hissed when Poppy Pomfrey rubbed it over the bruise. ¡°There isn¡¯t a remedy for bruises caused by Killing curses,¡± said the Matron in an utterly done tone as her expert hands applied the balm, it still hurt nevertheless. ¡°Do you know why? Because people don¡¯t require bruise balms after they¡¯re hit with it. They usually end up dead and don¡¯t have to worry about it!¡±


    The snarky tone of Poppy¡¯s voice made Harry flinch more than the bruise.


    ¡°How did He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named even get you out of the castle?¡± she asked. Harry had been brought into the hospital wing just a few moments before by Dumbledore, who had told her Harry¡¯s condition before bolting out. Many professors knew he was missing from the castle, but they didn¡¯t know how he had been taken out. And he hadn¡¯t opened his mouth yet.


    He turned and saw Lily and Ivy sitting beside his bedside; both of them looked tired, worried, and yet relieved. ¡°Harry, if you¡¯re feeling anything wrong, please tell Madam Pomfrey; don¡¯t hold anything back; even the smallest of problems can worsen into terrible issuester,¡± said Lily with a heavy worry in her voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine¡ª¡± he cleared his throat when his voice cracked ¡°¡ª I¡¯m fine, mum. Except for the bruise, I don¡¯t feel anything wrong with me. . . Can I get a mirror,¡± he asked.


    Lily looked confused but conjured a hand mirror for him anyway. Harry pushed his fringes up and stared at the scar that had always been with him since the fateful day. ¡°It. . It¡¯s less red than usual,¡± he uttered.


    ¡°It is?¡± said Lily.


    Harry nodded. No one knew his scar better than he did. He looked at it every day in the mirror while setting his hair so that he could hide it and checked on it a couple times every day to make sure that people would have one less reason to stare at him.


    ¡°It¡¯s gone, mum, it¡¯s gone,¡± he looked at Lily and could feel his eyes blur, ¡°it¡¯s really gone,¡± he said before his throat caught up again. ¡°He hit me with a Killing curse, and instead of me, he killed it. He killed it by his own hands.¡± Before he knew it, he was sobbing in Lily¡¯s arms, hearing her whispering in his ears as she rocked him back and forth gently.


    ¡°How did Voldemort get you out of Hogwarts?¡± asked Lily.


    Harry gathered his thoughts as he rubbed his eyes. Even though he had just gone through it, and every moment was burned in his mind, he needed a few moments to put everything into words. But before Harry could even start, Ivy said, ¡°He took you out, didn¡¯t he? He came in, took you out, and gave you to him,¡± Harry could sense a wave of anger simmering just under the surface, and he knew nothing was going to stop it except a barefaced lie. Which wasn¡¯t going to stand when Dumbledore returned..


    He could only nod.


    ¡°Bastard!¡± she yelled, and everything around them rattled. Madam Pomfrey¡¯s healer bag even floated for a moment before falling back on the bed, tipping over for the vials to drop on the floor.


    ¡°Ivy!¡± Lily was shocked at the sudden outburst of idental magic.


    ¡°I knew it, I knew it, I shouldn¡¯t have trusted him,¡± she said furiously, but there were already tears streaming down her cheeks.


    ¡°Ivy, it¡¯s okay,¡± Harry couldn¡¯t believe he was speaking for him. ¡°It was the only way Voldemort could be made vulnerable. He has the rest of the Horcruxes; we just need to destroy them, and then Dumbledore can kill Voldemort.¡±


    ¡°Ivy, Harry, what are you talking about?¡± asked Lily, frowning.


    Harry stared at Ivy, trying to see if she would tell her. But she didn¡¯t even look up at him, staring down at her feet with her hair acting as a veil.


    ¡°Invisible Vignte was the one who brought me back to the castle,¡± that much was evident from the way he asked for Dumbledore¡ª just like Voldemort had transmitted his voice, ¡°but he was also the one who took me out to Voldemort.¡±


    Harry couldn¡¯t feel what Lily was feeling just by looking at the expression on her face.


    ¡°And?¡± she looked towards Ivy. What he said didn¡¯t warrant Ivy¡¯s reaction.


    ¡°. . . Invisible Vignte¡¯s real identity¡ª¡±


    ¡°Poppy!¡±


    Dumbledore¡¯s voice filed the hospital wing. Harry and others couldn¡¯t see Dumbledore because of the curtains, but they heard the flurry of footsteps until he appeared in their view. Everything was chaos. Harry saw Dumbledore wave his hand, and the curtains beside their bed were pulled aside, and a stretcher floated behind¡ª he saw a sh of ck before Poppy and Dumbledore had unloaded the stretcher on the bed.


    It was then that he was able to get a good look. Poppy and Dumbledore stood in his sight, but he could see between them at a body dressed in ck.


    ¡°Harry!¡± called Lily when Harry got up from his bed.


    He walked to the bed beside him, stood in front of him, and stared with wide eyes at Quinn lying on his bed, his eyes closed, with a hole in his clothes over his shoulder and chest where the skin looked like it was about to fall off. Quinn¡¯s chest heaved erratically, his face was twisted in agony, he was kicking his feet, and his fists were clutching the sheets.


    ¡°Dumbledore, what is this?¡± asked Poppy as she waved her wand over the wound. ¡°Why is Quinn like this?! What happened to him?!¡± Her movements while professional; her expressions were terribly painted in worry as she looked over Quinn.


    ¡°Voldemort hit him with a dark curse. I need you to keep him stable while I brew him an alchemic potion. This is serious, Poppy, you can¡¯t let his condition worsen, or we might lose him.¡±


    ¡°Why is dressed like¡ª¡±


    ¡°Not now,¡± said Dumbledore in a firm voice, ¡°keep him stable.¡± He walked away and gave Harry a brief look as he passed him by; Dumbledore¡¯s eyes trailed towards his scar all the while he was looking at him.


    Harry followed Dumbledore with his but froze when he saw Ivy standing right beside him. She was staring at Quinn with unblinking, wide eyes.


    ¡°Ivy,¡± he reached out to her shoulder and was jolted when he felt her shaking. He called her again, but she didn¡¯t respond and continued to tremble. Then she suddenly pushed his hand aside and abruptly walked deep into the hospital wing. Harry continued to call out to her and followed her, but she didn¡¯t even turn. ¡°Ivy, what¡ª!!!¡± He entered Madam Pomfrey¡¯s office, where Ivy had walked, and found her sitting alone, shrinking into herself.


    ¡°It¡¯s too much,¡± she barely whispered with her head in her palms. ¡°Why. . . Why is this happening? I thought I lost you. . . now I¡¯m about to lose him.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to lose him. Dumbledore said he¡¯s brewing a potion. Quinn¡¯s going to be fine.¡±


    A loud scream filled with pain sounded out outside. It was Quinn. Harry cursed the timing; it was the worst possible moment for him to scream.


    Ivy began to mutter ¡®No¡¯s repeatedly. ¡°I-I haven¡¯t s-seen him like this ever.¡±


    Harry felt his stomach drop. She was spiraling, and he didn¡¯t know what to do. But he had to do something; he had to say something. ¡°Ivy¡ª¡±


    ¡°Quinn, what are you doing?!¡± Poppy¡¯s voice rang outside.


    Ivy immediately got up and rushed outside, with Harry following after. Outside they saw Quinn on his feet; he had walked to the middle of the room. Lily and Poppy stood in front of him, trying to stop him, but he continued to take slow steps forward, and maybe because he was injured, neither Poppy nor Lily were physically moving him back to bed.


    ¡°L-Let. . . me. . . go,¡± said Quinn, his words barely making it out of his mouth.


    ¡°Are you mad?!¡± yelled Poppy. ¡°Get back on that bed! You¡¯re in condition to be standing!¡±


    ¡°¡®m. . . fine.¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯re not!¡±


    Quinn took another step forward, but it looked like his legs gave out because he was suddenly leaning to the side. Harry saw a rush of red sh past, and the next second, Ivy was standing beside Quinn, supporting him before he could fall. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.


    ¡°Ivy,¡± said Quinn, his voice now cracking.


    ¡°. . . What are you doing,¡± said Ivy; she wasn¡¯t looking at him. ¡°You¡¯re causing everyone trouble.¡±


    ¡°Sorry,¡± he uttered, ¡°I need. . . your ¡®elp.¡±


    ¡°. . . What do you need?¡±


    ¡°Ivy!¡± eximed Poppy in deep disapproval, but she was ignored.


    ¡°I. . . need you. . . to put. . . me in. . . Great Lake,¡± said Quinn.


    There was silence in the hospital wing. All themotion which was creating the noise suddenly died with Quinn¡¯s words. Ivy, who had looked resolute about helping Quinn, looked confused and doubtful. ¡°Put you in the Great Lake?¡± she repeated to confirm.


    Quinn nodded.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°I need. . . water. Put. . . me. . . in water.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    Quinn frowned and stared at Ivy, but she remained unperturbed. ¡°Water will. . . heal me,¡± he said.


    ¡°I can heal you,¡± Poppy interjected; the Matron looked angrier whenever anyone spoke. ¡°I think the curse is affecting his thinking; let¡¯s get him back to the bed.¡±


    ¡°. . . Ivy, please,¡± said Quinn.


    Ivy studied Quinn for a moment, ignoring Lily and Poppy, who were trying to persuade her to lead Quinn to the bed. ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± she said firmly. ¡°How do you want me to take you?¡±


    ¡°Stretcher.¡± Ivy conjured a stretcher beside Quinn and gentlyid him down on the stretcher.


    ¡°I can¡¯t let you pass,¡± said Poppy, pointing her wand; even Lily brandished her wand, her eyes studied both Ivy and Quinn.


    ¡°Madam. . . Pomfrey,¡± said Quinn, his body twitched and ticked as he spoke. ¡°I. . . won¡¯. . . die. I. . . promise. Tea time. . . next week?¡±


    Poppy looked conflicted. She didn¡¯t lower her wand and frowned as a storm of emotions passed through her face. Quinn continued to look at her, and it was clear he was struggling to keep his face free from pain. She lowered her wand and just looked away. Quinn turned his gaze to Lily but then lowered it, looking away.


    ¡°Mum,¡± said Ivy, ¡°if we don¡¯t hurt, his condition will continue to worsen.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t¡ª¡±


    Harry cut Lily off by saying, ¡°Let them go, mum. He knows what he is doing. He¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    Ivy levitated the stretcher and passed Lily by as the mother watched with conflicting emotions on her face. She turned to Harry and demanded, ¡°You need to exin. . . everything. . . now.¡±


    Harry sighed. All he wanted to do now was to go sleep, but he knew that wasn¡¯t going to happen.


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    Ivy and Quinn arrived on the bank of the Great Lake. Even with everything going on, the Lake and the water in it were serene, painting the sky on its surface.


    ¡°What now? Do you want me to put it in the water?¡± asked Ivy.


    Quinn weakly raised his hand and patted his chest. The fabric on the Noir suit shrunk, and in a couple seconds, the ck suit had turned into a triangr patch on Quinn¡¯s chest, leaving him in his underwear.


    ¡°Just. . . in case. . . give. . . it to. . . Dumbledore,¡± he said. ¡°Horcrux. . . inside.¡±


    ¡°What-What do you mean just in case?!¡± Ivy, who had knelt down, stood up and eyed the Lake critically.


    The stretcher suddenly moved on its own without Ivy¡¯s prompting and descended into the water.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be. . . back,¡± said Quinn with half-lidded eyes. ¡°¡®m. . . sorry, for. . . Harry.¡± He went into the water right after the sentence ended.


    Ivy continued to watch the water and when it calmed down, she muttered,


    ¡°Coward.¡±


    If Quinn could listen, he would¡¯ve wholeheartedly agreed.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C In the worst condition of his life.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Soon, it all ends.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 425 Vault Healing

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn sunk into the waters of the Great Lake, and what would always be a peaceful experience offort and familiarity was today one of difort and pain.


    A raging frown marred his face as he worked his magic to create an air pocket around him to keep water out.  He grunted bubbles as a throbbing pain clutched his body as Voldemort¡¯s dark curse reacted to his body and plunged every nerve in him into excruciating agony.  For someone like Quinn, the curse was a nightmare¡ª pain every time he used magic brought back some nasty memories from the post-Sin curse aftermath.


    The water parted around him until the area below his chin and above his waist was void of contact with water.  He couldn¡¯t let water touch the injury was worsening every minute, and because of the condition of his body, he couldn¡¯t transfigure due to theplications that woulde with it.  He made his way down towards thekebed with pain spiking all over his body with his wound burning hot.


    As he sank downwards, Quinn heard a sound that he heard a dulled sound move towards him.  He opened his eyes to see a giant tentacle pass over him that blocked all light from reaching him.  His long-time friend hade to greet him.


    ¡®If only you were and-based animal,¡¯ he thought¡ª he would have. . . Released the Kraken.


    The Kraken tentacle moved, and the thick tip that had smashed into him countless times.  ¡®Shit!¡¯  Immediately, he pushed his magic out into the water, and it took a lot of it¡ª thus a lot of pain¡ª to send a message through the water.  In the years he had fought against the Kraken, he had found a way tomunicate with the Kraken by using bursts of water waves to convey simple messages.  It had taken trial and error along with repetition, but he was able to teach the Kraken.


    It was as he suspected, a split second before he sent the message, the tentacle came rushing down at him, full attack mode, and only stopped a few feet away from him when the Kraken registered his message.<sub>.</sub>


    He sent more messages out to the Kraken with greater difficulty due to the limited vocabry and the constant searing pain.  The tentacle floated above him, and Quinn felt the Kraken¡¯s entire move in the water, presumably near him¡ª it was observing him; after a moment, the tentacle moved away from his sight.  Then continued the slow dive to thekebed, and soon he was near the entrance to the Aquatic Vault with the Kraken now way near the tunnel as it usually was.


    He let himself fall through the tunnel and pulled himself up from the other side with great difficulty.  The Aquatic Vault was the same as it was thest time he had been here, but right now, he had no time to indulge in nostalgia and headed towards the entry to the first room, Poseidon¡¯s Wrath.  The safety teleportation water bubble came out of the entrance and sponged into his arm, leaving behind a tattoo that would teleport him back to outside the trail rooms.


    And then began the most difficult part of the day.  He had to go through terrible trials and knew that every single one of them was going to hurt.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Ivy stared at theke¡¯s still surface as she had been doing for the past who knows how much time.  Every time there was a ripple, she jumped to her feet, thinking it was Quinn.  It had happened so many times that she would not jump anymore, but the anxiety never vanished, and even now, she felt herself at the edge.  She didn¡¯t know how much time had passed, but with each passing moment, her anxiety grew.


    ¡®I should have never let him go into theke,¡¯ she thought with regret.  Poppy was a medi-healer and would, of course, know better¡ª she should¡¯ve listened to her.


    Ivy closed her eyes and rested her head on her bent knees.  She was alone at a time when she would rather not be withoutpany because the silence and nothing to distract herself gave her mind time to think about how the day had been.  Ever since she had been woken up early in the morning to be told that Voldemort was nning a siege on Hogwarts to the horrifying realization that her brother wasn¡¯t in the castle to see her boyfriend being tormented by a dark curse¡ª reflecting back on such a day was thest thing she wanted to do now.


    She had to experience people who she had known since she was eleven gather in the Great Hall and demand that she and her family be sent to their doom; even though most of them weren¡¯t her friends, it still hurt how you could spend seven amicable years attending the same sses, eating on the same tables, and spending their days in the same building meant nothing when life took a difficult turn.  It hurt seeing her twin, the one person who had been with her and understood her the most, being at the lowest she had seen him; seeing Harry resigned to whatever decision others made broke her heart¡ª and it hurt worse when she who could get across him no matter what couldn¡¯t make him feel better.


    She felt dirty when she had to ask Quinn the Horcrux¡¯s location.  Yes, it was a logical course of action; the situation was dangerous, and if Quinn died, the Horcrux would be lost until it could be found again; a weakness of Voldemort wasn¡¯t something they could bear to lose.  She was in the right to ask for it. . . but that didn¡¯t make it any easier¡ª it was epting the possibility that he could die, something that churned her stomach every time she thought off. . . . And now she had it, thought Ivy, as she clutched the triangr white patch in her hand.


    Then there was the anger and helplessness that made her entire restless.  She felt helpless and useless that there was nothing she could do to help or even alleviate the situation even a little.  She felt angry that Quinn was the one who had taken Harry to Voldemort.  She felt betrayed.  She didn¡¯t want to forgive him, not this time¡ª but at the same time, a part of herself felt that she should forgive him because now Harry was free from Voldemort¡¯s Horcrux¡ª it was like two sides were fighting in her mind, she didn¡¯t want to feel this way, it felt terrible.<sub></sub>


    Ivy was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of rushed footsteps.  She raised her head and turned back to see Daphne half-running towards her with a panicked expression on her face.


    ¡°Where is he?¡± asked Daphne before she even stopped.


    Ivy let Daphne catch her breath before answering, ¡°Inside theke.¡±


    ¡°What is he doing in there?  I heard that he was hit by a dark curse,¡± Daphne stepped closer to the edge of theke.


    ¡°He said that he can heal inside water. . . I think he went into the vault.¡±


    ¡°The one guarded by the giant squid?¡±


    ¡°The Kraken. . . but yes, that one.¡±


    Quinn had told them about the Cursed Vaults he had explored when he was in Hogwarts.  Ivy herself had seen the Architect¡¯s Vault.  The reason she had agreed to take him to the Great Lake was that she knew there was another Vault underwater and thought there was something in there that would help heal him.


    ¡°How was he?¡± asked Daphne.


    Seeing Daphne so tense and uneasy made Ivy feel good.  There was someone besides herself who was feeling as bad himself and that she knew what Daphne desperately sought.  A terrible thought, but it didn¡¯t feel like it.


    ¡°He wasn¡¯t in good shape,¡± she said.  ¡°The curse was eating him from the inside and out.  It worsens when he uses his magic.  He could barely speak when Dumbledore brought him to the hospital wing.  Dumbledore is brewing a potion for him.¡±


    ¡°Will that cure the dark curse?¡± asked Daphne with hope.<sub></sub>


    Ivy shook her head, ¡°I don¡¯t know. . . he didn¡¯t say if it would cure him or simply help a little.  He asked me to bring him here, so I did,¡± she clenched and uprooted a fistful forcefully just to relieve some tension.  ¡°How did you know where to find us?¡±


    ¡°A house-elf told Luna.  He knew both Quinn and Luna, so when he saw the injured Quinn, he came to tell Luna. . . I asked about Quinn, and the house-elf told him that you had brought him here,¡± said Daphne sighing.


    Ivy hummed.  Except for Quinn¡¯s magic-fueled call for Dumbledore, things had been kept under tight wrap by Dumbledore.  So the exnation made sense.  She was about to ask Daphne if she had talked to Quinn after they had told him about the situation so that she could take Daphne¡¯s mind off of things, but then a thought passed her mind that scrapped the ns tofort Daphne.


    She looked up at her blonde rival and asked in a quiet voice, ¡°Did. . . did you help Quinn get into Hogwarts?¡±  Ivy kept her voice as usual as she could.


    ¡°Yes,¡± said Daphne distractedly, her eyes focused on theke.


    ¡°How?¡±


    Daphne told her about the route between the Room of Requirements and Hog¡¯s Head Inn in Hogsmeade.  Then Ivy asked the question that she actually wanted to ask.  ¡°Did he tell you why he wanted to get into Hogwarts?¡±


    ¡°No, he didn¡¯t.  I presume he met with Dumbledore.¡±


    Ivy narrowed her eyes.  She said, ¡°He gave Harry to Voldemort.¡±


    Daphne finally looked away from theke and fixed her eyes on Ivy, giving her full attention.  She didn¡¯t say anything, and Ivy frowned at the stone-faced expression that had appeared on Daphne¡¯s face after she had been distracted from her worries¡ª why did her resting face have to be so hard to read, thought Ivy.


    ¡°If you¡¯re implying I allowed Quinn entry into the castle knowing that h was going after your brother, then you¡¯d be wrong.  As I said, I had no inkling of what he was nning; I merely assumed that he wanted to meet with Dumbledore,¡± said Daphne.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t seem surprised when I told you he took Harry.¡±


    ¡°I had made my assumptions when I heard themotion outside. . . . How is Harry?¡± she asked in the end.


    ¡°He¡¯s fine,¡± said Ivy.  It was awkward that she couldn¡¯t exin theplete situation because Daphne wasn¡¯t privy to the knowledge of the prophecy and Horcruxes.  ¡°He had a reason behind taking Harry out.¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± said Daphne, her gaze back to theke.


    Ivy wanted to ask how did she know, but one look at Daphne, and it told Ivy that Daphne simply trusted Quinn enough to see that he must have a reason.  Ivy felt an envy bubble up inside her.


    There was a pop, akin to apparition, that startled both girls.  Their hands immediately went to their wands that they whipped towards the source.  Had Voldemort breached Hogwarts ward, and the Death Eaters were able to apparate inside Hogwarts.


    ¡°At ease, you two,¡± said Dumbledore.


    It wasn¡¯t the case.


    ¡°Where is Quinn?  I heard from Poppy that he demanded to be brought here,¡± he asked.


    ¡°Inside theke,¡± said Ivy.  ¡°It has been a while.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Dumbledore took out a couple of vials with vibrant potions inside.  ¡°I have brewed some potions that will help him.¡±


    ¡°Thank you,¡± said Daphne.


    ¡°Did he say when he might be returning?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    Ivy shook her head.  But then she remembered.  ¡°Here, Quinn gave this to me. . . it has the Horcrux,¡± she handed the white patch to Dumbledore.  She didn¡¯t care if Daphne found out.


    But before she could pass it to him, the Great Lake exploded.


    .


    -* -*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Get¡¯s get fixed.


    Ivy Potter ¨C Conflicted ¨C Helpless


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Initially, I was going to make Quinn use Blood magic to suck some blood out of Daphne to heal himself¡ª getting inspired by the vampire.  But the story flow restricted from me to use that. . . sadge.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 426 Plan of Action

    Chapter 426 n of Action


    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    Theke exploded, and the water burst upwards like a thermal geyser, spraying water everywhere. Dumbledore swept his hand to create a barrier that stopped the errant water from soaking him, Daphne, and Ivy.


    The spraying mist settled, and a white mist lingered over theke that quickly thinned and showed the figure of Quinn walking on water¡¯s surface. He wore no clothes other than his underwear as he stepped ontond and raised his hands towards Ivy.


    ¡°Clothes, please,¡± he said.


    Ivy, who was about to hand the Noir patch to Dumbledore, silently handed the white triangle back to Quinn.


    ¡°Your wound,¡± said Dumbledore, eyeing the exposed red gash that looked like the shallow crater blown away from an explosion and the grey and purple skin surrounding it that extended all over his left chest and front shoulder. ¡°It looks better than before,¡± he nced at the Great Lake.


    ¡°It only looks better,¡± Quinn had a very faint furrow between his brows. ¡°I can still feel the magic corrupting and corroding my body.¡± Even after spending three-quarters of an hour inside the Aquatic Vault¡¯sst room hadn¡¯t gotten rid of the effects of the dark curse. ¡°I have only revered the damage a bit, but the curse is still firmly there. My body will continue to suffer the more I use magic,¡± he spat.


    ¡°I believe I can help with that,¡± Dumbledore raised the vials. ¡°Drink these two. . . and apply this one on the wound, cover it up.¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t even ask what the potions were or what was in them; he consumed and applied them as Dumbledore instructed. It wasn¡¯t the time to discuss(or argue) medicine with Dumbledore. As he was healing, so was Voldemort; the more they waited, the more time they were giving for him to recover.


    ¡°I can feel it working,¡± noted Quinn as he felt a warmth spread through his body while the searing hot wound cooled down.


    ¡°The faster a dark curse ailment is treated, the better chance it will recover withoutplications. Whatever you did in theke seems to have pushed the curse¡¯s effects back¡ª it has made it like you were treated the very moment you got hit by the curse,¡± said Dumbledore. ¡°What I gave you won¡¯t cure youpletely; that will take a long course of treatment to get rid of the dark magic seated in your body. . . but it will do for now.¡±


    ¡°We will worry about thatter,¡± Quinn fused the end of the bandage he put on himself into the rest of it. He gently ced the Noir patch in the middle of his chest, and it sprung into thebative gear mode. The hole where he had been hit was still there, but Quinn tapped the triangle again for the corrupted and damaged to fall off before Noir used extra fabric charmed into it to fix itself. ¡°Right now, we need to strike Voldemort while he still has the Basilisk venom in his body. I don¡¯t know the exact physiology of his body, but seeing how much he loves snakes, I¡¯m sure he will eventually recover from the venom. Now is the time; we should kill him while he is at his weakest.¡±.


    Quinn red at Dumbledore, daring him to say otherwise.


    ¡°. . . You seem angry,¡± said Dumbledore.


    ¡°I am,¡± said Quinn directly. ¡°I almost died. I am absolutely livid.¡± Moreover, because he drew power from anger, the emotion was still bubbling inside him even after he had taken the time to cook himself. Because of it, he could feel and hear a heavy heartbeat thumping in his chest. He needed the power he was feeling right now. ¡°I have a n. I want you to upy Voldemort while I weak¡ª¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, we have another problem at hand,¡± said Dumbledore.


    Quinn scowled, ¡°What possibly could be more problematic than Voldemort?¡±


    ¡°The Death Eaters,¡± said Dumbledore, confusing Quinn. ¡°Aurors have infiltrated Hogsmeade,¡± Quinn knew that because he was the one to give them passage, ¡°Voldemort must have found out because he withdrew the ward over the vige and then summoned his allies.¡±


    ¡°Allies, who?¡±


    ¡°I could clearly see Giants and Trolls. Other than that, I believe he has summoned Vampires and Werewolves.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s frown deepened. He had overlooked the possibility of other species being part of the equation after he had only seen human Death Eaters in the vige. ¡®Death Eaters couldn¡¯t win against thebined forces of Aurors and Hit Wizard, but I thought he was confident in tipping the advantage in his favor all by himself,¡¯ he thought, knowing Voldemort¡¯s personal battle power, but it seems Quinn hadn¡¯t thought things threw. ¡°Are you sure they can¡¯t handle it by themselves?¡± he asked¡ª he wanted to end Voldemort as soon as possible.


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe they can. . . at least they can¡¯t without substantial casualties.¡±


    Quinn¡¯s mouth turned into a white line. He looked at Dumbledore and asked, ¡°What do you suggest?¡± Dumbledore had experience with wars and had life experience much richer than Quinn; he was better equipped to handle the current situation than him.


    ¡°I will head out and aid the Aurors. . .¡±


    ¡°What about Voldemort? He won¡¯t sit back and let you take care of his forces.¡±


    ¡°I will deal with him as well. Right now, you need to let the potions work and rest¡ª¡±


    ¡°Not happening. I can¡¯t rest now; it¡¯s not the time,¡± Quinn shut Dumbledore down. He thought for a moment before continuing, ¡°This is what we do. You help the Aurors while I hold back Dumbledore. When you¡¯re done with the clean-up,e join me.¡±


    ¡°No, I can¡¯t support that. I can¡¯t let you face him by yourself,¡± Dumbledore looked where Quinn had been hit. ¡°Seeing that you refuse to rest and stay out. . . I will hold him back, and you can help the Aurors.¡±


    Quinn clenched his fist. He wanted to face Voldemort so that he could vent some anger and take revenge for the mortal injury he had given him. But Dumbledore holding Voldemort while he helped the Aurors made more sense. ¡°So be it,¡± he said, ¡°but don¡¯t me me for not holding back against the Death Eaters.¡± He had to vent somewhere; they were just in the wrong ce.


    Dumbledore made noment.


    ¡°. . . Go ahead, and I¡¯ll be there in a minute,¡± said Quinn, ncing towards Daphne and Ivy.


    ¡°Take your time; I will be instructing the professors,¡± said Dumbledore, and Quinn nodded.


    When Dumbledore was out of earshot, Quinn spoke to his two girlfriends. ¡°How are both of you doing?¡± he asked, looking at his hands as he pulled up his gloves. ¡°This will end soon, so sit tight and don¡¯t take on stress; it¡¯s not good for you¡ª¡±


    ¡°What is this?¡± interrupted Ivy. ¡°What are you trying to do right now?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, just stay¡ª¡±


    ¡°Look at me!¡±


    He stopped fiddling with his gear and looked up at furious Ivy. Her eyes were wide, her shoulder rose up and down, and she had her hands clenched into fists. He didn¡¯t want to face this confrontation right now, but it didn¡¯t look like he could escape it.


    ¡°What do you want me to say?¡± he asked. ¡°All of this. . . all of the things I did had to be done for things to move forward so that this misery could end. A future that¡¯s bright instead of bleak. . .¡±


    ¡°By lying to us?¡± said Daphne. ¡°You used me to get into Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°I¡ª¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know, you had to. But is this how it is going to be always? You, lying to us, keep us in the dark every time things get tough? Do you not trust us at all?¡±


    ¡°I was trying to keep you safe.¡±


    ¡°At the expense of losing our trust?¡±


    Quinn couldn¡¯t say anything in rebuttal. He wanted to say it won¡¯t be like this after Voldemort was dead, but there was nothing he could say to back up his im. But there was one thing he could do. ¡°I. . . I promise to exin everything when this is over,¡± he said. ¡°I wille clear with everything; please believe me onest time,¡± he pleaded.


    Ivy and Daphne exchanged looks, and neither looked pleased; he had given them nothing to be pleased about.


    ¡°Alright,¡± said Daphne, and Ivy nodded.


    Quinn bowed his head in gratitude.


    After they left, Quinn headed to the Entrance Hall, where Dumbledore was instructing the professors (sans Lily Potter). Before he entered the hall, Quinn conjured a mask over his face when he noticed the crowd of Hogwarts students standing at a distance, looking at the professors. The moment he stepped into the sight, the entire student body gasped and began to chatter and gossip so loudly that it drowned all other noise.


    ¡°Ah¡ª¡± Dumbledore turned towards Quinn and was about to say something but paused, ¡°¡ª Mr. Vignte, I see that you¡¯re doing well.¡±


    Quinn nodded and snapped his fingers to form a silencing ward around them. ¡°Professors,¡± his voice was still distorted, ¡°I hope you have kept my identity a secret from everyone else,¡± he nced at the students, ¡°I would hate to force the memory charm on them.¡±


    ¡°No one has said anything to anyone, Mr. West,¡± frowned McGonagall.


    Quinn turned to Dumbledore, ¡°Are theying out?¡±


    ¡°No, the faculty will stay in the castle with the students in case Voldemort tries to break the ward and target the students,¡± Dumbledore shook his head.


    ¡°Smart decision,¡± said Quinn¡ª no children would die today.


    ¡°Are you ready for this?¡± asked Dumbledore, looking at Quinn¡¯s chest.


    ¡°Your potions are working.¡±


    Poppy scoffed, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be going out there. Facing the Dark Lord while having a dark curse in your body is in stupidity. I am the Hogwarts medi-healer, and no student of mine can leave my care without my permission.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not a student anymore. I will be fine out there, Madam Pomfrey,¡± said Quinn.


    ¡°I will be looking out for him out there, Poppy,¡± said Dumbledore.


    Poppy didn¡¯t look any better. She hmphed and turned her head away.


    ¡°I volunteer to assist you, Headmaster,¡± said Flitwick. ¡°I might be out of practice, but I can at least handle a few Death Eaters by myself.¡±


    ¡°I need you here with the students, Filius. I feel relieved to go out and face Voldemort, knowing the children are safe with you,¡± said Dumbledore.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get moving,¡± Quinn ended the conversation and made Dumbledore follow him out of the castle. As they were walking out, Quinn


    made them stop in the middle of the path.


    ¡°What is it? Are you feeling something in your body?¡± asked Dumbledore.


    ¡°No, stop asking me about that,¡± Quinn took out a transparent ss box and showed the gilded gold cup with studded jewels inside.


    ¡°Is that. . .¡±


    ¡°Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup. Now, I¡¯ve been preparing for this for a long time. We are going to use his own Horcrux to bring him down.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Dumbledore eyed the Horcrux.


    Quinn opened his other palm and revealed an obsidian stone. ¡°This is the Resurrection Stone,¡± he said.


    ¡°Resurrection. . . you mean¡ª ?! Deathly Hallow¡¯s Resurrection Stone!!¡±


    ¡°Yes, the same. Just like your Elder Wand.¡±


    ¡°You know about that. . . how?¡±


    ¡°Just like I know how Potters have the Cloak of Invisibility. But that¡¯s not the point right now. I have researched the topic intensively and found a way to weaken him through the use of Horcrux. Not only do I think so, but I also found proof that it would work. When Voldemort hit Harry with the Killing curse, he was knocked out for a moment. He was definitely affected in some way. I have found a way to severely harm using soul magic¡ª¡±


    ¡°Soul magic, that is dangerous magic, Quinn. It¡¯s very dark magic.¡±


    ¡°Now is not the time for that discussion. There was a connection between Harry and Voldemort, and when he cursed Harry, he felt some bacsh. Horcrux is essentially a piece of soul. . . the Resurrection Stone is a soul artifact. . . I can use soul magic. . . Voldemort and Horcrux clearly have a connection; I can turn them into a connection simr to his and Harry¡¯s, but one that would harm him much-much more when the Horcrux is destroyed,¡± Dumbledore listened closely as Quinn proceeded to tell him some intricate details of the magic and how things would progress. ¡°He¡¯s already weaker because of the Basilisk venom; we can use Horcrux to pull him down even more¡ª and when that happens, we can kill him for good.¡±


    ¡°. . . How. . . How long have you been nning this?¡±


    ¡®My entire life,¡¯ thought Quinn. He put the Horcrux back and said, ¡°Hold Voldemort back until I¡¯m done with the Death Eaters. Don¡¯t get injured because this n¡¯s sess hinges on you.¡±


    He paused before staring intently at Dumbledore,


    ¡°And one more thing. . .¡±


    As Quinn continued, he saw Dumbledore¡¯s eyes blow up much wider than he had ever seen.


    -* -*-*-*-*-


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Let¡¯s kill.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Things are going to move very fast now. Very fast.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 427 Second Match-Up

    If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patre¨®n @


    [ https://.patre¨®n/fictiononlyreader ]


    The link is also in the synopsis.


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    ¡°Take cover!¡± yelled Sirius as he ducked behind a building.  He shrunk his shoulders when the bricks exploded, chewing out the wall, leaving only a few inches of the wall beside his body.  ¡°This wasn¡¯t in the information I was given!¡±


    Kingsley whipped his wand, and the ground rumbled and rose up to form a stampede of horses running towards the Death Eaters around the corner.  He waited a second before stepping out of his cover and shooting two Death Eaters in the face and chest.  ¡°Deal with it, and start clearing.¡±


    ¡°But, how?!¡± said Sirius over the explosions.  ¡°The spells are bouncing of Giants!¡±  He could see the hulking red monstrosity that towered over the buildings; they dug their beefy hands into the buildings and rained the rubble all around.  If it was just the Giant and a couple of the guys from his team, they could¡¯ve taken the Giant out, but it wasn¡¯t that scenario¡ª while they targetted the Giant, there were other Death Eaters dumping magic over them.


    ¡°Deal with it, he says,¡± Sirius spat as he stepped out and pointed his wand over the building at the Giant that waved its tree trunk size club over the buildings and streets.  ¡°Avada Kedavra!¡±¡ª he cursed, but as the killing green flew towards the Giant, it passed through a ward that rippled and the next moment, a silver shield conjured in the air that blocked the instant kill magic.  ¡°Shit!¡±  Another problem ¡ª every Giant seemed to have a ward around them that appeared to detect the Killing curse and conjured silver shields to protect them.


    The Giant, who had just been shot at, turned to look towards Sirius and, with a roar, began to stomp his way toward him; every step brought about an earthquake that shook the vige.


    ¡°Shit!¡± Sirus cursed again; he could feel the tremors in his hear


    ¡°Move out!¡± he heard Kingsley shout.<sub>.</sub>


    Sirius didn¡¯t need to be told twice.  He immediately apparated out, and the image in his mind was the ce that he used to visit many a time during his time at Hogwarts.  The broken house, Shrieking Shack, was still as horrific as it had been all those years ago¡ª still one of the most frightful-looking things he had seen.  Unlike the rest of the vige, Shrieking Shack was calm and without conflict¡ª it felt nice, but he knew he couldn¡¯t stay here.  He needed to back to support his fellow Aurors against the Death Eaters.


    He cracked his back and apparated back into the vige right outside Three Broomstick, and immediately he was in the middle of the battlefield.  He saw anky man not in Death Eater robes turn towards him.  Both of them immediately upped their wands, and magic craked the air.  Sirius stepped forth, and his magic grew a level to overpower his opponents, pushing him back without restriction.


    But then he sensed something to his right.  He pushed his magic forward to push back his opponent before conjuring a wooden shield to his right, a correct decision as it stopped a green glow.


    ¡°Two against one, eh,¡± he flicked his wrist, and the dust around the street settled, and his two assants moved closer to each other.  ¡°Don¡¯t do that,¡± he grinned and ripped an area-wide fire spell that threatened to engulf them.  Screams scratched the street as Sirius waited a couple of seconds before canceling the cursed fire from over his opponents.


    ¡°That¡¯s two down,¡± he grinned, but then it jammed on his face.


    *Creak*


    He heard the sound of wood being strained.  Sirius turned back and saw a figure squatting over the Three Broomstick, looking down at him.  The next moment, the figure jumped, and at that moment, he saw the fangs and sharp nail ws barred toward him.


    It was a Vampire.


    *Boom*


    A spell struck the jumping vampire and sent him flying to the ground.  The Vampire yelped and screamed as a yellow spell dragged him through the dirt until half of his body was inside the ground.


    Sirius turned, and his nerves turned taut at the sight of Invisible Vignte standing a few paces away from him.  He immediately pointed his wand towards him.


    ¡°You¡ª !!¡± he hissed.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Hmm. . . what?  Why are you wasting your time pointing your wand at me?  Point it at Death Eaters.  Take care of that Vampire before you leave,¡± came from the masked vignte before he turned away.


    ¡°Wait!¡±


    The masked man turned and asked, ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Were you at the resort today?¡±


    ¡°. . . As I told your superiors, I do not have time to y with Death Eater¡¯s children.  To make myself clear, I was not there.  Now do your job,¡± saying that he flew away.


    Sirius watched as the Invisible Vignte flew towards the Giant, and multiple glowing red chains appeared from his body and stabbed into the Giant¡¯s body, making it shriek in pain.  It tried to smash him with its club, but an explosion knocked back its arm before ice grew over the Giant¡¯s body in various spots.  Within a minute, the Invisible Vignte had taken down a Giant.


    ¡°Damn it!¡± Sirius felt he need to contribute too.  He stepped towards the Vampire only to be thrown to the side by a shockwave caused by a massive explosion.  He groaned in pain but got to his feet, focused his blurry eyes towards the north of the vige, and saw lights shing somewhere, bright enough to be visible above the houses.


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    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn had just knocked out the Giant and the Death Eaters supporting it when he felt the whish of some powerful magic approaching him.  He exerted his own magic and canceled out the iing force.


    ¡®They already started fighting,¡¯ he thought, peering at the exchange of magic happening in the distance.  ¡°You¡¯re fighting too close to the vige,¡± he muttered, ¡°move away. . .¡±  He knew what kind of damage could happen if those two fought.  There were people nearby who would be caught up in their fight as coteral damage, which would defeat the process of him helping the Aurors.<sub></sub>


    Quinn removed his eyes from the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort; he lowered himself to the ground and made sure to put enough magic into the Giant to ensure he wasn¡¯t waking up for at least a day or two.  As for the other Death Eaters, he had struck them hard enough that they were in no condition to be doing anything.  He would¡¯ve used Tetani Nervum, but the spell took time toplete its effect, and he didn¡¯t have that kind of time¡ª he was going to knock them out and let Aurors do the clean-up.


    ¡®Business as usual¡ª¡¯


    His thoughts were interrupted when he felt magic behind him and conjured a physical shield to have the best chance of blocking whatever it was.  The metallic shield was struck with a spell, got dented, but retained its integrity.


    ¡°Found you~,¡± said a gruff voice in a sing-song voice.


    Quinn turned, and for a moment, he thought someone had cast an illusion spell on him, but that thought was ridiculous and onlysted half a second before he realized he was staring at reality.  The reality of Fenrir Greyback standing in front of him, standing on his two feet and holding a wand in his hand.


    ¡°How?¡± he asked.  He usually only took arms, but in the case of Fenrir Greyback, he had taken the Werewolf¡¯s arms and legs when he had infiltrated Hogwarts. . . it was a decision to make sure the Werewolf had no mobility.


    ¡°Dark Lord¡¯s favor,¡± said Fenrir, spreading his arms wide, flexing his fingers.  ¡°I have been waiting for this for so long. . . I can taste my desire to rip your arms off your body, pull off your legs, wring out your guts, and feed them to the young ones. . . a treat!¡±


    ¡°If I knew you would be spouting this bullshit, I would have killed that night,¡± said Quinn.  Dark Lord was able to reverse Tetani Nervum; that wasn¡¯t a good sign, not a good sign at all.


    ¡°Toote for that now.¡±


    ¡°Any other dear victims I need to be aware of?¡±


    Fenrir hmphed.  ¡°As if anyone else could be as miraculous as me.  I¡¯m the great Fenrir Greyback, a Werewolf, superior to your kind.  Magic wanted me to wield and thus allowed the Dark Lord to heal me.  No one else was worthy of this honor.¡±


    ¡°You speak too much,¡± said Quinn.  No one else was cured?  That was excellent.  ¡®There must be something in the Lycanthrope physiology that was able to shake off my curse,¡¯ he thought.  It made him curious and made him want to keep Fenrir alive for experimentation, but¡ª ¡°You will be dying today,¡± he preferred for this insanity to be dead.


    ¡°We will see about that!¡± Fenrir raised his wand and shot a Killing curse at Quinn, who didn¡¯t even move and conjured a wooden square to block it.


    ¡°I defeated you that day; what makes you think today will be any different,¡± said Quinn as he kept on dodging, deflecting, countering Fenrir¡¯s magic effortlessly.


    Fenrir grunted in frustration.  He stuffed his wand into his pocket and retrieved a potion vial.


    ¡°What is that?¡± asked Quinn, cautious.


    ¡°Another favor,¡± said Fenrir, grinning.  He popped the cork and downed the liquid in one gulp.  He threw the vial, breaking it on the ground, and startedughing maniacally.  ¡°He was right; I can feel it!  I CAN FEEL IT!¡±


    There was a terrible snarling noise.  Fenrir¡¯s head lengthened.  So did his body.  His shoulders hunched down.  Hair spouted visibly on his face and hands, which then curled into wed paws.  The Werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws.


    Quinn straightened his back.  He nced up at the sky; the moon in the evening sky wasn¡¯t a full moon.  Fenrir shouldn¡¯t be able to transform.  He then nced at the broken vial on the ground.


    ¡°The Dark Lord is bing an annoyingly growing problem,¡± said Quinn.  Voldemort had created a potion that could trigger the Werewolf transformation without the presence of the full moon.  ¡°He is going to be killed today.¡±


    ¡°Fool!  The Dark Lord can¡¯t die,¡± growled Fenrir.  It was impressive that he could speak while in his current form.  ¡°And you need to worry about yourself because I¡¯m going to kill you right now!¡±  Saying that he charged toward Quinn, who calmly raised his hand and shot a dark curse.  Fenrir crossed his arms and received it.  ¡°It¡¯s no use!  I¡¯m invicible¡ª¡± but before he couldplete the sentence, Fenrir copsed to the ground.


    Quinn looked down at his feet, at the convulsing Fenrir, who shook violently.


    ¡°W-What did-d you do-o-o?¡±


    Quinn shrugged.  He said, ¡°You were never a threat.  I just had to get some information out of you,¡± he tapped his temple.  ¡°It is pitful that you did not notice.  If not, do you think I would have not struck you down the moment you opened that maw of yours?¡±


    Even though he couldn¡¯t find how Voldemort had fixed Fenrir, he could see shes of Voldemort brewing the potion that Fenrir had used to transform, and only him.  Which was good because it meant that Voldemort was the only one capable of brewing it.  He also had the location of the base.


    ¡®I will go and eradicate that house afterward,¡¯ he thought.


    ¡°Time to rest, Greyback,¡± said Quinn as he faced his palm towards the Werewolf.


    ¡°NOoooOOoooO¡ª¡±  . . . with thest yelp, the might Werewolf drew hisst breath.


    Quinn looked down at the dead Fenrir for a moment, and a n formed in his mind.


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    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Damn magical geniuses, always causing trouble.


    Fenrir Greyback ¨C Werewolf ¨C Second chance; never stood a chance.


    ?[0)??? FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Oh boy, that was a long foreshadowing.


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    If you have any ideas regarding the magic you want to see in this fiction or want to offer some ideas regarding the progression. Move onto the DISCORD Server and st those ideas.


    The link is in the synopsis!

 Chapter 428 Reunion, Blood v Blood

    Hogsmeade had been turned into a battlefield for the Death Eaters and Aurors.  Paved roads had been long uprooted to be used as weapons, long-standing buildings and structures had been damaged or used as material for transfiguration. . . nothing was spared as the magic-wieldingbatants wreaked havoc trying to eliminate the other side.


    Quinn flew over said battlefield, shooting spells, curses, and conjured ice weapons to weaken the enemy side.  He observed the battlefield, seeking a skirmish that met a certain requirement.  He flew fast and wide around the vige until he found a battle that met his exact requirement.


    He floated above the street where Aurors upied one side while Werewolves upied the other side.  He gathered his magic in his throat and breathed out a ze of fire that spread out like a spark thrown in spilled kerosene.  The fire spread from the middle of the street, spreading towards either end, pushing both sides back.  When he had enough space and felt that neither would instantly start shooting, he descended down that was smoldering in fire at ces.


    ¡°Werewolves,¡± he amplified his voice, ¡°give up this foolish act, and I shall let all of you live. . . if not, I will have your lives forfeited.¡±


    He raised his to one of the buildings and formed a w for a yelp and yell to sound as a Werewolf in Lycanthrope form flew out from the roof.  He had noticed the sneaky one trying to sneak over to the Aurors side to ambush them.  It was impressive, he thought.  Most Werewolves weren¡¯t able to have control of their mental faculties while transformed and mostly worked on instinct and desire.


    ¡°Kuak!¡±


    But impressive from the enemy side wasn¡¯t good for him, thought Quinn as he gripped the Werewolf¡¯s neck harder while making sure its w-bearing limbs couldn¡¯t reach him.  ¡°Surrender¡ª for only a terrible future lies ahead of you,¡± he said, at the same time, freezing the Werewolf in a b of ice, leaving only his head and neck out.


    He was met with an outcry of boos and threats along with a barrage of spells and curses that he blocked effortlessly.


    ¡°Last warning, or else your fate will be like this,¡± Quinn pped his hand, and the body of Fenrir Greyback nailed to a wooden cross became visible behind.  He let the Werewolves take in the sight before speaking, ¡°Your leader is dead.  Without the might of Fenrir Greyback, you are not allies to Death Eaters. . . you are ves that they will use and discard when you turn useless.  Drop your wands, empty your pockets. . . don¡¯t forget to get rid of the potions.¡±


    He stepped behind the cross and spoke only to the Auror side.  ¡°Try to parade Greyback throughout the vige; it might get the Werewolves to surrender.  Don¡¯t let your guard down even if they drop their wands; they have a potion that can help them transform,¡± he warned them before taking to the sky once again.


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    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    James Potter apparated into Hogsmeade and immediately took off running into the vige.  He had gotten the news about the Giants, Werewolves, and Vampires joining the fray and had immediately passed off his duties to a trusted one beforeing here.


    ¡®Damn the orders,¡¯ he spat as he skidded to a stop when he saw Death Eaters fighting other Aurors.  They had their back to him, and James didn¡¯t let the opportunity go as he shot stunners into their backs¡ª he didn¡¯t even have to take everyone down as the other Aurors overwhelmed them the moment the deadlock broke.<sub>.</sub>


    He didn¡¯t care if he was asked to stay in the headquarters and act asmunication when he¡ª a Senior Auror¡ª could be on the field, adding substantial firepower to their side.  He tore through the streets, shooting anything he could put his eyes on.  But his main aim was to find Sirius; as long as he did that, they could fight together and start sweeping the Death Eaters.


    He was about to turn a corner when a spell zipped past him and would¡¯ve hit him if he didn¡¯t pull back his torso.  He stepped back behind the corner and got ready to face fire.


    ¡°Don¡¯t hide now;e out and y, Prongs!¡±


    James scowled when he heard the words.  It wasn¡¯t Sirius¡¯ voice, neither could it be Remus. . . and that only left one person who called him by that name.  He peeked out the corner and immediately stepped back when a spell zapped by him.  But in that brief moment, he had confirmed his suspicion.


    ¡°Peter,¡± he shouted and at once moved away from his spot.


    ¡°That¡¯s Wormtail to you, Prongs.  No need to sound so distant; we are best mates, aren¡¯t we!¡± called Pettigrew as he motioned the Death Eaters behind him to spread out.  ¡°We haven¡¯t met in such a long time; I know Padfoot is here; let¡¯s call Mooney here and have aplete reunion.¡±


    James cast a bubble charm around him and carefully floated up to the top of the roof of a building.  With a higher vantage point, he could see how the Death Eaters moved on the ground.


    ¡°Oh my, how rude of me,¡± Pettigrew said again as he stealthily moved around, ¡°I didn¡¯t offer my condolences for Harry¡¯s death.  Poor boy, he was unlucky to live so long.  If he had only died when he was a babe, he wouldn¡¯t have gone through such a stressful life.  I mean, ignorance is bliss, isn¡¯t it,¡± he stopped and strained his ears for any sound.


    James clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.  He knew Harry was alive, Lily had told him, but he hadn¡¯t seen the face of his son, so there was a scare in his mind that maybe. . . that maybe. . . ¡®No, I can¡¯t think like that,¡¯ he thought.  ¡®Harry¡¯s alive; he¡¯s alive.¡¯


    ¡°Poor-poor boy.  It¡¯s a pity that I couldn¡¯t kill him myself.  I still regret the day I let him get him away at the graveyard.  Though I did get the pleasure of seeing the light drain out of his eyes as he was struck by my Lord¡¯s Killing curse.  It eased some of the pain I felt in Azkaban.¡±  Pettigrew paused before saying, ¡°No reaction?  You have changed, James; I didn¡¯t remember you being so cold-hearted. . . but maybe I remember incorrectly¡ª you did almost kill Severus.¡±


    ¡°I have not changed.¡±  Peter looked up and saw James jump down from the roof.  He stepped back to avoid him, but Jamesnded on the ground and kicked him in the stomach.  He looked down at the Pettigrew, ¡°You, on the other hand, have changed a lot.  I think I like the outside, but from what I¡¯m seeing, the inside must¡¯ve rotten to the core.¡±


    ¡°Always looking down on people, aren¡¯t you, Potter.¡±


    James pointed his wand at Pettigrew, ¡°Isn¡¯t it just you thinking that people are looking down on you?  You won¡¯t be escaping this time, so do think about it.¡±


    ¡°Not killing me?  You¡¯re going to regret it.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°No, I won¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°If you look above, you will.¡±


    James looked up and saw a Vampire jumping over him.  James¡¯ magic traveled through his wand, and without chant or wand movement, he cast magic with his advanced granted casting.  A force field thrummed out of him, sting the Vampire back.


    He looked at James, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t have told me that.¡±


    ¡°True, but that was just one.¡±


    James looked up.  He saw that he was surrounded by Death Eaters, Vampires, and Werewolves.


    ¡°Even if you¡¯re a Senior Auror, you¡¯re still only one guy,¡± Pettigrew shrugged and smiled.  ¡°Happy death.¡±


    James gritted his teeth and raised his wand to defend himself.


    *Boom*  *Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Boom*


    In a second, the people surrounding James all dropped down or were struck by explosives and had pieces sted off them.


    ¡°He¡¯s not alone.¡±


    James and Pettigrew looked towards the voice, and there stood Sirius along with a team of Aurors.


    James looked at Pettigrew and grinned, ¡°Mooney isn¡¯t here, but I think this counts as the reunion you wanted.¡±


    ¡°I¡ª¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°Don¡¯t care, fuck off,¡± and with that, James shot a stunner into Pettigrew¡¯s face.  He sighed, ¡°Don¡¯t start¡ª¡±


    ¡°Saved your arse,¡± said Sirius, grinning.   ¡°Come on, people, bag ¡¯em up, and let¡¯s move along.  After this, we are going to be treated by Senior Auror James in the celebration of saving his arse.  Drinking and dining all night long!¡±


    The cheers from the squad told James that he was going to spend as much on food as he did on his wedding.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°What do we have here.¡±


    Quinn tilted his head at the trio standing in front of him.  It was a strangebination of people¡ª a young woman, an early-teen boy, and a middle-aged woman.  It would¡¯ve been normal if the three shared some facial features, and he could¡¯ve termed them as mother and children, but they looked nothing alike.


    The one who had spoken right now was the boy and continued on,  ¡°Your blood. . . it¡¯s peculiar. . . I can sense it.  Can you two tell?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s unusually vigorous, his blood.  I can feel the power in it tingling my skin,¡± said the young woman erotically as she rubbed her arm as if settling down goosebumps.


    ¡°I can only imagine what it would taste like,¡± said the old woman.


    ¡°A true treat,¡± said the young boy.


    ¡°We should be careful with him; we can¡¯t spill even a single drop,¡± said the younger woman.


    ¡°I have a better idea,¡± offered the older woman, ¡°what if we breed him?  An alive body will be able to produce all the blood we desire.¡±


    ¡°Excellent idea!¡±


    ¡°Fantastic, madam!¡±


    There was one feature that the three strange people had inmon.  They all shared blood-red eyes.


    ¡°Vampires,¡± said Quinn.  He frowned; there was something else, ¡°Vampire, Vampire. . . wait. . . Elder Vampires,¡± he eximed, ¡°you three are Elder Vampires.¡±  That¡¯s why the three of them could sense that his blood was unusual.  His blood was bound to be unusual after his usage and research with Blood magic.


    ¡°He can tell us apart.¡±


    ¡°Wait. . . that attire of his.  Could it be he¡¯s the one they call the Invisible Vignte?¡±


    ¡°I think you¡¯re correct.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s not good. . . The Dark Lord would want him dead.¡±


    ¡°Can we hide him?¡±


    ¡°I believe not.  It¡¯d be a great risk, one that might cost the ultimate price.  I say that we simply drain as much blood as we can from him and treasure it¡ª consume it over the next millennium.¡±


    ¡°Enough chatting,¡± said the boy, ¡°let¡¯s hunt.¡±


    The two Vampiredies opened their mouths, and Quinn could see the fangs in their mouths.  But what followed was what set them apart from normal Vampires.  All three took out a container each, of different shapes and forms, and opened them for blood to flow out and float around them.


    ¡°Elder Vampires¡ª the Vampires who have lived long enough and have studied the mysteries of blood to ascend to a higher evolution of their species,¡± Quinn said with utter fascination in his voice.  ¡°I have read about you and the hemomancy you possess¡ª I never thought I would be meeting Elder Vampires so soon; I mean, your kind is a rarity; seeing three together is a miracle. . . .¡±


    ¡°Are you sure we can¡¯t keep him?¡± asked the young woman with her pinky on the edge of her red lips.  ¡°The Dark Lord doesn¡¯t have to know.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be getting me or my blood today,¡± said Quinn.  He straightened his arms, and liquid silver flowed in his hands until he was holding two long stake daggers.


    ¡°Conjured silver,¡± the older woman scoffed, ¡°that¡¯s not going to work, child.¡±


    ¡°I know, unfortunate that I don¡¯t have real silver with me at the moment,¡± Quinn¡¯s gloves disappeared, and his sleeves unraveled until he was sleeveless.  It started at his fingertips, but gleaming red veins appeared beneath his skin as if his blood was glowing within.  ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to supplement it with something special.¡±  Tiny nicks appeared on his fingertips from which glowing blood flowed out.  It covered the daggers until it was absorbed into them, forming glowing red veins over the silver surface.


    Quinn grinned, ¡°I always wanted to know.  So, let¡¯s find out today.  Whose Blood magic will be stronger¡ª yours or mine.¡±


    He gripped the daggers, bathed his body in body magic, and charged toward the three Elder Vampires.


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    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Momentarily change in focus.


    Peter Pettigrew ¨C Death Eater ¨C Underwhelming end.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I have so many regrets with Pettigrew (I have so many regrets in general with this story).  There was supposed to be a great thing with him in the end, but I¡¯m long past able to do it.


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 Chapter 429 Beheadings

    Quinn shot toward the three Elder Vampires with magic enhancing his speed and senses.  The Vampires, seemingly stunned by the velocitying from a human, controlled the blood with hemomancy¡ª red liquid flowed out of their containers, and the moment of his sprint towards them, the blood spread into tarps that, even though they appeared flimsy, were nothing but.


    Quinn raised his arms, and the daggers glowed in blood red.  He was going to rip through the covers of blood and cut down the three Vampires along with it.  However, the blood tarp suddenly rippled, and the long spikes of blood emerged from the surface¡ª his momentum carried him forwards as the spikes grew towards him¡ª they were in front of him before he could even blink.


    He cursed, casting magic for a blue glow to envelop him, cutting his momentum and speed, rendering him stationary,  But the spikes still grew towards him.  Quinn breathed out, letting the tug in his navel whisk him away¡ª the next moment, his feet hit the ground where he had started, paces away from the Vampires.  Quinn clicked his tongue. . . apparition during fights was never reliable, with a tremendous risk of splinching.


    ¡°That didn¡¯t do it,¡± he heard the boy Vampire¡ª who was undoubtedly multiple tens of times his age.


    Quinn ckened his grip on his daggers, and with wind magic propelling the des, he thrust them forward towards the blood tarps.  As if shot by a crossbow, the daggers pierced through the blood tarps, and he heard two distinct screams.  Grinning, he called the daggers back, and they flew from behind the crumbling blood tarp, but not without an initial jerk¡ª which told him they were adequately embedded before he pulled them out.


    The two daggers stopped in mid-air.  Quinn pulled on them but felt an opposing force resisting him.  He nced behind the blood that was now floating in clumps.  The boy and the older woman had been hit¡ª the boy was holding his side while the older woman had her gloved hand on her shoulder.  The younger woman, untouched, however, was looking at him; she thinned her eyes, and the deadlock between the two pulls began to tilt with the daggers moving away from Quinn.


    ¡®As expected of an Elder Vampire, she can exert more control over my blood than me.¡¯  Quinn thought as he tried to pull back the daggers, but it was akin to fighting a losing battle as his pull was substantially weaker.  He switched gears immediately.  He stopped pulling and let the daggers fly towards his opponent¡ª instead, he sent small bullets after the daggers that exploded on contact and abruptly increased the speed of the daggers.


    ¡®Greater control doesn¡¯t mean total control,¡¯ Quinn reached out to his blood infused in the conjured dagger, and the red veins shed brightly and dangerously.  Then. . . Boom!  The daggers glowed a deep yellowish-red before the silver and blood exploded around the Elder Vampires.


    He grinned and conjured silver flowed before his palms, forming a new set of daggers.  But as he was about to infuse blood, he noticed that as the dust settled¡ª no blood was floating in the air or sshed across the ground.


    When the dust settled, three dark red cacoons stood in ce of where the Vampires were.  The intense irony stench of blood lingered in the air as the blood swirled menacingly on the surface, forming currents and waves that looked like an ocean and its movements when seen as a whole.


    ¡®This doesn¡¯t look good.¡¯  Quinn readied his blood-infused dagger, putting in a little more blood this time to have a firmer control over them.  He eyed the cacoons¡ª should he attack now or wait and watch to see what happens?<sub>.</sub>


    ¡®Attack. . .¡¯  Quinn stepped forth and had only taken a step when the blood cacoons split open to reveal three Elder Vampires with red veins coursing and beating all over their faces¡ª veins extended throughout their bodies covered by their clothes.


    The cacoon blood changed forms and assembled themselves into shapes that worried Quinn.  The blood around the body formed into arge bloody figure of a knight standing beside him wearing full body armor, a heater shield, and a long sword¡ª the young woman had a dozen dane-axes floating near her back¡ª the older woman had a cloud of needles sorge that it formed an almost solid block over her head.


    ¡®Blood constructs.¡¯  Quinn took a step back and observed the three Elder Vampires and their constructs with a cautious eye.  The observation didn¡¯tst long as the knight blood construct drew his sword and charged forward, brandishing it over the heater shield.


    Quinn nced at the daggers in his hands and then at the heater shield and longsword.  He couldn¡¯t see it working.  He clicked his tongue and charged toward the knight.  The blood construct and Quinn came into striking distance with each other¡ª the longsword allowed the knight to act first, and he took the initiative to swing the blood de.  Quinn conjured a shield to block the sword¡ª but upon contact, the sword turned liquid, and the blood rushed across the surface towards the edges of the shied.  Quinn realized what was happening¡ª the blood would flow behind the shield before reforming into the de to cut him down.


    Quinn¡¯s arms glowed with blood magic as he pushed against the knight¡ª and unlike the pull against the Elder Vampire, Quinn backed the push with his enormous reserves, ignoring the burning sensation in his arms.  His reserves were big enough that he could easily overpower his blood magic, but not without consequences¡ª the blood inside would react abnormally if he went over a limit, and he could only put so much blood outside his body without it adversely affecting him.  He used the blood inside him as a catalyst and disturbed the connection between the knight and the Elder Vampire.


    The knight¡¯srge rippled as the well-defined armor turned into a jelly mush.  Quinn disabled his shield, let one of his daggers fall for a second, and thrusts a corrosive explosive into the knight¡¯s body with his empty palm.  He summoned the falling dagger and continued toward the Elder Vampires without stopping for a second


    Gurgle¡ª Ssh!  The explosive spell detonated, and the knight went ssh.  Even without looking back, Quinn knew it would take a moment or two before the knight reformed itself and returned to attempt his ughter.


    ¡®Need to finish this quick.¡¯  Quinn changed the grips on his daggers before throwing them, one at the boy and the other at the younger woman.  That was it: he could only spare a little more without it weakening him, and he needed that forter.


    Two of the axes jolted into action and shot towards the daggers.   Quinn exploded the daggers, disrupted the two axes, and made arge dust cloud.


    The older woman flicked her wrist and sent a hundred long needles toward Quinn.  ¡°Please die quickly,¡± she said, narrowing her eyes to look beyond the dust.  ¡°I don¡¯t want to damage your body¡ª¡±  She looked down and saw a glowing red sword sticking into her chest with a chain attached to the end of its hilt.  She looked to the side and saw swords sticking out of the other two Elder Vampires as well.<sub></sub>


    ¡°What is this?¡±  She yelped when the chain became taut and yanked her forward.  She put her hand on the sword to pull it out, a frown surfaced between her brows, but then she froze.  ¡°Bloo¡ª¡±


    She couldn¡¯tplete the sentence as her head was decapitated, clean off her body, by a wind de.  It rolled on the floor along with the two other heads.


    The dust settled, and Quinn stepped forward with a transparent shield with needles sticking out of it like acupuncture in front of one hand and three Empyrean chains clenched in the other with blood magic veins traveling up his arm.  Empyrean could take on any property¡ª magical or physical¡ª blood magic was no exception.


    The needles on the shield turned liquid, and Quinn dropped the shield.  ¡°As expected, I am no match for Elder Vampires when ites to blood magic,¡± Quinnmented when he saw the three Vampires¡¯ eyes on the decapitated heads move to look at him.  They were still alive where a normal Vampire would have already been dead ¡ª such was the power of Elder Vampires and their control on blood magic that could keep them alive even after being decapitated.


    He could only stun them for a moment by using blood magic in the Emperyean chains and use that moment to decapitate them using des spelled using blood magic.


    ¡°H-How?¡± asked the older woman.


    Quinn shrugged.  ¡°Vampires are recorded to be one of the most ferocious species out there, and Elder Vampire are said to be capable of ripping through people faster than meat shredders.  I have a theory behind it. . . Vampires have a dulled sense of pain, and that¡¯s why I think they don¡¯t care for defense much, focusing much on offense¡ª I mean look at you three¡ª except the bulky armor knight, none of you went for blood constructs that could be used for defense.¡±


    Elder Vampires could form blood into any way they preferred, but usually tend to stick to a default form they werefortable with.  He looked to the boy, ¡°Even you, I think only prefer the knight construct because of something in your past. . . maybe because you were turned so young. . . it must¡¯ve been tough to be plunged into a strange world so young.¡±  The boy growled making Quinn grin behind his mask.  ¡°It seems I was right,¡± he said.  ¡°That internal trauma must¡¯ve been stuck with you even when you were a mighty Elder Vampire. . . inner demons can be tough.


    ¡°I just had to make sure to end it quickly and get in a good solid strike to defeat you,¡± Quinn shook his head.  The knight had taken an ufortable magic, the axes had taken him his blood, while the shield that blocked the needles had drank his magic like nothing.


    ¡°You were tough opponents, my body is hot right now¡ª it feels like a bad fever.¡±  He was working on calming that heat down.<sub></sub>


    ¡°The Dark Lord is going to avenge us,¡± said the younger woman.


    ¡°Not if I kill him first,¡± Quinn said.  ¡°Though, you won¡¯t be there to see it.¡±


    A violet fire erupted from his hand, traveled down the chains, and began turning the Vampire bodies into piles of ash as he did the same to the heads before they could utter a word of negotiation or begging.


    ¡°What a waste,¡± Quinn sighed.  Three Elder Vampires would¡¯ve been a great source of knowledge on blood magic.


    He waited for everything to turn into ash before stopping the fire and kicking the ash away into the winds for good measure.


    Wind magic fluttered his robes as he took to the air and looked around the vige.  He had pulled three Giants to the ground. . . Fenrir Greyback¡¯s death had put the Werewolves on either surrender or on backfoot. . . he had just purged three Elder Vampires and few normal ones here and there. . . and shot half a dozen Death Eaters half to death.


    It was enough.  If the Aurors couldn¡¯t handle the rest, they shouldn¡¯t be Aurors.  He had done his part promised to Dumbledore.  He looked to the part of the town in total destruction, aze in the brightest and hottest of mes.


    That was his next destination.  The final act of the big show.  And he was going to be the performing acting on that stage.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    The air, the ground, the water, and every broken piece of stone, wood and metal shook and trembled because of the sheer amount of power that emanated from the two men facing each other in the battle of magical dominance.


    ¡°Why struggle so much, Dumbledore?¡± Voldemort said with his hands behind his back.  ¡°You know your time hase, so why dy the inevitable end¡± he flicked his wand behind his back, and the mes all around him rose above his head, converging into a massive ball of fire.  ¡°Just surrender. . . and die.¡±


    The ball of mes turned into a snake and slithered its way towards Dumbledore, who stood just as calmly as his opponent.  Dumbledore waved his wand, and a giant spiraling vacuum appeared in the middle of the snake, sucking all the mes into one point.  The spiral faced Voldemort and spewed the fire in one dense jet stream, forming a tornado ring of mes around the Dark Lord.


    ¡°I have been told I¡¯m still very young,¡± Dumbledore said, watching Voldemort enveloped in mes.  ¡°Now is not the time for me to pass onto the next great adventure.¡±


    The fire enveloping Voldemort rose up in the, still holding the tornado ring shape.  The mes then converged into the mes that then shot up into the air like fireworks.


    ¡°The only reason you¡¯re able to stand in front of me is because of that wand of yours,¡± Voldemort looked unharmed, not even a singe on his ck robes.  ¡°Without the fabled Elder Wand, you are no match for me.¡±


    ¡°Without the dark rituals you used on your body, you wouldn¡¯t be brave enough to stand before me,¡± Dumbledore said unfearingly.  ¡°I have already defeated one Dark Lord; you are no different, Tom.¡±


    Voldemort scowled.  ¡°We will see about that.¡±


    ¡°We might be a match for each other, Tom.  But I have some outstanding help with me,¡± Dumbledore smiled and turned to look at the sky.


    Voldemort followed Dumbledore¡¯s gaze and saw a figure in the sky flying toward them.


    .


    -* -*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I still have a lot to learn.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Let¡¯s end the journey.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 430 Endgame Starts

    The eastern part of Hogsmeade had been decimated beyond any chances of repair to its previous state.  The buildings, roads, and the residents¡¯ belongings had been turned into dust and rubble¡ª the vige that had been divided into rows of buildings and streets was now t ground burnt, stained with ck soot.  The buildings were now mounds of ruin and debris, and those which miraculously standing looked like a kick from a child could send them tumbling.


    Even air bombing the area with powerful explosives wouldn¡¯t have caused this much destruction.  Even with magic¡¯s destructive might the surroundings wouldn¡¯t have devolved to this level with twobatants fighting each other¡ª but Dumbledore and Voldemort were outliers, two people with enough skill and power to burn small cities into the ground on a whim.  When people like the two met, whether they were working together or against each other, they could turn the ce around them into living hells.


    Even stepping anywhere near where they were fighting would be foolish, much less joining the fight.  And there was a fool who was doing exactly doing that.  Quinn cut off the wind magic, plunged toward the ground, and used Arresto Momentum to cut all momentum tond smoothly beside Dumbledore.


    Dumbledore nced at Quinn.  ¡°How are things on the other side?  Is it taken care of?¡±


    ¡°I helped enough; they will take care of the rest on their own.¡±


    Voldemort gazed at Dumbledore and Quinn standing side by side and thinned his eyes.  ¡°This is your help, Dumbledore,¡± he sneered.  ¡°If so, then it won¡¯t help much.  The boy will die before he knows what happened.¡±


    ¡°I will die before I know?¡± Quinn said, scoffing.  ¡°What I do know is that when I faced you, I stabbed you in the chest, and look at me,¡± he spread his arms, ¡°I¡¯m still very much alive.¡±


    ¡°And despite miraculously making it out alive to tell the tale, you are here again, marching yourself to death,¡± Voldemort said mockingly.  ¡°Maybe I won¡¯t even have to kill you by my wand¡ª my curse will take your life before that.  I refuse to believe that it has already been cured; it¡¯s there, isn¡¯t it,¡± he smiled cruelly.


    Quinn felt a throb of pain in his shoulder and chest.  But heughed, ¡°Your life had already when a one-year-old obliterated you all those years ago.  Right now, you¡¯re just a dead man walking¡ª time for you to move on to where you belong.¡±


    ¡°And where that might be?¡±


    ¡°To your death,¡± Quinn raised his hands, and a jet of purplish-ck mes roared out of his palms towards Voldemort.  Faster than a sh, the fire burned to intense proportion and engulfed Voldemort.


    Dumbledore gasped with wide eyes as the purplish-ck mes covered his vision.  ¡°What are you doing?¡± he said to Quinn, shocked.  ¡°Fiendfyre is a dangerous magic; it could get out of control and hurt someone!¡±<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°There¡¯s no one on this side of the vige, no one¡¯s getting injured.¡±  Quinn continued to pump his magic into the cursed mes that ate it up like a hungry beast.  The purple mes grewrger, brighter, hotter. . . angrier¡ª something reflected in Quinn¡¯s purple eyes peeking through the ck mask.


    ¡®More!¡¯


    There was a disturbance in the air; the atmosphere weighed down before for a moment before the mes were bisected.  A silver sh of magic tore through the fire and charged toward Quinn, who frowned and pushed him more magic, causing the fire to burst up, enveloping the silver sh.  For a moment, it seemed that the silver sh won¡¯te out, but it appeared and fought through the cloud of fire and forced it forward until it reached.


    ¡®Shit!¡¯  Quinn couldn¡¯t move or change his magic, for if he let Fiendfyre go free, it would rampage with real chances of blowing up in his face.


    He jerked his head back when the silver sh reached him.  Crack!  The silver sh met his mask and split it down the middle.  The mask pieces fell down the sides revealing Quinn¡¯s face, and with that, the silver sh disappeared, running out of magic.


    The Fiendfyre that had been split into two began to shake violently¡ª the massive me acted like a kindling against a strong wind until it was just that¡ª the mes went out like they weren¡¯t there at all, only leaving behind a massive plume of smoke rising up to the almost night sky.


    Quinn touched his face and his nose and looked at his gloves.  There was no blood.  Whatever magic it was had only cut his mask.  He frowned at the absence of Fiendfyre.  ¡°I thought Fiendfyre was supposed to be difficult to control,¡± Quinn asked Dumbledore.


    Dumbledore shrugged.  ¡°It still is.  It seems he is just a master at it.¡±


    The smoke cleared, and Voldemort stood where he had been standing before.  He looked unharmed.  Fiendfyre had burnt everything around more than it already was, but the ground around Voldemort remained untouched as the cursed fire had not even had the chance to approach the air around the Dark Lord.


    ¡°A pity that that didn¡¯t kill you.  At least I got rid of that,¡± Voldemort said calmly, pointing to his face.  ¡°Facing me while hiding your face was rude, even after I had already seen your face, Quinn West.  I will make your death as painful for this slight against me.¡±


    ¡°Your Death Eaters fight with their faces all the time,¡± Quinn said.<sub></sub>


    ¡°My Death Eaters can be rude; you can not.¡±


    Quinn breathed out.  If it was before, he would¡¯ve erupted at the taunt.  Getting his mask split by Voldemort even with Fiendfyre between them cooled all of his anger to the winter.  His mind felt clearer since before he had been cursed by Voldemort.  He took deep breaths and gently operated his lumency to get into a correct state of mind for the situation.


    ¡°What is the n?¡± Quinn asked Dumbledore, pulling down the neck of his muscle shirt part of the Noir gear.


    ¡°Have you calmed down finally?¡± Dumbledore asked


    Quinn nodded.


    Dumbledore¡¯s voice sounded in his ear.  Quinn nced at Dumbledore; the voice had a slight echo to it¡ª it was transmitted into his ear through the use of magic.  ¡°Good.  Let us begin then.  What do you need to weaken him?¡± Dumbledore asked.


    ¡°Time,¡± Quinn said, also transmitting and fabricating his voice via magic, making no lip movements.  ¡°I need some time to start the process.  And I need you to keep him away from me while I do my job.¡±


    ¡°How much time?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.  I haven¡¯t done this before.  You will have to keep away from me as long as it takes for the magic to work.¡±  People didn¡¯t deal with Horcrux on a daily basis.  What Quinn was trying to do was to do was unchartered territory with no previous precedent to rely on or work upon.


    ¡°I will see to it that he doesn¡¯t get to you.¡±


    Quinn nced at Dumbledore.  It wasn¡¯t going to be easy to keep Voldemort away.  Not only was the Dark Lord a dangerous opponent¡ª fighting someone of equal caliber while protecting someone put the protector at risk.  Not only did Quinn not going to provide help while he was casting his magic, but he was also going to be a major liability.<sub></sub>


    ¡°He will feel it,¡± Quinn said.  ¡°When the magic starts to work, he will feel the effect very clearly.  I don¡¯t know if he will figure out how I¡¯m doing it, but he will target me with animal-like ferocity.  He will want whatever I¡¯m doing to him to stop because it will feel extremely wrong.¡±  He remembered what it felt like when n hade close to Quinn¡ª every fiber of his being felt threatened.  When he had used the Ressurection Stone on his own soul tomunicate with Harry, the pain and panic that he had felt in the initial moment had been almost unbearable¡ª no way Voldemort was going to ignore something like that.


    ¡°But when the magic is a sess, it will cause his unspeakable harm and unbearable pain,¡± Quinn said, his eyes burning dangerously.  ¡°He will be vulnerable then; deal as much damage as you can then.¡±


    Dumbledore nodded.


    Quinn cracked his neck and jumped into the air with a burst of wind magic, all the while circting body magic through his muscles.  The flood gates inside his body opened up, and a tremendous amount of magic poured out as couple hundred ice spikes formed behind him.  Quinn threw his hands forward, and the ice spikes rushed past him, converging toward Voldemort.


    ¡°Is this all you know how to do?¡±  Voldemort swiped his wand, and the ice burst into thousands and thousands of water droplets that remained suspended in the air.


    Even though Quinn had his eyes trained on Voldemort, he could feel the water droplets around him.  They were no longer in his control.  Voldemort swiped his wand, and the water droplets all at once vibrated at an rming pace before rushing towards him at a frightening speed.  Water under high pressure could tear through a human body like a chainsaw through a sheet of paper.


    ¡®Fortunately, they¡¯re conjured,¡¯ Quinn thought as he sent out a pulse of magic, and all the droplets ceased to exist.  There were two ways to create ice: Freeze the water from a source around him, which could be a water body or the moisture in the air, or the second method required conjuring water and then freezing it.  Quinn utilized the second method heavily when he needed to make a lot of ice¡ª which was the case here¡ª and if he conjured the water, he could make it not exist as well.


    Dumbledore, on the ground, moved and sent giant balls of fire toward Voldemort.  The fireballs scorched the earth as they burned everything on their way to Voldemort.


    ¡°Another worthless trick,¡± Voldemort sucked in the air before breathing out in the direction of the fireballs.  And as if blowing a candle, the fireballs disappeared¡ª leaving behind the gashes they left in the ground.  ¡°I can make Fiendfyre disappear; did you think these mes would work against me, Dumbledore!¡±


    Quinn pushed forward with wind magic and turned into a bullet.  He covered himself in a spherical force field and threw himself in Voldemort¡¯s direction.  The Dark Lord looked like he was no problem facing two opponents as he raised a hand towards Quinn and slowed him down to stop.  He pulled his hand back, and Quinn, still inside his force field, was sucked towards Voldemort.


    ¡°I got you now,¡± Voldemort said as he touched the force field with his palm.  ¡°You have been a pest for so long.  I don¡¯t care about your grandfather anymore; time to die¡ª¡±


    Voldemort let go of Quinn for a moment and turned his gaze to Dumbledore.  Quinn took advantage of the distraction and narrowed his eyes tounch an intense Legilimency attack on Voldemort.


    ¡°Aargh,¡± Voldemort gripped his head with one hand and raised his other (with wand) toward Dumbledore¡ª but he was toote as a spell hit him in the shoulder.


    Voldemort groaned painfully, but this time there was anger in his grunts.  He pointed his wand towards Quinn and swung it for Quinn to go flying into the ruins of a building that immediately copsed on him.  Voldemort quickly followed by shooting multiple explosions into the ruin, creating a small mushroom cloud.


    ¡°An anti-apparition jinx, Dumbledore?¡± Voldemort said, removing his hand from his head, but his expression still showed pain.


    ¡°I want to put an end to you today, Tom,¡± Dumbledore said, ¡°and because of that, I can not have you escaping from here.¡±


    Voldemortughed angrily.  ¡°I am immortal, Dumbledorere.  You keeping me here won¡¯t change anything.  As a matter of fact, you will not be leaving here today.¡±


    Dumbledore raised his wand, and the rubble around rose into the air, converging into five points to form troll-sized golems.  ¡°Not if I have something to say about it.¡±


    Voldemort nced at the smoking rubble where he had thrown Quinn.  ¡°Not checking up on yourpanion?  How cold-hearted of you,¡± Voldemortughed mockingly.  ¡°What would others say if they Kind Headmaster Dumbledore act this way. . . ignoring his injured student.¡±


    Dumbledore shrugged.  ¡°He knew what he was getting into when he joined our battle.¡±  He pointed his wand at Voldemort, and the golems moved forward, stomping ahead, making artificial mini earthquakes with each step.


    . . .


    Inside the rubble, Quinn sat beneath a force field, holding up the wreckage.  He had the Ressurection Stone in one hand and Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup in the other.


    .


    -* -*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C It¡¯s Endgame now.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C Shit, migraine!  Give me an aspirin, quick!


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Elder Wand User ¨C No one is going home today!


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I will be retiring the end-credit section(this thing) with AMJ.  Let¡¯s see if I cane up with something else.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 431 Risk & Provocations

    Looking at the Resurrection Stone in one hand and the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup in the other, Quinn wondered if this would work.  It had never been done before.  Yes, he had his research, and the little testing he had done had given him positive outlooks¡ª but that wasn¡¯t how magic was supposed to be found and developed.


    ¡®This is more like how people die,¡¯ Quinn thought.  He recalled the case near him: Pandora Lovegood, Luna¡¯s mother¡ª the woman had died in an ident while experimenting with magic when Luna was just nine-years-old.  The risk was very real, and the possibility of the magic backfiring on Quinn loomed quite near.


    ¡®There is another risk¡ª much less risky¡ª that you could take,¡¯ said a voice in Quinn¡¯s mind.  Instead of trying to weaken Voldemort through the Horcrux and soul magic, Quinn could simply destroy them, making Voldemort mortal, and then try killing him as he was, hoping that thebined might of Quinn and Dumbledore would be enough to kill Voldemort.


    It was a matter of which risk to take.


    Quinn closed his eyes for a moment before opening them with a determined light shing in the stone greys.  He felt the pain in his shoulder from Voldemort¡¯s curse as he recalled everything he had risked and sacrificed for the past half-year.


    ¡®I have to break myself away from these chains¡ª for myself and no one else,¡¯ Quinn thought as he injected his magic into the items in his hands.


    The Horcrux trembled in Quinn¡¯s hand and let out a low shriek that he immediately forced down¡ª it was too early for Voldemort to find out what he was doing.  He buckled down and let the Resurrection Stone use his soul and magic to draw power to do his bidding against the piece of foul soul protected inside the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C<sub>.</sub>


    .


    Dumbledore and Voldemort exchanged spells doing more and more damage to their surroundings but failed to do any real harm to their opponents.  Their duel was supernatural enough that even those who had lived their entire lives with magic would be startled to see what magic could aplish¡ª being forced to wonder if the magic in their possession was the same as that wielded by the likes of Dumbledore and Voldemort.


    Voldemort shot a hazy spell towards Dumbledore, who deflected it to the sky.  The spell climbed up to the sky, leaving a smoke trail in its wake.  Voldemort didn¡¯t seem dissatisfied as he grinned and shot another spell, but this time not toward Dumbledore but at the spell that had been deflected.  A stark white zap of magic hit the head of the smoke trail, and a loud explosion was heard as dark clouds burst out from the intersection of the spells, slowly puffing out to cover the sky above.


    Voldemort waved his wand and muttered a spell under his breath.  ¡°I find my view of you change quite significantly today, Dumbledore,¡± he said as heavy gusts began to blow.  ¡°I always thought of you to be a sentimental sort¡ª but here I see you without a lick of grief or anger on your face.  Do you feel nothing about the boy¡¯s death?  I heard you two shared a rtionship akin to a grandfather-grandson¡¯s.  But here you are, facing his murderer, and not a single word of resentment has been said to me.¡±  Heughed loudly, ¡°You even teamed up with the man who delivered the boy to me!  How unfeeling of you, Dumbledore!¡±


    The sky above rumbled as a white glow illuminated across behind the dark clouds, shing them momentarily in a dim white.


    Dumbledore waved his wand above his head in a circle as if building momentum to throw a looped rope.  The dust and dirt around him rose in circles as a wide tornado built around him until the spiraling dust broke forward and formed a horse-like apparition of dust that charged toward Voldemort, leaving behind a dusty trail that obstructed vision all around.


    Not waiting even for a second to observe his spell was worked against Voldemort, Dumbledore turned to the ruins of the building under which Quinn hid and shot a chain of spells all over the wreckage.  Neither did it explode, nor did the building seem to move back in time and fix itself¡ª the spell¡¯s purpose was simple: strengthen the broken wreckage through transfiguration and make them stick together so they could withstand pressure from outside better.


    Dumbledore couldn¡¯t have Quinn worrying about the roof falling over his head when he was concentrating on something much more important.  ¡®I will protect you, so please. . . don¡¯t fail,¡¯ Dumbledore thought as he returned to face Voldemort.<sub></sub>


    The three-story high horse was immediately ripped apart, and the dust was pushed away to the sides, making everything visible again.  Voldemort looked unharmed.  ¡°Is that the best you could do as the Master of the Elder Wand?  If so, I¡¯m disappointed I did not face you for as long as I did.¡±


    ¡°I pity what you be, Tom.¡±  Dumbledore decided to engage Voldemort in conversation¡ª he needed to preserve his magic forter.  ¡°And, I me myself for not helping you when you came to me.  I failed you, my student.  I fear that I¡¯m the reason for everything that has happened to you and, in turn, this country.  I fear. . . I¡¯m who made you this way.¡±


    Then Dumbledore waited.  He didn¡¯t need to wait long.  It took Voldemort only a few seconds to blow up like a kettle on a high me.


    ¡°YOU ARE NOT WHO MADE ME!¡± Voldemort screamed, and the earth shook with him.  ¡°You are not the reason for who I am!  You have nothing to do with me!  I am the master of my own destiny!  I am the immortal Dark Lord!  You didn¡¯t make me; I made myself!¡±


    ¡®It worked,¡¯ Dumbledore thought pleasantly.  Dumbledore knew that even the mere mention that he had a hand in Voldemort being what he was today would infuriate the man so much that it would shatter all sense of control Voldemort thought he had in the situation.  Dumbledore could tell that all previous thoughts had left Voldemort, reced by what he had just said.


    Dumbledore decided to poke a little more.  ¡°I do not think so.  What if you were allowed to stay at Hogwarts as you had asked for during summer breaks?  If you were not forced to go back to the horrible orphanage¡ª maybe you would¡¯ve been kinder, morepassionate. . . a better person.  I take the me for pushing you down the dark path. . . . Forgive me,¡± there was a feeling of sorrow in his voice.


    The battlefield went silent.  The sound of thunderclouds in the sky echoed loudly.  The sound of explosions from the other part of the viges traveled wide¡ª but only for so long as an earthshattering quake broke out beneath Dumbledore¡¯s feet.  Terrible cracks and crevices broke out on the ground, marring the surface with ugly scars.


    ¡°Mind your words, Dumbledore,¡± Voldemort said in a deep voice, a grave warning shing in his tone.  ¡°You are treading a dangerous line here.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°Dangerous line?  I¡¯m already in danger, Tom.  You said so yourself that you n to kill me today, just like I n to do so to you.  What difference does it make if I say anything that displeases you?  I am simply speaking the truth, and you can¡¯t stop me from doing so.¡±


    ¡°. . . I have decided to make thest moments of your life as painful as possible,¡± Voldemort said, snarling.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think my words anger you so much because you see the truth in them?¡± Dumbledore asked, continuing to throw words he knew would get a response from Voldemort.


    In his effort to defeat Voldemort, Dumbledore studied every point of Voldemort¡¯s life.  He knew whatever there was to know about Voldemort¡¯s life except for the ten years gap of absence in which Voldemort had left the country to travel the world.  He knew enough to make every word hit where he wanted to.


    Voldemort raised his wand to the sky, and the rumbles of thunder became louder and brighter as the clouds turned darker and more menacing than a deep rainforest.


    ¡®I think this is enough,¡¯ Dumbledore looked up at the sky.  He nced at the wreckage that he had reinforced.  ¡®I hope this is enough,¡¯ he couldn¡¯t provoke more¡ª if he did more, Voldemort¡¯s magic would begin to wreak havoc everywhere instead of just focusing upon him.  Emotion was closely tied to magic.  The former poweredtter.  But it also could affect it at a really deep level.  Dumbledore had purposefully provoked Voldemort because he wanted to disrupt his internals in hopes that it would, by chance, work in favor of Quinn, who was trying to work with soul magic which yet again deeply connected with emotions.


    ¡°Die, Dumbledore,¡± Voldemort lowered his wand until he pointed it at Dumbledore.


    Dumbledore didn¡¯t look anywhere other than Voldemort, but his instincts told him what was about to happen.  He immediately funneled magic through the Elder Wand, and a dome appeared overhead just in time for a  white sh of thunder to strike him from the clouds.  Even if it was for a split second, the air heated up until it burned.


    ¡®That was close,¡¯ thought Dumbledore¡ª if he had waited to react to the magic, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to block a literal thunderbolting down on him.


    ¡°I thought you wanted to kill me painfully.  That would¡¯ve killed me instantly,¡± Dumbledore chuckled.


    Voldemort raised both of his hands towards Dumbledore.  The cloud rumbled, and a sh of thunder descended again, but this time over Voldemort, but instead of electrocuting him, the lightning pooled around him¡ª something impossible without magic.  He jutted his arm forward, and the lightning pooled behind him brightened, and two small lightning streams bolted toward Dumbledore, mmed into his dome, and acted like drills trying to pierce through.


    Dumbledore stabbed his wand into the dome, and the lightning at the impact point broke down into small electric spark streams.  Dumbledore stood back and simply let his magic consistently dissipate the harmful magic into harmful sparks.


    Voldemort grunted as he finally stopped the seemingly endless supply of lightning.  He spat.  ¡°I am the only one responsible for what I am today.  The blood of Slytherin runs through my veins¡ª I was destined for greatness.  Your only contribution to my greatness shall be by dying by my hand and making the people realize that¡ª¡±  Voldemort froze in his spot and began to shake as his already pale skin turned paler than a white Vampire¡¯s.  His hand went to his heart as he looked around with a panicky look.


    ¡°W-What i-is th-i-is?¡± he stuttered and fisted his robes.


    Suddenly, a golden beam shot out of his chest that ended up at the wreckage where Quinn had been thrown into.


    Voldemort¡¯s eyes shrunk.  He errantly waved his hand, and the wreckage rose up in the air and floated there in a strange sense of static.  It revealed Quinn kneeling on the ground with the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup in his hand, which was the other end of the golden beam that connected it to Voldemort.


    Quinn opened his eyes which were now glowing a deep purple with a shimmer of golden glowing in them like a burning me.  He looked directly at Voldemort.  ¡°Peace does not dwell in outward things but within the soul. . . and when you destroy the soul,¡± he grinned, ¡°chaos ensues. . .¡±


    Dumbledore looked between Voldemort and Quinn and stood up straight.  He readied his magic. . . the real battle was about to start now.


    .


    -* -*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Linko Starto!


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C About to realize what is happening


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Defender ¨C You shall not pass!


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 432 First Cut

    The golden line that connected Quinn and Voldemort zed bright enough to be substituted as a shlight in the dark, illuminating its surrounding with a sharp golden glow.  The line was taut without a hint of ck, even as Quinn got up and jumped out of the wreckage.


    Voldemort stared at the golden line from his chest, where his heart was.  ¡°What is this?¡± he asked, his hands hovering around the line but not touching it.  ¡°WHAT IS THIS!¡±


    Quinn cracked his neck and tugged¡ª not physically¡ª at the line, and Voldemort¡¯s pale, grey face went to almost white.  He ced himself rtively closer to Dumbledore and spoke to him using magic, ¡°This is it, big guy.  He¡¯s going to swing hard now.  If I die or even lose control of this magic, I don¡¯t think Voldemort is going to let me seed again so easily.  If we want to move ahead, you must keep the very pissed Dark Lord away from me.¡±


    Even with the talk of killing each other, neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort were actually trying to kill each other¡ª at least not seriously¡ª they were just testing each other out.  Seeing what they could use to really hurt the other when they actually got serious.  And there was no way Voldemort was going to stay non-serious when there was an unknown magic sticking out from his chest with the other end in the hand of an enemy who had vehemently threatened to kill him.


    ¡®It would be a problem if he doesn¡¯t rage,¡¯ thought Quinn¡ª it would mean that Voldemort could get out any time he wanted.  ¡®He doesn¡¯t look he¡¯s feeling good, so that¡¯s good,¡¯ he confirmed that by tugging on the golden line, making Voldemort shake.


    ¡°S-Soul magic,¡±  Voldemort said, stuttering.  He muttered something under his breath before ring at Quinn.  ¡°What magic is this?!  How are you doing this!¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t say anything and took a few steps back until he was behind Dumbledore.  He wasn¡¯t going to wave the Horcrux in Voldemort¡¯s face as long as he could keep it hidden.  He kept Voldemort¡¯s gaze and began to proceed with the magic.  Establishing the connection between the Horcrux and Voldemort¡¯s soul was merely the first step¡ª the most challenging step, but the first step nevertheless.


    ¡°If you refuse to tell me, then I¡¯ll just have to kill you,¡± Voldemort said, growling.


    Quinn shrugged.  ¡°You will, unfortunately, find that if you kill me, you die as well.¡±  He was bluffing.  Quinn was the only one to die if he was going to die.


    ¡°I doubt that,¡± Voldemort said, sneering.  He raised his voice, and the ground shook.  It shook so hard that a crevice opened under Quinn¡¯s fee, a crevice so opened that it could swallow two of him.  But Quinn kept his altitude by keeping himself in the air.


    Dumbledore waved his wand.  The shaking stopped with the cracked ground closed its gap and became whole again.  Quinn had to give a small piece of his mind a moment to admire the mass transfiguration sorge that it fixed the ground, leaving behind not a single split¡ª it looked like a t ground fit for rollerding.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to get to him,¡± Dumbledore dered.  ¡°You¡¯re going to die today, and I will do everything to make that happen.¡±


    Voldemort swung his wand, and the air took on the stench of burning sulfur.  ¡°Saying it again and again that I¡¯m going to do again is going to make ite true suddenly, Dumbledore¡ª but maybe that¡¯s what you want since you can¡¯t do it alone and apparently need a child¡¯s help to do it.¡±


    ¡°This child can dismantle your Death Eaters with less effort than shattering ss by dropping a hammer onto it.  And that same child has got you rattled, Tom.  I can feel it,¡± Dumbledore smiled.  ¡°The slight trembled in your magic every time you cast¡ª it¡¯s getting to you, and no amount of denying is going to change that.¡±


    Voldemort clenched his jaw.  The putrid smell of burning sulfur went beyond that of rotten eggs.  Quinn, who was silently working on the magic, looked to his sleeve and saw the fabric melting against his skin.


    ¡°Dumbledore,¡± Quinn called, ¡°I thought you said you would protect me!¡±  He could fly while performing the soul link, but he couldn¡¯t fend off the Dark Lord¡¯s very dangerous dark curse.  It was what he had said to Dumbledore¡ª he was aplete liability.


    Dumbledore stabbed his wand into the air, and a gentle pulse of magic cleared away the sulfur smell.  The melting of clothes immediately stopped, though already corroding fabric didn¡¯t return to normal.


    A ck mist pooled around Voldemort¡¯s feet and rose to cover his lower body.  Voldemort took to air just a couple feet off the ground.  He shot toward Quinn, leaving behind rising dust in his wake.  Dumbledore stepped directly in front of Quinn and thrust his wand forward, sending out a spiral of power that collided with Voldemort, sending him back like a cannonball.  Dumbledore didn¡¯t wait and apparated in Voldemort¡¯s direction.


    Explosions ensued as the two juggernauts collided in a battle of magic.  However, Quinn stayed away from that and maintained his position in the middle of the street, focusing on the golden line hopping as if attached to a ball bounced in the pinball machine.


    He concentrated on the golden line and felt the soothing feeling exuding out in loads.  However, on both ends of that gentle presence were two menacing presences that seemed to suck in all into the void of darkness.  The two dark presences were Horcrux and Voldemort¡¯s broken soul.


    ¡®Let¡¯s form some hard,¡¯ Quinn thought seriously, though the part of his mind chuckled at the irony of the situation.<sub></sub>


    The gold line connecting the two of Voldemort¡¯s souls was actually Emperyean wielding properties that Quinn had bestowed upon it using his soul magic.  He had been surprised that Emperyean, which had always been red no matter what he did with it, but the second it touched soul magic, the red Emperyean changed to gold as King Midas had touched it.


    The gold soul-based Empyrean had two characteristics.  The tethering property that connected the two souls came from the Resurrection Stone¡ª without it, Quinn had no way to connect the two pieces of souls; it was way beyond-beyond his skill level.  That was why Resurrection Stone was crucial, for, without it, the current n wouldn¡¯t even be born.


    But it was the second property that made Quinn chuckle inside¡ª even though he was the one who had made the property.  Horcrux was a piece of soul split from the main soul and stored into an object to tether the main soul to the mortal ne.


    ¡®Which means there¡¯s a connection between Horcrux and the main soul,¡¯ thought Quinn.  Even though Voldemort couldn¡¯t tell when his Horcrux was destroyed, the fact that there was a faint connection meant that Quinn could exploit it.  And so he did.  Using the Resurrection Stone, he exploited the connection and strengthened it.


    The next step was using that connection to take the two pieces of souls. . . and attach them together.  It made himugh because the attaching process was strikingly simr to healing two souls.  Even the thought of healing Voldemort¡¯s corrupted soul was so absurd that it made himugh till he was wheezing.


    Quinn opened his eyes and stared at an explosion of fire heading toward him.  He didn¡¯t move and faced the fire with all his concentration on the golden line.  He closed his eyes again and felt the heat on his face, but suddenly the heat went away.  When he opened his eyes, he saw a vacuum sucking away the mes.  They tried to creep out of the sucking force, but the vacuum became stronger and gobbled up the mes.


    He grinned.  Nothing felt more dependable than having Dumbledore protect him.  ¡®The thing that hurts a lot is when you injure something being healed,¡¯ Quinn thought.


    He pumped magic into the Resurrection Stone and felt a surge of power in return that he channeled into the golden line.  And then pulled¡ª pulled on Voldemort¡¯s main soul.


    There was a scream¡ª Voldemort¡¯s scream.


    ¡®It worked,¡¯ Quinn smiled, so he pulled more until the pull reached its limit.  He took out a second Basilisk venom dagger, activated the runes, and with a swing, he cut the golden line.<sub></sub>


    The scream this time made Banshee¡¯s screams pale inparison.


    Quinn never felt prouder to inflict pain on someone.


    ¡°Dumbledore!  Don¡¯t let him get away.  We are going to end this today,¡± he yelled as he dropped the Hufflepuff¡¯s Cup, pointed his palm at the falling Horcrux¡ª ¡°Avada Kedava¡±¡ª and magicked it to death.  What died this time was the soul fragment in the Horcrux and some of the soul he had pulled from Voldemort¡¯s main soul.


    He knew he was sessful because Voldemort¡¯s magic was rampaging, and he was still screaming.


    The next second, Dumbledore apparated right next to him.  ¡°That worked,¡± Dumbledore said.


    ¡°I think so too.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s mad.¡±


    ¡°I can see that as well.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t like that,¡± Dumbledore pointed the Elder Wand at the rampaging magic that was sending wreckage andrge pieces of the ground spiraling in the air.


    ¡°He¡¯s weaker than before; it will be easier than before.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Dumbledore had a grave-grave expression.  ¡°Until now, he was fighting to kill us.  But now, he¡¯s fighting to protect himself from dying.  Even if he doesn¡¯t know that we have got his Horcruxes, losing his current body is not an experience he will want to go through¡ª thest time that happened, it took him longer than a decade to get another one¡ª that sort of experience stays with you.  He can¡¯t escape, not in his current condition, so he will fight to the death to get even a small chance of not losing this body.¡±


    Quinn swallowed the saliva building in his mouth.  ¡°I damaged his main soul right now,¡± that was how he was nning to weaken Voldemort.  ¡°I don¡¯t think he will be a fan of losing his body¡ª which will weaken his soul more¡ª and roam around as a specter.  The recovery might be worse than thest time.¡±  That was an assumption.  It could be the same as thest time, Voldemort had unknowingly lost a part of his soul that turned Harry Potter into a Horcrux.  And even though he didn¡¯t make a Horcrux this time, he did lose an extra part of his soul.


    ¡°I will make sure he doesn¡¯t escape,¡± Dumbledore said.  He looked at Quinn.  ¡°Are you fine?  You seem pale. . .¡±


    Quinn spat another build of saliva and breathed out heavily.  ¡°It¡¯s a difficult magic¡ª¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s soul magic.¡±


    ¡°I know. . . soul magic is difficult magic.  It takes its toll.  It¡¯s fine; I¡¯m fine.  I can do this,¡± Quinn stood up straighter and red at Dumbledore in case the old Headmaster had some other thoughts.  ¡°We proceed as nned.¡±


    Dumbledore stared for a while before nodding.


    Quinn reached into his pocket and took out a ss case.  He could feel Dumbledore¡¯s eyes stuck on it¡ª or on the thing inside the ss case.  Sitting inside the ss was an ornate diadem studded with beautiful diamonds.


    It could have been any well-made random diadem.  But Quinn and Dumbledore knew precisely what it was.


    It was Rowena Ravenw¡¯s Diadem. . . another one of Voldemort¡¯s Horcruxes.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C Connect, Pull, Cut, Kill.


    Albus Dumbledore ¨C Bodyguard ¨C Not usually on bodyguard duty.


    Voldemort ¨C Dark Lord ¨C In agonizing pain.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I have been posting slowly.  I have a reason/theory for it.  I will tell you guys about it when the story ends.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 433 Last Cut...

    Dumbledore stared at the Ravenw¡¯s Diadem in Quinn¡¯s hand.  The tinum frame of the headpiece was adorned with arge blue gem whose glow tainted the clear diamonds studded all around the frame in a cerulean light that looked like moonlight reflecting off ake¡¯s surface.


    ¡°Where did you find the Lady Ravenw¡¯s Diadem?¡±


    Quinn nced at Dumbledore before opening the seal on the ss case that trapped the Horcrux and prevented it from spreading its influence to ensnare anyone except Voldemort to put it on their head to cast a dark curse so that it could protect itself from any potential danger.


    ¡°It was inside Hogwarts,¡± Quinn said.


    ¡°. . . What?¡±


    ¡°Voldemort had hidden it inside Hogwarts on the day you refused him the professor position.  He decided to hide it inside the supposed safest ce in the country, in a ce he thought only he knew.  Unfortunately for him, I found it.¡±  The ss case opened, and Quinn directly took out the diadem.  He could hold it close without falling under the influence because he was capable of doing so¡ª of course, the Horcrux could still make him fall in moment¡¯s weakness; as such, he still had to be careful, for the Horcrux was a silent beast looking for a chance to strike.


    ¡°It will be easier this time to establish the connection,¡± Quinn said.  ¡°But if Voldemort¡¯s going to be more vicious, the reduced time won¡¯t make things any easier.¡±


    ¡°I will keep him off of you.¡±


    ¡°I almost got turned into a charred piece of steak.  You¡¯re fortunate I don¡¯t scare easy, or else Voldemort won¡¯t be injured right now.¡±  The fire that almost engulfed him would have melted his skin and muscle off his bones, taking care of nature¡¯s work of dposition when he was buried¡ª that is, if there was anything left to bury.


    ¡°He won¡¯t reach you,¡± Dumbledore said assuringly.


    The whipping winds around Voldemort began to die down, and the spiraling debris fell to the ground, shaking it a little and covering the entire in a dust cloud.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°After this, I¡¯m going to spend my time in a ce with absolutely no dust,¡± Quinn said, clearing the dust inside his clothes.


    When the dust cleared, Voldemort stood in the middle of the floating debris.  The Dark Lord¡¯s blood-red eyes glowed a sharp red, making him look like Terminator programmed with the sole mission to kill him.  Voldemort raised his wand, and suddenly Quinn¡¯s entire vision was flooded with sharp light making him shut his eye due to the pain.


    Instincts kicked in.  Quinn modified his eyes and opened them with a clear vision just to see Voldemort standing a couple of inches from him, looking down at him with his menacing look.  Quinn¡¯s throat closed up a moment before all the magic he could muster rushed out¡ª but the next moment, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and Voldemort disappeared into the mist.


    Quinn looked to his shoulder and saw Dumbledore¡¯s hand on his shoulder.  ¡°I can only do much against mind magic,¡± Dumbledore said.


    Quinn cracked his neck and growled, ¡°Keep him busy.¡±  He grabbed the diadem in one and the Resurrection Stone in the other and began channeling magic.


    Dumbledore stepped forward and warded off a plume of dark poisonous gas heading towards Quinn.  He


    ¡°GET OUT OF MY WAY, DUMBLEDORE!¡± Voldemort¡¯s voice sounded demonic¡ª befitting a Dark Lord.  His magic so destructive that every time he waved his wand, Earth would gain a new scar on her face.  Against a furious Voldemort, Dumbledore seemed like a busy assembly line worker trying to keep up with the constant stream of working his way.


    ¡°I¡¯M GOING TO KILL YOU, WEST!  AND, IT¡¯S NOT GOING TO BE PAINLESS!¡± Voldemort screamed.  ¡°I¡¯m going to cut your arms and legs off and keep your body alive until I know what I need to know!  GET READY TO LIVE A NEW LIFE UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD!¡±


    Quinn didn¡¯t look toward the person shouting death threats and continued his focus on establishing a connection with Voldemort¡¯s soul.  He thought it would be much more difficult to get a hold of Voldemort¡¯s soul, but the man had no defense on his soul.


    ¡®It was my fault,¡¯ Quinn thought.  ¡®I can¡¯tpare everyone to n.¡¯  Voldemort might have split his soul into Horcruxes, a form of soul magic; he couldn¡¯t expect everyone to hide and protect their souls.  ¡®He is arrogant enough to think he¡¯s invincible; it makes sense.¡¯<sub></sub>


    Unlike n¡¯s soul, which was blurry and harder to pinpoint when using soul sense, Voldemort¡¯s soul was clearly visible¡ª thus, a very easy target to get a hold of.  It was the next part, establishing the connection, which was difficult.


    ¡®But now, I know how to do it, so. . .¡¯  Quinn pumped magic into the Resurrection Stone and felt his body fill up with power and his soul sing with exhration¡ª for a moment, he felt that his soul could exert an effect on the material world.  For a moment, he wondered if this is how using a wand felt¡ª sans the dreadful feeling.


    Quinn conjured a strand of Empyrean in his hand.  The red thread shined in his palm.  Next, he inserted the soul power into it, and it bloomed into a beautiful golden.  Quinn spotted Voldemort through his soul sense, and the golden Empyrean didn¡¯t need to be physically shot towards Voldemort, just a thought and¡ª ¡°Got. . . him!¡±¡ª Voldemort had a golden line sticking out of his chest with the other end connected to the diadem.


    Immediately, Voldemort¡¯s magic became erratic, and arge screech tore through the air.  Quinn looked up and saw a mass of ck smoke shaped like a vulture hovering in the sky with burning red lights as eyes.  It pped its wings, and all the wreckage was thrown into the air because of the sheer air pressure.  Quinn had to form a sturdy earthen wall behind him and justy t against it to not let himself be blown away.


    A yellow spell shot up from Dumbledore¡¯s wand up into the sky.  It entered the vulture, and the ck smoke turned yellow before getting sucked into arge yellow ball that exploded into an expanding ring.


    Knowing Voldemort won¡¯t listen to him, Quinnughed, ¡°Taking my arms and legs?  That¡¯s just stealing my style.  You can take it, though.  I¡¯m into cutting souls right now!¡±  He raised the Basilisk venom dagger, shed at the golden soul line, and relished the scream that followed.


    He also knew that Dumbledore switched from protecting him to attacking Voldemort without killing him.  If killed while there was a Horcrux still intact, Voldemort¡¯s soul would turn into a specter, unable to pass onto the afterlife.  But they didn¡¯t know what would happen if they destroyed thest Horcrux while Voldemort¡¯s soul was in specter form.  The rationale would say that with no anchor, the soul would pass through the natural progression¡ª but there was no proof, so they couldn¡¯t be sure.  And in a situation like this, they couldn¡¯t go without evidence.  It would mean letting Voldemort go, and that wasn¡¯t an option in any scenario.


    Quinn took out the ss case, put the diadem back, and dropped the entire thing down on the ground.  He took out a small purple pill, almost ck¡ª dropped it into the ss container before closing it shut.  The pill dissolved into smoke that filled the box¡ª there was a shrill shriek followed by a distinctly colored ck smoke.


    Quinn heaved as he looked at the now destroyed Horcrux.  While casting the Killing Curse would¡¯ve been faster, the magic took a heavy magical toll on the caster¡ª Quinn could¡¯ve easily shrugged it if he was at full reserves, but for the first time in his life, he didn¡¯t have a full tank outside of controlled environment¡ª usually, he was only in this state at night after exhausting his reserve slowly throughout the day.  This was different.  The soul magic exacted a high cost.


    ¡®This would take multiple people to pull off,¡¯ Quinn thought, clearing his dry throat.  He slowly took out one more ss case¡ª this one had a heavy locket studded with green gems in the shape of serpentine ¡®S¡¯ on the top¡ª thest Horcrux, Slytherin¡¯s Locket.<sub></sub>


    Dark Lord Voldemort made seven Horcruxes.  Quinn destroyed Tom Riddle¡¯s Diary to kill the ghost of Tom Riddle.  He destroyed Marvolo Gaunt¡¯s Ring because he wanted the Resurrection Stone.  Harry Potter was sent and back to Limbo for the Prophecy.  Nagini was killed because she didn¡¯t fit the equation and to keep Voldemort from retreating.  That left behind three Horcruxes he had never destroyed, just collected them into his safety.


    They were going toe to use someday.


    That someday was today.


    ¡°Last one to go,¡± Quinn took out the locket by its chain and stared at the rotating locket.  Everything was about to be over, and then he¡¯d be free of everything¡ª ¡°Ready for a new start. . . Come on, now. . . only one to go.¡±


    He closed his eyes and felt the power of Resurrection Stone fill him.  It made him feel rejuvenated.  Body, mind, and soul¡ª the Trifecta¡ª were connected, and when one was slumped on the floor, the others were affected, and simrly, when one was cycling through the clouds, the others were feeling the cloudy fluff as well.


    ¡°I have to end this quick.¡±  He wriggled his arms and legs.  ¡°Before I get addicted to this.¡±  He pushed the magic into the locket.  It heated up before an invisible line shot from it towards the crater formed by Voldemort and Dumbledore¡¯s fighting in which they fought right now.  He just needed to make the invisible line into a golden, sparkling one.


    Quinn closed his eyes again and began to concentrate.  Boom!  He snapped his eyes open and saw a Giant-sized stone golem roaring like an ancient monstrosity.


    The said monstrosity turned towards Quinn and stomped towards him with a giant stone hammer-ax.  Even the steps were enough to knock Quinn off bnce for days¡ª only his magic kept him steady.  Quinn gazed at the goleme closer to him step by step.  He knew Dumbledore would protect him, but seeing something sorge caused an instinctual fear to beat inside him.


    Step¡ª Boom!  Step¡ª Boom!  Step¡ª Boom!


    There were only so many steps the giant could take with its size to cover ground.  It raised its foot, and the area around Quin descended into the darkness with no moonlight.


    ¡®Come on!¡¯


    Zap¡ª Boom!  A spell streaked through the air and exploded the foot.  Quinn conjured a very weak shield¡ª the only thing he could with his focus on the soul magic¡ª but it was barely capable of protecting from the rock shower.


    The streaking spells continued, and within seconds, the golem was reduced to a hail of boulders that would¡¯ve entombed Quinn if not for his shield.  Quinn groaned as he felt every rock and boulder that fell down on him through his magic.


    He quickly reaffirmed his focus and began working on the connection.  The invisible line began to turn solid in his eyes, looking more and more like a ghostly golden.


    The seconds began to slip by as the magic crept closer, and with it, Quinn¡¯s heartbeat.  Sweat beaded down his forehead, traveling down his face¡ª dripping down from his nose and chin as he stared hard at the locket.


    ¡°Almost there,¡± Quinn gulped, and his throat hurt.  The golden line became thicker and thicker¡ª one moment, and it would be real.  ¡°Here. . . we g¡ª¡±


    The imaginary (almost real) line shattered into pieces as Quinn felt a jolt in his back.  Foreign magic coursed through his body.  He recognized the magic.  It was a stunner.  It wasn¡¯t powerful enough to knock him out.  Proven by the fact that even in Quinn¡¯s current state, he stood without even a hint of distortion in his senses.


    But it was enough to shatter the delicate soul magic he was casting.


    Quinn slowly turned back to face his attacker, anger rising inside of him.  Things were so close topletion that he could almost smell it in the air, only for his sense of smell to be taken away before he could even enjoy the scent.


    He saw the man with his wand raised.  Quinn could tell the man¡¯s mediocre skill from the distance between them.  It was in the average range distance a stunner could travel before it lost its integrity and fizzled away.


    Such a mediocre man had disrupted his magic.


    ¡°I know you,¡± Quinn growled, his blood boiling as if he was using blood magic.  ¡°I know you. . . Rivers Lock.¡±


    Rivers Lock, the founder of Novellus ionites, now a member of the Dark Lord¡¯s Death Eaters, stood facing Quinn with his wand trained ahead.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I am not feeling very good right now.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C I think the fight ends next chapter.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 434 Final Cut

    If there was a ceiling for how much anger one could feel, it was a ss one because Quinn had shattered it the moment the link between the Horcrux and Voldemort¡¯s soul was broken.  And when he found that Rivers Lock was the reason behind it, his fury was no longer quantifiable.


    Quinn raised his hand towards the offending Death Eater and clenched it into a fist.  Rivers rose up from the ground, his limbs stretched straight, forcing him into a starfish posture as he floated towards Quinn at a zing speed that pushed his cheeks back, revealing the gums and teeth.  Quinn opened his fist and hit the brakes on Rivers¡¯ body.  If not for Quinn restricting Rivers¡¯ body¡ª it would¡¯ve folded in on itself by the force of the sudden stop.


    ¡°Do you know what you did just now?¡± Quinn said, glowering.  ¡°You inconsequential bug, how dare you interfere with ME?!¡±  He pulled on Rivers¡¯ limb, extending the joints to the point the joints could almost pop off but didn¡¯t.


    Rivers screamed, but his body couldn¡¯t even wriggle in struggle.


    ¡°I am more furious than I was when Voldemort cursed me,¡± Quinn¡¯s nostrils red as he pursed his lips to forcibly seal his mouth.


    Rivers opened his mouth, ¡°I¡ª argh!!!¡±  He screamed again, and a light waft of white smoke escaped his mouth.  Rivers stuck out his tongue, and the pinkish muscle had been charred into a burnt mess.


    ¡°Did I say you could speak,¡± Quinn said, a cruel light burning in his eyes.  ¡°. . . I will deal with youter when I have time.¡±  He waved his hand, and Rivers was sent flying.  The Death Eater¡¯s body hit the ground and dragged on the ground for dozen feet beforeing to a stop.


    Quinn turned back to Voldemort and Dumbledore¡¯s fight.  The battlefield was an orchestra of chaos yed through magic, shing lights, dust, and two men hellbent on killing each other.  If not for the soul sense picking up on the souls of Dumbledore and Voldemort, Quinn wouldn¡¯t have been able to spot anything beyond the obstructive could of raging magic.


    ¡®One more time,¡¯ Quinn raised his arms towards the duel.


    Slytherin¡¯s Locket and the Resurrection Stone felt heavy in his hands.  His shoulders begged him to put his arms down and rest for a moment; his mind screamed the same.  A part of him wanted to listen and put his efforts down and watch, but the dominant part wouldn¡¯t let him rest¡ª it wasn¡¯t time to do so, not until the end.<sub>.</sub>


    He locked onto Voldemort¡¯s soul, and an invisible line appeared connecting it to the Horcrux, a line only visible to Quinn¡¯s golden eyes.


    ¡®One more time.¡¯


    His soul nudged the Resurrection Stone awake, and the soul artifact weed the rich magic provided to it and, in return, filled Quinn¡¯s soul with its power.  Quinn perked up as the fatigue retreated; his being felt rejuvenated once more.  Arduously, carefully, he channeled the power into the invisible line connecting the two souls¡ª immediately, the invisible line thickened and gained a faint color.


    It was easier than the previous three times but still something that made Quinn subconsciously stick out his tongue in concentration.  The process was as infuriatingly slow as watching sand trickle down an hourss in hopes that it would go faster.  Why did magic of such greater importance have to be so slow?  Nothing healthy ever tasted delicious.  Medicine had to be bitter.  Did everything good always have to have something negative attached to it?  Was this nature¡¯s way of maintaining bnce?


    Eventually, the soul power saturated the invisible line, and Quinn returned to where he was before Rivers interrupted him.  Just like before, anticipation bubbled inside him like boiling water.  With onest push, the soul power poured into the line, and Quinn followed by casting Empyrean, providing the line with a ¡®physical¡¯ form.


    A gleaming golden line greeted the world.  Voldemort¡¯s angry promations announcing its arrival.


    Quinn didn¡¯t grin or beam.  Instead, his brows merged together as he prepared himself to pull as much of Voldemort¡¯s main soul so that he could cut a piece off, causing pain and harm.


    ¡®I¡¯m stronger,¡¯ Quinn thought as he pulled.  ¡®My soul is stronger.  My soul is whole.  My soul is better.¡¯  His soul had always been more robust because of his status as an outsider, as a transmigrator.  He pulled and pulled on, and the other side pulled back, ensuing a tug-of-war.


    Even with Quinn¡¯s belief that his soul was stronger, Voldemort was no slouch.  It was magically exhausting to go against Voldemort.  Topete, he had to unplug the sink in his magical reserve and let it drain into the Resurrection Stone so that it could fill his soul with its power and use it to pit against Voldemort.<sub></sub>


    In the pulling contest, Quinn was at an inherent disadvantage because he was trying to pull Voldemort¡¯s soul using Voldemort¡¯s Horcrux.  To ovee that drawback, he had topensate with brute forcing as he didn¡¯t have the skill to ovee the gap.  It worked; Voldemort¡¯s soul began to move along the golden line towards Quinn.


    ¡®A little more,¡¯ Quinn breathed heavily as he felt the soul move towards him.  He took out the dagger and raised it above his shoulder as the runes came to life.  ¡®Just a bit more.¡¯  This was going to be thest attack; Quinn wanted to do as much damage as possible.


    ¡°Now!¡±  Quinn swung the dagger down, but before he could slice the line, his arm froze mid-swing.  It was not only his arm; his entire body felt like it had been encased in metal, robbing him of any movement.


    ¡°Not so fast now.¡±  The moon shone from behind, casting a shadow to the front.  Quinn looked down and saw his shadow move and turn from something resembling him to something entirely else.  The shadow lengthened, the torso leaned, limbs leaned, and the head turned round, void of hair.  When red slits appeared as eyes on the head of the shadow, Quinn realized who the new shadow was.


    ¡°You think you can kill me, child?¡± Voldemort¡¯s voice sounded more sinister than usual.  It seemed to being from just behind Quinn, but he couldn¡¯t turn to look.  However, he knew the voice was projected by magic.  ¡°I will have you tell me how you are doing this¡ª¡±


    Quinn roared as more magic burst out from his core.


    ¡°What!¡± Voldemort eximed, and the shadow wavered.


    Quinn forced his arm down against whatever magic Voldemort had cast.  Every muscle fiber used to make the swinging motion trembled as the arm crept.  ¡°Enough you. . .  sick fuck!¡± Quinn screamed as the dagger¡¯s tip slowly touched the golden line¡ª and that was enough to sever the line.


    Quinn waited for the hold on him to break, but it didn¡¯t.  He gazed down at his shadow¡ª it was trembling in and out of shape.  Quinn was in disbelief.  How could Voldemort maintain a spell after suffering a soul injury?!<sub></sub>


    ¡°I will. . . make you. . . pay!¡± Voldemort¡¯s voice snarled.


    Quinn felt a sense of danger pass over him.


    It was swift and sudden.  A magic passed over Quinn, and the right side of his body burst open.  His right arm and leg were gone, and so were parts of his stomach, pancreas, intestine, and entire spleen.  Quinn copsed to the ground immediately, and blood began to pour out as he went into shock.


    But a moment before the internal shock hit, Quinn lit his mind up with magic and used the remaining power in his soul.  He knew the shock woulde when he felt the first sign of injury¡ª and the moment it hit, mind and soul snapped him out of it.


    ¡®Injury status: fatal,¡¯ said a voice inside Quinn¡¯s head.  ¡®Preservation needed.¡¯  Magic inside his body reacted, and various forms of spells covered his body.  Body magic clenched the muscles around his wounds, while blood magic kept blood from pouring out of his body, and various healing spells pooled around to keep him alive.  An injury like this would¡¯ve killed a non-magical in an instant.  It was no different for Quinn; if not treated, he would die¡ª all he could do was hug his life until someone helped him.


    Like a machine, Quinn looked to his side with no emotion in his eyes.  The Slytherin¡¯s Lockety a couple feet away from him.  The Horcrux was still intact and needed to be destroyed, or else Voldemort would still live.


    ¡®I need to destroy it,¡¯ Quinn raised his left, still good hand and tapped the patch on his chest.  In the process, he coughed up blood, and more sputtered out of his wound despite his magic.  A small vial of Basilisk venom appeared on his chest.  The cork popped out, and the vial floated shakily to the Horcrux.  It tipped to the side, and the drops of venom spilled down on the locket, melting a hole to the center of the locket.  A hiss and ck smoketer, the Horcrux was destroyed.


    ¡®It is done,¡¯ Quinn thought as his conscious grew weaker.  ¡®Can I rest now?¡¯ he asked himself, but he knew that resting now meant not waking up ever again.


    He stared at the sky; he couldn¡¯t see any stars; there were clouds and dust that blocked their light from reaching him.  Quinn found his emotions returning as the need to be razor-sharp had faded.


    Quinn heard the sound of footsteps.  He felt his hopes go up for a second, but then he realized they wereing from the wrong side.  He barely moved his head to the side and saw Rivers Lock dragging his feet to him.


    ¡°Look at you,¡± Rivers said, a mocking smile on his bruised face, ¡°not so mighty now, are you?¡±


    Quinn stared at him; that was all he could do.  He had sacrificed that leeway trying to destroy the Horcrux.  Any action right now meant death.  If he physically moved, his magic wouldn¡¯t be able to keep him alive.  If he used magic, it would break the delicate bnce the spells operating on him were in, which would yet again mean death.


    ¡°You ruined my life,¡± Rivers said.  ¡°Since the day I met you, my life has gone all wrong.  You were the reason why I went to Azkaban.  You¡¯re the reason I ended up as a Death Eater.  When I thought I had made myself safe in that cesspool, you foiled my n.  I had just gotten out of Pettigrew¡¯s supervision, and the Dark Lord had begun trusting me.  But there you were again, the Invisible Vignte, Death Eaters¡¯ nemesis.  Do you know how much pleasure that man takes in torturing others?  He put me through all worlds of pain until he was bored and then ordered me to fight here at Hogwarts like nothing ever happened.  DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?!¡±


    Quinn simply stared at Rivers.  He had no idea what Rivers was talking about.  He was in no capacity to even think about it, not that there was anything he could do about the situation anyway.


    ¡®I don¡¯t want to die like this,¡¯ thought Quinn.  His magic trembled as the thought passed.  He had destroyed Voldemort¡¯s Horcrux, injured him, and served him on the silver tter to Dumbledore.  He had been sessful in his mission.  He could finally return home now.  It was time to get back to his life.


    ¡°Pathetic.  Absolutely pathetic,¡± Rivers spat.  ¡°Even if I kill you know, I won¡¯t feel any contentment. . . . I guess I can only kill you today and then go after your family for revenge.  It will only be a pity that¡ª¡±


    A cut appeared on Rivers¡¯ throat, and blood sputtered out.  He grabbed his throat as shock and panic pierced his eyes.  He looked at Quinn as blood leaked from between his fingers and hand.  Rivers opened his mouth, but nothing came out except some gurgling noises.


    Quinn watched Rivers copse on the ground with emotionless eyes.  If he was going to die today, he was at least going to make sure that there was one less threat against his family.


    ¡®I would have liked to say my goodbye.¡¯  The faces of his family and friends passed through his mind as he felt his body go cold.  He wanted to say his sorries, right the wrongs, and go out without those regrets.


    Tears dripped down the side of Quinn¡¯s face as his eye grew heavy.


    Finally, he felt his magic grow weaker.


    Then. . . he closed his eyes.


    .


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    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.


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 Chapter 435 Waking Up In a White Room

    Quinn opened his eyes.  They fluttered and tightened, stopping his dted pupils from letting excess light in and hurting his eyes.  The ceiling above was stark white, with the edges lined with an array of white MLE bathing the room with clean white light.


    Quinn¡¯s first thought as he stared above: ¡®Am I in the Limbo?¡¯  But everything was crisp and sharp, unlike when he had been to Limbo to pull Harry back, where everything seemed to be made from solidified mists and looked more like a dream-like illusion than a real ce.  The next thought: ¡®Is this afterlife?¡¯  Limbo was supposed to be the ce between life and death¡ª he had died and passed from the mortal realm to the afterlife¡ª and maybe the afterlife looked like Limbo without all the swirling mists.


    He had died.  Died from exchanging a stabilizing control over his injury for the chance to slice Rivers¡¯ throat.  Died at the age of eighteen from fighting a war to get rid of the world from a Dark Lord.  He


    Was it worth it?


    ¡®No, it was not,¡¯ Quinn said to himself, squeezing his eyes shut.  He was four years old when he arrived in this world, and it had been fourteen years since then.  Fourteen years of life, he had lived it to the fullest, doing what he loved, devoting every other minute of his life to magic, grateful that he had a background, the privilege that allowed him to pursue his heart¡¯s desire.  But there was always the foreknowledge gained from his previous life that dictated his life in certain ways.  AID was created so he could have a handle on things inside Hogwarts.  How he acted in front of many was through a lens of his previous knowledge.  Invisible Vignte, which was supposed to be only a one-time escapade, turned into something that drove his life to dangerous ces.  The older he got, the closer he got to the end of his limit of knowledge. . . the worse it got¡ª he donned the mask more and more until he abandoned the unmasked part of his life, left his family, and lived a life entirely dictated by the foreknowledge.


    Knowledge had always been a boon to him.  But this time, it was a curse that chained him to y a part.  He could¡¯ve not bothered and walked away, but such was the curse of it all¡ª he couldn¡¯t turn away when he knew what the future presented.


    Despite all he did. . . it wasn¡¯t worth it.


    Quinn groaned and closed his eyes when he felt them water up.  He wanted to raise his hands to cover his eyes before they overflowed and tears trickled down his face, but no arm came over his face.


    He opened his eyes and let the tears flow down the sides of his face.  The tear-jerking feelings went away for a moment, and a frown marred his face as Quinn raised his neck to look at his right arm.  It wasn¡¯t there.  His arm was missing from its ce on his shoulder, and his body was wrapped in heavy gauze that had runes painted across the entire length.  He turned his eyes to the other side and found that while he still had his left arm, it was also covered in gauze and had a dozen long needles sticking out from it.  He had no idea what they were supposed to do, but he couldn¡¯t move his arm or feel it.


    Then his eyes went lower.  His left leg hung over his body, the ankle resting on a U-shaped cushion that levitated without any support.  As for his right leg, he couldn¡¯t feel it like like his left arm and leg, but he instinctually knew that it wasn¡¯t there like his right arm.


    If it was any other person, they would suffer a panic attack seeing two of their four limbs missing¡ª even a magical person would feel a full bout of anxiety even though they knew that magic could regrow limbs as easy as growing a mushroom in a damp and dark ce.  For Quinn, however, the first thought was:  ¡®I am alive.¡¯


    He was alive.  He was sure of it.  Soul moved on to the afterlife upon death.  His cause of death had been a physical injury¡ª his soul hadn¡¯t been touched.  If this was the afterlife, he was to appear with his entire body and not the mess of the condition he had died in.


    ¡°I am alive,¡± Quinn said to himself, savoring the sound of the words.  The more he said, the better he felt, and the more his mood seemed toe out of a heavy swamp and into the free, fresh overground.<sub>.</sub>


    His eyes darted across the room.  It was arge room, utterly white and empty except for the cupboards and storage lined across the walls.  He narrowed his and observed to find where he was, and the design of the furniture matched with a memory in his mind¡ª it struck eight points of simrity to the furniture to when he had visited Gilderoy Lockhart in. . . St. Mungo¡¯s.


    He was in St. Mungo¡¯s Hospital for Magical Mdies and Injuries.


    ¡®Of course,¡¯ Quinn thought¡ª he was mortally injured and would obviously be brought to the hospital to be mended.


    He put his head back onto the pillow and swallowed down the feelings that thrashed up his throat.  He breathed hard for a while and whimpered a little before he got himself back into control.


    ¡°Anyone!¡± Quinn shouted as loudly as he could, his voice cracking.  He continued to call out until the door swung open, and a young man dressed in white entered the room, rushing towards Quinn.


    ¡°You are awake!¡± eximed the young man.


    Quinn eyed the neer and presumed him to be a St. Mungo¡¯s employee from the St. Mungo¡¯s insignia patch on his chest.  Quinn asked, ¡°Where am I?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in a private ward inside St. Mungo¡¯s.¡±  The young healer took out his wand and waved it over.  ¡°I¡¯m going to ask you some questions; please answer them to your best ability.  What is your name?¡±


    ¡°Quinn West.¡±


    ¡°How old are you?¡±  ¡°Eighteen this year.¡±


    ¡°What is thest thing you remember.¡±  ¡°. . . Closing my eyes in Hogsmeade.¡±


    ¡°How many fingers am I holding up?¡±  ¡°Three¡ª one¡ª five.¡±<sub></sub>


    ¡°How are you feeling right now?¡±  ¡°I feel no pain or difort despite missing an arm and leg.¡±


    The young healer summoned a clipboard to him and tapped his wand over it to record information.  ¡°You seem stable,¡± he smiled.  ¡°I¡¯ll be right back.  Do you need anything while I¡¯m out?¡±


    ¡°Some water and the primary healer in charge of me,¡± Quinn asked.  He could tell the young man in front of him wasn¡¯t in charge.


    ¡°That would be the Head Healer.¡±


    Quinn hummed¡ª The Head Healer of St. Mungos being his primary healer meant that his family had been informed.  While it seemed obvious, there was a chance that his family wouldn¡¯t be informed because of his identity.  ¡®Not like that it would matter. . . grandfather would¡¯vee to know anyway.¡¯


    When the door opened, a team of half a dozen people entered his room, with an elderly woman leading the group.  ¡°Good evening, Quinn.  I¡¯m Saffron Stoneheart, Head Healer of St. Mungo¡¯s Hospital for Magical Mdies and Injuries.  I¡¯m the primary healer in charge of getting you back to health.¡±


    Quinn looked at the rest of the people and asked: ¡°And they?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re my colleagues.  One of the best minds and skilled healers St. Mungo¡¯s has to offer.  They will be observing your case and recovery.¡±


    ¡°I want everyone except you to be out,¡± Quinn said bluntly.


    Stoneheart frowned, ¡°Quinn, they¡¯re here to¡ª¡±


    ¡°I know they¡¯re here to observe.  That¡¯s how healers learn and improve their craft.  They can observe all they want, but not now.  I want to talk to you alone.  I will answer all the questions they have about the changes in healthter¡ª I have excellent lumency, I will be an excellent patient¡ª but that is not right now.¡±


    Stoneheart sighed and nodded to the other healers, and they walked out of the room, leaving the two alone.<sub></sub>


    Quinn started immediately.  ¡°Is the Dark Lord dead?¡±  He wanted to know if all his effort bore fruit and that it was not all waste.


    Stoneheart smiled brightly and nodded.  ¡°He is dead.¡±


    Quinn wasn¡¯t satisfied.  ¡°Who announced it?  Did the newse from Dumbledore?¡±


    ¡°Not Dumbledore.  Minister announced that the Dark Lord has died.¡±


    Quinn clicked his tongue.  As much as he trusted Amelia Bones¡¯ integrity, he wanted to hear it from Dumbledore¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°Is Dumbledore here?¡± Quinn asked.  He didn¡¯t believe Dumbledore got out of the fight scratch-free.


    ¡°He is.  Doing much better than you are.  I think we are ready to release him in a day or two.¡±


    ¡°I want you to send someone and say that I ask: Is he dead?¡± Quinn said in a no-nonsense tone.  ¡°Please don¡¯t say anything; just go ask him.  Mention my name.  I want the answer as soon as possible¡ª it will do wonders for my recovery¡±¡ª or make it worse.


    Stoneheart sighed and walked out of the room to return half a minuteter.  ¡°You will hear from him soon,¡± she said.


    Quinn smiled.  ¡°Thank you.  How long have I been in the hospital?¡±


    ¡°Seven days.¡±


    ¡°Seven days?!¡± Quinn blurted with bulging eyes.


    ¡°We were surprised as well.  You suffered from physical and magical fatigue, but there was no reason for you to be out for an entire week.  We are running tests; we will find out soon.¡±


    ¡®Must be because I overdrew from my soul,¡¯ Quinn thought.  ¡°If it has been seven days, why am I still missing my limbs?  Seven days mean substantial progress.¡±  He knew that his missing arm and leg were not cursed injuries¡ª he had checked their status before he had ¡®died.¡¯


    ¡°Your limbs are the least of your problems, dear Quinn,¡± Stoneheart sighed.  ¡°You have multiple grave internal organ injuries that need to be fixed before we move on to your arm and leg.  But the biggest problem is¡ª¡±


    ¡°The dark curse,¡± Quinn groaned his answer out.


    ¡°Yes, the dark curse.  While it is no longer life-threatening by itself, it is keeping us from making quick progress on your injuries.  It will take us another week or two before we can start actively healing your organs and then your limbs.¡±


    Quinn closed his eyes and stayed silent for a while.  He didn¡¯t like the fact that he was going to be stuck in the hospital for several weeks.  ¡°What about the needles?  I don¡¯t know St. Mungo¡¯s uses acupuncture as a method of treatment.¡±


    ¡°It is not acupuncture.  Till yesterday, your body spasms out of control because of the dark curse.  While the spasms by themselves are harmless side-effects¡ª butbine them with your injuries, we can¡¯t have you violently moving for obvious reasons.  The needles keep the spasms at bay.  You haven¡¯t had a spasm today; you¡¯re improving, that¡¯s good.¡±


    ¡°Great,¡± Quinn sighed.  ¡°Now, the most important question,¡± he stared at her with an unblinking gaze.  ¡°Why is my magic moving without mymand?¡±  He felt his magic flowing inside his body withoutmand, and he could tell it wasn¡¯t his magic working on its own to sustain his body.


    ¡°Ah, about that,¡± Stoneheart smiled proudly.  ¡°On your second day here, your condition had worsened critically.  We were always on the cusp of losing you because of the dark curse worsening your injuries.  During that moment, I noticed the sheer amount of magic inside your body.  So I decided to use your own magic to aid your healing.  Unorthodox, yes¡ª but it worked wonderfully.  You are on a regr cycle of potions that make your magic flow as we want to heal your body¡ª¡± she pointed at him ¡°¡ª the runes on your gauze also use your own magic to stabilize your injuries and keep them from worsening.¡±


    Quinn was impressed.  Healing was almost exclusively external.  Yes, recovery depended on the body¡¯s own immune system, but magical healing was using external power to mend the disease.  Using a patient¡¯s own magic was highly umon because people there was danger of what would happen if their magic ran out.  But Quinn¡¯s magic reserves wererge enough that there was no danger of them running out.


    The door opened, and the young healer that had firste into the room entered.  He looked at Stoneheart and said, ¡°Professor Dumbledore says. . . . He is dead for good.¡±


    The moment Quinn heard that a few chuckles escaped him before tears streamed uncontrobly out of his eyes.  He cried freely, gasped for air, the whole package.  It was as he had said, hearing that Voldemort was dead from Dumbledore had lifted a dumbbell from his chest and immediately felt his magic flow smooth and better.


    It took him a while to calm down, and when he did, he asked: ¡°My family. . . are they here?¡±


    ¡°Someone is here every day during the visiting hours.  Because of your condition, we don¡¯t allow prolonged contact with you, so they¡¯re only allowed to visit for a certain period.¡±  Stoneheart looked at the back of her wrist at her watch, ¡°I think someone should being soon¡ª¡±


    Like many perfect timings that happened in Quinn¡¯s life, the door swung open, and the young woman with long jet ck hair rushed into the room with wide, expect stone-grey eyes.


    Quinn took in a deep breath, braced himself, and tried to look as healthy as he could in his condition.


    ¡°Lia,¡± he smiled, but his voice cracked from seeing her after such a long time.


    By the end of the day, Quinn had inmed his tear ducts from excessive crying.


    .


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    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I lost one of my balls as well if anyone was curious.


    Saffon Stoneheart ¨C Head Healer ¨C Has been promised massive donations.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C A few conversation chapters iing to end AMJ.


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    .

 Chapter 436 Freedom At Last

    ¡°You know. . . I don¡¯t like to be stared at right now,¡± Quinn said to Lia, who hadn¡¯t removed her eyes off of him ever since she had seen him awake.  His right ear was missing, the hair on his right had been ripped off, and a lot of the skin too had suffered significant damage¡ª and while everything was covered with gauze Quinn didn¡¯t feel like being looked at.  He couldn¡¯t even cast an illusion to look his normal self if he wanted to¡ª the potions and runes still directed his magic towards his recovery; he didn¡¯t wish to deviate from that and extend his stay at the hospital.


    Lia sat in her padded chair, leaning against the back with her legs crossed, hands resting on her elbow as she gazed at Quinn.  The emotional reunion had passed, Lia had cried, and Quinn had too, but now after both had settled down, there was a tension in the room, weighing down like a heavy nket¡ª at least for Quinn.


    ¡°Too bad I don¡¯t care about that right now.  You have no say in what I do or not,¡± Lia said quite bluntly.


    Quinn smiled bitterly.  Lia was the one he hadn¡¯t seen the longest of everyone in his family.  She wasn¡¯t there when he left home, and thest time he had met her then was two months¡ª now, it had been close to a year since he hadst seen her.


    ¡°I am sorry,¡± Quinn said.


    ¡°For what?¡±


    ¡°For. . .¡±  Quinn pursed his lips.  ¡°For a lot of things.¡±  There were many things he had to apologize for.  For leaving without saying anything, for not making any contact in thest year¡ª making everyone worried, worsening their fears with every Invisible Vignte story in the paper, and now ending up here in the hospital after almost losing his life against Voldemort; it didn¡¯t help that he still had a dark curse inhabiting his body.


    ¡°Do you know what it feels like when you actually get news about your bother, and the not the Invisible Vignte, they actually call and say the proper name.  It was a moment of tion and relief; an instant of hope that you will be finally returning. . . but that was shattered when they tell that you¡¯re in the hospital in a critical condition,¡± Lia said.  ¡°WHAT THE FUCK, QUINN!!¡±


    Quinn flinched.  He had no appropriate response for Lia.  She didn¡¯t care that he had contributed to Voldemort¡¯s death; for her, it wasn¡¯t his job to do so; he had arrived in his current state because he had put his hand into a jar it didn¡¯t belong in.


    ¡°It is all over now,¡± Quinn closed his eyes.  ¡°Voldemort¡¯s dead, and with it, so is Invisible Vignte.  I don¡¯t have any more special, absurd agenda driving me.  I can now only be Quinn West; I only want to be Quinn West.¡±  He opened his eyes and gazed at his sister.  ¡°Please forgive me.  All¡¯s well that ends well.  I am home now.¡±


    ¡°You think everything¡¯s well?  Look at yourself!¡± Lia narrowed her eyes.


    ¡°I¡¯m no longer in danger.  I will walk out of here as good as new without any permanent, chronicplications.¡±


    ¡°What about thew?  You¡¯re a wanted criminal.¡±


    ¡°Please,¡± Quinn resisted the urge to roll his eyes.  ¡°I bought helped the Ministry get rid of the Dark Lord; they won¡¯t try me as the Invisible Vignte; it will be a bad look if they do so.  If the thought does arise, Dumbledore, the two-time defeater of Dark Lord, will use his new and improved influence in my favor.¡±  Dumbledore had the chance to go after Voldemort when he had the Basilisk venom inside him but had chosen to help Quinn, knowing that Voldemort would remedy his health.


    ¡°Grandfather himself wouldn¡¯t let mee into the limelight.¡±  DMLE could¡¯ve gone after Quinn in his Death Eater and Snatcher hunting days, but now that he had helped in killing Voldemort, they had no real incentive to prosecute him.  With George behind him, Quinn had no worries about the Ministry and thew.  ¡°Even if they for some reason did, I will leave the country and live in anonymity.  I think that lifestyle suits me well.  You can do my share of public work,¡± Quinn smiled.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Do you not recognize me fuming right now?¡± Lia narrowed her eyes.


    Quinn chuckled.  ¡°It has been such a long time since I see you that I find it difficult to be anything than happy.  I have missed you so much, Lia.  So very very much,¡± he said with a smile and eyes that could burst into tears any second.


    Lia turned her face away and raised her hand to her eyes, cing her thumb and index finger on the lower eyelid as if anticipating tears.  She faced Quinn again and said: ¡°This is thest time you behave like this.  I¡¯m serious, Quinn; do something like this again, and you will live to regret it for the rest of your life.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t, I promise¡ª cross my heart,¡± Quinn said and wanted to raise his good arm to his chest, but he still had no feeling in it.


    Lia uncrossed her legs, got up from her chair, and leaned down to kiss Quinn¡¯s forehead ever so gently.  It was barely a peck.  She softly smiled and quietly said, ¡°Wee back.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. . . I¡¯m back.¡±


    When Lia sat back, Quinn asked, ¡°So, how have you been?  Still with. . . whatshisname?¡±


    ¡°Oh please,¡± Lia rolled her eyes.  ¡°Those words would suit anyone other than you.  Don¡¯t try to be sly; you remember his name¡ª if not because he¡¯s my boyfriend, then because he¡¯s your tenant.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t expect me to remember everything; I¡¯m a busy man.  That building has hundreds of plots; how am I expected to remember every single tenant?¡± Quinnughed.  ¡°How¡¯s Abraham doing?  I hope everything¡¯s been well.¡±


    ¡°Quite,¡± Lia smiled.  ¡°How about you?¡±


    Quinn¡¯s face darkened.  ¡°I will let you knowter.¡±  He had promised he would exin everythingter and that ter¡¯ was running towards him now that the war was over.


    ¡°That¡¯s not a good look.  Come on now, don¡¯t be shy, tell big sis.  I¡¯m always ready to help my brother¡¯s love life,¡± Lia winked.


    ¡°I will let you knowter,¡± Quinn repeated¡ª there was nothing she or anyone else could do; he didn¡¯t want anyone else to interfere.  Looking at Lia, Quinn could see that she was interested, so he changed the topic.  ¡°How have the others been?¡±  The question was less of a topic-changer and much more that Quinn wanted to know before he met everyone.


    ¡°What do you expect?  They have been worried sick about you; no one is happy that you made the choices you did, so expect to see anger and frustration of some kind from everyone.¡±<sub></sub>


    Quinn pressed his lips into a thin line.  When he had heard from Dumbledore that Voldemort was dead for good, he had thought all the hardship was over.  But, the causal effect web he had spun had caught up to him, and the real misery was about to start.  At least he had willingly taken up the hardship that came with being the Invisible Vignte, but with the hardship toe, he wished they were never needed.


    The door to the private room opened, and a young healer pocked her head inside.  ¡°Excuse me, your family has arrived.  Should I send them in?¡±


    Quinn looked to Lia.  ¡°I¡¯m not ready for this,¡± he said, genuinely feeling the dread.


    ¡°You bought this upon yourself.¡±  Lia turned to the young healer and nodded, ¡°Please send them in.¡±


    Quinn groaned.  He closed his eyes and wished that a sudden bout of sleep would take him away from the current situation, but he was wide awake with a body that wouldn¡¯t move below the neck.


    The door opened and the young healer entered with George, Elliot, and Mr. Rosey following her.  For a moment, all the worries disappeared, and he simply stared at them as they stared back at him.  But then Quinn saw tears in Ms. Rosey¡¯s eyes for the first time in his fourteen years here and the least energetic look on Elliot¡¯s face¡ª and the consequences of his actions dawned on him.


    ¡°Are you done?¡± George asked.


    Quinn took in a deep breath.  He slowly nodded.


    ¡°Good,¡± George walked to Quinn and gently brushed his hair.


    ¡°Yeah. . .¡± Quinn thought that George¡¯s fingers were particrly warm.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    ¡°I apologize for my current looks,¡± Quinn said as he carefully adjusted his seating position on his chair, shifting in it and using his good arm to getfortable, making sure to be careful with his growing right arm and leg.  He had been sitting on his bed for far too long and was allowed to sit in a chair for a couple of hours a day.<sub></sub>


    It had been two weeks since he had woken up in St. Mungos, and a week ago, as Quinn had expected, the healers had judged the state of remission of the dark curse and signed off on regrowing his limbs and organs.  They were surprised at the speed of recovery, but Quinn knew when his own magic was involved in healing, the progress would gain wings¡ª not only because of the sheer quantity but also because his natural focus was exponentially better than an average person due to theck of a wand in his history¡ª his magic was vastly more reactive and agile and so had worked marvelously with the potions and the runes.


    Quinn sat in front of Ivy and Daphne.  Stoneheart had cleared Quinn of his restrictive visiting status where only his family could visit and allowed more visitors when his health improved and removed the immobilizing needles when the spasms had stopped with the curses¡¯ remission.


    Both girls looked well; Hogwarts had been dismissed for the time being, to be resumed for a few weeks in the summer break before the seventh-year students gave their NEWTs.


    They gazed at Quinn¡¯s empty sleeves under which the growing limbs sat; the sleeves were charmed not to touch the limbs and seemed full to an extent.  Growing limbs from scratch wasn¡¯t a pretty sight and were better hidden away from eyes.


    ¡°I asked the healer outside, but how are you feeling?¡± Daphne asked, her eyes roaming at the injured side of his, the gauze that peeked out from the top of the hospital gown and the empty sleeves.


    Quinn smiled reassuringly.  ¡°The healer says I¡¯m progressing well and will be free to leave in two weeks.  I think I will be out of here before that.  As for how I¡¯m feeling, except for getting fatigued by the end of the day due to the treatment, I don¡¯t feel anything else¡ª the potions I am on take away any and all pain and difort.  Powerful stuff.  I have to be careful, though, can¡¯t move hastily because there¡¯s no pain to warn me something¡¯s wrong.¡±  He tried to look asfortable as possible as if his injuries had never been serious.  ¡°How¡¯s Astoria doing?  I hope the curse is still repressed firmly.¡±


    ¡°She hasn¡¯t even caught a cold in the past year.¡±


    Quinn smiled, ¡°That¡¯s good to hear.¡±  In the years he had been treating Astoria, his skill with Blood magic had improved at repressing the curse; their treatment sessions had gone from once a month to once a quarter, edging towards thrice a year.


    He looked at Ivy.  ¡°I hope Harry hasn¡¯t been suffering from some strange aftereffects.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s suffering from insomnia,¡± Ivy said.


    Quinn hummed.  ¡°Is it because of the Horcrux or the Killing cursed?¡±


    ¡°Healers say there¡¯s no harmful residual in his body.  The scar has also begun to heal and close up.¡±


    ¡®Then it must be a mental problem,¡¯ Quinn thought¡ª taking a Killing curse to the chest by your worst enemy wasn¡¯t a walk in the park, and Quinn could understand if Harry suffered some trauma due to the experience.  ¡°I rmend you take him to a mind healer if his condition doesn¡¯t improve.¡±


    Ivy nodded, and the conversation stopped moving altogether.  An awkwardness lingered between the three as they looked at each other to kickstart the conversation again¡ª but mostly it was Ivy and Daphne looking at Quinn.


    He knew what they wanted to hear.  Quinn sighed and leaned into his chair as he gazed at them for a moment in silence.  ¡°What I am about to say, you may not believe.  It might sound like a bad attempt at a dubious excuse.  But believe me when I say what I¡¯m about to tell you is the truth.  There are no two ways about it.¡±  Quinn licked his lips then uttered the words he thought he would never voice, ¡°I have memories of a different time¡ª of a world much like this, but different from ours¡ª of people who we know, but strangers at the same time¡ª¡± Quinn could tell confused expression on their faces¡ª he was beating around the bush.


    ¡®Screw it,¡¯ Quinn thought¡ª it hurt his heart, for he was about to lie again to say a truth to those he loved and those who deserved the truth.


    ¡°I was four years old when I fell from the window of my room. . .¡± and thus began a long tale¡ª of his life, of the exnation for his actions, of the backdrop of who he was today.  He told them how the story of a boy called Harry Potter shaped the life of a boy called Quinn West.  He told them.  He told them about his magical journey.


    It took a while.  For hours, Quinn spoke.  Neither Daphne nor Ivy stopped him once; they didn¡¯t raise questions or interrupt because of how absurd his words sounded¡ª they simply listened.  Quinn studied their expressions, which showed what they didn¡¯t say.  Hey bare his every secret, even the dirty ones he didn¡¯t wish to ever speak, and pushed aside the curtain to reveal who Quinn West actually was.


    ¡°. . . and here I am today, sitting in front of you.  Voldemort is dead, Harry Potter is alive, the Ministry stands tall, Hogwarts students didn¡¯t need to fight in a war, lives were saved, Dumbledore- a pir of this country- is still alive, and this world stands better than the other one,¡± Quinn said, finishing.  There was a sense of tired satisfaction in his voice.


    Quinn then opened the floor for questioning that he knew had been kept down for the entire time he had spoken.


    Ivy got up from her chair, walked to the side table beside Quinn¡¯s bed, and poured a ss of water from the ss jug charmed to keep water at a cool temperature.  She walked back and handed the ss to Quinn before sitting back down in her seat.


    Quinn looked at his ss and then at Ivy.  ¡°Thank you, I didn¡¯t notice how parched I was,¡± Quinn smiled.


    ¡°If,¡± Ivy started, ¡°if I were to believe your words¡ª I want to, you even know about the Dursleys¡ª but at the same time, you could¡¯ve found that easily.¡±


    Quinn shrugged.  It was true; Dursley¡¯s could be found with some effort.


    ¡°I-I just feel all of it to be so farfetched,¡± Ivy said, a slight furrow between her brow.


    ¡°Is it?¡± Daphne said.  ¡°Seers exist, and they hold the ability to peer into the future.  Apparently, Professor Trwney is a seer herself.  Quinn¡¯s memories could be his visions as a seer.¡±


    ¡°But at this rity?¡± Ivy argued.  ¡°He seems to know so much about so much.  Trwney speaks prophecies, and I have looked into seers, and when ites to rity, they only see short snippets as the clearest of visions.  He has this other Harry¡¯s entire life at Hogwarts memorized as if he was actually there.¡±


    ¡°I agree with Ivy here,¡± Quinn said.  ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m a seer, or at least not in the traditional sense.  On that day when I was four, I had gained these memories altogether, as if they were simply a part of me.  However, ever since that day, I hadn¡¯t any other signs of being a seer.¡±


    The lie.  He had told them the truth but had changed one thing.  The ¡®memories¡¯ weren¡¯t his previous life experience but simply memories that appeared in his mind on that one day.  That was the one lie that he was going to keep.


    ¡®I am Quinn West,¡¯ and nothing was ever going to change that¡ª he wasn¡¯t going to let anything change that¡ª and if he told them the whole truth, his existence would be in danger.


    ¡°Whatever may be the reason, I hold these memories,¡± Quinn said.  ¡°But now, I wish to leave this part of me behind and continue ahead.  Be free.¡±


    ¡°Free?¡± Daphne asked.


    Quinn nodded.  ¡°Yes, free.  I have had these memories in my head ever since I could remember.  They have dictated how I have lived my life in many ways¡ª I¡¯m sure if I look at my life through a lens, I will find that the influence of these memories is much greater than even what I think. . . . But now- now the scope of the memories have passed, I don¡¯t know any version of future, there¡¯s nothing that can influence me, and for that I am free.¡±


    He was born into the Wests, a family that had provided him the privileges to pursue anything he wanted.  Even putting aside the West name, his family had been immensely supportive, providing him the freedom to do whatever he wished to do so.  But in the deepest of his hearts, he had never been free¡ª the memories chained him, directed him like an invisible hand nudging him along¡ª he couldn¡¯t ignore them if he ever wanted to.  It was as Ivy had said: they were too clear and too much.


    But now with no future to see, he was¡ª


    ¡°I am¡ª¡±


    Free.


    ¡°Free¡±


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C At the end of the road.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C Even after so much, he still lies and will continue to do so.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 437 One More Left

    Quinn sighed as he stepped into the ck-stoned corridor from the firece behind him.  For all the times he had visited Ministry, and there were numerous, Quinn hadn¡¯t entered Whitehall from the VIP entrance.  Given his status, one would think he would have used the special entrance at least once.


    ¡°Do I have to be here?¡± Quinn asked as he rotated his right shoulder and shifted his weight between his legs.  ¡°You all can take care of it for me.¡±


    George brushed some Floo dust off his shoulder.  He looked at Quinn and frowned disapprovingly.  ¡°We are here because of you.  Do you truly think you¡¯re not required here?¡±


    Quinn shrugged.  ¡°I¡¯m a Vignte, and they¡¯re the DMLE.  I don¡¯t thinkw enforcement like me very much right now or ever.  Seeing my face, as charming as it is, wouldn¡¯t make them happy.¡±


    Quinn had been discharged from the hospital when his internal organs had been healed, and his body consisted of four whole limbs.  He was still on medication for the dark curse, but that was something that Quinn would have to continue for months before all the effects and danger left his body, never to return ever again.  And the first thing home after he was discharged from St. Mungos was to be told that he was to meet the Minister and DMLE higherups regarding his status as Invisible Vignte.


    The truth was that it had been a month since Voldemort had died, and Quinn wanted everything to be over.  s, the world wasn¡¯t idealistic.  He knew it would take some effort before he could leave the past few years of his life behind¡ª but that didn¡¯t mean he had to like it.


    ¡°As your legal counsel, I would say that you being here is much less ¡®offending¡¯ in any situation than you being entirely absent from a dialogue discussing your future in this country,¡± said the third man beside George and Quinn.


    Quinn nced at the top-bald man with a portly belly dressed in luxurious clothing.  Orrin Bach, from Bach & Purrt, was thew firm retained by the Wests for all their legal matter in the British Isles.  Quinn had only interacted with thewyer a few times in private dinners, but from what he knew, the services Orrin provided were worth the price he charged.


    ¡°You¡¯re thewyer,¡± Quinn shrugged.  ¡°I will leave it to you and follow the lead.  I will only speak when you tell me to; for the rest, you and grandfather can do the talking.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯d be very helpful,¡± Orrin smiled, charming and disengaging.  ¡°Now, let¡¯s look for our guide, shall we?¡±  He checked his wristwatch.  ¡°I believe we are early, but someone should still be here to receive us. . . ah, there they are.¡±


    Across the high dome-shaped hall, a young man rushed towards the West party with hurried steps; he didn¡¯t run; instead power walked on the cusp of breaking into a jog.


    Quinn instantly recognized the man: Percy Weasley, the third son of the Weasley family.  The former-Headboy, a stickler for rules and the person with ¡®most likely to seed¡¯ as the graduation connotation, but when you flipped it, the same would read: ¡®teacher¡¯s pet¡¯¡ª and that¡¯s what Percy Weasely was, a person subservient to the higher authority with dreams to be said higher authority.  It was no surprise that even in this timeline, Percy Weasley had be a Ministry employee, and from the fact that he was sent to receive George West, he was making his way up the chain.


    Quinn whispered Percy¡¯s identity to George and possible designation.


    Percy arrived, took a stealthy breath, and then spoke, ¡°Wee, Mr. West.  My name is Percy Weasley.  I hope you¡¯re doing well¡ª¡±<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°Let¡¯s get moving,¡± George said and then, without waiting for a reply, started to walk.


    Percy looked startled for a second.  His eyes moved to Quinn, seemingly asking what to do.  Quinn shrugged and then followed after George.


    ¡°Lead the way, Mr. Weasley,¡± Orrin said to Percy, smiling.


    ¡°Eh?  Ah, yes,¡± Percy shook his head and hurriedly caught up to George.  Percy then tried to make some small talk but was met with a stoic silence from George and could only walk beside him in an awkward silence filled with the sound of footsteps against the marble floor.


    Orrin stepped in and engaged Percy in a conversation while.


    ¡®Pity?¡¯ Quinn guessed, but then he listened to the conversation and found that Orrin was getting coaxing information out of Percy.  ¡®As expected of awyer.¡¯


    They walked through a few corridors, and after a two-minute walk, they arrived at a double-paned white wood door with an intricate carving of ady dressed in a toga tending to a sapling.  Percy pushed the doors open and invited them into a long conference room with bookshelves covering half the room¡¯s length and the other half having paintings over the wainscotted walls.  A long heavy table sat in the middle of the room with a top gleaming as if it had been just waxed a second ago.  Around the table were chairs, with green cushions built into the frame, like regimented soldiers¡ª perfect distance and line between each chair and from the table.


    Quinn entered the room to the sight of Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour, Gawain Robards, and two Ministry bigwigs sitting on one side of the table.  And sitting alone on the other side, facing the aforementioned, was Dumbledore in his whimsically colored robe, looking back to his usual self than when Quinn had seen him in the hospital¡ª Voldemort had warranted some serious work to be done on Dumbledore; it was only because of Fawkes that Dumbledore had made such a swift andplication-free recovery.


    As everyone present in the room stood up to greet George, Quinn walked to one of the chairs and sat down without greeting anyone while all of them were standing.  Quinn felt all eyes on him as he gotfortable in his chair.  ¡°Ah, my apologies.  I recently grew one of my legs back from the base, so it¡¯s very weak right now.  The walk here from the Floo was enough to fatigue it out.  I can¡¯t stand right now.¡±


    He could use body magic, but why try to tough something out when it wasn¡¯t necessary.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Quinn, you can take it easy,¡± Dumbledore smiled as he sat down as well.  After what Quinn said, given the context, no one was going to get offended that he sat down before everyone.


    Everyone took their seats, and the two sides faced each other.  Orrin made some small talk with the Ministry group as the water was served by Percy, who then tried to sit down on the far end of the conference table but was sent out by Amelia.


    ¡®Poor guy,¡¯ Quinn thought as he looked at the crestfallen Percy closing the door behind him.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Let¡¯s get straight to the point,¡± Rufus Scrimgeour opened the conversation the moment the door closed.


    ¡°Fine with us,¡± Orrin smiled, opening his thick ck leather folder.


    ¡°You are the Invisible Vignte,¡± Rufus looked at Quinn as he said that.  Quinn didn¡¯t say anything as nned and simply stared back at Rufus.


    ¡°We agree to that in this room,¡± Orrin replied.


    After Quinn had half of his body ripped out of him, there was no way Dumbledore or anyone could have kept Quinn¡¯s identity hidden.  He had to be rushed to the hospital to have any chance to preserve his life.  Sighting of Dumbledore at St. Mungos couldn¡¯t be hidden when he himself was battered and beaten, and needed medical attention¡ª Ministry bigwigs like Amelia had arrived to check upon Dumbledore and, in turn, had found Quinn¡ª it wasn¡¯t difficult to piece things together after that.  Fortunately, that reveal was kept isted to a few higher-ups and hadn¡¯t made its way to DMLE bullpens much less the front pages of newspapers on every table in homes across the country.


    Scrimgeour thinned his eyes at Orrin.  ¡°There¡¯s no this room in this matter.  Quinn West is the Invisible Vignte, and we have ample evidence to prove that.¡±


    Orrin smiled.


    ¡°Usually, this would mean that he¡¯s going to be tried for his crimes,¡± Scrimgeour thumped his palm against a stack of files so thick that it would give the chunkiest of encyclopediapetition.  ¡°You have so many allegations and records against you that if proven to be true, you wouldn¡¯t be leaving Azkaban anytime soon.  You will forget what outside looks like before you get released.¡±


    Quinn continued to gaze at Scrimgeour without an expression on his face or movement in his body.


    ¡°As true as that maybe but as you said¡ª that is what usually happens,¡± Orrin spoke, ¡°but this isn¡¯t usually any way you see it.  My client¡¯s actions were aimed at protecting this country from the Dark Lord, and he did exactly that.  Quinn is the reason we are sitting here without worry about a murderous Dark Lord threatening the future of this country.¡±


    Quinn held his eyebrows from rising.  Orrin wasying it a bit too thick.  Yes, his contribution could be said to be the highest¡ª but Orrin was saying this in front of the Head of DMLE and Head Auror, and Dumbledore was sitting on the seat next to thewyer.


    ¡°And the fact that we are even having this meeting means that DMLE has no desire to pursue the charges against the Invisible Vignte,¡± Orrin said, finishing his passionate talk.  ¡°We want DMLE to erase all of its files on the Invisible Vignte and Quinn West¡ª and that the Minister issues a formal pardon; of course, none of it needs to be advertised.¡±


    ¡°Full pardon?!¡± Scrimgeour scoffed hard.  ¡°Can you not see the sheer number of charges against him?  This would grant him a lifelong spot on DMLE¡¯s most wanted.  And you ¡®demand¡¯ a full pardon?¡±<sub></sub>


    George, who had been quietly listening, spoke before Orrin could reply.  ¡°No, we don¡¯t want a full pardon.  We want a full pardon and all files to be incinerated.  I want DMLE to pretend that the Invisible Vignte ever existed and act that none of you ever knew that my grandson was the masked ouw.¡±


    ¡°If that¡¯s what you thought you would geting here, then you were wrong, Mr. West,¡± Scrimgeour said, leaning away.  ¡°Your grandson has broken morews than I count on my fingers and has broken them multiple times over.  That just can¡¯t go away.¡±


    ¡°I am not asking for it to go away like that.  I already provided the Ministry ample reason to do me this service when I filled the DMLE¡¯s war chest. . . no when I made the Ministry¡¯s war chest,¡± George said.


    ¡°That was donations.¡±


    ¡°You can see it any way you like it, but it won¡¯t change the fact that I was the reason that right now you have the resources to round up the Death Eaters and associates and dump them into Azkaban.  My family is why you could work without getting muddled in politics.  Now is the time to pay up¡ª so pay up.¡±


    ¡°You¡ª¡±


    ¡°Enough, Rufus,¡± Amelia interrupted the rising tensions between the two sides.  ¡°We talked about this before; why are you needlessly trying to make something out of it?  No, this is enough,¡± she said when Rufus tried to argue.  She turned to George.  ¡°I will give your grandson a formal pardon, but I¡¯m not going to destroy DMLE files.  The files will be pushed to the highest level of confidentiality instead.  It won¡¯t matter if we DMLE destroyed the Invisible Vignte files anyway¡ª the Department of Mysteries have files of their own, and they will stay there; there¡¯s nothing I can do about it.  So if you want to erase all official traces of this, it won¡¯t be possible.¡±


    Quinn turned to look at George, and he could see that he was thinking of approaching the Department of Mysteries to strike a deal with them.  He touched George¡¯s arm and shook his head when George looked at him.  Quinn then turned to Orrin and nodded his head.


    ¡°My client has decided to ept your proposition,¡± Orrin said.


    ¡°But I will give him a formal pardon on one condition,¡± suddenly Amelia raised the tension in the room.


    Quinn, who had picked up his ss of water, put it down and gazed at Amelia.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to see Invisible Vignte ever return,¡± Amelia said.  ¡°You aren¡¯t going to ever go out again to¡ª¡±


    ¡°The Invisible Vignte is dead,¡± Quinn spoke for the first time in the discussions.  He looked at the Ministry group and said, ¡°The Invisible Vignte died when he closed his eyes at Hogsmeade.  You don¡¯t have to worry about it, Minister Bones. . . he won¡¯t ever make an appearance ever again anywhere.¡±


    Quinn wasn¡¯t ever going to take up the mantle ever again.  It wasn¡¯t worth it.


    After a few minutes of discussion, Quinn¡¯s formal full pardon was finalized.  By the end of the week, Quinn was supposed to be a free man with a clean criminal record.


    ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want to discuss something about yourself with the Minister,¡± Quinn said to Dumbledore when they exited the conference room.  ¡°Orrin Bach is really good; you can hire him to clear things up with the Minister.  You know, just saying.¡±


    ¡°Mr. Bach is too expensive for me,¡± Dumbledore said with augh.


    ¡°Ridiculous.  You¡¯re an alchemist, professor; you can easily afford him if you wanted,¡± Quinn scoffed.  Dumbledore could¡¯ve been rolling in gold if he made alchemy his primary career instead of being the Headmaster of Hogwarts.


    Dumbledoreughed again.  ¡°Nevertheless, there¡¯s nothing to be smoothed out.  That day, I was in contact with the DMLE, and everything that was done was in coboration with them.  Though I feel remorseful for destroying a big part of the vige, I should have led Voldemort away.  So many possessions destroyed, memories and precious lost, never to be recovered.  I feel responsible.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no use thinking of that now,¡± Quinn shrugged.  ¡°You can contribute to the vige¡¯s reconstruction.  I will be giving my share through Scriveshaft; you can do it through Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I might have to do that,¡± Dumbledore sighed.  ¡°Now that you¡¯re pardoned, what do you n to do?¡±


    Quinn took in a deep breath.  ¡°I told you, didn¡¯t I?  I¡¯m going to do my apprenticeship under n D. Baddeley.  Leaving here to stay at his ce in New Zend for a couple of years.¡±


    ¡°After that?¡±


    ¡°Travel. . . learn magic, discover new things, apply myself, and take whatever this world has to offer me.¡±


    ¡°Is teaching in your ns by any chance?¡±


    Quinnughed.  ¡°I¡¯m not going to be a professor at Hogwarts.¡±


    ¡°You never know,¡± said Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eyes.


    Quinn snorted.


    ¡°If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me,¡± Dumbledore said.


    Quinn shook his head; he couldn¡¯t see him teaching.  He had taught Luna and had guided his friends and peers at Hogwarts, but taking teaching as a profession wasn¡¯t something in his cards right now.  He had yet to learn so much himself.


    Quinn smiled to himself.


    Things were finally moving up.


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .


    Quinn West ¨C MC ¨C I¡¯m closing a chapter of my life, and in that chapter, Invisible Vignte died.


    FictionOnlyReader ¨C Author ¨C The next chapter will be thest one¡­


    .


    -*-*-*-*-*-


    .

 Chapter 438 A Magical Journey

    Early in the morning, when the clear dew still dripped off the tender green leaves, Quinn struck at two grey globes floating in the sky; they fluttered in front of him randomly, pulling away and pushing toward him at various speeds and angles, and would blow up and shrink in size at random.  Quinn utilized all eight points of contact on his body to strike the globes, which would distort each hit.  He continued until he could hear the busy chirping of birds as they flew around to start their day.


    Quinn pushed all the air out of his lungs and drew in a fresh breath as he vanished all the sweat over his body with magic.  He rotated his shoulder and twitched his leg¡ª not only did they not hurt anymore, but they were also back to their full strength.  Magic was marvelous in its capabilities thaty in the supernatural; even if humans were able to regrow limbs, it would¡¯ve taken several months to regain their original strength¡ª but here was back to full strength only after a month on recovery potions and regr physical therapy and exercise.


    Quinn sighed.  Including the month he was in the hospital, stuck on the bed, it had been two months since Voldemort¡¯s death.  Since then, DMLE hadunched a spree of raids against all Death Eaters and aplices they could get their hands on.  Trials were expedited, and the followers of the Death Eaters were made to face the court ofw.


    Justice.  Quinn shook his head.  In theory, prosecution and defense in the court were supposed to be a simple process with two sides presenting facts, statements, and evidence to decide guilt orck of it¡ª but the world was never so ideal.  The followers of Dark Lord Voldemort were many, and his influence reached far and wide; there were many levels in the organization, with so many key yers that one could find involved in every corner of the country.


    Among those people, many were smart, and more were influential.  When there were as many bad people as good¡ª as many people hiding and distorting facts as those digging and revealing them¡ª the procedure ofw and justice got convoluted andplicated.  On the day Voldemort attacked Hogsmeade, his Death Eaters apanied him and fought against the Aurors and Hit Wizard.  Many were defeated, caught, and arrested¡ª but many escaped, using the non-human allies fighting alongside them.


    To ensure they ce their in the best position possible and catch as many Death Eater fishes, the DMLE sat down with the people they were hunting for and discussed deals of lighter sentences and even immunities.  People on the lower rung of thedder sold out those above them for leniency, and those on the very top began selling out those around them in hopes of saving their skin.


    Lucius Malfoy was one such example.  Quinn¡¯s secret spy had offered to strike a deal with the DMLE, who had agreed to negotiate with Lucius after Quinn had told them about Lucius¡¯ role and ¡®contribution.¡¯  Quinn didn¡¯t know the exact terms of the deal, but Lucius had apparently been able to negotiate his sentence to only a couple odd years in Azkaban along with a heavy financial fine.  What DMLE got in return was a top-ranking Death Eaters, the once leader of the inner circle, willing to open his mouth to all the secrets and shine a Lumos to all the DMLE needed to trap all the big fish they were hungry for.  For what horrendous acts Lucius had done as a Death Eater, a couple years in the new Azkaban without the threat of Dementors was almost as good as no punishment.


    While Quinn thought Lucius had been lucky, he pitied Draco and Narcissa.  The one horrible thing they couldn¡¯t escape was the destruction of everything the Malfoy name stood for.  They could live in the country in seclusion, but if they ever wished for a social life fitting their station (or any social life) the British Isles was thest ce they would get it.  They would need to leave for a ce far away from where Voldemort had ever reached and even then adorn a different identity to have a chance at a normal life.  The same went for the prominent Death Eater families.  Only a fool wouldn¡¯t leave after all that happened.  s, Quinn knew there were many in the country.


    ¡®Leave,¡¯ Quinn sighed.  The Death Eaters weren¡¯t the only ones who had to leave the country in their future.


    The West mansion stood behind him, as grand as ever in its peaceful presence.  The residence hadn¡¯t changed much since he arrived in this world, all thanks to the magic in the walls and foundation, keeping the structure resilient and unaging.  He gazed at his home for a silent moment and decided that it was time.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    The mornings at the West household were calm.  The breakfast table was always busy with residents flipping through newspapers, reports, books¡ª much to Ms. Rosey¡¯s dismay.  Today was no different; the people around the table consumed their breakfast with their eyes stuck to their reading material.


    George, sitting at the head of the table, was reading a newspaper, Elliot was reading one of his many from his to-read pile, and Lia, who was home, was flipping through reports with one hand holding a spoon full of lentils and beans.  Only Ms. Rosey ate her breakfast in silence without any distractions, sitting at the table just for breakfast.


    Quinn sat at the other head of the table.  He set his knife and fork down on his empty te in a cross pattern and cleaned his hand with magic.  He gazed at his family for a few moments before gaining their attention by flicking his goblet with his finger, creating a ringing sound that reverberated throughout the mostly silent room.


    Quinn cleared his throat.  ¡°I would like to tell you all something important.¡±


    ¡°That you¡¯re dating two girls at once?¡± Lia spoke before Quinn could continue.


    Quinn, who had taken a breath, coughed it right out.  He stared at his sister with bewilderedness painted on his naked face; he didn¡¯t have any time to respond any other way.<sub>.</sub>


    ¡°It was suspicious how much both of them visited you while you were in the hospital.¡±


    ¡°That¡ª¡±


    Lia thinned her eyes at Quinn, ¡°It took me a lengthy conversation with them with him standing behind me for them to spill your peculiar situation,¡± she pointed to George.


    Quinn didn¡¯t know what expression he was making when he looked at George, who simply stared at Quinn and made it clear that this wasn¡¯t new information.  Quinn looked at Elliot, who shrugged.  Ms. Rosey fixed him one of her ssic disapproving stares.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say anything?¡± asked Quinn¡ª they had known for so long and hadn¡¯t spoken a word of it.


    ¡°We were waiting for you to tell us,¡± George sent a frown toward Lia.  ¡°None of us can understand your rtionship.¡±


    ¡°It is not normal,¡± Ms. Rosey added sharply.


    ¡°¡ª Not for us,¡± George continued.  ¡°If you could exin to us, maybe then we would understand.¡±


    ¡®Maybe,¡¯ Quinn noticed the wording.  It was something he expected to face, despite that it was disheartening to actually face it.  ¡°I will tell you that when I¡¯mfortable doing so,¡± he wasn¡¯t willing to open up about his love life to them right now.


    ¡°Do the girls¡¯ families know,¡± George asked.


    ¡°No,¡± Quinn said.  Though recently, Ivy had told him that her parents had sat her down and tried to grill her about her rtionship with him¡ª she had refused to speak up about it because, just like him, she wasn¡¯t ready  to open up about their rtionship yet, ¡°and do not talk about this with their families.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t a good time to do so.  Daphne¡¯s parents were conservative folks, and they didn¡¯t have any inkling about the nature of the rtionship their daughter was in.  And with Ivy, the rtionship was soplicated that anytime was better than now.


    ¡°If you didn¡¯t want to talk about your rtionship, then what was it about,¡± Lia asked, confused.


    Quinn gave Lia a look.  Why she suddenly thought he was talking about his rtionship was out of his understanding.  Quinn sighed, took out a paper folded thrice, and lightly waved it in his hand.  ¡°I wrote to n D. Baddeley yesterday, and he wrote back in a couple of hours¡ª I think it¡¯s time for me to start my apprenticeship, and he¡¯s ready to start as well and receive me at his home in New Zend. . .¡±


    It had been two months since he had been freed of the chains, and every passing day made him feel frustrated that his life hadn¡¯t moved on to the decided next stage¡ª his apprenticeship with n.  He was feeling moody and cranky, and recently it was bing difficult to hold back from showing.  Quinn knew as long as he just reached n¡¯s home, everything would be resolved¡ª and that¡¯s exactly what he wanted to do¡ª take the next step and solidly close this chapter of his life.


    ¡°. . . When are you leaving?¡± asked George.


    Lia interjected, ¡°When?!  It¡¯s only a month since he got out of the hospital.¡±  She frowned at Quinn, ¡°You should rest before even thinking about doing something so big.¡±


    Quinn removed his eyes from Lia and looked at George.  ¡°I will be leaving in a week.¡±  Reasonably, there wasn¡¯t anything wrong with waiting some more, but Quinn internally was feeling trapped, and logic wasn¡¯t helping alleviate it.<sub></sub>


    ¡°Quinn!¡±


    Hearing his sister all but scream, Quinn sighed, ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going forever; I can visit every week with Portkeys.  And I can¡¯t dy this anymore.  I was supposed to start my apprenticeship months ago.  I can¡¯t make n wait any longer, and I¡¯m not letting this opportunity go. . . My health?  I¡¯m fine now. . . Lia, you¡¯re just unnecessarily fussing now.¡±


    George broke up the impending argument and asked Quinn.  ¡°Is your decision final?¡±


    Quinn nodded.


    ¡°Then you may go.¡±  George raised his hand to silence Lia, who scowled.  ¡°It¡¯s his decision.  He¡¯s no longer a child; he hasn¡¯t been one for long¡ª he can do whatever he wishes.¡±


    Quinn smiled brightly.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn pushed open the old door of the shabby and narrow shop.  The letters on the door, gilded in gold, were peeling off, showing theck of maintenance done on the shop.  A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside.  It was a tiny ce, empty except for a single, spindly chair sitting in the corner.  The shop was as quiet as a library¡ª only it had thousands of narrow boxes instead of tomes and books piled neatly right up to the ceiling.


    The door directly behind the front counter opened, and Garrick Ollivander stepped out with his back pushing the door open with his hands busy holding more narrow boxes like those lining the walls.


    Ollivander turned to face Quinn and was surprised.  ¡°Apologies. . . Ah, Quinn West.  I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you today.¡±


    Quinn smiled, ¡°Until yesterday, even I wasn¡¯t nning to visit you, Mr. Ollivander.  However, I realized that it was imperative for me to do this.¡±  Quinn stepped to the front counter and ced a cuboidal piece of wood in front of Ollivander.


    ¡°What this might be?¡±


    Quinn tapped the box, and like an borate puzzle, the wood opened up into smaller cuboids that split from the block, opening up like aplex puzzle.  The top half of the block had moved to the side, exposing the middle where a wand made from a darker stained wood sat.


    ¡°I believe you remember it,¡± asked Quinn.


    ¡°I do.  It¡¯s the wand I sold you when you stepped into my shop all those years ago. . . May I?¡±


    Quinn nodded, and Ollivander picked up the wand, studying it with eyes unusually bright for someone his age.  ¡°It has been terrifically well maintained.  I¡¯m only used to seeing this level of care on adults on their second wands, and even that is rare,¡± Ollivander remarked impressively.<sub></sub>


    ¡°I don¡¯t deserve thatpliment.  The wand¡¯s condition is because of itsck of use.¡±


    ¡°Pardon?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t used this wand since the day I took it home with me.  I have held it twice and used it once; other than that, this wand has rested in this state,¡± Quinn stared at the wand that, in one way, shaped up his magic to what it was today.  ¡°I¡¯m here to entrust the wand to you today.  I hope that you will find another partner who will actually use it and appreciate its services, for I have failed to do so.¡±


    The wand had been with him for close to eight years, but Quinn held no attachment to it.  He had no use for it, and thus it didn¡¯t make sense for him to keep it nearby, especially with susceptible Quinn was to its temptation.  Quinn could¡¯ve destroyed and pronounce the matter over, but he deemed that to be a waste and decided to return the wand to Ollivander so it could be used by another hand.


    ¡°If that is what you wish for,¡± Ollivander said, ¡°but are you sure about this?¡±


    Quinn nodded.


    ¡°Do you want me to tell you about the new wizard when he or she pairs with the wand, whenever that may be,¡± Ollivander asked.


    Quinn gazed down at the wand.  The wand was made from acacia and phoenix feather core¡ª abination that Ollivander had said was excessively picky and only chose those who were a perfect match for it¡ª after all, the wand chose the wizard.


    Quinn shrugged.  ¡°Sure, why not?  That¡¯d be interesting in some way, I suppose.¡±  He wanted to see who the wand deemed worthy andpare.


    When Quinn left, Ollivander stared at the wand that had returned to his shop after so many years.  He looked at his walls where his creations sat in their boxes, then returned to Quinn¡¯s wand.  Ollivander took out his own wand and waved it for the wood block to reassemble and encase the wand, just as how Quinn had brought it.  Ollivander picked up the wooden box, walked to the wall, and slipped it into one of the empty spaces, making it part of the wand wall once again.


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Hogsmeade was in the midst of reconstruction happening at full speed, with workers everywhere around the vige rebuilding houses and establishments.  The vige that had been razed to the ground had to be built from the foundation up.  Reconstruction wasn¡¯t even the first problem the residents had to deal with¡ª the vige was marred with dark magic seeping into the soil and buildings from the battle, especially where Voldemort had fought, as that area had to be quarantined forplete sanitization.


    Specialists hired by the Ministry had worked for weeks to make Hogsmeade a ce safe to live, and only after the checks were done and reports came back with negative signs of any dark magic remnants did the reconstruction begin.


    The residents that had been driven away from their homes, forced to live in tents(magical), were now slowlying back to their homes rebuilt by Ministry contractors who had been working day and night to quickly and safely rebuild the vige back to normalcy and of course, everything was being paid by the Ministry.


    In the center of the vige sat the Three Broomsticks, the favorite bar and inn of the vige, owned by the charming Madam Rosmerta.  The establishment had been all but uprooted from the ground during the skirmish, and the structure was so damaged the contractors had deemed the structure unsuitable to be fixed and dered that it needed to be rebuilt from scratch.  Rosmerta was distraught for a moment about losing the ce where she had so many memories, but cheered up and decided to put in some money of her own in addition to the Ministry funds to rebuild the Three Broomsticks with all the little customizations and design changes she had always wanted, a ce better than the one she had before and where she would make new memories.


    ¡°Madam Rosmerta.¡±


    Rosmerta looked up from her documents and saw the fund manager from the Ministry in charge of all the financing happening in Hogsmeade step into the Three Broomsticks.  The building had already beenpleted, and the work had been shifted to interior design.


    ¡°Yes, Mr. Fulton?¡± she asked, removing her reading sses.


    Fulton, the schrly man with gold-framed spectacles, sat down on the chair opposite Rosmerta across the table.  He took out his handkerchief and dabbed the sweat off his forehead.


    ¡°Are you alright, Mr. Fulton?  Are they any problems?¡± Rosmerta asked, worried.


    ¡°No-no, no problems,¡± Fulton shook his head hard.  ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how to put it, but it is definitely a good thing.¡±


    ¡°Then why do you look so?¡±


    Fulton retrieved an envelope from his robes and ced it on the table.  ¡°This came in the mail yesterday for the charity.¡±


    Rosmerta¡¯s eyes shined with appreciation when she heard him.  While Ministry had promised to pay for all the reconstruction, they couldn¡¯t rece the personal items and belongings the residents had lost¡ª they could only provide a basicpensation package based on the damage that could be quantified with proof¡ª a lot of which had been eradicated during the battle.  There were many in Hogsmeade who had lost not only their homes but also their business, their source of ie.  People like them had to wait for their homes and ce of work to be rebuilt before they could start work again, and even then, they would be under financial stress from setting up shop again.  Even the reconstruction funding had to be capped somewhere, and while it was generous, it could only cover the basic needs of the vige; there were things that the residents would have to pay out of their own pocket for themunal spaces they used.


    The woes of the vige had beenmunicated through the newspapers and had reached every corner of the country.  And then came the donations aimed towards helping the residents who had it the worse.  It was heartwarming to see such a vigorous response that made people keep their hopes about humanity.


    The residents needed someone to manage the iing donations, and they decided to use Fulton, who was handling the Ministry money, and since then, he had been keeping the money in check.


    ¡°Another donation!  God, bless the kind people,¡± said Rosmerta, genuinely touched by the kindness.


    ¡°Yes, yes,¡± Fulton gulped, ¡°but the amount?¡±


    ¡°Amount. . . is there something wrong with it.¡±


    Fulton pushed his sses up as he spoke, ¡°It¡¯s around five times the amount we have received to date¡ª all that money from a single donor.¡±


    ¡°F-Five times!¡± Rosmerta stuttered.  She was the appointed contact between the vige and Ministry, so she knew how much money they had received as part of the charity¡ª it was a huge amount, and hearing that someone had just submitted five times was a strike to the head.  ¡°W-Who is it?¡±


    ¡°I-I. . . It seems they wanted to be anonymous.  They only left behind a name, but no matter how much I checked in Ministry records, there was no such person.  I visited the goblins this morning, and even they refused to give me more details¡ª I know they know, but they refuse to reveal anything,¡± Fulton sighed.  Gringotts goblins had the monopoly over money, and since the money hade through legitimate means, Gringotts was surely supposed to know the donor, but when asked, they sent Fulton away without a real answer.


    ¡°What is the name?¡± asked Rosmerta.


    ¡°Balbh East.¡±


    .


    ¨C (Scene Break) ¨C


    .


    Quinn saw the rainbow colors pass through his eyes as he was whisked across space before, finally, the dizzying colors stopped, and the world around him returned to normal.


    He looked around and found himself standing on a beach overlooking a clear blue shimmering ocean with a clear sky with faint clouds dotting the sky.  He closed his eyes and took in the ocean¡¯s calming sound, rhythmically reaching his ears.


    ¡®I could get used to this sound,¡¯ Quinn thought as a smile surfaced on his face.  Thinking about studying with this sound in the background.


    Quinn opened his eyes when he heard a voice behind him call out to him.  ¡°The birds are going to poop on your head if you aren¡¯t careful.¡±


    Quinn smiled and turned to face his master, the one and only, n D. Baddeley.  ¡°Oh my, you have gotten old since thest time I saw you.  I fear I will have to hire a team of nurses to take care of you,¡± Quinn couldn¡¯t help but quip.


    n smirked.  ¡°I will think about that at your funeral, watching them putting dirt on your coffin.¡±


    ¡°I prefer to be cremated.  That or build a pyramid as my burial grounds.¡±


    nughed.  ¡°Now that you¡¯re here,e on, let¡¯s go; we¡¯re getting started.¡±


    ¡°Now?¡± Quinn was surprised.


    ¡°Of course, now.  I have been waiting for you for months.  Do you know how many ns I had to alter to amodate you?  Let¡¯s get going.  I want to see how much you have improved or gotten worse.¡±  n turned and walked towards a posh beach house standing on a cliff near the beach, overlooking the ocean.


    A smile crept up on Quinn¡¯s face as he followed after n.


    It was a new start.  The start of. . . A Magical Journey.


    .


    .


    ~FIN~


    .


    .

 Chapter 439 Authors Note

    Hey, y¡¯all¡ª


    Phew. . . A Magical Journey has finallye to an end.  Well, there will be an Epilogue volume, but that will be released slowly and will be directly released to the public¡ª the Epilogue volume wille out slowly, like over a year maybe, and it will cover the future life of Quinn and the people around him.  I will make the Epilogue as satisfactory as possible, full of great moments with no sadness or tragedy (maybe a little bit, who knows).


    It has been a year and a half since AMJ had taken form through words.  A year and a half isn¡¯t a long time when ites to fanfictions or even web fiction, but to me, this time seems like long.  I can remember the day Quinn was created, the day when I wrote chapter one, and the day when chapter one was posted.  This project brought me out of the burnout that I had suffered from my first work, and what returned me to writing and reminded me about the joys of it all.  So I can only understate how important AMJ is to me. . . it has been the one consistent thing in my life recently.  It was an endeavor that had begun as just something I wanted to try out with zero nning and vision¡ª however, it turned out something that had been fortunately liked by few and many¡ª and I¡¯m truly d that it turned out the way it did.<sub>.</sub>


    To be honest, I haven¡¯t talked much about the mization aspect of AMJ, but to open up¡ª if not for AMJ, I would be in a different position in my life.  The financial burden that AMJ lifted off of me is something that I can¡¯t even begin to describe, as I would have to reveal so many things that I would rather not revisit.


    And because of all you lovely people who have supported me, I am where I am.  I never imagined AMJ getting the response it did, and it not only improved my financial situation and life in general¡ª but most importantly, it did wonders for my self-confidence.  The ¡®me¡¯ from before AMJ is much different from the current ¡®me¡¯¡ª the improvement in how I see myself has been the biggest takeaway from AMJ.  It has shown me that I am capable,petent, and an independent human being¡ª I can¡¯t stress how great of a feeling and motivator that is.<sub></sub>


    I couldn¡¯t have done it without all of you. . . . thank you so much.


    However, as much as I love AMJ, I hold several regrets about it.  I feel I haven¡¯t done the story and the characters justice.  I left so many exciting plot threads unexplored that could¡¯ve elevated the story to another level; instead, I chose to pursue things that were frankly unnecessary and shouldn¡¯t have seen the light of the day¡ª I screwed up the pacing on multiple asions, opened things that and never closed up, betrayed expectations I set up myself, and so many more things that I wish I could go back and fix.  I feel every character (including Quinn) merited so much more; they deserved their story to be told by a better writer than me, and shine more and be existences that would stay in people¡¯s minds long after AMJ had ended.<sub></sub>


    For that, I apologize from the bottom of my heart and promise that I will do better. . . .


    Let¡¯s talk about the future, shall we?  I have no intention whatsoever to ever stop writing.  I only wish I could¡¯ve started earlier so I could be better today.  As some of you are already aware, I will be taking a break of around two months before my next project goes live¡ª between now and then¡ª I will be refreshing myself, reading, plotting, writing some, and generally preparing tounch what¡¯s next toe.


    I am eager about what¡¯s next toe.  Excited to start something new and exciting!  It will be another fanfiction.  I want to spend some more time working in other authors¡¯ sandbox before building my own.  And I just love fanfiction so much!


    Though the next time you see my writing won¡¯t be a fanfiction but something original.  Surprise!  Within a month, I will be releasing the pilot chapter (first chapter) of an original story that I¡¯m currently brainstorming on.  It will be just that one chapter; it is just an experiment and something to scratch the ¡®original¡¯ itch.  It will be hosted on Patr¨¦on exclusively, though it will be a public post, so everyone will be able to read it.


    Let¡¯s see if FictionOnlyReader can write an original and make it interesting.  Do read it when ites out.


    I will be active on Discord if you guys want to reach out to me.  I may even do an Audio-only Discord call if I can make some time and just chat for a while.  It will be fun.  All of you¡¯re invited.  Join Discord to see when and if it happens.


    Signing off,


    FictionOnlyReader.

 Chapter 440 Update: Alternate Reading Platforms

    Hey guys,


    Seeing thetest update from AllNovelFull which has put the novels on this tform behind a wall that requires the user to download and login to the mobile app to read(even fanfictions), I feel it¡¯s my duty to tell you guys that you guys can also read A Magical Journey on fanfiction(..


    .


    My original fiction, [Viin: Remastered], is also avable on tforms like: SpaceBattles, SufficientVelocity, RoyalRoad, Patre0n(public), and it will be soon on QuestionableQuesting, and Scribblehub as well¡­ so it¡¯s upto you guys where you want to follow it.


    .


    Websiteing soon¡­


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!